Benjamin Mayo

Apple TV+ today announced a new partnership with WildBrain to become the exclusive streaming home of the kids puppet series ‘Yo Gabba Gabba!’.

In a very similar vein to the Peanuts deal announced last year, Apple TV+ will become the new home for all classic Yo Gabba Gabba! episodes and specials. The company has also ordered the production of 20 new half-hour episodes.

This morning, Ming-Chi Kuo released an analyst note that acknowledged Apple faced manufacturing issues when ramping the production of the new Apple Watch, set to be unveiled on Tuesday at the September 14 Apple event.

However, Kuo says Apple and its suppliers have now overcome those issues, and mass production will be beginning soon. The analyst expects the new Watch lineup to be released in late September.

Update: Apple says Epic currently has “no legitimate basis for the reinstatement of their developer account”, in a statement to Bloomberg. Original story below.

Last August, Fortnite was famously pulled from the iOS App Store after Epic surreptitiously enabled a direct payment option for V-Bucks, circumventing Apple’s In-App Purchase system and the 30% cut. This kicked off a major protest against Apple’s ‘monopolistic’ App Store rules, which went to trial earlier this year.

Recently, a new law introduced in South Korea specifically outlaws payment system exclusivity inside apps, and legally forces Apple to allow alternatives to In-App Purchase for digital goods. Today, Epic has announced that it intends to re-release Fortnite for iOS in South Korea featuring its own payment system.

For iOS 15 users, Apple has begun prompting for their consent to enable Personalized Ads for their Apple ID, which allows Apple to use your App Store purchase history and several other demographics, to inform what advertising is displayed in the News and Stocks apps, as well as for targeting App Store Search Ads.

Apple ad targeting, or ‘Personalized Ads’ as Apple calls it, was previously enabled by default without any kind of prompt. Users had to learn about the preference on their own and navigate four levels deep in Settings to disable it, running somewhat counter to Apple’s privacy-first image.

Yesterday, reliable Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo revealed that Apple would be including satellite communication features as part of the iPhone 13. Today, Bloomberg confirmed the news, clarifying that the upcoming iPhones would include hardware capable of communicating with low-earth orbit satellites, but the software to use it may not be enabled initially.

Bloomberg says Apple is focusing on helping users in emergency situations. For instance, satellites will allow users to send texts to first responders, even in remote locations without cell service. However, Bloomberg cautions that “the features are unlikely to be ready before next year”.

In September, Apple TV+ will host the return of Jon Stewart to television with his new current affairs series ‘The Problem with Jon Stewart’.

The show will also have a companion audio podcast, which is now available to subscribe to in Apple Podcasts. The first episodes of the series and the podcast will premiere on September 30.

Apple TV+ has added another blockbuster-potential movie to its slate of projects, with Deadline reporting late last night that the company has added a new film, named ‘Ghosted’, to its slate. The movie will star Chris Evans — previously seen in Apple TV+ series Defending Jacob — and Scarlett Johansson, and is described as a romantic action adventure story.

The film will be directed by Dexter Fletcher and produced by Skydance studios for Apple.

The iPhone 12 has been a massive sales hit for Apple thanks to the launch of 5G. It seems Apple wants to keep the momentum by adding another new radio technology to the iPhone this year. In an investor note, Ming-Chi Kuo today said that he expects the upcoming iPhone 13 models to feature a low-earth-orbit (LEO) satellite communication mode. This would allow an iPhone 13 user to send messages and make phone calls, even when they are not within standard 4G/5G cell tower coverage.

Bloomberg first reported Apple’s investigations into using satellite technology to beam data to iPhones in a story from 2019. However, this is the first time we have heard that the feature is coming as part of the 2021 iPhone 13 lineup.

Apple today announced a new initiative that will see makers of newspaper and magazine apps keep more of their subscription revenue when participating in the program.

The Apple News Partner Program means that if a publisher has a significant presence inside the Apple News app, including adopting Apple’s custom Apple News Format for generating articles, that publisher will get a discount on the commission on subscriptions taken out inside their native iPhone and iPad app.

After first teasing the series at WWDC 2020 last year, Apple is finally ready to launch its major new television franchise. Apple today shared the official trailer for the first season of Foundation, which will premiere on Apple TV+ starting September 24.

The ten-episode first season will follow Hari Seldon (played by Jared Harris) as his theory of psychohistory — which predicts the downfall of the Empire — garners support. Naturally, the Galactic Empire attempts to suppress the beliefs, led by Brother Dusk (Lee Pace). Watch the new trailer after the break ..

As we approach Apple fall product season, the rumors and supply chain leaks just keep coming. This time, we get a look at the new iPad mini industrial design thanks to alleged aluminium case molds photographed by website Techordo; these are typically used by case manufacturers to produce accessories for Apple’s upcoming devices before they are available.

In line with previous leaks and 9to5Mac’s exclusive reporting, the iPad mini 6 design depicted by these molds looks a lot like a smaller iPad Air, with the removal of the Home Button in favor of a full-screen design featuring symmetrical, thin, bezels and a Touch ID power button on the side.

Apple has apparently put plans to shift more production of its products, including iPad and MacBooks, from China to Vietnam on hold, as COVID-19 disruptions complicated proceedings and limited engineering resources.

That’s according to a new report from Nikkei, which also says AirPods 3 are now entering mass production in China, rather than Vietnam as Apple originally hoped.

Apple has renewed its long-running non-fiction original Carpool Karaoke: The Series for a fifth season. The show was one of Apple’s first forays into original content, before the TV+ division had been set up, alongside the quickly-cancelled Planet of the Apps.

Up to now, the series has been branded as hailing from Apple Music video department and made available via the Apple Music and Apple TV apps. Starting with season five, it will now be branded as an Apple TV+ original series and appear alongside Apple’s other flagship premium titles.

In a video interview with the Wall Street Journal, Apple SVP Craig Federighi discusses the reaction to the iCloud Child Safety features announced last week.

Federighi admits that the simultaneous announcement of the Messages protections for children and CSAM scanning, two similar features but work in very different ways, has caused customer confusion and Apple could have done a better job at communicating the new initiative.