Wall Street Journal

In the last few years, Apple has spent billions of dollars attempting to develop its own modem chip to replace the Qualcomm modem chips that it uses in iPhones, but a new paywalled Wall Street Journal report suggests Apple's approach to the project has been dogged by unrealistic goals, a poor understanding of the challenges involved, and completely unusable prototypes. Apple's plan to design ...

A number of banks are currently pressuring Visa to make changes to the way it processes some payments made via Apple Pay, moves that would reduce the fees the banks pay to Apple for certain transactions, reports The Wall Street Journal. At the heart of the issue are automatic recurring payments like memberships and streaming services. Visa is aiming to change the way it issues tokens for ‌App...

Apple is planning to add a raft of new health features to the Apple Watch, including blood-pressure trends, a thermometer for fertility and sleep tracking, sleep apnea detection, and diabetes detection, as well as a number of updates for existing models, according to the Wall Street Journal. Sources who claim to be familiar with Apple's plans and have access to internal company documents...

Apple is looking to lease a large production campus in Los Angeles for Apple TV+, according to the Wall Street Journal. Apple apparently told real-estate development executives about its intention to lease a Los Angeles production campus, presumably for ‌Apple TV+‌. The production hub could exceed half a million square feet in size since it needs to provide enough space to produce multiple...

Apple this week announced a new subscription feature coming to the Podcasts app in May that will let podcast publishers sell subscriptions to an individual show or a group of shows, with pricing starting at 49 cents per month. Publishers will be able to set their own pricing, but Apple will reportedly take a 30% of subscription revenue that creators generate in their first year on the...

Apple is widely rumored to introduce three new iPhone models in September, including a second-generation iPhone X, a larger version dubbed the iPhone X Plus, and a lower-priced but lesser-featured version. Given the iPhone X Plus is expected to have an OLED display, like the iPhone X, it would be reasonable to assume that the majority of iPhones that Apple plans to manufacture in 2018 will...

Apple is teaming up with investment bank Goldman Sachs for the launch of a new joint credit card that would be placed under the Apple Pay branding. The card could launch as soon as early 2019, according to The Wall Street Journal. At the same time, Apple would end its partnership with Barclays, which offered customers an Apple rewards program and financing deals through a Barclaycard Apple...

In August 2016 the European Commission ruled that Apple must repay 13 billion euros ($15.46 billion) in back taxes dating between 2003 and 2014. According to the EU, the taxes were avoided with the help of sweetheart tax deals from Ireland, and today The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple will now begin paying these back taxes "as soon as early next year." Ireland's Finance Minister,...

The Wall Street Journal reports that iPhone X production issues were due to a supply imbalance of components dubbed Romeo and Juliet. The report, citing people familiar with the situation, claims it has taken more time to assemble the Romeo module than the Juliet module, both part of the iPhone X's new TrueDepth facial recognition system for Face ID. The so-called Romeo module reportedly...

Apple has held talks with SoftBank about investing up to $1 billion in the Japanese telecommunication giant's global technology fund, according to The Wall Street Journal. A deal has not been finalized, while the current status of the talks could not be determined, according to the report. President-elect Donald Trump and Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son (Image: LA Times) The so-called "SoftBank...

AirPods were originally slated to launch in October, but the wireless earphones were later delayed. Apple said it needed "a little more time" before they are ready for customers, and it has yet to provide an official update since. While the exact reason for the delay remains unclear, a person familiar with the development of AirPods told The Wall Street Journal that Apple's troubles appear...

In a wide-ranging commentary piece about why now is a bad time to buy a new iPhone, The Wall Street Journal has confirmed that the iPhone 7 will start with 32GB of storage, replacing the infamous 16GB base tier offered since the iPhone 3GS.The new iPhones are expected to have more storage for those photos. Instead of 16GB as a starting point for the entry-level iPhone, the new starting point will ...

Rumors have suggested the 2016 iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus will not feature major design changes aside from the removal of the headphone jack, information that has been confirmed in a new report from The Wall Street Journal. The iPhone 7 and the iPhone 7 Plus will continue to feature 4.7 and 5.5-inch displays, with only "subtle changes" to the exterior of the devices. Past rumors indicate the...

Apple is in talks with U.S. banks over a potential person-to-person mobile payments service, reports The Wall Street Journal. Such a service would perhaps be positioned as an expansion to Apple Pay, and it would allow people to send each other payments, much like PayPal's Venmo or Square's Square Cash service. Little is known about the talks at this early date, but The Wall Street Journal...

Apple is speeding up development on its electric car project, reports The Wall Street Journal, giving it a "committed project" label and targeting 2019 as a prospective shipping date. To facilitate a faster launch, Apple will be greatly expanding the number of people working on the car.The go-ahead came after the company spent more than a year investigating the feasibility of an Apple-branded...

Apple design chief Jony Ive and Hermès artistic director Pierre-Alexis Dumas recently spoke with The Wall Street Journal about how the Apple Watch Hermès came to be. Interestingly, the two companies began collaborating on the premium Apple Watch last year, several months before the wrist-worn device was released.“It’s something highly unusual for Apple to do—to talk about an unannounced...

Apple is working with more than 40 technology companies to make the iPad a better work tool, according to a new report by The Wall Street Journal. The initiative, which is called the Mobility Partner Program (MPP), is an effort to change the way business is done and boost lagging iPad sales. The initiative is a bet that Apple, which has never been a big player in the $2 trillion annual...

Samsung is planning to move up the launch of the Galaxy Note 5 by one month to avoid competing with Apple's annual iPhone event in September, according to The Wall Street Journal. The South Korean handset maker will reportedly unveil the next Galaxy Note in mid-August instead of announcing the smartphone at the IFA Berlin trade show in early September as it has done for four consecutive years. ...

Apple is asking suppliers to assemble a record-breaking 85 to 90 million units of its next-generation iPhone models combined by year-end, according to The Wall Street Journal. That order tops the reported 70 to 80 million iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus units that Apple ordered during its initial production run last year. The report reiterates rumors that the so-called "iPhone 6s" and "iPhone 6s...

Apple shelved plans to introduce a full-blown television set more than a year ago reports The Wall Street Journal, citing sources with knowledge of Apple's plans. The company reportedly spent more than a decade researching the possibility of releasing an ultra high-definition television set before deciding to nix the project because it couldn't find untapped features that would give it an edge in ...