April 1 is here again, and as with every April Fools' Day that comes around, readers should be on the alert for hoaxes and claims at both news and rumor sites.
As tradition would have it, plenty of today's pranks involve Apple and tech. Here are a few of the more intriguing ones that are making the rounds so far today. Bear in mind that some of the hoaxes may be NSFW, so after-office viewing or headphone donning may be the safest option.
SpatiaFlight
Moshi launches SpatiaFlight, the next generation of AirPlay.
T-Mobile #BingeOnUp Service
T-Mobile are offering Binge On Up!, a truly mobile binge-watching experience free to all their customers.
Google Cardboard Plastic
Google announces Cardboard Plastic, for the ultimate immersive "AR" experience.
Other Pranks and Hoaxes
Autonomous RV – World's first self-driving trailer van Virgin America – Introducing the airline's dubious new logo Product Hunt – Product Hunt acquires Yahoo in all-stock deal Mark for H&M – Mark Zuckerberg exclusive fashion collection Lexus V-LCRO – Revolutionary human-machine interface for tackling hard corners Android Developer Story – The Guardian goes galactic with Google Play
This post will be updated throughout April Fools' Day with the latest pranks and hoaxes.
Disney today released Star Wars: The Force Awakens onto digital platforms, including iTunes, Disney Movies Anywhere, and other Digital HD platforms. The company first confirmed the release date in early March, also announcing the long-awaited film will launch at physical retailers on April 5.
The iTunes version of the film has the same bonus content as the standard retail editions set to launch next week, including a table read of the script and a behind-the-scenes look at the development of the film's creatures. Fans who purchase the film on April 5 will have a handful of retailerexclusive editions to choose from, some of which include bonus content unavailable elsewhere.
iTunes Extras: Discover the complete story behind the film's making in Secrets of The Force Awakens: A Cinematic Journey, revealed through in-depth footage and exclusive interviews with the actors and filmmakers in this feature-length documentary. In The Story Awakens: The Table Read, cast members reflect on the memorable day they all came together for the first time to read the movie's script. Plus Crafting Creatures, Building BB-8, Blueprint of a Battle: The Snow Fight, a host of Deleted Scenes, and more.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens is available to download from the iTunes Store for $19.99 in HD, with the SD version to follow on April 5 for $14.99. [Direct Link]
Yesterday, Chipworks' teardown of the iPhone SE confirmed that the new device uses a potpourri of components from several past iPhones, including the iPhone 5s. iFixit has completed its own teardown of the device, and its findings show that the new device includes several components that are interchangeable with iPhone 5s parts.
iFixit found that the iPhone SE's speaker, chassis, vibrator, SIM tray and display assembly, which includes the LCD, digitizer, front camera, earpiece speaker and proximity sensor are the same parts used in the iPhone 5s. According to iFixit's testing, the components are easily swappable and work in a "plug and play" fashion.
The non-swappable parts include the logic board, rear-facing camera, Lightning connector assembly and battery. The iPhone SE's battery comes in at 1,624 mAh, which is up from the iPhone 5s' 1,560 mAh battery. However, iFixit notes that the SE's battery comes with a different battery connector, so iPhone 5s users hoping to install a larger battery in their phones are out of luck.
The camera on the iPhone SE also comes with a different connector, using far fewer pins than the connector on the iPhone 5s' camera. Other differences include a Lightning connector that's a little different from the iPhone 5s' Lightning connector, failing iFixit's compatibility test. The power button bracket also has a contact cable "doohickey," likely for grounding.
iFixit awarded the iPhone SE a repairability score of 6 out of 10, with 10 being the easiest to repair. While the iPhone SE's similarities to the iPhone 5s make it easier to repair, it's still difficult to open because of the Pentalobe screws on the device's exterior. Like most iPhones, the Touch ID cable is also easily damaged if a user is not careful when opening the device.
Since the launch of iOS 9.3 last week, some Sprint users have been unable to connect to LTE networks, according to reports on Twitter and reddit. After updating, affected users say their iPhones will only connect 3G, and there appears to be no clear fix with resets and reinstalls not solving the problem for most people.
According to one reddit user in California, he's having issues when his iPhone attempts to connect to a specific LTE band. Affected users are frustrated with the connectivity problems, with some reporting an inability to receive any messages or updates when not on Wi-Fi. Most users seeing problems appear to be using Apple's latest devices.
I'm having data issues as well on my 6s Plus in the LA/OC market. Over the past three days I've been troubleshooting on my 80 mile round trip commute via Field Test and Speedtest. I've figured out that data transfer is broken when connected to Clear B41. No problems on Sprint B41, B25 or EVDO. I've created a ticket with Sprint Care, and supposedly they have notified their network team. I'm awaiting a response.
I've talked to Apple as well, they did a diagnostic test that came up normal...of course it did, because I was not connected to Clear B41 at the time. At this point, the only course of action is to either disable LTE or revert back to 9.2.1 before Apple stops signing it. I'm not sure if this has to do with the WiMAX shutdown in my market, but I have noticed that the TAC went from 9xxx to 3xxxx after the shutdown. I've restored three times via iTunes to no avail.
As of this afternoon, Sprint has begun sending out text messages to its subscriber base, acknowledging the data connection problem. Sprint says that it is aware of the issue and "working quickly" on a fix.
Apple this morning released an iOS 9.3.1 update with a fix for an unrelated web linking bug, and while it's not clear if the new update fixes the Sprint issue, it's unlikely as Sprint's text messages were sent out after the update was released.
Update 4/1: According to Sprint, the data connection issues affecting users were resolved this morning.
Rumors have suggested the iPhone 7 will be thinner and lighter than the iPhone 6s, and a new report from Korean site ETNews shares some technical details on the methods Apple may use to save space internally and shave off precious fractions of a millimeter from the device's size.
Apple is said to be planning to use a new fan-out packaging technology for the antenna switching module and radio frequency chip in the iPhone 7, which is a feature that allows the iPhone to switch between LTE and other antennas like GSM and CDMA. Fan-out packaging technology allows for a greater number of I/O terminals while cutting down on chip size.
A mockup of what the iPhone 7 might look like
Fan Out technology is a technology that increases number of I/O (Input/Output) terminals within a package by pulling out wiring of I/O terminals to outside from a semiconductor chip (Die), which is a previous step before packaging. As area of a chip had become narrower as manufacturing processes had become finer, it was difficult to increase number of I/O terminals. Because industries do not want to increase size of a chip just for I/O terminals, they have been paying attention to Fan Out Packaging technology recently. It is most cost effective from production cost perspective if number of I/O terminals increases within a package while still decreasing size of a chip.
Using this packaging method, along with single-chip EMI shields, Apple will be able to fit more components into a single package while minimizing signal loss and also cutting down on the potential for interference in wireless communication. The radio frequency chip built into the antenna switching module is said to include two chips in one package rather than two chips built into a printed circuit board to save space.
Apple's iPhone 7 is expected to launch in the fall of 2016. Rumors about the device suggest it will look similar to the iPhone 6s, but with redesigned antenna bands and a somewhat thinner chassis. Along with the chip packaging techniques shared today, Apple is rumored to be cutting down on the size of the device through the removal of the headphone jack and the slimming of the Lightning port.
Former chairman and CEO of General Electric Jack Welch had an opportunity to purchase Apple for $2 billion and passed at the chance, according to information shared by Bob Wright in an interview with The New York Post about his book The Wright Stuff: From NBC to Autism Speaks.
Back in 1996, when Apple was struggling ahead of Steve Jobs' return, then CEO Michael Spindler, who took over after John Sculley was ousted, was "practically begging" General Electric to buy Apple.
"The stock price was $20, and [Spindler] was explaining he couldn't get the company moving fast enough and the analysts were on his case," Wright told The Post in an interview on Tuesday. "He was sweating like mad and everybody said, 'We can't manage technology like that.' We had a chance to buy it for $2 billion."
A purchase by General Electric would have radically changed the company's history and it's questionable whether Apple would still be around as a brand today had that happened. Later that same year, after GE declined to make the purchase, Apple bought NeXT for $427 million and Steve Jobs returned to lead the company in 1997.
One of Jobs' first major projects was the iPod, which launched in 2001 and set the company on its current path. The iPhone followed in 2007, the iPad came in 2010, and the Apple Watch, Apple's newest product, launched in 2015.
As of today, Apple is worth more than $600 billion, while General Electric is worth less than half of that. In fact, Apple holds more than two thirds of the value of General Electric in cash, with over $215 billion on hand.
Apple launched the iPhone SE today in the United States and eleven other countries and territories, prompting a number of early adopters looking to get their hands on the refreshed 4-inch smartphone to line up over the past twenty-four hours.
Early morning lines for the iPhone SE could be found in a handful of major cities, ranging from Sydney, Australia to Miami, Florida, but many other Apple Stores had no queues whatsoever as excitement was unsurprisingly more tepid compared to the launch of a flagship smartphone like the iPhone 6s.
iPhone SE lines in Sydney, left, and Miami, right (Images: Nick Sas/Julio Perera)
In fact, the launch of the iPhone SE was arguably overshadowed by Model 3 reservations, which began today at Tesla stores and galleries, some of which are located directly adjacent to or within close proximity to Apple retail stores.
At the Tesla store in the Bellevue, Washington shopping mall pictured below, for example, the queue at around 10:30 a.m. local time was significantly longer than many of those outside of Apple Stores today.
iPhone SE reaction has been mixed in Asia, where the smartphone launched to little fanfare in Japan but reportedly received over 3.4 million pre-orders in neighboring China. The low-cost smartphone is expected to be particularly popular in emerging markets such as India and Pakistan.
Investment bank Piper Jaffray performed a spot check of iPhone SE stock in select American markets and found that 90% of stores had the device in stock:
We checked 100 Apple Stores in NYC, LA, Dallas, and Minneapolis market areas for availability of the Space Gray iPhone SE 16GB and found that 90% of stores checked had the device in stock. We did spot checks for other device colors (Gold, Rose Gold, Silver) in about 25 stores and found a similar ~90% availability.
For new orders, Apple currently lists delivery estimates of between April 6 and April 21 in the U.S. depending on the iPhone SE size, color, and carrier selected.
Apple today released iOS 9.3.1 to the public, marking the first update to iOS 9 since iOS 9.3 launched on March 21. iOS 9.3.1 comes just over a week after the launch of iOS 9.3 and likely brings a fix for a significant web link crashing issue that has been affecting many iOS users.
Today's iOS 9.3.1 release is available as an over-the-air update for all iOS 9 users and it can also be downloaded through iTunes. iOS 9.3.1 is the seventh update to iOS 9, following iOS 9.0.1, iOS 9.0.2, iOS 9.1, iOS 9.2, iOS 9.2.1, and iOS 9.3.
Shortly after iOS 9.3 was released, a number of iPhone and iPad users found Safari, Mail, Messages, Notes, Chrome and some other pre-installed and third-party apps would crash or freeze after tapping or long pressing on a web link. While most users affected were on iOS 9.3, some customers on earlier versions of iOS also complained of crashing problems.
The exact underlying cause of the problem has not been discovered, but there is speculation that it is related to Universal Links and the Shared Web Credentials daemon, which allows apps and websites to share login credentials. No quick fix has been available, but shortly after the bug was publicized, Apple said it was working on a fix and has made good on that promise in the iOS 9.3.1 update.
Any other changes found in the iOS 9.3.1 update will be listed below.
Verizon customers planning on upgrading to the iPhone SE or another new smartphone should do so sooner rather than later, as the U.S.'s largest carrier has outlined plans to introduce a new $20 upgrade fee starting next week.
Beginning next Monday, April 4, a new $20 flat rate charge will be applied to smartphones purchased on a Device Payment financing plan, or at full retail price, according to a leaked internal memo obtained by MacRumors.
The same $20 premium will also apply to customers taking advantage of Apple's new iPhone Upgrade Program. Verizon cites "increasing support costs associated with customers switching their devices" as a reason for the new fees.
The new upgrade fees will impact all consumer accounts, as well as business accounts without an ECPD profile. Verizon's existing $40 upgrade fee for customers renewing a two-year contract with a new device remains in place.
The new $20 upgrade fee will be charged at the point of sale through direct Verizon sales channels, while the fee will be added to the customer's next bill when the smartphone is purchased through an indirect reseller.
AT&T similarly charges $15 per smartphone added or upgraded with AT&T Next, and "bring your own" devices. Sprint also charges an upgrade or activation fee up to $36 per device. T-Mobile does not have upgrade fees.
After a soft launch in Japan earlier this month, Nintendo's first app designed for iOS devices, Miitomo, is available for download in the United States and other countries.
Miitomo is a free-to-play social-based app that allows players to create and customize avatars known in the Nintendo world as Miis. Using their Mii, players can chat with one another through the Miitomo app and play mini games. The goal is to earn coins and tickets to work towards purchasing new outfits for one's Mii while also answering questions and creating Mii photos, with that information being shared with friends.
Players are also able to use the app to earn My Nintendo rewards that can be exchanged for discounts on Nintendo's line of 3DS and Wii U games and console themes, which will be the main incentive to pick up Miitomo. My Nintendo is Nintendo's new rewards program, replacing the rewards program that it eliminated last year.
Our sister site TouchArcade tried the Japanese version of Miitomo and shared some early thoughts on the app.
So how is it? Well, it's more or less as it was described to us before. You start off by creating or importing a Mii. You then assign a voice and personality to it before moving on. From there, you'll be directed to answer your first question, which in my case was concerning my favorite food. After that, you can tinker around and do what you like. So far, that doesn't involve much more than buying clothes, dressing up my Mii, or answering more questions.
I've earned some Game Tickets, which I can use to play a simple pachinko-style mini-game to try and win new outfits. The other currencies include coins for buying new clothes at the shop, and a mysterious "candy" item that I can't find a use for. Almost everything you do will earn you coins, and the game gives you a bunch up front to set up your initial outfit.
Nintendo plans to release additional games for smartphones in the future, following its first experiment with Miitomo. Not all games will be freemium like Miitomo - Nintendo has said some will be "pay to download."
Facebook released a new feature today for its iOS Messenger app that allows users to receive booked flight information updates.
The instant messaging service's first 'airline bot' enables KLM Royal Dutch Airlines customers who have booked tickets through the airlines' website to have all their flight information delivered to a dedicated thread within the app.
The bot is designed to supply customers with their itinerary, boarding pass, and check-in confirmation, as well as notify of any flight delays. An option to speak to a human KLM staff member is also included.
Earlier this year, TechCrunch reported that Facebook was offering select developers access to its Messenger SDK which would allow them to build helpful service bots for the app.
According to the report, Facebook was likely giving third-party developers access to the chat SDK in an effort to make Messenger more like its Asian counterparts, such as WeChat and Line, whose users can contact dedicated accounts to buy movie tickets and pay bills.
In December 2015, Uber announced integration with Messenger via a new Transportation feature, which lets customers book taxis and receive live progress updates from within a chat thread.
The discovery of a change in file naming conventions in OS X 10.11.4 is behind a recent growth in speculation that Apple is set to rebrand its OS X desktop operating system.
Screenshot from Mac OS 8 released in 1997.
The rumor appears to have begun on Tuesday after Brazilian Apple blog MacMagazine reported that a name used for an Interface Builder document tucked away in the OS X System folder contained a previously unseen reference to 'macOS'.
Developer Guilherme Rambo discovered that a document in FlightUtilities.framework in /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks takes the name FUFlightViewController_macOS.nib, which it did not have prior to last week's release of OS X 10.11.4.
Image: Guilherme Rambo
Speculation appears to be based on the fact that iOS, watchOS, and tvOS already take similar naming conventions, leading some to believe that OS X could be set to fall in line.
However, as 9to5Mac points out, there are good reasons to remain skeptical that the change indicates an imminent rebrand.
Apple developers often use macOS identifiers for convenience, because the naming scheme suffix shares symmetry with Apple's other platforms and allows coders to easily identify apps with cross-platform components. Additionally, a significant rebrand of Apple's flagship desktop OS is the type of marketing decision that engineering teams would be unlikely to hear about until later on in the version cycle.
Despite the skepticism, a rebrand for OS X is by no means out of the question. Indeed, the name change would see Apple revert to the operating system's traditional name Mac OS, which remained in place until Apple dropped 'Mac' from its OS X branding in 2012.
The next version of Apple's Mac operating system, 10.12, is rumored to include Siri as a desktop feature, and is expected to be revealed at the Worldwide Developers Conference in June ahead of a public launch in the fall.
Update: The file is actually not new in OS X 10.11.4, as it is present on machines running older versions of OS X El Capitan and lists a creation date of August 2015.
Despite its much-publicized problems, Apple's iOS 9.3 is showing a lower crash rate than all active iOS builds, an app analytics firm reported yesterday (via AppleInsider).
According to California-based Apteligent, over the past eight days iOS 9.3 has had a crash rate of only 2.2 percent, making it the most stable iOS release in circulation. Apple's new iOS also beat the latest version of Android, which had a reported crash rate of approximately 2.6 percent.
By contrast, iOS 8, iOS 9 and iOS 9.2 have all fared worse over the month of March, with crash rates of 3.2 percent meaning their users were more likely to experience problems than early adopters of Apple's latest mobile OS iteration.
The study will come as a surprise to many, following media coverage of issues reported by a number of iOS users. Apple is aware of an issue causing web links to crash in multiple iOS apps like Safari, Mail, and Messages, and says it is working on a fix that will be released "soon" via a software update.
The bug was the second major bug to affect iOS 9.3 users. The first rendered some older devices unusable due to a problem with Activation Lock, which required customers to enter the information originally used to set up their iPhone or iPad. Apple released a new version of iOS 9.3 on Monday to fix the issue.
Chip orders from Apple for the second quarter of 2016 have been notably slow, according to unnamed sources in the integrated circuit supply chain (via DigiTimes).
Overall, chip orders placed by Apple for Q2 are expected to be only slightly higher than those for Q1, despite the launch of the company's 4-inch iPhone SE and 9.7-inch iPad Pro earlier this month.
First-week sales of Apple's new devices have been disappointing, according to the sources, while chip shipments for the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus for the second quarter of 2016 are likely to be halved from those shipped in the first quarter. According to DigiTimes:
Shipments for the new iPhone SE will be unable to offset the fall in shipments for the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus devices in the second quarter, the sources continued. The shipment target for the SE in the second quarter is four to five million units.
The same sources claim chip orders from Apple are unlikely to return to the previous high levels until after the third quarter of 2016, when its next-generation iPhone, iPad, MacBook and iMac products become available.
Taiwan-based website DigiTimes has a mixed track record at reporting on Apple's upcoming product plans, but its sources within the upstream supply chain have proven reliable in the past.
Back in February, the site claimed Apple would ship 9.8 million iPads in the first quarter of 2016, potentially its lowest quarterly tablet sales since the iPad 2 in mid 2011.
In January, Apple CEO Tim Cook confirmed during the company's financial earnings conference call that iPhone sales would likely decline in the March quarter, marking the first year-over-year decline since the smartphone was released in June 2007.
Apple forecast that its total revenue in Q2 2016 would be between $50 and $53 billion, compared to $58 billion in the year-ago quarter, signaling the company's first year-over-year drop in revenue in thirteen years.
The FBI has agreed to help an Arkansas prosecutor unlock an iPhone and iPod that belong to two teenagers accused of killing a couple, reports the Associated Press. The move comes days after the FBI announced that it had unlocked the San Bernardino shooter's iPhone.
Faulkner County Prosecuting Attorney Cody Hiland said the FBI agreed to the request from his office and the Conway Police Department Wednesday afternoon. A judge on Tuesday agreed to postpone the trial of 18-year-old Hunter Drexler so prosecutors could ask the FBI for help. Drexler's trial was moved from next week to June 27.
Hiland said the FBI agreed to help less than a day after the initial request was made. "We always appreciate their cooperation and willingness to help their local law enforcement partners," Hiland said. Patrick Benca, Drexler's attorney, said he was notified the FBI agreed to help and that he was "not concerned about anything on that phone."
The prosecuting attorney said that they had heard the FBI had been able to unlock the San Bernardino shooter's iPhone and wanted to see if they could help, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Drexler, along with 15-year-old Justin Staton, are accused of killing Robert and Patricia Cogdell last July. The couple raised Staton as their grandson. After the two teens were arrested in Texas and brought to Arkansas shortly after the shootings, prosecutors gained possession of Drexler's iPhone. Last week, Staton's defense attorney was ordered to hand over his iPod, which was in the defense attorney's evidence locker.
Prosecutors argue that Staton had indicated on phone calls that he had used his iPod to communicate about the murders and that further evidence might be on the device. It’s unclear which iPhone and iPod the suspects used and which iOS version they’re running.
An FBI official told the LA Times that the FBI is unlikely use the tool that was used to unlock the San Bernardino shooter's iPhone for criminal prosecutions because the method could be discovered during a trial. Furthermore, the method used to unlock that phone might not work with other phones, according to the official.
“In a criminal case, if the FBI uses a technique, there’s going to be questions about divulging that technique or chain of custody to the defense," Eric Crocker, Electronic Frontier Foundation staff attorney, told the LA Times. "So my instinct is this might be something different.”
Last week, shortly after the Department of Justice said that it discovered a "possible method" for unlocking the San Bernardino shooter's device, it was reported that the FBI enlisted Israeli firm Cellebrite to unlock it.
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.
With the iPhone SE now available in several countries, the first teardown of the device has been conducted by Chipworks. As expected, the device uses a hodgepodge of components sourced from several past iPhones, including the iPhone 5, 6, and 6s, leading Chipworks to say "this is not your typical Apple release."
There are very few new parts, but that hardly means there is no innovation. As is the genius of Apple and its fearless leader, Mr. Cook, it is the combination of all the right parts that make a successful product. Finding that just-right balance of old and new, and at such a low cost, is no easy feat.
The processor inside the iPhone SE is indeed the same A9 processor found in the iPhone 6s, and the part in the iPhone SE Chipworks took apart was labeled with an APL1022 part number from a TSMC facility. It includes SK Hynix memory, which Chipworks says is likely the same 2GB LPDDR4 DRAM module found in the iPhone 6s.
The date codes might actually tell a story: the decapped application processor chip is dated 1535, Aug/Sep last year, so it was sitting in inventory for a while; the memory is 1549, last December; and presumably the whole package-on-package was assembled this year at the end of January.
The NFC chip is the NXP 66V10, the same used in the iPhone 6s, and the 6-axis sensor is from InvenSense and was also used in the iPhone 6s.
The Qualcom MDM9625M modem and the accompanying transceiver were originally found in the iPhone 6, and the Audio ICs, which Chipworks thinks were designed by Cirrus Logic, came from the iPhone 6s.
While many parts were originally from the iPhone 6 or 6s, the touch screen controller components (Broadcom BCM5976 and Texas Instruments 343S0645) were originally used in the iPhone 5s.
There are a few new components in the iPhone SE, including a "338S00170 device," which Chipworks says is "very likely a new Apple/Dialog power management IC," along with a Skyworks SKY77611 power amplifier module, a 16GB Toshiba NAND flash module, an EPCOS D5255 antenna switch module, and an AAC Technologies microphone.
Additional information about the iPhone SE will come out as Chipworks continues on with its teardown and as other companies like iFixit conduct their own device teardowns. The iPhone SE will be available in the United States starting tomorrow, March 31.
When the Apple TV launched, Disney sold (and continues to sell) a $100 Disney Infinity 3.0 Star Wars-themed bundle that included a Disney Infinity Base and controller designed to work with the Disney Infinity 3.0 game on the Apple TV, encouraging people to adopt Disney Infinity 3.0 on the set-top box.
At the time, Disney promised to bring the full Disney Infinity 3.0 Edition console experience to the device, but it appears Disney is reneging on that promise, abandoning development of Disney Infinity 3.0 on the Apple TV.
According to a recent customer service response shared by our sister site TouchArcade, Disney currently has no plans to update the Apple TV version of the Disney Infinity 3.0 app. The response was given to a customer who asked if new Disney Infinity figures would work with the Apple TV.
The team is currently focusing on the traditional gaming platforms. We are always evaluating and making changes, but there are currently no plans for futher updates to the Apple TV version of the game. Please keep an eye out for further news about this, and feel free to contact Support if you have any questions.
Disney Infinity enthusiasts who use the Apple TV app are understandably upset about Disney's decision not to update the game after just four months, as it means development has effectively come to a halt and no new characters will be supported, including new Marvel Battleground figures which some people purchased before learning of the incompatibility issue. It also means Disney has no plans to fix bugs that are currently affecting the tvOS app.
As TouchArcade points out, Disney may have made this decision due to poor app sales and revenue generation on the Apple TV. Games and apps have not proven to be as popular on the new platform as they are on iOS, with some popular Apple TV games even bringing in less than $100 per day.
Disney has updated its Disney Infinity website with a new disclaimer noting not all content is available for PC, Steam, iPhone, iPad, Windows, Amazon, Google Play, and Apple TV. The latest Marvel Battlegrounds figures are compatible only with PlayStation 3 and 4, Wii U, Xbox One, and Xbox 360.
Google today announced the launch of a Cardboard SDK for iOS developers, allowing them to more easily create native iPhone apps and experiences that will work with the Google Cardboard virtual reality viewer. The Cardboard SDK for iOS includes all of the features that are already available in the Android Cardboard SDK.
For those unfamiliar with Google Cardboard, it is a low-cost viewer designed to work with a range of smartphones from Android devices to iOS devices. The iPhone or other smartphone fits into the front of a viewer made from cardboard or another material, bringing virtual and augmented reality experiences to the user through apps.
Google is also debuting VR view, a feature that allows immersive content to be embedded into apps and websites. VR views transform 360 degree VR images or video into an interactive experience that can be viewed on a desktop computer (an example is available in Google's blog post) or with a phone attached to a Cardboard viewer.
Travel apps may include turtle photos, but they're nothing like diving into the open ocean. Real estate websites may include descriptions of the dining room, but it's nothing like actually touring the home. For developers, having immersive elements in their apps and websites can be the difference between meh and magical. That's why we're introducing VR view--a quick and easy way to embed immersive content on Android, iOS and the web.
The Cardboard SDK for iOS and the tools for creating VR views are available starting today.
Biggest design overhaul since iOS 7 with Liquid Glass, plus new Apple Intelligence features and improvements to Messages, Phone, Safari, Shortcuts, and more. Developer beta available now ahead of public beta in July.
Biggest design overhaul since iOS 7 with Liquid Glass, plus new Apple Intelligence features and improvements to Messages, Phone, Safari, Shortcuts, and more. Developer beta available now ahead of public beta in July.
Chip orders from Apple for the second quarter of 2016 have been notably slow, according to unnamed sources in the integrated circuit supply chain (via 
