Apple recently has filed a new document with the Federal Communications Commission in which it argues that Made for iPhone, or MFi, accessories should be acknowledged by the organization as alternatives for hearing aid compatibility compliance. Recently, the FCC has proposed that all phones and consumer wireless devices must be compatible with hearing aids. In response to the new proposal from the FCC, Apple says that all products that fall under its MFi hearing aid standards already comply with the FCC’s hearing aid compliance regulations....

For the first time ever, Apple partnered with The Ellen Show to give the whole audience an iPhone, the iPhone XR. In a rather cringey skit with Julia Roberts, Ellen DeGeneres announces to the crowd that they are all getting the brand new iPhone. The Ellen Show always does 12 days of giveaways for the holiday season but never before has Apple participated in what are essentially paid promotional segments. You can watch the 3-minute sequence below....

Following preliminary approval it received in August, Apple has been granted the final court approval it needed in its $450 million ebook settlement, according to a Reuters report. U.S. District Judge Denise Cote previously expressed concern over the proposed settlement citing a clause in the agreement that she called “most troubling”, but today called the settlement agreement “within the range of those that may be approved as fair and reasonable.”...

Earlier this week, Apple told developers in its DTK Apple silicon program to be prepared to return the early access prototype Mac mini soon. It said developers would receive a $200 credit towards the purchase of an M1 Mac as a token of appreciation. However, this announcement was not met too kindly by the community. Apple has ‘heard the feedback’ and has increased the credit accordingly … Last year, developers could apply to get early access to Apple silicon hardware, in the form of a Mac mini featuring a A12X chip inside, along with dedicated developer technical resources to help them get their apps compatible with ARM faster....

WWDC 2020 is scheduled to be held in June as a “completely new online experience” due to COVID-19 concerns. But first, Apple is inviting some selected developers to attend a webinar about accessibility ahead of the WWDC. Developers are being invited by email to register for the live event on April 23, 2020, as shown by Steve Troughton-Smith on Twitter. According to Apple, the webinar is about how developers can improve their apps by supporting accessibility features....

In August of last year, Apple launched a trade-in program that allowed iPhone customers to turn in their old iPhones in exchange for a discount on a new device. The program has expanded to several countries since it launched last year. Starting today the company now extends the offer to German customers as well. German users of the Apple Store app have started seeing the program listed within the app, though the update has yet to roll out to Apple’s retail website....

Alongside the new 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display, Apple has announced an upgrade to the 15-inch model with much improved graphics processors, a new Intel Quad-Core processing system, improved battery life (up to 8 hours), and new 802.11ac WiFi. The new 15-inch models also ship today, and they include OS X Mavericks. The new computer starts at $1999. (Full press release below) iWork & iLife Now Free with Every New Mac SAN FRANCISCO—October 22, 2013—Apple® today updated MacBook Pro® with Retina® display with fourth generation Intel Core processors, the latest graphics, longer battery life, faster flash storage and next generation Wi-Fi....

While TomTom continues to top Apple’s list of data providers for the backend of its Maps service, a few new additions have recently joined the list of contributors supplying information to Apple Maps. New sources providing business listing data per Apple’s acknowledgement page include E-WEGO SARL, NavAds BV, and Yellow Pages Turkey. The new data sources are likely noticeable in regions around the world including France and Turkey where the information is sourced....

I was expecting to jump ship from Spotify to Apple Music right from the start, and I did indeed do so. The longer I’ve used it, the more enthusiastic I’ve become about the service. Before the launch of Apple Music, I mostly listened to my own music library, viewing Spotify very much as a supplementary music source. It wasn’t very good at introducing me to new music, so mostly I used it to try out artists recommended by friends....

[Update: Partnership is officially announced. Tweet added to bottom of post.] According to a new report from Recode, Apple has agreed to a partnership with popular music video app Musical.ly. The partnership will see Apple Music supply the song clips in the Musical.ly application, which allows users to create their own videos singing along to popular songs. Currently, Musical.ly receives its songs from U.K.-based provider 7digital. The switch to Apple Music, however, will officially occur on Friday....

In the same way people argue about iOS over Android, the debate between Apple Music vs Spotify has also grown since 2015. As the music streaming service war starts to bring podcasts and HiFi to the battlefield, are you planning to stay with your current streaming service, or are you considering switching? I’ve been using Apple Music since it launched. Even when Apple erased a few times all my library, I didn’t care....

Apple officially launched its Today at Apple initiative – combining workshops and creative performances – this weekend. The company says that it held special events at all 495 Apple Stores around the world, and showed off photos from many of them (below). The company first spoke about the initiative just over a year ago, while previewing the San Francisco Union Square store, but it was only last month when we learned that it was to be a major focus....

In what is now an annual tradition, Apple has dedicated its homepage at apple.com to celebrating Martin Luther King Jr Day. Each year, Apple chooses a one-sentence quote, which this year is: It is again taken from King’s famous Letter from a Birmingham Jail in which he addressed criticism from other Christians who considered he was an outsider interfering in matters which didn’t affect him – and breaking the law to do so....

Along with Apple filing a patent for a reconfigurable solid-state MacBook keyboard today, the company has seen a host of other patents approved. One of the most interesting means future iPhones (and any other Apple device) could be made using the Mac Pro’s 3D cheese grater design. Apple was granted a total of 77 new patents today by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. For this interesting iPhone structural patent, here’s how Apple describes it (via Patently Apple):...

Apple has upped the screenshot limits for developers today, as announced on the Apple Developer News blog. Apps can now have up to 10 screenshots per device form factor, increased from the previous limit of 5 per device. This change applies to the iOS App Store, tvOS App Store, and watchOS App Store. The number of screenshots displayed in search results is still limited to a maximum of three portrait screenshots or one horizontal screenshot....

Apple has shifted its focus to Services as part of its efforts to combat slowing iPhone sales. In a new investor note, Morgan Stanley now says the App Store could show better-than-expected revenue growth for the month of August, citing new data from app analytics platform Sensor Tower. The data from Sensor Tower suggests that August App Store revenue saw its biggest year-over-year growth since February of 2018, and “the largest month-over-month acceleration since early 2015....

Apple famously sits on a huge stockpile of cash – $215B at the latest count – but a new report from corporate credit rating agency Moody’s puts the number into perspective. It shows that if you exclude banking & finance, a sector that sits on a lot of cash by definition, just three companies hold 23% of all the corporate cash in the USA: Apple, Microsoft and Google. GeekWire notes that this is the first time that all five of the top spots have been held by tech companies, with Apple holding twice as much as Microsoft and three times as much as Google …...

So, you have a great blog and want to run an iPad or iPhone giveaway that would drum up interest and keep those eyeballs glued to their screens… Hope you read Apple’s Guidelines for Third Party Promotions first. Fortune’s Philip Elmer De-Witt did some digging and figured out the document imposes all kinds of restrictions on sweepstakes that are no doubt attractive for your audience, but also devaluing Apple’s reputable brand....

Apple has acquired education technology startup LearnSprout for an undisclosed sum, via Bloomberg. LearnSprout’s software lets teachers track student progress and test scores, organize class achievement targets and more school-oriented features. The acquisition follows Apple’s announcement of iOS 9.3, which includes several major new features for iPads in education, including multi-user account switching. LearnSprout’s features were mainly marketed at PC and Mac users. With an Apple acquisition, it is likely the technology will be ported to iOS as Apple continues to push iPad into education sectors....

Following months of rumors, Apple today officially unveiled the 4.7″-screened iPhone 6s and 5.5″-screened iPhone 6s Plus, the “S”-series sequels to last year’s hugely successful iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus — billed by Apple as the most popular iPhones ever. Preserving their predecessors’ physical sizes and glass-and-metal industrial designs, the new models have been updated with a collection of enhancements, including: 3D Touch, force-sensing technology that adds new gestures “peek” and “pop,” which bring up modal windows and things hidden under panes....