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Last month, a coalition of eight civil and human rights organizations penned an open letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook regarding the company’s decision to delay the release of the new App Tracking Transparency feature in iOS 14. Apple has now responded to that letter, doubling down on its privacy practices and offering more color on the decision to delay the App Tracking Transparency feature in the first place. In a letter sent to the Ranking Digital Rights organization, Apple’s Jane Horvath, senior director of global privacy, reiterated that the company believes that “privacy is a fundamental human right....

As it does at this time every year, Apple today announced its official Best of 2018 lists. These selections highlight the “best” app and game for iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, and Mac, as well as the top movies, TV shows, Podcasts, and more. Head below for all of the details. This year, Apple is crowning Procreate Pocket as the best iPhone app of 2018. This is the iPhone version of the incredibly popular Procreate drawing app for iPad, allowing users to create while on the go with just their iPhone....

Apple just released a press release confirming the new iPad will launch in China on July 20. With roughly 1.33 billion people, China is one of Apple’s biggest markets left out of the first wave of international rollouts. Many speculated trademark issues, which were recently resolved to the tune of $60 million, could have played a role in the delayed launch. Apple’s press release does not mention local pricing, but it did note the device in both Wi-Fi and Cellular models would be available through authorized retailers and Apple Stores starting July 20....

Last fall, reports indicated that Apple was in talks to open up a store inside of the upcoming New York-based World Trade Center shopping mall. Now, a pair of reports are indicating that Apple has, in fact, signed a lease with the mall and that the store is scheduled to open with the new mall in 2015. The NYPost first reported last month that a deal was struck: TheRealDeal reported some additional details behind the deal this week....

Apple has long been a supporter of renewable energy, pushing towards using alternative energy to power its worldwide operations. Now, an energy trade associate that includes Apple has expressed its support for a proposal from the U.S. energy regulator that would make it easer to participate in wholesale markets for energy storage and distributed energy resources… The trade association, known as Advanced Energy Economy, hopes that the removal of barriers on energy storage at the regulatory level will make it easier and cheaper to store energy....

No matter if you’re just getting going with Apple Cash and sending and receiving money with iMessage or have been using it for a while, read on for how much you can send and receive with Apple’s person to person payment solution. Apple Cash (previously Apple Pay Cash) is a convenient way to send and receive money as well as make purchases in physical stores, online, and in apps that support Apple Pay....

As planned, iPhone sales have started via China Mobile, the largest carrier in China, today. The official iPhone China Mobile deal, which covers both the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c, was announced in December. Earlier this week, Apple CEO Tim Cook promoted the event with multiple interviews, calling the partnership a “beginning.” Subsequent reports indicated that millions of iPhones have already been ordered through China Mobile… To celebrate today’s launch, Cook and China Mobile Chairman Xi Guohua attended the opening at a China Mobile store....

Apple has updated the Featured Stations in iTunes Radio, likely in preparation for a demo of the service during today’s iPhone launch. The featured stations include Spin the Globe, Trending on Twitter, iTunes Top 100: Pop and the Pepsi-sponsored Pulse #Now. iTunes Radio will be available on all iOS devices, including Apple TV, as well as in iTunes on both Macs and PCs, as a free ad-supported service. There will be one audio ad every 15 minutes, and one video ad per hour....

The Apple Store cut prices on three of its five factory-refurbished Apple iPad Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi/3G Tablets. Up to a $50 drop applies. With free shipping, it’s the best deal we’ve seen for most of these iPad models. Sales tax is added where applicable. This 0.5″-thick tablet weighs 1.5 lbs. and features an Apple A4 1GHz processor, 9.7″ 1024×768 LCD touchscreen display, 802.11a/n wireless, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, accelerometer, compass, up to 10 hours of battery life, and more....

We can’t be sure that France is the only location to get new 3D Maps data today, so let us know in the comments if you notice any additions in your city. In somewhat related Maps news, TechCrunch has confirmed earlier reports coming from Israeli publication Calcalist that Facebook is currently in discussions with mapping company Waze to acquire the company for close to $1 billion. You might recall that Apple is currently using Waze data in its Maps application and for a brief while was rumored to be in talks to acquire the company....

[UPDATE: It appears that Apple is back to offering a 60-day window for adding AppleCare+. It’s unclear if the 1-year window was a mistake or if Apple decided to revert back to the previous timeframe. Thanks, Don!] Although Apple’s information page for AppleCare+ hasn’t been updated yet, it is now possible to add the AppleCare+ extended coverage to iPhones within a year window, instead of the previous 60 day limit....

Apple announces Swift Playgrounds for iPad allowing iOS users to play with Swift code on their device for the first time. Apple wants to bring many more people into coding; this is their solution. The app incorporates lessons and challenges — it’s very much a teaching tool. Swift Playgrounds will be available in the App Store this fall; a developer preview is to be released later today. The app is completely free....

Apple appears to be further preparing for the official launch of iTunes Radio, Apple’s Pandora-like streaming music service, by asking streaming radio stations to provide cover art. iTunes Radio is included in the Music app in iOS 7, as seen in our hands-on video. While cover art is already available for many radio stations, some of it is very small and wouldn’t scale well on a Retina iPad. Cover Art...

Apple has today kicked off its latest round of exclusive Apple Pay promos. This time, the promotion offers discounts from six different retailers for the next two weeks, celebrating the back to school shopping season. Apple regularly offers weekly promotions for customers using Apple Pay. From now through August 14th, however, the company is taking things up a notch with six exclusive deals from major retailers: Adidas – 20% off Apple Pay purchases in the adidas app....

Alongside its new MacBook Air in three new colors today, Apple has quietly discontinued the rose gold 12-inch MacBook. In its place, however, the 12-inch MacBook’s standard ‘gold’ color has been updated to match that of the new MacBook Air. The 12-inch MacBook Air was the only Mac to be offered in the rose gold color option, and its removal means that you can no longer buy any Mac in the color shade....

At a time when Apple has just launched its cheapest ever iPhone, and when Phil Schiller caused a few raised eyebrows over what some interpreted as an elitist remark, Apple seems to be aiming for a more egalitarian image where the Apple Watch is concerned. Apple has quietly revamped the Apple Watch section of its website, rendering the Edition almost invisible unless you specifically go looking for it. In addition, we’re hearing reports that Apple’s most expensive Watch is also being removed from some retail store displays …...

Apple appears to be preparing for increased focus on the Chinese market, with more than 200 (mostly) senior job openings appearing on LinkedIn, reports the WSJ. Some of these were added in the past three weeks, many within the last few days. Digitimes reported yesterday on Apple also seeking senior engineers in Taiwan. With the developed market close to saturation point, the BRIC markets – Brazil, Russia, India and China – are key to Apple’s future expansion....

As expected, Apple has unveiled a brand new iPad Pro with a 10.5-inch with narrower bezels. The side bezels are 40% smaller, and the screen can display a full size keyboard. Apple is also launching an update to the 12.9-inch iPad with both running on an A10X Fusion chip. New iPad Pros include a 50% brighter True Tone display and ‘ProMotion’ technology which increases refresh rates up to 120Hz. This means the display is buttery smooth and Apple Pencil drawing is even better....

Right on schedule, Apple has shared its Q3 2015 earnings results reporting revenue of $49 billion and $10.7 billion in profit during the April to June period. Notably, the company’s Q3 period is the first that includes initial Apple Watch sales as the device first launched on April 24th. While Apple isn’t specifically breaking out Apple Watch sales (or iPod sales for that matter), the company does disclose iPhone, iPad, and Mac sales by unit:...

Apple surprised the developer crowd with the unveiling of a brand new SwiftUI framework, a modern UI interface coding structure that is built from the ground up to take advantage of Swift. The new framework uses declarative paradigms to let developers write the same UIs in less code. SwiftUI enables a realtime UI programming environment inside of Xcode. Developers declare the kind of UI components they want to show in their app’s UI and it appears immediately on the right-hand side of Xcode....