MacRumors

Apple today seeded the first beta of iOS 8.4 to registered developers for testing purposes, just five days after releasing iOS 8.3 to the public. The beta, build 12H4074d, is available for download from the iOS Developer Center, alongside the Xcode 6.4 beta.

iOS 8.4 introduces a newly-revamped Music app, which includes a new design that shows pictures of artists in the Artists view and offers personalized playlists. It also offers a new MiniPlayer, a redesigned look for "Now Playing," global search capabilities that make it easier to search from anywhere within the Music app, and a streamlined design for iTunes Radio to improve music discovery.

The iOS 8.4 Beta includes an early preview of the the all-new Music app. With powerful features and an elegant new look, enjoying your music is easier than ever. This preview provides a sneak peek into what we’ve been working on, and what’s to come — the music is just getting started.

All-New Design. Music app has a beautiful new design that makes exploring your music collection easier and more fun. Personalize playlists by adding your own image and description. Enjoy stunning pictures of your favorite artists in the Artists view. Start playing an album right from the album list. The music you love is never more than a tap away.

Recently Added. Albums and playlists you’ve recently added are now at the top of your library, making it effortless to find something new to play. Simply tap play on the artwork to listen.

Streamlined iTunes Radio. Discovering music with iTunes Radio is easier than ever. You can now quickly return to your favorite stations in Recently Played. Choose from a selection of hand-curated stations in Featured Stations, or start a new one from your favorite artist or song.

New MiniPlayer. With the new MiniPlayer, you can see what’s playing and control playback while browsing your music collection. To open Now Playing, just tap on the MiniPlayer.

Improved Now Playing. Now Playing has a stunning new design that showcases your album artwork the way it was meant to be. In addition, you can begin wirelessly streaming your music using AirPlay without leaving Now Playing.

Up Next. It’s now simple to find out which songs from your library will play next — just tap the Up Next icon in Now Playing. You can even reorder, add, or skip songs whenever you like.

Global Search. You can now search from anywhere in the Music app — just tap the magnifying glass. Search results are conveniently organized to help you quickly find that perfect song. You can even start an iTunes Radio station right from Search.

According to today's release notes, there are quite a few known issues with the new Music app in the iOS 8.4 beta, so users should be aware of the possible bugs before downloading the update. For example, using Siri to control iTunes Radio does not work, nor does AirPlay streaming. Station sharing for iTunes Radio is not available, it's not possible to start a station from a song in Now Playing, and the Music app may quit unexpectedly when deleting a playlist or rotating the device to landscape orientation, among other issues.

iOS 8.4 follows hot on the heels of iOS 8.3, which introduced new diversified emoji, a revamped emoji picker, Wireless CarPlay, and more. iOS 8.4 and the new Music app come ahead of Apple's new streaming music service, rumored to be debuting in June at the Worldwide Developers Conference. Apple's upcoming streaming music service, said to be similar to its existing Beats music service with a rename and a focus on exclusive content, may be integrated into this new Music app

Over the weekend, MacRumors reader Andrew Turko sent an email to Apple CEO Tim Cook sharing his thoughts on the launch of the Apple Watch and its limitation to online orders only, and he received a response from Apple's executive team that sheds some light on Apple's concern over its launch plans and the potential for Apple Watch devices to ship out ahead of their prospective shipping dates.

Many people have been concerned with the long wait times for the Apple Watch, which saw shipping estimates slip for many models less than an hour after it became available for pre-order. All models sold out in less than six hours, and orders placed today won't ship for months. There are a lot of buyers who are facing delivery times than span into June, July, and August, but Apple believes that some of these orders could ship out earlier than their estimated shipping dates.

The Apple executive team member that spoke to Andrew referenced long wait times for earlier devices like the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, noting that shipping estimates were often much longer than actual wait times and suggesting that the same thing might happen with the Apple Watch.

[Apple] said that June preorders will most likely ship sooner than June. Of course he didn't make any promises, but that's the reason Apple is announcing such an extended ship date after all - to avoid disappointment through false guarantees.

Andrew's email focused on Apple's decision to advertise April 24th as the Apple Watch launch day despite the fact that it won't be purchasable in store on that date, a point that stood out to both Apple's executive team and Tim Cook, who personally read the email.

"I think it'd be silly not to believe that there will be queues lined up around the globe on launch day if the "online exclusive" information regarding the (false) advertisement of a launch day isn't spread soon and fast."

The email echoed some of the problems Apple executives are debating, and Andrew was told the discussion over in-store stock on launch day and the advertisement of the 4/24 launch date for the Apple Watch are being considered by Apple with "great concern." Apple said it doesn't want people lining up at stores if there's no stock available to purchase.

Due to supply constraints and the desire to provide the best purchasing experience for customers, Apple has so far decided that all Apple Watch orders must be placed online. There will be no walk-in Apple Watch purchases available on April 24, unless the company's plans change. Andrew was told Apple's plans are not final, but it is unclear if Apple would be able to sell Apple Watch units in-store on launch day given the significant supply issues.

The executive Andrew spoke with said Apple "cares deeply" about the launch experience and hopes to improve the way people wait in line through the new Apple Watch reservation system. Online-only reservations are new territory for Apple in the United States, so it's not out of the realm of possibility that the company could revert back to traditional sales methods if its Apple Watch sales experiment does not work out.

Andrew's full email can be read on the MacRumors forums, as can more detail on the response that he received from Apple.

While the terms of the Apple-HBO partnership behind the launch of the HBO NOW streaming TV service on Apple TV last month have not been disclosed, Re/code reports that some Apple TV content providers, including Netflix, Hulu Plus and MLB.TV, provide Apple with 15% of revenue generated from monthly fees for subscribers that sign up through the set-top box.

Apple collects 30% of revenue generated from the sale of iPhone, iPad and iPod touch apps, including in-app purchases, so the commission for Apple TV apps is half the amount developers are forced to hand over through the App Store. While the difference does not make a difference for consumers, the lower cut could make Apple TV a more attractive platform for HBO and other cable channels.

"But it’s even more interesting to think about Apple’s tiers of fees as we enter a world where lots of people are going to be selling Web video subscription products via platforms like Apple’s. Whether Apple is charging 15 percent or 30 percent a month, it’s giving distributors a much better deal than the 50 percent that pay TV providers usually charge premium networks like HBO. That makes the platform even more enticing to cable channels that are thinking about stepping outside of the traditional pay TV bundle — and it puts more pressure on the cable guys to sweeten the deals they already offer."

The report adds that HBO is in negotiations to reach HBO NOW distribution deals with its existing pay TV distributors, enabling them to sell the service to their existing subscribers as an add-on. HBO is said to already have a deal in place with Cablevision and is reportedly in talks with Cox and Verizon as well. HBO NOW is exclusive to the Apple TV among streaming boxes for three months, at which point it should expand to other devices and platforms.

Ahead of last Friday's launch of the new Retina MacBook, we saw several early benchmarks for the entry-level notebook running a 1.1 GHz Intel Core M processor, putting CPU performance for the new machine roughly on par with the 2011 MacBook Air according to Geekbench.

With the machines now available for purchase, we're starting to see Geekbench results for the mid-range 1.2 GHz processor, revealing a significant performance boost over the low-end chip for multi-core benchmarks, but less so for single-core testing.

It will take a little while for Geekbench results to firm up as the machines work through their early housekeeping tasks, but the best results we're seeing so far for the 1.2 GHz model are approaching 2600 on 64-bit single-core tests and over 5300 on multi-core tests. That performance compares to roughly 2400/4450 for the 1.1 GHz model, meaning that the mid-range model seems to be showing performance improvements at least in line with the 9 percent increase in CPU frequency. Multi-core performance in particular seems to be seeing a nice bump with the faster chip.

These scores for the 1.2 GHz Retina MacBook are roughly in the same range as the low-end models of the previous-generation Early 2014 MacBook Air, despite the much lower power consumption that has enabled Apple to build an ultra-thin fanless design.

In addition to the 1.1 GHz and 1.2 GHz chip options, Apple is also offering a 1.3 GHz processor as a build-to-order option. We have, however, yet to see any Geekbench results for these chips, and shipping estimates for machines with these chips were at 3-4 weeks when Apple began taking orders on Friday, suggesting it may yet be some time before we see data on their performance.

Apple is taking advantage of Intel's latest "Core M" Broadwell chips for the new Retina MacBook. The chips offer extremely low power usage, but Apple is slightly overclocking these chips for higher performance. The low-end MacBook uses a 5Y31 chip that runs by default at 900 MHz but which supports overclocking to 1.1 GHz at the cost of bumping power consumption from 4.5 watts to 6 watts, and Apple has elected to use the faster speeds to improve performance.

The mid-range MacBook uses the 5Y51 chip, which defaults to 1.1 GHz but which Apple has bumped by 100 MHz to run at 1.2 GHz. The high-end custom MacBook takes advantage of the 5Y71 chip that is designed to run at 1.2 GHz, and Apple has similarly bumped this one by 100 MHz to run at 1.3 GHz.

The Retina MacBook is in very short supply following its launch last Friday, with all stock and custom configurations currently listed as shipping in 4-6 weeks from Apple's online store. The company's retail stores also have yet to begin stocking the new machines, although some (mainly in the United States) do have models on display for customers to test out.

Pop artist Romero Britto last week filed a lawsuit against Apple over its "Start Something New" campaign, for using Craig & Karl artwork that allegedly mimics the design style that Britto is famous for. The lawsuit, levied at both Craig & Karl and Apple, accuses the two artists of violating the Britto trade dress and targets Apple because Britto became aware of the copycat art through Apple's recent promotion.

Apple uses a Craig & Karl image featuring a patchwork hand on a bright yellow background on one of the iPads in the graphics used to promote the "Start Something New" campaign, and there's a profile of Craig & Karl on the company's website describing how the image was made on an iPad Air 2 using iOS apps.

Apple also featured the Craig & Karl image heavily in retail stores, leading people to contact Britto with the false impression that he had created the artwork, where he discovered that the two had been making art similar to his own for years.

As with any Apple campaign, the Start Something New Campaign had massive exposure and breathless press coverage, and many of the media profiles prominently featured the Infringing Apple Image. Plaintiff was inundated with reports of the Start Something New campaign and the Infringing Apple Image. These reports ranged from, for example, incorrect congratulations on Mr. Britto's new deal with Apple, to consternation from business partners in potentially collaborative or competing product categories, to inquiries from collectors wanting to know if the image they saw in the Apple store or on the Apple website was by Romero Britto.

Britto's work is fairly well-known and on display in dozens of locations around the world. He's also worked with multiple different brands on major advertising campaigns, with all of his work featuring bright colors, strong lines, and simple designs.

According to the lawsuit, Britto's specific Trade Dress is "strong, fanciful, non-functional, and inherently distinctive," composed of vibrant color combinations, the juxtaposition of different patterns, bold black outlines, and "uplifting, bright and happy visual themes." A quick visual comparison of Britto's work next to Craig & Karl's does indeed reveal similarities between the two.

Britto contacted Apple and asked the company to cease using the Craig & Karl images, but he did not receive a response, leading him to file a lawsuit. Britto is asking for damages and attorneys' fees, along with an injunction that would require Apple to stop using the artwork and Craig & Karl to stop producing artwork that mimics his style.

Apple today sent out a press release announcing an update to its professional video editing software, Final Cut Pro X, along with updates to companion apps Motion and Compressor. The updates bring new features for motion graphics and enhancements to speed up video editing, packaging, and delivery.

As described by Apple, Final Cut Pro's 10.2 update marks the debut of easy-to-use tools for the creation of 3D titles, with a variety of templates that include built-in backgrounds and animations. Text styles can customize the look of titles with different materials and lighting, and it's possible to convert 2D to 3D titles and see changes in real time.

Today's update also lets editors view up to four video scopes at the same time for better precision when color grading, and there are now improved Shape masks that can be applied to any effect and saved as a preset. Finally, the update includes support for more video formats and makes it faster to work with RED RAW files.

Motion 5.2 offers additional options for 3D titles, bringing tools for the creation of dynamic titles with lights and cameras, while Compressor 4.2 makes it easier to prepare movies for sale on the iTunes Store.

"From Hollywood blockbuster directors to first time movie makers, Final Cut Pro X is changing the way we edit movies today," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. "The updated Final Cut Pro X, Motion and Compressor make it even easier to edit, title and package everything from short videos to feature-length films."

Apple's press release includes details from Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, who co-directed the Will Smith film Focus and used Final Cut Pro X to edit the video. The duo's work with the software was previously featured by Apple on its Final Cut Pro X feature page.

"We loved using Final Cut Pro X to edit Focus," said Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, co-directors of the 2015 feature film, Focus. "We created the final theatrical titles for the movie right in Final Cut Pro, and the new 3D titling and effects features will let us take in-app graphics even further. We're using the new Final Cut Pro on our next feature film."

Several sites have been able to get hands-on access to the new software updates ahead of their launch, and have shared details on the new tools included in the update. Fcp.co has a complete rundown on all the new features, along with screenshots, as does The Next Web.

All of today's updates are free for existing Final Cut Pro, Compressor, and Motion users.

Final Cut Pro can be downloaded from the Mac App Store for $299.99. [Direct Link]

Compressor can be downloaded from the Mac App Store for $49.99. [Direct Link]

Motion can be downloaded from the Mac App Store for $49.99. [Direct Link]

With the release of OS X 10.10.3 last Wednesday, Apple has expanded support for high-resolution 4K and even 5K external displays (via 9to5Mac). Most notably, OS X 10.10.3 enables the Retina 5K iMac and 2013 Mac Pro to drive Dell's UP2715K 27-inch 5K display released late last year. The display requires more bandwidth than is currently supported over a current single DisplayPort/Thunderbolt cable, so it uses a dual-cable solution taking up two ports on the user's machine.

This bandwidth issue for the current DisplayPort standard has been seen as a major roadblock keeping Apple from releasing a standalone 5K Thunderbolt Display. With the Retina iMac, Apple has been able to build custom internal components to drive the massive display, but for external displays, a dual-cable solution such as that used by Dell has been considered by many to be "un-Apple like."

As a result, Apple has been widely expected to wait until the release of Intel's Skylake platform with DisplayPort 1.3 support later this year before releasing an external 5K Thunderbolt Display that will function over a single cable. Whether the inclusion of support for Dell's dual-cable solution in OS X 10.10.3 is a sign Apple may be willing to adopt that arrangement for its own display and perhaps release it earlier is, however, unclear.

Beyond 5K displays, OS X 10.10.3 has also expanded support for 4K displays to include "most single-stream 4K (3840x2160) displays" at 60 Hz, expanding beyond the previous support of only Multi-Stream Transport displays introduced in late updates to Mavericks. The new 4K display support will function with most of the Mac line, from the 27-inch iMac to the brand-new Retina MacBook. However, only the Mac Pro and iMac will support full 4096x2160 resolution at 60Hz.

With OS X Yosemite v10.10.3, most single-stream 4K (3840x2160) displays are supported at 60Hz operation on the following Mac computers:

- MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Early 2015)
- MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2014)
- Mac Pro (Late 2013)
- iMac (27-inch, Late 2013 and later)
- Mac mini (Late 2014)
- MacBook Air (Early 2015)
- MacBook (Retina, 12-inch, Early 2015)

As for the new 12-inch MacBook, the laptop will be able to support displays and rates of 3840x2160 at a 30 Hz refresh rate and 4096x2160 at a 24 Hz refresh rate. MacBook users wanting to use such a display will, of course, need to use Apple's USB-C Digital AV Multiport Adapter to do so.

Apple Watch received an estimated 957,000 pre-orders in the United States on April 10, the day the wrist-worn device became available for purchase, according to Slice Intelligence (via Quartz). The digital commerce tracking firm claims that nearly two-thirds (62%) of customers purchased the Apple Watch Sport, with the 42mm Space Gray case being the most popular model sold on the first day.

Slice Intelligence's sales projection is based on e-receipt data from 9,080 online shoppers that opted-in to have their inboxes tracked for email receipts. The report finds that 71% of Apple Watch pre-orders on April 10 were for the larger 42mm case, with 32% of aluminum Sport customers purchasing the smaller 38mm version compared to 24% of stainless steel Apple Watch buyers.

"Slice Intelligence estimates that 957,000 people in the U.S. pre-ordered an Apple Watch on Friday, the first day the watch was available for sale. According to ereceipt data from 9,080 online shoppers, each Apple Watch buyer ordered an average of 1.3 watches, spending $503.83 per watch. Those ordering an Apple Watch Sport spent $382.83 per watch and those ordering the Apple Watch spent $707.04."

The report adds that 40% of pre-orders were for the Apple Watch Sport with space gray aluminum, followed by the silver stainless steel Apple Watch at 34%, silver aluminum Apple Watch Sport at 23% and space black stainless steel Apple Watch at 3%. Apple Watch Edition sales were not disclosed, with Quartz claiming that the expensive 18-karat gold model did not represent enough pre-orders to be included in the report.

Slice Intelligence also revealed that 28% of Apple Watch pre-orders included a black Sport band, making it the most popular option among customers on April 10. The steel Milanese Loop trailed in second at 25%, while the Link Bracelet (14%), black Classic Buckle (12%) and white Sport band (8%) rounded off the top five. The next seven most popular bands were split between different colors of the Leather Loop and Modern Buckle.

The shopping firm did not provide Apple Watch pre-order data for the other eight countries where the wrist-worn device became available Friday, including Canada, Australia, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Japan, China and Hong Kong, and it is likely that sales numbers will vary greatly in each of those regions. In China, for example, the Apple Watch Edition is predicted to sell considerably better than in most other countries.

There are a number of variables to consider when interpreting these Apple Watch pre-order estimates, including that data was limited to the United States and likely extrapolated based on a relatively small pool of consumers. Apple has not provided official sales figures for the Apple Watch, nor did it provide comment on the accuracy of this data, so the exact number of pre-orders Apple received remains to be seen.

The Apple Watch became available for pre-orders on Friday as well as for try-on appointments in Apple retail stores around the world.

One MacRumors reader, Louis, was able to slip off the bottom band during his Apple Watch try-on appointment to discover that the hidden diagnostic port on early models still remains in the retail versions.

The presence of the diagnostic port was first reported in March by TechCrunch with speculation that it could eventually open up the market for "smart" band accessories that can interface with the Apple Watch, itself. Apple, however, has made no such promises and doesn't even acknowledge the presence of the port in any official documentation. Louis also reports the retail staff had no training on the use of the port.

Thanks Louis

Update: John Gruber notes that his review unit has the port, but it is covered up:

Apple has quietly introduced support for the next generation NVM Express (NVMe) interface to SSD Flash drives in their latest OS X 10.10.3 update as well as in the new Retina MacBook which was released on April 10th.

The NVMe software interface replaces the AHCI software interface in Apple's previous notebooks, and offers improved latency and performance over the old protocol. Anandtech offers a good overview between the technologies:

AHCI (Advanced Host Controller Interface) dates back to 2004 and was designed with hard drives in mind. While that doesn't rule out SSDs, AHCI is more optimized for high latency rotating media than low latency non-volatile storage. As a result AHCI can't take full advantage of SSDs and since the future is in non-volatile storage (like NAND and MRAM), the industry had to develop a software interface that abolishes the limits of AHCI.

The result is NVMe, short for Non-Volatile Memory Express.

The new protocol is not to be confused with the underlying hardware that connects the SSD to Apple's notebooks. Apple has already upgraded the physical interface to the much faster PCIe connectors a number of years ago.

Going into the future, NVMe will allow Apple's hardware to take further advantage of the performance of SSDs as well as improve battery life with less time spent transferring data. Intel expects NVMe to also be coming to tablets and phones in the near future.

Thanks Jonathan