Apple

Apple’s rescheduled earnings call could hint at unveiling of new Macs around October 27

Apple originally told investors it would be publicizing its quarterly earnings report on Thursday, October 27.

Curiously, a notice posted on the Apple Investor Relations website earlier this week has moved up the upcoming earnings call with Wall Street investors by two days to Tuesday, October 25, over what Apple describes as a simple “scheduling conflict”.

Longtime Apple reporter Philip Elmer-DeWitt speculates that the move might mean that Apple could be planning to hold a launch event for new Macs on October 27.

How to enable and use Secret Conversations in Facebook Messenger

iPhone screen showing Facebook Messenger app with an encrypted secret conversation

With secret conversations in Messenger, Facebook offers support for end-to-end encryption, giving you peace of mind knowing that a third party cannot decipher any sensitive messages with friends and family. These encrypted chats rely on a device key that ensures only you and the recipient can see the message.

You can verify the device key to confirm that the messages are end-to-end encrypted, set a timer to have secret messages disappear from the conversation, and so forth.

In this article, we show you how to set up and use end-to-end encrypted secret conversations in Facebook Messenger.

Apple discontinues third-generation Apple TV

The third-generation Apple TV debuted in March 2012 with a single-core A5 processor and 1080p video output, but now the device is being discontinued as Apple sharpens focus on the latest fourth-generation Apple TV that runs third-party apps and games via the tvOS App Store and comes with a more powerful hardware and the Siri Remote.

According to 9to5Mac, Apple has removed the device from its online store and confirmed in an email sent out to employees and education partners that it's phased out the device.

Only for true Apple fans: Twelve South’s candle smells like a freshly unboxed Mac

Do you remember what your Mac smelled like the first time you unboxed it? If not, Apple-exclusive accessory maker Twelve South has you covered with a hand poured soy wax candle that delivers a “new Mac” smell to your nose. “We took that scent—and literally bottled it,” wrote the company. The candle is part of Twelve South's line of merchandize that includes Mac-style T-shirts, hats, mugs and more.

Dropbox Paper app now available in the EU

Paper, a new productivity app from cloud storage experts over at Dropbox, launched in public beta in the United States a month ago. After a slight delay, Paper is now available to customers in the European Union. With the free Paper app (not to be confused with Facebook's experimental Paper app), you can collaborate on projects, get updates, make edits and respond to feedback right from your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch.

Yahoo releases Newsroom for iOS app with curated stories, personalized feeds & more

It's business as usual for the struggling Internet pioneer Yahoo which today released a brand new free of charge iPhone and iPad application, called Newsroom. The app provides curated stories and news content relevant to you and sports built-in social sharing features, personalized feeds and more. The 96.9-megabyte download requires an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch with iOS 9 or later and is available at no charge from the App Store.

You can reduce motion and keep iMessage effects in iOS 10.1 beta

A handy improvement has been discovered in the first two betas of iOS 10.1: the ability to reduce motion while retaining the various iOS 10 iMessage features. It seems Apple has heard the complaints of users (me included) who like to turn off Parallax and other UI animations, but still want to be able to enjoy the new Messages app.

Here are Google Pixel phones with better-than-iPhone 7 camera, built-in Assistant & more

As promised, Google today held a media event to launch new hardware and software products, among them a pair of new smartphones—a five-inch Pixel and a 5.5-inch Pixel XL. These are the first “Made by Google” phones that come with the firm's new Assistant built in. Google says the devices feature “the highest rated smartphone camera ever”, a battery that lasts all day and much more.

Apple seeds iOS 10.1 beta 2 to developers

Apple on Tuesday issued the second beta for iOS 10.1. Registered developers can grab the new software via the over-the-air update mechanism in the iOS Settings app, or via Apple’s online developer portal.

By far the most significant change in iOS 10.1 is the addition of Portrait camera mode— an iPhone 7 Plus-exclusive software feature that creates a ‘bokeh’ effect, which Apple demonstrated at last month's event.

Alleged A10X Fusion benchmark suggests 20+ percent faster CPU in 2017 iPads

Apple typically takes the iPhone's A-series chips and updates them for iPads with more GPU cores and a faster performing, higher-clocked CPU. These chips typically have an “X” in their name, but with new iPad Pros and a fifth-generation iPad mini due in Spring 2017 the company has not yet officially announced an “X” variant of the iPhone 7's A10 Fusion chip.

Today, a source on Chinese social network Weibo posted alleged synthetic GeekBench 4 benchmark scores that could indicate at least one-fifth faster CPU performance in both single-core and dual-core computing for the purported A10X Fusion chip.