Apple’s product naming is easy to love. Apple’s recent success in the technology market is, of course, the result of several factors. The solid hardware, the meticulously maintained and simplified software, and a fantastic retail show from the store floor to the unboxing of its products. They have a total user experience that no one has yet been able to touch. Something that isn’t talked about much, however, is quite basic: Apple’s product naming strategy....

Apple is continuing to aggressively expand across China with several stores, and the latest location is opening up in Chongqing on March 7th. This marks the third store in the region, and this one’s address is 55 Xiejiawan Street in the Jiulongpo District. While the first pair of stores in this region were located on busy streets with magnificent exteriors, this third store is placed inside of the area’s MixC shopping mall, which opened up in fall 2014....

Apple subsidiary FileMaker has announced today that it is rebranding to Claris, a name that likely sounds familiar if you’ve been an Apple user since the early days. While the core FileMaker product will remain the same, the company itself is changing its name to Claris International. Claris was a 1987 spin-off of Apple responsible for things like MacWrite, MacPaint, and FileMaker. In 1998, Apple brought all those initiatives in-house, except for FileMaker, which remained a separate Apple subsidiary....

Apple has filed a lawsuit against Ericsson over the licensing fees for technology patents related to LTE wireless connectivity, Reuters reported today. According to Apple, the company has not infringed any of the patents in question, which it says are not essential to the LTE networking standard. Ericsson calculates its royalty fees based on the price of a complete handset rather than only the component that integrates the patented technology....

Apple continues its in-app Apple Pay promotions this week with an exclusive offer from popular bike share app Ofo. When using Apple Pay in the Ofo app, users can score two free rides through next week… For those unfamiliar, Ofo is a popular bike-sharing service that allows users to find a supported bike near them and use the app to check it out for a ride. By using Apple Pay, Ofo users can score two free rides so long as they cost $2 or less – which is the average trip cost....

Apple is celebrating the upcoming completion of its newest retail location in France. A new webpage highlights creative sessions arriving soon in Paris. The flagship store was mentioned onstage yesterday by retail SVP Angela Ahrendts during the special event keynote in downtown Brooklyn. An earlier report had confirmed the store would open sometime in November. Apple’s Champs-Élysées store will be located just down the road from the Arc de Triomphe monument and adjacent to one of France’s most prolific retail districts....

Not available yet on Apple’s Dev site, developers are pinging us that a 299MB -iPhone4S/322MB iPhone 4 update is available for iOS 6 via OTA update. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuaDOtjil30] Apple also updated Xcode 4.5 developer preview 2, Apple TV beta 2 as well. We will look for interesting changes, but do not be shy at tipping us (tips@9to5mac.com) if y’all find anything interesting. Update: the OTA got a much more official looking screengrab, and the changelog has been posted to Dev center (below):...

Apple has released another supplemental update for macOS 10.15.6 today with performance improvements and bug fixes. Specifically, this update solves WiFi and iCloud issues that some users were seeing. Apple released the new macOS 10.15.6 supplemental update today after the last one arrived back in August. Today’s update includes fixes for an iCloud Drive issue that prevented files from syncing properly as well as squashing a bug that prevented Macs from automatically connecting to WiFi networks....

Apple has made another acquisition in the artificial intelligence business, a new report claims. According to The Information, Apple quietly acquired Silk Labs, an artificial intelligence startup focused on “software lightweight enough to fit onto consumer hardware like cameras.” As with most Apple acquisitions, details about the deal are sparse, but it likely occurred earlier this year. In terms of price, The Information says the deal was “likely a small one for Apple” due to the fact that Silk Labs only employed around half a dozen employees....

The Ottawa Business Journal is reporting that Apple has leased a 22,000 ft space in Kanata, Ontario. Notably, the location is in close proximity to the BlackBerry QNX offices. Whether Apple is interested in attracting QNX employees for itself is not clear. It is definitely possible that the geography is coincidental. However, QNX is known to be working on autonomous driving and Apple may want to take some of this engineering talent for its own Apple Car research....

Apple has asked the Indian government to extend the tax breaks it has been granted for its own operations to its suppliers. This would enable the company to move from mere iPhone assembly in India – with the actual parts still made in China – to more of a true manufacturing operation. We described recently how Apple relies on an entire network of suppliers centred around the Chinese city of Shenzhen....

On its Podcasts page in the iTunes Store, Apple has announced that there have been one billion iTunes podcasts subscriptions since since the company launched its Podcasts section in 2005 as an alternative to radio shows. Podcasts allows anyone from individuals to companies to create their own shows and offer them for download/streaming to Apple’s iTunes customers. Apple has also made the announcement via Twitter: In celebration of the significant milestone, Apple has created a special section in iTunes that lists some of the most popular Podcasts available....

Yesterday, we reported on a hacking incident by an Australian teenager, who downloaded about 90 GB of data from Apple servers. Apple has given a statement to the press that confirms no personal customer data was exposed or compromised in this incident. The Australian sixteen-year-old got access into a central Apple server multiple times over the course of a year. The exact nature of what was downloaded is still unclear....

Apple has released the fourth beta of its iOS 9.3.2 update to both developers and public beta testers today. OS X El Capitan 10.11.5 and tvOS 9.2.1 also saw a fourth beta release for developers today. The latest developer and public betas haven’t seen any major changes as it appears they are turning out to be more bug fix releases than anything. Simultaneous use of Low Power Mode and Night Shift had been reactivated as of iOS 9....

Apple has published a new beta build of the upcoming OS X 10.10.5 to developers. The third seed, which has a build number of 14F25a, comes just under a week after the previous build. The 10.10.5 update seems to be a simple stability and security fix, so there aren’t many new features to speak of. OS X 10.10.5 beta 3 is available through the Updates tab of the Mac App Store for those already running a previous build, and should hit the Developer Center soon....

Two weeks after the last wave of new banks and three days before the Apple Watch launches, Apple Pay support has gone live from 31 more banks and credit unions from around the United States. The total number of institutions now exceeds 200 banks and credit unions with active support, and some 2,000 banks have signed on to support the mobile payment system for iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch in the future....

Apple Pay was a notable topic of discussion on Apple’s Q3 earnings call this afternoon, helping Apple reach an all-time revenue record for Services. On the call, Tim Cook said that Apple Pay is gaining fast on PayPal, both in users and transactions. Apple said in its earnings announcement that Apple Pay is now completing nearly 1 billion transactions per month. That’s nearly double the number of transactions Apple reported in the year-ago quarter....

Apple has released today a minor update to iTunes on OS X with a fix for a nasty bug that could cause iTunes to crash. The update also includes compatibility improvements with iBooks, Apple says. The software update follows yesterday’s release of the highly critical OS X 10.9.2 release which filled an existing SSL bug that left users vulnerable to malicious attackers. Apple also introduced FaceTime Audio calling and contact blocking which debuted on iOS 7 last fall....

Apple released an updated version of its “Apple Configurator” Mac app for deploying multiple iOS devices in a school or business environment. Version 1.0.1 of the tool includes a number of stability and performance enhancements. It also includes fixes for .ipa files, redemption codes, and bookmarks for iTunes U and iBooks, and more. You can grab the free updated Configurator app from the Mac App Store now. The full list of changes is below:...

A trusted tipster has provided us with the details on Apple’s Black Friday (November 25th) 2011 sale. The sale is very similar to Apple’s offerings in past years, but does give better discounts to higher capacities of the iPads and iPods. The deals on the Mac end cover the iMac, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro, while the iPod nano and iPod touch are the discounted iPod offerings. The Macs will be $101 less, the iPads will go from $41-$61 discounts depending on capacity (16GB, 32GB, 64GB), the iPod nano will shave off $11 for both 8GB and 16GB storage sizes, the iPod touch will follow the iPad’s lead of bigger discounts for bigger capacities, ranging from $21-$41 discounts....