Apple invited select members of the press to its campus yesterday for product announcements. The main event was the new MacBook Pro, but Apple also had some iOS-related announcements. For example, Apple announced a new app for the Apple TV called, simply, TV. The TV app acts as a central place to watch television shows from other apps (like HBO), and makes it easy to pick up where you left off with a show. The iOS angle is that, before the end of this year, Apple will also bring a TV app to the iPhone and iPad. Luke Filipowicz of iMore has the details on the new TV app. Netflix is not included in the new TV app, but Brian Barrett of Wired reports that Netflix says that it is "evaluating the opportunity" so maybe it will be added in the future. And now, the news of note from the past week:
- Tim Cook announced during yesterday's announcement that the new Memories feature of the Photos app, which just came out in iOS 10, has already been used by people to watch 400 million videos of their photos/videos. Cook also said that 60% of users are already using iOS 10.
- I had hoped that Apple would announce at yesterday's event that its new AirPods bluetooth headphones are now available. Instead, as reported by Matthew Panzarino of TechCrunch, Apple announced this week that AirPods will not be available in October as originally announced. An Apple spokesperson said: "We don’t believe in shipping a product before it’s ready, and we need a little more time before AirPods are ready for our customers." I'm very eager to try the new AirPods, so hopefully they will be available soon.
- There were lots of Apple system software updates this week. iOS 10.1 came out, and if you have an iPhone 7 Plus you'll want to upgrade to take advantage of the new Portrait Mode feature in the camera app. Andrew Cunningham of Ars Technica reports on all of the improvements.
- Apple also released watchOS 3.1 this week. It fixes some minor issues, as reported by Roman Loyola of Macworld.
- Brian Moore explains what works, and what doesn't work so well, in the new Portrait Mode in iOS 10.1
- Rene Ritchie of iMore also wrote an interesting review of the new Portrait Mode.
- If you have an Apple TV and you have kids, then I suspect that you will be a hero when you tell them that, as reported by Chance Miller of 9to5Mac (and announced at yesterday's event), Minecraft is coming to Apple TV later this year.
- Speaking of my kids ... um, I mean kids in general, of course ... Rene Ritchie of iMore reports that from now until November 1, there are additional treats in the Pokémon Go app (more candy awarded when you catch a Pokémon, etc.).
- When you travel and check a bag, airlines have a way to keep track of where your luggage is located. Soon, you will too. Ben Lovejoy of 9to5Mac reports on an announcement by Delta this week that you will be able to track your bag's location while you travel. It will be nice to have the peace of mind of knowing that your bag made it on the plane.
- The iPod turned 15 years old this week, which prompted Rich Stevens of The Pixel Project to create this amusing comic strip for iMore.
- I normally find myself agreeing with David Pogue of Yahoo, but this week he wrote, and created a video, explaining why he doesn't like the Apple Watch. Read his article for his viewpoint, but I couldn't disagree more. For example, in his short video he complains no less than three different times that you need to charge the Apple Watch every night. My response: so what? Why is this a problem? Don't people normally take off a watch to go to sleep at night? The only explanation that he gives is that charging at night means that you cannot use the Apple Watch as a sleep tracker, but the fact that the Apple Watch cannot do one thing doesn't take away from all of the amazing things that it does do during the day. I charge my iPhone every night too, but that doesn't detract from it being a useful device.
- And finally, if you want to buy a T-shirt, mug, water bottle, etc. with an Apple logo on it, you won't find any such item at an Apple Store ... unless you are shopping at the Apple Store on Apple's main campus in Cupertino, CA. Zac Hall of 9to5Mac has a set of pictures showing off what the 1 Infinite Loop Apple Store looks like and some of the items that you can purchase at the store, such as this picture showing lots of T-shirt designs:
