MacRumors

Minnesota-based company Hearing Components today announced the release of its second-generation Comply memory foam ear tips for AirPods Pro, promising "all-day comfort" and a "secure in-ear fit" during any activity.

Unlike the original, the Comply 2.0 ear tips are able to snap onto the AirPods Pro just like Apple's standard silicone tips, and they are also said to be engineered with improved foam-core adhesion. The memory foam creates a tight seal in the ear that blocks out more ambient noise for improved Active Noise Cancellation on AirPods Pro.

MacRumors tested the original Comply ear tips for AirPods Pro in May and found them to be more comfortable than Apple's silicone tips for long periods of use. There was also a slight improvement in Active Noise Cancellation as promised.

The ear tips fit into the AirPods Pro case, with no impact on charging, but the black foam does not match with the white case.

The new Comply 2.0 ear tips are available now in a three-pack for $24.99, with small, medium, large, and assorted sizes to choose from. A sizing guide is available on the website based on Apple's silicone tips.

A group of hackers has been awarded nearly $300,000 by Apple for discovering 55 vulnerabilities in the company's systems.

Sam Curry, Brett Buerhaus, Ben Sadeghipour, Samuel Erb, and Tanner Barnes spent three months hacking Apple platforms and services to discover a range of weaknesses. The 55 vulnerabilities the team discovered were of varying severity, with some being critical.

During our engagement, we found a variety of vulnerabilities in core portions of their infrastructure that would've allowed an attacker to fully compromise both customer and employee applications, launch a worm capable of automatically taking over a victim's iCloud account, retrieve source code for internal Apple projects, fully compromise an industrial control warehouse software used by Apple, and take over the sessions of Apple employees with the capability of accessing management tools and sensitive resources.

Apple apparently was swift to address the majority of the vulnerabilities, with some being resolved in as little as a few hours.

Overall, Apple was very responsive to our reports. The turn around for our more critical reports was only four hours between time of submission and time of remediation.

As part of Apple's Security Bounty Program, the group was able to receive considerable payments for some of their work. As of Sunday, October 4, they had received four payments totaling $51,500. This included $5,000 for disclosing the full name of iCloud users, $6,000 for finding IDOR vulnerabilities, $6,500 for access to internal corporate environments, and $34,000 for discovering system memory leaks containing customer data.

Since no-one really knew much about their bug bounty program, we were pretty much going into unchartered territory with such a large time investment. Apple has had an interesting history working with security researchers, but it appears that their vulnerability disclosure program is a massive step in the right direction to working with hackers in securing assets and allowing those interested to find and report vulnerabilities.

Apple has been actively investing in its bug bounty program since last year. Security researchers can now receive up to one million dollars per vulnerability depending on the nature and severity of the security flaw.

With the permission of Apple's security team, the group has published an extensive report which details a range of vulnerabilities and methods of locating and exploiting weaknesses. They also hinted that additional bounties may be on the way.

Update October 9: At the time of publication, the group reported that it had received $51,500 in bounties from Apple for four of the vulnerability reports it submitted. The group now says it has received 32 payments from Apple totaling $288,500.

Adobe today released new versions of Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements, the company's affordable photo and video editing software aimed at more casual users who want to improve their photos and videos with easy to use editing tools.

For Photoshop Elements 2021, Adobe is introducing a "Moving Photos" feature that adds a bit of motion to still images, similar to Apple's Live Photos feature. You can use Moving Photos to create animated GIFs with 2D and 3D camera motion, with the feature powered by Adobe Sensei.

Adjust Face Tilt, another new feature, can automatically adjust the position of a person's face to make sure everybody in the shot is looking in the right direction. This feature joins other existing portrait editing features like those that can add a smile or cut down on redeye.

Customizable Quote Graphics can be added to images, with Photoshop Elements offering pre-set templates, animation options, and customization tools.

There are several new Guided Edits, a feature designed to walk users through the steps needed to achieve different photo effects and looks. Duotones lets users apply two colors to an image for a unique effect, while Perfect Landscapes provides the steps for replacing skies, removing haze, and erasing unwanted objects.

For Premiere Elements 2021, Adobe's video editing software, there's a new Select Object feature that can apply a special effect to just one section of a video, with that special effect tracking throughout the video playback.

GPU Accelerated Performance will let visual effects in elements be previewed without the need to render for faster editing, and cropping videos will take less time. Adobe is also adding 21 music tracks that can be added to videos, and there are new tools for backing up albums, keywords, tags, and more.

New Guided Edits include Double Exposure for playing a video within a photo and Animated Matte Overlays for applying different shapes and animation styles to full videos.

For more on what's new in Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements, make sure to check out Adobe's website. The updates are available for purchase from Adobe for $99 each starting today, with bundle and upgrade pricing available.

Apple has applied for a trademark on the phrase "iPhone for Life" in Hong Kong, according to a partly-private filing discovered by Patently Apple.

The phrase "‌iPhone‌ for Life" is reportedly associated with telecoms providers and third-party Apple resellers, including U.S. carrier Sprint, to advertise ‌iPhone‌ rental programs. Apple itself has never used the expression.

The application was filed in early September 2020 by legal representatives hired by Apple in Hong Kong. It seeks to cover use of the phrase for "Retail store services and retail store services provided via communications networks" as well as "Financial services; financing services; banking services; financing of loans; extension of retail credit; installment loans; lease-purchase financing."

The trademark application does not specifically reveal how Apple may be intending to use it, but suggests that it could perhaps be used for a new direct-from-Apple ‌iPhone‌ rental program, or simply to block use of the phrase by other companies. Alternately, the trademark may be used to rebrand or rename the existing ‌iPhone‌ Upgrade Program.

Mobile app spending among consumers in the third quarter of 2020 saw a 20 percent year-on-year increase as well as a surge in time spent in apps, according to a new report from App Annie (via TechCrunch).

Smartphone and tablet users downloaded 33 billion new apps globally and spent a record $28 billion in apps, over a period in which consumers' lives were heavily impacted by lockdowns and social distancing measures in response to the ongoing global health crisis.

Users also spent over 180 billion collective hours using apps every month over July, August and September, which is a 25 percent increase year-over-year.

Downloads from the Google Play Store increased 10 percent year-on-year and accounted for 25 billion of the total 33 billion new downloads across the quarter. Meanwhile, iOS accounted for nearly 9 billion downloads, an increase of 20 percent year-on-year. Non-gaming apps on Google Play accounted for 55 percent of those downloads, while on iOS it accounted for 70 percent of downloads.

The top two markets by downloads on iOS was the U.S. and China, with India and South Korea also seeing significant growth. Games, Photo and Video, and Entertainment were the top download categories for five straight quarters and the top categories by consumer spend.

On iOS, app spending grew 20 percent year-on-year to $18 billion, while Google Play saw a 35 percent year-on-year increase to over $10 billion. An increase in subscriptions also saw non-gaming apps account for 35 percent of that spend on iOS and 20 percent on Google Play. The U.S. and Japan were the top markets for consumer app spending across both stores.

In terms of monthly active users, Facebook took the No. 1 through No. 4 positions for Facebook, WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram, respectively. The next most used apps were Amazon, Twitter, Netflix, Spotify, TikTok and then Telegram. Meanwhile highest consumer spend was in Tinder, followed by TikTok, YouTube, and Disney+.

The App Annie report largely mirrors a Sensor Tower report released earlier this month that found Apple's App Store earned twice as much as the Google Play Store over the third quarter.

Apple with iOS 14 introduced major updates that include a revamped Home Screen with support for widgets, updated widget designs, an App Library for organizing apps, a Translate app, changes to Messages, an overhauled version of Safari, and tons more. Many of these features also came to iPadOS 14, the companion update to iOS 14 that's designed for iPads, but several key features were left out.

In addition, there are also some obvious and long-desired iPadOS features that continue to be missing from the iPad even 10 years after the first ‌iPad‌ was released. Read on for a rundown of iOS 14 features that weren't brought to the ‌iPad‌ along with a few features we'd really like to see Apple introduce.

Customizable Widgets on the Home Screen

With iOS 14, Apple overhauled widgets, introducing new designs, functionality, and customization choices. These widgets came to iPadOS too, but there's one major feature missing -- the ability to pull a widget out of the Today View and move it onto the ‌Home Screen‌.

On iPhone, you can grab any widget and add it to the ‌Home Screen‌ right alongside your app icons, but you can't do that on the ‌iPad‌. Since iPadOS 13 the ‌iPad‌ has had an option to display Today View widgets on the ‌Home Screen‌, but only in landscape mode and only on the left side of the display.

There is no option to put widgets wherever you want them, and why that feature wasn't added is a total mystery given the extra screen real estate available on the ‌iPad‌.

App Library

Along with no customizable ‌Home Screen‌, the App Library is missing from the ‌iPad‌. On the ‌iPhone‌, the App Library lets you swipe over to the end of the app pages to get to a screen that has a directory with all of your apps installed for easy access.

That's not available on the ‌iPad‌, which means accompanying features like the ability to hide app icons and pages from the ‌Home Screen‌ are also not available, so ‌iPad‌ owners just don't get the same level of ‌Home Screen‌ customization.

Translate App

The Translate app is a major iOS 14 addition that adds a dedicated translating app that works with text and spoken translations, with nifty features like a conversation mode for speaking with someone that speaks another language.

Translate is clearly an app that Apple envisions being used with travel, but even though the ‌iPad‌ isn't often a go-to quick access travel device, a Translate app still has the potential to be useful even on the bigger screen. We've had quite a few emails from readers confused as to why the Translate app isn't on the ‌iPad‌, and we don't have an answer.

iPadOS 14 does include built-in translation features in Safari, as does iOS 14, but this is distinct from the Translate app.

Extended Displays

With the iPad Pro (and the upcoming iPad Air) you can use the USB-C port to plug into an external display, but the feature seems half-baked. When you plug in, your ‌iPad‌'s screen is mirrored on the target display, but it's not shown full screen. There's also no option to shut off the ‌iPad‌'s display when using an attached monitor, which is distracting.

Apple also didn't add an option for extending the display, which would be a more useful option than mirroring. There are a few apps that can do more with a second screen, such as iMovie, but there's no full native support for extending the desktop.

Multi-User Support

10 years after the first ‌iPad‌ launched, there's still no multi-user support, even though Apple has been pushing the ‌iPad‌ as a PC replacement for a few years now. There's no option to share an ‌iPad‌ with someone but have distinct Apple IDs, presumably because Apple wants everyone in the family to have their own ‌iPad‌ to boost sales.

Apple has added multi-user support for classrooms so kids can share iPads between different classes, but it doesn't seem to be a priority for non-educational situations.

Are there other features you would like to see Apple add to the ‌iPad‌, or that are missing from iPadOS 14? Let us know in the comments.

Prior to releasing ECG functionality in the Apple Watch Series 4, Apple needed FDA approval for the feature, but the same isn't true of Blood Oxygen monitoring in the Apple Watch Series 6 because Apple doesn't see it as a medical feature.

As outlined by The Verge, pulse oximeters like the blood oxygen tracking feature in the Apple Watch are considered Class II Medical devices and documentation is generally required, but there's a way around that. If a pulse oximeter is marketed as being for general wellness or fun rather than for a medical purpose, FDA documentation is not required.

That's the reason why the blood oxygen tracking feature is not being marketed by Apple as a medical feature, and an Apple Support document clearly states that measurements taken using blood oxygen tracking are "not intended for medical use" and are designed for "general fitness and wellness purposes."

The Apple Watch Series 6 Blood Oxygen app provides no insight into blood oxygen readings, nor does it send alerts when a lower than normal blood oxygen level is detected, because that would be a medical feature.

Apple is prohibited from using the blood oxygen tracking feature from impacting the medical care that someone receives, which is a deviation from how the ECG functionality works. ECG readings from the watch are used to alert users of an abnormal heart rhythm (atrial fibrillation) and thus required greater oversight. Apple was required to provide the FDA with data proving that the feature can detect atrial fibrillation, which could be examined by experts.

Avoiding regulatory approval in the United States and in other countries permitted Apple to launch the blood oxygen feature in more than 100 countries. ECG availability is still limited because it requires medical approval in each country it launches in.

Michael Matheny, co-director of the Center for Improving the Public's Health through Informatics at Vanderbilt University, told The Verge that when he went to find data on how well the pulse oximeter in the Apple Watch works, there wasn't much out there. "It was concerning to me," he said.

It's also potentially confusing to customers because Apple's marketing is sometimes unclear. "Patients and consumers don't really understand the difference," said Matheny. "So they'll start using the device and relying on the information."

There have been multiple reports from Apple Watch Series 6 owners suggesting the blood oxygen tracking feature isn't particularly accurate when compared to a finger worn pulse oximeter, with successive readings that can be all over the place.

We here at MacRumors have also noticed problems with unusual readings that don't seem to be right and that are suggestive of breathing problems when there are none, which is potentially problematic and could lead to panic over nothing. The feature can also be hard to use, requiring little arm movement with results potentially impacted by cold weather, tattoos, and other factors. Some users have no problem, though, and all Apple Watch Series 6 owners should remember that blood oxygen tracking isn't a medical feature and should not be relied on as a measurement of health, even if it may have some utility as an alert in an emergency situation.

The notch, which houses the front-facing TrueDepth camera system, on Apple's 2021 "iPhone 13" lineup may be smaller, according to the leaker known as "Ice Universe."

The rumor speculates that the iPhone 13 lineup will apparently retain the notch in 2021, but it may be slightly smaller. The leaker added rough sketches to illustrate the change, which show that rather than being reduced in width, the notch may be reduced in height to make it less noticeable.

Rumors circulated for some time suggesting that the ‌iPhone‌ 12 lineup would see the first reduction of the notch, but it now seems that the design change has been pushed back into 2021. However, some more reliable rumors have said that the 5.4-inch iPhone 12 mini may be the only model to have a narrower notch due to its smaller screen size.

The notch has been a point of contention for some ‌iPhone‌ users, who have expressed frustration with the design decision. A reduction of the notch in this way on the ‌iPhone‌ 13 may go some way to appeasing critics of the notch. The alteration would also offer another reason to upgrade in 2021, when the ‌iPhone‌'s design is largely not expected to change.

Last week saw the first considerable leak of information about the ‌iPhone‌ 13 lineup from display analyst Ross Young, who said that the devices will come in the same sizes as the ‌iPhone‌ 12 models, sport 120Hz-capable ProMotion displays, improved camera sensors, and sub-6GHz 5G connectivity.

The #AppleEvent hashtag on Twitter has today been customized to include an Apple logo reflecting the orange and blue hues of Apple's "Hi, Speed" event invites.

According to Jane Manchun Wong's Hashflag Browser, the new Apple logo was added to the hashtag yesterday and will be active through to the day of the event itself on Tuesday, October 13.

Ahead of Apple's "Time Flies" event last month, Apple customized the #AppleEvent Twitter hashtag before announcing the event, thereby revealing that the release of invitations was imminent. This time, Apple seems to have been conscious to not add the hashtag logo until after invites were sent.

Apple's "Hi, Speed" event is set to take place on Tuesday, October 13. Since the new ‌iPad‌ Air, eighth-generation ‌‌iPad‌‌, and Apple Watch Series 6 were already announced last month, the October event is expected to be iPhone-centric with Apple introducing the new iPhone 12 lineup.

Apple has today announced that access to Health Records on the iPhone is now available in the UK and Canada, providing a fuller, more secure picture of patient health.

The existing Health app on the ‌iPhone‌ can now display full health records, enabling users to securely view and store their medical records from healthcare institutions in the UK and Canada. Oxford University Hospitals in the UK and Women's College Hospital in Canada are among the first healthcare institutions to make this feature available to their patients.

"We designed Health Records on iPhone to empower people to easily view their health records at any time, and we are thrilled to put this feature in the hands of customers in the UK and Canada," said Apple's vice president of Technology, Kevin Lynch. "We believe people should have access to their health information in the most private and secure way, and we have worked hand in hand with healthcare institutions and organizations to put privacy at the center of the patient experience."

The feature has been available in the United States for some time, with support from over 500 institutions and 11,000 care locations.

Health Records in the Health app allows users to automatically consolidate records held in multiple locations, without the need for manual logins for each healthcare provider, making for much easier access.

"At NHSX, we are committed to giving patients access to their own records so they can take charge of their healthcare," said Matthew Gould, CEO of NHSX. "The launch of Health Records on iPhone in the UK is a positive step and joins a number of initiatives across the NHS to put patients in the driving seat."

Health Records integration creates a direct encrypted connection between medical institutions and a patient's ‌iPhone‌, allowing users to see a single view of their allergies, conditions, immunizations, lab results, medications, procedures, and vitals. Users can also be notified when their data is updated.

"Improving our services to patients while protecting their privacy and security is of paramount importance to us," Professor Sir Jonathan Montgomery commented, chair of Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and professor of healthcare law at University College London. "This exciting development provides a more convenient option for patients to access their health records. Patients retain control over their own health information at all times."

Apple has worked closely in recent months with Cerner, Epic, Allscripts, and InterSystems to enable the FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) standard integration with the Health app for their UK and Canadian patients.

"Women's College Hospital is proud to be among the first in Canada to offer Health Records on iPhone," Heather McPherson, president and CEO of Women's College Hospital said. "As we accelerate our virtual care strategy, we are committed to shaping a health system that people can navigate more effectively. We believe that digital tools like Health Records can contribute to more informed decision making and improve the healthcare experience."

So far only the following institutions in the UK and Canada support the feature:

UK

• Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust - Oxford, UK
• Milton Keynes University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust - Milton Keynes, UK

Canada

• Women's College Hospital - Toronto, Ontario
• St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton - Hamilton, Ontario
• Mackenzie Health - Richmond Hill, Ontario

Apple says that more medical facilities will connect to Health Records and offer patient access in the coming months.

Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music, and a division of Warner have filed applications for a preliminary injunction against Apple for hosting three music apps in the Russian App Store that infringe copyright, reports TorrentFreak.

Roman Lukyanov, CEO of Semenov & Pevzner, a local law firm specializing in copyright protection and representing the labels, told Kommersant that the applications for interim measures against three apps were filed on October 1, 2020, listing Apple as the defendant.

The applications were filed at the Moscow City Court and request that local telecoms watchdog Roscomnadzor takes action "to stop creating conditions" that allow for the illegal distribution of copyrighted works by a handful of local artists.

One of the apps in question, PewPee: Music Player, offers users a Spotify-like experience where they sign up for a free account to access a catalog of music, listen to playlists and download tracks for offline listening. It's unclear where PewPee sources its music. According to TorrentFreak's source code checks, however, the app actually distributes MP3 files of the selected tracks.

The PewPee website offers the same free service using basic browser tools, but in a way that reveals the precise URLs of the songs, which can also be downloaded.

Another app mentioned in the complaints, iMus Music Player, lets users stream music tracks pulled from YouTube interspersed with ads. iMus is the 104th most popular app in Apple's "Music" ‌App Store‌ category. The third app, called Music Downloader & Player, offers users a similar ads-based streaming service, with music videos pulled from YouTube, track downloads for offline listening, and an optional paid ad-free subscription.

The complaints follow a new law that came into force in Russia last week and which is designed to quickly remove piracy-enabling apps from mobile app stores. The legislation requires digital distribution platforms to quickly respond to allegations of copyright infringement. Failing to do so could result in app stores being blocked by local internet service providers.

The record labels' complaints were filed in Moscow on the day the new law came into force, and the cases are reportedly being considered a "test run" by the music industry, with other copyright holders said to be watching how they are processed by the courts.

Apple is expected to unveil a smaller, lower-priced HomePod at its digital-only event next week, which has led to speculation about the possibility of a second-generation ‌HomePod‌ also arriving. This morning, however, serial Apple leaker l0vetodream poured cold water on that idea, claiming there will be no "HomePod2" launching beside the rumored "mini" model this year.

Earlier this year, Apple began allowing employees to purchase up to 10 HomePods at a 50 percent discount, up from the previous limit of two. Some observers had suggested that the larger purchase limit could be part of Apple's efforts to clear out inventory of the current ‌HomePod‌ ahead of a new model.

Apple may continue to sell the current ‌HomePod‌ alongside the smaller, more affordable version, but it may cut future supply orders for the premium model, which reportedly hasn't sold very well. Apple has never disclosed ‌HomePod‌ sales, instead grouping the speaker under its "Wearables, Home, and Accessories" category, but the price of the speaker is thought to have been its biggest obstacle.

Apple launched the ‌HomePod‌ in February 2018 with a $349 price tag, but then reduced its price to $299 in April 2019. The ‌HomePod‌ also has several low-priced competitors on the smart assistant front, including Amazon's fourth-generation Echo ($90) and the recently announced Google Nest ($90).

Apple has been steadily making the ‌HomePod‌ more useful by adding features such as Handoff support, multi-user voice detection, ambient sounds, and multi-room audio. Apple is also expected to add third-party music support to the ‌HomePod‌ in a future software update. The latter feature will presumably allow Spotify and other music services to be set as the default music service, letting users ask Siri to stream music by specifying "with Spotify" at the end of a request.

As for Apple's rumored smaller ‌HomePod‌, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman has suggested the new speaker could include two tweeters, rather than the current model's seven, in order to drive down costs.