Tag Archives: iPhone Upgrade Program

Weekly output: XOXO, iPhone Upgrade Program (x2), phone ownership, iOS 9 transit navigation

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I owe a large chunk of this week’s work to Apple.

9/15/2015: Rob Pegoraro (USA Today & Yahoo, AppleCare for iPhone) 9.15.15, WRKO

The Boston news station’s Financial Exchange show quizzed me about the pluses and minuses of Apple’s iPhone Upgrade Program.

Yahoo Tech XOXO post9/16/2015: Creatives Ask: What Kind of Web Do We Want, Anyway?, Yahoo Tech

I struggled to write this on the flight back from Portland, thought about scrapping the draft, then pounded the keys over most of Tuesday to yield this. I still don’t know if this post did justice to the conference. I do know it stoked some outrage from Gamergaters who don’t seem to have learned much about advancing a persuasive argument.

9/16/2015: Could the iPhone Upgrade Program save you money?, WTOP

D.C.’s news station had its own questions about Apple’s bid to push the wireless carriers into the background of the smartphone-procurement transaction.

9/18/2015: Who Really Owns Your iPhone? It May Not Be You, Yahoo Tech

An e-mail thread between a couple of my editors and me finally led to this post about changing notions of smartphone ownership. The argument over GM claiming ownership of a car’s embedded software influenced this.

9/20/2015: Why an old iPad can’t get iOS 9 transit directions, USA Today

I thought this weekend’s USAT column should cover an iOS 9 topic, and then Apple left a pitch right over the plate by failing to document that iOS 9’s transit navigation doesn’t work on older devices. It’s appalling how Apple keeps its users in the dark… a practice I will “punish” at some point by buying an iPad mini 4, because as a tech journalist, I can’t not have an iOS device.

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Weekly output: UHD + HDR, Apple TV, Apple news, iPhone Upgrade Program, Nextbit Robin

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PORTLAND–I’ve just spent two mind- and heart-expanding days at the XOXO festival here. I don’t know if it was quite as inspirational as two years ago, but I still think the things I’ve heard and seen from the speakers and other attendees will be leaving little ripples in my life for some time to come.

In other news, it’s going to be so great to come home tomorrow.

9/7/2015: Are 4K Televisions Finally Ready for Primetime?, Yahoo Tech

I wrote one last post from IFA Friday evening that didn’t get posted until Monday. My own answer to that headline is “not yet”–at least not until the wider color and brightness of “HDR” isn’t confined to expensive, reference-line UHD TVs. I also want to see a next-gen HD/UHD broadcast standard supported in affordable sets.

Yahoo Tech Apple TV post9/8/2015: Can Apple Save Apple TV?, Yahoo Tech

Since this ran, Apple has announced that the new Apple TV’s remote will feature volume buttons ( It’s weird when Apple does something I ask it to do!) and Plex has said it’s working to bring its app to the new model.

9/9/2015: Apple’s news, WTOP

I had a quick chat from the CTIA pressroom with WTOP’s anchors about the new iPhones, iPads and Apple TV.

9/12/2015: Can Apple’s iPhone upgrade deal work for you?, USA Today

My editors and I had originally thought of using this week’s column slot for a look at the fading fortunes of CTIA’s event, but they asked me to explain Apple’s new iPhone-upgrade program (so instead you read about this trade show’s travails here). Note the presence of a T-Mobile publicist in the comments; I invited him to leave that comment after he asked if we could revise the piece to note that that carrier’s trade-in option.

9/12/2015: Nextbit’s Android Phone Puts Its Faith—and Your Data—in the Cloud, Yahoo Tech

I had a demo of this upcoming Android phone Wednesday evening in Vegas and wrote it up over the course of Thursday. I doubt I’ll buy it myself–I’m going to need a new phone sooner than next year–but they’ve got an interesting concept and design.