MacRumors

With iOS 9.3, Apple is introducing a number of new features that are specifically geared towards the education market. Outlined on a new Education Preview site, education-oriented features in the iOS 9 beta include shared iPads for students, a new classroom app, an Apple School Manager feature, and an improved Managed Apple IDs function.

Apple's new Shared iPad feature is designed for educational systems where a 1:1 student-to-iPad ratio isn't possible. It gives each student an Apple ID that can be used to log into any iPad in the classroom, with all of the student's content readily available on any device. That means students can switch from classroom to classroom, logging into an iPad in each class while the iPad remains in the classroom for all students to use during class time.

Students have access to all of their apps, books, and documents when logging on, and for a student that uses the same assigned iPad in a class each day, an intelligent caching system keeps all of their content at the ready. Shared iPad uses a photo login system to make it easy for kids to find their assigned iPad, and a PIN system for logging in makes the system easy for younger children.

Along with Shared iPads, there's a new Classroom app. With Classroom, teachers can launch the same app on all student iPads at the same time and guide students through the app. A Screen View feature lets teachers see what's on any student's iPad at any given time, and it allows teachers to lock apps to keep students on task. There's also a feature for helping reset student passwords directly within the classroom app.

Apple School Manager, a web-based feature, is designed to give admins a central location for creating Apple IDs, building courses, and managing accounts for students, teachers, and admins. It allows administrators to make volume purchases of books and apps and distribute the content quickly.

Within the Apple School Manager, there are new tools for Managed Apple IDs, which are Apple IDs created specifically for schools. Managed Apple IDs have all of the functionality of a standard Apple ID, but they allow administrators to reset passwords, audit accounts, and assign customized roles to each ID.

Apple has been working on overhauling its iPad in Education program since early 2015, when a leaked email suggested the company was planning on unifying deployment programs, simplifying app distribution, and updating the way student Apple IDs work.

Apple's new educational features will be available to schools with the launch of iOS 9.3. iOS 9.3 was provided to developers this morning.

Apple's latest beta, iOS 9.3, brings quite a few changes to iOS 9, including a new "Night Shift" feature. Night Shift is designed to cut down on the amount of blue light an iOS device is putting out during the evening hours, based on studies that have demonstrated that blue light can negatively impact sleep by altering the body's circadian rhythm.

With Night Shift mode enabled, when the sun goes down, the iPhone's screen will automatically change towards the warmer (yellower) colors in the spectrum, reducing blue light. In the morning, the display automatically turns to its normal temperature color, mimicking natural daylight.

Many people who use f.lux on the Mac are likely already familiar with the type of visual changes to expect with Night Shift mode. f.lux is an app that has been available for free on the Mac for several years, successfully cutting down on the amount of blue light that users see at night.

In fact, f.lux recently attempted to introduce an iOS app that featured the same functionality, but because it used private APIs, it skirted the App Store by asking users to side-load the app on their devices using Xcode, something Apple asked f.lux to put a stop to shortly after it was released.

At the time, Apple said that asking users to side-load an app violated the Developer Program Agreement, and f.lux was forced to stop providing the app to iOS users. F.lux appealed and asked Apple to allow the necessary APIs for a legitimate App Store app, but it appears Apple was working on its own in-house solution instead.

Night Shift is currently available to developers who have downloaded the iOS 9.3 beta. Today's beta also includes several other important features, including the ability for an iPhone to connect with more than one Apple Watch and improvements to Apple News, Notes, Health, and CarPlay.

Update: The Night Shift feature appears to be limited to iOS devices that have a 64-bit processor. That includes the iPhone 5s and later, the iPad Air and later, and the iPad mini 2 and later.

Apple today seeded the first beta of an upcoming OS X 10.11.4 El Capitan update to developers for testing purposes, just over one month after releasing the second OS X El Capitan update, OS X 10.11.2. OS X 10.11.3 is also in testing and has been provided to developers and public beta testers.

The new OS X 10.11.4 beta can be downloaded through the Apple Developer Center.

It is not known what improvements the fourth update to OS X El Capitan will bring, but like prior updates, it's likely to focus on security enhancements, performance improvements, and bug fixes to address issues have been discovered since the release of OS X 10.11.2 and were not able to be included in the OS X 10.11.3 beta.

We'll update this post with any changes that are discovered in the beta.

Apple today provided developers with the first beta of an upcoming update to tvOS, the operating system that runs on the fourth-generation Apple TV and powers its built-in App Store. Today's tvOS beta comes just over one month after the release of tvOS 9.1, the first update to tvOS since it was released in October alongside the new Apple TV.

tvOS betas are more difficult to install than beta updates for iOS and OS X. Installing the tvOS beta requires the Apple TV to be connected to a computer with a USB-C to USB-A cable, with the software downloaded and installed via iTunes.

We don't know what's included in the new version of tvOS, but it's likely to bring expanded features, bug fixes, and performance improvements to Apple's youngest operating system.

The first tvOS update, tvOS 9.1, introduced Siri support for Apple Music, allowing the personal assistant to play content from Apple Music when requested. Siri for Apple Music on the Apple TV works similarly to Siri for Apple Music on iOS devices, enabling queries like "What was the top song in 1980?" or "Play Adele's latest single." It also brought support for the iOS and Apple Watch Remote app, which is now compatible with the new Apple TV.

Bluetooth keyboard support - tvOS 9.2 now supports Bluetooth keyboards, allowing a keyboard to be paired to the Apple TV for text entry. This is a major feature that was missing from previous versions of tvOS and its addition should make it much easier to do things like enter passwords.

Folders - tvOS 9.2 includes support for grouping apps in the Home screen into Folders, much like one can do on an iOS device. Folders are a bit buggy on the Home screen, but this will improve in subsequent betas.

MapKit - tvOS 9.2 supports MapKit, allowing developers to implement maps into their tvOS apps.

Siri - Siri now includes support for US Spanish (in the US only) and French Canadian (in Canada only). UK English, Australian English, and US English are now available in the UK, Australian, and US Storefronts when English is set as the tvOS language.

App Switcher - There's a new look for the App Switcher interface in tvOS.

Podcasts - The Podcasts app is now available on the fourth-generation Apple TV.

Apple today seeded the first version of an upcoming watchOS 2.2 update to developers, just over a month after releasing the first major update (watchOS 2.1) to watchOS 2, the operating system that runs on the Apple Watch.

The 2.2 beta can be downloaded through the dedicated Apple Watch app on an iPhone running the iOS 9.3 beta by going to General --> Software update. To install the update, the Apple Watch must have 50 percent battery, it must be placed on the Apple Watch charger, and it must be in range of the iPhone.

It is not yet clear what is included in watchOS 2.2, but it's likely to include bug fixes and performance improvements for issues discovered since the release of watchOS 2.1. It may also include new features to enhance the performance of the Apple Watch.

The first major update to watchOS 2, watchOS 2.1, included a range of bug fixes to address problems with Calendar, Power Reserve mode, third-party apps, and more. It also included support for several new languages.

What's new in watchOS 2.2:

Apple Watch - With watchOS 2.2 and iOS 9.3, the iPhone is able to pair with more than one Apple Watch. Both updates are required, with each watch running watchOS 2.2 and the iPhone running iOS 9.3.

Apple today seeded the first beta of an upcoming iOS 9.3 update to developers for testing purposes.

The iOS 9.3 beta is available for download immediately from the Apple Developer Center, and a public beta is likely to be available in the near future. With iOS 9.3, developers can also download the update over-the-air using the new iOS 9.3 Configuration Profile.

There have been no hints about what might be included in iOS 9.3, but as a major .1 update, it’s likely to include new features and operating system tweaks that improve performance. As with all iOS updates, it will undoubtedly include a long list of bug fixes to address problems found since the release of iOS 9.2. We will update this post with any changes that are discovered in the beta.

What's new in iOS 9.3:

Apple Watch - With iOS 9.3 and watchOS 2.2, the iPhone is able to pair with more than one Apple Watch. Both updates are required, with each watch running watchOS 2.2 and the iPhone running iOS 9.3. WatchOS 2.2 was seeded to developers alongside iOS 9.3.

Night Shift - iOS 9.3 includes a feature that reduces blue light at night, much like f.lux does on a Mac.

Notes - Notes is now password protected and there are new features for sorting by date created, date modified, or alphabetically.

Apple News - News algorithms have been improved to offer more tailored articles in the For You section. There's also a new landscape mode and in-line video playback.

Health - Health has been updated with a new interface that makes it easier to see move, exercise, and stand data. There's also a new menu in certain categories to help users discover apps that can be used to track health data.

CarPlay - CarPlay includes iOS 9 features like New and For You sections in Apple Music along with a Nearby feature in Maps for discovering the best local restaurants, coffee shops, and more.

Education - iOS 9.3 includes multiple Education-oriented features including shared iPads for students, a new Classroom app, and an Apple School Manager.

Chinese website cnBeta [Google Translate] is the latest source to claim Apple will release a new 4-inch iPhone early this year. The blog, citing Foxconn sources, shared many new details about the so-called "iPhone 5e" that we have broken down for comparison against previous 4-inch iPhone rumors below.

cnBeta accurately reported on the iPhone 6s Plus's packaging and smaller battery, but also incorrectly claimed the A8 chip would top 2 GHz a few years ago.

Publishers who have been offering their content on Apple News have been receiving incorrect usage statistics from Apple due to an internal glitch that caused the company to miscalculate the number of people using the service, Eddy Cue told The Wall Street Journal in a statement this evening.

According to Cue, Apple has been underestimating the number of readers using the News app since it launched alongside iOS 9 in September. The problem went under the radar because Apple was busy working on improving other aspects of the service. Apple doesn't know how exactly many people are using the News app, but the company is working to fix the problem.

"We're in the process of fixing that now, but our numbers are lower than reality," [Cue] said. "We don't know what the right number is," but he added that it was better to undercount than overcount traffic.

In October, during Apple's fourth quarter earnings call, Apple CEO Tim Cook said Apple News had approximately 40 million users, but he did not specify whether that number represented people who use the Apple News app on a regular basis or if it was a number reflecting the number of people who accessed the app at one point or another. Cue echoed that number in his comments to The Wall Street Journal, but it is not clear if that is an accurate figure given Apple's current inability to calculate exact usage.

Despite not knowing how many people are using Apple News at the current time, Cue says that Apple News usage has "scaled very fast," and that the company is happy with the Apple News product's progress thus far. After launching in the United States in September, Apple News expanded to the U.K. and Australia in October with the launch of iOS 9.1.

As The Wall Street Journal points out, accurate readership numbers are important to publishers because the figures impact advertising. Publishers who share content on Apple News are able to keep 100 percent of proceeds from ads sold on their own, or 70 percent from ads sold through the Apple iAd service. According to Cue, iAd has been popular enough with publishers that Apple will be expanding the platform with a self-service ad-buying feature in the next two months.

Apple has partnered more than a hundred publications for Apple News, including The New York Times, CNN, ESPN, The Atlantic, The Daily Mail, Slate, and more. MacRumors is also on Apple News and can be subscribed to by clicking this link on an iOS device.

Apple Music has surpassed 10 million subscribers across iOS, Mac, PC, Android and Apple TV in just six months, a milestone that took its largest rival Spotify around six years to accomplish, Financial Times reported on Sunday.

Apple Music, which launched in over 100 countries on June 30, 2015, has cemented its position as the world's second largest streaming music service behind Spotify, which last announced reaching over 20 million paying subscribers and more than 75 million active users three weeks before Apple's streaming service became available.

Spotify was an early entrant in the streaming music market when it launched in Europe in October 2008. The service did not expand to the U.S. until July 2011 due to lengthy negotiations with major record label companies, and it has since launched in nearly 100 countries and territories worldwide. Unlike Apple Music, Spotify also offers a free ad-supported tier with limited features on desktop and mobile.

Music industry analyst Mark Mulligan predicted last month that Apple Music would have 8 million subscribers by the end of 2015, and he expects the service to reach 20 million total users by the end of this year. At that pace, Apple Music could top Spotify as the largest streaming music service by number of subscribers in 2017, assuming that Spotify maintains around its current rate of growth.

Apple has reportedly internally set a goal of reaching 100 million Apple Music subscribers. Tim Cook confirmed 6.5 million paid subscribers last October.

Update: Spotify told Business Insider that it experienced its fastest subscriber growth ever in the second half of 2015, but did not provide an updated subscriber total.

Apple's upcoming iPhone 7 is rumored to feature a thinner body with no headphone jack, with Apple instead planning to rely on the Lightning port and Bluetooth as ways to connect headphones to the device.

It was not clear if Apple would continue to ship EarPods along with the iPhone 7, and whether those EarPods would use Lightning or Bluetooth, but a new report from 9to5Mac suggests Apple will indeed ship Lightning-connected EarPods with the iPhone 7. Apple is also working on a new set of wireless Bluetooth earphones that would be sold alongside the iPhone 7 as a premium accessory and alternative to the Lightning-connected EarPods.

While traditional Bluetooth headphones, including Apple's own PowerBeats, have a wire that connects the left and right ear pieces to each other, Apple is said to be designing earphones that do not include a connective cord. These earphones would be similar in design to the Bragi Dash, an upcoming set of earphones that features individual ear pieces for each ear. Charging would be done through a battery case.

The latest version of the new wireless Apple/Beats headphones in development do not include any ports for charging, in contrast to the mini-USB port on the current wireless Beats. Instead, the new headphones are likely to come with a carrying case that doubles as a rechargeable battery to juice up the headphones when they are not in use.

A recent rumor suggested Apple would use new audio technology in the iPhone 7 to improve noise-cancelation techniques for better sounding music and phone calls, and this appears to be technology that may also extend to Apple's prospective wireless earphones.

In October, trademark filings for an audio accessory by the name of "AirPods" were linked to Apple, so it's possible Apple's rumored wireless earphones will eventually be named "AirPods" and sold alongside the existing EarPods.

According to 9to5Mac, while the earphones are currently under development in preparation for a fall launch, there's a possibility the technology could be delayed due to battery life concerns. The earphones are said to have a battery life under four hours.

Today's report also suggests Apple is finalizing the design for the iPhone 7, testing three designs that range from a thinner model to a device that looks much like the iPhone 6s.

With just 12 months to go until Apple's second "spaceship" campus is scheduled to be completed, construction crews are hard at work on the main ring-shaped building and several auxiliary buildings, including the underground auditorium, a visitor's center, and a set of research and development buildings.

Drone pilot Duncan Sinfield today shared another monthly campus update video with MacRumors, giving us a look at how construction has progressed since December. Late last month and early this month, enough of the main building was completed that the unique, curved glass windows could start going up. In the video, you'll see the first window panels on the building, both at the exterior and the interior of the ring.

With construction growing closer to completion, work on the landscape may soon begin. Apple's second campus will feature 80 percent green space, a central garden with outdoor dining areas, and more than 300 species of trees, including a variety of fruit trees. Underground structures like parking facilities and the auditorium will be covered with greenery.

When finished, the campus will include the 2.8 million square foot ring-shaped main building, several parking structures, a 100,000 square foot fitness center, a 120,000 square foot auditorium, and a dedicated visitor's center with an observation deck, cafe, and Apple Store.