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Earlier this week, Apple sent an email to Apple Podcast Providers informing them of upcoming changes to how metadata is handled in Apple Podcasts. This evening, Apple has clarified those changes in a new email to podcasters. Apple’s original email, sent to podcasters yesterday, explained a few things that publishers should avoid: including placeholder text from your hosting provider, verbatim repetition of the title or author name in the description, incorporating irrelevant content or spam, and adding episode numbers in titles....

Apple is planning to update the system it uses to handle law enforcement requests for user data. While the company had previously relied on a dated email system, it is now upgrading to a new online portal. In a letter written to the U.S. Senate, Apple’s highest-ranking lawyer details the company’s plans on allowing access to user data (via Business Insider). Just last year Apple responded to roughly 14,000 legal requests from law enforcement asking for user data....

Research firm Deepfield reports that Apple has for the first time relied on its own content delivery network for the distribution of iOS 8 to users (via WSJ): “Until today, Apple used Akamai and other CDNs to deliver a large portion of their network traffic to consumers. Akamai is a content delivery network or CDN, so when your iOS device asked the network to download a new version, Akamai is the company that has the tens of thousands of servers around the world that would send you that update....

Apple has recorded an insane mobile phone profit share in the third quarter, according to analysts at BMO Capital Markets. They estimate Apple captured 103.6% of total smartphone industry profits, with Samsung trailing far behind at just 0.9%. The reason Apple can take more than 100% of profits is because the majority of vendors lost money and recorded losses on their smartphone division, such as LG and HTC. On a units basis, Samsung led with 21....

Apple has just announced that setting up any new iOS device will ship with free copies of iWork, iPhoto, and iMovie for iOS. The 3 iWork apps including Pages, Keynote, and Numbers, in addition to the two iLife apps– iPhoto and iMovie– will be available for free to users purchasing a new device. During the setup process, users will be prompted to download the five Apple apps for free. Apple will be making the apps available to all iOS 7 compatible devices purchased after September 1st....

Apple has been ordered to pay $506 million for infringing upon patents held by PanOptis and related companies, according to a court ruling today. As Law360 reports, the ruling comes from an Eastern District of Texas federal jury. Notably, this was the first in-person jury trial over patents since the COVID-19 pandemic began. The lawsuit centered around a handful of Optis Wireless patents, all of which related to the use of LTE cellular technology in the iPhone, Apple Watch, and iPad....

Apple today announced a record-breaking holiday shopping season for the App Store. In a press release, the company said that customers spent over $890 million during the seven-day period beginning on Christmas Eve… Somewhat surprisingly, Apple says that customers rang in the new year by spending $300 million in the App Store on New Year’s Day alone. In a statement, Apple’s senior VP Phil Schiller said that iOS developers earned $26....

Apple has made another acquisition in the artificial intelligence industry. GeekWire reports today that Apple has acquired Xnor․ai, a Seattle-based startup that focuses on low-power artificial intelligence technology. Xnor․ai notably provided the AI behind smart camera company Wyze’s on-device people detection feature; the acquisition by Apple explains why Wyze recently lost that feature: Apple already ships its own smart camera people detection feature for HomeKit Secure Video, but there’s plenty of room for improvement....

Apple has updated its Online Store with a new $199 iPod touch, discontinuing the frontside-only $229 iPod touch in the process. The new 16 GB iPod touch, which ships today, is now almost identical to the 32 GB and 64 GB models, including a rear camera. However, it seems that the $9 loop accessory is not bundled with the $199 model. Customers wanting the loop will have to purchase it separately....

The HomePod was launched in the United States back in 2017 and since then its expansion around the world has been quite slow. And after being launched in Japan last year, the company confirmed today that the HomePod will also be available shortly in India. The news comes as no surprise, as iOS 13.3.1 was released yesterday with support for Indian English Siri voices for HomePod, and that usually only happens when Apple is ready to launch the product in the country....

The latest antitrust hearing looking into concerns about Apple and Google’s market power is underway. Along with the companies getting a grilling from the Congressional subcommittee on antitrust, representatives from Spotify, Tile, and more are testifying about how they see the two tech giants as stifling competition. The Apple and Google hearing today entitled Antitrust Applied: Examining Competition in App Stores is another instance of monopoly concerns growing about the tech titans....

Apple has made quite a lot of progress on its under construction “Campus 2” set to become the company’s new headquarters when complete around the end of the year. Since last checking in a month ago, a video update published today by Matthew Roberts for June shows continued progress on the roof of the main circular spaceship building, including a look at the heating and cooling systems installed throughout, and what looks to be some new outdoor areas surrounding the entrance of the underground theatre....

Just a week after Apple Card added a new web portal for managing your bill and statements from the browser, another major feature gap has been partially filled. As first spotted on Reddit, you can now link your Apple Card account to the budgeting service Mint. For those unfamiliar, Mint is a popular budgeting service that ties together banks, bills, credit cards, and more from various different places. For Apple Card users, one of the glaring omissions (other than a web portal) was integration with budgeting platforms like Mint....

Readers and Tweeters are reporting that Apple CEO Tim Cook is at the Palo Alto University Apple Store greeting new iPhone 5S and 5C buyers. Cook spoke highly of the nearby new design Stanford Shopping Center at the iPhone 5s/c announcement. Update: We’re now hearing that Eddie Cue and Phil Schiller are at the new Stanford Store doing the same thing. Some Tim Cook Tweets/images below: @9to5mac Eddy Cue and Phil Schiller are here at the Stanford Apple Store!...

Apple has effectively confirmed yesterday’s Bloomberg report that both the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission have launched investigations into whether Apple may have broken the law by throttling iPhone performance to prevent unexpected shutdowns. The company has also given a statement in response … Apple did not specify the names of the agencies, but did confirm to Axios that it has been contacted by more than one....

A tip we’ve received from an Apple Store employee indicates that Apple will be putting up celebratory LED window displays at Apple Stores, showing a stylised ‘3’ and a ‘Happy birthday, Mac’ message. iPhones and iPads in the window will reportedly be removed. The graphic came via special SD card. Happy 30th #Apple! A post shared by Bill Wilson (@level42) on Jan 24, 2014 at 1:47pm PST Boxes of special t-shirts have arrived for the occasion (photo below the fold) … If you see the window displays go up at your local store, please send photos to the tips email or Twitter account....

I have previously written about my frustration With iBooks Author and iTunes U, and Apple has now announced both of these products are being discontinued. iBooks Author will no longer be updated, and iTunes U is being discontinued at the end of 2021. iBooks Author will continue to work, but you’ll need to make preparations to transition to Pages in the near future. Much of the functionality from iBooks Author has made its way into Pages over the past few update cycles....

Apple is helping A-series and M1 chipmaker TSMC get COVID-19 vaccines for its employees after an appeal for help from the Taiwanese government, according to a new report today. Taiwan had long had an excellent record at keeping the pandemic under control on the island – with zero cases for eight months straight – but that record has now come to an abrupt end … The Independent reports. Taiwan’s success to date has been down to controlling travel, and an highly effective contact-tracing system....

We’ve since learned more about was happening behind the scenes in California. Rather than discontinuing the Beats brand, Apple was hiring its first in-house designer to oversee Beats product design. Apple and Beats We pointed to six years of Apple investing in the Beats brand since acquiring Beats Electronics to make our counterpoint against the rumor of Beats’ demise:: A few months later, Beats debuted the $49 Flex headphones with Apple’s W1 chip....

Earlier this month, NPR debuted its new Remote Audio Data system – referred to as RAD – that aims to offer new types of podcast analytics data to advertisers and podcast creators. The Verge is out today with an overview of the RAD standard, including how Apple is already involved. NPR confirmed to The Verge that Apple employees offered feedback on the RAD standard, but it’s unclear as to the extent of the company’s involvement....