MacRumors

Following last week's news of a mysterious Apple-leased vehicle roaming the streets of Northern California, an Apple employee has given some details to Business Insider, suggesting Apple is working on a project that will "give Tesla a run for its money."

After writing about how the van could be used for a self-driving car, we got an unsolicited email from an employee at Apple about "vehicle development" at the company. [...]

"Apple's latest project is too exciting to pass up," the person said. "I think it will change the landscape and give Tesla a run for its money."

According to the site's source, who was verified to be an Apple employee, Tesla employees are "jumping ship" and choosing to work at Apple because of this unidentified project.

Last week's pictures unveiled a van that appeared to have multiple cameras on the top, similar to the vehicles Google uses for mapping. Given the van's similarity to other mapping vehicles, rumors have suggested that it is likely for an unspecified mapping project. Apple has been working to improve Maps in recent months, and it's possible the company is working on a feature that would compete with Google Street View.

Other speculation has ranged a bit more towards the fantastical, suggesting that Apple is perhaps working on a self-driving car, but this seems unlikely due to Apple's tendency to focus on just a few products at a time. "We have zero issue coming up with things we want to do, said Tim Cook last January. "We must focus on the very few that deserve all our energy."

As Business Insider suggests, one probable project that could pique the interest of former Tesla employees is CarPlay. CarPlay, which brings an iOS-style interface to in-car infotainment systems, is still very much in the early stages. In the future, CarPlay, which is being built directly into many cars, could expand to offer a Tesla-style feature set. With the Tesla iPhone app, Tesla owners can turn on heating, lock and unlock doors from afar, flash the lights, and more.

Deeper integration between iOS and in-car systems is also easily imaginable, given Apple's desire to allow users to transition easily from device to device, as with its new "Continuity" iOS 8/OS X Yosemite feature. In October, Apple CEO Tim Cook hinted at an expansion of Continuity and suggested it would be incredibly important going forward. "Use your imagination and think about where Continuity goes," he said.

Given the ambiguity of the employee's statement, it is, of course, possible that the project in question is not even car-related and is something all together different.

Earlier this month, Tesla CEO Elon Musk directly contradicted the Apple employee's suggestion that Tesla employees are tempted by what Apple has to offer. In a report outlining the many employees Tesla has poached from Apple, Bloomberg spoke to Musk, who said "very few people" had left Tesla for Apple, despite Apple's offer of a $250,000 signing bonus and 60 percent salary increase.

Along with iOS 8.2 and iOS 8.3, both of which have been seeded to developers in beta form, Apple is also said to be working on an iOS 8.4 update. According to 9to5Mac, the beta is codenamed "Copper," and set to be released later this year at some point after the Apple Watch becomes available for purchase in April.

Given the release timing after iOS 8.2 and iOS 8.3, it's possible that iOS 8.4 will be the update that introduces Apple's new streaming music service. Recent rumors have suggested that Apple's existing Beats music service will be rebranded, revamped with a lower price tag, and integrated into iOS and OS X. A timeline is unclear, but Apple could be aiming for a June launch, sometime around its annual Worldwide Developers Conference.

iOS 8.4 began appearing in MacRumors site logs towards the end of January, with usage spiking up at the beginning of February. The number of visits from devices running iOS 8.4 from both Apple IPs and non-Apple IPs remains relatively low, however, suggesting that development on iOS 8.4 is in the very early stages.

iOS 8.2 has been in developer testing since November, and iOS 8.3, with wireless CarPlay support, a new emoji picker, and Apple Pay for China was just seeded to developers this morning. Along with its iOS 8 projects, Apple is also working on iOS 9, an update that may heavily focus on stability and optimization.

Apple today seeded the first beta of iOS 8.3 to registered developers for testing purposes, just a week after seeding the fifth beta of iOS 8.2, which is also currently in testing.

The beta, build number 12F5027d, also includes Xcode 6.3 beta with Swift 1.2. It is not clear at this time what the iOS 8.3 beta introduces, but it likely includes several bug fixes. As a .1 update, it may also introduce new features.

Xcode 6.3, included with the beta, introduces a new version of the Swift language. According to Apple's release notes, Swift 1.2 includes "a number of noteworthy changes" to the language. Xcode 6.3 also includes enhancements to ease interoperability between Swift and Objective-C code.

New Features in iOS 8.3:

Based on our testing, iOS 8.3 appears to remove the "beta" label from iCloud Photo Library and it offers new CarPlay features, in the form of wireless connectivity. The CarPlay setting in the image below is located in the General section of the Settings app, below Siri, Spotlight Search, and Handoff & Suggested Apps. Currently, iPhones are only able to connect to CarPlay via the Lightning port.

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With iOS 7, Apple introduced a major design overhaul and with iOS 8, we gained features like Continuity, Apple Pay, and new app abilities like extensions and widgets. Following these two ambitious OS updates, it seems iOS 9 may be somewhat less flashy, focusing heavily on stability and optimization.

Sources who spoke to 9to5Mac have suggested that Apple will market iOS 9 similarly to OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, which was also a maintenance upgrade that resulted in improved performance and better efficiency.

For 2015, iOS 9 is going to include a collection of under-the-hood improvements. Sources tell us that iOS 9 engineers are putting a "huge" focus on fixing bugs, maintaining stability, and boosting performance for the new operating system, rather than solely focusing on delivering major new feature additions. Apple will also continue to make efforts to keep the size of the OS and updates manageable, especially for the many millions of iOS device owners with 16GB devices.

An operating system update that aims to optimize performance and fix lingering bugs will likely be welcome news to many iOS 8 users who have been unhappy with the state of the operating system. iOS 8 has suffered from an above average number of bugs since its September introduction, causing issues like slow Wi-Fi, battery drain, screen rotation problems, Bluetooth connectivity failures, and more. The last few minor iOS 8 updates, including 8.1.1, 8.1.2, and 8.1.3 have all been focused on fixing some of these problems.

Apple's goal of reducing the amount of space needed for an operating system update is also welcome news to users who have 16GB devices without much storage space left. iOS 8 has seen slower adoption rates than iOS 7, which many have attributed to its 2GB+ installation size.

Work on iOS 9 is well underway at Apple, and site visits to MacRumors from Apple IP addresses on devices running the new OS have increased over the course of the past month, following the holidays. We first started seeing an uptick in visits from iOS 9 users in December, which declined around Christmas and has picked up once again.

An iOS 9 update that aims for bug fixes and performance improvements won't go entirely without new features -- there are still some rumored enhancements in the works that could be released in the next operating system update, including transit directions and indoor mapping abilities for Maps and split-screen multitasking for iPads. We'll get our first glimpse of iOS 9 at June's Worldwide Developers Conference, but a specific date is still forthcoming.

Medical device manufacturer DexCom over the weekend announced the company is developing an app for the upcoming Apple Watch that will display all of a user's glucose and blood sugar-related health data on their wrist (via The Wall Street Journal).

The company, whose expertise lies in "continuous glucose monitoring systems for diabetes management," says the app is expected to be ready when the Apple Watch launches in April. The app would sync to existing monitors manufactured by DexCom that use a "hair's width sensor" located under the user's skin to measure and report blood glucose levels every five minutes, a more seamless process than traditional skin-prick glucose monitors, according to the company.

Though most health-related apps have been closely scrutinized by the FDA in the past, The Wall Street Journal reports DexCom and a group of developers behind another diabetes-related application called NightScout have convinced the FDA to change course on health apps.

The group’s effort challenged the slow pace of innovation and regulatory approval in the field. It also highlighted the growing role that Silicon Valley companies and software developers hope to have in monitoring and maintaining people’s health.

Previously, the FDA considered glucose monitors and any associated software to be Class III medical devices, meaning they received the highest level of regulatory scrutiny. But the spread of NightScout, the system developed by the group of software engineers, and DexCom’s submission of a separate iPhone app for review prompted the FDA to change course last month.

Subsequently, DexCom's monitors that require injection under a patient's skin will understandably remain Class III devices but the software that displays the data - such as the Apple Watch app - now only needs to be registered with the FDA without prior marketing approval. Alberto Gutierrez, director of the FDA’s Office of In Vitro Diagnostics and Radiological Health, evoked the positive benefits of the app far outweigh any negatives, “We felt that the risks that the app imposed weren’t as high."

Apple itself has been steadily moving towards a more health-concerned future, with the introduction of the Health app into iOS 8 as a preparation for the upcoming built-in fitness integration features of the Apple Watch. Major U.S. hospitals are rolling out their own trial programs with HealthKit, Apple's tools that leverage the iPhone's various motion-tracking sensors and peripheral accessories to track and log the history of a user's health data.

The much-anticipated 12-inch Retina MacBook Air is believed to launch sometime in the middle of 2015, but a new rumor out of foreign news website Letem svetem Applem [Google Translate] points to a smaller refresh of the existing MacBook Air line hitting as early as February 24.

The website, citing sources from the Czech reseller network, states the update will come with no fanfare or keynote presentation, unsurprising considering a lack of major changes for the lineup. The company also won't discuss the long-rumored ultra-slim MacBook Air around the launch of the new refresh, hoping the "quiet" update tides users over until later in the year.

If true, the focus on the fact that the update would be "minor" points to only slight bumps in areas like storage and processing power, with Apple choosing from 2.2GHz Core i5-5250U, 1.8GHz Core i5 chip, and 2GHz Core i7 processors, while keeping the well-known 11- and 13-inch form factors of current MacBook Airs. Intel launched the new Broadwell processors appropriate for the current MacBook Air lineup last month.

Reports of the 12-inch MacBook Air have been swirling for over a year now, but the product missed the originally rumored timeframe of a 2014 launch. Rumored to be in mass production since last month and with claimed part leaks beginning to surface, the Retina MacBook Air is reported to launch sometime in the second quarter of 2015.

iPhone camera module supplier Largan Precision is expected to face limited earnings growth this year amid rumors that Apple's next-generation smartphone will retain an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera sensor, according to Taipei Times (via GforGames).

The report cites Taipei-based analyst Jeff Pu, who claims the iPhone 6s will have the same camera hardware specifications as previous models. Apple first introduced an 8-megapixel rear camera on the iPhone 4s in 2011 and used similar modules for the iPhone 5, iPhone 5c and iPhone 5s.

Pu said that the camera specifications of the next-generation iPhone, dubbed iPhone 6S, will stay the same as the current iPhone 6 at 8-megapixels, limiting potential catalysts to push Largan’s stock price higher in the second half of the year. [...] Pu said that although the migration to 8-megapixel and 13-megapixel lenses would remain strong among Chinese vendors of mid-tier and low-end phones, upgrades to 16-megapixel and 20-megapixel lenses for flagship phones would be slow given the limited supply of CMOS sensors — used to convert light into electrons.

While details surrounding the so-called "iPhone 6s" remain limited, this report is consistent with Largan Precision's stock price dipping early last year amid rumors the iPhone 6 camera would retain an 8-megapixel sensor. Meanwhile, it was reported in November that the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus could have the "biggest camera jump ever" with a dual-lens, DSLR-quality system.

Ahead of tonight's telecast of the 57th annual Grammy Awards, Apple has debuted a new music-themed iPad commercial titled "Change" featuring Swedish singer Elliphant, Los Angeles-based producer Gaslamp Killer, and English DJ Riton.

The ad shows the three musicians composing a remix to Elliphant's "All Or Nothing" entirely on an iPad, from initial songwriting, production, recording, and more. Apps shown throughout the add include Apple's GarageBand for songwriting, iMPC Pro for production, Serato Remote for live performances and Manual Camera for filming video.

Billboard also reports that Apple CEO Tim Cook and SVP of Internet Software and Services were the focus of much attention at a pre-Grammy party held by record producer Clive Davis. Apple is estimated to have paid upwards of $2 million for its Grammy ad.

The new iPad ad follows rumors of a revamped Beats Music subscription service, with a report last week noting that Apple would be charging $7.99 per month for access on OS X , iOS, Apple TV, and Android. Apple is expected to relaunch Beats Music later this year, possibly at June during the company's annual Worldwide Developer's Conference.

Corning today unveiled a new material that it's been working on, which combines the strength of its existing Gorilla Glass with ultra scratch-resistance like that of sapphire, reports CNET. The material, which goes by the name "Project Phire," was shown off during an investor meeting by Corning Glass president James Clappin.

"We told you last year that sapphire was great for scratch performance but didn't fare well when dropped," Clappin, president of Corning Glass Technologies, told the crowd at the event. "So, we created a product that offers the same superior damage resistance and drop performance of Gorilla Glass 4 with scratch resistance that approaches sapphire."

Corning's existing Gorilla Glass product is used in a range of smartphone and tablet displays, from Samsung's Galaxy line to Apple's own iOS lineup. Apple planned to move away from Corning's Gorilla Glass with the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, switching instead to sapphire produced by GT Advanced, but was unable to use the material due to production issues that later saw the dissolution of the partnership between the two companies.

According to Corning, Gorilla Glass is superior to sapphire due to sapphire's brittleness and tendency to shatter when dropped. Corning has on several occasions pitted Gorilla Glass against sapphire to highlight the former's benefits -- lighter weight, greater strength, and lower pricing.

Gorilla Glass 4, Corning's most recent product, is even more resistant to shattering when it falls onto hard, rough surfaces than previous versions of Gorilla Glass, but it is unable to match the scratch resistant properties of sapphire crystal. Sapphire is second only to diamond when it comes to hardness, and Apple already uses the material to protect the iPhone's rear camera and Touch ID fingerprint sensor from scratches.

Apple's desire to produce iPhone displays with greater scratch resistance may make Corning's "Project Phire" material highly appealing to the company for use in next-generation devices, as it could potentially serve as a more affordable, easier to acquire replacement for sapphire.

In addition to a new Photos app and emoji improvements, yesterday's developer release of the first OS X 10.10.3 beta also includes new direct support for Google's 2-Step Verification when setting up Google services in the Internet Accounts section of System Preferences.

2-Step Verification is an optional security setting that requires users to enter not only their account password but also a unique code sent by Google via phone app, text message, or voice call to a previously registered device or phone number, greatly enhancing account security.

Not all devices and apps support Google's 2-Step Verification, however, and as a backup Google also allows users to generate app-specific passwords to register a unique password for that device or app. The app-specific password can be revoked at any time by logging into the user's Google account for another time, making it easy to disable access on a device that has been lost or stolen.

On OS X 10.10.2 and earlier, users setting up their machines to access Google accounts with 2-Step Verification enabled have had to use this app-specific password option. Users trying to log in with their standard Google account passwords are met with error messages informing them they need to use this option.

But as noticed by developer Jonathan Wight, the new OS X 10.10.3 beta now fully supports 2-Step Verification, allowing users to log in with their standard passwords and unique verification codes.

The change makes logging in with 2-Step protected accounts much simpler and increases security by making sure the user attempting to log in has a secondary trusted device to provide the verification code.

(Thanks, Sean!)