Apple has announced the opening of a new Design and Development Accelerator in Shanghai as part of an effort to support engineering talent and boost growth in China's iOS developer community.
Located in Pudong District, the Accelerator is being launched to give Chinese developers a chance to work closely with Apple experts to enhance their app development skills, learn how to take advantage of the latest Apple software and hardware, and get tips on app marketing and distribution.
"Developers here in China are leading the world with some of the most popular apps on the App Store, and we are proud to be providing this additional support for them," said Enwei Xie, Apple’s head of developer relations, Greater China. "From education to health to entertainment, the innovation we see here is incredible and we can't wait to see what these talented developers will come up with next."
The first Accelerator program focused on how to implement Apple's augmented reality technologies, with an in-depth look at the latest updates to ARKit 3, AR Quick Look, Reality Composer, and RealityKit. According to Apple, the range of activities includes lectures, workshops, labs, guest speakers, train the trainers, and networking on a regular basis.
Apple says Greater China has over 2.5 million app developers, and since 2010, local developers have earned over 200 billion RMB through App Store sales, with over 30 percent of those earnings made in the past year alone.
Shanghai's Accelerator follows a similar scheme Apple launched in 2017 in Bangalore, India. To attend programs, attendees must be registered members of the Apple Development Program and have an Apple ID registered in the region.
Thursday December 11, 2025 8:49 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple seeded the second iOS 26.2 Release Candidate to developers earlier this week, meaning the update will be released to the general public very soon.
Apple confirmed iOS 26.2 would be released in December, but it did not provide a specific date. We expect the update to be released by early next week.
iOS 26.2 includes a handful of new features and changes on the iPhone, such as a new...
Wednesday December 10, 2025 2:52 am PST by Tim Hardwick
Google Maps on iOS quietly gained a new feature recently that automatically recognizes where you've parked your vehicle and saves the location for you.
Announced on LinkedIn by Rio Akasaka, Google Maps' senior product manager, the new feature auto-detects your parked location even if you don't use the parking pin function, saves it for up to 48 hours, and then automatically removes it once...
Apple has ordered 22 million OLED panels from Samsung Display for the first foldable iPhone, signaling a significantly larger production target than the display industry had previously anticipated, ET News reports.
In the now-seemingly deleted report, ET News claimed that Samsung plans to mass-produce 11 million inward-folding OLED displays for Apple next year, as well as 11 million...
Thursday December 11, 2025 11:28 am PST by Juli Clover
Apple today released new firmware designed for the AirPods Pro 3 and the prior-generation AirPods Pro 2. The AirPods Pro 3 firmware is 8B30, up from 8B25, while the AirPods Pro 2 firmware is 8B28, up from 8B21.
There's no word on what's include in the updated firmware, but the AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods Pro 3 are getting expanded support for Live Translation in the European Union in iOS...
Friday December 5, 2025 9:40 am PST by Tim Hardwick
Apple is about to release iOS 26.2, the second major point update for iPhones since iOS 26 was rolled out in September, and there are at least 15 notable changes and improvements worth checking out. We've rounded them up below.
Apple is expected to roll out iOS 26.2 to compatible devices sometime between December 8 and December 16. When the update drops, you can check Apple's servers for the ...
Thursday December 11, 2025 10:31 am PST by Juli Clover
The AirTag 2 will include a handful of new features that will improve tracking capabilities, according to a new report from Macworld. The site says that it was able to access an internal build of iOS 26, which includes references to multiple unreleased products.
Here's what's supposedly coming:
An improved pairing process, though no details were provided. AirTag pairing is already...
Monday December 8, 2025 10:18 am PST by Juli Clover
Apple today seeded the second release candidate version of iOS 26.2 to developers and public beta testers, with the software coming one week after Apple seeded the first RC. The release candidate represents the final version iOS 26.2 that will be provided to the public if no further bugs are found.
Registered developers and public beta testers can download the betas from the Settings app on...
Monday December 8, 2025 4:54 am PST by Tim Hardwick
Apple is actively testing under-screen Face ID for next year's iPhone 18 Pro models using a special "spliced micro-transparent glass" window built into the display, claims a Chinese leaker.
According to "Smart Pikachu," a Weibo account that has previously shared accurate supply-chain details on Chinese Android hardware, Apple is testing the special glass as a way to let the TrueDepth...
Wednesday December 10, 2025 12:22 pm PST by Juli Clover
The next-generation low-cost iPad will use Apple's A19 chip, according to a report from Macworld. Macworld claims to have seen an "internal Apple code document" with information about the 2026 iPad lineup.
Prior documentation discovered by MacRumors suggested that the iPad 12 would be equipped with an A18 chip, not an A19 chip. The A19 chip was just released this year in the iPhone 17, and...
Thursday December 11, 2025 4:19 am PST by Tim Hardwick
Apple's next-generation Studio Display is expected to arrive early next year, and a new report allegedly provides a couple more details on the external monitor's capabilities.
According to internal Apple code seen by Macworld, the new external display will feature a variable refresh rate capable of up to 120Hz – aka ProMotion – as well as support for HDR content. The current Studio...
Helping China win the technology competition. Remember. every time you purchase an Apple product you are helping China, not the US. Straight out "sell them the rope to hang you by".
Sure. Because no Americans make their living developing the OS, engineering the hardware, etc. And those American engineers who don’t exist don’t spend the paychecks they don’t receive in the US, thus keeping other Americans employed.
The only jobs that matter are jobs putting things together, right?
Apart from a lucky and talented few there are not many that can live on App Store income in the USA, whereas Singapore is expensive in terms of cost of living, the neighboring countries are not.
And there must be 3 dozen Xiaomi and Huawei corporate spies (infiltrators) embedded within that Apple app design group in China. Makes their job of pilfering Apple's software IP and ideas so much easier.
The more, the merrier. Why this is looked at in a negative light is beyond me. Increasing iOS development in the most populous country on earth seems like a winning strategy. Similar to increasing iOS development in the 2nd most populous country on earth as mentioned in the story.
