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An interesting bug relating to the date and time system in iOS has emerged recently. Several users have discovered that if you change your iOS device’s date to January 1st, 1970, your device will be permanently bricked. You can see the process in the video below, and while I don’t have any desire to try it out to confirm, it’s pretty apparent based on separate reports that it’s a legitimate issue.

In order to change your date and time settings, you have to go to the Settings app, tap the General menu, choose Date & Time, and turn off the Set Automatically option. From there, you’ll have to scroll through the menu until it reaches as far back as it goes. After that, go back to the General menu then go back into the Date & Time settings and scroll backwards again. You’ll have to repeat this process until you reach 1970. The video below shows specifically how to do it.

After you successfully set your iOS device’s date to January 1st, 1970, you’ll then want to reboot your phone and book a trip to the Apple Store. Once you reboot, your device will reportedly not come back on. You can put it into DFU and even get iTunes to recognize it to perform a restore, but even after that, it will remain stuck on the boot up screen.

This bug affects any iOS device that uses a 64-bit processor and is running iOS 8 or newer, including iPhones, iPads, and iPod touches. For those unsure, 64 bit processors are the A7, A8, A8X, A9, and A9X (iPhone 5s or later, for instance). If you use a 32 bit device, you’re in the clear.

A Reddit thread offers a handful of possible causes of the issue. The most reasonable appears to be that it all comes down to time zones and that setting the date to January 1st, 1970 causes the internal clock to be set to less than zero, which confuses the device and crashes it.

Another user claims that he inadvertently suffered this bug when he changed the time zone on his iPhone from Bejing back to New York, experiencing the same issue.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen odd bugs causing iOS devices to crash. Last year, sending a text message with a certain string of Arabic code caused the Messages app to crash and the iPhone to reboot, sometimes continuously. This year, a website emerged that crashes Safari every tiem you visit it. This date and time bug, however, is unique in that it permanently bricks your device.

One Twitter user says that the device could come back on after 5 hours, while another notes that changing the SIM card could fix the issue, as well. Other users, however, say that it has been longer than 5 hours, some upwards of a day, without the device coming back on.

We haven’t tested this issue first-hand and we don’t recommend that you do either, as it will likely result in you having to make a trip to the Apple Store to get a new phone. Nevertheless, the video below demonstrates the process:

Thanks Zach!

Filed under: iOS, iOS Devices Tagged: Brick, bug, crash, DFU, iOS, iPhone

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TODAY’S CAN’T MISS DEALS:

Best Buy, Target and Radio Shack are all discounting 4th Gen. Apple TV, 32GB from $117 & 64GB from $162 shipped

Pad & Quill’s high-quality leather Lowry Cuff Apple Watch band offers Hermès style for just $104 shipped (Reg. $130)

Fitbit Charge Wireless Activity & Sleep Band w/ OLED display: $80 shipped (Reg. $130)

Many Apple Watch models now $100 off at Target and Best Buy: 38mm Sport $249 w/ free shipping (Reg. $349), more

Apple Watch 42mm Stainless Steel with Black Classic Buckle: $589.99 shipped (Orig. $699) wp.me/p1xTlR-NkJ https://t.co/DjqCtWp0Vx

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Download Lara Croft Go, Apple’s Game of the Year 2015, for just $2 (Reg. $5)

Heroes Reborn: Enigma for iOS goes free for the first time as IGN’s Game of the Month (Reg. $5)

Final Fantasy IX is now available for download on iOS/Android

The Martian official iOS/Apple Watch game goes free (up to $3 value)

Apple offering popular iOS video editing app ‘Videoshop’ for free ($2 value)

App Store Free App of the Week: Over graphic design & photo editing app ($4 value)

Final Fantasy II on iOS available free inside the FF Portal app ($8 value)

MORE NEW GEAR FROM TODAY:

Daily Deals: Nest 2nd Gen Learning Thermostat $170, Cable Modem $50, more

• RAVPower USB-C/A Charger $38 (Reg. $56), uNu w/ Lightning Cable $12 (Reg. $20)
• Amazon’s Gold Box all time lows on Electric razors, BT sous vide cookers and clothing
• QNAP 4-Bay NAS w/ AirPlay: $354 shipped (Orig. $480)
• Games/Apps: Fallout 4 $39, Table Tennis Touch $1, freebies, more
• Free MP3 downloads from hit artists like Adele, Ed Sheeran, 1D, more
• Microsoft’s new Quantum Break Cirrus White Xbox One Bundle, pre-order now

Samsung 850 EVO 500GB 2.5" SATA III Internal Solid State Drive: $140 shipped (Reg. $160) wp.me/p1xTlR-Nu7 https://t.co/cZYqaZFrs0

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MORE DEALS STILL ALIVE:

Save on Apple’s monster 12.9-inch iPad Pro: 128GB Wi-Fi $850 (Reg. $949), 128GB Wi-Fi + Cellular $950 (Reg. $1,079)

Best Buy just cut prices for Apple’s iPad mini 4 and iPad Air 2 by $100, deals start at $300 w/ free shipping

Apple iPad Air Wi-Fi 16GB $299 or 64GB $349 shipped (Reg. $399/$449)

iPhone 6/s/Plus Cases from $3 Prime shipped: Dual-Layer w/ Screen Protector $8 (Reg. $16), 3,000mAh Battery Case $20, more

Amazon offers rare 25% discount on Kindle Unlimited subscriptions: 6-months $45 (Reg. $60), more

• Luminid Touch light-up charging cable: $10 (Orig. $20, CA Tax only)
• A .edu email can get you the Sharp 32-inch 1080p HDTV for $150 shipped (Reg. $170)
• Add 2TB of portable storage w/ WD USB 3.0 Hard Drive for $73 (Reg. $90)
• JBL Headphones: J22 In-Ears $15 (Reg. $40) + 3 more deeply discounted pairs
• Multi/Single year magazine subs from $3/yr: Motor Trend, more
• Internal 2.5-inch SSDs: Samsung 850 EVO 1TB $280 (Reg. $300+)
• Samson Meteorite USB Mic for Mac/PC: $30 Prime shipped (Reg. $40)
• Get your engines ready: Rocket League is coming to Xbox One next week
• Moto X Pure Edition 32GB Unlocked Smartphone: $375 shipped (Reg. $400+)
• Amazon’s 7-inch Fire tablet is on sale for $40 shipped (Reg. $50)
• Watch ‘Southpaw’ starring Jake Gyllenhaal & Forest Whitaker for just $0.99 (Reg. $5)
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• Sam’s Club Membership + $20 gift card + $21 food credits for $45 ($180 value)
• Free TV HD Digital Downloads at Google Play & iTunes
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• AmazonBasics 35-Mile HDTV Antenna $20 (Reg. $25)
• Aukey 15,000mAh Dual-USB Power Bank: $18.50 Prime shipped (Reg. $30)
• Xbox One 1TB Elite Bundle + $75 Microsoft Gift Card & game $499 ($600+ value)
• Bowers & Wilkins P3 Headphones (recertified) in multiple colors: $90 (Orig. $200)
• Media: $5 Blu-ray Sale – A Beautiful Mind, Seabiscuit, Knocked Up, more
• $100 worth of Xbox gift cards for $81 shipped
• Aukey’s Bluetooth 4.1 Sport Earbuds + Armband for $16 Prime shipped ($28 value)
• LG Google Nexus 5 32GB Unlocked 4G LTE (Refurb) $140 shipped
• ASUS Transformer Touch Laptop 1.6GHz/2GB/32GB: $179 shipped (Reg. $219)
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• Beats by Dr. Dre Solo2 Wireless Headphones Active Collection: $230 (Reg. $300)
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NEW PRODUCTS & MORE:

OMBEE’s modular standing desk turns any table into a upright workstation

The new Andy Warhol Where’s Waldo book is perfect for any Pop Art connoisseur

• 3Doodler Start reimagines the popular Kickstarter project with a focus on children
• BearTek’s new Smart Gloves offer iPhone/Android controls + GoPro support
• Review: Incase and surfer Kelly Slater team up for the ultimate GoPro-focused backpack
• Review: $13 GRDE Explorer Rugged 10,000mAh Solar dual USB Battery w/ 2 USB lamps
• LEGO strikes gold again w/ its latest Ghostbusters set based on the upcoming film
• Be a hero this Valentine’s Day w/ these best-selling Adult Coloring Books from $6
• Ubuntu’s first tablet offers a converged desktop PC experience as well

Filed under: Tips and Tricks Tagged: 9to5Toys, Amazon, app deals, Apple TV, Apple watch, Apple Watch band, Best Buy, Daily Deals, Fitbit Charge, free apps, Gold Box, lara croft go, lowry cuff, Nest, Pad & Quill, video games

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DJs will be well familiar with the name Serato. It’s one of the, if not the leading software products around for DJs that make the hop from vinyl to digital sets (and that’s most of them these days). But the company hasn’t had a huge presence on iOS devices outside of that world— save for its Remote companion app for users of a Serato desktop setup. That’s where Serato’s new Pyro app comes in, but it’s not exactly the scaled back version of the company’s desktop offering you might have been hoping for.

Instead, rather than act as a suite for mostly professional DJs and their mixing and controller hardware like on the desktop, Pyro is aimed at all users and meant to act like the DJ for you, using Serato’s technology to automatically mix songs from one to the next by changing the tempo and doing a real mix like a professional DJ would:

The powerful Serato algorithms inside Pyro allow it to break down each song, finding every beat, then blending them smoothly so it’s hard to tell where one song ends and the next one begins. Serato Pyro actually changes the speed of the incoming song to match the one currently playing for an unbelievably smooth listening experience. If the tempos of the two songs are too far apart, Pyro uses an old DJ trick called the “echo out” to make a smooth transition.

If it works well, that sounds like a feature that would be an excellent and really fun addition to services like Apple Music and competitors. But for now the app lets you use the music in your device’s library and also integrates with Spotify so you can easily bring your playlists in to be mixed. In addition, Serato tapped into some of the DJs that use its products to offer playlists to get you started. You’ll find mixes preloaded in the app from DJ Jazzy Jeff, A-Trak’s Fool’s Gold Records, Diplo’s record label Mad Decent, Steve Aoki’s brand Dim Mak and GRAMMY® Award winners, The Roots.

While the app does everything automatic, you can have some say in the mix by influencing the playlist that the app also helps you intelligently track out:

Pyro doesn’t just play through an existing playlist; rather each music session is created on-the-fly, built from existing playlists and searches on the whim of the user at the time. It is easy to rearrange and edit the upcoming songs while the music is playing, so there is never any need to prepare before the party starts.

And Pyro includes an Apple Watch companion app that lets you view, rearrange, and control currently playing and upcoming tracks in your mixes.

The new Serato Pyro app is available on the App Store now for iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch.

And the company offered a look at the technology it’s using in the app in the video below:

Filed under: iOS Devices Tagged: app, Apple Music, Apple watch, DJ, iPad, iPhone, mixes, pyro, serato, Spotify

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Learning chefs that want to get a start on cooking sous-vide and get restaurant quality results, take a look at Amazon’s Gold Box deal today with the Anova Culinary Bluetooth Precision Cooker currently available at $139 (normally $179). Anova’s precision cooker clamps to the side of any deep pot or tank and continuously circulates the water inside to ensure that food is cooked evenly throughout. Connect the Anova to an iPhone via Bluetooth, and you can then wirelessly control and monitor food easily, even finding new recipes to use.

With sous-vide cooking, preparing foods at a consistent temperature is key. Pairing the Anova Culinary Bluetooth Precision Cooker with the Anova Culinary iOS app allows users to set it and forget, knowing that the food will be cooked perfectly each time. No more worrying about keeping an eye out on the food in the oven, or overcooking food on accident.

The Anova Culinary Bluetooth Precision Cooker is on sale today only at $139 and includes Prime shipping. The Anova Culinary iOS app is available for free from the App Store and is compatible with iPhones and iPads running iOS 7.0 or later.

Filed under: General, iOS Devices Tagged: Amazon Gold Box, Anova, iOS apps, iPad, iPhone, Precision Cooker

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Vevo has today announced a native tvOS app for Apple TV, with a Spotlight section auto-playing a stream of music videos based on your own tastes.

Vevo brings the smooth experience of the new mobile app and customizes it for the best lean-back experience. The Spotlight section autoplays so that a user can put down the remote and instantly enjoy a stream of music videos curated to their individual tastes. 

The audience can also easily navigate through the app to see top videos by genre; search for individual artists and videos; and select new favorite artists …

As you’d expect, playlists and favorite artists sync between mobile, desktop and Apple TV apps, with changes instantly updated across platforms. The remote trackpad can be used to skip forward & back, replay, favorite a video and show the playlist.

The app is a free download from the Apple TV App Store.

Filed under: Apple TV, Apps Tagged: Apple TV, Music video, Music video app, music video channel, music videos, Vevo

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For anyone looking to get better tracking and a bird’s eye view of your sleep habits, be sure to check out Sleep++ 2.0 available today. This latest version brings in a major sleep analysis algorithm overhaul to help users get a better understanding of nightly sleep patterns.

For users who frequently forget to stop their sleep tracking, the app’s update also introduces the ability to trim time off any extra hours accidentally accrued.

Today’s algorithm overhaul allows for better declarations of sleep types within Sleep++. A user’s sleep is categorized as either deep or light sleep, restlessness or wakefulness. The optimizations brought in with the new version accurately indicate which type of sleep the user was experiencing, and when.

Sleep++ 2.0 also introduces a detail view, where users can get a more granular look at a previous nights’ sleep. Users can now easily see the overall percentage of restlessness and restfulness. This is especially beneficial for the moments when a user wants to confirm that any new bedtime habits have positively or negatively impacted their overall sleep.

Users who choose to do so may also export the sleep data output into the iOS Health app. From here it can then be shared out to other apps that utilize the Sleep Analysis data, like Lark or the Jawbone UP application. This data exported out into the Health app also includes the more refined details provided by Sleep++’s new sleep analysis improvements.

The trouble with any type of tracker that relies on data within a set time period is remembering to turn it off when the activity is completed. Possibly the best feature of Sleep++ 2.0 is the ability to trim a previous night’s recorded sleep. No longer do users have to forfeit an entire’s night worth of data just because they forgot to turn off the tracker four hours after they woke up. Users can now jump into Sleep++, and trim down the recorded data to reflect the exact moment when they woke up.

For those that are wondering how it’s possible to track your sleep after having worn the Watch all day, be sure to check out Smith’s blog post detailing some small timing tricks that will help.

Sleep++ 2.0 is available for free in the App Store with a $1.99 in-app purchase to remove advertisements. Sleep++ 2.0 is compatible with iPhones running iOS 9.0 or later, and the Apple Watch. The update is still propagating across the App Store, so be sure to keep an eye out for it in your Updates tab.

Filed under: Apple Watch, Apps Tagged: Apple watch, David Smith, Health, HealthKit, iOS, sleep, sleep analysis, sleep tracking

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While iPhone photography keeps on improving thanks to the advancement of tiny camera sensors and image processors, it’s still nowhere near as fully-fledged as DSLR or Micro 4/3rd photography. You can’t swap out interchangeable lenses for different types of imagery, and have to rely on third-party manufacturers producing clip-on accessories. That’s where the Aukey 18mm HD wide angle clip-on lens comes in.

As the name suggests, a wide angle lens lets you add extra width to your images. With its 110-degree angle, clipping it on to your phone’s camera means you can take much wider landscapes, or take closeups without over-cropping out details from the edges. Any photographer or videographer will tell you that having a wide angle lens is a necessity.

In the case of Aukey’s, the clip-on lens is pretty big and contains a 5 element lens. It’s built primarily from aluminum, making it really durable, and secures to your phone using a flexible plastic clip that fits around the edge of most phones. There’s a small rubber foot, which normally ends up on the screen, to hold it in place. As a bonus, the lens itself can be detached from the plastic clip. This allows the addition of other adapters and lenses.

Being universal has both advantages and disadvantages. On the plus side, it means you can clip it to virtually any phone. As long as you center the lens to match the center of the phone’s camera, it’ll deliver the desired result. It also means that you don’t have to buy a new one when you inevitably upgrade your smartphone. On the cons list, I found that it wasn’t as securely-fitting as a bespoke clip-on lens like the ōlloclip range might be. It’s very easy to push off-center with a stray finger.

As well as testing the lens with an iPhone, I also tried it out on some Android devices. All the images included in this post were taken with the iPhone 6s Plus. Most of the time, results were as I expected. Shots were much wider and retained most of their detail. I did notice a little warping towards the edges, almost making it seem like I was inside a fishbowl, but that can often be the case with a wide angle lens.

Most of the time, I found results to be just as expected. But I’d like to test it further, particularly in low light and for shooting video. Every now and then, I did find that the odd image ended up a little blurry and with a little too much ‘glow’. The close-up of the snow-drops above, and the tree in the gallery below (as a couple of examples). It looks nice, but wasn’t really what I was going for.

You can pick up the 18mm wide angle lens by Aukey for just $39 on Amazon, which really isn’t that bad considering the new versatility it will give you. Even if it’s not perfect, it’s just about cheap enough to warrant its relatively minor shortcomings. After all, it could mean the difference between cutting something out of a shot, or not. Still, if you don’t want to (or can’t afford to) stump up forty bucks on a single clip-on lens, the same company makes a 3-in-1 set including a fish-eye, macro and smaller wide angle lens for just $17.

Filed under: Reviews Tagged: Accessories, Aukey, iphone 6s plus, lenses

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Ok, I officially want to be a kid again. Actev is this weekend launching the Arrow Smart-Kart. For kids aged 5-9, the message is that it looks and sounds like a race kart (thanks to speakers with artificially-generated V12 engine sounds), has GPS and WiFi – and it can do donuts.

For parents, the message is all about safety. The Smart-Kart has automatic collision avoidance, and a companion app allows them to set a speed limiter (anything up to the maximum 12mph) and a geofence. If their child tries to drive outside the geofenced area, the motor automatically switches off. If kids get too carried away, parents can perform a remote emergency stop and then put the kart gear into Park. Spoilsports.

It’s currently available on pre-order at $600 for the kart, plus $100 for the race-style body kit – and $50 for the drift kit that wraps around the rear tyres to reduce grip enough to do those donuts. So not cheap, but not outrageously more expensive than non-smart competitors. The free companion app is available for both iPhone and Android.

Sure beats the Anki Drive – though that is admittedly rather cheaper.

Via The Verge

Filed under: Tech Industry Tagged: Actev Smart-Kart, Electric go-kart, Electric kart, Go-kart, Smart go-kart, Smart-Kart

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Data from App Annie suggests that global mobile app revenue will hit $50B this year, and $101B by 2020. Total annual downloads will rise from 111B last year to 284B by 2020.

Apple’s iOS is set to retain its store leadership by gross revenue over the five-year period, while Google Play and third-party Android stores will expand their lead measured in downloads due to wider proliferation of devices.

The forecast was made a month after Apple announced a new record for App Store sales, hitting over $1.1B revenue in just two weeks of the holiday season.

App Annie suggests that China will overtake the U.S. in app revenue in the first half of this year, and cites good evidence for this …

China already overtook the U.S. in downloads early last year, but lower average prices mean that it will take a little while longer for revenue to catch up.

The firm predicts that the total number of smartphones and tablets on the planet will hit 6.2 billion by 2020 – up from 2.6B today. The analytics company told Bloomberg that the strongest growth will be seen in India, Indonesia, China, Mexico, Brazil and Turkey as cheaper phones hit the market.

For many of those in developing countries, the post-PC era has already arrived, a smartphone or tablet serving as their only Internet-enabled device.

Filed under: Apps Tagged: App Store, App Store revenue, Apps, developers

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iPhones could in future automatically sound louder or quieter notification alerts depending on the level of background noise. A patent application published today describes how both an iPhone and Apple Watch could periodically measure ambient sound levels, adjusting notification volumes to an appropriate level.

The patent notes that while users can manually adjust the volume of alerts, many don’t do so because they forget or because it’s too much hassle. The patent suggests that the primary sound reading would be taken from the Apple Watch (aka ‘a wearable device’) …

A desired alert volume can differ dramatically based on whether a user is in his office with his device on his desk or in a crowded subway with his device in his pocket. Despite these distinct preferences, a user can keep an alert volume fixed in order to avoid the inconvenience of changing the setting or due to forgetfulness […]

A wearable device is likely to be relatively exposed to the ambient air while it is being worn, while a host device might be exposed to ambient air or shielded to varying degrees from ambient air by a sonic “barrier,” depending on how it is being carried or stowed.

In other words, an iPhone in your pocket or bag can’t accurately measure surrounding noise levels. But by comparing readings from the Watch and phone, the system can automatically work out whether your iPhone is buried somewhere. If it is, it would boost notification volumes to compensate.

The patent also suggests that Siri’s voice-recognition algorithm could be adjusted to suit different levels of background noise.

Other comparisons of sound can be used for other purposes, such as adjusting speech detection algorithms in the host device to account for environmental sounds that may interfere with speech detection.

This is of course just one of thousands of ideas patented by Apple, only a small number of which ever make it into products, but – speaking as one of the lazy ones who just leaves my iPhone volume high the whole time – this certainly seems a very handy feature to add.

Via AI

Filed under: iOS Devices Tagged: Apple Inc, Apple watch, iPhone, Noise, notifications, Patent, Sound

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Apple’s history when it comes to social networks is not the brightest. The company launched the infamous Ping social networking tool back in 2010, only to shut it down two years later. This year, alongside the announcement of the highly anticipated Apple Music streaming service, the company launched Connect, a different take on a social network based entirely around music. Connect is much different from traditional social networks like Twitter and Facebook, though.

To unveil Connect, Apple brought out popular hip-hop artists Drake, who gave the service a ringing endorsement, as well as Trent Reznor. Drake touted that the service would provide a revolutionary way for artists to interact with their fans, but 8 months after the launch of Connect, it has yet to catch on with artists and listeners alike. Likewise, the feature hasn’t really received any updates or improvements from Apple in that time period either and there are certainly things that could be improved. Read on to find out some ways in which Apple Music could be enhanced…

Live streaming

This seems like something that should be incredibly obvious to Apple, given its tendency to live stream its Apple Music Festival (formally iTunes Music Festival) each year. If Apple could integrate Connect with live streams of popular interviews, concerts, and shows, it would give the everyday user more of a reason to use the service.

Look at Kanye West, for instance. Tomorrow, the popular rapper will premiere his new album The Life of Pablo (as of this post) and his new line of clothing during a special event at Madison Square Garden in New York City. West announced today, though, that he’s partnering with competing streaming music service Tidal to offer a live stream of the event, as well. If Tidal is able to secure deals like this, Apple can too.

To me, there isn’t any logical reason as to why Apple is working more diligently to offer live streams of concerts. The stream could be presented in the Connect tab of Apple Music, include exclusive behind-the-scenes content from artists and offer a live stream of the show. If Apple did something like this even once a month, you’d have to assume that use of Connect would skyrocket. Logistically, it’s challenging to live stream concerts, but getting more eyes and ears on Apple Music and Connect should be Apple’s end goal. And live streaming concerts from the world’s top artists would undoubtedly do that.

Better Integration with Beats 1 shows

One notable thing about Connect is that it doesn’t allow users to make full posts. It only allows them to comment on posts of artists and personalities. I like this. It prevents the service from becoming cluttered and useless, focusing on the music and content shared by artists instead. With that said, however, users could play a much bigger role in Beats 1 with the use of Connect.

Take Zane Lowe’s show, for instance. Every day he holds interviews with prominent musicians. Zane is certainly a great interviewer on his own, but fans would be much more inclined to tune-in if they had the ability to ask a question to the artist.

Apple Music hosts should make a post on Connect in which it encourages users to comment a question they have for whatever artist they might be interviewing. Then, during the interview, the Beats 1 host, whether it be Zane, Julie, Ebro, or whoever, should go and ask a few of the fan-submitted questions. Better integrating the fan into shows would be a huge way for Apple to grow Beats 1 and Connect at the same time.

Notifications

Somewhat building upon the first two ideas I suggested, Apple Music Connect should support the ability to receive notifications when someone you follow makes a post on the service. For instance, I should be able to go to Coldplay’s Connect page and turn on the ability to receive a push notification whenever they make a post to the service, whether it be an image, a song, lyrics, or something different.

Apple should allow users to enable the ability to receive a notification whenever a particular Beats 1 show starts. The notification could say what show was starting, who was going to be the guests, and take the listener directly to a Connect page on which they could listen to the stream and submit a question if an interview was going to take place.

Building upon that idea, Apple could take it to the next step and analyze the artists that a user follows and send them a notification when they are going to be guests on a particular Beats 1 show. For example, if I’m following G-Eazy on Connect and he’s going to be a guest on Zane Lowe’s show, I should receive a push notification informing me of that appearance so I can tune in and listen.

Improve the interface

I’m not a fan of the current user interface that Apple Music Connect offers. On the iPhone, it’s just a single stream of all your content sorted by how long ago it was posted. There’s no way to filter content by videos, images, or text posts. There’s also a somewhat obnoxious banner image for every single post, meaning that you have to scroll quite a bit to see multiple posts.

As to changes Apple should make to the Connect interface, I think they should put a heavier focus on comments and interaction between artists and fans. There’s no need for a generic banner image to be associated with every post on Connect. Instead, that space should be dedicated to showing a preview of the comments and making it more clear that users can in fact comment and interact with artists and that’s it’s not just a one-way communication platform.

On the Mac, there are loads of ways the Connect interface could be improved. In iTunes, you get essentially the same interface as you do on the iPhone, expect that it’s split into two columns. Connect does not do a good job at all of taking advantage of the added screen real-estate that a Mac offers compared to an iPhone.

More unique content

This kind of goes hand-in-hand with the idea of Apple offering live streams of events via Connect, but at the same time, there’s a lot more that can be done in terms of content. Right now, Connect is dominated by artists simply sharing the same content on it that they share on Twitter and Facebook. If Apple truly wants to create a music-centric social network, this can’t be the case.

Imagine a version of Connect where your favorite artists are sharing unique and exclusive content that they don’t share on Twitter and Facebook. Things such as behind-the-scenes pictures, snippets of unreleased songs, and much more. Apple has the pull to get artists to do this, but right now it seems like it is just not putting forth the effort.

Apple could also partner with artists to share exclusive content on Connect. The company already does this to a small degree, but there’s much more room for improvement. Offering daily or weekly exclusive content would give the average user an incentive to finally tap the Connect tab in Music.

To do this, Apple needs to offer better incentives to awards to get them to use Connect. Right now, artists are hesitant to adopt the platform because there’s just not a big enough audience using it to make it worth their while. Whether Apple decides to offer more prominent placement in Apple Music or iTunes, or more airtime on Beats 1, it needs to do something to incentivize the use of Apple Music Connect for artists.

Apple TV support

Apple Music Connect is nowhere to be found on the Apple TV, even on the newest fourth-generation model. While social networking has never been a huge success on televisions, Connect tends to offer a quality of content that’s higher than your average social network since it’s just artists sharing content, not every user.

On Apple TV, Connect would allow users to casually scroll through images and videos that have been shared on the service. Right now, users can’t view any Connect content unless they’ve saved it to their Apple Music library. Apple could also show Connect content when a user is listening to a certain artist or band, allowing the user to see what the artist has been sharing and encouraging them to user Connect on a more regular basis.

Improved commenting

Right now the comments on Apple Music Connect are a mess. They’re about as useful as Instagram comments. The comment system implemented with Connect really only works when you have individuals posting content, not popular artists that can draw in massive amounts of comments (although that’s currently not always the case on Connect, but it could be eventually).

Personally, I would love for a Reddit-style commenting system to be implemented. This would weed out the mediocre or spam comments and give users a chance to up vote/down vote based on the quality of the comment. While giving users the ability to reply to comments would get messy, I do think that Apple should allow for artists to be able to reply to comments. Doing this would open the door for Reddit-like “Ask Me Anything” posts from bands and artists on Connect, which would drive massive amounts of comments and interaction to the service.

Wrap up

If Apple doesn’t start to improve Connect and give users reasons to use it over other offerings like Twitter, Facebook, and Snapchat, the company could very well be looking down the barrel of another Ping situation. Right now, the reasons to use Connect are few and far between compared to other social networks.

The two biggest things Apple needs to do is improve fan interaction with artists on Connect, by implementing ideas like a better commenting system, and offer more unique content. If Apple were to offer exclusive live concert streams, Reddit-esque “Ask Me Anything” threads, and improve integration with Beats 1, users would have a variety of reasons to actually tap that “Connect” tab in their Music app. Right now, they don’t. And so far, Apple hasn’t given any indication that it is working towards improving the experience.

How often do you find yourself using Connect in its current state? Let us know in the poll below and elaborate on your choice in the comments!

Filed under: Apple Music, Feature Request, Opinion Tagged: Apple, Apple Music, Apple Music Connect, connect, Ping

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According to a report from South Korean news outlet The Electronic Times, the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, better known as TSMC, has reached a deal with Apple to be the sole provider of the processor used in the next-generation iPhone. TSMC and Samsung shared the task of building the processors for the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus.

The report claims that TSMC edged out Samsung to win the job thanks to its 10-nanometer manufacturing technology. TSMC is expected to go into full production of the next-generation chip, likely called the A10, sometime in June. The iPhone 7 is expected to be announced sometime in September.

TSMC notably produced the A8 chip found in the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, but Samsung came back on board to shoulder some of the production of the A9 chip used in the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus. With that partnership, however, came a significant amount of controversy.

Following the launch of the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus last year, users started noticing differences in the performance of models using the TSMC-made A9 chip and the Samsung-made A9 chip. Benchmark tests and videos showed that an iPhone 6s with the TSMC chip ran cooler and offered better battery life than an iPhone with a Samsung chip did. Apple even came out and commented on the discrepancy, saying that “even taking into account variable component differences” battery life between iPhone 6s models could vary within 2-3 percent of each other.

There was also controversy surrounding the way about which Samsung went in winning part of the A9 production business. A Taiwanese court ruled that a former TSMC research and development director revealed a variety of the company’s top trade secrets to Samsung, allowing it to catch up and win production of the A9 chip.

Filed under: iOS Devices Tagged: A10, Apple, iPhone 7, Samsung, TSMC

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