Earlier this year we reported issues with using the LG UltraFine 5K Display with new MacBook Pros near wireless access points including Apple wireless routers. LG acknowledged issues caused by poor shielding, inventory was pulled from Apple Stores, and revised hardware with proper shielding is now shipping and should be in Apple Stores soon. This week we got our hands on one of the new models with shielding improvements to put to the test and see if the issues have really been resolved…

more…

Filed under: Apple

Germany-based homebuilder WeberHaus announced today that it will soon offer its pre-fabricated homes equipped with Apple’s HomeKit platform, a first for the European market. That means that new home buyers purchasing a house through the builder will be able to opt for a smart home package that consists of products like lighting, smart plugs and more, all controllable via iPhones, iPads and Siri.

The company says it’s been working with Apple to develop the HomeKit package for its customers:

more…

Filed under: Apple

Microsoft’s Cortana for iPhone app gets an update today that introduces a redesigned user interface and a few new features and enhancements that offer an improved experience for the Siri competitor.

more…

Filed under: Apple

Capital One today announced “Eno,” a new text message-based assistant that it says is the first natural language SMS chatbot from a U.S. bank.

more…

Filed under: Apple

This week Benjamin and Zac discuss the new iPhone ‘Edition’ rumor and other possible names Apple could use, the latest LG UltraFine 5K Display update, iOS app caching problems and possible fixes, Apple Watch charging time and sleep tracking, Apple Watch Nike+ compared to other Series 2 models, run training with Apple Watch, audiobooks through iBooks and iOS Now Playing design, and more. 9to5Mac’s Happy Hour podcast is available for download on iTunes and Apple’s Podcasts app, or through our dedicated RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players.

more…

Filed under: Apple

Somewhat careless wording by Wikileaks has led to widespread reports than messaging apps that use end-to-end encryption – like Signal, WhatsApp and iMessages – had been compromised by the CIA. There is in fact no evidence that this is the case.

more…

Filed under: Apple

The Tiobe Index – which measures the popularity of programming languages on a monthly basis – reports that Apple’s Swift has made it into the top 10 for the first time. Tiobe says that ratings are based on three factors, using search engines to carry out the research.

The ratings are based on the number of skilled engineers world-wide, courses and third party vendors. Popular search engines such as Google, Bing, Yahoo!, Wikipedia, Amazon, YouTube and Baidu are used to calculate the ratings. It is important to note that the TIOBE index is not about the best programming language or the language in which most lines of code have been written.

While a relatively new programming language making it into the top 10 is an impressive achievement, Tiobe does not believe that it will climb any higher in the rankings …

more…

Filed under: Apple

French TV service myCanal came to Apple TV last year, but you needed a decoder box to view them. Apple has now announced that this is no longer needed. Subscribers can now view any myCanal channel on Apple TV without a connected decoder.

more…

Filed under: Apple

Back in January, developer Steven Troughton-Smith uncovered a new one-handed floating keyboard for iPad hidden inside an iOS 10.3 beta. He has now created a Swift Playground that allows you to play with the feature. It works with all iPads except the 12.9-inch iPad Pro.

The feature works in a similar way to picture-in-picture, creating a keyboard that takes up less room than the standard one and can be moved around the screen to position it in a place where it doesn’t cover the content you’re typing …

more…

Filed under: Apple

A lot of the iPhone 8 renders doing the rounds are just fantasy ones – created without any reference to reported features or, indeed, to practicality. We’ve seen several recent ones, for example, where the display covers the entire front of the phone – something believed to be a long-term goal of Jony Ive, but not something we’re expecting to see in the iPhone 8.

But a set of renders posted on the Chinese social media site Weibo do a decent job of matching the actual reports we’ve been hearing, and provide what might be our best look yet and what we can actually expect to see when the iPhone 8 is announced …

more…

Filed under: Apple