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The job of Apple Retail Store employees will begin changing in profound ways next month. In order to showcase and sell the Apple Watch, retail employees will be trained to provide personal fashion and styling advice to customers, according to employees briefed on the plans. Until now, Apple Retail has been tasked with recommending iPads, iPhones and Macs with few styling options aside from limited color options. Apple is pushing for retail employees to initiate conversations that build trust, enabling the employee to serve as a valued fashion advisor during the purchase process, similarly to how traditional watches are sold....

A few days after the last release to developers, Apple seeded OS X 10.7.4 build 11E52 to developers this evening. The update features no known issues and asks developers to focus on graphics, iCal, Mail, Printing, and Time Machine. If you are a registered Mac developer, you can grab the update from the Developer Center. Apple did not provide a public release date for 10.7.4. You can check out the full release note after the break....

Right on the heels of yesterday’s release of Mac OS X Lion 10.7.3 that includes Safari 5.1.3, Apple seeded its developer community with Safari 5.1.4 for Mac and Windows. Apple advised developers to update their test machines to OS X 10.7.3, because it is a requirement for Safari 5.1.4 for Lion. Release notes and download links are available after the break. JavaScript Performance Enhancements Safari 5.1.4 on Lion includes many fixes that enhance JavaScript performance....

Asymco’s Horace Dediu has estimated that Apple’s iTunes business, initially intended only to cover its costs as a way of driving hardware sales, now earns the company annual profits of a cool $2 billion. What started as just a music store now sells music, video, books, iOS software, and Mac software. Revenues have grown five-fold in 7 years, with total sales approaching $5 billion a quarter and notching up an estimated 23 billion transactions a year....

Reuters sources have said that Apple’s billion dollar investment in Chinese ride-sharing company Didi Chuxing was one of the key factors that led to Uber ceasing independent operation in the country. It was announced earlier this week that Didi had acquired UberChina in return for a 20% shareholding. Apple invested $1B in Didi back in May, the same month that the company began actively seeking to acquire UberChina. Together with investments with Chinese tech companies Alibaba and Tencent, it was this which led Uber to conclude that it was being out-spent and would ultimately lose the expensive battle for market domination …...

The latest installment in Apple’s ongoing Shot on iPhone ad campaign is a daring one, a five-hour journey through the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia. Shot on iPhone 11 Pro in 4K, Apple says the 5 hour 19 minute 28 second video was recorded on one battery charge. The journey covers more than 45 galleries and not only features the art on exhibition, but Apple set up several live performances along the way....

Apple takes great pride in its Accessibility features, promotes them heavily, and has won awards for them. For someone living with a disability, the right technology can literally be life-changing. Apple’s technology helps many people live a more independent life. There is, though, still room for improvement. To better understand the differences Apple technology makes, and the gaps that still exist, I interviewed Colin Hughes, a 55-year-old Brit who has severe muscular dystrophy – a muscle-wasting disease which leaves him effectively quadriplegic, unable to use either arms or legs …...

Apple today announced that it will release its Q2 2018 earnings call on May 1st. Apple made the announcement on its Investor Relations website, noting it will hold a call with investors at 2PM PT/5PM ET on the same day. As a refresher, Apple announced its Q1 2018 earnings in February. The company reported revenue of $88.3 billion with a profit of $20.1 billion on sales of 77.3m iPhones, 13.2m iPads, and 5....

Apple and Nokia today announced that they have agreed a settlement to a patent lawsuit that began in December. The companies said they have moved from adversaries to business partners, settling all litigation. Nokia will provide network infrastructure services to Apple, Apple will stock Nokia’s Withings products once again in Apple Stores and pay ongoing license fees to use Nokia’s intellectual property. The original lawsuit allegedly covered many elements of smartphone handset design and functionality, with Nokia’s patent portfolio spanning display technology, antennas, chipset, user interface and more....

Apple today has shared a revised version of its iOS Security Guide, dated January 2018. The new document, which comes in at 78 pages long includes new details on Apple Pay Cash, Face ID, and more… Apple releases new versions of its iOS Security Guide a few times per year, often in conjunction with major new features. The goal of the guide is to offer a thorough look at the security parameters implemented in the latest iOS versions....

While Apple did release a dedicated Apple Store app for iPad last November, it has yet to include any promotion or giveaway within that app. You will want to be sure you’re using the standard Apple Store app for iPhone (and yes, you can run it on iPad to redeem the promotional content). The first view of the app features a list view of categories and featured sections, and U.S. customers should find Apple’s free music promotion toward the bottom of the list....

Following backlash aimed at Apple’s new Maps from the media and customers over the past 24 hours, Apple PR representative Trudy Miller told AllThingsD in a statement: Here are some alternatives (while Google gets the… yes or no) Customers around the world are upgrading to iOS 6 with over 200 new features including Apple Maps, our first map service. We are excited to offer this service with innovative new features like Flyover, turn by turn navigation, and Siri integration....

Apple is once again kicking off an Apple Pay promotion in its own retail stores that will see it offer $5/£5 iTunes gift cards to customers that use the iPhone and Apple Watch based payments service (via Macrumors). For the new promo starting this week, retail employees will encourage customers to pay with Apple Pay and for those that do not want the service, offer a walkthrough of getting set up in exchange for the iTunes credit....

. The Wall Street Journal today shows that the value of Apple’s brand varies greatly depending on who is taking the survey. Apple’s brand may be worth as much as $183 billion, according to an earlier Millward Brown study. The study’s results greatly vary from a separate Interbrand study, which valued the company at less than a fifth of that value and half of the value of Microsoft’s brand. Why such a big difference?...

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mOzcZUA7AQ] Bloomberg is reporting that the rumored Apple HDTV is being led by iTunes creator Jeff Robbin (introducing iTunes 9, above). Jeff Robbin led Apple to create both the original iPod and iTunes — so obviously he’s the man for the job. Bloomberg also quotes Piper’s Munster who believes that the HDTV is in prototype, due out late next year or 2013. He also postulates that the Apple TV will have Siri and iCloud functionality....

Apple seeded its latest beta of Safari for developers yesterday, as it does every two weeks. Whilst the seeds usually contain little of interest to non-developers, the newest seed (Release 23) includes a few interesting changes. Most notably, it includes Mac laptop battery life improvements for WebGL content by relying less on the dedicated GPU. Safari WebKit is going to incorporate a more advanced algorithm to decide whether to enable the dedicated graphics hardware in MacBooks on a particular page....

Apple’s latest MacBook Air headlines today’s 9to5Toys Lunch Break at $100 off, plus deals on iPad Air, and Ring Video Doorbell Pro. Hit the jump for all that and more. Apple’s MacBook Air from $899 Notable features here include a 13-inch Retina display, a refreshed Magic Keyboard, and the 10th generation Intel Core i3 processor along with 256GB of storage or more. It’s a great machine for tackling various tasks, content creation, and more....

Update: Now available! Apple announced its new social video editing app Clips late last month and promised it would launch sometime in April. That sometime in April is today, says Apple according to The Verge, as Clips is set to launch shortly. Here’s Apple’s full description of its new Clips app: Clips is a new app for making fun videos to share with friends, family, and the world. With a few taps you can create and send a video message or tell a quick story with animated text, graphics and emoji, music, and more....

Today we saw two new iPhone models – 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch displays for the first time – but what about Apple’s plans for the 4-inch iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c and 3.5-inch iPhone 4s? While there was no new 4-inch model in the 2014 iPhone lineup, Apple has lowered the price of the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c models to $99 and $0 on contact, respectively. The iPhone 4s, however, has been dropped from the new iPhone lineup altogether with the iPhone 5c taking its former price point....

Apple has quietly updated its Apple Store app for iOS this evening. The update brings the app to version 4.4 and includes new checkout features, a new iPhone purchasing option, and iOS 11 enhancements… The update brings a new scanner that makes it easier to add your credit card information at checkout. This means you no longer have to take the time to manually enter your credit details, making the checkout process significantly easier....