Apple has filed a defense against its massive European Commission tax bill, arguing that it shouldn’t have to pay its $14 billion tax bill, and that the request should be either totally or partially annulled.

The argument, essentially, is a 14-point extension of Tim Cook’s previous assertion that existing tax codes are designed for an industrial, rather than a digital age.

Apple asserts that the European Commission misunderstands Apple’s business dealings, and says the reason it shouldn’t have to pay massive taxes in Ireland is because the actual profit-driving work Apple does is carried out elsewhere.

This year’s iPhone 8 will offer a “revolutionary” FaceTime camera that will be capable of facial recognition and iris scanning, according to one reliable analyst.

Apple is expected to do away with the handset’s physical Home button and Touch ID in favor of a larger display and a mini Touch Bar. Facial recognition could well become the new method of unlocking your iPhone and securing your apps.

Apple has debuted two new ads, both shared to its YouTube page, showing off the Portrait Mode feature of the iPhone 7 Plus.

As with other ads in the series, Apple shows how the larger-sized iPhone is able to detect depth in pictures and use this to improve the quality of snaps by separating the subject from their background.

Check the ads out below.

Apple has debuted four new ads on its YouTube channel, showing off the photography prowess of the iPhone 7 through 15 second snapshots of four different cities.

The ads highlight Johannesburg, New York, Shanghai and Tokyo, and focus particularly on the iPhone’s ability to shoot in low light conditions. Check them out below.

The jury’s still out on whether the MacBook Pro’s new Touch Bar is a useful upgrade or a fancy gimmick. But according to recent rumors, Apple is already planning to bring similar functionality to this year’s iPhone 8.

To make this happen, the company would almost certainly have to drop Touch ID. Would a mini Touch Bar be worth the sacrifice, or would contextual shortcuts and buttons make iOS more complicated than it needs to be?

Join us in this week’s Friday Night Fight as we discuss whether a Touch Bar would be a useful addition to the iPhone!

Developers received a fresh new batch of updates from Apple today: the third beta builds for iOS 10.3, watchOS 3.2 and tvOS 10.2.

The new beta builds come two weeks after Apple’s last betas got made available to developers, bringing a host of bug fixes, performance improvements and even some new features and UI changes for iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and Apple TV.

In something of a rare showing for the usually top-performing company, Apple takes “only” fifth place in the 2017 Harris Pool’s Reputation Quotient Ratings.

The list, which considers the “100 most visible companies,” is based on 20 different attributes — such as a company’s emotional appeal, social responsibility, financial performance, products and services, and more.

Google has confirmed plans to scrap 30-second unskippable ads on YouTube in 2018.

The clips, which users are forced to watch before their chosen video, are seen as a nuisance to viewers. Google will instead focus on “formats that work well for both users and advertisers.”

When there’s no wall outlet within reach, we rely on portable batteries to get our devices through the day. Unfortunately, they’re not always the right tool for the job, since they’re specific to certain device types or connections. That’s what makes the Nifty C PowerPod so, well, nifty.

Compatible with USB types A and C, it’ll give the juice to everything from smartphones to laptops to vaporizers. That’s power and flexibility that’ll fit in your pocket, and right now you can get a Nifty C PowerPod for just $49.99 at Cult of Mac Deals.

Apple will debut a new red variant of the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus at a media event in March, a new report claims, citing a Barclays analyst.

The report also claims the March event will see Apple introduce a new iPad Pro lineup, as well as a new Apple Watch band and an added iPhone SE storage option.

Apple has reportedly acquired RealFace, an Israeli startup that developed facial-recognition technology for user authentication.

The news comes shortly after a separate report claiming that Apple is planning to incorporate new biometric security systems into future iPhones starting in 2018.

Several popular Mac apps began crashing over the weekend after their developer certificates expired.

The apps suddenly refused to open due to a change Apple made to its signing policy last year. Apple now requires that all apps from the Mac App Store have a valid provisioning profile that must be updated periodically.

Even though nobody asked for it, Facebook made it so videos play automatically, with the sound turned on, as you scroll by them in your News Feed. Luckily, a simple Chrome extension prevents that from happening — and it doesn’t just work on Facebook.

Apple has reportedly instructed its ad agency, TBWA\Media Arts Lab, to move away from localizing big global campaigns for Apple and more on creating regional campaigns, designed to appeal more  specifically to individual markets.

Snapchat Spectacles can finally be purchased online.

Until today, the glasses were only available from a popup store in New York City, or from bright yellow vending machines that popped up randomly in different cities for just 24 hours. Now anyone in the U.S. can get their hands on a pair through the new Spectacles store.

What better way is there to spend a lazy Sunday than by catching up on the best apps you missed over the past week? Fortunately, Cult of Mac has done the leg work for you in selecting what we think are the most important new apps or app updates to arrive over the past seven days.

Check out our picks below. And then get downloading!

Whenever you go online, you’re vulnerable to all sorts of hazards and headaches. That makes the new portable encryption hub at the Cult of Mac Store a must-see.

It’s just one of the awesome new deals we’ve got this week. You’ll also find what amounts to an IP cloaking device in the form of a VPN, a set of five interchangeable lenses for iPhone, and a sleek stand for MacBook Air that doubles as a USB hub. Everything’s going for a fraction of the usual price.

Tired of charging your iPhone with a cable that breaks and frays and barely reaches as far as your arm? Well this week we’ve got a triple solution to that problem, along with a 6-port USB charging hub, powerful software for repairing and recovering your hard drive, and a lifetime of data backup for five devices. They’re all part of the week’s best deals at the Cult of Mac Store, and they’re all discounted by between 40 and 70 percent off. Read on for more details:

This week on The CultCast: According to new reports, the iPhone 8 will get a huge makeover with an edge-to-edge screen, wireless charging, a huge battery and more. We’ll tell you everything we know. Plus: A 4K Apple TV is on the way; our favorite TV shows from days of yore; and the search for the perfect corn dog.

Our thanks to Squarespace for supporting this episode. It’s simple to accept Apple Pay and sell your wares with your very own Squarespace.com website. Enter offer code CultCast at checkout to get 10 percent off any hosting plan.

It’s no secret that Apple loves to keep products secret, but thanks to a new leak we can now see the crazy lengths the company goes to just to keep prototype iPhones under wraps.

Notorious Apple leaker Sonny Dickson has put out some new images of an ugly iPhone case allegedly used by Apple to keep the iPhone 6s secret. From the outside it doesn’t look like much, but there are a bunch of tiny details that help Apple keep features from leaking.

Apple’s latest advertising campaign for the iPad Pro touts how well the tablet works as a PC replacement.

The funny new ads, released today, use real tweets from real people to highlight how the iPad Pro excels over old-school computers in areas like speed, Wi-Fi, productivity and viruses. Each clip is only 15 seconds long — and they all exhibit a playful tone that’s similar to the old “Get a Mac” campaign.

Watch all four right here:

It seems fancy new iPhone 8 concepts are popping up every other day. Some are good; some are just awful. The latest is so pretty it will make your jaw drop. And better yet, it’s a design that could well turn out to be almost identical to the real thing.

You can’t buy smarts, except when it comes to your smart house. Right now at the Cult of Mac Store, we’ve got a bunch of accessories that are sure to make your abode more like the smart home of your dreams.

From an HD home monitoring camera to a Bluetooth power outlet, smart LED lightbulbs and a dual-stream Bluetooth audio transmitter, you can teach any old house some new tricks with this gear. Everything’s available at a significant discount, too!

Apple’s flagship retail store in Sydney, Australia, was temporarily evacuated earlier today as part of a “police operation.”

A sniffer dog was spotted entering the building, while the three-story venue was cleared of customers by police, who also diverted local traffic. According to one customer who was evacuated, store employees were talking about a bomb threat. She noted that police were “very firm in telling people to leave immediately.”

The de-facto head of Samsung, Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong, was arrested earlier today on alleged corruption charges.

According to the special prosecutor’s office, Lee — who is the heir apparent to the Samsung Group and only son of Samsung’s incapacitated chairman — is being held on charges including bribery, embezzlement, hiding assets overseas and perjury.