Apple Music ranks highest among customers in the just-released 2016 J.D. Power Streaming Music Satisfaction Study. The high profile marketing research firm says the 1-year old streaming service beat out veterans like Pandora and Spotify in 3 of the 6 measures in its study, and first overall.
Apple
Apple teams up with Deloitte to push further into enterprise
Apple on Wednesday announced a strategic partnership with Deloitte. The company is recognized as the largest professional services network in the world by revenue and headcount, so the relationship should help Apple in its efforts to push further into the enterprise space. The duo plan to "transform the way companies work using iOS devices."
No, you should not drill a hole in your iPhone 7
Unbelievably, some of the techies I spoke to believe that maybe, somehow, the 3.5mm headphone jack will make a comeback in the next year's iPhone. That ship has sailed, of course, but that's not stopping pranksters and jokers on YouTube from milking the headphone jack meme for all it's worth, like a video titled “Secret Hack To Get Headphone Jack on the iPhone 7” from YouTuber TechRax.
In it, TechRax suggests that users drill a hole in their brand spanking new iPhone 7 in order to access a supposedly hidden headphone jack inside the device.
BlackBerry to cease internal development of smartphones, sharpen focus on software
The ailing Canadian smartphone maker BlackBerry has finally admitted defeat: after years of struggling to turn around its phone business, the company said today it'll stop designing its own smartphones and pivot focus on software. Any future hardware efforts will rely on partners as the company ceases internal development of smartphones, Recode reports.
Apple said to be meeting up with high profile hackers as part of its new bug bounty program
Apple has reportedly reached out to a handful of high profile iPhone and Mac hackers to try and secure their operating systems from exploits that could be used maliciously or for jailbreaking.
The hackers are expected to meet at the Cupertino campus some time this month, where they can earn up to $200,000 for finding major exploits as part of Apple's bug bounty program.
Apple boosting iPhone 7 component orders significantly ahead of the holiday quarter
Unfazed by analyst reports predicting lower iPhone 7 sales this year versus the iPhone 6s in 2015, Apple is now reportedly increasing part and component orders for the handset, touch panel makers told Taiwanese trade publication DigiTimes. Component orders for the holiday quarter are said to be 20-30 percent higher, according to Taiwan-based touch panel makers TPK Holding and General Interface Solution.
London’s iconic Battersea Power Station will be Apple’s new UK headquarters
The British newspaper Evening Standard reports that Apple will be opening a “stunning new” campus in London’s iconic Battersea Power Station. The $11.7 billion project will create a new home for 1,400 employees in the brick “cathedral of power,” which had been powering and lighting London up to 1983.
Apple employees in Israel seemingly confirm 2017 iPhone will be called iPhone 8
Apple is quietly developing the next iPhone hardware in Herzliya, Israel, and a local employee who solders components for Apple has allegedly confirmed to Business Insider that the tenth anniversary Apple handset will be marketed as 'iPhone 8', not 'iPhone 7s'. The source added that the forthcoming phone will be “different” to the iPhone 6s and the iPhone 7, have a better camera and sport a radical redesign.
Aetna to supply 50K employees with Apple Watch, subsidize for customers
Major healthcare provider Aetna announced plans on Tuesday to "transform members' consumer health experience using iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch." As part of the initiative, the company will be subsidizing the cost of Apple Watch for select employers and individual customers, and will be supplying nearly 50,000 of its own employees with the wearable.
macOS Sierra 10.12.1 beta 2 now available
Apple on Tuesday seeded a second beta of macOS Sierra 10.12.1 to developers and public beta participants for testing, just six days after the first beta was made available.
Spotify’s new continuously updated playlist combines your favorites and new music
Spotify, the #1 music streaming service, today announced a new playlist updated daily with tracks that users mark as favorites as well as new music.
Now available in the updated mobile Spotify app for iOS and Android, Daily Mix differs from Spotify's existing Discover Weekly and Release Radar playlists which get refreshed each Monday and Friday, respectively, in that Daily Mix won't be a complete refresh of songs each time the playlist is updated.