Since its launch last summer, people have been calling for Apple’s streaming music service Beats 1 to offer up more unique content like live streams of concerts and listening parties. At long last, it appears as if that request is coming to fruition. The Apple Music Snapchat account has recently been promoting a Beats 1-sponsored concert by popular band ‘The 1975,’ whose new album comes out this Friday.

The concert was confirmed on Twitter by the band and will be streamed live on Apple Music this Thursday, February 25th at 9AM PT/12PM ET. It’s unclear if the performance will be streamed exclusively via Beats 1, or if Apple will also share a live video stream of the event, but the stage setup seems to hint that a video will at least be filmed.

The concert will take place in Los Angeles on an undisclosed rooftop and will feature The 1975 playing tracks from their new album I Like It When You Sleep For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware Of It.

Since the launch of Beats 1, people have been calling for Apple to offer things like live streaming concerts and this partnership with The 1975 is the first time the company has done so. Apple, of course, holds its annual Apple Music festival (formally known as the iTunes Festival), which is live streamed, but live events have been limited apart from that.

Apple has been working hard to bring more exclusive content to Apple Music. Back in December it released an exclusive Taylor Swift tour documentary, while new music is often premiered during shows on Beats 1.

While the live The 1975 concert is not necessarily a full-fledged concert and instead a more intimate performance, it signals the potential that Apple is working to showcase more live events. When it comes to music, live concerts are one of the most popular ways for true fans to enjoy content, so if Apple really wants to hone in on the avid music fans, live concerts are way to do so.

Tune in to Beats 1 at 9AM PT/12PM ET to hear The 1975 give a live performance.

Filed under: Apple Music Tagged: Apple Music, Beats 1, Music, The 1975, zane lowe

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In a blog post today, Snapchat has announced that it is expanding its geofilter feature to be open to all users, businesses, and brands. Previously, Snapchat’s geofilters were available to public places, such as cities, colleges, and neighborhoods. With today’s expansion, however, anyone can pay to create a custom geofilter.

For those unaware, geofilters are the things that appear in Snapchat when you swipe to the left on an image and you’re in a valid location. For instance, if you’re in Chicago, you can apply a variety of Chicago-exclusive filters to your snaps. Now, anyone can pay to create their own geofilters for private events, businesses, parties, and more.

Snapchat pitches on-demand geofilters as good for any business or private event. For instance, the company says that you could create your own geofilter for your wedding, party, or business. You simply design a filter, choose the area in which you want the filter to be available, and submit it to Snapchat for approval.

The minimum geofenced area starts at 20,000 square feet, which is good for businesses and small events like weddings, but you can expand that area up to 5 million square feet. The company says that should cover several city blocks. You can also chose a time period for your custom geofilter, with options ranging from an hour to 30 days.

Of course, creating your own geofilter isn’t free. Prices start at $5 and increase depending on the amount of time the filter is available and in how big of an area it’s available.

How it works:

• Design — Use your favorite image editor to create a filter. We’ve also provided some templates that are compatible with Photoshop and Illustrator to get you started 🙂
• Map — Pick a geofence where your filter will appear, then choose the time and dates you want your Geofilter to be available.
• Buy — Submit your Geofilter. Our team will quickly review it and, assuming all is well, get it up and running.

Snapchat has created a dedicated website for submitting on-demand geofilters and has also released a video showing off the feature:

Filed under: Apps Tagged: app, geo, geofilter, Snapchat

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Apple has added several new channels and cable internet services onto the new Apple TV universal search and Siri search today, following the addition of Fox and National Geographic earlier in the month. Today’s enhancements brings Watch ABC, Disney Channel, Disney Jr and Disney X.D into the mix allowing users to quickly search across these services in the Apple TV UI. As shown in the screenshot, Modern Family now lists ABC as a viewing option alongside Netflix, iTunes and Hulu. Selecting Watch ABC takes the user directly to the app with the show ready to watch.

Unfortunately, international Apple TV users continue to be left in the dark regarding ‘universal’ search. Outside of the US, a handful of countries get iTunes + Netflix integration in search results … the remainder only get iTunes.

Apple has been expanding the supported services list since the Apple TV’s launch in October. As well as the channel providers listed above, Apple has added Fox, National Geographic, FX Now, PBS and PBS Kids to the United States’ universal search in 2016.

The complete channel list is now up to 15 sources in total: iTunes, HBO GO, HBO NOW, Hulu, Netflix, PBS, PBS Kids, Showtime, Showtime Anytime, FOX Now, FX NOW, Nat Geo TV, Disney Channel, Disney X.D, Disney Jr and Watch ABC.

Although this is marketed primarily as an Apple TV feature, it is not wholly exclusive to the platform. iPhone users can use Siri on their phones to also see these universal search providers in action, when contextually appropriate.

Filed under: AAPL Company, Apple TV, Apps, iOS, iOS Devices Tagged: ABC, Apple TV, Disney Channel, iOS, Modern Family, Siri, universal search

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As someone who reinstalls OS X several times a year, I’ve gotten into a habit of powering through the initial setup process without thinking much about it. Today, I’d like to share 10 of my favorite initial setup tips with new Mac users. But even if you’re a long-time Mac user, you may still find a helpful gem or two within this how-to.

Keep in mind that the following 10 suggestions are just that, suggestions. If you prefer OS X’s default settings, then by all means, keep them. None of the following items are meant to be rules or standards. Through my usage of OS X over the past few years, I’ve been able to establish a basic workflow when setting up new Macs, and/or when reinstalling OS X.

It’s likely that you, too, have been able to establish your very own new-install workflow, so feel free to combine your preferences with some of the suggestions below. Also, be sure to share your thoughts and suggestions in the comments so that we can help others who read this post.

Full video walkthrough

Enable right-click, and adjust tracking speed

OS X ships with right-click disabled, so you’ll need to enable that functionality out of the box. This is literally the very first thing I do after unboxing a new Mac or when doing a fresh OS X install. The mouse and trackpad tracking speed is also inordinately slow by default, so I boost its speed using the Tracking speed slider from the outset of things as well.

How to do it: Open System Preferences → Mouse → click the checkbox next to Secondary click.

Placing the Dock on the side of the screen

Some of you may or may not agree with this tip, but I’m a firm believer that placing the dock on the side of your Mac’s display makes the most sense. From a pure real estate perspective, it provides you with additional vertical space, which is more limited on a widescreen monitor than horizontal space is.

How to do it: Open System Preferences → Dock → click the Left radio button next to Position on screen.

Minimize windows into application icon

When you minimize apps on a fresh OS X install, you’ll notice that minimized applications and their corresponding windows take up their own spot on the Dock. If you have a variety of windows open at any given time, it won’t take long before the Dock begins to appear untidy. By choosing the “minimize windows into application icon” setting in the Dock’s preferences, minimized windows will reside inside of the related app’s icon on the dock instead.

How to do it: Open System Preferences → Dock → click the checkbox next to Minimize windows into application icon.

Enable Show Desktop Hot Corner

Sure, you can always use the F11 key on a full sized keyboard (or fn+F11 on smaller keyboards) to quickly show the desktop. That said, I prefer assigning the Show Desktop shortcut to a Hot Corner, which makes it possible to quickly show the desktop using a mouse or trackpad.

How to do it: Open System Preferences → Mission Control → Hot Corners → select Desktop in the bottom left-hand corner.

Enable three finger drag with trackpad

In newer versions of OS X, Apple made it slightly more difficult to find and activate the trackpad’s three finger drag gesture. The three finger drag gesture, as its name aptly alludes to, lets you easily move windows and other content by using three fingers on your Mac’s trackpad.

How to do it: Open System Preferences → Accessibility → Mouse & Trackpad → Trackpad Options → click Enable dragging and select three finger drag.

Show Keyboard, Emoji & Symbol Viewers

Having quick access to all of the Emoji characters and symbols in the menu bar is something that I’ve grown used to having. By enabling the Show Keyboard, Emoji, & Symbol Viewers option, special characters and emoji are always just a click away. You can even set favorites and drag emoji characters directly into documents that you’re composing.

How to do it: Open System Preferences → Keyboard → Keyboard → click Show Keyboard, Emoji, & Symbol Viewers in menu bar checkbox.

Set Full Keyboard Access to ‘All controls’

Without changing Full Keyboard Access to ‘All controls’, you’ll notice that you won’t be able to use the Tab key on your Mac’s keyboard to tab between buttons and other on screen assets. By default, OS X only allows users to tab between text input boxes. That’s extremely annoying, so you’ll definitely want to enable this feature as soon as you can.

How to do it: Open System Preferences → Keyboard → Shortcuts → click the radio button next to All controls.

Clean up the Finder

By default, the Finder displays hard disks, external disks, and other media on the desktop. I don’t need those items on my desktop, as such assets are easily accessible within a Finder window. Use Finder’s preferences to keep your desktop looking nice and neat.

How to do it: Open Finder → Finder Preferences → uncheck items under Show these items on the desktop.

Disable Shadows on screenshots

Unless you modify the screenshot settings, you’ll notice that screenshots come with a shadow around their edges by default. Some people like this effect, but other don’t. Place me in the latter camp. To disable screenshot shadows, simply use the following Terminal commands within a Terminal window:

defaults write com.apple.screencapture disable-shadow -bool true

killall SystemUIServer

Add a shortcut to the Library

The user Library folder gives you access to all sorts of things like Application Support files, Preferences and much more. Many users may not need access to such files, but power users will absolutely want to have quick access to the Library folder by means of a Finder shortcut.

How to do it: Open Finder → click Go menu → hold the Option (⌥) key on your keyboard → click Library.

Once the Library folder is open, click the column view option at the top of the Finder window to reveal the hidden base Library folder. From there, it’s just a matter of dragging the Library folder to the Favorites in the Finder’s sidebar to create a shortcut. Be sure to watch our video above for a visual walkthrough through this, and the nine additional getting started tips.

Just the beginning…

Of course, there are other preferences that I tend to establish when I buy a new Mac or reinstall OS X, but the aforementioned 10 items are among my most used configuration changes. What about you? What preferences and options do you reach for upon setting up OS X for the first time? Drop us a line down below in the comments with your tips and suggestions.

Filed under:
How-To, iOS Devices Tagged: Finder, guide, how to, install, Mac OS X, Setup, System Preferences, tutorial

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Following Tim Cook sending a letter to all Apple employees earlier today regarding the issue, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has today expressed his support for Apple in its ongoing battle with the FBI. Speaking at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the Facebook CEO stated that he doesn’t believe that building back doors is the way to handle situations like the one being debated (via NY Times).

“I don’t think building back doors is the way to go, so we’re pretty sympathetic to Tim and Apple,” Zuckerberg said.

This comment is more direct than Facebook’s initial response to the issue, saying in a statement that it would “fight aggressively against requirements for companies to weaken the security of their systems,” without specifically mentioning Apple or Cook by name.

Also regarding Apple’s battle with the FBI, a new poll from the Pew Research Center suggests that the majority of the general public actually sides with the FBI. In a note published today, the research company shared data showing that 51 percent of U.S. citizens believe that Apple should comply with court requests and unlock the iPhone 5c used by one of the San Bernardino gunmen. Just 38 percent of the people surveyed, however, believe that Apple should stand firm and not unlock the iPhone in question, while 11 percent said they “didn’t know.” The data for this survey was collected “nationally” between February 18th and February 21st.

Following the court order last week and Cook’s subsequent open-letter slamming the request, a handful of tech companies have come out in supported Apple. The EFF, ACLU, and WhatsApp all voiced their unequivocal support for Apple. Google, on the other hand, remained vague in its support, with CEO Sundar Pichai and Android head Hiroshi Lockheimer making only vague statements regarding the topic.

Apple’s battle with the FBI over national security versus user privacy began last week and has since become one of the biggest and most complex stories in tech and politics. You can view all of our extensive coverage at the links below:

• U.S. judge orders Apple to help FBI access data on San Bernardino gunman’s iPhone 5c
• Apple publishes letter responding to FBI iPhone unlock demand: ‘an unprecedented step which threatens the security of our customers’
• Google CEO Pichai appears to side with Apple in series of vague tweets on FBI encryption battle
• Security firm shows how Apple could bypass iPhone security to comply with FBI request
• Opinion: How likely is Apple to succeed in resisting the FBI court order?
• Should Apple comply with FBI request to bypass San Bernardino gunman’s iPhone? [Poll]
• Civil rights groups and tech companies express support for Apple’s stand against the FBI
• Opinion: Why an iPhone master key is better than a backdoor, but still too dangerous
• Petition urges White House to support Apple in blocking government access to locked iPhones
• Senate Intelligence Committee considering bill to penalize companies refusing to decrypt user device
• Report: Apple to get more time to formally respond to government’s request for access to locked iPhone
• Apple/FBI fight looks destined to go all the way to the Supreme Court as more background is revealed
• Department of Justice files motion to force Apple to comply with FBI iPhone backdoor request
• Apple implies FBI screwup: iPhone Apple ID password changed in govt possession, backdoor unnecessary
• FBI explains why it changed Apple ID password in iPhone unlock case, retrieved iCloud backups up to October 19 but wants more
• San Bernardino victims divided on iPhone issue as FBI claims not trying to set a precedent
• Apple/FBI: Tim Cook sends memo to employees, wants government to drop All Writs Act demands, posts customer FAQ

Filed under: AAPL Company, iOS Devices Tagged: Encryption, Facebook, FBI, iPhone, Mark Zuckerberg

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As Apple looks to continue to expand the content available on the new fourth-gen Apple TV, Variety reports that the company has hired a former Viacom publication relations representative to handle content relations for the Apple TV.

Bernadette Simpao will join Apple after previously working at AMC and Viacom. Simpao was with Viacom for 10 years before jumping to AMC in 2014 and carrying the role of VP of corporate communications. During her time at Viacom, she held various roles, including senior director of communications, while she also oversaw internal and corporate communications and consumer publicity.

At Apple, Simpao will take on PR efforts for content and apps related to the Apple TV, as well as iTunes TV and movies, apps, books, and podcasts, the report claims.

There are a variety of roles that Simpao could hold at Apple. The company has already expressed a slight interest in creating original content for the Apple TV, including a Taylor Swift documentary and the upcoming Dr. Dre semi-autobiographical series. With Simpao’s experience in consumer publicity, it could be that she will focus on highlighting Apple TV content to the general public.

Simpao’s experience in corporate affairs, however, also suggests that she could perhaps aid Apple in communication and negotiations with other TV networks. The company has long been rumored to be working on a streaming web TV service, but efforts are believed to be on hold currently due to a breakdown of negotiations with networks. Simpao’s experience in corporate negotiations and her connections within companies like Viacom, which includes channels like Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central, and more, could help Apple pull more exclusive content to the Apple TV and iTunes.

Apple and Simpao have yet to comment on the hiring.

Filed under: Apple TV Tagged: Apple, Apple TV, hiring, PR, Viacom

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SpringInvaders is a $0.99 jailbreak tweak for jailbroken iPhones that just launched today. It’s very obvious that the game gets its inspiration from Space Invaders, the classic arcade title. Instead of taking out aliens, however, gamers are tasked with shooting down enemy ships that turn out to be modified versions of the app icons installed on your iPhone.

Your own ship is moved from side to side using the iPhone’s accelerometer, and a tap on the screen causes your ship to shoot tiny app icon bullets at enemies. Have a look at our video walkthrough to see SpringInvaders in action.

Once SpringInvaders is installed, you’ll find a new set of preferences in the stock Settings app. From there, it’s just a matter of venturing into the settings and customizing the tweak to your liking.

The first thing you’ll want to do is establish an Activator gesture, as this allows you to launch the game from anywhere on your iPhone. You can be within an app, at your Home screen, or wherever else, and instantly launch into a game of SpringInvaders by using the established gesture.

Additional settings for SpringInvaders include a stealth mode toggle — for changing the color of your ship to black instead of white — a tilt sensitivity slider, and a section for establishing initial difficulty level.

Once the game is launched, it’s just a matter of moving your ship from side to side using the accelerometer, and shooting down enemies using well-timed taps on the screen. Each shot that you land counts as 10 points, and each shot that you miss subtracts five points. If you’re going for a high score, you’ll want to time your fire wisely.

You can also use a tap and hold gesture to launch a spring bomb—a super-sized app icon that can take out several enemy ships at once. Spring bombs have no negative impact on your score when missing a target, but it takes longer to launch a spring bomb than a simple bullet, and that keeps the experience relatively even.

Unlike Space Invaders, enemy ships don’t shoot back at you. Instead, they attempt to make it past the screen’s threshold, which causes you to lose one of your five lives. In fact, SpringInvaders features no collision detection at all, so an enemy ship can fly right through you as it attempts to make it past the threshold without being destroyed.

Upon invoking SpringInvaders using the assigned Activator gesture, the game loads on top of whatever you’re currently using. If you’re at the Home screen, SpringInvaders appears on top of your iPhone’s wallpaper and app icons. It then mixes in tint, translucency and stars to lend the game a classic space game feel. If you invoke SpringInvaders while within an app, or if you’re using wallpaper that’s overly bright, it’s possible that the background colors or animations could gently detract from gameplay.

SpringInvaders isn’t perfect; the lack of collision detection, and a lack of sound effects are a few of its primary shortcomings. That said, if you’re looking for a quick distraction that’s easy to get into, you might want to give it a try. SpringInvaders is available today on Cydia’s BigBoss repo for $0.99.

Filed under:
How-To, Apps, Jailbreak Tagged: classic games, Cydia, Cydia app, Cydia tweak, Games, jailbreak, jailbreak tweak

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Chinese site Caixin reports that Apple has agreed to take much smaller fees from banks in China compared to the US as the company this month launches its Apple Pay payments service in the country.

The deal with Chinese banks will see Apple get around 0.07 percent per transaction, according to the report citing unnamed sources, compared to approximately 0.15 percent it’s charging banks in the US.

Apple Inc. will earn fees from Chinese banks when customers use its mobile payment service for purchases, but they will be about half of what the U.S. tech giant charges in the United States, people with knowledge of the matter say… Apple will start collecting the fees in two years. Apple started negotiating with major Chinese banks and UnionPay over profit-sharing and technical issues in 2014. The talks stalled, apparently because Chinese banks argued the charges were too steep.

Caixin adds that sources say new banks signing on with Apple in to support Apple Pay in the country might not get the same lower fee and that the agreement with the initial launch group of banks was “a result of compromise from both sides” in an effort to get the service launched.

“These 19 banks will pay Apple the fees at a discount, but banks that get on board later may not have the leverage anymore,” a person with the knowledge of the mater said.

The report follows an official launch of Apple Pay in China last with card issuer China UnionPay and around 19 banks. The launch saw a rush of around 10 million users signing up in the first hour, according to local reports, and close to 40 million on day one. Apple is going up against Chinese market leader Alipay, reported to have approximately 400M users. 

The launch of Apple Pay in China adds it to the list of supported Apple Pay countries alongside the US, the UK, Canada, and Australia.

Filed under: iOS Devices Tagged: 0.07 percent, 0.15, Apple pay, banks, china, credit cards, Fees, Tim Cook, UnionPay, US

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Apple has released the fourth OS X 10.11.4 preview for registered developers to test ahead of its expected release next month. The software update to the Mac will likely be released around next month’s March 15th event and is expected to coincide with a new version of iTunes. For Mac users, the latest version of OS X El Capitan adds enhancements like being able to view and share Live Photos originally taken on the iPhone 6s or 6s Plus as well as the ability to lock notes behind a secure password. We’re check out the latest beta and update with any changes.

Notes on the Mac also gains the ability to import data from competing note-taking apps like Evernote (here’s a tutorial) or just plain text or rich text files.

Both the Photos and iBooks apps have also been focus areas for the software update, and issues loading Twitter URLs with Safari appear to be resolved as well.

Let us know in the comments, via email at tips at 9to5mac dot com, or on Twitter @9to5Mac if you spot any changes in the new beta, and we’ll update with changes we find as well.

Filed under: Developers, Mac Tagged: IBooks, Live Photos, notes, OS X, OS X 10.11.4, os x el capitan

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tvOS 9.2 beta 4 for the fourth-generation Apple TV is now available as an over-the-air software update for registered developers testing the pre-release version. Apple TV gains several new abilities with the upcoming release including iOS-style app folders, a redesigned app switcher user interface, voice dictation input for search and username/password entry, complete iCloud Photo Library support, and much more. We’ll check out the latest beta version of the upcoming release and highlight any changes below.

Other features include the ability to use Bluetooth keyboards with the Apple TV for text input and navigation, which was a feature introduced on older Apple TVs but absent from the new model when it shipped. Siri gains the ability to search the App Store for specific apps, and the Apple TV regains the conference room mode feature as well.

Check out our hands-on video with the initial tvOS 9.2 beta below:

Let us know in the comments, via email at tips at 9to5mac dot com, or on Twitter @9to5Mac if you spot any changes in the new beta, and we’ll update with changes we find as well.

Here’s what’s new:

• Via release notes: New improvements in tvOS 9.2 Beta 4 include: – Updated Apple TV Remote firmware

Filed under: Apple TV, Developers Tagged: Apple TV, tvOS, tvOS 9.2

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