Alongside the release of macOS Sierra 10.12.6, which came after a two month beta testing period, Apple has introduced a new version of iTunes, iTunes 12.6.2.
iTunes 12.6.2 is a minor update, with Apple's release notes saying only that it introduces minor app and performance improvements.
Today's iTunes update can be downloaded from the Mac App Store for free using the Software Update function.
iTunes 12.6.2 follows iTunes 12.6.1, another minor update that was released back in May.
Apple today released macOS Sierra 10.12.6, the sixth update to the macOS Sierra operating system that launched in September of 2016. macOS Sierra 10.12.6 comes two months after the release of macOS Sierra 10.12.5, an update that introduced a headphones audio fix, enhanced Mac App Store compatibility, and more.
macOS Sierra 10.12.6 is a free update for all customers who have a compatible machine. The update can be downloaded using the Software Update function in the Mac App Store.
There were no bug fixes, feature additions, or other changes found in macOS Sierra 10.12.6 during the beta testing process, suggesting the update focuses on security improvements and other small enhancements.
macOS Sierra 10.12.6 is likely to be one of the last updates to the macOS Sierra operating system, as Apple is preparing to shift focus to macOS High Sierra, the next version of macOS. Apple introduced macOS High Sierra at the Worldwide Developers Conference on June 5.
Apple today released a new update for tvOS, the operating system designed to run on the fourth-generation Apple TV. tvOS 10.2.2 update comes two months after the release of tvOS 10.2.1, a minor update.
The tvOS 10.2.2 update can be downloaded on the fourth-generation Apple TV using the Settings app. Go to System --> Software Update to install. For those who have automatic software updates turned on, the Apple TV will be upgraded to tvOS 10.2.2 automatically.
We didn't find any new features or design changes during the short tvOS 10.2.2 beta testing period, suggesting the update focuses on bug fixes, security enhancements, and other under-the-hood improvements.
tvOS 10 will be replaced with tvOS 11, the next-generation version of the tvOS operating system, this fall. For that reason, tvOS 10.2.2 may be one of the last updates to tvOS 10.
Apple today released a new software update for the Apple Watch, upgrading watchOS 3.2.2 to watchOS 3.2.3. The watchOS 3.2.3 update comes two months after the release of watchOS 3.2.2, which introduced bug fixes.
watchOS 3.2.3 can be downloaded through the dedicated Apple Watch app on the iPhone by going to General --> Software Update. To install the update, the Apple Watch must have 50 percent battery, it must be placed on the charger, and it must be in range of the iPhone.
An iPhone running iOS 10 or later is required to download the new software, but it is available for all Apple Watch models.
During the beta testing period for watchOS 3.2.3, no major changes or new outward-facing features were discovered, so watchOS 3.2.3, like watchOS 3.2.2 appears to focus mainly on performance improvements and bug fixes.
watchOS 3 will soon be succeeded by a new version of watchOS, watchOS 4, which was introduced at the June Worldwide Developers Conference.
Apple today released iOS 10.3.3 to the public following several weeks of beta testing with six betas provided to developers and public beta testers. iOS 10.3.3 comes more than two months after the launch of iOS 10.3.2, a minor bug fix update.
iOS 10.3.3 is a free over-the-air update available to all users with a compatible iOS device. It can also be downloaded and installed on iOS devices using iTunes on a Mac or PC.
No outward-facing changes or features were discovered during the short beta testing period, so it appears iOS 10.3.3 focuses on bug fixes, security enhancements, and other minor improvements, much like iOS 10.3.2.
Apple's work on iOS 10 is winding down as the company prepares to launch the next-generation version of iOS, iOS 11, which first debuted at its Worldwide Developers Conference in June. iOS 11 will see a release in the fall following a summer of beta testing. With work shifting to iOS 11, iOS 10.3.3 is likely to be one of the final updates we see to iOS 10.
Update: Apple has shared detailed notes covering the bug fixes that were introduced in iOS 10.3.3. Among the fixes is an update for a major vulnerability that would have allowed hackers to execute code on the Broadcom Wi-Fi chip built into many iOS devices. This issue was also previously addressed in iOS 10.3.1.
Amazon today announced a new feature coming to its iOS and Android apps called "Amazon Pay Places," which will let users pay for in store items and order ahead meals using the payment information saved in their Amazon accounts (via TechCrunch).
Amazon is opening up the feature with a small scale launch, however, and only enabling pay-ahead food orders through one restaurant, TGI Friday's, at locations in Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington D.C., Richmond, Virginia, and Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.
To use Amazon Pay Places, users on the Amazon iOS mobile app can tap on the hamburger icon to find "Programs and Features" in the navigation tab, where Amazon Pay Places will be located. When tapped, users will be able to browse TGI Friday's menu, place an order, and pay directly within the app.
Amazon is today introducing a new feature called Amazon Pay Places, that allows customers to pay for in-store and order ahead shopping experiences using their Amazon app. That is, instead of using cash, check, credit or debit while shopping out in the real world, you can just use your Amazon account information instead.
According to TechCrunch, Amazon Pay Places will eventually encompass multiple in-store and "physical world" retail applications in the future, placing the Amazon iOS app as more of a potential Apple Pay competitor than the initial launch's focus on ordering ahead. Amazon didn't mention when new partners will be announced for Pay Places, or when the feature might launch in markets outside of the United States, where it will currently only be supported.
Amazon Pay Places is an expansion on the company's current "Amazon Pay" checkout option, which allows retailers to place a button on their websites to give users an easy checkout option, similar to PayPal. With Pay Places, the company is now looking to slowly expand the use cases of Amazon Pay out into stores and restaurants in the real world, although it remains unclear how such in-store transactions will work.
A questionable rumor has surfaced today suggesting Apple could unveil a new iPhone SE next month, but it might just be more noise in iPhone silly season.
The rumor comes from French-language blog iGeneration, which cited an unnamed source claiming Apple will hold a product event in late August to introduce an updated version of the 4-inch smartphone.
Mickaël Bazoge, the author of the article, told MacRumors that he received the info from a "new source" with an unproven track record. He expressed some skepticism, but added that the source "seems reliable."
The timeline is immediately questionable given Apple has never introduced any new iPhone model in August. Beyond the current iPhone SE and iPhone 4s in March 2016 and October 2011 respectively, Apple has officially debuted all other iPhone models at events in June or September each year.
Moreover, given the current iPhone SE essentially has iPhone 6s tech specs, the next model's tech specs would likely be closer to the iPhone 7. And if that happens in August, then the new iPhone SE would be nearly as powerful as the iPhone 7 with a much cheaper price tag, potentially cannibalizing Apple's sales.
When introducing the iPhone SE, Apple acknowledged that some people simply love smaller phones, and revealed that it sold 30 million 4-inch iPhones in 2015. The device looks like an iPhone 5s, but it has newer tech specs, including a twice-as-fast A9 chip and a 12-megapixel rear-facing camera.
iPhone SE remains Apple's cheapest smartphone, starting at $399 in the United States. Today's rumor claims the next-generation model could start at €399 in Europe, down from €489 currently. The rumor also says Apple will hold a second event in October to introduce the supposedly delayed "iPhone 8."
Apple doubled the current iPhone SE's storage capacities to 32GB and 128GB, up from 16GB and 64GB, in March.
Apple today debuted a new blog called the "Apple Machine Learning Journal," with a welcome message for readers and an in-depth look at the blog's first topic: "Improving the Realism of Synthetic Images." Apple describes the Machine Learning Journal as a place where users can read posts written by the company's engineers, related to all of the work and progress they've made for technologies in Apple's products.
In the welcome message, Apple encourages those interested in machine learning to contact the company at an email address for its new blog, machine-learning@apple.com.
Welcome to the Apple Machine Learning Journal. Here, you can read posts written by Apple engineers about their work using machine learning technologies to help build innovative products for millions of people around the world. If you’re a machine learning researcher or student, an engineer or developer, we’d love to hear your questions and feedback. Write us at machine-learning@apple.com
In the first post -- described as Vol. 1, Issue 1 -- Apple's engineers delve into machine learning related to neural nets that can create a program to intelligently refine synthetic images in order to make them more realistic. Using synthetic images reduces cost, Apple's engineers pointed out, but "may not be realistic enough" and could result in "poor generalization" on real test images. Because of this, Apple set out to find a way to enhance synthetic images using machine learning.
Most successful examples of neural nets today are trained with supervision. However, to achieve high accuracy, the training sets need to be large, diverse, and accurately annotated, which is costly. An alternative to labelling huge amounts of data is to use synthetic images from a simulator. This is cheap as there is no labeling cost, but the synthetic images may not be realistic enough, resulting in poor generalization on real test images. To help close this performance gap, we’ve developed a method for refining synthetic images to make them look more realistic. We show that training models on these refined images leads to significant improvements in accuracy on various machine learning tasks.
In December 2016, Apple's artificial intelligence team released its first research paper, which had the same focus on advanced image recognition as the first volume of the Apple Machine Learning Journal does today.
The new blog represents Apple's latest step in its progress surrounding AI and machine learning. During an AI conference in Barcelona last year, the company's head of machine learning Russ Salakhutdinov provided a peek behind the scenes of some of Apple's initiatives in these fields, including health and vital signs, volumetric detection of LiDAR, prediction with structured outputs, image processing and colorization, intelligent assistant and language modeling, and activity recognition, all of which could be potential subjects for research papers and blog posts in the future.
Check out the full first post in the Apple Machine Learning Journal right here.
When the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ smartphones went on sale in April, voice support for Bixby in the United States was missing due to Samsung's decision to delay the virtual assistant's English-language launch until what was then estimated to be sometime in late spring. This week, the company has announced that voice capabilities for Bixby are now arriving for Galaxy S8 and S8+ users across the United States.
Samsung describes Bixby as "fundamentally different" than AI helpers like Siri and Microsoft's Cortana because of its deeper and more nuanced integration into the Galaxy's core apps, as well as some third party apps at launch including Google Maps, Google Play Music, YouTube, and Facebook. The Bixby integration into these third party apps is available through a service called Bixby Labs, which Galaxy S8 owners can opt into through their smartphone.
Bixby's many features include letting users complete simple tasks like turning on the device's flashlight and taking a screenshot or selfie. More complex flows can be arranged as well, like asking the assistant to gather all of the photos taken over the past week into one album called "Vacation," and then sending it to family and friends. Samsung plans to continuously update Bixby with new features, app support, languages and devices, and the company said that thanks to deep learning, the assistant will only improve over time.
What’s more, because Bixby is deeply integrated into the device’s operating system – rather than being a separate app –users can seamlessly switch between controlling an app via voice or via touch commands, rather than choose one or the other ahead of time.
“There are over 10,000 functions on our smartphones, but each day, people may use less than five percent of them. The features on your phone are only useful if you know how to find them. Our goal with Bixby is to make it easier to use our phones, creating the best possible user experience for our customers. That’s why we created Bixby – an intuitive new way to do more things with your phone,” says Injong Rhee, Executive Vice President, Head of R&D, Software and Services of Mobile Communications Business, Samsung Electronics.
With the Bixby update, Galaxy S8 users can simply press the dedicated Bixby button on their device to call up the assistant and begin asking it questions and performing tasks, and a voice activated "Hi, Bixby" feature is also available. Right now, Bixby recognizes English and Korean languages, but Samsung noted that, "Not all accents, dialects and expressions" will be recognized.
Every time that Galaxy S8 users call up Bixby they will also earn experience points in a gamification system that Samsung is also rolling out for the launch, and ending September 14, 2017. Each message sent, call made, setting updated, or any action performed through Bixby will earn XP, which users can convert into Samsung Rewards points that can be amassed to try to win bigger prizes like Samsung products, gift cards, trips, and more.
Earlier this month, it was rumored that Samsung is planning to enter the smart speaker market with a device that uses Bixby as a way for users to interact with music playback. Codenamed "Vega," the project would place Samsung as a competitor against Apple in yet another category, since the Cupertino company at WWDC this year announced the December launch of the HomePod, its Siri-powered speaker.
Delays related to Bixby's U.S. launch are reportedly behind a slowdown on the smart speaker project, and a report out of The Korea Herald this week has furthermore placed the launch of a Samsung speaker well into the future. Sources familiar with the matter claimed that Samsung is "not enthusiastic" about a smart Bixby speaker because it "does not view Al speakers as marketable" at this time, thanks to the domination of products like Amazon Echo. Rather than dive into an uncertain market, Samsung is said to be taking a wait-and-see approach for the potential launch of its Bixby speaker.
Apple today resumed carrying Nokia's digital health products on its online store in the United States and Canada, nearly two months after the two companies announced they settled all litigation related to their intellectual property dispute.
Apple's website indicates the products are also available for pickup at Apple's retail stores between Friday, July 21 and Monday, July 24.
Apple had removed all Withings accessories from its online and retail stores around the world in December due to a legal dispute with Nokia. On May 23, however, Apple and Nokia announced they settled all litigation and agreed to a business cooperation agreement with a multi-year patent license.
The legal dispute began last December, when Nokia filed dozens of patent infringement lawsuits against Apple in the United States and other countries. Apple countersued Nokia, accusing the former phone giant of transferring patents to patent holding entities to squeeze additional royalties from the iPhone maker.
As part of the settlement, Nokia will receive an up-front cash payment from Apple, with additional revenues during the term of the agreement. Nokia will also be providing "certain network infrastructure product and services" to Apple.
Compal, Hon Hai Precision/Foxconn, Pegatron, and Wistron have filed a countersuit against iPhone LTE modem supplier Qualcomm in an attempt to prevent Qualcomm from successfully forcing them to pay certain licensing fees related to the iPhone's assembly (via Bloomberg). The move is a response to a lawsuit from May when Qualcomm sued the four suppliers for "breaching their license agreements" by failing to pay royalties on the use of Qualcomm's technology in the assembly of Apple's devices.
Now, in a court filing today, the four companies have claimed that Qualcomm is asking for payments "massively in excess" of what it would normally receive. If the countersuit is successful, Apple said that it could cost Qualcomm billions in refunded fees and damages. For the manufacturers' part, the companies described the Qualcomm suit as "yet another...anticompetitive scheme" by Qualcomm.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Apple is said to be covering the legal fees associated with the four manufacturers' defense, and that it would soon file a separate motion to combine the new countersuit with its own suit against Qualcomm, creating one unified case.
Apple’s key contention is that Qualcomm is asking the court to force the contract manufacturers to pay licensing fees due on iPhones above the level the chipmaker normally receives.
The manufacturers -- Compal, Hon Hai Precision and its Foxconn subsidiary, Pegatron Corp., and Wistron Corp. -- denied violating any payment agreements. They called the Qualcomm suit against them “yet another chapter of Qualcomm’s anticompetitive scheme to dominate modem chip markets, extract supracompetitive royalties, and break its commitments to license its cellular technology on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms.”
Apple and its manufacturing partners have also responded to a separate Qualcomm court filing, in which the LTE modem supplier requested an injunction to force Apple's iPhone manufacturers to keep paying royalties during the legal battle. Apple, Compal, Foxconn, Pegatron, and Wistron have objected to the request, stating that "there's no harm to Qualcomm waiting to get paid" until the end of the case, when the court determines the correct amount.
Earlier this week, Qualcomm CEO Steve Mollenkopf said that an out of court settlement for the case could still happen, although he had no specific confirmation or update on the legal battle that suggested a settlement was coming between Qualcomm and Apple. The two companies have been embroiled in the court case since January, sparked by an FTC complaint about Qualcomm's anticompetitive patent licensing practices, and continued with Apple's own lawsuit against the supplier, and then Qualcomm's countersuit response.
If there is no settlement between Apple and Qualcomm, the case is expected to continue for the next few years.
When synced with the Snapchat mobile app, users can tap a button on the Spectacles to begin recording a 10, 20, or 30-second video, which is saved in the "Memories" section of the app and can be revisited and posted to their Story.
As of writing, the $129.99 Spectacles are in stock on July 23 and come in Coral, Black and Teal, and include a charging case, charging cable, cleaning cloth, and Quickstart guide. All Spectacles also come with a one-year warranty.
According to Snap, Spectacles can capture up to 100 Snaps on one charge, and the charging case can hold up to four full charges at a time.
Amazon is an affiliate of MacRumors and this site may benefit if you click product links in the article.
Augmented reality startup Blippar today announced a new social feature for its image recognition app that lets users build an AR profile using facial recognition technology.
Called "Halos", the feature offers users the ability to scan their face into the app and fill various bubbles around their head with personal details, such as their latest tweets, favorite songs on Spotify, YouTube videos, and animated emoji.
Once the facial profile is uploaded, anyone who "blips" the user – or scans their face with the app – sees the information as a halo of bubbles suspended in mid-air. The feature builds on the app's Public Figure Facial Recognition, introduced last December, which lets users scan 370,000 famous faces to learn interesting facts about them.
The Blippar app generally relies on users aiming their phone camera at everyday objects, products or images and "blipping" them to unlock helpful information, interact with brands, play videos, games, music, and more.
Blippar said in a blog post that the mobile app is mainly its way of showcasing technologies for other companies interested in adopting their visual search engine APIs – or in this case, facial recognition tech, which the company claims has more than 99.6 percent accuracy.
"Our faces are our most unique and expressive form of communication. Through AR Face Profiles we are making the face accessible in digital format for the first time, providing an innovative and dynamic way of expressing ourselves and discovering more about those around you. The technology lends itself to many other forms of implementation, and we are delighted to be able to share our APIs and technology with other companies, who like us, are committed to spurring on innovation in their own industries."
Apple has previously snapped up smaller companies specializing in facial recognition and augmented reality technology – two tentpole features expected in the so-called "iPhone 8" due to launch later this year.
In February the tech giant bought Israeli firm RealFace, whose proprietary IP could be used to power facial authentication in the upcoming phone, with Apple's ARKit developer platform likely to be used to showcase the handset's next-generation augmented reality capabilities.
Blippar is a free download for iPhone available on the App Store. [Direct Link]
China has reportedly started blocking some features of the WhatsApp messaging service, as authorities continue to tighten controls over the country's internet.
WhatsApp users began reporting problems with sharing content on the chat platform yesterday, with many unable to send video and pictures. Despite initial fears of a communications-wide ban of the Facebook-owned service, text-based messages within the app appear to be unaffected.
WhatsApp's reach in China is small compared to homegrown chat service WeChat, which boasts 900 million users but is routinely subjected to state monitoring and censorship. However, Chinese users concerned about privacy have increasingly turned to the encrypted WhatsApp platform to communicate with friends and relatives as well as businesses abroad.
Facebook and Instagram have remained blocked by China's Great Firewall since 2009 and 2014, respectively. Encrypted messaging service Telegram was also blocked inside China after it became popular with the country's human rights lawyers, while several domestic VPNs – which are commonly used to evade censorship and access services abroad – were recently shut down after authorities said they were unauthorized to run.
China appears to be clamping down on potential sources of politically sensitive news as it prepares for a major leadership reshuffle in Beijing. The event happens every five years and often leads to a tightening of online controls to project an air of stability in the country. The death of jailed Nobel peace prize laureate Liu Xiaobo last week also spurred censors into action, with commemorations on WeChat reportedly blocked by authorities.
Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.
Google today announced a new personalized news feed for its namesake iOS app, offering a stream of content based on user search history and topics they choose to follow.
The feed appears directly below the search bar in the Google app, where users will see a stream of personally relevant articles and media content powered by Google's machine learning algorithms.
The feed sits in place of Google Now, the company's predictive search feature that displays traffic updates, weather, and other information, all of which has been moved to a new tab called Updates.
Going forward, when users perform a search in the app, some results will display a "follow" button alongside them. Content ripe for following will include news, sports, and entertainment articles, with relevance prioritized by the user's search history and previous follows.
The feed itself can be customized by tapping the three dots on top of a card, from which content can be shared, followed, or dismissed to avoid seeing the subject again.
The feed is the company's latest effort to encourage users to browse with the Google app instead of thinking of it as a simple search portal. Its introduction in the app is also seen as a prelude to bringing similar personalized elements to the Google homepage proper.
The new feed should start showing up in the U.S. today and will be rolling out globally over the next few weeks. The Google app is a free download for iPhone and iPad on the App Store. [Direct Link]
As Nintendo prepares to launch Splatoon 2 on July 21, it has made the Nintendo Switch Online app available in the iOS App Store. Nintendo Switch Online, first introduced earlier this month, is designed to enhance the online experience when using compatible games on the Nintendo Switch console.
At the current time, Splatoon 2 is the only game that's compatible with Nintendo Switch Online, and it will allow players to voice chat with friends, invite people to online matches, create teams, and access SplatNet 2.
SplatNet 2, designed specifically for Splatoon 2, offers up online play statistics like match results, stages, and rankings. It also lets users invite friends with Splatoon 2 to Private Battles, League Battles, and Splatfest battles across social media.
While Nintendo Switch Online is limited to Splatoon 2 right now, future games will have built in support, with Nintendo Switch Online serving as the hub for most interactive features like voice chat. When using voice chat, Nintendo says it works in different ways based on the game that's being played. Users can either chat with everyone in the room or split voice chat into teams.
The app's functionality and the Splatoon 2 online play will be available for free until the full Nintendo Switch Online service launches in 2018. Following the launch of Nintendo Switch Online, most games with online gameplay will require an ongoing subscription. Nintendo Switch Online will cost $19.99 per year or $3.99 per month with a monthly subscription.
A persistent internet connection is required to use the app, as is a Nintendo Switch console, and a Nintendo Account. Users must be at least 13 years old to download and use the app, and it won't work until Splatoon 2 is released on July 21. For now, expect to see a login error when attempting to sign in with a Nintendo account.
Nintendo Switch Online can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]
Popular password management LastPass today announced plans to introduce a new family plan, LastPass Families. The new plan is designed to allow up to six family members to store and access all of their passwords and documents from any device.
With LastPass Families, family members can share access to bank accounts, credit cards, and more, for every day use or in case of an emergency. According to LastPass, each individual family member will have access to unlimited shared folders with family members, emergency access, and a family dashboard where the family manager can add and remove members. Family members will also have a private, personal vault for storing passwords that are not shared.
LastPass plans to launch LastPass Families later this summer, but customers can sign up now to get early access to the feature. All LastPass Premium customers will also get a chance to try LastPass Families for free for six months.
LastPass Premium is priced at $12 per year, but family pricing has yet to be announced.
Apple today announced that Isabel Ge Mahe, the current vice president of wireless technologies, has been made the vice president and managing director of Greater China. In her new role, she will report directly to Apple CEO Tim Cook and COO Jeff Williams.
According to Apple, Ge Mahe, who has led Apple's wireless technologies software engineering teams for nine years, will provide leadership and coordination across Apple's China-based team.
"Apple is strongly committed to invest and grow in China, and we are thrilled that Isabel will be bringing her experience and leadership to our China team," said Tim Cook, Apple's CEO. "She has dedicated a great deal of her time in recent years to delivering innovation for the benefit of Apple customers in China, and we look forward to making even greater contributions under her leadership."
As VP of wireless technologies, she has focused on the development of cellular, WiFi, Bluetooth, NFC, and location and motion technologies for nearly all of Apple's products. She has also previously been in charge of the engineering teams developing Apple Pay, HomeKit, and CarPlay, and she has worked closely with Apple's R&D team and carrier partners to bake China-specific features into the iPhone and iPad.
She has overseen the addition of QR Code support in iOS 11, SMS fraud prevention services exclusive to China, and the feature that allows Apple customers to use a phone number as an Apple ID.
In a statement, Ge Mahe said she is honored to represent Apple in China. "Everyone at Apple is proud of the contributions we make to the communities where we do business, and I am looking forward to deepening our team's connections with customers, government and businesses in China to advance innovation and sustainability," she said.
China has become an increasingly important market for Apple over the course of the last few years, and Ge Mahe's appointment comes as the company struggles to maintain iPhone sales momentum in the country. In the second quarter of 2017, revenue in China was at $10.7 billion, down from $12.5 billion in the year-ago quarter.
Ge Mahe will begin working in her new position, which is based in Shanghai, later this summer.
Alongside the release of macOS Sierra 10.12.6, which came after a two month beta testing period, Apple has introduced a new version of iTunes, iTunes 12.6.2.
A questionable rumor has surfaced today suggesting Apple could unveil a new iPhone SE next month, but it might just be more noise in 
China has reportedly started blocking some features of the WhatsApp messaging service, as authorities continue to tighten controls over the country's internet.
