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Apple appears to be partnering with all four of the big US carriers with a new iCloud introductory offer. Customers upgrading their iPhone plans get recommended to visit a special iCloud link (first discovered on this Reddit thread), which lets customers get 2 free months of the 200 GB iCloud tier, ostensibly to ‘get ready for your new iPhone’. The offer is only available to new iCloud customers in the US, and automatically renews if not cancelled at the normal $2....

Apple Pay has launched in three more countries in the last month or so, and a local site suggests that the Czech Republic may be joining the list within the next couple of months … SmartMania cites sources saying that it’s coming to Moneta Money Bank soon, with a planned launch date sometime in August. The site says this supports a previous investor note which showed Apple Pay in a schedule document, though that wasn’t a very specific one, simply showing that it listed for sometime in the early Q1 to early Q3 timeframe....

Apple’s 505th retail store will soon open in the Chinese city of Suzhou. While a date and time for the grand opening have not yet been announced, construction at the new space has wrapped just in time for the launch of new iPhone and Apple Watch models set to be announced next week. Located just west of Shanghai, Suzhou is a wealthy and rapidly growing business hub. Apple’s newest store will be nestled at the foot of the Gate to the East, a uniquely arched skyscraper and Suzhou’s tallest building....

Apple has released iOS 11 developer beta 4 for developers on iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. iOS 11 brings new features like drag-and-drop and a redesigned multitasking interface for iPad, a new customizable Control Center, and much more. Changes below: iOS 11 beta 4 is currently only available to registered developers for now. Apple typically holds new public beta versions for a few days for major updates. Apple’s previous iOS 11 beta introduced refinements to Notification Center, changes to multitasking on iPad, new TV Provider placeholder listings, and other minor tweaks....

Apple is continuing the beta testing process for macOS 11 Big Sur today with the release of the sixth developer beta. Today’s update continues to refine the macOS 11 Big Sur experience ahead of its public release later this fall. Developers can update to the sixth beta of macOS Big Sur by heading to the System Preferences application, then looking for the Software Update option. If you don’t immediately see macOS Big Sur beta 5 available for download, keep checking as the update is still rolling out and could take a while to hit your Mac....

Apple has released the second developer beta of macOS Catalina 10.15.5 today, and it includes a major change to how macOS manages MacBook charging. The Battery Health Management feature aims to improve the long-term battery health of a MacBook. Jason Snell at Six Colors first reported on this new feature. The goal of the change is to “reduce the rate of chemical aging of the MacBook’s battery, thereby extending its long-term lifespan,” but without compromising battery life....

A long-running patent dispute between Apple and mobile comms pioneer Ericsson dating has been settled, said the Swedish company, announcing that a license deal for its 2G, 3G and 4G/LTE patents had been reached. The amount Apple agreed to pay for use of the patented technology has not been disclosed, but Reuters cited an estimate in an investment note from a Nordic bank. The two companies have been in dispute since 2012....

In an interesting development, Pitchfork reports that Apple is making music videos for artists in-house. It claims the music videos for Pharrell William’s ‘Freedom’, Drake’s ‘Energy’ and Eminem’s ‘Phenomenal’ were all made by Apple content studios. These artists have certainly helped with the Apple Music launch (with both Pharrell and Drake having their own radio show on Beats 1) so it wouldn’t be out of the question that Apple is ‘compensating’ them with produced music videos....

Less than a month away from the Apple vs. Epic trial, Facebook is getting involved. According to a letter filed with the court, Apple requested some documents from Facebook, but Facebook doesn’t want to provide them. Since Facebook’s VP of gaming Vivek Sharma is set to testify on behalf of Epic, Apple is asking for more than 17,000 documents related to Sharma that the company finds relevant for the case, which Facebook responded as an “untimely, unfair, and unjustified request to redo fact discovery....

Apple is rolling out the second iOS 10.3 beta for developer testing on iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. The upcoming software update includes Find My AirPods support, CarPlay improvements, Apple’s new filesystem, and more. We’ll update and highlight any changes discovered below. iOS 10.3 is currently only available in beta for registered developers and public beta testers. The public beta version of each update usually follows a few days after the developer version if not the same day....

Apple today has continued its rollout of transit support in Apple Maps. The company has now started to roll the feature out in Buffalo, New York… With transit support, iOS users in Buffalo can now use Apple Maps to quickly find trains, buses, and various other forms of transportation directly from the app. Apple Maps originally launched support for transit directions in 2014, starting with Baltimore, Berlin, Boston, Chicago, London, Los Angeles, Mexico City, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Sydney, Toronto, and a slew of cities in China....

Apple’s latest iPad Pros are $100 off in today’s 9to5Toys Lunch Break, along with deals on 2020 Retina 5K iMacs, and the first discount on the Sonos Five speaker. Head below for all that and more. Take $100 off Apple’s latest iPad Pros Apple’s 2020 iPad Pro features a new camera system with 12 and 10MP lenses and a LiDAR scanner support on the back. Face ID is another standout here, doing away with any physical buttons for an even sleeker design....

Last week we revealed that Apple is planning a small refresh for its MacBook Pro line with modest CPU bumps and possibly improved Bluetooth Wireless networking. Today we’ve found what seems to be evidence for such a refresh in Apple’s own online store. If you do a search on Apple’s online store for ‘MacBook Pro’, you get a list of Apple’s products. In that list of products, there are two mysterious entries for ‘Macbook Pro Memory Model’ toward the bottom with the caption “Ships: Coming in November”....

In a move that will surely keep the Mac and iPhone maker on top of the digital music and software application industry, Apple is preparing its first iTunes Store redesign in nearly three years. In late 2009, Apple launched a new iTunes Store that traded in a blue-themed, convoluted store for a much simpler, white-themed store that provides a great focus on the store’s downloadable content. The new design is said to be even simpler and more user-friendly than the current design....

Apple’s engineering VP that’s been responsible for leading efforts like CarPlay and Group FaceTime is leaving the company. John Stauffer is set to start his new role as VP of engineering at Roblox after more than two decades at Apple and 14 years as an executive. Reported by Axios, Stauffer was Roblox’s pick after talking with “a few hundred” potential candidates over the last year to lead its engineering team. He’s set to start the new position next week....

Winning tickets for the Apple Music Festival is a long shot at the best of times, but many are reporting that they can’t even get as far as entering the lottery – either getting a blank screen or an error message when they click the Win Tickets link … When Business Insider tried it, they got an error message (right), while my own attempt just got a header with a blank screen (left)....

Update: Apple has confirmed in a statement to Buzzfeed that Apple is working with Sonos to get Apple Music available on the connected speaker system by the end of the year. Original story below. Apple Music senior director Ian Rogers — ex Beats Music CEO — has announced on Twitter that integration with Sonos for Apple Music is coming as soon as possible. Although Beats Music did have native support on the popular internet-connected speaker system, there have been no announcements about a partnership with Apple Music so far....

Third-party app developers will for the first time get access to the NFC chip in the iPhone 7/Plus (and presumably this year’s iPhones) in iOS 11. To date, only Apple Pay has been allowed to use the near-field communications chip. Apple’s WWDC keynote did give one hint that use of the chip was being extended beyond payment when it showed the Apple Watch syncing data with gym equipment, but a new developer document says that third-party apps will be able to use it too …...

Apple regularly adds new banks and credit unions to support Apple Pay, but mobile payment adoption by major holdouts is a much slower process. Grocery store chain ALDI, however, announced today that it now accepts Apple Pay at its almost 1700 locations across the United States. Apple Pay lets you securely and conveniently checkout with your iPhone or Apple Watch using your debit or credit card in the Wallet app — avoiding the terrible chip reader and less secure magnetic stripe reader....

Apple will receive the full set of building permits for its ‘spaceship’ campus in Cupertino today, following a formal approval vote by the full council. This final vote was just a rubber-stamping exercise, with the go-ahead effectively granted a month ago. We have a pretty detailed idea of what to expect, thanks to a detailed scale model, project video and series of renders made available by Apple as part of its planning application....