Apple CEO Tim Cook is continuing his public support for equality with a video raising awareness for the Cerebral Palsy foundation.  The campaign ‘Just Say Hi’ encourages people to communicate and interact with people with disabilities in the same way as any other person; hence the ‘just say hi’ moniker.

In the clip, Cook uses Siri to ask how to start a conversation with someone who has a disability. Following the campaign, Siri replies: ‘It’s easy. Just say “hi”.’ You can try this on your iPhone or iPad as well. Siri will repeat the same thing.

Watch the video after the break …

Cook was given a Human Rights National Visibility award October and is set to receive a Robert F. Kennedy award next for his commitment to human rights and equality.

Support for the Cerebral Palsy foundation is just the most recent display in the long line of charities and causes that Cook has backed.

It’s a joy to have Tim Cook add his voice (and Siri’s) to our campaign. Tim’s combination of keen mind and kind heart is displayed every time that he communicates his vision to the world. We’re thrilled that his outreach now includes the “Just Say Hi” campaign.

The full transcript of the video is included below:

At Apple, we believe inclusion inspires innovation, diversity gives us strength and that includes people with disabilities. The Cerebral Palsy foundation asked me what’s the best way to strike up a conversation with someone who has a disability. It’s easier than you think. But don’t take my word for it.

‘Hey Siri, how do you start a conversation with someone who has a disability’ ‘It’s easy, just say hi’. There you go, reach out to someone with a disability. You can start by just saying hi.

Filed under: AAPL Company, iOS, iOS Devices Tagged: Apple, Cerebral Palsy foundation, Just Say Hi, Siri, Tim Cook

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The Sacramento Business Journal is reporting that Apple has started work on a major new expansion at the company’s Elk Grove campus, which currently employs around 2,500 staff.

Construction work quietly underway at Apple’s campus in Elk Grove is for a major expansion that could mean several thousand new jobs, city officials say […]

Apple, which has pulled a series of building permits recently, is investing at least $13 million in the Elk Grove campus.

As evidence for the jobs claim, the city’s economic development director Darren Doan says that Apple is adding 1,450 new parking spaces as well as working with the city’s transportation department on new bus services for employees … 

While the campus was once used for manufacturing, it is currently a warehousing and logistics center, reportedly including iPhone repairs, and also houses a call center.

Much of the work is on employee facilities, including medical and dental clinics, which the journal notes are often used to help recruit and retain tech staff.

The city notes that the site has sufficient electrical capacity to support a major data center, though there is no indication that Apple has any current plans for this. Apple declined to comment on the reasons for the expansion.

Via AI. Top photo sacbee.com.

Filed under: AAPL Company Tagged: Apple Campus, Apple Campus Elk Grove, Apple Campus Sacramento

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Snapchat Support has tweeted that it is aware that many users are “experiencing loading issues,” and says that it is working on a fix.

Hi! Some Snapchatters are currently experiencing loading issues. Our team is aware of the problem and working on a fix now!

—
Snapchat Support (@snapchatsupport) December 08, 2015

Users are variously reporting that they cannot login, load content or upload to the service.

Snapchat updated its iPhone app back in October, adding 3D Touch support and a new set of video filters.

Filed under: Apps Tagged: Snapchat, Snapchat down, Snapchat status

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Out of the blue, Apple has today launched their first battery case, the Apple iPhone 6s Smart Battery Case for $99. The case comes in Charcoal Gray or White and is compatible with iPhone 6s or iPhone 6. The case is like the Apple Silicone Case, with the addition of a back bump for a battery. Third-party iPhone battery cases have existed for a long time, this is the first version of the product from Apple itself.

The integrated battery will increase iPhone talk time up t0 25 hours and Internet use up to 18 hours on LTE (an increase of 8 hours). The battery of the Smart Case is displayed in the iOS UI, thanks to the integration between software and hardware.

The battery case includes a passthrough so you can still plug in other Lightning accessories whilst the case is in use. The product is available to pickup in Apple Stores today with delivery as early as Thursday.

Filed under: AAPL Company, iOS, iOS Devices Tagged: battery case, iPhone 6s, smart battery case

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It’s no secret that when Apple Maps launched back in 2012 it had more than its fair share of issues. The issues included things like incorrect turn-by-turn directions, mislabeled landmarks, and much more. Three years later, however, Apple has been working to remedy the issues its had and according to a new report out of The Boston Globe, the improvements aren’t going unnoticed by users.

According to the report, Apple Maps is now used three times as often as its “next leading competitor” on iPhone and iPad, with more than 5 billion map-related requests ever week. The mysterious “next leading competitor” is obviously Google Maps, which for a significant amount of time following the launch of Apple Maps was the go-to service for iPhone and iPad users.

In the entire market, Google Maps still holds a lead. Google’s offering reportedly had twice as many users in October of this year as Apple Maps. This is due in large part to the fact that Google Maps is supported on both iOS and Android, while Apple Maps is obviously limited purely to the former of the two.

One the biggest reason for the growth in use of Apple Maps is the integration of the service into third-party apps. Going into Yelp for instance allows you to instantly find directions via Apple Maps, while the Starbucks app shows all surrounding stores and allows navigation via Apple Maps.

Of course, Google provided the mapping data for iPhones until 2012. It was then that Apple decided to ditch the company in favor of its own, custom-built solution. It was a risky move that hurt the company’s reputation at the beginning, but it has since done a lot to regain customer trust.  “We are fast learners and we are fast at fixing things,” said Apple marketing VP Greg Joswiak. “We learned the maps business incredibly fast.”

The growing trust of Apple Maps among iPhone users is important for the Cupertino company. It likely means that customers will turn to Apple’s first-party apps in other instances, as well, instead of going in search of third-party solutions, as was the case when Apple Maps launched in 2012.

Filed under: iOS Tagged: Apple Maps, Google Maps, iOS, usage

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Spoiler: I like these, but they’re not my picks

2015 proved to be a gigantic year for Apple in terms of shipping totally new products and seeing services go live for the first time. Apple Watch is a brand new category for the iPhone maker, the new Apple TV delivers on long-awaited update to the streaming box, and iPad Pro is every bit the giant tablet that was rumored for so long. My two absolute favorite new things from Apple this year, however, aren’t new hardware products but instead two services that have been criticized but have made a meaningful difference in my everyday life…

The first is the new Photos app and iCloud Photo Library. I stuck with iPhoto for far too long, but the photo management app and the old iLife suite was easily one of the most compelling parts of owning a Mac for me during iPhoto’s prime. I developed a workflow for capturing photos, sorting them all out, and keeping them around between the iPhone and iPhoto, and I didn’t want to let go of that workflow even when Apple announced in 2014 that iPhoto was dead and Photos for Mac would eventually replace it. I’d take a month’s worth of photos and videos on my iPhone, dump them into iPhoto and create an event called MONTH YEAR, then sync the library back to my iPhone. This meant having the highest capacity iPhone available and not syncing videos back, but it generally worked for me right up to Photos and iCloud Photo Library’s launch toward the start of this year.

Enter Photos for Mac and iCloud Photo Library. The migration process was basically Apple saying “push this button and trust us” which didn’t work out well for everyone, and my roughly 10,000 photo and 500 video library took over a week to upload to iCloud on my mediocre broadband connection, but eventually everything got sorted out in the right place and I haven’t looked back since. I no longer worry about manually organizing my library by month and year as Photos has far superior time-based organization than iPhoto did, and iCloud Photo Library lets me have access to all those videos too that were previously only accessible from my Mac.

Photos and iCloud Photo Library also lets me edit photos from any device and see those changes everywhere else, delete photos from anywhere and have my library update, and access my 13,000 photos and 1,000 videos and counting from 16GB iPads. Albums also sync across devices without having to sync with iTunes on the Mac, which has been huge for me. Over the weekend, I sat down to make a couple 2016 calendars in Photos for Mac using family photos for grandparents as Christmas gifts. I’d been tapping the heart to favorite the best photos taken throughout the year so I had a nice bucket of about 150 photos to choose from with the Favorites album which made the process much easier than in past years.

There’s still a lot I’d like to see from Photos and iCloud Photo Library, like real support on the new Apple TV, syncing Faces and Google Photos-like search, and access to Projects like calendar, card, and book creation from iPhones and iPads and across different Macs, but year one of Photos and iCloud has been a grand slam for me personally. I’ve seen horror stories of how iCloud Photo Library has been a nightmare for some people, but I’ve been fortunate not to have any major hiccups past the initial, lengthy upload process.

In fact, iCloud Photo Library and Photos for Mac saved my summer vacation photos back in July. My iPhone was off Wi-Fi for several days and not backing up to iCloud when the software had to be erased for one reason or another. Although my iPhone hadn’t been backing up everything, iCloud Photo Library was sucking up my Disney World family photos and downloading them back on my Mac hundreds of miles away. Exactly what I wanted.

And for my number two pick for favorite new Apple thing of 2015: Apple Music, but not on its own. Beats Music was totally fine and worked really well for me. Apple Music is in more places like iTunes and CarPlay and works with Siri, but it’s Apple Music paired with Family Sharing that makes it something special to me.

$10/month for a single membership, or $15/month for up to six memberships means for $5 more each month I can share access to Apple’s catalog of music with people in my family that only buy a few albums on iTunes, never buy digital music but have years of physical media, or just settle for what plays on the radio.

Apple’s clever here, too, because where I could see myself starting and stopping a Music subscription on my own, I’d be in trouble (or at least disappointed) if my family lost access to their newly made music libraries and playlists.

Family Sharing on its own lets you share paid apps and iTunes media purchases, but it’s still sort of technical to access these without being shown. Apple Music through Family Sharing is generally very easy to use, however, aside from a few road bumps during setup you may experience.

There are other new Apple things that I really appreciate this year. Apple’s Podcasts app got a lot better in iOS 9, just as my previous favorite podcasts app Instacast was discontinued. I’m still happy with my Apple Watch for the most part, and I’m increasingly impressed with what I can comfortably do with the iPad Pro (like write this piece on Wordpres through Safari while watching Tweetbot streaming in a column), but Photos + iCloud Photo Library and Apple Music with Family Sharing are two new Apple things from 2015 that I would not want to trade or replace.

How about you? What’s your favorite new Apple thing and why? Let us know in the comments, and vote in our poll for new products and peripherals too.

Filed under: Opinion Tagged: 2015, Apple, Apple Music, best of, iCloud Photo Library, iOS, photos

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Volvo intially signed on to support CarPlay as soon as Apple launched its in-car infotainment system in 2014. Since then, however, the automaker has been eerily quite on its CarPlay plans, not announcing when it would start shipping models that supported the software. Today though, Volo has announced that CarPlay is now available in its 2016 XC90.

CarPlay is available to both current and future XC90 crossover owners. Starting today, when you plug your iPhone into the car’s USB Port, part of the Senus touchscreen will transform into CarPlay. Since the XC90 features a large 9.0-inch display, CarPlay only occupies the bottom half of the display. The top half remains the same as to allow users to access required vehicle functions.

If you currently own a XC90, you’ll have make a trip to the dealer to get the software in your car updated. Volvo says that the update via a dealer should take no more than an hour. If you’re purchasing a new XC90, Volvo says the CarPlay addition will be available for a “small cost,” but wouldn’t elaborate any further.

Below is a video by Volvo showing off how CarPlay is integrated into the Sensus touchscreen. CarPlay, of course, allows users to interact with their car via Siri and touch in a familiar iPhone-like interface. Watch the video below:

Filed under: CarPlay Tagged: CarPlay, Volvo, XC90

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Shortly after Dropbox announced it had shut down its popular Mailbox and Carousel apps, Facebook has made a similar move by removing a handful of its apps from the iOS App Store and shutting down the division that created them.

Facebook’s Creative Labs project was intended to promote the creation of apps like Snapchat competitor Slingshot, and has launched several apps with some success. However, the social site has apparently decided that the time has come to shutter that initiative and the apps it has produced.

The affected apps include Slingshot, the aforementioned Snapchat competitor; Riff, a collaborative video creation app; and Rooms, a group-messaging service launched last year.

Facebook says most of the features from those apps have been integrated into other offerings such as the main Facebook app and Messenger.

The social networking site has previously shut down apps that weren’t performing as well as it had hoped, such as Facebook Camera, the photo sharing app that didn’t offer much over the stock camera app. The company had also previously experimented with a Snapchat competitor called Poke which allowed users to send temporary photos, videos, and text messages to friends.

Filed under: Apps Tagged: Facebook, riff, rooms, Slingshot

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In a new blog post today, Dropbox has announced the shuttering of the Mailbox app it acquired in 2013, along with the Carousel photos app that launched last year. The beta build of Mailbox for Mac has not seen an update in quite some time, while the iOS version had been left to stagnate, leading many to believe this was the case already, but today’s announcement finally confirms it.

Dropbox says that the reason for the shutdowns was that company had “increased our team’s focus on collaboration and simplifying the way people work together.”

The Mailbox team released a separate blog post in which the developers conceded that “there’s only so much an email app can do to fundamentally fix email,” and noted that many of the new advancements in email management Mailbox had made were now available in other apps.

On a FAQ page, the Mailbox crew confirmed that the shutdown will take place on February 26 next year. Prior to that shutdown, users will be given an option to export their auto-swipe patterns to help recreate them elsewhere. Snoozed emails will be available in the “later” list.

On the 26th, all drafts, auto-swipe settings, and snoozes will be deleted. Messages falling into those categories should remain on users’ Gmail and iCloud accounts without any problem.

All user data will be deleted from Dropbox’s servers within the next 30 days. Users who earned 1 GB of free Dropbox space by signing up for Mailbox will not lose that extra storage. Mailbox has also confirmed it has no plans to open-source the app.

The teams previously working on these projects have been shuffled around inside Dropbox. Those who had been working on Carousel will see their work integrated directly into the main Dropbox app, while the Mailbox team will work on collaborative features in Dropbox Paper.

Filed under: Apps Tagged: Carousel, Dropbox, Mailbox

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Keep up with the best gear and deals on the web by signing up for the 9to5Toys Newsletter. Also, be sure to check us out on: Twitter, RSS Feed, Facebook, Google+ and Safari push notifications.

TODAY’S CAN’T MISS DEALS:

$100 iTunes Physical Gift Card for $80 w/ free shipping (20% off)

Apple Watch comes w/ a free $100 gift card right now (effective savings up to 29%)

Apple’s latest freebie is Afterlight image editing app for iPhone and iPad ($1 value)

Justin’s Holiday Gift Guide: speakers, Lightning mics, storage, pocket synths & more to up your home recording set-up

Giveaway: SanDisk USB flash drives for iPhone, iPad, and Android mobile devices

MORE NEW GEAR FROM TODAY:

This Leviton wall outlet has a pair of powerful USB ports, get it for $17 Prime shipped (Orig. $30)

• Amazon launches New Kindle Fire HD 8 ‘Reader’s Edition’
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MORE DEALS STILL ALIVE:

Grab Nomad’s gorgeous aluminum Apple Watch Stand at its best price ever: $41 shipped (Reg. $60)

App Store Free App of the Week: Monument Valley goes free (Reg. $4)

TextExpander 5 for Mac, award-winning productivity app now $22 (Orig. $45)

• iPhone 6 (refurb) and one year of unlimited talk/text: $550 shipped
• Bluetooth Headphones: Jabra MOVE On-ears $60 (Reg. $90), more
• Amazon is giving away a year of unlimited cloud storage
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• A year of BJ’s for $18? You aren’t dreaming, just being a perv
• Fashion 50% off sales: The North Face, PUMA, Patagonia, more
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• Kindle First Books for December: Out of Sorts, A Death in Sweden, more
• OtterBox Commuter Series iPhone 6/6s Case for $19 shipped (Reg. $28+)
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• Monoprice MHD Sport 2.0 Action Camera w/ Live View Remote $150 (Reg. $180)
• AirPort Extreme 802.11ac Wireless Router (refurbished): $100 shipped (Orig. $199)
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NEW PRODUCTS & MORE:

Razor details its new Hovertrax Smart Scooter ahead of release

Anova Culinary updates its sous vide Precision Cooker w/ Wi-Fi  for cooking away from home

• Mounts for the new Apple TV (4th gen) keep your HDTV setup looking super clean
• Host a Christmas party that doesn’t suck with these rowdy adult board games
• Sugr Cube enters the fray of Wi-Fi speakers with touch-based controls & a myriad of sources
• MiTagg slims down its NuDock Mini for iPhone & Apple Watch plus adds USB-C
• Review: Star Wars Battlefront limited edition PS4 is out of this galaxy [Video]
• Mohu launches a “high-end” speaker with built-in Android display, save 10%
• Leica introduces a new low-cost M series camera, but don’t expect bargain pricing

Filed under: Tips and Tricks Tagged: 9to5Toys, Amazon Gold Box, Amazon Prime, apple deals, Apple watch, Apple Watch sale, Black Friday, coupon codes, Cyber Monday, eBay Daily Deals, free apps, free shipping, gift guide, giveaway, iTunes Gift Card, New Toy of the Day

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