Apple

In this week’s top stories: Apple officially scheduled its iPhone 7 event for next Wednesday, September the 7th, as yet more details of the device and a second-gen Apple Watch 2 leaked this week. Head below for these and more of our top shared stories:

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Now less than a week away from Apple’s ‘See you on the 7th’ iPhone 7 event, there’s a lot we know about the device and other product announcements Apple has planned for next week. A dual-camera system for iPhone, a new and improved Apple Watch 2 with GPS, new wireless headphones, and much more. Here’s what we expect to see at Apple’s iPhone event next week…
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Two new drone flyover videos today give us an up-to-date look at construction progress at Apple’s Campus 2 site set to become the company’s new Cupertino headquarters early next year.

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Update: Apple so far is using the account only for a promoted/sponsored tweet campaign not visible from its main profile.

An @apple Twitter account has existed for more than five years, but until today has been completely dormant, with blank profile and header images. That’s now changed: there’s an Apple logo for the profile image, and the iPhone 7 event graphic as the header. So far, though, no tweets.

It’s looking likely that Apple plans to start tweeting in time for next week’s launch of the iPhone 7, with some speculating that the company may live-tweet the event …

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Bloomberg reports that Apple is to go head-to-head with Snapchat and Instagram by developing its own video-sharing app as part of a push to target younger users. The company is said to said to be motivated by the fact that social apps generate the greatest level of engagement on the iPhone, Facebook users averaging 50 minutes a day, Snapchat users 30 minutes.

The goal behind the project’s development is to offer simple video editing with tools that appeal to the generation of users growing up with Snapchat and Instagram, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the plans are private […]

Apple’s current plan calls for its project to become a stand-alone app, presumably as a download via the App Store, but the company may decide to package the functionality into the iPhone’s existing camera application, the people said.

The focus will be on short, fun videos that are super-quick to create …

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Retail chain Target is blaming Apple in part for its latest disappointing quarterly earnings results. Yahoo Finance reports that Target management cites a 20% year-over-year decline in Apple product sales during the quarter for overall electronics sales dropping.

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Consumers downloading apps from the App Store have to rely on Apple’s approval process for vetting insecure applications, and even then there isn’t a guarantee that Apple hasn’t missed something crucial. Just last year hundreds of apps in the App Store had been found to be using private APIs to collect private user data, a violation of the App Review Guidelines. The recently launched public beta test of Will Strafach’s Verify.ly service looks to provide a “warning label for apps” to everyday consumers.

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There has been a lot of talk about the OLED touch bar rumored for the upcoming MacBook Pro refresh expected this fall. But how exactly will the touchscreen work for users?

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The United States Supreme Court is set to take on Samsung’s appeal over Apple’s design patent case in two months, and today Apple has submitted an amicus brief with support from 111 famed designers ahead of the trial. Prominent names featured in the amicus brief supporting Apple include Dieter Rams, Calvin Klein, and Lord Norman Foster who is the designer behind Apple’s Campus 2 project. The Supreme Court is scheduled to take on Samsung’s appeal of the ruling in favor of Apple on October 11th.

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In its latest Diversity report released today, Apple highlighted an increase in the hiring of women and underrepresented minorities and also said it’s working to improve pay equity among employees.

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Back in February an East Texas court ruled that Apple must pay more than $625 million in damages to VirnetX over patent infringement related to iMessage and FaceTime. The patent case was especially notable for being one of the highest amounts rewarded in history, but the plaintiff in the case wasn’t satisfied and asked for $190 million more in damages four months later. But for now it’s back to the step one for Apple and VirnetX in this case as a federal judge has decided the case must be revisited…

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Update: Apple confirms:

With iPhone sales reported for Apple’s fiscal Q3 yesterday, the company is now at around 988.15 million iPhones sold, meaning it’s about to pass the 1 billion units sold milestone and will likely do so any day now.

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Just minutes ago, Apple released its official Q3 2016 earnings and as usual, the earnings release will be followed by a live conference call. Typically, Apple CEO Tim Cook and CFO Luca Maestri give a deeper look into the results, while questions will also be taken from analysts and investors.

In case you missed it, Apple reported $42.4 billion in revenue and $7.8 billion in operating profit. Contributing to those results were sales of  40.3 million iPhones, 9.9 million iPads, and 4.2 million Macs. As usual, Apple did not break out sales of the Apple Watch, which it says is for competitive reasons.

As usual, we’ll have live coverage of Apple’s earnings call in this post. The call will begin at 2PM ET/5PM PT. Tim Cook will likely speak first, followed by Maestri. The Q&A session will round out the call.

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In this week’s top stories: iPhone 7 leaks, Pokémon GO mania continues, Apple recruits developers for its ‘Planet of the Apps’ reality TV show, and much more.

iPhone 7 |

We kick things off with the latest iPhone 7 reports, including one alleged leak of the device on video, and yet more leaks claiming to show Lightning EarPods as Apple’s ‘AirPods’ trademark surfaces once again.

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Reports from local French newspaper Le Dauphiné Libéré (via iPhone.fr) claim Apple has signed contracts to open a new R&D lab in Grenoble, France focusing on imaging technologies.

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Back in March, the Supreme Court stated that it would hear Samsung’s appeal in the company’s never-ending design patent battle with Apple. While Apple had urged the Supreme Court not to hear the case, saying that Samsung “had its day in court,” it was revealed on the court’s website today that the case will be heard on October 11th. The Supreme Court had initially announced its decision to hear the case in March, but a date was unknown until tonight.

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Following Nancy Pelosi’s “poor Tim” comment earlier this week, Apple today is again the target of yet another politician. This time, Massachusetts senator and potential Hillary Clinton running mate Elizabeth Warren has slammed Apple, Google, and Amazon for using their size to “snuff out competition.”

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