iPhones on display in Apple Stores run special software that renders them useless to thieves when removed from a store. Until now, however, we haven’t had a clear glimpse at what this antitheft measure looks like.
That changed over the weekend as one person displayed an iPhone seemingly taken from a looted Apple Store in Philadelphia. Here’s what the message says.
As protests roiled the United States following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Apple CEO Tim Cook sent a memo to employees condemning the killing, calling for change, and offering support.
In the note, Cook expressed his wishes for a “better, more just world” for everyone. He also advised employees that are “hurting right now” that they can access mental health resources and other support from Apple. In addition, Cook said Apple will make charitable donations to groups such as the Equal Justice Initiative.
You can read Cook’s entire memo to Apple employees below.
Apple’s latest Apple Pay promo will get you 30% off custom sunglasses or eyeglasses from leading brand Ray-Ban.
Since prices for glasses are over $100, that means a saving of at least 30 bucks. Not bad, considering all you need to do is pay online using Apple Pay, and use a special code.
A federal judge has thrown out a copyright lawsuit against Apple and director M. Night Shyamalan claiming that Apple TV+ series Servant stole its core idea from a 2013 independent movie.
As with the spooky Servant, the movie The Truth About Emanuel is the story of a traumatized parent who hires a babysitter to look after a baby that (spoiler alert) turns out to actually be a doll.
Apple has started selling officially refurbished iPhone XR models in the Apple Online Store. The handsets are available in 64GB, 128GB, and the discontinued 256GB storage options — for about $100 to $120 less than their current selling price.
Apple remains the king of the wearables, according to IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Wearable Device Tracker, published Thursday. In total, the analytics firm claims that total device shipments for all wearables hit 72.6 million in the first three months of 2020. Of these, Apple shipped 21.2 million units.
Apple Watch remains the world’s no. 1 smart watch by a wide margin. However, shipments declined as a result of coronavirus-related challenges in the supply chain. Nonetheless, the continuing might of Apple’s AirPods — helped by Apple’s Beats “hearables” — was more than enough to offset the decline.
Apple continues to lag behind when it comes to machine learning — and voice-to-text transcription on the iPhone is just one more example of this.
In a new video posted online by journalist James Chan, the iPhone’s speech transcription skills are put up against Alphabet’s Pixel smartphone. Not only is Apple’s version significantly slower, but it’s a whole lot less accurate, to boot.
Alongside the physical health concerns during COVID-19, there’s been a massive uptick in mental health issues like anxiety. Those worries are highlighted by a big surge in mental wellness mobile app downloads, as noted in a new report from app analytics firm Sensor Tower.
The firm notes that the top 10 mental wellness apps experienced a big increase in downloads in April from the pre-lockdown January 2020. In all, apps like Calm, Headspace and Meditopia racked up a total of 10 million downloads last month.
The Apple Watch Leather Loop strap could be getting a redesign for this year’s Apple Watch Series 6. According to images posted to Reddit on Wednesday, the redesigned bands will come in (at least) black, blue, red and brown color options.
Unlike the existing Leather Loop straps, the new ones appear to have an additional accent color that runs down the edge of certain straps. It’s definitely a nice touch, design-wise — although there’s no guarantee that these are legit.
Want to own the home of a former Apple CEO? Wouldn’t we all? Unfortunately, you’ll need to pony up $37.5 million to do so.
Belonging to Mike Markkula, the angel investor who played a critical role in Apple’s early days, the ranch is the largest single landholding in Central California’s Carmel Valley. Markkula reportedly purchased it in 1982 for $8 million. He’s been trying to sell it since at least 2013 — and has dropped the price substantially during that time.
A video by the listing agency, Hall and Hall, lets you take a look around.
Apple has seemingly beaten Netflix to fund Martin Scorsese’s next movie Killers of the Flower Moon, Deadline reported late Wednesday.
The forthcoming Apple Original movie will feature Scorsese regulars Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro in the lead roles.
Pokémon Go‘s Buddy feature gives you a, well, Poké buddy to go on adventures with, much like Pikachu was to Ash in the animated series.
Now, thanks to a new feature called Reality Blending, the experience is going to get even better — and a lot more glitch-free. If you haven’t seen it, check out the (weirdly tear-jerking) ad for the Buddy Adventure feature below, as well as details about how it’s been improved.
In what may be the most unlikely Apple lawsuit since Carl Sagan sued Apple for calling him a “butt-head,” Pablo Escobar’s brother (yes, that Pablo Escobar) has filed suit against the Cupertino tech giant over a FaceTime bug.
The YouTube Kids app, a special child-friendly version of the YouTube app with additional parental controls, has landed on Apple TV.
The app was launched on iOS and Android in early 2015. However, while users could previously use AirPlay to stream content from their iPhone or iPad to Apple TV, this is the first time YouTube has created a native Apple TV app for the service.
HBO Max, the streaming platform that bundles together new and existing HBO content with a massive WarnerMedia library of TV shows and movies, has officially launched in the App Store for iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV.
The service launches with some 10,000 hours of programming, making this a serious contender to the likes of Netflix and Disney+ from day one. It costs $15 per month (covered by your existing subscription if you’re already an HBO subscribers), although a special offer makes it just $12 a month for the initial year.
Samsung will once again play a big role in making the next-gen iPhone as it has secured the majority of orders for the OLED displays for the iPhone 12, claims a report published Wednesday.
The iPhone 12 series of phones is expected to be Apple’s biggest upgrade in several years — featuring a new chassis design, OLED screens in every model, and Apple’s first 5G compatibility. And Samsung, Apple’s long-time frenemy, will seemingly get a big, lucrative piece of the pie.
Apple TV+ will be seriously upping its quotient of Fraggle Rock content, the Jim Henson kids’ puppet show which debuted in the 1980s.
Apple has acquired the streaming rights to all 96 episodes of the original show, which ran on HBO from 1983 through 1987, alongside specials. These will debut on Wednesday, May 27, and will be the first time that Apple TV+ has aired rerun content previously shown elsewhere.
The Gates Foundation, the charitable organization belonging to Bill and Melinda Gates, snapped up more than half a million Apple shares during the first three months of 2020, a new report claims.
According to an SEC filing, reported by Smarter Analyst, the largest private foundation in the world purchased some 501,044 Apple shares in the first quarter of 2020. At present, AAPL is trading at $320.40, having made back the value it lost during the coronavirus pandemic.
Future AirPods could boast ambient light sensors that track users’ heart rate, head movements and steps taken, Digitimes claimed Monday.
The report says the new health-tracking tech might find its way into Apple’s AirPods in the “coming 1-2” years. The feature reportedly will enable the ultra-popular wireless earbuds to track various activities and potentially monitor certain health conditions.
The iPad no longer rules the tablet roost in China, the country Tim Cook previously claimed is Apple’s future biggest market. According to a Tuesday report from the South China Morning Post, Huawei has overtaken Apple to be the No. 1 tablet maker in China for the first quarter of 2020.
China’s tablet shipments fell a massive 30% in the first three months of 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. However, while most manufacturers (including Apple) shipped fewer units for the quarter, Huawei actually grew 4.3% year on year. In doing so, it claimed 40.2% of the market, next to Apple’s 31.5%.
Is the iPad Pro good enough to double as a serious desktop computer? If you ask Steven Sinofsky, former president of the Windows division at Microsoft, the answer is a resounding “yes.”
In a recent tweet, Sinofsky shared a photo of the setup for his “new desktop PC.” And, for a guy who made his name working for one of Apple’s long-time biggest competitors, it’s pretty darn Apple-centric.
Apple ditched Lightning for USC-B on the iPad Pro in 2018, but you shouldn’t expect a similar move for this year’s iPhone 12 refresh, according to an Apple leaker.
A Monday tweet by Fudge, aka @choco_bit, suggests that the iPhone 12 will come with a Lightning port. The reliable tipster says Apple will continue to use the proprietary Lightning until the iPhone goes all-in on wireless charging.
Apple will start reopening Apple Stores in Japan this week, following on from reopening in Australia, Germany, Austria, South Korea, Switzerland, and select stores in the United States and Italy.
Like all other non-China markets, Apple’s Japan retail stores have been closed since the middle of March due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Judge John Coughenour of the U.S. District Court in Seattle has ruled that FBI is not allowed to even look at the lock screen on a suspect’s smartphone without a warrant, Ars Technica reports.
The case involves a man from Washington state arrested in May last year, indicted on charges of robbery and assault. During the investigation, the FBI took a photo of the suspect’s phone lock screen, which had information they considered to be of interest. However, this behavior has been classed as unlawful.
Despite it vanishing from Apple’s MacBook line, Apple hasn’t given up on its controversial (read: hated) butterfly keyboard design, claims Apple leaker L0vetodream.
In a Friday tweet, L0vetodream said that Apple is “trying to improve on the structure, and solve the [issues]” faced by users. Should it manage to do so, “we might see it comes back again in future.”