Apple

Sapphire-like Corning glass could come to next iPhone

Kentucky-based Corning has announced that Sapphire-like glass called "Project Phire" will be shipping on smartphones later this year. While not direct confirmation, this could be the glass found on the next iPhone, as Corning has been the glass Apple has chosen in previous generations.

The new glass was announced at an event in New York City, reports CNET, and the company claims it offers the scratch resistance of sapphire but does better when dropped. 

Noted analyst: iPad sales will keep tanking in 2015

Noted analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities is out with a report on Friday that's extremely bearish on the state of Apple's iPad. The analyst, who expects Apple to release a new 12.9-inch model in the coming months, says the downward trend of iPad sales to continue, as much as 30 percent in 2015.

Kuo believes iPad shipments will "struggle to top" 45 million units in 2015, which is a 30 percent year over year decline from 2014. The first quarter of the year is said to be particularly bad, with a prediction that shipments will decline 52.7 percent in the first quarter of calendar 2015 to just 10.1 million units.

Emojis to get more diverse in OS X 10.10.3

Apple is bringing several enhancements to emojis in OS X 10.10.3, as placeholder emojis indicate we may see more diverse characters when the update is released to the public in the coming months.

Following word from the Unicode Consortium in March of 2014 that more diverse emojis are coming, there are now multiple versions of the same emoji character under a sub-menu.

Given the beta state of OS X 10.10.3, the menu is currently non-functional, but it does show the selected emoji followed by five instances of the emoji paired with a number one inside a black box, MacRumors first noted. This indicates we may see different skin tones for the "man" emoji and others.

Telltale releases Game of Thrones Episode 2: The Lost Lords

Following the inaugural release of the Game of Thrones adventure game series for the iPhone, iPad and Mac back in December, Telltale Games has now released the second installment of the six-episode game.

Titled The Lost Lords, Episode 2 finds House Forrester in disarray, their liege lord and his heir dead and Ironrath occupied by Whitehill soldiers.

Needless to say, the survival of the family depends upon those who are left. Game of Thrones Episode 2: The Lost Lords is available in the App Store, Telltale Store and through Steam.

Elon Musk says Apple is trying very hard to recruit from Tesla

Apple is trying very hard to hire engineers away from Tesla Motors, says Elon Musk. Speaking with Bloomberg, the CEO claims that the Cupertino company is gunning hard for his employees, offering them as much as $250K signing bonuses and 60% salary increases.

This is interesting for a few reasons, one being that Apple was recently spotted driving unmarked minivans around the Bay Area with complex rooftop cameras. It's believed the vehicles are either working on a new Street View-like Maps feature, or a driverless system. 

SwiftKey gains iPad gesture typing, 800+ predictive emojis, key click sounds and more

SwiftKey, the popular third-party keyboard for the iPhone and iPad, has received a nice refresh today. The new version brings out support for eleven more languages, enables gesture typing on iPads, implements a new picker which provides access to more than 800 emoticons along with emoji predictions, adds the option to accompany each tap of a key with a click sound and other goodies.

With UXKit, Apple has devs jumping with joy

Photos for OS X, releasing this Spring, could quietly signal a much welcomed change in direction for Mac development. That is, if Apple decides to let programmers access the same private framework it tapped in constructing the clean and elegant user interface seen in a developer beta of Photos for Mac.

As SixColors pointed out, several prominent developers took to Twitter to share their excitement about the framework Photos for Mac uses, currently available only to Apple. It's called UXKit and appears to be an OS X version of the UIKit framework on iOS.

What does this have to do with you? Read on...

‘Angry Birds Seasons’ goes free as Apple’s App of the Week

Apple has just named "Angry Birds Seasons" its App of the Week for this week. This means that from now through next Thursday, you’ll be able to download the popular game, which normally retails for $0.99, for free.

The Angry Birds franchise needs no introduction—Rovio's slingshotting fowls have been downloaded over 2 billion times—and this seasonal version has proven to be a fan favorite. The current episode is NBA All-Star.