MacRumors

A new image of the packaging for the "iPhone 6s" has turned up online (via MacX), appearing similar to images of a box for the "iPhone 6s Plus" that were shared in late August. Both boxes showcase a koi pond-like fish against a white surface, suggesting the rumored packaging could be what Apple will use to box the next-generation iPhones, which are expected to be the centerpiece of the company's September 9 event tomorrow.

iphone 6s packaging
The fish image has also begun rumors surrounding the "iPhone 6s" and "iPhone 6s Plus," suggesting the new smartphones will include a motion wallpaper feature. Similar in spirit to the dynamic wallpapers Apple introduced in iOS 7, the supposed update would bring something more akin to the in-depth motion backgrounds of the Apple Watch and will feature images from fish in a koi pond to different color smoke clouds.

Related Forum: iPhone

Fresco News today launched a major update to its iOS app, introducing a new look and bringing tools to let Fresco News users become paid reporters and photojournalists, uploading photos and videos from newsworthy events around the world.

Any Fresco user can upload photos and videos that can be commissioned by news organizations worldwide. With the Fresco Newsroom Tool Suite, news stations can create location-based assignments as soon as an event happens, which sends an alert to Fresco News users who can go and capture photos and videos. Content is vetted by the Fresco content team, with content owners receiving credit and payment for their work.

"We want to make reporting in the media more transparent, and we think creating a way for viewers to experience news through the eyes of regular, everyday people is the best way to do that," said John Meyer, CEO and founder. "For newsrooms, we've effectively created a way for them to get visual coverage of anything in 30 minutes or less using the incredible smartphone cameras in our pockets."

Using content gathered from Fresco participants, the Fresco News app is able to deliver news through the eyes of ordinary people around the world, providing a raw look at current events that are happening around the globe. A "Highlights" tab within the app offers up a list of the most recent user-reported stories, while the "Stories" tab shows a selection of images from trending global events.

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A camera is front and center within the app, so all users can capture photos and videos should they encounter anything newsworthy. An "Assignments" tab houses all of the content requests created by news sites, which is where a Fresco user can go to receive assignments to capture photos and videos at nearby events.

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Fresco News also has an accompanying Apple Watch app that lets users get a quick look at breaking news headlines, with Handoff to the iPhone available for reading a story in-depth.

Fresco's aim with the news Fresco News app is to cover a wider range of events happening worldwide. "We can shine a light on every relevant news event that should be read about and heard about," said Fresco News CEO John Meyer.

Fresco News can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]

Apple has announced that pop star Ellie Goulding will open the 2015 Apple Music Festival in London on September 19, while country singer Carrie Underwood and rock band Mumford and Sons are also set to perform at the Roundhouse on September 21 and September 27 respectively.

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The full lineup for the 2015 Apple Music Festival is now set:

- September 19: Ellie Goulding
- September 20: Take That
- September 21: Carrie Underwood
- September 22: One Direction
- September 23: The Weeknd
- September 24: The Chemical Brothers
- September 25: Disclosure
- September 26: Pharrell Williams
- September 27: Mumford & Sons
- September 28: Florence + The Machine

Little Mix, NAO, Lion Babe, Leon Bridges, Jack Garrett and James Bay have been confirmed as special guests at the 2015 Apple Music Festival, with the remaining special guests to be announced soon.

Apple Music Festival, a renamed version of the iTunes Festival, is a free 10-day music festival at London's Roundhouse, featuring performances each night broadcast live and on-demand through Apple Music.

U.K. residents can apply to win tickets to the Apple Music Festival on Apple Music and through various media partners.

G-Technology today expanded its popular Evolution Series aimed at creative professionals, adding the new G-Speed Studio XL with ev Series Bay Adapters, ev Series Reader RED MINI-Mag Edition, G-Dock ev Solo, and ev Series FireWire Adapter.

For those unfamiliar with G-Technology's Evolution Series, it's a collection of flexible, interchangeable docking stations, external hard drives, and accessories, designed primarily for photo, video, and music editing.

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The new G-Speed Studio XL, an eight-bay Thunderbolt 2 storage solution, introduces cross-compatibility between the ev Series and G-Technology's high-performance Studio XL. This version of the modular Studio XL includes two ev Series Bay Adapters that can accommodate all ev Series G-Drives. With the G-Speed Studio XL, it's possible for creative professionals to use one of the G-Drives out on location to capture content like photos and then plug directly into the G-Speed Studio XL when returning to the studio.

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It's configurable in RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, and 10, and supports high volume data transfer rates of up to 1,200 MB/s. Pricing starts at $2,799.95 for 18TB and goes up to 48TB for $4,999.95.

G-Technology's ev Series Reader RED MINI-MAG Edition was created in collaboration with RED Digital Cinema and lets RED camera users transfer content from a RED MINI-MAG media card to any standalone USB 3.0 drive, G-Dock ev docking station, or the new ev Series G-Speed Studio XL. Because it can be plugged into G-Technology's Thunderbolt docks, it's a good solution for RED camera users looking for a Thunderbolt-connected reader. It's priced at $199.95.

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The G-dock ev Solo is a simple USB 3.0 docking solution designed for shared environments like studios, computer labs, and classrooms. An existing ev Series hard drive can be plugged directly into the ev Solo, allowing users to transfer and edit files quickly. The G-Dock ev Solo is priced at $99.95.

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G-Technology's last product debuting today is the ev Series FireWire Adapter that lets ev Series drives be attached to an older computer that has a FireWire 800 port. It's priced at $49.95.

All of the ev Series products being announced today will be available from the G-Technology website beginning in October, aside from the Firewire Adapter, which is available now.

While much of the real estate focus for Apple has been on Campus 2 in Cupertino and surrounding areas, the company has also been working hard on expanding its presence in Austin, Texas where it has for many years housed much of its operations and support efforts. Back in 2012, Apple announced a $300 million commitment to expand in Austin with a new seven-building campus and up to an additional 3,600 employees.

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In June 2014, Tim Cook visited the campus as the first buildings opened, and the Austin American-Statesman has gotten a look inside the campus as Apple is rapidly moving toward completion with four buildings done and the remaining three to be completed in about a year.

Along a winding road off Research Boulevard in Northwest Austin, Apple has quietly transformed 38 acres of wooded land into its second-largest operation in the world.

When the California-based technology giant completes the campus in 2016, it will include seven limestone-and-glass office buildings with a combined 1.1 million square feet of space with restaurants, smoothie and coffee bars along with a full-scale gym with two saunas and a spa-like wellness center with services including medical, dental and eye care, acupuncture and massage.

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Apple reportedly remains on track to receive a $35 million tax break for reaching its hiring goals and has been working closely with the city to bring on local suppliers from the community.

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Even as work continues on the new campus, Apple is looking elsewhere in Austin for further growth opportunities, purchasing a nearby 350,000 square foot campus it had already been leasing and leasing a new 216,000 square foot office building elsewhere in Austin.

Tag: Austin

ios_9_proactiveApple is stepping up its efforts to recruit employees focused on artificial intelligence and machine learning, reports Reuters. The report suggests Apple is looking to challenge Google's lead in features such as Google Now that learn to anticipate smartphone users' needs, something Apple is starting to address in iOS 9 with its new "Proactive" feature.

As part of its push, the company is currently trying to hire at least 86 more employees with expertise in the branch of artificial intelligence known as machine learning, according to a recent analysis of Apple job postings. The company has also stepped up its courtship of machine-learning PhD's, joining Google, Amazon, Facebook and others in a fierce contest, leading academics say.

Apple's machine learning efforts are in large part built with Siri in mind, and Siri should play an important role in this Wednesday's media event, as indicated by the event invitation's tagline.

Many of the currently posted positions are slated for software efforts, from building on Siri’s smarts to the burgeoning search features in iOS. The company is also hiring machine learning experts for divisions such as product marketing and retail, suggesting a broad-based effort to capitalize on data.

Reuters notes that Apple faces a challenge with machine learning due to its focus on privacy and reluctance to tap into all possible data sources. For example, with the Proactive features of iOS 9, Apple is primarily keeping all of the data and analysis on the user's phone, enhancing privacy but limiting some of what can be learned from data passed to the cloud.

Apple's strict policies not only limit what can be learned from user data but also discourage some machine learning experts from pursuing positions with Apple due to that lack of access. Still, Apple is said to be opening up about machine learning, engaging with academic programs in its efforts to lure talent and already having tripled or quadrupled the size of its machine learning team over the last few years.

KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has issued a new report that suggests next year's "iPhone 7" could be Apple's thinnest smartphone yet, with a thickness of somewhere between 6.0mm and 6.5mm, which Kuo mentions is a near similar measurement of the current iPod touch's 6.1mm. As a comparison, the current model of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus are 6.9mm and 7.1mm thick, respectively.

The report also states that the company will stick to a similar Force Touch technology in next year's version of the iPhone, due to the heavy amount of time and investment Apple and its suppliers have put into adapting it for this year's "iPhone 6s" and "iPhone 6s Plus."

iPhone Comparison
Due to this, Kuo believes that Apple is unlikely to switch from in-cell over to glass-on-glass touch panels next year, which a rumor out of Apple's supply chain in Asia suggested last week. The KGI report says that in-cell panels won't encounter any harsh production bottleneck issues, and that Apple won't be looking to create an iPhone display with a resolution of 4k or higher, so it's more likely for the company to stick with in-cell panels for the time being.

The continued use of in-cell panels would also grant Apple the ability to produce an iPhone as thin as Kuo's suggested 6.0mm-6.5mm size. Although glass-on-glass panels allow for the possibility of a bezel-free iPhone, it also limits the ability for the company to create smaller and thinner smartphones, so if KGI's claim of an iPod Touch-size iPhone is true, it would make most sense for the company to keep using in-cell panels.

Related Forum: iPhone

The Danny Boyle-directed and Aaron Sorkin-penned Steve Jobs film premiered last night at the 42nd Annual Telluride Film Festival in Colorado, and the first impressions of the biopic are surfacing on the internet this morning. Although not a full review of the movie, Deadline has posted a short opinion piece about the film, noting impressive directing, well-paced editing, and a script by Sorkin that is "even more effective" than his Oscar-winning work on The Social Network.

stevejobsmovie

It’s a companion piece to Sorkin’s Oscar-winning The Social Network screenplay — but even more effective. Boyle said the script is 200 pages and it is densely filled with the kind of dialogue only Sorkin seems to specialize in these days. It’s actually thrilling to listen to, an action movie driven almost exclusively by words, a rare thing for sure in today’s visually driven cinema.

[Boyle's] direction is flawless and really keeps this thing moving, avoiding the static pace it might have been in lesser hands. The result is well worth it, and those magical words provided lots of opportunity for great acting performances led by Michael Fassbender’s spot-on and relentless portrayal of the not-very-likable computer genius.

Notably, Deadline also caught up with Steve Wozniak at Telluride to get his opinion on the film, which partially portrays Wozniak's own life as well with Seth Rogen in the role of the Apple co-founder. Wozniak was enthusiastic about the movie, calling it "authentic" and particularly praising Kate Winslet's performance as Macintosh marketing chief Joanna Hoffman.

When I caught up with him Wozniak told me that, unlike the Jobs biopic with Ashton Kutcher, this one is totally authentic. “I saw a rough cut and I felt like I was actually watching Steve Jobs and the others (including Rogen’s dead-on portrayal of Wozniak), not actors playing them, I give full credit to Danny Boyle and Aaron Sorkin for getting it so right,” he enthusiastically told me, He adding that of all the actors in the film he thinks Winslet might be the most likely to garner awards attention.

The movie was portrayed as a "work in progress" to the attendees at Telluride, due to the fact that Boyle and his workers are still tweaking and editing parts of the movie. With just about a month to go until the film's wide release, it's likely small details like sound cues and other small edits that will make the Telluride screening largely similar to the final movie.

Other sites have begun posting full-length reviews, including Variety, who compares Sorkin's three-act, multiple time period structure to Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. Also of note is a neat detail that Boyle shot each time period on era-relevant formats, a fact along with Boyle's uncharacteristically restrained direction that Variety particularly liked.

Working with d.p. Alwin Kutchler, Boyle sometimes sends the camera hurtling after the characters in lengthy, down-the-corridor tracking shots; elsewhere, the brief transitional snippets between acts feature some fairly aggressive stylization, in line with his usual m.o. But for the most part, this is the filmmaker’s most reined-in picture in some time, as if a too-kinetic approach would interfere with the verbal energy of Sorkin’s script.

Besides Guy Hendrix Dyas’ unobtrusively excellent production design, the picture’s major visual coup is the decision to shoot the three acts on three different formats: grainy 16mm film for 1984, lustrous 35mm for 1988, and sleek, high-definition digital for 1998. The distinctions may well be lost on the vast majority of viewers, but it’s just the sort of nicely understated aesthetic flourish that Steve Jobs himself would have surely appreciated.

Indiewire gave the film a B+, pointing out good performances from the cast and the movie's decision to focus on three highly stressful points in Jobs' life to showcase his true personality, ultimately calling it "a kind of "Birdman" for the tech sector," thanks to its real-time accounts of some highly dramatic backstage moments prior to a big show. The website also noted, however, that Sorkin's dialogue can suffer from "constant overstatement" and some foreshadowing to Apple's future feels "unnecessary."

The movie currently sits at a 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, but still has just five reviews collected at the time of writing. Although it's still just a handful positive opinions, it's a bit more encouraging as we enter the final stretch before the October 9 theatrical debut, especially for a film that's been a large source of speculation and rumors for so many years now.

Update: Oscar buzz is also surrounding the film coming out of Telluride, with Michael Fassbender's performance getting thrown into the Best Actor category along with other frontrunners like Johnny Depp in Black Mass and Eddie Redmayne in The Danish Girl.

Ahead of next week's big iPhone-centric event, Apple has begun decorating the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco where the event will take place. As shared by several Twitter and Instagram users, signs with the Apple logo are beginning to go up, and several Apple-branded flags are flying.

A white Apple logo with rainbow-colored accents against a blue background is shown on one wall of the auditorium, shared by CBS/CNET photographer James Martin. The same design was seen on the invitations for the event and was created to mimic Siri's look on the Apple Watch and iOS 9.

applelogobillgraham
Security is heavy around the auditorium, with security guards and police officers guarding signage that's being put up, according to someone on site who spoke to MacRumors and provided pictures. Some of the security guards are now wearing outfits with Apple logos on them.

applelogobuilding
The colorful Apple logos are accompanied several flags surrounding the auditorium, featuring a white Apple logo on a dark blue background. Swarms of workers are all over the perimeter of the auditorium, running cables up walls into the interior and building out the infrastructure needed for the event.

appleflags
Along with the flags, Apple has decorated light posts in the area with matching Siri-style banners in a dark blue shade. The decorations for the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium are already beginning to outshine decorations and signage used at past events, and Apple is likely to continue adding more over the course of the weekend.

lightposts
Apple's upcoming Wednesday, September 9 event is expected to be huge. The auditorium where it's being held seats 7,000, and the company may be using some of the available space to demo products that will be released. The event will see the debut of an unprecedented number of devices, including the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, the new Apple TV, the iPad mini 4, and the iPad Pro.

Apple is also expected to introduce additional Apple Watch Sport materials, perhaps in gold, and new Sport bands. An iPad keyboard may also make an appearance at the event, and we'll also get release details for iOS 9 and watchOS 2.

MacRumors will provide live coverage of Apple's event, through a live blog on MacRumors.com and on our MacRumorsLive Twitter account.

(Thanks, John!)

With Labor Day fast approaching, retailers are offering great discounts on a wide range of Apple products, from the iPad mini 3 and iPad Air 2 to the MacBook Air and Retina MacBook Pro.

If you've been waiting for a sale to pick up a laptop or a tablet, now is the time to buy. Many products are at the lowest prices we've seen, or close to it. We've also rounded up some deals on accessories and we've highlighted a list of popular apps and games that are on sale this week.

Just a reminder: Apple's Back to School promotion is still going on both in stores and online, with Apple offering a free pair of Beats Solo2 headphones with the purchase of an eligible Mac. Eligible Macs include the iMac, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, MacBook, and Mac Pro.

iPad Air 2

Best Buy is discounting its entire iPad Air 2 lineup this week by up to $100, so now is a great time to purchase one of Apple's larger iPads. The iPad Air 2 is not going to be upgraded next week, making it safe to purchase now.

ipad-air-2-group
The biggest discounts are on the higher-capacity models, with the 128GB Cellular iPad Air 2 discounted by $100, dropping the price to $729.99. That price is available on the Gold, Silver, and Space Gray models.

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Based on a few whispers and some research, MacRumors believes that Swiss real-time motion capture firm Faceshift may have been acquired by Apple in recent weeks. Faceshift has been working with game and animation studios, as well as smaller companies, on technology to quickly and accurately capture facial expressions using 3D sensors, including releasing Faceshift Studio software with plugins for animation software like Maya and Unity. More recently, the company has been working toward consumer-facing software such as a Skype plugin that would support real-time avatars for video chat.

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Faceshift was launched in 2011 out of the Computer Graphics and Geometry Laboratory at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne and has shown off some impressive demos of its technology in a number of settings. In mid-2013, the company brought on industry veteran Doug Griffin, formerly of Industrial Light & Magic and Electronic Arts, to head up a San Francisco office.


Faceshift has clearly been acquired by another company in recent weeks, as noted in a Swiss company registry filing from August 19 showing the three original corporate directors having stepped down as of August 14 and being replaced by Baker & McKenzie mergers and acquisitions attorney Martin Frey. Frey does not appear to have any direct links with Apple, but Apple has frequently used Baker & McKenzie's services in a number of countries around the world, including management of some of Apple's Swiss trademarks.

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Related Roundup: Apple Vision Pro
Buyer's Guide: Vision Pro (Buy Now)
Related Forum: Apple Vision Pro

For this week’s giveaway, we’ve teamed up with Nomad to give five MacRumors readers a chance to win either a Nomad Pod or a Nomad Stand for the Apple Watch.

The Nomad Pod is a compact Apple Watch stand and charger that includes an 1800 mAh battery for charging your Apple Watch even when away from home. The two-piece Pod includes a handy hidden cord wrap and a brushed aluminum cover held in place by magnets. It ships with a keychain-sized Nomad Micro-USB cable to keep it charged, and a rubber backing on the bottom keeps it secure on any surface.

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The palm-sized Nomad Pod works with all open-band Apple Watches and it is available in Space Gray or Silver for $59.95.

Nomad’s Stand for Apple Watch is a precision machined aluminum charging stand that has a svelte curved design. Also available in either Space Gray or Silver, the Nomad Stand is an ultra simple stand with a clever non-visible side channel for hiding the Apple Watch cable.

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It includes a non-slip rubber foot at the bottom to prevent it from moving around on a desk or a nightstand, and its design lets it work with all of Apple’s watch bands, from the Sport Band to the Link Bracelet. It retails for $69.95.

Five MacRumors readers will be able to win either a Nomad Stand or a Nomad Pod, with each winner being able to pick the product of their choice. To enter to win, use the Rafflecopter widget below and enter your email address. Your email address will not be given to any will be used solely for contact and shipping purposes.

You can earn additional entries by subscribing to our weekly newsletter, subscribing to our YouTube channel, following us on Twitter, or visiting the MacRumors Facebook page. Due to the complexities of international laws regarding giveaways, only U.S. residents who are 18 years of age or older are eligible to enter.

The contest will run from today (September 4) at 11:00 a.m. Pacific time through 11:00 a.m. Pacific time on September 11. The winners will be chosen randomly on September 11 and will be contacted by email. The winners have 48 hours to respond and provide a shipping address. The prizes will be shipped to the winners for free.

Accompanying the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, iPad Pro and next-generation Apple TV set to be announced next week, Apple is also planning a revamped iPad keyboard and new metal finishes for the Apple Watch Sport, including a less expensive gold version, according to The New York Times.

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9to5Mac reported similar information, claiming the iPad Pro will have expanded Bluetooth keyboard support and that Apple is working on a new keyboard accessory for the rumored 12.9-inch tablet, which could be released by year end. The report also hinted at the possibility of new gold Apple Watch Sport colors.

Last month, a new Apple Wireless Keyboard with Bluetooth 4.2 and a rechargeable lithium-on battery was discovered in filings with the U.S. Federal Communications Commission. Images of an Apple Wireless Keyboard with backlit keys and a power button also briefly surfaced on the Apple Online Store in March.

MacRumors has also received information about Apple's plans to release at least one new metal finish for the Apple Watch. KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo first noted the Apple Watch may gain additional casing options in March, and three months later said a yellow and rose gold Apple Watch Sport will launch in the fall.

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Apple Watch Sport spray painted gold by Casey Neistat on YouTube

Apple is also expected to debut new Apple Watch Sport bands at its September 9th media event, possibly with a focus on darker colors.

MacRumors will be providing live blog coverage of Apple's "Hey Siri" media event, which begins next Wednesday at 10:00 AM Pacific.

Related Roundups: Apple Watch 10, iPad Pro

The new documentary Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine today sees its wide release into theaters and onto video on demand platforms. The film first debuted at SXSW in March and met a bit of controversy thanks to its depiction of Jobs as a merciless force, with less time spent on his greater contributions to Apple and his impact on the world. Subsequently, Apple senior executive Eddy Cue called the film "an inaccurate and mean-spirited view of my friend" and "not a reflection of the Steve I knew."

Steve Jobs MITM PosterNow that the film has seen a slightly wider release in critic screenings before its launch today, a few more opinions have been gathered on the review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes. The film currently sits at a 75% with 30 fresh and 10 rotten reviews, with an overall consensus calling the film "absorbing" but lacking any deep understanding of Jobs himself. The movie's theatrical run is pretty limited to start, with it only hitting 65 screens in 50 markets, according to Deadline. The usual cities of New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco will more heavily serve viewing of the documentary.


Fortunately, Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine is seeing a simultaneous theatrical and VOD release. Users can watch the movie at home on services like iTunes, VUDU, Xbox Video, and The PlayStation Store. Its price varies drastically between each service, with the cheapest HD rental coming from iTunes for $4.99 and the highest option coming from VUDU for an $8.99 HDX version of the film.

Apple has constructed a creative barricade with colorful artwork that confirms its first Apple Store in Belgium will open on Saturday, September 19. The retail store will be located on Avenue de la Toison d'Or in the capital city of Brussels.

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Apple confirmed the store opening to Belgian website Apple Nieuws Vlaanderen, which has shared several photos of the storefront. The store has not yet been listed on Apple's website, but store hours and grand opening details should be available soon.

Update 8:32 AM: Apple's store page for the new Brussels location is now live, but with the opening still two weeks away the store is not yet taking reservations for Genius Bar appointments or workshops.

Mozilla released the first public preview of Firefox for iOS on the App Store in New Zealand today. The company aims to collect feedback on Firefox for iOS in the country, and eventually a few others, to help make improvements and add new features to the browser prior to a worldwide launch later this year.

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The public preview version of Firefox for iOS features Intelligent Search, Firefox Accounts and Visual Tabs.

  • Intelligent Search: Suggested search results and list of search options, including Google, Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, Twitter, Amazon and WordPress

  • Firefox Accounts: Firefox browser history, passwords and tabs from your desktop on your iPhone

  • Visual Tabs: A card-based grid of open tabs

To provide feedback within the app, tap the numeric tab icon on the top right, tap the "Settings" menu on the top left and tap on "Send Feedback" under the "Support" menu.

Mozilla was initially opposed to releasing Firefox on iOS because of Apple's policy that requires third-party browsers to use its own WebKit framework and JavaScript engine, but the company reversed course and announced plans to release an iOS app in December 2014. Other third-party browsers include Chrome and Opera.

Sphero, the company responsible for creating robotic balls that can be controlled by iPhones, today announced a remote-controlled BB-8, a droid from the upcoming film "Star Wars: The Force Awakens."


While BB-8 can be controlled with an iPhone, it also comes with a patrol mode that allows the droid to roam around by himself. Users can also design their own routes and have BB-8 follow them. Additionally, Sphero says BB-8 has an "adaptive personality" and his "attitude" and actions will evolve the more a user interacts with him. BB-8 can also receive voice commands via the app, which means that a user can say "move forward" and BB-8 will move forward.

While Sphero developed this version of BB-8 as a connected toy, the company was instrumental in the development of the BB-8 droid used in the actual movie. The company was a part of Disney's accelerator program and was paired with Disney CEO Bob Iger as its mentor. When Iger visited with Sphero to see the robotic ball they were working on, he realized the technology could be used for BB-8, who at the time was still being designed. He connected Sphero to the filmmakers and special effects people behind the film and they collaborated on the real BB-8, which was shown off at the Star Wars Celebration convention in May.

The toy version of BB-8 will go on sale on September 4, 2015 as a part of "Force Friday," which is when toys and merchandise from "The Force Awakens" officially go on sale. BB-8 will be available for $149.99 at Sphero.com and Apple Stores.

Tags: BB-8, Sphero

finalcutproxApple's professional video editing software Final Cut Pro X received its first update in months this afternoon, adding a handful of new features, fixing several bugs, and improving performance and stability.

The update adds native support for the Sony XAVC-L and Panasonic AVC-Intra 4:4:4 files, introduces exporting of interlaced H.264 video, and allows users to import Canon XF-AVC 8-bit video files using the Canon plug-in.

What's New
- Native support for Sony XAVC-L and Panasonic AVC-Intra 4:4:4 up to 4K resolution
- Import Canon XF-AVC 8-bit video files with Canon plug-in
- Export interlaced H.264 video
- Asset management systems can include a library backup file when sharing from Final Cut Pro
- Fixes render errors that may occur when using reflective materials with 3D text
- Improves stability when swapping materials on 3D text with published parameters
- Improves performance when loading text styles
- Motion Title templates with published text layout parameters now export correctly
- Fixes an issue that may cause 3D text to appear dark when rendered
- Addresses issues with timing on certain animated effects

Complementary apps Compressor and Motion also received minor updates today. Compressor has gained bug fixes, support for exporting interlaced H.264 files, and an improvement to closed caption and subtitle audio and video sync. The update to Motion fixes a rendering error when using reflective materials with 3D text and an issue that caused some 3D text to appear dark when rendered. It also includes several performance improvements.

Final Cut Pro X, Motion, and Compressor received their last major updates in April of 2015, with Apple adding new features for motion graphics and enhancements to speed up video editing, packaging, and delivery.

Final Cut Pro X can be downloaded from the Mac App Store for $299.99. [Direct Link]

Compressor can be downloaded from the Mac App Store for $49.99. [Direct Link]

Motion can be downloaded from the Mac App Store for $49.99. [Direct Link]