Apple has escalated its claim objecting to the green pear logo of the Prepear app, filing new opposition with the Canadian Intellectual Property Office. Patently Apple has the latest on a case it thinks it is not doing much for Apple’s reputation.

The logo in question is owned by a company called Super Health Kids, Inc. The company created a meal planner and grocery list app called “Prepear” that helps people discover recipes and more. Unless Apple is planning to offer a similar app expanding their reach into health related apps and features, it’s difficult at this point in time to believe that Apple is trying so hard to stop a logo that has no resemblance to an Apple. It’s clearly a pear. No one will ever say, except for the Apple lawyer filing this nonsense: oh look, Apple has a new logo. It’s not going to happen. It’s not a logo found on a desktop, a notebook, a smartwatch, a tablet or smartphone.

TikTok will continue to operate in the U.S. despite the threat of a ban from President Donald Trump, according to its General Manager in the country. Vanessa Pappas made the comments in a rare interview with Bloomberg.

“We believe we have multiple paths forward to ensure that we continue to provide this amazing app experience to the millions of Americans who come to rely on it every day,” Pappas said Thursday in one of her first interviews since U.S. President Donald Trump issued executive orders calling for the sale of TikTok’s U.S. business by its Chinese owner, ByteDance Ltd., or a complete shutdown of its American operations, citing national security concerns. The White House has been ratcheting up a fight with China’s government and businesses and has issued restrictions on a number of Chinese tech giants, including Huawei Technologies Co. and Tencent Holdings Ltd. Trump issued an executive order on Aug. 14 requiring TikTok to divest its U.S. business within 90 days under a ruling by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., or CFIUS

There is a new documentary available for free on Apple TV. It’s called Infinite Canvas and follows “seven visionary artists as they push the boundaries of their work by exploring the uncharted territory of augmented reality art,” including Nick Cave, Nathalie Djubjerg, and Hans Berg. The hour-long film is based on an AR[T] experimental art series that took place in Apple Stores in San Francisco, New York, London, Paris, Hong Kong, and Tokyo.

Instagram launched its QR codes globally on Wednesday, The Verge reported. It means businesses can easily direct users to their profile on the photosharing app.

Users can now generate QR codes that’ll be scannable from any supporting, third-party camera apps. It first launched the product in Japan last year. The idea is that businesses can print their QR code and have customers scan it to open their Instagram account easily. From there, people can see store hours, buy items, or just follow the account. To generate your QR code, go to the settings menu on your profile and tap QR code. You might still see Nametag there, but eventually, it’ll become QR code. You can then save or share the image. Instagram previously deployed a similar system called Nametags, which were internal QR-like codes that could only be scanned from the Instagram camera. It’s now deprecating the feature entirely.

Tim Cook’s leadership style, and the contrast with that of Steve Jobs, is much discussed. Inc picked up on an email from the Apple CEO responding to the complaints of a developer that was made public as part of recent antitrust hearings and rather summed up his style and emotional intelligence. The email only contained one word.

How would Cook respond to the lengthy message?  He forwarded the email to three of Apple’s highest decision makers, senior vice presidents Eddie Cue, Phil Schiller, and Craig Federighi, with a one-word question: “Thoughts?” On the surface, you may think there’s nothing special about that type of email. After all, it’s a single word.  But let’s break it down. First, Cook, the CEO of one of the most valuable companies in the world, could have dismissed the original message as a small-time complaint coming from a programmer who didn’t understand Apple’s overarching goals and strategy. But he didn’t.

Speculation has been rife for a while that Apple would retire the Beats branding at some point in the near future. There was certainly a step in that direction on Tuesday with the rebrand to Apple Music radio, notes Brian M. Wolfe on iMore.

As the shift from Beats 1 to Apple Music 1 shows, any current Beats product name change would be seamless and probably won’t come until new models arrive, perhaps as early as this fall. Some name changes would be easier to make than others, however. The BeatsX, urBeats3, and Beat EP are probably history, while the Powerbeats and Powerbeats Pro could live on with “Apple” in each product’s name. Something tells me the Solo Pro, Beats Solo 3 Wireless, and Beats Studio 3 Wireless will all ditch “Solo,” and rebrand with “AirPods” in the name. Finally, the Beats Pill+ is likely to morph into a lower-priced HomePod. We should find out whether Apple retires the Beats name entirely soon enough, as the company is expected to begin announcing new products starting next month and into October.

Pennsylvania is to launch its COVID-19 tracing app in September, built on the Apple-Google framework, AppleInsider reported. The app is set to be called ‘COVID Alerta PA’, according to the state’s Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine.

Brad Payne is a former digital advertising manager for Apple News. Fast Company revealed the story of how he created the Walker Trolley golf cart. You can certainly see the influence of his time at Apple in the story.

Golf cart design became mainly focused on “how tight can I fold it. Put a knob here, another hinge there. Put a racing stripe on it!” Trying to create the smallest folding pushcart is, according to Payne, “a fine goal. A very utilitarian goal. But because of that, the industry kind of converged around a similar design. Everybody kind of copied everyone else.” The starting point for the Walker Trolley, Gibson says, was not how the thing was going to look in the trunk of a car. “Should it fold simply? Yeah, but that shouldn’t drive the design. We want it to present your bag in a beautiful way, using the materials that respect the past.”