Apple

Apple launches Maps Connect, a way for businesses to manage their Apple Maps listings

Apple has launched a new self-service portal for US businesses to add or edit listings within Apple Maps. Dubbed Apple Maps Connect, the portal aims to allow small business owners to ensure that their listings are up-to-date and accurate.

According to Search Engine Land, who has used the service, Maps Connect is free, and listings appear in Apple Maps on both desktop and mobile versions. You simply login with your Apple ID, and either create or claim your business listing.

GT Advanced reaches bankruptcy deal with Apple, selling furnaces to pay debt

GT Advanced and Apple have reached a settlement that will allow the two companies to part ways amicably, reports The Wall Street Journal. Under the terms of the deal, GT will be paying Apple back for its $439 million loan by selling off its 2,000+ furnaces.

The news surfaced during GT Advanced's bankruptcy hearing this afternoon—two weeks ago, the sapphire-maker filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Low cash flow was cited as a reason for the filing, but few details are known about the circumstances.

IMDb app adds box office info, movie tech specs and a couple other features

Amazon-owned IMDb, the world’s largest collection of movie, TV and celebrity information, has a nicely done iPhone and iPad application available for free in the App Store that has just gotten a whole lot better in the latest version 4.5 release.

For starters, the software at last provides a bunch of useful technical specifications for movies such as the original aspect ratio, color, audio, runtime and what not.

Next, movie pages now include box office information giving you yet another indication of the movie's popularity — that's in addition to the previous data like review scores. Note that U.S. box office result data was previously available only via the app's Popular Charts feature.

If you want to write a plot for an obscure movie that lacks descriptions, or maybe add interesting trivia to a television show, you can now do so directly in the mobile app, without visiting IMDb's interface on the web.

Apple updates iTunes Connect app with iPhone 6, Touch ID support

Apple has this afternoon pushed out an update for its iTunes Connect app for iOS. The app offers registered iTunes developers a handful of management tools, including the ability to access sales data for their apps and e-books, for their iPhones and iPads.

Today's update brings the app to version 3.0.1, and while Apple suggests that it's a minor one, it adds support for some significant new features. The app now utilizes iOS 8 sign-in with Touch ID, and it supports the larger displays of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.

Following iCloud phishing attempts, Apple issues browser security support doc

Following a report Monday by Great Fire alleging that the government in China attempted to compromise the security of Apple's users by redirecting local traffic to a fake iCloud.com login webpage, Apple on Tuesday confirmed it was aware of the phishing attempts and ensured its servers had not been compromised, according to a CNBC report.

The company also took additional steps in the form of a new support document which teaches unsuspecting users how to verify that their web browser is in fact securely connected to the genuine iCloud.com login page.

Apple said to be planning holiday launch for Apple Pay loyalty program

Apple is hoping to launch its rumored Apple Pay loyalty rewards program in time for the holiday season, reports Bank Innovation. The program was initially thought to be part of Apple Pay 2.0, expected in the fall of 2015, but new reports claim Apple pushed up the time table.

How the program will work is still unknown, but Bank Innovation says it will likely utilize Apple's iBeacon tech. It offers an example that includes the Apple Pay user receiving a push notification while in a clothing store that reads: "hey if you buy this now, you can get this for free."

Google adds ‘Incoming’ view and more to Docs, Sheets and Slides for iPhone and iPad

Google is on a roll today.

Minutes after issuing an updated Play Music client for iOS with a revamped Listen Now interface, mood or activity based radio station search and other goodies, the search monster announced Tuesday that updates to its Docs, Sheets and Slides trio of mobile productivity applications are now available in the App Store, featuring an all-new “Incoming” view to see all of the files that have been shared with you and a few other enhancements.

For example, the Docs editor now plays nice with external keyboards.

“We also know that it’s important to you to be able to make documents look as polished as possible, wherever you’re editing, so in Docs you can now apply headings and use shortcuts when you’re typing with Bluetooth keyboards,” the team noted.

Google Play Music updated with revamped Listen Now, mood or activity based search and more

After refreshing Google Plays Newsstand for iOS yesterday with native display support for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, the Internet giant Google on Tuesday pushed an update to another app, its Play Music client for the iPhone and iPad.

Taking a page from Betas Music's book, the new version of Google Play Music, available free in the App Store, enables mood or activity based search for radio stations. Jogging? Good, use the 'Running' tag to find music that matches your activity. Holding a party? The related 'Partying' should come in handy.

And because this is Google, they even let you search for 'Feeling Happy' radio stations. Other new features and enhancements are briefly mentioned right after the break.

Apple lists Apple Pay-compatible cards

With yesterday's release of iOS 8.1 with Apple Pay, shoppers can now experience the convenience of making payments with the touch of a finger at over 220,000 stores in the U.S. (and possibly elsewhere) outfitted with NFC contactless terminals.

Apple's now published a new support document detailing the types of plastic Apple Pay supports.

Long story short, major credit and debit cards are accepted as you would expect. Certain prepaid cards, corporate cards and loyalty and gift cards issued by some banks not so much.

Strong demand in China reportedly forces Apple to boost iPhone 6 Plus production

In case you didn't get a memo, Chinese buyers are especially fond of oversized phones. In fact, for many Asians a jumbo-sized phone isn't just a tablet replacement but their only mobile device.

Counting on the phablet popularity in China, Apple's now found itself in a situation where it needs to increase output of iPhone 6 Plus due to higher than expected demand for the 5.5-inch Apple smartphone in the 1.33 billion people country, Apple's second-largest market by revenue, DigiTimes reported Tuesday.

Infuse 3 out with iPhone 6 support, AirDrop sharing, dark theme and dozens of improvements

Jailbreak developer FireCore has made a name for himself with the aTV Flash Black software that supercharges the $99 Apple TV media streamer. But he's also behind Infuse, an excellent app that brings support for a plethora of audio and video file formats to iOS, no conversion needed.

Apps like Infuse are a big deal because Apple's mobile operating system does not support “foreign” media formats out of the box. Following the initial Infuse release on April 30 of last year and Infuse 2 last December, here comes Infuse 3, probably the biggest update thus far.

Infuse 3 supports iOS 8 as well as the new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus display sizes and contains other perks that round out the feature set quite nicely. And it's especially timely given that VLC for iOS got removed recently from the App Store for legal reasons, again!

So what else is new in Infuse 3? Read on for the full reveal.

Twitterrific adds enhanced search, iOS 8 Share sheet support and more

Twitterrific 5 by Iconfactory, a freemium Twitter client which last month added 1Password integration and other enhancements, on Tuesday saw another refresh expanding on its compelling feature set.

Twitterrific 5.8 is now available in the App Store and includes support for native sharing via multi-purpose iOS 8 Share Sheets, to just about any service that has advertised its Share Extension to the system. Jump past the fold to learn about other improvements.