MacRumors

Apple doesn't often let outsiders into its secret design lab headed up by Jony Ive, but the company invited journalist Charlie Rose to tour the facility earlier this year. Footage from that trip is set to air this Sunday, December 20, on popular show 60 Minutes.

Apple today announced a new partnership with China UnionPay, which will see Apple Pay expanding to China in early 2016. Through the partnership, China UnionPay cardholders will be able to use their bank cards with Apple Pay on the iPhone, Apple Watch, and iPad (within apps).

"Apple Pay has revolutionized the way millions of people pay every day with their iPhone, Apple Watch and iPad," said Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president of Internet Software and Services. "China is an extremely important market for Apple and with China UnionPay and support from 15 of China's leading banks, users will soon have a convenient, private and secure payment experience."

Apple Pay in the country will work with the China UnionPay Quickpass, an existing contactless payment service. Customers will be able to hold an iPhone or Apple Watch near a UnionPay QuickPass-enabled point-of-sale terminal to make a payment at participating stores.

Reaching a deal to bring Apple Pay to China has been a priority for Apple, given China's increasing importance to the company. A partnership between Apple and China UnionPay was first hinted at in February, when the first iOS 8.3 beta introduced support for the China UnionPay network. Talks reportedly stalled later that month, but in the weeks ahead of today's announcement, rumors pointing towards a deal picked up.

A recent rumor has suggested Apple is aiming to launch Apple Pay in China before February 8, 2016, which marks the start of Chinese New Year. According to Apple's press release, the service will be available following "relevant tests and certification" required by Chinese regulators.

The United States Federal Communications Commission yesterday sent letters to T-Mobile, AT&T, and Comcast questioning the companies about mobile services that allow customers to access certain content without paying for the data usage, reports Bloomberg. While the FCC has been careful to note the inquiry is "not an investigation" and designed to help the FCC "stay informed as to what the practices are," there have been some questions about whether such services violate net neutrality rules.

Under scrutiny is T-Mobile's Binge On program, which allows customers to stream 480p video that doesn't count against a data cap, AT&T's Sponsored Data program that lets AT&T customers view sponsored content for free, and Comcast's Stream TV, a video service that does not count against data caps in areas where data caps are imposed. Ars Technica has uploaded a copy of the letters that were sent to the three companies.

Back in February, the FCC voted in favor of new net neutrality rules preventing Internet providers from blocking or throttling web traffic or offering prioritized service for payment, but it has not specifically addressed these "zero-rating" data exemption programs. Last month, FCC chairman Tom Wheeler said the organization would keep an eye on T-Mobile's Binge On service, but praised it as being both "highly innovative and highly competitive."

In a statement, a T-Mobile spokesperson said the company is "looking forward" to talking with the FCC, and believes Binge On is "absolutely in line with net-neutrality rules." Comcast expressed a similar sentiment, stating it looks forward "to participating in the FCC's fact-gathering process relating to industry practices." An AT&T spokesperson said AT&T is committed to "innovation without permission" and expressed hope the FCC is too.

The FCC has requested "relevant technical and business" representatives from T-Mobile, AT&T, and Comcast be made available for discussions by January 15.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Apple today seeded the first beta of an upcoming iOS 9.2.1 update to its public beta testers, with the software being made available just a day after the first developer beta of iOS 9.2.1 launched. The iOS 9.2.1 beta comes a week and a half after the public release of iOS 9.2, the second major update to iOS 9.

Beta testers who have signed up for Apple's beta testing program will receive the iOS 9.2.1 update over-the-air after installing the proper certificates.

Those who want to be a part of Apple's beta testing program can sign up to participate on the company's beta testing website, which gives users access to both iOS and OS X betas.

The first developer beta of iOS 9.2.1 revealed no significant outward-facing changes, suggesting iOS 9.2.1 is a minor update that will focus on under-the-hood performance improvements and bug fixes to address issues discovered since the release of iOS 9.2.

Apple has announced an executive shakeup today that sees Jeff Williams promoted to Chief Operating Officer and marketing chief Phil Schiller taking over App Store leadership across all Apple platforms.

Williams, who joined Apple in 1998 as head of worldwide procurement, becomes Apple's fourth C-level executive alongside CEO Tim Cook, Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri and Chief Design Officer Jony Ive.

As vice president of operations since 2004, his responsibilities included overseeing Apple's supply chain, service and support, and the company's social responsibility initiatives protecting its employees worldwide. He also continues to supervise development of the Apple Watch and ResearchKit.

Cook called Williams "hands-down the best operations executive I’ve ever worked with."

“We are fortunate to have incredible depth and breadth of talent across Apple’s executive team. As we come to the end of the year, we’re recognizing the contributions already being made by two key executives,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “Jeff is hands-down the best operations executive I’ve ever worked with, and Johny’s team delivers world-class silicon designs which enable new innovations in our products year after year.”

Apple's COO position had been vacant since Cook was named CEO in August 2011.

Schiller's expanded role will be focused on strategies to extend Apple's ecosystem across iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch and Apple TV, alongside his traditional marketing responsibilities. App Store leadership previously belonged to Apple services chief Eddy Cue, who continues to oversee the iTunes Store, Apple Music, Apple Pay, Apple Maps, iAd, iCloud, iWork apps and more.

Cook continued, “In addition, Phil is taking on new responsibilities for advancing our ecosystem, led by the App Store, which has grown from a single, groundbreaking iOS store into four powerful platforms and an increasingly important part of our business. And I’m incredibly happy to welcome Tor Myhren, who will bring his creative talents to our advertising and marcom functions.”

Apple also announced that Johny Srouji is joining the company's executive team as Senior Vice President for Hardware Technologies, and that Grey Group chief creative officer Tor Myhren will join Apple in the first calendar quarter of 2016 as Vice President of Marketing Communications, reporting to CEO Tim Cook.

Srouji joined Apple in 2008 to lead development of the A4 chip, and now oversees the company's silicon and hardware technologies, including batteries, application processors, storage controllers, sensors silicon, display silicon and other chipsets across Apple's entire product line. He previously worked at Intel and IBM in the areas of processor development and design.

Myhren will be responsible for Apple's advertising and marketing communication efforts across a range of creative disciplines, including video, motion graphics, interactive web design, packaging and retail store displays. The experienced advertising executive will succeed Hiroki Asai, who is retiring after 18 years in graphic design and marketing communications roles at Apple.

Update: While Williams is often described as "Tim Cook's Tim Cook," The Wall Street Journal has learned that his new COO title is more about formalizing a role he had within Apple, as opposed to grooming him to be the next Apple CEO.

A senior executive at the company, who declined to be identified, said the move isn't necessarily a sign that Mr. Williams is the heir apparent to Mr. Cook and that many members of the current executive team have what it takes to be the future CEO. The new title formalizes a role that Mr. Williams has been playing inside the company, the executive said.

The leadership changes are reflected on Apple's executive profiles page.

The NFL has solicited Apple and other digital companies, including Amazon, Google and Yahoo, about streaming the full "Thursday Night Football" schedule online on a non-exclusive basis next season, according to SportsBusiness Daily.

The league also sent bidding proposals to CBS, ESPN, Fox, NBC and Turner Sports for traditional TV rights to the "Thursday Night Football" package, which is currently split between CBS and the NFL Network for the ongoing 2015 season.

The league’s initial plan would have the digital streams serve as a simulcast of the television production -- with the same ads and in-game production features. […] It is not clear how much the league is expecting to make from the streaming rights, but several sources said the digital streams would not diminish the TV rights fee, especially if the digital streams carried the same advertising.

While there is no certainty that Apple is interested in the NFL's digital rights, online streaming is inevitably the future of sports broadcasting as more cable subscribers cut the cord. NFL offers a live streaming app Game Pass, but it does not include "Thursday Night Football" and its selection of games is limited compared to rival platforms such as MLB At Bat, NBA League Pass and NHL GameCenter.

Yahoo could be a frontrunner to secure the digital rights, having paid an estimated $15 million to exclusively live stream a 2015 regular season game between the Buffalo Bills and Jacksonville Jaguars at London's Wembley Stadium. Yahoo said it saw 33.6M streams of the game and up to 15.2M unique viewers tuned in to the live stream on the web, tablets and smartphones.

CBS currently produces all sixteen "Thursday Night Football" games, anchored by sportscasters Jim Nantz and Phil Simms, as part of its estimated $300 million NFL deal. NFL Network simulcasts the games and carries eight games exclusively as part of its current partnership with CBS, which began in the 2014 season. Most games kick off at 8:25 p.m. Eastern Time.

Apple's streaming music service Apple Music will have 8 million subscribers by the time 2015 comes to a close, according to music business analyst Mark Mulligan (via Music Business Worldwide). Mulligan also forecast that Apple Music should hit 20 million total users by around this time next year, ultimately making it the second most popular streaming music service behind Spotify.

“Apple might not have found the subscription market quite the plain sailing it had anticipated but it has still managed to establish itself as the second player with astounding pace. Its platform and marketing assets are well known, but its clear commitment to making Apple Music work have surprised some."

As Mulligan pointed out, however, the exact numbers in his prediction can vary as we head into the new year. With Apple Music's three-month free trial that could have led to some accidental paid subscribers and Spotify Premium's $1 a month three-month trial system, the analyst stated that there are enough "wildcards" in the equation to unbalance his prediction.

If the analyst's estimation of 8 million Apple Music subscribers by the New Year becomes true, that would be about 1.5 million growth during the fall, after Tim Cook confirmed the service had 6.5 million in October. Normally $10/month, Mulligan believes if Apple has trouble with getting subscribers to stick around, they could return to convincing record labels in lowering that monthly cost.

“If Apple finds growth tough going, expect it to throw everything it has got at getting the labels to agree to lower price point products so it can open up large chunks of the iTunes music customer base.”

In the meantime, Apple is pushing Apple Music onto more supported third-party products, including a beta for Sonos speakers that brought support for the streaming music service onto the speakers for the first time. The Cupertino company is also still dealing in exclusives, recently announcing a project with Taylor Swift that will include a made-for-Apple Music concert film debuting on the service this Sunday, December 20. Recently, Apple began rewarding its retail workers with gifts for the holidays, which included a free nine-month subscription to Apple Music.

Apple today seeded the first beta of an upcoming OS X 10.11.3 El Capitan update to developers for testing purposes, just over one week after releasing the second OS X El Capitan update, OS X 10.11.2. OS X 10.11.2 was a minor update that introduced several bug fixes and performance improvements for Wi-Fi connectivity, Handoff, and Airdrop.

The new OS X 10.11.3 beta, build 15D9c, can be downloaded through the Apple Developer Center.

It is not known what improvements the third 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.

We'll update this post with any changes that are discovered in the beta.

Apple today seeded the first beta of an upcoming iOS 9.2.1 update to developers for testing purposes, just over a week after the public release of iOS 9.2. iOS 9.2, the second major update to iOS 9, introduced a very long list of bug fixes, along with feature improvements to Apple Music, News, Mail, iBooks, and more.

The iOS 9.2.1 beta is available for download immediately from the Apple Developer Center, and a public beta will likely be available in the near future.

We don't know what changes iOS 9.2.1 will bring to iOS 9, but as a minor .1 update, it's likely to focus on performance improvements and fixes for bugs that have been discovered since the release of iOS 9.2. We will update this post with any changes that are discovered in the latest beta.

Update: Apple today published a support document addressing some issues with Mobile Device Management on iOS 9.2. When installing an app on iOS 9.2, some apps don't finish the full installation process.

According to the support document, a bug fix is coming in the near future, and it's likely the iOS 9.2.1 update resolves the problem.

Taiwanese website DigiTimes has published a new report corroborating rumors that Apple is developing flexible OLED technology for future devices, including iPhones and iPads, at its newly discovered factory in northern Taiwan.

The report, citing sources within the Taiwanese supply chain, claims Apple has recruited a team of R&D engineers from local companies including AU Optronics and Qualcomm subsidiary SolLink, echoing a Bloomberg report from earlier this week.

Last month, Japanese website Nikkei reported that Apple plans to switch to OLED displays for iPhones starting in 2018. The report said LG Display and Samsung Electronics will likely share a large portion of the OLED panel production, with LG already planning capacity upgrades for high-volume organic light-emitting diode production.

Apple's current LCD supplier Japan Display is also reportedly in negotiations with Apple about securing OLED orders for future iPhones, in an effort to compete with LG and Samsung. The joint venture between Hitachi, Sony and Toshiba reportedly plans to begin mass production of OLED panels in early 2018.

KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo believes Apple will continue using TFT-LCD display technology for iPhones for at least the next three years, lining up with the 2018 timeframe claimed by other reports. Kuo also said Apple manufacturer Foxconn is preparing to invest in advanced TFT-LCD production lines for mass production in 2018.

While multiple reports suggest Apple is moving towards OLED displays for iPhones, including DigiTimes, the Taiwanese website shared a second report claiming Apple may focus on micro-LED technology at its secretive Taiwanese factory. The report does not specify if the technology would be used for iPhones or other future devices.

Micro-LED displays eliminate the need for backlighting unlike traditional LCDs, and allow for improved color gamut in addition to higher resolution. However, the technology suffers from low yields when used in a TFT manufacturing process and therefore is difficult to mass produce. […]

However, it is still too early to know whether Apple plans to use micro-LED displays for existing or new applications. Apple is showing signs of moving toward OLED for most of its small- to medium-size products as early as 2017-2018 based on emerging developments in the display industry.

Apple acquired micro-LED display maker LuxVue Technology in 2014. Back in December of 2013, LuxVue raised $25.2 million in funding to pursue the display technology, and the company also filed several patents on micro-LEDs. At the time, one of LuxVue's investors said the company had "a technical breakthrough in displays."

OLED displays generally have brighter colors and deeper blacks, and no 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 display makers" about OLED technology to eliminate potential drawbacks.

Samsung's flagship lineup of Galaxy smartphones have long used AMOLED displays, but iPhones have stuck to various LCD technologies since the original model launched in 2007. The first and only Apple product to feature OLED display technology is the Apple Watch, but the 1.5-inch to 1.7-inch screen is only a fraction of the size of the 4.7-inch iPhone 6s and 5.5-inch iPhone 6s Plus.