Apple has released two firmware updates for its AirTag item tracker since November. However, the company was yet to detail what has changed with these updates. As noted by some users, Apple has finally shared what’s new with the latest AirTag firmware updates. Here’s what has changed with AirTag firmware updates 2.0.24 and 2.0.36 In a support article on Apple’s website, the company now details what’s new in AirTag firmware updates 2....

Update: We’ve confirmed with Apple that iPod nano and shuffle are indeed discontinued and will eventually be removed from sale in retail stores too. Apple has also updated the iPod touch lineup in the process, now offering only 32GB and 128GB models at reduced prices. Apple today quietly removed its iPod nano and iPod shuffle product pages from its website, indicating that the company could be moving towards officially discontinuing the products....

Apple is further expanding its footprint in Cupertino, according to a new report from The Mercury News. Apple has acquired a large office complex in the city, located at the corner of Stevens Creek Boulevard and Torres Avenue. According to documents filed with the Santa Clara County Recorder’s Office this week, Apple has purchased the two buildings for a total of $290 million. Apple has previously housed some of its employees in these buildings, but now it is taking things a step further by purchasing the real estate outright....

Apple’s interest in augmented reality has become pretty clear over the last couple of years, and just this past week it acquired a startup focused on building lenses for AR glasses. As if Apple’s growing AR ambitions weren’t already clear enough, diving into the company’s hiring trends reveals even more. Thinknum is out this week with a closer look at Apple’s hiring trends related to augmented reality. Job postings from the company show a clear ramp in positions related to “AR Application....

The iPhone X isn’t the only new gadget to boast an OLED screen. A startup that says it wants to spark conversations between strangers has launched Beam, a wearable OLED button that allows you to display anything you want, and update it as often as you like … Beam has a 400×400 pixel 24-bit color AMOLED display, and supports GIFs and slideshows as well as static images. It claims a battery-life of 24 hours....

Apple’s App Store revenue grew 31% year-on-year in Q3, climbing from $14.5B last year to $19B this year, according to Sensor Tower analytics data. Google Play revenue grew even faster, with 33.8% growth, but still only managed a little over half of Apple’s numbers at $10.3B … Sensor Tower says that consumers stuck at home due to the coronavirus boosted demand for entertainment apps. TikTok topped both app store charts....

Not one mentions how much fun it is to work for Apple. They talk of prestige and professional fulfillment, but fun? No, no, no. It’s hard work. Really hard work. I’m concerned, therefore, that the so-called Great Resignation has caused desperation for fun to burst through some Apple employees’ pores. I judge this from a new ad – a long new ad – emitted by Cupertino. It shows how unhappy people are working for a large corporation....

Apple has sent an email to iOS developers informing them of upcoming changes to the way taxes are handled on European App Store purchases. Rather than use the same VAT rate across the entire European Union, Apple will now calculate the charges based on the customer’s home country. This could lead to a rise in app prices in some countries where value-added taxes are higher than users are currently being charged....

Confirming what we already told you yesterday, Apple has said the company has no current plans to implement Siri into any other iOS devices besides the iPhone 4S. Apple confirmed the news in an email (seen after the break) to developer Michael Steeber. That doesn’t mean however that developers won’t continue to work on building Siri for later iOS device — like the iPhone 4 and 3GS. Curious to see how it works on an iPhone 4?...

Apple might position itself as the champion of privacy when it comes to personal data, but court records showed that the company demanded hugely sensitive data from game distribution service Steam to help in the battle with Epic Games. The reason? Epic previously criticized Steam’s cut from game developers, accusing platform owner Valve of “sucking out a huge fraction of the profits from games.” Apple wanted to understand more about Valve’s business model with Steam in order to help it make its own case for the App Store....

The Wall Street Journal has published a report saying that both Apple and Google are actively pursuing exclusivity deals with game developers. Whispers of these type of arrangements surfaced last year, with reports highlighting a partnership between Apple and EA for Plants vs Zombies 2. The Journal confirms that Apple’s exclusivity deals do not include monetary payments. In return, the companies offer “premium placement” (such as featured spots on the home page) for launching first on their platform....

Today marks Data Privacy Day in many countries around the world, with the goal of raising awareness and promoting privacy and data protection best practices. In honor of Data Privacy Day, Apple’s head of user privacy, Erik Neuenschwander, has joined Rene Ritchie for an interview diving into Apple’s own beliefs on privacy. In the interview, Neuenschwander explained that one of the key focuses for Apple is making sure that new features and products are designed with privacy in mind from the very beginning....

Following the announcement of the new M1 iPad Pro and M1 iMac on Tuesday, Apple executives John Ternus and Greg Joswiak have sat down with the Independent for an in-depth interview. The two Apple executives spoke in the interview about Apple’s plans for the iPad and Mac, the new features of the 2021 iPad Pro, and more. On merging the iPad and Mac The most notable comments during the interview came from Joswiak, who serves as Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing....

Apple Fifth Avenue’s famous glass cube made a mesmerizing return to Manhattan last week when the store was covered in a temporary iridescent film to celebrate its imminent reopening. Now, Apple has revealed that the cube will reopen its doors on September 20, coinciding with the launch of new iPhones. During Apple’s September Special Event at Steve Jobs Theater in Cupertino, SVP of Retail + People Deirdre O’Brien took the stage for the first time to give a status update on Apple Fifth Avenue....

A report earlier this week detailed Apple’s efforts to remove spam and copy-cat apps from the App Store, and one area the company specifically seems to be targeting is China. As noted in a new report from People.cn, Apple has removed around 58,000 Chinese apps from the App Store over the last two weeks, a drastic increase compared to normal. The report explains that 33.5 percent of the removed apps were games, which shouldn’t come as a huge surprise given the high number of games that are present in the App Store....

Apple today announced that it is increasing its financial commitments for US investment, now up to $430 billion and 20,000 new jobs over the next five years. Apple said it is now supporting 2.7 million jobs across direct employment, US suppliers and manufacturers, and developer jobs in the iOS app economy. The $430 billion is set to be spent on various projects including supplier relationships, data centers and research into 5G modem, chip silicon, and artificial intelligence research....

It’s official guys! Though we knew most of the stuff about the iPad mini, this little beast still looks attractive for sure. The 7.9-inch display has the same 1,024 x 768 resolution as the iPad 2 (hence, no Retina display), extremely thin form factor of just 7.2mm and light weight of 0.68 lbs and 10-hour battery life! It features a dual-core A5 chip, the latest Lightning connector, 5MP back camera and FaceTime HD front camera as well as 2x faster WiFi and the same aluminum back as seen on bigger iPads....

Apex Legends Season 3 - Meltdown is coming, and the new launch trailer makes the upcoming season look like the best one developer Respawn has cooked up in some time, with the release of a new map, exciting new Legend, and a new weapon in the Charge Rifle. Apex Legends is one of the most popular battle royale titles in the world, but it has fallen off considerably from the dizzying peaks it experienced within the first few months of its surprise launch back in February of this year....

Apple @ Work is brought to you by Mosyle, the leader in modern mobile device management (MDM) and security for Apple enterprise and education customers. Over 22,000 organizations leverage Mosyle solutions to automate the management and security of millions of Apple devices daily. Request a FREE account today and discover how you can put your Apple fleet on auto-pilot at a price point that is hard to believe. As we continue with our series on Apple’s enterprise security design, I want to look at the Endpoint Security framework....

Lobbying group Citizens for Tax Justice has called out Apple, Google and Microsoft and others for what it described as “accounting tricks” in which companies “pretend” to be based overseas for tax purposes. The claims were made in a report entitled Offshore Shell Games 2015. The group said that Apple has paid “a miniscule 2.3 percent tax rate on its offshore profits,” many of which have been entered into Apple’s books in Ireland....