Following the launch of two new webpages earlier today to promote the Wallet app and Apple Pay, Apple has also introduced a redesigned version of the Apple Music for Artists webpage — which is the place where artists can find everything they need to publish songs to Apple Music. According to the company, the new webpage (available at artists.apple.com) is the new “centralized home” for artists to find the tools and information on how to get their music ready for Apple’s streaming platform....

Apple Music just became more affordable for everyone. Apple stores and select retailers have rolled out a new 12-month Apple Music gift card, priced at $99. That comes out to $8.25 per month, which is about an 18% savings compared to the standard rate of $9.99. Or you could look at it like you’re getting about 2 months of service for free when you pre-pay for your upcoming year. The new gift card recently launched at Apple stores, but you’ll have to hit up another retailer if you’re looking to buy it online....

Apple Music is teaming up with Lady Gaga to celebrate female artists in honor of International Women’s Day. This comes after Gaga last week debuted her latest music video shot entirely with an iPhone. Billboard reports: In addition to Lady Gaga, Apple Music is also highlighting playlists curated by Taylor Swift, Meghan Trainor, Hailee Steinfeld, and Kehlani. Beats 1 is also showcasing past interviews with Demi Lovato, Miranda Lambert, Dua Lipa and Halsey....

We reported yesterday that Apple was participating in two out of the three rival bids for Toshiba’s chip-making division, and it now seems we can up that count to three out of three … Reuters reports that the KKR bid, which includes Western Digital, is now also seeking support from Apple. The Cupertino company is already reported to be part of the Bain and Foxconn bids. It had earlier been thought that Western Digital might walk away from the bid in return for assurances about the strength of its existing joint venture with Toshiba, leaving the KKR consortium with a hole in its financing....

Apple’s interest in augmented reality has become pretty clear over the last couple of years, and just this past week it acquired a startup focused on building lenses for AR glasses. As if Apple’s growing AR ambitions weren’t already clear enough, diving into the company’s hiring trends reveals even more. Thinknum is out this week with a closer look at Apple’s hiring trends related to augmented reality. Job postings from the company show a clear ramp in positions related to “AR Application....

Apple delivered a major upgrade to Maps in iOS 9, OS X El Capitan, and watchOS 2 with the addition of transit directions in select cities, and now its rolling out additional cities and transportation methods to bolster that feature. In addition to expanding transit, Apple has found a new partner in Canada to provide rich local business data for use in Maps. Transit in Apple Maps already supported buses, ferries, subways, and trains in supported cities including San Francisco, New York City, and Washington, DC, and today users noticed Amtrak train routes between major Northeastern cities in the United States (via MacRumors)....

Apple’s hometown, Cupertino, is looking at possible ways to tax large companies based on workforce size. According to the SF Chronicle, Cupertino is looking to pass a similar proposal as the one in Mountain View, California, which would rake in roughly $5.4M from giants such as Google. Cupertino is currently polling residents about the new tax proposal and how money from it should be spent. Google’s hometown Mountain View is planning similar moves as it wants to raise its head-count tax to $10M, where Google will only pay half, if the city could use the revenue towards transportation and housing....

Engadget this morning pointed us to the news that Apple was now only selling iPhones to people with credit cards – no Cash/Check money order. In addition, the limit on phones is now down from 5 to 2 per purchase. Why? According to Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris, the official Apple Line is, um: YEOUCH! The 1st 1/2 of that statement would seem to be untrue – there are plenty of iPhones out there no one is complaining of store shelves being bare – in fact, Apple will have to ramp up sales (Europe/Asia help) to meet its 10 million by the end of 2008 forecast....

A report earlier this week detailed Apple’s efforts to remove spam and copy-cat apps from the App Store, and one area the company specifically seems to be targeting is China. As noted in a new report from People.cn, Apple has removed around 58,000 Chinese apps from the App Store over the last two weeks, a drastic increase compared to normal. The report explains that 33.5 percent of the removed apps were games, which shouldn’t come as a huge surprise given the high number of games that are present in the App Store....

Apple today announced that it is increasing its financial commitments for US investment, now up to $430 billion and 20,000 new jobs over the next five years. Apple said it is now supporting 2.7 million jobs across direct employment, US suppliers and manufacturers, and developer jobs in the iOS app economy. The $430 billion is set to be spent on various projects including supplier relationships, data centers and research into 5G modem, chip silicon, and artificial intelligence research....

It’s official guys! Though we knew most of the stuff about the iPad mini, this little beast still looks attractive for sure. The 7.9-inch display has the same 1,024 x 768 resolution as the iPad 2 (hence, no Retina display), extremely thin form factor of just 7.2mm and light weight of 0.68 lbs and 10-hour battery life! It features a dual-core A5 chip, the latest Lightning connector, 5MP back camera and FaceTime HD front camera as well as 2x faster WiFi and the same aluminum back as seen on bigger iPads....

In line with our report from a couple of weeks ago, Apple has just debuted an official program for third-party accessory developers to design and launch bands for the Apple Watch. Like the MFi program for iPhone, iPads, and iPod accessories, this new program is called “Made for Apple Watch.” One of the device’s marquee features is its ability to connect to different straps by way of a standard connector on either side of the Watch, and now, much like with iPhones and iPads, accessory makers will be able to make good use of the product…...

Reporting to Maestri, Stathakopoulos will take the task of protecting corporate assets, such as confidential software, product, and design information. He will also be helping in protecting data about customers. While Apple has not commented on the hire, Reuters says that when a call was placed to Apple asking to speak to Stathakopoulos, an Apple employee connected them to a person who said “George’s office.” Stathakopoulos has reportedly been at Apple for roughly a week....

John Lewis: Good Trouble, the documentary detailing the life and work of the late civil rights leader and US Congressman has been available since early July. Now Apple has announced that it will be donating its profits from the documentary to the National Civil Rights Museum as well as the National Museum of African American History and Culture to honor Lewis’ legacy. Apple shared the details in a blog post today:...

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=-cZ4mdrlWYM] Google unveiled a new feature within its iOS search app in August that reminds us a lot of Siri. Taking features from its Siri competitor Google Now, Google announced the search app would now allow folks to use natural voice commands to make searches. For example, a user can “ask for the weather in a natural way and it will provide results,” Google explained. Google noted during its announcement that the updated app would be available in a few days....

Apple Music is right now on Twitter trends, but the reason behind this is not the best. Apple’s streaming platform has been criticized by users due to the “Replay” retrospective feature after Spotify released its Wrapped 2020 retrospective. Last year, Apple introduced Apple Music Replay — a new way to check out the year’s retrospective with the songs and artists you’ve listened to the most. Users can add playlists with their 100 most played songs every year, which are automatically generated by Apple Music....

Apple News is featuring a special ‘Royal Wedding’ tab ahead of the big event tomorrow. Interestingly, the News app has actually changed the name of the second Spotlight tab to highlight the time-sensitive event. Despite international attention, this tab appears to be showing for UK users only at the moment. Devices set to the US region are still seeing the normal Spotlight news items. The Royal Wedding tab is appropriately themed with royal red and gold colors....

Apple has just announced the Apple Watch Series 6 during its September special event. The new generation of Apple Watch keeps the same design as the Series 4 and Series 5 models, but with internal improvements and new finishes — including the addition of an oximeter sensor. Apple Watch Series 6 replaces Apple Watch Series 5 with improvements over last year’s models. This year’s Apple Watch is very similar to previous models, and it’s available in 40mm and 44m with an always-on Retina display....

The Apple Store went down last night and updated with a new “We’ll be back soon” logo, but Apple also appears to be testing a new virtual product tour as part of its sales chat feature. Apple has provided the ability to chat with sales support through certain product pages for a long time via an “Ask Now” button. As of today, the feature has a slightly refreshed look, and —as discovered by MacMagazine— Apple is apparently testing a feature on at least the Brazilian store that lets Apple employees share their screen to give a guided tour of the product page....

I wondered soon after the launch of the 2016 MacBook Pro whether Apple might have plans to bring the Touch Bar and Touch ID to a new Magic Keyboard. A new Apple patent application shows that the company is at least exploring the idea. As ever, the language of the patent is dense, but the illustrations include a standalone keyboard as well as a laptop one. As I noted previously, this would seem to address the greatest weakness of the Touch Bar …...