Following this morning’s introduction of the Apple Watch Series 4, Apple has updated its Design Resources page with new assets for developers and designers. The revised templates reflect changes made to optimize watchOS for new, larger displays. Additionally, Apple has published new Tech Talks on its Developer Videos page that offer best practices when building applications for the Apple Watch Series 4 and new iPhones. The Apple Watch Series 4 offers a display over 30% larger than its predecessor, representing the most significant change to not only the Watch’s hardware, but to the content layout possibilities for watchOS itself....

Over the last week or two Apple Stores started stocking these new app-enabled Christmas lights from Lumenplay both online and in retail stores. Similar to other app-controlled lighting systems, Lumenplay comes as string lights perfect for Christmas trees or outdoor decorations as we move into the holiday season, opposed to the traditional lightbulbs from Philips and others. The lights work over Bluetooth 4.0 and offer customizations for light colors, timers, effects, a music visualizer, and more via a companion app from the App Store....

France has announced that it will go ahead with a so-called ‘Apple tax’ this year, whether or not an agreement is reached on an international proposal to ensure tech giants receive the same tax treatment across 137 countries. Background Macron made the accusation last August, to defend the country’s decision to impose a tax on the four tech companies. Other European countries had been debating a similar approach, leading to calls for a single policy across the European Union....

If you weren’t in the festive holiday spirit already, Apple is launching its legal challenge this week to oppose a 13 billion euro charge levied on the company in August by the EU Commission for supposed illegal tax benefits from Ireland. Apple will argue that the EU ignored tax experts and disregarded corporate law. Bruce Sewell, Apple SVP, said that the company was targeted to ‘generate lots of headlines’ in a statement....

Apple and Best Buy have agreed to begin selling both the standard AppleCare protection plan for Macs and the more premium AppleCare+ for iPhones, iPads, and the Apple Watch through Best Buy stores, according to sources. The plans call for Best Buy to begin offering the AppleCare plans in its stores at checkout around the week of September 14th, just ahead of the iPhone 6S launch. This will mark a notable expansion of the Apple and Best Buy relationship, and Best Buy will become one of the only retailers, aside from select U....

At WWDC 2019 today, Apple offered our first look at its brand new Mac Pro. Read on as we roundup all of the details about Apple’s new professional-grade machine. The new Mac Pro is a return of the cheese grater design. Apple says the new Mac Pro was designed with easy access to its components. There are stainless steel handles for modularity, all internal components mount to the frame with 360-degree components....

Usernames and passwords have been used for authentication since the dawn of computing. Apple has introduced many ways to facilitate the usage of strong passwords for authentication by including biometric authentication like Face ID and Touch ID with its products. Now, Apple is working on expanding Apple Watch authentication beyond simply unlocking your Mac with macOS 10.15. Currently, there are some Macs with Touch ID, specifically the MacBook Pro models with Touch Bar and the latest MacBook Air....

Apple’s second store in South Korea will celebrate its grand opening on February 26 at 10:00 a.m. The store was first announced last November on Apple’s website as coming soon. Apple Yeouido is located on L1 of IFC Mall Seoul. You can learn more about the store and see it in context with Apple Garosugil, South Korea’s first Apple Store, in our previous coverage. After Apple announced its imminent opening in Yeouido last November, South Korea saw an unprecedented spike in new COVID-19 cases, which may have contributed to the significant delay between announcement and opening....

Apple has announced that its retail store on Santa Monica’s Third Street Promenade will close temporarily beginning September 16th. The store’s closure is set to begin just four days after Apple’s September 12th special event at Steve Jobs theater, where updated iPhone and Apple Watch models are expected to be announced. Historically, new iPhones and Apple Watches become available for purchase within a few weeks of announcement, so customers who frequent the Santa Monica store may want to plan ahead for fall shopping....

If you love using YouTube on your iDevice, there’s no need to panic, though. You’ll still be able to use the video-sharing service on your device via the Safari browser. Google is also working on an app that will be available in the AppStore (for free, most certainly) likely being available shortly after the release of iOS6 if not earlier. According to Apple as quoted by The Telegraph, its license for the Google App has expired, and more likely than not, is that Apple and Google are direct competitors now with Google’s Mobile Android Phones, it would be silly for Apple to allow Google flagship apps on its devices further building on Google’s brand and products....

As it prepares its full entry into streaming TV for later this year, Apple has quietly launched a dedicated YouTube channel for Apple TV. On the channel, Apple showcases trailers, clips, and more for popular shows and movies. The new channel was first spotted by MacStories. Over the last several weeks, Apple has seemingly been adding all sorts of content to the channel. The company has shared videos for TV shows and movies like Game of Thrones, On the Basis of Sex, The Secret Life of Pets 2, and more....

Apple Watch Nike+ Series 3 models are now available to order from Apple and Best Buy. While the LTE version is shipping in roughly 3-4 weeks, some Apple Stores have stock today. The Nike+ model without LTE looks to be a bit easier to come by… Earlier this week, Nike released an update to its Nike+ Run Club app bringing a variety of improvements. Among the new features are audio guided runs, a new “Cheers from friends” option, and elevation support for Apple Watch only runs....

A rather speculative KGI note suggests that Apple’s focus on augmented reality (AR) instead of virtual reality (VR) will give the company a 3-5 year lead on the rest of the industry when it launches its first products. The report also suggests that Apple could use augmented reality as part of an autonomous driving system. KGI’s Ming-Chi Kuo doesn’t, though, expect Apple to launch its first AR product any time soon …...

Earlier this week, Apple was found guilty in an ongoing patent lawsuit initiated by the University of Wisconsin-Madison. At the time, Apple was said to potentially owe the university’s patent licensing arm $862 million in damages. Today, however, Reuters reports that the jury in the case, after much deliberation, has ordered Apple to pay $234 million in damages. The main reason for the large cut in the damages Apple will pay is that U....

Update Apple TV The update is available for the second and third generation of the set top box. If you’ve never updated it before, check out this guide on how to update your Apple TV. I have a jailbroken Apple TV 2, and didn’t see the update. If you’ve jailbroken your Apple TV you might not want to grab this update because you’ll need to jailbreak it again if you want features like XBMC....

Apple released a major Final Cut Pro X update yesterday with support for third-party workflow extensions, batch sharing, and more. Along with the new features, Apple is also warning users about legacy media support with future versions of macOS. As noted in a support document yesterday, Apple is alerting users via the latest 10.4.4 FCP update that in order to “prepare for future macOS releases, complete Final Cut Pro projects that contain legacy media....

YouTuber Joel Telling is crediting Apple Watch with alerting him to an elevated heart rate. Telling says that his Apple Watch notified him that his heart rate had been over 120 beats-per-minute for more than 10 minutes, prompting him to seek medical attention. Following the Apple Watch notification, Telling went to the emergency room, where doctors determined he was suffering from tachycardia. Mayo Clinic describes tachycardia as your heart beating faster than it should while resting....

Apple is now offering prescheduled support from sign language interpreters at hundreds of its retail stores in nearly a dozen countries. The service is provided to customers by appointment at no cost. Starting today, customers can visit the webpage for their local Apple Store and request a sign language interpreter for their next store visit. The request link will send an email to the store, and Apple will follow up to arrange an appointment....

Each year, Harris Polls runs rankings of the top 100 “most visible” companies operating in the United States, ranking them by their reputation among customers who participate in the survey. This year, in a survey of 30,000 customers, Apple has taken the 5th spot. The biggest story in this year’s rankings, though, is Samsung’s massive drop. In 2015, the company took the #3 spot, above both Apple and Google. This year, however, Samsung has plummeted 46 spots to 49th place....

A new two-part biographical documentary focused on Oprah Winfrey is reportedly in the works at Apple TV+. Deadline reported that the documentary is being conceived by a team with close ties to Winfrey. The documentary will come from Kevin MacDonald and Lisa Erspamer, the duo behind the Whitney Houston documentary Whitney. The report explains that Erspamer worked with Winfrey on The Oprah Winfrey Show for a decade and that Winfrey was a fan of the Whitney Houston documentary:...