Apple Maps is getting enhanced data for parking spots as Parkopedia today announces a deal to provide Apple with its database of parking services worldwide. That means that Apple Maps is now gaining enhanced data for the 40 million parking spots currently tracked by Parkopedia across 75 countries in North America, Asia, Europe and Latin America. Apple Maps previously indicated some parking spots with a simple icon, but those listings will now provide more detailed information about the type of parking facility including number of spaces, accessible spaces, payment options, electric charging availability, height limits, and hours of operation....

With iOS 13 last year, Apple added a new real-time lyrics feature to Apple Music. A new concept today imagines additional improvements that could come to Apple Music, including new social features, Group Playlists, and more. The concept comes from Drew Morris on Twitter, who says the ideas are inspired by social distancing — hence the focus on new social features: The core of the idea is a revamped system of profiles in Apple Music....

Apple is reportedly investing in SoftBank’s latest venture capital fund, Vision Fund II. The Cupertino company invested in the original $100B Vision Fund, which was the largest of its kind when launched in 2017 — and the latest fund aims to be even bigger. Apple’s investment in the first round was $1B — a huge sum of money, if somewhat modest in this context … Bloomberg reports that SoftBank’s founder Masayoshi Son is this time targeting a total fund of $108B....

Apple is beginning a campaign today to win back the video-editing community that abandoned its flagship video-editing software after the release of its controversial Final Cut Pro X. The LA Times reported that following several updates to the software over the last two years to fix some of the criticisms, Apple is launching a number new ads on its website today that feature professionals using Final Cut Pro X. The campaign is apparently timed to lined up with upcoming National Association of Broadcasters convention and aims to win over professional video editors by featuring professionals such as editors at the Globe and Mail newspaper:...

Apple News+ was officially announced earlier today, allowing users to pay $9.99 per month for access to 300 magazines and select newspapers. One of those newspapers is The Wall Street Journal, but there are a few details worth noting about its inclusion. The Journal reports this evening that its involvement in Apple News+ is largely due to its goal of hoping to expose additional people to its journalism: Meanwhile, Robert Thomson, News Corp chief executive, said that The Wall Street Journal’s partnership with Apple is an example of it making sense to partner with a tech company....

Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman says Apple employees will be getting a 50% discount on Apple’s upcoming HomePod, and we have been able to corroborate this. The company has only given out such a discount to employees once previously, and that was for the original Apple Watch. While some may jump to the conclusion that this means Apple is struggling to sell the smart speaker, these sort of discounts are often rather in an effort to familiarize Apple employees with new product categories....

Apple has inexplicably removed the iCloud Activation Lock status page, which used to exist at iCloud.com/activationlock, but that URL now leads to a 404 error instead. The utility let anyone type in the IMEI or serial number of an iOS device to find out if Activation Lock had been turned off, handy to verify the authenticity of a seller when buying a used iPhone online. References to the web page have been removed from Apple’s support documentation, indicating this is not a temporary issue and the page has been intentionally pulled from service …...

Following the October surprise bankruptcy filed by GT Advanced Technologies—a key sapphire supplier for the iPhone—Apple today announced plans to invest $2 billion over the next 30 years in the failed plant. The Mesa, Arizona-located plant will become the central command center for its various data centers around the globe. Shortly after the bankruptcy announcement from GT Advanced Technologies, Apple described the decision as surprising while adding that the company would focus on job preservation....

AppShopper AppShopper is a universal app for finding apps. Download it directly to your iDevice to find new apps and when they’re on sale. When you launch AppShopper, you get a list of the most popular apps that got a price drop, have been updated or are new to the iTunes App Store. A feature I really like is the Wish List. It lets you add apps to the list and will notify you if there is a price drop or sale on it....

In what many might call a long overdue move, Apple finally ported the photo management application iPhoto to iPad. The release of the software completes a trio of the most important iLife apps that are now available on the iPad: iMovie, GarageBand, and now iPhoto. The app supports images up to 19-megapixels. It also sports many familiar and popular features, including the auto-enhance tool, social sharing through Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, email, and more....

Today we’re going to be comparing Apple’s iPhone 6 Plus to Samsung’s Galaxy Note 4. I realized that there are a limited range of “comparisons” that can happen between these two devices, but we’re going to touch on some of the most important factors between the two such as design, software, features, and cameras. I’m not going to make this a battle between iOS and Android as many people have their own preferences which lead them to one platform or another....

Following Wall Street Journal’s report last night that AT&T and Verizon will carry the LTE iPad 3, the publication is reporting that Apple is now testing an 8-inch iPad in its labs. While WSJis not exactly sure the version will launch, it does claim the iPad is being tested. WSJ’s sources said the 8-inch iPad’s screen would pack a 1,024-by- 768 display similar to the current iPad. The smaller version will apparently also pack a LTE chip inside, as WSJ said the iPad 3 would....

Apple has today announced updates to the entire iMac family. Most notably, the company has brought Retina to the 21.5 inch iMac range, with 4K resolution displays. Apple has also dropped the non-Retina 27 inch iMacs, so they feature 5K displays across the board. The new iMac displays include faster processors, upgraded graphics, improved wider color gamut and two Thunderbolt 2 ports. The new iMacs have launched alongside updates to the Magic Trackpad, Magic Mouse and keyboard....

TechCrunch spotted an interesting security hire by Apple: the developer behind Edward Snowden’s recommended secure chat app is joining Apple as an intern. As the site notes, Signal passed every security test when put through its paces by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and you can’t really get a better endorsement than the fact that Snowden trusts it. Frederic Jacobs, a Switzerland-based developer who worked to develop secure messaging app Signal […] announced today that he is joining the Cupertino-based company this summer to work in its CoreOS security team....

The Apple Maps Connect service, which allows small businesses to add their listings to the Apple Maps database, has been expanded to Canada, France and Germany. The service has also gained two new language options, French and German, to correspond with the regional expansion. Apple first launched Maps Connect in the U.S. last October, enabling businesses to edit or add listings, as well as set up indoor mapping within selected areas....

Apple has been slowly rolling out Apple Maps features to various locations around the world. Today, the company is introducing public transportation to Switzerland and indoor maps to its Zurich airport, as reported by MacPrime (via Google Translate). You’ll now be able to select public transport on Apple Maps for iOS and macOS and look at wait times for buses, trains, boats, and select mountain and cable cars, as well as get indoor maps at the airport....

The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple is set to release an open letter to artists later today. Most significantly, the letter says that Apple Music pays one cent per stream. That is roughly twice what Spotify pays, according to estimates. Streaming services are trying to show that they are friendly to artists, especially as revenue from concerts and tours cratered during the pandemic. In the same vein, Apple recently invested in an independent music artist platform called UnitedMasters....

Apple doesn’t offer an official Apple Music web player, but it does offer web APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) which allow other people to create their own. The first one we’ve seen was Play Apple Music, which hit the web last month. That one had a design rather reminiscent of Google’s Material Design … But a new one now available, Musish, has a really clean white-background that almost looks like it could have been created by Apple....

Apple is rolling out some iterative improvements to Apple News for publishers taking advantage of its Apple News Format to post articles. Apple is adding Map and Place components, to let authors pictographically display relevant locations — complete with pins to highlight POI. Moreover, all publishers can now choose custom artwork for their channel cover image. This is the thumbnail iconography that appears in the Favorites grid (as well as elsewhere)....

Apple has offered to spend $9.7 million on transportation initiatives in its hometown of Cupertino. As detailed by The Mercury News, Apple’s funding would go towards five transportation projects focused on bikers and pedestrians. Apple’s offer of $9.7 million in funding comes following a proposal from Cupertino that would have changed the city’s business tax from being based on square footage to being based on total number of employees. The new system, referred to as a head tax, would have generated $10 million annually for the city of Cupertino, much of which would come from Apple:...