Earlier today, the Apple Books app sent out a push notification offering a free Apple Book to users. The notification mentioned read-alongs for kids, cozy mysteries, and audiobooks for the whole family. Most likely aimed at helping folks pass the time when much of the world is social distancing due to COVID-19, Apple is offering a wide-ranging collection of free titles in various genres. In browsing the section, I found several titles that I picked up for my kids and me....

Apple has announced today that it is teaming up with the Boys & Girls Clubs of America to launch a new program designed to expand the availability of its Everyone Can Code curriculum. The announcement comes in celebration of Computer Science Education Week… In a press release, Apple announced that the collaboration will bring coding with Swift to “tens of thousands of students across the country” in more than a dozen cities in the United States....

The year is almost up but Apple Pay is still popping up in new places. BJ’s Wholesale Club already accepted Apple Pay in its stores for members, and now BJ’s has become the second retailer to allow their store cards to be added to the Wallet app and be used for Apple Pay. Kohl’s was officially the first retailer to add Apple Pay support to their store cards in October, while JCPenney is said to be testing support ahead of a 2016 rollout....

There was a big furore in October when the community discovered that the redesigned Calculator app in iOS 11.0 had a semi-serious bug; people noticed that if you typed 1 + 2 + 3 quickly, it would give the incorrect answer. The real problem here was that the fade animation on the operand buttons (+, – etc) would block user interaction until it completed. This meant that if you typed quickly, the second press of the + button when typing 1 + 2 + 3 would be ignored, but really this happened with any combination of inputs that pressed the operands quickly....

Apple is now offering official discounts on BeatsX, Solo3 and Powerbeats3 wireless headphones. While you can save up to $60 per model, these deals pale in comparison to the savings you can find at authorized third-party retailers. 9to5Toys has been actively tracking discounts on each model: As always, be sure to keep it locked to 9to5Toys for the best deals on Apple gear and more. Beats Studio3 Wireless Headphones w/ W1 chip see discount to $280 shipped https://t....

Apple has pushed out an update to its suite of pro video editing tools for Mac today, including new versions of Final Cut Pro X, Motion, and Compressor. Final Cut has been upgraded to version 10.2, which adds support for 3D titles, improved color grading and effects tools, support for additional camera formats, and GPU-accelerated processing of RAW footage from RED cameras. Motion now has the ability to create custom environments and materials for 3D titles and export them directly to Final Cut Pro, while Compressor gains the ability to package movies for sale on iTunes....

Apple has released a bug fix update for iPhone users today. iOS 14.4.1 is rolling out now, and Apple says it includes important security fixes for iPhone users. You can update today by going to the Settings app on your iPhone. The release notes for the update simply read: “This update provides important security updates and is recommended for all users.” Apple instructs users to visit the Apple security webpage for more details, which has now been updated to include information on iOS 14....

Apple today released the eighth beta developer of macOS Big Sur, which is expected to be available to the public sometime later this year. This follows the release of the seventh beta last Thursday, which suggests that Apple is pushing the development process to launch the first public version of macOS Big Sur in the coming weeks. macOS Big Sur brings a redesigned user interface to the Mac, as well as a new Messages app with screen effects, Control Center, new widgets, and much more....

Two weeks after seeding watchOS 8 beta 4 to developers, Apple is releasing its fifth beta. Here’s everything new with the upcoming Apple Watch operating system. Today’s build is 19R5323g. Public beta testers will have to wait a bit longer until beta 5 is available to them as well. watchOS 8 beta test program started on June 30 with beta 2. Yesterday, Apple released iOS 15 beta 5, iPadOS 15 beta 5 and, tvOS 15 beta 5....

In case you were in Egypt or something, here’s the news straight from ApplePR: iPhone 4 on Verizon Wireless Available for Pre-Order Tomorrow CUPERTINO, California—February 2, 2011—Apple® today announced an exclusive opportunity for Verizon Wireless’ 94 million customers to pre-order iPhone® 4 online beginning on Thursday, February 3 through the Apple Store® (www.apple.com) and at www.verizonwireless.com/iphone. Due to high demand, customer orders will be fulfilled on a first come, first served basis....

Adhering to government sanctions issued by the United States and European Commission in December, TechCrunch reports that Apple has started emailing notice of termination letters to registered developers in the Crimea region of Ukraine. Effective immediately, developers in the region cannot create or publish apps on the App Store and will be unable to access the developer portal, according to the reports. The decision follows an ongoing dispute between the United States and Russia over the Russian occupation of Crimea, an area that is internationally recognized as Ukraine territory....

One of the valuable updates that arrived with iOS 16 this fall is an overhauled Home app. Additions and changes in the fresh experience include a new UI and iconography, customizable sections, fresh wallpapers, a more seamless experience, and more. Now Apple has shared how it approached the big Home app update in an interview. Speaking to Parade, Cecelia Dantas who works in Product Marketing at Apple detailed how the goal was to make the new app beautiful and workable for everyone from beginners to HomeKit experts:...

Apple today announced a new repair program for iPhone 11. According to the company, some iPhone 11 users may be experiencing problems in which the display stops responding to touch. As reported by Apple, a small percentage of iPhone 11 models manufactured between November 2019 and May 2020 were affected by this problem. The company says the issue is related to a failure in the display module, which needs to be replaced in order to get the phone working properly again....

Even though September was a busy month for Apple, the year isn’t over just yet. Now that we’re officially in October, expect a new round of hardware and software releases from Apple. Ranging from the oft-rumored Apple Tag to the release of macOS Catalina, there’s a lot to look forward to — and it could all culminate in an October Apple event. Apple October event While Apple has not officially announced that it will hold an October event this year, there’s plenty of precedent....

Users with charging problems have explained that the Apple Watch will physically connect to its charger and say that it’s charging properly, “but in reality the power diminishes as if no charger was plugged in.” In some cases, the issue appears to be in software, where one of two several-step tricks may enable the Watch to recharge: Turn off and reset the Watch, first holding the side button, swiping to power off, then holding the Digital Crown and side button at the same time until the Apple logo appears....

An Apple patent filed back in May and published today describes how an iDevice backlight could serve as a strobe light. Apple gives a couple of examples of how this might be used … The first is to effectively act as personal disco lighting, though it is written in the usual dense patent language. A second use, backed by an illustration, would be to act as a safety strobe for joggers....

New banks and credit unions across the US, UK, Australia, Canada, and Japan have joined Apple’s list of participating partners as part of the first expansion of Apple Pay this month. Check out the latest Apple Pay banks below: In the United States: Bank Forward Campus Federal Credit Union Farmers Savings Bank First Bank & Trust (SD) Franklin State Bank Frost Bank Glenwood State Bank of Minnesota Kerr County Federal Credit Union mBank My Community Credit Union NRL Federal Credit Union Orrstown Bank Our Community Credit Union Perennial Bank State Bank of Cherry Tropical Financial Credit Union Union Bank & Trust United Citizens Bank of Southern Kentucky United Community Bank (ND) Valley National Bank Wymar Federal Credit Union And around the world:...

As Apple Pay continues to expand to more banks in the United States and around the world, it’s slowly coming to more retail locations, as well. Next on the docket for Apple Pay support appears to be Chick-Fil-A, according to a tweet from the restaurant chain. Last year, it was reported that Apple Pay support was coming to Chick-Fil-A locations around the country, but the rollout never fully began, though a handful of users have been able to use the service sporadically....

If you are an iOS user, you must be very familiar with the Apple Podcast app. Well, it’s a pre-installed app that comes with your iOS machine. And with the iOS 12 update, you can now see a lot of improvement in it, which makes it far better than the others. However, at certain times we might come up with the question that if there’s any better alternative to Apple Podcasts?...

Update: Mark Gurman breaks down what it all means here Apple today announced a few leadership changes including a new COO and changes to App Store leadership. Jeff Williams, previously Senior Vice President Operations, is officially being promoted to Chief Operating Officer which is CEO Tim Cook’s old title. Williams, notably, has been heavily involved in the Apple Watch team as well as the open source ResearchKit initiative. Phil Schiller, Apple’s Worldwide Marketing SVP, will add to his responsibilities the task of overseeing all the App Store leadership....