Apple’s first iOS Developer Academy opened in Naples, Italy this week, but the company doesn’t plan to make that its only presence in the company. At an event celebrating the opening of the Naples location, Apple’s VP of environment, policy, and social initiatives Lisa Jackson announced that Apple plans to expand its program further (via Macitynet). Jackson explained that Apple is working with at least five universities in the Campania region to expand Apple’s initiatives in Italy with a new iOS Foundation Program....

Apple TV+ today announced its latest partnership deal, first reported by Deadline. The company has signed a first-look deal for feature films with Imagine Entertainment, Ron Howard and Brian Grazer’s production company. Before hiring Zack van Amburg and Jamie Erlicht from Sony to launch Apple’s original video content division, Apple was in talks to possibly acquire Imagine with Howard and Grazer taking the top jobs at Apple TV+. Howard and Grazer reportedly declined the role on good terms, with Apple and Imagine instead signing a first-look deal for documentary content....

Anticipating the release of tvOS 10.2, Jamf today announced support for Apple’s Device Enrollment Program and expanded Mobile Device Management features for Apple TV, meaning organizations will soon be able to set up, configure and distribute apps for Apple TVs in bulk in the same way already available for iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Apple’s Device Enrollment Program (DEP) has long been available for other Apple devices, and Jamf has long been one of the leaders as the preferred software by many companies, such as IBM (now with the largest Mac enterprise deployment of 100,000 Macs), for deploying Macs, iPhones, and iPads within an organization....

Apple Pay is now available from two dozen more banks and credit unions around the United States. Apple’s mobile payment service launched two years ago with hundreds of additional regional banks and credit unions added every few weeks. You can find the latest banks added below: BankLiberty CinFed Credit Union Cumberland County Federal Credit Union Denmark State Bank Family Security Credit Union Franklin Savings Bank Gates Chili Federal Credit Union Great River Federal Credit Union Greenfield Banking Company Heritage Community Credit Union Labette Bank Lake Trust Credit Union Michigan Educational Credit Union Natco Credit Union Neches Federal Credit Union Old Point National Bank Peach State Bank & Trust Pioneer Bank (both New Mexico and New York now) River City Bank Saco & Biddeford Savings Institution SELCO Community Credit Union Shell Federal Credit Union Shrewsbury Federal Credit Union The Mission Bank Since launching in the United States, Apple Pay has expanded to Canada, France, Russia, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Mainland China, Hong Kong, New Zealand, and Singapore....

Today’s best deals include the first notable discount on Apple’s Pro Display XDR, iPhone essentials from Anker, and third-party Apple Watch Sport Bands from $5. Hit the jump for all that and more in today’s 9to5Toys Lunch Break. Apple Pro Display XDR is $300 off Apple’s Pro Display XDR features a 6K resolution with extreme dynamic range, 1,000-nits of sustained brightness, and up to 1,600 when it peaks. Viewers stand to also benefit from full support for P3 wide color gamut and a 10-bit color depth....

UPDATE: Apple has also released public beta versions of iOS 11.4.1, tvOS 11.4.1 and macOS 10.13.6. While not a major update in any way, Apple is today releasing the fourth developer builds for iOS 11.4.1, tvOS 11.4.1 and macOS 10.13.6. Apple is also releasing the third watchOS 4.3.2 beta to developers. Being a bug fix update to the earlier release, we aren’t expecting any new user facing features. If you’re looking for some major changes, take a look at iOS 12, tvOS 12, watchOS 12, and macOS 10....

Just a week after the last version, Apple has released iOS 9.2 beta 4 to testers for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. The first iOS 9.2 beta appeared alongside Xcode 7.2 beta in late October. We’ll dive into the latest beta and update with any changes we discover. Included in the release up to this point has been an improved Safari View Controller for web links you open within other apps, support for AT&T’s new NumberSync feature for using your iPhone number on other connected devices (although this has since been removed), and Arabic language support with Siri for the first time....

In addition to releasing iOS 7.1.2 today for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, Apple has just released OS X Mavericks 10.9.4 for Macs (direct combo update download link). The update brings various bug fixes, improvements, and security enhancements to the Mac: Fixes an issue that prevented some Macs from automatically connecting to known Wi-Fi networks Fixes issue causing the background or Apple logo to appear incorrectly on startup Improves the reliability of waking from sleep Includes Safari 7....

Swift is Apple’s programing language designed from the ground up and coinciding with the other software releases today, Apple has pushed version 4.1 of Swift to developers… Today, Apple is releasing Swift 4.1. The new update, albeit a small one, includes updates to the core language, new build options, and minor enhancements to Swift Package Manager and Foundation. Apple notes that code written in Swift 4.0 will be compatible with Swift 4....

As expected, Apple has released OS X 10.10 Yosemite Developer Preview 4. It is available via the Mac App Store Software Update tab for developers running earlier versions of Yosemite. Apple has also released a revamped iTunes 12 to developers (full gallery here). Previous updates previously brought various design tweaks and feature enhancements, and Preview 4 is likely to do the same thing. Yosemite launches this fall with updated Mail, Messages, and Calendar apps, in addition to a system-wide redesign and improved integration with iOS Devices....

Following the death of a Chinese flight attendant believed to have been electrocuted by a faulty third-party iPhone charger, Apple has added a new webpage to its Chinese site showing how to identify genuine Apple chargers. The usefulness of the webpage is slightly doubtful, given the fact that most third-party USB chargers come from trusted brands and are perfectly safe to use and that the issue is with the counterfeit chargers that mimic Apple’s charger so closely that it would be hard to tell them apart even with this guide....

Apple today announced its annual meeting with shareholders and also published its proxy statement, which is a document provided to shareholders that contains background information about the company. This year, Apple’s statement nearly confirms that the company is concerned with antitrust risks. As noted by CNBC, this is the first time the document highlights how antitrust issues have become a risk for Apple as the company has been investigated for monopoly practices....

Earlier this month, Apple announced its first ever Taiwan retail store, revealing that it would be located in the Taipei 101 skyscraper. Now, Apple has officially confirmed a grand opening for the store: July 1st. As reported by Focus Taiwan, Apple’s Taiwan retail store is set to open at 11AM on July 1st, with the festivities kicking off with a ceremony showcasing art work from paper cutting artist Yang Shih-yi....

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSuo4xEucqE] Video Taken down due to copyright claim from Apple We received some disturbing tips today that a Russian developer has published a method of obtaining in-app purchases from iOS apps for free. First noticed by Russian blog i-ekb.ru, the “in-app proxy” method does not require a jailbreak, can be completed by novices in three steps using just an iOS device, and allows users to install in-app content for free. The hack also works on all devices running iOS 3....

Apple’s lawyers have been appointed to defend it against the lawsuit filed by Epic Games, from LA-based Gibson Dunn & Crutcher. The firm is an acknowledged leader in antitrust cases. The firm is the same one that gave Apple its victory in the second Apple versus Samsung patent infringement case … In that case, Samsung was found to have infringed five Apple patents, and the Cupertino company was awarded $539M in damages....

Apple’s annual World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) will be held next week (June 4–8) in San Jose. WWDC is the biggest event of the year for Apple, where they announce major new OS releases for all platforms. In preparation for the event, Apple has just released a new update for its official iOS app. This new version includes the schedule for the event with funny placeholder session names, which should be updated as soon as the keynote is over on Monday....

Update: Bloomberg adds more to WSJ’s report from earlier claiming that Apple’s new radio service will be tightly integrated with its iAd business. The report says Eddy Cue is currently making changes to the iAd business to support the new radio service scheduled to launch later this year alongside iOS 7: We’ve heard no shortage of rumors on the rumored iRadio streaming service from Apple that has taken on some new urgency after Google released a similar service at Google I/O last month (and plans to launch it on iOS soon)....

In a statement, Apple said that its upcoming App Tracking Transparency rules will be applied to all developers equally, worldwide. This follows reports that the state-backed Chinese Advertising Association had developed workarounds and was encouraging adoption of ‘CAID’ identifiers as an alternative, if the user opts out of allowing IDFA collection. App Tracking Transparency (ATT) is multi-faceted. At a technical level, it requires an app to show a permissions dialog and get explicit consent from the user to collect what is called an IDFA identifier....

Today, Apple has seeded the first beta build of OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.1 to developers. The build number is 12B13 and it is available from the Mac Developer Center web portal. Apple says that the initial 10.8.1 seed has zero known issues. However, Apple asks developers to focus on testing Active Directory, Microsoft Exchange in Mail, PAC Proxies in Safari, SMB, USB, and WiFi and Audio when connected to the Apple Thunderbolt Display....

Shot on iPhone 12 Pro Max by Nathan Underwood. Floral arrangements by Kiana Underwood. Valentine’s Day day is this Sunday and ahead of the flowery, festive love holiday, Apple has shared a detailed post on “How to capture stunning floral photos with iPhone 12 Pro models.” And the write up from a professional floral photographer has tips that can be useful for a variety of subjects beyond flowers too. Apple shared the new feature on getting the most out of its iPhone 12 Pro camera systems in a Newsroom post today....