Apple May Have Acquired iPad Publishing Platform Prss

Apple may have acquired Prss, a Dutch-based company that created a web app aimed to help people design magazines for Apple’s Newsstand and other magazine platforms, reports iCulture [Google Translation]. While there is no solid proof of the acquisition at this point, iCulture suggests that an inside source has revealed the purchase and Prss co-founder Michel Elings recently moved to the bay area.

The Dutch magazine platform Prss was acquired by Apple for an undisclosed amount. This discovery iCulture thanks to a knowledgeable source. This source confirms that several employees of Prss now employed by Apple.

Several other former Prss employees are also now located in the bay area according to their LinkedIn profiles, suggesting an acquisition might have taken place in the summer months. Prss has also shut down its Twitter account and its website.

Prss was known for creating a browser-based collaborative tool that could be used to design magazines for Apple’s Newsstand. The tool included a simple drag-and-drop interface and let up to 30 people collaborate on a project, with the team charging 5 cents per magazine download for published content.

iCulture is unsure what role the Prss team will take on at Apple, but suggests the acquisition might have been about talent rather than product.

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‘Industry Scuttlebutt’ Hints Apple May Be Planning February Revamp for Beats Music

Apple might be planning to unveil both its revamped music subscription service and its new branding alongside the upcoming 2015 Grammy Awards, reports Re/code, citing some “industry scuttlebutt.”

When will Apple show off the new version of its subscription service and its new brand? Here’s a guess backed up by some industry scuttlebutt: February — presumably timed to the Grammy Awards, which will be held Feb. 8.

News of an upcoming rebrand first surfaced yesterday, after TechCrunch reported that Apple would be shutting down Beats Music. An Apple representative quickly refuted the claim saying it was “not true.” Re/code went on to suggest that while Apple won’t be shuttering Beats Music, the company may have plans to “modify it over time,” changing the brand name.

Apple first acquired Beats Music back in May, and at the time, announced plans to leave the service untouched. There were no plans to integrate Beats Music into iTunes, with the company suggesting the streaming music service would remain as a standalone product. Beats Music was largely seen as Apple’s answer to popular services like Spotify, aimed at improving declining music sales.

In recent weeks, Apple has made quite an effort to promote Beats Music, adding it to the list of “Apps Made by Apple” and recommending the app to new iOS users. Apple also added a Beats Music channel to the Apple TV last week alongside the release of iOS 8.

Thus far, there is no word on what Apple is planning for Beats Music, but a source at TechCrunch has suggested that Apple might roll the streaming music functionality into iTunes.

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Apple TV Gains New FXNOW Channel

Apple today added the FXNOW channel to the Apple TV, providing users with content from the FXNOW network. Previously rumored in July, the new FXNOW channel is the on-demand portion of the FX, FXX, and FXM television channels, all of which are owned by the Fox Entertainment Group.

Rumors suggested the FXNOW Apple TV channel would include content from The Simpsons, branded Simpsons World, which includes all 552 episodes of The Simpsons. Early reports on the channel suggested users would be able to create playlists of episodes and share favorite scenes. Currently, however, the channel offers a variety of content from FX, including episodes of The Strain and Sons of Anarchy.

Like many cable-based channels on the Apple TV, much of the FXNOW content require cable authentication. Supported cable providers for the FXNOW channel include AT&T, Cablevision, Comcast, Cox, and Time-Warner.

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Square’s new cash register will take Bitcoin, Apple Pay and much more

Every now and again, a conspiracy theorist will tell us that the illuminati will abandon national currencies in favor of a single, worldwide form of payment. Given the myriad ways that we currently use to empty our bank account, we’re not sure how a single, all-purpose payment system would be a bad thing. That’s why Square is hoping to aid our plight by building a new cash register that’ll accept as many new-fangled forms of payment as possible, including Bitcoin and Apple Pay. In an interview with CBC, CEO Jack Dorsey said that he hopes Square’s new hardware will take “any form of payment that comes across the counter,” before mentioning the cryptocurrency and Apple’s new commerce platform by name. When asked if he was concerned about Apple taking his business, the executive responded that since the iPhone maker isn’t building a terminal (i.e. a cash register), there’s no threat to Square’s immediate future. There’s no word on when exactly this new swiss army knife of buying will start appearing in small businesses across the country, but we doubt it’ll be long before you can buy coffee with Bitcoin without having to use a third-party exchange.

Filed under: Misc, Apple

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Via: Wired

Source: CBC

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Some iPhone 6 Plus Owners Accidentally Bending Their iPhones in Pockets

As highlighted in a few reports shared in the MacRumors forums, a small but growing number of iPhone 6 Plus owners have reportedly bent their phones after carrying the devices in their pockets just days after launch. In one instance, a new iPhone 6 Plus was bent during a day of dancing, dining, and driving to a wedding.

Photo by hanzoh

Yesterday, I left at 10am with the iPhone in my left FRONT pocket of my suit pants. I drove 4 hours to a wedding, which also involved a lot of sitting during dinner etc but also 2-3 hours of dancing. I left at 2am and went to bed, driving home 4 hours back.

So in total, the 6 Plus was about 18 hours in my pocket while sitting mostly.

As I lay it on the coffee table and sat down on the couch to relax from the drive (yes, sitting again ), I saw the reflection of the window in the iPhones slightly distorted.

This potential for bending is of course not unique to the iPhone 6 Plus, with reports of bent iPhone 5 and 5s handsets surfacing in the past few years. As iPhones get thinner and larger, however, storage of the handset in a pocket becomes riskier. Unlike smaller phones that can slide out of the way, pressure points from sitting or bending now have greater potential to cause the longer iPhone to flex in a way that will damage the device.

Photo by DevinPitcher
To prevent bending, iPhone 6 Plus owners may want to remove their iPhones from their pockets before sitting or bending. If a pocket is unavoidable, then customers may want to place their device in a roomier pocket that allows the device to slide out the way. A rigid case may also provide protection from flexing or bending, as well damage from dropping the device.

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iOS 8.0.1 to Address Bugs With Phone, Keyboard, Videos in Safari, and More

Earlier this month, it was reported that Apple was preparing to seed carrier partners with iOS 8.0.1 even before the media event officially announcing launch dates for iOS 8 and the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. Details on the update were unknown at the time, but we noted that we’d seen a significant uptick in activity from devices running iOS 8.0.1 in recent weeks.

Web traffic from devices running iOS 8.0.1 on Apple’s networks peaked around the time of Apple’s media event before tailing off a bit, but Apple does indeed appear to have provided the update to carrier partners and MacRumors has received word from a source that the updates addresses several bugs present in the iOS 8 golden master version released to the public last week. Among the issues:

– Phone: Addresses bugs with call forwarding and freezing when accessing visual voicemail
– Keyboard: Fixes an issue with keypad not appearing to enter iCloud Keychain verification codes
– Safari: Fixes a problem with videos occasionally not playing
– Sharing: Fixes AirDrop support for Passbook passes
– VPN: Addresses an issue with installing VPN profiles

Beyond the documented fixes, iOS 8.0.1 will undoubtedly fix a number of other early users have been experiencing although it will likely still be several more minor updates before most of them can be addressed. A release date for iOS 8.0.1 is not yet known, but it could appear fairly soon given that it is already in the hands of partners for testing and approval.

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