MacRumors

Streaming device maker Roku has launched its free ad-supported Roku Channel in the UK, offering access to over 10,000 movies, TV shows, and documentaries at a time when stay-at-home entertainment is in high demand.

The Roku Channel can be accessed on Roku devices and – thanks to exclusive UK partnerships – Now TV sticks and Sky Q set-top boxes via the dedicated Roku app.

If you're fine with watching content interspersed with ads, there's plenty of British fare to get stuck into, including the likes of Fifth Gear, Skins, Get Carter, and The Wicker Man. There isn't any sign-in requirement or profiles to set up when you launch the app, so getting started is pretty painless.

"With The Roku Channel we are making it easy for consumers to find great free entertainment and provide additional value to Roku users, Now TV device holders and Sky Q customers," said Roku vice president of programming, Rob Holmes.

"Ad-supported viewing is one of the fastest growing categories on our platform and we are excited to meet the consumer demand for free TV."

Since it launched in the US in 2017, the Roku Channel has added a browser-based web player, live news, a dedicated kids and family section, and an option to subscribe to premium content providers like Showtime and HBO.

Out of those, only the kids and family section is available in the UK at present. However, the British-version of the Roku Channel features over 40 content partners, including Hollywood studios such as Lionsgate and Sony Pictures Television, and more publishers are expected to be added in the future.

Lady Gaga has teamed up with the World Health Organization and Global Citizen for a "One World: Together At Home" special to raise money to battle the ongoing pandemic, and Apple is donating money to the cause.

Apple CEO Tim Cook announced the donation in a video shared on the YouTube channel for The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Lady Gaga called Apple's $10 million donation "quite sizable."

In the video, Jimmy Fallon and Lady Gaga FaceTime Cook, who confirms Apple's plans to donate to the initiative. According to Gaga, more than $35 million has already been raised by tech companies ahead of the special.

"One World: Together at Home" is set to air on Saturday, April 18 at 5:00 p.m. Pacific Time/8:00 p.m. Eastern Time. It will be available on major cable networks and it will be live streamed by Apple, Amazon, FaceBook, YouTube, and more. Funds raised both ahead of and during the event will support the World Health Organization's COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund.

The event will feature appearances and musical performances from Alanis Morissette, Andrea Bocelli, Billie Eilish, Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day, Burna Boy, Chris Martin, David Beckham, Eddie Vedder, Elton John, FINNEAS, Idris and Sabrina Elba, J Balvin, John Legend, Kacey Musgraves, Keith Urban, Kerry Washington, Lang Lang, Lizzo, Maluma, Paul McCartney, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Shah Rukh Khan, and Stevie Wonder.

Apple has also sourced and donated over 20 million N95 masks to healthcare professionals, and its design, engineering, operations, and packaging teams are working to design, produce, and ship millions of face shields to medical workers.

Global Citizen and the World Health Organization have teamed up to create a "One World: Together at Home" global special to support the fight against COVID-19.

The special is set to be broadcast live on Saturday, April 18 at 5:00 p.m. Pacific Time/8:00 p.m. Eastern Time on ABC, NBC, and CBS, plus it will be streamed by Apple, Amazon Prime Video, Alibaba, Facebook, Instagram, LiveXLive, Tencent, Tencent Music Entertainment Group, TIDAL, TuneIn, Twitch, Twitter, Yahoo, and YouTube.

It's not clear how Apple will stream the event, but the company could add a special channel to the Apple TV as well as offering the live stream on its website.

The virtual broadcast will show unity among all people who are affected by COVID-19, as well as celebrating and supporting the brave frontline health care workers around the world who are doing incredible, life-saving work.

Lady Gaga, Elton John, Lizzo, John Legend, Keith Urban, and more are set to perform during the event, and there will be appearances by David Beckham, Idris Elba, and others.

Many television shows and movies have paused filming at the current time as people practice social distancing, which has delayed new movies and television content. One CBS drama series, "All Rise," has a unique solution, though, and plans to film in actors' homes.

"All Rise" will use programs like FaceTime, WebEX, and Zoom, along with "other available social media and online technology," according to TVLine. The episode, which will focus on current events, will feature footage recorded by each of the series regulars within their homes, with the judge virtually presiding over a bench trial in an episode that mirrors current events.

"It's a unique chance for our All Rise family to band together - in our different homes, even cities - to tell a story about resilience, justice and the power of community," executive producer Greg Spottiswood said in a statement.

Virtual footage will be shot in each of the series regular's homes, with VFX added in post production to create the necessary backgrounds. A cinematographer operating solo from a vehicle will capture exterior footage representing "the desolate environment that currently exists on the streets and in the neighborhoods of Los Angeles."

The episode is set to air on Monday, May 4, and if it goes well, we could see other TV studios adopting similar techniques using software and hardware from Apple and other technology companies to create content remotely.

Apple is planning to acquire California-based virtual reality company NextVR in a deal said to be worth $100 million, 9to5Mac reported over the weekend.

NextVR is a company that melds virtual reality with sports, music, and entertainment, offering VR experiences for watching live events on VR headsets from PlayStation, HTC, Oculus, Google, Microsoft, and other manufacturers.

NextVR has established partnerships with the NBA, Wimbledon, Fox Sports, the WWE and more, according to the NextVR website. NextVR also has more than 40 patents, some of which are related to upscaling video streaming that may be of interest to Apple.

The Orange County, California company has been struggling in recent years, failing to secure Series C funding in 2019, leading to a 40 percent staff reduction.

Though Apple has not yet closed the acquisition or confirmed its plans to purchase NextVR, 9to5Mac says that a shell company formed this year that's believed to be Apple is hiring most of the engineers from NextVR. Employees at NextVR have also reportedly been told that they'll need to relocate from Southern California to Cupertino.

For the last several years, rumors have indicated that Apple is exploring multiple augmented, virtual, and mixed reality headset options, and has some kind of AR/VR headset project in the works.

Most of the rumors have coalesced around augmented reality "smart glasses" that would work as an iPhone accessory, but there have also been rumors of work on a much more powerful VR headset that would feature an 8K display for each eye and that would be untethered from a computer or a smartphone.

Apple appears to be working on more than one AR/VR project, but it's difficult to tell as there have undoubtedly been many prototype designs. Current rumors suggest an AR/VR headset could be released as early as 2021.

A sizeable number of Mac users are experiencing occasional system crashes after updating to macOS Catalina version 10.15.4, released a few weeks ago.

The crashing issue appears to be most prominent when users attempt to make large file transfers. In a forum post, SoftRAID described the issue as a bug and said that it is working with Apple engineers on a fix for macOS 10.15.5, or a workaround.

SoftRAID said the issue extends to Apple-formatted disks:

There is a serious issue with 10.15.4.

It shows up in different scenarios, even on Apple disks but is more likely when there are lots of IO threads. We think it is a threading issue. So while SoftRAID volumes are hit the hardest (its now hard to copy more than 30GB of data at a time), all systems are impacted by this.

In our bug report to Apple, we used a method to reproduce the problem with ONLY Apple formatted disks. Takes longer to reproduce, but that is more likely to get a faster fix to the user base.

Other users on macOS 10.15.4 have experienced crashes after waking their Mac from sleep, with affected systems suffering a kernel panic and rebooting to the Apple logo, according to comments shared on the Apple Support Communities, MacRumors Forums, Reddit, and Twitter.

After updating to macOS 10.15.4, users may also experience continuous spinning up and spinning down of connected hard drives when a Mac is supposed to be asleep, which could result in damage to the drive, according to Jeremy Horwitz.

We've reached out to Apple for comment and we will provide an update if we hear back.

Further references to Apple's upcoming low-cost iPhone have appeared online, one on a Chinese e-commerce website and another on Verizon's smartphone trade-in page.

Spotted by tech blog MySmartPrice, Chinese retailer JD.com has published a placeholder for Apple's so-called "‌iPhone‌ 9" that includes a teaser image of a veiled smartphone, but other than that it lacks any particularly revealing specifications. On that basis, it could just as easily be the site's expectation that Apple's new low-cost ‌iPhone‌ is on the way based on circulating rumors.

The other reference to "‌iPhone‌ 9" was highlighted by leaker Jon Prosser in amongst a list of smartphones eligible for Verizon's trade-in plan on the cellular provider's website.

We're covering these references merely for completion, since Apple's new low-cost phone is expected imminently, although it's apparently going to recycle the ‌iPhone‌ SE name used for Apple's previous dedicated budget phone.

Last week, a product listing for a Belkin screen protector on Apple's online store was updated to reflect compatibility with not only the ‌iPhone‌ 7 and ‌iPhone‌ 8, but also the "‌iPhone‌ SE."

That product listing didn't reveal any further details about the device, which was previously dubbed the ‌iPhone‌ SE 2 or ‌iPhone‌ 9, beyond supporting rumors that it will have a 4.7-inch display. The device is also expected to have an A13 chip, 3GB of RAM, and 64GB to 256GB of storage, with pricing estimated to start around $399 in the United States.

One rumor last week suggested the phone could be launched as soon as April 3. The date proved to be wide of the mark, but it doesn't preclude the possibility that we could see the device announced by Apple any day now.

Apple will announce a new 13-inch MacBook Pro in May with the codename J223, according to a rumor shared by YouTuber and leaker Jon Prosser.

Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has said Apple plans to release new ‌MacBook Pro‌ and MacBook Air models with scissor keyboards in the second quarter of 2020. As predicted, Apple launched its new ‌MacBook Air‌ last month with the new keyboard, so that only leaves the 13-inch ‌MacBook Pro‌, given that the 16-inch ‌MacBook Pro‌ was released just five months ago.

As noted by Prosser, Apple could launch a new size for its smaller ‌‌MacBook Pro‌‌ offering, with any refresh potentially seeing a display bump to a 14-inch screen. Kuo has referred to a 14-inch model in the past, but it's not clear that this size would feature in any impending refresh. The new 14-inch model would likely replace the 13-inch ‌MacBook Pro‌, which would be discontinued.

The current 13-inch ‌MacBook Pro‌ still uses butterfly keyboards that can suffer from issues such as sticky or unresponsive keys after prolonged use, which prompted Apple to initiate a free repair program worldwide in 2018. Apple solved the problem by reverting back to a scissor mechanism with the new Magic Keyboard on the 16-inch ‌MacBook Pro‌ and 13-inch ‌MacBook Air‌.

Beyond the keyboard, the new 13-inch ‌MacBook Pro‌ is expected to get an upgraded processor in the form of one of Intel's 10th-generation Ice Lake chips, built using a 10-nanometer architecture.

Prosser has shared accurate Google leaks in the past, but he has only recently starting sharing Apple rumors, so his track record is limited. If his latest information proves to be accurate, then Apple's entire notebook lineup will have scissor keyboards by the end of next month.

Apps with sign-in functionality, including The New York Times, IFTTT, Medium, and more, have continued to adopt Apple's secure Sign in with Apple feature ahead of a deadline of June 30. The deadline for these apps to support the feature was recently extended from April 30.

Sign in with Apple, first introduced in iOS 13, allows users to create accounts for apps and websites using an Apple ID. It also lets users to select specific data he or she would like to share with an app and even allows users to mask their email addresses.

The feature has been largely welcomed as a more secure alternative to similar sign-in services since it authenticates the user with Face ID or Touch ID and doesn't send personal information to app and website developers.

MacRumors forum member Pedro Marques has compiled a list of other apps currently supporting Sign in with Apple. Be sure to check out our Sign in with Apple guide to learn more about the feature and how it works.

Apple CEO Tim Cook today shared a video message with an update on the company's response to the ongoing pandemic.

Cook said Apple has now sourced over 20 million masks that it is in the process of donating to healthcare professionals around the world. Apple is working with governments to ensure that the masks are donated to the places of greatest need.

Cook added that Apple's design, engineering, operations, and packaging teams are working with suppliers to design, produce, and ship face shields for medical workers. Apple plans to donate one million face shields by the end of this week, followed by an additional one million per week. Cook said the face shields take less than two minutes to assemble.

The adjustable face shields can be packed flat, allowing 100 to fit in each box. Shipments will initially go to medical facilities in the United States, but Apple plans to expand distribution globally at a later date.

Apple recently delivered its first batch of face shields to Kaiser medical facilities in the Santa Clara Valley and said feedback was very positive.

iOS 14 could offer home screen widgets and wallpaper customizations for the first time, according to 9to5Mac and Twitter user DongleBookPro.

Apple is reportedly working to implement widgets that can be moved freely around like icons on the iPhone and iPad homescreen for the very first time. The feature is reportedly codenamed "Avocado" and no other details are available. It was also mentioned that Apple is still working on implementing the feature and it may be scrapped.

In addition to home screen widgets, Twitter user DongleBookPro shared allegedly leaked screenshots of new wallpaper settings and customization options coming in iOS 14. The leaked screenshots reveal a new "Collections" menu that users can populate with their own photos. The new "iOS 13" column hints that Apple will not be removing wallpapers first introduced in iOS 13. It also appears Apple will be grouping similar wallpapers together in a more pleasant arrangement, as users will now be able to scroll left to right instead of top to bottom.

The screenshot also mentions new "Home Screen Appearance" options which will allow users to alter the appearance of their current wallpaper. It appears users will now be able to select dark, dim, blurred, and normal versions of a wallpaper.

Apple is expected to announce iOS 14 at its WWDC 2020 event this June which will be held online.

EPIX is currently offering free access to its catalog of movies and TV shows through the Apple TV Channels feature in the TV app, and many additional services are also offering extended free trials.

Upon navigating to the ‌Apple TV‌ app, users will notice that EPIX is listed under the "My Channels" section. Rather than offering an extended trial where users must first sign up, EPIX is currently providing completely free access with no subscription needed until May 2nd.

In addition to the free content from EPIX, many other ‌Apple TV‌ Channel options have extended free trials available for new subscribers, such as ShowTime, A&E, Smithsonian, and more. Showtime, for example, is currently offering an extended one-month free trial before its $10.99/month subscription fee.

‌‌Apple TV‌ Channels are available through the ‌‌Apple TV‌‌ app on iPhone, iPad, ‌‌Apple TV‌‌, Macs, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, and select smart TVs from Samsung, LG, Sony, and Vizio.

With the calendar rolling over to April this week, we yet again saw several leaks and rumors, most notably including Apple itself leaking some references to a pair of long-rumored products: a new budget iPhone SE and AirTags item trackers.

Apple also acquired popular weather app Dark Sky, while Amazon's Prime Video app now allows users to bypass Apple's in-app purchase system and rent or buy movies directly from Amazon.

Check out our roundup below and the video above for details on these stories and more!

New Low-Cost 'iPhone SE' Could Launch Soon

We've been hearing about a new low-cost iPhone for almost exactly a year now, and it looks like it may finally be ready to launch, with new details suggesting a launch is imminent. The new phone will apparently recycle the iPhone SE name used for Apple's previous dedicated budget phone, but this version will look nearly identical to the iPhone 8 but with upgraded internals.

The new iPhone SE will reportedly be available in white, black, and red and come in 64, 128 and 256 GB capacities. Apple itself even briefly leaked some confirmation on the new device's name, updating the name of an existing Belkin screen protector for the iPhone 7 and 8 to include a reference to the SE in its online store.

AirTags Leaked in New Apple Video

Whoops! Apple on Thursday referenced its widely rumored AirTags item tracking tags in a support video uploaded to YouTube.

The video was inconspicuously titled "how to erase your iPhone," but on a settings screen for the Find My app, AirTags were clearly mentioned in fine print that indicates "offline finding enables this device and AirTags to be found when not connected to Wi-Fi or cellular."

MacRumors uncovered evidence of AirTags within iOS 13 code last year. The item trackers will compete with Tile, helping users keep track of their personal belongings, such as their keys, wallets, and backpacks.

Apple Acquires Weather App Dark Sky

Well, this was unexpected.

The popular iPhone and iPad weather app Dark Sky this week announced that it has been acquired by Apple. There will be no changes to the app, and it will remain available for purchase in the ‌App Store‌.

Apple will be ending Dark Sky support on Android and Wear OS on July 1, 2020. Dark Sky's API will also stop working at the end of 2021, which will impact other popular weather apps like CARROT Weather that use Dark Sky as a data source.

Apple Lets Amazon Prime Video App Offer In-App Purchases on iPhone, iPad and Apple TV

The Amazon Prime Video apps for iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV now allow customers to purchase and rent movies and TV shows within the app, with Apple allowing Amazon to use its own payment system, skirting the traditional in-app purchase screens.

While this would appear to violate Apple's App Store rules that require all content purchased in apps to go through Apple's in-app purchase system and result in Apple taking a cut of the revenue, Apple says that Amazon Prime is now part of an existing program for a small handful of "premium" video apps, which allows them to use their own payment methods instead of in-app purchases.

MacRumors Newsletter

Each week, we publish an email newsletter like this highlighting the top Apple stories, making it a great way to get a bite-sized recap of the week hitting all of the major topics we've covered and tying together related stories for a big-picture view.

So if you want to have top stories like the above recap delivered to your email inbox each week, subscribe to our newsletter!

Global online music streaming subscriptions were up 32 percent year-over-year in 2019, hitting 358 million subscribers, according to new estimates shared today by Counterpoint Research.

Spotify was the market leader with a 31 percent share of total revenue and a 35 percent share of total paid subscriptions, while Apple Music earned the second place slot with a 24 percent share of total revenues in the industry and a 19 percent share of the total paid subscriptions. ‌Apple Music‌'s subscription base grew an estimated 36 percent year-over-year.

Amazon Music, YouTube Music, and Tencent Music all trailed both ‌Apple Music‌ and Spotify.

"Spotify maintained its top spot with the help of promotional activities like free Spotify Premium for three months, price cuts, customized campaigns like Spotify and a focus on exclusive content. Tech giants like Amazon, Apple, Google have started focusing on music streaming and have sufficient cash at their disposal to give stiff competition to Spotify. Apple Music is making improvements in its app like the introduction of night mode, curated playlists to target a group, etc. Similarly, Amazon Music has been trying lossless music and is creating its own niche where it competes with Tidal."

More than 80 percent of total streaming music revenue came from paid subscriptions, while the rest came from advertisements and partnerships with brands and telcos.

Counterpoint Research believes that online streaming music subscriptions will grow more than 25 percent year-over-year to exceed 450 million subscriptions by the end of 2020.

Apple last shared specific ‌Apple Music‌ subscriber numbers in June 2019, announcing that the service had reached 60 million paid subscribers. That number is likely quite a bit higher now, but Apple has not shared new official subscriber totals in 2020.

Apple CEO Tim Cook will deliver the commencement address at Ohio State University's virtual commencement event that's set to take place on May 3, Ohio State President Michael Drake announced today.

The event, which will be live streamed, will kick off at noon local time, with 12,000 diplomas to be awarded virtually to students. The broadcast will include Cook's commencement speech, musical performances, and with Drake and university officials in traditional commencement regalia at Ohio Stadium, which will be empty of students.

"I am delighted to welcome Tim Cook as our spring commencement speaker," Drake said. "We are grateful for Mr. Cook's participation in this important tradition and know his unique insights will guide Buckeyes as they continue to innovate the future."

Ohio State has an ongoing relationship with Apple and in 2017, established an education and research partnership with Apple through the university's Digital Flagship initiative, which features an iOS design library and provides students with opportunities to learn coding skills.

Cook often attends commencement events at universities to inspire and motivate students. He has spoken at Stanford, Tulane, MIT, George Washington University, Auburn University, and more.

(Thanks, Joe!)