Apple just announced new iCloud pricing coming soon to compliment a ton of new cloud features unveiled for iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite today. The new pricing starts with the same free 5GB for all users and introduces a new 20GB for $1/month tier as well as a 200GB for $4/month tier. Currently Apple offers 5GB for free and charges $20.00 for an extra 10GB, $40 for an extra 20GB, or $100 for 50GB per month....
Apple is reportedly asking its retail store landlords in the UK to slash its rent by as much as 50%, according to a new report from The Sunday Times. If landlords agree to cut the rent and offer a “rent-free period,” Apple is allegedly prepared to extend its leases by several years. The report explains that Apple would like its rent to match what is being paid by other retailers amid the slowdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic....
Apple has started selling older versions of OS X through the Apple Online Store. Despite the fact that neither operating system can be purchased through the Mac App Store, you can still buy them for $19.99 each through Apple’s website. Rather than a physical disc with the software, you’ll get a code that can be redeemed on the App Store to begin downloading the OS immediately. Offering Lion makes sense for older Macs since some Lion-capable machines cannot run Mountain Lion....
One of the standout features of the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus is the improved camera. The devices went up of preorder last Friday and officially hit store shelves this coming Friday. Ahead of the public release of the device, Sports Illustrated has gone hands-on with the iPhone 7 Plus to snap pictures from the sideline of the Titans-Vikings NFL game today. The gallery of photos shared by SI includes a variety of different images....
Last week Apple announced a decision to decrease USB-C accessory prices to help out new MacBook Pro users who might need adapters temporarily. Apple has now started automatically crediting customers who purchased the reduced products just prior to the announcement. Apple appears to be sending out credits to those who purchased the USB-C accessories on or after the day of its MacBook Pro event on October 27th before the price drop kicked in on Friday, November 4th last week....
Apple yesterday kicked off a new video series promoting an iOS 10 Photos feature called Memories, which automatically builds collections of related images and videos. This evening, Apple has shared another pair of tutorial videos for Memories focused on sharing and customization… The first video is entitled “How to share Memories on iPhone 7” and walks users through the steps of viewing Memories in the Photos app and instantly sharing them via iMessage or social networks....
In conjunction with this week’s release of AirPods Max, a trio of Apple executives sat down for an interview with Japanese design website Casa BRUTUS. In the interview, Evans Hankey, Apple’s VP of industrial design, Eugene Whang, industrial designer, and Bob Borchers, VP of product marketing, talked more in-depth about the new AirPods Max and the controversial Smart Case. Note that the Apple quotes have been translated to English from Japanese, which is why they might sound sort of awkward....
According to a report from Deadline, Apple is working on developing a show called Little America, created by Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon who wrote the popular movie, The Big Sick. The show will be focusing on “a small, collective portrait of America’s immigrants — and thereby a portrait of America itself.” The show will run for half an hour and will be developed as a straight-to-series project. It’ll likely take cues from producer Alan Yang and Nanjiani’s personal family stories to develop the series, in conjunction with the show writer, Lee Eisenberg....
Apple’s SVP of Operations Jeff Williams said today that the Cupertino company made changes to its requirements for supplier factories with regard to bonded labor practices in October. The practice in question centers on suppliers charging workers recruitment fees in exchange for a job on the assembly line. Apple now says that these fees should be paid by employers, and employees should not pay anything at all. As Bloomberg notes, Apple has previously stated that its supplier partners should not charge laborers “excessive fees” equal to a month’s pay or more, but with the recent shift has banned what Williams referred to as “bonded servitude” entirely....
Update: Customers in Australia have now seen their orders ship with an arrival date of 12/19. According to a handful of customers who placed their order early on Tuesday morning, Apple has started charging the credit cards of customers who ordered AirPods. While orders have yet to start shipping, users beginning to be charged suggests that shipments will begin sooner rather than later. The earliest arrival date for AirPods ordered on Tuesday morning is Monday, December 19th....
[Update: The developer now says his app has been approved after all.] Apple has reportedly rejected an app that claims to detect net neutrality violations and study which carriers throttle major video services. Motherboard reports that researcher David Choffnes says his app Wehe was rejected by the App Store for apparently offering no benefit to the user, but the app’s promise sounds rather straightforward… The rejected app Wehe includes two parts....
Mike Rose posts this interesting change in the iPhone developer agreement: 3.3.17 Your Application may include promotional sweepstake or contest functionality provided that You are the sole sponsor of the promotion and that You and Your Application comply with any applicable laws. Apple is certainly going to frown on straight casino gambling apps but there is a whole lot of gray area in there between roulette and sweepstakes and contests which could be exploited by developers who perhaps want to make apps with cash/prize rewards....
Apple has clarified its policy on battery replacements. As long as the owner of the iPhone 6 (or later) handset is willing to pay the $29 fee, and the device is not otherwise damaged, Apple will process the repair without requiring further checks of condition. This comes after some reported cases where Apple Store employees were refusing customers with ‘ineligible’ batteries which still passed Apple diagnostics testing. As reported by iGeneration, Apple has released new internal documentation to Apple Stores explaining that iPhones do not have to fail a diagnostics test in order for the out-of-warranty battery replacement to go ahead....
Apple is all over its copycat accusations filed in a formal complaint against its key supplier Samsung. Just days after it wrote in court documents that Samsung was “harassing us”, Apple yesterday amended the filing with more intellectual property rights against more products – even re-phrasing accusations more strongly. The legal maneuver comes on the eve of today’s court hearing where the judge will decide about granting each party access to the other’s unreleased products....
Apple is continuing its quick retail expansion around the globe, this time with a new store in Melbourne, Australia. Australia’s minister for tourism and major events made the announcement today, saying the store will be a “global flagship” for Apple… This store will be located in Federation Square and comes as part of Australia’s efforts to “breathe new life into one of Melbourne’s most iconic landmarks.” The store is predicted to bring in an additional 2 million visitors per year to Federation Square and will create 250 temporary construction jobs and 200 ongoing jobs following completion....
After earlier complaining that the company was being overcharged by the court-appointed lawyer overseeing its compliance with the terms of the ebooks anti-trust ruling, Apple has now brought matters to a head by asking for Michael Bromwich to be removed from the role, reports Reuters. Apple had complained that Bromwich’s $1,100 per hour rate was unreasonable, and gave him a financial incentive to interview Apple execs who were not involved with ebooks and to turn a limited investigation into a far broader one....
Apple previewed some exciting new accessibility features yesterday and today, it is celebrating Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) across many of its platforms like the App Store, Shortcuts app, TV app, Maps, Fitness+, Today at Apple sessions in its stores, and more. Ahead of GAAD, Apple previewed a range of new accessibility features coming later this year. That includes AssistiveTouch for Apple Watch, eye-tracking for iPad, exploring images with VoiceOver, Background Sounds, and more....
Allowing Siri access from the lock screen is a potential security threat that has, in the past, allowed someone to access personal data like photos. Additionally, Siri will respond to any command given by anyone when your device is unlocked. Apple thinks it has a solution, using a combination of a special phrase and authenticating your unique voice to ensure that Siri responds to you and only to you …...
It’s very rare that Apple publicly apologizes for hardware mistakes. In fact, the company typically patches these issues with future versions of its hardware. For example, the company reinforced the iPhone 6s and later models with 7000 series space-grade aluminum to prevent wear and tear and damage to the body of the phone. This was all without admitting that the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus had an issue with bending, at least publicly....
Apple is making quite a few quiet announcements today. Earlier it introduced a new stripped down $229 fifth-gen iPod touch to replace the fourth-gen touch and also announced 100M iPod touches sold to date. Apple has also now made a change to its education pricing on non Retina MacBook Pros by dropping the $1099 entry level price point to $999. That makes the price of the device $200 cheaper than Apple charges to non education customers....
