Apple spent $310,000 on Tim Cook’s personal security last year. That figure alone may be around 5x the median household income in the U.S., but it’s a bargain compared to the figures some tech companies spend keeping their executives safe!

Amazon and Oracle, for example, spent $1.6 million each protecting Jeff Bezos and Larry Ellison. Google, meanwhile, spent $600,000 looking after CEO Sundar Pichai. All of those pale in comparison to Facebook, however — whose CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s security detail cost a reported $10 million.

Slumping iPhone sales have caused Apple to rethink its hiring strategies for certain division.

During an employee meeting earlier this month, Tim Cook was asked if the company is about to go on a hiring freeze. Cook reportedly responded that a total hiring freeze wasn’t a solution, the company would reduce hiring in some areas.

One rumored change to the 2019 iPhone might not happen: a generally reliable source indicates that Apple’s next handset will hold onto its Lightning connector.

And the same source says the iPhone XI will have very high-resolution front- and rear-facing cameras.

Apple clearly says its new battery cases aren’t compatible with the iPhone X but some users of that handset claim that they’ve gotten the two to work together.

The designs of new iPhone XS and older X are nearly identical and the 2017 model mostly fits in the Smart Battery Case. Nevertheless, the handset gets power only under some conditions.

You know how iOS’ accessibility features often prove handy for all users? Like Live Listen, which lets you turn your AirPods into remote listening devices? Or a combo of settings that resurrects an iPhone with a broken screen?

The same is true for Screen Time. This feature tracks how long you spend using apps every day, and can help you limit that time. But you can also use Screen Time to password-protect any app on your iPhone or iPad.

This post is presented by Tenorshare.

The more we use our iOS devices, the more likely we are to lose data that’s important to us. Whether because of theft, damage or neglect, plenty of us know how valuable it can be to quickly get back the data we’ve lost. Even better if you can target just the files you want, like certain photo albums or text exchanges.

Apple may have found the perfect TV executive to help it produce a bevy of squeaky-clean TV shows for its upcoming streaming service.

Jason Katims, who created Parenthood and produced Friday Night Lights inked a multi-year deal with Apple will have the award-winning TV veteran develop and produce a number of shows for Apple.

Hey, iOS musicians. Not just you, in fact: Hey anyone who likes fun! Meet Korg’s new music-making boxes, the Volca Drum and the Volca Modular. They’re new additions to the Volca family of paperback-size music machines that hook up together or work alone. And they work great with your iPad or Mac, if you like.

Apple’s self-driving car development could be headed for a cliff. Maybe. A questionable report from industry analysts says that there are layoffs in this division and the whole project might even be scrapped.

The cause is supposedly the slowdown in iPhone sales caused by the weakening Chinese economy. The reduction in revenue leaves less room for non-core programs.

It seems Samsung is still struggling to match the performance of the iPhone.

Alleged early benchmarks for the upcoming Galaxy S10+ suggest the company’s flagship device doesn’t come close to competing with the iPhone XS Max. It doesn’t even beat the aging iPhone X.

Apple’s stealth play to hype HomeKit devices at CES gave the home-automation platform a major boost.

A slew of new HomeKit-compatible devices are headed our way. From locks and TVs to blinds and video doorbells, they promise to make smart homes more exciting in the very near future. 

Apple and a handful of private Medicare insurers are exploring a deal that could subsidize the cost of Apple Watches for people over 65 to use for health tracking.

Insurance companies offering the Apple Watch free or at a reduced cost as a carrot to get healthy is a growing trend as the watch continues to grab headlines for its health benefits.

Motorola is planning to bring back its popular pre-iPhone line of Razr handsets — but don’t expect it to cost what a cellphone cost back in the early 2000s.

According to a new report, Motorola’s revived flip phone brand could carry a price tag of $1,500 when it launches. In other words, it’s trying to take on the iPhone, a handset whose popularity helped cement the Razr’s fate, with a new phone that costs more than Apple’s flagship. We’ll give it to Motorola: That’s a bold strategy!

Another small but significant reference to Apple’s long-awaited AirPower charging mat has been spotted this week, giving fans hope that the product is still in the pipeline after all.

AirPower is mentioned on an Apple product page for its new Smart Battery Case for iPhone XS. But what does it mean?

Streaming service Roku is the latest tech company to follow Apple’s lead in banning right wing conspiracy website InfoWars from its platform.

Apple booted podcasts from the website off its platform back in September, following by banning InfoWars and host Alex Jones from the App Store. These decisions prompted other tech companies such as Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter to follow in its footsteps. Now they have been joined by Roku.

If you’ve got the itch to make things, you probably already know about Arduino. It’s the platform for building all kinds of computer-connected gizmos.

Basically, if you can imagine it, you can make it with Arduino — and books from Make show you how.

Scott Forstall has been largely absent from the tech world since leaving Apple following the Apple Maps debacle in 2012. However, in recent times he’s been giving a few more interviews about his time at Apple — when some people predicted he could even be a potential future CEO.

In a new interview on Philosophy Talk’s The Creative Life, Forstall talked about (among other things) his work on the iPod, iPhone, and iPad. Including a rather intriguing anecdote about the creation of the Apple TV.

TweetDeck, the must-have Twitter app for any power user, just got a nice update on macOS that adds a gorgeous new dark mode. The version 3.10 release has also been rebuilt to “fix many crashes.”

Update: Verizon has officially confirmed this offer. 

“When we introduced six months free of Apple Music to Verizon Unlimited subscribers, we said it was just the beginning of a great collaboration between Verizon and Apple to bring music streaming to our loyal customers,” said Angie Klein, vice president of marketing at Verizon. “Our customers loved the offer, so we’re expanding the value of our Beyond Unlimited and Above Unlimited plans by including Apple Music at the same plan price. You can stream more of the music you love on the network you deserve.”

According to a new report, Verizon is set to offer Apple Music as a freebie service to customers on two of its “unlimited” cell phone plans. This would, in essence, reduce Apple’s $9.99 per month subscription costs to zero — while boosting Apple’s subscriber numbers as well.

A U.S. appeals court has upheld a $440 million judgment against Apple by “patent troll” VirnetX, an intellectual property licensing firm which has been battling Apple for years.

VirnetX won a $302 million verdict against Apple in 2016. That figure has now grown to $440 million thanks to interest, enhanced damages, and additional costs.

Tim Cook shared a story on Twitter, describing how an Apple Watch user potentially had his life saved when his wearable device warned of an irregular heartbeat.

Elissa Lombardo, who alerted Cook of the incident, said that her husband had owned his Apple Watch for just a couple of days before he was sent the alert. The Apple Watch revealed signs of atrial fibrillation and an elevated heart rate of 150 beats per minute — compared to a normal resting heart rate of 60 to 100bmp.

Leather is a popular choice for Apple Watch bands but the latest from Nomad takes this material in a slightly unusual direction: it’s as untreated as possible. The intent is that this light-colored band will take on a patina over time.

Nomad also just introduced an AirPods case of the same material.

Apple is officially getting into the movie-making business.

After inking deals for over a dozen original TV shows, Apple is ready to make its first-ever movie and it’s bringing in Hollywood legend Bill Murray to star in the flick.

Apple fans that scooped up one of the company’s newest iPhones are finally getting some much-needed relief for their batteries with the release of Apple’s new Smart Battery Cases for iPhone XS, XS Max and XR.

Several rumors about the next iPhone point to it having three camera lenses but don’t agree on how they’ll be arranged. The latest leaked render shows it with the lenses neatly lined up in a row.

This unconfirmed image also shows a smaller notch.