Were you lucky enough to get a ticket to the "epicenter of change"?
Instead of putting up tickets and letting the fastest purchase them within minutes, Apple now uses a lottery system to sell tickets to its World Wide Developers Conference.
The 2015 lottery for a chance to get a WWDC ticket ended at 10AM PST on Friday, and over the weekend, Apple began notifying developers who signed up for a chance to attend the five-day, twenty-sixth in a row WWDC if they get a ticket or not.
Apple continued its PR push for Apple Watch in Italy this evening, Jony Ive hosting a Design Week event in Milan allowing folks to try on the new wearable. The design chief also used the occasion to unveil what appear to be exclusive new colorways for the Apple Watch Sport band.
The photos you see both above and below, first spotted by 9to5Mac, were posted to Instagram by Umberta Gnutti Beretta, wife of heir to the Beretta firearms empire Franco. In them you can see Ive posing for photos, and a platter with dark blue, red, yellow, and light pink Sport bands.
With such a high-profile launch of a new-category (fashionable) gadget on its hands, little wonder Apple is admittedly enlisting help of the world's top fashion editors, celebrities and athletes in an unprecedented attempt to position the gizmo in the public's consciousness.
The latest in celebrity Watch signings came via British professional rugby player and captain turned cyclist, Will Carling.
Earlier today, Carling on Twitter showed off his stainless steel Apple Watch sporting what appears to be a bespoke red Sport band.
Apple is showing off the Apple Watch at the Salone Del Mobile Design fair in Milan, Italy, with SVP of Worldwide Marketing, Phil Schiller, and industrial designer, Marc Newson, both on hand at the event.
The device is displayed in rows of glass-topped tables inside the Carlo e Camilla restaurant in Segheria. In addition to using literally the same tables found in its own retail stores, Apple's replicated the U.S. Apple Store try-on experience at the fair.
This despite the device not yet being available for pre-order in Italy. Thankfully, Italian blog Macitynet.it and French site iGen.fr have provided several photographs of Schiller and Newson showing off their device and posing for photographs.
Twitterrific developer The Iconfactory last evening announced immediate availability of Twitterrific for Apple Watch.
The company's freemium Twitter client for the iPhone and iPad was refreshed on the App Store with all-new Apple Watch functionality in the form of Glances, Notifications and the recent activity view. Twitterrific's Glances put retweets, favorites and new followers you’ve received over the past 24 hours, in addition to the current unread tweet count, right on your wrist.
But don't you worry, you'll be able to fine-tune which Twitter notifications appear on your Watch so you don't get inundated with unwanted alerts. Interestingly enough, The Iconfactory has opted for an unusual route of by requiring you to upgrade to Twitterrific's push notifications via a one-time $1.99 In-App Purchase in order to unlock the full Apple Watch functionality.
It appears that the rumor which asserted that talks about bringing Apple Pay to more countries were stalling isn't entirely accurate after all. As CNBC tweeted out on Friday, based on a Dow Jones report, Apple aims to launch Apple Pay in Canada this fall, marking the start of its international expansion of the mobile payment service.
Apparently, the Cupertino firm is in talks with the country's six biggest banks about a potential November launch for Apple Pay's first venture outside the U.S.
Microsoft today refreshed Bing for iPhone, adding more than half a dozen useful new features and enhancements, beginning with the Private Search Mode which will not remember your search history and sites you have visited.
Other new features include better management of your search history settings, the ability to launch native iPhone applications right from the search results page, inline previews of clips in Video search and more.
In a bid to get new Watch customers up to speed and help them learn how to use their Apple wearable device, select brick-and-mortar stores are now offering a brand new workshop called 'Apple Watch Basics,' MacRumors discovered earlier today.
The program can be booked now and is showing up as a Concierge option on Apple's website, with first in-store workshops slated to begin on April 24. According to Apple's website, select stores both in the United States and in other countries are offering workshops as of today, including locations like Xidan Joy City in China.
Apple added Steve Dowling to its online Executive Profile page on Thursday, officially naming him Vice President of Communications. Dowling had been serving as interim public relations chief since October of last year, while Apple analyzed candidates for the permanent gig.
The position opened up last summer, when longtime PR chief Katie Cotton announced her retirement. Cotton was a polarizing figure in the tech world, and well known for her aggressive protection of Apple and tight control over information during her nearly 20-year tenure.
Apple on Thursday announced that it has expanded CarPlay availability to 5 new countries, including Russia, New Zealand, Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands. This brings the total amount of CarPlay countries to 25.
Folks in these countries now have the ability to use Apple's hands-free display-streaming feature with compatible vehicle models and head units, as long as they have an iPhone 5 or newer, running iOS 7.1 or later firmware.
Those wondering what former iOS chief Scott Forstall has been up to since leaving Apple in 2013 may be interested to know that he has been helping out Snapchat. According to leaked emails from Snapchat board member Michael Lynton, Forstall has been a paid advisor for the messaging startup since January 2014.
In fact, he's very well paid. Lynton's email indicates that Snapchat set aside .11% of fully-diluted stock for the ex-Apple exec, with options vesting over 24 months. And given that the company was recently valued at $15 billion, that would make Forstall's stake worth somewhere in the neighborhood of $16.5 million.
It's Thursday and you know what that means, no? That's right, another previously paid app has gone free for a week as part of Apple's ongoing Free App of the Week promotion.
This time around, it's Pursuit of Light, a cool action adventure game set in a mystery world created by developer Lemon Jam Studio and released by publisher Zhipeng Wang.
Regularly a 99-cent download, Pursuit of Light features intuitive touch controls, eighty challenging dreams, beautiful music and design, Game Center support and other perks. The game has you playing as a little girl who strives desperately to find the light and get out of the endless dream she's found herself in.