Apple has made another notable hire for its Apple Music team. According to a report from Music Business Worldwide, Apple has hired BBC hip-hop & grime editor Ryan Newman… The report explains that during his time at 1Xtra – BBC’s flagship hip-hop and grime station – Newman “devised and implemented music strategy at the network, shaping its musical direction. This isn’t the first time Apple has poached Apple Music & Beats 1 employees from BBC Radio....

Update: Apple has added 28 new banks and credit unions in the U.S. too. Full list below. Apple today updated its list of Apple Pay banks to add new banks and credit unions supported in the U.S., Mainland China, Russia, and Australia. The additions include twenty eight new banks and credit unions in the U.S., nine in China, four in Russia, and over thirty in Australia. The newly added banks include:...

The availability of Apple Pay has slowly expanded throughout New York City as the MTA has rolled out its new OMNY tap-and-ride readers. In a new report today, the New York Post says that some users are being charged for MTA travel every time they walk by the OMNY readers. According to the report, some transit riders in New York City have been charged a fare through Apple Pay, even when they don’t tap their Apple Watch or iPhone on the OMNY reader....

More details continue to emerge this weekend about the behind-the-scenes drama of Apple’s dealings with Intel and Qualcomm. According to a report from The Telegraph, Apple poached Intel’s lead 5G modem developer earlier this year. According to the report, which cites a leaked email, Apple hired Umashankar Thyagarajan from Intel in February. Thyagarajan also confirmed the change on his LinkedIn profile, where he lists that he works on chip architecture at Apple....

After a few YouTube videos hit the web claiming that the iPhone 6 Plus could be easily bent out shape in a user’s pocket, Apple addressed the issue by stating that the device was designed to meet its quality requirements and that only a handful of owners had complained about any issues. To further prove its commitment to building solid devices, Apple gave journalists access to the lab where it tests the build quality of its iPhones....

Apple has published a new support guide this week that offers users an in-depth guide at managing their data and information on iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Mac. The new document is entitled “Device and Data Access when Personal Safety is At Risk.” Apple says that the goal of this new manual is to “help you identify risks, and walk you through the steps to help make the technology you rely on as private and secure as you want it to be....

The Everyone Can Create curriculum is now available as a free download in the App Store, after initially being announced at the March education event. The series is made up of four main interactive books, spanning photography, music, video production and drawing. All the activities revolve around creation on the iPad itself. There is also a teacher guide to aid with learning. Apple pitches these as complete set of digital materials for schools to teach in lessons to kids and are offered for free online....

Apple has released the third OS X 10.11.4 beta today to testers. The latest developer preview can be found in the Updates section of the Mac App Store. Previous versions have added new features to the Mac including the ability to view and share Live Photos shot on the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus using Messages, and the ability to password protect Notes. We’ll check out the latest beta version of the upcoming release and highlight any changes below....

A judge in the United States dismissed Proview’s suit two days ago against Apple in the U.S., and it seems the dispute may be wrapping up soon, because the companies have been discussing a settlement amount. A report by Sina (via the Beijing Times/TNW) claims that Apple offered $16 million as a settlement for the iPad trademark in China, which Apple was duped out of prior to the product’s 2010 launch....

Apple is rolling out the third macOS 10.12.5 developer beta through the Mac App Store. macOS Sierra 10.12.5 beta is currently only available to developers. Public beta versions usually come a few days after developer versions if not the same day. The upcoming update follows macOS 10.12.4 which brought Apple’s color shifting Night Shift feature to the Mac for the first time. Apple is also running developer betas for iOS 10....

Apple’s ad-tracking system is under attack by a privacy activist with a successful track record of fighting Facebook and other tech giants. Apple uses its own system known as IDFA (IDentifier For Advertisers) to assign a unique code to each of its devices, so that advertisers can track who has seen particular ads. But privacy campaigner Max Schrems claims that this breaches European law… Background We explained earlier in the year how IFDA works, and controversy over a change in iOS 14....

A developer claims to have reverse-engineered the NeuralHash algorithm used in Apple’s CSAM detection. Conflicting views have been expressed about whether this would enable the child sexual abuse material detection system to be defeated… Developer Asuhariet Ygvar posted the code to GitHub. Convert image to RGB. Resize image to 360x360. Normalize RGB values to [-1, 1] range. Perform inference on the NeuralHash model. Calculate dot product of a 96x128 matrix with the resulting vector of 128 floats....

Following its detailed reports on displays used in the new iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3, today DisplayMate published a scientific analysis of color accuracy for the six best mobile displays it’s tested this year. Despite ranking high in some categories in the test, Apple’s new entries, the iPhone 6 Plus and iPad Air 2, end up at the bottom of the list overall. The test ranked the devices in four categories— Entire Color Gamut, Facial Skin Tone Colors, Organic Colors, and Blue Region from Cyan to Magenta Colors— in order to determine an overall color accuracy score....

With a long-running EU investigation into the legality of Apple’s tax arrangements in Europe still showing no signs of reaching a conclusion, the size of last year’s UK tax bill isn’t likely to help its cause. Apple’s latest accounts show that it paid just £12.9M ($17M) in UK corporation tax despite making an estimated £2B ($2.6B) profit in the country. As the Mail Online notes, this is the equivalent of just two hours’ profits on its global sales …...

[UPDATE 6/7: OS X 10.11.6 is now available for public beta testers as well.] Apple has released the second OS X El Capitan 10.11.6 preview through the Mac App Store for developer testing. The software update to the Mac likely includes further bug fixes and performance improvements following similar releases throughout the year. User facing features at this point are likely being saved for OS X 10.12, which Apple is set to introduce next month at WWDC and likely launch later in the fall....

Privacy has long been a value for Apple, hammered by Steve Jobs a decade ago and built-in to Apple’s software, something that can’t be said for many other tech companies. But marketing privacy as a product feature can be tricky. How do you show it? Apple’s latest iPhone ad tackles that challenge head-on, connecting privacy to iPhone in the most relatable ways yet — like public bathroom etiquette. The new video carries the same lighthearted tone as Apple’s other recent iPhone spots....

Now that Apple’s AirPort line is dead, Apple has now published a new support document detailing what customers should be looking for when upgrading from their existing AirPort devices. While Apple’s AirPort devices never support mesh networking, Apple recommends using such a setup if you have a larger home. Apple also recommends getting a router that supports 802.11ac, simultaneous dual-band networks (2.4GHz and 5GHz), WPA2 Personal (AES) encryption, and MIMO or MU-MIMO which allows the router to send and receive multiple streams which improves performance....

Oregon news outlet The Bulletin reports that Apple has purchased nearly 200 acres of land in Prineville, Oregon this week. The property purchased this week is directly adjacent to Apple’s already existing facility in the city. Apple reportedly paid $3.6 million for its new 200 acre plot. Apple hasn’t specified its plans for the land to Prineville yet, although in April it filed for an application to expand its data center operations....

Update 2: Apple has released the fifth public beta of iOS 11.1. Update: Apple has also released the fourth beta of tvOS 11.1 to developers, as well as macOS High Sierra 10.13.1 Apple today has released iOS 11.1 beta 5 to developers. The update comes just a few days after Apple released beta 4. iOS 11.1 includes changes such as hundreds of new emoji, the return of the 3D multitasking gesture, and more....

Apple has released updated versions of Safari for OS X users running 10.10 Yosemite, 10.9 Mavericks, and 10.8 Mountain Lion. The latest versions of Safari for each respective OS X version now comes to Safari 8.0.2, Safari 7.1.2, and Safari 6.2.2. Earlier this month Apple released updates for Safari for OS X, but later pulled the releases after a short period. Today’s update addresses a number of issues relating to iCloud Drive, iCloud Keychain, and what Apple calls a rare issue caused by the previous release....