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:
With the first products using Apple’s HomeKit platform for home automation accessories arriving earlier this month, Apple has updated its support page detailing a full list of supported Siri commands.
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After Apple’s original contract securing the rights to use Liquidmetal’s unique metal alloy in consumer electronic products was extended through February 2015, today proof comes that Apple has once again secured rights for another year, hinting at its continued interest in the material.
On June 17, 2015, Liquidmetal Technologies, Inc. (the “Company”) and Apple Inc. (“Apple”) entered into a third amendment (the “Third Amendment”) to the Master Transaction Agreement that was originally entered into on August 5, 2010 and amended on June 15, 2012 and May 17, 2014 (the “MTA”). Under the MTA and its first two amendments in 2012 and 2014, the Company was obligated to contribute to Crucible Intellectual Property, LLC, a special purpose subsidiary of the Company, all intellectual property acquired or developed by the Company from August 5, 2010 through February 5, 2015, and all intellectual property held by Crucible Intellectual Property, LLC was exclusively licensed on a perpetual basis to Apple for the field of use of consumer electronic products under the MTA. Under the Third Amendment, the parties agreed to extend the February 5, 2015 date to February 5, 2016. The Third Amendment has an effective date of February 26, 2015.
While Apple has yet to use the material in its products, apart from reportedly testing the material in its SIM card injector tool, back in 2012 Liquidmetal’s inventor noted that it would likely take three to five years before the material would be ready for use on a large scale and approximately two to four more years to implement in something like a MacBook casing. What’s more likely is Apple using the technology for smaller parts first, like a hinge or a bracket, according to its inventor. Watchmakers have notably made use of the material for components of traditional watches.
Instagram is rolling out an update today for its iPhone app bringing two major new features, including a redesigned Explore tab and improved search functionality. The company said the updates will “help connect our community to the world as it happens,” or in other words, a more real-time experience thanks to new trending Tags and Places within the Explore tab.
With more than 70 million photos and videos posted to Instagram every day, wherever something is happening, chances are you can see it here. Whether it’s behind the scenes at the NBA Finals, on the runway with the latest fashion trend at a favorite club with a local band, people are capturing moments large and small on Instagram. But, until now, there’s never been an easy way to find these moments.
On top of the new trending tags and places in Explore, the company said it will be adding curated collections of images based on various themes, such as specific people or places, and featuring content from across the network.
The updated Explore feature is first rolling out to users in the US as part of the 7.0 update for iPhone that also adds improved search functionality:
For everyone on Instagram, we’ve dramatically improved the ability to find what you’re looking for. With the new Places Search, you can now peer in at just about any location on earth, allowing you to scout out your next vacation spot in the South Pacific, get a look inside that hot new restaurant or experience your favorite music festival — even if you couldn’t make it this year. The new Top Search also lets you search across people, places and tags all at once.
You can grab Instagram version 7.0 for iOS on the App Store now.
AppleHQ-HD from E3VFX on Vimeo.
Apple’s under construction Campus 2 in Cupertino is making good progress despite recently switching up contractors working on the project, and today we get our latest look at the site courtesy of a new video from Skycore.
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While Apple Watch models were selling for a premium on eBay and elsewhere for quite a while after launch, now that the device is in Apple stores and stock of most models almost caught up to demand, trade-in services have officially started accepting the device. One of the first bigger companies to announce support for Apple Watch is NextWorth, which as of today will buy your Apple Watch, but without the eBay premiums. The company is capping Apple Watch trade-in payouts at $500, and you’ll be getting much less than that for the cheaper models that start at around $350 from Apple.
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Apple today announced a replacement program for the 3TB hard drive included in some 27-inch iMac models due to a concern that some of the components “may fail under certain conditions.” Apple doesn’t mention a specific product number, but notes that affected machines would have been sold between December 2012 and September 2013, which would apply to Apple’s late 2012 iMac model.
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Following the launch of the Apple Watch in April, IDC’s latest estimates for wearables shows the market is set to grow approximately 173% this year as shipments increase from 26.4 million in 2014 to an estimated 72.1 million worldwide for 2015.
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An upcoming product called The Duo will let you wear a traditional watch and the Apple Watch at the same time.
The company behind the product, watchmakers Original Grain, sent one over and I’ve been playing with it for the last week. So I decided to share my thoughts for those considering contributing to the crowd funding campaign launching today.
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Apple is reportedly gearing up for retail changes next month that will introduce new accessory displays and reduce the quantity of third-party products. The report from Macotakara points to new accessory displays at Apple’s recently opened Upper East Side store (pictured above) and the store’s revamped design, noting that Apple plans to revamp the accessories at other stores in a “premium” manner starting next month. Part of the redesigned stores will include new accessory displays and packaging, according to the report:
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A new report today adds to a recent note from KGI analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claiming an upcoming next-gen iPhone could include stronger aluminum adopted from the Apple Watch and potentially increase slightly in size to accommodate new components. Macotakara details the report noting that the next iPhone would be approximately 0.15mm longer and 0.2mm thicker, which isn’t much, but that could offer hints at what other changes Apple will make in the process…
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Adobe is updating two of its mobile apps today with a few notable features including a welcomed Adobe Photoshop Mix update that brings support for importing from Creative Cloud Libraries and a new “Send to Lightroom” feature.
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Apple hasn’t talked about it publicly, but the company is hiring human editors that will curate content for its upcoming News app and work with publications to quickly surface breaking stories.
When Apple showed off its News app coming to the US, UK, and Australia with iOS 9, it didn’t say much about how the content would be curated beyond publishers submitting their own RSS feeds. At first Apple is just pulling in news from RSS feeds ahead of rolling out publishing tools for creating rich content specifically for the platform, but how will the company present the news to readers? Who will get front-page billing? How will categories and breaking stories be presented? We get a few of those answers in a new job listing from the company seeking human editors for the platform, but there are still questions regarding how Apple will overcome the curation issues it deals with on the App Store for the News platform.
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With Apple’s new Wallet app in iOS 9, a revamped version of the old Passbook app with a name that better reflects Apple Pay integration, Apple will let marketers send out dynamic offers triggered by location or a user’s interests through iAd. Apple noted the feature on its blog for advertisers explaining that “marketers can reach loyal customers with specific messages that reflect the customers’ interests, or convert a new customer by presenting a reason to try something new.”
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Apple is introducing full support for audio plug-ins in iOS 9, allowing developers to sell plug-ins like effects and virtual instruments on the App Store that can be used within audio editing apps like Apple’s own GarageBand.
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Apple is rolling out improvements to its iTunes Connect portal that developers use to submit and manage their apps on the App Store. In addition to some welcomed UI tweaks, Apple is introducing a few notable improvements for developers. The big ones include increased limits for testing apps in TestFlight, the ability to manage multiple accounts/apps from a single username, and new user roles to allow a team of developers varying access to iTunes Connect features.
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You’re about to hear a lot more about gameplay and in-app screen recording as Apple implements an API for the first time in iOS 9. ReplayKit, a new framework that arrived for developers with the introduction of iOS 9 this week at WWDC, will enable screen recording for gameplay and other apps without the need for a Mac or a third-party solution.
With ReplayKit, developers will be able to offer users the ability to screen record gameplay or other apps automatically or manually with a single tap. Users will then be able to share recorded content through an iOS share sheet directly to social networks and video sharing sites. Apple pauses all incoming notifications and anything that might ruin the gameplay video experience, and only users will have access to the recorded videos.
Apple earlier this week announced a handful of retailers that will be the first to offer loyalty card support through Apple Pay, but there’s one company planned for the initial launch that it didn’t mention: Whole Foods. Expect the roll out of other rewards cards to be slow, however, as NFC terminals work to enable support with retailers…
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Verifone will be among the first to enable its NFC terminals to support Apple Pay’s upcoming support for customer loyalty cards, the company announced today.
As part of its WWDC announcements on Monday, Apple said that it would soon enable loyalty cards in Apple Pay as it renames the iOS Passbook app “Wallet” to better reflect the addition of payment services since its launch. But before that happens, payment terminal manufacturers will have to flip the switch on support for loyalty cards through their NFC terminals. One of the first companies to do that will be Verifone, one of the leaders in making NFC terminals.
The company announced today that it will enable support for loyalty cards on its MX 915 and MX 925 terminals, allowing six national and global retailers to start accepting loyalty transitions and redeeming rewards through Apple Pay.
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Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference is taking place this week following the company’s kickoff keynote presentation yesterday where it introduced the future of iOS, OS X, and its new Apple Music service, among other updates. As is tradition, one of the first presentations after the keynote was to announce this year’s Apple Design Award winners, a small-scale award show of sorts where Apple honors select app developers by recognize their work and success over the last year.
This year’s 12 winners range from games to education and stock trading apps. Head below for the full list of 2015 winners.
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Now that Apple Music is official and launching at the end of the month to replace Beats Music, artists can already start submitting music and signing up to manage their artist page. Apple Music introduces new social features under the “Connect” branding, allowing artists to share content, post updates, and connect with fans in a number of ways like never before. While some thought these features would be limited to big artists from major labels, Apple surprised somewhat and delivered for independent artists by making the feature open to all. Here’s how artists can take advantage…
Apple unveiled its brand new iOS 9 “News” app today that will bring a reader experience comparable to magazine-style apps like Flipboard that pull in content from various sources around the web. It’s starting with an initial list of publishers like Vanity Fair, Vogue, GQ, Wired, and others, but here’s how to get your own content in the app.
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With the reveal of watchOS 2, the upcoming update for the Apple Watch operating system arriving for users this fall, Apple is also introducing its Activation Lock theft deterrent feature for the device.
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Like it did for the latest version of OS X today, Apple showed off the big new features coming to iOS 9 this fall but it also briefly gave us a look at 30+ other features that will arrive with the release. If you didn’t catch them all when Apple flashed the slide on stage, here’s the full list.
Some of the notables include wireless CarPlay support, new gaming APIs, app thinning features, third-party notifications, audio unit and VPN plug-in extensions, UI testing in Xcode, and much more.
The full list is below and a similar list of features for the new OS X El Capitan is here.
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We previously detailed Apple’s plans to introduce a new app for its HomeKit platform, and today the company officially took the wraps off one aspect of that project. Develoeprs will soon be able to use iCloud instead of their own server to offer remote access control of iOS-connected home automation accessories using Apple’s previously introduced HomeKit framework. We learned previously that the remote access feature would require an Apple TV as a gateway device.
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