MacRumors

Belkin, known for the accessories that it makes for Apple's devices, recently announced its first MagSafe products, the Boost Charge Pro MagSafe 3-in-1 Wireless Charger and the Car Vent PRO. The wireless charger isn't out just yet, but the Belkin Car Vent Mount PRO with ‌MagSafe‌ has launched.

The Car Vent PRO is, as the name suggests, a mount that's been created for use in the car with a design that attaches to a car's vents. Priced at $40, the Car Vent PRO is not a charger and has no charging capabilities.

The accessory is a simple magnet-based mount that attaches to ‌MagSafe‌ devices that include the iPhone 12, 12 mini, 12 Pro, and 12 Pro Max, adhering to the ‌MagSafe‌ magnet built into those devices. It also works with ‌MagSafe‌ cases attached to ‌iPhone‌ 12 models.

I'm not entirely sure why the Car Vent PRO has "Pro" attached to its name because it's a fairly simple mount. It's made from a lightweight plastic material that's designed to look like aluminum with a softer material on the mount portion of the accessory to ensure an attached ‌iPhone‌ isn't scratched or otherwise damaged.

The lightweight design is nice because it's not putting unnecessary weight on the car's vents. There's a silicone prong on the back of the Car Vent PRO that grabs right into a car's vents, with about an inch and a half space between the vents and the front of the mount. The grip is tight enough that I'm confident it's not going to come loose from the vent.

I'm not often in the car these days so I haven't been able to do extensive terrain testing on how well the magnetic connection works. With my ‌iPhone‌ attached, if I give the mount a good shake I can dislodge my ‌iPhone‌, but I do have to put a decent amount of effort into it.

I suspect that there are situations where a huge bump could dislodge the ‌iPhone‌ from the mount, but for day to day smoother driving, it feels well-adhered. I took several trips on a fairly bumpy road and had no problems with the magnetic connection with an ‌iPhone‌ 12 or a heavier iPhone 12 Pro Max even at fast speeds and during turns.

While there's no built-in charging, you can attach the Vent PRO to an in-car Lightning cable if you already have that setup, which makes it more useful. There is a spot for routing a cable around the back if you do want to use it with a charger. My car's charging ports are located in the center console under a lid, so it's not a convenient setup for my situation and I wasn't able to test it with a cable attached.

The Car Vent PRO can be used in either portrait or landscape mode with an attached ‌iPhone‌, so depending on your in-car setup and how you prefer Maps to look, you can get it working the way that you like. To facilitate use in either orientation, the Car Vent PRO itself rotates thanks to an adjustable ball joint that can also change the angle of the phone as needed.

Bottom Line

Belkin's Car Vent PRO does what it's supposed to do - it successfully provides a way to mount your ‌iPhone‌ in the proper position for using apps like Maps while in the car. The magnetic connection held up well in my testing, and the adjustable ball joint allows the mount to work in most vehicle setups.

Compared to other mounting options, it's simple because it requires no extra hardware or magnets, and it's basically the only ‌MagSafe‌ mounting option at the moment. If you need a mount for the car and have an ‌iPhone‌ 12, Belkin's option is worth checking out.

How to Buy

The Belkin Car Vent PRO can be purchased from Apple for $39.99.

Note: Belkin provided MacRumors with a Car Vent PRO for the purpose of this review. No other compensation was received.

In a recent interview with Japanese website Casa BRUTUS, shared by Mac Otakara, Apple's VP of industrial design Evans Hankey, VP of product marketing Bob Borchers, and industrial designer Eugene Whang reflected on the new AirPods Max.

The interview is in Japanese, but with a translation, some key points can be gathered. For starters, Hankey said that Apple prototyped hundreds of AirPods Max designs over a lengthy development period, as the company worked to balance comfort and sound quality. Apple's design team conducted a significant amount of research on the shape of the headphones to ensure they are comfortable to wear while delivering a tight seal.

The interview also reveals that Apple tested touch controls for the AirPods Max, as exist on some over-ear headphones from competitors like Sony and Bose, but Apple ultimately settled with a larger version of the Apple Watch's Digital Crown, offering precise, tactile volume control. The headphones also have a noise control button for switching between Active Noise Cancellation and the more natural sounding Transparency mode.

AirPods Max come with a carrying case called the Smart Case, and many reviewers and customers have criticized the case's peculiar design. Whang, who apparently oversaw design of the case, said that while many headphones come with a large, cumbersome case, the Smart Case was designed to be storage efficient. Whang added that it was not necessary for the headband to be covered since it was built to be strong.

AirPods Max are designed with magnetically-attachable memory foam ear cushions, stainless steel telescoping arms, and a headband with a "breathable knit mesh" that distributes weight to reduce on-head pressure, according to Apple. Priced at $549, the over-ear headphones are available to order on Apple.com with a lengthy 12-14 week delivery estimate.

Popular HomeKit accessory maker Eve has today announced that its app is now available for M1 Macs.

Via an update, the Eve app can now run on Macs with an ‌M1‌ chip, allowing users to view their home, create scenes, and control accessories directly from a Mac. Apple forbids accessories from being added on the Mac, but otherwise the app works exactly the same as it does on iOS or iPadOS.

Eve 5 has received a number of visual improvements, such as support for the iPhone 12 lineup's screen resolutions, a native sidebar for the iPad and Mac, and a dark app icon option.

The update also brings a number of improvements to Eve's existing accessories, such as support for schedules with the Eve Light Strip, refinement to the secondary information display for Eve Degree and Eve Room, and improvements to the schedule editor of Eve Thermo. For the third-generation Eve Door & Window, there's a new Thread-enabled firmware update. Thread technology improves connectivity between various accessories by adding a new communication method.

Eve 5 is now available on the App Store for ‌iPhone‌, ‌iPad‌, and Mac. Existing users need only update the app to get the new features.

Apple has adjusted the trade-in values of many of its products overnight. Some devices, such as iPads, have seen moderate increases in value, while others, such as Macs, have experienced decreases.

Apple incentivizes customers to upgrade by offering the option to trade in older devices in exchange for credit towards a new purchase. The latest changes to the trade-in program's values, spotted by iMore, include iPads, Apple Watches, Macs, and even some Android devices.

Apple has increased the maximum trade-in value of many products in its iPad lineup. The iPad Pro has increased by $25 to $525. The iPad Air and entry-level ‌iPad‌ have gained $40, reaching $250 and $240 respectively. Finally, the iPad mini has increased from $175 to $205.

Apple has given a minor boost to the value of the Apple Watch models. The Apple Watch Series 3 and Apple Watch Series 4 have increased by $10 to $95 and $150, while the Apple Watch Series 1 has increased from $30 to $35.

On the other hand, various Macs have seen cuts to their trade-in value. The MacBook Pro is down from $1,760 to $1,530, which is a reduction of $230. The MacBook Air has also lost $100, down to $630, while the MacBook is down to $380 from $450.

With regards to desktops, the iMac Pro has seen a significant cut of $540, down to just $3,040. The ‌iMac‌ is down to $1,180 from $1,390, and the Mac mini is down to $830 from $930. The Mac Pro appears to be the only Mac to have gained value, with a major increase of almost double the previous $1,490 price. Customers can now trade in the ‌Mac Pro‌ for $2,930.

For Android devices, the Samsung Galaxy S20 has fallen in price from $270 to $225, while the Samsung Galaxy S10 and S10+, as well as Google Pixel devices, have seen minor increases.

These prices reflect the maximum value that customers can expect for their device. The actual valuation will be dependent on the condition of the device.

Analysts have recently suggested that Apple's trade-in program could become a key part of an all-in-one hardware and software subscription service in the future, should Apple combine with the iPhone Upgrade Program and Apple One.

See Apple's full list of maximum trade-in prices for more information on trade-in values.

Some Messenger and Instagram features are temporarily unavailable to users in Europe in order to comply with new rules on data usage currently being rolled out in EU countries.

Affected users are seeing alerts in the Facebook-owned apps that some features aren’t available to "respect new rules for messaging services in Europe."

The alert doesn't specify what the missing features are, but The Verge notes that polls on both Messenger and Instagram are currently disabled in Europe, while stickers in Instagram are unavailable, as are personalized replies in Messenger. Each support page for the above features currently carries the notice:

This feature may be unavailable if you're located in Europe or messaging an account based in Europe to respect new messaging service rules. We're working to bring it back.

The temporary changes are said to be Facebook's compliance with the national implementations of the 2002 Privacy and Electronic Communications Directive (ePrivacy Directive), which imposes stricter rules on data use across communications services that operate in countries that are part of the EU.

Other missing features may include a disabling of file sending on Messenger, missing nicknames, and the ability to share AR effects in DMs on Instagram.

Users in the United Kingdom are also missing the features, because EU law continues to apply to the U.K. during the Brexit transition period (currently due to last until 31 December 2020).

Facebook has not given a specific timeframe for reinstating the missing features, but told The Verge they would return "very soon."

Microsoft has updated its Edge browser with native support for Apple Silicon, promising optimized performance for Macs with the M1 chip.

The update was announced through the official Edge developers Twitter account, which invited users to download the new version from the Microsoft Edge Canary Channel, a subsection of the Microsoft Edge Insiders website.

Microsoft didn't specify what kind of performance improvements users can expect from the M1-optimized version of its browser, but if it's anything like Firefox's supercharged Apple silicon update, loyal Edge users should have something to celebrate.

Earlier this week, Apple shared a list of popular apps optimized for M1 Macs that are available in the Mac App Store, such as Pixelmator Pro, Adobe Lightroom, Affinity Designer, Darkroom, Fantastical, OmniFocus, BBEdit, Instapaper, and Twitter. Apple boasted that apps optimized for the ‌M1‌ chip deliver "game-changing speed and capabilities."

Last month, Apple released its first Macs with the ‌M1‌ chip, including a new 13-inch MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, and Mac mini.

WhatsApp will soon let Mac users make voice and video calls from the platform's desktop client, according to a new report from forthcoming feature specialist WABetaInfo.

WhatsApp has offered voice and video calling in its mobile app for some time, but the feature doesn't extend to the encrypted messaging platform's web and desktop clients.

However, that looks set to change, based on a beta of WhatsApp's desktop variant. As the screenshot below shows, users involved in the beta testing stage of the client can see new voice and video calling buttons in the chat header of the app window.

Clicking either button initiates a voice or video call to the selected contact, and then displays a separate pop-up window showing options to enable or disable video, mute the call, or hang up.

Meanwhile, a call recipient using the desktop client sees a similar pop-up window indicating someone is calling them and offering them options to accept or decline the incoming call.

It's not clear how long voice and video calls will remain in beta testing on the desktop client, but WhatsApp is fairly quick at introducing new features, so if we could well see the functionality appear in an update in the next few weeks.

Back in August, Twitter began calling retweets with comments Quote Tweets, and a couple of months later the social media platform changed the way retweets worked so that users were prompted to Quote Tweet a retweet first before deciding to share it.

Users didn't have to type anything in the quote tweet prompt, and could still retweet with no added context. Still, the idea behind the small change was to encourage more thoughtful amplification of tweets, so that users didn't just mindlessly retweet something without due consideration.

However, it turns out that the tweak didn't have the intended effect, as Twitter explained on Wednesday in a blog post.

We hoped this change would encourage thoughtful amplification and also increase the likelihood that people would add their own thoughts, reactions and perspectives to the conversation. However, we observed that prompting Quote Tweets didn't appear to increase context: 45% of additional Quote Tweets included just a single word and 70% contained less than 25 characters.

Twitter said it also saw a 20% decrease in retweets and quote tweets while the automatic quote tweet prompt was active. As a result, Twitter is reverting the retweet action to its original behavior, and users will no longer see the Quote Tweet prompt when they tap the Retweet button.

Facebook has expressed additional criticism towards Apple over an upcoming iOS 14 privacy measure that will require users to grant permission for their activity to be tracked for personalized advertising purposes.

For the second consecutive day, Facebook is running a full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and The Washington Post that claims Apple's tracking change will harm not only small businesses, but the internet as a whole. Facebook says that due to Apple's new policy, many apps and websites will have to start charging subscription fees or add more in-app purchase options to make ends meet, making the internet "much more expensive."

The full text from the ad:

Apple vs. the free internet

Apple plans to roll out a forced software update that will change the internet as we know it—for the worse.

Take your favorite cooking sites or sports blogs. Most are free because they show advertisements.

Apple's change will limit their ability to run personalized ads. To make ends meet, many will have to start charging you subscription fees or adding more in-app purchases, making the internet much more expensive and reducing high-quality free content.

Beyond hurting apps and websites, many in the small business community say this change will be devastating for them too, at a time when they face enormous challenges. They need to be able to effectively reach the people most interested in their products and services to grow.

Forty-four percent of small to medium businesses started or increased their usage of personalized ads on social media during the pandemic, according to a new Deloitte
study. Without personalized ads, Facebook data shows that the average small business advertiser stands to see a cut of over 60% in their sales for every dollar they spend.

Small businesses deserve to be heard. We're standing up to Apple for our small business customers and our communities.

Facebook's ad concludes with a link to its new "Speak Up For Small Business" page where small business owners express concerns about Apple's change.

In an email, a Facebook spokesperson said Apple's move "isn't about privacy, it's about profit," echoing comments the company shared yesterday. "Paying for content may be fine for some, but most people, especially during these challenging times, don't have room in their budget for these fees," the spokesperson added.

"We disagree with Apple's approach and solution, yet we have no choice but to show Apple's prompt," Facebook said yesterday. "If we don't, they will block Facebook from the App Store, which would only further harm the people and businesses that rely on our services. We cannot take this risk on behalf of the millions of businesses who use our platform to grow."

In a statement responding to Facebook, Apple said "we believe that this is a simple matter of standing up for our users," adding that "users should know when their data is being collected and shared across other apps and websites — and they should have the choice to allow that or not." Specifically, users will be prompted to allow or deny ad tracking as necessary when opening apps on iOS 14 starting early next year.

Apple said it welcomes in-app advertising and is not prohibiting tracking, but simply requiring apps to obtain explicit user consent in order to track users for personalized advertising purposes, providing users with more control and transparency.

The iOS 14.4 beta that was introduced today didn’t appear to include any new features, but an accompanying HomePod 14.4 beta will introduce new HomePod mini functionality that takes advantage of the U1 ultra wideband chip in the device.

The ‌HomePod‌ beta software is not made available to developers like iOS and macOS software and is instead provided to a limited number of Apple-selected testers. One of those testers shared the details on Reddit, along with screenshots, which were highlighted on the MacRumors forums.

When the ‌HomePod mini‌ launched, Apple said that an update “later this year” would bring visual, audible, and haptic effects when songs are transferred from one device to another. Personalized listening suggestions are also designed to appear on the iPhone when next to the ‌HomePod mini‌, complete with instant controls that are available without having to unlock the ‌iPhone‌.

According to the Redditor, when an ‌iPhone‌ is near the ‌HomePod mini‌, it begins a soft haptic touch rhythm that gets faster and faster as the ‌iPhone‌ gets closer until the interface to transfer a song between the ‌HomePod mini‌ and the ‌iPhone‌ opens.

Starts the process when you’re like… 12” away from the HomePod? When it works correctly. First beta is pretty buggy and may not be the best one to explain

Basically when your phone gets 12” away from the HomePod the banner shows and any minuscule phone movements result in haptic feedback which gets stronger as you move towards the HomePod. If you move away it gets weaker, get too far away and it stops and the banner goes away.

Get closer and closer and the haptics will get stronger until it’s so close that you must purposely be doing it and want to engage in handoff, at which point the banner expands into the full platter shown in the last photo.

This functionality will make handoff quicker and more reliable on a ‌HomePod mini‌ and an ‌iPhone‌ 11 or ‌iPhone‌ 12, all of which are equipped with U1 chips that let the devices better understand where they are in relation to one another.

Apple has responded to Facebook's criticism over an upcoming iOS 14 privacy measure — specifically a change that will require users to grant permission for their activity to be tracked for personalized advertising purposes starting early next year.

In a statement provided to MacRumors, Apple said "we believe that this is a simple matter of standing up for our users," adding that "users should know when their data is being collected and shared across other apps and websites — and they should have the choice to allow that or not." The options to allow or deny the tracking will be presented in the form of a prompt that appears as necessary when users open apps.

Apple's full statement:

We believe that this is a simple matter of standing up for our users. Users should know when their data is being collected and shared across other apps and websites — and they should have the choice to allow that or not. App Tracking Transparency in iOS 14 does not require Facebook to change its approach to tracking users and creating targeted advertising, it simply requires they give users a choice.

As part of its response to Facebook, Apple emphasized that it welcomes in-app advertising and is not prohibiting tracking, but simply requiring apps to obtain explicit user consent in order to track users for personalized advertising purposes, providing users with more control and transparency. Apple said tracking can be invasive, and as a result, it believes users have the right to make choices about the permissions they grant to apps.

Apple also highlighted the fact that developers like Facebook will be able to edit a section of the text that appears in the prompt to explain why users should allow tracking, and it provided a screenshot to visualize this.

In the Settings app, users can view which apps have requested permission to track for advertising purposes, and make changes as they see fit. Apple said that if it becomes aware of an app that violates its App Store Review Guidelines in relation to this change, the developer must address the issue or the app will be removed from the App Store.

Apple said that this change has been on its roadmap for years, and that it will apply equally to all developers, including Apple.

Last, Apple noted that it is expanding its privacy-preserving SKAdNetwork ad attribution API, allowing third-party ad networks serving ads across a wide variety of apps to provide ad attribution to developers without knowing the identity of the user. Apple says SKAdNetwork is free to use and that it does not monetize the API.

Facebook's Criticism

Earlier today, in a blog post and a full-page ad published in three major newspapers, Facebook claimed that Apple's tracking change will have a "harmful impact on many small businesses that are struggling to stay afloat."

"We disagree with Apple's approach and solution, yet we have no choice but to show Apple's prompt," said Facebook. "If we don't, they will block Facebook from the App Store, which would only further harm the people and businesses that rely on our services. We cannot take this risk on behalf of the millions of businesses who use our platform to grow."

Facebook said Apple's anti-tracking change is "about profit, not privacy," claiming that small businesses will be forced to turn to subscriptions and other in-app payments for revenue, in turn benefitting Apple's bottom line. Facebook also accused Apple of setting a double standard, claiming that the iPhone maker's own personalized ad platform is not subject to the upcoming iOS 14 policy, a claim that Apple has now denied.

"We believe Apple is behaving anti-competitively by using their control of the App Store to benefit their bottom line at the expense of app developers and small businesses," said Facebook. The company said it would continue to "explore ways to address this concern," including supporting Epic Games in its antitrust lawsuit against Apple.

Apple this week expanded its Look Around feature in Apple Maps to several new U.S. cities, including Denver, Colorado; Detroit, Michigan; and Miami and Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.

Look Around, which was first introduced in iOS 13, provides 3D street-level imagery in cities where it is available, and it is similar to Google's Street View.

At launch, Look Around was limited to a handful of cities, but now it is available in 22 cities and regions around the world. Apple maintains a list on its website, but Maps enthusiast Justin O'Beirne also has a more frequently updated list.

Prior to the expansion in several new U.S. cities, Look Around previously became available in Southern Canada with the debut of the redesigned maps app in the country.

Apple today seeded the first beta of an upcoming macOS Big Sur 11.2 update to developers for testing purposes, with the new beta coming two days launch of macOS Big Sur 11.1, the first major update to he operating system first launched in November.

Developers can download the ‌macOS Big Sur‌ 11.2 beta using the Software Update mechanism in System Preferences after installing the proper profile from the Apple Developer Center.

There's no word just yet on what's included in macOS Big Sur 11.2, but it likely includes performance improvements, security updates, and fixes for bugs that weren't able to be addressed in the release version of ‌macOS Big Sur‌. We'll update this article if we find anything new in the beta update.

Apple today finally updated its iOS adoption numbers, giving us our first look at official iOS 14 adoption rates. According to Apple's data, iOS 14 is installed on 81 percent of iPhones that were introduced in the last four years.

17 percent of these devices continue to run iOS 13, and two percent run an earlier version of iOS. 72 percent of all iPhones out in the wild run iOS 14, and this category includes devices that might not be capable of running the update.

18 percent in this category run iOS 13, and 10 percent run an earlier version of iOS.

As for iPads, 75 percent of all iPads introduced in the last four years run iPadOS. 22 percent run iPadOS 13, and three percent run an earlier version of iOS.

61 percent of all iPads use iPadOS 14, 21 percent run iPadOS 13, and 18 percent run an earlier version of iOS.

Since releasing iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 in September, Apple has not provided installation numbers until now. Based on Mixpanel estimates, iOS 14 adoption was at 50 percent in October, so quite a few people have installed the update over the course of the last couple months.

Apple today seeded the first betas of new iOS and iPadOS 14.4 updates to developers for testing purposes, two days after releasing the iOS 14.3 update that brought support for Apple Fitness+, AirPods Max, ProRAW for iPhone 12 models, and more.

iOS and iPadOS 14.4 can be downloaded through the Apple Developer Center or over the air after the proper profile has been installed on an ‌iPhone‌ or iPad.

We don't yet know what's included in the iOS 14.4 update, but it likely focuses on bug fixes and performance improvements that weren't able to be included in the iOS 14.3 release. As an 14.x update, it could also introduce new features and functionality.

Once we've downloaded the update and discovered what's new, we'll update this article.