Following the release of iOS 14.5.1 on May 3 to the public, Apple today stopped signing the original iOS 14.5 release. That means users who have updated their devices to iOS 14.5.1 can no longer downgrade to iOS 14.5. According to Apple, iOS 14.5.1 fixes an exploit found in WebKit and a bug related to the new App Tracking Transparency feature (although it is still not working for some users)....
In an effort to strengthen Siri’s natural language conversation abilities, Apple has acquired a UK-based firm called VocalIQ. Business Weekly was first to report the acquisition today and Apple confirmed the purchase to The Financial Times with the usual boilerplate statement: “Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans.” Apple’s purchase of VocalIQ is especially interesting for a couple reasons as noted by the report....
Apple has quietly confirmed that it’s adding business listing information from Foursquare to Apple Maps. The addition was spotted on Apple’s acknowledgements page for Maps listing the various contributors of data for Apple’s mapping service (via Apple Maps Marketing). It’s unclear exactly how Apple is using Foursquare data, but it’s likely users will begin to notice points of interest related data from the service appearing soon. Apple already partners with various companies for the data and other features it uses in Maps including TomTom, booking....
Back in November, the State of Arizona announced that Apple had chosen the city of Mesa to create a new manufacturing facility and in the process 700 new permanent manufacturing jobs. Some had speculated it could be part of CEO Tim Cook’s plan to bring manufacturing of Macs back to the US (Cook previously stated some parts will come from Arizona), but a supplier later revealed it would be providing equipment for the production of sapphire material at Apple’s new plant....
Apple has made the surprise decision to pull its original film The Banker out of the American Film Institute’s annual festival in Los Angeles. The film was set to premiere at the festival tomorrow, but now a premiere date is unclear. Update: More details on the situation have emerged in a new report from The Hollywood Reporter, which can be found below. As reported by The New York Times, Apple The Banker was set to premiere tomorrow at AFI Fest in Los Angeles, with a theatrical release on December 6th, and eventual availability on Apple TV+....
As many of you know, Apple’s servers took a hard hit yesterday as everyone began upgrading to iOS 5, downloading OS X 10.7.2, and the various other updates to apps yesterday. Some users were unable to actually activate iOS 5 for some time. This morning, however, everything seems to be in the clear in terms of upgrading to iOS 5, and won’t leave your device unusable, so it is all clear to download....
IDC is out today with its latest report tracking worldwide tablet shipments, reporting that total shipments have experienced a sequential decline during Q2 at the expense of Apple and the iPad. Apple already announced that it had sold 14.6 million iPads during the quarter, a significant drop from the 17 million it sold in the year ago quarter, but today IDC gives us some insight into where that puts Apple in its lead over Samsung as the top tablet vendor....
In order to get its new Lightning technology out on the market, Apple had to acquire the trademark “Lightning” from the popular motorcycle maker Harley-Davidson. According to Patently Apple, two trademark applications published on Sunday by the EU Patent and Trademark Office show the transfer of the trademark officially went down on Saturday. The term “Lightning” is still protected until 2013 under the original filing, and Harley-Davidson still owns some rights to the term....
Following our reports last week of Apple’s Ship to Store system being rolled out in San Francisco, we have learned this evening that Apple plans to rollout the new system to all regions this Thursday, November 3rd. The Ship to Store system will allow customers to place an order for a product on Apple’s Online Store and then pick up their purchase at their local Apple Store within the hour....
Apple has been quietly working on several original TV series behind the scenes, but has yet to announce anything officially. Today, that list continues to grow as Apple has placed another series order. As reported by The Wrap, Apple has placed an order for Little America, which will be produced and written by Lee Eisenberg, who worked on The Office for 5 seasons. Eisenberg will serve as writer, executive producer, and showrunner....
According to a report from Variety today, Apple has ordered a new original TV series based on the novel “The Mosquito Coast.” The new show will star Justin Theroux, the report says. “The Mosquito Coast” is a novel written by Paul Theroux, who just so happens to be Justin Theroux’s uncle. Here’s the description: Neil Cross will adapt the book for television and serve as the show runner. Cross will also work with Tom Bissell and write the first episode of the series....
Over the years, there has been no shortage of Jane Austen adaptations, from period pieces like Pride & Prejudice to modernized twists like Clueless. Director Autumn de Wilde mixes the two styles with Emma., a film that hews closely to the original text and spirit of the classic novel while bringing a palpable cinematic energy and modern sensibility that makes the story feel relevant to today’s society, where appearances are more all-too-often valued more than the substance of a person’s character....
December is always one of Apple’s biggest months of the year thanks to the influx of new devices people receive as gifts during the holiday season. The company often reports its highest device sales during this month, and as you can figure, the more people who are using iOS devices, the more people who are downloading apps from the App Store. App Store analytics company Sensor Tower has today shared its figures for the month of December 2015, and it was another record-setting month for Apple....
Sponsored by Kandji: A modern, cloud-based platform for centrally managing and securing your Mac, iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV devices, saving IT teams countless hours of manual work with features like one-click compliance templates and 150+ pre-built automations, apps, and workflows. Request access. In this episode of the Apple @ Work podcast, Bradley is joined by Fraser Speirs to talk about how they are rethinking technology in education after nearly a year with many kids learning virtually....
The new agreement will force Apple and the other companies to implement a method of displaying a privacy policy to the user before an app is downloaded. The announcement noted all platforms would include the feature in a consistent place on the “application-download screen.” The news follows a FTC report criticizing privacy issues of mobile apps for children and lawmakers issuing a letter to Apple following privacy concerns over Path’s use of contacts in the iPhone’s address book....
Apple today unveiled a new 13-inch MacBook Pro featuring the Apple M1 chip, replacing the previous Intel x86 models. Apple retained the same $1299 price point for the notebook. The 8-core CPU offers up to 2.8x faster performance compared with the previous 13-inch MacBook Pro. Thanks to the efficiency of the M1 chip, the new MacBook Pro offers up to 20 hours of video playback on a single charge, twice the previous quoted figure....
Apple TV+ has announced its latest original film: “Black & Blues: The Colorful Ballad of Louis Armstrong.” The company describes this as the “definitive” documentary about Armstrong. The documentary is produced under Apple’s first-look agreement with Imagine Documentaries and will be directed by Sacha Jenkins, Julie Anderson, Sara Bernstein, and Justin Wilken. Brian Grazer and Ron Howard serve as executive producers. With the support of the Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation, the filmmakers “have access to a crease trove of never-before-seen archival materials, including hundreds of hours of audio recordings, film footage, photographs, and personal diaries....
This is fairly significant, in part because it follows the widely-publicised approval of Spotify in some key European territories, and partly because it shows Apple’s happy to allow competitors to offer music streaming applications through its devices. In part, this could be to ensure open competition should the company ever decide to move into the subscription-based music space itself. Not allowing competitors to offer similar services on its platforms could be considered anti-competitive....
Apple’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) will take place early next year, and as usual some proposals have been put forward by activist shareholders. They want the meeting to debate and vote on climate change and human rights issues. But Apple has asked the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for the authority to omit at least four such proposals, citing recent guidance as justification … Reuters reports that Apple made the request in a letter to the SEC....
A new digital key standard will allow you to use a smartphone (and possibly Apple Watch) to unlock your car. The standard is backed by Apple, Samsung, LG and Qualcomm, as well as a number of car manufacturers … The group behind it is known as the Car Connectivity Consortium. Version 1.0 requires the dealer to transfer the digital key to your phone. The consortium is already working on release 2....
