This Week's Sponsor:

Copilot Money

Copilot Money, The Best Money Tracker, Launches on the Web – Limited-Time: Get 26% Off + 2 Months Free

Orders for the New Apple TV Are Now Open, Begins Shipping This Friday

The new Apple TV is now available for order on Apple’s website, with deliveries expected to start arriving from this Friday, October 30.

The new Apple TV, now in its fourth generation, features a familiar but overhauled user interface, a new Siri remote and there’s now an App Store for apps and games. The new Siri remote, which primarily operates over Bluetooth and charges via a Lightning port, features a touch surface for navigation, as well as dual microphones so that you can use Siri to interact with the Apple TV. You can learn more about the new Apple TV here.

Pricing & Availability

When Apple announced the new Apple TV at its September Keynote, it noted that it will be available in 80 countries at launch and over 100 by the end of the year. It also revealed US pricing which is US$149 for the 32GB model and US$199 for the 64GB model. Now that the Apple TV is available for order we can see the international prices, some of which I’ve included below:

  • United Kingdom:
    • £129 for the 32GB model
    • £169 for the 64GB model
  • Canada:
    • $199 for the 32GB model
    • $269 for the 64GB model
  • Australia:
    • $269 for the 32GB model
    • $349 for the 64GB model
  • France, Germany, Italy:
    • €179 for the 32GB model
    • €229 for the 64GB model

Apple Posts New iPhone 6s Camera, Siri Commercials

Apple aired three new iPhone 6s ads today, showcasing the device’s new Camera and Siri hands-free capabilities.

The Siri ads are two brief videos that build upon Jamie Foxx’s previous appearance in Apple’s 3D Touch commercial. In the two ads, Foxx is shown activating Siri on an iPhone 6s Plus just by saying “Hey Siri” – one of the new Siri features in iOS 9 for the new iPhones. While they don’t show any of the new Siri commands for iOS 9, the ads focus on communicating that holding the Home button is no longer necessary to activate Siri, even if you’re not driving.

The 6s Camera commercial is a longer, 1-minute ad in the same style of Apple’s “The only thing that’s changed is everything” campaign. The video goes through all the new camera and photo functionalities of the 6s, including Live Photos, peek previews with 3D Touch, selfie flash, 4K video, and improved Slo-Mo mode. At the end of the commercial, Golden State Warriors’ Stephen Curry is shown scoring a three-pointer as recorded by an iPhone in Slo-Mo.

You can watch Apple’s new iPhone 6s commercials below.

Read more

Facebook Confirms Background Audio Issues in iOS App, Releases Fix→

In a post on Facebook, Ari Grant, engineering manager for iOS at Facebook, has confirmed that the Facebook app was affected (among other bugs) by background audio issues which caused high battery consumption.

The second issue is with how we manage audio sessions. If you leave the Facebook app after watching a video, the audio session sometimes stays open as if the app was playing audio silently. This is similar to when you close a music app and want to keep listening to the music while you do other things, except in this case it was unintentional and nothing kept playing. The app isn’t actually doing anything while awake in the background, but it does use more battery simply by being awake. Our fixes will solve this audio issue and remove background audio completely.

From what I’ve heard, today’s update to Facebook for iOS has removed the background audio permission completely. Facebook is working on more fixes, which, as Grant also mentions, include improvements to the app’s network code.

At this point, I don’t think it’s productive anymore to speculate on how long the problem has been around. I’m glad that Facebook has publicly acknowledged issues that were affecting battery life on iOS and it’s good to see fixes being released to address them.

I’m going to reinstall the Facebook app and see how it goes.

Permalink

Apple Debuts Seven New Apple Watch Adverts

Apple today debuted seven new adverts for the Apple Watch, which follow in the same style as the six Apple Watch adverts that debuted on October 5. These short 15 second pieces highlight various features of the Apple Watch including Apple Pay, different watch bands, music controls and some third party apps including Uber and eBay.

  • Dance: Apple Watch lets you control your music right from your wrist. Whatever song you want to hear, just say it and play it.
  • Skate: If you need to buy something quick, Apple Pay lets you pay in a hurry.
  • Move: Your Apple Watch helps you set and achieve new goals. Even a goal as simple as moving more each day.
  • Play: Apple Watch can send you eBay alerts instantly, so you’ll never miss a bid.
  • Style: New bands, new colors, new ways to change your Apple Watch to match your own look.
  • Kiss: Your Apple Watch will gently let you know when your Uber arrives. But there’s no rush.
  • Travel: Apple Watch puts your boarding pass right on your wrist. Now traveling is one step simpler.

You can view all the adverts below the break or on Apple’s website.

Read more

YouTube Announces ‘YouTube Red’ Subscription, Launching in the US First→

Earlier today, YouTube introduced Red, a new subscription option to watch ad-free videos, save them offline, and listen to them in the background:

On October 28, we’re giving fans exactly what they want. Introducing YouTube Red – a new membership designed to provide you with the ultimate YouTube experience.

YouTube Red lets you enjoy videos across all of YouTube without ads, while also letting you save videos to watch offline on your phone or tablet and play videos in the background, all for $9.99 a month. Your membership extends across devices and anywhere you sign into YouTube, including our recently launched Gaming app and a brand new YouTube Music app we’re announcing today that will be available soon.

YouTube Red will launch in the U.S. first on October 28 (with limitations if you leave the U.S.), and at $9.99 it’ll also include access to Google Play Music. Once it rolls out in more countries, there’s no way around it – it is a strong offering, and YouTube is big and loved enough to convince a lot of people to pay for ad removal and offline consumption.

I’m curious to see how their original content initiative will play out (here’s a full list of YouTube originals), not to mention the reaction of YouTubers to the altered deal (my prediction: every popular channel will end up accepting it).

Here’s a thought: should YouTube finally enable Picture in Picture on iOS 9 for Red subscribers? With official background play, it would make sense (the main problem would be cards being unavailable via Picture in Picture, though).

See also: Ben Popper’s story at The Verge, with feedback from YouTube creators.

Permalink

Emojipedia’s iOS 9.1 Emoji Overview→

Fantastic overview of all the new emoji in iOS 9.1 by Emojipedia’s Jeremy Burge:

In addition to emojis approved in Unicode 8.0 (mid-2015), iOS 9.1 also includes emoji versions of characters all the way back to Unicode 1.1 (1993) that have retroactively been deemed worthy of emoji presentation by the Unicode Consortium.

Every emoji that has been approved by Unicode is included in iOS 9.1; no matter how obscure, redundant, or outdated.

The article includes this bit about the Symbols category of the updated emoji keyboard:

Symbol emojis are grouped by color in iOS 9.1, which not only looks pleasant, but also makes finding the correct emoji easier.

Like millions of other people today, I’m having fun discovering the new emoji in iOS 9.1. Jeremy’s overview makes for a great starting point.

Permalink

Twitter Teases New Twitter for Mac Coming Soon→

At its Flight developer conference earlier today, Twitter showed a brand new version of Twitter for Mac – the company’s neglected desktop client – coming soon with a refreshed design and modern Twitter features. In addition to a revamped look (see screenshot above), the new app will include inprovements to Direct Messages in line with the mobile versions, such as group DMs and the ability to share photos and large emoji in private conversations. Also, the next Twitter for Mac seems to offer a dark mode.

Twitter for Mac has been ignored for a long time. Even if I’m not using my Mac as my primary computer anymore, I’m curious to see what Twitter – now under Jack Dorsey’s guidance (who was in an apologetic mood today) – does with it.

Permalink

OS X 10.11.1, watchOS 2.0.1 Also Released→

In addition to iOS 9.1, Apple has also released OS X 10.11.1 and watchOS 2.0.1 today. On both updates, there are a bunch of performance improvements and new emoji characters are supported. On watchOS, there are some welcome fixes: Apple has revolved a problem that prevented software updates from completing successfully, and it has fixed various issues that were impacting battery life.

Both software updates are available now for over-the-air installations.

Permalink