Apple has released the third iOS 10.1 beta which includes the Portrait camera for iPhone 7 Plus that applies a DSLR-like blur effect over photos using the dual lens system. iOS 10.1 beta 3 is available to registered developers. A public beta of iOS 10.1 for non-developers is also currently active. tvOS 10.0.1 beta 3 for Apple TV is also available for developers. Portrait mode is a feature that was demonstrated at Apple’s keynote earlier this month, but the major new feature wasn’t ready for primetime when the iPhone 7 Plus initially launched....

All aboard the beta train. Apple is now rolling out iOS 15.2 beta 3 to registered developers, bringing new features and continued refinements. Today’s update to beta 3 comes just one week after the release of beta 2 to developers and public beta users. Head below for the details. Today’s new release of iOS 15.2 beta 3 is available to developers via an over-the-air update in the Settings app. As usual, if the update does not immediately appear for download, keep checking, as it sometimes takes a few minutes to roll out to all registered developers....

5.2.2 Third-Party Sites/Services: If your app uses, accesses, monetizes access to, or displays content from a third-party service, ensure that you are specifically permitted to do so under the service’s terms of use. Authorization must be provided upon request. Update with comment from Apple: You can read the comment from Apple below:

The never-ending saga over Apple’s European data center in Ireland appeared to be over when ‘final’ planning approval was granted back in August, but no: three residents have filed a new appeal that will now go all the way to the High Court. One resident, however, wants to demonstrate that these objections represent a minority view, with most locals glad of the jobs and money the center will bring to the area....

From 9to5Toys.com: Samsung today has announced that it will be adding a 2TB option to its 850 EVO and PRO 2.5-inch internal solid-state drive offerings. Previously, the largest sized capacity was 1TB for both models, which have been on the market since last year. These new models will ship with a hefty price tag to match the larger storage capacity. While these won’t fit in any recent MacBook/Pro/Airs, the new SSDs will allow you to upgrade older non-Retina SATA III MacBook Pros or Mac Minis/iMacs to 2TB drives....

Following Wall Street Journal’s report last night that AT&T and Verizon will carry the LTE iPad 3, the publication is reporting that Apple is now testing an 8-inch iPad in its labs. While WSJis not exactly sure the version will launch, it does claim the iPad is being tested. WSJ’s sources said the 8-inch iPad’s screen would pack a 1,024-by- 768 display similar to the current iPad. The smaller version will apparently also pack a LTE chip inside, as WSJ said the iPad 3 would....

Apple has today announced updates to the entire iMac family. Most notably, the company has brought Retina to the 21.5 inch iMac range, with 4K resolution displays. Apple has also dropped the non-Retina 27 inch iMacs, so they feature 5K displays across the board. The new iMac displays include faster processors, upgraded graphics, improved wider color gamut and two Thunderbolt 2 ports. The new iMacs have launched alongside updates to the Magic Trackpad, Magic Mouse and keyboard....

TechCrunch spotted an interesting security hire by Apple: the developer behind Edward Snowden’s recommended secure chat app is joining Apple as an intern. As the site notes, Signal passed every security test when put through its paces by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and you can’t really get a better endorsement than the fact that Snowden trusts it. Frederic Jacobs, a Switzerland-based developer who worked to develop secure messaging app Signal […] announced today that he is joining the Cupertino-based company this summer to work in its CoreOS security team....

The Apple Maps Connect service, which allows small businesses to add their listings to the Apple Maps database, has been expanded to Canada, France and Germany. The service has also gained two new language options, French and German, to correspond with the regional expansion. Apple first launched Maps Connect in the U.S. last October, enabling businesses to edit or add listings, as well as set up indoor mapping within selected areas....

Apple has been slowly rolling out Apple Maps features to various locations around the world. Today, the company is introducing public transportation to Switzerland and indoor maps to its Zurich airport, as reported by MacPrime (via Google Translate). You’ll now be able to select public transport on Apple Maps for iOS and macOS and look at wait times for buses, trains, boats, and select mountain and cable cars, as well as get indoor maps at the airport....

The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple is set to release an open letter to artists later today. Most significantly, the letter says that Apple Music pays one cent per stream. That is roughly twice what Spotify pays, according to estimates. Streaming services are trying to show that they are friendly to artists, especially as revenue from concerts and tours cratered during the pandemic. In the same vein, Apple recently invested in an independent music artist platform called UnitedMasters....

Apple doesn’t offer an official Apple Music web player, but it does offer web APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) which allow other people to create their own. The first one we’ve seen was Play Apple Music, which hit the web last month. That one had a design rather reminiscent of Google’s Material Design … But a new one now available, Musish, has a really clean white-background that almost looks like it could have been created by Apple....

Apple is rolling out some iterative improvements to Apple News for publishers taking advantage of its Apple News Format to post articles. Apple is adding Map and Place components, to let authors pictographically display relevant locations — complete with pins to highlight POI. Moreover, all publishers can now choose custom artwork for their channel cover image. This is the thumbnail iconography that appears in the Favorites grid (as well as elsewhere)....

Apple has offered to spend $9.7 million on transportation initiatives in its hometown of Cupertino. As detailed by The Mercury News, Apple’s funding would go towards five transportation projects focused on bikers and pedestrians. Apple’s offer of $9.7 million in funding comes following a proposal from Cupertino that would have changed the city’s business tax from being based on square footage to being based on total number of employees. The new system, referred to as a head tax, would have generated $10 million annually for the city of Cupertino, much of which would come from Apple:...

Apple dropped to only the 16th best tech company to work for, and 35th overall, in Glassdoor’s annual ranking of the 50 Best Palaces to Work – down from 3rd in tech and 10th overall last year. Based on over half a million reviews written by employees, Apple took 35th place, with fifteen tech companies ahead of it in the list, with Twitter taking the top tech slot, and LinkedIn and Facebook completing the top three....

Apple paid a bug bounty of $100K after a cyber security student who successfully hijacked the iPhone camera back in 2019 did the same with the Mac camera. Ryan Pickren used an imaginative approach that allowed him to run arbitrary code on a target Mac, and received what he believes to be the largest bug bounty Apple has ever paid … Background Pickren is a PhD student in cyber security at the Georgia Institute of Technology....

Apple has already ported over popular Mac apps like Photo Booth, iWork, and Garageband to the iPad’s touch interface and now it looks like Apple is working on a new app: iWeb for iPad. Patently Apple discovered the patent, which details iWeb for iPad as an application “designed to work with gestures.” We picture gestures like those found in iWork: pinch to resize, swiping, etc. Details are scarce at this point but to us iWeb for iPad makes perfect sense....

Tim Cook has sent out an internal email to Apple employees informing them of a celebration of Steve Jobs’ life planned for October 19th in the outdoor amphitheater of Apple’s Infinite Loop campus in Cupertino. Team, Like many of you, I have experienced the saddest days of my lifetime and shed many tears during the past week. But I’ve found some comfort in the extraordinary number of tributes and condolences from people all over the world who were touched by Steve and his genius....

Apple today has pushed an update to iCloud for Windows, bringing the app to version 7.8.1. The update comes after users reported major compatibility issues between iCloud for Windows and the latest Windows 10 October 2018 update, affecting things such as Photos syncing and many other features. As we reported last weekend, Microsoft and Apple were working together to resolve the compatibility issues. Essentially, users trying to install iCloud for Windows on the latest Windows 10 build would see an error message, while those who already had the app installed experienced numerous issues with Photos syncing and more....

Following yesterday’s release to developers, Apple has released macOS Big Sur 11.3 beta 2 to public beta testers today. The update includes several notable changes and new features. Head below for the details. Here’s a roundup of our previous coverage of what’s new in macOS Big Sur 11.3: macOS Big Sur 11.3 brings two small changes to improve using iPad apps on M1 Macs Apple adding support for stereo-paired HomePods as default sound output with macOS 11....