Apple has doubled its donation to support efforts to battle the outbreak of the COVID-19 coronavirus.
Tim Cook revealed the increase in donation in an email to Apple employees, describing the impact coronavirus is having on the company. Check it out below:
Warren Buffett’s investment firm Berkshire Hathaway sold more than $800 million of Apple stock in the last quarter of 2019.
Buffett is probably Apple’s most famous investor and cheerleader. Berkshire Hathaway is the Cupertino tech giant’s biggest shareholder, with an estimated 5.4% stake in the company.
It’s the Olympic Games this summer — and Sonic the Hedgehog and friends are ready to help mark the occasion.
Coming to iOS May 7, the game will pit Sonic against the villainous Dr. Robotnik/Eggman in a battle for, err, sporting excellence in Tokyo. It sounds kind of crazy, but looks like it could be a fair amount of fun. Check out the trailer below.
Apple captured a record 75.6% chunk of the premium smartphone market in India, a report by International Data Corporation (IDC) claims.
That market segment covers handsets $500 and above. That’s undoubtedly impressive, although it’s still a fraction of the overall market in a country where the average phone price is $159 and the average annual income is $1,892.
The iPad may be the world’s most popular tablet, but there’s no official Instagram app available for it — and Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri says it’s because the photo- and video-sharing social network is just too busy to make one.
As reported by Verge editor Chris Welch, Mosseri said that “we only have so many people, and lots to do. … It hasn’t bubbled up as the next best thing to do yet.”
Apple sold just 2.6 million HomePods into the retail channel worldwide in the last three months of 2020, a new report claims. While that is up from the 1.6 million units it shipped the same quarter a year earlier, it’s still a fraction of the total shipped by market leader Amazon.
“The price is still very high,” David Watkins, director at Strategy Analytics, told Cult of Mac. “That closes the door to a huge swathe of potential customers.”
Should Apple have to pay retail employees during mandatory bag and iPhone searches at the end of their shifts? Yes, says California’s Supreme Court.
The battle over off-the-clock work has been raging since 2013. Apple previously won at the trial level in District Court for the Northern District of California. However, a new ruling says that Apple broke the law by not paying workers for this time.
The iPhone 12 is poised to pack a lot of exciting features. One that won’t be on the list? Support for a 2×2 uplink, according to renowned Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.
Kuo previously suggested that the 5G iPhone 12 would support 2×2 MIMO uplink, potentially meaning slightly faster maximum uploads. This was part of a report claiming that the iPhone 12 series devices would use up to six power amplifiers for improved connectivity. In a new report obtained by Cult of Mac, Kuo now says they are likely to include just one or two.
Apple Originals docuseries Visible: Out on Television has debuted on Apple TV+. The five-part series examines the history of LGBTQ representation on TV. It blends archival footage with new interviews with stars including Ellen DeGeneres, Oprah Winfrey, Anderson Cooper, Don Lemon, and others.
Check out a trailer below.
Apple will reopen five of its retail stores in Beijing tomorrow, although only for limited hours. The stores will open between 11am and 6pm local time, compared with the usual 10am through 10pm 12-hour opening hours.
Apple made the decision to close all 42 of its Apple Stores in China as a result of the outbreak of coronavirus. Originally, it planned to reopen them on February 10. However, retail chief Deidre O’Brien later revealed that this reopening time was being pushed back further.
Cupertino could be looking to snap up more socially conscious original shows for Apple TV+ that examine issues such as identity and sexuality, a new report suggests.
Financial Times bases its claim on a new hire made by former HBO boss Richard Plepler. Plepler, who recently signed a five-year exclusive deal with Apple TV+, has hired literary agent Heather Karpas. Her LinkedIn page notes that she is interested in books about “minority and female perspectives on identity, sexuality, and power; examinations of emotional trauma and means of catharsis; and explorations of dysfunctional friendships and families.”
Despite the impact of the coronavirus outbreak, Apple is going to “stick to its plans” for an iPhone event in September, according to a new report.
That is despite the fact that another report today claims that orders for the five-nanometer A14 chips for the iPhone 12 are likely to be 50-60% higher than for last year’s iPhone chips. In other words, the next-gen iPhones face both increased demand and, for now, reduced supply.
Apple manufacturers in China, such as Foxconn, are taking measures including installing infrared temperature scanners and producing their own surgical face masks to combat the spread of coronavirus.
Factories belonging to companies like Foxconn have been hit hard by the spread of the virus, now officially called COVID-19. While some remain closed, others have reopened with a vastly reduced workforce. A new report sheds light on some of the safety measures they have been ordered — or have chosen — to take.
It’s the end of the road for iOS 13.3 and iPadOS 13.3. That’s because Apple has stopped signing both ye olde versions of its operating system. This means that it is no longer possible to download and install them on devices.
Instead, Apple wants to encourage every iPhone and iPad user to join them in the shining wonderland utopia that is mobile software versions 13.3.1.
Mario Kart Tour is certainly living up to its name. Having taken players to Paris, London, New York and Tokyo, alongside seasonal courses based on Halloween, winter and Valentine’s Day, the hit Nintendo racer now has a new destination: Vancouver.
Its new Vancouver Tour is the first time Mario Kart Tour has headed to Canada. And it’s throwing in new character costumes Aurora Rosalina and the hilarious Hiker Wario for the ride. Check out the trailer below.
Apple contract manufacturer Foxconn hopes that it can resume half of its ordinary production quantities by the end of February, a new Reuters report claims.
As with other companies in Apple’s supply chain with factories in China, Foxconn has been hit hard by coronavirus. It was forced to shutter two of its main iPhone-producing factories in China. When the most critical one reopened, it did so with fewer than 10% of its usual workforce.
The Federal Trade Commission wants tech giants, including Apple, to give more information about previous mergers and acquisitions considered too small to report to antitrust regulators.
The move comes as Justice Department, FTC, state attorneys general and the House Judiciary Committee ramp up investigations into big tech. Politicians have accused tech giants of using their size and power to illegally defend market share or move into new areas.
To celebrate Valentine’s Day, Apple’s latest Apple Pay promo offer $15 off your order at 1-800 Flowers.
Word of advice, though: As great as this offer might be, you’re best keeping the discount quiet, rather than bragging about how much you saved, come February 14.
The Chinese government developed an app that lets users check whether they are at risk of infection from the novel coronavirus spreading across the country.
The location-aware “close contact detector” app reveals whether users have been close to another person suspected of having coronavirus. The data-hungry app serves as yet another illustration of China’s surveillance-heavy approach to controlling its citizens.
T-Mobile’s $26 billion merger with Sprint has been given the go-ahead by a U.S. district judge, rocketing the companies’ stock prices upward.
Sprint increased 74% this morning, hitting $8.34. T-Mobile, meanwhile, increased 11% to $93.62. However, the deal won’t officially be done until the California Public Utilities Commission approves the merger.
Apple has signed up as a member to the FIDO Alliance, an organization whose mission is to develop and promote authentication standards for reducing the world’s reliance on passwords.
The news was made public in the form of a photo from a recent FIDO Alliance conference, describing Apple as a new member of the group. However, the tweet was rapidly deleted. Nonetheless, the FIDO website confirms that Apple is a board-level member.
Apple’s HomePod may be two years old, but it may as well be a total newcomer based on its percentage of the overall U.S. smart speaker market.
According to a new report from eMarketer, Apple joins smart speaker brands like Harmon Kardon Invoke and Sonos One in the “other” category of speakers. In total, “other” smart speakers make up just 18.4% of the overall U.S. market. Meanwhile, Amazon hoovers up 70% of sales, followed by Google with 31.7% market share.
By any measure, Apple had an astonishingly successful decade between 2010 and 2020, becoming the world’s first publicly traded $1 trillion company in the process. But Apple’s next 10 years could be another monster decade for the company, Mad Money host Jim Cramer speculates.
Speaking on his 65th birthday Monday, Cramer said that, “I’m going to make another 10-year bet [on Apple]. I think they’re that good.”
A verdict regarding the long-delayed megamerger between T-Mobile and Sprint is expected to be announced Tuesday, The New York Times claims.
The ruling would combine America’s third- and fourth-biggest wireless carriers to create one with a massive 100 million customers. It follows an “unusual suit” filed back in June by attorneys general from 13 states, alongside the District of Columbia. They are concerned that a merger would reduce competition in the industry, which could drive up cellphone bills.
Key iPhone manufacturer Foxconn continues to feel the effects of the deadly coronavirus outbreak in China. The company recently reopened its factory in the eastern central Chinese city of Zhengzhou, but fewer than 10% of its workforce returned to work, according to Reuters.
Meanwhile, the Chinese government rejected Foxconn’s request to reopen its factory in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen.