Apple has added a banner to its U.S. website that allows customers to donate to the American Red Cross through the iTunes Store to support the refugee and migration crisis across the Mediterranean Sea and Europe. The donation tiers available include $5, $10, $25, $50, $100 and $200.
Update: Apple will also make a "substantial donation" itself and match employee donations by 2-to-1, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters.
“Apple is dedicated to advancing human rights around the world,” Cook wrote in the message, seen by Reuters. “We hope the actions we’re taking will help make the situation less desperate for some, and ease the hardship so many are enduring.”
Note: Due to the nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.
Apple senior legal counsel Mike Maletic held an hour-long meeting with the California Department of Motor Vehicles last month to review "autonomous vehicle regulations," according to internal documents obtained by The Guardian. The revelation comes amid widespread rumors that Apple has hired hundreds of employees to develop an electric vehicle over the past several months.
California DMV headquarters in Sacramento
Maletic reportedly met with a trio of DMV executives familiar with self-driving cars, including deputy director Bernard Soriano and chief of strategic planning Stephanie Dougherty, who are co-sponsors of California's autonomous vehicle regulation project. Brian Soublet, the department’s deputy director and chief counsel, was also in the meeting, according to the report.
California’s DMV is developing regulations for the eventual deployment and public operation of autonomous vehicles. These rules will establish requirements that manufacturers must meet to certify that their driverless vehicles have been successfully tested, meet safety criteria, and are ready for consumers to operate on public roads.
Apple would be required to obtain an Autonomous Vehicle Testing Permit from the California DMV to test autonomous vehicles on public roads, which Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, Google, Tesla Motors, Nissan, BMW, Honda and others have already done. Given the Cupertino-based company's culture of secrecy, however, that is an unlikely scenario.
If Apple does seek a testing permit for its Project Titan self-driving car, it will have to sacrifice much of its legendary preference for secrecy. Manufacturers applying for a permit have to detail the make, model and vehicle identification number (VIN) of cars they want to test, share details of autonomous features and capabilities, and identify test drivers by name.
If rumors about Apple testing an electric vehicle are true, it is more likely that the iPhone maker will use a private testing facility such as GoMentum Station, a 2,100-acre former naval base in the San Francisco Bay Area run by the Contra Costa Transportation Authority. Apple could also use its own property to test vehicles with complete privacy, something it may already be doing.
The report suggests the so-called "Apple Car" could be "almost ready for public view":
According to documents obtained by the Guardian, Apple has appointed an engineering program manager (EPM) to Project Titan. EPMs generally arrive on an Apple project once a product is ready to leave the lab, and coordinate the work of teams of hardware and software engineers.
Apple's rumored "Project Titan" electric vehicle research and development could be based at a top-secret office complex in Sunnyvale codenamed SG05, the report corroborates. Bloomberg reported in February that Apple aims to begin electric car production as early as 2020, but the company's roadmap is not entirely clear due to the highly secretive nature of the project.
Update: Representatives from the California DMV that spoke to Re/code have confirmed that Apple did meet with the DMV to discuss California's autonomous vehicle regulations.
"The meeting with representatives from Apple focused on a discussion of the autonomous vehicle testing regulations that went into effect in September of 2014," DMV spokesman Armando Botello said in an emailed statement.
Alongside the launch of iOS 9 yesterday, Apple debuted a new Android app called "Move to iOS." The app is designed to help Android users transfer their content from an Android device to an iOS device. According to Phandroid, the app may not be developed by Apple and instead be a rebranded version of an existing app.
The app in question is Media Mushroom's Copy My Data, one of two Media Mushroom apps that specialize in transferring data between devices. The other app is Device Switch, and both are available in the App Store and Google Play. Phandroid took a look at the code of Move to iOS and noticed that it included references to Media Mushroom's Copy My Data app, like the tag android:name="com.mediamushroom.copymydata".
That’s just the tip of the iceberg. The two applications share a vast majority of code and functionality. In fact, all of the com.mediamushroom.copymydata strings were left inside Apple’s rebranded version. Essentially, the only differences between the two apps are Apple’s artwork being added, the inclusion of Apple’s licensing agreements, and Media Mushroom’s UI elements being removed. That’s really it.
As noted by Phandroid, it's likely Apple licensed the rights to use and rebrand Media Mushroom's app. Move to iOS is Apple's first Android app, and the app has gained numerous negative reviews in the Google Play Store. Of its 15,230 reviews, 12,184 are one-star reviews. Criticisms in the negative reviews include complaints about iOS, Apple, and that the app uses Apple's design philosophy rather than Google's Material Design. Apple's second Android app will be Apple Music.
At its "Hey Siri" event, Apple announced an updated iPad mini 4 but largely glossed over any details, focusing its time on the iPhones 6s and 6s Plus, the new Apple TV and the iPad Pro. Today, iFixit completed its teardown for the device, confirming that it comes with a smaller battery than the previous iPad mini as well as 2 GB of RAM.
While iFixit's teardown physically confirms that the iPad mini 4 has 2 GB of RAM, Ars Technica ran a GeekBench 3 test a couple days ago on the device, confirming that it runs a 1.5 GHz Apple A8 with 2 GB of RAM. This makes the iPad mini 4 faster than the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, which run a 1.4 GHz A8, and both the iPad mini 2 and 3, which run 1.3 GHz A7's.
iFixit's teardown also confirmed that the device comes with a smaller, thinner single-cell battery. The iPad mini 4's battery is 5,124 mAh while the iPad mini 3's battery is 6,471 mAh. While the new battery is smaller, Apple claims the new iPad mini 4 retains the same battery life as the iPad mini 3.
Finally, Apple has also refined, slimmed down and moved around many of the new iPad mini 4's parts due to shrinking the device's thickness from 7.5 mm (iPad mini 3) to 6.1 mm (iPad mini 4). For instance, the FaceTime camera has slimmed down, the battery has shrunk, the LCD and front panel glass are fused together and antennas have been moved both to the top and bottom of the device. iFixit's full teardown provides additional details on all the nips and tucks in the device.
Apple Watch sales are expanding to additional authorized resellers in a trio of countries this month, including The Good Guys in Australia, Stormfront in the United Kingdom and Media Markt and Saturn in Germany (via iFun.de).
The Good Guys, Media Markt and Saturn have begun selling the Apple Watch as of this week, while Stormfront is expected to start selling the wrist-worn device next week. Each retailer will sell the Apple Watch Sport and Apple Watch.
Apple Watch was initially sold exclusively through the Apple Store, Apple Online Store and select fashion boutiques such as Galeries Lafayette in France and Selfridges in the U.K., but Apple has been rolling out the wrist-worn device to Best Buy and other authorized resellers over the past few months.
Earlier this week, Apple began allowing developers who won the lottery for an Apple TV Developer Kit to place orders for the devices, and shortly after, Apple began shipping Apple TVs out around the world. As of today, a large number of developers have begun receiving the Apple TVs according to reports on Twitter and images shared with MacRumors.
Developers were selected to receive an Apple TV using a lottery process that started shortly after the Apple TV was introduced on September 9, which has now wrapped up. Developers who won were able to obtain Apple TV Developer Kits at no cost, with a $1 fee being charged to verify billing and shipping addresses.
With Apple TVs in the hands of hundreds of developers, we may be able to learn a lot more about the device and how it works ahead of its official late October launch date, and we'll be able to get a closer look at what kind of apps we can expect on it. Last week, there was an unboxing of the Apple TV, which gave us a first glimpse at the new set-top box and the touch-based remote out in the wild.
The new Apple TV includes a powerful A8 processor, 2GB RAM, and a new operating system, tvOS, which supports Siri voice control and a full App Store, allowing games and apps to be played on the device.
With Apple neglecting to update the iPad Air 2 during its fall 2015 event, accessories for the device will continue to be relevant and in-demand for the foreseeable future. We went hands-on with Logitech's new Blok case lineup for the iPad Air 2, which debuted in July under its new Logi brand name.
The simplest of the three cases, the Logi Blok Protective Shell, fits around the back of the iPad and changes the shape of the tablet, adding sharp corners and a blocky feel. The corners are designed to absorb shock better should the iPad be dropped, and we thought the Blok offered a lot of protection while leaving ports accessible and buttons easy to press.
The Blok Protective Case is a lot like the Shell, but it adds a built-in flap that serves as a stand. We were impressed with the stand because it was rigid and stable, but we did find the flap hard to manage when it wasn't in use as a stand.
The third case, the Blok Protective Keyboard Case, combines the shell and stand from the two previous cases with a detachable keyboard. Because the keyboard attaches to the rest of the case via magnets, it's highly versatile and can be used in several ways. The keyboard itself is smaller than a standard keyboard though still pleasant to type on, but we weren't a fan of its non-rechargeable batteries.
All three of the Logi Blok cases come in multiple colors and can be purchased from the Logitech website for the iPad Air 2, the iPad mini 2, and the iPad mini 3. The Blok Protective Shell is priced at $39.99, the Blok Protective Case is priced at $69.99, and the Blok Protective Keyboard Case is priced at $129.99.
Note: MacRumors received no compensation for this review.
iOS users are installing Apple's latest operating system at roughly the same pace iOS 8 was installed last year, according to multiple analytics companies that are tracking iOS 9 adoption rates. iOS 9 has now been available for download for just over 24 hours.
Mixpanel's live iOS 9 tracking site suggests iOS 9 is now installed on approximately 12.60 percent of devices, which is in line with iOS 8 adoption rates in 2014.
"iOS 9 has received 12% adoption in the last 24 hours and is being adopted similar to iOS 8 last year. This kind of adoption took Android's latest operating system, Lollipop, in comparison 5 months to achieve. One huge advantage Apple got right this year over last year was that the update is much smaller than last year (3.5x smaller) < Apple has empathy for its users who have nearly maxed out the space on their phones. However, one issue for it being substantially slow compared to iOS 7 is that servers are having trouble keeping up right now as people update."
Because each analytics site tracks a different selection of iOS users based on app installs, iOS 9 installation numbers vary quite a bit across platforms. All of the sites tracking iOS 9 adoption agree that it is on pace with adoption numbers seen after iOS 8 was released last year, however. Tapjoy is seeing adoption rates spanning from 4 percent to 7 percent, based on device, while Fiksu is seeing 6 percent of its users running iOS 9.
According to GoSquared, iOS 9 users now represent 12 percent of total iOS traffic, a number that's on par with both Mixpanel's count and an 11.84 percent measurement from analytics company Paddle.
Two years ago, iOS 7 saw much quicker adoption rates than we're seeing with iOS 9, but that is not surprising as iOS 7 marked the last major design update to the operating system. iOS 8 and iOS 9 brought many new features, but few visual changes.
What is surprising is that iOS 9 adoption is not outpacing iOS 8 adoption because iOS 9 has a much smaller installation size. While iOS 8 required 4.58 GB to install, iOS 9 only requires 1.3 GB, making it much more accessible to users who have little space open on their devices.
Apple today seeded the first beta of an upcoming OS X El Capitan update to developers, two weeks before OS X El Capitan will be released to the public on September 30.
The new beta, build 15B17c, is available through the Software Update mechanism in the Mac App Store and through the Apple Developer Center.
It is not clear what improvements the first update to OS X El Capitan will bring, but it's likely to include bug fixes and performance improvements for issues that have been encountered following the operating system's official release.
Update: OS X 10.11.1 includes support for Unicode 8 and a range of 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 currently in testing as well.
A U.S. federal appeals court has ruled that Apple was entitled to an injunction on multiple Samsung products that a lower court ruled to be infringing on the iPhone maker's patented technologies in an early 2014 trial.
As noted by Bloomberg, the ruling sets an important precedent, since it could have an impact on how damages are awarded in future trials involving patented inventions from large technology companies such as Apple, Samsung and Google.
The decision could have far-reaching consequences in how disputes are resolved when it comes to complex devices. The ability to block use of an invention is a powerful tool that increases the price tag when negotiating settlements.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington echoed that in its ruling:
“The right to exclude competitors from using one’s property rights is important,” the Federal Circuit ruled in a 2-1 decision. “And the right to maintain exclusivity -- a hallmark and crucial guarantee of patent rights deriving from the Constitution itself -— is likewise important.”
In May 2014, a jury in the lower court Apple vs. Samsung trial found that Samsung willfully infringed on three of the five patents involved in the lawsuit, related to technologies including slide to unlock and data syncing. Samsung was ordered to pay Apple a settlement of $119.6 million.
Samsung informed the appeals court in March that only one of its products currently for sale infringes upon a single Apple patent, so any potential injunction would not have much of an impact on the South Korean company's bottom line. Nevertheless, Samsung is in the process of appealing the lower court decision before the U.S. Federal Circuit.
Universal today launched the second official trailer for the upcoming Steve Jobs movie, directed by Danny Boyle and starring Michael Fassbender (via Coming Soon). Set backstage at three of Jobs' biggest product launches, the movie aims to showcase the personality of the former Apple CEO through some of the most intense and public moments of his life.
The film also stars Seth Rogen, Kate Winslet, and Jeff Daniels as Steve Wozniak, Joanna Hoffman, and John Sculley, respectively. Since initial rumors began on the movie's production four years ago, it's faced multiple changes in directors and lead actors for the role of Steve Jobs.
The movie debuted last week at the Telluride Film Festival to nearly-universal positive acclaim, with some calling it "thrilling" and Steve Wozniak himself noting its accuracy to real life events. The movie will next make its premiere as the Centerpiece for the New York Film Festival before debuting in limited release on October 9, and going wide on October 16.
Amazon today announced the follow-up to last year's Fire TV streaming device, simply dubbed "The New Amazon Fire TV." The new $99 box is getting a handful of new features, including 4K ultra HD video streaming, the addition of the company's Alexa voice assistant into the operating system, and a processing boost of 75 percent over last year's model.
The introduction of Alexa will allow customers to play their music, check on the score of a sporting event, and see how the weather is outside, all while using their voice. Speaking into the Fire TV remote will bring the voice assistant up -- who made her debut in the Amazon Echo last fall -- and she will eventually become more acclimated to each customer's speech patterns, vocabulary, and personal preferences.
In addition to 4K ultra HD streaming, the company promises higher quality basic HD video for everyone who doesn't have a television set that supports 4K settings. Amazon has also introduced expandable storage, allowing customers to increase the 8GB of on-device storage all the way up to 128GB for a variety of apps and games.
“The team has packed an incredible amount of technology and innovation into a tiny package,” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com Founder and CEO. “The new Fire TV includes 4K support, more processing power, Alexa integration, the largest selection, and exclusive features—for less than $100. The new Fire TV Stick with Voice Remote brings voice search and Alexa integration for less than $50. These are powerful devices at incredible prices.”
Concerning games specifically, the company also announced an entirely new Amazon Fire TV Gaming Edition, which is essentially today's newly announced Fire TV bundled alongside the new Fire TV Gaming Controller, a 32GB microSD card, and Shovel Knight and Disney's Ducktales pre-installed. The new gaming controller includes voice commands and search like the traditional Fire TV remote, plus access to Alexa, up to 90 hours of battery life that use AA batteries, and an audio headphone jack.
With a launch date of October 5, both bundles of the new Fire TV can be pre-ordered beginning today, with the traditional Amazon Fire TV retailing at $99 and the Amazon Fire TV Gaming Edition going for $139. The company also introduced a new bundle of the Fire TV Stick for $49 that now includes the voice remote, which will begin shipping on October 22.
Best Buy has accepted Apple Pay for in-app payments since April, and now the U.S. electronics retailer has begun rolling out the iPhone-based mobile payments service in stores.
A new YouTube video and Reddit thread confirm customers making successful debit and credit card purchases using both Apple Pay and Android Pay at separate Best Buy stores in California.
Best Buy is now permitted to support Apple Pay, Android Pay and other NFC payment services after its three-year exclusivity period with payment consortium Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX) expired in August. MCX has developed its own mobile payments service called CurrentC, which some retailers began testing in August but may not see a broad launch until 2016.
Best Buy has not officially announced Apple Pay availability at its U.S. retail chain, but the company did confirm in April that it would roll out in-store support later in 2015. Best Buy joins Rite Aid, Meijer and other retailers as MCX members that now accept Apple Pay, but others such as Walmart have no plans to support the service.
The Apple Watch will officially launch in Belgium this Saturday on September 19, after previously being given a vague "available in 2015" launch date (via Apple Weetjes). The release of the Apple Watch will also coincide with the grand opening of Apple's newest retail location in Brussels, the first one ever in Belgium, which will see its grand opening on that day.
Photo of the new Brussels Apple Store via Niewsblad.be
In Belgium, the Apple Watch Sport models will sell for €419.00 (38mm) and €469.00 (42mm), while the mid-tier Apple Watch line will cost customers €669.00 (38mm) and €719.00 (42mm).
When first introduced back in April, the Apple Watch was restricted to Apple's own retail stores and select boutique locations. Ever since, Apple has been slowly expanding the availability of the Apple Watch, with not only cell carriers offering the wearable device but new retail chains across the world.
T-Mobile has announced the expansion of its Simple Global coverage to an additional 20 countries to now cover all of Europe and South America. Simple Global is now available in the Bahamas and 145 total countries worldwide, covering more than 90% of the areas that Americans travel abroad each year.
Simple Global provides Simple Choice postpaid customers with unlimited low-speed data and texting at no extra cost, and flat-rate calls for 20 cents per minute, outside of the United States. It is complemented by Mobile Without Borders, which allows full talk, text and 4G LTE data usage in Canada and Mexico at no extra cost.
“We’ve just made your traveling even easier in 20 more destinations around the world, expanding Simple Global to cover all of Europe and all of South America,” said John Legere, president and CEO of T-Mobile. “The carriers have made billions overcharging consumers who just want to stay connected overseas, and we’ve changed all that! Today, we made it even simpler to text, search or keep up on social media in a total of 145 countries and destinations, all at no extra cost!”
Simple Global is now available in these additional countries and destinations:
Caribbean: Bahamas, Haiti
Europe: Albania, Belarus, Bosnia, Liechtenstein, Macedonia, Monaco, Montenegro, Serbia, Slovenia, Guernsey, Alderney, Jersey, Sark, Isle of Man
Others: Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan
Simple Global provides a standard data speed of 128 Kbps. No tethering is allowed.
Update: Sprint has also added 33 new countries to Open World, which provides free calling and texting in certain countries and free texting, calls for 20 cents per minute and high-speed data for $30/GB in other countries. The new destinations are listed here and the full list can be found here.
Honda on Wednesday at YouTube Space LA introduced the redesigned 2016 Civic with CarPlay and Android Auto support. The tenth-generation sedan will be the second Honda vehicle to support CarPlay alongside the 2016 Accord as the Japanese car maker continues its 2016 vehicle rollout.
Apple has listed Honda as a CarPlay partner on its website for quite some time, but the car maker waited until its 2016 lineup to introduce the iPhone-based dashboard system. GM is also supporting CarPlay and Android Auto in 2016 across its Chevrolet, Cadillac, Corvette, Buick and GMC vehicle brands.
CarPlay connects to iPhone and provides hands-free or eyes-free access to Maps, Phone, Messages, Music, Podcasts and third-party apps such as Spotify, Rdio, iHeartRadio, CBS Radio and MLB At Bat. The in-dash software uses Siri and also interfaces with your vehicle's knobs, dials and buttons.
While T-Mobile CEO John Legere announced last week that the carrier would begin selling the Apple Watch he did not provide a specific release date. MacRumors has learned that T-Mobile will begin selling the Apple Watch on September 25. Additionally, 9to5Macreports that Sprint will also start selling the device on the same day.
With the iPhone 6s and 6 Plus launching on September 25, it's likely carriers want the ability to sell Apple's smartwatch as an accessory to the Cupertino company's new flagship smartphones. While it's unknown whether Verizon and AT&T will also sell Apple Watch on September 25, it's possible they will also sell the device.
Since launching in April, the Apple Watch has slowly been expanding to retailers like Best Buy in the U.S. and other countries. Initially, Apple Watch was limited to Apple Stores and select retail boutiques.
In iOS 9, some of the best features are the ones that aren't readily visible. iOS 9 has several under-the-hood updates that boost battery life, improve security, and cut down on the amount of storage space iOS updates and apps use on iPhones and iPads.
Even disregarding all of the consumer facing features, these quiet improvements make the upgrade to iOS 9 from iOS 8 or iOS 7 well worth it on all supported devices: the iPhone 4s and up, the iPad 2 and up, and all iPad mini models.
Battery Life
With operating system optimizations, Apple is able to eke out an additional hour of battery life on iPhones under normal usage conditions. One of these improvements, for example, pertains to the iPhone's ambient light and proximity sensor. When the iPhone is placed facedown, it now detects that the screen isn't visible, so an incoming notification does not light up the screen.
There's also a new Low Power Mode on the iPhone that can add another three hours of battery life by cutting down on battery-draining features. Low Power Mode turns off automatic Mail fetch, disables background app refresh, disables motion effects, and disables animated wallpapers.
Low Power mode also throttles the performance of the iPhone so it drains less power. Benchmark testing suggests Low Power mode reduces an iPhone's performance by about 40 percent to cut down on power usage.
Security
iOS 9 prompts users to create 6-digit passcodes instead of 4-digit passcodes for additional security. It's still possible to create a 4-digit passcode, but Apple recommends a 6-digit code because it adds one million possible combinations instead of 10,000, making a passcode harder to crack. Two-factor authentication support is also enhanced in iOS 9.
Installation Size
With iOS 9, Apple's cut way down on the installation size, so far less free space is required to download the new update. While iOS required 4.58 GB of space to install, iOS 9 requires only 1.3 GB of space to install, making it more accessible to users who have 16 GB iOS devices.
For devices that still don't have enough space to install the iOS 9 update, Apple has a new auto app delete/reinstall feature. When attempting to install iOS 9 on a device with insufficient space, there's a popup that offers to temporarily delete some apps in order to make room for the update. Apps that are deleted are then reinstalled and replaced after the operating system update is completed.
App Thinning
Apps from third-party developers also require less installation space thanks to a feature called App Thinning. With App Thinning, apps can be optimized for specific devices, allowing them to take up less space on iOS devices.
An app for the iPhone doesn't need all of the iPad assets, so those won't be downloaded. That means faster installs, faster launch times, and more storage space left for other apps and content.
App Thinning also includes on-demand resources like image and sound files, which can be downloaded only when needed. The imagery for later levels in a game, for example, might not be downloaded until it's necessary.
Metal
Apps in iOS 9 take advantage of Metal, making more efficient use of the CPU and GPU for faster scrolling, smoother animations, and better performance. Email, messages, web pages, and PDFs all render faster.
A U.S. federal appeals court has ruled that Apple was entitled to an injunction on multiple Samsung products that a lower court ruled to be infringing on the iPhone maker's patented technologies in an early 2014 trial.
Best Buy has 
