[slideshow ids=”260955,260956,260957,260958,260959″] Apple tonight quietly updated Mac Mountain Lion OSX Server to version 2.2.1. The once stand-alone $500+ OS is now just an app, and that app is distributed through the Mac App Store for a very reasonable $19.99. Today’s update includes some updates around the Caching Server to allow Mac Apps to cache locally. Time Machine service monitoring also becomes more robust, while Wiki Server now supports Macs with Retina displays....

The Apple Watch Series 5 has now been given the teardown treatment by the folks at iFixit. This comes after the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro teardowns we saw last week. The Apple Watch Series 5 teardown shows just how similar the new device is to last year’s Series 4. To crack open the Series 5, iFixit simply used heat to soften the adhesive holding it all together, and then a precision knife to separate the display....

Apple CEO Tim Cook has just announced that the company will be donating to support local wildfire relief efforts in California. More than 90 fire incidents were reported in California this Wednesday, which forced many people in the San Francisco area to evacuate their homes. Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency this week as California faces fire outbreaks in several cities. As pointed out by The Washington Post, the National Interagency Fire Center, which coordinates federal firefighting efforts, was placed on its highest alert level on Tuesday....

Davos, Switzerland: We finally have it on good authority Apple is developing an LTE iPhone, with China Mobile chairman Wang Jianzhou confirming the news at the Davos Economic Forum this week. “Apple has made it clear they will support TD-LTE,” Wang said in Davos, Switzerland. “We hope that when they develop the next-generation models, since Apple can create CDMA, they can also consider developing TD-SCDMA,” he also said, confirming talks between Apple and the carrier to have been ongoing for the last two years....

French Apple news site MacGeneration today reports that Apple is soon planning to open a new flagship retail store in Paris, France, citing French newspaper Le Figaro. The report claims that Apple has secured a lease for a 20,341-square-feet seven story building at 114 Avenue des Champs-Élysées. The company plans to operate a retail store on the lower levels of the building, while the upper levels will be reserved for office space....

Forget to ‘Ring in the New Year’ with your Apple Watch? Your next chance to complete an Apple Watch Activity Challenge is quickly approaching! The annual ‘Heart Month Challenge’ returns in February with a sweet new set of digital stickers and virtual 2020 medal. If you’re not into closing all three rings everyday, you can go a little easier on yourself with this one: No need to close your Move and Stand rings (unless you have a streak going!...

When announcing the new electrocardiogram (ECG) feature for Apple Watch Series 4 back at its September event, Apple only shared that it would be released “later this year.” Now, a new report says that the ECG app on Apple Watch will arrive with the public release of watchOS 5.1.2. According to internal Apple documents obtained by MacRumors, watchOS 5.1.2 will enable the new health feature when it leaves the beta release....

The Economic Times reported that Apple plans to triple the number of Apple-exclusive franchise stores in India from 65 to 200 by 2015, but the country still won’t see any official Apple Stores. Government regulations mean that branded stores must source 30 percent of their stock from Indian companies, something Apple’s yet unable to do. It instead sells via franchisees who operate under their own brands, though generally emulating the look and feel of official stores to some degree …...

As originally reported in December, Apple is currently in the process of building its first research and development center in Indonesia. According to a new report from The Jakarta Post, the research and development center will begin operations during the second quarter of this year while iPhone 7 sales will begin in the country tomorrow… Apple’s new institution in Indonesia is said to develop educational programs for 300 to 400 local students, according to today’s report....

Well, these companies always claim they’re making the world a better place, aren’t they? And which tech company has made the world a better, prettier place than Apple? (I pause a moment for your reaction.) Tim Cook and his cohorts have created an atmosphere of such revolutionary excitement that customers expect glorious products and joyous service. That’s not quite what one Apple customer says he found on a recent visit to an Apple store....

Apple rolled out the marketing budget last night at the Emmy Awards. The company picked up an Emmy for Carpool Karoake, but Apple’s presence was made known by a series of Apple TV+ commercials during the ad breaks. As the company readies its service for launch, with the first shows dropping on November 1, Apple has not been shy to drum up press for the streaming service. Apple TV+ features only original Apple programming of TV shows and movies....

As we noted earlier this week, Apple and Samsung are officially back in the court room this month to continue their seven years and running debate over iPhone design patents. In addition to the comments made by Apple’s VP of product marketing Greg Joswiak, today’s opening statements brought a few notable tidbits about the iPhone creation process and more… Richard Howarth, senior director of Apple’s design team and one of the lead iPhone designers, kicked things off today with a pretty blanket statement, as noted by CNET....

We’ve learned Apple finally has a way for users of Made-For-iPhone/iPad game controllers to view a master list of supported games from the App Store, but it will first require the controller makers to issue firmware updates to their controllers. Ever since Apple introduced its new MFi game controllers last year— we’ve reviewed most of them including products from Moga, Logitech, and SteelSeries— one issue has been the lack of an Apple maintained master list of supported games....

It’s not just Apple Stores closed to limit the spread of the coronavirus: more than 30 other major retail chains have made the same decision … Apple originally said it would be closing all stores outside of Greater China until March 27, but readers noticed today that the closure has now been made indefinite. Business Insider has a roundup of other major chains which have also decided to close: Abercrombie & Fitch Allbirds Anthropologie Artizia Away Calvin Klein Everlane Free People Fossil Gilly Hicks Glossier Hollister IZOD J....

Beginning tomorrow, Apple stores across Europe will offer an increased number of Today at Apple sessions focused on programming with Swift. The initiative is in celebration of EU Code Week, an annual program celebrating the importance of learning how to code. Apple stores across the world already offer Today at Apple content based around Swift and Swift Playgrounds. Perhaps most notable is a Kids Hour session where participants learn how to guide a Sphero Robot through a maze....

After releasing iOS 6.1 with support for more LTE carriers, Siri movie-ticket purchasing, and more, Apple also released an update to Apple TV that brings Bluetooth keyboard support (as previously discovered), Up Next, and an enhanced iTunes in the Cloud service. As highlighted in the image above, Apple added the Up Next feature it first introduced in iTunes 11, along with the previously discovered Bluetooth keyboard support and the ability to browse and play purchased iTunes music from iCloud....

Apple Watch’s ECG functionality has saved a lot of lives, but the latest example shows how the low and high resting heart rate alerts are also uncovering unknown heart issues. After seeing multiple low resting heart rate warnings, a 48-year-old recently discovered he had ventricular bigeminy and was able to address the heart condition with surgery before it caused any issues. As reported by the Telegraph, 48-year-old Paul Hutton was receiving multiple low resting heart rate warnings on his Apple Watch....

One of the Apple TV+ standouts has been Ted Lasso and fans will get to dive deeper into the series as the creators and cast of the show will be at PaleyFest this spring. The Ted Lasso team will be part of a panel discussion for the long-running LA event on April 1. Reported by Variety, Ted Lasso was announced today as alongside five other shows as participating in the 2021 PaleyFest in LA....

The Apple TV app was promised for Sony TVs early last year, but the rollout hasn’t exactly been swift. Aside from a false-start a year ago, it wasn’t until last month that the app came to just one series: the X900H line. That has now changed, with the app beginning its rollout to all 2020 Android TV models, most 2019 ones and a few high-end 2018 models … FlatPanelsHD has the details....

New Apple TV Channels With the addition of the AOL and ABC news channels, you’ll have even more video content for free, but it is ad-supported. Both channels will provide original programs, some live and on-demand news feeds, and live hourly updates. The ABC News channel will offer highlight of ACB New shows like Good Morning America, and Nightline too. But don’t confuse this with WatchABC which was added several months ago – for that you will need a cable subscription....