MacRumors

Spotify confirmed to The Telegraph today that it now has more than 100 million monthly active users worldwide, including approximately 30 million monthly paying subscribers.

Comparatively, Apple services chief Eddy Cue announced at WWDC 2016 last week that Apple Music has 15 million paying subscribers, just two weeks before the streaming music service turns one year old. Apple Music was at 13 million subscribers in April and 11 million subscribers in February, meaning that it has been growing at a rate of about 2 million subscribers every two months.

Spotify, which launched in Europe in October 2008 and expanded to the U.S. in July 2011, thereby remains the world's most popular streaming service, but Apple Music is quickly closing the gap. Both services cost $9.99 per month for individuals and $14.99 per month for families, while only Spotify offers a free ad-supported tier.

Nevertheless, Spotify recently said that Apple Music has helped, not hurt, its business. Since Apple Music launched on June 30, 2015, its European rival has grown at a faster pace than beforehand. Spotify has now surpassed Skype as the most lucrative European startup, with an estimated valuation of roughly $8.5 billion.

"It's great that Apple is in the game. They are definitely raising the profile of streaming. It is hard to build an industry on your own," Jonathan Forster, a vice president and one of its first employees, told Reuters in an interview.

"Since Apple Music started we've been growing quicker and adding more users than before."

Despite rising users and revenues, Spotify continues to operate at a loss due to expensive royalties and revenue sharing with music label partners. The report claims Spotify's losses rose by 10 percent to $195.7 million (173 million euros) last year, prompting some investors to question the viability of its business model.

Chinese smartphone repair shop Rock Fix recently shared photos of alleged iPhone 7 components on microblogging service Weibo, potentially including dual-SIM trays that would allow for the smartphone to send and receive calls and messages from multiple phone numbers (via Engadget).

Dual SIM technology would also enable iPhone 7 users to use multiple carriers based upon network coverage, pricing, and other competitive differences. A customer in the United States, for example, might elect to use AT&T for nationwide voice and text messaging and T-Mobile for cheaper and unlimited 4G LTE data.

Dual SIM support would differ slightly from the Apple SIM, which allows cellular iPad users to easily switch between different short-term data plans from select carrier partners using one SIM card. The Apple SIM is particularly useful for traveling abroad, with coverage in more than 90 countries and territories.

A number of Android-based smartphones feature dual SIM support, particularly in Asia, including select models sold by Alcatel, BLU, Bluboo, HTC, Huawei, Lenovo-Motorola, LG, Meizu, Samsung, UMI, and Xiaomi. The OnePlus 2, OnePlus 3, and OnePlus X also have dual SIM trays.

Rock Fix turns out to be the same source of a previously leaked Lightning cable assembly for the iPhone 7 that retains a 3.5mm headphone jack, despite widespread rumors claiming that Apple will switch exclusively to Lightning and Bluetooth audio output for wired and wireless headphones respectively.

The smartphone repair shop shared further pictures of the aforementioned Lighting cable assembly alongside purported images of a dual-lens camera and 256GB SanDisk flash storage appropriate for the iPhone 7 series. There are also a trio of display components that may be from early prototyping stages.

Apple is expected to announce the iPhone 7 series in September. The smartphones are expected to retain iPhone 6s-like designs with faster Apple A10 processors, dustproofing and waterproofing, repositioned antenna bands, and faster LTE and Wi-Fi. A dual-lens camera and 3GB of RAM may be exclusive to the 5.5-inch model.

The addition of a Smart Connector, stereo speakers, a touch-sensitive Home button, and a new Deep Blue color option have also been rumored, but it is not entirely clear which features are destined for the iPhone 7 series, no longer planned, or reserved for the alleged OLED-based iPhone with glass casing in 2017.

One of Apple's first party apps that's getting a makeover in iOS 10 and macOS Sierra is Photos, bringing intensive new facial recognition and "Siri intelligence" features to the picture accumulating app. Over the weekend, a Reddit user discovered a few lines of code within the framework of Apple's beta of the macOS Sierra Photos app, possibly detailing both the specific facial expressions that the app recognizes and every single searchable object users can find in both Sierra and iOS 10.

In a more detailed Medium post, Redditor vista980622 explained that Photos will be able to "recognize and distinguish" 7 total facial expressions after the app scans a user's library and forms a "faceprint" for each individual in a picture. The expressions include greedy, disgust, neutral, scream, smiling, surprise, and suspicious.

One of the biggest new additions to Photos in iOS 10 and Sierra is "Memories," a new tab that aggregates a user's pictures into logical, organized folders based on the app's new facial and object recognition abilities. vista980622 discovered every category of Memories as well, whose names are said to be "automatically generated using metadata from the photos and tags from analysis of photos."

The category names are as follows:

Memories from areas of interest, Best of past memories, Memories that break out of routine, Celebration in history, Contextual memories, Crowd, Day in history, Holiday in history, Location of interest, Nearby, New contextual memories, New memories, Person’s Birthdays, Person’s memories, Recent events (calendar, crowd, holiday, people, person, social, trip, weekend), Region of interest, Social group memories, Sometime memories, Special memories, Favourited, Trips, Week in history, Weekend, Year summary, Last week, Last Weekend

Users who have been testing the first beta of iOS 10 last week mentioned the impressive search parameters of Photos, which intelligently detects and tags every picture for the scenes, objects, and landmarks captured within. In totality, there are 432 of these items that can be searched for by the user, including everyday phrases like "Apartment" and "Birthday Cake," and somewhat obscure inquiries like "Diadem" and "Gastropod."

Additionally, you can search for various landmarks. For example, Photos can respond for search query of “Maho” (beach in Saint Martin), despite Photos is not programmed or trained to understand specific landmarks. Behind the scenes, Photos app first generates a generic categorization for the scene, “beach”, then searches through a built-in dictionary for all landmarks that has the name “beach” in its definition. Therefore, cleverly, despite Photos app knows nothing about “Maho” in particular, it is still able to return the right results. The same applies to nature scenes, water scenes and urban scenes.

The full list of 432 searchable objects and scenes can be found in the Medium post shared on Reddit. As discovered within the first beta of iOS 10 and macOS Sierra, the comprehensive list is far from confirmed as accurate. All the same, many of its terms do match up with another Redditor's successfully executed searches, as well as the words they claimed failed to generate any concrete results.

Previous Coverage: See iOS 10's New Photos App in Action

Update: The list of searchable scenes and objects appears to account for around 4,432 items, as opposed to the 432 mentioned in this article and the original Medium post. It's unclear whether vista980622 made a typo in the blog post, or if groups of scenes and items -- like Art, Artistic Creation, Artistic Creations, Artistries, Artistry, Arts, Artwork, Artworks -- were grouped together to result in a smaller number.

Update 2: The author of the Medium post has acknowledged that the originally quoted 432 scenes and objects was a typo and the correct number should indeed be 4,432.

During the watchOS 3 segment of Apple's keynote presentation at the Worldwide Developer's Conference last week, Apple introduced a new mindfulness-based app called Breathe.

The idea behind Breathe is to help Apple Watch owners better manage everyday stress, and works by prompting users to take a short time out to focus their attention on the simple act of breathing.

By default, Breathe serves up a one-minute session which guides the user through seven breaths. The duration can be extended to up to five minutes by rotating the Digital Crown, while breathing can be slowed to four breaths per minute, or increased to ten per minute.

As the session begins, the app asks the user to "Be still, and bring your attention to your breath". A mandala-like series of concentric circles then begin to expand and contract on the watch screen as a visual guide for the user to adjust the rate of their breath.

What's not obvious from demos is that the app also makes use of the Apple Watch's haptic feedback, by initiating a delicate tapping rhythm on the wrist that begins fast and gradually fades at the top of each breath, as a subtle cue to exhale.

The use of haptic feedback also means the user can close their eyes as the session takes place, while the intensity of the feedback can be adjusted in the app settings.

When the session comes to an end, the user's recorded heart-rate during the session is shown, as is the total number of minutes that have been spent using the app that day. An option to retake the session and "Breathe again" also appears on screen.

The default setting for the app is to prompt a session every four hours, but prompts can be snoozed and their frequency can also be changed in the app's settings.

Additionally, a Breathe complication can be added to watch faces, allowing users to start a session with a simple tap whenever they choose.

During the Keynote, Apple did not cite any scientific evidence to back up its claims that bringing attention to the breath can help decrease stress and alleviate anxiety. However, research does exist to support the claim.

Breath-based meditation has been shown to reduce activity in the brain's "default mode network" (DMN), an area implicated in mind-wandering and the sense of self. Increased activity in this "resting state" network is known to be associated with conditions such as depression and anxiety.

Recent neuroimaging studies have also shown that daily meditation alters the functional and structural plasticity of the brain, and can increase cortical thickness in specific brain regions associated with attention-based tasks.

The Breathe app is part of watchOS 3, which will be released as a free upgrade this fall.

During its What's New in Metal, Part 1 session at WWDC 2016, Apple used an iPad to demo the graphics API's new adaptive tessellation capabilities on iOS 10. At the 17:58 mark of the video, a TextEdit icon can be seen on the iPad's home screen from the multitasking app switcher screen.

TextEdit is Apple's basic word processor preinstalled on macOS Sierra and previous OS X versions, but the company has not released a mobile version for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch as it has done for some of its other first-party Mac apps. There are also no third-party apps that fully match the app shown in the screenshot.

TextEdit and Preview icons were previously spotted in a pre-release iOS 8 screenshot, but neither of the apps were included in the public version of the software update. An early 2014 report had said both apps would debut on iOS 8 as read-only document viewers for Preview and TextEdit files stored in iCloud from a Mac.

While there is an outside chance that Apple plans to release a basic text editor on iOS to complement Notes and Pages, the most likely explanation is that TextEdit serves as a simple "Hello World" testing app for internal developers. Apple is known to have several internal apps for use by software engineers and employees only.

Game Center is also shown, despite being removed as a standalone app on iOS 10.

Apple previewed iOS 10 at its WWDC 2016 keynote on June 13 and has seeded the first beta to developers. A public beta will be available in July ahead of an official launch in the fall. iOS 10 is compatible with most devices that can run iOS 9, excluding the iPhone 4s, iPad 2 and 3, original iPad mini, and fifth-generation iPod touch.

(Thanks, Ahmad!)

Earlier this week, Apple executives Phil Schiller and Craig Federighi appeared on a live episode of John Gruber's podcast, The Talk Show, touching on a number of topics and expanding on some of the announcements made the previous day at the Worldwide Developers Conference keynote.

The full video and audio of the interview are now available from Daring Fireball for those interested in seeing exactly what Schiller and Federighi had to say. The executives discussed such topics as the ability to remove stock apps in iOS 10, the opening of several parts of Apple's platforms to third-party developers to allow integration into apps such as Messages and Maps, and more.

The discussion also covered Apple's expanded subscription options for app developers, including some clarification on which types of apps may not be appropriate for such a model, details on the new Photos features and how Apple is approaching privacy with them, and some thoughts on how Apple was able to make such significant improvements in the watchOS user experience.

iOS 10 has been described by Apple as its biggest iOS update ever, with new features like a total overhaul of the Lock screen, a revamped Messages app that includes its own dedicated App Store, among other improvements, a Siri SDK for developers, a more capable Photos app, a redesigned Apple Music app, and hundreds of other changes, big and small.

In the video below, we've rounded up some of the smaller but still significant changes that have gone largely under the radar, like an easy access "Unsubscribe" button for newsletters in the Mail app, side-by-side Safari multitasking on iPads, Notes collaboration, cross device copy and paste, voicemail transcription, and more.

Over the beta testing period, Apple will undoubtedly introduce refinements to many of the previously announced features, along with tweaks to the interface and new minor features to streamline iOS 10 ahead of its release in the fall. We'll have ongoing coverage of iOS 10 and the other operating system updates unveiled at WWDC -- watchOS 3, macOS Sierra, and tvOS 10.

Don't miss out on our previous videos, which have covered iOS 10 and macOS Sierra features:

- WWDC 2016 Overview in Seven Minutes

- iOS 10's Overhauled Lockscreen

- The New iOS 10 Photos App

- The New iOS 10 Messages App

- Siri on Mac

For full details on all of the new features included in iOS 10, make sure to check out our dedicated iOS 10 roundup.

Apple and the World Wildlife Fund this week announced that the recent "Apps for Earth" promotion has raised more than $8 million in proceeds to support the WWF's conservation work.

The Apps for Earth promotion, timed to take place to celebrate Earth Day, ran from April 14 to April 24 and saw dozens of apps offering special in-app purchases with 100 percent of the proceeds going directly to the World Wildlife Fund.

Many of the participating apps, which included titles like VSCO, Trivia Crack, Hearthstone, and Angry Birds 2, heavily promoted the fundraiser, even going so far as to change app icons and graphics during the time that it ran. Apple itself updated the theme of the App Store's front page to highlight the promotion, displaying environmentally conscious messages and themed categories.

Apple has twice partnered with the World Wildlife Fund, and in addition to the app fundraiser, Apple in 2015 began a multi-year project with the WWF designed to protect up to 1 million acres of responsibility managed working forests in China.

The Beijing Intellectual Property Office has ruled that Apple's iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus infringe on the patent rights of another smartphone sold within China -- Shenzhen Baili’s 100c device -- leading to the possibility that Apple may have to cease sales of its handset in Beijing completely. Apple is expected to appeal to the Beijing Higher People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Court in attempts to keep its two handsets in circulation within Beijing.

However, as Bloomberg points out, if the case turns out badly for Apple, lawsuits that the company face in the future could potentially look back at the Shenzhen Baili ruling as a precedent. Beijing has a population of 21.7 million people, so it could have a larger-than-expected negative impact on a territory that Apple has already struggled with in the past.

The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus infringe on Shenzhen Baili’s patent rights because of similarities to its 100C phone, the Beijing Intellectual Property Office wrote in its decision.

While the decision covers only Beijing, future lawsuits against Apple could take the case as a precedent, potentially influencing the outcomes of litigation elsewhere in China. Baili is one of scores of smartphone brands trying to cash in on the country’s mobile boom.

Just last month, Apple lost the exclusive rights to the name "iPhone" in China, after a ruling by the Beijing Municipal High People’s Court favored leather goods maker Xintong Tiandi Technology. Apple has stayed headstrong in a retail rollout plan of new stores and locations for its Chinese users to visit and purchase its products, but the company still faces unexpected roadblocks in the country due to its strict internet policies.

Update: In a statement given to CNBC, Apple confirmed that both the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus (along with newer models) are "available for sale today in China," and that the company is already going through the appeal process in Beijing.

"iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus as well as iPhone 6s, iPhone6s Plus and iPhone SE models are all available for sale today in China. We appealed an administrative order from a regional patent tribunal in Beijing last month and as a result the order has been stayed pending review by the Beijing IP Court," Apple told CNBC in a statement.