Posts

Apple has just acquired the global rights to an upcoming action thriller film called Emancipation starring Will Smith and directed by Antoine Fuqua (both pictured above). The deal marks the biggest-ever film festival acquisition with Apple reportedly spending more than $100 million to close the deal, competing against Warner Bros. and others. Reported by Deadline, the deal for Emancipation comes from the Virtual Cannes market and initially included seven bidders. After moving past $75 million, the bidding was down to Apple and Warner Bros....

Apple has allegedly slashed its initial order of Apple Watches in half, cutting the number of units from around 3 million to just 1.5 million, a new report out of Taiwan claims. As has previously been the case with Apple device launches, supplies of the new wearable are expected to be constrained due to manufacturing difficulties. The problem seems to stem from Apple’s decision to switch to a new type of display for the watch....

After eight beta releases, Apple has seeded developers with the macOS 11.3 release candidate. The software features new sorting options in Reminders, expanded support for Xbox/PlayStation controllers, autoplay in Apple Music, and more. Following its Spring Loaded event, Apple made the macOS 11.3 RC available to developers today. The OTA should be showing up in System Preferences > Software Update if you’re enrolled in the developer beta program (keep checking back if you don’t see it yet)....

The “exceptional individual” will “validate the security architecture for the iPhone.” “As an implementer of advanced technologies in OS X, you will have the opportunity to have a major impact on Apple’s embedded operating system products.” We like the use of the plural there. Like everyone, we’ve speculated that Apple has far bigger plans for embedded system products – its purchase of PA Semi, recent disclosures of new cutting-edge products at prices competitors can’t match, and various mutterings and job ads have suggested the company plans a major play in digital media....

Apple this weekend has continued its popular Shot on iPhone “Experiments” series. This is the third video in the series, entitled “Cascade.” Apple has also shared a video offering a behind the scenes look at the creation of the Experiments video. The “Cascade” video was shot on iPhone XS by Donghoon Jun and James Thornton of Incite in collaboration with WET, and was commissioned by Apple. The video offers incredibly close-up looks at water in a variety of different environments, showcasing the potential of the iPhone XS camera....

Plans to open the first ever Apple Store in India have reportedly been delayed for a second time. The store in Mumbai was originally set to open in 2021, before being pushed back to 2022. A further delay now sees it slated for 2023. The store is expected to be one of the most spectacular Apple Stores in the world, on a par with flagship stores in Singapore and LA …...

Following the kickoff of preorders yesterday, Apple today has shared four brand new HomePod ads on YouTube. The ads are each 15 seconds long, focusing primarily on the speaker quality… Each ad is set to its own song, including DNA by Kendrick Lamar, Holy Water by Hembree, All Night by Big Boi, and Ain’t I by Lizzo. Unfortunately, the ads don’t show us anything we didn’t already know about HomePod and only show the device itself for a couple of seconds....

We frequently caution that Apple patents and trademarks all kinds of things it will never do, but one trademark application filed this week seems more likely than not to make it into real products. The company has applied to register its Apple Music logo trademark for use on clothing, wristbands and more … Apple’s application is for an additional category of use for its existing Apple Music logo trademark, comprised of the Apple logo with the word ‘MUSIC’ alongside it....

Apple TV users should notice several new App Store categories when browsing for new content on tvOS. After initially launching without a dedicated categories section live in late October, Apple pushed the new section to new Apple TVs without a software update earlier this month. The latest expansion brings the total number of tvOS app categories to seven, up from five initially, which should further improve new app discovery. Apple first added two categories in early November: Games and Entertainment....

Today Apple sells three Apple Watch models — the three-year-old Apple Watch Series 3 starting at $199, and the just-released Apple Watch SE and Apple Watch Series 6 models, which start at $279 and $399 respectively. With these options in mind, which Apple Watch should you buy? Should you go all out and spring for the Apple Watch Series 6, or should you take the more cost-conscious route with the Series 3 or SE?...

Apple has finally unveiled the new Apple Watch Series 8. After months of rumors, the company has announced the successor of the Apple Watch Series 7. Here’s everything new. The new Apple Watch Series 8 offers the same screen sizes as its predecessor. In 41mm and 45mm, the Watch offers the same Always-On display from previous generations. After a year without new sensors, Apple has finally introduced a new body temperature sensor....

A couple of reports yesterday and today have highlighted a little tidbit of information many have been wondering about the upcoming Apple Watch: How will the device make sure payments via Apple Pay are secure? Both the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus have the convenient Touch ID sensor to validate that your purchases are indeed being done by you, but new information suggests that the Apple Watch is going to accomplish this security in a slightly different way…...

Aquaman director James Wan has described an ‘out there’ prison escape scene he cut from the script. Wan is a director who made his name in the horror genre, directing low-budget thriller Saw back in 2004. The movie was originally earmarked for a straight to video release, but after attracting strong buzz at festivals, it would go on to become a horror sensation. While Saw would spawn various sequels and video games, Wan declined to direct a sequel....

Last week saw the introduction of an #AppleEvent hashflag on Twitter, and a new animation has now been added when you Like a tweet containing the hashtag … The hashflag itself went live last week. The latest addition means that when you Like a tweet containing the #AppleEvent tag in the official iOS Twitter app, the heart symbol will turn into a miniature version of the Apple logo matching the appearance of the event one, then turn into a matching blue heart outline, then back into the regular red heart....

If you jumped into Ping as soon as it was available, like we did, you were able to connect to your friends with Facebook. That capability soon disappeared, making everyone wonder what happened. AllthingsD got the story: So did Zuck rain a world of hurt down on Jobs? Normally, this API access is open and does not require permission. That is, unless some entity wants to access it a lot....

When Apple announced plans for a new ‘global flagship’ store in Melbourne, Australia, it was welcomed by both government ministers and the square’s original architect. Tourism minister John Eren said that the store would ‘breathe new life into Federation Square,’ while architect Donald Bates said that the development ‘respects and expands on the original vision for the site.’ It will also involve the demolition of an existing building many view as an eyesore....

Ahead of WWDC, it was rumored that the iPad would gain support for mouse input as an Accessibility feature. This was confirmed with the release of the first beta of iOS 13 and iPadOS 13, and now Steven Aquino has received more detail from Apple on the feature. Aquino spoke to Apple about the decision to bring mouse support to iPadOS and iOS after so many years, and the company reiterated that it’s meant as an Accessibility feature first and foremost....

Continuing its Earth Day efforts, Apple today has shared a collection of new playlists on Apple Music that the company says provides the “perfect soundtrack for Earth day – and beyond.” The collection consists of five different playlists containing a wide array of artists. Artists included in the various playlists are Coldplay, James Bay, Alex Ferreira, The Beatles, Adele, Bob Marley, and many more. The five playlists can be seen below:...

Following the release of iOS 15.3.1 earlier this month, Apple on Thursday stopped signing iOS 15.3 for all iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad models. This means that users can no longer downgrade their devices to iOS 15.3. iOS 15.3 was released on January 26 to all users with an important security patch that fixed a vulnerability found in the Safari web browser. The vulnerability let websites access URLs visited by a user and even obtain the user’s Google ID and related personal data....

As predicted, the Apple Store went down this morning. We’ve just heard that these are the new Sandy Bridge, Thunderbolt-equipped iMacs: Update: The Apple Store is back up with SKUs to match: As always, thanks Mr. X! Best Buy has huge Mac sale, not just clearing for iMac refresh (9to5mac.com) iWork trial goes MIA, update coming? (9to5mac.com) iMac supply constraints hit Apple’s online store ahead of imminent refresh (9to5mac.com) Apple delays iMac orders ahead of next week’s refresh with Thunderbolt I/O and Sandy Bridge processors (9to5mac....