Posts

Earlier this week we saw Apple Pay add another 30 banks across the United States, and today Apple’s digital wallet gains support for online bank Chime. Similar to Ally and Simple, Chime has no physical banks and instead relies on its website and mobile apps for supporting customers. Chime’s support for Apple Pay works through bank issued Visa debit cards. After setting up Apple Pay with Chime, customers can use supported iPhones, iPads, and Apple Watches to make payments in stores and in apps when available....

POS service Clover is out today with a neat new solution for quick and secure payments at restaurants that leverages QR codes and Apple Pay. “Scan to Pay” lets customers seamlessly pay on iPhone without having to download an app or hand over their cards to servers. And the feature sounds like a win for restaurant owners and employees with tables turning faster and more. Clover announced Scan to Pay in a press release today with the tagline “Let them dine ‘n dash....

In addition to a going live in Canada and adding two more banks in the UK, Apple Pay has seen a giant expansion of new bank partners in the United States today as well. If you’re still waiting for your bank to work with Apple Pay so you can use the mobile payment service, check the list below to see the latest: Acme Federal Credit Union Alpine Bank Alpine Credit Union Altier Credit Union American 1 Credit Union American Trust and Savings Bank Ashland Credit Union Augusta Metro Federal Credit Union Avidia Bank Bank Independent Bank of New Hampshire Bay Area Credit Union Broadway National Bank Calumet Bank Camden National Bank CapCom Credit Union Calumet Bank (removed) Century Bank & Trust Citizens Bank of Edmond Citizens Bank of Washington County Citywide Banks CoastHills Credit Union Commercial Banking Company Community Bank NA Decatur Earthmover Credit Union EverBank F&M Bank Farmers State Bank First Atlantic Federal Credit Union First Citizens Ban First Command Bank First Commerce Credit Union First Florida Integrity Bank First National Bank & Trust Co....

Thirteen days after the first developer beta, Apple has released iOS 11.3 beta 2 for registered developers to test on iPhone and iPad. We’ll dig in to the new version and detail changes below. 4 new Animoji on iPhone X: Lion, Skull, Bear, and and Dragon ARKit 1.5 with support for vertical surfaces like walls, irregular shaped surfaces like circular tables, support for auto-focus, and 50% higher resolution Business Chat for iMessage in beta with Discover, Hilton, Lowe’s and Wells Fargo on board Health Records in Health app automatically updated from select partners More prominent music video features in Apple Music HomeKit software authentication without chip certification Advanced Mobile Location for sending your location to emergency services when calling from iPhone Messages in iCloud New privacy page during setup (photo incoming) and a new Privacy icon in Settings (gray becomes blue) Splash screen for Messages in the Cloud, backup can be disabled in Settings iBooks is now just Books App Store lists version number and update size on Updates screen App Store following text size Hello, Feedback app… Apple TV shows up in Home app with tvOS 11....

Apple has released the second iOS 12 public beta for iPhone and iPad. The new version follows iOS 12 developer beta 3 which was released earlier this week. iOS 12 public beta 2 is the same build version as the latest developer beta version which means GPS and CarPlay bugs should be resolved. Apple has also released the second tvOS 12 and macOS Mojave public betas. The latest iOS 12 beta version also includes a redesigned Voice Memos user interface on iPad, new Activity stickers in Messages, Low Power Mode indicators for battery stats, and several minor tweaks to Notification Center....

After three years without a substantial update and several months of teasing and promoting, Apple has finally announced that tomorrow it will begin selling the newly designed and more powerful Mac Pro it first showed off at WWDC back in June. (Full press release below.) The road was certainly not rapid between update cycles with two years of nary a word on whether or not the Mac Pro line had any life left in it and a full year of teasing and promoting the 2013 model being released tomorrow....

Following a recent ruling that Apple would have ten days to remove the anonymous social app Secret from its Brazilian App Store, Apple has complied with the order. The justification for the removal, according to a source close to the situation, can be found in section 22.1 of the App Store Guidelines: As noted by the judge, the Brazilian constitution prohibits anonymous freedom of expression, which essentially makes Secret and other apps like it illegal with that country....

According to a report today from SemiAccurate, a semi-accurate site that has been hit and miss on Apple rumors in the past, Apple has just bought into a chip fab plant, backing up recent rumors that the company could be moving to build its own CPUs. The full report remains behind a paywall, so it’s unclear if the site mentions a specific company that Apple has bought into. The tags for the report, however, do list “UMC”, a hint that the company in question could be Taiwan-based chipmaker United Microelectronics Corporation…...

Blockchain, the most popular Bitcoin wallet app, has become the latest casualty of Apple’s apparent crackdown on Bitcoin apps. The app was removed from the App Store yesterday without explanation. Apple had previously removed BitPak and Coinbase, leaving Blockchain the only remaining Bitcoin wallet app. Blockchain had been in the store since April 2012, and has around 120,000 users, and developer Nicolas Cary is accusing Apple of having an ulterior motive for its removal … The reality is likely to be rather more mundane: with governments and financial authorities unsure of how to respond to the unregulated artificial currency, Apple has most probably decided to play it safe until the legal position is clearer....

Even though Apple’s fight over the San Bernardino iPhone is essentially over, the overall debate regarding encryption versus national security remains. In an effort to continue to beef up security options on consumer devices, Reuters today reports that Apple has rehired well-respected security expert Jon Callas. News of this hire comes as we’re hearing from sources that Apple is in the midst of entirely overhauling its security team. Today’s report details that Apple has rehired Callas this month....

Apple has just released the first beta version of tvOS 13.4.8 to developers, following the announcement of the first iOS 13.5.5 beta earlier this week, as well as tvOS 13.4.6 public launch. We don’t know the reason Apple skipped tvOS 13.4.7. Compared to tvOS 13.4.6 (17L570), today’s build number is 17M5535f. Apple does not specify what new features are included in tvOS 13.4.8 beta, but it’s likely that the update includes bug fixes and improvements....

Just a few days after the retail launch of the fourth-generation Apple TV set-top-box, Apple has seeded the first beta of the device’s first software update to developers. The new version, labeled tvOS 9.1, is available for download via the developer center, much like iOS and OS X betas have been seeded. The release notes for tvOS 9.1 indicate improvements coming to WiFi network compatibility, in-app-purchases for App Store apps, and improved scrolling....

There’s a new iOS 9.2.1 update within the Settings app awaiting all iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch users today. Apple released the first developer beta version of the software update in mid-December after shipping iOS 9.2 earlier in the month. The second iOS 9.2 beta was later released at the start of January. Apple has since started testing iOS 9.3 with developers and public beta testers. As the version number suggests, iOS 9....

iOS 8 is likely to supercharge the functionality of Apple’s iPad with a new split-screen multitasking feature, according to sources with knowledge of the enhancement in development. These people say that the feature will allow iPad users to run and interact with two iPad applications at once. Up until now, each iPad application either developed by Apple or available on the App Store is only usable individually in a full-screen view....

Apple today released Logic Pro X 10.4.2 alongside MainStage 3.4 on the Mac App Store with a number of new features and enhancements. Head below to see what’s new. Both updates bring a long list of new improvements including the ability to relocate the apps’ Sound Library to an external storage device, while MainStage gets a few big features that previously came to Logic. One of those updates for MainStage is the inclusion of new sounds and features in the Sound Library itself and the app also gets access to a few notable new plug-ins (full list below) that were previously launched for Logic users....

Apple has released macOS 10.12.2 beta 3 for Mac. The new update follows the initial macOS 10.12.2 beta at the end of October, followed by a slightly updated build earlier this month, and macOS 10.12.2 beta 2. Today’s build comes at version 16C48b over 16C41b and is available from the Mac App Store. Aside from being a mouthful of numbers, macOS 10.12.2 includes Unicode 9.0 emoji support, which matches compatibility in beta versions of iOS 10....

A new report from Music Business Worldwide claims that Apple has recently hired four producers from BBC Radio 1. This report comes two months after it was announced that Zane Lowe was leaving the British radio station to take a new position at Apple. According to today’s report, the recent Apple hires include James Bursey, Natasha Lynch and Kieran Yeates, as well as one other. Bursey was Zane Lowe’s old producer at Radio 1 and has been at the station since 2003....

Apple is currently in the middle of building its latest campus in Austin, Texas. The facility will initially be home to 5,000 Apple employees but expand over time to house 15,000. Now Apple has just had a revised plan for the campus approved that sees a 192-room hotel added to the project. Reported by culturemap, Apple’s original plans for its new $1 billion Austin campus didn’t include an on-site hotel. But now, news has surfaced that a revised plan was approved by the City of Austin at the end of April and it includes a new 192-room hotel with a six-story design and 75,500 total square feet....

Update: iOS 14.5 beta 8 is also now rolling out to public beta testers. Apple has released iOS 14.5 beta 8 to developers, coming one week after the release of beta 7. iOS 14.5 packs a variety of new features, including the ability to unlock your iPhone using Apple Watch and new Siri voices. This comes after Apple officially announced its April 20 event, where we expect Apple to formally announce the release of iOS 14....

Running alongside the iOS 15 beta and more, Apple has seeded developers with the latest beta of iOS 14.7, watchOS 7.6, and macOS 11.5 today. Update 6/15: Public beta 3 for all of the releases are now available. Following WWDC and the release of the first iOS 15, macOS 12, watchOS 8 betas, Apple has continued on with the launch of the most recent iOS 14, watchOS 7, and macOS 11 betas....