MacRumors

Just a couple days after exclusively launching visual album "Endless" on Apple Music, R&B singer Frank Ocean has released his sophomore album "Blonde", which used to be referred to as "Boy's Don't Cry". The album, which is his first since his debut album "Channel Orange" in 2012, will be exclusive to Apple Music for two weeks.

The 17-track album was originally set to release on August 5, but Ocean and his teamed pushed back the release once the news was out to maintain the element of surprise, according to The New York Times. The release also includes the music video for Ocean's single, "Nikes."

A companion print magazine called "Boys Don't Cry" was reportedly going to be available at Apple retail stores. However, Ocean has only announced that four pop-up stores in Los Angeles, Chicago, New York and London would carry the magazine.

"Endless" and "Blonde" are just two of the high-profile exclusives that Apple has secured for its music streaming service. Other content includes Drake's "Views" and Taylor Swift's "1989 World Tour LIVE,"

"Blonde" can be streamed on Apple Music now. [Direct Link]

Ride hailing company Lyft recently approached several companies including Apple in an attempt to sell itself, according to a report by The New York Times.

The second-largest ride hailing firm in the U.S. held talks with or contacted Apple, Amazon, General Motors, Uber, Google, and Didi Chuxing over a potential sale, but was unable to find a buyer, said the newspaper's sources.

G.M., one of the San Francisco-based company's largest investors with a $500 million stake in Lyft, was reportedly the most interested suitor, but ultimately failed to make a written offer. The good news for Lyft is that it has a cash cushion of $1.4 billion and is not in danger of closing down, said the sources, despite the company not yet being profitable.

Earlier this month, Uber agreed to sell its Chinese arm to Didi Chuxing, which Apple recently invested $1 billion in.

The sale put a spanner in the works of Lyft's partnership with Didi, which allowed Didi customers to use their app to hail Lyft drivers, and vice versa. Lyft's so-called anti-Uber alliance with Didi is now in doubt and the U.S. based firm has said it is re-evaluating the agreement.

Facebook has released a new teens-only social app called "Lifestage" that asks users to create profiles by uploading video clips instead of filling in text fields.

The standalone app is aimed at high school kids aged 21 and under, and doesn't require a Facebook account. Users are asked to select their high school and are then shown video profiles of people at the same school or ones nearby, as long as at least 20 people from the same school use the app.

User profiles ask kids to upload videos of their "happy face", "sad face", likes, dislikes, best friend, the way they dance, and more, and Lifestage turns the clips into a video profile that others can then watch on the app's social feed.

While there's no restriction on who can download the app and create an account, anyone 22 or older will only be able to see their own profile, although Lifestage notes during sign-up that it can't verify that users are the age they say they are. The app includes various highly visible blocking and reporting options, apparently to guard against the possibility of suspect users.

TechCrunch reports that the app was designed by Michael Sayman, a 19-year-old Facebook product manager who aims to replicate Facebook's original incarnation as a college student network. "I wanted to work on an app that my demographic would relate to, or at least that my friends would want to use," said Sayman.

The launch of Lifestage is certainly consistent with Mark Zuckerberg's stated goal of putting video at the heart of all of Facebook's apps and services, but it also points to the company's continuing concern at Snapchat's surging popularity among younger users, which has already led Facebook to imitate several of the app's features in its photo-focused social offering, Instagram.

Time will tell whether Lifestage succeeds in attracting a younger crowd, or goes the same way as Poke, Slingshot, Paper, and Notify, all of which Facebook eventually binned following a lack of uptake.

Lifestage is a free download for iPhone and iPad on the App Store. [Direct Link]

For this week's giveaway, we've teamed up with popular iPhone accessory maker Cygnett to give MacRumors readers a chance to win a Cygnett Accessory Prize Pack that includes any Cygnett case, a battery pack, a Lightning cable, and an iPhone car mount.

Cygnett makes a wide range of iPhone cases for all iPhone models from the iPhone 5 and iPhone SE to the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus. Cases range from the thin and light polycarbonate AeroShield to the shock resistant silicone Flex 360 to the sleek Urbanwallet case. Giveaway winners can choose their favorite Cygnett case for any iPhone.

Along with iPhone cases, Cygnett has a wide selection of battery packs ranging in size from 2,500 mAh to 10,000 mAh. The battery pack included in the giveaway is the Chargeup Digital, a 6000 mAh charger that's ultra thin and has rapid charging capabilities.

To go with the iPhone case and the battery pack, our prize pack will also include Cygnett's durable 2m Source Lightning to USB cable in any color and the adjustable VentView Universal car mount that'll fit any model iPhone.

Three MacRumors readers will win a Cygnett accessory package. 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. To offer feedback or get more information on the giveaway restrictions, please refer to our Site Feedback section, as that is where discussion of the rules will be redirected.

Streaming radio service Pandora is getting ready to introduce two new on-demand paid subscription tiers, in addition to keeping its popular free option available, according to people familiar with the matter speaking with The Wall Street Journal.

The company is said to be "close to inking deals" with some major record companies that will let it expand the two new tiers in both the United States and some markets overseas.

The most expensive subscription is said to be $10 per month and grant users unlimited access to tens of millions of songs on Pandora, bringing the internet radio streaming service closer to that of Spotify and Apple Music. The company will then slightly tweak its existing $5 per month ad-free option with a few new perks like skipping songs, offline listening, and more.

While competing with the likes of Spotify, Apple and other $10-a-month service providers may be difficult, some music-industry executives believe that Pandora’s planned $5-a-month tier presents a bigger opportunity for the business, potentially unlocking new revenue from consumers who want a bit more control over their listening experience but wouldn’t pay $10 a month.

First launched in 2000, Pandora has never had to get individual permission from record labels to play their music since its services offer only randomized, radio-like "stations" that prevent users from playing specific songs. Since its new model will add these on-demand listening features for its users, Pandora now has to partner with various record labels in addition to the broad internet radio licensing fees it pays.

The company hopes its new business model attracts subscribers, since it's seen a "listenership plateau" over the past few years with 80 million active monthly users, about 4 million of which are paying $5 per month to avoid ads between songs. Currently, the radio features of Pandora are available in the United States, Australia and New Zealand, but the potential new markets overseas it will expand to have not yet been disclosed.

Also left unspecified was a release date for the new on-demand streaming tiers beyond sometime in the fall. For those who don't have it, you can download the Pandora app for free from the iOS App Store. [Direct Link]

Sony today announced its first CarPlay-supported in-car audio system, the XAV-AX100, which the company touts as offering "everything you need" for long car journeys, including smartphone connectivity, a high-quality sound system, and voice command features. Following Alpine, Kenwood, JVC, JBL, and Pioneer, Sony is the newest company to manufacture aftermarket CarPlay systems.

Thanks to the inclusion of CarPlay, Apple's in-car software platform, users with Sony's new system installed can access Apple Maps, Apple Music, make phone calls, send text messages, and control various functions with the help of Siri. The XAV-AX100 system is also compatible with Android's CarPlay alternative, Android Auto.

In its announcement, Sony focuses on its new system's sound quality, which it says can "overcome engine noise and reproduce clear sound at any volume with deep and punchy bass." Users can even expand the system with other external amplifiers to get a more customized listening experience in their vehicle.

High power sound comes full throttle with the XAV-AX100 in-car audio system. 55 watts x 4 Dynamic Reality Amp 2 and EXTRA BASS™ low boost circuitry overcome engine noise and reproduce clear sound at any volume level with deep and punchy bass.

The 10-band graphic equalizer gives an astonishing variety of sound, perfectly complementing EXTRA BASS™ for an enjoyable drive. 3-pre out connectivity allows system expandability to connect external amplifiers with a wide range of speaker connections, allowing sound enthusiasts to build their own bespoke system

Users will be able to purchase Sony's XAV-AX100 in-car audio system with included CarPlay support for $499.99 when it goes on the market sometime in late November. The company listed a full roster of the system's technical specifications in its press release.

The New York Times has announced that its curated news app, NYT Now [Direct Link], will officially shut down and no longer be available to download from the week of August 29. The app was originally announced in early 2014 as a way to provide readers with a cheaper alternative to the digital subscription service offered by the company, coming in at $8 per month, "roughly half the price of the least expensive digital subscription."

NYT Now was said to be an attempt by the New York Times to offset dips in revenue from its traditional printed newspaper circulation. The goal was to present a less expensive subscription model, with news focused and curated for each specific user, and attract people who might not otherwise subscribe due to the ease-of-access inherent in mobile apps. Unfortunately, "the app never quite took off," and NYT Now transitioned to a freemium model last year in an attempt to expand its audience.

Kinsey Wilson, the executive vice president for product and technology, said the decision to do away with NYT Now was driven in part by a shift in how the company thinks about broadening its audience. The Times, with the help of its audience development team, now looks more to third-party platforms like Facebook and Twitter to expand its reach among younger readers.

“That gave us a different ability to tap into younger audiences and to provide exposure to a much, much wider audience,” Mr. Wilson said.

The app was said to have peaked in May 2015 with 334,000 total unique users in one month but, in the last three months, it only managed to acquire 257,000 total unique users. Many of NYT Now's features will be folded into the company's main mobile app, NYTimes [Direct Link], "including morning and evening news briefings, bullet-point lists and a more conversational tone."

The editors of NYT Now have written a brief note about the app's shuttering, including the specific locations users can find its various features in other apps. For readers who keep the NYT Now app on their iOS or Android device, it will officially cease being updated in September.

Apps like Apple News, which offer users a wide breadth of news stories from an expansive list of various publishers, are also likely to contribute to a slight loss of subscribers for single-publisher apps. Apple News is even getting a feature in iOS 10 that will support paid subscription models from sites like The Wall Street Journal, curating premium content right alongside free stories from other publishers.

Apple's demand that overseas suppliers lower their quotes for iPhone 7 parts and components has been met with resistance from makers, according to Taiwanese website DigiTimes.

Apple is said to have asked downstream part and component suppliers, excluding TSMC and Largan Precision, to reduce their quotes for iPhone 7 devices by as much as 20 percent, even though order volumes for new phones are reportedly 30 percent lower than those placed a year earlier.

Apple is reportedly using the rising handset supply chain in China to force Taiwan-based companies to make their quotes more competitive. However, DigiTimes suggests Apple's policy of squeezing out profits from Taiwan suppliers "makes no sense" because "the quality of products rolled out by Taiwan- and China-based suppliers is standing at different levels".

Whether or not quality is an issue, major downstream suppliers including Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ASE) and associated companies under the Foxconn Group have told Apple that they cannot accept orders without reasonable profits.

Apple reportedly chose to exclude TSMC and Largan from its demands because the company is finding it hard to find alternatives that offer foundry services or high-end camera modules, respectively.

Meanwhile, ASE has seen its business grow steadily in recent years and optimized its advanced packaging technology by expanding its client base through a merger agreement with fellow company Siliconware Precision Industries (SPIL).

Foxconn Group, for its part, has acquired Japan-based Sharp, which will reportedly keep its production facilities busy, meaning there's no inclination for the electronic manufacturing subcontractor to sacrifice its margins to work for Apple.

Apple accounted for a 17.2 percent share of the global smartphone market in terms of shipment volume, but took as high as 91 percent of the industry's profits in 2015, according to data compiled by Canaccord Genuity.

Apple is expected to reveal the iPhone 7 at an event on September 7, and open up pre-orders on September 9. The specific launch date remains ambiguous, with both September 16 and September 23 mooted as potential options.

Twitter has announced a new "Quality Filter" feature that enables users to filter notifications so that they only see "quality tweets" and mentions from people they follow.

The feature initially rolled out as a test and was created partly as a means to combat users' exposure to abusive trolls, but Twitter says the filter is now available to everyone.

"Last year we began testing a quality filter setting and we're now rolling out a feature for everyone. When turned on, the filter can improve the quality of Tweets you see by using a variety of signals, such as account origin and behavior," Twitter said in a blog post.

The filter works using an algorithm to distinguish between good and abusive mentions. Any duplicate tweets or automated content identified by the feature are also filtered out of feeds, so that users don't see them at all when browsing the social media service.

To turn the Quality Filter on or off in the iOS app, users can tap Notifications in the navigation bar, tap the Settings icon at the top left of the screen, and toggle the associated feature switch. A second option on the screen ensures users only see tweets from people they follow.

Just about two weeks after it was reported that R&B singer Frank Ocean's next album, "Boys Don't Cry," would be available exclusively on Apple music, the singer has released "Endless," a visual album exclusive to the service.

An Apple representative told Pitchfork that the 45-minute visual album features new songs from the artist. The rep added that fans should "keep an eye out this weekend for more from Frank." It's unclear when Ocean's "Boys Don't Cry" is expected to launch.

"Endless" and "Boys Don't Cry" are just two of the high-profile exclusives Apple Music has secured in the past year. Other content includes Drake's "Views," Taylor Swift's "1989 World Tour LIVE" and Katy Perry's latest single "Rise."

"Endless" can be watched on Apple Music now. [Direct Link]