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This week’s top stories: AAPL earnings, Tim Cook’s antitrust testimony, iPhone 12 delays confirmed

Chance Miller | Aug 2 2020 - 7:14 am PT

In this week’s top stories: Apple CEO Tim Cook testifies to congress, more details on the iPhone 12, Apple’s monster Q3 2020 earnings, and much more. Read on for all of this week’s biggest news.

Instagram has become of the latest iOS apps to be caught with questionable privacy practices by iOS 14. One of the privacy features of iOS 14 is a new indicator light in the status bar when the microphone or camera is in use. According to users who have already installed iOS 14, the new indicator stays on when the Instagram app is open, even if the camera isn’t in use.

Here’s what Instagram said in a statement:

“We only access your camera when you tell us to — for example, when you swipe from Feed to Camera. We found and are fixing a bug in iOS 14 Beta that mistakenly indicates that some people are using the camera when they aren’t,” the spokesperson said. “We do not access your camera in those instances, and no content is recorded.”

In other news this week, the LG UltraFine 5K display is no longer available from the Apple Store — at least for now. After months of short supply, the display is now listed as “Currently Unavailable” on Apple’s website. What remains to be seen is whether Apple has plans to bring the LG UltraFine 5K back in stock, or if a new model could be on the way. For now, this means there is no Apple-sanctioned 5K monitor available for Mac users.

On Wednesday, Apple CEO Tim Cook testified to the House Judiciary Committee over antitrust concerns and potential anti-completive behavior. The House Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee has been investigating the digital marketplace since last June, and Cook appeared alongside Jeff Bezos from Amazon, Sundar Pichai from Google, and Mark Zuckerberg from Facebook.

Cook was questioned primarily about Apple’s App Store, including details on the 30% cut it takes on all transactions, and how Apple coexists by creating its own apps while offering a marketplace for third-party developers. You can read the full details of this hearing in our live blog right here.

Finally, Apple reported its Q3 2020 earnings on Thursday. The company announced revenue of $59.7 billion and a profit of $11.25 billion. During Apple’s Q3 2020 earnings call, Apple CFO Luca Maestri confirmed that the iPhone 12 will be released “several weeks” later than the iPhone 11 was released last year. This indicates a release of mid-October at the earliest. You can read our full coverage of Apple’s earnings release right here.

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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 #288 |

Apple has a unified gift card system, Face ID Mac evidence piles up, Digitimes backs Apple Watch Series 6 reporting, MacBook Air refresh clues, Apple’s informative antitrust hearing, iPhone 12 release clues in Apple earnings, and much more.

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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 #94 |

Is FaceID coming to the Mac, what could a Swift version of async/await end up looking like, and what makes SwiftUI a nice fit for game UI development?

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

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Apple @ Work Podcast |

In this episode of the Apple @ Work podcast, Bradley is joined by Kevin Kuluvar from LocknCharge to discuss Apple device storage, keeping devices charged, and a new iPad sanitation production for K-12.

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