Apple today seeded the third beta of an upcoming OS X 10.11.5 El Capitan update to developers and public beta testers, one week after releasing the second OS X 10.11.5 beta and a month after releasing OS X 10.11.4, the fourth update to the OS X El Capitan operating system. OS X 10.11.5 has been in testing since April 6.
OS X 10.11.5 beta 3 has a build number of 15F28b and can be downloaded through the software update mechanism in the Mac App Store or through the Apple Developer Center (for developers).
OS X 10.11.5, like prior OS X El Capitan updates, appears to focus on security enhancements, performance improvements, and bug fixes to address issues that have popped up since the release of OS X 10.11.4. No obvious outward-facing changes were discovered in the first two OS X 10.11.5 betas, but we'll update this post if any new features are found in the third beta.
Apple today provided developers with the third beta of an upcoming 9.2.1 update to tvOS, the operating system designed to run on the fourth-generation Apple TV. Today's beta comes one week after tvOS 9.2.1 beta 2. tvOS 9.2.1 has been in testing since April 6.
tvOS 9.2.1 is a minor update that comes more than a month after the launch of tvOS 9.2, a significant update introducing features like Bluetooth keyboard support, dictation, Siri search for the App Store, app folders, and more.
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 or Apple Configurator. Those who have already installed the first two tvOS 9.2.1 betas will be able to update to the third beta over the air.
As a minor 9.x.x update, tvOS 9.2.1 appears to focus on bug fixes and performance improvements that are not readily obvious to Apple TV users. No outward-facing changes have been found in the first two tvOS 9.2.1 betas, but should any new features be found in beta 3, we'll list them below.
Apple today released the third beta of an upcoming iOS 9.3.2 update to public beta testers, one day after seeding the third iOS 9.3.2 beta to developers. iOS 9.3.2 comes more than a month after the release of iOS 9.3, a major update that introduced Night Shift mode and other new features. iOS 9.3.2 has been in testing since April 6.
Beta testers who are taking part in Apple's best testing program will receive the iOS 9.3.2 update over-the-air after installing the proper certificate on their iOS device.
Those who would like to participate in Apple's beta testing program can sign up through the beta testing website, which gives users access to both iOS and OS X betas.
As a minor 9.x.x update, iOS 9.3.2 appears to focus on performance improvements and under-the-hood bug fixes to address issues discovered following the release of iOS 9.3. We don't know all of the fixes that will be included in the update, but a significant Game Center bug appears to have been fixed.
iOS 9.3.2 beta 2 also re-introduced a much desired feature -- the ability to use Low Power Mode and Night Shift simultaneously for power saving features combined with blue light reduction.
No other outward-facing changes or immediately apparent bug fixes have been discovered in the first three developer betas.
Journalist and author Richard Moss has launched a crowdfunding campaign for his book The Secret History of Mac Gaming. Moss' work will describe the story of a community of gamers and developers who crafted gameplay experiences that would later serve as influential backbones of modern games, gaining little credit for their place in the history of video games in the process.
Among major influences, Moss mentions that gaming on the Mac brought ideas like "mouse-driven input, multi-window interfaces, and even online play" into popularity with gamers around the world. The book will delve into that history and include over 60 interviews with individuals who were there at the height of Mac gaming, all the way back to the 1980s. The description mentions that it should run about 304 pages long in a standard hardback form, with Mac gaming evangelist Craig Fryar contributing in a co-author role in some chapters.
Mac gaming led to much that is now taken for granted by PC gamers, including mouse-driven input, multi-window interfaces, and even online play. The Mac birthed two of the biggest franchises in videogame history, Myst and Halo, and it hosted numerous "firsts" for the medium.
The Secret History of Mac Gaming is the story of those communities and the game developers who survived and thrived in an ecosystem that was serially ignored by the outside world. It's a book about people who made games and people who played them — people who, on both counts, followed their hearts first and market trends second.
Among many topics and chapters that aim to "cast a narrative around the people behind the games," Moss will include stories like Apple's original intention to acquire Bungie games. That, of course, never came to pass due to Microsoft's own acquisition of the studio in 2000, eventually leading to the now massively successful multi-media franchise Halo. Microsoft's cherry picking of "the premier Mac game developer" out from under Steve Jobs didn't sit well with the former Apple CEO, and was one of the first of many stepping stones that led to the less-than-stellar Mac gaming landscape seen today.
The book is currently on the crowdfunding site Unbound, which deals exclusively in getting independent stories off the ground thanks to the monetary input of interested users. As of the time of writing, The Secret History of Mac Gaming needs about 500 more pledges to be successfully funded. Unbound is based in London, but the site offers international exchange rates for customers interested in pledging who live outside of the United Kingdom. There's also a £14 ($20) international shipping charge for most physical rewards.
The initial £10 ($14) reward tier will get pledges an eBook version of the book, while those who are into physical books will need to pledge £30 ($44). Higher rewards include your name listed in the front of the book, exclusive art, a meet-up with the authors and, at the highest £2,000 ($2,900) tier, a "unique dust jacket" created solely for the user who donates on that tier. Every contributor to the campaign will get their name in the back of the book.
Check out the campaign page here to browse all of the rewards, and even read an except from The Secret History of Mac Gaming.
The latest data from research firm IDC reveals that Apple's smartphone market share dropped to 15.3 percent in the March quarter as the worldwide smartphone market fell nearly flat during the first three months of 2016.
Apple yesterday reported iPhone sales of 51.2 million during the three-month period ending March 26, compared to 61.2 million units and 18.3 percent market share in the year-ago quarter. Meanwhile, overall smartphone shipments totaled 334.9 million during the quarter, a year-over-year increase of only 500,000 units.
Despite the plethora of new features found on the newer "S" models, current iPhone 6/6 Plus owners may feel that a 6S upgrade may not be warranted at the moment. Apple also announced the new iPhone SE, which looks to challenge similarly priced Android options in numerous emerging markets where Apple has traditionally been seen as too expensive.
Samsung continued to lead the market with 81.9 million smartphones shipped for 24.5 percent market share, down only slightly from 24.6 percent in the year-ago quarter. Huawei, OPPO, and Vivo rounded off the top five smartphone makers in the quarter as Chinese vendors continue to churn the top of the charts.
Huawei, which manufactures Google's popular Android-based Nexus 6P smartphone, shipped 27.5 million handsets during the quarter for 8.2 percent market share as it attempts to compete with Apple and Samsung in the U.S. market and other regions beyond China. Its market share was 5.2 percent one year ago.
OPPO and Vivo, meanwhile, pushed out Lenovo and Xiaomi respectively for the fourth and fifth spots on the top smartphone vendors list.
Nintendo of America has announced that it will release two more smartphone games, based on its popular, long-running franchises Animal Crossing and Fire Emblem, later this year, as part of the Japanese company's commitment to release five smartphone games by March 2017.
Nintendo fans are cautiously optimistic about the upcoming titles, which will not be direct ports of the console-based games but rather mobile-optimized spinoffs that could involve a series of in-app purchases. Nintendo declined to say whether the games will be free to download on the App Store.
Animal Crossing, based on a simulated world of animals, and Fire Emblem, a tactical RPG, are expected to be "more accessible" and "connected" versions of the traditional console-based games. The titles can currently be played on Nintendo 3DS, Wii U, and multiple other Nintendo platforms.
As for the former app, while making it more accessible in comparison to the Fire Emblem games for Nintendo’s dedicated gaming systems, Nintendo aims to offer the great value of a role-playing strategy game. Nintendo will design the latter game so that it will be connected with the world of Animal Crossing for dedicated gaming systems. By playing both Animal Crossing games, users will find increased enjoyment.
Nintendo's first iOS app Miitomodebuted on the App Store last month in partnership with Japanese developer DeNA. The social-based game allows players to create and customize avatars called "Miis," chat with other players, play mini games to earn coins and tickets that can be used towards purchasing new outfits, and more.
Miitomo is believed to be off to a good start for Nintendo, earning the struggling game maker an estimated $280,000 per week in in-app purchases revenue, but the company's most dedicated fans remain hopeful that it will eventually release smartphone games based on its most iconic franchises like Super Mario and Legend of Zelda.
For now, fans will have to make do with Animal Crossing and Fire Emblem.
Gleefully profane antihero Deadpool has invaded movie pages and posters in the iTunes Store to celebrate the release of his frequently fourth-wall-breaking comedy action film.
The rogue Marvel Comics character's latest act of defiance appears to involve defacing or photobombing posters and preview pages in the Movie section of the Store, with everything from 127 Hours to Taken getting the snarky Deadpool treatment.
Deadpool stars Ryan Reynolds as the former Special Forces operative turned freakishly self-aware superhero. The movie has set a record for highest-earning R-rated movie ever, earning a total of $746 million globally. A sequel is currently in production.
Deadpool can be purchased on the iTunes Store in HD for $14.99 which includes access to iTunes Extras. The movie will be available to rent from May 10.
Google has updated its Hangouts app for iPhone and iPad with a native iOS Share Sheet extension and support for Low Power mode.
Google Hangouts for iOS enables users to send and receive instant messages and group messages, share photos, and make video and voice calls using the company's cross-platform communication service. Users can also connect up to Google Voice via the service to link their personal phone numbers, enable SMS and activate voice recognition.
The Share extension in version 9.0 of Hangouts means users can now share text, links, images, and video from other apps on their device, while the Low Power support essentially means that the app will now automatically turn off video when the device's battery is depleted to 20% or lower.
The Share extension can be activated by tapping the Share button within the app, selecting "More" at the end of the Share Sheet, and toggling the switch next to Hangouts to the ON position.
Instagram has selected a group of users to test a version of its app with an overhauled design, which can be seen in a series of screenshots sent to MacRumors by reader Sebastien. Unlike the previous Instagram design, which utilizes a white feed bookended by blue and black borders and blue accents, the new design features a more monochromatic look.
The new color scheme appears to be part of an effort to help photos, specifically color photos, pop more in a user's feed. The icons have also undergone design changes. The camera button on the bottom bar is no longer singled out with a blue box around it, and the camera button in camera mode is now a grey ring rather than a blue circle. The activity button on the bottom bar is a simple heart rather than a heart in a speech bubble and the profile button on the bottom is the outline of a person rather than a user's photo.
Instagram tellsMashable that the company often tests "new experiences with a small percentage of the global community" and that this test was "a design test only." It's unclear whether this design will become official in a future update or whether the company decides to not move forward with it.
More recently, Instagram has been making tweaks and changes to how its app works. Two weeks ago, the company added video channels to its "Explore" feature. Before that, it expanded video clips from 15 seconds to 60 seconds and announced that it would introduce an algorithm-based feed.
On April 14, the FBI informed Apple of a security flaw in older versions of iOS and OS X, its first vulnerability disclosure to Apple under the Vulnerability Equities Process, reports Reuters, citing information obtained directly from the Cupertino company.
The Vulnerability Equities Process allows federal agencies to determine whether critical security flaws should be kept private for law enforcement use or disclosed to companies to allow them to patch major vulnerabilities.
The security flaw the FBI shared with Apple pertained to older versions of the iPhone and Mac and it was fixed with the release of iOS 9 and OS X El Capitan. It was not the vulnerability that was exploited to break into the iPhone 5c used by San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook, which remains under wraps.
Apple says 80 percent of iPhones run a safe version of iOS and are not vulnerable to the security flaw shared by the FBI. Apple told Reuters it does not have plans to issue a patch for the older, vulnerable software.
According to Reuters, the FBI was motivated to provide Apple with information on an older vulnerability following a report suggesting it would not use the Vulnerability Equities Process to provide Apple with the method used to hack the San Bernardino iPhone.
The day after that report, the FBI offered information about the older vulnerabilities to Apple. The move may have been an effort to show that it can and does use the White House process and disclose hacking methods when it can.
The flaw the FBI disclosed to Apple this month did nothing to change the company's perception that the White House process is less effective than has been claimed, said an Apple executive who declined to be named.
Earlier today, a report from The Wall Street Journal suggested the FBI has decided not to disclose the vulnerability used to access the San Bernardino iPhone. FBI Director James Comey has insinuated the FBI cannot provide details on the hacking method used on the iPhone because the security flaw exploited is owned by a private company.
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.
During today's second quarter earnings call, Apple CEO Tim Cook spent some time talking about the success of Apple Pay, which he says is "growing at a tremendous rate." According to Cook, Apple Pay transaction volume is up 5X compared to a year ago and Apple Pay is gaining 1 million new users per week.
Across all of the countries where Apple Pay is available -- the U.S., UK, Canada, Australia, China, and Singapore -- Apple Pay is now available at more than 10 million contactless locations, including 2.5 million in the United States.
Despite its growth, Apple Pay does not provide a significant amount of revenue for Apple, but Apple CFO Luca Maestri says the company is interested to see how Apple Pay progresses in the future.
During the call, Cook said Apple Pay would expand to additional locations "soon," in line with rumors and evidence suggesting Apple Pay will soon be available in Spain, Hong Kong, Brazil, Japan, and France. For Spain and Hong Kong, Apple Pay will be introduced through a partnership with American Express in 2016, and a leaked MasterCard document points towards MasterCard support in Brazil, Hong Kong, Japan, and Singapore.
In addition to expanding Apple Pay's availability, Apple is also rumored to be working on several new features to increase its appeal, including the ability to make purchases from websites and the ability to make person to person payments as is possible with services like Square Cash and Venmo.
According to Apple CEO Tim Cook, Apple Music now has 13 million paying subscribers, up from 11 million users just two months ago. In a February interview, Eddy Cue and Craig Federighi said Apple Music had 11 million subscribers, suggesting impressive growth over the past 10 weeks.
Apple Music launched in more than 100 countries on June 30, 2015 and will see its first anniversary in two months. At its current growth rate, Apple Music is on track to have somewhere around 15 million subscribers, gaining significant ground on Spotify, which reported more than 20 million paying subscribers and 75 million active users in the weeks ahead of Apple Music's debut.
Since its launch, Apple has heavily promoted Apple Music with exclusive releases and videos from artists like Taylor Swift and Drake and dynamic content on its free Beats 1 radio service. Apple plans to continue on with its Apple Music advertising and in the future, will debut a television show starring Dr. Dre.
Apple Music is priced at $9.99 per month for individual users and $14.99 per month for a family of up to six users, which can be paid for using an iTunes account. Apple has seen success with Apple Music in part due to the large number of credit cards already attached to iTunes accounts, making it easy for customers to subscribe to Apple services and purchase Apple content.
Apple hasn't divulged sales numbers for the recently released iPhone SE, but during today's second quarter earnings call, company executives said that demand for the device was "very strong" and higher than expected.
According to Apple CEO Tim Cook, the iPhone SE puts Apple in a strategic plan to attract new customers with its affordable price point and powerful internal specifications. Cook says Apple is working hard to meet demand and improve shipping times for the device.
We're thrilled with the response that we've seen on it. It is clear that there is a demand there even much beyond what we thought. That is really why we have the constraint that we have.
Since its release, the iPhone SE has been in short supply despite reports of lackluster sales. For the past several weeks, new iPhone SE orders have listed expected delivery times of two to three weeks, suggesting Apple has not yet been able to meet demand for the device.
Priced attractively at $399 for the entry-level 16GB model, the iPhone SE adopted the external design of the iPhone 5s with parts sourced from later iPhone models like the iPhone 6 and the 6s. The result is a 4-inch iPhone that is on par performance wise with Apple's current flagship devices.
Positive news about the iPhone SE comes as Apple is reporting its first ever decline in iPhone sales and its first year-over-year decline in revenue in 13 years. During the quarter, Apple sold 51 million iPhones, down from 61 million in Q2 2015. Revenue was at $50.6 billion, down from $58 billion in the year-ago quarter.
Apple's guidance for Q3 2016 suggests it expects the downward trend to continue, with the company forecasting expected revenue of $41-43 billion. In Q3 2015, Apple posted revenue of $49.6 billion.
Apple expects third quarter revenue of between $41 billion and $43 billion, which would be up to 18 percent lower than the $49.6 billion in revenue it posted in the year-ago quarter.
The company also expects a gross margin between 37.5 percent and 38 percent, operating expenses between $6 billion and $6.1 billion, other income/expenses of $300 million, and a tax rate of 25.5 percent.
Apple's first revenue decline in thirteen years is largely attributable to the first ever year-over-year decline in iPhone sales, which dropped to 51.2 million from nearly 61.2 million in the year-ago quarter.
iPad and Mac sales also declined to 10.25 million and 4.03 million respectively in the March quarter, compared to 12.62 million and 4.56 million respectively a year ago.
Meanwhile, Apple experienced growth in both its Services and Other Products categories, the latter of which totaled $2.19 billion and includes sales of iPods, Apple TVs, Beats Electronics, and Apple-branded and third-party accessories.
Quarterly revenue from the iTunes Store, App Store, Mac App Store, iBooks Store, AppleCare, Apple Pay, licensing, and other services amounted to nearly $6 billion, up from $5 billion in the year-ago quarter.
The Americas remain Apple's largest market with $19.1 billion in revenue, followed by China where revenue fell rather sharply to $12.5 billion compared to $16.8 billion in the previous March quarter.
Apple today announced financial results for the second fiscal quarter (first calendar quarter) of 2016. For the quarter, Apple posted revenue of $50.6 billion and net quarterly profit of $10.5 billion, or $1.90 per diluted share, compared to revenue of $58 billion and net quarterly profit of $13.6 billion, or $2.33 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. As expected, the year-over-year decline in quarterly revenue was the first for Apple since 2003.
Gross margin for the quarter was 39.4 percent compared to 40.8 percent in the year-ago quarter, with international sales accounting for 67 percent of revenue. Apple also declared an increased quarterly dividend payment of $0.57 per share, up from $0.52. The dividend is payable on May 12 to shareholders of record as of May 9. The company currently holds $233 billion in cash and marketable securities, partially offset by $77 billion in long-term debt.
In addition to the increase in the dividend payment, Apple says it will once again expand its share repurchase authorization by an additional $35 billion to $175 billion and the company says it expects to spend over $250 billion in cash under its capital return program by the end of March 2018.
Apple sold 51.1 million iPhones during the quarter, down from 61.2 million a year earlier, while Mac sales were 4.03 million units, down from from 4.56 million units in the year-ago quarter. iPad sales were also down once again, falling to 10.25 million from 12.6 million.
“Our team executed extremely well in the face of strong macroeconomic headwinds,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We are very happy with the continued strong growth in revenue from Services, thanks to the incredible strength of the Apple ecosystem and our growing base of over one billion active devices.”
Apple's guidance for the third quarter of fiscal 2016 includes expected revenue of $41–43 billion and gross margin between 37.5 and 38 percent.
Apple will provide live streaming of its fiscal Q2 2016 financial results conference call at 2:00 PM Pacific, and MacRumors will update this story with coverage of the conference call highlights.
Conference Call and Q&A Highlights are available in reverse chronological order after the jump.
The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation will keep the method that it used to hack into the iPhone used by San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook a secret, reports The Wall Street Journal. Citing sources with knowledge of the FBI's plans, the report suggests the FBI will tell the White House that an internal government review does not make sense because it "knows so little" about the hacking tool that was employed.
A government review under the U.S. Vulnerabilities Equities Process, which allows federal agencies to determine whether or not critical security flaws should be shared with companies, would potentially lead to an order to disclose the security vulnerability to Apple. Without a review, Apple may not find out how the iPhone was breached.
The decision, and the technical and bureaucratic justification behind it, would likely keep Apple in the dark about whatever security gap exists on certain models of the company's phones, according to people familiar with the discussions.
The Wall Street Journal's report comes following a statement made by FBI Director James Comey at a cybersecurity event in Washington D.C., which was shared by Reuters. According to Comey, the FBI is still in the process of determining whether or not a government review should move forward.
"We are in the midst of trying to sort that out," Comey said. "The threshold (for disclosure) is, are we aware of the vulnerability, or did we just buy a tool and don't have sufficient knowledge of the vulnerability to implicate the process?"
"We are close to a resolution," he added at a cybersecurity event at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.
Sources that spoke to Reuters say the Vulnerabilities Equities Process is not set up to handle flaws that are discovered and owned by private companies, with Comey's statement suggesting the FBI does not own the method used to hack the iPhone.
To break into Farook's iPhone 5c, the FBI employed the help of "professional hackers," paying upwards of $1.3 million for a tool exploiting a security vulnerability. While Apple would like details on the flaw so a fix can be implemented, the FBI can keep using the vulnerability so long as it remains unpatched.
The FBI has said the method used to break into the iPhone 5c does not work on the iPhone 5s and later, but it can be used to access iPhone 5c devices running iOS 9.
Update 4/27: In a statement shared by The New York Times, the FBI has confirmed that it will not give Apple details on the hacking method used to break into the iPhone.
"The F.B.I. purchased the method from an outside party so that we could unlock the San Bernardino device," Amy S. Hess, executive assistant director for science and technology, said in a statement.
"We did not, however, purchase the rights to technical details about how the method functions, or the nature and extent of any vulnerability upon which the method may rely in order to operate. As a result, currently we do not have enough technical information about any vulnerability that would permit any meaningful review" by the White House examiners, she said.
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.
YouTube for iOS and Android is being updated with a new homepage starting today, replacing the small thumbnails that offered up recommended videos with a single in-line content stream that serves up ranked recommended videos based on an improved algorithm.
Whether you want to watch hilarious sketch comedy, your favorite vlogger, new let's plays, or music videos, you should be able to see new videos you love every time you visit YouTube--right on your homepage. Starting today, when you open the YouTube app on your iPhone or Android phone, you'll experience a redesigned Home, with a clean and simple format that invites you to discover and enjoy.
With the single stream, video previews on the home screen are larger and easier to scroll through to find interesting content, much like the trending videos displayed in the Trending tab. The new algorithm, which is based on deep neural network technology, is able to refresh videos on a more frequent basis so content displayed is kept up to date and it's able to present content that's more relevant to each user's tastes.
According to YouTube, people who have tested the new system spend more time watching fresh videos and content from their Subscriptions.
Microsoft today announced the launch of its Skype for Business Mac Public Preview, bringing expanded Skype capabilities to its Mac business users. The Public Preview of Skype for Business for the Mac follows the launch of Skype for Business on iOS.
Skype for Business will be released in three stages leading to the public launch of the app during the third quarter of 2016. Starting today, Skype for Business Mac users will be able to see meetings in the Skype business client through built-in Outlook calendar integration, joining them with a click. Full screen video, content viewing, in-meeting chat, and the ability to invite additional people to the meeting are all supported features.
In the second phase of the Public Preview, Microsoft plans to add instant messaging, presence, and contacts, which will come in the early summer. Phase three, which will include telephony features, will be available later in the summer.
Skype for Business, designed for corporate users, supports up to 250 people per call and it includes enterprise-grade security features and employee account management.
Microsoft's commercial customers can request an invite to test the Skype for Business Mac Public Preview through the Skype for Business website. Microsoft plans to begin issuing invites to IT administrators to download the client with a gradual expansion of the preview coming in the current weeks.
On April 14, the FBI informed Apple of a security flaw in older versions of iOS and OS X, its first vulnerability disclosure to Apple under the Vulnerability Equities Process, reports 
Apple today reported its 
