MacRumors

Wacom today announced the Bamboo Sketch, a new precision stylus for drawing and sketching on both iPad and iPhone devices through a Bluetooth connection. The company said that the stylus mimics a traditional pen-and-paper writing and drawing experience thanks to two customizable shortcut buttons and two interchangeable pen nibs, in both soft and firm.

The Bamboo Sketch can be used within apps like Bamboo Paper, ArtRage, Autodesk SketchBook, Concepts, and MediaBang Paint, and when it's in use the stylus boasts 2,048 levels of pressure sensitivity.

“Visual thinkers who use an iPad or iPhone for their notes and sketches require a pen that offers precision and individualization,” said Mike Gay, Senior Vice President of the Wacom Consumer Business Unit. “Bamboo Sketch offers an advanced writing and drawing experience for those whose first instinct is to reach for a pen and paper as soon as inspiration strikes.”

To charge the stylus, users will be able to connect the magnetic charging port on the pen to a USB dongle accessory, which can be plugged into any traditional USB 3.0 port. The company said that the Bamboo Sketch stylus can last for up to 15 hours on one charge.

Elgato today announced the latest product in its Eve series of HomeKit-connected devices, debuting the Eve Degree. Eve Degree is a HomeKit-compatible temperature and humidity monitor with a fresh design featuring a large display housed in a sleek aluminum body.

Elgato already makes a temperature and humidity monitor, the Eve Weather, but the new Eve Degree features an entirely different design and a visible temperature display for instant feedback with no need to check the Eve app to get a reading.

While the display means a quick temperature or humidity check doesn't require opening the accompanying Eve app, the app does store additional information, including climate data over time presented through graphs.

Eve Degree works indoors or outdoors thanks to a splash proof IPX3 water resistance rating, and it includes a replaceable battery that will allow it to function for several months at a time without needing to be recharged.

"Eve Degree is a luxurious and classy thermometer but, more importantly, it is seamlessly integrated into iPhone," says Florian Albrecht, Director User Experience, Elgato. "By leveraging the strengths of HomeKit and the Eve app, Eve Degree offers reliable usability, superior privacy, and advanced security.

With HomeKit support, temperature readings from the Eve Degree show up in the dedicated Home app, and it can answer to Siri queries and interface with other HomeKit-compatible products. With an Apple TV Home hub, Eve Degree is able to serve as a trigger for scenes, doing things like turning on a fan when the humidity gets too high, or turning on a humidifier when it's dry.

Eve Degree will be available from the Elgato website starting Tuesday, June 6 for $69.95.

Amazon today announced that users will now be able to sync their iCloud Calendar information with devices that support Amazon's smart assistant Alexa. With the update, users can ask Alexa what's coming up on their calendar, or issue commands so new appointments are added to the schedule. Anything added from an Amazon device is then synced with iCloud and added to the Calendar app on iOS and macOS devices.

To sync an iCloud account with Alexa, the company said that customers will have to sign in to their Apple account within the settings tab of the Alexa iOS app. Users in the United States, United Kingdom, and Germany will gain access to the new update beginning today, representing the current countries where Alexa is available.

Starting today, you can now link your Apple iCloud Calendar to Alexa. To do this, iCloud Calendar customers can simply link their account in the settings tab in the Alexa app. Once linked, just say, “Alexa, what’s on my calendar today?” or “Alexa, add lunch with Sarah at noon to my calendar.”

iCloud Calendar support has been a top requested feature from Alexa customers, and we’re thrilled to bring this to Alexa devices in US, UK and Germany today.

With the inclusion of Apple's Calendar, Alexa device users now have access to five total calendar services, also including accounts for G Suite, Google/Gmail, Office 365 users with Exchange Online mailboxes, and Outlook.com.

Alexa is available in a variety of hardware devices sold by Amazon, including the Echo, Echo Dot, Echo Look, and new Echo Show, as well as on the Amazon Alexa iOS app [Direct Link].

In the ongoing legal battle between Uber and Alphabet-owned Waymo, Uber announced this week that it has fired Anthony Levandowski, the engineer accused of stealing Waymo's self-driving intellectual property when he left his job at Google to start his own company, Otto (via The New York Times). In the original lawsuit, Waymo claimed that when Uber acquired Otto, Levandowski's stolen trade secrets came with the purchase, mainly centering around Waymo's LiDAR system.

In the months following Waymo's filing, Uber denied the accusations and "pressured Mr. Levandowski to cooperate" with the court. When he was ordered by a federal judge to give the court any evidence related to Waymo's accusations, as well as a testimony, he was said to have asserted his Fifth Amendment rights in order to avoid self-incrimination. The judge gave Levandowski an internal deadline to hand over the evidence in question, and when he missed it Uber decided to fire him.

“Over the last few months Uber has provided significant evidence to the court to demonstrate that our self-driving technology has been built independently,” Angela L. Padilla, Uber’s associate general counsel for employment and litigation, wrote in an email to employees. “Over that same period, Uber has urged Anthony to fully cooperate in helping the court get to the facts and ultimately helping to prove our case.”

She added: “We take our obligations under the court order very seriously, and so we have chosen to terminate his employment at Uber.”

When the lawsuit was filed in February, Levandowski and "other former Waymo employees" were accused of stealing around 14,000 confidential Waymo files that included data on Waymo's laser-based radar (LiDAR) system, which the company called "one of the most powerful parts" of its self-driving technology. Federal prosecutors began investigating the case earlier in May, while also partially granting Waymo's request for an injunction against Uber's self-driving efforts as the case continues.

Besides Waymo's lawsuit, Uber has also faced troubled waters this year when the Department of Justice began investigating the ride-hailing company over its use of "greyball" software that let drivers operate in places where the Uber app is restricted.

It also came out this year that Apple CEO Tim Cook threatened to remove Uber from the iOS App Store in 2015 after discovering that Uber was secretly "fingerprinting" iPhones that used the app. Uber said the decision was made to prevent fraud, making sure users could no longer create multiple fake accounts on one device to collect new account bonuses, despite knowing that its method was in direct violation of Apple's app privacy guidelines.

Although Uber's self-driving future is uncertain, Waymo has made progress in recent months with the launch of an autonomous car program in Phoenix, as well as the announcement of a partnership with Lyft that plans "to bring autonomous vehicle technology into the mainstream."

Reddit has updated its official app to include a new feature that allows users to add location information to posts, just like Twitter or Facebook.

The optional feature is powered by Foursquare and designed to be added to posts that might be enriched by location details, such as restaurant reviews or photography.

The change comes as part of a wider effort by Reddit to modernize its online community's interaction and bring it more in line with typical social media networks.

Other features recently added that work toward this end include the introduction of user profile pages and the ability to follow individual users. Earlier this year, Reddit also added a Popular Posts section featuring viral posts, top stories, and trending topics, to help increase discovery.

Version 3.0 of the Reddit app also introduces a change to the inbox tab, so that notifications appear all in one place, with messages in another. Additionally, the post button is now inline in the feed instead of cluttering the navigation bar.

Reddit is a free download for iPhone and iPad on the App Store. [Direct Link]

Logitech's Ultimate Ears has updated its popular UE Boom 2 and MegaBoom Bluetooth speakers line-up with a range of new limited edition colors and patterns.

Called Second Street, the new designs were created in conjunction with graffiti duo Bicicleta Sem Freio and will be available to order from the Ultimate Ears website beginning in June.

Ultimate Ears said the new-design Boom 2 will remain at the price of $199.99, with the MegaBoom refresh also remaining at its usual price of $299.99. Color and pattern availability may vary by country.

The Ultimate Ears iOS app includes a feature called Party Up that lets users connect more than 50 of the waterproof Bluetooth speakers at once. And thanks to Siri integration, pushing the Bluetooth button on the UE Boom 2 or the UE Megaboom activates Apple's virtual assistant, allowing users to request specific songs through Apple Music, place phone calls, and more.

For a full review of the original UE Boom 2, check out the MacRumors verdict here.

Yesterday, Twitter began rolling out a new feature in the Messages section of its official app that separates out DMs from people you don't follow in order to make it easier to accept or delete them.

In the Twitter iOS app, regular messages from people you know will appear in the Inbox as normal, while all other DMs will be flagged as Requests. Messages of the latter kind can be previewed without the sender being notified, while options are provided to accept and notify the sender, or delete the message without notifying them.

By default, any media attached to an unsolicited message won't be revealed until you accept the DM, to protect users from inappropriate content, although this setting can be disabled.

The Twitter app is a free download from the App Store for iPhone and iPad. [Direct Link]

Nest unveiled a new smart security camera today called the Nest Cam IQ, an indoor 4K device capable of increasing footage resolution when it detects unusual or suspicious activity in the home.

Using built-in smart capabilities powered by Google's AI for facial recognition, the Nest Cam IQ is able to identify a person in its visual range, which automatically triggers a notification alert that includes a zoomed-in photo of the figure.

A variation on the same feature called "Supersight" appears in the mobile app feed, as a zoomed picture-in-picture inset of any figures identified in the camera's field of view. The Nest Cam IQ also tracks the subject as it moves and provides a close-up of the face to make it easier to spot identifying features.

Additional smart features are in store for Nest owners who sign up to a Nest Aware subscription, such as the ability to identify and remember family members and trusted familiar faces, as well as the ability to recognize specific audio cues like conversations and barking dogs.

Elsewhere, the Nest Cam IQ comes with a weighted base and tilting head, invisible infrared LED emitters, high-powered speakers, and a three-microphone array for improved background noise suppression and echo cancelation.

The Nest Cam IQ costs $299 in the U.S. and can be pre-ordered today on the company's website, which also sells the Nest Cam and Nest Cam Outdoor. Shipping is expected to start at the end of June.

Apple today seeded the second beta of an upcoming watchOS 3.2.3 update to developers for testing purposes, two weeks after seeding the first watchOS 3.2.3 beta and a little over two weeks after releasing watchOS 3.2.2, a minor bug fix update.

Registered developers can download the watchOS 3.2.3 update through the Apple Watch app on the iPhone by going to General --> Software Update. For the beta to be installed, the Apple Watch needs to have 50 percent battery, it must be placed on the charger, and it has to be in range of the iPhone.

Apple only provides watchOS betas to developers because there's no way to downgrade software on an Apple Watch. Non-developers will need to wait for the public release to get the update.

No notable features or bug fixes were discovered in the first beta of watchOS 3.2.3, suggesting the update focuses primarily on under-the-hood improvements.

watchOS 3.2.3 is likely to be one of the last updates to the watchOS 3 operating system, as Apple is expected to introduce a new version of watchOS at its Worldwide Developers Conference in June.

Apple today seeded the second beta of an upcoming tvOS 10.2.2 update to developers for testing purposes, two weeks after releasing the first beta of tvOS 10.2.2 and a little over two weeks after releasing tvOS 10.2.1, a minor bug fix update.

tvOS 10.2.2 is available for the fourth-generation Apple TV. Registered developers can download the update by connecting the Apple TV to a computer with a USB-C cable and installing the beta software using iTunes.

Due to the installation requirements, tvOS betas are only available for developers, so tvOS 10.2.2 will not be publicly available until the final version of the software is released.

No major feature changes or bug fixes were discovered in the first beta of tvOS 10.2.2, and it appears to focus on minor under-the-hood improvements.

tvOS 10 will soon be followed by a new version of tvOS, which Apple is expected to introduce at its Worldwide Developers Conference on June 5.