Year: 2016

Sage Bionetworks co-founder joins Apple to work on health projects

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 23, 2016

Sage Bionetworks said in a media release today that is president and co-founder Dr. Stephen Friend has joined Apple. “Dr. Friend has accepted a position with Apple Inc. where he will work on health-related projects,” reads the release.

He will stay on as Sage's chairman of the board.

Sage was one of the launch partners for ResearchKit, a framework Apple launched in March 2015 to accelerate advanced medical research by allowing medical professionals to create iOS apps which tap into the iPhone's many sensors to collect anonymized data on various diseases and symptoms.

Obstacles to launching Apple Music in Korea reportedly removed

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 23, 2016

Although Apple had previously attempted to roll out its subscription-based music-streaming service in Korea, the Cupertino firm ultimately failed to reach a consensus with local music copyright associations. But as of recently, Tim Cook & Co. have apparently managed to cut deals with local right holders and copyright associations.

As a result, the service could launch in South Korea, a 50 million people market, sooner than later, according to a news report today by The Korea Herald. No firm date for the launch was given at post time.

Purported iPhone 7 pricing leaks: 256GB version across all models, ‘iPhone 7 Pro’ mentioned

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 23, 2016

Citing a post on Chinese social network Weibo, PocketNow reported this morning that the flagship 256-gigabyte version of the iPhone 7 Plus could price-match the top-of-the-line 128-gigabyte iPhone 6s Plus model. According to the leaked pricing, the next iPhone lineup would include 32/64/256GB models for the 4.7-inch iPhone 7.

Its bigger brother, the 5.5-inch iPhone 7 Plus, somewhat strangely gets listed with 32/128/256GB storage choices. The Chinese price list also mentions a brand new model for the upcoming iPhone refresh, referred to as 'iPhone 7 Pro'.

iTunes 12.4 bug causing Apple Music playback issues with tracks shorter than 60 seconds

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 23, 2016

There seems to be a bug in iTunes 12.4 which causes playback issues with Apple Music tracks shorter than 60 seconds, MacRumors reported today.

The problem allegedly stems from a buffering bug that apparently causes iTunes to never begin downloading the next song in the queue if it's shorter than 60 seconds. Basically, iTunes is left waiting for a download to finish that has in fact never started. The bug has been reported to Apple and we expect it to be fixed in a future iTunes update.

Instagram is working on a text translation feature

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 23, 2016

Yesterday, Instagram took to its own photo-sharing service to announce that it's working on a text translation for its mobile app. The new feature will begin rolling out in the coming month.

A Translation button will appear on feed stories and profile bios if they're written in languages different from your own. Captions and comments on posts in your feed and the bio on your profile will be translated automatically based on the language they're written in and the language settings of the person viewing it.

T-Mobile offering free 4G data to US customers traveling in Europe this summer

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 23, 2016

Deutsche Telekom-owned carrier T-Mobile USA on Thursday announced a new promotion which gives postpaid customers free unlimited 4G LTE data across all of Europe, except Andora, between July 1 and August 31, 2016. Only postpaid customers who reside in the United States and primary use T-Mobile's US network are eligible for this promotion. In addition to free data, texting is free and calls are just 20 cents a minute throughout Europe and a host of other destinations.

Apple explains why iOS 10 kernel is unencrypted

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 23, 2016

Following the discovery by MIT Technology Review that the kernel in iOS 10 beta is unencrypted, Apple has gone on the record to explain why that's the case. Speaking with Dave Mark of The Loop, an Apple spokesperson has officially confirmed that the decision was intentional.

Now, some security experts speculated that leaving the iOS 10 kernel unencrypted would aid anyone, nefarious users included, looking for security weaknesses in the iOS software.

Apple explains why such fears are unfounded.

The new Music app in iOS 10: a big bold confusing mess

Sébastien Page ∙ June 23, 2016

Apple Music is a great service, but the confusing and bloated user interface of the application has been criticized since the app was first released about a year ago. So when rumors started popping up that Apple had been working on simplifying the app, many got really excited, myself included.

Yet, when Apple showed off the new Music app on stage at WWDC a little over a week ago, I didn’t see anything simpler or more streamlined about the app. It’s only when I started using iOS 10 beta and the new Music app that my fears were confirmed.

Now that I’ve been playing with the Music app for a few days, I feel I have enough feedback to share a few quick thoughts with you. Don’t worry, it’s not all bad.

This tweak lets you send images via direct message in Tweetbot

Anthony Bouchard ∙ June 23, 2016

There are a lot of people who choose to stick with the stock Twitter app because of Tweetbot 4's price, but it is, without a doubt, one of the most popular third-party Twitter client apps out there for iOS devices.

Nevertheless, its popularity doesn't make it perfect; there is one major downfall to Tweetbot 4 that many users find a little upsetting, and it's that you can't send photos in a direct message.

In comes a new jailbreak tweak dubbed Delen for Tweetbot, which now enables the feature for Tweetbot 4 users.

Tip: customizing the toolbar of your Mac’s Mail app

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated November 11, 2020

Your Mac's Mail app is a powerful email client, and for many, the default app configuration in plenty for getting day-to-day email tasks done.

But for those who demand more power and functionality, it's a great idea to customize the toolbar at the top of the Mail app so you have quick and easy access to the functions you use the most.

In this tutorial, we'll show you how to customize the toolbar at the top of your Mac's Mail app so you can get more out of it.

Rumor: iPhone 7 to feature relocated ambient light sensor, larger earpiece

Cody Lee ∙ Updated May 7, 2018

While the iPhone 7 isn't expected to feature any major changes, Mac Otakara reports that there will be some notable differences on the front of the handset. Citing supply chain sources, the outlet says the device will feature an updated proximity sensor, a relocated ambient light sensor and larger earpiece.

WhatsApp is about to get a whole lot better

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 22, 2016

Facebook-owned WhatsApp has some notable improvements in the pipeline, including support for large emoji characters, all-new public groups, the ability to share locally stored tracks and Apple Music songs with friends and family, deeper Facebook integration, profile codes, stickers and multi-account support, to name a few.

But we're just getting started.