Following the release of iOS 16.1 beta 4 earlier this week, Apple today released a new AirPods beta firmware to developers. It’s unclear, however, what’s new in the update as Apple doesn’t provide details on AirPods firmware updates. The new AirPods beta firmware has the build number “5B5040c,” while the previous one was “5A304a.” With iOS 16, Apple has revamped the AirPods menu within the Settings app with a section dedicated to showing details about the current firmware....

Apple has begun seeding the third watchOS 3.2.3 beta for Apple Watch. The update is only available to registered developers for testing. watchOS 3.2.3 beta follows the release of watchOS 3.2.2 for all users. Both updates focus on bug fixes and performance improvements. watchOS 3.2.3 is only available to registered developers. Apple features a public beta program for iOS and macOS while watchOS and tvOS are developer only. We’ll update if any changes or release notes are discovered or shared....

Apple appears to be rolling out an update to Apple TV users in Germany that brings access to a TV shows section in the main UI. According to tips from readers and local reports from iFun, it is unclear if the new UI is a mistake. Apple could very well be in the midst of rolling out the update to all users. Oddly, reports also claim the Movies icon has been removed from the main section....

Apple has today announced that is launching a new app development curriculum designed to teach students how to start using Swift to create fully functional iPhone apps. The course is available for free on iBooks (plus teacher’s guide) for anyone to download, and builds on the Everyone Can Code series Apple already publishes. This fall, Apple says six American community colleges will teach the curriculum as well as ‘select high schools’....

Following the announcement at the September event, the Apple Research app is now available to download for iPhone and Apple Watch. Users in the United States can sign up to be part of three health studies; Women’s Health, Heart and Movement, and the Hearing Study. The Women’s Health study draws data from the Cycle Tracking app on watchOS 6 with the aim to improve scientific understand of menstrual cycles. The Heart and Movement Study uses a variety of signals from the watch, including movement and health rate information....

Fans of The Office have been excited about what appeared to be the revival of a previously pitched spin-off series called The Farm, but the project may actually be something involving Apple and not a new original series. Staff involved in The Farm have been promoting the project — which includes an on-screen reunion of actors Kate Flannery, Leslie David Baker and Paul Lieberstein who all had key roles in The Office — since early last month....

Apple Music has gotten dramatically better since its initial release in 2015, but there’s still more that needs to be done. In 2023, there are two long overdue features that I hope Apple adds to Apple Music…both of which are already offered by Spotify. Crossfade for Apple Music on iPhone and iPad One of the glaring omissions from Apple Music on the iPhone and iPad is crossfade support. This is a feature that has been offered for years, even dating back to the days of the iPod....

“Windows users are really tired of all the headaches that they’ve been getting over the years, starting all the way back from Windows Me to NT to Vista and now Windows 7,” he said. “As a result, I think people are looking for something different, and the Mac offers real ease of use, stability and security.” Noting, as Phil Schiller did earlier, that upgrading to Windows is a complex process, he suggested Windows users, particularly those on XP machines, may see this as the right time to switch to Mac....

In the years ahead, passwords, as we know them, will become a thing of the past. However, that change won’t happen overnight and will take a concerted effort from lots of different parties, including the major tech giants. At WWDC, Apple announced how it’s moving toward a more secure and easy-to-use passwordless authentication powered by WebAuthn and Face ID/Touch ID with the preview of passkeys in iCloud Keychain. The preview of passkeys in iCloud Keychain comes with iOS 15 and macOS Monterey, but it doesn’t mean the feature is user-facing....

With Apple Pay now up and running in the UK, Apple is continuing to roll out additional banks and credit unions in waves across the US for its iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch-based mobile payment service. The latest round includes 34 more institutions now supporting Apple Pay. Here are the latest to join in the US as well as the full list to date: 1st Source Bank Allegacy Federal Credit Union Amarillo National Bank American National Bank and Trust Cambridge Trust Bank CASE Credit Union CME FCU Coast Line Credit Union Columbia Bank Community Financial Credit Union Eagle Federal Credit Union Earlham Savings Bank Eastern Bank Evergreen Credit Union Fidelity Bank Federal Savings Bank First Financial Bank First National Bank and Trust FNB Community Bank Heritage Family Federal Credit Union Meritrust Credit Union NuMark Credit Union Pittsford Federal Credit Union Premier Federal Credit Union Quail Creek Bank Reliabank Dakota Reliant Federal Credit Union Renasant Bank SESLOC Federal Credit Union Stanford FCU The Summit Federal Credit Union Umpqua Bank VisionBank Y-12 Federal Credit Union...

Apple Pay has today launched in Belgium. Just like everywhere else in the world, Apple Pay enables you to make transactions at retail stores using the contactless NFC chip inside the iPhone and Apple Watch. You can also pay using Apple Pay on the web in Safari for iOS or Safari for Mac. The Belgium local launch partners include Fortis, Fintro and Hello Bank. Get started with Apple Pay now using the Wallet app on your iPhone....

[UPDATE April 7: iOS 9.3.2 is now available as a public beta update as well.] Shortly after the recent iOS 9.3.1 update to fix a link issue and the major iOS 9.3 update with new features, Apple has released a new iOS 9.3.2 update for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. Apple has also released the first watchOS 2.2.1 betas for developers to test with Apple Watch following the recent watchOS 2....

Apple’s entry level configuration of the new 21.5-inch iMac is now shipping in 7-10 business days from Apple’s online store. That shipping time is up from the 1-3 business days that the product was quoted as shipping in yesterday. The 27-inch iMacs were initially said to ship in 2-3 weeks, but they have since been pushed back to 3-4 weeks for new orders. Update: Both 21.5-inch iMacs are now up to 7-10 days for shipping....

A Chinese report says that Apple’s cheapest iPad – currently sporting a 10.2-inch screen and 32GB storage – will get an upgrade in the spring. It indicates that the screen size will be increased to 10.5 inches, and the base storage will be doubled to 64GB – alongside other improvements … iMore spotted the report from cnBeta. If you were hoping the entry-level iPad would join the rest of the iPad family (bar the mini) in making the switch to USB-C, cnBeta says you’re out of luck: Apple is sticking to a Lightning socket for this model....

[UPDATE: Chris Lattner has tweeted his reaction to the BI piece, calling it “fabricated or speculating”.] The surprise decision of Swift creator and long-time Xcode lead Chris Lattner to leave Apple was in large part driven by his frustration with the culture of secrecy at the company, say developer friends. Lattner, who was Apple’s head of developer tools and widely respected as the voice of developers within the company, left the company after more than a decade to lead Tesla’s Autopilot software efforts …...

Apple looks to be having a few lot of problems with its servers this morning. At the time of writing, iTunes Connect is refusing logins, the iBooks store is not responding and there are intermittent outages when viewing some individual items in both iOS and Mac App Stores … Both Reddit and Apple’s forums are lightning up with people unable to login to Apple services. TNW reports that TestFlight, the system developers use to give beta access to their apps, is also inaccessible for some users....

The Court of Justice of the European Union has dismissed Apple’s bid to overturn a decision by the EUIPO to revoke its “Think Different” trademark in the European Union. The company used the phrase for its marketing campaigns from 1997 to 2002. Apple launched its famous “Think Different” campaign in 1997 and then registered the phrase as a trademark within the EU. It registered again in 1998 and 2005. The registration included products like computers, computer terminals, keyboards, hardware, software, and multimedia products....

When you access the “Accessory” page, you can’t navigate through most of the categories, such as “Made by Apple,” “Headphone & Speakers,” and more. Clicking on any of the broken categories of them surfaces a message: “There are no products available that fit the selection you requested.” One of the few categories I was able to access was “Health & Fitness.” Some other users are also unable to access the Bag and Order History sections of the Apple Online Store, indicating a broader outage of some sort currently affecting Apple....

Bloomberg reports that a federal jury has found Apple guilty of infringing on six patents related to outdated pager technology from the 1990s. The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas has ordered Apple to pay a $23.6 million settlement for violating six patents owned by plaintiff Mobile Telecommunications Technologies LLC in the case. Mobile Telecommunications Technologies claimed that several Apple products with wireless messaging were violating the pager technology, including the iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Airport lineup of Wi-Fi products....

In recent weeks, a spate of local and national news reports about stalking incidents and auto theft attempts involving AirTags has popped up. The reports typically involve someone finding an unknown AirTag secreted away in a handbag, tucked behind their vehicle’s license plate, or stashed somewhere else that will let a thief or stalker track the location of themselves or their vehicle. In what was almost certainly an effort to alleviate some of the negative public sentiment toward AirTags being caused by continued reports like this, Apple has updated its Personal Safety User Guide with new advice on what to do if you find an AirTag that may be tracking you for criminal purposes....