Apple News: Does a kinder, gentler Apple prove nice guys can finish first?
Apple sure is looking friendlier these days. This year’s Worldwide Developers Conference was geekier, more welcoming and less locked-down than any in recent history. Apple also bid farewell to Katie Cotton — the much-feared queen of PR, whose frosty relations with journalists made her only slightly less terrifying than an angry Steve Jobs — with a call for a “friendlier, more approachable” public relations face to warm up the company’s relationship with the press. “For the past few years it’s felt like Apple’s only goal was to put us in our place,” Panic’s Cabel Sasser recently tweeted. “Now it feels like they might want to be friends.”
Read full story => CultOfMac

Technology News: From YouTube to Amazon, tech innovators need to be held to account
If politicians can be drunk on power, the equivalent for the technology industry is being drunk on your own disruption, when your confidence in knowing better than established industries, regulators and even governments risks tipping into hubris. The biggest technology companies, including Google, Amazon, Apple and Facebook, are increasingly intertwined in our digital lives, particularly through the phones in our pockets. These devices are also enabling a wave of technology startups, from streaming music services such as Spotify to cab-hire apps such as Uber, to build their businesses. But the big technology firms are also becoming powerful cultural gatekeepers, influencing the way we discover music, books, films and news.
Read full story => TheGuardian

Programming News: HomeKit and Apple TV: The perfect combo to manage your home while away?
Apple’s HomeKit suite of tools claims to offer total control over your home’s appliances all from your iOS device, providing you’re in range of your home Wi-Fi. However, the central hub you need to access all this remotely may already be sitting in your living room, in the form of Apple TV. When the company revealed HomeKit at its Worldwide Developers Conference this month, there was major excitement about the possibility of controlling your thermostat, security systems or any other smart device simply by using your phone.
Read full story => ITproportal

Photography News: The 20 photographs of the week
Luis Suárez, protests and Costa Rica at the World Cup in Brazil, the increasing violence in Iraq, London fashion – the best photography in news, culture and sport from around the world this week.
Read full story => TheGuardian