Apple today unveiled a new 13-inch MacBook Pro featuring the Apple M1 chip, replacing the previous Intel x86 models. Apple retained the same $1299 price point for the notebook. The 8-core CPU offers up to 2.8x faster performance compared with the previous 13-inch MacBook Pro. Thanks to the efficiency of the M1 chip, the new MacBook Pro offers up to 20 hours of video playback on a single charge, twice the previous quoted figure....

Apple TV+ has announced its latest original film: “Black & Blues: The Colorful Ballad of Louis Armstrong.” The company describes this as the “definitive” documentary about Armstrong. The documentary is produced under Apple’s first-look agreement with Imagine Documentaries and will be directed by Sacha Jenkins, Julie Anderson, Sara Bernstein, and Justin Wilken. Brian Grazer and Ron Howard serve as executive producers. With the support of the Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation, the filmmakers “have access to a crease trove of never-before-seen archival materials, including hundreds of hours of audio recordings, film footage, photographs, and personal diaries....

This is fairly significant, in part because it follows the widely-publicised approval of Spotify in some key European territories, and partly because it shows Apple’s happy to allow competitors to offer music streaming applications through its devices. In part, this could be to ensure open competition should the company ever decide to move into the subscription-based music space itself. Not allowing competitors to offer similar services on its platforms could be considered anti-competitive....

Apple’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) will take place early next year, and as usual some proposals have been put forward by activist shareholders. They want the meeting to debate and vote on climate change and human rights issues. But Apple has asked the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for the authority to omit at least four such proposals, citing recent guidance as justification … Reuters reports that Apple made the request in a letter to the SEC....

A new digital key standard will allow you to use a smartphone (and possibly Apple Watch) to unlock your car. The standard is backed by Apple, Samsung, LG and Qualcomm, as well as a number of car manufacturers … The group behind it is known as the Car Connectivity Consortium. Version 1.0 requires the dealer to transfer the digital key to your phone. The consortium is already working on release 2....

In last year’s American Customer Satisfaction Index, Apple and Samsung were neck-and-neck at 80%. In this year’s results, released today, Samsung has retained last year’s score while Apple has just edged ahead at 81%. Despite Apple winning out in overall satisfaction across models, it didn’t quite manage the top spot when it comes to specific models … Apple moves up 1% to take sole possession of the industry lead at 81, just ahead of Samsung, unchanged at 80....

We saw the Android-iOS duopoly coming last summer. Now, the effects of this incredibly tight chokehold are becoming painfully evident to virtually every handset maker sans Apple and Samsung. According to a fresh NPD survey from this morning, during the fourth quarter of 2011 Android and Apple together accounted for over 90 percent of smartphone sales in the United States. No wonder RIM is sliding fast. The remaining 10 percent is up for grabs....

As rumored leading up to today’s event, Apple announced today that it has struck a deal with NTT DOCOMO to bring its new iPhone lineup to Japan’s largest carrier when the device launches in multiple countries later this month. On September 20th the iPhone will launch on the carrier for the first time and Apple will also launch a single model of the iPhone 5c and iPhone 5s in Japan for KDDI and Softbank....

TSMC, sole supplier of the A-series chips used in Apple’s iPhones and other devices, has admitted that the ultimate cause of its virus-induced downtime was the use of unpatched Windows systems … The company initially said only that the problem, which resulted in several factory shutdowns, was caused by an unspecified computer virus. V3 reports that TSMC has since elaborated on this, admitting the embarrassing details. WannaCry was a ransomware attack first seen back in May 2017, and was estimated to have attacked more than 200,000 PCs across 150 countries....

Apple has announced today that it is closing all of its retail stores in Italy due to the coronavirus pandemic. In a message on its website, Apple says that all 17 of its retail stores in Italy will be closed until further notice. The announcement from Apple is unsurprising given how hard Italy has been affected by the coronavirus outbreak. The Italian government imposed a nationwide lockdown earlier this week in an effort to contain the outbreak....

Along with the release of iOS 13.4, iPadOS 13.4, and macOS 10.15.4, Apple also released several exciting new features aimed to simplify the lives of its enterprise and K-12 customers. Among the new features are Shared iPad for Business, Assessment Mode for Mac, Shared iPad Temporary Session for K-12, and Proxy support for APNs. As the iPad and Mac continue to grow their market share in the enterprise along with continued use of Apple products in K-12, Apple has continued to develop easier ways for IT departments to work with its products....

Apple is facing backlash for using the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) to remove a tweet that contained an iPhone encryption key. Motherboard reports that Apple filed the DMCA request yesterday, but then retracted it today. A security researcher under the Twitter handle Siguza posted a tweet on Sunday with an encryption key that Motherboard says “could be used to reverse engineer the Secure Enclave Processor” in the iPhone. In turn, this would grant access to sensitive data that is stored in that processor....

When I suggested that Apple could in the future move beyond Apple Pay to become a bank, a couple of you observed that person-to-person payments might make a logical next step in that direction. It appears Apple may agree: Patently Apple notes that the company today applied for a patent for a method of transferring money from one iPhone to another. The transaction would appear to take place in the Wallet app, and Touch ID would be used to authorize both ends of the transaction....

The New York Times reports that Apple was among a handful of technology companies that attended a meeting with U.S. intelligence officials last month. The meeting was held at Facebook’s headquarters in Menlo Park, California and focused on the upcoming midterm elections… The meeting was initiated by Facebook with the goal of ensuring that the midterm elections this fall go without the level of Russian interference as we saw in the 2016 election....

[Update: Keep up with our live coverage of Eddy Cue’s SXSW talk right here.] Apple has today confirmed that it is taking a major step into the digital magazine business. Apple’s Eddy Cue shared in a statement that the company would be purchasing Texture, a digital magazine distributor which could enhance Apple’s News app and more. The purchase will give Apple a large catalog of magazines from a range of publishers....

Apple has officially lowered the price of the HomePod worldwide. In the price has fallen from $349 to $299, breaking the $300 level. HomePod has seen promotional discounts at many third party retailers (eg: it’s $279 right now at Best Buy) over its lifespan, but now Apple has dropped the smart speaker’s standard list price. This price cut represents a roughly 15% drop and seemingly applies to every region, not just the US....

Apple today has detailed the several ways it will honor America’s national parks this month. These initiatives come as the US National Park Service celebrates its 103rd anniversary. Apple explained why it supports national parks in a new press release today: In the press release, the company reiterated an Apple Pay promotion that will see the company donate $10 to the National Park Foundation for each Apple Pay purchase made at Apple․com, in Apple Stores, and in the Apple Store app....

Well-sourced Re/code is indicating that Apple’s media event and keynote announcement for spring will be held in the week of March 21st. In an independent report by Buzzfeed, John Paczkowski reports that the event will take place on March 21st itself and will be a ‘smaller scale event’, suggesting it will take place in Cupertino on Apple’s campus. The reason for the event’s delay, given Apple initially planned for a March 15th event, is also unclear....

Apple has just been granted a patent for a new technology that could bring touch controls to the bezel of a device with a small display (via AppleInsider). The technology would be able to dynamically change between a place to simply hold onto the device with and an area for controls. Apple describes it as an “Electronic device, display and touch-sensitive user interface” and says the technology is centered around a layered stack of touch sensors and displays around the edge(s) of a device that could be selectively activated and deactivated....

Apple is making it easier for developers in China to enroll in the Apple Developer Program. Starting today, developers in China can now join the Apple Developer Program using the Apple Developer app for iOS. As we reported last month, Apple recently renamed the WWDC application to the “Apple Developer” app. The new Apple Developer application delivers in-depth information from Apple experts all year round, including news, videos, WWDC content, and more....