Business & Tech

Guess Who's Helping Pay For Trump's Ballroom? Alphabet, Meta, Apple, Palantir

Given how the billionaire CEOs all lined up to throw money at Trump's second inauguration, helping the despot feel like the king he's always wanted to be, his royal ballroom is also being funded by these billionaires, including the Bay Area's tech-wealthy.

SF News

Friday Morning Constitutional: Apple Pulls ICE-Tracking App From App Store

Apple has banned an app that allows people to report and track ICE activity; an experienced 23-year-old climber died on Yosemite's El Cap; and the Supreme Court has agreed to hear a new Second Amendment case out of Hawaii.

Business & Tech

Apple Seeks Dismissal of Lawsuit Brought By Musk Over OpenAI Partnership

Apple has formally replied in court to a lawsuit brought by Elon Musk and his company xAI alleging anticompetitive behavior in Apple's decision to partner with xAI competitor OpenAI.

Business & Tech

Apple Unveils Plans for Tabletop Robot Companion and Home Security System

In response to criticism that Apple has missed the boat on the AI revolution, the company is reportedly working on a new tabletop AI "companion" that could hit the market in two years, as well as home-security cameras, and a smart speaker with a display.

Business & Tech

Apple Sues the New Apple Cinemas at 1000 Van Ness, Claiming Trademark Infringement

Not even one month after the movie theater chain Apple Cinemas took over the vacant 1000 Van News theater, the computer company Apple, Inc. is suing them over their name, saying that it’s meant to deceive consumers.

Arts & Entertainment

Apple TV+ Dominates With Most-Nominated Comedy and Drama Among 2025 Emmy Nods

HBO Max may still be vying with Netflix for overall dominance at the Emmy Awards, but Apple's streaming service marked a banner year for Emmy nominations Tuesday, boasting both the most-nominated comedy, 'The Studio,' and the most-nominated drama, 'Severance.'

Business & Tech

Bay Area Tech Stocks Get Destroyed By Trump Tariffs, SF CEO Screams Obscenity on Live Earnings Call

Remember when all those Bay Area tech CEOs cuddled up to Trump with $1 million inauguration donations? Boy did that just blow up in their faces! They lost billions today, and one yelled “Oh sh*t!” when he checked his stock on a live earnings call.

Business & Tech

Apple Shareholders Scoff at Think Tank Proposal to Scrap DEI Programs

At least one more major US company isn't rushing to toss its diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives just because Trump and his minions don't get racism.

SF News

Office Printer Mishap Sparks Landmark Gender Pay Discrimination Lawsuit at Apple

A tax form left on an Apple printer sparked a proposed class action lawsuit involving 12,000+ women, alleging systemic gender pay disparities and biased practices.

SF News

Day Around the Bay: A's Single-Game Tickets Go On Sale Next Week

A's single-game tickets go on sale next week; Apple to revamp AI efforts; and Meta to invest heavily in AI infrastructure.

Business & Tech

Apple Pulls Its AI News-Summary Tool After Major Errors

Apple is yanking one of its first Apple Intelligence features to roll out, the one that summarizes news headlines from various sources to turn them into push notifications, which have turned out to be sometimes wildly false.

Arts & Entertainment

Sam Bankman-Fried Story Getting Turned Into a Movie, Adapted By Lena Dunham

We learn this week that Apple and A24 are moving forward with a film adaptation of writer Michael Lewis's book about Sam Bankman-Fried, and Lena Dunham has been tapped to write the script.

Business & Tech

Apple Gears Up to Unveil First Generative AI Phone, the iPhone 16, on September 9 — But AI-Powered Siri Likely a Year Off

It's once again about time for Apple's annual, post-Labor Day product launch event, and this year it comes with a semi-big new product, with a lot of caveats.

Business & Tech

Elon Musk Flips Out Over Apple's Deal With OpenAI, Threatens to Ban All Apple Devices

In his ongoing quest to convince the world that OpenAI is up to no good and that only he can build the world's best and most ethical generative AI models, Elon Musk sounded off on Xitter Monday in the wake of Apple's announcement that it is partnering with OpenAI.

Business & Tech

Apple Announces Their Plunge Into Generative AI in WWDC Keynote

Apple’s WWDC keynote showed the tech giant’s jump into AI is along the lines of a personal assistant with more privacy emphasis than its competitors, though many features are copycats of what Google and Facebook have already offered for years.

Business & Tech

Apple Apologizes For Disastrously Tone-Deaf Ad Showing Machine Crushing Human Creativity

Apple was uncharacteristically way off the mark with its latest splashy ad for the new, ultra-thin iPad Pro, which drew a ton of criticism on social media. And now they're apologizing.

SF News

Friday Morning Constitutional: Apple Lays Off Over 600 Workers

Apple laid off 614 workers in Santa Clara; police in Fremont nabbed an arson suspect for setting small fires in Fremont and Newark; and there was a 4.7M earthquake in New York City this morning.

Arts & Entertainment

Jon Stewart Says He Parted Ways With Apple Because They Wouldn't Let Him Talk About AI, or China, or Talk to the FTC

Comedian Jon Stewart tore into his former employer on 'The Daily Show' Monday evening, suggesting that he severed his professional relationship with Apple over instances in which they instructed him to avoid certain subjects.

Business & Tech

Apple Hit With Sweeping Antitrust Lawsuit From Justice Department and 16 States Over iPhone Monopoly

After years of scrutiny by regulators and rumblings from states' attorneys general, and following similar prosecutions against Google and other major tech players, Apple was hit with a sweeping lawsuit Thursday accusing it of creating a monopoly around its popular smartphones.

Business & Tech

Apple Slapped With $2 Billion Fine In EU Over Alleged Anti-Competitive Apple Music Practices

Regulators in the European Union have hit Apple with a $2 billion fine (actually 1.8 billion euros) over allegations that Apple Music has been muscling out other streaming music platforms like Spotify in the App Store.

Arts & Entertainment

Apple Cancels 'Schmigadoon' After Two Seasons, Fans Revolt on Social Media

Musical Theater Twitter and Gay Twitter and Tituss Burgess Twitter are collectively enraged that Apple TV+ would dare cancel the most brilliant sendup of musicals since Forbidden Broadway.

Business & Tech

Apple's Legal Woes Over Apple Watch Oxygen Monitor Leads to Device Removal From US Shelves, Biden Declines to Help

The newest models of the Apple Watch have been pulled from shelves across the U.S. due to an ongoing patent-infringement legal battle with the maker of blood-oxygen monitoring technology.

Business & Tech

Jon Stewart Is Leaving His AppleTV+ Show, May Be Butting Heads With Apple Over China Coverage

There’s a problem with ‘The Problem With Jon Stewart,’ which won’t be returning for a third season because of its handling of controversial topics, and there's industry speculation that Apple doesn’t want Stewart angering the Chinese market.

Business & Tech

Apple Unveils One Very Expensive and Slick AR/VR Headset, the Vision Pro, On Sale Next Year

At the annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) on Monday, Apple CEO Tim Cook got to do one of those famous "One more thing..." product drops, this time with Apple's biggest new piece of hardware since the Apple Watch.

Arts & Entertainment

Bay Area-Set Jennifer Garner Show 'The Last Thing He Told Me' Is Oddly Obsessed With Local Food

Jennifer Garner's new show premiered Friday on Apple TV+, and it's based on the 2021 mystery-thriller novel by Laura Dave, 'The Last Thing He Told Me,' and set in Sausalito, San Francisco, and Texas.