Apple has made plenty of public-facing moves to show its push for diversity in tech. But it’s making some behind-the-scenes changes, too — like tweaking the terms in its developer ecosystem to remove words the company no longer considers appropriate.
Examples include switching “master” code repository to “main” code repository, and changing “blacklist” to “deny list.” Here’s what Apple had to say in its announcement:
Worldwide app downloads have boomed over the past three months, hitting an all-time high of 37.8 billion downloads, a new report by app analytics platform Sensor Tower claims.
Of that number, 9.1 billion were from the App Store. The remaining 28.7 billion was from the Google Play store for Android users. Both saw considerable growth versus last year. That’s despite the effects of coronavirus and the subsequent economic downturn.
Apple opened its first store in China back in 2008 at Beijing’s Taikoo Li Sanlitun mall. Now, more than a decade later, it has opened a spectacular new Apple Sanlitun store adjacent to the now-shuttered location of the original.
Apple Sanlitun is twice the size of the original Beijing store, and includes a viewing gallery, boardroom (for users to get advice from Apple experts), and a forum for future live events. Check out the pictures below.
Wissam Abirached is a senior engineering manager at Github, so he needs a desk to match his position. His MacBook Pro-powered rig orbits around an LG 34-inch UltraWide monitor. Aside from Apple’s Pro Display XDR, the LG’s UltraWide is the monitor to use when working with Apple products.
He uses an Apple Magic Keyboard and Mouse — can’t go wrong there. His MacBook sits on top of a Griffin GC16034 Elevated Laptop Stand. This puts his laptop at a comfortable height and gives him a place to store his Xbox controller.
Friday is World Emoji Day, and the celebration wouldn’t be complete without Apple unveiling the new additions coming to iPhone, iPad and Mac. Highlights of the iOS 14 emoji include ninjas, the transgender symbol, and a certain Italian hand gesture.
But the complicated process emoji have to get through before reaching our phones means there aren’t any timely ones, like more people wearing masks.
Apple on Thursday gave a straight-to-series order to Echo 3, a new action-thriller from Mark Boal, who picked up multiple Oscars for writing The Hurt Locker.
The 10-part series headed for Apple TV+ is inspired a novel by Amir Gutfreund.
The Logitech Folio Touch takes full advantage of the trackpad support added to iPadOS. And its keyboard and kickstand help convert the 11-inch iPad Pro into a MacBook alternative.
It offers premium features, like backlit keys, multi-touch trackpad gestures, and support for the Smart Connector.
Tests done on a range of iPhone models running the just-released iOS 13.6 reveal that it slightly reduces the battery life of all these handsets when compared to the previous version. And, generally speaking, that has held true for the last six iOS 13 updates.
But there’s good news. Tests with an early iOS 14 beta showed this upcoming version brings a significant increase to battery life.
Apple is deepening its connection with historically Black colleges and universities to create “community hubs for coding and creativity.”
Under the heading of Apple’s Community Education Initiative, the partnership with an addition 10 learning institutes will allow Apple to expand its coding initiative — while also helping widen participation in tech.
Amazon has been busier than ever during the COVID-19 pandemic, as shuttered high streets drive people online to do shopping that, well, they were increasingly doing online anyway.
But user spending habits have changed, says a new report from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP). Provided its data is accurate, some of those changes could well have an impact on Apple’s business.
The European Commission may have lost its court case about Apple’s $14.8 billion tax bill, but it continues to believe that it’s morally in the right.
“We do not consider it normal that the largest corporates get away with paying one percent tax at most,” European Commission executive vice-president Valdis Dombrovskis told reporters in the aftermath.
Apple will release its first MacBook Pro and MacBook Air powered by Apple Silicon by the end of 2020, a report published Thursday claims.
According to Digitimes, Apple manufacturers will start shipping components such as backlit units (BLUs) for the next-gen MacBooks in the third quarter of 2020. That could be any time between now and September.
Apple is expanding its AppleCare+ monthly plan outside the United States for the first time. It is making it available in Canada, Japan, and Australia as well.
The month-by-month coverage hasn’t launched yet in these countries. However, Apple has revealed that it is coming to these markets in one of its official support documents.
Apple is one of many companies and people who had their Twitter accounts hijacked on Wednesday. A hacker found a way to post on what seems to be any account, indicating that it’s Twitter itself that has been hacked.
All the posts pointed readers toward a bitcoin scam.
Apple continues to grow its library of original movies with big stars, with Justin Timberlake joining that roster on Wednesday. He’ll play the lead in Palmer, which will be directed by Fisher Stevens and appear on the Apple TV+ streaming service.
Mac users can grab macOS Catalina 10.15.6 starting Wednesday. This update adds local coverage to Apple News in select areas. And this new version kills a few bugs, too.
Starting Wednesday, an Apple Watch can be used to unlock a car, replacing the key, thanks to the release of watchOS 6.2.8. But it’s early days yet for this feature, as it doesn’t yet have wide support.
In addition, this software update enables people in a handful of additional countries to take advantage of the ECG in Apple’s wearable.
Apple TV+ has just a tiny fraction of the U.S. streaming video market, according to a market-research firm. Even nine months after its launch, it’s well behind well-established rivals like Netflix and even the other newcomer, Disney+.
Apple released iOS 13.6 Wednesday, boosting its Apple News offering and bringing other new features to iPhone and iPad.
As expected, the company added audio versions of key stories from Apple News+, the paid version of its news aggregation service. Apple also added a new daily audio show called Apple News Today, which is available in the free version of the Apple News app.
In addition, the company beefed up its list of organizations pumping news content into the service. However, the Apple News audio features will only be available to U.S. users, the company said.
A concept artist shows what the iPhone’s Health application could look like after being redesigned for Mac.
Currently, this software is only for iOS. There’s not even an iPad version. This concept, created in SwiftUI, hopes to convince Apple to change that.
NBCUniversal’s streaming service Peacock launched Wednesday, complete with iOS and Apple TV apps.
Peacock, which joins a plethora of similar streaming services, has been up and running for Comcast’s Xfinity X1 and Flex cable customers since April. However, today it gets a wider U.S. release, with both paid and free tiers.
Mocking Apple keynotes is probably about the laziest advertising trope you’re likely to see. But that doesn’t stop attempt after attempt after attempt by companies to copy it.
The latest to try and rinse the remaining laughs out of the concept is Budweiser company AB InBev and their new ad for limited edition Busch Light Apple. It’s an apple-flavored drink, which makes it all too easy to picture how some tired group of copywriters sitting around at 4.45pm threw up their hands and said, “Why don’t we do it as an Apple parody?”
Does it raise the slightest smile? Check it out below to find out.
Apple eliminated upward of 2,500 games from its China App Store in the first full week of July, a new report from app analytics firm Sensor Tower notes.
Mobile gaming regulations in the country mean that all games must receive a license from China’s National Press and Publication Administration prior to release. Regulators had promised a crackdown on offending apps since 2016. However, they were slow to act. In the meantime, unlicensed games continued to be published in the App Store.
In something of a surprise outcome, Apple and Ireland have won their appeal against a European tax bill order which fined Apple $14.8 billion.
The European Commission ordered Apple pay the enormous sum in August 2016. According to the EU, Apple paid a tax rate as low as 0.005% of its European profits in 2014. This was supposedly part of a “sweetheart” deal it received in Ireland.
Lawmakers from the Congressional Committee on Oversight and Reform want Apple and Google to investigate where third-party apps are storing their data.
In two letters sent Tuesday, Stephen Lynch, chairman of the National Security Subcommittee, wrote to Apple and Google that certain non-U.S. apps could pose securities risks.