Apple has been working tirelessly to make the iPhone more and more waterproof over the last four years. Now it appears that the company wants to make it possible to actually use the display underwater too.
Recent patent filings revealed that Apple is putting some serious thought into how to make the iPhone easier to use underwater by creating a simplified UI that lets the user focus less on taps and more on swimming or whatever else you’d be doing underwater.
A company that makes low-cost home security cameras doesn’t sound like an organization you’d call for help in the fight against COVID-19 as it sweeps across the United States.
Wyze didn’t wait for a call.
Located in Kirkland, Washington, close to where the first U.S. cases surfaced, the company used its worldwide connections and ingenuity to help the local medical community fight the coronavirus pandemic. But it also helped consumers stuck at home better use Wyze’s iOS-compatible security cameras as webcams.
Once in a while, an app comes along that changes the way you think of a computer platform. Like Photoshop on the Mac, Lotus 1-2-3 on the IBM PC, or GarageBand on the iPad. We just got another one of these apps Tuesday. It’s called Drambo, from veteran music-app developer BeepStreet, and it redefines music apps on iOS.
Yes, iOS. This amazing, modular, do-almost-anything app works on the iPhone as well as the iPad.
Zoom had over 200 million daily meeting participants in March, about 20x the average, as people isolate themselves during the COVID-19 pandemic.
But this video conferencing service faces criticism for a lack of security. That’s why Zoom CEO Eric Yuan on Thursday stopped all work on adding new features to its software to instead focus on fixing problems with privacy and public trust.
Apple is teaming up with Leonardo DiCaprio, Laurene Powell Jobs and the Ford Foundation to create a new fundraiser aimed at ensuring all Americans have reliable access to food during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The project, called America’s Food Fund, launched this morning on GoFundMe with $12 million in donations and a goal to hit $15 million that will be distributed to the World Central Kitchen and Feeding America.
The all-new Facebook Messenger app for macOS made its official Mac App Store debut on Thursday at a perfect time for those working and interacting more from home.
Messenger for the desktop first appeared in early March, almost a year after Facebook announced it at its F8 conference, but was then on offer in only a handful of countries. It is now open to all — and free to download.
Apple has relaxed a policy that saw it take a 30% cut of payments from competitors who use its platform to sell TV shows and movies through their own video apps, according to a published report.
One of the first companies to seize on the relaxed policy change was Amazon, which started selling and renting Prime Video movies on Apple devices Wednesday.
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: