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This week’s top stories: iOS 13.6 released with Car Key, Apple previews new emoji, more

Chance Miller | Jul 19 2020 - 6:51 am PT

In this week’s top stories: iOS 13.6 released to everyone, Apple faces a steep penalty from Samsung, a brief look at new emoji coming this year, and much more. Read on for all of this week’s biggest news.

As iOS 14 beta testing continues, Apple also this week released iOS 13.6 to the general public. The update brings improvements to Apple News, Car Key support, and more.

Car Key is a new feature that locks and unlocks users’ cars via their iPhone or Apple Watch and starts the car when the iPhone is placed in the car’s smartphone tray. You can also share access to other people via iMessage and put certain restrictions such as speed limits in place.

iOS 13.6 also brings a variety of improvements to Apple News. Leading the way here is a new audio stories feature that offers audio versions of the best stories from ‌Apple News‌, as well as a daily audio news briefing created by ‌Apple News‌ editors.

In honor of World Emoji Day on Friday, Apple previewed a selection of some of the new emoji characters coming to iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch later this year. The new emoji coming this fall include a ninja, a boomerang, a coin, and more. You can see them for yourself right here.

In other news, a report this week indicated that Apple might include a new braided Lightning to USB-C cable in the iPhone 12 box this year. The new reinforced Lightning cable could shift attention away from Apple not including the USB wall charger in the box, and solve one of the longest-running complaints about iPhone charger durability.

Finally, Apple is reportedly facing a penalty from Samsung for selling too few iPhones. Apple has reportedly made a one-time payment of $950 million to Samsung for not buying OLED displays at the agreed level. You can find the details here.

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

iOS |

iPhone |

Apple Watch |

Mac and iPad |

Tech Industry |

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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.

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9to5Mac Watch Time episode #26 |

Zac Hall and Michael Potuck from 9to5Mac unpack the latest updates to watchOS 7 and Apple Watch in this special live edition of 9to5Mac Watch Time.

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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 #286 |

This week Benjamin Mayo and Zac Hall unpack privacy features in iOS 14, Apple’s first tweet, iPhone 12 and the braided USB-C cable, the latest Apple Silicon Mac expectations, iOS 13.6, and much more.

Sponsored by Sun Basket and Raycon Earbuds — check both out to support the podcast!

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 #92 |

After an accidental deep dive into SwiftUI, John and Rambo discuss the recent issues with Facebook’s iOS SDK and whether Apple should force developers to adopt more platform features. Then, this episode’s actual deep dive, into backend-driven UIs.

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 Podcast |

In this episode of the Apple @ Work podcast, Bradley is joined by Scott Reed and Greg Keller from JumpCloud to discuss why they chose to launch an MDM in 2020, and how device management intersects with identity management.

Sponsored by iMazing: The popular iOS device manager which gives you unparalleled control over iOS and iPadOS data. Request your free trial now.

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

Space Time Podcast by Space Explored |

Space Time is a new podcast from Space Explored, part of the 9to5Mac Network.

Our very first guest is Will Pomerantz, Vice President of Special Projects at Virgin Orbit. In this episode, Zac Hall and Will Pomerantz discuss the issue of NASA’s Stennis Space Center and the origins of its namesake.

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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.