Year: 2016

Apple Maps adds TrainLink and bus routes for Australia’s New South Wales

After previously introducing limited transit support for Sydney Trains in Australia, Apple's now expanded transit directions in the country with the addition of TrainLink and bus routes for both Sydney and New South Wales, Mac Prices Australia discovered.

With a silent backend update, Apple Maps customers in New South Wales can now start taking advantage of public transport information for trams, series and interstate services, including buses and trains, while detailing stations with entry points.

Apple Pay picks up ANZ support in Australia

Apple Pay has gained support for credit and debit cards from the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ), with the exception of the ANZ MasterCard cards and corporate cards, Reuters has confirmed yesterday.

Following the initial launch of Apple Pay in Australia with support from American Express back in November 2015, Apple Pay is currently available in a total of six major markets: The United States, Canada, The United Kingdom, Australia, China and Singapore.

Periscope gains live-sketching feature, broadcasts come alive within Twitter for iOS

Wouldn't it be great if you could doodle over live video broadcasts on Periscope? With Periscope's latest iPhone app refresh, now you can! The latest version of the Twitter-owned app lets you draw with your finger on top of a live video feed in any color you want, like a boss.

Your drawings automatically disappear after a few moments, similar to the Apple Watch’s sketching feature, and remain visible on Periscope replays.

CareKit goes live with four compatible health apps, with more to come

Apple's open-source CareKit framework has gone live this morning with support for a handful of specialized health applications for the iPhone and iPad, including the Glow Nurture fertility tracker, Glow Baby maternity app, diabetes monitor One Drop and depression medication tracker Start.

TechCrunch reports that additional CareKit-driven apps will be released at a later stage. The source code for CareKit should be released on GitHub later today.

Google Maps for iOS gains Travel Times widget, Night mode and other new features in latest update

Google yesterday pushed an update for its native Maps application on the App Store, bringing out a few newsworthy features and enhancements.

Google Maps 4.18 for iOS introduces a new Travel Times widget which lets commuters check a live travel time estimation to their home or work right within the Notification Center's Today view.

In addition, the app's gained a new built-in option for sharing directions with contacts. Plus, there's a brand new Night mode and distance units settings in navigation.

Add artistic flair to your photos with Filters, a free Mac app with 30 effects

Like the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, the Mac supports third-party extensions inside Apple's stock Photos app.

This potentially powerful capability makes it simple for Mac owners to touch up their photographs using compatible third-party filters without leaving Photos.

Filters, a new app from California-based MacPhun, boosts your photography with as many as thirty artistic and creative filters.

You can use Filters either as a Photos extension or run the software standalone in case you prefer to edit your images outside of Photos.

New betas: iOS 9.3.2 (public only), tvOS 9.2.1 (dev only) and El Capitan 10.11.5 (dev+public)

Just 24 hours after iOS 9.3.2 beta 3 released to Apple's registered developers, the Cupertino company on Wednesday made the software available to public beta testers who are signed up for the Apple Beta Software Program. In addition, Apple posted new betas of tvOS 9.2.1 and OS X El Capitan 10.11.5 for members of its Apple Developer Program.

The new tvOS 9.2.1 beta 3 (build 13Y768) and OS X El Capitan 10.11.5 beta 3 (build 15F28b) can be obtained via Apple's portal for developers.

Safari Technology Preview Release 3 is out with a long list of fixes

Apple today launched a third update for Safari Technology Preview, an experimental version of the desktop Safari browser for developers to try and test out upcoming web technologies. Safari Technology Preview Release 3 includes a long list of bug fixes and tweaks for various web technologies, including JavaScript, CSS, Web APIs, Web Inspector, Accessibility, Rendering, Media and Networking.

Japanese magazine shares detailed ‘iPhone 7 Pro’ design schematics

In its June 2016 edition, Japanese monthly Mac Fan brings purported design schematics of Apple's upcoming iPhone 7 Plus model, which they refer to as an 'iPhone 7 Pro’. The drawings reaffirm upcoming features such as the removal of the 3.5mm headphone jack, a dual-lens camera on the back and roughly the same dimensions as the current-generation iPhone 6s Plus model.