MacRumors

Apple's former retail chief Angela Ahrendts, who left the company last month after five years, has joined Airbnb's board of directors.

In May 2018, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky said that he planned to appoint at least one woman to the company's board, according to CNN. Ahrendts will be the second woman to join Airbnb's board after Ann Mather of Pixar and Disney last August.

"Angela has a reputation for pushing brands to dream big, and she told me that's exactly what she hopes to bring to Airbnb's Board," said Chesky.

Ahrendts reflected on her time at Apple in February:

The last five years have been the most stimulating, challenging and fulfilling of my career. Through the teams' collective efforts, Retail has never been stronger or better positioned to make an even greater contribution for Apple. I feel there is no better time to pass the baton to Deirdre, one of Apple's strongest executives. I look forward to watching how this amazing team, under her leadership, will continue to change the world one person and one community at a time.

Here's what Apple CEO Tim Cook had to say:

I want to thank Angela for inspiring and energizing our teams over the past five years. She has been a positive, transformative force, both for Apple's stores and the communities they serve. We all wish her the very best as she begins a new chapter.

Prior to joining Apple in 2014, Ahrendts was the CEO of famous fashion company Burberry, and before that, she held positions at Liz Claiborne and Donna Karan. Ahrendts joined Apple at a time when Apple was experimenting with luxury products, such as the $10,000-plus 18-karat gold Apple Watch Edition.

Ahrendts was succeeded by longtime Apple executive Deirdre O'Brien, who now oversees both human resources and retail aspects of the company.

Today is Global Accessibility Awareness Day, an event that promotes inclusion and access to technology for anyone with a disability. As it has over the past few years, Apple is marking the day by updating Apple.com in the United States and a few regions around the world with a message promoting accessibility: "Technology is most powerful when it empowers everyone."

On the Apple.com front page, visitors are encouraged to explore more accessibility features, which is linked to Apple's existing accessibility page. The page doesn't appear to have been updated yet this year; it highlights areas where Apple helps users with disabilities related to vision, hearing, physical and motor skills, learning, and literacy.

On the accessibility page, Apple highlights its short commercial from 2016 about real people with disabilities who use its products in everyday life, narrated by Sady Paulson, who uses Switch Control on a Mac. Otherwise the page showcases Apple accessibility features like VoiceOver, Live Listen, Switch Control, and more, with the help of products including the iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and HomePod.

In years past, Apple celebrated Global Accessibility Awareness Day with a series of "Designed for" videos that highlighted interviews conducted between CEO Tim Cook and three accessibility activists. Apple has also previously held a Stevie Wonder concert at One Infinite Loop and hosted global events promoting inclusive design at Apple corporate offices in Cupertino, Austin, Cork, and London. The company also usually holds accessibility-related Today at Apple sessions at its retail stores.

Update: Apple is also highlighting accessibility on the iOS App Store today, featuring stories about developers who build iOS apps to help people with disabilities.

The stories discuss apps like Proloquo2Go, Strava, Audible, djay, Ready to Roll, and more. They can be found on the "Today" tab on the ‌App Store‌ on ‌iPhone‌ and ‌iPad‌.

The company has also shared a new press release that focuses on California-based photographer Rachael Short, who takes fine art photographs exclusively using the ‌iPhone‌. Short suffered a spinal cord injury in a car accident nine years ago, and now uses an ‌iPhone‌ XS to capture images. She used to carry multiple cameras and a variety of film around, but loves the mobility and ease-of-use the ‌iPhone‌ affords her after the accident.

“I couldn’t imagine being in my situation even 15 years ago without my iPhone,” Short says. “Technology has changed so much in that time. It just opens up so many possibilities for people with disabilities and limited mobility. It’s my camera, it’s my email, it’s my photo editing, it’s ‘Hey Siri, do stuff for me.’ It’s everything.”

Apple also confirmed that it is hosting events around the world to promote inclusive design and emphasize technology that works for everyone.

Apple has ranked third in the annual Fortune 500 list of the highest-revenue-generating companies based in the United States, with $265.5 billion revenue in fiscal 2018, trailing only Walmart and oil giant ExxonMobil.

Apple moved up one spot in this year's rankings, overtaking billionaire investor Warren Buffett's holding company Berkshire Hathaway.

Fortune's description of Apple:

Two thousand eighteen will be remembered as the year that Apple first achieved a market value of $1 trillion, as well as when growth in iPhones, Apple's largest single product by far, began to slow. Before the introduction of the iPod—the iPhone's precursor—Apple was a once-exciting computer maker. Now, only a retailer and an oil company are bigger. Its challenge: as consumers hang onto phones longer, Apple is repositioning itself as a services provider. Already iTunes, Apple Music, iCloud, and cuts from sales in its popular Apple Store generate billions of dollars of sales.

Apple has made the Fortune 500 list for 37 years and has now cracked the top 10 spots for seven consecutive years:

• 2019: 3rd
  

• 2018: 4th
  

• 2017: 3rd
  

• 2016: 3rd
  

• 2015: 5th
  

• 2014: 5th
  

• 2013: 6th
  

• 2012: 17th
  

• 2011: 35th
  

• 2010: 56th

Other notable technology companies in this year's Fortune 500 include Amazon in fifth, Google parent company Alphabet in 15th, and Microsoft in 26th.

Valve's Steam Link app, which is designed to let you play Steam games on your iPhone, iPad, or Apple TV has finally made its way to iOS and is available for download as of today.

Valve first announced the Steam Link app in May 2018 and planned to launch it soon after, but Apple ended up rejecting the app due to "business conflicts."

Though Valve argued that Steam Link was similar to other remote desktop-based apps that provide access to a PC or Mac, Apple refused to budge and did not allow Valve to release Steam Link until now.

Apple's marketing chief Phil Schiller said in 2018 that Apple would continue to work with Valve to "bring the Steam experience to iOS and ‌Apple TV‌ in a way that complies with the [App Store] guidelines," and it appears the two companies were finally able to reach an agreement.

Valve said that it would remove the ability to purchase apps from within Steam Link in an effort to get Apple to approve the app, which may have allowed it onto the ‌App Store‌. When connecting Steam Link to a PC or Mac, the main view is of your library, aka the games you've already purchased, and there is no readily apparent option for purchasing content directly on your iOS device.

The new Steam Link app for iOS lets you play your Steam games on an ‌iPhone‌, ‌iPad‌, or ‌Apple TV‌ by streaming them from a Mac or PC. The Steam Link app essentially mirrors the content on your Mac or PC to your device. iOS 10 or later is required, and Valve recommends using 5GHz internet connections for the best performance. Games can be played using a Made for ‌iPhone‌ or Steam controller, and there are also touch screen control options that put virtual buttons on the screen.

Pairing an iOS device to a Mac or PC running Steam is a simple process. Your ‌iPhone‌ or ‌iPad‌ scans your network for a Mac or PC that has Steam installed, and pairing is done through a code. A bandwidth test is conducted to make sure there will be a smooth gameplay experience, and then additional drivers may need to be downloaded on your computer.

The Steam Link app brings desktop gaming to your iPhone or iPad. Just pair an MFI or Steam controller to your device, connect to a computer running Steam on the same local network, and start playing your existing Steam games.

Requirements:
- iPhone or iPad using iOS 10 or higher
- Computer running Steam - Windows, Mac, or Linux
- iOS device must be on the same local network as the computer running Steam

For best performance:
- Connect your computer using Ethernet to your 5Ghz WiFi router
- Connect your iOS device to the 5GHz band of your WiFi network
- Keep your iOS device within a reasonable range of your router

Steam Link can be downloaded from the ‌App Store‌ for free. [Direct Link]

Apple today seeded the first beta of an upcoming iOS 12.4 update to developers, a few days after the launch of iOS 12.3, a major update that introduced Apple's revamped TV app.

Registered developers can download the new iOS 12.4 beta from Apple's Developer Center or over-the-air once the proper configuration profile has been installed from the Developer Center.

As a 12.x update, the new software may include more significant features than the smaller 12.x.x updates. iOS 12.4 will mark the the fourth major update to iOS 12 after iOS 12.3, which introduced a redesigned TV app with Apple's new Channels feature for subscribing to and watching third-party subscription content right in the TV app.

We don't yet know what we can expect to see in iOS 12.4, but we'll update this post as soon as we download the software and discover what's new. It's likely that this beta includes some Apple Card-related features, as the Apple Card is set to launch in the summer.

iOS 12.4 may be one of the last updates to the iOS 12 operating system as Apple transitions to iOS 13, which is expected to be introduced at WWDC in June.

Alexa now supports Apple Music in Australia and New Zealand on Amazon Echo and Amazon Fire TV devices, and compatible Sonos speakers, as reflected in a recently updated Apple support document.

This means ‌Apple Music‌ subscribers who own one of those devices in those countries can now ask Alexa to play songs, artists, playlists, and more from ‌Apple Music‌. This functionality first launched in the United States in December before expanding to the United Kingdom and Ireland last month.

Read our guide on how to set up Apple Music in the Alexa app, including how to make it the default music service so that you don't have to say "on ‌Apple Music‌" each time you ask Alexa to play something.

(Thanks, Brad!)

The Information has published a lengthy look into Apple's seemingly deteriorating relationship with Intel in terms of iPhone modems, leading to Apple's rekindled relationship with rival chipmaker Qualcomm last month.

The report claims that Apple's frustrations with Intel's modem efforts began much earlier than some previous reports had indicated, and involved struggles with modems for the ‌iPhone‌ XS, ‌iPhone‌ XS Max, and ‌iPhone‌ XR, not just 5G smartphone modem development that Intel abandoned last month.

It was early 2017 and Apple was preparing a new line of iPhones to be released the next year, but the Intel modem for the devices, known as the 7560, wasn't working properly, according to two people with knowledge of the relationship. […] Intel had already overhauled the modem four times to bring it up to par with the latest Qualcomm modem. But missed deadlines and continuing technical issues with the chip were making Apple executives anxious, said one of the people.

"This would have never happened at Apple under my watch," Mr. Srouji barked at his Intel counterpart, Venkata "Murthy" Renduchintala, during a meeting on Apple's campus, according to the person, who was present at the meeting.

The size and structure of Intel's mobile division made it difficult to efficiently engineer modems, with teams struggling to work together, according to multiple current and former Intel employees and industry partners cited in the report.

In a statement provided to The Information, Intel also confirmed interest in its modem business from many companies, reportedly including Apple:

We have world-class 5G modem technology that very few companies have the IP and expertise to deliver. That's why many companies have expressed interest in acquiring our cellular modem assets since our recent announcement that we are assessing our options to realize the value we have created.

While it appears that Apple and Qualcomm's multi-year licensing and chipset supply agreement will result in Qualcomm supplying modems for the first 5G-enabled iPhones, expected to launch in 2020, multiple reports have indicated that Apple is on the path to developing its own cellular modems.

According to The Information, however, those in-house efforts appear to be farther away than initially thought. During interviews, the report claims Apple told prospective engineers that it expects to have its own modem ready by 2025, far later than the earliest considered possibility of 2021.

All in all, the report reaffirms the belief that Apple was so fed up with Intel's modem struggles that it had little to no choice but to settle its bitter legal battle with Qualcomm. That should result in Qualcomm modems in iPhones for at least a few years, at least until Apple finalizes its own chip.

Apple Pay has been gradually expanding across Europe and the Middle East, launching in Poland, Norway, Kazakhstan, Belgium, Germany, Czech Republic, Saudi Arabia, Austria, and Iceland over the last year.

Now, mobile banking service Monese has revealed that ‌Apple Pay‌ is also coming soon to its cardholders in Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, Greece, Lithuania, Liechtenstein, Latvia, Malta, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia. Many of these countries are located in Eastern Europe.

‌Apple Pay‌ is also nearing launch in the Netherlands, Hungary, and Luxembourg for a total of 16 upcoming countries. Apple CEO Tim Cook has said that ‌Apple Pay‌ will be available in more than 40 regions by the end of 2019.

‌Apple Pay‌ first launched in the United States in October 2014 and has since expanded to dozens of countries and territories. The service can be used anywhere contactless payments are accepted with a compatible iPhone or Apple Watch, and it is also accepted by select apps and websites.