Macworld UK August 1, 2015

Ever since Steve Jobs gave us a sneak peak at Apple’s internal iTV project at 2006’s ‘Showtime’ event, we’ve been waiting for Apple’s pioneering set-top box to mature. Officially released just moments before the iPhone, Apple TV was designed to be the magical gadget that bridged the gap between the small screens on our mobile devices and the giant ones in our living rooms, wirelessly delivering our music, movies and photos to a place where they could look and sound their best. At the time, Jobs declared that the square box “completes the story” that started with the iPod. But we know the story didn’t end there. With the dawn of the iPhone, iPad and now Apple Watch, our digital lives have become greater than the things that entertain us.…

If there was ever any doubt about how powerful Taylor Swift is, let this be a lesson. Hours after Swift admonished Apple for not paying royalties to artists during Apple Music’s free three-month trial, the company abruptly switched gears. “We don’t ask you for free iPhones,” Swift wrote in a blog post. “Please don’t ask us to provide you with our music for no compensation.” Apple media head Eddy Cue took to Twitter after Swift’s open letter to the company went viral and announced that the company will pay artists for songs streamed during the free trial. Swift then tweeted: “I am elated and relieved. Thank you for your words of support today. They listened to us.” Apple pays music rights-holders (typically record labels and song publishers) per stream during…

Just after its WWDC 2015 keynote on 8 June, Apple released iOS 9 as a beta, and developers have been exploring the code in the hunt for clues to future products ever since. One developer, Steve Troughton-Smtih, has discovered that the iOS 9 beta code appears to offer a larger iPad keyboard, with several productivity tweaks that would lend itself perfectly to a 12in iPad, dubbed ‘iPad Pro’ and expected to be a rival to the Microsoft Surface Pro when it launches later this year (or so the rumours say). The bigger keyboard has a shortcut bar, Tap and Caps Lock keys, as well as an entire row dedicated to other characters and punctuation. In addition, iOS 9’s code also appears to support a bigger screen, which is the exact…

Developers got their hands on the betas of OS X El Capitan, iOS 9 and watchOS 2 at the beginning of June at WWDC, but on 23 June Apple released second versions of all three betas. Those who have signed up to Apple’s Developer Program can upgrade the iOS 9 beta over the air or download it from Apple’s Developer Resources. The El Capitan beta is available in the Mac App Store, on machines already running the first beta, or from the Mac Developer Center. The second beta of watchOS 2 is available to developers through the Apple Watch app found in the updated iOS 9 beta. Developers will also need to install a watchOS 2 configuration profile found on Apple’s website. These betas bring us one step closer to…

If you’re waiting for Apple to release the second-generation Apple Watch before you finally buy one, well, we don’t blame you. New details indicate that it will be packed with improvements, including a front-facing video camera for FaceTime chats and a wireless chipset that will make the watch capable of standing on its own. It’s the latter that will become a huge selling point for the Apple Watch 2. Right now, your watch requires your iPhone to be nearby for just about everything except activity-tracking and listening to music you’ve stored locally on the device. But according to a report from 9To5Mac, the tech giant is working to free the Apple Watch from the iPhone for all but the most taxing data transfers and file syncing by putting a Wi-Fi…

Apple on 19 June quietly stopped selling the original iPad mini, the 7.9in tablet that debuted in 2012. The smaller sibling to the 9.7in iPad no longer appears on Apple’s online store. The iPad mini had been superseded by a pair of follow-ups, including the mini 2 in 2013 and the mini 3 last year. Both of those tablets, while sporting the same-sized screen as the original, boasted higher resolution Retina displays. Apple initially priced the iPad mini at £319, but as its successors appeared, dropped the price first to £239 in 2013, then £199. Apple has confirmed the discontinuation of the mini: “The non-Retina iPad mini model is no longer available. Now all models of the iPad mini and Air have 64-bit Apple-designed CPUs and high-resolution Retina displays.” The…