MacRumors

Apple CEO Tim Cook is participating in a "fireside chat" today with Box CEO Aaron Levie at BoxWorks 2015, following Apple's record-breaking iPhone launch weekend.

Given that this is an enterprise conference, the interview naturally begins with a discussion of Apple's enterprise efforts, although Cook notes that to some degree there is no such thing as an "enterprise phone" any more than there are enterprise cars and that Apple has been quietly numerous phones and tablets to companies.

Cook does, however, highlight some of Apple's enterprise partnerships, including Cisco and Box, emphasizing how transformational mobile is for businesses. Mobility enables significant increases in productivity and gives companies the opportunity to rethink their business processes. But nobody, including Apple, is way out in front on this.

Levie then gives Cook a "layup" question, asking why this sort of transformation can't happen on Android, with Cook responding that users want to use the best hardware with security built in from the start and a unified ecosystem.

Talking about ecosystem growth, Cook talks about how iOS has pulled the Mac along for the benefit of both operating systems, emphasizing the smooth transition between devices enabled by Apple's Continuity features. "We think people want some similarity, but clearly these operating systems are different things. So we have no intention to blend them."

Turning to partnerships, Levie and Cook discuss how Apple is working with former rivals like IBM and Microsoft to deliver better solutions for customers, something that will definitely benefit enterprise. Pointing toward Microsoft's Office demo at Apple's media event earlier this month, Cook notes "Apple and Microsoft can partner on more things than we can compete on. And that's what the customer wants. [...] I'm not a believer in holding grudges."

With Apple's strong financial performance of nearly $200 billion in revenue over the past year, Levie asks why Apple doesn't just "throw down the mic" and declare victory, Cook notes "we haven't started yet," pointing to potential in enterprise, Apple Watch, television, and more.

Building on Apple's new iPhone Upgrade Program, Levie jokes that Apple should create a subscription program where users automatically get a new iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and more every year. Cook gets a laugh out of Levie's proposed pricing of $64/month, but notes how the iPhone Upgrade Program is designed to remove a lot of the friction of the buying process.

The conversation then turns to equality and other issues, with Cook noting it's something Apple and its customers care about and it's something Apple is going to "evangelize" about all over the world. "It's shocking to me that we're in 2015 and we're even having this subject." Cook also points to public education and the environment as areas of emphasis.

Moving on to Dr. Dre and Beats, Cook notes he and Dr. Dre haven't talked enterprise issues, but he takes the opportunity to push Apple Music, noting "there's a lot of joy coming out of Apple Music." Levie asks about the possibility of enterprise radio, and he and Cook begin spitballing ideas for a mix of music, talk, and news.

With that, the interview wraps up Cook and Levie leave the stage, kicking off the remainder of the conference.

Following the release of the golden master version of OS X 10.11 El Capitan to developers earlier in the month, the first reviews for the newest iteration on Apple's desktop operating system have begun to hit this morning, ahead of the wide public release tomorrow, September 30. After testing El Capitan for a few weeks, most sites agree that while OS X 10.11 isn't a massive overhaul, its performance enhancements and speed boosts make upgrading to the free new OS essentially a no-brainer.

Macworld calls El Capitan "solid as a rock," noting improvements to features like Mission Control and the introduction of Split View as big positives. Overall, Macworld views the upgrade as "routine", a welcome refresh amid Apple's continued push towards performance and security improvements.

Should you update to El Capitan? Unreservedly yes—I’ve found it to be stable, it’s free, it’ll download and install itself on your Mac with nearly no intervention, and it’ll bring with it improved security, speed, and functionality.

The days of dramatic operating-system updates are over. El Capitan is as solid as the giant granite monolith that towers over Yosemite Valley. Upgrade, and get an improved Mac. It’s really that simple.

Engadget gives El Capitan an 87/100 score, calling it a "modest update" after Yosemite last year, but with solid new introductions like multitasking and noticeable improvements to Spotlight, Safari, and Photos. In particular, the site points out the exciting possibilities that will come from the addition of third-party extensions for Photos, allowing users to take advantage of the editing tools of other photo apps within Apple's own Photos experience.

While Apple promised third-party extensions when it first unveiled the new Photos app earlier this year, extensions won't actually be available to download until tomorrow. Extensions can be downloaded from the Mac App Store, either bundled with an app or distributed on their own. Although some developers, like the folks behind Pixelmator, have gotten a head start, most developers are only just getting the chance to access these tools for the first time. So, we should be seeing more extensions hit the App Store as the season wears on. Personally, as an Engadget editor posting lots of hands-on photos, I'd really like to see one for batch-watermarking.

The Verge commented on the small but noticeable improvements brought by El Capitan, such as the ability to pin tabs in Safari and even mute them from the address bar, which the site says should cause Google Chrome users to give Apple's browser another look. Overall, The Verge views OS X 10.11 as Apple's evolutionary in-house solution for a handful of problems and shortcomings third-party software has addressed over the years, making the update feel both minor and substantial at the same time.

El Capitan takes the sorts of things that experts have been doing with third-party apps and utilities for years on the Mac and builds them right into the OS. Spotlight is becoming more than just a simple file search box. Window management is becoming easier. Notes is more than just a raw text box. Most of it left me nonplussed because all of these things didn't feel new and different to me — I've been finding ways to fix all of those problems for years with third party apps and add-ons. But with El Capitan, Apple's made the learning curve you usually have to climb to become a "power user" (whatever that is) much more gradual.

Everyone will be able to get in on experiencing El Capitan for themselves starting tomorrow, when the new version of OS X launches for the public. Before the update goes live, a handful of other sites have posted reviews for El Capitan, including: The Wall Street Journal, The Next Web, CNET, and SlashGear. For a more technical overview of OS X El Capitan, Ars Technica also has an excellent review.

With publicity for the new Steve Jobs movie ramping up ahead of its October 9 release, a new video was shared by ScreenSlam over the weekend, showing a few behind-the-scenes moments of the creation of the film, along with some cast and crew interviews.

Seth Rogen, who stars as Steve Wozniak, praises screenwriter Aaron Sorkin's unique approach to the story and describes the movie as so "cinematic" and different from any other biopic, that it almost feels more like fiction than reality. Director Danny Boyle also described the movie as a natural extension of Sorkin's previous movie, The Social Network, with both films centering around individuals who "create this modern world" and the repercussions their innovations have on themselves, their friends and family, and everyone who uses what they built.

ScreenSlam also posted a lengthier 37-minute video -- of which the original video is a truncated version -- that houses in-depth interviews with more cast and crew members including Katherine Waterston, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Aaron Sorkin himself. The glimpses behind the cameras of the movie's shoot can only be found in the shorter video, however.

The film has been the subject of some controversy over the last week, when Aaron Sorkin gave a heated response to Apple CEO Tim Cook's initial negative impression of the yet-to-be released movie. The next day, Sorkin backtracked slightly on his comments, saying that "Tim Cook and I probably both went a little too far," and hoping that Cook enjoys the movie when he sees it as much as Sorkin enjoys Apple's products.

Earlier today, we noted Apple had recently removed older versions of OS X and other discontinued software from the Purchased tab of the Mac App Store for users who had previously purchased or downloaded them. The apps, which included Aperture, iPhoto, OS X Lion, OS X Mountain Lion and OS X Mavericks, have now returned to the Purchased tab.

The disappearance of the ability to re-download older software irked users, with some calling the action "user hostile." It's unclear if Apple pulled the software intentionally or whether the Mac App Store experienced a temporary bug in advance of the availability of OS X El Capitan. However, the software was unavailable for several days before returning tonight.

Only one of the apps, Aperture, will continue to be compatible with OS X El Capitan.

Update: As noted by several readers, some discontinued software including Logic Pro 9 and older versions of OS X Server remain unavailable for re-download from the Purchased tab.

Thanks, Matthew!

Ahead of the launch of the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, there were rumors suggesting both TSMC and Samsung were developing Apple's A9 chip for the device. There was some confusion over how the split would work, because the two companies used different technologies - TSMC was rumored to be using a 16-nanometer process while Samsung used a 14-nanometer process.

Chipworks has now confirmed via several iPhone 6s teardowns that the new devices do indeed contain application processors from both Samsung and TSMC. Comparatively, the die size of the Samsung processor is smaller than the die size of the TSMC processor.

The APL0898 chip was developed by Samsung and measures in at 96 square millimeters, while the APL1022 chip manufactured by TSMC measures in at 104.5 square millimeters. Chipworks suggests Apple's decision to use processors from both companies points towards "major sourcing problems," but over the last few years, Apple has opted to diversify its supply chain to prevent manufacturing hurdles that can potentially lead to delays.

It is not yet clear how the size difference between the chips will affect the performance of the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, but Chipworks plans to benchmark each of the processors to figure out whether iPhones equipped with Samsung chips and those equipped with TSMC chips perform differently.

Earlier this month, developer James Addyman got his emulator, Provenance, working on the Apple TV Developer Kit provided to developers via lottery, and now developer Kevin Smith has gotten the popular MAME game emulator running on the device.

In the video below, a tvOS version of the MAME emulator is demonstrated on the fourth-generation Apple TV. For those unfamiliar with MAME, it stands for Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator. Over the years, several apps with the MAME code have snuck into the iOS App Store, letting people illicitly run old arcade games.

In the video, Smith shows several old arcade games running on the Apple TV, including Donkey Kong, Galaga, Street Fighter II, Raiden, and Metal Slug - Super Vehicle. All of the games are said to run well, though there are some lingering sound issues with a few of the titles.

The video's description includes some of the technical hurdles that had to be overcome to get the emulator working on tvOS.

I created a target for tvOS and set about getting the code to compile for arm64 (Mandatory for AppleTV), fixed a variety of compiler and linker errors. Removed code which was incompatible with tvOS frameworks and simplified code to work on tvOS. Added a basic icon compatible with tvOS. I added some tweaks to the source to allow the pause button to exit the game and supporting the resolution for the 1080p display.

While developers have been able to get emulators running on the developer versions of the fourth-generation Apple TV, which were handed out to help developers create Apple TV apps, emulators won't be available on the tvOS App Store. Apple doesn't allow emulators on iOS and will likely adopt the same policy for tvOS.

There is a possibility that emulators will be able to sneak into the tvOS App Store in the future, buried deep within legitimate apps, but as on iOS, such apps will only survive for hours before being pulled once discovered by Apple.

Apple recently removed older versions of OS X and other discontinued software from the Purchased tab of users who had previously purchased or downloaded them. With the change, it is no longer possible for users to download Aperture, iPhoto, OS X Lion, OS X Mountain Lion, and OS X Mavericks from the Mac App Store.

The decision to disallow users from downloading the older software is not going over well on reddit, where commenters are calling Apple's decision "user-hostile."

That's really unfortunate and hostile by Apple. What about people who use older operating systems due to compatibility problems with specific software?

I recently had to re-install Mavericks, but didn't keep the "Install OS X Mavericks" app. Now my only chance of getting it again is to download it from another location, and I don't know whether that image has been compromised.

It is not clear if Apple's decision to prevent users from downloading older software from the Mac App Store is a temporary bug or a permanent change. The software has, however, been unavailable for several days now.

It's possible Apple is aiming to prevent people from downloading software that is outdated and unsupported, but at least one of the now-inaccessible apps, Aperture, continues to work on OS X El Capitan.

In just a few short days, the first Apple Music trial periods will begin ending for those who signed up for the trial on June 30, Apple Music's official launch date. As that end date approaches, Apple has updated its Apple Music website to add a series of Guided Tour videos to walk people through using the service.

These Guided Tour videos will show you how to discover new music, hear recommendations from experts, create playlists, connect with artists, and listen to all the music you love on all your devices. Watch now.

There are seven different Guided Tour videos, which cover a range of topics. Three of the videos are dedicated to the Apple Music subscription service, walking people through using the For You section of Apple Music for personalized recommendations, the New feature that has music curated by Apple Music editors, and Apple Music Playlists, also curated by Apple Music editors.

There are also videos on using Beats 1 Radio and Apple Music Connect, Apple's artist-focused social networking feature. The final two videos cover adding songs from the Apple Music Library to a user's own music library, and creating Playlists.

Apple has not yet uploaded its Guided Tour videos for music to YouTube, but it's likely the videos will be added to the channel in the near future. For now, the tutorial videos can be watched directly on Apple's site.

Update: Apple has added all of the Apple Music Guided Tour videos to its YouTube channel. Links to each video are listed below.

- Apple Music Playlists
- My Playlists
- My Music
- Connect
- Radio
- New
- For You

With each iteration of the iPhone, Apple improves camera quality, which has led to the iPhone being one of the most popular camera choices in the world. The iPhone 6s introduces the company's first 12-megapixel camera, an improvement over the 8-megapixel cameras Apple has used since the iPhone 4s and the most advanced iPhone camera yet.

Camera+ co-founder Lisa Bettany has taken a series of comparison shots that demonstrate how the iPhone has improved over the years, with photographs taken with every model of iPhone beginning with the original iPhone and ending with the iPhone 6s.

Her photographs provide a fascinating look not only at how the iPhone 6s has improved over the iPhone 6, but also at how smartphone camera technology has progressed over the last eight years.

Bettany compares images taken with each iPhone and the Camera+ app across eight categories, including Macro, Backlit, Backlit Macro, Daylight, Portrait, Sunset, Low-Light, and Low-Light Sunrise. There are, of course, striking differences between the original iPhone and the iPhone 6s, but even between the iPhone 6 and Apple's newest device, there are noticeable improvements, especially when it comes to detail.

Along with a jump in megapixels, Apple's iPhone 6s also includes several other improvements. "Deep Trench Isolation" prevents the color bleeding and artifacts that often come with an increase in megapixels, plus Apple's also introduced faster autofocusing speeds and a new image signal processor for better noise reduction and improved tone mapping.

In Bettany's opinion, the camera improvements combined with software updates and the A9 processor on the iPhone 6s make it the best iPhone camera yet. "There is an apparent increase in the speed of auto focus and improvements to colour accuracy, details and sharpness, especially in low light," she writes.

Bettany's full selection of image comparisons are well worth checking out and can be found on her website.

Since the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus have been out for a few days, some users have begun to test the breaking point of the new devices, especially in regards to the possibility of water resistance. A handful of YouTubers have put together some videos showcasing impressive results of both the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus under a few inches of water, but the devices fare much worse when put to the test under four feet of water in a swimming pool.

The first video pits the iPhone 6s Plus against the Galaxy S6 Edge in a small container, under a few inches of water. Each smartphone survived an impressive thirty minutes submerged under water, and appeared to retain their entire functionalities afterwards. As noted by Keaton Keller, the creator of the video and part of the TechSmartt channel, last year the iPhone 6 died after a brief minute facing the same test.

The second video crafts a similar test, but this time compares an iPhone 6s to an iPhone 6s Plus under similar amounts of water as Keller's video. After about an hour, both versions of the new iPhone retained functionality with features like the camera, 3D Touch, and other basic touch screen responses still intact. Zach Straley, the video's creator, followed up a few days later with an update video that showed both iPhones unlocking with Touch ID, having unaltered sound, and with completely functional charging ports and headphone jacks.

Finally, iDeviceHelp posted a video a bit different than the previous two, this time submerging an iPhone 6s Plus into a swimming pool under four feet of water. After one minute, the phone displayed slight touch screen issues, but appeared relatively safe to use. After two full minutes underwater, the device's screen began to fade out, then turned off and refused to reboot a few moments afterwards. A few minutes later, the iPhone 6s Plus grew hotter and hotter, and about two hours later it was completely dead and couldn't be woken up.

Overall, it appears that the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus have seen measured improvements in water resistance over last year's models, but complete submergence under liquids up to a few feet will still cause the new devices to meet their demise. So while new iPhone 6s and 6s Plus users can rest assured a small amount of rain or other liquid won't immediately harm their device, larger accidents like dropping it into a swimming pool or lake are still cause for concern.

It should be noted that even under a few inches of water, the iPhones didn't come away completely unscathed, Straley noting in his follow-up video that the iPhone 6s in particular saw a slight digital aberration in the form of a diagonal line across the top of the screen. Still, it appears that Apple has made a noticeable attempt to bolster the iPhone's waterproof quality, which may lend early rumors of the "iPhone 7" a small bit of credibility.

Apple today announced that opening weekend sales for the brand-new iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus have exceeded thirteen million units, breaking the previous record of ten million units sold by the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus last year.

“Sales for iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus have been phenomenal, blowing past any previous first weekend sales results in Apple’s history,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “Customers’ feedback is incredible and they are loving 3D Touch and Live Photos, and we can’t wait to bring iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus to customers in even more countries on October 9.”

The company claims, as with previous years, that demand for the new smartphones is at an all-time high, and confirmed that the new iPhones will be coming to 40 additional countries beginning on October 9, including Italy, Mexico, Russia, Spain and Taiwan.

- October 9: Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Greenland, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Isle of Man, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Maldives, Mexico, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan

- October 10: Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates

- October 16: India, Malaysia, Turkey

The company has stated it plans to have the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus in over 130 countries by the end of the year.

MacRumors has made a few hands-on videos showcasing some of the newer and upgraded iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus features, including Live Photos, 3D Touch, and Touch ID. As more and more customers received their orders over the weekend, the first impressions of the new devices began to roll out, leading to a large consensus of a noticeably faster experience that feels largely different than most "S" generation iPhones.