Apple

Apple asking developers to enable Family Sharing for their apps in iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite

Apple has begun asking its registered Mac and iOS developers to enable Family Sharing in their apps, a feature specifically designed for the upcoming iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite operating systems. As we detailed Monday, Family Sharing allows you to share purchased iTunes media such as apps, books, music and more among up to six devices, without requiring them to use the same Apple ID as Home Sharing.

But not all purchases are eligible for Family Sharing. In fact, Apple is giving developers the freedom to choose whether or not they want their apps to be enabled for Family Sharing and now the firm has started emailing developers suggesting they enable the feature in their iTunes Connect developer portal...

Apple airs new ‘Strength’ TV ad focusing on fitness apps and accessories

Apple has just uploaded a new TV ad called "Strength" to its YouTube channel, centered upon the various health and fitness accessories for the iPhone 5s. The one-minute spot debuted just a few hours ago on national television, during the first period of the Stanley Cup Finals on NBC between the Los Angeles Kings and New York Rangers. The upbeat commercial is backed by a song called “Chicken Fat” by Robert Preston, released in 1961 to get schoolchildren to do more daily exercise…

Evidence of Retina iMac found in OS X Yosemite beta

Folks wanting an iMac with Retina display will be happy to hear that some evidence has surfaced in favor of the mythical machine. The recently-released OS X Yosemite developer preview includes a new file that defines display scaling resolution options for an iMac.

The native resolution of the computer is not mentioned, but the file includes a series of scaling resolution options that max out at 6400 x 3600 pixels, or 3200 x 1800 as a Retina display. It's likely the display will scale down to a lower resolution like the MacBook Pro...

Apple shows off Chevy Spark CarPlay integration

CarPlay, Apple's in-car entertainment solution which integrates the iPhone into your car in a safe manner, is receiving some welcomed attention at the WWDC show in San Francisco.

Apple hinted at CarPlay demonstrations by parking a Ferrari inside the Moscone West building, right in front of the keynote line.

Indeed, the company is now using these vehicles to show off CarPlay integration to select members of the press. Among them is the USA Today newspaper whose reporter was able to sneak a peek on CarPlay features in a Chevy Spark.

The video is right after the jump...

Xbox One SmartGlass app is now your universal remote for TV and cable boxes

Microsoft's Xbox One companion app, SmartGlass, has been bumped to version 2.5 earlier today, bringing out a handful of new features that improve your living room experience and interactions with the console itself.

Most importantly, the app now features a remote control functionality similar to Apple's free Remote software. But as Microsoft's console lets you hook up a cable or satellite box to it, you can now basically channel surf from across the room using your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad.

The update is now live in the App Store and I have a full list of features for your right after the break...

Can your Mac run OS X Yosemite? Find out here

With Monday's announcement of OS X Yosemite now off our backs, many people are wondering whether the next major revision to Apple's desktop operating system will run on their Macs. There's some good news and bad news.

The good news is, Yosemite doesn't impose steeper requirements in terms of the minimum hardware needed for a productive and hassle-free experience, simply because Yosemite is much like Mavericks in this regard. The bad news is, some older Mac models will inevitably be left behind, call it the price of progress.

Will your Mac be able to run Yosemite? Read on...

The New York Times releases NYT Opinion app

After launching its NYT Now app back in March with more affordable subscriptions, The New York Times newspaper this morning released another iPhone application in the App Store, as part of its doubling down on mobile and digital.

It's called NYT Opinion and focuses solely on the paper's opinion pieces, edited by former Reuters and Fortune editor Paul Smalera. The app is free to download in the App Store and comes with a $6 per month subscription...

Fleksy teases its upcoming iOS 8 keyboard

Aside from customizable Share sheets and support for third-party Share Extensions, downloadable soft-keyboards is yet another feature making iOS 8 more flexible and way more customizable than ever.

As we explained yesterday, registered iOS developers can now use Apple's iOS 8 SDK to write software keyboards and distribute them in the App Store. And users will be permitted to download any third-party keyboard they like.

This will make it dead simple to finally use new input methods system-wide. I bet you didn't see downloadable iOS 8 keyboards coming! Apple's promotional graphics shown at Monday's keynote and used on the iOS 8 webpage has already hinted at a downloadable Swype keyboard.

And just this morning, an image tweeted out by its developer has confirmed that the popular Fleksy Android keyboard will be available when iOS 8 launches this Fall...

iOS 8 enables third-party Share Extensions, makes Share sheets customizable

Being a heavy user of Share sheets in iOS 7, I've always felt that something needed to be done about the growing number of icons cluttering these menus, especially given third-party apps are allowed to add additional 'Open In' choices to Share sheets.

As part of its extensibility mantra, Apple has said that third-party apps are now finally allowed to install their own hooks to the multipurpose iOS 8 Share menus, making it a lot easier to add new sharing functionality system-wide.

But as installing these extensions is bound to quickly populate Share sheets, iOS 8 allows you to easily arrange Share sheet icons and even tell the operating system which extensions are available through Share sheets...

Find My iPhone in iOS 8 introduces ‘Send Last Location’ feature

Find My iPhone is a great way to locate your lost or misplaced device - that is, unless a thief was smart enough to find a way to disable it right after you've been mugged and your device has been taken from you.

Additionally, if the person has shut down your device or it has run out of battery charge, Apple's free Find My iPhone app will only display its last known location for up to 24 hours.

The same goes for the web interface over at iCloud.com. After the 24 hour cut-off period, you're basically unable to locate the device on a world map until it has been restarted and has established a network connection...

Apple introduces MFi specifications for Lightning cable headphones

According to a report tonight from 9to5Mac, Apple has quietly introduced a new specification for accessory manufacturers in its MFi program. The spec allows them to create headphones that connect to devices using a Lightning cable instead of 3.5mm.

The change will allow for a new breed of headphones that are capable of handling lossless stereo 48 kHz digital audio output, and have access to headphone remote controls. And Apple plans to activate support in newer iOS devices in a future update...

Yahoo replaced by The Weather Channel for weather data in iOS 8

Last year, The Wall Street Journal reported that Yahoo was in talks with Apple over increasing its presence on the iPhone. The company wanted more of its content pre-loaded onto Apple's devices, and was after the default search spot in Safari.

But its quest to expand its reach in iOS isn't going so well. Apple released the first beta of iOS 8 to developers yesterday, and it's been discovered that the Weather app, which used to pull info from Yahoo, now uses data from The Weather Channel...