Yahoo announced today that a few of its services will no longer be support on older Macs and iOS devices. The changes will impact Yahoo Mail with Apple’s built-in Mail app on older iPhones, iPads, and iPod touches, and Yahoo Contact syncing on Macs running older versions of the desktop operating system. The changes will take place later this month on June 15th.
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Apple ranks in at number 5 on the latest Fortune 500, the annual list that ranks US companies by revenue, this time for fiscal year 2014. The company maintains its same position as last year behind Berkshire Hathaway (no. 4), Chevron (no. 3), Exxon Mobil (no. 2), and Wal-Mart Stores (no. 1).
While Apple comes in at fifth place for revenue, Fortune notes that it “boasts both the biggest profits of any company on the list ($39.5 billion) and the highest market value (more than $700 billion).”
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Jay-Z’s recently launched Tidal music streaming service, a competitor to Apple’s own services in more ways than one, is today getting a big update right before the debut of the new Apple Music streaming service next week at WWDC. A desktop app beta for both Mac and Windows, $4.99 student pricing, and ticketing features through Ticketmaster integration, all help set a high bar for Apple to impress us with its own announcements next week.
The new desktop app (pictured above) is arriving in beta and brings a few features that weren’t previously possible with the mobile and web apps. The announcement today also includes a refreshed design for the mobile apps:
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As announced last night, Apple will live stream its WWDC keynote at 10 AM PST on June 8th, next Monday, where it will announce iOS 9 and OS X 10.11. The apple.com/live site confirms that the official website stream is limited to Macs, iPhones, iPads and Apple TV. However, it is possible to watch the keynote using Windows or even Android devices by using VLC, a free video player that can read Apple’s livestream data and show the video in its player …
Typo, the iPhone keyboard case that bore more than a passing resemblance to the Blackberry keyboard, is being permanently withdrawn from sale as part of a lawsuit settlement.
Typo Products, co-founded by TV personality Ryan Seacrest, launched the original version of the keyboard early last year. Blackberry wasted no time in suing the company for alleged patent infringement, winning an injunction against its sale and later collecting $860k in damages.
Undeterred, Typo released a modified version of the keyboard which it claimed didn’t infringe Blackberry’s patents. Blackberry disagreed and took Typo back to court again. Blackberry says that case has now been settled, with Typo agreeing to permanently withdraw its iPhone keyboard cases from sale.
The settlement refers to keyboards for devices “smaller than 7.9 inches,” meaning Typo is free to continue selling its iPad mini model.
Via the WSJ
If you want quality, reliable tech support for your computer, get a Mac. That’s according to the results of a new Consumer Reports survey that ranked Apple top among PC manufacturers for technical support post-purchase for the ninth year running…
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Apple’s new 15-inch MacBook Pro is the first of Apple’s notebooks to officially support single-stream 4K displays at a full resolution of 4096×2160 at 60Hz. The new MacBook Pro is also the first to support 5K displays.
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Update: Pixelmator for iPhone is now available. Download it here.
Pixelmator is releasing an update to its iOS app tomorrow, making the app available on the iPhone for the first time ($4.99). The universal app means you can buy once and download Pixelmator on both iPad and iPhone. Existing iOS users of the app naturally get the iPhone version for free as an update. The new version also brings the Distort tools, like warp brushes, to the iOS app for the first time.
Pixelmator for iPhone works very similarly to the iPad version but scaled down for the smaller canvas. You can read our full review of the iPad app from last year. Rather than popover panels, selecting an action opens full-width menus encapsulating options. This is a necessary concession for the size of the display.
After many complaints from the developer community about poor networking performance on Yosemite, the latest beta of OS X 10.10.4 has dropped discoveryd in favor of the old process used by previous versions of the Mac operating system. This should address many of the network stability issues introduced with Yosemite and its new networking stack.
The discoveryd process has been subject to much criticism in recent months as it causes users to regularly drop WiFi access and causes network shares to list many times over, due to bugs. Many developers, such as Craig Hockenberry, have complained about the buggy software and workarounds have been found to include substituting the older system (called mDNSResponder) back into Yosemite.
discoveryd would cause random crashes, duplicate names on the network and many other WiFi-relate bugs. In the latest beta, Apple appears to have applied the same fix as the enthusiasts by axing discoveryd completely.
<a href="http://9to5mac.com/2015/05/08/diy-apple-watch-box-charging-case/" target="_blank">Jordan Kahn’s DIY Apple Watch charging case</a>
The market for buying and flipping Apple Watches at a profit established itself in less time than it took Apple to deliver the first round of watches to pre-order customers. Taking entrepreneurialism way up to the next level, some ambitious Apple Watch owners are now taking to eBay to sell their Apple Watch boxes for a profit. Not the Apple Watch itself; just the packaging.
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Apple financial engineering is nothing to sniff at: with nearly $200 billion in cash, they have a lot of flexibility to initiate capital trades. Following a major seven-part domestic bond sale in the US, Nikkei reports it is now looking to do something similar in Japan.
Reuters reported back in March that Microsoft planned to bring its Siri competitor Cortana to iOS, and Microsoft has now officially confirmed this in a blog post.
Today, we’re announcing a Cortana application for Android phones and for iPhones which works as a companion to Cortana on your Windows 10 PC. The ‘Phone Companion’ app on the PC will help you install the Cortana app from the Google Play or Apple App Store onto your phone so you’ll be able to take the intelligence of Cortana with you, wherever you go […]
The Cortana companion will be available for Android phones at the end of June and for iPhones later this year.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXREpLEwgOY]
While Microsoft is pitching the app as a companion to a Windows PC, it appears that most of the functionality will work in the iPhone app without the need for a Windows device, Microsoft saying that you can “make the same queries, ask the same questions” in the standalone app …
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Popular accessory maker Anker has shown off its upcoming lineup of USB-C cables and adapters including USB-C to USB 2.0, 3.0, and USB-C solutions. Especially interesting for 12-inch MacBook users is Anker’s USB-C to Lightning cable — the first that I’ve seen from a reputable vendor — which will allow users to connect iPhones, iPads, and iPod touches with Lightning ports directly to Apple’s USB Type C-only notebook for charging and syncing.
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The timing for the launch of Apple’s planned web-based TV service may depend on if and when the company can secure the rights to include content from local TV stations, Re/code reports. While Apple has been believed to be working on service that bundles access to a handful of channels delivered over the Internet, the new report claims that Apple wants to include live local programming from TV stations to both broaden the appeal of the service — especially with cord cutters — and satisfy industry executives…
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[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fZBqV_yMq4]
Spotify is announcing some big updates to its music streaming service today that brings a number of new features alongside more content in the form of video clips, audio shows, and podcasts.
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Shortly after announcing its lens accessory-compatible Ollocase for iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, the popular Olloclip lens maker is out with a new Action Lens for the 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch iPhones. Olloclip Action Lens combines an ultra-wide lens for capturing action shots with a telephoto lens that adds 2x optical zoom to the iPhone camera. Using Action Lens with an iPhone 6 or 6 Plus, you can create shots like these:
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TomTom has announced that Apple will continue sourcing data from the company as one data provider for its Maps app on iOS devices and Mac:
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Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, who has confidently predicted the imminent arrival of a fully-fledged Apple television year after year, has finally admitted he was just making wild guesses mistaken in his analysis.
Faced with the WSJ‘s report that Apple had considered launching its own TV set but had dropped its plans a full year ago, Munster has issued a note entitled Facing The Reality of No Apple Television, reports Business Insider.
“Given how adamant we have been about the reality of an Apple television, it’s hard to accept the reality of no Apple television,” says Munster in his note. “Our latest thinking prior to this story was that Apple would launch a television in 2016. Based on this report, we no longer expect a television to launch indefinitely.”
We’ve been tracking Munster’s predictions that Apple would launch a television set either “this year” or “within a year” since early 2011, with repeats later that year, early 2012, late 2012, early 2013, a bit later in 2013 and – slightly more cautiously – late 2014. I’ve probably missed a few.
Ahead of the highly anticipated launch of Apple’s streaming music service next month, Spotify today has revealed a new agreement with longtime Apple partner Starbucks. Spotify will team up with the coffee giant to offer enhanced music playback controls for both users and employees in 7,000 U.S.-based Starbucks locations.
In a blog post published to the company’s website today, creators of the Oculus Rift VR headset said it is putting development of the platform for Mac OS X on hold in order to focus on Windows:
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One of the first people to try Windows 10 on the new Retina MacBook says that it actually runs more smoothly than OS X. The comment was made by Computer Science major Alex King, who tried upgrading his Boot Camp installation of Windows 8.1 to the preview of Windows 10.
Here’s the real kicker: it’s fast. It’s smooth. It renders at 60FPS unless you have a lot going on. It’s unequivocally better than performance on OS X, further leading me to believe that Apple really needs to overhaul how animations are done. Even when I turn Transparency off in OS X, Mission Control isn’t completely smooth. Here, even after some Aero Glass transparency has been added in, everything is smooth. It’s remarkable, and it makes me believe in the 12-inch MacBook more than ever before.
If you’re fortunate enough to have taken delivery of your own Retina MacBook and want to try the experiment for yourself, be prepared for a few glitches along the way. King said that not all of the Boot Camp drivers automatically installed, there’s no Bluetooth support and some Windows apps (like Steam) look blurry because they don’t support the full resolution of the Retina display. But overall, the experience sounds like a good one.
If you’re still not sure whether you’re the target market for the new lower-powered, ultra-portable machine, you can check out our own in-depth review and one-month-in video of just what it can and can’t do.
While Apple has never announced an official launch date for HomeKit, its Siri-controlled home automation platform first introduced alongside iOS 8, a new report claims that products will be delayed as Apple runs into some roadblocks.
Apple recently voiced concerns over the potential sale of its customer data as part of RadioShack’s bankruptcy filing. As an authorized reseller of Apple’s products, RadioShack is sitting on a collection of customer data of Apple product owners. According to Law360, Apple has formally objected to any data on its product sales through RadioShack being made available for sale citing the reseller agreement between the two companies and its interest of protecting personal data.
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Update: Rdio officially announced the new plan today.
Apple is slated to launch its streaming music service next month, but Rdio is trying to cut off a portion of Apple’s market with a new service. BuzzFeed News reports that Rdio plans to introduce a $3.99 a month streaming music service. The service, called Rdio Select, will be significantly limited, which is to be expected given the low price point…
