MacRumors

Eddy Cue, Apple's SVP of Internet Services, spoke at Code Conference tonight alongside Planet of the Apps producer Ben Silverman to preview the show and debut the first trailer from the program. Cue and Silverman also teased several unique aspects of the show, including a dedicated app that allows you to watch the show in a non-linear format.

The format of the show is similar to that of fellow talent-based reality shows The Voice and Shark Tank. Aspiring app developers descend down an escalator while pitching four judges on their idea. By the time they get to the bottom, the judges must swipe left or right to demonstrate whether they're interested. If multiple judges swipe right on a contestant, the contestant gets to choose who they want to pair with. Once paired, the developer goes through an incubator period, getting advise from developers at big companies like Uber, until it's ready enough to pitch to Lightspeed Venture Partners for funding.

Silverman and Cue say that the show will debut a new episode every week starting in the Spring, rather than dumping the entire season on a single date, as Netflix tends to do. The show will also have a dedicated app that'll allow viewers to watch the show in a non-linear format. Within the app, people will have the opportunity to pause the linear version of the show to access unused footage of specific developers.

Apple wasn't the first choice for the show, according to Silverman. The project was initially shopped around to the big networks. The show drew major interest, but Will.I.Am brought up the show to Jimmy Iovine while at a meeting with Apple in Los Angeles. Apple was interested, and Silverman and the rest of the producers slowed down the process with the networks to give Apple a chance at securing it for Apple Music.

When asked why a TV show about apps is debuting on Apple Music, Cue says that he believes video could a differentiator for the service. "We think we have an opportunity to do something unique with Apple Music and shows," Cue said. "The things we're doing aren't being done by anyone else. If we wanted to do something everyone else was doing, we might be better off buying something or whatever." He later clarified that shows on Apple Music don't have to be about music, similar to how MTV programming isn't always about music.

Cue says Apple is just starting out with original content, but that it wants to do more. When asked whether it could see itself becoming Netflix, Cue said Apple wants to see where it can go with its own strategy. Cue later emphasized that Apple doesn't just want to buy shows, denying that Apple was ever interested in purchasing The Grand Tour. Instead, Apple only wants to make shows that are unique and "create culture."

Silverman says that Apple's influence is the only reason he thinks Planet of the Apps could work, pointing out that developers and stars, like judges Jessica Alba and Gwyneth Paltrow, might not have signed onto the show if Apple had not been producing the show.

Planet of the Apps will not have ads. Cue says he's unsure if future Apple productions will have ads, but that he doesn't know of many people who actually watch ads when they're watching programming. Cue says a lot of people either watch shows on streaming services or purchase or rent them from places like iTunes, bypassing the ads of regular TV.

Cue also talked about the future of TV. When asked what the big roadblock for Apple was when it was planning its rumored TV service, Cue said discoverability and the complexity of the TV industry. Cue said the TV app is one way to help customers find the content they want to watch without jumping into various services. Cue also says industries are reticent to change, and that people in the industry aren't yet moving in the same direction, making it difficult for Apple to put what it wants to do together. However, Cue says Apple is not interested in pursuing a skinny bundle. In 2015, the CEOs of Time Warner and CBS said Apple was working on a "forward-thinking" streaming service.

Update: Apple also debuted a new, longer trailer for Carpool Karaoke at the Code Conference.

Over the weekend, Verizon announced a new unlimited data plan for $80 per month, designed to rival T-Mobile's ONE data plan that provides unlimited data for $70 per month.

To set itself apart from T-Mobile, Verizon promised 10GB of tethering data per month and full HD video streaming, two offers that have spurred T-Mobile to offer matching benefits.

As of this afternoon, T-Mobile CEO John Legere has announced that T-Mobile ONE subscribers will be able to stream HD video and will get 10GB of high-speed data at no extra charge. Legere has also announced a promotion that will see T-Mobile offering customers two lines with unlimited data for $100 per month, a $20 discount off of the standard $120 price point and $40 cheaper than two lines on Verizon's new unlimited plan.

Prior to Verizon's announcement, the T-Mobile ONE plan offered unlimited hotspot data that was limited to 2G speeds, with an option to pay for 5GB of data for an additional $15 per month.

As for video, the ONE plan originally limited subscribers to 480p "optimized" video provided for free through its Binge On program, but users will now be able to stream Binge On content in a higher resolution by default. T-Mobile has not given specific details on the new resolution that'll be available to ONE subscribers, but "HD" likely equates to 720p.

The addition of 10GB LTE tethering data and better quality video streaming is a huge win for T-Mobile customers, and the new additions once again make T-Mobile the more attractive carrier, with the company offering better features for consumers at a lower price.

With Verizon now offering an unlimited data plan, all four of the major carriers in the United States have unlimited data offerings, a major change from a few years ago when AT&T and Verizon eliminated unlimited data. T-Mobile's "Un-carrier" initiatives over the past few years have sparked some major changes to the mobile wireless market, resulting in significant competition that's brought positive changes for subscribers.

For a single person, T-Mobile's ONE plan is priced at $70 per month, while Verizon charges $65 plus a $20 device fee. Sprint charges $55 per month for a single subscriber, and AT&T's unlimited plan is only available to AT&T U-verse or DirecTV subscribers.

The new T-Mobile ONE benefits will be available to T-Mobile subscribers starting on Friday, February 17.

Apple's stock set a new all-time high closing price of $133.29 today, eclipsing a previous record of $133 set on February 23, 2015. The stock still remains around $1 off its true all-time high of $134.54 set on April 28, 2015.

Apple's stock has been steadily rising over the past four months, particularly since the company reported record-breaking earnings results, including revenue of $78.4 billion and net quarterly profit of $17.9 billion, in late January. The stock rose over $7 in a single day following the January 31 results.

Apple analyst Brian White of investment firm Drexel Hamilton has persistently said AAPL remains "one of the most underappreciated stocks in the world," and his target price for the stock is $185. Steven Milunovich of UBS and some other analysts have also said the stock is undervalued in recent weeks.

Apple's stock has rebounded significantly since dropping to a 52-week low of $89.47 last May. The price was likely impacted by Apple's comparably lackluster 2016, which marked the company's first year-over-year decline in annual revenue since 2001 after 51 consecutive quarters of uninterrupted sales growth.

Apple is the world's most valuable company with a market capitalization approaching $700 billion.

Around the time former Apple CEO Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1997, the company considered building an "Apple Cafe," a fanciful, futuristic cybercafe where people could gather to eat, do business, and use Apple computers. The idea was created in partnership with Mega Bytes, with Apple planning to license its name and brand.

Former Disney Imagineer and Landmark Entertainment Group founder Tony Christopher was tasked with coming up with a design for the concept, and in a new interview with Fast Company, he shared images of what the cafe might have looked like and the story behind its conceptualization.

Jobs was reportedly involved in the design process, choosing Christopher's team because of their work creating unique retail spaces. Jobs wanted a way for Apple to connect to customers, which led to the idea of a cafe equipped with Apple products. A computer was at every table, where people could do things like order food, watch movies, surf the web, design web pages, and play video games.

A predecessor to the Apple retail stores we know today, the cafe was also meant to sell Apple products to consumers. The images don't resemble the clean, simple design of Apple Stores today, but the central idea - connecting with customers - inspired both the cafe and Apple's eventual line of retail stores.

The interior design was very high tech, and we worked on it for about six months. I think we were trying to create sort of a modern-but-futuristic look, which is different than the immersive theme park stuff we do: castles and dinosaurs. I remember the designers we put on it were the high-tech, future-thinking guys. We understood that we were dealing with a computer, which was a future technology not a historic technology, and the Apple Cafe had to reflect that.

Apple's original plan was to build a flagship Apple Cafe in Los Angeles and then expand them around the world. Apple was far enough along in the design process that there was a website promoting the Apple Cafe, and planned openings in Paris, London, New York, Tokyo, and Sydney, but the stores never materialized.

While Christopher says the idea was sidelined in favor of Jobs' plan for an "Apple Store," press information released by Apple at the time said Apple's business partners had pulled back. From 1997:

"We think it's a great project, and we'd like to move forward," said a spokeswoman for Landmark Entertainment, which was to design the cafes. Spokespeople for Mega Bytes International, a U.K-based real estate company, could not be reached for comment.

The Apple spokeswoman said the concept of launching the cafes remains a possibility down the road. "If somebody approaches us again, we'll be happy to consider it," she said. "It just didn't work out with this group in particular."

The first Apple Store eventually opened in 2001 under the leadership of Ron Johnson. Over the last 16 years, Apple Stores have expanded to more than 20 countries, with Apple operating 491 stores around the world.

Apple this morning shared two new iPhone ads on its YouTube channel, focused on highlighting the Portrait Mode feature available on the iPhone 7 Plus. Each 15 second ad explains how Portrait Mode works through blurring the background of a photograph to make a subject stand out.

The ads include examples of images taken with Portrait Mode compared to images taken without Portrait Mode to make the differences clear. The first ad features a dog in front of trees and the second features a child in a creek.

Introduced in iOS 10.1, Portrait mode uses a shallow depth of field to make portrait photos "pop," mimicking a high-end DSLR. The feature takes advantage of the 56mm telephoto lens included in the iPhone 7 Plus, using Apple's image signal processor to scan a scene and machine learning techniques to recognize people and other objects meant to be in the foreground.

A depth map of the image from the two cameras in the iPhone is used to keep people in focus while applying an artistic blur to the background, resulting in an image that's normally not possible on a smartphone.

The two new ads follow a revamped "Shot on iPhone" ad campaign that Apple recently launched, which highlights a series of photographs all taken on a single night to promote the camera features in the iPhone 7 and the iPhone 7 Plus.

The so-called "iPhone 8" will adopt a higher-cost stacked logic board design to support longer battery life, according to KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.

Kuo said the stacked logic board, also known as a "substrate-like PCB mainboard," will result in the "iPhone 8" with an OLED display having similar dimensions to a 4.7-inch iPhone, yet comparable battery life to a 5.5-inch iPhone. He expects the device to have around a 2,700 mAh L-shaped two-cell battery pack.

As battery material tech isn’t likely to see major breakthroughs in the next 3-5 years, mainboard area can only be reduced via stacked SLP, which makes space for larger battery and extended usage time. Thanks to stacked SLP, we expect the OLED iPhone to have similar dimensions to a 4.7” TFT-LCD iPhone, and have comparable battery capacity (equipped with around 2,700 mAh L-shaped 2-cell battery pack) to a 5.5” TFT-LCD iPhone. The battery life of the OLED iPhone could be better than that of the 5.5” TFT-LCD model as OLED panels are more energy-efficient than their TFT-LCD counterparts.

Kuo added that the battery life of "iPhone 8" with an OLED display could be better than that of a 5.5" model with a traditional LCD display, as OLED panels are more energy-efficient than their LCD counterparts. For comparison, the iPhone 7 has a 1,960 mAh battery and the iPhone 7 Plus has a 2,900 mAh battery.

Apple recently became listed as a member of the Wireless Power Consortium, committed to the open development of the Qi wireless charging standard. The listing was brought to our attention by IHS Technology.

Apple, which has since confirmed it is a member, has become one of over 200 companies that belong to the consortium, including Samsung, LG, HTC, Qualcomm, Verizon, ConvenientPower, Aircharge, Dell, Canon, Sony, ST Microelectronics, Toshiba, Texas Instruments, Philips, Panasonic, Bosch, Nokia, and Huawei.

Qi is the leading wireless charging standard, used by more than 200 companies in products ranging from smartphones to cordless kitchen appliances. Samsung's latest Galaxy smartphones, for example, feature Qi-based wireless charging which requires placing the device on one of its "Fast Charge" stands.

Qi, pronounced "chee," is capable of scaling from less than 1 watt to more than 2,000 watts of power, making the standard more than adequate enough for charging any smartphone. With Qi's latest Quick Charge technology, a five-minute charge can provide a smartphone with up to five hours of battery life.

The so-called "iPhone 8" is widely rumored to include wireless charging, so Apple's participation in the consortium is perhaps unsurprising. Moreover, there is increasing evidence to suggest the "iPhone 8" may use inductive technology, which would require a charging puck or pad, rather than long-range charging.

Luxshare is also a member of the Wireless Power Consortium, which is notable given a recent rumor claiming the "iPhone 8" will have a separate wireless charger based on technology from the Chinese company. Luxshare was rumored to be a supplier of wireless charging coils for the Apple Watch charger.

In 2015, the Apple Watch was found to be compliant with the Qi wireless charging standard, but Apple did not submit it for interoperability testing. However, this does not guarantee that Apple will use the Qi standard for future iPhones, but its membership does show its interest in the technology.

Over the course of the last year, there has been ongoing speculation that wireless charging company Energous has inked a deal with Apple to potentially provide wireless charging technology for the iPhone 8, but patents and other evidence suggest Apple may pursue its own in-house inductive charging solutions instead.

Update: Apple confirmed that it has joined the Wireless Power Consortium in a statement to Business Insider.

Apple is an active member of many standards development organizations, as both a leader and contributor. Apple is joining the Wireless Power Consortium to be able to participate and contribute ideas to the open, collaborative development of future wireless charging standards. We look forward to working together with the WPC and its members.

Apple said it "looks forward to working together" with the other members to help further the "development of future wireless charging standards."

A group of Australia's biggest banks have again applied to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) in a bid to negotiate with Apple over Apple Pay. The banks -- including Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, National Australia Bank, and Westpac -- today announced that they have "narrowed" their application with the ACCC to focus on gaining open access to the NFC function integral to Apple Pay.

The new application echoes the banks' original, filed last July, which also included gaining access to the NFC-based mobile payments software in iPhones. Apple currently only allows its own mobile payment system to access the NFC-hardware in its iPhone devices, which banks argue is an anti-competitive restriction that hampers consumer choice. The banks say that while Apple has a "stranglehold" on this technology, no actual competition can take place in the mobile wallet marketplace.

Open access to the NFC function on iPhone is required to enable real choice and real competition for consumers, and to facilitate innovation and investment in the digital wallets available to Australians. Without open NFC access on iPhone, no genuine competition in the provision of mobile wallets is possible and Apple will have a stranglehold on this strategically important future market.

Previously, the coalition of banks also sought to challenge Apple on Apple Pay due to the service's fees. In the new application, the banks decided to eliminate arguments over fees and any other items "the ACCC considered may lead to a public detriment." Prior to the new application, the ACCC had denied the banks' request to negotiate over Apple pay two times last year.

“The applicants are ready, willing, and able to participate in Apple Pay, alongside being able to offer their customers their own mobile wallet products,” payments specialist and spokesperson on behalf of the applicants, Lance Blockley, said.

“This application has always been about consumer choice, and allowing competition between the makers of mobile wallets to offer the best products and features they can to determine which mobile wallet consumers will use. The applicants want to put up their digital offerings head to head with Apple Pay, and let the market and individual consumers decide which best suits their needs.

According to the banks, full access to NFC on iPhone devices "would enable the delivery of substantial public benefits to Australian consumers," across a variety of categories other than mobile payments, including loyalty programs, member security, and other NFC-related cases. Because of these benefits, the banks said they they "have again been supported by nearly all of Australia's leading retailers."

Last week, Apple responded to the Australian banks' continued obstruction of Apple Pay by saying it was damaging to consumers and small business alike, ultimately referring to their request for access to NFC as a potentially hazardous "Trojan horse" scenario. In today's applications, the banks referred to Apple's comments as a "conspiracy theory" and dismissed it as "fantasy."

The applicants flatly reject Apple’s unsupported assertions that the application is about an objection to the fees that Apple wishes to impose, rather than NFC access. Apple’s conspiracy theories about “Trojan horse fees” are similarly dismissed by the applicants as fantasy.

According to Blockley, who spoke on behalf of the banks, the NFC-targeted application is not an attempt to delay Apple Pay's wider support in Australia as it would be offered alongside other mobile wallets -- similar to how Android supports open access to the NFC function. "Any delay or frustration will be as a result of Apple refusing to negotiate," Blockley said.