Apple’s request for a new trial in its never-ending legal battle with VirnetX has been denied. Apple had asked for a new trial as part of the patent battle, and while it won’t get that trial, there’s still the possibility of an appeal. As reported by AppleInsider, the final judgement was handed down by Judge Robert Schroeder in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. In that final judgement, Schroder denied Apple’s motion for a new trial and “denied-in-part and granted-in-part a VirnetX Motion for Entry of Judgment and for Equitable and Statutory Relief....

In early November, we reported that Apple had begun seeding versions of OS X Mavericks 10.9.1 and 10.9.2 to employees within the its Software Engineering division. Since then, Apple provided two OS X 10.9.1 seeds to registered developers. These builds focus on improvements to Mail, Voice Over, and general system stability. The update will serve as the first point-update to the recently released OS X Mavericks. Now, we’ve learned that Apple has provided build 13B40 of 10....

Just a month after the release of Developer Preview 2, Apple seeded OS X Mountain Lion Developer Preview 3 (build 12A178q) today to developers. There is no word on new features, but like always, we are working to find those quickly. Apple listed a number of known issues with this build—as seen after the break. Registered members can grab the update at the Developer Center. Apple even seeded Xcode 4.4 Developer Preview 3 to developers, which is also available at the Developer Center....

An organization representing emergency services in more than 80 countries worldwide has said that Apple adding Advanced Mobile Location (AML) in iOS 11.3 is ‘huge news,’ having previously estimated that it would result in saving around 7500 lives over the next ten years … AML allows emergency services dispatchers to automatically pin-point the location of someone making a 911 call. It takes data from both GPS and WiFi chips to automatically transmit a location so precisely that it can not only identify the exact address, but sometimes even narrow down the location to a specific room....

It’s already Friday in Australia, and Apple’s Black Friday deals – aka ‘one day shopping event’ – have just gone live in the country. Apple is offering a Apple Store gift card worth up to A$210 (US$160) with the purchase of selected iPhones, iPads, Macs and Apple Watches … Apple’s Australian homepage has an ‘Imagination is a gift’ panel leading to a gifts page headed by the offer. Clicking through shows the following incentives in the form of an Apple Store Gift Card:...

Apple’s “green push” is apparently the motivating factor behind cable-maker Volex’s plan to switch to halogen-free power cables, according to a report from London Evening Standard (via GigaOM). While the move will allow Apple to curb fears of dioxins and furans released into the environment through burning halogen, it is typically only a concern in high concentrations after a product has been disposed. The new cables will allow Apple to promote a new, greener and safer cable while continuing its commitment to reducing toxic chemicals and recycling....

According to a report due out tomorrow based on a tear-down analysis of both the iPhone 5c and iPhone 5s, each handset costs Apple between $173 and $218 to manufacture. AllThingsD got their hands on the report from research firm IHS a day early, and provide component and assembly breakdowns for both handsets. If IHS got their sums right, there is a surprisingly small difference in manufacturing cost between the 5c and 5s, making earlier suggestions of higher margins on the 5c seem unlikely … Though the true consumer cost of the handsets are often hidden by contract subsidies, the retail price of the 5s ranges from $649 for the 16GB model to $849 for the 64GB model, while the 5c runs from $549 to $649 – giving significantly higher margins on the more expensive model....

Shortly after the Department of Justice publicized its case against Apple, and many of us were left wondering what Apple’s tactics would be in defending itself against a case that, on the face of it, appeared pretty clear-cut, we now have some answers. GigaOM reports that Apple’s attorney Orin Snyder argued that far from being a conspirator with publishers, Apple was on the opposite site of the negotiating table, fighting hard against them and completely unaware of whatever discussions they were having between themselves … 

Update: Apple says the issue has been resolved. We’ve been receiving several tips from users having issues accessing the iTunes Store. According to Apple’s online services status page, the iTunes Store (which also covers the App Store and iBookstore) is suffering from an outage that is affecting 20% of users. Twenty percent of all of Apple’s iTunes customers is obviously a fairly significant number of people. The outage began at around 8 PM Pacific time, according to Apple, and there is no indication as to when the issues will be resolved....

Apple today officially announced that its new Fitness+ subscription service will launch on December 14. Ahead of that launch, Jay Blahnik, who servers as Apple’s senior director of fitness technologies, sat down with WSJ. Magazine talk about Fitness+, the Apple Watch, and more. One interesting tidbit is that Apple Fitness+ requires an Apple Watch. If you don’t have an Apple Watch, you can’t use Apple Fitness+. According to Blahnik, the metrics provided by the Apple Watch are intended to serve as motivation for Fitness+ users....

Apple acquired Shazam back in late 2017 (the deal closed in 2018), and now the company has announced that the application has crossed 200 million monthly active users. Shazam is available as a standalone app in the App Store and the Google Play Store, as well as available through Siri, and recently made its way into Control Center with iOS 14.2. (The 200 million figure does not count Siri requests as an active user....

Apple introduced the Swift programming language back in WWDC 2014, as the language of the future for programming on Apple’s platforms. Since then, the language has gained wide adoption from third-party developers, with software in the operating systems themselves still being written in the old Objective-C. Several factors play a role in that scenario. First of all, Apple has a massive amount of legacy Objective-C code that works perfectly fine, so there’s no reason to simply rewrite it for the sake of rewriting, which has caused problems in the past....

According to the Wall Street Journal, Apple is said to be in talks with New York-based Foursquare to add the company’s data to its Maps application. For those out of the ‘social scene’, Foursquare is a popular social network that allows users to check in to any location and share tidbits with followers. According to the report, the partnership between the two companies would lead to local data from Foursquare being incorporated into Apple’s Maps app....

Apple today announced the first Retina desktop computer with the Retina 5K iMac. The new Retina 5K iMac will start at $2499 for the all-in-one desktop computer and begin shipping today. The base model Retina 5K iMac will include a 3.5GHz quad-core Intel Core i5, AMX Radeon R9 M290X graphics, 8GB RAM, and a 1TB Fusion Drive. Apple will continue to sell the non-Retina 27-inch iMac which starts at $1799 as well as the non-Retina 21....

Apple has now officially commented on the startling announcement that sapphire supplier GTAT will file for bankruptcy. Like most observers, Apple was “surprised” by the move. Apple told the Wall Street Journal: Wall Street Journal sources indicate that GTAT was forced into financial distress because Apple withheld the final tranche payment of its contract, totally $139 million. Apparently, the sapphire supplier did not meet the agreed terms so Apple exerted its contractual right to withdraw....

Apple seems to be struggling with its hardware lately as the company has today began rolling out a replacement program for the iPhone 8. The company says devices sold between September 2017 through March 2018 in Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Macau, New Zealand, and the U.S are affected. Just like most of Apple’s other repair programs, you’ll need your serial number handy as you’ll have to punch that into the program’s website....

Tim Cook last month told the Chinese government that Apple would be building its first research and development center in China by the end of the year, and local media now appears to have some specifics. The center will reportedly be located in Beijing’s Zhongguancun Science Park and employ 500 staff. The Digitimes report – citing local media – says that the role of the center is expected to go beyond research …...

We know the iPhone is sold at AT & T and Apple retail stores in the US and at O2, Apple and Carphone Warehouse stores in the UK. Similar deals are also revealing themselves across Europe now, with the latest information revealing a range of German retailers will be offering the device when it goes on sale there on 11 July. Die Welt reports Metro AG’s Media Markt and Saturn shows will join Debitel in offering the iPhone 3G to German high street shoppers....

Yesterday we reported on the news that Apple recently started performing repairs on iPhones with third-party batteries. Now we’ve gotten a look at the official repair guide that details how Apple will handle repairs with non-original batteries. But in the case that Apple determines the third-party battery hasn’t caused the issue a customer is looking to have resolved, the non-Apple part shouldn’t change the service and warranty eligibility. Notably, non-Apple parts are defined as third-party batteries as well as counterfeit batteries....

This is similar to the AppleTV shortages we noted over the weekend but may not be for the same reason. Time Capsule constrains could be linked to the Thai floods that have led to global shortages of hard drives and subsequent jacked prices by as much as 28 percent. A disruption in the hard drive supply already affected the 27-inch iMac. That, plus the fact that other AirPort-branded products stay in stock only reinforce the notion that constrained supplies of Apple’s Time Capsule is likely caused by global hard drive shortages....