We reported in February that Apple acquired discovery app Chomp and was thought to be using the company’s technology to help improve the App Store and iTunes experience. We later confirmed Chomp’s CEO Ben Keighran and CTO Cathy Edwards already started working at Apple on the iTunes teams. Today, it appears Apple has shut down Chomp for Android with Chomp’s website now only listing links to iOS versions of the app, as noted by GigaOM....

[UPDATE: Interview preview below…] CNBC has announced that it will have an exclusive interview with Apple CEO Tim Cook tonight on Mad Money with Jim Cramer. The sit down interview will air at 6pm ET and follows yesterday’s quarterly earnings report. Cook joined Cramer for a post-earnings interview this time last year as well to reassure investors after an earnings miss that upset Wall Street. This year it’s largely the iPhone that Apple is addressing as sales slipped year-over-year and came in slightly below Apple’s high-end estimate....

While Apple customers in major metropolitan areas are often in reach of an Apple Store when it comes time to make a device repair appointment, those outside of city centers or regions without Apple Authorized Service Providers are left with few options. To give more customers access to safe and reliable repairs, Apple today announced that it has now expanded its authorized service network to every Best Buy location in the United States....

According to Macotakara.jp, Apple has finished work on test units of a 15-inch LCD for an upcoming ultra-thin laptop from Apple. The report calls the new machine a 15-inch MacBook Air, but in all likelihood it’s a thinner 15-inch MacBook Pro. The report also says that this new MacBook Pro will lose the optical drive, which seems like the direction Apple is heading towards. The new machine as a whole was reportedly in late testing stages since July, but today’s report means Apple is already done with testing and moving towards test production of the computers....

According to multiple reports out of France, Apple is constructing a dedicated display for the upcoming Apple Watch in some upscale Paris-based retail outlets. The reports say that the size of the display is close to the length of a few small balconies and that Apple Retail Senior Vice President Angela Ahrendts has been directing the construction of the booth at retailer Galeries Lafayette on Champs Elysees. While these claims for France are still unconfirmed, sources have told us that Apple is considering constructing dedicated Apple Watch retail stores in the future if demand deems such outlets necessary…...

Late Wednesday night, Apple quietly removed the fourth-generation iPod touch from their online store, replacing it instead with a modified version of the current generation. The new model features only a few differences from the fifth-gen, but the omissions are significant. The updated music player features a 4-inch Retina display like that found on the current model as well as a dual-core A5 processor, but lacks the rear-facing iSight and loop attachment....

Apple has been summoned to answer questions in the Korean parliament late this month to explain the company’s repair and replacement policy for the iPhone. Apple’s senior director for Apple’s iPhone service, Farrel Farhoudi, is scheduled to appear in the Korean parliament on October 21. At issue: South Korean iPhone customers are complaining because Apple appears to have a practice of “mostly” giving refurbished iPhones to customers with faulty devices, instead of offering free repairs, neew replacements or refunds....

A security researcher who found a security hole in Safari says that Apple has still not fixed it, more than three months after he informed the company. The same vulnerability was present in Microsoft’s Edge browser, but the company issued a patch a month ago … The flaw results in Safari showing the URL of a safe website like gmail.com while the user has in fact been sent to an attack site....

Apple has today been granted a patent for an Apple Watch charging carrying case which works like the AirPods case – providing somewhere to store the Watch when not in use, while simultaneously recharging it. The design is significantly different to that offered with the original $10k+ Apple Watch Edition. While a charging case for a device typically worn all day might sound less useful than the AirPods case, it makes more sense when you read the details …...

As the launch of the Apple Watch nears, Reuters this evening reports that Apple has been increasing its advertising of the device significantly over the past month. Since the company’s “Spring Forward” event on March 9th, Apple has spent $38 million on its Watch advertising campaign. That number includes U.S. TV ads and digital responses. For comparison’s sake, Apple has spent $42 million on advertising for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus over the last five months....

Apple opened its education-focused event in Chicago today with an inspirational video touting how “one person can change the world.” Speaking at the event, Tim Cook talked about Apple’s 40 year history in the education market. Cook talked heavily about Apple’s work in education, saying that initiatives such as Everyone Can Code help the company ensure that students get the most out of their education. Cook also pointed to the March For Our Lives events around the country this weekend that show just how much power students have with their voices....

Apple has launched a pair of new augmented reality experiences designed to promote Apple Pay Express Transit. Apple has added a new AR feature to its Apple Pay website highlighting Apple Pay with Express Transit in New York City, and there’s a new Apple-designed Lens in Snapchat as well. On the Apple Pay website, Apple touts that you can now “take a virtual trip with Apple Pay” to “experience” the platform in augmented reality....

It’s been reported that Apple will not make access to the NFC chip in the iPhone 6 generally available to developers in the first year. A new report says that an Apple spokesperson has confirmed that the chip is for use with Apple Pay only. But that’s likely only temporary… During the launch of the iPhone 6, Apple specifically referenced using NFC to unlock hotel doors at Starwood resorts – expected to be seen in the spring – suggesting only that Apple will initially be selective in granting access to the chip....

The Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) first called out Apple in August last year, issuing an order for the iPhone maker to update its app store policies so dating app providers could use payment systems other than the one offered by Apple. The ACM then blasted Apple again last month, accusing the company of failing to make sufficient changes to its app store policies while issuing a weekly €5 million fine in the process....

Apple appears to be readying for an UK iTunes Radio launch in the near future. As indicated by this tweet, Apple’s director of iAd Paul Wright has recently been visiting media marketing agencies to discuss iAd in relation to iTunes Radio. Bloomberg said that Apple was planning to launch in the UK in ‘early 2014’ last October, but so far this has not happened several months into 2014. Although many people have seen iTunes Radio sporadically appear on their devices in recent months, it is has only officially expanded to Australia beyond the US launch alongside iOS 7....

With Pandora Premium unveiled, we’ve decided to take a step back and compare all the major streaming music services. Read on for all of the details… Spotify is believed to be the most popular music streaming service at this point in time, having over 50 million paying subscribers. Apple Music, on the other hand, has “well past” 20 million paying users, according to Eddy Cue. Because there are a variety of different factors to consider when looking at which streaming music service deserves your money, we’ve created the below comparison chart for making it a bit easier to digest everything....

Apple continues its expansion South of US borders, with launch today of its own online Apple retail store in Brazil – and has also opened up the iTunes Store for business in China. The new store twins with iTunes Stores which are now open in Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico and many more Latin American territories. We’re not sure when these opened, (sorry about that – perhaps you, dear reader, can educate us)....

Anthem’s quests begin to heat up toward the end of its story mode. Although there’s still the odd collection quest inexplicably thrown into the middle of a heated fight for existence, most of the final hours of the game are spent preparing for what could be the end of everything. At least, we think. Anthem’s story doesn’t really make that very clear. Luckily, a hit-or-miss story doesn’t detract from the enrapturing nature of Anthem’s very best adventures....

Following Google’s decision to shut down Reader, many alternative RSS services have started popping up around the web. Today, AOL launched their own Reader service as a limited private beta. To get in, you’ll need to visit the AOL Reader page and enter your email address. The service will presumably accept AOL and non-AOL addresses, but so far it doesn’t seem to provide any visual feedback or a confirmation email telling you whether you’ve been added to the beta pool when we tested with both Gmail and AOL addresses....

Bloomberg reports that Apple has acquired Perceptio, a startup that focuses on developing technology that allows companies to run artificial intelligence systems on smartphones, but without the need for sharing as much user data in the cloud. Perceptio was founded by Zac Stone and Nicolas Pinto with the goal of developing advanced artificial intelligence systems for smartphones. Both Pinto and Stone have backgrounds in the artificial intelligence field, having been researchers dedicated to building image-recognition systems that use deep learning....