Apple announced that Apple Card is available to everyone in the United States from today. To sign up, simply open the Wallet app on your iPhone and begin the application process. In a press release, Apple Pay VP Jennifer Bailey said Apple was “thrilled” with the interest in Apple’s credit card. Apple also announced that it is extending the 3% Daily Cash offer to third-party merchants, starting with Uber and Uber Eats....

Update: 12:30PM ET – Apple’s status website also saying the issues are resolved For the second time this week, Apple has confirmed that iMessage and FaceTime are experiencing hiccups, albeit nearly three hours after users first started reporting issues. Any regular user of the service can speak for how regular of an occurrence this is, and Apple is consistently slow to confirm any service disruption. Notably, when Apple does admit any downtime, it typically downplays the issue while our own experience and that of the good people on Twitter reflects otherwise....

Lawyer Normand Painchaud spoke with The Montreal Gazette about his class-action suit filed in Quebec Superior Court and talked about two others filed in Ontario and British Columbia: Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail reported yesterday that a similar class-action suit filed in B.C. Supreme Court, as mentioned by Painchaud. Lawyer Reidar Mogerman, who filed the case last week, spoke with the publication: Apple and the publishers have not responded to the cases, and —as of this week— statements of defense were not filed in Canadian courts....

A tax hike in India on imported smartphones announced last week has hit iPhone prices as predicted. The company has increased prices of every model except the locally made SE by an average of 3.5% … Reuters reports that this makes the iPhone X even more expensive in a country where Apple currently has just a 3% market share. The import tax on imported iPhones was increased from 10% to 15% in a bid to encourage local manufacturing....

Apple has issued a rare recall notice on one of its products today: the Beats Pill XL portable Bluetooth speaker sold in Apple Stores and various other retailers. The voluntary recall cites a situation in which the battery can overheat and become a fire hazard. Apple purchased Beats Electronics and Beats Music for some $3 billion in 2014. The current Beats Pill XL hardware has remained the same since Apple purchased the speaker company....

Apple has today published a new video on its YouTube channel sharing that season two of Carpool Karaoke: The Series will be available via the TV app for free. The video says that Apple will be releasing a new free episode every week starting on October 12, and it will be made available via the TV app on iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV. Judging by the video, this will be a mix of previously released episodes that were put behind the Apple Music paywall, as well as an all new season featuring celebrities such as Weird Al “Yankovic”, Snoop Dog, and much more....

It’s not all bad news for Apple – the company is one of the two best firms in terms of energy efficiency in its products, with all of them meeting and, in many cases, exceeding Energy Star requirements. However, Apple missed a big chance to advance its score by not improving the environmental performance of the new version of the iPhone, Greenpeace notes. The latest Greenpeace Guide to Greener Electronics rates company performance on a range of categories, but this eighth edition introduces expanded and tougher criteria on toxic chemicals, electronic waste and new criteria on climate change....

TF Securities’ analyst Ming-Chi Kuo is today forecasting that Apple will sell about 10% more iPhones in the first quarter of 2020, due to strong replacement demand for iPhone 11 and the launch of the “iPhone SE 2” starting in the same period. In terms of the calendar holiday quarter, Kuo expects shipments of 70-75 million new iPhone units (iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro combined), which could have been higher if not for supply constraints....

Apple has announced a new enterprise-focused partnership with SAP that it hopes will boost iPhone and iPad usage in the workplace. The Apple and SAP partnership follows an ongoing effort between Apple and IBM to create specific iOS apps for various industries and deploy iOS technology in the field. Apple’s latest effort will include an SDK, or software developer kit, in partnership with SAP that will let developers create business-specific apps plus offer resources for learning how to utilize iOS technology....

Tim Cook is scheduled to make an appearance in Birmingham, Alabama, tomorrow, according to local media reports. TechAlabama and the city’s mayor Randall Woodfin will hold a news conference with the Apple CEO. While each party has been tight-lipped about exactly what will be announced in education tomorrow, we suspect Birmingham public schools may be adopting Apple’s Everyone Can Code curriculum. TechAlabama is a group focused on increasing the “number of people in Alabama with an interest in STEM based careers and the skills to pursue those careers....

Up until now, Apple has never sold refurbished iPhones on its online store. You could get a refurbished Mac, iPad, or even a niche device like an AirPort Extreme, but never an iPhone. Apple typically used its refurbished iPhone inventory as repair/replacements for or offloaded them to 3rd party resellers. That has seemingly changed today, as Apple is offering the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus in its refurb store....

Apple has been given the green light by the Saudi Arabian government to fully operate in the region, according to tips from readers and local news reports. SAGIA (Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority) provided the license to Apple under the subsidiary name of “Apple, Saudi Arabia.” This license gives Apple the ability to market, maintain, and develop products in the region… Up until now, Apple has relied on third-party resellers across the region to market and maintain iPhones, iPads, Macs, and other Apple products....

As part of its spring product releases today, Apple has debuted a new color palette for its accessories like Apple Watch bands, silicone and leather iPhone cases, and iPad cases. Apple Watch Band updates For Apple Watch, the Sport Band’s new colors are Cactus, Grapefruit, and Surf Blue. Meanwhile, the Sport Loop sees even more new options with Sunshine, Vitamin C, Surf Blue, Neon Lime, and Neon Pink. The Nike Apple Watch band updates include the World Indigo/Lime Blast for the Sport Loop and the Midnight Turquoise/Aurora Green and the Black/Lime Blast for the Nike Sport Band....

Apple announced today that it is making a donation to help support flooding relief efforts in the Indian state of Kerala. As reported by Gulf News, in addition to its own donation, Apple is opening up donations to users via Apple.com and iTunes. In a statement, Apple said it is “heartbroken” by the flooding in Kerala and that it wants to support “survivors and help those who have been displaced.” Apple itself is making a Rs7 crore [Rs70 million] – roughly $1 million – donation to Mercy Corps India and the Chief Minister’s Distress Relief Fund to support such efforts....

Apple was today granted a patent for detecting touch-free gestures at close range, the patent language suggesting that the approach could build on the capabilities of multi-touch and 3D touch to respond to fingers hovering close to an iPhone or iPad display, as well as use on keyboards and trackpads. The patent describes using sensors similar to the proximity detectors used to disable accidental touch input on the iPhone screen when you’re holding the phone to your face during a call....

In what is quickly becoming the next big ongoing back and forth between Apple and [insert third party here] of 2014, a new development has unfolded in the antitrust dispute over Apple’s iBooks practices. Michael Bromwich, the external monitor assigned to ensure Apple complies to antitrust laws relating to its iBooks program, has been temporarily removed, Reuters reports, following an “administrative stay” granted to Apple following a recent complaint filed by the Cupertino tech company against the attorney....

Apple is inviting iTunes customers to donate between $5 and $200 to the American Red Cross to assist its relief work in response to Typhoon Haiyam, which is estimated to have killed more than 10,000 people (update: the estimate was later revised to 2,500). The typhoon – the name given to a hurricane when it occurs in the West Pacific – is thought to have been the worst ever to hit land....

Apple is today rolling out another new way to buy an iPhone at an Apple Store, a combination of its existing iPhone Upgrade Program and trade-in offers. Right now, on the normal iPhone Upgrade Program, customers can pay about $32 a month for a brand new iPhone 6s on a two-year agreement with an annual trade-in option. What the ‘Trade Up With Installments’ offers is a reduction of that monthly fee, in exchange for a trade-in of your existing smartphone....

(Tim Cook in China with Katie Cotton) Now that Apple’s PR chief and VP of Corporate Communications Katie Cotton has officially joined the growing group of retiring Apple leadership, Tim Cook is searching for the company’s next VP of Communications. Re/code reports that Apple is looking outside the company, however, rather than promoting someone internally to permanently fill the role. The move to find someone from outside Apple to follow Katie Cotton is not unlike Tim Cook’s decision to replace Apple Retail’s VP Ron Johnson first with outside hire John Browett, then CEO of Dixons, followed by current Retail VP Angela Ahrendts, formerly CEO of Burberry....

Once you connect your Apple Music account to Alexa, you can set the music service as your default music library source and default music station source. This lets you request music from Apple Music without telling Alexa which service to use each time. Apple Music on Alexa has access to your personal music library including playlists that you create or add to your library from Apple Music, although there are some features that Apple Music on Echo lacks that HomePod supports....