Physics puzzle game God of Light from Playmous has been named Apple's App of the Week, and as a result, it will be free to download from the App Store for the next seven days. First released in February of 2014, God of Light is normally priced at $1.99 and has not been priced below $0.99 since its initial launch.
Praised for its impressive graphics, soundtrack, and challenging gameplay in App Store reviews, God of Light asks players to reflect, bend, manipulate, and teleport rays of light to make their way through five game worlds and 125 different levels.
This game more than delivers when it comes to great gameplay experience, so what are you waiting for? Get ready for an amazing trip. Become God of Light!
- Explore 5 different game worlds and 125 levels. - Use mirrors, prisms, splitters, collectors, black holes and filters to control rays of light energy. - Unlock and share your achievements with friends. Do you have what it takes to earn them all? - Collect glowing creatures that help you solve puzzles. - Receive regular updates with new game worlds and levels to explore.
Apple is continuing to work on improvements to its Maps app for iOS and OS X, and a new job listing suggests that better use of crowdsourcing and integration with Siri and Passbook are the next features the company will introduce to provide a better Maps experience.
The job posting, first shared by 9to5Mac, seeks a "Maps Community Client Software Engineer" to join Apple's Maps team. The engineer will focus on "building and extending the Maps application to allow Apple to crowdsource improvements to the Maps experience," and the position calls for high-level UI development and refining of the "Report a Problem" feature in Maps.
According to the job description, deeper integration between Maps and other system services like Passbook and Siri may be on the horizon to improve crowdsourcing.
As an engineer working on Maps Community, your primary responsibility will be high-level UI development and architecture of the "Report a Problem" feature of the Maps application, and you will work closely with designers and engineers across the company to add new features and build the very best crowd-sourcing experience. You'll also be working on the frameworks and plugins that enable Maps to integrate deeply and seamlessly with parts of the system such as Siri and Passbook, to extend and enhance the feedback experience.
Since Maps received a highly critical reception following its launch alongside iOS 6, Apple has gone to great lengths to improve the software by leaps and bounds. In addition to terminating several people involved with the Maps project and restructuring its entire executive structure, the company has also acquired a glut of mapping companies over the past several years, including C3 Technologies, Broadmap, Embark, Hopstop, WifiSlam, Locationary, and most recently, the developers behind Pin Drop.
The company has also hired a range of "ground truth experts" around the world to improve the quality of the information given by its Maps app, and it's utilized crowdsourcing to introduce significant improvements to Points of Interest (POI) data.
In an ongoing class action lawsuit that alleges Apple deliberately crippled competing music services by locking iPods and iTunes music to its own ecosystem, Apple iTunes chief Eddy Cue today testified on Apple's Digital Rights Management (DRM) policies.
In the early days of iTunes and the iPod, all iTunes music purchases were encoded with Apple's FairPlay DRM, preventing music bought via iTunes from being played on music players other than the iPod. In the two-pronged antitrust lawsuit that covers both iTunes music being restricted to the iPod and iPods being unable to play content from third-party services, Apple's use of restrictive DRM is one of the major complaints against the company.
According to Eddy Cue, in testimony shared by The Verge, Apple was against DRM but was forced to implement it in order to secure deals with record labels. FairPlay, developed by Apple, was not licensed to other companies to allow competing music services to play iTunes music because Apple "couldn't find a way to do that and have it work reliably."
As issue, Cue said, were things like interoperability with the growing multitude of MP3 players. New devices from other companies would come out, and might not work with that system. "Others tried to do this, and it failed miserably," Cue said. "One of those was Microsoft." Cue also noted that when Apple first floated the idea of the iTunes Store to record labels, that they rebuked the idea because they had their own stores with DRM systems that could be different from song to song, and from device to device.
With its FairPlay DRM, Apple essentially prevented iTunes music from being played on competing music players and it also kept competing music services, like RealNetworks, from selling music that could circumvent iTunes and play on the iPod by disallowing RealNetworks' attempts to reverse engineer FairPlay.
As revealed yesterday, Apple also quietly deleted music downloaded from rival services by directing iPod owners to restore their devices to factory settings. According to Cue, allowing third-party music services to work with the iPod "wouldn't work," causing the integration between iTunes and iPod to fail. "There's no way for us to have done that and had the success we had," he said.
In addition to arguing that its DRM was required for deals with record companies, Apple is also positioning its efforts to lock down iTunes and the iPod as a measure to protect consumers from hackers and malicious content. "If a hack happened, we had to remedy the hack within a certain time period," Cue told the court. If the problem wasn't fixed in a timely manner, record companies could pull their music from iTunes, so Apple had to push regular updates to iTunes and its DRM to prevent "hacks" circumventing the technology.
The class action lawsuit, which has featured emails from Steve Jobs, began on Tuesday of this week and is being heard in the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California. Apple marketing head Phil Schiller is still expected to testify, and a video deposition taken from Jobs before his death is also expected to be heard before the court proceedings end.
Alabama Representative Patricia Todd is introducing a new anti-discrimination bill that will share a name with Apple CEO Tim Cook. Called the Tim Cook Economic Development Act, the forthcoming bill aims to put an end to work-place discrimination based on sexual orientation.
Todd was inspired to name the bill in honor of Tim Cook after he condemned discrimination against LGBT employees in Alabama in October after being inducted into the Alabama Academy of Honor. "As a state, we took too long to step toward equality," Cook said during his acceptance speech. "We were too slow on equality for African-Americans. We were too slow on interracial marriage, and we are still too slow on equality for the LGBT community."
Just days after giving that speech in Alabama, Tim Cook came out as gay himself in an inspiring letter published by Bloomberg Businessweek. In the announcement, Cook said that publicly sharing his sexuality was done in an effort to "bring comfort to anyone who feels alone" and to "inspire people who insist on their equality."
Earlier this week, a report from BuzzFeed suggested Apple was initially hesitant to have Tim Cook's name associated with the bill. Todd originally announced her plan to add Tim Cook's moniker to the act just days after he came out as gay, but after a phone call from an Apple employee who "expressed concern" over the usage of Cook's name, she agreed not to use the Apple CEO's name after all.
"I did get a call from Apple asking me not to name it the Tim Cook bill," she told BuzzFeed News. "They don't want their corporation tied up in the political battle. I understand where they are coming from. I quickly said I would not name it after him."
After BuzzFeed published details on Todd's conversation with Apple, the company reversed course and released a statement saying Cook was "honored" to hear about the bill being named after him.
Tim was honored to hear that State Rep. Todd wanted to name an antidiscrimination bill after him, and we're sorry if there was any miscommunication about it," Apple spokesperson Kristin Huguet wrote in an email. "We have a long history of support for LGBT rights and we hope every state will embrace workplace equality for all.
Todd also reportedly received a call from Apple's legal head Bruce Sewell, who "apologized profusely" and said there had been an Apple representative trying to protect the company from controversy. He went on to tell Todd "I'm here to assure you we support this 100 percent," and he said Cook was glad to see his speech in Alabama had inspired action.
Even before coming out as gay, Tim Cook has had a long history of supporting equality. In 2013, he lectured on equality at his alma mater Auburn University, and during that same year, both he and Apple publicly supported the Employment Nondiscrimination Act and released a statement in support of Supreme Court gay marriage rulings. Earlier this year, Cook and Apple marched in support of the LGBT community during the 44th annual Pride parade in San Francisco, and the company has a dedicated section about diversity on its website highlighting its deep commitment to equality and human rights.
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.
Spotify is trying to boost its subscriber numbers with a holiday promotion that lets customers test drive the service at a minimal monthly cost. The new holiday promotion is available now and offers three months of Spotify Premium for just 99 cents.
Spotify Premium is the company's top-tier plan that allows users to download music for offline use, stream while on their mobile devices, and listen without the interruption of advertisements. With Spotify Premium regularly priced at $9.99 per month, the promotion significantly drops the price for new and existing users who have never subscribed to the Premium plan or previously used a free trial. Customers can sign up for the promotion through December 31, allowing holiday gift recipients to take advantage of this offer.
Spotify is a leading streaming music service with more than 12.5 million paying subscribers and 50 million active users. The music service joins Pandora as the top two music apps in the iOS App Store by revenue, beating out Apple's Beats Music, which slips into the third spot. To boost its position, Apple reportedly is planning to overhaul the Beats Music service early next year with a fresh new look integrating into iTunes branding and reduced pricing that may cut the cost of the service in half to as little as $5 per month.
Apple today announced that it will once again join Code.org's "Hour of Code" campaign, hosting a free one-hour introduction on the basics of computer programming at various Apple Stores on December 11. The company also plans to host other workshops and special events for Computer Science Education week, from December 8 to 14.
"Hour of Code" is an initiative that's sponsored by non-profit website Code.org, which hosts a variety of tools for learning and teaching programming. Each year, the site hosts a global movement aimed at reaching millions of students through a free workshop that teaches basic programming techniques.
Computer Science Education Week is December 8-14. We're supporting Code.org by hosting workshops and other special events at your local Apple Store. Join us on December 11 for the Hour of Code, a free one-hour introduction to the basics of computer programming.
Along with the one-hour workshop being hosted at many Apple Stores around the world, Apple has also set up special events featuring developers and engineers that will take place over the course of the week in select cities.
The Apple Store in SoHo, New York, for example, will feature the team behind Hopscotch, a visual programming language designed for young programmers, and the Apple Store on Regent Street in London will feature NaturalMotion, the team that has created games like Clumsy Ninja.
Back in August, Square purchased food delivery company Caviar for a reported $90 million. A few months after the acquisition, Square is now bringing the Caviar experience to mobile with an app that allows customers to submit food orders on the go.
In the months leading up to the mobile app launch, Square has been introducing the Caviar service into new markets, hoping to cast a wider net once the app launched. Those cities include: its home market of San Francisco and throughout the Bay Area, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Manhattan, Philadelphia, Seattle, Washington D.C., and Brooklyn.
Caviar doesn't make the food its customers order, instead partnering with well-established restaurants in these areas to become their exclusive delivery partner, in turn bring in new customers and unifying the delivery experience. Square's national popularity has helped Caviar land a number of popular and top-rated restaurants.
The service also allows users to unify orders from multiple devices into one order, allowing multiple orders to be delivered to one location. The former web-only service now faces competition in the form of other food delivery services that have emerged on mobile devices, such as GrubHub and Seamless, amongst others. Similar to those apps, Caviar will let users track their meals from order to delivery, following the courier's route.
Known mostly for its credit-card reading payment processor accessory, the acquisition of Caviar and the launch of its new app sees Square attempting to add a bit of diversification to its existing business.
Caviar is available for both iPhone and iPad and can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]
Apple is reportedly planning to expand its 2015 iPhone lineup to include a new 4-inch model, according to Asian sources [Google Translate] cited by G for Games. The smaller form factor would bring back the ease of one-hand usage that was lost when Apple introduced its larger iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus handsets. The supply chain sources suggest the new phone may debut in the second half 2015 with female users as the targeted audience for the smaller phone.
Even without a new 4-inch model, Apple's history of product lineups suggests the 4-inch iPhone 5s would remain in the lineup in 2015 as the low-end offering once the current models slide down and the iPhone 5c is presumably discontinued. But if Apple wants to maintain a 4-inch option beyond the 2015 lineup, it would make sense to invest in an updated version of that size as the iPhone 5s ages.
Still, the sourcing on today's rumor is not entirely clear and a track record is unknown, so it is difficult to assess the potential validity of the claim. As a result, we would not put too much stock in it for the time being until or unless additional information surfaces in the coming months.
Even without a new 4-inch model this year, iPhone sales have been strong for the new 4.7-inch iPhone 6 and the 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus, with Apple setting a new sales record in the first weekend of availability. While the iPhone 6 is outselling the 6 Plus, the larger handset is holding its own in the phablet market, accounting for 41 percent of large-screened smartphone sales in the past three months.
In a brief interview with Bloomberg Businessweek as part of highlighting Apple's #10 ranking on the magazine's list of "The 85 Most Disruptive Ideas in Our History", Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak discusses a handful of topics related to the company, mostly relating to Apple's early days. Among the topics Wozniak delved into was Steve Jobs' mindset in those early years of the company.
He had always spoken about wanting to be a person that moves the world forward, but he couldn’t really create things and design them like I could. Steve wanted a company real badly. His thinking was not necessarily about what computers would do for the average Joe in the average home. Steve found the words that explained what these computers would do for people and how important it was a little later in life.
Wozniak went on to mention his refrain from conflict, and that Jobs "was going to make sure that his position was strong and forceful and heard by others." He continued, "Thankfully he had the best brain. He usually had a little, tiny suggestion, but almost always he was right."
(Photo by Jonathan Zufi)
Discussing the onset of the "computer revolution", Wozniak said he "knew that the computer was so far ahead of anything the rest of the world had seen. We knew we had a revolution. Everyone who joined Apple, this was the greatest thing in their life." Wozniak said that compared to every computer that came before it, the Apple I (which now sells for over half a million dollars at auction on occasion) was the point where he saw the future of widespread, affordable computing devices.
When asked where most of the work was being done in those early years, Wozniak mentions his cubicle at Hewlett-Packard in Cupertino, not the famous location of Steve Jobs' family home that is now a historical landmark.
The garage is a bit of a myth. We did no designs there, no breadboarding, no prototyping, no planning of products. We did no manufacturing there. The garage didn’t serve much purpose, except it was something for us to feel was our home. We had no money. You have to work out of your home when you have no money.
Wozniak has been in the news a fair amount in recent months, with rumors swirling about who will play him in the Aaron Sorkin-penned Steve Jobs film that Wozniak is consulting on, and the recent announcement of The Woz, a reality show about the future of technology Wozniak is set to host.
Starbucks today launched its "Mobile Order & Pay" feature in Portland, Oregon, which allows customers to place an order on their iPhones with the Starbucks app and schedule it for a pick up, reportsWIRED. The feature requires that users accept a one-time Location Services prompt in order to identify the nearest location accepting Mobile Order & Pay, and uses a customer's connected Starbucks card to pay for purchases.
1. Click on the “Order” option at the top right of the screen 2. Select the food and beverage items to order: Just as in-stores, beverages are customizable, including the option to modify size, number of espresso shots, dairy selections and more. 3. Select the participating store for pick up: Approximate wait times will be viewable on the customer’s phone prior to selecting store location. Directions will also be available if needed. 4. Confirm by clicking “order:” At the time of order, payment is made from the customer’s registered Starbucks Card. 5. Proceed to the selected Starbucks® store to pick up food and beverages: Orders are immediately sent to the selected store where Starbucks partners (baristas) will begin preparing the items.
Starbucks plans to roll out the feature to more cities in the coming months and expects to complete a national rollout next year. The move could end up being a significant one for the company, as CEO Howard Schultz recently announced that 7 million of its 47 million weekly transactions are made with phones. Starbucks also notes that Mobile Order & Pay will be rolled out to its Android app next year.
Mobile Order & Pay is available now on the latest version of the Starbucks app for iPhone for customers in Portland, Oregon. [Direct Link]
Sales of the iPhone 6 Plus made up 41% of all sales for handsets with a display size of 5.5-inches or greater, according to a new report by Kantar Worldpanel. The data in the report represents the three month period ending in October 14, and also notes that sales of larger phones now represent 10% of overall smartphone sales, up from 2% for the same period in 2013. Aside from Apple's iPhone 6 Plus, larger-screen handsets from competitors like Samsung, LG, and HTC have also seen success.
At the point of sale, when asked what drove their choice of smartphones, 58% of those surveyed who bought an iPhone 6 Plus said screen size was the primary reason for choosing their device. Despite the more compact design of the iPhone 6, 60% of consumers who chose it also cited screen size as the primary purchase driver. The ability to connect to a 4G/LTE network was the second most important reason cited by both buyer groups.
The report still notes however that the iPhone 6 was the best-selling iOS device during the time period with a 33% market share. This was followed by the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c which owned a 26% and 16% market share respectively, and followed by the iPhone 6 Plus which captured 10% of iOS device sales. Of all iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus buyers, 85% of those surveyed were repeat iOS device buyers while 9% said they switched from Android.
The iPhone 6 Plus saw heavy supply constraints shortly after its launch in September, with Apple reportedly delaying mass production for the iPad Pro to focus on producing more iPhone 6 Plus units. However, shipping times for both the larger-screen iPhone and the iPhone 6 improved yesterday, with many models in Apple's online store now carrying a shipping estimate of 3 to 5 days in the United States.
Third-party keyboards like Swype and Fleksy promise to make typing on iPhones and iPads faster with features like predictive text and swiping, but new third-party keyboard NinType goes even further, combining taps, swipes, and shortcuts to allow users to type more than 100 words per minute.
Created by app developer Yose Widjaja, NinType's magic comes from its ability to support two-handed swipe-based gestures for spelling out words. Using two thumbs, it's possible to use a combination of taps and swipes to write words and insert punctuation quickly.
The NinType typing experience is significantly different from the standard iOS typing experience, so it does take some time to adjust to the two-handed swipe and tap input. Users are advised to use the keyboard as a standard keyboard to begin with, inserting swipe-based words gradually to adjust to the difference.
NinType has a built-in game-like tutorial that's designed to walk users through all of the app's features, and it is deeply customizable with a top bar that can be arranged to a user's liking, different visual effects, extensive shortcut options, and settings for nearly every aspect of the keyboard. There are a number of handy gestures in NinType, including a swipe on the spacebar to move the cursor, a swipe on the backspace key to quickly delete words, edge slides for inserting punctuation, and flick to autocomplete. NinType does not require users to enable full access.
MacRumors went hands-on with the NinType keyboard to show off how it works and to highlight some key features like themes and the ability to easily insert emoji. NinType also includes features like a built-in calculator, support for multiple languages, a tool for counting words typed per minute, and a "word transformer" mode for stylizing the words that you type.
Like most iOS 8 keyboards, NinType occasionally experiences some hiccups that cause it to fail to show up at times, but this appears to be more of an issue with iOS than with NinType itself. Aside from that, we ran into a few crashing problems during our time testing the keyboard, but the developer has been hard at work pushing updates and resolving any lingering issues.
NinType is available for both the iPhone and the iPad and can be downloaded from the App Store for $4.99. [Direct Link]
Between 2007 and 2009, Apple stealthily deleted content that iPod owners had downloaded from rival music services, reports The Wall Street Journal. The information came to light during an ongoing class action iPod lawsuit that Apple is fighting in court this week, where the Cupertino company is accused of having violated antitrust law by locking its original iPods to the iTunes ecosystem.
According to plaintiff attorney Patrick Coughlin, a user who downloaded music from a competing music service to iTunes and then tried to sync the content to an iPod would receive a nondescript error message. The vague message would advise the iPod owner to restore the device to its factory settings, deleting the music that had been downloaded from a rival service and preventing it from being played.
Apple security director Augustin Farrugia defended the vague error message, stating that Apple didn't want to "confuse users" by providing them with too much information. Farrugia also said the company's efforts to delete music acquired from third-party sources was done in an effort to protect consumers from hackers and malicious content.
Yesterday, lawyers for the plaintiffs shared both a videotaped deposition and emails written by Steve Jobs as evidence that Apple had deliberately stymied competing music services after the launch of the iPod. In the correspondence, the former Apple CEO hatched a plan to accuse competing music service RealNetworks of hacking the iPod when it offered song downloads that could be played on the device.
The class action lawsuit began on Tuesday of this week and is being heard in the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California. Both Apple marketing head Phil Schiller and iTunes chief Eddy Cue are expected to testify during the court proceedings.
As the holidays approach, supplies of the Retina iMac appear to be improving somewhat, and as of this week, shipping estimates for both standard and custom Retina iMac configurations have improved to 1 to 2 weeks in the United States (via MacGeneration). Shipping estimates have also improved to 1 to 2 weeks in many other countries, but custom configurations may carry higher shipping times outside of the United States.
Retina iMac stock has been significantly constrained since the machine launched on October 16, slipping to 3 to 5 days shortly after release then moving to 7 to 10 days before dropping to 3 to 4 weeks in mid-November.
The base Retina iMac, with a 3.5GHz processor, 8GB of RAM, and a 1TB fusion drive is in stock at many retail Apple Stores around the country and can be picked up same day, but when ordered from the online store, it ships in 1 to 2 weeks like all custom configurations. With the newly improved shipping estimates, Retina iMacs ordered today will arrive well ahead of the Christmas holiday.
Equipped with a 5120 x 2880 "5K" Retina screen, Apple's newest iMac has received largely positive reviews for its impressive display, and configured with a 4.0GHz processor and 32GB of RAM, the higher-end Retina iMac models are able to outperform the low-end Mac Pro.
Following the Thanksgiving holiday, Apple Store shipping estimates for both the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus have seen significant improvement, with many models in the online Apple Store now carrying a shipping estimate of 3 to 5 days in the United States.
iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus models in all colors and from all carriers in 16 and 64GB configurations now ship within 3 to 5 days, while the more constrained 128GB versions ship within 7 to 10 days.
Though the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus have been severely constrained since their September debut, Apple has been working hard to improve supplies. The company has reportedly delayed mass production on the iPad Pro to focus on producing more iPhone 6 Plus units, a move that's bolstered available supply.
iPhone 6 and 6 Plus stock first began improving in late November, with 16GB iPhone 6 Plus supplies jumping to a 7 to 10 day shipping estimate after sitting at three to four week shipping estimates for several weeks. 64GB and 128GB iPhone 6 Plus devices have seen the biggest increase in supply, because as of late November, 64GB devices carried a shipping estimate of 2 to 3 weeks while 128GB devices carried a shipping estimate of 3 to 4 weeks. iPhone 6 supply has also been steadily improving, going from 7 to 10 days in November to 3 to 5 days today.
In store supply of the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus has also seen significant improvement, and many stores across the country list availability of both the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus in 16, 64, and 128GB configurations. Tracking tool iStockNow can be used to find where iPhone 6 and 6 Plus devices are available.
During Apple's fourth quarter earnings call on October 20, Apple CEO Tim Cook said that demand for the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus was "far outstripping" supply and that the company was "not close" to having a supply/demand balance at that time, but based on the improved shipping times, the company could come close to meeting its supply goals before the end of the year.
Apple today released Safari 8.0.1 for OS X Yosemite, Safari 7.1.1 for OS X Mavericks and a Safari 6.2.1 for older versions of OS X. The release comes nearly three weeks after the Safari betas were first seeded to developers.
The new Safari builds can be downloaded through the Software Update mechanism in the Mac App Store. Safari 8.0.1 for OS X Yosemite requires OS X 10.10 or 10.10.1, while Safari 7.1.1 for OS X Mavericks requires OS X 10.9.5 and Safari 6.2.1 for OS X Mountain Lion requires OS X 10.8.5.
According to the release notes, Safari 8.0.1 fixes an issue that could prevent history from syncing across devices without iCloud Drive turned on, fixes an issue preventing saved passwords from being autofilled after two devices are added to iCloud Keychain, improves WebGL graphics performance on Retina displays, and allows users to import usernames and passwords from Firefox.
Update: The Safari 8.0.1 update has been removed from the Mac App Store by Apple for unknown reasons.
Beats co-founder, music mogul, and Apple employee Jimmy Iovine was named as one of GQ's Men of the Year, and in an interview with the magazine, he unveiled some details on his efforts to establish a partnership with Apple, which famously led to the $3 billion acquisition that was Apple's biggest purchase ever.
According to Iovine, who had an ongoing relationship with Steve Jobs, he worked hard to persuade Apple to purchase Beats because it was the only company that he wanted to work for. He also believed he had a lot to bring to the company, telling Apple execs that he would "plug" Apple's "hole in music," referring to the company's lack of presence in the streaming music arena.
Jimmy Iovine, Tim Cook, Dr. Dre and Eddy Cue
I convinced them that they had to buy this company. I said, "I don't want to work for anybody else. I want to do this at Apple. I know I can achieve this at Apple. I don't want to shop it. I wanna come here, to Steve's company. I know you guys; I know what you're capable of; I know you get popular culture. I know you have a hole in music right now; let me plug it." I think it was two years before they said yeah.
Though he only joined Apple in 2014, Jimmy Iovine and Steve Jobs were longtime friend and had a close relationship. Iovine even collaborated with Apple on several projects, helping Steve Jobs sign deals with music labels in the early days of iTunes and working with Apple and U2 on a special edition iPod. Iovine even pitched a subscription music service to Apple way back in 2003, far before services like Pandora and Spotify exploded in popularity.
Iovine does not have a specific title at Apple, but he reportedly has a senior role at the company alongside Dr. Dre, aka Andre Young, and works under iTunes chief Eddy Cue. Given his experience in the music industry, there has been some speculation that Iovine is working to help Apple secure deals with record labels, establish relationships with artists, and create a connection with a younger audience.
When announcing the Beats acquisition, Apple CEO Tim Cook called Iovine and Dre's talent and skills "really unique" and "very hard to find." In a later interview, Cook called the duo "off the charts creative geniuses," specifically citing Iovine's knowledge of the music industry as one of the major reasons he was hired.
At the current time, Apple is said to be working on a rebranding of Beats Music that may see it incorporating the service into iTunes and cutting the subscription price. The new music streaming service is expected to be unveiled in early 2015, possibly ahead of the Grammy Awards in February.
Long-time Apple supply partner Pegatron could be lined up to handle more than 50 percent of the production load for 2015's next-generation iPhone, according to a foreign brokerage report (via Focus Taiwan).
Apple stepped up efforts to diversify its supply chain to reduce risk when Tim Cook took over as CEO in 2011, bringing on more supply partners to keep up with the increasing demand for each iteration of the iPhone. According to the new report, Pegatron could be receiving the bulk of the so-called iPhone 6s 2015 supply orders from Apple after gradually ramping its role with the iPhone 5c and iPhone 6.
"For the next product cycle, iPhone 6S, likely out in September 2015, we believe for the first time in the iPhone history, Pegatron will become the main source for assembly, with more than 50 percent of the 4.7-inch allocation," the European brokerage said in a note to clients on Monday.
The note also stated that most of Apple's partners actually tend to lose money in the first few years of their iPhone business, due to the complexity involved in manufacturing the iPhone.
Pegatron handled the majority of assembly for the iPhone 5c in 2013, and recently assisted Apple in boosting production on both the iPhone 6 and perhaps even the iPhone 6 Plus in response to strong demand following the two devices' launch.
According to the new report, Pegatron received 30 percent of Apple's iPhone 6 orders this year, with Foxconn handling the remaining 70 percent. The brokerage also states that Foxconn has received all of the iPhone 6 Plus orders this year, though previous reports claim Apple asked Pegatron to begin supplementing production on the 5.5-inch iPhone as Foxconn has struggled to meet demand.
Looking ahead to 2015, the report also claims that in addition to the next 4.7-inch iPhone model "there is also a small possibility that Pegatron will win the 5.5-inch model as well, but this remains to be seen."
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Apple today released Safari 8.0.1 for OS X Yosemite, Safari 7.1.1 for OS X Mavericks and a Safari 6.2.1 for older versions of OS X. The release comes 
