iOS

Unsurprisingly, Apple appears to be readying a bug fix update to iOS 7.1 called iOS 7.1.1. Numerous visits to 9to5Mac from areas surrounding Apple’s campus on devices running iOS 7.1.1 have appeared in our analytics. The increase in views likely indicates that the bug fix update will come over-the-air to iPhones, iPads, and iPod touches in the near future. iOS 7.1 was released in March with user-interface tweaks, a new calendar view, and CarPlay support.

In similar news, it appears, based on our analytics, that iOS 8 testing inside Apple has increased:

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Apple and Shazam are teaming up to build a music identification feature natively into iOS, according to a Bloomberg report. The feature will allow users to find the name and artist of a song that’s playing, likely with the option to download the song from the iTunes Store or create an new iTunes Radio station.

Unlike some of Apple’s other music-releated features (such as Podcasts and iTunes U), the system will be built into the OS directly rather than require a separate download. So far there isn’t any confirmation of whether this feature will appear in iOS 8 or a later version, but with WWDC right around the corner, Apple will need to work quickly to secure the deal if the feature is to be announced with the next-gen software update.

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Jony Ive and Marissa Mayer (right) eat pizza with other industry executives

Re/code reports that Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer is planning an attempt at persuading Apple to switch its default iOS search engine from Google to her company’s own offering. According to Re/code’s sources, Mayer has built what she hopes will be a convincing arguement in favor of the change.

Yahoo! current powers the weather and stocks apps and Notification Center widgets found in iOS 7 as well as a few Siri functions, such as sports, but lost out on the chance to power Siri’s web search to Microsoft’s Bing. Both Yahoo! and Bing are included as optional search engines in the Safari browser, but the default selection is Google.

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Following a number of leaks claiming to show prototypes, cases, and manufacturing tools for the next-generation iPhone, today yet another leak of a physical iPhone 6 mockup has popped up via Japanese blog Macotakara.jp. The site posted images from the Hong Kong Electronics Fair taking place from April 13-16 that apparently show mockups of the iPhone 6 used by case makers to create cases and accessories they plan to launch alongside the new iPhone.  
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Apple appears to be readying for an UK iTunes Radio launch in the near future. As indicated by this tweet, Apple’s director of iAd Paul Wright has recently been visiting media marketing agencies to discuss iAd in relation to iTunes Radio.

Bloomberg said that Apple was planning to launch in the UK in ‘early 2014’ last October, but so far this has not happened several months into 2014. Although many people have seen iTunes Radio sporadically appear on their devices in recent months, it is has only officially expanded to Australia beyond the US launch alongside iOS 7.

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A&E Networks has just updated iOS apps for two of its most popular TV channels, A&E and History, with the ability to watch live TV on both iPhone and iPad. The apps, which previously provided full episodes and clips on-demand to users in the US, will now provide a live stream of what’s playing on the TV channels. The live TV feature, however, will require a cable subscription. 
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A picture claiming to be of an “iPhone 6” front panel has surfaced on a Chinese forum after being posted without context on Weibo. Details surrounding the image are not clear, but the forum poster claims that it originates from within an iPhone ‘factory’. The image was first found by iphon.fr.

Compared to the iPhone 5s, as shown above, the screen size is noticeably larger. It appears to feature a screen approximately 4.7 inches diagonally, as previously rumored.

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nds4ios has released a special version of the app that runs on non-jailbroken devices using a sneaky workaround. As the app is not available in the App Store, previously the app could only be installed on jailbroken devices, such as through the Cydia jailbreak app store. The app gets around Apple’s restrictions by using an enterprise provisioning profile reports TourchArcade. This is normally meant for businesses to distribute apps to company employees, but nds4ios is exploiting it as a way to enable widespread app distribution. Find install instructions after the break.

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Alpine devices already integrate with the Siri Eyes Free feature of iOS devices.

In March, Mercedes-Benz said that it had plans to offer aftermarket CarPlay units by the end of 2014. As noticed by MacRumors, a Nikkei report from Saturday reveals that car electronics manufacturer Alpine has similar plans.

Alpine will begin selling a standalone car console that integrates CarPlay in the fall. Although many car manufacturers are going to offer CarPlay-equipped cars in their new ranges very soon, Alpine will be the first company to sell an independent CarPlay unit, that can be installed on current cars. The cost is reported to be between $500 to $700.

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[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nu9pt9QG4gA]

I’ve covered App.io a few times in the past. The service, which allows app devs to deploy fully useable HTML5 demo versions of their native iOS apps on the web, first launched under the name “Kickfolio” back in 2012. The goal for the company was originally to let devs bring demos of their apps to promotional webpages and it eventually expanded the platform to include Facebook and other channels. Today, and around 2 million interactive app demos later, the company is announcing that it’s bringing those same app demos directly to mobile devices as interactive ads.

The ads go a step beyond the interactive app-like experience that Apple promised, but never quite delivered, with iAd, and allows users to play a demo of the app before deciding to purchase/download or even visit the App Store at all. The ad starts off as a banner or like any other ad but turns into a demo version of a native iOS app that is fully playable for a set period of time before prompting the user to visit the App Store. The company tells me in its initial tests it saw “3-5x higher conversion rates than normal mobile ads.”
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With an estimated half a million sites vulnerable to the “Heartbleed” vulnerability revealed earlier this week, which allows an attacker to access user details of websites previously believed to be secured by industry-standard SSL/TLS, your favorite social networks, stores, and other services around the web could potentially be handing out your password or other personal information to anyone who exploits the issue.

The bug exists in a library called OpenSSL, which is an open-source SSL implementation that many—but not all—web services use to secure sensitive traffic. If a website you use is affected by the bug, your personal data could be given to just about anyone. Unfortunately, changing your password on an unsecure site won’t even help unless the site’s owners have installed a fix (because the attackers can simply exploit the bug again to get your new password).

This serious issue affects a number of high-profile sites, but it seems your Apple ID is safe. Today, Apple gave the following statement to Re/code:

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Nike announced today that it is opening a Nike+ Fuel Lab in San Francisco that will help it grow what has become one of the leading fitness tracking platform among iPhone and mobile device users. Nike is hoping the new facility will help the Nike+ Fuel platform remain a leader as fitness tracking becomes more popular on wearables and mobile devices. It will use the facility to team up with app developers and integrate the platform into other products in the fitness tracking space. Last year Nike hosted a Nike+ Accelerator program that saw startups pitching ideas and demo products for the platform, and the success of the program inspired the more permanent Fuel Lab for similar efforts.

“We are excited about evolving NikeFuel to deliver richer experiences that make it easier for all athletes to reach their potential,” said Stefan Olander, Nike’s Vice President of Digital Sport. “The demand for simpler data-powered experiences is soaring, and all-day sensing is more available on mobile and wearable devices than ever before. Nike is committed to broadening the use of NikeFuel through collaborations with industry leaders to create smarter products and services.”

The new Nike+ Fuel Lab will see the company working with app developers and other companies to integrate the NikeFuel platform into their products. That means Nike’s hardware— like the FuelBand fitness tracker and SportWatch— will then work with the partner apps and syncing data between the apps will become seamless. That’s a feature request you might have noticed in the majority of reviews for Nike’s FuelBand hardware in the past. Nike announced a few of the companies it’s teaming up with initially at the new Nike+ Fuel Lab and they include popular fitness tracking apps for iOS and web including RunKeeper, MyFitnessPal, and Strava. 
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A large-scale survey from 451 Research that tracks North American consumer purchase intentions shows that the percentage of those likely to buy the iPhone 6 is markedly higher than was the case for both the iPhone 5 and iPhone 5s. In all three cases, the survey tracked intentions prior to any official announcement by Apple, providing a like-for-like comparison.

A total of 40 percent of the 4,109 consumers question said that they were likely to buy the iPhone 6, compared to 33 percent for the iPhone 5 and 26 percent for the iPhone 5s … 
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