Apple has shared more about its recent partnership to help support Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), this time with Huston-Tillotson University. With a multi-year program, Apple is offering scholarships, hardware, software, as well as professional development to help support the next generation of Black male educators. The partnership with Huston-Tillotson University is the latest of Apple’s Racial Equity and Justice Initiative (REJI), something it’s pledged $100 million for. Apple highlighted partnership in a Newsroom post today:...

An obsessive Apple fan has created what he describes as perfect reproductions of the original Apple I manuals. To do so, he says, he had to position individual letters by hand … If you want a set of original Apple I manuals, you can expect to pay a five-figure sum for them. Reproductions are available, but these are based on relatively poor-quality scans. Apple fan Armin decided that wasn’t good enough....

Apple is usually at the top of customer satisfaction surveys in the United States, such as taking home its seventh consecutive J.D Power and Associates award for smartphones earlier this month. The same cannot be said for the company among consumers in all countries abroad, but for the first time Apple has ranked No.1 among the top consumer brands in Japan. According to the annual study commissioned by Nikkei BP Consulting Inc....

Alongside the new (RED) iPhone, Apple has also given existing iPhone 7/Plus owners the chance to update the color of their phone with a range of six new cases. These match the colors of the new Watch bands also announced today. As with the bands, the new colors are split between silicone and leather. You might need a color chart to make sense of some of the names, though …...

After a number of reports in recent months regarding Apple’s preparations to launch its Apple Pay payments service in China, the company today announced the service is now available to customers in the country. The announcement comes via Apple’s news site for developers and notes that apps and goods in the country can now accept the Apple Pay payments service using supported credit and debit cards. Apple first announced back in December of last year that it was partnering with China UnionPay to bring Apple Pay to users in China sometime in 2016....

Apple issued a minor firmware update today to address issues specifically related to customers using USB hard drives with their routers, and fixes for intermittent loss in WAN connectivity as well as issues that may cause a network loop. You can view the full release notes below: Addresses an issue that prevents a USB hard drive connected to an AirPort Extreme from appearing as an available disk in Time Machine Resolves an issue that may intermittently cause a loss in WAN connectivity Resolves an issue that may result in a network loop If you own an AirPort Extreme or Time Capsule, you can view more information about grabbing new firmware updates here....

TechCrunch announced today that Susan Prescott, a vice president of markets, apps, and services at Apple, will speak at its “TechCrunch Sessions: Enterprise” event in San Francisco next month. Prescott has a variety of roles at Apple, ranging from services such as Apple News to managing marketing for Apple applications, and working with the company’s enterprise business. She has specifically focused on Apple News, and offered the early demo of the service on stage at WWDC in 2015....

There’s been much criticism of streaming services like Apple Music and Spotify for paying relatively small sums to artists, but a new report today suggests there’s some good news in the mix. Independent labels now represent 40% of the music market, twice the share they had back in the days of physical music sales, and they have never been more optimistic about the future … CNET reports that playlists surfacing lesser-known artists has been key....

With iPhone 6s pre-orders set to start in just a few short hours, Apple has pulled down its online shop for the update. While you wait in eager anticipation for the store to return, be sure to vote in our poll and let us know which model you’re planning on picking up. Haven’t decided whether you want to upgrade yet? Our Ben Lovejoy examines whether the latest and greatest model is enough of an improvement to justify the purchase....

Bloomberg is reporting statements to this effect made by the CEO of Singapore mobile phone carrier, MobileOne. Company boss Neil Montefiore told media: “I think, before the end of the year we will be” carrying the phones in our stores. It will become available in all markets, with all operators.” Now, this could simply mean Apple will be offering the device in all international markets by the end of the year through operators it has already reached a deal with, or could signal a newly liberal approach....

Apple is featuring apps from WWDC 2018 scholarship winners in a special editorial piece in the Today tab of the iOS 11 App Store. It’s a cool gesture that gives some exposure to apps from upcoming developers. The feature highlights scholarship winners from various regions, with a list of names and links to their apps already on the App Store. There are usually a couple hundred scholarship places given out at each WWDC, and this list only includes about twenty names....

Update: Apple has seeded a new beta to public beta testers today, well. Apple has released iOS 10 beta 5 for developers to test on iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. While Apple won’t release the operating system to the public until next month, the company is releasing regular betas to improve the software. In addition to iOS 10 beta 5, Apple has also pushed watchOS 3 beta 5 to developers....

Alongside the return of its Hour of Code classes, Apple is launching an all-new Entrepreneur Camp that is focused on creating new opportunities based on app-driven businesses owned or led by women. A first-of-its-kind, Apple is looking to aid app-driven businesses who are founded, co-founded or led by women that have a working app or prototype. The program will begin in January of 2019, but will begin accepting applications now....

Apple last month revealed its 2020 Apple Music award winners, and it has been uploading extended videos of each of the artists to its official YouTube channel over the past few days … The winning artists give their reactions to winning, followed by performances of a number of their tracks. The latest addition is a 13-minute video of Lil Baby, talking about his home town before performances of Humble, Low Down, Social Distancing, Get Money, Gang Signs, and Solid....

Apple this week appears to have started uploading full “replays” of Beats 1 shows to its Connect social network. Apple Music hosts including Zane Lowe, Julie Adenuga, and Ebro Darden have all shared full, unedited replays of their shows on their respective Connect pages over the past two days. This process appears to have started yesterday, without any official announcement by Apple. Prior to uploading full replays, each host would share a playlist with every song that was played during their show....

After several months of rumors, Apple today has officially unveiled its next-generation Apple Watch with support for LTE connectivity. The announcement was made on stage during the company’s special event today by CFO Jeff Williams following a moving video of Apple Watch users sharing their stories. The new model is called Apple Watch Series 3…. Tim Cook touted that Apple Watch is now the number one watch in the world, overtaking previous leader Rolex....

Apple today launched a new page on its official website that highlights carrier offers for customers who are buying a new iPhone 12 model. The company shows some of the trade-in deals currently available from US carriers for iPhone 12 mini, iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro, and iPhone 12 Pro Max. Called “iPhone Carrier Offers,” the new page found within the existing iPhone page on Apple’s website features deals from AT&T, T-Mobile/Sprint, and Verizon....

You can almost taste the sarcasm in the press statement from Apple: JCPenny also released a statement with some interesting information: As JCP is up 12% on the hiring news, Johnson just made $6M on his first day. Not bad, but he’s still just went from the second biggest company in the world where he’d pull in double digit million dollar bonuses to a $7B company that sells unremarkable clothes....

Only a small number of employees have so far moved into the new Apple Park campus, but its presence has already created a boom in the number of property developments, reports the New York Times. Prices of existing properties are said to have doubled in price since 2011. Local businesses are also gearing up for an anticipated boost in demand … The flurry of new developments is benefiting both Cupertino and neighbouring Sunnyvale, says the NYT....

Apple this evening has announced a $300 million fund for investing in renewable energy projects in China. As the company announced in a press release, The China Clean Energy Fund is a partnership between Apple and several of its suppliers to produce at least 1 gigawatt of energy through renewable means… Apple says that it and 10 initial suppliers will jointly invest $300 million over four years to develop clean energy projects....