Joe Rossignol

Apple is in the process of acquiring self-driving vehicle startup Drive.ai in order to boost its own development of a self-driving vehicle system, according to unnamed sources cited by The Information's Amir Efrati and Alex Heath. The planned deal is described as an "acqui-hire," suggesting that Apple is interested in the company primarily for its employees rather than its technology. The...

On the latest episode of the Mac Power Users podcast, hosts David Sparks and Stephen Hackett had the opportunity to speak with Apple product manager Doug Brooks about the all-new Mac Pro, unveiled at WWDC 2019 earlier this week. The new Mac Pro is an absolute powerhouse with up to 28-core Intel Xeon processors, up to 1.5TB of RAM, up to 4TB of SSD storage, and the option for the "world's...

Apple updated its iMac lineup in March with new processor and graphics options, but the latest 27-inch model appears to have a pricing mistake. If you start with the $1,999 configuration and upgrade it to have a 3.6GHz eight-core Intel Core i9 processor, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB of SSD storage, the price totals $2,999 with Radeon Pro 575X graphics. If you start with the $2,299 configuration ...

Hey Siri, play Old Town Road on Spotify. Ask that now and Siri will tell you that it cannot play songs from Spotify, but that could change soon. Apple is opening up its SiriKit framework to third-party music, podcasts, audiobooks, and radio apps in iOS 13 and iPadOS, enabling users to use Siri to control audio playback in supported apps. Mockup of Siri support for Spotify It will be up to...

While the Mac and iPad remain distinct products, Apple continues to bridge the gap between its desktop and mobile platforms. In 2014, for example, it introduced Continuity features like Handoff and Universal Clipboard that enable more seamless experiences across the Mac, ‌iPad‌, and other Apple devices. The next step in this process is Project Catalyst, which makes it much easier for developers...

As one of many updates to its App Store Review Guidelines this week, Apple has indicated that parental control app developers are again permitted to use Mobile Device Management (MDM) technology in their apps, so long as they do not sell, use, or disclose any data to third parties for any purpose. An excerpt from the newly added Guideline 5.5:You must make a clear declaration of what user...

Following the reveal of its much-anticipated Mac Pro redesign at WWDC 2019 on Monday, a handful of reporters met with Apple's marketing chief Phil Schiller and other executives to learn a bit more about the powerhouse machine. Apple's all-new Mac Pro and Pro Display XDR via The Verge Ina Fried of Axios has provided a few key takeaways from the conversation:Apple's vision for the new Mac Pro's ...

Earlier this month, it was reported that 3D Touch will not be supported by 2019 iPhones. This rumor was surfaced by a team of Barclays analysts after they traveled to Asia and spoke with multiple Apple suppliers, likely meaning that there is evidence of ‌3D Touch‌ being removed at the hardware level. Now, on the software side, there are changes that suggest the rumor is accurate. It really...

A few months ago, 9to5Mac's Guilherme Rambo reported that Apple is working on a new Tile-like item tracker accessory for tracking the location of belongings through the new merged Find My app. The report said the "tag" would be paired to a user's iCloud account and rely on proximity to an iPhone. Tile next to placeholder image for Apple's item tracker in iOS 13 via 9to5Mac Like the Tile,...

Apple Music, the App Store, and the Mac App Store are experiencing outages affecting "some users," according to Apple's system status page, one day after Apple seeded the first betas of iOS 13 and macOS Catalina to developers. Apple says some users are "experiencing a problem" with each service. The company is investigating and will update the statuses of each service as more information...

Apple today unveiled the Pro Display XDR, a 32-inch 6K monitor with a P3 wide color gamut and true 10-bit color support, 1,600 nits of peak brightness, a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio, and a super-wide, off-axis viewing angle. Apple's press release:The all-new Mac Pro starts at $5,999 and will be available to order in the fall. Pro Display XDR starts at $4,999, the Pro Stand is $999 and the...

Apple today unveiled its long-awaited Mac Pro redesign at WWDC 2019. Following the keynote, Apple has published a press release highlighting positive feedback from pro app developers like Adobe, Pixar, and Autodesk. Adobe is "incredibly excited" about the new Mac Pro, according to its vice president of 3D and immersive technologies Sebastien Deguy:We're incredibly excited about the new Mac...

Apple at WWDC 2019 today made a series of augmented reality announcements headlined by ARKit 3. ARKit 3 features a new immersive "People Occlusion" feature that allows virtual objects to be placed in front and behind people in real time, as Mojang demonstrated on stage with a preview of its augmented reality game Minecraft Earth. Apple's new RealityKit SDK provides developers with tools...

Apple today at WWDC 2019 unveiled a new Mac app named Sidecar that will allow an iPad to be used as a second display for a Mac, similar to existing third-party options like Duet Display and Luna Display. ‌Sidecar‌ will work both wired and wirelessly and will support the Apple Pencil as an input device for the Mac. This functionality will be supported across all apps that support tablets....

Apple today at WWDC 2019 announced that Apple News+ will be expanding to the United Kingdom and Australia in iOS 13. ‌Apple News‌+ is currently available in the United States for $9.99 per month and in Canada for $12.99 per month. The service, based on Apple's acquisition of Texture, provides unlimited access to hundreds of digital magazines and...

Apple at WWDC 2019 today announced that the HomePod is gaining Handoff support, allowing users to place an iPhone near the ‌HomePod‌ to hand over music, podcast, or a phone call. Apple also announced that AirPods are getting a new Audio Sharing feature, allowing users to share a song or movie with a friend with just a...

Many home cameras today send video the the cloud to, for example, analyze the difference between a leaf blowing in the wind or someone at your door. Apple aims to improve this with a new feature called HomeKit Secure Video with on-device analyzing. An encrypted stream is then sent to iCloud that no one, not even Apple, can see. You'll be alerted to activity and can review what's going on. ...

Apple today at WWDC 2019 announced that iPhones and iPads are getting a native swipe-based keyboard named QuickPath. The new QuickPath keyboard enables allows you to swipe your finger from one letter to the next to type without removing your finger from the keyboard to enter a word, allowing for easier one-handed typing. Apple's website confirms that the keyboard is available in both iOS 13...

Apple today at WWDC 2019 announced that new health and fitness capabilities are coming to the Apple Watch in watchOS 6. To start, the Activity app is getting a new Activity Trends feature so you can see your progress over time. It will compare trends over the last 90 days to the last 365 days so you can see if you're keeping on track. A new Noise app uses the Apple Watch microphone to...

Apple today at WWDC 2019 announced that the iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV are gaining Xbox One S and PlayStation 4 DualShock controller support for games in iOS 13, iPadOS, and tvOS 13 respectively. This much-welcomed news provides iPhone, ‌iPad‌, and ‌Apple TV‌ gamers with additional options beyond MFi-certified controllers like the SteelSeries Nimbus and the Siri Remote for the ‌Apple TV‌. iOS...