Apple

Apple reportedly put in a bid to buy the rap-battle series Verzuz

Evan Selleck ∙ May 28, 2021

Back in 2020, Apple Music and Beats 1 welcomed a new element to its listening library: Verzuz. It's a live-streaming event that pits two artists in a lyrical one-on-one battle.

At the time, the site, which launched initially on Instagram Live, was going to see a worthwhile time slot on Beats 1 while also still streaming on Facebook's Instagram platform. The first episode for Apple Music/Beats 1 premiered in mid-July of last year, and apparently it was a pretty successful launch. A new report says Apple was looking to outright acquire the rap-battle site.

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New AirPods Pro will reportedly boost fitness tracking features, AirPods 3 coming later this year; new HomePods in development, no AirPods Max 2 in the works

Evan Selleck ∙ May 28, 2021
AirPods Pro

The rumor mill has been pumping out expectations for new AirPods and AirPods Pro for quite some time. But the new truly wireless headphones have yet to actually launch.

And while we're still waiting, we've got new reports to sift through. This time around it's from Bloomberg, with Mark Gurman aiming to tell us what to expect this year. In his latest report, we learn that Apple is still planning on launching new AirPods and AirPods Pro models. So, that's the good news.

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iPad Air to be handed out to all incoming freshmen at the University of Nevada, Reno

Evan Selleck ∙ May 27, 2021

Education continues to be an important element to Apple, which usually relies on the company working with educational bodies in some way or another.

Like, for instance, today's announcement from the University of Nevada, Reno. The university says it is teaming up with Apple to provide the incoming freshman class with new iPad models. The goal, according to the announcement, is to develop a "common learning platform" for all students, providing equal access to technology. The university is calling it the "Digital Wolf Pack initiative."

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Apple confirms iCloud Mail is experiencing some issues, may be slow or unavailable

Evan Selleck ∙ May 27, 2021

iCloud is one of the most integral elements of Apple's business model. But, while it serves as the backbone to many other services, sometimes an outage happens. And sometimes an outage hits a specific service in particular.

Every once in a while, Apple will update its official system status page to reflect an outage of some kind. It's not as rare as some might like, unfortunately. And today, iCloud Mail users have probably already discovered the service is having some issues.

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The iPhone 13 lineup is once again expected to feature sensor-shift camera stabilization

Evan Selleck ∙ May 27, 2021

It's felt pretty quiet out of the rumor mill regarding the upcoming iPhone refresh, and today's latest news regarding the camera system in the upcoming lineup doesn't really change that.

That's because this latest rumor is just the same rumor we've heard in the past. It's regarding the standout sensor-shift camera stabilization feature that Apple introduced with the iPhone 12 Pro Max late last year. It's easily one of the best camera-focused features in the iPhone 12 lineup, but it's reserved for the largest --and most expensive-- model. But that may be changing this year.

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Apple TV+ comedy series ‘Physical’ gets official trailer ahead of June 18 premiere

Evan Selleck ∙ May 27, 2021

With the upcoming June 18 premiere date for one of Apple TV+'s newest comedy series rapidly approaching, the streaming service has provided the official trailer for Physical.

Apple TV+ has been teasing the upcoming dramedy for a while now. We got a first-look of the lead star, Rose Byrne (Instant Family) a while back. And back in April we saw the first teaser trailer. But this latest look offers just over two minutes of footage, giving us a better feel of the comedy, and overall story, coming soon to Apple's streaming service.

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Apple’s first iCloud data center in mainland China goes online

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 27, 2021

Apple's first iCloud data center in mainland China, built in co-operation with a state-owned company, has now officially gone online following more than two years of preparations.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS:

Apple's first iCloud data center in mainland China is now operational. Chinese users' iCloud data is operated by GCBD, a state-owned company. A recent NYT report cast a spotlight on Apple’s iCloud “hard bargain“ in China.
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LeBron James photographed using the unreleased Beats Studio Buds

Evan Selleck ∙ May 26, 2021

The unreleased Beats Studio Buds appear to be caught in an avalanche. Ever since they were discovered in the release candidate for iOS 14.6, the new headphones keep cropping up in other places.

Everywhere except an official announcement. But that will probably be changing in the very near future, now that at least one superstar athlete has been photographed out there in the wild wearing the new headphones. At least, one would hope.

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