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.
Apple CEO Tim Cook kicked off the company’s WWDC keynote presentation today with its usual update on numbers and growth since last checking in. The big numbers so far from today’s event: Siri is now 40% faster and more accurate, the company now supports 2500 banks for Apple Pay, and iOS and OS X adoption continues to outpace the competition.
Head below for a full roundup of notable numbers and company stats announced during today’s event (we’ll be updating as more come up): Expand Expanding Close
As we’ve reported in the weeks leading up to Apple’s event today, the company has just officially unveiled its international expansion plans for the Apple Pay payments service it first launched in the US last October.
The first country outside of the US to get access to Apple Pay is the UK starting in July. The company plans to support around 70% of cardholders at launch next month. Here are the banks that will support Apple Pay in the country starting with the 8 big banks next month and the rest by the fall: Expand Expanding Close
Apple is showing off its latest version of OS X for Macs, dubbed ‘El Capitan’, at its WWDC kickoff keynote today, but there are many features coming in the update that it didn’t take time to show off on stage. Some of those include a new system font, as we’ve reported leading up to today’s event, as well as a redesigned disk utility app, a resizable Spotlight window, Photos edition extensions and Share Links extensions, new AirPlay video features, and much much more.
Head below for the full list of OS X El Capitan features that Apple didn’t show off on stage: Expand Expanding Close
Google has been working with Adobe to improve battery life drain caused by Flash and today flipped the switch on a new Chrome feature that does exactly that. The new feature aims to detect Flash on a webpage that is actually important to the main content and “intelligently pause content” that isn’t as important. The result is to hopefully make the web experience with Flash more power efficient to improve battery life on your laptop. Here’s how it works: Expand Expanding Close
Apple ranks in at number 5 on the latest Fortune 500, the annual list that ranks US companies by revenue, this time for fiscal year 2014. The company maintains its same position as last year behind Berkshire Hathaway (no. 4), Chevron (no. 3), Exxon Mobil (no. 2), and Wal-Mart Stores (no. 1).
While Apple comes in at fifth place for revenue, Fortune notes that it “boasts both the biggest profits of any company on the list ($39.5 billion) and the highest market value (more than $700 billion).” Expand Expanding Close
Marc Newson, famous designer and close friend of Apple design guru Jony Ive, just gave his first solo interview since joining Apple last year. In the interview with the London Evening Standard, Newson talks Apple Watch, thought to be one of the first products he had involvement with since joining the company, as well as the future of the company from fashion to cars.
When asked about Apple Watch, and specifically the criticism from the fashion industry, Newson responded: Expand Expanding Close
Legendary hip-hop producer Robert Diggs, a.k.a The Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA, is joining Boombotix as a creative director of sorts and working with the company to release a new collection of portable speakers that come with exclusive content from various artists.
We got the chance to ask RZA some questions about the new partnership and feel out his plans for using the speakers with embedded music releases as a platform beyond just selling speakers. Expand Expanding Close
Jay-Z’s recently launched Tidal music streaming service, a competitor to Apple’s own services in more ways than one, is today getting a big update right before the debut of the new Apple Music streaming service next week at WWDC. A desktop app beta for both Mac and Windows, $4.99 student pricing, and ticketing features through Ticketmaster integration, all help set a high bar for Apple to impress us with its own announcements next week.
The new desktop app (pictured above) is arriving in beta and brings a few features that weren’t previously possible with the mobile and web apps. The announcement today also includes a refreshed design for the mobile apps: Expand Expanding Close
Apple will be closing its official Company Store at its 1 Infinite Loop campus later this month and plans to relaunch a modernized version of it this fall, according to sources familiar with the plans. Expand Expanding Close
Insteon, Lutron, iHome, Elgato and Ecobee have all just announced that their HomeKit products are now officially available and/or shipping to customers.
TechCrunch noticed that Apple started including editorially curated subcategories on the App Store for games. The new lists replace the old “New” and “What’s hot” lists that were generated automatically based an algorithm. We’ve confirmed the change with Apple, which tells us that the switch to editorially curated lists for the games subcategories went live on May 14th. Expand Expanding Close
Irish Examiner got an inside look at Apple’s EU headquarters in Cork along with some interviews with employees there. The campus holds around 4,000 Apple employees that the report points out span across support services, distribution, mapping and manufacturing. Expand Expanding Close
The Logic Pros is a new regular series exploring all of the most interesting gadgets and software for making music on your Mac/iOS devices. If there is any gear you would like us to take a closer hands-on look at, let us know in the comments section below or shoot us an email.
Apple’s Logic Remote app for iPad allows for a lot of control over sessions in Logic Pro X on the Mac— its two main functions include controlling the mixer/transport controls, and using it as a midi controller for playing virtual instruments with user interfaces for keyboards, drumpads, and fretboards. But the app’s other feature is a grid of drumpad-like squares that can be used as buttons for key commands.
My goal was to be able to easily flip through amps and pedals as I jam, rather than having to deal with mouse clicks, opening/highlighting the plug-in I want to interact with, etc. So using Logic Remote, I setup a workflow with custom key commands that makes the drumpad-style interface work like a giant foot pedal for flipping through the awesome set of virtual amps and pedals Logic includes. Here’s how I did it: Expand Expanding Close
The first home automation products using Apple’s new Siri-controlled HomeKit platform will arrive next week, according to sources briefed on Apple’s plans. Expand Expanding Close
If you want quality, reliable tech support for your computer, get a Mac. That’s according to the results of a new Consumer Reports survey that ranked Apple top among PC manufacturers for technical support post-purchase for the ninth year running… Expand Expanding Close
Google just wrapped up the opening keynote for its I/O developer conference taking place this week, and not surprisingly many of the announced products and services are direct competitors to Apple’s. Android Pay gets an official coming out party to compete with Apple Pay, Project Brillo is Google’s answer to HomeKit, and the new Android M gets a focus on quality, much like what Apple has in store for iOS 9 at WWDC in June. The company also announced a new Photos app with unlimited photo and video syncing and iOS support, as well as a number of other iOS app announcements.
Head below for a roundup of everything Google announced today from 9to5Google: Expand Expanding Close
After first launching its new Inbox app as an alternative email experience to its main Gmail service last year, Google today announced that Inbox is now open to all sans the original invite system while it also introduces a number of new features for the service.
As for features, Google highlighted a new “Trip Bundles” feature that keeps emails related to travel in one place, and improved controls for things like Undo Send, Signatures, and Swipe to Delete: Expand Expanding Close
After inking a deal with Apple to push iOS devices and enterprise apps to its customers, IBM today started offering all employees Macs for the first time. We’ve seen the official IBM notice, and several IBM employees on Twitter are praising the decision after years of PC hell: Expand Expanding Close
Apple’s new 15-inch MacBook Pro is the first of Apple’s notebooks to officially support single-stream 4K displays at a full resolution of 4096×2160 at 60Hz. The new MacBook Pro is also the first to support 5K displays. Expand Expanding Close
Early this month I reported that accessory makers were planning on tapping into the Apple Watch’s hidden port for battery straps and faster charging. Not only would that allow companies to avoid having to design a solution with the magnetic, inductive charging system Apple is using, it also meant they wouldn’t have to workaround the sensors on the back of the watch.
Now, the company that first announced plans to use the hidden port, Reserve Strap, has posted a video showing faster charging using the port vs Apple’s charger: Expand Expanding Close
Update: The Guardian notes that the bug also crashes the Apple Watch when you try to reply to a message.
Today news is flying around regarding an iOS bug that causes the Messages app to crash and iPhones to reboot when a certain string of text is received. There isn’t an official fix from Apple yet, but there are a few workarounds and fixes that you can do in the meantime before Apple patches the bug.
Here are a few fixes that users have discovered and sent in: Expand Expanding Close
Want to read ebooks on your Apple Watch one word at a time? Of course you don’t.
There are apps that make a lot of sense for the smaller display and the quick access that Apple Watch provides, but this ebook reader certainly doesn’t hit that sweet spot. Perhaps some people are interested in reading books on their wrist one word at a time, but for others (most?), this new Wear Reader app is a great example of what not to do with Apple Watch apps: Expand Expanding Close
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