Earlier today, Apple released the first developer beta of iOS 9.3, which will introduce several new functionalities for built-in apps and for education users. To highlight some of the changes in this release, Apple has launched a mini-site with screenshots and descriptions of what’s coming in iOS 9.3.
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Apple Previews iOS 9.3 with Night Shift, Health and News Improvements, New Education Features
Apple Doesn’t Have Accurate Apple News Reader Statistics→
The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple has mistakenly been underestimating the number of readers using Apple News and providing those inaccurate numbers to publishers:
Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services, said the company missed the error as it focused on other aspects of the product. The company didn’t explain how the problem occurred or say exactly when it might be rectified.
“We’re in the process of fixing that now, but our numbers are lower than reality,” he said. “We don’t know what the right number is,” but he added that it was better to undercount than overcount traffic.
A curious admission from Apple, particularly given that the issue has not been fixed yet. No details are given about the scale of the miscalculation, so it’s unclear as to whether this will result in a minor adjustment or significant adjustment in reader statistics.
Executives from Apple, including Mr. Cue, met with publishers late last year to discuss the product and address concerns. Mr. Cue said Apple will continue to spend a lot of time getting feedback from publishers.
Two months ago there were a few reports, including this one from Digiday, which noted that publishers were “underwhelmed” and “dissapointed” by Apple News, and the reader numbers.
Introducing Canvas and Remaster on Relay FM
Over the past year, I’ve been thinking about ways to expand the scope of my podcasts at Relay FM. In addition to our weekly coverage of all things Apple and technology with Connected, I wanted to cover the changes in my iPad workflow more in depth, as well as revitalize our discussion of games and the gaming industry with Virtual.
After a few months of work behind the scenes, I’m excited to announce two brand new shows where I’ll try to do just that: Canvas, with yours truly and Fraser Speirs; and Remaster, where Myke, Shahid Ahmad (former head of Strategic Content at PlayStation), and I will discuss what it means to play videogames and be a game maker today.
Both Canvas and Remaster are two projects I truly believe in, and they’re the kinds of podcasts I’ve been meaning to co-host for a long time. I’m incredibly thankful for the support by Myke and Stephen in providing a terrific infrastructure with Relay FM, and I feel like all the work I’ve been doing with podcasting over the past three years has led me to an exciting new starting point today.
Apple Announces Q1 2016 Earnings Call for January 26
Apple’s Investor Relations website was yesterday updated to note that Apple’s earnings call for the first quarter of fiscal year 2016 (October, November and December 2015) will be held on Tuesday, January 26, 2016. As is usual, Apple will provide a live webcast of the conference call on the day.
Apple’s guidance for the first fiscal quarter of 2016 is revenue between $75.5 billion and $77.5 billion, gross margin between 39 percent and 40 percent and a tax rate of 26.2 percent. But as is illustrated above, Apple’s guidance in the past has often underestimated the actual numbers by quite a significant degree.
As we have for previous earnings calls, MacStories will cover the conference call on our site’s homepage on January 26 starting at 2 PM PT, posting charts of the results, collecting key quotes from Apple executives and highlighting interesting Tweets from others.
Daylite: The Productivity App for Individuals and Teams, Exclusively for Mac and iOS [Sponsor]
Marketcircle helps individuals, teams, and small businesses on the Mac, iPhone and iPad be more productive with their two apps, Daylite and Billings Pro.
For those of you who don’t know about Daylite, it has been around for almost 15 years. Daylite helps you manage clients, schedules, tasks, projects, emails and new business opportunities, all in one app where they’re interconnected. From a single client you can see who referred them, emails to and from, booked or upcoming appointments, pending business deals and even future followups. Or from a single Project you can see each person and their role, the tasks and who’s responsible, meetings about the project, and notes, all in chronological order. Daylite helps you remember everything so you don’t have to worry about anything falling through the cracks. And when you invite team members, you can share this information, assign tasks or check each others calendars before scheduling meetings.
And with the recent release of Daylite 6, Marketcircle has made it even easier to get started. Create an account and login from your Mac, iPhone or iPad, then works with or without an Internet connection. Daylite will sync changes between devices and teammates when a connection is available. Marketcircle includes a 30 day trial for Daylite, with monthly and yearly plans.
You can even read about other companies using Daylite here.
Our thanks to Marketcircle for sponsoring MacStories this week.
Apple’s 2015: Year In Review
2015 was a big year from Apple, arguably its biggest yet. Over the course of the past twelve months we’ve seen Apple release the MacBook, Apple Watch, iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, iPad Pro, new Apple TV, refresh the MacBook Air and iMac, and even release updated iPods. Then there’s all the new software from iOS 9 to OS X El Capitan, to watchOS 2, and even the unveiling of tvOS.
In assembling this story, I thought about how I could present the information in a way that wouldn’t be overwhelming and would hopefully be unique from everyone else’s “year in review” stories. As you can see below, I choose to display it in an interactive widget. You’ll be able to see at a glance which months were significant for Apple, and for what reason (iPhone, Mac, TV, etc). Then you can dive into a particular month and swipe across to get summaries of the big stories from Apple. If you want to learn more about a particular story, there’s a link that’ll take you to the full story.
SCOTTeVEST – Multi-Pocket Clothing to Carry All of Your Gadgets [Sponsor]
You know the “gadget dance”, that moment of panic when you frantically try to find your smartphone? SCOTTeVEST eliminates that stress.
SCOTTeVEST designs multi-pocket clothing that lets you carry and use all of your gadgets and daily essentials. For over 15 years, SCOTTeVEST has catered to tech lovers by cleverly engineering pockets to balance the load and keep you comfortable while giving you easy access to your electronic devices.
With up to 42 pockets in a single item, you’ll have space for your iPhone, iPad, MacBook, iPod and other gadgets, plus your wallet, keys, sunglasses and more. Their patented Personal Area Network (PAN) solution provides built-in wire management and quick, tangle-free access to your earpiece. Additional features include an attached eyeglass chamois to keep your lenses and screens smudge-free, detachable key holders, and clear touch pockets that let you see and use touch screen devices without removing them from the pockets.
SCOTTeVEST knows that time is your most valuable asset. Their clothing keeps your
gear organized and within reach, making for the perfect gift for all of the gadget lovers in your life – including yourself. Go to scottevest.com/macstories and get 20% off with the coupon code ‘macstories’.
Our thanks to SCOTTeVEST for sponsoring MacStories this week.
SCOTTeVEST – Multi-Pocket Clothing to Carry All of Your Gadgets [Sponsor]
You know the “gadget dance”, that moment of panic when you frantically try to find your smartphone? SCOTTeVEST eliminates that stress.
SCOTTeVEST designs multi-pocket clothing that lets you carry and use all of your gadgets and daily essentials. For over 15 years, SCOTTeVEST has catered to tech lovers by cleverly engineering pockets to balance the load and keep you comfortable while giving you easy access to your electronic devices.
With up to 42 pockets in a single item, you’ll have space for your iPhone, iPad, MacBook, iPod and other gadgets, plus your wallet, keys, sunglasses and more. Their patented Personal Area Network (PAN) solution provides built-in wire management and quick, tangle-free access to your earpiece. Additional features include an attached eyeglass chamois to keep your lenses and screens smudge-free, detachable key holders, and clear touch pockets that let you see and use touch screen devices without removing them from the pockets.
SCOTTeVEST knows that time is your most valuable asset. Their clothing keeps your
gear organized and within reach, making for the perfect gift for all of the gadget lovers in your life – including yourself. Go to scottevest.com/macstories and get 20% off with the coupon code ‘macstories’.
Our thanks to SCOTTeVEST for sponsoring MacStories this week.
Apple Partners with China UnionPay to Bring Apple Pay to China in 2016
Update (18 December): iMore has a quote from Eddy Cue which lists some of the banks that will support Apple Pay in China; Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China, Bank of Guangzhou, Bank of Shanghai, China Construction Bank, China Ever-bright Bank, China Guangfa Bank, China CITIC Bank, China Merchants Bank, China Minsheng Bank, Industrial Bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Ping An Bank, Postal Savings Bank of China and Shanghai Pudong Development Bank.
Apple today announced a partnership with China UnionPay, which will see Apple Pay available to Chinese customers as soon as early 2016. China UnionPay operates the Chinese inter-bank network and develops the UnionPay Card network – and its role in China is somewhat analagous to that of Visa and Mastercard.
“China UnionPay is dedicated to promoting payment innovations and providing secure, convenient mobile payment experiences for its hundreds of millions of cardholders, aligning multiple parties in the industry,” said Chai Hongfeng, executive vice president of China UnionPay. “We’re very excited to offer Apple Pay among a diverse set of innovative payment options that work with China UnionPay QuickPass.”
Apple says that it is working with China UnionPay to launch Apple Pay with 15 of China’s leading banks, but provides no firm date apart from saying it will available as “soon as early 2016”. According to Apple, the service needs to go through “tests and certification required by Chinese regulators”. At this stage it is unclear which 15 banks will be supported.
China UnionPay cards are issued by over 165 financial institutions and can be used at more than 26 million merchants, 1.9 million ATMs and to date over 5 billion UnionPay cards have been issued. Today’s announcement will likely make China the fifth country to support Apple Pay, with Spain, Singapore and Hong Kong also getting limited support for Apple Pay sometime in 2016.
“Apple Pay has revolutionized the way millions of people pay every day with their iPhone, Apple Watch and iPad,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services. “China is an extremely important market for Apple and with China UnionPay and support from 15 of China’s leading banks, users will soon have a convenient, private and secure payment experience.”
Today’s Apple Pay announcement is a big deal after a rather lackluster year for the service outside of the US. After launching in the US on October 20, 2014, Apple Pay finally expanded beyond the US in July this year when it lauched in the UK. But the UK launch was a bit of a shambles with just eight banks supporting the service at launch and just one of the “big four” – worsened by one of the banks delaying their support by a couple of weeks at the last minute. Then in late October this year Apple announced a partnership with American Express to bring Apple Pay to Australia and Canada, which it did in mid-November. Apple was unable, or perhaps unwilling, to make a deal with local banks – with numerous reports which say there was a deadlock between Apple and the banks over how much Apple should be paid from each transaction made using Apple Pay. The same limited, American Express only, Apple Pay support will roll out to Spain, Canada and Hong Kong starting in 2016.