Year: 2018

Apple facing class-action lawsuit over Apple Watch

Dan Uff June 7, 2018 0

A new class action lawsuit filed against Apple this week alleges that all Apple Watch models suffer from a defect that causes the display to "crack, shatter, or detach from the body of the watch, through no fault of the wearer."

The proposed class is all current and former owners of all models, sizes, and variants of the Apple Watch, including the original, Series 1, Series 2, and Series 3 generations, purchased in the United States between April 2015 and present, according to court documents obtained by MacRumors.

The complaint, filed in Northern California district court, alleges that Apple has sold millions of watches with the defect throughout the United States, and "either knew, or should have known," about the display issues. Apple is said to have "actively concealed" and "failed to disclose" the defect to customers.

To read the rest of the MacRumors.com article, click here.

Amazon introduces the “Amazon Fire TV Cube”

Dan Uff June 7, 2018 0

Early Thursday, Amazon.com introduced a new device called the "Amazon Fire TV Cube".

According to the information on the web site:

Fire TV Cube is the first hands-free streaming media player with Alexa, delivering an all-in-one entertainment experience. From across the room, just ask Alexa to turn on the TV, dim the lights, and play what you want to watch.
With far-field voice recognition, eight microphones, and beamforming technology, Fire TV Cube hears you from any direction. Enjoy hands-free voice control—search, play, pause, fast forward, and more. Plus, control your TV, sound bar, cable or satellite box, receiver, and more with just your voice.
Do more with Alexa. Fire TV Cube has a built-in speaker that lets you check the weather, listen to the news, control compatible smart home devices, and more—even with the TV off. Fire TV Cube is always getting smarter with new Alexa skills and voice functionality.
Experience true-to-life picture quality and sound with access to vivid 4K Ultra HD up to 60 fps, HDR, and the audio clarity of Dolby Atmos.
Enjoy tens of thousands of channels, apps, and Alexa skills. Get over 500,000 movies and TV episodes from Netflix, Prime Video, Hulu, HBO, SHOWTIME, NBC, and more.
Access YouTube, Facebook, Reddit, and more websites with Silk and Firefox browsers.
An Amazon Prime membership unlocks thousands of movies and TV episodes including "Thursday Night Football" and Prime Originals like “The Big Sick” and “Sneaky Pete”.
Enjoy unlimited access to tens of millions of songs with Amazon Music, starting at just $3.99/month.

The device is available for pre-order now, and will become available by June 21st, 2018.

For more information, click here.

Free trials of games and other apps coming to the App Store

Dan Uff June 6, 2018 0

[AppleInsider.com]: Granting a long-standing wish from developers, Apple this week updated its App Store guidelines to allow free trials for all apps, rather than just those based on subscriptions.

To enable trials, developers must create a free in-app purchase and set a definite expiration date, section 3.1.1 of the guidelines says. Apple notes that an app must also "clearly identify its duration, the content or services that will no longer be accessible when the trial ends, and any downstream charges the user would need to pay for full functionality."

Section 2.2 still claims that "demos, betas, and trial versions of your app don't belong on the App Store," although that now presumably refers to a narrow definition in which developers can't put out separate demo/trial releases.

Until this week, trials were officially limited to services like HBO Now or YouTube TV, which begin billing users automatically after their trial periods end.

Developers have complained that without the ability to trial regular apps, it has been unnecessarily hard to convince people to download apps that aren't from major publishers or otherwise well-known. Customers have either had to pay for an app or move on, often veering toward free software since paying cash to experiment can become costly.

A change that's likely upsetting some developers is Apple's decision to ban creators of remote mirroring apps from presenting a "store-like inteface". The rule was likely directly aimed at Valve's Steam, which was poised to let people play Mac and Windows games on iOS devices and the Apple TV through a Steam Link app.

Access to Steam also means access to the Steam storefront, and Apple may have been worried that its devices would become little more than terminals for PC gamers —and that it would lose out on the 30 percent cut it claims from native App Store sales.

Astronauts Safely in Orbit Following Launch to International Space Station

NASA Gov June 6, 2018 2

Three crew members are on their way to the International Space Station after launching from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 7:12 a.m. EDT Wednesday (5:12 p.m. Baikonur time).