Apple Yet to Contact Indie Publishers for Apple Music Streaming Rights [iOS Blog]

With exactly two weeks until the launch of Apple Music, details about the revenue sharing model for the streaming music service continue to emerge. Billboard reports that Apple has yet to contact independent music publishers about Apple Music, leading many indie labels to believe that the Cupertino-based company will soon send a bulk email to publishers with an opt-in contract attached.

Apple will reportedly offer indie music publishers a headline rate of 13.5% revenue, higher than the 12% it pays for iTunes Match and 10% it pays for iTunes Radio. Apple will pay indie labels slightly higher rates than the industry standard, contributing to Apple Music’s overall 71.5% revenue sharing, in return for making no royalty payments during the three-month free trial it will offer consumers.

“That free trial, with no payments being made to rights holders, precluded Apple from taking advantage of the statutory licenses that most interactive streaming services use. Under that statutory license, Apple must send notices of intent (NOIs) to publishers with a list of the songs they plan to use, and then make payment to publishers using a three-tier formula approved by the Copyright Royalty Board.”

The 13.5% headline rate is reportedly part of a larger payment formula that will be used to determine royalties paid to rights holders.

Apple Music was announced last week as an all-in-one streaming music service, live global radio station and social platform for artists to connect with fans. The subscription-based service will be available June 30 for $9.99 per month after a three-month free trial period for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac and PC. Apple TV and Android versions of the service will be available in the fall.

Apple Revokes Monster’s ‘Made for iPhone’ License Following Beats Lawsuit

Apple has suspended audio accessory maker Monster’s right to make licensed accessories for Apple devices following a lawsuit Monster filed against Apple-owned Beats Electronics in January, reports The Wall Street Journal.

Monster produces Lightning charging cables and headphones that are certified to work with Apple devices under Apple’s Made for iPhone (MFi) certification process, and it has done so since 2005. As of May 5, Apple is ending its agreement with Monster and will no longer allow the company to make MFi certified accessories.

Monster’s general counsel David Tognotti said Noreen Krall, Apple’s chief litigation counsel, told him that their agreement was being terminated, effective May 5, because the relationship between the two companies is no longer “mutually beneficial” in the wake of Monster’s lawsuit. According to Mr. Tognotti, Ms. Krall said the suit would “destroy the working relationship” between Apple and Monster.

Monster’s lawsuit accused Beats Electronics, Beats co-founders Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre, and HTC of conspiring to acquire Monster’s portion of Beats Electronics through a fraudulent deal. Well before Beats Electronics was bought by Apple, Monster designed and sold Beats by Dr. Dre headphones. That ended in 2011, after Beats sold 51 percent of the company to HTC and invoked a change of ownership clause in the Beats/Monster deal.

Beats Electronics later repurchased HTC’s stake in the company and convinced Monster CEO Noel Lee to sell a portion of his 5 percent stake as well. According to Lee, this was a “sham transaction” designed to exclude Monster from profits from Beats by Dre sales and later, profits from the Apple acquisition, which would have been more than $100 million had he retained his stake in the company.

With Apple ending its MFi agreement with Monster, Monster will be required to change its packaging and rework some products that use licensed technology. Apple is permitting Monster to continue to sell accessories through September, but the company is not allowed to produce new MFi-certified cables and headphones.

According to Monster, 900 of its more than 4,000 products produced since 2008 have been made under the MFi program, and the company has paid out more than $12 million in licensing fees since that date. Monster lawyer David Tognotti says the move is excessive and “shows a side of Apple that consumers don’t see very often.” “Apple can be a bully,” he said.

Square Enix to Bring Final Fantasy VII to iOS in 2015

During Square Enix’s E3 event that was held this morning, the company announced plans to bring iconic game Final Fantasy VII to iOS “before the end of summer” this year. Little detail was made available on the game aside from an upcoming release date, but it appears it’s a port of the original PS1 game and not the Final Fantasy VII remake that was announced by Sony earlier this week.

Square Enix has made the first six Final Fantasy games available on iOS devices, but Final Fantasy VII for iOS will mark the first Final Fantasy port coming from a PlayStation game. Released in 1997, Final Fantasy VII was the first game in the Final Fantasy series created for PlayStation and it quickly became one of the most popular Final Fantasy games.

In 2013, Square Enix producer Takashi Tokita said in an interview that a release of Final Fantasy VII was “years away” from release on iOS because of the space limitations on the platform. “It’s that currently, space will be an issue,” he said. “Phones won’t be able to contain the space it takes. It’s over a gigabyte. People are probably going to have to wait for a few years.”

Prior to 2015, Apple limited the size of apps to 2GB, but in February, that limit was expanded to 4GB, perhaps making games like Final Fantasy VII more feasible on iOS. A PC port of Final Fantasy VII comes in at over 3GB, so it’s possible that the 2GB size restriction was the limiting factor.

A game that’s 3GB in size will be a tough sell to customers who have 16GB iPhones and iPads, but upcoming features in iOS 9 could help slim down the install size of Final Fantasy VII and other games that take up a lot of storage space. App Thinning, a feature Apple introduced at WWDC, allows developers to optimize apps for specific devices for the first time. For example, a game being played on the iPhone won’t be required to download all the iPad art assets, saving much needed space.

The App Store and operating system optimize the installation of iOS and watchOS apps by tailoring app delivery to the capabilities of the user’s particular device, with minimal footprint. This optimization, called app thinning, lets you create apps that use the most device features, occupy minimum disk space, and accommodate future updates that can be applied by Apple. Faster downloads and more space for other apps and content provides a better user experience.

Square Enix also gave an update on Kingdom Hearts Unchained χ, its upcoming smartphone game. Unchained χ was previously announced in May, but as of today, Square Enix has confirmed that it will be available worldwide when it launches.

Twitter Brings Autoplay Video, Vines, and GIFs to iOS and Web [iOS Blog]

Twitter today announced that it’s bringing autoplay video to the web and to its iOS app, causing native videos, Vines, and GIFs to play automatically in the Twitter stream for an improved video-watching experience.

Today, it’s become even easier to enjoy video on Twitter. Now native videos, Vines and GIFs will begin to play back automatically. So you can keep up with the action without missing a Tweet and get a better sense of what’s been shared instantly.

Videos will play without sound, but tapping a video will turn the sound on and play the video in an expanded view. Rotating an iPhone or iPad to landscape mode will automatically turn on the sound and expand a video that’s in the timeline to fill the screen.

Twitter is including an option that will allow users to continue to use the previous click-to-play video experience, disabling autoplay videos, Vines, and GIFs. There’s also a setting to turn autoplay on only when connected to WiFi, preserving bandwidth when connected to cellular.

The video changes are starting to roll out today to Twitter users on iOS and on Twitter.com.

iOS 9 Roundup Updated

Apple’s next-generation operating system will be released to the public this fall. It introduces several performance improvements that boost battery life and shrink install size, plus it has a bunch of new features including a more intelligent Siri and search, a new Notes app, transit directions for Maps, split-screen multitasking for the iPad, and tons more.

Apple Watch Shipments Arriving to Apple Stores, In-Store Availability Appears Imminent

Apple Stores in the United States have begun to receive shipments of the Apple Watch to fulfill in-store reservations through Personal Pickup, according to BGR. The report claims the Apple Watch will be available for in-store pickup starting today or tomorrow, but the exact product mix remains unclear at this point.

A spot check of the Apple Online Store reveals that the Personal Pickup option remains unavailable for the Apple Watch at brick-and-mortar Apple Store locations in New York and elsewhere in the United States. A dedicated Reserve and Pickup page for the Apple Watch that was live in early April also continues to redirect to the main Apple Watch product page on the company’s website.

Apple Watch orders have been taken exclusively online since pre-orders began on April 10, although Apple is now catching up on the backlog of shipments and is better positioned to sell the wrist-worn device in stores soon. Apple executive Jeff Williams confirmed earlier this month that it would soon begin selling some Apple Watch models in Apple Stores, but he did not provide a specific date.

“The response to Apple Watch has surpassed our expectations in every way, and we are thrilled to bring it to more customers around the world,” said Jeff Williams, Apple’s senior vice president of Operations. “We’re also making great progress with the backlog of Apple Watch orders, and we thank our customers for their patience. All orders placed through May, with the sole exception of Apple Watch 42 mm Space Black Stainless Steel with Space Black Link Bracelet, will ship to customers within two weeks. At that time, we’ll also begin selling some models in our Apple Retail Stores.”

Apple Watch launches in seven additional countries on June 26: Italy, Mexico, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland and Taiwan. The wrist-worn device will be sold through the Apple Store, Apple Online Store and select authorized resellers in the countries, including 10 Corso Como in Milan, BOONTHESHOP Cheongdam in Seoul and Malmaison by The Hour Glass in Singapore.

Adobe Announces 2015 Creative Cloud Updates, New Integrated Adobe Stock Service

Adobe today announced that all of its Creative Cloud desktop apps, including Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Dreamweaver, Lightroom, Premiere Pro, After Effects, and more, will receive updates as part of the company’s 2015 Creative Cloud Update.

The updates bring new features and performance enhancements with “Adobe Magic” to all of Adobe’s Creative Cloud apps, notably including Linked Assets that will allow assets within Creative Cloud Libraries to be updated whenever a change is made, ensuring the update is available to all team members in Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign.

Photoshop CC is gaining Artboards, letting artists create multiple design surfaces within a single document for a bird’s-eye view of all designs at once. There’s also a new preview feature called Photoshop Design Space, which lets users create design-focused desktop tool layouts that ignore unnecessary tools. The exporting experience has been improved, and the Spot Healing Brush and Patch tools are now 120x faster than the same tools in Photoshop CS6 thanks to Mercury Graphics Engine enhancements.

Both Photoshop and Lightroom CC are gaining new haze removal features that will allow haze to be added or removed to a photograph with click, and Photoshop now has the option to add noise to Blur Gallery effects.

Illustrator CC has been updated with significant performance improvements, making it 10x faster than CS6. Zoom magnification is now ten times higher, reaching up to 64,000 percent instead of 6,400 percent, and there’s a new Chart interface that makes it easier to create custom charts and graphics.
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Apple Discussed Delivery Deal With Uber Before Postmates Agreement [iOS Blog]

In late May, Apple began offering same-day delivery of certain products in its Apple Store app via a partnership with courier service Postmates. Before that agreement was in place, Apple was in talks with Uber about a similar partnership, according to the Wall Street Journal.

In recent months, Uber lost out on the opportunity to make deliveries in some cities for Apple Inc. and Starbucks Corp., which discussed tie-ups with Uber but then made deals with startup courier service Postmates Inc., according to people familiar with the discussions.

The deal with Apple would have been a part of Uber’s same-day delivery service, which it launched last year. The transportation company had plans to sign up dozens of retailers for the service but only ended up with 6 partnerships. It’s unclear why talks between Apple and Uber fell apart, but a Gilt spokesperson told the WSJ that Uber was unable to insure high-priced items and that it “fell short of expectations”.

Delivery with Postmates through the Apple Store app is currently only available within the Bay Area for a $19 delivery charge.