Does your Apple Watch keep reminding you to breathe? You’re not alone. People all over the world are interrupted by the Apple Watch reminding them to breathe every day — even if they’re already breathing. So what gives? Does the Apple Watch detect stress? One of the most common misconceptions about Breathe alerts is that they are related to stress. The idea is that the Apple Watch detects when you need to take advice from Taylor Swift and calm down....

Update: Apple says iBooks Textbooks are available in all countries with a paid iBooks store and that a full updated list of countries with access to iTunes U Course Manager can be found on its enrollment website. Apple just put out a press release announcing that it’s expanding availability of its educational content– iBooks Textbooks and the iTunes U Course Manager– into new international markets. Starting today, both of the services are rolling out to new countries in Asia, Latin America, and Europe, bringing the total number of countries with textbooks up to 51 and the total number with access to the iTunes U Course Manager to 70....

Just two days before Apple’s education focused event in New York City, The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple’s vice president of the iWork suite of productivity applications is heading up the development of Apple’s entry into the textbook market. Rosner, an Apple veteran, oversees the development of the Pages, Keynote, and Numbers Mac applications, and most recently, has been heading up the iOS variants of the three Apple productivity applications....

Apple opened its new flagship retail store in Chicago earlier this year to much acclaim, but as the weather turns from fall to winter, a design oversight is causing some problems. As reported by Chicago blog Spundart, Apple seemingly didn’t design the MacBook Air-like roof of the store to account for snow…in Chicago… Apple’s newest Chicago store garnered earlier attention for its roof design that mimics a MacBook Air, but one clear oversight is that there are no gutters to catch snow or ice....

Last August, Apple filed a lawsuit against virtualization company Corellium, which allows users to virtualize iOS for security research purposes. Now, a judge has thrown out Apple’s claims that Corellium’s virtualization tools violated copyright law. Apple had also argued that if Corellium’s virtualization tools were used by the wrong person, the vulnerabilities discovered with the tools could be used to hack iPhones. The judge in the case, Judge Rodney Smith, called these claims from Apple “puzzling, if not disingenuous....

Over the years, it’s become clear that Apple is far better at “playing fair” than Spotify when it comes to Apple Music royalties for artists. A new video posted to YouTube this week by independent music producer L.Dre further underscores the discrepancy between Apple Music and Spotify, with details on royalties, payouts, and much more. Apple first revealed how much it pays to artists through Apple Music last year, saying that it paid an average of $0....

While there has been much debate as to whether or not Apple is still innovating at the same rate it once was, Fast Company today named Apple the fourth most innovative company in the world. Fast Company attributed Apple’s positioning to its internal hardware design, health efforts, and more… Last year, Fast Company ranked Apple at the seventh spot, which may come as surprise to people who operate on the belief that Apple no longer innovates like it used to....

Following Apple CEO Tim Cook giving remarks at the EU data protection conference CPDP this morning, the company’s senior director of global privacy Jane Horvath also partook in a roundtable discussion. Horvath was asked specific questions about Apple’s use of Google as the default search engine on iPhones and more. Horvath explained during the discussion that “we are truly at an inflection point” in regards to user privacy. She questioned whether users should “continue with the current norm which involves a privacy trade-off, providing unlimited personal data in order to enjoy free services....

Apple has released an update to iTunes that enables iOS users to sync their photo libraries from the new Photos app that was included in yesterday’s 10.10.3 update. Previously users could sync their iPhoto libraries to their devices, but the release of the Photos app marks the end of Apple’s support for the old software. The iTunes update also includes “several refinements to the Get Info window,” and improves the app’s stability....

According to a new report from Bloomberg, Apple will revamp the iBooks app later this year with a major redesign, with a new ‘Reading Now’ tab, a separate section for audiobooks and a store interface that draws from the same design language as the iOS 11 App Store. The report follows the launch of iOS 11.3 beta, which includes a renaming of the iBooks app to simply ‘Books’. In the current beta, there are no meaningful UI changes to the Books app....

A report from the Daily Mail over the weekend claimed Apple is working with fuel cell company Intelligent Energy on a project that hopes to embed fuel cells in mobile devices “within a few years.” The Daily Mail doesn’t exactly have the best track record when it comes to accuracy, but the report claimed “senior sources in the US” have confirmed the partnership between the two companies. The report noted that Intelligent Energy already has ties to Apple with former Apple Computers product specialist Joe O’Sullivan sitting on the company’s board and a new office in San Jose not far from Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino....

Apple today officially launched a version of its Apple Store iPhone trade-in program for China, as noted on the individual store pages for China’s Apple Retail Stores. As is the case in the United States and several other countries with Apple Stores, the program allows a user to bring in an older iPhone model and trade in that device for gift card credit toward the purchase of a new iPhone; the program will most likely not allow a customer to trade in an iPhone toward the purchase of an Apple Watch....

With supply constraints across the board this year, Apple has launched a new “Holiday Shipping and Fulfillment” webpage. On this page, Apple details the latest dates to order your holiday gifts with free shipping in time for delivery before December 25. Here’s how Apple describes this guide: Most notably, the opportunity to order certain products in time for holiday delivery has already passed. If you wanted an iPhone 12 Pro, Apple says you should have ordered by November 24....

Apple has picked up a few new hires and advisors to assist its growing Watch team ahead of the Apple Watch launch currently on track for March. Among them, Apple has recently hired another executive from the fashion industry, this time from Louis Vuitton, in addition to two new hires from the medical industry. Jacob Jordan, previously based in Paris as Louis Vuitton’s director of the company’s men’s ready to wear collection, joined Apple in October and since confirmed the move on his LinkedIn page....

Apple Music for Android might not be the most popular music streaming service but with version 3.30 it may entice you with gapless playback support. Introduced with the latest update, gapless playback appears to be enabled by default as part of the latest version 3.30 update (via Android Police). This might not be the biggest addition but version 3.30 also brings some other tweaks and improvements that might appease Apple Music subscribers....

Following our report in late July that Apple was about to start selling iPhones through carrier upgrade/installment plans like AT&T’s Next, the company is now offering exactly that through its online store. As of earlier this month, Apple’s website now displays the AT&T Next $0 down installment plan for existing AT&T customers upgrading to a new iPhone 5s, 5c, or 4S. That option is alongside its previous options of purchasing a device under a typical 2-year contract with one of the carriers or unlocked and contract-free....

Apple has today begun supporting the Malala Foundation in Latin America to help provide educational opportunities for girls. The collaboration will be between the foundation and Apple’s 10 Developer Academies in Brazil. As stated in an Apple press release, the Malala foundation works to create safe, quality secondary education and opportunities for girls in Brazil. Malala was able to meet the young students at Apple’s Developer Academies in Brazil on Friday....

In a recent email to Apple Pay customers, there are new promotions when using the service while ordering food online. Through April 25, when ordering ahead at Jimmy John’s and Panera Bread, those using Apple Pay can receive exclusive offers on their meals. Jimmy John’s When ordering through Jimmy John’s app, Apple Pay customers can earn a free drink after spending $10 or more with both Apple Pay and Freaky Fast Rewards....

According to a recent Job posting, Apple is looking for an “iPhone Advertising SDK Manager”. This job opportunity obviously stems from their recent purchase of Quattro wireless, a mobile advertising platform. What’s interesting (and different from Google) here is that Apple appears to be integrating the advertising engine INTO the iPhone SDK so developers who want to put advertising in their apps will likely be able to do so from within Apple’s iPhone SDK environment and get payouts from the same place that they currently receive payments from paid apps....

In less than two months, Apple will announce the iPhone 14 series. As the company readies for this release, it has recently overhauled the iPhone 13 buying page on its official online store, and now it’s answering the most asked Android phone questions so they can discover all the benefits when switching to an iPhone. Different from most support videos, Apple is posting this one on its official YouTube channel, where the company usually uploads ads and keynote videos....