Apple

Apple versus Samsung isn’t the only legal battle over patent violations to follow now. CNBC reports that Nokia has filed several complaints in a lawsuit against Apple over patent infringement in the United States and Germany…

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Following a report in October claiming Samsung and LG were both attempting to win orders for OLED displays to be used in future iPhones, a new report today says Apple has partnered with LG Display for a foldable OLED panel of sorts.

According to the report from etnews, LG Display is partnering with Apple, Google, and Microsoft on what it describes as ‘out-foldable’ OLED displays.

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Apple products may last a long time, but as we know, the batteries do not. For Macs, Apple provides a handy way to determine the battery’s cycle count, but for a product like the AirPods, that may not be possible. This means that when your AirPods batteries eventually degrade to a noticeable degree, you’ll have to get them replaced. Apple has recently updated their iPhone Service Pricing page with details on the AirPods’ battery replacement pricing, but there is still some clarity to be had in how it all works.

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Here at 9to5Mac readers have a few different ways to stay up to date on our latest news. We strive to push out breaking news as fast as possible to make sure our readers are informed on the latest changes in the Apple environment, but there are some additional steps you can take to get that extra edge in the moments that matter. You may have missed your chance to get the Apple AirPods earlier, but read on to see how you can make sure you won’t miss out on any other future events…

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[UPDATE: Apple has responded to the news: “The question before the Supreme Court was how to calculate the amount Samsung should pay for their copying. Our case has always been about Samsung’s blatant copying of our ideas, and that was never in dispute. We will continue to protect the years of hard work that has made iPhone the world’s most innovative and beloved product. We remain optimistic that the lower courts will again send a powerful signal that stealing isn’t right.”]

The Supreme Court has ruled in favor of Samsung over Apple in the latest chapter of the years-long dispute over iPhone design patents. The decision isn’t totally surprising given some tell-tale signs ahead of today’s announcement, but it does mean that the case will once again continue in a lower court where a new sum for damages owed will be decided.

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Apple has a special message for the world going into the holiday season: “Open your heart to everyone.” That’s the tagline at the end of its new holiday commercial called “Frankie’s Holiday” which sees an iPhone-toting Frankenstein feeling a bit left out.

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Apple is reportedly planning to change how it handles subscriptions for video streaming services via the App Store. According to a new report from Bloomberg, Apple will cut the percentage of revenue it takes from streaming video apps in an effort to improve its relationship with those in that industry…

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Apple Store, Shanghai

The Chinese government, through the state-run Global Times newspaper, has said that iPhone sales ‘will suffer’ if president-elect Trump follows through on his threatened trade war when he takes office. The comment was made in response to Trump’s campaign promise to apply 45% tariffs to Chinese imports.

If Trump imposes a 45 percent tariff on Chinese imports, China-US trade will be paralyzed. China will take a tit-for-tat approach then. A batch of Boeing orders will be replaced by Airbus. US auto and iPhone sales in China will suffer a setback […]

The new president will be condemned for his recklessness, ignorance and incompetence and bear all the consequences.

The Global Times editorial also claimed that Trump would not in any case have the authority needed to apply the 45% tariff …

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[First of all, I would like to say that this is but my very own take, which is not necessarily shared by my colleagues here at 9to5Mac and therefore not an editorial, staff-wise opinion piece. It represents my view and my view only, so try to keep that in mind.]

Up until not too long ago, I used to ask myself a simple question: if I were to pick one company — and one company alone — to rely on for all of my “tech needs”, which one would I choose? The answer would come rather swiftly: Apple.

As a critic (by nature more than profession) I have always seen the vast majority of products skeptically, but that didn’t take from the fact that the Cupertino giant made what I considered to be the best smartphone, the best tablet, the best computers and even two of the most valid operating systems around, accounting for a sweet, unified and well-connected package that would make me feel like I didn’t have to look outside of it. It was Apple’s dream of ecosystem lock-in, essentially.

However, as my view of this universe has got more and more panoramic — especially in the last year of collaboration with the sister site 9to5Google, which has helped me a lot to gain even more direct experience with Apple’s competition — I started to have a feeling that this bubble was somewhat bursting.

And this feeling is something I simply haven’t been able to shake, and one that has brought me, like apparently many others, to think that the well-oiled profit machine Apple Inc. may have lost some of its touch, for what concerns the present and, more importantly, the future…

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Two days ago Microsoft announced their Microsoft Surface Studio, and I wrote a piece on how it was their answer to Apple’s own desktop solutions. It was hard to compare the products’ philosophies, especially when I don’t think macOS is ready for a complete touchscreen experience. Then Apple announced their new MacBook Pro lineup yesterday and it dawned on me: the Touch Bar on the new MacBook Pro is Apple’s first distinct step into creating a touchscreen display experience in their MacBook line.

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The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Apple isn’t totally ruling out a Time Warner acquisition as talks between the network and AT&T appear to be moving forward. Yesterday it was reported that AT&T is looking at the possibility of a merger with Time Warner, then today it was separately reported that the talks could be much further along than previously reported. Now the WSJ is adding that Apple is once again monitoring the situation closely and has even approached the company in the last few months…

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Apple is set to reveal new Macs on Thursday at what will likely be the last special event hosted at the company’s 1 Infinite Loop campus in Cupertino. Early next year Apple’s giant Campus 2 headquarters will open and include a dedicated theater for these types of events, so the surprise Mac event is one last hurrah for the current Apple HQ.

And even though it may be about to be replaced with something bigger and better, 1 Infinite Loop does have something fairly new of its own: a dedicated Apple Store that reopened last fall. Apple’s campus store has always sold exclusive collectables like T-shirts and pens, and the Jony Ive-designed retail store adds Apple products just like traditional Apple Stores.

The shirt styles and souvenirs offered change regularly, but head below to see what you can expect to find at the 1 Infinite Loop Apple Store that’s not sold anywhere else if you visit.

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At the JAMF Nation User Conference (JNUC) this week, IBM’s Fletcher Previn delivered an update on the company’s rollout of Macs internally since it introduced Apple computers as an option for employees for the first time last year. In just over a year, IBM passed its original goal of deploying 50,000 Macs and is now at 90,000 internally. That makes it the largest enterprise Mac deployment anywhere, and Previn described how it’s helping the company cut costs.

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One of the areas where Apple has seemingly fallen behind its competition — or, more likely, not yet ready to disclose its technology’s full potential — is artificial intelligence. However, there’s no denying that the company is pushing hard towards bettering its existing products (like Siri) behind closed doors, and the latest AI hire is but another proof of such commitment…

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Bloomberg reports that Apple this week won an appeal in its long-running case against Samsung over its slide-to-unlock patent.

The decision reinstates an original $119.6 million verdict owed to Apple that a U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled was wrongly thrown out in a previous decision back in February.

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One of the bigger features with the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus is definitely the improved optics and camera quality, but exactly what does this boil down to for video enthusiasts? There’s no doubt that the iPhone 7 takes some amazing photography, but its video capabilities are far superior in my opinion. Don’t believe me? With 4K video recording, optical and digital image stabilization, and an f1.8 aperture, these new iPhones are pretty incredible…

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Eddy Cue, Tom Gruber, Alex Acero, Craig Federighi

Apple is continuing to add to its team of machine learning experts in Cupertino. TechCrunch reports that Apple has acquired Tuplejump, which describes itself as a service that “presents all your data in a familiar format” on their now-removed website. An Apple spokesperson gave TC the usual non-denial confirmation regarding the acquisition:

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