MacRumors

A new ruling by a judge in the Subdistrict Court of Amsterdam has mandated that Apple can not replace a broken iPad unit with a "remanufactured" device, and must supply the plaintiff with an entirely new iPad instead. The case stems from a woman who purchased an iPad Air 2 with AppleCare back in 2015, and subsequently faced problems with the device's Wi-Fi around four months later.

Apple then supplied the woman with a remanufactured version of the iPad, which Apple said is a process by which the company reconstitutes damaged products by using "the same production and inspection procedures" as it does for brand new devices. The woman disagreed with Apple's methods of replacing her iPad and took the company to court, with Tweakers [Google Translate] reporting that she "was not satisfied" with the remanufactured device she was given under AppleCare.

The Dutch judge has now ruled in agreement with the plaintiff, stating that a remanufactured version of the iPad is not enough. The judge said that the purchase state of the original iPad is what should be looked at when considering replacement devices, meaning an iPad purchased as remanufactured could be replaced with a remanufactured iPad, although it's unclear how -- or if -- purchasing a remanufactured iPad is even possible.

But an iPad purchased brand new -- as is the case here -- should be replaced with a new iPad. The Amsterdam court goes into more detail in a briefing posted online recently, translated from Dutch:

If a plaintiff had purchased a refurbished or replacement iPad, Apple may replace it with a refurbished or replacement copy, but if the consumer, as in this case, purchased a new iPad, she is entitled to a new iPad as a replacement."

A similar case passed through the Dutch courts last summer, wherein another Dutch woman sued Apple for refusing to replace her broken iPhone 6 Plus with a brand new model. The victory nullified the purchase agreement that the woman made with Apple, and ordered the company to refund the woman the full €799 that she paid for the iPhone. In short order, that case set a precedent for the future of similar cases in the country, placing a stain on "refurbished" devices sold by Apple, leading the company to use "remanufactured" ones instead.

Although the terms are sometimes used interchangeably, refurbished refers to the redistribution of used products to consumers at a slightly reduced cost, after they first go through a process that ensures their quality is ready for the market. Remanufacturing is generally a more rigorous and expensive process for companies to go through -- which is one of Apple's arguments in the Dutch case -- as it requires a level of specifications to be met that are as high-standard as they were for the original product.

The argument hasn't worked for Apple, and the judge has now ruled that Apple has to pay the woman in question €100 for every day that she was left without the new replacement iPad.

For the last month, Waymo has been testing out a small fleet of self-driving vehicles with a handful of participating residents in Phoenix, Arizona, and this week the company has noted the success of that test by opening up applications to join its autonomous car program to all Phoenix citizens. Dubbed the "early rider program" and stocked by 600 Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivans, Waymo said it will be accepting "hundreds of people with diverse backgrounds and transportation needs" into the program.

The Waymo trial is extensive, offering those participating full-time, on-demand access to one of the self-driving minivans, which can drive the participants anywhere within the targeted area, equivalent to "about twice the size of San Francisco." Waymo said that its intention in the test is to really delve into the reasons why people would prefer using an autonomous vehicle over a traditional car.

In a new video posted today to highlight Waymo's self-driving van, one of the first families in the program mention small but meaningful advantages like taking stress from traffic out of the equation, and not having to ask a parent for a ride every day.

Our early riders will play an important role in shaping the way we bring self-driving technology into the world — through personal cars, public transportation, ride-hailing, logistics and more. Self-driving cars have the potential to reshape each and every one of these areas, transforming our lives and our cities by making them safer, more convenient and more accessible.

Now, the early rider program is open up to the Phoenix public at large. During the application process, Waymo asks potential participants to answer questions including why a self-driving car is most needed in the household and how it would improve the lives of those who use Waymo's van. Although the test is expanding this week, the company still says that it is accepting only a "limited number of early riders at this time."

Waymo originally began as a self-driving initiative within Google in 2009, and then spun off into a subsidiary of Alphabet late last year. Besides Waymo, a growing number of companies have shown interest in self-driving vehicle technology, but none have yet to launch a program as practical as Waymo's current public test in Phoenix. Uber has tested a fleet of self-driving cars in places like San Francisco, but the car-hailing company subsequently faced restrictions from the California DMV and pulled the cars from the road.

Even Waymo itself sued Uber earlier this year, with Waymo claiming that Uber stole its self-driving intellectual property. The lawsuit was specifically tied to Waymo's LiDAR system, which works by bouncing millions of laser beams off of surrounding objects to create a 3D picture of the world for detecting and avoiding objects. Waymo alleged that a former Google employee had stolen the LiDAR data after he had moved over to Otto, a self-driving trucking company that was then acquired by Uber.

In the midst of the self-driving car boom, Apple is now rumored to be working on an autonomous car software of its own that could be placed within existing vehicles. Early rumors of an "Apple Car" have since been dashed "for now" as the company focuses on building the self-driving system. The team behind that initiative is said to have until the end of 2017 to "prove the feasibility" of its autonomous technology, at which time Apple will officially decide a final direction for the platform.

Google continued its steady improvement of the Google Photos app this week by adding the ability to wirelessly transmit photos and videos to an Apple TV on the same network.

Coming almost two years since the app's debut on iOS, the feature addition in the version 2.14 update has been a long time coming, but it does mean users can now stream their Google Photo libraries to big-screen televisions regardless of whether they have a Chromecast or an Apple TV.

The update marks a trend for Google quietly improving the Photos app, which has recently seen feature additions like automatic white balance, video stabilization, Live Photos support, and more.

Signaling its lingering intent to rival Apple in the media sharing space, Google introduced an app last year called Motion Stills that lets users edit Live Photos and turn them into GIFs and short movies for easy sharing.

Google Photos is a free download for iPhone and iPad available on the App Store. [Direct Link]

Super Mario Run received a point one update late on Monday, bringing some additional enticements for newcomers and offering long-time fans new reasons to continue playing the game.

Probably the biggest upgrade to the runner is the addition of several new buildings up for collection. These include the 8-bit Bowser Statue, Bullet Bill Statue, Bob-omb, and many more.

Elsewhere, players can now use their Miitomo character as their player icon, Game Center achievements have been implemented, and it's now possible to find friends from a linked Nintendo account.

In addition, the maximum number of Toads that can live in a player's kingdom has been increased to 99,999, providing plenty of reasons for gamers to keeping on running.

Super Mario Run is a free download, with a $9.99 in-app purchas to unlock the full content, available for iPhone and iPad on the App Store. [Direct Link]

Apple has updated its Maps app with traffic data for major metropolitan areas in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

So far, the new coverage extends to the capitals of the two countries and other heavily populated areas, with more limited traffic information on major highways and thoroughfares also available.

Examples in UAE include Abu Dhabi, Fujairah, and Al Ain, with locations in Saudi Arabia including Jeddah, Mecca, Medina, and Ta'if.

Turn-by-turn navigation still appears to be unavailable in the Middle East regions, which may explain why Apple hasn't added the countries to its iOS feature availability page, but the inclusion of traffic data strongly suggests Apple is about to follow up with live direction information.

The update marks Apple's first visible effort to increase its geographical data services to the Middle East beyond the standard street information and notable points of interest.

(Thanks, Ram!)

Starting today, Sling TV is expanding its Cloud DVR service to Apple TV users. Sling TV subscribers with an Apple TV can purchase 50 hours of Cloud DVR storage for $5 per month, which is a fee in addition to the standard Sling TV subscription cost.

Content stored in Sling TV's Cloud DVR remains indefinitely, and the service supports pausing, rewinding, and fast-forwarding through saved shows and movies. Most Sling TV content, including live TV, sports, and movies can be saved to the Cloud DVR service, but Sling says the DVR functionality is not available on all channels that it offers, including Disney, FOX, and ESPN.

Here are some features currently available through Cloud DVR "First Look":

Watch anytime, anywhere- Record your favorite programs and watch whenever you want across all Amazon Fire TVs and Fire tablets, Android mobile devices, Android TVs, Apple TVs, Roku streaming players and Roku TVs. AirTV Player is not currently compatible with Cloud DVR.

Conflict-free recording- Record multiple programs simultaneously, and forget about recording conflicts.
Keep recordings as long as you want- With Sling TV, your recordings won't expire as long as you remain a Sling TV subscriber with Cloud DVR.

Auto-managed recordings- Sling TV will make room for new recordings by deleting your old recordings as you reach capacity, starting with your oldest 'watched' recording, so you can binge on your new favorite show.

To enable the Cloud DVR service, Sling TV subscribers need to sign into their Sling TV accounts on the Sling website and choose the "Add Cloud DVR" option. The service works on the Apple TV, Roku, Amazon, and Android devices.

Sling TV, owned by Dish Network, offers 30+ channels at prices starting at $20 per month. Three packages are available, with the high-end package that includes 50 channels priced at $40 per month.

Spotify appears to be working on its first wearable device, developing a "category defining product akin to Pebble Watch, Amazon Echo, and Snap Spectacles," based on a job listing discovered by Zatz Not Funny. The text from the job description, which has since been removed from Spotify's website, is below:

We are looking for a passionate and seasoned Senior Product Manager that will join the Platform & Partner Experience team working to build frictionless and creative Spotify experiences via fully-connected hardware devices. You will be leading an initiative to deliver hardware directly from Spotify to existing and new customers; a category defining product akin to Pebble Watch, Amazon Echo, and Snap Spectacles.

You will define the product requirements for internet-connected hardware, the software that powers it, and work with suppliers/manufacturers to deliver the optimal Spotify experience to millions of users. Above all, your work will affect the way the world experiences music & talk content.

There's no word on what Spotify might be planning to build, but the job description implies it may be a wearable device rather than something like a speaker, so it's possible the company is working on a set of headphones that are perhaps similar to modern offerings like the Bragi Dash and Apple's own AirPods. Other hints include internet connectivity and something developed by Spotify itself, rather than an integration with existing hardware, but it's ultimately entirely unclear what's being conceptualized.

A separate job listing also appears to hint at Spotify's interest in voice-based technologies. "Voice is quickly becoming a key interaction mechanism for control of digital devices and services," reads the description.

Spotify's job listing suggests any work on a hardware product is in the early stages of development, so it could be some time yet before we get a clearer picture of what the company might be developing, if anything.

Apple today seeded the fourth beta of an upcoming watchOS 3.2.2 update to developers for testing purposes, one week after seeding the third watchOS 3.2.2 beta and one month after the release of watchOS 3.2, which introduced Theater Mode.

The fourth beta of watchOS 3.2.2 can be downloaded through the Apple Watch app on the iPhone by going to General --> Software Update. To install the update, the Apple Watch must have 50 percent battery, it must be placed on the charger, and it must be in range of the iPhone.

watchOS betas require an iPhone running iOS 10 to install, and they're only available to developers because there's no way to downgrade the software on an Apple Watch.

It's not yet clear if watchOS 3.2.2 introduces any new features or bug fixes because Apple doesn't typically provide release notes for betas.

Given that this is a minor 3.x.x update, it's likely to focus primarily on bug fixes. No notable features were found in the first three watchOS 3.2.2 betas, but we'll update this post should anything new be discovered in the fourth.

Apple today seeded the fourth beta of an upcoming tvOS 10.2.1 update to developers for testing purposes, one week after seeding the third 10.2.1 beta and one month after releasing tvOS 10.2, an update that included improve scrolling and iPad support for the Apple TV Remote app.

The tvOS 10.2.1 beta is designed for the fourth-generation Apple TV. It can be downloaded by connecting the Apple TV to a computer with a USB-C cable and installing the beta software from a registered developer account using iTunes.

Because of the installation requirements, tvOS betas are limited to developers. tvOS 10.2.1 will not be available to the public until the final version of the software launches.

Apple does not typically provide detailed beta release notes, so we don't yet know what's included in tvOS 10.2.1. It's likely to focus primarily on bug fixes, security enhancements, and performance improvements, so we may not know what's new until the software sees an official release.

No notable changes were found in the first three tvOS 10.2.1 betas, but should anything new popup in the fourth beta, we'll update this post.

Apple today emailed its iTunes Affiliate Program members to inform them that its commission rate for all apps and in-app content will be reduced to 2.5 percent on May 1, down from 7 percent, globally.

Apple will continue to offer a 7 percent commission rate for all other iTunes content, including music, movies, TV shows, and books. Apple will also continue to offer a one-time 50 percent commission on Apple Music subscriptions.

Update: Apple now says the reduced 2.5 percent commission rate only applies to iOS in-app purchases.