Apple on Wednesday added The Weeknd and The Chemical Brothers to the list of performers for its upcoming Apple Music Festival. The announcement was made live on Beats 1 Radio this afternoon, as well as the official Apple Music Twitter account.
In addition to these two acts, Apple also revealed today that the English pop group Take That will be performing at the Festival, as will James Bay and Leon Bridges. Bay will be sharing the stage with Pharrell, and Bridges with Florence + The Machine.
Apple's upcoming News app will feature content from more than 50 publishers, reports Recode. That's up significantly from the 18 it had commitments from in June, when the app was introduced, suggesting that Apple has been busy these last few months promoting the new platform.
For those that missed the WWDC unveiling, the News app is a Flipboard-like application coming to iPhones and iPads in iOS 9. The goal of the app is to present users with curated news stories and other interesting content through a beautiful UI that makes the experience more enjoyable.
CBS Sports announced on Tuesday that it will be streaming an expanded schedule of NFL coverage this year to a wide range of devices, including Apple TV. The new schedule features two regular season games, four playoff games and Super Bowl 50.
This will be the first time ever CBS offers free live streams of regular season NFL games. Coverage begins with the New York Jets and Miami in London on October 4, and continues with the Carolina Panthers vs. the Dallas Cowboys on Thanksgiving Day.
Apple on Wednesday added 18 new banks and credit unions to the growing list of Apple Pay-supporting issuers in the United States. With these additions, Apple Pay is now compatible with more than 450 financial institutions nationwide.
Launched in October of last year, Apple Pay is a mobile payment service that allows users to pay for goods and services using their iPhone or Apple Watch. It’s accepted at hundreds of thousands of retailers and restaurants around the country.
Apple has hired yet another former Tesla engineer for its growing Project Titan team, reports MacRumors. The site points to the LinkedIn profile of Hal Ockerse, which shows he was an engineering manager at the electric car company before joining Apple in August as a "software engineer."
Ockerse's profile doesn't offer any details about his new position, but he's likely working on Apple's "Titan" electric car project. At Tesla, he worked on hardware architecture and advanced driver assistance system components, such as hi-res cameras, radars, LiDAR and engine control units.
Apple is exploring getting into the original programming business, reports Variety. Citing sources familiar with the matter, the outlet claims the company has held "preliminary conversations" in recent weeks with Hollywood executives to suss out their interest in producing entertainment content.
It's unclear how large Apple's ambitions are at the moment, but one source says the endgame is to set up development and production divisions that would churn out long-form content in a bid to compete with Netflix, and the like. They say these divisions could be operational as early as next year.
Apple on Monday released the eighth OS X El Capitan beta to developers. The new build is available to registered developers via the Updates section of the Mac App Store or through Apple’s Developer Center.
There's also a new build available to those participating in Apple's pubic testing program. It's beta 6, though it's likely identical to today's dev release, and you can either find it in the Mac App Store or click here.
The next-generation Apple TV will launch in October for less than $200, reports 9to5Mac. Citing sources familiar with the matter, the outlet claims that company executives are still finalizing pricing, but the latest options call for a starting price of either $149 or $199.
Since this will be considerably more expensive than other streaming media devices on the market, 9to5Mac says that Apple plans to keep the current third-gen Apple TV around. Its more modest $69 price tag will serve as an entry-level product into the Apple TV line.
Some new photos surfaced this weekend, showing what is said to be the front face of an iPhone 6s. 9to5Mac shares the high resolution images of the claimed component, which appears to offer up insight into two of the unannounced handset's new features.
The first is a higher resolution FaceTime camera. We've been hearing rumors for a while now that the iPhone 6s will feature an improved front-facing camera for taking better selfies, and if legitimate, this part confirms it with a larger FaceTime camera sensor.
The new Apple TV expected to be unveiled at next month's event will feature a remote control with motion sensors, reports TechCrunch. Citing reliable sources, the site says the remote "likely includes several axis’ worth of sensors that put its control on par with a Nintendo Wii remote."
Apple has for years been rumored to be tinkering with motion control. The iPhone-maker has acquired multiple companies with expertise and proprietary technology related to the field, and it has filed several patent applications over the last 5 years regarding motion-sensing inventions.
Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Thursday that the social network passed a significant milestone this week. On August 24, more than 1 billion people used Facebook in a single day for the first time ever.
"When we talk about our financials, we use average numbers, but this is different," Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post this afternoon. "On Monday, 1 in 7 people on Earth used Facebook to connect with their friends and family."
Apple on Thursday named "Nighty Night Circus" its featured App of the Week in the App Store. This means for the next 7 days, you will be able to download the popular bedtime story and lullaby app for kids for free—saving you a solid $3.
The sequel to Apple's 2012 App of the Year, Nighty Night!, Nighty Night Circus allows children to play with a variety of circus animals and tuck them in as they go to sleep. The app features beautiful imagery, great narration and lullaby music.