MacRumors

Following a lengthy beta testing period, VideoLAN has announced that its VLC app is now available for the fourth-generation Apple TV on the tvOS App Store.

The app is a full port of the VLC media player and supports virtually all video formats in line with the VLC for iOS app. There are also many tvOS-specific features.

- Content Discovery: The app automatically discovers video files stored on your local network, using the SMB, UPnP media server, FTP and PLEX protocols. You can browse through videos with the Siri Remote and select content for playback. During playback, subtitles can be added from OpenSubtitles.org.

- Saved Logins: Login credentials can be securely stored on the Apple TV and will be synchronized to and from your iPhone and iPad.

- Remote Playback: VLC displays an IP address under the Remote Playback menu on Apple TV. This address can be typed into your computer's web browser, and an interface will pop up allowing you to drag and drop a file to play it on your TV remotely.

You can drag and drop multiple files to queue them. The files will remain available locally on the Apple TV until its internal storage is maxed out. The web interface can be used for remote play, pause and seeking.

For playback of a network stream URL on your TV, just paste it to the field and push return. Once playback concludes, you will find it in the Network Stream view for future use. Like for files, you can send multiple URLs rows in a row and they will be attached to the playback queue.

- Playback: VLC for the Apple TV supports basic play, pause and seek controls. You can navigate the app by chapter and titles or select from multiple audio and subtitles tracks. Other features include custom playback speed and hatchet.is integration for artist imagery and biographies.

VLC is currently beta testing Apple TV support for cloud services Dropbox, OneDrive and Box. The feature will be available in the near future.

Following rumors claiming that iPhones will adopt OLED displays in less than three years, Taiwanese website Focus Taiwan cites local media reports stating that Apple is planning to invest in AMOLED display supplier AU Optronics.

According to the reports, Apple is likely to transform AUO into an active-matrix organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED) screen supplier for production of future iPhones, and if AUO agrees with Apple's fund injection plan, the Taiwanese firm could see its sales and gross margin grow significantly.

AU Optronics declined to comment on its potential investment deal with Apple, but the supplier's shares of the company gained 5.15% on Tuesday to close at NT$9.53 on the Taiwanese stock market amid the rumors.

AU Optronics, which has supplied LCD panels to Apple in the past, has reportedly been developing AMOLED displays for more than a decade, and last year it began shipping AMOLED panels to Huawei and other Chinese manufacturers. Apple currently uses LCD panels for iPhones, sourced primarily from Sharp and Japan Display.

Last month, it was reported that Apple has been recruiting talent from AU Optronics and Qualcomm to work at a Taiwanese factory, where the company is purportedly developing thinner, lighter and brighter displays for future Apple devices. The secretive lab may be specifically focused on OLED and Micro-LED technologies.

Samsung, LG and Japan Display have also been rumored to provide Apple with OLED displays for iPhones starting in 2018.

OLED displays typically have brighter colors and deeper blacks, and the lack of a backlight increases power efficiency, but the panels can also have shorter lifespans and higher manufacturing costs compared to LCD technology. Apple has reportedly been consulting with OLED panel makers to eliminate potential drawbacks.

Samsung is the most popular smartphone maker that uses AMOLED displays, while the Apple Watch became Apple's first AMOLED device last April.

In an interview with the BBC, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said it is an "open secret" that Apple is developing an electric car. Musk made the statement when asked if he had heard anything about Apple's car development plans and went on to highlight the huge number of hires Apple has made as evidence.

"Well, it's pretty hard to hide something if you hire over a thousand engineers to do it," he said, before adding that he believed Apple was serious about the project. "This is an open secret."

Musk went on to say Tesla welcomes participation by any company that wants to create electric vehicles, but he cautioned that it's "quite hard to do." He brushed off the interviewer's question of whether an Apple car would be a threat to Tesla, and said that he believes Apple will develop a "compelling" electric car because "it seems like the obvious thing to do."

"Tesla will still aspire to make the most compelling electric vehicles, and that would be our goal, while at the same helping other companies to make electric cars as well."

Musk is aware of Apple's hiring efforts because Apple has made an effort to hire former Tesla employees for its car project. The two companies have developed something of a rivalry as they compete for talent, leading Musk to take a jab at Apple in an October interview, saying "If you don't make it at Tesla, you go work at Apple," a statement he later retracted.

The first rumors surrounding Apple's car project, allegedly codenamed "Project Titan," surfaced in early 2015. Since then, Apple has recruited dozens of engineers and researchers from the automotive industry and other car-related fields, poaching employees from companies like Tesla, Ford, GM, Chrysler, Volkswagen, Samsung, and more.

Over the past few months, there's been a growing body of evidence pointing towards work on a car. Apple sought out a secure testing facility for testing electric vehicles in May of 2015, and met with DMV officials to discuss the laws and regulations surrounding self-driving vehicles in California in September. Most recently, Apple registered three auto-related top-level domain names, including apple.car, apple.cars, and apple.auto.

Little is known about Apple's car project, but the company is rumored to be working on an electric vehicle. Rumors have disagreed on the topic of autonomy, but the most recent information suggests that while Apple is exploring self-driving technology, it is a feature that may come in a later version of the Apple Car.

Over the weekend, The Telegraph published a questionable rumor suggesting Apple was planning to develop a tool to help iPhone users switch to Android to appease major European telecoms operators. Citing a "senior industry source," the site said Apple had agreed to create a feature that would let customers transfer contacts, music, and photos from an iPhone to an Android device.

The rumor gained enough traction to prompt Apple to step in and make a statement to Buzzfeed, clarifying that no iPhone to Android switching tool is under development.

"There is no truth to this rumor," Apple spokesperson Trudy Muller said in a statement to BuzzFeed News. "We are entirely focused on switching users from Android to iPhone, and that is going great."

As the Apple spokesperson says, Apple has been working hard to encourage Android users to switch to iPhone over the past few months, making the development of a tool to encourage the opposite nonsensical.

In September, Apple launched a "Move to iOS" app to make it easier for Android users to switch to an iPhone, and before that, the company debuted a trade-in program that allows Android users to trade in their Android-based devices to receive a gift card towards the purchase of an iPhone.

Apple's efforts have been successful, and Apple often shares details on the sizable number of Android users that have switched to the iPhone. During Apple's October earnings call, Apple CEO Tim Cook said that 30 percent customers who purchased an iPhone and replaced a smartphone in Q4 2015 had switched from an Android device.

Apple's iOS 9.2.1 update is still in testing, but that didn't stop the company from surprising us with an iOS 9.3 beta this morning. The iOS 9.3 beta is one of the biggest updates to iOS 9 yet, introducing a new Night Shift feature and improving several existing apps, including Notes, Apple News, Health, CarPlay, and more.

We've gathered up a full list of the changes and new features in iOS 9.3, to give MacRumors readers a clear picture of what they can expect to see when iOS 9.3 is released to the public.

Night Shift - Night Shift is a new feature that's designed to automatically cut down on the amount of blue light an iOS user is exposed to at night by shifting to more yellow tones for the iPhone or iPad's display. Studies have suggested blue light exposure at night can disrupt the circadian rhythm, making it more difficult to fall asleep.

Night Shift settings are available in the "Display & Brightness" section of the Settings app. In this section, there's a new option to toggle on Night Shift and set the display to be Less Warm or More Warm. A Schedule option lets users set a custom schedule or choose to turn on Night Shift from sunset to sunrise.

iOS 9.3 beta 2 included a Night Shift Control Center option, which was refined over the course of the beta testing period. Night Shift is denoted by an icon featuring a moon inside of a sun, and tapping on the icon turns Night Shift on until sunrise or turns it off until sunset. Night Shift does not work with Low Power Mode.

Verizon Wi-Fi Calling - iOS 9.3 includes Wi-Fi calling support for Verizon users, allowing them to place calls over Wi-Fi when cellular connectivity is poor.

iBooks - The purchased tab within the iBooks app has been revamped, including a deeper breakdown of books between different genres. It also now supports audiobooks, and purchased audiobooks are included alongside standard e-books in the "Automatic Download" section of the Settings app.

Quick Actions - On the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, there are new 3D Touch Quick Actions for several of the stock apps, including Weather, Settings, Compass, and Health. Weather's Quick Actions allow you to see the weather at your current location or for saved locations in the app. Settings includes useful shortcuts for accessing Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Battery, and Wallpaper options. Health's Quick Actions provide access to the Medical ID or a user's dashboard, while Compass now features options to open directly to the compass or the level.

There are also new Quick Action options for the App Store and iTunes Store apps. For the App Store app, Quick Actions now include "Update All" to update all apps at once from the Home screen, and "Purchased" for opening up to a list of all purchased apps. For the iTunes Store, new options include "View Downloads" and "Purchased."

In the App Store app, there are Peek and Pop gestures that can be used to preview apps from the main App Store view. Using a Peek gesture on an app in the Featured, Top Charts, or Explore section brings up a preview of the app and a full Pop gesture will open the app preview page.

Notes - There's a new option to use Touch ID or a password to protect notes within the Notes app. With this enabled, Notes will ask for either the user's password or a fingerprint when opening Notes that have been protected with a password. Password Protection for Notes can be set on a note-by-note basis within the Notes app. There are also new options in Settings to organize notes by Date Edited, Date Created, or Title.

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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.

What's new in tvOS 9.2:

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.