Apple

How to view recent Safari history on your Mac

Not only does Safari give you the fastest way to surf the web on your computer, it's also the most energy efficient web browser on macOS that maximizes your Mac's battery life.

As so many Mac owners use Safari on a daily basis, their browsing histories are packed to the gills with records of previously visited websites.

Finding your way back to a previously visited site by searching the entire browsing history can be quite tedious with months or years of data stored in it.

Like on iOS, Safari for Mac provides a convenient shortcut that lets you quickly jump to any previously visited webpage on a per-tab basis.

Apple invests $1 billion in Chinese ride sharing service Didi Chuxing

Apple on Thursday announced that it has invested $1 billion in Chinese Uber competitor Didi Chuxing, reports Reuters. Speaking with the outlet, Tim Cook said the venture will help his company "better understand the critical Chinese market."

The move comes amidst slumping iPhone sales, which has driven Apple's stock price down to $90 per share, and other struggles in China. Last month, the State Administration shut down the iBooks Store and iTunes Movie sales in the country.

iOS 9 adoption is stalling amid slowing iPhone sales

Last time we checked, iOS adoption rates stood at 84 percent of iPhone, iPod touch and iPad devices that were detected as running iOS 9. Moreover, eleven percent of hardware was on iOS 8 and the remaining five percent of devices used iOS 7 or older editions of Apple's mobile operating system.

These stats were valid as of a little more than two weeks ago. The new numbers Apple just posted to its App Store dashboard for developers, however, paint a not-so-rosy picture for iOS 9 adoption.

According to App Store device logs, the latest set of figures has not changed the slightest bit, or has not changed enough to move the needle versus two weeks ago.

App Store review times shortened to 2 days

Apple's oft-criticized review process for app submissions, which normally takes about a week or more, now takes as little as two days, according to developers who reported seeing dramatically faster App Store review times on submissions.

AppReviewTimes.com, a website that tracks average App Store review times using crowdsourced data, has confirmed that Apple's review process now takes an average of two days to approve an app, based on 332 reviews in the last 14 days.

Periscope for iPhone now lets you search videos and broadcast live from DJI drones

Periscope, a Twitter-owned app that lets anyone start a live video broadcast from their iPhone, today received a pretty substantial update on the App Store. Bumped to version 1.4, Periscope for iPhone now lets you search videos and broadcast live to the service from a compatible DJI drone.

In addition, the team shared a preview of their full beyond 24 hours approach that will be available in the coming weeks.

Google Translate app gains offline mode, instant camera translation from Chinese and more

Google's native Translate application for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad received a major update yesterday in the App Store, bringing version number to 5.0 and introducing some rather interesting advances. For starters, Google Translate now works without an Internet connection, allowing you to translate words, phrases and sentences in 52 of the 103 supported languages when there is no cellular or Wi-Fi connection available.

The instant camera translation feature, called Word Lens, now works with Chinese: it reads both to and from English, both Simplified and Traditional Chinese. This feature is ideal for traveling: you just point your camera at, say, a restaurant sign in a foreign language and witness the appropriate translation appear like magic in live video feed.

Taylor Swift dances to “The Darkness” like no one’s watching in latest Apple Music ad

We've already seen pop singer Taylor Swift wipe out on the treadmill and drop a mic like a pro in a pair of amusing television commercials for Apple's $9.99 per month subscription music service. This morning, she tweeted out another short video created to promote Apple Music. “Dance like no one's watching,” reads the tweet. In the new video, Swift dances around her living room to The Darkness' song “I Believe In A Thing Called Love”.

Here’s how the new Instagram icon came to be

Instagram's drastic revamp which said good-bye to skeuomorphism with an all-white monochromatic interface and a rainbow-colored icon—not only for the main app, but also for Layout, Boomerang and Hyperlapse—has expectedly polarized fans and watchers alike.

A lot of people took to blogs and social media to vent their frustration with the new art direction for the beloved app they obsessively check multiple times a day.

But after all is said and done, this may not necessarily be such a bad move for Instagram. So, how did the new Instagram icon came to be and what was the reasoning behind its redesign?

Yet another member of original Siri team leaves Apple

Yet another member of the original Siri team, Darren Haas, has left Apple. The Information reports that Haas, one of the last remaining team members that came over to Apple in the Siri acquisition, has left the company for General Electric. He'll join Steve D'Aurora, another Siri team member who also left Apple for GE a few weeks ago.

Apple could terminate iTunes music downloads within two years [updated]

Apple is preparing to completely terminate music downloads in the iTunes Store, reports Digital Music News. Citing sources familiar with the matter, the outlet says an aggressive, two-year timetable to switch completely to streaming music is gaining traction within the company.

Hedging on its claim, the site also says other shutdown plans are being considered, including one that would see the iPhone-maker offer music downloads for another 3-4 years. Regardless, executives have agreed that keeping downloads running forever is no longer on the table.

Your old iPod could net you up to $20,000

Old iPods have apparently become the latest craze in the world of collectables. As noted by The Guardian, various Apple-branded MP3 players from the early 2000s are going for insane prices on eBay right now, depending of course on the model and condition.

For example, a factory-sealed third-generation iPod shuffle is listed on the auction site at $999.95, and it has 10 watchers. A fourth-generation U2 edition iPod is priced at just under $7,000. And a new-in-box second-generation iPod classic? A staggering $20,000.