Internal iCloud training As Apple’s yet-to-be-made-official fall festivities approach, we’ve heard that Apple has begun iOS 5 and iCloud training with retail store employees. According to these sources, training is done through a new section inside of the company’s recently released internal RetailMe application. Apple typically rolls out their major iOS releases in the days surrounding new iPhone launches. Apple Stores usually only begin their training of new software in the couple of weeks leading up to a respective product launch (obviously this time around could be different, though)....

Apple has today announced that it will be bringing its coding curriculum to the Computer Science Education Week. Starting today, students can register for thousands of free Hour of Code sessions available at all Apple Store locations worldwide. The sessions will begin December 1st and run through 14th. Apple is also introducing today new Swift Coding Club materials that help educators teach coding outside the classroom. This curriculum is based on Apple’s own Swift programming language....

NBC is reporting that Apple will offer female employees up to $20,000 to cover the costs of freezing their eggs if they want to defer having children until later in their career, following the example of Facebook which recently introduced the same employee benefit. Fertility specialists advise that women who want to freeze eggs in order to have children later in life should freeze at least 20 eggs, which will typically take two rounds of treatment at a cost of $10,000 each....

Having seeded developers with the iOS 9.2 beta earlier today, Apple has just released the first build of OS X 10.11.2 beta for developer testing. Carrying a build number of 15C27e, the 10.11.2 beta’s focus areas include graphics, Mail, Wi-Fi, Calendar, USB, Notes, Photos, and Spotlight… Registered developers can find the OS update in the Developer Center. Updating from a previous OS X version requires downloading the OS X Software Update Seed Configuration Utility, then checking for the update in the Mac App Store’s Updates section....

The iOS 10.3.2 update is available for download and installation for Apple devices including the iPhone 5 and later, iPad 4th generation and later, and iPod touch 6th generation. Summary of iOS 10.3.2? There are no user-facing changes, but the 177 MB update suggests there are numerous low-level updates included. In contrast, last month’s 10.3.1 was just 28 MBs, so, users might want to perform a quick backup just in case....

Apple is releasing the first developer beta of watchOS 6.2.5 today. This comes after Apple began beta testing of iOS 13.4.5 and other updates yesterday, oddly leaving Apple Watch out until now. Update: watchOS 6.2.5 is now available to developers. watchOS 6.2.5 likely focuses on bug fixes and performance improvements. Apple is also likely prepping watchOS 6.2.1 for a public release soon, perhaps as early as later this week or early next week....

With iPads becoming the new No. 1 gateway to Apple consumerism, why not hook them while they are young? According to Rene Ritchie of iMore, Apple is replacing iMacs with iPads at the kids’ table in Apple Retail stores. In the past, iMacs were loaded with kid-friendly games sitting on a table at children’s height. But with the switch to the iPad, not much has changed. According to Ritchie, the four iPads at the table are still loaded with kid-friendly apps that allow them to draw, read books, and more....

It’s been years since we first heard that Steve Jobs had “cracked” TV, but we haven’t seen much progress on that front outside of a few updates to the Apple TV set-top box. Recode reports today, however, that Apple is now in talks to launch its own web-based TV service. The service is not expected to be a full offering of current television programming, but rather a package of select shows offered as part of a subscription....

A new rumor floating around the web today indicates that Apple may have recently purchased FaceShift, a Swiss tech company specializing in real-time markerless facial motion capture. It wouldn’t be Apple’s first purchase in the area of facial motion capture or gesture control, though outside of the new Apple TV, it’s unclear what they might be using it for. While Apple and FaceShift haven’t yet confirmed the buyout, there are some interesting details that seems to point to that being the case....

Apple is reportedly running the largest Apple Pay promotion in China since the service launched there almost 18 months ago. The company is offering discounts of up to 50%, and points rewards of up to 50 times the usual number, for using the service at 28 major retail outlets and 16 online stores. The major push is in response to the greatest challenge faced by Apple Pay in the country …...

Apple’s VP of inclusion and diversity, Denise Young Smith, made an appearance this week at the One Young World Summit in Colombia and caught fire for some of the statements she made. According to TechCrunch, however, the Apple executive has apologized to employees for her choice of words… At the event this week, Smith was explaining how Apple focuses on diversity and commented that there could be 12 white blue-eyed blonde men in a room who are still diverse:...

According to Chipworks, there are actually two different sized A9 processors floating around in the iPhone 6s and 6s plus released last week. That’s not really a surprise because Apple likes to have redundancy, especially when one of the manufacturers is Samsung. We’d heard that both Samsung and TSMC would be producing A9 processors destined for the iPhone 6s. However, there appears to be a difference in size of the two A9s which might play a role in how the iPhone performs…...

Over the weekend, Bloomberg said that its sources indicated that the Apple AirPods Pro were beating sales expectations. Now, Nikkei is also corroborating that line of thinking quoting supply chain sources in China who say that Apple has doubled AirPods Pro orders from 1 million to ‘at least’ 2 million units per month. The standard AirPods with wireless charging case have sold well throughout their lifetime and AirPods Pro are very much set to continue that trend....

As part of today’s Mountain Lion Preview roll out, Apple seeded its registered developers with new versions of the Xcode development environment and the Safari browser. Safari 5.2 for Lion, now available for download through the Dev Center, welcomes new features that cannot be found in the most recent Safari 5.1.3 version for end-users or the recently seeded Safari 5.1.4 for developers. Apple took a page from Google’s book by integrating the search bar into the address bar (finally, some would say) in Safari 5....

Apple is preparing a significant expansion of its iPhone sales capabilities in its official retail stores, according to sources. Late in August, many Apple Stores in the United States will kick off a pilot program for customers to be able to purchase a new iPhone via the latest carrier upgrade programs: AT&T Next, T-Mobile JUMP, and Verizon Edge. Currently, iPhones bought at Apple Stores must either be purchased on a two-year deal, or at full-price (unlocked) with no contract…...

Apple has launched its latest Apple Pay promotion, this time in partnership with Jimmy John’s. If you use the Jimmy John’s app to order ahead with Apple Pay, or make a purchase in-store, you can lock in a free drink through this weekend. Apple says that you simply have to use Apple Pay with your Jimmy John’s Freaky Fast Rewards account and spend $10 or more to qualify for the free drink:...

AirPlay, a proprietary protocol by Apple allowing for worry-free wireless streaming of audio, video, photos and related metadata between certified devices, is about to gain an enhanced support for the wireless Bluetooth standard via a new chip, Japanese blog Macotakara has learned. Apple apparently announced the new certification chip at a Shenzen, China conference organized for two thousand members of their MFI (Made For iPhone/iPad/iPod) program. The company is aiming to expand the market for wireless iOS accessories by a factor of seven by taking the IAP via Bluetooth (iPod Accessory Protocol) – first implemented in iOS 5 – to the Bluetooth 4....

While Apple has set a release date for Little America on Apple TV+ and also renewed the show for a second season, it has also signed a multi-year content creation deal with its showrunner and co-creator, Lee Eisenberg. Reported by Variety, Apple’s new deal with Eisenberg will see him create both new TV and digital media projects just for Apple TV+. Eisenberg has a rich resume including six Emmy nominations for his work on The Office and more....

Earlier today Apple released what would quickly be revealed to be an extremely broken update for iOS 8 that resulted in a complete loss of cellular connectivity and Touch ID support on its newest line of iPhones. Now, nearly twelve hours after the update went live, the company has published a new help document for users stranded on the faulty operating system. The document lists the steps for restoring a device back to iOS 8....

One of the new features introduced with the iOS 14.5 beta was the ability to change the default music player used for Siri commands, similar to what’s already available to HomePod users. For some unknown reason, this option was removed from iOS 14.5 beta 2, but Apple has re-enabled it with today’s release of iOS 14.5 beta 3. In addition to letting users set third-party email apps and web browsers as default, iOS 14 included options to change the default player for music, podcasts, and audiobooks on the HomePod....