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Apple is advancing its data accuracy efforts with Apple Maps, according to a new report from iGeneration. The report details a new website app program where freelancers can sign up and get paid a small fee each time they correct/verify a Point-of-Interest or placemark in Apple Maps. Similar to a Mechanical Turk system, people in the program can get paid about 54 cents per task, with a maximum of 600 tasks per week …...

On its earnings call, Apple has announced a further expansion of Apple Pay in partnership with American Express, to Australia and Canada in 2015 as well as Spain, Singapore and Hong Kong next year in 2016. Exact details are still murky — Tim Cook very specifically said ‘eligible American Express customers in these regions’ so it isn’t going to be as big as a rollout for Apple Pay as we saw for the US or UK....

Apple is releasing the first developer beta of iOS 14.5 today following last week’s release of iOS 14.4 to the public. iOS 14.5 is expected to include the groundwork for Apple’s new App Tracking Transparency privacy feature, among other changes. For those unfamiliar, App Tracking Transparency is a new feature that requires apps to request permission from users before tracking them across other apps and websites. Under Settings, users will also be able to see which apps have requested permission to track so they can make changes as they see fit....

Earlier this week Apple issued iOS 10 beta 4 to developers, and today the third public beta version of the pre-release software is available to match. iOS 10 public beta 3 should include the updated emoji characters introduced on Monday. iOS 10 includes loads of new features in the Messages app, a redesigned Apple Music experience, and much more. Apple’s public beta program is free to participate in unlike its paid developer program....

After a few months in beta, Apple has today released iOS 9 to the world for everyone with an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. Download the update from Settings on your iOS device, then tap ‘General’ and select ‘Software Update’. The required free space for installing iOS 9 is a lot lower than iOS 8, at around 1.3 GB, which should make it easier to upgrade your devices right away. Any device that runs iOS 8 can upgrade to iOS 9 and, naturally, iOS 9 will also ship preinstalled on Apple’s iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus when they are released next week....

While iOS 14 and other Apple software are now available to the public, macOS Big Sur will remain in beta testing for a bit longer. Apple has just released the seventh beta release of macOS Big Sur to developers following this week’s special event. macOS Big Sur brings a redesigned user interface to the Mac, as well as a new Messages app with screen effects, Control Center, new widgets, and much more....

Adam Pash, former lead editor of Lifehacker, reports that Apple has acknowledged a problem we’ve heard reported before: text messages continue to be converted to iMessages and forwarded to an Apple ID even when that ID is no longer in use. This means that any text messages sent from an iPhone are reported as delivered while actually disappearing into the ether. This is a problem a lot of people are facing....

In March this year, Apple introduced a $329 9.7-inch iPad for the first time. Digitimes reports today that the company could go even lower next year, with Apple apparently planning a new 9.7-inch iPad in the $259 price range. The report says Apple wants to push this even cheaper tablet towards price conscious markets, such as industrial enterprise deployments as well as regular price-sensitive consumers. Apple’s iPad business has faced some rough quarters in recent years....

The Eurasian database has turned up hit after hit recently. Once more, ahead of Apple’s October 30 event, the Eurasian Economic Competition database has listed filings for new Mac models running macOS 10.14. Four of these model identifiers relate to as-yet-unannounced machines. As spotted by Consomac, the A1932 laptop model was seen in an earlier filing. The three new Mac models likely relate to new versions of the Mac Mini and iMac....

Apple has released the first iOS 10.3 public beta for testing on iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. iOS 10.3.2 public beta 1 follows one day after the first developer version of the upcoming software update. Apple’s public beta program is free to participate in unlike its paid developer program. iOS 10.3.2 will be released to everyone in the future, and the public beta allows more users to test pre-release versions of the software update before it’s finalized....

[Update: Public beta 6 is now also available for testers.] Once again after just a week since the last developer beta, Apple has released the seventh developer beta preview. iOS 11 brings new features like drag-and-drop and a redesigned multitasking interface for iPad, a new customizable Control Center, and much more. iOS 11 beta 7 is currently only available to registered developers for now. Apple typically holds new public beta versions for a few days for major updates....

Apple has released the fourth developer betas of iOS 14.7 and iPadOS 14.7 today. The company is also rolling out watchOS 7.6 developer beta 4, as well as tvOS 14.7 developer beta 4. Head below for the details. Update: Now available to public beta testers as well. Today’s new release of the iOS 14.7 beta 4 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....

The Apple Store has come back online following Apple’s media event that just wrapped up in San Francisco. We’ve gotten a look at several smaller products from Apple, and we’ve found one more. For the Euro-folk, Apple has released a Lightning to Micro USB adapter, available for £15.00 and shipping within three days. Presumably the fine men and women of Cupertino have made the adapter available to comply with certain regulations regarding the Micro-USB standard....

Apple has pushed out an update for developers running OS X Lion Developer Preview 4. The update comes in smaller than a full Mac App Store Developer Preview release (656.6 MB) and is available via the Mac’s software update application. Let us know what you find… tips@9to5mac.com Apple releases another software update for Mac OS X Lion Preview 2 (Xcode 4.1 preview 4 also) (9to5mac.com) Update for Mac OS X Lion Preview 2 available (9to5mac....

Apple today released watchOS 7.0.2 for all users. This is the second update for the Apple Watch operating system since the release of watchOS 7 in September. Today’s update promises to fix an excessive battery drain that was affecting some Apple Watch users, as well as bugs related to the ECG app. One of the main features of watchOS 7 is sleep tracking, which lets Apple Watch users check sleep analysis and define a bedtime routine with custom shortcuts....

Following the release iOS 13.4 beta 4 yesterday, Apple today is releasing watchOS 6.2 beta 4 to developers. watchOS 6.2 doesn’t include any major user-facing changes. Instead, the update focuses on performance improvements and under-the-hood bug fixes. Apple doesn’t offer a public beta of watchOS because there is no way to revert back to a previous version if there are bugs. Developers can update to the latest beta of watchOS 6....

As one of the major Apple Pay holdouts among retailers, Walmart today officially launched its own digital payment solution called Walmart Pay nationwide. The launch today in 4,600 stores across the US follows an initial launch in 500 stores back in May and subsequent rollouts across additional markets in the months following. The service works through the Walmart app for iOS and Android and allows users to preload credit, debit, pre-paid, and Walmart gift cards for fast payment via a code scanned at checkout....

The new 67th St. and Broadway Store has been called “The most spectacular store in the chain”. The image of a red curtain hides the construction of Apple’s latest store. (Credit: David Carnoy/CNET) iFoAppleStore has some renderings and a flyover video pasted below. ifoAppleStore says: the glass is 54 feet tall, 75 feet wide, and 30 feet deep and that when the plastic film is peeled off, the storefront will “present a blue-green, filtered view into the store, which building permits indicate will be one level above ground, and two below ground....

As reported by the Wall Street Journal, new research from Forrester explores the kind of products Apple could introduce in the next five years. And while the report’s packed-full of speculation, there’s elements within it that may be worth pondering. For example, the researchers believe it’s possible Apple could introduce a range of Mac-enabled digital picture frames. These could, for example, connect to .Mac or other online image galleries to display new images uploaded by friends, or could randomly show images selected from a user’s own iPhoto library....

After Apple launched updated buttons, icons, and more for Sign In with Apple, Apple Health, and Apple Pay for developers last week, the Human Interface Guidelines (HIG) have seen another update with some big changes to the Siri resources of the Developer HIG. SiriKit, the platform that Apple offers developers to build in native support of its voice assistant to third-party apps as well as AirPlay 2 and HomeKit accessories has seen a major update....