Apple

New in watchOS 2: status icon when Apple Watch is connected to known Wi-Fi on its own

Joining a bunch of status indicator icons at the top of the Apple Watch screen is a handy new icon displayed when the device is on a known Wi-Fi network without the paired iPhone present.

Before watchOS 2, the wearable used to indicate that it's lost connection with its paired iPhone but would not distinguish whether it's remained connected to a known Wi-Fi network on its own.

Beats announces light Pill+ wireless speaker, available in November

Apple-owned Beats by Dr. Dre today announced its very first wireless speaker since joining the Cupertino firm in May 2014 deal valued at more than $3 billion.

The new Pill+ is Bluetooth-enabled, lighter than its predecessor and comes with a twelve-hour battery that can be used to charge your devices through the USB and USB-C ports found on the back.

The Pill+ is slightly larger than the original Pill speaker and uses the stereo active 2-way crossover system to create an optimized sound field.

Fantastical gains iOS 9’s productivity-enhancing features, Apple Watch complication and more

Hot off the heels of its big Mac update, developer Flexibits today issued an update to Fantastical for iPad, iPhone and Apple Watch. The new software takes advantage of the new productivity-enhancing features provided by iOS 9 and watchOS 2.

These include 3D Touch support for iPhone 6s owners, a dedicated Fantastical complication for Apple Watch wearers, Slide Over and Split View multitasking modes on the iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 4 and much more.

How to send video wirelessly from your Mac to TV

Since OS X 10.9 Mavericks owners of the Apple TV have been able to wirelessly mirror their Mac screen to the big screen TV with an AirPlay feature called AirDisplay. There was just one slight problem: you couldn't stream individual videos without mirroring the whole screen.

Apple has solved this annoyance with OS X 10.11 El Capitan, which introduced richer AirPlay support permitting you to send video from Safari and other apps to the Apple TV.

Apple seeds iOS 9.1 beta 4 to developers

Apple on Tuesday seeded the fourth beta version of iOS 9.1 to developers. The software is available to registered developers either over-the-air, for those running the latest iOS 9.1 beta, or via Apple’s developer website.

Today’s release comes less than one week after beta 3 was made available to developers, and a month after iOS 9.1 was first introduced during Apple’s iPhone 6s event at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco.

Microsoft targets Apple’s MacBook Air with new laptop/tablet hybrid: $1,499 Surface Book

In addition to launching the new $899 Surface Pro 4 with the Surface Pen stylus, Windows giant Microsoft has another highly-popular Apple product in its crosshair: the MacBook Air.

Billed as “the ultimate laptop,“ the Surface Book is another hybrid device from Microsoft. Featuring an accurate, responsive stylus, multi-touch support and a high-resolution 13.5-inch optically bonded screen that detaches easily from the keyboard, the new Surface Book promises to offer best of both worlds.

Microsoft takes on iPad Pro with $899 Surface Pro 4 and Surface Pen

Software giant Microsoft today announced its next-generation Surface Pro laptop/tablet hybrid, the Surface Pro 4. Designed to take Apple's upcoming $799 12.9-inch iPad Pro, the $899 Surface Pro 4 offers updated hardware and software features like Windows Hello, the Cortana personal assistant, and of course Windows 10.

The thinnest and most powerful Surface yet, the Surface Pro 4 features a larger display than its predecessor, fitting a 12.3-inch display in the same physical footprint as the older twelve-inch device, making the laptop/tablet hybrid compatible with the existing crop of keyboard accessories on the market.

Microsoft also designed a brand new stylus to go with the Surface Pro 4. They're calling it the Surface Pen and it's extremely sensitive at detecting 1,024 levels of pressure.

Twitter launches Moments for discovering trending stories and highlighting the best of Twitter

Twitter's excellent iPhone, iPod touch and iPad mobile application was refreshed this morning with a long-expected feature that strives to make content discovery a lot easier with a brand new tab.

Called Moments, it was designed to highlight stories that are trending on the micro-blogging service right now and important ones you may have missed. This edition of Twitter also supports super-sized emoji in Direct Messages.

Twitter is a free download from the App Store.

Unseen video shows ‘softer side’ of Steve Jobs

It is no secret that Apple executives aren't thrilled by existing and upcoming Steve Jobs movies. The latest example: Steve's widow Lauren Powell Jobs apparently “tried to kill” the upcoming Hollywood biopic by Sony Pictures (according to the Wall Street Journal, she tried to cease production on the Aaron Sorkin script multiple times).

Coincidentally or not, ABC News has now exclusively obtained never-before-seen footage of Apple's mercurial founder, who can be seen addressing Apple executives the day before the release of the original iPhone in 2007.

Many more high-profile games being pulled from App Store and removed from purchase histories

A bunch of premium iPhone, iPod touch and iPad games from major publishers such as Electronics Arts, Telltale Games, Capcom, Sega, 2K Games and many others have been removed from both the App Store and customers' purchase histories without notice, TouchArcade cautioned.

As a result, those who had bought a game can no longer access or re-download it unless it was already installed on their device. No explanation for the removal from customer purchase history was provided in spite of media requests.

iPhone 6s in-store reservations open in Italy, Belgium, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland & Netherlands

As Apple gears up to launch the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus in an additional 40 countries this coming Friday, October 9, in-store reservations for the new handsets have gone live through Apple's Reserve and Pickup program in Belgium, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the Netherlands, MacRumors reported this morning.

These six European countries are part of Apple's second wave of iPhone 6s launch. Apple has said that the new iPhones will be available in a total of over 130 countries by the end of the year.

iPad Pro rumored to arrive in the first week of November

Apple said at last month's 'Hey Siri' media event that its iPad Pro will arrive in November and DigiTimes later cited supply chain sources as claiming that shipments will commence, in limited quantities, in mid-November.

The fairly reliable Japanese blog called MacOtakara is now out with a new report saying the jumbo-sized iPad will hit store shelves in the first week of November as Microsoft gears up to launch a next-generation Surface Pro laptop/tablet hybrid.