Apple announced an entirely new category of service at today’s event called Apple Pay, which the company is hoping will make reaching for your wallet a gesture of the past.
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Apple Aims to Revolutionize Payments with Apple Pay
Apple Asks Developers to Start Submitting iOS 8 Apps
Following a media event in Cupertino and an official release date for iOS 8, Apple has now begun notifying registered developers that App Store submissions are open for iOS 8 apps.
Starting today, developers will be able to send their iOS 8-ready apps to Apple for approval; in addition, Apple has also confirmed that developers will be able to start using TestFlight for beta testing (at the moment, only for internal teams), create App Previews, and collect multiple apps in Bundles.
Make sure your apps take advantage of all the great new features in iOS 8, which will soon be available to hundreds of millions of customers around the world.
To prepare your apps for the App Store, download and build with the iOS 8 and Xcode 6 GM seeds from the iOS Dev Center. With these latest seeds, Swift is now final and you can submit your iOS apps written with Swift to the App Store.
iOS 8 adds hundreds of new features such as extensions, custom keyboards, iCloud Photo Library, new group messaging options, and a new Health app. It will be released next week on Wednesday, September 17th.
For more coverage, check out our September 9 news hub and follow @macstoriesnet on Twitter.
iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus: Our Complete Overview
Today’s Apple event at the Flint Center in Cupertino was a whirlwind of powerful announcements surrounding the company’s line of iPhone products. After walking up on stage, Apple’s CEO Tim Cook announced the brand new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.
“iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus are the biggest advancements in iPhone history,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “The iPhone is the most loved smartphone in the world with the highest customer satisfaction in the industry and we are making it much better in every way. Only Apple can combine the best hardware, software and services at this unprecedented level and we think customers are going to love it.”
Senior Vice President Phil Schiller then took the stage to run through the iPhone 6 enhancements at a swift pace. For the first time, Apple is simultaneously releasing multiple screen sizes – the iPhone will be available in a 4.7” and a 5.5” version. These phones will be technologically similar, varying only in screen resolution and slight camera model differences. They will sport a more powerful A8 64bit processor, larger Retina HD screen, and NFC technology for using the brand new Apple Pay service.
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Apple Announces iOS 8 Launching on September 17
As widely expected, Apple has today confirmed the official release date of iOS 8 at a media event held at the Flint Center in Cupertino, California. iOS 8 will be released on Wednesday, September 17th, for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.
Announced at WWDC in June, iOS 8 builds upon last year’s redesign of iOS adding major new features such as extensions, custom keyboards, iCloud Photo Library, new group messaging options, and a new Health app. In extending iOS through user customization and developer APIs that let apps reach beyond their sandbox, iOS 8 will focus on offering new powerful functionalities that will create an opportunity for developers to build innovative, more flexible apps.
Apple hasn’t announced a Golden Master seed of iOS 8 yet, but it will presumably be released to developers today. Typically the last developer release before a public launch, the GM seed will allow developers to make final preparations to their iOS 8-ready apps and submit them to the App Store.
For more coverage, check out our September 9 news hub and follow @macstoriesnet on Twitter.
Square Enix Announces Game Streaming Service for iOS, Includes Final Fantasy VII and XIII
Square Enix announced their new video game streaming service earlier today, coming next month as an app for iOS and Android. Dive In, slated to launch on October 9th in Japan, will allow iOS users to play Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy XIII by streaming them from the company’s cloud, for a fee.
Kotaku writes about the games that will be added after the initial rollout:
In November, Final Fantasy VIII and The Last Remnant will be added. December will see Final Fantasy XIII-2, while Lightning Returns Final Fantasy XIII is slated for 2015.
Dive In will let gamers try out the titles in a thirty minute demo, free of charge. Streaming blocks of three days, ten days, thirty days, and 365 days, however, will require a fee—a fee which can vary from game to game.
Prices will vary from around $2 dollars for a three days’ worth of streaming to $12 for thirty days. According to the Dive In website, the app will run on both phones and tablets, with a 3Mbps WiFi connection required to stream and play games (6Mbps recommended).
In screenshots posted by Inside Games, Final Fantasy VII and XIII are shown with on-screen controls to make up for the lack of physical input on iOS and Android; at this point, it’s not clear whether Dive In will support iOS game controllers or if the app will eventually expand to OS X.
Last month, Square Enix confirmed that they would continue to port older titles in Dragon Quest series to mobile devices. Dive In appears to be part of the company’s Project Flare, a technology first announced in November 2013 and set to power several of the company’s future initiatives in cloud gaming.
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Our thanks to MailRoute for sponsoring MacStories this week.
Apple Events Channel Now Available on Apple TV to Stream Today’s Special Event Keynote
Apple has just made their ‘Apple Events’ channel accessible again from any Apple TV (2nd or 3rd generation), ahead of today’s Special Event keynote. The channel will allow users to stream the WWDC keynote from 10am, San Francisco time, as Apple previously announced. The channel also allows users to stream past Apple events (including WWDC), just in case you have some time to kill whilst you wait for today’s event.
For those without an Apple TV, you will also be able to stream today’s keynote from Apple’s website on a Safari browser on a Mac or iOS device. You can also follow our September 9 Special Event hub for updates, or subscribe through RSS to our dedicated September 9 Special Event feed.
Preview: Transmit Coming to iOS 8 with Share Extension, Touch ID, Document Provider, and More
Panic’s popular file management app for OS X, Transmit, is coming to iOS 8 as a full-featured adaptation for the iPhone and iPad. Built for iOS 8, Transmit will take advantage of new technologies such as share extensions, Touch ID, and document providers, offering iOS users an integrated experience and useful set of tools to manage file downloads and uploads.
Apple Updates iTunes Connect Design, Rolls Out TestFlight App
Last night, Apple launched the redesign of the iTunes Connect developer portal first previewed at WWDC in June. With an iOS 7-inspired design reminiscent of web apps for iCloud.com, the updated iTunes Connect offers developers and content producers easier access to information about items they made available on the iTunes Store and App Store.
One of the most notable announcements at WWDC was Analytics, a new set of data that will allow developers to monitor how users are discovering their apps and using them; new analytics will be opt-in for users, who will be able to decide to share anonymous analytics data or not.