News - page 495

In a move that seems squarely aimed at killing Apple’s Lightning port, a large majority of the European Parliament voted in favor of establishing a common charger standard for mobile devices.

This is only a step in a process that is likely to see the Lightning connector banned from devices sold in Europe, but it’s a significant one.

Apple has a real hit on its hands with the 10.2-inch iPad it launched last fall. It helped push Apple to a 22.7% year-over-year increase in tablet shipments last quarter, according to a market-research firm.

iPadOS devices continue to vastly outsell all their rivals, and Apple increased its lead in the final three months of 2019.

Carmi Zlotnik, the former Starz president of programming, is teaming up with Apple TV+.

Zlotnik has reportedly inked an exclusive producer deal with Apple just days after it was revealed that he’s stepping down from Starz’s top role.

Apple today rolled out its major Maps redesign to all users in the United States. It packs big improvements, including better road and pedestrian data, more precise addresses, and more detailed land coverage. It also offers Look Around, Apple’s answer to Google Maps’ Street View, in select locations.

Millennials don’t just love Apple for the iPhone. Turns out AAPL is also their favorite stock.

A recent survey of over 734,000 portfolios from US-based investors with an average age of 31 found that Apple and Amazon are the two most popular stocks with young investors by a long shot.

A free year of Apple TV+ goes to everyone who buys a new iPhone, Mac or iPad. But time to sign up for this deal is running out for those who made their purchase just before the launch of Apple’s streaming video service.

Music fans won’t even need to tune into Super Bowl LIV to catch a glimpse of Jennifer Lopez and Shakira’s joint halftime show.

The NFL revealed today that all musical performances at this year’s big game will be released as a visual album on Apple Music. Along with the J. Lo/Shakira set, you’ll also be able to stream the National Anthem with Demi Lovato and America the Beautiful with Yolanda Adams.

Government-ordered quarantines in place to contain a deadly coronavirus outbreak in China have forced Apple to temporarily close three stores in the country.

Apple’s good news about a record-breaking quarter this week have been tempered as executives monitor conditions in a country critical to the mass production of its most popular devices, especially the iPhone.

Apple’s most recent iOS update eliminates the connectivity issues plaguing iPhone XR owners on O2, the U.K.’s second-largest carrier.

Many users have been unable to make calls or browse the internet without being connected to Wi-Fi. But O2 today confirmed that updating to iOS 13.3.1 restores normal functionality.

The iPhone may always be No. 1 in the minds and hearts of its users. Samsung, though, always had the shipment numbers to claim its smartphones made it the world’s best-selling brand.

Then the iPhone 11 lineup showed up. Now market research shows Apple has currently surpassed Samsung or, at the very least, is tied as the smartphone brand king.

Amazon has pipped Apple and Google to the no. 1 spot in this year’s Brand Finance Global 500 ranking.

The somewhat unorthodox ranking system looks at the world’s 500 most valuable brands across all sectors and countries. It then assigns a “brand value” based on a royalty rate that companies could get for licensing their name in the open market.

A draft bill by Republican Senator Lindsey Graham could possibly land Apple and assorted other tech giants with major lawsuits. The proposal would potentially affect tech companies who offer services with strong encryption.

It asks the government to come up with a list of best practices for tech companies to prevent cases child exploitation and abuse. That could mean banning such encryption, and making tech companies more responsible if their services are used to share these materials.

For most people, tap and swipe-based gestures are the perfect way to navigate on an iPad. That’s not true for everyone, however. This is why the makers of a new eye-tracking system called Skyle have developed this innovative iPad Pro accessory.

Built with the accessibility audience in mind, the system lets users insert their 12.9-inch iPad Pro into a smart protective case, plug in an eye tracker, and then use a special Skyle app to navigate their iPad with nothing more than well-placed glances.

Apple TV+ is adding Damages and Bridesmaids star Rose Byrne to its growing stable of stars. The streaming service is reportedly “preparing to give a series order” to a new series titled Physical, starring Byrne.

The show, which will blend comedic and drama elements, is set in a 1980s SoCal beach community. Rose Byrne plays a housewife who finds new fulfilment in the world of aerobics.

Apple has been ordered by a California jury to pay $837.7 million in damages for breaching Wi-Fi technology patents owned by the California Institute of Technology. 

Apple says it plans to appeal the verdict.

Apple’s 2020 flagship iPhone is rumored to have a pristine screen free of that dreaded notch.

But a social media post from a Xiaomi vice president claims the “entire industry” is far from solving the light transmission problems caused by placing front-facing cameras behind the screen.

According to Tim Cook, users won’t see any ads on Apple TV+ anytime soon. Or ever.

“For the TV+ business, we feel strongly that what that customer wants is an ad-free product,” Cook said during Tuesday’s record-breaking Apple earnings call. Considering how much money Apple could rake in from advertising, that’s leaving a lot of cash on the table. But it’s also completely the right thing to do.

Before Xnor.ai was acquired by Apple, the startup was working with the US military on Project Maven, a controversial Artificial Intelligence project related to drone imagery. That collaboration stopped when Apple purchased the company, according to an unconfirmed report.

The full list of 117 emoji coming to Unicode 13.0 was revealed by the Unicode Consortium today ahead of their addition to smartphone keyboards later this year.

While the new list of emoji is short on new smiley faces it does add a number of interesting characters such as ninjas, a gender-neutral version of Santa Claus, a polar bear, bison and a bunch of other miscellaneous items.

Take a closer look at each one:

Ruslan Meshenberg made the jump to Apple TV+ after leaving Netflix, a top rival of Apple’s new streaming service. As the former VP of Productivity Engineering, he brings years of experience to a platform that’s still getting off the ground.

Apple TV+ shows are drawing plenty of attention, according to a market-analysis firm. Six of the ten most popular streaming series premiering last quarter were reportedly made by Apple.

Executives at AT&T have quickly learned that building a streaming service to compete with Apple TV+ and Netflix isn’t going to be cheap. During the company’s latest earnings call, AT&T revealed that it has already lost $1.2 billion during the creation process of HBO Max that is set to launch this May.

Apple is far from done with Touch ID. The latest research note from reliable TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo indicates the technology will return with at least one iPhone coming in 2021 — and it will have a new home.

Apple is expected to integrate a fingerprint scanner into a new capacitive power button on the side of its more affordable LCD device.

Apple keeps a very tight lid on iPhone security, but that might actually benefit very sophisticated hackers, according to some security experts.

This is how Saudi Arabia was allegedly able to hack Jeff Bezos’s iPhone X.

Elon Musk’s Tesla Cybertruck was laughed at by critics for its angular, alien look. But the futuristic design may win more style points on an iPhone.

Russian luxury jeweler Caviar is showing off its latest mod job, a titanium iPhone 11 Pro inspired by Musk’s prototype of an electric truck unveiled in December.