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ExtraBITS for 8 September 2014

This week in ExtraBITS, we have details on how to watch Apple’s September 9th product announcement, along with information about your personal Apple support page and a list of mistakes that cause iOS apps to be rejected. In other news, Twitpic is shutting down after 6 years, and Verizon is settling with the FCC over privacy violations.

Watch Apple’s September 9th Announcements Live — Apple’s next big media event is set for 9 September 2014 at 10 AM PDT, and you can watch it live in Safari for Mac and iOS or in the Apple TV’s Apple Events app. If you’re busy at that time, the recording usually remains available afterwards. Apple is expected to announce new iPhone models, and other possibilities include updated iPads, the much-rumored smartwatch, and an Apple TV refresh. And, although we’d be surprised to see it mentioned during this event, the Mac mini is long overdue for an update.

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Farewell to Twitpic — The image-hosting service Twitpic has announced that it will shut down on 25 September 2014 after over 6 years. Twitpic blames Twitter for the shutdown, saying that the social networking company had threatened to pull API access if Twitpic did not abandon its trademark application. However, as Mashable’s Christina Warren pointed out on Twitter, the service has largely been irrelevant since Twitter added its own image-hosting capability in 2012, so this may simply have been a way to save face.

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Verizon Settles with FCC over Privacy Violations — Verizon will pay $7.4 million to the U.S. Treasury for not telling subscribers that they could opt out of their personal information being used for marketing campaigns. Approximately two million customers did not receive the opt-out notice between 2006 and 2012, a violation of the Communications Act. Verizon has also agreed to include opt-out notices on every customer’s bill for three years and to set up a monitoring system to ensure that notices are being sent.

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Your Own Personal Apple Support Site — Kirk McElhearn has written an article for Macworld about Apple’s personalized support Web pages, which keep a record of every Apple product you own, as well as warranty coverage, support cases, and repairs. It’s also handy to know how to access these pages in case your gear is stolen, as they store your devices’ serial numbers.

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Why Apple Rejected Your App — Apple has released a list of the most common reasons apps are rejected from the App Store. Typical culprits include: broken links, crashes, placeholder content, misleading or inaccurate descriptions, and substandard user interfaces.

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