MacRumors

Most of our giveaways have focused on hardware products, but this week, we've partnered with Aspyr to set up a special one-of-a-kind giveaway. We've teamed up to offer our MacRumors readers a free copy of the ultra popular game Civilization V: Campaign Edition, which normally retails for $29.

We've created a dedicated page for the giveaway. Head over there to get a promotion code for Civilization V: Campaign Edition that can then be redeemed within the Mac App Store. The promotion is open to readers worldwide.

For those of you unfamiliar with Civilization V, it's a turn-based strategy game that lets players lead a civilization to world domination through time, waging wars, discovering technologies, trading with friendly nations, and interacting with some of the world's most powerful historical leaders. Civilization V: Campaign Edition includes the base game, the Babylon Civilization Pack with Nebuchadnezzar II, plus the Mongols Civilization and Scenario Pack.

We're providing each of our readers with one promo code apiece, and codes will be available through July 31 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time or until all codes have been claimed. Codes will expire on August 4, so make sure to enter your promo code in the Mac App Store before then. Visit the giveaway page.

Update 3:00 p.m. Pacific Time: We've just exhausted our supply of Civilization V promo codes. We're working on getting more codes to give away and we'll let our readers know when we're able to distribute more, so stay tuned.

Apple has quietly changed its App Store policies and is no longer permitting iOS devices running pre-release software to be used to write App Store reviews. When attempting to write a review from a device that has iOS 9 installed, a popup is displayed that tells users reviews can't be submitted while using beta software.

This is a much needed change that will prevent developers from having their App Store ratings and reviews affected by beta-related problems that are out of their control. As MacStories' Federico Vittici pointed out last week, negative App Store reviews left by beta testers have been an unaddressed issue for developers since Apple started providing beta software to public testers.

When beta software is released, some customers fault developers for apps that crash or do not function properly with beta features, leading them to leave negative App Store reviews even though there are months to go until apps need to be ready for the new software.

Following the release of the iOS 9 and OS X El Capitan public betas a week and a half ago, developers began seeing a huge uptick in negative reviews. Many of them took to Twitter to share 1 star reviews that included comments like "Broken with iOS 9.0," and it appears Apple finally took notice of the issue.

While it is no longer possible to write App Store reviews while running iOS 9, it is still possible to leave star ratings. It is not clear exactly when Apple made the change, but with both iOS 9 beta 3 and beta 4, App Store reviews are disabled for developers and public beta testers.

iOS 8.4.1, a pre-release iOS build that is available only to developers, continues to allow App Store reviews to be left, so it appears this may be a change that affects only major software updates or software updates that have also been seeded to the public as part of Apple's public beta testing program.

As expected, Apple did not share specific sales numbers on the Apple Watch during its third quarter earnings call, but Apple CEO Tim Cook did shed some light on how well the Apple Watch did during its first quarter of availability. According to Cook, Apple Watch sales "exceeded expectations" despite supply continuing to trail demand at the end of the quarter. "We feel really great about how we did," he said.

Cook also pointed out that Apple Watch sales during its first nine weeks of availability were higher than sales of the original iPad and iPhone when those devices first became available for sale. June sales, he said, were higher than those in April or May, suggesting reports of falling demand in June were inaccurate.

Apple includes the Apple Watch in its "Other Products" category in an effort to keep its competitors from getting a detailed look at its shipments. Other Products includes the Apple Watch, the iPod, the Apple TV, and accessories like Beats headphones.

During the third quarter of 2015, the Other Products category saw $2.6 billion in revenue, up from $1.7 billion during the second quarter of 2015, a difference of nearly a billion.

Cook said it "would not be accurate" to look at sequential change or year over year change and assume that number represents the actual Apple Watch revenue because there are a lot of factors at work, including declining iPod and accessory sales, which are also included in the category. In a statement made to the Associated Press, Luca Maestri said something similar, suggesting revenue from the Apple Watch amounted to "well over" the $952 million increase between the two quarters.

Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri told The Associated Press that revenue from the watch was "well over" that $952 million increase. He said the category also includes revenue from iPods and accessories, whose sales fell in the quarter.

"We beat our internal expectations" for the watch, Maestri said, adding that the number of watches sold in the first nine weeks was greater than the number of iPhones or iPads that the company sold in a comparable period after those products launched.

Aside from analyst estimates that range from an estimated 2.85 million sales to 5.7 million, that rough $1 billion revenue figure that accounts for the difference between Q2 and Q3 is the closest we've come to learning how many Apple Watch devices Apple sold.

Cook went on to say that beyond the "very good news in sales," Apple is excited about how the Apple Watch is positioned for the long term. There are now 8,500 apps available for the device, and the company is poised to release watchOS 2 in the fall, which will bring native apps and performance improvements. "We believe the possibilities for Apple watch are enormous," said Cook.

Apple today announced financial results for the third fiscal quarter and second calendar quarter of 2015. For the quarter, Apple posted revenue of $49.6 billion and net quarterly profit of $10.7 billion, or $1.85 per diluted share, compared to revenue of $37.4 billion and net quarterly profit of $7.7 billion, or $1.28 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter.

Gross margin for the quarter was 39.7 percent compared to 39.4 percent in the year-ago quarter, with international sales accounting for 64 percent of revenue. Apple also declared an upcoming dividend payment of $0.52 per share, payable on August 13 to shareholders of record as of August 10. The company currently holds $202.8 billion in cash and marketable securities.

Apple sold 47.5 million iPhones during the quarter, up from 35.2 million a year earlier, while Mac sales registered 4.8 million units, up from 4.4 million units in the year-ago quarter. iPad sales continued to decline, however, falling to 10.9 million from 13.3 million.

“We had an amazing quarter, with iPhone revenue up 59 percent over last year, strong sales of Mac, all-time record revenue from services, driven by the App Store, and a great start for Apple Watch,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “The excitement for Apple Music has been incredible, and we’re looking forward to releasing iOS 9, OS X El Capitan and watchOS 2 to customers in the fall.”

Apple's guidance for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2015 includes expected revenue of $49-51 billion and gross margin between 38.5 and 39.5 percent.

Apple will provide live streaming of its fiscal Q3 2015 financial results conference call at 2:00 PM Pacific, and MacRumors will update this story with coverage of the conference call highlights.

Conference Call and Q&A Highlights are available in reverse chronological order after the jump.

➜ Click here to read rest of article...

Apple today released the fourth beta of iOS 9, and as with the previous iOS 9 betas, there are quite a few new features bundled into the release. There are some major additions, such as the promised return of Home Sharing for Music, and several other minor tweaks intended to refine the look and feel of the operating system.

With approximately two months to go until release, iOS 9 is already feeling faster, more polished, and more full featured. For those eager to know all about what's coming in iOS 9 ahead of its release, we've rounded up a complete list of the changes introduced with iOS 9 beta 4 below.

You can also check out all of the changes, large and small, that have been made in previous betas: iOS 9 beta 1, iOS 9 beta 2, iOS 9 beta 3.

Home Sharing - Home Sharing for music was removed in iOS 8.4 with the launch of the new music app and the new Apple Music service, but iTunes chief Eddy Cue said Apple was working to re-add the feature in iOS 9 and it has, in iOS 9 beta 4.

iPod touch Support - People who purchased one of the new A8-based iPod touch devices last week can now upgrade those devices to iOS 9 beta 4. With this beta, Apple added a new installation profile for the device.

Volume Button Photos - In iOS 9 beta 3, there was a bug that prevented the volume button from working as a shutter button for the iOS camera. That's been fixed in beta 4 and it's once again possible to snap a photo using the volume buttons on your iOS device.

Notifications icon - In the Settings app, the icon that represents the Notification setting has been updated with a new red color. The Battery icon has also been fixed and now has rounded edges instead of square edges.

Picture in Picture for Podcasts - One of the iOS 9 features on the iPad is a multitasking Picture in Picture option that lets users watch a video while continuing to complete other tasks on their iPads. As of iOS 9 beta 4, this works with the Podcasts app.

Handoff - The Handoff feature in the App Switcher has been moved to the bottom of the app-switching interface. Pull up on the new Handoff bar to open an app. Previously, Handoff was displayed in the app carousel.

Apple Pay - There's a new option in the Settings app for Apple Pay that lets you turn off the feature that allows Apple Pay be accessed from the home screen with a double click.

Additional feature updates in iOS 9 beta 4 will be added here as they are discovered. Apple should continue to release regular updates to iOS 9 at two to three week intervals throughout the beta testing period to bring minor performance boosts and changes ahead of the operating system's official launch. iOS 9 is expected to be released to the public in the fall.

Apple today seeded the fourth watchOS 2 beta to developers, build 13S5305d, just under two weeks after seeding the third watchOS 2 beta and more than a month after announcing the new operating system update at its Worldwide Developers Conference.

watchOS 2 requires iOS 9 and can be downloaded over-the-air through the Apple Watch app on the iPhone by going to General --> Software Update.

watchOS 2 is the first major update to the first version of watchOS, the software that runs on the Apple Watch. The new software brings many new features that Apple Watch developers can take advantage of, including native apps that run on the Apple Watch itself instead of the iPhone. It also allows developers to access the Taptic Engine and a number of other sensors in the Apple Watch, including the heart rate monitor, the microphone, and the accelerometer.

Along with these features for developers, which will lead to much more complex and full-featured third-party Apple Watch apps, the update introduces new watch faces (photo albums and time-lapse), third-party Complications, Time Travel for viewing upcoming events in a watch face Complication, and a Nightstand mode that's activated when the watch is charging, displaying the time.

watchOS 2 is currently only available to registered developers who have also installed iOS 9 on their iPhones. Apple plans to release the software to the public in the fall.

Apple today released the fourth beta of OS X 10.11 El Capitan to developers for testing purposes, two weeks after releasing the third El Capitan beta and more than a month after unveiling the new operating system at its 2015 Worldwide Developers Conference.

The update is available through the software update mechanism in the Mac App Store and through the Apple Developer Center.

It is not clear what today's update adds to the operating system, but we will add any new features and bug fixes to this post as they're discovered. Previous betas have featured primarily under-the-hood fixes to improve performance and reliability.

OS X El Capitan builds on the features introduced with OS X Yosemite, focusing on improving performance and user experience. Behind-the-scenes improvements in El Capitan have made a number of apps and processes on the Mac much faster, and the introduction of Metal makes system-level graphics rendering 40 percent more efficient.

Along with a new systemwide font, El Capitan includes a revamped Mission Control feature, a new Split View feature for using two full-screen apps at once, deeper functionality for Spotlight, and several new features for Safari, including Pinned Sites for housing frequently visited websites and a universal mute button that quiets all tabs.

OS X 10.11 El Capitan is available to both registered developers and public beta testers. After testing is completed, Apple will release El Capitan to the public in the fall.

Apple today seeded the fourth beta of iOS 9 to developers for testing purposes, nearly two weeks after releasing the third beta and more than a month after unveiling the new operating system at the 2015 Worldwide Developers Conference.

The update, build 13A4305g, is available through Apple's over-the-air updating system on iOS devices and is also available for download through the Apple Developer Center. Xcode 7 beta 4 is also available.

Today's beta includes the return of Home Sharing for Music, which was removed in iOS 8.4. iTunes chief Eddy Cue said Apple was working to re-add the feature in iOS 9, and he's kept his promise. This is also the first iOS 9 beta that's available for Apple's new iPod touch. For a full list of changes, make sure to check out our iOS 9 beta 4 tidbits post.

iOS 9 beta 3, which preceded beta 4, brought several much-desired features to iOS 9 including the News app, an updated Music app with support for the Apple Music service and Beats 1 radio station, folders for selfies and screenshots, 4x4 app layouts for folders on the iPad, and more.

iOS 9 is Apple's latest operating system, focusing on intelligence and proactivity with much improved Siri and Search functions, plus improvements to several apps like Notes, Maps, and Mail. iOS 9 also brings several highly desired features like split-screen multitasking for the iPad and performance boosts that improve battery life and optimize storage space.

As of early July, iOS 9 is available to both developers and public beta testers. The software will be released to the public this fall after testing is complete.

A growing number of users on Twitter are reporting issues with Apple Music, Beats 1, iTunes and the App Store as nominees are announced for the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) exclusively on Beats 1. MacRumors can confirm that many of Apple's cloud-based services are currently not loading or are displaying error messages in the United States and Canada.

Apple has updated its System Status page to reflect service disruptions for some users for the App Store, Apple TV, iBooks Store, iTunes in the Cloud, iTunes Match, iTunes Store, iTunes U, Mac App Store, OS X Software Update, Beats 1 Radio and Volume Purchase Program. The issues have been ongoing since approximately 9:45 AM Eastern.

Update 10:38 AM Pacific: Apple's System Status page now indicates that all services are online again.

Apple has announced that the Apple Watch will be available for purchase on the Apple Online Store in New Zealand, Russia and Turkey starting July 31 after 7:01 AM local time.

Turkish customers should also have the option of in-store pickup at one of two physical Apple Store locations at the Zorlu Center and Akasya Shopping Center in Istanbul.

Apple Watch will now be available in over 20 countries, including the United States, Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Japan, Hong Kong, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey and the United Kingdom.

New Zealand
- Apple Watch Sport: NZ$599 to NZ$699
- Apple Watch: NZ$949 to NZ$1,949
- Apple Watch Edition: NZ$17,500 to NZ$30,000

Russia
- Apple Watch Sport: 23,990 RUB to 27,990 RUB
- Apple Watch: 37,990 RUB to 78,990 RUB
- Apple Watch Edition: 660,000 RUB to 1,120,000 RUB

Turkey
- Apple Watch Sport: 1,249 TRY to 1,399 TRY
- Apple Watch: 1,999 TRY to 3,899 TRY
- Apple Watch Edition: 34,000 TRY to 56,000 TRY

(Thanks, Vladislav!)

Facebook, Google, eBay, HP, Dell and other Silicon Valley companies weighed in on the ongoing Samsung and Apple patent case, siding with the Korean company in a "friend of the court" briefing filed on July 1 to the U.S. Federal Circuit Court of Appeals and first spotted by Inside Sources [PDF via AppleInsider]. The companies argue that the court ordering Samsung to turn over profits would lead to stifled innovation.

If allowed to stand, that decision will lead to absurd results and have a devastating impact on companies, including [the briefing draftees], who spend billions of dollars annually on research and development for complex technologies and their components.

The companies contend that technology like smartphones, which include thousands of different components in both hardware and software, is too complex to award profits, like Samsung is being ordered to do, based on individual component infringements. They argue that any company could then be opened up to patent infringement cases for insignificant features like a specific user interface creation that only appears on a single screen of an app, therefore stifling innovation.

After the companies submitted their thoughts to the court, Apple responded by arguing their thoughts should be dismissed. The Cupertino company specifically called out Google, pointing out that the company has a strong interest in the case because its behind the Android operating system used by Samsung and that the Mountain View company cannot be an impartial "friend of the court".

In mid-June, Samsung asked the court to reconsider a central part of a recent ruling that ensured Apple would receive $548 million in damages, with Samsung wanting the court to rehear the case with a full 12-judge roster rather than the 3-judge panel it used in the previous ruling. That previous ruling reduced Apple's reward from $900 million to $548 million.

Apple recently made a major automotive hire that hints at the company's continued work on an electric car, reports The Wall Street Journal. The company hired Doug Betts, who previously served as the Senior Vice President of the Chrysler Group, where he was the global head of operations leading product service and quality.

According to Betts' LinkedIn page, he began working at Apple in July. Aside from a role in "Operations," in the San Francisco Bay Area, there are no details on what he is doing at the company.

Betts' LinkedIn profile suggests he made major customer satisfaction improvements and warranty cost reductions during his tenure at Chrysler, with job duties that included quality engineering, field issue problem solving, manufacturing operations, and supplier quality, among other tasks. Prior to working at Chrysler, Betts worked at Nissan, Toyota, and Michelin.

Along with Betts, The Wall Street Journal suggests Apple also recently recruited a researcher, Paul Furgale, with a specialization in autonomous vehicles to join its team of employees working on its car project. The company is said to be seeking out other experts with robotics and machine experience, with Furgale recruiting both students and researchers.

Earlier this year, Apple hired Paul Furgale a well-regarded autonomous vehicle researcher in Switzerland, and has begun recruiting other robotics and machine vision experts to work on a confidential project.

Mr. Furgale had been deputy director of the Autonomous Systems Lab at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, or ETH. Mr. Furgale previously had led a European Commission project called V-Charge that sought to develop self-parking vehicle technology.

News of Apple's car project, code-named "Project Titan," leaked in February, but details on the top secret effort remain scarce. Apple reportedly has hundreds of employees working on developing an electric vehicle and has been recruiting talent from the automotive industry and other car-related fields, poaching employees from companies like Tesla, Ford, and GM. Rumors have thus far disagreed on whether Apple is focusing on self-driving capabilities for the vehicle.

Rumors have suggested Apple is aiming to produce a car by 2020, but because Apple often works on projects that never make it to fruition, it's possible that its car plans could be shelved or delayed in the future if the company is unhappy with its progress.