Apple

Apple's biggest announcement today was, without a doubt, iOS 8's new openness. As the company's press release says, it's their biggest developer release ever, with more than 4000 new application programming interface (API) calls.

"iOS 8 allows developers to further customise the user experience with major extensibility features like Notification Center widgets and third-party keyboards; and introduces robust frameworks such as HealthKit [for health and fitness apps to communicate with each other] and HomeKit [for home automation]," Apple writes.

The brand new OS X Yosemite is perhaps the most dramatic redesign of Apple's operating system to date. After some time using the biggest features in the new OS in a developer preview, I think Apple's on to something.

At this stage in the game, it's not fair or appropriate to give the new (very beta!) version of OS X a real evaluation. Some of the features aren't fully-formed, while others—ahem, iCloud Drive—seem barely present at all, at least not in the final form we were expecting.

Named after the California national park, Yosemite will be available later this fall, and end users will be able to sign up for a public beta program in the summer. As with Mavericks, the Yosemite update will be free.

If you were tried to install OS X software updates this weekend, you might have noticed that you...can’t. As MacRumors points out, OS X users who attempt to install software updates through the App Store app are getting error messages that complain about an invalid certificate. The reason? Apple apparently forgot to renew the SSL certificate in question.

Not one but two well-known hack researchers have now posted evidence of working jailbreaks for iOS 7.1.1, which until now had closed the existing loopholes used by other techniques such as evasi0n. While interest in and use of jailbreaks has waned as Apple has gotten better at closing vulnerabilities, enthusiasts and die-hard customizers continue to want the ability to use unofficial apps or tweak settings in the latest iOS releases.

Fancy lunch with Apple CEO Tim Cook to find out about the iPhone 6, the firm's plans for the long-rumoured iWatch or just what on earth he is doing considering paying $3bn for Beats? Well a spare £200,000 should be enough.

A recent auction for lunch with Cook held by charity site CharityBuzz has closed with the winning bidder stumping up $300,001 for the honour. Clearly small change to that Apple fan, who's not been named.

According to a Financial Times report, Apple is set to announce its acquisition of headphone manufacturer Beats Electronics for $3.2 billion "as early as next week."

The company, currently the American leader in headphone sales, was founded in 2008 by Interscope Records chairman Jimmy Iovine and hip-hop legend Dr. Dre, and it expanded this year with a subscription-based online music service, called Beats Music, that currently competes with Apple's own iTunes Radio offering.

Security issues with iOS 7 seem to be popping up everywhere. Last week, we reported that iOS 7 suffered from a bug which left email attachments unencrypted -- and while Apple has prepared a fix for the issue, a new one has appeared in its place.

According to Egyptian neurosurgeon and part-time security researcher Sherif Hashim, a flaw in iOS 7's Siri voice assistant allows anyone to bypass the iPhone lock screen and access the contact list. In a video posted on his YouTube channel, Hashim detailed the method of attack.

Last week ZDNet's Larry Seltzer wrote about a bug in iOS 7 that left mail attachments unencrypted and thus vulnerable to potential hacks and other nefarious deeds. Today Apple acknowledged the bug and committed to fixing it.

As expected, Apple on Monday released faster versions of its MacBook Air lineup, with the 11-inch and 13-inch thin-and-lights getting 100MHz speed boosts compared to outgoing models, as well as a price reduction of $100.

Each base model MacBook Air comes with a dual-core 1.4GHz Core i5 with Turbo Boost up to 2.70GHz, while the upgraded version boasts a 1.7GHz Core i7 with Turbo Boost up to 3.3GHz. The speed increases represent a 100MHz bump from the respective outgoing versions.