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Apple Watch pre-orders begin tonight at 12:01am PT, 3:01am ET, 8:01am BST. If you're waiting up, wait up with us! As you know, the iMore forums are simply the coolest place to hangout always, but when we're waiting to pre-order the latest, greatest devices — like the Apple Watch they're especially awesome! Our editors and writers jump in, our moderators and members keep the party going, and everyone just has such a blast! We even drop in amazing prizes like a $400 Apple gift-certificate to put towards the watch of your dreams! So, before you start to get too sleepy, make a nice hot beverage, a snack, cue up store.apple.com or the Apple Store app, and then jump into …

Accessory-maker Mophie has announced a number of new additions to its Space lineup, to go along with the latest release of their Space application. The new Space application has been redesigned to work without any of Mophie's Space hardware, though it still works best with accessories like the new Space Packs for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. You can also create a favorites collection for your music, videos, and other files for easy access in the app. You can find the full list of changes below: Stands Alone : mophie Space 2.0 can now be used without the need for a space pack or spacestation. Wi-Fi Space Portal: Wirelessly access files from a Mac or PC…

When Microsoft issued the latest build of Windows 10, build 10049, to Windows Insiders last week it had two known issues according to Microsoft. As we have heard from our Ring Master, Gabe Aul, on a regular basis one of the risks associated with getting faster builds is they will come with some challenges. Some of those will be known and others will be unknown and hopefully discovered by Windows Insiders as they test the latest Windows 10 Technical Preview builds. Two such issues were known in build 10049 and now the patches released today fix those very same issues as detailed below: Outlook might not index new emails in Windows 10 Technical Preview Build 100…

iTranslate Voice has been updated to version 3.0, and now lets you save your most-used phrases for quick and easy access. Phrasebook in iTranslate Voice, one of our favorite translation apps lets you save commonly-used phrases, letting you easily access them when you need them. Your phrases will sync over iCloud, letting you access them on both iPhone and iPad. Below is the full list of changes in iTranslate Voice 3.0: Introducing Phrasebook: With Phrasebook you finally have a way to save frequently used phrases, sentences or questions. Imagine you are a doctor and need to ask patients with different native languages the same 5 questions over and over a…

Photos for OS X uses the same hierarchy as Photos for iOS — intelligently grouping images and videos into moments, collections, and years. That lets Photos for OS X show you small moments in time and space, like yesterday at the park, but also collections of moments marked by larger changes, like that party across town or that week at the beach, and even an entire year all at once. That way you can quickly zoom out, drill down, or scrub through to find exactly the photos and videos you want to look at, edit, or share. And all it takes is a few clicks and swipes! How to move between Moments, Collections, and Years smart groups How to scrub through and quickly jump …

iCloud Photo Library was designed to keep all your personal photos and videos safe, synced, and available on all of your devices. That sounds simple, but the idea of a hybrid library, where our content seamlessly spans the internet and our iPhones, iPads, and Macs — where the line between online and offline blurs — can be tough to grasp. For years many of us have manually, meticulously managed our photos and videos — transferring them from our camera and phones over cables and local networks, organizing them into folders, backing them up to drives, and hoping beyond hope each time that nothing would be damaged or lost. Various online services have popped up to he…

Images and videos eating up all the storage on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac? With iCloud Photo Library you never have to worry about running out of space again. Thanks to "optimized storage", Apple can intelligently keep track of and manage your free space, ensuring your recent, favorite, and frequently accessed images and videos are immediately available on your device, while your older, less frequently accessed one are kept safely off your device and up on Apple's servers, just a download away. It's not magic, but if you're tight on space, it'll absolutely feel that way. Best of all, "optimize storage" is really "set it and forget it". Once you turn it on, you can tu…

Messenger has launched as a standalone web site, but it won't be disappearing from Facebook's core site. Messenger, Facebook's messaging platform, is now available as a standalone service on the web. In the past users had to use Facebook's website to message their friends and family, but starting today they can do so without all the extra distractions. Facebook recently held a conference in which they detailed various ways they planned to further tap Messenger as a platform of its own. The new web address for the Messenger is pretty simple to remember, Messenger.com. When users access this page they will log in with their Facebook credentials and then have access to…

iPhoto and Aperture both support multiple libraries. So what do you do if you want to consolidate them all before migrating to Photos on your Mac? Photos for OS X does let you work with multiple libraries, but it doesn't let you import them and combine them all together into a single, unified library. At least not yet. If you have Aperture, however, you can import and consolidate multiple Aperture and iPhoto libraries there first, then get the merged library into Photos for OS X. It's a work around, but it works. How to import multiple libraries into Aperture Launch Aperture on your Mac. Click on File > Import > Library... Find the library you want to im…

If you flirted with Adobe's Lightroom as an iPhoto or Aperture replacement, but ultimately decided it wasn't for you, it's never too late to give Photos for OS X a shot. Lightroom is great for professional photographers, but prosumers can occasionally get lost in the shuffle. If all those features add up to confusion instead of a good workflow, if you want to benefit from iCloud Photo Library, or if you don't like the way Adobe's app works, Photos for OS X might better fit your needs, especially if those needs are decidedly more casual. Whether you changed your mind about Lightroom quickly, or if it's been a while, it's simple and straight forward to switch to Photos i…

iOS 8.3 has over 300 new, more diverse emoji, including five alternate skin tones and thirty two new country flags As part of Apple's ongoing efforts to address diversity, iOS 8.3 includes a much wider array of cultures and ethnicities for face and hand symbols on iPhone and iPad. Face and hand emoji now start off with a "neutral" (i.e. classic yellow) emoji. Each also offers five alternate skin tone options based on the Fitzpatrick scale for standard dermatological representation, as adopted by the Unicode Consortium. How to enter the new, diverse emoji on your iPhone or iPad Tap the globe or smiley face key to switch to the emoji keyboard as usual. Tap and ho…

System monitoring app iStat Menus has hit version 5.1, adding support for some of Apple's recent computers, as well as several new options that let you control exactly how iStat Menus works for you. iStat Menus 5.1 adds support for Apple's latest MacBook Pro and MacBook Air models, while also improving support for the iMac with 5K Retina display. You can also now style iStat Menus for OS X Yosemite's dark and light modes independently. Checkout the full list of changes and improvements below. Improved performance and reduced memory usage. Improved support for 5k iMac. Added support for 2015 MacBook Airs. Added support for 2015 13-inch MacBook Pro. Adde…

If you're moving from Aperture to Photos for OS X, the first thing you'll need to do is import your library. Apple's pulling the plug on future Aperture development. It still works with OS X Yosemite, but Photos for OS X is the future. Luckily, importing your existing Aperture library is easy. You can either do it during initial setup and make it your main Photos library, or you can import it at any time and make it an additional library. Once you've imported your library into Photos, you can still use the old version in Aperture. They won't stay in sync from that point on, but they will both remain accessible to their respective apps. How to import your Aperture li…

HBO Now, the standalone streaming service from HBO, as officially launched on the Apple TV. Announced last month, HBO Now gives customers access to HBO content without requiring a cable subscription. The channel is now live on the Apple TV, and an app for iPhone and iPad is rolling out now on the App Store. Apple is HBO's exclusive launch partner for the service. HBO Now functions much like HBO Go, the company's cable-dependent on-demand service. You can access HBO's library of TV shows and movies, all on-demand. A subscription to Now will cost $14.99 per month, though HBO is offering a 30-day free trial. HBO Now launches just a few days before the fifth seas…

If you're a Do It Yourselfer with an iPod Classic, Other World Computing offers a flash card conversion kit. Apple may have discontinued the venerable iPod Classic, but it still has its fans, for its click wheel design and capacious storage. Now you can keep yours going and bring it into the flash storage age, too. This isn't a review — I can't find my iPod Classic at the moment, though I plan to tear my house apart looking for it, but a recent Twitter post from Other World Computing got my attention and I thought you ought to know. Turns out the company offers a DIY kit called the iFlash, which enables you to replace the tiny internal hard drive in your iPod Clas…

MacPaw has released a completely new version of their CleanMyMac tool. CleanMyMac 3 comes with a new look and several new features. CleanMyMac offers several options to clean old files off of your hard drive to free up space. Version 3 comes with more tools, and will now offer to clean both mail attachments, as well as iTunes items. As with the app's other tools, you can get specific about what items stay and what gets cleaned out. The app also has a new look for OS X Yosemite, including a translucent sidebar. In addition to the new cleaning tools, CleanMyMac 3 comes with new utilities for maintenance. You can ask the app to run maintenance scripts, reindex Spot…

Quick reply messaging from your Lock screen may be convenient, but it isn't secure. With interactive notifications you can swipe left across any iMessage on the Lock screen and quickly send off a reply, no passcode, password, or Touch ID required. That's great if you're always in a rush and just need to answer everything and anything as fast as possible. It's not so great if you often leave your iPhone or iPad unattended, where other people can potentially reply to your messages either as a prank or maliciously. Interactive notifications are enabled by default, but if you'd rather have security than convenience, you can easily turn them off. How to turn off quick re…

In-store pickups for the Apple Watch will reportedly be limited to one device per customer. Apple Watch stock is said to be limited, hence the one-device limit for in-store pickup. This restriction, which expected to apply to all of the initial launch countries for the Apple Watch, will apparently not extend online orders set for home delivery. From MacRumors: The limit does not apply to online pre-orders that will be shipped to home beginning April 24, although it is possible that Apple will also restrict online orders to one or two Apple Watch models per customer as it has done for Personal Pickup with the iPhone, iPad and other products in the past. Apple…

These unique bumper cases fit perfectly around the edges of your device and feature raised side buttons for quick and easy access. Even with the combination of aluminum and shock absorbent TPU, the TETRA Case is amazingly thin and lightweight. Available today for $18.95 Continue reading...

Developer Zen Studios will add a new table to its Zen Pinball game for its iOS and Mac platforms based on the upcoming Marvel Studios super-hero film Avengers: Age of Ultron. The table will be available to purchase sometime during the week of April 21. Pricing has yet to be revealed. The new table will be released just ahead of when the film is scheduled to hit theaters internationally and over a week before it debuts in the US on May 1. Here's what fans can expect from this new addition: The Marvel's Avengers: Age of Ultron table will allow players to relive the struggle of Earth's mightiest heroes, including Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, The Incredible Hulk,…

Flir's been working in the world of infrared imaging for years, but now they're delving into a new market: home security and action cams with the Flir FX. Flir is taking on both Dropcam and GoPro with the Flir FX. This little camera is a roughly 2x2x1-inch block with a circular lens sitting front and center. There's an available home base that it can mount onto for home security purposes, as well as options for exterior mounts, car mounts, and even a waterproof sport case that you can strap onto your helmet, bike, or what-have-you (ala GoPro). With Wi-Fi, remote monitoring, and a nifty "RapidRecap" feature that compresses hours of activity into minutes, Flir's syst…

The number of banks and credit unions that support Apple Pay in the U.S. has increased again, with 39 more institutions added to Apple's official list. The new additions mean that over 180 banks now support Apple Pay. Here are the new members of the family: 1st Advantage Federal Credit Union American Savings Bank Bank of Utah Bellco Federal Credit Union BMO Harris N.A. Cambridge Savings Bank Campus USA Credit Union Centennial Bank Citadel Federal Credit Union Citizens Bank & Trust Citizens Equity First Credit Union Coastline Federal Credit Union Community Choice Credit Union Deseret First Federal Credit Union ESL Federal Credit Union Evansville T…

Angela Ahrendts, Apple's SVP of Retail and Online Stores, is telling store employees to encourage customers to order an Apple Watch online, rather than through Apple's retail outlets. In a memo to employees, Ahrendts also encourages this practice when it comes to the new MacBook. Ahrendts says that both Apple's Online Store and the Apple Store app provide an easier purchasing experience for customers. From Business Insider: "This is a significant change in mindset, and we need your help to make it happen," the memo says. U.K. Apple Stores will reportedly not offer in-store pickup for the watch, with all orders requiring home delivery, while U.S. customers …

The great thing about all your pictures and videos being online is that sometimes all your pictures and videos are online... iCloud Photo Library, currently in beta, makes sure all the pictures and videos of all the people and places you love, and all the memories you want to keep safe are backed up and available on all your devices, iPhone, iPad, and — and soon, on the Mac. If you've got stuff you simply don't like, or personal pictures and videos that you don't want to keep and don't want available, you can delete them. That way, neither you nor anyone else is at risk of ever seeing them again. How to delete pictures and videos on iCloud.com iCloud Photo Libr…

Developers who think that marketing is a dirty word are cutting off their nose to spite their face. Too often app makers pour blood, sweat and tears into making a new product without having a clear idea of how to communicate its features and benefits. That's where marketing comes into play. It breaks my heart when I talk to a developer with a really cool new app who doesn't have the slightest idea how to communicate what it does effectively. And I'm press. If they're failing with me, they're failing desperately at attracting new customers. It doesn't just happen once in a while. It happens all the time. Several times a day, typically. "Build a better mousetr…