Apple CEO Tim Cook drew cheers from a Salt Lake City audience on Friday as he reiterated the company's unwavering commitment to encryption and privacy protections for its customers, according to local media reports.

The comments were made during a Q&A session at the yearly meeting of the Utah Technology Council (UTC), a trade and advocacy group representing more than 5,000 technology and life-sciences companies across the U.S. state. The 55-year-old CEO was invited along with Utah senator Orrin Hatch to take the stage at the Grand America Hotel and field questions from a public audience.

Tim Cook in Q&A with senator Orrin Hatch (Image: Scott G Winterton, Deseret News)
Calling encryption "one of the biggest issues we face," the CEO noted that most iPhone users have more personal data on their phones than in their homes. "Encryption is one of the things that makes the public safe," he said. "We feel we have a responsibility to protect our customers."

"We believe the only way to protect both your privacy and safety from a cyberattack is to encrypt," Cook told about 1,400 industry executives, tech workers and Apple fans. "We throw all of ourselves into this and are very much standing on principle in this."

Cook was responding to questions regarding the lingering impact of Apple's dispute with the FBI over the agency's demand that it build a "back door" into its software, following the use of a locked iPhone by the primary suspect in the San Bernardino mass shooting last December.

Apple refused to comply with the request from the federal agency, which dropped its pursuit of the company when investigators apparently discovered another way to retrieve the data on the suspect's phone.

Salt Lake City audience listen to Q&A (Image: Scott G Winterton, Deseret News)
During the Q&A session, Cook also talked up the emerging field of augmented reality and underscored the importance of digital photo technology in preserving personal memories, which led him onto the subject of Apple's co-founder, Cook's late friend and colleague, Steve Jobs.

The CEO spoke fondly of keeping the former chairman's office intact at the company's Cupertino campus in California, where Jobs' personal knickknacks remain in place five years after his death from pancreatic cancer at the age of 56.

"His spirit will always be the DNA of the company," said Cook. "Jobs' vision was to make the best products that enrich people's lives. Lots of things will change with Apple, but that will never change."

Senator Hatch and @tim_cook greeted a group of elementary and middle school students earlier for some selfies. #UtahTechTour #UTC #utpol pic.twitter.com/r1q4A8CrwD

— Senator Hatch Office (@SenOrrinHatch) October 1, 2016

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Apple has set up its first research and development center in China in Zhongguancun Science Park, according to a statement released by the Zhongguancun Park Management Committee (via DigiTimes).

Zhongguancun is a technology hub situated in the Haidian District in northwestern Beijing and is very well known in China. Often referred to as "China's Silicon Valley", the area has gathered nearly 20,000 technology enterprises since its emergence in the 1950s. The hub has many local prestigious academy affiliations, and is home to research centers for several global tech companies, including Google, Intel, AMD, Sony, and Microsoft.

Zhongguancun main street and plaza in northwestern Beijing, China..
Apple's new R&D center in Zhongguancun has reportedly registered a capital of $15 million, with total investment likely to reach $45 million in the future, according to the park's press release. The center will employ a total of 500 staff and focus on the development of "computer software and hardware products, communication, audio and video devices, as well as advanced technologies for consumer electronics products and the information industry".

The R&D facility is expected to complete in 2016 and to be used to integrate Apple's engineering and business teams to increase regional sales and services, according to media reports in China.

The news comes on the heels of Apple CEO Tim Cook's announcement last month during a visit to China that an R&D center would be coming to the country "by the end of the year".

The move has been seen as a response to the iPhone's dwindling returns in the country as consumers opt for low-cost alternatives available on the Chinese market. Apple has also experienced a series of setbacks in the region this year, including the closure of the iTunes and iBooks store and a number of lawsuits that have prevented it from being able to focus on gaining traction in the country's lucrative mobile segment. Although once Apple's second largest market in the world, the company announced during July's earnings report that its revenue in China had dropped 33 percent year-over-year.

Apple has set up similar R&D centers in Japan, Israel, and the UK, and is said to be planning similar facilities in Canada, India, Indonesia and Vietnam to take advantage of local resources.

Apple CEO Tim Cook will participate in a Q&A session with U.S. senator Orrin Hatch this Friday, as part of the senator's Utah Tech Tour (via AppleInsider).

The event is being held to highlight the state's technology community, and the Apple chief is scheduled to give a short address before taking questions from Hatch and members of the public. An online form has also been set up for submitting questions for possible inclusion in the Q&A.


It's not clear what topics will be up for discussion during the event, although Apple's run-in with the government over encryption and privacy issues following the San Bernardino shooting case is likely to be on the agenda.

Senator Hatch serves as the Chairman of the Senate Republican High-Tech Task Force, and in April he invited members of the Senate to a special Q&A session with one of the lawyers Apple hired to head its legal team during its dispute with the FBI.

The Utah Tech Tour takes place at the Grand America in Salt Lake City, from 5.30pm to 7pm MDT on Friday, September 30. The event is open to the public. Tickets of limited availability can be ordered online via the Utah Tech Tour website.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Apple today released another update for Safari Technology Preview, the experimental browser Apple first introduced in March of 2016. Apple designed the Safari Technology Preview to test features that may be introduced into future release versions of Safari.

Safari Technology Preview release 14 includes bug fixes and updates for Safari Extensions, Custom Elements, Fetch, JavaScript, Web APIs, Apple Pay, and Web Inspector. Starting with release 14, Apple says Safari Technology Preview will include regular updates and bug fixes for Safari's WebDriver implementation. Today's update also adds support for new emoji group candidates.

The Safari Technology Preview update is available through the Software Update mechanism in the Mac App Store to anyone who has downloaded the browser. Versions are available for developers running both macOS Sierra and OS X El Capitan. Full release notes for the update are available on the Safari Technology Preview website.

Apple's goal with Safari Technology Preview is to gather feedback from developers and users on its browser development process. Safari Technology Preview can be run side-by-side with the existing Safari browser and while designed for developers, it does not require a developer account to download.

Despite accelerating hype surrounding the possibility of self-driving and fully autonomous vehicles in the near future, most Americans would rather drive themselves.

That's according to the results of a new study published today that aimed to assess public opinion on the subject. The survey commissioned by Kelley Blue Book showed that out of 2,264 U.S. residents polled, 64 percent said they need to be in control of their own vehicle and 62 percent said they enjoy driving.


The results also revealed that 80 percent of participants believed people should always have the option to drive themselves, while a third of respondents said they would never buy a fully autonomous car.

When asked if they would live to see a world in which all vehicles are fully autonomous, 62 percent of respondents answered no. Baby boomers were the most resistant to the idea (72 percent), followed by Gen X (64 percent) and millennials (60 percent). Gen Z (ages 12-15) respondents were the most optimistic about a future of cars with no drivers, with only 33 percent believing such a scenario unlikely.

"This shows that while many of us have been reading a lot about progress being made on self-driving cars of late, to most people it's still like a flying car, something out of The Jetsons," said Kelley Blue Book senior analyst Karl Brauer. "But we also learned that while it's hard to get people on board, any level of exposure changes perceptions quickly."

The poll showed that most people aren't familiar with the term "autonomous vehicle" – one with no steering wheel or pedals, and no way for a human to intervene – and are wary of such technology. Meanwhile, just over half of respondents preferred to have full control of their vehicle, even if that made roads less safe overall, while 49 percent said they would be willing to cede some control to a computer if that meant having a safer roadway.


The poll results will be seen as a challenge for companies hedging their bets on an emerging market for self-driving vehicles. Ford, BMW, and Volvo aim to offer autonomous cars for sale within the next five years. Google and Uber are actively researching the area, while Lyft recently claimed that private vehicle ownership would be phased out in major cities by 2025, largely because of self-driving vehicles.

Although Apple's vehicle plans seem to be in flux, the company does have hundreds of employees working on a car project. Following Bob Mansfield's takeover of the car initiative earlier this year, Apple is said to have laid off dozens of employees as part of a "reboot" that will see focus shifting towards the development of an autonomous vehicle system.

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 new phones have sold compared to the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus.


For the third quarter of 2016, Apple posted revenue of $42.5 billion and net quarterly profit of $7.8 billion, or $1.42 per diluted share. That was down from $49.6 billion in revenue, $10.7 billion in net quarterly profit, and $1.85 per diluted share in the year-ago quarter.

Apple's guidance for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2016 includes expected revenue of $45.5 to $47.5 billion and gross margin between 37.5 and 38 percent, well below the revenue of $51.5 billion it saw in 4Q 2015.

Apple will release its quarterly earnings statement at 1:30 p.m. Pacific Time (4:30 p.m. Eastern Time), with a conference call to follow at 2:00 p.m. Pacific Time (5:00 pm. Eastern Time). MacRumors will provide live coverage of the results and the call.

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 is organized through the Plex app for quick access to TV shows, movies, music, pictures, and more.


To use Plex Cloud, Plex customers will need to subscribe to Amazon Drive, Amazon's unlimited cloud storage offering. Amazon Drive is priced at $60 per year and will allow Plex users to store as many files as they would like with no size limits.

The service also requires a Plex Pass, priced at $4.99 per month, $39.99 per year, or $149.99 for lifetime usage.

At the current time, the Plex Cloud service is available to Plex Pass customers who sign up to beta test the feature. It is an invite-only beta test and will be limited to a select number of Plex Pass users.

Roku today announced "the biggest streaming player launch in Roku history," with the company revealing a total of five new devices that let users stream media onto their TVs, with varying levels of picture quality and features. The new additions to Roku's lineup join the Roku Streaming Stick, which got an upgrade in April and retails for $49.99.

With a price of $29.99, the company's new low-end Roku Express comes in even cheaper than the Streaming Stick and offers 1080p HD streaming "with a complete channel lineup." The Roku Express+, for $39.99, offers the same features but is outfitted for older TV sets, including a composite jack and A/V cable. Both Express models are aimed at users new to streaming, or those who want to extend Roku throughout their home at a cheaper rate.

The Roku Express
The second tier of devices are called the Roku Premiere and Roku Premiere+, which run for $79.99 and $99.99, respectively. Both models have a quad-core processor and can stream 4K video in up to 60 frames per second, but the higher-cost Premiere+ also supports HDR "for vibrant picture quality," and has a headphone jack in its remote control.

The Roku Premiere+
The last new Roku model -- the "fully loaded" Roku Ultra -- is the priciest at $129.99, and includes each feature of the previous models with the addition of support for Dolby Digital Plus decoding, voice search, and a feature that helps users find a lost remote. Each device announced today offers access to 3,500 streaming channels including 350,000 movies and TV episodes.

The Roku Ultra
Roku players have features called "Hotel Connect" and "Dorm Connect" to make it easy to connect to public networks and stream when not at home. There's also a free iOS app [Direct Link] that lets users control their Roku device through an iPhone or iPad, and even gain access to features like voice search, private listening, and more.

The company said that each of the five new devices can be pre-ordered starting today and are "expected" to launch in retail stores on October 9. The Roku Express+ will be exclusively available in Walmart stores, however.

Following the European Commission's ruling that Apple must pay 13 billion euros ($14.5 billion) in back taxes because of its "undue tax benefits" in Ireland, The Wall Street Journal reported over the weekend that Apple is facing the EC "without the army of lobbyists and public relations campaigners typical in such fights."

The company's lack of a lobbying presence in Europe isn't new, however, as it spent less than €900,000 lobbying European institutions in 2015. According to public filings, in total Apple "doesn't employ any full-time lobbyists" in Brussels, and only five people work part-time. In contrast, Google spent "at least" €4.25 million in 2015, and employs more than ten people in lobbying positions in the European capital.

Apple's retail location in Brussels
Sources familiar with the matter stated that Apple's "lack of a presence in the EU capital" led to it being unsuccessful in gathering information over the past few years about the impending tax evasion ruling from the European Commission. Still, a source close to the commission's competition office theorized that a heavier lobbying presence might not have been all that helpful for Apple in the end, since the lobbying tactics of a company like Google have not gotten it out of "many antitrust investigations" over the past few years.

Google’s experience with the commission’s many antitrust investigations over the years may suggest a bigger Apple lobbying presence in Brussels wouldn’t have had a meaningful impact on the regulator’s decision.

People familiar with the directorate say there is limited leeway for influencing the outcome of any competition investigation. The regulator can’t stray too far from previous case law in its decisions to ensure the ruling is upheld in court when the companies inevitably appeal it.

Still, “I don’t know what [Apple] would have done differently,” said a person close to the commission’s competition office. “It’s not a question of behavior; it’s a question of what’s in the numbers and what’s on the table.”

Many other America-based companies have a large presence in Europe, including Alphabet and Amazon, "which have built a European lobbying presence to try to sway investigations and potential legislation." The two companies have also tried to advertise the benefits that Europe gains from their presence, with Google launching a digital journalism initiative and Amazon highlighting its storefronts that facilitate the livelihood of small European businesses.

On the Apple side of things, Tim Cook has called the EC's ruling "total political crap" and described the lower end 0.005% tax rate as a "false number." Ultimately, the Apple CEO believes that the decision will be reversed, and most recently Ireland's coalition government agreed to appeal the ruling. Cook has stated that he has "faith in humanity" and "faith in what is just and right will occur."

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

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 represented the final 75% of 700,000 restricted stock units awarded to Cue in November 2011. The first 25% vested on September 21, 2014.

Cue was originally awarded 100,000 RSUs, but the compensation package became 700,000 RSUs when AAPL split 7-for-1 in June 2014.

256,305 shares were withheld by Apple to satisfy the minimum statutory tax withholding requirements on vesting of RSUs. Cue gifted the remaining 268,695 shares that vested, worth approximately $20.2 million, to a family trust as he did when 350,000 of his RSUs, worth $36.1 million at the time, vested in August 2015.

Cue joined Apple in 1989 and was promoted to Senior Vice President of Internet Software and Services by Apple CEO Tim Cook in September 2011.

For the last few weeks, MacRumors has been running a special giveaway event, highlighting high-quality luxury bags from manufacturers like Pad & Quill, Intrepid Bag Co, Whipping Post, and Saddleback Leather Company, and now our event is coming to an end with one final giveaway from Intrepid Bag Co.

This week, we're giving away Intrepid Bag Co.'s Wayfarer Leather Messenger Bag, which is superbly designed and undeniably stylish. Made from a thick full grain coffee-colored saddle leather, the Wayfarer Messenger Bag is big enough to hold a 15-inch MacBook Pro and it boasts the most pockets out of any of the bags we've given away while also being the most compact.


Measuring in at 16 inches wide by 12 inches tall by 4.5 inches deep, the Wayfarer Messenger Bag has a magazine pocket at the back, a large full-length front pocket, and an interior area featuring a padded MacBook pocket, two deep interior pockets, a main compartment, a pen pocket, a phone pocket, and a pocket with a clasp. The whole bag closes up with two front buckles so the contents stay secure during travel.

With all of the pockets and space inside the Wayfarer Messenger Bag, there was room to hold almost any Apple device and accessory I own (MacBook Pro, Retina MacBook, iPad Pro, iPad mini and iPhone), with leftover space for a lightweight hoodie, a water bottle, loose papers, two notebooks, three small books, and other small bits and bobs.


The Wayfarer Messenger Bag is super rigid and stiff when it arrives, but it should loosen up and wear in with usage, gaining its own unique, lived in look. Along with the aforementioned outside buckles, there's an adjustable shoulder strap and a separate hand strap for carrying it around.

Intrepid Bag Co's Messenger Bag was one of the neatest and sharpest I took a look at, with careful stitching, a herringbone lining, and copper accents. Intrepid Bag Co normally prices its Wayfarer Leather Messenger Bag at $469, but one MacRumors reader will win one for free.

To enter to win, use the Rafflecopter widget below and enter an email address. Email addresses will be used solely for contact purposes to reach the winner and send the prize. You can earn additional entries by subscribing to our weekly newsletter, subscribing to our YouTube channel, following us on Twitter, or visiting the MacRumors Facebook page.

Due to the complexities of international laws regarding giveaways, only U.S. residents who are 18 years of age or older are eligible to enter. To offer feedback or get more information on the giveaway restrictions, please refer to our Site Feedback section, as that is where discussion of the rules will be redirected.

a Rafflecopter giveawayThe contest will run from today (September 23) at 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time through 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time on September 30. The winner will be chosen randomly on September 30 and will be contacted by email. The winner will have 48 hours to respond and provide a shipping address before a new winner is chosen.

Some Mac owners are reporting problems with external monitors and the use of scaled resolutions since installing macOS Sierra earlier this week.

Several MacRumors readers using 4K displays have described the disappearance of scaled HiDPI resolutions beyond 1920x1080 since updating from OS X El Capitan, leaving their options reduced to 1080p or a non-scaled native resolution of 3840x2160. Monitors with native 1440p resolutions also seem to have had HiDPI scaling options removed.

Scaled options in Sierra (left) and OS X El Capitan (right) when holding the Option key.
Owners of larger displays often use Apple's scaled HiDPI resolutions offered in Display preferences to enjoy increased desktop space without reducing the legibility of text. MacRumors forum member Sheza warned:

If you're like me and you have a 1440p monitor that you like to run in 1080p HiDPI mode using a custom plist or SwitchResX, DO NOT UPGRADE TO SIERRA.

Likewise if you have a 4K display and you like a bit more space while maintaining that sweet retina look and so you run it in 1440p HiDPI, DO NOT UPGRADE TO SIERRA.

Apple seems to have inexplicably removed this ability. You're now forced to destroy your eyesight by running... at native resolution.

Some readers have reported unsuccessfully trying alternative monitor cable connections – switching over from DisplayPort to HDMI and vice versa. Others have tried using third-party resolution utilities like SwitchResX, with mixed results.

A separate report posted on StackExchange, viewed 1,259 times, details the same issue:

I just upgraded to macOS Sierra. In El Capitan, I could have my 4k monitor (Dell P2715Q) scale so it was the equivalent of a 2560x1440 monitor, but in Sierra it only lets me do 2k/4k resolutions now.

MacRumors can also confirm that the issue appears to be software-related, since the scaled resolutions reappear when affected Macs are rolled back to OS X El Capitan. The issue does not seem to be limited to a particular monitor brand and the latest Public Beta (10.12.1) of Sierra released on Thursday does not reinstate the missing resolutions.

It's unclear if the change is intentional or whether Apple will re-introduce the scaling options in a forthcoming update. Sierra Beta users are advised to submit feedback to Apple using the Feedback Assistant app located in /Applications/Utilities.