iOS

Update: Apple has responded to Swift’s blog post.

Earlier this week, it was confirmed that Taylor Swift’s latest album ‘1989’ will not be available on Apple Music, Apple’s streaming music service launching on June 30th with iOS 8.4. She has written a blog post on Tumblr explaining her position.

We don’t ask you for free iPhones. Please don’t ask us to provide you with our music for no compensation.

Swift explains that she respects Apple for their innovation but says the terms associated with the Apple Music free trial are ‘unlike this historically progressive and generous company’. Swift says that under the 3 month free trial period, artists and rights holders are not paid at all for the duration and notes Apple has plenty of money to reimburse the artists for their work. Swift says that she is holding back 1989 not because she cannot support herself but as a retaliation for ‘the new artist or band that has just released their first single’.

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It’s been two full work weeks since Apple released the first betas of iOS 9 and OS X El Capitan, and I’ve been using the software since day one. With a ton of new features from a revamped Notes app to a completely new Search system and new multitasking tools, both operating systems promise to make your life much, much easier.

But how much of an impact on your daily life can these new features have? I’ve compiled some thoughts after using them to help you get an idea.

Before we jump into anything, I want to point out that the purpose of this article isn’t to focus on the bugs or problems that (obviously) plague beta software, but rather to examine the usefulness of the features added in the most recent updates. For that reason, there won’t be much discussion of stability or other potential issues unless they directly relate to how the features work, and the impact they’ve had on my day-to-day usage.

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Update: The problem should now be resolved. Watch apps should upload as normal once again.

Developers are flocking to Apple’s developer forums today as the iTunes Connect submissions process is currently experiencing a glitch which makes it impossible for developers to submit apps that include Apple Watch extensions.

Rather than continuing submission process as normal, the system is incorrectly flagging up misuse of an Apple private framework called SockPuppetGizmo. Naturally, this is causing frustration in the developer community at the moment because it prevents apps from being submitted to the App Store.

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Following the Nest Cam outed by Best Buy earlier this morning, Nest did in fact take the stage today to announce its new lineup of products. Besides the Nest Cam, Tony Fadell and company showed off the 2nd generation Nest Protect smoke detector, a new mobile app for iOS and Android that brings all of the company’s new products together, and more. Unfortunately, the company’s flagship Nest Thermostat didn’t get any hardware upgrades today, but here’s what’s new…
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Researchers from Indiana University and the Georgia Institute of Technology said that security holes in both iOS and OS X allow a malicious app to steal passwords from Apple’s Keychain, as well as both Apple and third-party apps. The claims appear to have been confirmed by Apple, Google and others.

We completely cracked the keychain service – used to store passwords and other credentials for different Apple apps – and sandbox containers on OS X, and also identified new weaknesses within the inter-app communication mechanisms on OS X and iOS which can be used to steal confidential data from Evernote, Facebook and other high-profile apps

The Register says the team reported the flaws to Apple in October of last year. At that time, Apple said that it understood the seriousness of the flaws and asked the researchers to give it six months to address them before the exploit was made public. In February, Apple requested an advance copy of the paper, yet the flaws remain present in the latest versions of both operating systems … 
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Earlier today, a keyboard with much better support for the supposed iPad Pro, a device that has been rumored for some time now, was shown off thanks to the iOS 9 code. Steve Troughton Smith and Hiraku Wang now suggest that the iPad Pro will feature a resolution of 2732×2048, which at 12.9-inches, comes out to 263 pixels-per-inch.

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Earlier this month, Apple added videos to its “Shot on iPhone 6” website and today the company has added four new videos to the section. Today’s additions include videos from Australia, the United States, Norway, and the Netherlands. The videos, in addition to being added to Apple’s website, have also been uploaded to its YouTube videos.

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Adobe is updating two of its mobile apps today with a few notable features including a welcomed Adobe Photoshop Mix update that brings support for importing from Creative Cloud Libraries and a new “Send to Lightroom” feature.
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Following on from the Apple Watch native apps hack, Steve Troughton Smith has also found that the keyboard view in iOS 9 has much better adaptability support on Apple’s latest operating system. As shown by the screenshots, at larger resolutions, the iPad keyboard rearranges itself to make use of the space. Tab and Caps Lock keys are notably added onto to the left side as well as an entirely new top row of symbols.

This new row reflects the symbols normally found on hardware keyboards above the number keys: @ # $ % ^ & * ( ) _ +. Next to the ‘p’ on the first row, the keyboard also gains curly braces and a pipe symbol.

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Popular podcasting app Instacast for iOS and Mac is shutting down as the founders can no longer fund it or any of Vemedio’s other projects.

In an email sent to paid members, Martin Hering says that all of Vemedio’s products will be ‘discontinued’, with Instacast being the most well known app affected by this. The company says they will keep the servers up for as long as possible so current users will not be left with non-functional apps immediately.

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With Apple’s new Wallet app in iOS 9, a revamped version of the old Passbook app with a name that better reflects Apple Pay integration, Apple will let marketers send out dynamic offers triggered by location or a user’s interests through iAd. Apple noted the feature on its blog for advertisers explaining that “marketers can reach loyal customers with specific messages that reflect the customers’ interests, or convert a new customer by presenting a reason to try something new.”
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Apple is introducing full support for audio plug-ins in iOS 9, allowing developers to sell plug-ins like effects and virtual instruments on the App Store that can be used within audio editing apps like Apple’s own GarageBand.

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