Qualcomm spent a third of its quarterly earnings call talking about Apple lawsuits
Facebook begins showing sponsored posts in Messenger with small test in Australia and Thailand
After testing the ability for brands to communicate directly with users, Facebook today announced its next step in monetizing its Messenger platform. In a post on the Messenger blog, Facebook product manager Eddie Zhang announced that the company is launching a “very small test” of ads in Messenger, beginning in Australia and Thailand.
This week we are launching a very small test in Australia and Thailand that gives businesses the opportunity to place ads on the Messenger home screen. This means that a business is able to place an ad in an area of Messenger below your recent conversations.
Filed under: Apple
Google Maps for iOS updated w/ ‘Popular Times’ feature for tracking how busy a place is in real-time
Google today is rolling out an update to its Google Maps on iOS that brings one of the most useful features from the web version of the app to iOS. Today’s update, which bumps the app to version 4.27, the service’s popular crowd tracker, as well as the ability to quickly access addresses saved to your clipboard.
Filed under: Apple
Wine 2.0 released with improvements to running Windows apps on macOS
Do you currently use Night Shift on iOS? Will you use it on macOS? [Poll]
Earlier today, we went hands-on with the recent addition of Night Shift to macOS. The feature comes with macOS 10.12.4, which was released to developers yesterday.
Night Shift is Apple’s color temperature adjustment feature that automatically changes the temperature of your display depending on what time of day it is. The feature was first introduced with iOS 9.3 and has come to the Mac one year later.
Do you use Night Shift on iOS? Will you use it on the Mac?
Filed under: Apple
Hands-on: Incase Nylon Nato and Leather bands for Apple Watch
Back in September, Incase entered the Apple Watch strap market with the launch of its leather and nylon bands. Incase Leather Watch Band and Nato Nylon Band are straps similar to Apple’s leather and nylon bands that offer slightly different style at a more affordable price. Check out our hands-on below.
Filed under: Apple
Apple hires Dropcam co-founder who reportedly called Tony Fadell a ‘tyrant bureaucrat’
Apple has hired software engineer Greg Duffy for an unknown role at the company, according to The Information. Duffy is the co-founder of Wi-Fi camera firm Dropcam which was bought by Google in 2014 after being independent for five years.
Filed under: Apple
Apple plans for additional 200 megawatts of solar energy in Nevada
Apple and its partner NV Energy today confirmed plans for an expansion of their solar operations for up to an additional 200 megawatts of energy to support the growing needs of Apple’s data center in Reno.
In addition to supporting Apple’s data center, the announcement notes that Apple will keep 5 megawatts of the new plant to sell to residential and commercial customers through NV Energy. Back in the summer last year Apple notably created a new energy subsidiary called Apple Energy LLC to begin selling excess energy from its solar farms and shortly after received approval to do so.
Filed under: Apple
Apple launches another lawsuit against Qualcomm over iPhone modem licensing deals, this time in China
Following reports late last week that Apple is suing its iPhone modem supplier Qualcomm for $1 billion in the US, today Beijing’s Intellectual Property Court said Apple has also filed a similar suit in China seeking 1 billion yuan or over $140 million in damages (via Reuters).
In response to the new lawsuit, Qualcomm today issued its own press release and noted that Apple is claiming the company is in violation of China’s Anti-Monopoly Law. The press release also said that Apple is requesting “determination of the terms of a patent license” regarding the two companies’ cellular standard essentials patents, in response to which Qualcomm’s lawyers claimed Apple was offered deals consistent with the rest of the industry:
Filed under: Apple
What’s next for AirPods? How Apple could make the best cord-free earbuds even better
Apple’s AirPods have only been available for a little over a month and still have 6 week shipping times, but it’s possible we could see a second generation sooner rather than later if Apple launches updated AirPods annually and alongside the iPhone 8. Let’s take a look at some of the potential upgrades we might see this year.
Filed under: Apple