MacRumors

Apple has blocked German car maker Volkswagen from showcasing wireless CarPlay connectivity at CES in Las Vegas this year, according to a report from Car and Driver. Apple introduced the ability to connect an iPhone wirelessly to CarPlay in iOS 9, but there has yet to be a commercial release for an infotainment system that supports the function.

“We wanted to demonstrate wireless CarPlay and the owner of CarPlay technology didn’t allow us to,” Volkmar Tannerberger, head of electrical and electronic development at Volkswagen, told Car and Driver.

The current CarPlay setup requires users to connect an iPhone to a vehicle via USB port, and many have seen the wireless feature as a natural evolution of the in-car system. Although Tannerberger didn't divulge the specifics behind Apple's stonewalling, it is likely the Cupertino company wanted more control over all of the elements going into the public debut of the wireless feature.

In lieu of its inability to show off wireless CarPlay features, Volkswagen used its CES booth to demonstrate a new project that connects a smartphone to a car's infotainment system and mirrors its functions and controls. The car maker used an open-sourced standard called MirrorLink, unavailable on iPhones, to show off the technology, which would let users stream content from a smartphone and onto the in-car system. Volkswagen was said to "envision" the feature working in tandem with a wireless charging system to keep a phone topped off.

CarPlay news has been flowing out of CES this year, with companies like Kenwood, JVC, Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, and others announcing incoming support for Apple's in-car system. There are still a few opting out of the service, however, including Toyota, which decided to go with SmartDeviceLink over CarPlay and Android Auto earlier in the week.

Apple has registered a trio of auto-related top-level domain names, including apple.car, apple.cars and apple.auto. Whois records updated on January 8 show that Apple registered the domains through sponsoring registrar MarkMonitor Inc. in December 2015, although the addresses are not yet active.

The domains could be related to CarPlay, but there will naturally be speculation about their possible relation to Apple's much-rumored electric vehicle plans. Multiple reports over the past year said Apple has a secretive team of hundreds working on an electric vehicle with a prospective 2019 or 2020 shipping date.

There is increasing evidence that Apple is at least exploring the auto industry, including the iPhone maker's discussions with a secure Bay Area testing facility for connected and autonomous vehicles and the company's August meeting with the California DMV to review self-driving vehicle regulations.

Apple has aggressively recruited engineers and other talent from Tesla, Ford, GM, Samsung, A123 Systems, Nvidia and elsewhere to work on the rumored "Apple Car" project, which has allegedly been called "Project Titan" internally. Electric motorcycle startup Mission Motors even ceased operations after losing employees to Apple.

Apple likely remains in the earlier stages of research and development of its rumored electric vehicle, and it remains possible the company's plans change over the next three to four years. Nevertheless, the trio of new domains provide yet another clue that Apple may one day compete with the likes of Tesla and Google.

Sprint will stop offering two-year phone contracts to customers who are activating a new account starting today, according to an internal document procured by AndroidCentral. While phones will not be available with subsidies on a two-year contract, tablets will.

As outlined by the document, two-year contracts will still be offered to select customers on a "reactive basis". The move makes Sprint the final carrier of the four major American carriers to end two-year contracts. New Sprint customers will be able to purchase their phones through Sprint programs like Easy Pay and iPhone Forever.

In 2013, T-Mobile began the trend by announcing its Un-carrier payment plans. Verizon followed suit in August 2015 and last month AT&T announced that they would drop two-year contracts. While AT&T's implementation takes away the ability for existing customers to sign up for two-year contracts, Verizon's does not, allowing existing Verizon customers to renew their two-year contracts.

Sprint has been planning to move away from two-year contracts for a while, first announcing the move in August 2015. However, the carrier had not announced when its implementation would take effect at the time.

Apple's iPhone 7 may feature wireless charging and a thinner waterproof body with no headphone jack, according to a new report from Fast Company that is in line with previous iPhone 7 rumors from the Asian supply chain.

Citing a source with "knowledge of the company's plans," Fast Company says the iPhone 7 will not include a headphone jack in an effort to make the device even thinner than the iPhone 6s. The device will also "very likely" be waterproof and support some form of wireless charging.

Apple is said to be working with Cirrus Logic to adapt the audio chipset in the iPhone to work with the Lightning port. With no 3.5mm headphone jack, the Lightning port, which is currently used for charging, will also be used to transmit sound to wired headphones. The chipset may also include new noise-canceling technology to remove background noise during music playback and phone calls.

According to Fast Company's source, Apple may not ship Lightning-connected EarPods alongside the iPhone 7, instead opting to sell noise-canceling Lightning-connected headphones separately under its Beats brand. It is not clear if that means the iPhone 7 will come with no EarPods or if Apple will ship standard EarPods with some kind of adapter.

Wireless charging is a feature that has been long rumored for potential inclusion in the iPhone and it's certainly technology that Apple has been exploring for many years, based on patents and earlier iPhone and Apple Watch rumors. A waterproof iPhone 7 body made from a new non-aluminum composite material is a rumor that first surfaced a few months ago. Further rumors have suggested the new material will also allow Apple to do away with the prominent antenna bands that were included on the iPhone 6s.

The removal of the headphone jack was first reported by Japanese site Mac Otakara and has since been backed up by a supply chain rumor, but Apple has been laying the groundwork for the elimination of the jack for several months. In 2014, the company introduced a new MFi program to allow third-party manufacturers to develop headphones that connect to iOS devices over Lightning, paving the way for Lightning-equipped headphones like the Philips Fidelio M2L.

Mark Sullivan, who penned today's rumor, has a bit of a mixed track record in the pieces he's written for Fast Company and VentureBeat. His sources accurately predicted some iPhone 6 features like the Qualcomm MDM9825 LTE chip, but he also reported that Apple was working with Swatch to develop the Apple Watch, a rumor that turned out to be untrue.

Apple's iPhone 7 and 7 Plus are expected to be released in September of 2016. Along with the above-mentioned rumored features, the device will also include an upgraded A-series processor and it could include features like an improved camera. Other rumors specific to the iPhone 7 Plus have suggested it could include a 256GB storage option, a 3,100 mAh battery, and 3GB RAM.

Apple has purchased artificial intelligence startup Emotient, reports The Wall Street Journal. According to its website, Emotient uses artificial intelligence to read emotion through the analysis of facial expressions.

Emotient's technology was previously used by advertisers to determine emotional reactions to advertisements. It let advertisers know whether an ad was getting noticed, how people responded, and whether a reaction was positive or negative. The technology used cameras to capture video that was then analyzed to "learn about the customer's state of mind."

Emotient is the leader in emotion detection and sentiment analysis, part of a neuromarketing wave that is driving a quantum leap in customer understanding. Our services quantify emotional response, leading to insights and actions that improves your products and how you market them.

An Apple spokesperson confirmed the acquisition to The Wall Street Journal with its standard acquisition statement: "Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans."

T-Mobile CEO John Legere today wrote a letter in response to recent criticisms of the company's new free video streaming service "Binge On," claiming that the program does not permanently slow down data and that claims of throttling are just "playing semantics." Legere also reiterated the fact that users can opt out of the service at any time, and that anyone with the ability to access Binge On has "complete control" over the experience if they want higher than 480p resolution.

There are people out there saying we’re “throttling.” They’re playing semantics! Binge On does NOT permanently slow down data nor remove customer control. Here’s the thing, mobile customers don’t always want or need giant heavy data files. So we created adaptive video technology to optimize for mobile screens and stream at a bitrate designed to stretch your data (pssst, Google, that's a GOOD thing).

You get the same quality of video as watching a DVD – 480p or higher – but use only 1/3 as much data (or, of course, NO data used when it’s a Binge On content provider!). Watch more video, use less data from your service plan. That's an important and valuable benefit!

In the rest of the letter, the CEO calls out media outlets for making Binge On into a negative story over the past few weeks, suggesting some places as "using Net Neutrality as a platform to get into the news." Legere compares the new service to T-Mobile's "Music Freedom" platform that launched in 2014, giving customers free music streaming that wouldn't affect data plan cost.

In addition to reassuring customers, T-Mobile today announced a slate of fourteen new Binge On partners including: A&E, Lifetime, HISTORY Channel, and PlayStation Vue Live TV. The new additions bring the partner total to 38 and the company said that more than 50 providers are preparing to back the free streaming program in the months ahead.

Since Binge On launched in November, the service's questionable video throttling of non-partner content has brought it under scrutiny multiple times. Just this week, an independent test proved that a smartphone with Binge On enabled throttled video streaming of services not affiliated with T-Mobile and the free initiative. CEO John Legere's response today is the second time the company has directly addressed Binge On's negative accusations, following a dispute with YouTube in December.

Those interested can read Legere's full letter on T-Mobile's blog.

Apple CEO Tim Cook's compensation for fiscal 2015 was $10,281,327, according to a newly released SEC filing. That breaks down to a salary of $2 million, non-equity incentive compensation of $8 million, and other compensation of $280k. Cook earned approximately $1 million more than he did in fiscal 2014, when he brought in $9.2 million.

Last year, with stock awards and hiring bonuses, Apple retail chief Angela Ahrendts earned $73 million, but in 2015, her compensation was $25.8 million, in line with other Apple executives, all of whom received $20 million in stock awards and $4 million in non-equity incentive compensation in addition to their $1 million salaries.

Senior executives Bruce Sewell, Dan Riccio, Eddy Cue, and Luca Maestri all earned more than $25 million in 2015, numbers that do not include restricted stock units that vested in 2015. Over the course of the year, Tim Cook received 560,000 shares of stock worth over $57 million, Angela Ahrendts received 391,634 shares worth $50 million. Eddy Cue, Dan Riccio, Bruce Sewell, and Luca Maestri also had shares worth between $11 million and $38 million vest.

Under the guidance of Tim Cook, Apple had another record year, generating $233.7 billion in sales, an increase of 28 percent over 2014 and a new high for the company. Earnings per diluted share were at $9.22, up 43 percent from 2014. According to its October forecast, Apple expects to continue its record earnings streak into 2016, with projected revenue between $75.5 and $77.5 billion for the first quarter of 2016.

Apple will announce its earnings for the first fiscal quarter of 2015 on Tuesday, January 26. MacRumors will provide live coverage of both the earnings release and the conference call.

Ahead of the Apple Watch's launch, many high-end Swiss watch makers were critical of its design and Apple's efforts to position it as a high-fashion item. TAG Heuer CEO Jean-Claude Biver went as far as to call it "too feminine," saying the Apple Watch looked like "it was designed by a student in their first trimester."

As time has passed, opinions on the Apple Watch have changed. It has prompted some high-end luxury watch makers to consider delving into the smart watch market themselves, and it also seems to be the inspiration behind high-end watchmaker H. Moser & Cie.'s latest product.

Shared today by watch site Hodinkee, H. Moser & Cie.'s Swiss Alp Watch has a design that's immediately familiar, featuring a rectangular watch face with curved, rounded edges, a crown at the side, and Apple Watch-style lugs for holding a band in place.

Constructed from solid 18-karat white gold, the Swiss Alp Watch measures in at 38.2mm by 44mm, with a depth of 10.3mm. That's comparable to the 42mm Apple Watch, which is 35.9mm by 42mm with a depth of 10.5mm. It comes with a beige kudu leather strap with a white gold pin buckle.

The resemblance between the Swiss Alp Watch and the Apple Watch is purely physical. There is no processor, no OLED display, and no sensors in the Swiss Alp Watch, which is entirely mechanical. When flipped over, there's no heart rate sensor -- instead, the inner mechanics of the watch (a finished tonneau movement with a Straumann hairspring, according to Hodinkee) are visible through a clear sapphire crystal panel.

H. Moser & Cie. does not mention the Apple Watch on its website or in its marketing materials, but when speaking to Hodinkee, H. Moser & Cie. CEO Edouard Meylan said the Swiss Alp Watch is symbolic, serving as a proof traditional mechanical watchmaking has a future in a world where the digital smart watch is becoming commonplace. Swiss watchmaking, he says, has weathered other challenges and it will continue on.

"Today, H. Moser & Cie. launches the Swiss Alp Watch as a statement of this new challenge and to prove that traditional mechanical watchmaking has a future, and it is, in fact, the future. It is much more than a watch for us. The Swiss Alp Watch is symbolic. It represents our resilience, our ferocious desire to fight for our values and traditions. It embodies everything we believe in."

Given that H. Moser & Cie. is pricing the white gold Swiss Alp Watch at $24,900 with only 50 pieces available, it's unlikely Apple will take offense over the copycat design.

The full story of the H. Moser & Cie. Swiss Alp Watch, which includes background color on the Swiss watch industry and hands-on details, can be read over at Hodkinee.

Apple today seeded the second beta of an upcoming OS X 10.11.3 El Capitan update to developers and public beta testers for testing purposes, three weeks after seeding the first OS X 10.11.3 beta and a month after releasing OS X 10.11.2.

The second OS X 10.11.3 beta, build 15D13b, can be downloaded through the Apple Developer Center or via the Software Update Mechanism in the Mac App Store for those who installed the first beta.

The first beta of OS X 10.11.3 did not include any noticeable outward-facing changes, suggesting the update will focus on security enhancements, performance improvements, and bug fixes to address issues that have been discovered since the release of OS X 10.11.2. Prior OS X El Capitan updates have also focused mainly on under-the-hood improvements.

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

Taiwanese website Apple.club.tw has shared leaked images of the purported backlight assembly for the "iPhone 7" display. The component draws some similarities to the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus backlight assembly, although the 3D Touch chip and LCD flex cables are relocated on this leaked part.

Apple may remove the 3.5mm headphone jack on the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus in favor of an all-in-one Lightning connector, possibly helping the smartphones achieve between 6.0mm and 6.5mm thinness and a waterproof design. The devices may also have a faster TSMC-built A10 chip and non-metallic casing with hidden antenna bands.

iPhone 7 Plus could have 3GB of RAM, 256GB storage and a larger 3,100 mAh battery.