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Apple is in the process of purging “thousands of video game apps” from the App Store, according to a new report from The Wall Street Journal. This comes as China cracks down on unlicensed games in the country, but the removals extend beyond the gaming category in some cases. Over the last month, Apple has been warning Chinese developers that “a new wave of paid gaming apps are at risk of removal,” the report says....

According to a report from French Apple blog Mac4Ever, Apple has just dropped the outside public relations company, Rumeur Publique, that it has used in recent years to handle communications with journalists in France. Instead Apple will now be moving its public relations in the country in-house as it does in the US and most other countries. A separate report from Macg.co notes that Rumeur Publique tells them Apple’s decision to move its press relations to an internal team was “not a surprise”, hinting that the transition has been in place while Apple beefs up its internal PR teams in the country....

New IDC numbers released today reveal that Apple has jumped into the top five PC vendors worldwide by shipment this quarter, with Mac shipments coming in at 4.9 million units for 6.3% market share. That’s a year-over-year growth of just under 9%. Lenovo and HP held the top two slots with 20% and 18.8% respectively. The same report indicated that the Cupertino company had held steady in third place for domestic shipments....

In honor of the passing of musician Prince, Apple is featuring a collection of albums, songs, movies and more on iTunes. In total, the Prince collection on iTunes features 268 tracks across the artist’s various studio albums, soundtracks, collaborations, movies, and music videos from the 70s through the 2000s. “Virtuoso, rebel, sex symbol, icon— Prince was a wildly versatile musical genius who electrified us at every turn. He was a prodigy who created a fusion of funk, R&B, rock, jazz, and pop, often playing all of the instrumental tracks that accompanied an acrobatic set of vocals that told stories of pleasure, pain, seduction, or revolution....

Apple is expanding its Fitness+ subscription service today with new workout categories and types, as well as more trainers and a new “Time to Walk” guest. Apple made these announcements in a press release today. First off, Apple says there are new workouts specifically for women who are pregnant. Apple says these are designed to help women “stay active during a healthy pregnancy and prepare for life with a new baby....

Apple is out with its Q2 2015 earnings results today reporting $58 billion in revenue including $13.6 billion in profit earned during the first three months of this year. Aside from revenue and profit, Apple disclosed sales numbers or revenue for the these categories: iPhone: 61.1 million units iPad: 12.6 million units Mac: 4.5 million units Totals: Revenue: $58 billion EPS: $2.33 per share Apple CEO Tim Cook had this to say:...

Apple continues to ramp up its original content efforts today with a new show starring Jason Momoa. The show is entitled “See” and is said to be a “world-building drama” set in the future… As reported by Variety, Momoa has been cast in the lead role in the series. Momoa is perhaps best known for his role on Game of Thrones, where he had a one-season role as Khal Crogo. Most recently, he has landed the role of Aquaman and stars in the Netflix series Frontier....

Last time we checked Apple’s plans to bring 3,600 jobs to Austin, Texas with a $304 million investment and the construction of a new campus, the company received approval on the last of several major incentives from city officials. The approval officially initiated an Economic Development Agreement between Apple and the city, but the project was still not 100 percent confirmed. Reports originally said Apple would build the new campus on 38 acres at West Parmer Lane and Delcour Drive, and today’s report from AustinBusinessJournal confirmed Apple recently purchased land near the address:...

Apple is reportedly in talks with investment bank Goldman Sachs to offer new financing to consumers buying iPhones, watches and other devices. For some customers, this could offer them a better deal than they can get today. Few details are revealed, so it’s not known whether this would supplement or replace either of Apple’s existing financing schemes, which offer interest rates ranging from 0% to 28.24% … The WSJ reports that the financing would take the form of a loan rather than a credit card....

According to Palo Alto police department spokeswoman Sandra Brown (via Bloomberg), Apple executives may have known Steve Jobs’ condition at the time of the iPhone 4S launch event. Apple informed police that Steve Jobs passing was close, days before Apple’s official statement confirming he had passed. As a result of the meeting, police apparently put plans in place for officers to patrol Jobs’ home after the news of his passing had broke....

Apple has finalized iCloud pricing. At WWDC, it announced that 20 GB would cost $1 a month and that 5 GB would be free. Now, Apple has announced the costs for every tier. You can get 200 GB for $3.99, 500 GB for $9.99 and 1 TB for $19.99 a month. This is near identical to competing offerings by Google. Some people may be disappointed that Apple has kept 5 GB as the free option, given that almost everyone now exceeds that minimum capacity....

As we expected based on our intel leading up to the event, Apple just introduced refreshed MacBook Airs live on stage at it’s WWDC 2013 keynote address today. Apple announced that the new MacBook Airs will be arriving with the new Intel Haswell chips, as expected, and spent most of the time talking about increased battery life for the devices which now includes up to 12hrs battery. The 13-inch model now boasts battery life up to 12 hours (up from 7 on the previous generation), while the 11-inch model is expected to get 9-hour battery life (up from 5 on the previous generation)....

In a surprise announcement, Apple has cancelled plans to open a large data center in Aabenraa, Denmark. The news was posted on the local town’s website. Apple is looking to sell off the land and leave the site completely. The Aabenraa site was set to be Apple’s second data center in Denmark, first announced in July 2017. The company is also working on a facility in the city of Viborg …...

Apple today has unveiled a new ad for the fourth-generation Apple TV that highlights the plethora of apps and content available on the new tvOS platform. The ad, which runs 1-minute long, follows a series of shorter advertisements all focused on specific apps and games available on the device. Today’s new ad is entitled “The Future of Television,” a phrase Tim Cook has used in the past to describe apps running on the Apple TV....

As part of its media event, Apple has announced a new 9.7 inch version of the iPad Pro from $599. It features much of the same internals as its 12.9 inch cousin, with A9X chip, Apple Pencil support and Smart Connector. Although in most respects, the iPad Pro is the same as its big brother it features significant upgrades in the camera department. The 9.7 inch iPad Pro has a 12 megapixel rear camera, 4K video recording and a 5 megapixel front camera....

The feature is accompanied by a new app switcher that allows users to quickly swipe an app into place running at the width of an iPhone app alongside an iPad-sized app. Users can also switch to a view that shows to iPad-sized apps next to each other, but only on the iPad Air 2. Users will also be able to shrink videos down and watch them while working in other apps by tapping incoming notifications....

J.D. Power and Associates has just announced the results of their annual 2011 U.S. Wireless Handset Customer Satisfaction Study. Apple has earned the top-spot on the list for the sixth consecutive time. Apple scored a 838 on a 1,000-point scale with the iPhone, while the runner-up HTC scored a relatively close score of 801. 6,898 smartphone owners took part in the study. As if we already didn’t know, customers are pretty satisfied with Apple’s iPhone, and its 5-star rating for “Ease of Operation”....

Apple Books has published six exclusive audiobooks this week, showcasing six great first listen titles read by celebrity narrators. The books themselves are all public domain works from Pride and Prejudice to Winnie the Pooh, recorded by Apple and released in the Book Store for free. Only available on Apple Books, Apple has partnered with celebrities including actresses Kate Beckinsale and Karen Gillan, and comedian Tituss Burgess. The titles range from four to twelve hours in length, and there’s even a retelling of Winnie the Pooh recorded by Disney....

As part of its unveiling and demo of iOS 6 today, Apple shared some of the newest updates and features of Siri. The first new feature demoed by Senior Vice President of iOS Software Scott Forstall was access to sports scores for queries such as “What is Buster Posey’s batting average?” or “Who is taller, LeBron or Kobe?” Apple also noted that it partnered with Yelp and integrated OpenTable functionality for better restaurant related results, as well as Rotten Tomatoes for movie reviews and show times-related content....

From 9to5toys.com: The Apple Store dropped its price on the factory-refurbished, 1st-generation Apple iPad 16GB Wi-Fi (pictured), model no. MB292LL/A, to $299 with free shipping. That’s $30 under our June mention and is $184 under the lowest total price we could find for a new one. (It’s also the lowest we’ve ever seen for any iPad.) This 0.5″-thick tablet weighs 1.5 lbs. and features an Apple A4 1GHz processor, 9.7″ 1024×768 LCD touchscreen display, 802....