Luke Dormehl - page 189

Apple’s secretive “Project Titan” self-driving car project has reportedly switched gears, transforming into an effort to build a self-driving shuttle bus. Called Palo Alto to Infinite Loop, or PAIL, the shuttle would carry Apple employees between buildings.

The project may serve as a test bed for Apple’s autonomous car research. But a customer-focused vehicle built by Apple is for now reportedly out of the question. Instead, Apple’s self-driving technology will likely be used by other carmakers eventually.

According to a report circulating on Chinese social media, the new iPhone 8 will come in 64 GB, 256 GB, and — for the first time — a new high-end 512 GB storage option.

To mark the release of two new episodes of Carpool Karaoke: The Series, Apple has released trailers showing what viewers can expect from next week’s installments. The episodes in question will pair Queen Latifah and Jada Pinkett Smith, and Miley Cyrus and the rest of the Cyrus clan.

Check the ads out below.

A video game co-created by Apple founders Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs is at the center of a lawsuit between Atari and confectionary company Nestlé, concerning an ad which screened in the U.K.

The 30-second advert was intended to promote Kit Kat, a chocolate bar made by Nestlé in the United Kingdom (in the U.S. it is manufactured by the Hershey Company). It showed a modified, unlicensed version of the 1975 Atari game Breakout — only with chocolate instead of bricks.

And Atari’s none too happy about it!

Telltale’s episodic point-and-click adventure game Batman: The Enemy Within has finally gotten a release date on iOS.

Episodes one and two of the sequel to 2016’s Batman: The Telltale Series will land in the iOS App Store on September 26. Episode one of the five-part series was released on consoles and PC in early August, but mobile gamers must wait a bit to get their hands on the new title.

In the meantime, check out the Batman: The Enemy Within trailer below.

It’s easy to think that the constant leaks about upcoming Apple products started during the age of Cupertino-obsessed blogs like, well, the one you’re reading right now. However, a recently digitized news report from February 1988 — concerning a “Macintosh Portable” leak — serves as a reminder that Apple rumors have been around for a long time.

Check out the vintage report, from a San Francisco news station, below.

Apple manufacturer Foxconn will reportedly build three facilities in Wisconsin as part of its sprawling $10 billion, 1,000 acre campus, dedicated to creating LCD displays.

While the facility is on track for 2020, Reuters claims that the three new facilities could be open as soon as next year.

The iPhone 8’s facial recognition feature will work “within a few hundred milliseconds,” be more secure than the existing Touch ID sensor, and even work in the dark, a pair of new reports claim.

In addition to the regular iPhone sensors you’d expect to find, the upcoming handset will reportedly boast a new “structured light” sensor, which uses bounced infrared light to work out the depth of different points on the face.

Apple has told educational institutions who use its iTunes U content that iTunes U collections will migrate to Apple Podcasts next month.

The transition will happen with the release of iTunes 12.7 in September.

The latest purported iPhone 8 components leak appears to show the handset’s display assembly, flex cables for power transfer, and part of the Lightning connector.

The new component leaks appear to confirm previous reports about the form factor of the new iPhone 8 display. Check out the other two pics below.

Apple has updated its iTunes desktop and mobile storefronts to grant users the ability to donate money to the Southern Poverty Law Center, a U.S. nonprofit legal advocacy organization specializing in civil rights and public interest litigation.

Users have the option of donating in $5, $10, $25, $50, $100, or $200 increments. Apple states that 100 percent of donations will be transferred to the Southern Poverty Law Center, and that it won’t share user information with the organization.

Want to know which app to download for everything you need to know about this week’s total solar eclipse? We’ve singled out one of the best options as part of our latest “Awesome Apps” roundup.

We’ve also got a great update to a brilliant iOS fighting game, a story-driven racing title, and a big improvement to ESPN’s app for every sport lover out there. Check out our choices below.

August 20, 2012: Apple breaks records as it becomes the most valuable public company in human history.

When markets close, Apple’s market cap — the stock price multiplied by the number of outstanding shares — sits at an astonishing $623.5 billion. This beats the previous record of $618.9 billion set by Microsoft on December 30, 1999, at the height of the dot-com bubble.

As we get closer to the iPhone 8’s launch, more and more alleged components are starting to show up online. The latest is what is reported to be the A11 chip which will power the next-gen device.

Made by TSMC, previous reports have stated that the new chip is manufactured using a 10-nanometer manufacturing process, which should make it faster and more efficient than the 16-nanometer A10 Fusion used in the iPhone 7. It should also be faster than the A10X Fusion chip used in the latest iPad Pros.

Apple could come close to doubling its 25,000 Santa Clara Valley employees in the coming years, based on Apple’s aggressive long-term office space leasing in the region.

Its latest long-term lease is two buildings — collectively totaling 73,000 square feet — in Sunnyvale, near its 13,000 person Apple Park campus. Apple also leases another nearby 105,000 square foot building around three blocks away.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation criticized tech companies that took action against white supremacist groups in the wake of deadly clashes in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Quick to take a stand against hate groups, tech companies removed some neo-Nazi groups’ access to web servers and online services. But the EFF issued a statement reminding them of the slippery slope of censorship.

A new August drone flyover video of Apple’s spectacular Apple Park campus shows a headquarters on the verge of completion.

The video, by drone photographer Matthew Roberts, depicts both the circular Apple Park main building and its central garden as virtually complete — with most of the construction vehicles now gone. There are also looks at the Steve Jobs Jobs Theater, visitor’s center, and more.

Check it out below.

The Apple Watch 3 has reached the final testing stage of its development process, and is now ready to enter volume production, a new report claims.

Apple may be planning to spend a massive $1 billion on acquiring and producing original video content in 2018, but according to Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos, Netflix’s 2018 spend will dwarf Apple’s — with plans to shell out enormous $7 billion on content in the next year.

In its stance against hate speech, Apple has disabled Apple Pay support on three websites selling sweaters with Nazi symbols, “White Pride” paraphernalia, and other offensive items.

While Apple hasn’t issued an official statement, it has highlighted guidelines for Apple Pay, forbidding its use on sites which promote hate, intolerance, and violence.

Three iPhone component manufactures experienced an unexpected — and unwanted — disruption this week, when a major power outage in Taiwan temporarily brought production to a halt.

Advanced Semiconductor Engineering, PowerTech Technology and ChipMOS Technologies are all chip assemblers and testers, which make a variety of components for Apple — including the iPhone’s Wi-Fi, baseband, fingerprint chips, and more.

To hype its new Carpool Karaoke series on Apple Music, Apple has debuted two new teaser ads, offering a preview of what fans can expect from the show.

One ad features Game of Thrones stars Maisie Williams and Sophie Turner as they belt out Justin Bieber’s “Sorry” and Miley Cyrus’ song “Wrecking Ball,” and get ready to prank fans. The other ad includes Ariana Grande and Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane singing show tunes.

Check them out below.

Blurry images that popped up online supposedly show the testing of an Apple OLED television set of around 60 inches in size. The photos were shared on Chinese social media before being circulated by mobile leaker Benjamin Geskin on Twitter.

And, just like that, longstanding rumors of an Apple TV set reignite!

Apple is reportedly preparing a $1 billion “war chest” which it will spend on acquiring or producing original content over the next year.

That sum is around half of what HBO spent on production last year. The jewel in HBO’s crown is Game of Thrones, which it has aired since 2011. Apple SVP Eddy Cue is reportedly aiming for Apple to offer up to ten new shows, which could rival Game of Thrones in scope.

Street Fighter IV: Champion Edition landed on iOS last month and, true to its promise, it’s already introducing updates designed to keep the gaming experience fresh.

This week, the game will introduce fan favorite characters Evil Ryu, Guy, and Gouken, all of whom will be available to players as free downloads.