MacRumors

In line with the target date announced by Tim Cook last week, Apple is now allowing customers to place online orders for the new Apple TV set-top box. The new Apple TV is available with either 32 GB of storage for $149 or 64 GB for $199, and orders will begin shipping to customers later this week, with the earliest deliveries being set for October 30 for those who opt for one-day shipping.

Alongside the box itself, Apple is also selling extra Siri Remotes for $79 and Remote Loop wrist straps for $12.99. Two-year AppleCare coverage is also available for $29.

Outside of the United States, the new Apple TV is available in a number of countries, with pricing for select locations as follows:

- Canada: $199/$269
- UK: £129/£169
- Euro countries: €179/€229
- Australia: A$269/A$349
- Japan: ￥18,400/￥24,800

The new Apple TV brings a number of improvements in both hardware and the user experience, led by a full App Store with support for third-party apps and a new touch-based remote that supports Siri-based controls in select countries. Universal search allows users to find available content across different services, and Apple intends to open this feature up to developers to allow their content to be included.

On the hardware side, the new Apple TV includes an A8 chip with 2 GB of RAM, supporting up to 1080p video at 60 frames per second. The new remote for the Apple TV includes a glass touchpad as well as an accelerometer and a gyroscope that allow it to serve a game controller. Third-party Bluetooth controllers are also supported.

As the first full weekend in theaters for Aaron Sorkin and Danny Boyle's Steve Jobs film comes to a close, early box office results have been disappointing, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Estimates put the film's take at $7.3 million from nearly 2,500 theaters, well below expectations and only good enough for seventh place on the weekend.

Those backing Steve Jobs had wanted to land somewhere in the teens, but are counting on a long run throughout awards season (an A- CinemaScore should help word of mouth). Jobs is over-indexing in upscale theaters in major cities, including the Bay Area — home of Apple — but falling flat in Middle America. Two weekends ago, the $30 million movie scored the top location average of the year to date when opening in New York and Los Angeles. Through Sunday, its domestic total is $10 million.

"We're going to redouble our efforts to support these markets," said Universal domestic distribution chief Nic Carpou. "It's working great in these theaters now, and we want to make sure it continues to do so."

The film has generally received a positive reception from critics, particularly for Michael Fassbender's portrayal of Jobs. Those more familiar with Jobs' history and those closest to him have, however, been less satisfied with the film, in many cases taking issue with the way Jobs is portrayed and some of the artistic license that deviates significantly from actual events.

Apple has shared three new iPhone 6s television ads called The Camera, Crush and Flip a coin, the latter two starring musician and actor Jamie Foxx. The new ads continue Apple's "the only thing that's changed is everything" campaign, focusing on the improved cameras and hands-free "Hey Siri" functionality on iPhone 6s.

The Camera is a one-minute spot, starring Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry, that shows off new iPhone 6s camera features, including 3D Touch, Live Photos, Retina Flash and 4K video recording. It also features 1080p HD slow-mo video recording and groups of people taking selfies using the improved 5-megapixel FaceTime camera.

Crush is a shorter fifteen-second spot where Foxx is getting dressed in front of a mirror and asks, "Hey Siri how do I look," to which Siri responds, "Judging from your voice, I'd say you must be fairly attractive." The focus of the ad is on how Hey Siri allows for hands-free usage of Apple's personal voice assistant on iPhone 6s.

Flip a coin is a similar fifteen-second spot that demonstrates hands-free Siri on iPhone 6s. Foxx is holding two movie scripts in his hand, contemplating which one to choose, before ultimately saying "Hey Siri flip a coin." Siri responds with "Tails" and Foxx says "sci-fi western it is."

Apple has released nearly three dozen ads for the iPhone 6s and Apple Watch over the past few weeks. Foxx starred in a similar iPhone 6s ad for 3D Touch earlier this month, while a series of Apple Watch ads have been released on two occasions focused on Apple Music, Apple Pay, Siri and messaging, fitness, maps and more.

Apple has hired Nvidia's Jonathan Cohen, director of deep learning software for the company, according to Cohen's LinkedIn page, which was first spotted by Re/code. Deep learning essentially trains computers to recognize patterns in data and then organizes them in a similar way to humans. Nvidia uses deep learning in its Nvidia Drive PX platform, which is used to power self-driving cars.

Cohen's LinkedIn page doesn't list an official title with Apple, instead only listing "Software" as his position. He's held multiple positions within Nvidia since joining the company in 2008, starting out as a Senior Research Scientist and building his way to Director of Deep Learning Software this year. Cohen also has experience working with Nvidia's CUDA platform, which is used to power GPUs in broad-ranging use cases like air traffic control and blood flow prediction software.

As noted by Re/code, Apple currently uses deep learning for Siri and Apple Maps. It's unknown what Cohen's expertise could be applied to at Apple, but at this year's CES Cohen was explaining how Nvidia's deep learning technology was being used in its self-driving car platform Drive PX.

Apple has met with California DMV officials regarding self-driving car laws within the state and multiple reports from The Wall Street Journal indicate that the Cupertino company is exploring the functionality with the possibility of including it in a later iteration of the much-rumored Apple Car.

In recent years, Apple has poached employees from Tesla, Ford, GM, A123 Systems and Samsung for its secretive automotive project. More recently, it's hired away talent from electric motorcycle startup Mission Motors, who had to close its doors after the talent drain. In September, it was reported that Apple was labeling the car project a "committed project", speeding up development and aiming for a 2019 launch date.

Apple was slapped with a $5 million class action lawsuit over iOS 9's Wi-Fi Assist feature today, according to AppleInsider. The new feature is turned on by default in iOS 9 and automatically switches a user to cellular data when the local Wi-Fi connection is weak.

The feature is an attempt to create a more smooth user experience, but some users have complained that the feature increases data use, which would take some users near or over their monthly data caps. In October, Apple admitted that users should only see a "small percentage" hike in data usage and attempted to ease concerns over the feature.

In a support document, Apple explained that the feature does not work when a user is roaming, only works when apps are in the foreground and doesn't work with third-party apps that use large amounts of data, like music and video streaming apps.

The lawsuit says that plaintiffs William Scott Phillips and Suzanne Schmidt Phillips were subjected to overage charges on their iPhones after updating to iOS 9, although the suit doesn't list how much those charges were. However, the plaintiffs claim that the "overall amount in controversy exceeds" $5 million. The suit also notes that Apple did not clearly explain the feature until the media covered user complaints, but that at that point it was too late for the plaintiffs.

"Defendant's above corrective action, however, still downplays the possible data overcharges a user could incur. Reasonable and average consumers use their iPhones for streaming of music, videos, and running various applications — all of which can use significant data. Defendant's corrective statement does not disclose any basis for its conclusion that an average consumer would not see much increase in cellular usage."

Wi-Fi assist is available on devices running iOS 9 or later, although the feature is not supported on the iPhone 4s, iPad 2, the 3rd-generation iPad and the 1st-generation iPad mini. To turn off Wi-Fi Assist, users can go to Settings > Cellular and scroll down to the bottom to toggle off the feature.

With the launch of the iPad Pro coming up shortly, technology and education expert Fraser Speirs got some hands-on time with the device at an invitation-only event in London yesterday. Speirs has been sharing his thoughts from his one-hour session with the iPad Pro and its accessories and answering questions on Twitter, offering an interesting perspective on the user experience.

Overall, Speirs was impressed by the iPad Pro, finding it most ideal for productivity tasks in noting the device "is expansive where the Air 2 is intimate. It definitely has a 'work' feel to it, although photos/media are fantastic." Multitasking in particular is "a whole different thing" on the iPad Pro with a true feeling of "two iPads stuck together," an experience that makes it "a great device for serious work and creativity."

Speirs is a bit less enthusiastic about other use cases, noting that "if you just use it to browse and Netflix" there may not be enough benefit from the iPad Pro to make it worth the increased size and weight compared to iPad Air 2. For reading, he feels "it's not a device to snuggle up with" but would be solid for reference work.

Turning to the Apple Pencil, Speirs calls it "extremely impressive" and "certainly the best iPad stylus I have used by a country mile." Palm rejection is described as "near-perfect" and the "best I have ever seen on iOS," making for a smooth experience with writing and drawing apps.

Speirs was less impressed with the Smart Keyboard, calling it "a bit fiddly" due to its size and complexity but a "decent enough" keyboard. As far as the keyboard feel, Speirs compares it most closely to Logitech's Keys-to-Go among accessories iPad users might already be familiar with.

For more of Speirs' thoughts on the iPad Pro and its accessories, check out his Twitter timeline, which is full of tidbits and other impressions.

Apple Pay badges have been added to Apple Maps listings for select Coles and Woolworths supermarket locations in Australia, as spotted by multiple users on discussion forum AppleTalk Australia. The badges are normally reserved for locations that accept Apple Pay, which is noteworthy given the mobile payments service has yet to officially launch in Australia.

The badges appear in Apple Maps for select Coles and Woolworths store listings in or near large Australian cities such as Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney. Many other Coles and Woolworths listings do not have the badge, nor do large Australian chains such as McDonald's, so it remains unclear if they were added by mistake, or are indicative of forthcoming Apple Pay support in Australia.

Apple Pay launched in the U.S. in October 2014 before arriving in the U.K. last July, but Apple has remained quiet about its plans to expand iPhone-based contactless payments to additional countries. In August, Fairfax Media reported that Australian banks oppose Apple sharing a portion of the $2 billion interchange fees they collect from merchants each year in return for use of payment infrastructure.

Australia is a well-prepared candidate for Apple Pay, as contactless payments technology has been widely adopted throughout the country over the past few years. Several retailers that support Apple Pay in the U.S. and U.K. also operate in Australia, including Aéropostale, Apple, Babies "R" Us, Champs Sports, Foot Locker, GameStop, McDonald's, Nike, OfficeMax and Subway.

Beyond Australia, The Wall Street Journal previously reported that Apple is planning a November launch of Apple Pay in Canada, which was likely prematurely leaked by TD Canada Trust last week. Apple has reportedly been in talks with Canada's six largest banks, including the Bank of Montreal, CIBC, National Bank of Canada, Royal Bank of Canada, Scotiabank and TD Canada Trust.

Update: Apple Pay badges have also been spotted on some Apple Maps listings in Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Poland and Singapore.

Steve Jobs has been out in limited release for two weeks now, meaning fans in New York, Los Angeles, Toronto and select other locations in the U.S. and Canada have been able to see the Danny Boyle-directed film about the former Apple CEO ahead of today's official wide release. Since its debut on October 9, the movie has grossed $2,601,320 as of Wednesday, October 21.

With the wide release, Universal Pictures has uploaded a handful of new videos to its YouTube channel. Throughout its limited release, the company posted unique content surrounding the launch of the movie, including a video where Steve Wozniak discusses his relationship with the real Steve Jobs and new clips from the movie. Yesterday, a roundtable discussion video was posted showcasing the film's cast and crew talking about the legacy of Jobs.

The new movie, made on a budget of $30 million, is projected to gross between $15 and $19 million on opening weekend, with its direct competitor for the top spot at the box office being the supernatural horror sequel Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension (via Variety). In total, Steve Jobs will expand from its 60 previous limited release theater locations to 2,411 across the country today.

Facebook's newest iOS update, out today, fixes a major battery draining bug that some Facebook users have been experiencing in recent weeks. Affected users were seeing large amounts of battery drain on their iPhones due to Facebook running in the background, something that happened even when background app refresh was toggled off in the Settings app.

While the latest Facebook app release notes don't include a reference to the issue, Facebook engineering manager Ari Grant wrote a post (via TechCrunch) explaining the issues behind the battery drain and what Facebook has done to fix it. According to Grant, there were several factors that contributed to the problem, including a "CPU spin" in the network code and silent background audio sessions that kept the app awake even when it wasn't open.

The first issue we found was a "CPU spin" in our network code. A CPU spin is like a child in a car asking, "Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?"with the question not resulting in any progress to reaching the destination. This repeated processing causes our app to use more battery than intended. The version released today has some improvements that should start making this better.

The second issue is with how we manage audio sessions. If you leave the Facebook app after watching a video, the audio session sometimes stays open as if the app was playing audio silently. This is similar to when you close a music app and want to keep listening to the music while you do other things, except in this case it was unintentional and nothing kept playing. The app isn't actually doing anything while awake in the background, but it does use more battery simply by being awake. Our fixes will solve this audio issue and remove background audio completely.

When the Facebook battery draining issue first began circulating, MacStories' Federico Vittici hypothesized it was caused by silent audio running in the background, which turned out to be correct. Vittici believed Facebook used silent audio intentionally as a way to keep the app active in the background for tasks like pre-loading content, which he said showed "a deep lack of respect for iOS users."

Regarding today's comment from Facebook engineer Ari Grant, TechCrunch's Matthew Panzarino also suspects there's a possibility Facebook's use of background audio might have been done on purpose, despite Facebook's claim that it was an unintentional bug.

So if you believe Grant, this is a simple bug. It could happen to anyone etc etc. If you don't believe him, it was a thing Facebook was doing to make their app work a way they wanted it to but Apple didn't and they got caught. I'm not gonna pass any judgments here -- bugs happen all of the time and it's not fun to get pilloried over a simple mistake. Either way, attention was brought to it and it's fixed now.

Grant says fixes have been implemented for both of the issues causing battery drain and Facebook users "should see improvements in the version released today." Facebook will also continue to improve the battery usage of its iOS app.