Apple

Apple Watch availability expanding to seven more countries on June 26

The Apple Watch will be arriving to an additional seven countries beginning Friday, June 26, the company confirmed Thursday in a media release.

Customers in Italy, Mexico, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland and Taiwan will be able to buy the device beginning June 26 from the Apple Online Store, Apple’s retail stores and select Apple Authorized Resellers.

In addition, the Cupertino firm has announced limited in-store availability of the wearable device.

Pebble Time smartwatch begins shipping, but iOS app remains in limbo

Pebble's new 'Time' smartwatch has begun shipping to early Kickstarter backers, but the iOS companion app that allows users to connect the device to an iPhone is no where to be found. It appears the app is stuck in limbo in Apple's review process.

In an update posted to their Kickstarter page today, Pebble said that its Pebble Time app has been showing a status of 'In Review' since May 22nd and it's given no indication on what is taking so long. The typical review process lasts around 7-10 days.

NYT: no new Apple TV at WWDC

Apple has apparently decided to postpone the announcement of a new Apple TV at WWDC next week, according to The New York Times. In a sweeping report on what to expect from the annual developer's conference, the publication says the highly anticipated refresh of Apple's set-top box is no longer in the cards for Monday's keynote.

Camera+ for iPhone unveils Apple Watch remote app and selfie widget button

If Camera+ by Taptaptap is your daily driver when it comes to iPhone photography, you must have been yearning for a companion Apple Watch app, right? I know I have. Tankfully, today's update saw to that.

Camera+ 6.3 for iPhone adds a pair of interesting improvements. The first, as I mentioned, is a companion app for your Apple Watch for controlling Camera+ on your iPhone remotely, similar to the device's built-in Camera Remote application.

The other addition enhances the app's widget, injecting a handy selfie widget button into iOS 8's Notification Center.

Google Drive receives Material Design overhaul with faster scrolling, syncing and image viewing

Google on Wednesday issued a version 4.0 update to its free of charge Google Drive for iOS application in the App Store. The first thing you'll notice is a brand new design which follows Material Design guidelines set forth by Google itself.

In addition to a cleaned-up interface, other changes in Google Drive 4.0 for iPhone and iPad include much faster syncing of your files, as well as image viewing.

Scrolling performance has been improved, too, and they've finally implemented iOS's standard swipe gesture to go back.

Showtime confirms online-only streaming service, launching next month on iOS and Apple TV

Showtime, a CBS-owned premium cable television service, has taken the plunge and will offer a standalone video-streaming service over the Internet with Apple as its first partner, the company confirmed Wednesday.

Simply called Showtime, the service will cost $10.99 per month and will be hitting the Apple TV, iPhone, iPod touch and iPad on July 12 ahead of season premier of several shows such as Ray Donovan and Masters of Sex.

A free 30-day trial will be available to new customers who sign up through Apple in July. Like HBO Now, Showtime's new service will be an Apple exclusive at launch.

Rumor roundup: 4″ iPhone in 2016, Apple Watch in-store availability at WWDC and more

A trio of supply chain reports out of Asia are making the rounds this morning. The first rumor suggests that one of a future-generation iPhones is a four-inch handset that should be released in Q1 2016.

The second report claims that Apple will formally announce walk-in purchases for its wearable device at its Worldwide Developers Conference next week.

And the third story informs us that an Apple and Samsung supplier is investing $260 million in a production facility to churn out 3D curved glass, suggesting the faint possibility of sapphire-protected screens on some iOS devices.

Apple recalls overheating Beats Pill XL speakers that pose fire safety risk

In a rare display of a voluntary product recall, Apple has pulled the Beats Pill XL wireless speakers citing a possible fire safety risk caused by overheating.

According to a media release Apple PR put out Wednesday, the voluntary recall of all Beats Pill XL speakers, “including a refund for customers,” does not affect any other Beats or Apple products.

“Apple has determined that, in rare cases, the battery in the Beats Pill XL may overheat and pose a fire safety risk,” notes the press release.

Apple wants to put Maps onto the web

According to a new Apple job listing first spotted by Benedict Evans, Apple is about to make its mapping service available to everyone via a cross-platform web application. The full-time position seeks a web engineer with JavaScript expertise “to help make maps work seamlessly on the web.”

Currently, Apple Maps are accessible on the desktop via Mac, on mobile iPhone, iPod touch and iPad devices and through your wrist via Maps for Apple Watch.

Providing an HTML-based Maps web app should support any standards-compliant web browser while putting pressure on Google Maps. In addition, Maps as a web service would make it comparable to Microsoft's Bing Maps, Nokia HERE and other mapping service accessible through the desktop web interface.

Fantastical for Apple Watch launches with dictation, reminders, customizable glance and more

Developer Flexibits has made a name for itself with Fantastical, an award-winning calendar replacement for the iPhone, iPad and Mac. Today, an important update to the iPhone app was pushed, bringing out a newly-added WatchKit extension so you can at last run Fantastical on your wrist!

This update is available to all existing users of Fantastical for iPhone at no additional cost.

You must be wondering what took them so long, right? I mean, Flexibits was among rare developers without an Apple Watch app in time for the device's April 2015 launch.

“We want to understand precisely what problem we're solving,” Flexibits co-founder Michael Simmons tells me via a Skype chat.

The net result of their undertaking is arguably the fastest and friendliest calendar experience on the wrist and that's saying a lot given Fantastical competes with Apple's stock Calendar app which comes preloaded on the wearable device.

Upcoming new iPhones rumored to upgrade to even sharper, higher-resolution Retina screens

Apple's upcoming iPhone refresh—tentatively dubbed by the press ‘iPhone 6s’ and ‘iPhone 6s Plus’—should feature sharper Retina displays thanks to a rumored screen resolution boost, according to the latest report coming out of Chinese blog Feng.

The publication is claiming knowledge that a 4.7-inch ‘iPhone 6s’ will feature a Full HD screen, literally matching the 1,920-by-1,080 Full HD pixel resolution screen of the current-generation 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus. As for an ‘iPhone 6s Plus,’ Apple's phablet-class device should match high-end Androids by going from a Full HD Retina screen all the way up to a 2K one.