The past few months have seen an unusual hike in job openings for designers at Apple, potentially hinting at work on a grand new project or a renewed focus on design.

In letters sent to the CEOs of major tech companies on Wednesday, including Apple CEO Tim Cook, the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee asks why an agreement was made to keep details of the Meltdown and Spectre chip flaws secret until their public disclosure this month.

The first beta of iOS 11.3 is now available, giving developers the opportunity to build apps for ARKit 1.5, and to test out new features like Health Records and new Animoji. However, new settings for battery and performance controls will have to wait until later betas.

Apple's HomePod is finally available to preorder this Friday, January 26th, and arriving in stores starting Friday, February 9th. AppleInsider delves into the device pre-release, and tells you everything you need to know before you drop $349 on it.

With newsmakers finally back from the holidays, the Apple sphere finally began spinning at high speed again -- particularly after Apple's announcement that it plans to pump a lot of money into the U.S. economy through 2023.

A day after a South Korean consumer group filed a complaint against Apple over the company's handling of iPhone battery issues, prosecutors on Friday said they have launched a probe to determine whether the iPhone slowdown debacle amounts to planned obsolescence.

Apple on Friday updated its developer website with fresh iOS 11 adoption statistics, revealing 65 percent of compatible iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices are now running the current generation operating system.

This week on the AppleInsider podcast, Victor and Mike talk about batteries, foreign cash repatriation, and Scott Harkins of Honeywell joins to talk about Lyric and HomeKit home security.

South Korean consumer group Citizens United for Consumer Sovereignty this week filed a criminal complaint against Apple CEO Tim Cook, alleging the company's decision to throttle iPhones with depleted batteries amounts to destruction of property and fraud.

Apple CEO Tim Cook in an interview on Wednesday revealed a new iOS function will soon allow owners of iPhones with depleted batteries to disable built-in CPU throttling, a preventative measure designed to lengthen the life span of older handsets.

Following Apple's announcement of plans to repatriate a chunk of its overseas cash to infuse some $350 billion into the U.S. economy over the next five years, CEO Tim Cook took part in an interview addressing the company's investment strategy, the iPhone slowdown controversy and more.

CES was taking place in Las Vegas, but much of the news continued to revolve around crises like Meltdown and Spectre, the iPhone slowdown controversy, and taxes.

Apple recently published a new section to its iOS App Store that throws a spotlight on subscription-based apps offering free trials to new users, a move that plays into the company's wider push toward subscription pricing.

Following revelations that the French government opened an investigation into Apple's decision to throttle the performance of older iPhones with deteriorated batteries, a U.S. senator on Tuesday sent a letter to CEO Tim Cook requesting details about the hardware policy.

As tech companies rush to work around the 'Meltdown' and 'Spectre' chip flaws, a blog post from Microsoft suggests that the processor generation and age of the operating system will play a factor in terms of how much of an impact the fixes will have on system performance, at least from a Windows user's perspective.

Apple is vexed with the problem of excessive customer satisfaction, particularly in the troublesome demographic of young users. That's the latest hot take reaction to the issue of kids being given permissive parental approval to stay up all night on their iOS devices, leaving them sleep deprived and distracted. Apple's parental controls on iOS are focused on limiting access to content and specific apps, but the company already has tools in place to enforce parents' wishes on the Mac. It just needs to bring these to iOS.

The French government is reportedly investigating a recent private complaint against Apple, which charges that the company's decision to slow down iPhones with weak batteries is a form of planned obsolescence meant to sell new hardware.

At the Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show Belkin made good on years of promises and launched the Wemo Bridge, which lets other Wemo smarthome accessories link with Apple's HomeKit.

Hagens Berman, the consumer rights law firm that successfully obtained a $450 million settlement from Apple over e-book price fixing, once again has the tech giant in its sights, and on Friday filed a class-action lawsuit over the iPhone throttling debacle.

Following the news that both Intel- and ARM-based processors can be susceptible to various hacks, Apple issued a statement on Thursday announcing that it has already implemented some fixes in the latest iOS and macOS releases, with more still to come. However, there are not currently any known exploits taking advantage of "Meltdown" and "Spectre."

Developer support service Buddybuild announced that it has ben acquired by Apple, where its personnel will join the Xcode team in creating developer tools for iOS apps.

At the start of 2017, it was thought that Apple was falling behind other companies in developing virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) related technologies in its products. By the end of the year, Apple has taken small steps towards establishing itself in the VR industry, but it has made great strides in the field of AR, with ARKit being the main driver for its progress.

To mark the 10th anniversary of the iPhone, Apple released the iPhone X -- that's pronounced "ten," as the company is eager to point out. While it may not be an earth-shaking revelation, it's an important signpost for where Apple plans to be 10 years from now -- assuming we're even still using smartphones in 2027.

Looking to equal or beat Apple in the aftermath of its iPhone battery apology, iFixit has dropped the price of its do-it-yourself battery swap kits to $29 or less. More significantly this includes kits for the iPhone 4S, 5, 5s, and 5c, which are excluded from Apple's discounted battery replacements.

Fallout continues to grow following the discovery that Apple slows down older phones with aging batteries to prevent random shutdowns, as a new criminal lawsuit in France aims to hit Apple's pocketbook -- and could even result in jail time.