Update: Closer review of the documentation suggests that the patent may more broadly cover Apple’s above-ground entrances. Patent illustrations more closely resemble Apple’s retail store in Kunming, China. The filing, which lists Apple retail staff, also references the store’s opening. Apple was today granted a design patent for the exterior of the Steve Jobs Theater … The patent is for the appearance of the above-ground glass building, rather than for any of the technology used within the theater....

We first reported on an Apple patent for Face ID on Macs back in 2017, before we knew what Apple would call the feature when it debuted in the iPhone X. That patent has today been granted. The patent is for a more intelligent version of Face ID than is currently used on iPhones… The granted patent could use the Mac’s camera to do two things. First, it would avoid timing-out into sleep mode when there’s someone in front of the machine....

Despite Apple saying that its products and services are ad-free, there are some ad slots on the App Store and other native iOS and macOS apps. As the company’s services category continues to grow, it seems that Apple is taking the next big step to invest in its advertising platform with the hiring of Antonio Garcia Martinez — who worked at Facebook’s ad team. As reported by Business Insider, Martinez was hired by Apple in April and is expected to work in Cupertino, California, based on information from his LinkedIn profile....

Update below. With the number of refugees now fleeing war-torn Syria reaching into the hundreds of thousands, Apple is inviting customers to donate to the Red Cross through a splash page on the iTunes Store. There are donate buttons for amounts ranging from $5 to $200 in the U.S. store, and for similar sums in other countries. Many Syrian nationals have seen their homes and, in some cases, entire towns destroyed by bombings....

Photo Credit: Rachel Wente-Chaney Apple will roll out its iPhone 5 holiday lineup at 10 a.m. Pacific today, according to our sources and reports around the Web. The event will take place at Apple’s campus in Cupertino. New CEO Tim Cook will likely unveil at least three iPhone 5 models at 16GB, 32GB and 64GB versions– with plans available from AT&T, Verizon and its newest partner, Sprint. A world phone model is in the works, we hear from Asian sources, who report that the iPhone 5 with HSPA+ browses the Web at about triple the pace....

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_profilepage&v=g88ufDHEYpY] 2:25: iPad 2 is staying on sale $100 off the 16GB one: $399, $529 for 3Gs – great for schools. 2:20 iPad video. 2:15 Almost 20 minutes of demo time for iPhoto and still scratching surface. Oh, just $4.99. All of iLife now on iPad. 2:05 Editing pictures in iPhoto from a professional DSLR (Nikon). Weird – no support for Google’s Picasa. 2:00 iPhoto for iPad ” Amazing” great way to browse and edit photos....

Apple announced today that it is expanding the availability of its Apple Music student membership. The company hasn’t yet confirmed a complete list of new markets, but says the discounted membership is coming to 82 new regions this month… Apple Music’s student membership is today available in an additional 79 markets, while it will further expand to three additional markets later this month on February 26th. New markets include Israel, Malaysia, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal and Taiwan....

Apple Stores are offering some notable discounts on certain accessories this month, according to promotional material sent to us in a tip. Two of the deals started this week and a third starts on August 11th. The first deal is 10% off of select Beats by Dre headphones and speakers. This deal ends on August 10th. The second deal ends on August 31st, and it is for $50 off of the Jawbone Big JamBox....

. Digitimes reports that although rumors have claimed that Apple is preparing an iPad 3 for launch during fall 2011, Chinese part suppliers are calling the rumors false. Apple’s part suppliers have reportedly yet to receive orders for third-generation iPad components, and Apple coupled with the fact that Apple just released the iPad 2, these suppliers feel the rumors lack merit. The Chinese sources state that if a new iPad does happen to arrive during fall 2011 that it will be a minimal upgrade; perhaps a new version that “supports different communication format....

Even more infuriation was felt by those EDGE iPhone 2.0 updaters who essentially killed their phones for the better half of the day when prompted to update by iTunes to iPhone 2.0. The software update happens but Apple needs to re-activate your iPhone. Instead of activations, iTunes was spitting out errors. It looks like the high activation rate from the 3G iPhones plus all of the old iPhones being updated created the perfect storm to kill the activation servers....

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86LxStLXrf4] iPhone 4S iCloud TV advertisment Following up on the first iPhone 4S Siri TV advertisement from last week, Apple has just released three new advertisements surrounding the iPhone 4S. The iCloud iPhone 4S advertisement shown above shows the out of the box iCloud integration for the iPhone 4S. Examples include downloading a song on the iPhone 4S and having it instantly appear on the user’s Mac, bookmark syncing between an iPhone 4S and an iPad 2, iWork document syncing, and Photo Stream....

Ina Fried at AllThingsD: According to the document, both sides are getting a nonexclusive, nontransferrable and non-sublicensable license to certain of the other’s patents. Apple also agrees not to sue HTC over certain covered products, though the specific products are redacted. The agreement also appears to exclude any of Apple’s design patents as well as coverage on any products that are defined as cloning an Apple product. Samsung put the document into public view with most areas blocked out....

Last year, we reported that Apple plans to open up its first Apple Store in Brazil between February and March of 2014. This store would be located inside of the popular Village Mall in Rio de Janeiro: Now, the Instagram account for Village Mall has published a photo of the space in which the Apple Store will be housed. The store is blocked by colorful Apple logo signage that is not too different from the teases shown before the recent opening of Apple’s new flagship store in Brisbane, Australia…...

Apple has announced that starting today, the iAd platform will be available in 70 new countries, bringing the total number of supported nations to 95. Today’s expansion is by far the largest the company has ever attempted, and more than triples (in fact, nearly quadruples) the number of available markets. iAd was previously expanded to nine additional European countries earlier this month, which brought the total at the time to 25....

Every year a new iPhone comes out. And every year Apple waxes endlessly about how much better its camera is than the camera it peddled the previous year. How much better do you really need it to be? I have an iPhone 12 and the camera does wondrous things on my behalf. It makes difficult pictures look delightful. So when Apple pushes out ad after meaningless ad claiming its camera is now Hollywood standard, I tend to stare blankly and hope the NBA game starts soon....

2019 saw a “complete turnaround” in the performance of Apple in India, says a report — with local researchers predicting that there is even better news to come in 2020. The report said Apple’s revitalized fortunes in the country were due to a mix of iPhone pricing, Mac sales and wearables… LiveMint cites Counterpoint Research and IDC. Local manufacturing has been key for Apple in India. This began with Wistron making the iPhone SE then the iPhone 6S and iPhone 7....

In addition to announcing its App Store Best of 2019 today, Apple is also launching its first-ever Apple Music Awards. The company says it handpicked winners for Global Artist of the Year, Songwriter of the Year and Breakthrough Artist of the Year. It also gave awards to the most streamed song and album. With Billie Eilish picking up three awards, Apple is celebrating the first year of Apple Music Awards with a performance from the artist held at Steve Jobs Theater....

In what has become a tradition of sorts, Apple today published iTunes Rewind 2011, an annual list of the best iOS apps and games split across 21 App Store categories. Apple explains: In addition to apps, charts are also available for music, movies, television shows, e-books and podcasts. They named Snapseed for the iPad App of the Year and Electronic Arts’ Dead Space for the iPad Game of the Year. As for the iPhone, Apple put Instagram at the top (runners-up were VidRhythm and Band of the Day)....

Apple is now publishing public web pages for landmarks and POI in its Apple Maps database: here’s one such place. The website link shows details about the place such as location, name, telephone number and reviews. The design is identical to the cards in the iOS 10 Maps app. When on an Apple platform, these URLs appear to act as deep links into the native Maps app. If viewing in Chrome or on a non-Apple device like Android, the fallback webpage is loaded....

One particular piece of evidence that leads us to believe in a June 14th Lion launch is that Apple will be minimizing software presence in their retail stores on that day. Possibily meaning the removal of Snow Leopard from Apple’s retail outlets. This may mean a mid-June Final Cut Pro X launch as well, but that is purely speculative. Apple removing software from their retail stores is not exactly an issue for Mac OS X Lion customers as this particular software release will come through the Mac App Store....