In line with our earlier report, Apple has just kicked off a big iPhone trade-in event at its U.S. retail stores that will see employees pushing upgrade offers for the iPhone 5s and 5c. We first reported on details of the event earlier this week noting Apple would add improved trade in options and significantly step up promotion of iPhone trade-ins during the initiative . Specifically, Apple has sent out a memo to Apple Store staff instructing them to push upgrades to iPhone 4 and 4s users with increased trade-in values....

Apple leadership profiles on the official company page and on social media transformed to Memoji ahead of the WWDC conference, where Apple is expected to unveil iOS 15, macOS 12, watchOS 8, and tvOS 15. This isn’t the first time Apple execs have been turned into Memoji forms. This was last done in 2018 to celebrate World Emoji Day. Apple has remade the avatar for each exec and everyone looks decidedly more human this time around compared to the square–faced, impish forms of 2018....

This full time specialist would work to ‘cancel fraudulent orders’ and ‘research and resolve fraud escalations from various sources.’ Hmm.. This person would have really come in handy the other day. Did Apple know that issues such as the Thuat Nguyen incident were looming? Was there a spike in App Store fraud the last few weeks? Well at least now we know Apple has been on top of things and this is evident through this job posting and their quick response to the recent event....

Following up on last month’s release, Apple Music has announced that Sigrid is May’s Up Next artist. Up Next is a new documentary artist series from Apple Music that focuses on up and coming musicians. The Up Next series started last month with R&B inspired hip-hop artist 6LACK (pronounced “black”). Apple Music’s Up Next page was dedicated to the artist including a personal documentary with the artist, and an interview with Zane Lowe....

When Apple released iPhoto for iOS on March 7, many quickly realized that Apple was not using Google Maps as it usually does for mapping, but rather maps from the OpenStreetMap project. Apple offered no official credit to the non-profit project, which collects a series of maps from over 500,000 people worldwide. However, it appears that Apple has finally credited OpenStreetMap in its latest iPhoto update, as the non-profit project tweeted the news last night....

Apple has overtaken Samsung as the mobile brand scoring highest in both awareness and loyalty in China, reports CNET. Samsung had previously held the top slot in the China Brand Power Index since 2012 … The rankings are based on a large-scale consumer survey conducted annually by the China Brand Research Center. The China Brand Research Center calculated this year’s rankings by polling 13,500 Chinese across 30 cities, aged 15 to 60, from August 2013 to January 2014...

Apple has partnered with Tynker, a San Francisco-based STEM education platform, to release two new game-based programming lessons aimed to help kids learn how to code. The new Space Cadet and Dragon Spells courses are available for free. The partnership includes free guides for teachers available through iBooks, and two free courses through the Everyone Can Code program for K-5 kids. The new courses are designed to help K-5 kids become familiar with Swift syntax at an early age before transitioning to Apple’s Swift Playgrounds app in sixth grade and up....

The launch trailer for BioWare’s Anthem reveals more about the upcoming online multiplayer, as well as how players can carry over saves to the next-gen Xbox and PlayStation 5. From a visual and technical perspective, it offers a deep dive into the game’s suits and shows a bit more of how Javelins work. While ScreenRant’s own review of Anthem was unsure about the longevity of the idea, EA is doing its best to prove any naysayers wrong....

Update: As expected, this is not what it seems. It looks like the developer switched all of the advertised premium content over to an ad for Futobox. Premium content vendors take note: People are willing to pay for good streaming content. Update 2: TV Premium removed from the Apple Store over 24 hours later. We’re hearing from multiple sources that Apple issuing refunds. A new iOS app released in the App Store this weekend called “TV English Premium” that allows users to watch premium TV stations without a subscription....

One of the perks of being the world’s most-valued technology company is the uncanny ability to put your vast cash hoard at work to secure supplies while squeeze out the best prices from component makers, but it also means agreeing to fine print. Like a tax that is additional costs for smooth shipments in unforeseen circumstances, such as the Japan quake. From Digitimes: Tablet makers who do not agree to these terms are likely to pay more for components at a time of crisis, thus allowing Apple to maintain its pricing pressure with iPad....

Following the release of the MobileFirst suite of iOS enterprise apps last year, the result of a new partnership between Apple and IBM, today the companies are rolling out the apps to the Japanese market. The companies haven’t made an official announcement yet, but sources close to the situation say seven apps are arriving for Japanese customers today. IBM Japan is making seven of the 14 MobileFirst apps available in Japan, including: banking and financial apps Advise & Grow, and Trusted Advice, insurance app Retention, the Case Advice app for government organizations, Expert Tech for telecommunications, Sales Assist, and Pick & Pack apps for the retail industry....

Following the news of Home Before Dark, Apple has also announced the release date for its first TV+ project with Steven Spielberg, the remake of Amazing Stories. Five episodes will be released on March 6. Amazing Stories includes the final performance of Robert Forster, who passed away in October. Apple also today announced that its first British TV production, called ‘Trying’, will debut May 1 on its streaming service. Spielberg is the producer of Amazing Stories....

The Apple Developer Academy is being expanded to Detroit and Korea. The Detroit location will be the first time the programs have ever been made available in the US. The academy offers two programs for would-be iOS developers, one of which lasts a month, the other around a year. Both are free of charge to successful applicants, and Apple provides all the necessary technology … Apple made the announcement today....

Back in 2019, the Apple Developer app was updated with a new feature that made it easier for new developers to sign up for the program without having to access Apple’s website. While this feature was initially only available in the US, Apple is now expanding this option to more regions. The company announced on Thursday the expansion of in-app enrollment for the Apple Developer program. Starting today, users from Canada, France, India, Italy, the Netherlands, Russia, and Spain can join the program using the iOS app....

The UK’s Financial Ombudsman has opened an investigation into whether Apple discriminates against severely disabled customers through its iPhone Upgrade Program conditions. The complaint was filed by Colin Hughes, a quadriplegic Apple user who says he is unable to comply with Apple UK’s requirement to visit a store in person in order to join or renew … In the UK, Apple requires customers to physically visit an Apple Store in order to either enroll in the iPhone Upgrade Program, or to renew it....

A pair of Apple marketing team members joined the Mac Admins Podcast this week to talk about Apple’s role in enterprise and business, the T2 chip found in recent Macs, and more. Topics included Apple Business Manager, adoption of Apple hardware by companies like SAP and IBM, and more. Jeremy Butcher, product marketing for enterprise software, and Doug Brooks, product marketing for Mac hardware, appeared on the Mac Admins Podcast this week....

[slideshow] Apple’s education event is underway at New York City’s Guggenheim Museum, where Eddy Cue, the company’s vice president of Internet Software and Services, told the audience how Apple is “going to help teachers reinvent the curriculum.” Noting that Apple has seen 700 million downloads from iTunes U, Cue took the wraps off a brand new free software for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. Aptly named iTunes U, the app makes it “simple for anyone to take courses anywhere....

According to TWIT’s Leo LaPorte, Apple has hired away Tomlinson Holman, the brain behind Lucasfilm’s THX sound and the world’s first 10.2 surround sound system. This is exciting not only because the opportunity for better sound in Macs, AppleTVs and iOS devices but also because Apple gets one of the superstar pioneers and great minds behind digital media technology on its roster. That leads to better hires which leads back to better tech....

We’re less than two months away from WWDC 2019, and Apple today has started notifying scholarship applicants of their award status. WWDC scholarship winners receive free access to WWDC, as well as lodging. The WWDC scholarship application was open to developers 13 years of age or older and meeting one of the following requirements: In order to apply for a WWDC scholarship, students were required to create an “interactive scene in a Swift playground that can be experienced within three minutes....

Nest CEO and ‘father of the iPod’ Tony Fadell has responded to data privacy concerns expressed after the company was acquired by Google, stating that there have not yet been any changes to the data collected by the smart thermostat and smoke detector, and that any future changes would be both transparent and opt-in. Fadell gave the assurances during an interview at the Digital-Life-Design conference (via TNW). He also said that he was excited by the conversations he’d had with Larry Page and other Google execs when discussing future plans....