Apple has started sending emails to customers who may be affected by shipping delays caused by Pope Francis' visit to the United States, letting them know that they may not be able to receive their iPhone 6s and 6s pre-orders on launch day.
Based on an image shared by Sam Biddle on Twitter, Apple is informing customers that while there may be delivery issues on Friday in restricted areas, Saturday deliveries will be available in most areas. Any customer in an affected area can expect to receive an email from Apple and from UPS or FedEX.
As MacRumorsreported over the weekend, Pope Francis will be visiting New York City and Philadelphia this week, with all of the major shipping companies planning to shut down deliveries in select areas during his visit. UPS, FedEX, and USPS will all be following security protocols that will delay package deliveries in the following ZIP codes:
Package pick ups and deliveries will be unavailable in areas of New York City on Thursday and Friday, and in areas of Philadelphia on Friday and Saturday. With Saturday delivery available, many who are not able to get their phones on Friday may be able to have them delivered on Saturday instead, and both UPS and FedEX may allow customers to route packages to an area where deliveries are available.
For customers outside of New York and Philadelphia, the first iPhone 6s and 6s Plus pre-order shipments will be arriving on Friday, September 25.
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.
The iPhone 6s and 6s Plus include several new camera features that have been highly popular in reviews thus far, but there's also a fantastic update to the way photos are displayed on the two devices. With Live Photos, exclusive to the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, a bit of motion is captured alongside each photo, enabling short animations that bring each image to life.
To enable Live Photos, the iPhone captures 1.5 seconds before every picture is taken and 1.5 seconds afterwards. The motion is then displayed whenever a 3D Touch force press is used on a photo, activating the animation to add a bit of context.
With iPhone 6s reviews coming out today, we've learned several interesting details about the Live Photos feature, including some negative aspects that Apple's working to improve. We're also able to get an in-depth look at what the reviewers thought of the feature, giving us an idea of whether it's truly useful or more of a gimmick.
Apple has been quick to point out that a Live Photo is not a video, and it appears the feature is enabled by combining a 12-megapixel JPG with a MOV file. TechCrunch's Matthew Panzarino reports (in his full review of the new iPhones) that a Live Photo consists of a JPG combined with a MOV file that contains 45 frames playing back at around 15 frames per second. Combining a JPG with a MOV file means Live Photos take up twice the space of a normal image. Panzarino also shared some tips on getting good Live Photos shots, but said he believes the best use cases are still undiscovered.
In my experience, Live Photos work best when capturing ambience, not action. Because the frame rate is relatively low, moving the camera a ton while you shoot them or having a subject move will display a bit of jitter. If, however, you're shooting a still image with some moving elements, the effect is extraordinary.
According to The New York Times' Brian X. Chen, there's a "short learning curve" for Live Photos, because moving a camera immediately after taking a photo will ruin the Live Photo, something Apple says it will fix in an upcoming software update. There's also no way to remove audio, and editing a Live Photo only applies edits to the still frame.
Two other items that I'd like to see addressed in future software updates: One, when Live Photos are captured, they include audio. I'd like the option to disable that because images alone can speak loudly enough. You also can't edit Live Photos. You can only apply an edit to the still frame, but not the motion frames. It would be ideal to at least be able to make minor adjustments to Live Photos, like increasing brightness or contrast.
The Wall Street Journal's Joanna Stern calls Live Photos "the phone's best new feature," in her review, and shares a selection of example images that give a good look at how Live Photos look.
Live Photos File Details
Because of the way Live Photos work, combining a MOV file with a JPG file, the full Live Photo experience will only be viewable on iOS devices that run iOS 9, the Apple Watch with watchOS 2, and Macs running OS X El Capitan. Sending a Live Photo by email or directly to non-supported devices, the Live Photo will be stripped of the MOV component and sent as a regular JPG.
However, when importing Live Photos to your Mac in Yosemite's Photos app, they're imported as a separate JPG and MOV file. When TechCrunch's Matthew Panzarino sent a Live Photo to our iPhone 6 running iOS 9, the Live Photo was viewable (with motion) in iOS 9. When imported into Yosemite's Photos, the image was split into the JPG and MOV components. Importing into Photos on OS X El Capitan generates a single photo in the library, and double clicking it plays the video portion of the Live Photo.
As you can see, the JPG and MOV components took up 2.5MB and 1.7MB of space, respectively, for this Live Photo taken with the iPhone 6s back camera. Meanwhile, the front camera took a lower resolution 1MB image, but with the same size 1.7MB MOV file. The MOV resolution was 960x720 at ~12FPS for both sample Live Photos.
We'll learn a lot more about Live Photos this Friday, when the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus become available to the public.
Apple has added an XcodeGhost question and answer page to its Chinese website today that explains what the malware is, how some users may be affected and next steps the company is taking to ensure that developers and end users alike are protected against malicious software going forward.
Apple claims that it has no evidence to suggest that XcodeGhost has been used for anything malicious, such as the transmission of personally identifiable information, stipulating that the code is only able to deliver some general information about apps and system information.
Nevertheless, Apple says it is working closely with developers and will soon list the top 25 most popular apps impacted by XcodeGhost on its Chinese website. The company will also be alerting users to let them know if they have downloaded apps that could have been compromised. Many affected apps have since been updated and are no longer infected by XcodeGhost.
Relevant portions of the Apple FAQ for users:
How does this affect me? How do I know if my device has been compromised? We have no information to suggest that the malware has been used to do anything malicious or that this exploit would have delivered any personally identifiable information had it been used.
We’re not aware of personally identifiable customer data being impacted and the code also did not have the ability to request customer credentials to gain iCloud and other service passwords.
As soon as we recognized these apps were using potentially malicious code we took them down. Developers are quickly updating their apps for users.
Malicious code could only have been able to deliver some general information such as the apps and general system information.
Is it safe for me to download apps from App Store? We have removed the apps from the App Store that we know have been created with this counterfeit software and are blocking submissions of new apps that contain this malware from entering the App Store.
We’re working closely with developers to get impacted apps back on the App Store as quickly as possible for customers to enjoy.
A list of the top 25 most popular apps impacted will be listed soon so users can easily verify if they have downloaded the latest versions of these apps. After the top 25 impacted apps, the number of impacted users drops significantly.
Customers will be receiving more information letting them know if they’ve downloaded an app/apps that could have been compromised. Once a developer updates their app, that will fix the issue on the user’s device once they apply that update.
We’re working to make it faster for developers in China to download Xcode betas. To verify that their version of Xcode has not been altered, they can take the following steps posted at
iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users should also read our XcodeGhost FAQ to learn more about the malware and how to keep yourself protected.
Apple also outlined steps for developers to validate Xcode using Terminal on OS X.
Apple has been putting a significant focus on health-related topics in recent months, led by the Apple Watch's health and fitness sensors and associated app functionality. In fact, just a few weeks ago at its "Hey Siri" media event, the company showed off some Apple Watch apps that could help doctors keep track of patients and even read the heartbeat of a baby still in its mother's womb.
Now, the Apple Watch is becoming known as a lifesaver, as well, with a story emerging over the weekend about a teenage football player's abnormal after-practice heartrate and his Apple Watch's tracking that led him to determine something was seriously wrong.
Paul Houle Jr., a 17-year-old Tabor Academy senior in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, discovered after practice one day that he had pain in his chest and back when taking deep breaths, along with a rapid heart rate.
“After practice I went and took a nap, my heart rate was still at 145.” He went to the hospital, where he learned he had heart, liver and kidney failure, which could have been fatal if not for his watch.
“If my Apple Watch hadn’t shown me it was 145, I would have done nothing about it.”
Houle was diagnosed with rhabdomyolysis, a condition that occurs after intense exercise results in the leaking of enzymes and proteins into the blood from muscle cells. Some cases can lead to kidney failure and can be fatal and when Houle arrived at the hospital he was suffering from simultaneous heart, liver, and kidney failure.
Although initially a skeptic of the Apple Watch, Houle's father is now a convert and has recently purchased Apple Watches for both himself and his wife, thankful for the lifesaving intervention of Apple's product in his son's life.
Since Houle's story surfaced late last week, word of the ordeal reached Apple CEO Tim Cook, who contacted Houle with a personal phone call a few days after his diagnosis and recovery. "I got a phone call from a California number," said Houle. "And he said 'Hello, my name is Tim Cook, CEO of Apple.'" Cook proceeded to offer the Cape Cod teenager a brand-new iPhone and a summer internship at the company's corporate headquarters in Cupertino next year.
Following last week's disclosure of new iOS malware called XcodeGhost, which arose from malicious versions of Xcode hosted on third-party servers, Apple has outlined instructions for developers to ensure the version of Xcode they are using is valid.
When downloading Xcode from the Mac App Store, or Apple's website so long as Gatekeeper is enabled, OS X automatically checks the app's code signature and validates it against Apple's code. If you must obtain Xcode elsewhere, follow these steps:
To verify the identity of your copy of Xcode run the following command in Terminal on a system with Gatekeeper enabled: spctl --assess --verbose /Applications/Xcode.app
where /Applications/ is the directory where Xcode is installed. This tool performs the same checks that Gatekeeper uses to validate the code signatures of applications. The tool can take up to several minutes to complete the assessment for Xcode.
The tool should return the following result for a version of Xcode downloaded from the Mac App Store: /Applications/Xcode.app: accepted source=Mac App Store
and for a version downloaded from the Apple Developer web site, the result should read either /Applications/Xcode.app: accepted source=Apple
or
/Applications/Xcode.app: accepted source=Apple System
Any result other than ‘accepted’ or any source other than ‘Mac App Store’, ‘Apple System’ or ‘Apple’ indicates that the application signature is not valid for Xcode. You should download a clean copy of Xcode and recompile your apps before submitting them for review.
Apple issued a statement in response to XcodeGhost over the weekend, noting that it has removed all infected apps it is aware of from the App Store and is working with developers to ensure they are using a legitimate version of Xcode.
"We’ve removed the apps from the App Store that we know have been created with this counterfeit software. We are working with the developers to make sure they’re using the proper version of Xcode to rebuild their apps."
XcodeGhost affected dozens, and possibly hundreds, of App Store apps. iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users should read what you need to know about XcodeGhost to learn more about the malware and how to keep yourself protected.
With the launch of the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus a few days away, the first reviews for the new devices have begun appearing online today. Many reviewers touted Apple's inclusion of the new 3D Touch technology and the overall performance enhancements that were brought in thanks to the A9 processor. One of the biggest points of attention given in a number of the reviews, however, was the 12-megapixel camera, which has the ability to capture Live Photos and shoot 4K video.
In one of its two in-depth reviews on the iPhone 6s, The Verge simply called the new smartphone's camera, "the best camera most people will ever own." Still, the site thought that the overall camera improvement from the iPhone 6's 8-megapixel offering was a "mild" update in the grand sense, given that most customers probably won't be able to tell the difference between the two unless they were side-by-side. Not to mention that most people will be using the camera on its simplest terms for social media.
Pocket-lint noted the front-facing camera's 5-megapixel upgrade also has some improvements that are worth mentioning. The site described the new flash feature -- which turns the entire iPhone screen into a camera flash -- works quite well and provides impressively dynamic color palette to match the lighting situation, from "bright clean whites to creamy tones."
Pointing out that the iPhone 6s rear camera upgrade is the first resolution improvement made to an iPhone since the iPhone 4 in 2011, The Telegraph called the new 12MP camera "a necessity." Impressed with the better and more accurate autofocus and bump in pixel density, the site found photos taken with the camera to have "greater depth of field, richer, more accurate colour and greater detail."
Aside from today's reviews, the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus have also been used in a few high-profile photo shoots in recent days, including the above photos from TIME, a set from Sports Illustrated shot at recent San Francisco Giants games, and even a few pictures from New York Fashion Week taken by Vogue. Video footage taken with the 4K-enabled iPhone 6s rear camera is also appearing online, with popular YouTuber Casey Neistat trying out the high-quality format for his latest vlog.
iFixit has posted a hardware teardown of the new fourth-generation Apple TV, providing a closer look at the set-top box's A8 chip, flash storage, redesigned power supply with a larger heat sink and other logic board components. The website also provided a teardown of the accompanying Siri Remote.
Under the hood, the new Apple TV features a dual-core, 64-bit Apple A8 chip with 2GB of SK Hynix LPDDR3 SDRAM, custom Apple memory controller, SK Hynix NAND flash storage, Universal Scientific Industrial Wi-Fi module and SMSC USB 2.0 to 10/100 Ethernet controller.
SMSC LAN9730 USB 2.0 to 10/100 Ethernet controller
Apple 338S00057 custom memory controller
Texas Instruments PA61
Fairchild Semiconductor DF25AU 010D 030D
DP2700A1
SK Hynix H2JTEG8VD1BMR 32 GB NAND Flash
NXP 1112 0206 5271B4K
V301 F 57K C6XF G4
The new Apple TV also has a larger heat sink, which is likely a contributing factor to the set-top box's taller form factor. The redesigned power supply is rated at 12V at 0.917A, compared to the third-generation Apple TV's rating of 3.4V at 1.75A. The heat sink is situated above the heat-sensitive logic board.
The teardown of the Siri Remote reveals a ST Microelectronics low-power ARM Cortex-M3 MCU, Qualcomm CSR1010 Bluetooth radio, Texas Instruments low-power digital signal processor, the same Broadcom touch screen controller used in the iPhone 5s/5c and iPad Air, 410 mAh battery and a few other chips.
iFixit gave the new Apple TV a strong repairability score of 8 out of 10, with ten being the easiest to repair, because it has only a few major components, a replaceable power supply and standard Torx screws. It also found the Siri Remote has a wide gap, making it easy to pry apart for repairs.
Microsoft has announced that Office 2016 for Mac is now available as a one-time $149.99 purchase without an Office 365 subscription. Office Home & Student 2016 includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote for home use on one Mac. Office 2016 for Mac requires OS X 10.10 or later.
The standalone version of Office 2016 for Mac features offline storage and 15GB of OneDrive cloud storage, but lacks Outlook, Publisher, Access, tablet and phone support, 60 minutes of Skype calling, instant updates and technical support included with the Office 365 version.
Office Home & Business 2016 for Mac is also available for $229.99 and includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and Outlook on one Mac. Comparatively, subscription-based Office 365 Personal and Office 365 Home cost $69.99 per year and $99.99 per year respectively.
Office Home & Business 2016 for Windows is also now available through Office 365 for between $69.99 and $99.99 per year, or as a one-time $229.99 purchase. Office Professional 2016 for Windows is also available with Publisher and Access for $399.99. Windows 7 or later is required.
With the launch of the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus just three days away on September 25, the first round of reviews for the new smartphones have begun showing up online. Most sites have been able to experience the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus for about a week, and have largely come away with positive impressions of the devices that bring in some notable improvements to the line, in spite of its "S" generation designation.
The Verge was one of the most positive on their review unit of the iPhone 6s, noting that if it's Apple's job to create a reason for customers to upgrade to a new iPhone each year, they've "done it again" with the new iPhone. Although they note the premium pricing and odd storage tiers, the site believes that 3D Touch will become as necessary as pinching and zooming, and adds to an experience that overall feels like "the best version ever of the best smartphone on the market."
This is one of those potentially huge user behaviors — like swiping, or pinching and zooming — that seem odd or minor at first, but which Apple historically is able to make deeply important and useful. And it’s not just a software tweak. It involved serious re-engineering of the display. It’s the kind of thing that’s Apple’s specialty: the company manages to do new things better, apply them broadly, and make them seem natural, because it has control over both the software and hardware platforms on which its products rest. No other big player does.
The iPhone 6S is the best smartphone out there, period.
Mashable got its hands on an iPhone 6s Plus and noted that its specs and new 7000 series aluminum have crafted a "performance beast" of a smartphone. They also were fans of the improved 12 megapixel camera, saying the 6s Plus easily "wins the battle in full-light images" when compared to last year's iPhone 6 Plus and the Galaxy S6 Edge+. In the end, the site noted that the biggest feature additions include 4K video and 3D Touch, and that just may not be enough of a justification for some users.
Is it a must-have upgrade? No, unless you must have gorgeous 4K video and can't live without the innovative 3D Touch. By sheer volume, iOS 9 probably adds more feature enhancements than the iPhone 6S Plus, and you can get it for free.
This doesn't diminish Apple's accomplishment. Take me, for instance: Now that I’ve had a taste of 4K and Peek and Pop, I don’t know if I can go back.
TechCrunch fell in line with most other opinions as well, calling the camera "truly great" and noting the snappiness of the A9 processor in attempting to zoom in on 4K video footage or generally navigating the device. Another fan of 3D Touch, the site also noted that the comparison of the feature to right-clicking on a desktop computer is perhaps shortsighted, stating that right-clicking is for introducing more actions and complexities and 3D Touch is essentially the opposite. TechCrunch also noted the lightning-fast upgrade that Touch ID has received.
Apple says its new Touch ID sensor is twice the speed of the one in the iPhone 6/6 Plus. I’m sure someone will try to measure it, but I think this one metric is enough: the new fingerprint sensor is so fast that you can no longer tap the home button to wake your screen, because it will unlock instantly.
I pull my iPhone out of my pocket with my finger on the home button to tap it and check my notifications. That behavior is out the window now, because by the time it’s out of my pocket, it’s unlocked. It’s incredibly quick. So quick that I think some people will have issues adjusting. Eventually I had to switch to tapping the power button to wake it so I wouldn’t miss my notifications.
Soon everyone will be able to experience the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus for themselves, as we get closer and closer to the September 25 launch date. Recently, in fact, one lucky woman got her iPhone 6s order in ahead of time and began posting benchmark scores and photos of the device online. Those customers with tracking numbers already distributed for their order can also begin to see exactly which flight is carrying their brand-new iPhone thanks to FlightAware.
Visual designer Adrienne Alpern from San Diego, California is one of the first customers to receive the brand new iPhone 6s, nearly five whole days before the latest smartphone launches in the U.S. and eleven other countries.
Adrienne shared photos of the new iPhone 6s on her Twitter account on Monday afternoon, noting that her pre-order from AT&T arrived much earlier than expected. The all-new iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus officially launch September 25.
Apple each year requests that couriers like UPS and FedEx hold new iPhone deliveries until the same day the smartphones become available in stores, but a few lucky customers often receive their devices ahead of time due to logistical error.
Adrienne also shared Geekbench 3 screenshots that show the iPhone 6s has a single-core score of 2292 and a multi-core score of 4293. The iPhone 6s is also benchmarked against several other iPhone and iPad models.
Apple began shipping iPhone 6s and 6s Plus pre-orders on Saturday and now FlightAware, a site that offers live flight tracking, has once again begun offering a tool that allows users to track the flights carrying their iPhones after they receive their tracking number. FlightAware also offered the tool last year.
FlightAware says that users who have their UPS tracking number can use their tool to match their "departure scan" with one of the departure times listed in their tool to determine which flight their iPhone is on. The tool will be updated as FlightAware learns more about Apple's shipping strategy for the new phones.
Currently, many flights are on their way to Louisville, Kentucky's Worldport, which is UPS' worldwide air hub. Additional flights are on the way to Ontario, California.
Those who have not received their UPS tracking numbers can track their packages by reference on UPS' website. To do so, users have to fill out the "track by reference" form and input the phone number listed on their Apple account, the zip code its shipping to and country. This tactic may only work with pre-orders made through Apple.
The first iPhone 6s and 6s Plus shipments are expected to arrive Friday, September 25. However, sometimes lucky customers receive their phones early due to shipping errors. Apple has ended launch-day pre-orders and in-store reservations for the two new phones and will not offer walk-in sales for them at Apple Stores in Delaware, Hawaii, Alaska, New Hampshire, Oregon, China, Hong Kong and Japan.
MacRumors readers may also want to join in on the dedicated pre-order threads on the forums, where users are sharing tracking information and socializing while waiting for their new iPhones.
As the Apple Music Festival continues at London's Roundhouse performing arts and concert venue, Apple environmental head Lisa P. Jackson announced that the company has given the historical venue an "environmental makeover".
We’re making major upgrades to the lighting, plumbing, and HVAC systems; installing recycling and composting bins; arranging to turn used fryer oil into biofuel; buying renewable energy credits to cover the Roundhouse's September electricity use; and offering reusable water bottles instead of plastic ones.
Apple says they expect the changes to reduce Roundhouse's annual emissions by 60 tons, save 60,000 gallons of water a year and divert more than 1,600 kilograms of waste from landfills. Apple has continually noted that one of its goals is to "leave the world better than they found it", which Jackson echoes in her tweet highlighting the renovation. The company has also continually highlighted its own environmental responsibility with annual reports.
The Apple Music Festival continues until September 28, with performances from The Weeknd, One Direction, Pharrell and Florence + The Machine still to come.
While Apple has ended launch-day pre-orders and in-store reservations for the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, the company is suggesting that those customers still intent on purchasing one on launch day visit an Apple retail store Friday for a chance at scoring some of the remaining launch-day stock at those locations. But for customers in four U.S. states, China, Japan, and Hong Kong, these walk-in sales are not an option, notes The Oregonian.
The disclosure was made in a footnote on Apple's press release this morning making a final announcement about Friday's launch plans and reporting record adoption of iOS 9: "iPhone is available by reservation only in China, Hong Kong, Japan and US stores in tax-free states."
The four U.S. states with Apple retail stores that are affected by this policy include Oregon, Delaware, New Hampshire, and Alaska. Montana is the fifth U.S. state without a statewide sales tax, but Apple does not have any retail stores located in the state.
The reason behind the ban on walk-in sales in these states is likely their attractiveness to scalpers.
Because Apple limits the number of unlocked phones, the brokers – sometimes called "sharks" – recruit homeless people and the elderly to wait in line and buy phones on their behalf. The phenomenon lasted for months outside Apple's downtown Portland Apple Store after last year's September launch of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.
While sharks patrol Apple stores all over the country, they are especially visible in Portland. That may be because Oregon doesn't have a sales tax, so sharks operating here can add several percentage points to their profits by getting their phones.
Hong Kong has long been a popular location for iPhone scalpers to operate as they attempt to move gray-market phones into China, but with China having taken on increased importance for Apple and in fact being included in the first wave of iPhone 6s launches, both countries are likely in Apple's crosshairs this time around as it hopes to limit those snapping up limited supplies of the new devices to resell for significant profits.
Apple today seeded the first beta of OS X 10.11.1 El Capitan to public beta testers, just days after first releasing the beta to developers and roughly a week and a half before OS X El Capitan will be released to the public on September 30.
The new beta is available through the Software Update mechanism in the Mac App Store.
The first beta of OS X 10.11.1 introduced support for Unicode 8 and new emoji like taco, burrito, cheese wedge, hot dog, middle finger, and unicorn head. The emoji are also included in iOS 9.1, which is also in testing.
Beyond new emoji, there have been no other outward-facing changes discovered, suggesting OS X 10.11.1 is a minor update that will bring bug fixes and performance enhancements. According to Apple's release notes, the beta offers stability, compatibility, and security improvements.
One frequent complaint of smartphone users is the limited amount of battery life our tech devices have. With the constant trend toward making devices thinner and lighter, battery life is a key tradeoff to be considered, and some users find their devices not lasting as long as they'd prefer.
For those pushing their devices to the limit, Apple has added a new feature to iOS 9 that is designed to help you conserve those last few drops of juice when you wont be able to charge your iPhone anytime soon. The new feature is known as Low Power Mode, and it can increase your battery life up to three hours but at the expense of some functions of your device. It is only available on iPhone devices running iOS 9.
Enabling Low Power Mode only takes a few steps.
Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
Select Battery from the menu list.
Toggle Low Power Mode to the On position.
The battery icon will turn yellow to indicate that you are using Low Power Mode.
Low Power Mode reduces your iPhone's performance and cuts out some background activities. For example, mail must be fetched manually, background app refresh is disabled, and motion and brightness are reduced.
Benchmarks have shown the iPhone's CPU performance with Low Power Mode on is significantly reduced in an effort to save on power consumption, so while simple tasks may continue to work just fine on an iPhone in Low Power Mode, more demanding ones may become sluggish.
You don't have to keep Low Power Mode on all of the time; you can manually shut it off whenever you want. However, the general impression of users has been that the real-world slowdown is not so severe that you can't continue to use your iPhone.
With iOS 9, you will receive a prompt when your iOS device goes below 20 percent of its battery power left. The popup will allow you to quickly toggle Low Power Mode on so you can still use your device for only the most necessary of functions until you are able to recharge it.
This feature might be familiar to Apple Watch owners, as Power Reserve is a somewhat similar feature designed to allow the wrist-worn device to continue functioning as a basic watch as the battery drains toward zero by cutting off all other functions of the device.
Apple is speeding up development on its electric car project, reports The Wall Street Journal, giving it a "committed project" label and targeting 2019 as a prospective shipping date. To facilitate a faster launch, Apple will be greatly expanding the number of people working on the car.
The go-ahead came after the company spent more than a year investigating the feasibility of an Apple-branded car, including meetings with two groups of government officials in California. Leaders of the project, code-named Titan , have been given permission to triple the 600-person team, the people familiar with the matter said.
Apple has already been aggressively hiring for its car project, poaching employees from companies like Ford, General Motors, Tesla, Volkswagen, and more. Many of its recent hires have expertise in connected and autonomous vehicle systems.
The BMW i3, which Apple reportedly considered using as a base for the Apple Car
Though there have been indications suggesting Apple is exploring autonomous vehicles as part of its car project, The Wall Street Journal's sources say the first car Apple releases will not be driverless, with that functionality perhaps coming at a later date.
There have been also other signs pointing towards expanded work on the car project. In May, Apple began looking into secure facilities in the Bay Area where a prototype could be tested, reportedly meeting up with officials at GoMentum Station, a secure test facility for connected and autonomous vehicles. Apple also met with DMV officials in August to discuss California's autonomous vehicle regulations.
It remains unclear if Apple will develop its "Apple Car" from the ground up or if it will team up with an existing auto manufacturer. Rumors have suggested Apple has held discussions with BMW over a potential partnership that would see the BMW i3 used as the basis for the Apple Car, but those talks have reportedly not progressed into a deal.
The Wall Street Journal warns that Apple's 2019 target date might not be the date in which Apple will actually ship the car, instead suggesting it could point towards the date that engineers confirm the main features of the product. It's also possible that given the scope of the project there could be delays, with "people familiar with the project" expressing skepticism that 2019 is a reasonable target date.
In an interview with Stephen Colbert last week, Tim Cook was asked about the car project, but he unsurprisingly avoided the question with a vague statement. "We look at a number of things along the way, and we decide to really put our energies on a few of those," he said.
With four days to go until the launch of the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, Apple is no longer offering launch-day delivery of any iPhone 6s or 6s Plus models ordered online and is no longer allowing customers to make reservations for in-store purchases, including through Apple's new iPhone Upgrade Program, on Friday.
While shipping estimates for iPhones 6s Plus models in particular quickly slipped to 2-3 weeks or longer following the start of pre-orders on September 12, many iPhone 6s models remained available for launch day delivery until today.
Customers looking to place online pre-orders for iPhone 6s models that had until recently remained available for launch day are now being quoted 1-2 week shipping with delivery in the range of September 29 through October 6 or later.
Apple's in-store reservation system has been shut down entirely for the remainder of this week and will reopen at 8:00 AM on Saturday, September 26 to allow customers to reserve from each store's daily shipments of iPhones. Apple does still invite customers without reservations on Friday to attempt to purchase an iPhone, but unreserved supplies will likely be tight and lines long.
There have been rumors Apple has a dedicated HomeKit app in the works that would give users a central location to control all of their HomeKit devices, but thus far, the Cupertino company has kept quiet on whether such an app exists. More evidence pointing towards the existence of a possible HomeKit app surfaced today, however, in the form of a trademark application filed through a known shell company, iGuide Media.
As noted by French site Consomac [Google Translate], iGuide Media filed a priority trademark for an icon that appears to correspond to a HomeKit "Home" app on March 12, 2015 in Jamaica, and has now filed again in the United States on September 14. The trademark applies to a long list of electronics and home products, including thermostats, smoke detectors, window shades, garage door openers, and more.
The icon is depicted in the trademark application as an H with a roof on it to form a house, with the icon placed on an orange background. It is similar in color to the HomeKit icons on Apple's own website, but the design is decidedly different.
Apple's release plans for a HomeKit app are unclear. It is not known if the company intends to launch a HomeKit app for public use in the future, or if the icon in today's trademark filing corresponds to a dedicated app. It could also be an icon simply intended to represent HomeKit going forward, in developer documentation and on product packaging.
Apple has added an 
There have been rumors Apple has a dedicated 
