Apple kicked off the week by releasing a major new beta for each one of its platforms including tvOS 9.2 beta for the new Apple TV. While the software update isn’t available to everyone just yet, the pre-release software brings the 4th-gen Apple TV up to parity with older Apple TVs and even makes it work more like iPhones and iPads. For example, tvOS 9.2 beta finally adds Bluetooth keyboard support to the new Apple TV after first shipping at the end of October without the feature; previous Apple TVs worked with wireless keyboards from the start. The new update also adds a new built-in app and some iPhone-like features as well. Check out the details below:

Just like older Apple TVs, tvOS 9.2 includes Apple’s Podcasts app which lets you subscribe and listen to podcasts like 9to5Mac’s Happy Hour podcast for example. The new Apple TV Podcasts app works very similarly to the iOS 9 version of the same app, which is organized by unplayed episodes, subscriptions, featured podcasts, top charts, and search. Just don’t expect to find or play any video podcasts on this version of the Apple TV Podcasts app.

While the Podcasts app is technically in beta, it’s worth noting that Siri on the Apple TV doesn’t yet talk to the Podcasts app like Siri on iPhones and iPads does. There’s also no special “top shelf” artwork when you put the new app in the first row on your Apple TV, although these are likely beta shortcomings that will be resolved in future software updates. Overall it’s a very solid podcast app if you like it on iPhone and iPad.

Check out our hands-on video with Apple TV and tvOS 9.2 below:

In addition to Bluetooth keyboard support and a new Podcasts app, the new Apple TV also features an updated app switcher user interface that looks more like iOS 9 and less like iOS 8. The full screen left to right app previews have been replaced with stacked cards of right to left app previews. Opinions on this will likely vary, but on the plus side both iOS and tvOS have a more consistent UI when moving between apps.

You’ll also find folders on tvOS 9.2 beta. Just drag and drop two app icons on top of each other very similar to how iOS works. Rearranging apps can be a lot of work on the big screen, however, so tvOS includes a new menu for quickly moving apps to the Home screen and other folders when pressing the play/pause button in jiggle mode. Finally, the tvOS grid layout for app folders first appears to be a 3×3 grid of 9 apps per screen like on iPhone, but adding additional apps reveals that Apple TV app folders can actually infinitely scroll vertically with three columns and numerous rows.

The new tvOS 9.2 software update will ship to all fourth-gen Apple TVs later this year.

Filed under: Apple TV Tagged: Apple TV, Bluetooth, Bluetooth keyboards, Podcasts, tvOS, tvOS 9.2, tvOS 9.2 beta

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Earlier today Apple unloaded several new beta software updates including iOS 9.3 for iPhone which adds some handy new features to CarPlay. Specifically, both the Maps and Music apps for CarPlay were updated to work more like the iPhone versions on iOS 9. Check out the details below: 

The Music app on CarPlay has been rebuilt to include features from the Apple Music streaming service for the first time. Starting with iOS 9.3, the For You and New sections of Apple Music now appear through CarPlay so you can easily select playlists and albums through the streamlined interface. The Music app now highlights recently added playlists and saved music just like on the iPhone and elsewhere. You still can’t add music and playlists to your library without using Siri, but that’s fair for a stripped down version of Apple Music intended to be used while driving.

On the Apple Maps side, iOS 9’s Nearby feature introduced in September is now available through Maps in CarPlay. Nearby is useful on iPhones and iPads, but it’s especially useful as a CarPlay feature where finding directions is a common task. Shortcuts for local gas stations, restaurants, coffee shops and more are presented when you search for a new destination. You’ll also see star ratings, price levels, and distance when comparing locations.

Check out our hands-on video with CarPlay and iOS 9.3 below:

Bringing the real Apple Music experience to CarPlay and enhancing the Apple Maps app are very welcome improvements to CarPlay. While iOS 9.3 is still only in beta and these features weren’t available when iOS 9.0 was first released, today’s update shows that Apple still cares about CarPlay which makes me hopeful that the feature will continue to improve in the future. I’d still love to see the ability to send audio messages, not just play them back a single time, and rearranging or hiding apps would be welcome too, but overall I think the iOS 9.3 update will be an impressive one for CarPlay fans.

For more on CarPlay, check out our initial review of CarPlay and our update to what initially changed with CarPlay after one year if you want to learn more about the feature. And expect these iPhone apps  to work with CarPlay.

Filed under: CarPlay Tagged: CarPlay, iOS 9, iOS 9.3, iPhone

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Fresh Apple news site MacGeneration today reports that Apple is soon planning to open a new flagship retail store in Paris, France, citing French newspaper Le Figaro. The report claims that Apple has secured a lease for a 20,341-square-feet seven story building at 114 Avenue des Champs-Élysées. The company plans to operate a retail store on the lower levels of the building, while the upper levels will be reserved for office space.

Apple reportedly agreed to a deal for the building in late 2015. The company signed a 12-year lease for the space at 12 million euros per year. Apple is said to be partnering with Norman Foster of the architectural firm Foster and Partners for the design of the building. Despite already having a designer and lease agreement, Apple will not move into the space until 2018 or 2019, Le Figaro reports.

Apple currently operates 19 retail stores in France, so when the Champs-Élysées opens in several years, it will mark the 20th store for Apple in France. Rumors of Apple opening a new Paris location have been circulating since 2013, but with singing of a lease, it looks like the rumors are now coming to fruition.

Earlier today, it was announced that Apple is opening two more retail stores in China this month, its third and fourth of the month. Apple hopes to open 40 stores in China by October of this year. With the expedited expansion in China and the new Champs-Élysées location in Paris, Apple is continuing its global expansion under retail chief Angela Ahrendts.

Filed under: AAPL Company Tagged: Apple, Apple Retail Store, Champs-Élysées, Paris, retail, store

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Apple today has announced that its App Analytics feature now supports tvOS apps. This means that developers can get more detail on how users are responding to and using their apps on the fourth-gen Apple TV. Developers can see how many views their App Store product page is receiving, track marketing campaign, get app usage information, and track in-app purchase success.

By tracking campaign links, developers can see how successful their marketing campaigns have been by checking how being a promoted app has affected downloads. If the app has a campaign iOS app, developers can also see how often iOS users are using the tvOS version and vice versa.

For tracking usage, developers can view session, active device, retention, and crash reports to get more detail on user habits. Likewise, developers can track in-app purchase success with App Analytics, as well.

App Analytics was originally introduced at WWDC in 2014 and started going live for iOS developers in April of 2015. We shared screenshots of the developer tool shortly after it launched, but noted that numbers aren’t entirely reliable do to the fact that only a small portion of users agree to share data with developers.

Filed under: Apple TV Tagged: Apple TV, Apps, developers

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During an interview at Tesla’s design Studio in Los Angeles, Tesla CEO Elon Musk commented on Apple’s rumored electric vehicle program, codenamed “Project Titan“. It was hardly the first time the CEO commented on the project, but it always interesting to hear about the possibility of Apple bringing an electric car to market. This time Musk called the project under-development an “open secret” and agreed that Apple is “serious about it.”

While talking with BBC’s Rory Cellan-Jones about Apple’s rumored car, Musk said:

“It’s pretty hard to hide something if you hire over a thousand engineers to do it.”

Reports came out last year of a so-called “poaching war” between Tesla and Apple over automotive engineers. Following the reports, Musk didn’t have eulogistic words for Apple’s new hires:

“They have hired people we’ve fired. We always jokingly call Apple the ‘Tesla Graveyard.’ If you don’t make it at Tesla, you go work at Apple.”

The next day Musk took to Twitter to soften his comments about the company:

Yo, I don't hate Apple. It's a great company with a lot of talented people. I love their products and I'm glad they're doing an EV.

—
Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 09, 2015

During the BBC interview, Musk reiterated his content that Apple is jumping in the EV industry, which is in line with Tesla’s mission to accelerate the advent of sustainable transport. As usual, he warned of the difficulty of building an electric vehicle, but this time he added some optimism to what Apple could bring to market:

“Companies like Apple will probably make a compelling electric car.”

Musk’s comment about Project Titan being an “open secret” in the industry follows a recent report confirming that Apple registered three new car-themed domain names, which just keep adding to the evidence that Apple is developing an electric vehicle.

Meanwhile, here’s what Steve Wozniak is up to…

Filed under: Apple Car Tagged: Apple, car, electric vehicle, Elon Musk, Project Titan, Tesla

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Welcome to the latest edition of Jeremy’s 5, my latest quick roundup of 5 interesting little things that aren’t big enough for full articles, but are still worth sharing with you.

This week, I’m following up my pre-CES predictions with quick post-CES thoughts, discussing a classic game emulator, mulling Apple News, and offering a few thoughts on future Apple products: the Apple Watch 2 and second-generation 12″ MacBook…

1. Post-CES Thoughts. I skipped CES this year, and from what my colleagues have said, this was a good year to miss: there were fewer Apple product announcements than I can recall in five or six years, and really nothing of note across any of Apple’s major product lines. Even iOS software initiatives were modestly represented — there were a few HomeKit product launches, and only a little on CarPlay, with Apple supposedly asking Volkswagen not to demonstrate wireless CarPlay functionality for some reason.

Unlike prior years, where developers were tripping over themselves to show accessories for new (and sometimes even unreleased) devices, I struggled to find anything really compelling for the iPad Pro or Apple Watch, though there were a lot of announcements of USB-C accessories that work with the 12″ MacBook. It saddens me to see Apple’s influence (even from a distance) fading at CES, but as I mentioned last week, this isn’t surprising; unless Apple comes in and curates part of the show, it’s going to be a large, needlessly wasted opportunity for both Apple and its developers.

2. SDLMAME and OpenEMU. A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about OpenEMU 2.0, a free multi-console game emulator that’s really easy for Mac users to enjoy. If you’re a fan of classic arcade games, and you haven’t seen it recently/already, it’s time to check out SDLMAME, which supports an absolutely incredible collection of classic arcade machines. With a powerful enough Mac, SDLMAME is actually capable of running Sega Model 3 arcade games such as Virtua Fighter 3 — once considered to be so cutting-edge that only one or two companies could program for it — which is pretty incredible to see on a MacBook screen. Check it out for yourself and see what your Mac is capable of emulating.

3. Apple News: Does Anyone Really Care? Apple admitted yesterday that it has been miscounting the number of Apple News users — previously pegged at 40 million — although it has suggested that it may have been undercounting users. I don’t have access to the raw numbers, but I personally don’t know anyone who uses the News app, and as a content creator, I’m not sure that it’s worth my time to reformat anything specifically for Apple News. Granted, I’m a long-time RSS reader user (Reeder for Mac, Reeder for iOS), but nothing about the Apple News experience has been great enough to convert me.

If you’re using or no longer using Apple News, share your opinions. I’d like to know what you think. Is it worth 9to5’s time to create content for News, or should we just skip it?

4. Apple Watch 2: Your Views, And Mine. I was dragged into Apple Watch ownership last year kicking and screaming — it was the first major Apple product in years that I wouldn’t have even considered buying if it wasn’t for my job. Yet I’ve worn it literally every day since I got it, which a lot of Apple Watch owners can’t say. As I’ve said in prior articles, the happiness turning point for me was adding the awesome Milanese Loop, which makes it super-easy to put on in the morning, and the worst part was spending months on the buggy, battery-killing watchOS 2 beta.

The fact that I wear the Apple Watch daily doesn’t mean I’m fully (or even substantially) happy with it. It does little more for me than tell the time, let me know when my phone’s ringing, and occasionally alert me to a notification I might have missed; I actively dislike the selection of watch faces, don’t make or receive calls on it, and find most of the notifications uselessly non-actionable. My favorite (but far less used) feature is Apple Pay, which works exactly like it should, and saves me fishing for my wallet or iPhone. Because they’re so slow, I actively dislike using Maps and third-party apps on it, both of which should have been signature features of the device.

We’ve done reader polls to ask what features people most want from a next-gen Apple Watch, and the top picks are “new health sensors” and “improved Wi-Fi” to free it from iPhone dependence. While I’d love those things, I’m convinced that the Apple Watch 2 really needs to get better at the tasks the Apple Watch was supposed to handle: running apps (quickly), acting as a useful communications device, and serving as a timepiece for longer between recharges. That said, I don’t know that “doing the things promised in 2015” is enough to sell the Apple Watch 2 to people who held out last year.

5. 12″ MacBook, Mark II. From my standpoint, Apple’s single most intriguing upcoming product for 2016 isn’t from a “new category,” but rather what I’d describe as a “finished” version of the 12″ Retina MacBook it released last year. As much as I wanted a super-slim laptop with a Retina screen, I felt like the MacBook was rushed out last year: the ultra-slow processors, single USB-C port, and weirdly limited availability all suggested that the machine was hurried through development to plant Apple’s flag in the soil, with plans to fix the issues in a second-gen model. So although I was very excited by the concept of the MacBook, the execution made me wait.

What am I waiting on? A few things. At least one more port — USB-C would be fine — is mandatory to me. Faster processors at more reasonable prices are similarly key; there’s no way I’m paying $1,300 for a 1.1GHz machine. Better battery life would be great (Apple’s “9-hour” claim is off by a factor of 2), as would be an improved FaceTime camera, but they’re not priorities for me in the same way as the processor, port, and pricing improvements are. If Apple gets those things right, it gets my money, but if not, I’m holding off for another year.

Just curious: what would push you over the edge to buy the new MacBook?

More From This Author

Check out more of my reviews, How-To guides and editorials for 9to5Mac here! I’ve published a lot of different topics of interest to Mac, iPad, iPhone, iPod, Apple TV, and Apple Watch users, as well as a personal gift guide for Apple fans, a great gift guide for iPhone users, a detailed gift guide for Mac users, and a separate gift guide for Apple photographers.

Filed under: Opinion

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In addition to unveiling iOS 9.3 with new CarPlay features, Apple today has launched a new webpage detailing all of the cars in which its infotainment system is available. On the page, Apple touts that CarPlay is or will soon be available in more than 100 different vehicles models. The list consists of 2016 and 2017 car models only, from a variety of different companies.

The full list of manufacturers featured on the page includes Audi, Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, Citroen, DS Automobiles, Ferrari, Ford, GMC, Honda, Hyundai, Mercedes-Benz, Mitsubishi, Opel, Porsche, Peugeot, Seat, Skoda, Suzuki, Volkswagen, and Volvo. Apple’s list excludes aftermarket options for installing CarPlay, such as Pioneer and JBL head units.

iOS 9.3 saw the introduction of a couple of new CarPlay features. CarPlay can finally take advantage of the “New” and “For You” Apple Music features, introduced last summer alongside Apple Music. There’s also a new “Nearby” feature in Maps that shows the closest gas, parking, restaurants, coffee, and more.

CES 2016 saw the announcement that Ford would be integrating CarPlay at long last, and that announcement is reflected on Apple’s webpage. What’s not reflected, however, is that Ford will make a software update available to 2016 car models that will add support for CarPlay.

Apple’s new detailed list of CarPlay manufacturers is available here. Apple’s launch of CarPlay-dedicated list of manufacturers could reflect that the company finally feels as if its infotainment system is available in an apt number of vehicles.

Filed under: CarPlay Tagged: Apple, CarPlay, webpage

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Earlier today, Apple announced iOS 9.3, a fairly significant point update to iOS 9. The new operating system adds new features for the Health, Wallet, Notes, and Settings apps, in addition to a Night Mode and new 3D Touch shortcuts. This gallery below shows off all of the new features, and here’s a bulleted list of everything new in the first beta:

• Night Shift mode to adjust colors based on time of day and location of device
• Password protecting (with Touch ID support) notes in the Notes app
• Ability to jump to corresponding apps from Apple Pay and passes in Wallet app
• iPhone Landscape support + more personalization in the News app
• New 3D Touch shortcuts from Home screen for Weather, Settings, Compass, Health, App Store, iTunes Store
• Siri Support for Hebrew and Malay (not available yet on the Apple Watch)
• Feedback app (in the beta only)
• Taptic Feedback when accessing multitasking via 3D Touch
• Activity app data in the Health app
• New Workout data section in the Apple Watch Activity app
• iOS Education upgrades
• Enhanced Apple Music support in CarPlay

Filed under: iOS Devices

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With the new Apple TV tvOS 9.2 beta, Apple has added a whole host of new features to the tvOS platform. This includes support for pairing Bluetooth keyboards, Folders organisation for apps on the home screen, a new App Switcher UI and a native Apple Podcasts app.

There are also some enhancements to Siri and other improvements. Apple has added support for two new Siri languages: US Spanish and French Canadian. More images after the break …

When moving app icons, you can now drag and drop apps into Folders just like on the iPhone or iPad Home Screen. Pressing the Play/Pause button now brings up a series of options and controls for further management, including quick moves to folders or deletes.

The app switcher has also been overhauled to mirror the iOS 9 appearance. Rather than tiled screenshots, the apps now overlap and use the same blur effect seen on iOS.

The Podcast app carries over almost identically from the iPhone app, with tabs for Unplayed, My Podcasts, Featured, Top Charts and Search. Just click on podcast artwork to start playing.

Filed under: AAPL Company, Apple TV, iOS Devices Tagged: Apple TV, Bluetooth keyboards, iOS 9.3, podcasts app

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Besides a new suite of enhancements for educational uses, Apple’s upcoming iOS 9.3 release, which went into beta this morning, adds several consumer-facing features. Apple highlights these on a website previewing the update. Notably, the update adds a system-wide Night Mode that uses the device’s time and location to present certain colors around the software optimized for darker environments:

Notes is one of those apps you use all the time for all kinds of things. Now you can secure the notes that contain your most personal data — such as financial details, medical info, or website logins — with a password or fingerprint. You can also sort notes by date created, date modified, or alphabetically.

Lastly, CarPlay has improved Apple Music integration:

With iOS 9.3, CarPlay adds even more useful features. New and For You from Apple Music — with songs, artists, and albums handpicked by experts, plus selections based on your preferences— are right at hand on your screen. And the Nearby feature in Maps lets you find gas, parking, restaurants, coffee, and more with a tap. So you’ll know the best places to stop, whether you’re on your daily commute or an epic road trip.

As we highlighted in our earlier article, iOS 9.3 also adds Hebrew support for Siri and support for more than one connected Apple Watch per iPhone.

Filed under: iOS Devices

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