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Apple is building on what it has learnt with the iOS autocorrect system to offer predictive word suggestions directly in the keyboard. QuickType supports many languages, including English, Chinese, British English and Spanish. QuickType is contextually relevant, per contact. Some contacts get informal word suggestions, whereas serious conversations get more serious suggestions. Apple used an example of a question; ‘Shall we get a movie or dinner?’. QuickType realised the context and offered suggestions for ‘dinner’ and ‘movie’ directly in the keyboard....

As part of its earnings report, Apple has announced an extension of its capital return program. Apple will buy $100 billion worth of its own stock. It will also increase the dividend by 16%. With the new tax legislation in place, Apple has said that it aims to hold zero net cash. It currently holds about $270 billion in cash. It will spend its excess cash through returns to investors in the form of dividends and share repurchase, as well as investment into expansion and product development....

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=hDXSSi1qStA] Charlotte Observer is reporting that Apple has begun work building a 174 acre solar farm to power their new Maiden, North Carolina data center. The data center, located in Catawba County, was revealed by Steve Jobs during the iOS 5 keynote at WWDC this year, and will be partly responsible for powering iCloud. It was revealed earlier this year that Apple was purchasing land around the data center. Now we know why....

Apple has climbed two places in this year’s Fortune 500 list, a ranking of U.S. companies by revenue. Apple moved from 5th place last year to 3rd this, overtaking both Chevron and new AAPL investor Berkshire Hathaway, though still sitting behind Walmart and Exxon Mobil. Reading Fortune‘s write-up of Apple, however, you might be forgiven for thinking it had fallen in the ranking rather than climbed … It seems the only positive comment bar the note on profitability is what Fortune sees as the future prospects of the Apple Car....

Apple’s iPad trademark dispute with cash-strapped display company Proview has continued to drag on despite the Chinese company claiming it was in negotiations with Apple as recent as February. Today, several reports suggested Apple and Proview are now involved in court-moderated mediation with senior officials who are boasting Apple could lose the right to the iPad trademark in China. The mediation would be the first confirmation of settlement talks between the two companies....

Speaking to the Guardian, Pascal Cagni, Apple’s general manager and vice-president, EMEA, came on strong: “We have right now the best ever product line, we keep saying this, and it’s fuelled by the fact you have got the portable line where we display growth of 35% year-on-year.” Cagni confirmed that Europe’s education markets are falling for Apple products, with “immense success all over Europe” in back to school sales. Not just that, but also in market share the Apple star is shining, he confirmed, “We have typically above 20-25% market share in each of the [European] countries....

Apple design chief Ive pictured with Ikepod designer Newson Apple is building a device for the wrist, and it may even launch later this year. One of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs’ most famous sayings is that “we build the products that we want to use.” Apple was not pleased with the crop of phones that existed prior to the iPhone, and the iPhone arrived in 2007 and has changed the entire smartphone landscape....

As promised by Apple CEO Tim Cook at WWDC, Apple has expanded the App Store’s reach to 155 total territories, by adding 32 new territories today. An email to registered iOS and Mac developers went out this evening detailing the change. Apple did not specify the 32 new regions at WWDC, but today’s announcement does. The new regions are mostly within Africa, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific. Here’s the full list:...

Apple was today granted a patent on the way it displays apps on the Apple Watch. It’s one of the briefest patent descriptions around, merely pointing to the associated illustration. The illustration itself is simply a representation of the apps screen of the Apple Watch. Only a monochrome version is shown online, though the USPTO notes that color version(s) are held on file. The ornamental design for a display screen or portion thereof with graphical user interface, as shown and described....

Apple has released its fiscal year 2018 fourth quarter earnings results which include initial iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max sales as well as Apple Watch Series 4. iPhone XR launched earlier this month and didn’t make the previous quarter. Apple reports $62.9b in revenue and $14.12b profit from 46.89m iPhones, 9.69m iPads, and 5.3m Macs sold. Next quarter Apple forecasts revenue between $89 billion and $93 billion. FY18 Q4 results compare to the previous quarter’s $53....

China Mobile, the world’s largest wireless company with 665 million subscribers, confirmed Monday that it now hosts 15 million iPhones on its network with an average of 35,000 new iPhone activations each day. Back in October, its network hosted 10 million iPhones. People get excited about T-Mobile USA’s 1 million iPhones, so it is worth pointing out that China Mobile’s number is more than seven times larger than what Sprint has—and it is not even Apple’s official carrier yet....

A new poll by data research firm Toluna via Recode attempted to analyze the least trusted companies in the tech sector. Conducted between December 9 through December 15, the poll surveyed one thousand online participants asking which company they believe to be the least trustworthy with personal information. Facebook by no surprise took the number one spot, with a whopping 40% of the respondents doubting the social media giant’s ability to keep information safe....

Apple is one step closer in its plans to take Apple Pay into the company’s second-largest market, China. The WSJ reports that Apple has created a company in the Shanghai free-trade zone specifically to operate its Apple Pay business in the country, and seeded it with $13.4M of capital. With China already a bigger market for Apple than Europe, and looking set to overtake the USA in size, the potential for Apple Pay in the country is huge....

Yesterday we reported on a presentation by security researcher Jacob Appelbaum that reportedly showed leaked NSA documents in which the agency claimed to have a “100 percent success rate” at installing spyware on iPhones. Following those accusations, Apple has officially responded in a statement provided to TechCrunch: The leaked NSA documents detailed in Appelbaum’s presentation above and first released on German news site Der Spiegel claimed an NSA program called DROPOUTJEEP allowed officials to access almost all data stored on an iPhone, including location, text messages, contact lists, and the device’s microphone and camera....

Apple today has revealed a new game subscription service it is calling “Apple Arcade.” This will allow iOS, macOS, and tvOS users to pay a flat monthly fee and access a bundle of otherwise paid apps through the App Store. Apple is working with a handful of publishers and developers for Apple Arcade. The company touted that the service will unify gaming between mobile, desktop and living room, a clear reference to macOS, tvOS, and iOS gaming....

Image via David Yang At WWDC this evening, Apple officially announced the winners of the Apple Design Awards for 2019. The company gives an Apple Design Award to the applications that it feels best represent its different platforms. Apple Design Award recipients receive a pretty hefty swag bag from Apple including: 512GB iPhone XS AirPods 12.9-inch iPad Pro with Apple Pencil Apple Watch Series 4 Maxed out MacBook Pro Maxed out iMac Pro Apple TV 4K An all-aluminum trophy Exposure in the App Store Winners this year include a wide array of applications, ranging from puzzle games for the iPhone to powerful image editors for the iPad and much more....

Update: Shipment dates are all over the place for the Apple Watch. Many models are already showing delivery dates in June, while the Edition shows an August arrival date. Some 12-inch MacBook models still ship in 1-3 business days. As expected, the highly anticipated Apple Watch is now available for pre-order through Apple’s online store. Likewise, the new 12-inch MacBook is now available for purchase through the online store. Pre-orders of the Apple Watch and sales of the MacBook are also live in the Apple Store app on iOS devices....

Fast Company reports that Apple has acquired Gliimpse, a health startup whose stated aim is to allow any American to pull together a comprehensive picture of their health, which they would be free to share with medical professionals as desired. The acquisition reportedly happened ‘earlier this year.’ While it hasn’t yet been noted on the Gliimpse website, Apple has issued its usual ‘non-denial’ statement that it ‘buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans....

We’ve learned more details this week about Apple Card ahead of its launch set for sometime this month. Now Apple’s bank partner, Goldman Sachs, has published the Apple Card Customer Agreement on its website with all the fine details, including a warning about jailbreaking. During the company’s earnings call earlier this week, Tim Cook confirmed that Apple Card would be launching in August. We also learned today that Apple is winding down its rewards program with Barclays and that an Apple Card companion app will be coming to the iPad....

The Grand Central Terminal store opening had Steve Cano and Bob Bridger in attendance Until November 1, 2011, Apple’s widely successful retail branch was headed by Ron Johnson, J.C. Penney’s new CEO. Since announcing his leave in June of this year, discussion has run ramptant in regards to the successor of Apple’s vital retail division’s leader. Under Ron Johnson sat three central executives responsible for the upkeep and success of Apple’s retail business: Jerry McDougal, Vice President of Merchandising; Bob Bridger, Vice President of VP of Real Estate; and Steve Cano, Senior Director of International Retail Operations....