Joe Rossignol

Bloomberg Businessweek has published an in-depth profile of Apple senior vice president Johny Srouji that reveals how the iPad Pro was originally planned for a spring 2015 launch with the same A8X chip powering the iPad Air 2. The 12.9-inch tablet was running behind schedule, however, and Apple ultimately decided to delay announcing the device until late 2015 at its annual iPhone event....

Apple updated its Apple Pay participating issuers list today with 45 additional banks, credit unions and financial institutions supporting the contactless payment service in the U.S. Apple Pay now has 1045 participating issuers nationwide, including 1043 U.S. banks and credit unions and store card support at BJ's Wholesale Club and Kohl's. The newly added Apple Pay participating issuers are...

Donald Trump, a leading Republican candidate in the 2016 U.S. presidential elections, has spoken out against Apple's refusal to help the FBI access data on an iPhone 5c used by shooter Syed Farook in the 2015 San Bernardino attacks. Trump, who appeared on the morning news show Fox and Friends this morning, said he agrees "100 percent with the courts" about the matter, as reported by Politico....

Apple will ship 9.8 million iPads in the first quarter of 2016, potentially its lowest quarterly tablet sales since the iPad 2 in mid 2011, according to Taiwan-based DigiTimes Research. The research note claims Apple will account for 21% of global tablet shipments, trailed by Samsung Electronics with 14% market share. If the sales prediction proves to be accurate, 9.8 million iPad sales...

Apple has filed a preliminary prospectus supplement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as it prepares to issue a $10-$12 billion bond sale, reports CNBC. The debt raised will fund Apple's capital return program, including continued stock buybacks and dividend payments to shareholders, and general corporate purposes such as the repayment of debt and acquisitions. Apple will be...

The latest data from research firm TrendForce shows that MacBook sales continue to gain momentum in an otherwise declining notebook market. Apple passed Asus and Acer to become the fourth-largest notebook maker in 2015, reaching 10.34 percent market share compared to 9.3 percent market share in 2014. Overall notebook shipments in 2015 were 164.4 million, down 6.3 percent from 175.5 million in...

Apple Pay has launched in the U.S., U.K., Canada, and Australia to date, and the mobile payments service could expand to a fifth country this week: China. A customer service representative for China's Guangfa Bank, using the bank's public WeChat account, appears to have confirmed that Apple Pay will officially go live in the world's most populous country on February 18 at 5:00 a.m. local time. ...

Apple has officially acknowledged the "1970" date bug affecting 64-bit iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch devices. The support document does not identify a current fix, but Apple said that an upcoming iOS software update will prevent the issue from occurring in the future.Manually changing the date to May 1970 or earlier can prevent your iOS device from turning on after a restart. An upcoming software...

AT&T has announced that its "Buy One Get One Free" promotion for iPhones and select other smartphones is now available again for both new and existing customers. The limited time offer requires both smartphones to be purchased on AT&T Next with a qualifying plan. The first device can be a new line or an upgrade, while the second device must be a new line and purchased on AT&T Next 24. After ...

AT&T has announced that it will begin trialing 5G wireless technologies this year, including lab tests in the second quarter and outdoor tests over the summer. The carrier anticipates 5G speeds to be 10-100 times faster than today's average 4G LTE connections, with reduced latency.Customers will see speeds measured in gigabits per second, not megabits. For reference, at one gigabit per second,...

iDevices has announced that its app-enabled iGrill and Kitchen Thermometer accessories have been acquired by Weber-Stephen Products, a worldwide manufacturer of charcoal, gas, and electric outdoor grills and related accessories. The acquisition includes the iGrill2, iGrill mini, Kitchen Thermometer, and Kitchen Thermometer mini. The terms of the agreement are confidential. Weber will partner ...

Apple has fixed an issue that prevented shortened "t.co" links on Twitter from loading in Safari on the third beta version of OS X 10.11.4, seeded to developers for testing on Monday, according to developer Dieter Komendera. The bug affected many users in the MacRumors and Apple Support Communities forums. Apple just sent back my radar about https://t.co/JewBctgsV7 urls not working in Safari, ...

A new bill introduced in U.S. Congress today by representatives Ted Lieu (D-CA) and Blake Farenthold (R-TX) would attempt to block state-level efforts to ban sales of strongly encrypted smartphones, reports Ars Technica. The federal bill will need to pass the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate, and be signed by the president, in order to become law. If passed quick enough, the bipartisan ...

Norwegian police will force a 27-year-old man accused of drug possession to unlock his mobile phone via fingerprint, according to local website Bergensavisen [Google Translate]. The police believe the confiscated smartphone may contain evidence about where he obtained the illegal substance. The man, who reportedly admitted he was culpable, has refused to unlock his phone for police since...

Apple's retail expansion efforts over the past few years have primarily focused on China, where it has opened over 15 new stores since the start of 2015. Over that time, the company has only opened 7 new retail stores outside of the China region, including two locations in New York City and one in Abu Dhabi, Brussels, Dubai, Sao Paulo, and Miranda, a suburb of Sydney, Australia. But if recent...

Apple today launched a new Repair Extension Program that addresses video issues on some late 2013 Mac Pro models, according to an internal notice obtained by MacRumors. Apple has determined that graphics cards in some late 2013 Mac Pros, manufactured between February 8, 2015 and April 11, 2015, may cause distorted video, no video, system instability, freezing, restarts, shut downs, or may...

Apple updated its Apple Pay participating issuers list today with 32 additional banks, credit unions and financial institutions supporting the contactless payment service in the U.S. Apple Pay now has 1000 participating issuers nationwide, including 998 U.S. banks and credit unions and store card support at BJ's Wholesale Club and Kohl's. The newly added Apple Pay participating issuers are...

The latest data from Mixpanel shows that approximately 32.22% of active iPhone users still have a 4-inch screen. That is the same screen size as the so-called "iPhone 5se" that Apple is expected to announce at its rumored March 15 event. Apple has released three iPhone models with 4-inch screens since 2013, including the iPhone 5, iPhone 5c, and iPhone 5s, and some customers still feel these...

Apple has updated its System Status page to reflect that many users may be unable to access, purchase, or update apps on the App Store on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Multiple other iCloud services are or were also experiencing downtime, including the iTunes Store, iBooks Store, iCloud Drive, and iWork for iCloud. The issues began shortly before 7:00 a.m. Pacific and appear to be widespread,...

Square has announced that its new NFC reader that enables small businesses to accept Apple Pay, Android Pay, and other contactless payments can now be purchased from Apple online or in U.S. stores for $49. The reader is compatible with NFC-equipped smartphones, including the iPhone 6 or newer, and contactless EMV chip debit and credit cards based on technologies like American Express...