NYT

Nearly half of all iPads are now being bought by corporations and governments

iPad sales fell another nine percent in the June quarter down to 9.95 million units, but that drop would have been deeper had it not been for big corporations and governments, which are now buying nearly half of all iPads, according to a Forrester research quoted in a New York Times article titled “Once Taunted by Steve Jobs, Companies Are Now Big Customers of Apple”.

“In the primordial days of computing, IBM machines were so common inside corporations that there was a running joke in the industry: Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM,” reads the report. “These days, the same could be said about Apple. Even IBM is promoting Apple gear.”

Apple meets with top podcast producers to hear their complaints

Unhappy that Apple's been neglecting iTunes podcasts for years now, top producers were invited to meet with Apple executives at the company's Cupertino headquarters and voice their grievances, The New York Times reports.

It's true that the iTunes podcasting hub's remained virtually unchanged since its 2005 debut so it shouldn't surprise Apple if producers think that this might have something to do with the fact that podcasts bring the Cupertino firm nothing in direct revenue.

While Apple essentially gave life to the podcasting industry, and it still dominates that sector, company officials made no promises to these producers. Small wonder some of them are now concerned that Apple may no longer care about podcasting.

Apple is making a TV show about app economy starring Will.i.am

Apple has recently been the subject of speculation that it's plunging into TV show production and today the company has confirmed that its first foray into original TV is a brand new series about app economy starring music artist Will.i.am.

In an interview with The New York Times, Apple's Vice President of Internet Software and Services, Eddy Cue, said that its working with rap artist Will.i.am and TV executives Ben Silverman and Howard T. Owens on the nonscripted series about apps.

NYT: gaming is the ‘primary selling point’ of Apple’s next-generation Apple TV

Casual gaming will be a central tentpole of a fourth-generation Apple TV and downloadable games will be the primary selling point of the forthcoming device, as per The New York Times yesterday evening.

Though the next Apple TV won't take console giants Sony and Microsoft head on, Nintendo has plenty of reasons to be worried: casual gaming on the Apple TV should benefit tremendously from downloadable games via a dedicated app store and a redesigned remote with a trackpad, Wii-like motion sensors, Bluetooth and more.

NYT corroborates revamped iPad keyboard, says less pricey gold Apple Watch coming

With just a few days left until Apple's 'Hey, Siri' iPhone 6s event, the New York Times newspaper reported Friday the event will include announcements of a refreshed keyboard attachment for iPads and new metal finishes for Apple's watch, including a less pricey version of the Apple Watch Edition.

Earlier this morning, 9to5Mac hinted that the new keyboard will be for a rumored 'iPad Pro,' that the site claims is in tow for Wednesday's announcement.

Apple Music has an ambitious goal to sign up 100 million subscribers, Beats Music to close down

Apple is aiming for a cool hundred million subscribers for its forthcoming streaming-music service, as reported Monday by both The New York Times and The Associated Press, potentially giving Apple Music an annualized revenue in the ballpark of $12 billion.

How does this figure compare to Spotify, the world's top streaming-music service hailing from Sweden? Well, Spotify has sixty million active listeners but only fifteen million paid subscribers worldwide, 4.7 million of which were in the U.S. as of last December.

In fact, Apple Music looks to dwarf all streaming-music services combined.

NYT: Apple Pay rewards program debuting soon, Google revamps Wallet and readies Android Pay

Apple is about to make its mobile payment system even more appealing to merchants and customers with a likely introduction of a rewards program for Apple Pay at WWDC next month, The New York Times said Thursday.

“Apple is preparing to announce details about enhancements to Apple Pay at its software conference next month,” reads the article. “Those include a rewards program for the mobile wallet service, said two people briefed on the product.”

NYT Now for iPhone goes completely free, adds 1Password support and more

The New York Times newspaper this morning issued a sweet update to its dedicated news summarizing application, Now for iPhone. By far the biggest change in this would-be Flipboard killer involves breaking away from a $15+ per month subscription model in favor of making the app along with its content completely free.

Whether or not the move will help attract more readers remains to be seen. NYT arguably leads the charge in terms of quality newspaper content so going free is a much appreciated change in my book.

NYT launches one-sentence stories on Apple Watch

If you ever wondered how the Apple Watch's tiny screen might lend itself to news consumption, one possible answer came Tuesday as The New York Times newspaper announced one-sentence stories designed specifically for the Apple Watch.

It's like the ultimate news summarization technology, only curated fully by human editors and copywriters. This new form of storytelling should help readers “catch up in seconds” on Apple's wearable device.

U2’s “free” album download cost Apple $100 million, other projects with U2 on the way

As people continue to freak out over Apple’s forced iTunes download of U2’s new album titled “Songs of Innocence,” the New York Times newspaper has learned from sources that the value of the arrangement between the iPhone maker and the aging Irish rock band is in the ballpark of $100 million.

“To release U2’s album free, Apple paid the band and Universal an unspecified fee as a blanket royalty and committed to a marketing campaign for the band worth up to $100 million, according to several people briefed on the deal,” writes NYT.

And according to the band’s manager Guy Oseary, the Cupertino firm has other U2-backed music related projects in the works.

NYT: U2 to play role in tomorrow’s Apple event

It sounds like U2 is going to be involved in tomorrow's festivities after all. Citing sources familiar with the matter, The New York Times is reporting this evening that the popular rock band will be performing at Apple's iPhone 6 event tomorrow, and even says that it will reveal an integration with Apple’s products that is connected to its next album.

NYT: iPhone 6 has one-handed mode, iWatch has NFC, wireless charging and flexible sapphire screen

Joining today's conversation about a flurry of announcements due September 9, journalist Brian Chen filed a report today with The New York Times claiming that Apple's iPhone 6 will feature a so-called “one-handed mode” in an effort to address usability issues anticipated for a phablet-class device.

The lengthy story also takes a closer look at the rumored Apple wearable device which, according to Chen's sources, will have NFC technology and feature a flexible display protected by a sapphire-made cover.

The article corroborates the consensus out there that the iPhone 6 will come in 4.7 and 5.5-inch flavors, both featuring an on-board Near-Field Communications (NFC) chip to facilitate mobile payments.