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Customer experience analytics firm Forsee is out today with its study of holiday customer satisfaction for the top 500 Internet retailers by revenue. Forsee has Apple at a four-year low in customer satisfaction in its survey of 24,000 customers during prime Thanksgiving and Christmas shopping seasons. Apple slipped three points to a satisfaction score of 80/100 this year, putting Apple at its lowest in four years and bumping it out of the top 5....

Apple has informed employees today that is launching a new volunteer program today that will push employees to assist their local communities. The program is called the “Apple Global Volunteer Program,” and it is soon launching in the United States, Sydney, Australia, and Cork, Ireland before a larger rollout across the world. The program is said to be available for both retail and corporate employees. Here’s Apple’s memo to employees:...

iOS 11 satisfied one of our feature requests: a function which mutes and automatically replies to incoming messages while you’re driving. Some 781 million miles of driving data seems to support the contention that it helps to reduce distracted driving. A new Apple patent application describes what may be the next step in the development of this feature … The patent application, published today, describes how a similar approach could be used to mute incoming calls....

Earlier this week, we noted that Apple has begun allowing users on older versions of iOS to download older versions of their previously purchased apps. This feature exists because some iOS users are running hardware that no longer supports newer versions of App Store applications. At launch, this feature was auto-activated for all developers, and these developers were not able to manage what users on older hardware could download. Now, Apple has informed developers that they could manage the availability of their legacy software:...

One of the most glaring faults of Apple’s laptop line is the built-in webcams. Apple looks to finally be moving to 1080 with the newest iMac and its FaceTime HD camera, but that doesn’t help anyone with a current Mac. We’ve all spent way too much time over the past 14 months in Zoom meetings, so in hindsight, it would have been great to see Apple upgrade the built-in FaceTime cameras years ago, but they didn’t....

Ahead of WWDC kicking off next Monday, June 7th, Apple has shared the winners of its annual Swift Student Challenge. This year’s group includes students from 35 countries including three young women who are not only solving big problems with technology but also already helping to teach others the same. Apple highlighted announcing the winners in a Newsroom post this morning and shared that more young women participated and won the challenge than ever:...

The iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 went on sale nearly a month ago from carriers and on installment plans, but customers interested in purchasing a SIM-free model were forced to wait. That wait is now over, though, as Apple has started selling the SIM-free iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus on its online store. Now, when you go to the iPhone purchase page, you’ll see a new option in addition to the existing Sprint, T-Mobile, AT&T, Verizon, and iPhone Upgrade Program....

Apple today shared some news with app developers, this time focused on those who still have an app using the old UIWebView API. The company extended the adoption deadline of the new WKWebView API, and it also announced some improvements to the subscription notifications within apps. UIWebView was the API used to offer web pages within iOS and Mac apps, but it was replaced by the WKWebView API in 2014 — which has more features and better overall performance....

The US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision pauses an injunction ordered in September that sought to require Apple to remove its App Store rule of banning developers from adding in-app links to payment websites. “Apple has demonstrated, at minimum, that its appeal raises serious questions on the merits of the district court’s determination that Epic Games failed to show Apple’s conduct violated any antitrust laws but did show that the same conduct violated California’s Unfair Competition Law,” the appellate court said....

After Apple released iOS 14.2.1 for just the iPhone 12 lineup at the end of November and before the iOS 14.3 arrives to the public with new features, HomePod and HomePod mini are getting bug fixes and performance improvements with their own build of iOS 14.2.1 today. The latest iOS 14.2.1 release is only for HomePod and HomePod mini. Notably, when Apple pushed the update on November 19, it was only for the iPhone 12 devices, and nothing else....

The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity today awarded Apple the title of 2019’s Creative Marketer of the Year. Despite having won other awards for its marketing efforts, this is the first time Apple has one the Creative Marketer of the Year prize. As detailed by AdAge, Apple’s Tor Myhren said that winning the Cannes Creative Marketer of the Year award is important to the company as it shows “the creative world is watching....

Apple just posted a document detailing exact availability of iTunes Match and iTunes in the Cloud internationally. There was some confusion leading up to what many reported as the international rollout of iTunes Match, and Apple even began issuing refunds to abroad customers having issues accessing the service. According to Apple, iTunes Match is now available in the following 17 countries: There are some countries not included in Apple’s list of officially supported countries, such as Brazil where users report having access to the service....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKl76uLyeR4 During tonight’s Emmy Awards, Apple has aired a new iPhone 5c ad. The new TV commercial is identical in style of the ad that Tim Cook played during the September 10th media event, but it is shorter in length and has a few new scenes. A few versions of the ad are below. In the past couple of weeks, Apple aired two other ads for the iPhone 5c, but the company is yet to promote the iPhone 5s on TV....

Macworld also spoke to the CEO who said “I wish” We’re reaching out to our source for clarification and will report back shortly. The confusion could have come from one of the co-founders of Wi-Gear joining up with Apple. Update 2: Our source assumed that the movement of Wi-Gear co-founder Michael Kim to Apple was an indication of a purchase. We unknowingly used this same event to “verify” his story....

A rumor today from German publication Manager Magazin, shares some alleged details about a shift in Apple’s Project Titan. While Apple’s car efforts were originally expected to include the company manufacturing its own vehicle, it reportedly later changed course to just focusing on developing autonomous vehicle software. However, today’s rumor suggests that Apple is working on its own electric van. Based on the information received from anonymous sources, Manager Magazin believes Apple has “breathe[d] new life into its plans for a self-developed electric vehicle....

A new report claims Apple has notified Intel that it will not use the chipmaker’s radio chips in its 2020 iPhones. It goes on to say that as Apple was the primary customer for the combined 5G, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chip, Intel has now halted development of the product and disbanded the team working on it … CTech cites both multiple sources and internal documents. Update: Intel has denied CTech’s claim that it has abandoned work on the product:...

Following Apple’s WWDC keynote yesterday, a pair of Apple executives sat down with CNET to talk more about the company’s announcements. Craig Federighi offered more color on Apple’s decision to break iPad out of the iOS branding, while software technology VP Guy “Bud” Tribble talked about Sign in with Apple, as well as the App Store review process. Regarding the decision to announce iPadOS 13 as the new operating system for iPad, Federighi explained that it is becoming abundantly clear that the iPad is a “truly distinct experience....

Apple looks to further expand its retail presence around the globe with a new partnership according to a report out of the Times of India. The report claims that Apple has inked a deal with the consumer electronics retail chain Croma that will see Croma build new Apple-dedicated retail spaces in six of its retail locations, very similar to how Best Buy does in the United States. Each Apple-dedicated retail space will be between 400-square-feet and 500-square-feet and will take many design cues from Apple’s own retail stores....

Bear with us. We understand that recruitment isn’t necessarily the most engaging story, but let’s take a quick look at this. Firstly, Apple has hired Charnas to lead its corporate department, filling a role that hasn’t been occupied for seven years. In his new post, Charnas will oversee Apple’s intellectual property and strategic acquisitions. We accept that Apple’s IP effort may need an extra hand as the company files patent after patent in order to secure and develop its iPhone....

Update: Apple has also increased the price of Macs in Australia by AUD $80-$200, depending on the model. Mexico and Thailand have seen similar price increases, as well. The same week as it increased the price of apps in Australia, Indonesia and Sweden, Apple today has raised the prices of its Mac line in a handful of countries. The company has increased the prices of its MacBook, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, Mac Pro, and Mac mini in Brazil, Norway, New Zealand, and Malaysia to account for the fluctuation of foreign currency against the United States dollar....