Apple has scrapped a controversial plan to build a flagship Apple Store in Melbourne, Australia’s Federation Square.

Apple had been battling to build the store for much of last year. It even scrapped its original designs and came up with new ones, only to have those criticized as well. Government agent Heritage Victoria ruled that the Apple Store would be too “visually dominant.” It also said that demolishing the existing Yarra Building to construct Apple’s flagship store would “diminish” the public space.

Anyone who upgrades an iPhone or iPad to iOS 12.2 can’t change their mind. Apple ceased digitally signing the previous version so it can’t be installed anymore.

This is normal. Apple always stops allowing people to downgrade a few weeks after a newer iOS version is released.

One of Google’s top AI experts has left the company to join Apple’s special projects group.

Ian Goodfellow, who created an AI approach called general adversarial networks (GANs), was hired by Apple as a director of machine learning, adding another prominent Google AI expert to its growing team.

Apple’s AirPods are about to get some fresh competition from Amazon.

The online retail giant is reportedly planning to release its own set of wireless earbuds that will be powered by its digital assistant Alexa and possibly better audio quality.

Call of Duty: Black Ops III has finally made its way to the Mac after being available on Windows PC since its launch over three years ago.

The Mac version of Call of Duty: Black Ops III was revealed by Aspyr today. It comes all the same content in the Windows version, plus 64-bit and Metal support. If you’re ready to rack up some kills though you better be ready to say goodbye to all the free space on your hard drive.

The number of downloads from Apple’s iOS App Store declined slightly last quarter, according to a report from market analysis firm Morgan Stanley.

However, revenue from iOS software is increasing, up 15 percent year-over-year.

Ounce for ounce, Apple’s replacement Apple Pencil tips are probably more expensive than gold¹. It will cost you $20 for four of the tiny things, all of which are ridiculously easy to lose.

But if you use your Pencil for anything more than the odd casual stroke, sketch or swoosh, you’ll eventually need to replace a worn tip. The good news is that it’s easy. The bad news? That price.

The Urban Armor Gear Metropolis is line of lightweight but protective folio cases for a range of Apple tablets. As of today, that includes the just-released iPad Air 3 and iPad mini 5.

These cases offer MIL-SPEC drop protection and can securely hold an Apple Pencil. They also function as stands, naturally.

Future iPhones and Apple Watches could pack “smell recognition capabilities,” based on some new patent filings submitted by Apple.

The iPhone-maker has been researching ways to detect air pollution and other dangerous chemicals with tiny sensors that could be integrated into its products. In the new patents, Apple describes how it could use multiple sensors to detect things like spoiled food, body odor and maybe even blood sugar levels.

Ever since I got a 2018 iPad Pro last year, I’ve gone through a drawerful of USB-C hubs. And finally, I’ve found one that works. Or rather, one that works without any odd, annoying or inexplicable behavior. It’s the Kingston Nucleum, it doesn’t have quite enough ports, and it’s just great.

Federal agents recently busted two college students who allegedly made nearly $1 million by returning fake iPhones to Apple.

Officials charged Quran Juan and Yangyangg Zhou, both Chinese nationals attending college in Oregon, with participating in a counterfeit iPhone scam. The duo reportedly submitted more than 2,000 iPhones to Apple claiming, the devices were broken and wouldn’t power on. The fake iPhones were only worth about $30, allowing the scammers to pocket nearly $600 for each successful return, authorities said.

Crowding a group of people into a selfie can be challenging. Seems someone always ends up halfway out of the picture. Apple has a solution: it’s developing a way to automatically combine multiple images into a group selfie.

This could become a part of iOS 13 this fall, perhaps as a new feature in the iPhone XI.

Apple’s primary chip supplier will see production capacity pushed to the limit by 2019 iPhone orders, according to a new report.

TSMC has been tasked with supplying next-generation 7-nanometer chips for this fall’s refresh. It is expected to start mass-production of what will likely be the A13 during the third quarter.

Style and workflow get hardwired in the brains of photographers working with programs like Adobe Lightroom or Photoshop. New imaging software can be a hard sell.

Even if the positive reviews for Skylum’s all-in-one Luminar sparked curiosity, many shooters may not hit pause in their firmly entrenched post-production long enough to try it.

Today, Skylum rolled out Luminar Flex, a plug-in it says will add its AI-powered features to photographers used to working with the Adobe suite.

Whether it’s ensuring that the back of the original Macintosh looked as good as the front or hand-painting the corners of every single iPhone box to make the color uniform, Apple has always sweated the little details.

The latest example of this kind of obsessive perfectionism? That Apple reportedly insists that the tiny screw divots in its temporary Apple Store barricades are covered up. Because Apple.

It’s one thing to be reminded that Apple turned 43 earlier this week. But it’s another when a major anniversary comes around for something which, seemingly, arrived just a couple of months back.

That’s how I feel about the fifth anniversary of ustwo’s Monument Valley. One of the most stunning iOS games yet created, the beautiful puzzle game landed in the App Store this month in 2014. To celebrate its birthday, its creators have given it a neat anniversary update. And thrown in a couple of videos for good measure.

WhatsApp Business for iOS has begun its worldwide rollout.

The new app, which lets businesses connect with their customers in an instant, made its debut on iOS last month — but only in a small number of countries. Now you can get your hands on it anywhere.

India is cutting the price of the iPhone XR by up to 22 percent in an attempt to boost sales.

Apple has long wanted to make meaningful inroads into India with its potential customer base of 1.3 billion people. However, this is the first time that it been willing to reduce the selling price of one of its latest iPhones in order to do so.

Want to hear Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak talk about his career and the future of tech? As part of Purdue University’s Ideas Festival, Woz is headed to West Lafayette, Indiana, later this month.

Wozniak will join Purdue Engineering Dean Mung Chiang to discuss the early days of Apple, and Woz’s vision for the future of technology. The event is free to attend, but you’ll need to book tickets ahead of time.

Vizio has started inviting TV owners to test AirPlay 2 and HomeKit support.

The invites come just over a month after users started registering their interest in the beta. Apple’s frameworks are baked into Vizio’s new SmartCast 3.0 platform, which is managed via an iOS app.

Apple permanently slashed the price of HomePod in the United States and a number of other countries. The company’s first smart speaker now lists for $299 — a full $50 less than its original price.

Update: In a statement, Intel says: “As we said in November 2018, Intel plans to support customer device launches in 2020 with its XMM 8160 5G multimode modem.”

Apple replaced Qualcomm with Intel when it comes to producing modem chips for iPhones. But now Intel is the subject of its own “increasingly stormy” relationship with Apple — and the immediate future of 5G iPhones is at stake.

According to a new report, Intel was supposed to be the main provider of 5G modem chips for Apple’s 2020 iPhone. However, it has continually missed deadlines along the way. As a result, users may not get the super-fast iPhone connectivity they’re hoping for until a bit later.

A smartphone chassis, allegedly destined for the 2019 iPhone, has leaked out on Chinese social media.

The metal plate seems to indicate Apple’s next-generation handset will have an additional rear-facing camera. And just as other rumors have hinted, they will be arranged in a strange triangular formation.

Apple has promoted Adrian Perica to the role of Vice President of Corporate Development. The company updated its Leadership webpage to highlight Perica in the new role.

He will now report directly to Tim Cook. In his new role, he will be responsible for Apple’s mergers, acquisitions and strategic investing efforts.

Amidst calls for a touchscreen MacBook, Logitech introduced the next best thing: a keyboard case that converts the 2018 iPad Pro into a laptop. The Slim Folio Pro has a backlit keyboard and a design that protects the tablet and the attached Apple Pencil.

We fully tested this just-released accessory for businesspeople and students, so don’t miss our review. Or our comparison of Logitech’s latest with the similar Apple Smart Keyboard Folio.