Apple shared an update today on its Developer site with the latest tax and price changes for the App Store coming to four countries including Germany and South Korea. There’s also an update coming for the Apple Push Notification service server certificate. Apple detailed the new App Store tax and price changes coming soon in a Developer update: Apple says “Once these changes go into effect, the Pricing and Availability section of My Apps will be updated....

Apple this evening has added 10 new retailers to its Apple Pay site, bringing the total to 68 merchants highlighted on its website. Eddy Cue revealed earlier this year that Apple Pay was available in Oracle Arena, home of the Golden State Warriors, and Apple has officially added the arena to its site tonight. Apple also officially added the Amway Center and US Airways Center to the site, although both have previously supported Apple Pay....

Update: Microsoft provided us with the following comment noting that “people interested in buying additional storage will do so via the web versus in the app.” In other words, it doesn’t look like Apple will be getting a cut of additional storage purchased, but users won’t be able to do so via the iOS app: Back in December we heard reports, later confirmed by Microsoft, that Apple was delaying updates to its SkyDrive iOS app....

Seemingly in response to a recent spotlight on scammy apps that aim to confuse users in taking up free trials that turn into expensive recurring subscriptions, Apple is reassessing and pulling apps with highly priced subscriptions (via Forbes). In particular, Apple appears to be rejecting apps that prominently feature buttons to start free trials … which attempt to hide the reality that the free trial will convert into a costly recurring subscription when the trial ends....

It seems that not a day can go by without another potential Apple Car maker finding itself the subject of speculation, and this time it seems to be Nissan’s turn. The Japanese carmaker has seen its share price rise despite downgrading its revenue expectations for the current fiscal year … The WSJ also notes that the company has strongly hinted it would be open to a deal. To be fair, it’s not the first time Nissan has been in the frame – CNN listed it among the possibilities a couple of days ago – but the CEO’s remarks have pushed it higher in the rumor stakes....

Apple has confirmed to Reuters that it will open its first retail store in Taiwan, as job listings are spotted for all the usual retail positions. The store is expected to open in the capital, Taipei, but the precise location or date are not yet known. Start dates for some of the positions are shown as September, which normally come some months ahead of the store opening. Taiwan falls within Apple’s Greater China region, along with mainland China itself, Hong Kong and Macau....

Apple today further expanded its ongoing legal battle against Qualcomm. According to a report from Bloomberg, Apple has now sued Qualcomm in a U.K. court over the same patent and royalty dispute that prompted lawsuits in other countries, including the United States. The report notes that the lawsuit was filed today and cites a claim on patents and registered designs. At this point, however, there aren’t any specific details as to how broad Apple’s lawsuit against Qualcomm is in the U....

Apple took 4.6 per cent of the world market for laptops putting the company into seventh place, states DigiTimes, up from its previous number eight position. As the wider market grew 35 per cent, Apple’s sales nearly doublied to to 1.43-million portables from 891,000 units in Q1 2007, the report explains. Apple has also been explained as up 61 per cent in the second quarter overall, Mac sales overall climbed 51 per cent, year-on-year, a rate of growth an astonishing 3....

With the iPhone 8 expected to embed a fingerprint sensor into the display to allow much smaller top and bottom bezels, there’s no doubt that Apple has the technology required to make this possible. We’ve seen a steady stream of patents describing different ways to achieve this. One of the technologies Apple has explored is ultrasonic imaging. A previous patent described this as ‘the most accurate but least common finger-scanning technology,’ and a further patent describing this approach has been granted today....

Adding to its list of recent hires, Apple has tapped a former Hewlett-Packard executive to tackle sales of its products to corporations. According to Re/code, John Solomon left his former leadership role at HP to start his new position at Apple and may be involved with international sales of the upcoming Apple Watch in the future. Solomon’s LinkedIn profile points to a long career with HP, most recently serving as SVP of Printing & Personal Systems then General Manager of HP’s Consumer Printing Global Business Unit, departing the company in December 2014 and joining a “to be announced” company this month....

Apple’s long-standing request to open its own retail stores in India looks likely to be approved by the Indian government after Chinese brand Oppo was granted permission. Apple products are currently sold locally by authorized resellers. The Indian government only allows single-brand retail stores when at least 30% of the products sold are manufactured in the country. As the iPhone accounts for a high percentage of Apple’s sales, with the SE a popular model in India because of its relative affordability, it seems likely that the requirement will be hit thanks to local manufacturing of the model …...

Apple might have dropped from #38 to #88 this year on Fortune’s list of the 100 Fastest-Growing Companies published today, but it’s also making the list for its 8th consecutive year. That means Apple has now been on the list more than any other company and also has the longest streak of consecutive appearances. There aren’t a lot of other high profile tech companies that made the list, but a couple notables include Baidu at #46 and Tivo at #73....

It’s still hard to get used to seeing Apple discounting its products, but after iPhone and HomePod, the company has reduced the price of Apple Music in India to undercut its rivals. Apple cuts its streaming music subscription rates just weeks after Spotify and YouTube Premium became available in India for the first time … Indian Express reports that the new individual subscription has fallen to the equivalent to $1.43 per month....

Apple’s autonomous vehicle program is no secret within the tech industry. While the company has yet to confirm anything, information regarding the project has been leaking consistently over the past several years. Today, the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) has confirmed (via macReports) that Apple now has 70 vehicles and 139 drivers permitted to test autonomous vehicles, up from 66 vehicles and 111 drivers back in July. While Apple is permitted to test autonomous vehicles, it doesn’t have a driverless car permit, meaning the company is still required to have a driver in the car just in case of emergencies....

New patents granted to Apple today reveal some of the possible problems its now-fabled AirPower mat might have needed to resolve before its public release, including what Apple calls a “magnetic vision system”. Recently, we’ve been hearing reports of AirPower hitting the production stage, however, with Apple still tight-lipped on the product since last year, today’s patents offer another glimmer of hope. The patents, revealed by PatentlyApple, details how AirPower has what’s being referred to as a “magnetic vision system”, designed to prevent AirPower from being permanently damaged from foreign metal objects making contact with the mat....

One of the key benefits of the Apple Card is getting 3% cash back at select merchants when using Apple Pay. This list includes vendors like Nike, Uber, T-Mobile, and Walgreens. Many retailers are currently limiting in-store transactions and encouraging curbside pick up and delivery when available. Earlier tonight, Apple announced that Walgreens transactions made with the physical Apple Card would now be eligible for the 3% reward just like they were made with Apple Pay....

Apple, along with Google, Microsoft, and Mozilla, today banned from their respective web browsers a malicious certificate that was being used by the Kazakhstan government to intercept HTTPS traffic coming from the city of Nur-Sultan, the country’s capital. As reported by ZDNet, the certificate was first used on December 6, when local authorities forced Internet providers to prevent Nur-Sultan residents from accessing foreign websites without a special certificate issued by the government....

Apple has officially posted its Q4 2015 earnings results with $51.5 billion in revenue and $11.1 billion in profit from the July to September quarter. While Apple isn’t breaking out Apple Watch sales, Q4 is only the second quarter to include numbers for the product (grouped with iPods, Apple TVs, and more in the Other category) and the first to include any iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus sales. Apple previously announced over 13 million iPhone 6s and 6s Plus launch sales with purchases completed by Saturday, September 26th included in today’s numbers....

Hours after Wired reported that Apple put a 24-hour freeze on over-the-phone password resets for Apple accounts, an Apple spokesperson confirmed in a statement to The Next Web that a temporary suspension is now in place. Apple also asked that users reset their password on Apple’s password recovery webpage. Here is Apple spokesperson Natalie Kerris full statement: Bloomberg further reported this morning that Cupertino-based Apple would work to put new a procedure in-place that will have proper safety measures....

A new report from the NYPD (via Gothamist) shows crimes involving Apple products in the city have increased 40 percent between Jan. 1 and Sept. 23, which is 10x the 4 percent increase that all crime in the city experienced over the same period. According to Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly and the NYPD, 11,447 incidents involving stolen Apple products were reported in comparison to just 3,280 the year before. We heard similar stats in the past, but Gothamist provided some of the NYPD’s numbers today to show how Apple-related crimes contributed to crime by category this year:...