Apple Rumored to Update Non-Retina MacBook Air Line in Late February

The much-anticipated 12-inch Retina MacBook Air is believed to launch sometime in the middle of 2015, but a new rumor out of foreign news website Letem svetem Applem [Google Translate] points to a smaller refresh of the existing MacBook Air line hitting as early as February 24.

The website, citing sources from the Czech reseller network, states the update will come with no fanfare or keynote presentation, unsurprising considering a lack of major changes for the lineup. The company also won’t discuss the long-rumored ultra-slim MacBook Air around the launch of the new refresh, hoping the “quiet” update tides users over until later in the year.

If true, the focus on the fact that the update would be “minor” points to only slight bumps in areas like storage and processing power, with Apple choosing from 2.2GHz Core i5-5250U, 1.8GHz Core i5 chip, and 2GHz Core i7 processors, while keeping the well-known 11- and 13-inch form factors of current MacBook Airs. Intel launched the new Broadwell processors appropriate for the current MacBook Air lineup last month.

Reports of the 12-inch MacBook Air have been swirling for over a year now, but the product missed the originally rumored timeframe of a 2014 launch. Rumored to be in mass production since last month and with claimed part leaks beginning to surface, the Retina MacBook Air is reported to launch sometime in the second quarter of 2015.

Apple Working On Project That Will ‘Give Tesla a Run for its Money’ Says Employee

Following last week’s news of a mysterious Apple-leased vehicle roaming the streets of Northern California, an Apple employee has given some details to Business Insider, suggesting Apple is working on a project that will “give Tesla a run for its money.”

After writing about how the van could be used for a self-driving car, we got an unsolicited email from an employee at Apple about “vehicle development” at the company. […]

“Apple’s latest project is too exciting to pass up,” the person said. “I think it will change the landscape and give Tesla a run for its money.”

According to the site’s source, who was verified to be an Apple employee, Tesla employees are “jumping ship” and choosing to work at Apple because of this unidentified project.

Last week’s pictures unveiled a van that appeared to have multiple cameras on the top, similar to the vehicles Google uses for mapping. Given the van’s similarity to other mapping vehicles, rumors have suggested that it is likely for an unspecified mapping project. Apple has been working to improve Maps in recent months, and it’s possible the company is working on a feature that would compete with Google Street View.

Photo of Apple van via Claycord
Other speculation has ranged a bit more towards the fantastical, suggesting that Apple is perhaps working on a self-driving car, but this seems unlikely due to Apple’s tendency to focus on just a few products at a time. “We have zero issue coming up with things we want to do, said Tim Cook last January. “We must focus on the very few that deserve all our energy.”

As Business Insider suggests, one probable project that could pique the interest of former Tesla employees is CarPlay. CarPlay, which brings an iOS-style interface to in-car infotainment systems, is still very much in the early stages. In the future, CarPlay, which is being built directly into many cars, could expand to offer a Tesla-style feature set. With the Tesla iPhone app, Tesla owners can turn on heating, lock and unlock doors from afar, flash the lights, and more.

Deeper integration between iOS and in-car systems is also easily imaginable, given Apple’s desire to allow users to transition easily from device to device, as with its new “Continuity” iOS 8/OS X Yosemite feature. In October, Apple CEO Tim Cook hinted at an expansion of Continuity and suggested it would be incredibly important going forward. “Use your imagination and think about where Continuity goes,” he said.

Statements from Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, have directly contradicted this Apple employees suggestion that Tesla employees are tempted by what Apple has to offer. In a report outlining the many employees Tesla has poached from Apple, Musk told Bloomberg that “very few people” had left Tesla for Apple, despite Apple’s offer of a $250,000 signing focus and 60 percent salary increase.

Apple’s Share of Mobile Phone Profits Rises to 93% on iPhone 6 Launch [iOS Blog]

The latest numbers from Canaccord Genuity reveal that Apple accounted for 93% of mobile profits during the fourth quarter, leading the financial services company to raise its price target on Apple shares from $135 to $145. The firm also predicted that iPhone adoption could grow to 650 million users through 2018 as more smartphone owners upgrade to the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.

Barron’s shares Canaccord Genuity analyst Mike Walkley’s note to investors:

We believe the strong iPhone 6 replacement sales should continue during C’15, as we estimate only 15% of the current estimated 404M iPhone installed base has upgraded to the new devices. We also anticipate continued strong share gains for the larger screen iPhones from high-tier Android smartphones during C’15 driving strong growth in the iPhone installed base and model the iPhone installed base growing to 487M subscribers exiting C’15 up 20% Y/Y.

Apple and Samsung combined to capture all profits in the mobile industry during the fourth quarter, as competitors including Microsoft, BlackBerry, HTC, Sony, LG and Lenovo either broke even or faced a loss in value share during the three-month period. Apple captured 79% of mobile profits for the entirety of 2014, with a margin of 37% on operating income of $44.6 billion.

iOS 8.4 in Development With Possible Support for New Music Service

Along with iOS 8.2 and iOS 8.3, both of which have been seeded to developers in beta form, Apple is also said to be working on an iOS 8.4 update. According to 9to5Mac, the beta is codenamed “Copper,” and set to be released later this year at some point after the Apple Watch becomes available for purchase in April.

Given the release timing after iOS 8.2 and iOS 8.3, it’s possible that iOS 8.4 will be the update that introduces Apple’s new streaming music service. Recent rumors have suggested that Apple’s existing Beats music service will be rebranded, revamped with a lower price tag, and integrated into iOS and OS X. A timeline is unclear, but Apple could be aiming for a June launch, sometime around its annual Worldwide Developers Conference.

iOS 8.4 began appearing in MacRumors site logs towards the end of January, with usage spiking up at the beginning of February. The number of visits from devices running iOS 8.4 from both Apple IPs and non-Apple IPs remains relatively low, however, suggesting that development on iOS 8.4 is in the very early stages.

Visitors to MacRumors.com via Apple’s networks from devices running iOS 9

Overall visitors to MacRumors.com from devices running iOS 9
iOS 8.2 has been in developer testing since November, and iOS 8.3, with wireless CarPlay support, a new emoji picker, and Apple Pay for China was just seeded to developers this morning. Along with its iOS 8 projects, Apple is also working on iOS 9, an update that may heavily focus on stability and optimization.

Apple Seeds First iOS 8.3 Beta to Developers

Apple today seeded the first beta of iOS 8.3 to registered developers for testing purposes, just a week after seeding the fifth beta of iOS 8.2, which is also currently in testing.

The beta, build number 12F5027d, also includes Xcode 6.3 beta with Swift 1.2. It is not clear at this time what the iOS 8.3 beta introduces, but it likely includes several bug fixes. As a .1 update, it may also introduce new features.

Xcode 6.3, included with the beta, introduces a new version of the Swift language. According to Apple’s release notes, Swift 1.2 includes “a number of noteworthy changes” to the language. Xcode 6.3 also includes enhancements to ease interoperability between Swift and Objective-C code.

ChowNow Updates Nearly 700 Food and Restaurant Apps With Apple Pay Support [iOS Blog]

ChowNow has updated close to 700 custom-built food and restaurant apps with Apple Pay support, nearly two months after becoming the first online ordering platform to integrate the mobile payments service. The updated apps enable iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus users to pay for their food and drinks at hundreds of independent restaurants located throughout the United States.

“By giving independent restaurants access to the latest in technology at an affordable price, we are upholding our mission of helping them compete with larger chains,” says Chris Webb, CEO of ChowNow. “We will update each restaurant’s native app to include Apple Pay at no additional cost, so restaurant owners can focus on operating their businesses.”

ChowNow has been updating dozens of apps for its restaurant clients with Apple Pay support over the past week, as tracked by our sister website AppShopper, although the pace has picked up significantly over the past few days. The update process is presumably rather simple, given that the apps are based on the same backend with specific branding, menus and ordering information for each restaurant.

Apple Pay has been widely adopted since launching in October, with support recently added at Western Union, TD Bank and over 200,000 vending machines and self-serve kiosks. Apple predicted last year that in-app purchases will make up the majority of early Apple Pay transactions. The mobile payments service is currently limited to the United States, although an international expansion could start with Canada in March.

Apple Watch Set to Include Third-Party Glucose Tracking App at Launch

Medical device manufacturer DexCom over the weekend announced the company is developing an app for the upcoming Apple Watch that will display all of a user’s glucose and blood sugar-related health data on their wrist (via The Wall Street Journal).

The company, whose expertise lies in “continuous glucose monitoring systems for diabetes management,” says the app is expected to be ready when the Apple Watch launches in April. The app would sync to existing monitors manufactured by DexCom that use a “hair’s width sensor” located under the user’s skin to measure and report blood glucose levels every five minutes, a more seamless process than traditional skin-prick glucose monitors, according to the company.

Though most health-related apps have been closely scrutinized by the FDA in the past, The Wall Street Journal reports DexCom and a group of developers behind another diabetes-related application called NightScout have convinced the FDA to change course on health apps.

The group’s effort challenged the slow pace of innovation and regulatory approval in the field. It also highlighted the growing role that Silicon Valley companies and software developers hope to have in monitoring and maintaining people’s health.

Previously, the FDA considered glucose monitors and any associated software to be Class III medical devices, meaning they received the highest level of regulatory scrutiny. But the spread of NightScout, the system developed by the group of software engineers, and DexCom’s submission of a separate iPhone app for review prompted the FDA to change course last month.

Subsequently, DexCom’s monitors that require injection under a patient’s skin will understandably remain Class III devices but the software that displays the data – such as the Apple Watch app – now only needs to be registered with the FDA without prior marketing approval. Alberto Gutierrez, director of the FDA’s Office of In Vitro Diagnostics and Radiological Health, evoked the positive benefits of the app far outweigh any negatives, “We felt that the risks that the app imposed weren’t as high.”

Apple itself has been steadily moving towards a more health-concerned future, with the introduction of the Health app into iOS 8 as a preparation for the upcoming built-in fitness integration features of the Apple Watch. Major U.S. hospitals are rolling out their own trial programs with HealthKit, Apple’s tools that leverage the iPhone’s various motion-tracking sensors and peripheral accessories to track and log the history of a user’s health data.

iPhone 6s Rear Camera Rumored to Retain 8-Megapixel Sensor

iPhone camera module supplier Largan Precision is expected to face limited earnings growth this year amid rumors that Apple’s next-generation smartphone will retain an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera sensor, according to Taipei Times (via GforGames).

The report cites Taipei-based analyst Jeff Pu, who claims the iPhone 6s will have the same camera hardware specifications as previous models. Apple first introduced an 8-megapixel rear camera on the iPhone 4s in 2011 and used similar modules for the iPhone 5, iPhone 5c and iPhone 5s.

Pu said that the camera specifications of the next-generation iPhone, dubbed iPhone 6S, will stay the same as the current iPhone 6 at 8-megapixels, limiting potential catalysts to push Largan’s stock price higher in the second half of the year. […] Pu said that although the migration to 8-megapixel and 13-megapixel lenses would remain strong among Chinese vendors of mid-tier and low-end phones, upgrades to 16-megapixel and 20-megapixel lenses for flagship phones would be slow given the limited supply of CMOS sensors — used to convert light into electrons.

While details surrounding the so-called “iPhone 6s” remain limited, this report is consistent with Largan Precision’s stock price dipping early last year amid rumors the iPhone 6 camera would retain an 8-megapixel sensor. Meanwhile, it was reported in November that the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus could have the “biggest camera jump ever” with a dual-lens, DSLR-quality system.

American Express Releases Nostalgic TV Ad For Apple Pay [iOS Blog]

American Express over the weekend released a new advertisement called “Retrospective” that promotes how its timeless safety and security are now available through Apple Pay. The 30-second spot takes a trip down memory lane as it recounts the brand’s historic past, starring a number of famous cardholders such as Jerry Seinfeld and Tina Fey in both the past and present.

The advertisement first aired during the mid-season premiere of The Walking Dead on Sunday night and will also be featured during the NBA All-Star Game later this week. American Express does not provide an exact number of Apple Pay signups, but Ad Age reports that the credit company has received “encouraging feedback” from early iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus adopters.

Apple Pay makes up two of every three contactless payments on Visa, MasterCard and American Express, while an additional 750 banks and credit unions have signed on to support the iPhone-based service. Apple Pay is currently limited to the United States, although an international rollout could start with Canada in March.