A U.S. federal appeals court has ruled that Apple was entitled to an injunction on multiple Samsung products that a lower court ruled to be infringing on the iPhone maker's patented technologies in an early 2014 trial.
As noted by Bloomberg, the ruling sets an important precedent, since it could have an impact on how damages are awarded in future trials involving patented inventions from large technology companies such as Apple, Samsung and Google.
The decision could have far-reaching consequences in how disputes are resolved when it comes to complex devices. The ability to block use of an invention is a powerful tool that increases the price tag when negotiating settlements.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington echoed that in its ruling:
“The right to exclude competitors from using one’s property rights is important,” the Federal Circuit ruled in a 2-1 decision. “And the right to maintain exclusivity -- a hallmark and crucial guarantee of patent rights deriving from the Constitution itself -— is likewise important.”
In May 2014, a jury in the lower court Apple vs. Samsung trial found that Samsung willfully infringed on three of the five patents involved in the lawsuit, related to technologies including slide to unlock and data syncing. Samsung was ordered to pay Apple a settlement of $119.6 million.
Samsung informed the appeals court in March that only one of its products currently for sale infringes upon a single Apple patent, so any potential injunction would not have much of an impact on the South Korean company's bottom line. Nevertheless, Samsung is in the process of appealing the lower court decision before the U.S. Federal Circuit.
Universal today launched the second official trailer for the upcoming Steve Jobs movie, directed by Danny Boyle and starring Michael Fassbender (via Coming Soon). Set backstage at three of Jobs' biggest product launches, the movie aims to showcase the personality of the former Apple CEO through some of the most intense and public moments of his life.
The film also stars Seth Rogen, Kate Winslet, and Jeff Daniels as Steve Wozniak, Joanna Hoffman, and John Sculley, respectively. Since initial rumors began on the movie's production four years ago, it's faced multiple changes in directors and lead actors for the role of Steve Jobs.
The movie debuted last week at the Telluride Film Festival to nearly-universal positive acclaim, with some calling it "thrilling" and Steve Wozniak himself noting its accuracy to real life events. The movie will next make its premiere as the Centerpiece for the New York Film Festival before debuting in limited release on October 9, and going wide on October 16.
Amazon today announced the follow-up to last year's Fire TV streaming device, simply dubbed "The New Amazon Fire TV." The new $99 box is getting a handful of new features, including 4K ultra HD video streaming, the addition of the company's Alexa voice assistant into the operating system, and a processing boost of 75 percent over last year's model.
The introduction of Alexa will allow customers to play their music, check on the score of a sporting event, and see how the weather is outside, all while using their voice. Speaking into the Fire TV remote will bring the voice assistant up -- who made her debut in the Amazon Echo last fall -- and she will eventually become more acclimated to each customer's speech patterns, vocabulary, and personal preferences.
In addition to 4K ultra HD streaming, the company promises higher quality basic HD video for everyone who doesn't have a television set that supports 4K settings. Amazon has also introduced expandable storage, allowing customers to increase the 8GB of on-device storage all the way up to 128GB for a variety of apps and games.
“The team has packed an incredible amount of technology and innovation into a tiny package,” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com Founder and CEO. “The new Fire TV includes 4K support, more processing power, Alexa integration, the largest selection, and exclusive features—for less than $100. The new Fire TV Stick with Voice Remote brings voice search and Alexa integration for less than $50. These are powerful devices at incredible prices.”
Concerning games specifically, the company also announced an entirely new Amazon Fire TV Gaming Edition, which is essentially today's newly announced Fire TV bundled alongside the new Fire TV Gaming Controller, a 32GB microSD card, and Shovel Knight and Disney's Ducktales pre-installed. The new gaming controller includes voice commands and search like the traditional Fire TV remote, plus access to Alexa, up to 90 hours of battery life that use AA batteries, and an audio headphone jack.
With a launch date of October 5, both bundles of the new Fire TV can be pre-ordered beginning today, with the traditional Amazon Fire TV retailing at $99 and the Amazon Fire TV Gaming Edition going for $139. The company also introduced a new bundle of the Fire TV Stick for $49 that now includes the voice remote, which will begin shipping on October 22.
Best Buy has accepted Apple Pay for in-app payments since April, and now the U.S. electronics retailer has begun rolling out the iPhone-based mobile payments service in stores.
A new YouTube video and Reddit thread confirm customers making successful debit and credit card purchases using both Apple Pay and Android Pay at separate Best Buy stores in California.
Best Buy is now permitted to support Apple Pay, Android Pay and other NFC payment services after its three-year exclusivity period with payment consortium Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX) expired in August. MCX has developed its own mobile payments service called CurrentC, which some retailers began testing in August but may not see a broad launch until 2016.
Best Buy has not officially announced Apple Pay availability at its U.S. retail chain, but the company did confirm in April that it would roll out in-store support later in 2015. Best Buy joins Rite Aid, Meijer and other retailers as MCX members that now accept Apple Pay, but others such as Walmart have no plans to support the service.
The Apple Watch will officially launch in Belgium this Saturday on September 19, after previously being given a vague "available in 2015" launch date (via Apple Weetjes). The release of the Apple Watch will also coincide with the grand opening of Apple's newest retail location in Brussels, the first one ever in Belgium, which will see its grand opening on that day.
Photo of the new Brussels Apple Store via Niewsblad.be
In Belgium, the Apple Watch Sport models will sell for €419.00 (38mm) and €469.00 (42mm), while the mid-tier Apple Watch line will cost customers €669.00 (38mm) and €719.00 (42mm).
When first introduced back in April, the Apple Watch was restricted to Apple's own retail stores and select boutique locations. Ever since, Apple has been slowly expanding the availability of the Apple Watch, with not only cell carriers offering the wearable device but new retail chains across the world.
T-Mobile has announced the expansion of its Simple Global coverage to an additional 20 countries to now cover all of Europe and South America. Simple Global is now available in the Bahamas and 145 total countries worldwide, covering more than 90% of the areas that Americans travel abroad each year.
Simple Global provides Simple Choice postpaid customers with unlimited low-speed data and texting at no extra cost, and flat-rate calls for 20 cents per minute, outside of the United States. It is complemented by Mobile Without Borders, which allows full talk, text and 4G LTE data usage in Canada and Mexico at no extra cost.
“We’ve just made your traveling even easier in 20 more destinations around the world, expanding Simple Global to cover all of Europe and all of South America,” said John Legere, president and CEO of T-Mobile. “The carriers have made billions overcharging consumers who just want to stay connected overseas, and we’ve changed all that! Today, we made it even simpler to text, search or keep up on social media in a total of 145 countries and destinations, all at no extra cost!”
Simple Global is now available in these additional countries and destinations:
Caribbean: Bahamas, Haiti
Europe: Albania, Belarus, Bosnia, Liechtenstein, Macedonia, Monaco, Montenegro, Serbia, Slovenia, Guernsey, Alderney, Jersey, Sark, Isle of Man
Others: Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan
Simple Global provides a standard data speed of 128 Kbps. No tethering is allowed.
Update: Sprint has also added 33 new countries to Open World, which provides free calling and texting in certain countries and free texting, calls for 20 cents per minute and high-speed data for $30/GB in other countries. The new destinations are listed here and the full list can be found here.
Honda on Wednesday at YouTube Space LA introduced the redesigned 2016 Civic with CarPlay and Android Auto support. The tenth-generation sedan will be the second Honda vehicle to support CarPlay alongside the 2016 Accord as the Japanese car maker continues its 2016 vehicle rollout.
Apple has listed Honda as a CarPlay partner on its website for quite some time, but the car maker waited until its 2016 lineup to introduce the iPhone-based dashboard system. GM is also supporting CarPlay and Android Auto in 2016 across its Chevrolet, Cadillac, Corvette, Buick and GMC vehicle brands.
CarPlay connects to iPhone and provides hands-free or eyes-free access to Maps, Phone, Messages, Music, Podcasts and third-party apps such as Spotify, Rdio, iHeartRadio, CBS Radio and MLB At Bat. The in-dash software uses Siri and also interfaces with your vehicle's knobs, dials and buttons.
While T-Mobile CEO John Legere announced last week that the carrier would begin selling the Apple Watch he did not provide a specific release date. MacRumors has learned that T-Mobile will begin selling the Apple Watch on September 25. Additionally, 9to5Macreports that Sprint will also start selling the device on the same day.
With the iPhone 6s and 6 Plus launching on September 25, it's likely carriers want the ability to sell Apple's smartwatch as an accessory to the Cupertino company's new flagship smartphones. While it's unknown whether Verizon and AT&T will also sell Apple Watch on September 25, it's possible they will also sell the device.
Since launching in April, the Apple Watch has slowly been expanding to retailers like Best Buy in the U.S. and other countries. Initially, Apple Watch was limited to Apple Stores and select retail boutiques.
In iOS 9, some of the best features are the ones that aren't readily visible. iOS 9 has several under-the-hood updates that boost battery life, improve security, and cut down on the amount of storage space iOS updates and apps use on iPhones and iPads.
Even disregarding all of the consumer facing features, these quiet improvements make the upgrade to iOS 9 from iOS 8 or iOS 7 well worth it on all supported devices: the iPhone 4s and up, the iPad 2 and up, and all iPad mini models.
Battery Life
With operating system optimizations, Apple is able to eke out an additional hour of battery life on iPhones under normal usage conditions. One of these improvements, for example, pertains to the iPhone's ambient light and proximity sensor. When the iPhone is placed facedown, it now detects that the screen isn't visible, so an incoming notification does not light up the screen.
There's also a new Low Power Mode on the iPhone that can add another three hours of battery life by cutting down on battery-draining features. Low Power Mode turns off automatic Mail fetch, disables background app refresh, disables motion effects, and disables animated wallpapers.
Low Power mode also throttles the performance of the iPhone so it drains less power. Benchmark testing suggests Low Power mode reduces an iPhone's performance by about 40 percent to cut down on power usage.
Security
iOS 9 prompts users to create 6-digit passcodes instead of 4-digit passcodes for additional security. It's still possible to create a 4-digit passcode, but Apple recommends a 6-digit code because it adds one million possible combinations instead of 10,000, making a passcode harder to crack. Two-factor authentication support is also enhanced in iOS 9.
Installation Size
With iOS 9, Apple's cut way down on the installation size, so far less free space is required to download the new update. While iOS required 4.58 GB of space to install, iOS 9 requires only 1.3 GB of space to install, making it more accessible to users who have 16 GB iOS devices.
For devices that still don't have enough space to install the iOS 9 update, Apple has a new auto app delete/reinstall feature. When attempting to install iOS 9 on a device with insufficient space, there's a popup that offers to temporarily delete some apps in order to make room for the update. Apps that are deleted are then reinstalled and replaced after the operating system update is completed.
App Thinning
Apps from third-party developers also require less installation space thanks to a feature called App Thinning. With App Thinning, apps can be optimized for specific devices, allowing them to take up less space on iOS devices.
An app for the iPhone doesn't need all of the iPad assets, so those won't be downloaded. That means faster installs, faster launch times, and more storage space left for other apps and content.
App Thinning also includes on-demand resources like image and sound files, which can be downloaded only when needed. The imagery for later levels in a game, for example, might not be downloaded until it's necessary.
Metal
Apps in iOS 9 take advantage of Metal, making more efficient use of the CPU and GPU for faster scrolling, smoother animations, and better performance. Email, messages, web pages, and PDFs all render faster.
The iPhone 6s and the iPhone 6s Plus have a new screen technology called 3D Touch, allowing the devices to support new gestures that are based on pressure, as well as touch. 3D Touch works through capacitive sensors embedded in the backlight of the devices, measuring microscopic changes in the distance between the glass cover of the display and the backlight, combining signals from the touch sensor and the accelerometer to respond to finger pressure.
Because of the way 3D Touch operates, there was some speculation that screen protectors might not work with the new devices, but Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller appears to have confirmed in an email to 3D Techtronics that screen protectors that comply with Apple's design guidelines will work with 3D Touch. "Yes. screen overlays that follow our guidelines will continue to work with 3D Touch," Schiller wrote.
Apple's design guidelines for iPhone cases say any screen overlay must be electrically conductive, must not exceed 0.3mm in thickness, and must not introduce air gaps between the touchscreen.
There are several Apple-approved screen protectors that are available for purchase from the online Apple Store and through Apple's retail locations, including products from companies like Tech21, Belkin, and 3M. Because the iPhone 6s and the iPhone 6s plus are similar in size to the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, it's likely these screen protectors will fit Apple's newest devices, but customers concerned about fit should wait for confirmation from the manufacturers.
Apple's iPhone 6s and 6s Plus with 3D Touch are currently available for pre-order from Apple's online store and in Apple retail stores. The two new iPhones will officially launch on September 25.
Apple has purchased mapping startup Mapsense, reports Re/code. Mapsense is a San Francisco-based startup that's able to sort through massive geotagged datasets to create quick geographical visualizations of location-based data points that can be embedded into apps.
According to its website, Mapsense built a cloud-based high-speed mapping engine that could ingest and index huge amounts of data with "lightning fast" search and filtering and simple visual analysis tools.
There are over 10 billion devices on the planet streaming location data on a daily basis. While collecting location data has become mainstream, the traditional tools to visualize, understand, and harness it have been hampered by the speed and scale of this massive and complex new datasource. Mapsense's platform and developer tools help organizations quickly ingest and analyze billions of rows of location data to make more intelligent, locally targeted business decisions across the organization.
Apple is said to have paid between $25 and $30 million for Mapsense, and its 12-person team will join Apple. Apple confirmed the acquisition to Re/code with its standard acquisition statement: "Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans."
It is not clear what Apple will use the Mapsense technology for, but this is just one of a long line of mapping companies Apple has purchased to improve its Maps app. Over the past several years, Apple has purchased companies like HopStop, Coherent Navigation, Locationary, WifiSLAM, Embark, and Broadmap.
Apple's iPhone video editing app iMovie was today updated to version 2.2, a major update that adds several new features to make the app compatible with features in the new iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, and iPad Pro.
iMovie now supports 4K videos on the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, allowing 4K video captured by the two devices to be edited within the app. The app has also gained support for 3D Touch, with a new Quick Action gesture that lets users start a new movie directly from the iPhones Home screen.
For the iPad Pro, performance improvements allow the simultaneous editing of multiple 4K video streams. On stage, Apple said the iPad Pro could edit three 4K video streams at one time. There's also an enhanced interface for the iPad Pro with a full-height Media Browser and pixel-for-pixel 1080 HD Viewer.
There are several other design and performance improvements in the updated iMovie app, which are included in the full list of changes below.
- Create and share movies at stunning 4K resolution (3840 x 2160) on compatible iOS devices - Create and share movies with 1080p HD video at 60 frames per second for smoother, more true-to-life action - Use 3D Touch on iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus to quickly start a new movie right from the Home Screen - Desktop-class performance on iPad Pro with the ability to edit multiple streams of 4K video and use shortcuts with the Smart Keyboard - Enhanced interface on iPad Pro with full-height Media Browser and pixel-for-pixel 1080 HD Viewer - Connect a keyboard and use simple shortcuts to edit movies quickly - Option to hide Media Browser while editing a movie - Option to disable Ken Burns animation on a photo - Redesigned Project Details view lets you watch movies and trailers before opening them - Redesigned Video view lets you see more of your library while browsing videos and photos on iPad - Improved Inspector controls with easy-to-read text labels on iPad - Support for Slide Over and Split View when multitasking with the iMovie Extension for Photos - Redesigned Audio browser in the iMovie Extension lets you easily browse and hear music - Performance and stability improvements - Support for Canadian French, Hindi, and Traditional Chinese (Hong Kong)
The new device-specific iMovie features will be available on the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus when those devices launch next week, and they'll be available on the iPad Pro when it launches in November.
iMovie for iOS can be downloaded from the App Store for $4.99. [Direct Link]
iOS 9 focuses on intelligence and proactivity, giving iOS devices the tools to learn user habits and act on that information. In iOS 9, our iPhones and iPads can open up apps right when we need them, make recommendations on places we might like, and guide us through our daily lives through improvements to search and Siri.
Through a set of Proactive features, iOS 9 is able to offer up app suggestions and other information based on the way you use your iPhone or iPad. For example, if you often listen to music in the morning, iOS 9 will offer up the Music app on the lock screen when you plug in your headphones. If you always open the weather app to check what's going on outside, it might be presented as a suggestion each morning.
When heading home from work in the evening, iOS 9's Proactive features might bring up a map that includes traffic patterns, or tell you how long it will take to get home. When getting in the car, if you listen to a specific music app, it might open automatically when the car connects to Bluetooth.
Proactive suggestions are also available within apps. When creating an email or composing a message to a friend, iOS 9 will suggest people you typically include, making it easy to get things done fast. If you get an email with a flight reservation or restaurant confirmation, iOS 9 can suggest and then create a calendar event. With calendar events that include location, iOS 9 is able to assess traffic conditions and send a reminder when it thinks you should leave to make it on time.
Siri
Siri is also able to do a lot more in iOS 9 because the personal assistant has contextual awareness. For example, when asking Siri to "Remind me to do this" when looking at a request in the Messages app, Siri will understand what "This" refers to, providing the correct response. In the Reminders app, the Reminder created by Siri will link back to that original conversation, so the source is apparent.
Siri is also more aware of location, so specific location-based reminders like "Call mom when I get in the car" are available. For photos and videos, Siri is able to perform time-based searches. Ask Siri to "Show my photos from Utah from last August" and images that fit the criteria will appear. Siri is able to search based on dates, location, and album titles.
Siri Suggestions
Swiping right on the Home screen brings up a new Spotlight search interface that includes "Siri Suggestions." Siri Suggestions includes a list of people you speak with often, apps you might want to use depending on the time of day, nearby venues like restaurants and gas stations, and relevant news.
Suggestions offered through this interface will change based on the time of day and each user's iOS usage habits. If you open Yelp at lunchtime, it might display the Yelp app at noon. If you watch Netflix at night, it might display the Netflix app when you get home from work.
Search
Search in iOS 9 includes an expanded list of sources, which are available whenever a text-based search is made or a voice-based search through Siri. Sports scores and schedules, weather forecasts, and stock prices are all available, as are simple calculations and conversions. A search for 15% of $25, for example, will bring up the correct result.
Search extends to content within apps in iOS 9. When looking for a recipe, for example, you might search for "apple pie" to find apple pie recipes across several different cooking apps. Developers need to build support for search into their apps, so not all apps will show up. In the Search section of the Settings app, you can customize which apps will show up in search results.
With all of these new features, iOS 9 will learn more about usage habits over time to create a unique experience that's tailored towards the specific needs of each individual user. Proactive suggestions will improve as time goes on and the operating system gets used to the way you like to use your iPhone or iPad.
HomeKit officially became available in June, with the launch of the first HomeKit-compatible products, but as we've highlighted in reviews, Apple's home automation platform is still in need of some work to make it a viable choice for most users.
With iOS 9, Apple is debuting several new HomeKit features that have the potential to significantly improve the way it works, by simplifying some of the setup process broadening supported device types, and introducing key automation features to cut down on user interaction.
Setup
Setting up HomeKit devices isn't difficult, but it does require users to enter a unique HomeKit identifier to pair with an iPhone. In iOS 9, Apple will support scanning the code with the camera, shaving some time off of the setup process. Information displayed during the setup process, like icons, brand names, and images, is also improved, making the process somewhat more streamlined.
Scenes
With HomeKit, one of the most confusing and time consuming things to set up are scenes, which allow several devices to work in unison at a specific command. For example, when arriving home, one might want a scene that turns on the air conditioner and turns on the lights, a task that can be accomplished with a Siri command like "Turn on the Home scene."
Scenes are useful, but their setup in iOS 8 is not always clear, especially to users who are new to HomeKit. In iOS 9, scenes are more straightforward because developers can add four pre-defined scenes to apps designed to work with their HomeKit-enabled devices. Pre-defined scenes include Getting Up, Leaving Home, Returning Home, and Going to Bed, and will walk users through setting up their devices for each occasion. Siri will automatically recognize these scenes, so Siri response to Scene queries should improve.
iOS 9 brings a long-awaited Split-Screen multitasking feature to the iPad for the first time, letting users operate two apps simultaneously and bolstering the productivity capabilities of Apple's tablet lineup. There are three different multitasking features that are available on various iPad models: Slide Over, Split View, and Picture in Picture.
Slide Over can be activated within any app by swiping left from the right side of the iPad to bring up a small side pane that displays a secondary app alongside the first app. Slide Over takes up 1/3 of the space, and any app that has built-in multitasking support will appear in the side pane. Swiping downwards on the Slide Over window from the top of the iPad screen will allow you to switch between apps.
Slide Over is not a full multitasking experience because both apps are not active at once. When the side pane is open, the app that's taking up most of the screen is paused and relegated to the background. Slide Over can be used in portrait or landscape mode and is useful for answering a quick message or looking something up in Safari while using another app.
Apple News is an all-new app on iOS 9 that aggregates stories from several sources into one mobile-friendly format for reading on iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. The app is very similar to existing news apps such as Flipboard and Zine, displaying a list of news articles and personalized stories based on publications that interest you.
International readers should note that Apple News is currently available in the U.S. only.
Apple allows publishers of all sizes to sign up to be included on Apple News using News Publisher, ranging from traditional publications such as The New York Times, CNN, ESPN, The Atlantic, The Daily Mail and Slate to independent blogs such as MacRumors, TouchArcade and Daring Fireball.
Alongside the launch of iOS 9, Apple today introduced a new "Move to iOS" app for Android devices. The app, which is now available for download, is designed to help Android users transfer their content from an Android device to an iOS device.
With Move to iOS installed on an Android smartphone or tablet, the Move to iOS service is able to transfer almost all important data from the Android device to the new iOS device, including contacts, message history, photos and videos, web bookmarks, mail account information, calendars, wallpapers, DRM-free songs, and books.
Using Move to iOS also helps users transfer over their apps to rebuild their app libraries. On the Android device, the app will compile a list of all the apps that have been downloaded from the Google Play Store or other sources. All free apps that have iOS counterparts will be suggested as immediate downloads, while apps that have paid iOS counterparts will be automatically added to a user's iTunes Wish List for purchase as needed.
Apple has created a support document that walks Android users through using the Move to iOS app. It requires Android 4.0 or later, a Wi-Fi connection, and enough available space on the iOS device receiving content.
First announced at WWDC, Move to iOS is Apple's most aggressive move towards encouraging Android users to switch to iPhone. By making it easy to transfer content, Apple is removing a lot of the headache associated with changing platforms. Apple has had a support document and a microsite designed to help Android users switch to iOS for quite some time, but this new app is a more comprehensive, streamlined solution.
Apple has made the Notes app a lot more useful on iOS 9 by integrating it with several other stock apps, including Photos, Mail, Maps and Safari. In addition to traditional note-taking, users can now create checklists, draw sketches and insert photos, videos, links, maps, Pages documents and other attachments into notes.
You can now create a checklist in the Notes app by selecting lines of text and tapping on the checkmark button above the keyboard. Each list item will then have a circular bullet next to that can be marked as completed, which is convenient for grocery lists, wish lists, to-do lists and so forth.
Apple has also added formatting options in Notes for adjusting the size and weight of text, including Heading, Body, Checklist, Bulleted List and Dashed Line. Anyone that has ever used text formatting in Pages, Microsoft Word or virtually any other word processing program should be familiar with this feature.
A U.S. federal appeals court has ruled that Apple was entitled to an injunction on multiple Samsung products that a lower court ruled to be infringing on the iPhone maker's patented technologies in an early 2014 trial.
Best Buy has 
Apple's iPhone video editing app iMovie was today updated to version 2.2, a major update that adds several new features to make the app compatible with features in the new iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, and iPad Pro.
