In March, Apple officially debuted its Apple Arcade game subscription service. Ahead of a launch later this year, the company is working to court potential developers to be included in the subscription service. On the Apple Arcade developer website, Apple has offered developers the ability to pitch their games since March. Today, however, the company has taken things up a notch and is now pitching developers via email. In the email, Apple says:...

Reuters reports that Apple is working on significantly increasing the number of artificial intelligence specialists it employs as it works to make Siri smarter, but that the company’s commitment to user privacy imposes constraints. Machine learning relies heavily on large-scale data-crunching to figure out what users are likely to want to know. But while Google analyses the data of Android users en-masse, Apple’s approach to privacy means that far less data is sent from the iPhone to its servers, making it more challenging to increase Siri’s intelligence … Craig Federighi, Apple’s SVP of software engineering, said of iOS 9 that it was “adding intelligence throughout the user experience in a way that enhances how you use your device but without compromising your privacy....

Apple is partnering with Akamai, Etsy, and Swiss Re to develop two new wind and solar energy farms in Illinois and Virginia. The new project is planned to produce 290 megawatts to the PJM electric grid, serving major parts of the Eastern United States. The collective group, with the help from 3Degrees, will be purchasing 125 megawatts from a wind farm near the Chicago area, and 165 megawatts from a solar PV project in Virginia....

Apex Legends shares a few similarities with Fortnite, but in terms of player growth, it’s already surpassing Epic Games’ juggernaut battle royale title, at least in terms of how they launched. Apex Legends is, according to early analysis, on pace to outgrow Fortnite at a rate that would be extraordinarily quick, even for a genre that has been explosive in its popularity. Apex Legends released just one week ago, but it has already become one of the most talked about games in the industry....

Apple is introducing a new initiative to replace the wallet, Apple Pay. You hold your iPhone 6 to a sensor, use Touch ID to authenticate and done. The transaction is complete. The system works using NFC at supporting locations — NFC is built into every iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. The iPhone 6 NFC sensor strip is at the top of the phone. Credit cards appear in your Passbook. They are secured using a secure enclave in the phone....

We are all familiar with various retailers offering discounted iTunes cards by now. We told you just yesterday that Walmart is offering downloadable $100 iTunes/App Store gift cards for just $80. The redeem code associated with these cards is usually good for the purchase of all content from the stores including songs, movies, TV shows, apps, games, books, etc. However, according to a report from German website ifun.de, Apple is no longer allowing discounted iTunes cards to be used toward the purchase of books in the country due to pressure from a German bookseller association:...

“The ceiling for the Macs is nowhere in sight. Even if the market itself isn’t growing, for us, switching Windows users is an enormous opportunity,” Cook also added. This is a critical metric for Apple, which once dominated computing on college campuses. In October 2007, analyst Toni Sacconaghi Jr. of Bernstein Research noted Apple to hold 29 per cent of the US market for notebooks in the most expensive fifth of the market, up from 8 per cent three years before that....

With permission from Apple, The Computer History Museum and the Digibarn Computer Museum announced today it is publishing the original DOS source code for Apple’s 1978 Apple II. The Apple II was the first fully assembled computer with a monitor that Apple sold following the Apple I and originally retailed for $1298 for the base model with just 4K of memory. A blog post from The History Computer Museum explains that Apple contracted Paul Laughton of Shepardson Microsystems to write the Disk Operating System for the Apple II in just seven weeks....

Strategy Analytics paints a grim picture for Apple on the Indian Subcontinent. The world’s third-largest smartphone market after China and the US is not taking to the iPhone in meaningful numbers. In fact, sales dropped significantly — 35 percent — in Q2 2016 to just 800,000 iPhones sold vs. 1.2 million in the same quarter a year ago. Clearly, the launch of the cheapest iPhone ever, the iPhone SE, wasn’t a big winner in India....

Apple is apparently contacting some developers who didn’t get a chance to purchase tickets, offering them a second chance. Red Sweater Software’s Daniel Jalkut speculates that tickets are being offered to those who had the item in their cart, but were unable to purchase due to the record 180 second sellout. Huh. Voicemail from Apple: “We’re just calling to let you know that we actually do have a ticket available for you for this year’s WWDC....

Apple has rolled out the new iCloud.com beta website for registered iOS and Mac developers. The new website was leaked prior to WWDC and is accessible at beta.icloud.com. The new iCloud.com beta does not include many changes, but Notes and Reminders applications have been built for the web. Also included is a new Find my iPhone and an improved Calendar application. (Via MacRumors). After the break, we have added a screenshot tour of the new iCloud....

The Apple Card owner can invite other people to share their card and track everyone’s spending on the Wallet app. The code also suggests that the Daily Cash will also be available for family members. The card owner can set a spending limit for each invited user. Once this feature is available, Apple Card can be shared with family members who are 13 or older, and there will be dedicated options for parents to control their children’s spending....

Update: Patently Apple notes that this patent has now been granted (19th April 2016). Apple patent application published today shows that the Force Touch trackpad used in the 12-inch MacBook and latest 13-inch MacBook Pro could get more sophisticated in future versions. The patent describes how a mix of vibration and temperature could fool your finger into ‘feeling’ different surfaces, such as metal and wood. The patent describes how vibrations could be used to simulate a textured surface, such as the grain of a wooden surface … For example, a glass surface may be controlled to have the temperature of a relatively cooler metal material and/or a relatively warmer wood material […]...

An Apple spokesperson listed several actions the company is taking in relation to its business in Russia. “We have taken a number of actions in response to the invasion. We have paused all product sales in Russia. Last week, we stopped all exports into our sales channel in the country. Apple Pay and other services have been limited. RT News and Sputnik News are no longer available for download from the App Store outside Russia....

AOL announced today that it is starting to cut off third-party app access to its Instant Messenger service. As first noticed by ArsTechnica, AOL began notifying users of at least one third-party app, Adium, that it would become obsolete starting on March 28th. At this point, it’s unclear whether or not all third-party applications will be rendered useless come March 28th, but the message presented to Adium users seemed to strongly imply that:...

Recently released with the iOS 10.3 beta, APFS will soon replace your Apple device’s thirty year old file system. This means your Apple Watch, iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV will all see upgrades from the HFS+ system. Bringing in new optimization for the storage technologies of today, with encryption built-in as a primary feature, Apple File System will bring a slew of new benefits to users in 2017. Let’s go over what these changes are, and what you should expect out of your favorite apps and devices....

It seems like every article I’ve written in the past few months has started regarding COVID–19. While I hate that I keep mentioning it, it is informing a lot of how I am thinking about business operations going forward. I recently did a deep dive into the Addigy mobile device management system, and I think it could be beneficial for companies moving to permanent work from home. About Apple @ Work: Bradley Chambers has been managing an enterprise IT network since 2009....

A 148-page lawsuit accuses the tech companies of being involved in a ‘massive music piracy operation’ … The Verge reports that the case is based on a claim that the companies are selling pirated versions of both albums and songs written by the composer, and that there does appear to be evidence to support this. The lawsuit does, however, make a rather less credible: that Apple and the other defendants were not only aware of the piracy, but are motivated to permit it....

Ad industry execs are accusing Apple of applying different privacy rules to itself, giving Apple ad sales an unfair advantage over third-party ad networks. The accusation could add yet another angle for antitrust investigations into the company. iOS 14.5 means that users now get the option of opting out of ad tracking, which makes it impossible to serve personalized ads to them. That matters because app developers can charge more for targeted ads....

The harm done to independent Apple resellers was raised as a major concern almost immediately after the deal was announced. The Verge now reports that the Federal Trade Commission appears to be interviewing resellers who have been impacted by the deal. CNET reports that authorized resellers will be limited to those ‘who handle millions of dollars in Apple products,’ which will eliminate small businesses and individual sellers. One antitrust expert says the deal is likely illegal....