Let’s Talk iOS 105: The summer is magic

Episode 105: We discuss Apple's new Magic Mouse 2, Magic Trackpad 2, and Magic Keyboard. The new iMacs. The value of Apple Care. Latest thoughts on the Apple Watch. A talk about Marco Arment's change in business model with Overcast.

Support Let's Talk iOS and do yourself a favor. Go to casper.com/ios to get $50 off a Caper mattress purchase. You'll thank us later!

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Cook on how new Apple TV will fix a ‘terrible, broken’ process of watching television

Apple's fourth-generation set-top box, the $149 Apple TV, is launching next week and it won't be just a hardware upgrade. For the first time since the Apple TV's 2007 debut Apple is providing a software platform to enable third-party experiences on your big screen TV.

Discussing the sad state of the television industry and talking about how Apple can improve a “terrible, broken” process of watching television during the Wall Street Journal’s WSJ.D Live conference in Laguna Beach, California last night, Cook said that Apple's new tvOS platform represents a “foundation” for the kinds of experiences his company aims to deliver to consumers.

Apple CEO predicts ‘massive change’ coming to autonomous driving

Apple CEO Tim Cook is one of the few people in the technology industry who have an uncanny insight into the future of technology so little wonder his vague hints at his company's next moves are being carefully scrutinized by pundits and examined for meaning.

When it comes to the automobile industry, Cook has once again deflected iCar-related questions, refusing to acknowledge the existence of the company's rumored electric car, dubbed Project Titan.

That, however, didn't stop him from teasing that the car industry is at an “inflection point for massive change” during his interview last night at the Wall Street Journal’s WSJ.D Live conference in Laguna Beach, California.

Cook: Apple Watch sales accelerating, new health features in development

Apple CEO Tim Cook discussed a variety of topics at the Wall Street Journal’s WSJ.D Live conference last night in Laguna Beach, California, including confirming pre-sales for the new Apple TV next Monday and revealing that Apple Music currently has 6.5 million paid customers.

And while Cook was mum on Apple Watch sales—”We don't want to give information to competitors,” he said—he did allude to additional health-related functions coming to Apple's wearable platform in the future.

Apple Music has convinced 6.5 million users to pay for the service past the free trial

Following the expiration of the inaugural three-month free trial at the end of September, Apple Music has convinced approximately 6.5 million users to stay with the service as paying subscribers and currently has 8.5 million more customers on three-month trials, said Apple CEO Tim Cook at the Wall Street Journal’s WSJ.D Live conference last night in Laguna Beach, California.

“The runway here is really good,” Cook said. By comparison, the leading subscription music service Spotify currently has more than 20 million paying customers.

On the other hand, Spotify's service has been on the market for a few years now, since 2008, so it is my personal opinion that Apple should be commended for getting a quarter of Spotify's subscriber base in just a few short months.

LUNATIK EPIK Apple Watch Kit offers rugged protection in a handsome package

I would argue that it was the LunaTik and TikTok watch kits for the iPod nano, not the Pebble, that sparked initial consumer interest in smartwatches. Two years before Pebble's Kickstarter debut, the two kits garnered $1 million on the crowdfunding site from folks who wanted to wear their nanos on their wrists.

Fast forward to this summer, and Minimal, the company responsible for those kits, returned to Kickstarter with a similar accessory for the Apple Watch. It's called the LUNATIK EPIK, and it's a premium case and strap solution, that offers rugged protection for Apple's [42MM] smartwatch in a handsome package.

Apple TV 4 orders go live on October 26th, and ship at the end of next week

Mark your calendars, ladies and gentlemen. Orders will go live for Apple's highly anticipated Apple TV refresh on Monday.

At the Wall Street Journal backed WSJDLive conference in Laguna Beach, Calif., Apple CEO Tim Cook was interviewed about a variety of different topics, including Apple Watch, CarPlay, Apple Music, and of course, the Apple TV 4.

In the interview, Cook spilled the beans about the Apple TV 4th generation order date and shipment time frame...

How to install Kodi on iOS 9

Kodi (formerly XBMC) has been updated to work with iOS 9. Prior to the update, the package would download and install on your jailbroken iOS device, but would crash upon startup. The folks behind Kodi just pushed an update that fixes the crashing issue.

We've talked about this app many times on iDB and via our Let's Talk Jailbreak podcast. Kodi is one of the best apps for viewing media content, and streaming media content from an IP based over the air antenna solution on iOS. You can also use Kodi to stream local content from a NAS or from a PC.

Needless to day, Kodi has lots of uses, and now it's officially available for iOS 9. In this post, we'll show you how to add the repo necessary to install Kodi on your iPhone or iPad running Apple's latest version of iOS.

You can now purchase iOS 9-ready tweaks in Cydia

Saurik has "flipped the switch" in Cydia to allow purchases for device and OS-compatible jailbreak apps and tweaks for iOS 9. That means that any tweak that has been properly updated for iOS 9 can now be enabled for sale by Cydia developers.

While this is a definite first step to being able to have a normal Cydia experience with the iOS 9 jailbreak, developers will still have to update packages and enable their tweaks and apps for sale. In other words, you may find a handful of tweaks out there that can be properly purchased and downloaded, but it's still going to take a while for developers to properly catch up.

How to quickly locate a specific setting on your Mac

Just like the familiar Settings application on an iPhone, iPod touch and iPad, the macOS System Preferences is probably the most frequently used application on your Mac.

If you're new to the Mac, System Preferences—much like the Control Panel on Windows—is a one-stop shop for adjusting various settings on your computer. Various settings are categorized into logical sections and laid out as a grid of  preference pane icons.

In this post, we're going to outline five different time-saving ways to jump quickly into any specific setting nested within System Preferences.

Boston transit data and Amtrak routes for Northeastern U.S. launch on Apple Maps

In addition to bringing Yellow Pages-powered business listings to Apple Maps customers in Canada, the Cupertino firm has apparently refreshed a Maps backend in the United States, adding transit directions for Boston and multiple Amtrak routes in the Northeastern United States.

The longest Amtrak route available runs from Chicago to New York. As first noted by MacRumors, other supported routes with transit directions include the Northeast Regional, Acela Express, Keystone, Lake Shore Limited, Pennsylvanian and Maple Leaf.

Apple partners with Yellow Pages on local Maps business listings in Canada

Apple and Yellow Pages have partnered to bring Apple Maps customers in Canada rich business data like address, phone numbers, URLs, category, hours of operations, photos, ratings, reviews and more.

“We are pleased to bring our YP.ca local business listings data to Apple Maps,” said Matthieu Houle, Vice-President, Digital Media of Yellow Pages, in a media release Monday. Apple's Maps acknowledgements page now lists Yellow Pages as a data provider in Canada.