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This week’s top stories: Apple March event rumors, default apps on iOS, iPhone 9, and more

Chance Miller | Feb 23 2020 - 7:52 am PT

In this week’s top stories: A fake iPhone 9 makes the rounds, new iOS 13.4 beta, watchOS 6.1.3 is released for everyone, March Apple keynote rumors, and more. Read on for all of this week’s biggest news.

Leading off this week, Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri made headlines for explaining why the company hasn’t adopted the iPad yet. According to Mosseri, the reason for Instagram’s iPhone-only app is that the company doesn’t have the resources to develop for both platforms. He explained that Instagram has “lots to do,” and all of it is apparently more lucrative than an iPad app would be.

Apple this week released the latest betas of its next round of updates, this includes iOS, iPadOS, and tvOS 13.4, as well as macOS 10.15.4 and watchOS 6.2.The first beta of iOS 13.4 included a handful of notable changes, but beta 2 works on refining those features.

One of the few changes in the second beta is that the Mail app toolbar has been redesigned yet again. In the first beta, Apple reverted the toolbar to the pre-iOS 13 design, but with this week’s update, Apple has removed the flag option completely and rearranged the icons, adding a new compose option instead.

Meanwhile, with the latest macOS 10.15.4 beta, users can now access real-time lyrics for Apple Music content in the Music app. To access lyrics in the Music app, look for the small quotation button in the upper-right corner while playing a song. Find more details in our full coverage here.

watchOS 6.1.3 was released to the public this week. watchOS 6.1.3 includes improvements and bug fixes, including a fix for an issue that prevented the irregular heart rhythm notification from working as expected for Apple Watch owners in Iceland.

In iPhone news, an iPhone 9 hands-on video made the rounds on TikTok this week — but we quickly debunked it as a fake. Read more on that story here.

Apple was forced to issue an investor update this week detailing that it won’t hit its Q2 earnings range due to the coronavirus outbreak in China. Apple cites two main reasons for this: worldwide constraints for iPhone supply and demand for Apple products within China.

Last but not least, a Bloomberg report on Thursday detailed that Apple is considering adding the ability for users to set third-party apps as defaults on iOS, overriding the built-in preference for Apple’s Safari and Mail. The company is also reportedly considering adding native support for third-party streaming services such as Spotify on HomePod.

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

iOS | tvOS |

iPhone |

Apple Watch |

iPad & Mac |

Apps |

HomeKit |

HomeKit Weekly: How Apple’s smart home platform compares to Amazon Alexa

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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.

Sponsored by MacStadium: Get 50% off your first two months of a Mac mini subscription now w/ code 9TO5MAC, or get started with MacStadium’s new Orka private cloud.

9to5Mac Watch Time episode #15 |

Matt Birchler really gets the Apple Watch. Not just where it is and where it’s been, but where it could go next. Since watchOS 3, Matt has produced the absolute best eye candy concepts of how future software versions could evolve.

9to5Mac Watch Time is a 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 available on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, and your favorite podcast player through RSS.

Happy Hour Podcast #265 |

Apple Music gains new features, coronavirus forces Apple to adjust earnings guidance (again), new iPhone SE and iPad Pro rumors continue, and Apple may finaly be considering third-party default apps.

Sponsored by:

Capterra: Visit Capterra.com/HappyHour today and join the millions of people who use Capterra each month.

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 071 |

John and Rambo continue their adventures into building apps with SwiftUI, talk about the newly released Swift Playgrounds app for Mac, and discuss the dilemma of Apple promoting their own services across iOS. Also, unit testing, monetizing an app through donations, and much more.

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 and Making the Grade |

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.