Apple is investing $390 million into an organization that produces chips for the iPhone X and AirPods

Apple declared that it’s investing $390 million (£292 million) into Finisar, an organization that builds special chips for a few of its product.

This is the second round in a very larger $1 billion (£750 million) investment set up which first saw Apple finance in Corning, a firm that manufactures the glass used in most of its devices.

Finisar is reopening a facility in Texas which will help produce five hundred new jobs.

Apple declared that it’s investing $390 million (£292 million) into Finisar, an organization that helps build chips that modify proximity and depth sensing on product like the iPhone X and AirPods.

With Apple’s money, Finisar is going to open up a 700,000 sq. feet (65,000 sq. meters) manufacturing facility in Sherman, Texas, wherever some five hundred jobs are going to be created between engineers, technicians, and a maintenance team.

The plant will be remodeled and refurbished with new machines capable of manufacturing VCSEL (vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser) chips.

This special kind of element features in a number of Apple’s product, and allows features like Face ID, ARKit, and even Animoji, but additionally proximity sensing that, for instance, permits AirPods to stop playing audio when one of the 2 buds is removed from the user’s ear.

“VCSELs power a number of the most sophisticated technology we’ve ever developed,” said Apple’s chief operating officer Jeff Williams during a statement.

“We’re excited to partner with Finisar over the next several years to push the boundaries of VCSEL technology and the applications they permit.”

Finisar’s chief executive officer chimed in as well. He said: “When you mix our tested ability to consistently manufacture exceptional product with our new progressive Sherman facility, we’re assured we are able to accomplish our shared goal of providing customers with quality exciting features.”

Apple has acquired music recognition app Shazam

Apple confirmed today in statements to many media shops that it’ll purchase Shazam, pending approval. This news had antecedently been rumored by TechCrunch, which had one source claiming the sale worth was around $400 million—far but Shazam’s $1 billion valuation at its last round of funding.

Apple strikes deal with Warner Music, looks to pay labels lower rates
Shazam is arguably best known for its music recognition technology; tap the “Shazam” button in the app for smartphones and it’ll sometimes identify whatever song it hears after just a couple of seconds. Shazam has become thus popular that there’s even a network TV game show referred to as Beat Shazam hosted by Oscar-winner Jamie Foxx. In it, contestants must guess songs faster than Shazam will.

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But Shazam has also invested in second-screen TV viewing features, image recognition, and increased reality services and product. Shazam’s talent and technology may well be used in many of Apple’s products and initiatives, together with Apple Music, Siri, and augmented reality.

ALSO READ: Is your iPhone suddenly crashing? Here’s why (and how to fix…

Shazam already integrates with Siri. you’ll ask Siri “what song is this” while a song is playing outwardly, and, after a long pause, it’ll give you with the name and artist, along side a “buy” button for Apple Music/iTunes gussied with Shazam logo. Currently, the Shazam app permits you to add a song to your Spotify playlist when identifying it, no matter whether you are using an Apple or android phone. we do not know yet what, if something, can happen to it feature attributable to the Apple purchase.

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That said, the acquisition is perhaps concerning much more than the widely celebrated music recognition feature. Shazam has been developing augmented reality features that allow brands to serve up customized ads and transaction opportunities to users who use the app on visual or aural cues around them. Apple’s Tim Cook has created it copiously clear that he expects augmented reality to be one among Apple’s biggest areas of growth and investment. much of the iPhone 8 and iPhone X’s hardware and software is built with AR specifically in mind, and Apple is even rumored to be working on a pair of AR eyeglasses, though it’ll likely be a while before we see those in the market, if we do in the least.

Shazam may help Apple further legalize these AR features, among different things.

Is your iPhone suddenly crashing? Here’s why (and how to fix it)

Is your iOS device rebooting itself apparently at random this morning? You’re not alone.

Apple has a fairly rough week when it involves nasty software bugs. first there was that crazy admin login bypass in macOS – currently a flaw is causing iOS devices around the world to crash.

Here’s what’s happening: a glitch in the notifications system is crashing springboard, the part of iOS that handles your home screen.

Apps with daily notifications (workout apps, medication reminder apps, etc), above all, appear to be triggering the crash… however only when your device’s clock passes 12:15 AM on December 2nd, 2017. That it originates from apps with daily notifications means it’s not affecting everybody — but it also makes it pretty exhausting to slim down the list of impacted apps. There are simply too many.

The workaround: if you’ll be able to get your device to boot for some minutes without crashing and you’ll be able to keep in mind that apps send daily notifications, turn off notifications for those apps (Settings > Notifications > the app in question > toggle “Allow notifications”.)

(As a final resort, you’ll be able to go through and manually turn off notifications for each and every third-party app and work backwards in turning them back on… however that’s a pretty immense pain.)

Update: Once you’ve gotten your device to prevent resetting, update iOS. Apple has simply officially released iOS 11.2 to all, and it appears to repair this issue — but you’ll still ought to get your device stable enough to update, first. Once you’re on 11.2, you’ll be able to flip all those notifications back on.

What you almost certainly shouldn’t do, though some are recommending it, is set your system clock back to a time before December 2nd. a lot of things on modern devices tap the system clock as a part of their encryption/certification algorithms, therefore things (like, say, iMessage) begin to break once your system clock is way off. It won’t brick your device, but many apps and games will act funny. If you have to do it, make sure to line it back to automatic once you’re done.

If your iOS device isn’t crashing after December 2nd at 12:15 am local time, meanwhile, you seemingly don’t ought to do something. you probably don’t use any apps with local/scheduled notifications, or you’ve already got them turned off. Curiously, this bug doesn’t appear to be impacting users running the most recent iOS beta, iOS 11.2.

One might follow reports of the bug because it spreads round the world, starting in Australia. It’ll presumptively begin to hit West Coast United States phones shortly when this post is up.

iOS 11.2 is here with support for Apple pay cash, quicker wireless charging, and more

photo credit: http://bgr.com

Apple earlier today released iOS 11.2, an update that has} variety of welcome new features and necessary bug fixes. On the feature front, iOS 11.2 finally introduces support for Apple pay cash, a mobile payment feature that lets iOS users send and receive money from directly among the Messages app. Users with cash in their account — that is obtainable via the wallet app — can have the power to transfer cash to friends, directly to their bank account, and after all, make purchases across the net.

photo credit: www.forbes.com

iOS 11.2 additionally introduces support for quicker 7.5W wireless charging for the iPhone 8, 8 Plus, and therefore the iPhone X. while you seemingly won’t see drastic charging gains with the iOS 11.2 update, it’s definitely a step within the right direction.

Another notable iOS 11.2 tweak, but small, is that the lock screen now includes a horizontal line on the right side of the notch. this can be designed to inform users where to go so as to point out control center.

As for notable bug fixes, iOS 11.2 clears up a pesky issue that was brought to light yesterday that saw iPhones and iPads endlessly reboot if they happened to be using third-party apps with local notifications.

Those updates aside, the release notes for iOS 11.2 can be viewed below:

Introduces three new Live wallpapers for iPhone X

  • Introduces three new Live wallpapers for iPhone X
  • Improves video camera stabilization
  • Adds support in Podcasts to automatically advance to the next episode from the same show
  • Adds support in HealthKit for downhill snow sports distance as a data type
  • Fixes an issue that could cause Mail to appear to be checking for new messages even when a download is complete
  • Fixes an issue that could cause cleared Mail notifications from Exchange accounts to reappear
  • Improves stability in Calendar
  • Resolves an issue where Settings could open to a blank screen
  • Fixes an issue that could prevent swiping to Today View or Camera from the Lock Screen
  • Addresses an issue that could prevent Music controls from displaying on the Lock Screen
  • Fixes an issue that could cause app icons to be arranged incorrectly on the Home Screen
  • Addresses an issue that could prevent users from deleting recent photos when iCloud storage is exceeded
  • Addresses an issue where Find My iPhone sometimes wouldn’t display a map
  • Fixes an issue in Messages where the keyboard could overlap the most recent message
  • Fixes an issue in Calculator where typing numbers rapidly could lead to incorrect results
  • Addressed an issue where the keyboard could respond slowly
  • Adds support for real-time text (RTT) phone calls for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • Improves VoiceOver stability in Messages, Settings, App Store, and Music
  • Resolves an issue that prevented VoiceOver from announcing incoming Notifications