Good Vibes

ML - Local Apple resellers announced that the starting price of the iPhone 6s will be at least Php 115,000.00 due to the 85% import tax increase imposed by the customs on the shipping cargos.

The customs told the media that the 85% import tax is set so high to "keep it fair" with the local mobile phone designers and developers. "Masyado na natin tinatangkilik yung mga iPhone at Samsung na yan. Dapat yung sariling atin naman," ("We support iPhone and Samsung brands too much. We should start supporting our own,") said Anthony Paz in a quick presser with the media 3:00 AM Manila time.

iPhone 6s: Just a dream in the Philippines?

Filipino citizens who purchase their iPhone 6s overseas will be given a ticket to pay at their corresponding city hall. According to customs, this is to prevent people from going overseas just to buy an iPhone 6s for cheaper prices.

The iPhone 6s starting price in the USA is $199.00 which would roughly be Php 9,300 in today's exchange rates.

The first places to get the iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus will be Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, Singapore, the UK and the US.

Preorders begin on Saturday, Setember 12 with the line coming out on September 25.

A range of emojis depicting same sex couples are now available on social media

ML - Russia may ban "gay emojis" from social media if an investigation by the state media watchdog rules that they infringe laws against "gay propaganda".

According to a report by Russia's Izvestia newspaper, the investigation was prompted by a complaint from Mikhail Marchenko, a Russian senator.

Mr Marchenko claims the symbols - which depict smiley-faced same-sex couples - violate a controversial 2013 law which prohibits promotion of non-traditional sexual relationships.

The law allows Russian authorities to block access to websites deemed to promote homosexuality.

Mr Marchenko said in his complaint that the emojis "promoted non-traditional sexual relationships", "denied family values" ​​and showed "disrespect for parents and other family members".

An Apple update earlier this year introduced emojis depicting gay parents

In response to the complaint, media watchdog Roskomnadzor asked the youth group of President Vladimir Putin's political party, the Young Guard, to report on the matter.

Kirill Grinchenko, a spokesman for the Young Guard, told Izvestia that the group had not yet received a request to look into the matter but was "ready to deal with the protection of rights on the Internet under Russian law".

On Tuesday the founder of Children-404, an online community for LGBT teenagers in Russia, was fined 50,000 roubles (£520; $830) after a Russian court ruled that the site was guilty of distributing "propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations among minors".

Russia has faced international criticism for its anti-gay laws. Individuals can be fined 4,000-5,000 roubles if they are convicted of promoting so-called non-traditional sexual relations, with much higher fines for businesses and possible jail sentences for foreigners.

Apple first added emojis depicting gay couples to its operating system back in 2012. An update earlier this year introduced emojis showing gay couples with children, and hugely increased the racial diversity among the 300 symbols available.

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CUPERTINO - In a somewhat shocking move, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced that they have purchased music rival Spotify for a whopping $20 million. Cook stated, "we at Apple want to bring our customers the very best in digital music and by merging with Spotify, we now have the largest digital music library in the world."

Daniel Ek, CEO of Spotify confirmed the merge 2 hours later. "We here at Spotify love to please our loyal fanbase and by doing this, we can open more and more possibilities with more music then anyone could ever wish for. Both for Apple Music and Spotify."



The merge means for anyone who loves to listen to music digitally either on their PC, mobile or tablet device can access a much larger library of titles then before. If anything more will come out of this is yet to be seen.

Apple Music made an impact this month when it decided to compete with popular music streaming services such as Spotify, Tidal and Pandora. The difference between the three is Apple Music's in-house podcasts, radio-like shows and live concerts.

STREAMABLE - After announcing their latest Apple Music service, Apple is at it again with the announcement of their boldest product yet. Watch the video to find out!

COMPTON - Andre Romelle Young, more known by his stage name Dr. Dre, was shot fifteen times today during a filming of an advertisement for one his technological ventures Beats by Dre under the Beats Electronics brand. The scene was being shot in Downtown Compton.

The American record producer, rapper and entrepreneur received fatal gunshot wounds at around 9 PM tonight while the filming crew stood by in shock as the medical response team attended him. Dr. Dre was shooting a scene with twelve alleged Compton gang members when a vehicle drove by and began firing specifically at the hip-hop billionaire.

"They [meant] to do that on purpose," said one of the participants in the commercial who was wearing an all-red outfit with tattoo of guns, dollar signs and the word "BLOODS" all over his skin.

The Los Angeles Police Department has already ruled out the possibility for this to be a random drive-by shooting as the gunner was definitely targeting Dr. Dre who was in the middle of the scene. "We believe that this is still a gang-related incident as the gunman and several others in the car began shouting profanities typically shouted against Bloods gang members."

UPDATE - Dr. Dre is currently being attended by three doctors at the UCLA Medical Center where he was transferred to after spending two hours in a Compton hospital. He's currently being guarded by his entourage and a group of policemen is surrounding his hospital room.

BENTONVILLE - Walmart has recently announced that it's going to sell the iPhone 6 for only $50 this coming Black Friday on all their stores nationwide. This bold move was revealed earlier this morning during a live interview with Doug McMillon, the President and CEO of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

To boost its sales with Apple products, McMillon told the media that Walmart is going on full sale for all Apple-branded products. This includes the iPhone 5, iPod, iPhone 6 Plus and the iPhone 6 which is going for $50 a piece, the lowest-priced of the bunch, this coming Black Friday.

"We had too many in our warehouses that were not picked up during the pre-order phase due to an error with the system from Apple, so we're going to put them on sale," McMillon addressed the press. He explained that instead of risking themselves losing profit over unsold units, they're going to resell them at a lower price on Black Friday.

They made it clear, however, that they will not be available online or for pre-order again. It will be a first-come-first-serve basis. Security will be upped due to the hype surrounding the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. This is to prevent any minor scale stampedes that are expected to occur during the opening of Walmart stores nationwide.