Apple on Wednesday began emailing developers regarding the launch of App Store Search Ads. The ads will go live in the App Store on October 5, and for a limited time qualified developers can get a $100 credit toward their first campaign.
The Search Ads have been in beta testing since the feature was announced in June. Apple describes it as an "efficient and easy way to promote apps at the top of relevant search results," and promises this won't negatively affect app searches.
Spotify is in advanced talks to acquire SoundCloud, reports the Financial Times. The streaming music service believes the buyout could help it better compete with competitors like Apple Music thanks to its large library of exclusive and user-created content.
Your expressive Messages app for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch packs in some interesting and useful features related to emojis. For added impact, emojis can be made three times their normal size.
But that's not all.
Apple's stock QuickType keyboard now recommends emojis as you type and Messages has a cool emojification feature where you tap words to turn them into appropriate emoji characters.
We're going to take you through all emoji-related features in Messages for iOS and teach you how to use them. Are you ready to boost your emoji game?
Apple is moving rapidly toward the launch of new MacBook Pro models, reports MacRumors. The site says it has learned that macOS 10.12.1 is largely focused on preparing the operating system to support the new laptop's features, and it hopes to finalize the update by the end of next week so it can be loaded on the new hardware currently being produced by Apple's supply chain.
A new report is out on Wednesday, claiming that Apple logs your iMessage contacts and may share them with police. The Intercept published the piece, along with an internal law enforcement document that shows Apple tracks information like IP addresses, phone numbers and time, and stores it for up to 30 days.
At first glance, the report can be a bit unsettling, conjuring thoughts like: "isn't Apple always preaching about user privacy" and "I thought iMessage was one of the most secure messaging services, thanks to its end-to-end encryption." But it doesn't take much digging to realize this is likely much ado about nothing.
Apple Music ranks highest among customers in the just-released 2016 J.D. Power Streaming Music Satisfaction Study. The high profile marketing research firm says the 1-year old streaming service beat out veterans like Pandora and Spotify in 3 of the 6 measures in its study, and first overall.
Apple on Wednesday announced a strategic partnership with Deloitte. The company is recognized as the largest professional services network in the world by revenue and headcount, so the relationship should help Apple in its efforts to push further into the enterprise space. The duo plan to "transform the way companies work using iOS devices."
Apple's new jet black iPhone 7 is what I believe to be the flagship finish for this year's iPhone. This is the one that Apple features in most of its promo materials, and I assume this is the one Jony Ive is carrying right now in his man purse, along with early prototypes of the iPhone 8.
Getting that gorgeous glossy finish isn't exactly an easy process. According to Apple, "the new jet black finish is accomplished through an innovative nine-step process of anodization and polish for a uniform, glossy finish, achieving its beautiful, high-gloss black finish even required a new process."
But what is jet black anyway?
Unbelievably, some of the techies I spoke to believe that maybe, somehow, the 3.5mm headphone jack will make a comeback in the next year's iPhone. That ship has sailed, of course, but that's not stopping pranksters and jokers on YouTube from milking the headphone jack meme for all it's worth, like a video titled “Secret Hack To Get Headphone Jack on the iPhone 7” from YouTuber TechRax.
In it, TechRax suggests that users drill a hole in their brand spanking new iPhone 7 in order to access a supposedly hidden headphone jack inside the device.
Ever since Apple integrated support for Twitter sharing into iOS, I've been an avid Twitter user. It's where I get the majority of my tech headlines, an occasional dose of national or world news that makes it past my Tweetbot mute filters, and how I discover most of my new apps and friends, even. It also happens to be where my app discoveries, tech opinions, and bad jokes get posted. If you're not following me on Twitter, you're probably better off for it, but I'd appreciate you giving it some consideration regardless.
All this results in me becoming keenly interested when a new Twitter app is released, and the latest addition to the many clients I've tried is Leaf, a brand new app designed by Surenix and developed by iPlop, both prominent members of the jailbreak scene. Based on my experiences thus far, Leaf is best described as an alternative to Twitter's official client rather than an opponent of Tweetbot, the Twitter power user's app of choice. If you dislike Tweetbot for whatever reason but aren't entirely satisfied with Twitter's default option, Leaf may be for you.
The ailing Canadian smartphone maker BlackBerry has finally admitted defeat: after years of struggling to turn around its phone business, the company said today it'll stop designing its own smartphones and pivot focus on software. Any future hardware efforts will rely on partners as the company ceases internal development of smartphones, Recode reports.
Apple has reportedly reached out to a handful of high profile iPhone and Mac hackers to try and secure their operating systems from exploits that could be used maliciously or for jailbreaking.
The hackers are expected to meet at the Cupertino campus some time this month, where they can earn up to $200,000 for finding major exploits as part of Apple's bug bounty program.