News

Google rolling out overhauled ride services experience in Maps for iOS

Google today announced that expanded ride options and more actionable information are now available to users of the mobile Google Maps application on iOS and Android.

You can now book, complete and pay for an Uber ride without ever leaving Google Maps, as well as browse useful information related to your destination during the ride with menus, hours and other helpful details only a swipe away.

TV provider Cable ONE & ESPN/WatchESPN apps gain support for Single Sign-On feature

Apple today refreshed the official list of Single Sign-On providers on its website to reflect that TV provider Cable ONE now supports the feature. Based out of Phoenix, Arizona, Cable ONE serves approximately 750,000 customers in 19 U.S. states.

With Single Sign-On, users can save their pay-TV access credentials in the Settings app on their iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Apple TV so compatible video-streaming apps can automatically unlock paid content. Just two days ago, ESPN and WatchESPN iOS apps gained support for the feature, as well as compatibility with Google's Chromecast.

AirPods earned 1 out of each 4 dollars from wireless headphones sold online in December

Market research firm Slice Intelligence estimated that AirPods, Apple's $159 wireless earphones, took one out of each four dollars spent online on wireless headphones in December 2016. Launched on December 13, AirPods grabbed an estimated 26 percent share of online revenue in the wireless headphone market, beating out Apple's premium audio brand Beats which captured an estimated 15.4 percent of the market, down from 24.1 percent between the start of 2015 and December 13.

In other words, Apple has managed to capture one-fourth of the wireless headphones market since the launch of AirPods. And if you also count Beats sales, the Cupertino company took almost 40 percent of online revenue in the wireless headphone market.

Apple joins U.S. Department of Transportation’s new Automation Committee

Lisa Jackson, Apple’s Vice President of Environment, Policy and Social Initiatives, is listed as one of the 25 members who joined the United States Department of Transportation's (DOT) new Automation Committee. This means that the iPhone maker will play an active role in overseeing self-driving vehicles and helping determine the future of transportation.

Prior to joining Apple in 2013 to lead environmental initiatives, Lisa Jackson served as Administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency.

According to DOT's press release Thursday, the new advisory committee is scheduled to hold its first meeting on January 16 to immediately begin work on “some of the most pressing and relevant matters facing transportation today,” including the development and deployment of automated vehicles.

New AirPods patent reveals exactly how seamless Bluetooth pairing method functions

A new patent application for “Wireless audio output devices,” published Thursday by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), describes exactly how Apple's new W1 chip inside AirPods enables zero-configuration Bluetooth pairing. In a nutshell, the charging case that comes with AirPods doubles as a physical pairing interface.

Aside from a built-in battery, the case features its own microprocessor and communications stack, a motion-detecting lid for starting the seamless pairing process with an Apple device and a physical button for manual Bluetooth pairing with non-Apple hardware, like Android handsets.

Why to avoid third-party Cydia Substrate “patches” for the iOS 10 beta jailbreak

Yesterday, we shared our fullest opinion of why you should avoid jailbreaking with Luca Todesco’s beta jailbreak for iOS 10 until it’s out of its beta stages, but for those who’ve went ahead with it anyway because nostalgia got the best of them, there’s another difficult choice to make…

Cydia Substrate is disabled by default, and amid the nostalgia, many are already using third-party “fixes” or “patches” to get around this. Of course, there’s a reason Cydia Substrate is disabled by default, and those who’ve gotten as far as jailbreaking also have to decide whether or not to install these patches.

In this piece, I will attempt to eliminate some of the confusion about why Cydia Substrate is disabled by default and why you should avoid installing these third-party “fixes” to get around it.

iSpaceship is finally coming together

Though Apple's yet to confirm a move-in date for the 13,000+ employees it's planning to house at a new Jony Ive-designed campus, the project is finally coming together after work on it began in 2013. New drone footage from Matthew Roberts suggests the campus may open its doors early this year.

Going by this gorgeous 4K clip, there’s still some work to be done before Campus 2 opens but the main building looks nearly complete, roads are being cleared and landscaping within the building and around its central courtyard is now visible.

Kantar: iPhone 6s/7/Plus were 3 most popular smartphones in U.S. in November

Kantar Worldpanel previously said that iOS achieved its strongest growth and the highest market share in the United States in more than two years. In its latest survey, the market intelligence company found out that iPhone's share of the U.S. smartphone market grew 6.4 percent year-on-year in the three months ending in November 2016.

iPhone 6s, iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus were the country's three most popular smartphones during November, with the handsets taking share from Google's Android platform in most markets globally.

The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth arrives after being yanked from App Store almost a year ago

The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth, an iOS version of the dungeon crawler game originally released back in 2014 by independent game studio Nicalis, is now available on iOS as a premium $14.99 download from App Store.

Nicalis originally submitted its dungeon crawler for iPhone and iPad a year ago, but the game got rejected for depicting violence against children. The iOS port has a 17+ rating.

CoolBooter demo: the dual-boot tool for iOS

Developer Jonathan Seals recently released a new piece of work called CoolBooter, an interesting tool which allows some 32-bit devices to dual-boot different iOS firmwares. With a simple reboot it can allow, for example, switching between iOS 6 and iOS 9. Whilst this functionality is commonplace in the desktop computing world, booting multiple operating systems on iOS devices is much rarer.

Sebastien and I talked briefly about the tool on Let's Talk Jailbreak 157, and in this article I'll give some more info, as well as a video demonstration of it in action.

Former AppleScript lead Sal Soghoian writes about automation for MacStories

After Apple terminated his position as Product Manager of Automation Technologies for “business reasons,” Automator and AppleScript evangelist Sal Soghoian is now guest blogging about these technologies over at MacStories.

In his first post for the publication, Soghoian shares his thoughts on Automator, AppleScript and similar services versus app extensions. Soghoian spent almost 20 years leading AppleScript, Automator and related technologies at 1 Infinite Loop.

Early click wheel and icon-based iPhone prototypes shown in new video

After sharing images and a video of an early-stage prototype iPhone software based on iPod's click wheel interface, leakster Sonny Dickson is back at it with another wonderful piece of Apple history.

A new video posted on Dickson's website pits a pair of early iPhone prototypes against each other: Tony Fadell’s “P1” device based on the click wheel UI and ex-iOS chief Scott Forstall's “P2” project.