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A fascinating look at how artificial intelligence and machine learning work at Apple

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 22, 2017

Respected journalist Steven Levy has scored another nice exclusive with a new write-up over at Backchannel, a Wired Media Group property, giving us a rare inside look at how artificial intelligence and machine learning work at Apple.

The article contains a lot of gems, with company executives Eddy Cue, Craig Federighi, Phil Schiller and Siri leads Tom Gruber and Alex Acero providing a bunch of previously unknown facts about Apple's AI efforts, including this one: machine learning has enabled Apple to cut Siri's error rate by a factor or two.

Twelve South launches BookBook and SurfacePad cases for 9.7″ iPad Pro

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 24, 2016

Premium accessory maker Twelve South today added a new 9.7" iPad Pro-optimized member to its vintage-style Book Book cases, three months following Book Book for 12.9-inch iPad Pro that debuted in early-summer. The company also said that customers can now pick up Surface Pad covers for their 9.7-inch iPad Pro. The new Book Book for the 9.7-inch tablet is priced at $79.99, or $99.99 for the Rutledge Edition.

As for the stylish SurfacePad sleeve for the 9.7-inch iPad Pro, it'll set you back $79.99.

Apple customers spend an estimated $1 per day

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 24, 2016

A lot has been said about Apple's various services like the iTunes and App Stores, Apple Pay, Apple Music, Apple Care and others now making more money than its Mac business. In the June quarter, for example, the Services category shot up 20 percent year-over-year, raking in nearly $6 billion in quarterly revenue and making Services the second largest part of Apple's revenue overall.

Services allow Apple to generate a steady stream of revenue from existing devices, leading Asymco analyst Horace Dediu to estimate in an interview with The Financial Times that, including hardware and software, existing Apple customers currently spend around $1 per day.

Obviously fake iPhone 6SE packaging photos are circulating around the Internet

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 24, 2016

Some reputable outlets are running supposed photographs of the supposed packaging for Apple's supposed 'iPhone 6SE' smartphone—despite the fact that the images have been identified as poorly faked Photoshop mockups. The understandable excitement around those obviously doctored shots stems from a very sketchy post by German blog Apfelpage.de.

Earlier in the summer, that outlet made unsubstantiated claims that Apple might market the iPhone 7 under the 'iPhone 6SE' moniker or perhaps release an updated iPhone SE with iPhone 6-style design, neither of which makes any sense to me.

You can now mark recommended videos as ‘Not Interested’ in YouTube for iOS

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 24, 2016

Google today issued a small update to its YouTube client on the App Store, adding a feature that enables better suggestions while fixing three annoying bugs.

Bumped to version 11.32, the iPhone and iPad application now makes it easy to improve personalized suggestions by marking recommended videos under the Up Next section as “Not Interested,” which helps train the algorithm to better tailor recommendations to your personal tastes.

Three jailbreak tweaks for Pokémon GO to try right now

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated September 13, 2016

Two things of great interest for iPhone owners as of late are Pokémon GO and the new Pangu jailbreak for iOS 9.3.3.

So if you were fans of both worlds, and you want to somehow combine the two, then get ready for our roundup of some of the best jailbreak tweaks for use with Pokémon GO.

Spotify looking to lower its revenue share with music labels

Cody Lee ∙ Updated May 1, 2018

Spotify is out of contract with all three major music companies, and according to Music Business Worldwide, the renegotiations aren't going well. Citing sources familiar with the talks, the outlet says the sticking point is revenue share.

With Spotify preparing for an IPO, the labels see this as a great opportunity to get the streaming company to raise its revenue split from around 55% to 58%, which is what Apple Music pays. Spotify, however, wants to lower the amount.

Pinterest just bought Instapaper

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 23, 2016

In a newsworthy move that in all likelihood makes lots of sense, the photo sharing service Pinterest has acquired Pinterest, the popular app and web service for saving webpages to read later.

According to the announcement, Pinterest will continue to develop and maintain the mobile Instapaper app, available at no charge on the App Store.

Facebook testing autoplaying videos with sound

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated July 26, 2023

What could be worse than those pesky autoplaying videos on Facebook? Autoplaying videos that begin playing audio automatically as you scroll past them in your News Feed, but of course! And that's precisely what Facebook is currently experimenting with, according to Mashable.

At the moment, the company is currently testing two methods of getting users to watch video with sound: one involving autoplaying videos with sound and the other with an Unmute button on the lower right corner of such videos.

Amazon wants to create a $5 per month music service just for Echo owners

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 23, 2016

Owners of the Echo wireless speaker with built-in Alexa assistant may soon be treated to Amazon's new music-subscription service that charges half as much as competing offerings from Spotify, Apple, Google and others. The bargain-priced music service should cost between $4 and $5 per month, Re/Code reports, and would only work on Echo hardware.

This just made my day: Oceanhorn 2 is in development—and it looks awesome!

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 23, 2016

Inspired by Nintendo's wildly popular Legend of Zelda console game series, Oceanhorn by Cornfox & Bros is one of the best-looking, most satisfying RPG-based action adventure games “for the rest of us” that I've had a blast playing on my iPhone, iPad and Apple TV.

Ever since completing the game, I've been rooting for Oceanhorn's developers to make a sequel and now, GameMob points us to the official confirmation that it's indeed being worked on as we speak.

Titled Oceanhorn 2: Knights of the Lost Realm, the game's mechanics are based on a third-person camera angle versus the original game's isometric view. The storyline revolves around a new hero—a grown-up boy who is training to become a Knight of Arcadia.

Apple taps Primax Electronics for some of dual-lens camera modules for iPhone 7 Plus line

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 23, 2016

Citing a report in the Chinese-language Economic Daily News, Asian trade publication DigiTimes reported this morning that Taiwanese supplier Primax Electronics will manufacture some of the dual-lens camera modules for Apple's upcoming iPhone 7 Plus flagship smartphone model.

The supplier recently increased its camera module capacity by ten percent, boosting output to twelve million CMOS units per month, of which seventy percent are thirteen-megapixel models that the iPhone 7 Plus might use.