Spotify Encourages Customers to Cancel App Store Subscription, Resubscribe via Web to Save $3

Spotify is sending emails to its customers encouraging them to stop paying for the Spotify music service through Apple’s App Store, reports The Verge. The email informs customers they can save $3 per month on their Spotify fees by canceling their App Store Spotify subscription and resubscribing through the Spotify website.

Spotify subscriptions that people signed up for using the App Store are priced at $12.99 to account for the 30 percent fee that Apple collects for all app and subscription revenue routed through the App Store. The same service is priced at $9.99 through Spotify’s website.

Customers who subscribe to Spotify through the App Store might mistakenly think that Spotify is more expensive than Apple’s new streaming service, Apple Music, which is also priced at $9.99 per month. That’s true, but only when the service is purchased via the App Store.

Spotify’s emails are accompanied by a step-by-step tutorial that walks customers through the process of turning off auto-renew on their App Store subscriptions and then instructs them to wait for the service to run out before resubscribing to the Spotify service on the web.

Spotify continues to be the dominant on-demand streaming service in the music industry with 75 million active users and 20 million paid subscribers, but it is unclear what impact Apple Music will have on the company’s business.

Apple Seeds Third OS X 10.11 El Capitan Beta to Developers

Apple today released the third beta of OS X 10.11 El Capitan to developers for testing purposes, just over two weeks after releasing the second El Capitan beta and a month after unveiling the new operating system at its 2015 Worldwide Developers Conference.

The update is available through the software update mechanism in the Mac App Store and through the Apple Developer Center.

OS X El Capitan largely builds on the features introduced with OS X Yosemite, focusing on improving performance and user experience. Behind-the-scenes improvements in El Capitan have made a number of apps and processes on the Mac much faster, and the introduction of Metal makes system-level graphics rendering 40 percent more efficient.

Along with a new systemwide font, El Capitan includes a revamped Mission Control feature, a new Split View feature for using two full-screen apps at once, deeper functionality for Spotlight, and several new features for Safari, including Pinned Sites for housing frequently-visited websites and a universal mute button that quiets all tabs.

OS X 10.11 El Capitan is currently only available to registered developers, but Apple plans to offer a public beta of the software in July. Following testing, El Capitan will see a final release in the fall of 2015.

Apple Seeds Third iOS 9 Beta to Developers

Apple today seeded the third beta of iOS 9 to developers for testing purposes, just over two weeks after releasing the second beta and exactly a month after unveiling the new operating system at the 2015 Worldwide Developers Conference.

The update, build 13A4293f, is available through Apple’s over-the-air updating system on iOS devices and is also available for download through the Apple Developer Center.

As promised by Eddy Cue last week, today’s beta should include the updated Music app, allowing those running iOS 9 to access the new Apple Music service and the Beats 1 radio station. Other changes that are new in the third beta of iOS 9 will be added to this post as they are discovered.

iOS 9 is Apple’s newest operating system, focusing on intelligence and proactivity. It allows iOS devices to learn user habits and act on that information, providing recommendations on places we might like, apps we might like to use, and more. Siri is smarter in iOS 9, with the ability to create contextual reminders, and search is improved with new sources.

Many of the built in apps have been improved, including Notes, Maps, and Mail. Apple Pay has been renamed to Wallet, and iOS 9 introduces split-screen multitasking for the iPad along with a revamped keyboard. In addition to these consumer-facing features, iOS 9 brings significant under-the-hood performance improvements.

With battery optimizations, iOS devices have an additional hour of battery life, and a new Low Power Mode extends the battery even further. iOS updates take up less space in iOS 9, and many app install sizes are smaller due to a feature called app thinning. iOS 9 is capable of running on all devices that support iOS 8.

iOS 9 is currently only available to developers, but Apple plans to introduce a public iOS 9 beta in July before the final release of the software in the fall.

Apple Seeds Third WatchOS 2 Beta to Developers

Apple today seeded the third watchOS 2 beta to developers, just over two weeks after seeding the second watchOS 2 beta and a month after announcing the new operating system update at its Worldwide Developers Conference.

watchOS 2 requires iOS 9 and can be downloaded over-the-air through the Apple Watch app on the iPhone by going to General -> Software Update.

watchOS 2 is the first major update to the software that runs on the Apple Watch. The new software brings many new features that Apple Watch developers can take advantage of, including native apps that run on the Apple Watch itself instead of the iPhone. It also allows developers to access the Taptic Engine and a number of other sensors in the Apple Watch, including the heart rate monitor, the microphone, and the accelerometer.

Along with these features for developers, which will lead to much more complex and full-featured third-party Apple Watch apps, the update introduces new watch faces (photo albums and time-lapse), third-party Complications, Time Travel for viewing upcoming events in a watch face Complication, and a Nightstand mode that’s activated when the watch is charging, displaying the time.

watchOS 2 is currently only available to registered developers who have also installed iOS 9 on their iPhones. Apple plans to release the software to the public in the fall.

Microsoft to Lay Off 7,800 Employees ‘Primarily’ in its Phone Business

In a letter to Microsoft employees sent out this morning, company CEO Satya Nadella confirmed that over the next few months Microsoft will undergo a massive restructuring mainly focused on its phone business and which will see the loss of “up to 7,800 positions globally.”

In addition, the company will take a $7.6 billion impairment charge and an estimated restructuring cost of $750 million to $850 million as Microsoft attempts to rebuild its phone hardware division after its 2013 acquisition of Nokia’s hardware units that has failed to generate momentum.

In his letter to Microsoft employees, Nadella reaffirmed that he doesn’t take such changes lightly, and that the company has plans for its future, with Microsoft moving from a hardware-focused phone strategy and pivoting to the building of a “vibrant Windows ecosystem.”

I don’t take changes in plans like these lightly, given that they affect the lives of people who have made an impact at Microsoft. We are deeply committed to helping our team members through these transitions.

I am committed to our first-party devices including phones. However, we need to focus our phone efforts in the near term while driving reinvention. We are moving from a strategy to grow a standalone phone business to a strategy to grow and create a vibrant Windows ecosystem that includes our first-party device family.

As the iPhone and Android devices have taken increasingly large shares of the smartphone market, Microsoft’s Windows Phone division and BlackBerry have struggled to compete, seeing their market shares fall to the low single digits in many countries. Nadella’s suggestion of Microsoft’s phone business shifting to a more software-focused angle could point towards services like Cortana — already announced to be coming to iOS later this year — seeing an increase in attention and focus from Microsoft in the coming months.

Apple to Order Record-Breaking 85-90 Million Force Touch-Equipped ‘iPhone 6s’ Models

Apple plans to order a record-breaking 85 to 90 million units of its next-generation iPhone models combined by the end of the year from manufacturing partners including Foxconn and Pegatron, according to The Wall Street Journal. The report reiterates rumors that the so-called “iPhone 6s” and “iPhone 6s Plus” will feature both Force Touch and a new color option, likely rose gold or pink.

The next-generation iPhones, which will reportedly enter mass-production starting next month, are expected to retain the same 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch screen sizes with the same display resolutions. Apple may add a third assembler, Wistron, to help fulfill the record-breaking amount of iPhone orders, which tops the 70 to 80 million units Apple ordered for the initial production run of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.

Judge Drops Apple’s $533M Fine in iTunes-Related Lawsuit, Sets New Damages Trial

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas on Tuesday voided $532.9 million in damages awarded to patent licensing firm Smartflash LLC in February in an iTunes-related patent lawsuit, per Reuters.

The report claims federal judge Rodney Gilstrap has set a new damages trial on September 14 after ruling that “his jury instructions might have ‘skewed’ jurors’ understanding of the damages that Apple should pay.”

Apple was initially ordered to pay $532.9 million in damages to Smartflash LLC after a federal jury in the Tyler, Texas courtroom found certain iTunes apps to be infringing upon the company’s patents related to digital rights management, data storage and managing access through payment systems.

Apple countered that Smartflash LLC was exploiting the patent system to collect royalties.

“Smartflash makes no products, has no employees, creates no jobs, has no U.S. presence, and is exploiting our patent system to seek royalties for technology Apple invented,” said Kristin Huguet, an Apple spokeswoman. “We refused to pay off this company for the ideas our employees spent years innovating and unfortunately we have been left with no choice but to take this fight up through the court system.”

Smartflash LLC was originally seeking $852 million in damages, and claimed it was entitled to a percentage of sales of Apple products used to access iTunes, such as iPhones, iPads and Macs. Apple argued that $4.5 million was fair at most, claiming it does not infringe upon any of Smartflash LLC’s inventions and that its patents are invalid.

Apple likely still faces a fine of a different amount pending the results of the new damages trial scheduled for September, but the iPhone maker plans to appeal the decision.

Fleksy Keyboard Goes Permanently Free, Adds Improved GIF and Sticker Browsing [iOS Blog]

Third-party keyboard developer Fleksy today announced its popular keyboard app on iOS and Android will be going free on a permanent basis, increasing the potential customer base for full basic keyboard functionality while continuing to offer additional premium content such as themes and extension slots for in-app purchase. Fleksy has generally sold for $0.99 in the App Store, although it has occasionally been free for short periods of time.

By making the keyboard available for free, Fleksy is able to serve a much larger and more diverse set of users. With this increased user base, Fleksy will be focused on delivering new and exciting product improvements across all languages.

“We want every smartphone user to have the opportunity to experience fast, expressive, and intuitive typing,” said Fleksy’s Co-Founder and CEO, Kosta Eleftheriou. “We believe the best way to do this is to make the app free for everyone.”

To thank users who previously paid for the app, Fleksy will be offering a set of free themes and extension slots that typically cost $8.

In addition to the shift to a freemium model, Fleksy is also rolling out improvements to GIFs and stickers, building on a feature introduced in April. With the new “Highlights” view, users will be able to easily access relevant GIFs and stickers all in one place by searching and tapping on auto-suggested hashtag topics.

Like many third-party keyboards, Fleksy requires users grant “full access” to the keyboard, a capability that makes some users wary as Apple warns it allows keyboards to log keystrokes and send them back to remote servers. In a support document, Fleksy outlines the keyboard features such as language packs and personalization (as well as GIFs and stickers) that require full access to function, and the company outlines its privacy promises regarding the data it can collect and how it protects that data.

Fleksy Keyboard goes free on the App Store today. [Direct Link]

Withings’ Activité and Activité Pop Updated With Swim Tracking Capabilities [iOS Blog]

Withings’ Activité and Activité Pop are two of only a handful of activity trackers on the market that are entirely waterproof, and as of today, the two devices are able to be used to track swimming. Swim detection is a feature that Withings has long promised and will be a welcome addition for customers who bought the activity trackers to track their swim movements.

We appreciate your patience. We’ve heard your requests. And we’re OVERJOYED to announce swim tracking is here. pic.twitter.com/Mok3wr1o8m

— Withings (@Withings) July 7, 2015

Following today’s firmware update, Activité fitness trackers will be able to automatically detect swim motions, recording a swimming session as a workout as the device does for other activities like running. Activity and workout information is then available for viewing within the accompanying Withings Health Mate app.

Activité Pop automatically recognizes swim. Just put it on, dive in and the watch will log your full session and record calories burned.

Both of the Withings activity trackers are water resistant down to 50 meters, or 164 feet, a feature that many of the popular activity trackers on the market cannot match.

Even Apple’s own Apple Watch is not rated for swimming, but several people have opted to test the waterproofing of the device and have found that it does seem to be able to be used in the water with no consequence. Still, Apple does not recommend that it be used when swimming or showering, unlike the Activité, which can be used reliably in both situations.

Withings’ Activité and Activité Pop can be purchased from the Withings website for $450 and $149.95, respectively.