MacRumors

Apple has posted an open casting call (via Cult of Mac) for its upcoming original TV show Planet of the Apps, an unscripted program about apps and the people who make them. The show is currently looking for developers from San Francisco, Austin, New York and Los Angeles to participate.

Executive producers will.i.am, Ben Silverman, and Howard Owens are teaming up for an unscripted series about the world of apps and the talented people that drive its innovation. They’re looking for developers with the vision to shape the future, solve real problems, and inspire change within our daily lives. “We can really tell their stories as we explore how apps are developed and created and incubated,” says Silverman.

The site says the show isn't just a show, but a "launchpad" and "accelerator" that'll offer developers three unique opportunities. Developers on Planet of the Apps will receive mentorship from the "world's best experts" in tech and entertainment, up to $10 million in funding if they reach the final round of the show, and featured placement in the App Store at the end of the show.

Participation will be limited to 100 developers. Apps must be for either iOS, macOS, tvOS or watchOS and the app must be in a functional state or beta by October 21, so that developers have something to share on the show. Developers are allowed to submit multiple apps and individuals can apply with multiple development teams. Developers have until August 26, 2016 to apply. Filming will take place in Los Angeles in late 2016 and early 2017.

Planet of the Apps is part of Apple's push into original television programming. The show was first announced in March, and other original content will include Vital Signs, a show about and starring Beats co-founder and Apple executive Dr. Dre. While Vital Signs will help promote Apple Music, Planet of the Apps will help promote the App Store.

Interested developers can apply on the show's website.

Somaltus, LLC has filed a complaint against Apple today in an Eastern Texas district court, accusing the iPhone maker of infringing upon its 2010 patent related to complex battery technologies. The small Frisco, Texas-based firm also filed lawsuits against Asus, Lenovo, Samsung, Sony, and Toshiba over the same patent.

The lawsuit claims that the iPhone 6s and any similar devices sold by Apple infringe upon U.S. Patent No. 7,657,386, titled "Integrated Battery Service System," and seeks unspecified monetary damages or, alternatively, a running royalty on sales of infringing devices from the time of judgment going forward.

Defendant sells, offers to sell, and/or uses telephones including, without limitation, the iPhone 6s (the "Product"), for example, and any similar devices, which infringe at least Claim 1 of the ‘386 Patent.

On information and belief, the Product includes a battery service system including a processor (e.g., the A9 chip), which is configured to receive signals from connectors coupled to a battery (e.g., the Product's rechargeable lithium-ion battery).

Specifically, it appears that the infringement claim at least partially relates to the iPhone's process of charging in fast-charge mode until the battery reaches 80% capacity, and then adjusting to trickle-charge mode above 80% capacity.

On information and belief, the processor executes the control codes to continually adjust a charge level to the battery. The Product has a charging system according to which the system operates in fast-charge mode until the battery reaches 80% capacity and then adjusts to trickle-charge mode when the capacity exceeds 80%. When the capacity drops below 80%, the system gain adjusts to fast-charge operation. The purpose of the system is to reduce the charging level applied to the battery at high capacity in order to extend the battery lifespan. Thus, the system adjusts the charging level applied to the battery and does so continuously as the battery charge capacity repeatedly exceeds and drops below 80%.

Somaltus, LLC generally fits the description of a "patent troll," as it does not appear to provide any obvious products or services and lacks an easily identifiable online presence. Nevertheless, it has successfully reached out-of-court settlements with automakers like Ford and Nissan in the past in relation to the same particular patent.

The legal complaint's case number is 2:16-cv-00758 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.

Ultra popular augmented reality game Pokémon Go received its first update since its July 5 launch, introducing some much-needed bug fixes to resolve several issues Pokémon players have run into while using the app.

A major concern with Pokémon Go was the app's access to a user's full Google account when signing in through Google on an iPhone, a problem that has now been fixed. Users worried Pokémon Go developer Niantic Labs would have access to Google account information like Gmail messages, Google Drive documents, and more through its full account access, but Niantic clarified asking for full access was a mistake and that nothing more than basic profile information had been utilized.

As of today's update, Pokémon Go will no longer request full access to Google accounts when a Google account is used as a sign-in option.

Niantic Labs is also introducing fixes to the log in process, which should cut down on the number of times that players have to log into the game, and there are fixes for the frequent crashes users have been experiencing. Many Pokémon Go players have noticed crashes when discovering pokémon and attempting to catch them, and today's update may fix these problems.

Thank you for your incredible response and support of Pokémon GO! We are working hard to improve the experience for everyone. This update focuses on making Pokémon GO more stable with the following improvements:

- Trainers do not to have to enter their username and password repeatedly after a force log out
- Added stability to Pokémon Trainer Club account log-in process
- Resolved issues causing crashes
- Fixed Google account scope

Since its release last week, Pokémon Go has been hugely successful, earning an estimated $1.6 million in daily revenue with approximately 7.5 million downloads in the United States alone. The game has sparked a worldwide phenomenon, garnering heavy coverage in the media and driving traffic to local businesses as players set out on foot around their neighborhoods to track down pokémon.

Pokémon Go can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]

Market research company J.D. Power has published the results of its 2016 Smartwatch Device Satisfaction Report, and Apple ranked highest among smartwatch manufacturers in customer satisfaction. Samsung finished in second place, although it was first in the related fitness band category.

The report measured overall satisfaction among 2,696 customers who purchased a smartwatch within the past year, including these factors listed in order of importance: ease of use, comfort, battery life, phone features, price, strength/durability, display size, styling/appearance, reliability, apps available, and customer service.

Apple earned a satisfaction score of 852 out of 1000, and a five-out-of-five Power Circle rating, compared to runner-up Samsung's score of 842 and two-out-of-five Power Circle rating. Sony, Fitbit, and LG rounded off the top five smartwatch manufacturers with scores of 840, 839, and 827 respectively.

In June 2015, research panel Wristly said overall customer satisfaction with the Apple Watch was 97%, a statistic that Apple CEO Tim Cook cited during the company's subsequent financial earnings call. Apple Watch's customer satisfaction has dropped slightly since then, but it has remained consistently high overall.

J.D. Power and Associates, a division of McGraw Hill Financial, has conducted highly-regarded customer satisfaction surveys for automakers, airlines, technology brands, and more since 1968. iPhones and iPads have consistently topped J.D. Power's smartphone and tablet customer satisfaction ratings in past years.

Following yesterday's circulation of iPhone 7 case images, NWE this morning posted another series of shots from the same "reliable" source, this time including what looks like the larger iPhone 7 Plus handset with dual-lens camera.

The additional iPhone 7 pictures offer a few more angles of a possibly fully assembled 4.7-inch device, without revealing anything particularly new, so we've reproduced them here merely for completion.

Readers will note that the power/standby button, volume controls and mute switch can be made out on the sides of the case, while the metallic Apple logo appears to have been fitted, but the images still leave us none the wiser as to whether this device has a headphone jack or not.

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The latest numbers from market research firm IDC reveal that Mac sales experienced a slight year-over-year decline in the second quarter, dropping to 4.4 million from 4.8 million during the year-ago period.

Apple fell behind ASUS to finish as the fifth-largest PC vendor by shipments worldwide, with 7.1 percent market share through late June. Apple had 7.4 percent share in the second quarter of 2015 comparatively, according to IDC's data.

The decline can as typical be attributed partially to seasonal fluctuations and increased competition, but many prospective buyers are patiently impatiently waiting for Apple to release its next-generation MacBook Pro and other refreshed Macs.

Apple has not updated the MacBook Pro in over 400 days. The hope, supported by multiple rumors, is that it will release a redesigned MacBook Pro with faster Skylake processors and Thunderbolt 3 with USB-C in the second half of 2016. The top-of-the-line model could sport AMD's new 400-series Polaris graphics chip.

KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said Apple will launch two thinner and lighter 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Pro models in the September-December quarter. The notebooks are expected to feature a new OLED touch bar positioned above the keyboard, Touch ID, and hinges made from metal injection molding.

Overall PC sales totaled an estimated 62.4 million worldwide in the second quarter, a year-over-year decline of 4.5 percent, as the PC market continues to decline. Nevertheless, North American PC shipments increased for the first time in five quarters, reflecting the strength of the U.S. dollar and "relative market stability."

Gartner has also released similar worldwide PC shipment data for the second quarter.

Pokémon Go is experiencing a momentous launch week, with an estimated 7.5 million downloads and nearly as many daily active Android users as Twitter in the United States. The rollout has not been entirely smooth, however, as the game has indirectly been at the center of crimes, robberies, and even car accidents.

When granted full account access, Pokémon Go developer Niantic is theoretically capable of viewing and modifying nearly all information stored in your Google account, including your Gmail messages, Google Drive documents, Google Maps navigation history, search history, and personal photos stored on Google Photos.

Now, I obviously don't think Niantic are planning some global personal information heist. This is probably just the result of epic carelessness. But I don’t know anything about Niantic’s security policies. I don't know how well they will guard this awesome new power they’ve granted themselves, and frankly I don't trust them at all. I've revoked their access to my account, and deleted the app. I really wish I could play, it looks like great fun, but there's no way it's worth the risk.

It remains unclear what information, if any, Niantic is actually collecting from users, but the permissions are concerning given the company's history.

Niantic was formed by Keyhole founder John Hanke in 2010 as an internal startup at Google, until it was spun out as an independent entity in October 2015. Google then partnered with The Pokémon Company and Nintendo to invest up to $30 million in Niantic, so it has a remaining interest in the company.

Google is known to collect and track data from its users, fueling the privacy and security concerns. Niantic told Ars Technica that it has "no comment to share at the moment" about the issue, prompting some players to uninstall the game until the potential privacy implications are addressed.

Pokémon Go is available as a free download on the App Store [Direct Link] in the United States, Australia, and New Zealand, but anyone can install the app now with a U.S. iTunes account. The game is expected to expand to the U.K. and additional countries in the near future. Read more about Pokémon Go here.

Update: Niantic tells The Verge that the company did not intend to request full Google account access and will issue a client-side fix to reduce the number of permissions.

"We recently discovered that the Pokémon GO account creation process on iOS erroneously requests full access permission for the user’s Google account. However, Pokémon Go only accesses basic Google profile information (specifically, your User ID and email address) and no other Google account information is or has been accessed or collected. Once we became aware of this error, we began working on a client-side fix to request permission for only basic Google profile information, in line with the data that we actually access. Google has verified that no other information has been received or accessed by Pokémon Go or Niantic. Google will soon reduce Pokémon Go’s permission to only the basic profile data that Pokémon Go needs, and users do not need to take any actions themselves."

Although Nintendo, Niantic, and The Pokémon Company have a few good reasons to celebrate the launch of their new augmented reality mobile game Pokémon Go, a couple of incidents related to the game have already begun sprouting up over the past few days, bringing to light a few cautionary tales for everyone delving into the game.

Because it requires players to travel to real-world destinations in order to stock up on Poké Balls, eggs, and potions, and compete at gyms, some individuals have been capitalizing on the game's mechanics to trap and rob its players. According to a Facebook post from the O'Fallon Police Department in Missouri, four people were arrested over the weekend after using a Lure Module at a PokéStop to draw in unsuspecting players and rob them at gunpoint.

"Many of you have asked how the app was used to rob victims, the way we believe it was used is you can add a beacon to a pokestop to lure more players," the police department said in a statement on Facebook. "Apparently they were using the app to locate [people] standing around in the middle of a parking lot or whatever other location they were in."

The Lure Modules work as ways to bait more Pokémon into showing up to any PokéStop for 30 minutes, and enhances the Stop's visibility to a glowing pink color when in use, so it's easy for other players nearby to notice. Due to this, other cities across the United States have reported Pokémon Go-related thefts since the game launched last week, including a few in Philadelphia.

Other users playing the game have been lead to a few scary discoveries, including one woman who found a corpse while traveling to a PokéStop in Wyoming. Nineteen-year-old Shayla Wiggins jumped a fence to capture a nearby Pokémon, but instead discovered the dead body of a man who is believed to have drowned in the Big Wind River. According to the local police department, "There is no evidence at this time that would indicate foul play."

Nintendo reminds users to be aware of their surroundings every time the app is opened, and a few states have issued specific warnings as well, but there have also been some driving-related incidents since the game launched. While Pokémon Go encourages players to strike off the beaten path to discover wild Pokémon nearby, most have discovered -- especially in cities where walking is inhibited -- that it's easy to idle past nearby PokéStops and Gyms, already leading to more than a handful of Pokémon Go-influenced accidents.

Pokémon Go is still in its early stages, with Niantic promising continuous updates down the line to enhance player interactivity with the game thanks to the addition of social aspects like Pokémon trading. The company hasn't yet divulged when the first update will be hitting, however, since the app has yet to launch worldwide. Pokémon Go isn't considered one of Nintendo's official smartphone games, but it does appear to hint at a more popular staying power than Miitomo, which launched earlier in the year. Next up the company plans to debut apps related to the Fire Emblem and Animal Crossing franchises.

In the United States, Australia, and New Zealand Pokémon Go can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]