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I’m not expecting here to replicate my rather extensive Apple Watch diary series – I doubt this one will run to four pieces. I’m also not starting out here as an Apple Music skeptic. I’ve been using Spotify for years, and – from a brief trial of Beats Music – started out pretty confident I would be jumping ship once Apple Music launched. But I do think Apple Music has one thing in common with the Watch: I don’t think it’s possible to judge it without a reasonable amount of usage....

Apple has been betting big on exclusive content when it comes to growing Apple Music and a new report from Rolling Stone details just how far the company is willing to go in partnering with labels and artists. In the report, Apple’s head of original music content Larry Jackson expressed the reasoning behind Apple’s motivation and how it goes about working with labels. Jackson explained that much of his inspiration comes from his previous gig working with Jimmy Iovine at Interscope Records....

Since first launching its new Apple Music subscription streaming service for users last June, and bringing it to China in September, Apple has been slowly bringing it to more countries behind the scenes. Today, Turkey is the latest to get access as the service quietly launches for users in the country. Local blog macReports got word from Apple about the official launch and the company’s local website in the country is also now advertising the service....

Apple appears to be aiming to tempt Android and Windows users to try out its iWork apps, making Pages, Numbers and Keynote for iCloud available to anyone, with no requirement to own an Apple device. A new banner promoting the offer was last night added to the iCloud beta site, beta.icloud.com … The ability to use iWork for iCloud apps is of course of no use without storage space, so accounts created in this way get 1GB of free iCloud storage....

A new study from UK consumer advocacy group “Which?” this weekend claims that Apple overstates the battery life of several iPhone models. According to the report, the iPhone XR’s real-world performance offers the biggest discrepancy compared to Apple’s claims in relation to talk time. The group says that it tested nine different iPhone models and found that all of them fell short of Apple’s claims by between 18 percent and 51 percent....

Apple, which was accused by the Italian government of failing to declare more than $1.3B of income when paying corporation tax in the country, has now agreed to pay the full €318M ($347M) claimed by the Italian tax office. The company has 16 Apple Stores in Italy. Apple was accused of funnelling profits from Italian sales through its Irish subsidiary in order to benefit from the lower tax rate the company had agreed there....

Apple today has issued a rare update for its AirPort Utility application on iOS. While the AirPort hardware itself has long been discontinued, Apple continues to support the ecosystem when necessary. Today’s update to the AirPort Utility application includes security improvements and general stability enhancements. Some users had reported problems with the AirPort Utility app on iOS 13, so this update likely resolves those issues. Apple’s change log is short and sweet:...

Ahead of their event on Tuesday, Apple announced a Teacher Tuesday event at its Michigan Avenue store in Chicago. The event will be held at 5PM local time on Tuesday, after the Apple event at 10AM. The invitation reads: Towkio was born in Chicago, Illinois and actually attended Lane Tech College Prep High School, where the Apple event is being held. The invitation specifically mentions the Apple event itself, hinting at the possibility of high level Apple execs in attendance, however that is not guaranteed....

In the past few hours we’ve seen some significant changes happening at the App Store on iPad which seem to coincide nicely with the launch event tomorrow. Additionally, Joaquin Ruiz the CEO of Catalog Spree, a catalog app for the iPad, noticed that today Apple added the Catalogs category to the App Store for the iPad – and added his app to the category (right). ‘Catalogs’ is listed under Lifestyle and is currently empty but with a Retina display on show for tomorrow, it would be surprising not to see a few more catalogs show up....

Apple Music has rebranded its A List: Hip-Hop playlist to Rap Life while adding a weekly show with the same name to Beats 1 Radio. The changes have been led by Apple’s global editorial head of hip-hop and R&B, Ebro Darden. As reported by Billboard, the branding shift to Rap Life should help Apple Music as it competes against rivals like Spotify who has its RapCaviar playlist. Here’s how Apple describes the change:...

For a limited time, Apple has started offering a three-month free trial of Apple News+ to new subscribers. This is up from the regular free trial period of one month, and matches the trial offered for new Apple Music subscribers. As first spotted by MacRumors, the three-month Apple News+ trial offer is valid only for this weekend in the United States and Canada. This means that you have until Monday, December 2 to secure the extended free trial offer....

Hot off the heels of Apple’s iBook Textbooks and iBooks Author announcement, the Cupertino, Calif.-based Company passed a $400 billion market cap briefly today, AllThingsD pointed out. Apple also saw a new company record of $431 a share this afternoon —up $2 from yesterday’s record. As the afternoon continued on, Apple’s market cap went down to $398 billion again, but it is still close to coming back. For comparison, the world’s most valuable company, Exxon, has a market cap of $417 billion....

UPDATE 8/23: Deadline reports that Apple has officially given this project a 10-episode straight-to-series order. Apple is reportedly working on yet another TV sci-fi for its growing catalogue of shows as part of an unannounced streaming video service. The show will be based on the Foundation book trilogy written by Isaac Asimov and produced by Skydance Television which is behind the Netflix series “Altered Carbon”. As reported by Variety, the series will be written and produced by David S....

The CEO of Mango Health, Jason Oberfest, was recently poached by Apple, according to a report from CNBC. The app was built to help users track medications, and also gives incentives for those who take their medications on time. Oberfest is reportedly looking into ways for Apple to take advantage of its technology and innovations. Apple has been making progress on features like its Health Records API over the last year, which can integrate with medication prescriptions....

Over the last year, Apple has put a heightened focus on news and editorial content. Just last week, the company shared its first exclusive piece of content via Apple News, while it was also revealed that Apple has been paying some publishers for early exclusivity rights to video content. New data on Apple’s hiring trends over the last year only further show the company’s interest in news… Data aggregated by research firm Thinknum shows Apple’s recent spike in editorial hires....

An Apple I sold at Christie’s last week for $355,500, the lowest price yet seen for a recent sale of a model in working condition … The computer may have sold for less than usual due to modifications made by the original owner, who added an EPROM and upgraded the RAM. A rare ‘Celebration’ model sold last August for $815k, after predictions of a 7-figure sale, and others have gone for upwards of $400k....

Apple has announced that its Everyone Can Code curriculum will be living up to its name, by making it accessible to blind and deaf students, as well as those with other disabilities such as issues with motor skills. A Swift training program which begins in kindergarten schools, Everyone Can Code started out as a free ebook (available here, with teachers’ guide) before being rolled out to colleges around the world, including a huge rollout in Chicago …...

Apple has opened up a secondary dedicated AppleCare repairs warehouse in the United States in recent days, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the new center. The new warehouse is located in Carlisle, Pennsylvania and public records indicate that the facility comes in at just under 200,000 square-feet with an additional 2500 square-feet of space available for offices. Apple will use this facility to conduct repairs and replacements and to manage, package, and ship repaired Apple devices to both customer’s homes and Apple Store Genius Bars across the country....

A recent patent filed by Apple and discovered by PatentlyApple hints at ways in which Apple is planning to make its HomeKit platform smarter. The patent, published today by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, is for an “automated environment” in which HomeKit would be able to track the routines of users and implement automated behaviors based on those habits. As an example, Apple points to the idea of a heating system being enabled at a particular time or when a particular temperature is met....

Rolling out to your favorite supermarket or retail store this holiday season are new Apple iTunes gift cards that can be bought in any denomination between $15 and $500. We’re hearing that at least one supermarket chain and one retailer are putting these on the shelves today. You take these cards to the cashier and choose how much to put on them. When the cashier validates the card, the amount paid is tied to the number/code....