Apple this week announced that two of its retail stores, located at Village Pointe in Omaha, Nebraska and South Hills Village in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, will reopen Saturday, September 2 at 10:00 a.m. local time. Both locations have been closed for renovations for the past several weeks.
Apple's old Village Pointe store in Omaha, Nebraska
Apple Village Pointe will remain located on Davenport Street in an expanded storefront. The additional space should be a welcomed change for both the store's employees and customers, as foot traffic to Apple stores has undoubtedly increased since the location originally opened in September 2006.
Apple South Hills Village will relocate to a different unit within the shopping mall, and it will likely gain some extra square footage as well.
Each store has received a makeover based on Apple's next-generation retail design, which typically includes wide, open spaces with some combination of large glass doors, sequoia wood tables and shelves, large video screens for Today at Apple sessions, and light boxes spanning the length of the ceiling.
All new Apple Stores opened since September 2015 have been based on the new design language, including flagship-tier locations such as Apple Union Square in San Francisco and Apple World Trade Center in New York City. Apple has also renovated over 40 other stores to reflect the newer aesthetic.
Google today announced its "parking difficulty" indicator in Google Maps for iOS and Android will now appear in 25 additional cities around the world. The feature was previously available in the United States only.
The simple feature shows a "P" icon with a difficulty level such as "moderate" or "limited," based on how easy it will be to find parking at the destination entered. The feature is based on historical parking data and machine learning.
The following cities support the feature starting today:
Alicante
Amsterdam
Copenhagen
Barcelona
Cologne
Darmstadt
Düsseldorf
London
Madrid
Málaga
Manchester
Milan
Montréal
Moscow
Munich
Paris
Prague
Rio de Janeiro
Rome
São Paulo
Stockholm
Stuttgart
Toronto
Valencia
Vancouver
Google Maps is available for free on the App Store [Direct Link] for iPhone and iPad.
Google today announced a new developer platform for augmented reality apps that won't require dedicated hardware, which it's calling "ARCore." The company originally began making inroads in the AR space a few years ago with Project Tango, which required manufacturers to implement specialized equipment so that smartphones would be compatible with Tango's AR features.
Now, Google is "effectively shuttering" the Tango brand, according to TechCrunch, and focusing on the ARCore software development kit. The new platform will deliver AR abilities to compatible Android smartphones, immediately turning a large swath of the Android device market into advanced AR-enabled machines, similar to what will happen with iOS 11-enabled devices following the debut of Apple's upcoming ARKit.
To start, ARCore is launching on the Google Pixel and Samsung Galaxy S8 (which must be running 7.0 Nougat or above), and a wider adoption of more smartphones will come later down the line for ARCore's public launch. By that date, Google "plans to have 100 million Android devices" out in the wild that support motion-tracking AR capabilities, and as more advanced smartphones launch the company said that ARCore will only grow stronger.
“We’ve architected ARCore to be able to perceive a wide variety of sensors,” Google AR/VR head Clay Bavor told TechCrunch. “We foresee, in the future, many more phones having depth-sensing capabilities and as those come into mainstream phones, that’s great, ARCore will work seamlessly with those and benefit from the additional sensing capabilities.”
ARCore works by detecting surfaces near the user in order to display augmented reality content in a stable space. The Android smartphone sensors will detect these horizontal planes, factor in the device's motion tracking, and estimate the light entering a room so objects can be dynamically lit based on their environment.
The company is also focusing on the web, which it describes as "a critical component of the future of AR." It's beginning by releasing a prototype browser for web developers, allowing them to begin experimenting with AR alongside mobile developers. In the future, Google says that these custom browsers will allow developers to make AR-enhanced websites that run on both Android and ARCore, as well as iOS and ARKit.
Apple announced ARKit back in June, introducing a developer platform that functions in much the same way as Google's ARCore. With ARKit, developers can create apps that take advantage of the built-in camera, processors, and motion sensors of an iPhone or iPad, resulting in advanced AR experiences. Demos of these apps have been continuously emerging online in the wake of ARKit's WWDC announcement.
Android developers interested in ARCore can begin experimenting and creating apps for the Pixel and Galaxy S8 smartphones starting today. To see more examples of ARCore in action, Google has created an AR Experiments website.
YouTube today announced a few changes coming to the company's mobile apps and desktop site, including a visual update for the well-known YouTube logo. Instead of emphasizing the "Tube" part of the branding, the new icon places the TV-like icon to the left of the company's name.
Designed for our multi-screen world, the updated Logo combines a cleaned up version of the YouTube wordmark and Icon, creating a more flexible design that works better across a variety of devices, even on the tiniest screens.
Why’s it more flexible? When room is limited (say on a smartphone) you can use the brightened up Icon as an abbreviated Logo, which will be seen more easily and read more clearly. You’ll see the new Logo and Icon roll out across mobile and desktop today, and across all our other apps and services soon.
Additionally, the company announced a few updates coming to its iOS and Android apps including improved navigation, more gesture controls (like swiping left and right to jump between videos in a playlist), the ability to speed up or slow down videos, and a dedicated player for vertical videos. There's also a new way to browse more videos while in the YouTube player, by swiping up from the bottom of the screen to see suggested videos.
Both the app and desktop site are being updated to Google's Material Design aesthetic, which will refresh YouTube with a "simple and intuitive user experience that lets content shine," according to the company. With the new update to the desktop site, users will be able to turn on an official Dark Theme so they can browse YouTube more comfortably at night. The Verge reports that Dark Theme will be available on the YouTube mobile apps as well.
Many of the iOS, Android, and desktop updates will launch today, along with the all-new YouTube logo which users should begin noticing across mobile apps and online throughout the day.
In a statement sent to multiple Chinese media outlets today, Apple said iPhone and iPad users in China can now use WeChat Pay as a payment method for App Store and Apple Music purchases.
"We are glad to offer users in mainland China the option of WeChat Pay for their favorite mobile app or Apple Music products. We continue to be dedicated to provide multiple simple and convenient payment methods for customers within the Apple ecosystem," Apple said in an official statement today.
WeChat Pay is the second most popular mobile payments service in China, with an estimated 39.5 percent market share as of the first quarter of 2017, according to Beijing-based research firm Analysys. By comparison, Apple Pay's market share was estimated to have been just one percent in the first quarter.
WeChat itself is an incredibly popular app in China that allows users to pay for services, chat, hail a cab, watch videos, play mini games, and more. Since the app can be installed on Android, some analysts believe WeChat is a threat to Apple by way of reducing the iPhone's competitive advantage in China.
Nevertheless, Apple CEO Tim Cook recently said WeChat's creator Tencent is one of its most important developers.
"I see Tencent as one of our biggest and best developers," said Cook, speaking on a conference call in early August. "They've done a great job of implementing iOS features in their apps, and we're looking forward to working with them even more to build even greater experiences for our mutual users in China."
Apple has also accepted Alipay, the most popular mobile payment service in China with 53.7 percent market share, since October 2016.
Elgato has announced five new HomeKit-enabled devices coming to its Eve product line, including the Eve Thermo, Eve Lock, Eve Window Guard, Eve Smoke, and Eve Aqua. The announcement was made ahead of IFA Berlin 2017, a consumer electronics and home appliances trade show taking place from September 1-6 where Elgato will showcase the devices in more detail.
The new Eve Thermo marks the second generation of the product line, introducing capacitive touch controls below an integrated temperature display, all on a small device that connects to a home's radiator to provide smart controls without the need for a bridge. Aimed at European customers, the connected radiator valve detects when users are home and when windows are open, automatically adjusting heat as needed.
With HomeKit, users can set up schedules and timers to activate or deactivate their radiator, and control the temperature through Siri commands. Eve Thermo -- which has a battery life of up to 12 months -- can be mounted vertically or horizontally, and its touch controls can be locked to prevent kids from tampering with the radiator's temperature. Those interested will be able to purchase Eve Thermo starting September 26 for £59.95/69,95 Euro.
Eve Lock is a new intelligent, self-locking lock mechanism that automatically secures the lock of a door after users close the door behind them. Additionally, Eve Lock can be controlled through the iOS Home or Eve apps, so users can open the door when they have a visitor or monitor when an unauthorized attempt to open the door has occurred.
The company also unveiled Eve Smoke, which can link with and activate HomeKit scenes whenever it detects smoke within the home, in order to quickly notify residents of a potential fire. The smoke alarm -- which also sets off a loud noise like traditional alarms -- can be monitored through Apple's Home app like the other Eve products, and its battery lasts for ten years.
To protect the home from intruders, Eve Window Guard can sense tamper force on a window to detect when someone might be trying to break in, and can even notice if the window is open, closed, or tilted. When it recognizes one of these changes in the window's state, the device will send a HomeKit notification to a user's iPhone so they know that there might be an intruder in the home.
Lastly, Eve Aqua lets users water their lawns using HomeKit. After attaching the Bluetooth-enabled controller between a spigot and a hose, they can set up a water schedule to perfectly monitor their lawn care, or ask Siri to turn on the Eve Aqua and immediately sprinkle the lawn or flower beds. The connected Eve app will also track Eve Aqua's activity so users can discover various piece of watering data that Elgato said will help "better cater to your garden's needs."
While the company gave more detailed insight and a price for the Eve Thermo, the four other HomeKit devices did not receive any price points or launch dates at this time. Check out Elgato's website here for more images and information on the new HomeKit products.
Apple today announced a new partnership with Accenture, a global management consulting and professional services company, which aims to combine iOS with Accenture's business expertise to guide companies in unlocking new revenue streams, increasing productivity, improving customer experience, and reducing costs.
The partnership will result in a dedicated iOS practice inside of Accenture Digital Studios in certain locations around the world, where Apple experts will be placed to work alongside Accenture team members. These combined teams will include designers, programmers, data architects, and more experts, all working on launching a new set of tools and services to help enterprise clients "transform how they engage with customers using iPhone and iPad."
“Starting 10 years ago with iPhone, and then with iPad, Apple has been transforming how work gets done, yet we believe that businesses have only just begun to scratch the surface of what they can do with our products,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “Both Apple and Accenture are leaders in building incredible user experiences and together we can continue to truly modernize how businesses work through amazing solutions that take advantage of the incredible capabilities of Apple’s technologies.”
Specifically, the iOS-related tools are said to include three major services to help increase a company's analytic capabilities. To facilitate a smooth transfer process, a migration service will assist clients in quickly transferring their own existing legacy apps, and all the information found within, into modern iOS apps.
After they have a new iOS app up and running, new ecosystem services will help clients more easily integrate iOS devices into their own corporate ecosystem, while an Internet-of-Things service will include various templates and predesigned code to streamline gathering data from IoT platforms in their own iOS apps.
Apple has added the Accenture partnership to its business partners web page, alongside partners like Cisco, SAP, Deloitte, and IBM. Accenture has also updated its website with more information about the partnership.
The New York Police Department has confirmed it will begin transitioning to iPhones for its 36,000 police officers in the fall, less than one year after completing a rollout of Windows Phones to its police force.
Image: ABC7 Eyewitness News - WABC-TV New York
Jessica Tisch, the NYPD's Deputy Commissioner of Information Technology, said "improvements in Apple controls" will enable the department to "responsibly and cost effectively move its mobility initiative to the Apple platform."
When the NYPD chose Windows Phone devices in 2014, Tisch said "neither iOS nor Android phones allowed it to cost-effectively utilize prior investment in custom Windows applications" that it had deployed at the time.
"Moreover, we assessed that the Windows platform would be most effective at achieving our goal of securing 36,000 devices that would be used for sensitive law enforcement operations," added Tisch. "This was of paramount importance."
The NYPD said its contract provided for Nokia's Lumia smartphones at no cost. It also allowed for the department to replace the smartphones with devices of its choosing two years later, also at no cost.
As a result, the NYPD said its smartphone initiative is 45 percent under budget. Based on its current rate of spending, the department expects to stretch what was initially budgeted at two years of spending to more than four years.
Tisch said the NYPD's mobility initiative has made its police officers "smarter, faster, and more agile" in their response to 911 calls, with response times down more than 8 percent compared to an unspecified period.
Apple is said to be "scrambling" to strike deals with movie studios in Hollywood regarding the exact prices of 4K movies in the iTunes Store, taking places just weeks ahead of the rumored debut of the new 4K Apple TV in mid-September.
While the talks have been ongoing for some time, discussions have been recently hampered by disagreements over the pricing of 4K movie purchases, according to sources close to the talks (via The Wall Street Journal). Apple wants to charge $19.99 for 4K movie purchases in its digital iTunes Store, the same price it currently charges for newly-released HD films.
However, many Hollywood studios it has talked with are pushing back on that price point and are looking to charge customers a premium for the new 4K content: $25 to $30 for a 4K movie in iTunes.
Apple wants to have major Hollywood films available in ultra-high definition on the new device, expected to go on sale later this year. However, it wants to charge $19.99 for those movies—on par with what it sometimes charges for new HD movies, the people with knowledge of the discussions said. Several Hollywood studios want to charge $5 to $10 more for 4K movies, the people said.
Apple is said to be trying to finish these discussions well before September 12, the currently rumored date that will see the unveiling of the new 4K Apple TV, iPhone 8, iPhone 7s, iPhone 7s Plus, Apple Watch Series 3, and more software-related announcements. As iTunes loses market share to companies like Amazon and Comcast, Apple is hoping that a revitalized Apple TV streaming box with 4K content -- which many rival devices have already supported -- will help boost iTunes sales into the last half of 2017 and the new year.
In other Hollywood-related talks, earlier this month it was reported that multiple studios were pushing forward with a plan to offer digital movie rentals mere weeks after they appear in theaters. Studios like Universal Pictures and Warner Bros. were said to be in talks with partners, including Apple, to offer movies in iTunes as early as 17 days after their theatrical debut for about $50, or four to six weeks from release for $30.
For students who are non-Prime customers, Amazon Music Unlimited will now cost $4.99 per month, which is the same amount of money Apple charges students for its streaming service. For existing Prime Student members, however, Amazon is offering a six-month subscription option for just $6 ($1 a month).
The student prices represent a decent discount for eligible students, given that Amazon usually prices its Music Unlimited service at $7.99 per month for Prime members and $9.99 for non-Prime customers. The service includes a free 30-day trial and students can cancel at any time. Users must be enrolled at a degree-granting college or university to qualify.
In addition, Amazon is offering the same deal for U.K. students - although simply swapping out the dollar sign for a pound sign makes it a little less affordable.
Amazon is also touting the benefits of Alexa voice controls, which come included in the service for students. Users can ask Alexa to play music for studying, for example, or request that songs be played from a specific decade and only by a certain artist.
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In an effort to better protect user privacy and improve its image, Uber has decided to remove a background GPS tracking feature that allows riders to be tracked for up to five minutes after a ride ends, reports Reuters.
Uber is expected to announce the privacy change starting on Tuesday, with the update expected to roll out to iPhone users this week. The same update will be made to Android devices in the future.
The feature, which was first introduced in late 2016, has garnered a lot of criticism from Uber users. When location tracking is enabled for the Uber app (and location services is required for the app to properly function) Uber is able to collect location data from the time of a trip request through five minutes after the trip ends, even when the app is in the background.
Uber says it planned to use the extra location data to improve pickups, drop-offs, customer service, and to enhance customer service, but the company claims the post-trip tracking feature was never actually turned on for iPhone users.
In an interview with Reuters, Uber chief security officer Joe Sullivan said the update is unrelated to recent internal turmoil within the company, which saw Uber CEO Travis Kalanick ousted from the company.
"We've been building through the turmoil and challenges because we already had our mandate," said Sullivan, who is a member of the executive leadership team that has been co-running Uber since Kalanick left in June.
Sullivan went on to say that the company should not have asked Uber users for more information without providing details on the value of the feature. Should Uber re-enable the feature in the future, he says the company will let customers opt in and better explain why the feature is useful.
According to Sullivan, Uber is committed to user privacy, but has suffered from a "lack of expertise." Additional changes to improve privacy, security, and transparency at Uber are said to be in the works and coming in future updates.
Tim Cook last Friday visited Austin, Texas, where he announced that Apple's App Development with Swift curriculum will be offered in over 30 leading community college systems across the United States starting in 2017.
During his visit to Austin, Cook sat down with The New York Times for a breakfast interview where he discussed topics ranging from job creation and diversity to the company's efforts to introduce coding curriculum in schools and colleges.
On the topic of creating jobs, Cook said that he believes Apple has a "moral responsibility to help grow the economy" and to contribute both to the United States and to the other countries where Apple does business. That's why the company has worked so hard to introduce initiatives like Swift Playgrounds and coding in schools, in addition to making other investments like the recently announced data center coming to Iowa.
Cook also said he believes that the government has become less functional over time and that businesses have a responsibility to "step up" in areas like job creation.
"The reality is that government, for a long period of time, has for whatever set of reasons become less functional and isn't working at the speed that it once was. And so it does fall, I think, not just on business but on all other areas of society to step up."
Apple is focusing heavily on jobs related to apps and coding because it's an area where the company has already created a thriving job economy. Apple says 150,000 new jobs were created through the App Store last year, with $5 billion paid out to developers. The focus is on community colleges because Cook says "the community college system is much more diverse than four-year schools."
He went on to say that Apple is aiming to increase the racial, gender, and geographic diversity of people who are learning to code. "Right now, the benefits of tech are too lopsided to certain states," he said.
During the interview, Cook also commented on Apple's environmental efforts. Apple's upcoming data center in Iowa will run fully on renewable energy, as do all of the company's other U.S. facilities. "We're running Apple a hundred percent on renewable energy today," he said.
Cook's full interview, which covers his thoughts on running for president ("I already have a job"), his coding skills, developers creating Android apps, and more can be read over at The New York Times.
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.
Apple CEO Tim Cook today sold more than $43 million worth of Apple stock, according to documents filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.
Cook sold 268,623 shares at prices ranging from $159.27 to $161.43, earning more than $43 million, all of which is held in a trust. Cook's stock was sold as part of a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 Plan set up in May of 2017, according to the SEC.
Cook sold the stock after 560,000 RSUs vested on August 24, 2017. 280,000 of the restricted stock units he received were time based, while another 280,000 were performance based.
A restricted stock unit (aka RSU) is compensation valued in terms of a company's stock, but the stock is not issued at the time of the grant. Instead, the recipient receives the stock at a later date, a method generally used to make sure employees stay with a company for a set period of time.
While Cook was originally set to receive 1,000,000 RSUs awarded over a 10-year period in two lump sums (the 1,000,000 share number was prior to Apple's 2014 7-1 stock split -- it's now 7,000,000), a 2013 amendment modified how his stock is awarded, shifting it from a time-based system to a performance-based system with the RSUs doled out over a 10-year period from 2011 to 2021.
Cook received one lump sum of 700,000 RSUs in 2016, and will receive another 700,000 in 2021. The remaining 5,600,000 RSUs are awarded based on Apple's performance compared to other companies in the S&P 500.
If Apple's total shareholder return is within the top third of the best performing companies in the S&P 500, Cook receives all 560,000 RSUs in a given year. If the company's performance is in the middle third, Cook's award is reduced by 25 percent, and if Apple happens to fall in the bottom third, Cook's award is reduced by 50 percent.
As Apple performed well this year, Cook received all 560,000 shares in 2017. In addition to the stock Cook sold, Apple also sold 291,377 shares worth $46 million on Cook's behalf to settle his tax liability for the RSUs.
Following its May acquisition of sleep tracking product Beddit, Apple has taken over all support for the device.
The Beddit support site, which previously provided customers with a Beddit customer support email address to use, now includes a link that directs customers to instead contact Apple support for any issues. It's not entirely clear when the change was made, but it was noticed today by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.
Beddit, purchased by Apple earlier this year for an undisclosed sum, is a $150 sleep monitoring system that pairs a pliable under-sheet sleep sensor with an app that's designed to help users analyze and improve their sleeping habits.
The Beddit Sleep Tracker uses ballistocardiography (BCG) to measure the mechanical activity of the heart, lungs, and other body functions, a non-invasive monitoring technology that's similar to the light-based photoplethysmography the Apple Watch uses to monitor heart rate.
With BCG, when the heart beats, it measures the mechanical impulse generated by the acceleration of the blood through the circulatory system, providing a wealth of data about the body. Beddit tracks metrics like sleep time, sleep efficiency, heart rate, respiration rate, movement, snoring, room temperature, and room humidity.
Since acquiring Beddit, Apple has continued selling the Beddit hardware and is collecting sleep-related data from users. It's not yet clear what Apple plans to do with the Beddit sleep technology, but some possibilities include advancing sleep research for efforts like HealthKit and CareKit to implementing more advanced health tracking and sleep monitoring functionality into the Apple Watch or other future wearable devices.
Apple's iOS 11 update is just weeks away, and as the launch date approaches, developers have been experimenting with ARKit, the set of augmented reality tools Apple built into the operating system.
We already know ARKit will work with a huge range of apps, from games to utilities to shopping, and the latest demos below give us an even better picture of what our iPhones and iPads will be capable of once ARKit-based apps are available to the public.
In the first video, a company named Kabaq demonstrates virtual food on a plate, which is how future food ordering apps might take advantage of ARKit. Using Apple's feature, restaurants will be able to give customers a 3D look at what different dishes look like.
In a second video, ARKit is used for painting and sculpting, with developer Fabin Rasheed demoing a sculpture using the Apple Pencil on the iPad Pro. His app, MakerStudio, is designed to allow users to create 3D objects and then paint them, all using augmented reality.
A third video for an upcoming game called ARZombi shows off how ARKit might be used in an ultra realistic augmented reality game. In the demo, virtual zombies are shown invading a person's living room using ARKit.
An ARKit world creation game was also shown off earlier this month, further demonstrating the kind of games that will be made possible with Apple's augmented reality tools. In the game, players control a tabletop world populated with villagers.
Finally, an upcoming virtual pet game that's currently on Kickstarter gives us a peek at what could be a super popular ARKit app category -- Tamagotchi-style apps where a virtual pet is brought into the real world.
We're nearing the end of the iOS 11 beta testing period. Apple is likely to release a golden master version of iOS 11 on the iPhone event day, which is rumored for September 12, followed by an official iOS 11 public release a few days ahead of when new iPhone models go on sale.
When iOS 11 releases, we'll start seeing the first ARKit apps in the App Store. Before then, make sure to check out all of our previous ARKit coverage below to see what else developers can do with it:
The competition is part of Trend Micro's Zero Day Initiative, a program for rewarding security researchers for responsibly disclosing vulnerabilities to companies like Apple, Google, Samsung, and Huawei.
This year, targeted devices include the iPhone 7, Samsung's Galaxy S8, Google's Pixel, and Huawei's Mate 9 Pro, each of which will be running the latest version of iOS or Android respectively with up-to-date security fixes.
Trend Micro is making more than $500,000 available to be won, with the cash prizes available varying by type of exploit. Mobile Safari exploits, for example, are worth up to $40,000, while an SMS-based vulnerability could net $60,000.
In addition to the standard categories and prizes, there are add-on bonuses of between $20,000 and $50,000 for executing code with kernel privileges and having a smartphone operating system's payload persist after a reboot.
Apple representatives have attended Pwn2Own competitions in the past, with all vulnerabilities made aware to them. Apple will have 90 days to produce patches for any iOS-related bugs before they are disclosed.
Earlier this year, at the 10th anniversary Pwn2Own competition, security researchers uncovered macOS Sierra vulnerabilities, including a Safari exploit which allowed them to scroll a message on a MacBook Pro's Touch Bar.
Apple today seeded the eighth beta of an upcoming macOS High Sierra update to developers for testing purposes, one week after seeding the seventh beta and more than two months after introducing the new software at the 2017 Worldwide Developers Conference.
The eighth beta of macOS High Sierra can be downloaded from the Apple Developer Center or over-the-air using the Software Update mechanism in the Mac App Store.
macOS High Sierra builds on features first introduced in macOS Sierra, focusing on new storage, video, and graphics technology. It brings a new Apple File System (APFS), High Efficiency Video Codec (HEVC), and an updated version of Metal with support for VR and external GPUs.
Several apps are gaining new features in macOS High Sierra. The Photos app features a new sidebar to make it easier to access editing tools and albums, and there are new filters and editing options like Curves and Selective Color. Photos also supports external editing apps like Photoshop and Pixelmator, saving changes made in those apps back to Photos, and it interfaces with new third-party printing services.
Safari is gaining speed enhancements, an option to prevent autoplay videos, and a new feature that cuts down on cross-site data tracking. Siri in macOS High Sierra has expanded music capabilities and a new, more natural voice, and Spotlight supports flight status information. There are also improvements to iCloud, FaceTime, Messages, and Notes.
macOS High Sierra is available for both registered developers and public beta testers and will see a public release in the fall.
Apple today seeded the eighth beta of an upcoming tvOS 11 update designed for the fourth-generation TV, one week after seeding the seventh beta and more than two months after releasing the first beta during the 2017 Worldwide Developers Conference.
Registered developers can download the tvOS 11 update by connecting the Apple TV to a computer with a USB-C cable and installing the beta software using iTunes.
tvOS 11 didn't receive a lot of attention at the Worldwide Developers Conference because it's a modest update, but according to Apple's release notes, it does introduce a few new features to the operating system.
tvOS 11 brings automatic switching between light/dark mode based on local time, Home screen syncing options that keep multiple Apple TVs in a household in sync, new background modes and notification support, Focus API improvements, custom sound support, network-based pairing and development support, improvements to Mobile Device Management, and more.
The eighth beta of tvOS 11 most likely focuses primarily on bug fixes and other small refinements, as the first seven betas did. Apple's new tvOS 11 update is available for both registered developers and public beta testers. It will see a public release later this year.
Update: Apple has released tvOS 11 beta 7 for public beta testers.
In a statement sent to 
Apple CEO Tim Cook today sold more than $43 million worth of Apple stock, according to documents filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.
