Apple Releases iTunes 12.2 With Apple Music Support
Apple today released iTunes 12.2 for OS X Yosemite users, introducing desktop support for the new Apple Music service. Launched today as part of iOS 8.4, Apple Music lets iTunes users to listen to on-demand music, create playlists, find music suitable for every activity, and more. Apple Music is also accompanied by Apple Music Connect, Apple’s new artist-centric social network, and the Beats 1 24/7 live worldwide radio station.
iTunes 12.2 can be downloaded immediately through the Software Update mechanism in the Mac App Store. Apple has also released a new version of iTunes 12.2 for Windows users.
iTunes 12.2 is the second major update to iTunes 12, which debuted alongside OS X Yosemite. iTunes 12.1, the previous major update, brought an iTunes widget for the Notification Center and performance improvements.
All iTunes users can access Apple Music for free for a three month trial period. After that time, an individual subscription can be purchased for $9.99 and a family subscription with support for up to 6 users can be purchased for $14.99. Beats 1 radio and existing iTunes Radio stations will continue to be available at no cost.
VPNs may not protect your information as well as you think
VPNs (virtual private networks) are a popular choice for sidestepping censorship and geographic restrictions on services like Netflix with more than 20 percent of Europeans using them. However, researchers at the Queen Mary, University of London recently examined 14 of the region’s most popular VPN providers and found nearly all of them leaked information about their users to some degree. These leaks ranged from minor, ie what site you visited, to major infractions including the actual content of your communications.
The researchers believe this vulnerability is due to network operators updating to the new IPV6 protocol while the 11 leaking VPNs still only support IPV4 traffic. It should be noted, however, that sites using HTTPS were immune to the team’s hacking attempts — both passive traffic sniffing and active DNS hijacks. Additionally, the team found that VPNs running on iOS devices leaked far less info than their counterparts on Android.
“There are a variety of reasons why someone might want to hide their identity online and it’s worrying that they might be vulnerable despite using a service that is specifically designed to protect them,” Dr Gareth Tyson, the study’s co-author, said in a statement. “We’re most concerned for those people trying to protect their browsing from oppressive regimes. They could be emboldened by their supposed anonymity while actually revealing all their data and online activity and exposing themselves to possible repercussions.”
[Image Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto]
Filed under: Internet, Apple, Google
Source: Queen Mary, University of London
Apple Updates GarageBand for Mac With New Electronic/Hip Hop Synths and Drummers [Mac Blog]
Following the launch of Apple Music, Apple today updated GarageBand for Mac to version 10.1, adding new features and a huge amount of new content for musicians and sound makers to work with. The update to GarageBand was first announced in mid-June.
The update brings 10 new Drummers with beats appropriate for electronic music and Hip Hop styles like House, Trap, Techno, and Dubstep, plus it adds more than 100 EDM and Hip Hop-inspired synth sounds, each of which includes Transform Pad Smart Control for tweaking sounds to each user’s personal taste. There are also 1,000 new Apple Loops made from a wide variety of instruments.
Today’s update brings support for the Force Touch trackpad when GarageBand is used with the MacBook or new MacBook Pros, and it includes a new feature that lets music be shared directly to Apple Music Connect, Apple’s new social networking platform aimed at artists.
-10 new Drummers that produce beats in a variety of electronic music and Hip Hop styles including House, Trap, Techno, Dubstep and more
– Over 100 EDM and Hip Hop-inspired synthesizer Patches featuring the new Transform Pad Smart Control for sound morphing
– Record the movements of software instrument Smart Controls to capture performances of effect and tone adjustments
– 1,000 new Apple Loops from a variety of popular instruments and genres including EDM, Hip Hop, Indie, Disco, Funk, and Blues
– Share directly from GarageBand to Apple Music Connect
– Adds support for Force Touch trackpad
– Resolves an issue which prevented the export of long recordings
– Contains multiple enhancements to Accessibility
Apple has also released a minor update for its GarageBand app for iOS, introducing bug fixes and the ability to share music directly from the app to Apple Music Connect.
GarageBand for Mac can be downloaded from the Mac App Store for $4.99. [Direct Link]
GarageBand for iOS can be downloaded from the App Store for $4.99. [Direct Link]
Leaked Photos of Next-Generation ‘iPhone 6s’ Show Only Minor Internal Differences
The next-generation iPhone, often referred to as the “iPhone 6s,” will likely retain the same exterior design as the iPhone 6, based on purported images of the device’s rear shell obtained by 9to5Mac. The report claims the rear shell is identical to the iPhone 6 on the outside, including the same thickness and width, with only minor internal differences.
The leaked photos of the “iPhone 6s” reveal that the Lightning connector, speakers, microphones, headphone jack, volume rocker, mute button, sleep/wake button, SIM card slot, antenna lines and cutout for the rear-facing camera and LED flash are all identical to the iPhone 6, which is unsurprising given that “S” model iPhones have historically looked almost identical to the iPhone released one year prior.
While the exterior design on the “iPhone 6s” looks unchanged, the rear shell has a notably different internal mounting structure that suggests a new logic board and other components are incoming. In particular, the next-generation iPhone is rumored to include an A9 processor with 2GB of RAM, Force Touch, 7000 Series aluminum and improved 12-megapixel camera, among other changes.
Beats 1 Radio Accepting Song Requests from Listeners [iOS Blog]
One of the upcoming segments on Beats 1 radio is called “Requests,” and it appears this broadcast will feature songs that have been requested from Beats 1 listeners around the world. According to a tweet from the Beats 1 Twitter account, users can request a song by calling in to the station.
The Apple Music Tumblr site has a page that’s dedicated to requests, listing phone numbers around the world for listeners to call to request a song. In the United States, the number for making a request is 1-310-299-8756, or 1-877-720-6293 for toll free.
Hi – In a few hours we turn the show over to you.
Hit us w/ your requests for @ilovetmills: http://t.co/9uRuyaRchl
#Beats1Requests
— Beats 1 (@Beats1) June 30, 2015
There are also phone numbers listed for Canada, the U.K., France, Japan, Germany, Brazil, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Australia, Italy, Ireland, and New Zealand.
“Requests” will play at 5:00 p.m. Pacific Time, and the segment will be hosted by Travis Mills, who is located in Los Angeles. Mills’ show will come on following Ebro Darden, who goes live at 3 p.m. Pacific Time. It is not clear if the requests that Beats 1 is asking for will be limited to the “Requests” segment or if they’ll also be played at other times on Beats 1 radio.
Beats 1 radio debuted today at 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time in hundreds of countries around the world. It provides 24/7 live music and will also include news segments, interviews, and more. Beats 1 radio is part of Apple Music, which also includes a new on-demand streaming service (free for three months) and Apple Music Connect, Apple’s new artist-focused social networking feature.
Apple will replace your battery once it hits 80 percent health
Apple’s recently changed the terms of its AppleCare+ extended warranty program. Now, no matter what iOS or OSX device you own (yes, even the Watch), Apple will replace the battery as soon as it hits 80 percent health. That’s up 30 points from the previous 50 percent threshold for iOS devices. What’s more, Mac batteries used to only be covered for manufacturing defects, not normal performance degradation. So basically anything with an Apple logo will get a new battery once the old one loses 20 percent of its capacity. The policy kicks in immediately for devices purchased after April 10th of this year.
[Image Credit: Anthony Devlin/PA Archive]
Via: LifeHacker
Source: Apple
A closer look at Apple Music: feature packed, but a bit disjointed
Apple Music is here. Finally. Now that the company steered the streaming service to a successful launch, it now has to prove to the world that it’s actually something worth paying for – after all, there are like 80 other streaming music services (maybe not, but it feels like it) fighting for the subscription revenue in our wallets. Apple’s master plan: make Apple Music a one-stop shop by kitting out it with gobs of features. We’ll follow up with a longer writeup once we’ve had more than a few hours to play with it, but for now, let’s a take a quick peek at what Apple came up with.
Once everything is installed and you fire up Music for the first time, you’re asked to make a choice: Do you want to go with the three-month free trial, or just jump straight into your music? If you choose yes, then you’ll automatically start paying $9.99/month as soon as the three-month trial winds down (until you turn off the auto-renewal, anyway). Thing is, Apple manages your Apple Music subscription the same way it does recurring iTunes subscriptions — that is, it’s nestled away in your Apple account settings, and easy to miss unless you know exactly where to look.
After that, Apple tries to figure out your musical tastes the same way Beats did: By making you choose your preferred genres and artists from a stream of cutesy bubbles. So far, so good: I’ve locked my predilections for jazz, EDM and Third Eye Blind. Bring on the recommendations! Those all live in a section of the app called “For You”, and it’s almost surprising how densely they’re packed. Apple Music will quietly chew on your musical preferences and offers up albums and playlists you might like in a very busy grid. Everything’s mostly pretty perfectly intelligible, though; I’m just not used to Apple trying to do so much at once. Naturally, your recommendations will change over time, and not all of them will be up your alley — I had to kill a list of Madonna ballads by long-pressing the tile and asking Music to “recommend less like this”. (A brief aside: I bet you Apple swaps that long press for Force Touch in the next iPhone.)
The next section over is “New,” where — you guessed it — all the new/top tracks and albums live. You can sort drill down by different genres if today is more a blues day than an indie one, and the whole thing would be nice and straightforward… if Apple didn’t decide to stick their genre and activity-centered playlists in there too. Considering how proud Apple is of its human curators and tastemakers, I’m a little shocked these playlists live ignominiously under a bunch of new song charts and not in their own separate section.
I’ve always thought there was something a little magical about radio, about little voices talking and singing and floating out of a box, and Apple seems to have done a fine job recreating that experience with Beats 1. As I write this, DJ Zane Lowe and the rest of the crew are only two hours into their first broadcast day, which was largely problem-free despite streaming to users in 100 countries. I say “largely” because there were a good four or five minutes that I just could not connect to the station out of our New York office (perhaps because of all the new upgraders crushing Apple’s servers). Lowe and company like to drop little snippets of Beats audio branding into songs while they’re playing, too. Ugh.
If your ideal radio experience has nothing to do with DJs chattering about how exciting and rad their jobs are, you can always scroll down past the Beats marquee to pick from some tried-and-true genre stations. Hell, you can even ask Siri to play the “Top 20 songs from 1988,” if you feel oddly specific. I did just that, and to my infinite pleasure, George Michael’s Faith was immediately piped through my headphones. Well done, you beautiful machine.
Then there’s Connect, a sort-of-social-network for artists to interact with fans. Well, maybe “interact” is a strong word – artists, or their handlers, post things and we get to comment on them. By default, you’re set to follow the artists who already live in your music library, and in my case only four of them (Fallout Boy and Flying Lotus, RCHP and Ke$ha) had anything up on Connect to mark the occasion. Connect remains the single biggest question mark about this whole thing — I can see how some people would like to see occasional status updates from the musicians they love, but does it seem crucial to the rest of the Music experience? Is it necessary? Valuable? I’m really not sure. Right now, Connect isn’t much more than a music-enabled Instagram for celebrities; hopefully that changes soon.
Finally, there’s My Music, where all the music you own and have saved live. It’s still got the same super-flat look that debuted in iOS 7, but like the “For You” section, it feels a little constricted. Your three most recent additions now get a shout-out at the top of your library, for one, and the Now Playing controls section now lives in a slide-out tab at the bottom — a full-screen look at the song is no longer the default. It’s really no wonder thing seemed cramped; all of the bottom row tabs that used to be dedicated to Artist, Song and Playlist views have been given to Connect and Radio. If you’re anything like me, your muscle memory is going to need some serious retraining. Still, searching for tracks from the entirety of Apple’s music collection is quick and they sound pretty good even over cellular connections. Adding them to your own library is simple too, even though it means you’re giving local space on your phone to accommodate them.
So, that’s Apple Music in a (pretty lengthy) nutshell. The thing is, even after all that, I’m not sure if I would give up my existing Spotify setup for it. Apple Music is “good” in the sense that there’s plenty (and I mean plenty) of music to stream and add to your local collection. That bar has been cleared with ease. And the rest of the stuff that’s here to help Apple Music compete with other services works pretty well too. It’s just that Music feels a little more disjointed and confusing than I’d expect from an Apple product; it’s as if the folks in Cupertino decided they could trade a little polish in exchange for more features. That’s the sort of design arithmetic that more-or-less makes sense on paper, but the reality is, well, less than elegant.
Apple SIM Cellular Data Plans Now Available in Over 90 Countries
Apple has reached a partnership with mobile connectivity company GigSky to expand Apple SIM cellular data plans to over 90 countries and territories around the world. iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3 users that have Apple SIM installed can now purchase short-term data plans while traveling in a long list of countries throughout Europe, Asia-Pacific, Africa, South America and other regions worldwide.
Apple SIM is now available for purchase at Apple Retail Stores in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States. Apple SIM cellular data plans were previously limited to participating carriers in the United States and United Kingdom, including AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile in the U.S. and EE in the U.K.
“With Apple SIM in iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3 with Wi-Fi + Cellular models, you get the convenience of choosing a cellular data plan from select carrier partners right on your iPad. And when you travel abroad, Apple SIM gives you the added flexibility to stay connected in more than 90 countries and territories around the world. So when you reach your destination and want to check your email, find directions, or send a message back home, you can purchase a cellular data plan for the duration of your trip — whether it’s a day, a week, or a month.”
GigSky cellular data plans are available on a pay-as-you-go basis with no long-term commitments. Exact prices are listed on GigSky’s website and vary based based on the country, data amount and length of plan. Given that iPads are unlocked, travelers can also insert a SIM card belonging to a local carrier if preferred.
Apple has posted a full list of countries with Apple SIM coverage on its website.
How to avoid being charged by Apple Music after the free trial
Apple Music is finally here, along with a free three month trial to let anyone give it a listen. But what if you don’t want to be on the hook for a $10 a month subscription fee on September 30? Or, what if you opted into Apple Music by mistake (which is surprisingly easy, since it’s the first thing that pops up when you launch the iOS Music app)? Well, you can just disable auto-renewal, just like any other iTunes subscription. To do so, tap the “Account” icon on the top left of the Apple Music app and navigate to View Apple ID (alternatively, you can get there from the iOS Settings app and heading to “iTunes & App Store”). Once you’re at your Apple ID settings screen, tap “Manage” under subscriptions, then “Your Membership” and untick the auto-renewal checkbox at the bottom. You’ll still be able to test out Apple Music for the next three months, you’ll just avoid any surprise charges.
If you’re on a PC or Mac, you can also disable the Apple Music subscription from iTunes. Simply click the “Account” icon (it looks like the head of a person, right beside the search box), and go to “Account Info.” Under the “Settings” section, find the “Subscriptions” line and click “Manage.” Then all you need to do is click “Edit” next to your Apple Music subscription and click “Off.”
Beats Music iOS update provides a smooth transition to Apple Music
Now that Apple Music has arrived, Beats Music is on its way out. To help ease the transition from the old to the new, the Beats Music iOS app was updated to lend a hand. Subscribers can take playlists and any saved music over to the new service without have to reconfigure everything after the switch. As you might expect, making the change can’t be reversed as Beats Music credentials turn into new Apple Music accounts. If you’ve been paying for Dr. Dre’s streaming service, you’ll be privy to the same three-month free trial as the masses, and you’ll receive iTunes credit for any remaining balance you may have already paid. Once the three months are up, the regular $10/month or $15/month plans will kick back in. Of course, some of the features from Beats were held over for Apple’s new release, so you should feel somewhat at home. If you’ve yet to make the jump, the update that’ll help make the swap smooth is available in iTunes now.
Filed under: Portable Audio/Video, Software, Apple
Via: 9to5Mac
Source: iTunes
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