The Apple Beat: Current products and services range ushers in age of expansion

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

 “We’ve got the best product pipeline that I’ve seen in my 25 years at Apple,”

             - Eddie Cue, Apple SVP of Internet Software and Services.

Apple's list of products and also its services have balloned in 2015 which can very well be considered the age of expansion for the company. We now have two iPhone model sizes, three iPad model sizes, an expansive notebook line as well as the most choice in iMacs we've ever had before. Then there's Apple TV, Apple Watch and the iPods are very much still there.

More than just these product lines, we need to consider Apple's expanding ecosystems and their attached developer communities. OS X for desktops and notebooks, iOS for iPhones and iPads, tvOS for Apple TV, watchOS for Apple Watch plus why not throw in iTunes and Apple Music and iCloud as well.

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Fossil buys wearable maker Misfit for $260 million

Looks like more watchmakers are now ready to enter the wearable space. This time, Fossil Group just announced that they have agreed to purchase wearable maker Misfit for US$260 million. The company plans to incorporate Misfit’s technologies into its products as early as next year. Misfit CEO and co-founder Sonny Vu will become president and CTO of Fossil Group. The company produces watches for brands such as adidas, Emporio Armani, Michael Kors, DKNY, and Burberry.

“With the acquisition of Misfit, Fossil Group will be uniquely positioned to lead the convergence of style and technology and to become the fashion gateway to the high-growth wearable technology and connected device markets." Kosta Kartsotis, CEO of Fossil Group said in a statement.

Source: The Verge

Apple, Google pull InstaAgent app for reportedly storing passwords on unknown servers

A third-party app for Instagram that helps users track visitors to their feeds seems to be doing more than that as an iOS developer found that it was stealing people’s logins and passwords. Apple and Google have pulled InstaAgent from their app stores and we’re encouraging you to delete the app if you have it.

David Layer-Reiss, a developer for Peppersoft, found the app has been storing your login details and sending these as plain text to another server. It even uses credentials to log into accounts and post unauthorized images. App creator Turker Bayram apologized for the incident but denies they aren’t saving login information. The app has been the number one free app in both Canada and the United Kingdom recently, according to MacRumors.

Source: Cult of Mac

Readdle outs Mac version of iOS app PDF Expert

Readdle has brought its PDF Expert app from iOS into Mac. The app offers a variety of PDF editing tools such as text annotations, customized shapes, “smart tools” for filling out forms, and multiple signatures. It’s compatible with OS X Yosemite and El Capitan and it supports Apple Continuity and Handoff.

The company positions their app as a better solution to the built-in Preview app and more cost-effective than Adobe DC. It costs $22.99 on the Mac App Store. As part of the launch, Readdle is offering PDF Expert on iOS for free for a limited time, which is down from $9.99.

Source: 9to5Mac