MacRumors

With the launch of the M1 Macs last November, Apple officially began its transition away from Intel's chips, and it's clear from Intel's latest advertising campaign that the company is feeling threatened by Apple's decision.

In ads shared on Twitter, Intel has been highlighting the shortcomings of Apple's ‌M1‌ Mac lineup. An ad this week, for example, points out the gaming capabilities of Intel chips. Intel mentions Rocket League, a game that is not available on Apple's platform.

An ad from last week highlighted by 9to5Mac points out the lack of a touchscreen on Apple's Macs. "Only a PC offers tablet mode, touch screen and stylus capabilities in a single device," reads Intel's tweet.

Intel's tweets link to a video from YouTuber Jon Rettinger demoing laptops equipped with Intel chips and comparing them to the ‌M1‌ Macs.

Apple's ‌M1‌ chips received a lot of attention at launch due to their impressive speed and power efficiency, which is not matched by Intel chips. Earlier this week, Intel launched a series of "carefully crafted" benchmarks designed to prove that Intel's 11th-generation processors are better than the ‌M1‌ chips, but the benchmarks were designed to favor Intel machines and were described by Apple columnist Jason Snell as "M1-unfriendly."

Intel's anti-Apple advertising is likely just getting started, as Apple plans to be largely free of Intel chips within a two year period. Apple is transitioning its entire Mac lineup to Apple silicon chips, with the MacBook Pro and iMac set to be refreshed next.

PopSockets today announced the launch of a new PopSocket accessory, the PopMount 2 Photo. The PopMount 2 Photo is a stand that attaches to the back of a PopGrip installed on an iPhone, with the PopMount then able to be attached to any tripod.

Available in black, the PopMount 2 Photo is compatible with 1/4 20 tripods or tripod plates, so it is compatible with a wide range of accessories. It can also be used alone as a handheld stabilization device.

PopSockets says that the PopMount 2 Photo is compatible with all available PopGrips, and the simple design allows for mounting in either portrait or landscape mode with a PopGrip. The slim design is also ideal for travel.

PopSockets makes a range of other mounting options, including the PopMount 2 Flex and the PopMount 2 Car. The PopMount 2 Photo is available starting today and it is priced at $15.

Netflix co-founder and former CEO Marc Randolph recently spoke to Yahoo Finance, where he commented on Disney+ and Apple TV+, two Netflix competitors in the streaming market.

Randolph criticized Apple's free ‌Apple TV‌+ offerings and the number of subscribers that are still not paying. Apple has been offering free year-long ‌Apple TV‌+ subscriptions to those who purchase a new Apple device, and has already twice extended the free subscriptions of those who initially signed up in 2019.

"If Apple spent one quarter as much time on content as they do on giveaways they really could play," Randolph said. "They have no excuse [and] they're still not in it with both feet. They really have to do the entrepreneurial thing and walk up to the edge of the cliff and jump."

He went on to explain that ‌Apple TV‌+ has the "highest churn rate" out of all the available streaming services. "You can't keep replacing people," he said. "You've got to give them a reason to stay."

On Disney+, Randolph said that the streaming service has "fought its way up to a really strong position" with its continuous slate of new content. "It's really a war of who's prepared to make the content," he said. Disney+ just today announced that it has hit 95 million subscribers and could hit Netflix-like numbers in just a few years. Netflix currently has more than 200 million subscribers.

Netflix last month said that it plans to release a new original film every week in 2021, and of the streaming services, it has one of the largest content catalogs available. Disney+ was also able to launch with a huge amount of content, and Disney has regularly been introducing new Star Wars and Marvel shows, among other titles.

Apple built ‌Apple TV‌+ from the ground up and has been adding new content regularly, but the streaming service lags far behind its competitors. Apple has never announced subscriber numbers, but said at the beginning of February that it had seen record viewership with the launch of Justin Timberlake movie "Palmer."

Matthew Inman, the artist behind The Oatmeal comics and board games like Exploding Kittens and Throw, Throw Burrito, today announced the launch of a new free-to-play iOS game called Kitty Letter.

Described as a "Scrabble combined with Crash Royale" or "words with enemies," gameplay consists of unscrambling words, with the words then turning into cat armies that march forward and attack the opponent you're playing against.

Only one thing can protect you from legions of exploding cats: Vocabulary!

Kitty Letter is a head-to-head competitive word game where the best linguist wins. Unscramble words using your enchanted language vortex from the multiverse of infinite vocabularinities, collect power-ups from dysenteric deer, and stop your crazy cat-collecting neighbor from destroying your house!

There's an extensive single player game that features a story by Inman, along with the option to play 1v1 games with either friends or strangers. Gameplay is free, but there are cosmetic in-app purchases that are available.

Kitty Letter can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]

During its earnings report covering the fourth quarter of 2020, Disney today announced that it has surpassed 94.9 million subscribers (via CNBC).

When Disney+ launched, Disney set a goal of hitting 60 million to 90 million subscribers by 2024, a milestone that it reached before the end of 2020. Disney has since re-forecasted and now expects to have 230 to 260 million subscribers by 2024.

With that kind of subscriber growth, Disney+ will likely surpass Netflix. Netflix in January said that it had more than 200 million subscribers worldwide.

Disney+ launched at the same time as Apple TV+, but Disney has seen incredibly rapid growth, reaching 10 million subscribers on the first day and 50 million subscribers at the five month mark. In December, Disney+ was at 86.8 million subscribers, so it has gained eight million subscribers in a month.

Apple does not provide ‌Apple TV‌+ subscriber numbers so there's no direct comparison to make, but if Apple had Disney+ numbers, Apple executives likely would have mentioned it. ‌Apple TV‌+ has not been able to compete with Disney+ because of Disney's established catalog of content along with popular Star Wars and Marvel original shows.

Apple has been ramping up its selection of movies and TV shows, but it will be years before the company has a catalog that can compete with most other streaming services.

Google is testing a new feature for its Google Chrome app for iOS, which will let Incognito tabs be locked with either Face ID or Touch ID on an iPhone or iPad.

As highlighted by 9to5Google, the latest Chrome beta will blur Incognito tabs in the Chrome app until confirmed with the ‌iPhone‌'s biometric authentication.

The feature can be enabled by going to Settings > Privacy > Lock Incognito tabs when you close Chrome. There's a similar option in the Google Search app that confirms identity with ‌Face ID‌ or ‌Touch ID‌ when returning to an incognito search session after 15 minutes, and there's also a privacy lock built into Google Drive.

Google has not updated the Chrome app for iOS since November as it is delaying new versions of most of its apps at the current time. It's not clear when the new feature might launch in the release version of Chrome, but Chrome 89 is expected to launch next month.

The Incognito tab locking feature is limited to beta testers at the current time, and according to 9to5Google, not all beta users are able to access the locking option as there is a server-side element involved.

The U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce this week sent a letter to Apple [PDF] inquiring about the accuracy of the App Privacy labels that Apple asked developers to start adding to apps back in December.

In the letter, the committee asks Apple about reports suggesting that some App Privacy labels are offering "misleading and false information." The query was prompted by a January story from The Washington Post that found over a dozen apps with inaccurate privacy labels.

Apple requires developers to provide information on all of the data that an app collects, but developers are self-submitting the privacy label details on an honor system, without verification from Apple itself. Apple has said that it routinely audits the information that's provided and works with developers to correct inaccuracies, but it's impossible for the company to verify every app's privacy listing.

App developers that do get audited and are found to have failed to disclose accurate privacy information can have future app updates rejected or in some situations, the apps can be removed from the App Store entirely if not brought into compliance.

Committee members Frank Pallone and Jan Schakowsky told Apple that a privacy label is "no protection if it is false," in the letter that urges Apple to improve App Privacy labels.

"According to recent reports, App Privacy labels can be highly misleading or blatantly false. Using software that logs data transmitted to trackers, a reporter discovered that approximately one third of evaluated apps that said they did not collect data had inaccurate labels. A privacy label is no protection if it is false. We urge Apple to improve the validity of its App Privacy labels to ensure consumers are provided meaningful information about their apps' data practices and that consumers are not harmed by these potentially deceptive practices."

Apple has been asked to provide the following details on its App Privacy system:

• Details on the process by which Apple audits the privacy information provided by app developers and how frequently audits are conducted;
• How many of the apps audited since the implementation of the App Privacy label were found to have provided inaccurate or misleading information;
• Whether Apple ensures that App Privacy labels are corrected upon the discovery of inaccuracies or misleading information; and
• Details regarding Apple's enforcement policies when an app fails to provide accurate privacy information for the App Privacy label.

The committee asks that Apple send the requested information by February 23, so Apple has two weeks to craft a response.

Note: Due to the political or social nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Political News forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Amazon today has Apple's AirPods Pro available for $179.98, down from $249.00. This is an Amazon all-time-low price, and it's just about $10 off from the best price seen over the holidays.

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Amazon. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

AirPods Pro are Apple's high-end Bluetooth headphones, offering active noise cancellation and many more features. The included charging case also supports Qi wireless charging, so you can recharge the headphones via any compatible Qi mat.

The AirPods Pro are in stock and ready to ship in 1-2 business days, but this sale will likely expire fast so if you're interested head to Amazon soon.

We track sales for every model of the AirPods in our Best AirPods Deals guide, so be sure to bookmark that page while you shop around for the wireless headphones.

Google has rolled out a suite of new video editing features for Google Photos on iOS that adds granular controls for editing things such as brightness, contrast, and exposure. In addition to the fine-tune controls, users will now have the ability to crop, change the perspective, and add filters to videos directly within the app.

In September, Google announced a redesigned editor for Google Photos that puts machine learning editing suggestions right in the center of the app UI alongside larger tabs to access editing controls directly. Google says this new redesigned experience will be available on iOS in "the coming months."

The new video editing tools themselves are already available on iOS according to Google thanks to a server-side roll-out, given the app was last updated more than two months ago. Google Photos remains a part of a handful of Google apps on the App Store that have gone for weeks without a proper update.

Google Photos was last updated in December and some have theorized that the lack of updates is due to Apple's new privacy "nutrition labels" that educates users on what data an app collects about them and whether it shares the data with 3rd parties. On December 8, Apple began requiring all app updates submitted to the App Store to include the labels and the absence of updates for Google apps seemingly suggests an unwillingness from Google to reveal its privacy practices.

Google said at the start of January that it would update its apps with the new privacy labels in the week following the statement, but so far many of its most popular apps such as Google Maps, Google Search, Google Meet, and Google Photos remain without an update or labels.

A number of Apple patent applications, published earlier today, appear to be directly related to its long-rumored mixed reality headset, covering a range of aspects including design elements, lens adjustment, eye-tracking technology, and even software.

The patents, filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office by Apple, were made public earlier today and seemingly relate to specific features of its mixed-reality headset product.

Firstly, Apple applied for a patent related to several of the design elements of a head-mounted display unit in a filing titled "Head-Mounted Display Unit With Adaptable Facial Interface." This filing attempts to explain how a number of individual design elements can prevent a headset from being moved around by facial movements, increase the ability of a user to move their face when wearing a headset, and improve general comfort.

In supporting a headset on both the upper and lower facial regions separately, Apple seeks to reduce tension and facial compression for a more comfortable fit. This is achieved with "a light seal that conforms to the face of the user," which also blocks out environmental light, various facial supports of different stiffnesses, and even a "sprung" lower section. Among the recent deluge of reports surrounding Apple's mixed reality headset was The Information's remark that Apple is using a supportive "mesh material" around the headset for comfort.

In another application published today titled "Electronic Device With A Tunable Lens," Apple describes a lens-adjustment system for a head-mounted display unit. To present content optimally to a specific wearer, the optical lenses inside a VR/AR headset usually have to be adjusted.

Apple's system for adjusting lenses involves using a first and second lens element "separated by a liquid-filled gap with an adjustable thickness." In modulating how much fluid is allowed in this gap, the headset is able to move the lenses closer together or further apart to be suitable for a specific user. Unlike many other VR headsets, which require users to manually move lenses, Apple's system is entirely electronic and controlled by actuators. Lens elements may also be "semi-rigid" to be able to adjust their curvature as needed.

Earlier this month, The Information claimed that Apple's headset would feature "advanced technology for eye tracking." Now, a new patent application from Apple simply titled "Eye Tracking System," outlines a process to detect the position and movement of a user's eyes in a head-mounted display unit.

The eye tracking system includes at least one eye tracking camera, an illumination source that emits infrared light towards the user's eyes, and diffraction gratings located at the eyepieces. The diffraction gratings redirect or reflect at least a portion of infrared light reflected off the user's eyes, while allowing visible light to pass. The cameras capture images of the user's eyes from the infrared light that is redirected or reflected by the diffraction gratings.

Infrared cameras and a light source can be placed within the headset behind the lenses to detect infrared light bounced off of a user's eyes. The "diffraction grafting," placed between the camera and a user's eye, may take the form of a thin holographic film laminated to the lens, and serves to direct the light from a user's eye directly to the camera, while allowing visible light from the headset's display to pass through as normal. The IR camera would need to be placed at the edges of the display panels, near to a user's cheekbones.

The filing goes on to describe in detail how this system allows the headset to precisely locate and track the movement of a user's "point of gaze." The system is so accurate that it is even able to detect pupil dilation. In terms of software applications for eye tracking, Apple remains vague, but it does suggest that the technology could be used for "gaze-based interactions" such as creating eye "animations used in avatars in a VR/AR environment."

The Information said that Apple's mixed reality headset will use "cameras on the device, the headset will also be able to respond to the eye movements and hand gestures of the wearer." It is also of note that in 2017, Apple acquired SensoMotoric Instruments, a German firm that made eye-tracking technology for VR headsets. One purpose suggested by The Information was as follows:

Apple has for years worked on technology that uses eye tracking to fully render only parts of the display where the user is looking. That would let the headset show lower-quality graphics in the user's peripheral vision and reduce the device's computing needs, according to people with knowledge of the efforts.

Finally, Apple has revealed a user interface concept for "a virtual reality and/or augmented reality device," in a filing called "3D Document Editing System." The patent application sets out how documents can be edited in a virtual 3D space. The system involves a keyboard being paired with the headset via Bluetooth or a wired connection to edit text.

The VR device may be configured to display a 3D text generation and editing GUI in a virtual space that includes a virtual screen for entering or editing text in documents via a keypad of the input device. Unlike conventional 2D graphical user interfaces, using embodiments of the 3D document editing system, a text area or text field of a document can be placed at or moved to various Z-depths in the 3D virtual space.

The filing adds that the headset may be able to detect a user's gestures to move selected content in a document such as highlighted text, shapes, or text boxes, and explains that users could move document elements in three dimensions on a Z-axis. It goes on to list a number of specific finger gestures to perform specific actions in a 3D text editor application.

In some embodiments, a document generated using the 3D text editing system may be displayed to content consumers in a 3D virtual space via VR devices, with portions of the document (e.g., paragraphs, text boxes, URLs, sentences, words, sections, columns, etc.) shifted backward or forward on the Z axis relative to the rest of the content in the document to highlight or differentiate those parts of the document. For example, active text fields or hot links such as URLs may be moved forward relative to other content in the document so that they are more visible and easier to access by the consumer in the 3D virtual space using a device such as a controller or hand gestures.

The patent application also proposes that the headset could pass through a view of the user's real-world environment in the document editing software.

In some embodiments, the VR device may also provide augmented reality (AR) or mixed reality (MR) by combining computer generated information with a view of the user's environment to augment, or add content to, a user's view of the world. In these embodiments, the 3D text generation and editing GUI may be displayed in an AR or MR view of the user's environment.

This is similar to The Information's claim that the "cameras on the device will be able to pass video of the real world through the visor and display it on screens to the person wearing the headset, creating a mixed-reality effect," and the general parity of these patent applications to recent rumors about Apple's mixed reality headset is striking. While patent applications cannot be taken as evidence of the exact technologies Apple is planning to bring to consumer products, it is difficult to look past the way in which these patents fit into the bigger picture surrounding Apple's AR/VR project.

Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has said that Apple will reveal an augmented reality device this year, and according to JP Morgan, the device will launch in the first quarter of 2022. The headset is expected to be priced around $3,000, competing with the likes of Microsoft's HoloLens 2, which costs $3,500. Yesterday, designer Antonio De Rosa shared photorealistic renders of what Apple's mixed reality headset is believed to look like based on recent rumors.

In late October, Apple filed an unspecified product in the Bluetooth SIG database with a "B2002" name, "Personal Computer" category, and "TBD" model number, and now the company has filed its trio of Macs with the M1 chip under the same entry.

The latest MacBook Air, 13-inch MacBook Pro, and Mac mini with the M1 chip were added to the listing on February 10, 2021.

While these additions to the database rule out the possibility of the "TBD" item being an M1 Mac, the listing otherwise remains a mystery. Many other existing Apple products can be ruled out too, as there are separate Bluetooth database listings for the iPhone 12 lineup, Apple Watch Series 6 and Apple Watch SE, AirPods Max, HomePod mini, fourth-generation iPad Air, eighth-generation iPad, latest iPad Pro models, and more.

Products rumored to be in Apple's pipeline for release in 2021 include its long-awaited AirTags items trackers, a new Apple TV, second-generation AirPods Pro, and more, but it is simply unclear what the "TBD" listing represents.

In addition to entire products, Apple does occasionally file components in the Bluetooth SIG database, such as the H1 chip in the second-generation AirPods and the W2 chip in the Apple Watch Series 3. The "TBD" listing has a "Controller Subsystem + Host + Profile" description, so it is possible that it refers to the M1 chip or another component in the M1 Macs and simply has yet to be updated to reflect that, but it remains to be seen.

A group of U.S. chip companies, including Intel, Qualcomm, Micron, and AMD, have today sent a letter to President Joe Biden to request "funding for incentives," while Apple supplier TSMC is undertaking a considerable expansion as chip demand outstrips supply (via Reuters).

The letter to the President asked for "substantial funding for incentives for semiconductor manufacturing" to be included in his economic recovery and infrastructure plans. The letter from the U.S. firms noted that the U.S. share of semiconductor manufacturing has dropped from 37 percent in 1990 to 12 percent today.

This is largely because the governments of our global competitors offer significant incentives and subsidies to attract new semiconductor manufacturing facilities, while the U.S. does not.

Working with Congress, your administration now has a historic opportunity to fund these initiatives to make them a reality. We believe bold action is needed to address the challenges we face. The costs of inaction are high.

Intel, in particular, has suffered from a myriad of problems. With major client Apple dropping Intel for its own custom silicon, and Microsoft expected to follow suit in the near future, Intel has struggled to deliver technological innovations. This is after the company has repeatedly reported delays with its latest processors, while its main competitor, AMD, has proceeded to capture valuable market share. After a major investor pushed Intel to shake up its entire business model, the company is hoping that new CEO Pat Gelsinger will help it to find its way.

While subsidies for chip manufacturing and semiconductor research have been authorized by Congress, the quantity of funding has yet to be decided. The association of companies hopes to receive significant funding in the form of grants or tax credits to claw back market share.

The formal request comes amid a global shortage of chips, which have hampered the automotive industry and popular games consoles in particular. The majority of the supply of the constrained chips comes from Taiwan and Korea, which have come to dominate the industry in recent years.

EETimes is today reporting that unlike the U.S. firms, TSMC, Apple's main chip supplier, is raising $9 billion from bonds to expand production. The company has approved the establishment of a $186 million subsidiary in Japan to expand research on materials for three-dimensional chips, following unconfirmed reports that TSMC plans to open its first overseas chip-packaging facility in Japan. TSMC also plans to combat U.S. chip makers on home territory this year by opening a new manufacturing facility in the U.S. state of Arizona.

TSMC is currently trying to meet unprecedented demand that exceeds its production capacity as global demand for secure supplies of chips skyrockets, boosting component prices by as much as 15 percent in the past two financial quarters. The chip shortage has not severely affected Apple since TSMC gives it priority over other clients such as Microsoft, Sony, Volkswagen, and Toyota because it holds much larger orders.

Note: Due to the political or social nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Political News forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Apple this week shared a short film on its YouTube channel in France called "Le Peintre," which translates to "The Painter." Shot on the iPhone by Paris-bared director J.B. Braud, the video depicts a house painter who rings the doorbell of a large house and gradually realizes that he is the victim of a misunderstanding, according to Apple.

Apple has highlighted the video on a new page on its French website that promotes iPhone 12 models as being able to shoot cinema-quality video.

From February 15 to February 28, Apple will be hosting virtual Today at Apple sessions with French filmmaking professionals, including Braud. Anyone can register for these free sessions, hosted over Webex, but they will likely be in French only.

Apple is also promoting the video on Twitter with a #LePeintre hashtag, complete with a custom paintbrush hashflag icon, as spotted by MacRumors reader Aaron.