News - page 408

President Donald Trump’s dispute with TikTok and other Chinese tech companies could wind up hurting Apple.

Trump threatened to ban TikTok from the United States if Beijing tech company ByteDance does not sell the app by Sept. 15. (Microsoft is in talks to acquire TikTok. Apple on Tuesday shot down a rumor that it was interested in buying the social media company.)

According to multiple reports, China could respond to the United States’ “bullying” over TikTok by hitting back in its own way. The language in the reports, some of which come from government-backed Chinese newspapers, is vague. However, others suggest Apple could be an obvious target of China’s wrath.

Apple is reportedly putting together a supply chain consisting of exclusively Chinese manufacturers to build iPhones for the China market.

This is at the same time that Apple is trying to expand its supply chain. That is partly so as to lessen its reliance on China. Apple has also been building iPhones in India which are aimed at the local market there.

The makers of secure email service ProtonMail are the latest developers to speak out about Apple’s control of the App Store.

In a blog post published Monday, founder and CEO Andy Yen wrote that Apple has become a “monopoly, crushing potential competitors with exploitative fees and conducting censorship on behalf of dictators.”

Strong sales of iPad and Mac during Q2 2020 propelled Apple closer to taking the lead in the worldwide computer market. But they weren’t quite enough to push Lenovo out of the top spot, according to a market-research firm.

Still, the Mac-maker stayed ahead of rivals HP, Dell and Samsung as the global computer market grew 14% year over year.

It’s a great time to replace your aging iPad, with up to $500 off brand-new iPad Pros for a limited time only. And we can help make your upgrade even cheaper.

Sell your old tablet to Cult of Mac and we’ll pay you the money you deserve. We offer real cash — and fast — and we typically cough up more than other trade-in services.

Leonardo DiCaprio is the latest Hollywood star teaming up with Apple. His production company Appian Way reportedly signed a first-look deal with the iPhone maker.

This means the Apple TV+ streaming service gets the right of first refusal for all projects DiCaprio and co. dream up.

Use your Apple Card to buy soup, sandwiches or more at Panera, and you’ll earn 3% Daily Cash back. The usual percentage is 1%.

Other businesses offer this same 3% cash back bonus, but Panera is the first restaurant. And there are locations in almost every U.S. state.

Ewan McGregor and his buddy Charley Boorman took a little motorcycle ride — a mere 13,000 miles over 100 days. They went through 16 border crossings and 13 countries, starting from the city of Ushuaia at the tip of South America.

Their epic journey is the subject of Long Way Up, a series that launches on Apple TV+ in September.

Mobeewave helps handsets act like little cash registers. Apple reportedly purchased this company, which could lead to iPhones able to easily receive money from credit cards with just a tap.

A company based in Shanghai has filed a patent-infringement lawsuit that could stop Apple from offering products with its Siri voice assistant in China, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The iPhone 12 release could be staggered, with certain models going on sale before others, a new report from Digitimes suggests.

This year, Apple is expected to release four iPhone models. These are likely to include a regular iPhone 12 in 5.4-inch and 6.1-inch models, and an iPhone 12 Pro in 6.1-inch and 6.7-inch variants.

Spending on mobile games in the App Store grew significantly over the past quarter, despite the coronavirus pandemic, a new report by Sensor Tower claims. Across the App Store and Google Play, global spending grew 27% year-over-year in the second quarter of 2020 to hit $19.3 billion.

Of the total revenue, the App Store made up $11.6 billion to Google Play’s $7.7 billion. That’s even though the App Store only making up a tiny 2.7 billion of the overall 15.1 billion app downloads in the quarter. As ever, the App Store is where the lion’s share of profits is to be made!

Despite pulling in record earnings last quarter, Apple reportedly asked the landlords of its U.K. retail outlets to cut their rent by a massive 50%, The Sunday Times reports.

The newspaper says Apple is also asking for a “rent-free period” as the COVID-19 pandemic plays out. In return, the company says it will extend its leases for a lengthy period — although some of the stores in question have several years left on their lease agreements.

Apple struck a deal with American Airlines to stream Apple TV+ shows during flights.

The agreement, which started this month, means American’s seat-back entertainment systems come preloaded with Apple Originals. These include The Morning Show, For All Mankind, Dickinson, Defending Jacob and seven more.

If you put your fitness goals on the back burner due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s time to turn up the heat. And if you own an Apple Watch, the wonderful wearable is your ultimate post-lockdown fitness pal.

These tips will help you get back in shape, post-lockdown, with a little help from your friend. Find out how in this week’s free issue of Cult of Mac Magazine. Download it now to read on your iOS device, or follow the links below to read this week’s top Apple news, how-tos and reviews in your browser.

This week, you’ll get the scoop on another surprisingly good Apple earnings call. Plus, a full rundown of Tim Cook’s relatively painless appearance during a congressional antitrust hearing.

Apple shares hit a new all-time high Friday on the back of the company’s shockingly good Q3 earnings. AAPL closed up 10.47% at $425.04, fueled by Thursday’s record-breaking report.

Friday’s surge gives Apple a market cap of an astonishing $1.84 trillion, within spitting distance of the once-unimaginable $2 trillion valuation. And it makes Apple the most valuable publicly traded company in the world.

In mid July, a hacker gained access to Apple’s Twitter account, along with those other corporations, high-profile politicians, and celebrities. At the time, there was speculation it was done by Russian hackers. Or perhaps they were Chinese. Some pointed fingers at international criminal gangs.

Nope. Turns out it was a 17-year-old kid from Tampa.

Like Steve Jobs? Have approximately $11,000 as a starting bid to pick up some memorabilia to prove as much? Then you could be in the market for a Jobs-autographed October 1989 copy of Fortune magazine autographed by the Apple co-founder.

The magazine, which was signed for one of Jobs’ former chauffeur drivers, is going up for auction this week. And it comes complete with a story of Jobs being, well, Jobs.

Update July 31, 2020: The copy of Fortune that Steve Jobs reluctantly signed for his chauffeur sold for $16,638 on Thursday, significantly above the minimum bid.

Apple opened its second and largest retail location in Thailand Friday. Located in Bangkok’s famous Ratchaprasong, the new store is spectacular even by the high standards of existing Apple Stores.

“In December, I visited the team in Bangkok as construction was underway, and I know they can’t wait to help our customers and to share this special space with the whole community,” Tim Cook tweeted in celebration.

Apple now offers a gift card that can be used at the Apple Store to buy hardware and also at the App Store to buy software. And iTunes is included as well.

Previously, the company sold separate cards, one for iTunes/App Store and another for the Apple Store.

Apple Watch Series 6 reportedly will come with a blood oxygen sensor capable of measuring the amount of oxygen being carried by a wearer’s red blood cells.

Making sure the balance of oxygen-saturated blood is at the correct levels is crucial to a person’s health.

Apple TV+ today released the latest episode of its series Little Voice.

Producer J.J. Abrams’ series, created with songwriter Sara Bareilles and writer Jessie Nelson, is about aspiring singer Bess King and her attempts to forge a path for herself as a singer.

Alongside the new episode, Apple TV+ also has the first two episodes of Oprah’s new show The Oprah Conversation.

Apple has defied the odds by consistently growing its business through the COVID-19. But just how amazing that is isn’t apparent until you compare Apple’s iPhone success in Q2 to other smartphone makers.

According to a new report by research company Canalys, Apple was the only vendor to grow its smartphone shipments during the April through June quarter. Apple shipments increased 25% from the previous year. That made it the only smartphone maker to experience positive growth during the period.

Facebook is concerned that one of the big new features in iOS 14 will hurt the social networking giant’s ad-targeting business model.

As reported by CNBC, Facebook CFO David Wehner said Thursday that Apple’s new feature for the upcoming operating system, which allows users to see how activity is being tracked across apps and websites, will make things tough on Facebook ads.

People around the world turned to Apple products at the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis. And the result was an 11% increase in Apple revenue during the June quarter. Some products contributed to that growth more than others.

The pandemic sent people buying Mac and iPad in huge numbers. But it hurt handset sales, despite a relatively strong launch for the iPhone SE. And Apple services experienced something of an off quarter, too.