Apple Expands Personal Pickup to Six More European Countries
Apple today expanded its Personal Pickup in-store pickup service to France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain and Sweden. The launch of Personal Pickup in Germany was first noted by Macerkopf, and MacRumors subsequently confirmed the wider European expansion of the service.
Personal Pickup allows customers to place an order on the Apple Online Store or Apple Store app and pick it up at a nearby Apple Retail Store, generally within an hour. The service is offered for several Apple products, including Macs, iPhones, iPads, Apple TVs and the Apple Watch.
Apple notifies customers via email or text message when an order is available for in-store pickup with a valid photo ID.
Personal Pickup launched in the U.S. in 2011, but was unavailable elsewhere until last month. The service first expanded to Australia and Canada on November 17 before going live in the United Kingdom three days later.
Personal Pickup has yet to launch in other countries and regions with an Apple retail store presence, including Belgium, Brazil, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Switzerland, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.
MacRumors broke the news in early November that Apple was planning an international expansion of Personal Pickup in Australia, France, United Kingdom and other countries, and the service is now live in all of those countries.
(Thanks, Andre!)
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Google Hangouts finally supports Apple watch
The latest update for Hangouts on iOS won’t tell you this, but Google’s instant messaging app will play nicely with your Apple Watch now. What the change log does say, however, is that you can now reply to notifications in-line — but that means following up via Apple’s wearable is an option. You can pick from a handful of pre-written responses, but those don’t include canned messages for telling your coworker to bring funky-flavored KitKat bars from Japan to CES. No, that’s where using voice dictation comes in, silly. If your iOS gizmo hasn’t updated yet, we’ve got you covered at the source link below.
Source: iTunes
Eddy Cue Discusses Why Apple Made a Pre-Installed News App
In a follow-up to an interview Apple executive Eddy Cue had with CNN senior correspondent Brian Stelter a month ago, the senior vice president of Internet software and services discussed Apple’s thoughts on the News app, which launched alongside iOS 9 in September. When asked why Apple decided to turn it into a pre-installed app, Cue offered a look into how Apple determines what constitutes a pre-installed app.
“We’ve only created the apps that we think everyone uses every day… We really wanted to create a single app that all customers could go to, to read all their news — no matter what they are interested in, no matter what topics, no matter what publications they want to follow — and get that experience that they’re used to with our products, where it looks beautiful, it’s really easy to read and yet it provides all the content available around the world.”
Cue goes on to say that Apple believes the app is a “really, really important application for the world,” noting that good journalism is important to Apple. News organizations, Cue says, have to worry about creating their own apps, interfaces and user experiences. Apple believes something like the News app can streamline this and help news organizations focus on journalism. Apple believes that the app benefits local news outlets that can’t afford to create their own apps. Furthermore, Cue says Apple even thought about how small outfits like upstart news organizations and church newsletters could use News to distribute information.
Apple is also working on a version of the app for China, Cue tells CNNMoney. When asked whether the company is running into censorship problems in the country, Cue says that it’s not. Instead, Cue notes that Apple has a “great working relationship” in China and that Apple Music, its App Store and retail stores in the country show that they know how to work in China.
Finally, Cue says that Apple has no plans to hire journalists and create content of their own. Instead, Apple’s goal with News is to “empower those journalists to get their content to the right customer.”
In late October, Tim Cook said that Apple News had approximately 40 million users. However, Cook didn’t reveal whether that number was regular users or customers who had simply checked out the app, making it difficult to determine how many people truly use Apple News. Apple has partnered with dozens of publications for Apple News, including CNN, The New York Times, ESPN and more. To get the latest news and rumors from MacRumors, make sure to add MacRumors to Apple News by clicking this link.
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Adobe November 2015 Creative Cloud Update Includes New Features for Photoshop, Premiere Pro, After Effects and More
Several of Adobe’s key Creative Cloud apps will see updates as part of the company’s promised 2015 update plan. As highlighted at Adobe MAX and IBC 2015, InDesign CC, Illustrator CC, Photoshop CC, Lightroom CC, Illustrator CC, Indesign CC, Premiere Pro CC, After Effects CC, and more will gain new features.
Many of Adobe’s apps, including Photoshop CC, Lightroom CC, Illustrator CC, InDesign CC, and Premiere Pro CC are being updated with new Touch capabilities for use on Windows tablets and Apple trackpad devices.
Photoshop CC, Illustrator CC, InDesign CC, Lightroom CC and more are receiving minor updates alongside Adobe’s video editing apps, with features announced at Adobe MAX. Photoshop CC includes a new UI, customizable toolbar, and workspaces, along with new Artboards capabilities and tight integration with Adobe Fuse CC to create realistic human 2D models.
Illustrator CC includes a new Shaper tool that combines 12 tools and panels in one, non-destructive Live Shapes, and Improved Smart Guides, and InDesign CC includes new online publishing features. Several of Adobe’s apps, including Photoshop CC, Lightroom CC, Illustrator CC, InDesign CC, and Premiere Pro CC are also being updated with new Touch capabilities usable on Windows tablets and Apple trackpad devices.
Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe’s professional video editing software, is being updated with expanded support for UltraHD formats (DNxHR, HEVC H.265, and OpenEXR) for editing 4K to 8K video footage. Premiere Pro’s Optical Flow Time Remapping allows for smooth slow-motion and speed-ramp effects, plus high-quality frame rate conversions. Adobe Premiere Pro is also being updated with HDR support.
Adobe After Effects CC is gaining support for the Lumetri Color settings introduced in Premiere Pro earlier this year. With Lumetri color support, changes made in Premiere Pro will carry over to After Effects.
Adobe Audition CC includes a new Remix tool for adjusting the duration of a song to match video content. Remix is able to automatically rearrange music to any duration to create custom tracks that fit video creation needs. It’s also able to generate synthesized speech in dozens of voices for custom narration and scratch voiceover.
Adobe’s fall updates are the second major round of updates the company’s Creative Cloud apps have seen this year. The apps also saw significant feature updates in June.
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More Chinese manufactures are making their own chips
It seems like every manufacture is making their own chips now a days. It used to be just the biggest manufactures like Apple and Samsung making their own chips, but now more and more Chinese manufactures are getting in on the action.
ZTE has just recently received CNY2.4 billion (US$73.8 million) from China’s National IC Industry Investment Fund. This money will be used to help accelerate their mobile chip development.
Xiaomi is another China based manufacture that will be partnering with chip designer Leadcore Technology to co-develop ARM-based SoCs for Xiaomi’s 2016 device line up.
Finally, Huawei already provides chips to many smartphone vendor’s phones. However, they are doing so well that they are becoming a real problem to mainstream chip companies like MediaTek and Qualcomm.
Source: DigiTimes
Via: Pocketnow
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AT&T to Raise Price of Grandfathered Unlimited Plans From $30 to $35
AT&T will raise the price of its grandfathered unlimited data plans from $30 to $35 in February of 2016, reports CNBC. The upcoming rate change is detailed on a page on AT&T’s website and is the first price hike the unlimited plan has seen in seven years.
Though AT&T no longer offers unlimited data plans to customers, a small number of customers continue to hold unlimited data plans that were purchased before AT&T discontinued them in 2010. AT&T’s current $30 unlimited data plan allows customers to use an unlimited amount of data, but AT&T does throttle with excessive data usage.
As of February 16, the $30 price tag, which is in addition to voice costs, will rise to $35. The price hike comes just a couple of months after AT&T announced changes to its throttling practices. AT&T previously throttled customers on congested networks after 5GB of LTE data usage, but that cap was increased to 22GB in September, making unlimited plans more valuable.
AT&T plans to notify customers who will be impacted by the price increase. Customers who wish to cancel their wireless service because of the pricing increase will have early termination fees waived for affected lines. Price changes will take effect during each customer’s February billing period.
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Video Review: The iLuv Layup X is a Solid Multi-Functional Case for the iPhone 6s Plus
iLuv is a well-known Apple accessory manufacturer, with a wide range of iPhone and iPad case options available in retail stores. For our most recent video review, we went hands-on with the company’s Layup X case, available for the iPhone 6 Plus and 6s Plus.
The Layup X is a multi-function case that offers all around iPhone protection, a tempered glass screen protector to keep the screen safe from scratches, and a built-in kickstand. More functional than stylish, the Layup X consists of an inner hard shell that holds the iPhone in place and an outer rubber shell that’s designed to offer protection from impact.
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iLuv’s Layup X fits onto an iPhone easily and provides access to all ports and buttons on the device. Though somewhat bulky, the Layup X feels solid on the phone and is a case that’s going to offer a good amount of protection against bumps and drops.
As for the built-in kickstand, it’s functional, but it’s made out of a thin plastic that doesn’t have a good build quality. It’s able to prop the iPhone up into an ideal viewing angle, but we feel that the kickstand is the first place the iLuv case could fail. Overall, though, this is a solid choice for customers seeking a case that’s going to offer all around protection.
The Layup X is available for $34.99 from the iLuv website or from Amazon.com.
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Here’s why the iPad Pro’s processor is so fast
Whatever you think of Apple’s products, there’s little doubt that the A9X processor in the iPad Pro is quick — in a few cases, it rivals the performance you’d get from a laptop. But why is it so quick, especially when Apple tends to shy away from high clock speeds, many-core processors and other conventional performance tricks? Thanks to AnandTech and Chipworks, we now have a good idea. They’ve torn down the A9X to reveal that the chip is a series of calculated tradeoffs. It only has two CPU cores and doesn’t even have Level 3 memory cache to keep the processor humming, but it has a monstrous amount of bandwidth (51GB per second) and a whopping 12 graphics cores. That’s twice as many as in the iPhone 6s’ A9 chip, folks. To boot, the A9X is larger than Intel’s latest quad-core desktop processors — Apple has the headroom for components that you don’t see in many PCs.
Source: AnandTech
JCPenney Testing Apple Pay Support for Store Cards, Nationwide Rollout Coming in Spring 2016
JCPenney has started testing its store credit cards with Apple’s Apple Pay payments service, allowing customers at one location in Texas to add their JCPenney charge cards to Apple Pay. Customers in the Dallas–Fort Worth area visiting the JCPenney store at The Village at Fairview are able to participate in the Apple Pay pilot program, which is set to roll out to stores nationwide in the spring of 2016.
Customers with a JCPenney charge card receive a notice about the Texas pilot program when attempting to add a JCPenney card to Apple Pay using the Wallet app. The notification also includes details about the full launch of the JCPenney Apple Pay service.
Apple Pay support for store credit cards is a new feature, introduced alongside iOS 9 but announced at this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference in June. Thus far, Kohl’s is the only major retailer that currently allows its store cards to be added to Apple Pay, but both Kohl’s and JCPenney have been touted as the two major partners for the feature.
iOS 9 also brought Apple Pay support for in-store loyalty cards, allowing customers to add their rewards cards to the Wallet app to further cut down on the number of physical cards that must be carried. Walgreens is the first retailer to support the Apple Pay rewards program.
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Sonos will support Apple Music starting December 15th
Sonos will close a major gap in the services that it supports on December 15th — that’s when the company’s products will start working with Apple Music. The company said that this would happen by the end of the year back in June, just before Apple Music launched, and it seems that it’ll make good on its promises. The service will first be available as part of an open beta, with full availability to come in early 2016.
Via: Buzzfeed
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