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Interbrand has named Apple as the world’s most valuable brand for the third year running, estimating that it increased its total value by 43% in the past year to hit $170B. The company bases its estimates on a mix of the financial performance of the company, its ability to influence purchase decisions and the degree of brand loyalty it enjoys. Google again took second place, seeing its value climb by 12% to $120B....

Apple has updated its iTunes Movie Trailers app with several new features and upgrades. The biggest new feature is the ability to get push notifications when movies marked as favorites hit theaters or iTunes. The in-app movie reviews have also been tweaked. Where previously you could only see a movies overall Rotten Tomatoes rating, you can now read full reviews right from within the app. A few smaller features are also included in the update....

The first item on the list would be new MacBook Airs with Sandy Bridge processors and Thunderbolt I/O. Digitimes and CNET have said that the new Airs are coming in either June or July and ChronicWire says they are coming this Wednesday. We have since heard from a source that there are still some current generation MacBook Airs shipping to retail stores across the world into the next couple of weeks....

When we checked in last Friday on the ongoing Apple vs. Samsung cases in the United States, Apple’s lawyers were threatening Samsung with a temporary restraining order on the Galaxy S III to stop sales of the device before its June 21 release date. Apple was hoping Judge Lucy Koh would add the Galaxy S III to existing preliminary injunction requests that Apple previously made on other Galaxy products. However, according to a report from Reuters, Judge Koh ruled this week that Apple’s requests would “overload her calendar” given a July 30 trial date in the previous Galaxy cases is already set....

Apple today announced that it is relaxing some notarization requirements for Mac apps. For apps outside of the Mac App Store, macOS Catalina will only run notarized software. However, developers have found it difficult to adopt notarization. To ease the transition, Apple is temporarily relaxing some of the things that the company previously mandated for an app to be notarized. In a developer update, the company said developers can now notarize software that do not use the hardened runtime features, contain components that are not signed with a Developer ID, lack a secure time stamp, or include the get-task-allow entitlement....

Apple TV includes a nice variety of gorgeous screensavers but what about if you want to display more traditional artwork on your TV or another display? Today, Enplug is launching a free new service that brings the work of thousands of artists to your home or business. Using a TV as a digital canvas for artwork when not in use has become popular over the past years. Samsung has even created a successful product line out of the feature with The Frame TV series....

In the aftermath of Apple’s cancellation of the big HomePod, there’s been a lot of speculation about Apple TV’s future. After releasing the tvOS version of the Apple TV in 2015 and the 4K version in 2017, Apple has largely been silent on the platform’s future. Despite tvOS receiving continual software updates, the hardware has remained stagnant. Even without modern hardware, the Apple TV is nearly the perfect digital signage device, thanks to Apple’s mobile device management integration....

Apple is set to give the Apple Watch one more big event on March 9th before its debut in April, but the fashion world’s go to magazine Vogue is continuing to prominently feature the Watch before it goes on sale to the public. French site Mac4ever first shared photos from the Paris edition of Vogue magazine featuring two shots of the 18k gold Apple Watch Edition being modeled in black and white photos....

Apple will begin allowing prospective customers to test out in-ear headphones prior to purchase within Apple Stores, according to several employees. Due to sanitation concerns, Apple has been reluctant to allowing customers to try out in-ear headphones, but a new solution called Demo Kits will solve this problem. Beginning this week, when a customer is interested in purchasing in-ear headphones, an Apple Store employee will have the ability to create a custom Demo Kit that holds up to six different models of in-ear headphones....

[tweet https://twitter.com/CharlieRoseShow/status/403659673699905536] The Charlie Rose Show has tweeted that Jony Ive and Marc Newson are interviewed on the show, which aired last night in some markets and is shown tonight in others. [ooyala code=”NnaG1raDqtQJgUvvrjx6fWautfqKsifC” player_id=”null”] The two previously appeared in a five-minute video talking about the items they designed for tomorrow’s charity RED auction, which include special editions of the Mac Pro and Leica M camera, and an aluminum desk … Product RED was an initiative created by U2 musician Bono as a way or raising both funds and awareness for fighting AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria in Africa through The Gobal Fund....

Apple has decided to disable one of the features of the Health application, specifically the blood glucose tracking capability, until it can issue a fix for issues reported by users in the UK and Australia, CNET reported tonight. The feature will apparently be removed through an incoming software update (perhaps iOS 8.1, or possibly 8.0.3) while the company prepares a patch to remedy the problem. Apple has also provided a longer explanation on its support website:...

Apple is investigating ways to enhance its Siri voice assistant for users with atypical speech patterns, the company confirms to the Wall Street Journal. According to the report, Apple is leveraging its podcast library for speech samples that could train Siri to adapt to users who speak with a stutter. Here’s the news from the Wall Street Journal report: For now, Apple relies on its Hold to Talk feature as a method for interacting with Siri without the voice assistant cutting off users with slower speech patterns than its tuned for, but physically interacting with a device isn’t always convenient....

The latest Apple TV+ original series Little America has been one of the best-received shows on the platform so far, holding steady at 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. In a new interview this week, the team behind the anthology series has offered new details on why they picked Apple for the show, and what’s coming next. Kumail Nanjiani, one of the creators and producers of Little America, explained that he pitched the show to a “bunch of different places....

Apple unveiled all new new versions of its iWork productivity apps: Pages, Keynote, and Numbers. Today’s software updates are most notable as iWork previously hasn’t received an update since 2009, save for iCloud support and bug fixes. Starting with the icons, Apple redesigned its iWork applications to be more familiar across devices and supports better file compatibility. Both versions on iOS and OS X previously featured heavy elements of linen, leather, and wood, all of which are now absent....

In our report last week, we reported that internal models of the Apple Watch included 8 GB of storage. We have now confirmed with the company that the shipping units do indeed ship with an 8 GB storage capacity. However, there are some important limitations. As a user, you are only allowed to use a subsection of that total space for certain types of data. As confirmed with Apple, users are only allowed to store up to 2 GB of music on the Watch and up to 75 MB of photos for the Photos app....

Following its teardown of the iPhone XS and XS Max, iFixit has now taken its blades and tri-point screwdrivers to the Apple Watch Series 4 – and was impressed by what it found. The company said that the internals reveal a major design leap, living up to Steve Jobs’ oft-told story about painting the back of the fence even though no-one will ever see it … There was more good news when it came to repairability....

Sonos wireless speakers have touted Apple Music compatibility in beta since last year and officially since this year, and now Apple is selling Sonos speakers for the first time. Apple’s online store will begin selling the Play:1 ($199) and Play:5 ($499, reviewed) later today, and Apple’s physical stores will carry the two speakers starting October 5. We’re very excited to announce today that we’re making it easier than ever by expanding our collaboration with Apple and bringing Sonos into Apple’s physical and online retail stores....

Bloomberg reports that Apple is to go head-to-head with Snapchat and Instagram by developing its own video-sharing app as part of a push to target younger users. The company is said to said to be motivated by the fact that social apps generate the greatest level of engagement on the iPhone, Facebook users averaging 50 minutes a day, Snapchat users 30 minutes. The focus will be on short, fun videos that are super-quick to create …...

Jonny Ive, the design mastermind behind all of Apple’s decade plus of hit products, often gives some credit for being inspired by Dieter Rams. Now, it appears that Ive has ventured into the writing world by penning the foreword to Rams’ latest book called As Little Design As Possible: The Work of Dieter Rams Rams conversely has stated that he has profound respect for the work Ive has done at Apple....

The Washington Post reports that Apple is one of several tech companies planning change the way it handles government requests for customer information in the near future. According to the Post, Apple will begin notifying any customer whose information is requested by law enforcement later this month. Microsoft, Facebook, and Google are also adjusting their own policies accordingly. The companies say that users have a right to know when their data is being turned over to officials....