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According to a new report from Silicon Valley Business Journal, Apple has purchased a 43-acre development plot in North San Jose. The report claims that Apple paid slightly more than $138 million for the property, which is located on North First Street in San Jose. Today’s news comes just a month after Apple leased 300,000 square feet of already constructed building in North San Jose. Also last week, Apple leased 76,000 square feet of office space in San Francisco, marking the company’s first major office space in the city....

Apple has released the first macOS 10.13.3 beta through the Mac App Store. The latest beta software update is currently available to registered developers. The update is likely a bug fix and security update given this point in the development cycle of macOS High Sierra. We’ll update if any new features are discovered in the new beta. macOS 10.13.2 came out of beta last week and is available for all customers....

Apple Card is coming this summer, and we expect the new credit card from Apple to be supported in iOS 12.4. Apple hasn’t been more specific about the exact launch date for US customers, but the company has been releasing developer beta versions of iOS 12.4 without Apple Card included for several weeks. Apple will release the sixth developer beta version of the upcoming software update later today, hopefully marking the final pre-release seed before the update is ready for prime time....

Apple has made a notable hire in the podcasting industry this week. Inside Podcasting reports that Apple recently hired Emily Ochsenschlager, who previously served National Geographic’s director of podcasts. This hire comes as reports suggest Apple plans to start funding original podcasts. Ochsenschlager had worked at National Geographic for just over one year. Her responsibilities included building out NatGeo’s podcasting efforts and launching the company’s first podcast. Prior to her time at National Geographic, Ochsenschlager spent over 15 years at NPR, where she served as a producer and editor....

Three days after the last release, Apple has seeded an updated build of the OS X 10.10.3 software update for Mac. The new build ranks in at 14D130a, just a few steps above the 14D127 build released at the start of the week, for both developers and public beta testers. The update measures in at 1.52GB and highlights stability and security improvements. The new version of OS X Yosemite includes the all-new Photos for Mac app, new and diverse emoji characters, improved login for Google accounts, and developer APIs for Force Touch on the new 12-inch MacBook and 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro....

Since early September, rumors of an Apple radio service have been in the air. Several reports noted that the service is indeed on its way to compete with Spotify, RDIO, Pandora, and others, and the Wall Street Journal said we could expect it “in a matter of months.” However, CNET said today it might take longer. Greg Sandoval of CNET reported that Apple has still yet to gain major record labels for the rumored music streaming service:...

Apple has long taken a 30% cut of sales made through its various digital stores, including fees charged for subscriptions to Newsstand magazines and other recurring charges. However, Re/code reports today that the company has cut that figure in half for subscriptions charged through the Apple TV. In a move that’s likely intended to bring in content, Apple allows companies like Hulu and HBO to keep a larger portion of their subscription fees on the TV-based hub device, though charges made through iOS apps and other platforms still seem to fall under the 30% deal....

Apple has made several changes at the executive level recently. Bloomberg reports today that Apple has promoted a handful of employees to the vice president level, which is described as “a key title reserved for the most influential players.” Paul Meade has been named a vice president of hardware engineering, while Jon Andrews is now the vice president of software engineering. According to Bloomberg, Meade has led hardware development for Apple’s augmented reality headset, while Andrews works closely with Craig Federighi on software architecture....

Update: According to Reuters, the settlement is $415 million, a big improvement over the previous $380 million offer. Apple has reached a deal with its employees over do-not-hire policies that workers claim prevented them from getting higher-paying jobs at competing companies. Judge Lucy Koh previously rejected an offer to the tune of $324 million that the plaintiff in the case said was too low. Today’s settlement is presumably for much more money than the original, since the plaintiff has accepted it, but the details of the deal have not yet been disclosed....

We’ve seen Apple Watch catch on with a handful of insurance providers so far. Now, CNBC reports that Devoted Health has become the first health insurer with private Medicare plans to offer a discounted Apple Watch as a benefit. Devoted Health is a start-up health insurer that says it wants to stand out among Medicare Advantage plans with a focus on “world class technology.” Back in January, a report said that Apple had started working with Medicare plan providers to subsidize the cost of Apple Watch hardware, and this deal with Devoted Health is seemingly the first to come to fruition....

Apple has updated their Apple Store app to version 2.0 featuring EasyPay and Personal Pickup. As we’ve already outlined, EasyPay allows customers to purchase cheaper accessories in the Apple Store through the app, rather than having to deal with an Apple sales rep. Store workers we’ve contacted have called this “EasyTheft” because of the perceived ease in which someone could walk out of a store with an item without paying....

After over two weeks of silence, Apple today has released the fourth developer of iOS 13.3 and iPadOS 13.3. Apple is also releasing the fourth public beta of iOS 13.3 today as well. tvOS 13.3 beta 4 is also now available, as is watchOS 6.1.1 beta 4. iOS 13.3 includes a new option in Settings to disable the Memoji keyboard from always appearing alongside the emoji keyboard. Communication Limits are also now available through Screen Time, allowing you to set limits based on your contacts....

Apple has updated its diversity report with new data about gender, race, and ethnicity hiring at the company. The updated diversity report comes one day after Apple committed to sponsoring a minority-focused technology program and one year after releasing its first report on such data. While the new data does not show dramatic diversity improvements compared with last year’s report, Apple does highlight some key changes in hiring over the last 12 months....

As part of its numerous announcements today, Apple snuck in the fact that iOS 13.1 will be released to the public on September 30. iOS 13 will be released on September 19, as we detailed here. iOS 13.1 is currently in beta testing for developers and public beta users. The focus of iOS 13.1 is adding back features that were removed from iOS 13 beta testing, such as Shortcuts Automations and Share ETA in Maps....

Interbrand assesses the all-in value of a brand by analysing three factors … The financial performance of the branded products and services The role the brand plays in influencing customer choice The strength the brand has to command a premium price or secure earnings for the company Last year, Interbrand said that Apple’s ecosystem was key to the company’s value. It this year estimated that the value of the Apple brand had increased by 3%, relatively modest compared to the five fastest-growing brands....

Bloomberg reports Apple has removed Big Fish Games‘ subscription based game from the App Store. Big Fish Games was reported last night to be the first to make available a game that offered a subscription model inside, a feature that was originally exclusive to news apps. After last night’s report that the game was able to receive this new subscription feature, there was much speculation that this app wasn’t actually offering subscription inside — as one of our readers explained....

The timing for the launch of Apple’s planned web-based TV service may depend on if and when the company can secure the rights to include content from local TV stations, Re/code reports. While Apple has been believed to be working on service that bundles access to a handful of channels delivered over the Internet, the new report claims that Apple wants to include live local programming from TV stations to both broaden the appeal of the service — especially with cord cutters — and satisfy industry executives…...

Apple Pay has officially launched in Germany, as a report first suggested as a possibility earlier today. Users have taken to Twitter to show they are successfully able to add their debit and credit cards to Apple’s mobile payment platform. At launch, Apple Pay in Germany is supported by the following banks according to Apple: American Express, Maestro, Boon, Bunq, Comdirect, Deutsche Bank, Edenred, Fidor Bank, Hanseatic Bank, HypoVereinsbank, N26, O2 Banking, and VIMPay....

Apple Pay in the United States has gradually become more of a wallet replacement now more than ever. My experience with Apple’s mobile payment service has dramatically improved in the last year thanks to new features and greater adoption… Apple Pay in apps and on the web is absolutely the best way to check out when shopping. Easily being able to choose which card to use and select shipping information means I’m much more likely to impulse purchase or complete a transaction....

Three weeks after having released the first preview for watchOS 3, Apple has started pushing out the second beta version to developers. watchOS 3 beta 2 is available to download as a Configuration Profile from the Apple developer center. Release notes are not yet available, but should be up fairly soon. watchOS 3 brings major speed improvements and new user experiences to the Apple Watch. We’ve spent the past few weeks diving into watchOS 3 beta 1’s features; take a look at the links below to get caught up:...