iOS

Apple has released the second iOS 9.3 beta for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch to public beta testers. Today’s release follows the developer version Apple releases iOS 9.3 beta 2 with Night Shift, Touch ID Notes, & new 3D Touch earlier this week, which included tweaks and changes from the initial iOS 9.3 beta. These include updated Night Shift settings as well as a new toggle in Control Center and several other changes.

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Delveries by Junecloud has received major updates today for both their iOS and Mac applications. For the unitiated, Deliveries is an all-in-one package tracker for both iOS and Mac. Allowing the user to track multiple packages from various couriers, the app is perfect for anyone who doesn’t want to have to jump between different delivery company sites.

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Reliable Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo at KGI securities is today reporting that they believe the iPhone 7 Plus will come with a dual-camera system option with Linx camera technology Apple acquired last year. By using two distinct lenses, Apple can use the additional image data to create substantially better quality photos. Dual camera iPhones have been rumored for a long time. KGI also floats the possibility that the Plus will feature an optical zoom, with 2-3x magnification.

The KGI report makes it plain that not all iPhone 7 models will feature the radically new camera. It appears the 4.7 inch iPhone 7 will not feature the technology. It will be reserved for specific versions of the 5.5 inch iPhone 7 Plus …

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Update: The Safari crash bug has now been fixed, according to Apple.

A strange bug is affecting many Safari users today, causing crashes on iPhone, iPad and Mac. For many users, simply tapping in the URL bar will cause the browser app to crash completely.  The exact issue causing the crashing has not been locked down, but it appears to be related to Apple’s Safari Suggestions service. It’s a very annoying bug that is affecting a lot of people all of sudden today.

When you type a URL, Apple sends what you type to its servers, returning a response with autocomplete search queries, Top Sites and other info. There appears to be a bug in this server request that is causing Safari to randomly crash. Users are discovering some potential workarounds until Apple fixes the problem properly …

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Apple just released its Q1 2016 earnings, reporting “record” results of $75.9 billion in revenue and $18.4 billion in profit. In addition to its normal data, however, Apple has shared a new figure relating to the number of active devices it has in the wild. Apple says that it now has an active installed base of 1 billion devices, including iPhone, iPad, Mac, iPod touch, Apple TV, and Apple Watch. Apple says it gathered this data by tracking the devices that have been engaged with its services within the last 90 days.

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Microsoft today released News Pro, a news delivery service with “hyper-relevant news for your work.”  The application utilizes either your Facebook or LinkedIn account for log in and then aggregates news topics and articles around your work-based interests. The idea is similar to Apple’s own News app, and Flipboard, but with a focus on articles and topics related to your day-to-day career. The project seems to be coming out from the Microsoft Garage team, whom have been specializing in experimental projects.

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Apple reportedly has plans to work with publishers to support viewing subscription content in its Apple News app, according to Reuters which cites two anonymous sources. Currently, the Apple News app does not support authenticating subscriber log-ins. That means content can’t be behind a pay wall and can only be monetized by web advertising when readers follow through to the publisher’s website or by using iAds. Apple’s iAd network is noticeably going through a shuffle at the moment with the company recently announcing the end of its App Network where developers advertise their apps.

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In this week’s episode of The Logic Pros, we’ll be taking a look at syncing Apple’s new Music Memos iOS app with Logic Pro and GarageBand on the Mac.

Late last week Apple released a new app called Music Memos designed specifically to allow songwriters and musicians to quickly capture audio and develop song ideas. And on top of acting as a standalone tool for songwriters, it’s also a companion for Apple’s full-fledged audio suites, GarageBand and Logic Pro. Today we’ll take a look at how to access the new Music Memos feature from all your devices, and the options for taking an idea you’re developing in Music Memos into GarageBand or Logic.
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More and more mobile devices are being released every year with better and higher quality cameras, allowing nearly anyone to share the news faster than a major news corporation can even fathom. Founded in 2014 by Thiel fellow John Meyer, Fresco puts a focus on getting citizen journalism the credit it deserves. Today Fresco announced an Apple TV version of their Fresco News app, which curates the best content of the day, and delivers facts on international events in a fresh way.

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Apple has released the second iOS 9.3 preview beta for testers ahead of the big feature update’s general release. The release follows the first preview release of iOS 9.3 for developers, public beta testers, and a 1.1 update for developers that included an installation fix. iOS 9.3 includes plenty of changes including a new feature called Night Shift, Touch ID and secure passwords for Notes, new 3D Touch Quick Actions and peek and pop gestures for iPhone 6s users, and much more. We’ll check out the latest beta version of the upcoming release and highlight any changes below.

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According to a report this morning from The Wall Street Journal, Spotify is getting ready to finally launch its video content offerings. The rollout is set to start with the Android app getting video by the end of this week, but the iOS app is following suit by the end of next…
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Watch out for a new prank circling Twitter and other social media today. Visiting CrashSafari.com on an iPhone, iPad or Mac will cause Safari app to crash … and potentially cause your device to restart. The bug is otherwise harmless, but be warned it will likely cause you to lose your open tabs.

To try this out click here to visit the page and watch for the beachball. The current troll is to link to CrashSafari.com on Twitter using a URL shortener, so people are tricked into visiting the site without being able to see the name.

On the Mac, Safari will freeze (‘Application Not Responding’). You may need to restart your machine to get your browser working again. On some iPhones and iPads, the glitch may cause your iOS device to reboot. So how does this prank work?

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Three days ago Apple released an iOS 9.2.1 update with seemingly arbitrary ‘security updates and bug fixes’ listed in the release notes. As we’ve seen time and time again with these type of software updates, most often these small updates seem to go ignored by the general public. We stress how important it is to keep your device up to date, even with small security updates like this.

As is customary after Apple releases a security update version of iOS, the firms and people that discovered the vulnerabilities are coming out explaining how and why these security updates matter. Apple has already included a breakdown of what security issues were resolved in iOS 9.2.1, but it’s still nice to get a further detailed look into what made the vulnerabilities possible in the first place.

SkyCure, a company helping in threat defense in EMM and MDM solutions, released a blog post this week detailing their discovery while noting that Apple had finally resolved it.

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The lawsuit between Oracle and Google is inadvertently revealing some confidential information about the companies. It has already been disclosed that Google paid Apple a $1 billion fee in 2014 to keep Google as the default search provider for iOS Safari, as well as a revenue sharing agreement where Google gives a substantial portion of the iPhone search ad revenue to Apple.

Another lawyer from Oracle has also stated that Google has generated $22 billion in profit and $31 billion in revenue from Android in its lifetime, via Bloomberg. Although any number in the billions is impressive, it pales in comparison to Apple’s mobile platform profiteering. As highlighted by Quartz, Apple made more revenue from the iPhone in one single quarter, raking in $32 billion dollars worth of iPhone sales from July – September.

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Earlier this evening, the Oracle vs. Google lawsuit revealed Android’s revenues and profits for the first time. The same case has now revealed that Google paid Apple $1 billion in 2014 as part of its ongoing deal to be the main search provider—as in the one that resides in the search bar by default—on iOS devices.

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The NPR One app for iOS has been updated today with support for Apple’s in-car infotainment system CarPlay. The update bumps the app to version 1.6.1 and also includes a few bug fixes and the under-the-hood performance improvements.

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