Apple Stores to Begin Selling Accessibility Accessories in Early 2016
Apple is rumored to begin selling accessibility-related accessories and peripherals in its retail stores sometime in early 2016. The report, from Mac Otakara [Google Translate], states that the new iOS- and OS X-supported devices will go on sale between January and March of next year.
No specific hint was given as to what kind of peripherals users can expect to find within an Apple Store once accessibility products go on sale at the company’s retail locations. Apple has been a big supporter of accessibility on the software side for years now, offering features such as Grayscale, AssistiveTouch, VoiceOver, accessibility shortcuts, and more.
Apple’s various accessibility efforts even earned it the Helen Keller Achievement Award from the American Foundation for the Blind back in May.
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Watch Apple show off its design studio at 7:30PM Eastern
For years, most people have only known about Apple’s secret design studio through anecdotes. There’s talk of extreme security, loads of specialized manufacturing gear and other stories that make it sound more like Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory than a real-world place. However, a lot of that mystery is about to disappear. CBS’ 60 Minutes is airing a tour of Apple at 7:30PM Eastern that, on top of an interview with CEO Tim Cook, includes a rare peek at Apple’s design wing. You unsurprisingly won’t see future products (as hinted by the black cloth above), but there are promises of a talk with design chief Jony Ive about the process behind making all those iPhones, Macs and Watches.
As for the chat with Cook? The show is already willing to spill the beans a bit early… and here, it’s treading on more familiar territory. Cook rejects the notion that Apple is dodging taxes by hoarding money overseas, calling it “political crap.” He insists that Apple pays everything it owes in the US, and that the country’s “industrial age” tax code makes it utterly impractical to repatriate that income. Also, the exec maintains his firm pro-encryption stance — much like the experts, he understands that a government backdoor is really a backdoor for any would-be hacker. It’s doubtful that you’ll get any earth-shaking revelations from the interview, then, but it could be worth watching if there’s more to it than what the preview reveals.
[Image credit: 60 Minutes, Twitter]
http://www.cbsnews.com/common/video/cbsnews_video.swf
Via: BGR
Source: CBS News
Apple Once Again Rumored to Be Developing High-Resolution Audio Formats
Apple is reportedly preparing to launch new higher-quality audio streaming in 2016, according to industry sources who spoke to Mac Otakara at this weekend’s Portable Audio Festival in Tokyo.
According to several insiders familiar with Apple, whose products are exhibited at PORTABLE AUDIO FESTIVAL 2015, the company has been developing Hi-Res Audio streaming up to 96kHz/24bit in 2016.
The Lightning terminal with iOS 9 is compatible up to 192kHz/24Bit, but we do not have information on the sampling frequency of Apple Music download music.
The report also claims many audio equipment manufacturers are preparing their own third-party Lightning cables in anticipation of Apple’s move toward improved audio quality.
Apple has long been rumored to be looking to introduce higher-quality audio formats for iTunes Store downloads and perhaps also Apple Music streaming. A year and a half ago, music blogger Robert Hutton claimed Apple was working to roll out high-resolution audio for the iTunes Store, and Mac Otakara made similar claims about an HD Audio format and new hardware being planned for release alongside iOS 8 later that year.
An even earlier flurry of rumors came in 2012 after Neil Young revealed that he and Steve Jobs had discussed ideas for improving the audio quality of iTunes Store content. Young ultimately went on his own in an effort to increase the quality digital music, releasing his PonoPlayer in early 2014.
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The After Math: Baby, it’s cold outside
It’s 50 degrees and raining here in San Francisco which, by West Coast standards, constitutes the second coming of Snowpacalypse. With this sort of weather the only rational choice is to stay inside and patiently wait for spring. But just because we’re tied to the couch for the next few months doesn’t mean we can’t take a tour of the West Wing, knit ourselves some binge socks or play 16 new (old) XBox games. Because counting the days to spring is way easier if you do it by the numbers.Slideshow-349707
The After Math: Baby, it’s cold outside
It’s 50 degrees and raining here in San Francisco which, by West Coast standards, constitutes the second coming of Snowpacalypse. With this sort of weather the only rational choice is to stay inside and patiently wait for spring. But just because we’re tied to the couch for the next few months doesn’t mean we can’t take a tour of the West Wing, knit ourselves some binge socks or play 16 new (old) XBox games. Because counting the days to spring is way easier if you do it by the numbers.Slideshow-349707
2016 to be the year of pressure-sensitive displays, but do you care?
Apple’s implementation of pressure-sensitive displays have taken the tech world by storm… or at the very least they seem to have started a trend. Research firm IHS is now predicting that 25% of all smartphones coming in 2016 will have some form of pressure sensitivity display, likely similar to Apple’s Force Touch, 3D Touch, or whatever you want to call it.
If you are not familiar with this technology, pressure-sensitive displays can help a smartphone determine how hard you are pressing a screen with your finger. This will then allow the operating system to apply different actions depending on the pressure level. In iOS, for example, you can make quick previews or settings come up by pressing harder.
See also: Opinion: Force Touch is a paradoxical complication in the world of sublime simplicity
This is cool and all, but we are still trying to figure out whether it’s a gimmick or an actual helpful feature. Also, we have pretty much been taking advantage of something very similar – long pressing. How are pressure-sensitive any better? The debate is pretty hot right now.
Some of us believe there is not much of a need for it, and it will do nothing but confuse users. I swear, nearly every time a person asks me how the iPhone 6S is different from the 6, I tell them one of the biggest differences they will notice is Force Touch. Then they ask me what it is and how it works. They usually have no idea about it, and that’s because the industry didn’t evolve with this concept in mind. It’s a new way to interact with our devices and will take some time to be adopted.
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On the other hand, Force Touch enthusiasts say it’s a much more intuitive way to work with a phone. In a way, it’s how we interact with the rest of the world, after all. People just need to get used to it. Like with any other new technology, you don’t really know how valuable something is until you actually learn to live with it. Then you can’t let it go. Instagram has actually realized what this technology can do to the experience, and they have ported a transformed version of their Force Touch integration to Android.
On which side to you stand? Are you into pressure-sensitive screens? Would you rather live with long presses? Hit the comments and let us know!
The Beatles may hit streaming music services by Christmas
The Beatles haven’t exactly been in a rush to embrace the online music world — there’s iTunes, Rock Band and that’s about it. However, they might be making up for lost time. Billboard sources claim that the British pop rock legends will make their catalog available on Christmas Eve… you know, next Thursday. It’s unclear as to which services will be offering the Beatles, but talks for a half-year exclusive at an unknown service apparently “fizzled out.” It’s not a repeat of Apple’s ongoing lock on downloads, then.
None of those involved are commenting on the supposed leak, but there is reason to believe that you’ll be streaming “Strawberry Fields Forever” in the future. Remember how the band members’ solo work reached iTunes in the run-up to the Beatles launch? Well, it’s happening again at places like Apple Music and Spotify. Heck, the group now has multiple music videos on YouTube (see below for proof), where bootlegs used to dominate. And while Paul McCartney was once down on the whole idea of streaming, he changed his mind on that a long, long time ago. Besides, the group may have little choice when streaming is increasingly the format of choice. The last thing it wants is a generation that has never heard John, Paul, George and Ringo performing together.
[Image credit: Hulton Archive/Getty Images]
Via: Spin
Source: Billboard
Review: Zagg’s Slim Book More Than Doubles the Weight of the iPad Pro, but Keyboard is Great
Zagg’s newest Slim Book is its first product designed specifically for the iPad Pro. Following in the footsteps of its previous Slim Books for other iPads, the Slim Book for iPad Pro features a protective case that snaps around the iPad and fits into an accompanying full-sized keyboard.
The Slim Book is one of the few keyboard cases available for the iPad Pro, and it essentially turns the iPad Pro into a full-fledged laptop, plus it is versatile because it’s able to serve as a standalone case or a case that offers full protection. That might sound appealing, but as I’ve discovered testing it for the last week, there are some downsides to Zagg’s latest offering.
Design
The Slim Book consists of two pieces: a black plastic shell that fits around the back of the iPad Pro and a matching silver aluminum keyboard with black MacBook-style keys and a matching black plastic exterior. The shell piece that fits around the iPad Pro is relatively slim, snapping into place to protect the back of the iPad. It doesn’t feel cheaply made, but it also doesn’t feel as premium as an Apple product given all the plastic.
All of the ports on the iPad Pro are left open with the shell on, leaving everything from the headphone jack to the Lightning port accessible. Because the shell fits so tightly to the iPad Pro, it’s difficult to remove. This is not a shell that I would want to be taking off my iPad on a regular basis, because it takes a lot of force to get it off. It also makes the volume and the sleep/wake buttons on the iPad Pro more difficult to press because it causes them to be recessed.
For a while after I put it on, I wasn’t even sure my iPad Pro would ever come out, so expect a tight fit there. Given the amount of force it took to get that shell off, I’m concerned about future breakage, especially at weak spots near ports. If you get this case, you’re going to want to leave the back shell on all the time, so that’s something to keep in mind. On the plus side, it does offer some rear protection from scratches and dings.
Tim Cook Calls Apple’s Tax Avoidance Accusations ‘Total Political Crap’
60 Minutes has shared a preview of Tim Cook’s latest interview with journalist Charlie Rose, in which the Apple CEO emphatically counters the idea that Apple has created elaborate schemes to pay little or no U.S. corporate taxes on its overseas revenue.
JUST IN: Apple CEO tells "60 Minutes" that the notion of the tech giant avoiding taxes is "total political crap".
https://t.co/yGoxhM29fZ
— CNBC Now (@CNBCnow) December 18, 2015
http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsCook described the tax avoidance accusations as “total political crap,” and deflected blame on the U.S. tax code for being far outdated. He added that repatriating the money in the U.S. is not “a reasonable thing to do” due to high corporate tax rates.
Rose: You also have more money overseas probably than any other American company. […] Why don’t you bring that home?
Cook: “It would cost me 40% to bring it home, and I don’t think that’s a reasonable thing to do. This is a tax code that was made for the industrial age, not the digital age. It’s backwards. It’s awful for America. It should have been fixed many years ago. It’s past time to get it done.”
Rose: Here’s what they concluded: “Apple is engaged in a sophisticated scheme to pay little or no corporate taxes on $74 billion in revenue held overseas.”
Cook: “That is total political crap. There is no truth behind it. Apple pays every tax dollar we owe.”
Apple’s tax policies have been closely investigated over the past few years in Europe. Earlier this year, for example, Italian regulators accused Apple of booking profits generated in the country through an Irish subsidiary in an effort to lower its taxable income base and save nearly 900 million euros from 2008 through 2013. The investigation was completed in March 2015.
The European Commission began an investigation of Apple’s tax policies in June 2014, and the Brussels-based executive body formally accused the company of receiving illegal state aid from Ireland in September 2014. The commission has since requested more information from Apple, likely delaying a decision in the tax probe until at least after the Irish elections in early 2016.
Apple is said to utilize multiple foreign subsidiaries in Ireland to move around overseas money, which Cook says accounts for two-thirds of Apple’s revenue, without being subject to high corporate tax rates in the U.S. and elsewhere. Apple has consistently denied any wrongdoing, and Ireland vows to take the European Commission to court over any negative ruling.
Cook’s wide-ranging interview will also touch upon encryption technology and manufacturing products in China. In the same episode, Rose will also offer a rare inside look at Jony Ive’s “secret design studio” at Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, California. 60 Minutes airs on CBS this Sunday, December 20 at 7:30 p.m. Eastern Time and 7 p.m. Pacific Time.
Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.
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MacRumors Giveaway: Win a Canvas Smart Desk for iPad Pro From iSkelter
For this week’s giveaway, we’ve teamed up with iSkelter to offer MacRumors readers a chance to win one of four Canvas Smart Desks we’re giving away for Apple’s newest tablet, the iPad Pro. For those of you unfamiliar with iSkelter, it’s a company that hand makes wood desks, lap desks, stands, and other accessories for Apple products.
We’ve featured their products in the past, including the SlatePro Tech Desk, which is custom designed with built-in docks and cutouts to accommodate Apple devices. iSkelter’s newest product is a set of lap desks for the iPad Pro, the Canvas Creator and the Canvas Pro.
Both the Canvas Creator and the Canvas Pro have a felt-lined cutout that’s sized to the iPad Pro, but it will accommodate smaller devices. I have one of these on-hand and it’s usable with the iPad Pro and earlier iPads, but not the Retina MacBook Pro. Placed flat, the iPad Pro fits neatly into the Canvas Smart Desks, laying flat for sketching with the Apple Pencil, reading, or playing games.
Its sizing also accommodates the Apple Smart Keyboard, providing a stable, comfortable surface for typing when sitting on the couch or for watching videos with the iPad Pro propped up using the keyboard’s cover. For video watching, there’s also a cutout at the back of the Canvas where the iPad Pro can be positioned upright.
This cutout also accommodates other devices like an iPhone 6s or an iPad Air 2, so it’s a handy way to be able to do work on the iPad Pro while watching videos or browsing the web on a secondary iPad or iPhone, which is my preferred use case. I’ve been using it on the couch while watching television — I can draw or browse the web while still keeping an eye on Twitter and Slack on my iPhone.
Though made of wood, the Canvas is light weight, but given its large size, it’s not compact or particularly portable. It’s best for home use rather than travel. Along with the cutout for an additional device, there’s a slot specifically for the Apple Pencil on the Canvas Creator. On the Canvas Pro, there’s a cutout for an additional iPad, another cutout for an iPhone, and a space that can hold a cup or other accessory.
The extra space on the Canvas Pro is the main difference between the two lap desks – it’s a good bit larger than the Canvas Creator. iSkelter is selling its Canvas Smart Desks for $68 on its website, but four MacRumors readers can win one through our giveaway, with the option to choose either the smaller Canvas Creator with Apple Pencil cutout or the larger Canvas Pro with extra flat space.
To enter to win, use the Rafflecopter widget below and enter an email address. Email addresses will be used solely for contact purposes to reach the winner and send the prize.
You can earn additional entries by subscribing to our weekly newsletter, subscribing to our YouTube channel, following us on Twitter, or visiting the MacRumors Facebook page. Due to the complexities of international laws regarding giveaways, only U.S. residents who are 18 years of age or older are eligible to enter.
a Rafflecopter giveawayhttps://widget-prime.rafflecopter.com/launch.jsThe contest will run from today (December 18) at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time through 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time on December 25. The winners will be chosen randomly on December 25 and will be contacted by email. The winners have 48 hours to respond and provide a shipping address before new winners are chosen. The prizes will be shipped to the winners for free.
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