MacRumors

Opera today announced the launch of a brand new privacy-focused app, called Opera VPN, which allows users to block ads and even change their virtual location to circumvent restricted internet access (via TechCrunch)

In addition to these features, Opera VPN will stop ad-tracking software from gaining information about your internet habits that create personalized advertisements within browsers like Safari and Chrome.

“Every day, millions of people, from students to working people, find that social-media sites like Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook are blocked when they surf on their campus or workplace Wi-Fi. The same goes for video-streaming sites,” Chris Houston, President of Surfeasy, Opera’s VPN division, said in an announcement released this morning. “With the new Opera VPN app, we help people to break down the barriers of the web and enjoy the internet like it should be,” he added.

Opera introduced a similar virtual private network feature into its OS X-based web browser in April, following its acquisition of VPN app company SurfEasy last year. Thanks to a VPN's ability to shield a user's true IP address, Opera's acquisition has let the company introduce new security-focused updates into its internet browser desktop and mobile apps.

At launch, users will be able to choose from five virtual locations, including the United States, Canada, Germany, Singapore and The Netherlands. The app will also be available in English, Arabic, French, German, Indonesian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.

Those interested can download Opera VPN from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]

Spotify today announced 12 new original series coming to the music streaming platform this summer and fall, which the company hopes will keep its users drawn into the service more often (via Bloomberg).

The shows will surround music and pop culture in general and be "centered around three main themes – music performances, music profiles and music culture," with episodes lasting up to fifteen minutes each.

The new video offerings come about a year after Spotify began showcasing clips from Comedy Central, ESPN, and MTV within the app. Now the company intends to get into the original programming game, with new shows like Landmark, a documentary series detailing important moments in music history, and Rush Hour, which will force two artists to quickly collaborate on a setlist of songs that they must then perform live.

The company has even netted a few well-known actors and producers for some of the shows, like Tim Robbins, who will produce a "mockumentary series about a competition to become the next dance music phenom." This first phase of 12 shows will be focused on music, and Spotify intends to speak with artists to figure out ways it can incorporate the video initiative into upcoming album launches.

Tom Calderone, the company’s content partnerships chief, said that the second phase of programming is already planned, as well, focusing on animated and comedic series "tailored to the service’s young audience." Calderone mentioned that one of the biggest hurdles the company must face is educating its users about the shows, and somehow promoting each series within the iOS app, which now has better tools for user visibility thanks to an all-new tab bar update. An update to the Android app is expected sometime this summer.

While Calderone has plenty of experience making shows people watch, Spotify has little experience getting people to watch much of anything. Videos are buried in the current version of the app, “down there with how to unsubscribe and the privacy policy,” Calderone joked.

“It will be our job to make this stuff famous,” Calderone said. “We have a ways to go.”

Spotify gave no specific launch date for the shows besides a vague summer and fall estimation. The company did confirm that each series will be available for both free and paid users to watch in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, and Sweden.

Since Apple Music launched, rumors began swirling that the company was working on launching its own slate of original shows. Although iTunes chief Eddie Cue has said recent announcements aren't a signal that the company intends to delve deeper into original programming, it has confirmed a few series are in the works, including one starring Dr. Dre and another that will "spotlight the app economy."

Although Drake's newest album "Views" was only available on iTunes and Apple Music for one week, under the terms of the company's exclusivity deal with the artist, the album managed to sell more than one million copies in just five days, which The Wall Street Journal calls "a rare achievement in an age of rapid streaming growth and declining sales of downloads and CDs."

Most of those sales numbers -- 632,000 copies to be exact -- came within the first 24 hours of release, with the rest trickling over the one million mark in the subsequent days. The figures specifically target sales for the $13.99 iTunes copy of Views, but Apple Music showed some impressive streaming statistics for Drake's new album, as well.

In total, Views was streamed more than 250 million times worldwide, 200 million of which were inside the United States, suggesting Apple Music managed to get some of the artist's fans to sign up for the service beyond its current 13 million paid subscribers.

The results fly in the face of industry fears that paid streaming services might hasten the continuing decline of music sales, which have fallen by more than 60% in the past 15 years, according to data from Nielsen. While that could still eventually happen, plenty of fans purchased the $13.99 Drake album last week even though they could also access it immediately, along with some 30 million other tracks, by subscribing to Apple Music for $9.99 a month—or even just by signing up for a free trial.

As Drake's album launched on April 29, his record label’s parent company, Vivendi SA’s Universal Music Group, went to work keeping any traces of pirated songs and videos off of sites like YouTube. According to sources within the industry, the new trend of exclusivity deals between artists and streaming services like Apple Music and Tidal, has led to a renewed crackdown on pirated music. Vivendi SA's Universal Music Group alone has spent "millions of dollars a year" going through a similar process with other big releases.

Drake has been one of the headline artists representing Apple Music since it was first announced last year at WWDC. Since then, the singer has hosted 20 episodes of his own Beats 1 Radio show, OVO Sound, partnered with Apple Music to sponsor his Summer Sixteen tour, and had some of his songs featured in ads for the streaming music service.

Apple Maps has recently been updated with the introduction of all new Transit information for the city of Sacramento, California, which will let iPhone users in the city navigate using public transportation options like buses, subways, commuter rails, and more.

Transit routing became available within iOS 9 with a limited number of supported cities at launch. Since then, Apple has worked at expanding support for the public transportation feature of its first-party Maps app, now encompassing 20 cities around the world and 30 cities within China.

Including Sacramento, Transit directions can be found in Austin, Sydney, Baltimore, Berlin, Boston, Chicago, London, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Toronto, New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Washington, DC. Over the past month alone Apple has released a rapid collection of cities with Transit support, including Montreal, Portland, Seattle, New South Wales, and Rio de Janeiro, ahead of the 2016 Summer Olympics.

(Thanks, Ram!)

Microsoft has updated its OneDrive app for iOS with new 'Peek' and 'Pop' support for owners with 3D Touch-enabled devices.

The 7.1 update to the cloud storage app means iPhone 6s and 6s Plus users can now get instant previews of file and folder contents using a lighter press, while a deeper press 'pops' open the uploaded content.

Other changes to OneDrive include a new-look interface and a new feature that lets users shake their device to let Microsoft know if they are having issues with the service.

Last week, Microsoft began sending out email alerts to OneDrive users, warning holders of free 15GB accounts that their storage would be reduced to 5GB on August 10.

The 5GB limit has been in effect for new accounts for a while now, but Microsoft reneged on plans to force the reduction upon long-time subscribers, who were later given the option to keep their extra free space after widespread complaints.

OneDrive is available as a free download for iPhone and iPad on the App Store. [Direct Link]

A unified, Apple-designed HomeKit app has been desired by HomeKit users since HomeKit first debuted, and it appears Apple is planning to introduce such an app in the near future, perhaps in iOS 10.

The hint on Apple's HomeKit plans comes from an Amazon reviewer who works in the marketing department at Apple. The name of the reviewer coincides with the LinkedIn profile of an alleged marketing employee at Apple, and we have confirmed that the Amazon review was indeed created by the Apple employee.

As I work in marketing for Apple, we test many Smart Home devices, especially for iOS HomeKit integration. [...]

Some advice, there are many third party applications, most free, that offer more control and customization(s) with many Smart Home devices. "Yonomi" is a free app that I often use, "Home" is another which cost $14.99. Both offer support for many devices with more added daily (including Amazon "Echo"). The next version of iOS due this fall will have a standalone "HomeKit" app as well.

While we verified the source of the information, there's always a chance that Apple's plans could change ahead of the release of iOS 10. There have been several past rumors suggesting Apple would debut a public HomeKit app, but such an app has not materialized even though Apple has long used a HomeKit app internally.

Apple has previously trademarked a HomeKit app icon (pictured above) that could potentially be used for a standalone HomeKit app and rumors have suggested it could be called "Home."

A cohesive, Apple-branded HomeKit app would go a long way towards improving the HomeKit experience. At the current time, HomeKit users with multiple products must use several different product apps, many of which offer different features, or rely on third-party apps.

Update: Further research on the alleged Apple employee who wrote the review suggests the information leaked about an upcoming HomeKit app in iOS 10 was a hoax. It is not clear if and when Apple will release a standalone HomeKit app.

Popular third-party Twitter client Tweetbot was updated to version 4.3 today, adding a new "Topics" feature that's designed to link multiple related Tweets together in a cohesive way. Tweetbot's Topics function is built around the Twitter feature that links Twitter conversations, something that clever Twitter users have utilized for "Tweetstorms."

Twitter has no built-in tool for handling grouped Tweets, leading Tweetbot to fill the void with its new "Topics" function. Tweets composed as a topic in Tweetbot will be linked all together via Twitter's built-in conversation threading and they'll also use the same hashtag so each Tweetstorm is viewable in a cohesive way to Twitter users regardless of the Twitter client being used to view the Tweets.

Sans Tweetbot, one would link several tweets together in a "Tweetstorm" by writing an initial tweet and then replying to that tweet, deleting the username at the start of the tweet. Though the username is removed, the tweets are still linked together in a conversation. Tweetbot's Topic feature simplifies this process.

Linking multiple tweets together is often desirable in situations where a single tweet won't suffice, such as a lengthy rant or live event coverage.

This release introduces Topics. A Topic is a way to let you quickly Tweet a group of related Tweets without having to manually reply to yourself and/or manually add the same hashtags over and over again. They are really great for rapid fire live Tweeting events.

Topics can be created by tapping on the Settings gear when composing a Tweet. Making a topic will prompt users to give the topic a title and an optional Hashtag, with another option to save the Tweets as a collection, visible in the Tweetbot app or embeddable in websites.

Today's update also includes several other tweaks to Tweetbot, including an option to hide the extra side column on the iPad, improved support for hardware keyboards, options for pasting images when composing a tweet, and more.

Other cool stuff
- You can now hide the extra side column on the iPad
- Much better support for hardware keyboards, including using arrow keys to navigate the timeline
- iPad images are no longer super huge
- You can paste images when composing a Tweet, really useful when using GIF (with a hard G) keyboards
- Support for Arabic language, including Right to Left UI
- Muting a user you don't follow will now also prevent Tweets from that user from showing up in your Mentions, Lists and Searches
- Support for Twitter Collections
- Quoting a Tweet looks much nicer when composing a Tweet
- Support for Firefox browser
- Improved support for uploading video to Twitter
- Fixed an issue where timeline would get stuck

Tweetbot can be downloaded from the App Store for $9.99. [Direct Link]

For today's giveaway, we've teamed up with Ultimate Ears to give MacRumors readers a chance to win a limited edition UE Boom 2 Bluetooth speaker. Called "Lost Time," the speaker has a colorful, abstract design that was created by Australian artist Reka.

Available for $199.99, the same price as all of the UE Boom 2 speakers, the Lost Time version is available in limited quantities. Ultimate Ears is also selling "Rabbit Eye Movement" and "Fresh Cut" limited edition speakers with unique designs.

Aside from its look, the Lost Time UE Boom 2 is the same as other UE Boom 2 speakers, offering high-quality sound in a portable package. The UE Boom 2 line is waterproof with an IPX7 rating, meaning it can be taken to the beach, the pool, or used in the shower, and it's also shockproof so it'll survive drops up to five feet. The built-in battery will last for up to 15 hours.

We reviewed the UE Boom 2 back in November and found that it puts out a lot of sound for its compact, size, which is equivalent to a water bottle. The UE Boom 2 also benefits from the UE Boom app, allowing multiple speakers to be linked together.

We're giving away one Lost Time UE Boom 2 to a lucky MacRumors reader. To enter to win, use the Rafflecopter widget below and enter an email address. Email addresses will be used solely for contact purposes to reach the winner and send the prize.

You can earn additional entries by subscribing to our weekly newsletter, subscribing to our YouTube channel, following us on Twitter, or visiting the MacRumors Facebook page. Due to the complexities of international laws regarding giveaways, only U.S. residents who are 18 years of age or older are eligible to enter.

The contest will run from today (May 6) at 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time through 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time on May 13. The winner will be chosen randomly on May 13 and will be contacted by email. The winner has 48 hours to respond and provide a shipping address before a new winner is chosen.

Although a number of social networks have introduced scaled-down apps for the Apple Watch, the biggest holdout thus far has been Facebook. Thanks to a third party app called "Littlebook," Facebook users will now be able to browse their news feeds right from Apple's wearable device (via The Next Web).

In addition to basic browsing, Littlebook lets users interact with posts by tapping to like things, and even includes full in-line photos and videos in the news feed. An offline mode lets users save articles to read later, and the app allows for transferring over to the iPhone with Handoff support, if the small size of the Apple Watch isn't enough for lengthy reads. There's also a voice dictation feature that can be used to post full status updates to your friends and family.

Reto Stuber, Littlebook's developer, does remind potential users that the app has its limitations due to the platform, including the fact that posts on the feed are limited to preview samples with no "read more" option, sharing and reactions are not yet supported, and YouTube videos won't work since playback is only supported by embedded Facebook videos at launch. Still, the developer promised that he tried his "best to recreate the Facebook-App experience," and Littlebook will continue to be supported with updates in the future.

Littlebook can be downloaded from the App Store for $2.99. [Direct Link]