Apple

Apple is looking to spur the growth of its subscription news service Apple News+. The company has announced a new affiliate program for Apple News+, which pays out a bounty of 400% per conversion.

Mark Zuckerberg can’t keep Apple out of his head. While Apple pushes more aggressive customer privacy protection features on its platform, the Facebook CEO is decrying Apple’s efforts as competitive interference with the social network.

Billion is quickly becoming the theme of Apple’s holiday earnings quarter results. For starters, Apple has earned well over $100 billion in a single quarter for the first time in the company’s history. Apple has also hit new milestones with its active install base of devices. According to CEO Tim Cook, there are now more than 1 billion iPhones being used by customers around the world, and Apple’s total install base is at an all-time high.

If you want to know how to watch the inauguration this morning, there are plenty of ways to do it.

If you already have a favorite US national news channel, their website or app is one obvious way to watch the inauguration live …

Last week Apple and Google announced a group effort to introduce a single contact-tracing system that works with both iOS and Android. The development is the latest in an ongoing effort to stop the spread of COVID-19 and save lives.

The concept is simple — at least as far as contact-tracing systems go. iPhones already use Bluetooth for all sorts of features like AirDrop and streaming music to AirPods. Starting in mid-May, Bluetooth will also be used as a tool to help detect exposure to COVID-19 before symptoms are even present.

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Drama with Apple’s graphics processing unit chip maker partner Imagination has been revived again, but not for the same reason as 2017. Sky News reports that the UK-based chip designer is hastily responding to the likelihood that its state-controlled Chinese investor is planning to take over control of Imagination. The issue could have privacy ramifications Apple, an on-again-off-again customer of Imagination GPU chips.

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Over the weekend I got my hands on Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip smartphone. It doesn’t possess the type of flagship specs found on the recently revealed Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra, but to me, it’s by far the more interesting phone, thanks to its ability to fold a 6.7-inch AMOLED display into a clamshell form factor that’s much more portable.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip is not the first foldable smartphone, but it’s easily the most impressive foldable phone that the industry has seen thus far. While far from perfect, it makes me think that there is definitely a market for such a product, and I think it goes without saying that Apple has been experimenting with similar form factors behind closed doors.

Although we may or may not ever see an Apple “iPhone Flip,” I’m really hoping that we will. The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip breathes some much-needed excitement into the typical stale smartphone “slab of glass and metal” form factor.

Watch our brief hands-on impressions, and be sure to subscribe to 9to5Mac on YouTube for more videos like this.
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Sonos has had a busy transition into the new year. The wireless speaker maker’s recycling program turned problematic, its premium products saw a price increase, and today it sued Google and accused Amazon of stealing its patents. Apple has a small role in the latest Sonos story too.

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Apple doesn’t just vaguely tout privacy as a feature in its products. It also has a dedicated website at apple.com/privacy that explains exactly how privacy features work in detail. Apple is updating its user-friendly privacy site today for the fourth year in a row with a focus on new benefits in iOS 13, iPadOS 13, watchOS 6, and more.

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A report yesterday from The Guardian placed Apple and Siri in the middle of privacy concerns over voice activated assistants. The report claimed that Apple contractors listen to Siri audio as part of its efforts to improve performance, and oftentimes hear sensitive conversations.

Apple defended the efforts in a statement, saying that “less than 1% of daily Siri activations” are used for grading. What do you think of this revelation?

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Apple and Spotify are engaged in a bitter antitrust battle in Europe, with Spotify claiming that Apple’s App Store rules give it an unfair advantage over competitors. Apple has now responded to Spotify’s claims in a new filing with the European Commission.

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A few weeks ago, we published an article where Tim Cook said that Apple had acquired 20–25 companies in the past six months. Cook mentioned that Apple generally is looking at smaller companies and eyeing “talent and intellectual property“. I have an idea on a company who would fit in very nicely at Apple given its current strategy. Apple should buy The Athletic.
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Update: Qualcomm unsurprisingly disagrees with the judgement and will be appealing the ruling to the US Court of Appeals 9th Circuit. Original story below.

Judge Koh has filed her ruling on the FTC antitrust suit against Qualcomm, and it comprehensively concludes that Qualcomm business practices were anticompetitive as reported by FOSSPatents.

Qualcomm has been ordered to renegotiate existing licensing terms such that its supply of modem chips is wholly separate to any patent licensing agreement. It cannot enter exclusivity supply agreements and it must license standards-essential patents at fair and reasonable rates.

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While Apple and Amazon are often viewed as competitors, they also share an important partnership when it comes to cloud services. Amazon Web Services (AWS) are used to power Apple’s services including iCloud and its monthly payments to the retail giant are now said to be more than $30 million.

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Apple crossed the 100% renewable energy goal for its own operations (headquarters, data centers, retail stores) this time last year. However, the company is also convincing supply chain partners to go green too.

Today, Apple announced that it has doubled the number of suppliers who have agreed to run Apple manufacturing on 100% renewable energy too. The supply chain will add 5 gigawatts of renewable energy by 2020, exceeding Apple’s original 4 gigawatt goal.

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Apple has hired a former corporate VP at Microsoft and the founder of defunct smart lock brand Otto to lead its smart home efforts. Sam Jadallah updated his LinkedIn page modestly over the weekend shortly after CNBC reported the move, merely listing his role as “Working on Home” at Apple.

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