The White House immigration executive order has faced harsh criticism and now it faces even more opposition now that 97 companies, including Apple, have filed an amicus brief with the Federal Courts. The document, which leaked last week, is harshly critical of Mr. Trump’s order and says immigrants are an important part of our society and economy.
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Lawsuit Claims Apple Broke FaceTime to Force iOS 7 Upgrades
What happens when you don’t want to upgrade to a new version of iOS on your iPhone, but you’re sure Apple is forcing you to anyhow? Lawsuit! Apple is facing a class action lawsuit for just that where the plaintiffs allege the company intentionally broke FaceTime in iOS 6 to force upgrades to iOS 7 all to save some money.
Get Pro Mac Apps From Apple With An Education Discount
Apple is offering a brand new educational bundle for students and teachers. The apps, worth $430 separately, are offered at a great discount and include Logic Pro X, Final Cut Pro X, Motion 5, Compressor 4 and Main Stage 3. Verification requires an account on UNiDAYS, a savings program for college kids. If you’re a creative student or educator, you may want to check out this deal.
Steve Savoca Leaves Spotify for Apple Music
Steve Savoca, Spotify’s former vice president of Content, is now part of the Apple Music team. He joined Apple in January and is serving the in same role for Apple Music.
Apple Working on Custom Mac Chips to Cut Reliance on Intel
Apple is reportedly working to scale back its reliance on Intel for MacBook and MacBook Pro chips by designing its own ARM-based processor. The Apple-designed chip will handle low power functions such as Power Nap, and could be a step towards abandoning Intel at some point in the future.
Hackers Post Cellebrite's Smartphone Cracking Tools Online
A hacker dumped 900GB of hacking tools and data used by Cellebrite. The cache of data is on Pastebin, for now, at least. Cellebrite is an Israeli security company that came to public prominence when the FBI used its services to hack into the San Bernadino shooter’s iPhone.
Federal Court Blocks Part of Trump's Immigration Executive Order
The controversial executive order blocking immigrants and refugees from seven middle eastern countries from entering the United States has been partially shut down. A Federal Court Judge granted a temporary restraining order stopping the government from refusing entry for people with valid immigrant visas, but didn’t address the fate of refugees or tourists.
Tempered Tantrum: Screen Protectors for iPhones
iPhone cases may be great for protecting the back and sides of your iPhone, but most of them offer little or no protection for the screen. Bob LeVitus runs us through some tempered glass protectors, and weighs the pros and cons of using cheap one or paying for premium products.
Prince Coming to Apple Music, Spotify
It looks like Prince may be streaming on Apple Music and other services soon. An industry insider says deals are in place for the iconic artist’s work to stream on more than just Tidal starting on February 12.
Apple's Services Business Hits Fortune 100 Level
Apple is a hardware company, a media company, and now it’s a serious services company, too. Company CEO Tim Cook said the company’s services business is on track to reach the size of a Fortune 100 company in 2017, and the goal is to double the division’s growth over the next four years.
![Apple Beats Guidance with Record Revenue of .4B and EPS of .36 [Update]](https://www.macobserver.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/apple-money-pile.jpg)
Apple Beats Guidance with Record Revenue of $78.4B and EPS of $3.36 [Update]
Apple announced Tuesday record revenue for its December quarter of US$78.4 billion, as well as record earnings per share (EPS) of $3.36. That’s up from $75.9 billion in revenue in the year-ago quarter with EPS of $3.28. [Update: This article has been updated with additional details. – Editor]
The iOS Chrome Browser Is Now Open Source
After several years of switching the code, Google made the iOS Chrome browser open source. For the past several years the Chrome team has been updating the code in order to bring it under the Chromium Project. Since iOS browsers must use Apple’s WebKit rendering engine, the app had to support that as well as Google’s Blink engine.
Winners of the TMO Roddenberry Vault Giveaway Announced
On January 9th, TMO published our Background Mode interview with producer Rod Roddenberry. As part of that podcast, Rod generously provided TMO with three copies of his new release, The Rodddenberry Vault, on Blu-ray, to give away. The three randomly selected winners, who correctly answered a question about the podcast audio, have been announced.
watchOS 3.2 Developer Beta Gives Us Our First Look at Theater Mode
Apple released watchOS 3.2 as a beta for developers Monday afternoon. The update gives us the first real look at Theater Mode, and opens SiriKit on Apple Watch to developers, too.
Black AirPods Exist Thanks To BlackPods
A company called BlackPods is offering custom painted AirPods, but as the name suggests they only offer them in black. Matte black, to be specific. You can buy a pair directly from the company, or send in your own pair and pay to have them coated using a custom process.
Sorry, Apple Didn't Patent a Vape Pen
We have the iPhone, the iPad, and the iPod, and based on a recently published patent, some are saying the iVape is coming next. Apple’s patent describes something that sounds a lot like the vaping pens you use when you’re sitting on the couch getting baked while watching Scooby-Doo, except that using this design would probably kill you.
Apple Shuts Down Activation Lock Checker, Makes Buying Used iPhones More Risky
Apple is making it harder to tell if the used iPhone you want to buy is stolen. The company recently shut down its Check Activation Lock Status webpage, which was a handy tool for checking to see if an iPhone was open for activation and not still locked to another user’s iCloud account.
Dropcam Founder Greg Duffy Joining Apple Could be a Smart Home Boost
Dropcam founder and Next executive Greg Duffy has a new gig at Apple, but no one is saying what he’s doing. Considering his inner drive to create cool new things, it’s a safe bet Apple brought him on board for a very interesting project, like the rumored Echo competitor.
Apple's December Earnings Report Set for January 31st
Apple announced Friday that it will announce earnings for the December quarter—the company’s first fiscal quarter of 2017—on Tuesday, January 31st. Apple’s quarterly conference call with analysts will start at 2:00 PM PST/5:00 EST.
Apple Joins Partnership on AI as a Founding Member
Apple’s commitment to the artificial intelligence community is even stronger now that it’s officially a founding member of the Partnership for AI. The organization was created to help shape the future of artificial intelligence technology in an open way.
HBO Go Gets TV App, Single Sign On Support
HBO is finally going all in with Apple’s TV app thanks to a just released update for its HBO Go app. The new version adds TV support, just like the HBO Now app already had, so you can search for HBO content and keep track of what you’re watching in Apple’s app.
Apple Extends Developer Promo for App Store Search Ads
Apple is extending the App Store Search Ads offer for developers until March 30, 2017. Originally, the introductory offer launched back in October was set to expire on December 31, 2016. Developers who sign up get free $100 in credits that go toward App Store ads. The reason is unknown, but 9To5Mac offers a guess.
Apple Didn't Delete LG 5K Display Reviews Because They Were Never There
The internet lit up with reports on Wednesday claiming Apple intentionally removed LG UltraFine 5K display reviews from its web-based store because they were negative. Turns out that’s not true: Apple didn’t remove any reviews because it never enabled them for the display.
Apple Watch Gets Theater Mode, More in watchOS 3.2
Your Apple Watch is about to become far less annoying in movie theaters because the “Theater Mode” feature rumored to be coming to the iPhone is actually destined for your wrist. Apple tipped off developers to that feature and more in an overview of what’s coming in watchOS 3.2.