Following this week’s fourth developer preview of OS X 10.11, Apple has released the second El Capitan public beta to testers. The OS X public beta allows Mac users to test the new features included in the operating system update and submit feedback ahead of its public release later this fall. Participation in Apple’s public beta program does not require a paid developer member account. OS X 10.11 public beta 2 includes the same changes as yesterday’s OS X 10....

It’s the first of September and Apple’s new China and People VPs have started their new roles at the company. Both Deirdre O’Brien and Isabel Ge Mahe have joined Apple’s Leadership page for their respective roles as Vice President of People and Vice President and Managing Director of Greater China. Siri has also moved from Eddy Cue to Craig Federighi who oversees iOS and macOS. Apple announced O’Brien’s promotion to VP of People back in July....

With some high profile exceptions, it is generally accepted that Apple ships some of the most reliable high-tech products out there – at least if you believe the customer satisfaction reports. Things are far murkier for Tesla in that department, especially at its relatively early age. Last year, Consumer Reports pulled their recommendation of the Tesla Model S citing “worse-than-average” reliability issues. It became one of Tesla’s top priority over the last year and the automaker has made some significant improvements as evidenced by the declining replacement rates for major components, thanks in part to a growing reliability and test team....

In the first official statement about Apple’s decision to allow Tim Cook and other senior executives to be interviewed for Becoming Steve Jobs, company spokesman Steve Dowling said it was from a sense of responsibility to Steve’s memory. Apple had initially refused interview requests by authors Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli, the company taking 18 months to change its mind, reports the NY Times … After a long period of reflection following Steve’s death, we felt a sense of responsibility to say more about the Steve we knew....

Apple announced today that it will release its third quarter earnings on July 31st. That same day, it will hold an earnings call with investors at 2PM PT/5PM ET. The date was first reported by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. As a refresher, Apple announced its Q2 earnings on May 1st. The company reported $61.1 billion in revenue and $13.8 billion in profit earned from selling 52.2 million iPhones, 9.1 million iPads, and 4....

Apple announced on its Investor Relations page this afternoon that it will release its Q4 earnings Oct. 25. In typical fashion, Apple releases its earnings in a press release at 4:30 p.m. after the market closes and follows with an earnings call with key Apple executives at 5 p.m. This quarter’s call will be one to tune in for, as CEO Tim Cook will surely discuss iPhone 5 sales and more....

A day after the event, Apple today has uploaded its entire ‘See you on the 7th’ iPhone 7 event to YouTube. Yesterday, the company shared a handful of videos from the event on YouTube, as well as new videos focused on living a healthy lifestyle. In the description for the video, Apple invites everyone to take a look at its latest announcements: In the full keynote, which comes in at just under 2 hours in length, Apple made a variety of different announcements....

Apple is once again using its retail stores to promote Computer Science Education Week and Code.org by hosting Hour of Code computer programming workshops for kids on Thursday, December 11th. Apple describes the workshops as fun, hour-long introductions to coding: “Hour of Code is a fun one-hour introduction to computer science, designed to demystify code and show that anyone can learn the basics of programming.” Potential attendees can now register to reserve a spot at the programming basics workshop at Apple Stores in the United States and around the world, and Apple is hosting special events at several of its international stores including London, Berlin, and Tokyo next week....

The trade-ins will only be done at Apple Retail Stores and will allow customers to recieve credit instantly. Recently, Best Buy began offering Free iPhone 5s with plan for an iPhone 4 or 4S trade-in. Apple apparently liked the idea – Brightstar counts both Best Buy and Apple amongst its client list. Apple also worked with Brightstar to help AT&T and T-Mobile with their recent trade-in promotions. Apple has teamed up with Brightstar Corp....

Last night, Apple announced its latest original series heading to Apple TV+: ‘Ted Lasso’ starring Jason Sudeikis. The comedy is based on the character of the same name from the viral NBC Sports ads. The show will air on August 14. The character Ted Lasso is a college football coach from Kansas. He is hired to coach an English football team, naturally having no experience of soccer. Upcoming TV+ releases include the ‘Dear’ docuseries and the ‘Dads’ documentary film....

Since launching in China two weeks ago and adding 3 million users in just two days, Apple Pay is continuing its expansion across the United States as well. The addition of Mainland China started with another dozen participating banks, and today another 27 banks have joined the 1,000+ partners in the US. These are the latest: 1st Community Federal Credit Union Abacus Federal Savings Bank Bank of England BankFirst Financial Services Bull’s Eye Credit Union Colfax Banking Company Columbia Bank Florida First Bank First Federal Bank of Louisiana First National Bank of Durango First Southern National Franklin First Federal Credit Union Green Country Federal Credit Union Gulf States Credit Union Guthrie County State Bank Henrico Federal Credit Union Lone Star National Bank Mill City Credit Union Modern Woodmen Bank Pasadena Federal Credit Union PNC Bank, Global Investment Servicing Raleigh County Federal Credit Union Sage Capital Bank St....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGtP6ZQ6Lt8 Apple has just posted a new video to its YouTube channel titled “Making a difference. One app at a time.” The nine minute video highlights ways that developer’s apps change people’s lives. Featured apps in the video include Skyscape Medical Resources, Galileo, Cherokee Language, and Proloquo2Go. Coming hot off the heels of Apple’s WWDC keynote on Monday, the video is a collection of stories from individuals who’s lives have been touched thanks to some of the remarkable apps developers have created for the iOS App Store....

[Update: Now available for iPhone 8 Plus users.] Several weeks after releasing iOS 12.3.1 to the public, Apple is set to release iOS 12.3.2 later today. The update will include bug fixes related to Portrait Mode on certain devices. Apple says that the update resolves a bug that caused the Camera app to take Portrait mode images without depth effect on the iPhone 8 Plus. Here’s Apple’s full explanation: iOS 12....

In the latest instance of Apple reversing controversial app rejection decisions, Panic says it received the green light to resubmit a version of its Transmit app with the ability to send files to other services including iCloud Drive once again. The news comes after Apple requested Panic remove the feature from the app to prevent it being pulled from the App Store. The situation is only the latest in which an app developer was required to remove a feature from an iOS 8 app already live on the App Store or risk it being removed entirely....

After first detailing the software update in developer documentation, Apple has now released the first beta version of watchOS 3.2 for developer testing on Apple Watch. watchOS 3.2 is the first version of the Apple Watch software that works with SiriKit, enabling developers to tap in to Siri in the same way as apps on iOS 10. Apple’s documentation also mentioned Theater Mode as a new notification toggle that disables raise-to-wake for alerts without having to change the mode in the Settings app....

Apple is now rolling out the official macOS 10.12.4 release through the Mac App Store. The latest version of macOS Sierra is the first to bring Night Shift to the Mac. macOS 10.12.4 beta included changes to Siri, Dictation, and Apple’s PDF API: Night Shift now available on the Mac. Dictation support for Shanghainese. Ask Siri about cricket scores, schedules and player rosters. Siri knows about statistics and data from the Indian Premier League and International Cricket Council....

Finisar has clarified that the $390M contribution from Apple’s Advanced Manufacturing Fund announced yesterday is not an investment in the company, but rather an agreed payment for anticipated future orders. The company makes vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs), which are a key part of the Face ID system used in the iPhone X, as well as enabling Animoji. As with the $200M Corning deal earlier in the year, the $390M commitment isn’t an altruistic gesture on Apple’s part …...

Apple is facing another anticompetitive complaint, this time filed by Rakuten who owns the Kobo ebook brand. The Financial Times reports that Kobo is filing a formal complaint that it cannot fairly compete against Apple Books in the App Store while it is subjected to sharing 30% of revenue from purchases made in the Kobo app. Kobo is currently forced to sell all of its content through its website to avoid paying Apple 30% of revenues....

Today’s best deals include iPad Air at $50 off, plus you can save on Apple Watch sport loop bands, and a budget-friendly Westinghouse HDTV. Hit the jump for all that and more. Save up to $50 on Apple’s latest iPad Air With a redesigned casing, Apple’s latest iPad Air packs a 10.9-inch edge-to-edge screen equipped with True Tone support. Everything is powered by a new A14 Bionic processor, with Touch ID making a return in the power button alongside USB-C charging and support for the second-generation Apple Pencil and Magic Keyboard....

Apple subpoenas in the Epic Games case are over the top, says a judge in the case, noting that the iPhone maker was seemingly demanding information from anyone and everyone. But he did rule that the company should get some of the Steam data it wanted in order to help understand how the games market as a whole operates. Apple had demanded hugely sensitive Steam data to help its defense in the Epic antitrust lawsuit…...