NBC Launches Extensive ‘SNL’ App Ahead of 40th Anniversary Special [iOS Blog]

NBC Entertainment today launched a “Saturday Night Live” app which allows fans to browse a catalog of the show’s entire forty season-run, eventually learning each user’s particular tastes and favorites and subsequently curating videos and sketches for them to view (via Entertainment Weekly).

The app launches a few days before the show’s big 40th season premiere this Sunday, and NBC promises the impressive app contains nearly every single sketch the show has done over the decades it’s been on the air, amounting to about 5,500 sketches from 800 episodes. The network also says it’ll keep the app updated beyond the 40th season premiere with new skits and moments from the newest episodes being uploaded to the app following each new episode of the season.

Perhaps the most impressive aspect of the app is that, once it gets a feel for the kind of sketches, music videos, and parody commercials a user enjoys watching, it’ll begin personalizing the experience for each user. Those wanting to search for particular sketches, actors, or characters can do just that, too, if looking for a particular aspect of the long-running sketch comedy show.

One of the current cast members, Kyle Mooney, voiced behind-the-scenes support of the app, telling Entertainment Weekly the cast and crew plans to use the app to more efficiently research past sketches when working on new material for the show. As a plus, the SNL app also comes with a keyboard that, when granted access within an iPhone’s General settings tab, allows users to send SNL-themed emojis to friends.

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

Tim Cook Expected to Arrive in Israel Next Week for Inauguration of Herzliya-Based Offices [Mac Blog]

A new report out of Israel-based business newspaper Calcalist [Google Translate] claims Apple CEO Tim Cook is planning to make a trip to Israel next week to coincide with the grand opening of the company’s newest office space in the country. The plans are, however, yet to be finalized.

The project, housed in the beachfront district of Herzliya Pituach, has been ongoing since the middle of 2013, when Apple signed a contract to lease 12,500 square meters of office space in the district.

With the project now completed, Apple is set to house 800 employees in an expanded footprint of 17,000 square meters (183,000 square feet). According to Haaretz, the company’s R&D centers in Israel are focused on “storage space, processors and communications chips,” so the new Herzliya offices are likely to be tied into those areas.

Apple has two other office spaces in Israel: one much farther out from Herzliya in Haifa and another within walking distance of the new building in nearby Ra’anana. For that reason, Apple is expected to consolidate the Ra’anana offices into the new building once it’s up and running.

As Haaretz noted back in 2013, many believe Apple’s continued expansion overseas highlights the company’s deep appreciation of foreign markets and its desire to keep the manufacturing of Apple products under as much of its own control as possible.

“Apple is preparing to drop external suppliers and to control its entire production process,” [Explace chairman Shlomo] Gradman said. “This is a company that maintains its secrecy and they’re currently exposed to information going every which way. So it’s buying companies and improving its abilities in the field of microelectronics so that it can control the production process from beginning to end.”

“Even though Apple has been active in Israel for only a short time, the company has been impressed by the abilities here.”

Apple first began making headway into Israel after purchasing flash memory firm Anobit to gather a few key components of the manufacturing of the iPhone and iPad – namely flash memory performance and reliability – under its own roof. A meeting last year between Cook and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pointed towards the company’s continued interest in Israel’s market, despite the specifics of the conversation being kept private.

ESPN Merges iPhone and iPad Apps Together to Deliver Unified Experience [iOS Blog]

ESPN is giving its digital platforms a makeover this week by consolidating its iPhone and iPad apps into one unified experience. The new ESPN app combines what was formerly ESPN SportsCenter for iPhone and ESPN ScoreCenter for iPad into one app that offers universal support for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. The app has also received a significant redesign and long-overdue support for iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.

In addition to a fresh coat of paint, the new ESPN app introduces a revamped ESPN Now that delivers up-to-the-minute sports coverage, including news, photos, videos and social media content. The app has also been updated with Cricket World Cup support, including video clips and scores, just as the international championship kicks off in Australia and New Zealand.

ESPN App [Direct Link] requires iOS 8 or later.

New ‘App Pins’ Allow Users to Install iOS Apps Right From Pinterest’s App

Pinterest today announced a new partnership with Apple to launch “App Pins” that will allow users to install iOS apps on their devices without ever needing to leave the Pinterest app.

Let’s say you’re Pinning workout inspiration to your Marathon Training board. If you see a fitness app that helps you reach your goals, you can download it right from Pinterest.

When you come across an app Pin, tap Install to download the app right to your iPhone or iPad without ever leaving Pinterest (you’ll only see app Pins when you’re using the Pinterest app on your iPhone or iPad).

As part of the rollout, Apple is also launching its own App Store board on Pinterest, giving the company a place to feature apps on a variety of topics within Pinterest. Apple is currently featuring a number of apps and other pins focused on fashion and recipes, playing into this week’s New York Fashion Week.

Huge news: we’re now on @Pinterest! This week we'll be pinning live from #NYFW. https://t.co/bSpUWUKPcK pic.twitter.com/oadXbauiIt

— App Store (@AppStore) February 12, 2015

Pinterest tells The New York Times it believes it can be an excellent place for app discovery considering its role as a place where people come to share and discover things.

“We can be a really powerful service for app discovery, which is a problem that still really hasn’t been solved,” Evan Sharp, a founder of Pinterest, said in an interview. “Our specialty is really connecting people to the things they want to do.” […]

Pinterest believes it is better positioned [than Twitter and Facebook] to help promote apps because of the nature of the service. People come to Pinterest, the company says, to find new things to do, see and buy. That is unlike Facebook, which has been used to connect with friends, or even Twitter, which is often about public discourse and news.

The new App Pins functionality is included in a just-released update to the Pinterest iOS app, which is available free of charge in the App Store. [Direct Link]

Sneak Peak at Apple Campus 2 Offers New Look at Construction Progress

Apple’s new spaceship-shaped Apple Campus 2 is under construction, and the company gave KQED News a tour of the site, providing them with new details and a ground-based look at its progress.

As previously revealed, the building has an enviromentally-conscious design, with features like using recycled water to flush toilets and solar arrays to power its functions. Keeping with this theme, the building also uses recycled parts from older buildings.

Photo of Apple Campus 2 main office, via KQED News.

“What Apple inherited on the property was several older buildings, all of which were broken down and deconstructed,” says KQED Science reporter Amy Standen, who got a tour of the site. “Much of the material from those old buildings was recycled into new building material to make the new campus, according to Apple.”

Previously, most of the looks at the progress of Campus 2 have been taken from drones in the air. However, these new ground-based photos offer a new perspective on the building’s height and scale.  The above photo offers a look at the framework of the main building, allowing one to gauge how tall the building could be.

Progress on what KQED identifies on Apple’s new amphitheater, below, can also be seen, though it’s difficult to visually tell how large the amphitheater will be. Apple will likely use this space for its town hall meetings.

Photo of Apple’s new amphitheater, via KQED News.
The latest air-based update on the construction came from YouTube user myithz just over a week ago. However, it’s fairly difficult to locate some of the locations in KQED’s photos in the video, potentially signaling that a good amount of progress has been made since it was recorded.

Though construction has steadily continued through the last half of 2014 and into 2015, Apple’s Campus 2 obviously has a long way to go until completion. Other than the main circular structure, main theater, fitness center and parking garages, Apple submitted plans for new offices, testing facilities and more parking garages in October for the second phase of construction. The complete campus is expected to be finished by the end of 2015.

Additional photos and information can be seen on KQED News’ website.

Apple Outlines New Ban on Bonded Labor at Supplier Factories in 2015 Progress Report

Apple on Wednesday released its 2015 Supplier Responsibility Progress Report [PDF] and updated its Supplier Responsibility website, giving new details on its efforts to improve the lives of the workers that assemble its products.

For its ninth annual progress report, Apple conducted 633 audits covering more than 1.6 million workers in 19 countries, and called an additional 30,000 workers to survey them on working conditions.

One of Apple’s main achievements in 2014 was putting an end to bonded labor. In October, the company told all of its suppliers that as of 2015, no worker employed on an Apple line could be charged recruitment fees. Employees have, in the past, faced significant fees levied against them by third-party recruiters, who offer them a job at an Apple factory in exchange for money. In some cases, they lose their passports until they’re able to pay the fee.

Apple previously prohibited excessive recruitment fees (defined as anything higher than a month’s net wages) and required suppliers to reimburse any such fee, but the new ban goes further, preventing all bonded labor. Any supplier who uses bonded labor will need to repay all foreign contract workers in full going forward if they incur recruitment fees.

Apple also made progress eliminating conflict minerals (those that benefit armed groups associated with human rights violations) from its supply chain. As of 2014, 135 smelters have complied with the Conflict-Free Smelter Program, and another 64 are in the process of verification. Four smelters would not commit to the program, and will be removed from Apple’s supply chain.

Apple achieved 92 percent compliance with its 60-hour maximum workweek mandate. On average, employees worked under 49 hours per week, and 94 percent of all workweeks included at least one day of rest every seven days.

There were 16 cases of underage labor uncovered at six facilities in 2014, and in all cases, suppliers were required to pay for the worker’s safe return home, continue to pay wages, and pay for education at a school chosen by the worker.

A 16-year-old enrolled in Apple’s Underage Labor Remediation Program, at school in Henan province, China.
Apple often finds itself in the spotlight over the conditions at the factories where its product components are produced, but the Cupertino company has for many years held its suppliers to a strict code of conduct that prevents underage labor and provides safe, comfortable working conditions for workers. Apple’s Supplier Responsibility Team conducts supplier audits on a regular basis so that Apple can continue to work towards improving conditions at supplier factories.

Award-Winning Dystopian Adventure Game ‘République’ Coming to Mac and PC [Mac Blog]

Indie studio Camouflaj today announced its hit episodic stealth game République is being ported to PC and Mac and will be available to download on February 26 via Steam, GOG, and the Humble Store.

The team says the new edition of the game has been “rebuilt from the ground up” to access the power of the Unity 5 gaming engine. They also tout that the Remastered edition is the first commercial game to “fully utilize” the power and functionality of the Unity 5 engine, allowing for a deeper, more vividly realized world with physically based shading, real-time global illumination, and reflection probes.

“Ever since we committed to doing a desktop version of République, we’ve been haunted by the task for delivering something truly special for PC players,” says Ryan Payton, designer at Camouflaj. “When we got a glimpse at the next iteration of Unity we realized that this was the answer — beyond redesigning the game’s controls and UI for desktop, we’ve completely gutted all the game’s art, rebuilding everything using Unity 5’s cutting-edge graphical features. The result is something you have to see to believe.”

The game follows the story of Hope, a young woman attempting to evade capture from a mysterious, overbearing sect of the government intent on capturing her. Putting the player directly into the game, Hope tasks gamers to hack cameras and survelliance systems to safely guide her through the byzantine levels she finds herself trapped in. The game has garnered much attention since its release on iOS in late 2013, with our sister site Touch Arcade commenting that, after the first episode, the game was “shaping up to be a masterpiece.”

The new Remastered edition will come with the first three episodes of the game – “Episode 1: Exordium,” “Episode 2: Metamorphosis” and “Episode 3: Ones and Zeroes” – and include a Standard and Deluxe Edition.

The Standard Edition will retail for $24.99 and will include pre-purchase codes for the final two episodes of the story: “Episode 4: God’s Acre” and “Episode 5: Terminus.” The Deluxe Edition includes all of this plus the complete soundtrack, an hour-long “making of” documentary, and two early prototypes (exclusive to the desktop version) for $34.99. Each will receive a 20 percent discount during the game’s initial launch week.

The République Remastered edition has already shown up on Steam and GOG ahead of its February 26 launch date, but isn’t yet available for pre-order.

Apple Shares Continue to Surge as Record-Breaking Market Cap Passes $720 Billion

Apple shares are currently valued at roughly $124 each in intraday trading, giving the Cupertino-based company a record-breaking market cap exceeding $720 billion. Apple stock continues to rise after the iPhone maker became the first U.S. company to close with a market cap over $700 billion on Tuesday, the same day in which CEO Tim Cook spoke live at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference.

Apple shares have risen over 48% since the start of 2014, despite some critics suggesting that the company has faced a lack of innovation since the passing of late co-founder Steve Jobs. Apple has been particularly successful in China, which Cook claims has grown from a $1 billion to $38 billion market for the company in the past five years. Apple plans to expand from 19 to 40 retail stores in China over the next year to keep up with the high demand for its products in the world’s most populous country.

Apple announced its earnings results for the first fiscal quarter of 2015 last month, posting revenue of $74.6 billion and net quarterly profit of $18 billion, or $3.06 per diluted share. Apple sold a record-breaking 74.5 million iPhones during the quarter on the strength of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, paving the way for the company to report the most profitable quarter of any corporation ever.

Cook confirmed on Tuesday that Apple will announce any potential changes to stock buybacks or dividends during its April earnings call. The chief executive added that Apple does not need as much cash as it is generating for operations, assuring that it is committed to returning money to shareholders through its capital return program.