After announcing Apple Watch Series 4 and new Apple Watch bands yesterday, Apple got rid of some of its older bands. This is normal, however, as Apple moves bands in and out every few months as it refreshes the bands for new seasons. Upon initial inspection, it appeared that the Apple Link Bracelets were being discontinued and no longer available for sale. However, a direct link to the old page still shows that Apple is selling both the stainless steel and space black models....

Computerworld today laments on the issue, blaming Apple’s priorities and lack of any desire to dive into this lucrative market. If Apple ever had a better chance to hit the big time market share gains it would be now – with Vista bombing hard. However, the following concerns were given for the lack of adoption: Legacy concerns Cost of support and ownership Are third-party software vendors on board? The complexity factor No second source Service and support...

Apple’s one-week exclusive access to Drake’s latest album Views appears to have paid off. Despite the fact that it was available for streaming on Apple Music as well as downloads in iTunes, the WSJ reports that the album sold over a million copies in less than five days. Over 600k of those sales were made in the first 24 hours. The streaming numbers were also impressive. Drake’s record label was also said to have been working hard to maximize sales by taking down pirate copies....

After years of arguments, we do seem to be slowly winding our way toward a final showdown between Apple and Qualcomm over radio chip patents. The two companies are currently arguing one case before the the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC), and are due to begin a US civil lawsuit next month. And the latest weapon in the former case is 5G. Each sides is attempting to persuade the ITC that 5G is such a crucial technology it’s essential it prevails …...

Apple has just announced watchOS 5, with new features for health and fitness and better ways to stay connected. You can now set 7 day Activity Challenges with friends and earn custom achievement medals. Apple has added support for yoga and hiking in the Workout app as well as a method to automatically detect what workout you are doing without you having to initiate it … Apple is also introducing a new Walkie-Talkie app that works on WiFi or LTE, support for Podcasts streaming, rich HTML email content, a customizable Control Center, and more …...

Now that one analyst thinks that Apple is going to ARM for its laptops (notice we didn’t say “Mac”), another one says that Apple could be moving its MacBook lineup to ARM as early as next year. Barclays Capital hardware analyst Ben Reitzes says through Barron’s: I still think Apple would rather build an iOS Air. We believe that Apple is already working hard on the software to accomplish this feat within the MacBook Air line-up....

Spotify has been a pretty unmitigated success in Europe as our European readers can probably attest. The subscription model it has built is pretty compelling. For a (~$10) subscription fee, you have access to most of the popular music on earth through streaming channel. What’s more is that you can download playlists for offline listening. This all fits under a monthly fee model. But that’s not why Spotify is a success....

Apple recently acquired the startup Laserlike, according to a new report from The Information. The company was founded by former Google engineers and makes it easier for users to follow news in various topics. An Apple spokesperson confirmed the acquisition to The Information. The deal makes sense as Apple is reportedly launching its news subscription service at a March 25th event coming later this month. Laserlike is also known for its artificial intelligence or AI efforts, which could be useful to Apple as the company has recently renewed its focus in AI by hiring Google’s John Giannandrea....

Apple supplier Broadcom is reportedly looking to sell one of its wireless chip units, and Apple itself could be a potential buyer. The Wall Street Journal reports today that Broadcom is working with Credit Suisse to find a buyer for the radio-frequency, or RF segment of its wireless chip business. The report says that the RF unit brought in $2.2 billion in revenue during fiscal 2019, which means it “could be worth $10 billion....

Apple debuted iAd Workbench in June, allowing developers to more easily purchase and control advertising for their own software through Apple’s iAd platform. Today, the iAd Workbench has been expanded into several additional countries, and is now available in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., France, Germany, Spain, Japan, New Zealand, Australia, Mexico, and Italy. App developers in those countries can now login to the Workbench tool and take fine control over how their apps are advertised through iAds....

Apple’s memo to repair staff notes that it has identified “an issue” with the main logic board specifically in Retina, 13-inch, 2018 MacBook Air models with certain serial numbers. Apple will be emailing customers with machines with the serial numbers they’ve identified as being affected, otherwise customers can take their machine to Apple Stores or authorized repair staff to have their devices checked out. Apple’s documents list symptoms as issues with “power,” but do not elaborate on what problems users are experiencing exactly....

. China’s Twitter, Sina Weibo, is filling up with pictures of Tim Cook visiting the Beijing Apple Store this morning. It is not clear if this is his first trip to China as CEO, but Cook has been to China many times in the past as COO and was last seen negotiating China Mobile’s contract in mid-June at the behest of former CEO Steve Jobs who, according to his biography, never visited the country....

We first detailed Apple Joint Venture service a year ago and it appears that Apple is getting ready to launch the service. BGR is reporting that Apple is readying the Joint Venture small businesses services: It will be interesting to see how this affects small to mid-sized Apple IT shops who often serve the market Apple will be targeting with ‘Joint Venture’. Some of the verbiage from the original trademark, below:...

Update: Closer review of the documentation suggests that the patent may more broadly cover Apple’s above-ground entrances. Patent illustrations more closely resemble Apple’s retail store in Kunming, China. The filing, which lists Apple retail staff, also references the store’s opening. Apple was today granted a design patent for the exterior of the Steve Jobs Theater … The patent is for the appearance of the above-ground glass building, rather than for any of the technology used within the theater....

Last year, we reported that Apple plans to open up its first Apple Store in Brazil between February and March of 2014. This store would be located inside of the popular Village Mall in Rio de Janeiro: Now, the Instagram account for Village Mall has published a photo of the space in which the Apple Store will be housed. The store is blocked by colorful Apple logo signage that is not too different from the teases shown before the recent opening of Apple’s new flagship store in Brisbane, Australia…...

Apple has announced that starting today, the iAd platform will be available in 70 new countries, bringing the total number of supported nations to 95. Today’s expansion is by far the largest the company has ever attempted, and more than triples (in fact, nearly quadruples) the number of available markets. iAd was previously expanded to nine additional European countries earlier this month, which brought the total at the time to 25....

Every year a new iPhone comes out. And every year Apple waxes endlessly about how much better its camera is than the camera it peddled the previous year. How much better do you really need it to be? I have an iPhone 12 and the camera does wondrous things on my behalf. It makes difficult pictures look delightful. So when Apple pushes out ad after meaningless ad claiming its camera is now Hollywood standard, I tend to stare blankly and hope the NBA game starts soon....

Apple has officially asked for more exemptions on tariffs that went into effect in Septemeber as part of the US-China trade war. As reported by Bloomberg, Apple’s latest formal requests seek another round of exemptions, this time for iPhone components, AirPods, Apple Watch, and more from the current 15% duties. Apple has had hit and miss success getting the US Trade Representative’s office to approve tariff waivers for its products and components that are made in China....

Apple appears to have started shipping a new 20W USB-C power adapter in the box of recently-manufactured iPad Pro models. Apple first introduced this 20W USB-C power adapter alongside the iPhone 12 last month, and it replaces the previously-sold 18W USB-C charger. This change was first spotted Reddit, with multiple users confirming that their recently-purchased iPad Pro included a 20W adapter rather than the 18W adapter. This is a small but notable change for iPad Pro buyers, and Apple’s goal is clearly to get as many 20W USB-C adapters into the wild as possible....

We’ve seen plenty of Apple Car concept images over the years, but a leasing comparison site has put together a somewhat bizarre mix of mashups between existing cars and assorted Apple products. We commissioned these renders of potential Apple EV concepts, mashing up some popular car models with familiar Apple products! Can you picture any of these racing down the motorway… ? Leasefetcher includes a render it describes as a combination of the Nissan GT-R and the iPhone 12 Pro (above)....