Skip to content
Thoughtful, detailed coverage of everything Apple for 33 years
and the TidBITS Content Network for Apple professionals

ExtraBITS for 5 October 2015

In this week’s ExtraBITS roundup, Amazon stops selling the Apple TV and Chromecast, Apple’s Eddy Cue gives a rare interview, Sprint raises prices on its unlimited plans, a photographer compares every iPhone camera, and we explain why you shouldn’t shower with your iPhone 6s.

Amazon to Stop Selling Apple TV and Google’s Chromecast — The TV platform battles are heating up, with the latest salvo fired by Amazon, which will stop selling the Apple TV and Google’s Chromecast by the end of the month, ostensibly because they don’t “interact well” with Amazon Prime Video. That explanation falls somewhat flat given that the upcoming fourth-generation Apple TV will allow independent apps, and Amazon could presumably have created a Prime Video app (unless, of course, Apple made doing so infeasible for some reason, which
is also entirely possible). The move will probably hurt Chromecast sales more than Apple TV sales, due to Apple’s strong retail presence. In the end, this is just tech giants playing hardball with one another — Amazon isn’t sufficiently dominant for there to be any antitrust issues at play.

Read/post comments

Eddy Cue Talks to the London Evening Standard — Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services, spoke with the London Evening Standard about a number of topics, including music, the value of (ignoring) customer feedback, and expensive roaming charges.

Read/post comments

Sprint Raising Prices on Its Unlimited Plan — Sprint is raising the monthly price of its unlimited talk, text, and data plan to $70 on 15 October 2015 — a $10 increase. However, customers signed up for that plan before the cutoff date will be grandfathered in to the $60-per-month price.

Read/post comments

A Comparison of Every iPhone Camera — Photographer Lisa Bettany has posted comparison shots showing how the rear camera of the iPhone 6s stacks up to every previous iPhone model. While the iPhone 6s comes out on top in most tests, as you’d expect, there are a few areas where older models have the upper hand.

Read/post comments

The iPhone 6s Is Not Waterproof — There are videos making the rounds showing an iPhone 6s soaking in a bowl of water and then coming out seemingly unscathed. While the new iPhones appear to be more water-resistant than prior models, don’t bring your new iPhone into the shower. Even if problems don’t manifest immediately, they can appear days later, and a dive into a pool still appears to kill an iPhone 6s.

Read/post comments

Subscribe today so you don’t miss any TidBITS articles!

Every week you’ll get tech tips, in-depth reviews, and insightful news analysis for discerning Apple users. For over 33 years, we’ve published professional, member-supported tech journalism that makes you smarter.

Registration confirmation will be emailed to you.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA. The Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.