MacRumors

Following in the footsteps of T-Mobile and Verizon, AT&T today announced plans to debut a new unlimited data plan that's available to all of its postpaid customers. The unlimited plan will be available starting tomorrow.

AT&T previously offered an unlimited data plan, but it was limited to customers who were also DirecTV or U-Verse customers.

According to AT&T, the new plan will provide unlimited talk, text, and data on four lines for $180, which is more expensive than T-Mobile's ONE data plan for four customers and on par with Verizon's pricing, also at $180 for four lines. A single line is priced at $100.

AT&T is including unlimited calls from the U.S. to Canada and Mexico and unlimited texts to more than 120 countries around the world. Customers are also able to talk, text, and use data in Canada and Mexico with no roaming charges.

"We're offering unlimited entertainment on the nation's best data network where and when you want to enjoy more of what you love," said David Christopher, Chief Marketing Officer of the AT&T Entertainment Group.

AT&T's $180 price point is after a $40 credit for the fourth smartphone line, which will start after two billing periods. Prior to then, customers will need to pay $220 per month for the plan.

The company's fine print says that AT&T "may slow speeds" during periods of network congestion for customers who consume more than 22GB of data, which is not a surprise as T-Mobile and Verizon's plans contain similar caveats. The unlimited plan also includes the Stream Saver feature, which downgrades video to 480p. Stream Saver is enabled by default, but can be turned off online.

With AT&T now offering an unlimited plan for all of its customers, all of the major carriers in the United States have unlimited data plans available, which is impressive because for the last several years, carriers like AT&T and Verizon have been heavily focused on eliminating their unlimited customers.

Sprint and T-Mobile have offered unlimited data plans since August, and T-Mobile's growing popularity and regular feature additions at an affordable price appears to have inspired AT&T and Verizon to re-adopt unlimited plans.

Verizon announced its unlimited plan earlier this week with inclusions like 10GB of tethering data and HD video streaming, spurring T-Mobile to implement similar changes. With T-Mobile's new tethering offerings and higher-quality video streaming, it continues to offer the best value at $70 per month for a single subscriber (Verizon's plan is $80). Sprint's plan is priced at $55 per month, but its coverage can't compete with T-Mobile, Verizon, and AT&T, and AT&T's plan is the most expensive of the four at $100 for a single line.

Apple's widely expected 5.8-inch iPhone with an edge-to-edge OLED display will feature a front-facing 3D laser scanner for facial recognition, corroborating previous rumors, according to JPMorgan analyst Rod Hall.

Hall said the scanner will replace Touch ID on the so-called iPhone 8, as Apple plans to remove the Home button to allow for the edge-to-edge display. His research note claims the so-called iPhone 7s and iPhone 7s Plus could also have a 3D laser scanner based on increased volume of the module within Apple's supply chain.

The scanner is said to add $10 to $15 per module to the iPhone 8's bill of materials, which coupled with the OLED display, glass casing, and other increased production costs, could make its retail price up to $100 more expensive than it would be without those features, if Apple looks to maintain a similar profit margin.

The increased costs are in line with a recent report claiming the iPhone 8 could cost upwards of $1,000 in the United States.

Hall believes the switch to facial recognition will help alleviate consumer frustration when Touch ID does not work under wet conditions. He added that facial recognition will potentially be more secure than Touch ID, which could increase Apple Pay adoption among banks and merchants.

The research note said the 3D laser scanner could eventually be used for other purposes, such as augmented reality, but likely not until 2018 at the earliest.

One obvious and potentially most compelling use would be AR/VR experiences in which the user’s hands and other real world objects are being scanned and integrated into a field of view provided by the iPhone mounted into a Google Daydream-like headset. This would open up many interesting entertainment and gaming experiences not available today and might give Apple something extra in an AR/VR accessory compared to Google and others.

He also believes that Apple is likely to eventually open up a 3D scanning API to developers, who could use it to do "everything from determining your shoe size for online orders to helping make sure you are properly fitted on your bike."

Hall expects a strong iPhone 8 replacement cycle later this year, and he said an announcement about the product is possible as early as WWDC 2017, which kicks off June 5. Apple has not made any iPhone hardware announcements at WWDC since 2010, so treat this claim with a proverbial grain of salt for now.

Earlier this week, KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said while it is "still early to examine hardware support for Apple Pay," he believes the new 5.8-inch iPhone will feature "other biometric technologies that replace the current fingerprint recognition technology," lending credence to Touch ID's removal.

Kuo had previously said that iris or facial recognition could initially complement Touch ID if Apple faced technological barriers, while Cowen and Company analyst Timothy Arcuri noted that facial recognition could either replace Touch ID or augment its functionality to create a two-factor verification system.

Other rumors have suggested that Apple will embed Touch ID underneath the display as technologically possible.

Apple today shared two new videos on its YouTube channel, again designed to promote the Portrait Mode feature that's unique to the dual-camera iPhone 7 Plus.

Both videos are 15 seconds in length and show the Portrait Mode in action, with an explanation on how it blurs out the background for better portrait shots of people.

Portrait Mode, introduced in iOS 10.1, uses a shallow depth-of-field effect to make portrait photos "pop," mimicking the results that can normally only be obtained with a high-end DSLR and a telephoto lens. Portrait Mode uses the 56mm lens included in the iPhone 7 Plus, with Apple's image signal processor working to scan a scene to recognize people and other objects to separate the foreground from the background for the blurring effect.

Today's ads follow two similar ads that were released earlier this week, also designed to show off Portrait Mode on the iPhone 7 Plus.

FCC chairman Ajit Pai has advocated for the activation of FM radio receivers built into nearly every smartphone, as part of opening remarks he made at the Future of Radio and Audio Symposium in Washington D.C. yesterday.

Many smartphones sold today, including iPhones, have an FM receiver built into the LTE modem that would allow people to listen to FM radio over the air; however, many carriers and phone makers have not enabled the functionality, forcing users to use an app to stream FM radio over Wi-Fi or cellular data.

Pai cited a NAB study that found only 44% of the top-selling smartphones in the United States had activated FM receivers as of last year. The vast majority—94%—of the non-activated smartphones are iPhones, according to the study.

"We could be doing a lot better," said Pai, who was appointed as FCC chairman last month. "It seems odd that every day we hear about a new smartphone app that lets you do something innovative, yet these modern-day mobile miracles don’t enable a key function offered by a 1982 Sony Walkman."

The activation of FM receivers in iPhones would have several benefits, including battery life savings, less data usage, and most importantly, the ability to receive emergency alerts over radio without service.

"You could make a case for activating chips on public safety grounds alone," added Pai. "The former head of our Federal Emergency Management Administration has spoken out in support of this proposal. The FCC has an expert advisory panel on public safety issues that has also advocated enabling FM radio chips on smartphones."

Pai said that while he will keep speaking out about the benefits of activating FM receivers in smartphones, he is a believer in free markets and the rule of law, and he thereby cannot support a government mandate requiring activation of these chips, nor does he believe the FCC has the power to issue said mandate.

In 2015, an online campaign was launched to "free radio" on smartphones. It calls for U.S. carriers to activate the FM radio receivers in smartphones. AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile now support the functionality, or will soon, on all or select Android-based smartphones. The campaign extends to Canada.

Apple's stance on the activation of FM receivers in iPhones is uncertain. An additional antenna would likely be required for proper FM signal reception. The latest iPod nano, meanwhile, requires connecting headphones to listen to FM radio, as the device uses the headphone cord as an antenna to receive a signal.

Another rumor of Apple's interest in acquiring a company involved in film and television has come to light today, with Financial Times reporting that the Cupertino company was in talks to acquire production company Imagine Entertainment, co-founded by Ron Howard and Brian Grazer. The deal is said to have gotten "serious enough" to include Apple CEO Tim Cook and senior vice president Eddy Cue, but discussions ultimately "fizzled out" for unknown reasons.

Those knowledgable about the deal said that possibilities ranged from a "first look" distribution strategy granted to Apple for movies and television shows released by Imagine all the way to an investment or even an outright purchase by Apple. Imagine is a company behind a number of well-known films, including all three entries in The Da Vinci Code series, Apollo 13, and the upcoming adaptation of The Dark Tower. Some of its production in the TV space includes shows like Empire, 24, and Parenthood.

According to Financial Times, Apple's current approach to original video content "has many in Hollywood scratching their heads."

This approach has many in Hollywood scratching their heads. Apple’s rounds of meetings with various entertainment industry players suggest it has not yet decided what its strategy should be.

The iPhone maker has been stalking Hollywood for more than a year, talking to leading industry players while it tries to formulate a cogent video strategy. It has considered a range of acquisitions and targets including, most recently, Imagine Entertainment, the Hollywood production company owned by Ron Howard and Brian Grazer, according to several people briefed on the discussions.

Imagine is said to have recently faced the end of a long-term production and distribution deal with Universal Pictures, which is when Apple is believed to have considered entering into a first look deal with the company. The new Imagine rumor marks another bump in the road for Apple's trip around Hollywood, following reports that the company considered buying Time Warner last year. Later in the year, people familiar with Apple's acquisition strategy said it was "not interested" in acquiring Time Warner at the time.

Today's news follows a Bloomberg report from yesterday that underscored Apple's "arrogance" in mergers and acquisitions, where it's reported to use shrewd business tactics and non-traditional strategies in its attempts to acquire new companies. These tactics work mostly for Apple's smaller acquisitions, according to some analysts, but impede its success at acquiring larger companies, although it is unclear how seriously Apple has pursued any such large targets.

Update 12:50 PM: Imagine co-chairman Michael Rosenberg tells Variety, "The story is not accurate and Imagine has no further comment."

Apple today announced that WWDC 2017 will run Monday, June 5 through Friday, June 9 at the McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, California.

WWDC is returning to San Jose for the first time since 2002. The conference had been held in San Francisco since 2003. Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller told The Loop that downtown San Jose is closer to Apple's headquarters in nearby Cupertino and will provide a "great environment for developers."

Schiller said that downtown San Jose is going to provide a great environment for developers attending the conference. Of course, San Jose has the added benefit of being close to Apple’s Cupertino headquarters, which should make logistics much easier for the company, especially when it comes to getting engineers on site.

Schiller said he expects WWDC 2017 to be about the same size as previous conferences—about 5,000 developers and 1,000 engineers. But given the venue's closer proximity to Cupertino, more Apple engineers will be able to attend since they will not need to take an entire day or week off to commute to San Francisco.

The McEnery Convention Center will be the hub for thousands of attendees with great hotel, restaurant and entertainment options, all within walking distance. In addition to the keynote address, get-togethers, sessions and labs for developers, Apple is working with the city of San Jose and local businesses to celebrate the return of WWDC with very special experiences around San Jose throughout the week.

San Jose should be a more affordable location for attendees as well, while an early February announcement allows for cheaper airfare.

Tickets will be offered by random selection for $1,599. Ticket lottery registration opens Monday, March 27 at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time. Those that plan on registering must be a member of the Apple Developer Program or Apple Developer Enterprise Program as of February 16 at 5:30 a.m. Pacific Time.

WWDC, or the Worldwide Developers Conference, is where Apple unveils the latest versions of its software platforms, which this year is likely to include iOS 11, macOS 10.13, and new versions of tvOS and watchOS. The opening keynote has sometimes included other big announcements, such as new Macs and iCloud.

"Technology alone is not enough," said Apple. "Technology must intersect with the liberal arts and the humanities, to create new ideas and experiences that push society forward. This summer we bring together thousands of brilliant minds representing many diverse perspectives, passions, and talents to help us change the world."

Apple said the conference will be live-streamed on its WWDC 2017 website and through the WWDC app for iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV.

Apple is currently testing a new, fifth-generation Apple TV capable of streaming Ultra HD 4K video, according to a report released on Thursday.

The new Apple TV is internally codenamed "J105" and is able to output content in more vivid colors, according to Bloomberg. The fifth-gen device may release as soon as this year, with Apple's recent hiring of former Amazon Fire TV unit chief Timothy D. Twerdhal said to indicate a renewed focus on the set-top box.

Twerdhal's arrival comes as the company tests a new, fifth-generation Apple TV that it may release as soon as this year. Internally codenamed "J105," the new box will be capable of streaming ultra-high-definition 4K and more vivid colors, according to people familiar with the plans.

Details on Apple's intentions for its set-top box have been scant in recent months, with the last rumor that it was readying a new model appearing as far back as December 2015. Today's new disclosure appears as part of an investigation into Apple's apparent inability to keep pace with rivals like Amazon and Roku in the TV streaming market. According to Bloomberg's sources, Apple engineers have been forced to compromise "time and again" on Steve Jobs' original vision of revolutionizing the living room.

Originally, the Apple TV was meant to replace the ungainly set-top boxes supplied by cable companies and allow owners to stream live television, but Apple's failure to secure deals with the major cable channels left Cupertino unable to push ahead with its TV plans. According to the report, that left the Apple TV team debating other options, such as including a game controller with the fourth-gen model to better compete with Microsoft's Xbox and the Sony PlayStation, but that ultimately fell through because of cost concerns.

Apple also reportedly passed on including a more expensive 4K-capable chip in the fourth-gen Apple TV because it would be forced to accept lower margins. This left the set-top box more akin to a "giant iPhone", consisting of a cluster of apps and an App Store.

"That's not what I signed up for," says one of the people, who requested anonymity to talk freely about internal company matters. "I signed up for revolutionary. We got evolutionary."

Apple has never revealed how many Apple TVs it has sold, although Apple CFO Luca Maestri recently admitted that sales had decreased year-over-year during the 2016 holiday period, while market research suggests the fourth-generation Apple TV has been losing market share to cheaper Amazon and Roku boxes since its launch in the fall of 2015.

Steve Jobs' ambitions in the TV space have become almost legendary since his passing, but little has been achieved by Apple to realize his vision, which originally included an Apple-branded television set. Jobs previewed the first Apple TV in 2006, when the device was only able to stream iTunes video from a Mac to a TV. When he stepped down from his position as Apple CEO on August 24, 2011 due to illness, he intended to work on an Apple television that would re-invent living room entertainment.

After Jobs' death, Apple tried to gain a stronger foothold in this regard, but the company failed to secure the cable channel deals that would allow it to create the full integrated television programming experience and TV set that Jobs envisioned, and since that time it has relied on the fourth-generation Apple TV, with App Store and Siri integration, as a makeweight solution.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has repeatedly asserted in the past that "the future of TV is apps", but such a vision is difficult to realize in the context of a fully unified user experience. Apple TV users still have to buy individual TV episodes via the iTunes Store, pay extra for services such as Hulu, and download apps linked to specific channels, after which they must log in with their existing cable subscriptions.

According to the Bloomberg report, by all accounts, Apple's efforts to position the Apple TV as a streaming and distribution platform for other content providers have failed. Whether or not a 4K-capable device can bring about a resurgence in its ambitions for the living room remains to be seen.

You can read the full Bloomberg report here.

Yahoo has issued a new warning to account holders about malicious hacks linked to a third data breach that the company disclosed late last year.

The warning relates to more recent malicious activity targeting accounts between 2015 and 2016, most likely perpetrated by a "state actor", according to Yahoo. Specifically, the hacks are said to have been achieved by using "forged" cookies – the text-based keys that give web users access to username and password information without having to re-enter it – created by software stolen from within Yahoo's internal systems.

A message was sent to affected Yahoo users on Wednesday, warning them of the unauthorized access to their account, but Yahoo did not reveal how many people were notified.

Yahoo's announcement came just hours after reports that Verizon was close to a renegotiated deal to buy Yahoo's core assets at a lower price. Last year, Verizon agreed to buy Yahoo’s core business for $4.83 billion, but on Wednesday Bloomberg reported that the renegotiated deal would slash about $250 million off that price because of the security breaches that were revealed after the initial deal was agreed. 

"As we have previously disclosed, our outside forensic experts have been investigating the creation of forged cookies that could have enabled an intruder to access our users' accounts without a password," a Yahoo spokesperson told Associated Press. "The investigation has identified user accounts for which we believe forged cookies were taken or used. Yahoo is in the process of notifying all potentially affected account holders. Yahoo has invalidated the forged cookies so they cannot be used again."

Back in September, Yahoo revealed that hackers had stolen the personal data of "at least" 500 million users, but by December, the internet company admitted that over one billion Yahoo user accounts had been compromised in a separate hack dating back to August 2013. Information stolen included names, email addresses, phone numbers, birth dates, hashed passwords, security questions and answers.

The internet company is currently under investigation from the Securities and Exchange Commission over its failure to disclose its massive data breaches sooner.

The upcoming 2017 iPhone will feature a 5.8-inch display with 5.15 inches of usable screen space according to new predictions shared by KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. Kuo believes the iPhone 8 will use a 5.8-inch OLED display panel, but that some space will be reserved for virtual buttons.

As has been rumored, the display is said to take up the entire front panel of the iPhone, effectively eliminating bezels, which means Apple will eliminate both the current Home button and the current Touch ID fingerprint recognition technology used in iPhones.

Size wise, Kuo says the OLED iPhone will have measurements similar to the 4.7-inch iPhone, allowing for one-handed operation. Such a size is possible with a 5.8-inch panel because there will be no extra space outside of the display, as can be seen in the mockup below. It will feature a display similar in size to the 5.5-inch iPhone, but in a 4.7-inch package.

Alongside the 5.8-inch OLED iPhone, Kuo continues to believe Apple will also offer standard 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch LCD iPhones, but it is not yet clear what features those devices will adopt. In previous research notes, Kuo has said they will include glass bodies and wireless charging, but he has not gone into detail on other potential features. He does, however, say that the OLED iPhone will be "the only bright spot" in the 2017 iPhone lineup, suggesting only minor improvements for the other two rumored devices.

Because the OLED iPhone will eliminate the Home button, it is expected to adopt "other biometric technologies," which other rumors suggest could include things like iris or facial recognition.

Battery life may also be another major change in the OLED iPhone, with Apple expected to introduce a stacked logic board design to support bigger batteries and longer battery life. In today's report, Kuo says the iPhone 8, though similar in size to the 4.7-inch iPhone 7, will feature a battery capacity similar to the larger 5.5-inch iPhone 7 Plus.

With the radical design changes, battery improvements, and the new biometric features, Kuo expects the OLED iPhone to cost in excess of $1,000, a pricing rumor that was also shared by Fast Company last week. Kuo does not expect the high price point to significantly impact sales due the "innovative user experience" offered by the device.

He believes Apple will ship 100 million iPhones during the second half of 2017, with 60 percent of those to consist of the higher-end OLED iPhone.

Both Amazon and Google are working on turning their popular AI-based speaker products into replacements for a home telephone, reports The Wall Street Journal.

The Amazon Echo and/or the Google Home could be used to make and receive phone calls, with the two companies planning to add the updated functionality as soon as this year. Smart home products like the Amazon Echo have become a staple in the lives of many people and the ability to make phone calls directly from the device would be a valuable addition.

Google and Amazon are said to be working to overcome concerns about privacy, telecom regulations, and emergency services, plus the "inherent awkwardness" of making phone conversations via a speaker. The two companies are worried consumers won't want to speak on a device that is able to record conversations. Both the Echo and the Home continuously record audio to enable AI responses.

One source that spoke to The Wall Street Journal said that Amazon would only collect metadata from phone calls rather than conversations themselves, and while it's unclear what Google would retain, a Home-based call service would likely resemble Google Voice, which does not record phone calls.

Amazon is considering multiple options for how the phone feature could work, the people said. The Echo could get its own phone number. Call forwarding could enable calls to that number to be answered remotely on a cellphone, and vice versa.

Another option is to sync a user's existing phone number and contacts with the Echo. Incoming calls would ring on the user's cellphone.

Amazon and Google could develop the calling tool themselves, or they could allow external providers such as Skype or Vonage onto their platforms.

The news is of interest to Apple followers because Apple is also rumored to be working on a connected smart home device that would compete with Amazon's Echo and Google's Home. It's reasonable to assume that when and if Apple releases its rumored home hub, it would be on par with already existing products. If the Amazon Echo and Google Home are set to gain calling capabilities, we can perhaps expect the same thing from an Apple product.

Rumors thus far suggest Apple's smart home device will be powered by Siri, Apple's voice-based personal assistant that's already built into iPhones and Macs. It would reportedly be used to control HomeKit-enabled accessories while also offering "advanced microphone and speaker technology." The device, in addition to serving as a hub for smart products, would also be able to respond to typical Siri questions and do things like play music, answer queries, and more.

The device is said to be in the prototype testing phase of development, without an official finalized plan for release. Apple could still decide not to move forward with the project should the testing phase not pan out.