Apple is pushing its business-focused Apple Retail salespeople to sell Macs to businesses currently running in Windows environments, according to Apple retail employees briefed on the new initiative. Apple Retail Stores, in their business/professional sections, will now have a 27-inch iMac prepared with the Parallels Virtualization Software and Microsoft’s Windows 8 operating system. Select Apple Retail employees will also be trained on the Parallels and Windows software, and special Parallels demos have been created for Apple Stores....

Years before Apple bought Beats Electronics, the Beats by Dr. Dre-branded headphones were produced in part by audio and video equipment maker Monster. After Beats decided to let its contract with Monster expire in 2012, however, the cable maker saw Apple’s $3 billion purchase of the company as reason to sue. Now Monster claims, after filing its lawsuit in January, that Apple is pushing it out of the MFi program that allows manufacturers to advertise compatibility with and use the iPhone maker’s licensed technology when producing and selling accessories…...

As rumored, Apple Pay has indeed launched today in Austria. The supporting banks are Erste Sparkasse and N26, across Maestro, Mastercard, and Visa debit and credit cards. If you meet this criteria, open the Wallet app on your iPhone and press the Add button to start setting up Apple Pay. You may need to restart your phone to get the Wallet app to refresh. Apple has announced that additional Austrian Apple Pay partners are ‘coming soon’, including Bank Austria, Boon, Edenred, Revolut, and VIMPay....

Apple has quietly given the front end of its jobs site a facelift adding new employee testimonials and updated product shots. The refreshed layout matches the style of other new pages throughout Apple’s site with the landing page carrying this message: “Do your life’s best work here. With the whole world watching.” Notably, the updated jobs site now includes product shots of the upcoming Apple Watch, specifically an aluminum sport model with a green band and the sensors showing, as well as student in class wearing now Apple-owned Beats by Dr Dre headphones…...

Apple has today updated its News Publisher with a fresh design across the iCloud based media manager. The refresh brings a totally redesigned dashboard, bolder fonts, and an improved UI. At the top of the new design users will see Articles, Analytics, and Settings. Each with a clean sidebar style list on the left. The most prominent change many will notice will be the redesigned dashboard, which features a grid style layout of the various analytics....

Apple has removed around 25,000 illegal gambling apps from its Chinese app store following complaints by state-controlled media. Chinese media last month accused Apple of failing to do enough to block three three types of illegal content from its platforms … Apple was said to permit gambling, pornography and spam for counterfeit goods in is App Store and on its Messaging platform. Reuters reports that Apple has now taken action on the first of these....

Apple has renewed its Carpool Karaoke original series for a third season, according to a report from Variety. Apple’s Carpool Karaoke series is available to Apple Music subscribers and is a separate initiative from Apple TV+. Carpool Karaoke is a spin-off of James Corden’s popular segment from The Late Late Show on CBS. While reviews have been mixed, the star-studded lineup of the segment has proven to be popular, and it even won an Emmy last year....

As planned, Apple today announced its earnings results for the Q3 2013 quarter. Apple reported revenues for Q3 of $35.3 billion, which is within Apple’s estimates for the quarter of between $33.5 billion and $35.5 billion. This compares to $35 billion in revenues in the year-ago Q3. The Company sold 31.2 million iPhones, a record for the June quarter, compared to 26 million in the year-ago quarter. Apple also sold 14....

Earlier this week, Apple announced a “Shot on iPhone” competition. This contest allows photographers to submit pictures taken with their iPhone, with a panel of judges selecting the top 10 best photos. Those photos will then be placed on billboards and other Apple “marketing channels.” Today, Apple has made a notable change to the contest after criticism… Shortly after the contest’s announcement, there was backlash about the fact that Apple was going to use these images in marketing, but not compensate the photographers....

Apple has apparently been revising its app review strategy this week and has decided to reverse a previous decision that banned MassRoots, a marijuana-centric social app, from its software storefront. The application was booted from the App Store late last year (though it lasted much longer on the store than some other apps). According to App Store guideline 2.18: MassRoots announced today that Apple has agreed to allow the app back in the store as long as it is restricted to users located in one of the 23 states where medical (or recreational, in some cases) marijuana is legal....

Two of Apple’s important developer tools are seeing downtime. Apple says “some users” are seeing problems with App Store Connect App Processing and TestFlight. Apple noted the outages on its Developer System Status page today. Notably the App Store Connect App Processing has been ongoing since yesterday January 13 at 12:15 pm PT. Meanwhile, Apple says that problems with TestFlight started today at 12:34 pm PT. For the App Store Connect App Processing, Apple says “Some users are affected” and that “Users are experiencing a problem with this service....

Almost the exact 2x Apple promised and great for people doing big videos. Also notable from Macsfuture: So it seems that Apple’s processors are about 3-4 years behind Intel’s currently. If Apple’s Ax processors keeps doubling speed every year and Intel struggles to keep up with Moore’s law, it doesn’t take a Computer Science major to see what’s going to happen in a few years. Fasten your seatbelts, Mac Pro CPU cracks 30,000 in updated Geekbench tests (9to5mac....

Further expanding on its recent “If it’s not an iPhone, it’s not an iPhone” ad campaign, Apple today has uploaded a new iPhone ad to its YouTube channel. This ad highlights Apple Pay, Apple’s contactless payment solution. The ad marks the first time Apple itself has advertised Apple Pay, although some banks and credit cards have run Apple Pay ads independently. In the ad, Apple touts that using Apple Pay is more secure than using a credit card, in addition it being faster and simpler than other payment methods....

Tomorrow marks World Emoji Day, and Apple is getting a head start on the festivities by detailing 59 new iOS emoji coming later this year. Apple says the new emoji characters will be available on iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch this fall. Headlining the new emoji are a variety of new disability-themed options, which Apple says help represent its values and inclusiveness: The “Holding Hands” emoji will also get a major update this year, with Apple touting that users will now be able to select any combination of skin tone and gender, “to personalize the people holding hands, opening up more than 75 possible combinations....

After 17 months of construction and delays, Apple has made it official: the Hannover Germany Store will open this Saturday at 10am local time. The multi-level store will be the 14th Apple retail venue in Germany and will be modelled similar to the Opera Paris Store which opened in 2010. The Bahnhofstrasse 5 location is in a pedestrian zone only few meters from Hannover Central Station and just off the popular shopping promenade “Niki de Saint Phalle“....

According to a report from Fortune, which cited a “major Apple investor,” Apple is apparently preparing to launch the much-rumoured iPad mini with invitations expected to go out Oct. 10: Author of the post, Fortune’s Philip Elmer-DeWitt, is well connected with AAPL analysts and big traders, and the report noted the invitation rumor is coming from multiple reliable sources. If there is any truth to the rumor, it could line up nicely with an Oct....

Rumors of Apple’s renovation plans for its flagship Fifth Avenue store have been circulating for a while now, but the renovations will soon commence as the company has announced plans to briefly relocate the Fifth Avenue store to a new location during the process… As noted by MacRumors, Apple has posted a sign in front of its iconic Fifth Avenue retail location that says the store will temporarily move locations on January 20th....

Apple’s relationship with China has become trickier than ever this month as it banned an app that was used by protesters in Hong Kong, then allowed it again, only to ban it the next week. Now US lawmakers from both sides of the aisle have sent a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook criticizing the company of censorship and asking it to put “values above market access.” Reported by Bloomberg, senators and representatives wrote the letter to Cook including Ted Cruz, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ron Wyden, Tom Cotton, Marco Rubio, Mike Gallagher, and Tom Malinowski....

With Apple Pay continuing its ongoing rollout across U.S. banks and credit unions, Apple’s mobile payment service has added over 30 new partners. Here is the full list of new Apple Pay banks: Anderson Brothers Bank, Bank & Trust Company, Bank of Labor, Bank of Yazoo, BankWest, Brown County State Bank, Busey Bank, Campbell & Fetter Bank, Central Bank of Oklahoma, Collinsville Savings Society, Core Bank, Covantage Credit Union, Diversified Members Credit Union, Farmington Bank, Florida Parishes Bank, Fort Worth Community Credit Union, Great Midwest Bank, Horizon Bank (not Horizon Bank, N....

Apple currently plans to expand its retail store presence to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil early next year, according to information provided by a source. This person says that Apple is targeting a store opening between February and March 2014, but delays due to construction and staffing are always possible. Approximately one year ago, Apple confirmed to various media outlets in Brazil that it is planning to open a store in the country....