Apple

Google Maps for iOS gains food delivery support, plus codes & more

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 25, 2016

Google Maps for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch yesterday received an interesting update in the App Store. The new version brings out a few enhancements such as integration with popular food delivery services, support for plus codes—identifiers for locations that don’t have their own street address—and other perks. These new features require Google Maps 4.24 for iOS or later, which can be downloaded free of charge from the App Store.

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Suge Knight sues Dr. Dre for alleged attempted murder over Beats money

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 25, 2016

Marion Hugh Knight Jr., better known as rap mogul Suge Knight or just Suge, is suing Apple employee Dr. Dre for $300 million, alleging Dre hired a hitman in an attempt to murder him after cutting Suge out of earnings for Beats. According to TMZ, Suge and his attorney are convinced that it was Dre who had him pumped with seven bullets in 2014 in a West Hollywood night club.

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Powerbeats3 Wireless earphones with W1 chip & 12-hour battery available to preorder

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 25, 2016

Powerbeats3 Wireless earphones, a successor to the Powerbeats2 Wireless edition, are now available to buy from Apple.com in the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Australia, New Zealand, China and elsewhere. The accessory is available in White, Shock Yellow, Flash Blue, Black and Siren Red.

Listings for the $199.95 Bluetooth earphones on local Apple.com websites display delivery estimates ranging from 2-3 days to 1-2 weeks.

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Apple’s created mockups of iMessage for Android, including one with pure Material Design

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 25, 2016

I was just reading a post titled “On iMessage's Stickiness” from Apple pundit John Gruber, published last evening on his Daring Fireball blog, and stumbled upon an interesting passage alleging that Apple's created several mockups of iMessage for Android.

One of the mockups of iMessage for Android reportedly looks like a carbon copy of its iOS counterpart, with another one based on Google's Material Design guidelines.

“I’ve heard from little birdies that mockups of iMessage for Android have circulated within the company, with varying UI styles ranging from looking like the iOS Messages app to pure Material Design,” reads the post.

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Commuters struggling to register their train passes following Japan’s Apple Pay launch

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 25, 2016

Following its official launch in Japan, Apple Pay has experienced a rocky debut in the 127 million people market as commuters struggled to register their train passes onto iPhones for more than ten hours amid apparent system overload.

Many people in Japan use their rail passes that double as electronic money cards.

According to Bloomberg, the trouble started shortly after 9am in Tokyo as users began reporting issues adding their cards to Apple Pay.

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Apple Pay launches in Japan

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 24, 2016

Apple Pay today launched in Japan, one of Apple's most important markets and home to population of 127 million souls. Marking its twelfth major market, Apple Pay permits Japanese customers to make private credit and prepaid card purchases in stores, online and in apps, plus commute and pay for everyday items with Suica from JR East.

To support the service, Apple today issued the free iOS 10.1 software update which has enabled support for transit directions in Japan to help users find ride details, including fare breakdowns that automatically show Suica pricing on their device.

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Apple releases iOS 10.1 with Portrait mode and other improvements

Cody Lee ∙ October 24, 2016

Apple on Monday pushed out the iOS 10.1 software update for iPhone and iPad. The release comes after more than a month of beta testing, and it includes various improvements and one major new user-facing feature: Portrait mode, which is exclusive to the dual-camera iPhone 7 Plus.

First introduced at Apple's iPhone event in September, Portrait mode is a new setting in the stock Camera app that uses the 7 Plus' wide angle lens to gather perspective data for a photo. This allows the handset to take photos with a depth-of-field, or 'bokeh,' effect with blurry backgrounds.

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Trademarks for three new MacBooks discovered in Russia ahead of Apple’s “Hello again” event

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated November 27, 2016

French-language publication Consomac.fr has discovered a trio of previously unknown trademarks for unreleased MacBook models as Apple preps to share what's new for its aging Mac lineup at the “Hello again” media event scheduled for this Thursday, October 27. Apple filed three trademarks for “portable personal computers” in Russia, possibly in order to keep them secret for as long as possible.

It's worth noting that Russian law requires foreign companies to register any products that use encryption or provide other cryptographic tools.

The documents found in the Eurasian Economic Commission database mention model numbers that cannot be linked to existing hardware: A1706, A1707 and A1708.

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Instagram is testing live video broadcasts in its Stories feature

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 24, 2016

According to Russian news outlet Tjournal.ru a few days ago, the popular photo-sharing service Instagram is testing live video functionality in its recently-launched Stories feature which permits users to create slideshows from their photos that automatically disappear after 24 hours.

Facebook added live video to its mobile app in August 2015. Facebook Messenger gained the ability to share live video with contacts while chatting in September 2016.

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