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Apple has today been granted a patent for augmented reality apps for interior design and animated movie posters. The patent award comes the day after we learned more about plans for an AR app in partnership with Swedish furniture company Ikea. Apple recently announced ARKit as part of iOS 11, providing hands-on demos at WWDC … The patent was assigned from augmented reality app company Metaio, which Apple acquired back in 2015....

Verizon and Apple have partnered to offer a new enterprise iPhone upgrade program called “Fleet Swap.” As the name suggests “Fleet Swap” allows businesses to upgrade all their smartphones — from any carrier — to the new iPhone 12 models and notably with zero upfront cost. Verizon and Apple held a webinar and shared a press release today to detail the latest partnership. The carrier is also debuting indoor 5G at GM and Honeywell....

With all of the items and sale prices that we revealed on Tuesday, Apple has kicked off their annual Black Friday sale in the United States, Mexico, and Canada (North America). The sale is very similar to Apple’s offerings in past years, but does give better discounts to higher capacities of the iPads and iPods. The deals on the Mac end cover the iMac, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro, while the iPod nano and iPod touch are the discounted iPod offerings....

Apple today has officially stopped signing iOS 13.3.1 following last week’s release of iOS 13.4. This means users can no longer downgrade from iOS 13.4 to iOS 13.3.1. Apple has also stopped signing iOS 12.4.5 and tvOS 13.3.1. iOS 13.4 was released to the public last week. The update included major changes such as iPad trackpad support, iCloud Drive folder sharing, and more. Now that Apple has stopped signing iOS 13....

ARM, the British processor designer responsible for the core chip technology found inside many of Apple’s past iOS devices, today announced the Cortex-A72 — its latest mobile CPU design, designed to run at up to 2.5GHz and improve the processing power of next-generation smartphones. Combined with an enhanced graphics chip such as ARM’s Mali-T880, the new CPU promises to enable upcoming phones to offer “console-class gaming performance,” up to 120fps 4K video capture, and natural language user interfaces....

Apple has announced a notable change to its App Store commission structure today. The company is launching the App Store Small Business Program, which will lower the App Store commission to 15% for developers who earned up to $1 million in proceeds during the previous calendar year. Apple says that existing developers who earn up to $1 million in a calendar year are eligible for this new App Store Small Business Program....

Apple has been gradually switching its international app store pricing from US dollars or Euros to local currencies, doing so in eight countries at the end of last year. It told developers last week that it would be doing the same thing in a further nine countries ‘within 7-10 days,’ and these changes have now taken effect … Four countries are switching from US dollar pricing to local currencies: Chile (Peso) Columbia (Peso) Croatia (Kuna) Peru (Sol) Five more are switching from Euros:...

Apple is no stranger to this concept, as it has introduced its own Apple SIM inside the iPad Air (which, by the way, has recently expanded to over 90 countries). But the iPhone is a much more mobile device, if I can say so, therefore many are looking forward to the moment when Apple brings this functionality to the world’s most profitable phone, as well. And this could happen as soon as this fall, when the new iPhones are expected to be unveiled, as FT reports that GSMA (the industry association which represents mobile operators worldwide) could soon announce an agreement to produce a standardized embedded SIM....

Apple has officially unveiled its latest iPad Air, bringing an all-new design with an edge-to-edge display. The new iPad Air features a 10.9-inch Liquid Retina display with P3 wide color, True Tone, and a laminate coating. Touch ID is located in the power button. The new iPad Air also features a “huge leap in performance” thanks to the newest A14 Bionic processor. “The first in the industry to use the breakthrough 5nm technology,” Apple says....

As part of its event, Apple has announced a new 13-inch MacBook Pro as a premium successor to the MacBook Air. It’s twelve percent thinner with 12% less volume. Unlike the more expensive models, it lacks a Touch Bar display above the keyboard. It still features the standard function key row. Just to be confusing, the lower-end MacBook Pro shares its name with the ‘new’ Touch Bar MacBook Pro. The cheaper MacBook Pro starts at $1499....

An Apple antitrust case in South Korea has finally been settled, almost five years after the company was first accused of abusing its dominant position in the marketplace. Following an investigation, Apple was found guilty of anti-competitive practices in 2018. Apple proposed to settle the matter by agreeing to cease the practices that led to the ruling, and by offering to take steps to benefit both businesses and consumers …...

Apple today started inviting press to its upcoming WWDC 2017 event scheduled for June, confirming that it will host a keynote address as usual on June 5 to kick off the event. Apple’s keynote event will take place at the McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, California, the venue that will also host the rest of the developer conference as previously announced by Apple. The location is a change from a few venues it has used frequently in San Francisco for the conference in the past....

Billion is quickly becoming the theme of Apple’s holiday earnings quarter results. For starters, Apple has earned well over $100 billion in a single quarter for the first time in the company’s history. Apple has also hit new milestones with its active install base of devices. According to CEO Tim Cook, there are now more than 1 billion iPhones being used by customers around the world, and Apple’s total install base is at an all-time high....

Apple has recently filed a patent for a mixed-reality headset device that would “provide 3D virtual views of a user’s environment augmented with virtual content.” The patent was first detailed by Variety. Apple first filed this patent application back in March, but it was only published within in the last week. The patent describes how an augmented reality headset could capture the real world using outward-facing cameras, then present that to the user on a display....

Following the introduction of ResearchKit at this month’s Apple event, Apple executives Jeff Williams and Bud Tribble held a question and answer session with Apple employees regarding the new initiative, according to a source who provided a transcript of the conversation. Williams, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Operations, is the top executive in charge of Apple’s health engineering initiatives, including the Apple Watch, HealthKit, ResearchKit, and fitness software. Tribble is a Software Engineering Vice President with a medical background as a doctor, and he organized many of the partnerships for both HealthKit and ResearchKit…...

Apple has used its YouTube channel for debuting new ads and sharing other marketing videos for years now, and today the company has expanded into four more countries (via @setteBIT) with localized versions of their latest videos. Official Apple YouTube channels in France, Germany, Italy, and Spain are now available with localized videos showcasing Apple’s latest products including iPhone 6s and Apple Watch as well as iPad Pro and Apple Music....

After introducing iOS 13 at WWDC and running its developer and public betas this summer, the new software is almost ready for all users. After its iPhone event, Apple announced that iOS 13 and watchOS 6 will all be officially released on Thursday, September 19. iOS 13 was unveiled alongside iPadOS 13, watchOS 6, tvOS 13, and macOS Catalina at WWDC in June. Now Apple’s PR has announced that the new software for iPhone users will be available next week on September 19 (via Federico Viticci) with watchOS 6 arriving at the same time....

Apple’s 2017 semiconductor spend increased by more than a quarter year-on-year, according to Gartner. It said that Apple spent $38.754B on chips in 2017, up 27.5% on the previous year. It left Apple as the world’s second-largest chip buyer after Samsung … Samsung boosted its own purchases by an even heftier 37.2% to more than $43B. The top 10 chip buyers were rounded out by Dell, Lenovo, Huawei, BBK, HP, Hewlett Packard Enterprises, LG and Western Digital....

[slideshow] Apple plans to build a new off-campus restaurant and recreation facility for employees to provide a place for discussion “without fear of competition sort of overhearing their conversations.” Mercury News reported today a planning request for the building that the Cupertino Planning Commission approved. (via TNW) The new facility will feature 70 parking spaces, even though it is located within walking/biking distance from the main campus. The 21,468-square-foot space will not just be a cafeteria; it will also house a courtyard, meeting rooms, and recreation areas....

This morning, Apple announced that the Apple Watch will arrive in new countries on June 26th and in Apple Retail stores across the globe in two weeks. The company also said that all orders placed through May will ship to customers within two weeks, with the exception of the 42mm Space Black stainless steel model. In an email to those who ordered at least that Space Black version, Apple has clarified that this model will not be in retail stores until all online orders have been fulfilled:...