Mike Beasley

Apple has just seeded the very first beta of what will become the first update to the redesigned OS X Yosemite that was launched last month. The update to version 10.10.1 has a build number of 14B17.

The change notes indicate that Apple is making improvements in the areas of Wi-Fi connectivity, Exchange support in the Mail application, and the Notification Center, which gained support for widgets in the new operating system.

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Stitcher Radio, one of Apple’s first CarPlay partners, has released an update that enables the dashboard interface in its popular podcast app. The update also includes bug fixes and stability improvements. The release comes just days after Stitcher was acquired by a music streaming company called Deezer.

Stitcher joins Rdio, Spotify, and iHeartRadio in supporting the in-car UI that was first demonstrated alongside iOS 7 last year. Several other apps, including Apple’s own Podcasts and Beats Music software, are still slated to gain support in future updates.

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Back in June Apple faced off against a Mexican telecom over the trademarked word “iFone.” In that case, the iFone telecommunications company argued that Apple had infringed its trademark with the iPhone. A court ruled that because telecom services and telephone hardware aren’t the same product, there should be no confusion among consumers about which is which.

Unfortunately for mobile carriers in the country, because they do offer telecommunications services, they were barred from using the name “iPhone” in marketing materials.

Now an Indian mobile phone manufacturer called iVoice Enterprises Limited is taking Apple to task over a similarly named product, this time called the “iFon.”

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In an interview with the Financial Times, Google co-founder and CEO Larry Page talked about an ongoing debate that he had with Apple’s Steve Jobs: whether their companies were doing too much or too little to affect the lives of their customers.

Page, as is evident in Google’s seemingly unending push into new markets and technologies outside of search and even the web, came down on the side of doing as many things as possible to make an impact in peoples’ lives, while Jobs was insistent that a focused approach on a single set of problems was better for the company and its users.

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Any.do, the popular to-do list management application for iOS, has received a huge update to version 2.0, which introduces a new focus on collaboration among teams and families. All of the app’s previous functions still work the way they did in previous versions, so existing users won’t need to re-learn anything, but those who want better support for groups and sharing will find a lot of useful enhancements in this update.

A new chat function allows members of a project to talk with each other, share files from Dropbox, add and remove group members, and more. Shared lists and tasks make it easy to quickly assign work, update the group’s progress, or just add something to a shared grocery list.

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Update: Microsoft has now announced the Microsoft Band, a $199 fitness band that does everything described below. It goes on sale Thursday.

Microsoft hasn’t officially announced its wearable device, but it seems the company has accidentally published its desktop syncing client to the Mac App Store early. Whoops. The device is called the Microsoft Band (possibly Lumia Band, according to some currently non-functional support URLs) and sports a 310 x 102 resolution display.

The Microsoft privacy policy for the app lists some of the Band’s features: “Microsoft Band sensors help you keep track of things like your heart rate, steps, calories burned, and sleep.” Links in the document claiming to lead to a page with additional data, such as a list of sensors, currently lead to a 404 page.

Other key feature include the ability to get phone notifications on the Band, create reminders using Cortana, and more:

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Last week 9to5Mac‘s own Michael Steeber wrote about his idea for an Apple Watch-inspired home screen interface for the iPhone. Within a few days a developer had created a standalone app that simulated the interface, but due to Apple’s restrictions on iOS, there was no way to make it work as a true home screen replacement.

Now, a new jailbreak tweak called WatchSpring has actually brought this functionality to the iPhone. The modification replaces the current iPhone home screen with a fluid grid of circular icons that can be zoomed in or out to show as many apps as you’d like. It can also open apps natively (no need for URL schemes or anything like that), though it doesn’t seem to support folders just yet…

Video and more below…

Microsoft has pushed out updates for its OneNote client on both iPhone and iPad, adding support for new features added in iOS 8 and a design that’s optimized for the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.

Users can now password protect sections of documents directly from mobile devices (a feature that used to require a Windows PC). Those with an iPhone 5s or newer will also find that they can now unlock password-protected sections of documents using Touch ID. That feature isn’t mentioned in the iPad change log, so users on the iPad Air 2 or iPad mini 3 might need to wait for a future update to enable it.

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As we reported in our initial coverage of the CurrentC payment system, the New York Times has confirmed today that MCX partners working on the system are contractually required to accept CurrentC exclusively. Any retailers that decide to accept other payment services, such as Apple Pay, will be fined:

The problem is that under the terms of their MCX contractual agreement, they are not supposed to accept competing mobile payments products like Apple Pay, according to multiple retailers involved with MCX, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. If these retailers break their contracts, they will face steep fines for doing so, these people said.

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Apple VP Greg Joswiak via Re/Code

Earlier today during Re/code’s Mobile Code conference, Apple’s Greg Joswiak took the stage to talk about several recent announcements from the Cupertino company, including the botched rollout of iOS 8.0.1 and the Apple Watch. During the interview, Joz also talked about stores that have opted against supporting Apple Pay, Apple’s market share, and much more.

Video from the interview (though not the entire thing at the moment, it seems to be coming in pieces) is now available from Re/code, and we’ve embedded it for your convenience:

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Apple CEO Tim Cook clarified the recent decision to quietly remove the iPod classic from sale earlier this year during a talk tonight at Wall Street Journal’s WSJD Live conference. According to the executive, some parts needed to manufacture the device were no longer available, and the cost of engineering a new version that didn’t require those parts wasn’t worth the effort due to low user demand.

The device vanished without a mention from Apple’s website last month following a redesign of the company’s website immediately after the iPhone 6 debut. It was the last device Apple still sold that used the “legacy” 30-pin connector, while all other iPod models have moved onto the Lightning connector.

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Earlier today, Apple CEO Tim Cook was inducted into the Alabama Academy of Honor today, and during his acceptance speech he took some time to address several issues. The first issue was that of racial equality and his admiration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s efforts to promote equal treatment for all.

Cook moved on to slam the state of Alabama, saying that “our state and our nation still have a long way to go before Dr. King’s dream is a reality.” He said that Alabama specifically had taken “too long” to begin making changes and that its progress was “too slow,” noting that it wasn’t until 2000 that interracial marriage was legalized in the state.

Read more for the video…

Facebook has announced that it will be releasing an updated version of its mobile application later today that will improve the process of sharing multiple photos in a single post. The new composer will allow users to choose multiple images from their device’s photo library or camera, then show a preview of the post with each image in the order they were selected.

From here users will be able to add captions to each photo, write an introduction for the post, or rearrange the order of the photos. The post will show up in friends’ news feeds as a photo collage rather than a horizontal group of photos.

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CVS Pharmacy has decided to disable all NFC terminals in all of its stores after it was discovered that Apple Pay would work with the hardware. CVS sent a memo to its stores, which was posted by SlashGear, saying that Apple Pay was not a supported payment type and that customers would have to choose some other payment method in order to check out.

The notice also explains the reason for the change: CVS is currently part of a consortium of retailers attempted to create an alternative mobile payment method called CurrentC. The new system isn’t based on NFC. It is, however, based on something you’ve probably seen before…

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