The Apple Pay Belarus rollout began today with the announcement of support by BPS-Sberbank. The bank says that both Visa and Mastercard are supported. BPS-Sberbank is the Belarusian arm of PJSC Sberbank, a majority state-owned Russian bank based in Moscow. With a presence in 22 countries, including Sberbank CIB in the US, it is one of the largest banks in Europe and in the top 50 globally. The group has around 137M individual clients and over a million business ones....

Apple unveiled its newest A14 processor with the new iPad Air last month, and early benchmarks have already hinted at its performance. In a new interview with German news outlet Stern, Apple’s vice president of platform architecture Tim Millet offered additional details on the A14 and more. Millet explained in the interview that part of the potential of the A14 process is due to the growing capabilities of machine learning, which is “enabling a whole new class” of applications....

Despite analyst fears that Apple couldn’t match last year’s record holiday quarter sales of $74.6B, the guidance issued by the company indicates that it expects to do so. Analysts had been concerned that last year’s record sales had been driven by pent-up demand for larger-screened iPhones, demand that has now been satisfied. Apple, however, disagrees. The company yesterday issued guidance of $75.5B to $77.5B revenue, which would be a new record....

Apple has announced a fresh promotion for its credit card. Through December 25, new Apple Card holders can get 5% back when purchasing Apple products. However, there are a few restrictions like interest-free installment plans and more being ineligible. Here are all the details… The company announced the 5% back promotion today on its Apple Card website. “Save 5% on Apple products with a new Apple Card through December 25. Only at Apple....

Alongside updates to iOS and OS X, Apple has released watchOS 2.0.1 with a whole host of changes and bug fixes. As well as including the new emoji character set like Apple’s other operating systems, watchOS 2.0.1 includes bug fixes for poor battery life, stalling software updates, Calendar event syncing and much more. It has also seeded developers with the Gold Master release of tvOS for Apple TV. We’ll update with any changes …...

A new report on Wistron’s plans to expand its manufacturing operations in India says that the company will make iPhone 6s models. Only the iPhone SE is currently made in India. While the report is based on two unconfirmed sources, only one of which is specific, there are two reasons such a move would make sense … The most obvious one is the popularity of the iPhone 6s among those who want a relatively modern iPhone at an affordable price....

Two academics from Princeton University say they know for a fact that Apple’s CSAM system is dangerous because they built one just like it. They say the system they prototyped worked in exactly the same way as Apple’s approach, but they quickly spotted a glaring problem… That is the same risk many have pointed to: A repressive government could force Apple to use a database of political images. Assistant professor Jonathan Mayer and graduate researcher Anunay Kulshrestha write in the Washington Post that they had the same well-intentioned aim as Apple:...

We’ve been talking for many years about both the need and the difficulty of reducing Apple’s dependence on China, and Bloomberg’s research division has now put some estimated numbers on it. The research suggests that moving just 10% of Apple production out of China would take around eight years … Background We noted back in 2017 the massive challenge of shifting significant amounts of Apple production outside China. When a report back in 2019 suggested that Apple’s goal could be to move as much as 15-30% of its production out of China, we questioned the feasibility of this....

If you have become an Apple fan in the past decade or so, you are used to yearly operating system updates for free. If you have been a Mac user longer than that, you remember actually paying for OS updates every 18 months or so. I know Halloween is coming up, so I’ll inform you of something even scarier: we had to wait in a line to buy a new version of OS X on a CD....

Apple has released a new support document explaining some of the issues that iOS 6 users have experienced lately when trying to make FaceTime calls. Along with an explanation, there’s finally a fix in sight that’s also detailed on the support page. What’s the fix? Update to iOS 7. First spotted by MacRumors, the support document informs users of a pretty obvious solution to the problem. If you’re using a device that supports iOS 7, you’ll need to update to the latest version of iOS 7....

Apple has officially announced that it will open its new retail store in Cologne, Germany on March 25th. The store marks Apple’s second in Cologne and has been under construction for over a year now. The store is located in the high-traffic shopping district of Schildergasse. According to local blog Apfelpage, Apple has started assembling the teams for its new retail store in Cologne. The company has reportedly pulled some employees from the city’s other store at the Rhein Center....

As construction continues on Apple’s new Campus, the company is considering expanding its operation to a new, even larger 4.15 million square foot facility in San Jose, according to a new report. The tech company is currently seeking an agreement with the city that would allow it to develop the massive lot for a new campus, though actually getting such an agreement would not necessarily guarantee that Apple would begin construction....

Apple News is expanding its mail notifications with a new ‘Good Morning’ daily newsletter. Previously, users could opt in to receive email alerts from Apple News about select featured stories. The company appears to be formalizing that into a regular daily newsletter. Apple says it will bring top news, analysis, and fascinating features every morning, collating the ‘best stories from the most trusted sources’. Apple has said that Apple News is the most popular news app on the iPhone....

As the busy holiday shopping season starts to come to an end, Apple is making it as easy as possible for last-minute shoppers to get their hands on the latest gear. The company is now offering free two-hour delivery in major metro areas for iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch orders. The offer for free two-hour delivery is available today through December 24. Usually, two-hour delivery costs $9 per order, but Apple is waiving that fee for the last-minute holiday shopping season....

But now Apple has partnered with mobile connectivity company GigSky in order to expand Apple SIM cellular data plans to over 90 countries and territories around the world (check the entire list on Apple’s website). Thus, from now on, iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3 users with an Apple SIM can make use of short-term data plans in their travels. Ravi Rishy-Maharaj, Founder and CEO of GigSky, said the following: Thus, you can now purchase an Apple SIM iat Apple Retail Stores in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States....

The spectacular glass cylinder store in Shanghai’s Pudong district is now their most profitable store. Apple’s retail boss Ron Johnson may be leaving for greener pastures (Apple doesn’t share his enthusiasm), but that won’t affect the company’s aggressive retailing strategy aimed at putting their iconic stores in more countries around the world. Sweden could be next, according to Market.se which quotes local landlords claiming that Apple is planing to open a brand new brick-and-mortar store in Stockholm, Sweden....

Apple has released a new video today to help the millions of new iPhone X users become acquainted with the new features, gestures, and changes on the first Home button-less iPhone. The new guided tour video comes in at a bit over four minutes long and is split into four sections: New gestures, Face ID, Animoji, and Portrait Lighting. Apple stresses in the beginning of the video that these features and changes are “really easy to use....

customers and employees waiting for the Fifth Avenue Store to re-open You might have heard there was a little trembler on the east coast earlier today. Perhaps due to the renovation of the glass cube overhead, we’re hearing that the whole 5th Avenue Store was evacuated and both customers and employees were relocated to Central Park while the structure was checked for damages (above). Better safe than sorry. iOS 5 includes early earthquake warning notifications for Japanese iPhone users (9to5mac....

Larry Page gets to wake up on his second day as Google’s CEO to the news that federal regulators are pondering their next move regarding his company’s search dominance. Sources familiar with the matter tell Bloomberg Businessweek that the US Federal Trade Commission is awaiting a Justice Department ruling over Google’s planned acquisition of ITA Software before proceeding with a long overdue probe. If the ruling, to be made public soon, will be that the ITA acquisition would reduce competition in the travel-information search business, “a broad antitrust investigation” is likely to be launched and it “could be on par” with the scope of the Justice Department’s probe of Microsoft ten years ago....

Seems this chatter’s back again, with Peter Kafka’s MediaMemo claiming Apple to have been in talks with TV networks in an attempt to put together a $30 all-you-can-eat TV subscription service. This service, which may well appeal to companies not yet signed-up to NBC,ABC and Fox’s Hulu service, and which can also be seen as extending the Apple TV model into business currently occupied by satellite and cable TV services, seems set to launch “early next year”, if anyone signs up....