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This week’s top stories: iPhone 11 battery cases, Apple’s December event, iOS 14 report, more

Chance Miller | Nov 24 2019 - 5:51 am PT

In this week’s top stories: More iOS 13 bug fixes, what improvements to expect with iOS 14, iPhone 11 Smart Battery Cases, a December Apple event, and more. Read on for all of this week’s biggest news.

Apple this week released iOS 13.2.3 and iPadOS 13.2.3 to the public. The update continues to make improvements to iOS 13 performance, and includes further enhancements to background app downloading, the Mail app, and more. Find the full release notes in our coverage here.

On Wednesday, Apple released new Smart Battery Cases for the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max. These cases include a new physical camera button for easily opening the Camera app, and then taking photos and videos. The cases are available to order now for $129.

Apple has officially broken ground on its new $1 billion campus in Austin, Texas. The campus will be 3 million square feet in size and initially home 5,000 employees with the capacity to grow to 15,000 employees. This new campus is expected to open in 2022.

Tim Cook also traveled to Austin this week to tour the existing Flextronics plant where the Mac Pro has been assembled since 2013. President Trump joined Cook on this tour, with the Apple CEO thanking him for making the United States investments possible.

A report from Bloomberg has offered new details on Apple’s development process for iOS 14. In an effort to prevent the update from being as buggy and unstable as iOS 13 has been, Apple is reportedly implementing a new system that will make it easier for engineers to test and remove features throughout the development process.

Last but not least, Apple announced this week that it will hold a special evening on December 2. The invite for the event features a a golden App Store logo, with the tagline “loved by millions, created by the best.” Apple says the event will honor its favorite apps and games of 2019.

This means you shouldn’t expect a focus on new hardware products. Instead, the December 2 date of the event lines up with when Apple usually announces its app of the year, game of the year, and other top charts

These and the rest of this week’s top stories below.

iOS | tvOS |

iPhone |

Mac |

Apps |

Tech Industry |

HomeKit |

9to5Mac Gift Guides |

9to5Mac Gift Guide: What do you buy for the person who already has the latest technology?

Black Friday |

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This week’s top videos |

9to5Mac Daily |

Listen to a recap of the top stories of the day from 9to5Mac. 9to5Mac Daily is available on iTunes and Apple’s Podcasts app, Stitcher, TuneIn, Google Play, or through our dedicated RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players.

9to5Mac Watch Time episode 11 |

Tom, Vincent, and Chris from the Apple Watchcast podcast join Watch Time to discuss the origin of their Apple Watch-focused podcast, the Apple Watch Series 5, maintaining health goals with the Activity app, running with technology from the Walkman to the Apple Watch, and much more!

9to5Mac Watch Time is a seasonal podcast series hosted by Zac Hall. In this series, we talk to real people about how the Apple Watch is affecting their lives.

9to5Mac Watch Time is now available on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, and your favorite podcast player through RSS. Subscribe now to enjoy our teaser trailer and hear new episodes as soon as they drop — starting next week.

Happy Hour Podcast #252 |

Apple has a ‘special event’ dedicated to apps, the WWDC app has been rebranded, iPhone 11 has an all-new Smart Battery Case, Zac has hands-on experience with HomeKit Secure Video, and Apple TV+ has some unexpected movie drama.

9to5Mac Happy Hour is available on iTunes and Apple’s Podcasts app, Stitcher, TuneIn, Google Play Music, or through our dedicated RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players.

Stacktrace Podcast #63 |

John and Rambo discuss the announcement of the new 16-inch MacBook Pro, software and hardware decoupling, how to make code testable, and much more. Also, John’s 18-year long wait for a video game, and Rambo’s Swift Playgrounds iPhone port.

Stacktrace by 9to5Mac is available on iTunes and Apple’s Podcasts app or through our dedicated RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players.

Apple @ Work |

Apple @ Work is a weekly series from Bradley Chambers covering Apple in education. Bradley has been managing Apple devices in an education environment since 2009. Through his experience deploying and managing hundreds of Macs and hundreds of iPads, Bradley will highlight ways in which Apple’s products work at scale, stories from the trenches of IT management, and ways Apple could improve its products for students.