Apple has announced that its first retail store in the New York City borough of Brooklyn opens on Saturday, July 30 at 10:00 a.m. local time. As rumored since late 2014, the store will be located at 247 Bedford Avenue in the Williamsburg neighborhood. The store hours are 10am-8pm on Monday-Saturday and 11am-7pm on Sunday.
Apple is nearly finished renovations at 247 Bedford Avenue (Thanks, Matthew!)
Apple has been renovating the building, situated at the corner of North 3rd Street, since earlier in 2015, and it posted retail job listings for the store in May. The location will mark Apple's 9th store in New York City alongside six locations in Manhattan, one in Queens, and one on Staten Island.
In an in-depth profile about Brian, Kevin, and Michael Sumner, three brothers said to be working on the Apple Car, The Information reports that Apple's rumored 2020 target for launching the much-rumored electric vehicle, codenamed Project Titan, may have slipped to 2021.
The group has run into challenges, say people briefed about aspects of Titan along with other reports. Its top executive left in January, a sign that things there weren’t going well. One person who worked briefly with the Titan team was told during their tenure at Apple that the company had been trying to deliver a vehicle by 2020 but the target slipped to 2021.
The report refers to the January departure of Apple VP of Product Design Steve Zadesky, who was believed to be leading Apple's electric vehicle development efforts since 2014, as one of multiple challenges that may be pushing back the target date for launching the vehicle. Tesla CEO Elon Musk previously said the so-called Apple Car is unlikely to be ready by 2020, calling it a "missed opportunity."
With seemingly another three to five years of research and development ahead, Apple's roadmap could change. Last September, for example, The Wall Street Journal reported that the Apple Car was labeled as a "committed project" with a prospective 2019 shipping date. Tesla, meanwhile, has sold the Model S since 2012 and received some 400,000 pre-orders for its lower-priced Model 3 due in 2017.
The bulk of Apple's electric vehicle development is believed to be underway in Sunnyvale, California, a short drive from the company's Cupertino headquarters. Apple has reportedly recruited hundreds of engineers from Tesla, Ford, GM, Samsung, A123 Systems, Nvidia, and elsewhere to work on the project, said to have been approved by Apple CEO Tim Cook in 2014.
BBC today released its iPlayer Radio app stateside, so American users on both iOS and Android can now tune in to BBC radio stations airing content from the United Kingdom (via TechCrunch). The iOS app launched in its native territory in 2012, with today marking the first time the company has expanded its app-based radio content to users outside of the U.K.
The iPlayer Radio app supports offline listening for BBC podcasts, curated selections of radio highlights for each user, and a daily schedule that makes sifting through the service's content quick and easy. The app can even serve as an alarm clock to wake users up to a specific radio show, and conversely allow them to fall asleep without the worry of the app playing all night with "night mode."
- Listen live to BBC Radio stations from the World Service and across the UK - Catch up or listen again to your favourite BBC Radio programmes - Download podcasts to enjoy anywhere, even when offline - Browse and listen to carefully curated BBC Radio highlights and collections - View daily schedules and categories quickly and easily - Discover audio and video clips, including many live performances - See what tracks are playing on air as well as track lists for on demand programmes - Wake up to and doze off to BBC Radio with a built-in alarm clock and night mode
Those interested can download the BBC iPlayer Radio app for free from the iOS App Store today. [Direct Link]
T-Mobile has announced that qualifying Simple Choice postpaid customers will automatically receive free unlimited data at up to 4G LTE speeds throughout Brazil during the entire month of August, enabling visitors to celebrate the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro without worrying about roaming charges.
The carrier is also offering free calls within Brazil and to the United States in August, while unlimited texting to over 140 countries continues to be free.
Additionally, T-Mobile will be giving families of U.S. athletes free T-Mobile service and a Samsung Galaxy S7 edge and Samsung Gear 360 camera through October. Those who qualify can email RoamFreeInRio@t-mobile.com to get up to two free smartphones per athlete activated ahead of the 2016 Rio Games.
Final Fantasy creator Square Enix has launched a teaser website for a game made exclusively for the Apple Watch, called Cosmos Rings (via CNET). The website calls the game an "RPG for Apple Watch," but leaves any other details about its mechanics, story, and launch date completely up in the air.
The sole teaser image for the game shows a screenshot of gameplay, with some kind of time dilation counter at the bottom left of the screen, along with a marker at the top left reminding players of the number of presumably in-game days that have passed while playing. Otherwise, the image doesn't show much of what might be coming to the Apple Watch app.
The games market on Apple's wearable device has plenty of room for creators to make a noticeable impression, since most users have yet to find any kind of killer app -- even a non-gaming one -- since the Apple Watch launched last year. A few gaming apps have managed to surge in popularity, focusing on mechanics that encourage short play styles, with incentive to revisit often, which may hint at Cosmos Rings' potential gameplay.
Check out Square Enix's website for yourself to see if you can discover any more clues behind Cosmos Rings.
Update 7/29: Cosmos Rings is now available to download in the App Store for $5.99 [Direct Link] until August 31, after which it will rise to a normal price of $8.99.
The latest data from market research firm IDC reveals that Apple Watch sales totaled an estimated 1.6 million units in the second quarter, for an industry leading 47 percent market share, compared to Samsung's estimated 600,000 smartwatch sales and 16 percent market share during the March-June period.
The numbers suggest that the Apple Watch remains nearly three times as popular as Samsung Gear smartwatches, nearly fifteen months after launching in the U.S. and eight other countries. Nevertheless, Samsung did close the gap with strong 51 percent year-over-year growth and a 9 point rise in market share.
Apple, meanwhile, experienced a 55 percent year-over-year decline, but the year-ago quarter encompassed the Apple Watch's launch and is thereby an unfair comparison. Apple Watch market share has dropped substantially, however, from an estimated peak of 72 to 75 percent following its launch quarter.
Despite a down quarter, Apple remains far and away the market leader in smartwatches. Apple faces the same challenges as other OEMs, but the pure exposure of the device and brand through tactical marketing gives it a leg up on the competition. Watch 2.0, along with updates to watchOS, could help drive existing user refresh and more importantly, a new wave of first-time buyers.
The overall smartwatch market experienced its first-ever decline as shipments fell 32 percent in the second quarter, totaling an estimated 3.5 million units compared to an estimated 5.1 million units in the year-ago quarter. Lenovo, LG, and Garmin rounded off the top five smartwatch vendors in the second quarter, but the trio combined to sell only 700,000 units. All other vendors sold a combined 600,000 units.
Desktop email client Polymail recently launched a new iOS version of its app, focusing on simple and intuitive ways to get users through massive email lists with the same connected and social-minded aspects of the desktop app. Polymail allows users to manage their Gmail, iCloud, and Outlook, through the iOS app, which now syncs automatically with the Mac app as well.
One of the standout features of Polymail is its social networking angle, which has each user create a "Contact Profile" detailing their employer, location, and a brief customizable bio section. These cards show every interaction you have had with any particular person, letting you browse among email correspondence and attachments shared between one another, and even detailing when they read an email, and how many times, similar in style to Apple's Read Receipts.
“Email usage is moving more and more towards mobile but these productivity features have typically only been available on desktop,” says Brandon Foo, co-founder of Polymail. “We want to give users the best set of tools for mobile across any email provider.”
In addition to contact profiles and email tracking, the app also provides features like read later, send later, and follow-up reminders, which the company points out as being mostly browser add-ons in the past, placing Polymail as the first major mobile and desktop app to embrace them. The service even allows users to un-send emails "within several seconds" after they're sent, making it easy to fix grammar and spelling errors that are recognized in the time window.
Following its debut on the Mac App Store, a few users compared Polymail to Dropbox's now-defunct Mailbox client, which has generated some positive word-of-mouth leading up to its release on iOS. Still, its email tracking abilities and robust permissions list have raised a few flags for some users. Although not speaking on the topic of security and privacy specifically, Polymail reiterated that its ultimate goal is in making "enterprise workflow as effortless as possible," aiming to lessen the gap between email clients "and the rest of the business applications companies use."
Those interested can try out Polymail for themselves by downloading the free app on the App Store today. [Direct Link] The company mentioned that a higher-tier "Polymail Pro" subscription model is gearing up to launch sometime soon, but gave no details on its price point or premium features.
Update: This article originally stated IMAP accounts are supported, as indicated on Polymail's website. IMAP support is, however, not yet available.
Yesterday on Facebook, the company's dedicated messaging app, Facebook Messenger, posted news regarding its recent milestone of surpassing 1 billion monthly active users. As The Next Web pointed out, that's a growth of 200 million users since January, and roughly suggests that 1 out of every 7 members of the population are logging onto Facebook Messenger each month to text with friends and family.
In the message thanking users, the Facebook Messenger team mentioned that the company will be celebrating by debuting the launch of new animated balloons into the chat app. Anyone can try it out by sending someone a traditional balloon emoji within Facebook Messenger to activate the new animation.
On behalf of the entire Messenger team, we'd like to thank the more than 1 billion people who are now using Messenger every month. People use Messenger to connect with the people and businesses they care most about. They make plans, share dreams, send payments, tell jokes, play games, let their loved ones know they're thinking of them and much, much more. We know that every message is important to you - no matter what you want to say - and we're grateful that you choose to communicate using Messenger.
To put its growing popularity into perspective, Facebook also released some stats related to its messaging service. According to the company, 22 million GIFs are sent every day (approximately 254 per second), and popular holidays saw a noticable uptick in user messaging, with 300 million flowers sent on Mother's Day and 360 valentine-related chats sent on February 14. Among a growing, robust list of sticker packs, the app's most popular remains related to the Angry Birds franchise.
A few of Facebook Messenger's well-received features -- like sticker packs, money payments, and easily-shareable GIFs -- will be making their debut in the new iOS 10 Messages app this fall. With the new SDK debuting in the software update, developers will be allowed to create app extensions that allow users to interact with third-party apps directly within Messages. Apple itself has also announced a few new features coming to its chat app, like new bubble effects, handwritten messages, and fullscreen animated backgrounds, similar to Facebook's balloon easter egg commemorating 1 billion users.
Another video has emerged online showing probable mockups of iPhone 7 units, but this time viewers are given a better idea of what the new handset might look like in three colors that Apple may offer this September.
The video was posted to YouTube channel ConceptsiPhone yesterday and shows the iPhone 7 in Rose Gold, Gold, and what the titling calls "Space Black".
The mockups depict the now familiar design expectations such as protruding camera, repositioned antenna bands, and no headphone jack, but it's the "Space Black" reference that stands out as a curiosity this time around.
Rumors in June pointed to the possibility that Apple was readying a darker variant of its traditional Space Grey color, described by one source as "close to black, though not quite black". This so-called "new, darker shade" was thought to more closely resemble the look of the "space black" stainless steel Apple Watch, which is darker than the "space gray" aluminum Apple Watch Sport.
However, earlier this month, alleged photographs of Apple's proposed iPhone 7 colorways stuck to showing the company's typical four variants of Rose Gold, Space Gray, Gold, and Silver, similar to the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus.
The "Space Black" variant depicted in the latest video does look darker than a typical iPhone 6s Space Grey unit, but the poor lighting makes identification a guessing game, and it could be just as likely that the unusual naming convention is simply a botched amalgam of previous rumors.
On the other hand, Apple has used different shades of "space gray" and "black and slate" across its device lineups over the years. The iPhone 6s and iPad Pro, for example, each have a lighter shade of "space gray" compared to the iPhone 5s and original iPad Air respectively.
U.S. authorities have arrested the alleged owner of the world's largest torrent site after Apple shared personal details linked to an iTunes transaction that enabled federal investigators to locate their suspect.
According to TorrentFreak, Ukranian-born Artem Vaulin was arrested yesterday in Poland on suspicion of running KickassTorrents (KAT), which recently surpassed The Pirate Bay as the go-to site for unofficial copies of movies, TV shows, and music.
The U.S. Justice Department has requested 30-year-old Vaulin's extradition on charges of criminal copyright infringement and money laundering. The key piece of evidence that led authorities to Vaulin appeared to come when Apple handed over his personal details after investigators matched an IP address used to log in to the KAT Facebook page with one linked to an iTunes purchase.
Filed in a U.S. District Court in Chicago, the criminal complaint reads: "Records provided by Apple showed that tirm@me.com conducted an iTunes transaction using IP Address 109.86.226.203 on or about July 31, 2015. The same IP Address was used on the same day to login into the KAT Facebook."
According to the complaint, KAT operates in 28 languages and offered movies still in cinemas, as well as other content, earning significant revenue from advertising throughout the site. Investigators also reportedly posed as an advertiser to the site, which revealed a bank account associated with it.
The U.S. Department of Justice estimates KAT's value to be over $54 million, with annual advertising revenue in the range of $12.5 million to $22.3 million. KAT reportedly helped distribute over $1 billion in pirated files, according to assistant attorney general Leslie Caldwell, who commented on the case.
"In an effort to evade law enforcement, Vaulin allegedly relied on servers located in countries around the world and moved his domains due to repeated seizures and civil lawsuits," said Caldwell. "His arrest in Poland, however, demonstrates again that cybercriminals can run, but they cannot hide from justice."
In addition to Vaulin's extradition, the criminal complaint has also ordered the seizure of a bank account associated with the site, as well as the seizure of several KAT domain names. TorrentFreak reports that while the main KAT domain appears to be down, various proxies still lead to working versions of the site.
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 facing a new class action lawsuit, levied today by customers in California who are unhappy that their iPhones and iPads were replaced with refurbished devices under Apple's AppleCare or AppleCare+ warranty plan.
Filed by Vicky Maldonado and Joanne McRight, the lawsuit, first shared by Cult of Mac, accuses Apple of failing to provide replacement devices that are "equivalent to new in performance and reliability" as stated in the company's terms and conditions.
Both plaintiffs purchased replacement devices under AppleCare protection plans and were given refurbished devices rather than new devices, which they claim is a violation of the aforementioned line in the AppleCare Terms and Conditions.
The Apple Plans purport to provide consumers with Devices that are "equivalent to new in performance and reliability." What that phrase means is 'new' as refurbished devices can never be the equivalent to new in performance and reliability. Plaintiffs allege that it means refurbished. Refurbished is synonymous with the term "reconditioned," that is, a secondhand unit that has been modified to appear to be new for all purposes relevant to this litigation.
"New" means a Device that has never been utilized or previously sold and consists of all new parts. The word "refurbished" appears only once in the AppleCare+ terms and conditions even though the printed booklet is 33 pages long.
The plaintiffs claim they were deprived of the "use and value" of their original devices when Apple replaced them with refurbished devices, suffering an economic loss in the amount of the cost of the AppleCare plans, the loss of value of their original non-refurbished devices, and the purchase cost and replacement cost paid to Apple.
Apple is being accused of breach of contract, breach of warranty, concealing information from the public, deceptive marketing, violating labeling requirements, and unfair competitive practices. The lawsuit covers all customers who purchased an AppleCare or AppleCare+ plan for an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch after July 11, 2011.
The plaintiffs are seeking damages, attorneys fees, an order that would prevent Apple from replacing damaged or defective iOS devices with refurbished devices in the future, updated AppleCare+ terms and conditions, and an option to get a refund for a broken device instead of a repair.
Plex and Sonos today announced a new partnership that will see Sonos' speakers supporting Plex music playback through the Sonos Controller app. Starting this afternoon, Sonos users can access their full Plex music libraries and discover new music via Plex using the Sonos app.
For Plex customers who have a Plex Pass for premium Plex features, music collections are automatically organized by metadata and sonic fingerprinting.
With our brand new Sonos service, you can now browse and play your entire Plex music collection on any Sonos device, right from the Sonos app. This means you'll benefit from our awesome library and discovery features, and your personal music will look better than ever on Sonos. Even if your collection is a total mess, with sonic fingerprinting for our Plex Pass users and metadata for everyone else, you'll end up with a beautifully organized library.
Plex for Sonos is in beta and thus can be accessed through the Sonos Labs section of the Sonos desktop app or the "Add Music Services" option on a mobile device after signing up for the Sonos Public Beta Program.
Sonos' wireless speakers are available from the Sonos website and start at $199. The Sonos Controller app can be downloaded from the App Store for free. Plex is a free service available from the Plex website, but premium features require a Plex Pass, priced at $4.99 per month.
Corning today unveiled its next-generation Gorilla Glass product, Gorilla Glass 5. The new glass, designed to be used in mobile device displays, offers improved protection against breakage from accidental drops.
Building on previous generations of Gorilla Glass, Corning's latest product survives 80 percent of the time when dropped face-down from 1.6 meters (5.2 feet) onto a rough surface during lab tests. According to Corning, Gorilla Glass 5 survives drops four times better than competing glass products.
"With each successive generation of Corning Gorilla Glass, we have taken cover glass technology to new levels. Gorilla Glass 5 is no exception, extending Corning's advantage in drop performance over competitive glasses," said John Bayne, vice president and general manager, Corning Gorilla Glass. "With many real-world drops occurring from between waist and shoulder height, we knew improving drop performance would be an important and necessary advancement."
Corning's Gorilla Glass 5 will begin making its way into products starting later in 2016, and it is a prime candidate for inclusion in either the 2016 iPhone 7 and/or the 2017 iPhone 8. Corning has been a long-time supplier for Apple, with Apple using its Gorilla Glass for its iPad and iPhone lineup. Corning's last Gorilla Glass product, Gorilla Glass 4, came out in 2014.
One of Apple's latest acquisitions appears to be cloud-based music provider and Omnifone, according to an inside source that shared knowledge of the purchase with MacRumors. Earlier this month, a Music Ally report suggested UK-based Omnifone's tech business and assets had been purchased by a mystery buyer for $10 million, and it seems that buyer is Apple.
According to documents covering the sale, Omnifone's alluring patent portfolio was not purchased by Apple, nor were debts or investments, but terms included a "royalty bearing license" that Omnifone says will help it determine the value of its full range of patents. Omnifone has a number of patents relating to downloading music, digital rights management, and generating recommendations that are potentially appealing to streaming music companies.
Omnifone operated a cloud platform powering its own MusicStation service and serving as the backbone for music services launched through partnerships with mobile carriers like LG, Samsung, Vodafone, BlackBerry, Sony, and more.
Omnifone, for example, powered Samsung's Milk music service in certain locations and it was licensed by PonoMusic to power the PonoMusic Store, which is temporarily unavailable as of today following Apple's purchase of Omnifone. Following its acquisition, Omnifone has abruptly ended all of its partnerships.
One of our key infrastructure partners - Omnifone - has recently been acquired by a large company. An impact of this purchase is that all Omnifone's supply relationships are being terminated, effectively immediately. Omnifone has been the exclusive content provider for PonoMusic.
Omnifone was placed into administration in May after it became clear the company could no longer pay its debts following the loss of clients like Sony and BlackBerry when Music Unlimited and BBM Music were shuttered. A total of 71 staff members were laid off as it sought a buyer for its technology assets.
Apple was believed to be interested in Omnifone's assets early on, with sources in May telling Music Ally Apple would make the purchase.
Update:The Loop's Jim Dalrymple says that according to his sources, Apple did not purchase Omnifone.
Apple today released the second public beta of macOS Sierra, the newest operating system designed for the Mac. Today's second public beta comes two weeks after the release of the first macOS Sierra public beta and just a few days after the launch of the third developer beta of macOS Sierra. The second public beta and the third developer beta offer the same features.
Beta testers who have signed up for Apple's beta testing program will receive the macOS Sierra beta through the Software Update mechanism in the Mac App Store.
Those who want to be a part of Apple's beta testing program can sign up to participate through the beta testing website, which gives users access to both iOS and OS X betas.
macOS Sierra is a significant update that brings Siri to the Mac, allowing users to conduct voice searches to find files, look up information, and more. New Continuity features include an "Auto Unlock" option for unlocking a Mac with an Apple Watch, and a Universal Clipboard for copy paste that works across multiple devices.
Deeper iCloud integration makes files stored on the desktop or the Documents folder of a Mac available on all of a user's devices, and Photos features new deep learning algorithms for facial, object, and scene recognition. Messages includes rich links, bigger emoji, and "Tapback" response options, and the macOS Sierra update will bring Apple Pay to the web.
Beta testers who have signed up for Apple's beta testing program will receive the iOS 10 beta update over-the-air after installing the proper certificate on their iOS device.
Those who want to be a part of Apple's beta testing program can sign up to participate through the beta testing website, which gives users access to both iOS and OS X betas. The video below will walk you through the necessary steps for installing the iOS 10 beta to give the new features a try. Betas are not stable and include many bugs, so they should be installed on a secondary device.
The second public beta of iOS 10 and the third developer beta of iOS 10 are likely identical, and in the developer beta, Apple introduced a new keyboard sound, an Accessibility option for using iOS 9-style Touch ID, haptic feedback when locking an iPhone, improved Quick Actions for sharing apps, and more.
iOS 10 includes a number of new features and design tweaks, like a new Lock screen experience, a revamped Messages app with background animations, bubble effects, Digital Touch, a full App Store and more, and a Photos app with impressive facial and object recognition capabilities.
There's a new Home app, and apps like Maps and Apple Music have been redesigned, plus there are hundreds of smaller tweaks and changes in the operating system, which we cover extensively in our iOS 10 roundup.
iOS 10 is available to developers and public beta testers at the current time, with a public release planned for the fall.
Apple today released a new update for Safari Technology Preview, the experimental browser Apple first introduced on March 30, 2016. Apple designed the Safari Technology Preview to test features that may be introduced into the release version of Safari.
Safari Technology Preview release 9 includes bug fixes and updates for JavaScript, web APIs, MathML, Apple Pay, Web Inspector, media, rendering, and more. As of release 8, Safari Technology Preview has supported Apple Pay in the web browser, a feature set to launch as part of macOS Sierra.
Apple's goal with Safari Technology Preview is to gather feedback from developers and users on its browser development process. Safari Technology Preview can be run side-by-side with the existing Safari browser and while aimed at developers, it does not require a developer account to download.
Microsoft-owned keyboard app maker SwiftKey today launched a brand-new iOS app, this time focused on predictive emoji suggestions. Called Swiftmoji, the app runs a crowdsourced usage data algorithm to begin suggesting its users specific emoji characters when they send text messages, with the app set to eventually learn each user's preferences and recommend frequently-used emoji above those hardly ever sent in a message.
The app works by piggybacking on the written text created in Apple's -- or any other third-party's -- keyboard, showcasing a wall of emojis meant to be related to the message waiting to be sent. All users need to do is type something, tap the globe icon to switch over to Swiftmoji, and pick from the app's proposed emoji characters. SwiftKey hopes this method is a bit more streamlined in comparison to the emoji hunt that happens in Apple's first-party keyboard but, as TechCrunch noted, its predictive capabilities have room for improvement.
Testing the app out ahead of launch, the predictions seemed a tad tenuous and/or hit and miss at times. For example, typing ‘viva la France’ did indeed yield the French flag emoji as the first prediction. However the second prediction was the Italian flag. Which it’s hard to imagine being useful.
The app also lets users send an "emoji storm," which shoots out emojis from its suggestion box in a random order at the tail-end of a message, if users think sending just one or two characters isn't enough. In addition, there's a tab for frequently used emoji, and a basic, scrollable section akin to what iOS users have been used to over the past few years. Interestingly, the Android version of the app is more robust, offering quick-access emoji suggestions above a full third-party keyboard.
Due to its ability to condense vast topics down to cartoonish characters, a SwiftKey spokeswoman is also ensuring users that the company has "worked to reduce the chances of anyone using Swiftmoji to be caused offence from the emoji predictions suggested." All the same, she confirmed that SwiftKey wouldn't outright censor its users, letting everyone have "the option to use whichever emoji they like and in whatever way they like,” with truly questionable outcomes from the app advised to be reported to the company.
Anyone interested can check out Swiftmoji for free on the App Store today. [Direct Link]
In an in-depth profile about Brian, Kevin, and Michael Sumner, three brothers said to be working on the 
U.S. authorities have arrested the alleged owner of the world's largest torrent site after Apple shared personal details linked to an iTunes transaction that enabled federal investigators to locate their suspect. 
Apple today 
