Over the years, Adobe's PDF file type has become a universally accepted method for sharing digital documents. The format's cross-platform adoption means the documents can be viewed on almost any mobile device or computer, so it's no surprise to find that macOS includes native support for viewing and creating PDF files.
In the Preview app, for example, it's possible to create a single multi-page PDF document out of several separate image files. The feature is particularly useful if you need to share a number of scanned documents over email or digitize something for reference. Keep reading to learn how it's done.
Apple sold an estimated 600,000 HomePod speakers during the first quarter of 2018, according to new estimates shared this morning by Strategy Analytics. Apple's sales allowed it to capture just 6 percent of the global smart speaker market, coming in well behind Amazon and Google.
Amazon shipped an estimated 4 million Echo smart speakers during the quarter, for a 43.6 percent share of the market, while Google shipped an estimated 2.4 million Google Home speakers for 26.5 percent market share. Alibaba also came in ahead of Apple with 700,000 shipments, while Xiaomi trailed behind with 200,000.
Apple has a long way to go to catch up to Google and Amazon, both of whom have seen an enormous growth in shipments over the course of the past year. Amazon's shipments increased by two million compared to Q1 2017, while Google's increased by 2.1 million.
Amazon's market share has fallen year over year due to strong sales of Google speakers and new entrants to the market like Apple, Alibaba, and Xiaomi, but Amazon continues to be the number one smart speaker vendor in the world by far.
David Watkins, Director at Strategy Analytics commented that "Amazon and Google accounted for a dominant 70% share of global smart speaker shipments in Q1 2018 although their combined share has fallen from 84% in Q4 2017 and 94% in the year ago quarter. This is partly as a result of strong growth in the Chinese market for smart speakers where both Amazon and Google are currently absent. Alibaba and Xiaomi are leading the way in China and their strength in the domestic market alone is proving enough to propel them into the global top five."
In total, across all vendors, there were an estimated 9.2 million smart speaker units shipped during the first quarter of 2018. Apple is, at the current time, the fourth largest smart speaker brand worldwide with the HomePod, but its meager sales are not yet impacting major players Google and Amazon.
Both Google and Amazon have been in the smart speaker business for a longer period of time and the two companies also offer speakers at a range of price points. A Google Home speaker, for example, can be purchased for as little as $129 (or $49 for the mini version), while an Amazon Echo costs just $99.99. The Echo Dot is even more affordable at $49.
Apple's sole speaker, the HomePod, is priced at $349. Apple focused heavily on audio quality with the hopes that consumers would be willing to pay more for a device that had superior sound, but the higher price tag, a delayed feature set, and the lack of native support for music services like Spotify have likely stymied Apple's sales.
The HomePod is still new and Apple has just entered the smart speaker market, so improvements and changes to future products could drastically change its position and present some real competition for Amazon and Google. Apple is rumored to be considering a lower-priced HomePod that would perhaps sell for $150 to $200.
Apple today seeded the sixth beta of an upcoming iOS 11.4 update to developers, three days after seeding the fifth beta and more than a month after releasing iOS 11.3, a major update that introduced several new features.
Registered developers can download the new iOS 11.4 beta from Apple's Developer Center or over-the-air once the proper configuration profile has been installed from the Developer Center.
The iOS 11.4 update introduces a new ClassKit framework for educational institutions, which supports new features announced at Apple's March 27 education-focused event.
For regular users, the iOS 11.4 update adds features that were originally present in the iOS 11.3 beta but removed ahead of release.
It includes support for Messages on iCloud, designed to store your iMessages in iCloud rather than on each individual device, allowing for improved syncing capabilities. Currently, incoming iMessages are sent to all devices where you're signed in to your Apple ID, but there is no true cross-device syncing.
Messages on iCloud will allow you to download all of your iMessages on new devices, and a message deleted on one device will remove it on all devices. Older messages and attachments are also stored in iCloud rather than on-device, saving valuable storage space.
The iOS 11.4 update also includes AirPlay 2 features, with the Apple TV once again available in the Home app. With AirPlay 2, the same audio content can be played in multiple rooms on devices that support AirPlay 2. AirPlay 2 includes a feature that lets you ask Siri on one device to play content on another AirPlay 2-enabled device. So, for example, you can ask Siri on iPhone to play content on your Apple TV in another room if you're running the iOS 11.4 and tvOS 11.4 betas.
There were initially signs of support for HomePod stereo sound in the first iOS 11.4 beta, a long-promised feature, but stereo sound didn't work properly and the mention was removed in the second beta. It's not clear if it will return for the update's release.
For the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus, there's a new (PRODUCT)RED wallpaper available, which is not available on iPhone X. During beta testing, Apple implemented a USB Restricted Mode that introduces a week-long expiration date on access to the Lightning port on iOS devices for data purposes if your iPhone hasn't been unlocked, which has implications for law enforcement tools like the GrayKey box. Mentions of the feature were removed from Apple's release notes, so it's not clear if it will be included in iOS 11.4.
With six betas having been released, we are nearing the end of the beta testing period. iOS 11.4 is likely to see a public launch in the next few weeks.
Update: Apple has also seeded the sixth beta of iOS 11.4 to its public beta testing group. For developers, the update is also now available over-the-air.
Next week, Valve is launching a "Steam Link" app for iOS and tvOS, allowing users in the Apple ecosystem to play Steam games streamed from a host Mac/PC (using either a 5GHz network or a wired Ethernet connection) onto an iPhone, iPad, or Apple TV. In advance of the app's launch, our sister site TouchArcade got the chance to go hands-on with Steam Link and came away entirely impressed by the quality of gaming that can come out of Valve's app.
TouchArcade reports that Steam Link works so well that it "feels like there's some kind of actual wizardry powering it all," and once it's set up (a "simple" process) the app is essentially the same as using a physical Steam Link hardware box or Steam's Big Picture mode.
The app doesn't just stream in-game content, but allows gamers to browse the Steam marketplace, purchase games, check their friend lists, play PC exclusive titles, sell things, and more. "There are no corners cut anywhere, it's the complete experience," TouchArcade says.
In the end, the site crowned Steam Link as the current "killer app" for Apple devices.
Overall, I have constantly found myself completely blown away by how well the Steam Link app works. If you have a gaming PC in your house, and an iPad or Apple TV, I do not think it is at all hyperbole to say that this is the killer app for iOS devices.
If you're the kind of person who is always hungry for "real" PC-like game experiences on your Apple device, but have been dismayed by the amount of junk on the App Store, you can basically delete everything else but the Steam Link app. I'm still dumbfounded by Apple apparently allowing this on their platform, as I could see a very real situation where many people just straight up stop buying things from the App Store and exclusively purchase Steam games through Valve instead.
Instagram today added a feature that's designed to let users share posts from their accounts and public accounts that they follow directly to their story feed as a sticker.
Today, we're introducing a new way to easily share feed posts to your story.
When you come across something in feed that inspires you -- like a post from a friend raising money for a cause or a photo of a new design from your favorite brand -- you can now quickly share that post as a sticker to your story for your friends and followers to see.
Instagram users can share a feed post to a story by tapping on the paper airplane button below a post, which is the same gesture used to send it through a Direct message.
At the top of this interface, there's a new option to create a story. Tapping that option will transform the feed post into a sticker with a customized background that can be shared to a story. Like other stickers, the post sticker can be rotated, scaled, moved, and otherwise customized.
Every post shared to stories will display the original poster's username to make it clear who an image belongs to. Users can also tap on a post in someone's story to see the original post and more content from the person who shared it.
Instagram is only allowing content from accounts that are public, not private, to be shared to stories. Instagram users who do not want their posts shared to stories by other people can opt out in the settings section of the app.
AirPort base stations are beginning to sell out or disappear entirely from Apple's online and retail stores in select countries, a few weeks after Apple announced it has discontinued the lineup of routers.
The first casualty is the AirPort Extreme, now listed as "sold out" on Apple's online store in the United States, and unavailable for pickup at Apple's retail stores across the country. The base station remains available in limited quantities in select other countries, including Australia, Canada, Japan, and Singapore.
AirPort Express and AirPort Time Capsule models remain in stock on Apple's online store in the United States, and select other countries, but they will eventually sell out too as inventory continues to dwindle.
In addition, the entire AirPort lineup is no longer listed on Apple's online store in several European countries, such as France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom, as spotted by MacGeneration. It's possible that some of Apple's retail stores still have inventory remaining in those countries.
Apple said that its AirPort products would only remain available while supplies last, so this was to be expected eventually.
Prior to being discontinued, Apple hadn't refreshed its lineup of AirPort base stations in five to six years. The high-end AirPort Extreme and AirPort Time Capsule were last updated at WWDC 2013, while the smaller AirPort Express was last updated in June 2012 and still uses the old 802.11n Wi-Fi standard.
The end of the road for AirPort products comes roughly a year and a half after Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reported that Apple ceased development of the base stations to "sharpen" its focus on other major products.
While the AirPort lineup has been discontinued, Apple will be providing service and parts for the current-generation base stations for up to five more years. Apple also shared a new support document offering tips on choosing a router to use with its devices, and now sells the Linksys Velop mesh system.
Samsung has released a new ad encouraging iPhone users to upgrade to the Galaxy S9, but there are several holes in the video.
First and foremost, instead of comparing the two-month-old Galaxy S9 to the iPhone X, or even the iPhone 8 or iPhone 8 Plus, the one-minute clip shows a woman becoming increasingly frustrated with her seemingly glacially slow iPhone 6, released in 2014, as she travels by plane to visit her sister.
Samsung acknowledges this fact with fine print that says "newer iPhone models are currently available," but that doesn't stop it from comparing its 2018 flagship with a nearly four year old iPhone model.
The woman's woes start at an airport security checkpoint, where a security officer reminds travelers to have their boarding passes and IDs ready. The woman taps on the Wallet app on her iPhone, but a white screen appears, suggesting the device is lagging badly. The security officer is visibly displeased.
The next scene shows the woman attempting to open the TV app to watch a movie during her flight, as the person with a Galaxy S9 is doing next to her, only for the same white screen to occur again, suggesting the iPhone is still lagging.
The ad is deceiving, however, as it never shows whether the Wallet or TV apps eventually manage to open. Instead, Samsung conveniently cuts away to the next scene after a split second each time. The fine print also says "screen images simulated," suggesting the slowness might not even be real to begin with.
Later in the night, the woman visits an Apple Store and asks if her slow iPhone can be fixed that night. In a monotonous voice, the employee advises her that she can turn off Apple's performance management, at the risk of unexpected shutdowns, without mentioning that a battery replacement may solve the problem.
Looking exhausted, the woman leaves the store and walks by a person with a notch-shaped haircut that clearly mocks the iPhone X, as seen in an earlier ad.
At the end of the ad, the woman can be seen unboxing and using a Galaxy S9, having finally upgraded to that device.
Samsung's decision to use an older iPhone in the video may have something to do with the iPhone X outperforming the Galaxy S9 in benchmark tests, but it also gave them an opportunity to mock Apple's performance management, which isn't enabled on the latest iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, or iPhone X.
In reality, even a four-year-old iPhone 6 being throttled by Apple's performance management shouldn't be nearly as slow as Samsung depicts in the ad. And if it is, then there are likely underlying issues.
It's fair game for Samsung to try to convince iPhone users to switch to the Galaxy S9, but its execution in this ad was poor.
At CES in January, Ford discussed a new partnership with crowdsource navigation app Waze that aimed to bring Waze onto the touch screen of SYNC 3 vehicles through Ford's AppLink. That partnership has been fully realized today with Waze users worldwide now able to connect their iPhones to AppLink via USB and mirror Waze on their infotainment system.
This allows drivers to access their favorite Waze features when following a route, searching for a nearby gas station, and even reporting traffic accidents, all while their iPhone is safely stored and locked. Voice guidance and commands are available as well through a Ford vehicle's speakers and microphone system.
The SYNC 3 integration includes recent Waze app updates like "Talk to Waze" for voice controls, route support for carpool lanes, more accurate arrival times, and more. Waze's crowdsourced navigation features are fueled when users open their smartphones and begin driving, with people typically using iPhone mounts and other products to safely drive without holding their devices.
Ford executive Don Butler explained how partnerships between carmakers like Ford and GPS apps like Waze further improve the safety of driving thanks to reducing potential smartphone distractions.
“Our goal is to make it as easy as possible for people to access the smartphone features, apps and services they care about most in the car, without having to pick up their device,” said Don Butler, executive director, connected vehicle platform and product, Ford Motor Company. “With Waze, our customers get the benefits they’re accustomed to with the added luxury of experiencing them on a bigger screen.”
To access the new feature users will need SYNC 3 software version 3.0 or greater installed in the vehicle, as well as iOS 11.3 and the up-to-date Waze app downloaded on the iPhone. Ford encourages customers to head to its website for more details on Waze integration.
eBay today announced "Interests," a new feature that tailors the iOS and Android app's shopping experience to your own personal passions, hobbies, and style. The company says that the feature is aimed at making it easier for you to find unique, interesting items you care about among eBay's vast assortment of inventory.
The backbone of Interests is a questionnaire eBay will begin asking shoppers, including topics like favorite activities and styles. Similar to Apple Music, you'll tap bubbles with the answers in them, and when done eBay will match the answers to your pre-existing browsing patterns. This data will be combined to curate "things you love - and things you didn't even know you might love."
In fact, eBay head of engagement Bradford Shellhammer says that the Interests questionnaire was directly influenced by Apple Music's bubble-based user interface (via Fast Company). In Apple's app, you tap genres and artists you like, double tap to love them, and hold to remove the ones you dislike.
As he imagined what eBay could become, Shellhammer looked beyond the retail world to the music industry. For instance, Spotify’s “Discover Weekly” personalized playlists served as an inspiration for Interests. The Interests questionnaire was influenced by the questions Apple Music asks users in order to provide them with the best possible recommendations. “We want you to tell us what you like, let us look at your behavior, and get you into your own personal store,” he says.
eBay also divulged some numbers in its press release today, noting the site has 171 million active buyers worldwide, 80 percent of all merchandise sold on the site is new, and 88 percent of items sold are through Buy It Now, meaning that more people are avoiding bidding on the marketplace. In terms of mobile app usage on iOS and Android, 62 percent of the eBay platform involves users shopping and interacting with the site while on their smartphone.
The latest Apple Pay promotion grants you free delivery on groceries with Instacart as long as you use Apple's mobile wallet to checkout on the app through 11:59 p.m. PT on May 23, and your order runs for $35 or more. There is no specific promo code, so as long as you meet these requirements the discount should appear automatically during the checkout process in Instacart.
Free delivery will still be subject to availability in certain areas, and service fees and taxes will apply to your order. If your area supports the promotion, you can save $5.99 or more on an Instacart order, with delivery fees starting at that price point and increasing when factoring in the size and time of the order. Delivery fees can also be affected by "Busy Pricing," an added fee during the busiest parts of the day.
Free delivery from Instacart for orders over $35 normally requires a membership to Instacart Express, a service that costs $14.99 per month or $149 per year. Apple's free delivery offers an opportunity for potential Instacart customers to test Instacart Express. Otherwise, this week's promotion highlights grocery stores where you can checkout using Apple Pay: Trader Joe's, Giant, Smart & Final, SuperValu, Food Lion, and Winn-Dixie.
Apple today on Global Accessibility Awareness Day announced that its Everyone Can Code curriculum is expanding to schools serving deaf, blind, or visually impaired students, starting with various locations in the United States in the fall.
Initial list of participating schools:
California School for the Blind (Fremont, CA)
California School for the Deaf (Fremont, CA)
District 75/Citywide Programs (New York, NY)
Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind (St. Augustine, FL)
Hadley Institute for the Blind and Visually Impaired (Winnetka, IL)
Perkins School for the Blind (Watertown, MA)
Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired (Austin, TX)
Texas School for the Deaf (Austin, TX)
Everyone Can Code enables students of all ages to learn how to code with Apple's open source programming language Swift. The curriculum involves the iPad app Swift Playgrounds, which lets students use real code to solve puzzles and control characters, and the iBooks course App Development with Swift.
Apple is celebrating Global Accessibility Awareness Day by making coding more inclusive for students across the country. Because when we say Everyone Can Code, we mean everyone. #GAADhttps://t.co/Ew16JtxzJh
— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) May 17, 2018
Apple has tailored Everyone Can Code to work with its accessibility features, ranging from its screen-reading technology VoiceOver to Switch Control, which enables switches, joysticks, and other adaptive devices to control what is on the screen.
Apple collaborated with engineers, educators, and programmers from various accessibility communities to make Everyone Can Code as accessible as possible and will work in close coordination with schools to augment the curricula as needed. This will include providing additional tools and resources such as tactile maps to enhance the understanding of coding environments for non-visual learners.
Apple CEO Tim Cook:
Apple's mission is to make products as accessible as possible. We created Everyone Can Code because we believe all students deserve an opportunity to learn the language of technology. We hope to bring Everyone Can Code to even more schools around the world serving students with disabilities.
Bill Daugherty, superintendent at the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired, offered praise for the initiative:
Our students were tremendously excited at our first Everyone Can Code session earlier this year. There are more than 10,400 students with visual impairments in Texas, and the development of this curricula is going to be a big step in opening up coding opportunities for our students and those across the nation.
Apple also announced that, throughout May, all of its retail stores will host accessibility-related sessions for customers. On May 17, Apple's corporate offices in Cupertino, Austin, Cork, and London will hold similar events.
Apple has also revamped the accessibility section of its website for Global Accessibility Awareness Day, which has promoted digital accessibility and inclusion for people with all disabilities on the third Thursday of May every year since 2012.
Apple today updated the front page and accessibility section of Apple.com in celebration of Global Accessibility Awareness Day. The event is held on the third Thursday of May every year and was created to promote inclusion and usability of technology for anyone with a disability.
This year, Apple is highlighting its own accessibility features right on the home page of Apple.com, stating that "Technology is most powerful when it empowers everyone." On the main accessibility page, Apple has again posted 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 company has greatly expanded the web page to mark today's event. When you scroll down, each section is marked by accessibility features focusing on different areas of disability, beginning with vision. These include VoiceOver, adjustable display accommodations, Dynamic Type to upsize text, and Zoom to get a closer look at an iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Mac, or Apple TV screen.
In the hearing section, Apple says it wants to "keep everyone in the conversation" with features like Live Listen that let users fine-tune MFi hearing aids to hear more clearly. The company also showcases FaceTime for those who use sign language to communicate, closed captioning for music and sound effects on all Apple devices, LED Flash for iPhone alerts, and Type to Siri for manually asking the AI assistant to perform any task.
The last two sections focus on physical and motor skills as well as learning and literacy. Here Apple talks about using HomePod to automate complex scenes with just a voice, AssistiveTouch for customized iOS gestures, Speak Screen to hear text spoken aloud on iPhone and iPad, and Safari Reader to stay focused on content and reduce visual clutter that can become a sensory overload for some users.
Earlier this week, Apple's director of global accessibility policy and initiatives, Sarah Herrlinger, discussed the company's efforts to help individuals with disabilities through its various products. In March, Apple donated $250,000 to sponsor an "Innovation Zone" in an accessibility-focused playground opening soon in Sunnyvale, California.
This year, Apple says it's hosting global events that will promote inclusive design and "emphasize how technology can support all people with disabilities," including events at Apple corporate in Cupertino, Austin, Cork, and London. Throughout May all of its stores will have accessibility-related Today at Apple sessions for customers to participate in. If Apple celebrates the accessibility-focused day with other events, we'll be sure to update this post.
Resizing images in macOS is easily done in the Preview app, but if your daily workflow requires you to scale images to a specific size – for uploading to a blog, for example – then using an image resize service is a much faster way of getting the job done.
In this article, we'll show you how to use the Automator app to create a simple service that will have you resizing images in just a couple of clicks, without even going near an image editing app. Keep reading to learn how it's done.
Apple Pay launched in Ukraine today. Owners of Apple devices in the country this morning found that they could add credit cards to the mobile payment system, including MasterCard and Visa (via Tehnot).
Ukraine's finance minister Oleksandr Danyliuk took to Facebook to herald the launch, which initially supports cards issued by the country's nationalized PrivatBank, with Oschadbank expected to follow soon.
Apple Pay заработал в Украине. Поддерживаются карты ПриватБанка VISA и MasterCard pic.twitter.com/Ofx2bYDvC2
— alexanderslev1n (@alexanderslev1n) May 17, 2018
During the company's May earnings call, Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed that Apple Pay would expand to Norway, Poland, and Ukraine "in the next several months", without providing specific launch dates. Separately, a launch in Ukraine was also rumored for Q2 2018.
The last Apple Pay launch took place in Italy in the middle of May, with users in the country able to add Visa and MasterCards issued by Boon, Carrefour, and UniCredit into their iPhone.
Over the last few years, Apple has been working to expand Apple Pay to additional countries, and it is now available in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Singapore, Switzerland, Hong Kong, France, Russia, China, Japan, New Zealand, Spain, Taiwan, Ireland, Italy, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, UAE, Ukraine, and Brazil.
Google is launching YouTube Music next week, shortly followed by YouTube Premium – a revamped version of its ad-free YouTube Red subscription service with a renewed focus on original programming. Announced on Wednesday in a blog post, the shake-up in services represents a splitting of the original YouTube Red subscription model, which gave users both ad-free music streaming and access to original video content for $10 a month.
The new YouTube Music-only service will also cost $10 a month and replaces Google Play Music – existing subscribers will be migrated automatically (that includes non-paying users who have purchased music via Google Play or used the service to upload tracks and playlists). The rebranded service includes personalized playlists, intelligent search, support for background playback and music downloads for offline listening.
The streaming service will also remove ads from music videos, but not the rest of YouTube. An ad-supported version of YouTube Music will be available for free. As part of the launch, Google is promising a "reimagined" mobile app and desktop player that's "designed for music".
YouTube Music is a new music streaming service made for music: official songs, albums, thousands of playlists and artist radio plus YouTube’s tremendous catalog of remixes, live performances, covers and music videos that you can’t find anywhere else - all simply organized and personalized. For the first time, all the ways music moves you can be found in one place.
YouTube Premium, meanwhile, will cost $12 a month, and includes all the benefits of YouTube Music plus access to original shows as well as ad-free viewing for all of YouTube. The extra $2 over the original YouTube Red subscription will pave the way for more YouTube Originals from around the globe, featuring comedies, dramas, reality series, and action adventure shows from the U.K., Germany, France, Mexico, and more. Existing YouTube Red members will continue to pay the current price for YouTube Premium, however.
YouTube Music and launches on Tuesday, May 22 in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico and South Korea, rolling out to more countries in the following weeks. They will include Austria, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.
YouTube Premium will roll out "soon" in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, and South Korea, later followed by Austria, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.
Subscription based music service and Apple Music competitor Tidal is months behind on its royalty payments to record labels according to a report from Norwegian news site Dagens Næringsliv that was translated by Music Business Worldwide.
Multiple sources have said that Tidal has not making timely payments to "three major international companies," claims confirmed by two Norway-based labels: Propellor Records and its distributor, Phonofile, a company owned by Sony.
Phonofile CEO Sveinung Rindal said that reports of delayed payments are correct, while Propeller Recordings CEO Frithjof Boye Hungnes said the company had not been paid since October. "People are talking about withdrawing [their music from TIDAL]; I think there is a pretty upset mood," said Hungnes.
Tidal in December was said to be facing money problems due to stalled user growth, and reports suggested that it could run out of working capital within six months.
Dagens Næringsliv has been investigating Tidal in recent weeks and has also accused the streaming music service of falsifying and inflating streaming numbers for Kanye West's The Life of Pablo album and Beyonce's Lemonade album.
Tidal claimed that Kanye West's album achieved 250 million streams within 10 days and that Beyonce's album reached 306 million streams within 15 days, figures that were said to be false following a year-long investigation conducted by Dagens Næringsliv and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology's Center for Cyber and Information Security.
During the time that Tidal announced the Kanye West album figure, for example, Tidal said that it had 3 million subscribers. At 3 million subscribers, to reach that streaming number, each Tidal subscriber would have needed to play the Kanye album more than eight times per day, as Music Business Worldwide points out.
Tidal has called the claims a "smear campaign" of lies and falsehoods, constructed from stolen and manipulated information. "We will fight these claims vigorously," the service said in a statement.
The United States Senate today voted to repeal the Federal Communication Commission's "Restoring Internet Freedom" order, which was enacted last December and reverses Obama-era Net Neutrality rules. Today's decision ended with a vote of 52-47 in favor of restoring Net Neutrality protections, with supporters totaling all 47 Democratic Senators, two independents, and three Republican Senators.
The Senate Democrats used the Congressional Review Act to call for the vote to halt Net Neutrality's repeal. The law gives Congress 60 days to review and potentially reverse regulations passed by a federal agency, in this case the FCC.
Under the act, the decision will now move onto the House of Representatives, where it's expected to not make it past the Republican-majority House. If the measure ultimately makes it to President Trump's desk, it's likewise believed that he wouldn't back the decision to go against a regulation created by his own FCC chairman Ajit Pai.
Net Neutrality has been an increasingly heated debate since momentum gathered in the Republican-controlled FCC last fall, predicting the repeal of the rules that eventually came in December. If the new efforts fail, Net Neutrality rules will officially end in the U.S. in less than a month, on June 11, 2018.
The reversal of Net Neutrality protections classifies internet service providers as "information service" providers, as they were prior to the advent of Net Neutrality in 2015. While supporters of the rollback describe the move as a return to a less-regulated internet, opponents fear that ISPs will be able to slow down internet speeds -- or block access completely -- to any website they see as a competitor.
Some ISPs have come out stating they would not slow down a user's internet in any way, including AT&T. In January, the carrier pledged a commitment "to an open internet" in an open letter written by CEO Randall Stephenson. The letter explained that AT&T has not and does not plan to block websites, censor online content, or throttle, discriminate, and degrade network performance based on a website's contents, although Stephenson didn't mention some topics of concern for Net Neutrality supporters like online fast lanes and "paid prioritization."
Apple's comment on the topic last year stated that the Net Neutrality repeal could "fundamentally alter the internet as we know it," and if it passed it would be put in place to the detriment of consumers, competition, and innovation. Around the same time last August, the FCC received a record-breaking 22 million comments from the public who voiced their opinions on the controversial issue in the months leading up to the December vote.
Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.
OnePlus today announced the launch of its latest flagship phone, the OnePlus 6, and the company couldn't resist taking yet another jab at Apple and its decision to remove the headphone jack from its flagship iPhones.
During the event, OnePlus introduced new $69 OnePlus Bullets Wireless headphones that are shipping alongside the new OnePlus 6. "Just one thing though. I wonder. If you can connect your earphones using Bluetooth, you don't need a headphone jack anymore, do you?" said Carl Pei, OnePlus co-founder.
Pei's headphone jack joke starts at 1:14:00
Pei was making a joke at Apple's expense, as despite the inclusion of Bluetooth headphones with the OnePlus 6, it continues to include a headphone jack. "And yes, there's still a headphone jack," Pei said during the unveiling of the OnePlus 6.
OnePlus made a similar joke on stage last year, after Apple eliminated the headphone jack from the iPhone 7 and the iPhone 7 Plus, a move that proved to be unpopular with some customers despite the introduction of the AirPods.
"On the bottom, you'll notice that we ditched the 3.5mm headphone jack. The elegance of the overall design is instantly heightened. And who needs a headphone jack anyway? That's why Bluetooth exists, right? Just kidding. Of course the OnePlus 5 has a headphone jack."
Design wise, though it includes a headphone jack, the new OnePlus 6 takes other design cues from the iPhone X, like many Android smartphones this year. It features a 6.28-inch AMOLED display with minimal bezels and a notch at the top to house the front-facing 16-megapixel camera, along with a glass body. There are two vertically positioned cameras at the rear of the device.
Inside, the OnePlus 6 sports a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor, 6GB to 8GB RAM, and a minimum of 64GB of storage. It comes with facial recognition capabilities, which the company says uses more than 100 identifiers for security purposes, and it also features a fingerprint sensor at the back. Other features include support for dual SIM cards, fast charging, rain resistance, and the ability to run the latest versions of Android, including the current Android P beta.
Pricing on the OnePlus 6, which launches on May 22, starts at $529. The device is available in several colors, including Mirror Black, Midnight Black, and Silk White. The OnePlus Bullets will be available on June 5 for $69.
Over the years, Adobe's PDF file type has become a universally accepted method for sharing digital documents. The format's cross-platform adoption means the documents can be viewed on almost any mobile device or computer, so it's no surprise to find that macOS includes native support for viewing and creating PDF files. 
