Apple has slowly been adding apps to its universal search feature since the fourth-gen Apple TV was introduced, and over the past week 3 more apps have gained support. As noted on Apple’s support page for universal search, VH1, MTV, and Comedy Central now appear in search results. For those unfamiliar, universal search allows users to perform a single search using Siri or the Search app and see content across multiple channels....

After just over three weeks of testimony, evidence, debating over what the definition of a “game” is, and more, the Epic vs. Apple trial has officially adjourned. Now, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers will retreat and analyze the testimony to make a ruling in the case sometime over the coming months. In lieu of traditional closing arguments, today’s final day of the trial consisted of three hours of back-and-forth between Judge Rogers and lawyers for Apple and Epic....

In its form 10Q filed last night, Apple responded that it will defend itself against Nokia’s patent lawsuit “vigorously”. At issue: Nokia claims ownership of ten patented technologies applied within the iPhone, and insists Apple hasn’t paid the relevant royalties for these uses. Patents include those for wireless data transfer, speech coding, security and encryption. Nokia filed suit against Apple in the United States last week, accusing Apple of hitching a “free ride” on Nokia’s technology investment....

Thanks Alonzo! We’re hearing reports from @gruber backed up by iOS Firmware that AppleTVs are getting updated today with some enhanced new firmware. Early reports indicate that you can now stream any items purchased ever to AppleTV and Apple is now supporting Vimeo. Apple’s update KB is here. And the direct download is 4.3 (8F455) Apple TV killers not doing well: Revue returns outpace purchases (9to5mac.com) Apple TV to gain bluetooth keyboard support in iOS 5; opens the door to apps?...

Following the debut of Apple TV+ at the beginning of the month, Deadline reports that Apple’s head of current scripted programming and unscripted content is leaving his role. The report says that Kim Rozenfeld is leaving his executive role, and shifting back towards a creative role. Rozenfeld was an early hire for Apple TV+, joining shortly after Zack Van Amburg and Jamie Erlicht in 2017. Before joining Apple, Rozenfeld served as head of current programming at Sony TV....

The coronavirus is having ripple effects across the industry (and the world) and one such area is TV production. Many TV shows are halting production for the time being and Apple’s original content is no exception. Last night, we heard news that The Morning Show had paused production on season two as a result of coronavirus concerns. Update: Apple TV+ series Little America has postponed casting for its second season. Sci-fi series SEE — which is currently shooting its second season in Toronto — has also stopped production due to coronavirus fears....

Apple has just dropped new iMacs on the Apple Store: the same design with new internals. The 21.5-inch iMac features 8th-generation Intel CPUs in quad-core and six-core SKUs. The 27-inch iMac houses 9th-generation Intel CPUs, with 6-core and 8-core configurations. Apple says these new processors deliver up to 2x the performance of the previous generation iMac. In terms of GPU, Apple now offers Radeon Pro Vega graphics upgrades on both 21....

Apple has issued a pair of updates today to its Remote Desktop software. The first update is Apple Remote Desktop 3.7.1 Client: The Client works hand-in-hand with the main Apple Remote Desktop administrative software, which is available on the Mac App Store. The second update issued today is version 3.7 of Apple’s Remote Desktop Dashboard widget: The widget requires a user to have the administrative app installed. It’s fully integrated with the Apple Remote Desktop administrative application, so a click on a particular computer will allow you to select and start working with any computer in the system....

Apple has announced a new incentive program for gym-goers. The Apple Watch Connected scheme lets you earn real-life rewards at four gym chains for hitting fitness goals, with tracking provided by the Watch. Rewards vary: discounts on gym membership fees, Nike and Apple gift cards, charitable donations — and even earning back the cost of your Apple Watch… As TechCrunch shares, it’s an extension of the GymKit technology that enables you to wirelessly pair your Apple Watch to fitness equipment in order to accurately log your workouts....

Apple Watch SE arrives with a more affordable design than the flagship Series 6 but still packs many of the most popular features. There’s a Retina OLED display that’s complemented by a swim-proof design, heart rate monitoring, and other fitness tracking functionality. Though, you will miss out on the blood/oxygen sensor here. Save on ecobee HomeKit thermostats from $149 Integrating with the rest of your HomeKit setup, ecobee’s SmartThermostat brings temperature control to Siri alongside built-in access to Alexa....

In a report from Flurry Analytics, Apple was the winner of the holiday gift season with the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and a healthy mix of older models contributing to the company’s dominance over every other manufacturer, in the United States at least. For the period Christmas Day through New Year’s Eve, Apple iPhones and iPads represented about 43% of all mobile device activations in the US, according to the report....

The long-running patent infringement dispute between Apple and Qualcomm is at the stage of pre-trial motions – where both sides try to get rulings on what will and won’t be allowed in evidence during the trial. The judge in the case has granted some of Apple’s motions, and effectively told Qualcomm that it will have to accept the consequences of its poor legal strategy … Foss Patents firstly explains the background – that Apple asked the court to accept that certain patents were either invalid, or that the Cupertino company did not infringe them....

The full lineup of TV shows and movies premiering at this year’s SXSW Festival has been announced. The list confirms that multiple Apple TV+ originals will make their debut at the festival, which is slated for March 13 through March 22 in Austin, Texas. Announced in a press release, two Apple TV+ original shows will debut at SXSW this year: “Home” and “Central Park.” The former is a nine-part series focused on architecture around the world....

Apple TV+ today released its latest sizzle reel for the service, advertising what subscribers can expect from the service in the coming months. The featured titles includes returning seasons of Ted Lasso, The Morning Show, See and Truth Be Told. New premium originals include Foundation, Invasion, The Shrink Next Door as well as the Sundance winning film CODA. However, Apple did not give precise release dates for these titles other thank confirming they will be released sometime in 2021....

Following reports this morning that Apple was preparing to a launch a new campaign on its website to lure skeptical professionals back to Final Cut Pro X, Apple has now pushed out updates to the app in addition to smaller updates to its Motion and Compressor apps. Version 10.0.8 of the ‘Final Cut Pro’ Mac App Store app brings a number of new features and enhancements, many of which focus on improvements for professional users....

Apple is celebrating Black History Month in Apple Stores across the world with displays highlighting the Apple Watch Series 6 Black Unity Collection. The collection of limited-edition watches and bands became available in stores on February 1. A bright backdrop referencing the colors of the Pan-African flag fills the Apple Watch Display Table in stores. To debut the new collection and Unity watch face, Apple has dedicated the entire glass-topped table to Black Unity....

Polar is expanding its packed lineup of sport watches with a new mid-priced entry called Ignite. The new $229.95 GPS fitness watch introduces new sleep analytics and fitness guidance features not yet built-in to the Apple Watch and new to Polar. While Apple Watch isn’t rumored to gain built-in sleep tracking without third party apps until next fall, Polar says Ignite is tackling sleep tracking in two ways using in-house experts....

A Taiwanese man in a Zhenjiang court filed a lawsuit against Cupertino-based Apple, claiming the company is infringing on his patent with its FaceTime technology that is present in many iOS and OS X products. According to the man’s lawyer, his client earned the patent in 2003 while working under an employer. Once he left, the patent transferred to his name. The patent, which covers a “voice network personal digital assistant” (sounds more like Siri?...

Apple is testing a new type of search result format for some questions. As spotted on Reddit, Spotlight Search can now answer some typed-in questions with direct answers, rather than a generic list of web results. The listing highlights the extract, which should hopefully answer the question, along with the source website and a button to report a concern if the result is inappropriate. An all too familiar experience of using Siri is getting an answer like ‘I found this on the web for [x]’....

Apple has updated its website to announce that it will be live streaming next week’s WWDC Keynote address for all to watch. As per usual, the event will be available on Macs running Safari 4 or later, iOS Devices running iOS 4.2 or later, Windows machines running Quicktime 7, and via an application on the Apple TV. The event kicks off at 10AM Pacific/1PM Eastern time on Monday, June 2nd. Apple says that it has “exciting announcements” in store for the event (as it says for all of its events), which is likely to include talk of iOS 8 with Healthbook, a redesigned OS X 10....