Apple planning to offer subscription content in News app, report says

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 30, 2018

Apple is looking to add support for subscription content in its News app, Reuters reported on Tuesday. Citing sources familiar with the matter, the outlet says the move will give publishers with paywalls a new way to control who sees their articles and track who is reading them.

Such a change would help differentiate the struggling Apple News with Facebook's Instant Articles, which does not currently offer subscriber-only content. It's unclear right now how Apple plans to authenticate subscribers, or if it's going to take a cut of in-app subscription fees.

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Review: Aukey Optic Pro wide-angle camera lens attachment for iPhone [Video]

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated January 28, 2019

The Aukey Optic Pro is a wide-angle lens attachment that works with the iPhone. Thanks to its clip that can accommodate a wide variety of devices, it also works with many other tablet or phone form factors.

The main benefit to using an attachment like the Optic Pro is that you can gain a wider field of view while shooting photos or videos. This means that you don't have to move further away from your subject to capture more scenery in frame.

If you're an avid iPhone photographer, you can immediately see the benefits that a device like this can bring to the table. Not only does it quickly lend a wider field of view, but it's portable, and can be added and removed in mere seconds.

But the Aukey Optic Pro isn't without its shortcomings. Is the $44.99 device worth it? Check out our full video walkthrough for the answer.

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Spotify’s iPhone app gaining video content from BBC, Maker Studios and ESPN next week

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 26, 2016

A Spotify-branded video-streaming service that should augment its music platform has been in the works since May 2015 and now the Swedish startup is poised to launch the new product, The Wall Street Journal said yesterday.

An update to Spotify's iPhone and iPad application with support for ad-free video content for all users in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and Sweden is expected by the end of next week.

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Aura for Mac brings Quick Replies to your Gmail conversations

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 28, 2018

Unlike most desktop notifiers that merely send you to Gmail's mobile interface on the web, the most recent update to a cool Mac app called Aura actually implements Quick Reply functionality so you can reply to messages, or add a new message to any thread—right from its notification banner.

This nifty little app can save you time when you need to fire off a one-line response. It supports Gmail and Google Apps accounts, it's fully native and optimized for OS X Yosemite and El Capitan.

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Apple granted a patent which could help get rid of iPhone’s embarrassing camera bulge

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 26, 2016

Apple has just been granted a very cool patent that promises to solve the protruding camera lens on the back of the iPhone 6/6s series. The invention basically calls for packing a spherical photosensor and lens array in a tiny package.

The patent No. 9,244,253 for a “Small form factor high-resolution camera,” which was published Tuesday by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), reduces the distance between the CMOS sensor and the lens by making the sensor curved, a technique used in astronomical telescopes and instrumentation.

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VirnetX seeking to extract $532 million from Apple in patent infringement retrial

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 26, 2016

Patent holding firm VirnetX yesterday told a federal jury that Apple should be slapped with a $532 million fine over an alleged patent infringement pertaining to FaceTime, iMessage and VPN technologies used in its products, which is nearly 45 percent higher than an initial damages award vacated last year.

According to Bloomberg, the notorious patent troll “keeps moving the boundary, asking for more and more and more,” said Apple’s lawyer.

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Barclays confirms Apple Pay rollout in late March

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 26, 2016

Barclays, a large British multinational banking and financial services company headquartered in London, has confirmed that it will be rolling out support for Apple Pay sometime in late March.

In an email dated January 12 and sent to customer Oli Foster-Burnell, a copy of which was shared on Twitter and obtained by Engadget, Barclays CEO of Personal and Corporate Banking Ashok Vaswani said they will launch Apple Pay “within the next 60 to 75 days”.

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Apple Watch 2 said to enter mass production in second quarter

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 26, 2016

Following a TechCrunch report which alleged that we might not see a second-generation Apple Watch released in March, as previously rumored, Taiwan-based DigiTimes reported Tuesday that the device is scheduled to enter mass production in the second quarter of 2016.

In addition, sources told the publication that Apple Watch 2 volumes will not be high as Apple's reduced the original device's shipment forecast for 2016 down further from its estimate in the fourth quarter of 2015 amid weaker than expected shipments.

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How to use Siri to toggle system settings

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated January 24, 2018

Siri is the personal voice assistant pre-installed on your iOS device. Introduced in iOS 5, the voice assistant allows a wide variety of functions, conversions, information queries, and fun comments to be invoked with just your voice.

But did you know Siri can also be used to toggle certain system settings on or off too? In this tutorial, we'll show you how.

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Let’s Talk iOS: iPhone SE, Project Titan, making music in GarageBand, and more

Sébastien Page ∙ January 26, 2016

Episode 119: On this episode of Let's Talk iOS, Cody, Jeff, and Sebastien talk about Apple's rumored iPhone 5se, or the iPhone SE, as they'd rather call it. The discussion then shifts to Apple Watch, and project Titan. If you want to listen to Jeff come up with a song in 60 seconds+ in GarageBand, then this is an episode you must listen to.

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Support Let’s Talk iOS: Get peace of mind knowing your files are backed up securely in the cloud. Backup your Mac or PC for just $5/month. Go to backblaze.com/iDB.

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