Snowy developer collaborating with Spotify on upcoming Apple Watch app
The folks over at Spotify had to have been impressed when Andrew Chang first revealed Spotty, a third-party Spotify companion app for the Apple Watch. We went hands-on with Spotty back in early February, and were likewise impressed by the app’s full-featured design, offline Spotify playback ability, and workout integration.
After being met with some initial legal pushback over Spotty’s name and close resemblance to the official Spotify app, it was unclear what the future might hold for Chang’s highly-anticipated creation. Since then, the app has been visually updated and rebranded as Snowy.
But give credit to Spotify, because instead of overreacting and using the company’s significant legal resources to shut the project down, the Stockholm, Sweden-based company has agreed to collaborate with Chang to help fill in an obvious void on Apple Watch. more…
Filed under: Apple
How to check your iPhone battery percentage from Mac
Apple patched iOS after researchers showed a website could use motion sensors to detect passcodes
Last year Apple patched iOS after cyber researchers from the UK demonstrated that a malicious webpage could use iPhone sensors to detect a passcode. The technique was so accurate that the team had a 100% success rate at working out 4-digit PINs within five attempts, reports Engadget.
You might think your phone’s movements are random, but they apparently create distinct patterns. During their tests, they were able to crack four-digit PINs on the first guess 70 percent of the time and 100 percent of the PINs they used by the fifth guess.
The attack vector was made possible, explained the study’s lead author Dr. Maryam Mehrnezhad, because mobile apps and websites were able to access sensor data without permission …
Filed under: Apple
Third-party Home app developer launching Mac version of Finances 2
Developer Matthias Hochgatterer released Finances 2 for iOS just over a month ago, and today the Mac version of Finances 2 is officially launching. Hochgatterer is the developer behind the excellent third-party HomeKit app called Home that launched before Apple’s version. Previously available as a limited public beta, Finances 2 is out now on the Mac App Store.
Filed under: Apple
BlackBerry’s royalty win against Qualcomm seems to be a good sign for Apple
After Imagination and Dialog, Synaptics could be the next Apple supplier to lose out – Credit Suisse
With Apple increasingly seeking to bring chip and component design in-house, the next company to lose out could be display driver maker Synaptics. The prediction was made by Credit Suisse analysts, who said that the company was at ‘moderate to high risk’ of losing its Apple contract.
The prediction follows Apple’s warning that it plans to stop using Imagination Technologies GPUs within two years, causing the company’s stock to drop dramatically, and a separate report suggesting that Apple also planned to drop Dialog as a supplier …
Filed under: Apple
Popular PC game ‘Total War: Warhammer’ coming to Mac on April 18, Twitch preview today [Video]
Shortly after launching F1 2016 for Mac, Feral Interactive has announced that it is doing the same for the popular PC game Total War: Warhammer. The game is a blend of Creative Assembly’s Total War series with Games Workshop’s Warhammer Fantasy Battles. Total War: Warhammer will be available for Mac from April 18, but you don’t need to wait until […]
NYU student reports on life as an iPhone factory worker after 6-week undercover mission
You might expect an NYU student to seek out a summer internship doing something more interesting than spending 12 hours a day inserting a single screw into an endless production line of iPhones, but Dejian Zeng did exactly that for his summer project.
He wanted to find out what life was like for workers in an iPhone factory, so spent six weeks as a Pegatron worker in a facility on the outskirts of Shanghai. He reported back on everything from the sleeping patterns to the need to download apps to qualify for free Wi-Fi access in the dorms …
Filed under: Apple
Apple internally promoting Apple Watch Activity app w/ challenges, exclusive t-shirts & more
Apple has placed a heavy focus on the Activity functionality of Apple Watch, using it throughout its marketing for the device and encouraging users to take advantage of it with challenges and sharing. Internally, however, Apple has taken things a step further and has been running a #CloseTheRings competition, offering free physical goods such as t-shirts and pins.
Filed under: Apple
IDC: Apple’s Mac sales up in Q1 as PC industry records first growth in 5 years
Hot on the heels of Apple’s Mac-focused pre-announcement last week, the IDC is out today with new data concerning the PC industry as a whole. According to the data, worldwide shipments of PCs totaled 60.3 million during Q1 2017, for year-over-year growth of 0.6 percent, while Apple also continued its strong performance…
Filed under: Apple