As it has done previously, Apple kicked off a one-day sale in Japan today to celebrate the start of a new year. Customers purchasing select iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, Apple TV, and Beats models online or at an Apple store will be eligible to receive a gift card valued between 3,000 and 24,000 yen. Japan’s New Year’s sale is similar to an earlier promotion Apple held in the United States and elsewhere around the world leading up to this past holiday season....

In a move that will certainly please iOS developers, Apple has finally disabled the ability to write app reviews on the latest beta version of iOS 9. When attempting to review applications in the store, beta users will now be met with a message informing them that the feature is unavailable. The change was spotted by several Twitter users earlier this evening. App makers have long been put off by low reviews from users experiencing problems related to unsupported versions of the mobile operating system, which often hurt an app’s overall ratings and possibly affected their downloads as potential buyers took note of the negative feedback without knowing the full context....

Apple Watch fitness lab Apple is kicking off its second-ever internal activity challenge company wide next month, and this year the competition includes a new prize. Employees who finish the challenge with gold will earn a special nylon Apple Watch band themed after the activity rings that isn’t sold in stores. The activity challenge is intended to promote a healthy lifestyle through fitness and activity tracking among employees with the Apple Watch....

Apple has added a few new iPhone 12 silicone cases to the online store. The new colors include sunflower, cloud blue, and electric orange. All three colors are available for each of the four iPhone 12 models. They are priced at the same $49 and are available for delivery starting this Wednesday. These cases are, of course, MagSafe compatible, so they’ll work with the MagSafe wallet and MagSafe chargers. They join a variety of other colors introduced in October, as well as the Spring colors introduced after the April event....

According to CNET, Apple has acquired HTML 5/web-app design firm Particle for an undisclosed amount. Particle has had big-name clients, such as Google, Sony, Motorola, and even Apple, over the years. The acquisition is said to be for the sole purpose of acquiring talent —or an “acqui-hire,” as one might call it—to boost Apple’s current services. CNET provided the specifics: Here is the firm’s website talking about past work for Apple:...

When you don’t have Private Browsing enabled in Safari on iOS 5, it keeps a record of your search history, pages you visit and AutoFill Information. When Private browsing is enabled, it won’t keep track of pages you visit, search history, AutoFill information and blocks sites from tracking your behavior. Cover your web browsing tracks in Safari. Enable the Private Browsing feature. On your iDevice go to Settings » Safari....

On your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch launch the Reminders app and create a new Reminders list. Tap the list icon on the upper left corner of the screen. Tap Create New List. Then type in the items you want on the shared Reminders list. When finished, tap Done. Now that you have your Reminders list created, log in to the iCloud website. Click on the Calendar icon. Reminders are listed in the left column on the iCloud Calendar page....

Even in the absence of a major architectural upgrade in the form of an iPhone 5 — the 4S is selling like crazy. The press forgot one thing. There are millions and millions of us Apple iPhone 3G and 3GS users who would love a new contract — maybe with Verizon or Sprint? — and a better camera. The iPhone 4S turns out to have an excellent camera. For the holidays, marketwise at least, Apple is right on the money....

Apple has today announced that is launching a new app development curriculum designed to teach students how to start using Swift to create fully functional iPhone apps. The course is available for free on iBooks (plus teacher’s guide) for anyone to download, and builds on the Everyone Can Code series Apple already publishes. This fall, Apple says six American community colleges will teach the curriculum as well as ‘select high schools’....

Following the announcement at the September event, the Apple Research app is now available to download for iPhone and Apple Watch. Users in the United States can sign up to be part of three health studies; Women’s Health, Heart and Movement, and the Hearing Study. The Women’s Health study draws data from the Cycle Tracking app on watchOS 6 with the aim to improve scientific understand of menstrual cycles. The Heart and Movement Study uses a variety of signals from the watch, including movement and health rate information....

Fans of The Office have been excited about what appeared to be the revival of a previously pitched spin-off series called The Farm, but the project may actually be something involving Apple and not a new original series. Staff involved in The Farm have been promoting the project — which includes an on-screen reunion of actors Kate Flannery, Leslie David Baker and Paul Lieberstein who all had key roles in The Office — since early last month....

“Windows users are really tired of all the headaches that they’ve been getting over the years, starting all the way back from Windows Me to NT to Vista and now Windows 7,” he said. “As a result, I think people are looking for something different, and the Mac offers real ease of use, stability and security.” Noting, as Phil Schiller did earlier, that upgrading to Windows is a complex process, he suggested Windows users, particularly those on XP machines, may see this as the right time to switch to Mac....

In the years ahead, passwords, as we know them, will become a thing of the past. However, that change won’t happen overnight and will take a concerted effort from lots of different parties, including the major tech giants. At WWDC, Apple announced how it’s moving toward a more secure and easy-to-use passwordless authentication powered by WebAuthn and Face ID/Touch ID with the preview of passkeys in iCloud Keychain. The preview of passkeys in iCloud Keychain comes with iOS 15 and macOS Monterey, but it doesn’t mean the feature is user-facing....

Popular task management app Any.do has been updated to version 3.0 with a slew of new features and a fresh coat of paint. You’ll still find all of your lists and collaboration features as easy to use as ever, but now you’ll be able to see an overview of all of your lists with the new grid mode. Collaborative lists have also been improved, gaining the ability to share “side projects” with a group, or form “work teams” for complex projects....

As highlighted in a new report from Bloomberg, Apple’s current rules prevent makers of game streaming services to get an app on the App Store. The rules disallow an app from acting as a game repository that can contain content from other publishers. This means burgeoning services like GeForce Now, xCloud, PS Now, and Google Stadia cannot access iPhone and iPad customers. Online game streaming services work by hosting the game on servers in the cloud, essentially streaming a video of the rendered game to user’s devices....

Apple continues its maps buying spree with the acquisition of Embark, the development firm with 10 transit-related apps in the App Store, according to Jessica Lessin. Back in November, the company received an investment boost from BMW, but now it looks like Apple will be integrating the information directly into the Apple Maps application: Apple has confirmed the deal to Jessica Lessin. The deal comes just a month after Apple acquired Hopstop and Locationary....

Today, Apple has announced that App Store sales topped $10 billion in 2013. In December alone, customers spent over $1 billion in the store, a record-breaking figure — the most successful month in App Store history. In total, developers for iOS and OS X have now earned $15 billion on the App Store. Cue called the app lineup for 2013 ‘astonishing’. In the report, Apple calls out a handful of apps in particular for their success, including Heads Up, Candy Crush, and QuizUp....

Apple today has officially reported its Q4 2016 earnings results with $46.9 billion in revenue and $9 billion in profit from the July to September quarter. In its earnings press release, Apple says the following: Below is the breakdown of numbers: iPhone – 45.51 million iPad – 9.28 million Mac – 4.89 million Apple’s earnings come out to $1.67 per share, slightly higher than the $1.66 that analysts were expected. Revenues were slightly lower than expectation, $46....

In a letter received by the leaders of AltConf, it was revealed that Apple is cracking down on the live streaming of its WWDC video content at events other than its own. AltConf, which is a community-based developer conference being held in San Francisco the same week as WWDC, had planned to stream content from WWDC in its Viewing Room, but received a letter from an Apple legal representative which demanded that AltConf cease all plans to stream Apple content....

As the US Presidential campaign for Hillary Clinton continues to reel from daily deluge of emails released from Campaign Chairman John Podesta via Wikileaks, we’re finding a number of topics related to Apple and specifically its CEO Tim Cook. Today’s installment is probably worth noting. It has Cook listed as a possible VP candidate pick by Podesta along with many other political, business and tech luminaries seen below. The list is a ‘first cut’ and it is unclear at this point how far through the process Cook made it, or more importantly if he’d even want the job, for that matter....