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With litigation between the two companies in California still underway and a trial date set for July 30, FOSS Patents today reported Apple and Samsung filed a joint statement with Judge Lucy Koh outlining the “evidence-related issues” they hope to discuss in the months leading up to trial. Perhaps the most interesting piece of information in the filing is a request from Apple to obscure Samsung’s logo on televisions and video displays being used in the U....

TomTom has announced that Apple will continue sourcing data from the company as one data provider for its Maps app on iOS devices and Mac: Amsterdam, 19 May 2015 – TomTom (AEX: TOM2) has renewed and extended its global agreement with Apple for maps and related information. Reuters notes that TomTom shares jumped 7 percent to an almost six-year high following the announcement. Apple has been sourcing data from TomTom for its in-house Maps application since first ditching Google Maps back in 2012....

Bloomberg has a lengthy piece illustrating just how great a challenge it is for Apple and other multinational companies to ensure the fair treatment of workers in complex supply chains. When one of Apple’s suppliers like Flextronics wins a new contract, it needs to take on additional workers – lots of them, and fast. Those workers are recruited through employment brokers, which are required to adhere to Apple’s rules. But many of them are brought in from other countries, like Malaysia and Nepal....

Apple has updated its System Status webpage today to note that a variety of different iCloud services are suffering from downtime. According to Apple, services including Game Center, iCloud Account & Sign in, and iCloud Keychain are experiencing issues currently. Apple doesn’t go into detail about what issues users are facing when trying to access these services. Reports on Twitter indicate that many users are totally unable to access these services....

As speculated, it seems that the “popping” speakers problem that some 16-inch MacBook Pro users are experiencing is a software-related rather than hardware. Apple has reportedly confirmed in an internal document that it is working on a fix for the issue, which will be available via a future software update. As reported earlier this week, a growing number of 16-inch MacBook Pro users are complaining about a “popping” sound that comes from their speakers during certain audio playback....

Following its latest seed of OS X Mavericks 10.9.3 beta (build 13D17) to developers, Apple has just pushed out a newer pre-release version of the 10.9.3 beta to employees alongside a pre-release version of iTunes 11.1.6 beta. The new pre-release of OS X 10.9.3 (build 13D19) is available to employees and doesn’t introduce any major changes since the latest beta build seeded to developers. The last beta release asked developers to focus on testing graphics and audio drivers....

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNxDd3l0lEU] Apple senior VP of marketing Phil Schiller was so concerned about Samsung’s Next Big Thing ad campaign, in which the company poked fun at Apple customers, that he emailed Tim Cook to suggest a change of ad agency to fight back – according to a claim by Samsung lawyer Jon Quinn. The Verge reports that Quinn made the claim in his opening arguments in the patent trial in which Apple is accusing Samsung of violating five of its iOS-related patents....

Apple quietly released an updated version of its sleep tracking hardware last month with Beddit 3.5. While it looked to offer a very slightly updated design alongside a new app, we noticed it also dropped Android support. However, that’s not the only feature the latest Beddit product has dropped. After going hands-on with the new sleep tracker, DC Rainmaker found it has cut at least eight features that came with Beddit 3....

Earlier this week, we reported that Apple was planning changes to its One to One program, which offers setup and training assistance to iOS and Mac users. The majority of the changes we reported included in-store changes like new, shorter half-hour sessions, and the renaming of “workshops” to “group sessions.” However, we also told you that the One to One members website would get a redesign scheduled to roll out as early as May 15....

Apple has just seeded the latest beta of iOS 8.3 to its public beta users. The first beta was sent out just under two weeks ago. The build is also available over-the-air to developers, making it the fourth beta for those users. It’s also available on the iOS developer center. Along with the new iOS beta comes a new Xcode beta. The Xcode 6.3 beta comes with a build number of 6D554n and includes support for Swift 1....

After sharing a series of new Apple Pay Cash advertisements last week, Apple has kicked off this week with three new Apple Watch videos. These videos come as part of the company’s “Close Your Rings” ad campaign… Each of these videos highlights a specific Apple Watch user who is staying motivated to “sit less and move more” with their device. The first video follows Atilla, who wears his Apple Watch to track his progress throughout the day while swimming, running, shopping, and much more....

Apple earned the top spot in a new corporate reputation study by Harris Poll (via TechCrunch). It awarded Apple with a corporate reputation quotient of 85.63, which is enough to displace a second-ranked Google with a score of 82.82. Only eight companies earned an RQ score of 80 or above that denotes “excellent reputation.” Apple’s achievement is even more noteworthy knowing Google ranked as last year’s most reputable corporation. Facebook and Intel did not appear on the list this year at all....

In halfway compliance, Apple posted a link to a page with the acknowledgement at the bottom of its page, where most people wouldn’t see it. In the acknowledgement itself, it also added in content beyond the ordered requirements that made it sound as if the court was completely wrong in its judgment against Apple. As result the UK court has held Apple in non-compliance and ordered Apple to change the wording of the statement, place it on its home page, and use at least 11 point font....

Don’t get me wrong. Nobody knows for sure when the new iPhone will come out (it wasn’t at Apple’s WWDC, although there were rumors suggesting it), or what its specs will be. Still, a lot of reports, usually quoting “sources familiar with the matter”, show up every day. Anyway, the latest iPhone rumor is quite an interesting one. The Wall Street Journal says that the new iPhone is set to feature a thinner screen (it has found that out from “people familiar with the matter”, of course)....

In the wake of everything new announced today in the Mac lineup, Apple has stopped selling the legacy MacBook Pro with non-Retina screen, 5400 RPM hard-disk and SuperDrive optical disc slot. This Mac has existed in the lineup for many years and has finally been discontinued. Apple has also stopped selling the 11-inch MacBook Air, which used to be the cheapest Mac portable in the lineup. This position has been supplanted by the $999 13 inch MacBook Air, which has not been changed at all....

This brochure might look familiar but it is now out in the open. Our leak earlier this week was obviously spot on. Early visitors to the Apple Store noted that there was a lot of traffic but things were orderly and with the help of “EasySteal”, they were in and out in a matter of minutes and saved lots of money. Hit up our Black Friday 2011 Price Guide to get the best deals on Apple hardware and accessories....

Following the death of a Chinese flight attendant believed to have been electrocuted by a faulty third-party iPhone charger, Apple has added a new webpage to its Chinese site showing how to identify genuine Apple chargers. The usefulness of the webpage is slightly doubtful, given the fact that most third-party USB chargers come from trusted brands and are perfectly safe to use and that the issue is with the counterfeit chargers that mimic Apple’s charger so closely that it would be hard to tell them apart even with this guide....

Apple today announced its annual meeting with shareholders and also published its proxy statement, which is a document provided to shareholders that contains background information about the company. This year, Apple’s statement nearly confirms that the company is concerned with antitrust risks. As noted by CNBC, this is the first time the document highlights how antitrust issues have become a risk for Apple as the company has been investigated for monopoly practices....

Earlier this month, Apple announced its first ever Taiwan retail store, revealing that it would be located in the Taipei 101 skyscraper. Now, Apple has officially confirmed a grand opening for the store: July 1st. As reported by Focus Taiwan, Apple’s Taiwan retail store is set to open at 11AM on July 1st, with the festivities kicking off with a ceremony showcasing art work from paper cutting artist Yang Shih-yi....

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSuo4xEucqE] Video Taken down due to copyright claim from Apple We received some disturbing tips today that a Russian developer has published a method of obtaining in-app purchases from iOS apps for free. First noticed by Russian blog i-ekb.ru, the “in-app proxy” method does not require a jailbreak, can be completed by novices in three steps using just an iOS device, and allows users to install in-app content for free. The hack also works on all devices running iOS 3....