Apple Archives

June 30, 2015June 30, 2015

Report: New iPhones Likely to Have Force Touch

The successors of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus will have Force Touch capabilities. This news comes from a Bloomberg tech report.

“Force Touch was introduced with the Apple Watch, which launched earlier this year. The feature can judge the sensitivity of presses on the touchscreen, pulling up a variety of control options based on how lightly the user taps the device. During Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in June, the company revealed it would be available on future Macbooks,” according to Brett Molina for USA Today.

This feature will come with the 6S and the 6S Plus. As of now the phone will have the same dimensions. The 6S will be 4.7 inches and the 6S Plus will be 5.5 inches big.

Essentially, the screen will be able to be adjusted to the pressure of the user’s finger. The apps will be able to be activated based on how hard or how soft users press on them. For this reason, suppliers are having difficulty in providing the right screens.

“The timing and production volume of Force Touch-enabled phones could be impacted by the supply and yield of the displays,” reports Tim Culpan for Bloomberg.

At this point, the feature is already in many of Apple’s other products, so this move makes sense.

June 15, 2015June 15, 2015

After Seeing What It Actually Cost to Make the Apple Watch, Your Perception of It Will Be Forever Changed

The cost to make an Apple Watch is $85 which is significantly lower than the price consumers pay for the Apple Watch from Apple.

Source: www.money.cnn.com

June 10, 2015June 10, 2015

Did Drake Dump Jay Z’s TIDAL for Apple?

In recent months, Jay-Z’s music streaming service, Tidal, has come under fire. There have been rumors and reports about artists jumping ship, internal conflict and failed business strategies.

On Monday, Apple revealed a multitude of products and services for Apple users at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2015. Celebrities like rapper and singer Drake and filmmaker J.J Abrams were at the San Francisco conference.

Drake was there to promote Apple Music. He said that the company’s new streaming service is a way for artists and their fans to interact better.

“Focus on your body of work. Instead of having to post your stuff on these different and sometimes confusing places, it’s all in one place: and that is Connect,” explains Drake.

One of the most surprising announcements was that Drake’s newest album will drop on the Apple Music service. That leaves many to wonder why not drop the album on Tidal and what happened to his business relationship with Jay-Z. Those questions have yet to be answered.

Connect, the social aspect of the streaming service, is designed to allow big and small artists to share and connect with fans with lyrics, behind-the-scenes photos, remixes and more.

“Apple’s shuttered social music network hinged on connecting listeners to artists. However, Drake stressed how Apple’s new solution, unlike competitors like, say, Spotify and Tidal, is a simple and elegant one for fans and musicians alike,” reports writer Kwame Opam for The Verge.

Also, there has been rumors of a $19 million contract with Drake. At this moment, that can’t be confirmed.

June 9, 2015June 9, 2015

New Features, Advancements Revealed for Apple’s New Operating System

Apple’s new OS could bridge the gap between your laptop and your phone.

The Yosemite Operating System will focus on sleek app design, speed and reliability that current operating systems may not offer.

According to Ian Sherr and Shara Tibken for CNET.com, “some of the key new features included advancements for its Spotlight search function, allowing users to ask it about the weather, for example, or find stock prices and sports scores. The company also enhanced its search functions in apps like email, where they can easily find messages they hadn’t yet responded to. Apple also made it easy for two apps to run on the screen at once, a function called ‘split view.'”

Some of these features are not new and have been introduced in the Windows operating systems like Windows 8 and 10. Apple is banking on brand reputation to sell its new product. The company wants it to be the most user-friendly OS on the market.

“It’s more of an upgrade to the feel of OS X. This means a lot more gesture control, continuing the tradition of making OS X feel more like iOS. For instance, El Capitan lets you swipe two fingers across the trackpad to delete a message. You can also kill unwanted autoplay music with a single tap. And you can also pull up Mission Control with a three-finger swipe. This kind of stuff is largely reminiscent of Windows 10, and the list of little improvements goes on,” reports Adam Clark Estes for Gizmodo.

The OS will also have widgets that connect users to news, sports and other informational sources. There will be a shared menu that allows developers to create blogs that will also enhance the user’s experience and build a rapport between developer and user. For more information on features check out Apple’s website.

Apple users can upgrade now via the Apple Store.

June 4, 2015June 4, 2015

Apple’s CEO Tim Cook Delivers Vital Speech on Encryption and Privacy

Apple CEO Tim Cook was honored at the EPIC’s Champions of Freedom event in Washington earlier this week for his leadership in the tech industry.

However, he took that time to highlight privacy and encryption practices. His speech was biting and clawing at Facebook, Google and the national government. In regards to Google, Cook attacked its recently launched photo service.

“Like many of you, we at Apple reject the idea that our customers should have to make trade-offs between privacy and security. We can and we must provide both in equal measure. We believe that people have a fundamental right to privacy. The American people demand it; the constitution demands it; morality demands it,” Cook opened.

Cook went on to discuss the ways companies hijack personal information in order to create personalized ads and make money from your personal details.

“I’m speaking to you from Silicon Valley, where some of the most prominent and successful companies have built their businesses by lulling their customers into complacency about their personal information. They’re gobbling up everything they can learn about you and trying to monetize it. We think that’s wrong. And it’s not the kind of company that Apple wants to be.”

According to Matthew Panzarino for Techcrunch.com, “this marked the first time that EPIC, a nonprofit research center in Washington focused on emerging privacy and civil liberties issues, has given the honor to a person from the business world. The hosts of the event included cryptographer Bruce Schneier, EPIC president Marc Rotenberg, lobbyist Hilary Rosen and Stanford lecturer in law Chip Pitts.”

Many would say that Cook has blood on his hands. His company had a major iCloud hacking fiasco late last year where many celebrity nude photos were released. Also, Apple has recently launched Google Photos on its iOS.

However, the speech was necessary.

June 1, 2015June 1, 2015

iPhone Text Message Bug Can Crash Apple Products

As Apple products continue to dominate the tech consumer market, many users are discovering bugs and issues with their iOS operating systems.

If users send a text message via their new iPhone containing a certain string of non-Latin characters, the phone will reboot itself and eventually come to a stop. This bug can affect Apple Watches, iPads, and Macs from working.

According to writer Samuel Gibbs for The Guardian, “the crash is caused by a bug within a core system common to all of Apple’s devices that handle text. When presented with non-Latin characters in a specific sequence – including those from Arabic, Chinese and Marathi – the CoreText system chokes, causing it to fail and bring the entire operating system to a halt.”

The text is not easily duplicated and takes knowledge of what characters can trigger the products’ response. This text message bug was discover by redditors at the subreddit “explain like i’m five”.

Mathew Hickey, principal security consultant at MDSec, told Forbes that “as the issue also affects OS X applications, a malicious party could set the triggering text as a server message of the day or welcome message, causing a user’s terminal to crash when authenticating to network services.”

This looks like one more bug that Apple has to fix. The problem may be addressed in the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus.

May 14, 2015May 14, 2015

Analysts Predict Changes, Upgrades for iPhone 6S

The new iPhone 6S will introduce at least 11 new features that will enhance the product’s functionality, according to many analysts.

KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has reported Apple leaks in the past and has been right on the money previously. According to Forbes, Kuo spoke with investors about the possible 11 features the new model(s) will have when the phones are released in September.

“This year’s iPhone upgrade will feature a rose gold casing color, matching the Apple Watch Edition, according to one well-connected insider, who also revealed it will feature a 12-megapixel camera and 2-gigabytes of RAM, among other changes,” reports Appleinsider writer Neil Hughes.

These are still rumors right now, and nothing has been released from Apple about the new upgrades, official release or price. Everything is speculation and hearsay at this time.

There are few other specifications being thrown out. Kuo believes that there will be an A9 processor powering the iPhone 6S that will give the phone more processing speed and more power. The force touch feature will make the phone more applicable for handwritten signatures. There could also be another microphone added to enhance sound. On top of all of the upgrades, there is speculation that the casing materials will be stronger to prevent bending and wacky Internet hysteria.

The iPhone 6S and possible 6S Plus will continue Apple’s process of giving consumers a little at a time.

May 6, 2015May 6, 2015

Apple Wants Music Labels to End Spotify’s Free Streaming for Personal Gain

Apple wants to convince music labels to end the free streaming tiers of major streaming services. The company plans to start with Spotify. Out of the 60 million people using Spotify, only 15 million use the premium, paid service.

Apple has been trying to use its power to end all free streaming services. This move would put the company in a prime position to grab the discarded free users when Apple’s streaming service becomes available in the near future. It is slated to roll out in June, according to Billboard, but that is not entirely set in stone.

Writer Jordan Weissmann for Slate Magazine says that “music labels still own a significant financial stake in Spotify, which makes it seem a tad, well, unlikely that they’d try to even the playing field at all for Apple.”

However, the news comes before the relaunch of Beats. The point of these backdoor plans is to lower the price of streaming services from the standard of $9.99 to $7.99 when Apple launches its own.

Over the years, Apple has lost revenue due to the popularity of the free streaming options out there. People are not interested in buying from iTunes when the same music is available for free elsewhere.

These backdoor negotiations have attracted the attention of the Department of Justice because of possible violations of anti-trust laws. Apple reportedly has had a history of strong-arming companies for its own interest during the Steve Jobs era. In the past, Apple wanted to raise e-book prices in an attempt to compete with Amazon.

We can only wait and see if any federal action will happen to Apple or if Spotify retaliates.