Reuters reported today that Apple has been in talks since earlier this year to stream films owned by premium TV channel EPIX to Apple TV set-top boxes and potentially its much-rumored upcoming HDTV product. Three major studios including Paramount Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and Lionsgate back the channel: According to the report, Apple’s attempts to acquire the content could run into trouble due to EPIX’s $200 million agreement with Netflix that gives the service streaming rights through September of this year....

If you’re new to iOS, check out how to setup an email account. Open Mail and start a new message. Then highlight the the text you want to format by dragging you finger over it. Release the text and the Cut, Copy or Paste menu comes up. Tap the right arrow. The new formatting options will come up. Tap the button with the formatting icons. You can use Bold, Italics, and underline text....

Analysts from Bank of America Merrill Lynch have suggested that Apple is facing a potentially worrisome “informal boycott” from consumers in China and India. A survey conducted by the bank’s equity research team, cited by Bloomberg, shows user interest in upgrading to iPhone dwindling, with most of the excitement coming from Samsung or Huawei products. Further, the firm goes on to speculate that increasing trade tension talks aren’t helping the situation, with Apple potentially falling as the biggest victim as a result of the entire ordeal....

With the Grammy Awards approaching this Sunday, Apple has posted a series of new billboards in Los Angeles featuring nominated artists as Animoji characters alongside the title of their work for which they’re nominated. The billboard reminds us that we can listen to the Grammy nominated albums on Apple Music. The images first appeared on Twitter, initially spotted by a fan page for one of the nominated artists, Kacey Musgraves....

Apple News has launched a special hub for 2020 presidential election coverage that’s curated from “dozens of trusted news sources” and designed for readers from “all political viewpoints.” It includes guides for candidates and hot topics, real-time election results, live streaming of debates, special features, and more. Apple detailed the new 2020 US presidential election coverage on Apple News in a Newsroom post: Different types of content will include guides, special features, real-time election results, trending news from many sources, and more for “readers from all political viewpoints....

Some bizarre information emerged from BioWare earlier today, as the development team revealed that the studio still considers Anthem to be an early access release and that nearly all of its key content from its initial roadmap will now be delayed indefinitely. The news comes hot on the heels of anticipation for the upcoming new Stronghold release, a move that would have inspired some excitement for a game that has too often been viewed as an exemplary instance of corporate greed and rushed development sinking an otherwise promising new IP....

Cult of Mac claims that Apple is working to revamp its long-critized notification system in iOS. This comes as no surprise with many rumors pointing to an iOS notification redesign, but the juicy part is that the report claims Apple has its eyes set on purchasing an App Store developer’s company to revamp their notification system. Cult of Mac‘s source reportedly did not say which developer Apple will be buying to revamp the iOS notification system, but some possibilities include the widely popular Boxcar service by AppRemix....

Apple recently acquired the startup Scout FM, according to a Bloomberg report. The company offers an app that creates smart stations for podcast listeners, bringing a similar experience to radio stations. An Apple spokesman confirmed the acquisition, but no further details were provided. The report mentions that Apple bought Scout FM earlier this year to enhance its own podcast platform amid growing competition from Spotify. Apple has been investing in its Podcasts platform with new features and the production of original shows, as Spotify has been increasingly growing with similar efforts....

In November of last year, Apple announced that it would be opening up a new manufacturing plant in Mesa, Arizona. Since that time, little information has come out about the plant except that it would be utilized to manufacture sapphire crystal for future Apple devices. The plant will be operated by Apple in tandem with GT Advanced Technologies. Earlier this year, we learned via (now removed) Apple job listings that the plant would involve components for future iPhone and iPod product lines....

The endless patent battles between Apple and Samsung took an interesting turn this week when Apple claimed that the most recent court ruling violated the Seventh Amendment of the U.S. Constitution: the right to trial by jury. Back in 2014, Apple was awarded $119.6M when Samsung was found to have violated three of the five patents in dispute. That award was overturned last month when an appeals court ruled that Samsung didn’t infringe one of the three patents, and declared the other two invalid....

Apple is moving to expand its personnel working on wearable computers and medical-sensor-laden devices by hiring more scientists and specialists in the medical sensor field. Apple began work in earnest on a watch-like device late last decade, and it has worked with increasing efficiency and more dedicated resources on the project over the past couple of years. Last year, we published an extensive profile that indicated Apple has hired several scientists, engineers, and managers in the field of biomedical technologies, glucose sensors, and general fitness devices…...

A report this morning claims Taiwan’s flash memory makers – including Samsung, Micron, Toshiba and Hynix – are prioritising orders for Apple and warning of shortages across the rest of the market. These moves emerge scant days since Apple introduced its new range of iPods, including the new high-capacity 64GB iPod touch (currently lacking a camera), new iPod nanos and more. The action also occurs as industry rumours speculate Apple may proffer a new bunch of product upgrades in the month ahead, with many still anticipating release of a media-focused Apple tablet....

One of the most useful new features to come to iOS over the last several years has been Security Code AutoFill. Added in iOS 12, this feature autofills the security code authentication text messages you receive from banks, websites, and more. On Twitter this weekend, an Apple software engineer has offered a fun look at how the feature was developed. Ricky Mondello explains that the idea for Security Code AutoFill actually came about while software engineers were working “what we thought was a much more ambitious project....

Apple last month kicked off its annual Back to School promotion, announcing that it is giving away a free pair of Beats Solo 2 headphones with the purchase of any eligible Mac. At the time, however, the promo was limited to Apple retail stores, with the promise of the deal coming later on to Apple’s online store. Starting today, however, Apple’s Back to School promotion is now available via Apple’s online store....

In addition to the release of new iOS, watchOS, tvOS, and macOS betas, Apple this evening also announced that the Volume Purchase Program is expanding to a handful of new countries. Starting today, the Volume Purchase Program is now available in Austria, Brazil, Czech Republic, Hungary, India, Poland, Portugal, and South Africa, for a total of 8 new countries. The Volume Purchase Program, for those unfamiliar, allows for large parties like corporations and schools to more easily purchase and deploy mass numbers of applications....

As Apple is getting ready to release iOS 14.3 to the public in the coming days, and the company is now rolling out a new feature for Apple Music subscribers. Users running the latest iOS beta have noticed that there are now some albums available on Apple Music with animated artwork. The company had already added some animations to the featured playlist artworks on Apple Music during the iOS 14 development, but nothing had changed for the individual albums — at least for now....

Apple posted impressive Q3 results yesterday as well as announcing a 4-1 stock split. This morning with the market open, AAPL shares hit a new all-time high and now the company’s market value has briefly exceeded Saudi Aramco’s to become the world’s most valuable public company on its way to a $2 trillion market value. AAPL shares opened up over 6% this morning after the new record June quarter for the company, pushing them over $410 (at the time of writing), a new all-time high for the stock....

. Mere weeks before the WWDC, Apple is still quiet on the Lodsys situation, leaving developers unsure of what to do in the patent trolling case. The silence is truly deafening. EFF sums up many of our thoughts on this: Apple clearly needs to take a stand on this one way or another. Even just a public statement saying, “we are working on this and will have an answer before the 30 days to respond to Lodsys time is up” would suffice....