Mitchel Broussard

Taylor Swift this morning tweeted out a new ad for Apple Music, this time showcasing a playlist called "Friday Night Rocks!" recommended to the singer within the For You tab of the music streaming service. The new commercial plays out in a way similar to Swift's previous ad, which saw her lip syncing to Jimmy Eat World as she prepared for a night out. This time, however, she dances around...

Following the announcement that Nintendo's next two mobile gaming apps will center around the Animal Crossing and Fire Emblem franchises, DeNA Chief Executive Isao Moriyasu today mentioned to The Wall Street Journal that both games will be "free-to-start apps," which a Nintendo spokeswoman has now confirmed. DeNA is the Tokyo-based mobile gaming studio assisting with the creation of Nintendo's...

The United States Patent and Trademark Office today granted Apple a patent that describes a collection of iPad-compatible Smart Covers that could integrate various display technologies to greatly enhance "the overall functionality of the tablet device." The original patent application was published in August 2012 and dates back to August 2011, four years before Apple introduced the original iPad...

Although the Apple Car is only a rumor at this point, Apple CEO Tim Cook and Chief Design Officer Jony Ive have landed spots on The Drive's list of The 10 Most Influential People in Automotive Technology (via Patently Apple). The Apple executives join well-known automotive industry individuals like Elon Musk, co-founder and CEO of Tesla Motors, and Uri Levine, founder of popular crowd-sourced...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Earlier this week rumors suggested that an Apple Music overhaul is being prepared for a worldwide reveal at WWDC this June, with a launch in the fall within iOS 10. New details shared today by 9to5Mac indicate that one of the streaming music service's least-used features -- the social network-like section called Connect -- will be "demoted" in the overhaul and removed from the app's tab bar...

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...

Streaming company Netflix today introduced a new set of "cellular data controls" that will give its customers control over the quality of video streaming on cellular networks so as to avoid overcharge fees with data-capped plans. The launch follows an admission of throttling video by Netflix earlier in March, when the company also confirmed the data saver feature would debut in May. According...

Apple recently updated its online storefront with the addition of a new "Accessibility" category, which is broken up into sections pertaining to the assistance of individuals with impairments related to vision, physical and motor skills, and learning and literacy (via Amvsement). There are 15 total products broken up into each of the three sections, with further sub-categories allowing users...

Apple no longer has the exclusive rights to the "iPhone" trademark in China after the Beijing Municipal High People’s Court ruled in favor of leather goods manufacturer Xintong Tiandi Technology earlier in March. As reported by Legal Daily [Google Translate], the decision will let the Beijing company continue to sell leather bags and cases with the brand name "IPHONE" on each cover without fear...

As a few users have noticed over the past day, Spotify has begun rolling out a small but significant design change to its iOS app that does away with the hamburger menu and replaces it with an easier-to-understand navigation bar across the bottom of the experience. The new bar more closely resembles the rest of the apps in Apple's ecosystem, particularly the navigation menu on its own streaming...

Twitter today announced a new feature for its iOS and Android applications that will connect people to Twitter users around the world who share similar interests. Using the new "Connect tab," users will be able to browse a list of people and accounts that the social network believes you will be interested in, all without having to manually search topics and hashtags yourself. Finding new...

Giphy today launched its own iOS keyboard, called Giphy Keys, that will let users search for and send GIFs without having to navigate to a separate keyboard application. Once users install Giphy Keys as a new keyboard in settings -- and allow it full access -- the app can be selected as a keyboard by tapping the globe icon whenever the keyboard is open on iOS. The advantage of Giphy Keys is...

Last week, Nintendo announced that the next two games launching on iPhone and Android devices will be Animal Crossing and Fire Emblem related applications, but didn't speak much to its reasoning behind that decision. In a subsequent financial results briefing Q&A, Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima gave some explanation as to why the company decided to prioritize these franchises as its next...

For the first time in a federal case, authorities in a Los Angeles courtroom have issued a search warrant forcing a woman to bypass her iPhone's biometric security using Apple's Touch ID system (via LA Times). The woman in question -- Paytsar Bkhchadzhyan -- was arrested due to charges of identity theft and had previous strings of various criminal convictions. According to jail records, U.S....

Streaming service Hulu is said to be working on a new subscription model that would provide customers with cable-style access to popular broadcast television networks. In a report by The Wall Street Journal, sources close to the plan said the company's move would directly introduce Hulu as "a competitor to traditional pay-TV providers," in addition to streaming-only services like Netflix and...

A week ahead of Mother's Day, Apple has launched a new commercial centering around a collection of images and video of mothers interacting with their children. The spot continues Apple's "Shot on iPhone" advertising campaign, with each piece captioned by the amateur iPhone user who captured the moment. Apple began its "Shot on iPhone" campaign early in 2015, showcasing images collected from...