MacRumors

Apple CEO Tim Cook has shared a tribute to late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs on the sixth anniversary of his death today.

"Remembering Steve today," Cook tweeted, alongside a picture of Jobs in his younger days. "Still with us, still inspiring us."

His passing resulted in an outpouring of grief from family, friends, coworkers, Apple customers, and leaders around the world, ranging from Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates to former U.S. President Barack Obama.

Jobs actually had a 12-year hiatus from Apple starting in 1985. During that time, he founded computer and software company NeXT, and funded Lucasfilm's computer graphics division eventually known as Pixar.

Apple acquired NeXT in 1997, bringing Jobs back to the company. Under his leadership, Apple went from flirting with bankruptcy in the late 1990s to becoming the world's most valuable company just before he died.

Apple named the Steve Jobs Theater in his honor at its new Apple Park headquarters in Cupertino, California. Cook reflected on Jobs' legacy and showmanship during Apple's first-ever event at the theater last month.

Steve meant so much to me and so much to all of us. There's not a day that goes by that we don't think about him. Memories have especially come rushing back as we prepared for today and this event. It's taken some time, but we can now reflect on him with joy, instead of sadness. Steve's spirit and timeless philosophy on life will always be the DNA of Apple. His greatest gift, his greatest expression of his appreciation for humanity, would not be a single product. Rather, it would be Apple itself. We dedicated this theater to Steve because we loved him, and because he loved days like this, where we can share our latest products and ideas with the world.

Jobs was 56 years old.

Apple Watch Nike+ GPS and LTE Series 3 models are now available to buy in stores across Australia, Asia and Europe, with customers already posting shots of their newly acquired smartwatches on the MacRumors forums and over on Reddit.

Several posts confirm that in some cases, customers are cancelling their online orders held up in shipping and are walking into local brick-and-mortar stores to buy their chosen Nike+ Series 3 model outright.

MacRumors forum member griffith_500 posted the above photo explaining that he preordered the Nike+ LTE with a reseller only to be informed today that they wouldn't receive the watch before mid October. "So I tried my luck and walked into the Apple store in Zurich where they had all the Nike models on stock... Love it!"

Meanwhile across the U.S., Apple orders are currently in transit across various locations and should be making their way into the hands of customers in the next few hours. Although some eager early risers have also cancelled their online orders with Apple after stores including Best Buy updated their stock to indicate availability for in-store pickup as soon as stores open today.

◦ Silver Aluminum Case with Pure Platinum/Black Nike Sport Band
◦ Silver Aluminum Case with Bright Crimson/Black Nike Sport Loop
◦ Space Gray Aluminum Case with Anthracite/Black Nike Sport Band
◦ Space Gray Aluminum Case with Black/Pure Platinum Nike Sport Loop

Apple Watch Nike+ models are priced between $329 and $429 in the U.S.

Countries in today's launch include the United States, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Guam, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kuwait, Luxembourg, Macau, Monaco, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom.

The new Google Pixel 2 has bumped the iPhone 8 Plus and Galaxy Note 8 off the number one spot to become the top-performing smartphone camera in DxO Labs' mobile photography tests.

Just a day after Samsung's latest device matched Apple's largest iPhone 8 handset with an overall DxOMark score of 94, Google's newly launched Pixel 2 has now beaten both dual-lens devices with a score of 98, despite its rear-mounted single-camera design.

Its top scores in most of our traditional photo and video categories put it ahead of our previous (tied) leaders, the Apple iPhone 8 Plus and the Samsung Galaxy Note 8, despite the Pixel 2 coming in lower in the new Zoom and Bokeh categories. The Pixel 2 is also a major step forward from the Pixel (which was our top scorer when it was released a year ago), moving from 90 to 98.

The reviewers praised the Pixel 2 for excellent video performance, scene reproduction, color rendering, and fast and accurate autofocus, highlighting in particular its "amazing" ability to render detail in both the bright and dark areas of difficult scenes.

One weak spot for the Pixel 2 was said to be exposure in very low light images, which show increased noise in high dynamic range scenes, although excellent exposure and highlight preservation is still in evidence.

Despite performing very well for a single camera phone, the Pixel 2 couldn't outscore the zoom capability of the dual-lens Apple iPhone 8 Plus. The Pixel 2 also sometimes displayed aliasing and moiré artifacts in medium- and long-range zooms.

The reviewers concluded that for just about any photo or video use case, the Pixel 2 recommends itself as the phone camera with the best image quality, with the exception of zoom and bokeh (including Depth and Portrait) that dual-camera smartphones such as the Apple iPhone 8 Plus and Galaxy Note 8 can provide. The Google handset was especially recommended for videographers, since it achieved the highest video score (96) for any device tested by DxO Labs.

The reviewers signed off by noting that their scoring system has "plenty of headroom" to go beyond 100, so we'll have to wait and see if Apple's iPhone X can break that ceiling when it's released next month.

You can read the full DxOMark Pixel 2 camera review and view all of the full-resolution images here. Do you agree with DxO Labs' assessment? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

The Ohio State University today announced that it has worked with Apple to create a comprehensive, university-wide digital learning experience that includes an iOS design laboratory and opportunities for students to learn coding skills.

Called the Digital Flagship University, the initiative will include an effort to integrate learning technology into the entire university experience. Along with the aforementioned iOS design lab, which will be available to faculty, staff, students, and members of the broader community, the university will aim to help students "enhance their career-readiness in the app economy."

Apple CEO Tim Cook commented on the partnership, and said it will give students access to Apple's new coding curriculum.

"At Apple, we believe technology has the power to transform the classroom and empower students to learn in new and exciting ways.

"This unique program will give students access to the incredible learning tools on iPad, as well as Apple's new coding curriculum that teaches critical skills for jobs in some of the country's fastest-growing sectors," said Cook. "I'm thrilled the broader central Ohio community will also have access to coding opportunities through Ohio State's new iOS Design Lab."

Ohio State University's Digital Flagship University will launch in the 2017-2018 academic year, with the design lab set to open in a temporary space in 2018 before moving to a more permanent location in 2019.

Starting in 2018, first-year students at the Columbus and regional campuses will be given an iPad Pro with Apple Pencil and Smart Keyboard, as well as apps, all funded through the university's administrative efficiency program. Swift coding sessions will begin during the spring semester of 2018.

The iOS design lab will provide technological training and certification to students and community members who are interested in developing apps in Swift.

The Ohio State University also plans to integrate Apple technology into other areas of the university, introducing a chemistry course where students can complete assignments online with iTunes, debuting iPads for journalism and biology students, and more.

Apple today received approval from the United States Federal Communications Commission for its upcoming iPhone X models, meaning the devices have passed all of the requisite tests and are cleared for sale.

Since the iPhone X was introduced, Apple's iPhone X product pages have included the following footnote noting that FCC approval had yet to be obtained:

iPhone X has not been authorized as required by the rules of the Federal Communications Commission. This device is not, and may not be, offered for sale or lease, or sold or leased, until authorization is obtained.

The FCC must approve all radio-transmitting devices before they are able to be legally sold in the United States, including all iPhones. The FCC's program is designed to ensure that RF devices in the United States "operate effectively," do not cause harmful interference, meet human RF exposure limits, and comply with other FCC rules.

Three iPhone X models have been approved for sale by the FCC, so Apple will now be able to remove that wording from the iPhone X site. FCC approval for the iPhone X comes just over three weeks ahead of when Apple will accept pre-orders for the device.

iPhone X pre-orders will start on Friday, October 27 ahead of an official launch date on November 3.

Supplies of the iPhone X are expected to be heavily constrained due to production issues with the TrueDepth camera used for facial recognition, so the device is likely to be hard to come by for the remainder of 2017 and into the early months of 2018.

Apple this week "acqui-hired" the team from Init.ai, a startup that designed a smart assistant to allow customer service representatives to easily parse through and automate some interactions with users, reports TechCrunch.

The startup focused on creating an AI with natural language processing and machine learning to analyze chat-based conversations between humans.

Init.ai announced that it was shutting down its service earlier this week to join a new project.

Today is an exciting day for our team. Init.ai is joining a project that touches the lives of countless people across the world. We are thrilled and excited at the new opportunities this brings us.

However, this means Init.ai will discontinue its service effective December 16th 2017. While we wish to make this transition as smooth as possible, we cannot continue to operate Init.ai going forward.

Apple did not purchase Init.ai and will not obtain any intellectual property nor is there an indication that Apple plans to use any existing Init.ai services. Instead, Apple has taken on the Init.ai team, who will now work on Apple's Siri personal assistant.

The addition of the Init.ai team may hint at Apple's future Siri plans, with the company perhaps planning to build out more business integrations to supplement Business Chat, the iOS 11 iMessage feature that allows businesses to communicate with customers.

TechCrunch says it's not entirely clear how many people from Init.ai will be transitioning to Apple, but the startup only employed six people.

Apple today released a new software update for the Apple Watch, upgrading watchOS 4 to watchOS 4.0.1. The watchOS 4.0.1 update comes one week after Apple first released watchOS 4 to the public.

watchOS 4.0.1 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. Today's update is only for the Apple Watch Series 3 models.

watchOS 4.0.1 addresses a serious Wi-Fi bug impacting the performance of the new LTE-enabled Apple Watch Series 3 models.

watchOS 4.0.1 fixes issues that in rare cases were causing Apple Watch to join unauthenticated (captive) Wi-Fi networks, such as those found in public places like coffee shops and hotels, which direct the user to a web page before the network can be accessed.

During the review period for the new Apple Watch, testers discovered that the device would frequently disconnect from LTE, choosing to connect to an unusable Wi-Fi hotspot instead of an LTE tower due to its preference for Wi-Fi to save battery.

The Apple Watch was mistakenly connecting to free Wi-Fi hotspots that have interstitial agreement pages to use the service. With no way to see the page or confirm, LTE Apple Watches couldn't actually use the Wi-Fi, but it still prevented them from connecting to LTE.

Apple said it was aware of the issue just before the Series 3 models launched, and said it was investigating a fix for a future software update, which is available today.

Google this morning held an event in San Francisco, California, where the company unveiled several new hardware products, including the Pixel 2, the Google Pixelbook, and two new versions of the Google Home smart speaker.

The Pixel 2 comes in 5 and 6-inch screen sizes, with the XL model featuring slimmer bezels. It features what Google says is a bolder look with an aluminum body with a soft sculpted back and premium coating, a glass top, and buttons with a pop of color. There's a fingerprint sensor on the back of the device, no headphone jack, and IP67 water resistance.

Active Edge lets users squeeze the side of the Pixel 2 to activate Google Assistant and do things like silence phone calls, and the OLED display is always-on to display notifications and the time (the 6-inch version uses a P-OLED display). A fast charging feature allows for 7 hours of charge in 15 minutes. The Pixel 2 supports the Google Lens feature, which lets the Pixel camera identify objects in the world, and it includes AR stickers.

There are camera improvements, including support for Portrait Mode, a feature similar to the Portrait Mode in the latest iPhones. Portrait Mode on Pixel 2 requires just one camera and is available for both the front and rear cameras. Google says DxO has given the camera a score of 98. For comparison, the iPhone 8 Plus received a 94.

Pricing on the Pixel 2 starts at $649 for 64GB storage. The Pixel 2 XL starts at $849 for 64GB of storage. Pre-orders are available starting today. Google is releasing new wireless Google Pixel Buds alongside the Pixel 2. While these connect to Pixel 2 over Bluetooth, they have a wire between the left and right earbuds, unlike the AirPods. Pixel Buds feature real time language translation and are priced at $159.

Google Home Mini features a sleek, smooth design. It's small enough that it fits anywhere in the home. The enclosure is made of a special fabric created by Google to let through light and sound. It comes in three colors: coral, chalk, and charcoal, aka a red, a gray, and a black color.

Four LED lights under the fabric let users know that the Google Home Mini is listening, and it responds to touch. The circular shape of the device projects 360 degree sound, for sound that Google says is "amazing." The speaker costs $49 and can be pre-ordered starting today ahead of an October 19 launch date.

Google Home Max is the "biggest and best sounding" Google Home ever, and Google says it's 20 times more powerful than the existing Google Home. The speaker features dual 4.5-inch high-excursion woofers, 0.7-inch tweeters, and an "acoustically transparent fabric" that comes in chalk and charcoal.

Like Apple's upcoming HomePod, Max features Smart Sound that's able to adapt to the ambient environment in the home, adjusting the sound to its location. It costs $399 and will be available in December. The price point includes 12 months of free YouTube Red service.

Google also announced Broadcast, a feature that lets a message from one Google Home be sent to other Google Home speakers, and new learning experiences for children.

As for laptops, Google introduced the high-end Google Pixelbook, its thinnest and lightest laptop yet. Pixelbook is 10mm thick and weighs a kilogram, and it can convert from a laptop to a tablet. It has a 12.3-inch touchscreen, Core i5/Corei7 chips, 16GB RAM, up to 512GB storage, built-in Google Assistant, and 10 hours of battery life.

It supports a new Pixelbook Pen for writing on the touchscreen and interacting with Google Assistant. Pixelbook is priced starting at $999, while the pen is priced at $99. Both are available for pre-order starting today ahead of an October 31 launch.