Mitchel Broussard

A group of Australia's biggest banks have again applied to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) in a bid to negotiate with Apple over Apple Pay. The banks -- including Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, National Australia Bank, and Westpac -- today announced that they have "narrowed" their application with the ACCC to focus on gaining open access to...

Apple has been listed as a contributing sponsor for the non-profit information/security conference BSides that's currently taking place in San Francisco. Apple joins a long list of sponsors including Google, Dropbox, Netflix, Fitbit, and more. According to the conference's sponsor page, Apple is also listed as a food sponsor for BSides, and provided breakfast and lunch meals to everyone...

Apple has added a small but useful tweak to CarPlay in iOS 10.3, giving drivers a quicker and safer way to switch between apps without having to take their eyes off the road for long periods of time. Before the update, users had to tap twice to get to another app in CarPlay: one tap to go home, and another tap on the designated app icon. Image via The Verge Now, Apple has streamlined that...

Popular bookmarking service Instapaper faced an extended outage this week, beginning at 12:30PM PT on February 8th and remaining offline for 31 hours. Although the service is now back online, users only have access to the last six weeks of saved articles, running back through December 20, 2016. The company said it chose to restore just the last six weeks of articles right now "in the interest...

As Apple CEO Tim Cook continues to make his rounds in Europe, Good Morning Britain managed to catch him for a quick interview while he was visiting Woodberry Down Primary School yesterday. Regarding fake news, which has been an increasingly hot topic since the U.S. Presidential election got into full swing last year, Cook said that "this is one of today's chief problems." In the wake of...

Apple today officially launched its much-anticipated BeatsX Earphones on its online store for $149.95, after initially delaying the earphones from Fall 2016 and into February 2017. With the delay of BeatsX, Apple focused on the December launch of the AirPods, which have subsequently become hard to come by for those interested in Apple's own Bluetooth headphones. Apple's website states shipping ...

One day away from their official launch, new information is beginning to come out about the BeatsX Earphones thanks to a couple of hands-on videos and reviews that have been posted online. In Jonathan Morrison's newest video, titled BeatsX Wireless vs Apple AirPods, the YouTuber has discovered that all purchases of BeatsX come with a code for three free months of Apple Music, akin to users...

Facebook has come up with another way to convince users to stay within the social networking app, recently introducing a complete weather forecast section that uses GPS location to present a detailed 24-hour and 5-day forecast, powered by Weather.com (via TechCrunch). The feature is an expansion of the previous "weather greetings" that appeared on the Facebook mobile app beginning about a year...

Continuing on his lengthy European tour today, Apple CEO Tim Cook has now stopped in London and had a chat with UK Prime Minister Theresa May. According to a spokesperson for May speaking with Business Insider, the meeting focused on Apple's continued investment in the United Kingdom amid the recent turmoil surrounding Brexit. Overall, the meeting was said to have been "a very positive and useful ...

Google today announced the all-new Android Wear 2.0 operating system update for its line of Android-based smartwatches, alongside two new devices debuting this Friday, February 10: the LG Watch Sport and LG Watch Style. The LG Watch Sport includes a number of features that aligns it as a direct competitor to the Apple Watch, including a new "rotating power button" akin to the Digital Crown, NFC...

News-focused iOS app Flipboard today announced an update that introduces a new UI which creates custom, curated magazines based on various user "passions." The Version 4.0 update is said to be a direct response to the overabundance of news sources -- from magazines to online outlets and social media -- and serve as a way to "effortlessly get you to the things you love." The heart of the new...

Entertainment network Epix today launched an app for the fourth-generation Apple TV, allowing anyone who is subscribed to Epix through a cable provider access to the service's collection of premium film and television content (via Variety). For those who haven't signed up for Epix yet and download the Apple TV app, they can get a four week free trial to test out the service, but afterwards...

Following weeks of reports and speculation on the potential opening of a United States-based factory built by Apple suppliers Foxconn and Sharp, a report from Reuters today states that Sharp is "taking the lead" on a $7 billion plant in the U.S. that was initially outlined by parent company Foxconn. The plant will break ground sometime in the first half of 2017. The timing of the news...

BeatsX Earphones will launch this Friday, February 10, with Beats By Dre announcing the official date this morning on Twitter. Yesterday, rumors of an imminent launch of BeatsX began circulating following increased activity on Apple's and Best Buy's online listings for the earphones. In December, Apple updated its BeatsX listing with a vague February launch window, but up until today we had...

YouTube today announced that its new mobile live streaming feature is officially launching to all content creators with 10,000 or more subscribers on their channel, while promising that the rest of YouTube viewers "will have it soon." YouTube has supported live streaming on its website since 2011, but it began a very small beta test of mobile live streaming on iOS devices last summer. To begin ...

Even though Jawbone has confirmed that it's leaving the consumer wearables market to focus on clinical health products, the company has doubled down on its legal battle with former rival Fitbit, concerning the latter company's alleged theft of trade secrets (via TechCrunch). The U.S. International Trade Commission has already let Fitbit off the hook for the original claims, but Jawbone is now ...

The much-anticipated launch of BeatsX could be occurring soon, according to some behind-the-scenes movement happening on Apple.com where the earphones are now listed as "Available Today" in two stores in Manhattan: West 14th Street and the Upper East Side. At the time of writing, customers can't order or add BeatsX to their bag, however, so it's still unclear when exactly the earphones will be up ...

Apple remained the fourth largest smartphone vendor in China in 2016, beaten out by Oppo, Huawei, and Vivo in first, second, and third places, respectively, according to new data from research firm IDC. As a whole, IDC said it was a good year for the smartphone market in China, which saw a 19 percent year-over-year growth in 2016, and a 17 percent quarter-over-quarter growth in the fourth quarter ...

It's been nearly a year since a U.S. federal judge originally ordered Apple to help the FBI hack into an iPhone owned by Syed Farook, one of the shooters in the December 2015 attacks in San Bernardino. As we learned in the months after the initial court order -- which Apple continually opposed -- the FBI enlisted the help of Israeli mobile software developer Cellebrite to open up the iPhone 5c in ...

Connected smart home company Wink today announced the addition of August Smart Locks into its collection of supported brands, which already includes GE, Nest, Philips, Schlage, and more. Now, any users who have an August Smart Lock paired with an August Connect (which provides remote access to the lock) can add their lock into the Wink mobile app on iOS. The advantage of using Wink, similar to ...