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Starz Comes to iOS and Apple TV

According to BusinessWire, Starz launched a new streaming service today that is available on iOS devices and Apple TV. The service is noteworthy because like HBO NOW, it is a standalone offering that does not require a cable subscription, though existing cable subscribers can use the service too. The Hollywood Reporter adds that on iOS:

The app allows up to four users to watch simultaneously and offers virtually unlimited downloads, a first for a premium cable channel app. Existing Starz subscribers can authenticate and view Starz programming through the app as well.

On Apple TV, Starz supports universal search with the Siri Remote.

Starz features more than 2400 items each month, including original series like Outlander, and movies from Disney and Sony, which will include Star Wars: The Force Awakens later this year. A Starz streaming subscription costs $8.99 per month.

Apple Pay Now Supported by Barclays in the UK

Barclays, the last of the United Kingdom’s big four banks, has today finally added support for Apple Pay. With the addition of Barclays, there are now 15 banks in the United Kingdom that support Apple Pay today, nearly 9 months after Apple Pay launched in the UK.

As a quick status update, Apple Pay is today available in 5 countries; the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and China. Apple Pay is supported by virtually all banks in the United States (1,110 to be exact, as of today), and it is supported by 15 banks in China since it launched there earlier this year as a result of Apple’s partnership with China UnionPay. By contrast, Apple Pay is not supported by any Australian or Canadian banks - in those two countries, Apple Pay is limited to those with an American Express-issued card.

[via MacRumors]

Hey Siri, Play Ball!→

The Verge reports today that Siri has been upgraded with a load of baseball facts, just in time for Opening Day:

Siri now has some more baseball smarts: it can answer questions about more detailed statistics, according to Apple, including historical stats going back to the beginning of baseball records. You can also get information on career statistics, and there’s now specific information for leagues other than the Majors — there are 28 other leagues, including the Minors, that are covered now.

I tested out a number of questions with Siri and, like Dante D’Orazio of the Verge, found that certain questions like “Who hit the most home runs ever in baseball?” tended to return either Google search results or in the case of the home run question above, the results for the 2016 season, not all time.

In case you were wondering, right now Troy Tulowitzki and Corey Dickerson are tied for the lead with one home run each.

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Apple Posts Apple Music Ad Featuring Taylor Swift

Apple posted a new Apple Music ad on YouTube earlier today, featuring Taylor Swift listening and singing along to Drake and Future’s Jumpman while running on a treadmill.

The ad, which is called ‘Taylor vs. Treadmill’ and was posted on Apple’s Beats 1 Radio YouTube channel, features the ‘Distractingly Good’ and ‘All the music you want’ taglines at the end as Swift falls off the treadmill while still continuing to rap along.

Most notably, however, the ad focuses on Apple Music’s support for Activity Playlists, which include selections of songs for various scenarios such as working out or relaxing at home. In this ad, the playlist picked by Taylor Swift is called #GYMFLOW.

You can watch the ad below or check it out on Beats 1’s YouTube channel here.

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Apple Releases iOS 9.3.1 with Fix for Unresponsive Links

Apple released iOS 9.3.1 earlier today, bringing a fix for a problem related to Universal Links that caused apps to become unresponsive after tapping web links.

Last week, a number of publications reported on a bug that was causing Safari, Mail, and other iOS apps to stop responding after a user tapped on a link to a webpage. As it was outlined by some developers, the issue was likely related to Universal Links – a feature introduced with iOS 9 that allows links to open in their native iOS apps.

Today’s iOS update seems to only include a fix for that problem, and it’s available now in Software Update.

Apple Launches Safari Technology Preview for OS X

Safari is joining the growing collection of apps and developer tools that Apple wants to open up for public testing. Earlier today, Apple unveiled Safari Technology Preview, a separate version of Safari for OS X that will allow users and developers to test upcoming WebKit features.

Safari Technology Preview (which, unlike the regular Safari, has a purple icon) is a standalone app that will be updated every two weeks from the Mac App Store.

The browser will be fully compatible with iCloud: contrary to WebKit Nightly previews (the existing way of testing upcoming WebKit changes), Safari Technology Preview supports iCloud Tabs, Reading List, bookmarks, and every other iCloud feature of the stable version of Safari. Integration with iCloud should make it easier for users and developers to test Safari Technology Preview as their daily browser as they won’t lose access to their iCloud account and personal data.

Here’s Apple’s Ricky Mondello:

Safari Technology Preview is a standalone application that can be used side-by-side with Safari or other web browsers, making it easy to compare behaviors between them. Besides having the latest web features and bug fixes from WebKit, Safari Technology Preview includes the latest improvements to Web Inspector, which you can use to develop and debug your websites. Updates for Safari Technology Preview will be available every two weeks through the Updates pane of the Mac App Store.

Features already available for testing include support for the latest iteration of JavaScript (ECMAScript 6), the B3 JavaScript JIT compiler, and a new way to programmatically cut and copy to the clipboard in response to a gesture.

Safari Technology Preview requires a Mac running OS X 10.11.4 and it’s available for download today here.

Win an Automatic Adapter or Get 20% Off [Sponsor]

This week’s MacStories sponsor is Automatic, a small “connected car adapter.” Automatic plugs into your car’s diagnostic port—every car made since 1996 has got one—and pairs with your phone. Data about your car’s performance can flow between Automatic and your phone, and even out to the Internet.

It connects your car to the free Automatic app, which helps you save money on gas, automatically logs your trips and parking location so you never lose your car, explains what’s wrong if your “check engine” light comes on, and even detects when you’ve been in a crash and can call for help and alert your loved ones.

There’s even smart-device integration, so Automatic can adjust your Nest thermostat as you leave or before you arrive, connect to Philips Hue lights, and use IFTTT to connect with Google Docs, Twitter, Evernote, and more.

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Twitter Makes Photos Accessible to the Visually Impaired

Photography has always been a big part of Twitter, and today, it announced a new accessibility feature that brings photos to the visually impaired. The new feature is simple to enable. Just go to the ‘Me’ tab in Twitter’s official client and tap the gear icon near the top of the screen. Next, go to the Accessibility section of Settings and turn on the ‘Compose image descriptions’ toggle.

Enabling image descriptions in Twitter's settings.

Enabling image descriptions in Twitter’s settings.

Once enabled, when you compose a tweet with an image, a button will appear in the lower left corner of the image that says ‘Add description.’ Tapping on that button allows you to add a description of up to 420 characters – three times the normal length of a tweet. Unlike some recent innovations at Twitter, photo descriptions will be available as part of Twitter’s REST API and Twitter Cards, which means third-party developers can add the feature to their own Twitter clients too.

Twitter should be commended for what is an important, and I think will prove to be a popular, feature. Not only does it bring photography to the visually impaired, but it also brings text shots, which have been widely used to get around Twitter’s 140-character limit, but criticized for being inaccessible, to a wider audience. Here’s a short video I made with a text shot of one of my recent reviews:

Apple Announces Q2 2016 Earnings Call for April 25

As noted by MacRumors, Apple’s Investor Relations website was yesterday updated to note that Apple’s earnings call for the second quarter of fiscal year 2016 (January, February and March 2016) will be held on Monday, April 25, 2016.

Apple’s guidance for the second fiscal quarter of 2016 is revenue between $50 and $53 billion, gross margin between 39 and 39.5 percent, and a tax rate of 25.5 percent. But as is illustrated above, Apple’s guidance in the past has often underestimated the actual results, sometimes significantly so.

As we have for previous earnings calls, MacStories will cover the conference call on our site’s homepage on April 25 starting at 2 PM PT, posting charts of the results, collecting key quotes from Apple executives and highlighting interesting Tweets from others.

[via MacRumors]