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ExtraBITS for 17 February 2014

In ExtraBITS this week, TUAW offers some “tips” for photographing leaked Apple products, Macworld’s Dan Moren shows you how to replace a MacBook Air’s SSD, the Fab Four arrive on Apple TV, and Horace Dediu analyzes Apple’s download business.

Tips for Photographing Leaked Apple Products — What if you got your hands on a leaked Apple prototype, like the iPhone 6, the iPad Pro, or the Apple TV smartwatch, and you wanted to show it off to the Internet? With tongue planted firmly in cheek, Mike Wehner offers some helpful tips at TUAW to make those verboten photos look their best. He recommends never taking a photo of a complete product, obscuring as much of the device as possible, and shaking the camera to add a little pizzazz.

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How to Replace a MacBook Air’s SSD — When the built-in SSD in his MacBook Air failed, Macworld’s Dan Moren decided to try replacing it himself (surprisingly, at the suggestion of an Apple Genius). The process was easier than he thought, taking only 20 minutes. He explains what he did, and walks you through how to restore your data with SuperDuper, including a pointer to a handy utility that restores Mac OS X’s Recovery Partition.

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The Beatles Come Together, Right Now… on Apple TV — For a limited time, Apple has added a channel to the Apple TV for The Beatles, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the band’s first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. The channel features video of the original performance, and links to purchase Beatles albums.

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Running the Numbers on the Apple Download Empire — Analyst Horace Dediu has examined Apple’s software and service business and found that if it were its own company, it would rank 130th in the Fortune 500 — above pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly. Dediu estimates that Apple gave up $350 million in revenue in the last quarter from making Mavericks and iWork free. Despite that, Apple is bringing in more revenue than ever from iTunes and the App Store, with gross revenues of nearly $7 billion per quarter.

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