Apple has announced plans for its second R&D center in China, located in the country’s manufacturing hub Shenzhen. The 2017 opening will help Apple further grow its market in the world’s second largest economy as it challenges local competition.

“We are excited to be opening a new Research and Development center here next year so our engineering team can work even more closely and collaboratively with our manufacturing partners,” Apple spokesperson Josh Rosenstock said.

Apple Music has a new competitor in the form of Amazon, which today launched music streaming service Amazon Music Unlimited.

The premium service carries the same $9.99 monthly fee as Apple Music for regular users, although Prime customers get a reduced $7.99 monthly charge — while owners of the Amazon Echo can use an Amazon Music Unlimited subscription through the standalone device for a mere $3.99 per month.

Apple has scored a seat on the board of Didi Chuxing, the Chinese Uber rival that Apple invested $1 billion in earlier this year.

Although Didi Chuxing denied it at the time, regulatory filings show that Apple took the board position in late June, one month after it made its generous investment — designed to aid Apple’s continued push into China and interest in shaking up the automotive industry.

Apple Music remains a long way from being a finished product, according to Apple executive and Beats Electronics co-founder Jimmy Iovine.

In a new interview discussing the struggles of building a product that fuses the worlds of tech and music, Iovine revealed that the company wants to build a product that is more than just a utility for accessing your music or getting a weekly playlist.

U.S. Supreme Court justices appear to be confused over how much Apple’s patented iPhone design should worth.

Lawyers for Apple and Samsung faced off this morning at the nation’s highest court. The two sides argued whether breaking a design patent should be worth most of a product’s profits, or if the thousands of other patents that go into a smartphone should be viewed as equally valuable to the contribution of profits.

Billions of dollars and the future of patent law is at stake in the case that hinges on a law written in 1887. But the justices didn’t give much indication which side they’ll take.
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Dropbox today rolled out a big update for its iOS app, adding a number of nice new features. In addition to an iMessage app for iOS 10, the release also brings the ability to sign PDF documents and a handy Today screen widget.

One day after dropping new betas for iOS 10 and tvOS 10, Apple has seeded a new beta build of macOS Sierra 10.12.1 to registered developers this morning.

The fourth beta of macOS Sierra 10.12.1 comes a week after Apple released the last build that contained a number of bug fixes and performance improvements for the Mac.

Apple finally bumped the storage on the baseline iPhone model to 32GB this year, but it looks like choosing the cheapest model may come with some serious speed setbacks.

The 32GB versions of the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus suffer from slower storage speeds, according to benchmarks that reveal the memory chip on the baseline model scores markedly worse than other versions.

Technology and alcohol don’t usually mix. It normally results in lost iPhones or inebriated calls to an ex. But, I might make an exception for the Fizzics Draft Beer System.

Fizzics is designed to enhance the flavor and aroma of any bottle, can or even 64 oz. growler you place inside. Without the use of any CO2 or nitrogen cartridges, the boozy contraption aims to give you the fresh from the tap experience by using sound technology. But, does it work?

I gladly took on the challenge to try out the Fizzics and put it to the test. Check out the review below.

After watching $17 billion fall off its market value today, it’s still too early for Samsung to laugh about the whole Galaxy Note 7 debacle. But that doesn’t mean we can’t.

This video of a Note 7 return kit, which includes a fire-proof box and gloves, will certainly put a smile on your face.

Two people couldn’t have been further apart as they sat close to each other on carpool rides to swim meets. Steve King was a jock. The other kid was a geek.

But the geek did something one day that King would never forget. King watched as his teammate made a horrific turn at the wall in the backstroke and popped up in a neighboring lane.

Steve Jobs was immediately disqualified. He got back in his lane and finished the race.

Apple has begun accepting donations to the American Red Cross for Hurricane Matthew relief. You can donate between $5 and $200 using the iTunes app for Mac and PC, or via the App Store and iTunes Store apps on your iOS device.

We’ve always got a great raft of deals on great gear and gadgets, but for one day only those prices are dipping even lower. From the award-winning PDF Expert to the revolutionary Lytro Illum camera, a powerful tool for capturing online video and a year of access to a library of awesome games on Steam. Each is discounted even further than their already reduced price but just for one day, so now’s the time to jump on this:

Apple stock has hit its highest share price in almost one year to coincide with the news that Samsung is permanently withdrawing its ill-fated Galaxy Note 7 from the market.

AAPL shares rose 2.3 percent to hit $116.72 last night, representing an increase of $2.66 per share. This rise was the highest for Apple shares since December 2015.

Pokémon Go makers Niantic Labs are busy rolling out an update for their cash cow app, adding a number of bug fixes — as well as two significant upgrades.

Here’s what they add.

The best work I ever did as a photographer resides in a collection of Western Digital external hard drives that are stored in an old, large camera bag in my closet. The images span more than a decade and with any one of the WD My Passport drives, I can confidently plug one in and quickly find some black-and-white relic of my past.

You can see the progress of time in the pictures (clothes and hair styles) as well as in the design and sizes of the WD drives. Each year, the drives offered more storage space in the same basic compact housing.

So I was astonished a couple of weeks back when the UPS driver dropped off a WD My Passport sized just a little bigger than a deck of cards — with a whopping 4 terabytes of storage.

Galaxy Note 7, we hardy knew ye!

With growing numbers of reports of Samsung’s replacement Galaxy Note 7 handsets catching fire, Samsung has permanently stopped production of its once-acclaimed new smartphone flagship. Owners will be able to return their phones for a refund or to swap it out for another Samsung device.

Apple dropped a fresh batch of beta builds for developers this morning with the release of both iOS 10.1 beta 3 and tvOS 10.0.1 beta 3.

The new betas come less than a week after Apple seeded the last version that brought a number of bug fixes and new features that make the company’s “biggest release ever” even better.

Still thinking about making the Galaxy Note 7 your next smartphone? Forget about it.

I gave Samsung’s latest flagship a glowing review last month. But amid reports that supposedly “safe” replacement devices are overheating and exploding, there’s no good reason to buy a Galaxy Note 7 anymore.

Do yourself a favor and get the iPhone 7 Plus instead.

If you write code or create content, you’ve probably had to develop a way to keep the the distractions at bay. It’s hard to stay on task when a universe of distractions is right at your fingertips, but BlankPage makes the struggle a little less struggle-y.

The software wraps up everything you need to get your work done while keeping out common interferences. And right now you can get a lifetime subscription for just $24 at Cult of Mac Deals.

Samsung and Apple will go back to the Supreme Court this week as part of their never-ending legal battle over patents.

The Tuesday hearing will concern how much of the $399 million patent-infringement damages awarded against Samsung the South Korean tech giant should actually pay.

A new poll suggests a majority of Irish voters support the Irish government in opposing Apple’s enormous $14.52 billion tax bill for unpaid back taxes in the Republic of Ireland.

47 percent of respondents said they agreed the Irish government was right to back Apple, compared to 39 percent who say it’s wrong to do so, and 14 percent who had no opinion on the subject.

U.K. Prime minister Theresa May has banned ministers from wearing Apple Watches during Cabinet meetings, due to fears that they could be hacked by Russian spies for use as listening devices, a new report claims.

Under the leadership of former prime minister David Cameron, several members of the cabinet wore Apple Watches, including former Justice Secretary Michael Gove. Mobile phones have also been banned for the same reason.

The South Korean media is reporting that Samsung has suspended production of its Galaxy Note 7 smartphones, following one of the most bungled smartphone launches in history.

Over the weekend, AT&T confirmed that it will no longer issue new Note 7 handsets, while T-Mobile has also said it is halting sales. This follows news that Samsung’s supposedly fixed replacement handsets have also been running into battery problems causing them to burst into flames.

At long last, your local Apple Store has the iPhone 7 in stock.

The jet black one you preordered three weeks ago is finally shipping.

You’ve had the 7 Plus for 10 days, but wanted to keep a backup just in case your new phone spontaneously burst into flames.

Whatever your reason for not selling your old device yet, now is the perfect time to cash it in before prices drop further.