Apple’s decision to disable VPN on demand functionality on iOS due to the virnetX lawsuit isn’t the only patent related Apple news today. Head below for a roundup of Apple’s court woes and wins from earlier today: Samsung infringes key text-selection patent: Reuters reports that the International Trade Commission has handed down a preliminary decision ruling Samsung infringed on an Apple patent related to a text-selection feature. However, the courts also ruled Samsung didn’t infringe another patent related to detecting when other devices are plugged into a microphone jack....

Apple has quietly increased the cost of its iOS & Mac Developer Programs in some EU countries with price hikes confirmed for at least the UK and Germany. In Germany, the programs are up from the previous €80/year to €99/year, while in the UK pricing has been adjusted from £60/year to £79/year. While the price increase is already live in at least the UK and Germany, pricing for the program in the US remains at $99/year....

Apple has announced that it will start ground truth surveys in Canada from today. Apple will be driving sensor-equipped car fleets around the country to collect road details, signage and landmarks throughout the year to improve Apple Maps in Canada. Apple will incorporate this information into its modern Apple Maps dataset, which is being rebuilt literally from the ground up. The company published its statement online and in local Canadian newspapers....

Headlines are whirling this week with talk of a cheaper iPhone, but Apple Senior Vice President of Marketing Phil Schiller is apparently balking at the rumors. Schiller allegedly admitted to the Shanghai Evening News (translation) in an interview that his company is not developing a cheaper smartphone to “grab market share away.” He reportedly said the iPhone 5 is the best iPhone for Apple and his company is not concerned with market share....

One of the reasons for the $999+ price-tag of the iPhone X is the cost of the Samsung-made OLED screen. The latest estimate is that Samsung charges Apple around $97 per display. Apple’s negotiating position has been weak, as Samsung has so far been the only company able to make the displays to the iPhone maker’s exacting standards in sufficient volumes. That looked set to change as Apple worked to bring LG on board as a second supplier for this year’s iPhones, but that plan now seems to be in doubt …...

A new profile of Apple Music’s VP, Oliver Schusser from Billboard takes a detailed look at how his leadership has affected the team as well as the service’s growth and results over the last year. Colleagues describe him as “a partner, a great listener and a champion of innovation” and he’s optimistic about the future of Apple Music. While Oliver Schusser has over 15 years experience at Apple in building the international operations for iTunes, taking over Apple Music happened just last year....

Just a week before Apple is due to announce its Apple News subscription service, expected to cost $10/month, at least two major US newspapers have reportedly not yet signed up. A report today says that neither The New York Times nor The Washington Post have as yet agreed to Apple’s terms – as we predicted last month … Business Insider says that it has talked to half a dozen publishing execs with knowledge of the negotiations....

From 9to5Toys.com: Apple is offering a rare sale on iTunes movie bundles yielding the lowest prices we’ve seen on digital downloads of 25 popular movie collections. Save even more by snagging a 20% off $60 iTunes gift card at ebay: $48. Bundles are available in SD/HD and start at $9.99 making a lot of these “buy one get two free” pricing (US Only). (Update: We’re hearing Apple is changing prices on many of these) Here’s the full list via:...

Ahead of next week’s iPhone 6 announcement, Apple has finally debuted the new design for its iTunes Connect web app that was initially shown off during the WWDC Platforms State of the Union. The new design features a more iOS-like look, similar to that of iCloud.com, and now gives developers even more information about their apps. Analytics feature have also been added for helping users track App Store page views and more....

The network, after all, is composed of many different layers. Above the physical layer where cables are connected, there are a series of additional layers. APIs sit on top of all of them, typically using the HTTPS protocol to implement them to communicate requests and responses. “It is the APIs that connect all the different software components together to provide a service,” said Engel on the Cyber Work Podcast. “The connectivity between the client and the provider, too, is enabled by APIs....

Apple hasn’t often made appearances at the Black Hat hacker conference, but this year Cupertino is Thinking Different™ about security. Head of Apple security, Ivan Krstic, today said the company would pay huge (up to $200K) bug bounties to invited researchers who find and report vulnerabilities in certain Apple software. A quick breakdown of max. payments: Secure boot firmware: $200,000 Extraction of confidential material protected by the Secure Enclave Processor: $100,000 Execution of arbitrary code w/kernel privs: $50,000 Unauthorized access to iCloud account data on Apple Servers: $50,000 Access from a sandboxed process to user data outside of that sandbox: $25,000 Earlier this year, the FBI paid out under $1M to extract the data from the San Bernardino terrorist’s iPhone....

Apple is continuing to add to its team of machine learning experts in Cupertino. TechCrunch reports that Apple has acquired Tuplejump, which describes itself as a service that “presents all your data in a familiar format” on their now-removed website. An Apple spokesperson gave TC the usual non-denial confirmation regarding the acquisition: The report notes that Tuplejump is based in part in India as well as the United States and doesn’t disclose the terms of the acquisition....

As shutdowns caused by COVID-19 remain in place, Apple has committed to paying its contractors. The Wall Street Journal reports that initially, some contractors were told their jobs would be suspended without pay during the shutdown, but Apple has clarified that position. As the report explains, Apple employs “hundreds of contractors who work as janitors, bus drivers and perform other functions on its campus.” According to janitors and union representatives, Apple told employees that they would “lose wages and health-care benefits” during the shutdown....

Thanks to Hyper for sponsoring our Apple October 30th event coverage! Get 25% off the new HyperDrive USB-C Hubs for MacBook & MacBook Pro. Read on for all the latest… For a summary of what we expect to see today: [Update: Event details, iPad mini 5, and Mac models] October Apple expectations: Redesigned iPad Pro, Mac lineup refresh, iPhone XR, more Apple has already taken its online store offline ahead of the event start which means we should see new products posted as soon as the event wraps up:...

In a new interview, Bob Borchers, Apple’s VP of Worldwide Product Marketing, and Sebastien Marineau-Mes, VP, Intelligent System Experience at Apple, talked about iPadOS 15 and everything new with iPad’s operating system. TechCrunch’s Matthew Panzarino was able to talk with these two Apple executives about the company’s new choices on iPadOS 15. Before WWDC21, for example, users were expecting iPadOS 15 to unleash the M1 iPad Pro’s full potential. Although the conference brought improvements to the iPads overall, some users were expecting more....

Apple is facing a Dutch antitrust investigation into whether it favors its own apps over those of rival developers. It looks likely to have an initial focus on Apple Music and Apple News, but will probably extend to other app categories, and may also include Google’s Play store. Spotify has already filed a complaint with the European Commission, alleging that Apple Music has an unfair advantage over Spotify, and today’s report references that and says that ‘apps for news media’ is another focus …...

Update: Apple has also shared its roundup of Mac mini and MacBook Air reviews. Just as it did for the iPhone XS and iPhone XR, Apple has rounded up today’s iPad Pro reviews and pulled the best quotes from each, compiling them into one shining press release. While the common theme from many reviewers was that the new iPad Pros are incredibly powerful tablets hindered by iOS, Apple has glossed over the latter part of that in its roundup....

Users can expect a lot of under the hood and some debatable user-facing improvements in this release. The new update is big on emojis, which are becoming as ubiquitous and essential as air it seems—over 70 of the expressive characters are included with this update. Read on to learn more about the update and whether you should get it now. What’s New in iOS 11.1 and Why You Should Upgrade Version 11....

Fortune is out today with its annual FORTUNE 500 list ranking the largest corporations in the U.S. by revenue for fiscal 2012 (before expenditures). This year Apple, for the first time, has finally cracked the top 10 of Fortune’s list rising from its 17th place position last year to No. 6 on this year’s list. It’s still well behind Wal-Mart at No.1, as well as Exxon Mobil, which Apple happened to briefly surpass Apple’s market cap back in January to become the world’s most valuable company....

Renowned car designer Henrik Fisker is about to officially launch his new electric car company and unveiled its first vehicle, the EMotion, a $130,000 long-range premium sedan. Ahead of the launch tomorrow, some “great people” at Apple apparently got a preview of the vehicle. Apple was long-rumored to be working on its own electric and self-driving vehicle, Project Titan. The Cupertino company hired several auto industry engineers, including Tesla’s former Vice-President of Vehicle Engineering....