As announced yesterday, Apple CFO Luca Maestri today spoke at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Innovation conference. During the interview, Maestri touched on a number of topics, both reiterating and elaborating on what he said during Apple’s first quarter earnings call last month. The full replay is available on Apple’s Investor Relation’s webpage, but head below for some of the notable tidbits. When asked about Apple’s slowing iPhone growth, Maestri quickly stated that the iPhone returned to growth and had record numbers last quarter....

Following jury selection in the latest Apple vs Samsung patent trial in San Jose, today the trial officially started with Apple’s opening statements. In the trial, Apple is seeking $2B in damages for five patents it claims Samsung violated, while Samsung has counter-claims that Apple devices violate two of its own patents. While some thought the case—which unlike previous patent battles between the companies involves only software related patents— could make Android and therefore Google the real target of the outcome Apple is seeking, Apple actually made it clear that’s not the case in its opening statement (via TheVerge):...

Apple has confirmed iPhone 7 launch dates for more countries today on its website including Egypt on October 20, Korea and Colombia on October 21, and a handful more planned for a week later on October 28. Korea and Colombia will also get access to the new Apple Watch Series 2 on the 21st. Countries scheduled to launch iPhone 7 on the 28th include Cameroun, Botswana, Kenya, and Mozambique. Apple previously confirmed that iPhone 7 would launch in Israel this month on October 20, as well as upcoming launches scheduled for October 21st in Maurice, Madagascar, Maroc, Uganda, and Thailand, and October 28th in Senegal and Moldova....

TechCrunch received a statement from Apple that intends to take the focus off describing the feature change as default music service support and instead on it being a part of Siri intelligence: For example, if you tell Siri to play a song, album or artist, it may ask you which service you want to use to listen to this sort of content. However, your response to Siri is not making that particular service your “default,” Apple says....

Each year, the California Department of Motor Vehicles publishes detailed information from the companies testing self-driving cars in the state. This year’s data has just been made public, and it reveals that Apple completed 18,805 miles of self-driving car testing in California during 2020 — more than double what was reported in 2019. Self-driving car disengagement reports break down the number of times a human driver has to take over control of an autonomous driving system....

A source within Apple has provided us with an internal memo announcing the end of Apple’s long-running rebate programs for both the MobileMe service and Apple’s iWork productivity suite of applications. The rebate allowed Apple customers to receive $30 off their purchase of the $99 MobileMe if the service was purchased alongside a new Mac or iOS device. The iWork rebate program, also $30 off, became an option with new Mac purchases....

New iPhones As expected, Apple’s 2019 lineup includes three new handsets, all slightly improved from the 2018 models each will replace. This consists of the 6.1-inch iPhone 11, 5.8-inch iPhone 11 Pro, and 6.5-inch iPhone 11 Pro Max. iPhone 11 The colorful iPhone 11 takes the iPhone XR’s spot in the iPhone lineup, even though the latter remains as one of the company’s lower-priced models. The 2019 model is available in new exciting colors, including purple and green, plus yellow, black, white, and (PRODUCT) Red....

Apple is boosting Chinese production of both the Apple Watch Series 6 and one of the new iPads, according to a supply-chain report. It might seem an odd move at a time when the Cupertino company has been trying to reduce its dependence on Chinese manufacturing, but there is a simple explanation for it … The Digitimes report says that the Chinese production will be for devices sold within the country, while manufacturing outside China continues for the export market....

Apple’s barrage of iPhone X ads continues today with yet another focused on Apple Pay on the iPhone X with Face ID. This ad focuses on using Apple’s mobile payment platform to pay for a grocery trip… This fast-paced ad is entitled “Groceries” and comes in at 12 seconds in length. Apple touts that the iPhone X with Face ID allows you to “Apple Pay and done” with incredible ease....

Last night we reported that several Mac and iOS users were finding their devices remotely locked by hackers who had gained access to the users’ Find My iPhone accounts and demanded a ransom to return the devices to a working state. Today Apple issued a statement on the problem, noting that—as suspected—the iCloud service itself was not actually breached, but individual user accounts may have been compromised through password reuse or social engineering:...

Apple today announced an expansion of its coding initiatives in Singapore and Indonesia. In a press release, the company says it has expanded the availability of Swift courses in Singapore, while also growing its Developer Academies in Indonesia. Apple says The Singapore University of Technology and Design and RMIT Online have both launched app development courses based on its App Development with Swift Curriculum. Further, Pathlight School, which is Singapore’s first autism-focused school, will also offer a Swift Accelorator program....

Apple today has updated its Feature Availability webpage to reflect that real-time traffic information is now available in six new countries around the globe. The move marks Apple’s continued expansion of select region-based features… As noted by MacRumors, real-time traffic information is now available in Brunei, Kenya, Mozambique, Philippines, Nigeria, and Vietnam. With these new additions, Traffic information in Apple Maps is now available in over 70 countries around the world....

Apple’s Fortune 500 ranking has moved back up to third place, after being knocked into fourth place last year by Exxon Mobil. Fortune has this year added an additional ranking, for diversity, equity and inclusion – and there Apple gets a rather low ranking of 188th … The Fortune 500 is a ranking of US companies by revenue. Apple takes third place based on record revenue of $274B, up 5.5% on the previous year....

Apple today has announced that popular pop band Walk The Moon will perform at the annual WWDC Bash on Thursday, June 11th. The 2015 WWDC Bash is set to take place at 6PM at the Yerba Buena Gardens and is open to all WWDC attendees 18 years or older. In 2014, Bastille performed at the WWDC Bash. Vampire Weekend headlined the event in 2013, while Neon Trees performed in 2013....

In another change to its leadership, Apple has hired AstraZeneca’s CIO, David Smoley, for a VP role under its Chief Information Officer, Mary Demby. Reported by Bloomberg, Smoley started at Apple this month after serving as CIO at the UK-based pharmaceutical company for six years. As it turns out, Smoley won’t be working on health-related efforts at Apple, but rather will be working in a VP role under Apple’s current CIO....

A new report from noted Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo potentially provides a lot of information about the Apple Car specs. He reiterates recent reports that Hyundai will be the key manufacturing partner for the Apple Car, but goes on to say that the vehicle will use the company’s electric car chassis known as E-GMP. Hyundai announced the chassis a couple of months ago, with some impressive specs. Range is shown as over 300 miles on a full charge, and fast-charging gets it up to 80% capacity within 18 minutes....

On March 8, the world celebrates International Women’s Day. Apple is joining in by featuring apps, stories, podcasts, songs, and more created by women. Starting with the App Store, Apple is sharing six new stories to celebrate Women’s History Month. The company spoke with the creators of Mini Motorways, an Apple Arcade exclusive game. Chantelle Cole and Niamh Fitzgerald told Apple the best way to solve seemingly intractable problems is to drive down different paths until you find the right one....

As part of its International Womens Day celebrations, Apple has dedicated its homepage to an interactive feature of “women who are changing everything”. On both desktop and mobile, Apple’s homepage has been transformed into a scrollable universe of biographies of influential women in modern culture, from Malala to Greta Gerwig. Below the interactive collage, Apple’s site features sign up links for Today at Apple and its new She Creates series, as well as sections raising awareness for projects like Kode With Klossy and the Malala Fund....

Apple today announced a new iCloud+ subscription service, with one of the tentpole features being a Private Relay technology help obscure a user’s web browsing. In a statement to Reuters, Apple has confirmed that this feature will not be available in select countries, including China. Apple says that Private Relay will not be available in China when it launches to the public later this year. It will also be unavailable in Belarus, Colombia, Egypt, Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkmenistan, Uganda, and the Philippines....

At its last earnings call, Apple announced that it is expanding its capital return program by more than 50%. This means the company is now looking to repurchase over $140 billion worth of shares and a larger dividend for shareholders. To fund this activity however, it is cheaper for the company to sell domestic company debt than repatriate its ever-increasing cash hoard that is ‘trapped’ overseas. Therefore, Apple has today announced it will issue a new 7-part bond to raise the funds....