David Chartier pulled together this list of important, but lesser known, features coming in iOS 10. Solid list.

Variety:

Season 2 will debut in 2017 and will consist of 9 episodes, in comparison to the first season that spanned 8 episodes.

The news comes hardly as a surprise, as the supernatural drama has become arguably the buzziest series of the summer. Insiders tell Variety that work on the second season has already been underway for quite some time.

Really glad to see this.

Here’s the teaser trailer:

My favorite tip:

Press the Home and Play/Pause buttons until the lights on Apple TV begin blinking. Let go and the system will reboot.

Solid list of tips, worth a scan.

This is old school. But still, pretty interesting, and good to know if you’ve got a car with a cassette deck and no Bluetooth. Still plenty of those on the road.

Tim Bajarin, writing for Tech.pinions:

One of the things that most consumers do not know about Apple is their supply chain and manufacturing is one of the best in the world. Tim Cook, when he was in charge of the chain, created one of the most efficient supply and manufacturing systems in the market. Cook managed this side of Apple’s business for over 10 years before he was elevated to the role of CEO. Even today he has an eagle eye on this part of their business and understands the supply chain better than any other CEO in the tech world today.

But what really makes Cook and Apple stand out is that, when they design hardware, they only marginally look at what type of equipment they will use to make this product. Creating a product that is great, easy to use, and extremely well designed is the first priority.

Once that is in place, they get serious about how they can manufacture the product in mass quantities and in the most cost-effective way. However, Apple stands above most in this area because, if they can’t find the right equipment to make a product, they actually invent and/or create the equipment, either with the help of a partner or they do it themselves.

This is innovation at a very sophisticated level. I think Walt missed this. Great read.

The Verge:

Monster’s claims that Beats Electronics fraudulently ended their relationship were dismissed in a Los Angeles Superior Court today, leaving Beats and Apple off the hook. The judge ruled that Beats was allowed to end their partnership, meaning its actions were not, as Monster and its CEO Noel Lee claimed, a “sham” designed to take control of their shared headphone line.

The case continues, but not in a way that Monster’s going to be happy about: Beats is now countersuing for attorneys’ fees, claiming its termination agreement with Monster should have prevented this lawsuit — or really any other lawsuit — from being filed in the first place. Apple declined to comment, and Monster attorney Philip Gregory did not return a request for comment.

Nathan Olivarez-Giles, writing for The Wall Street Journal:

You’re going to have a lot more to talk about with Siri this fall. In iOS 10, Apple Inc.’s upcoming iPhone and iPad operating system, you’ll be able to control third-party app functions using the company’s voice-activated assistant for the first time.

Among the first apps to yield to Siri are big names like WhatsApp, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Square Cash and Slack, along with lesser-known ones including Looklive and The Roll.

I’ve tried out Siri’s new abilities in demos with developers over the past few days. After getting an early look at a more capable Siri, it’s clear that this long-overdue feature is important to making Siri more useful in everyday life. Still, controlling third-party apps is merely a first step toward Siri living up to Apple’s promise as a new way to control our devices.

We are at the cusp of a new age, an age that will see Siri play an ever-increasing role in our lives. Adding a basic ability for Siri to interact with 3rd party apps is foundational. I have no doubt that we’ll see those interactions become more and more sophisticated over time, and more and more valuable as a result.

Here’s a link to Apple’s updated iCloud storage pricing page. 2TB tiers added, across the board.

Mossberg:

Five years ago last week, the legendary Steve Jobs stepped down as Apple’s CEO after an amazing 14-year run that took the technology company from the edge of disaster to the heights of glory. He personally selected his COO, Tim Cook, as the new CEO, and passed away six weeks later.

So, how has Apple changed in the first five years of the Tim Cook era? How is it different from the peak of the Jobs era?

The short answer is that the company has surged financially to heights Jobs likely never dreamed of. It has also refined its popular product line and retained most of its senior talent.

But Cook’s Apple has yet to produce the kind of new, game-changing product Jobs was famous for launching. Or, if it has, we don’t know it yet.

I think a better title for this article would have been, “Jobs’ metric of success is different than Cook’s metric of success. Both were critical.”

I think Walt Mossberg’s analysis is interesting, worth reading, but I also think it is couched incorrectly. Steve Jobs ran Apple in a startup mode. Just as most startups need different leadership as they mature, in my opinion, Tim Cook is exactly the kind of leader Apple needed to crush the supply chain and build up Apple’s presence around the world, exactly the kind of leader Apple needs to navigate the choppy tax waters ahead.

And I have no doubt that Apple has plenty of innovation in the hopper, some of it extensions to familiar forms, some of it in the labs, still being shaped.

Alphabet Inc’s Google unit plans to open its ride-sharing program to Waze app users in San Francisco this fall, pitting itself against Uber Technologies Inc, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The Waze app is extremely popular in the Bay Area, so I can see this Google ride-sharing service doing very well.

KARE11:

For most of the past 12 years, Bruno has been taking a daily walk of nearly four miles to Longville, making his rounds around town, then heading back home to his owners, Larry and Debbie LaVallee.

Bruno’s makes his rounds in Longville, with stops at city hall, the library, the ice cream shop, several real estate offices and Tabaka’s grocery store, where deli workers greet him at the back door with meat scraps they’ve saved.

I promise this will be the sweetest story you’ll read/watch all day. What a lucky dog and a lucky town.

Úll is an incredible conference that I attended for three straight years. The presenters are always great and it would be hard for me to say that there is a better organized conference anywhere in the world.

With a new iPhone arriving soon, many people will look to sell their old iPhone for some quick cash. But which places offer the best return and the smoothest process? To find out, Tom’s Guide tested seven services that buy and sell used iPhones.

I’m sure a lot of people will take advantage of this.

The Web site said his flight was delayed for 47 years, so he sarcastically asked customer service what he should do to pass the time. The answer is priceless.

Apple in a recent filing with Australia’s antitrust watchdog slammed a request from the country’s three top banks for collective negotiations over third-party access to Apple Pay NFC technology, saying a threatened boycott would not only harm consumers, but hinder mobile wallet adoption and innovation.

I was really hoping Apple would be part of this group, but no. Spotify users can just open their app and connect to the Sonos system.

Mark Gurman, Jungah Lee, writing for Bloomberg:

Apple Inc. is developing new features for the iPad to cater to professional users, along with new Mac laptops and desktops, according to people familiar with the matter.

Upcoming software upgrades for the iPad include wider operating-system support for Apple’s stylus accessory, while hardware performance improvements are also in development, according to the people. The refreshed Mac hardware line includes new versions of the iMac desktop, MacBook Air laptop, and a 5K standalone monitor in collaboration with LG Electronics Inc., in addition to a thinner MacBook Pro laptop.

The company hopes to ship the updated iPad software next year, while the Macs are expected as soon as late 2016, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing unannounced products. Apple has not updated any Macs, besides the 12-inch MacBook, since last year. The company declined to comment.

This can’t come soon enough for me. I’ve long wanted a more powerful MacBook Pro, thought I wouldn’t care about thinner. But then I spent some quality time with the new MacBook. Thinness and lightness matter.

That said, I would sacrifice that thinness for power and, more importantly, for availability.

Follow this link, look at the picture. Typical Target merchandising. This approach works well for most Target merchandise, but it misses the mark in showing Apple products in the light in which they were meant to be seen.

Seems likely that’s a big part of why Target missed their Apple product sales projections.

[H/T Andrew Leavitt]

Quartz:

Using iPads to distract and lower anxiety levels prior to surgeries requiring general anaesthesia proved as effective as traditional sedatives, French researchers found.

Comparing the effects of the drug midazolam on 54 children, administered orally or rectally, with 58 others who played age-appropriate games on an iPad 20 minutes prior to anaesthesia, the researchers found that both the drug and the tablet equally blunted anxiety.

I can’t help but think that an iPad would always win against a drug applied rectally. But that aside, this is good stuff.

The Verge:

Twitter spam isn’t a new phenomenon, but over the past few weeks the amount of it has certainly increased. I use the social network on a daily basis, and not an hour goes by without a tweet of mine from months or even years ago being liked by a spambot. It’s a practice that generates a notification designed to make you click into the profile, where you’re met with what’s typically a pornographic pinned tweet and a link that will likely bury your PC into malware oblivion.

Yup. I see this on a regular basis. Always wondered what the end-game for the bot creators was. Are they rolled out by the bad guys in the hopes of sowing malware seeds? If I don’t click on the link, is there any other path to harm?

Twitter claims it has a variety of systems in place to detect spam on Twitter, and that the company responds to new forms continuously to combat spammers. Twitter also relies on users to report spammers, but it’s not clear how effective this route actually is.

If there was a UI for specifically reporting spambots, I’d definitely use it. But the spam reporting in the official Twitter client is buried under the … menu, then under the word Report, with the options:

• I’m not interested in this Tweet
• It’s spam
• It’s abusive or harmful

I think Twitter would get more feedback/responses if they let me press and hold on a tweet and select Spambot from a popup menu. Much more direct.

From Tim Cook’s Message to the Apple Community in Europe:

Thirty-six years ago, long before introducing iPhone, iPod or even the Mac, Steve Jobs established Apple’s first operations in Europe. At the time, the company knew that in order to serve customers in Europe, it would need a base there. So, in October 1980, Apple opened a factory in Cork, Ireland with 60 employees.> At the time, Cork was suffering from high unemployment and extremely low economic investment. But Apple’s leaders saw a community rich with talent, and one they believed could accommodate growth if the company was fortunate enough to succeed.

> We have operated continuously in Cork ever since, even through periods of uncertainty about our own business, and today we employ nearly 6,000 people across Ireland.

Apple has been in Cork since 4 years before the very first Mac was introduced. They’ve been in Cork through thick and thin. No possible argument there.

And:

> Over the years, we received guidance from Irish tax authorities and other professionals like a tax resolution specialist on how to comply correctly with Irish tax law — the same kind of guidance available to any company doing business there. In Ireland and in every country where we operate, Apple follows the law and we pay all the taxes we owe.

And:

The European Commission has launched an effort to rewrite Apple’s history in Europe, ignore Ireland’s tax laws, and upend the international tax system in the process. Trusted Chicago accountants can provide valuable insights in navigating such complex tax disputes on an international scale. Additionally, if you are looking for an ap cost saving calculator to help increase your cost savings, then you may check out this ap automation calculator. The opinion issued on August 30th alleges that Ireland gave Apple a special deal on our taxes. This claim has no basis in fact or in law. We never asked for, nor did we receive, any special deals. We now find ourselves in the unusual position of being ordered to retroactively pay additional taxes to a government that says we don’t owe them any more than we’ve already paid.

For expert guidance on navigating complex tax issues, consider consulting TaxPros online. Their expertise can help address such disputes and ensure that your tax affairs are handled with precision and compliance.

And:

> The Commission’s move is unprecedented and it has serious, wide-reaching implications. It is effectively proposing to replace Irish tax laws with a view of what the Commission thinks the law should have been. This would strike a devastating blow to the sovereignty of EU member states over their own tax matters, and to the principle of certainty of law in Europe. Ireland has said they plan to appeal the Commission’s ruling and Apple will do the same. We are confident that the Commission’s order will be reversed.

This is the essence of Apple’s argument. These are just a few excerpts from a much longer letter. Definitely worth a read.

Bloomberg put together an FAQ about the EU tax ruling. Here are a few of the questions and answers:

Q: Can Apple afford to pay the bill?
A: Easily. As of last month, Apple had $232 billion in cash, with about $214 billion of that being held overseas.

Q: Who receives the money if Apple ends up paying?
A: The money gets paid to Ireland, which puts those funds into an escrow account and leaves it there until any appeal process has fully concluded.

Q: Is the EU singling out Apple or forcing other companies to obey too?
A: It’s not just Apple. The EU authority has already ordered the Netherlands and Luxembourg to recover as much as 30 million euros ($33.3 million) apiece in back taxes from Starbucks Corp. and a Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV unit. Vestager is also probing Amazon Inc. and McDonald’s Corp.’s affairs in Luxembourg and has signaled she’s willing to add Google parent Alphabet Inc.’s 130 million-pound ($184 million) tax deal with the U.K. to her growing list of investigations.

Here’s a link to the FAQ.

Bloomberg:

Apple Inc. was ordered to repay a record 13 billion euros ($14.5 billion) plus interest after the European Commission said Ireland illegally slashed the iPhone maker’s tax bill.

The world’s richest company benefited from a “selective tax treatment” in Ireland that gave it a “significant advantage over other businesses,” the European Union regulator said Tuesday. It’s the largest tax penalty in a three-year crackdown on sweetheart fiscal deals granted by EU nations.

And:

Apple and the Irish government have both vowed to fight the decision, which also risks stoking a fight with the U.S. over taxation policies — with the U.S. having already complained that Europe is unfairly targeting American companies and threatening global tax reforms.

And:

“I disagree profoundly with the commission’s decision,” said Irish Finance Minister Michael Noonan. Ireland’s tax system is founded on the strict application of the law “without exception,” he said.

The commission left him with “no choice” but to move toward an appeal before the EU courts. “This is necessary to defend the integrity of our tax system; to provide tax certainty to business; and to challenge the encroachment of EU state-aid rules into the sovereign member state competence of taxation,” he said.

This will certainly add pressure to the unity of the EU, still working through Brexit terms. If the European Commission ultimately prevails, I can’t help but think it would impact Apple’s operations in Ireland.

Apple:

See you on the 7th. Join us here on September 7 at 10 a.m. PDT to watch the keynote live.

While the invites have gone out to the press, Apple has updated their site with the live stream location. For those of you who are forgetful, they’ve also included a helpful “Add to your calendar” link so you won’t miss it.

According to a proposed nationwide class-action lawsuit filed on Saturday, Apple has long been aware of the defect, which often surfaces after a flickering gray bar appears atop the touchscreens, but has refused to fix it.

I had a number of iPhone 6 and 6 Plus devices and never saw this issue, but I have read the reports of the problem last week. I’m not sure why Apple wouldn’t fix it if there was a hardware flaw, but I guess we’ll find out in the lawsuit.

Apple will on Tuesday be hit with Europe’s largest tax penalty after Brussels ruled that the company received illegal state aid from Ireland.

The company will have to pay billions of euro in back taxes to Dublin as the European Commission moves to redraw the boundaries on aggressive tax avoidance by the world’s biggest corporations.

It’s important to note that Apple has paid every penny it owed in taxes. Based on Tim Cook’s previous comments, an appeal to this decision is certain.