Originally published at: http://appletalk.com.au/2016/09/friday-morning-news020916/
Speaking to an Irish newspaper, Apple CEO Tim Cook says he believes Apple has paid 26.1% tax on European profits in 2014, calling the ruling by the European Commission as “politically-based”. Cook re-iterated that there was nothing special going on between Apple and Ireland in regards to some kind of tax break, and that both Apple and Ireland had done nothing wrong.
A re-hash of an existing story about Steve Jobs working on a TV set at Apple from Recode has Walt Mossberg telling the story once more. He says he was writing a story about Jobs’ legacy, when Jobs himself called and said he figured out television and wanted to show Mossberg in a few months. Mossberg speculates Jobs was talking about a full TV set, not just the Apple TV, but maybe we’ll never know.
Apple has announced App Store improvements, starting by implementing an ongoing process of app evaluation that will result in removal of apps that no longer function as intended, don’t follow Apple’s current review guidelines, or are plain outdated. App removal will start on September 7th, and Apple won’t be pulling any punches: apps that crash on launch will be immediately removed from the App Store.
Rumour has it Apple will be announcing new Beats products at their event next week. The rumour came about from a leaked screenshot of an email announcing the plan for new Beats products, with Apple also lending credence to the rumour by asking that the screenshot be removed. Wireless Beats headphones could certainly fit into Apple’s plan of removing the headphone jack, but whether they’ll want to promote the Beats brand at their event remains to be seen.
We’re expected to believe a small British repair shop that sells Apple-certified accessories and repair parts for iOS devices has somehow gotten a hold of upcoming Apple Watch 2 parts, but I guess it’s possible one of their Chinese manufacturing partners let something slip before its time. The purported display and larger battery are certainly consistent with recent rumours, anyway.
TechCrunch has a breakdown of some of the ways you’ll be able to use Siri in iOS 10 to hail a ride or make a VoIP call.
The Mac Observer tells us about little known features in iOS 10 that are bound to be useful to someone.
For the second time, Transmission downloads have been infected with malware. The official Mac download from the Transmission website was infected with the Keydnap malware for about a day before it was noticed, and Eset’s page on the malware has more info.
Noteskey is a website that has breakdowns of every previous Apple event, going as far back as 1997’s Macworld San Francisco. It’s billed as a quick reference guide to Apple keynotes, but it’s surprisingly comprehensive.
Of all the teams at Cupertino working on the next iPhone, there’s a good chance Apple’s PR team is working the hardest. Their recent efforts have been tremendous, but they’ll be called on once again when Apple announces the removal of the headphone jack next week as rumoured.