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It’s almost accepted as a truism now that Apple products are getting more expensive – and indeed, there’s plenty of data to support that contention. Go back to 2014, for example, and the average selling price (ASP) of an iPhone was $634. Fast-forward to 2018, and it’s $898. Headline prices of Macs and iPads might suggest the same is true there, but that’s not necessarily the case … The Washington Post has an interesting analysis, comparing the price of various Apple products with both inflation and other spending categories....

Apple’s Senior Vice President of Retail Angela Ahrendts sat down for a 25-minute plus interview at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Summit last night and during the appearance shared some interesting upcoming retail news for the company. While discussing how she joined Apple, including that it was her idea initially to merge both retail and online, Ahrendts also shared some new details about Apple’s recent store redesigns and upcoming initiatives. Highlighting the newly updated store design which first debuted in mass at the San Francisco Union Square location, Angela noted that Apple expects to have 95 stores converted to the new design by the end of the year....

Apple has apparently hit the delete button on a proposed rifle emoji that was previously accepted. Unicode, the group behind the character standard, ultimately decided to pull the rifle character from the next emoji set in Unicode 9. Buzzfeed reports, however, that Apple (which has voting rights within the group) largely led the opposition to the rifle emoji: Apple’s reported influence on Unicode bumping the rifle emoji means the gun character won’t be available to users on non-Apple platforms like Android and Windows as well, because Unicode 9 is a standard; platform vendors are responsible for specifically depicting the style of each character but not the subject....

After Apple announced the September event for the iPhone 13 next week, the company is now seeding tvOS 15 beta 9 and HomePod 15 beta 9 to developers. Today’s build for tvOS 15 and HomePod 15 beta 9 is the same 19J5346a. Apple isn’t revamping either of these systems as we expect the company to release the final version by the end of this month. As for now, only developers can download both of these operating systems....

One week after releasing watchOS 7.5 beta 3, Apple has seeded the release candidate for the build to both developers and public beta testers. The update brings the ECG app to two new countries, Apple Card Family Sharing support, Podcasts subscriptions, and more. If you’re enrolled in the developer or public beta program, you should see the watchOS 7.5 RC on your device (Watch app > General > Software Update) shortly if it’s not showing up already....

iPad sign inside of Chinese Apple Store (Credit: Yahoo) According to the Associated Press, Apple has ended their long-running iPad name dispute in China with Proview with a $60 million settlement. The ruling was made Monday by the Guangdong High People’s Court. While it got $60 million, Proview wanted even more: Apple had purchased the iPad name from Proview in 2009 under a shell company, but the use of the name iPad in China by Apple was ruled to never officially been granted....

Apple today has spoken out against a controversial new bill in Mississippi that was signed into law by the state’s governor earlier this week. House Bill 1523 is spun as protecting religious freedom but has been criticized for enabling LGBT discrimination. Apple today has joined a variety of technology companies in voicing its opposition to the law. In a statement shared by The Clarion-Ledger, Apple said that it believes the new law “empowers discrimination,” while also reiterating that its stores are open to anyone, as is the company as a whole:...

The feeling of unionizing is spreading through Apple retails as employees from a third store launched a union drive this Tuesday. The employees at Maryland’s Towson Mall say they want a voice on COVID-19 safety, scheduling, pay, and other topics, according to a news story. The Washington Post reports that a group of Apple employees in Maryland has been “drumming up support for nearly a year in coordination with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, two employees and a union organizer said....

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghdTqnYnFyg&start=120] (Substitute PowerPC for Intel and Intel for ARM) There are a lot of people who think Apple is going to eventually move its “Mac” line to iOS. In fact we found it curious when Apple turned ‘MacOSX’ to ‘OSX’ as of Lion earlier this year. Steve Jobs and Apple in general are very sensitive to CPU power issues with their push to make high end devices thinner. As part of the WSJ article on Intel spending $300 million on developing MacBook Air alternatives (a hint in itself – why does Intel need to create competition for its own Air), it was revealed that Apple was threatening to leave Intel’s ‘low power’ processors if they didn’t drastically cut power....

Today, Apple has updated its Apple Store application for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch with gift card support and Siri integration. The gift card support allows users to purchase Apple Store gift cards for friends and family. As we first reported, these gift cards will work in physical retail stores by way of the iOS 6 Passbook application. Additionally, the new app update features Siri integration. Users will be able to use Siri (on compatible devices) to find pricing and details about Apple’s products....

Apple Watch Parkinson’s monitoring was one of the things Apple demonstrated when it first announced ResearchKit, back in 2015. But a new developer partner has now taken this idea to a whole new level. Rather than just gather aggregated data to help researchers, a new app can gather personalized data to provide doctors with much more reliable data for individual treatment … What is Parkinson’s disease? Here’s how the American Parkinson Disease Association describes it:...

We have already seen some prototypes of the first-generation Apple Watch, which revealed details of the product before the official announcement in September 2014. This week, Giulio Zompetti shared an image of an early prototype of the Apple Watch Series 3. Although it looks quite identical to the final version, this prototype has something unique: a Smart Connector. Every Apple Watch comes with a hidden port, which is used internally by Apple for diagnostics and other internal tests....

Apple’s special media event today marks a full year since it first previewed Apple Watch to the world before putting it on sale earlier this year in late April. Roughly six months since actually going on sale, Apple Watch is still launching around the world so it’s too soon yet for Apple Watch 2. To keep the lineup fresh a year after first unveiling the product, Apple is growing the Apple Watch Sport collection by adding iPhone, iPad, and MacBook matching gold-colored models....

Apple Watch Series 8 and the second generation Apple Watch SE hit stores last Friday. However, when it comes to the Apple Watch Ultra, the launch is set for September 23. Still, a lucky buyer had his new Apple Watch Ultra delivered before its official launch. As shared on Reddit, the customer purchased the Apple Watch Ultra with the Orange Alpine Loop watchband on pre-order through AT&T. Usually, Apple and its partners hold deliveries until launch day....

We first learned about Apple’s plans for a research and development center in Yokohama, Japan back in 2014, with the country’s prime minster saying that it would be “on par with Apple’s biggest R&D centers in Asia.” Construction was originally expected to be completed in 2016, but was delayed into 2017. Now, a new report from Macotakara claims that we’re nearing the March 2017 opening of the center… The report says that Apple’s R&D center in Japan will be its “first technical development site” in the area....

Angela Ahrendts’ move from Burberry to Apple in 2014 saw her make Fortune’s ‘Most Powerful Women in Business’ list for the first time, entering at #29. She’s been working her way up the list since, this year climbing to #13 … Ahrendts has this year climbed one place, from last year’s #14 ranking. Fortune noted that she was second on stage at this year’s keynote. Apple stores have offered free workshops for many years, but rebranding them as Today at Apple, and expanding the program, has turned them from a relatively well-kept secret into a key marketing initiative....

As reported by Reuters, Apple and patent-licensing company WiLAN have signed a new license agreement. Concerning wireless technology, the companies have had patent disputes for years and finally reached an agreement. WiLAN is an intellectual property licensing company with many large tech firms in its portfolio. Back in 2020, the Canadian company won an $85 million lawsuit against Apple over two patents. The patent disputes involved wireless technology that allowed iPhone users to make phone calls and download data simultaneously....

Following the release of iOS 13.6 to the public last week with Apple News+ Audio and Car Key, Apple today has stopped signing iOS 13.5.1. That means users can no longer downgrade from iOS 13.6 to iOS 13.5.1. Like other iOS updates, iOS 13.6 comes with several security enhancements by fixing different vulnerabilities. These security breaches can be used to access internal system files, which in some cases leads to the jailbreak process....

Apple Stores are motivating customers to try Apple Fitness+ with dynamic new displays and a curated selection of third-party workout equipment. The new fixtures rolled out to select Apple Stores today and highlight the seamless integration between Apple hardware and the subscription service. Set against a wooden backdrop, the new Fitness+ Avenue features two Apple Watches paired with an iPhone and iPad that offer workout metrics and sample workouts from the Fitness+ library....

Within testing the next iteration of iOS, v4.1, Apple may be testing a shadowy third product along with the expected future iPod touch and iPad. Is this a new 7-inch iPad, an Apple TV or a completely new product? The latest beta of iOS 4.1, due to ship in the coming weeks, includes three new “Configuration Descriptors” within its USB configuration files. These descriptions all relate to products described as made by Apple Inc....