Update: A few hours after these listings appeared on the store, Apple has reversed course and no longer lists either case as discontinued. However, both cases are now only available in gray rather than the full range of colors that were previously available. Despite keeping the iPad 2 around for yet another year, Apple has discontinued the cases that it designed alongside the second-generation tablet. Both accessories are still available for sale for the time being, although some colors are now listed as “unavailable to ship” and will probably be removed in the coming days....

Earlier last month, Apple employees started to gradually return to work at the corporate office in a hybrid format. As of now, Apple Park employees have to come into the office one day per week, but according to company policy, by May 23, they will need to be in the office at least three days per week. Some drone photography shows their return to office work at headquarters. In one of the photos, it’s possible to see that Apple employees are back at Apple Park as there’s a line waiting in the Cafe....

There have been no shortage of fingerprint sensor rumors surfacing since Apple acquired Authentec last year. According to several reports from analysts, including the often reliable Ming-Chi Kuo and the not as reliable Topeka Capital analyst Brian White, Apple’s next-generation iPhone is likely to include a fingerprint sensor. We’ve discussed how it could certainly make a stand out hardware feature for Apple’s expected “S” upgrade, and today the US Patent and Trademark Office published patent applications that show Apple could be experimenting with exactly that (via PatentlyApple)....

With the success of the 2020 M1 MacBook Air, Apple is readying itself to launch a revamped MacBook Air with an even faster chip. According to Bloomberg, a redesigned MacBook Pro is expected to debut as soon as early this summer “followed by a revamped MacBook Air.” While the big news with the 2020 MacBook Air was the M1 chip, the company didn’t change its design at all. This time, Apple could bring, alongside an M1X or M2 chip, a better FaceTime HD camera, as it did with the 24-inch iMac, add MagSafe support, as it’s rumored to do with the new MacBook Pro and more internal customizations....

Apple is developing a new version of its popular Powerbeats earbuds with support for Hey Siri. Evidence found within iOS 13.3, which was released to the public today, indicates that “Powerbeats4” are likely coming soon. Strings found within iOS 13.3 explain that you will be able to talk to Siri using the Powerbeats4 by simply saying the “Hey Siri” trigger phrase. This also means that they will likely use Apple’s proprietary H1 chip for connectivity....

A report from Economic Daily News last week revealed that TSMC told Apple that it would increase the price of the company’s chip production for 2023, but Apple reportedly rejected the new prices. However, Economic Daily News is now back with a new report, this time saying that Apple has decided to agree to price increases for TSMC’s chips. TSMC chips getting more expensive According to the report, TSMC has informed its customers (such as Apple and Nvidia) that it has plans to raise the prices of up to 8-inch chip wafers by 6% and 12-inch chip wafers by up to 5%....

WhatsApp shared criticism for Apple’s new app privacy label requirement today, saying they are unfair for two reasons. Now Apple has addressed arguably the biggest issue raised by detailing what it will be doing with privacy disclosures for its own apps. The first issue that Facebook-owned WhatsApp shared with Axios about Apple’s app privacy labels is that it didn’t seem to apply to the company’s own apps that are preinstalled with iOS....

As we reported last week, Apple has announced that the iPad Pro will go on sale in 40 countries on Wednesday, November 11th. The ‘epic’ 12.9 inch device will also be available in Apple Retail Stores later in the week. The iPad Pro costs $799 for the 32 GB base model and maxes out at $1079 for the WiFi + Cellular 128 GB version. The iPad Pro will be available to buy in 40 countries, including the US, UK, Canada, China and Japan …...

Apple Senior Vice President of Industrial Design Sir Jony Ive never misses an excuse to get away to his native England, but for the Design and Art Direction awards, he brought his whole 16-member team to collect the award for ” best brand and the best design studio of the last 50 years.” An incredibly animated Sir Jony Ive pictured in the video and image gallery below (thanks to reader “Coleman” who was there):...

Presenting the abridged version of the iPhone 7 keynote, which includes all of the important details and none of the fluff. If you’re pressed for time, but want to see all of the major announcements from today’s event, check out our distilled video. If you haven’t already, be sure to catch up on all of our coverage of the new iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus announcements, the Apple Watch Series 2 announcement, the new wireless AirPods, and much more....

Apple can’t catch a break on Android. When Apple released its first app on Google’s platform last month called Move to iOS, Android fans were quick to negatively rate the app that only existed to help people switch from Android to iPhone. To date, Move to iOS has roughly 30,000 1 star reviews to only 10,000 5 star reviews with not much happening in the middle. Now Apple has its second Android app on the Google Play Store called Beats Pill+....

Apple’s Vice President of Environment, Policy, and Social Initiatives Lisa Jackson announced today that she will be speaking at the Bay Area Women’s Summit next week on June 21st. The event is held in partnership with the Women’s Foundation of California and will be hosted at Moscone Center North. The purpose of the Bay Area Women’s Summit is to have a “conversation on advancing economic empowerment for women to ensure that they and their families succeed and thrive....

Nobody is quite sure why or how Stongehenge was constructed, but the stone circle constructed sometime between four and five thousand years ago has long fascinated visitors. As a Scheduled Ancient Monument and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the closest most visitors can get to it these days is a pathway around the outside. (I probably shouldn’t admit this, but as a young child who lived nearby before all the restrictions were put in place, I used to climb on the stones …)...

Following our reports earlier this year that exclusively revealed details and screenshots of Apple’s Healthbook app, Apple today just officially announced the app confirming the details of our reports. Apple’s new platform, codenamed Healthbook, will be officially known as ‘HealthKit’ on the developer side of things, and will come with an accompanying app for iOS 8 called ‘Health’. We believe Apple’s HealthKit will revolutionize how the health industry interacts with people....

Apple’s commitment to accessibility goes beyond UI features in its devices, says one Twitter user who took a trip to the Apple Park visitor’s center. User @xarph said that the center was an object lesson in how to design for accessibility ‘when cost is no object’ … They took photos illustrating nine ways in which the center successfully catered to wheelchair users as well as blind and partially-sighted visitors – with a single fail also shown....

With Apple’s $356 million purchase of mobile security firm AuthenTec, for its nearly 200 patents covering fingerprint and sensor technologies, there has been a lot of talk about how Apple might integrate the technology into future devices. Adding to the rumors are recent reports that Apple signed a deal with Sydney, Australia-based Microlatch to develop NFC apps using its fingerprint authentication tech. Today, we get a look at some possible areas Apple might be exploring with the technology thanks to a patent application published by the U....

Apple’s latest patent application has already set tongues wagging and tweets ablaze, as it describes a way to control the tablet with two hands by touch, think Minority Report. Apple’s new patent describes a sophisticated multitouch input method, in which you use all ten fingers, complex movements and other gestures. You can even type. The patent describes sensors which will work to identify exactly what your gestures mean, will be able to move the cursor and enable various activities, all through touch....

Apple had published its latest Transparency Report on Government Information Requests, covering the second half of last year. It revealed that it received over 30,000 requests last year, and complied with up to 82% of them. It is not allowed to specify the exact number of National Security Requests, but says they fell into the 1250-1499 band. Apple breaks down the numbers by country, region and type of request. It says that most fall into what it terms device requests....

Some Apple product names are simple and timeless – like MacBook Air or AirPods – while others are, uh, less so. I’m looking at you, iPhone 14 Pro Max. If you want to get a feel for how Apple names its products, data visualization researcher Nicolas Kruchten has put together a cool interactive map, showing how Apple mixes and matches different core elements in its product naming … Kruchten said that he came up with the idea for the project after reading a biography of Apple cofounder Steve Jobs....

Apple has released the third tvOS 11.4 developer beta for testing on Apple TV 4 and Apple TV 4K. tvOS 11.4 turns Apple TV into an AirPlay 2 speaker which supports multi-room AirPlay from iOS. The latest developer beta of tvOS follows the official release of tvOS 11.3 to all customers last month. The new version added support for frame rate matching to older Apple TVs and Apple Music highlighted new music video playlists....