Apple has acquired talent and technology from defunct streaming music startup Omnifone, reports TechCrunch. It's not a full buyout, so you're not going to see the usual "Apple buys smaller companies from time to time" statement, but the outlet says it's hired at least 16 of their employees and purchased select technology.
Fake apps that pretend to be from well-known brands have been an incredibly annoying issue for almost as long as the App Store has existed. Like clockwork, apps that spoof big brands manage to make their way into the App Store ahead of a pre-holiday surge and this year's no different.
As The New York Times reports, rogue app factories in China have been busy churning out counterfeit shopping apps by the hundreds, with one particular developer being responsible for an avalanche of fake apps for brands like Puma, Nike, Canada Goose, Celine and others.
Beware these apps as they're scams designed to fool you into providing your passwords and credit card data. Thankfully, Apple is clamping down on the latest round of fake apps as the Great App Store Purge continues unabated.
As you know, Apple shuttered its in-app iAd advertising network back in the summer because selling ads is “just not something we’re good at”. A new report this morning from Recode revealed that the iPhone maker is leaving the creation, selling and management of ads on its Apple News service to the ad sales teams over at NBCUniversal.
“Apple is going to hand over ad sales for the app to Comcast’s NBCUniversal in an exclusive deal that starts in January,” reports the outlet.
Apple released the second betas of iOS 10.2 and tvOS 10.1 on Monday and in them, it included its new TV app. The company introduced the new app at its 'hello again' Mac event last month, saying they believe it's going to "completely change how you watch TV."
TV is essentially a television guide that helps you find and discover available content. So after using Single Sign-On to login with your cable credentials, the app will populate with movies, TV shows and live events, with a focus on stuff you might be interested in.
Apple on Monday seeded the second beta of iOS 10.2 to developers. Folks enrolled in Apple’s developer program can install the update via the over-the-air mechanism in the Settings app, or from the dev center.
Beta 2 comes one week after the first beta was released, which revealed a number of user-facing changes and improvements like new wallpaper and emoji. Today's beta adds onto that with Apple's new TV app.
User-submitted reviews on the App Store can be quite mean. There's no denying the fact that people too often slam app makers with 1-star reviews without much thinking.
Now, some of the most unfavorable app ratings are based on complaints about the most mundane things such as the size of the font, the color palettes or the lack of features users think developers should have prioritized over the others and what not.
In case you haven't yet seen this video in which well-known developers read aloud some of the 1-star reviews their apps contend with, give it a quick watch now and meet us in comments.
The MacBook Pro controversy isn't dying down yet so Apple dispatched Craig Federighi, its Senior Vice President of Software Engineering, who discussed the new Pro and thinking behind the Touch Bar feature in a short video interview with CNET in which he also defends no-touchscreen Mac stance.
He goes on to reveal that Apple had in fact built several touchscreen prototypes that however didn't impress Apple executives enough to greenlight the project.
Variety is reporting today that U.S. wireless carrier AT&T will incentivize customers to subscribe to its DirecTV Now Internet-based live TV service by gifting a free Apple TV to each and every customer who commits to at least three months of paid service. AT&T earlier this month announced plans to acquire the media conglomerate Time Warner for $80 billion.
Google today pushed an update to Gmail for iOS, bringing out several new productivity-focused enhancements. Gmail 5.0.3 for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, a free download from the App Store, has been overhauled to make navigation easier than before. More importantly, the refreshed mobile Gmail client packs in an Undo Send feature, improved search with spelling suggestions, a new swipe to archive or delete feature and more.
Mac and Linux games publisher Feral Interactive has confirmed today that it will be bringing the iconic PC strategy game ROME: Total War to the iPad this coming Thursday. “On November 10, the grandeur, glory and brutality of Ancient Rome comes to iPad,” said the company.
The premium title is priced at $9.99 and includes no In-App Purchases whatsoever. Feral is promising touch-friendly controls, optimized Retina graphics with updated textures and other enhancements.
This marks the first time ROME: Total War has been ported to mobile devices.
As we reported, Samsung last month bought Viv Labs, a San Jose startup co-founded by former Siri creators who have developed a brand new Viv artificial intelligence assistant. The Galaxy maker has now confirmed to Reuters that it will be integrating Viv technology into an advanced personal digital assistant of its own.
Samsung's Viv-based AI assistant will debut on next year's Galaxy S8. According to The Wall Street Journal, the handset should have a dedicated button to summon the new service though the Galaxy S8 may be delayed until April following the costly Note 7 debacle rather than at the Mobile World Congress trade show in February.
The fairly reliable Japanese blog Mac Otakara is reporting that Apple is considering adding a brand new colorway to the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus lineup: Jet White. Based on purported information received from suppliers, the outlet speculates Apple may be planning to add a Jet White model to the iPhone 7 lineup, although plans could change and Apple could abandon the idea. Mac Otakara cautioned that its sources “may be unreliable.”