The Apple TV Channels platform is a great way to get more out of Apple’s TV application. This holiday weekend, a pair of channels are offering extended one-moth free trials: A&E Crime Central and History Vault. Typically, Apple TV Channels offer 7-day trials, but A&E and History Vault are extending their trials for one month. Apple explains: Apple says that subscriptions will automatically renew unless at canceled at $5 per month, and this offer is valid for new subscribers only....

Apple says that an ongoing outage is preventing some Apple Card users from paying their bill and accessing other features in the Wallet app on iOS. The outage started at around 8:45 a.m. ET. [Update: Resolved] Apple writes on its System Status webpage: It’s unclear how widespread this outage is, but Apple’s System Status tool indicates that “some users are affected.” Apple, unfortunately, doesn’t offer any information more specific than that....

Starbucks has long held the title of the most popular mobile payment platform in the United States. New data from eMarketer now shows that Apple Pay has surpassed Starbucks in the US as adoption of Apple’s platform continues to grow. Starbucks adopted mobile payments relatively early on, and incentivized users with rewards and features such as ordering ahead. As such, Apple Pay and other mobile payment platforms have largely been playing catch up with Starbucks until now....

[Update: Quartz India now reports that Apple has removed TikTok from the App Store in India.] Viral short-form video application TikTok is facing backlash from the government in India. Regulators are said to be concerned with some of the content found within TikTok, and the effects that content could have on children. According to a report from The Economic Times, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology is requesting that Apple remove TikTok from the App Store in India....

Apple today released two videos on their official YouTube channel titled Real Stories — Apple Watch‚ documenting the lives of actual customers that were potentially saved by wearing an Apple Watch. The video series uploaded today comes hot off Apple’s latest watchOS update finally bringing ECG support to the Series 4. Apple has been making the press rounds this morning, with Jeff Williams featured on CBS This Morning along with Apple CEO Tim Cook speaking to TIME in a new interview....

Apple has seeded the fifth iOS 9.1 beta for developers and public beta testers. The new beta includes various bug fixes and improvements … we’ll let you know if there’s anything drastically new. The new seed comes less than a week after beta 4 as Apple comes closer to a public launch of iOS 9.1. iOS 9.1 includes new emojis, new wallpapers, developer support for Live Photos and iPad Pro / Apple Pencil compatibility, amongst several other changes....

A new report by Re/code gives some extra details about Apple’s future plans for its streaming service, Beats Music. A few weeks ago Apple was reportedly looking to push prices down, although specifics were not known at the time. Today, Re/code says that Apple wants to cut prices in half, from $10 a month to $5 a month. This would be part of a relaunch of the Beats Music service — exactly what a ‘relaunch’ entails is not yet known....

You can see the area for solar has been cleared away in a picture taken earlier this week. Thanks PilotJohn! Apple has just published its 2012 Facilities Report and Environmental Update detailing Apple’s environmental footprint, contributions, and energy savings throughout Apple retail stores, R&D buildings, and its data centers. Apple said in 2011 it recorded energy savings of 5 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) in Cupertino, and “dramatic reductions” in overall energy use....

Data from Bloomberg today shows just how profitable Apple’s recent buybacks have been with the company experiencing the highest returns of any company in over a decade. The buybacks, which were also the biggest ever since Bloomberg and S&P started tracking these numbers, came as Apple stock increased 77 percent over the last 15 months and 25 percent since its $18 billion buyback last year: The report notes that other companies have been less successful with Microsoft experiencing a 16 percent increase in 2014 following its $3 billion buyback, while others including EBay and Boeing experienced shares falling....

As announced at WWDC, Apple is bringing live radio stations from several online providers for Siri users on iPhone, iPad and HomePod. Although marketed as a fall iOS 13 feature, Siri live radio is already partly working on the HomePod, and for iPhones and iPads running the iOS 13 beta. Apple said that it will be sourcing from TuneIn, iHeartRadio and Radio.com — touting a total figure above 100,00 stations. This should mean there is a decent selection of top stations available to play....

Apple (AAPL) had its best single-day performance at the stock market today, seeing a 7.04% rise, the highest in one day since April 2014. The Dow Jones rose over 1,000 points, as the entire market — particularly FAANG stocks — rebounded after a tumultuous few bearish days. Tesla (TSLA) also saw significant gains today, rising to over $300 a share after losing 21% of its value over the previous weeks....

Last week, above. Today, below. The original iPad mini has quietly disappeared from Apple’s web site, and is no longer available to purchase new from the Apple Store. Introduced in October 2012, the first iPad mini established the industrial design that was subsequently used in the iPad mini 2 and iPad mini 3, as well as the larger but otherwise nearly identical iPad Air and iPad Air 2. Apple notably continued to sell the 16GB iPad mini as an entry-level model alongside two of its sequels, dropping its price to $299 in October 2013, then $249 in October 2014....

Following the launch of iOS 13.2 and watchOS 6.1, Apple today has released macOS Catalina 10.15.1. This update includes over 70 new Emoji, support for AirPods Pro, HomeKit Secure Video, and more. This is the first major update since the launch of macOS Catalina earlier this month. macOS Catalina 10.15.1 also focuses on bug fixes and performance improvements. Users can update to the latest version through System Preferences on a Mac....

Apple updated its online store this afternoon to display the iPhone 5 as no longer limited to two per customer. The unlocked version of the iPhone 5 was first released last week, with the limit stated on the purchase page, and, as MacRumors pointed out, dropping the limit most likely means that Apple is continuing to catch up with stock of the handset as the holiday season kicks into full swing....

Amid a decline in adoption by websites, Apple has revealed that it will remove support for “Do Not Track” in Safari 12.1. As detailed in a blog post from DuckDuckGo, Do Not Track’s mission of helping users avoid having their activity tracked has largely failed. Apple, meanwhile, is shifting focus to its new Intelligent Tracking Prevention feature. Do Not Track was original designed to “a special signal to websites, analytics companies, ad networks, plug in providers, and other web services you encounter while browsing, to stop tracking your activity....

Apple has canceled Xnor.ai’s Pentagon contract for military drone work following the iPhone maker’s acquisition of the AI company. Xnor.ai was reportedly working on the controversial Project Maven, which is using AI to identify people and objects in drone videos and photos… The project came to public attention last year when it was revealed that Google was also involved. A petition by more than 4,000 Google employees led to the company not only ending its involvement but also coming up with principles governing the ethical use of AI....

Apple has sent a response to the Wall Street Journal with a full response to this morning’s report regarding Pegatron’s working conditions: Much of the report is “PR speak,” but the company addresses claims of Pegatron holding worker IDs and employees working excessive hours. As a part of our extensive Supplier Responsibility program, Apple has conducted 15 comprehensive audits at Pegatron facilities since 2007, covering more than 130,000 workers making Apple products including annual audits of Pegatron’s final assembly locations and surprise audits at both RiTeng and AVY within the past 18 months....

Beat the Black Friday rush, get latest AirPods from $130 Rakuten is offering Apple’s latest AirPods from $130 with the wireless Qi charging case version dropping to $150. That’s as much as $49 off the regular going rate. The second-generation AirPods offer support for “Hey, Siri” and include Apple’s upgraded H1 chip for fast pairing. Great for a holiday gift this year or for yourself upgrading a mobile work setup. We loved them in our hands-on review....

Beddit, the sleep tracking company that Apple bought two years ago, is launching a new beta program to allow customers to test and offer feedback on new features before release. The new Beddit Beta Program is free for participants who enroll, but there are a few requirements for participation. For starters, participants will need the latest Beddit Sleep Monitor hardware released in December. Apple Stores currently sell the 3.5 model version required for $149....

As Apple and Qualcomm’s FTC trial continues today, we’re learning more details about the quarrels between the two companies. As reported by CNET, one of the more interesting tidbits from Apple’s COO Jeff Williams was that the company wanted to put Qualcomm’s 4G chips in the iPhone XS, XS Max, and XR, but Qualcomm refused to sell them to Apple. This legal battle between Apple and Qualcomm dates back two years....