Luke Dormehl - page 276

Having gotten exclusives from Eminem, Pharrell and Drake, could Metallica be the next artists to debut their new material on Apple Music?

In a new interview with the BBC World Service, Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich described a potential team-up with Apple Music as “a no-brainer.” The band’s first new album 2008’s Death Magnetic? Yes, please.

Apple has Siri, Google has Google Now, Microsoft has Cortana, and soon Facebook may have the James Bond-inspired Moneypenny.

According to a new report, Facebook will introduce the assistant as part of its Facebook Messenger app, letting Facebook users set appointments, check the weather, or purchase products.

While that sounds relatively similar to the likes of Google Now and Siri, where Moneypenny will apparently differ is in the fact that it will connect users with real people to help with certain aspects of the research process.

Unsurprisingly, Apple’s attempts to reinvent television come with a few challenges attached. One of these is the fact that if the company wants to broadcast affiliate feeds, it must somehow wade through the complex rights issues that currently exist for local TV.

In short, Apple wouldn’t be allowed to show local programs from stations affiliated with networks such as CBS, ABC, NBC and Fox, because — despite these networks airing the content — they don’t actually own it.

We’ve heard about iPhone-related crime before, but here’s one that’s new: A U.K. man in London who was arrested by police after charging his iPhone on a train.

45-year-old artist Robin Lee was approached by a police community support officer on board the train last Friday, warned that he was “illegally extracting electricity.” When Lee arrived at his destination, police officers were waiting to arrest him.

A whopping 9 out of 10 patent lawsuits filed against tech companies in the first half of 2015 were brought by NPEs (non-practicing enterprises, a.k.a patent trolls), a new report reveals.

Thanks to its status as the world’s most valuable company, Apple was the number one target of these attempted lawsuits — with the Eastern District of Texas being the favored location for patent trials on account of their tendency to side with trolls and award large sums of damages.

Apple is getting one step closer to becoming its own record label by creating its own artistic content — having recently produced in-house music videos for top-name artists such as Drake, Eminem and Pharrell.
The videos — which include Em’s “Phenomonal” and Pharrell’s “Happy” — debuted on Apple Music. Future artists Apple will reportedly be producing videos for include M.I.A., Purity Ring, Diddy and James Bay.

Anyone wanting an illustration of why smartphone unit sales are not the single most important metric for judging success should check out wealth management company Canaccord Genuity’s findings about Apple’s iPhone sales versus profits.

According to Canaccord Genuity, despite selling less than 20 percent of all smartphones, Apple rakes in a massive 92 percent of operating income. Samsung, by contrast, ekes out just 15 percent to take second place. Everyone else basically broke even or lost money.

Apple has no problem placing massive orders for its upcoming iPhone 6s and 6s Plus units, but according to a new report the company is treading a bit more carefully when it comes to orders for the upcoming 12.9-inch iPad Pro.

Reportedly set to arrive in late November this year, sources in Apple’s supply chain say that Apple’s component orders for the giant-sized tablet have been lower than most people expected — although no specific numbers are mentioned.

With Apple Music making waves, a dedicated music-playing device like the iPod suddenly seems more relevant than it’s been in years. Which is why it’s great to hear that Apple is reportedly planning to introduce a refreshed lineup of iPod touch, nano and shuffle media players on Tuesday, July 14.

The upgrades are said to involve new colors — including electric blue and fuchsia, along with classic black, pink and a slightly darker gray option. However, the iPod touch is also likely to receive a major boost, upgrading its current A5 processor to a new 64-bit one. Woop woop!

With unparalleled numbers of orders from Apple, the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus may be the handset everyone’s talking about right now, but don’t think that Cupertino has given up on its previous record-breaker, the iPhone 6.

The company has debuted not one, two, three, but seven new ads and commercial spots showing off Apple’s current-gen iPhones. Check them out below:

The iPhone 6s is on the way, but that’s not going to stop forward-looking Apple watchers from speculating about future phones — like, say, 2018’s iPhone 8.

Alongside regularly-demanded features like wireless charging, designer Jermaine Smit has come up with an unusual dual-screen concept reminiscent of Russia’s YotaPhone — which would offer a 2K display on one side and a low-power screen on the other.

Check out a video below:

Facebook is making a pretty big update to its iOS app today — for the first time ever giving users a major say in how their News Feed is organized.

As anyone who has ever agonized over whether to unfriend that one person who keeps on posting incomplete statuses like “had a bad day :(” will know, up until now Facebook’s News Feed have been pretty much left up to the company’s algorithms.

That’s about to change. And about time, too!

Law enforcement has a love-hate relationship with the iPhone. Features like Activation Lock have helped crack down on smartphone thefts, but there’s always the lurking threat of someone asking Siri about 9/11 and accidentally dialling 911 in the process.

The latest issue police are butting heads with Apple about relates to the company’s late-2014 decision to no longer maintain decryption keys which let Apple unlock iOS 8 devices for police as part of active investigations.

And New York’s cops aren’t happy about it!

Steve Jobs may have been adamant that the iPad would never ship with a stylus, but more and more evidence is mounting that the upcoming 12.9-inch iPad Pro will do exactly that.

Today, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published an application from Apple for something called “Continuous Handwriting UI,” describing how a future iPad could be geared toward picking up and understanding handwriting.

You might hear people talking about declining interest in the iPad, but try telling that to kids — who have expressed so much love for Apple’s tablet that last year it was named the #1 brand among children aged 6-12.

Now a new piece of research suggests that little ones are so use to using tablets as their primary “screen” that it’s a punishment to have their iPad privileges revoked and be made to watch regular old, non-touchscreen TV instead.

The incremental “s” iPhones are usually considered fairly minor compared to the full-number models (iPhone 5, 6, etc.). That’s not looking like it will be the case this year, however, with a new report claiming that Apple has placed an extra-large order for its initial wave of iPhone 6s and 6s Plus handsets.

Whereas Apple ordered 70-80 million iPhones for last year’s new iPhones, this year the company has increased that to 85-90 million units, representing a new all-time record for Apple.

In a blow against patent trolls everywhere, a federal judge has thrown out a $532.9 million damages award against Apple, saying that the jury in the case may have had a “skewed damages horizon.”

The case relates to a trial which took place earlier this year, in which a Texas court awarded the company Smartflash a little over half of the $852 million it had asked for, after Apple allegedly infringed on its intellectual property with iTunes features related to data storage and managing access through payment systems.

If you ever want to find some evidence of just how significant Apple is these days, take a look at how it can impact upon seemingly unrelated areas — like, say, tourism.

According to a new report, following Apple’s decision to name last year’s OS X version after Yosemite national park, interest in the beloved American landmark skyrocketed.

Pretty much everyone I’ve spoken to about Apple Music is loving it so far, but how much is it resonating with the general public? Quite a bit, according to the above-average upgrade rate for iOS 8.4 which can already be found on the devices of 40 percent of all active users.

For those keeping track at home, that’s only marginally less than the adoption rate of the most popular Android versions, such as KitKat and Jelly Bean — which have been around for years instead of just one week.

Based on changes in taxes and foreign exchange rates, Apple is set to increase the prices of App Store apps in Mexico, South Africa, South Korea and Turkey.

From electrocution while trying to get the perfect background, to accidentally shooting oneself while posing with a pistol, Russian selfies seem to be pretty dangerous things — with more than 100 leading to serious injuries in the country in the pas year alone.

With that kind of track record, it’s no wonder that Russia’s police force wants to do something about it — which they’ve apparently done by issuing a brochure packed with handy graphics showing how to take selfies without risking potentially fatal injuries.

Tim Cook has been appointed to a six-year term at the Duke University Board of Trustees, the school announced today. Cook joins alongside Coca-Cola Foundation Chairwoman Lisa Borders, PRM Advisors founder Patricia Morton, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and ValueAct Capital CEO Jeff Ubben.

If you live in the Queens area of New York you can welcome your very own Apple Store this Saturday — when the latest brick-and-mortar retail store opens at the Queens Center mall.

The store itself is set to be one of the largest mall-located Apple Stores in New York.

Apple started selling its brand new official Lightning connector dock earlier this year. While it turned out to be a bit less fragile in reality than it looks on first glance, we can’t help but wish Apple had released the Lightning dock shown in a newly-published patent today.

Designed for durability, Apple’s concept connect features a movable Lightning connector that is able to rock back and forth, thereby absorbing what Apple calls “undesirable forces … reducing a likelihood of the connector breaking from misuse.”

It’s such an elegant solution we can’t help wonder — why didn’t Apple use it?