Apple originally acquired FoundationDB in 2015, and last April it announced that it was making the cloud database open source. Now, things are being taken a step further as FoundationDB has announced it is open sourcing Foundation DB Record Layer, which powers CloudKit. This is the first public confirmation from Apple that CloudKit is powered by FoundationDB. The company touts that Record Layer is used by Apple to “support applications and services for hundreds of millions of users....

John Ternus, Apple’s SVP of hardware engineering described the M1 Ultra as a “monster of a chip” aimed at users who need “extreme levels of performance”. Apple used what it is describing as UltraFusion to build the M1 Ultra’s architecture, connecting dual chips across more than 10,000 signals for 2.5TB/s memory bandwidth. This was done to provide the performance of a dual-CPU Intel or AMD build with much less power consumption....

Global client PC shipments rose 12 percent year-on-year in Q2 2012, with the new iPad recognized as the primary influence on growth rates, according to the latest data report from Canalys, who treat the iPad as a PC (and with the ability to operate without being tethered and to use external keyboards and monitors and the like, why wouldn’t you?) Apple lead the overall charge, boosted by strong iPad sales, with an estimated 19 percent share of global PC shipments....

Fortnite Season 11 update may have more than expected in store for fans, as a new leak points to it also being the beginning of Fortnite Chapter 2. Major changes were already expected for the battle royale’s next season, which was recently delayed by a week, but the new name may point to even bigger things to come. A change may be just what Fortnite needs after Season 10. The time-travel themed season had plenty of new content and map updates to offer, but it didn’t all sit right with players....

Nearly three years ago, Apple made news when it poached a prominent Samsung executive in charge of next-generation battery development. Fast forward to now and that same battery guru has been poached again — only this time by a major carmaker. Soonho Ahn joined Apple as its global head of battery developments in December 2018. It was noted at the time that Apple was already a customer of Samsung SDI where Ahn was a vice president, and their hire hinted further that Apple had ambitions to bring battery development in-house....

Users have long complained about the lack of free iCloud storage that Apple offers, but now the company appears to be taking one step in the right direction. Now, when users choose to upgrade from the 5GB free tier, they will receive the first month of their new tier for free… As first noted by AppleInsider, the free trial option appears when a user attempts to back up their iOS device to iCloud, but does not have enough storage to do so....

Essentially, the document explains that employees should first run a diagnostics test to see if the customer’s Face ID issues could be resolved with a rear camera repair. If that doesn’t turn out to be the case, the employee should simply perform a whole unit replacement, giving the customer a new phone. While repairing the rear camera to fix Face ID problems may seem counterintuitive, this isn’t the first time we’ve heard of it....

In addition to other various announcements this week, Apple has made a noticeable change to the web version of iTunes. Whereas the design was previously incredibly dated and hard to use, the new design is more akin to that of Apple Music and the current iTunes app on Mac and PC. The new iTunes web design features larger images and more information about artists and their music. Apple touts the new design as an “Apple Music Preview,” with several links and buttons to jump directly into iTunes or the Music app on iOS....

A new report French website iGen indicates that France could be seeing an Apple Pay announcement in as early as the first half of this year. While Apple announced the UnionPay partnership for China two months ago, there has yet to be any signs that other additional countries outside the US and UK (aside from Australia and Canada’s American Express arrangement) would be seeing Apple Pay any time soon. Other reports believe that China could be seeing Apple Pay, which is promised to go live in early 2016, activated as soon as this Thursday at 5 AM (Beijing time)....

Apple Pickup spaces have been the most notable addition to Apple Stores for some considerable time. They offer a streamlined way to collect online orders from a retail store. Background Apple has offered an in-store pickup option for online orders as long as its stores have existed. Whether it’s because you’re not at home to take a delivery during the day, or just want to be able to get your hands on your shiny new product as quickly as possible, you can order it online, select Store Pickup, choose your store, and then pick it up as soon as a couple of hours later....

Apple has poached one of Google’s top artificial intelligence engineers as it continues to build up its AI team. Apple recently hired Google’s Ian Goodfellow to join its “Special Projects Group” as a director of machine learning, according to his LinkedIn profile. CNBC was first to report on Goodfellow joining Apple’s machine learning team. Goodfellow is referred to as “the father of general adversarial networks, or GANs.” This technology can be used generate fake media content, as CNBC explains:...

Apple is today pushing out an update for its brand new MacBook Pros released earlier this month to address a bug that resulted in performance issues related to the machines’ thermal management system under certain conditions. Specifically, the bug affects the new MacBook Pro’s thermal management system and drives clock speeds down lower than necessary under heavy workloads. Apple provided us with the following statement: The update follows several reports including one from our own Jeff Benjamin detailing what appeared to be perfromance issues related to CPU throttling....

Alongside public releases for iOS 10.3, macOS 10.12.4, watchOS 3.2, and tvOS 10.2 today, Apple has officially released version 2.0 of its Classroom app for iPad previously in beta. Version 2 of the app brings a number of new features including the ability to create classes within the app and invite nearby students. That means that it will no longer require a Mobile Device Management setup to configure classes, making it easier for smaller organizations without IT assistance to use the app:...

Apple today has released the fifth beta of macOS 10.13.1 to developers. The release comes shortly after the company made the fifth beta of iOS 11.1, and fourth betas of tvOS 11.1 and macOS 10.13.1 available to developers and public beta users earlier this week. macOS 10.13.1 High Sierra focuses on bug fixes and performance improvements and has yet to showcase any major user-facing features. There is, however, support for hundreds of new emoji just like Apple promised....

Apple has released iOS 11.2.2 for iPhone and iPad. The software update highlights security improvements and Apple “recommends for all users.” Apple hasn’t disclosed exactly what security issues are addressed by iOS 11.2.2, but we can expect to see details on Apple’s security page shortly. We’ll update when we learn more about the new version. For now, non-beta users can find iOS 11.2.2 for iPhone and iPad as a software update over-the-air through the Software Update section of the Settings app....

[Update: iOS 11 public beta 7 is now available as well.] iOS 11 will likely be ready for everyone sometime next month, and today Apple has released the eighth developer beta preview. iOS 11 brings new features like drag-and-drop and a redesigned multitasking interface for iPad, a new customizable Control Center, and much more. iOS 11 beta 8 is currently only available to registered developers for now. Apple typically holds new public beta versions for a few days for major updates, although recent versions have launched on the same day....

The beta cycle continues for macOS 11.5 with the fifth build arriving for developers and public testers today, one week after the last release. If you’re enrolled in the developer or public beta program, the OTA for macOS 11.5 beta 5 should be showing up soon if it’s not already. You can also download the beta from Apple’s Developer website. There haven’t been many user-facing changes discovered in the macOS 11....

Apple has released Java for OS X 2013-005, which “delivers improved security, reliability, and compatibility for Java SE 6”. The update is available in the Mac App Store. Of note, the updates “uninstalls the Apple-provided Java applet plug-in from all web browsers.” New Macs do not come with Java installed and newer versions of Java are released and maintained by Oracle. Apple’s decision to cut off internal support and development stems from the decreased necessity for the platform and the fact that Mac malware usually comes from Java security holes....

Readers report Apple has started rolling out a new public beta release of its 10.10.2 OS X Yosemite beta (build 14C81h). Developers received the third build of 10.10.2 earlier this month (build 14C81f). Today’s beta release follows beta 3, which was released earlier this month. Not much seems to have changed between the two builds, but Apple says users on the new 10.10.2 build for developers should focus on fixes for WiFi, Mail, and VoiceOver, among other changes....

Apple’s Google search payment – the billions of dollars Google pays to be the default search engine on Apple devices – is likely safe for years to come, say analysts. The controversial payment is thought to contribute as much as 3% of Apple’s pretax profit, but is potentially under threat from antitrust action. Neither company has ever disclosed the sum, which Apple lumps into its Services category without splitting it out, but one of the more recent estimates suggested that it would amount to between $18B and $20B this year …...