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Apple has announced the latest beta of their Xcode software will allow anyone to sideload apps to their iOS device, at no charge, without approval from Apple.

Says Apple: "Xcode 7 and Swift now make it easier for everyone to build apps and run them directly on their Apple devices. Simply sign in with your Apple ID, and turn your idea into an app that you can touch on your iPad, iPhone, or Apple Watch. Download Xcode 7 beta and try it yourself today. Program membership is not required."

While Apple has highlighted its legitimate uses, developers have quickly found that banned apps, games and even emulators and torrent clients can now be added to your device. For example, one developer was able to successfully send the Game Boy emulator app GBA4iOS to their iPhone by importing the source code in Xcode and sending it to the iPhone. You will need the original source code to be able to use other people's apps, so piracy will be minimal even with the relaxed rules.

If you are interesting in testing your own apps (or something else), try out Xcode here: Xcode 7 Beta

A few days before the company was expected to unveil full details and press shots of their upcoming consumer Rift headset, Oculus VR appears to have accidentally leaked a few images.

The company revamped their website and posted a pre-order page image that appears to show the final consumer version of the Rift.

Oculus was quick to deny that the leaked images show the final hardware, but what we see is quite different from anything we have seen in the past. "Everything in it is ancient, certainly nowhere close to final," founder Palmer Luckey wrote on Reddit. "Enjoy checking it out, at this point, but don't expect everything to carry through to" to the final release.

Among the details we now know from the leaked image are that the position imaging camera is mounted to a pole, and that the headset will also have a forward-facing camera. Additionally, a gamepad will be included in the box.

Wow. Another year has passed and we're celebrating our site's 16th birthday today. I still remember our first years: a site strictly focused on digital multimedia, i.e. MP3 technology and DVD tech. As technologies have evolved, so has our site and its content.

I would like to simply thank all of our staff members, moderators and users for keeping this site alive for all these years. I expect more equally great years to follow.

Thank you!

-Petteri Pyyny, CEO (@pyyny)
AfterDawn Oy

P.S. For the "this gets asked every year" question: here's the oldest screenshot of our site that we know of, from Summer of 1999:

Apple has announced today that Safari will soon be able to find what tab is playing audio so they can mute it, close it or just get back to it quicker.

Apple's Craig Federighi made the announcement during the company's introduction to OS X El Capitan.

The tab with audio will have a little speaker icon, just like Chrome users have had for the past few months. Additionally, you'll be able to pin tabs, another feature that has been available on Chrome for a long time.

During today's keynote, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced the App Store had surpassed 100 billion app downloads since the store launched in 2008.

In that same time, the company has paid out $30 billion to developers, a number significantly higher than figures Android, Amazon or Microsoft can boast.

Last year, the company announced it had shipped over 1 billion iOS devices to customers, shipping nearly 200 million devices from the time of WWDC 2014.

Casual gaming company Rovio has signed a deal with giant toymaker Lego to launch a line of 'Angry Birds' blocks.

The company, which was once wildly popular, has seen revenue and profits slip as its licensing business has stalled and the Angry Birds games have taken a back seat to other games like Candy Crush and Clash of Clans.

Lego's line of Angry Birds toys will launch in spring 2016, lining up with the premiere of the feature-length Angry Birds movie.

The company recently laid off 14 percent of its workforce after earnings fell 73 percent last year.

Today at the WWDC event, Apple announced a significant update to their Apple Pay mobile payments system.

The service will now support rewards programs and store credit cards in addition to major processor-backed credit and debit cards.In addition, Apple has renamed their Passbook app to Wallet, which does seem like a more apt name.

Beginning later this year with the launch of iOS 9, Apple Pay will begin supporting Walgreens Balance Rewards, Kohl's, Coca-Cola, Dunkin' Donuts, Panera Bread, and Wegmans rewards cards. The cards will be stored like your everyday use cards and Apple Pay will supposedly select your rewards card automatically when you place the phone to the reader.

Finally, the new updated Apple Maps in iOS 9 will show you when a merchant supports Apple Pay (a number that is slowly by surely growing) and Discover card support will also be added this fall.

Apple currently owns the market for digital payments but will have some big time competition in the coming months with the launch of Android Pay by Google and Samsung Pay by Samsung.

Apple has announced their upcoming operating system update, called OS X El Capitan. El Capitan means "The Captain" in English so Apple may not be so great at being subtle.

The operating system will serve to improve system performance and "the Mac experience" by better adding Apple Metal, the company's own graphics technology. Apple says Metal will allow games and pro apps to "tap into the full power of Mac graphics processors."

Additionally, Apple has updated windows management, made improvements to the pre-installed apps and Spotlight search, and improved the startup speed of apps, emails and music.

"OS X delivers unparalleled integration between Mac hardware, iOS devices, apps and online services, and has helped Mac sales outpace the PC industry every year for the last decade," said Craig Federighi, Apple's senior vice president of Software Engineering. "Customers loved last year's landmark OS X Yosemite release and made it the fastest-adopted PC operating system ever. With El Capitan, we're further refining the Mac experience with enhancements to window management, Spotlight and built-in apps, and improving performance so everyday activities -- from launching apps to accessing email -- are faster and more responsive."

Among a plethora of announcements today at Apple's WWDC event, came the most awaited of them all: Apple Music.

The tech giant has been planning to get into the streaming music business since their $3 billion acquisition of Beats last year, and with it the transition of bringing music industry legend Jimmy Iovine on-board.

"We've had a long relationship with music," said Apple CEO Tim Cook during the keynote. "And music has had a rich history of change, some of which we've played a part in."

The app itself will combine a standard streaming service with an Internet radio platform. iTunes Radio will have celebrity DJs like Drake, Dr. Dre, Pharrell and will.i.am and Apple's new Beats1 station will play music 24/7 and be handled by DJs Zane Lowe, Ebro Darden, and Julie Adenuga. You have unlimited skips, as well, if you aren't feeling the vibe of the current track. Tracks that are recommended to you are curated by "a team of experts," says Apple, just like Beats Music was, rather than algorithms used by rival services like Google.

Apple also showed off a feature called "Connect" that allows artists to interact directly with fans by uploading tracks, pictures, blog posts and more that can be commented on by users and responded to by the musician. Finally, Apple has updated Siri to integrate the personal assistant software to Apple Music. For example, you can ask Siri to "play the top track of last year" and she should begin playing Happy by Pharrell.

"Apple Music is really going to move the needle for fans and artists," added Jimmy Iovine. "Online music has become a complicated mess of apps, services, and websites. Apple Music brings the best features together for an experience every music lover will appreciate."

The streaming service will cost $9.99 (shocker) or $14.99 for a family plan that can include up to six individuals. Everyone will also get a free three-month trial to get started. The family plan gives it a slight leg up on Spotify, which offers a two-person family for the same price, but otherwise the content and pricing is almost identical to Rdio, Spotify and others. One exception, however, is Apple managed to get Taylor Swift on team Apple, meaning she likely sold out her own beliefs for a fatter paycheck. You can get started with Apple Music on June 30th and later this year on Android.

Apple's long-awaited streaming music service is scheduled to be unveiled tomorrow.

The news comes via Sony Music CEO Doug Morris, who confirmed Apple will announce the service officially tomorrow at their annual WWDC event.

"It's happening tomorrow," Morris said simply during an interview at the Midem Music Industry Festival.

Expected to be priced at $9.99 like rival services from Google, Spotify and others, the service will be headed by industry heavyweight Jimmy Iovine who came along when Apple acquired Beats last year for $3 billion specifically to get into the streaming business.

Morris believes Apple's entry to the industry will be the "tipping point" for streaming in general: "What does Apple bring to this? Well, they've got $178 billion dollars in the bank. And they have 800 million credit cards in iTunes. Spotify has never really advertised because it's never been profitable. My guess is that Apple will promote this like crazy and I think that will have a halo effect on the streaming business."

"A rising tide will lift all boats," he added. "It's the beginning of an amazing moment for our industry."

Valve has announced that consumers who pre-order a Steam Machine will receive their hardware on October 16th.

What is a Steam Machine? The machines are pre-built gaming PCs that run on either Windows with the Steam client pre-installed or on Valve's own SteamOS - a Linux-based operating system based on Steam - and are aimed at the pure gamer types that want to game on the big screen.

The first Steam Machines will come from OEM partners Alienware and Cyberpower and if you are not interested in pre-ordering, you can get the PCs at retailers starting on November 10th starting at $450.

While the systems may only appeal to a niche group, especially since the gaming catalogs for Linux are not great, there are some interesting features, most notably the controller. The Steam Controller is built for standard console gaming but also for games that have traditionally used a keyboard and mouse. There are two clickable trackpads and sixteen buttons total. The trackpads also include haptic feedback.

Facebook has launched 'Facebook Lite,' an Android app that promises to "use less data and work well across all network conditions."

The app itself is just 1MB and will include the basic core functions of the social network such as the News Feed, photos, notifications and status updates.

Says Vijay Shankar, Product Manager for Facebook Lite: "More than a billion people around the world access Facebook from a range of mobile devices on varying networks. In many areas, networks can be slow and not able to support all the functionality found in Facebook for Android. Facebook Lite was built for these situations, giving people a reliable Facebook experience when bandwidth is at a minimum."

Facebook says the app is available now across Asia and will be rolled out to countries in Africa, Europe and Latin America in the coming weeks.

Smmartphone maker HTC is forecasting a really bad quarter.

The Taiwanese company has slashed their revenue projections for the Q2 drastically, claiming poor sales of their "high-end Android devices," namely the HTC One M9 and increased competition from the Galaxy S6 and iPhone 6.

HTC had a previous forecast for between $1.48 billion and $1.56 billion USD in revenue for the quarter, but that has now been slashed dramatically to $1.06 billion to $1.16 billion.

Besides the slowing sales in the U.S., HTC also noted that sales in China were slow due to competition from Xiaomi, Apple, Samsung and even LG.

"In recognition of prevailing market conditions, HTC has embarked on a comprehensive review on our assets based on current business conditions and future operational needs," the company noted in their filing. The company will have an uphill battle moving forward.

In two separate announcements this week, Netflix has announced that its popular streaming service will reach Italy, Portugal and Spain this October.

The company currently services 50 countries but wants to eventually expand to 200. Netflix currently has 62 million subscribers, each paying at least $7.99 a month for access to thousands of movies, TV episodes and original content like the critically acclaimed "House of Cards" and "Orange is the New Black."

Netflix says new users will have access to 4K content, as well, if their TV can support it.

In other Netflix news, the new Sci-Fi thriller 'Sense8' just launched, one of a few new original programs scheduled for the next twelve months.

Amazon has begun a new service dubbed "Fulfillment by Amazon Small and Light" in which the company will ship any item that weighs 8 ounces or less for free.

Previously, to get free shipping from the giant etailer, you needed a Prime subscription or your order had to total over $35.

Customer will receive the orders between four and eight business days from their order date.

The service was tested in select markets for the past few months, and Amazon quickly found that the items selling with free shipping sold quicker than rival items. Some of the items affected include headphones, phone cases and makeup.