Apple has finally been granted permission to build its €850M ($1B) European data center in Ireland, more than two-and-a-half years after it was first announced. The decision was made by Ireland’s High Court this morning, after a lengthy planning battle. The decision was so long delayed that Apple not only had time to complete construction of the Danish data center announced at the same time, but to announce a second one there – raising concerns that the company may have given up on Ireland …...

Apple’s annual Back to School promotion was supposed to end yesterday, Friday, September 6, but we understand that the cut-off date has been slightly extended by Apple. The promotion offers a $100 iTunes gift card with the purchase of a new Mac or a $50 gift card with the purchase of an iPhone or iPad. The promotion will be extended until the end of the weekend through Apple’s Online Store, and we’re told that the extension is also occurring at Apple’s retail stores....

Apple officially unveiled its entrance into textbooks with the new “iBooks 2” app and “iBooks Author” e-book authoring tool. If you are wondering just how much the textbooks are going to cost you, Apple announced that initially high school textbooks through partners Pearson, McGraw Hill, and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt will be available through the new iBookstore textbooks category for $14.99 or less. Compare that figure to textbooks from publishers like McGraw Hill that can sell for as high as $75....

Apple is planning on discussing various aspects of iOS 10 security in “unprecedented detail” at the upcoming BlackHat USA 2016 security conference. Ivan Krstic, head of Apple Security Engineering and Architecture, will give a 50-minute briefing to discuss cryptographic design, the Secure Enclave found in Touch ID-enabled devices, and a new JIT hardening mechanism in iOS 10. This won’t be the first time that an Apple employee has graced the stage in Las Vegas during a BlackHat event....

Amid growing scrutiny of the App Store and the prevalence of scam and rip-off applications, Apple has published a new press release today highlighting the measures it takes to protect users. In the press release, Apple claims that the App Store stopped more than $1.5 billion in “potentially fraudulent transactions in 2020. Apple also says it recently deployed new tools to combat fake reviews on the App Store. The new press release comes as scrutiny of the App Store has increased over the last several months....

What Changed? The Macs revealed in November feature an Apple M1 SoC, which integrates several components, including the CPU, GPU, RAM, Neural Engine, and more. With these components now using a unified memory architecture, all of the technologies in the SoC can access the same data without copying it between multiple pools of memory. Thanks to this, there are immediate performance and power efficiency improvements. The Apple M1 features 16 billion transistors, which is more than Apple ever put on a chip....

Apple is now offering prescheduled support from sign language interpreters at hundreds of its retail stores in nearly a dozen countries. The service is provided to customers by appointment at no cost. Starting today, customers can visit the webpage for their local Apple Store and request a sign language interpreter for their next store visit. The request link will send an email to the store, and Apple will follow up to arrange an appointment....

Each year, Harris Polls runs rankings of the top 100 “most visible” companies operating in the United States, ranking them by their reputation among customers who participate in the survey. This year, in a survey of 30,000 customers, Apple has taken the 5th spot. The biggest story in this year’s rankings, though, is Samsung’s massive drop. In 2015, the company took the #3 spot, above both Apple and Google. This year, however, Samsung has plummeted 46 spots to 49th place....

A new two-part biographical documentary focused on Oprah Winfrey is reportedly in the works at Apple TV+. Deadline reported that the documentary is being conceived by a team with close ties to Winfrey. The documentary will come from Kevin MacDonald and Lisa Erspamer, the duo behind the Whitney Houston documentary Whitney. The report explains that Erspamer worked with Winfrey on The Oprah Winfrey Show for a decade and that Winfrey was a fan of the Whitney Houston documentary:...

Apple has shared that it’s won two more awards for its Apple TV+ original content. Setting streaming records for winning Daytime Emmys in the first year since launch is Ghostwriter as well as Peanuts in Space. Apple detailed the latest achievements in a blog post and highlighted that it has garnered over two dozen “wins and accolades” and 71 nominations for Apple TV+ original content since the service launched under a year ago....

In addition to the Apple Events channel for viewing the WWDC keynote returning last night, Apple TV has added a NatGeo TV station from the National Geographic Channel and Nat Geo Wild channel. Apple’s latest channel includes next day full episodes of shows and documentaries covering science, history, culture, and more. The new NatGeo TV channel on Apple TV includes clips you can watch for free, but the app does require signing in with an active cable subscription to unlock the full experience including viewing full episodes the day after they air....

Ahead of the launch of Apple TV+ on November 1, Apple continues to expand its collection of feature films. According to a report from the Hollywood Reporter, Apple is in “final negotiations” to acquire the rights to a “music reimagining” of A Christmas Carol starring Will Ferrell and Ryan Reynolds. Apple is said to have come out on top of a bidding war for the rights to the film. Specific terms haven’t been disclosed, but Apple reportedly moved “aggressively as it seeks to make an impact in the original features space....

Apple’s reliance (some would say over-reliance) on China has been a hotly-debated topic for some time. The company’s efforts to boost Apple production outside China have never been of greater interest than now, however, when the coronavirus outbreak is having a substantial impact inside the country. India has been one of the countries making a concerted effort to win more of Apple’s manufacturing business, but a couple of reports have highlighted some of the challenges to making this a workable option …...

Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference kicks off in just a few weeks on June 13th in San Francisco, but high demand and limited venue space means Apple can’t accommodate every developer who wants to attend. This year Apple is responding positively by promoting other developer community events taking place in San Francisco during the week of WWDC. Apple shared this message on its developer news portal today: The update links to the official WWDC attendee site, which now promotes four non-WWDC events happening in San Francisco where developers can potentially meet up without attending Apple’s conference....

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_xpeAXCfLc] The last we heard, Apple was working with developers of Siri alternatives such as True Knowledge, the developers behind “Evi,” to iron out similarities between the app and the iPhone 4S‘s flagship feature. Apple is quick to warn developers who are submitting Siri-like apps not to mimic native features of the OS. Apple wants an app’s features to remain “distinctly different from the iOS behaviors and interfaces to avoid causing user confusion....

Apple has released the fourth iOS 10.3.2 beta for testing on iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. The version numbers also suggest we should only see under-the-hood bug fixes and security improvements in these releases when ready. iOS 10.3.2 beta 4 is currently only available in beta for registered developers. The public beta version of each update usually follows a few days after the developer version if not the same day. tvOS and watchOS are also available as beta updates, although public beta programs are not available....

After releasing iOS 7.0.5 at the end of last month to fix network errors for Chinese users, Apple has just released iOS 7.0.6 (Build 11B651) alongside iOS 6.1.6 (build 10b500) for the iPhone 3GS and 4th-gen iPod touch and Apple TV version 6.0.2 with a security fix related to SSL connection verification. Apple says iOS 7.0.6 is a security update that “provides a fix for SSL connection verification.” The update for Apple TV (version 6....

The second Release Candidate version of iOS 14.6 is now available to developers. This comes just four days after the company made the first Release Candidate available of the forthcoming update to developers and public beta users. As a reminder, Apple has moved away from the previously-used golden master naming for near-final beta releases. Instead, going forward, the company will use the term “Release Candidate,” or RC, to reference a near-final beta release....

Update: QNX confirmed to us the validity of their statement to N4BB. Though you presumably won’t see the handset maker’s logo anywhere on your dashboard or in the CarPlay interface, BlackBerry-owned QNX’s software for smartphone and display compatibility is apparently present in Apple’s new automotive technology. Tech site N4BB speculated and later updated (via iDownloadblog) with a statement from QNX that Apple’s existing partnership with the firm extends to implementing compatibility support for Apple CarPlay....

Apple has released its latest annual supplier responsibility report. The document details Apple’s rigorous and comprehensive safety policies that were implemented in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, several publications found alleged incidents of forced labor in Apple’s supply chain. In the company’s report today, Apple says it found no evidence of forced labor or underage child labor. This is down from one case of child labor identified in the previous year’s report....