Apple

CBS’s channel Showtime is now available on Apple TV. The company this morning began rolled out its version of the service that does not require a cable subscription. Instead, users simply pay $11 per month for the service, after a 30-day free trial.

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Apple Music was a service that I was incredibly excited about when Apple announced it last month at WWDC. I’ve written a lot about music here at 9to5Mac and every time I explain how big of a music fan I am. When I’m in my office, I always have music playing, whether it be radio or a specific artist or album. For the past two years, I’ve been using Spotify for all of my streaming music needs. I never had a problem with the service, especially recently as it has upped the quality of both its iOS and Mac apps to be both more stable and feature-rich. A combination that is hard to come by nowadays.

Being the Apple fanboy that I am, however, I obviously had to give Apple Music a try. For the past week, I’ve been using the service as my exclusive source for music. How does it compare to Spotify? Is it enough to make me permanently switch? Read on…

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After announcing the change in a company-wide memo last month, Apple today has officially updated Jony Ive’s executive bio on Apple.com to reflect his new role as Chief Design Officer. Ive was promoted from Senior Vice President of Design earlier this year. Ive’s bio notes that he reports directly to Tim Cook and is responsible for all design at Apple, including retail, Apple Campus 2, software, and hardware.

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Apple Music is finally here. The iOS 8.4 update hit yesterday and we’ve been exploring Apple’s new music streaming service to see if it lives up to the hype. Listen to our first impressions, problems, and our opinions about Apple Music. The Happy Hour podcast is available for download on iTunes and through our dedicated RSS feed.

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The first in-depth video preview trailer for the upcoming, official Steve Jobs movie has gone live. The movie features Michael Fassbender as Steve Jobs, Seth Rogen as Steve Wozniak, and it was written by Aaron Sorkin. The film is based off of Jobs’s official biography by Walter Isaacson. Earlier this year, the first teaser trailer for the movie appeared, but it did not provide an extensive look into the story or characters. The movie starts showing in theaters in October 9th.

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Apple could be preparing to refresh its aging iPod lineup with new colors, according to a new image found inside of yesterday’s iTunes 12.2 update for Apple Music. With the new update, when a user plugs in an iPod for the first time, the above image showcasing a dark blue iPod touch, a gold iPod nano, and a dark pink iPod shuffle appear. None of those iPod color options currently exist, indicating that Apple could be preparing to refresh its line with those richer tones. Interestingly, the Touch lacks a hole for the camera loop.

It is possible that the image is simply a Photoshop error, which would not be unprecedented, but our look into the previous version of iTunes, version 12.1.2, indicates that the image is actually new, which means that it was intentionally designed. There is currently no indication as to if and when Apple is planning to release new iPod colors, but we are told that iPod nano and touch stock at Apple Stores is currently seeing some temporary shortages.

Update: We’ve now spotted new gold, dark blue, and dark pink tones for all iPods:

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While iOS 8.4 users have been able to try out the new Apple Music service since this morning, developers running the latest iOS 9 beta seed have been left out. This will change “early next week,” however, according to Apple Senior Vice President of Internet Software and Services Eddy Cue. In a reply to a user on Twitter, Cue said that a new beta of iOS 9 will be available next week with Apple Music integration:

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Today we’re taking a quick look at Apple Music. This new service came along with the iOS 8.4 update and effectively merges Beats Music with a new streaming service from Apple. The good news is, Apple Music will also be available for Android and Apple TV as well later this fall. Everyone also gets a 3 month free trial in case you’re on the fence about subscribing to the service right away…

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For fall 2015, Apple is preparing an “S” iPhone upgrade that superficially preserves the exterior designs of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, but includes a collection of major internal changes. In May, we reported that this new “iPhone 6S” line would debut this fall with a Force Touch, pressure-sensitive display as one of its marquee features. Now, a proven source familiar with Apple’s supply chain has provided us with the most extensive look yet at Apple’s next iPhone, sharing the first photos of the iPhone 6S’s external metal casing, plus an in-depth look at the new iPhone’s internals. Today, we’re focusing on the exterior of the next iPhone, which appears to refute a number of potential changes that some have speculated were destined for this model.

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A federal appeals court today has upheld the 2013 ruling in Apple’s long-winded and high-profile ebooks case. The case, which centered around Apple price fixing content in the iBooks store, went through three years of litigation thanks mostly to Apple. Today’s ruling by a federal appeals court will see Apple pay $450 million in damages at long last.

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Apple has continued making lots of progress at its under construction Campus 2 site in Cupertino ahead of plans to move in late next year, evident by this latest drone flyover courtesy of our friend MyithZ.
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Apple today has opened enrollment for its annual Apple Camp program. For those unfamiliar, Apple Camp is a series of three-day workshops that Apple holds in its retail stores for kids ages 8 through 12. Apple Camp is designed to encourage the kids to explore technology and learn how to use it to be successful and creative.

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Apple has just announced that its fiscal third quarter earnings call will take place on Tuesday, July 21st at 2PM PT/5MP ET. The call will report earnings from the three month period ending this month.

Last quarter, Apple announced sales of 61.1 million iPhones, 12.6 million iPads, and 4.5 million Macs. The company reported revenue of $58 billion, including $13.6 billion in profit. Apple didn’t disclose sales for the Watch last quarter, and it seems unlikely that the company will do so this quarter either.

Apple will be hosting a conference call with investors and press and will also live stream audio from the call on its website, which of course we will have live coverage of. The live broadcast of the call will be available here on Apple’s website.

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The Korea Times today reports that Apple is in negotiations with Samsung to have the company supply the flash memory for the next-gen iPhone models. Currently, the flash storage is provided by Toshiba, SK hynix and SanDisk. The report also notes that Apple is looking to increase the storage capacity of its iPhone models.

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In this week’s episode of The Logic Pros, we wanted to dive deeper into Logic Pro X’s Drummer. Considered by many to be a tool for kids, amateurs and even the lazy, Drummer is a much more versatile and customizable feature than you may think. In fact, I would argue it might be one the most interesting and powerful additions to LPX, not to mention one that Apple just hands out for free.

Whether its the slightly embarrassing drummer names or the preset stigma that surrounds it, Drummer tends to be overlooked and, in my opinion, quite underrated. Today we will be taking a closer look at what this feature has to offer, along with how to customize the drummers and the parts they play to work with our original compositions and ideas:
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Bloomberg is reporting that Apple has started early production of the next-generation iPhone with Force Touch. We initially reported back in May that the next-generation iPhone will include a design similar to the current lineup of devices, but include support for Force Touch. 
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