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As reported by Deadline, Apple has won out in the bidding war for Sundance favorite ‘Cha Cha Real Smooth’. Apple Original Films division has nabbed worldwide rights to stream the film on Apple TV+ later this year, in a deal said to be worth around $15m. By the numbers, that’s the biggest Sundance 2022 deal but it doesn’t beat out Apple’s record-setting acquisition of CODA (which has a lot of buzz heading into awards season) at last year’s festival....

Developer Frank Krueger has released a useful new macOS tool for fellow developers today. Dubbed Appstat, the app lives in your Mac’s menu bar and shows you detailed data about the applications you’re selling on the App Store. Krueger explains the reasoning behind Appstat in a post on their blog: Directly in your macOS menu bar, Appstat shows you detailed data from App Store Connect, such as analytics, ratings, average and project sales, uploaded builds, and much more....

Apple Store pay is to be significantly increased as part of the company’s fight against unionization of retail store employees. Starting pay is being increased by almost 50% over 2018 levels. The move follows an aggressive anti-union video by retail chief Deirdre O’Brien. The video, lasting over six minutes, was almost entirely focused on anti-union messaging … Background There has been growing evidence of dissatisfaction among Apple Store workers over a number of issues, most notably stagnating pay in the face of rapidly rising inflation....

Apple TV+ has added a Golden Globe to its lineup of accolades. Last night, Jason Sudeikis picked up an award for his lead role in Ted Lasso. The show has been a breakout hit for Apple’s streaming service with wide recognition from viewers and critics alike. Sudeikis accepted his award virtually from London, where he is currently shooting season two of the hit show. The new season is expected to be released in the summer....

Jen Folse is a name that may be familiar to Apple keynote viewers. As the design lead for Apple TV, Folse has had stage time in recent Apple events where tvOS has been demoed. We heard a few weeks ago that Folse was leaving Apple to join other ex-Apple TV team members at Caffeine. Now the social broadcasting startup has made the news official. At Caffeine, the former Apple TV exec is taking on the role of VP of Product:...

Re/code announced today that Apple VP Greg Joswiak will be attending its inaugural Code/Mobile conference next month to talk about Apple’s new products announced earlier this week including the new iPhone 6 models, the new iOS 8, and the company’s mobile payment system due out next month called Apple Pay. The conference kicks off at Half Moon Bay, California, next month on October 27th and runs through the 28th. You may recognize Joswiak from recent Apple keynotes including a wonky demonstration of iOS 8 and iMessage during WWDC 2014 this year....

Apple has singlehandedly changed the wearable space as far as smartwatches are concerned. Back in 2015 when the tech giant first released the Apple Watch, it gained mixed reviews since its emphasis was solely on form. While the Apple Watch is still marketed as a fashion accessory, its technical specs have surpassed that of any other smartwatch in terms of health and fitness tracking. The newly released Apple Watch Series 7 boasts a design overhaul with a bezel-less display that brings as much as 50% more content to the screen when contrasted against the Series 3....

The Apple Watch Series 7 brought a notable redesign with larger 41mm and 45mm sizes and even smaller display bezels than before. Now, a new report from Bloomberg indicates that 2022 could be the “biggest [year] in the history of the Apple since the original model” with new features, the Apple Watch Series 8, and more. Plus, the increasingly slow and outdated Apple Watch Series 3 “may finally be retired.”...

You might think the Apple Watch Workout app is more for casual use by amateurs, but Australia’s national swim team has credited it with helping it to achieve its best-ever results. The team does use custom apps too, but the Workout app has played an important role in letting swimmers see their metrics during training sessions, says the world record holder … Apple shared the story. One element of that has been to avoid over-training....

An SEC filing shows that Apple’s SVP of Retail Angela Ahrendts sold AAPL stock totalling $6M in the week in which the Apple Watch hits stores. It’s nothing out of the ordinary for Apple execs to sell shares from time to time, either to fund a purchase – like a house – or, perhaps more likely given the timing, to pay a tax bill. Ahrendts was given a compensation package worth $73M when she joined the company, just over $70M of it in stock....

AT&T, Delta, and Apple have announced a new partnership that will see the airline upgrade its fleet of devices to 5G-capable iPhone 12 models. Through this partnership, Delta will equip all 19,000 of its flight attendants with an iPhone 12 device. In a press release, AT&T explains that this is part of Delta’s efforts to “lead the commercial airline industry into the 5G era.” While a variety of smartphones support 5G nowadays, Delta and AT&T also point to the iPhone 12’s AR capabilities as reasons for choosing it over the competition:...

The Apple TV app is officially coming to games consoles, starting with an announcement from Sony. On the PlayStation blog, the company revealed that the Apple TV app will be available on November 12, that’s the same day as the PlayStation 5 release date. The app will be made available for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5. Just like the smart TV apps, users will be able to subscribe and enjoy Apple TV+ originals, and access their movie and TV show purchases from the iTunes Store....

Apple has announced several updates to its Apple Music Marketing Tools today. The changes are designed to make it easier for publishers and marketers to link to Apple Music, as well as specific songs and albums. Apple says: Apple also notes that Apple Music banners are now available in the Apple Music toolbox. These banners can be used by publishers to easily link to Apple Music playlists and songs: The goal of the Apple Music Toolbox is to make it easy for publishers, record labels, promoters, and editorial publications to track and monetize Apple Music links....

Since the first version, Apple Watch has shipped with a lot of stock apps on the honeycomb grid. watchOS 6 adds even more; App Store, Audiobooks, Calculator, Cycle Tracking, Noise, and Voice Memos. To date, Apple Watch users have not been able to cleanup their home screens and delete these stock apps, like has been possible with Apple’s apps on iOS for a while now. However, TechCrunch reports that this will change later this year with watchOS 6’s public release....

All of today’s best deals have arrived and are headlined by the first discounts on Apple’s new White Magic Keyboards for M1 iPad Pros from $257. That’s alongside a notable pre-paid iPhone 12 mini offer at $480 with a bundled $200 gift card and new all-time lows on Apple Watch Series 6 GPS + Cellular models. Hit the jump for all that and more in the latest 9to5Toys Lunch Break....

Aquaman’s reviews have been mixed since its release, with some critics citing it being too cheesy as a negative point - but perhaps they’re just missing the movie’s point. Aquaman has gotten flak for being bloated, poorly paced, and too long - some of which are fair, to an extent - but being cheesy, campy, and cliched are fundamental choices that are made long before production begins. Such judgments aren’t necessarily fair, because they fail to take the movie on its own terms....

Some iPhone users this week noticed that iCloud Private Relay suddenly stopped working with their cellular connections. While T-Mobile first suggested that the affected devices were running iOS 15.2, Apple on Wednesday claimed that no changes were made to Private Relay in iOS 15.2. iCloud Private Relay is an innovative internet privacy service that allows users with an iCloud+ subscription to connect to the internet and browse with Safari in a more secure and private way....

For the seventh year in a row, Apple has been found to be the most relevant brand to consumers. The result was announced after surveying the views of 13,500 US consumers on 293 brands across 27 categories. According to Prophet, the company behind the yearly study, the most relevant brands “provide opportunities for people to become part of communities with passionate individuals who have shared interests.” Here are the top ten most relevant brands of 2022:...

Data from Counterpoint Research, and corroborated by two “leading trade partners,” suggests that Apple sold half a million iPhones in India during the final quarter of 2014, reports the Economic Times. This compares to around a million phones during the whole of 2013. Apple has also halved the credit period offered to resellers, from the standard 14 days offered by most manufacturers to 7 days, and sliced between 0.5% and 1% offered the 9-11% margins offered on iPhones (rates varying by sales performance)....

Apple will be rolling out a refreshed line of iPods today, according to sources. As indicated by new colors recently found in iTunes on the Mac, the new iPod touch, shuffle, and nano will come in new darker blue and pink colors. A gold color will be added as well for all three iPods. The new Nanos and Shuffles won’t get new features, but the iOS-based iPod touch will see a considerable upgrade....