U.S. District Judge William Alsup today dismissed a lawsuit against Apple that had been brought by several retail employees over Apple's policy of conducting required security searches of personal bags without compensation after workers had clocked out for meal breaks or at the end of their shifts, reports Bloomberg. The class action lawsuit covered thousands of employees at Apple's California retail stores.
(Photo via Reuters/Hannibal Hanschke)
The ruling by a San Francisco federal judge Saturday releases the company from having to compensate as many [as] 12,400 former and current employees from 52 stores throughout the state a few dollars a day for time spent over a six-year period having their bags and Apple devices searched at meal breaks and after their shifts. A law professor who reviewed filings in the case estimated Apple could have been be on the hook for as much as $60 million, plus penalties.
In his ruling, Alsup noted that employees could have avoided the searches, as some employees did, by not bringing personal bags to work. The lawsuit had been restricted to California as the U.S. Supreme Court had previously ruled workers are not entitled to compensation for time spent in post-shift bag searches under federal law.
An attorney for the plaintiffs in the case reports they are weighing their potential next steps, which could include an appeal of Alsup's ruling.
With Sam's Club having started taking pre-orders for the iPad Pro on Friday and selling out within hours and MacMall also moving to accept pre-orders ahead of an expected launch next week, Staples is the latest major U.S. retailer to allow customers to begin placing orders for the new device.
Staples is offering all Wi-Fi models of the iPad Pro for pre-order, as well as a number of accessories including the Apple Pencil, Smart Keyboard, and both Smart Covers and Silicone Cases in charcoal gray and white. One catch for those looking to order through Staples is that the office supply retailer is quoting a launch of November 25, the day before Thanksgiving. With Apple and other retailers apparently anticipating a launch towards the end of next week, Staples customers wouldn't be among the first to get their hands on the new device.
Staples is also not offering any discounts on the iPad Pro at this time, selling the 32 GB models for $799 and 128 GB models for $949. The Apple Pencil is priced at $99 and the Smart Keyboard is available for $169, while the Smart Covers are priced at $59 and the Silicone Cases at $79.
While game developer Blizzard has a long-standing history of bringing its games to OS X in addition to Windows, the developer today confirmed at its BlizzCon fan convention that it will not be bringing its new game, Overwatch, to OS X, according to Polygon.
Overwatch game director Jeff Kaplan confirmed the news, acknowledging that the company has longstanding support for Apple's computers. However, Kaplan says the company focused its efforts on Windows due to the "technology behind Macs."
"Currently with the technology behind Macs and the way Overwatch runs it's just too challenging for us at this point to support it," Kaplan said. "Our focus right now is entirely on PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4."
Kaplan didn't specify what Mac technology was making it challenging for Blizzard to make the game for OS X, but Apple's support for graphics technologies such as Metal and OpenGL may be part of the reason. Some of the early developers who committed to Metal, such as Adobe, have backpedaled a bit as they work with the new technology. Apple has also been criticized for not adopting the most recent versions of OpenGL, which is also heavily relied upon in modern game development
Most recently, Blizzard launched free-to-play multiplayer online battle arena game Heroes of the Storm for Mac OS X on June 2, 2015.
The photographers who had their photos featured in an assortment of billboards and TV ads for the "Shot on iPhone 6" ad campaign Apple ran to promote its iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus have begun receiving a set of special coffee table photo books that include their artwork.
Cult of Mac spoke to photographer Brendan Ó Sé, one of the lucky few to receive one of the books after having his photo featured as part of the campaign. He said the cloth-covered high-quality books came as a surprise and were even shipped with a set of white gloves for viewing.
"It was totally out of the blue," photographer Brendan Ó Sé, of Cork, Ireland, told Cult of Mac. "Naturally, I looked for my own photo, but seeing those of the friends I've made over this campaign added to the surprise and thrill."
One of the books, "The Photographs" includes the photos that were used in the ad campaign, while the other, "The Gallery," features shots of the photographs on billboards around the world. With the billboards now largely replaced with new content for the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, the photo books serve as a memento for those who had their iPhone 6 images included in the campaign.
An Imgur album of some of the photos. Click this link to view the images on mobile devices.
Ó Sé's photograph was taken in Berlin, but the ads that went up around the world featured a wide assortment of images from places like United States, Canada, Japan, Iceland, South Korea, China, Scotland, Indonesia, Thailand and New Zealand. In total, more than 77 photographers across 70 cities and 40 countries were featured.
Apple executive Eddy Cue sat down with CNN senior correspondent Brian Stelter last week for a two-part interview about the new Apple TV, describing the fourth-generation device as an "add-on for most people," since content providers such as ABC, CNN and WatchESPN still require authenticating with a cable or satellite TV subscription.
Eddy Cue's interview with CNNMoney about the new Apple TV last week
CNNMoney has now shared a few additional comments Cue made about Apple's rumored streaming TV service. Specifically, Cue said the new Apple TV could support whole cable packages from content providers such as Comcast, but he refused to elaborate much further, beyond alluding that Apple wants customers to be "able to buy whatever they want, however they want."
But what about buying a whole cable package, including CBS, right through the TV?
"If Comcast or any other provider wants to do that, they'll be able to do that with the current Apple TV," Cue said.
When I asked directly if Apple wants to get to the point that Moonves has been describing, an Apple-branded TV package, Cue said, "We want to get to the point where customers are able to buy whatever they want, however they want. We're not fixed into 'There's only one way to buy it.' Just like we've done with the App Store, where there have been things that have been free; things that you subscribe to; things that you pay for; things that are in-app. All of those capabilities will be here and we want that market to be able to develop."
Apple's rumored streaming TV service is expected to deliver a lightweight package of about 25 channels for around $40 per month, anchored by popular networks such as ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX, and could launch in 2016 following multiple delays in negotiations between Apple and content providers.
The new Apple TV launched last Friday and features an App Store, Siri, tvOS and more.
Earlier this week, Plex released its highly anticipated app for the tvOS App Store, making Plex officially available on the Apple TV for the first time. Given Plex's popularity, we decided to check out the new app and do a quick video overview for those who might be interested in getting a new Apple TV to use with Plex.
Plex is a media server and personal library that's able to organize the media stored on your computer, like videos, TV shows, music, and stream that content to iOS devices, the Apple TV, and other set-top boxes.
When you install Plex and let it organize your content, it'll add artwork to movies, TV shows, and music, along with information like cast members, plot summaries, and Rotten Tomatoes ratings. On the Apple TV, this turns into a nicely organized media library that largely resembles iTunes or Netflix.
Plex has been available for a long time on set-top devices like the Chromecast and the Fire TV, but it has not previously been available on older versions of the Apple TV in an official capacity. Those who have jailbroken an Apple TV in the past have been able to unofficially install the Plex software.
The Plex app for the Apple TV can be downloaded from the tvOS App Store. The app is free to download, and unlike the iOS version does not require a $4.99 in-app purchase or Plex Pass subscription to unlock functionality. Apple TV and iOS App Store apps are universal, so if you've already downloaded the app for iOS, it can be found in the Purchases section of the tvOS App Store. [Direct Link]
The Logi Circle, a home monitoring camera, is one of the first products Logitech is selling under its new Logi brand, which it's using for devices that are part of the Internet of Things. The Logi Circle is a palm-sized connected camera designed to let its users monitor their home and interact with pets, children, and other people when away.
I've been using the Logi Circle in my home for the past few weeks to get a feel for how it works and how it compares to some of the other camera options on the market, and the major takeaway is that the Logi Circle is not a home security device. It's not meant to notify you of intruders, but it is a way to connect to the home and those inside of it at all times.
Hardware
The Logi Circle camera has an attractive, simple design that looks like a modernized version of a classic webcam. Made of black or white plastic, it's about the size of a tennis ball, with a circular base that fits magnetically into an included charging stand. A lot of companies don't pay attention to minor product details like cords, but that's not true of Logitech.
Attached to the charging stand is a flat white USB cord that's able to plug into the included power brick or any other USB-based charger. I don't know about most people, but I hate ugly, bulky black cords that stand out, so it was nice to see an unobtrusive, clean white cord included with the Logi Circle. The cord is also quite long at 10 feet, so it will reach to plug in behind furniture.
The front of the Logi Circle contains the camera, which has a 135 degree wide field of view. It's wide enough to capture most of a room, depending on the size of the room. Around the camera there's a ring-shaped speaker and a microphone for two-way communication. An activity light on the front indicates when the camera is turned on, and the light blinks when someone is viewing the feed.
For this week's giveaway, we've teamed up with ioSafe to give away one of their Solo G3 fireproof, waterproof external hard drives. The ioSafe Solo G3 is a rugged, heavy external hard drive that's made to hold up against disaster and look nice on a desk.
The Solo G3 is not a small hard drive, measuring in at 7.1 x 5 x 11 inches and weighing 15 pounds, but that's because of all of the equipment inside, which will keep a hard drive intact in the event of a house fire to save precious documents, photos, and more, making it an ideal in-home backup solution.
It will protect data from loss for up to a half hour in a fire that's up to 1550 degrees Fahrenheit. It's also waterproof at up to 10 feet for 72 hours, so it's going to stay safe in wet conditions, too. All of ioSafe's hard drives ship with a year of data recovery service - if there's a fire or other damage to the Solo G3, ship the hard drive back to ioSafe and they'll pay to recover your data.
This isn't the first time we've partnered with ioSafe. Earlier this year, they invited MacRumors to Seattle where we set one of the ioSafe Solo G3 hard drives on fire and then doused it in water. In the video below, you can see the hard drive inside the enclosure came out fully unscathed and kept our data safe. A non fireproof hard drive we burned alongside the Solo G3 was charred to a crisp.
One lucky MacRumors reader will win a 2TB Solo G3 from ioSafe. To enter to win, use the Rafflecopter widget below and enter an email address. Email addresses will be used solely for contact purposes to reach the winner and send the prize.
You can earn additional entries by subscribing to our weekly newsletter, subscribing to our YouTube channel, following us on Twitter, or visiting the MacRumorsFacebook 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 (November 6) at 12:15 p.m. Pacific Time through 12:15 p.m. Pacific Time on November 13. The winner will be chosen randomly on November 13 and will be contacted by email. The winner has 48 hours to respond and provide a shipping address before a new winner is chosen. The prize will be shipped to the winner for free.
Following yesterday's official launch of the first Apple Pay-enabled loyalty card from Walgreens with its Balance Rewards program, a number of MacRumors readers reported that their Shoppers Club loyalty cards from grocery store chain Wegmans were also showing up in Apple Pay.
Early testing has shown that card readers at Wegmans stores are not yet accepting Shoppers Club cards via Apple Pay, and Wegmans' June press release alongside Apple's WWDC announcements pointed only to a "fall" launch, so we contacted the company to ask for an update on Shoppers Club integration with Apple Pay.
"Wegmans will be testing loyalty card support via Apple Pay at one store later this year," a spokesperson told MacRumors. "If all goes well, we plan to roll that service out to all stores in 2016."
The spokesperson declined to identify the specific store where Apple Pay Shoppers Club will be tested, but did note it will be in the company's home market of Rochester, New York.
Wegmans is a popular grocery store chain that with a new store opening outside of Philadelphia this Sunday will have 88 locations in New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia. The chain is known for its large stores of up to 140,000 square feet with a focus on prepared foods, broad selection of items, and even in-store restaurants and childcare in some locations.
Apple yesterday quietly removed all mentions of PayPal Credit from its U.S. Online Store, signaling its decision to stop allowing customers to use PayPal Credit payment plans for purchases in the United States.
On the financing section of its website, where customers can get information about their payment options, Apple is now only offering financing through Barclaycard Visa, which allows users to make payments over 6 to 18 months depending on purchase price.
Previous PayPal Credit options, which are no longer available.
The previous PayPal Credit option allowed customers to choose 6, 12, 18, or 24 month payment plans with a fixed APR of 12.99%, while the Barclaycard Visa maxes out at 18 months with an APR of 13.99%, 19.99% or 26.99% depending on credit.
Apple is continuing to offer rewards to customers who buy with the Barclaycard Visa, with customers earning 3 points for every $1 spent at the Apple Store, 2 points for every $1 spent at restaurants, and 1 point on all other purchases. 2,500 points can be redeemed for Apple Store or iTunes gift cards.
Apple first began promoting PayPay Credit payment methods in December of 2014, which is when the company also began allowing customers to buy items using PayPal as a payment method. While Apple is no longer allowing customers to use PayPal Credit options to make purchases, it does still accept PayPal payments for purchases made from its online store and from its iOS app.
PayPal Credit is still available in the U.K., and it is not clear if Apple plans to drop support in other countries as well.
Apple will be updating the iOS App Store today to introduce a new Shopping category that will allow iOS users to better find shopping-related apps. According to TechCrunch the Shopping category will be available to users worldwide and will encompass apps that offer shopping, auctions, price comparisons, coupons, product reviews, and more, transitioning them from the existing Lifestyle category to the new less noisy category.
Apple plans to use the Shopping category to highlight apps that support Apple Pay, its mobile payments service. Many apps now include Apple Pay integration, letting users pay for merchandise with a finger on the Touch ID fingerprint button on supported devices.
The new App Store category will include launch with several different collections of shopping apps, including a "Save While You Shop" category that will be offering exclusive discounts from a variety of merchants like Everlane, Zappos, Groupon, and Nordstrom. Nordstrom, for example, will offer a free gift when $100 or more is spent in the app, while Zappos will offer free 1-day shipping.
App Store users should begin seeing the category in the App Store later today, and in the future, it's possible Apple could expand it to the tvOS App Store as well. The tvOS App Store currently only supports two categories, Games and Entertainment, but shopping on the big screen has been a feature that's been touted by Apple.
Popular warehouse chain Sam's Club has started accepting pre-orders for Apple's iPad Pro on its website, and has listed a release date of Friday, November 13 for the device. Sam's Club began advertising the iPad Pro in emails sent out to members this morning.
Sam's Club is accepting pre-orders for the 32 and 128GB Wi-Fi iPad Pro models in Space Gray, Silver, and Gold, but it is not selling the 128GB Wi-Fi + Cellular model. Sam's Club is also selling the device at a slight discount, pricing the two models at $787 for 32GB and $937 for 128GB, compared to Apple's pricing of $799 and $949.
Previous rumors suggested the iPad Pro would launch on Wednesday, November 11, but Friday, November 13 perhaps makes more sense as November 11 is Veterans Day in the United States. Beyond Sam’s Club, an iPad Pro accessory maker has also claimed that Chinese resellers will be receiving iPad Pros on November 11 ahead of a November 13 launch.
Earlier this week, Apple's Eddy Cue spoke at the Dropbox Open conference where he referenced the iPad Pro and said it would be "only a few more days" until the device would be available for purchase. It remains unclear if Apple will begin accepting pre-orders next week or if the iPad Pro will go on sale without a pre-order period.
Pricing on the iPad Pro starts at $799 for the 32GB Wi-Fi only version and goes up to $1,079 for a 128GB Wi-Fi + Cellular model. The Apple Pencil and the Smart Keyboard, its two accessories, are sold separately for $99 and $169, respectively.
Update: As of 2 p.m. Pacific Time on Friday, Sam's Club is sold out of iPad Pro pre-orders.
Update 2: MacMall is also accepting pre-orders for the iPad Pro, but the site says orders won't ship for nine days, which would have orders arriving after the prospective November 11 or November 13 launch date. The device is estimated to be in stock at MacMall on November 15.
Dutch developer jvanakker has hacked the new Apple TV to run a native tvOS web browser using a private API based on Apple's UIWebView class, sharing the code on GitHub as a fork of developer Steven Troughton-Smith's tvOSBrowser project. The demo video below shows Apple's website running on the fourth-generation box.
The simplistic tvOS web browser allows you to scroll through pages with the Siri Remote, and pressing the center of the touch surface brings up a cursor for clicking. Pressing the Menu button returns you to the previous page, while the Play/Pause button allows you to input URLs, according to GitHub.
Apple does not allow Apple TV apps to have UIWebViews, so this web browser would not be approved on the tvOS App Store, but the project is a good proof of concept. Apple TV users interested in testing the web browser can follow iDownloadBlog's guide to sideload the app using Xcode and modify a tvOS file to build it successfully.
Instagram has begun testing various ads that will allow users to shop for everything from clothing to menu items at local restaurants, integrating new iPhone features like 3D Touch and Apple Pay as well (via Digiday). The social network has had ads appear in users' feeds for a while now, but hopes that more unobtrusive shopping experiences that keep users in the app itself will attract bigger brands to the service.
“From an innovation standpoint, Instagram is where a lot of brands are putting the most eggs,” said an ad agency executive familiar with the tests. “Force touch gets interesting, because instead of quickly tapping Shop Now to buy this one thing, you can choose from two or three offers. It makes for more frictionless shopping.”
3D Touch integration will let users press harder on the ad to toggle between various selections from a clothing brand, for instance. The addition of Apple Pay aims to add to the "frictionless shopping" experience by letting users purchase something they see directly within Instagram, without having to visit the brand's own app or Safari to complete the purchase.
Instagram, owned by Facebook, is attempting to get a cut from the sales of many of the products that its service generates naturally, according to Digiday's sources. Some of those sources fear Instagram's commercialization due to the heavily-marketed advertisements being tested on the platform, suggesting the photo-focused service is best left as a "branding opportunity" for companies and leaving the sales portion to its parent site, Facebook.
According to a recent report from Taiwan's Commercial Times, via EE Times and a separate research report from KGI Securities' Ming-Chi Kuo, Taiwan-based TSMC may have won sole production rights on the A10 chip slated for the next-generation iPhone 7.
This is in contrast to the split production of the A9 processor between Samsung and TSMC featured in the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus. Apple's decision to revert back to TSMC as a single supplier, as was seen in A8 chip production, could be motivated by advanced device packaging techniques offered by TSMC that may not have equivalents in Samsung's packaging offerings.
The Commercial Times report mentions TSMC's integrated fan-out wafer-level packaging (InFO WLP) technology as one of the key inclusions in the production contract. InFO WLP is one of many competing 3D IC technologies that promise higher levels of component integration in a single package with better electrical characteristics.
Among those improvements is the possibility for higher-width memory buses that support lower-power operation necessary for mobile devices, which for consumers means better performance and efficiency. 3D IC technologies are just beginning to emerge in the consumer space, with AMD's use of High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) in its Fiji XT line of discrete graphics cards being one of the first implementations.
According to a paper abstract from TSMC engineers, InFO WLP also allows for better thermal performance as well as superior performance for radio frequency (RF) components such as cellular modems. We reported last year about Apple hiring more engineers to potentially bring RF component development in house, so this packaging technology could serve as additional motivation to Apple for packaging in the future. Even if Samsung could offer Apple a comparable technology, the challenges of verifying a design on two new manufacturing flows may be a motivating factor for Apple to stick with one supplier for its next processor.
In the near term, the thermal advantages and potential increased memory bandwidth are the more immediate sources of improvement for Apple's potential next chip. Many 3D IC technologies have seen slow adoption due to increased costs and processing steps, but the simpler InFO WLP technology offers an easier, cheaper entry point for Apple, which also has the luxury of uncommonly high margins on its devices.
Comparison of packaging technologies offered by TSMC
TSMC's InFO WLP differs from many competing 3D IC solutions in that it does not require an additional silicon interposer along with the existing package substrate used for component integration. Though they do not feature active components, silicon interposers are made on silicon wafers just like the application processors featured in mobile devices, making them a costly addition to the device assembly.
InFO WLP allows multiple flip chip components to be placed side-by-side on a package substrate resembling a traditional assembly, but with the ability to interconnect to one another through the package substrate. This is in contrast to traditional methods which feature stacked packages (package on package, or PoP) interconnected with tiny wires. As mobile memory technologies advance, with LPDDR4 being the latest iteration, electrical signaling becomes an increasing technological challenge which begins to make 3D IC technologies more attractive for enhanced performance.
The list of included components would not be limited to memory, however, so future device teardowns will be interesting as mobile devices begin to include these technologies. More information on TSMC's packaging technologies can be accessed via this PDF.
One of Apple's recent hires is Rónán Ó Braonáin, who previously served as Director of Engineering at Reviver, a company that makes digital license plates. Braonáin joined the company in August, and as seen on his LinkedIn page, he's working on Apple Special Projects as a "Secret Agent." Presumably that means he's part of the team working on Project Titan, the codename for the Apple Car.
The profile, discovered by Electrek.co, says Braonáin led the Reviver engineering team for five months. Before that, he worked at Vision Fleet, building fleet management software to read data from electric vehicles, and prior to that, he was a software engineer at BMW working on connected car apps.
Reviver has produced Slate, a product dubbed "The World's First Digital License Plate." The Slate is a connected plate that's able to do things like monitor vehicle location and maintenance records and digitally send payments for tolls and parking fees. It also alleviates the need for physical stickers and manual registration processes.
Given Braonáin's short time at Reviver, it's not clear if Apple hired him for the work he did on digital license plate technology, but it's possible it's something Apple is considering for the Apple Car.
Braonáin is just one of dozens of hires with car-related expertise Apple has made in recent months. Apple has been hiring employees from companies like Chrysler, Tesla, NVIDIA, Volkswagen, and Ford, along with researchers who have expertise in autonomous vehicles and connected car systems.
Development on the Apple Car has sped up as of September of 2015, when the project reportedly received a "committed" label. Apple is said to be targeting a 2019 completion date for the project and will make additional hires in the coming months and years as work on the car continues.
The second OS X 10.11.2 beta is available through the Software Update mechanism in the Mac App Store to those who are enrolled in Apple's beta testing program. Those wishing to join the program can sign up on Apple's beta testing website.
The first OS X 10.11.2 beta did not include any outward-facing changes, but it likely includes bug fixes, security enhancements, and performance improvements to address issues discovered since the release of OS X 10.11.1. Apple's release notes for the initial developer beta asked testers to focus on Graphics, Wi-Fi, Calendar, USB, Notes, Photos, and Spotlight.
Facebook today announced a new feature for its iOS app called "Music Stories" that will allow users to sample 30-second clips of songs that their friends and family post to the social network from services like Apple Music, iTunes, and Spotify. Users will be able to stream the clip directly from their feed and even follow a link to purchase or add the music directly into their Apple Music or Spotify playlists.
There are few things people love more than music. People find out about it from artists and friends alike, and they love to share their discoveries. Today we are enabling better music discovery and sharing on Facebook.
We hope by making this experience better, artists will share more, friends will share and engage more, and music will become a better part of the Facebook experience overall.
The company promises that support for other streaming music services will be coming soon, and that it sees Music Stories as a way to further mold Facebook into a one-stop experience where users can get updates on friends, family, entertainment and political news, and now new song and album recommendations. Facebook didn't give any word on when the new music-centric feature would be making its way to other platforms like Android or the web.
We’re introducing “Music Stories” today to enable better music discovery and sharing on Facebook. The new post format allows people to listen to previews on Facebook from Apple Music and Spotify. You can read more about it on Facebook for Media: http://media.fb.com/blog
Posted by Music on Facebook on Thursday, November 5, 2015
Recently, the social network company faced a widespread issue of users reporting dramatic battery drain while the Facebook iOS ran in the background, even with background app refresh switched off. It has since repaired the issue, but left some Facebook users unsure of the company's intentions, like MacStories' Federico Vittici, who said the company had "a deep lack of respect for iOS users" when his hypothesis of silent background audio running to produce a snappier experience was proved to be correct.
Following yesterday's 
According to a recent report from Taiwan's Commercial Times, via 
