Apple isn’t having a happy time of it in India at present, with falling sales and market share, a threatened ban on iPhones, increased import taxes, and legal requirements preventing it opening Apple Stores there. Things don’t appear to be getting any better, with the latest report saying that a new law has forced the company to put its planned Apple Pay rollout on hold … It’s almost a year since Eddy Cue promised that Apple Pay would be coming to India....

Lead image via Gizmodo. Apple’s 2019 wouldn’t be complete without the promised opening of one more retail store in Japan — Apple Kawasaki. Six-color mosaic decorations wrapping the store’s windows have been cleared away, offering a glimpse inside the space that customers in Japan have excitedly waited for. Apple Kawasaki is a straightforward, single-level store with a layout that will be familiar to anyone who has visited a contemporary mall Apple Store in the United States....

According to Apple’s support website, the company is currently working together with Microsoft to bring Xbox Series X and Series S controller support to iPhones and iPads. The support website states, “Microsoft and Apple are working together to bring compatibility for the Xbox Series X controller to customers in a future update.” This comes less than two weeks after the Xbox Series X and Series S release, clearly showing Apple’s willingness to bring new controller support to their devices....

Apple has just published its Best of 2013 page, highlighting some of the most popular music, movies, TV shows, iOS apps, ebooks, and podcasts from the past year. In the music section, Lorde’s “Royals” took the pick for Song of the Year, while Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’ The Heist was named Best Album. Gravity, the box office hit starring George Clooney and Sandra Bullock, was named Movie of the Year. Despite the confusion it caused when its final season was broken into two separate purchases earlier this year, Breaking Bad was Apple’s pick for Show of the Year....

In a slightly surprising move, Apple has shared that the new MacBook Air’s battery can be replaced on its own. According to Apple’s internal service Readiness Guide, the Genius Bar as well as Apple Authorized Service Providers will be provided tools that will allow them to remove and install a new battery more easily. Traditionally, on MacBooks released after 2012, the entire top case enclosure needed to be replaced which includes the keyboard and trackpad....

Update: Russian speaking reader Ilya Kuchinskiy informed us that Izvestia is indeed a respected news source, but like we anticipated, the translation is erroneous. Literally it means “Skolkovo has some plans find investors and has invited to come and work in skolkovo. They have some talks to work but there is no plans to open Apple center in Russia, it is like thay just send invitation and google, facebook, apple just thinking, that’s it...

Apple Music is launching a new multi-lingual playlist today, as first reported by Billboard. The new playlist is called “Suave” and highlights R&B songs from various parts of the world. The playlist will feature songs in English, Spanish, and Portuguese, with a focus on R&B. Featured artists will include the likes of Paloma Mami, Rosalia, and more. Apple Music’s Marissa Gastelum touted that song ‘Fresh Air’ by Melii was the inspiration to start this playlist:...

To celebrate today’s season finale of the Apple TV+ show “Servant,” Apple has partnered with two Los Angeles pizzerias to deliver free pizza to fans exclusively through Grubhub this weekend. Starting today, as of 5 p.m. PST, people in Los Angeles can order one free pizza from Gjelina or Milo and Olive. During the second season of M. Night Shyamalan’s “Servant,” the main characters launched their own pizza delivery company called Cheezus Crust....

Via AdAge, Apple has hired Michael Pallad for its iTunes Radio team. Pallad’s LinkedIn confirms the report, citing Apple iTunes as his current occupation. AdAge says that Pallad joined Apple about a week ago and is in charge of international iTunes Radio sales. Pallad comes from Cumulus Media, a real-world radio organisation, as their Executive Vice President of Sales. As Apple’s initial round of iAd campaigns for iTunes Radios run out at the end of the year, it seems Apple needed someone versed in radio advertising sales to help setup its deals for 2014....

Apple appears to be partnering with all four of the big US carriers with a new iCloud introductory offer. Customers upgrading their iPhone plans get recommended to visit a special iCloud link (first discovered on this Reddit thread), which lets customers get 2 free months of the 200 GB iCloud tier, ostensibly to ‘get ready for your new iPhone’. The offer is only available to new iCloud customers in the US, and automatically renews if not cancelled at the normal $2....

Apple is working up really fast shaping up latest operating system iOS 12 to bring it into its stable form. Speaking of which, the iOS 12 public Beta 2 is now rolling live. The software is seeding over-the-air and weighs a massive 560.9 MB. This global iteration of iOS 12 was quite under expectation and now it happens. A few days ago, the iOS 12 developer beta 3 was made available....

Last week we revealed that Apple is planning a small refresh for its MacBook Pro line with modest CPU bumps and possibly improved Bluetooth Wireless networking. Today we’ve found what seems to be evidence for such a refresh in Apple’s own online store. If you do a search on Apple’s online store for ‘MacBook Pro’, you get a list of Apple’s products. In that list of products, there are two mysterious entries for ‘Macbook Pro Memory Model’ toward the bottom with the caption “Ships: Coming in November”....

In a move that will surely keep the Mac and iPhone maker on top of the digital music and software application industry, Apple is preparing its first iTunes Store redesign in nearly three years. In late 2009, Apple launched a new iTunes Store that traded in a blue-themed, convoluted store for a much simpler, white-themed store that provides a great focus on the store’s downloadable content. The new design is said to be even simpler and more user-friendly than the current design....

Winning tickets for the Apple Music Festival is a long shot at the best of times, but many are reporting that they can’t even get as far as entering the lottery – either getting a blank screen or an error message when they click the Win Tickets link … When Business Insider tried it, they got an error message (right), while my own attempt just got a header with a blank screen (left)....

Update: Apple has confirmed in a statement to Buzzfeed that Apple is working with Sonos to get Apple Music available on the connected speaker system by the end of the year. Original story below. Apple Music senior director Ian Rogers — ex Beats Music CEO — has announced on Twitter that integration with Sonos for Apple Music is coming as soon as possible. Although Beats Music did have native support on the popular internet-connected speaker system, there have been no announcements about a partnership with Apple Music so far....

Third-party app developers will for the first time get access to the NFC chip in the iPhone 7/Plus (and presumably this year’s iPhones) in iOS 11. To date, only Apple Pay has been allowed to use the near-field communications chip. Apple’s WWDC keynote did give one hint that use of the chip was being extended beyond payment when it showed the Apple Watch syncing data with gym equipment, but a new developer document says that third-party apps will be able to use it too …...

Apple is about to go head-to-head with Google on smartwatches and also encroaching on Google’s territory with research into electric and possibly autonomous vehicles, but what about virtual reality? Today we get a look at yet another area in which Apple might compete with Google as the US Patent and Trademark office grants a patent to Apple for a Google Cardboard/Samsung-Oculus style VR headset for iPhone (via PatentlyApple). It isn’t the first time we’ve heard of such a device from Apple, but up until now the majority of hints have been limited to old patent applications....

Apple appears to be making an aggressive move to poach more staff from Imagination Technologies, the British chip designer behind the GPUs used in iOS devices. The Telegraph reports that Apple has set up its own GPU design team in offices just a few miles from Imagination’s campus. The Telegraph reports that Apple has already hired a number of Imagination employees over the past few months, including COO John Metcalfe, but it seems likely that others would be reluctant to move to either London or Cupertino....

Apple News+ audio stories could be the company’s next bid to attract subscribers to the subscription news service. A new report today – corroborating one of our own sources – says that Apple has pitched the idea to at least four publishers as a zero-cost way to attract a broader audience, but publishers think it could actually make matters worse … Digiday reports. Our own source tells us that Apple plans to use actors to read long-form pieces....

Parents of kids who racked up hundreds of even thousands of dollars in in-app purchases can now begin to seek compensation for their bills. The “Apple In-App Purchase Litigation Administrator” just sent out an email with information regarding the settlement and deadlines for submitting payment requests. In short, those with charges under $30 will receive a $5 iTunes gift card. Cash refunds will be distributed to those with bills exceeding that amount....