Is watchOS 4 finally going to get the Home screen right?

Much was made of Apple’s third major software overhaul for watchOS this year with Control Center and the Dock seeing the light of day, finally making for a much beefier experience on our wrists. The one other central interface of Apple Watch received no love though, meaning users are still embroiled in a love-hate relationship with their watch’s Home screen. It is easy to let patience wear thin with respect to Apple not pushing the Home screen on Watch forward, then again it took Apple more than a couple of years to refine the iPhone’s Home screen, just to put matters into perspective.

Regardless of the pace at which Apple is planning to shape up the screen accessed by pressing the crown, design and functionality changes are eventually going to take place. It’s a highly emotive topic and any watch owner will be able to raise one or two aspects they either dislike about the Home screen or wished to be fundamentally different. Personally, with the arrival of my snappier Series 2 watch, the Home screen is about the only qualm I still have with Apple's youngest product line. So there, let me add my voice to what the Home screen in watchOS 4 needs to implement in order to catch up with the rest of the operating system.

LockLaunchApp brings up to six app shortcuts to your Lock screen

We’ve all got those special apps on our iPhones that we use more than the others, and a jailbreak tweak called LockLaunchApp intends to make accessing them easier.

As the name suggests, it will put an app launcher on your iPhone’s Lock screen that can support up to six of your favorite apps, and best of all, you can customize the appearance of the launcher too.

Apple Music student pricing now available in over 30 countries

Apple on Tuesday began offering student pricing for its streaming music service in 25 new countries, reports MacRumors. This brings the total number of regions where students can get a significant discount on Apple Music to 32.

The new countries include major markets like China and India, as well as Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Finland, France, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Switzerland, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, and the United Arab Emirates.

iOS 10 adoption rate slowly climbs to 63%

According to Apple's own measurements, iOS 10 adoption rate has climbed to 63% of active devices, as measured by the App Store on November 27, 2016, up from 60% of devices as reported by Tim Cook on stage at the "Hello Again" Mac event on October 27.

Apple announces December 23-27 iTunes Connect holiday shutdown

Apple on Tuesday announced that its annual holiday shutdown of iTunes Connect will be taking place between December 23 and December 27, 2016. iTunes Connect is a service developers and iTunes partners use to submit their apps and other content to Apple's content stores. In other words, no new apps or app updates shall surface on the App Store and Mac App Store between December 23-27.

iTunes carrier billing now available to customers in Norway and Belgium

Following a recent introduction of iTunes carrier billing in Japan, Taiwan and Switzerland, this useful feature is now available to customers in Norway and Belgium, as first noted by MacRumors on Tuesday.

With carrier billing, customers can buy media on the iTunes Store, subscribe to Apple Music and purchase apps on the App Store without a credit or debit card because purchases are added to a customer’s mobile phone bill from their carrier.

Google just released a stellar screensaver for your Mac

Got tired of the new Apple TV's gorgeous Aerial screen saver on your Mac? How about Google's own screen saver that ships on Chromecast, Fiber and Pixel devices? Your wish is Google's command: yesterday, the search giant released the stunning Featured Photos screen saver for macOS.

As its name suggests, the app adorns your Mac's built-in display and any external screens with a striking plethora of highest-rated photographs that users publicly posted on Google+. Download the app straight from Google at no charge and let us know what you think in the comments.

FDA emails reaffirm Apple may be developing a pair of cardiac monitoring devices

Thanks to a recent Freedom of Information Act filing, we now know that Apple is still interested in developing a pair of FDA-regulated devices dedicated to cardiac monitoring.

This was revealed in a recent email exchange between officials at Apple and the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which was obtained Tuesday by Mobihealthnews.

Economic Daily News reported on Apple's alleged interest in the creation of two health-tracking hardware products back in August. According to that report, the devices—one of which described as a “killer” gadget—should release some time in 2017.

“Siri, what do my pets do when I’m not home?”

It seems Apple has partnered with Universal Pictures to promote “The Secret Life of Pets” by updating Siri's backend with a bunch of responses related to the animated movie. The company's official iTunes USA Facebook page promotes Siri partnership with a nicely done teaser video.

We also spotted a dedicated “Siri, what do my pets do when I'm not home?” banner which briefly appeared in the iTunes Movies app on the Apple TV.

Take a closer look at iSpaceship’s underground auditorium, R&D building and more

Drone footage of iSpaceship site captured by YouTuber Matthew Roberts has impressed us thus far and his latest video is no exception. In addition to showing continuous progress in terms of landscaping and solar panels on the massive flying saucer-shaped building, new videos provide a closer look at an R&D building and an underground auditorium where future events will be held.

Amazon working on premium Echo model with 7″ touchscreen to “fend off competition”

Amazon Echo

Bloomberg's well-informed Mark Gurman reported Monday that online retail giant Amazon is developing a brand new premium model of its Echo wireless speaker that will feature a built-in seven-inch touchscreen in an effort to “fend off competition” from Google's Home device and Apple's rumored entry into the connected home market with its own Siri-powered hardware.

Amazon may release a higher-end Echo device, known internally as “Knight,” early next year. It will target kitchens and cost more than the current Echo models.