Joe Rossignol

Shopify today announced that Apple Business Chat is now available to all of its over 800,000 merchants around the world. As noted by Engadget, some Shopify merchants are already using Business Chat, but now Apple and Shopify are rolling out the feature to all businesses who use the e-commerce platform, including those outside the United States. Merchants can manage and respond to all...

VESA today announced the release of DisplayPort 2.0, the first major update to the standard since DisplayPort 1.4 in March 2016. DisplayPort 2.0 has a max effective bandwidth of 77.4 Gbps, nearly triple that of DisplayPort 1.4, enabling support for displays with up to 16K resolution, higher refresh rates, HDR support at higher resolutions, improved support for multiple display...

Apple has explored the idea of adding a camera to the Apple Watch, although not in the way one might expect. MacRumors mockup of Apple Watch with camera band The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office today granted Apple a patent that describes an Apple Watch band with a camera or optical sensor affixed to the end of it. This would enable the Apple Watch to capture photos and video, with the Apple ...

In a new support document, Apple has indicated that the first public beta release of macOS Catalina does not support switching between multiple iTunes libraries. This also applies to the first two developer betas of macOS Catalina. Initial betas of macOS Catalina can only open the previously selected iTunes library on your Mac prior to updating, according to Apple. Before you install the...

OWC, a well-known maker of storage solutions for Macs and PCs, today debuted what it says is "the fastest USB-C SSD ever." The new OWC Envoy Pro EX with USB-C is a bus-powered NVMe M.2 SSD with transfer speeds up to 980MB/s, one bay with up to 2TB of storage, and Thunderbolt 3 compatibility on both Macs and PCs. The external drive has a silver anodized aluminum housing with IP67-rated water...

Apple accessory maker Mophie today debuted a three-in-one portable battery pack, wall charger, and wireless charging pad. The new Powerstation Hub is equipped with a 6,100mAh battery, one 5W USB-A port, one 15W USB-A port, one 18W USB-C Power Delivery port, and a Qi-enabled 5W wireless charging surface. The USB-C port can be used to recharge both the portable battery itself and connected...

Apple has filed a response to Spotify's anticompetitive complaint about the App Store in Europe, noting that Spotify pays Apple a 15 percent commission for only about 0.5 percent of its paying subscribers, according to CNET. That figure equates to around 680,000 users who subscribed to Spotify through its iOS app, via Apple's in-app purchase system, between 2014 and 2016. This is because...

At a recent event hosted by venture capital firm Village Global, highlighted by TechCrunch, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates lamented on losing to Android, calling it "one of the greatest mistakes of all time." Skip to the 11:40 mark: Transcript:In the software world, it's very predictable for platforms. These are winner-take-all markets. The greatest mistake ever is whatever mismanagement ...

Apple plans to release a 16-inch MacBook Pro in September, according to Jeff Lin, an analyst at research firm IHS Markit. MacRumors concept of 16-inch MacBook Pro display Lin believes the 16-inch display will be an LCD supplied by LG Display, with a resolution of 3,072×1,920 pixels, as outlined in IHS's latest Emerging PC Market Tracker report, published Thursday and obtained by Forbes. IHS ...

Apple plans to refresh its MacBook Air lineup with faster processors in September, according to IHS Markit analyst Jeff Lin's latest Emerging PC Market Tracker report, published Thursday and shared by Forbes:Apple is also expected to update the 13.3-inch MacBook Pro and Retina ‌MacBook Air‌ with the new MacOS Catalina and new processors in September, according to Lin.Forbes also cites Lin as saying ...

Apple today shared three new ads on its YouTube channel in Australia, highlighting iMessage encryption, App Store privacy, and iPhone recycling, as part of its ongoing "That's ‌iPhone‌" marketing campaign around the world. Apple also shared a new Shot on ‌iPhone‌ XS video and a companion behind-the-scenes video on its main YouTube channel on Saturday: The video was shot on the ‌iPhone‌...

Mozilla has patched two zero-day security vulnerabilities in Firefox that allowed backdoors to be installed on Macs, bypassing Apple's usual XProtect and Gatekeeper protections. Firefox users should update the browser immediately. Ars Technica's Dan Goodin:Mozilla released an update on Tuesday that fixed a code-execution vulnerability in a JavaScript programming method known as Array.pop. On ...

Samsung is the exclusive supplier of OLED displays for the iPhone X and newer, as part of a supply agreement with Apple. Due to fewer ‌iPhone‌ sales than anticipated in recent quarters, however, Apple has reportedly ordered fewer OLED displays from Samsung than both companies initially expected. Due to the shortfall, Korea's ETNews reports that Apple now owes Samsung a penalty in the amount of ...

GLSEN, an organization dedicated to creating safe and inclusive K-12 schools for LGBTQ youth, has announced that Apple CEO Tim Cook will receive its "Champion Award" for his ongoing commitment to fighting for LGBTQ rights. The awards ceremony will take place on October 25 at the Beverly Wilshire hotel in Los Angeles. Cook provided the following statement:I am grateful to GLSEN for this honor ...

Apple has urged the Trump administration not to proceed with tariffs of up to 25 percent on a fourth set of goods imported from China, which would impact nearly all of its products, including the iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, Apple TV, AirPods, Beats, HomePod, batteries, repair parts, and more. In a letter sent to United States Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer [PDF] this week, Apple...

At WWDC 2018, Apple introduced a redesigned Mac App Store alongside changes to sandboxing parameters on macOS Mojave. Since then, several well-known apps have launched on or returned to the ‌Mac App Store‌, including the Microsoft Office suite, Microsoft To-Do, BBEdit, Transmit, and others. Next up is Adobe Lightroom CC, which is available on the ‌Mac App Store‌ as of today. The professional...

Apple today announced that every Best Buy store across the United States now offers certified repairs and service for Apple products. The electronics retailer already serviced Apple products at about 225 stores and now does so at all of its 992 stores nationwide, according to Reuters, which is good news for customers who reside in states without any Apple Stores, including Montana, North...

Apple Watch users will be able to delete stock apps from the Apple Watch starting in watchOS 6, according to TechCrunch. This will make it possible to delete many of Apple's built-in apps on the Apple Watch, including Alarm, Timer, Stopwatch, Remote, Camera Remote, Radio, Walkie-Talkie, ECG, Breathe, Noise, Cycle Tracking, and others, the report indicates. A few core apps like Heart Rate and ...

With the U.S.-China trade war seemingly showing no signs of slowing down, a new report claims that Apple is getting serious about diversifying its supply chain in an effort to reduce its reliance on Chinese manufacturing. iPhone disassembly robot Daisy Specifically, Apple has asked several of its major suppliers to evaluate the cost implications of shifting 15 to 30 percent of their...

Apple appears to be in the process of decoupling the iPhone from the watchOS update process on the Apple Watch. In the first beta of watchOS 6, the Apple Watch gained its own over-the-air software update mechanism under Settings > General > Software Update. As on the ‌iPhone‌, the mechanism checks for any available watchOS update and, if prompted, downloads the update directly to the Apple...