In a new interview shared today by Yahoo, Deidre Caldbeck, director of Apple Watch product marketing, and Kevin Lynch, Apple’s VP of technology, spoke about the new features on watchOS 8 and how Apple Watch can become people’s new wallet. During WWDC21, Apple previewed watchOS 8. The new operating system for the Apple Watch, as well as iOS 15, will bring a revamped Wallet app. Apart from the ability to add a credit card, movie, and flight tickets, Apple wants users to add ID cards and keys for their everyday life with the app....

The US Patent & Trademark Office today published a patent application from Apple relating to its smart ring project, which could be used with AR, VR, and MR applications. This is the latest evidence of Apple’s continued work in AR and VR. As reported by Patently Apple, this is not the first time the company has applied for a smart ring patent. It all started in 2015, and last March, Apple won a patent for a ring accessory that is specifically designed to work with VR glasses and/or a headset that is more accurate than wearing VR gloves....

As the battle between Epic Games and Apple continues on, the latter has officially filed a countersuit against the Fortnite developer asking for damages over the breach of its developer contract. In the new court filing, Apple says Epic isn’t the “modern corporate Robin Hood” that it claims to be. Reported by CNBC, Apple included the following statement as part of the new legal filing that is seeking compensation from Epic over the breach of its contract....

A Reddit thread has been discussing some of the things that annoy them about Apple – more specifically, examples of Apple ‘nickel-and-diming’ its customers. Areas where Apple cheaps out. There are absolutely no prizes for guessing what’s number one on the list … And on the topic of storage: Yeah, and the fact that they constantly remind you to buy storage if you opt out. It’s a pretty low move....

Apple, alongside a handful of other tech companies, is reaching into its pockets for local San Francisco anti-poverty charity SF Gives. According to a report from Fortune, Apple is one of many companies that has donated $500,000 towards the total goal of $10 million that the organization is attempting to raise for local initiatives. The donation comes as Google and other big tech companies have been involved in controversies over their impact on the housing market and other aspects of smaller San Francisco neighbourhoods in recent months....

Apple has been hyping up today’s iPad 2 launch since its announcement last week with its numerous newsletters, video guided tours, etc. Now it’s launch day and it could be fairly said that Apple disappointed a few. Signs of shortages occurred as early as this morning when the Apple online store opened with iPad 2s shipping in 3-5 days. Then an hour passed and it was 5-7 days for all models, and an hour later it turned in 2-3 weeks....

Apple today updated its webpage for its enterprise app solutions to show that a few of the apps have been updated with Apple Watch support. Apple first launched the MobileFirst for iOS solutions last year through a partnership with IBM and most recently added 9 new apps in March bringing the total up to 22 across several industries. The first three of Apple’s enterprise apps to receive Apple Watch support include: Hospital RN, Field Connect and Incident Aware....

Yesterday saw the latest report of a planned Apple Car launch, this time saying it will happen in 2024. This is, of course, just the latest installment in the long-running Apple Car saga that dates at least as far back as 2007. Phil Schiller said that Apple execs discussed building a car even before the company released the first iPhone in 2007, and Tony Fadell recalls kicking the idea around with Steve Jobs in 2008....

Tim Cook is no stranger to conferences and keynotes, and later this month the Apple CEO is set to appear at the first Startup Fest Europe in Amsterdam. Cook will open the event as its keynote speaker on May 24th, followed by appearances by other big names including Google/Alphabet’s Eric Schmidt, Uber’s Travis Kalanick. Google and Apple-partner IBM are among Startup Fest’s sponsors. Here’s how Startup Fest Europe describes the event:...

It was reported last week that macOS Big Sur has a serious issue that can result in data loss when users try to upgrade a Mac to the latest version of the operating system without enough space available. Apple has finally fixed the issue with a new build of macOS Big Sur 11.2.1, which properly checks if the disk has the required space before starting the upgrade process. Mr. Macintosh first reported that several users were getting an error message when upgrading a Mac computer to macOS Big Sur, which caused the Mac to no longer boot — and the only solution was to delete some files from the internal disk via Target Disk Mode (which doesn’t work for some models) or to wipe the entire disk....

Apple has just announced its plans to switch from Intel CPUs in Macs to silicon of its own design, based on the ARM architecture. This means that Apple is now designing its own chips for iOS devices and its Mac desktop and laptops. Apple said it will ship its first ARM Mac before the end of the year, and complete the Intel -> ARM transition within two years. Apple will bring industry leading performance and performance-by-watt with its custom silicon....

Once in a while, Apple announces the acquisition of another company or startup, but now, new research from GlobalData shows that Apple is in fact investing heavily in artificial intelligence. The research reveals that Apple has acquired more AI companies than anyone else between 2016 and 2020. Apple comes ahead of companies like Accenture, Google, Microsoft, and Facebook when it comes to the acquisition of companies and startups that specialize in AI....

Apple Business Chat was first introduced in 2018 and allows users to directly communicate with businesses via iMessage. The beta service has expanded with several new features and today, Sprint users can connect directly with an agent straight from their iOS device. Today’s press release outlines the streamlined experience: Sprint chief digital officer, Rob Roy, described the move today. Start a conversation in Apple Business Chat by visiting the ‘Contact Us’ page on Sprint....

Apple VP Lisa Jackson has tweeted a photo of the first graduating class from the Apple Developer Academy in Naples … The Developer Academy is a partnership between the University of Napoli and Apple. The initiative was first announced in January of last year as the European iOS App Development Center, and opened in October of that year. Apple sponsored the entire cost of the nine-month program, making it completely free of charge to students, who also each received the latest MacBook, iPad and iPhone....

SuperApple.cz claims that even though Apple has been reluctant about releasing a smaller iPad, Apple is still working on two models with screen sizes close to 6 inches. Specifically, the report claims that Apple is working on a 5.7-inch model and another model just below 6 inches. They claim that this information comes from two separate sources so the minimal size difference might really not be a difference at all....

Apple has shared a series of new ads for the iPad and Apple Pencil on its Turkey YouTube channel this week. The new ad series highlights images drawn on the iPad by children, touting the precision of the Apple Pencil… In total, Apple has shared five new iPad advertisements as part of this series. Each video focuses on an image drawn but a young iPad user, with the child themselves narrating the thought process behind the creation....

Bloomberg did some digging around after Apple’s acquisition of FoundationDB, believed to be geared to improving the performance of its cloud services (something it could definitely benefit from), and found that the company also acquired a British data analysis company back in 2013, likely for the same reason. The purchase of [FoundationDB] follows a deal for closely held Acunu Ltd., a U.K.-based data analysis company, Apple said. Both purchases show Apple is placing more emphasis on the development of solid data infrastructure to help provide services to its legions of global consumers beyond iPhones and iPads....

Apple has been toying with the idea of MacBooks with built-in cellular connectivity since 2007. Although Steve Jobs said a year later that the company had ‘considered’ it but decided against it at the time, the company continues to file patents for the idea, the latest one filed last year and granted today. The patent describes how the gap between the main and lid section of a MacBook could be used to provide an aperture for what Apple describes as Isolated Cavity Antennas …...

Just as China approved eleven iPod nano design patents, Apple’s had a field day today with the United States Patent & Trademark Office awarding the company eighteen new patents. Patently Apple got the hang of them all (here and here) and we’re highlighting two key inventions. Before we dig deeper, Steve Jobs and Jonathan Ive are credited among the inventors of the iPhone’s stainless steel band. There, now you know who to blame for the death grip non-issue....

Apple and Salesforce have announced a redesigned Salesforce Mobile App, a brand new skills-acquisitions app, and a next-generation SDK as the next stage in the strategic partnership created back in 2018. Apple CEO Tim Cook is also speaking tomorrow at the Dreamforce conference… The new and updated apps are exclusive to iOS and iPadOS. The latest version of the Salesforce Mobile App now supports Face ID and Siri shortcuts, alongside the CRM company’s own Einstein Voice Assistant....