Apple is scheduled to hold its annual shareholder meeting tomorrow, February 26, at Steve Jobs Theater. Ahead of the event, Apple is warning attendees to take extra health and safety precautions amid the ongoing coronavirus outbreak. In a message to registered attendees of the shareholder meeting, Apple says that it is working closely with public health experts and following official guidance from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for best practices related to COVID-19....

Following Garnter’s look at the smartphone market earlier today, IDC is out this afternoon with its latest data on the wearables market. According to IDC, shipments of wearables hit 32 million units during the third quarter of 2018, up nearly 22 percent compared to last year. This growth can be partly attributed to strong Apple Watch Series 3 shipments. Leading wearables growth are new “basic wearables” from companies like Fitbit, Garmin, and Huawei, as well as growing interest in emerging markets such as Asia/Pacific....

Apple has announced that it will soon let developers reply to reviews on the iPhone, iPad and Mac App Stores. As part of the iOS 10.3 release notes, the company says that by the time iOS 10.3 is available to customers, developers will be able to respond to customer reviews on the App Store. This is a major breakthrough enhancement as developers have been asking Apple for better ways to interact with customers for a long time....

We reported yesterday that Nokia filed a lawsuit against Apple, claiming the company had violated no fewer than 32 of its patents in every iPhone from the 3GS onward. Just for good measure, the lawsuit also includes every iPad, the Apple Watch and Apple TV. The WSJ now reports that Nokia was responding to an Apple lawsuit accusing the company of deliberately excluding the 32 patents from an agreement reached between the two companies in 2011, and transferring the patents to third-party companies in order to extort excessive royalties …...

Specific sales of Apple Watch have been a mystery since the device’s launch back in April, with several analysts offering up their own respective estimates on numbers. Now, Taiwan’s Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc. has hinted at sales of the device. ASE, for those unfamiliar, is responsible for putting all of the internal parts of Apple Watch into a case through a process known as system-in-package (via WSJ). The company, however, claims that Apple Watch sales are not as high as expected…...

Apple is reportedly engaged in extremely high level talks with senior executives from across the publishing industry with a view to making eBooks available to the tablet, and while these may start as the kind of text-based publications you’d find on a Kindle, these will advance to become true multimedia content delivery vehicles. Perhaps a sign of what’s to come is visible in iTunes Extras/LP. These combine multiple assets and can be purchased from iTunes....

Last November, we explained how the UK government was working to convince Apple to open up the iPhone NFC chip to allow EU citizens to scan their passports post-Brexit. Now, the UK government says it has reached a deal with Apple to access the iPhone’s NFC technology. The UK government has launched an app that helps EU citizens apply for residency in the UK post-Brexit. The process requires that people fill out a short form, take a selfie, and scan their passport with NFC using their smartphone....

Israel is not the only country getting an official Apple Watch rollout next week. Notices on Apple websites around the world indicate that the Apple Watch will launch in Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, and Qatar on February 11th, while the device will also launch in Greece on February 12th. Given that Apple does not have official stores in those regions, much like in Israel, these launches will take place through official Apple distributors....

Looking at the Apple Watch Series 7, it’s all too easy to write it off as a minimal upgrade when compared to last year’s Series 6. The core differences come down to the Series 7 having a larger display, faster charging and, well, that’s about it. It’s with that mindset that I started testing the Series 7 about two weeks ago. And for the first few days, I debated whether or not I should cancel my order of the Series 7 and go back to using the Series 6 I had sitting on my desk....

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghdTqnYnFyg&start=120] (Substitute PowerPC for Intel and Intel for ARM) There are a lot of people who think Apple is going to eventually move its “Mac” line to iOS. In fact we found it curious when Apple turned ‘MacOSX’ to ‘OSX’ as of Lion earlier this year. Steve Jobs and Apple in general are very sensitive to CPU power issues with their push to make high end devices thinner. As part of the WSJ article on Intel spending $300 million on developing MacBook Air alternatives (a hint in itself – why does Intel need to create competition for its own Air), it was revealed that Apple was threatening to leave Intel’s ‘low power’ processors if they didn’t drastically cut power....

Today, Apple has updated its Apple Store application for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch with gift card support and Siri integration. The gift card support allows users to purchase Apple Store gift cards for friends and family. As we first reported, these gift cards will work in physical retail stores by way of the iOS 6 Passbook application. Additionally, the new app update features Siri integration. Users will be able to use Siri (on compatible devices) to find pricing and details about Apple’s products....

We have already seen some prototypes of the first-generation Apple Watch, which revealed details of the product before the official announcement in September 2014. This week, Giulio Zompetti shared an image of an early prototype of the Apple Watch Series 3. Although it looks quite identical to the final version, this prototype has something unique: a Smart Connector. Every Apple Watch comes with a hidden port, which is used internally by Apple for diagnostics and other internal tests....

Apple’s special media event today marks a full year since it first previewed Apple Watch to the world before putting it on sale earlier this year in late April. Roughly six months since actually going on sale, Apple Watch is still launching around the world so it’s too soon yet for Apple Watch 2. To keep the lineup fresh a year after first unveiling the product, Apple is growing the Apple Watch Sport collection by adding iPhone, iPad, and MacBook matching gold-colored models....

Within testing the next iteration of iOS, v4.1, Apple may be testing a shadowy third product along with the expected future iPod touch and iPad. Is this a new 7-inch iPad, an Apple TV or a completely new product? The latest beta of iOS 4.1, due to ship in the coming weeks, includes three new “Configuration Descriptors” within its USB configuration files. These descriptions all relate to products described as made by Apple Inc....

There are two things I do with my iPhone on-the-go that my Apple Watch hasn’t been able to do: play podcasts and take photos and video. The upcoming watchOS 5 software update solves the podcast problem, and I have a dedicated camera for shooting without my iPhone. But the inability to pair the Apple Watch with Bluetooth car audio remains a sticking point. My Apple Watch can stream Apple Music and Radio over LTE....

It’s no secret that former Florida governor Jeb Bush is a huge fan of his Apple Watch. Since the Apple Watch launched, the Republican presidential candidate has gone after the youth vote by showing off his Apple Watch and calling it a better option than Obamacare, despite labeling it unintuitive and power-hungry a few months later. Jeb’s “iWatch,” as he often calls it, wasn’t dead earlier this week during an interview with the Des Moines Register’s editorial board, USA Today points out, as the presidential hopeful accidentally either placed or answered a phone call on it unknowingly....

iLounge editor Jeremy Horwitz, who has proved to be reliable in Apple related leaks in the past, published a report today claiming “a reliable source” provided details on two products the company currently has in development. According to Horwitz, Apple is working on a new iPad “Smart Case” and “another glass iPhone.” As for the “smart case,” the report described the new case as inspired by the existing smart covers but more like Incase’s Magazine Jacket (pictured above), because they will also have a back cover....

. We’ve received word from AppleSeed testers that the first 10.8.1 Betas are on the way. There has been some concern over excessive battery drain in recent days as well as Apple’s curious new “Save as” behavior which also overwrites the current version which will hopefully be addressed in upcoming releases. [tweet https://twitter.com/9to5mac/status/233282559855976448] Apple seeds iOS 6 beta 3 to developers Apple seeds OS X 10.7.5 build 11G30 and iCloud Windows Control Panel beta 2 to developers OS X Mountain Lion seeded to AppleCare reps ahead of launch

Apple Stores have been inundated with customers in search of replacement iPhone batteries since the end of last year when Apple reduced the service cost from $79 to $29. The move addressed criticism over how it handled performance throttling on iPhones with older batteries as a solution to unexpected shutdowns, but weeks-long wait times have proved problematic across most Apple Stores. Now, retail employees have shared that Apple is bringing in support from new sources....

Apple is nearly finished constructing a second retail location in the Chinese region of Macau. New signage installed over the building’s facade teases the store’s imminent opening for the first time. A dark blue-green canvas striped by undulating lines covers the exterior of Apple’s newest store adjacent to the Sands Cotai Central resort. A chromed Apple logo and two lines of Chinese characters are the only hints that iPhones and iPads will soon be sold inside....