Follow Benjamin on Threads to keep up with his latest projects. Benjamin blogs about Apple news and rumors and posts insightful product and app reviews. Read his work on 9to5Mac and his personal blog.
Benjamin Mayo also creates apps for iOS as a professional indie developer and contractor; more details here. Email to discuss making your iOS project.
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After the surprise announcement that the Magic Keyboard for iPad will be available sooner than originally announced, the cheaper Logitech alternative which fits Apple’s non-Pro iPads is also shipping now.
Many schools around the world base their IT deployments on Google services. As schools were forced to shut down as a result of the coronavirus quarantine rules, many institutions have flocked to Google Classroom to keep up the curriculum for students and send out homework. It turns out that the students are less pleased with this arrangement.
Bloomberg today reports that of the four new iPhone models in the iPhone 12 lineup, at least two will feature a redesigned chassis with flat stainless steel edges, with flat sides and more sharply rounded corners like the current iPad Pro design.
The size of the Face ID notch is also expected to get smaller this year. Echoing previous reports, Apple is also working on a cheaper HomePod that would be about half the size of the current product. Bloomberg says the iPhone 12 and HomePod are expected to launch later this year.
Update: HBO today extended the deprecation date another two weeks, so HBO Now will keep working until May 15th and HBO Go will continue for a few more months.
The HBO Now app is ending support for the third-generation Apple TV on May 15 (originally scheduled for April 30). HBO Go will be discontinued at a later date. The apps will no longer work when that time comes; a banner is now visible in the HBO app on the older Apple TV boxes explaining the impending removal.
Although the third-gen Apple TV is actually an eight-year-old device at this point, released in 2012, a lot of them are still in use as the upgrade cycle for set-top boxes is much longer than it is for phones. Apple also sold that model of Apple TV for as low as $69, so it was very popular. But now, HBO is ending support as it prepares to launch its new HBO Max streaming service. So what are your options?
Esteemed film director Martin Scorsese is reportedly in talks with Apple and Netflix over his next film project, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal. The film ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ — based off a best-selling book of the same name — is already partway in production.
Whilst everyone is staying indoors, Apple has made a handful of Apple TV+ shows free for anyone to stream. This should be live now in the US and available in all countries where Apple TV+ is available starting April 11th.
Rather than give unlimited access to the full Apple TV+ collection, Apple has made a handful of series temporarily free. This means anyone can stream Little America, Servant, For All Mankind, Dickinson, Snoopy in Space, Helpsters, Ghostwriter and The Elephant Queen.
A report from the Commercial Times suggests that many Apple partners in the Taiwanese supply chain are expecting a stall in production as a result of the coronavirus impacts on consumer demand. “There will be a lot of stagnation in the second quarter” said one source.
Apple will officially report revenues for the current quarter on April 30. The closure of Apple Stores and global retail stores is expected to have a big hit on iPhone sales. Online sales are also expected to be down as consumers prioritize their income away from non-essential purchases in the current climate.
The handy Express Transit feature of Apple Pay lets you ride public transport systems just by tapping your iPhone or Apple Watch, no Touch ID or Face ID authentication required. However, Express Transit is only available in certain places. This week, the addition of China T-Union cards dramatically expanded the reach of Express Transit in China.
Several publications are noticing this week that the iPad Magic Keyboard is available to preorder on Amazon. This listing has actually been there since the Magic Keyboard was announced. But nonetheless, the details about the item weight and release date are getting people hyped up. Here’s the reality …
Following an update to their premier desktop app last week, Pixelmator are today updating Pixelmator Photo with a handful of new features. This includes supporting the new pointer and cursor features of iPadOS, compatible with Magic Trackpad and external mice, and ready for the launch of the Magic Keyboard accessory for iPad Pro.
As a continuation of a purported leak of what the iPhone 12 camera bump will look like, the same Twitter source has now shared a larger image that shows the supposed front of the iPhone 12 as well.
What appears to be shown is a new design iPhone 12 with a notch that is less wide than the current iPhone 11 series. The outlined graphic shows a stylized representation of the home screen, as if this image was meant to be used in an instructional manual somewhere. However, 9to5Mac cannot confirm its legitimacy and its original sourcing is unclear.
Apple is currently running a special promotion for employees. The HomePod usually retails for $299 for customers, but Apple retail and corporate employees can pick up a HomePod right now at half price: $149.50 each to be exact.
This special employee discount is not unprecedented, but uncommon. It is possible that Apple is trying to reduce inventory of the HomePod ahead of a rumored product update. Although the HomePod is widely praised for its sound quality, its high price relative to the smart speaker market has meant it has not been a mainstream success.
Update: The Apple News service appears to be fully operational once again. Original story below unchanged.
Many users are unable to use the Apple News app this morning. Rather than seeing a feed of today’s stories, upon opening the app, users are presented with an error message stating that the feed is unavailable.
If you dismiss the dialog, other areas of the News app appear still to be up. So you can browse the News+ catalog or find individual channels, but the main Today news feed is not loading.
Apple today launched the America’s Food Fund, hosted on GoFundMe, along with partners including Leonardo DiCaprio, Laurene Powell Jobs, and the Ford Foundation. The project aims to support food access for vulnerable people across the United States.
Update: In a statement, Apple told 9to5Mac that it has an “established program for premium subscription video entertainment providers” and qualifying apps like Prime Video can offer customers the option to buy or rent movies and TV shows using the payment method tied to their existing video subscription. This same program covers features like integration with the TV app, AirPlay 2, universal search and single sign-on integration. Original story below.
In a significant shift, the Amazon Prime Video app on iOS and Apple TV now features a built-in content store. This means users can now buy or rent TV shows and movies directly inside the app on Apple platforms. The change was first spotted by The Verge.
For the longest time, Amazon did not support this because of Apple’s App Store rules which require the developer to use Apple’s In-App purchase system for digital content and give 30% of the revenue to Apple. The app now seems to use Amazon payment method if you have a card on file, otherwise it uses Apple In-App Purchase.
As the investor community fears devastating repercussions to the production schedules of Chinese industry in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, many doubt whether Apple’s major iPhone 12 release cycle will be able to go ahead as normal.
For its part, Foxconn appears unfazed. Via Bloomberg, the key iPhone assembly told investors on a private conference call today that it is still prepared for a fall 5G iPhone debut.
According to the latest report from The Verifier, which has a mixed track record of accuracy, Apple is readying an iOS 13.4.1 build for developers and public beta testers. It also expects that Apple is planning to only release bug fix updates to iOS 13 from now on.
As reported by The Intercept, the Zoom video conferencing app offers options for end to end encryption in its UI (and in its marketing materials) but the calls are not actually end-to-end encrypted at all.
The Zoom video app is bursting into the public consciousness this year as the coronavirus causes most people to work from home. However, the security of the app has come under fire in many ways. In this instance, it turns out Zoom calls are only encrypted in transmission. This means the central Zoom servers could decrypt the incoming calls and see all participants if the company wanted to.
The Pixelmator Pro team continues to crank out updates for the popular image editing app. Today, Pixelmator Pro 1.6 is available in the Mac App Store. The update brings a redesigned color picker and a set of smaller enhancements designed to boost productivity.
Following on from the Apple TV report from earlier this week, iUpdate and The Verifier are reporting on possible upcoming changes to watchOS 7 and the Apple Watch.
Most interestingly, the report claims that Apple is currently tackling two different approaches to adding Touch ID fingerprint unlock to the Apple Watch. One approach would be through integrating a fingerprint sensor into the Digital Crown. The other (cooler) method would be to add a fingerprint sensor under the screen. It’s not clear if this would be ready for this year, as The Verifier points to it being a Series 7 (2021) feature.
Update: This bug has now been fixed via a server-side update.
Here’s a funny bug. On the newest versions of iOS and macOS, you cannot search for a plus sign (the ‘+’ symbol). Try it. Using Google search in Safari, type a search query in the unified address bar that includes the plus sign. When you press “Go” to search, the symbol will be removed from the output.
Similarly, you can search in the search field of Google page — and you will end up on a page with the + sign stripped. It looks like it has been replaced by nothing, but it has actually been replaced by a space character.
Ming-Chi Kuo had already predicted that the first ARM Mac will arrive as soon as the fourth quarter of this year. Unsurprisingly, Kuo says that even more Macs will transition to ARM in 2021 and beyond, including desktop machines, with Apple adopting an “aggressive processor-replacement strategy”.
Presumably, Apple will start with a lower-end laptop form factor and slowly work its way up the line. Kuo says that replacing Intel with ARM CPUs of Apple’s own design will bring significant cost savings as well as the expected performance and battery life gains.
Earlier this month, 9to5Mac reported on a new ‘Gobi’ augmented reality app present in the internal iOS 14 builds. MacRumors today adds that one of the experiences inside that application currently is a spatial ten pin bowling experience that is only activated at a certain street that is within a 5-mile radius of Apple Park.
Moreover, MacRumors has included a photo of what they claim to be one of the controllers Apple is using to test its AR headset. Physically, it looks very similar to the HTC Vive Focus controller.
When the 2018 iPad Pro came out, its radically fresh redesign inevitably brought with it an Apple hardware scandal. A portion of users noticed that their iPad was slightly bent out of the box, and the name #BendGate was coined. Apple ultimately released a support article that quietened most of the outrage, saying that some slight bend was within operating tolerances.
It was also observed that the iPad’s design meant it was easily bent in half with just a little amount of force. Some people reported that the iPad was getting bent just being carried around in a backpack. Now, we have a new iPad Pro, featuring the same thin aluminum enclosure, so did Apple do anything to reinforce the iPad’s structure? It doesn’t seem like it.