Apple Offers Developers a Chance to Buy Apple Watch Sport With Guaranteed April 28 Delivery Date

Apple today began sending out emails to iOS developers, offering them a chance to purchase a 42mm Apple Watch Sport with a Blue Sport Band that has a guaranteed shipment date of April 28, 2015, in order to get them a device to begin testing apps on. Quantities of the watch are limited, and developers eligible to purchase a watch will be chosen by random selection.

We want to help give Apple developers the opportunity to test their WatchKit apps on Apple Watch as soon as it is available. You have the chance to purchase one (1) Apple Watch Sport with 42mm Silver Aluminum Case and Blue Sport Band that’s guaranteed to ship by April 28, 2015.

This opportunity is offered by random selection and quantities are limited. Register now though April 23 at 10 a.m. PDT. We’ll let you know your status on April 23.

It’s not known why Apple is offering that particular watch combination to developers, but it can be assumed that the 42mm Aluminum Apple Watch Sport may be one of the devices that the company has an ample supply of, along with the Blue Sport Band.

Confirmation screen after entering the lottery
A guaranteed April 28 delivery means developers who make a purchase will receive the Apple Watch Sport one week from today and four days after customers are expected to begin receiving the first Apple Watch devices.

UPS Tracking Numbers Start Trickling Out to Apple Watch Customers

As of yesterday afternoon, credit and debit cards have been charged and many Apple Watch pre-orders have begun shifting from “Processing Items” to “Preparing for Shipment” as Apple prepares to send out the first Apple Watch orders to customers who pre-ordered on Friday, April 10.

Shipment emails have yet to go out from Apple, but a few lucky customers have gotten a heads up on their orders through UPS’ “My Choice” opt-in emails, which lets people sign up to get notifications whenever a package is sent to their address. These emails suggest the first Apple Watch orders will indeed be arriving on Friday, April 24.

On reddit, one Apple Watch buyer got what appears to be an accidental UPS notice about a package being unable to be delivered, letting him know his Apple Watch is on its way from Rialto, CA. We’ve also heard from a MacRumors reader who got a similar notice, with an alert about an upcoming Apple Watch package from Apple set to be delivered on Tuesday, April 21.

When checking that tracking number, it states that a UPS shipping label has been created and that the order has been processed and is ready for UPS. Both customers confirm they have no other orders such as accessories currently pending with Apple.

These alerts appear to have been delivered prematurely, as we’ve seen only these two reports of such notices, and it’s unlikely the readers who have a delivery alerts will receive their package before Friday, but they do give us our first hints that tracking numbers are starting to go out and may be showing up in shipment emails in the near future.

While many people who pre-ordered early have had their credit or debit cards charged and have seen their order statuses change, there are some early pre-orderers who still have not had their orders shift to “Preparing for Shipment” as seen in this Google document. Space Gray Sport watches, Space Black stainless steel watches, and stainless steel watches with Milanese Loop, Classic Buckle, and Black Sport Band seem to make up the majority of those that have not yet seen a status change.

Apple Watch orders that have not yet changed should not cause alarm, as based on the early tracking info received, Apple is using Next Day Air shipments.

Customers who do have a “Preparing for Shipment” notification may be able to get an early look at where their watches are located by using UPS and FedEx’s “Track By Reference” tools, using a phone number to locate an order.

Adobe Lightroom Updated With HDR and Panorama Merge, Facial Recognition and Filter Brushes

Adobe today announced a major update to Lightroom CC (and the launch of the standalone Lightroom 6), its professional photo editing software for Mac users. The new update brings significant performance improvements and several new features like HDR merge, Panorama merge, facial recognition, improved slideshows, a filter brush, and more.

One of the most impressive new organizational features in the updated version of Lightroom is facial recognition, which lets Lightroom users organize their photos by subject for the first time, in addition to organizing with tags, flags, and star ratings. Once a face in a single photo is named, the software is able to find more images that feature that person for quick tagging by face. A new “People” view lets users sort photos by person.

Panorama Merge, another new feature, lets photographers stitch together multiple images, including RAW and JPG files to create ultra high-quality panoramic shots. It has built in tools for automatically cropping non-matching edges and changing perspectives. With Lightroom’s graphical performance improvements, even huge panorama files can be edited in real time with little lag.

With HDR Merge, it’s possible to combine several different photos with different exposure settings into a single HDR image. Unlike other photo editing apps, Adobe’s HDR Merge works directly with both JPG and RAW images. Because it works with RAW files, a high-quality HDR image can be created from as few as two photos. Other HDR options typically require more photos at different exposure levels to create a suitable image.

Lightroom’s new filter brush, a popular request from Adobe customers, works with graduated and radial filter affects, letting a filter mask be reshaped with a brush tool so filter effects can be added and subtracted from specific parts of images for better precision. The last major feature update, which adds advanced slideshow tools, lets users put pan and zoom effects into their slideshows to add a motion effect. There’s also a tool for syncing slideshows to multiple audio clips, and it’s possible to add up to 10 songs to a slideshow.

Today’s update to Lightroom CC may be of particular interest to Mac users who previously used the now-defunct Aperture photo editing software, as Apple no longer offers a professional-level photo editing app since discontinuing Aperture in favor of Photos for OS X. Lightroom has many professional-level features that are missing from the Photos for OS X app, and it also offers the same cross-platform syncing of all images with a Creative Cloud subscription. Adobe has promised to continue adding new features and more advanced tools to Lightroom in the future.

Adobe is also updating its Lightroom apps for the iPad and the iPhone, which connect to Lightroom CC and allow for photos and edits to be synced between all devices using Adobe’s cloud service. The apps are gaining features like improved cropping tools, with the updated versions available for download today.

Lightroom CC is available through Adobe’s Creative Cloud Photography plan, which bundles Photoshop and Lightroom together for $9.99 per month, or through Adobe’s complete Creative Cloud plan, featuring all Adobe software for $49.99 per month.

Adobe is also selling the new Lightroom update on a standalone basis, branded as Lightroom 6 and priced at $149 (or $79 upgrade pricing). The standalone version of Lightroom does not include cloud integration with Adobe’s mobile Lightroom apps and Lightroom on the web.

Lightroom for iPhone can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]

Lightroom for iPad can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]

Video Review: Imation’s LINK Power Drive is an All-In-One Hard Drive, Battery, and Stand [iOS Blog]

Imation’s LINK Power Drive is a useful iOS accessory that combines multiple functions into one small, portable package. It’s a hard drive with 16 to 64GB of storage for backing up files or storing photos and videos to save space on your iPhone, and it’s also a 3,000mAh battery (enough for approximately one charge for an iPhone 6 Plus).

We were impressed with the LINK Power Drive’s compact size and its built-in Lightning cable, micro-USB cable, and stand. There’s a handy toggle to turn the battery feature on and off, and there’s an LED that shows the charge. The built-in battery can be charged via micro-USB and will charge your device whenever it’s toggled on.

The LINK Power Drive uses an accompanying Power Drive LT iOS app to manage files, letting users transfer files to the drive or play media files directly from it. There are also tools for automatically backing up the iPhone’s contact list and camera roll. Transferring files from a Mac or PC to an iPhone is easy with the Power Drive, as it’s possible to plug it into a computer, load up files, and then transfer them over to the iPhone using the app.

The app supports file types like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF, MP3, M4A, MP4, MOV, BMP, GIF, JPG, PNG, and TIFF. It requires an iOS device that’s running iOS 7 and later, so you’ll need a newer iPhone to use the LINK Power Drive.

We had a couple qualms with the Power Drive – the app is unfortunately not optimized for the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus despite having received several updates across 2015, and it’s also a bit frustrating to have the app pop up every time the Power Drive is plugged in.

The LINK Power Drive can be purchased from Amazon.com in 16, 32, and 64GB capacities. At time this review was published, the 16GB version was priced at $71.70, the 32GB version was priced at $102.73, and the 64GB version was priced at $127.33.

Apple Watch News Apps Bring At-a-Glance Headlines to Your Wrist

Apple Watch will bring the world’s latest breaking news and headlines to your wrist from a wide variety of publications and sources in the United States and abroad, including the Associated Press, ABC News, Bloomberg, CNN, CNBC, CBC News, Circa News, Fresco News, De Telegraaf, South China Morning Post, The Economist, The Guardian, The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA TODAY and Yahoo News Digest.

Many of the Apple Watch news apps will provide breaking news notifications and bite-sized headlines through Glances, while some provide additional functionality such as expanded views and personal feeds of news stories, reviews, opinions and more. As the Apple Watch becomes more widely adopted, and launches in additional countries, more apps from well-known news publications should begin to surface on the App Store.

CBC News for Apple Watch brings Canada’s largest news broadcaster to your wrist, with multiple features such as push notifications for breaking news, the latest headlines in Glances and Handoff for stories to read later on iPhone. CBC also provides international news coverage in addition to local and national Canadian news. CBC News is free on the App Store. Read more

Apple Watch Debit and Credit Card Charges Begin in the UK, Germany, and France [iOS Blog]

A few MacRumors readers have taken to the forums to confirm that Apple has begun charging many users based out of the UK, Germany, and France who got in an Apple Watch pre-order early on April 10.

The charges in the United Kingdom, Germany, and France come after customers in the United States yesterday began first experiencing charges taken from their debit or credit cards, followed by a change of order status from “Processing Items” to “Preparing for Shipment”, for a select group of customers.

As reported earlier yesterday, bulk shipments of Apple’s new wearable began arriving at centralized distribution centers across the United States in preparation for the April 24 launch date this Friday. Despite the forward momentum of the news over the past day or so, there still has not been any change to the initial 4/24 – 5/8 delivery date estimate for all of the Apple Watch’s early pre-order customers.

Security Flaw Affects 1500 iOS Apps While Apple’s OS X 10.10.3 ‘Rootpipe’ Fix Proves Incomplete

Over the past few days a handful of reports have been accumulating in regards to two security flaws, one affecting roughly 1500 iOS apps and a second affecting OS X users despite Apple having tried to patch the vulnerability on OS X 10.10.3.

The first security flaw is making about 1500 iPhone and iPad apps vulnerable to hackers who could leverage the vulnerability to steal passwords, bank account information, and a handful of other sensitive information, according to Ars Technica. Discovered by security analytics firm SourceDNA last month, the “man-in-the-middle” attack was fixed in a 2.5.2 update to AFNetworking, the open-source code which housed the vulnerability.

Unfortunately, some developers have yet to update to the newest version of the code, leaving those 1500 apps open and vulnerable to the attack, which “can decrypt HTTPS-encrypted data” and essentially allows anyone generating a fake Wi-Fi hotspot access to a user’s data on that same Wi-Fi connection. As a result, SourceDNA scanned and analyzed most apps on the App Store for the security flaw, and even created a search tool to discover if a particular app is under risk.

The day the flaw was announced & patched, a quick search in SourceDNA showed about 20,000 iOS apps (out of the 100k apps that use AFNetworking) both contained the AFNetworking library and were updated or released on the App Store after the flawed code was committed. Our system then scanned those apps with the differential signatures to see which ones actually had the vulnerable code.

The results? 55% had the older but safe 2.5.0 code, 40% were not using the portion of the library that provides the SSL API, and 5% or about 1,000 apps had the flaw. Are these apps important? We compared them against our rank data and found some big players: Yahoo!, Microsoft, Uber, Citrix, etc. It amazes us that an open-source library that introduced a security flaw for only 6 weeks exposed millions of users to attack.

Some of the known apps currently vulnerable to the man-in-the-middle attack includes Citrix OpenVoice Audio Conferencing [Direct Link], Alibaba‘s mobile app [Direct Link], and even Movies by Flixster with Rotten Tomatoes [Direct Link]. SourceDNA urges users to check their most used apps in its search tool for the security flaw, and promises to remove apps that have been fixed and add ones discovered to be vulnerable as time goes on.

The other flaw, called “Rootpipe”, dates back to 2011 and has been known for some time. Apple intended to patch the Rootpipe vulnerability in OS X 10.10.3 earlier this month, although older versions of OS X were left vulnerable. But as reported by Forbes, former NSA agent Patrick Wardle has discovered the flaw to still be present on Macs running OS X 10.10.3, as well as older versions.

Apple put additional access controls to stop attacks, but Wardle’s code was still able to connect to the vulnerable service and start overwriting files on his Mac. “I was tempted to walk into the Apple store this [afternoon] and try it on the display models – but I stuck to testing it on my personal laptop (fully updated/patched) as well as my OS X 10.10.3 [virtual machine]. Both worked like a charm,” Wardle told FORBES over email. In a blog post, he’d said his exploit was “a novel, yet trivial way for any local user to re-abuse Rootpipe”.

Discovered last October, the Rootpipe flaw essentially allows a hidden backdoor to be created on a particular system, opening up root access of a computer to a hacker after they obtain local privileges on the device. Physical access or previously granted remote access to the target machine is required in order for the vulnerability to be exploited.

Most recently, Apple faced the “FREAK” security flaw in its systems, making everything from an Apple TV to an iPod touch vulnerable to stolen sensitive information. The company issued a few security updates on all platforms in the weeks following the discovery of the security flaw, beefing up security and working to assuage public concerns. In regards to the man-in-the-middle iOS and re-emerging Rootpipe flaws, the company has yet to comment.

Apple Watch Charges Begin Showing Up On Credit and Debit Cards

According to dozens tweets and emails received by MacRumors, Apple has just begun charging customers who pre-ordered the Apple Watch for their purchases. The charges suggest that early Apple Watch orders will soon shift from “Processing Items” to “Preparing for Shipment” as Apple gears up to begin sending devices to customers ahead of the Apple Watch’s Friday April 24 launch date.

As we shared earlier today, bulk shipments of the Apple Watch have already begun arriving at central distribution centers across the United States and are ready to begin heading to customers over the next few days. We haven’t seen word of shipments happening yet, but status changes should happen within the next few hours.

Apple Watch pre-orders began selling out within minutes as orders came up on April 10, but those who managed to place an order shortly after 12:01 a.m. Pacific Time will likely receive an April 24 delivery date. Even the earliest Apple Watch pre-orders offered delivery estimates of April 24 to May 8, but Apple retail chief Angela Ahrendts suggested the first Apple Watch orders would arrive on April 24 in a memo shared with employees last week.

Customers who were not lucky enough to pre-order within the first few hours that the Apple Watch was available will likely be waiting for several more weeks to receive their devices, but Apple executives did tell one MacRumors reader that those orders could arrive sooner than expected as supplies ramp up. Apple Watch pre-orders placed today offer shipping estimates that range into June and beyond.

Apple Watch Order Statuses Shifting to ‘Preparing for Shipment’

Apple Watch order statuses have begun changing from “Processing Items” to “Preparing for Shipment” as Apple gets ready to send out the first Apple Watch orders to customers who pre-ordered their devices on Friday, April 10. Apple Watch orders that have changed to “Preparing for Shipment” are still listing prospective delivery dates of 4/24 to 5/8, but the first orders are expected to begin arriving on Friday April 24, the official launch date of the Apple Watch. Now that order statuses have shifted, customers should begin receiving shipment emails in the near future.

The change to customer order statuses comes just minutes after Apple began charging credit and debit cards for Apple Watch purchases. As we have previously mentioned, bulk shipments of the Apple Watch have already been arriving at central distribution centers across the United States from China, where the Apple Watch was manufactured. Apple Watch orders will ship out from these central distribution centers via Fedex and UPS, so despite the late shipping date, many devices will arrive on Friday.

With the iPhone 6, Apple also shipped hundreds of thousands of devices to central distribution centers before updating customers on the status of their orders. iPhones began shipping out on Monday and Tuesday for a Friday delivery, and it’s likely Apple Watch orders will follow the same general timeline.

Deliveries could come from any of the major shipping hubs in the United States, which include Memphis, Tennessee; Louisville, Kentucky (UPS’ WorldPort location); Indianapolis, Indiana; Newark, New Jersey; and Oakland, California. Many orders are likely to pass first through Anchorage, Alaska, where both UPS and FedEx have logistics centers, before heading out to other distribution sites.

The earliest Apple Watch pre-orders listed ambiguous delivery dates of 4/24 to 5/8, but Apple’s head of retail Angela Ahrendts stated in a memo to employees last week that “customers who pre-ordered will start receiving deliveries next Friday as planned,” so customers who managed to pre-order in the minutes before shipping dates started slipping will see deliveries this week.

Once an order changes to Preparing for Shipment, customers may be able to track by reference number using a phone number on the UPS and FedEx websites to get tracking information before a shipping email even goes out.