Apple has sent out a second update to the third developer preview of OS X Mountain Lion. Changes are currently unknown, but the update is available via software update in the Mac App Store. Let us know if you find anything new! Apple sent the following email regarding the new build: Update: Apple has seeded update 4 of Safari 5.2 as well. Important: MacBook Pro 3,1 is not supported in this build of Mountain Lion....

Update: Live in Australia. As part of the American Black Friday sales tradition, Apple typically offers minimal discounts on its own products and third-party accessories via its online and physical retail stores. However, this year will be significantly different. According to multiple sources, Apple’s sales event this Friday will be based around gift cards, not discounts on products. If a customer buys a product from Apple on Black Friday, instead of receiving a discount, they will be given an Apple Store gift card....

Apple this week quietly released a new tvOS app on the App Store called “Apple Partner Media Review.” This, however, is not an app aimed at regular users. Instead, it helps studios review their video content on an Apple TV. As briefly described by the company on the app’s page, Apple Partner Media Review was created with studios and encoding houses in mind. The app basically lets providers of movies and TV shows check their content with all the details directly on Apple TV prior to publication....

As first spotted by our friends over at German language publication Macerkopf.de, Apple appears to be rolling out an option to make purchases on the Apple Online Store using PayPal. The feature appears to be limited to Germany currently, but it could mark the start of a broader roll out to other users. Apple has never been opposed to offering the option to use PayPal for some services. Users in the U....

In a new interview with Reuters, European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager cleared Apple when asked about its mobile payment service and competitive issues in Europe … for now. In a bit of a burn from Vestager, she shared that Apple Pay doesn’t have the dominance in Europe yet that would prompt an investigation. Apple Pay is steadily expanding to new regions including Germany, however, which will expand Apple Pay’s reach. Vestager also told Reuters that she isn’t opposed to investigating Apple Pay over competitive violations if a formal complaint was filed....

Apple has released the fourth iOS 11 public beta for iPhone and iPad. This allows users who are not registered developers to test pre-release versions of iOS with new features for free. In terms of stability, the same warnings apply to any pre-release software: apps may crash, battery life won’t be optimal, and expect performance to be sluggish. Still tempted to try the iOS 11 public beta? Check out our guide for how to install the iOS 11 public beta on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch here....

Apple has released new beta versions of iOS and tvOS for developer testing. iOS and tvOS 11.2.5 beta 6 are now available on the developer center and over-the-air. We’ll update to the latest versions and note any changes below. The latest beta follows the official release of iOS 11.2.2 for iPhone and iPad. We haven’t seen version numbers in between the official release and the beta release (so maybe these are placeholder numbers pending additional bug fix updates)....

You see them worn by people desperately wanting to ignore you and live in their own blissful bubble. It seems as if you’re not of the modern world unless you have the unfinished earrings known as AirPods inserted into your very being. At first, they seemed a little strange. But Apple types swiftly committed themselves to constant AirPod wearing. So much so that, in one infamously informative survey, 17% of AirPod owners insisted they kept them on during coital conflagration....

Apple’s claim that mobile chipmaker Qualcomm has for years been engaged in monopolistic behaviour got a boost today from a Taiwanese ruling. An investigation by Taiwan’s Fair Trade Commission ruled that Qualcomm has been violating antitrust rules for at least seven years … Bloomberg reports that the commission levied a $773M fine on the company. Qualcomm owns the rights to a number of radio technologies that are an essential element of any modern mobile phone....

Apple’s dependence on China has never been brought into sharper focus than now, with COVID-19-related disruption at the biggest iPhone assembly plant costing the company an estimated billion dollars per week. A new report says that the company’s efforts to diversify production have continued to make progress, but that iPhone production remains hugely dependent on China … Background We’ve been warning for many years about both the need and the difficulty of reducing Apple’s dependence on China, but the pandemic made even clearer the risks of the company having most of its manufacturing eggs in one basket....

Apple has informed employees today that is launching a new volunteer program today that will push employees to assist their local communities. The program is called the “Apple Global Volunteer Program,” and it is soon launching in the United States, Sydney, Australia, and Cork, Ireland before a larger rollout across the world. The program is said to be available for both retail and corporate employees. Here’s Apple’s memo to employees:...

As the year draws to a close, Apple Music has today released its top streamed songs of the year. The most streamed song of 2021 goes to ‘Dynamite’ by K-pop superstars BTS. The most-read lyrics accolade goes to Olivia Rodrigo’s ‘drivers license’, which rose to prominence at the beginning of the year and was the second most streamed track. The company also shared Top 100 charts across all songs, most-read lyrics, fitness songs and most Shazamed music (see after the jump)....

“Apple must be stopped,” said Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney, at an app conference in South Korea. He also said that Google was “crazy” in the way it handled app purchases … Background Epic Games has been battling with Apple over payments for in-app purchases. Epic launched its own store to bypass Apple’s cut of in-app payments, in contravention of App Store terms, and the Cupertino company suspended the company’s developer account....

iOS 11 satisfied one of our feature requests: a function which mutes and automatically replies to incoming messages while you’re driving. Some 781 million miles of driving data seems to support the contention that it helps to reduce distracted driving. A new Apple patent application describes what may be the next step in the development of this feature … The patent application, published today, describes how a similar approach could be used to mute incoming calls....

Update: The article was originally written prior to finding out an exception in the law. It is in fact, okay to use Apple Pay or other forms of contactless payment through drive-thrus in the UK. Source: gov.uk As new Highway Code rules were released last month, it is now illegal for drivers in the UK to touch their phone while driving. With this, it is now illegal for fast food customers to use Apple Pay while purchasing food in drive-thrus....

Apple has declared that Apple Pay is off to a “great start” almost a year after its launch with the company seeing steady growth in Apple Pay transactions every month. In a statement to Bloomberg, the company said: Apple Pay launched last year with the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus in the US. The service expanded to the UK a few months ago. In Apple’s January investor call, Cook claimed 2015 was “the year of Apple Pay”....

Following IDC’s report this morning that highlighted Apple’s continued growth among mobile phone marketshare worldwide, while coming second to Samsung in global smartphone marketshare, research firm comScore just released its numbers for United States mobile subscribers for the three-month period ending March 2012. According to comScore, Apple posted impressive growth during the quarter with 30.7-percent marketshare among smartphone platforms in the U.S (up from 29.6-percent). Increasing from 47.3-percent in December 2011 to 51 percent in March 2012, Android was able to grab the top position for platforms during the quarter....

Apple has issued a fifth developer and public beta release of iOS 9.3.3 ahead of its general release. iOS 9.3.3 beta 5 follows the last build issued a week ago which suggests a general release will soon follow. Apple is likely testing iOS 9.3.3 heavily as it could be the last version of iOS 9 before iOS 10 is released later this fall. OS X 10.11.6 and tvOS 9.2.2 updates to the Mac and Apple TV have also been in development over the last several weeks as macOS 10....

Apple is releasing the first beta of iOS 14.2 to public beta testers today. This comes after the release to developers last week, as well as last week’s release of iOS 14 to everyone. iOS 14.2 includes a few notable changes for iPhone users. In iOS 14.2 beta 1, there are revamped now playing controls on the lock screen alongside redesigned AirPlay 2 controls in the Control Center. Another one of the new changes in iOS 14....

After first teasing it last December and releasing it in beta at WWDC, Apple’s new ‘Apple TV Remote’ app for the new Apple TV is now available to download from the App Store. The app can replace previous Remote app that lacked support for some of the new features on the fourth-gen Apple TV, although it’s missing a few features in the initial version. For example, the new Apple TV Remote app isn’t available as an iPad-optimized app and you won’t find the same Home Sharing features that let you control iTunes on a Mac....