MacRumors

Lyft co-founder and president John Zimmer today refuted reports from over the weekend that the ride-hailing company was seeking out buyers for a potential purchase -- reportedly including Apple -- outright telling Business Insider that "Lyft is not seeking a buyer." According to Zimmer, Lyft itself was approached for a purchase opportunity, which was misconstrued in reports by The New York Times and Bloomberg as Lyft actively seeking out to be bought by a major company, including potential candidates like Amazon, General Motors, and even rival Uber.

Zimmer said these reports "crossed a line," leading to the company needing to address them head-on and break its usual silence on these types of rumors focused on mergers and acquisitions. The most ire seems to be aimed at the Bloomberg angle on the story, which specifically stated that Uber "wouldn’t pay above $2 billion for Lyft," coming in far below Lyft's reported $9 billion estimated value.

"We have to be careful with this type of thing for confidentiality reasons until Friday, when we feel like the line was crossed in that it was characterized as us trying to and failing to sell the business," Zimmer said. "And as Friday happened, with both that characterization and the Bloomberg report, we said enough is enough. We need to let people know that we're not looking for a buyer, so that's not a legitimate part of the story. I think it shows a bit of overstepping on Uber's part with the Bloomberg story that fully demonstrates who is behind this."

Zimmer's language targets Uber and its CEO Travis Kalanick as the catalyst behind Lyft's M&A rumors, although he didn't go into specific details regarding how he believes its rival began the chain of rumors that led to the reports over the weekend. Zimmer also declined to tell Business Insider which companies did in fact approach Lyft with a purchasing opportunity, with the publication saying that Lyft "isn't quite ready to be transparent" due to apparent confidentiality agreements set in place at the company.

Lyft is currently the second-largest ride-hailing app in the United States behind Uber. Although Zimmer believes this rivalry makes it easy for outsiders to view the company as bitter, he mentioned that he and the company are happy with Lyft's current trajectory. "We're focused on being an independent business and having the largest impact on car ownership as we possibly can," Zimmer said. "I don't think [independence] is a requirement, but I believe right now it's the best path."

Starting today, Facebook will begin testing autoplay videos -- including ads -- with sound in its iOS and Android apps. Facebook told Mashable the test will be limited to Australian users and rolled out in two different ways to gauge how users react. In both versions of the test, sound will only play if the iPhone's volume is turned up, and sound can also be turned to "always off" in Facebook settings.

In one version of the test, sound plays immediately as the video begins, if you have sound enabled on your device. Another group is able to turn sound on during the test session using an icon that will sit to the bottom right of videos.

Both groups see a pop-up message informing them about how to use the controls, and sound will only play if the smartphone's volume is up. If you don't want to annoy your workmates, sound can also be turned to "always off" in Facebook settings.

The test is interesting given that Facebook's own research concluded that mobile users prefer having the choice to opt in to sound, with 80% of people reacting negatively towards both the platform and advertiser if sound is unexpectedly played. But, given that Facebook is an advertising-driven company with aspirations of pushing deeper into video content, autoplay sound may eventually be a necessary evil.

After launching its point-of-sale system app in the United States in 2013, Shopify today announced that both the company's POS app and physical hardware will finally be made available to business owners in the United Kingdom (via TechCrunch). The app and "Tap, Chip, and Swipe" card reader work in conjunction to accept various kinds of retail payments from customers, while also providing merchants with data about their business, like stock shortages and daily cash intake.

“The UK is Shopify’s second largest market,” Hailey Coleman, Product Growth Manager at Shopify, told TechCrunch via email. “The launch of the Shopify POS app and card reader provides small business owners an easy and secure way to accept payments anywhere. Now merchants in the UK can run their entire business with Shopify.”

With its NFC-enabled card reader and connected app, Shopify allows customers to pay with any mobile wallet app, including Apple Pay and Android Pay, and traditional cards from Visa and MasterCard. On the compatability side of things, the Shopify POS app functions with the iPhone 4s and later, the iPad 2 and later, and any version of the iPad mini.

With the new system, business owners in the United Kingdom can also run every aspect of their small business with Shopify's products. The app and card reader not only enhance the retail store shopping experience, but both tie the physical store into the owner's online marketplace, "if they’re using Shopify to power their e-commerce."

After weeks of intense usage, new data from Axiom Capital Management (via Bloomberg) paints a picture of Pokémon Go's overall waning popularity as August comes to a close. With research lead by Senior Analyst Victor Anthony, the investment advising firm collected various user engagement statistics -- and even figured out how much attention Pokémon Go brought to augmented reality gaming -- in a handful of charts.

According to Anthony, many other popular apps, which saw a decline in daily active users because of the Pokémon Go phenomenon, were scrambling to figure out ways for former reliable users to return to their app. But now the executives of Tinder, Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat "can breathe a sigh of relief," since everything from daily active users, downloads, and the amount of time spent on Pokémon Go each day "are all well off their peaks and on a downward trend."

"Given the rapid rise in usage of the Pokémon Go app since the launch in July, investors have been concerned that this new user experience has been detracting from time spent on other mobile focused apps," [Anthony] writes.

If these declines prove enduring, this would cast aspersion not only on the viability and popularity of Pokemon Go, but augmented reality gaming at large, according to the analyst.

Anthony believes the fad-like quality of Pokémon Go could ultimately leave little lasting impact on augmented reality gaming "at large," due to its fleeting popularity of a few weeks in mid-to-late July. Although not mentioned by the analyst or Bloomberg, it's also worth taking into account how many players actually used the AR camera when catching Pokémon, and consequently how many considered it an "AR game," when it became widely known that turning the mode off made capturing the creatures a slightly easier task.

While it was on everyone's mind, Pokémon Go made waves in both mainstream mobile gaming, and even sent Nintendo's stock rising, despite the company's small stake in both Niantic and The Pokémon Company, the game's creators. Niantic is still pushing out updates to Pokémon Go, attempting to fix issues with the game while also introducing it into new markets like Thailand and 14 other Asian countries.

Over the weekend, Samsung announced plans to shut down its Milk music streaming service in the United States, more than two years after it first launched. Milk Music, powered by Slacker Radio, was never able to compete with more popular music streaming services like Pandora, Spotify, and Apple Music.

As of September 22nd 2016, Milk Music will no longer be available. Samsung is encouraging current Milk Music users who want to continue to use the service to sign up for Slacker Radio, and listening history will be able to be transferred over.

Rather than pushing its own music service, Samsung says it plans to pursue a "partner model" that will allow Samsung devices to seamlessly integrate with third-party music services. Samsung also says it plans to "invest and refine" its strategy for delivering "new and engaging connected experiences" to its users.

Samsung is sun setting its Samsung Milk Music service in the United States on September 22, 2016.

We have made the strategic decision to invest in a partner model focused on seamlessly integrating the best music services available today into our family of Galaxy devices. We believe that working with partners will accelerate innovation, enhance device sales and provide amazing new experiences for our customers.

We have no additional details to share at this time.

Positioned as a freemium radio-style app that required users to pay $3.99 per month to remove ads, Milk Music was originally designed to compete with Pandora, but it never gained steam as a Pandora alternative. It was initially launched beside "Milk Video," a video aggregation app, but that was shuttered in 2015, and earlier this year, many Milk Music employees left the company.

Milk Music will continue to operate in South Korea, Malaysia, and China. It was also discontinued in Australia and New Zealand earlier this year.

Twitter today announced that it is expanding its "night mode" option to its iOS app, allowing Twitter users to enable a darker mode suitable for reading tweets at night. Twitter first brought night mode to Android devices in July and after a beta testing period, the company is now ready to offer the option in both of its mobile apps.

Night mode can be enabled by tapping on the gear icon and choosing the "Turn on night mode" option. It is disabled in the same way, by tapping the gear icon and selecting "Turn off night mode."

Night mode should be a welcome addition for those iOS users who have been hoping Apple will implement its own Night Mode option, as it makes the Twitter interface much darker and more comfortable to look at in low light conditions.

Nike today updated its popular "Nike+ Running" iOS app with a new name, "Nike+ Run Club," as well as introducing various user interface changes and features (via Fast Company). The big new addition centers around "coaching plans" that let users choose a workout and running plan, which then dynamically adapt to the specific progress made by each user.

Some of these plans include categories like "Getting Started" and "Get More Fit," which falls in line with Nike's mission statement of treating each one of its customers like a professional athlete in order to help them "reach their full potential." Within each plan there's a new "Benchmark Run" that gauges the improvements -- or slacking off -- of each user as they work their way through a workout.

With the latest version of fitness app Nike+ Run Club, for example, personalized coaching for newbie runners is central to the experience. As the app learns more about you, it tailors your workouts accordingly.

"If you have a body, you're an athlete," says Jay Lee, global head of product for Nike+. "What we've learned is that we really need to serve [athletes] as individuals if we want them to reach their full potential."

On the social side of things, Nike has made it easier to share progress with friends on social networks as well as tweaked its leaderboards tab with new ways to compare and compete with people who are also using the app. Users will also be able to use the companion Apple Watch app independently of the iOS app, since the new update allows users to "run free" and leave their iPhone behind.

The new "Club" naming style follows in the footsteps of Nike+ Training Club [Direct Link], which focuses on a wider array of weight and strength training. For anyone who has yet to download it, Nike+ Run Club is available for free on the App Store. [Direct Link]

ZEISS has announced that its iPhone-compatible VR ONE Plus virtual reality headset is now available at Best Buy stores across the United States for $129. The headset has a universal smartphone tray that fits most smartphones with a screen size between 4.7 and 5.5 inches, including the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus.

iPhone users can use the VR ONE Plus with thousands of virtual reality apps on the App Store, including Google Cardboard apps, in addition to 360 degree YouTube videos and Google Street View. The headset has an immersive field of view of approximately 100° and can be used while wearing eyeglasses.

ZEISS is also accepting VR ONE Plus orders through its website in the U.S. and Europe.

NPR posted an audio interview with singer Barbra Streisand over the weekend, focusing on Streisand's North American tour of her new album Encore: Movie Partners Sing Broadway. In the middle of the 8-minute interview Apple gets mentioned briefly, specifically regarding the way that voice assistant Siri has mispronounced Streisand's name over the last five years.

Siri uses a hard 'z' sound when saying the second 's' in Streisand, so the singer took it upon herself to ask Apple CEO Tim Cook to get the company to correct the error in Siri's language. Cook was said to respond with an agreement to fix the issue in "the next update," supposedly referring to iOS 10.

"She pronounces my name wrong. Streisand with a soft 's' like sand on the beach, I've been saying this for my whole career. And so what did I do? I called the head of Apple, Tim Cook, and he delightfully agreed to have Siri change the pronunciation of my name finally, with the next update on September 30th. So let's see if that happens, because I will be thrilled."

It's unlikely Cook so readily divulged the release date of iOS 10, which is expected to launch earlier than the date mentioned by Streisand. The release for the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus could be on September 16 or September 23, according to recent rumors, meaning iOS 10 would launch within a similar timeframe.