Fans of The Office have been excited about what appeared to be the revival of a previously pitched spin-off series called The Farm, but the project may actually be something involving Apple and not a new original series. Staff involved in The Farm have been promoting the project — which includes an on-screen reunion of actors Kate Flannery, Leslie David Baker and Paul Lieberstein who all had key roles in The Office — since early last month....

“Windows users are really tired of all the headaches that they’ve been getting over the years, starting all the way back from Windows Me to NT to Vista and now Windows 7,” he said. “As a result, I think people are looking for something different, and the Mac offers real ease of use, stability and security.” Noting, as Phil Schiller did earlier, that upgrading to Windows is a complex process, he suggested Windows users, particularly those on XP machines, may see this as the right time to switch to Mac....

In the years ahead, passwords, as we know them, will become a thing of the past. However, that change won’t happen overnight and will take a concerted effort from lots of different parties, including the major tech giants. At WWDC, Apple announced how it’s moving toward a more secure and easy-to-use passwordless authentication powered by WebAuthn and Face ID/Touch ID with the preview of passkeys in iCloud Keychain. The preview of passkeys in iCloud Keychain comes with iOS 15 and macOS Monterey, but it doesn’t mean the feature is user-facing....

Apple Reports Record Third Quarter Results Revenue Up 38 Percent Year-Over-YearMac Sales Reach All-Time High CUPERTINO, California—July 21, 2008—Apple® today announced financial results for its fiscal 2008 third quarter ended June 28, 2008. The Company posted revenue of $7.46 billion and net quarterly profit of $1.07 billion, or $1.19 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $5.41 billion and net quarterly profit of $818 million, or $.92 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter....

Apple just released a new Security Update for the Mountain Lion Developer Preview that introduces a few new security features. Macs running OS 10.8 will now automatically check for security updates daily to be better protected against rising malware threats. It will also have the ability to install such updates automatically, or when the user next restarts their computer. The update even creates a more secure connection to Apple’s servers for more security....

Apple looks to be having a few lot of problems with its servers this morning. At the time of writing, iTunes Connect is refusing logins, the iBooks store is not responding and there are intermittent outages when viewing some individual items in both iOS and Mac App Stores … Both Reddit and Apple’s forums are lightning up with people unable to login to Apple services. TNW reports that TestFlight, the system developers use to give beta access to their apps, is also inaccessible for some users....

When you access the “Accessory” page, you can’t navigate through most of the categories, such as “Made by Apple,” “Headphone & Speakers,” and more. Clicking on any of the broken categories of them surfaces a message: “There are no products available that fit the selection you requested.” One of the few categories I was able to access was “Health & Fitness.” Some other users are also unable to access the Bag and Order History sections of the Apple Online Store, indicating a broader outage of some sort currently affecting Apple....

Bloomberg reports that a federal jury has found Apple guilty of infringing on six patents related to outdated pager technology from the 1990s. The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas has ordered Apple to pay a $23.6 million settlement for violating six patents owned by plaintiff Mobile Telecommunications Technologies LLC in the case. Mobile Telecommunications Technologies claimed that several Apple products with wireless messaging were violating the pager technology, including the iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Airport lineup of Wi-Fi products....

Apple’s Vice President of Global Human Resources Denise Young-Smith emailed all Apple employees last week regarding diversity and inclusion. The email continues Apple’s recent string of events to promote diversity within the company. In mid-August, Apple released diversity data and held events on campus to promote inclusion. Young-Smith was promoted to head of all Apple HR earlier this year, and she received additional attention last month when she was added to Apple’s official executive biographies web page....

Following the release of iOS 14.5 beta 4 for developers, Apple continues to add new features to Apple Music. After bringing a new way to share song lyrics from Apple Music on Instagram and iMessage, Apple is now adding new “City Charts” daily playlists to its music streaming service with iOS 14.5. We still can’t find these playlists in the Music app even after installing today’s iOS beta, so perhaps the company is waiting until the official release of iOS 14....

According to a new report from Rolling Stone, Apple Music has started a $50 million COVID-19 advance fund for indie labels. Through this fund, Apple will be able to ensure that artists still get paid despite the coronavirus pandemic. Apple announced the new fund in an email to independent record labels this afternoon. Those labels who have a direct Apple Music distribution deal and earn at least $10,000 in quarterly Apple Music earnings will qualify for the advances on future royalties....

Apple has officially unveiled its new Time to Walk feature for Apple Watch and Apple Fitness+ subscribers. Time to Walk offers “an inspiring new audio walking experience on Apple Watch for Fitness+ subscribers,” Apple announced in a press release. Apple says the new Time to Walk workouts will be available today, and they appear to be slowly rolling out to users on Apple Watch. Apple explains that each Time to Walk episode is “shaped by the guest’s personal, life-shaping moments” and is “recorded while walking outside or in locations that are meaningful to them....

Apple has been ordered to pay nearly $1 billion in damages for infringing upon patents held by the California Institute of Technology. According to a report from Bloomberg, a jury decided today that Apple and Broadcom must pay a combined $1.1 billion to Caltech. Apple is responsible for $838 million, while Broadcom is responsible for $270 million, Caltech lawyers say. The jury was responsible with determining whether Broadcom’s chips used Caltech’s patents, and how much Apple and Broadcom should have to pay in damages....

While we haven’t heard much about Apple’s Project Titan for quite some time, that doesn’t mean the company isn’t actively working on the project. The Information reports that Apple has hired senior engineer Jaime Waydo from Google’s Waymo self-driving project. It believes that this could speed up and potentially put Apple ahead of other players in its self-driving car efforts. This could also potentially lead to its first prototype vehicle....

Apple today has announced that Isabel Ge Mahe will be its new vice president and managing director of Greater China. Currently, Mahe is the company’s vice president of Wireless Technologies. Her new role will see her report directly to CEO Tim Cook and COO Jeff Williams. Apple says this “newly created” position aims to help Apple provide leadership to its China-based team, as well as to help it continue to invest and grow in the country....

Just like the original Rosetta technology, Rosetta 2 lets users run macOS apps from one platform on another — this time translating Intel apps to the ARM architecture of the M1 chip. While I don’t expect Rosetta to go away any time soon, Apple may disable it in some regions as macOS 11.3 beta codes suggest just that. iOS developer Steve Moser just shared on Twitter what he found in the third beta of macOS Big Sur 11....

If you’re buying a product through Apple’s online store, you can pay for it with a regular credit or debit card, Apple Pay, and even PayPal. Starting today, users will also find a dedicated option to easily check out with Apple Card. If you have an Apple Card, you can now simply choose the Apple Card option from the Apple Online Store to complete the purchase. This option will be available for paying the full price of any product on Apple’s website, as there are already some Apple products that can be purchased directly with Apple Card monthly payments....

[Update: Apple has changed its page back to allowing users to check their device’s warranty status without logging in with an Apple ID.] In an update to its warranty coverage utility, Apple now requires users to log in with the Apple ID associated with a device before being able to check its warranty coverage status. Previously, users could check the warranty of an iPhone using just its serial number or IMEI....

While Apple Music’s content library may be plenty, there’s undoubtedly issues with the software behind it as the product is new and faces the hurdle of integration with lots of legacy iTunes cruft. Some may find that okay during the start of the three-month free trial period, but Apple’s streaming music service will have to shape up and quick if it wants to compete with Spotify and others in the same space....

Apple gave The Loop a look inside the audio labs the company uses to test speakers for its iPhone and iPad devices, as well as the company’s new HomePod smart speaker which trumpets sound quality as its number 1 feature. Apple said that the HomePod project began six years ago. All parts inside HomePod are custom designed by Apple, even including the fabric that wraps around the outside. Apple’s labs include an echo-free chamber, and a separate chamber that measures unwanted noise from the HomePod itself....