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A number of additional banks and credit unions across the United States have now turned on support for Apple Pay including Synchrony Bank which backs Walmart and other retail credit cards, NASA Federal Credit Union, and many more. Earlier this month, Apple Pay went live for the popular mobile-based Simple Bank for the first time. You can find the full list of new and existing banks with support for Apple’s mobile payment service below:...

iOS 14.5 is arriving to the public next week with a host of new features and changes and a major one is the new App Tracking Transparency. Today Apple has shared a reminder with developers to have ATT requirements met for apps by April 26. Apple hasn’t officially announced when the ATT feature will show up for users other than “early spring.” However, it’s expected to get turned on with iOS 14....

The Wall Street Journal reported that Samsung chip designer Jim Mergard has left the South Korean-based company to work for Apple. According to the report, Mergard’s duties before his short stint at Samsung were to lead the development of a “high-profile AMD chip that carried the code name Brazos and was designed for low-end portable computers.” Mergard’s work at Samsung was rumored to be focused on building ARM chips for servers....

While Apple’s AirPort lineup has long been discontinued, the company is still supporting the devices with software updates. AirPort Express, Extreme, and Time Capsule Base Stations have received a new firmware security update today. Apple noted the security update for its 802.11n AirPort Base Stations dating back to 2007 in a new support document. Users can update to the latest firmware via the AirPort Utility app on macOS or iOS. Read more about updating your AirPort’s firmware in this support document....

Update: As of right now, iOS 13.7 is only available to developers. We will update this post if that changes today. Initially, iOS 13.7 appeared to be rolling out to all users, but we’ve since confirmed that it is a beta release for now. Apple is releasing iOS 13.7 to developers today with a key focus on expanding the COVID-19 Exposure Notification API. According to Apple, this update will allow users opt-in to COVID-19 Exposure Notifications without the need to download an app from your local public health authority....

The second OS X 10.11.4 beta preview is now available via the Mac App Store for testing. The first version of this El Capitan beta added new features including Live Photo viewing and sharing through iMessage using the Messages app as well as secure password support for individual notes in the Notes app. We’ll check out the latest beta version of the upcoming release and highlight any changes below. Prior to OS X 10....

A variety of threads focused on this bug have surfaced on Apple’s Support forums as well as Reddit. When you try to manually edit an image via Apple Photos and set the location as a specific latitude and longitude, the location will automatically jump to the reverse-geocoded location. Here’s a quick explanation courtesy of Wikipedia on reverse geocoding: What this means is that when you enter the latitude and longitude into the Photos app, the Photos app will attempt to convert this into a suggested location that could in practice be far away from the actual latitude and longitude....

Apple began renovations on its iconic Fifth Avenue retail store earlier this year, but little was known about the company’s plans. A new report from Bloomberg, however, offers up more details on the overhaul and Apple’s plans “more than double the size” of the location. During its earnings call earlier today, Boston Properties president Douglas Linde explained that Apple will increase the size of its Fifth Avenue location from around 32,000 to 77,000 square feet....

As usual, Apple today relaunched its annual “Back to University” campaign in Australia, Brazil, New Zealand, and South Korea. The promotion offers free AirPods to students and teachers who buy a new eligible Mac or iPad in its official store. This is a similar campaign to the “Back to School” promo in the United States. While the Apple Education Store regularly offers special discounts for students and teachers, customers in these countries can also get free AirPods and 20% discount on AppleCare plans with the purchase of a Mac or iPad....

Earlier today we learned that Tim Cook will likely be visiting India following his current trip to China, and a new report has since followed shedding new details on Apple’s retail entrance into India. We’ve also been tracking progress on Apple’s brand new San Francisco location, which is finally set to open on Saturday, May 21st, just in time for WWDC next month. According to anonymous sources speaking to FactorDaily, Apple is planning to bring not one but three new Apple Stores to India over the next 18 months....

While the MCX consortium’s CurrentC mobile payment service isn’t due to launch until next year, it has been carrying out limited trials, facilitated by placing the app in the iTunes store. iPhone owners have been expressing their displeasure at the blocking of Apple Pay by MCX members by rating and reviewing the app. At the time of writing, the app had accumulated 2,856 1-star reviews against a total of just 30 reviews giving it 2 stars or more … The movement to boycott merchants who are members of the MCX consortium also seems to be growing in popularity, gaining a Boycott MCX website with a full list of members....

Apple has started promoting iOS 11 to its iPhone, iPad and iPod touch user base ahead of the new OS’ launch later this month. The Tips app is sending out notifications like ‘Learn about the new Control Center coming in iOS 11’ as of this morning. Users can tap through to the Tips app to preview some of the new features; Apple is advertising the new Control Center, Do Not Disturb While Driving, the new Files app, and more....

The beta testing process for macOS 11 Big Sur continues today with the release of the fourth developer beta. Today’s update to macOS Big Sur beta 4 brings additional tweaks and improvements to the new features coming to all Mac users this fall. Developers can update to the fourth beta of macOS Big Sur by heading to the System Preferences application, then looking for the Software Update option. If you don’t immediately see macOS Big Sur beta 4 available for download, keep checking as the update is still rolling out and could take a while to hit your Mac....

Apple is rolling out the fourth watchOS 3.2.2 beta for developer testing on Apple Watch. The update likely includes bug fixes and security improvements ahead of a more feature-packed watchOS 4 announcement later this year. watchOS 3.2 for Apple Watch brought new features including Theater Mode which mutes alerts and disables raise-to-wake plus SiriKit so third-party apps can work with Siri. The latest Apple Watch software update also includes new watch face colors including Nike custom colors, although previous developer betas have not yet included these....

iMore‘s Rene Ritchie reported that while the current 30-pin dock connector on the iPods, iPads, and iPhones were serving Apple well for around 10 years, the company is now working on a new dock connector. Apple’s new dock connector will reportedly be a smaller version of the iOS device syncing and charging port, but it will not be micro-USB or Thunderbolt. iMore said Thunderbolt is unlikely due to lack of architecture support, and the report claimed micro-USB is out of the question due to its slow data transfer speeds....

Apple has added the next wave of support for Apple Pay from 39 banks and credit unions today bringing the total active institutions to over 180 banks. Here are the latest to support Apple Pay as well as the full list so far: 1st Advantage Federal Credit Union American Savings Bank Bank of Utah Bellco Federal Credit Union BMO Harris N.A. Cambridge Savings Bank Campus USA Credit Union Centennial Bank Citadel Federal Credit Union Citizens Bank & Trust Citizens Equity First Credit Union Coastline Federal Credit Union Community Choice Credit Union Deseret First Federal Credit Union ESL Federal Credit Union Evansville Teachers Federal Credit Union First Fideility Bank First Hawaiian Bank Hilltop National Bank Illinoise State Police Federal Credit Union JSC Federal Credit Union Lafayette Federal Union Logix Federal Credit Union MidFirst Bank Mission Federal Credit Union Missoula Federa Credit Union North Country Federal Credit Union Northruo Grumman Federal Credit Union Old National Bank PointBank Point Loma Credit Union Publix Employees Federal Credit Union Robins Federal Credit Union San Diego Credit Union Stockman Bank of Montana Technicolor Federal Credit Union Truity Federal Credit Union USAlliance Federal Credit Union Utah Community Federal Credit Union...

Update: Apple has now uploaded today’s three new Guided Tour videos to YouTube, as well. They are embedded below. Apple this evening has updated its Apple Watch Guided Tour webpage with three new videos. These new videos highlight Apple Pay, Activity, and Workout features of the Apple Watch. The videos demonstrate the ability to pay via Apple Pay on your Apple Watch, track your daily activity with the Activity app, and set workout goals, regiments, and track heart rate via the Workout app....

It’s been a perplexing quarter for Apple, especially given its 11-month low earlier this month and lingering questions about how successful the iPad mini actually is, but hopefully all uncertainties will be answered at 5 p.m. today when the company reports its Q1 2013 fiscal earnings. Numbers are the main points of interest when it comes to quarterly earnings calls. Folks will want to know everything about the iPad mini and iPhone 5, among other products, and whether the competition is becoming a major concern....

One day after the official release of iOS 12 and watchOS 5, Apple has released new developer software beta versions for iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch. Both iOS 12.1 developer beta 1 and watchOS 5.1 developer beta 1 are now available for testing. tvOS 12.1 developer beta 1 is also available. The new developer software betas are available on Apple’s web portal for registered developers. The updates should appear as an over-the-air update shortly....

Apple has released an updated build of iOS 14.5 to developers today. This comes after the release of beta 1 earlier this week. The new build released today is still referred to as beta 1, but it features a new build number. The updated version iOS 14.5 beta 1 is available to developers via an over-the-air update in the Settings app. As usual, if the update does not immediately appear for download, keep checking, as it sometimes takes a few minutes to roll out to all registered developers....