Over the weekend, Apple posted its latest EEO-1 statement: the Equal Employment Opportunity form follows government regulations to note diversity of Apple’s employee base (via AppleInsider). The newly-released 2015 statement shows that 30 percent of Apple’s employees in the United States are female, a rise of 1% over the numbers posted in the 2014 statement. Black and Hispanic employees make up 8.6 percent and 11.7 percent of the workforce, respectively....

Josh Shaffer, Apple’s engineering director for UIKit and SwiftUI has joined John Sundell on his podcast Swift by Sundell in the latest episode to give a detailed look into what inspired SwiftUI, how Apple is using and improving it, and much more. In the most recent Swift by Sundell episode, A major step forward, John talks with Apple’s SwiftUI engineering director, Josh Shaffer, for a fascinating and comprehensive conversation about the framework....

Apple’s new iPad Pro and MacBook Air on sale Meanwhile, you can snag the new iPad Pro in the 11-inch configuration from $750. Only the Wi-Fi model is discounted at this time. Notable features here include an 11-inch display featuring edge-to-edge Liquid Retina display with ProMotion, True Tone, and P3 wide color. Learn more in our review roundup. B&H clears out prev-gen. MacBook Pro B&H is currently taking up to $650 off various previous-generation Apple MacBook Pro models....

Apple formally introduced its new Single Sign-On feature yesterday, though with a weak list of supporters, both in terms of apps and cable companies. According to a new report from The Verge, however, Apple is adding support for the ABC and Disney apps just a day after the initial launch… Starting today, the Watch ABC and Watch Disney apps for tvOS and iOS will now atualtically log you in, assuming you’ve entered your cable provider login credentials into the Settings app....

Apple has announced that all 14 of its final assembly plants in China are now zero-waste compliant, meaning that none of the waste is sent to landfill. Waste products are instead recycled, re-used, composted or burned to generate energy. Typically, paper and cardboard are sent to paper mills for recycling, glass & metal is melted for re-use, plastic is recycled into packaging materials and food is composted … The company has also said that one of its major glass suppliers in China, Lens Technology, has committed to run all its Apple operations on 100% renewable energy, though not immediately – the deadline for compliance is the end of 2018....

After launching its annual back to school promotions last month, Apple has now shared a new ad showcasing how college students use the Mac outside of the classroom. The new ad is a continuation of Apple’s “Behind the Mac” ad campaign. In the ad, Apple encourages students to “test the impossible,” saying that “the rules on what is possible and impossible in the arts were made by people who had not tested the bounds of the possible by going beyond them....

Apple today is continuing its ad campaign focusing on the Portrait Mode and Depth Control features on the iPhone XR and XS. The latest ad is called “Alejandro” and focuses on using Depth Control to remove someone from the background of an image. Today’s ad focuses on a jealous significant other seemingly using Depth Control to remove another person from a Portrait Mode image. Apple touts that Depth Control allows you to blur out people in the background to “get your portraits just right....

Apple’s stock price $AAPL is back into triple digits, breaking the $100 mark for the first time since June 6th. The rise doesn’t seem to be tied to any particular news event but AAPL stock has rallied through the second half of last week. The recorded high for today is $100.13 although naturally stock prices vary all the time. Eyes are on Apple’s earning results, due July 26, to see if the company can meet expectations after ending its 13-year record revenue streak last quarter....

Update: The two parties may have agreed terms for the escrow account, but Reuters reports that they have yet to agree a date for Apple to begin transferring funds into it. The EU ruling that Ireland offered illegal state aid to Apple, and must recover €13B ($15B) in underpaid taxes, marked the end of a long-running investigation – but not the end of the dispute … Both Apple and the Irish government have appealed the ruling, but the position in the meantime is that the amount must be collected....

Apple’s VP of Internet Services Jennifer Bailey has been announced as the keynote speaker for this year’s TRANSACT conference scheduled for later this spring. Jennifer Bailey had led Apple Pay since its launch in 2014. TRANSACT is a major conference that focuses on global payment technology. The conference is scheduled to run from April 30 to May 2 in Las Vegas. In the keynote speaker announcement, Jennifer Bailey teased out how she’ll promote Apple Pay at the conference:...

A new report from ITG has revealed that Apple Pay was responsible for 1% of the total digital payment dollars spent in November. The study also found that 60% of new Apple Pay customers used the service multiple times throughout the month, while competing services like PayPal see only 20% of customers do the same. Additionally, the research found that shoppers who took advantage of Apple Pay used the service for around 5....

As expected, the Apple Pay mobile payments service for the latest iPhone and Apple Watch models has gone live in Australia, where it is already Thursday. Apple Pay for apps is also available for devices without NFC, such as recent iPad models. The service debuted earlier this week in Canada, following the late 2014 launch in the United States. Currently, the service is limited solely to American Express card users in both Australia and Canada....

The ‘will it, won’t it’ speculation about Apple moving into original TV content in a significant way continues today with a WSJ report claiming that the company is planning to offer ‘original scripted TV content’ by the end of the year. Apple is also said to be ‘considering’ the idea of offering original movies, though these plans are said to be less advanced. While speculation has so far focused on the idea of Apple offering subscription TV packages, today’s report suggests more of a continuation of the company’s approach to date …...

Over recent weeks, reports have suggested Apple is planning a new iPad mini 5 as well as a 10-inch iPad. Now, the company has registered a handful new iPad models with the Eurasian Economic Commission, the database that has revealed new Apple devices in the past. The filings show Apple having registered a handful of “tablet computers” running iOS 12 with the EEC. The model numbers listed are as follows: A2123, A2124, A2126, A2153, A2154, A2133, and A2152....

Apple has once again rejected the Facebook Gaming app on the iOS App Store, reinforcing that the company is not as open to competition. The app was being reviewed by Apple for the past few weeks, but now the company has decided to definitely reject it. A new report from the New York Times details how the Facebook team is not surprised by Apple’s decision, as they have been trying to launch the Facebook Gaming app on the App Store unsuccessfully since February....

[Update: Now available over-the-air with developer profiles installed. macOS 10.14.3 beta 1 and tvOS 12.1.2 beta 1 are also available for developers.] Apple is releasing the first iOS 12.1.2 developer beta shortly following the official release of iOS 12.1.1 last week. watchOS 5.1.3 developer beta 1 for Apple Watch is also coming today. The release notes for the upcoming iOS developer beta only highlight bug fixes and performance improvements, but we’ll dig in and update if any notable changes are discovered....

As expected, Apple just announced its fiscal year 2014 first quarter results for the all-important holiday quarter. It’s Q3 report only included less than a month of sales for the new iPhone 5s, 5c and revamped MacBooks, making today’s report the first to include a full three-month period of sales for the new devices on top of the expected boost in revenue leading into the holidays. It’s also the first report since Apple shipped the new Retina iPad mini, iPad Air, and Mac Pro....

The charts dictate your app sales statistics in the top 10 regions where your app is on sale and also displays unit sales per app per day. Percent and unit change is also shown so you can compare your daily figures. Other categories of statistics include in-app-purchases and app updates. The sales view offers a comprehensive look at unit sale figures for each app for each day. This section will show the version number downloaded, the type of app, how many units on that day or week, the customers price (upgrade, paid etc....

Apple’s lead over Samsung in smartphone sales, reported last month, may be short-lived, suggests a new report today. Gartner last month estimated that iPhone sales overtook combined sales of all Samsung smartphones in the final quarter of the year … A new TrendForce report out today agrees. The popularity of the iPhone 12 meant Apple overtook Samsung in smartphone sales in the final quarter of last year, the first time this has happened in four years, says Gartner....

Fortune is out today with its annual Businessperson of the Year list and this time around a couple notable Apple connections have made the list. Coming in at #4 behind #1Elon Musk, activist investors, and Tencent CEO ‘Pony’ Ma Huateng, is Apple’s recently hired Head of Retail, Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts. Ahrendts, who will leave her role has Burberry CEO to officially start work at Apple as Senior Vice President of Retail in Spring of 2014, will play a vital role in continuing to build Apple’s retail strategy after more than a year without someone in the position....