Jordan manages the internal Partner Program for sponsorships and partnerships across the 9to5 network’s media brands including 9to5Mac, 9to5Google, 9to5Toys, Electrek.co, SpaceExplored and DroneDJ.com.
Jordan also writes about all things Apple as a Senior Editor of 9to5Mac. He covers Google for 9to5Google.com, the best gadgets and deals on 9to5Toys.com, and EV and solar news on Electrek.co. He also co-authors 9to5Mac’s Logic Pros series and makes music sometimes.
Contact Jordan with partnership inquiries and long-winded complaints:
Shipments of Chromebooks outpaced Macs in the US for the first time in Q1 2016, that’s according to data from IDC shared during a session at Google’s I/O developer conference today.
Apple and its retail chief Angela Ahrendts today previewed the company’s brand new San Francisco retail store at Union Square ahead of an official grand opening this weekend.
“Fifteen years ago today Apple opened its first two stores and we’re thrilled to mark the occasion with the opening of Apple Union Square in San Francisco,” said Angela Ahrendts, Apple’s senior vice president of Retail and Online Stores. “We are not just evolving our store design, but its purpose and greater role in the community as we educate and entertain visitors and serve our network of local entrepreneurs.”
The images above and below were shared online today by @harrymcracken, @panzer and others attending the preview event for press. The new store features a number of new design elements, including changes to the layout for its Genius Bar that will be known as “Genius Grove” at the new store, and a number of new specialized areas throughout.
We’ve covered Infuse a few times — a slick media player for iOS devices and as of late last year the new Apple TV. Today the apps are getting updates to version 4.2, bringing a handful of notable features to both the iOS and tvOS apps.
The highlights include a new Library View with Smart Filters on Apple TV and Spotlight search on iPhones and iPads, but there is a long list of other new features and improvements for both.
In between announcing a new development office that will create 4,000 jobs in India and meeting with local iOS developers, Apple CEO Tim Cook was spotted visiting a film set before partying with Bollywood celebrities at an event reportedly hosted by Indian actor Shah Rukh Khan this week.
Google kicked off its Google I/O developer conference today with the usual keynote address where executives showed off a number of upcoming hardware, software and developer tool products. It started off with its new voice controlled Siri competitor— Google Assistant— which also ties into its upcoming Amazon Echo-like device for the home called Google Home.
Belkin’s “Wemo” lineup of app-controlled smart home accessories is getting support for the Works with Nest program, which means you can now interface the smart thermostat with Belkin’s Wemo products in various ways.
T-Mobile today announced new services being added to its Binge On program, which allows its wireless subscribers to stream video content from certain apps without dipping into their mobile data caps.
Adobe today announced an update to Adobe Capture CC—its iOS app that lets users capture and edit images for use in its other editing apps.
The update brings a new Patterns feature that the company says “transforms any image or real-world object into a geometric or organic pattern.”
“Traditionally, the process of creating a pattern required manual tiling and a tedious chore of blending between tiles. The newest capability in Capture CC automatically blends the seams between tiles for a perfect pattern.”
And you can see in the screenshots above how the patterns feature works from with the Capture CC app on iPhone. After taking a photo, the feature allows you to select a portion of the photo to use and then automatically generates a pattern for you to preview.
Adobe offered up some other examples of the new Patterns feature in action. This one is made using a source photo of the Statue of Liberty:
Also included in the update:
IMPROVED SHAPE EDITING
Users asked for more editing controls when creating a new shape. You can now remove unwanted details or break connected paths with the new erase tool.
OTHER FIXES AND IMPROVEMENTS
This release also includes several bug fixes and improved app stability.
The updated Capture CC app for iOS, version 2.0, is available on the App Store now.
Apple Watch sales estimated around 1.5 million units during Q1 2016 made it the number one smartwatch, but the device continued to trail basic wearables from competitors Fitbit and Xiaomi. During the quarter both companies more than doubled Apple Watch sales, according to the latest data out today from industry watcher IDC.
In this week’s top stories: iPhone 7 leaks, Apple invests in a Chinese Uber competitor, the UK shows off works to bring driving licenses to Apple Wallet, and we take a look at the state of jailbreaking for May, new apps, & much more. Head below for the usual handy roundup of links to all this week’s most shared stories and video.
It looks like drivers in the UK could soon be able to store their driver’s license within Apple’s Wallet app on iPhones as CEO of the country’s Driver Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) today shared the image of the work in progress feature above.
After issuing WWDC scholarships to winning applicants earlier this week for its upcoming developers conference in June, Apple has now invited winners to a WWDC 2016 orientation on Sunday, June 12th.
A big question up in the air for iPhone 7 is what Apple will do with its bundled headphones. If this is the first year Apple is to remove the headphone jack from the device as rumored, that means one of a few things for the bundled EarPods that usually come with its iPhones…
[UPDATE: Apple spokesperson Tom Neumayr has denied this report in a statement to Recode, simply saying it’s “not true.”]
A report from Digital Music News today citing sources close to Apple claims the company is currently considering a plan that would see it shutdown its iTunes Store music download business within two years. The move would mean the company would stop selling downloads of music from iTunes and instead focus entirely on monthly subscriptions to its Apple Music streaming service.
However, on top of the rather fast two year timeline quoted for exiting from the downloads business, the report does add that a 3 to 4 year timeline is also something being considered by Apple executives:
Apple subsidiary FileMaker is today releasing FileMaker 15, introducing a number of notable additions for mobile device users as well as a host of other new features and enhancements for the platform.
If you haven’t heard, iTunes and Apple Music are about to get a refresh from Apple that will hopefully fix a lot of our ongoing issues with the apps while also introducing some fresh visuals. This isn’t that redesign, but a concept from graphic designer Thadeu Brandão showing how Apple could revamp iTunes on the desktop while integrating Apple Music and simultaneously getting rid of much of the clutter in the current design.
T-Mobile today announced a deal with Cuban carrier Empresa De Telecomunicaciones De Cuba, S.A. (ETECSA) that will see its customers get access to voice, text and data while traveling to Cuba as well as lower rates on calls to landlines and wireless phones in the country from the US.
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In this week’s top stories: Tim Cook hints at a “can’t live without” feature for iPhone 7, we detail Apple Music’s upcoming redesign planned for iOS 10, and the latest round of iPhone 7 reports.
And other top shared stories include Apple’s announcement of a new enterprise-focused partnership with SAP, news of a couple high-profile hires and departures from the company this week, and much more. Head below for the usual handy links to all this week’s top stories and videos:
A standalone iOS app for Apple’s HomeKit platform could finally arrive in iOS 10 as a new report claims an Apple employee on the company’s marketing team revealed plans for the launch in an online review. MacRumors found the mention (pasted below) within a product review related to HomeKit and says it confirmed the person that left the comment was indeed an Apple employee.
As I work in marketing for Apple, we test many Smart Home devices, especially for iOS HomeKit integration. […]
Some advice, there are many third party applications, most free, that offer more control and customization(s) with many Smart Home devices. “Yonomi” is a free app that I often use, “Home” is another which cost $14.99. Both offer support for many devices with more added daily (including Amazon “Echo”). The next version of iOS due this fall will have a standalone “HomeKit” app as well.
Apple has had plans for a HomeKit app on your iPhone’s home screen for quite a while as it’s developed the platform that currently only allows control of supported home automation accessories through Siri or third-party apps. We were first to detail some of the planned features for the platform and app back before the release of iOS 9, some which like the app have yet to be released.
The idea is that rather than using various apps each accessory maker builds, you could just open one “Home” app on your iPhone to manage everything. These apps already exist in the form of third-party solutions like the Hesperus app we reviewed a couple weeks back, but a solution direct from Apple would hopefully mean one of the best implementations yet and maybe some new features that third-party developers don’t have access to in the current crop of apps.
If the report is true, we could finally get our first look at the Home app at Apple’s World Wide Developers Conference in June where the company is expected to preview iOS 10 alongside its other upcoming products and developer tools.
Netflix is today introducing a new way for users of its mobile apps to adjust the quality of video streams based on data usage. The new “cellular data controls” in the mobile apps include Low, Medium, or High settings.
Moog Music has been known for producing some of the most popular synthesizers since the 70s— we reviewed a couple of the newer models in our Logic Pros series and noted that iPad/Mac synths still can’t quite capture the experience of even a $1,000 Moog. But today Moog is releasing its own iPad and iPhone version of its popular $10,000 Model 15, aiming to offer a similar experience in a $30 mobile app.
Moog’s own techs helped program the app at the Moog Factory in Asheville, NC, according to the company, with the app both resembling the look and sound of the original 1970’s Model 15 hardware:
In a TV interview with CNBC’s Jim Cramer this week, Cook said the iPhone 7 will have a killer feature that would prove to be an upgrade customers won’t be able to resist. “We are going to give you things that you can’t live without that you just don’t know you need today,” Cook teased.
Could it really be something we already know about? Could any of the rumored features for the device possibly fall under the groundbreaking or irresistible category of features Cook hinted at? Perhaps the new rumoured dual-camera system could be enough to account for Cook’s comment? Of course, it’s also possible it’s all just post-Q2 PR hype after a quarter of declines. Will Apple have something new and exciting that we don’t yet know about for the iPhone 7?
That’s the question we ask readers in today’s poll. What rumoured new feature for iPhone 7 will make it upgrade worthy for you? Or will Tim Cook and Co need something beyond what’s expected to get upgrade numbers it didn’t get in 2015 with the 6s update and this year with the iPhone SE?
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If a super-slim, high-quality leather iPhone case is on your wish list, the Nodus Shell case has a few perks that make it my new recommendation and go-to everyday case.
A new open source project called PieMessage enables cross-platform iMessage support, allowing Android users to communicate using Apple’s iPhone messaging platform.
In the video below, we get a short look at the PieMessage app in action with a still unreleased prototype version of the app.