Samsung had trucks of apples delivered to its offices and placed in rooms where employees took coffee breaks. They were then encouraged to take a literal bite out of Apple (or, well, an apple) as the South Korean tech giant waged war with the Cupertino-based tech giant.

The anecdote comes from a forthcoming book, titled Samsung Rising. It promises to tell the story of how Samsung took on Apple and the battles that followed. “We had one objective: beat Apple,” says an unnamed Samsung executive in the book. “I’m not kidding you.”

New details and a slew of images of Apple’s upcoming Powerbeats4 headphones leaked out on Monday ahead of an official launch. They all but confirm the new wireless buds will look a lot like Powerbeats Pro, and will pack the latest H1 chip for “Hey Siri” support.

Owners of the third-generation iPad Air suffering from an issue that causes their screen to go blank can now enjoy a free repair from Apple.

It’s not clear what causes the problem, but it affects only a “limited number” of devices, Apple says. If yours is one of them, you’re no longer stuck with a dead iPad.

The spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus could hurt Apple’s plans to launch its first 5G iPhones in the second half of 2020, a new report claims.

According to a DigiTimes report Monday, Apple extended restrictions on employees traveling to parts of Asia until the end of April. The extension will delay tests for the next-generation iPhone that “could have a direct impact” on launch timing.

Apple may soon add to the health-tracking features in Apple Watch with the ability to detect users’ blood oxygen levels and notify users when these are at a dangerously low level.

9to5Mac discovered the potential feature in iOS 14 “code snippets” it discovered. It’s not clear exactly what the hardware and software requirements would be for the feature. That means it’s unknown if this would be a feature that could be retroactively added to existing Apple Watches or if it would be one limited to Apple’s next-gen Apple Watch.

CEO Tim Cook told Apple employees at company headquarters and other locations around the world to “please feel free to work remotely if your job allows” this week.

This guidance came in response to the COVID-19 disease that’s spreading across the United States.

This week we check our grammar with Antidote, turn tweets into email newsletters with Mailbrew and much more.

I never had an interest in Apple Watch. I didn’t see the point of carrying around yet another computer when my iPhone goes with me everywhere. Then I got one, and now that I’ve used Apple’s wearable, I see all the ways it makes my life easier.

It’s made me an Apple Watch convert. Here’s why.

Visiting foreign countries can mean packing a bunch of different chargers along with everything else. But this adapter can charge multiple devices from any of six outlet types, so you can keep all your devices running while you’re abroad.

With the COVID-19 virus spreading in the United States, it might be time to disinfect your iPhone and the rest of your Apple gear. In this week’s issue of Cult of Mac Magazine, we’ll show you how to disinfect your Mac, iPhone, mouse, trackpad, keyboard and cases. (And, yes, you can wash your iPhone with soap and water.)

Get those how-tos, plus the rest of the week’s top Apple news and product reviews, in this week’s free issue. Download it now and read it on your iPad or iPhone. Or get the links below.

Traveling with a team, or even with a full work bag, means juggling lots of chargers and cables. So it’s a good idea to also carry around a tool for keeping all your gear juiced up — especially if it won’t take up much space.

The newly-unveiled Oppo Watch borrows heavily from the Apple Watch. But this China-based company nevertheless built in some features that fans of Apple’s wearable can appreciate.

The organizers of South by Southwest, desperately hoping to hold the March event in the face of a coronavirus outbreak, said Friday that the city of Austin, Texas, canceled the conference.

Event planners scrapped the music, tech and film conference, set to begin March 13, after local health officials declared a health emergency.

Samsung’s new flagship phone came out slightly ahead in a smash-off between with Apple’s top-tier model. The Galaxy S20 Ultra survived the early rounds of drop tests better than the iPhone 11 Pro Max.

However, at the end of multiple drops, the iPhone was still almost completely functional while the Android was utterly destroyed.

Thanks to abject terror of the COVID-19 virus, I’ve started washing my iPhone along with my hands with ordinary soap and water.

It may prove to be a big mistake, but so far it’s fine. My iPhone 11 Pro Max is highly water-resistant and seems quite happy being soaped down a couple of times a day.

Home Before Dark is a mystery/drama on the real-life adventures of a nine-year-old girl who solved a murder. It’s coming to Apple TV+ this spring, and a new trailer gives the first look at it.

Watch it now:

Apple has sent out a work-from-home recommendation to all of its Cupertino-based employees due to fears of the growing coronavirus outbreak in the United States.

It is unclear if the notice to employees at Apple Park and Infinite Loop was a suggestion and not a requirement and for how long the company is recommending its workers refrain from reporting to their offices.

iPad multitasking, Split Screen and all that stuff, has been getting a bad rap recently, and rightly so. It’s a mess. But amidst this storm of iPad hatred, there’s one great feature that stays great: Slide Over. On the iPad, Slide Over lets you dock a mini, iPhone-size version of an app over on the right side of the screen. You can swipe this away to hide it, and swipe again to bring it back out.

That’s cool, and very handy (as we shall see in a moment). But even better is that you can dock a whole bunch of apps over there, ready to use, and then fan out the stack to help pick the one you want. Let’s take a look. You’re going to love this.

Apple-owned movie The Banker is due to land on Apple TV+ later this month. But if you want to catch it on the big screen, you can do so starting today.

The movie, which is based on a true story, stars Anthony Mackie and Samuel L. Jackson as Bernard Garrett and Joe Morris, two of the first African-American bankers in the United States. To combat systematic racism during the Jim Crow era, they hire a white man (Nicholas Hoult) as the face of their business while posing as a chauffeur and janitor.

There’s an area where Android is much faster than any iPhone: losing value. A gadget trade-in service tracked the depreciation of Apple and Android handsets and found that after a year the iPhone had held on to far more of its resale value.

Traveling without a backup battery can mean losing power at the worst possible moment. The latest portable batteries are slim enough to fit unnoticed in your pocket, with enough power to last for days.

Apple on Friday cancelled its “Today at Apple” sessions across all stores in Italy amid the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak.

Apple Oriocenter, a store in Italy’s Bergamo Province, is also closed temporarily as Apple makes efforts to help contain the spread of the coronavirus. It is currently out of action until March 8.

With plenty of scaremongering about the COVID-19 coronavirus, Apple is doing its part to stop the spread of misinformation related to the outbreak. According to a report published Thursday, Apple is cracking down on non-official apps relating to the novel coronavirus.

Those are apps not made by recognized institutions such as governments or hospitals. Independent apps providing functionality like tracking of the outbreak’s spread are being rejected by Apple, developers claim.

Microsoft Outlook’s newest update is out on iOS with new text formatting options. It’s now possible to use bold, italic, and underlined text — as well as inline links — in your emails.

Episode one of Steven Spielberg’s anthology series Amazing Stories debuted on Apple TV+ Friday.

The first episode of the five-episode season is about a person who discovers a portal back to 1919 in the storm cellar of a house they are restoring. The show promises to “transport the audience to worlds of wonder through the lens of today’s most imaginative filmmakers, directors and writers.”