iOS Devices

Boxee founder Avner Ronen has launched Public, a chat app he described to Variety as ‘a third medium for broadcasting conversations’ after audio and video. The app appears similar to Talkshow in that a small group of people are able to participate in a text chat, but anyone can follow the conversation live …

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Samsung may think that running ads mocking Apple was the right thing to do, but it appears it isn’t above copying one of Apple’s most successful ad campaigns.

As CNET noticed, Samsung’s latest video ad – showing off the 4K video recording capabilities of its latest devices – is titled ‘Captured on Samsung Galaxy S7.’ Not quite as catchy as ‘Shot on iPhone,’ admittedly, but clearly inspired by the latter …

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The same developer who found the original iOS 10 Dark Mode references in the Messages app, Andy Wiik, has found even more evidence that Apple was/is developing a black appearance for its iPhone and iPad operating system. The latest screenshots show the iOS 10 Simulator presenting the Settings app in a dark interface style, with black cell backgrounds and white text.

The screenshots are captured from the iOS 10 Simulator where it is easier to inject code and discover unfinished flags and behaviour, like this Dark Mode interface style …

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iOS 10 makes it possible to view two Safari windows side-by-side on the iPad via a feature called Safari split-view. It’s similar to the standard Split View between separate apps, but there are some differences to consider as well. In the following video walkthrough, we’ll show you how to use Safari split-view, and highlight some of its notable features.
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Apple today released a new version of its iTunes Connect app for iOS during a demo of new features for the iTunes Connect developer portal at the company’s WWDC 2016 conference. 

During its presentation, Apple noted that app review times “have gone way down” and offered a brief overview of changes it made to App Store policies. Apple recently completely revised guidelines to include easier to read language and an overall improved experience. 

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Although it hasn’t garnered the same level of excitement as iOS 10’s unveiling, there are quite a few compelling additions to be found in macOS Sierra. Along with a rebranded and more modern naming convention, macOS Sierra adds Siri, a Universal Clipboard for sharing clipboard contents between iOS and macOS, and many more underlying features.
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Update: Apple has now issued a statement.

iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus as well as iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus and iPhone SE models are all available for sale today in China. We appealed an administrative order from a regional patent tribunal in Beijing last month and as a result the order has been stayed pending review by the Beijing IP Court.

Bloomberg reports a Beijing Intellectual Property Office ruling that the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus violate the design patent of a Chinese phone, and that Apple must cease sales of both models within the city.

The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus infringe on Shenzhen Baili’s patent rights because of similarities to its 100C phone, the Beijing Intellectual Property Office wrote in its decision. Apple, whose iconic gadgets helped define the modern smartphone industry, didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Bizarre intellectual property rulings are not unusual in China – witness Apple losing the exclusive right to the iPhone trademark there last month – but this one does appear to set a new record, as the iPhone 6 looks nothing like the Baili 100C …

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Following the release of the first developer beta of iOS 10 earlier this week, Apple today has update TestFlight with support for the latest iOS version. As announced on the company’s developer website, developers are now able to build apps for iOS 10, watchOS 3, and the latest version of tvOS.

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Prior to WWDC, a report emerged claiming that Apple would at long last unveil iMessage for Android. Seeing how Apple had made its streaming music service available on Android, many found this report to be somewhat plausible. As you’re probably aware of by now, however, iMessage for Android was nowhere to be found at WWDC this week. Now, we’ve gotten a little bit of insight into Apple’s reasoning for not bringing its messaging service to Google’s smartphone platform…

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Before now, Apple’s HomeKit platform required an Apple TV for remote access control of most accessories. If you had network-connected lightbulbs or other home automation accessories, you’d need to have a new Apple TV connected to that same network to control them with Siri when out of the house. With iOS 10, Apple is giving iPad that capability too, and it’s now using multiple remote access devices to make all of your iPads and Apple TVs work together to extend your HomeKit network.

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On Monday Apple unveiled the highly-anticipated software update for the iPhone and iPad. As expected, it’s a huge release that brings a bevy of new and exciting features to the table.

In the following video walkthrough, we take a look at 75 of the features and changes found in iOS 10. Some of the features covered are obvious changes, and some are more surprising.
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It’s now possible to open an unlimited number of tabs in iOS 10’s Safari browser. With that in mind, it would be quite tedious to have to close each tab one-by-one, and fortunately Apple realizes this.

In iOS 10, users now have the option of closing all open Safari tabs in one fell swoop. To do so, simply tap and hold the tab button, and you’ll be prompted to close all open tabs at once.
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Apple today started inviting its retail employees to participate in testing macOS 10.12, the latest version of Apple’s Mac operating system unveiled earlier this week during a press event at the company’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference. An excerpt from Apple’s memo to employees below:

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A purported image of the front of an iPhone 7 has appeared on the Internet today, via mobipicker.com. Blurry cams and bad photography aside, the picture claims to a major new detail for the upcoming flagship iPhone 7 launch, which is expected to mostly resemble an iPhone 6s in appearance.

The image shows a tweaked Home Button that appears to be flat with the bezel, meaning Apple will drop the physical click in favor of a fully touch-sensitive capacitive Home Button. Noting that the image could quite easily be faked, it does appear to show a button that has no depth …

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Alongside various new features (Siri, Auto Unlock, Apple Pay) coming in macOS Sierra, Apple’s next major desktop operating system, it also ships with the brand new version of Safari, Safari 10. Safari 10 introduces a major change in the way the browser handles plugins. In short, proprietary plugins like Adobe Flash will be disabled by default when browsing the web.

This means that websites will serve modern HTML5 representations of content as often as possible as they will not be able to detect an installation of Flash at all. Safari is smart however — it will allow you to enable Flash temporarily on demand …

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iOS 10 has a lot of small features dotted around, beyond the headline changes announced on stage yesterday. One of these changes is exclusive to the big 12.9-inch iPad Pro and will no doubt please its user base: Apple has added three-pane views to Notes and Mail to better take advantage of the larger canvas.

This triple split view feature is only available on the 12.9-inch iPad Pro and is not offered on the 9.7-inch iPad Pro, because it requires a larger display to be useful …

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Apple was today granted a patent for what it describes as a ‘consumer electronic product [which] includes at least a transparent housing and a flexible display.’ The accompanying drawings show a device which has a display which completely wraps around the device – covering front, rear and sides – with only tiny bezels at the top and bottom.

While Apple uses generic language throughout most of the patent text, it does use the example of a smartphone in places, and the main drawing clearly shows an iOS device with a phone icon present, indicating that the company has an iPhone in mind.

If you’re wondering about one oddity in the drawings, there’s a reason for that …

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Siri unlocks a new dimension of functionality in iOS 10, allowing third-party apps to integrate inline into the Siri voice assistant experience. Any developer integration expands utility of Siri dramatically but it’s important to note the limitations of the system Apple announced.

For iOS 10.0, the Siri API will only work with six kinds of application: ride booking (think Uber), messaging, Photo Search (find photos and videos in a particular app), payments (‘Send $100 to John with SquareCash’), VoIP Calling (e.g: Skype) and Workouts (for starting health and fitness activities) …

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One of the challenges Apple has faced in making its services truly personal and proactive is its focus on privacy. While Google unashamedly collects masses of data about its users, even going to far as to scan emails for boarding passes and restaurant reservations in order to provide automated reminders, Apple has been extremely conservative in the amount of data it collects.

We even learned a few months ago that any collection of customer data requires sign-off from three ‘privacy tsars’ and that getting permission can take a year.

A feature Apple mentioned yesterday almost in passing seems to allow the best of both worlds – collection of data while ensuring user privacy – but a leading cryptography expert has questioned whether Apple’s approach is really safe …

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