MacRumors

Apple will be updating the iOS App Store today to introduce a new Shopping category that will allow iOS users to better find shopping-related apps. According to TechCrunch the Shopping category will be available to users worldwide and will encompass apps that offer shopping, auctions, price comparisons, coupons, product reviews, and more, transitioning them from the existing Lifestyle category to the new less noisy category.

Apple plans to use the Shopping category to highlight apps that support Apple Pay, its mobile payments service. Many apps now include Apple Pay integration, letting users pay for merchandise with a finger on the Touch ID fingerprint button on supported devices.

The new App Store category will include launch with several different collections of shopping apps, including a "Save While You Shop" category that will be offering exclusive discounts from a variety of merchants like Everlane, Zappos, Groupon, and Nordstrom. Nordstrom, for example, will offer a free gift when $100 or more is spent in the app, while Zappos will offer free 1-day shipping.

App Store users should begin seeing the category in the App Store later today, and in the future, it's possible Apple could expand it to the tvOS App Store as well. The tvOS App Store currently only supports two categories, Games and Entertainment, but shopping on the big screen has been a feature that's been touted by Apple.

Popular warehouse chain Sam's Club has started accepting pre-orders for Apple's iPad Pro on its website, and has listed a release date of Friday, November 13 for the device. Sam's Club began advertising the iPad Pro in emails sent out to members this morning.

Sam's Club is accepting pre-orders for the 32 and 128GB Wi-Fi iPad Pro models in Space Gray, Silver, and Gold, but it is not selling the 128GB Wi-Fi + Cellular model. Sam's Club is also selling the device at a slight discount, pricing the two models at $787 for 32GB and $937 for 128GB, compared to Apple's pricing of $799 and $949.

Previous rumors suggested the iPad Pro would launch on Wednesday, November 11, but Friday, November 13 perhaps makes more sense as November 11 is Veterans Day in the United States. Beyond Sam’s Club, an iPad Pro accessory maker has also claimed that Chinese resellers will be receiving iPad Pros on November 11 ahead of a November 13 launch.

Earlier this week, Apple's Eddy Cue spoke at the Dropbox Open conference where he referenced the iPad Pro and said it would be "only a few more days" until the device would be available for purchase. It remains unclear if Apple will begin accepting pre-orders next week or if the iPad Pro will go on sale without a pre-order period.

Pricing on the iPad Pro starts at $799 for the 32GB Wi-Fi only version and goes up to $1,079 for a 128GB Wi-Fi + Cellular model. The Apple Pencil and the Smart Keyboard, its two accessories, are sold separately for $99 and $169, respectively.

Update: As of 2 p.m. Pacific Time on Friday, Sam's Club is sold out of iPad Pro pre-orders.

Update 2: MacMall is also accepting pre-orders for the iPad Pro, but the site says orders won't ship for nine days, which would have orders arriving after the prospective November 11 or November 13 launch date. The device is estimated to be in stock at MacMall on November 15.

Dutch developer jvanakker has hacked the new Apple TV to run a native tvOS web browser using a private API based on Apple's UIWebView class, sharing the code on GitHub as a fork of developer Steven Troughton-Smith's tvOSBrowser project. The demo video below shows Apple's website running on the fourth-generation box.

The simplistic tvOS web browser allows you to scroll through pages with the Siri Remote, and pressing the center of the touch surface brings up a cursor for clicking. Pressing the Menu button returns you to the previous page, while the Play/Pause button allows you to input URLs, according to GitHub.

Apple does not allow Apple TV apps to have UIWebViews, so this web browser would not be approved on the tvOS App Store, but the project is a good proof of concept. Apple TV users interested in testing the web browser can follow iDownloadBlog's guide to sideload the app using Xcode and modify a tvOS file to build it successfully.

Earlier this week, it was discovered that tvOS also includes support for iOS-like folders.

According to a recent report from Taiwan's Commercial Times, via EE Times and a separate research report from KGI Securities' Ming-Chi Kuo, Taiwan-based TSMC may have won sole production rights on the A10 chip slated for the next-generation iPhone 7.

This is in contrast to the split production of the A9 processor between Samsung and TSMC featured in the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus. Apple's decision to revert back to TSMC as a single supplier, as was seen in A8 chip production, could be motivated by advanced device packaging techniques offered by TSMC that may not have equivalents in Samsung's packaging offerings.

The Commercial Times report mentions TSMC's integrated fan-out wafer-level packaging (InFO WLP) technology as one of the key inclusions in the production contract. InFO WLP is one of many competing 3D IC technologies that promise higher levels of component integration in a single package with better electrical characteristics.

Among those improvements is the possibility for higher-width memory buses that support lower-power operation necessary for mobile devices, which for consumers means better performance and efficiency. 3D IC technologies are just beginning to emerge in the consumer space, with AMD's use of High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) in its Fiji XT line of discrete graphics cards being one of the first implementations.

According to a paper abstract from TSMC engineers, InFO WLP also allows for better thermal performance as well as superior performance for radio frequency (RF) components such as cellular modems. We reported last year about Apple hiring more engineers to potentially bring RF component development in house, so this packaging technology could serve as additional motivation to Apple for packaging in the future. Even if Samsung could offer Apple a comparable technology, the challenges of verifying a design on two new manufacturing flows may be a motivating factor for Apple to stick with one supplier for its next processor.

In the near term, the thermal advantages and potential increased memory bandwidth are the more immediate sources of improvement for Apple's potential next chip. Many 3D IC technologies have seen slow adoption due to increased costs and processing steps, but the simpler InFO WLP technology offers an easier, cheaper entry point for Apple, which also has the luxury of uncommonly high margins on its devices.

TSMC's InFO WLP differs from many competing 3D IC solutions in that it does not require an additional silicon interposer along with the existing package substrate used for component integration. Though they do not feature active components, silicon interposers are made on silicon wafers just like the application processors featured in mobile devices, making them a costly addition to the device assembly.

InFO WLP allows multiple flip chip components to be placed side-by-side on a package substrate resembling a traditional assembly, but with the ability to interconnect to one another through the package substrate. This is in contrast to traditional methods which feature stacked packages (package on package, or PoP) interconnected with tiny wires. As mobile memory technologies advance, with LPDDR4 being the latest iteration, electrical signaling becomes an increasing technological challenge which begins to make 3D IC technologies more attractive for enhanced performance.

The list of included components would not be limited to memory, however, so future device teardowns will be interesting as mobile devices begin to include these technologies. More information on TSMC's packaging technologies can be accessed via this PDF.

One of Apple's recent hires is Rónán Ó Braonáin, who previously served as Director of Engineering at Reviver, a company that makes digital license plates. Braonáin joined the company in August, and as seen on his LinkedIn page, he's working on Apple Special Projects as a "Secret Agent." Presumably that means he's part of the team working on Project Titan, the codename for the Apple Car.

The profile, discovered by Electrek.co, says Braonáin led the Reviver engineering team for five months. Before that, he worked at Vision Fleet, building fleet management software to read data from electric vehicles, and prior to that, he was a software engineer at BMW working on connected car apps.

Reviver has produced Slate, a product dubbed "The World's First Digital License Plate." The Slate is a connected plate that's able to do things like monitor vehicle location and maintenance records and digitally send payments for tolls and parking fees. It also alleviates the need for physical stickers and manual registration processes.

Given Braonáin's short time at Reviver, it's not clear if Apple hired him for the work he did on digital license plate technology, but it's possible it's something Apple is considering for the Apple Car.

Braonáin is just one of dozens of hires with car-related expertise Apple has made in recent months. Apple has been hiring employees from companies like Chrysler, Tesla, NVIDIA, Volkswagen, and Ford, along with researchers who have expertise in autonomous vehicles and connected car systems.

Development on the Apple Car has sped up as of September of 2015, when the project reportedly received a "committed" label. Apple is said to be targeting a 2019 completion date for the project and will make additional hires in the coming months and years as work on the car continues.

Apple today seeded the second beta of OS X 10.11.2 El Capitan to public beta testers, two days after releasing the second beta to developers and a week after seeding the first OS X 10.11.2 public beta. Today's update comes two weeks after the public launch of OS X El Capitan 10.11.1.

The second OS X 10.11.2 beta is available through the Software Update mechanism in the Mac App Store to those who are enrolled in Apple's beta testing program. Those wishing to join the program can sign up on Apple's beta testing website.

The first OS X 10.11.2 beta did not include any outward-facing changes, but it likely includes bug fixes, security enhancements, and performance improvements to address issues discovered since the release of OS X 10.11.1. Apple's release notes for the initial developer beta asked testers to focus on Graphics, Wi-Fi, Calendar, USB, Notes, Photos, and Spotlight.

Apple has placed LCD display driver orders with touchscreen supplier Synaptics for its next-generation iPhones, indicating the Cupertino-based company's in-house development of touch and display driver integration (TDDI) chips may have fallen behind schedule, according to Taiwanese website DigiTimes.

Synaptics acquired Renesas SP Drivers, reportedly the sole supplier of LCD driver ICs for iPhones, in September 2014 in an effort to maintain orders from Apple, and for now it appears the iPhone maker will remain one of its customers. The supplier also works with Google, HTC, Microsoft, Samsung, Sony and other smartphone makers.

Apple previously recruited senior Renesas engineers to internally develop TDDI chips with Touch ID integrated into the display. The single-chip solution could allow for the Home button to be eliminated on future iOS devices, but Apple ordering regular display drivers from Synaptics indicates the technology may not be ready for the iPhone 7.

Apple has filed multiple patents for displays with integrated Touch ID and trackpad capabilities over the past few years, and the iPhone 7 lineup is due for a significant redesign, but it remains too early to predict whether Apple will ever remove its iconic Home button on future iPhones.

In March, Synaptics announced the first TDDI single-chip solutions for smartphones and tablets, allowing for thinner and brighter displays with best-in-class capacitive touch performance. The reduced number of components, fewer lamination steps and increased manufacturing yield of TDDI chips also lowers production costs.

Popular retailer Walgreens today announced that its Balance Rewards loyalty program can now be linked with Apple Pay and used by its customers across the country. The partnership will allow Apple Pay users to link their Balance Rewards card with the mobile payments service so they can earn and redeem loyalty points without having to scan their physical Walgreens card. Following Kohl's launch of Apple Pay support for its store-branded credit card, Walgreens is the first retailer to support a loyalty rewards program within Apple Pay.

“We’re excited to be the first to provide our customers with increased ease of access to their Balance Rewards account and information when using Apple Pay,” said Sona Chawla, president of digital and chief marketing officer for Walgreens. “This offering supports our commitment to removing friction and enabling a simple and convenient customer experience.”

Users simply need to add their Balance Rewards card into the Wallet app, going through the same process as adding a traditional credit or debit card, to be able to use the new feature at Walgreens on an iPhone and Apple Watch. The announcement comes just over a week after NFC abilities were discovered alongside Balance Rewards cards in the Wallet app, hinting at incoming loyalty rewards support from Walgreens.

Developer Steve Troughton-Smith has explored the code and found that HeadBoard, tvOS' UI, includes support for folders. Yesterday, Apple seeded the first beta of tvOS 9.1 to developers, the first software update to tvOS 9.0.

Folders on tvOS currently work in a similar way to iOS, notes Troughton-Smith. A user would just have to drag one app over the other to create a folder. Users would also have the ability to rename folders. Troughton-Smith was able to activate the folders using the LLDB software debugger. The folders appear to use a 3 x 3 layout and sit alongside apps on the Apple TV's home screen, just like folders do in iOS.

In recent days, Apple has been updating the Apple TV's new App Store with Top Charts and Categories for better discoverability. However, those updates were server-side updates that didn't require users to update their software. Folder support would require a software update, but it's unclear which software update Apple would enable it in. Last year, iOS 8 code pointed to split-screen multitasking, but the feature didn't become official until iOS 9 almost a year alter.

Correction: An earlier version of this story wrongly indicated that Steve Troughton-Smith had found the code for tvOS folders in tvOS 9.1. He found the code in the public, released tvOS 9.0.