MacRumors

Apple Pay today launched in Spain, marking the 13th country where the mobile wallet service is available for Apple customers. The news follows a report published yesterday by Spanish website Applesfera that said Apple Pay would launch in the country on December 1.

Today, Apple Pay's availability in Spain began through a partnership with Amex and Banco de Santander. Credit and debit cards issued by Carrefour and Ticket Restaurant are also accepted. The full list of Apple Pay retail partners and compatible apps can be found on Apple's Spanish website.

Banco Santander today brings its customers Apple Pay, an easy, secure and private way to pay that’s fast and convenient. Santander is the first Spanish financial institution to offer Apple Pay to its customers. Redsys and Mastercard collaborated in the initiative. "Apple Pay shows we are committed to collaborate and to bring innovation and new technology to our customers to make their payments easier, faster and more secure," said Rami Aboukhair, country head of Santander Spain. "We are convinced our customers will love it."

At participating retailers, Apple Pay allows customers to pay for meals, clothes, groceries, and other items through a simple one-tap payment solution that uses existing NFC technology, and the service has slowly been adding additional retail partners since its launch in 2014. Apple Pay is also available within some apps, and is now available on the web in iOS 10 and macOS Sierra.

After today, Apple Pay is now available in the U.S., UK, China, Australia, Canada, Switzerland, France, Hong Kong, Russia, Singapore, Spain, Japan, and New Zealand. Most recently, Apple Pay launched in Japan with the support of the country's widely adopted FeliCa payments standard, meaning only iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, and Apple Watch Series 2 models that are sold in the country can be used for Apple Pay transactions there.

Fitbit is closing in on a deal to acquire smart watchmaker Pebble, according to a new report from The Information. While there's no number on the price, The Information says the deal is for a "small amount."

The deal will see the Pebble brand slowly phased out, with its products shut down over time. Fitbit will largely be acquiring Pebble's assets, which include intellectual property and software. Pebble had reportedly been looking to sell as the company has been experiencing financial troubles over the past year.

Pebble debuted three new smartwatches -- the Pebble 2, Time 2 and Pebble Core -- back in July. In August, it issued a software update that streamlined its interface and redesigned the "Pebble Health" feature. However, the company also laid off 25 perfect of its staff in March.

Last February, Pebble CEO Eric Migicovsky said the company was unfazed by the Apple Watch, largely because the company was less focused on apps than Apple. The Cupertino company quickly became the leader in the smartwatch category after the launch of the Apple Watch, but last month market research from IDC indicated that the overall smartwatch market declined 51.6 percent in the third quarter.

As for Fitbit, the acquisition could signal that the company is looking to expand beyond fitness wearables. In August, alongside its new Charge 2 and Flex 2, the company announced all-new luxe leather bands and other premium accessories. Fitbit has also seen struggles recently, with the company's shares tumbling 30 percent after announcing mixed third-quarter results and weak guidance for its fourth quarter.

Over the course of the last week, many iCloud users have been the target of spam that's delivered in the form of an unsolicited Calendar event invitation, and now Apple is working on a way to stop it.

In a statement given to iMore's Rene Ritchie, an Apple spokesperson said the company working to block spam invites.

We are sorry that some of our users are receiving spam calendar invitations. We are actively working to address this issue by identifying and blocking suspicious senders and spam in the invites being sent.

iCloud calendar spam isn't new, but there's been a serious uptick in calendar spam since last week. Because iCloud calendar invites are sent to an iCloud calendar automatically by default and there's no easy way to ignore them, there's no clear way to stop the spam.

Declining, accepting, or choosing "Maybe" on an incoming iCloud invite lets spammers know an iCloud email address is valid, so until Apple can put a stop to the spam, there are two fixes. First, by logging in to iCloud via a web browser and accessing the Calendar settings (Click the cog, go to Preferences, then choose Advanced), you can choose to receive all event invitations as email. Emails can be more easily ignored and deleted.

Second, you can create a new Calendar, name it Spam, move the spam invitation to the Spam calendar, and then delete the Calendar entirely. This method does not inform spammers that an event has been declined and does not verify an iCloud account's validity. For more detailed instructions, make sure to check out our how to.

Both iOS users that use the default Calendar app and those who use third-party calendar apps like Fantastical are affected by the spam issue, which appears to be fairly widespread.

Apple today seeded the fourth beta of an upcoming tvOS 10.1 update to developers for testing purposes, two weeks after seeding the third tvOS 10.1 beta and more than a month after launching tvOS 10.

Designed for the fourth-generation Apple TV, tvOS 10.1 beta 4 can be obtained by connecting the Apple TV to a computer with a USB-C to USB-A cable, downloading and installing the software from a registered developer account via iTunes or Apple Configurator. Once a beta profile has been installed on the device through iTunes, new beta updates will be available over the air.

Many Apple TV owners have been eagerly awaiting the arrival of a promised Single Sign-On feature that will allow Apple TV users to sign in once with their cable credentials to access all available live cable content, and the feature was introduced in the first tvOS 10.1 beta. Single Sign-On is currently available for DirecTV, Dish, GVTC Communications, Hotwire, and Sling TV.

Shortly after the release of the third beta, Apple unlocked the new "TV" app, which is designed to make it easier for users to discover new content across the dozens of television and movie apps that are available.

It serves as a sort of Apple-designed television guide, giving customers a way to find and watch TV and movies across multiple devices. It features a dedicated store, recommended content, and cross-device syncing.

tvOS 10, for those unfamiliar with the operating system, brings features like improved search, expanded Siri capabilities, a dark mode, a Continuity option for using the iPhone for text input, automatic app downloads, quicker access to live TV, and more.

Many customers are anxiously anticipating the release of Apple's wireless AirPods, originally slated to launch in October but later delayed. Fortunately, the wait may soon be over.

MacRumors has been forwarded an email in which Apple CEO Tim Cook, responding to a customer, allegedly said he anticipates AirPods to begin shipping "over the next few weeks."

Customer's comment: "Give us a release date. I really bought in to the wireless vision you painted. Now I'm stuck waiting with my EarPods but can't charge my 7 at the same time which I need to do at work. Let us know if it's a month or 6 months, because then I'll just buy some other wireless headphones."

Tim Cook's response: "Thanks for your note. Sorry for the delay---we are finalizing them and I anticipate we will begin to ship over the next few weeks."

MacRumors has verified the email's full headers appear to originate from Apple's corporate servers, while Apple executives are known to respond to customers on occasion, but as a boilerplate disclaimer, it should be noted these emails can of course be faked. Apple did not immediately respond to request for comment.

Apple has so far only said it needed "a little more time" before AirPods are ready for customers, while conflicting rumors have pointed towards release dates between December and January, offering little clarity. AirPods remain listed as both "coming soon" and "currently unavailable" on different sections of Apple's website.

Apple ranks highest in customer satisfaction among wireless router manufacturers, according to a new study released by J.D. Power today.

The accolade comes just nine days after a report said Apple has ceased development of its AirPort routers and reassigned engineers working on the products to other teams. Apple continues to sell the AirPort Express, AirPort Extreme, and AirPort Time Capsule, last released in 2013, but future updates appear unlikely.

Apple beat out all other wireless router vendors with a score of 876, based on a 1,000-point scale, followed by ASUS at 860, D-Link at 856, and TP-Link at 854. Apple was the only company to receive a 5-star Power Circle consumer rating, which places it "among the best" according to J.D. Power.

The report, based on responses from 3,037 consumers, measured overall satisfaction across 10 factors, listed in order of importance: Wi-Fi range; reliability; speed of upload/download; restore connection easily; security capabilities; price; ease of use; variety of features; intuitive user interface; and customer service.

Apple has announced it will once again honor World AIDS Day by donating $1 to (RED)'s fight against AIDS for every purchase made with Apple Pay at an Apple Store, on Apple.com, or through the Apple Store app, up to a total of $1 million, starting tomorrow through December 6.

“The gift of life is the most important gift that anyone can give,” said Tim Cook. “Thanks to the vision and dedication of (RED), an AIDS-free generation is within our reach. We want to leave the world better than we found it, and that’s why our longtime partnership with (RED) remains so important to us.”

Bank of America will likewise make a donation for every Apple Pay transaction made using its cards, also up to $1 million, on December 1-7.

Apple is also releasing new PRODUCT(RED) products, including an iPhone 7 Smart Battery Case and iPhone SE Case, alongside the Pill+ Portable Speaker and Beats Solo3 Wireless On-Ear Headphones, all of which are or will be available today. A portion of proceeds raised from these products support The Global Fund.

Meanwhile, for the next week, a number of popular App Store games will be offering limited-edition, custom (RED) content. All proceeds from the associated in-app purchases will go to The Global Fund. The 20 apps set to participate:

In the United States, Apple is offering a free iTunes download of The Lazarus Effect, the documentary about the mission of (RED). Meanwhile, 100 percent of U.S. proceeds raised from The Killers’ holiday album Don’t Waste Your Wishes, exclusively available on iTunes, will go to The Global Fund.

Apple says customers around the world can also easily donate directly to (RED) through iTunes to join the fight against AIDS. Meanwhile, a record 400+ Apple retail stores around the world will once again turn their logos red or feature (RED) window decals on December 1 to raise visibility for World AIDS Day.

Update: The PRODUCT(RED) iPhone 7 Smart Battery Case ($99.00) and iPhone SE Leather Case ($39.00) are now available to order on Apple.com. At the time of writing, delivery dates are stretching between December 5-7 for the iPhone 7 case and December 2-5 for the iPhone SE case.

Apple today began offering Apple Music Student Memberships in 25 additional countries around the world, cutting the cost of an Apple Music subscription by approximately 50 percent for students enrolled in a college or university. The discounts provided to students vary based on country.

Apple Music Student Membership plans appear to be available as of today in Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Chile, Colombia, Finland, France, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Switzerland, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, and the United Arab Emirates.

Student pricing was already available in the United States, Australia, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom following the May 2016 debut of the student program. Student Memberships are now available for Apple Music subscribers in a total of 32 countries.

Student Memberships are validated using UNiDAYS, a student validation service. UNiDAYS confirms that Apple Music subscribers are enrolled in a degree-granting college or university before allowing customers to get the discounted subscription price.

Customers who subscribe to Apple Music with a student subscription will need to confirm their status on a regular basis through UNiDAYS. Subscribers who are no longer students or who have had student pricing for 48 months will be switched over to a full price individual Apple Music subscription.