iPhone 12 users in France can breathe a sigh of relief now after days of radiation exposure concerns. That’s concern that French authorities raised this month due to new radiation level test results.
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Apple appears to have secured a major discount on its 1.1 billion euro antitrust fine in France. The company has successfully had the fine reduced to 372 million euros by a French court, according to a new report.
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On September 17, a French court will be hearing a case brought by the finance ministry against Apple, according to a report by Reuters. Similar to what happened with the Epic Games vs. Apple case, the French finance ministry alleges abusive contractual terms imposed by Apple for selling software on the App Store.
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Apple Pay is now working with cards from HCBC France and BNP Paribas. The two banks join the 25 card issuers already supporting Apple’s mobile wallet service in France …
Austria is the next European nation looking to impose a specialized ‘tech tax’ on internet giants such as Amazon, Apple, and Facebook. This move follows in the footsteps of France and Germany to take action on a national level rather than awaiting an EU-wide agreement.
Just two weeks ago, French Economy and Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire announced the new GAFA (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon) tax would take effect starting January 1. The country hopes to generate as much as 500 million euros in the tax’s first year in effect.
France is set to impose a sweeping new law starting January 1 which is set to raise as much as 500 million euros in 2019 alone.
The tax, dubbed GAFA for Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon, is targeted towards high-profit internet tech giants who generally pay a lower effective tax rate than other corporations, reports AFP News.
France is imposing a blanket ban on the use of smartphones and personal tablets by students while they are at school …
Reports from local French newspaper Le Dauphiné Libéré (via iPhone.fr) claim Apple has signed contracts to open a new R&D lab in Grenoble, France focusing on imaging technologies.
Fears that terrorists may be planning attacks in Paris during the Euro 2016 football tournament have led the French government to create an app that sends location-based terrorism alerts to users, helping them steer clear of affected areas.
setteB.IT noticed that French, Italian and Spanish iPhone owners can now take advantage of Apple’s Trade Up With Installments plan, where you use your existing phone as a down payment on a new one, paying off the balance in installments over two years. It’s effectively the iPhone Upgrade Program available in the U.S., but with lower monthly payments in exchange for handing over your old phone.
Apple has officially announced that its new retail store in Marseille, France will open May 14 with the usual announcement on its website (via MacGeneration).
The new retail store, located at the Les Terrasses du Port shopping mall, is Apple’s 20th location in France. That’s if including the shop within Galeries Lafayette that it opened last year as one of several boutique locations for sales of the Apple Watch. Apple is also planning other retail stores for the country including a high-profile flagship location on Champs-Élysées in Paris.
According to a report from BFM.TV (via iPhon.fr), France’s Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF) has launched a case before a court in Paris claiming Apple owes 48.5 million euros. The complaint points to clauses in contracts Apple has with mobile operators in the country that the DGCCRF, a governing body under the Ministry of Finance, claims are illegal and essentially provide Apple with too much power over the carriers.
The DGCCRF outlined 10 clauses in Apple’s contracts specifically that it wants the company to remove. The clauses relate to stipulations Apple enforces including the amount of product carriers must order, advertising requirements, mobile plans and other guidelines the carriers must follow in order to sell iPhones. Other clauses relate to Apple’s permission to use patents held by carriers, requirements for carriers covering costs of iPhone repairs and in-store displays, and the fact that Apple doesn’t have to adhere to similar guidelines within the contracts. We’ve translated them from French below:
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A new report French website iGen indicates that France could be seeing an Apple Pay announcement in as early as the first half of this year. While Apple announced the UnionPay partnership for China two months ago, there has yet to be any signs that other additional countries outside the US and UK (aside from Australia and Canada’s American Express arrangement) would be seeing Apple Pay any time soon. Other reports believe that China could be seeing Apple Pay, which is promised to go live in early 2016, activated as soon as this Thursday at 5 AM (Beijing time).
Apple has acknowledged the recent terrorism attacks in Paris with a commemorative ribbon on the Apple France homepage, www.apple.com/fr. The black ribbon is a sign of remembrance and mourning; Google has also added the symbol to its homepage in response to the attacks.
In addition, Apple has been contacting affected employees in French Apple retail stores to check they are safe.
Apple calling all employees in France to check they are safe… 👍
— History is a riot (@_jonasf_) November 14, 2015
Following Apple’s decision to make the Apple Watch available for sale in Best Buy in the U.S. and Canada, it has been making a similar move in other countries. It is already available through select branches of the Australian department store chain MYER, and iPhone Addict reports that it will go on sale through French electronics retailer FNAC as of tomorrow. More chains are likely to follow in other countries.
MYER has an extensive presence across Australia, though currently sells the Apple Watch at only four of the largest ones, in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. FNAC has more than 100 stores throughout France, sales beginning tomorrow with the website and the company’s flagship store on Paris’s famous Champs Elysées, with other stores following at some point next week. The store already sells a range of accessories …
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Apple has announced an expansion of its Apple Maps vehicle program, a fleet of vans equipped with advanced sensors collecting data for an improved Maps experience. Among the new locations, Apple will be bringing the vehicles to France and Sweden for the first time, while it also plans to survey a long list of new cities in the US and UK where it’s already started surveying.
We first reported on the project back in May, noting that Apple was gathering data to reduce its reliance on third-parties, including getting Google Street View-type images of storefronts and other 3D imagery.
For France, Apple lists the following areas already scheduled for surveying: Hauts-de-Seine, Paris (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th), Seine-Saint-Denis, Val-de-Marne.
For Sweden, the areas the company plans to visit include: Malmö in Skåne County, and Stockholm (Bromma, Enskede-Årsta-Vantör, Farsta, Hägersten-Liljeholmen, Hässelby-Vällingby, Kungsholmen, Norrmalm, Rinkeby-Kista, Skarpnäck, Skärholmen, Spånga-Tensta, Södermalm, Älvsjö, Östermalm).
Apple has also added a number of new areas in the UK and US that it plans to survey from August 17th to August 30th next month. The full list is on its website here along with other dates scheduled for data collection in various locations.
In line with our report from earlier this month, Apple today launched its first trade-in program for non-iPhones in its Apple Retail Stores. The program allows users of select Android, Windows Phone, and BlackBerry phones to bring in their devices and receive credit toward the immediate purchase of a new iPhone 5c, iPhone 6, or iPhone 6 Plus (but not an Apple Watch). Apple first launched its standard iPhone Reuse and Recycle trade-in program in 2013, and the company expanded the feature to the iPad last year. Apple made today’s announcement on the individual retail store pages, indicating that the program is so far now available in the U.S., France, United Kingdom, Germany, Canada and Italy, and multiple retail sources say that the program has indeed gone live today. A version of the iPhone trade-in program that does not support non-iPhones is launching this week in China.
<a href="http://qz.com/274000/inside-apples-one-day-watch-pop-up-at-paris-fashion-week/" target="_blank">Apple Watch at Colette via Quartz/Dan Frommer</a>
When the Apple Watch goes on display next month ahead of its launch, it won’t just be available to preview in Apple Stores. The company shared on Monday that three cities around the world — namely Paris, Tokyo, and London — will present the Watch outside of Apple’s own retail stores where people can preview and try on the new wearable. Newly captured photos now show early construction at one of those venues, revealing just how big the presentation area will be.
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The Apple Maps Connect service, which allows small businesses to add their listings to the Apple Maps database, has been expanded to Canada, France and Germany. The service has also gained two new language options, French and German, to correspond with the regional expansion.
Apple first launched Maps Connect in the U.S. last October, enabling businesses to edit or add listings, as well as set up indoor mapping within selected areas. Entries made by businesses typically show up in Apple Maps around a week later. The international rollout began last month with the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and Singapore.
Apple switched from Google Maps to its own mapping service on iCloud.com in December. Apple-leased camera cars have been spotted recently, with some suggesting that they are being used to add Street View style images to Apple Maps, while others believe they are part of the Apple Car project.
Apple Watch <a href="http://arstechnica.com">hands-on table</a> from September Media Event
According to multiple reports out of France, Apple is constructing a dedicated display for the upcoming Apple Watch in some upscale Paris-based retail outlets. The reports say that the size of the display is close to the length of a few small balconies and that Apple Retail Senior Vice President Angela Ahrendts has been directing the construction of the booth at retailer Galeries Lafayette on Champs Elysees. While these claims for France are still unconfirmed, sources have told us that Apple is considering constructing dedicated Apple Watch retail stores in the future if demand deems such outlets necessary…
As iOS developers will know, it can take a while to get a new iPhone app approved, with one online tracker showing that the average time is currently around ten days. The developers of a free app enabling people to express support for the Je Suis Charlie campaign following the terrorist attack in France didn’t want to wait. French news agency Nice-Matin emailed Tim Cook to request an expedited review, an assistant replied ten minutes later promising a review within the hour, and the app is now online.
Literally translated as “I am Charlie,” the phrase voices support for freedom of speech and a refusal to be silenced by terrorists …
Apple has recently introduced a new 14-day no questions asked return policy for iTunes, App Store and iBooks purchases in Europe including the UK, Germany, Italy, France, and many other EU countries.
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Apple has today added 9 new locations to its Flyover feature in Maps (via MacRumors), including three in France, a landmark in Sweden, one in New Zealand, two in Arizona, and a couple more United States landmarks in Wyoming and Arkansas. Flyover allows users pinch to zoom and pan around high resolution views of more than a hundred different landmarks, and today’s additions bring the total number of supported locations up to 101.