Joe Rossignol

Following a sketchy rumor last week that said Apple is planning to introduce a "Deep Blue" color option for the upcoming iPhone 7, Japanese blog Mac Otakara has clarified to AppleInsider that the new color will actually be a "much darker" variant of space gray that is "close to black, though not quite black." Black and slate iPhone 5 on left vs. space gray iPhone 5s (Mike Cronin via YouTube) Mon...

Apple may switch to micro-LED displays for the Apple Watch in the second half of 2017 at the earliest, moving away from the current OLED technology used, according to supply chain sources for Taiwanese website DigiTimes. The timeline suggests that the much-rumored Apple Watch 2 lineup expected to debut in the second half of 2016 will continue to have OLED displays, with the move towards...

A new iTunes bug has been discovered that causes Apple Music playback issues related to tracks shorter than 60 seconds. MacRumors was able to reproduce the issue on Macs running OS X 10.11.5 and iTunes 12.4.1. Specifically, when an Apple Music track that is shorter than 60 seconds is streamed in its entirety, without skipping ahead, the subsequent song in an album or playlist fails to play and ...

Walmart has announced that its mobile payments solution Walmart Pay is now available in 16 additional U.S. states, including Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Carolina, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Virginia. Washington, D.C. is also on board. Walmart Pay is built into the Walmart app [Direct...

T-Mobile has announced a new promotion that will offer postpaid customers free unlimited high-speed data, at up to 4G LTE speeds, in all European countries, except Andorra, between July 1 and August 31 of this year. The carrier noted that customers will receive the highest available data speeds depending on where they are traveling in Europe, while text messaging is free worldwide and calls...

Apple has announced that its fifth retail store in Hong Kong opens on Thursday, June 30 at 10:00 a.m. local time. The store will be located inside the New Town Plaza shopping mall at 18 Sha Tin Centre Street. The store will be open seven days a week between 10:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m. local time, providing customers in the northern Sha Tin District with access to the Genius Bar and other...

Apple SIM partner GigSky has announced that it has expanded availability of its pay-as-you-go cellular data plans for iPad Pro, iPad Air 2, and iPad mini 3 and 4 to over 140 countries, up from more than 90 countries and territories in June 2015. The new additions, among others, include Afghanistan, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Armenia, Argentina, Cayman Islands, Colombia, Dominica, Ecuador,...

Apple has opened registration in the U.S. and a number of other countries (links below) for its annual Apple Summer Camp, where kids aged 8 to 12 can attend a company retail store and learn how to create interactive books and movies using Apple products and software, ranging from iBooks Author on Mac to iMovie on iPad. Apple's summer workshops will be hosted between 10:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m....

Spotify confirmed to The Telegraph today that it now has more than 100 million monthly active users worldwide, including approximately 30 million monthly paying subscribers. Comparatively, Apple services chief Eddy Cue announced at WWDC 2016 last week that Apple Music has 15 million paying subscribers, just two weeks before the streaming music service turns one year old. Apple Music was at 13...

Chinese smartphone repair shop Rock Fix recently shared photos of alleged iPhone 7 components on microblogging service Weibo, potentially including dual-SIM trays that would allow for the smartphone to send and receive calls and messages from multiple phone numbers (via Engadget). Dual SIM technology would also enable iPhone 7 users to use multiple carriers based upon network coverage,...

During its What's New in Metal, Part 1 session at WWDC 2016, Apple used an iPad to demo the graphics API's new adaptive tessellation capabilities on iOS 10. At the 17:58 mark of the video, a TextEdit icon can be seen on the iPad's home screen from the multitasking app switcher screen. TextEdit is Apple's basic word processor preinstalled on macOS Sierra and previous OS X versions, but the...

In a wide-ranging commentary piece about WWDC 2016, tech journalist Walt Mossberg included an interesting bit about why Apple has not expanded iMessage to competing software platforms like Android.When I asked a senior Apple executive why iMessage wasn’t being expanded to other platforms, he gave two answers. First, he said, Apple considers its own user base of 1 billion active devices to...

Along with expanding its free Beats promotion to Europe, Apple has quietly changed its education incentives for students in the United Kingdom. As of this week, Apple's online higher education store in the U.K. now offers up to 10 percent off Macs and other qualifying purchases, whereas the discount was previously up to 15 percent off. The base model 13-inch MacBook Pro now costs £898.80...

Apple previewed iOS 10 earlier this week with new rich notifications that enable iPhone users to view photos and videos, listen to audio, or respond to messages directly within notification bubbles. If you receive an iMessage, for example, you will be able to reply to the conversation without leaving the Lock screen. Apple has also provided developers with the ability to update existing...

In the weeks leading up to WWDC 2016, multiple reliable sources indicated the opening keynote would be a no-hardware affair. And as it turned out, the focus of the event was unsurprisingly on software, including iOS 10, macOS Sierra, tvOS 10, and watchOS 3. So, when can we expect new Apple hardware? Many products were at some point rumored to have a possible connection with WWDC 2016,...

Apple on Tuesday hosted a WWDC 2016 session called What's New in Accessibility that provided an overview of new assisitive technologies and features added to iOS 10, macOS Sierra, tvOS 10, and watchOS 3. Physical and Motor Skills Switch Control can now be used to interact with the tvOS interface using a single physical button, such as a switch on a wheelchair. There is both a cursor...

Apple implemented privacy safeguards on iOS long ago so that when an app requests access to your contacts, calendars, photos, or location, a dialog box pops up asking for express user permission. On iOS 9 and previous software versions, however, that safeguard did not extend to a device's media library. Apple developer Ben Dodson addressed the privacy concern in a blog post in January:I...

While most of the WWDC 2016 keynote was focused on iOS 10, macOS Sierra, and new versions of tvOS and watchOS, Apple also made a number of CarPlay-related announcements during the two-hour presentation. First, the new Apple Maps appearance on iOS 10 and some new features extend to the dashboard. If there is a lot of traffic ahead, for example, CarPlay will now proactively provide you with...

Apple this week previewed watchOS 3, the next major version of its Apple Watch software platform. The first beta has been seeded to registered developers, allowing for early adopters to take a closer look at what's new in the update. Many tidbits in the new watchOS have already been discovered that were not given much or any stage time during Apple's WWDC 2016 keynote, including improvements...

T-Mobile has announced that its free unlimited video streaming program Binge On now supports over five additional video services, including Azubu, Dailymotion Games, Eyegroove, PBS, PBS Kids, and more. Binge On now supports nearly 90 video services in the United States. Binge On enables customers on a qualifying Simple Choice plan to stream unlimited 480p video from dozens of partnered...