Apple today posted a job listing on its website looking for a Payments Software Engineer that will “help build a next generation payment platform.” Apple says the payment system will consist of integration of payment devices, middleware and acquirers that will “push the boundaries in new markets for Apple Retail.” Apple is interested in experts in eCommerce, banking, retail, and card industries and lists various payment technologies including Chip&Pin, bank messaging specifications, country specific technologies such as EFTPOS (AUS) and Interac (CAN), and testing solutions used by Visa, Mastercard and others including ADVT, M-TIP, AEIPS, and Interac testing....

[Update: Apple has confirmed the policy with us. Statement below.] [Update #2: Reports are now surfacing that Apple is now reinstating some apps with the Confederate flag to the App Store. The company is working with developers who use the Confederate flag, but not in a mean-spirited manner.] [Update #3: TouchArcade specifies that affected games are able to change their app icons and App Store screenshots to avoid removal.] Touch Arcade noticed that many Civil War games like Ultimate General: Gettysburg and the Hunted Cow series have all disappeared....

A federal appeals court today has upheld the 2013 ruling in Apple’s long-winded and high-profile ebooks case. The case, which centered around Apple price fixing content in the iBooks store, went through three years of litigation thanks mostly to Apple. Today’s ruling by a federal appeals court will see Apple pay $450 million in damages at long last. Most of that $450 million will go to e-book customers as part of the agreement it made last year....

All of today’s best deals are headlined by an up to 40% off sale on official Apple MagSafe chargers and cases. That’s alongside AirPods Pro at $160 and a new low on the latest iPad Air at $70 off. Hit the jump for all that and more in the latest 9to5Toys Lunch Break. Apple MagSafe Charger deals take 40% off Verizon Wireless is launching a new buy more and save sale that’s taking up to 40% off a selection of smartphone accessories....

The original iteration of Apple Maps relied mostly on data from partners. Over time, Apple has worked to bring more of the mapping experience directly under its own control, such as with the new ground truth map initiative that it rolled out in the US last year and is expanding to several more countries before the end of 2021. As of the latest iOS 14 beta, it appears that Apple is looking to remove dependencies on Foursquare and Yelp as sources of reviews and user photos of restaurants, bars, shops, parks, and other points of interest....

Apple has updated its Investor Relations website with a modern design. The site features the clean lines and thin fonts now standard with Apple’s new design direction. The homepage of the portal currently features the Istanbul Apple Store, but otherwise the site seems the same in terms of content. The visual redesign is a massive shift for the investor site, which felt largely abandoned until today. The site now shows off Apple’s stock price with a large chart, in the iOS 7 ‘flat’ style....

Update 7/21: The auction closed just over its estimated value price at $10,500. Plenty of Apple execs have auctioned meet ups and keynote tickets for charity over the years, and now Apple Music’s Bozoma Saint John is joining the club. Saint John, who joined Apple through the Beats Music acquisition, made her on-stage debut last month during the Apple Music demo at WWDC 2016. The auction is specifically for a ‘power lunch’ in LA with Boz, who is the Head of Global Consumer Marketing for Apple Music and iTunes, with the estimated value for the meet up set at $10,000....

We want a lot out of iOS 13, but there’s one issue that’s becoming increasingly problematic on iPhones for a lot of customers: spam calls. This is something any future version of the iPhone software should tackle — iOS 13 or a point update like iOS 12.1.3 — if only by giving customers more control over how phone calls are treated. There are subscription-based apps on the App Store that try to limit known spam callers from reaching you, but that’s a bit like paying a ransom to solve the problem....

As it did for the iPhone 5, Apple has begun its Personal Pickup program for the iPad mini. Personal Pickup allows customers to buy a device on Apple’s website or mobile app between 10 p.m. and 4 a.m. and pick it up in store the next day (or whenever inventory is available). There are a number of stores across the country sold out of the iPad mini, so Personal Pickup may be your best bet at getting the 7....

Apple’s three main British subsidiaries – Apple (UK), Apple Europe and Apple Retail UK – paid no corporation tax in 2012 despite reporting profits of £68m ($103m), reports the Financial Times. While share awards to employees are a legitimate tax-deductible expense, questions are likely to be asked about whether the employees were genuinely based in the UK following previous allegations of creative tax-avoidance moves by Apple. Apple had previously been accused of agreeing a special 2 percent corporation tax arrangement in Ireland, an accusation the company denied....

Apple’s rather whimsical iPad ad campaign continues with two new clips today. Both highlight the new iPad Pro models introduced this week including the new 10.5-inch ProMotion display with a higher refresh rate for Apple Pencil. The first ad highlighting the new A10X Fusion chip in the new iPads is a rather over-the-top, high-octane departure from most polished Apple commercials we’re used to seeing. The ad answers a tweet asking for a more powerful computer while showing the iPad editing video in iMovie, gaming, and editing images… and there’s a fiery explosion too....

Apple today has launched a limited-time discount on select Beats products, offering slightly lower prices on the Beats EP headphones, the Beats Pill + speaker, and the urBeats earbuds. While Apple’s discounts are better than nothing, we regularly see even lower prices from other retailers over on 9to5Toys. Next, Apple offers the Beats EP On-Ear Headphones for $99, down from the sticker price of $129.95. In the past, we’ve seen Beats EP for as low as $65, making Apple’s deal considerably less impressive....

From 9to5Toys.com: Unlike most App Store promos, Apple has now quietly kicked off one the largest iOS game/app sales we have seen this year. The news comes courtesy of participating app developer Readdle. The sale includes 100 apps and games at “new low prices”, most of which are $0.99. While we have posted some of these titles over the past week in our daily/game app roundups, this is the first time they’ve all appeared together in one giant sale....

Apple today launched a new program that will allow iPhone 5 owners to have devices with fautly sleep buttons repaired at no cost. Apple says it has identified an issue with some devices that can cause the button to fail on a “small percentage” of these devices. iPhone owners can use a new page on Apple’s support site to determine if their phone is eligible for repair. Unfortunately for these users, the phones won’t be replaced or repaired in-store....

Apple may be left needing to find a new supplier of WiFi chips if a Digitimes report is accurate. The report claims that Broadcom is scaling back its WiFi chip production in favor of more profitable products. As is often the case with Digitimes reports, the report is unclear, the opening stating that Broadcom is ‘looking to phase out its WiFi chip business’ while a quote ascribed to unnamed sources says instead that it plans to ‘significantly reduce resources allocated to its Wi-Fi chip business....

Information from Wikipedia is used in a variety of places throughout the iPhone, iPad, and Mac, and it powers a lot of the data that is fed through the Siri virtual assistant. Currently, there is no financial relationship in place between Wikipedia and Apple for this information, but that could soon change. A new report from Wired today explains that the Wikimedia Foundation, which operates Wikipedia and related projects, has introduced a new commercial project, Wikimedia Enterprise....

I’ve been paying for Apple Music since the day it launched in 2015. We’ve had a family plan from almost day one as well. Music streaming services are among the best values for what they offer. Despite being an Apple Music customer, there have long been aspects of Spotify that I preferred over Apple Music. Apple Music on iOS 14 brings over the best of what Spotify offers my opinion, making it the ultimate music streaming service....

It’s looking like Apple chipmaker TSMC is on track for being able to produce 5nm A-Series chips for 2020 iPhones. We heard as long ago as the beginning of last year that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company was gearing up for that target, and a new report today says that the firm has just hit a major milestone along the way … Digitimes reports that the design infrastructure is now complete, enabling clients like Apple to begin work on their chip designs using the 5nm process....

Apple has lost the right to the exclusive name of the iPhone trademark in China after the Beijing Municipal High People’s Court ruled against the company. Apple retains the right to the trademark for electronic goods, but a local company that has been using the name for leather goods remains able to do so. The ruling was reported by Legal Daily, which the BBC says ‘is widely recognised as the official mouthpiece for the country’s Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission....

Apple today released macOS Big Sur 11.2.1 to the public, alongside supplemental updates for macOS Catalina 10.15.7 and macOS Mojave 10.14.6. In addition to a fix for MacBook Pro charging issues, the update also brings a notable security fix for a Sudo bug that was reported last week. As we explained last week, the Sudo bug could allow an ordinary user to gain root access to a Mac, though an attacker would also need to combine with malware or a brute-force attack to gain user access in the first place....