Spotify’s newest update on iOS, out Thursday, lets users control their music using Siri on Apple Watch. Simply add “on Spotify” to the end of your voice commands to play your favorites artists, albums, playlists, and more.
April 2 is World Autism Awareness Day, and Apple is marking the occasion by promoting a range of apps designed to help “autistic people … share their voices with the world.”
The apps are divided into four sections: “Communication,” “Life skills,” “Games, videos and music,” and “Great tools on Apple Watch.” Apps include the likes of communication tool Proloquo2Go, kids’ scheduling app Todo Visual Schedule, game Avokiddo Emotions, and more.
Gamevice, creator of a number of popular controller add-ons for iPhone and iPad, is suing Nintendo for alleged patent infringement. In a complaint filed on March 27, it calls for a ban on Switch imports into the United States.
AirPlay 2 and HomeKit support is headed to some of LG’s 2018 smart TVs by October, updated support documents read. This includes LCD models with SK and UK in the name, alongside OLED models with B8 through Z8 in their names.
AirPlay 2 means that TV owners can stream content from their iPhone, iPad and Mac straight to their TV sets. This could include movies and TV shows, podcasts, Apple Music, or just collections of photos. Meanwhile, HomeKit integration means that users can add their LG TV to control television functions such as power, volume, and source via voice or app.
Tile, a startup that makes location-aware tracking tags, says that Apple isn’t living up to its promises to avoid anticompetitive behavior. Tile made the complaint in a statement to an investigatory antitrust committee posted online.
Apple’s websites for the U.K. and France were on Thursday updated to display COVID-19 advice from the government.
Large featured sections on their homepages remind visitors of the official advice related to the coronavirus pandemic. In the U.K., this includes the same National Health Service (NHS) video that can be found in the App Store.
Apple engineers have used FaceTime-style video calling to guide Chinese colleagues through iPhone prototype assembly, a recent report by the Wall Street Journal notes.
The report helps answer one key question about how Apple is able to get iPhone prototypes assembled at a time when travel restrictions stop Apple employees from making their usual trips to China. Apple tested out the process in January.
Customer spending on mobile apps could nearly double over the next five years, according to forecasting carried out by leading app analytics platform Sensor Tower Store Intelligence.
In research published Wednesday, the firm suggests spending on the iOS App Store and Google Play store will approach $171 billion by 2024. That’s 2x the amount that was spent in 2019, meaning around 20% year-on-year growth.
MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models that launched in 2013 and 2014 will reportedly be placed on Apple’s list of “vintage and obsolete products” at the end of April.
Despite what the name implies, this doesn’t mean these devices just became useless. Instead, it’s going to be harder to get them serviced.
TikTok, the popular video-sharing app that is especially popular among young people, is going to get some fresh competition from Google later this year.
Google is reportedly planning to create its own version of TikTok with a new Youtube feature called “Shorts” that will live inside the platform’s apps on Android and iOS.
Cloudflare on Wednesday began beta testing a macOS version of Warp, its virtual private network currently offered only on iPhone. The VPN encrypts all internet traffic for the Mac it’s installed on, helping to protect the user’s privacy.
VPNs add security, but are often slow. Cloudflare promises its service is fast. And it’s free.
Amazon is making some huge changes to how it handles rentals and movie purchases for its Prime Video app on Apple devices.
Starting today, iPhone, iPad and Apple TV users can rent or buy movies and TV shows on Amazon Prime Video without being directed to a website first to avoid Apple’s tax on in-app purchases.
Being stuck at home with nothing to do but watch the world collapse around us is kind of a downer, but there are some upsides. One is that people are getting creative. Like, literally creative — making more music, writing and sharing videos. The other silver lining is that app-makers are offering big discounts and extended trials for some amazing apps.
For instance, Apple now offers a free, three-month trial of its music-production app, Logic Pro X. And Ableton just matched this offer with its Live Suite.
Most Americans are used to celebrating April Fools’ Day on the first day of April, but there’s another hugely important holiday happening today that you probably don’t know about: Census Day.
The decennial holiday kicks off on April 1, which is an important reference date for the census as enumerators attempt to count how many people there are in the country and where they live. This time, census takers are turning to the iPhone 8 instead of pencil and paper to get the job done.
Apple Cardholders facing sudden financial distress because of the COVID-19 pandemic can skip their April payments without interest.
Goldman Sachs, which backs the new Apple credit card, offered the same program to cardholders who had trouble making March payments.
Apple gave developers their initial watchOS 6.2.5 beta on Wednesday. This will be a “bug fix” update for watchOS 6.2 that launched last week.
The iCloud Keychain password manager built into iOS and macOS is reportedly getting support for two-factor authentication. This is a feature now only available in third-party password managers like Dashlane. It would make storing and using passwords more secure.
Apple is gearing up to celebrate Earth Day 2020 later this month with an all-new animated film and the greatest actress of her generation, Meryl Streep, has lent her voice to the project as the narrator.
The first trailer for Apple’s Earth Day show, Here We Are: Notes for Living on Planet Earth, landed on YouTube this morning and it looks like it will be something kids and adults fall in love with. The only thing more soothing in the trailer than Meryl’s voice is the cozy animation style that strikes a balance between being super detailed and approachable at the same time.
Check it out:
Apple’s most recent software updates have reportedly broken FaceTime compatibility with older iPhone and iPad models, leaving many users unable to make voice or video calls during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The issue affects devices running iOS 13.4 and macOS 10.15.4 when they attempt to connect with devices running iOS 9.3.5 or iOS 9.3.6 — or vice-versa. There is no fix for now.
Apple shocked us with its acquisition of the Dark Sky weather app and dev team yesterday leading many fans to wonder how the app and its tech will be integrated into iOS in the future. And thanks to Parker Ortolani’s quick Apple Weather concept, we already have a good idea of what that could look like.
It will likely take months or even a year for Dark Sky to be integrated into the iOS weather app, but Ortolani’s concept shows how the acquisition could dramatically alter the app’s UI. New elements like a Map Radar view and precise rain notifications could turn the weather app from an after-thought into a crucial tool for everyone.
Take a closer look at some of the features:
WhatsApp might be the only messaging platform that you cannot use on multiple devices simultaneously — but that might finally change. A discovery in the latest WhatsApp beta suggests a true multi-platform experience is coming.
The T-Mobile and Sprint merger is now officially complete, transforming the third and fourth-biggest wireless carriers in the U.S. into a more giant-sized rival to take on Verizon and AT&T.
The New T-Mobile, as it will be known, will be run by CEO Mike Sievert. Sievert takes over from T-Mobile boss John Legere, who has been chief executive of T-Mobile since 2012. Legere will remain on T-Mobile’s board until June.
The world’s biggest electronics contract manufacturer and Apple’s biggest supply chain partner has reassured investors that it can ready the 5G-capable iPhone 12 in time for a fall debut.
Tim Cook on Wednesday confirmed that Apple has more than doubled its donation to China’s COVID-19 relief efforts. The iPhone-maker has now handed over more than 50 billion yuan ($7 million).
Trapped in an oppressive single location, allowing no-one to get within breathing distance of you, while the apocalypse teeters ever closer on the horizon… Life in coronavirus lockdown? Maybe. But it’s also an apt description of Doom and Doom II, the classic first-person-shooters which just got a nifty update on iOS.
With a variety of improvements and more than 30 new levels to enjoy, there’s never been a better (or more appropriate) time to check out or revisit this grisly duo of classic 1990s blasters.