Via USA Today, Apple has become the first US company to donate to China aid efforts following the mass flooding and rainfall in the region since June. The natural disaster has affected over 30 million people in 500 cities; 164 people have been killed in the tragedy. Although a million dollar donation pales in contrast to Apple’s total business, the donation will significantly help relief efforts in China and Apple is the only American company to offer financial support so far....

Jamf, a popular vendor for IT departments who manage Apple devices is said to have filed for its initial public offering. Jamf is one of the few Apple-only MDM vendors in the enterprise space where other vendors try to mix and match between Windows and Apple. Jamf was rumored in January to be gearing up for its IPO, and it now looks official. According to Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal (Jamf is based out of Minneapolis), Jamf will trade under the symbol JAMF....

Apple has just sent out invites for their September 10th event, scheduled for 10 AM PST, via The Loop. Apple is hosting the event on campus in Cupertino. The invite reaffirms expectations that Apple will launch two new models of iPhone for the first time, dubbed the iPhone 5S and the iPhone 5C. As indicated by the numerous case leaks over the last few months, the iPhone 5C is expected to be available in a variety of colors....

New data from Flurry Analytics shows Apple continuing to dominate with new device activations during the week leading up to Christmas Day. iPhones and iPads made up 44% of devices measured by Flurry from December 19 to December 25 with second seen as a distant second at 26%. Flurry captures all other phone and tablet makers in the single digits with Huawei, Xiaomi, Motorola, LG, Oppo, and Vivo each falling between 5% and 2%....

Apple is today expanding its Device Enrollment Program, its service for business and education customers deploying and managing large fleets of iOS and Mac devices, to new countries. It’s also opening up the program to third-party resellers. Apple updated its webpages for the Device Enrollment Program today for both education and business customers to include the new changes. The program is now available to customers in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy,Japan, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, Spain, Sweden,Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, and United States....

According to two separate reports today, Apple is once again facing roadblocks in its attempt to win sales bans in a patent-related litigation with Samsung and Motorola. The first report comes from Bloomberg about a court in Dusseldorf, Germany, which said Apple would likely lose its bid for an injunction on Motorola’s Xoom tablet in the country: The second report is related to the ongoing United States Samsung/Apple patent case. Today, CIO claimed Apple’s request to ban Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10....

A new report from Variety today details that Apple is looking to increase its focus on country music. The report says that Apple and iTunes veteran Jay Liepis has relocated to Nashville to lead a team focused on reaching country artists… Liepis has been at Apple since 2004, working in artist and label relations. Prior to Apple, he was a marketing manager at Sony Music Entertainment. He purportedly played an instrumental role in managing Apple’s artist and label relationships through the transition to Apple Music....

Happy Apple Earnings Day! Apple has just announced its Q2 2018 results with $61.1 billion in revenue and $13.8 billion in profit earned from selling 52.2 million iPhones, 9.1 million iPads, and 4.07 million Macs. Apple had offered revenue guidance between $60 billion and $62 billion. That compares to $52.9b in revenue, $11.03 billion profit, 50.7 million iPhones, 8.92 million iPads, and 4.19 million Macs sold the same quarter a year ago; and $88....

Earlier in the year, the Bluetooth SIG appointed an Apple employee as secretary of the board. The two institutions are developing their relationship further today with the announcement that Apple is now a Promoter Member of the Bluetooth Special Interest Group. This is the highest level with the organization and gives Apple voting rights. Promoter members get voting rights on Bluetooth corporate matters and a guaranteed seat on the board of directors....

A new Apple patent details a stylus that can be used without a screen. It specifically mentions “force sensors” which leads us to believe that this could be used with future versions of the Mac that have Force Touch trackpads. Apple patents don’t typically translate to real products, however, it is interesting to look at what the Cupertino company is working on behind the curtain. What’s interesting is that the patent states that this could go beyond even Apple devices, and could be used with 3D objects in the real world, using the motion and accelerometer data within the stylus itself to track the information....

We’re heading into the weekend with all of today’s best deals headlined by a new Apple flash sale at Best Buy. That’s alongside a new all-time low on the latest 12.9-inch M1 iPad Pro at $100 off and a rare deal on the all-new Apple TV 4K. Hit the jump for all that and more in the latest 9to5Toys Lunch Break. Best Buy launches Apple Flash Sale Best Buy is heading into the weekend with another chance to score some last-minute discounts on Father’s Day gifts in its Summer Tech Flash Sale....

Leo Laporte and Mike Elgan of popular podcasting networking TWiT today conducted an interview with Bill Fernandez, the fourth employee to work at Apple. At Apple, Fernandez was a user interface architect and inventor. He worked on both the Apple I and Apple II and contributed to the user interface of Mac OS, QuickTime, and HyperCard. Fernandez is widely credited as being the person who introduced Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak to each other....

Update: On schedule, you now can order your (PRODUCT)RED iPhone 8 from the Apple Store and third party retailers like Best Buy. Current shipping estimates indicate there is plenty of stock for Friday delivery. Apple has announced a brand new (PRODUCT)RED iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus, available later this week. The product features a special red back design and a black bezel. For iPhone X, there is no new hardware per se; Apple is releasing a new (PRODUCT)RED leather folio case though....

While Apple Watch Series 4 offers the most comprehensive health features yet and is the number one smartwatch, Apple still sells wearables from other companies in its retail stores and online. One of the latest products to become available from Apple is Spire’s Health Tags that stick to your clothes to seamlessly track heart rate, steps, stress, and sleep. As spotted by TechCrunch, Spire’s Health Tags take a different approach from products like Apple Watch and Fitbit wearables in a few ways....

Ahead of WWDC kicking off next Monday, June 7th, Apple has shared the winners of its annual Swift Student Challenge. This year’s group includes students from 35 countries including three young women who are not only solving big problems with technology but also already helping to teach others the same. Apple highlighted announcing the winners in a Newsroom post this morning and shared that more young women participated and won the challenge than ever:...

The iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 went on sale nearly a month ago from carriers and on installment plans, but customers interested in purchasing a SIM-free model were forced to wait. That wait is now over, though, as Apple has started selling the SIM-free iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus on its online store. Now, when you go to the iPhone purchase page, you’ll see a new option in addition to the existing Sprint, T-Mobile, AT&T, Verizon, and iPhone Upgrade Program....

Apple today shared some news with app developers, this time focused on those who still have an app using the old UIWebView API. The company extended the adoption deadline of the new WKWebView API, and it also announced some improvements to the subscription notifications within apps. UIWebView was the API used to offer web pages within iOS and Mac apps, but it was replaced by the WKWebView API in 2014 — which has more features and better overall performance....

The US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision pauses an injunction ordered in September that sought to require Apple to remove its App Store rule of banning developers from adding in-app links to payment websites. “Apple has demonstrated, at minimum, that its appeal raises serious questions on the merits of the district court’s determination that Epic Games failed to show Apple’s conduct violated any antitrust laws but did show that the same conduct violated California’s Unfair Competition Law,” the appellate court said....

Macworld also spoke to the CEO who said “I wish” We’re reaching out to our source for clarification and will report back shortly. The confusion could have come from one of the co-founders of Wi-Gear joining up with Apple. Update 2: Our source assumed that the movement of Wi-Gear co-founder Michael Kim to Apple was an indication of a purchase. We unknowingly used this same event to “verify” his story....

A rumor today from German publication Manager Magazin, shares some alleged details about a shift in Apple’s Project Titan. While Apple’s car efforts were originally expected to include the company manufacturing its own vehicle, it reportedly later changed course to just focusing on developing autonomous vehicle software. However, today’s rumor suggests that Apple is working on its own electric van. Based on the information received from anonymous sources, Manager Magazin believes Apple has “breathe[d] new life into its plans for a self-developed electric vehicle....