MacRumors

Google Earth for iOS today received a major update that brings a collection of new features to the interactive mapping app, as well as introducing 64-bit app support so it can run on iOS 11 devices. Apple reminded developers over the summer that once iOS 11 launches to the public, it will cease support of 32-bit apps altogether and only allow 64-bit apps and app updates to be submitted to the App Store.

In its announcement, Google positioned the updated app as a way for users to discover new travel destinations. With the new add-ons, users will now be able to explore locations around the world with a 3D button that refocuses Google Maps and begins circling around a city chosen by the user, similar to Flyover in Apple Maps. All of the updates coming to iOS previously debuted on Android in April.

Summer is one of my favorite seasons. It's a time to travel with my family, for discovering new places and creating new memories. Google Earth is where I turn to for travel ideas. Just last month I was exploring Canada's National Parks. Inspired by the beautiful outdoor imagery, I'm planning to hit the road with my wife and kids in a couple weeks, up the coast to Hoh Rain Forest in Washington, and then onward to beautiful Victoria, Canada, home of the Pacific Rim National Park Reserve.

And starting today, if you’re an iOS user, you can download Google Earth and discover your next travel destination, too.

There's also a new feature called "Voyager" that brings up interactive stories from places around the world with information like the best museums, parks, and landmarks broken down in categories including editor's picks, travel, nature, culture, history, and education.

To discover a random new destination on the planet, there's a new dice rolling button that surfaces a new location for users to read up on each time it's pressed. Google also added an in-app screenshot, or "Postcard," feature that lets users take pictures of the locations they explore with the new 3D mode.

Google Earth is available to download from the iOS App Store for free. [Direct Link]

Two months after rolling out Plex Live TV to iOS and Android TV devices, Plex today announced that its live streaming TV feature is now available for users on Apple TV.

In addition, on any app where Plex Live TV is available, Plex Pass users will be able to use a new "Time Shift" feature, meaning they can scrub back and forth through any live broadcast, as well as pause it.

We’re thrilled to bring Live TV to Apple TV and Live TV and DVR support to Android mobile, joining iOS, Android TV, and our lovely Plex Web app (DVR only).

We can’t quite include a TARDIS with your Plex Pass yet, but we can do the next best thing, which is allowing you to time shift Live TV! That’s right, with our latest enhancements, you can now time-travel (well, pause or skip around) when watching Live TV. No longer will you be forced to choose between getting more Cheetos and seeing who gets voted off the island. Life is hard enough.

To gain access to Plex Live TV, users must be a Plex Pass subscriber (beginning at $4.99/month), and then install a digital antenna, connect a digital tuner, and sync everything to their Plex Pass subscription account.

Plex Pass subscribers can watch live HD content on channels available over-the-air, including major US networks like ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, and CW, as well as local programming, news, and sports. For apps that support DVR, Plex also said that the feature is officially out of beta.

For a list of compatible tuners and antennas that enable Plex's live broadcasting and DVR features, check out the company's list here. The Plex app is available to download from the iOS App Store for free. [Direct Link]

Skype today announced that users across 22 countries can now send money with PayPal in its mobile app for iOS and Android.

Skype said the person-to-person payments feature is rolling out today in the United States, United Kingdom, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Portugal, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Spain.

Where available, users will need to link their PayPal account to their Skype profile. In a chat, users can then swipe right, tap Send Money, and complete the near-instant money transfer process, which is handled by PayPal. Both the sender and recipient must reside in one of the 22 countries supported.

PayPal within Skype will support currency exchange as usual. If a user is sending funds from the United States, for example, to someone in Europe, the user will have the option to send money in euros if preferred.

The feature will require the latest version of Skype for iOS, available as a free download on the App Store [Direct Link]. However, users receiving money can have any version of the Skype app installed.

Last week, a source in the Taiwanese supply chain reported that Facebook has entered into small production on a smart home speaker with a touchscreen, preparing to compete with companies like Apple and Amazon in the smart speaker market. A report by Bloomberg this week has continued that rumor, and added onto it by claiming the company is in fact working on two separate speaker devices to release to the public, and that it's hiring from Apple to get a "Siri-style" AI voice assistant up and running for the devices' launch.

Coming out of Facebook's Building 8 lab, today's report confirmed many of the features already discussed regarding the touchscreen-enabled speaker. Facebook plans to launch it with a screen size between 13 and 15 inches, a wide-angle lens, and microphones and speakers all powered by artificial intelligence. The screen rests on a thin, vertical stand and Facebook is now deciding whether the UI will run on a version of Android or if it will build its own OS, according to people familiar with the plans.

Featuring a laptop-sized touchscreen, the device represents a new product category and could be announced as soon as next spring’s F8 developer conference, according to people familiar with the matter. They say the large screen and smart camera technology could help farflung people feel like they’re in the same room, which aligns with Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg’s mission of bringing Facebook users closer together. The device is in the prototype phase but is already being tested in people’s homes.

The advanced smart speaker will be aimed at video calling and connecting friends and family members across long distances, with Facebook testing a way for its camera to automatically scan a user in its range, lock onto them, and track their movements to keep them in shot during a video call. A 360-degree camera was a possibility at one point during the touchscreen device's development, but now it's "unlikely" to be ready in time for Facebook's rumored launch of early 2018, likely ahead of or around the company's annual F8 conference in the spring.

In addition, Facebook is working on "at least one other product," representing a more basic and "standalone" smart speaker that would be aimed at competing with the Amazon Echo and Google Home. It's rumored that the standalone speaker would be priced "in the low $100 range," coming in under the flagship Echo ($180) and Google Home ($130). On the higher end, the touchscreen speaker made by Facebook would be priced at "a few hundred dollars."

In order to get a helpful AI assistant on both devices, Facebook is looking at hiring some "Apple Inc. veterans" to work at Building 8 and help create the social network company's own version of assistants like Siri and Alexa. The exact Apple veterans that Facebook is hiring were not specified in the report.

The social media giant is working on at least one other product -- a standalone smart speaker that would compete with the Amazon Echo and Google Home, said the people, who asked not be named discussing unannounced products. Facebook is hiring Apple Inc. veterans to help it create a Siri-style voice assistant that would run on both devices, they said.

Last week's supply chain sources claimed that Facebook's smart speaker would be mostly controlled through the touchscreen and lack voice controls, but now Bloomberg's sources suggest the company is in fact working to include such voice-activated features. People close to the plans also mentioned that Facebook is prepared to abandon the cheaper, more basic speaker and pivot to prioritizing the touchscreen-enabled speaker instead, due to potentially intense competition in the standalone smart speaker market.

Apple will finally enter the same space later this year with the HomePod, which the company is billing as primarily a high-quality music playback device that also has helpful smart features that can be controlled by Siri. HomePod will sell for $350 when it launches this December.

VSCO, the company behind the popular VSCO photo editing app and photo sharing social network, is today adding a new video editing tool to its VSCO app on iOS.

According to TechCrunch, the new video editing tool is designed to allow users to apply pre-designed filters to videos captured with the iPhone. The edited videos can then be shared on social networking sites.

The VSCO photo editing app is well-known for its wide range of adjustable filters and extensive editing tools, and this is the first time that functionality has expanded to encompass video.

"VSCO's mission is to help people become better creators, and video is a creative frontier we're increasingly passionate about and focused on," explains Flory, of the new tool's launch. "Video editing for VSCO X members is a first step into what we see as limitless possibilities for video editing tools on VSCO."

Access to video editing will be rolling out to VSCO X members soon. Subscribers will need to launch the app and tap the banner announcing the video editing tool to access it.

VSCO can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]

Last week, United States President Donald Trump told The Wall Street Journal that Apple had plans to build three "big, big, big" manufacturing plants in the United States, a statement that allegedly came from Apple CEO Tim Cook.

Unsurprisingly, Cook was questioned about the president's statement during the question and answer portion of today's earnings call, and he deftly dodged it by highlighting Apple's overall efforts to increase jobs in the United States.

Cook said Apple is making an enormous effort in this area by encouraging children and college students to get into coding through Swift-based curriculum that's been introduced in schools around the world.

The second category, according to Cook, is Apple's manufacturing purchases. Last year, Apple purchased $50 billion in goods and services from U.S. based suppliers, and has been aiming to increase that. Apple in May announced a $1 billion Advanced Manufacturing Fund meant to encourage innovation among U.S.-based manufacturers. Corning became the first recipient of the fund in mid-May, and Cook says the money will be used to expand the company's Kentucky plant to make innovative glass.

"There are several plants that can benefit from having some investment to grow, expand, or set up ship in the U.S. for the first time," said Cook. "We're excited."

The third category relates to Apple's own facilities in the United States, like its Cupertino-based campuses that employ thousands of employees. Cook didn't have much to say about this category, but he hinted at announcements coming later this year, potentially giving some weight to Trump's statement about job creation.

"Two thirds of our employee base is in the United States, despite only one third of revenue being here," Cook said. "We have some things we'll say about that later in the year."

Cook said that Apple does feel that it has a responsibility to create jobs in the United States. "We do view that we have a responsibility in the United States to increase economic activity and increase jobs. Apple could only have been created here," Cook said.

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 is planning to expand Apple Pay to Finland, Denmark, Sweden, and United Arab Emirates before the end of the calendar year, the company announced in today's third quarter earnings call. No specific information was provided on a potential launch date, beyond the announcement that it's coming later in the year.

Apple doesn't appear to have established Apple Pay web pages for the four countries, something that typically happens as it prepares for an Apple Pay launch.

Over the course of the last few years, Apple has been working "rapidly" to expand Apple Pay to additional countries, and it is now available in the U.S., UK, China, Australia, Canada, Switzerland, France, Hong Kong, Russia, Singapore, Japan, New Zealand, Spain, Italy, Taiwan, and Ireland.

Along with Sweden and Finland, rumors suggest Apple is also working to bring Apple Pay to Belgium, South Korea, Germany, and Ukraine.

Revenue from Apple's Services category, which includes Apple Music, Apple Pay, AppleCare, iTunes, iCloud, and the App Store, grew an impressive 22 percent year over year according to Apple's third quarter earnings results, reaching a new all-time high.

In 3Q 2017, Services brought in $7.3 billion, up from $6 billion in the year-ago quarter.

According to Apple CEO Tim Cook, the company's Services category is the size of a Fortune 100 company, a milestone Apple hit "sooner than expected."

Apple often attributes much of the growth of its Services category to the App Store, and that continues to be the case this quarter. According to Apple CFO Luca Maestri, App Store revenue was up, as was Apple Music revenue and revenue from iCloud services. Apple has now reached 185 million paid subscriptions across all services, an increase of nearly 20 million over the course of the last 90 days.

iOS 11 will bring a whole new App Store experience, splitting out Games and Apps into separate tabs and introducing a new section that allows Apple to better highlight the wide variety of apps that are available in the App Store, offering up a range of editorial picks to improve app discovery.

During today's earnings call covering the third quarter of 2017, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced that Apple has now sold 1.2 billion cumulative iPhones since the device was first introduced in 2007.

Apple sold its 1 billionth iPhone back in July of 2016, so in the last year, the company has sold another 200 million devices. According to Apple's earnings results, iPhone sales were at 41 million devices in the third quarter alone, bringing in more than $24.8 billion.

According to Apple CEO Tim Cook, sales of the current-generation iPhone 7 Plus have been impressive and are "up dramatically" compared to sales of the iPhone 6s Plus in 2016. Sales of both the iPhone 7 and the iPhone 7 Plus are up "strong double digits" compared to the year-ago quarter.

Since the iPhone was introduced in 2007, Apple has introduced new features and improvements with each successive device. This year, we're expecting to see Apple unveil the iPhone 8, a radically redesigned device with an edge-to-edge OLED display, no Home button, and a new front-facing camera system that enables facial recognition technology.