Canadian rapper Drake’s hit album “Views” has become the first album on Apple Music to be streamed more than 1 billion times, according to an award Drake shared on Instagram this morning. Drake received the news from Apple CEO Tim Cook, iTunes chief Eddy Cue, and Larry Jackson, who heads up original content, all of whom Drake posed with for a second photo that was also uploaded to his Instagram account. Released…

Apple today updated its investor relations page to note that it will announce its earnings for the fourth fiscal quarter (third calendar quarter) of 2016 on Thursday, October 27. The earnings report will be an exciting one, as it will provide a look at early iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus sales. Apple has declined to release launch weekend sales for the two devices, making it difficult to determine how well the…

Plex today announced the debut of a new Plex Cloud service, which is designed to allow Plex users to store their media in the cloud so it’s accessible anywhere without the need to set up a local server. Amazon Drive allows users to create an always-on Plex Media Server that can stream any media content to any device with Plex installed in 60 seconds or less. As with a local server, media…

iOS 10 uses a new password verification mechanism for iTunes backups that makes them easier to crack, according to testing performed by Elcomsoft, a company that specializes in software designed to access iPhone data. Encrypted iTunes backups created on a Mac or PC are protected by a password that can potentially be brute forced by password cracking software. The backup method in iOS 10 “skips certain security checks,” allowing Elcomsoft to try…

Snapchat has announced its first hardware product, a one-size-fits-all pair of sunglasses called Spectacles that can record 10 seconds of video at a time, reports The Wall Street Journal. The glasses will cost $130 and launch this fall in three colors: teal, black and coral. Video will sync wirelessly to a paired iPhone or other smartphone. Snap CEO Evan Spiegel in Spectacles, Photo by The WSJ The glasses record when you tap…

Apple is planning on turning news stories and articles from popular news sites into audio podcasts called “Spoken Editions,” reports TechCrunch. Spoken Editions will be short broadcasts that transform content from publishers into spoken word instead of written word, making it possible for customers to listen to their favorite news sites. An early leak on iTunes suggests Apple has already teamed up with several publishers, including Wired, TIME, and Forbes, offering dedicated…

Apple senior vice president Eddy Cue, who oversees services like the iTunes Store, Apple Music, Apple Pay, Siri, iCloud, and Apple Maps, received nearly $60 million in company stock earlier this week, as scheduled, according to Securities and Exchange Commission documents filed electronically today. Specifically, 525,000 of Cue’s restricted stock units converted into common shares on September 21, worth $59.6 million based on AAPL’s closing price of $113.55 on Wednesday. The shares…

Apple recently updated the confirmation email it sends to customers who reserve an iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus to clarify that in-store reservations are now limited to iPhone Upgrade Program members in the United States. Apple allows upgraders to reserve an iPhone through its iPhone Upgrade Program reservation system for pick up in store, but many customers were able to bypass the program and pay in full or with carrier financing…

Earlier this year, Apple introduced a new Live Tune-In feature for Siri, which allows the personal assistant to go directly to a live channel in a supported app. As of today, Live Tune-In has gained support for ABC News, letting Siri open up live news broadcasts when commanded to do so. Live Tune-In also works with the following apps: CBS, CBS News, CNN Go, Cooking Channel, Disney Channel, Disney Jr., Disney XD,…

Apple recently announced several updates to its Beats line of headphones, debuting new wireless Beats Solo3, PowerBeats3, and BeatsX products, all of which take advantage of the company’s new W1 wireless chip for battery life improvements. Missing from the lineup was a new version of the high-end over-ear Studio Wireless headphones, and according to CNET, no updated Studio Wireless products are planned for the near future due to an inability to improve…