MacRumors

Twitter today announced that the 280 character limit for tweets that it introduced back in September is being rolled out to all Twitter users. The new 280 character limit, which doubles the existing 140-character limit, is available for all users and is being implemented for all languages where "cramming" was a problem.

In September, we launched a test that expanded the 140 character limit so every person around the world could express themselves easily in a Tweet. Our goal was to make this possible while ensuring we keep the speed and brevity that makes Twitter, Twitter. Looking at all the data, we're excited to share we've achieved this goal and are rolling the change out to all languages where cramming was an issue.

Twitter said that it noticed people who were using Twitter in English would hit the character limit more often than tweets in languages like Chinese and Japanese, which is why the company ultimately decided to raise the character limit. The changes are rolling out to all languages except for Japanese, Korean, and Chinese.

According to Twitter's analytics, most people with access to the 280 character limit continued to share tweets that featured under 140 characters, leaving the "brevity of Twitter" intact.

Only 5 percent of tweets sent out were longer than 140 characters, and only 2 percent were longer than 190 characters, so Twitter believes the new character limit should not "substantially change" timelines for most users.

280-character tweets have been limited to a small group of users since the end of September, but the feature is rolling out to everyone starting today. When the new limit is activated, the tweet interface on the web displays a circle that gradually fills up as you type rather than a numbered countdown.

The new Twitter character limit is already available to many users who did not previously have access. Twitter warns that there may be an uptick in novelty tweets and tweets using the full character limit as the feature rolls out, but the company expects this to die down over the course of the next week or two.

Last month, self-driving company Waymo began operating autonomous minivans on public roads in Arizona, in tests that were conducted without a safety driver "or any human at all" behind the steering wheel. Today, the Google-owned company announced it's now beginning the first steps toward launching a ride-hailing service backed by a fleet of completely self-driving vehicles (via The Verge).

To start, Waymo will begin testing the autonomous driving service with its employees in Chandler, Arizona, then expand to members of Waymo's Early Rider program before finally seeing a public launch in the town sometime in the next few months. Users will hail the vans through the Waymo app and when they arrive there won't be any safety drivers or other humans in the driver's seat, but a Waymo employee will still sit in the backseat.

The next step for Waymo is a big one: a commercial ride-hail service, in which riders can hail one of the company’s autonomous minivans via an app like Uber or Lyft. “People will get to use our fleet of on-demand vehicles, to do anything from commute to work, get home from a night out, or run errands,” Krafcik said.

Waymo has been testing its self-driving vans in Arizona because the state's laws regulating autonomous tests "are practically non-existent." Arizona lacks regulation that requires companies to publicly disclose accidents involving its autonomous vehicles, and various other potential self-driving related incidents, like the number of times a human driver was forced to take the wheel.

According to Chandler's mayor Jay Tibshraeny, "Waymo's work here in Chandler is groundbreaking as they work toward their goal of fully autonomous vehicles. At the same time, this research and development taking place in our community will ultimately make our roads safer and provide new freedom for those unable to drive."

Waymo has multiple competitors in the self-driving market, previously engaging in a legal dispute with Uber earlier in 2017. In February, Waymo accused Uber of stealing Waymo's own self-driving LIDAR system, and then a few months later, Uber fired the engineer accused of stealing the self-driving secrets from Waymo.

For Apple, the Cupertino company has reportedly scaled back its vehicle-related ambitions, with the most recent reports detailing the development of an autonomous service that would shuttle employees around its campus.

Apple Cash (formerly Apple Pay Cash) is Apple's peer-to-peer payments service. Once you've set up an Apple Cash card on your iPhone or iPad, it can be used to make and receive payments in Messages, or you can get Siri to send money to a friend or family member. This article shows you how.

When someone sends you money via Apple Cash, it goes on your virtual Apple Cash card, which is stored securely in the Wallet app on your iPhone or iPad. You can use the money on it to send to someone, make purchases using Apple Pay in stores, within apps, and on the web. Alternatively, you can transfer the money on your Apple Cash card directly to your bank account.

Furthermore, if you've applied for Apple's own-branded credit card – called simply Apple Card – you can use Apple Cash to help pay off your Apple Card balance. You can also take advantage of Apple Card's "Daily Cash" rewards system, where Apple pays out cash back bonuses on a daily basis.

Sending and Requesting a Payment via Apple Cash

1. Open a conversation in Messages.
2. Tap the Messages App Store icon.
3. Choose the "Apple Pay" icon.
4. Tap the "+" or "-" buttons to enter an amount, or use the keyboard.
5. Tap "Request" or "Pay."
6. You'll have an option to preview your payment or request for payment.
7. Press the blue arrow button to send.

When sending a payment, the money you've sent will be listed as "pending" in the Wallet app until the person on the receiving end accepts. Once accepted, the payment will be listed in "Last Transaction" under the Apple Cash card in Wallet. While still pending, a payment can be cancelled.

Money that you're sending will be pulled from a linked debit/credit card or from the Apple Cash card itself if you've added funds to that card or received funds from other people. If you send money using the Apple Cash card or a debit card, there's no charge. For a credit card, there's a 3% fee.

When accepting a payment, the cash will be added to your Apple Cash card in the Wallet app. From there, it can be used to make purchases where Apple Pay is accepted like any other card or it can be transferred to a connected bank account.

Apple Cash works in any conversation with a single person. The option won't be available for group messages.

Sending Money via Siri

1. Activate Siri.
2. Tell Siri to send a payment. Example: "Send $1 to Eric."
3. If multiple payment apps are installed, you'll need to confirm that you want to use Apple Pay.
4. Unlock your iPhone using Face ID or Touch ID.
5. Tap "Send."
6. Double click the side button to pay on iPhone X or put a finger on the Touch ID Home button to confirm payment on other devices.

Changing Apple Cash Settings

You can access your Apple Pay settings in the Settings app or through the Wallet app.

1. Open Settings.
2. Go to Wallet and Apple Pay.
3. Tap on the "Apple Cash" card.

From this interface, you can add money to your Apple Cash card, transfer your cash to the bank (which requires adding a bank account) and choose to automatically or manually accept payments.

Verify Identity

Once you've sent or received a combined $500 with Apple Cash, you will need to verify your identity. Identity Verification is available in the Settings app, but it may not be fully functional at this time.

1. Open Settings.
2. Go to Wallet and Apple Pay.
3. Tap on the "Apple Cash" card.
4. Choose "Verify Identity."

You will be asked to confirm your legal name and address, along with the last four digits of your social security number and date of birth. Apple will also ask questions related to your personal history and request a photo of a driver's license or state ID card.

Once your identity has been verified, you can have up to $20,000 on your Apple Cash card.

Apple Cash Limits

There are limits on the amount of money that you can send per day and per transaction, and the amount of money you can add to your Apple Cash card.

When adding cash, you must add a minimum of $10 per transaction, but you're not able to add more than $3,000. Over a 7-day period, you can add a maximum of $10,000 to your Apple Cash card.

When sending or receiving money, you can send/receive a minimum of $1 and a maximum of $3,000. Over the course of a 7-day period, you can send/receive up to $10,000.

Transferring money to your bank can be done at any time. A minimum of $1 can be transferred at a time, or less than a $1 if your total balance is under $1. Up to $3,000 can be transferred in a single transfer, and over 7 days, you can transfer up to $20,000 to your bank account from Apple Cash.

Apple Cash Requirements

To use Apple Cash, the following requirements must be met:

• Both parties must be running iOS 11.2 or later.
• An iPhone 6 or later must be used.
• Two-factor authentication must be turned on.
• You must be at least 18 years old.
• You must be in the United States with a U.S. credit/debit card and social security number if verification is required.
• An eligible credit or debit card must be available in Wallet.

Along with iPhones and iPads running iOS 11.2 or later, Apple Cash can also be used on the Apple Watch on devices that are running watchOS 4.2 or later. Sending money from an Apple Watch follows the same general process as the iPhone, with payments made and received through the Messages app.

Apple today seeded the second beta of an upcoming tvOS 11.2 update to its public beta testing group, one week after seeding the first public beta and one day after seeding the second tvOS 11.2 update to developers. tvOS 11.2 comes a week after the release of tvOS 11.1, the first update to tvOS 11.

The tvOS 11.2 public beta can be obtained by going to the Settings app on the Apple TV and navigating to the Software Updates section under "System." "Get Public Beta Updates" will need to be toggled on, and once it is, the Apple TV will download the beta software.

According to Apple's release notes, the tvOS 11.2 update enables a new AVDisplayManager feature for developers, designed to allow the device to automatically switch video display modes to match the native frame rate and dynamic range of video content.

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

Apple says tvOS 11.2 also adds new features, bug fixes, and security improvements to the tvOS operating system.

Apple today announced that the iPhone X will be available to customers in Albania, Bosnia, Cambodia, Kosovo, Macau, Macedonia, Malaysia, Montenegro, Serbia, South Africa, South Korea, Thailand, and Turkey beginning Friday, November 24.

Apple also said the iPhone X will be available to customers in Israel beginning Thursday, November 23, one day earlier.

In all of the countries and territories, the iPhone X will be sold by authorized third-party resellers and carriers. Apple also operates two retail stores in Turkey, at Zorlu Center and Akasya Acıbadem, and one in Macau at Galaxy Macau.

iPhone X will also be available through Apple's online store in some of the countries, with prices varying based on local currencies.

• Malaysia — starting at RM 5,149
• South Korea — starting at ₩1,420,000
• Thailand — starting at ฿40,500
• Turkey — starting at 6.099 TL

Given that online orders are estimated to ship in 3-4 weeks in countries where the iPhone X has already launched, coupled with limited in-store availability, supplies will likely be low in the second wave of launch countries as well.

Google has teamed up with the English Heritage Trust to give users of its Arts & Culture app a rare opportunity to explore the annals of England's historical, architectural, and cultural heritage.

Spanning 5,000 years of history and taking in archeological artifacts, castles, forts and monuments, the in-depth exhibits celebrate the famous sites and the stories behind them by using the latest digital capture methods and offering users immersive VR experiences to virtually visit the historical locations themselves.

Through more than 30 multimedia exhibits and 10 editorial features on Google Arts & Culture, you can experience online almost 3,000 historic gems from the Prehistoric, Roman, Medieval, Tudor, Civil War and Stuart periods through the 21st century and from the perspective of the historians, experts and curators who manage the collections and heritage sites across England. You can explore by time period or, with the help of machine learning tools that recognize color patterns, you can sort through items by color.

Highlights of the vast collection include a zoomable high resolution image of the Elysium Closet in Bolsover Castle in never-before-seen detail, a Google Art Camera capture of "The Battle of Hastings" by Francis William Wilkin – the biggest ever at nine meters across – as well as a Google Museum View of 7th century monastery Whitby Abbey, which was one of the inspirations for Bram Stoker's Dracula.

Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi is about to make good on stalled plans to expand into Western Europe, beginning with a sale launch in Spain on Wednesday. Xiaomi will initially offer to Spanish consumers its flagship Mi A1 device (229 euros) and its all-screen Mi Mix 2 smartphone (499 euros), pictured below.

In 2014, Xiaomi was briefly the world's most valuable startup in China, but intense competition from local rivals Huawei, Vivo, and Oppo saw its sales stall within two years.

Since that time, however, the company has overtaken Apple to become China's fourth largest mobile vendor by sales and has launched in dozens of other countries including Indonesia, Vietnam, Russia, the United Arab Emirates, and Ukraine, as part of a $1 billion overseas expansion drive.

The company also has a strong presence in India, where it currently comes second behind Samsung in smartphone sales. However, after past stumbles in more untested markets like Brazil, Xiaomi is now aiming for a more considered expansion across Europe.

"In order to be focused, we want to make Spain successful first," said Wang Xiang, Xiaomi's global sales VP, speaking to The Verge. "And then we can think of other markets and countries. We want to learn from the customers about the taste of European people."

Xiaomi had sold about 10 percent of its smartphones outside China since the middle of last year. However, the company also plans to sell other products in Spain, including internet-connected scooters, air purifiers, and coffee makers.

Facebook said on Monday that Messenger users in the U.K. will be able to send money to each other through the app as it rolls out its peer-to-peer payments feature in the next few weeks (via BBC).

The Messenger payments service was originally launched in 2015, but hasn't been available to users outside the United States until now. The social network said it has been used in that time to make all sorts of transactions, including to split restaurant bills, pay babysitters, and send cash gifts. Most users send less than $50 (£38), according to the company.

Facebook said it had chosen to bring Messenger payments to the U.K. because it has so many "mobile-savvy consumers". It is collaborating with major banks and credit card firms to launch the feature, which requires both the sender and recipient to register their cards.

Facebook is also introducing M suggestions, a virtual assistant that recognizes when users are discussing payments and suggests the Messenger payments as a quick and easy solution.

The U.K. is already home to a similar bank-run peer-to-peer payments service called Paym, which allows registered users to pay each other using just their phone number.

Paym says four million people have used the service at one time or another over the past three and a half years, amounting to £400 million worth of transactions, but Facebook will hope that it is uniquely positioned to become more widely used, thanks to its large existing Messenger user base.

Apple's main iPhone assembler in India is scouting for additional land in Bangalore to expand its existing facilities, according to a new report today by Bloomberg.

Wistron executives reportedly toured the city last week and have shortlisted plots covering around 100 acres, including one plot close to the airport. The Taiwanese manufacturer may use the planned facilities to supply other brands, too, but Wistron has so far kept shtum on the matter.

Wistron began making the iPhone SE in India in May of this year. Since that time, Apple has been seeking exemptions from the country's government that will allow it to set up more units to assemble iPhones. The company has asked state officials for a range of tax and policy changes to help build out its iPhone assembly infrastructure in India, and today's report suggests that it may have gotten its way.

India recently ousted the U.S. to become the world's second-largest smartphone market after China, according to market research conducted by industry analyst Canalys. However, Apple has so far struggled to make a significant dent, mainly because its smartphones are so much more expensive than rivals such as Oppo and Xiaomi. But also because the government levies tariffs on devices manufactured outside the country, hence Apple's eagerness to assemble more iPhones there.

During Apple's earnings call last week, CEO Tim Cook said the company has "great momentum in India, where revenue doubled year over year". But he also said that to gain ground, Apple would have to work on many fronts.

"It's building stores. It's building channels. It's building markets. It's building the developer ecosystem," said Cook. "It's having the right product lineup for the market. And I feel like we're making good progress there and are gaining understanding of the market, but we still have a long way to go."