Sean Combs' exclusive Apple Music documentary Can't Stop Won't Stop: A Bad Boy Story officially debuted on the music streaming service last night [Direct Link]. The film was announced this past April, following the documentary's premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival.
Can't Stop Won't Stop follows Combs, aka "Puff Daddy," and the rise of Bad Boy Records throughout the 1990s, all the way up until the reuniting of the Bad Boy Family in 2016 for a reunion show tour in New York City.
Apple Music's full description follows:
In 1993, Sean "Diddy Combs, a.k.a. Puff Daddy, founded Bad Boy Records and changed popular culture forever. In 2016, the Bad Boy Family reunited in Brooklyn, New York for the biggest homecoming in hip-hop history. Can't Stop Won't Stop: A Bad Boy Story explores the passion and personalities behind the empire, and goes inside the making of a movement and the staging of an unprecedented musical event.
This is an intern-to-CEO story -- a raw behind-the-scenes look at the legacy of Bad Boy through a complex portrait of its mastermind as Combs reunites the Family over a frantic three-week rehearsal period. The film traces the label's emergence in Harlem and Brooklyn, follows its meteoric rise, reflects on the tragic killing of Biggie Smalls, and celebrates Bad Boy's influence -- all while reveling the love and commitment that binds every member of the Family together.
The Apple Music page for the film includes the trailer, a running time indicator of one hour, and "Songs in this Movie" so viewers can easily find the music that appears in the documentary. Apple has also placed Can't Stop Won't Stop across the carousel on Apple Music's "Browse" tab, as well as given more spotlight to hip hop-related radio stations, playlists, and old tracks and videos by The Notorious B.I.G.
Apple's exclusive access to the one-hour documentary is said to be for as long as one year. Following the announcement in April, Combs said he felt "blessed" to be working with Apple as a partner in telling the story of Bad Boy Records.
Can't Stop Won't Stop is the latest music-related film content for Apple Music, and represents Apple's ongoing push into original TV production. The company launchedPlanet of the Apps earlier in June, and Carpool Karaoke: The Series is set to debut on August 8.
Moving forward, Apple hopes to expand its content beyond music and tech, with former Sony executives Jamie Erlicht and Zack Van Amburg helping to lead Apple's push into more traditional television for Apple Music.
The first iPhone SE devices that have been made in India are beginning to circulate around Bangalore, according to a report today by The Indian Express. The site noted that it's still hard to come by an iPhone SE with "Assembled in India" on its back, because Apple has kicked off its Indian iPhone production with just a small trial run of limited units.
The India-made iPhone SE models are mostly appearing in Bangalore, which is expected since that's where Apple's assembly plant is located. Apple officially began assembling iPhones in India in the middle of May, with sources predicting that retail outlets would get the first shipments over the next few weeks.
Unfortunately, the iPhone SE hasn't seen a price reduction yet in the country, despite Apple's local manufacturing goals finally being realizedafter so long, which the company hopes will eventually lead to lower-priced devices. The Bangalore-made iPhone SE models are said to be "priced the same as other models manufactured in China," and it's unclear when such a price reduction might come to the iPhone SE models made and sold in India.
Australia is set to push for greater international powers to thwart the use of encrypted messaging services by terrorists and criminals, according to reports on Sunday (via Reuters).
The topic will be addressed this week at a meeting of officials from the "Five Eyes" intelligence sharing network, which includes the U.S., the U.K, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
Australia claimed the increasing use of strong encryption on smartphones and other devices was hindering law enforcement's capacity to gather and act on intelligence, and said it wants tech companies to do much more to give intelligence and law enforcement agencies access to encrypted communications.
Security experts and privacy groups regularly argue that any such methods would simply weaken overall security for everyone.
"I will raise the need to address ongoing challenges posed by terrorists and criminals using encryption," Australian Attorney General Senator Brandis said in a joint statement.
"These discussions will focus on the need to cooperate with service providers to ensure reasonable assistance is provided to law enforcement and security agencies."
The announcement followed the U.K. government's recent statement of intent to pressure technology companies to do more to put an end to the "safe spaces" that the internet offers extremists. The country has also called for measures to "regulate cyberspace", following terror attacks in the country.
In related news, a leaked draft technical paper prepared by the U.K. government states that technology companies would be required to remove encryption from private communications and provide the raw data "in an intelligible form" without "electronic protection". However, it's not clear if the Conservatives still intend to pursue these powers after recent elections left the party with a minority government and a diminished mandate.
Last year Apple refused requests from the FBI to break the security of its mobile software, following the recovery of an iPhone used by the San Bernardino shooter. Apple argued the FBI's request would set a "dangerous precedent" with serious implications for the future of smartphone encryption. The dispute ended after the government found an alternate way to access the data on the iPhone through the help of professional hackers.
Last week, the European Union published draft proposals that would enforce end-to-end encryption on all digital communications and forbid backdoors that enable law enforcement to access private message data. If ratified, the law would put it at odds with both the U.S. and U.K. intelligence communities.
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.
What happened: Early product sales disappointed, which was exacerbated by a high burn rate.
What next? The Pearl Automation team received several "acqui-hire" offers, but opted instead to shut down and part ways, according to a source close to the situation.
RearVision, which went on sale last September, was a license plate frame with dual HD cameras, solar power, and Bluetooth to wirelessly connect to an OBD port hub and an iPhone or Android phone. While it was a slick and easy to install system, the $500 price tag undoubtedly contributed to its downfall.
Pearl appears to have had larger ambitions related to autonomous driving technology and driver safety, but with its initial project suffering from poor sales, the company lacked the resources to push forward on its follow-up products.
As we near the ten-year anniversary of the iPhone later this week, a few stories posted online have delved into the rich history of where the device started, how the original team came up with the idea for the touchscreen smartphone, and what it was like reviewing the device back in 2007.
In a new video shared by The Wall Street Journal today, three former Apple executives -- Scott Forstall, Tony Fadell and Greg Christie -- have taken a look back at the first days of designing the iPhone with Steve Jobs. Apple's former senior vice president of the iPod division, Tony Fadell, recounted a time when Jobs showed him the company's first demo for what would become the iPhone's touch-based operating system.
Jobs and the rest of the team were seeking a more elegant solution to a smartphone interface than the one they began with, which was an iPod click wheel interface, when Jobs invited Fadell into a demo room.
"Steve goes, "Come over here I need to show you something." So he walked me into the room...and it was basically like a ping pong table sized demo with a projector that was projecting a Mac interface on it. And you could use your whole hand and you could touch different things on it, like it was a big big Mac.
It was literally a ping pong sized multi-touch display. And he goes, "I think this is gonna solve our problem."
Former Apple vice president of iOS, Scott Forstall, recalled a specific time in 2005 when the iPhone team was put on a deadline of two weeks to come up with a better design for the smartphone's user interface. Jobs was not satisfied at the time with early iterations of the iPhone's look, and told Forstall and the team that he'd give the project to another group at the company if they failed to deliver.
Greg Christie, former Apple vice president of human interface, said that the team's design ultimately satisfied Jobs, and led to even more work over the next two years before the iPhone's launch in 2007.
"The first time he saw it he was completely silent, he didn't say a thing. He didn't say anything, he didn't gesture, he didn't ask a question. Then he sat back and he said, "Show it to me again." And so we go through the whole thing again and Steve was pretty much blown away by the whole demonstration. It was great work.
Our reward for doing a great job on that demonstration was to, you know, kill ourselves over the next two and a half years."
In 2006, Forstall froze development across the iPhone's user interface divisions to force the team to focus on one troublesome part of the smartphone's UI: the keyboard. At the time, Forstall said it was difficult to use and that if someone tried to type out an e-mail, they'd just "give up."
Forstall explained that one of the best keyboards pitched by a developer had a few clever advantages over all the others designed by the team. Namely, it could intelligently predict words, so if a user would type "T," the keyboard would make the hit region for "H" larger -- while the actual key remained the same size -- so that common words such as "the" were easier to type.
The full ten-minute video created by The Wall Street Journal, which is called "How The iPhone Was Born: Inside Stories of Missteps and Triumphs," is well worth checking out. Other topics discussed by Forstall, Fadell, and Christie include the creation of the iPhone's visual vocabulary (like pinch to zoom and rubber banding to mark the end of a scrollable page), as well as the company's Fight Club secrecy tactics for "The Purple Project," the code name for the original iPhone's creation.
The company handed out t-shirts with a rainbow Apple logo to those marching in the parades, and in San Francisco there was a large #applepride structure where visitors were able to write their own messages regarding the celebrations.
In previous years Apple has taken to the streets for the pride parade in San Francisco with similar pride t-shirts for employees, commemorative videos posted on YouTube, iTunes gift cards, and a custom rainbow Apple Watch Woven Nylon band. The Pride Edition Woven Nylon band launched to the public during WWDC earlier this month, and Apple this week confirmed a portion of its proceeds are going to help LGBTQ organizations like The Trevor Project and the HRC.
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.
Apple CEO Tim Cook joined top business leaders in a roundtable session with India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday. As many as 21 high-profile chief executives of U.S. corporations attended the gathering in Washington, D.C., including Google's Sundar Pichai, Microsoft's Satya Nadella, and Amazon's Jeff Bezos (via India Economic Times).
Prime Minister Modi kicked off his U.S. visit by telling the CEOs that India's growth presented a "win-win" opportunity for both nations, referring to his government's attempts to improve the business climate, including a unified Goods and Services Tax (GST) that he hoped would encourage American companies to invest there.
"The whole world is looking at India. 7,000 reforms alone by GOI for ease of (doing) business and minimum government, maximum governance," Gopal Bagley, spokesman of the Ministry of External Affairs said in a tweet from inside the meeting, quoting the prime minister.
India's growth presents a win-win partnership for the country and the US, and American companies have a great opportunity to contribute to that, Modi told the CEOs, according to Bagley.
The Prime Minister reportedly listened to the wish lists of the CEOs in attendance, with some voicing their concerns about tax rates under the coming GST regime. Modi, meanwhile, stressed the importance of cooperation for start-ups, for innovation and for tapping the intellectual, educational, and vocational training potential in India.
Apple is in talks with Indian government officials to expand its fledgling iPhone manufacturing base in the country, following discussions last year with Prime Minister Modi, who has been working to promote his "Make in India" initiative. Apple is also creating a new distribution center in India to consolidate its logistics and supply chain in the country.
The company will reportedly begin selling iPhones directly through its website in India later this year, and is expected to open its first physical retail store in India as early as 2018. Apple is said to be looking to open four to five flagship-class stores in the country over the next five to ten years.
Prime minister Modi's two-day visit continues on Monday, when he will meet President Trump to discuss trade and investment issues between the two countries.
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.
With the iPhone's tenth birthday coming up this week, CBS Sunday Morningaired a segment today taking a look back at the development and launch of the original iPhone.
The segment from David Pogue includes a roundtable session with Pogue, Walt Mossberg, Steven Levy, and Ed Baig, the four journalists who received review units of the iPhone in 2007 just prior to its launch.
"After three days," said Mossberg, "I was ready to throw this thing out of the window for trying to type on glass."
"It's ten years later," said Levy, "and half the emails I get still have a little message underneath saying, 'Typed on phone, forgive typos'!"
Pogue also sits down for a brief interview with Bas Ording, one of the key Apple engineers behind the first iPhone.
Part of what made the iPhone a hit was that objects in that touchscreen world have their own physics. You can thank Bas Ording for some of it, like how lists have momentum when you flick them, or how they do a little bounce when you get to the end.
"And now, a billion people are using your idea," said Pogue.
"Is it a billion? That's a lot!" Ording laughed.
"Did anyone, at the time, on this team, have any idea how big this could be?"
"Oh, no, not at all. I didn't, for sure."
The segment doesn't break any new ground on the background of the iPhone, but it's a nice piece highlighting the milestone anniversary of the device that changed the world.
This week in iOS gaming was dominated by a single thing: The unveiling of the "Sega Forever" program that Sega first started teasing around a month ago. The original announcement came with practically no details beyond Sega was doing something with its massive back catalog of games, which in turn caused speculation to run wild. Eventually the internet decided Sega Forever was going to be a Netflix-like service for classic Sega titles, which turned out to be totally incorrect.
Instead, Sega Forever is five mobile game ports, with more on the way. Each game is free to download, and can be played for free forever with ads. There's also a one-time $1.99 unlock inside each game to permanently disable ads. The initial batch of Sega Forever titles include:
Unfortunately, our first impressions of these were not great. The quality of the emulation is subpar, performance is bad (even on recent iOS devices), and the games lack any of the configurability options that have become standard in both emulators themselves as well as iOS games in a general sense. There are no options for screen filtering or screen stretching, and you can't even adjust the virtual controls, which is a particularly baffling omission as they often block vital on-screen components in these games.
Our own Shaun Musgrave, who is basically the TouchArcade equivalent of Encyclopedia Brown, spent a ton of time playing these new ports, and discovered among other things that when Sega first released some of these games back in 2009, they performed better than these "new and improved" Sega Forever titles.
Needless to say, this has really left us scratching our heads. The one exception to these bad ports is Sonic the Hedgehog, which isn't emulated but instead was re-built from the ground up by Christian Whitehead back in 2013. Whitehead is also responsible for the amazing Sonic CD remake that has was released on the App Store a few years ago. Regardless, Sega has plans to constantly release new Sega Forever titles, so we'll have to wait and see if their emulation wrapper improves at all or if this is the new normal. If you want to hear even more about Sega Forever, check out this week's episode of our podcast.
In other news, Rocketcat Games released a new trailer for its upcoming Death Road to Canada update. The game itself leans on a lot of roguelike tropes with randomized encounters, surprise party members, and more. This latest update adds more structure to the progression of the game, shifting things slightly away from total randomization and instead allowing players to buy persistent perks and abilities. When it's released, the price of the game will rise from $8.99 to $9.99, so if you want to save a buck be sure to grab Death Road to Canada now.
With its next expansion, Hearthstone will see a massive change to how opening packs work: In a nutshell, if you open a Legendary card in a pack, it will be a unique card and not one you already own. Similarly, you will never open more copies of a card in any single pack than you can use in a deck – so the days of opening a pack with the same four commons and one junk rare are over. It's a huge quality of life improvement, and the player reception to the change has been incredibly positive.
When we cover upcoming game trailers, typically there's just one new game being teased. Developer and publisher Umbrella released a trailer of its entire summer lineup. Fifteen games in one video. It's a lot to take in, but if you enjoy quick pick up and play iOS games that mass market mobile gamers seem to love, these are definitely all going to be titles that are worth having on your radar in one way or another.
Last but not least, while last week's news was all about Supercell's latest soft launched game Brawl Stars, there's one important thing to note: Currently the game is only available for iOS. It will eventually come to Android, but Supercell has not yet released a date for the Android version of the game.
Unfortunately, the number of scams floating around in the Android world right now trying to either trick people into jumping through all sorts of hoops (often making the scammer money) or to just download malware APKs is off the charts. As of this writing, all Android Brawl Stars guides, download links, and whatever else are scams. When the game finally launches on Android, it will be a big deal. You won't miss it.
Anyway, that's it for this week. If you enjoy reading this weekly roundup, be sure to visit TouchArcade where we post things like this, as well as way more news, reviews, previews, and everything else covering the world of iOS (and, like this article, a tiny bit of Android) gaming.
Drone videographer Duncan Sinfield has posted a new video on his YouTube channel today, giving viewers a fresh look at Apple Park as a small number of employees begin settling into the campus and more buildings take shape. It's been nearly two years since Sinfield originally started providing monthly drone footage for what was previously referred to as "Apple Campus 2."
Now, Sinfield's late June 2017 update provides a glimpse into Apple's ongoing construction progress at Apple Park, including a noticeable progression in the number of trees and other pieces of greenery within the "spaceship" building's circular courtyard. Early on in the video, viewers can also catch a shot of the main atrium of Apple Park, with its floor-to-ceiling glass doors that originally began to take shape in November 2016.
Notably, the new drone footage provides one of the best looks yet into the Steve Jobs Theater, with Sinfield gathering footage of the campus auditorium as lights turn on inside. The lobby of the theater is visible in the video, thanks an all-glass construction that offers visitors a 360-degree view of Apple Park. On two sides of the lobby, spiraling stairs lead downward to the underground auditorium where Apple will host future events.
In last month's drone video update, provided by Matthew Roberts, the Steve Jobs Theater still had multiple window coverings and construction equipment housed inside, so Apple is making fast progress on the building. The company has yet to confirm when the auditorium will officially open, but it's expected to sometime later in the fall.
The Steve Jobs Theater is capped with the world's largest freestanding carbon-fiber roof, and sits atop a hill at one of the highest points of the 175-acre campus. When Apple announced Apple Park's official name back in February, along with the new name for the auditorium, CEO Tim Cook commemorated Jobs and the new Steve Jobs Theater by saying, "Steve’s vision for Apple stretched far beyond his time with us. He intended Apple Park to be the home of innovation for generations to come."
Apple has hired the lead doctor of Stanford University's digital health initiative, Sumbul Desai, to take on an unspecified role in one of the tech company's health projects. The hire was rumored earlier this month, but Stanford Medicine confirmed it to Internet Health Management on Friday.
Desai headed up Stanford's Center for Digital Health, launched by the university's School of Medicine in January 2017. The center's mission is to enhance Stanford's digital health initiatives by collaborating with technology companies and undertaking clinical research and education. The center also helped develop MyHeart Counts, a cardiovascular disease app built using ResearchKit in collaboration with the University of Oxford.
Desai worked at Stanford since 2008, beginning as a resident physician of internal medicine, before holding numerous roles including: Medical director of strategic innovations, assistant chief of strategy, clinical associate professor, associate chief medical officer of strategy and innovation, vice chair of strategy and innovation, and chief for the Center of Digital Health.
Apple has not revealed what role Desai will play at the company, whether she might join the team working on ResearchKit, HealthKit, and CareKit, or if she will work on an unrelated project. Apple has made several healthcare-related hires in recent years. In September it recruited Dr Mike Evans, a staff physician from St Michaels Hospital in Toronto and an associate professor of family and community medicine at the University of Toronto. Two months later the company also hired Dr Ricky Bloomfield, who was director of mobile technology and strategy at Duke University Health System.
Apple has also hired Stanford doctor Rajiv Kumar, who has experience using HealthKit to help patients with diabetes, and Dr Stephen Friend, who helped build the data infrastructure for many ResearchKit apps.
Apple has kept quiet regarding what kind of products its health team is working on, but the company is known to be investigating advanced medical monitoring features, possibly for a future Apple Watch. The company is said to be working on implementing a new glucose monitoring feature and interchangeable smart bands, for example, while Apple CEO Tim Cook was allegedly spotted testing a prototype glucose monitor connected to his Apple Watch last month.
Earlier this week, Kensington launched its entry into the Thunderbolt 3 dock market with its SD5000T Thunderbolt 3 Docking Station, an enterprise-focused accessory that incorporates a couple of unique features in the form of a Kensington lock slot and the ability to mount the dock to the rear of VESA-compatible displays for "Zero Footprint Mounting" with a separate bracket accessory.
I've since had a chance to spend some time with the SD5000T, so I've been able to test it out to see how it stacks up against the competition.
The dock arrived in a plain white box with a product label on it, which Kensington tells me is the B2B packaging. Retail units will obviously have fancier packaging.
Inside the box was the dock itself, a large power brick identical to ones used by many of the other Thunderbolt 3 docks, and a 0.5-meter Thunderbolt 3 cable. Kensington also includes three separate power cables with compatibility for the major US, UK, and mainland European standards.
The SD5000T is fairly attractive, constructed primarily of matte black plastic with a band of brushed aluminum with chamfered top edges around all four sides of the dock except for the two front USB ports. The gap in the aluminum band around the USB ports provides a bit of visual interest without being overly distracting.
Kensington's dock has a horizontal design very similar to most other Thunderbolt 3 docks on the market, measuring about 8.5 inches wide by about 3.35 inches deep by just about an inch high and weighing just over three quarters of a pound. A small Kensington word mark is molded into the plastic on the top left rear corner of the dock, but it's a subtle inclusion that doesn't distractingly stand out like the branding on some other docks.
Setup is a breeze, requiring the power brick be plugged in and connected to the dock and the Thunderbolt cable connected from one of the ports on the back of the dock to the computer. Any other cables for peripherals and displays are easily connected to the dock. When the dock is powered on, a subtle blue light shines on the front to indicate its status. The SD5000T supports a full 85 watts of charging over Thunderbolt 3, so it can power even a 15-inch MacBook Pro over the same cable used to pass data and video.
I own a number of displays, most of which are VESA-compatible, but none of them will work with Kensington's Zero Footprint Mounting solution, and that's the problem with this feature. All of my VESA displays require that you remove the foot from the display and attach a separate backplate that includes the VESA mounting holes.
If you use these displays sitting on a desk as I and many other people do, you can't also mount Kensington's dock on the back of the display. There are, however, some displays on the market that do include accessible VESA mounting holes even with the display's foot attached, so if you have one of those monitors this would be a great way to get the dock off of your desk.
As with the other Thunderbolt 3 docks I've looked at, I tested Kensington's dock with a 2016 MacBook Pro and a pair of LG UltraFine 5K displays over Thunderbolt 3, one connected via the dock and the other hooked up directly to the MacBook Pro. The display connected via the SD5000T worked just fine, utilizing its full 5K Retina resolution at 60 Hz. Alternatively, you can connect a pair of 4K displays to the dock, one over Thunderbolt 3/USB-C and one over DisplayPort. Other standards like HDMI and VGA can also be used with appropriate DisplayPort adapters.
The SD5000T includes a trio of USB ports running at 5 Gbps, one Type-A and one Type-C on the front and one Type-A on the rear. It's a pretty typical number of USB ports for docks like this and a Type-C option is a nice inclusion, but I still wish Kensington and other manufacturers would match OWC's five USB ports for maximum flexibility.
Connecting a fast USB 3.1 Gen 2 external SSD to the MacBook Pro through the dock yields read and write speeds of around 350 and 320 MB/s respectively through both the Type-C and Type-A ports on the dock, on par with 5 Gbps USB ports on other Thunderbolt 3 docks I've tested.
That's a bit slower than 420/410 MB/s speed seen when the SSD is connected directly to a 5 Gbps MacBook and can't compare to the ~500 MB/s speeds seen when connecting it directly to the 10 Gbps MacBook Pro, but it's still plenty speedy for most uses.
Other ports on the rear of the dock include Gigabit Ethernet and separate 3.5 mm audio in and out ports. Kensington's famous lock slot is also included, and while it's not really necessary in my home office, institutional customers will no doubt appreciate the added security.
At a list price of $350, Kensington's SD5000T comes in at the high end of Thunderbolt 3 docks, matching Belkin's dock and priced $50 higher than similar offerings from OWC, Elgato, and CalDigit. While general consumers may find it hard to justify the high-end pricing, institutional customers could be more willing to spend a bit more to get features like the Kensington lock slot and VESA mounting option (mounting plate sold separately for $9.99), as well as a three-year warranty that more closely aligns with typical replacement cycles than the shorter warranties offered on competing docks.
The Kensington SD5000T is available now from Kensington for $349.99, but B&H Photo is currently offering it at a discounted price of $299.95. B&H Photo does not yet have the dock in stock, however, and it is expecting orders to ship out around June 30.
Note: Kensington provided the SD5000T Docking Station to MacRumors free of charge for the purposes of this review. No other compensation was received. MacRumors is an affiliate partner with B&H and may earn commissions on purchases made through links in this article.
Google today announced that it will stop scanning the emails of its free Gmail users for the purpose of delivering personalized ads later this year.
If you've recently received a lot of emails about photography or cameras, for example, currently Google may show you a deal from a local camera store that it thinks might be interesting to you. On the other hand, if you've reported those emails as spam, then Google would take steps not to show those ads.
Google users may still see personalized ads while using Gmail and the company's other services, depending on their account settings, but the contents of a user's inbox will no longer factor into the ads that are shown.
Instagram is today beginning a small test for a new feature called "favorites," which allows users to create a customized list of their closest friends, and from there choose to share posts and story updates only with their favorites list. Instagram product lead Robby Stein told The Verge that the company has been working on the feature for more than a year, and a broader release is expected over the next few months.
The first step tasks users with creating their favorites list by tapping on friends and family members they want to be able to see their private posts. These additions can be edited at any time, and other Instagram users are never notified when they're added or removed from a favorites list. Then, when creating a post there will be a new option to share the image or 24-hour story post only to a favorites list, instead of posting publicly or direct messaging as usual.
Instagram has begun testing a way to share posts with a more limited group of friends. Called favorites, the feature attempts to improve on earlier social network friend lists, encouraging users to post more often by giving them more control over their audience.
The green “favorites” badge is a small thing, but it signals your affection to the friends of yours who see it, in a way that I suspect will build a sense of intimacy. Seeing a favorites post nestled in among all the other posts in your feed feels like a bonus.
When posted to favorites, those in the list will see the post on their own Instagram feed, but it'll be denoted as a private post with a green "favorites" badge. User profiles will be updated with a favorites tab as well, and every traditional Instagram post that's been shared to favorites (not including ephemeral stories) will be accumulated there for all of a person's favorites to return to and browse.
Stein said that the company is trying hard "to get this right," emphasizing favorites' privacy angle. Those on a person's favorites list will never be made aware of who else is on the list as lists aren't made public, so the only way for them to know they're a favorite is by looking for the green badges on posts. If someone decides they want to remove a favorite, that person will immediately lose access to the other user's favorites tab on their profile, which will appear empty.
Additionally, there's no cap on the number of favorites that can be in one list, but Instagram expects each user to have between 10 and 30 since the whole point is sharing pictures in a more intimate, closed-off setting.
Leaker Benjamin Geskin has posted a few new images and a video of what Apple's upcoming iPhone 8 might look like once it's in the hands of users later this year. Using a leaked dummy model, screen protector, and a printed picture of an iOS wallpaper, Geskin has put together the gist of what current rumors have suggested the iPhone 8 will look like once it's announced in the fall.
Geskin's images depict an iPhone 8 dummy model as we've seen previously, with a suggested 5.8-inch display area, minimal bezels, front-facing camera and sensor dip, but with an all-black frame instead of models that have previously depicted a rumored stainless steel frame. To give users a glimpse as to what the iPhone 8 display might look like when activated, Geskin then attached a picture of an iOS wallpaper to the dummy, and applied a screen protector on top.
The wallpaper Geskin used is part of a beach themed collection of images that appeared within the iOS 10.3.3 beta only for the 12.9-inch iPad Pro, but they have since appeared on the 10.5-inch iPad Pro and new 12.9-inch iPad Pro running iOS 10.3.2.
A video shared on Geskin's Twitter account has further provided a glimpse into the iPhone 8 dummy in motion.
The iPhone 8 is predicted to to be the first major iPhone redesign since the iPhone 6 in 2014, with additional features such as wireless charging and improved waterproofing to further bolster the smartphone's position as a premium device. Alongside the iPhone 8 will be the "iPhone 7s" and "iPhone 7s Plus," which are expected to keep the current iPhone 7 design while offering the usual iterative spec bumps like improved battery life and snappier performance.
Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera [Google Translate] published a headline today that translates to "the bill that could ban the iPhone in Italy."
The bill in question, Senate Act 2484, is aimed at ensuring Italians have open access to software, content, and services. The portion of the bill potentially relevant to Apple essentially says that users should have the right to download any software, whether proprietary or open source, on any platform.
An excerpt from Article Four of the loosely translated bill:
Users have the right to, in an appropriate format to the required technology platform […] use fair and non-discriminatory software, proprietary or open source […] content and services of their choice.
It's well known that iOS is a walled garden, in which apps can only be distributed through the App Store, and only if developers adhere to Apple's guidelines. The only way to download apps outside of Apple's parameters is by jailbreaking, which is in violation of Apple's end-user agreement.
Naturally, there are some concerns about how the iPhone and other devices could be affected if the bill is approved, although the prospect of any Apple product being outright banned in Italy seems highly unlikely.
The bill was introduced last year by Stefano Quintarelli, an Italian entrepreneur and member of the Scelta Civica political party in Italy. The bill was approved by the Chamber of Deputies in July 2016, and it now must be approved by the Senate of the Republic, within Italy's parliamentary government.
Ahead of the iPhone 8's predicted September announcement date, supply chain reports over the past few days have indicated a ramp up of 3D sensing components that are predicted to be destined for augmented reality and biometric security applications in 2017's high-end iPhone 8. In a research note by BlueFin Research Partners, "winners" for iPhone 8 component production are said to include Finisar and Lumentum for 3D sensing modules and Broadcom for wireless charging components (via Barron's).
Reports began building last week when iPhone camera component supplier Largan Precision confirmed that it will ship lenses for 3D sensing modules in the second half of 2017, while refraining from directly mentioning Apple and iPhone 8. In a recent quarterly earnings report, supplier Finisar made remarks that heavily suggested it will be "one of two or three suppliers" of vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSEL) in the iPhone 8, according to LoupVentures.
iPhone 8 rendering by Benjamin Geskin
Such technology could be implemented into the iPhone 8's rumored 3D sensing module and help "enrich the augmented reality experience" in the next-generation iPhone. Apple and CEO Tim Cook earlier this month detailed plans to back AR and its potential as an indispensable future technology with the reveal of ARKit, a developer platform that will provide the building blocks for consumer AR iPhone apps.
Likewise, Lumentum has announced that it expects to see volume shipments for its VCSEL lasers begin in the second half of 2017, timed with the annual production ramp up of iPhone manufacturing.
On last nights earnings call, Finisar management did not mention Apple by name, but they highlighted they expect to see volume VCSEL orders in their second fiscal quarter, which is the October quarter end of this calendar year. The company anticipates shipping “millions” of units during the quarter, but management also went on to say they anticipate unit shipments to be in the “10s of millions” in future quarters, which gives us further confidence 3D sensing and AR applications will be one of the focus features in the next generation of iPhones. In May of this year, Lumentum was the first VCSEL supplier to announce they anticipate volume shipments to begin in the second half of 2017.
We also want to highlight Finisar acknowledged they are shipping VCSEL lasers to multiple customers, but one customer (aka Apple) is accounting for the majority of total demand. We believe Finisar and others supplying VCSEL lasers are supply constraint and shipping everything they can manufacture. We believe Apple has secured a high percentage of all VCSEL lasers created, which we view as a large competitive advantage and will make Apple a leading AR player in the smartphone space.
LoupVentures further suggested that the significantly updated iPhone 8 will have a front-facing, low-end VCSEL laser and a rear-facing, high-end VCSEL laser, meaning that AR applications could take advantage of either camera. A long-running rumor for the iPhone 8 has been a dual-lens rear camera that could provide increased separation between the two lenses and allow for a greater difference in perspective, helping fuel better AR experiences. A front-facing dual-lens camera has been suggested as a possibility in the new iPhone as well.
In estimating the iPhone 8's cost, the site believes that Apple will add around $100 onto the cost of the smartphone specifically due to incorporating 3D sensing modules. That price comes to around $950 (with no storage tier size references), and largely falling into line with the new iPhone's predicted "premium" status.
For its part, Broadcom is said to have a predominant place in the supply chain for wireless charging components of the iPhone 8, a feature fellow supplier Wistron recently confirmed will be coming to at least one of 2017's iPhone models. iPhone 8's wireless charging is expected to be fueled by inductive technology, because long-range wireless charging for an iPhone is still expected to be years away from feasibility.
In total, reports surrounding iPhone 8 component manufacturing have been increasing recently, with Apple said to be dominating the NAND memory chip supply chain and increasing shortages for an already strained section of component supplies.
Russia has threatened to block access to the Telegram messaging platform unless the company that runs the app provides more information about itself (via Sky News).
The head of communications regulator Roskomnadzor, Alexander Zharov, said repeated efforts to obtain the information had been ignored by the company and warned that "time is running out" for the app.
"There is one demand and it is simple: to fill in a form with information on the company that controls Telegram," Zharov said in an open letter. "And to officially send it to Roskomnadzor to include this data in the registry of organizers of dissemination of information. In case of refusal… Telegram shall be blocked in Russia until we receive the needed information."
Telegram's non-response appears to be down to the repercussions of handing over the requested details: Doing so would effectively add it to the state regulators' registry, which would require it to retain users' chat histories and encryption keys and share them with authorities if asked, according to Russian news agency TASS.
The demand isn't the first time the Russian founders of Telegram – Kremlin, Nikolai and Pavel Durov – have failed to comply with state requests. In 2014, the Durovs refused to turn over data on Ukranian users of Vkontakte, a social network they also set up together.
Telegram claims to split its encryption keys into separate data centers around the world to ensure "no single government or block of like-minded countries can intrude on people's privacy and freedom of expression".
According to the group's policy, it can only be forced to hand over data if "an issue is grave and universal enough to pass the scrutiny of several different legal systems around the world".
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Australia is set to push for greater international powers to thwart the use of encrypted messaging services by terrorists and criminals, according to reports on Sunday (via 
Apple has hired the lead doctor of Stanford University's digital health initiative, Sumbul Desai, to take on an unspecified role in one of the tech company's health projects. The hire was rumored earlier this month, but Stanford Medicine confirmed it to 
