The company is understood to have reached deals with Disney, Paramount, Twentieth Century Fox, Warner Brothers, Lions Gate and MGM under which iTunes in both named countries will begin offering popular films for purchase and rental using Apple’s service. The move is likely to help boost Apple TV sales, and to improve the utility of iPod and iPhones. Despite the lack of costs of manufacture or distribution of physical product, the studios have insisted they don’t want to undercut DVD prices with the move, suggesting prices for films will be set between £6 and £25, depending on the title, according to a report in The Times....

Samsung may be the exclusive supplier of OLED screens for the iPhone 8, but it seems that Apple is taking significant steps to diversify its supply chain. Not only is the company reportedly close to striking a deal with LG, but Apple is said to be making a large up-front investment in the company’s OLED production lines in return for output being exclusively devoted to iPhone screens … Samsung is currently the world’s leading supplier of OLED panels, with around a 95% share of smartphone-sized panels, and was last week said to be trying to consolidate its position by building the world’s largest production plant for the display technology....

According to our sources, Apple’s already announced plans for November and December launches of the redesigned 21.5-inch and 27-inch iMac lines are still on track. This refutes a report from French site MacBidouille which claimed that both the new 21.5-inch and 27-inch iMacs would see their respective launches delayed until 2013. Our sources say that Apple is already shipping new 21.5-inch iMacs to its distribution hubs across the United States and several other countries across the world....

Apple’s newest board member is a living embodiment of just why we should all be using Macs — but unfortunately not in a good way. You see, his former company, Northrop Grumman, is currently causing huge problems in its implementation of computer systems across the state of Virginia. Ronald D Sugar, the former defense and oil guy who now shares a table with Al Gore on Apple’s board “was chairman and CEO of Northrop Grumman in 2005 when it won the bid to rebuild the state of Virginia’s computer infrastructure from top to bottom,” reports Apple 2....

As promised earlier in the year, Apple’s Swift team has now posted source code for the Swift compiler and standard library functions and objects. Open-sourcing Swift is a big win for the developer community as it means Swift can now be setup to run on a server and many other use cases, bringing Apple programming talent and expertise beyond ‘just’ making apps iOS devices and Macs. Making Swift open-source also gives the developer community as a whole more confidence in the language....

Apple is leveraging its popular series of in-store creative sessions to highlight Apple TV+ original content. Upcoming Today at Apple sessions supplement Apple Original Films and offer more insight from their creators. As part of the “Fifth Avenue Creates” series of sessions created to celebrate the reopening of Apple Fifth Avenue in New York, Apple has organized two exclusive events supported by the video subscription service Apple TV+. Update: Apple has added an additional session highlighting its original show “Helpsters....

What Are Siri Shortcuts? Siri has come a long way since first launching on the iPhone 4s in 2011. Today, various Apple devices have the voice assistant baked in, including iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Mac, Apple Watch, HomePod, and more. On iPhone and iPad, Siri automatically keeps track of your digital routines across apps, then uses this information to suggest ways to perform everyday tasks from either the device Lock screen or in Search....

We’ve been told that Apple will be holding one of their overnights – which seem to be a weekly thing lately – at their chain of retail stores next Tuesday night. The overnight is being held in order to setup new displays in each store’s glass front or within the actual store setup. Apple Stores currently have large book displays in the back of their stores. These books are a part of an Apple partnership with the Teach for America Foundation....

Apple will offer Storefront service at its retail stores in England starting this Friday. The temporary pickup format will allow Apple to remain open and continue serving customers in a limited capacity during the launch of the iPhone 12 mini and iPhone 12 Pro Max, even as England enters a new national lockdown. England’s COVID-19 lockdown begins on November 5 and extends until at least December 2. The new restrictions specify that all non-essential stores will close to walk-in customers, but retailers may still offer delivery and “click-and-collect” services....

Apple Pay has slowly been making its way around the world, but there are still a variety of countries where the service hasn’t launched. Today, however, Polish website iMagazine discovered a handful of hints on Apple’s website that suggest Apple Pay may soon be coming to Germany and Italy. This isn’t the first we’ve heard of Apple Pay potentially coming to Germany. In October of last year, Apple’s website in Germany accidentally housed a pair of German-langauge documents that suggested Apple was soon launching Apple Pay in the country....

Apple this week hosted two live events at its flagship store in Milan for the first time since the pandemic began. Film screenings celebrating Milano MovieWeek were held in the outdoor amphitheater at Apple Piazza Liberty, with safety measures and physical distancing enforced. On September 17 and 18, “Between Cinema and Music” recognized Milan’s filmmaking legacy with two screenings hosted in collaboration with Apple TV+ and Apple Music. Apple set up a large outdoor display at the entrance to Apple Piazza Liberty and allowed a small numbers of viewers to attend through an online ticketing system....

Apple is highlighting some of the iPhone’s key differentiators with a new webpage and several fun animations posted on YouTube. The page is currently live on Apple’s German website, and will likely roll out to other countries soon. On the page, Apple explains their belief that the iPhone is more than just a device itself. From energy efficiency and recycling to privacy, each iPhone is a product of design decisions made along the way....

We are expecting significant updates to the iPad and Mac lines later this year, and Apple appears to be getting in the admin work early as five new iPad and five new Mac models have turned up in the Eurasian Economic Commission database as found by Consomac. The filing says that these new devices are running iOS 11 and macOS 10.13, which is unusual as we’d typically expect Apple to ship these hardware updates with the new flagship software releases, iOS 12 and macOS Mojave....

Apple today has released the fourth developer preview of OS X 10.11 El Capitan. The operating system carries the build number 15A226f. Two weeks ago, the company pushed the third beta build to developers after initially introducing the operating system at WWDC last month. Beta 3 brought about a variety of minor changes, including changes to Mission Control, the Photos app, and the Calendar app. In addition to allowing developers to test El Capitan, Apple is also offering public beta of the operating system and will also make it available to all retail employees to try....

Update: iOS 13 beta 6 and iPadOS 13 beta 6 are now available alongside watchOS 5 beta 6 and tvOS 13 beta 6. No macOS Catalina beta 6 yet. Apple is releasing the sixth developer beta version of iOS 13 and iPadOS 13 (possibly alongside new seeds of watchOS 6, tvOS 13, and macOS Catalina) today. Apple’s public beta builds should follow at a later date after the latest developer beta has been tested in the wild....

Apple has seemingly moved to block desktop apps that allow users to manage files on their iOS devices in its recent iOS 8.3 update, as noted by MacRumors. Many popular file transfer apps, such as iFunBox, iTools, iExplorer, iBackupBot and PhoneView, have experienced the issue that prevents users from accessing file directories for apps on iOS devices. The apps were previously a popular way for users to install software on iOS devices that Apple does not allow in the App Store, like game emulators....

Earlier this month, Tim Cook announced in an internal memo that Apple is going to adopt a new hybrid work plan that will require employees to work in-person at least three days a week. While this has resulted in some controversy, the company reaffirmed that it has no plans to go back on its decision, as it considers in-person work “essential.” In an internal video obtained by The Verge, senior VP of retail and people Deirdre O’Brien said that Apple believes that “in-person collaboration is essential to our culture and our future....

In December, Apple deferred its return-to-work effort and gave all employees a $1,000 bonus that it encouraged them to spend on remote-working equipment. It had previously targeted February 1 for corporate staff to return to physical workspaces and was piloting a hybrid-work arrangement where staff could come to the office one or two days per week. Apple also on Thursday announced it would resume in-person classes at Apple stores on March 7 for the first time since the start of the pandemic....

Apple CEO Tim Cook informed Apple employees today via email that the company has settled with the United States Federal Trade Commision over an in-app purchases dispute. Cook says that Apple and the FTC have been negotiating for “several months.” The issue in the App Store comes down to the controversies surrounding children spending money too easily in the App Store without the consent of their parents. Cook notes that “protecting children” has been a priority for everyone at Apple, and Cook notes that the App Store has industry leading controls for security and privacy, making the need to deal with the FTC surprising....

A report on Fone Frenzy (who?) claims Verizon Wireless CEO, Lowell McAdam has visited Apple HQ “several times”, adding that Apple is testing a CDMA iPhone on the Verizon 4G LTE network. “The tests have been taking place for the last couple of months and but with no confirmation on the release date,” this report claims. A report on the report published on MacTouchUser also makes the claim that Apple and Verizon are testing a tablet prototype on the network, citing an old BusinessWeek article....