MacRumors

Skype today announced a new update for both its iOS and Android mobile apps that introduce a new design experience, a few tweaks to the service's messaging functions, and some enhanced search functionality. The new update, version 6.0, promises to be a "simple, familiar" experience for Skype users, but with a bevy of new features and touch inputs that will help the service's users get in and out of conversations with more ease.

The company has introduced swipe gestures to do just that, letting users quickly start calls and manage message threads with quick and easy right and left swipes. The message feature as a whole has been bolstered, with easier access to sharing photos, links, emoticons, and even location status while also on a video or voice call. Along with enhanced search and improvements to the iPad app, version 6.0 aims to be the most robust iOS Skype experience yet.

Here is what’s new:

Redesigned for iPhone and iPad – We’ve redesigned Skype for both iPhone and iPad to make the apps easier to use than ever before. The new navigation is simple, familiar and gets you to your conversations fast. With Skype 6.0 you can use swipe gestures to quickly make calls and easily manage your messages. We have also made it easier to share photos, web links, emoticons and your location while you’re on a voice or video call.

Enhanced search – We’ve made it easier to find things in Skype. Simply use the new recents tab to search your messages and find contacts and groups.

The features you love, now on iPad – All the features you love on Skype for iPhone are on your iPad too. We’ve made messaging on Skype for iPad a whole lot better – you can share your location, send large emoticons, see web link previews and easily send and receive photos. Skype for iPad also helps you stay in touch with your groups – now start a group chat or a group voice call straight from your iPad.

Skype for Android sees a handful of the same featured updates in its own overhaul, but has a few exclusive features -- like an ever-present "floating action button" to instantly start a call from anywhere in the app -- that Android users can check out here. For everyone else, the Skype for iPhone [Direct Link] and Skype for iPad [Direct Link] apps are available to download from the App Store for free.

Griffin today announced an expansion of its popular Survivor case lineup for the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, introducing the new Survivor Summit and the Survivor Journey. Like its existing Survivor cases, both the Summit and the Journey offer military grade protection for Apple's iPhones.

The Survivor Summit is Griffin's most protective Survivor case yet, featuring a sealed weatherproof design that's resistant to dust, rain, mud, and snow. It includes a screen shield that both serves as a stand and protects the touchscreen and home button from grime.

With rubber bumpers and a built-in impact resistance system that suspends and cushions the iPhone within the case, the Summit can survive 10-foot drops onto concrete. According to Griffin, despite the high level of protection, the Summit is "slim enough to easily slide into pockets."

The Survivor Journey is not as protective as the Survivor Summit, but it's thinner and sleeker. Described by Griffin as "ultra-thin, ultra-tough," the Journey is a one piece snap-on shell that deflects and absorbs impacts to survive a 6.6 foot drop onto concrete.

The Journey includes Griffin's "Impact Dispersion System" that includes multiple layers, housing the iPhone inside a rigid, shatterproof shell coated in a material that's easy to grip.

Survivor Summit and Journey take our best-selling case line to a whole new level with sleek, slim designs that continue to offer the extreme protection users have grown to love from our Survivor cases," said Aaron Jones, Survivor Category Manager at Griffin Technology.

The Survivor Summit is available from Griffin.com in black/blue, black/clear, black, and pink/gray. It's priced at $49.99 for the iPhone 6 and $59.99 for the iPhone 6 Plus.

The Survivor Journey is available from Griffin.com in black/blue, black/white, black/gray, and pink/gray. It's priced at $29.99 for the iPhone 6 and $39.99 for the iPhone 6 Plus.

Apple is believed to have sold over over 1.07 million Apple Watches in China, according to data analysis company TalkingData (via Business Insider). The company uses a monitoring platform supported by over 80,000 mobile apps -- including the country's most popular app WeChat, with over 1 billion registered users -- to receive its data.

Many remain curious as to how many Apple Watches the company has sold specifically, but Apple continues to remain firm on not assigning a tangible number to the sales figures of its new wearable device. After a few weeks of speculation, in July CEO Tim Cook gave the closest hint to the success of the Apple Watch, stating that its sales had "exceeded expectations" at the company.

Also of note today is a new report from Japan Display Inc. CEO Mitsuru Homma, who stated that the display manufacturer's "biggest client" is ramping up orders ahead of an upcoming launch for the unnamed company's newest smartphone (via Reuters). JPI has been known to work with Apple in the past, and was reported earlier in the year to be seeking a partnership with the Cupertino company in becoming its go-to manufacturer for iPhone screens with a $1.7 billion display plant.

Mitsuru Homma, who was appointed CEO in June, said weakness in China's smartphone market, the world's biggest, amid that country's broader economic slowdown was not affecting the orders for display screens it was getting from its top client.

"They're coming to us with more orders, saying 'give us more, give us more'. They keep increasing," he told Reuters in an interview.

Homma fielded questions about "difficult technology" causing production stalls in the manufacturing process -- most likely this year's inclusion of Force Touch -- but he still believes that "ramp-up is going well." The big reveal of the "iPhone 6s" and "iPhone 6s Plus" is just under a week away on September 9. The latest rumors point to a slightly thicker and larger "S" generation device, with the possibility of Apple Watch-like motion wallpapers and a slightly overhauled iOS thanks to the addition of Force Touch.

Philips today expanded its Hue lighting lineup with the launch of the Philips Hue Lightstrip Plus, which adds new white lighting options to the colorful mood lighting introduced with the original Philips Hue Lightstrip.

Like the first LightStrip, the new Lightstrip Plus is a two-meter LED-studded adhesive-backed strip that can be used behind televisions, under desks, and more, as mood lighting within the home. The new Lightstrip Plus is an enhanced version of the Lightstrip, adding brighter, tunable white light in addition to the 16 million color options of the original.

As an indirect source of light, Philips Hue Lightstrip Plus can be placed anywhere in the home to complement and enrich existing Philips Hue lights, delivering a uniformed color. Self-adhesive and easy to install, place along the bottom of a hallway choosing a beautiful shade of white light to create a sense of spaciousness; run along coving high up the walls of a room to wash the entire space with light instantly transforming its look and feel; or line along shelves and cabinets to add a stylish touch of ambience to match a mood or moment.

The Lightstrip Plus measures in at 1,600 lumens, and the new version allows multiple strips to be chained together to reach a length of up to 10 meters. As with the first version, the Lightstrip Plus can be cut and bent as needed to fit into any space, and it can be controlled alongside other Hue lights with the Hue app.

The Philips Hue Lightstrip Plus will be available for purchase in North America starting in October. It is priced at $89.95 for a two meter strip, with one meter extension strips available for $29.95.

CBS Sports this week announced it will expand its streaming NFL coverage on the Apple TV, with plans to stream two regular season games, four playoff games, and Super Bowl 50.

The games will be available on laptops, computers, and tablets via CBSSports.com, in addition to being available on connected television devices like the Apple TV, Roku, Xbox One, and Chromecast. Games will be streamed live and will be free to watch, with no cable authentication required.

New York Jets vs. Miami Dolphins in London will be the first regular live game streamed for free, and it will be broadcast on October 4 at 9:30 a.m. Eastern Time. The second regular season game CBS will show is the Carolina vs. Dallas on November 26 at 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time. AFC playoff coverage will also be streamed, including Wild Card, Divisional, and Championship games.

"We're very excited to offer more NFL ON CBS streaming coverage across more digital platforms than ever before," said Jeffrey Gerttula, Senior Vice President and General Manager of CBS Sports Digital. "All NFL fans will have access through their computers, tablets and now Connected TVs to two regular season games for the first time in addition to all of the AFC playoff action, culminating with a truly historic Super Bowl."

While CBS will be streaming NFL games to connected television devices, computers, and tablets, most iPhones will not be able to be used to stream CBS NFL content due to contractual agreements with Verizon. Verizon iPhone owners will have access to streaming content through the NFL Mobile app.

CBS's plan to stream additional NFL games comes just days after the NFL introduced a new Game Pass subscription plan available on the Apple TV, which lets users watch live preseason games and standard season games on-demand after they've aired on broadcast television.

In just a couple of weeks, Apple is going to make it ridiculously easy for Android users to switch to iOS with an upcoming app alongside iOS 9 called "Move to iOS." It will give Android users the ability to wirelessly migrate contacts, message history, photos and videos, web browser saves, mail, calendars, and more. Until then, we have to do these things manually.

Luckily, it isn't difficult to switch from Android to iOS. It just takes a few extra steps to get all of the data you want from one device to the other. We've got a guide for helping you transition from Android to iOS as simply as possible.

Before following any of the instructions below, be sure to back up your Android device to ensure that you don't lose any important data in the event that something goes wrong during the migration process.

Transferring Contacts, Mail, and Calendars

Luckily, Google makes it incredibly simple for you to sync your email, calendar, and contact information across practically any device. So, if you've been on Android for long enough, chances are most of your data is easily available to sync on iOS.

1. Open the Settings app and tap Mail, Contacts, Calendar from the list of available options.
2. Tap "Add Account." Then select Google from the list of available options.
3. Enter the required information, including your email address, password, and description.
4. When prompted, toggle the Contacts and Calendars switch to the on position.

➜ Click here to read more...

Apple today used Beats 1 radio to announce additional acts for its upcoming Apple Music Festival, confirming The Weeknd, The Chemical Brothers, Take That, James Bay, and Leon Bridges will all perform in London later this month during the 10-day event.

It will run from September 19 to September 28 and along with the acts announced today, Pharrell, One Direction, Little Mix, Disclosure, and Florence + the Machine will perform. The full lineup of acts will be posted on the dedicated Apple Music Festival website.

Each live performance will be broadcast across the world and will be available both live and on-demand via Apple Music. UK residents can apply to win tickets to the Apple Music Festival on Apple Music and through various media partners.

Ahead of the festival's kickoff, Apple is expected to announce additional performances.

For our latest video review, we went hands-on with the Solpro Helios Smart, a solar-powered battery pack that can recharge using three built-in solar panels.

It sports a 5,000mAh battery that can charge an iPhone 6 from dead to full twice over, and when the battery is exhausted, it can be charged through an included micro-USB cable or by opening its solar panels and sticking it in the bright sun.

In our testing, it took about six hours for the Solpro Helios to recharge in the sun after it was drained, but the amount of power you're getting is going to vary a lot based on location and the brightness of the sun.

It's not the fastest charger, nor the cheapest, but the Solpro Helios definitely works and it can be handy when you're in an area where traditional power is unavailable.

Solpro's Helios Smart Solar Battery Pack is available from the Solpro website or Amazon.com for $119. It comes in white, orange, and black.

Hulu today revealed a new plan option that will grant subscribers immunity from the service's embedded advertisements by paying $11.99 each month instead of the traditional $7.99 (via Re/code). Available for new and existing users, Hulu's CEO Mike Hopkins notes that it took months for the various companies and providers available on the service to support the new subscription tier, but he still expects a "solid majority" of people to stick with the $7.99 option.

Hopkins says getting the various rights owners for the Hulu catalog — which includes TV shows from NBC, ABC and Fox, as well as stuff from other networks, plus movies (note the Epix deal it just signed), plus stuff Hulu is creating on its own — to agree to the ad-free option took months.

Hulu is jointly owned by Disney, 21st Century Fox and Comcast’s NBCUniversal, and those companies are heavily invested in the business of selling TV ads. Hulu won’t come out and say this out loud, but the 50 percent price jump between the two versions is meant to give most of Hulu’s 9 million subscribers a reason to keep the version they have, and not hasten the erosion of the ad model.

A slight negative for some will come in the new tier's "exception shows," which will present users with bookended ads even when a subscriber is paying $12 per month. From ABC, NBC, and FOX, the seven exception shows are: New Girl, Scandal, How to Get Away with Murder, Grey’s Anatomy, Once Upon a Time, Marvel's Agents of Shield, and Grimm. Perhaps a minor silver lining: the exception shows won't include the timed ads in the middle of a video and will only include a 15-second pre-show and 30-second post-show commercial.

Users interested in signing up for Hulu Plus, or changing their current subscription to the new option, can do so over on Hulu's official website. The Hulu app is also available to download free from the App Store [Direct Link].

Apple updated its Apple Pay participating issuers list today with 18 additional banks, credit unions and financial institutions supporting the contactless payment service in the United States. Apple Pay now has over 450 participating issuers nationwide, and several more plan to support the NFC-based mobile payment service in the future.

The newly added Apple Pay participating issuers are reflected below, although it's worth noting that some banks, credit unions and financial institutions listed may have already had support for the contactless payments service and are only now being reflected on Apple's website.

The full list of new Apple Pay participating issuers:

• AltaOne Federal Credit Union
  

• American Bank of Commerce
  

• Capital Bank, N.A.
  

• Cardinal Community Credit Union
  

• Del-One Federal Credit Union
  

• Enterprise Bank and Trust Co.
  

• Envision Credit Union
  

• First Commonwealth Bank
  

• First National Bank and Trust
  

• First South Financial Credit Union
  

• FirstMerit Bank
  

• Fort Worth City Credit Union
  

• Leominster Credit Union
  

• Magnolia Federal Credit Union
  

• Monticello Banking Company
  

• Northfield Bank
  

• Southern States Bank
  

• Spire Credit Union

Apple Pay remains limited to the United States and United Kingdom, although Apple is committed to an international rollout of the mobile payments service in additional countries such as Canada and China in the future. The Wall Street Journal previously reported that Apple is planning a November launch of Apple Pay in Canada.