MacRumors

Apps in the iOS and Mac App Stores have begun displaying details on Family Sharing, letting users know whether or not the feature is enabled for specific apps ahead of the launch of iOS 8 and Yosemite.

A new Family Sharing listing has appeared in the Information section for each app, as noted by German site iFun.de [Google Translate]. For developers that have turned on Family Sharing, the section displays a "Yes" under the Family Sharing heading, while apps from developers that have opted not to allow Family Sharing or have yet to turn the setting on display "Not Available."

Certain apps, like Sketchbook Mobile display a "Yes" for purchases after a set date, indicating that developers have the option to only allow Family Sharing for new purchases.

First announced during June's Worldwide Developers Conference, Family Sharing for iOS 8 and Yosemite lets families of up to six people share content like apps, iBooks, music, movies, and more, across all of their iOS devices, provided their iTunes accounts use the same credit card. Family Sharing also lets families share photos, videos, a calendar, reminders, and more, to keep everyone in the family connected.

Though Family Sharing is not yet fully functional, Apple has made steps towards implementing the service throughout the iOS 8 and Yosemite beta testing period. Shortly after WWDC, Apple began asking developers to enable the feature in their apps.

Early iOS 8 betas saw the addition of Family Sharing in the iCloud section of the settings app, and iOS 8 beta 2 and an Apple TV beta laid significant groundwork for Family Sharing, adding a new section for "Family Purchases" to the iOS App Store's purchased tab and a new iCloud Family setting for the Apple TV.

Family Sharing is expected to be implemented and fully functional ahead of the public release of iOS 8, which will be available in September after the upcoming iPhone event.

Following a major earthquake in China's Yunnan Province earlier this week that killed over 600 people and caused widespread damage, Apple has made a donation of 10 million yuan ($1.6 million) in support of relief efforts in the region, reports CRIENGLISH.com. Apple has also updated its Chinese home page to acknowledge the disaster.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has also sent an email to company employees, shared by 9to5Mac, in which he expresses "deepest sympathies" to those affected and mentions Apple presence in the region and commitment to help.

Team,

Our deepest sympathies go out to the people of China’s Yunnan Province, which was struck by a devastating 6.5-magnitude earthquake over the weekend. Nearly 600 people died and over 2400 were injured in the worst earthquake to hit the region in 100 years. Rescuers have evacuated 230,000 people who are now displaced from their homes. The road to Longtoushan Township, the epicenter of the quake, has been blocked by landslides, making the rescue effort there even more challenging. Apple is eager to help. We are making a financial donation in support of the work of Mercy Corps and CFPA (China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation) to get supplies and relief to those affected by the earthquake and to help them through the process of healing and recovery. The tragedy in Yunnan Province is on the minds of many in the Apple community. Apple has over 6500 employees in China and Hong Kong as well as a growing developer community and deep ties to the workers in our supply chain who make Apple products. In this time of tragedy, our thoughts are with the victims and their families.

Tim

Apple made a similar but larger donation in support of relief efforts following another earthquake in China last year, and the company has committed to charity support on a number of other occasions, including facilitating donations from iTunes Store users following such disasters as Superstorm Sandy in 2012 and Super Typhoon Haiyan last year.

Apple is once again expanding its Reno, Nevada data center, adding several new data cluster buildings, reports Reno Gazette Journal. The upcoming expansion was documented in building permits filed recently with Washoe County.

"They just keep plugging along," said Trevor Lloyd, senior planner for Washoe County. "Apple keeps submitting plans … and it looks like they'll be expanding for a long time."

Apple's latest plans will boost the number of buildings on the site to nine, including eight data cluster buildings and an administration building, with plenty of room for further expansion on the 2,220-acre property.

As previously outlined by Wired, Apple's initial plans call for a cluster of eight small interconnected data buildings, which the recent building permits cover the completion of. A second facility of equal size is planned for future expansion.

Apple also is building a solar panel farm that will generate up to 18–20 megawatts of power for data center operations and will supplement the plant's current geothermal power.

While Apple improves its Reno data center operations, its proposal for a downtown facility has stalled, with Apple yet to submit building plans for a location in the Tessera District of Reno.

"I haven't heard anything and, as far as I know, no one in the city has heard anything," said Bill Thomas, assistant city manager for Reno. "I'm not saying we won't hear from them but it's been silence on their end (as of now)."

This downtown facility, which has been described as a "business and purchasing center", is part of Apple's original proposal and is required if the company is to receive up to $89 million in tax breaks on data center equipment over the next decade.

Last month, luxury modified iPhone vendor Feld & Volk [Instagram page] shared some high-quality photos and a video of the purported rear shell of the iPhone 6. The part was in an intermediate stage of production, and thus had not been fully processed and polished, but it still offered a good look at the device's body.

Feld & Volk has now received what it believes to be a completed 4.7-inch iPhone 6 rear shell and has shared some new photos revealing a few features not highlighted in previous leaks. Among these is a good look at the volume button cutouts, which have now been recessed slightly in a change that will allow for a lower profile along the edges and decreased likelihood of accidental volume changes.

Similar recesses for the volume buttons have been seen on a purported "perfect replica" and claimed actual rear shell for the next-generation iPad Air.

Feld & Volk's photos also offer a look at the embedded Apple logo, something Apple has not used on the iPhone since the original iPhone back in 2007. Feld & Volk says the embedded logo is very similar to that seen on the original iPhone, but says it is made of "very extraordinary" scratch-resistant metal that it speculates could be a Liquidmetal alloy, although there is no specific evidence supporting that speculation.

Another photo shows what seems to be an external camera ring, which measures 6.66 mm in diameter and reportedly fits perfectly on the rear camera hole of the shell. Leaked design drawings and physical mockups have indicated that the 5.5-inch iPhone 6 may see a protruding rear camera as seen on the current iPod touch, but so far those leaks have all pointed to a flush camera for the smaller 4.7-inch model, so it remains to be seen whether this camera ring does indeed pair with the rear shell of the 4.7-inch model.

Finally, the set of parts includes a long flexible cable previously seen in another photo leak. As with the previous leak, Feld & Volk speculates that it could be for the home button, but given its length we wonder if it is actually a flex cable for an upcoming iPad.

Apple is all but confirmed to be holding its annual iPhone media event on September 9, although it is unclear whether both the 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch models will be arriving simultaneously. At a minimum, the 4.7-inch model should launch in the first wave of countries roughly a week and a half after the event, based on past release patterns.

Now that Apple's purchase of Beats Electronics is complete, the company has begun expanding its promotion of Beats products, giving the Beats by Dr. Dre line of accessories its own dedicated section in the Accessory portion of the Apple Online Store.

Added yesterday, the Beats by Dr. Dre section joins "All Accessories," "Apple Accessories," "Exclusives," "Now Trending," and Gift Cards" on the top menu bar of the "Shop Accessories" section of the online store.

Though Apple has long sold Beats products, the dedicated menu bar position gives the accessories far more prominence online. The section, first noticed by 9to5Mac, promotes Beats headphones, Beats in-ear headphones, Beats speakers, and Beats accessories like the Pill Dudes and Sleeves designed to hold Beats speakers.

Apple is also continuing to show off the Beats line of headphones in its retail stores, with the Beats by Dr. Dre Solo2 and Studio over-ear headphones accompanying iPod touches in many retail locations.

Apple's $3 billion acquisition of Beats Electronics and Beats Music became official last week, following U.S. regulatory approval of the deal. As of August 1, Beats Electronics shut down its own online store and began directing customers to the Apple Online Store.

Rumors suggesting Siri will make its way into OS X have been circulating for years, but the personal assistant has yet to debut on the Mac. A new patent application published by the U.S. patent and Trademark Office and spotted by AppleInsider revives these rumors with the description of an intelligent assistant for the desktop that provides features far beyond the current dictation available in OS X.

The patent application, which was filed in February of this year and based on a provisional application from a year earlier, describes a system that in one iteration can sit in the dock, waiting for touch input or voice commands to activate a personal assistant in a manner similar to Siri in iOS. The assistant would then perform tasks based on input by the user. The same system can function as a third hand, allowing users to interact physically with a mouse and keyboard while simultaneously performing a secondary task using their voice.

Methods and systems related to interfaces for interacting with a digital assistant in a desktop environment are disclosed. In some embodiments, a digital assistant is invoked on a user device by a gesture following a predetermined motion pattern on a touch-sensitive surface of the user device. In some embodiments, a user device selectively invokes a dictation mode or a command mode to process a speech input depending on whether an input focus of the user device is within a text input area displayed on the user device. In some embodiments, a digital assistant performs various operations in response to one or more objects being dragged and dropped onto an iconic representation of the digital assistant displayed on a graphical user interface. In some embodiments, a digital assistant is invoked to cooperate with the user to complete a task that the user has already started on a user device.

Though Apple is bringing some aspects of iOS to OS X such as Reminders, Apple has yet to integrate Siri into its desktop platform. The feature was not mentioned when Apple unveiled OS X Yosemite, and there is no known evidence in the current beta version of Yosemite that suggests Apple may integrate its personal assistant into future versions of the desktop OS. Still, it is clear Apple is thinking about ways to bring Siri-like features to OS X.

VentureBeat today posted a detailed overview of features that are said to be built into Apple's upcoming iPhone 6, with the outline provided by an unspecified source. While many of the proffered specifications in VentureBeat's outline echo past rumors, there are a few new specific details worth highlighting.

According to the site's source, Apple will introduce both the 4.7 and 5.5-inch iPhones at its upcoming September 9 event, but while the 4.7-inch version will ship in mid-September, the larger 5.5-inch iPhone won't ship until up to a month later. This is in line with rumors suggesting the 5.5-inch iPhone isn't entering mass production until August or September, a month to two months after production is said to have began on the 4.7-inch iPhone.

Apple's Touch ID fingerprint sensor is said to include minor improvements that "speed up read times, cut down on false rejections, and improve security for mobile payments and biometrics," and the source suggests the iPhone 6 will not use a sapphire screen.

We've also heard rumors that the new screens will be made of ultra-durable sapphire glass. Our source says the screens are made of an extremely hard material that's slightly harder than Gorilla Glass but not as hard as sapphire. That corroborates an earlier video report showing that the purported iPhone 6 screen is harder than previous models' screens but softer than sapphire crystal.

While a front panel said to be for the 4.7-inch iPhone has undergone some testing that suggests it may not be composed of sapphire, many rumors have pointed towards the use of a pure sapphire crystal display or sapphire laminated glass display in at least one of the iPhone 6 models. The volume of sapphire production at Apple's Arizona sapphire plant run by GT Advanced also points towards the heavy use of the material and it is unlikely that all of the company's sapphire is being allocated towards the iWatch. During Q2 2014 alone, GT Advanced spent over $45 million on "sapphire production ramp up costs", and previous rumors have suggested the plant can output enough sapphire to outfit approximately 100 to 200 million iPhones.

In addition to outlining possible features for the iPhone 6, VentureBeat also suggests that Apple is experimenting with special connectivity between the iPhone and Beats headphones using the Lightning connector. Apple did recently introduce a Lightning Cable MFi specification for headphones, making such a project a possibility.

Our source adds that Apple has also been playing around with some technology that would form a special "handshake" between iPhones and Beats headphones. This consists of a chip that would authenticate Beats headsets on iPhones using the Lightning connector. Whether or not that feature materializes is anybody's guess.

VentureBeat's sources have not been particularly reliable in the past. For example, the site recently suggested Apple was pairing up with Swatch to develop the iWatch, a rumor that was quickly shot down by Swatch CEO Nick Hayek. The site's source also "stresses" that the listed features may not be the "final spec list" for the iPhone 6, so the overall reliability of the provided information is unclear.

Though it's only been two months since Apple held its 25th annual Worldwide Developers Conference, the likely dates for its 26th conference have already surfaced. Apple's 26th annual Worldwide Developers Conference will most likely commence on June 8, 2015, and last through June 12, 2015, according to dates blocked out on the Moscone Center's 2015 summer schedule.

While the aforementioned dates are earmarked as just a "Corporate Event" on Moscone's website, in previous years (2008, 2009, 2010, 2012), the same non-specific Corporate Event during the June time period has turned out to be a placeholder for WWDC.

The June 8 to 12 time period reserved at Moscone West also coincides with a multi-year convention calendar for the San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau that was discovered in 2010. Thus far, the listed dates, which cover potential WWDC events from 2010 to 2015, have been accurate for the past four conferences.

It is, of course, possible that the generic Corporate Event label pertains to another event unrelated to WWDC, but based on past history, it seems to point towards Apple's events. It is also possible that Apple could opt to its schedule, but at this point in time, June 8, 2015 appears to be the tentative date for the next Worldwide Developers Conference.

An official confirmation of the dates for the 26th Worldwide Developers Conference will not come until the first few months of 2015, when Apple makes an announcement and begins ticket sales. In 2014, Apple announced its June 2 WWDC on April 3. Tickets to Apple's 2014 conference were distributed via a lottery system due to high demand, and it's possible tickets for the 2015 WWDC will be handled in the same way.

Though it's early to predict possible product introductions at next year's conference, based on past history, Apple will likely highlight both iOS 9 and OS X 10.11, Yosemite's successor. The timing may also coincide with the launch of some of Intel's Broadwell chips, making it an ideal event to unveil updated Broadwell-based MacBooks.

Update 8/7 8PM PT: The "Corporate Event" listed on the Moscone Center event schedule has now been removed.

Roughly six weeks ago, ABC News launched a new Apple TV channel offering a wide range of live and on-demand content from both national and select local feeds. Based on the first 30 days of availability, ABC News has now put together an infographic that offers a look at how the channel is being used. Among the interesting observations:

- Live video usage on Apple TV, which accounts for 20 percent of channel views, is 50 percent higher than on mobile and desktop combined.

- Apple TV viewers spend 65 percent more time per visit than desktop users.

- Peak usage for the ABC News Apple TV channel falls at 9 PM Eastern Time, likely due to that time period encompassing evening viewing hours for most of the United States.

Apple has been adding new channels to the Apple TV at a fairly rapid pace, at least in the United States, although many of them require authentication through an existing cable service provider. The company has long been rumored to be working on a more powerful set-top box, but the latest rumors have suggested the device is unlikely to arrive until 2015.