Apple’s brand continues to dominate mindshare for the festive season, according to a survey by Piper Jaffray. The company holds the top two spots for most wanted gift this holiday season with both iPhone and MacBook far ahead of any other product category. The iPhone was the clear leader, with 7.2 percent of people surveyed wanting a new iPhone, up from 5.2 percent in 2015. MacBook took second place on the chart (embedded after the jump), at 2....

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In this episode of the Apple @ Work podcast, Michael Covington from Jamf comes on the show to discuss their new report about the most requested permissions by popular iOS apps. Sponsored by Direct Mail: Bring the power of email marketing to your internal communications, with Direct Mail for Mac. Create, track, and securely send right from your desktop. Request a free trial today! Sponsored by Kandji: A modern, cloud-based platform to manage and secure your Mac, iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV devices....

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODmfmUWqlSA] Update: Apple has now posted an accompanying microsite for the ad, featuring the ads shown in the video. Apple has begun airing a new iPhone 5s ad this evening, first premiering on ABC during Agents Of SHIELD. This ad, featuring the interesting song ‘Gigantic‘ by the Pixies, takes a very different tone than the “Metal Mastered” ad released in October, which showed that gold really is best. The ad shows common and uncommon tasks people can accomplish with their iPhone, such as creating music, tracking their health, shooting videos and photos, and playing games....

Just as rumors ramped up earlier this year that Apple has been developing its own electric vehicle under Project Titan, battery maker A123 Systems filed a lawsuit against Apple for poaching five of its engineers. The two companies appear to now be finalizing a settlement over the dispute, The Boston Globe reports, helping Apple avoid the case going to court. The lawsuit cited unfair competition and non-compete contract violations after evidence revealed the employees were recruited to leave the battery firm....

While this afternoon’s Apple announcements didn’t focus on the Apple TV, the company today did take the first steps towards officially phasing out the third-generation Apple TV model. Apple has removed the third-gen Apple TV from its online store, while a source indicates to us that Apple retail locations are also pulling the device from shelves. Apple has not officially commented on its phasing out of the third-gen Apple TV, though it’s clear that the process has at least begun....

Apple has been cleared of infringing five wireless patents originally held by Nokia in its iPhones and iPads. The patents were later acquired by a subsidiary of Conversant Intellectual Property Management Inc, which sued Apple for $100M by calculating a per-device license fee. Apple argued that even if it had infringed the patents, which it denied, a fair license fee would be less than $1M. Reuters reports that a federal jury in Texas took five hours to deliberate yesterday before finding in favor of Apple....

All Apple Stores outside of China are closed until further notice due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, and it’s preventing some customers from picking up their repaired devices. Business Insider reports that customers who didn’t pick up their devices before stores closed are now unable to do so. As we noted last week, Apple Stores remained partially open for two days following the shutdown announcement. During this time, Apple contacted customers with pending device repairs and asked them to come pick up their products....

Today Apple has updated the Apple Store app to version 5.12, bringing along a completely redesigned user interface on iPad. The new design takes advantage of the sidebars introduced in iPadOS 14 last summer. Apple has made a number of other changes to the app as well including updates to Today at Apple sessions and the iPad shopping experience. First and foremost, the new design has a sidebar on the left side of the screen that you can choose to hide or show....

We’re not seeing much progress with US antitrust legislation just at present, but if the two bills do make it through the Senate, that raises the prospect of Apple default apps being banned. Which is to say, Apple could not pre-install its own stock apps on iPhones, instead having to offer customers a choice of core apps. Above is one illustration of how Apple might respond, offering a choice of key apps during initial iPhone setup, likely with its own apps top of the lists …...

The news was confirmed by Rep. David Cicilline’s aides and the report notes that next week’s hearing comes after federal regulators have been looking further into anticompetitive behavior from the major tech companies. Last month, the Department of Justice’s Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim stated: As we previously summarized, Apple is currently in the middle of three antitrust lawsuits, two in the US and one in Europe, all having to do with the App Store....

Apple filed its conflict minerals disclosure today with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and in it detailed its process of ethical sourcing of minerals used in Apple products between January 1, 2013 and December 31, 2013. Apple noted that it has identified 205 smelters and refiners of the “subject materials” that it works to ensure are conflict-free, but also admits it “does not have sufficient information to conclusively determine the country of origin of the Subject Minerals in its products or whether the Subject Minerals are from recycled or scrap sources....

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Apple today announced the winners of the 2020 App Store Best award, which recognizes outstanding apps and games for iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Apple TV, and Mac. The company also shared its traditional list of the most popular apps of 2020. Best Apps of 2020 Wakeout! was chosen the best iPhone app of 2020, which was developed by independent developer Andres Canella. The app brings fast and light exercises that can be performed by anyone in home offices and classrooms....

Apple has purchased a small California-based startup called Tueo Health, CNBC reports. The health-focused company further expands Apple’s medical-related portfolio. Here’s how the firm described their mission prior to joining Apple: According to CNBC’s sources, the firm was “developing a system to help parents monitor asthma symptoms in sleeping children,” and you can imagine how Apple might be able to advance that goal. Tueo Health is a relatively small startup with fewer than a dozen employees since being founded four years ago, according to LinkedIn....

Development of an Apple Car autopilot chip appears to be a step closer to reality as Apple has reportedly placed an order with a Korean company. To be clear, the order is not for the final chip – which would almost certainly be fabricated by Apple’s A-series and M-series chipmaker TSMC – but for modules that will eventually be incorporated into the chip … The Elec reports. Although the contract has only just come to light, the work is said to have been underway for almost a year, and is scheduled to be completed next year....

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrxtbB-z2Sc] Apple premiered two new TV ads for the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus tonight featuring the duo of Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake. The first of the two, “Reservations,” shows off iOS 8’s new Continuity features that allow users to place phone calls from any iCloud-connected device. In the ad, Timberlake uses a Mac and iPad to call Fallon’s iPhone, while Fallon answers the calls in a phony French accent....

Apple and Intel both declined an invitation to invest in a new round of funding for patent assertion entity Intellectual Ventures, reports Reuters. Both companies had invested in the enterprise in the past. Intellectual Ventures did, however, receive further investments from both Microsoft and Sony. As a frequent target of patent trolls, it seemed an odd investment for Apple in the first place, and was most likely a simple protective measure: we’ll help fund you if you leave us alone....

Apple has published its latest Supplier Responsibility Report today and along with the usual updates on how its partners are doing when it comes to keeping workplaces safe and respectful for employees. However, this edition includes specifics on how Apple has modified procedures at its suppliers in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. TechCrunch first shared a detailed look into the new Supplier Responsibility Report that Apple just made available. Notably, it looks to be the first time that Senior Vice President of Operations Sabih Khan has written a public-facing piece since taking the role last year....

It turns out yesterday’s report about Apple buying Color for “high double digit millions” was mostly off base. At least that is according to AllThingsD: The engineers could help with Apple’s photo and video-sharing capabilities across devices, or maybe Apple is just getting a HR jump on the competition in the red hot Silicon Valley talent marketplace. Apple is not buying Color’s technology, intellectual property, domain names or liabilities. Those are being left with the company, which still has considerable cash in the bank — something like $25 million — and is going to be wound down....