Luke Dormehl - page 72

Apple has yet to announce official numbers for Apple TV+ subscribers, but Wedbush analyst Dan Ives think he has some answers. According to Ives, Apple’s streaming video service currently has between 30 million and 40 million subscribers.

However, he says the “vast majority” of these Apple TV+ subs are unlikely to be paying $4.99 per month. Instead, they’re taking advantage of the year’s free subscription thrown in because they bought a new iPhone, iPad, Mac or Apple TV. The analyst says he’s confident that things could pick up, though.

The iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and … Apple Blanket and iMattress? That might not sound like the next logical step for Cupertino, but an Apple patent application published Thursday describes a blanket, mattress and, err, camera setup that would monitor users’ vital signs as they catch forty winks.

In addition to sleep-tracking, this could measure users’ movements during sleep, their heart rate, and their body and room temperatures during the night. It could then heat up or cool down accordingly.

Tim Cook will host an Apple-wide virtual meeting later this month that will give employees the opportunity to pose questions to Apple’s CEO.

Apple sent a note to employees about the meeting on April 8, a report published Thursday by Bloomberg News states. Apple asks employees to submit questions in advance by the end of Saturday. Employees are encouraged to open up about their experiences working during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Video conferencing apps ruled the App Store in March, with Zoom benefitting particularly from the fact that most people are stuck home, figures released by leading app analytics platform Sensor Tower suggest.

Zoom was the most downloaded non-game app worldwide for March 2020. Sensor Tower told Cult of Mac that the iOS app was downloaded 27.8 million times in March 2020. That’s an astonishing 2,680% increase from the number of times it was downloaded last March.

China commuters can now use Apple Pay’s Express Transit feature to ride public transportation in 275 cities nationwide. That is as a result of Apple partnering with China T-Union, a contactless transit card that lets holder ride subways and buses, while receiving assorted discounts.

The news comes as China starts to get back to business as usual following the coronavirus pandemic in the country.

Foxconn is back up and running (and raking in the cash) after the coronavirus pandemic eased in China. But Apple’s biggest supply manufacturer is taking precautions to avoid a COVID-19 recurrence while it races toward delivering the iPhone 12 as promised.

According to a Wednesday report, at Foxconn’s primary iPhone factory in Zhengzhou, numerous strict measures have been put in place for employees. The local government seems to have stipulated these measures.

Germany and Taiwan are cracking down on governmental use of videoconferencing app Zoom amid concerns that it might be too risky to use.

In an internal memo, the German foreign ministry restricted use of the service. The country said security and data-protection weaknesses make Zoom too dangerous to use, according to newspaper Handelsblatt. Taiwan also banned official use of Zoom for the same reasons.

Concentrating on what you’re doing can be tough at the best of times. Right now, with coronavirus-induced fears about everything from health to economic instability, isn’t the best of times.

A new iPhone-compatible wearable called Foci aims to help boost focus and productivity, however. It’s a small wearable device that clips to your waist and promises to track your breathing and cognitive states using machine learning technology. It then prompts you with gentle vibrations and reminders about whether you’re paying attention.

Microsoft and Turn 10 Studios’ Forza Street racing game is coming to iOS on May 5. The free-to-play street racing game originally debuted for Windows 10 as Miami Street back in May 2018. It was then officially brought under the acclaimed Forza franchise banner last year, when it was promised for a future mobile release.

Forza Street features a diverse range of real-world cars and a cool night setting. Its approach to racing certainly sounds a little… different, though.

Check out the trailer below.

Apple has updated its Clips video creation app, adding mouse, trackpad and Bluetooth keyboard support for iPad users running iPadOS 13.4 or later.

While iPadOS 13 introduced basic mouse support, iPadOS 13.4 added much improved cursor control. And Apple’s Clips app, which lets users combine video clips, photos and music into sharable videos, has reaped the benefits!

Apple contract manufacturer Foxconn is going to join the fight against the coronavirus by developing and manufacturing ventilators in the United States, a Wednesday report by Bloomberg and Reuters claims.

Foxconn has confirmed the news, although it has not said where it will make the medical equipment. According to Medtronic, Foxconn’s partner in the endeavor, they will be built in Foxconn’s controversial Wisconsin plant.

Original streaming video platform Quibi racked up 300,000 downloads on day one, claims a report from leading app analytics platform Sensor Tower.

In a market overloaded with subscription streaming services, Quibi’s twist on the formula is to offer snack-sized shows running 10 minutes or less. These are designed to be watched primarily on mobile.

Germany is launching a smartwatch app to help monitor the spread of the coronavirus.

The app, created by the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), is called Corona Datenspende, which translates as the Corona Data Donation. It allows users with devices like Apple Watch or fitness trackers such as Fitbit to share data about coronavirus symptoms to track the spread of the pandemic in Germany.

New images leaked online seems to confirm rumors that iOS 14 will offer Home screen widgets similar to the ones found on Android. These widgets could potentially provide useful pieces of information to suit each user.

The same image also appears to confirm that the iPhone 12’s notch will hang around for another year. However, although it may get a bit smaller than previous iterations.

Appropriately enough at a time we’re worried about touching any surface without immediately washing our hands, the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office has published an eye-tracking patent application from Apple describing a method of letting users control an interface with nothing more than a simple glance.

The application possibly sheds light on one of the features of Apple’s rumored head-mounted display for augmented and virtual reality.

Daring Fireball‘s John Gruber said Monday that he has confirmed “with a little birdie” that there is indeed no U1 chip in the new iPad Pro.

The U1 Ultra Wideband chip debuted with the iPhone 11. It allows the iPhone to detect its exact position relative to other devices in the same room. That gives it a sense of spatial awareness for things like targeted AirDrop by pointing one iPhone at another to share a file.

Apple will join platforms including Amazon Prime Video, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitch, and others in streaming a multi-hour music and entertainment broadcast, called One World: Together at Home. It is intended to support the World Health Organization’s COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund.

The “global live-cast,” announced Monday, will take place on April 18. It promises to feature musical performances from a number of big names such as Lady Gaga, Elton John, Alanis Morissette, Billie Eilish, Chris Martin, Paul McCartney and Keith Urban.

Along with just about every other part of the education system right now, commencement addresses are going virtual. And who better to deliver one than the much sought-after commencement speaker whose company created FaceTime?

Announced by Ohio State University, Apple CEO Tim Cook will give a virtual address to graduating students this May. The speech will be broadcast online May 3.

There’s more evidence that the new low-cost iPhone alternately referred to as the iPhone SE/iPhone SE 2/iPhone 9 is about ready to launch, thanks to two pieces of fresh evidence which appeared over the weekend.

The first is a placeholder page on the major Chinese retailer JD.com. The second is a reference to the “iPhone 9” in a Verizon document about iPhone trade-ins. While there’s no more detail on the phone itself, it suggests that the new iPhone is indeed on its way.

The A-series chip in this year’s iPhone 12 is going to include one of the world’s first 5-nanometer chips, created by Apple partner TSMC.

But chipmakers are already looking beyond 5-nanometers when it comes to developing the ultra powerful chips of tomorrow. Rivals TSMC and Samsung, both of whom have previously made A-series chips for Apple, are busy exploring 3-nanometer production processes.

However, according to a report published Monday, Samsung just hit delays with their attempts at creating the next-next-gen chip process.

A number of big name services have added their support for Apple’s privacy-conscious “Sign in with Apple” feature by integrating it into their apps. These include The New York Times, IFTTT, Medium, Strava, Ritual, Freshii, Fiverr, and more.

It shows how rapidly adoption of the service is increasing ahead of Apple’s June 30 deadline for apps to implement the feature. This deadline was recently pushed back from April 30.

Apple could be in the process of acquiring California-based virtual reality company NextVR, according to a report published over the weekend.

The rumored acquisition, supposedly for an amount in the region of $100 million, is reportedly quite far along. Although it hasn’t closed yet, employees are already being told about possibly relocating from San Diego to one of Apple’s offices.

The iPhone 12 Pro could boast a revised camera array on the rear, complete with a LiDAR scanner like the one found on the 2020 iPad Pro, a new image posted online suggests.

The schematic image was posted on Twitter Saturday by leakster @Choco_bit, who has previously shared information about forthcoming Apple launches. The seemingly Apple-produced image reportedly comes from iOS 14, courtesy of the ConceptsiPhone Instagram.

The COVID-19 pandemic is having all kinds of impact on everyday life. One of those is how we use our phones as we increasingly rely on connectivity to, well, keep us connected.

T-Mobile President of Technology Neville Ray recently shared some observations the newly merged carrier has made about changing cell phone habits during COVID-19.

Skeptical about how water-resistant modern iPhones are? Try telling that to the woman who discovered her iPhone in the Thames river in London two months after she dropped. Still in working order.

Twenty-nine-year-old Thayse Bussolo-Vieira said she was feeding the swans in early February when her brand new iPhone 8 fell out of her pocket and into the river. According to the Mirror newspaper, she was “devastated” because it contained thousands of photos she had not backed up to iCloud.