iOS

Home Depot will soon officially gain support for Apple Pay after users this week noticed it had started quietly blocking the platform, the company tells Bloomberg.

Users have had success using Apple Pay at Home Depot stores since the service launched in October last year— Home Depot uses MasterCard Paypass terminals that technically support the NFC-based payments platform— but now the company appears to have stopped accepting it as it issues a statement touting rival PayPal. The company since confirmed, however, that it does plan to officially support Apple Pay following upgrades to its in-store hardware in the near future.

From Bloomberg:
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Apple is working on a plan that could give the company and its research partners access to consumer DNA, a new report suggests. The data would be collected by research partners and stored in an online cloud to be used in medical studies, such as one run by the University of California that examines the DNA of expectant mothers to help pinpoint the causes of premature birth.

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According to a report today from Billboard, Apple does not have the deals in place to launch its long-awaited Beats Music revamp as its new streaming music service. The report quotes a source as saying “June won’t be the release date. The deals aren’t done,” but our sources say that an announcement at the June 8th WWDC (Worldwide Developers Conference) keynote is still planned. A few weeks following the announcement, in late June, Apple will fully release the service as part of two new software products: iOS 8.4 and iTunes 12.2, according to sources briefed on the plans…

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Apple has rolled out Apple Pay support for another 24 banks and credit unions following last month’s expansion reaching more than 200 in total. The newly added banks include more than a dozen banks and credit unions from around the United States including The Bancorp Bank which backs Simple, a popular online banking service. Here’s the full list of newly added Apple Pay banks:
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Apple this week has expanded its Apple Maps Connect service to five additional regions in Europe: Austria, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, and The Netherlands. The additions were noted in an email to users of the platform and on the Apple Maps Connect website. For those unfamiliar, Apple Maps Connect allows business owners to both manage existing Apple Maps listings and add additional listings to the platform. This service works closely with the Apple Indoor Mapping feature, which aims for businesses to help Apple build up a portfolio of indoor mapping data. Apple earlier expanded Apple Maps Connect via service updates in January, February, and March. Thanks Chris!

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GE announced today that it’s introducing HomeKit enabled LED lighting products offering Siri-controlled solutions for both the home and enterprise. With support for Apple’s new HomeKit framework, users will be able to control the lights from their iOS device using Siri.

The company noted that the new line of GE HomeKit lighting will also include its GE Align technology that “tunes the light spectrum to help promote the body’s natural sleep cycle by controlling the blue concentration of light output.”
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Google today announced that it’s acquiring Timeful Inc, the company behind the Timeful app that offers a central location for time management, calendar functions, to-do list and scheduling features.
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To celebrate Star Wars Day— yes, that’s why everyone keeps saying “May the 4th be with you” today— Apple is offering a number of discounts on apps and in-app purchase content from Disney, Konami, and others.

Below we’ve put together links for all of the Star Wars App Store content on sale today, including both Apple’s iOS collection and other iPhone, iPad, and Mac titles discounted for the occasion:
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Ford was one of the first car manufacturers to announce its intentions to add support for Apple’s CarPlay to its in-dash systems. Questions concerning how Ford plans to integrate Apple’s solution, however, have remained since the initial announcement. In an interview with Re/code today, Ford CEO Mark Fields clarified some of the details regarding the company’s plans to offer CarPlay (and Android Auto) in its vehicles.

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There’s no denying that connected smart home accessories are on the rise. Apple’s HomeKit is slowly making an entrance into this space, but for the moment there are a wide variety of accessories available that can make your house a lot cooler. Today we’re taking a look at some of the essential options that have been around for a little while, but are definitely must-haves if you’re into the smart home scene. These devices may not be necessary, but they make things around the house more convenient…
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Apple has started offering registered developers the chance to sign-up and test its upcoming App Analytics feature first announced last year at WWDC. Developers have been awaiting the service since it was announced following Apple’s acquisition of TestFlight (and FlightPath), a service which offered its own analytics features.
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Ahead of Apple’s WWDC in June and an expected Apple TV refresh, shipping times for its current generation Apple TV have just slipped from in stock to 1-2 weeks. Apple’s estimates for shipping Apple TV from its online store often jump between being “in stock” and “1 day”, but a longer delay in shipping could signal Apple’s intent to introduce a refreshed Apple TV in the near future.
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Apple is adding 20 new Flyover locations to Apple Maps, including the Arches National Park in Utah. Flyover not only provides a great way to get a realistic view of a location, but also allows some virtual tourism of some of the bigger sights out there that you may never get the chance to visit in person.

As always with Flyover updates, it can take a little time for them to roll out to everyone. You’ll know it’s available when you search for a location and see the Flyover bar with its Start button … 
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A new report from Music Business Worldwide claims that Apple has recently hired four producers from BBC Radio 1. This report comes two months after it was announced that Zane Lowe was leaving the British radio station to take a new position at Apple. According to today’s report, the recent Apple hires include James Bursey, Natasha Lynch and Kieran Yeates, as well as one other.

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Microsoft announced today during its Build conference that it will release a tool for developers to port their iOS apps directly to Windows 10 as “universal apps” that run on both phones and desktop computers. Developers will be able to feed their existing Objective-C code into a new software package and have it converted to work on the upcoming PC operating system.

At least, that’s how Microsoft is pitching it, though the whole process is a bit more complex. Essentially Windows 10 will ship with APIs that mirror the expected behavior of many iOS APIs, and this new conversion tool will help developers swap out iOS code for matching Windows code.

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Amazon and Target won’t be the only major retailers on your wrist for long: sources say that Apple is finishing up work on a version of its Apple Store application for the Apple Watch. The Apple Watch app will come “soon” as part of an update to the Apple Store iPhone and iPad application, and will likely enable customers to make certain types of Apple Store purchases from their wrists, as well as receiving Apple Store-related notifications. As the Apple Watch does not have a keyboard, more involved orders will require the user to move over to the iPhone app. Apple will ask employees to push Apple Store app installations for the Apple Watch to customers this summer, when the Watch goes on sale in Apple’s own stores. Until then, retail employees will be encouraged to show off the Apple Store app on demo Apple Watches.

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Strategy Analytics has a new report out that estimates that Samsung has once again become the number one smartphone manufacturer by units shipped. Although Samsung doesn’t officially report unit numbers, the analytics firm is estimating 83 million smartphones sold worldwide for the company. IDC is also reporting similar numbers.

Apple, which does report the number of iPhones it shipped, sold 61 million iPhones in the last quarter. This is a new record for Apple (which became the #1 manufacturer during the previous quarter with the launch of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus) but is clearly outstripped by Samsung’s (estimated) number by about 20 million units.

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