Apple officially completed its acquisition of music tagging service Shazam a few months ago. Now, it’s putting the app to use to promote an “Apple Music special offer” during The Grammys tonight… In a story on the App Store today, Apple touts that if you use Shazam during any point of The Grammys this evening, you’ll unlock a special Apple Music-based experience. First, if you Shazam during The Grammys, you’ll be able to see a full rundown of the event....

While Apple’s AirPower wireless charging mat is still nowhere to be found, a recently published patent application from the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office offers some details on a security feature of the accessory. The patent describes how a unique ID can be used to protect data transmitted between AirPower and the devices it is charging, and more. One of the figures in the patent application shows how AirPower is able to recognize the device with the largest display and show charging statuses there....

Tim Cook and other Apple executives have been chatty about the company’s interest in virtual and augmented reality in past months. There have been several reports that Apple is exploring an AR smart glasses product internally. To add some fuel to the fire, Apple has recently hired prominent Final Cut Pro plugin developer Tim Dashwood, most well known for making 360VR Toolbox, which helped creatives make virtual reality videos …...

Apple has hired former Google distinguished scientist Samy Bengio, according to a new report from Reuters. Bengio led Google’s artificial intelligence ethics group up until last month, when he departed amid a broader shakeup on the team. Today’s report says Bengio will lead a new AI research unit at Apple under John Giannandrea: The backstory to Bengio’s departure from Google was detailed in a report from Bloomberg last month. Bengio managed “hundreds of researchers” in the Google Brain team, but his role was reduced following a reorganization of the research unit....

First mentioned last February, Apple is finally opening their largest Florida-based retail store in the growing Downtown Miami area. Alongside its March 25th unveiling, Apple is also inviting customers to their Nanjing Jinmao and Schildergasse location openings. All three of the new store pages include invitations for their respective grand openings at 10 AM on March 25th. While not yet listed on the Brickell City Centre’s shop directory, the new Miami store’s page is on Apple’s website and is set to be the largest in the state....

Simple. Apple is releasing its own music streaming service. The company announced today Apple Music, which as it smirked, is three things: a streaming music service, a worldwide live radio station, and a new way for music fans to connect with their favorite artists Beats 1 is Apple’s first 24 x 7 global radio station. It plays music “not based on research, not based on genre, not based on drumbeats, just music that is great and feels great....

Apple has hired Toronto Blue Jays assistant GM Jay Sartori to manage a sports section of the App Store, according to a number of reports dating back three days (via MG Siegler). Sartori a numbers guy who can effortlessly crunch statistics according to a bio from 2011, but he also has some experience in software development. He previously created some stats software for the MLB commissioner and has a background in finance and management information systems…...

The maker of Cydia, the first unofficial app store for jailbroken iOS devices, has filed a lawsuit against Apple. As reported by The Washington Post, the lawsuit was filed today, and it alleges that Apple has used anticompetitive practices to establish an illegal monopoly over iOS app distribution. Cydia was created by Jay Freeman, oftentimes better known as Saurik, as the first app store for the iPhone, before Apple launched its own App Store....

Apple Music is now partnering with businesses to play music at retail stores. In a partnership with PlayNetwork, businesses can sign up to Apple Music for Business plans and get licensed music to be played in their retail locations with Apple providing human-curated playlists and even custom recommendations matched to the individual store brand. Businesses can control the music being played using a special iPhone or iPad app. The Wall Street Journal notes the program has been piloted for a while and is now expanding to larger stores....

Could Springtime be coming a little early this year? You may have noticed that the Apple online store is down globally, and according to sources with a fairly accurate track record,there is a good chance that the white iPhone 4 will finally be released tomorrow, paint and all. The sources say that both the 16 GB and 32 GB models will hit the store tomorrow with part numbers MC604X/A (16GB) and MC606X/A (32GB)....

For the latest macOS 10.13.4 beta seed, the update notes merely say ‘This is the latest version of the macOS High Sierra developer beta and is recommended for all Apple developers’ in English locales as normal for pre-release builds. However, it seems Apple has accidentally published the final full release notes in some other languages. The release notes indicate that iMessage Business Chat will be available on macOS, as well as formally supporting external GPU (eGPU) systems....

Update: Apple has now advised that AirPods Max cannot be used for Lossless Audio even in wired mode! After multiple clues, Apple has now officially announced Apple Music Lossless Audio for all 75 million songs in the library by the end of the year, at no extra cost to subscribers – along with Spatial Audio. With Spatial Audio, when listening on compatible equipment, everyone should be able to hear the difference....

Update: Apple has reverted all of these changes listed below. Aside from the US site, the respective pages for all other regions now say that Apple Watch will be ‘Available in 2015’ again. The change to early 2015 seems to have been a mistake. Apple’s online pages for Apple Watch have today been updated with a slightly narrower timeframe for several European countries. Previously, whilst the US site stated ‘Coming Early 2015’, localized pages in the UK and other regions were less concrete, simply stating that Apple Watch would be ‘Available in 2015’....

We’ve been hoping for a new Apple TV since Apple began transitioning its iOS device lineup to dual-core A5 processors, and we now have some compelling evidence for a next-generation Apple TV being in the works. Deep inside the iOS 5 file system is a reference to a Apple TV 3,1. This would be an upgrade from the current Apple TV’s 2,1 marking. The number changing from 2 to 3 represents major changes, and with the Apple TV recently gaining a fully re-designed case, we expect this upgrade to mainly consist of internal changes....

Throughout this spring, visitors to the Fundació Joan Miró modern art museum in Barcelona, Spain will have the opportunity to attend a Today at Apple session in a whole new creative setting. For eight weeks beginning on April 27th, Apple will host a special selection of weekly sessions that highlight the art and architecture of Barcelona. Apple’s program of free creative and educational sessions has traditionally been held only in Apple retail stores themselves....

Last August, Apple filed a lawsuit against virtualization company Corellium, which allows users to virtualize iOS for security research purposes. Now, a judge has thrown out Apple’s claims that Corellium’s virtualization tools violated copyright law. Apple had also argued that if Corellium’s virtualization tools were used by the wrong person, the vulnerabilities discovered with the tools could be used to hack iPhones. The judge in the case, Judge Rodney Smith, called these claims from Apple “puzzling, if not disingenuous....

While there has been much debate as to whether or not Apple is still innovating at the same rate it once was, Fast Company today named Apple the fourth most innovative company in the world. Fast Company attributed Apple’s positioning to its internal hardware design, health efforts, and more… Last year, Fast Company ranked Apple at the seventh spot, which may come as surprise to people who operate on the belief that Apple no longer innovates like it used to....

Apple has hired a former Warner Music executive to lead part of its Apple Music team. As first reported by Reuters, Jeff Bronikowski is joining Apple as the company’s global head of strategic music initiatives. Bronikowski made the announcement on LinkedIn last night, saying that he’ll be working with the Apple Music team. He’ll be based in New York City, but also spending time in Culver City and Cupertino: Prior to joining Apple Music this month, Bronikowski served as a senior vice president at Warner Music Group....

Apple today officially launched a version of its Apple Store iPhone trade-in program for China, as noted on the individual store pages for China’s Apple Retail Stores. As is the case in the United States and several other countries with Apple Stores, the program allows a user to bring in an older iPhone model and trade in that device for gift card credit toward the purchase of a new iPhone; the program will most likely not allow a customer to trade in an iPhone toward the purchase of an Apple Watch....

With supply constraints across the board this year, Apple has launched a new “Holiday Shipping and Fulfillment” webpage. On this page, Apple details the latest dates to order your holiday gifts with free shipping in time for delivery before December 25. Here’s how Apple describes this guide: Most notably, the opportunity to order certain products in time for holiday delivery has already passed. If you wanted an iPhone 12 Pro, Apple says you should have ordered by November 24....