MacRumors

Instagram today introduced two new tools that it says will help you revisit your favorite Instagram Stories, as well as showcase these moments to everyone who visits your profile.

To start, a new Stories Archive feature will automatically save your 24-hour-long stories into a private section of the app when they expire. You'll be able to find these in the Archive icon on your profile, which already exists for regular picture and video archive options and will now include a toggle to switch to stories. Only you have the ability to see your archived posts and stories, and the auto-archiving feature for stories can be turned off in settings.

You can revisit all of your stories here, re-share any old story as a new story, create a new post, or add one to the new Stories Highlight section of your profile. Stories Highlights allows you to group old stories together in a new section that sits below your Instagram bio.

Story Highlights lets you show all the sides of your personality, and you can make highlights out of anything you’ve shared to your story in the past. From the best moments of your ongoing soccer season to all the stories you capture of your loved ones, the interests and activities that matter most to you have a home right on your profile.

You can tap the "new" button in this area of your profile, choose a Story from the archive, select a cover for the highlight, and name it. After you're finished the highlight will appear as a circle on your profile and will play as its own story when someone visits your profile and taps it.

Instead of disappearing after 24 hours, highlights remain on your profile until you choose to remove them. Instagram said that you can have as many highlights as you want, and any current highlight can be edited by tapping and holding its circle on your profile.

For more information check out Instagram's press release here.

Apple has acquired podcast search startup Pop Up Archive, according to Harvard University's Nieman Lab via AppleInsider.

Apple more or less confirmed the report by issuing its standard statement about acquisitions: "Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans."

Pop Up Archive was an Oakland-based online platform focused on building tools to transcribe, organize, and search audio files, including a podcast search engine Audiosear.ch, according to the report.

Pop Up Archive was founded in 2012, and has since grown off an extended series of seed investments and grants from sources like Bloomberg Beta, 500 Startups, and the Knight Foundation, among others. The company also has a close relationship with PRX; in 2012, the two organizations partnered up to build PRX’s original web-based archive system.

Both the Pop Up Archive and Audiosear.ch websites state that operations shut down on November 28, 2017, presumably around the time Apple acquired the startup. Financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed.

While no other details about the acquisition were shared, it can be assumed that Pop Up Archive's search tools could be used to improve podcast search and discovery in Apple's official Podcasts app for iPhone and iPad.

AT&T this morning announced that its over-the-top streaming service DirecTV Now has surpassed the one million subscriber mark, with the milestone coming in just a little bit over a year since the service launched on November 30, 2016. DirecTV Now originally debuted only on iOS and Apple TV devices, and continues to promote the Apple TV in offers where new subscribers can pay for four months of service upfront ($140) and get an all-new 32GB Apple TV 4K ($180) for free.

In comparison, Sling TV is said to still sit at the top of the OTT streaming service bundle market with about 1.7 million subscribers as of Q3 2017. Around this time, Sling TV was followed by PlayStation Vue (455,000 subscribers), YouTube TV (325,000), Hulu with Live TV (150,000), and FuboTV (100,000), according to research firm Guggenheim Securities (via Variety). At the end of the same quarter this year, AT&T reported about 787,000 people had signed up for DirecTV Now, which has now grown to more than one million in just over two months.

"This milestone is an incredible testament to the thousands of hours many people spent working to bring this product online and continually improving it during the past year," said David Christopher, president, AT&T Entertainment Group. "We're thrilled so many customers have come to love DIRECTV NOW and can't wait to bring them a host of new features in 2018."

"To reach 1 million subscribers is an important benchmark for any OTT video service, but to go from zero to 1 million subscribers so quickly is quite an achievement," said Brett Sappington, senior director of Research, Parks Associates.

As it celebrates the milestone, AT&T also looked forward into the New Year and listed a few upcoming features coming to the service in 2018. According to the company, subscribers can expect the following features to be added to DirecTV Now sometime next year:

- A DVR in the cloud to record your shows and access virtually anywhere
- 4K Ultra High Definition (UHD) quality video
- Capacity for more than 35,000 titles on demand
- Individual profiles
- Adding an additional concurrent stream
- More……surprises!

One of the most-requested additions to DirecTV Now is a cloud-based DVR for recording and storing shows to watch later, and AT&T originally stated that the DVR would be launching in fall 2017. The DVR has been in beta for weeks now, so it appears that AT&T is still fine-tuning the experience ahead of the wide launch next year. It's not clear if all of the new features will debut at once, but besides the DVR subscribers can expect an overhauled user interface, 4K video, expanded on demand options, and more.

Lifeprint, known for its photo printers that come equipped with augmented reality technology, today announced the launch of its latest printer, which is larger than the original version to let iPhone users print bigger pictures.

The new Lifeprint photo printer can print images that are 3 by 4.5 inches, up from 2 by 3 inches. WiFi is new to this version of the printer, which means you can print to a Lifeprint printer from anywhere in the world and send photos to printers owned by friends and family. Bluetooth is also available for local printing.

With Lifeprint printers, you also can print a still of a video or a Live Photo and then use the Lifeprint app to see an augmented reality version of the video, essentially bringing your photos to life. It's a little bit gimmicky, but it can be a fun way to share videos with friends. It's also a neat way to print and share Live Photos.

Like many of the miniature iPhone printers on the market, Lifeprint printers use ZINK paper, which allows for color images without ink cartridges. ZINK also has a sticky back, so all of your printed photos double as stickers. On the downside, ZINK is expensive at over $1 per photo when using the Lifeprint-branded paper in the new size.

You can print photos, videos, Live Photos, GIFs, Snaps, and more with Lifeprint, and the Lifeprint app has built-in tools for editing your images and adding stickers, filters, and captions. There's also integration with Instagram and Facebook so you can print directly from your social network.

"For our second printer, we wanted to go bigger and broader. The larger film is classic instant camera size and really captures that retro look and feel. Perfect for decorating your walls. But more importantly the WiFi capability means you're always connected. This allows users to print to and from anywhere in the world. No matter where you are, you're connected and ready to print. And of course, the magical Harry Potter-like Hyperphotos still bring those videos to life in your hands. Super cool."

Lifeprint's new 3x4.5 printer is available exclusively from Apple.com and Apple retail stores for $149.99 starting today. Film is priced at $50 for a pack of 40 and $30 for a pack of 20.

Apple Tuesday won the right to prevent Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi from registering its "Mi Pad" mobile tablet device as an EU trademark because the name has been deemed too similar to Apple's iPad (via Reuters).

The General Court, the European Union's second highest, ruled that registering Mi Pad as a trademark was not in the public interest, as consumers were likely to be confused by the similarity of the signs.

"The dissimilarity between the signs at issue, resulting from the presence of the additional letter 'm' at the beginning of "Mi Pad", is not sufficient to offset the high degree of visual and phonetic similarity between the two signs," the Court said in a statement.

The decision comes three years after Xiaomi filed an application with the EU Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) to register Mi Pad as a trademark, which prompted Apple to lodge a complaint. The EUIPO sided with Apple's view, based on the grounds that Mi Pad could be misconstrued as a variation of the iPad trademark.

The court agreed with the EUIPO's decision and said English-speaking consumers were likely to understand the prefix "mi" as meaning "my" and therefore pronounce the "i" of Mi Pad and iPad in the same way.

Xiaomi could appeal against the ruling at the EU's highest court, the Court of Justice of the European Union, but so far no statement on today's decision has been given by the Chinese mobile maker.

Xiaomi's expansion into Europe kicked off last month when it began selling its smartphones in Spain. The company has managed to become China's fourth largest mobile vendor by sales and has launched in dozens of other countries including Indonesia, Vietnam, Russia, the United Arab Emirates, and Ukraine, as part of a $1 billion overseas expansion drive.

Its devices, ranging from smartphones to tablets, have been publicly criticized in the past for heavily borrowing design elements from Apple's iPhones and iPads and adopting marketing materials tactics similar to Apple's.

Spotify's annually hosted Wrapped website went live today, offering subscribers a look back at their listening habits over the last twelve months.

After the user logs in with their Spotify credentials, the site tells them how many minutes in total they listened for in 2017, including the number of different songs and artists they listened to, and how many genres they explored along the way.

Users then move onto a short quiz where they get to guess their top songs, artists, and genres over the course of the year, before being revealed the results.

The site then provides "Your Top Songs of 2017", collected in one playlist, as well as a playlist titled "Ones That Got Away", which includes a selection of unplayed tracks released in 2017 that are "based on what you love", according to Spotify.

Buttons are presented on the site that let users play the playlists in Spotify, although we had trouble getting the function to work from within the desktop Safari browser (Chrome and Firefox had no such trouble). The site doesn't seem to like Safari on iOS if content blockers are enabled, either.

In addition to the Wrapped feature, Spotify today released its Year in Music lists, which revealed that Ed Sheeran was the service's most streamed artist globally in 2017, racking up 47 million listeners, while his latest album, ÷, was played 3.1 billion times. Meanwhile, Rihanna was the most streamed female artist of the year, with Drake, Taylor Swift, and Coldplay also proving popular choices throughout 2017.

(Via TechCrunch.)

Apple today quietly added three new Apple Watch Sport bands to its online store, introducing three unique colors. The new bands are available in Spicy Orange, Dark Teal, and Flash, a bright shade of yellow.

Flash and Spicy Orange match previously available Sport Loop and Woven Nylon bands. The Flash color is available for the Sport Loop, and Spicy Orange is available for both the Sport Loop and the Woven Nylon.

The Spicy Orange shade is similar to the exclusive orange Apple Watch Sport band Apple offers with its Hermès Apple Watch models, which has never been available on a standalone basis.

The new Apple Watch Sport bands, like all Sport Bands, are available for both the 38 and 42mm Apple Watch models and are priced at $49. Sport Bands fit wrists from 130 to 200mm and come in S&M and M&L sizes with both size options included in the purchase price.

Apple's Silicone Cases for the iPhone X, iPhone 8, and iPhone 8 Plus are also available in three new colors, including Flash and Spicy Orange to match the new Sport Bands and Cosmos Blue, which is similar to the Dark Teal and a color previously available for the iPhone lineup in leather.

The new iPhone cases are priced at $39 for the X, $35 for the 8, and $39 for the 8 Plus. iPhone 8 and 8 Plus cases also fit the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus.

Update: Apple has also released the 10.5-inch iPad Pro Leather Smart Cover and the Apple Pencil Case in the same Pink Fuchsia color offered on several other accessories.

Google today released a new version of its Gmail app for iOS devices, and while not listed as a new feature, the update introduces support for the iPhone X, Apple's newest flagship device.

The new version of the Gmail app allows it to take full advantage of the larger bezel-free display of the iPhone X, doing away with the large black bars that were previously present at the top and bottom of the app.

With the new view, you can see an additional email when viewing your main inbox, and there is more room for reading and composing email messages. It also looks much nicer in general without the ugly black bars.

Today's update also introduces support for adding non-Google email accounts to the Gmail app via IMAP.

Google has been slowly updating its iOS apps with iPhone X support and has thus far updated Gmail, Google Maps, and its productivity apps like Google Docs, Google Sheets, and Google Slides.

Gmail for iOS can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]

Apple recently updated its Maps app to add transit directions and data for Tampa, Florida, according to Apple's iOS 11 Feature Availability website. Transit directions have been available in Miami, Florida since mid-2016, but have not expanded to other areas of the state.

Transit options available in Tampa include the TECO Line Streetcar System, several bus lines, and Amtrak, which connects to other areas in Florida.

Transit directions were first added to Apple Maps in 2015 as part of iOS 9. At launch, transit information was only available in a handful of cities, but Apple has been working hard to expand the feature to additional locations. Transit information is now live in dozens of cities and countries around the world, with a full list available on Apple's iOS 11 Feature Availability website.

Apple today released tvOS 11.2, the second major update to the tvOS operating system designed for the fourth and fifth-generation Apple TV models. tvOS 11.2 comes just over one month after the release of tvOS 11.1, the first tvOS 11 update.

tvOS 11.2 can be downloaded over the air through the Settings app on the Apple TV by going to System --> Software Update. Apple TV owners who have automatic software updates turned on will be upgraded to tvOS 11.2 automatically.

According to release notes provided during the beta testing period, tvOS 11.2 enables a new AVDisplayManager feature for developers, which is designed to allow the device to automatically switch video display modes to match the native frame rate and dynamic range of video content.

tvOS 11.2 brings a new Sports section to the dedicated TV app, which offers up access to live sports games through integration with the ESPN app. The Sports app can be accessed through a new "Sports" tab at the bottom of the app, and it offers up custom content based on team preferences and current sports seasons.

The update also includes support for switching the Apple TV 4K display output to SDR for apps that are GPU-bound when running in HDR and it re-introduces the Unwatched category in Home Sharing for Movies, TV Shows, and Home Videos.