MacRumors

Apple this evening updated its investor relations page to note that the earnings announcement for the third fiscal quarter (second calendar quarter) of 2016 will take place on Tuesday, July 26.

In Q2 2016, Apple saw its first year-over-year revenue decline since 2003 along with its first ever drop in iPhone sales, and that downward trend is expected to continue into the third quarter of the year.

q32016earnings
During its last earnings call, Apple's guidance included expected Q3 2016 revenue of $41 to $43 billion and gross margin between 37.5 and 38 percent.

The quarterly earnings statement will be released at 1:30 PM Pacific/4:30 PM Eastern, with a conference call to discuss the report taking place at 2:00 PM Pacific/5:00 PM Eastern. MacRumors will provide coverage of both the earnings release and conference call on July 26.

At its recent Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple unveiled an all new "Remote" app for iOS devices, which has been entirely overhauled to make it easier than ever to control a fourth-generation Apple TV with an iPhone.

In the video below, we took a look at the Remote app to give MacRumors readers an early glimpse at what's in store. The new Remote app, which connects to an Apple TV via Bluetooth, mimics the exact layout of the Siri Remote for a navigation experience that's streamlined across different input methods.


When content like movies or music is playing, the Remote app includes a full "Now Playing" view for control purposes, along with a dedicated Menu button and a Siri button. As with the physical Apple TV Remote, navigation through the iOS app is done via touch gestures.

Entering text, like passwords and usernames, is much easier with the iOS Remote app because any text field automatically brings up a keyboard. Full Siri voice commands are supported, as is dictation. Because it includes the same gyroscope and accelerometer in the Siri Remote, an iPhone can be used as a dedicated game controller for playing games on the Apple TV.

The Apple TV Remote app is currently available to developers and can be downloaded through the Apple Developer website. It's not clear when the Apple TV Remote app will be released, but it may be released alongside tvOS 10 and iOS 10 this fall. The developer beta of the app only requires iOS 9.3.2 and tvOS 9.2.1, so there's a possibility it may launch ahead of the new operating systems.

For details on new Apple TV features coming in tvOS 10, make sure to check out our tvOS 10 roundup. Don't miss out on our previous videos, which have covered iOS 10, watchOS 3, and macOS Sierra:

- WWDC 2016 Overview in Seven Minutes
- iOS 10's Overhauled Lockscreen
- The New iOS 10 Photos App
- The New iOS 10 Messages App
- macOS Sierra - Siri
- iOS 10 Hidden Features
- watchOS 3 Overview
- iOS 10's Redesigned Apple Music Experience
- 3D Touch in iOS 10
- The New Home App for Controlling HomeKit Devices
- Everything New in tvOS 10

We've also got roundups for all of the upcoming operating systems, including watchOS 3, macOS Sierra, and iOS 10.

Related Roundup: Apple TV
Buyer's Guide: Apple TV (Don't Buy)

Apple Pay has expanded to an additional trio of parking services and one hotel booking service over the past week.

Parking Panda, an app that allows you to find and reserve parking in advance, was updated last week to allow customers to use Apple Pay.

ParkingPanda
Parking Panda is offering customers a 10 percent discount off purchases made with Apple Pay between now and September 1. The discount is automatically applied after choosing Apple Pay at checkout. Apple Pay customers will also be eligible to win a free month or a free year of parking along with other prizes.

Parking Panda is available at thousands of parking garages, lots, and valets in 40 U.S. cities, including Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, New Orleans, New York City, Philadelphia, San Diego, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. The app can also be used in Toronto, the most populous city in Canada.

Parking Panda is free on the App Store [Direct Link] for iPhone and iPad.

Likewise, PayByPhone has updated its app with Apple Pay support along with location aware imagery, personal reminders, and smart notices.


PayByPhone, used by over 12 million motorists, allows you to find and reserve parking in advance, add more time remotely, and stay up to date about local events and parking-related news. The app is available in over 300 cities globally, such as San Francisco, London, Paris, Geneva, and Vancouver.

PayByPhone is also offering U.S. customers that pay with Apple Pay a chance to automatically win a free month of parking until September 1.

PayByPhone Parking is free on the App Store [Direct Link] for iPhone.

Meanwhile, parking reservation app SpotHero now enables drivers to use Apple Pay to find and pay for parking without creating a SpotHero account. The app can be used at more than 2,500 garages, lots, and valets in 13 major U.S. cities, including Boston, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Washington D.C.

SpotHero is free on the App Store [Direct Link] for iPhone.

Last, last-minute hotel booking app HotelTonight has also been updated to let customers find and book a hotel room using Apple Pay without creating a HotelTonight account. HotelTonight can be used to book hotel rooms up to a week in advance at more than 15,000 hotels in over 500 destinations worldwide.

HotelTonight-Apple-Pay
HotelTonight is offering first-time customers that use Apple Pay $25 off their first $135+ reservation using promo code APPLEPAY25 until September 1. All customers can also redeem promo code TRAVELTUESDAY on any Tuesday through August 30 to get $20, $40 or $100 off bookings of $150+ when using Apple Pay.

HotelTonight is free on the App Store [Direct Link] for iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch.

When making in-app purchases, Apple Pay is compatible with the iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone SE, iPad Air 2, iPad mini 3, iPad mini 4, and both the 9.7-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Pro.

Related Roundup: Apple Pay

Facebook today announced plans to add human curation to its Facebook Events feature on iOS devices, with designated curators set to highlight notable events in a select number of cities.

Facebook Events, for those unfamiliar, is the Facebook feature that allows users to create dedicated Facebook event pages for parties, festivals, and more, and sign up to attend those events. Event pages are a useful way to share event details with a large number of people, including time, location, and information on others who are attending.

According to TechCrunch, iOS users in Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. will see a new "Featured Events" option on the Events section of the app. Some users, described as "highly engaged," will also receive push notifications for interesting events.

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Facebook's curators will cull through each city's top art, entertainment, family, festival, fitness, food & drink, learning, community, music, and sports events, and select a few with the capacity to accept some extra foot traffic.

"You can think about it like a weekend or weekly digest of cool stuff that you can do in your city" Facebook Events product manager Aditya Koolwal tells [TechCrunch].

Curated Featured Events will join existing event suggestions Facebook users receive, which have included events based on interest, past attendance, and friend attendance. Facebook's goal with Featured Events is to surface events early enough to give people time to plan to attend.

Facebook is also enhancing its Events section with new event categories that include things like "Music," "Food," "The Weekend," and more. While Facebook's new Curated Events feature is only available in a limited number of cities, Facebook may consider expanding it in the future should it prove popular.

Dreezy-No-Hard-FeelingsInterscope Records has announced that rising Chicago rapper and songwriter Dreezy's debut full-length album "No Hard Feelings" will be available exclusively on Apple Music in the United States on July 15 before becoming widely available one week later.

"No Hard Feelings" will feature 19 tracks, including singles "Body" ft. Jeremih, which has nearly 13.8 million Apple Music streams, "We Gon Ride" ft. Gucci Mane, and "Close To You" ft. T-Pain. The album is available for pre-order today at iTunes.com/Dreezy.

Apple Music and Beats 1 have had several exclusives since launching last year. Drake's new album "Views" had a similar one-week exclusivity period with Apple Music in April, while Dreezy's single "Close To You" had its "World First" premiere last week on Zane Lowe's Beats 1 radio show. Apple Music was also first to stream Taylor Swift's "1989" album, although without any exclusivity agreement, while Dr. Dre's "The Chronic" has been an Apple Music exclusive since 2015.

Following in the footsteps of a few changes and additions to its social networking features, Twitter today announced that a new photo-enhancing suite of stickers will be coming to iOS and Android users "over the next few weeks." The update will let users place Twitter's custom "rotating sets of stickers" onto any photo -- along with the hundreds of emojis offered on iOS and Android -- to personalize a picture before posting it on Twitter.

twitter-stickers

Image via TechCrunch

Similar to Snapchat, and the enhanced additions coming to Messages, users will be able to place multiple stickers on one photo, resize and rotate them, and show support for a timely cause or big event in entertainment with stickers that will only last for a short period of time.

In addition, stickers will be searchable "in a new, visual spin on the hashtag," letting you click on a sticker in any Tweet and see similar trending pictures related to your photo. To do this, the company said that tapping on any sticker in a picture will reveal a new timeline, "where you can see how people all over the world use that sticker in different ways."

Although no specific release window was given, the company said the rollout for stickers on iOS and Android would be completed over the next few weeks. A version of the sticker service will be headed to Twitter.com as well.

Tag: Twitter

One of Apple's newest apps revealed at WWDC this month was a meditation-enabling Apple Watch app called Breathe that will encourage users to take a break every day to focus on the rhythm of their breathing patterns. In a recent interview with BuzzFeed, Apple’s director of fitness for health technologies, Jay Blahnik, discussed the benefits of "mindfulness" apps like Breathe, and the research done by Apple to find the timing sweet spot that a user should spend on meditation each day.

Structured like the stand goals, and upcoming roll goals, on Apple Watch, Breathe will tap users using haptic feedback with a notification to step back from what they're doing and take a few deep breaths. Blahnik said that both beginner and experienced meditators will benefit from the app's coaching, thanks to the ease with which the Apple Watch integrates into a daily schedule.

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“Just doing some deep breathing can have some great benefits for a lot of people,” whether they’re taking a break from a busy work day or winding down for the day, Jay Blahnik, Apple’s director of fitness for health technologies, told BuzzFeed News. And with an app like Breathe, “it wouldn’t be hard for them to do it, regardless if they were a beginner or were very experienced with having more mindfulness in their day.”

Meditation has become a popular outlet for many people within Silicon Valley, with companies like Google even offering internal courses, like "Search Inside Yourself," to teach workers how to handle stressful emotions, hopefully resulting in more efficient workflow. Apple's new app is poised to provide a simpler version of these mindfulness-focused trends for any Apple Watch wearer.

Like most Apple products and services, Breathe went through a period of thorough testing before it was revealed at WWDC. Blahnik confirmed that the company tested the app with "hundreds" of employees, along with a council of psychology and mindfulness experts, before nailing down what will be arriving in watchOS 3 this fall.


The app can be set for sessions of 1 to 5 minutes, with the company's tests revealing that 7 breaths in the fastest session of 1 minute hit the sweet spot of "the most comfortable rate for most people." This rate can be raised up to 10 breaths or lowered down to 4 breaths for more customizability.

The easy-to-access, low-commitment nature of the feature also turned out to be key. At work, especially, Blahnik said, the prospect of taking “a minute between meetings, to push away from their desks, quiet their mind, relax their bodies, [and] just take deep breaths, seemed to be appealing to a lot of people.”

However, according to a few studies of similar apps that promote tranquility through breathing prompts, there is "little evidence" on the efficacy and reliability of these apps at developing a habit of mindfulness. Because of the potential for Breathe to fail at its goal for some people, psychiatrist Dr. John Torous believes that Apple's biggest hurdle might be those individuals who become frustrated with the app and think they're "not going to benefit from behavioral treatment," and give up on finding other solutions beyond Breathe that might be more effective for them.

You can read the rest of BuzzFeed's report on Breathe, and its potential for impact in the mindfulness app market, right here.

Related Roundup: Apple Watch 11
Buyer's Guide: Apple Watch (Buy Now)

Following a sketchy rumor last week that said Apple is planning to introduce a "Deep Blue" color option for the upcoming iPhone 7, Japanese blog Mac Otakara has clarified to AppleInsider that the new color will actually be a "much darker" variant of space gray that is "close to black, though not quite black."

iPhone-5-vs-5s-space-gray

Black and slate iPhone 5 on left vs. space gray iPhone 5s (Mike Cronin via YouTube)

Monday's indications from Macotakara sources appear to be a clarification from earlier reports that suggested Apple would ditch space gray for a "deep blue" color option. Sources who claim to have seen the next-generation iPhone coloring apparently mistook the darker space gray for a blue shade.

The so-called "new, darker shade" could more closely resemble the look of the "space black" stainless steel Apple Watch, pictured below, which is darker than the "space gray" aluminum Apple Watch Sport. Meanwhile, Apple will reportedly continue to offer the iPhone 7 series in silver, gold, and rose gold color options.

Apple has used different shades of "space gray" and "black and slate" across its iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch 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.

Space-Gray-Apple

Apple's vision of "space gray" has changed over the years (MrHarryT via Reddit)

Apple is expected to announce the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus/Pro in September. The 4.7" and 5.5" smartphones are rumored to feature a thinner iPhone 6s-like design, sans a 3.5mm headphone jack, while each may have a faster Apple A10 processor, improved waterproofing, repositioned antenna bands, and faster LTE and Wi-Fi. A dual-lens camera and 3GB of RAM may be exclusive to the 5.5-inch model.

Related Forum: iPhone

Google is set to launch its own smartphone by the end of the year in an effort to compete more directly with Apple and Samsung devices, according to The Telegraph.

Citing "senior sources" familiar with the matter, the report claims that the company plans to unveil a Google-branded handset that is separate from its Nexus range of phones, which are designed and manufactured through partnerships with the likes of LG and HTC. Google is also said to be in discussions with mobile operators about the release of the phone by the end of 2016.

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The Nexus 6 handset by Motorola, one of Google's manufacturing partners.

If true, the news would signal a significant shift in ambitions for the company's mobile arm, which has historically focused on software development with its Android OS and left handset design largely in the hands of hardware manufacturers.

By contrast, Google's own internal handset division will take full control over "design, manufacturing and software," the newspaper reported. No other details were offered by the sources, while Google declined to comment on the story.

Last month, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said the company was "investing more effort" into phones, although this was interpreted to mean it wanted to work more closely with existing Nexus device makers. Similarly, in April, Recode reported that former president of Motorola Rick Osterloh was returning to Google to take over hardware development on the company's Nexus phones and its OEM partnerships, but no indication was given that an own-branded phone was in the works.

Google's Android OS is used on over 1.4 billion mobile devices globally, but differences in handsets have sometimes seen the company struggle to ensure rollout consistency between software updates.

A Google-branded phone would therefore make sense from a software point of view and allow the company to control the hardware running its OS and let it showcase its other mobile software services.

Such a move however isn't without risk. In April, the European Commission formally charged Google with monopoly abuse, accusing it of using the success of Android to unfairly push its search engine and Chrome browser on users. Not only that, much of the company's mobile service revenue is made through iOS devices, so Apple could potentially make life hard for Google if it felt threatened by its move into mobile hardware design.

Apple helped celebrate equality at the LGBT Pride festival in San Francisco yesterday and thanked employees who registered to take part in the event by gifting them a limited edition rainbow Apple Watch band.

Pride 2016 watch band
Participating staff received the bands with a card from the company explaining the idea behind the Apple Watch accessory. Reddit user 'Sakusuhon' shared the above image of the band and card, which reads:

Apple's first Diversity Network Association, Pride, turns 30 this year and we're thrilled to celebrate this tremendous milestone with you! As recognition for everyone who registered to participate in the Pride event this year we created something special.



This limited-edition band is a symbol of our commitment to equality and we hope you'll wear it with pride.

Apple staff including CEO Tim Cook joined the annual parade on Sunday as a mark of the company's continuing support for equality and diversity, with many employees taking to social media to show off the colorful bands.

Proud to be representing #applepride #sfpride #applewatch #nylonband

A photo posted by @rikiri on



Sadly, there's no indication that Apple plans to include the nylon rainbow bands in its official Watch accessory range.

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.

Related Roundup: Apple Watch 11
Tag: Pride
Buyer's Guide: Apple Watch (Buy Now)

Two images have emerged online this morning allegedly showing the rear cases of an iPhone 7 and 7 Plus leaked from the Chinese supply chain.

The first image posted by French site nowhereelse.fr claims to show the back of the upcoming 4.7-inch iPhone 7 with the expected antenna bands restricted to the edges of the casing, rather than running along the rear.

Alongside the usual microphone and LED flash, it also appears to show a larger protruding camera cut-out, which is consistent with rumors that the device will feature a larger back camera with likely improved CMOS sensor.

iPhone 7 leak
Interestingly, Engadget's take on the same alleged leak cites a couple of claims from its source at Chinese repair shop Rock Fix that we've heard before. One is that the headphone jack is "here to stay" on the 4.7-inch handset, the other is that the iPhone 7 will come in two flavors: a base model to replace the iPhone 6, alongside the expected flagship model.

The first claim comes despite widespread and apparently confirmed rumors indicating that Apple will switch exclusively to Lightning and Bluetooth audio output for wired and wireless headphones.

The second claim appears to be associated with an earlier leaked image from Rock Fix depicting a trio of iPhone 7 and 7 Plus display components that could just as easily be from early prototype stages. Both claims seem unlikely at this late stage in the rumor cycle.

iphone 7 plus leak dual lens
Meanwhile, the alleged shot of an iPhone 7 Plus case depicts the now-familiar pill-shaped camera enclosure, corroborating widely circulated rumors that Apple plans for a superior dual-lens camera to be exclusive to the larger 5.5-inch handset.

In the close-up shown here, the top of the plastic shell enclosing the case also appears to have an unusual opening in the centre. Nowhereelse.fr suggests this could indicate the presence of a sensor or port of some kind, although such an inclusion would be unusual at this location.

Apple is expected to announce the iPhone 7 series in September. The smartphones are also expected to retain iPhone 6s-like designs with faster Apple A10 processors, dustproofing and waterproofing, and faster LTE and Wi-Fi.

Related Forum: iPhone

tvOS, the operating system that runs on the fourth-generation Apple TV, is also set to receive some updates this fall alongside iOS, macOS, and watchOS.

tvOS isn't getting as many changes as these other operating systems, but as can be seen in the video below, there are some important new features being added that make it easier to find content and easier to watch live television.


New in tvOS 10 is Siri's ability to search for movies by topic, bringing up content around a theme. Queries like "Show me high school comedies from the 80s" or "Find me movies about dinosaurs" now work. Siri's also gaining the ability to open live channels directly through a Live Tune-In feature that works when you say something like "Watch CBS News" or "Watch ESPN," and Siri can also manage HomeKit accessories.

At WWDC, Apple mentioned that YouTube search is on the way, allowing users to ask Siri to find cute kitten videos or videos of hamsters eating tiny burritos, but that's actually a feature that's going to be available ahead of the fall release of tvOS.

A new Single Sign-On option for pay TV apps is available in tvOS 10, allowing users to sign in once with their cable credentials to access live cable content available through their cable subscription. Apple plans to introduce a new Remote app for iOS devices that mirrors the layout of the Siri remote, and developers are getting a lot of new APIs to build into their apps.

For the first time, games will be able to require a controller, so more complicated controls will be possible, and there are also APIs for recording and live broadcasting, using HomeKit, and accessing iCloud Photo Library photos.

Other new features in tvOS include a dark mode, a Continuity option for easier text input on the iPhone, automatic app downloads, a "Memories" feature in Photos, and a redesigned Apple Music app.

Not all tvOS features are working in the developer beta now, including Single Sign-On, but Apple will likely add functionality as the beta testing process progresses.

For full details on the new features coming in tvOS 10, make sure to check out our tvOS 10 roundup. Don't miss out on our previous videos, which have covered iOS 10, watchOS 3, and macOS Sierra:

- WWDC 2016 Overview in Seven Minutes
- iOS 10's Overhauled Lockscreen
- The New iOS 10 Photos App
- The New iOS 10 Messages App
- macOS Sierra - Siri
- iOS 10 Hidden Features
- watchOS 3 Overview
- iOS 10's Redesigned Apple Music Experience
- 3D Touch in iOS 10
- The New Home App for Controlling HomeKit Devices

We've also got roundups for all of the upcoming operating systems, including watchOS 3, macOS Sierra, and iOS 10.

Related Roundup: Apple TV
Buyer's Guide: Apple TV (Don't Buy)

macappstoreSome iOS and Mac users are currently unable to access the App Store, Mac App Store, and iTunes Store, according to reports from MacRumors readers and Twitter users.

When attempting to load the App Store on some devices, the Featured and Top Charts section are blank, and some users are reporting receiving "Cannot Connect to iTunes" messages when attempting to use the iTunes Store. App Store updates appear to be functional for some users despite the connectivity issues.

Apple's system status page has not yet been updated to reflect any kind of outage and it is not clear how many users are affected.

Created by Ten One Design, the Blockhead is a simple plug designed to rotate the orientation of the MacBook or iPad Power Adapter so it rests flush against a wall or power strip when it's plugged in.

There are, occasionally, some products that are so simple and intuitive that you look at them and wonder why they didn't already exist -- the Blockhead is one of those products. Made from blue plastic, the Blockhead replaces the snap-in plug portion of the official chargers for Apple's lineup of MacBooks and iPads.

blockheadincorner
There's not a lot to say about the design of the Blockhead. It's similar to the official AC wall adapter that can be snapped out of a MacBook or iPad Power Adapter, but its plugs are oriented in a different direction. Made of an attractive blue ABS plastic instead of white plastic, the Blockhead is otherwise functionally identical to Apple's own power adapter bits.

➜ Click here to read more...

For this week's giveaway, we've teamed up with Plugable to give MacRumors readers a chance to win a thin, light USB-C hub that's perfect for when you need a small hub while on the go.

plugableusbc
The Plugable USBC-HUB3P can deliver power to a MacBook from the MacBook's included charger while also providing three USB ports that can be used with a range of accessories. It's made from a lightweight silver aluminum that matches well with Apple's aesthetic, and it is able to work with both 2015 and 2016 Retina MacBook models. Other USB-C systems, like the Chromebook Pixel 2, are also supported.

plugableusbc2
Measuring in at 9.5 inches long, the USBC-HUB3P fits neatly into a purse or backpack. We gave it a try and while it isn't the most rugged USB-C hub we've seen, it's a good option for travel. With USB 3.0 support, it offers transfer rates of up to 5Gb/s, and it ships with an included 6-inch USB-C cable to plug into the MacBook.


Apple sells its own Digital AV Multiport Adapter for the MacBook, but it's priced at $79.99. For those who don't need an HDMI port or want more USB-A ports, Plugable's solution is more affordably priced at $32 and is available from Amazon.

Plugable is offering 50 of its hubs to MacRumors readers. To enter to win, use the Rafflecopter widget below and enter an email address. Email addresses will be used solely for contact purposes to reach the winner and send the prize.

You can earn additional entries by subscribing to our weekly newsletter, subscribing to our YouTube channel, following us on Twitter, or visiting the MacRumors Facebook page. Due to the complexities of international laws regarding giveaways, only U.S. residents who are 18 years of age or older are eligible to enter.

The contest will run from today (June 24) at 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time through 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time on July 1. The winners will be chosen randomly on July 1 and will be contacted by email. The winners have 48 hours to respond and provide a shipping address before new winners are chosen.

When Apple introduced iOS 10, macOS Sierra, watchOS 3, and tvOS 10 at the 2016 Worldwide Developers Conference, it also announced plans to implement a new technology called Differential Privacy, which helps the company gather data and usage patterns for a large number of users without compromising individual security.

At the time, Apple said Differential Privacy would be used in iOS 10 to collect data to improve QuickType and emoji suggestions, Spotlight deep link suggestions, and Lookup Hints in Notes, and said it would be used in macOS Sierra to improve autocorrect suggestions and Lookup Hints.

emojireplacer
There's been a lot of confusion about differential privacy and what it means for end users, leading Recode to write a piece that clarifies many of the details of differential privacy.

First and foremost, as with all of Apple's data collection, there is an option to opt out of sharing data with the company. Differential data collection is entirely opt in and users can decide whether or not to send data to Apple.

Apple will start collecting data starting in iOS 10, and has not been doing so already, and it also will not use the cloud-stored photos of iOS users to bolster image recognition capabilities in the Photos app.

As for what data is being collected, Apple says that differential privacy will initially be limited to four specific use cases: New words that users add to their local dictionaries, emojis typed by the user (so that Apple can suggest emoji replacements), deep links used inside apps (provided they are marked for public indexing) and lookup hints within notes.

Apple will also continue to do a lot of its predictive work on the device, something it started with the proactive features in iOS 9. This work doesn't tap the cloud for analysis, nor is the data shared using differential privacy.

Apple's deep concern for user privacy has put its services like Siri behind competing services from other companies, but Differential Privacy gives the company a way to collect useful data without compromising the security of its customer base.

As Apple's VP of software engineering Craig Federighi explained at the WWDC keynote, Differential privacy uses hashing, subsampling, and noise injection to enable crowd-sourced learning without simultaneously gathering data on individual people.

Related Forums: iOS 10, macOS Sierra

Apple yesterday announced plans to discontinue the 5-year-old Thunderbolt Display, leaving it unclear if Apple's display business is coming to an end or if another model is in the works for a future release. According to BuzzFeed's John Paczkowski, Apple isn't done with Thunderbolt displays.

In a tweet shared this morning, Paczkowski said he's heard from unspecified sources that a next-generation display will feature an integrated GPU, a possibility that was first bandied about in early June, ahead of WWDC.


A Thunderbolt Display with a built-in graphics card would be able to work with almost any Mac because it would be driven by an internal graphics card rather than the machine it's connected to.

It's believed Apple has not introduced a 5K display to match the 5K iMac because there are no machines that could run it over a single stream cable, a fact that will remain true even in upcoming machines like a rumored Skylake Retina MacBook Pro.

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Paczkowski doesn't include other details about the display Apple has in the works, but rumors have suggested it will feature a resolution of 5120 x 2880 and it's also likely to include USB-C ports that support Thunderbolt 3.

Stock shortages ahead of the Worldwide Developers Conference led to speculation that Apple could refresh the Thunderbolt Display at the event, but that did not end up happening. There is no word on when Apple might release a new display, but with an integrated GPU, it would not have any specific requirements and could theoretically debut at any time.

If a new Thunderbolt Display is planned for 2016, a logical guess at a release date might be in the fall alongside rumored redesigned Retina MacBook Pros.

Related Forum: Mac Accessories

Twitter has confirmed to TechCrunch that all of its first party iOS app users will today begin to see a new location-based feature that aggregates tweets tagged to a specific geographic location. Called "Twitter Location Feeds," the update lets users scroll through tweets and profiles surrounding locations like the headquarters of a business, sporting event, music festival, or an entire city.

Powered by Foursquare, users can jump into any Location Feed they want by first tapping on a tweet to check out more details, then tapping on the location tagged within to see a list of tweets compiled within the area. Once in the feed for any specific location, users can scroll through all tweets posted by users in the area, or specify a media-only category to stick with photos and videos.

twitter update location

Location feeds will unlock the ability for users anywhere to immerse themselves in a place. You could drop into a sporting event, see what people think about a museum, find the favorite dish from a restaurant, check the vibe at a local park, virtually visit a concert, or even become engulfed in a protest.

Instead of browsing a noisy hashtag with tweets from everywhere, you can discover what people on the ground are saying. This ability to immerse yourself in an unfiltered sea of information has always been one of the best parts of Twitter.

Due to its focus on navigation starting from tags in other users' tweets, a lot of the functionality of Location Feeds rides on automatic location tagging, which many users might have turned off. As such, TechCrunch considers that an update with searchable geographic areas is "a sensible next step."

Twitter said that Location Feeds will be rolling out to all iOS users starting today, and that more platforms are planned for the future, but didn't give any specified information on which will be coming next. Today's news follows an update to the social network earlier in the week that expanded its video lengths from 30 to 140 seconds.

Tag: Twitter