Apple this afternoon updated its YouTube channel with three new tutorials designed to walk people through using various photography features on the iPhone.
The videos cover shooting an overhead photo on iPhone using the level feature, shooting in black and white, and adjusting slo-mo timing on iPhone to change the slow motion effect of a previously captured slo-mo video.
Each video is approximately 30 seconds in length and shows step-by-step instructions on using each feature, with the actual recording done on an iPhone's display to effectively demonstrate each action.
Apple regularly shares iPhone photography tutorials in this ongoing tutorial video series to provide users with tips and tricks on using various Photos and Camera features. Like many of Apple's tutorial videos, these new tutorials are aimed at people who aren't particularly familiar with the feature set of the iPhone.
Apple does, however, sometimes highlight features that even some seasoned users might not be aware of or remember, so these videos are often worth the 30 seconds it takes to watch them.
Early AirPlay 2 functionality, which was present in initial iOS 11.3 and tvOS 11.3 betas, has been removed from the third beta that was provided to developers this morning.
With the first betas of iOS 11.3 and tvOS 11.3, when you installed these updates on an iOS device and two or more fourth or fifth-generation Apple TVs, AirPlay 2 could be used to stream music to multiple devices at the same time.
As an example, with two Apple TVs running tvOS 11.3 set up in different rooms of the house, you could use an iPhone to play the same song on both through AirPlay 2's multi-room audio feature.
Installing tvOS 11.3 also added the Apple TV to your HomeKit setup, with the Apple TV present in the Home app.
As noted by iDownloadBlog, all of these features are now missing in iOS 11.3 and tvOS 11.3 beta 3. There are no options to play audio to multiple sources and the Apple TV has been removed from the Home app.
The AirPlay 2 feature was buggy and not fully functional, which may be why it's been removed. It is not clear at this time if Apple plans to re-introduce the AirPlay 2 functionality in later iOS 11.3 and tvOS 11.3 betas.
AirPlay 2 was first announced as part of iOS 11 in June, but it did not show up in the launch version of the new operating system. When officially released, AirPlay 2 will allow HomePod, Apple TV, and supported third-party speakers to work together.
Once AirPlay 2-compatible products are widely available, you will be able to use AirPlay 2 to control all of the different speakers and devices throughout your home, for a full multi-room audio experience.
This kind of multi-room audio support was a main feature advertised for the HomePod, but Apple opted to ship the speaker without it.
Apple's new HomePod is late to the smart speaker market, which is already crowded with speakers from companies like Amazon, Google, and Sonos. The latter two companies, Google and Sonos, have released speakers with high-quality sound and robust voice assistants, giving the HomePod some serious competition.
To compare the three speakers, we focused on design, sound quality, and the overall performance of Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant.
When it comes to design -- and this is certainly subjective -- we preferred the look of the HomePod with its fabric-wrapped body and small but solid form factor. The Sonos One looks a little more dated with its squarer body and standard speaker mesh, while the Google Home Max has a much larger footprint that's going to take up more space.
Apple's HomePod
All three offer touch-based controls at the top of the device, but the Google Home Max has one design edge - a USB-C port and a 3.5mm audio jack for connecting external music sources. The Sonos One has a single Ethernet port, while the HomePod has no ports.
Though we liked the HomePod's design, Siri, as you might expect, did not perform as well as Alexa on Sonos One or Google Assistant on Google Home Max.
Google Home Max
On questions like "Is Pluto a planet?" or "What's the fastest car?" both Alexa and Google Assistant were able to provide satisfactory answers, while Siri said those weren't questions that could be answered on HomePod.
Siri was not able to sing happy birthday, create a calendar event, or even provide the release date of the HomePod itself, directing users to Apple.com for more information, while the other smart assistants were able to do these things.
Apple execs have said in the past that Siri was not engineered to be Trivial Pursuit, but it would be nice if Siri had a more competitive feature set.
Though only briefly touched on in the video, Siri does, in fact, do well with HomeKit commands and controlling music playback on the HomePod through an accompanying Apple Music subscription.
Sonos One
Sound quality is a controversial topic because there's a heavy amount of personal preference involved when judging these three speakers. We thought the HomePod sounded the best, with the Google Home Max at a close second, followed by the Sonos One.
The Google Home Max gets the loudest, but sound becomes somewhat distorted at the highest volumes, while the Sonos One offers robust sound that's not quite as good at a lower price point. HomePod does have one major benefit: a fantastic microphone that picks up Siri commands even when you're across the room.
All three of these speakers offer great sound, and if you're attempting to pick one based on reviews, make sure to read several. We thought the HomePod sounded best, but other sources, like Consumer Reports and Yahoo's David Pogue found that the Google Home Max and the Sonos One sounded better than the HomePod.
So which speaker is better? The answer to that question depends on the other products you own. If you're an Apple Music subscriber with a HomeKit setup, the HomePod is going to work great. It only works natively with Apple Music, iTunes Match, and iTunes purchases, so if you have a Spotify subscription, for example, support isn't as robust.
For that reason, if you're not locked into Apple's ecosystem already, or if you have Apple devices but subscribe to Spotify, HomePod probably isn't the best choice for you.
Apple today seeded the third beta of an upcoming iOS 11.3 update to developers for testing purposes, two weeks after seeding the second beta and one month after releasing iOS 11.2.5, an update that focused primarily on bug fixes and security improvements. The update also comes just a day after the release of iOS 11.2.6, which fixed a bug that caused iPhones and iPads to crash when a character from the Indian language Telugu was rendered improperly.
Registered developers can download the new iOS 11.3 beta from Apple's Developer Center or over-the-air once the proper configuration profile has been installed from the Developer Center.
iOS 11.3 is a major update that introduces a long list of new features, like Messages on iCloud for storing your iMessages in the cloud, and ARKit 1.5, a new, upgraded version of ARKit that can more accurately map irregularly shaped surfaces and recognize and place objects on vertical surfaces like walls.
There are four new Animoji on the iPhone X (dragon, bear, skull, and lion), and in the Health app, there's a new Health Records feature that aggregates all of your medical records in one easy-to-access place. Health Records are limited to participating institutions, though.
AirPlay 2 features have been introduced in iOS 11.3 and tvOS 11.3, allowing audio to be played to multiple Apple TVs, and for HomeKit, iOS 11.3 introduces official support for HomeKit software authentication options.
As of iOS 11.3 beta 2, the update includes a new "Battery Health" feature that's designed to provide iOS users with more information about their batteries.
Battery Health offers details on maximum battery capacity and peak performance capability, and for devices with degraded batteries, it provides information on if and when a device is being throttled with performance management features. It also provides a way for customers who do have a device with a degraded battery to turn off performance management all together.
By default, iOS 11.3 disables performance management on the iPhone, and the feature is only re-enabled once a device experiences an unexpected shutdown.
Other features in iOS 11.3 include a new "For You" section in Apple News that displays the top videos of the day, support for Advanced Mobile Location (AML) for more accurate location when placing an emergency call in a supported country, more information about app size in the Updates tap in the App Store, and a new Privacy screen and icon that will show up whenever Apple asks you for info.
iBooks has also had the "i" removed from its name, so it's just "Books" now, and the App Store now lets you sort reviews by most helpful, most favorable, most critical, and most recent, a handy change for better finding the app info you're looking for.
Business Chat, which will let you interface with businesses like Wells Fargo, Delta, Hilton and Lowe's right in the Messages app is coming when iOS 11.3 is released, and improvements to Apple Music will bring better support for music videos. Users will be able to stream music videos without ads and create and view music video playlists.
iOS 11.3 will be released to the public in the spring. Spring kicks off on March 20, so iOS 11.3 will be in testing for at least another month.
What's new in iOS 11.3 beta 3: The newest beta of iOS 11.3 adds support for the iPod touch, and it removes AirPlay 2 features that were present in previous betas. There's also a new option in the Settings app under Privacy --> Analytics to share Health Record analytics with Apple.
Apple today seeded the third beta of an upcoming tvOS 11.3 update to developers for testing purposes, two weeks after seeding the second beta and just a day after releasing the tvOS 11.2.6 update.
Designed for the fourth and fifth-generation Apple TV models, the tvOS 11.3 developer beta can be downloaded onto the Apple TV via a profile that's installed using Xcode and Apple Configurator.
The tvOS 11.3 update introduces support for AirPlay 2, allowing the Apple TV to be added to the Home app as part of a HomeKit setup.
With AirPlay 2, you can play the same song on multiple Apple TVs in different rooms, and when AirPlay 2 officially launches, that functionality will extend to other AirPlay 2 devices like HomePod and AirPlay 2 compatible speakers.
Other new features in tvOS 11.3 include enhancements to Match Content support, automatic frame rate switching on the fourth-generation Apple TV (a feature that was added to Apple TV 4K in a past tvOS update), and automatic mode switching for AirPlay video sessions.
Apple today seeded the third beta of an upcoming macOS High Sierra 10.13.4 update to developers, two weeks after seeding the second beta and a month after releasing macOS High Sierra 10.13.3. The update also comes one day after the release of a 10.13.3 Supplemental Update to address a bug that could cause apps to crash when receiving a character from the Indian language Telugu.
The new macOS High Sierra 10.13.4 beta can be downloaded from the Apple Developer Center or through the Software Update mechanism in the Mac App Store with the proper profile installed.
macOS High Sierra 10.13.4 includes bug fixes and performance improvements for issues that weren't addressed in macOS High Sierra 10.13.3.
The update also offers support for some features that are available in iOS 11.3, like Messages on iCloud, which uploads all of your iMessages to the cloud. It will also support Business Chat, a feature coming when iOS 11.3 and macOS 10.13.4 are released to the public, and it includes improved support for eGPUs.
The macOS 10.13.4 brings the smoke cloud wallpaper that was previously only available on the iMac Pro, it replaces the "iBooks" app with the new renamed "Books" app, and it introduces a warning when opening up a 32-bit app as part of an effort to phase them out.
In the future, Apple plans to phase out 32-bit Mac apps, just like it did with 32-bit iOS apps. Apple says macOS High Sierra is the last version of macOS that will support 32-bit apps without compromises.
We've already heard multiple rumors suggesting Apple will unveil a so-called iPhone SE 2 later this year, and a new supply chain report from Chinese news website QQ.com claims to have knowledge of the device's tech specs.
First, the report says the new iPhone SE won't look like the iPhone X, which would make sense given it's a lower-end device. Instead, the new model will purportedly have a similar design as the original iPhone SE, with a metal back and frame, top and bottom bezels on the front, and a home button.
A key difference would supposedly be a larger 4.2-inch display, but this is questionable given it could make it harder to use the iPhone SE in one hand, which is preferred by a subset of customers. However, it's certainly possible Apple could trim down the bezels of the new iPhone SE slightly.
Apple is likely more focused on making under-the-hood improvements to the iPhone SE, as the device is now outdated by a few years. The report claims the new model will be powered by a faster A10 Fusion chip, although it will supposedly still have 2GB of RAM with 32GB or 128GB of storage available.
The report suggests Apple is planning to unveil the iPhone SE 2 at WWDC 2018 in June, which is certainly possible, but Apple hasn't introduced a smartphone at the event since the iPhone 4 in 2010. If history repeats itself, the new iPhone SE could be introduced at a smaller media event around March.
While most of these tech specs would make sense, the source doesn't have an established track record, so this rumor should be viewed with some skepticism. KeyforWeb.it spotted the report earlier.
There have been many rumors about Apple launching a new iPhone SE in 2018, with many of the sources based in Asia, including research firm TrendForce and publications like the Economic Daily News. One of the latest rumors suggested a new iPhone SE with wireless charging could launch in May-June.
If there really is a so-called iPhone SE 2 on Apple's roadmap, Kuo expects it will have few outward-facing changes. He predicts the device would likely have a faster processor and a lower price, rather than iPhone X-like features like a nearly full screen design, 3D sensing for Face ID, or wireless charging.
The current iPhone SE looks much like the iPhone 5s, including its smaller four-inch display preferred by a subset of customers. The device is powered by Apple's A9 chip, like the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, and it has 2GB of RAM, a 12-megapixel rear camera, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and Touch ID.
Apple hasn't fully refreshed the iPhone SE since it launched in March 2016, but it did double its available storage capacities to 64GB and 128GB last March. It also dropped the device's starting price to $349 last September.
Over the past few weeks Snapchat has been rolling out a major user interface overhaul to more and more users on its iOS and Android apps. Most users have responded negatively to the app redesign, which separates friends from brands so that users can focus on people they actually know, but condenses stories and text chats into one page.
Today, Snap Inc. announced an additional update to Friends and Discovery pages that should help make it easier for users to navigate between stories and chats.
On the Friends section of Snapchat, users will be able to cycle through tabs related to active stories, group chats, and "all" content. The Discovery section's tabs will focus on separating publishers, creators, and the community. Snapchat said tabs will be launching fairly soon on iOS, and Android will follow in the coming weeks.
In addition to tabs, today Snapchat users will have many more GIF sticker options to choose from thanks to full support from GIPHY. Snapchat has partnered with GIPHY and greatly expanded its library of GIF stickers that users can discover and place into a story. Previously, the only GIF stickers available in Snapchat were in-house designed stickers that launched late in 2017.
Users can tap the sticker icon, type in the search field, and a new GIPHY section in results will showcase GIF stickers related to the search query. Like other stickers, GIF stickers can be scaled, rotated, pinned to a video story, and more than one can be added to a snap. Snapchat's GIPHY support launches one month after Instagram announced a similar wide-scale support for GIF stickers in its own version of stories.
Apple TV 4K models with 64GB of storage are finally back in stock following months of shipping delays for the larger capacity model.
64GB configurations are currently estimated for delivery in 1-2 days in the United States and several other countries on Apple's online store, while same-day pickup is now available at dozens of Apple's retail stores.
Back in November, shipping estimates for the 64GB model fell back to 4-5 weeks. The estimate began to shrink gradually in January and has now improved enough for next-day delivery to be a possibility again as of this week.
Apple never provided a reason for the shipping delays, but it may have been due to a recent shortage in the NAND flash storage market.
Apple TV 4K was released last September in 32GB and 64GB sizes for $179 and $199 respectively in the United States. Apple recently began selling refurbished units for $30 off in the United States, a roughly 15 percent discount.
According to the page for the Operations Manager, Spotify is "on its way" to developing and launching its "first physical products," potentially hinting at an upcoming rival device to Apple's HomePod. Although the job listing pages are not full confirmations of Spotify's entry into the smart speaker market, in terms of physical hardware a speaker of some kind does make sense for the music streaming company. The "connected hardware" could also refer to devices like wireless headphones and other music-based products.
A Spotify speaker would enter the market as a competitor to products like Apple's HomePod, which as of now can play Spotify but lacks deep integration with the service and instead favors Apple Music. Spotify's speaker could flip that and focus on the company's own streaming customers, of which there is a large market of more than 140 million subscribers worldwide who could be interested in a Spotify-focused speaker.
The person who gets hired for the position will help the company in setting up an operational organization for manufacturing, and build up the supply chain, sales, and marketing, all while working out of the company's office in Stockholm. All three job listings state that the employee's work will "impact the way the world experiences music."
Spotify is on its way to creating its first physical products and setting up an operational organisation for manufacturing, supply chain, sales & marketing.
We are looking for a passionate and seasoned Operations Manager that will contribute in the creation of innovative Spotify experiences via connected hardware. You will define and manage Distribution, Supply, Logistics, fulfillment and Customer Service for Hardware Products. You will also work with partners to deliver the optimal Spotify experience to millions of users. Above all, your work will impact the way the world experiences music.
As the rivalry between Apple Music and Spotify has grown since the former service's mid-2015 launch, Apple Music is now forecasted to overtake Spotify in paid subscriber numbers in the United States as soon as this summer. That prediction came from The Wall Street Journalearlier in the month, in a report that stated Apple Music's monthly growth rates have been exceeding Spotify's by about three percentage points. In terms of worldwide numbers, Spotify still has about 70 million paid subscribers compared to Apple Music's 36 million.
After over three years on the App Store, developer Nuance has decided to discontinue the gesture-based Swype Keyboard apps for both iOS and Android devices. The company's announcement of the iOS app's discontinuation came earlier this month, but it's only just begun to garner attention due to a confirmation of the Android app's removal given to XDA Developers.
On Android, the company discontinued its Swype+Dragon for Android keyboard app, which combined Swype's unique swipe-to-type feature with Dragon's voice dictation. On iOS, it appears that one version of Dragon remains on the App Store in the United States, called Dragon Anywhere. Attempts to search for "Swype Keyboard," however, do confirm the third-party keyboard app is gone from the App Store, with results surfacing rival company apps like SwiftKey.
According to Nuance, the company's decision to shut down Swype was a "necessary" move, granting it the ability to focus on selling AI solutions in the enterprise market. Recently, Nuance has been working on voice dictation software for medical professionals, as well as placing it within vehicles.
Nuance will no longer be offering the Swype keyboard on iOS app store. We’re sorry to leave the direct-to-consumer keyboard business, but this change is necessary to allow us to concentrate on developing our AI solutions for sale directly to businesses.
We hope you enjoyed using Swype, we sure enjoyed working with the Swype community.
Although Swype is no more, users still have access to third-party iOS keyboard apps like Gboard, SwiftKey, Fleksy, Grammarly, and more. In terms of functionality, SwiftKey is the app that aligns most with Swype's swipe-to-text abilities, letting users enter text one handed using the SwiftKey Flow feature.
A current search for Swype on the iOS App Store
When Swype launched in the fall of 2014 alongside iOS 8, it was one of the few keyboard apps that did not require "full access" to the iPhone to function, limiting some of its feature sets but providing better user privacy.
iOS 8 updated iPhones and iPads with the ability to support third-party keyboards on a systemwide basis, and at the time Fleksy, SwiftKey, and Swype jumped to the top of the paid and free iOS App Store charts in multiple countries. Although Fleksy has had a rocky development history, Swype is the first of these initial keyboard apps to see its development discontinued completely.
Samsung plans to slash its OLED panel output in response to Apple's decision to cut production of iPhone X due to "weak demand", the Nikkei Asian Review reported on Tuesday. Samsung will make OLED panels for 20 million fewer iPhones at its South Chungcheong plant in the January to March quarter, a lot lower than its original goal of supplying panels for 45 million to 50 million iPhones, according to the paper.
Samsung is said to have made a 13.5 trillion won ($12.6 billion) capital investment in anticipation of the originally expected number of OLED panel orders from Apple. The new target reportedly reduces plant production to roughly 60 percent of original forecasts, and Samsung's display business is expected to suffer revenue declines for the first half of 2018. Samsung stock fell as much as 2.3 percent in morning trade, reported Reuters, while shares of some Japanese OLED component makers also declined.
Today's report follows previous claims by Nikkei that "weak demand" for iPhone X has forced Apple to slash its production target by half in the three month period from January. However the claim doesn't tally with Apple's own results reported at its recent quarterly conference call earlier this month, and it's unclear which supply chain sources the publication is relying on. Apple CEO Tim Cook has dismissed these types of reports in the past, suggesting that the company's supply chain is very complex and that any singular data point is not a reliable indicator of what's actually going on.
During its record financial results report for the first fiscal quarter of 2018 (which corresponds to the fourth calendar quarter of 2017), Cook said the iPhone X was the top-selling iPhone model every week since it had debuted in November. iPhone shipments were down 1.2 percent year-over-year compared to the year-ago quarter, but only because of an extra sales week last year – Apple's growth was actually 21 percent year-over-year on an adjusted basis.
Apple has applied for a new U.S. trademark for its famous multicolor logo for use on apparel, reports The Blast. The Apple filing was processed in December by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's Trademark Reporting and Monitoring System (TRAM), and is now being considered for approval.
The description of the mark in the filing is of "an apple with a bite removed, with a detached leaf in green, and the apple divided into horizontal colored segments of the following colors (from top to bottom): green, yellow, orange, red, violet and blue".
According to the application, the logo will be used for headgear, namely, hats and caps. Apple already sells t-shirts with the same logo emblazoned on the front at its Apple Park Visitor Center, so the filing likely relates to a possible extension of the existing clothing line, although there's no saying whether Apple will actually use the trademark or just wants to protect it against unofficial use.
The classic multi-colored Apple logo was conceived by graphic designer Rob Janoff in 1977, but Steve Jobs axed the design when he returned to Apple in 1997 in favor of the monochromatic logo that continues to be used today.
Janoff's "rainbow Apple" was actually created as a more modern, albeit playful replacement for Apple's first logo, which was designed in 1976 by Apple co-founder Ron Wayne. Sometimes referred to as Apple's "fifth Beatle", Wayne famously sold his stake in the company two weeks after it was founded.
Wayne was a fan of the ornate line-drawing style of Victorian illustrated fiction, and used Sir Isaac Newton as the company’s symbolic bellwether, an apple hanging precariously above his head. A quote from Wordsworth embellishes the baroque frame: "A mind forever voyaging through strange seas of thought, alone."
Nike today updated its Nike+ Run Club iOS app with a new Challenges feature that aims to help users stay motivated throughout the week by letting them see how their mileage stacks up against other users in the global Nike running community.
The new challenges appear in the Club section of the app. As of writing there are three challenges to join, including a 15K February Weekly Challenge, a 50K March Weekly Challenge, and a 100K March Weekly Challenge. Tapping on one sends you to a summary screen that tells you how many runners are currently participating and how long the challenge runs for.
Tapping on the Join button enrolls you in the challenge, but you can leave it at any time through the challenge overflow menu (the three dots in the upper right corner of the screen). It also looks like you can only participate in challenges if your privacy setting is set to "Friends (social)" or "Everyone (public)".
Completing challenges earns users achievement badges, similar to those found in Apple's Activity app. In addition to the weekly challenges, Nike says there will also be occasional special Nike Challenges, which sound a lot like Apple's seasonal/one-off challenges that many Apple Watch users will be familiar with.
The Nike app's last major feature update came in October, when Nike introduced Audio Guided Runs to coincide with the launch of Apple Watch Series 3 models.
The Nike+ Run Club app can be downloaded on the iPhone and all Apple Watch models, but with Nike+ models, there's an option to launch the Nike+ Run Club app from the exclusive Nike watch faces.
Nike+ Run Club is available from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]
Apple today released a new version of macOS High Sierra 10.13.3, which comes approximately one month after the first version of macOS High Sierra 10.13.3, an update that offered fixes for the Meltdown and Spectre vulnerabilities discovered in early January.
The new macOS High Sierra update can be downloaded directly from the Mac App Store or through the Software Update function in the Mac App Store on all compatible Macs that are already running macOS High Sierra.
Today's update addresses a bug that causes apps like Messages to crash due to an inability to render a character in the Indian language Telugu. When sent or received, the character in question can cause an app like Messages or Safari to freeze up and become unresponsive.
There's also a separate macOS High Sierra 10.13.13 Supplemental Update for iMac Pros, which is designed to fix the Telugu bug on those machines.
Prior to today's update, the only fix in an app like Messages was to delete the entire conversation containing the buggy character. The update also impacted iOS 11.2.5, and Apple also released a new iOS 11.2.6 update to fix it.
Apple previously addressed the Telugu character bug in iOS 11.3 and macOS 10.13.4, but those updates are still in beta testing and won't be released until the spring. Apple last week promised a minor update to fix the bugs in the meantime.
Update: Apple released a second supplementary update for the iMac Pro in late February as iMac Pro users were not able to install the update.
Apple today released a minor software update for the Apple Watch, upgrading watchOS 4.2.2 to watchOS 4.2.3. The watchOS 4.2.3 update comes one month after the release of watchOS 4.2.2, a minor update focusing on bug fixes.
watchOS 4.2.3 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.
Today's update addresses minor bugs discovered since the release of watchOS 4.2.2, and it includes a fix for a bug that causes device crashes when a specific character in the Indian language Telugu is sent, received or input into an app. Similar fixes have also been released for macOS High Sierra and iOS 11.
watchOS 4.2.3 will be succeeded by watchOS 4.3, an update that's currently in beta testing and slated for release in the spring. watchOS 4.3 introduces portrait orientation support for Night Stand mode, and it reintroduces support for controlling music played on the iPhone with the Apple Watch.
Apple today released a new update for tvOS 11, the operating system designed to run on the fourth and fifth-generation Apple TVs. tvOS 11.2.6 comes one month after the release of the tvOS 11.2.5 update, which focused on bug fixes and other under-the-hood improvements.
tvOS 11.2.6 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 the tvOS 11.2.6 automatically.
As a minor 11.x.x update tvOS 11.2.6 focuses on performance improvements and bug fixes to address issues that were discovered following the release of tvOS 11.2.5. It is being released alongside bug fix updates for iOS, macOS, and watchOS to address a problem that caused devices to crash due to an inability to render a specific character in the Indian language Telugu.
tvOS 11.2.6 will be followed by tvOS 11.3, an update that is currently being beta tested and is slated for release this spring.
Apple today released iOS 11.2.6, the eleventh official update to the iOS 11 operating system. iOS 11.2.6 comes approximately one month after the launch of iOS 11.2.5, an update that introduced support for the HomePod, Control Center updates, Siri news, and a slew of bug fixes.
The iOS 11.2.6 update can be downloaded for free on all eligible devices over-the-air in the Settings app. To access the update, go to Settings --> General --> Software Update.
Apple released iOS 11.2.6 to address a bug that causes apps like Messages to crash on the iPhone and iPad due to an inability to render a specific character in the Indian language Telugu. When sent, received, or input into Messages, Safari, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and more, the Telugu character can cause the app to freeze up and become unresponsive.
In Messages, for example, receiving the character can freeze up the entire Messages app on all of a person's Mac and iOS devices. The Messages app then refuses to function properly until the offending character is removed by deleting the conversation with the person who sent it. Apple's release notes are below:
iOS 11.2.6 includes bug fixes for your iPhone or iPad. This update:
Fixes an issue where using certain character sequences could cause apps to crash
Fixes an issue where some third-party apps could fail to connect to external accessories
Apple fixed the bug in iOS 11.3 and macOS 10.13.4, but those updates are still in beta testing and won't be released until the spring. Apple last week promised a minor update to fix the bug in the meantime.
Over the past few weeks Snapchat has been rolling out a major user interface overhaul to more and more users on its iOS and Android apps. Most users have 
Apple has applied for a new U.S. trademark for its famous multicolor logo for use on apparel, reports 
Janoff's "rainbow Apple" was actually created as a more modern, albeit playful replacement for Apple's first logo, which was designed in 1976 by Apple co-founder Ron Wayne. Sometimes referred to as Apple's "fifth Beatle", Wayne famously sold his stake in the company two weeks after it was founded.
