Apple Recalling Small Number of Third-Generation Apple TVs Due to Faulty Part

Apple yesterday began contacting some customers who recently purchased third-generation Apple TVs, informing them that their devices had shipped with an unspecified faulty part and offering an exchange for a brand-new unit shipped from the company.

Unlike some other repair or recall programs, Apple has not posted a public advisory about the issue, suggesting it is a small batch of affected units. As a result, the company is proactively reaching out to owners of the devices known to be defective and offering an exchange. Our defective Apple TV was purchased just a few weeks ago, and other affected customers are likely to have purchased their devices in a similar timeframe.

Replacement Apple TV shipped overnight from Apple

Hi Mitchel,

I understand the concern, Apple typically does not reach out to customers proactively this way.

I just need you to confirm that you have this device and to make sure I have the right shipping address (i see that below). I will then send you a new apple tv, we will email FedEx labels to send back the old one then once we get the old one, we will send you an iTunes gift card for the troubles.

Some users receiving emails from Apple may not have experienced any issues with their Apple TVs, as workers at the Help Desk have noted the company is taking preventative measures in identifying devices with the faulty part before any problems may arise.

Because Apple is contacting affected users individually and has not posted an information page on the Apple TV issue, it’s likely that only a very small number of people purchased a faulty Apple TV. Readers do not need to worry whether their Apple TVs are defective, as anyone with a bad device will be contacted directly by Apple. Those who have been contacted, however, should be reassured that this is a legitimate replacement program initiated by Apple.

Apple will help shape the future of NFC

Apple has come a long, long way in its attitude toward NFC. The company seemingly went out of its way to avoid the short-range wireless tech for years after others embraced it, but it quickly became one of the biggest users last year thanks to Apple Pay. And now, it’s ready to guide the standard’s future — the company has joined the top ranks of the NFC Forum, giving it the same level of influence as the likes of Google, Intel and Samsung, among others. Clearly, Apple isn’t having regrets about welcoming NFC with open arms.

It’s not certain if Apple plans to expand its use of NFC, but it already has a strong incentive to maintain some control over how the spec works. Having a say over NFC’s future makes sure that Apple Pay both continues to work smoothly and takes advantage of future format updates. Apple won’t make as much of an impact as it did on Mini DisplayPort, Thunderbolt or (reportedly) USB-C, but it could easily leave its mark.

Filed under:
Cellphones, Mobile, Apple

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Via:
AppleInsider

Source:
NFC Forum, NFC World

Tags: apple, iphone, mobilepayments, mobilepostcross, nfc, nfcforum, payment, smartphone

Apple Joins NFC Forum to Work on Developing Future NFC Specifications

Apple this week joined the NFC Forum as a sponsor member, earning itself a place on the NFC Forum board of directors, reports NFC World. The Near Field Communication (NFC) Forum is the group that works to develop NFC specifications to ensure interoperability between different devices and services.

The team also encourages companies to develop products using the NFC Forum specifications and they make sure products with NFC capabilities comply with those specifications.

“The top tier of NFC Forum membership, sponsor membership, entitles an organisation to a seat on the NFC Forum board of directors, the association’s governing body,” NFC Forum director Paula Hunter says. “We are delighted to welcome Apple to our board of directors as an NFC Forum sponsor member.”

Joining the NFC Forum board of directors on Apple’s behalf is Aon Mujtaba, who serves as Director of Wireless Systems Engineering at Apple. According to his LinkedIn profile, Mujtaba leads the iPhone Systems Engineering team and specializes in wireless systems engineering, architecture, and design.

Other companies who are on the NFC Forum board of directors include Broadcom, Google, Intel, Nokia, NXP Semiconductors, Qualcomm, Samsung, Sony, STMicroelectronics, Visa, and MasterCard.

Apple began using NFC with the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, which include the technology to facilitate wireless payments using Apple Pay. Apple has also included NFC chips in the Apple Watch, the iPad Air 2, and the iPad mini 3, and will continue using NFC in future devices.

Several Retailers to Begin Testing Apple Pay Rival CurrentC

Nearly three years after the Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX) was founded in August 2012, several U.S. retailers and restaurants belonging to the consortium will begin publicly testing their Apple Pay rival CurrentC in Columbus, Ohio over the coming weeks, according to The Wall Street Journal.

CurrentC is a mobile payments solution that requires scanning a QR code with a smartphone for contactless payment from a checking account, gift card or private label debit or credit card. The service does not currently accept major bank-issued credit cards such as Visa or MasterCard as retailers look to avoid costly fees.

Public testing of CurrentC is set to begin just as MCX’s three-year exclusivity window expires this week, allowing retailers to explore other mobile payment solutions. Yesterday, MCX member Rite Aid reversed course and will begin accepting Apple Pay and Google Wallet on August 15, in addition to Android Pay when available.

Best Buy, a founding member of MCX, also began accepting Apple Pay for in-app purchases in April and announced that full Apple Pay support is coming to Best Buy stores in the U.S. later in 2015. The electronics retailer will be monitoring CurrentC’s limited trial run but has not confirmed that it will be implementing the platform in stores.

Other MCX members include 7-Eleven, Alon Brands, CVS, Darden Restaurants, HMSHost, Hy-Vee, Lowe’s, Michaels, Publix, Sears, Shell, Sunoco, Target and Walmart, some of which have confirmed plans to launch CurrentC in the future. Other retailers remain in the process of exploring contactless payment solutions or installing the necessary infrastructure to support smartphone-based transactions.

The Weeknd, Drake and Disclosure Among Most Played Artists on Beats 1

Quartz yesterday published an article which analyzed data from Apple Music’s Beats 1 radio station, in an attempt to get a feel for the station’s most played songs and artists throughout the month of July. The company took data collected from 12,445 songs specifically from “early July to early August,” and discovered that artists The Weeknd, Drake, and Disclosure were the top three most-played musicians for the month.

The Weeknd was also on top of the most played song chart, with the song “Can’t Feel My Face” — which he performed live at WWDC in June — played a total of 107 times in July. Artists including Rachel Platten, Beck, and Selena Gomez, amongst others, round out the rest of the list thanks to the popularity of their current chart-topping songs “Fight Song,” “Dreams,” and “Good for You,” respectively.

Beats 1 has something that is rare in the world of digital music: scarcity. Listeners can’t choose a song and play it over and over. (They can do that elsewhere on Apple Music.) But curation doesn’t mean songs aren’t repeated. We counted 12,445 tracks but only 3,371 unique songs, meaning each track was played an average of 3.7 times. Eighteen of the 20 songs in the table above were played over 50 times.

Quartz also found the top genre on Beats 1 to be hip-hop (1,726 plays), with alternative (1,506 plays) and electronic (802 plays) rounding out the top three spots. Still, “a quarter of the songs in the dataset” that Quartz measured were only played one time, so Beats 1 is still managing to present a few diverse tracks into the mix every once in a while.

The response to Apple Music has been mixed, with the service’s detractors pointing to the initial speed bumps syncing with iTunes and an over-reliance on specific musical genres in Beats 1, the latter of which Quartz has now detailed. The rest of Quartz‘s report on Beats 1 is definitely worth checking out, with charts analyzing the volume of songs played on weekdays versus the weekend and even one highlighting songs played most frequently in pairs.

Using Android with Mac OS X: tips and recommendations

One of the principal reasons that many Apple Mac users opt for an iPhone over an Android smartphone is the ability to seamlessly work with their primary computer. As a Mac user who uses Android devices, I’ve often been left frustrated with the inability of my computer and smartphone to work together easily, especially as we live in a digital age and it should be relatively simple.

For iPhone users, synchronising music, data, files, contacts, calendars and more is as simple as connecting to iTunes and hitting sync but if you have an Android device and have tried to use it coherently with a Mac, you’ll know that the process is anything but simple. Luckily, there is a way to make syncing with your Mac as easy as the iPhone, so read on to find out more.

Across the team, we have some Mac users and between us, we have some recommended applications that can make using Android and Mac as easy as the iPhone. Below, we’ll look at different things you might like to sync and the applications we recommend while also mentioning any official Android apps.

Backing up your phone

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Our recommendation: Helium

If you’re interested in backing up the data on your phone, look no further than Helium Backup as the best way to backup your non-rooted smartphone.

Enabling Helium requires downloading the Helium app for Mac and connecting your phone but once enabled, you can backup entire applications or just application data either locally to your phone’s storage or wirelessly (once you buy the Premium add-on) to Google Drive, Box or Dropbox.

It’s worth noting that if you restart your phone, you’ll need to enable Helium again (unless you have root) but it’s a small inconvenience for what is a very powerful and best of all, FREE, application.

Transferring files

The biggest difference between Android and iOS is that while the latter is limited to syncing files through iTunes, you can add files to an Android phone’s storage just by dragging and dropping them. For those who want to just drag and drop files, this section has the steps to follow but if you’d rather sync your music, photos and videos into apps on your Mac, follow the steps in the section that follows.

Official solution: Android File Transfer

An application provided by Google itself, Android File Transfer (ATF) is pretty much hopeless on Mac OS X. Complete with errors when connecting to most Android devices and time outs when transferring large files, ATF has the potential to make you very frustrated. But when it does work, the app has a clean interface that is very simple to use.

Our solution: AirDroid

When you return to your home or office, you don’t want to fumble around looking for a USB cable to connect your phone to your computer and with the new Macbook only sporting one USB port, do you really want to waste it on connecting your phone?

Introducing AirDroid, which does what the name suggests: it allows you to connect your phone either over a mobile connection or via the same Wi-Fi network. The exact feature set depends on how you connect your device but includes transferring files to and from your Mac, installing of apps and tethering your phone to your computer for data.

The most compelling reason to use AirDroid however, is the notification sync, which is perfect for times when checking a notification on your phone is a no-no. AirDroid allows you to read and view your phone’s notifications on your Mac.

Related: AirDroid: Remotely manage your Android from a Web browser2633829

Whether you’re at work or in a meeting taking notes, you can now discretely view and reply to notifications without anyone knowing. The best thing about these notifications is that you can use Android’s notification responses (such as archiving an email) directly from your computer screen.

Syncing music, photos and videos

Our recommendation: doubleTwist (the iTunes of Android)

Syncing your music, photos and videos into the applications you use on your Mac used to be incredibly difficult as connecting to iTunes and extracting data with the same fluency as the iPhone was a challenge for developers. As the saying goes – if you can’t beat them, then join them – and so doubleTwist was born.

Android Authority On Air – Live with doubleTwist Magic Radio11

There’s a reason that doubleTwist is dubbed as the iTunes of Android and it’s simple; it looks like a mini version of Android and does everything that iTunes does with the iPhone but for Android devices. For syncing music, photos or videos, this is definitely the easiest way to sync your data into the apps you use on OS X.

Syncing media with iTunes or Apple Photos is simple enough (especially if you’ve previously used iTunes) and if you really want to make your iPhone friends jealous, you can sync wirelessly through your Wi-Fi network. It’s free to sync doubleTwist using a USB cable but the wireless sync add-on costs $4.99 (or £4.99 in the UK) and you can set it to automatically sync in the background as well.

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Whether you go wireless or sync using a cable, you need to look no further than doubleTwist if you want to sync media between your Android phone and your Mac.

Syncing contacts, calendars and mail

Official solution & our recommendation: Google Services

A key reason to sync your contacts, calendars and notes to your Mac is so they are all backed up but rather than manually sync, you can take advantage of Google’s own services to wirelessly keep your contacts, calendars and Mail in sync across all your devices.

See also: Android customization – Gmail and SMS message counts on your Homescreen61330

Your phone is already set to sync with Google Services and it’s baked into the core OS so why not take advantage of it? I’ve been using Google Services for both my Gmail and own domain email services for nearly a decade and I wouldn’t change it at all; rather than have to manually sync items, everything is synced in the background for you and changes appear on other devices very quickly as well!

To sync your Gmail contacts, calendar and Gmail to your Mac, exact implementation depends on which programs you decide to use. Some people will prefer to use Microsoft Office, which has its own set of instructions, while others will use Apple’s own rival suite, which you can find instructions for here.

Whatever programs you use to access your data on your Mac, we definitely recommend using Google’s own suite. You can alternatively use other mail clients but these are not as integrated into Android as Google Services, which is a key element in the seamless exchange between devices.

What do YOU use?

These are just a few of our personal recommendations but there may be others that are more suitable for your needs (although the set above should cover most use cases). As we progress towards a more cloud-based society in a wireless world, the ability to connect and sync without needing a cable may become a necessity and where possible, we’d recommend using wireless solutions over a physical cable.

Are you a Mac user? Do you use any of the applications we’ve mentioned or recommend some that we’ve not mentioned above? Let us know in the comments below!

iPad mini 4 split view support clues hidden in El Capitan

iOS 9’s split-screen feature will only work properly on the iPad Air 2, because it’s only one in the existing lineup with hardware capable of supporting it. 9to5mac and developer Hamza Sood, however, found proof in OS X El Capitan that Apple’s releasing a new iPad mini, and that it will also be capable of supporting split-screen apps. They found a resource file from within the upcoming platform’s Safari browser that clearly states that an iPad mini will get “half screen” capability, as you can see below the fold.

They also found a tool that can simulate different Apple devices to allow developers to test the responsiveness of their websites. One of those devices is the iPad mini 3 with split-screen, even though the real device doesn’t support the feature. If it’s true that Cupertino’s next pint-sized tablet can run split-screen apps, then it will likely be equipped with a faster processor and will have much better specs overall. We’ll find out for sure if Apple’s releasing a new iPad mini (and if the next iPhone will have Force Touch) on September 9th.

[Image credit: 9to5mac and Hamza Sood]

Filed under:
Tablets, Apple

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Source:
9to5mac

Tags: apple, elcapitan, ipadmini, splitscreen