Apple has announced that it will release iOS 13.7 to the public today, including a major expansion of the COVID-19 Exposure Notification platform. Apple and Google have unveiled a new Exposure Notifications Express system that allows public health authorities to support COVID-19 contact tracing without developing and maintaining their own application. Update: iOS 13.7 is now available. You can update via the Settings app on your iPhone. Apple has also released iPadOS 13....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRsPnzcZ1VY Continuing its ‘From one gift come many’ campaign, Apple has published a new commercial entitled ‘The Song’. The ad depicts a young woman listening to a song on a record player, from her youth. The girl then learns the tune using their guitar, recording the tune on a Mac. The girl then leaves an iPad preloaded with the same song for an older relation, her grandmother, provoking the same emotions of her childhood and memories....

In response to the continued coronavirus outbreak, Apple and Goldman Sachs are allowing customers to skip their Apple Card payments without incurring interest charges. Apple Card holders should receive an email announcing this “Customer Assistance Program,” which has been extended through August. Update #1 4/1: Apple and Goldman Sachs are also now allowing Apple Card customers to defer their April payment without penalty. Update #2 5/1: Apple and Goldman Sachs are now allowing customers to skip their May payments as well....

Following reports from WSJ that Apple is cutting component orders for iPhone 5 due to “weaker-than-expected-demand,” Jeffries analyst Peter Misek is out today with a note to clients claiming initial production of the iPhone 5S will begin in March for a June/July launch (via StreetInsider): Back in December Misek also claimed the 5S is coming in June and at the time said he expects Apple to ship the device with multiple colors, improved battery life, and possibly a 4....

Nintendo seems to be increasingly seeking to make money from in-app subscriptions in its iOS and Android mobile games, with Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp the latest example. The company previously offered a Gold Pass for Mario Kart Tour … Resetera member ZeoVGM spotted advance notice of the upcoming Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp subscription options, set to launch on November 21. The feature will be limited to Mario Kart Tour Gold Pass subscribers during the beta testing period....

BGR is out with a report today that mostly echoes previous claims that Apple is working on diabetes treatment technology for an upcoming future version of the Apple Watch. Today’s report is quite light on any actual details about how the technology would work, but it also claims Apple has interchangeable “smart watch bands” of sorts that it speculates could be used to facilitate the diabetes treatment. Last month CNBC reported much of what BGR is saying today, claiming that Apple is developing a breakthrough solution for treating diabetes with Apple Watch and has a team dedicated to the project....

Re/code has received a statement from Apple about the alleged hacking incidents. Natalie Kerris says: As is the norm with Apple’s public facing commentary, the company has not said much about the situation. Somehow, compromising personal pictures of several celebrities have leaked online and many are blaming iCloud as the root cause. The events are muddled by the fact that some of the reported claims have transpired to be fake Photoshopped images, although some — like the images of Jennifer Lawrence — have been confirmed to be legitimate....

Apple officially enabled its Up-to-Date program after launching the new operating system, but some who tried to receive their free upgrade to OS X Mountain Lion immediately ran into problems. Many redemption codes were apparently coming up invalid, so Apple said it would replace the invalid codes over the next three days. At least a half dozen commenters in the MacRumors Forum claim Apple sent the replacement codes today, but, unfortunately, the codes are for the “OS X Server components of Mountain Lion rather than Mountain Lion itself....

Apple has quietly added a server-side API to CloudKit, following an announcement on the developer news blog. This will enable developers to add a lot of functionality to apps powered by CloudKit, enabling developers to interact with the iCloud CloudKit database outside of user interaction with iOS, Mac or web apps. The web service API enables developers to run independent code on servers that can add, delete and modify records in the CloudKit stack....

Per the Wall Street Journal, Apple and Google are leading the pack for bids for Kodak’s patents. CNBC shares another bit from the WSJ’s story, shedding light on the other bidders: — Dennis K. Berman (@dkberman) July 27, 2012 The Wall Street Journal has now published its full story: — CNBC (@CNBC) July 27, 2012 Apple Inc., AAPL +1.79% Microsoft Corp. MSFT +2.04% and Intellectual Ventures Management LLC, a patent aggregation firm, are teaming to form one bidding group, the people said....

We’ve seen predictions for an Apple HDTV and a revamped Apple TV experience come and go over the last couple of years. Analysts have predicted several times since as far back as 2011 that we’d see Apple introduce its own full-fledged TV set by the end of the year, and the most vocal analyst, Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster, was still calling for a full HDTV by the end of the year with an innovative new remote control last we checked in....

Nokia 2 launched on October 2017. Here we will discuss the release of Android 9.0 Pie update for Nokia 2. Google finally released the 9th iteration of Android OS called Android 9.0 Pie. The update has rolled for Pixel supported devices and few other OEM supported with Android Beta. After putting Android users through four beta updates of Android P, Google has named Android 9.0 as Android Pie. It is expected that in the coming months all the devices that had been signed up for the Android P beta program including the OnePlus 6, Oppo R15 Pro, Vivo X21 and more will receive the Android P update first....

David Pogue tweets (update: MacOSXHints had it yesterday) a pretty cool little tip for those of you who’ve upgraded to Snow Leopard: on the sound menu item at the top of the screen allows you to quickly change your sound input and output options. Before, you’d have to go into System Preferences and Sound and check options from there. This is especially good when getting a Skype call or other other sound emergancy....

TF Securities’ analyst Ming-Chi Kuo is today forecasting that Apple will sell about 10% more iPhones in the first quarter of 2020, due to strong replacement demand for iPhone 11 and the launch of the “iPhone SE 2” starting in the same period. In terms of the calendar holiday quarter, Kuo expects shipments of 70-75 million new iPhone units (iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro combined), which could have been higher if not for supply constraints....

Apogee has announced the new MiC 96k microphone and the JAM 96k guitar interface for iPhone, iPad, and Mac. The full press releases can be found below. Introduced in 2011, the original MiC has become the mobile microphone of choice for both aspiring and professional artists looking for that big-studio sound. The new MiC 96k, which features the same look and portable form factor as the original, now provides the ability to make higher fidelity recordings – up to 24-bit/96kHz – and includes an iOS Lighting cable as well as a microphone stand adapter in the box....

The iPhone XR embargoes have just lifted and everyone is giving their thoughts on the new mainstream iPhone. The front camera and rear wide angle camera in the XR and XS are identical, so have the same upsides and downsides when it comes to Apple’s computational photographing. The Verge had an interesting tidbit: Apple is adjusting the Smart HDR algorithm in iOS 12 to retain more detail and address the aggressive skin smoothing complaints....

Today, Apple has begun notifying participants in its early software seeding program (AppleSeed) that OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.2 is on the way. According to the email notification, the 10.8.2 seeding will begin soon. AppleSeed and Mac Developer builds typically coincide in release timing, so it appears that registered Mac developers will, too, receive the first 10.8.2 build very soon. With OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.1 coming soon as a maintenance release, this new 10....

Apple is due to report its fiscal Q3 (calendar Q2) earnings on Tuesday, having issued revenue guidance of $43.5-45.5B. Anything in this range would represent a year-on-year improvement over Q3 2016’s number of $42.36B, but most analysts are expecting the company to get close to the high end … Philip Elmer-DeWitt has done his usual analyst roundup, and the consensus expectation is for revenue of $45.13B. MarketWatch notes very little change in analyst recommendations for the stock....

As noted by VentureBeat, EA revealed today during its earnings call with investors that for the first time, Apple has become “EA’s biggest retail partner as measured by sales” as a result of the App Store. It’s a big announcement for the publisher that previously sold the majority of its content through retail channels for console games, and it could be a sign that EA will be investing more in iOS and other mobile titles in the months to come....

Following an announcement earlier this year that Apple was teaming up with IBM to deliver a number of enterprise solutions, today Apple has officially announced the first wave of iOS apps being released through the partnership. As part of IBM’s “MobileFirst for iOS,” Apple and IBM today announced 10 new apps designed specifically for businesses including banking, retail, insurance, financial services, telecommunications and for governments and airlines. The apps launching today through the partnership include Plan Flight and Passenger+ for the travel industry, Advise & Grow and Trusted Advice for the banking and financial industries, Retention (insurance), Case Advice and Incident Aware for government, Sales Assist and Pick & Pack for retail, and Expert Tech for telecommunications industries....