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:
Apple is hiring a video producer to work on original content for its new Apple Music streaming service. The position will see an experienced producer oversee the creation of all original video content for both iTunes and Apple Music and hints that Apple will be collaborating with artists on branded music videos.
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Google has quietly launched a new iOS app today called Ivy that it describes as an experimental big number calculator.
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MasterCard announced today that it’s turning on Apple Pay at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati, Ohio just in time for the 2015 MLB All-Star game taking place July 14.
Those attending the game, or the pre-game events kicking off this weekend, will be able to use Apple Pay to pay for food, merchandise, and more.
“We’re thrilled to partner with MLBAM to bring contactless acceptance to the 2015 MLB All-Star Week festivities. Through our longstanding relationship with MLB and MLBAM, we are constantly looking for opportunities to create enhanced fan experiences both in-stadium and online, whether that’s through advanced payment capabilities or delivering surprises to fans.”
As it has done with past events, such as the recent PGA Tour earlier this year, MasterCard is running a promotion offering attendees that opt for Apple Pay a chance to win one of its Priceless Surprises. At other events, MasterCard has been known to offer seat upgrades, event related merchandise, VIP experiences, and more for those that pay with Apple Pay:
“MasterCard cardholders who use Apple Pay at contactless merchandise and concession acceptance locations at the T-Mobile All-Star FanFest taking place July 10th through July 14th or in-stadium at Great American Ball Park from July 12th through July 14th could get a little something extra – from All-Star branded premiums, autographed memorabilia to prepaid cards and more.”
Apple has been rolling out Apple Pay to more banks and credit unions each month since first launching the iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch-based payments service in the US back in October. It most recently brought the service to 20 more US banks and credit unions ahead of an international expansion into the UK later this month.
New photos show Apple CEO Tim Cook appeared at the Sun Valley media conference this week, one of the few industry events the executive has been known to attend in recent years. We noted last month that Cook was once again on the guest list this year but photos published today show Cook was indeed in attendance and mingling with fellow tech executives.
The photos from The Daily Mail show Cook meeting with Microsoft’s Bill Gates, Pinterest’s Ben Silbermann, and IBM’s chief executive Ginni Rometty. Last year Apple announced a partnership with IBM that resulted in the companies collaborating on iPad, iPhone and now Apple Watch apps and services designed specifically for enterprise customers.
Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services Eddy Cue was also spotted attending the event. More photos of Cook and Cue at Sun Valley are below.
After introducing a new developers platform and SDK in May, Pinterest is today announcing a couple of the first integrations developers have come up with starting with popular automation platform IFTTT and community based shopping/fashion site Polyvore.
For IFTTT, the service that lets users automate common web and app-based tasks based on a set of rules known as “recipes”, users will now be able to link products and devices on Pinterest to their automated workflows. The company shared some examples: automatically save Pins to a board from simple actions in other apps such as liking a photo on Instagram, upvoting a post on Reddit or favoriting an item on Etsy. There are more than 20 Recipes to choose from starting today. The Pinterest integration for IFTTT is available through desktop and the service’s mobile apps.
For Polyvore, users can login to the site using their Pinterest account to quickly and easily get access to pinning items from the fashion community/shopping site to Pinterest boards via the company’s iOS app.
In addition, Pinterest noted that new SDKs and documentation for developers are available to all through the company’s new developers site. The new SDKs give devs access to the Pin It button and JS and OAuth support.
After around seven million downloads of its popular third-party keyboard app, Fleksy is today announcing that its mobile apps will be completely free for all going forward.
The company was originally charging $4 for the app but had dropped the price to $1 and even made the app free temporarily a couple times in the past. Starting today, however, Fleksy says its apps for both iOS and Android will be free forever.
For everyone that has paid for the app and feels left out, Fleksy is offering a free gift that it says is worth $8 to make up for it. The in-app download includes a selection of new themes and extensions, which also arrive with today’s update. While the app is going free for all to download and use, the company will continue offering premium themes and extensions as paid in-app purchases.
In addition to going free, the company highlighted some other new features and improvements arriving today:
Going free is not the only big update today. We also launched an improved rich content view called Highlights. Meaning, Fleksy will better assist with GIF, sticker and other content discovery based on what you type. Instead of manually searching for stickers and GIFs on separate pages, now you’ll only need to tap on the auto-recommended hashtag (Highlight) and Fleksy will take you to an integrated page of relevant content all in one convenient place.
The Fleksy Keyboard app for iPhone and iPad is available on the App Store now. A full list of what’s included in the update below:
*Note: Please update to the latest version of iOS 8 to fix key known issues with custom keyboards and improve your Fleksy experience.
Featuring:
• 5 new themes for summertime!
• Consolidated GIF and Imoji extensions to a single bar. Smarter search, more results, all in one view. And just pull down to bring back the keypad!
• Fleksy will now highlight 3 keywords at a time. Easier to get to that perfect GIF or sticker.
• Ever want more Hotkeys? You can now add multiple Hotkey extensions!
• Major language improvements
• Updated Extension tab UI in the container app for easier browsing
• Optimizations for GIF and Imoji Sticker quality
Fixed:
• Fixes for autocorrect capitalizing letters incorrectly for some languages
• Autocorrect on/off Button not showing on spacebar sometimes
• Various other bug fixes and performance improvements
VoiceOver Updates:
• Gesture: swipe down with two fingers to Return (while in Minimal mode)
• “New Line” announced on Return
• Feedback on Shift and Delete buttons
• “No more text to delete” announced when there’s nothing left to delete
• Improved accuracy
Apple is continuing the roll out of Apple Pay today with the addition of 20+ new US banks and credit unions supporting the iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch-based payments service.
The total 23 new banks and credit unions include:
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Amazon has just launched a dedicated iOS app for its Cloud Drive service, bringing an iPhone and iPad experience to the service that was previously only available through desktop apps and a recently launched Android mobile app.
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Apple has talked a lot about how it’s tackling curation better than the other guys by putting a big focus on hand-picked, human curated playlists for Apple Music, but how exactly does a user’s input alter the music the app serves up? The Loop’s Jim Dalrymple spoke directly with Apple to answer that question and put together a guide detailing exactly how likes and other user input work to customize some aspects of Apple Music but not others:
First, let me tell you one of my big problems, or sources of confusion, with likes on streaming services. Let’s say I’m listening to a Metal station and a great song comes on, but I consider it to be Rock. Do I like it? I enjoy the song, but I’m afraid if I like it, more Rock songs will come on the Metal station, diluting it… What if I don’t like it? Will it never show up again, even in Rock? Perhaps I should skip it, but is that equivalent to a “dislike”?
The guide is great if you really want to make the most of the service, but further proof that Apple Music is a complicated mess and not very intuitive for users when it comes to how likes, hearts, and other user input features of the service affect recommendations.
Head over to The Loop for the full guide on how the way you use Apple Music might make for a better, more personalized experience.
Many have praised Apple Music’s launch this week, although the focus has largely been on the free component of the service, a 24/7 streaming radio station called Beats 1. But how are users reacting to the rest of the Apple Music service? It received a lot of positive reviews in the media, but users have noticed some user experience issues and technical hiccups with Apple Music that might keep them from making a switch from the competition when the service’s free three month trial is up. Since the issues aren’t getting a lot of attention from the main stream media, I wanted to share everything we hate about Apple Music so far and what Apple needs to fix before converting potential switchers:
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Popular music sharing app SoundCloud is getting an update on iOS that brings a number of new features to make for a better overall listening experience.
Among the new features, users can now select to ‘play related tracks’ from anywhere in the app: “let our improved algorithm create an endless stream of similar content from the 100 million tracks on SoundCloud. As easy as tapping Play Related Tracks.”
Another new feature that offers an improved listening experience is a Shuffle button for both your created playlists and songs you’ve liked. Here’s how you can shuffle tracks from within a playlist:
The updated app also gets a few other welcomed tweaks including the ability to add or remove tracks from playlists from within the app, and a new option to repost and share tracks from your liked tracks or from within search.
The updated app, version 3.1.0.0, is available on the App Store now.
BlueStacks, a free desktop Android emulator that lets users play any mobile game or app on the big screen with a mouse and keyboard, has mostly been limited to PC users until today. But Mac users are about to get access to the software that the company says already has around 90 million users on Windows.
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SoundHound, a popular sound recognition app for detecting and searching for songs and other audio clips, today gets an update that brings integration with the just launched Apple Music streaming service.
With the updated SoundHound app landing today, users will now get an “Apple Music Listen Now” link to listen to a song on the streaming service (when available) through the home screen, song pages, and throughout the app.
Other competitive apps, such as Shazam, have already updated with similar functionality. The apps previously only linked users to purchase songs through iTunes and other services, but also promote competitive streaming services for listening such as Spotify and Rdio. For SoundHound, users will find an Apple Music streaming link next to songs through various features, including: music identification, personalized History, Top Charts, or Music Maps.
Interestingly, SoundHound will also be promoting Apple Music’s Beats 1 live radio station:
SoundHound is also showcasing Apple Music’s new global radio streaming station Beats 1. Users will see a “Beats 1 Radio” row within song pages, enabling easy, one-tap access to listen to the streaming radio broadcast, which features various artists hosting programs and full-time DJs, led by ex-BBC host Zane Lowe.
You can grab SoundHound on the App Store now.
After first announcing plans earlier this month to become a storefront of sorts with a new Buyable Pins feature, Pinterest just confirmed the feature is rolling out today for iPhone and iPad users in the US. In addition to the new buyable pins feature, Pinterest is also launching “Shop our picks” with curated lists of items for various product categories.
As a catalog of ideas, our mission is to help people bring their creative ideas to life. In the next few weeks, 30 million Pins all over Pinterest will become buyable (this includes Pins people have already saved that will light up with blue prices at launch). You’ll see products from brands like Macy’s, Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom, retailers powered by Demandware like Gardener’s Supply Company and Michaels, and Shopify stores like Poler Outdoor Stuff and SOBU.
Pinterest notes that users will notice a blue price tag next to buyable pins that will show up in user’s home feed, boards, category feeds, search results and recommendations.
Here’s a closer look at how the feature will appear in the iPhone app:
The feature is rolling out slowly in the US. If you’re a Pinterest user, keep an eye out for an email notification that will let you know when buyable pins are available to you.
Apple Music officially launched today in iOS 8.4 alongside an integrated radio service featuring the 24/7 live streaming station known as Beats 1. Everyone is getting a free three month trial, but once that ends, Apple will start charging the credit card on your Apple ID with either the $9.99/month plan or the $14.99/month family plan (depending on what you selected when first signing up). If you want to cancel your subscription, or just keep it from auto-renewing so you can go month-to-month and manually activate it when you want, below we’ve put together a quick guide on how to do so across platforms:
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Popular medial player VLC for iOS today gets a notable update that brings support for Apple Watch alongside other new features and a long list of improvements and fixes.
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Apple has continued making lots of progress at its under construction Campus 2 site in Cupertino ahead of plans to move in late next year, evident by this latest drone flyover courtesy of our friend MyithZ.
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Google has updated Hangouts for iOS today with a handful of new features and what it says is an overall improved user experience.
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Apple Watch Sport’s Ion-X Glass display (left) vs Apple Watch w/ Sapphire display (right)
DisplayMate is out with a new report today, this time applying its usual detailed analysis to the different displays that come with the various models of Apple Watch. In case you didn’t know already, Apple is using a sapphire display on its pricier, mid-range collection of Apple Watch, as well as with the higher-end Apple Watch Edition. That’s opposed to the Ion-X glass display on the less expensive, entry-level Apple Watch Sport models. But the report shows a detailed analysis of what many users have already noticed: despite sapphire being more scratch resistant, in many cases the cheaper glass display performs better in terms of screen reflectance and visibility in outdoor lighting:
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In a new patent application, Apple details an idea it’s experimenting with that would have Apple Watch users shake hands to exchange data (via PatentlyApple). The idea is simple. The patent application imagines two Apple Watch wearers exchanging data, such as contact information, for example, by performing common gestures like a handshake or a hug:
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With Apple’s new subscription-based streaming music service launching early next week, the company is still seeking a producer for Apple Music to act as the point person for curating content as well as producing original content for the service’s streaming radio station called Beats 1.
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Update: Apple has now made the same change to AppleCare for Mac.
Apple has made a small but welcomed change for those that have AppleCare+ for iPhone, iPad, or Apple Watch, adding improved coverage for defective batteries. Previously Apple’s terms for the extended warranty offered coverage for batteries that retained less than 50% of Apple’s quoted specs. But with the updated terms, Apple will have you covered for batteries that retain less than 80%.
If during the Plan Term, you submit a valid claim by notifying Apple that (i) a defect in materials and workmanship has arisen in the Covered Equipment, or (ii) the capacity of the Covered Device’s battery to hold an electrical charge is less than eighty percent (80%) of its original specifications…
For AppleCare+ customers with batteries holding less than 80% of their original capacity, Apple will offer to repair or provide a replacement unit.
For Apple Watch, AppleCare+ extends coverage on the Watch and Watch Sport models to two years, up from the one year complimentary warranty that comes with the device. It also gives users up to two incidents of accidental damage coverage subject to a $69-$79 fee. The pricey $10,000+ Apple Watch Edition models, however, get coverage extended to three years with accidental damage fees costing $1000.
AppleCare+ for iPhone or iPad costs $99, while Apple offers a bundle for Apple Watch and iPhone starting at $149. AppleCare+ for Apple Watch Edition costs $1,600.
Following a number of teases for its third-party Apple Watch strap with a built-in battery pack, Reserve Strap, bound to be one of the first battery straps for Apple Watch, is promising an additional 30 hours of battery life for Apple Watch users as it announces plans to ship in November.
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Apple’s iTunes U service, a resource for teachers to create and manage educational content for students on iPad, is today receiving a big update that brings a long list of highly requested features. Starting today, teachers and students using the platform will get access to new additions including 1-to-1 discussions, homework hand-in & grade book features, PDF annotations, and more.
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