2020 was an atypical year for the Apple community as an entire iOS 14 build was leaked months before the official announcement at WWDC 2020. This year, however, we only heard a few things about iOS 15 before WWDC, but there were no leaked builds, screenshots, or even in-depth details about its upcoming features. Within the internal files of iOS 15 beta 1, each major feature introduced this year has a unique identifier (also known as a flag) that is associated with a “disclosure requirement....

The barrage of applications taking advantage of Apple’s enterprise certificate program continues today. Reuters reports that software distributors have been using the program to share modified versions of popular apps, such as an ad-free version of Spotify. According to the report, software distributors including TutuApp, Panda Helper, AppValley and TweakBox have been using the enterprise certificate program to distribute modified apps. For example, AppValley offers a version of Spotify that does not include advertisements – even on the free tier....

Update: Apple has uploaded its new “Change Everything” ad to YouTube, as well. It’s embedded below. Apple has debuted its newest iPad marketing campaign, “Change Everything,” with a 1:30 commercial and a new website highlighting the apps that change the way people go about their daily lives. The ad starts off with a list of things that have changed since the release of the first iPad, such as small businesses and education....

The Apple Developer portal has gone down ahead of Apple’s WWDC event later today, where Apple will announce its next-generation software platforms for Apple Watch, iOS and OS X. Posters from within the venue show that Watch OS will feature prominently as a newly rebranded as ‘watchOS’. Update: The Beta Software Program page has also gone down — potentially indicating that iOS 9 or OS X 10.11 will be made available as public betas today....

(Penrith Store – Image Flicker via Macrumors) Current (via TNW) received some fun Apple Store stats for us this morning on the occasion of the Apple Store Opening in Penrith Sydney, Australia. The country’s first Apple-operated retail outlet opened doors for business 2008 in Sydney. As you know, Apple recently celebrated ten years in retail business. Their retail chief Ron Johnson, credited with turning a risky gamble into a highly profitable business, recently left Apple for JC Penney, where he is due to assume the CEO role February 1 next year....

Apple CEO Tim Cook made a surprise appearance on “The Tonight Show” yesterday. Cook joined Jimmy Fallon and Lady Gaga via FaceTime, committing that Apple will make a donation to the World Health Organization’s COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund. The lighthearted video, which aired on last night’s episode of “The Tonight Show,” features Lady Gaga making an impromptu FaceTime call to Tim Cook. The goal of the call was to confirm Apple’s donation to the WHO’s COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund....

Update: Official photos shared by Apple (above) show the new store under wraps ahead of opening. See more in the gallery below. After well over a year of planning and construction, Apple’s first ever retail store in Austria has an opening date set for February 24th, according to a teaser page on Apple’s retail website. It was first reported in August 2016 that Apple was finalizing contracts to establish their retail presence in Austria’s capital of Vienna....

Update: A reader got a reply from Apple CEO Tim Cook about the situation. See below. Apple has today posted a press release reaffirming that Apple Watch try-on sessions and preorders start tomorrow, Friday April 10th. It also confirms that Apple Watch orders will be exclusively online for the launch period. Angela Ahrendts says that Apple expects demand to outstrip supply at launch on the back of tremendous interest from customers viewing watches online and in the Apple Store app....

Apple, just a week and a half after initially introducing its new ad campaign, has today shared another new iPhone ad. The video advertisement is part of the “If it’s not an iPhone, it’s not an iPhone” campaign and focuses on the App Store that comes along with owning an iPhone. In the ad, Apple touts that there are more than 1.5 million apps available for iPhone, all of which are “hand-picked, awe-inspiring, and just plain surprising....

Analyst Ben Thompson believes that US antitrust legislation could put the Apple ecosystem at risk unless the company is prepared to compromise on the App Store. The danger is that legislators may view the various ecosystem components as anti-competitive, but would be less likely to do so without the App Store playing such a central role … Background We recently summarized the background to some new planned antitrust legislation in the US....

Apple is currently aiming to unveil the new 4-inch the iPhone 5se, the iPad Air 3, and new Apple Watch band options at an event on Tuesday, March 15th, according to sources. We previously reported that Apple was on track to launch the new products during the week of March 14th. As the scheduled event is still a month-and-a-half away, the date could conceivably still shift or turn into an online announcement....

Alongside Super Bowl LV this evening, Apple is teaming up with country music artist Dolly Parton to offer 5 free months of Apple Music to new subscribers. In addition to the new promotion, you can also use Shazam to identify a Dolly Parton song during the Super Bowl to unlock a special surprise… For those unfamiliar, Dolly Parton created a new version of her hit song 9 To 5, cleverly named 5 To 9, as part of a Super Bowl commercial for Squarespace....

Apple has long been rumored to be creating its own original TV content, and now it’s made its first plans official. Apple shared today that it will work with TV executives Ben Silverman and Howard T. Owens, as well as rapper Will.i.am on its first TV project (via NY Times). Silverman is perhaps best known for his work on shows like The Biggest Loser, while Owens is one of the minds behind MasterChef Junior....

Apple has asked developers who attended secretive Apple Watch app development workshops in Cupertino across January and February to hold off on announcing their applications, according to multiple high-profile developers. These people say that Apple has asked developers to not provide in-depth details, revealing screenshots and videos, or launch information about their applications until after the event at the very least. In some cases, Apple has even asked developers to wait until late March or early April to announce their applications…...

Following reports that Apple is now selling more iPhones in China than in the US, today Canalys is out with research showing Apple for the first time lead smartphone sales in China by units shipped during the last quarter of 2014. The incredible popularity of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus in China in Q4 2014 has led Apple to take first place in the Chinese smart phone market for the first time by units shipped....

Update: Kapeli has responded to Apple’s allegations in a new blog post, claiming that Apple never made contact before deleting the app and developer account. Additionally, Kapeli shared audio of the phone call with Apple regarding the issue. Last week, we reported on the removal of popular developer app Dash from the App Store, as well as the termination of the creator’s Apple Developer account. The company that publishes Dash, Kapeli, originally stated that it did not have any idea why Apple removed the app from the App Store, though it was later revealed that Apple had found evidence of App Store review manipulation....

FOSS Patents is reporting that Apple received two more favourable rulings in their ongoing battle against Samsung in the courts. These judgements increase the chance of Apple winning the March patent trial “not hugely but significantly”, according to Mueller. In a judgement filed yesterday, Samsung was found to infringe on one of Apple’s asserted patents and one of its own patents in the case was invalidated. Samsung was found to infringe on patent no 8,074,172, covering autocomplete technology....

Reverse Wireless Charging was one of the rumored features for iPhone 11 last year, but Apple allegedly removed it from the final version of the devices. Now, FCC filings for iPhone 12 have revealed that this year’s devices might have a functional reverse wireless charging system. Following the iPhone 11 rumors in 2019, iFixit disassembled the new smartphones as usual and then discovered that the iPhone 11 Pro has some components that are part of a bilateral wireless charging system, but that was unfinished — so it doesn’t work at all....

It is really only a matter of time until one or two studios relent cough Disney and the other studios fall in line. It would be extremely surprising if the service doesn’t launch before 2008 with the announcement of iTunes 8 with the possibility of some HD quality content deals. Netflix and Blockbuster should be very afraid. The reality is that Apple owns the lion’s share of the digital media content distribution for the foreseeable future....

Following AT&T’s announcement this morning, Apple confirmed 2 million pre-orders in 24 hours. That statistic more than doubles the pre-order record of approximately 1 million units held by the iPhone 4S (600,000 for iPhone 4). Apple also noted demand is exceeding its initial supply and some pre-order customers will not receive their device until October. For those doing the math, that is 83,333 units an hour (or 1,388 a minute, or 23 a second, etc....