Continuing the Mac’s 30th anniversary celebration, Apple has a new featured section in the Mac App Store with a number of apps it says ‘capture the spirit of what makes this computer so extraordinary.’ In addition to Apple’s own apps, it features a number of third apps including 1Password, Evernote, Pixelmator, Fantastical, and more in addition to a section dedicated to games. Apple has celebrated the Mac’s 30 years in other ways as well including a custom home page and timeline, interviews with Macworld and ABC, an Apple Store display, and more....

Apple has just seeded the third beta of iOS 5 to registered to developers. Beta 3 of iTunes 10.5 is also available and will be required to sync with iOS 5 beta 3 devices. This new iOS 5 beta is compatible with the iPad, iPad 2, iPhone 4 (GSM/CDMA), iPod touch 3/4, and the Apple TV. Xcode 4.2 Preview 3 is also available for developers. Additionally, Xcode 4.1 has gone Golden Master and should be released soon....

[Update: The system appears to be back up and running after about an hour and a half of downtime. Keep in mind lines might be longer than normal this afternoon and evening.] Tons of Apple users are excited to pick up their new iPhone XS, XS Max and Apple Watch Series 4 today. Unfortunately, we’re hearing that Apple Stores are currently seeing downtime with the pickup and point-of-sale system, preventing customers from getting their devices....

Big improvements will be coming to Apple Watch apps later this year, Apple SVP of Operations Jeff Williams revealed during an interview at the Code Conference. In the current version of the Watch OS software, apps need to run on the iPhone rather than the watch itself, which puts a serious damper on performance. However, that will change this fall, Williams said, when native watch apps are finally made possible…...

Apple has published the eighth beta version of OS X El Capitan to its registered developers. The operating system is expected to be released later this year, with an announcement coming at Apple’s September 9th event. The newest build likely contains only some final bug fixes for the pre-release software since it will be released to the public in the near future. However, recent betas have introduced some new settings and features, so it’s possible there could be more in this update....

Despite its increasing focuses on Services revenue, Apple is struggling to draw users to the iTunes Store for movie purchases and rentals. According to a new in-depth report from The Wall Street Journal, Apple’s market share for renting and purchasing movies has fallen to between 20 percent and 35 percent, despite once being well over 50 percent as recently as 2012… The report cites “people with knowledge of the matter” and notes there are no third parties tracking digital movie market share, making it impossible to obtain exact numbers....

Apple introduced a new software feature with iOS 13 that helps prolong the life of your iPhone’s battery called “Optimized Battery Charging.” I’d love to see Apple not only expand it to iPad and Mac but also take a page out of Tesla’s book (and Dell, Samsung, others) and adopt a feature from its charging strategy. Update 1/22/21: After two months, my 13-inch M1 MacBook Pro has learned my charging schedule and is limiting charging to 80% with Optimized Battery Charging....

Apple’s latest patents detail some extremely sophisticated gaming features for multiplayer gaming in real-life environments. We’re heading for the great urban iWars. Back in the early days of the motor car the Edwardians used to like to play a treasure hunt game, in which clues and objects would be left around the country for competing teams to collect. They were about mobility and location. Today we also like games such as laserquest, or paintballing, in which the action is all about hitting the target before getting hit yourself....

Apple has just announced its March 25 event and — unlike last year’s March education event — this one will be live streamed. You will indeed be able to watch Apple’s TV event on your Apple TV. Apple’s first event of 2019 takes place on March 25 at the Apple Park Steve Jobs Theater. For everyone not on the invite list, you can follow along at home with the live video stream....

Flipboard has finally released its excellent iPhone app (what better way to start this morning?) and Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing Phil Schiller is clearly one of avid fans of the social news reader app. He just posted this short message via his Twitter account, approving of Flipboard for iPhone: Couldn’t agree more. According to Flipboard CEO Mike McCue, Flipboard is now installed on one in ten iPads and has been downloaded more than 4....

From all those millions upon millions of sales, the company made a revenue of $35.3 billion, which relates to somewhere around $6.9 billion in profit. Not bad at all, considering the fact that these numbers are more or less made by iPhones, as the iPad didn’t achieve as many sales as expected, but still a number that Samsung and others is definitely craving for. Apple’s Q3 earnings: the iPad is going down in sales While the iPhone is the undisputed king in Apple sales, having a rise of 20 percent in sales year-over-year, the iPad didn’t have such a good quarter, sales being down by 14....

We learned earlier this month that Apple’s first ever retail store in Taiwan would be located in the landmark Taipei 101 skyscraper, with the opening date later confirmed to be July 1st. A couple of days before the official opening, Apple has shared a few photos of the store, which of course features the redesigned interior that is now standard for new and refurbished stores … Apple is again emphasising its rebranded workshops, Today at Apple, noting that the store will offer more than 60 different ones on ‘photography & video, art & design, music, coding and more....

Apple this evening has voiced opposition towards President Trump’s recent ruling to roll back protections for transgender kids in schools. This isn’t the first time Apple has spoken out against a decision from Trump, having previously distanced itself from the administration’s travel ban. In a statement to Axios, Apple stated that it believes everyone should be able to thrive in an environment that is free of discrimination and stigma. The company went on to say that it believes transgender students should be treated as equals and that it disagrees with any effort to limit rights and protections....

At its current rate of expansion, Apple could conceivably hit its October goal of 40 retail stores in China within a couple of months. The company has just announced that its 33rd Apple Store in China will open on 31st January, making it the fifth new store in the country in one month … The latest addition will be Apple’s first store in Qingdao, a major port and industrial center due to its proximity to both Korea and Japan....

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEpCrcMF5Ps&start=5400] One of the last questions in the debate concerned how to bring Apple’s manufacturing jobs ‘back’ to the United States. Mitt Romney went first and said China is stealing intellectual property, designs, cheating on currency, hacking into computers, and isn’t playing fair to U.S. workers: “We can compete with anyone in the world as long as the playing field is level.” Obama went second and said the U.S. doesn’t necessarily want the low-skill, low-wage jobs and education and skills will bring higher-paying jobs home: “There are some jobs that are not going to come back....

The Mac Studio will come in two versions: one based on the M1 Max chip and another based on the just-announced M1 Ultra, Apple’s new top-tier SoC offering. The unit’s outside consists of a 7.7-inch square unibody aluminum extrusion sporting a vast array of I/O ports. For data, it has 4 Thunderbolt 4 ports, a 10G Ethernet port, 2 USB-A ports, an HDMI port, and a Pro Audio port capable of running high-impedance headphones or powered speakers....

Ken Segall – who was creative director of Apple’s ad agency for 12 years, leading the Think Different campaign – has addressed the oft-debated topic about whether the company is less innovative in the post-Steve era … Author of the best-selling book Insanely Simple: The Obsession That Drive’s Apple’s Success, Segall said that while Steve Jobs played a unique role, nothing has changed under Cook’s leadership. His remarks are reported by The Korea Herald....

Apple responded today to the contacts-sharing issue with a statement indicating it plans to put some form of a setting on contact data that would allow users to control who views the data, similar to the way Apple locks down location data. Congress became involved and probably motivated the move, but the legislative body is not going to like what it hears. The problem is that iOS apps not only have access to a user’s contacts database (including addresses and notes), but apps also have full and unencumbered access to everything in the iOS app sandbox, such as pictures, music, movies, calendars, and a host of other data....

. We’ve been told by an Apple Store source who has been reliable in the past that preparations are being made for a big Apple Store event which will culminate on Friday, March 16th. Naturally, this points to an iPad 3 launch on the Friday just nine days after tomorrow’s announcement. We’ve previously noted that an Apple Store in London at the world famous Harrod’s will open on that date as well as a new Store in Houston, Texas....

Beats was purchased by Apple quite a while back. With that being said, Apple has yet to design any Beats products in-house, continuing to use the original Beats designs. Today, Apple’s Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre have been hit with damages in the millions over a Beats case from 2016. Billboard reports that Beats co-founders Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre will be ordered by a jury in a Los Angeles Superior Court to pay $25 million in Beats royalties to Steven Lamar for helping design the original Beats headphones....