The European Union has given its official stamp of approval to Apple’s acquisition of UK-based music discovery app Shazam.
While the deal was announced way back in December, it has been held up until now by an EU antitrust investigation, based on the popularity of Shazam and the amount of data it holds. This investigation was requested by seven European countries, including France, Italy, Spain and Sweden.
This spring, Logitech introduced an active stylus for iPad. People were excited that this was half the price of an Apple Pencil, but frustrated that the Logitech Crayon could only be purchased by schools.
Turns out both of those are about to change. This digital pencil will go on sale to the general public beginning September 12. And the price is going up.
It’s not exactly breaking news that Steve Jobs was a great salesman. But a hilarious anecdote from Adam Fisher’s recent oral history of Silicon Valley, Valley of Genius, gives a great example of Jobs’ next-level skills.
Want to know how Jobs persuaded a product marketing expert from Microsoft to join his company NeXT? It turns out it involved little more than a bit of patented Steve Jobs charm — and a helping hand from a local Italian restaurant menu.
The more affordable 6.1-inch iPhone expected to launch this year won’t be as exciting as its pricier siblings, but it seems Apple has some tricks up its sleeve to make it more appealing.
New photos reveal some of the fancier color options buyers will be able to choose from, including red and blue.
Apple employs a broad range of people, from software developers to retail staff. And soon, at least one neuroscientist.
The company is seeking an expert in sensory perception, suggesting the scientist will be employed developing its mysterious augmented reality glasses.
Why couldn’t you type the F-word on the iPhone? Why did Steve Jobs make weird eye movements during demos? What kind of manager was Scott Forstall?
These and other questions are answered in a new book by Ken Kocienda, a former iPhone programmer who spent 15 years at Apple helping to develop the first iPhone, iPad and Safari web browser.
Published this week, Creative Selection, Inside Apple’s Design Process During the Golden Age of Steve Jobs, is a fascinating account of Kocienda’s career that focuses on how Apple makes great software. (read our review here)
Here are some of the most interesting things we learned from the book.
Apple is supposedly cooling its plans to bring Apple Pay to India, despite having discussions with leading banks and the National Payments Corporation of India.
Eddy Cue previously said that Apple hoped to bring Apple Pay to India sooner rather than later. “It is great that all of these payment mechanisms are coming out in India because it empowers people to be able to pay,” Cue said last year. “What Apple Pay does is make that process easy, integrated and safe. We absolutely want to bring Apple Pay to the market here.”
Apple may be commissioning its own TV shows, but it’s also picking up finished productions, too. With that goal in mind, Apple is sending some of its top production names to the Toronto International Film Festival this week to try and acquire new content.
According to trade magazine Variety, at least one of Apple’s top entertainment programming execs, Zack Van Amburg and Jamie Erlicht, will be in attendance at the festival — and they’ll have “checkbooks in hand.”
Back in 1996, Steve Jobs’ sister, Mona Simpson, wrote a novel about a Silicon Valley tycoon who has a difficult and distant relationship with his oldest daughter. He even denies her paternity altogether, and then hands out meager amounts of child support to look after her and her mom.
At the time, Jobs denied that the protagonist in A Regular Guy was closely based on him. Others thought differently, however. More than 20 years later, Lisa Brennan-Jobs’ new memoir describes just how accurate Simpson’s novel was. And what she thought of it.
A new study tries to determine which companies are the most creative. The method used is open to dispute, especially as Apple is way back at eleventh place while its chief rival Samsung is in second.
Putting aside questions about methodology, the results are reflective of an attitude many people have about which of these two rivals is more innovative. This is the result of very different ways the two companies design their products. And it’s more than a bit unfair to Apple.
The bigger display on the Apple Watch Series 4 will allow wearers to view more data at a glance and thanks to some new leaks, we now know the exact screen resolution it will come with.
Check out the difference:
With most of the specifications of the 2018 iPhones already known, the largest remaining question is price. Possibly answering that burning question is a report coming out of Europe that indicates that the three upcoming iOS models will cost just the same Apple’s three most recent offerings.
Third-party hardware manufacturers have finally been given the green light from Apple to start making USB-C to Lightning cables.
The new Made For iPhone (MFi) certification should open the door for a bunch of faster-charging solutions to come out for iPhone owners, but according to the report out of Asia, the new cables will be a little bit more expensive.
We’ve already head reports that Apple is going to ditch the “Plus” description for its larger iPhones. Now there’s word that the replacement term could be “Max.”
If true, this means that the company will announce a week from today the iPhone Xs with a 5.8-inch display and the iPhone Xs Max with a 6.5-inch one.
The main reason the iPhone 9 is hotly anticipated is because it’s rumored to boast a large display but a relatively low price tag. However, some analysts are predicting that this 6.1-inch model will instead cost more than the iPhone 8.
They say Apple can do this because the one feature that consumers want more than anything else: larger screens. And we’re willing to pay more for them.
Update: A separate report coming from Europe indicates that the 6.1-inch LCD iPhone will cost exactly the same as the iPhone 8.
NBA players have rocked Beats by Dre before games for years but now the company is about to have an even larger presence in the world of basketball.
Beats by Dre revealed today that it has struck a deal that will make it the official headphone, wireless speaker and audio partner of the NBA, WNBA, NBA G League and USA Basketball starting when the preseason tips off in October.
Apple’s video offerings could soon rival the biggest streaming service in the game, according to analysts at Morgan Stanley.
Katy Huberty, who has a reputation as one of the best Apple analysts in the industry, thinks video services will be a huge driver of growth for Apple over the next few years. The company’s potential is so huge that Huberty predicts it will rival Netflix by 2025.
Spectacles by Snap are now a little easier on the eyes thanks to two new styles that add a fashionable flair to the wearable video camera.
The new Spectacles couldn’t look more different. Each has straighter lines and sharp corners, looking more like classic Ray-Ban Wayfarer frames, and should appeal to those turned off by the circular frames.
What do you want from Apple’s next iPhone? A faster processor? A better camera? A truly edge-to-edge screen without the controversial notch?
All of these things would make for nice improvements, but they’re not what most fans are asking for from their next iPhone. Better battery life is actually what tops the wish list in a survey of 1,665 Americans.
You might consider Safari to be the safest web browser for macOS, but one security researcher has proven it’s not completely bulletproof.
Patrick Wardle has demonstrated how hackers can remotely infect a Mac with malicious software using a Safari vulnerability. Apple’s built-in protections can do nothing to stop it.
“It’s this long process of demos and decisions and feedback that creates this long, iterative progression … that leads you from not-very-promising ideas to products you can ship.”
Curious what it was like to work at Apple during its Golden Age of design? What exactly did the creative process look like? On this episode of the Apple Chat podcast, I sit down with Ken Kocienda, a programmer who spent 15 years at Apple during the Steve Jobs era. He worked on the first versions of the Safari web browser, iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch. His new book, Creative Selection: Inside Apple’s Design Process During the Golden Age of Steve Jobs, chronicles his experiences working at the company and offers an inside look at the creative process that made the team successful.
On the podcast, Kocienda discusses his role in the development of the iOS keyboard, explaining how text entry evolved and offering insight into the autocorrect algorithm. He walks us through the Darwinian process of creative selection, describing how the demo pyramid functioned to provide feedback and move an idea from prototype to product. Listen in for his experience presenting a demo to Jobs himself and learn how the original spirit of the Macintosh lives on at Apple today!
WhatsApp is finally giving iPhone users media previews inside their notifications.
When you receive an image or a GIF, you’ll have the option to view it without having to unlock your phone and open WhatsApp. The new feature can be disabled if you don’t like it, however.
The six San Francisco Bay Area Apple Stores targeted by thieves in the past several weeks have one thing in common (besides the iPhones, iPads and Macs on display). They don’t have uniformed police officers on site.
Speaking about the crime spree, San Francisco Police Officers Association President Tony Montoya noted that neither the Marina or Union Square Apple Stores in San Francisco have so far been targeted by thieves. His theory about why they’ve escaped the Apple crime spree? Because both have uniformed officers stationed there.
As Apple makes moves to become a provider of streaming video content, it will be among the companies bound by new EU laws, stating that companies dedicate at least 30 percent of their on-demand catalogs to local content.
Roberto Viola, head of the European Commission department which regulates this area, says that the laws are on track to be enshrined in December. “We just need the final vote, but it’s a mere formality,” he recently told trade publication Variety.
Evernote, the popular mobile app for note taking, organizing, tasks lists, and archiving, is going through some hard times. A new report reveals that it has lost multiple senior executives — including its Chief Technology Officer, Chief Financial Officer, Chief Procurement Officer, and head of HR — in the last month.
A tipster told TechCrunch that that Evernote is in a “death spiral.” They claim that paid user growth and active user numbers remain flat, and that the company’s enterprise product offering has failed to catch on with customers.