Paul Thompson

The young catcher wasn't sure what to expect when he started peppering Jonathan Lucroy with questions. Jacob Nottingham, after all, had just arrived from the A's in a trade that provided the Brewers with their catcher of the future. Despite all of the trade rumors, Lucroy is the team's catcher of the present.

Over the course of the iOS 9.3 beta testing period, iPad Pro users running the update have noticed a disturbing feature removal that limits the functionality of the Apple Pencil. In the current version of iOS, iOS 9.2, the Apple Pencil can be used for navigational purposes, just like a finger. It's possible to tap on buttons, select text, scroll, swipe between apps, access menus, and access general editing controls in non-drawing apps.

With iOS 9.3, much of that functionality has been removed. The Apple Pencil is no longer able to be used for selecting and manipulating text or doing things like scrolling -- it's only available for selecting buttons and drawing, sketching, and writing within apps.


Early on, Apple Pencil users thought the feature removal was perhaps a bug, but full Apple Pencil functionality has not been restored in later betas and the release notes that accompany betas have never mentioned the Apple Pencil's inability to be used for navigational purposes as a known issue. In a recent podcast, Relay.fm co-founder Myke Hurley said he's heard that the decision isn't a bug, but an intentional design decision.

Sources in the know confirm that removing the functionality of the Apple Pencil is a decision inside of Apple. It is not a bug they have overlooked for three betas. It is a decision.

Earlier today, iMore's Serenity Caldwell wrote an opinion piece outlining the issue and calling on Apple not to remove the Apple Pencil's existing capabilities. In her post, she points out the Apple Pencil can no longer be used for tasks like editing videos in iMovie for iOS.

But the fact remains that the Pencil's owners use those navigation options, and frankly, the idea that Apple would take away functionality that people have come to expect and depend on is a significant hit to usability and overall experience.

Worse, it makes the Pencil useless for video and audio editing, creative pursuits that I'd hoped to explore further on the iPad Pro. I'd initially enjoyed editing and cutting several videos in iMovie for iOS with the help of the Pencil; now, you can only select and drag clips. You can't cut a clip with the downward swipe gesture, nor can you scroll the timeline.

Many iPad Pro users have come to rely on the Apple Pencil as a finger replacement in some situations, and it is not entirely clear why Apple has opted to eliminate that functionality. iOS 9.3 is expected to be released in the spring, perhaps at Apple's March 15 event, which means the end of the beta testing period is fast approaching. As Caldwell points out, Apple still has time to re-add the Apple Pencil features back into the operating system ahead of that date.


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LADYSMITH, Wis. — A Rusk County judge rejected a plea deal for a La Crosse man charged in a shooting death that would have allowed him to enter into a deferred prosecution agreement, according…

Ahead of the Apple Watch's launch, many high-end Swiss watch makers were critical of its design and Apple's efforts to position it as a high-fashion item. TAG Heuer CEO Jean-Claude Biver went as far as to call it "too feminine," saying the Apple Watch looked like "it was designed by a student in their first trimester."

As time has passed, opinions on the Apple Watch have changed. It has prompted some high-end luxury watch makers to consider delving into the smart watch market themselves, and it also seems to be the inspiration behind high-end watchmaker H. Moser & Cie.'s latest product.


Shared today by watch site Hodinkee, H. Moser & Cie.'s Swiss Alp Watch has a design that's immediately familiar, featuring a rectangular watch face with curved, rounded edges, a crown at the side, and Apple Watch-style lugs for holding a band in place.

Constructed from solid 18-karat white gold, the Swiss Alp Watch measures in at 38.2mm by 44mm, with a depth of 10.3mm. That's comparable to the 42mm Apple Watch, which is 35.9mm by 42mm with a depth of 10.5mm. It comes with a beige kudu leather strap with a white gold pin buckle.

The resemblance between the Swiss Alp Watch and the Apple Watch is purely physical. There is no processor, no OLED display, and no sensors in the Swiss Alp Watch, which is entirely mechanical. When flipped over, there's no heart rate sensor -- instead, the inner mechanics of the watch (a finished tonneau movement with a Straumann hairspring, according to Hodinkee) are visible through a clear sapphire crystal panel.


H. Moser & Cie. does not mention the Apple Watch on its website or in its marketing materials, but when speaking to Hodinkee, H. Moser & Cie. CEO Edouard Meylan said the Swiss Alp Watch is symbolic, serving as a proof traditional mechanical watchmaking has a future in a world where the digital smart watch is becoming commonplace. Swiss watchmaking, he says, has weathered other challenges and it will continue on.

"Today, H. Moser & Cie. launches the Swiss Alp Watch as a statement of this new challenge and to prove that traditional mechanical watchmaking has a future, and it is, in fact, the future. It is much more than a watch for us. The Swiss Alp Watch is symbolic. It represents our resilience, our ferocious desire to fight for our values and traditions. It embodies everything we believe in."

Given that H. Moser & Cie. is pricing the white gold Swiss Alp Watch at $24,900 with only 50 pieces available, it's unlikely Apple will take offense over the copycat design.

The full story of the H. Moser & Cie. Swiss Alp Watch, which includes background color on the Swiss watch industry and hands-on details, can be read over at Hodkinee.
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The Rentiers have released a new song. It's called "The Early 2000s." The tune includes contributions by Joel Tannenbaum, Anika Pyle of Chumped, and Jesse Miller of Lotus. Hear it below.

Best Deals: Our pick for the best noise-cancelling over-ear headphones, the Bose QuietComfort 25 Noise Cancelling Headphones, are down to $270 (from $300). [Amazon]

Lloyd's of London filed a lawsuit against Nickelback lead singer Chad Kroeger, saying he failed to disclose a preexisting condition in his throat.  Nickelback canceled more than 60 concerts over the summer during their international tour…

Best Deals: Our upgrade pick for the best superzoom camera, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ1000, is down to $600 (from $748). [eBay]

Developer Kevin Smith, who previously demonstrated a version of the MAME emulator running on the new Apple TV, has now made some tweaks to existing open source tools to allow game streaming from a PC to the new Apple TV. Smith took advantage of the Moonlight iOS open source project based on NVIDIA's GameStream, modifying it to run on tvOS.

Using this modified version of Moonlight iOS, Smith was able to stream games from Steam on a PC directly to the Apple TV. Without the need to run directly on the Apple device, streamed games can appear as high-quality as the source computer allows, with obvious Wi-Fi and streaming strength limitations taken into account when used without a wired Ethernet connection. In the video below, Smith tests the Moonlight client out on the new Apple TV with popular open-world game Grand Theft Auto V.

Caution: Gameplay audio includes profanity
With the launch of the new Apple TV at the end of October, Apple took its first significant steps into the world of couch gaming, thanks to a full App Store for third-party apps included on the new tvOS operating system for the platform.

Although the Apple TV supports wireless gaming controllers that account for a few exceptions, most of the gaming apps that function best on the Apple TV remain as iOS-like side-scrollers and platforms rather than more sophisticated console-level games.

While it is still in the early days for the new Apple TV, momentum does appear to be building. For example, Facebook last week announced a new SDK for developers to "build immersive social experiences" on Apple TV with a number of features including a confirmation code login system that can bypass the cumbersome text entry of the Apple TV.


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If a serious music lover asked me what open-back audiophile headphones to buy and wanted to spend less than $500, I’d recommend the HiFiMan HE400S. These aren’t cheap, yet emerged as the favorite when our panel of audio professionals spent 60 hours evaluating 29 open-back and semi-open-back headphones—nearly every model available for less than $500. Among those, the HE400S headphones were the only ones that we all agreed deserved a high ranking.

Best Deals: Our pick for the best Airplay speaker, the Wren V5AP Airplay Speaker, is down to $200 (from $240). [Wren]

"Empire" star Jussie Smollett is keeping it as real as his TV mama Cookie does ... saying he's NOT hookin' up with Michael Sam ... despite the fact they've been spending A LOT of time together recently.

Teardowns of the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus have revealed two different A9 chips inside the devices, one created by TSMC and one developed by Samsung, which is slightly smaller in size, having been manufactured on a 14-nanometer process instead of a 16-nanometer process.

There was early some speculation that the chips were divided by model, with the iPhone 6s getting the smaller Samsung chip and the iPhone 6s Plus receiving the larger TSMC chip, but new data collected by an iOS developer suggests that is not the case.


Hiraku Wang has created an app that's able to determine whether an iPhone has a TSMC chip or a Samsung chip, and has shared some data on results gathered from users who have installed his app.

According to results from approximately 2,500 iPhones, there are more TSMC chips than Samsung chips. TSMC chips were found to be installed on 58.96 percent of devices, compared to 41.04 percent for Samsung chips.

The iPhone 6s Plus appears to have relatively equal split of Samsung and TSMC chips, with slightly more Samsung chips. Of 1,329 iPhone 6 Plus devices, 56.81 percent have the Samsung chip while 43.19 percent have the TSMC chip.


With the iPhone 6s, the numbers skew heavily towards the TSMC chip. Of 1,086 devices, 78.27 percent have the TSMC chip while 21.73 percent have the Samsung chip.

At this point in time, there is no evidence that the two chips perform differently, as more extensive testing must be done to determine any performance discrepancies. Though the chips are two different sizes, it's highly unlikely there are going to be performance differences large enough to be noticeable during daily usage.

It is possible for users to check which chip version is installed in their iPhones using Wang's utility, but users should be cautious about installing an app via enterprise certificate from an untrusted developer. We do not recommend MacRumors readers install the app.

Rihanna hosted one of the biggest New York Fashion Week kickoff parties ever, and all her famous friends were invited. Check out the video. Travis Scott, who's been glued to her side for the last week, was right where Rihanna wanted him when…

Deshawn Randall smiled when he learned he was facing a homicide charge.

BLACK RIVER FALLS — John Cook was playing with his hair, with a blood-stained shirt nearby, when a police officer found him sitting on a Black River Falls lawn just hours after he allegedly st…

ON TODAY'S SHOW Ben Affleck's Ex-Nanny is Showing Off Her New Whip Uggie the Dog: Remembering a Legend A Major Gay Controversy on 'Love and Hip Hop' Terrence Howard's Court Case Turns Nasty SKYPE US TMZTVSHOW TWEET US Tweet to @TMZLIVE

Quartz yesterday published an article which analyzed data from Apple Music's Beats 1 radio station, in an attempt to get a feel for the station's most played songs and artists throughout the month of July. The company took data collected from 12,445 songs specifically from "early July to early August," and discovered that artists The Weeknd, Drake, and Disclosure were the top three most-played musicians for the month.


The Weeknd was also on top of the most played song chart, with the song "Can't Feel My Face" -- which he performed live at WWDC in June -- played a total of 107 times in July. Artists including Rachel Platten, Beck, and Selena Gomez, amongst others, round out the rest of the list thanks to the popularity of their current chart-topping songs "Fight Song," "Dreams," and "Good for You," respectively.

Beats 1 has something that is rare in the world of digital music: scarcity. Listeners can’t choose a song and play it over and over. (They can do that elsewhere on Apple Music.) But curation doesn’t mean songs aren’t repeated. We counted 12,445 tracks but only 3,371 unique songs, meaning each track was played an average of 3.7 times. Eighteen of the 20 songs in the table above were played over 50 times.

Quartz also found the top genre on Beats 1 to be hip-hop (1,726 plays), with alternative (1,506 plays) and electronic (802 plays) rounding out the top three spots. Still, "a quarter of the songs in the dataset" that Quartz measured were only played one time, so Beats 1 is still managing to present a few diverse tracks into the mix every once in a while.


The response to Apple Music has been mixed, with the service's detractors pointing to the initial speed bumps syncing with iTunes and an over-reliance on specific musical genres in Beats 1, the latter of which Quartz has now detailed. The rest of Quartz's report on Beats 1 is definitely worth checking out, with charts analyzing the volume of songs played on weekdays versus the weekend and even one highlighting songs played most frequently in pairs.

Rite Aid today announced that its 4,600 stores across the United States will begin accepting Apple Pay and Google Wallet starting August 15, nearly one year after the drugstore chain and CVS infamously disabled support for the iPhone-based mobile payments service nationwide. Rite Aid will also support Google's forthcoming Android Pay service when available.


Rite Aid and CVS spurred a controversy last year after disabling Apple Pay and Google Wallet as payment methods last year, likely because both are members of the Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX) consortium, which has its own mobile payments service called CurrentC. MCX launched in August 2012 with a three-year exclusivity period for all members, which ends this month.

“Increasingly, consumers are actively seeking out and incorporating mobile technology into many facets of their life, including their shopping and purchasing decisions,” said Ken Martindale, CEO of Rite Aid stores and president of Rite Aid Corporation. “By accepting mobile payments, we’re able to offer Rite Aid customers an easy and convenient checkout process, which we know is important to them. Investing in mobile technologies is just one piece of Rite Aid’s evolving digital strategy and we will continue to explore, test and implement innovative technologies that will help us to better serve our valued customers.”

Apple responded to the Rite Aid-CVS situation last year by stating that Apple Pay feedback from customers and retailers was "overwhelmingly positive and enthusiastic" at the time, and the mobile payments service is now available at over 750,000 locations in the United States and United Kingdom. Other MCX members that remain without Apple Pay support include Walmart, Target and Lowe's.

"Flashdance" star Jennifer Beals is taking heat for leaving her German Shepherd in a hot car, and the excuse is puzzling. Beals was in the Dunbar neighborhood of Vancouver Wednesday when she left her pooch in her SUV with the window open only a…

T-Mobile today announced that it has added Apple Music to Music Freedom, allowing Simple Choice customers to listen to the streaming music service without the cellular data counting against their monthly 4G LTE data plan. Apple Music joins dozens of other streaming music services supported by Music Freedom, including Spotify, Pandora, Rdio, Google Play Music, iHeartRadio, SoundCloud and SiriusXM.


T-Mobile also announced that customers who purchase an iPhone 6 for $15 per month through the JUMP! On Demand trade-in program will be automatically eligible to receive a free upgrade to the next iPhone -- the so-called "iPhone 6s" -- when it is released, with the $15 monthly promotional price carrying over to the new smartphone.


Purchasing an iPhone 6 through JUMP! On Demand will also land you priority access to the next iPhone, when T-Mobile receives inventory of the next-generation device, for those that upgrade within the first 48 hours of availability. T-Mobile claims these two new Apple promotions are the last of the carrier's Un-carrier Amped moves this summer.

Elle Macpherson slithered her 51-year-old body into a tiny white bikini to hang out Monday on a yacht in Saint Tropez. 51. That can't be right, can it?  

Apple's discussions with ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox for its much-rumored streaming TV service are gaining momentum, according to the New York Post. The report claims that Apple has enlisted networks to negotiate with local TV stations on their behalf, and the networks are said to be close to securing those rights with affiliate groups such as Tribune and Sinclair.


Networks are reportedly telling affiliates that they will be able to share the revenue generated from Apple's streaming TV service if they offer their feeds on the platform. The inclusion of local TV stations is important for the success of Apple's cable-cutter service, expected to launch in the fall for devices including iPhone, iPad and Apple TV. The service is speculated to cost between $10 and $40 per month.

At CBS, executives are talking to affiliates about conducting Apple negotiations on their behalf, one TV source confirmed.

At Fox, the network “has the ability to negotiate with Apple [for affiliates], or it will have it very soon,” a second executive added.

Disney and CBS will likely be among the first networks to reach a deal with Apple for its à-la-carte streaming TV service, according to the report, although some sticking points remain in the negotiations. Cable channels such as Discovery and ESPN are also expected to be included in the subscription-based service, which is rumored to include a skinny bundle of around 25 channels.

T-Mobile has announced a new "Un-carrier" move called "Mobile Without Borders" that enables customers with Simple Choice postpaid and prepaid plans to send and receive unlimited phone calls, text messages and use 4G LTE data in Canada and Mexico at no additional cost. The extended three-country plan will be available starting July 15 in select Canadian and Mexican markets.

T-Mobile customers with Simple Choice plans will be able to make unlimited calls to and from the United States to any number, including landlines and mobile phones, in Mexico and Canada, alongside unlimited text messaging and the full monthly allotment of 4G LTE data they would normally have in the U.S. at no extra charge. Music Freedom is included while roaming in Canada or Mexico.


Canadian and Mexican residents looking to take advantage of this T-Mobile promotion are out of luck, as Simple Choice customers must reside in the U.S. and primary usage must occur on T-Mobile's network in the U.S. The carrier also warns that Simple Choice plans are not intended for extended international usage. Data Stash will be available for use while in Canada or Mexico later this year.

Coverage in Canada includes Banff National Park, Bay of Fundy, Brampton, Burnaby, Calgary, Edmonton, Gatineau, Halifax, Hamilton, Kitchener, Laval, London, Longueuil, Markham, Mississauga, Montreal, Niagara Falls, Ottawa, Quebec City, Regina, Richmond, Saskatoon, St Johns, Surrey, Toronto, Vancouver, Vaughan, Victoria, Whistler, Windsor and Winnipeg. Coverage in Mexico includes 117 markets.


Starting next Wednesday, customers that sign up for a new Simple Choice postpaid or prepaid plan will automatically be enrolled in the Mobile Without Borders program. Existing Simple Choice customers can opt-in online, by phone or at a T-Mobile store for free. T-Mobile customers on promotional or legacy plans can add Mobile Without Borders for $10 per month. Mobile Without Borders business plans are also available.

At its Worldwide Developer's Conference last week, Apple introduced OS X 10.11 El Capitan, the newest version of its Mac-based operating system. At the time, Apple provided the software both to registered developers and to members of the media. Media reviews are hitting the web, giving us our first in-depth opinions on OS X El Capitan.

We've rounded up details from some of the best reviews in order to give MacRumors readers a look at OS X El Capitan from the perspective of people who have used it extensively over the course of the last week. Each of the reviews is worth reading in full to get a feel for how OS X El Capitan builds upon the features introduced with OS X Yosemite.


Lauren Goode, Re/code:

The most notable I've-seen-this-before feature in OS X El Capitan is Split View: Now, two apps can run in split view on a full screen. Finally! Mail and TweetDeck side by side throughout the day, on a full screen, without having to manually drag windows into place. Of course, Microsoft Windows has had this "snap" feature for years.

Jim Dalrymple, The Loop:

I use Mail a lot. Unfortunately, I've had some trouble lately with Mail on Yosemite getting stuck while checking IMAP connections, especially after I wake the computer from sleep. All I ask for in El Capitan is for that to be fixed.


The good news is that it seems much better in this beta version of the operating system. Apple said Mail in El Capitan delivers an improved IMAP engine, so I'm very hopeful. I haven't had Mail stop working yet and I'm a week into using it--that's a damn good sign.

Lance Ulanoff, Mashable:

The differences between Apple OS X Yosemite and El Capitan are so subtle that it often feels like one of those puzzles where you have to spot 11 differences between two photos. Considering Yosemite was a lauded OS overhaul, this isn't a bad thing, but the best way to sum up Apple's OS update is this: If you like Yosemite, you'll like El Capitan, too. [...]

Apple tweaked system performance to improve mail load times and application launches, but it was hard for me to tell the difference. Did it seem fast? Yes. Does Yosemite also seem fast? Yes. I did notice one very beta glitch when I unexpected ran out of system memory in El Capitan.

Darrell Etherington, TechCrunch:

Now, Apple has added a lot of muscle to Notes in 10.11, turning into a much better competitor not only for other text editors, but for things like Evernote, too. You can integrate images, PDFs, videos and other media right into notes via drag-and-drop insertion, for instance, and crate checklists out of line-separated items with a single click.

Formatting ensures that you can create headers, paragraph styles, bold and italicize text and you can attach from your Photos app directly. Open content from other apps directly in Notes, too, using the Share menu across OS X, and even add stuff like Maps locations, spreadsheets and more. Folders keep things more organized, and thumbnails provide easy identification of what's within a Note from the sidebar menu when you're including media.

Dieter Bohn, The Verge:

Why would you choose Apple's solutions in El Capitan? Because they're all so tightly integrated. Maps talks to Notes, Calendar talks to Mail, and all of them talk to Spotlight. All of those interconnections and digital conversations could subtly drive you to opt for Apple apps instead of whatever you might have been using before. Think of it like Continuity, but inside the computer instead of between devices. And all of it works incredibly well.

Dana Wollman, Engadget:

Some of my favorite updates are in Safari, though many would rightfully argue that these improvements aren't necessarily novel. In fact, some appear to take after features already offered in Chrome, and other competing browsers. For instance, there's now an option to identify which tab is playing sound. From there, you can hit a mute button on the tab itself, or click the speaker icon in the address bar. The latter option comes in handy when you have sound coming from multiple tabs -- say, a song you meant to stream, and an auto-playing video ad in the other. By clicking the sound icon in the URL bar, you can see a list of all the tabs playing sound and selectively mute the one that's bothering you.


Perhaps my favorite new feature is the addition of pinned sites. They sort of form a bookmarks bar, only better: Here, these tabs can't be closed, and because they look like shrunken buttons, they take up much less space than a regular tab.

Rene Ritchie, iMore:

Thanks to a new CoreSpotlight API, developers can now make the content in their apps, including documents, messages, and more, available to Spotlight as well. That means it'll be even easier to find what we're looking for, no matter where it's contained.

I've tried LaunchBar, Alfred, and Quicksilver, but none of them ever stuck: Spotlight has always been my go-to. Yosemite made it significantly more functional, but natural language and the new results engine promises to make it integral to the Mac experience. I'm really looking forward to using it full-time come the fall.

Other Reviews:
Ryan Smith, AnandTech
David Pierce, Wired
Ed Baig, USA Today
David Pogue, Yahoo
Andrew Cunningham, Ars Technica

OS X El Capitan is currently only available to registered developers. Apple has plans to introduce a public beta test of the software in July, following that with a fall public release. For detailed information on all of the new features in OS X El Capitan, make sure to check out our El Capitan roundup.

Some of the new releases out this week.

• Faith No More - Angel Dust [Deluxe]
• Great Cynics - I Feel Weird
• Faith No More - The Real Thing [Deluxe]
• Oso Oso - Real Stories Of True People, Who Kind Of Looked Like Monsters
• Institute - Catharsis
• Fight Amp - Constantly Off
• Various Artists - Summer of the Reaper
• Connoisseur - Stoner Justice
• Svetlanas - Naked Horse Rider
• Sea of Storms - Dead Weight

You can find the full list of releases this week (and album covers) right here

Apple has set a principal amount of ¥250 billion ($2.01 billion) for its bond sale in Japan per a final pricing term sheet published by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday. The yen-denominated bonds have an interest rate of 0.350% and are set to mature on June 10, 2020. Interest is to be paid semi-annually on June 10 and December 10, commencing December 10, 2015.

The global notes will be available for purchase by both domestic and foreign investors, with net proceeds to be used for general corporate purposes, including stock buybacks, dividend payments, funding for working capital, capital expenditures, acquisitions and debt repayment. The issue is being handled by Goldman Sachs International and Mitsubishi UFJ Securities International.

Todoist today announced the imminent release of Todoist for Apple Watch, which should be going live shortly pending App Store approval, after nearly four months of extensive testing and development. The new app brings several task management features of Todoist for iPhone, iPad and Mac to the wrist, with a Glance view for quickly viewing tasks and a Main view that provides access to your Inbox, Today view, Projects, Filters and Labels.


Firmly pressing using Force Touch brings up an option to add tasks using the Apple Watch's built-in Voice Command dictation, and tasks can be categorized into the main Inbox, assigned to a project or given a timestamp of today, tomorrow or no date. Filters and labels provide additional layers of categorization for your to-do lists, with the latter requiring Todoist Premium for $33 per year.


Todoist for Apple Watch also features notifications for new comments on shared tasks, when you are invited to a new project, when you are near a certain location or at the exact date and time when a task is due. Tapping on a notification will bring you to the full app, where you can view or edit the task at hand.

Todoist for Apple Watch will be free on the App Store and should be rolling out today pending approval.

Update 8:53 AM: The 10.1 update with Apple Watch support is now live in the App Store. [Direct Link]