Apple first announced the A14 Bionic chip as it unveiled the iPad Air in September. Now just ahead of the company revealing its iPhone 12 lineup that will also feature the chip, Apple’s VP of platform architecture Tim Millet shared more insight on designing the chip and the impressive performance they’re seeing, how Apple is thinking about chip design for the future ranging from iPhone to Mac, and more. Apple’s Tim Millet and Tom Boger, senior director of Mac and iPad product marketing for an interview with Engadget diving into the A14 Bionic chip....

Back in 2014 following Apple’s acquisition of Beats, the company planned to transition away from Beats’ design firm Ammunition. Naturally, most assumed that Apple would then be using its own design teams for future Beats products. But we’ve learned that Ammunition is continuing to work with Apple in some capacity, at least collaborating on the design of its latest BeatsX and Beats EP headphones. Before Apple acquired Beats, Ammunition and its founder Robert Brunner, who happens to be a former director of industrial design at Apple from 1989 to 1996, was acting as chief designer for Beats by Dr....

Apple is already facing one class action lawsuit alleging that customers were unknowingly using up substantial amounts of mobile data, and it now faces a second. The issue at stake in this new suit is that the iPhone 5/5s could silently switch from Wi-Fi to LTE under some circumstances, resulting in mobile data usage even when the phone was on Wi-Fi. This was fixed for Verizon users back in September 2012, but law firm Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP claims that Apple didn’t fix it for AT&T users until more than two years later....

Jay Blahnik, one of the lead directors behind the health and fitness features in iOS 8 and Apple Watch, is this month continuing his tour around the globe discussing his thoughts on health and fitness. Tomorrow, August 5th, Blahnik will host a question and answer session at the North Michigan Avenue Apple Store in Chicago. During the Q&A session, Apple promises that attendees will get essential tips for staying healthy and active....

Apple has released a formal statement asserting its company’s commitments to human rights and freedom of speech. Apple says it believes in the “critical importance of an open society” and “the best way we can continue to promote openness is to remain engaged, even where we may disagree with a country’s laws”. A group of investors had voiced concerns about how much Apple defers to China’s censorship demands, such as removing VPN apps from the App Store or moving citizen’s iCloud data to Chinese-controlled data centers....

One of the issues Apple has seen antitrust scrutiny from governments around the world is the removal of third-party parental control apps. Now a Russian investigation that started last year has concluded that Apple abused its dominant market position by pulling them. Apple started removing third-party parental control software from the App Store in late 2018. That was just as its own Screen Time app became available with iOS 12....

Korea Times (via Fortune) is reporting that Apple and Samsung are in talks designed to settle all future patent disputes out of court. FOSS Patents’ Florian Mueller believes that a settlement will be reached “very soon.” Mueller believes that a one-time payment from Samsung to Apple for all past infringements will allow both companies to move on, establishing a cease-fire agreement which would commit both parties to staying out of court for a set timeframe....

Of course Apple has a succession plan in place for when Steve Jobs steps down as CEO. But revealing that is probably not a great idea. Plus, isn’t it pretty obvious by now? AAPL investors agree. As a result, the company is under no obligation to disclose its plans about how the company would be run if CEO Steve Jobs had to step down. Investors have expressed concern regarding the future of Apple leadership after, Jobs, who will turn 56 Thursday, announced a medical leave from the company last month....

Apple Music for Android has received its second app update of the month — an uncommon occurrence for the rarely updated Apple Music client. Apple Music 2.4.1 for Android includes a fix for crashing and improved reliability for music playback: The reliability update comes after Apple Music for Android gained new music video features including background audio playback, PIP playback within the app, and music video playlist support. Apple Music is available on Apple’s macOS, iOS, tvOS, and watchOS platforms, with playback supported on Android and Sonos as well....

Apple Music and Spotify are the dominant players in the streaming music industry. Spotify just announced they have 75 million paid subscribers with 170 million total active users. Apple recently hit 40 million subscribers. It’s clear that both companies are a hit with consumers. In fact, the streaming music industry has revitalized the music business. I often get asked, how do I choose between Apple Music vs Spotify I’ve gone back and forth on that....

If there’s one thing worse than damaging your iPhone or iPad by dropping it, it’s when that damage is a cracked screen. While you might be able to ignore a scuff to the casing, you’re going to see cracks in the screen every time you use the device. Apple appears to be aiming to make screens more resistant to cracking by exploring a method of automatically detecting cracks, asking users to confirm them and then sending diagnostic data to the company to help it understand the type of impacts that cause them …...

A glitch in BioWare’s MMORPG Anthem is allowing players to combine Javelins. Anthem takes players to a world abandoned by the gods, with the only signs that they were there left behind in the form of tools of creation. One such tool, called the Anthem of Creation is so powerful that an evil organization called the Dominion wants to claim it for itself, which would potentially give its group an unlimited amount of power....

At least five global companies currently have dedicated executive roles that oversee trust matters. None are from Asia-Pacific, according to Jinan Budge, principal analyst with Forrester, where she looks at Asia-Pacific security and risk research. She pointed to a 2022 prediction, in which Forrester expected at least 15 Global 500 organisations to appoint chief trust officers. Reporting directly to their CEO, these roles initially would look at security, privacy, and risk management, before expanding their efforts to encompass brand strategy, corporate values, and other human-centric aspects of trust....

Update: Responses from Epic and Spotify added below. Apple’s App Store commission cut is a very clever way to reduce the antitrust pressure on the company, but it’s not a magic bullet. Early responses suggest that both complaints and investigations will continue. Apple has reduced its commission from 30% to 15% for the overwhelming majority of developers – all those earning less than a million dollars a year in net revenue …...

The joint Google/Apple contact tracing API for coronavirus has ‘a stunning blindspot’ claims one company working on a rival approach designed for adoption by businesses for their own employees, as a second company says there is good reason for companies to use a location-based approach. Not everyone has a smartphone, says Microshare, which is instead proposing the use of Bluetooth badges, keyrings, and wristbands … The Financial Times carries the report, which suggests that businesses may go their own way, rather than rely on government apps which use the Apple/Google API....

Apple kicked off its Today at Apple program in retail stores last year and continues to expand it. In addition to its normal classes, Apple recently announced that it will be holding a “Music Lab” session in at its Union Square location in San Francisco with Wu-Tang Clan frontman RZA… AppleInsider explains that RZA himself will be at a “Developing Your Sound” session on January 27th at the Apple Union Square store in San Francisco, which is now full....

Update: macOS Sierra GM is also now available for public beta testers. Like yesterday’s developer release, it requires a new promo code for the App Store to redeem. macOS Sierra will be released to everyone on September 20. Following yesterday’s release of iOS 10 GM for developers, Apple has released iOS 10 GM to public beta testers as well. iOS 10 is scheduled to be released to anyone not testing the beta version next week on Tuesday, September 13....

Apple’s iPhone and MacBook both made appearances in Beats’ new headphones ad celebrating the World Cup. Apple, of course, announced that it is buying Beats Electronics for $3 billion last week, a deal it expects to be approved by the end of September, and featured a Beats plug earlier this week at WWDC when Dr. Dre was phoned in to the keynote and Eddy Cue was photographed wearing Beats headphones…...

Following an enduring period of quality-testing and trial runs, Apple has finally chosen not one, not two, but three suppliers of LCD panels for iPad 3. The winners are LG Display, Samsung Electronics and Sharp who all apparently cut deals to supply LCD panels for the third-generation iPad, per DigiTimes story from this morning. LG Display will act as the leading supplier, while “Sharp stands a chance of overtaking the Korea competitor if it is able to run stable supplies of quality panels”....

According to a new report from Bloomberg today, the head of business for Apple News has stepped down less than than a year after the launch of Apple News+. Liz Schimel joined Apple in 2018 after having previously worked at Conde Nast. Today’s report cites “people familiar with the move” and says that Schimel was responsible for overseeing relationships with publishers and advertisers during her time with Apple News. Under Apple’s current organizational structure, Services are overseen by Peter Stern, a top lieutenant of Eddy Cue....