Mike Beasley

Apple’s car team

Apple is pushing to launch its own electric car by the year 2020, according to a new Bloomberg report citing “people with knowledge of the matter.” The company has been rumored in recent weeks to be working on the project in secret, with some claiming that Tim Cook authorized it as much as a year ago.

Apple has been poaching employees from Tesla Motors, battery technology manufacturers, and elsewhere in an effort to build a team of experts to work on the vehicle, currently codenamed “Titan.” Whether this car will be a self-driving vehicle is still unknown, with some reports claiming that it will and others contradicting that idea. Apple employees have said, however, that it will “give Tesla a run for its money” when it’s released.

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Following a number of complaints from consumers regarding graphics issues with Apple’s 2011 MacBook Pro, the company today announced a replacement program to remedy the issue for customers still experiencing problems.

The affected models include 15- and 17-inch MacBook Pros built in 2011, as well as 15-inch Retina MacBook Pros built in 2012 and early 2013. MacBook owners who believe they may have one of these machines can check their warranty coverage on Apple’s website to determine whether they are eligible for a repair under this program.

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It’s been a few months since the Apple Watch was featured on the cover of Vogue China, but now the upcoming gadget is finally making its debut on the cover of a U.S. magazine this month. Self Magazine announced today that its March issue will feature cover model Candice Swanepoel wearing Apple’s unreleased smartwatch.

Swanepoel’s Apple Watch of choice appears to be the low-end Sport model with the white sport band.

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Apple has poached five key engineers from A123 Systems to work in a new battery division at the Cupertino technology company, with some hires possibly going as far back as June, a new report claims. The battery maker claims that these hires violated agreements it had in place to prevent them from joining competing companies.

The employees the report refers to are Don Dafoe, Michael Erickson, Indrajeet Thorat, Mujeeb Ijaz, and Depeng Wang. Three of these workers—Erickson, Thorat, and Wang—were PhD project heads working on new battery technology. Ijaz headed up the System Venture Technologies Division, which oversaw work by all four of the others.

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NBC has followed in ABC’s footsteps and released an update for its iOS app that introduces live streaming of the network’s content directly to an iPhone or iPad. Similarly to ABC’s offering, the feature is only available in a few select cable markets that this time and requires a subscription to a cable or satellite partner.

All users will be able to take advantage of the other new feature added in version 3.0, however…

The Wall Street Journal revealed tonight that many of the planned health features that Apple intended to include in its first-generation wearable were cut from the final product.

Early reports on the progress of the device’s creation indicated that it would boast an array of sensors for measuring many different facets of a wearer’s health, but when Apple demoed the first unit last year, those sensors were nowhere to be found.

Some of those features, like the ability to track stress and blood pressure, were simply too complex to institute, or ran the risk of triggering government regulation that the company wanted to avoid. In other cases, sensor makers weren’t able to meet Apple’s standards (not an uncommon phenomenon).

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The BBC announced today that Zane Lowe, who has worked as an award-winning Radio 1 DJ for nearly twelve years, is stepping down from his position in March and moving to California to take up a role at Apple. Lowe has long been regarded as one of the UK’s top sources for music discovery, and his show helped make many artists the stars they are today.

Lowe hasn’t publicly stated what role he’ll be filling at the Cupertino tech company, but it’s not hard to conclude that he’ll be lending his curation expertise to the big upcoming relaunch of the Beats Music streaming service. Beats Music, of course, is already staffed by music industry icons Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre.

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Apple has apparently been revising its app review strategy this week and has decided to reverse a previous decision that banned MassRoots, a marijuana-centric social app, from its software storefront. The application was booted from the App Store late last year (though it lasted much longer on the store than some other apps).

According to App Store guideline 2.18:

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Apple has started enforcing a long-ignored rule in its App Store guidelines regarding what kinds of content can appear in app metadata. According to rule 3.6 in the guidelines document:

Apps with App icons, screenshots, and previews that do not adhere to the 4+ age rating will be rejected

This rule has been mostly unenforced since the App Store launched, but according to a new report from Pocket Gamer, some app developers are starting to see their apps rejected for depictions of violence in their screenshots.

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Image via KQED

Apple has continued to make steady progress on its new headquarters, and this week provided KQED News with a special “sneak peek” at the construction site. The news outlet has released several photos of some of the major structures on the upcoming campus, and has promised additional photos from the tour will be published later this month.

Last week we got an drone’s-eye view of the progress, which gave us our first look at some of these buildings. The new photos provide another point of view, showing the structures from the ground. This is the first time we’ve seen photos like this for the “spaceship” campus.

Keep reading for more photos…

Apple’s SVP of Operations Jeff Williams said today that the Cupertino company made changes to its requirements for supplier factories with regard to bonded labor practices in October. The practice in question centers on suppliers charging workers recruitment fees in exchange for a job on the assembly line.

Apple now says that these fees should be paid by employers, and employees should not pay anything at all.

As Bloomberg notes, Apple has previously stated that its supplier partners should not charge laborers “excessive fees” equal to a month’s pay or more, but with the recent shift has banned what Williams referred to as “bonded servitude” entirely.

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Parallels announced this evening that its virtual machine software Parallels Desktop 10 for Mac has been updated with “experimental” support for the technical preview of Windows 10 from Microsoft. Users who want to take the latest version of Windows for a test run without overwriting their existing Boot Camp installation or creating a new partition can now do so safely and free within the confines of a VM.

The update also adds the ability to run the new preview version of Office for Windows 10, which includes updated versions of Word, PowerPoint, and Excel. Microsoft announced earlier this year that Windows 10 will be a free upgrade for one year for any users running Windows 7 or later.

Parallels Desktop 10 is available from the Parallels website for $79.99. Special pricing is available for students and users running previous versions of Parallels and a free trial is available here. Press release follows:
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Passengers on select JetBlue flights will be able to purchase food and drinks using their iPhone, USA Today reports. Customers will also reportedly be able to use the payment service to upgrade to any open premium seat once the flight has started.

Payments will be handled by airline employees using iPad minis with NFC-equipped cases. Over 3,500 of these devices have been issued to JetBlue staff. The cases will also accept regular credit cards, and will serve as a full replacement for the existing in-flight payment terminals.

Apple internet services chief Eddy Cue told USA Today that the move was likely to cause other airlines to follow suit:

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Apple CEO Tim Cook is scheduled to speak at a White House “cyber summit” at the end of the week, The Hill reported today. The White House is expected to unveil a new cybersecurity program during the summit, and is bringing together leaders in technology and government to address the issue.

Cook’s exact talking points haven’t been revealed, but Apple has previously taken strong stances on issues of customer privacy—putting it in direct conflict with the Department of Justice at times.

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Dish Network-owned streaming service Sling TV announced today that it will finally allow the general public to sign up and watch live TV from a variety of networks from a Mac or iOS device (through the free Sling Television app), along with several other devices.

Sling TV offers plans starting at $20 (with $5 add-ons available for some networks) that includes streaming and video-on-demand viewing options for live TV networks that usually require a pricey cable subscription, such as ESPN, TNT, Disney, TBS, CNN, and many more.

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