In its seemingly never-ending legal battle between Apple, Samsung earlier this summer asked a federal appeals court to reconsider the U.S Federal Circuit Court’s decision to uphold damages from a 2012 ruling. Today, San Jose Mercury News reports that the U.S. Federal Circuit Court of Appeals has rejected Samsung’s request to have its case reheard.
While Apple is expected to unveil a new Apple TV set-top box at an event next month, its rumored internet TV service will not make an appearance at that event according to a new report out of Bloomberg. The report says that Apple, while it originally wanted to launch its streaming TV service this year, has decided to push the service back until some point in 2016. We also reported earlier this year that Apple’s streaming TV service would likely launch after the refreshed hardware.
Update: Apple appears to have now disabled external testing in iTunes Connect again after briefly enabling it this afternoon.
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When Apple updated the TestFlight app for iOS 9 compatiblity earlier this month, it came with the caveat that developers could only submit iOS 9 betas to members of their own teams. Today, however, the company has enabled external testing, allowing developers to start pushing iOS 9-ready betas to any users.
Apple has updated its diversity report with new data about gender, race, and ethnicity hiring at the company. The updated diversity report comes one day after Apple committed to sponsoring a minority-focused technology program and one year after releasing its first report on such data.
While the new data does not show dramatic diversity improvements compared with last year’s report, Apple does highlight some key changes in hiring over the last 12 months. The company is still mostly male with men accounting for 69% of Apple around the world, but that’s moved slightly from 70% a year ago.
The same is true for race, as whites make up 54% of the overall company in the United States, but the new report shows an increase in Asian (18% from 15%) and black (8% from 7%) employees from the previous year.
Apple’s report also breaks out gender, race and ethnicity of new hires over the last year, with 35% of new employees around the world being woman.and in the United States, 19% of US hires being Asian, 13% Hispanic, and 11% black. Apple’s diversity website further breaks out each group by sector, including tech and non-tech jobs, leadership, retail, and retail leadership.
Denise Young Smith, Apple’s VP of Worldwide Human Resources, sent the following memo to employees regarding the latest diversity report:
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Apple has released an update to iTunes to accompany today’s iOS 8.4.1 release. Like the iOS update, the new version of iTunes introduces bug fixes related to Apple Music and the Beats 1 streaming radio service.
Apple has released an official iOS update for all users with iOS 8.4.1 now available. The update follows the major iOS 8.4 release which included an all-new Music app with Apple Music, the new subscription music service, plus Beats 1, Apple’s Internet-based radio station with live DJs. Apple initially started testing the changes in iOS 8.4.1 with developers in mid-July. The maintenance update includes several issue fixes for Apple Music and Beats 1.
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Apple has released the OS X 10.10.5 software update to OS X Yosemite for all users. The update mentions improvements to “stability, compatibility, and security” while also highlighting specific fixes for Mail, Photos, and QuickTime Player apps. Previously, Apple tested the software release with developers and public beta testers. The update is available for all users through the Updates tab of the Mac App Store.
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Ahead of the new iPhones currently rumored to be announced on September 9th, Samsung has today announced the latest in its Galaxy line of smartphones. The Korean company introduced the Samsung Galaxy Note 5, as well as a larger S6 Edge called — yes, it’s a bit of a mouthful — the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+. The company also detailed the launch of its Samsung Pay mobile payments platform.
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Announced at CES in January, the iSP5 SmartPlug ($40) — iHome’s first smart home accessory, and first Apple HomeKit accessory — is now officially available for purchase. The SmartPlug installs easily in an existing wall outlet, enabling users to enjoy iOS-based remote control of a connected lamp, fan, air conditioner or other electronic device. Two SmartPlugs can be stacked atop one another on a standard wall plate, and multiple SmartPlugs can be grouped as “scenes” for simultaneous iOS control within a home. Interestingly, the new accessory’s compatibility isn’t limited to iOS and HomeKit…
As regular readers will know, it took a little while for the Apple Watch to really grow on me. But even back when I wasn’t convinced I needed a smartwatch, I still had to admire the design. And the Digital Crown was a large part of how Apple got the smartwatch right when others hadn’t yet cracked it. A fundamental problem with a small touchscreen is that touching it covers up much of the content. The Digital Crown overcomes that, allowing us to scroll content without our thumb getting in the way.
But while today’s iPhone screens may be larger than they used to be, they are still pretty small in the scheme of things. Scrolling with a thumb still covers up a chunk of the content. Worse, it’s easy to accidentally tap on targets accidentally including ads. There have been numerous occasions since using Apple Watch when my thumb started absent-mindedly reaching for the non-existent Digital Crown on my iPhone …
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Continuing its push to make solid-state drives (SSDs) the dominant storage medium of next-generation computers, Samsung has revealed the PM1633a, a 15.36TB SSD that is believed to be the world’s highest-capacity hard drive. More amazingly, notes an Ars Technica report, that incredible capacity — over 120 times the storage of an entry-level MacBook Air or MacBook Pro — fits within a compact 2.5″ hard drive enclosure.
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We first revealed last month that Apple is requiring a number of third-party accessory suppliers to revamp the packaging of products sold in the company’s retail stores to provide a more Apple-like appearance. We knew then that the detailed spec included mostly white packaging, simpler fonts, new photography, higher-quality materials, and more consistent compatibility labeling.
A copy of an internal memo obtained by Business Insider reveals that the requirement for new photography extends as far as “consistent product shot photo angles.”
The new designs bring an elevated look and feel to our third-party bags and cases while creating consistency across the brands to make our Accessory walls more visually appealing and easier to navigate.
In quoting from the memo, BI says that it has slightly rephrased it to protect its source after learning that Apple has begun issuing slight variations to internal communications issued to different groups of people, to help it identify sources of media leaks.
We got our first look at the new packaging a few days after we first learned of it.
Apple has announced in a support document that Boot Camp now supports 64-bit versions of Windows 10 on a wide range of Macs dating back to 2012. The updated version of Boot Camp is currently rolling out to Yosemite users – if you haven’t yet received it, it should show up when you use the Mac App Store to check for updates.
Apple gives instructions for performing both a new install and an upgrade from earlier versions of Windows.
Supported Macs are:
USB-C is supported on the 12-inch MacBook, in addition to the standard ports which are supported on all compatible models.
Back in March, Apple discontinued Boot Camp support for Windows 7 on the latest MacBook models, requiring Windows 8 and up.
Photo: Jacek Kalużny
