After seven tumultuous months of intense scrutiny from Melbourne residents, Apple has submitted revised blueprints for it’s planned store in Federation Square, the Herald Sun reports. Apple first presented architectural renders for the new structure last December in an Australian Newsroom post, where illustrations showed a two-floor pavilion replacing Federation Square’s Yarra building. Rumors of a store in the square surfaced as early as 2016. Apple said the space would create the company’s “most significant store in the Southern Hemisphere....

To help with the international refugee crisis happening right now, Apple and the band Imagine Dragons have collaborated on an exclusive charity single, called “I Was Me” ($1.29). All proceeds of the song sales go to the UN Refugee Agency to support relief efforts. In addition, SAP will be donating an additional 10 cents per download for the first 5 million iTunes downloads. The Imagine Dragons track is exclusive to iTunes and available worldwide....

Apple will continue to experiment with its iPhone lineup in India after both reintroducing and re-retiring its iPhone 4 in the country this year. That’s according to a new report by The Times of India, which says Apple is poised to introduce the cheaper iPhone 5c 8GB model in India by early next month. The report notes the iPhone 5c will be priced close to “Rs 35,000-Rs 37,000 with a buyback offer” which is “about Rs 2,000 cheaper than the 16GB version with a buyback offer”....

Apple has released the third iOS 9.3 public beta to non-developer testers today. iOS 9.3 public beta 3 follows this week’s third developer iOS 9.3 beta release as well. The latest beta cleans up issues introduced in the last version while adding some new features as well. iOS 9.3, which is expected to be released to everyone next month, adds loads of new features for iPhones and iPads including Night Shift mode to change the display temperature for evening reading, Touch ID/secure passwords to protect Notes, new 3D Touch shortcuts on the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, enhancements to the Health and Activity apps, iCloud for iBooks PDF syncing, and much more....

Steve Jobs went ballistic, giving Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer an earful for stealing the most important games developer then on the Mac, Bungie Software, way back in 2000. As a result of Jobs’ angry call to Ballmer, Ed Fries, the former vice president of game publishing at Microsoft, and the man central to Microsoft’s acquisition of Rare and Bungie, was told to broker a deal with Apple to appease Jobs. As the video above shows, Jobs was particularly annoyed at the Microsoft deal because he’d hosted a public preview of Halo at a Macworld Apple event just months before....

Google Maps may no longer hold the spotlight in iOS 6, but a new report indicates its direct competition in Russia is apparently able to power some Apple Maps features. Yandex sports the majority market share in Russia, and a report from TechCrunch this morning, which cited sources “close to the situation,” claimed the search engine’s built-in API serves up details on local businesses when iOS 6 users seek information in Maps....

Apple has scored a belated additional victory against Samsung in its endless patent trial battle with the smartphone rival. Apple had originally asked the court for two remedies: financial compensation, and an injunction forbidding Samsung from continuing to sell devices which infringed its patents. The court said yes to the first, no to the second. As the WSJ reports, a federal appeals court judge has ruled that the court should have also granted the injunction....

In the heart of Milan, Apple is making final preparations to open their 17th store in Italy. The new location will be the first in the country to fully embrace the idea of Apple stores as modern day town squares, an initiative rolled out in conjunction with the company’s new store design. Apple Piazza Liberty, named after its location in a historic plaza bordered by other premium retailers, boasts a noteworthy compliment of architectural features differentiating it from any previous Apple store....

Apple’s new ‘TV’ app has begun rolling out to Apple TV owners in the USA. Apple explained last month that the app is intended to bring together shows from multiple TV apps into a single view. Several readers have reported seeing the app appear … “Using apps on Apple TV, iPhone and iPad has become the primary way for so many of us to watch television,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services....

Apple has lost one of its lead marketing creatives. Arnau Bosch Vergés is leaving Apple’s ad agency TBWA\Media Arts Lab to form his own social media platform targeting musicians. As first reported by The Drum, Bosch is most known for his work with Robbin Ingvarsson and Kako Mendez on the HomePod short film “Welcome Home,” directed by Spike Jonze. That film won numerous awards at various industry events, including at Cannes last year....

Apple released updates for iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch today with multiple security updates. The patched flaws involved malicious web content that could lead to arbitrary code execution – and Apple says they may have been actively exploited. Apple released iOS 14.5.1 and iOS 12.5.3, macOS 11.3.1, and watchOS 7.4.1 today with the primary changes being security fixes (App Tracking Transparency bug fix for iOS too). So be sure to install the newest updates to get the latest protection....

In a statement to Macerkopf, Apple’s vice president of Apple Music and International Content announces that App Store payments to European developers have just exceeded $25 billion. Schusser became the head of Apple Music last year with the departure of Jimmy Iovine. In his role as head of international content, he is also expected to be working on programming for Apple’s upcoming TV and news/magazine subscription services. As of January, Apple said total developer payouts topped $120 billion....

Apple has officially retired the Apple Field Trip program previously offered in its retail stores. In its place, “a new educational experience” is coming soon. Prior to the onset of COVID-19, K-12 students, youth groups, and teachers could schedule hands-on group sessions at their local Apple Stores through the Apple Field Trip program. Students worked together with Apple Creative Pros to find their creative passions, and educators explored how to take their classrooms further by making the most of Apple tools and resources....

Right on cue, the Apple Store is down today ahead of new iPhone and HomePod mini preorders. The store will be back up at about 5 AM PT, so if you are waiting to order a new HomePod mini or the iPhone 12 mini, or the iPhone 12 Pro Max, you’ve got a few more hours to wait. Last night, Apple allowed a few publications to post their hands-on with the iPhone 12 mini and iPhone 12 Pro Max, with both ends of the spectrum offering the smallest and largest flagship phones Apple has made to date....

Yesterday, we gave you the chance to speak your mind on Apple’s choice to omit 4K video support from the latest Apple TV — did Apple blow it, or does 4K support not yet matter? After over 6,500 votes, and more than 125 comments, we have a clear answer: roughly 2/3 of readers said Apple made the right call leaving 4K support out of the Apple TV, as they didn’t care (yet) about the feature....

Pictured above: The Rosenstraße Galerie Apple store in München According to a German-language blog, Macerkopf.de, the Mac maker will open four more stores in the country this year. Hamburg should get its second store this year, Augsburg will get one and the aforementioned Berlin store is due later this year. The latest news is that another store is set to open in Sulzbach near Frankfurt as well, pointing to several job openings in the Sulzbach, Hessen region....

Apple is preparing for upcoming openings of two new notable retail stores including its first in Mexico and its second store in Cologne, Germany. Both stores are preparing for openings with Apple’s usual practice of large barricades blocking public view while the company puts on finishing touches and prepares for grand openings, as pictured above and below. The first store in Mexico has been covered with a colorful barricade with text that translates to “Hello Mexico, we have much to celebrate,” a welcome for the country’s first official Apple retail store to be located in the Centro Santa Fe shopping mall....

Apple has rolled out a more granular System Status Page for its slew of online services, as noted by The Next Web. The new page covers the system status of all of Apple’s internet services, stores, and individual iCloud features. Additionally, the new website features an easy to track time graph of downtime across all of Apple’s online services. Earlier today, we noted that Apple’s iCloud services had been seeing unexpected downtime over the past few days....

iBeacon, Apple’s new framework for using low-cost Bluetooth LE devices to beam notifications to nearby smartphones and tablets, will soon be getting a bigger push from Apple and third-party manufacturers through its Made-For-iPhone program. While “iBeacon” is often used in the media to describe any Bluetooth beacon, Apple is now implementing tighter control over who can use the ‘iBeacon’ branding. Much like it requires for manufacturers placing the “Made-for-iPhone” branding on Apple authorized devices, Apple is now requiring manufacturers meet certain specifications before using ‘iBeacon’ on their products....

Apple has released the second iOS 10.3 public beta for testing on iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. iOS 10.3 public beta 2 follows the second developer version of the upcoming software update. Apple’s public beta program is free to participate in unlike its paid developer program. iOS 10.3 will be released to everyone likely this spring, and the public beta allows more users to test pre-release versions of the software update before it’s finalized....