Apple will be donating to Notre Dame rebuilding efforts to help restore the historic cathedral in Paris, according to a tweet from its CEO Tim Cook.
Notre Dame was significantly damaged in a fire on Monday. While the cause of the blaze remains unknown, the cathedral had been undergoing renovations, and at this point it is believed that it may have been accidental. Fortunately, reports indicate that no lives were lost in the fire, but at least one first responder is injured.
We are heartbroken for the French people and those around the world for whom Notre Dame is a symbol of hope. Relieved that everyone is safe. Apple will be donating to the rebuilding efforts to help restore Notre Dame’s precious heritage for future generations.🇫🇷
— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) April 16, 2019
Cook did not indicate how much Apple will donate to the efforts. Less than 24 hours after the fire, French billionaires and other companies have already pledged over $450 million to help rebuild Notre Dame.
macOS 10.15 will have a new feature that allows users to send any window of any app to an external display, according to 9to5Mac's Guilherme Rambo. The external display can supposedly be a monitor connected to the Mac or even an iPad.
Luna Display
The report claims this functionality will be accessible via a new menu that can be opened by hovering over the green "maximize" button in a Mac app window for a split second. The menu is expected to provide options for making windows full-screen, tiling windows, and moving windows to external displays.
The feature, codenamed "Sidecar," is said to be similar to the Luna Display hardware solution that turns an iPad into a second display for the Mac.
Users with an iPad that supports Apple Pencil will be able to draw with the Pencil when the iPad is being used as an external display for the Mac, effectively "turning the iPad into a Wacom-like tablet," according to the report.
The report claims Apple is also working on options that will allow windows to be easily snapped to one side of the screen.
Japanese electronics maker Yamaha has announced that it will be rolling out AirPlay 2 support to 15 of its current home audio products, including a sound bar, wireless speakers, and receivers, starting later this month.
The rollout will begin in late April and includes the following products:
Users will be automatically prompted to install the firmware update via Yahama's MusicCast Controller app for iOS devices.
AirPlay 2 will allow for Yamaha's home audio products to work with other AirPlay 2-enabled devices, such as the HomePod, Apple TV, and Sonos speakers, complete with multi-room audio syncing. AirPlay 2 devices can also be controlled with Siri and appear in the Home app across iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch.
Additionally, starting today, over 70 Yamaha audio products will gain support for Actions on Google through an update to the MusicCast app, enabling voice control of compatible Yamaha devices via Google Assistant, either using the Google Home or an Android or iOS device with the Google Assistant app.
Huawei said on Tuesday it has not held talks with Apple about supplying 5G chips for future iPhones, just a day after its founder admitted it was "open" to doing so (via Reuters).
"We have not had discussions with Apple on this issue," Huawei's rotating Chairman Ken Hu said on Tuesday, adding he looked forward to Apple's competition in the 5G phone market.
Last week we covered a report suggesting that the Chinese tech firm might be interested in supplying the next-generation modem chips to Apple. The rumor was later confirmed on Monday, when CNBC published an interview with Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei in which he said the same thing.
The Chinese tech firm develops its own components including processors and modem chips, but has previously refused to supply them to third-parties, making its self-declared openness to sell to Apple all the more notable.
However, Apple has expressed no interest in using Huawei tech, despite potential suitability for Apple devices. That could be related to Huawei's dispute with the U.S. government, or perhaps Apple's own accusations that the firm uses "dubious tactics" to steal trade secrets.
Apple is rumored to be struggling in its plans to support 5G technology, with plans to introduce a 5G iPhone in 2020 stymied by partner Intel's inability to meet its own production timeline.
Switching to Qualcomm 5G chips instead seems increasingly unlikely, given Apple's ongoing legal battle with the company. Meanwhile, Apple has been in talks with Samsung and MediaTek about making 5G chips for 2020 iPhones, but there's no word on how discussions have been going.
Apple is also working on its own LTE chip designs for future iPhones, but that technology is not expected to be ready to ship until 2021.
The Procreate app for iOS was today updated to version 4.3, introducing several major features that enable new text manipulation abilities within illustrations, as well as general speed and performance improvements.
Users of the popular illustration app for iPad can now add editable typography to their illustrations, while precision sliders make it possible to refine spacing and alignment, and rasterize the results to finish.
This release also introduces the ability to drag and drop fonts into Procreate, while new layer export options allow you to share layers as folders containing PNG images, a multi-page PDF, or an animated GIF.
Elsewhere, there's new pressure smoothing settings to enhance strokes, and new layer blend modes including Darker/Lighter Color, Vivid Light, Linear Light, Pin Light, Hard Mix and Divide.
Procreate 4.3 is a free update for existing users. New users can download Procreate from the App Store for $9.99. [Direct Link]
Facebook will discontinue its peer-to-peer payments feature for Messenger users in the United Kingdom and France on June 15, the company announced on Tuesday (via TechCrunch).
The social network sent out notices to users of the service in the two countries informing them of the decision, adding that they would continue to be able to make charitable donations through Facebook itself. A note on the company's online help center reads:
"On 15 June 2019, we will discontinue P2P services on Messenger or through Facebook messages for all residents in the UK and France. While you won't be able to exchange money with friends and family, you'll still be able to complete other transactions through Facebook, such as making donations to charitable organisations."
Facebook's Messenger instant payments service originally launched in 2015, but wasn't available to users outside of the United State until November 2017, when it began rolling out in the U.K. It appears that the service will continue to remain active in the U.S. for now, despite the pullback in Europe.
Facebook offered no reason for its decision to end the payments service in the two countries, although the company is reportedly working on its own cryptocurrency that could enable people to send money to each other over the social network.
Apple has agreed to open a new 20,000-square-foot retail store in the heart of Knightsbridge, one of London's most luxurious shopping areas, according to local media.
Proposed development in Knightsbridge, London (Image via Chelsfield)
Citing property sources, The Evening Standard reports that Apple has signed a deal with Chelsfield, the property asset manager overseeing a makeover of The Knightsbridge Estate, to secure retail lettings between high-end department stores Harrods and Harvey Nichols.
The transformation of The Estate as a whole is expected to deliver a mix of new "world-class" retail accommodation, including six flagship stores, 66,000 square feet of Grade A offices, 35 rental apartments around an internal courtyard garden, and a rooftop restaurant.
The landmark development is currently surrounded by a public artwork installation called "The Knights of Knightsbridge" to conceal construction.
Apple has five retail locations in the English capital, including flagship stores Regent Street and Covent Garden, which reopened late last year following a three-month renovation.
Every year, Apple provides free scholarships to students and STEM organization members who don't have the $1,599 necessary to purchase a ticket to the Worldwide Developers Conference.
For Apple's 2019 WWDC event, scholarship applications were accepted from March 14 to March 24, with Apple promising to notify winners on April 15. April 15 has rolled around and emails are going out to those who were chosen to receive a scholarship now that Apple has reviewed the submissions.
Apple is offering 350 scholarships in total, which will include a WWDC ticket, free lodging, and a one-year membership to the Apple Developer Program.
🎊 I've won a #WWDC19 Scholarship! 🎊 Whether or not you were accepted, it was a great learning experience, and it was tons of fun chatting and having fun in the #WWDCScholars chat pic.twitter.com/ccn35lxIQ8
— Julian Schiavo (@justJS_dev) April 15, 2019
Apple asked scholarship applicants to create an interactive Swift Playground able to be experienced within three minutes. Like last year, submissions were judged applications based on technical accomplishment, creativity of ideas, and content of written responses on the accompanying application.
Apple held its developer ticket lottery in March and notified developers who won a full price ticket on March 21.
At this year's WWDC event, Apple is expected to debut iOS 13, macOS 10.15, tvOS 13, and watchOS 6 at a keynote event set to be held on June 3. WWDC 2019 will take place from June 3 to June 7 at the McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, California.
Scholarship students and developers who were not chosen to attend the event will be able to follow along with the conference using the WWDC app and developer website.
Some publishers who have joined Apple News+ are unhappy with the launch of the service and have shared details on some "early headaches" with media site Digiday.
When encouraging publications to sign up, Apple promised design resources and templates for customizing content for the Apple News format, but as it turns out, Apple is shutting out some smaller publications and "playing favorites" with larger publishers.
All participating publishers have been provided with an email address for sending pitches for design help, but a smaller group of publishers has been provided with access to a private Slack channel.
But a smaller, select group of publishers were invited to join a private Slack channel where they could connect with Apple more directly, a move that exasperated several sources when they were informed of the channel's existence. "They're basically playing favorites," that first source said. "It always seems to be good for the big guys, but not for the rest of us."
Apple has not provided Apple-designed article or content templates to publishers and has "largely outsourced" templates to vendors, which has resulted in bugs and other issues, along with much more work for publishers.
Magazine publishers need to use tools to scan PDFs and convert them into individual articles and advertisements, but the technology is said to be so buggy that each issue needs to be "effectively copy- and design-edited all over again."
Smaller magazines that don't have the resources for these full redesigns need to either invest time and money anyway or submit a PDF instead. A lot of the content within Apple News+ at the current time is PDF-based, which does not make for the greatest user reading experience.
Publishers are also said to be frustrated with the "uneven user experience" in Apple News with the split between PDFs and the new Apple News format. "You think of Apple, and they're so design-conscious," said one publisher. "This doesn't feel like that at all."
According to Digiday, the publishers that it spoke to said that the flaws in Apple News+ do not "bode well for its long-term future" unless Apple adapts its approach and makes some key changes to the service.
Apple News+ users have also expressed frustration with the service, and at MacRumors we've heard numerous complaints from Apple customers confused by the unintuitive user interface and unhappy with the lack of features.
Amazon is in talks to launch a free, ad-supported music service, reports Billboard. Amazon currently offers an Amazon Music Unlimited service with 50 million songs and a Prime Music service, which offers up around 2 million songs to Amazon Prime members.
Amazon Prime costs $119 per year, while Amazon Music Unlimited is priced at $9.99 per month. Prime Members have low-cost access to Amazon Music Unlimited, as Amazon charges a discounted $7.99 per month price for those who want to listen on any device or $3.99 per month for those who only listen on an Amazon Echo. Amazon does not currently offer free listening options.
According to Billboard, the new ad-supported music service will join Amazon's existing services and will be marketed through the company's voice-activated Echo speakers. Like Prime Music, it will have a limited catalog.
Offering a free ad-supported music tier would put more competitive pressure on Spotify, one of the few music services that has a free music option. Other competing services, such as Apple Music and Tidal, are subscription only and do not offer free ad-supported listening.
To score deals with some record companies, Amazon is offering to pay per stream, regardless of how much advertising is sold.
Spotify uses its free music tier to draw in new paying subscribers. Spotify has around 116 million free listeners and 96 million paying customers, while Apple Music, a major Amazon and Spotify competitor, has 56 million paying subscribers. Amazon has not provided details on how many paying subscribers it has, but estimates have suggested the total might be somewhere around 20 million.
Amazon could be planning to launch its new ad-supported free streaming music service as soon as next week.
Apple this afternoon shared a new video in its ongoing "Shot on iPhone XS" series, this time focusing on the Maldives Shark Research Programme, a charity focused on whale shark research and community-focused conservation efforts.
The eight minute long video features underwater shots of whale sharks and the researchers that are studying them, as well as providing insights into how researchers use Apple products to further their conservation goals.
In addition to showing off the iPhone, the MacBook Pro and iPad also make an appearance.
While the video was captured entirely on the iPhone, Apple says that some additional equipment was used, including the Freefly Movi Cinema Robot, the FiLMiC Pro App, the AxisGO Water Housing, and a Beastgrip.
Apple has shared many "Shot on iPhone" videos and photos over the course of the last several years, including one in the same vein that was recently captured in Cuba.
Apple today uploaded six new videos focused on showing off iPad Pro features, continuing on with its "What You Can Do With iPad" series promoting the new 11 and 12.9-inch tablets.
Most of the videos are over a minute long and feature different iPad Pro apps, features, and capabilities, ranging from handwriting a note with Apple Pencil to creating music.
Multitasking with multiple windows, making notes with Apple Pencil, browsing the web, using Maps, watching videos, reading with the Books app, annotating photos, using drag and drop, video editing, typing with both the on-screen keyboard and the Smart Keyboard Folio, and making music with GarageBand are all shown off in the video.
Apple also highlights charging the iPhone with the iPad Pro, shooting in 4K, plugging in USB-C accessories, and Group FaceTime.
Several third-party apps are shown off in the videos, such as LumaFusion, Animation Desk, NBA 2K, Felt, Notability, Trello, Calm, Procreate, Affinity Designer, Impress, Universe, and more.
Apple appears to be updating the "For You" section of Apple Music to provide Apple Music subscribers with more customized suggestions and music recommendations based around different themes.
The updates to the Apple Music app's "For You" section appear to be rolling out starting today, and we're seeing the new recommendations on devices running both iOS 12.2 and iOS 12.3 According to 9to5Mac, these changes will be coming to all Apple Music subscribers on all platforms over the course of the next few weeks.
Apple Music is now recommending content based on specific bands you've listened to before, and there are categories such as "Case of the Mondays," "Start Your Week Right," and "To Make You Smile." There are also category recommendations for music genres you've listened to in the past.
Recommendations can be shifted using the Love and Dislike features in Apple Music, and going forward, Apple plans to provide more regular updates to the "For You" section so you'll have fresh content and recommendations more frequently.
Apple is maintaining already existing playlists such as Friends Mix, Chill Mix, New Music Mix and Favorites Mix, and there are still sections like Recently Played, Recently Updated, Friends Are Listening To, and New Releases.
Apple has hired Molly Thompson, founder of A&E Indie Films, as its new head of documentaries, reports Variety. A&E Indie Films is the film production unit of A+E networks, where she also served as head of documentary films.
She has produced recent documentaries that include "The Clinton Affair," "Studio 54," and "City of Ghosts," as well as well-known documentaries like "Life, Animated," "Murderball," and "Jesus Camp."
Apple has an extensive video content team working out of Culver City, Los Angeles. Apple has thus far secured the rights to dozens of TV shows and a handful of documentary films, and Apple is clearly aiming to beef up its documentary content offerings with the hiring of Thompson.
Apple's current documentaries include two projects with Oprah focusing on mental health and sexual harassment in the workplace, as well as "The Elephant Queen," a feature-length documentary about an elephant matriarch who leads her herd to find a new watering hole.
Apple defines vintage products as those that were last manufactured more than five years ago. The iPad 2, originally released in March 2011, lived on as a lower-cost option until March 2014, complete with a 9.7-inch display with just 132 PPI, an A5 chip, and a whopping 0.7-megapixel rear camera.
What this means is that the iPad 2 will no longer be eligible for service at the Genius Bar or Apple Authorized Service Providers as of the end of the month. It's pretty impressive that this is just happening now, considering that the iPad 2 is over eight years old. It even has a 30-pin dock connector still.
The only exceptions will be in California and Turkey, where due to local laws, Apple will continue to service the iPad 2 until March 2021. At the time, the iPad 2 will finally go from "vintage" to "obsolete" worldwide.
Facebook today activated its Dark Mode feature, which has been available as an "Easter Egg" setting since early March. According to a blog post on Facebook's Messenger site, a Dark Mode toggle is rolling out globally starting today.
Dark Mode can now be enabled by tapping on your profile photo in Messenger to get to the Messenger settings where Dark Mode is now an available option. Enabling Dark Mode changes the traditional white interface in the Messenger app to black.
Facebook says that Dark Mode is designed to provide lower brightness in situations where lighting is lower while maintaining contrast and vibrancy.
Prior to the launch of Dark Mode, it was able to be activated by sending a crescent moon emoji to someone using the Messenger app. Doing so would unlock the Dark Mode setting and allow it to be enabled. Facebook in March said the feature would eventually become an official setting.
Dark Mode is still rolling out to people and so not everyone may see the toggle right away.
As noted in a regulatory filing from February, Apple's retail chief Angela Ahrendts is leaving the company today, with April 15 marking her last day at Apple.
Apple in early February announced that Ahrendts' role as Apple's head of retail would be ending, with Deirdre O'Brien taking over. Deirdre O'Brien was formerly Apple's vice president of people, but her title is now Senior Vice President of Retail and People as she is maintaining her current responsibilities while also overseeing Apple's retail initiatives.
Over the weekend, Apple removed Ahrendts' profile from its Apple Leadership page in preparation for her departure.
According to Apple, Ahrendts is leaving the company for "new personal and professional pursuits," though it is not clear where she plans to go after leaving Apple. Apple did not give deeper detail on the reason for her departure, but she is departing amid a significant drop in iPhone sales in China and some other emerging markets.
Ahrendts has been the head of Apple retail since she joined the company in 2014, and she has overseen the launch of the redesigned Apple Stores and customer experiences that have been rolling out across the world over the course of the last several years.
Under Ahrendts' leadership, Apple ditched the Genius Bar and instead adopted the more casual Genius Grove, cut down on third-party accessory sales, and turned its retail stores into gathering hubs with Today at Apple classes, artist performances, and more.
Prior to working at Apple, 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, launching the super expensive 14 karat gold Apple Watch in 2015, which never really caught on and was ultimately discontinued.
In a farewell note announcing Ahrendts departure to employees, Apple CEO Tim Cook called her "a much-loved and accomplished leader" who had played "a transformative role" shaping the Apple retail experience.
Angela has inspired and energized our retail teams with the vision of stores as a place where the best of Apple comes together to serve customers and communities. During her tenure, the in-store experience has been redefined with programs like Today at Apple, and our relationship with customers is stronger than ever.
Deirdre O'Brien will be reporting directly to Tim Cook going forward. She will continue to oversee talent development and Apple university, recruiting, employee relations and experience, business partnerships, inclusion and diversity, and more, along with retail experiences.
At the current time, Apple has more than 500 retail locations across five continents and more than 35 online stores around the world.
Microsoft has revealed that one of its support agent's credentials were compromised, enabling unauthorized parties to access information from a "limited subset" of users, including e-mail addresses, folder names, subject lines, and the names of recent recipients, between January 1 and March 28 of 2019.
It gets worse, unfortunately. In a statement issued to The Verge, Microsoft said that the unauthorized parties had access to the actual content of roughly six percent of affected email accounts, as exposed by Motherboard.
In an email to affected users shared by TechCrunch, Microsoft said it has now blocked this unauthorized access, disabled the passwords of compromised accounts, and increased detection and monitoring to further protect users. Microsoft recommends users change their passwords out of an abundance of caution.
The breach affected a "limited subset" of Microsoft-managed email accounts, including Outlook, MSN, and Hotmail email addresses. No enterprise customers are believed to be affected, according to TechCrunch.
Microsoft told affected users that it has no indication why the information was viewed or how it may have been used. The company has yet to reveal how it discovered the breach, how the support agent's credentials were compromised, or if the agent was a Microsoft employee, according to TechCrunch.
As noted in a regulatory filing from February, Apple's retail chief Angela Ahrendts is leaving the company today, with April 15 marking her last day at Apple.
