While Annihilation flopped at the box office, the 2018 film’s popularity (and truly terrifying sequences) reinvigorated audience interest in the sci-fi/horror genre and had a hand in paving the way for a return to the sub-genre’s roots. Annihilation was released on February 13, 2018 and was directed by Alex Garland, who burst onto the scene with the tremendous success of his directorial debut, Ex-Machina. The film starred Natalie Portman, Tessa Thompson, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Gina Rodriguez, and Oscar Isaac....

The iPhone X isn’t the only new gadget to boast an OLED screen. A startup that says it wants to spark conversations between strangers has launched Beam, a wearable OLED button that allows you to display anything you want, and update it as often as you like … Beam has a 400×400 pixel 24-bit color AMOLED display, and supports GIFs and slideshows as well as static images. It claims a battery-life of 24 hours....

Apple’s App Store revenue grew 31% year-on-year in Q3, climbing from $14.5B last year to $19B this year, according to Sensor Tower analytics data. Google Play revenue grew even faster, with 33.8% growth, but still only managed a little over half of Apple’s numbers at $10.3B … Sensor Tower says that consumers stuck at home due to the coronavirus boosted demand for entertainment apps. TikTok topped both app store charts....

Not one mentions how much fun it is to work for Apple. They talk of prestige and professional fulfillment, but fun? No, no, no. It’s hard work. Really hard work. I’m concerned, therefore, that the so-called Great Resignation has caused desperation for fun to burst through some Apple employees’ pores. I judge this from a new ad – a long new ad – emitted by Cupertino. It shows how unhappy people are working for a large corporation....

Having to go through the entire boot process and get your messages and other alerts working every morning can be annoying. Plus, you probably want certain notifications to come through. That’s where the Do Not Disturb mode comes in. Here’s a look at how to find and enable it on and how to schedule it to fit your lifestyle. Set Up and Schedule Do Not Disturb on Android The Do Not Disturb option is in different places depending on your phone’s manufacturer and version of Android....

Apex Legends Season 3 - Meltdown is coming, and the new launch trailer makes the upcoming season look like the best one developer Respawn has cooked up in some time, with the release of a new map, exciting new Legend, and a new weapon in the Charge Rifle. Apex Legends is one of the most popular battle royale titles in the world, but it has fallen off considerably from the dizzying peaks it experienced within the first few months of its surprise launch back in February of this year....

Lobbying group Citizens for Tax Justice has called out Apple, Google and Microsoft and others for what it described as “accounting tricks” in which companies “pretend” to be based overseas for tax purposes. The claims were made in a report entitled Offshore Shell Games 2015. The group said that Apple has paid “a miniscule 2.3 percent tax rate on its offshore profits,” many of which have been entered into Apple’s books in Ireland....

Open source advocates are breathing a sigh of relief this afternoon — and that’s not because the iPhone has reched Verizon, but because a Microsoft-led, Apple-supported consortium has withdrawn from attempts to buy a host of Novell patents. Early in December Microsoft, Apple, EMC and Oracle notified the German regulator that they planned to form CPTN Holdings with a view to purchasing 882 of Novell’s patents. It has now been revealed this filing was withdrawn at the end of that month....

Update: The full Dow Jones article is now available (here). According to the story, which cites communication between Apple’s new Senior Vice President of Retail John Browett and the company’s retail store teams, Apple was testing a new retail formula: With several reports in recent weeks claiming Apple is cutting hours and increasing layoffs of recently hired staff in some of its retail stores, today Dow Jones reported that Apple is claiming the stories are “misleading” and stores continue to hire new employees....

In the wake of a report last month that multiple Apple services remained insecure against hacking attempts, Apple has turned on two-factor authentication for the FaceTime audio/video calling service and iMessage text/picture/voice messaging service, notes The Guardian. Two-factor authentication was previously offered optionally by Apple to secure iCloud accounts against access from previously unknown computers, but other Apple services such as iMessage, FaceTime, the iTunes Store, the App Store, and Apple....

Apple’s stock is currently trading for around $141 with Credit Suisse previously projecting a target price of $160. Now the firm is increasing its target price for AAPL up to $170 according to MarketWatch. The report adds that Credit Suisse is one of the most positive on AAPL performance with an analyst at the firm assigning an outperform rating for the company. Credit Suisse’s target price is notably higher than the industry average which the report says is around $150....

Andre Holland made his feature film debut in the 2008 independent film Sugar. Since then, he’s acted in numerous television shows and movies, making a name for himself after starring in Barry Jenkins’s 2016 masterpiece Moonlight. With his quiet and understated approach to bringing his characters to life, Holland is a breath of fresh air in an industry increasingly dominated by sensationalized performances. In addition to film and television, Holland is also an experienced stage actor, recently starring as Othello at Shakespeare’s Globe in London....

I know what you’re thinking – analysts, right? While it’s true many “analysts” can’t tell their arse from their elbow, some predictions are worth observing. Katy Huberty with Morgan Stanley is again risking her credibility by re-iterating that Apple will take on television market with a new product category expected in the 2012-2013 time frame. She code-named it a Smart TV, a full-fledged networked television with the shiny Apple logo on it....

Through its MobileFirst for iOS initiative, Apple and IBM have added 8 new enterprise apps for designed exclusively for iPhone and iPad. The latest apps developed as part of the partnership between the two companies include two new industries: healthcare and industrial products. The 8 new apps brings the total of MobileFirst for iOS apps to 22, while the two new industries now totals 10 including banks, law enforcement, travel, and retail....

The DOJ did what it does and told Apple and others (Adobe Systems Inc., Google Inc., Intel Corp., Intuit Inc. and Pixar) to stop entering into anti-competitive agreements with other high tech companies. The agreements between the companies limited recruiters from each company from cold calling employees at the other companies, amongst other things. Google posted a Public Policy Blog statement on the matter: I think Apple and Google long ago gave up on refraining from hiring each other’s employees....

“The two companies have a strong position in the digital offering of audiobooks in Germany. Therefore, we feel compelled to examine the agreement between these two competitors in the audiobooks in more detail,” cartel office chief Andreas Mundt said in a statement. Apple lost a separate U.S. case in which it was found guilty of anti-competitive behaviour in its ebook sales. The U.S. Justice Department recently agreed that Apple had now properly addressed the issues, though this may not be the end of the battle: Apple is appealing that case to the U....

. We got a preliminary iPhone 5-teardown cost of $167.50 from TechInsights last week. Today, iSuppli pegs that number at $199 (or $207 if including manufacturing costs). iSuppli gave the iPhone 4S a $188 BOM last year, but improved wireless, additional RAM, larger in-cell display and a better processor upped costs ahead of falling storage prices and other things that carried over from last year’s model. “With the base model carrying a $199....

One of the biggest app trends we’ve seen over the past few years is developers switching from charging a one-time purchase cost to monthly or annual app subscriptions. An app-tracking service has found that American smartphone users now spend an average of $20.78/month on these – or $33.58 when you include streaming services like Apple Music. The widespread adoption of app subscriptions has sometimes created a tension between developers and consumers …...

Apple this evening has added the current-generation 21.5-inch iMac to its online refurbished store. The machine was originally introduced at WWDC 2017 and this marks the first time Apple has offered it in refurbished condition. Apple is offering the refurbished 2017 21.5-inch iMac starting at $1,0999. That’s $200 off the original sticker price of $1,299. That money gets you a 4K display, 8GB of RAM, a 1TB spinning hard drive, and the Radeon Pro 555 graphics card....

Among Us is the millennial obsession these days. Almost all streamer is streaming Among Us on their channel. People are hooked to the game like anything. It’s not like it has high-end graphics or anything. But the mere gameplay and the story on which it is based are outstanding. Among Us has been around for quite some time but it is very recently that the game’s true potential was discovered. The game is available across all platforms....