Apple

Apple is about to discontinue repair support for a handful of products as it plans to designate some Apple TV, iPod, and display models ‘obsolete’ a day before its iPhone event next month.
Expand
Expanding
Close

Tim Cook’s efforts to influence policy in Washington DC in ways that better serve Apple have been hard to miss during his tenure as CEO. Pushing the company’s strong stance on privacy has been met with great pushback from the justice department and Apple was unhappy with how the ebook pricing case against it went so it’s no surprise its lobbying efforts have climbed in recent years. Now Politico, a news site focused on politics, has dedicated a lengthy 4,000+ word profile on Tim Cook’s relationship with Washington DC over the last four years.
Expand
Expanding
Close

Apple today announced a new partnership with PayAnywhere, a credit card reader that serves more than 300,000 locations around the United States. As part of the partnership, the latest version of the PayAnywhere reader will also be sold in all Apple Stores beginning this September for $39.95.

Expand
Expanding
Close

According to a new report out of market research firm StellaService, Apple’s customer service took a turn for the worse during the second quarter of 2015. The firm, who develops its data by tracking and evaluating online retailers on a daily basis, claims that Apple is now ranked 25th in terms of customer service among the companies it profiled. Retailer L.L.Bean ranked first, while Apple retail head Angela Ahrendts’ former company Burberry ranked 7th. In the “electronics/media” category, however, Apple was the only surveyed company to place.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Apple has just sent out official invitations to media outlets (via CNBC) for its next special event on September 9th. The tagline this year reads “Hey Siri, give us a hint.” The event will take place at 10 am PT at Bill Graham auditorium in San Francisco, California, which was rumored to be the venue ahead of the invites. Apple’s September event is set to include the next generation iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus as well as the long awaited Apple TV hardware update.

Expand
Expanding
Close

New images have surfaced today giving us a closer look at the alleged next-generation iPhone display panel first revealed in earlier leaks (via MacRumors). The images don’t reveal any new information, but do give us a closer look at the part that appears to include new components thought to be related to the addition of Apple’s Force Touch display technology.
Expand
Expanding
Close

Earlier this week, whispers started arising that Apple was planning to hold its September 9th iPhone event at the Bill Graham Civic Center Auditorium in San Francisco. At the time, however, there was very little evidence to support the claims. Today, San Francisco news outlet Hoodline reports that a “trusty source” has confirmed that Apple is indeed hosting its event at the Bill Graham Civic Center.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Another week in the world of Apple and it looks like Tim Cook may have violated some important SEC regulations. Along with that, there has been major demand for Apple Watch, but not where you’d expect it. Oh, and remember Bendgate? Looks like it won’t affect the iPhone 6S. The Happy Hour podcast is available for download on iTunes and through our dedicated RSS feed.

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/221007334″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”150″ iframe=”true” /]

Expand
Expanding
Close

As noted in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission today, Tim Cook on Monday was awarded 560,000 restricted Apple stock units. Cook was given these stocks as time and performance awards. At Apple’s stock price at the end of day Tuesday of $103.12, those stocks are worth roughly $57.5 million.

Expand
Expanding
Close

As we reported earlier this month, Apple today has updated its online website with deeper integration with its appointment scheduling services for the Genius Bar and in-store workshops. This change comes not far after the Apple Online Store was heavily integrated throughout the entire online site, continuing Apple’s efforts to consolidate its physical retail stores, online store, and main website.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Germany’s top civil court today has ruled against Apple in a case pertaining to the company’s swipe-to-unlock input method. Judges in the case explained that swipe-to-unlock is not sophisticated enough to be awarded patent protection. This ruling falls in line with a similar ruling that favored Motorola back in 2013 (via Bloomberg).

Expand
Expanding
Close

Verizon has recently started allowing customers to bring non-Verizon devices its network and will activate them. The program officially began this week and Verizon confirmed to 9to5Mac that it applies to the iPhone, as well as Google’s Nexus 6. Verizon notes, however, that the devices must be unlocked prior to being activated on its network.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Like a lot of 9to5Mac readers, I’m generally a purist when it comes to matching Apple hardware with accessories: I prefer iPhones and iPads without cases unless using one of Apple’s iPhone 6 Leather Cases or iPad Air Smart Covers and I can’t resist their overpriced Lightning Docks. If Apple made an Apple Watch Charging Stand, I’d be tempted to toss my Spigen Nightstand in a drawer in favor of the official solution.

And while I own both the Classic Buckle and Milanese Loop Apple Watch bands, I wear the simpler black Sport band on most days aside from a nice dinner or more formal occasion. Both are fine bands, but Classic Buckle can feel a bit too dressy with a t-shirt and shorts and Milanese Loop isn’t as comfortable as the other bands. For myself, I’ve found that there’s a space in between completely casual and totally formal for Apple Watch bands. Pad & Quill’s Classic Apple Watch Band takes a more traditional strap approach than even Apple’s Classic Buckle and fits this space, with four leather color options and two metal finishes that match stainless steel Apple Watches or Space Gray/Space Black Apple Watches.

I’ve been eager to try the Classic Apple Watch Band since Pad & Quill began transitioning their expertise in fine leather bag and case making toward prototyping Apple Watch bands a few months ago. After finally getting my hands on a Whiskey-colored American leather version, I’ve settled on a few first impressions on what is now my first favorite third-party Apple Watch band. Read on for details:

Expand
Expanding
Close

Just as many students and teachers around the country are preparing to start or already have started the new school year, Apple is set to announce a new education program that aims to ‘end America’s public schools’ digital divide’. The new plan will be unveiled tomorrow morning with ABC’s Good Morning America program airing an exclusive interview with Apple CEO Tim Cook discussing the company’s latest education initiative with Robin Roberts (seen wearing an Apple Watch in the promo shot).
Expand
Expanding
Close

Apple appears to have hired yet another former Tesla engineer to join its ever growing automated car team. First noticed by Reuters, Apple has hired Jamie Carlson to likely join its car team. Carlson’s LinkedIn profile reflects that he has left Tesla and joined Apple, although his role at Apple is simply listed as a a member of a special projects group.

While at Tesla, Carlson worked on its Autopilot self-driving program. Prior to his stint at Tesla, he worked on automotive vision systems for Gentex Corp.
Expand
Expanding
Close

Hip-hop artist Dr. Dre’s controversial and storied past was bound to become an issue for Apple at some point after it bought the company he co-founded for $3 billion last year. Now Apple is hoping it can let the rapper’s history live in the past, which is especially tricky as it promotes the biofilm “Compton” depicting the rapper’s entrance into fame.

The biographical film, which was produced with close cooperation from Dr. Dre, has been criticized for omitting decades old allegations that the artist physically abused women. Today both Dr. Dre and Apple released statements addressing the controversy, Dre saying that he deeply apologizes for his actions 25 years ago and adding that “it has forever impacted all of our lives” while Apple said that “we have every reason to believe that he has changed.”
Expand
Expanding
Close

Swatch, apparently threatened by Apple’s recent forays into watchmaking, has taken another legal step seemingly aimed at tweaking Cupertino: registration of two “One More Thing” trademarks, a catch phrase famously associated with former Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ keynote speeches.
Expand
Expanding
Close

Further expanding on its recent “If it’s not an iPhone, it’s not an iPhone” ad campaign, Apple today has uploaded a new iPhone ad to its YouTube channel. This ad highlights Apple Pay, Apple’s contactless payment solution. The ad marks the first time Apple itself has advertised Apple Pay, although some banks and credit cards have run Apple Pay ads independently.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Amazon may have been Apple’s target when it unveiled its iBooks Store alongside the iPad in 2010, but the digital retail giant’s latest move is helping fulfill Steve Jobs’ vision of a web without Flash. Amazon Advertising issued an update to its technical guidelines today declaring that it will stop accepting Flash-based ads starting next month. Adobe cited “recent browser setting updates from Google Chrome, and existing browser settings from Mozilla Firefox and Apple Safari” that interfere with displaying Flash ads.
Expand
Expanding
Close

Apple today has launched a “benchmark” sized Australian dollar corporate bond issue, its first in Australian currency. Investors in Australia were informed of the two-part bond sales just recently and told that Apple will offer four-year and seven-year bonds in the country.

Expand
Expanding
Close