News

Time Warner buys 10% stake in Hulu, new live-streaming service due in 2017

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 3, 2016

Time Warner is taking a ten percent stake in Hulu, joining existing owners Disney, 21st Century Fox and Comcast’s NBCUniversal, Variety reported today. The move should help bolster Hulu's programming by adding content from Time Warner’s channels, like Turner networks and CNN, which will be part of a new pay TV service that Hulu wants to launch next year. Terms of the investment were not disclosed, but sources claim that Time Warner paid around $583 million for its stake in Hulu, boosting its valuation to a cool $6 billion.

Twitter for iOS adds iPad keyboard shortcuts

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 3, 2016

Yesterday, Twitter's mobile application for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch added a few useful keyboard shortcuts for iPad owners, said Twitter app developer Amro Mousa. If you have an iPad connected to a third-party Bluetooth keyboard or Apple's Smart Keyboard, Twitter for iOS now lets you use various keyboard shortcuts to quickly access some of the most frequently used options without needing to tap on-screen controls.

Apple Music launches in Israel, gains free Bloomberg Radio news channel in 100 countries

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 3, 2016

The Apple Music service has expanded to Israel this morning, allowing users in the eight million people country to sign up for the music-subscription service in exchange for 19.90 ILS per month (about $5.2) for individual accounts. A family of six can subscribe to Apple Music for 29.90 ILS, or about $7.81.

A free three-month trial is available as well.

The news comes 24 hours after the news gathering organization Bloomberg announced that its radio service is now available on Apple Music in over a hundred countries.

Apple debuts international Smart Keyboards for iPad Pro

Cody Lee ∙ Updated May 1, 2018

Apple on Tuesday debuted international versions of its Smart Keyboard for the iPad Pro. Previously you could only purchase the accessory with a United States English layout, but now you can get it in British English, Spanish, French, German, Italian and several other languages.

Video walkthrough: 20+ changes, fixes and new features in iOS 10 beta 4

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 2, 2016

The fourth beta of iOS 10 was seeded to Apple's registered developers yesterday and the matching iOS 10 Public Beta 3 dropped this morning. For those of you who have been wondering what's new in iOS 10 beta 4, here's a video hands-on of nearly two dozen changes, enhancements and fixes that we've managed to discover in iOS 10 beta 4 thus far.

macOS Sierra Public Beta 3 just dropped

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 2, 2016

If you're signed on the Apple Beta Software Program, you can now install the latest beta of macOS Sierra on your Mac even if you're not a developer as macOS Sierra Public Beta 3 just went live minutes after the Cupertino firm posted the third public beta of iOS 10.

macOS Sierra Public Beta 3 contains the same features as the developer-only macOS Sierra beta 4. Developer-only fourth betas of iOS 10, macOS Sierra, watchOS 3 and tvOS 10 were pushed yesterday.

Pokémon GO responds to criticism over removal of footsteps feature

Anthony Bouchard ∙ August 2, 2016

Pokémon GO has become the top free game in the App Store and Google Play stores in such a short time. It's undoubtedly popular among players around the world, even though it's not yet available in all countries.

Nevertheless, a recent update removed the footsteps Pokémon tracking feature from the game and left many users upset, and now the game developers have released an official response to the criticism they've received.

Instagram is rolling out Stories—Snapchat-like auto-dissapearing slideshows

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 2, 2016

Snapchat has Stories and now Instagram announced a similar feature of its own, called—wait for it—Stories. Basically a slideshow format designed for sharing multiple photos and videos, Stories appear on user profiles and, similar to ephemeral messaging services, automatically disappear 24 hours after being posted on the service.

This cool new feature will be rolling out globally over the next few weeks on the mobile Instagram app for iOS and Android.

97 percent of YouTube traffic is now encrypted

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 2, 2016

According to a post published yesterday on the official YouTube Engineering and Developers Blog, 97 percent of YouTube's traffic is now encrypted since the Internet giant began rolling out encryption using HTTPS two years ago. Encrypted traffic increases your security by garbling the data as it travels from servers to your computer, and vice versa, in order to make these transmissions unreadable to rogue parties without an encryption key.

Apple Maps launches Traffic data in Greece

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 2, 2016

Real-time updates about vehicular traffic on Apple Maps have expanded to include Greece, home to population of eleven million people, according to an update posted on Apple’s iOS Feature Availability webpage. The latest expansion comes hot on the heels of launching public transit directions on Maps in Prague earlier in the week.

Traffic data on Apple Maps is currently available in about three dozen countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, China, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, South Africa, Spain, Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, Netherlands, Czech Republic, Denmark and more.

New Frank Ocean album coming Friday as Apple Music exclusive

Cody Lee ∙ Updated June 13, 2018

Popular R&B artist Frank Ocean is set to release his highly anticipated album "Boys Don't Cry," and it's going to be exclusive to Apple's streaming music service. The New York Times is reporting that the singer has reached a deal with the iPhone-maker to keep the album Apple Music-only for at least two weeks, and that includes a major video and printed publication as well.

iTunes 12.4.3, which squashes a playlist syncing bug, is now available

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 1, 2016

After seeding fourth betas of iOS 10, macOS Sierra, tvOS 10, watchOS 3 and Xcode 8 earlier this morning, Apple has managed to push a minor iTunes update to users. iTunes 12.4.3, which fixes an issue with playlist syncing, is now available through the Mac App Store's Updates tab. In addition to iTunes 12.4.3 and new OS beta releases, a revamped Remote app for the Apple TV with support for Siri voice input, Game Mode and other perks has released on the App Store for everyone to use.