- Apple AirTags is a great product for users who want to keep track of belongings like their wallets and bags. But it seems the portable trackers are now being used for the theft of luxury cars.
- A notice issued by Canada’s York Regional Police Auto/Cargo Department details how thieves are using the new Apple device to steal luxury cars, and warn people of the same.
- After the trackers have brought the thieves to the target vehicle, tools like screwdrivers are reportedly used to enter the vehicles without setting off any alarms.
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- Tim Cook, the chief executive of Apple, signed an agreement with Chinese officials, estimated to be worth about $275bn, to placate threats that would have hobbled its devices and services in the country, The Information reported on Tuesday.
- Cook lobbied Chinese officials, who believed the company was not contributing enough to the local economy, and signed the agreement with a Chinese government agency, making concessions to Beijing and winning important legal exemptions, the report added.
- As part of the agreement, Apple promised to use more components from Chinese suppliers in its devices, sign deals with Chinese software firms, collaborate on technology with Chinese universities and directly invest in Chinese tech companies, the Information report said.
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- Apple has started offering its App Store gift cards in India via Amazon.
- The gift cards will grant users the ability to buy apps from the App Store, purchase games on Apple Arcade, purchase subscriptions to access Apple Music and Apple TV+, and get ebooks and audiobooks from Apple Books.
- As per the dedicated gift card page, the company states that gift cards that are purchased from Amazon India will only be valid on purchases made in India.
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- Apple is suing Israeli spyware firm NSO Group and its parent company for allegedly targeting iPhone users with a hacking tool.
- Apple is making the point that it doesn’t matter who you are, if you’re a group trying to hack into an Apple product they’ll take action – whatever the motives.
- The tech giant said that its servers were not hacked, but that NSO misused and manipulated the servers to deliver the attacks on Apple users.
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- Italy’s antitrust authority has fined U.S. tech giants Amazon.com and Apple Inc a total of more than 200 million euros for alleged anti-competitive cooperation in the sale of Apple and Beats products.
- Contractual provisions of a 2018 agreement between the companies meant only selected resellers were allowed to sell Apple and Beats products on Amazon.
- The authority imposed a fine of 68.7 million euros on Amazon and 134.5 million euros on Apple, ordering the companies to end the restrictions to give retailers of genuine Apple and Beats products access to Amazon.
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- Apple tells workers they have right to discuss wages, working conditions.
- Apple delivered a message to employees on Friday that was striking given its reputation for secrecy: a reminder that workers may discuss wages, hours and working conditions.
- Apple’s business conduct policy already included language stating that workers were not restricted in their ability to discuss wages, hours and working conditions, which is generally protected under U.S. law.
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- Apple Inc is pushing to accelerate development of its electric car and is refocusing the project around full self-driving capabilities, according to people familiar with the matter, aiming to solve a technical challenge that has bedeviled the auto industry.
- The Apple car chip is the most advanced component that Apple has developed internally and is made up primarily of neural processors that can handle the artificial intelligence needed for autonomous driving.
- The company has discussed deals with multiple manufacturers and has considered potentially building the vehicle in the US. Even with recent progress, creating a fully self-driving car by 2025 is seen as very aggressive within Apple.
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- The Apple India online store went live last year in September.
- As part of this smart manufacturing, Apple is piloting a new project in India, which is called station monitoring with Video machine learning.
- This will allow remote monitoring and control of production, increasing productivity, according to Apple’s VP of operations.
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- Customers who wish to repair their iPhone 13, iPhone 12 on their own can order genuine parts via the Apple Self Service Repair Online Store.
- Apple Self Service Repair program announced on November 17 will allow consumers to repair their iPhone, Mac computers on their own.
- The self-service repair program could help bring down the repair cost of products by cutting down on the labor costs and other taxes involved.
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- Epic Games Inc. Chief Executive Officer Tim Sweeney renewed his attack on Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google as the world’s dominant mobile duopoly before calling for a universal app store that works across all operating systems as the solution.
- Legal filings from Epic this week alleged Google set up an internal task force to confront the issue of Fortnite sidestepping the company’s app store and fees.
- Epic Games operates its own Epic Games Store for PC gamers, which also charges a platform fee, albeit a lower one, and Sweeney doesn’t dispute Google and Apple’s right to profit from their work.
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- The investigation revealed that out of 20 free VPN iPhone apps, only 3 free VPNs respected users’ choice to not allow advertisers to track.
- Notably, 9 free VPNs shared detailed information about the user, and 15 free VPNs shared basic information about users’ iPhone devices with advertisers.
- The company identified the 20 most popular ad-supported free VPN apps on the U.S. version of Apple’s App Store.
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- The US Patent & Trademark Office has published two patent applications from Apple based on drones.
- In the patent application, the company mentions drones used for various applications including acquiring or sensing information, delivering items, or other activities.
- While the news of the patents does sound exciting, keep in mind that Apple is known to file a wide range of patents for devices that are never realized.
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- Apple Inc on Wednesday launched a new subscription service aimed at helping small-business owners manage the Apple devices used by their employees.
- The service will cost between $2.99 and $12.99 per month per user depending on how many devices a business wants to manage for each employee and how much cloud storage the business wants.
- For an additional monthly cost, Apple will also offer a service to repair or replace broken hardware at a business within four hours, though the company said it has not yet determined to price for that service.
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- Apple CEO Tim Cook Tells the Press He Owns Crypto and It’s Something Apple Is ‘Looking At’. The cryptocurrency economy has been on a tear and recently captured $3 trillion in value this week as bitcoin and a number of other crypto-assets reached all-time price highs.
- The value of the crypto economy is now more than $500 billion larger than the market capitalization of Apple.
- Cook also said that he has been interested in Crypto for a while and researches the subject.
- Apple Inc is eating into its rivals’ smartphone market share as the iPhone maker navigates through a global chip crunch better than other mobile phone makers, according to data providers.
- Higher iPhone shipments helped Apple gain at least 3% market share in global smartphones in the third quarter, even as overall shipments shrunk by about 6% due to the chip shortage, according to data from market research firms Counterpoint, IDC, and Canalys.
- Given how closely tech companies guard smartphone sales data, the shipment figures are the best indication of who customers prefer.
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- Apple Inc. will allow developers of some apps to link from their software to external websites for payments by users, addressing a longstanding App Store complaint and settling an investigation by Japan’s Fair Trade Commission.
- To date, Apple has to date forced such applications to use its in-app purchase system, which gives Apple up to a 30% commission on downloads and in-app subscriptions.
- Last month, as part of a preliminary settlement of a class-action lawsuit with U.S. App Store developers, Apple loosened its rules to let software makers advertise outside payment methods to consumers via email.
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