AirPods Now Available to Order, MacBook Pro Battery Life, Super Mario Run, iOS 10.2 Released - MacRumors

AirPods Now Available to Order, but Shipping Times Quickly Slip to 6 Weeks With no advance notice, Apple this week allowed customers to begin placing orders for the company's new AirPods wireless earphones. Priced at $159, the earphones were announced at Apple's September iPhone 7 event and originally planned to launch by the end of October, but Apple pushed back the launch as it found more time was needed to finalize them. Those who were able to place their orders as soon as they went live on Tuesday morning will receive them as soon as next week ahead of Christmas, but shipping estimates quickly slipped in the United States in particular, and within 90 minutes of launch Apple was quoting four weeks for shipment of new orders. Shipping estimates have since slipped to six weeks in nearly all countries, although limited supplies will be available in-store at Apple's retail stores and at third-party retailers and carrier partners starting next week. For those who are able to obtain AirPods, they may be interested to know Apple will charge $69 for a replacement if you happen to lose one of the tiny earphones.   Read Full Article Popular Stories Dec 15, 2016 macOS Sierra 10.12.2 Removes 'Time Remaining' Battery Life Indicator Apple this week released macOS 10.12.2, addressing a number of issues with the new MacBook Pro in particular, and perhaps the most discussed change was the removal of Apple's estimate of battery time remaining accessible through the menu bar. Many users had complained about poor battery life or at least estimates of poor battery life on the new MacBook Pro, and Apple says it did away with displaying the time remaining because it was frequently misleading due to the ever-changing loads users are putting on their systems. Apple didn't mention any specific improvements to battery life in macOS 10.12.2, but some users are indeed reporting significantly longer running times with the new update. Meanwhile, developers are continuing to roll out support for the new Touch Bar on the MacBook Pro, with iTunes, Photoshop, DaVinci Resolve, and Capo 3 all being updated this week. Other developers are getting creative with the Touch Bar and building cool apps such as a piano and versions of Lemmings and Pac-Man. Finally, Microsoft has been trying to take advantage of some of the criticism about the new MacBook Pro such as high pricing and performance limitations like a maximum 16 GB of RAM, saying that "disappointment" over the MacBook Pro has more people than ever before switching from Macs to Microsoft's Surface lineup.   Read Full Article 'Super Mario Run' Launches on App Store for iPhone and iPad One of the most highly anticipated App Store launches in years has just hit in the form of Nintendo's Super Mario Run, which offers a one-handed gaming experience that offers some unique features but which will be immediately familiar to Mario fans. Aside from a traditional tour mode that sees players advance through increasingly difficult worlds, the game also includes a Toad Rally challenge mode for competing against friends or strangers, as well as a Kingdom Builder mode for customizing kingdoms and unlocking mini-games and characters. Super Mario Run is a free download from the App Store, but requires a one-time $9.99 in-app purchase to unlock the full game beyond the first three levels. The game also requires an always-on internet connection during play.   Read Full Article Apple Releases iOS 10.2 With New TV App, New Emoji, and More After seven betas and a month and a half of testing, Apple this week released iOS 10.2 to the public, bringing a new TV app to U.S. users, adding a number of new and redesigned emoji, and making numerous fixes and improvements across Apple's stock apps. Make sure to check out our videos showing what's new in the update and some of the emoji changes! Apple also released tvOS 10.1, a parallel update to iOS 10.2 that brings the new TV app to the Apple TV. On both iOS and tvOS, the TV app helps bring together content you're watching from across a variety of other apps, making it easy to see what you're in the middle of and resume playing. With the new updates released to the public, Apple has already begun seeding testers with the next set of beta updates for iOS 10.2.1, macOS 10.12.3, and tvOS 10.1.1.   Read Full Article Apple Pulls watchOS 3.1.1 Update After Bricking Complaints Alongside iOS 10.2, macOS 10.12.2, and tvOS 10.1, Apple this week also released a minor watchOS 3.1.1 update for the Apple Watch, but users quickly began reporting problems with the update bricking their watches. A small but significant number of users found their devices hanging during the update process, eventually becoming bricked entirely and displaying a red exclamation mark icon and directing users to service options. Even Apple Store Genius Bars can't handle these repairs, and the watches must be sent out to an off-site repair depot to have them reset through their diagnostic ports. A day after the release, Apple pulled the watchOS 3.1.1 update while it addresses the issue, and an updated version should be released shortly.   Read Full Article Apple Says BeatsX Earphones Delayed Until February While Apple is just barely starting to ship its AirPods wireless earphones to customers in time for Christmas, at least for those who were able to order immediately after launch, the company has announced that its BeatsX wireless earphones won't be shipping until February. The BeatsX earphones had been scheduled to launch in late fall, but as the calendar turned to December questions arose about the timing. Just last weekend, reseller B&H Photo emailed a customer to let them know Apple had informed B&H that the BeatsX earphones would not be launching for another 2–3 months, and on Tuesday Apple confirmed the delay by updating its own site to list a February availability date.   Read Full Article

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