Happy Hour Podcast 141 | HomeKit and AirPlay 2, Sonos One event, and HomePod competition

This week Benjamin and Zac discuss the new Beats Studio3 Wireless headphones, iOS 11.0.2 for iPhone 8 and watchOS 4.0.1 for Apple Watch Series 3, Apple Pay Cash testing, Nike+ Run Club’s watchOS app update, running with streaming music on watchOS 4.1, HomeKit updates including Philips Hue and Chamberlain products, the Sonos One event and AirPlay 2 support, HomePod’s latest competition, and more.

9to5Mac’s Happy Hour podcast is available for download on iTunes and Apple’s Podcasts app, Google Play Music, or through our dedicated RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players.

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You can now cross-post Instagram Stories to Facebook Stories

If you’re a fan of Instagram or Facebook Stories – posts of photos and videos which automatically disappear after 24 hours – you’ll now be able to send to both platforms with a single post.

In a feature currently rolling out to Instagram users, there’s a new Share option when posting a story which says “Your Facebook Story”. Check that, and it will be automatically cross-posted to Facebook Stories …

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Patent describes clever method allowing an Apple Watch to measure blood pressure

Anyone who’s ever had a blood pressure test will know that it normally involves an inflatable cuff that squeezes your arm until it cuts off circulation, then gradually deflates it, measuring the point at which circulation first resumes and then returns to normal.

But an Apple patent published today describes a clever method for calculating blood pressure using nothing more than an Apple Watch with a sensor-equipped band …

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Behind-the-scenes documentary for Pink’s new album coming to Apple Music [Video]

A behind-the-scenes documentary about the making of Pink’s upcoming album Beautiful Trauma is coming exclusively to Apple Music later this month. You can see a trailer below.

Making an album is so many moving pieces, a lot of parts. The studio sessions, and you write the songs, and you have to finish the songs, and somebody’s in New York and somebody’s  in Philadelphia, and then there’s a choir in Philadelphia, and then it’s photo-shoots, it’s video-shoots. There are dance rehearsals, and maybe you’re on a festival tour at the same time over here, and you’re getting regular for your regular tour …

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Apple looks likely to get green light on retail stores in India; may get tax-breaks

Apple’s long-standing request to open its own retail stores in India looks likely to be approved by the Indian government after Chinese brand Oppo was granted permission. Apple products are currently sold locally by authorized resellers.

The Indian government only allows single-brand retail stores when at least 30% of the products sold are manufactured in the country. As the iPhone accounts for a high percentage of Apple’s sales, with the SE a popular model in India because of its relative affordability, it seems likely that the requirement will be hit thanks to local manufacturing of the model

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Final Cut Pro X update coming soon with High Sierra/iOS 11 feature support

Final Cut Pro X users will be happy to hear Apple is planning an update that will arrive before the end of the year that will include support for macOS High Sierra and iOS 11 features.

While we’ve learned the update will include support for “many” of the new features in High Sierra and iOS 11 released to the public last month, perhaps the most notable will be support for H.265 High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) that arrived with iOS 11 and macOS High Sierra… more…