Benjamin Mayo

On Monday, Apple will unveil the highly-anticipated redesign of the MacBook Pro line as part of its ‘Unleashed’ October media event. It is expected to feature a whole new chassis design, industry-leading Apple Silicon, the return of MagSafe power connector and HDMI/SD Card slot, and a mini-LED display. This laptop has been in development for several years, and rumored for almost as long.

In the last few days, another idea has arisen. Some alleged leaks indicate that the new 16-inch and 14-inch MacBook Pro will also feature a notch in the top middle of the display, like an iPhone. This cutout would house the FaceTime camera and ambient light sensors, but Face ID biometrics is not expected.

Update: This issue is now resolved. If you have missing app icons on your watch screen, you can wait for the App Store to update the app or manually remove and re-add it. The redownloaded version will have the correct app icon and complication assets available.

Today, the first Apple Watch Series 7 units are being delivered to customers. Launch day bugs are to be expected and it seems the Series 7 is no exception.

Customers are noticing that the icons for some third-party apps are missing, leaving blank holes on the honeycomb grid home screen. PCalc developer James Thomson has noticed that his app is one of those affected, perhaps linked to the fact that he issued an app update embedding Apple Watch Series 7 specific assets.

Apple TV+ has teed up its third partnership with Bill Lawrence. Following the worldwide success of Ted Lasso, last month Apple announced that Lawrence would produce an adaptation of Bad Monkey starring Vince Vaughn.

This time, fellow Ted Lasso writer Brett Goldstein (who you may recognize as Roy Kent) is also in the mix for a new 10-episode comedy series called ‘Shrinking’, set to star Jason Segel.

Bloomberg is reporting that Apple has significantly cut its production schedule for the iPhone 13 series. Due to ongoing chip shortages, the supply chain is supposedly unable to deliver its original targets for iPhone 13 shipments.

The report says Apple is now expecting to make as much as 10 million fewer phones in 2021, than originally planned. Apple shares dropped 1% in aftermarket trading on the news.

Now that the October Apple event is official, we are seeing a flurry of last minute rumors about the 2021 MacBook Pro, which are widely believed to represent the first major redesign for Apple’s pro notebooks since the disastrous 2016 butterfly-keyboard generation.

Various sources indicate that these new machines will feature a boxier chassis design, a HDMI port and SD card slot, and a ‘M1X’ Apple-designed SoC, aimed at replacing the current 16-inch Intel configs with superior performance and power efficiency. On top of this, according to the (so far) reliable leaker @dylandkt, these laptops will also feature a higher-quality 1080p webcam.

Japanese Apple blog Macotakara today reported that the iPhone SE 3rd-generation will not feature a design change and instead will look like the current iPhone SE. This means it will keep the same 4.7-inch LCD display and Touch ID Home Button. Some earlier rumors had suggested a more significant design overhaul was on the way.

However, the new iPhone SE will pack in Apple’s latest A15 chip with support for 5G cellular networking. Macotakara expects production of the new iPhone SE to begin in December and start shipping to customers in spring 2022.

The Apple Store is down ritual continues, this time in preparation for preorders of the Apple Watch Series 7. The store will be back up at 5 AM PT.

The new Apple Watch line-up features a larger screen that wraps around the curve of the watch’s body, faster charging speeds, and a higher peak brightness when using the always-on mode indoors. The Series 7 models are expected to be priced the same as the equivalent Apple Watch Series 6 configurations.

While the long-term Apple-building-a-vehicle rumors continue unabated, Apple’s current presence in the car comes via CarPlay, which allows a connected iPhone to show maps, communication apps and more on the in-car infotainment system.

Bloomberg today reports that Apple wants to extend CarPlay to be able to interact more closely with the host vehicle. This could include controlling air conditioning, adjusting seats and other settings.

Via Reuters, the Dutch antitrust authority has reportedly ruled that Apple’s App Store policies around the mandatory use of Apple’s In-App Purchase are anticompetitive.

Apparently, the investigation ruled that the requirement to use Apple’s in-app purchase system exclusively is unfairly monopolistic. The ruling has not yet been made public apparently at Apple’s request, and is undergoing legal review.

Apple has been rolling out the Apple TV app to many different platforms, including smart TVs, games consoles, and third-party streaming devices like the Amazon Fire Stick or Roku streaming sticks.

In a slight twist, the company is also launching a ‘Apple TV+’ app for older LG webOS TVs. Update: The TV+ app is also now available on older Samsung smart TV models.

Earlier today, we reported that new firmware versions are gradually rolling out for Apple’s wireless headphone products. This new software enables Find My support for AirPods Pro and AirPods Max, which Apple first teased back in June at WWDC.

This means that the compatible AirPods models gain new functionality inside of the Find My app, including precise location, a new Nearby Finding UI, Lost Mode, and the ability to get notifications when your earbuds are left behind.

Apple is today commemorating the tenth anniversary of Steve Jobs’ passing with a special homepage takeover on Apple.com. Full bleed imagery of Jobs fills the page and there is a special film that relives some of Jobs’ most memorable quotes.

The website also features a special statement from the Jobs family, which reads “for all of Steve’s gifts, it was his power as a teacher that has endured, he taught us to be open to the beauty of the world, to be curious around new ideas, to see around the next corner, and most of all to stay humble in our own beginner’s mind'”.

Apple TV+ will premiere a brand new Peanuts holiday special this year, entitled ‘For Auld Lang Syne’, in which the Peanuts gang will try and throw the best New Years party ever.

Thanks to Apple’s exclusive deal with WildBrain, the classic holiday Peanuts specials for Halloween, Christmas and Thanksgiving are available to stream on the service. Like last year, they will also be aired on PBS.

Apple has landed yet another big-budget movie package for its Apple TV+ streaming service. Directed and written by Jon Watts, best known for directing the Spider-Man movies, the as-yet-untitled movie will star George Clooney and Brad Pitt.

As reported by Deadline, the film will get a theatrical release before streaming on Apple TV+. The exact price of the package was not disclosed, but it was likely in the hundreds of millions given Apple’s bid faced off against interest from Netflix, Amazon, Sony, Lionsgate and other studios.

Security researchers today announced findings surrounding a vulnerability with Visa cards, specifically when a Visa card is set as the default card for Express Transit in Apple Pay on the iPhone (this feature is named Express Travel in the UK).

The demo shared by The Telegraph showed that a hacker could trick the contactless system to perform arbitrary transactions and therefore steal money from a locked iPhone, assuming they have physical possession of the device.

For the longest time, the App Store did not allow users to rate or review Apple’s built-in iPhone and iPad apps, like Mail, Music, News, Stocks and Calculator. However, seemingly since the release of iOS 15 earlier this month, Apple has now lifted that restriction. It is now open season for App Store feedback on Apple’s stock apps.

As you might expect, customer feedback is already flooding in for Apple’s apps, with the Podcasts app currently faring the worst statistically with a 2.0 rating …