Apple

Samsung to re-enter Apple’s supply chain for NAND flash memory chips in 2017

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 20, 2016

Following a five-year hiatus, Apple's frenemy Samsung is set to supply NAND flash memory chips to Apple for its devices beginning with 2017, ETNews reported Wednesday. NAND flash memory is extensively used across Apple's many products, including the iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, Apple TV, Apple Watch and Mac notebooks.

Apple dropped Samsung as a NAND flash supplier following the iPhone 5 introduction in 2012 because the South Korean conglomerate was stuck with ball grid array (BGA) packaging and refused to invest in land grid array (LGA) package contacts that allow the flash memory chips to sit flush with the printed circuit board and were required to comply with Apple's electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding requirements.

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Use Apple Maps and plan trips on the big screen with TV Maps for Apple TV

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 20, 2016

Since learning that Apple's software development kit now includes a new MapKit framework for tvOS, I've been eagerly awaiting to see what Apple TV developers are going to do with it. I salivated at the prospect of Apple Maps on a big screen telly because it sounded too good to be true.

Even better, Apple's SDK supports advanced features like map annotations, adding overlays and performing reverse-geocoding lookups to determine placemark information for map coordinates, among other features.

With TV Maps by Arno Appenzeller—to my knowledge, this is one of the first of MapsKit-enabled apps for the new Apple TV—you can browse Apple Maps from the comfort of your couch. At long last, planning trips on the big screen has become a reality for those of us who're invested into the Apple ecosystem. The experience of using maps on a television is much cooler than you could imagine: this is the first tvOS app that has made me wish that the Apple TV supported hand gestures so that I could explore maps Minority Report-style.

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84 percent of devices are now using iOS 9

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 20, 2016

iOS 9, Apple's latest and greatest edition of the mobile operating system powering the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad, is currently installed on 84 percent of device, according to the freshest stats posted on Apple's official App Store dashboard for developers.

In less than a month, iOS 9 adoption rate has climbed from the eighty percent mark, a figure Apple officially shared during its March 21 'Let us loop you in' media event, to 84 percent—a cool four-point gain.

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Apple begins enabling web previews for Apple TV apps

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 30, 2018

Apple has begun rolling out iTunes web previews for fourth generation Apple TV apps. The move, which was first spotted by Jeff Scott (via MacStories), will allow both users and developers to easily share links to Apple TV apps on the web.

It doesn't appear that web previews are available for all apps yet, and it's unclear which apps it's working for—Apple isn't advertising them anywhere. If you want to see what they look like, here's a link to Scott's app for Beergeek.com TV.

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Apple says it refused Chinese demand for iOS source code

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 30, 2018

Apple declined to provide Chinese officials with access to iOS source code, General counsel Bruce Sewell said on Tuesday at a subcommittee hearing on encryption. "We have been asked by the Chinese government. We refused."

Sewell said the request had come in the last two years, and noted several times that Apple has not cooperated with China on that level. Some lawmakers have questioned whether or not Apple has given the country special treatment.

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Apple Pay launches in Singapore with support from Amex, Visa and MasterCard due soon

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 16, 2018

Through launch partnership with American Express, customers in Singapore can now take advantage of Apple's mobile payment system to pay for goods and services in stores with a touch of their finger. Adding Singapore to the list of countries that support Apple Pay was advertised earlier today on the local Apple Pay website in Singapore.

Local retailers like FairPrice, Starbucks, TopShop, TopMan, StarHub, Shaw Theaters and several others will now take Apple Pay as a form of payment. In the coming months, outlets like 7 Eleven, The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, Food Republic and Toast Box will roll out support for Apple Pay in the 5.4 million people country.

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New MacBooks offer 90 percent faster SSD write speeds, Skylake CPU up to 20 percent faster

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 6, 2016

Apple today announced a second-generation twelve-inch MacBook which brings speed increases across the board thanks to the use of Intel's latest Skylake chip platform, PCIe-based flash storage and a speedier 1,866MHz RAM.

The Verge took the new machines briefly for a spin. Having put the new MacBook through its paces in Primate Labs' $0.99 Geekbench 3 benchmarking app to measure the performance of the new Intel CPU and using the free Blackmagic Disk Speed Test app for benchmarking disk I/O operations, the publication was able to determine just how performant the updated flash storage and Intel's new Skylake CPU are.

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Privacy-enhanced Viber for iPhone lands with end-to-end encryption, hidden chats and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 19, 2016

Two weeks after rival WhatsApp announced that chats on its platform are protected from eavesdropping with end-to-end encryption, the popular messaging app Viber on Tuesday released a privacy-enhanced edition of its iPhone and iPad app.

Bumped to version 6.0, messages you send and receive through Viber are now protected with end-to-end encryption, as indicated by the new padlock icon, and you can also hide away specific chats.

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Have you seen Pinterest’s new-look iOS app yet?

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 16, 2018

Pinterest today announced a completely overhauled iPhone and iPad application—“our fastest, cleanest app yet”—that lets you focus on more Pins than ever before. The app, used by more than a hundred million people around the world, is a lot faster than the previous version it replaced, with your Home feed now loading up to three times faster.

The refreshed application is now rolling in the App Store so check back later if the new version isn't immediately available where you live. The Android edition of Pinterest and its web-based counterpart are next on Pinterest's list to tackle, though they wouldn't commit to a firm release dates for these.

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Apple confirms QuickTime for Windows is no more

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 19, 2016

Following the disclosure of two new flaws in QuickTime 7 for Windows last week by software security firm Trend Micro, Apple has now officially confirmed to The Wall Street Journal that it will stop releasing updates or patching security holes for QuickTime for Windows, marking the end of the road for the PC edition of the multimedia software after an eleven-year run.

The Cupertino firm added that keeping the software installed on Windows PCs may pose a security risk.

A support document on Apple's website details the steps that Windows users should follow in order to uninstall the software from their Windows PC.

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Apple Maps web app may be in the works

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated August 4, 2016

Latest checks indicate that Apple is getting ready to make the Maps service available to everyone on the web through a desktop web application which will permit you to embed an Apple Maps view into your own webpage, blog and more.

Look no further than Apple's own WWDC 2016 webpage, which appears to take advantage of what seems to be an interactive, embedded Maps view. This is the first time Apple has used an embeddable Maps view on the web.

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