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.

Instapaper Launches Instaparser API→

The Instapaper team, writing on the company blog:

Since the launch of our new parser in January, we’ve gotten lots of inquiries from developers about using our parser for third-party applications. With the new Instaparser API, app developers can use our parsing tools to provide users with a lightning-fast browsing experience optimized for mobile devices. Data scientists can use the tools to normalize input for text analysis. And hackers can do, well, whatever hackers might like to do with lightning-fast access to clean, standardized web page data.

The addition of an API makes sense to me – now third-party developers (think Twitter clients or news readers) can access the same powerful parser that Instapaper uses (which is excellent). I’m curious to see which iOS apps will implement it in the near future.

There’s also a free tier available here.

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TextExpander Updates Focus on New Service

TextExpander from Smile Software is one of those indie apps that feels like it’s been around forever. TextExpander has saved customers countless hours of typing by letting them define short abbreviations that it expands into longer snippets of text. Today, Smile released TextExpander 6 for Mac, TextExpander 4 for iOS, and even an all-new Windows beta. The apps include some interesting updates, but at the center of the updates is a new service, TextExpander.com, which provides snippet group syncing, sharing services, and team management. Smile is simultaneously moving TextExpander to a subscription pricing model, a development that I expect will not be popular with some long-time customers.

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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 Classroom First Impressions→

Fraser Speirs:

Yesterday, I got Apple Classroom up and running at school thanks to the release of Casper 9.9, which supports the new features of iOS 9.3. Here are some early impressions. I’ll mostly focus on the technology and how well it works, rather than how effective it is for teaching since I’ve only had a day or so to play with it.

There are some missing features and issues in this first release (low frame rate for screen monitoring or the use of Bluetooth, for instance), but it sounds like Apple shipped a solid foundation for Classroom on iOS 9.3.

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Run Better Meetings with Agenda Minder

Sometimes it feels as though meetings are designed purposefully to waste time. Research suggests that some simple steps can make meetings far more productive. Internodal has synthesized the research on planning better meetings into a new Mac app called Agenda Minder that tackles the problem by facilitating the setting of objectives, and the creation and sharing of agendas. If you care about your own time and respect others’ time, you’re already half way there, and an app like Agenda Minder may help you turn those good intentions to action.

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Apple’s Short Films for Autism Acceptance Day→

Katie Dupere, writing for Mashable on Apple’s two short films about Dillan, an autistic teen who found his voice thanks to an iPad:

Dillan Barmache can’t speak, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have anything to say.

In fact, Dillan has complex and powerful thoughts, and thanks to easily accessible technology paired with innovative apps, you can hear his perspective.

Dillan, who is autistic and nonverbal, is the star of a new short film created by Apple to celebrate Autism Acceptance Day. Notably, the film tells Dillan’s story through his own words, typed out on an iPad then spoken out loud via an augmented and alternative communication (AAC) app.

It’s difficult to watch these two videos without tearing up. A beautiful story, and an excellent reminder that there’s more to iOS than the apps we usually talk about. This, ultimately, is why what Apple does matters.

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Apple’s First 40 Years: Inspiring New Generations to Create

Anniversaries are a good time to look a back and reflect on the past. I’m a relative late-comer to Apple products, but at the same time, Apple has been in my peripheral vision since before the introduction of the very first Mac in 1984. My relationship with Apple is the story that has taken a long time to unfold, but in recent years has made a big dent in my universe.

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