According to a new report from The Information, Apple has hired away Jessie Henderson from WarnerMedia as the company looks to expand its investment in original film production. The new hire will join the Apple Original Films division as Apple looks to expand the number of films it produces. The report say that Apple is raising up its production target for TV+ movies, increasing from the original expectation of 10-12 per year...

While users in the US are today getting access to CBS Sports and USA Now on the Apple TV, Canadian users are being greeted today with two new channels from the big Canadian cable companies. Bell’s CraveTV and Rogers’ Shomi, two competitive on-demand TV services akin to Hulu in the US, are now accessible on Apple’s set-top box. Bell made an official announcement today noting that the Apple TV app provides access to the entire CraveTV library for subscribers including popular shows HOMELAND, NURSE JACKIE, WEEDS, HAPPYISH, BOSCH, THE WIRE, SEINFELD, and more....

While Apple Pay works with nearly all of the major banks across the United States, there are still plenty of regional banks and credit unions with customers waiting for Apple Pay to work with their institution. The latest expansion includes several additional banks across the US. ACIPCO Federal Credit Union Arthur State Bank Bank of Eastern Oregon Blue Federal Credit Union Capital Credit Union Choice One Community Credit Union City Bank Community Powered Federal Credit Union Dedham Savings Delta Bank Education Credit Union First Colorado National Bank First State Bank & Trust Company (MO + NE now) Freedom Bank Glacier Hills Credit Union Helena Community Credit Union LifeStore Bank Lincoln National Bank Oregon Community Bank Ridgewood Savings Bank Southern Pine Credit Union State Bank of Table Rock Sun Community Federal Credit Union Taconnet Federal Credit Union Territorial Savings Bank Utah Federal Credit Union Apple Pay will soon arrive in Brazil which will mark the first new country added in 2018....

With the new T2 chip in the 2018 MacBook Pro and the iMac Pro, Apple is preventing third-party Mac repairs. As detailed by MacRumors and Motherboard, new software locks have been put in place that make the machines “inoperable” unless Apple’s proprietary System Configuration software is run after a repair. Motherboard says that Apple recently distributed an updated document to Authorized Service Providers, explaining that any Mac with the T2 security chip is affected by this....

Earlier this month Apple was granted permission to publicly test a self-driving vehicle on public roads in California, and now the company has reportedly issued a letter requesting changes to autonomous car test policies. Reuters first reported that Apple has formally proposed self-driving car testing policies through a company letter. In the company letter, Apple writes that it is ‘investing heavily in the study of machine learning and automation, and is excited about the potential of automated systems in many areas, including transportation....

Just a few days after CEO Tim Cook joined the Council for Sustainable Urbanization to fight climate change in China, Apple this evening has revealed a handful of new programs in China that promote the use of clean energy. Apple says that the programs will help avoid 20 million metric tons of greenhouse gas pollution in China between now and 2020, which is the equivalent of removing 4 million vehicles from the road for one year....

Bloomberg reports that Apple has absorbed a 14% hit in the value of the rupee in order to keep iPhone prices steady in India, speculating that it is willing to reduce margin in order to grow market share in what is expected to become the world’s second-largest smartphone market by 2017. Apple is currently in 6th place in smartphone market share in India, behind Samsung, Micromax, Karbonn, Nokia Oyj and Sony....

Apple often acquires small startup companies very quietly and without any formal announcement to bolster its own services, and a new report from TechCrunch claims that the company acquired Ottocat in late-2013. Ottocat was a startup that focused on developing a system to organize and discover apps based on increasingly specific subcategories. Apple currently uses this technology to power the “Explore” tab in the App Store, as seen above. Ottocat’s life as an independent company was brief....

Apple is reportedly planning to change how it handles subscriptions for video streaming services via the App Store. According to a new report from Bloomberg, Apple will cut the percentage of revenue it takes from streaming video apps in an effort to improve its relationship with those in that industry… The report, which cites “people familiar with the plans,” claims that Apple is looking to cut its portion of subscription revenue from 30 percent to 15 perfect for video streaming apps....

A report today from Streamingmedia.com points to evidence that Apple’s new Content Delivery Network is now live in at least the U.S. and Europe. The news follows a report in May that Apple was negotiating with ISPs in order to build out its own Content Delivery Network to move away from the third-party services it currently uses to distribute iTunes content, iCloud data, and software to customers. While the CDN isn’t yet delivering all of Apple’s content, the report notes OS X downloads are now coming from the new content delivery network and that Apple has made deals with Comcast and others to have 10x its current capacity:...

Fashion brand Ralph Lauren has announced that it plans to make Apple’s retail head Angela Ahrendts a non-executive director at its annual general meeting in August. She will be joined by Michael George, CEO of QVC parent company Qurate Retail … Both will retain their existing roles, their involvement in Ralph Lauren likely to be limited to participating in a small number of board meetings and offering ad-hoc advice. It’s not unusual for senior execs in large companies to hold a small number of non-exec board positions in others....

Apple’s 4 for 1 stock split has taken effect as of Monday, August 31 and analysts are weighing in on how the move will impact the stock’s share price. While historically AAPL has seen on average a 10.4% increase 12 months after its stock splits, there are a couple of factors that could hint at stronger than average gains for Apple shares this time around. As we’ve previously noted, Apple’s stock split won’t directly increase its share price but the move normally encourages more investment, leading to post-split gains....

According to iLounge, Tony Fadell – a former Apple Senior Vice President – will soon find another place to sell his new Nest Learning Thermostats: the Apple Store. According to the report, the Nest will run for $249 at the Apple Store (the same as Nest’s price through Nest’s online store). The Nest is a digital, easy-to-setup and use thermostat, and its user-interface, design, and setup process are all what is to be expected from the “father of the iPod....

Apple subsidiary FileMaker Inc., just announced they shipped over 1 million units of Bento, their personal database tool currently available for iPhone, iPad and Mac. Originally released in 2008, Bento is now available in seven languages with dedicated clients for iPhone and iPad ($4.99) that sync with Bento for Mac currently available on the Mac App Store for $49.99. Vice President of Marketing and Services for FileMaker, Inc., Ryan Rosenberg said the following in a statement:...

[tweet https://twitter.com/angelaahrendts/status/609827140612132864 align=’center’] As previously reported, the Upper East Side New York Apple Store opened today and Apple’s head of retail was on hand for the occasion. Angela Ahrendts tweeted from the event (above) and took photos with visitors (below). The store is at 940 Madison Avenue on the corner of 74th St, a block from Central Park. We noted previously that the almost 100-year old building that Apple restored used to be a bank which included a vault that Apple turned into a VIP room for Apple Watch Edition try ons....

A number of Apple patents and applications have been published today, one of which details an interesting new design for the packaging of iOS devices that would also double as a stand or dock of sorts. The patent application was originally filed in May 2011, but it was published today by the United States Patent and Trademark Office and detailed by PatentlyApple. The image above is pretty self-explanatory, showing iPod nano-like packaging with a removable lid and base that transform into a dock or stand for the device....

. iOS Firmware reports that Apple just updated Apple TV’s software. We are not seeing any new features or apps (MobileMe is still there for instance). With WWDC so close, updates are carefully scrutinized. Apple also released Mainstatge 2.2.2 on the Mac App Store today, bringing with it the following performance and stability improvements: About the MainStage 2.2.2 Update Stability and Usability Resolves an issue in which MainStage might quit unexpectedly on OS X Lion v10....

It’s been about a year since Apple shared its high-end Mac strategy by promising a modular Mac Pro and teasing out the iMac Pro. The high-end all-in-one was shown off in June and released on December, but the all-new modular Mac Pro has been a bigger mystery since Apple confirmed it was coming. Now Apple is setting the expectations in a new TechCrunch interview and specifying that the new Mac Pro will be a 2019 product....

Apple is today releasing the second watchOS 6.2.8 beta version to developers, following yesterday’s launch of iOS 13.6 beta 2. Apple has skipped watchOS 6.2.7 for some unknown reason, as the current version available to the public is watchOS 6.2.6. We don’t know what’s new in this update yet, but Apple is likely to be working on more bug fixes and general improvements to the Apple Watch operating system. Compared to watchOS 6....

Supply-chain sources say that Apple is in negotiations with Samsung for lower pricing on the OLED screens the Korean company is making for this year’s iPhones. Apple’s negotiating position appears to have both strengths and weaknesses at present … On the plus side, Apple would be offering Samsung much higher production volumes, says the Digitimes report. On the downside, Apple’s plans to make two rival suppliers bid for the business seems to have hit a snag....