Apple launched the iPhone SE today in the United States and eleven other countries and territories, prompting a number of early adopters looking to get their hands on the refreshed 4-inch smartphone to line up over the past twenty-four hours.
Early morning lines for the iPhone SE could be found in a handful of major cities, ranging from Sydney, Australia to Miami, Florida, but many other Apple Stores had no queues whatsoever as excitement was unsurprisingly more tepid compared to the launch of a flagship smartphone like the iPhone 6s.
iPhone SE lines in Sydney, left, and Miami, right (Images: Nick Sas/Julio Perera)
In fact, the launch of the iPhone SE was arguably overshadowed by Model 3 reservations, which began today at Tesla stores and galleries, some of which are located directly adjacent to or within close proximity to Apple retail stores.
At the Tesla store in the Bellevue, Washington shopping mall pictured below, for example, the queue at around 10:30 a.m. local time was significantly longer than many of those outside of Apple Stores today.
iPhone SE reaction has been mixed in Asia, where the smartphone launched to little fanfare in Japan but reportedly received over 3.4 million pre-orders in neighboring China. The low-cost smartphone is expected to be particularly popular in emerging markets such as India and Pakistan.
Investment bank Piper Jaffray performed a spot check of iPhone SE stock in select American markets and found that 90% of stores had the device in stock:
We checked 100 Apple Stores in NYC, LA, Dallas, and Minneapolis market areas for availability of the Space Gray iPhone SE 16GB and found that 90% of stores checked had the device in stock. We did spot checks for other device colors (Gold, Rose Gold, Silver) in about 25 stores and found a similar ~90% availability.
For new orders, Apple currently lists delivery estimates of between April 6 and April 21 in the U.S. depending on the iPhone SE size, color, and carrier selected.
Apple today released iOS 9.3.1 to the public, marking the first update to iOS 9 since iOS 9.3 launched on March 21. iOS 9.3.1 comes just over a week after the launch of iOS 9.3 and likely brings a fix for a significant web link crashing issue that has been affecting many iOS users.
Today's iOS 9.3.1 release is available as an over-the-air update for all iOS 9 users and it can also be downloaded through iTunes. iOS 9.3.1 is the seventh update to iOS 9, following iOS 9.0.1, iOS 9.0.2, iOS 9.1, iOS 9.2, iOS 9.2.1, and iOS 9.3.
Shortly after iOS 9.3 was released, a number of iPhone and iPad users found Safari, Mail, Messages, Notes, Chrome and some other pre-installed and third-party apps would crash or freeze after tapping or long pressing on a web link. While most users affected were on iOS 9.3, some customers on earlier versions of iOS also complained of crashing problems.
The exact underlying cause of the problem has not been discovered, but there is speculation that it is related to Universal Links and the Shared Web Credentials daemon, which allows apps and websites to share login credentials. No quick fix has been available, but shortly after the bug was publicized, Apple said it was working on a fix and has made good on that promise in the iOS 9.3.1 update.
Any other changes found in the iOS 9.3.1 update will be listed below.
Verizon customers planning on upgrading to the iPhone SE or another new smartphone should do so sooner rather than later, as the U.S.'s largest carrier has outlined plans to introduce a new $20 upgrade fee starting next week.
Beginning next Monday, April 4, a new $20 flat rate charge will be applied to smartphones purchased on a Device Payment financing plan, or at full retail price, according to a leaked internal memo obtained by MacRumors.
The same $20 premium will also apply to customers taking advantage of Apple's new iPhone Upgrade Program. Verizon cites "increasing support costs associated with customers switching their devices" as a reason for the new fees.
The new upgrade fees will impact all consumer accounts, as well as business accounts without an ECPD profile. Verizon's existing $40 upgrade fee for customers renewing a two-year contract with a new device remains in place.
The new $20 upgrade fee will be charged at the point of sale through direct Verizon sales channels, while the fee will be added to the customer's next bill when the smartphone is purchased through an indirect reseller.
AT&T similarly charges $15 per smartphone added or upgraded with AT&T Next, and "bring your own" devices. Sprint also charges an upgrade or activation fee up to $36 per device. T-Mobile does not have upgrade fees.
After a soft launch in Japan earlier this month, Nintendo's first app designed for iOS devices, Miitomo, is available for download in the United States and other countries.
Miitomo is a free-to-play social-based app that allows players to create and customize avatars known in the Nintendo world as Miis. Using their Mii, players can chat with one another through the Miitomo app and play mini games. The goal is to earn coins and tickets to work towards purchasing new outfits for one's Mii while also answering questions and creating Mii photos, with that information being shared with friends.
Players are also able to use the app to earn My Nintendo rewards that can be exchanged for discounts on Nintendo's line of 3DS and Wii U games and console themes, which will be the main incentive to pick up Miitomo. My Nintendo is Nintendo's new rewards program, replacing the rewards program that it eliminated last year.
Our sister site TouchArcade tried the Japanese version of Miitomo and shared some early thoughts on the app.
So how is it? Well, it's more or less as it was described to us before. You start off by creating or importing a Mii. You then assign a voice and personality to it before moving on. From there, you'll be directed to answer your first question, which in my case was concerning my favorite food. After that, you can tinker around and do what you like. So far, that doesn't involve much more than buying clothes, dressing up my Mii, or answering more questions.
I've earned some Game Tickets, which I can use to play a simple pachinko-style mini-game to try and win new outfits. The other currencies include coins for buying new clothes at the shop, and a mysterious "candy" item that I can't find a use for. Almost everything you do will earn you coins, and the game gives you a bunch up front to set up your initial outfit.
Nintendo plans to release additional games for smartphones in the future, following its first experiment with Miitomo. Not all games will be freemium like Miitomo - Nintendo has said some will be "pay to download."
Facebook released a new feature today for its iOS Messenger app that allows users to receive booked flight information updates.
The instant messaging service's first 'airline bot' enables KLM Royal Dutch Airlines customers who have booked tickets through the airlines' website to have all their flight information delivered to a dedicated thread within the app.
The bot is designed to supply customers with their itinerary, boarding pass, and check-in confirmation, as well as notify of any flight delays. An option to speak to a human KLM staff member is also included.
Earlier this year, TechCrunch reported that Facebook was offering select developers access to its Messenger SDK which would allow them to build helpful service bots for the app.
According to the report, Facebook was likely giving third-party developers access to the chat SDK in an effort to make Messenger more like its Asian counterparts, such as WeChat and Line, whose users can contact dedicated accounts to buy movie tickets and pay bills.
In December 2015, Uber announced integration with Messenger via a new Transportation feature, which lets customers book taxis and receive live progress updates from within a chat thread.
The discovery of a change in file naming conventions in OS X 10.11.4 is behind a recent growth in speculation that Apple is set to rebrand its OS X desktop operating system.
Screenshot from Mac OS 8 released in 1997.
The rumor appears to have begun on Tuesday after Brazilian Apple blog MacMagazine reported that a name used for an Interface Builder document tucked away in the OS X System folder contained a previously unseen reference to 'macOS'.
Developer Guilherme Rambo discovered that a document in FlightUtilities.framework in /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks takes the name FUFlightViewController_macOS.nib, which it did not have prior to last week's release of OS X 10.11.4.
Image: Guilherme Rambo
Speculation appears to be based on the fact that iOS, watchOS, and tvOS already take similar naming conventions, leading some to believe that OS X could be set to fall in line.
However, as 9to5Mac points out, there are good reasons to remain skeptical that the change indicates an imminent rebrand.
Apple developers often use macOS identifiers for convenience, because the naming scheme suffix shares symmetry with Apple's other platforms and allows coders to easily identify apps with cross-platform components. Additionally, a significant rebrand of Apple's flagship desktop OS is the type of marketing decision that engineering teams would be unlikely to hear about until later on in the version cycle.
Despite the skepticism, a rebrand for OS X is by no means out of the question. Indeed, the name change would see Apple revert to the operating system's traditional name Mac OS, which remained in place until Apple dropped 'Mac' from its OS X branding in 2012.
The next version of Apple's Mac operating system, 10.12, is rumored to include Siri as a desktop feature, and is expected to be revealed at the Worldwide Developers Conference in June ahead of a public launch in the fall.
Update: The file is actually not new in OS X 10.11.4, as it is present on machines running older versions of OS X El Capitan and lists a creation date of August 2015.
Despite its much-publicized problems, Apple's iOS 9.3 is showing a lower crash rate than all active iOS builds, an app analytics firm reported yesterday (via AppleInsider).
According to California-based Apteligent, over the past eight days iOS 9.3 has had a crash rate of only 2.2 percent, making it the most stable iOS release in circulation. Apple's new iOS also beat the latest version of Android, which had a reported crash rate of approximately 2.6 percent.
By contrast, iOS 8, iOS 9 and iOS 9.2 have all fared worse over the month of March, with crash rates of 3.2 percent meaning their users were more likely to experience problems than early adopters of Apple's latest mobile OS iteration.
The study will come as a surprise to many, following media coverage of issues reported by a number of iOS users. Apple is aware of an issue causing web links to crash in multiple iOS apps like Safari, Mail, and Messages, and says it is working on a fix that will be released "soon" via a software update.
The bug was the second major bug to affect iOS 9.3 users. The first rendered some older devices unusable due to a problem with Activation Lock, which required customers to enter the information originally used to set up their iPhone or iPad. Apple released a new version of iOS 9.3 on Monday to fix the issue.
Chip orders from Apple for the second quarter of 2016 have been notably slow, according to unnamed sources in the integrated circuit supply chain (via DigiTimes).
Overall, chip orders placed by Apple for Q2 are expected to be only slightly higher than those for Q1, despite the launch of the company's 4-inch iPhone SE and 9.7-inch iPad Pro earlier this month.
First-week sales of Apple's new devices have been disappointing, according to the sources, while chip shipments for the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus for the second quarter of 2016 are likely to be halved from those shipped in the first quarter. According to DigiTimes:
Shipments for the new iPhone SE will be unable to offset the fall in shipments for the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus devices in the second quarter, the sources continued. The shipment target for the SE in the second quarter is four to five million units.
The same sources claim chip orders from Apple are unlikely to return to the previous high levels until after the third quarter of 2016, when its next-generation iPhone, iPad, MacBook and iMac products become available.
Taiwan-based website DigiTimes has a mixed track record at reporting on Apple's upcoming product plans, but its sources within the upstream supply chain have proven reliable in the past.
Back in February, the site claimed Apple would ship 9.8 million iPads in the first quarter of 2016, potentially its lowest quarterly tablet sales since the iPad 2 in mid 2011.
In January, Apple CEO Tim Cook confirmed during the company's financial earnings conference call that iPhone sales would likely decline in the March quarter, marking the first year-over-year decline since the smartphone was released in June 2007.
Apple forecast that its total revenue in Q2 2016 would be between $50 and $53 billion, compared to $58 billion in the year-ago quarter, signaling the company's first year-over-year drop in revenue in thirteen years.
The FBI has agreed to help an Arkansas prosecutor unlock an iPhone and iPod that belong to two teenagers accused of killing a couple, reports the Associated Press. The move comes days after the FBI announced that it had unlocked the San Bernardino shooter's iPhone.
Faulkner County Prosecuting Attorney Cody Hiland said the FBI agreed to the request from his office and the Conway Police Department Wednesday afternoon. A judge on Tuesday agreed to postpone the trial of 18-year-old Hunter Drexler so prosecutors could ask the FBI for help. Drexler's trial was moved from next week to June 27.
Hiland said the FBI agreed to help less than a day after the initial request was made. "We always appreciate their cooperation and willingness to help their local law enforcement partners," Hiland said. Patrick Benca, Drexler's attorney, said he was notified the FBI agreed to help and that he was "not concerned about anything on that phone."
The prosecuting attorney said that they had heard the FBI had been able to unlock the San Bernardino shooter's iPhone and wanted to see if they could help, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Drexler, along with 15-year-old Justin Staton, are accused of killing Robert and Patricia Cogdell last July. The couple raised Staton as their grandson. After the two teens were arrested in Texas and brought to Arkansas shortly after the shootings, prosecutors gained possession of Drexler's iPhone. Last week, Staton's defense attorney was ordered to hand over his iPod, which was in the defense attorney's evidence locker.
Prosecutors argue that Staton had indicated on phone calls that he had used his iPod to communicate about the murders and that further evidence might be on the device. It’s unclear which iPhone and iPod the suspects used and which iOS version they’re running.
An FBI official told the LA Times that the FBI is unlikely use the tool that was used to unlock the San Bernardino shooter's iPhone for criminal prosecutions because the method could be discovered during a trial. Furthermore, the method used to unlock that phone might not work with other phones, according to the official.
“In a criminal case, if the FBI uses a technique, there’s going to be questions about divulging that technique or chain of custody to the defense," Eric Crocker, Electronic Frontier Foundation staff attorney, told the LA Times. "So my instinct is this might be something different.”
Last week, shortly after the Department of Justice said that it discovered a "possible method" for unlocking the San Bernardino shooter's device, it was reported that the FBI enlisted Israeli firm Cellebrite to unlock it.
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.
With the iPhone SE now available in several countries, the first teardown of the device has been conducted by Chipworks. As expected, the device uses a hodgepodge of components sourced from several past iPhones, including the iPhone 5, 6, and 6s, leading Chipworks to say "this is not your typical Apple release."
There are very few new parts, but that hardly means there is no innovation. As is the genius of Apple and its fearless leader, Mr. Cook, it is the combination of all the right parts that make a successful product. Finding that just-right balance of old and new, and at such a low cost, is no easy feat.
The processor inside the iPhone SE is indeed the same A9 processor found in the iPhone 6s, and the part in the iPhone SE Chipworks took apart was labeled with an APL1022 part number from a TSMC facility. It includes SK Hynix memory, which Chipworks says is likely the same 2GB LPDDR4 DRAM module found in the iPhone 6s.
The date codes might actually tell a story: the decapped application processor chip is dated 1535, Aug/Sep last year, so it was sitting in inventory for a while; the memory is 1549, last December; and presumably the whole package-on-package was assembled this year at the end of January.
The NFC chip is the NXP 66V10, the same used in the iPhone 6s, and the 6-axis sensor is from InvenSense and was also used in the iPhone 6s.
The Qualcom MDM9625M modem and the accompanying transceiver were originally found in the iPhone 6, and the Audio ICs, which Chipworks thinks were designed by Cirrus Logic, came from the iPhone 6s.
While many parts were originally from the iPhone 6 or 6s, the touch screen controller components (Broadcom BCM5976 and Texas Instruments 343S0645) were originally used in the iPhone 5s.
There are a few new components in the iPhone SE, including a "338S00170 device," which Chipworks says is "very likely a new Apple/Dialog power management IC," along with a Skyworks SKY77611 power amplifier module, a 16GB Toshiba NAND flash module, an EPCOS D5255 antenna switch module, and an AAC Technologies microphone.
Additional information about the iPhone SE will come out as Chipworks continues on with its teardown and as other companies like iFixit conduct their own device teardowns. The iPhone SE will be available in the United States starting tomorrow, March 31.
When the Apple TV launched, Disney sold (and continues to sell) a $100 Disney Infinity 3.0 Star Wars-themed bundle that included a Disney Infinity Base and controller designed to work with the Disney Infinity 3.0 game on the Apple TV, encouraging people to adopt Disney Infinity 3.0 on the set-top box.
At the time, Disney promised to bring the full Disney Infinity 3.0 Edition console experience to the device, but it appears Disney is reneging on that promise, abandoning development of Disney Infinity 3.0 on the Apple TV.
According to a recent customer service response shared by our sister site TouchArcade, Disney currently has no plans to update the Apple TV version of the Disney Infinity 3.0 app. The response was given to a customer who asked if new Disney Infinity figures would work with the Apple TV.
The team is currently focusing on the traditional gaming platforms. We are always evaluating and making changes, but there are currently no plans for futher updates to the Apple TV version of the game. Please keep an eye out for further news about this, and feel free to contact Support if you have any questions.
Disney Infinity enthusiasts who use the Apple TV app are understandably upset about Disney's decision not to update the game after just four months, as it means development has effectively come to a halt and no new characters will be supported, including new Marvel Battleground figures which some people purchased before learning of the incompatibility issue. It also means Disney has no plans to fix bugs that are currently affecting the tvOS app.
As TouchArcade points out, Disney may have made this decision due to poor app sales and revenue generation on the Apple TV. Games and apps have not proven to be as popular on the new platform as they are on iOS, with some popular Apple TV games even bringing in less than $100 per day.
Disney has updated its Disney Infinity website with a new disclaimer noting not all content is available for PC, Steam, iPhone, iPad, Windows, Amazon, Google Play, and Apple TV. The latest Marvel Battlegrounds figures are compatible only with PlayStation 3 and 4, Wii U, Xbox One, and Xbox 360.
Google today announced the launch of a Cardboard SDK for iOS developers, allowing them to more easily create native iPhone apps and experiences that will work with the Google Cardboard virtual reality viewer. The Cardboard SDK for iOS includes all of the features that are already available in the Android Cardboard SDK.
For those unfamiliar with Google Cardboard, it is a low-cost viewer designed to work with a range of smartphones from Android devices to iOS devices. The iPhone or other smartphone fits into the front of a viewer made from cardboard or another material, bringing virtual and augmented reality experiences to the user through apps.
Google is also debuting VR view, a feature that allows immersive content to be embedded into apps and websites. VR views transform 360 degree VR images or video into an interactive experience that can be viewed on a desktop computer (an example is available in Google's blog post) or with a phone attached to a Cardboard viewer.
Travel apps may include turtle photos, but they're nothing like diving into the open ocean. Real estate websites may include descriptions of the dining room, but it's nothing like actually touring the home. For developers, having immersive elements in their apps and websites can be the difference between meh and magical. That's why we're introducing VR view--a quick and easy way to embed immersive content on Android, iOS and the web.
The Cardboard SDK for iOS and the tools for creating VR views are available starting today.
Designer Martin Hajek, who often creates renderings of upcoming devices based on rumors, has mocked up what a thinner 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro with some MacBook-style design elements could look like.
The design, which also includes a conceptual version of "macOS," features smaller side bezels and a much thinner chassis, one that's not quite as thin as the Retina MacBook but much thinner than the Retina MacBook Pro today.
Hajek's slimmed-down Retina MacBook Pro concept comes amid rumors Apple is working on "ultra-thin" 13 and 15-inch "MacBooks." That rumor suggests new MacBooks are being developed that feature a design similar to the existing 12-inch MacBook that are also thinner than the existing MacBook Air.
The rumor, which is the second we've heard about thinner notebooks, does not make it clear if the MacBooks will belong to the MacBook line, the MacBook Pro line, or the MacBook Air line. Because the fate of the MacBook Air line is in question and the MacBook line already has a 12-inch MacBook, it's entirely possible the rumor refers to thinner MacBooks that are in development as part of the MacBook Pro family.
It is not clear when these thinner 13 and 15-inch mystery MacBooks will launch if they are indeed in development, but rumors suggest they will debut at the end of the second quarter or in the third quarter, pointing towards an introduction in the summer or fall months.
It's just after 9:30a.m. in New Zealand, which means the first customers who ordered an iPhone SE or a 9.7-inch iPad Pro on March 24 are starting to receive their shipments. Soon, customers in Australia will begin receiving their devices, and the first Apple retail stores in the country will open for in-store sales.
New Zealanders have already started photos and news of their devices on social networks like Instagram, reddit, and Twitter, and a few lucky customers who ordered the 9.7-inch iPad Pro in the United States have also been receiving early shipments, as noted on Instagram, Twitter, and the MacRumors forums.
As March 31 hits around the world, the iPhone SE and the 9.7-inch iPad Pro will be available in first wave launch countries that include Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, Singapore, the UK, US Virgin Islands, and the US. Retail stores in these countries will be opening at approximately 9:00 a.m. local time, letting customers make walk-in purchases.
Customers in these countries who already placed an order for a new device will begin receiving those devices as soon as shipping outlets begin work in the morning, likely around 8:00 a.m. local time. Following deliveries in Australia and New Zealand, customers in Japan, China, Hong Kong, and Singapore will receive their devices, followed by deliveries in France, Germany, and the UK, and then orders will arrive in Canada, the US, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands.
In the United States, pre-order customers living on the east coast should begin receiving their shipments starting at 8:00 a.m. local time from couriers like FedEx and UPS in approximately 18 hours. Orders set to arrive on March 31 have already shipped from Apple using Next Day shipping.
Big box retailers like Walmart, Target, and Best Buy will begin in-store sales of the iPhone SE and 9.7-inch iPad Pro starting on the morning of March 31, as well carriers like AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon.
In the United States, the iPhone SE is priced at $399 for 16GB and $499 for 64GB. Orders placed today from Apple's online store will be delivered starting on April 13.
Pricing on the 9.7-inch iPad Pro starts at $599 for a 32GB Wi-Fi only model and goes up to $1,029 for a 256GB Wi-Fi + Cellular model. Orders placed today from the online store will be delivered starting next week.
During today's Microsoft Build conference for developers, Microsoft announced plans to bring interactive bots to the Skype platform on Windows, Android, and iOS. Starting today, Skype iOS users will have access to Bots that offer expertise, products, services, and entertainment through messaging options in the Skype app.
Today we are introducing Skype Bots--a new way to bring expertise, products, services and entertainment into your daily messaging on Skype.
Each Bot will enhance your Skype experience in its own way, bringing a new dimension into your everyday Skype chats by helping turn your ideas and plans into actions.
Available bots that can be interacted with on iOS include Bing Music, Bing News, and Bing Images. Bing Music is able to search multiple sites to find song information, while Bing Image bot and Bing News bot are designed for web navigation. With the Skype Bot SDK, brands and developers will be able to create bots that work through Skype.
In the future, Skype plans to expand Bot availability to audio and video calling, introducing new bot-based experiences. An example of Skype Video Bots was shown off during the Build Conference.
To access the messaging bots in Skype, iOS users will need to download the latest version of the app. Accessing bots can be done through the "Search" option from the Contacts page, which includes an option to add bots to Skype.
Skype can be downloaded from the App Store for free for iPhone and iPad. [Direct Link: iPad, iPhone]
Apple today released its 2016 Supplier Responsibility Progress Report [PDF] and updated its accompanying Supplier Responsibility website to offer a look at its 2015 efforts to improve the lives of the workers that produce and assemble its products.
Apple's focus in 2015 was on cutting down on excessive work hours and addressing bonded and underage labor practices. Work-hour compliance on Apple's 60-hour maximum workweek mandate reached 97 percent, up from 92 percent in 2014.
For its 10th annual progress report, Apple conducted 640 total audits and 21 unannounced audits, plus it closed 250 requests for environment, safety, and labor cases and conducted 25,000 follow-up interviews to ensure employers did not retaliate against workers for participating in Apple audits.
Apple's auditing process, in addition to assessing work conditions and interviewing workers, seeks out core violations like underage workers, involuntary labor, document falsification, retaliation against workers, unsafe working conditions, and significant environmental issues. Noncompliant suppliers are placed on probation and if issues are not addressed immediately, Apple terminates contracts.
In 2015, Apple suppliers paid out $4.7 million to reimburse workers that were contracted through unfair and excessive recruitment fees. Since 2008, Apple has forced its suppliers to pay out more than $25.6 million to workers to put an end to bonded labor.
Apple discovered three instances of child labor in 2015 at a single supplier. When suppliers are found hiring underage employees, they are required to return children to their homes, fund their education, and pay for basic living expenses.
In 2015 we found one facility, which was audited for the first time, in violation of employing underage labor. The number of audited facilities with underage labor dropped to 1 in 2015 from 6 in 2014 despite nearly 20 percent of facilities audited being new to the process.
There were 3 active cases of underage labor at this single facility. All three underage workers were 15 years old and the minimum age requirement is 16 years of age.
A full chart outlining labor and human rights violations at Apple supplier facilities gives an overall overview of how suppliers are living up to Apple's requirements. Apple has made progress on the prevention of underage labor and the prevention of involuntary labor, but wages and benefits continue to be an area where suppliers are underperforming.
Apple's reports include an environmental component, and in 2015, Apple succeeded in getting 100 percent of identified smelters and refiners in its supply chain to participate in a third-party conflict minerals audit program to ensure suppliers are not financing armed conflict. In an interview with BuzzFeed, Apple operations chief Jeff Williams said achieving that goal required kicking out 35 suppliers that "we were unable to convince to do things in the way we think are appropriate."
Apple also improved conditions in tin mines in Indonesia, which were previously environmentally unsound and unsafe for workers.
In 2015, Apple and the Tin Working Group conducted investigative research on the ground, and worked with civil society organizations and mining companies to define a five-year regulatory reform strategy of tin mining best practices. Together we are also drafting standards and guidelines to help buyers of tin identify responsible sources in the global marketplace.
The Indonesian government is now evolving its own policies for tin production and the environmental impacts of mining.
Over the course of 2015, Apple reduced carbon emissions by 13.8k metric tons and diverted 73.7k metric tons of waste from landfills through a new waste diversion program. Since 2013, 3.8 billion gallons of freshwater have been saved through a Clean Water Program, and 100 percent of chemicals at Apple's final assembly facilities are free of Apple-prohibited substances.
Apple's Supplier Responsibility report is a surprisingly interesting read, with the full document accessible through Apple's dedicated Supplier Responsibility website.
Apple today launched Safari Technology Preview, a new version of its web browser aimed specifically at developers. Safari Technology Preview is aimed at giving developers a way to access new web technologies Apple is planning to implement in iOS and OS X, offering an early look at new developer tools, layout technologies, visual effects, and more.
According to TechCrunch, Apple's goal with Safari Technology Preview is to gather feedback from developers on its browser development ahead of launch through a method that's more easily accessible than WebKit.
Of course, Apple has for a long time offered Nightly builds of WebKit, the open source browser engine that today runs on hundreds of millions of devices and powers Apple's Safari. However, getting access to these builds takes a bit more effort than using the new Safari Technology Preview browser. Instead, with the new browser, its updates are distributed every two weeks by way of the Mac App Store's software update mechanism. That means it's less hassle to run a browser that features the latest advances in web technologies, including HTML, JavaScript, CSS and WebKit.
Safari Technology Preview can be run side-by-side with the existing Safari browser, and it's able to be set as the default browser on a machine. It includes local data stores for history, bookmarks, cookies, and cache, and it supports syncing of browsing history and bookmarks over iCloud. Visually, the Safari Technology Preview icon is designed to resemble the Safari icon, but it is purple in color instead of blue.
The current build of Safari Technology Preview includes several JavaScript improvements, HTML enhancements, and Web Inspector changes:
JavaScript Improvements - ECMAScript 6 support including lexical scoping, iterators, generators, arrow functions, default parameter values and many new built-in APIs - Better standards compliant IndexedDB support with more stability - Included the B3 JavaScript JIT compiler with low-latency, high-throughput that boosts performance - Added the ability to use document.execCommand('copy') and document.execCommand('cut') in response to a user gesture to copy and cut text programmatically
HTML Enhancements - The latest implementation of the Shadow DOM specification - Added support for Content Security Policy Level 2
Web Inspector Changes - Added memory summary and JavaScript allocations timelines - Added a fast JavaScript sampling profiler - Improved JavaScript profiling timeline view
Behavior Changes - Included many web compatibility fixes and bug fixes
Safari Technology Preview can be downloaded immediately from Apple's Developer website and it will receive regular updates through the Mac App Store. While designed for developers, Safari Technology Preview does not require a developer account to download.
T-Mobile has announced that its "Buy One Get One Half Off" promotion returns March 31, offering qualifying Simple Choice customers half off the iPhone SE when they buy a second iPhone SE and add it to a new line of postpaid service. The deal also applies to the iPhone 6/6s, iPhone 6/6s Plus, iPhone 5s, and iPhone 5c. Certified pre-owned iPhones are not eligible for the limited-time offer.
The promotion effectively brings the total cost of two new iPhone SE devices down to $600, compared to $800, plus applicable taxes. The rebate, which must be submitted within 30 days of the purchase of your second eligible iPhone, will be provided in the form of a prepaid MasterCard. T-Mobile will honor the deal for customers who already pre-ordered the iPhone SE since March 24.
Both new iPhones must be purchased through a single T-Mobile account on a JUMP! monthly financing plan, and one of the new devices must be on a new line of service. The account must remain in good standing, and the second iPhone must remain in service until at least July 15, 2016. The BOGO offer cannot be combined with T-Mobile's JUMP! On Demand early upgrade program, but customers can switch.
AT&T, Verizon, or Sprint customers can combine the offer with Carrier Freedom promotion, which provides those who switch to T-Mobile up to $650 towards a balance owing or to pay off early termination fees (ETFs) with an eligible device trade-in. Other T-Mobile perks include Binge On for unlimited streaming of select video services, Music Freedom for unlimited streaming of select music services, Data Stash, and Mobile Without Borders.