MacRumors

Apple is planning to expand Apple Pay to Finland, Denmark, Sweden, and United Arab Emirates before the end of the calendar year, the company announced in today's third quarter earnings call. No specific information was provided on a potential launch date, beyond the announcement that it's coming later in the year.

Apple doesn't appear to have established Apple Pay web pages for the four countries, something that typically happens as it prepares for an Apple Pay launch.

Over the course of the last few years, Apple has been working "rapidly" to expand Apple Pay to additional countries, and it is now available in the U.S., UK, China, Australia, Canada, Switzerland, France, Hong Kong, Russia, Singapore, Japan, New Zealand, Spain, Italy, Taiwan, and Ireland.

Along with Sweden and Finland, rumors suggest Apple is also working to bring Apple Pay to Belgium, South Korea, Germany, and Ukraine.

Revenue from Apple's Services category, which includes Apple Music, Apple Pay, AppleCare, iTunes, iCloud, and the App Store, grew an impressive 22 percent year over year according to Apple's third quarter earnings results, reaching a new all-time high.

In 3Q 2017, Services brought in $7.3 billion, up from $6 billion in the year-ago quarter.

According to Apple CEO Tim Cook, the company's Services category is the size of a Fortune 100 company, a milestone Apple hit "sooner than expected."

Apple often attributes much of the growth of its Services category to the App Store, and that continues to be the case this quarter. According to Apple CFO Luca Maestri, App Store revenue was up, as was Apple Music revenue and revenue from iCloud services. Apple has now reached 185 million paid subscriptions across all services, an increase of nearly 20 million over the course of the last 90 days.

iOS 11 will bring a whole new App Store experience, splitting out Games and Apps into separate tabs and introducing a new section that allows Apple to better highlight the wide variety of apps that are available in the App Store, offering up a range of editorial picks to improve app discovery.

During today's earnings call covering the third quarter of 2017, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced that Apple has now sold 1.2 billion cumulative iPhones since the device was first introduced in 2007.

Apple sold its 1 billionth iPhone back in July of 2016, so in the last year, the company has sold another 200 million devices. According to Apple's earnings results, iPhone sales were at 41 million devices in the third quarter alone, bringing in more than $24.8 billion.

According to Apple CEO Tim Cook, sales of the current-generation iPhone 7 Plus have been impressive and are "up dramatically" compared to sales of the iPhone 6s Plus in 2016. Sales of both the iPhone 7 and the iPhone 7 Plus are up "strong double digits" compared to the year-ago quarter.

Since the iPhone was introduced in 2007, Apple has introduced new features and improvements with each successive device. This year, we're expecting to see Apple unveil the iPhone 8, a radically redesigned device with an edge-to-edge OLED display, no Home button, and a new front-facing camera system that enables facial recognition technology.

Just over a month after originally appearing for a few Apple Music subscribers on both iOS 10 and the iOS 11 beta, it appears that Apple's new "My Chill Mix" playlist is now expanding to many more users of the music streaming service.

My Chill Mix recommends music that's both old and new, curating a list of songs for Apple Music users that are supposed to help them "relax and unwind" as they listen. Because each person's definition of relaxation might differ, Apple Music's My Chill Mix isn't only aimed at low-key music, but could also include rock, hip-hop, techno, and more.

Like Apple's other intelligently curated playlists, Apple Music will get better at recommending music for My Chill Mix the more that users listen to music on the app. The playlist will refresh every Sunday and includes 25 tracks, just like Apple Music's other customized playlists.

"Tailored to your music taste, My Chill Mix is a selection of songs to help you relax and unwind."

Last year, Apple launched its first curated playlists, called "My Favorites Mix" and "My New Music Mix." My Favorites Mix presents users with a collection of their most-listened-to songs every Wednesday, while My New Music Mix recommends the newest music based off of each user's listening history.

When iOS 11 launches to the public, there will be a few changes in the Apple Music app, mostly related to a new social feature. In the "For You" tab, users will be able to create their own Apple Music profile page, share their favorite playlists, and follow friends to see what they're listening to in order to further facilitate new music discovery.

Update: One user on Reddit has discovered another custom Apple Music playlist that can be invoked by asking Siri to "play My Party Mix." As of now My Party Mix has yet to appear in the For You tab on Apple Music, but most users have found that they can play the collection through Siri. Musical artists and styles vary among users, as is custom with these playlists, but the common factor appears to be upbeat songs that could be played at a party.

Firmware for Apple's HomePod has already given us glimpses into the unreleased iPhone 8, including a glyph representing the basic front-facing design of the smartphone, as well as code that supports rumors of a "split" status bar.

Apple Watch has yet to be mentioned in the discoveries, but recently developer Jeffrey Grossman shared a few pieces of information on Twitter that are potentially related to Apple's wearable device, which he discovered when looking through the HomePod's IPSW files.

At one point, the firmware includes a few references to a "Skiing Workout" alongside multiple strings that describe items like "Downhill Snow Sports Distance," "Ski Data," and "Workout Activity Type."

As such, it's likely that there are various unannounced workouts that will be introduced in future watchOS 4 updates, which now might include sessions for skiers. Coming in the first public release of watchOS 4 are a number of UI improvements for the Workouts app, making it easier to start an exercise and string together different types of exercises.

Upon release, HomePod will run a version of iOS, and the firmware released by Apple that's been dissected by developers this week corresponds to iOS 11.0.2, lending credibility to all of the bits and pieces of information that have thus far been uncovered within the files.

Apple and Google have recently removed over 300 binary options trading apps from the App Store and Google Play store respectively, according to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.

A spokesperson for Apple said it removed the apps globally in accordance with its recently updated App Store Review Guidelines:

Apps that facilitate binary options trading are not permitted on the App Store. Consider a web app instead.

MacRumors easily discovered at least five apps that still appear to facilitate binary options trading on the App Store. Apple's guidelines clearly state that binary options trading apps are no longer permitted on the App Store, so it's unclear why some remain available to download, and whether they'll soon be removed.

The trading apps encouraged users to make bets on whether instruments like shares or currencies will rise or fall, according to Bloomberg. However, many of them were unlicensed and failed to outline the risks of trading binary options, and some merely collected personal information, according to ASIC.

Many of the trading apps subject to surveillance by ASIC contained statements which appeared to be misleading about the profitability of trading and the amount of profit that could be made, the regulator said. One of the apps, for example, advertised that users could profit in as quickly as 60 seconds.

"In an age where technology can hide who is offering and controlling a product, buyer beware has never been so important," said ASIC commissioner Cathie Armour. "If something appears too good to be true, it probably is."

The U.K. home secretary Amber Rudd has argued that "real people" do not want secure end-to-end encryption on messaging platforms and are more concerned with usability and features than unbreakable security (via Yahoo News).

Rudd made her case in a newspaper article, published ahead of a meeting today with technology companies in San Francisco, where she will warn tech giants that their services are being misused by terrorists. Writing in The Daily Telegraph, Rudd said:

"Who uses WhatsApp because it is end-to-end encrypted, rather than because it is an incredibly user-friendly and cheap way of staying in touch with friends and family?

"So this is not about asking the companies to break encryption or create so-called 'back doors'.

"Companies are constantly making trade-offs between security and 'usability', and it is here where our experts believe opportunities may lie.

"Real people often prefer ease of use and a multitude of features to perfect, unbreakable security."

Rudd's comments were immediately criticized by privacy campaigners, with civil liberties organization Big Brother Watch calling her viewpoint "at best naïve, at worst dangerous".

"Suggesting that people don't really want security from their online services is frankly insulting," said Renate Samson, chief executive of BBW. "What of those in society who are in dangerous or vulnerable situations, let alone those of us who simply want to protect our communications from breach, hack or cybercrime."

"Once again the government are attempting to undermine the security of all in response to the actions of a few. We are all digital citizens, we all deserve security in the digital space."

Rudd is due to give her speech to tech companies like Twitter, Facebook, and Microsoft, in which she will urge them to do more to remove extremist content online or face new laws forcing them to do so.

Speaking to the BBC, Rudd said she wanted to work more closely with companies on encryption so that "where there is a particular need, where there is a targeted need" the government should be given access to metadata and encrypted content.

But Facebook's chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, pushed back against that argument, and warned about pushing criminals into even harder to reach parts of the internet.

"If people move off those encrypted services to go to encrypted services in countries that won't share the metadata, the government actually has less information, not more," she said.

Tuesday's summit is the first gathering of the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism, an organization set up by the major tech companies following recent terror attacks. Organization members are likely to resist any action that would result in compromised encryption, however.

In a joint statement, the companies taking part said they were co-operating to "substantially disrupt terrorists' ability to use the internet in furthering their causes, while also respecting human rights".

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 this week launched a new limited time discount on its Beats EP headphones, Beats Pill+ speaker, and urBeats earphones, which are all on sale for approximately $20 to $30 off.

The Beats EP On-Ear Headphones are available for $99, down from the original price of $129.95. All colors are available at the discounted price, including red, white, black, and blue. The Beats EP are Apples most affordable on-ear headphones, coming in at a lower cost than the Solo3 models.

The Beats Pill+ Portable Speaker is available for $199, down from $229.95. All colors are discounted, including white, black, and red.

Both the Beats Pill+ and the Beats EP On-Ear Headphones were discounted by a similar amount in late 2016 and early 2017, but Apple has not recently offered a sale on the urBeats. With the promotion, the earphones are priced at $79 instead of $99.95. All colors available from the Apple Store are included in the sale: silver, gold, space gray, rose gold, black, and ultra violet.

Apple's prices are a decent deal, but similar and occasionally bigger discounts can often be found from retailers like Amazon and Best Buy during routine sales.

According to the promotion details, Apple's sale will last from today until August 26, 2017 at 11:59:59 p.m. Pacific Time.

Apple today updated its developer news site to let developers know that TestFlight tester limits have been expanded. Starting today, developers can invite up to 10,000 users to beta test their iOS, watchOS, tvOS, and iMessage apps before the apps are released on the App Store.

Developers often use TestFlight to send out pre-release copies of apps to testers and members of the media to suss out bugs and usability issues ahead of the release of an app. TestFlight is simple to use, requiring just an email address to send out beta testing invites, which has made it popular with developers.

Now you can gain even more valuable feedback by inviting up to 10,000 users to beta test your apps before you release them on the App Store. TestFlight makes it simple to invite testers using just their email address and lets testers quickly provide feedback within the TestFlight app.

Prior to today, app developers were only allowed to invite up to 2,000 individuals to beta test apps using the TestFlight beta testing platform, a limit that was put in place in 2015. This is the first time the limit has been increased since then.