Engadget giveaway: win a pair of HD6 speakers courtesy of Audioengine!
Yesterday was 808 Day, and even if we’re a little bit late celebrating a classic drum machine, the bass must go on. Luckily, Audioengine has provided a pair of its flagship HD6 powered bookshelf speakers, so that one lucky reader can push the audio spectrum around like a boss. These compact, yet powerful speakers include built-in amplifiers along with analog and digital inputs to cover any setup. There’s also Bluetooth aptX connectivity for high-resolution wireless audio streaming. You’ll get 150W peak power from this pair, through the 5.5-inch Kevlar woofers and one-inch silk tweeters. Heck, we’ve even listed these speakers in our Turn it Up! Back to School Guide for those who want to rock out the jams in between study sessions. All you need to do is head to the Rafflecopter widget below for up to three chances at winning this powerful Audioengine HD6 speaker system.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
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- Contest is open to all residents of the 50 States, the District of Columbia, and Canada (excluding Quebec), 18 or older! Sorry, we don’t make this rule (we hate excluding anyone), so direct your anger at our lawyers and contest laws if you have to be mad.
- Winners will be chosen randomly. One (1) winner will receive one (1) pair of Audioengine HD6 powered bookshelf speaker system ($749 value).
- If you are chosen, you will be notified by email. Winners must respond within three days of being contacted. If you do not respond within that period, another winner will be chosen. Make sure that the account you use to enter the contest includes your real name and a contact email. We do not track any of this information for marketing or third-party purposes.
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- The full list of rules, in all its legalese glory, can be found here.
- Entries can be submitted until August 10th at 11:59PM ET. Good luck!
Apple Says ‘You’re Only as Good as the Last Thing You Did’ Amid Sales Slowdown
After recording its first quarterly sales decline since 2003 this year, the doom and gloom sentiment surrounding Apple has reemerged. Some critics believe that Apple is doing too many things at once, or wrongly placing its focus on areas like Apple Watch bands rather than its core product lineup.
MacRumors Buyer’s Guide for Macs
The most vocal critics often point towards the state of Apple’s current Mac lineup, which is beginning to stagnate. It has been 447 days since the last MacBook Pro release, while the MacBook Air has not been updated beyond a RAM bump in 518 days. Mac mini: 662 days. Mac Pro: 963 days.
Apple’s stock also remains down over 13 percent from its 52-week high, and investors perhaps have at least some reason for concern. Rumors suggest, for example, that the next iPhone will be an incremental improvement over the iPhone 6s, with more significant changes not coming until 2017.
In a new Fast Company interview alongside CEO Tim Cook, Apple services chief Eddy Cue acknowledged that technology companies are “only as good as the last thing” they did.
“Look,” says Cue, who somehow manages to look both like a man who just woke up and a compact ball of perpetual energy, “one thing you know if you’ve been in technology a while, you’re only as good as the last thing you did. No one wants an original iPod. No one wants an iPhone 3GS.”
Cook admitted that Apple can “sometimes fall short,” but indirectly added that the “Apple is doomed” narrative has existed during his entire 18-year span at the company.
“Is Apple making more mistakes than we used to? I don’t have a tracker on that.” […] “We have never said that we’re perfect,” he continues. “We’ve said that we seek that. But we sometimes fall short.” […]
“What tends to happen with Apple, not just today but in the 18 years I’ve been here,” says Cook, “is that invariably some people compare what we’re doing now to a vision or a product that somebody says they will create in the future.”
Fortunately for Cook, he said he doesn’t “read all the coverage on Apple that there is,” and instead focuses on pushing the company into a future that is bigger and broader. “I want Apple to be here, you know, forever,” he said.
As Cue says, grinning at the ambition: “We want to be there from when you wake up till when you decide to go to sleep.” Cook himself is only slightly less brash. “Our strategy is to help you in every part of your life that we can,” he says, “whether you’re sitting in the living room, on your desktop, on your phone, or in your car.”
Earlier this year, Above Avalon analyst Neil Cybart said Apple is on track to spend a record $10 billion on research and development this year, up nearly 30 percent from 2015, and significantly more than the little over $3 billion per year it was spending on R&D just four years ago.
Cybart said the increased spending undoubtedly points towards development of the widely rumored Apple Car, suggesting that the company will pivot into the automobile industry. But if Cook’s recent teaser about “great innovation in the pipeline” is any indication, Apple could have other plans in store too.
Apple Maps and Public Beta Testing
One other interesting anecdote in the wide-ranging interview: Apple Maps is the reason why iOS public beta testing exists.
Apple now does public beta testing of its most significant software projects, something that Jobs never liked to do. In 2014, the company asked users to test run its Yosemite upgrade to OS X. Last year, it introduced beta testing of iOS, which is the company’s most important operating system. “The reason you as a customer are going to be able to test iOS,” Cue says, “is because of Maps.”
Full-length interview: Playing The Long Game Inside Tim Cook’s Apple
Tags: Tim Cook, Eddy Cue, fastcompany.com
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Next-Generation MacBook Pro’s Touch ID Feature Likely Built Into the Power Button
Back in May, KGI analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reported that the next-generation MacBook Pro will include an OLED “touch bar” above the keyboard and Touch ID support, with a subsequent part leak of the machine’s chassis supporting the idea of this touch bar replacing the current row of function keys.
Leaked MacBook Pro top case showing space for touch bar in place of function keys
Kuo did not address exactly how Touch ID would be integrated into the new MacBook Pro, but a new report from 9to5Mac claims the technology will be built into the device’s power button. The MacBook Pro’s power button currently resides in the row of function keys, so it is a logical place to incorporate a fingerprint sensing power button as part of the new touch bar.
A source who has provided reliable information in the past has informed us that the new MacBook Pro models, expected to be launched in the fall, will feature a Touch ID power button as well as the previously-reported OLED touch-sensitive function keys.
If placed in the power button, the fingerprint sensor would allow users to wake the MacBook Pro and authenticate its security in one touch, similar to waking up an iPhone by pressing the Home button while simultaneously activating Touch ID.
Beyond the Touch ID power button, the OLED touch panel is rumored to be contextual, displaying different controls and user prompts depending on which apps and programs are open on the MacBook Pro. Designer Martin Hajek created a few renders with the OLED panel earlier in the summer, but didn’t include what the Touch ID button might look like.
With the announcement of macOS Sierra at WWDC this year, Apple introduced another way for users to gain access to their Macs while still keeping the device secure, called Auto Unlock. The feature works with an Apple Watch to automatically unlock a password-protected Mac when an authenticated and unlocked Apple Watch is nearby, so it would still only be available to those Mac users who also have an Apple Watch.
In addition to Touch ID and the OLED panel, the new MacBook Pro is expected to be slightly thinner than the current generation thanks to new metal injection mold-made hinges, have thinner speakers aligned on the side of the keyboard, and introduce support for USB-C. According to KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, the new MacBook Pro will be “the most significant upgrade ever undertaken by Apple.”
The state of the current Mac lineup is causing turmoil for users interested in upgrading their machines on the eve of the big refresh this fall, but with no word yet from Apple, even the launch period is somewhat muddled. The new MacBooks could be revealed in September, alongside the iPhone 7 and new Apple Watch models (now believed to be split into two editions), but the company could also opt to hold refreshes for the Mac until a separate event later in the fall, perhaps in October.
Related Roundup: MacBook Pro
Tag: 9to5mac.com
Buyer’s Guide: Retina MacBook Pro (Don’t Buy)
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Hulu Goes Exclusively Subscription-Based as Free Streaming Moves to ‘Yahoo View’
Hulu today announced that the company is ending the free, ad-supported tier of its streaming service and focusing on an all-subscription model that will more closely align it to rivals Netflix and Amazon Prime (via Variety). Hulu’s free service — which let users watch the most recent episodes of shows after they aired live on TV — will still continue, but is being transitioned to a new platform called “Yahoo View,” thanks to a distribution partnership between Hulu and Yahoo.
In the free-to-use site Yahoo View, users will be able to watch the five most-recent episodes of shows from networks like ABC, Fox, and NBC, but will now have to wait eight days after they originally air. Yahoo View will also provide clips previewing upcoming episodes and entire seasons of anime and Korean drama series. Users can expect Hulu’s free service to be phased out “over the next few weeks.”
Hulu senior vice president Ben Smith said that the main reason behind the move was that the company’s free service “became very limited and no longer aligned with the Hulu experience or content strategy.” With the elimination of the ad-supported tier, users will have just two options to watch Hulu: its basic $7.99 per month service with commercials, or a higher-tier $11.99 per month option without commercials.
“For the past couple years, we’ve been focused on building a subscription service that provides the deepest, most personalized content experience possible to our viewers,” Hulu senior VP and head of experience Ben Smith said in a statement. “As we have continued to enhance that offering with new originals, exclusive acquisitions, and movies, the free service became very limited and no longer aligned with the Hulu experience or content strategy.”
For now, Yahoo View is available only on the web, but the company said that mobile apps will be coming soon, although no release window was given. Since Yahoo shuttered its digital online video service, Yahoo Screen, earlier in the year, the acquisition of Hulu’s former free content is expected to help bolster Yahoo’s standing as a contender in the ever-expanding online streaming competition.
For Hulu, the move comes just under a week after Time Warner bought a 10 percent stake in the company to join Disney, 21st Century Fox and Comcast/NBC Universal as shareholders. Looking forward, Hulu is also prepping a live TV streaming service for sometime in 2017, which would add another subscription tier onto its streaming options with a service that focuses on quality over quantity, since the company “isn’t looking to offer all the hundreds of channels found in the traditional cable bundle.”
Tags: Yahoo, Hulu
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Hyundai Expands CarPlay to Azera and Veloster Models
Hyundai USA has expanded CarPlay and Android Auto to the 2016 Azera, Veloster, Sonata Hybrid, and Sonata Plug-In Hybrid, in addition to the 2015 Azera, via a free software update available now on the MyHyundai website. The automaker has now completed the rollout of smartphone integration across its 2017 model year lineup.
Hyundai customers can install the CarPlay update themselves by watching the do-it-yourself video below, or a Hyundai dealership can perform the update for an installation fee. The process can take between 1 and 4 hours to download and upload the CarPlay update, depending on your network speed, according to the company.
Azera and Veloster are first-time CarPlay vehicles, joining Hyundai’s growing lineup of vehicles that support Apple’s car-based software, including the 2015 Genesis Sedan, 2015 Sonata, 2016 Elantra GT, 2016 Genesis Sedan, 2016 Sonata, 2016 Tucson, 2017 Elantra, 2017 IONIQ, 2017 Santa Fe, and 2017 Santa Fe Sport.
Apple periodically updates a list of available CarPlay vehicles on its website, but it has yet to add newly-supported BMW 2 Series models.
Related Roundup: CarPlay
Tag: Hyundai
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FCC Demands AT&T Refund $7 Million in Unauthorized Charges by Scammers
The FCC’s enforcement bureau announced today it has reached a settlement with AT&T that will see the carrier pay $7.75 million for allowing scammers to charge thousands of customers approximately $9 per month for a sham directory assistance service.
AT&T has agreed to issue full refunds to all current and former customers who received unauthorized third-party charges from January 2012 onwards. The refunds are expected to total $6.8 million, while AT&T will also pay a $950,000 fine to the U.S. Treasury.
The scam was uncovered by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration while investigating two Cleveland-area companies Discount Directory, Inc. (DDI) and Enhanced Telecommunications Services (ETS) for drug-related crimes and money laundering. During the investigation, DEA officials discovered financial documents related to the scam that primarily targeted small businesses.
AT&T received a fee from the companies for each charge AT&T placed on its customers’ bills. Although DDI and ETS submitted charges for thousands of AT&T customers, they never provided any directory assistance service. Neither DDI, ETS, nor AT&T could show that any of AT&T’s customers agreed to be billed for the sham directory assistance service. Phone companies like AT&T have a responsibility to ensure third-party charges are legitimate and were approved by the consumer.
AT&T is required to cease billing for nearly all third-party products and services on its wireless bills, and can only reinstate charges of that kind with express informed consent from customers. The carrier also must revise its billing practices to ensure that third-party charges are clearly identified on bills, and offer a free service for customers to block third-party charges.
In 2014, AT&T similarly agreed to pay $105 million in fines and refunds for unauthorized third-party subscriptions and premium text messaging services. T-Mobile also reached a $90 million settlement with the FTC, which accused the carrier of “cramming” unauthorized SMS subscriptions like horoscopes on bills. The FCC has taken more than 30 enforcement actions against carriers for related cases since 2011.
Tags: FCC, AT&T
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New ‘Pokemon Go’ Update Adds Driving Warning, Changes ‘Nearby’ Into ‘Sightings’
Niantic has today updated Pokemon Go to version 1.3, bringing several improvements, tweaks and fixes to the game. The main addition is a dialogue option for users who may be playing while driving, while the “Nearby” feature has been transformed into “Sightings” as the developer continues work on testing a new tracking system.
If players are going over a certain speed, the game will now warn them that they’re moving too fast. To continue playing, users have to click a button that tells the app that they’re a passenger and not a driver. Throws have also seen improvements, with the curve ball throw receiving accuracy adjustments while the “Nice,” “Great” and “Excellent” throws now receive the appropriate experience from the game.
The game’s “Nearby” feature has also been changed into “Sightings.” The new feature, which Niantic says it is testing with a subset of users, points out Pokemon that have been sighted in the area. Behind illustrations of nearby Pokemon are illustrations of grass. Unlike before, tapping on a singular Pokemon does focus on a single Pokemon. In last week’s Pokemon Go update, Niantic disabled the vague and difficult-to-understand “three steps” tracking mechanic.
Other minor changes and fixes include art for the Mystic, Insight and Valor team leaders , the ability to change a user’s nickname, a fix for achievements that were showing incorrect medal icons and a fixed and re-enabled battery saver mode.
Pokemon Go is available in the App Store for free. [Direct Link]
Tag: Pokémon GO
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Apple Removes Fake Bitcoin Wallets From App Store After Users Scammed
Fake Bitcoin wallet apps are routinely leaking through Apple’s App Store vetting process, leaving users’ accounts at risk of being compromised and their coins stolen.
That’s according to developers of the Breadwallet app, who estimate that fake wallets in the App Store have already lost users of the digital currency up to $20,000.
The suspect apps were first identified by the company in a post on Reddit, warning users that at least eight fake wallets on the App Store were using the same, or very similar, names to existing official mobile wallet apps.
The scam apps appeared to be aping portions of source code, icons, and graphics from legitimate apps to fool users into thinking they were using official wallets.
Breadwallet discovered a fake version of its own app which was added to the App Store on July 29, using the same name and icon as the official version. The company took immediate action and contacted Apple to remove the offending app, after customers inadvertently downloaded the fake and reported stolen funds.
“We talked with one customer who claims to have lost about $10,000, and if we go and look at the coin address where those coins were deposited, last I checked there was $20,000 listed at that address,” said Breadwallet co-founder Aaron Voisine, speaking to Motherboard. “So, that’s our current estimate for how much customers have lost.”
Apple has since removed the offending apps listed by Breadwallet, but their appearance on the App Store has left Bitcoin wallet developers and users questioning the robustness of Apple’s vetting process for financial apps.
“I think it would be good for Apple to go through some extra process to make sure they have the identity of the person posting any app in the finance section,” Voisine said.
Founder of SSL security certificate company BlackCert, John Casaretto, told SiliconANGLE that the Application Development Signing Certificates, the Apple Developer Program, and the application review process had all been negated by a handful of malicious apps making it onto the Store recently.
“For a long time, it seemed as though Apple’s tight controls over its ecosystem were a fairly impenetrable measure against nefarious applications, malware, and junk,” said Casaretto. “Clearly that is not the case anymore.”
Tag: bitcoin
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Alleged iPhone 7 Plus Geekbench Results Reveal 2.37 GHz Dual-Core A10 Chip, 3GB of RAM [Updated: Fake]
An image claiming to show Geekbench test results for an iPhone 7 Plus reveal a 2.37GHz dual-core ARM processor and 3GB of RAM for the device.
The picture, originally posted to Chinese microblogging site Weibo and picked up by Dutch site Techtastic.nl, depicts single- and multi-core results for an iPhone model with the identifying hardware string “iPhone9,2”. For comparison’s sake, an iPhone 6s Plus has a 1.84GHz dual-core A9 chip, 2GB of memory and the hardware string “iPhone8,2”.
If the results are legitimate, a single-core score of 3548 and multi-core score of 6430 show that Apple’s 16-nanometer A10 processor easily beats the performance of the A9 in the iPhone 6s Plus, which scores 2490 and 4341, respectively.
On these results, the A10 also outperforms the 2.2GHz A9X chip powering the 12.9-inch iPad Pro, which returns Geekbench scores of 3224 and 5466, respectively.
Last week, a DigiTimes report claimed the iPhone 7 Plus will carry 3GB of RAM, supporting two previous claims by KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo saying the same thing.
The DigiTimes report stopped short of specifying whether the 4.7-inch iPhone 7 model would also get 3GB of RAM, but it’s worth noting that the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus both had 2GB of RAM, although Apple could restrict the 3GB to the larger device this time around to differentiate them more.
The image is just the latest in an increasing number of leaks coming out of Chinese websites in recent weeks, suggesting users with links to Apple’s supply chain. On Monday, a user of microblogging site Weibo posted images allegedly depicting iPhone 7 logic boards before the device chips had been added.
Apple is expected to reveal both the 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch iPhone 7 at a media event next month.
Update: Primate Labs founder John Poole has said the Geekbench results are fake.
Related Roundup: iPhone 7
Tag: A10 chip
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‘Stranger Things’ Poster Began as Sketch Created With iPad Pro and Apple Pencil
In a recent interview with Mashable, an artist based in the United Kingdom, Kyle Lambert, divulged his process of creating the memorable poster art for Netflix’s science fiction series Stranger Things. Netflix asked the artist to keep with the 80’s theme of the show, and provided him with a vague plot outline, rough cuts of only the first few episodes, and some still shots “to communicate the story in a single image.”
Ultimately, Lambert said he decided on the iPad Pro for the project because the tablet lets him “sketch in a very natural way,” especially when used in conjunction with the Apple Pencil. He used the Apple device in the sketching process of the main poster art that has gained fame online in the weeks since Stranger Things launched in July, but Lambert has also been known to create impressive art on iPads over the years, particularly in a photorealistic representation of Morgan Freeman he created on an iPad Air in 2013.
“This was a very exciting project for me, as an artist that trained with oil paints, I really enjoyed the challenge of reproducing this traditional painting style using digital tools,” Lambert told Mashable.
“I used the iPad Pro to do the preliminary composition ideas and the sketch that became the final Stranger Things poster. I chose to use the iPad Pro for the drawing stage of the poster because I find that I am able to sketch in a very natural way on the device using the Apple Pencil. The device in general is nice to hold for long periods of time, it is really portable and Procreate, the app that I used, has some really great Pencil brushes for drawing with.”
Specifically, on the iPad Pro Lambert used the iOS app Procreate to assist in his drawing process, and then he transitioned to Photoshop on the Mac to upscale the image to a higher resolution so he could “paint small elements at the best possible resolution.” During the coloring process, the artist used an Intuos Wacom tablet — which connects to a Mac to act as a sketch pad — so he could “focus on as much of the image” as he needed, without his hand obscuring a piece of the artwork like it does when using the iPad Pro/Apple Pencil combo.
The original sketch that eventually became the final Stranger Things poster
The process wasn’t particularly straightforward, however, as Lambert describes moving back to the iPad Pro to “add layers of detail to areas” that he thought needed “a more fluid sketch style” that the desktop didn’t grant. He went back and forth between the two devices and applications several times to ultimately give the Stranger Things poster its finished, recognizable look. Lambert was also commissioned to work on several character portraits to serve as gifts for actors, specifically those of Sheriff Hopper, Eleven and Dr. Brenner, and various still shots from iconic moments in the 8-episode series.
Ever since early adopters began getting their hands on the iPad Pro and its companion stylus, the Apple Pencil, talented artists have shared what they can do with the technology in MacRumors’ own discussion forums. Apple has remained adamant that the Apple Pencil is a drawing-enhancement tool, and “will absolutely not replace the finger as a point of interface” on the tablet, so it’s interesting to see how much the technology has grown and been used, and on such a highly professional level, in under a year of its availability.
Related Roundup: iPad Pro
Tag: Apple Pencil
Buyer’s Guide: 12.9″ iPad Pro (Neutral)
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