Apple has picked up a few new hires and advisors to assist its growing Watch team ahead of the Apple Watch launch currently on track for March. Among them, Apple has recently hired another executive from the fashion industry, this time from Louis Vuitton, in addition to two new hires from the medical industry. Jacob Jordan, previously based in Paris as Louis Vuitton’s director of the company’s men’s ready to wear collection, joined Apple in October and since confirmed the move on his LinkedIn page....

Apple Music for Android might not be the most popular music streaming service but with version 3.30 it may entice you with gapless playback support. Introduced with the latest update, gapless playback appears to be enabled by default as part of the latest version 3.30 update (via Android Police). This might not be the biggest addition but version 3.30 also brings some other tweaks and improvements that might appease Apple Music subscribers....

Following our report in late July that Apple was about to start selling iPhones through carrier upgrade/installment plans like AT&T’s Next, the company is now offering exactly that through its online store. As of earlier this month, Apple’s website now displays the AT&T Next $0 down installment plan for existing AT&T customers upgrading to a new iPhone 5s, 5c, or 4S. That option is alongside its previous options of purchasing a device under a typical 2-year contract with one of the carriers or unlocked and contract-free....

Apple has today begun supporting the Malala Foundation in Latin America to help provide educational opportunities for girls. The collaboration will be between the foundation and Apple’s 10 Developer Academies in Brazil. As stated in an Apple press release, the Malala foundation works to create safe, quality secondary education and opportunities for girls in Brazil. Malala was able to meet the young students at Apple’s Developer Academies in Brazil on Friday....

During its WWDC keynote today, Apple unveiled a new iCloud+ service with new features alongside iCloud storage. iCloud+ includes three new features, and Apple is not raising the prices of iCloud. Private Relay is the headlining new feature of iCloud+. Through Private Relay, all traffic leaving your device is encrypted and sent through two separate relays. Apple says that no one, not even Apple, can access or view this data. This feature sounds quite a bit like an Apple VPN....

The Apple jobs website has been revamped, with a new video providing a taste of what it’s like to work for one of the world’s most desirable employers. This is where some of the world’s smartest, most passionate people create the world’s most innovative products and experiences. Join us and you’ll do the best work of your life — and make a difference in other people’s lives. A new About Apple page aims to give a flavor of what it’s like to work for the company, albeit heavily biased toward new product development roles....

Market intelligence company Canalys last week demoted Apple’s smartphone sales in China to part of the ‘Others’ category, a far cry from the 2015 peak where its market share was somewhere in the 40-50% range in Urban China. Analysts are now saying that Apple’s relegation to the ‘also ran’ stakes may be permanent … Business Insider cites three different analysts, with even noted Apple bull Katy Huberty of Morgan Stanley predicting ‘continued weakness in China....

Apple this week has started a new Apple Music “Ambassador” marketing campaign for its streaming platform, quietly recruiting students and giving them perks in exchange for promoting the service and recruiting others. The new effort targets college students specifically, making them so-called official “Apple Music Ambassadors” on Twitter to promote the service. The program is being run via a third-party marketing company called Social Chain that it appears Apple has hired (Social Chain lists Apple alongside other high-profile clients on its website)....

Customers in need of a whole unit replacement for their fourth generation iPad may now receive a newer and more capable iPad Air 2 as a substitute from Apple Stores and authorized service providers. Apple is implementing the new policy, allowing its repair staff to ship an iPad Air 2 for a unit replacement when stock of the aging and now discontinued 4th gen iPad isn’t available. Apple’s memo also notes for staff to inform customers of the replacement unit’s color and capacity....

Apple released iOS 6.1.3 beta 2 to developers just last week with enhancements to Maps in Japan, as well as the promise of a fix for the highly publicized Lock Screen bug. While we noted at the time that the update could fix exploits used for the recent evasi0n jailbreak, the evad3rs team has now had time to test the update and confirmed to Forbes that 6.1.3 breaks evasi0n. Team member David Wang, aka @planetbeing, explained Apple has patched one of the five critical exploits that evasi0n is currently using:...

A couple more recently granted Apple patents are emerging today (via PatentlyApple), one of which details an interesting new docking station with intelligent accessory power management, while once again providing hints at a secondary 30-pin connector for landscape orientation. The idea is to be able to provide various devices– portable media players(iPod), cell phones (iPhone), monitors (iTV?)– with the ideal power source through a single accessory. It would also allow Apple to safely power larger devices such as a monitor through the same accessory....

Apple has launched its Back to School promotional offer for the 2021 season. Customers can get a free pair of AirPods bundled with the purchase of eligible Mac and iPad purchases. Free bundled AirPods are available as standard, and customers can pay the extra to get AirPods Pro. Students, parents and school faculty in the United States can take advantage of the offer from now until September 27. Details after the break …...

Yesterday we revealed that Apple was revamping the third-party accessory selection in its retail locations with new boxes designed by Apple itself. Apple has recently launched a new webpage that showcases the testing that all iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch cases are required to go through before they are sold in an Apple Store. Apple first notes that it analyzes the design of the case to ensure that all ports and buttons are still easily accessible and that the case design is strong enough for day-to-day use....

Apple has updated its HomeKit accessory list with the latest information on which smart home devices will support the latest HomeKit features introduced alongside iOS 13.2, namely HomeKit Secure Video and HomeKit routers. The changes were first spotted by HomeKit Hero. Apple first announced its new HomeKit partnerships at WWDC, showing logos for Eufy, Logitech, and Netatmo camera manufacturers and router brands like Linksys, Eero, and Charter Spectrum. The exact models to be supported were not confirmed at the time....

Apple is holding a media event at 10 a.m. PST today to unveil the new iPad mini, iTunes 11, and new Macs. For those looking to tune in to the event (we are sure that’s all of you), Apple just confirmed that it would live stream today’s happenings to the Apple TV. 9to5mac readers have noticed a new “Apple Event” icon on the home screen of their Apple TVs that launches a player for when things go down in a few hours....

When Apple released the iPhone 12 line last September, the company was able to take some of Samsung’s market share in South Korea. Now, a report says the Android maker was able to take back some of its market share in its home country. According to a Counterpoint Research report [via ZDNet], Samsung controlled 67% of South Korea’s smartphone market in Q1 2021. This is a “3% increase from the 64% of the same time period of 2020 and a 9% jump from the previous quarter’s 58%....

Well, that’s the latest claim to emerge from TechCrunch, which reports that MobileMe user’s public iDisk file sharing pages can easily be used to determine a member’s email address…“There is no way as a user to hide or delete your public folder. If you are a MobileMe customer, you have one.” “Gathering the entire MobileMe username list, and therefore email list, via a simple dictionary attack is trivial,” the report explains....

Since March, the old Mac Pro has not been available to buy in Europe as changes in regulations meant that the old Mac Pro no longer complied with EU law. In particular, the large exposed fans of the Mac Pro were the main reason behind the ban — the amendment required fan guards and minor changes to electrical ports. With the design of the new Mac Pro, Apple once again complies with regulatory requirements....

As we reported would occur, Apple has just launched its annual Back to School promotion for students. The program launched in January for students in Australia, and today, the new program was opened up for students in the United States and several other nations across the world. Like we reported, the program offers students a $100 Mac App Store/iTunes Store/iBookstore gift card with purchase of a new Mac computer. $50 gift cards of the same kind are offered for iPad and iPhone (for the first time) purchases…...

Apple is hiring a video producer to work on original content for its new Apple Music streaming service. The position will see an experienced producer oversee the creation of all original video content for both iTunes and Apple Music and hints that Apple will be collaborating with artists on branded music videos. The job listing seems to confirm a recent report from Pitchfork that Apple is making original music videos in-house for select high-profile artists....