Mark is an award-winning journalist who worked at 9to5Mac for over six years. He covers Apple and other topics related to the consumer technology industry.
Apple and its Beats by Dre group seem to be close to announcing a new pair of headphones: a Bluetooth version of their popular Solo2 headphones. Earlier this year, Beats launched the Solo2 wired earphones as a cheaper alternative to the Studio cans. Today, a wireless version has been revealed thanks to the Federal Communication Commission’s (FCC) testing department.
As can be seen in the image above from today’s FCC filing, the design of the wireless model is akin to the wired model. The only difference appears to be the Bluetooth connectivity. The documents specify that Bluetooth 4.0 Low-Energy technology is utilized.
Interestingly, these documents indicate that these headphones are Apple-branded:
Amazon today announced a new hardware product called Echo. It’s essentially a speaker unit dedicated to being a voice-control system. It kind of sounds like Siri but in a speaker for a single room instead of in your iPhone, iPad, or Apple Watch.
You can set alarms, control music, ask about the weather, search the web, ask questions, and access local news. It streams content via Bluetooth and WiFi, and connects to the Fire Phone (if you have one, lol), iOS via the browser, Android, and desktop computers via the web. Instead of “Hey Siri,” you say “Alexa” to start speaking the device. You’ll need a Fire OS/Android device to take full advantage, but music should work fine via iOS.
The whole concept is very futuristic, and it’s unclear how beneficial this will be to people with voice-controlled phones. But, hey, this comes from the developers of a faux-3D phone and delivery drones, so this is not completely out of left field. The Echo is $99 for Amazon Prime users, $199 for everyone else, and (for some reason) you need an invitation to receive the honor to buy one of these untested things.
Popular texting and calling app Textplus, which is a more affordable alternative to a standard carrier plan, branched off to a new app called Nextplus today. The new app still has the same texting and calling core (coming soon), but is it now optimized for WiFi networks. The developers tell us that many people want to use unlocked older iPhones (without carrier plans) to text and make phone calls, so Nextplus is a solid alternative to signing up for a normal plan from a carrier.
The new app has also (finally) been modernized with GIF images and stickers support. The iPhone and iPad app is free to download and calling/texting between Nextplus/Textplus users is free. If you want to call a landline or a non-Nextplus user, Nextplus offers some competitive rates per minute, with calls to the U.S., U.K., Mexico, Canada, and Australia costing 2 cents per minute.
If you’re an iOS user, making calls between iOS devices via FaceTime Audio is a great solution, but Nextplus is a great option if you’re looking to talk affordably to landlines and other platforms.
With Dark Knight star Christian Bale no longer in the running for the Steve Jobs role in the upcoming Sony-made biopic, producers are now in talks with Michael Fassbender for the top job. Fassbender, who looks sort of like Jobs depending on his shave, is known for his roles in X-Men and Inglorious Bastards. While Sony is still trying to lock down the main part, it appears that Seth Rogen is still set to take on the role of Steve Wozniak, while Danny Boyle is still in for director and Aaron Sorkin is in as screenwriter. It’s interesting that actors as well-versed as Bail and Leonardo DiCaprio have turned down the role to portray such an icon of the modern world.
Apple tonight has released the first beta of iOS 8.1.1 to developers. This update is packed with bug fixes, according to the release notes. Most notably, “this release includes bug fixes, increased stability and performance improvements for iPad 2 and iPhone 4s.”
This marks the first time in recent history that Apple is seeding a beta for a patch update. A new seed for the Apple TV is also available. Apple released the first OS X Yosemite 10.10.1 beta earlier today. iOS 8.1.1 is the follow-up to iOS 8.1, which includes Apple Pay support, SMS forwarding to Yosemite, and iCloud Photo Library Beta.
Apple is seeking to cement its business position in China for the long-term with an expansion of its Cupertino-based Apple University program to the region, according to a person with knowledge of the plans. Apple Vice President and Dean of Apple University Joel Podolny is currently interviewing candidates for a new Dean of Apple University position for China, according to the source.
Started in 2008, Apple University is an extensive and growing program within corporate Apple that trains mid-level employees and managers on the decisions made by Steve Jobs and other key executives throughout the company’s resurgence. Jobs created the program alongside former Yale School of Business Dean Podolny in order to keep the culture of Apple alive well beyond the lifetime of executives key to Apple’s early success.
The expansion of Apple University to China will mark a key step in Apple’s history as a global company. It will be the first time Apple has fully expanded the exclusive program to another region, indicating that it wants to extend its presence in China beyond mostly just sales and operations, like it has done in the United States. Apple has previously offered a minimal amount of courses in other regions and has flown-in professors. With many Apple suppliers headquartered in China, it is likely that a notable portion of the Apple University classes in China will be geared toward product engineering and manufacturing matters…
Apple wants the third-party app marketplace for the upcoming Apple Watch to be a hit just like on the iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Apple has begun seeking an “Apple Watch Evangelist,” according to a posting on its official jobs website. This evangelist position is specifically designed to work with third-party application developers and promote development for the upcoming Apple Watch platform:
Apple is gearing up to issue another bond offering this week, with a conference call with investors reportedly scheduled today, according to reports this morning from Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal. Apple hasn’t announced that it is holding an investor call today as of yet, but the announcement will likely be posted to Apple’s Investor Relations website if it is indeed happening. According to the WSJ, this bond offering will be the first from Apple to involve the euro currency:
The Apple Watch’s launch is scheduled to occur in the “spring,” according to Apple Senior Vice President of Retail and Online Stores Angela Ahrendts, later in 2015 than some had originally anticipated. Ahrendts stated the timeframe to retail employees in a video message, a transcript of which was provided by a source. While explaining that employees need to conserve energy for upcoming shopping seasons, Ahrendts stated, “we’re going into the holidays, we’ll go into Chinese New Year, and then we’ve got a new watch launch coming in the spring:”
This past week, Apple design head Jony Ive spoke about a range of topics, including the Apple Watch, at San Francisco’s Museum of Modern Art. Ive noted that the development of the Watch was more difficult than the iPhone because of the historical precedence of wrist-worn timepieces. In more interesting news, Ive told the crowd that the Apple Watch will have a cool alarm clock feature that can silently wake up the wearer:
CurrentC, the much discussed infamous competitor to the Apple Pay mobile payments platform, has some more bad press coming its way. According to an email sent out this morning to its pilot program customers, the MCX service has already been hacked. According to the notice, “unauthorized third parties” obtained email address information for an unannounced number of users:
Thank you for your interest in CurrentC. You are receiving this message because you are either a participant in our pilot program or requested information about CurrentC. Within the last 36 hours, we learned that unauthorized third parties obtained the e-mail addresses of some of you. Based on investigations conducted by MCX security personnel, only these e-mail addresses were involved and no other information.
In an abundance of caution, we wanted to make you aware of this incident and urge you not to open links or attachments from unknown third parties. Also know that neither CurrentC nor Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX) will ever send you emails asking for your financial account, social security number or other personally identifiable information. So if you are ever asked for this information in an email, you can be confident it is not from us and you should not respond.
MCX is continuing to investigate this situation and will provide updates as necessary. We take the security of your information extremely seriously, apologize for any inconvenience and thank you for your support of CurrentC.
For those not following the MCX vs. Apple Pay saga, MCX powers a payments platform utilized by key retailers such as WalMart, CVS, and RiteAid. After initially supporting NFC-based payments via Apple Pay and Google Wallet, those aforementioned retailers shut down their industry standard NFC-based payment processing systems in favor of the CurrentC app from MCX.
Mark Gurman|20:56Tim Cook says he is meeting with Alibaba executives later this week about a potential tie-up for AliPay and Apple Pay. Biggest news of the night from a financial perspective.
Tim Cook just said he'll be talking with Alibaba about a possible partnership "later this week." http://t.co/QP0Hh6v2Ac
Mark Gurman|20:34Cook repeating his comments from 2011, 2012, and 2013 about TV:
“What we’ll do I don’t want to be so clear on,” Cook says. “But it’s an area of a lot of interest. And I’m optimistic … that there can be something great done in the space.”
Mark Gurman|20:31Some more lack of clarity from Tim Cook on Apple Watch battery life
"We think people are going to use it so much you will end up charging it daily," says @tim_cook on Watch battery life pic.twitter.com/wyOZWNtqcJ
Following the announcement of a record earnings results, the debut of a pair of new iPhones, the launch of Apple, the introduction of new iPads, and the unveiling of the upcoming Apple Watch, Apple CEO Tim Cook is taking the stage in California at the Wall Street Journal’s inaugural WSJ.D Live conference. Cook could drop some juicy details behind Apple’s latest products and about Apple’s future, and we’ll be using this live blog post to share the latest details from the interview. You can find all tonight’s action below and follow us for more updates on Twitter:
Apple today emailed out registered authors for iBooks to announce some interesting changes and enhancements to the program. Some notable enhancements, via Apple’s email:
To help you get your book to readers quickly, we review 95 percent of all book submissions within one business day. Note that you do not need an ISBN to deliver a book to iBooks.
You can now request up to 250 promo codes per book. Promo codes allow you to provide free copies of your book to reviewers, bloggers, or others to build momentum for your book.
Screenshots can now be delivered or updated after a book is available for sale on iBooks.
The email to authors also tells developers about recent updates to both the iTunes Connect app on iOS and the iBooks Author application on the Mac. Like it usually does for App Store app developers, Apple tells authors how to prepare for the upcoming break for book reviewers. “To account for an anticipated increase in book deliveries during the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday week, books scheduled to go live between November 24, 2014 and December 1, 2014, should be delivered by Friday, November 14, 2014,” the notice reads.
Apple has released a nice update for the developer-focused iTunes Connect app today. Besides iPhone 6 and 6 Plus support (finally), developers can now login to the app using the Touch ID fingerprint reader on the iPhone and new iPads. This should make it even quicker for developers to check their app submission status and upload new information to their iTunes Store pages. The update is free… on the App Store.
We all know that iPhoto and Aperture for Mac are on borrowed time: Apple has already announced that the Mac app is going away in favor of a new iCloud-infused Photos app next year and iOS 8 doesn’t even allow users to launch the old iPhoto app. However, that’s not stopping Apple from giving iPhoto for Mac and Aperture for Mac final farewells. The Mac App Store was updated this evening with updates for iPhoto and Aperture that “addresses compatibility with OS X Yosemite and stability improvements.” It’s likely that this will be the last iPhoto update, if not one of the very last ones.
As promised during today’s event, Apple has begun rolling out significant updates to iWork across both OS X Yosemite and iOS 8. The Yosemite updates start with a new design to fit the operating system’s refreshed aesthetic, while the iOS updates center around adding Continuity and Handoff functionality. This means you can now start working on an iWork document on your iPad, and continue where you left off automatically on either an iPhone, iPod touch, Mac or another iPad. The Mac and iOS apps have also seen some notable feature enhancements. You can see the full feature addition lists for each Mac and iOS iWork app below:
It’s Thursday, October 16th, and that means Apple is taking the stage today to announce new versions of the iPad and the Mac. The Apple Online Store has already gone down this morning, which means that whatever Apple formally announces should be available to purchase or pre-order later today. An iTunes leak from yesterday confirms that Apple will be debuting a new iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3 today with Touch ID sensors and improved cameras, while sources first told us that Apple would also uncrate a brand-new iMac with Retina display at today’s event. We’ll be following and reporting on today’s proceedings as they happen, so stay tuned!
Apple’s iTunes Store has just made a little bit of a slip-up (and with perfect uncanny timing): screenshots for the iOS 8.1 iPad user guide have just appeared within iBooks and include Apple’s upcoming iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3. Of course, Apple will be formally debuting these devices tomorrow.
The screenshots confirm that both new tablets will include nearly identical designs to their predecessors and the addition of Touch ID sensors in the Home button. Another new feature confirmed by this leak is a new Burst Mode (first introduced with the iPhone 5s) for the iPad Air 2 (image below).
These images also indicate that the new tablets will be named “iPad Air 2” and “iPad mini 3,” which means that Apple will bringing the numbering scheme for names back to the iPad lineup. Of course, the presence of this user guide means iOS 8.1 (with Apple Pay) is likely to drop tomorrow, too.
Macworld has announced that its Macworld/iWorld conference is going on hiatus and no show will take place in 2015. The show was previously planned to take place in March, which was a bit later than the typical January/February timeframe.
Early Tuesday, IDG World Expo released a statement noting that the venerable Apple-oriented trade show, Macworld/iWorld would go on hiatus and not be held in 2015 as planned. The contents of that statement are: “We are announcing today that Macworld/iWorld is going on hiatus, and will not be taking place as planned in 2015. Our MacIT event, the world’s premiere event for deploying Apple in the enterprise, will continue next year with details to be announced in the coming weeks.
Year-after-year in the 2000s, the January Macworld conference was a staple for the Macworld community. Each year, Apple co-founder and former CEO Steve Jobs would hit the stage and introduce breakthrough products like the first iPhone, MacBook Air, and key software releases.
Since Apple cut off its affiliation with the conference in 2009, ahead of the 2010 non-Macworld iPad introduction, the conference has seen less attendees and excitement. Five years out from Apple no longer attending the conference, and just weeks after Macworld cut down its editorial staff to a bare minimum, today’s announcement is, unfortunately, not very surprising. Macworld’s magazine also recently came to an end.
The organization behind the conference, IDG, says that this is just a “hiatus,” so perhaps (hopefully) there will again be a time where the Macworld conference exists. The company’s MacIT enterprise focused event will still exist in 2015, according to the announcement.
Microsoft has just joined the ranks of companies looking to capitalize on the success of ephemeral messaging apps like Snapchat. Through its Skype division, the company has launched a new cross-platform app for iOS, Android, and (of course) Windows Phone called Skype Qik. The premise of the application, as can be seen in the video above and screenshots below, is simple: you can record a quick video, and then share it to either one person in your address book or multiple groups of people.
Differentiating itself from some of the other players, the Skype-based solution is video-focused, and Skype is positioning it as a communication tool for in between full-scale Skype video chats. Notably, the whole service is connected to your phone number and existing contacts list, so it doesn’t require signing up with a standard Skype account. If you send a message via Qik to a user without the Qik app, the other person will be sent an SMS text message with instructions for downloading the Qik app to view the video message. This app is based on the technology from startup Qik, which Skype acquired a few years ago.
By default, videos will expire after two weeks, and you can also un-send messages at any time. A cool feature of Skype Qik is the ability to pre-record various 5 second GIFs that you can send as instant replies. So, if you don’t have the ability to send a live video reply, you can just choose one of your pre-record defaults. The app is free today on the aforementioned platforms, and Microsoft says that updates, such as one for blocking iPhone contacts (that feature is available today on Android and Windows Phone), will come often to enhance the feature-set.
You can view some screenshots of the iPhone app in action below:
Apple today released the sixth public beta of the upcoming OS X Yosemite to AppleSeed testers. The build number is 14A388b, which coincides with last week’s OS X Yosemite Golden Master Candidate 3.0 release for registered developers. Apple plans to provide final details on OS X Yosemite at the October 16th event, then release it as soon as later that date.
The launch of Apple Pay, Apple’s NFC and Touch ID-based mobile payment solution, is upon us. Apple has begun preparing for the launch by kicking off Apple Pay training programs for its own group of retail store employees and by working with retailers to prepare for the debut later this month. The training materials, shared by a reliable source, for the Apple Pay launch at Apple retail stores have also detailed some new specifics regarding the Apple Pay setup and transaction processes both on customer iPhones and in Apple retail stores…
Ahead of next Thursday’s Apple event, new images purportedly showing parts for the new, full-sized iPad have emerged. Photos re-published by blog apple.club.twshow a full logic board for the new iPad Air as well as parts for the new Home button, glass screen cover, and audio control components. At first glance, the new iPad Air logic board does not reveal too much new, but adjusting the colors of the image shows a fairly unexpected addition: an A8X system-on-a-chip:
Good news for Dropbox users running OS X Yosemite: Dropbox has made available an experimental build optimized for Yosemite’s new look (via Zach Kahn). The download brings a new Finder icon, new notification glyphs, and faster uploads for small files among other enhancements. Here’s the full list of what’s new:
New in 2.11.25
Updated Camera Uploads folder icon for Yosemite
Fixed Copy Link context menu option from the toolbar
