Apple posted a new video to its YouTube channel Thursday night called "Backstage." Those who watched Monday's WWDC keynote will recognize the comedy sketch, which aired at the beginning of the live stream before Tim Cook took the stage.
The four and a half minute video stars SNL alum Bill Hader as director David LeGary, who is attempting to produce an over-the-top opening number for WWDC. It features several celebrity cameos, and inside jokes about apps and Silicon Valley.
Apple has leased a large office space in Oxford Development Company's 3 Crossings project in Pittsburgh, reports the Pittsburgh Business Times. The Cupertino firm is slated to take a floor and a half, or 26,000 square feet, when the building opens in the fall.
The deal is interesting because there's no word on what Apple plans to do with the space—it's clearly too big for retail, but also smaller than the company typically rents out for standard office stuff. In Sunnyvale, Ca, for example, it's leasing 290,000 square feet.
Twitter on Thursday announced that it will be removing the 140-character limit in Direct Messages. Starting in July, DMs will have a new limit of 10,000 characters, bringing it in line with other instant messaging services.
The move makes sense, given that the nature of a DM is typically more private and intimate than that of a Tweet, thus requiring more typing space. Twitter says the character limit for public-facing Tweets will remain at 140.
Apple has just named “Slayin” its App of the Week for this week. This means that from now through next Thursday, you’ll be able to download the endless action RPG for both iPhone and iPad for free—a respectable savings of a buck.
In Slayin, players are asked to choose from one of six heroes, including a knight and ninja, and use them to slay as many monsters as possible. They'll also be tasked with leveling up and acquiring equipment and spells along the way.
Twitter has expanded its beta testing program to iOS, according to TechCrunch. The social network confirmed to the publication that it recently launched a new "Twitter for iOS Experiments Program," which will allow some users to test experimental features ahead of public release.
The new program works very similar to its Android sibling, which launched in 2013. Select users will receive a pop-up notification at the top of their Twitter feed in the iPhone app that asks if they would like to participate in "Experiments" to help test out bug fixes and new features.
Apple's high profile manufacturing partner Foxconn Technology is in talks with government officials to build iPhones in India, reports Reuters. An Industries Minister told the publication that "Foxconn is sending a delegation of their officers to scout for locations in a month's time."
Altogether the Taiwanese-based tech giant, which is the world's larger contract maker of electronics, is aiming to develop 10-12 facilities in India, including factories and data centers. No additional details regarding the plans were given, but Reuters says the goal is to be done by 2020.
From time to time, you might see a Carrier Settings Update message pop up on your iPhone, saying that new settings are available, and asking if you would like to update them now. Admittedly, this message is somewhat cryptic, and doesn't give you any information regarding what's included in the update or where it's coming from. Maybe even worth, I've had a friend ask me once if his iPhone got hacked as the message looked suspicious to him. In this post, we'll tell you more about carrier settings updates, what they are, and how to check for them.
Twitterrific 5 for iOS now supports Twitter's Quoted Tweets format which was announced two months ago. Additionally, The Iconfactory's freemium Twitter client for the iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Apple Watch has picked up half a dozen improvements and feature additions in the latest update, including settings options to display the tab bar at the bottom of the screen instead top of screen.
You can now display a timeline of your own recent tweets, marvel at revamped in-app alerts and—crucially—reply with emoji and canned responses right from your wrist.
An annoying bug that crashes your iPhone after a specific string of symbols and Arabic characters is received through iMessage or SMS from another party has been fixed in iOS 8.4 beta 4, as first reported by Italian blog HDBlog.it. The beta software was seeded to registered Apple developers two days ago. The iMessage crashing bug is tied to how iOS banner notifications process Unicode text.
Apple has offered a temporary bandaid solution of sorts until a proper fix is delivered. iDownloadBlog has posted a few potential fixes of its own, too. That being said, the iOS 8.4 software update will squash this pesky bug for everyone when it arrives on June 30.
Following Monday's announcement that Maps will gain Transit directions and other new features when iOS 9 launches this fall, some folks are reporting that the feature actually works in even more cities than Apple has said, as discovered by MacRumors.
Not only that but navigating with Maps provides en route traffic and construction warnings, including voice turn-by-turn suggestions for alternate routes, according to information shared with AppleInsider.
A new rumor from Asia suggests that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), one of the world's largest semiconductor foundries, is ready to kick off mass production of Apple's in-house designed 'A9' mobile processor for the new iPhones, tentatively called an 'iPhone 6s' and 'iPhone 6s Plus'.
At the same time, another rumor from Apple's supply chain has reaffirmed that 2015 iPhones will have a chassis made from 7000 Series aluminum, a custom alloy the Cupertino firm originally developed for the Apple Watch Sport.
Every once in a while, a high-quality role-playing game which appeals to the masses comes along. This time around, the name of such a game is Transistor, a premium science fiction action RPG for the iPhone and iPad created by Supergiant Games, the team behind Bastion.
Featuring the vibrant presentation and deep combat system it's known for, Transistor utilizes an isometric point of view where you control the character Red as she travels through a series of locations, battling enemies in both real-time combat and a frozen turn-based planning mode.