Stitcher Radio, one of Apple’s first CarPlay partners, has released an update that enables the dashboard interface in its popular podcast app. The update also includes bug fixes and stability improvements. The release comes just days after Stitcher was acquired by a music streaming company called Deezer.

Stitcher joins Rdio, Spotify, and iHeartRadio in supporting the in-car UI that was first demonstrated alongside iOS 7 last year. Several other apps, including Apple’s own Podcasts and Beats Music software, are still slated to gain support in future updates.

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Back in June Apple faced off against a Mexican telecom over the trademarked word “iFone.” In that case, the iFone telecommunications company argued that Apple had infringed its trademark with the iPhone. A court ruled that because telecom services and telephone hardware aren’t the same product, there should be no confusion among consumers about which is which.

Unfortunately for mobile carriers in the country, because they do offer telecommunications services, they were barred from using the name “iPhone” in marketing materials.

Now an Indian mobile phone manufacturer called iVoice Enterprises Limited is taking Apple to task over a similarly named product, this time called the “iFon.”

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In June a report detailed a feature in development by Google that would reportedly allow Android devices to alert “people, places, and things” to the presence of nearby users. At the time, reports referred to the feature as “Nearby” and described it as a location-based feature for Android devices in close proximity to one another. Today, AndroidPolice is back with more info pointing to evidence that the feature will be cross-platform and allow Android and iOS devices to share content and communicate when nearby.
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In an interview with the Financial Times, Google co-founder and CEO Larry Page talked about an ongoing debate that he had with Apple’s Steve Jobs: whether their companies were doing too much or too little to affect the lives of their customers.

Page, as is evident in Google’s seemingly unending push into new markets and technologies outside of search and even the web, came down on the side of doing as many things as possible to make an impact in peoples’ lives, while Jobs was insistent that a focused approach on a single set of problems was better for the company and its users.

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Verizon is increasing data for customers on $80 and $100 More Everything plans, the company announced today following a similar announcement from AT&T. The carrier is now offering 10GB for $80 and 15GB for $100 up from the 6GB and 10GB those tiers previously offered. Verizon notes that the deal isn’t restricted to new customers, but it is a limited time offer available through its website.
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In a press release from Out Leadership, an organization that describes its goal as “cultivating LGBT and ally senior leaders to create global business opportunity and drive equality forward”, a number of Fortune 500 executives are applauding Apple CEO Tim Cook’s decision to identify himself as gay publicly.
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AT&T announced today that it’s increasing the data allotment on two of its wireless service plans. Starting on Sunday, November 2nd, Ma Bell will begin offering 3GB of data for $40 per month and 6GB of date for $70 a month. Also sweetening the pot, AT&T is tossing in unlimited talk, text and international messaging at no additional charge.

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<em>Trent Reznor with Beats co-founders Jimmy Iovine and Dre Dre</em>

When Apple announced plans to acquire Beats Electronics and Beats Music earlier this year, Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor’s involvement with the streaming music service under Apple’s ownership quickly came in question. A spokesperson for Beats Music said Reznor was still with the company at the time and we reported that Reznor would in fact join Apple despite major staff changes at Beats during the transition. Reznor, who has been credited as Beats Music Chief Creative Officer, has finally opened up about his current role at Apple in an interview with Billboard revealing that he’s “fully in it right now” on an unannounced music project…
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Reports speculating that Apple has recently added a new reinforcement to iPhone 6 Plus units following a controversy over rare instances of the device bending under pressure aren’t true, according to a source close to the situation.
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Microsoft has today announced an updated version of its Outlook for Mac software with an updated design and performance improvements. The new version of email, calendar, and contacts app from Microsoft is available through the company’s Office 365 subscription service,  and Microsoft says it offers a more consistent experience with the iPhone and iPad versions.

In addition to releasing the new version of Outlook for Mac, Microsoft has shared that it will ship a new version of Office for Mac in 2015. An overhauled version of Office, which includes Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and OneNote, will be available for Mac users as a public beta in the first half of 2015 while Microsoft is targeting the second half of 2015 for the commercial release.
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Apple chief designer Jony Ive said that designing the Apple Watch was more difficult than the iPhone because it needed to meet so many diverse expectations, reports the WSJ.

“Even though Apple Watch does so many things, there are cultural, historical implications and expectations,” Ive said. “That’s why it’s been such a difficult and humbling program […] As soon as something is worn, we have expectations of choice,” said Ive. Only “in prison,” he joked, do people all wear the same thing.

He made the remarks while accepting the 2014 Bay Area Treasure Award from San Francisco’s Museum of Modern Art last night … 
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As pointed out by Tonymacx86, Apple has released the Open Source code of OS X 10.10 Yosemite, otherwise known as Darwin 10.10.0. This includes the xnu-2782.1.97 kernel.

The update occurred last night and is available to anyone who wants to root around Apple’s open source code.

Darwin is an open sourceUnix-like computer operating system released by Apple Inc. in 2000. It is composed of code developed by Apple, as well as code derived from NeXTSTEP, BSD, and other free software projects.

Darwin forms the core set of components upon which OS X and iOS are based. It is mostly POSIX compatible, but has never, by itself, been certified as being compatible with any version of POSIX. (OS X, since Leopard, has been certified as compatible with the Single UNIX Specification version 3 (SUSv3).

Apple is just about exactly on schedule from last year’s Mavericks release a year and a week ago. 
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While Touch ID makes sense for most of us as a secure and convenient way to protect our phones, there is one group of people who may want to stick to good old-fashioned passcodes: criminals.

A Virginia District Court has ruled that while phone passcodes are protected by the 5th Amendment, which says that those accused of crimes cannot be compelled to incriminate themselves, there is no such protection against using a suspect’s fingerprint to unlock a phone … 
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French site MacG reports that a new Apple Store in Lille, northern France, looks set to open next month. Apple has put up the black hoardings that usually appear in the final weeks of preparing a new retail store for opening … 
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Variety reports that actor Seth Rogen has been cast to play Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak in the upcoming Steve Jobs biopic from Sony:

Seth Rogen has been set to star as Steve Wozniak opposite Christian Bale in Sony’s Steve Jobs biopic.

We learned earlier this month that Christian Bale, who starred in the recent Batman trilogy, will portray Steve Jobs in the Aaron Sorkin directed film. Sorkin later confirmed the report adding that Christian Bale didn’t have to audition for the role in the film.

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When the iOS 8 jailbreak tool Pangu was released earlier this month for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, it still had some rough edges such as no one-click solution to install Cydia or support for English. Fortunately, the Pangu tool for Windows now includes a Cydia installer and English support for the masses.
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Update: Thompson has verified the policy change.

We learned yesterday from developer James Thompson that Apple had informed him that the calculator widget for his app PCalc, which had already been approved and even featured by the App Store, would have to remove the widget from the app to remain available for sale. The reason Apple gave, according to Thompson’s tweets, is that “widgets on iOS cannot perform any calculations” which his PCalc calculator widget obviously did, but it seems Apple has since reversed that decision, according to iMore and TechCrunch. TC reports that an Apple spokesperson has confirmed that PCalc’s widget can now remain as well as any other similar calculator widgets.
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<em>Apple SVP Craig Federighi featuring 1Password at October Apple event</em>

Apple gave a prominent shoutout to the 1Password secure wallet app earlier this month when Craig Federighi, who leads the OS X and iOS teams, mentioned the password management app’s support for Touch ID in an iOS 8 review on stage. AgileBits, the developers behind 1Password, mentioned the shoutout in their latest release notes for an updated version of the iPhone and iPad app which brings a list of new improvements.

The latest version of 1Password for iPhone and iPad brings an improvement to the app’s lock screen when using Touch ID. Specifically, 1Password now moves the lock out of the way when using Touch ID as seen on stage in Federighi’s demonstration. This change means users unlocking 1Password to access stored passwords using the Touch ID fingerprint scanner can see more of the lock screen artwork. The update also brings speak improvements to the lock screen as well as folder syncing improvements for iCloud users and additional improvements.

1Password for iPhone and iPad is available for free on the App Store (a $9.99 in-app purchase unlocks pro features), and you can read the latest change log below.
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Smule, which makes a variety of music-related iPhone apps like Guitar!, Magic Piano, and AutoRap, has a new version of its popular Sing! Karaoke app out today with a major feature for the app: video. The new version of Sing! Karaoke, which features “a huge catalog of top hits” with instrumental tracks and lyric guides for singing along to, does three things with the newly added video feature.
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