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Apple’s famed obsession with secrecy in its product development process is hampering its work in the field of artificial intelligence, say academics working in the field. Bloomberg reports that AI experts believe that lack of two-way sharing of information slows development. Apple Maps was cited as an example of what can go wrong when AI teams within Apple are cut off from other work being done in the field – and even from researchers in other teams within Apple....

Apple has just recently updated its System Status webpage to reflect on ongoing issues with its cloud services. According to the webpage, users are unable to sign in to a variety of services, including iCloud, the App Store, the iTunes Store, and iTunes U. Apple’s System Status webpage says the issues began just before 4PM ET and have yet to be resolved. It’s unclear how widespread the connectivity issues are, though Apple’s timeline depicts the outage in red for the iTunes Store, App Store, and iCloud....

Apple usually disables jailbreaks in new software releases. That is part of the reason why it took so long for Absinthe to debut for the iPhone 4S. It appears that Apple is also trying to break Siri running on unsupported devices, such as the iPhone 4. Many people who use Spire, the popular Siri port for the iPhone 4, have reported Siri is now disabled on their unsupported device. Has another cat and mouse game begun?...

Apple has scheduled its next Apple Watch Activity Challenge for November 11 in honor of Veterans Day. In order to complete this challenge, you simply have to complete a workout that is 11 minutes or longer. You can complete the workout using the Workouts app on Apple Watch or any other app that records workouts to the Health app: Apple says: Activity Challenges allow Apple Watch users to collect virtual trophies available through the Achievements tab of the Activity app on iOS....

Apple has overhauled its “Close Your Rings” webpage today with new stories from Apple Watch users. The webpage highlights how everyday Apple Watch users are taking advantage of features such as competitions, heart rate tracking, and more. In total, Apple has posted three new “Close Your Rings” stories on its website, first spotted by Kyle Seth Gray on Twitter. The first new story is from an Apple Watch user named Yoyo, who says she likes to use the watchOS competitions to motive her to exercise every day....

Apple this evening has shared a new Shot on iPhone 7 ad that highlights images taken by photographers around the world. The ad is entitled “One Night” and set to a jazzy piano track, coming in at 1 minute in length. The new ad focuses on images taken on the same night in 15 cities across 6 different continents. The ad showcases images taken by 16 different photographers. The images are wide-ranging in what they show....

Apple will introduce several major initiatives to ready its retail stores for the Apple Watch’s launch in April, according to sources briefed on the upcoming changes. Starting on April 10th, Apple will allocate 15 minutes per customer for in-store try-on appointments, using 10 or more try-on stations to manage what’s expected to be a steady flow of customers interested in having hands-on time with the Watch. While customers will not necessarily be required to have an appointment, they will be time-limited and guided during the hands-on experience....

The company achieved 54 million iPod sales (down one percent) during its last financial year, accruing $8.091 billion (down 12 percent). As you can see, revenue fell more than unit sales, reflecting lower selling prices, though shored up by the slightly pricier iPod touch devices. Each iPod sale brought $149 in for Apple, down 11 percent from $167 in 2008 due to lower prices. iTunes keeps on rolling, with the company confirming “double digit” growth in all regions, boosted, according to the management discussion, by: “Heightened consumer interest in downloading third-party digital content and applications, continued growth in its customer base of iPod and iPhone customers, the expansion of third-party audio and video content available for sale and rent via the iTunes Store, and the continued interest in and growth of the App Store....

Google has been ridiculed over creating and shutting down various applications over the years, but when it comes to enterprise software applications, I would prefer that over letting things die a slow agonizing death. Apple, on the other hand, has done the latter with two of its K–12 focused software applications: iBooks Author and iTunes U. Apple has let these apps suffer from software rot. About Making The Grade: Every Saturday, Bradley Chambers publishes a new article about Apple in education....

It’s coming up to the end of the year, and it’s time for me to write my take on Apple’s report card 2019. Just as I’ve done for 2016, 2017 and 2018, I’m taking a look back at what the company has achieved during the year, focusing this year on its rather extensive number of product launches. These started with a whimper – a new iPad mini which looked exactly like the old iPad mini – and ended with a bang, the release of the much-hyped all-new Mac Pro…...

For the sixth year in a row, Tim Cook is in attendance at the Sun Valley media conference in Idaho this summer. Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of software and services, is there alongside Cook. The duo have made it a trend to attend Sun Valley every year together. As you can see in the image above from Getty photographer Drew Angerer, Cue and Cook are seemingly inseparable (also seemingly rocking matching shirts)....

Although Apple has yet to confirm the existence of “Project Titan,” it seems like every week brings a new clue that the company is indeed working on an electric car. We learned that Sixty Eight Research, a sketchy firm widely believe to be a front for Apple’s effort in the automotive business, recently attended the 17th Global Car Body Benchmarking Conference in Germany. The list of participants included almost every major automotive company from GM to Honda, as well as a lot of important part suppliers like Magna and Alcoa....

As first reported on Monday, Apple is said to be preparing a home automation system for debut at WWDC next week. While this was the first anyone had heard of any such plans, several different sources have quickly come together to give an idea of how an “Apple Smart Home” will likely function. On Monday, as noted above, the Financial Times first reported that Apple’s new program would not consist of a group of first-party automated appliances or other devices connected to an iPhone....

. NetworkWorld has a great pull of a Jony Ive deposition which references looks at early iPad prototypes which were much thicker, made of plastic and buttonless on the face: During the course of the deposition, Ive at one point is shown photos of a three dimensional mockup of a tablet that Apple produced as part of the discovery process. It’s referred to as the 035 mockup or prototype. Ive is then asked if he’d seen the mockup before, and if so, when....

Following the launch of Apple News+, Apple confirmed last month that it would shut down Texture at the end of May. Apple originally acquired Texture in March of 2018, using it as the basis for what would become Apple News+. Now, a new report from the New York Post offers more information on the details of Apple’s Texture acquisition. According to the report, Apple will have paid $485 million when it is all said and done for Texture....

Apple’s chief financial officer Luca Maestri has said that the company expects its growing revenue from services like iCloud and Apple Music to boost Apple’s overall profit margin, but the exact impact will depend on the product mix within the category … Maestri was quoted by Reuters. It’s an interesting statement, as Apple’s company-wide margin currently sits at 38.3%. Apple says that the App Store is the largest component of services revenue, but Apple’s gross cut is 30% of sales and 15% of subscriptions – both before operating costs....

Earlier this month, Apple started pushing back the estimated shipping times for its new line of 21.5-inch and 27-inch iMacs. Apple CEO Tim Cook previously warned prior to the launch of the new lineup that the company expected significant delays leading into the holidays. While the 21.5-inch iMacs are still listed at “7-10 days” on at least Apple’s United States and Canada online stores, the 27-inch model is now listed as shipping in “January”....

Apple today announced that, despite production concerns and struggles, the iPhone X will be available in retail stores for walk-in customers on Friday, November 3rd. Some had speculated that initial orders would be limited to online only. Apple obviously didn’t address how many units will be available in store, but it’s likely that supply will be incredibly constrained. Apple even says that walk-in customers “are encouraged to arrive early.” Last year, Apple announced ahead of the iPhone 7’s release that all Jet Black iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus models had sold out during pre-orders and that there would be no in-store availability....

Apple today announced that it will be reinstating the Siri audio program later in the year with some new policy changes. Apple apologized for how it previously handled user data. The company says it will no longer retain audio recordings by default. Users will have to opt in if they want Apple to use voice samples, and Apple will aim to delete any recordings that are inadvertent activations. Also, Apple says that only Apple employees will be allowed to listen to Siri recordings from now on....

A source has just dropped a load of unconfirmed information on us for what is being internally referred to as “Apple Store 2.0.” Apple Store 2.0 is a major makeover for the Apple retail store experience. Apple has been working on this new type of Apple store for a while now and the development’s ceiling does not only reach Apple’s Senior VP of Retail Ron Johnson, but was led by Apple CEO Steve Jobs and Apple design chief Jony Ive....