Before you can properly understand Apple News, it’s important to know its history. Apple was founded by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in 1976. In 1977, Apple’s sales were growing with the success of its early computers. Within a few years, Jobs and Wozniak hired designers and a production line crew. Apple went public in 1980 and was an instant success. Over the next few years, Apple shipped new computers featuring new graphical user interfaces, such as the original Macintosh in 1984. As the market for personal computers expanded through the 1990s, Apple lost market share to the cheaper Microsoft Windows on PC clones. Eventually, Wozniak and Jobs both left Apple. Jobs would go on to found NeXT and would return to Apple when NeXT was acquired in the late 90s. Apple then began a journey to the great second act in the history of the business world.
Since the release of the iPod in 2001, Apple has become a major player once again in the technology industry. After releasing the iPhone in 2007, the iPad in 2010, and the Apple Watch in 2015, Apple is now one of the largest companies in the world. Apple’s worldwide annual revenue totaled $274.5 billion for its 2020 fiscal year.
Today, Apple operates retail stores all across the world, has a growing services division, and an ever-expanding hardware lineup. The technology industry follows Apple news to see where the company is headed in the future.
In addition to introducing the iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3, Apple has refreshed its online store with new Smart Cases and Smart Covers to compliment and protect the new hardware.
The latest iPad Air Smart Cover will work with both the iPad Air and iPad Air 2. The iPad Air Smart Cover is available in polyurethane for $39 with options in black, white, pink, yellow, blue, green, and red. Apple says each iPad Air Smart Cover is available to ship in 1-3 days currently.
The iPad mini Smart Cover is available at the same $39 price point in the same colors. All three 7.9-inch iPad mini generations are compatible with this accessory. Apple also says the iPad mini Smart Cover will be available to ship in 1-3 days currently.
Apple has also updated its Smart Case for the iPad Air 2. Because the iPad Air 2 is thinner than the previous generation iPad Air and features a second microphone in place of the previously existing mute/rotation toggle switch, the new iPad Air 2 cases are only compatible with the new tablets. The iPad Air 2 Smart Case is available for $79 in leather with options in black, red, midnight blue, olive brown, and soft pink. These new cases are currently unavailable for order and coming soon for store pickup.
The iPad mini Smart Case is also available in leather at $69 with the same color options available. Apple says it will be begin shipping 1-3 days after ordering.
Just one day after HBO announced that it would be offering a web-only subscription at some point next year, CBS has played leap-frog by announcing the immediate availability of a $5.99/month web & app subscription offering on-demand access to almost all content.
CBS All Access will offer subscribers thousands of episodes from the current season, previous seasons and classic shows on demand, as well as the ability to stream local CBS Television stations live in 14 of the largest U.S. markets at launch.
CBS All Access is available beginning today at CBS.com and on mobile devices through the CBS App for iOS and Android.
Cable companies have long shied away from offering access to popular, current programming without demanding that you sign-up to cable access first. But broadcasters now seem to be recognizing that it isn’t just cord-cutting that threatens their existing models, it’s also ‘cord nevers’ – young people who simply aren’t signing up for cable subscriptions in the first place, preferring to get their TV fix online … Expand Expanding Close
Seth Weintraub|9:53Here’s the streaming URL for You Windows/other users (sorry!) http://p.events-delivery.apple.com.edgesuite.net/14pounqefvoiubefvpiub10/refs/14pijbnoihjb10_sl_ref.mov
Seth Weintraub|9:52Live Stream is up. Only one sang playing at a time this time (cancel the Truck!)
Seth Weintraub|9:49
Having a laugh with Craig backstage. Just a few more minutes.
We’ll be running down the event coverage and pre-coverage right here with this auto-updating live blog so stay dialled in while we’ll do separate posts for new products/services/announcements as they happen… Expand Expanding Close
Apple is reportedly adding the ability to track what users do inside certain apps in order to present them with targeted in-app ads across iOS devices, reports digital media site Digiday.
Say, for example, a visitor to a retailer’s iPhone app adds a pair of shoes to his cart but ultimately decide not to buy it. In this scenario, the retailer will now be able to retarget that user with an ad for that exact pair — even in another app on his iPad. When tapped, the ad would direct him back to his abandoned checkout page and automatically add the shoes to his online shopping cart.
Ad agencies say that Apple has been pitching the new capability since last month … Expand Expanding Close
Beats Music and AT&T have quietly removed the option to pay for the music streaming subscription service through the wireless carrier, although the change will not affect current subscribers. 9to5Mac received the following statement from AT&T:
There haven’t been any changes for AT&T customers who currently have the Beats Music family plan or who are within their free trial period. New subscribers can still get Beats Music through their app store or at beatsmusic.com.
Previously, AT&T subscribers could access a 90-day free trial of the now Apple-owned music streaming service with the option to bill the subscription fee with the wireless phone bill. AT&T also offered a unique family rate for the service at $14.99/month for up to five people and ten devices on an account. Expand Expanding Close
It looks like Apple’s event tomorrow will focus on new iPad models as rumored, but there are bound to be a lot of announcements beyond just the new iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3. Below we’ve put together some of our expectations for other possibilities at the event, including likely announcements for new Macs, software updates and a couple of possible surprises you might not be expecting. Expand Expanding Close
Apple’s iTunes Store has just made a little bit of a slip-up (and with perfect uncanny timing): screenshots for the iOS 8.1 iPad user guide have just appeared within iBooks and include Apple’s upcoming iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3. Of course, Apple will be formally debuting these devices tomorrow.
The screenshots confirm that both new tablets will include nearly identical designs to their predecessors and the addition of Touch ID sensors in the Home button. Another new feature confirmed by this leak is a new Burst Mode (first introduced with the iPhone 5s) for the iPad Air 2 (image below).
These images also indicate that the new tablets will be named “iPad Air 2” and “iPad mini 3,” which means that Apple will bringing the numbering scheme for names back to the iPad lineup. Of course, the presence of this user guide means iOS 8.1 (with Apple Pay) is likely to drop tomorrow, too.
Morgan Stanley’s Katy Huberty has added AAPL to its Best Ideas list of investments, saying that increased margins from iPhone 6 sales see the stock “set for significant upside.”
While Credit Suisse had earlier suggested that margins on the iPhone 6 would be lower than that of the iPhone 5s and 5c, Huberty says that numerous sources are suggesting that more people this time are opting for the middle storage tier, thus pushing up both average selling price and margins … Expand Expanding Close
Digitimes still seems to think the long-rumored 12-inch Retina MacBook Air is going to be announced tomorrow, claiming that shipments have already begun.
Shipments of a new MacBook Air model, reportedly equipped with a 12-inch Retina screen, have begun in small volumes and large-volume shipments will begin in November, according to Taiwan-based supply chain makers.
The claim seems highly unlikely given that just two days ago Re/code cited Apple sources as specifically stating that, while the product was in the pipeline, it would not be shown at tomorrow’s event … Expand Expanding Close
NBC is reporting that Apple will offer female employees up to $20,000 to cover the costs of freezing their eggs if they want to defer having children until later in their career, following the example of Facebook which recently introduced the same employee benefit.
Fertility specialists advise that women who want to freeze eggs in order to have children later in life should freeze at least 20 eggs, which will typically take two rounds of treatment at a cost of $10,000 each. The $20k fertility benefit offered by both Apple and Facebook should cover this – though there can be storage costs on top amounting to several hundred dollars per month.
The move is likely to be a controversial one, seen by some as a means of supporting women who want to advance their career to a senior level before taking time off for children, and making a tech career more appealing to women, while others see it as a message that women are expected to put their career first and family life second.
Apple recently announced a range of improvements to its employee benefits program, including increased time off for parental leave, reimbursements for educational classes, a Student Loan Refinancing Program for U.S. employees and a matching program for charitable donations by employees.
Apple is seeking to keep its involvement in GT Advanced’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing secret as it reportedly asked courts to file its objections in the case under seal. Bloomberg reports that Apple has requested permission to keep its comments in the case secret to avoid disclosing “confidential research, development, or commercial information regarding Apple’s business processes.” Expand Expanding Close
At your own risk, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00NX53H2W/ref=tsm_1_tw_s_dm_ndg14u?tag=n003f1-20" target="_blank">stream U2’s album for free from Amazon Prime Music</a>
Now that Apple has finally wrapped up its U2 album giveaway to iTunes customers, a promotion that warranted its own removal tool named after the “Songs of Innocence” album, Amazon is picking up the record and giving it away to Amazon Prime subscribers through Prime Music… but not without taking a shot at Apple first.
While Apple rather aggressively added the U2 album to every iTunes library automatically (prompting automatic downloads if the setting was enabled) and upsetting many customers, Amazon took to Twitter today to promote their copy of the “deluxe” version of the album while taking a shot at Apple in the process. “Add it to your library—we won’t do it for you,” Amazon said in a tweet followed by a teasing winky face.
Macworld has announced that its Macworld/iWorld conference is going on hiatus and no show will take place in 2015. The show was previously planned to take place in March, which was a bit later than the typical January/February timeframe.
Early Tuesday, IDG World Expo released a statement noting that the venerable Apple-oriented trade show, Macworld/iWorld would go on hiatus and not be held in 2015 as planned. The contents of that statement are: “We are announcing today that Macworld/iWorld is going on hiatus, and will not be taking place as planned in 2015. Our MacIT event, the world’s premiere event for deploying Apple in the enterprise, will continue next year with details to be announced in the coming weeks.
Year-after-year in the 2000s, the January Macworld conference was a staple for the Macworld community. Each year, Apple co-founder and former CEO Steve Jobs would hit the stage and introduce breakthrough products like the first iPhone, MacBook Air, and key software releases.
Since Apple cut off its affiliation with the conference in 2009, ahead of the 2010 non-Macworld iPad introduction, the conference has seen less attendees and excitement. Five years out from Apple no longer attending the conference, and just weeks after Macworld cut down its editorial staff to a bare minimum, today’s announcement is, unfortunately, not very surprising. Macworld’s magazine also recently came to an end.
The organization behind the conference, IDG, says that this is just a “hiatus,” so perhaps (hopefully) there will again be a time where the Macworld conference exists. The company’s MacIT enterprise focused event will still exist in 2015, according to the announcement.
You can now buy an iPhone-connected accessory for your dog through Apple Stores as the Whistle Activity Monitor officially goes on sale in Apple’s retail stores in North America. The product was previously available through select retailers and online, but today arrives as the Apple Store’s first iPhone accessory specifically for dog owners. The company has also added some new features and dropped the price to $99 to accompany the Apple Store launch:
In addition to making Whistle more widely available to the nearly 68 percent of U.S. households with a pet (1), Whistle has announced two new tech capabilities to further simplify the important daily responsibilities of pet ownership: a brand new IFTTT (If This Then That) channel and custom in-app medication reminders.
The Whistle Activity Monitor attaches to any existing dog collar, syncs over Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and allows dog owners to track a number of health and fitness related metrics for their pet through a companion iOS app.The app also lets users set goals, get reminders for activities and medication, and share updates with family members or others added as owners in the app. The San Francisco-based company was previously only selling the product through major retailers Amazon, PetSmart and Brookstone after launching last year. It also unveiled a new tracker for dogs earlier this year called WhistleGPS that will include GPS tracking features for a monthly subscription in addition to activity tracking.
The Whistle Activity Monitor is available in Apple Stores in the US and Canada starting today for $99. It’s also now available from Amazon and elsewhere for the new $99 price point. That’s down from $129, which is how much it will charge for the newer WhistleGPS that it’s now accepting preorders for. It joins the many other home automation and fitness products Apple is pushing in retail stores alongside its new iOS 8 Health and HomeKit features, but it’s the first on Apple Store shelves specifically made for pet owners.
Desktop fans have waited a long time for a Retina iMac, but it now seems pretty clear the wait won’t last too much longer. Our sources told us last month that the machines are “in the late testing phases,” and the rumor is that the machine will have a 5K display, with a resolution of 5120×2880 – exactly double that of the current 27-inch iMac.
We may even have identified the specific display Apple intends to use: a 27-inch 5K panel announced by Dell is looking like a very plausible candidate. This panel would provide a pixel density of 218 PPI, about the same as that of the 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro …
Greek siteTechingreek.com is reporting that Apple Service Providers will be providing after-sales service for Beats headphones and speakers within the country, suggesting that Apple itself may be doing the same in countries with Apple retail stores.
The site says that the above message was sent to Apple Service Providers in Greece, stating that they will provide service for Beats Electronics products “in the near future” … Expand Expanding Close
Apple today released the sixth public beta of the upcoming OS X Yosemite to AppleSeed testers. The build number is 14A388b, which coincides with last week’s OS X Yosemite Golden Master Candidate 3.0 release for registered developers. Apple plans to provide final details on OS X Yosemite at the October 16th event, then release it as soon as later that date.
With Apple scheduled to kick off its second special event in the last six weeks on Thursday, Re/code has set some expectations for what not to expect noting that Apple is not expected to introduce a Retina MacBook Air.
Apple may well have a new MacBook Air with Retina Display in the pipeline, but it’s not going to unveil it this week. Sources familiar with Apple’s plans tell me that the company’s latest reimagining of the ultralight laptop won’t be shown off at its Thursday event.
FBI Director James Comey isn’t backing down from his position that Apple and Google are wrong to encrypt customer smartphone data preventing law enforcement agencies the possibility of access if requested. After last month sharing that the FBI was in talks with the two companies to discuss concerns with marketing devices as being inaccessible to third-parties including the government, the FBI Director spoke with CBS News in an interview where he continued to make the case against such encryption… Expand Expanding Close
Not much is known about Apple’s deals with its suppliers, but court filings by former sapphire supplier GT Advanced reveal that the contract included a $50M penalty for any leak of Apple product information, reports the Financial Times.
While the amount of the penalty clause may vary according to the size of the supplier, it seems likely that a substantial leak penalty is a standard condition of supplying product components to Apple – though the number of leaks over the iPhone 6 suggests that such penalties offer limited protection.
Contracts between Apple and its suppliers will undoubtedly be subject to strict non-disclosure agreements, but lawyers for GT Advanced are asking the court to allow details to be made public … Expand Expanding Close
Apple has announced that it will be rolling out the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus to an additional 36 countries this month, bringing the total number of markets to 69. The latest rollout will begin with India and Monaco alongside China on Friday.
Apple today announced that iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, the biggest advancements in iPhone history, will arrive in 36 additional countries and territories across Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America and Africa by the end of October. iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus will be available in a total of 69 countries and territories by the end of the month and are on track to be available in more than 115 countries by the end of the year, making this the fastest iPhone rollout ever …
