MacRumors

Over the past couple of weeks, YouTubers have been conducting all kinds of "tests" on the new iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, looking for flaws, confirming Apple's design claims, and exploring new features. One test on the sapphire cover of the rear-facing camera, calls into question whether lens cover is indeed made of sapphire after it's shown being scratched with picks designed to emulate the Mohs hardness scale.

On the Mohs scale of hardness, sapphire rates a 9, coming in just under diamond at a 10 on the top of the scale. Its hardness makes it resistant to scratching, and so it's used by high-end watch makers and by Apple to cover the Home button and the rear camera of the iPhone 7.

In the video, scratches are made on the iPhone 7 camera and a sapphire-equipped Tissot watch using specialized Mohs tools. With a pick the reviewer claims is "Mohs 6," he is able to make scratches on the camera lens, theorizing that it is made from sapphire-laminated glass or impure sapphire because sapphire should resist scratches at Mohs 6.

This test, and others like it, have caused people to claim that Apple is lying about using pure sapphire crystal over the camera lens, prompting the company to release an official statement subtly calling into question the testing methods used in the video. The reviewer does use tools to determine the composition of the sapphire and finds carbon, but it is not clear that the test was done without contamination.

Apple confirms the iPhone 7 camera lens is sapphire, and under proper testing conditions, achieves the hardness and purity results expected from sapphire.

Last month, Apple's Phil Schiller also confirmed on Twitter that the rear lens cover on the iPhone 7 and the iPhone 7 Plus are constructed from sapphire.

According to iMore's Rene Ritchie, there's a simple explanation for the discrepancy between Apple's claims and what's going on in the video. The tools used in the video aren't scratching the lens -- they're causing fracturing, as can even be seen when the sapphire is placed under the microscope, due to heavy pressure.

Fracturing -- as opposed to scratching -- is what happens when you have something so incredibly thin -- unlike the much thicker watch used for comparison -- and you apply pressure with no level of control.

You'd have to precisely apply the same level of force, likely to the same thickness of material, to properly do that test.

Apple has used sapphire crystal for iPhone components for multiple years and maintains that sapphire crystal continues to be present in the iPhone 7 and the iPhone 7 Plus, a conclusion that was also ultimately reached in the video.

Over the past few weeks, Samsung has been replacing recalled Galaxy Note 7 smartphones that have faulty exploding batteries with new devices, but an incident today suggests the South Korean company's smartphone woes aren't over.

A Southwest flight from Louisville to Baltimore was today evacuated just before it pulled out of the gate because a Samsung Galaxy Note 7 smartphone started smoking. While no one was injured, there is a serious problem -- the Galaxy Note 7 in question was a replacement device that had been deemed "safe" by Samsung.

According to The Verge, the owner of the Galaxy Note 7, Brian Green, had replaced his original Galaxy Note at an AT&T store on September 21. The smartphone had a green battery icon and box the device came in features a black square, both of which are indicators of a replacement Note 7.

Green told The Verge he had powered down the phone as requested by the flight crew and stowed it in his pocket before it started smoking.

He dropped it on the floor of the plane and a "thick grey-green angry smoke" was pouring out of the device. Green's colleague went back onto the plane to retrieve some personal belongings and said that the phone had burned through the carpet and scorched the subfloor of the plane.

He said the phone was at around 80 percent of battery capacity when the incident occurred and that he only used a wireless charger since receiving the device.

Samsung has already replaced more than one million Galaxy Note 7 devices, and has said the new Note 7 smartphones have batteries "that are not vulnerable to overheating and catching fire." Despite the recall, reports of overheating devices are circulating on a near-daily basis, and the company could have another disaster on its hands if replacement devices are also experiencing the same issues.

Rumors have suggested Samsung's Note 7 problems began after the company rushed the device into production after realizing the iPhone 7 would not feature major design changes, seeing it as an opportunity to one up Apple. Suppliers were pushed to meet tighter deadlines for an earlier launch, leading to critical oversights.

Samsung America president and COO Tim Baxter apologized to customers in September. "We did not meet the standard of excellence that you expect and deserve," he said, adding that Samsung is working to earn back customer trust.

Apple today seeded the second beta of an upcoming iOS 10 update to public beta testers for testing purposes, two weeks after releasing the first iOS 10.1 public beta and one day after providing the second beta to developers. It's been three weeks since iOS 10 was released to the public.

Beta testers who have signed up for Apple's beta testing program will receive the new iOS 10.1 beta update over-the-air after installing the proper certificate on their iOS device.

Those who want to be a part of Apple's beta testing program can sign up to participate through the beta testing website, which gives users access to both iOS and macOS Sierra betas. Betas are not stable and include many bugs, so they should be installed on a secondary device.

iOS 10.1 introduces a “Portrait” mode for the iPhone 7 Plus, which takes advantage of the dual cameras in the device. Portrait mode is designed to mimic the kind of shallow depth of field images that can be taken with a high-end DSLR, with a front subject that stands out over a blurred background.

The two cameras in the iPhone 7 Plus capture images, which are scanned by the built-in image signal processor to create a depth map. Machine learning techniques are used to recognize people and/or foreground images, keeping people and main objects in focus while applying an artful blur or "bokeh" to the background. The 10.1 update also includes bug fixes and performance improvements to address issues discovered since the release of iOS 10 and it features some tweaks to the Messages interface, replacing dots that represented each installed app with a scroll bar.

iOS 10 is a major operating system update that includes features like a redesigned Lock screen, a Siri SDK to allow third-party apps to integrate with Siri, and a completely overhauled Messages app with stickers, a full App Store, Digital Touch, Bubble Effects, and more. Other new additions include a dedicated “Home” app for HomeKit users, new facial and object recognition capabilities in Photos, and redesigned Maps and Apple Music apps.

After reporting a few weeks ago that the Messages App Store has grown to 1,650 applications, 75 percent of them sticker packs, Sensor Tower recently published another report detailing the download growth statistics for pre-existing apps that introduced Messages support in iOS 10. According to the research firm, the advantages of being an original presence in the Messages App Store during launch week had a "profound" effect on the surge of downloads for each app.

Sticker-making app JibJab sits firmly atop the pile of apps looked at by Sensor Tower. Originally introduced in 2014, Apple advertised the app's new Messages-ready compatibility in the Messages App Store during iOS 10's launch, and JibJab subsequently saw a download growth of more than 1,500 percent the week of September 12, 2016, which Sensor Tower compared to two weeks prior, August 29, as a statistical baseline.

The data accrued throughout the study uses the same parameters for each app. It should also be noted that Sensor Tower's measurements only took into account well-established apps that received more than 50,000 downloads for August and September, 2016.

As you can see, the animated-sticker-making app JibJab, which has been available on the App Store since 2014, witnessed tremendous download growth of more than 1,500 percent for the week of September 12, 2016, compared to our baseline, the week of August 29, 2016. As one of the very first apps to debut on the iMessage App Store, JibJab also benefitted from featuring by Apple within the in-app storefront.

Being a first mover on the iMessage Apps platform has clearly paid off for these apps.

A few other apps that have introduced Messages support saw notable growth, just not as intense as JibJab's performance. GIF Keyboard took second place, with a 129 percent increase in downloads during iOS 10's launch week. Tenor's app has also been around since 2014, but with the advent of Messages apps users no longer have to allow the company access to their keyboard and laboriously copy/paste each gif into a message.

The top five was rounded out by song-sharing app Genius (108 percent increase), GIF search service Giphy (77 percent increase), and App Store gaming mainstay Words With Friends (74 percent increase).

Words With Friends is the only game in Sensor Tower's top ten list, which is mostly made up of social interactive experiences. The data also shows the effect Messages-enabled apps have had for non-social add-ons as well, including apps that streamline previously cumbersome activities, like deciding on a restaurant with friends in OpenTable (65 percent increase), and picking a movie showtime in Fandango (31 percent increase).

New apps add support for Messages nearly every day, but sticker packs remain the most popular app type in Apple's new Messages App Store. Of the more than 1,650 applications on the App Store for Messages (when originally reported), sticker packs made up 1,251 apps, 944 of which are paid versus 307 that are free.

Apple CEO Tim Cook is ranked 11th on Vanity Fair's 2016 New Establishment List, its annual ranking of the top 100 so-called Silicon Valley hotshots, Hollywood moguls, Wall Street titans, and cultural icons. Cook's profile was rather nondescript about him personally, instead focusing on Apple's recent battle with the FBI over its refusal to unlock an iPhone belonging to a San Bernardino shooter.

Apple senior vice president Eddy Cue, who oversees Apple Music, iCloud, the iTunes Store, and other services, was also named to the list at 54th. Cue is mentioned as being an "increasingly important part of Apple's future."

Cue, whose domain includes content, Internet software, and services, is widely believed to be an increasingly important part of Apple’s future—pushing the company into music-themed programming and other forms of content. Apple recently acquired a television series based on “Carpool Karaoke,” the popular brainchild of James Corden (No. 80).

Other notable company-related figures that made the cut include Disney CEO and Apple board member Bob Iger, 4th, former Apple investor Carl Icahn, 42nd, and Steve Jobs' widow Laurene Powell Jobs, 73rd.

CROWNING ACHIEVEMENT
One of the world’s richest women (net worth: approximately $17 billion), Steve Jobs’s widow is pouring her wealth into Emerson Collective, a philanthropic organization that, like Priscilla Chan’s (No. 60), is structured as a limited-liability corporation.

DISPLAY OF VULCAN CHESS MASTERY
Powell objected to the Aaron Sorkin–written Steve Jobs movie (and to the Walter Isaacson book on which it was based), but she needn’t have bothered: the film flopped with moviegoers.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos topped the list, helping the online retailer turn five consecutive profitable quarters, followed by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel, Iger, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick, News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch, Didi Chuxing's Jean Liu and Cheng Wei, and Beyoncé. The Kardashians rounded off the list at 100th.

As he has done over the past four years, Apple CEO Tim Cook has shared a tribute to the late Steve Jobs, touching on the importance of remembering the Apple co-founder and former CEO today, which marks the fifth anniversary of his death on October 5, 2011.

Since his death, Jobs' founding and presence at Apple has only become more scrutinized by the public after a string of films and documentaries aimed to depict his life and decisions during both his time at Apple and his years away from the company. Prior to his death in 2011, Tim Cook took the reins of the company as CEO on August 24, 2011, introducing the iPhone 4S, iOS 5, Siri, and iCloud to the public on the day before Jobs passed.

In previous years, Apple also updated its website to remember Jobs, creating a two-minute slideshow of his various keynote presentations and most famous audio clips on the one year anniversary of his death. In the days following his passing, Apple started posting "Remembering Steve" comments from fans on its website. The company noted that well over one million submissions came in for the project, all from well-wishing fans in the wake of Jobs' losing battle with pancreatic cancer.

Update: An email from Cook to Apple employees has been shared by MacGeneration:

Team,

I know many of you are thinking of Steve today, as we mark five years since his passing. His presence remains strong here at Apple, and his influence is still felt profoundly all around the world.

Personally, I think of Steve every day. His memory is an inspiration and source of strength for me, both in my job and in my personal life. I think of the bold risks he took as an innovator and a leader, and I think of the ordinary conversations we would have almost every day about our company, our customers, our families and friends. They are memories I will cherish forever.

More than ever, our daily lives are shaped by the products and ideas Steve brought to life. I wish he could see how popular and powerful iPhone photography has become. And I know he would love the magic and emotion of our new Memories feature in Photos on iOS 10.

Apple, the company he built and later rescued, is in many ways Steve’s most enduring legacy. He believed deeply that Apple should inspire us to do the best work of our lives, creating products that enrich the lives of others.

Steve made Apple’s values very clear. He showed us how to focus on doing a few things extremely well, and to set the bar incredibly high for ourselves. He demanded that we always strive for simplicity, in our products and our approach. And he knew that by being collaborative within Apple, we could achieve things no other company could do. We owe all of Apple’s success over the past two decades to those basic principles.

Steve also taught me that life’s great joy is in the journey, not in any particular occasion or event. It’s not about shipping or selling or winning an award. The real joy is in getting there.

Steve was a special, unforgettable person. Thank you for being a part of his legacy, and for joining me on this journey as we carry it into the future.

Tim

Apple remains the world's most valuable brand this year, topping Interbrand's annual rankings for the fourth consecutive year.

Apple's valuation rose 5% to $178.1 billion, ahead of tech rivals like Google, Microsoft, and Samsung, despite iPhone sales declining for the first time this year in line with the company's first revenue decline since 2003. Apple's brand value has steadily risen since 2002, when it was worth $5.2 billion, according to the study.

Apple shows how ecosystems drive value. Analysts have often pointed out that “Apple has superior products.” While true, this opinion undersells the brilliance of Apple’s functionally integrated model. Its software, hardware, and touchpoints are connected not just by beautiful design aesthetics, but by a level of interoperability that justifies the Apple premium and discourages defections to another platform. And the more data you share, the more personal it becomes—adding new devices is painless and the thought of switching increasingly unpromising. Apple is the Alpha of Cohesiveness in full effect.

However, perhaps more reflective of its recent declines, Apple did not make Interbrand's list of the top growing brands in 2016:

Coca-Cola, Toyota, Mercedes-Benz, and GE were the only companies outside the technology industry to make the top ten, which also included IBM and Amazon. Coca-Cola's brand value dropped 7% to $73.1 billion, continuing its decline since Apple overtook it for the top spot in 2013, according to Interbrand.

Interbrand is one of several brand rankings released each year, with others including Forbes and BrandZ. Apple has consistently performed well in these studies over the past decade as its revenue has ballooned on the strength of iPhone sales. Apple remains the world's most valuable company with a $611 billion market cap.

Yahoo secretly built a custom software program to search all of its customers' incoming emails for specific information at the behest of U.S. intelligence authorities, according to people familiar with the matter.

Reuters spoke to three former Yahoo employees who revealed the existence of the custom code, apparently written in compliance with a classified U.S. government demand. The program scanned hundreds of millions of Yahoo Mail accounts for the NSA or FBI, said the former employees and a fourth person with knowledge of the events.

Surveillance experts say the revelation represents the first case to surface of a U.S. internet company agreeing to an intelligence agency's request by searching all arriving messages, as opposed to examining stored messages or scanning a small number of accounts in real time.

According to two former employees, Yahoo Chief Executive Marissa Mayer's decision to obey the directive did not sit well with some senior executives and led to the June 2015 departure of Chief Information Security Officer Alex Stamos. Stamos now holds the top security job at Facebook, which incidentally just completed the rollout of end-to-end encrypted privacy features for its hugely popular Messenger app.

"Yahoo is a law abiding company, and complies with the laws of the United States," the company told Reuters in response to the claims, but stopped short of denying them. It declined any further comment. The NSA referred questions to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which also declined to comment.

According to Andrew Crocker, an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, it's likely the request invoked Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which permits the bulk collection of communications for the purpose of targeting a foreign individual. But rather than having a non-U.S. target, every single person with a Yahoo email inbox was placed under surveillance, regardless of citizenship.

Speaking to The Intercept, Crocker said the Yahoo program seems "in some ways more problematic and broader" than previously revealed NSA bulk surveillance programs like PRISM or Upstream collection efforts. "It's hard to think of an interpretation that doesn't mean Yahoo isn't being asked to scan all domestic communications without a warrant or probable cause. The Fourth Amendment implications of that are pretty staggering."

It's unclear what data Yahoo may have handed over to the authorities, if any, and if intelligence officials had approached other email providers besides Yahoo with the same kind of request.

Contacted by The Intercept, an Apple spokesperson said: "We have never received a request of this type, and if we were to receive one, we would oppose it in court." The spokesperson also pointed to a section from a recent public letter by CEO Tim Cook, which he said was still accurate:

Finally, I want to be absolutely clear that we have never worked with any government agency from any country to create a backdoor in any of our products or services. We have also never allowed access to our servers. And we never will.

Facebook, Google, and Microsoft separately said on Tuesday that they had not conducted such email searches. "We've never received such a request, but if we did, our response would be simple: 'No way'", a spokesman for Google said in a statement. Twitter also said it has never received such a request.

In related news last month, Yahoo revealed that "state-sponsored" hackers had gained access to 500 million customer accounts in 2014. The revelations come at a sensitive time for the company as it tries to complete a deal to sell its core business to Verizon for $4.8 billion.

Update: Yahoo has disputed parts of the Reuters report, saying that "the article is misleading" and that the email scanning outlined in the report "does not exist on our systems."

“The article is misleading,” Yahoo said in a statement. “We narrowly interpret every government request for user data to minimize disclosure. The mail scanning described in the article does not exist on our systems.”

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 has discontinued the third-generation Apple TV, removing it from its online store. Additionally, links to the Apple TV 3 now reroute to the fourth-generation Apple TV. Apple confirmed it was discontinuing the device in an email to employees and educators obtained by 9to5Mac.

The Cupertino company will continue to fulfill backlog orders for the device, but is now putting its attention behind the newer fourth-generation device. In early September, it was reported that Apple had begun phasing out the Apple TV 3, pulling it from its brick-and-mortar stores

The Apple TV 3 was released in 2012 and given a spec bump the following year. In fall 2015, Apple announced the long-awaited fourth-generation Apple TV, including support for Siri, the brand-new tvOS, and the App Store.

Apple is still selling refurbished versions of the Apple TV 3 for $59. The fourth-generation Apple TV can be purchased from Apple's online and retail stores in two configurations: 32GB for $149 and 64GB for $199.

At its media event today in San Francisco, Google announced a few new pieces of hardware, mainly centering around the company's artificial intelligence initiatives and the confirmation of a new pair of smartphones called the Pixel and Pixel XL.

Additionally, the company revealed the new Chromecast Ultra streaming dongle, a VR headset called Google Daydream, and gave more details about its connected smart home hub device, Google Home. Bits and pieces of information on the Pixel smartphones and Google Home have surfaced online over the past few weeks, correctly predicting most of today's announcements.

Google Assistant

The company started off by providing details on its artificial intelligence platform, called Google Assistant, which the company says is like "your own personal Google." The assistant can perform normal tasks like playing music, performing search queries, and providing navigation directions, as well as carrying on a normal conversation with the user. The company showed this by providing an example of a user asking for directions, then inquiring about restaurants at the destination's end, and finally setting a reservation at one.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai also discussed a few intelligent updates coming to the company's search system, including improvements to image descriptions, better translation fueled by machine learning technology, and more human-like text-to-speech abilities. Pichai said that the assistant will "constantly get better" as the company introduces it to more and more users, which it's started doing with the recent launch of Google Allo.

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