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.
Back in June, Apple rolled out a two-factor authentication system for the iCloud.com suite of web apps. The feature quickly disappeared, but today, users are noticing that it has returned. The feature requires users to verify their identity via a ping to a SMS text number or device connected to their particular iCloud login ID. This adds an extra layer of protection so that if even another person knows your iCloud password, they will still need one of your iOS devices or SMS-connected cell phones to access Mail, Contacts, Calendar, Notes, Reminders, and iWork on the web. The addition of two-factor verification comes following Apple CEO Tim Cook’s promise to bolster iCloud security after a small number of celebrity accounts were accessed by hackers.
We’ve received word from multiple AppleCare employees that the upcoming OS X Mavericks 10.9.5 release has been seeded internally. This typically means that AppleCare is preparing for the software’s release. With iOS 8 launching tomorrow, it’s likely that 10.9.5 will launch in the coming days or weeks.
Here are the release notes via multiple AppleCare employees:
– The OS X Mavericks 10.9.5 update is recommended for all Mavericks users. It improves the Stability, compatibility and security of your Mac.
– Improves the reliability of VPN connections that use USB smart cards for authentications
– Improves the reliability of accessing files located on an SMB server
– Includes Safari 7.0.6
For detailed information about this update, please visit: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT6400
For detailed information about the security content of this update, please visit: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222
Don’t get too hooked on 10.9.5 however, because the redesigned OS X Yosemite with a bunch of new features is just around the corner. Sources indicated in July that the release is scheduled for toward the end of October. Apple most recently seeded a new Yosemite beta yesterday with minor enhancements.
Apple has seeded yet another preview of OS X Server 3.2 to developers today. This is a new version of OS X Server specifically for OS X Mavericks. It will soon be superseded by Server version 4.0 for OS X Yosemite next month. Apple has also been seeding 10.9.5 builds as of late. Thanks, D.
Besides the news about iPhone 6 and 6 Plus pre-order numbers, Apple’s press release this morning introduced Apple’s new company description/mission statement. Apple tweaks this from time-to-time based on new product introductions. With Apple Pay and Apple Watch incoming, Apple has edited this company description. Here’s the new one:
Apple reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, defined the future of mobile media and computing devices with iPad and has announced Apple Watch, its most personal device ever. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store, continues the rapid pace of innovation of mobile software with iOS and integrated services including Apple Pay and iCloud. Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world with OS X, and free iOS and OS X apps like iWork and iMovie.
Here’s the previous one for comparison:
Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices with iPad.
This morning, Apple has released a pair of OS X Yosemite beta updates. The first is OS X Yosemite Developer Preview 8 for registered developers. That update is available via the Mac App Store. The Cupertino-based company has also released OS X Yosemite Public Beta 3, which is the third release for end users that are part of Apple’s AppleSeed customer software seeding program. That update is, too, available on the Mac App Store for applicable users. We’ll be updating this post with new changes as they are discovered. OS X Yosemite is expected to ship in October, according to sources.
In celebration of the launch of the iPhone 6, Apple Retail Store employees will each be given posters of the iPhone 6, we’re told. Not actual iPhones, but posters. The posters show a black phone with one of the colorful flower wallpapers from iOS 8. Steve Jobs gave out original iPhones to all employees back in 2007, but Apple hasn’t given out the latest hardware since that time. For 2015, perhaps they’ll get Apple Watches. Hopefully the gold ones.
Apple has released another beta of the upcoming iTunes 12 for users running the OS X Yosemite preview. The update comes after Apple released iOS 8 Golden Master to developers yesterday. Users on Yosemite who want to install iOS 8 GM on their iOS devices will likely have an easier time doing so with this latest iTunes beta. It’s available as a Software Update in the Mac App Store for applicable users.
Following yesterday’s keynote, Apple has signaled a few enhancements coming to the iCloud.com website by bringing additions to the beta site. As expected, an iCloud Drive web app for uploading, downloading, and viewing files has been added. Additionally, a new Settings app that gives you an overview of all of your devices and serial numbers is also present. Apple will likely roll out this new site publicly when it launches OS X Yosemite and iCloud Drive next month. Images of the new iCloud Drive and Settings apps are below:
As expected, Apple, alongside the new iPhones, has expanded the AppleCare+ Protection Plan service to Australia. Apple has been training its support staff and retail employees in Australia on AppleCare+ over the course of the past week. Unlike the previously standard plan, AppleCare+ provides support for up to two instances of accidental damage. Apple revamped its AppleCare offerings earlier this year. Apple has posted a legal-jargon-filled note on its Support website about the new plan for Australia.
We’re less than 24 hours away from Apple’s big iPhone 6, iWatch/iBand, and mobile payments event. Apple is continuing to raise hype for the event by forwarding its www.apple.com homepage to the actual live stream page for the event. We’ll know for sure tomorrow, but it seems like Apple believes it has several surprises in store for tomorrow. We’ll have a full news hub with the latest coverage before, during, and after the event tomorrow.
While we seem to know all about the features in the new iPhone and the new design, something still left up in the Air are the names of the new phones. While some have long-referred to the new devices as the “iPhone 6” or the “iPhone Air,” no outright claims have been made about the names until a new report today. According to Macotakara, the 4.7-inch model will be known as “iPhone 6” while the 5.5-inch version will be called the “iPhone 6 Plus.” Apple has not used the “Plus” suffix for a product since the “Mac Plus“, so that would be a first for an iOS device. iLounge first presented the Plus name as a possibility in January 2013. This naming convention does not seem incredibly likely, but Macotakara did indeed accurately predict the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c names last fall. Leaning toward iPhone 6 being at least one of the two names is that the camera data shared by the “reviewer” of leaked 4.7-inch iPhone 6 hardware refers to the device as the iPhone 6.
While the 4.7-inch version of the upcoming iPhone 6 will seemingly function as a large version of the current iPhone interface, it appears that the larger model with a 5.5-inch display could run software in landscape mode with an iPad-like user interface (portrait views likely remain unchanged). Developer Steven Troughton-Smith altered the iOS simulator to run at 736 points x 414 points (1472 x 828 at 2x or 2208 x 1242 at 3x), the resolution we first reported was likely in the cards for at least one iPhone 6 model, and provided us with screenshots of the presented interface…
Apple and longtime partner Disney this week are bolstering their stores with upgraded versions of iBeacon sensors and NFC readers, according to sources. Apple Stores have had iBeacons stationed throughout showroom floors for several months as a way to pinpoint exactly where a customer is within the store. This allows Apple to better serve customers by providing relevant sales information to their iPhones and iPads while in the store. The upgrades happening this week within Apple Stores place several new Gimbal Series 20 Proximity Beacons across stores to make location tracking within the store even more accurate.
In addition to providing relevant information for the Apple Store app, iBeacons can be useful for NFC mobile payment technologies as a form of authentication. If Apple knows where a customer is in the store to a precise degree, it can ensure that is it wirelessly connecting to the correct iPhone for mobile payments. As has been widely reported, the new iPhone 6 and upcoming Apple wearable device will include new wireless sensors (including a near field communication chipset) to conduct mobile payments with credit cards stored in an upgraded Passbook application.
Apple’s upcoming wearable device, based on iOS, will run third-party applications and, furthermore, may come equipped with an App Store, according to two sources with knowledge of the new device. It is currently unclear if the App Store will be full-fledged, like on the iPhone and iPad, or if it will be a special section with in the iPhone App Store for apps that play nicely with the new wearable device.
A small handful of high-profile social network and services companies with apps on the iPhone and iPad App Store have already been seeded with a pre-release version of the Apple SDK (Software Development Kit) for wearables under strict non-disclosure agreements. One of the developers with access to the pre-release SDK is Facebook, according to a source. Facebook is also said to be finishing up work on an iOS 8-optimized version of its iPhone app with improved notifications. The social network is also experimenting with ways it can leverage the new Notification Center widget APIs.
The SDK was seeded “very recently” to these developers, and Apple likely wants to demonstrate some third-party wearable apps at Tuesday’s event, according to one source. Apple, in the past, has provided select developers with early versions of SDKs in order to boast new apps on the keynote stage. For example, several apps from companies like AOL were shown off with the first public demonstration of the iPhone SDK, fancy gaming and drawing apps were demonstrated alongside the first iPad in 2010, and the iPhone 4S’s dual-core A5 chip was launched alongside a graphics-intense video game…
Apple has posted the latest build (13F31) of the upcoming OS X Mavericks 10.9.5 release to the developer center. It’s also available for those on Mavericks running earlier betas. Apple again asks developers to focus their testing on Safari, USB, USB Smart Cards, Graphics, Thunderbolt, and Gatekeeper. With OS X 10.10 Yosemite hitting the streets in late October, it’s likely that 10.9.5 will be the last iteration of Mavericks.
AppleCare+ is coming for the first time to Australia in the coming weeks, according to a source. Apple will begin training Apple Store employees in Australia on how to sell the premium protection plan in the coming days. MacRumors is also reporting that the service is inbound to Down Under. iPhone and iPad users in Australia can currently only buy the less-expensive standard AppleCare plan. Apple revamped AppleCare+ for many countries earlier this year with an extended purchase window and by making the plan the standard. Apple typically adds a few new countries to its list of AppleCare countries with new iPhone launches, and with the iPhone 6 upon us, it makes sense that Australia (and potentially some other yet-to-be-supported countries) will get AppleCare+.
Apple CEO Tim Cook has finally taken the iCloud leaked photos situation into his own hands. Cook today sat down with The Wall Street Journal for an interview regarding the breach, and the Apple executive shared details on key security improvements coming soon to iCloud. Cook first addressed what happened, confirming our own theories.
In his first interview on the subject, Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook said celebrities’ iCloud accounts were compromised when hackers correctly answered security questions to obtain their passwords, or when they were victimized by a phishing scam to obtain user IDs and passwords. He said none of the Apple IDs and passwords leaked from the company’s servers…When I step back from this terrible scenario that happened and say what more could we have done, I think about the awareness piece,” he said. “I think we have a responsibility to ratchet that up. That’s not really an engineering thing.
Ahead of its major media event next week, Apple has issued a significant update to its Apple Store shopping iOS app. The first addition is a complete redesign for the iPhone and iPod touch application’s interface. The new design is more in-line with the recently released iPad variant. Speaking of the iPad version, the tablet-optimized layout is now a universal bundle (single download) with the iPhone/iPod touch version, and it has also gained support for making Apple Store One to One reservations. The app also has a new Stores section to search for upcoming events at local Apple Stores. There is also a new icon. Perhaps the most significant new feature is support for synchronizing shopping between iOS devices and desktop computers. For example, you can start shopping on your Mac and continue via the app on your iPhone. Apple (rightfully so) doesn’t want to a miss a single iPhone 6 or iWatch/iBand sale.
More developers are stepping forward with early looks at upcoming third-party keyboards for iOS 8. Today, Ginger Keyboard is going public with a keyboard that focuses on customization. The actual keyboard itself while used across iOS 8 does not add much new functionality, but many users will likely enjoy being able to completely customize the design of their keyboard.
Travel booking website Expedia has revamped its iPad application with a new, tablet-optimized look and improved search. Expedia says that its app is faster at helping you book travel than apps from the competition because of its combined search feature.
You just enter your destination and the app will provide results for both hotels and flights in one panel. The app has a handful of other helpful features, according to Expedia:
Single Search Box: To eliminate hefty search interfaces, the new tablet app offers a single search box to do the lifting. When a traveler enters a city] name, landmark, or airport code, the app will surface hotels and flights relevant to that query – no dates or specific details are required at the start.
First-Ever Combined Hotel & Flight Travel Search:For the first time in the industry, combined search has arrived for the travel market. Rather than searching for trips in a rigid, linear progression of flights then hotels, or hotels then flights, Expedia is introducing one combined search that provides both hotel and flight results simultaneously, available all in one glance.
Collections:Expedia presents various themed travel destinations to spark interest in future journeys. Collections offer customers the opportunity to explore vacation destinations they may not have otherwise considered. Beautiful locations come to life in a particularly compelling way on tablet devices. Collections offer a rich combination of design, mobility and travel research. Content is catered to various regions and will be updated based on traveler feedback.
Integrated Trip Planning, Booking, & Data, Shared Across Devices:Earlier this year, Expedia introduced Scratchpad in certain markets around the globe. Scratchpad is an easy way to keep track of your travel searches. When a traveler is signed into an Expedia app, trips researched on a tablet device will appear on the desktop or mobile Scratchpad. This allows travelers to begin their travel planning from where they left off – on any device.
We now know that “Switzerland is in trouble” thanks to Apple design head Jony Ive, but what exactly will the Apple wearable look like? Nobody has been able to provide a good feel (yet) of the appearance, but a new concept by designer Martin Hajek points us into a potentially solid direction: a wearable device that is a bit of a mix between the iPhone 6’s design and the Nike FuelBand. Take a look at the concept shots below, and let us know what you think in the comments. I personally think this looks pretty cool, but we’ll know for sure if Apple has something better up its sleevesearly next week.
Ahead of Apple’s September 9th event that will include the introduction of Apple’s first wearable computer, along new, larger iPhones, The New York Times has profiled the existing wearable market. The juiciest bit from the story? A purported quote from Apple design chief Jony Ive, relayed by another Apple designer. Said Ive, referring to the existing watch market, “Switzerland is in trouble.”
IKEA has posted a video to announce its new 2015 catalog. As you’ll quickly notice, it’s a direct parody of the 2010 iPad launch video featuring Apple executives. IKEA video is above, and the Apple video is below for comparison. (via SetteB.it).
