The Procreate app for iOS was today updated to version 4.3, introducing several major features that enable new text manipulation abilities within illustrations, as well as general speed and performance improvements.
Users of the popular illustration app for iPad can now add editable typography to their illustrations, while precision sliders make it possible to refine spacing and alignment, and rasterize the results to finish.
This release also introduces the ability to drag and drop fonts into Procreate, while new layer export options allow you to share layers as folders containing PNG images, a multi-page PDF, or an animated GIF.
Elsewhere, there's new pressure smoothing settings to enhance strokes, and new layer blend modes including Darker/Lighter Color, Vivid Light, Linear Light, Pin Light, Hard Mix and Divide.
Procreate 4.3 is a free update for existing users. New users can download Procreate from the App Store for $9.99. [Direct Link]
Facebook will discontinue its peer-to-peer payments feature for Messenger users in the United Kingdom and France on June 15, the company announced on Tuesday (via TechCrunch).
The social network sent out notices to users of the service in the two countries informing them of the decision, adding that they would continue to be able to make charitable donations through Facebook itself. A note on the company's online help center reads:
"On 15 June 2019, we will discontinue P2P services on Messenger or through Facebook messages for all residents in the UK and France. While you won't be able to exchange money with friends and family, you'll still be able to complete other transactions through Facebook, such as making donations to charitable organisations."
Facebook's Messenger instant payments service originally launched in 2015, but wasn't available to users outside of the United State until November 2017, when it began rolling out in the U.K. It appears that the service will continue to remain active in the U.S. for now, despite the pullback in Europe.
Facebook offered no reason for its decision to end the payments service in the two countries, although the company is reportedly working on its own cryptocurrency that could enable people to send money to each other over the social network.
Apple has agreed to open a new 20,000-square-foot retail store in the heart of Knightsbridge, one of London's most luxurious shopping areas, according to local media.
Proposed development in Knightsbridge, London (Image via Chelsfield)
Citing property sources, The Evening Standard reports that Apple has signed a deal with Chelsfield, the property asset manager overseeing a makeover of The Knightsbridge Estate, to secure retail lettings between high-end department stores Harrods and Harvey Nichols.
The transformation of The Estate as a whole is expected to deliver a mix of new "world-class" retail accommodation, including six flagship stores, 66,000 square feet of Grade A offices, 35 rental apartments around an internal courtyard garden, and a rooftop restaurant.
The landmark development is currently surrounded by a public artwork installation called "The Knights of Knightsbridge" to conceal construction.
Apple has five retail locations in the English capital, including flagship stores Regent Street and Covent Garden, which reopened late last year following a three-month renovation.
Every year, Apple provides free scholarships to students and STEM organization members who don't have the $1,599 necessary to purchase a ticket to the Worldwide Developers Conference.
For Apple's 2019 WWDC event, scholarship applications were accepted from March 14 to March 24, with Apple promising to notify winners on April 15. April 15 has rolled around and emails are going out to those who were chosen to receive a scholarship now that Apple has reviewed the submissions.
Apple is offering 350 scholarships in total, which will include a WWDC ticket, free lodging, and a one-year membership to the Apple Developer Program.
🎊 I've won a #WWDC19 Scholarship! 🎊 Whether or not you were accepted, it was a great learning experience, and it was tons of fun chatting and having fun in the #WWDCScholars chat pic.twitter.com/ccn35lxIQ8
— Julian Schiavo (@justJS_dev) April 15, 2019
Apple asked scholarship applicants to create an interactive Swift Playground able to be experienced within three minutes. Like last year, submissions were judged applications based on technical accomplishment, creativity of ideas, and content of written responses on the accompanying application.
Apple held its developer ticket lottery in March and notified developers who won a full price ticket on March 21.
At this year's WWDC event, Apple is expected to debut iOS 13, macOS 10.15, tvOS 13, and watchOS 6 at a keynote event set to be held on June 3. WWDC 2019 will take place from June 3 to June 7 at the McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, California.
Scholarship students and developers who were not chosen to attend the event will be able to follow along with the conference using the WWDC app and developer website.
Some publishers who have joined Apple News+ are unhappy with the launch of the service and have shared details on some "early headaches" with media site Digiday.
When encouraging publications to sign up, Apple promised design resources and templates for customizing content for the Apple News format, but as it turns out, Apple is shutting out some smaller publications and "playing favorites" with larger publishers.
All participating publishers have been provided with an email address for sending pitches for design help, but a smaller group of publishers has been provided with access to a private Slack channel.
But a smaller, select group of publishers were invited to join a private Slack channel where they could connect with Apple more directly, a move that exasperated several sources when they were informed of the channel's existence. "They're basically playing favorites," that first source said. "It always seems to be good for the big guys, but not for the rest of us."
Apple has not provided Apple-designed article or content templates to publishers and has "largely outsourced" templates to vendors, which has resulted in bugs and other issues, along with much more work for publishers.
Magazine publishers need to use tools to scan PDFs and convert them into individual articles and advertisements, but the technology is said to be so buggy that each issue needs to be "effectively copy- and design-edited all over again."
Smaller magazines that don't have the resources for these full redesigns need to either invest time and money anyway or submit a PDF instead. A lot of the content within Apple News+ at the current time is PDF-based, which does not make for the greatest user reading experience.
Publishers are also said to be frustrated with the "uneven user experience" in Apple News with the split between PDFs and the new Apple News format. "You think of Apple, and they're so design-conscious," said one publisher. "This doesn't feel like that at all."
According to Digiday, the publishers that it spoke to said that the flaws in Apple News+ do not "bode well for its long-term future" unless Apple adapts its approach and makes some key changes to the service.
Apple News+ users have also expressed frustration with the service, and at MacRumors we've heard numerous complaints from Apple customers confused by the unintuitive user interface and unhappy with the lack of features.
Amazon is in talks to launch a free, ad-supported music service, reports Billboard. Amazon currently offers an Amazon Music Unlimited service with 50 million songs and a Prime Music service, which offers up around 2 million songs to Amazon Prime members.
Amazon Prime costs $119 per year, while Amazon Music Unlimited is priced at $9.99 per month. Prime Members have low-cost access to Amazon Music Unlimited, as Amazon charges a discounted $7.99 per month price for those who want to listen on any device or $3.99 per month for those who only listen on an Amazon Echo. Amazon does not currently offer free listening options.
According to Billboard, the new ad-supported music service will join Amazon's existing services and will be marketed through the company's voice-activated Echo speakers. Like Prime Music, it will have a limited catalog.
Offering a free ad-supported music tier would put more competitive pressure on Spotify, one of the few music services that has a free music option. Other competing services, such as Apple Music and Tidal, are subscription only and do not offer free ad-supported listening.
To score deals with some record companies, Amazon is offering to pay per stream, regardless of how much advertising is sold.
Spotify uses its free music tier to draw in new paying subscribers. Spotify has around 116 million free listeners and 96 million paying customers, while Apple Music, a major Amazon and Spotify competitor, has 56 million paying subscribers. Amazon has not provided details on how many paying subscribers it has, but estimates have suggested the total might be somewhere around 20 million.
Amazon could be planning to launch its new ad-supported free streaming music service as soon as next week.
Apple this afternoon shared a new video in its ongoing "Shot on iPhone XS" series, this time focusing on the Maldives Shark Research Programme, a charity focused on whale shark research and community-focused conservation efforts.
The eight minute long video features underwater shots of whale sharks and the researchers that are studying them, as well as providing insights into how researchers use Apple products to further their conservation goals.
In addition to showing off the iPhone, the MacBook Pro and iPad also make an appearance.
While the video was captured entirely on the iPhone, Apple says that some additional equipment was used, including the Freefly Movi Cinema Robot, the FiLMiC Pro App, the AxisGO Water Housing, and a Beastgrip.
Apple has shared many "Shot on iPhone" videos and photos over the course of the last several years, including one in the same vein that was recently captured in Cuba.
Apple today uploaded six new videos focused on showing off iPad Pro features, continuing on with its "What You Can Do With iPad" series promoting the new 11 and 12.9-inch tablets.
Most of the videos are over a minute long and feature different iPad Pro apps, features, and capabilities, ranging from handwriting a note with Apple Pencil to creating music.
Multitasking with multiple windows, making notes with Apple Pencil, browsing the web, using Maps, watching videos, reading with the Books app, annotating photos, using drag and drop, video editing, typing with both the on-screen keyboard and the Smart Keyboard Folio, and making music with GarageBand are all shown off in the video.
Apple also highlights charging the iPhone with the iPad Pro, shooting in 4K, plugging in USB-C accessories, and Group FaceTime.
Several third-party apps are shown off in the videos, such as LumaFusion, Animation Desk, NBA 2K, Felt, Notability, Trello, Calm, Procreate, Affinity Designer, Impress, Universe, and more.
Apple appears to be updating the "For You" section of Apple Music to provide Apple Music subscribers with more customized suggestions and music recommendations based around different themes.
The updates to the Apple Music app's "For You" section appear to be rolling out starting today, and we're seeing the new recommendations on devices running both iOS 12.2 and iOS 12.3 According to 9to5Mac, these changes will be coming to all Apple Music subscribers on all platforms over the course of the next few weeks.
Apple Music is now recommending content based on specific bands you've listened to before, and there are categories such as "Case of the Mondays," "Start Your Week Right," and "To Make You Smile." There are also category recommendations for music genres you've listened to in the past.
Recommendations can be shifted using the Love and Dislike features in Apple Music, and going forward, Apple plans to provide more regular updates to the "For You" section so you'll have fresh content and recommendations more frequently.
Apple is maintaining already existing playlists such as Friends Mix, Chill Mix, New Music Mix and Favorites Mix, and there are still sections like Recently Played, Recently Updated, Friends Are Listening To, and New Releases.
Apple has hired Molly Thompson, founder of A&E Indie Films, as its new head of documentaries, reports Variety. A&E Indie Films is the film production unit of A+E networks, where she also served as head of documentary films.
She has produced recent documentaries that include "The Clinton Affair," "Studio 54," and "City of Ghosts," as well as well-known documentaries like "Life, Animated," "Murderball," and "Jesus Camp."
Apple has an extensive video content team working out of Culver City, Los Angeles. Apple has thus far secured the rights to dozens of TV shows and a handful of documentary films, and Apple is clearly aiming to beef up its documentary content offerings with the hiring of Thompson.
Apple's current documentaries include two projects with Oprah focusing on mental health and sexual harassment in the workplace, as well as "The Elephant Queen," a feature-length documentary about an elephant matriarch who leads her herd to find a new watering hole.
Apple defines vintage products as those that were last manufactured more than five years ago. The iPad 2, originally released in March 2011, lived on as a lower-cost option until March 2014, complete with a 9.7-inch display with just 132 PPI, an A5 chip, and a whopping 0.7-megapixel rear camera.
What this means is that the iPad 2 will no longer be eligible for service at the Genius Bar or Apple Authorized Service Providers as of the end of the month. It's pretty impressive that this is just happening now, considering that the iPad 2 is over eight years old. It even has a 30-pin dock connector still.
The only exceptions will be in California and Turkey, where due to local laws, Apple will continue to service the iPad 2 until March 2021. At the time, the iPad 2 will finally go from "vintage" to "obsolete" worldwide.
Facebook today activated its Dark Mode feature, which has been available as an "Easter Egg" setting since early March. According to a blog post on Facebook's Messenger site, a Dark Mode toggle is rolling out globally starting today.
Dark Mode can now be enabled by tapping on your profile photo in Messenger to get to the Messenger settings where Dark Mode is now an available option. Enabling Dark Mode changes the traditional white interface in the Messenger app to black.
Facebook says that Dark Mode is designed to provide lower brightness in situations where lighting is lower while maintaining contrast and vibrancy.
Prior to the launch of Dark Mode, it was able to be activated by sending a crescent moon emoji to someone using the Messenger app. Doing so would unlock the Dark Mode setting and allow it to be enabled. Facebook in March said the feature would eventually become an official setting.
Dark Mode is still rolling out to people and so not everyone may see the toggle right away.
As noted in a regulatory filing from February, Apple's retail chief Angela Ahrendts is leaving the company today, with April 15 marking her last day at Apple.
Apple in early February announced that Ahrendts' role as Apple's head of retail would be ending, with Deirdre O'Brien taking over. Deirdre O'Brien was formerly Apple's vice president of people, but her title is now Senior Vice President of Retail and People as she is maintaining her current responsibilities while also overseeing Apple's retail initiatives.
Over the weekend, Apple removed Ahrendts' profile from its Apple Leadership page in preparation for her departure.
According to Apple, Ahrendts is leaving the company for "new personal and professional pursuits," though it is not clear where she plans to go after leaving Apple. Apple did not give deeper detail on the reason for her departure, but she is departing amid a significant drop in iPhone sales in China and some other emerging markets.
Ahrendts has been the head of Apple retail since she joined the company in 2014, and she has overseen the launch of the redesigned Apple Stores and customer experiences that have been rolling out across the world over the course of the last several years.
Under Ahrendts' leadership, Apple ditched the Genius Bar and instead adopted the more casual Genius Grove, cut down on third-party accessory sales, and turned its retail stores into gathering hubs with Today at Apple classes, artist performances, and more.
Prior to working at Apple, Ahrendts was the CEO of famous fashion company Burberry, and before that, she held positions at Liz Claiborne and Donna Karan. Ahrendts joined Apple at a time when Apple was experimenting with luxury products, launching the super expensive 14 karat gold Apple Watch in 2015, which never really caught on and was ultimately discontinued.
In a farewell note announcing Ahrendts departure to employees, Apple CEO Tim Cook called her "a much-loved and accomplished leader" who had played "a transformative role" shaping the Apple retail experience.
Angela has inspired and energized our retail teams with the vision of stores as a place where the best of Apple comes together to serve customers and communities. During her tenure, the in-store experience has been redefined with programs like Today at Apple, and our relationship with customers is stronger than ever.
Deirdre O'Brien will be reporting directly to Tim Cook going forward. She will continue to oversee talent development and Apple university, recruiting, employee relations and experience, business partnerships, inclusion and diversity, and more, along with retail experiences.
At the current time, Apple has more than 500 retail locations across five continents and more than 35 online stores around the world.
Microsoft has revealed that one of its support agent's credentials were compromised, enabling unauthorized parties to access information from a "limited subset" of users, including e-mail addresses, folder names, subject lines, and the names of recent recipients, between January 1 and March 28 of 2019.
It gets worse, unfortunately. In a statement issued to The Verge, Microsoft said that the unauthorized parties had access to the actual content of roughly six percent of affected email accounts, as exposed by Motherboard.
In an email to affected users shared by TechCrunch, Microsoft said it has now blocked this unauthorized access, disabled the passwords of compromised accounts, and increased detection and monitoring to further protect users. Microsoft recommends users change their passwords out of an abundance of caution.
The breach affected a "limited subset" of Microsoft-managed email accounts, including Outlook, MSN, and Hotmail email addresses. No enterprise customers are believed to be affected, according to TechCrunch.
Microsoft told affected users that it has no indication why the information was viewed or how it may have been used. The company has yet to reveal how it discovered the breach, how the support agent's credentials were compromised, or if the agent was a Microsoft employee, according to TechCrunch.
Apple's Beats brand today shared a new video designed to promote Powerbeats Pro, Apple's upcoming wire-free earbuds that are similar to the AirPods, but designed with fitness and sports in mind.
The video features multiple famous athletes and a brand new single, "Saw Lightning," from Beck. Beck's new song was released today alongside the ad and is available on Apple Music. The video was directed by Hiro Murai, a Grammy Award winning filmmaker who directed the hit music video for Childish Gambino's song "This is America."
In the video, each of the athletes is wearing a set of white Powerbeats Pro while playing their respective sports, ranging from gymnastics to basketball. Beats says that the video is part of a new "UNLEASHED" campaign promoting the Powerbeats Pro.
Athletes featured include gymnast Simone Biles, boxer Anthony Joshua, tennis pro Serena Williams, basketball player LeBron James, soccer player Eden Hazard, rugby player Owen Farrell, boxer Ramla Ali, weightlifter Zoe Smith, basketball player Ben Simmons, football player Odell Beckham Jr., skier Kevin Rolland, skateboarder Leticia Bufoni, boulderer Miho Nonaka, snowboarder Shaun White, soccer player Alex Morgan, runner Ruddy Trobrillant, and ballet dancer Jasmine Perry.
Apple plans to release Powerbeats Pro in May, with the new earbuds set to cost $250 in the United States. A specific launch date is not yet known, nor has Apple said whether pre-orders will be available ahead of time.
Powerbeats Pro, officially announced in early April, share many features with AirPods, including the same H1 chip and sensors for features like ear detection, simple and fast pairing, easy swapping between devices, and Hey Siri support.
Powerbeats Pro also offer longer battery life at nine hours per earbud before needing to be recharged with the wireless charging case, and they are designed to better stay in the ears than AirPods with an earhook that holds them in place and ear tips in four sizes.
Apple has also said that sound was a focus with the Powerbeats Pro, and that they'll be able to hold up well to sweat.
Apple's latest marketing campaign — "Privacy. That's iPhone" — made us raise our eyebrows.
It's true that Apple has an impressive track record of protecting users' privacy, from end-to-end encryption on iMessage to anti-tracking in Safari.
But a key feature in iPhones has us worried, and makes their latest slogan ring a bit hollow.
Each iPhone that Apple sells comes with a unique ID (called an "identifier for advertisers" or IDFA), which lets advertisers track the actions users take when they use apps. It's like a salesperson following you from store to store while you shop and recording each thing you look at. Not very private at all.
These identifiers can already be manually reset under Settings > Privacy > Advertising on iOS devices and under Settings > General > Privacy on Apple TV, but Mozilla is asking for "a real cap" with an automatic monthly reset to make it "harder for companies to build a profile about you over time."
"If Apple makes this change, it won't just improve the privacy of iPhones — it will send Silicon Valley the message that users want companies to safeguard their privacy by default," wrote Ashley Boyd, Mozilla's VP of Advocacy.
Interest-based ads in the App Store and Apple News app are based on information such as your App Store search history and Apple News reading history. Apple makes it easy to opt out, but Mozilla argues that "most people don't know that feature even exists, let alone that they should turn it off."
Microsoft is planning to launch a pair of wireless earbuds under the Surface brand that will be a direct competitor to Apple's AirPods, according to sources familiar with the company's plans who spoke to Thurrott. The earbuds are currently in development under the code name "Morrison."
These are described to be in-ear wireless headphones, just like the AirPods. This isn't the first time Microsoft has created and sold its own headphones, as it currently sells the $349.99 Surface Headphones on its website.
The Surface Headphones are large, over-ear headphones with advanced features like noise cancellation. The new device would likely carry over a few features seen in the Surface Headphones, however, like Cortana integration and "a way to improve interactions between a phone and the earbuds to make reading content easier on the phone."
At this time, the name of the earbuds is not yet confirmed, but the simple moniker of "Surface Buds" is said to have been tossed around within the company.
Apple just updated the AirPods to version 2, which includes "Hey Siri" functionality and wireless charging. The full lineup now includes the AirPods 2 with Wireless Charging Case ($199), AirPods 2 with standard Charging Case ($159), and the standalone Wireless Charging Case ($79) that adds wireless charging capabilities to your existing AirPods.
The report, citing several people involved in the project's development, claims Apple is incentivizing developers by spending several million dollars each on most of the more than 100 games that have been selected to be available on Apple Arcade when the service launches later this year.
While the report claims games on Apple Arcade will not be available on Android or through other subscription-based gaming services, it says developers will be permitted to release their games on PCs or other games consoles such as the Nintendo Switch or PlayStation after a few months of exclusivity.
Apple Arcade will feature titles from well-known brands such as Disney, Sega, Lego, Cartoon Network, and Konami, as well as indie studios such as Snowman, Annapurna Interactive, WayForward, and Klei Entertainment.
Apple has yet to reveal pricing for its Arcade service, slated to launch in fall 2019 in more than 150 countries across the iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV. All games on Apple Arcade will be fully-featured, all-you-can-play experiences, with no ads and no in-app purchases necessary.
Apple Arcade will be accessible via a dedicated tab in the App Store.
As noted in a regulatory filing from February, Apple's retail chief Angela Ahrendts is leaving the company today, with April 15 marking her last day at Apple.
