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After a long beta cycle, Apple has seeded the macOS 11.5 Release Candidate to developer and public beta testers today. The release comes with bug fixes for the Music app and an update for the Podcasts app. Update 7/19: Apple has released an updated Release Candidate build for macOS 11.5. iOS 14.7 and watchOS 7.6 officially launched for the public today but Apple is still tweaking macOS 11.5 with a new RC build – 20G71....

One of Apple’s first original content efforts was a spin-off of James Corden’s popular Carpool Karaoke segment from The Late Late Show on CBS. While early reviews and user response to the series were mixed, Apple has renewed its Carpool Karaoke spin-off for a second season… CBS made the announcement during its earnings call this afternoon, leaving details sparse but confirming that a second season of Carpool Karaoke is indeed happening....

Due to a loss in a patent lawsuit that awarded patent holder VirnetX $368.2 million, we reported earlier this month that Apple would be changing the behaviour of its VPN on Demand features for devices running iOS 6.1 and up. The changes would mean a downgrade in functionality for users effectively forcing them to start the VPN client before they run an app, or before they open mobile Safari to access an intranet site....

One of the most interesting things Apple announced at WWDC was a new framework designed to allow developers to embed machine learning capabilities into their apps. One of the things Core ML can be trained to do is identify and caption real-world objects in real-time, which Apple demos via a sample app trained with 1000 objects … Developer Paul Haddad posted an amusing tweet testing the capability. While the screen recording showed the iPhone recognising a screwdriver, keyboard and carton, it didn’t seem to recognise one familiar object: a first-generation Mac Pro....

We’ve been hearing for a while that Apple is working on a new 13-inch Mac laptop with a Retina display, with entry-level prices set to dislodge the 12-inch MacBook and the MacBook Air in the lineup. In a new report today, Digitimes says that Apple has pushed back assembly of the new laptop into the third quarter. The price of the new 13-inch MacBook is expected to be around $899, although any plans for a WWDC release appear no longer to be in the cards....

The question on music industry and analyst’s lips is, “can the world’s largest music-focused social network take a chunk out of iTunes sales?” Some industry watchers, however, remark that the most likely competition to be generated as a result of the launch will be between News Corp’s MySpace and CBS’ Last.fm. MySpace last night confirmed itself to have won support from major advertisers to kick-start its free music streaming and paid purchase MySpace Music service....

While Apple’s Mail app didn’t quite get the overhaul we were looking for at WWDC, the app is still getting its largest update in years. We have notable new features coming to Mail alongside macOS Ventura, iOS 16, and iPadOS 16 later in the fall; let’s see what’s ahead. New features coming to Mail Users can schedule emails in advance and have a “moment” to cancel the delivery of a message before it reaches the recipient’s inbox....

Apple Maps will expand the number of cities with 3D view in the coming months. As of now, iOS 15 users can experience London, Los Angeles, New York City, and other major cities in a full, richer way. According to a blog post, this new city map experience will be available “in Philadelphia, San Diego, and Washington, D.C. Support for additional cities, including Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver, will be available next year....

After being discontinued in September, Apple has finally confirmed an issue regarding the iPhone X’s display module. The company has also announced a repair program for the 13-inch non Touch Bar MacBook Pro, offering free repairs on certain devices with 128GB or 256GB of storage. Apple says that these models may suffer from data loss or failure. 13-inch non Touch Bar MacBook Pros sold between June 2017 and June 2018 are affected, according to Apple....

One of the features Apple emphasized for its upcoming HomePod speaker is what the company refers to as ‘spatial awareness.’ This is a more efficient version of a semi-manual audio adjustment process used by other high-end speaker systems like Sonos and Naim. But a new Apple patent application published today suggests that future versions may go further … The patent describes how a speaker could not only configure itself to an initial location, but also detect when it has been moved to a new position and reconfigure its sound to suit....

It’s been officially announced that Apple Pay is coming to Israel through leading payment card company Isracard. It is hoped to be available by the end of the year. Rival card companies Max and ICC are also reported to be ready for launch. The Isracard Group has been operating for more than 40 years, and locally issues American Express, MasterCard and Visa cards, alongside its own-branded Isracard … Over 4 million cards are in current use by Isracard customers in Israel, and over 100,000 businesses accept them....

Apple today released iOS 9.2 for iPhones and iPads after several versions of testing. The point update so far has included improvements to Safari including an improved Safari View Controller for viewing websites within apps and easily dismissing them afterwards, the addition of Arabic language support with the Siri voice assistant for the first time, and more. Previous betas of iOS 9.2 also included AT&T’s new NumberSync feature for iPhone subscribers on their network....

While macOS Monterey 12.3 is in the beta testing phase, Apple has launched macOS 12.2.1 for all users with some important security and bug fixes. Notably, that includes a patch for the Bluetooth-related battery drain issue for MacBooks. macOS 12.2.1 is starting to show up for users via OTA. Head to System Preferences > Software Update to see if it’s available yet for your Mac. macOS 12.2 patched 13 major security issues at the end of January and macOS 12....

Following the release of iOS 14.3 RC on Tuesday, Apple has just released another build of iOS 14.3 RC to developers and beta testers. Named iOS 14.3 RC 2, the update is now available for users running the previous RC build. Apple has moved away from the previously-used golden master naming for near-final beta releases. Instead, going forward the company will use the term “Release Candidate,” or RC to reference a near-final beta release....

As we inch closer to the release of the iPhone 8 later this year, Apple is starting to solidify its plans for the device. According to a report from Nikkei, Apple has placed an order for 70 million “bendable” OLED displays from Samsung for use in the iPhone 8… The report cites a supply chain source and explains that while Apple at this point has ordered 70 million panels, Samsung is planning to produce as many as 95 million by the end of the year....

Apple is rolling out a new firmware update for AirPods Max users. The company does not provide many details on new AirPods Max firmware updates, but this new version brings the over-ear headphones to 3E756. This is the second firmware update to come to AirPods Max users since March. In March, Apple released version 3C39 for AirPods Max users to address concerns related to battery life and battery drain. As we reported at the time, this update made a change to how long it takes AirPods Max to enter the “ultra-low power mode” when in the Smart Case....

Apple has just released a new open source project on Github. FoundationDB is described as “a distributed database designed to handle large volumes of structured data across clusters of commodity servers”. The database system is focused on performance, scalability and fault-tolerance. Meaning projects that use the database for their backend are faster and less expensive to maintain. FoundationDB was originally founded in 2009 by Dave Rosenthal, Dave Scherer and Nick Lavezzo with the goal of making a NoSQL database that was ACID compliant, a set of properties for databases that are designed to guarantee the integrity of data even when errors occur....

Following Apple’s CEO Tim Cook selling off approximately 20,000 shares of company stock in March, new filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange commission discovered by Fortune’s Philip Elmer-Dewitt show iOS chief Scott Forstall recently sold 64,151 shares worth roughly $38.7 million: Many reported the over 64k shares sold by Forstall represent 95 percent of his current holdings in Apple Inc. However, that is not entirely true, because two new retention bonuses are coming his way in in the years ahead....

[UPDATE: Apple statement below the fold.] Long-running rumors that Apple will add wireless charging to the iPhone 8 have been lent additional weight with the news that the company has joined an industry group devoted to wireless power. Apple is now listed as one of the 213 members of the Wireless Power Consortium. It was not present in a cached version of the page from a week ago … While early rumors suggested that Apple was holding out for long-range charging, without the need to place the iPhone on a charging pad, those hopes appear to have been dashed by more recent reports....

A quick Reuters report on an unsealed document in the Apple-Samsung trial reveals that iPhones are much more of a profit driver for Apple than its iPads. To the tune of double (!) per unit. That means Apple makes as much money on one iPhone as it does on two iPads (considering they cost roughly the same amount). Who likes phone subsidies? Apple likes phone subsidies! Also, when considering the 7-inch iPad costs, a lower margin in the 20 percent range means Apple can bring its prices pretty close to $200....