Today we're prepped and ready for the big Apple Event here at Apple Park, the company's new campus. This event takes place at the Steve Jobs Theater, and is the first public event ever held at this location. Below we've arranged a selection of photos from the event, separated by location on the map of the campus provided by Apple Maps.
Both the iPod touch models left in this backwards, messed-up world have been given boosts to storage while the classic iPod nano and iPod shuffle have been discontinued. It's like Apple didn't even care about the people who were putting off buying an iPod shuffle for the past several years - it's as if they didn't even think of me! Meanwhile those users that wanted an iPod nano will have to buy one like a neanderthal, finding them on eBay or wherever the deepest, darkest, dankest resellers now dwell.
This morning Apple released iOS version 10.3 Developer Seed software to iPhones, pushing with it a number of new features. To be abundantly clear up front, this is not the public beta version of the software, it's the Developer Beta, which means the public will need to wait a bit longer to get their hands on this software for everyday use. In this newest update, users of Apple's own AirPods with the help of Bluetooth and a secondary device.
We just celebrated the 10th anniversary of the iPhone, a now iconic device that changed the world, whether you like it or not (and some definitely don't). Just in time for the birthday cake, we recently got a glimpse of a prototype interface, inspired by the iPod click wheel, that could have been the iPhone we know today. So what happened? A second prototype, that's what. And we're getting a look at both, courtesy of Sonny Dickson, the same Australian teen who rose to fame because of rare scoops like these.
Apple historians may know that before Cupertino settled on going with iOS as the iPhone's software, it considered adapting the iPod's interface and OS to power the now-iconic smartphone, including the MP3 player's click-wheel. The original prototypes of that software have never been seen before, but frequent leaker Sonny Dickson has managed to get his hands on a selection of screenshots and even video, revealing what was once known as "AcornOS."
Apple responds to allegations from the European Commission which suggested that the company was receiving illegal tax breaks from Ireland. In this letter, penned by Apple CEO Tim Cook, the company suggests that the EU is retroactively applying rules which should not apply to their taxation situation. Apple has their European base of operations in Ireland, having set that base up back in October of 1980, and has expanded throughout Ireland (and greater Europe) since. The European Commission suggests that Apple's way of paying taxes in Ireland is "illegal under EU state aid rules."
The FBI's legal battle with Apple over the San Bernardino shooter's iPhone came to a sudden end when a third-party approached the government agency with a possible way to unlock the iPhone. The planned court case was halted while the government tested the method, and a few days later the announcement was made: they'd unlocked the iPhone sans Apple's help. Now that word is out, law enforcement across the country is begging the government to unlock their own suspects' phones.
The city of Prague in the Czech Republic has just seen the opening of the Apple Museum, a non-official establishment housing the largest private collection of Apple products. The museum opened its doors for the first time last week, inviting visitors to browse through hundreds of displays of Apple items dating between 1976 and 2012, including traditional Mac computers, as well as recent products like the iPod and iOS devices.
Google has officially launched YouTube Music, an app that sits separate from the original YouTube app. This app is different from what Google revealed earlier this year in "YouTube Music Key" - here you're getting a music experience outside of the standard YouTube app. This app works with the Google Music subscription fee and is provided in the single monthly cost. You can also access the app (some of it, anyway) without a fee.
Today Google brings one of its lesser-known super-helpful apps "Google Keep" to iPhone. This app has been out for Google's own Android operating system for many months, just coming to iOS for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch for the first time today. This app will allow you to keep notes, save thoughts with audio, and keep images of odd objects in check in one colorful place. This app is out for free on iOS starting this afternoon and should work on most if not all iOS devices released over the past several years, just so long as they have all their requisite software updates from Apple.
Apple files for a patent that looks extremely similar to the basic concept for Google Cardboard. It would appear that Apple has prepared for the eventuality that virtual reality lust would hit the iPhone community. What we're looking at today is a couple of patent applications that essentially have Apple owning the idea of a face and ears-mounted display carrier, a headset, that can use an iPhone as its display. Sound familiar? It certainly should. This also isn't the first, second, or even third time such an invention has been seen (and produced) by a hardware company.
iFixit has been taking apart just about every new gadget that comes along for years now. The gutting of the devices is under the auspices of showing us how easy they would be to repair if you break them. Today I think we all pretty much know that our gadgets aren't very repairable. We still like to see our gadget porn though and this time out iFixit is gutting the new 6th generation iPod touch.
