Apple is looking to beef up its original content offering with around six small-budget movies. Apple has pitched TV+ as the place for original TV shows and movies, but has mostly focused on its TV efforts so far. The New York Post says Apple wants to spend between $5-$30 million on a handful of shows with aspirations for Oscar nominations and awards. This budget is apparently separate to the deal Apple signed with film studio A24 in November....

A new report by the Financial Times suggests that Apple is looking to change the 70/30 revenue share for certain types of App Store apps. The report claims that Apple wants to change the way revenue is distributed between developers and Apple for music, video and news apps. The report is a bit circumspect as the timing of the change does not seem to be related to any particular incident, although potentially Apple is forced into cutting the share due to potential anticompetitive complaints with Apple Music, to be announced next week....

Apple today said that it will require developers to support the iPhone XS Max and 12.9-inch 3rd-generation iPad Pro (if available on iPad) for all new apps and updates starting March 27. Apple originally stated that app developers will need to support iOS 12 from March at the end of 2018. Today’s developer news statement serves as a reminder but also clarifies the details. The iOS 12.1 SDK had not been released when Apple first set out the deadline....

2017 was an incredibly active year for Apple retail, as the company’s refreshed store design continued its rollout across the world. As the calendar comes to a close, let’s take a look at every store location opened under the guidance of Apple’s retail chief Angela Ahrendts. Apple stores in 2017 could be described as taller, brighter, and more open. First previewed and later rolled out in 2015, the company’s new retail architecture style was directly influenced by design chief Jony Ive....

While Wall Street may have been slightly disappointed by some of the numbers Apple reported yesterday, they should feel reassured by Apple stabilising and growing its gross margins, say Apple bulls – analysts who expect the stock price to rise. Business Insider noted the above chart tweeted by Benedict Evans with the commentary: Very stable long-term gross margins. Painful contrast to rest of the industry … The sentiment was echoed by other Apple bears....

(Also on Electrek) Chris Lattner isn’t the only high profile Apple executive who departed for Tesla over the past month, rather than sticking around to work on Titan. 9to5mac has learned that Matt Casebolt, a high profile Senior Director of Design for Apple’s Mac lineup left the company last month for a role at Tesla as Sr. Director Engineering, Closures & Mechanisms. A job meant for a man named Casebolt …...

Apple has pushed out two separate updates for the late 2013 iMac. The first update, labeled “iMac SMC Firmware Update 1.1,” addresses an issue with Power Nap on flash-based iMacs that could cause the fans to begin spinning even when they weren’t needed. Instead the updates will now occur silently. The second of the two updates is a Mac OS 10.8.5 supplemental update for late-2013 iMacs with NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M....

Last week Apple released the 12 Days of Gifts app on iTunes. The app is an annual tradition for Apple in many countries, and this year U.S. customers can participate for the first time. Starting on December 26th, users can open the app each day for twelve days to get free content from the iTunes, iBooks and App Stores. Today, Apple is giving users “a gift to get you started.” Specifically, the gift is a free copy of Lorde’s single “No Better,” which was released only three days ago....

Continuing its string of iPhone promotions recently, Apple has a new offer for its Australian customers. As of this week, you can order Apple products in Australia with 0% financing for 2 years. And, if you buy an iPhone on financing, you get $50 (Australian dollars obviously) in cashback. The new terms were spotted by MacPricesAustralia. Apple mixes up its financing deals every few months and the offers regularly vary per region....

Indoor mapping lets Apple Maps users explore the internal layout of buildings across multiple floors, with precise location positioning to help you find your way around places like airports and shopping malls. Apple has today expanded its list of indoor mapping locations with a few new airports; iPhone and iPad can now explore Sydney International, Edinburgh and Hamad Internationl (Doha, Qatar) … Indoor mapping for airports lets you find check-in desks, baggage claim carousels and more....

A little over a year ago, the Apple Music app made its debut on Samsung smart TVs. It appears the exclusivity period is up as today the Apple Music app is also rolling out to the LG smart TV App Store. This means Apple Music subscribers ($9.99/mo) can now stream their entire music library, playlists, radio stations and more directly from their (compatible) LG smart TV, without the need for an Apple TV or other add-on console....

After a rough start and a mixed early experience, I did finally press the button on Apple Music – a decision I’m grateful for at present as my main Mac is away for repair. This diary piece is as much about that experience as Apple Music, but I will get to music, I promise … I love a large screen on a laptop, so have stuck doggedly to my 17-inch MacBook Pro, despite the fact that it’s now four years old....

As expected, Apple today announced via Twitter the launch of Apple Music in Korea following the launch of the Israeli store just yesterday. The Apple Music store in Korea has the same 3 month free trial period after which users can sign up for $7.99 a month individual plans or $11.99 a month family plans, putting pricing in line with local services. Hello Korea! Apple Music is now available. 🇰🇷Start a 3-month free trial....

In an email blast sent out this evening, Apple has began notifying early Apple Watch pre-order customers of their order progress with a vague message that reads “we’re working on your order.” The email appears to only be sent to pre-order customers with first wave April 24th to May 8th delivery dates that have not yet been charged and have orders still processing, suggesting recipients should not expect launch day deliveries....

Apple is taking “a massive bite” out of US retail sales, USA Today reports, citing findings by retail sales expert David Berman. Snowballing sales of iOS gadgets and Mac sales that continue to outpace other computer makers coupled with Apple’s margins that are the envy of the industry didn’t go unnoticed. The publication noted: It certainly helps that Apple’s brick-and-mortar stores are attracting the ever-growing number of visitors who purchase products directly from Apple, putting more money into the company’s pockets because the company doesn’t have to share a mark up with third-parties....

Apple is making its new Shortcuts app in iOS 12 available for developer testing ahead of release through TestFlight. Shortcuts is based on Apple’s acquisition of Workflow and be available in the App Store when iOS 12 is released later this fall. Siri Shortcuts and the new Shortcuts app were announced as part of iOS 12 last month at WWDC, but the Shortcuts app hasn’t been available to test before today....

Following the announcement of new speculative execution exploits that target Intel CPU architecture, Apple has posted a new document on its website that explains how customers with computers that are ‘at heightened risk’ of attack can enable full mitigation. Full mitigation is not enabled by default as it is probably an excessive amount of security for the average user, and it comes with big performance penalties. In its tests, Apple recorded up to a 40 percent drop in performance with full mitigation activated....

The first reviews of Apple’s new Studio Display hit the web this morning, and while they were mostly positive, there was a clear issue highlighted by many reviews: the webcam quality. Reviewers at The Verge, The Wall Street Journal, and elsewhere had harsh words for the Studio Display’s built-in camera, but Apple is promising a software fix… Apple set high expectations for the Studio Display’s camera, which is a 12MP Ultra Wide sensor with support for Center Stage....

Update #2: Google’s access to enterprise certificates has been restored. Update: Apple says it is working with Google to “reinstate their enterprise certificates very quickly.” Following its decision to block Facebook from using enterprise certificates yesterday, Apple today has taken similar action against Google. This comes after Google, like Facebook, was found to be using Apple’s enterprise certificates to distribute its data collection app Screenwise. The Verge explains that this means Google’s pre-release versions of apps like Maps, Hangouts, Gmail, and more have stopped functioning....

Alongside the new Apple Watch Series 7, the company has introduced a fresh collection of watch bands. There are new colors and designs all across the board, including new striped sport loop bands. The new bands continue to work with previous Apple Watch generations and old bands will work with the Series 7. Apple is offering the new bands in 41mm and 45mm sizes, as expected. All bands appear to have been updated except for the link bracelet which remains the same....