Skype’s latest iOS update makes sharing content easier
Skype released an update for iOS on Tuesday that makes sharing content during calls easier. Version 6.8 allows users to send links, web pages or camera roll photos to whoever they’re calling with a single click of the share button. Simply select the content you want to send, swipe right until you see the More button and then select Skype from the Activities section to initiate a call.
Via: Phone Scoop
Source: Skype
No 3D Touch for iPad Air 3 Due in First Half of 2016, iPhone 7’s 3D Touch Tech Similar to iPhone 6s
KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has issued a research note obtained by MacRumors that predicts the iPad Air 3 will be released in the first half of 2016 and is unlikely to adopt 3D Touch because of production issues within Apple’s supply chain.
Kuo also believes the iPhone 7’s pressure-sensitive 3D Touch display will have “similar technology and structure” as the iPhone 6s. The report confirms the iPhone 7 will be released in 2016, likely around Apple’s usual September timeframe.
Apple introduced the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus in September with 3D Touch as a headline new feature. The pressure-sensing technology enables iPhone users to perform additional “Peek” and “Pop” gestures to access Quick Action shortcut menus or preview content within apps.
3D Touch also enables iPhone 6s and 6s Plus users to press the left side of the Home screen to switch to multitasking view, press lightly for finer lines or more deeply for thicker ones in Notes, swipe left to delete an email or swipe right to mark it as unread in Mail and more.
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iOS 9.2 gives you more control over Apple Music and iBooks
Apple is clearly hoping to clear its slate before the year is over. On top of that iPhone battery case, it just posted an iOS 9.2 update that brings big improvements to Apple Music and iBooks. For a start, it’s much easier to reconcile your iCloud Music Library with the streaming service — you can see whether or not any song has been downloaded, and quickly download whole albums or playlists. It’s easier to start a new playlist or add a song to a recent list, too. iBooks, meanwhile, supports both 3D Touch (for peeking at pages) and background audiobook listening while you browse books inside the app.
There’s more under the hood. This update USB Camera Adapter support to the iPhone, Mail Drop (from OS X El Capitan) for giant email attachments and Siri support in Arabic. The 9.2 release may also include AT&T’s unified NumberSync calling, although later betas didn’t include it — if you see it, let your fellow readers know in the comments. All told, there’s enough here that you’ll likely want to install the new version tout suite.
Photo by Will Lipman.
Via: MacRumors
Review: MiPow’s Power Tube 3000 Battery Pack is Compact and Cute, but App Needs Improvement
There are hundreds of external battery packs available for the iPhone, but only a small subset of those are given the Apple seal of approval and offered in Apple retail stores and the Apple online store. MiPow’s 3,000 mAh Smart Power Tube is one of the newest portable batteries Apple offers, with a lot of perks like built-in charging cables and an accompanying app.
Design and Features
MiPow’s Smart Power Tube is, as the name suggests, tube shaped. While it’s small enough to fit comfortably in a bag or a purse at just over four inches long and an inch thick, it’s an odd shape for a pocket and it isn’t as convenient to use while charging an iPhone like the flatter Mophie-style battery packs. It comes with a little matching carrying pouch so it can be dropped in a bag without worrying about scratches and scuffs.
The Smart Power Tube is available in black, white, gray, and a handful of bright candy colors: turquoise, green, and pink. A smooth, soft-touch material covers the outside of the Smart Power Tube and a metal band separates the body from the cap of the device. On the metal band there are three LEDs that display the power level and a button that activates the Tube when it’s plugged into an iPhone.
Underneath the cap, there’s a USB connector for charging the internal battery and a cleverly placed Lightning cable that connects the Power Tube to an iPhone and also holds the cap of the device in place. On the whole, the Smart Power Tube feels like a premium product with coordinated colors, clean lines, and quality materials.
Apple Campus 2 Underground Auditorium Shown Off in New Aerial Video
Apple’s second “spaceship” campus is scheduled to be completed in late 2016, giving the company just 12 months to wrap up construction to stay on schedule. Apple’s construction crews have been hard at work over the past few months, making a lot of headway on the main ring-shaped building, the underground auditorium, and the parking structures.
Drone pilot Duncan Sinfield today shared another monthly campus update video with MacRumors, giving a close-up look at how construction has progressed since November.
Four levels of the main ring-shaped building have been completed, bringing Steve Jobs’ original vision of the campus to life. With the walls in place, the special curved glass windows that will encircle the building will likely be going up soon.
This month’s video also gives a clear look at the underground auditorium Apple is building, where it will host events to show off new products. Also depicted is the Tantau development, a set of additional buildings that will serve as research and development facilities.
When it’s finished, the second Apple campus will feature the 2.8 million square foot ring-shaped main building, several parking structures, a 100,000 square foot fitness center, a 120,000 square foot auditorium, and a dedicated visitor’s center with an observation deck, cafe, and Apple Store.
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Twitter Announces Digits for tvOS to Simplify the App Login Process
Following in Facebook’s footsteps, Twitter today announced plans to make some of its Fabric developer toolkit available for tvOS apps. Developers will be able to integrate Twitter’s Digits feature into apps, allowing end users to securely sign into tvOS apps using SMS verification.
With Digits, customers can sign up for an app or service using a phone number with Digits providing a confirmation code used for verification purposes in lieu of a password, a feature that’s likely to be handy on the new fourth-generation Apple TV. Entering lengthy passwords using the new Apple TV remote is a hassle and the Digits login feature will remove that pain point in apps that use it.
Using Digits’ device authorization, your app on the Apple TV will show a short alphanumeric code. Your user then simply enters the code on digits.com/appletv via their laptop or smartphone to authorize the device to their account. Once that’s done, the TV device receives a Digits session for the user’s account which you can use to instantly identify your user and personalize their experience.
Along with Digits, developers can also integrate Twitter’s data analysis service, Crashlytics, into apps to track install numbers and crash instances.
Last week, Facebook announced a Facebook SDK for tvOS, designed to allow developers to access Facebook Login, Share to Facebook, and Facebook Analytics for Apps. With Facebook login, customers can sign up for services and log into apps using a similar confirmation code system.
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Apple Pay Gains 40 New Participating U.S. Issuers
Apple has updated its Apple Pay participating issuers list with 40 additional banks, credit unions and financial institutions supporting the contactless payment service in the United States. Apple Pay now has nearly 800 participating issuers nationwide, and several more plan to support the NFC-based mobile payment service in the future.
The newly added Apple Pay participating issuers are reflected below, although it’s worth noting that some banks, credit unions and financial institutions listed may have already had support for the contactless payments service and are only now being reflected on Apple’s website.
The full list of new Apple Pay participating issuers:
- American Heritage Federal Credit Union
- Associated Credit Union
- Bangor Savings Bank
- Bank of Bourbonnais
- Bank of Clovis
- Bank of the Pacific
- Baton Rouge Telco Federal Credit Union
- BHCU
- Cardinal Bank
- Corning Credit Union
- First Financial Credit Union (IL)
- First National Bank of Trenton
- First Nations Bank
- First Republic Bank
- Flint Area School Employees Credit Union
- Glass City Federal Credit Union
- Guaranty Bank and Trust Company
- Hawthorn Bank
- Hills Bank and Trust Company
- Hudson Valley Federal Credit Union
- Leader Bank, N.A.
- Michigan Tech Employees Federal Credit Union
- Midcoast Federal Credit Union
- Oatworth Capital Bank
- Ohio Valley Bank
- Partnership Financial Credit Union
- Penn Liberty Bank
- Police and Fire Federal Credit Union
- Prime Merdian Bank
- Reading Cooperative Bank
- Republic Bank
- Section 705 Federal Credit Union
- Secured Advantage Federal Credit Union
- Southern Bank
- Southwest Missouri Bank
- TowneBank
- West Plains Bank and Trust Company
- WesTex Federal Credit Union
- Wilmington Savings Fund Society
- WSFS Bank
Apple is committed to an international expansion of Apple Pay, having launched the mobile payments service in Australia and Canada last month in partnership with American Express. Apple Pay is also coming to Hong Kong, Singapore and Spain in 2016, and is rumored to launch in China by February 2016.
On the merchant side, Cinnabon, Chili’s, Domino’s, KFC and Starbucks will support Apple Pay in the U.S. starting in 2016.
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Apple game of the year ‘Monument Valley’ is now free on iOS
If you’re looking for a free iOS game, an interesting new option has just opened up. Puzzle-adventure game Monument Valley managed to pull off the hat trick of being fun, zen and beautiful all at the same time — which helped garner it Apple’s Game of the Year and Design awards for 2014. The title, normally $4, is now showing as “free,” though there’s no word on how long that offer will last. After launching in May last year, it had earned $5.8 million by January 2015, mostly from sales to iOS gamers (creator Ustwo said that only 5 percent of Android sales were paid).
Via: @Wario64 (Twitter)
Source: iTunes
Apple Shares New ‘Ridiculously Powerful’ and ‘Hey Siri’ iPhone 6s Ads
Apple tonight shared two new iPhone 6s ads on its YouTube channel, highlighting the Hey Siri feature and the speed of the device at tasks like opening messages, browsing Safari, using Messages, playing games, and using the camera.
The first video, “Ridiculously Powerful,” focuses on the speed of the iPhone’s A9 processor and shows it being used for Apple Pay, games, taking photos and video, and more. “Not much has changed, except it’s ridiculously powerful, which makes everything faster,” says the opening narration.
The second video, “Hey Siri,” focuses on the always-on Hey Siri feature of the iPhone 6s. With older iPhones, Hey Siri could only be activated when the iPhone was plugged in, but with the iPhone 6s and the iPhone 6s Plus, hands-free Siri voice activation is available at all times.
These two latest videos are part of Apple’s iPhone 6s “The only thing that’s changed is everything” campaign, a tagline and concept Apple CEO Tim Cook first introduced when the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus debuted in September to highlight their revamped internals. Apple has released several advertisements using the wording, focusing on the iPhone’s camera, Siri, and 3D Touch.
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Apple Honors World AIDS Day for the Fifth Year With Red Store Logos
Continuing a tradition begun four years ago, Apple today has joined in recognizing World AIDS Day by coloring Apple logos on its retail stores around the world bright red. The worldwide event was established to represent the global fight in preventing HIV and AIDS, as well as promoting healthy education of the diseases, a cause Apple has helped forward with its line of (PRODUCT)RED accessories.
World AIDS Day decoration at Apple’s Brussels, Belgium store from Twitter user WJPM
As in years past, the company has taken to promoting the World AIDS Day events not only in retail locations but on its online storefront, as well. The home page of Apple.com today encourages visitors to shop the company’s (PRODUCT)RED line of Mac, iPhone, iPod, iPad, Apple Watch, and Beats accessories to help promote and fund AIDS defense and awareness.
Apple Stores known to be participating in the event include the Bondi Junction location near Sydney, Australia, the Brussels, Belgium store, and Apple’s flagship Fifth Avenue spot in New York City. The company quietly launched a (PRODUCT)RED leather case for the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus yesterday in time for the December 1 event, and teamed up with iOS developer Supercell in an exclusive promotional event that will let players purchase rare in-game items with 100 percent of proceeds going to the Global Fund to fight AIDS.
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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