Apple has started testing a new way for customers to reserve battery replacements through its Support website in Canada. Meanwhile, the company is recommending for customers to call or chat with Apple Support for reservations in other regions. As spotted by MacRumors, Apple is now offering Canadian customers the option to reserve a battery replacement online, saving a trip to an Apple Store or a phone call. This comes as we’ve just heard an official statement from Apple about the DOJ and SEC launching official probes into the slowdown fiasco, with the company promising a throttling switch next month....

Apple is investigating the possibility of integrating its Touch ID biometrics technology into an Apple TV remote or home automation remote, according to a new patent. As first reported by Patently Apple, Apple was granted a utility patent this week, describing a “remote covering television, home devices, doors, appliances and more” with biometric authentication. As noted by Patently Apple, it’s important to remember that this is a utility patent, not a design patent....

Apple is releasing iOS 14.1 to the public today ahead of the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro release on Friday. iOS 14.1 brings support for new iPhone 12 features as well as a long list of bug fixes and performance improvements. Apple has also released iPadOS 14.1 with support for the new iPad Air, which will also be available on Friday. iOS 14.1 brings support for 10-bit HDR video playback and editing in the Photos app for the iPhone 8 and later This comes as the iPhone 12 adds support for recording videos in 10-bit HDR quality....

Apple has seeded developers and the public with macOS 11.3 beta 4 today. The release comes two weeks after beta 3 arrived. macOS 11.3 comes with new sorting options in Reminders, expanded support for Xbox/PlayStation controllers, autoplay in Apple Music, and more. macOS 11.3 beta 4 is available and the OTA should be showing up in System Preferences > Software Update if you’re enrolled in the developer or public beta program (keep checking back if you don’t see it yet)....

Apple has long offered customers the ability to finance larger purchases and pay them off over time. In the U.K., however, the company is removing that option from its online store… Apple previously allowed U.K. customers to finance purchases through PayPal Credit or through Barclays. The former required a £99 minimum purchase, while the latter required a £399 minimum purchase. As first noted by MacRumors, however, both of those options have been removed from Apple’s website....

Ron Johnson, the mastermind behind Apple’s successful retail store strategy, has left Apple to become the CEO of JCPenney according to Bloomberg (terminal) via Business Insider. Johnson’s bio remains active at Apple.com and we’re waiting for confirmation. Meanwhile Apple Orchard is also reporting the same info. Johnson’s bio: Update: The WSJ has now verified the appointment which should be announced later today. Before joining Apple, Johnson held various management positions at the Target Corporation, most recently as Vice President of Merchandising for Target Stores....

After the WWDC21 keynote, Apple held the Platforms State of the Union where engineers previewed some of the new features, APIs, and SDKs available to developers with iOS 15, iPadOS 15, and more. Early last week, we talked about the ability to seamlessly record game sessions with a controller in iOS 15. The new ReplayKit lets users video-capture a rolling buffer when playing a game. With this feature, it’s possible to immediately grab the last 15 seconds as a clip....

Earlier this year, Apple announced that it was acquiring popular digital magazine service Texture as part of its efforts to highlight quality journalism. Now, Texture has announced that it is cutting the price of its Premium tier from $14.99 to $9.99 per month… Texture made the announcement in an email to subscribers, first shared on Twitter by Harry McCracken, the company explained that no action is required on the part of the user, with the new lower price being reflected during the next billing cycle....

Dutch bank ING has confirmed that Apple Pay is coming to the Netherlands ‘soon.’ The announcement was made on the company’s website. The announcement continues … iCulture notes that there had been several earlier clues, but also some false alarms. ING introduces Apple Pay in the Netherlands We will keep you informed on this page and via social media. And when the time comes, you will receive a message in the Mobile Banking App....

Apple is continuing to promote its mobile payment service through special promotions with partners, and this week’s Apple Pay deal offers up free jukebox credit in bars and restaurants with TouchTunes. TouchTunes is an iPhone app that lets you pay to request music played in venues that use the entertainment system — it’s like a modern take on the classic jukebox experience. Customers paying with Apple Pay in the TouchTunes app will receive three free credits for song requests just for using Apple’s mobile payment service....

Not long after the release of iOS 15.4 and iPadOS 15.4 to the public, Apple is kickstarting the beta train yet again. The company is now rolling out the first betas of iOS 15.5 and iPadOS 15.5 to developer beta testers; this could represent the final iOS 15 update before iOS 16 is released this fall… iOS 15.5 beta details Today’s new release of iOS 15.5 beta 1 is available to developers via an over-the-air update in the Settings app....

Apple has released the seventh beta for macOS 11.3. The software features new sorting options in Reminders, expanded support for Xbox/PlayStation controllers, autoplay in Apple Music, mentions of the first Apple Silicon Macs, and more. macOS 11.3 beta 7 is available now and the OTA should be showing up in System Preferences > Software Update if you’re enrolled in the developer or public beta program (keep checking back if you don’t see it yet)....

Tech companies in South Korea are dismissing Apple’s claim that it has created 325,000 Korean jobs, stating that the real number is just 500… Apple made the claim yesterday, admitting that it was talking about both direct and indirect jobs. Some 200,000 of the jobs are in independent app developers, while the other 125,000 are via various partners. This will include Samsung employees working on components for the iPhone and other Apple products....

Qualcomm has officially showcased benchmarks for its new flagship Snapdragon 888 processor, which is expected to power top-of-the-line Android devices in 2021. The benchmarks, while respectable, show that the Snapdragon 888 lags behind Apple’s A13 and A14 processors. As first detailed by AnandTech, the Snapdragon 888 chip earned a single-core score of 1,135 and a multi-core score of 3,794 in Geekbench 5 testing. The iPhone 12 Pro, which is powered by Apple’s A14 chip, scored 1,603 in single-core testing and 4,187 in multi-core testing....

Even with mostly positive conclusions about AirPods there are of course many reasons why buying them might not be right for you. We’ve reported on the need for improved controls and an offline mode for Siri, as well as the hassle of syncing and accessing content on your Apple Watch that AirPods highlight. We’ve discussed the potential poor fit depending on your ears and how to keep them from falling out, the Jet Black AirPods concept that hasn’t come to fruition, and long shipping times (although you can use this tool to get notified when a local store has them)....

This newly discovered FCC ID compares to the GSM iPhone 4’s “BCG-E2380A” identifier and the CDMA iPhone 4’s “BCG-E2422A” ID. MacRumors notes that Apple products typically don’t show up in the data FCC’s database until the same day the products are unveiled. This follows our report that we found references to the “N94″ in the iOS 5.0 SDK earlier this year, and leaked images of the mystery device’s back cover discovered by MacPost....

Apple today has shared a new advertisement for the iPhone X on YouTube. The ad focuses on the device’s Portrait Mode selfie feature and features narration from Muhammad Ali… The video specifically highlights Portrait Lighting, which applies lighting effects to your image. The ad is simple in nature, simply jumping between a slew of Portrait Lighting selfies. Backing up the video is a speech from Muhammad Ali, taken from his speech widely known as “I Am the Double Greatest....

Earlier today, the folks at iFixit put Apple’s latest $329 iPad through the teardown process, noting of its similarities to the iPad Air 1. The repair team also, however, expressed doubts as to Apple’s claim that the device’s screen was brighter than that of previous generations. Now, however, the iFixit team has put the new iPad through additional tests to further confirm or refute Apple’s brightness claim… iFixit stated this evening on Twitter that after more tests, it can say that the new $329 iPad features a display that is 44 percent brighter than the iPad Air 1....

For enterprise customers who use Apple, the week of WWDC brought some rather shocking news. Late in the week, first-party mobile device management (MDM) solution Fleetsmith announced Apple had purchased them for an undisclosed sum. There was a bit of controversy with the purchase, as Apple immediately discontinued Fleetsmith’s App Catalog without warning. This left a lot of customers in a bind as soon as they woke up that morning....

apple.com US top vs. apple.com/au/ipad bottom Earlier today, we reported that the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission sought to have Apple drop the “4G” from the advertising/website of its new iPad products with cell modems… Apple offered Australian customers the option to return their 4G iPads as a settlement if they believe they were misled into buying them with Apple’s 4G, according to ABC news (via Gadgetsteria, TNW). Yes, any customer can return an iPad within 14 days regardless of the issue, so Apple is not really giving up too much in the way of leverage here....