Steve Jobs is coming to the radio. Through the medium of song, that is!
With theaters closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, Seattle Opera plans to treat listeners to some much-needed opera by broadcasting some of its past performances on the radio (and streaming them online). Apple fans might want to tune in for Grammy-winning opera The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs, which tells the story of Apple’s iconic late co-founder and CEO.
Apple Pay is coming to Switzerland’s largest bank UBS after it refused to adopt it for years.
A report from the website MacPrime shared an image from UBS suggesting that Apple Pay will go live in the near future. No date has been announced for exactly when that will take place. However, it will reportedly be in the next few weeks.
Apple has told its working-from-home employees that family comes first when it comes to the current coronavirus pandemic. But many employees with kids are still struggling in Silicon Valley’s hectic work culture, claims a new report from CNet.
The article, published Thursday, describes some of the challenges in a tough Silicon Valley working culture, but where — at least in California — schools won’t reopen until fall. Apple is doing whatever it can to help, however.
iPhone 2024 anyone? Apple chipmaker TSMC disclosed in its annual report to shareholders Friday that it has kicked off its 2-nanometer R&D process for future chips.
Going by Apple’s record trend of adopting a major upgrade (or, in terms of size, nanometer downgrade) in A-series chipsets every two years, that would mean the early stages of a new processor for the 2024 iPhone. This year’s iPhone is widely expected to come with a 5-nanometer A-series chip. The iPhone 11 has a 7nm processor.
Want to feel like a 1960s spy? Fire up your vintage sports car, take to a winding road in the Swiss alps, and then call up information on your auto’s touchscreen control panel.
Such a thing, once firmly in the realm of fiction, is now possible thanks to a new line of CarPlay radios created by Porsche. Allowing you to kit out cars dating back to the 1960s with high-resolution touchscreens, Bluetooth, DAB+, and Apple’s in-car infotainment system, the head units opens up CarPlay to a whole new audience.
Defending Jacob, a new Apple TV+ murder mystery show starring Chris Evans (Captain America), debuted Friday on Apple’s streaming TV service.
The show tells the story of a small-town assistant district attorney whose family is turned upside down after his 14-year-old son is accused of murder. Downton Abbey’s Michelle Dockery plays Evans’ wife, while Jaeden Martell from It plays the titular Jacob.
Hip hop luminary Lil Wayne, one of the most well-known and respected rappers of the 21st century, is headed to Apple Music!
No, Lil Wayne (or Weezy F. Baby as the kids call him) isn’t debuting an exclusive new album on Apple’s streaming music service. Instead, he’ll be playing host on Young Money Radio, a new show debuting on Beats 1 Friday, April 24 at 7pm EST/4pm PT.
Mr. Pumpkin 2: Walls of Kowloon, a surreal, but intriguing, new game created by the makers of the popular Isoland game series (and the original Mr. Pumpkin Adventure, natch!), has landed in the App Store.
A hand-drawn point-and-click adventure that allows you to explore Hong Kong’s endlessly fascinating Kowloon Walled City, it’s the perfect game to play in lockdown. You know, to remind you that actually being able to walk around cities is a thing most of us used to do!
Check out the trailer below.
The first version of Apple and Google’s contact-tracing API will reportedly roll out April 28, Apple CEO Tim Cook says.
As noted by French language website iGeneration, Cook revealed the launch date to European Commissioner Thierry Breton, who then shared it during a press conference held Wednesday.
Let’s face it: The novelty of video calls has kind of worn off by this point in lockdown. What once seemed like the “video phone” of sci-fi dreams is now a way-too-frequent reality. But Skype has taken efforts to freshen things up by allowing users to swap out backgrounds for their calls.
Want to pretend you’re being massively irresponsible by appearing to call from a crowded beach? Want to swap out your cluttered apartment for a picture of an upscale mansion that will make your boss wonder if they’re paying you too much? Now you can. Here’s how.
Why are massive smog clouds over China good news for Apple? Morgan Stanley analysts explain in their latest note to clients: Because pollution it suggests that Chinese manufacturing is ramping up again.
Probably correct? Sure. Slightly off-brand messaging for Earth Day? You bet!
The iPhone SE, with its iPhone 8 form factor, proves that you can teach an old dog new tricks. With the first reviews for the new handset having hit the internet, pundits are in agreement that, well, the iPhone SE is pretty darn great.
In fact, if Apple’s made any kind of misstep it may have been showing us that you can get a pretty amazing iPhone for the price of a mid-level handset. Here’s what the initial reviewers are saying:
San Francisco-based cybersecurity company ZecOps says that iPhones and iPads may be vulnerable to a flaw involving the Mail app, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.
Unlike most email-based phone hacks, which involve making someone click a link or visit a website, this exploit does not require victims to do anything other than download (although not necessarily open) an email. It nonetheless could let hackers install malicious software on their devices.
A ZecOps blog post on the topic says that the vulnerability has existed in Apple’s mobile software as far back as iOS 6.
Zoom calls have exploded during the current coronavirus lockdown. But if you’ve already exhausted the possibilities of different angles and backdrops for your video calls, why not try being a different person entirely? You know, like former Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs.
At least, that’s the tech demo/experiment created by coders Ali Aliev and Karim Iskakov. They’ve developed an Animoji or Memoji-style tool called Avatarify that lets users superimpose a real-time mask onto themselves during video calls.
Sen. Josh Hawley wants Apple and Google to have some skin in the game when it comes to keeping data private in their joint coronavirus contact-tracing project. Hawley’s idea? That the Apple and Google CEOs — Tim Cook and Sundar Pichai, respectively — should take personal responsibility for ensuring the data is kept private.
“If you seek to assure the public, make your stake in this project personal,” the Republican senator from Missouri wrote Tuesday in a letter to Cook and Pichai. “Make a commitment that you and other executives will be personally liable if you stop protecting privacy, such as by granting advertising companies access to the interface once the pandemic is over.”
T-Mobile is wasting no time expanding — and solidifying — its 5G network in the U.S. following its recently completed merger with Sprint. The two companies, now one, are combining their networks following the landmark merger.
On Tuesday, T-Mobile announced that its 5G 2.5 GHz mid-band spectrum is now live in parts of Philadelphia, offering T-Mobile customers with compatible 5G phones the opportunity to take advantage of the new super-speedy connectivity — with peaks of nearly 600 Mbps.
HBO isn’t playing around when it comes to streaming video subscription services. The company, which already has its HBO Now subscription video-on-demand, will launch HBO Max on May 27 — complete with original shows, Turner TV shows, and Warner Bros. movies.
Check out more of the details, along with the first trailers for Max Originals, below.
There aren’t too many businesses that are thriving right now, but mobile games in the App Store certainly appear to be one of the outliers. Provided that you’re among the top titles, that is!
With many people stuck at home due to COVID-19 lockdown, a Tuesday report from GoldenCasinoNews claims that the top five games in the U.S. App Store hit $9.7 million in daily revenue in April. The leader of the pack right now is the ultra-popular Roblox Mobile, which is raking in approximately $2.7 million daily.
Apple’s first 5G-compatible cellular 12.9-inch iPad Pro has reportedly been pushed back from late 2020 to the first quarter of 2021, an Economic Daily News report published Tuesday claims.
As with most hardware delays right now, the issue is the coronavirus pandemic. While China is getting back up and running, it has seemingly impacted production enough to delay Apple’s next-gen iPad Pro later this year.
Apple hasn’t given up on the idea of an Apple Ring wearable that could be used to control Apple devices by performing specific hand gestures. The concept has been around for a few years, but Apple has yet to launch such a product.
However, on Tuesday it was granted a second patent for its invention, offering some more information about the device. Coming soon to a ring finger near you?
Apple announced Tuesday that it is launching a whole host of its services in dozens more countries around the world.
Starting today, the App Store, Apple Arcade, Apple Podcasts, and iCloud are available in 20 additional countries. Apple Music, meanwhile, has picked up an additional 52 (!) international markets.
Apple has contacted some developers asking them to participate in an online meeting about Apple’s app accessibility features.
The invite reads:
TikTok, Zoom and Disney+ have the slightly dubious-sounding honor of being named the three most popular iOS apps in the United States during the age of coronavirus, a new report from app analytics platform Sensor Tower suggests.
The report, which covers the first three months of 2020, sheds light on the way our app habits are changing during the COVID-19 pandemic. In short? We’re downloading a whole lot more apps than usual. That makes the App Store one of the few businesses that’s actually thriving during an incredibly difficult time.
Apple is seemingly looking to step up its work in speech translation, showing one more way that Cupertino is looking to incorporate cutting-edge approaches to artificial intelligence into what it does.
In a recent paper, published to the pre-print server arXiv, two Apple research scientists describe the challenges in the field, carrying out a fundamental survey of the problems with current speech translation.
No, they don’t have a magical solution. But the fact that Apple gave them such a task suggests the company takes seriously the need to hone its tools in this area.
The new iPad Air will boast a Mini LED display and display-based Touch ID instead of Face ID, an Apple leaker claims.
Twitter user @L0vetodream, who has previously correctly shared details about forthcoming Apple devices, said that the iPad will therefore feature a full screen display with no notch. Last year’s iPad Air refresh sported a physical Home button.