Vratislav Holub In this regular column, every day we look at the most interesting news that revolves around the California company Apple. Here we focus exclusively on the main events and selected (interesting) speculations. So if you are interested in current events and want to be informed about the apple world, definitely spend a few minutes on the following paragraphs.
It could be interest you
Pavel Jelic Apple Pay is heading to Serbia
Apple Pay is one of the most popular payment methods among Apple users. It allows us to pay very quickly and securely with the help of our products with the bitten apple logo. As you all know, the Czech Republic was initially not very lucky with the arrival of this payment method. Although people in Western countries could happily pay with their iPhones or Apple Watch, we were still out of luck. In February of last year, however, we finally got to see it, and a few months later, specifically in June, so did the neighboring Slovaks. We've definitely been waiting a long time for Apple Pay. However, it is necessary to admit that some countries are not even so lucky and the mentioned method is not available to this day.
A similar case happened yesterday in nearby Serbia. Apple Pay was launched there only today, when ProCredit Bank announced support. Mastercard's website reported on this news. But ProCredit Bank should not be the only one. According to the reports published so far, Raiffeisen customers could soon be happy as well.
Apple users will be able to enjoy Netflix in 4K HDR
Last week saw the introduction of a revolution among apple systems. Apple showed us the upcoming macOS 11 Big Sur for the first time, which will bring several design changes and a number of other novelties. If you watched the opening Keynote for the WWDC 2020 conference, or if you regularly read our articles, you certainly did not miss the fact that the native Safari browser has also seen major changes. Specifically, this is, for example, overall acceleration, increased attention to user privacy by showing trackers, and a number of others. The Apple browser has also finally received support for HDR videos. And as it now turns out, this news also affected the playback of content on Netflix.
The most expensive plan from Netflix for 319 crowns allows you to watch up to four screens in real time, in 4K HDR resolution. However, the apple growers have been stubborn so far. Safari could not decode the video and thus played it only in 1920x1080 pixels resolution. The problem was mainly with the HEVC codec that Netflix uses. Although today's newer Macs are fully compatible with the aforementioned codec and should be able to play 4K video, they cannot, due to an outdated browser. Fortunately, the change came with the arrival of the macOS 11 Big Sur operating system, where Safari finally received a well-deserved makeover. Apple users will now be able to enjoy a high-quality image in 4K HDR resolution with Dolby Vision support.
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But do not rejoice prematurely. In order for you to be able to watch your favorite movie or series in higher resolution, you will have to fulfill three conditions. First, of course, you need to have the appropriate plan to allow you to stream 4K video at all. Subsequently, it is necessary that you have an updated Safari browser available, and there are two options in this direction. Either you download the first developer beta version of macOS Big Sur, but you will encounter a number of errors, or you will wait for the release of the full version, which will probably come in October. Lastly, you'll need to own a Mac that can handle HDR video streaming at all. According to Apple these are apple computers introduced since 2018.
Dolby Atmos is heading to the Apple TV app on LG TVs
Owners of selected LG TVs have reason to celebrate. These televisions received Dolby Atmos support for the Apple TV application. And what does Dolby Atmos actually do? This is a refined technology that can perfectly influence the sound and distribute it in the space around you as best as possible. The arrival of this news was already confirmed by LG in February of this year, but until now it was not clear when we would receive support. As we mentioned above, these are only selected models. Specifically, it concerns all LG TVs from 2020 and some models from last year – because only these products have the Apple TV application, which allows users to, for example, access their subscription to the TV+ service.
