Apple is continuing its quick retail expansion around the globe, this time with a new store in Melbourne, Australia. Australia’s minister for tourism and major events made the announcement today, saying the store will be a “global flagship” for Apple… This store will be located in Federation Square and comes as part of Australia’s efforts to “breathe new life into one of Melbourne’s most iconic landmarks.” The store is predicted to bring in an additional 2 million visitors per year to Federation Square and will create 250 temporary construction jobs and 200 ongoing jobs following completion....

After earlier complaining that the company was being overcharged by the court-appointed lawyer overseeing its compliance with the terms of the ebooks anti-trust ruling, Apple has now brought matters to a head by asking for Michael Bromwich to be removed from the role, reports Reuters. Apple had complained that Bromwich’s $1,100 per hour rate was unreasonable, and gave him a financial incentive to interview Apple execs who were not involved with ebooks and to turn a limited investigation into a far broader one....

Apple previewed some exciting new accessibility features yesterday and today, it is celebrating Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) across many of its platforms like the App Store, Shortcuts app, TV app, Maps, Fitness+, Today at Apple sessions in its stores, and more. Ahead of GAAD, Apple previewed a range of new accessibility features coming later this year. That includes AssistiveTouch for Apple Watch, eye-tracking for iPad, exploring images with VoiceOver, Background Sounds, and more....

Allowing Siri access from the lock screen is a potential security threat that has, in the past, allowed someone to access personal data like photos. Additionally, Siri will respond to any command given by anyone when your device is unlocked. Apple thinks it has a solution, using a combination of a special phrase and authenticating your unique voice to ensure that Siri responds to you and only to you …...

It’s very rare that Apple publicly apologizes for hardware mistakes. In fact, the company typically patches these issues with future versions of its hardware. For example, the company reinforced the iPhone 6s and later models with 7000 series space-grade aluminum to prevent wear and tear and damage to the body of the phone. This was all without admitting that the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus had an issue with bending, at least publicly....

Apple is making quite a few quiet announcements today. Earlier it introduced a new stripped down $229 fifth-gen iPod touch to replace the fourth-gen touch and also announced 100M iPod touches sold to date. Apple has also now made a change to its education pricing on non Retina MacBook Pros by dropping the $1099 entry level price point to $999. That makes the price of the device $200 cheaper than Apple charges to non education customers....

According to Digitimes, Apple and Samsung will dominate OLED display supply this year whilst smaller phone vendors struggle to secure suppliers. The report says Apple will get about 75 million OLED panels from Samsung in 2017 for iPhone 8, which is about 15% of total annual OLED production output. Samsung Electronics will get about 56%; Apple’s share would be even higher if the iPhone 8 launched earlier in the year....

Following the release of new Apple Watch bands and iPhone X cases earlier this week, Apple has added even more new accessories to its online store in time for holiday shopping. For iPad Pro users, there’s a new Leather Sleeve color choice and Apple Pencil Case color choice, while the Apple Watch adds a new Hermès band… The Apple Pencil Case and the Leather Sleeve for the 10.5-inch iPad Pro are both available in a new Pink Fuchsia color....

As promised, Apple just released a fix to remove the Flashback malware that is reportedly affecting 1 percent of all Macs. Go fire up Software Update and grab this 66.8MB update now. This update also configures the Java web plug-in to disable the automatic execution of Java applets. Users may re-enable automatic execution of Java applets using the Java Preferences application. If the Java web plug-in detects that no applets have been run for an extended period of time it will again disable Java applets....

Apple has announced in a post on its developer blog that it is increasing the the cellular download limit for apps on the App Store. It’s certainly not a major increase, but it’s one that is definitely welcomed… Apple is bumping the cellular download limit from 100MB to 150MB, which it says will help users download more apps while on cellular connectivity: It was all the way back in 2013 that Apple bumped the limit from 50MB to 100MB....

As we move past Christmas and into Boxing Day worldwide, Apple has confirmed its annual ‘Lucky Bag’ sale for Jan. 2 in Japan. The sale, which takes place in seven stores across the country, allows shoppers who get in line early to purchase a 33,000 yen ($390 USD) gift bag that includes the possibility of headphones, an iPod touch, cases, an Apple T-shirt, and other accessories. The real surprise is a few gift bags are loaded with special items like a MacBook Air or iPad that a few lucky people will receive....

There is now a way for security researchers to gain (legal) access to unlocked iPhone test devices which do not have the usual protections surrounding arbitrary code execution and other defences. Access to ‘rooted’ hardware enables security researchers to inspect core parts of the operating system more easily, which helps to track down exploits in the kernel and other low-level areas of the iOS operating system. Apple announced its plans to do this almost a year ago....

Update 2: Apple is reporting that the iCloud.com services have also been restored. Update: Apple is reporting that the availability of some services has now been restored but several features of iCloud are still down and undergoing maintenance. As noted by Apple’s system status page, a multitude of Apple services are currently experiencing instability and downtime for some users. The affected services include the App Store, Mac App Store, Apple TV services, iTunes In The Cloud and critical features like Find My iPhone....

Apple today has shared an updated official aerial shot of construction progress on its Campus 2 facility set to be complete by the end of 2016. The new shot, posted to the City of Cupertino’s website, provides a different angle and wider view of the surrounding campus compared to the last aerial photo from earlier this month. Things haven’t changed, however, for Apple’s general project schedule with street utilities and demolition work expected to finish this year, earthwork continuing into early 2015, and building construction into late 2016:...

Apple @ Work Podcast is brought to you by Jamf, the standard for Apple in the enterprise. Learn more at Jamf.com/9to5mac. In this episode of the Apple @ Work podcast, Bradley is joined by Anna Myroshnychenko from Kitcast to talk about using the Apple TV for digital signage in schools, restaurants, office buildings, etc. We’re adding some additional audio equipment in future episodes to improve sound quality, so thanks for your patience!...

Adopting a move out of Google’s 20-percent time playbook, Apple has begun a program titled “Blue Sky” that gives select employees two weeks to work on a project not in their normal realm of responsibilities. Jessica Lessin of the Wall Street Journal shared the news on video (via Business Insider), where she said Apple’s two-week program is not as vast as the program Google offers. Instead, Apple’s program is a select amount of employees that get the free time....

Apple has just unveiled the new generation Apple TV, Apple TV 4K. The new set-top box features 4K output with HDR, Dolby Vision and HDR10, to play the latest movies and TV shows at 3840×2160 resolution. Apple used a special projector in the theater to demo the ‘cinematic quality’ output. The company demoed the new Spiderman movie in 4K HDR. Apple has new Aerial screensavers fully remastered in 4K HDR for users to enjoy....

Apple has just announced the latest version of its desktop operating system, macOS Catalina. macOS 10.15 Catalina brings the death of iTunes and brand new Music, Podcasts and a TV app. iOS device sync has moved to the Finder. Podcasts features machine-learning powered search, by finding text that was spoken in the podcast. The new TV app looks a lot like the TV app from iOS. Compatible content playback includes 4K HDR and Atmos content....

As expected, Apple today has not released a new Apple Watch model but rather announced a handful of new bands for the device. Most notably, Apple has announced a new Space Black version of the Milanese Loop. Apple originally introduced the Milanese Loop when it first launched the Apple Watch last April. \Apple has unveiled a new line of Nylon bands at its event today. We took a look at a third-party NATO-style Nylon band earlier this year and noted that it was viable alternative for users that want a band that works well in active lifestyles but aren’t interested in the fluoroelastomer Sport band....

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFWG51nGmGA] Businessweek covers a talk given by Apple (and former Google) board member Bill Campbell who “held court” on Friday at the Mountain View headquarters of Intuit, where he serves as chairman. Notably, he discussed former Apple execs Tony Fadell who now runs Nest and Ron Johnson who just got fired from JCPenney. Of Nest, he pre-announced new products, saying Of Ron Johnson‘s exit at JCP, he said, “You have to keep your current business going while you experiment with a new one....