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Apple has hired Amber Cottle as its new chief lobbyist, reports Politico. Before joining the Cupertino company, Cottle spent time as the Democratic Staff Director on the Senate Finance Committee, giving her a unique perspective on how Washington politics affect companies like Apple. Prior to serving the Finance Committee, Cottle was the Deputy Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Investment. In the past, Apple has not always focused heavily on lobbying efforts in Washington, and though the company hired a lobbying firm to represent them in 2011, the financial investment remains lower than that of many similar companies....

Apple Arcade has gotten a big wave of new games today. Over 30 new titles including ones from major game developers to popular indie devs have hit the service that pushes the available titles to over 180. New games include NBA 2K21, an all-new version of The Oregon Trail from Gameloft, Fantasian from the creator of Final Fantasy, and lots of hit classics like Really Bad Chess, Monument Valley, Reigns, Simon’s Cat, Threes!...

After opening registration last week, Apple today has started notifying winners of its WWDC 2019 lottery. These winners are now able to purchase a ticket to the event for $1599. Registration for WWDC 2019 officially closed yesterday, and now the first winners are being notified. Winners are notified via email, so be sure to check your inbox if you entered the WWDC 2019 lottery. Apple uses a lottery system to address the high demands for WWDC tickets....

January has already been a busy month in Apple retail news. After announcing a temporary store closure for remodeling in Altamonte Springs, Florida, and a permanent store closure in Sendai, Japan, Apple has plans to completely remodel its Bridgewater, New Jersey location as well. Starting January 27th, Apple Bridgewater will be closed as the space is significantly rebuilt and expanded inside the Bridgewater Commons mall. The store originally opened in October 2004....

A survey of 6,000 consumers across three countries has found that Apple is ‘the most intimate brand’ – using a range of survey responses to measure the emotional connection people feel to a brand. It also had the highest score for ‘can’t live without this brand,’ with 59% of consumers ticking this box. MBLM, the company behind the survey, say that hard data proves the rankings aren’t just fluff …...

Apple will allow its upcoming Siri-controlled HomeKit platform to work with certain existing, non-HomeKit home automation products, including ones using competing protocols such as ZigBee or Z-Wave, but there are many limitations. According to sources briefed on the new specs, the latest Made for iPhone (MFi) licensing program specifications detail the types of home automation products other than HomeKit that Apple will permit to interact with its platform. During the 2014 WWDC, Apple briefly mentioned the possibility of connecting rival home automation products to HomeKit using a hardware “bridge,” but only in recent weeks has clarified the types of accessories that will and will not be allowed....

Apple is donating 1,000 Apple Watches to help university researchers gain a better understanding of eating disorders such as binge eating or the more specific bulimia nervosa … CNBC (via MacRumors) reports that the study is being carried out at the University of North Carolina. The school aims to recruit 1,000 volunteers who have binge eating disorders. The primary data is a log of thoughts and feelings collected through an app called Recovery Record....

Update: As the Chicago Sun-Times reports, Apple now faces a second lawsuit over the “deceptive, immoral and unethical” tactic of slowing older iPhones. More here. Following yesterday’s revelation that it slows down older iPhones to help manage batter wear, Apple today has been hit with its first class action lawsuit over the tactic. The lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles, California, accuses Apple’s battery saving “feature” of causing users to suffer and hurting the value of older devices…...

We first heard two years ago that Apple was opening its first office in Cambridge, England, at a location close to the world-famous university. Back in November, a report said that the offices housed former VocalIQ employees performing R&D work on Siri, but at the time Apple wasn’t even admitting that it had a presence there. That has changed this week, notes Cambridge News, as the company’s logo has now appeared outside the building at 90 Hills Road....

Apple just announced that longtime board member and former VP of Marketing Bill Campbell is leaving the company as founding partner and director of BlackRoc Susan L. Wagner joins the company’s board of directors. Apple CEO Tim Cook noted in the company’s press release today that he thinks Apple will benefit from Wagner’s experience with “M&A and building a global business across both developed and emerging markets.” “Sue is a pioneer in the financial industry and we are excited to welcome her to Apple’s board of directors,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO....

We previously reported that Apple had new retail stores planned for the Chongqing region as well as upcoming locations for Shenyang and Central Hangzhou coming later this year. Today three more stores in China get added to the mix with a job listing on the company’s website hiring for positions in Tianjin, Wuxi, and Zhengzhou in addition to the three stores mentioned above that we already knew about (via Bloomberg). In our previous report we noted that Apple’s new retail boss Angela Ahrendts will oversee the opening of 20 more Apple Stores in China through 2016 including four new stores within the next several months....

Apple CEO Tim Cook met with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on his trip to Japan this week as chronicled by the leader’s Facebook page (via Macotakara). In the meeting, the Japanese PM noted that without Japanese innovation, the iPhone couldn’t have been developed. Speaking of development… Cook also unveiled that a new development center in Yokohama (Tsunashima Technical Development Center) will be launched in December 2016.Also, the PM highlighted the importance of iOS software development for Japan’s economy, noting the country’s youngest developer is just 8 years old....

Apple has pledged to donate $1 million to the wildfire relief effort in California, San Francisco Chronicle reports. The company has also encouraged employees to help individually by promising to match employee donations two-to-one. Firefighters have been battling the wildfires in Wine Country, California, since Sunday with the death toll reaching 24 people today with 436 people missing and as many as 3500 homes and businesses destroyed. The wildfires are north of San Francisco and Cupertino where Apple is headquartered, but smoke from the wildfires has also affected air quality south of Napa and the surrounding area resulting in some businesses being shut down and air masks being recommended....

Apple has announced its eighth annual iTunes Festival event at the Roundhouse in London through a press release on its website. The 30-day event will run through the month of September and feature over 60 bands, including Maroon 5, Pharrell Williams, Beck, and many more. As usual, the entire event will be available for live streaming and on-demand viewing online, through the iTunes Festival iOS app, or an on a dedicated Apple TV channel....

Earlier this week we told you that Apple had announced an upcoming sale in many of its Asian online stores to celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year taking place at the end of January. The sales see Apple offering discounts in China, Thailand, Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Malaysia online stores similar to deals on offer for Black Friday in the US and other countries. This year Apple is offering cash discounts on the usual products— up to $40 off iPads, $100 off Macs, and smaller discounts on iPods and Smart Covers— it’s also offering a rare discount on iPhones at around $50 off both the iPhone 5s and 5c....

As it continues to expand its global reach through its retail stores, Apple has begun recruiting for Apple Store-specific positions in Brussels through job listings posted online. As MacGeneration points out, the upcoming Apple Store opening in the capital city will mark Apple’s first retail location in Belgium. Currently Apple lists a total of six job listings targeted for Brussels with retail positions including Expert and Genius, all of which were posted today....

As pointed out by The Next Web Apple has begun to role out a new redesign for category home pages in the App Store. The redesign follows suit with the home page of the App Store, displaying a large horizontal banner which runs through the category’s featured apps. As of now, the redesign is only appearing in the Education and Games sections. Besides the banner, Apple has removed the section that displayed all of the category’s apps, and has replaced it with the “Staff Favorites” section....

After opening earlier this week, Apple’s ticket lottery for its 2017 Worldwide Developers Conference came to a close earlier today. Now that the lottery is closed, Apple has started notifying developers who won tickets and offered them the opportunity to purchase tickets… Apple this evening began sending emails to developers who were chosen to attend. Developers were told that they have until Monday, April 3rd at 5PM PT to pay the $1,599 price tag for the ticket....

Apple has shot down the significance of an apparent source code leak for the iPhone’s iBoot bootloader which loads the operating system. The original report flagged the source code leak as the ‘biggest leak in history’ based on one researcher’s description, but Apple has significantly downplayed any risks associated with the leak while seemingly confirming its authenticity. Motherboard reported the leak last night after what appeared to be source code for iBoot was posted publicly online....

Apple has cut the price of its iPhone lineup in Japan including the brand-new iPhone SE, by approximately 10% across the board. The price drop can be seen online on Apple’s Japanese storefront, via Macotakara. A 16 GB iPhone SE was selling for 52800 yen (483 dollars). The new price from today is 47800 yen (437), representing an approximate $50 saving in dollar terms. Full list of price changes after the jump …...