Designed for the fourth and fifth-generation Apple TV models, the tvOS 13.4.5 developer beta can be downloaded onto the Apple TV via a profile that's installed using Xcode.
tvOS updates are typically minor in scale, focusing on under-the-hood bug fixes and improvements rather than major outward-facing changes. There's no word yet on what's included in tvOS 13.4.5, and we saw no new features in the first two betas.
Though we don't often know what's new in tvOS during the beta testing process, we let MacRumors readers know when new updates are available so those who are developers can download it upon release.
Popular music streaming service Pandora today updated its app for the Apple Watch to introduce support for Siri, allowing Siri to be used to play stations, songs, albums, and podcasts.
The inclusion of Siri support makes it easier to find specific content right on the Apple Watch without needing to rely on the iPhone. Users can also ask Siri to dislike or like the current song for preference tuning purposes.
Pandora for iOS is also gaining more personalized discovery for better music recommendations, there's a Shuffle Stations feature and there's an option to add music to a specific playlist using Siri, though this is limited to Premium subscribers. The full release notes for the update are below:
NEW: Edit Shuffle Stations feature * Available for Premium listeners * Select which stations you want to play on shuffle _ NEW: Siri on Apple Watch * Ask Siri to play stations, songs, albums, and podcasts: "Hey Siri, play Thumbprint Radio on Pandora." * Tell Siri you like or dislike the current song: "Hey Siri, I like this song." _ ADDED FEATURES/IMPROVEMENTS: Siri on iOS * Ask Siri to add music to your collection or for a specific playlist: "Hey Siri, add Hotel California to my collection on Pandora." (Premium listeners only) * Tell Siri you like or dislike the current song. * Even more personalized discovery to help you find and listen to the music you love.
Pandora can be downloaded from the iOS and Apple Watch App Store for free. [Direct Link]
There are a few notable Mac deals happening this week on Adorama, offering shoppers the chance to save on Apple's MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, iMac Pro, and more. Adorama offers free shipping on many items, and also has a "VIP360" membership program that provides free 2-day shipping to its members.
Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Adorama. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.
For the Mac deals, Adorama continues to offer one of the best prices on the 16-inch MacBook Pro online. You can get the high-end stock configuration with 1TB of storage for $2,499.00, down from $2,799.00. We've seen this deal a few times in the months since the 16-inch MacBook Pro launched, and it remains the lowest price we've tracked for a new 1TB version of the notebook.
For the new MacBook Air, deals have been scarce since the device just launched in March. Still, Adorama has a solid $50 off deal on the 2020 MacBook Air with 512GB of storage, priced at $1,249.00, down from $1,299.00. This is around the lowest price we've seen new 512GB MacBook Air models go, and it's matching the best price online right now.
There are a few iMac deals as well, centering around the iMac Pro. Adorama has the high-end desktop computer with 32GB RAM and a 1TB SSD (3.2GHz 8-Core Vega 56 GPU) at $4,689.00, down from $4,999.00 ($310 off). That's one of the best prices available among the major Apple resellers online right now. In terms of regular iMac models, Adorama has the 27-inch model with a 1TB Fusion Drive (3.1GHz 6-Core) at $1,899.00, down from $1,999.00.
Apple today shared a new video that follows Grammy-nominated songwriter and music producer Oak Felder as he creates a new song. Felder makes use of multiple Apple products, including the 16-inch MacBook Pro and iMac.
Follow hitmaking, Grammy-nominated songwriter and music producer Oak Felder as he creates a new song. Along the way, he speaks about music production, creating his own unique sound, working with the world's top artists, and what it means for young artists to have access to powerful technology.
VESA today announced that it has released DisplayPort Alt Mode 2.0, paving the way for future USB4 devices to support DisplayPort 2.0.
Announced in June 2019, DisplayPort 2.0 has a max effective bandwidth of 77.4 Gbps, nearly triple that of DisplayPort 1.4. The new standard enables support for displays with up to 16K resolution, higher refresh rates, HDR support at higher resolutions, improved support for multiple display configurations, and more.
USB4 converges the Thunderbolt and USB protocols as part of Intel's goal to make Thunderbolt available on a royalty-free basis, which should result in wider and cheaper availability of Thunderbolt accessories like docks and eGPUs.
USB4 uses the USB-C connector design and is backwards compatible with USB 3.2 and USB 2.0.
Apple will likely adopt USB4 in future Macs. VESA expects the first products incorporating DisplayPort Alt Mode 2.0 to appear on the market in 2021.
Google has announced that its Meet videoconferencing service will be free to use for anyone with a Google account from next month.
Following a gradual rollout through May, Meet will no longer be exclusive to paying G-Suite members, and will remain open to Google account holders until September 30, 2020.
Google Meet offers many of the features that have made Zoom so popular in recent weeks, including video conferencing for up to 100 participants, the option to schedule meetings, and screen-sharing capabilities.
We've invested years in making Meet a secure and reliable video conferencing solution that's trusted by schools, governments and enterprises around the world, and in recent months we've accelerated the release of top-requested features to make it even more helpful. Starting in early May, anyone with an email address can sign up for Meet and enjoy many of the same features available to our business and education users, such as simple scheduling and screen sharing, real-time captions, and layouts that adapt to your preference, including an expanded tiled view.
Google Meet usually imposes a 60-minute time limit on meetings for non-paying users, but the company is lifting the limit for the period of its availability to all Google account holders. Given Zoom's recent troubles, Google is also keen to underscore the privacy and security of the platform – Meet video meetings are encrypted in transit, and all recordings stored in Google Drive are encrypted in transit and at rest.
Anyone interested in using Google Meet can download the Hangouts Meet iOS app from the App Store or head to meet.google.com to use the web browser version. As the rollout is gradual, users can sign up to be notified when it's available.
Apple has agreed to pay $18 million to settle a California class-action lawsuit that accused it of intentionally breaking FaceTime in iOS 6 to force users to upgrade to iOS 7.
According to the lawsuit, originally filed in 2017, Apple forced users to upgrade so it could avoid payments on a data deal with Akamai.
Apple used two connection methods when it launched FaceTime in 2010: a peer-to-peer method that created a direct connection between two iPhones, and a relay method that used data servers from content delivery network company Akamai Technologies.
Apple's peer-to-peer FaceTime technology was found to infringe on VirnetX's patents in 2012, however, so the company began to shift toward the relay method, which used Akamai's servers. Within a year, Apple was paying $50 million in fees to Akamai, according to testimony from the VirnetX trial.
Apple eventually solved the problem by creating new peer-to-peer technology that would debut in iOS 7. The class-action lawsuits, however, alleged that Apple created a fake bug that caused a digital certificate to prematurely expire on April 16, 2014, breaking FaceTime on iOS 6.
The lawsuit claimed that breaking FaceTime in iOS 6 allowed Apple to save money because it would no longer need to support users who did not upgrade to iOS 7.
According to Law360.com, Apple agreed to settle the case with the $18 million payout, although the majority of the money will go to paying attorney fees and expenses, with only a fraction going to the class action's representatives and claimants.
A court in Florida dismissed a similar consumer lawsuit earlier this year alleging Apple broke FaceTime on older iPhones to save costs.
Apple appears to have updated the speaking voice of Siri on devices in Germany, based on reports compiled by iphone-ticker.de (via ifun.de).
According to the website, several readers have reported Siri's German speech comes across as more natural and melodic than before, especially on HomePod, although the changes are subtle, with better pronunciation and different inflection depending on what's being said.
Apple thoroughly revised Siri's voice in 2017 with the introduction of iOS 11, which also brought enhancements to the voice assistant's machine learning and artifical intelligence. Apple also tweaked Siri's British and Australian voices to be more natural in February 2019.
Apple was the third-fastest growing brand in India's smartphone market in the first quarter of this year, according to new data from Counterpoint Research.
Apple achieved 78 percent growth as the overall market in the country grew 4 percent year on year during Q1 2020. OPPO shipments grew 83 percent year on year in the same quarter, while realme grew 119 percent.
Overall smartphone shipments increased through January and February, before a 19 percent drop in March due to the global health crisis, according to Counterpoint.
Pricing promotions and the iPhone 11 launch are said to have been the main factors attracting new buyers to the Apple brand. Apple also commanded 55 percent of the ultra-premium market, although it still trails Xiaomi, Vivo, and Samsung in overall smartphone sales.
Apple grew a strong 78% YoY driven by strong shipments of iPhone 11 and multiple discounts on platforms like Flipkart and Amazon. In the ultra-premium segment (>INR 45000,~$600 ) it was the leading brand with a market share of 55%.
Overall, smartphone shipments in 2020 are expected to fall by 10 percent in India due to the impact of the health crisis.
Apple last week launched its new 2020 iPhone SE, a low-cost $399 smartphone that features iPhone 8 components upgraded with the same A13 chip available in Apple's flagship iPhones. We did a full hands-on video back on Friday, but we took the weekend to see how the iPhone SE's camera measures up to the iPhone 8 and iPhone 11 Pro.
Based on an iFixit teardown that looked at the base camera hardware, the iPhone SE is using the same camera sensor as the iPhone 8, a 12-megapixel lens that features an f/1.8 aperture and a 28mm focal length, narrower than the 26mm focal length of the 12-megapixel wide-angle in Apple's flagships.
Though equipped with iPhone 8 hardware, the iPhone SE has more advanced photographic capabilities that are enabled by the powerful A13 Bionic chip inside, such as Portrait Mode and Smart HDR, so for the most part, the iPhone SE's camera quality is superior to the iPhone 8 but inferior to the iPhone 11 and 11 Pro.
When it comes to photos with good lighting (aka, bright lighting indoors or out), all three iPhones put out similar, decent images because there's not a lot of work needed behind the scenes for improvement. The iPhone 8 and the iPhone SE photos are a little bit warmer than the cooler iPhone 11 Pro images, and you can see that what's coming out of the iPhone 11 Pro is a bit crisper, which is no surprise.
The iPhone 8 struggles with highlights being blown out or overexposed in some situations, and that's where you can see the Smart HDR in the iPhone SE shine. While the iPhone SE was fine in bright lighting, it definitely struggled in low lighting conditions compared to the iPhone 11 Pro.
Both the SE and the iPhone 8 had a hard time with low lighting situations, but the iPhone SE's images came out a bit better because of the A13 chip. The iPhone 11 Pro has Night Mode, a feature not available on the iPhone 8 or the iPhone SE, so it of course vastly outperformed the iPhone SE in photos with poor lighting.
The iPhone SE features Portrait Mode much like Apple's higher-end iPhones, but it's the first of Apple's iPhones to entirely rely on software to generate Portrait Mode images and Portrait Lighting features. Since the iPhone 11 and 11 Pro have two and three cameras, respectively, their hardware-based Portrait Mode images come out better, but the iPhone SE does a respectable job.
Portrait Mode in the iPhone SE is limited to people because the neural network that powers the feature needs to detect a person to blur out the rest of the image. It's not going to work with pets, food, or other objects like it does on the iPhone 11 Pro.
Because the iPhone SE's Portrait Mode is using 2D images to create a depth map, there's a unique iPhone SE feature - you can take a Portrait Mode photo of a photograph that already exists. It doesn't work great all the time, but it's an interesting way to jazz up some older photographs and add background blurring.
Like the iPhone 11 and 11 Pro, the iPhone SE supports 4K video at 60fps, which is an impressive feature for a $399 smartphone. A video comparison between the iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone SE showed little difference in quality. Both looked great and the optical image stabilization worked well. In comparing 4K video between the iPhone SE and the iPhone 8, the image quality was similar, but stabilization on the iPhone SE seemed to be better and the audio quality is superior.
The iPhone SE has a plain 7-megapixel front-facing camera that also supports a software-based Portrait Mode, which is not available on the iPhone 8. The front-facing camera is fine, nothing spectacular, but it works well enough for FaceTime and selfies and was comparable to the front-facing cameras of the iPhone 8. The iPhone SE doesn't support the wider angles available with the front-facing camera on the 11 Pro, and the 11 Pro selfies looked a bit better.
For videos with the front-facing camera, both the iPhone 8 and the iPhone SE had a hard time with bright lights, overexposing the video the entire time. The iPhone 11 Pro did a much better job.
It's worth noting that the iPhone SE also supports QuickTake for both the front and rear-facing cameras. QuickTake lets you hold down the camera button when in picture taking mode to quickly capture a video without the need to swap over to video mode.
All in all, the iPhone SE's camera does produce pictures fairly similar to the pictures produced by the iPhone 8, but the A13 chip is doing a lot in the background to make those photographs look better. The iPhone SE also isn't too far off from the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro when it comes to images taken in bright lighting, but that's where the similarities end.
It's a single-lens camera rather than a dual or triple-lens camera so it doesn't have the versatility enabled by additional lenses, there's no optical zoom, software-based Portrait Mode is not as good as hardware-based portrait mode, and there is no Night Mode to use for low light images.
The iPhone SE is a passable camera of course that's going to take great every day shots, but those seriously interested in better iPhone photography should take a look at the iPhone 11 over the iPhone SE.
Image from MacRumors reader oVerboost
If you want to see more great photos taken with the iPhone SE to see just what it's capable of, make sure to check out the MacRumors forums where new iPhone SE owners are sharing their pictures.
Apple and Google developed their upcoming COVID-19 contact tracing tool in record time, according to a new report from CNBC that details how the two companies came together to create the API.
It took Apple under a month to flesh out the project, and in the beginning stages, it was the work of a handful of employees who had started brainstorming a solution to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 back in March.
The speed at which the tool was developed was "highly unusual" for Apple, according to CNBC, spearheaded by employees who wanted to create a decentralized contact tracing solution that used Bluetooth in the background, didn't draw much battery life, and was focused on privacy.
The initial team focused on an opt-in solution that would send anonymous alerts to other phones it had been nearby rather than uploading the information to a government or central authority to prevent databases with detailed location or proximity info from being built, which are all features of the finished product.
Time was of the essence given the quick spread of COVID-19, and it didn't take long for the project to pick up speed with engineers volunteering their time. Meanwhile, employees at Google were also working on something similar, and team members from both Apple and Google ultimately communicated with one another and found a solution for working together.
Within a few weeks, the Apple project - code-named "Bubble" - had dozens of employees working on it with executive-level support from two sponsors: Craig Federighi, a senior vice president of software engineering, and Jeff Williams, the company's chief operating officer and de-facto head of healthcare. By the end of the month, Google had officially come on board, and about a week later, the companies' two CEOs Tim Cook and Sundar Pichai met virtually to give their final vote of approval to the project.
Apple is said to be aiming to launch its contact tracing tool, now called exposure notification, on May 1 in a software update. Apps that use Apple's exposure notification API will run on the iPhone 6s and later and will be able to communicate not only with iPhones, but also with Android devices, with the goal of informing users if they've been exposed to COVID-19.
CNBC's full report, which goes much more into depth on the development of the partnership and the work on the tracing technology, can be found on CNBC's website.
Apple Maps is now displaying COVID-19 testing locations across the United States, a feature that Apple began implementing earlier in April.
When opening up the search interface in Maps, COVID-19 testing is now the first option in the list, and tapping it brings up all of the testing sites in your local area.
Tapping on one of the testing site entries provides a link to the hospital or testing site's website with specific information on how testing is done, such as whether a doctor's referral or an appointment are required to have the testing conducted.
Apple on April 11 launched an online portal allowing healthcare providers, labs, hospitals, and other businesses to register as COVID-19 testing locations. The Apple Maps team reviews each application before allowing approved sites to be displayed on Apple Maps. As pointed out by Engadget, the testing site list is available in all U.S. states and Puerto Rico.
Apple in early April updated the Maps app to prioritize searches for groceries, food delivery, pharmacies, hospitals, and urgent care, and these categories also show up with COVID-19 testing sites.
Apple today updated its Apple Support app for the iPhone and the iPad, introducing a revamped layout with Dark Mode support and improved navigation.
According to Apple, the app features an all new customized user interface and smarter solutions for more topics using step-by-step troubleshooting, along with Dark Mode.
The app also now features an easier way to find support for not only Apple products, but also Apple services, and it brings improved chat and call experiences.
Apple's full notes for the update are below:
All new customized user interface, including Dark Mode support
Get smarter solutions for even more topics using guided, step-by-step troubleshooting
It's now easier to find support for all of your Apple services and subscriptions
New and improved chat and call experiences
The Apple Support app is Apple's dedicated app for getting support on an iPhone or iPad, and it can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]
How to migrate from Wunderlist to Microsoft To Do:
1. Download the Microsoft To Do app. 2. Sign in with your Microsoft account. If you don't have one, you can create one using an existing email address (like Gmail). 3. Click on the pop-up in Microsoft To Do, or head to Settings and select Import. It'll direct you to the Wunderlist importer.
Microsoft acquired Wunderlist in 2015 and launched its own To Do app with many of the same features a few years later, including folders, subtasks, file attachments, list sharing, notes, reminders and due dates, and a dark mode.
Amazon has introduced a few new discounts on the 2018 iPad Pro, with one particularly notable sale on the 64GB Wi-Fi 12.9-inch model. You can get this iPad Pro for $799.00, down from $999.00 right now on Amazon, a best-ever price among the major Apple resellers online.
Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with these vendors. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.
There are a few improvements on the 2020 iPad Pro models compared to those from 2018, like upgraded internals and camera, but for anyone mainly shopping with price in mind, opting for a 2018 model could be worth it to save money. At $799.00, this price is now the cheapest entry level price point a new model of the 12.9-inch iPad Pro from 2018 has ever been.
There are a few other notable discounts for the 2018 iPad Pro, which we've rounded up below. The 256GB Wi-Fi 12.9-inch model is $944.00 at Tiger Direct, down from $1,149.00, which is another lowest price. For 11-inch 2018 models, the best deal right now is at Best Buy, where you can get the 64GB Wi-Fi iPad Pro for $699.99, down from $799.00.
If you're still mainly looking for 2020 iPad Pro deals, we recently rounded up a few of these. One of the best all-around discounts is for the 128GB cellular 12.9-inch iPad Pro, priced at $1,098.25 on Amazon, down from $1,149.00. For even more iPad deals, head to our full Best Deals guide for iPad. In that guide we track the best discounts online for iPad, iPad mini, iPad Air, and iPad Pro.
DJI this week announced the Mavic Air 2, a new foldable drone that features 8K functionality, a larger 1/2" camera sensor for higher resolution photos and videos, and upgraded flight modes. The Mavic Air 2 can also stay in the air longer thanks to better battery life.
The company said that this is the first drone in the Mavic family to offer 4K video at 60fps and 120 Mbps. The drone supports HDR video, 4X slow motion in 1080p at 120fps or 8x slow motion in 1080p at 240fps. It can record images with up to 48-megapixels and has a mechanical 3-axis gimbal to create stable footage.
The Mavic Air 2 weighs about 570 grams and features new motors, electronic speed controllers, enhanced battery technology, and an aerodynamic design. DJI said that all of this helps provide a maximum flight time for the new drone of up to 34 minutes. While it's in the air, OcuSync 2.0 transmission technology delivers HD video to a connected smartphone at a maximum distance of 10km.
When connected to an iPhone or Android device, users will be able to take advantage of DJI's updated Fly app, which has more advanced functionality. This includes new in-app editing features for videos and photos, all of which DJI described as user-friendly so that anyone can pick up the DJI Fly app and interact with the Mavic Air 2.
More features of the Mavic Air 2 include:
HDR photos: Mavic Air 2 automatically captures seven varying exposures of the same photograph, merging them together to bring out a highly dynamic image.
Hyperlight: Hyperlight is designed for low-light scenarios, taking multiple photographs and merging them to bring out a clear image with less of the noise which usually occurs in low-light scenes.
Scene Recognition: Mavic Air 2 can recognize five categories of scenes including sunsets, blue skies, grass, snow, and trees, then optimize settings to make the photograph pop by bringing out the highest degree of color, detail, and tones.
ActiveTrack 3.0: Select a subject for Mavic Air 2 to automatically follow. The third iteration of ActiveTrack uses state-of-the-art mapping technology and new flight path algorithms to offer improved subject tracking and obstacle avoidance, along with the ability to quickly re-engage the subject if it temporarily moves behind an object.
Point of Interest 3.0: Set an automated flight path around a specific subject. The updated iteration improves surface recognition to better dynamically track subjects.
Spotlight 2.0: Found in professional DJI drones, Spotlight locks a subject in the frame while the user has free operation of the drone’s movement.
The company also mentioned the safety features of the Mavic Air 2 in its announcement post, including obstacle sensors on the front and rear of the drone. Additional sensors and auxiliary lights on the bottom of the drone assist with automatic landing, and geofencing features help keep the Mavic Air 2 away from high-risk flying locations.
Due to current shipping restraints happening across numerous industries, the Mavic Air 2 is available today in China, while other regions will be able to pre-order the drone today with an expected shipping date in mid-May.
The Mavic Air 2 will be available in two purchasing options: a standard package with the Mavic Air 2, one battery, one remote controller, and all the required wires and cables for $799. Then there's the Fly More option with all items from the standard version as well as a shoulder bag, ND filters, charging hub, and 3 batteries for $988.
There are several DJI drones available to purchase on Apple.com, but it's not clear yet if the Mavic Air 2 will launch on Apple's website soon.
Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with DJI. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.
This week, Anker's newest accessory discount event is being hosted on Anker.com instead of on Amazon. The company is calling its sale the "Stay Smart At Home" event, offering up to 48 percent off wall chargers, cables, hubs, wireless chargers, and portable batteries.
Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Anker. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.
One of the highlights in the sale is the PowerCore Slim 10,000 mAh portable battery at $20.00, down from $26.99. You can also double the battery capacity and opt for the PowerCore 20,100 mAh model for $32.01, down from $45.99. We've rounded up many of the deals below, but be sure to head to Anker.com for the full list of products on sale right now.
A bug has been discovered in Apple's macOS Image Capture app that needlessly eats up potentially gigabytes of storage space when transferring photos from an iPhone or iPad to a Mac.
Discovered by the developers of media asset management app NeoFinder and shared in a blog post called "Another macOS bug in Image Capture," the issue occurs when Apple's Mac tool converts HEIF photos taken by iOS to more standard JPG files.
This process happens when users uncheck the "Keep Originals" option in Image Capture's settings, which converts the HEIC files to JPG when copied to Mac. However, the app also inexplicably adds 1.5MBs of empty data to every single file in the process.
"Of course, this is a colossal waste of space," said the NeoFinder team, "especially considering that Apple is seriously still selling new Macs with a ridiculously tiny 128 GB internal SSD. Such a small disk is quickly filled with totally wasted empty data.
"With just 1000 photos, for example, this bug eats 1.5 GB off your precious and very expensive SSD disk space."
NeoFinder's developers say they discovered the bug by "pure chance" when working on improving the metadata capabilities of NeoFinder using a hex editor, and provided an example shot of what the end of individual JPG files look like in hex, post-transfer.
MacRumors was also able to replicate the issue in macOS 10.14.6 and later using an online hex editor. It's worth noting that the bug only occurs when transferring photos from Apple devices, not when importing photos from digital cameras using Image Capture.
NeoFinder's team says it has notified Apple of the bug, and the developers suggest anyone plagued by the issue can try using a new beta version of the third-party utility Graphic Converter, which includes an option to remove the unwanted empty data from the JPEG files.
Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Adorama. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.
Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with these vendors. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.
Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Anker. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.
A bug has been discovered in Apple's macOS Image Capture app that needlessly eats up potentially gigabytes of storage space when transferring photos from an 
