Three weeks since the third beta of tvOS 16 was released, Apple is now seeding its fourth version. Although the company almost forgot about the Apple TV operating system during the WWDC 2022 keynote, there are some features users should be excited about when it launches later this fall. Today’s build is 20J5344f. Different from the other betas, developers need to download the tvOS 16 testing version through Xcode. Although HomePod Software 16 is available for a few developers, it’s not clear what the company is holding for its smart speaker lineup....

Update: iOS 13.2 beta 3, iPadOS 13.2 beta 3, watchOS 6.1 beta 4, and tvOS 13.2 beta 3 are now available. iOS 13.2 and iPadOS 13.2 public beta 3 also now available Apple today is releasing the third developer beta of iOS 13.2 and iPadOS 13.2. Today’s release comes just under a week after the release of the second iOS 13.2 beta with Deep Fusion camera technology, Siri changes, and more....

Qualcomm, which makes baseband communications chips for Apple and licenses 3G and 4G patents to other smartphone manufacturers, has been fined almost a billion dollars by the Chinese government in an anti-trust case. The company was found to have abused its dominant position in wireless chip technology by charging “unfairly high” licensing fees to manufacturers of smartphones and tablets. The 6B Yuan ($960M) fine is the largest fine ever imposed on a foreign company, reports the Guardian....

Apple is making it official: the company will hold a major product unveiling on October 27 where new Macs are expected to debut. The event will take place on Apple’s campus, likely marking the last one before Apple Campus 2 is open for business. The event is somewhat of a surprise as Apple opted not to hold two fall events last year and all signs pointed to the iPhone 7 event last month being the last before Apple moves into its new campus next year....

Bob Dylan, David Bowie, and Justin Timberlake are just a few of the artists over the past year to offer full-length, high quality streams of their newest albums on iTunes in the days before release. The latest to follow in the trend is award winning electronic music duo Daft Punk with a full length stream of the group’s 74-minute “Random Access Memories” album hitting iTunes earlier this week. While it’s often suggested the streams help to fight piracy of the albums before their release, we’ve discovered Apple is ironically making it easier than ever to grab a high quality version of the stream right from its website....

Apple has today launched its Back to School deals for students. Similar to last year, Apple will bundle a free pair of Beats headphones with the purchase of an eligible Apple product for college. If you buy an iMac, MacBook, MacBook Pro, Mac Pro or MacBook Air, you get a free pair of Beats Solo2 wireless headphones worth $299. iPad Pro, iPhone 6s and iPhone 6 buyers can get a free pair of Beats Powerbeats2 wireless headphones, worth $199 retail....

The Data Transfer Project launched last year with Google, Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft, and others pledging support to work on the open source initiative to improve data portability across platforms and services. Now, Apple has officially joined the project. Here’s the mission of the Data Transfer Project: Today the Data Transfer Project shared updates on the initiative as well as announcing the big news that Apple has joined the effort. In total, there are now 18 contributors....

Next Tuesday, July 10, 2018 marks the ten year anniversary of the App Store. Introduced back in 2008 with just 500 apps, the App Store ignited a huge phenomenon that even Apple likely wasn’t expecting. In a press release from the company, Apple has outlined the App Store’s largest and most exciting milestones over the years. Apple SVP of Worldwide marketing, Phil Schiller said: The App Store allowed developers, whether a one-person development team or large AAA studios to create, develop, and distribute applications that would later be accessed by hundreds of thousands, if not millions of users around the world....

Jimmy Iovine seems to be doing the rounds of UK media at present. Following yesterday’s Evening Standard interview, he’s done another with Wired editor Michael Rundle. Much of it is, of course, the usual sales spiel: curation is cool, nobody else will catch us or do it better, lots of great people involved – the kind of things you’d expect him to say. But the interview does contain one unexpected snippet: that Apple Music‘s curated approach could be applied to TV … Apple has reportedly been working on its own web-based TV service for some time, initially expected to be announced back in June and subsequently delayed as we predicted back in May....

In another chapter of the legal battle between Apple and VirnetX, a jury in Texas decided today in a 90-minute session that Apple will be required to pay an additional $502.8 million for infringing patents of the security software company VirtneX. As reported by Bloomberg, the jury had to decide how much Apple owes VirnetX in royalties for VPN on Demand. VirnetX accuses Apple of infringing on its VPN patents on iOS, which offers features to let users connect to virtual private networks on iPhone and iPad....

USA Technologies announced today that Apple Pay is getting support for its MORE loyalty card and payroll deduct program that is accepted at more than 300,000 vending machines across the US. The company is demoing the new integration this week at CES 2017. The company has also redesigned the UX for its machines to better promote Apple Pay and make the experience easier for iPhone and Apple Watch users: Following the integration, unattended operators will be able to offer an enhanced experience to their customers using Apple Pay, which is transforming mobile payments with an easy, secure and private way to pay that’s fast and convenient....

As Apple continues its struggle to establish a broader retail presence in India, the company may soon establish several large “flagship outlets” to supplement slowing sales, according to a new report from The Economic Times. India has long been an important and untapped growth market for Apple even as sales continue to fall. Last month, it was suggested that Apple controlled just 1 percent of smartphone marketshare in the country. Sluggish sales have been partially blamed on unaffordable and fluctuating iPhone prices, often set arbitrarily by Indian wholesalers....

Last week, Apple announced three new features that target child safety on its devices. While intentions are good, the new features have not come without scrutiny, with some organizations and Big Tech CEOs being against Apple’s announcement. These features to protect children use CSAM detection in iCloud Photos, Communication Safety in Messages, and Interventions in Siri and search. Although these measures were announced together and are correlated, they are used for different things....

Following the official announcement of Apple’s Q1 2021 earnings results on Wednesday, Canalys shared today a new research that reveals the company has registered the best performance in iPad sales since the fourth quarter of 2014. Moreover, Apple was the second-largest seller of PCs and tablets during Q4 2020. According to the research, Apple shipped 26.4 million Macs and iPads during the fourth quarter of 2020 and a total of 81....

Update: Apple issued a press release on the matter, below the fold. Apple released version 3.1 of iBooks today on the App Store and with it comes hundreds of thousands of Japanese books to the iBookstore in Japan. Among the local content on the iBookstore in Japan is light novels and manga, while Apple also noted that it has made “a number of improvements for reading Asian language books.” AllThingsD reported in January that Apple was in talks with Japanese publishers to work out deals for the iBookstore, which had lacked local Japanese content since it first launched in 2010....

One week after releasing the third beta to developers, Apple is now rolling out iOS 15.4 beta 4 to developers and public beta testers. The company also has a new beta of iPadOS 15.4. Head below for the full details on these latest releases from Apple. Here’s what’s new in iOS 15.4 beta 4: iOS 15.4 adds new Siri voice for American users, here’s how it sounds iOS 15.4 beta 4 adds anti-stalking alerts to AirTag and other Find My accessories iOS 15....

Nine days after seeding watchOS 8.4.1, Apple is releasing today watchOS 8.4.2 to Apple Watch users. The build number is 19S553. This update comes just after Apple announced changes related to AirTags due to stalking concerns. According to the release notes, this version brings security updates and bug fixes for Apple Watch owners. watchOS 8.4, which was released on January 26, fixed a bug that prevented Apple Watch from being recharged with some third-party chargers....

Apple has removed three dating apps from the App Store after they were found to allow kids under the age of 13 to sign up. All three of the apps were operated by a Ukraine-based company called Wildec. According to a report from CNBC, the Federal Trade Commission issued a warning to Wildec, explaining that the apps appeared to violate the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. Referred to as COPPA, this requires companies to obtain parental consent before collecting personal information from kids under the age of 13....

Alongside the newly-announced 12″ MacBook, Apple today announced its first collection of USB-C accessories designed to expand the abilities of the ultra-thin laptop’s single data and power port. The smallest is a USB-C to USB Adapter ($19), which converts the MacBook’s USB-C port to standard USB “to connect devices such as your flash drive or camera” or “a “USB cable for syncing and charging your iPhone, iPad, or iPod.” It supports USB 3....

Update: If you order an iPad Pro right now, Apple is quoting Friday delivery. The Apple Pencil and Smart Keyboard accessories are already backordered at least 5-7 business days. Some customers are seeing same-day in-store pick up options for iPad Pro. In September Apple unveiled the long awaited larger iPad Pro to the public, and today customers can finally start placing orders for the 12.9-inch tablet before models hit stores later this week....