Here’s how to request a song on Beats 1

Apple's 24/7 global radio station Beats 1 launched today with Apple Music and the company also made the upcoming schedule public via a special Tumblr blog. As part of Beats 1, users will be able to submit song requests like traditional radio with Travis Mills hosting a request show around about now. But how do users get their request to the DJ? By...

Apple releases iTunes 12.2 with Apple Music and Beats 1 support

Earlier today, Apple released iOS 8.4 which included the all-new Music app featuring its Apple Music streaming service and Beats 1 global radio station and a new version of OS X, 10.10.4. Absent from that update to OS X was a new version of iTunes with the same Apple Music features. Until now. Apple has just pushed out a new version of iTunes with 12.2...

Beats 1 is live and “Always On”

Beats 1 just started broadcasting in Apple Music with Zane Lowe kicking the whole thing off with "City" by Spring King from Manchester, UK. "We can build no more. We must launch," said Lowe as Beats 1 went live. Beats 1 is part of Apple Music, the company's new on-demand streaming service showed off at WWDC earlier this month. If you...

OS X 10.10.4 released, fixes several issues including ‘Discoveryd’

Apple has released OS X 10.10.4 in the Mac App Store. This update has been in beta testing for several weeks and includes mostly minor improvements and fixes. While providing improvements to Mail and Photos, the big improvement is with network reliability. 'Discoveryd', a network process originally included with OS X Yosemite as a replacement for...

iOS 8.4 and Apple Music are here

Apple has just released iOS 8.4 to the world, bringing with it support for the company's new streaming music service: Apple Music. The update is available over-the-air via the Settings app. Simply open Setting and head to General > Software Update and hit Download and Install. iOS 8.4 includes the all new Music application with a brand new...

Ahead of today’s launch, Eddy Cue, Jimmy Iovine and Trent Reznor talk Apple Music

Apple Music launches with iOS 8.4 later today and, as well as providing select journalists with a first look at the new streaming music service, the Apple execs heading up the project have spoken about the new app's advantages over competitors. Eddy Cue, Jimmy Iovine and Trent Reznor have given interviews with various outlets to talk up the music...

Apple Music first impressions: Curated, convenient, and confusing

Apple Music lands today, June 30th, and ahead of its official launch, the Cupertino company has given select journalists and publications early access to the shipping version of the streaming music service. While the required iOS 8.4 update won't be available until around 8am PT, Re/code, The Loop, Mashable, BGR, USA Today and Rolling Stone were allowed...

Apple Music will be available on Sonos speakers by the end of the year

Apple Music will play on Sonos speakers by the end of the year according to tweets from Sonos and Apple staffers over the weekend. Ex-Beats CEO and current Senior Director of Apple Music Ian Rogers confirmed on via a Twitter reply that Sonos support is coming "ASAP". @jeffmc it will be ASAP, but not at launch — ian c rogers (@iancr) June 25,...

iOS 8.4 reportedly launching at 8AM PT on Tuesday, June 30th

When unveiling Apple Music at WWDC earlier this month, Apple confirmed that the new music streaming and global radio service would launch on June 30th as part of iOS 8.4. Now, former Beats CEO and current Apple Music Senior Director Ian Rogers has confirmed an exact go-time for the software update in a blog post: Please make a note to upgrade to iOS 8.4...

The TiP Weekly: Apple Music updates, future iPhone rumors, iOS 9 updates, and more

This week's major Apple's updates all seem to circle around the same topic: Apple Music. What began as disappointment in the details of a free trial period lead to a seemingly quick reversal. But also surfacing this week were some new hints at future device improvements, and more information about iOS 9. Welcome to this week's TiP Weekly! - Josh...

Review: Edifier Extreme Connect

If you recognize the name Edifier, it is likely thanks to the brand's high-end home audio gear renowned for its outlandish designs and solid sound quality. In many ways, the company’s Extreme Connect (MP260) is a departure from that tradition with a comparatively boxy form factor designed for portability. Although the squareish design might not be...

iOS 9 benchmarks show low power mode performance

One of the features quickly announced at the WWDC keynote was a low power mode for iOS devices. With one toggle, a user can bring their overall power consumption down on their iPhone or iPad. The toggle triggers several other internal mechanisms, lowering processor performance, disabling background refresh and mail fetch, and limits visual effects and...

Apple Watch launches in 7 new countries today, hits The Netherlands, Sweden and Thailand on July 17

Apple Watch today launched in 7 new countries, as announced earlier this month. Apple Retail and Online Stores in Italy, Mexico, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland and Taiwan are now selling the device as supply begins to catch up with demand. As well as being available in Apple's own stores, select Authorized Resellers will also stock the Watch...

Beats 1 to have shows hosted by Elton John, Pharrell, Drake, and many others

The New York Times has revealed that Apple Music's Beats 1 will feature celebrity-hosted shows with Elton John, Drake, Pharrell, Dr. Dre, Josh Homme, Disclosure, St. Vincent, and Jaden Smith. From the lineup, it looks like Beats 1 will have several styles of music throughout the day. Apple has stationed its own DJs in 3 timezones – Zane Lowe in...

Taylor Swift will make ‘1989’ available on Apple Music

Taylor Swift will make her album 1989 available for streaming for the first time on June 30th — on Apple Music. Following her open letter criticizing Apple's policy for not paying for tracks streamed during Apple Music's 3 month free trial — and the company's public about-face — the country-turned-pop singer has revealed on Twitter that her smash...

Apple to pay 0.2 cents per stream for tracks played during Apple Music free trial period

Apple will pay record labels 0.2 cents per stream for songs played during Apple Music's free trial, according to The New York Times. Earlier this week, Apple confirmed it had reversed a decision not to pay for trial streams during the initial 3-month period and would instead provide streaming revenue on a "per-stream basis". For each song that is...

Apple Music bags exclusive track from Pharrell

Apple Music is just 5 days away and as we approach the streaming music service's global launch, we're beginning to see and hear more from the artists that are on board — including Apple's first exclusive track. Pharrell Williams' song "Freedom" will debut on Apple Music on June 30th and, if you've been paying attention, it might already...

Apple renews license for Liquidmetal alloys

Apple has renewed its exclusive rights to Liquidmetal alloys for consumer electronics, which it has held since 2010. The extension will last until February 5, 2016. An SEC filing by Liquidmetal Technologies on June 23 brought attention to the matter. Despite the duration of the deal, Liquidmetal materials have gone relatively unseen in Apple products....

Rumor: iPhone could have flexible OLED display by 2018

A report out of South Korea shares that Korean display makers LG and Samsung are ramping up OLED display production in an effort to "persuade" Apple to adopt the technology in future iPhones. According to BusinessKorea's source, Apple really wants to make the transition to OLED displays for future products. The "persuasion" comes into play when...

Apple Pay transactions in the UK won’t be limited to £20 forever

At WWDC earlier this month, Apple announced it would be bringing Apple Pay to the UK in July. The country already has an established contactless payment infrastructure in retail locations, but it was unclear how exactly Apple Pay would fit into that equation. Apple has now posted an FAQ that clears up some of the confusion. First up, Apple confirms that...

Indie labels backing Apple Music following decision to pay rights holders during trial period

Following Apple's decision to reverse course and pay rights holders for music streamed during Apple Music's free trial, a number of independent labels are now on board with the service, reports Billboard. Indie labels had previously been outspoken about Apple Music's terms, disappointed that the company would not be paying royalties for tracks streamed...

Instagram receives updated Explore section

Instagram's Explore section received a facelift in its update today, with a more polished interface and some new capabilities. The changes utilize Instagram's massive user base to showcase a wide selection of photos and videos from all over the world. Curated collections Curation seems to be a growing trend for media services, and Instagram is...

Users report TaiG jailbreak 2.0.0 hanging at 20%, here’s how to fix it

Following the release of TaiG's iOS 8.3 jailbreak this morning, many users have reported on social media that the jailbreak process hangs at the 20% mark. Luckily, a quick fix has been found, as reported by iDownloadBlog. In order to get around this pesky bug, all you need to do is downgrade your version of iTunes to version 12.1.0. Downgrading is fairly...

Ahead of Apple Music, Google Play Music adds “curated” radio feature

Apple Music is just one week away. But before Apple makes its new streaming music and curated radio service available the masses, Google has pushed out an update to its music platform. Google today announced it is adding a new free, ad-supported radio feature to Google Play Music with — surprise! — curated stations. At any moment in your day,...

iOS 9 offers to temporarily delete apps for software updates

Ever tried to do a software update but ended up not being able to because of a lack of free space? Apple has taken multiple approaches to this issue this year. At WWDC, we learned about App Thinning and several techniques Apple is doing to provide smaller update sizes. However, iOS 9 has another built in option. Well this is new....

iOS 9 beta 2 seeded to developers

Apple has just made the second beta of iOS 9 available to registered developers, just two weeks after it was previewed at WWDC. The update was expected to drop yesterday but just went live on Apple's Developer Center. iOS 9 beta 2, build 13A4280e, should also be available as an over-the-air download shortly. iOS 9 brings a number of consumer-facing...

Apple seeds second watchOS 2 beta to developers

Apple has just seeded the second beta of watchOS 2 to registered developers. watchOS 2 was shown off at WWDC in early June and allows for the creation of native apple Watch applications as well as providing APIs that give developers' apps access to hardware features like the Digital Crown, Taptic Engine and other sensors. watchOS 2 requires iOS 9 and...

TaiG releases untethered jailbreak for iOS 8.3

A jailbreak for iOS 8.3 has been released by the TaiG Jailbreak team. Just this morning, the Chinese team announced on Twitter that it had updated its tool to support the latest iOS software version. Dubbed version 2.0.0, the new TaiG tool now supports iOS versions 8.1.3 through 8.3 and is available on Windows only. You can download the tool at TaiG's...

iOS 9 beta 2 and iOS 8.4 GM release to come later today

According to BGR, both the second beta for iOS 9 and the Golden Master release of iOS 8.4 should be dropping today. iOS 8.4 has been in testing for several weeks. It includes the new Music player that will bring Apple Music to the masses. Apple Music is said to be launching on June 30th. Most likely, the public release for iOS 8.4 will be on that...

Tim Cook talks Watch and China

Apple CEO Tim Cook spoke about developer interest regarding Apple Watch, as well as the importance of China, as reported by  Bloomberg. While not giving away any sales numbers, Cook did mention some other numbers with relation to the Apple Watch. Specifically, developers are working on over 3500 Apple Watch apps already. This compares to 500 apps...

Apple responds to Taylor Swift, will pay artists during Apple Music free trial

Following criticism from pop's biggest star, Apple has changed its mind and decided it will pay artists royalties for songs streamed during Apple Music's free trial. Taylor Swift yesterday penned an open letter to Apple calling the service's 3 month free trial's lack of payments for musicians and producers "shocking" and "disappointing". Just 17 hours...

Future iPhones may not have visible antenna lines

Beginning with the iPhone 5, Apple has enclosed a good portion of its iPhones in metal. This has lead to some well designed, well crafted, and beautiful handsets. However, because of their reliance on wireless technologies, there has been a portion of the phone that couldn't be metal. For the iPhone 5 and 5s, this meant having portions on the back made...

Review: Power for Apple Watch

Jailbreaker, developer, and graphic designer Surenix has recently released Power, a useful utility app for Apple Watch that displays the paired iPhone's battery level and charging status. Although checking your iPhone’s battery on the iPhone doesn’t seem like a major inconvenience, there are plenty of scenarios in which an iPhone could be out of...

Taylor Swift pens open letter on Apple Music: ‘This is not about me’

Days after it was reported that Taylor Swift's 1989 will not be available on Apple Music at launch, the singer/songwriter has penned an open letter to Apple on the subject. In a blog post titled "To Apple, Love Taylor", Swift explains the reasoning behind her decision — Apple Music's 3 month free trial and the lack of streaming revenues paid to artists...

The TiP Weekly: Signs of an iPad Pro, Watch hacks, and more

As we come off of the high of WWDC, we seem to finally catch our breath this week. Of course, with all of the new tools and software updates made available to developers, this past week was ripe with the possibilities found within. Do we have confirmation of an iPad Pro? What can the Apple Watch really do? We learned all of that and more this past...

Apple removes original iPad mini from their site

Without any warning, Apple has removed the original iPad mini from their site and online store. While it is still available to buy refurbished, you can't buy it brand new. The iPad mini was originally a ground breaking device when first launched, offering a smaller and lighter iPad option for those that wanted such a thing. When it comes to iPads,...

Power for Apple Watch shows your iPhone’s battery status at a glance

Power is a neat new utility in the App Store that makes it easy to quickly check your iPhone's remaining battery percentage from your Apple Watch. Created by Surenix, most well-known in the jailbreak community for his work on themes and tweaks like auki and ayeris, Power features a standalone Watch app as well as a Glance. Opening the app or swiping up...

Apple Music will be missing Taylor Swift’s ‘1989’ at launch

It appears there will be a blank space in Apple Music's streaming catalog right where Taylor Swift's 1989 should be. The singer's latest album will not be available to stream via Apple's new music service, according to a report from BuzzFeed. Swift has been outspoken about music streaming, especially services that offer a free tier like Spotify, and has...

Apple Watch 2 rumor suggests FaceTime camera, improved Wi-Fi, more $1,000+ models on the way

Apple Watch has only been available for purchase for a couple of months, and has only just been made available in retail stores in limited capacities, but a new rumor claims to have details on the second-generation Apple Watch. Unnamed sources have indicated to Mark Gurman of 9to5Mac that Apple Watch 2 will be arriving in 2016 with a few notable new...

Apple Music’s Radio tab with Beats 1 teaser appears on iOS 8.4 and iOS 9 betas

Apple Music's 'Radio' tab has begun showing up for users of pre-release iOS software today, giving us our first glimpse at some of the curated stations on offer as well as our first listen to Apple's global, 24/7, live radio station, Beats 1. Apple's new music streaming service, radio, and social app will go live for users in just under two weeks. None...

iOS 9 picture in picture mode hacked to run apps

Developer Adam Bell has continued his hacking progress with iOS 9's picture in picture feature for iPad. After running fully native apps on Apple Watch last week, Bell found a way to use the public picture in picture API to run any app on top of other apps and the home screen in iOS 9. In his video, Bell demonstrates running the game Doom on top of...

Indie labels unhappy with Apple Music free trial

Apple Music will land on our iOS devices, Macs and Windows PCs later this month, but the service could be missing some big artists due to issues with indie record labels. Label execs have spoken out against Apple Music's three-month free trial — during which time labels will not receive revenue from streamed tracks. Andy Heath, chairman of UK Music,...

You can now reserve and pick up your Apple Watch in store

Apple Watch is now available in Apple Stores via the company's online Reserve & Pickup system. Select models of the device can be reserved via the Apple Online Store in a retail store location of your choosing, provided the item is in stock. Apple SVP of Operations Jeff Williams previously stated that the Apple Watch supply was catching up with...

Jailbreak developer shows off NanoFlappy, a Flappy Bird clone for Apple Watch

During Apple's WWDC keynote on June 8th Apple unveiled watchOS 2, which will allow app developers to create native Apple Watch apps. However, these native apps will still be limited as developers will not have access to certain frameworks that are available in iOS. Just a few days after the keynote, a few well-known jailbreak developers hacked the...

Apple to utilize editors for Apple News article selection

In a recent job listing, Apple is searching for "passionate, knowledgeable editors to help identify and deliver the best in breaking national, global, and local news." The position was listed just 4 days after the announcement of Apple News, at the WWDC 2015 keynote. Editors will be expected to add a human element to the Apple News selection. They...

Report: Apple Watch stock begins arriving at Apple Stores ahead of in-store availability

The long wait for in-store Apple Watch availability may soon be over. According to a report by BGR, Apple Stores across the U.S. have begun receiving shipments of the device in order to fulfil in-store Personal Pickup reservations. The report claims that Apple Watch will be available for in-store pickup starting today or tomorrow, although the exact...

WWDC 2015 keynote now available to watch on YouTube

The keynote from last week's WWDC is now available to watch on YouTube. The presentation in which Apple took wraps off iOS 9, OS X El Capitan, watchOS 2 and Apple Music was previously made available for streaming via the company's website and available for download via iTunes and the iOS Podcasts app, but was not so easy to watch on non-Apple...

Apple will provide current Beats Music subscribers with three-month Apple Music free trial

Shortly after Apple Music was unveiled last week, it was made clear on Apple's site that the company would allow current Beats Music subscribers to bring over their accounts, saved playlists, and music library to Apple Music. The FAQ over at Beats Music's site explained the process for transitioning to Apple Music and what would happen to any unused...

iOS 9 iPad keyboard scales to larger size, adds new keys, hinting at ‘iPad Pro’

iOS developer Steve Troughton-Smith discovered that the new keyboard in the first iOS 9 beta is capable of scaling to a larger size, rearranging they keys to make use of the extra space, pointing to an upcoming iPad Pro with larger screen. Also new in iOS 9 - UIKeyboard seems to scale to a much larger heretofore unseen iPad screen size #ipadproconfirmed...

The TiP Weekly: A special WWDC audio cast

Happy WWDC everyone! At least, that was the sentiment on Monday. Now that WWDC is behind us, we have a treasure trove of news and information about Apple's upcoming operating system updates. Developers also have plenty to keep themselves busy as they prepare their apps for the new updates. And we have some hints at what might be coming in terms of...