News - page 624

Atom is a “piano roll” sequencer for making music on iOS. A piano roll is named for the software used to run olde worlde player pianos. It’s a roll of paper with holes punched in it. As the roll moves through the piano, the holes are read by a “tracker bar,” and the corresponding notes are played.

Imagine such a sheet of paper in the digital realm. That’s a modern piano-roll sequencer, and it’s a commonplace way to control software instruments. Atom brings some amazing tricks to the piano roll. It’s also an Audio Unit (AU) app, which means it can work as a plug-in inside your favorite iOS Music apps, like Cubasis and GarageBand.

Apple’s total purchase price for Texture will come in at just under half a billion dollars, according to a new report that reveals details of the acquisition.

Texture, an online magazine subscription service, was bought by Apple in 2018. It serves as the foundation for Apple News+. Apple revealed that the Texture app will shut down next month, but the four publishers who teamed up to launch the service are set to get some big paydays.

This post was going to be part of my new book, Tim Cook: The Genius Who Took Apple to the Next Level, but was cut for length or continuity. Over the next week or so, we will be publishing several more sections that were cut, focusing mostly on geeky details of Apple’s manufacturing operations.

A good measure of the size of Apple’s manufacturing operations is its capital expenditure, the amount of money spends on things like buildings and equipment.

Apple’s capital expenditure, or CapEx, is mindboggling. To get an idea of how big it is, take Apple’s new spaceship campus in Cupertino – which is the fourth most expensive building in the world. It cost the company an estimated $5 billion to construct.

Apple spends a similar amount every six months on manufacturing equipment.

Evidence of Apple’s plan to break up iTunes has been uncovered ahead of the next major macOS update.

Icons for new Podcasts and TV apps have leaked out early. They’re expected to be accompanied by a new Music app and a redesigned Books app — all based on their counterparts for iOS.

Wiz Khalifa is the latest rapper to receive the documentary treatment courtesy of Apple Music. Wiz Khalifa: Behind the Cam is set to debut this month on Apple’s streaming music platform.

The multi-part docuseries will feature footage from throughout the rapper’s career. If you’re a fan of Khalifa’s music, all five episodes will be available to binge watch on April 17.

Apple had plans to deliver a phone long before Steve Jobs took to the stage of Macworld 2007 to show off the iPhone.

Around 14 years earlier, the company previewed a prototype device called the Wizzy Active Lifestyle Telephone, or the WALT, which combined a telephone and fax machine into one.

Here’s a rare look at the prototype that shows just what WALT can do.

Apple is moving full speed ahead with its Services division, but is it too late for it to catch up with rivals? That’s what analysts at major bank HSBC are concerned about.

As a result, they’ve downgraded their expectations for Apple shares.

Just when you think that Apple can’t get any bigger names for its TV+ service, it surprises you! Today, it was revealed that the U.K.’s Prince Harry, a.k.a the Duke of Sussex, has partnered with Oprah Winfrey for a new series.

Both parties are acting as co-creators and executive producers for a series on mental health. It will debut for Apple in 2020.

Apple has reportedly agreed to open up its NFC capabilities on the iPhone for a U.K. government app. This Brexit app will help EU citizens apply for residency in the U.K. after it leaves the European Union.

The EU Exit app allows users to scan the chip inside their passports with their smartphone’s NFC reader. While this has been possible to do on Android phones, Apple has not previously allowed developer access to its NFC reading tech.

Information discovered by an Apple Watch enthusiast apparently confirms an upcoming Apple Watch Earth Day Activity Challenge set for April 22.

Get ready to break a sweat in the great outdoors on Earth Day to claim your virtual trophy.

Fortnite just returned from downtime as Epic Games rolled out its latest update. Version 8.30 introduces the new Reboot Van for the first time, alongside a long list of bug fixes and improvements.

The update is a disappointment to almost all Battle Royale fans, who were hoping a controversial change made in the version 8.20 release would be reverted this week.

Several generations down the line, the Apple Watch has seemingly found its chief selling point as a life-saving health-focused wearable. But that doesn’t mean that there’s not room for a bit of fun, too.

While Apple has seemingly moved away from branding the Apple Watch as a fashion item, its latest ad focuses on aesthetics. Specifically, it highlights how easy it is to switch bands. Check it out below.

The 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre is coming up this June, but you won’t hear anything about it on Apple Music.

Chinese journalists recently discovered that Apple Music’s Chinese service censored a song that mentions the 1989 pro-democracy protests where thousands of people were killed. The topic is extremely controversial for the Chinese Communist Party and it appears that Apple is just fine with blotting it out if that’s the price of doing business in China.

Part of the appeal of owning a MacBook is showing it off, especially if you’ve personalized it. The Urban Armor Gear Plyo is a protective case made of translucent plastic so the exterior of this svelte notebook can still be seen.

Scosche Industries unfurled its first line of USB-C to Lightning power cables, which will bring a 1-2 data-power punch to iPhones and iPads.

Pair the new StrikeLine cable with Scosche’s USB-C PowerVolt charger and get a fully charged iOS device three times faster than a regular charger.

The iPhone user behind the wheel is twice as likely to post, chat and stream than those with an Android device, according to a website that compares car insurance quotes.

The Zebra surveyed more than 2,100 drivers about driving distractions, including device engagement, and broke down the numbers by operating system.

Apple has added another high-profile hire to its team of engineers developing AR and VR headsets.

Serial entrepreneur Arthur van Hoff reportedly joined Apple this month after leaving Jaunt, a VR-focused startup company that he founded that eventually scored funding from Disney

Both the general public and developers can now download the second beta of iOS 12.3. When the final version is available, it will bring significant improvements to the Apple TV app. The latest beta continues to add features.

A second public beta of macOS Mojave 10.14.5 also just debuted. This is a bug-fix release.

One of Apple’s most expensive services for Macs is finally getting cheaper. In fact, in a rare move, Apple actually decided to give something out for free.

The company has dropped the price of its Data Migration fee to zero dollars after charging a $99 fee for year to customers that purchased a new Mac and needed help moving data over from their old Mac.

The latest round of iPhone price cuts on China have accomplished their goal, according to an analyst with Wedbush. Demand for Apple handsets has increased in that country.

That’s very good news for the company, as CEO TIm Cook said early this year that slow sales in China were the entire reason Apple saw a revenue decease at the end of 2018.

Spotify’s efforts to avoid paying higher rates is giving Apple Music a big advantage, according to a new report.

Apple is the only major music streaming company that isn’t appealing a decision to increase the rate paid to songwriters. As a result, Apple Music is getting all the love on social media.

This post was going to be part of my new book, Tim Cook: The Genius Who Took Apple to the Next Level, but was cut for length or continuity. Over the next week or so, we will be publishing several more sections that were cut, focusing mostly on geeky details of Apple’s manufacturing operations.

Apple is famous for design and marketing, but a large part of the company’s success is due to the incredibly complex and efficient manufacturing organization Tim Cook masterminded with Steve Jobs.

No matter how beautiful its products are, the company would go nowhere without a world-class manufacturing and distribution operation that can make millions of devices in the utmost secrecy, to the highest possible standards, and deliver them efficiently all over the globe.

It’s an operation unprecedented in the history of industry. When Jobs and Cook started in 1998, Apple was doing $6 billion in business annually. It now does that every 10 days.

Apple has confirmed that all macOS apps will need to be notarized to be accepted by Gatekeeper after its Mojave 10.14.5 update.

The requirement applies to new and updated apps and all software from developers who are new to distributing with Developer ID. In a future version of macOS, notarization will be required by default.

AirPods are great. But that doesn’t mean that they’re without their problems as a replacement for your traditional wired headphones.

Some users on Twitter have been observing that their AirPods can be prone to cutting in and out, or occasionally producing static sounds. The reason? Bluetooth interference. This can come from having the signal blocked by physical barriers. It could also be due to using a frequency that’s too overcrowded.

It can’t be said that Apple stock has had a boring last year. In twelve months, we’ve seen Apple hit $1 trillion in value. Then the stock tanked and AAPL entered the sinister-sounding “death cross.”

Now it’s rebounded and, if things continue to go well through today, it will achieve a feat it hasn’t managed since October 2010. That’s back when Steve Jobs was running Apple.