Today’s WWDC was full of news about the future of OS X and iOS, but perhaps the most exciting consumer-facing news is about what takes up the space between the two platforms.
Continuity is a new collection of OS X, iOS and iCloud features that make moving between a Mac and iOS device easier than ever. A Mac can be used to take phone calls, send and receive SMS messages and more.
David Sparks tried using the recently-updated service:
While the experiment ultimately worked and he could see what I was typing, it was hardly simultaneous. Basically, we discussed and I wrote and he waited for the changes to show up, which happened about 30 seconds after I typed. If he typed anything on his side (even just a space bar), I got a conflict message on my end and had to pick a version to become gospel.
Brian Chen at The New York Times:
Apple, the company that turned digital music into a mainstream phenomenon, said on Wednesday that it was buying Beats Electronics, the rising music brand, for $3 billion, in a move that will help it play catch-up with rivals that offer subscription-based music services.
Apple and Beats executives on Wednesday said that the companies would work together to give consumers worldwide more options to listen to music. The Beats brand will remain separate from Apple’s, and Apple will offer both Beats’s streaming music service and premium headphones.
If you try to run updates via the Mac App Store today, you will more than likely see this message:
The certificate for this server is invalid. You might be connecting to a server that is pretending to be “swscan.apple.com” which could put you confidential information at risk.
Arnold Kim explains:
Swscan.apple.com is one of several servers that Software Update uses to communicate with Apple. The apparent problem is that the security certificate for the server appears to have expired. The certificate was originally valid from May 22, 2012 to May 24, 2014.
It’s no secret that over the years, iTunes has become bloated.
What was once an MP3 player has grown into a monstrosity. What started life as SoundJam MP can barely recognize itself in the mirror these days. iTunes can rip and burn CDs (that used to be a big deal, kids), be used to purchase music and other media, stream radio, listen to podcasts, watch movies and sync to not only iPods, but iPhones and iPads, too.
Fixes include:
You can update now via the Mac App Store, or via the direct links below:
Mark Gurman:
iOS 8 is likely to supercharge the functionality of Apple’s iPad with a new split-screen multitasking feature, according to sources with knowledge of the enhancement in development. These people say that the feature will allow iPad users to run and interact with two iPad applications at once. Up until now, each iPad application either developed by Apple or available on the App Store is only usable individually in a full-screen view.
Apple is gearing up to incorporate Near Field Communication (NFC) technology in the iPhone 6, according to a report from BrightWire citing sources familiar with the matter. The report also notes that Apple has struck a deal with China UnionPay to integrate the banking company’s services into Passbook and elsewhere.
Here’s Eric Slivka in March 2013:
China Times reports [Google translation, via Mac Otakara] that Taiwanese chip firm Chipbond has been selected to provide a number of components for the iPhone 5S, including the touch display driver as well as chips to support fingerprint sensor and near field communications (NFC) capabilities. The report suggests that Apple will use the fingerprint sensor functionality to enhance the security of NFC features such as mobile payments.
While Apple is clearly trying to make Macs work more like iOS devices, I hate the way that OS X Mavericks changed the way the Mac’s power button works on most machines.
If you want to keep the power button from immediately putting your computer to sleep, this article should make your day.
Apple:
Apple has determined that the sleep/wake button mechanism on a small percentage of iPhone 5 models may stop working or work intermittently. iPhone 5 models manufactured through March 2013 may be affected by this issue.
Apple will replace the sleep/wake button mechanism, free of charge, on iPhone 5 models that exhibit this issue and have a qualifying serial number.
Good on Apple — it seems that a lot of people I know have run in to this issue. Taking care of people out of the warranty period is the right thing to do.
