MacRumors

Drone videographer Matthew Roberts today uploaded a new video about Apple Park, this time showcasing the construction progress that Apple has made on its new campus over the past year. The video starts in June 2016 and goes up through Roberts' most recent drone updates in April and May 2017, where last minute pieces of construction were being put into place as the first small batch of employees moved into the new workspace.

Roberts separated the video to focus on the major buildings and features at Apple Park, allowing viewers to watch all the progress that has been made on the central "Spaceship" building, Steve Jobs Theater, main tunnel, R&D facility, fitness center, parking garage, and atrium. Even the large mound of dirt that loomed over the site during the first weeks of construction gets some focus in the video.

Apple Park began as an idea by former CEO Steve Jobs, who pitched the plans for the campus to the Cupertino City Council in 2011, with a completion date for 2015. Demolition on the site began in 2013, and construction delays eventually pushed back a late 2016 opening to the spring of 2017. In February, Apple officially named the campus "Apple Park."

Construction is still ongoing at the campus, with the Steve Jobs Theater expected to open sometime later in the year, and small landscaping details continuing to be worked on as more employees move into the buildings. Eyes have been on Apple Park's construction since it began, with interesting coverage including nighttime footage, aerial photography, and even a recreation of the campus in Minecraft.

Apple recently paid around $200 million to acquire Lattice Data, a firm that aims to turn unstructured "dark data" such as text and images into structured data that can then be handled with traditional data analysis tools. News of the acquisition comes from TechCrunch, and Apple has essentially confirmed the acquisition by issuing its standard statement on the topic.

Lattice uses machine learning techniques to take mass amounts of initially unusable data and turn it into properly labeled and categorized data that can be used for AI, medical research, and more.

It’s unclear who Lattice has been working with, or how Apple would intend to use the technology. Our guess is that there is an AI play here: Our source said that Lattice had been “talking to other tech companies about enhancing their AI assistants,” including Amazon’s Alexa and Samsung’s Bixby, and had recently spent time in South Korea.

TechCrunch says the deal closed "a couple of weeks ago," with roughly 20 Lattice engineers having joined Apple.

Prominent KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has released a "2017 WWDC highlights" report, outlining his expectations for next month's keynote event. While he expects the typical previews of the next versions of iOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS, he also predicts we will see several hardware-related announcements.

One major debut Kuo expects to see is the long-rumored 10.5-inch iPad Pro, which he says has a greater than 70 percent chance of debuting at the event based on the timing of production ramp-up, which he sees as happening at the end of the current quarter. In line with previous rumors, Kuo believes the 10.5-inch iPad Pro will have a similar form factor as the current 9.7-inch model, squeezing in a larger display thanks to narrower bezels.

The newly designed 10.5” iPad Pro will have a similar form factor to the 9.7” model, but will feature a larger display thanks to narrow bezels. The new design should improve the user experience and help gain traction in the corporate/ commercial sectors. We forecast 10.5” iPad shipments of 5.0-6.0mn units in 2017F, accounting for 15% of total 2017F
iPad shipments.

Kuo also reiterates his belief that there is a greater than 50 percent chance Apple will unveil its Siri smart speaker at WWDC. He previously said that the speaker may not actually launch until later in the year, but an announcement at WWDC would give developers time to begin building support for the product.

In our April 28 Insight report (“Apple’s first home AI product to see cyclical shipments of over 10mn units; main competitor is Amazon Echo”), we offered estimates for the new home AI/ Siri speaker line. We also believe this new product will come with a touch panel.

For the first time, Kuo says Apple's speaker will include a touch panel display, a detail that has remained unclear since rumors began. Most previous rumors have made no mention of whether the product will include a display, but Phil Schiller recently suggested such smart speaker products would benefit from the inclusion of a screen.

Apple's WWDC keynote kicks off at 10:00 am Pacific Time on Monday, June 5, and MacRumors will have full coverage of the event as it unfolds.

Apple's so-called "iPhone 8" with an OLED display and wireless charging is widely expected to cost in the neighborhood of $1,000 in the United States, and Wall Street analysts continue to guess just how much it'll sell for.

The latest prediction comes from Goldman Sachs analyst Simona Jankowski, who today said she expects the rumored high-end iPhone to be available in 128GB and 256GB storage capacities for $999 and $1,099 respectively. Unlike the iPhone 7, she doesn't believe the iPhone 8 will be available in 32GB.

An excerpt from her research note distributed today:

Relative to the 128GB iPhone 7 Plus, we estimate the new features and higher commodity prices to increase the bill of materials by over $70, which we expect Apple to offset via a $130 price increase, resulting in a starting price of $999 for the 128GB capacity and $1,099 for the 256GB capacity (we don’t expect the iPhone 8 to come in 32GB).

Apple's most expensive smartphone to date is the iPhone 7 Plus with 256GB of storage, which retails for $969 in the United States.

UBS analyst Steven Milunovich shared entirely different pricing expectations last month, so it's clear that analysts are simply guesstimating. He thinks the iPhone 8 will come in 64GB and 256GB storage capacities for $850-$900 and $950-$1,000 respectively. His research note didn't mention 32GB or 128GB models.

The takeaway here is that the iPhone 8 will likely be very expensive. The device's exact price tag is likely privy only to Apple at this point, however, so treat any estimate with a healthy dose of skepticism for now.

Goldman Sachs raised its 12-month price target for Apple's stock to $170, up from $164, based on strong iPhone 8 expectations.

Apple today announced that Corning, the makers of Gorilla Glass, will be the first major benefactor of its $1 billion Advanced Manufacturing Fund, which was announced by Apple CEO Tim Cook earlier this month.

Corning is a long-time Apple Supplier, and its Gorilla Glass products have been used in the iPhone and the iPad for several years. Corning Incorporated will receive $200 million from Apple's new fund, which aims to foster innovation among American manufacturers and lead to more U.S. jobs. The investment will support Corning's research and development, capital equipment needs and state-of-the-art glass processing, according to Apple's press release.

"Corning is a great example of a supplier that has continued to innovate and they are one of Apple's long-standing suppliers," said Jeff Williams, Apple's chief operating officer. "This partnership started 10 years ago with the very first iPhone, and today every customer that buys an iPhone or iPad anywhere in the world touches glass that was developed in America. We're extremely proud of our collaboration over the years and we are investing further with Corning who has such a rich legacy of innovative manufacturing practices."

Apple said Corning's 65-year-old Harrodsburg facility in Kentucky has been integral to the 10-year collaboration between the two companies and will be the focus of its investment.

"Corning's longstanding relationship with Apple has not only led to significant glass innovations that have enabled new capabilities for consumers, it has also helped create nearly 1,000 American jobs and allowed us to continue growing and expanding in the US," said Wendell P. Weeks, Corning's chairman, chief executive officer and president. "This investment will ensure our plant in Harrodsburg remains a global center of excellence for glass technology."

Since the founding of Gorilla Glass in 2007, the partnership has created and sustained nearly 1,000 U.S. jobs across Corning's R&D, manufacturing and commercial functions, according to Apple, including over 400 in Harrodsburg. Corning is said to have procured enough renewable energy to cover all of its Apple manufacturing in the U.S.

Apple today launched a new iPhone 7 video series entitled "How to Shoot on iPhone 7," featuring a range of tutorial videos that it's uploaded both to a new website and to its YouTube channel.

There are five videos on YouTube, which are designed to teach iPhone 7 and 7 Plus owners how to use the camera on their devices to capture various types of photos, including panoramas, portraits, action shorts, and more.

Each video is approximately 40 seconds in length and features a clear step-by-step tutorial on how to use each feature directly on the iPhone. For the Portrait Mode video, for example, step 1 is swiping over to Portrait Mode, while Step 2 is looking for the depth effect tag before taking the shot.

All of the videos are super simple and are going to be most useful for people who don't often use the camera or who haven't invested a lot of time in learning the features. Each video is just one or two steps, covering readily available photo features. The most complicated video, for example, covers taking a vertical panorama.

Apple's "How to Shoot on iPhone 7" website has a much wider range of videos, all of which might eventually be uploaded to YouTube.

The videos on Apple's website are more specific and could be useful even to those who are familiar with the iPhone camera, as they contain tips like shooting at the golden hour for the best light, shooting a backlit subject, capturing a group portrait, shooting with street light, capturing a unique angle, and many more.

Update: More of the videos on the iPhone 7 tutorial site have now been uploaded to Apple's YouTube channel.

Apple plans to make a major Apple TV announcement at WWDC that should delight Amazon Prime subscribers - the addition of an Amazon Prime Video app for the Apple TV.

The news comes courtesy of BuzzFeed's John Paczkowski, who often accurately shares details on Apple's plans ahead of events. According to Paczkowski, sources of Apple's plans say the company will announce an Amazon Prime Video app during its keynote event.

There are tentative plans for the app to go live in the summer, but its official release date could change.

With Amazon Prime Video on the Apple TV, Amazon also plans to resume offering the Apple TV through Amazon.com. Amazon stopped offering the Apple TV and the Google Chromecast in 2015, citing Amazon Prime Video incompatibility as the reason why. It is not known when the Apple TV will return to the Amazon website.

News of a potential deal between Apple and Amazon that would see the app made available on the Apple TV first surfaced last week. At the time, Apple and Amazon were said to be close to an agreement, and now an agreement has been reached.

Amazon Prime Video is one of the only major streaming video services that is currently absent from the Apple TV, and Apple TV owners have long wanted to see the Prime Video app on Apple's device.

The Apple Watch's built-in heart rate monitor is 97 percent accurate when detecting the most common form of an abnormal heart rhythm when paired with an algorithm to sort through the data, according to a new study conducted by the University of California, San Francisco and the team behind the Cardiogram app (via TechCrunch).

There were 6,158 participants in the study, all of whom used the Cardiogram app on the Apple Watch to monitor their heart rate. Most were known to have normal EKG readings, but 200 suffer from paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (an occasional irregular heartbeat).

Data from these participants, along with data taken from normal Cardiogram users, was used to build a neural network that could recognize the abnormal heart rhythms solely from data collected by the Apple Watch. As of today, Cardiogram says its algorithm can almost always successfully determine when a patient is in atrial fibrillation.

In order to validate the model, we obtained gold-standard labels of atrial fibrillation from cardioversions. In a cardioversion, a patient experiencing atrial fibrillation is converted back to normal sinus rhythm, either chemically or with a shock to the heart. 51 patients at UCSF agreed to wear an Apple Watch during their cardioversion.

We obtained heart rate samples before the procedure, when the patient was in atrial fibrillation, and after, when patient's heart was restored to a normal rhythm. On this validation set, our model performed with an AUC of 0.97, beating existing methods.

Cardiogram is a startup that's aiming to garner more information from the data collected by the Apple Watch. The study, which Cardiogram has raised funding for, started in March of 2016 and will continue as UCSF and Cardiogram work to refine the neural network and detect other conditions beyond atrial fibrillation.

Cardiogram plans to put in additional work before using its algorithm to start notifying Cardiogram users of arrhythmias. The company needs to conduct further testing to make sure the algorithm works in a variety of conditions and it needs to work on scaling it so it can be used continuously by all Cardiogram users.

The Cardiogram app can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]

Apple plans to bring its iTunes app to the Windows 10 Store, Microsoft announced today at its Build developer event. iTunes, is, of course, already available on the Windows platform, but adding it to the Windows Store will make it easier for Windows users to find the software.

Gaining iTunes for the Windows Store is a win for Microsoft, as the Windows store is currently lacking many key apps like Google's Chrome browser and Spotify. Microsoft has strict app requirements that some companies aren't able to work with.

The addition of iTunes could potentially drive more customers to use the Windows 10 Store, with iTunes said to be one of the apps that Windows users search for most often.

According to Microsoft, iTunes will be added to the Windows Store by the end of this year.