Apple acquires Vancouver development studio Buddybuild

Vancouver-based development studio Buddybuild shared on their blog that they have been acquired by Apple. Buddybuild offers a service for users to build, test and ship iOS apps to testers, similar to TestFlight, which Apple also acquired in 2014 through its purchase of Burstly.

Buddybuild will eventually integrate into Xcode, Apple’s suite of development tools for iOS, macOS, watchOS and tvOS.

We're excited to share that the buddybuild team has joined the Xcode engineering group at Apple to build amazing developer tools for the entire iOS community.

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Apple starts enabling worldwide discounts on iPhone battery replacements

Further to an earlier announcement regarding discounted iPhone battery replacement services for customers of older iPhones who may be experiencing performance slowdowns, Apple has enabled the discounted replacement service globally starting today.

Canadians who bring their older iPhones for a battery replacement to Apple Retail stores will be able to benefit from the reduced fee. 

"Apple is reducing the price of an out-of-warranty iPhone battery replacement by $64 — from $99 to $35 — for anyone with an iPhone 6 or later whose battery needs to be replaced, available worldwide through December 2018. Details will be provided soon on apple.com/ca," Apple said in an official statement earlier today. The initial timeframe for the discounted battery replacement was supposed to be in January 2018.

"We expected to need more time to be ready, but we are happy to offer our customers the lower pricing right away. Initial supplies of some replacement batteries may be limited," an Apple spokesperson clarified.

Apple issues apology for performance throttling, offers discounted battery replacement service throughout 2018

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

Apple broke the silence about the issue that iOS 10.2.1 causes performance on older iPhones to slow down, ostensibly to counteract battery degradation. It's an issue that created a lot of confusion, with some pundits claiming that Apple is purposely throttling performance to push users to upgrade to newer devices. Apple issued a statement on its website explaining the issue in detail. The company, who makes most of its profits off the iPhone, is also offering discounted battery replacement services for older iPhones throughout 2018.

Responding to increasing confusion and even lawsuits from disgruntled users, Apple took to posting an open letter on its website.

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Apple says iPhones with older batteries will experience slower performance

It isn't uncommon for older iPhones to feel a tad sluggish after a few years. New iOS updates do bring new features as well as make things more efficient but, as we've recently learned, they also throttle performance. Apple says there's a good reason for this.

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