As is always the case before new iPhone launches, the Apple Online Store has gone offline this evening ahead of iPhone XR pre-orders. The colorful new iPhone is slated to go up for pre-order tonight at 12:01AM PT/3:01AM ET, which is when we should expect the store to return. The iPhone XR release comes a month after the iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, and Apple Watch Series 4. Analysts expect the iPhone XR to be popular among customers, with a recent supply chain report also suggesting that Apple ramped up iPhone XR production as it forecasted higher-than-expected sales....

Anthem just can’t catch a break with its patches. The latest patch, Anthem update 1.03, introduced several changes that weren’t detailed in the patch notes, including new components and several nerfs made to weapons. As it turns out, though, the nerfs were just bugs that were unintentionally coded in during the patch, and will have to be addressed in a newer patch later. Anthem’s update 1.03 was supposed to usher in the beginning of significant change for EA and BioWare’s much-maligned looter shooter....

One of the most exciting weeks of the year for us in the Apple ecosystem is almost here. Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference kicks off next week. Although it’s virtual once again, we’re all looking forward to an exciting week of announcements as we get a look at what’s coming in iOS 15, iPadOS 15, macOS 13, and hopefully some announcements for tvOS. On the enterprise side, I am looking forward to the “What’s new with Apple device management” session that usually happens in the middle of the week....

Apple today announced that it is adding PayPal as a new payment method to the App Store, iTunes Store, iBookstore and Apple Music services. This means Apple users will be able to add PayPal to their Apple ID in order to buy apps, musics, movies, TV shows and more. PayPal is a nice alternative to gift cards for users who don’t want to (or can’t) attach credit cards to their account....

As its battle with Qualcomm continues to escalate, Apple is again said to be considering modems from MediaTek for the 2018 iPhones. DigiTimes reports that Apple is looking for additional capacity after ‘transferring half of its orders to Intel from Qualcomm’… The report cites unnamed sources and explains that MediaTek has the capacity, technology, and pricing advantages to supply Apple with modems for the iPhone. MediaTek would join Intel in supplying modems to Apple for the iPhone....

Apple’s highly anticipated all-new Mac Pro and Pro Display XDR have been slated for a fall release since being unveiled at WWDC last June. Now Apple has officially announced that the new professional Mac and display will be available starting in December and hit that deadline. Apple shared the official word in the Newsroom post today for the brand new 16-inch MacBook Pro. This comes after Bloomberg reported just yesterday that the Mac Pro and Pro Display XDR would become available in December....

Today Apple’s highly-anticipated Apple Arcade video game streaming service launched in limited fashion to iOS 13.1 beta testers ahead of Thursday’s launch. At this stage of the rollout, only 53 games are available on the service, with more surely to come soon. Apple says that eventually, over 100 games will be available on Apple Arcade. One of the key features of Apple Arcade is its ability to play games offline while on the go....

Apple Card has added yet another 3% Daily Cash partner, this time marking the first expansion to restaurants. Panera Bread announced today that Apple Card users can now get 3% Daily Cash when they pay with Apple Pay in the Panera Bread app, on the web, or in-cafe. As Panera Bread points out in its announcement, this is the first time that a restaurant has signed on to offer 3% Apple Card rewards....

Apple CEO Tim Cook has announced in an email to employees that this year’s Thanksgiving vacation will be extended with pay. Cook also thanks all employees for an amazing 2012. Retail employees obviously won’t get the extended break during Thanksgiving, but they will have the opportunity for extra days off at another time. Cook announced a similar break extension last year. (Image: Wired) Apple is having another incredibly successful year, thanks to all of the hard work by you and your teams....

Ahead of WWDC 2020 kicking off on June 22, Apple today has offered additional details on this year’s schedule. Apple has confirmed that the all-virtual WWDC will include a keynote address, Platforms State of the Union, 100+ engineering sessions, all-new Developer Forums, 1-on-1 labs with more than 1,000 Apple engineers, and more. While Apple had already confirmed that WWDC 2020 would start on June 22, specific details were unclear given the new all-online format prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic....

. Apple’s doing another iTunes countdown, this time to the 50 billionth app downloaded. Along with the chance to win a $10,000 iTunes gift card, Apple also greets you with the all time most downloaded free and paid apps. Some interesting notes: The top paid and free iPad apps are somewhat surprising. The $10 Pages word processor (Content Creation!?!) and Microsoft’s Skype chat and conferencing: Coolest facts IMO: Instagram jumps from #19 to #3; Google Maps and YouTube in top charts already; 15 out of 25 paid iPad apps are games....

According to a new report from Hickory Daily Record, Apple is expanding its data center operations in North Carolina with the purchase of $3 million worth of land in Conover, Catawba County. The purchase would include 218.885 acres and another 0.251 acres for a new solar farm. HDR cited “deeds and a plat book at the Catawba County Register of Deeds”: According to the report, the land is located on the East side of Lai Ber Drive Extension in Conover, with a portion located on the West side of the road....

Late Sunday night, whoever runs the official Apple iBookstore account on Twitter retweeted a very explicit tweet. The Apple-owned account also favorited the tweet according to some users who spotted it. Ironically, the contents of this tweet would almost certainly be disallowed in the all too wholesome App Store. [tweet https://twitter.com/MichaelSteeber/status/310977708576346113] Followers were a bit shocked by the post, which was almost immediately removed from the page. [tweet https://twitter.com/InstTechQueen/status/310976462360571905] [tweet https://twitter....

Apple has teamed up with the Redford Center for the second annual Stories Challenge. The program is aimed at middle-school filmmakers to create around the themes of social and environmental justice. The 2021 Stories Challenge put on by the Redford Center along with Apple will use the latter’s Clips app. And beyond the challenge, Apple is also giving educators and students a platform to “share their ideas and inspirations in mini-challenges that develop student confidence and storytelling capacities throughout the school year....

With flat music sales and booming app ecosystem, iOS app revenue should zoom past song sales by 2015 the latest. By one estimate, iOS developers and record labels together have pulled some $16.6 billion in cumulative revenues on Apple’s iTunes content store since its inception, according to an interesting analysis by Asymco’s Horace Dediu. Even if it involves a lot of guesswork and peering inside the crystal ball, the author’s thinking is determined by known iTunes milestones and revenue data from Apple’s quarterly findings....

Apple @ Work is brought to you by Jamf, the standard in Apple management. Learn more at Jamf.com/9to5mac. Today, I’m happy to say that we’re kicking it off with a brand new webinar on the top mistakes that Apple IT managers make. In this video (below), I work through each mistake and explain why it’s a problem. Network Capacity One of the biggest problems I see with a lot of organizations comes down to planning with network capacity....

Apple has announced a new version of the 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display. It is thinner and lighter than the previous generation, coming in at 3.46 pounds and 0.71-inches thin. It also has new Intel Haswell processors for better battery life. The new battery comes in at 9 hours on a single charge. The new laptop also has new graphics and faster PCIe-based flash (60% faster). Faster, 802.11ac WiFi and Thunderbolt 2 are also in the mix....

Apple today has stopped signing iOS 13.2. This comes after iOS 13.2.2 was released to the public last week with bug fixes and performance improvements, including a fix for background app performance and RAM management. When Apple stops signing an iOS build, it means users are no longer able to downgrade to that version via iTunes/Finder. Reverting to older iOS builds is common for those in the jailbreak community and can sometimes also be useful for users who experience significant bugs after updating to the latest version of iOS....

Tile has made an accusation of Apple breaking promises to work toward resolving the dispute between the two companies, and says that indeed things are even worse than they were. The dispute centers around Apple’s apparent intention to launch AirTags, which will directly compete with Tile trackers — small devices attached to gadgets and other valuables to track their location … Background In January, Tile appeared before a congressional antitrust hearing, accusing Apple of making two changes in order to place Tile at a competitive disadvantage with the anticipated AirTags product....

Joining a wider industry shift, Apple announced that it is working to replace exclusionary language in its developer documentation and APIs with alternative terminology. Renaming things takes time and effort as large parts of infrastructure have to migrate in response. For third-party developers in the App Store, Apple will be changing the names of APIs used in their code where appropriate, which will also necessitate engineering work to migrate. Examples of exclusionary terminology include using a noun like ‘master’ to describe the primary code repository....