In addition to announcing its App Store Best of 2019 today, Apple is also launching its first-ever Apple Music Awards. The company says it handpicked winners for Global Artist of the Year, Songwriter of the Year and Breakthrough Artist of the Year. It also gave awards to the most streamed song and album. With Billie Eilish picking up three awards, Apple is celebrating the first year of Apple Music Awards with a performance from the artist held at Steve Jobs Theater....

In what has become a tradition of sorts, Apple today published iTunes Rewind 2011, an annual list of the best iOS apps and games split across 21 App Store categories. Apple explains: In addition to apps, charts are also available for music, movies, television shows, e-books and podcasts. They named Snapseed for the iPad App of the Year and Electronic Arts’ Dead Space for the iPad Game of the Year. As for the iPhone, Apple put Instagram at the top (runners-up were VidRhythm and Band of the Day)....

Apple is now publishing public web pages for landmarks and POI in its Apple Maps database: here’s one such place. The website link shows details about the place such as location, name, telephone number and reviews. The design is identical to the cards in the iOS 10 Maps app. When on an Apple platform, these URLs appear to act as deep links into the native Maps app. If viewing in Chrome or on a non-Apple device like Android, the fallback webpage is loaded....

One particular piece of evidence that leads us to believe in a June 14th Lion launch is that Apple will be minimizing software presence in their retail stores on that day. Possibily meaning the removal of Snow Leopard from Apple’s retail outlets. This may mean a mid-June Final Cut Pro X launch as well, but that is purely speculative. Apple removing software from their retail stores is not exactly an issue for Mac OS X Lion customers as this particular software release will come through the Mac App Store....

Just before we heard Apple was not using an ARM-designed processor and instead its first custom CPU design for the new iPhone’s A6, we also heard reports that Apple was reducing component orders from Samsung due to the two companies’ ongoing patent disputes. While we knew Samsung was still—at the very least—manufacturing the new chip, a report from KoreaTimes gives more insight into the company’s involvement directly from a Samsung official....

With an increasing number of countries and states urging people to stay at home, a new set of seven Apple Music Come Together playlists are designed to help people cope with home lockdowns. Each of the playlists is designed to meet a specific need, from working or studying at home to forgetting the world’s troubles for a while … Isolation Icebreakers Work From Home Hustle Virtual Hugs Home-School-Strumentals Living Room Dance Party...

Suggestions that Apple will pay music owners just 58% of subscription payments for its Apple Music service are not true, says the company. Robert Kondrk, the Apple VP who has been working with Eddy Cue on negotiating deals with music labels, says that company actually pays a little more than the industry-standard 70% figure. The 58% number doing the rounds earlier this month appears to be based on a misunderstanding: that’s the usual cut for the label, which owns the recording; the publisher, which owns the rights to the song itself, gets a 12% cut....

The last update to iOS 10 came with the 10.2.1 update in January 2017; preceded by 10.2 in December 2016 and 10.1 in October 2016. Prominent parts of the operating system have been modified in the 10.3 release, such as your Apple ID Profile settings which now have a more detailed listing for iCloud storage. The new version will also inform users about outdated apps that are no longer compatible with the OS....

Apple is now using TikTok, more than six months after creating an official account for the company on the short-form video platform. It has apparently commissioned promotional videos from existing TikTok influencers … We noted the empty account back in April. That changed last week, with the addition of four videos – each of them promoting the compact size of the iPhone 12 mini. All use the same camera trickery to make large objects shrink, with the final trick being to shrink the iPhone 12 Pro down to the iPhone 12 mini....

Apple launched today a new support page on its website. With “Apple for Kids,” parents and guardians can learn everything they need to know about how to manage a family group, set up a child’s device, and more. Since it’s becoming more natural for children to have an iPhone, an iPad, or even an Apple Watch, Apple is promoting a new page to help parents and guardians take care of their kids online (via MacRumors)....

A recent job posting by Apple looking for an Apple TV software engineer backs up rumors that the company is finally preparing to expand its presence in the living room. According to the job listing on Apple’s website, the company is looking for someone to “lead a team of engineers working on exciting new features and functionality” for the next-generation Apple TV. Once described by Apple as a hobby, the job listing refers to the Apple TV as a “high priority project....

Apple’s job listings are usually a good indication of what’s to come and tonight Apple began searching for four engineers with a specific focus on voice technologies in iOS. These four positions (1,2,3,4) break up into an iOS Speech Application Engineer, two Speech Recognition Engineers, and a Senior Speech Research Scientist. With three different job types, all with a focus on voice recognition, Apple appears to be serious about this....

While Spotify may lead in terms of subscribers, it’s already been proven that Apple Music can dominate even with its smaller user base. A new report from analytics firm Verto further highlights the sometimes underestimated reach of Apple Music. The report shows that Apple Music comes out on top in terms of monthly unique users, thanks in large part to the three-month free trial Apple offers. The data from Verto says that Apple Music attracted 40....

Apple has officially revealed this year’s September special event, inviting members of the press and the public to tune in remotely to watch on September 15 at 10 am PT. At the event, Apple is expected to unveil all-new hardware including a new iPad Air and new Apple Watch models. Update: While initial reports suggested that the September event would focus on the iPhone 12 alongside new Apple Watch and iPad hardware, Bloomberg reports that the September event will only include iPad and Apple Watch details....

The USPTO has today published a patent application by Apple to allow a specific fingerprint to activate a ‘panic mode’ on an iPhone, designed for use when the owner feels threatened, is in danger or is being forced to unlock their phone. In its most basic form, placing a specific finger on the Touch ID button would place the iPhone into a special locked-down mode, blocking access to personal data store on the phone – perhaps simulating a brand new phone....

Last week, Apple pulled the curtains off their three new models. Each with an IP68 rating, are capable of submerging in water for 30-minutes as deep as 5-feet in the water. Another upgrade is the glass used on these devices. As per Apple, this is the most endurable glass ever used on a smartphone. For time-being, iPhone customers may be content with this, but Apple is not stopping at this. According to a patent application filed in March 2017 at the USPTO, Apple is working hard on an abrasion resistant finish that will protect your iPhone from not just scratches, but dents as well....

As I’ve stated before, I believe that Apple will, in 2009, deliver a new ARM Cortex Touch-based platform with a much bigger screen and physical keyboard option that will serve as a general computing platform for the masses. This will incluse the Mobile multi-touch Safari, Apps store, Mail.app, iCal Maps, GPS, iWork and iLife Mobile. This will also be the opening battle in the Intel vs. ARM architecture war. More below on this from ABI research:...

As much attention Apple is giving to iOS 12, that much it is also giving to the Watch OS 5. The OEM rolled out the 8th developer beta for the watches a few days ago. To shape it up, even more, it’s now seeding out the Watch OS 5 Developer Beta 9. This software only targets the developer folks and it is available for all Series 1, Series 2, and Series 3 Apple Watches....

Apple says its new Schoolwork app for iPad is now available for teachers. The app was first announced back in March at Apple’s education event where it introduced the new 9.7-inch iPad with Apple Pencil support. Schoolwork was previously available as a beta app, and now Apple says all teachers will have access: Schoolwork lets teachers create assignments for students using iPads to learn with apps like iBooks, Swift Playgrounds, GeoGabra AR, Kahoot!...

Apple’s new Apple Park campus is officially set to open next month, and ahead of that, the company has recently updated Apple Maps with satellite imagery of the new campus and a proper description. As can see into image above, you get some beautiful 3D imagery of Apple Park in Apple Maps, though not necessarily up to date. Nevertheless, we have some more details and images below… The new Apple Park campus still isn’t always the first result when you type “Apple Park” into Maps, but it is now one of the options....