MacRumors

Five months after launching, and with millions of people stuck at home, Disney's streaming service Disney+ now has 50 million subscribers, reports Deadline.

Disney+ in early February had 28.6 million subscribers, which means the streaming service has grown by 21.4 million subscribers in the last two months. Much of the boost can be attributed to recent launches of the service in the UK, Ireland, Germany, Italy, Spain, Austria, France, Switzerland, and India.

50 million subscribers is ahead of Disney's own figures. When unveiling the service, Disney estimated that it would garner 60 to 90 million subscribers worldwide by the end of 2024, and if growth keeps up, Disney will hit that goal this year.

Apple has not released subscriber numbers, which means there's no direct comparison to Disney+. Since September, Apple has been providing a free year of service to everyone who purchases a new Apple device, so it will take over a year until Apple has large numbers of paying subscribers.

At launch, Disney+ ran promotions for discounted service for multiple years, marking the service down to the equivalent of $3.99, and has provided free Disney+ access to Verizon subscribers. Wit the exception of free trial members and Verizon users, customers with access to Disney+ are paying for it, unlike most ‌Apple TV‌+ subscribers at this time.

Disney+ has a significant edge over ‌‌Apple TV‌‌+ because Disney+ has an established catalog of content along with many popular Star Wars and Marvel franchises. "The Mandalorian," the key show Disney+ premiered with, received more attention than any of ‌‌Apple TV‌‌+'s launch shows, including "The Morning Show," "Dickinson," "See," and "For All Mankind."

Apple could catch up in the future given its huge subscriber base and the large number of people who own an Apple device, but it will be quite some time before Apple can match Disney's content offerings.

Foxconn and other factories in China have implemented stringent measures to prevent the another viral outbreak in the country, according to an overview of the practices shared today by The Washington Post.

Apple iPhone supplier Foxconn, for example, has organized workers into teams of 20 who stick together day and night for health tracking purposes. "The same group of employees work, travel, live, and eat together to ensure that employees' personal trajectories are fully traced," reads a notice from the Zhengzhou government where Foxconn is located.

A Foxconn employee told The Washington Post that workers are provided with a face mask and have their temperatures checked regularly, plus there are infrared cameras to check people for fevers as they walk by. Foxconn said that it is also using nucleic acid tests and chest x-rays when required, and it has produced 10 million surgical masks for employees.

At lunchtime, Foxconn workers eat at cafeteria tables separated from one another by tall dividers. Cafeteria seats even have QR codes that workers can scan so Foxconn has a record of who sat where and when for meals. In the dormitories where they sleep, employees leave their coats and bags in a designated spot for disinfection.

Foxconn and other Apple factories were shut down for much of February due to the outbreak, which has now largely resolved in China. China is mandating that employers check temperatures and provide face masks to employees, as well as submitting daily reports on workers' health statuses. Many businesses in the United States may need to take similar steps when stay at home orders around the country begin lifting.

Other companies in China have implemented similar measures, including preventing employees from leaving factories and going home in some cases, with additional details available in The Washington Post's full report.

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

The Unicode Consortium today announced that it is delaying version 14 of the Unicode Standard by six months, and the delay will affect emoji that were scheduled to be included as part of the update.

"Under the current circumstances we've heard that our contributors have a lot on their plates at the moment and decided it was in the best interests of our volunteers and the organizations that depend on the standard to push out our release date," said Mark Davis, President of the Consortium. "This year we simply can't commit to the same schedule we've adhered to in the past."

The delay will not impact the Unicode 13 update that includes the Emoji 13 characters that were announced earlier this year. There are 62 new emoji coming in Unicode 13, such as smiling face with tear, polar bear, seal, bubble tea, pickup truck, fondue, teapot, magic wand, beetle, and piñata.

Unicode 13 characters are expected to be adopted by Apple starting this fall, perhaps in an update to iOS 14. It typically takes Apple several months to design new artwork for emoji characters that are approved with each new iteration.

The Unicode Consortium is also considering whether it is feasible to release new emoji sequences in a smaller Emoji 13.1 release as these emoji use combinations of existing emoji and can be implemented on a separate schedule.

The Consortium is considering whether it is feasible to release emoji sequences in an Emoji 13.1 release. These sequences make use of existing characters. An example from Emoji 13.0 is the black cat, which is internally a combination of the cat emoji and black large square emoji. Since sequences rely only on combinations of existing characters in the Unicode Standard, they can be implemented on a separate schedule, and don't require a new version of Unicode or the encoding of new characters. Such an Emoji 13.1 release would be in time for release on mobile phones in 2021.

The Unicode 14 delay means that emoji characters we might have expected Apple to adopt in the fall of 2021 will be pushed back for six months. Because of the delay, the Unicode Consortium is accepting new emoji character proposals for the Emoji 14 update until September 2020.

After Emoji 13 characters are implemented this fall, there will be no new additional emoji on the iPhone until 2022.

Apple today released a supplemental update to macOS Catalina 10.15.4, two weeks after releasing the macOS Catalina 10.15.4 update with Screen Time Communication Limits and Real-Time Apple Music lyrics.

The macOS Catalina 10.15.4 Supplemental Update can be downloaded from the Mac App Store for free using the Update feature in the System Preferences app.

The new software introduces a fix that caused Mac computers running macOS Catalina 10.15.4 to be unable to participate in FaceTime calls with devices running iOS 9.3.6 and earlier or OS X El Capitan 10.11.6 and earlier.

Apple says it also addresses an issue with Office 365 accounts, fixes a bug that could cause a USB-C port to become unresponsive, and addresses a problem that caused the 2020 MacBook Air to hang during Setup Assistant or when connecting or disconnecting a 4K or 5K display. Full release notes for the update are below:

macOS Catalina 10.15.4 supplemental update improves the stability and security of your Mac.

- Fixes an issue where Mac computers running macOS Catalina 10.15.4 could not participate in FaceTime calls with devices running iOS 9.3.6 and earlier or OS X El Capitan 10.11.6 and earlier
- Resolves an issue where you may repeatedly receive a password prompt for an Office 365 account
- Fixes an issue where MacBook Air (Retina, 13-inch, 2020) may hang in Setup Assistant or when disconnecting and reconnecting a 4K or 5K external display
- Resolves an issue where a USB-C port in your Mac may become unresponsive

macOS Catalina 10.15.4 could be one of the last updates to the macOS Catalina operating system as Apple transitions to working on macOS 10.16, which is unnamed as of yet.

If you're stuck at home and are looking for things to do, our latest YouTube video has some suggestions for various apps and games that we've found fun during our quarantine period. We're highlighting podcast apps, a few games, and a couple other options that will hopefully help keep you or your family members entertained this week. Some of these are iPhone and iPad, while some are ‌iPad‌ only.

• Quibi ($4.99/Month)- Quibi, which stands for "quick bites," is a new streaming video app that just came out this week. It's a service that promises to offer high quality content that's 10 minutes or less, with new episodes and new shows coming out on a daily basis. Quibi is ‌iPhone‌ only, and you can try it out free for 90 days before being charged $4.99 per month with ads, or $7.99 per month without ads.
• Google Podcasts (Free) - Google just recently brought its Podcasts app to the ‌iPhone‌, and if you're not a fan of Apple's Podcasts app, this might be a useful alternative. It has a great layout and Google's design aesthetics, making it easy to browse through content and find something to listen to. Episodes are sent to your device every day with auto-download and notification options.
• Listen App (Free) - If you're not a fan of Google Podcasts, you can also check out Listen App, which has some unique features such as an option to leave text and audio comments on podcast episodes, creating more of a community around podcasts. This is a new feature so there aren't a ton of comments, yet, but it has the potential to be a neat addition.
• Roundguard - Roundguard is an Apple Arcade game, and ‌Apple Arcade‌ is a pretty great solution if you're looking for games to play. It's $4.99 per month and gives you access to more than 100 games. Roundguard is a lot like Peggle, and the gameplay consists of hurling your warrior (or mage) down into pegs made up of monsters, potion bottles, and more, with the hopes that luck is in your favor and you come out victorious.
• Too Many Cooks (Free) - This is a fast-paced non-Apple Arcade game where the idea is to prepare sushi, pizzas, burgers, and more, delivering food to customers within an allotted time. This is a pretty well-known game type, but it's always fun. Gameplay gets progressively harder as more and more ingredients are introduced, and you can play by yourself or with a friend. This is a free game, but gameplay can be limited and there are in-app purchases for gems.
• Pigment (Subscription) - If you have an ‌iPad‌ and an Apple Pencil, coloring apps like Pigment can be a fun way to de-stress and do something mindless but calming while watching television. Pigment is one of the best apps on the market with lots of brushes, tools, and colors to work with, but it's going to cost $9.99 per month so you need to REALLY like coloring to subscribe. You can also pay $4.99 per week or $60 per year, which drops the price down a bit for those who are big fans of coloring and find it soothing.
• Chroma (Free, in-app purchases) - Chroma is another coloring app that also has in-app purchases, but it has more free options to use before you need to shell out money. The coloring experience isn't quite as refined as Pigment, but it's one of the better options. You can import pages from online and use Chroma's selection of brushes and tools, and it's a fun activity to do with kids.

Have other great games and entertaining apps you're using while at home? Let us know in the comments, and we may do a followup video with reader suggestions.

Apple today released watchOS 6.2.1, the seventh update to the watchOS 6 operating system that's designed to run on modern Apple Watch models. watchOS 6.2.1 comes two weeks after the release of watchOS 6.2, which brought a in-app purchases to the watchOS App Store.

watchOS 6.2.1 can be downloaded for free through the dedicated ‌‌Apple Watch‌‌ app on the iPhone by going to General > Software Update. To install the new software, the ‌‌Apple Watch‌‌ needs to have at least 50 percent battery, it needs to be placed on a charger, and it needs to be in range of the ‌‌‌iPhone‌‌‌.

According to Apple's release notes, watchOS 6.2.1 fixes the FaceTime bug that prevented Apple Watches running watchOS 6.2 from participating in ‌FaceTime‌ audio calls with devices running iOS 9.3.6 and earlier or OS X El Capitan 10.11.6 and earlier.

Apple yesterday released iOS 13.4.1 to fix the same bug, which prevented audio and video ‌FaceTime‌ calls with devices running earlier versions of iOS.

watchOS 6.2.1 may be one of the last updates to the watchOS 6 operating system as Apple transitions to working on watchOS 7, which will be previewed this June before launching in the fall.

The iPhone continues to be the most popular smartphone among U.S. teens, a title that it has held for many years, according to new data gathered by investment firm Piper Sandler for its most recent semiannual teen survey in the United States.

85 percent of teens surveyed own an ‌iPhone‌, and 88 percent expect an ‌iPhone‌ to be their next phone, both of which are new all-time survey highs, but it's worth keeping in mind that most of these respondents are from higher-income families. Last year, 83 percent of teens surveyed owned an ‌iPhone‌, and 86 percent planned to purchase.

8 percent of teens said they planned to purchase an Android, down from 10 percent in the year-ago survey.

Teen interest in the ‌iPhone‌ has been strong since the beginning of these surveys, but has grown steadily every year. In 2020, Apple is expected to release 5G iPhones and a new, more affordable ‌iPhone‌ SE option, which could cause teen ‌iPhone‌ adoption numbers to grow even further.

This year's survey also took a look at the AirPods. 52 percent of teens said that they own a set of AirPods, and of those that don't own AirPods, 18 percent plan to purchase them within a year.

Teen customers are important to Apple as brand loyalty will inspire them to continue purchasing products in the Apple ecosystem for years to come.

Piper Sandler's "Taking Stock With Teens" survey asked 5,200 teenagers with an average age of 16.2 and a median household income of $65,600 about their purchasing habits and brand preferences. Piper Jaffray merged with Sandler O'Neill earlier this year, hence the new name, but this survey as been ongoing since 2001.

Customers who require a replacement AirPod from Apple have in some cases been receiving an AirPod running 2D3 firmware, which is not a version of the AirPods firmware that's been publicly released.

As described on the MacRumors forum and Reddit (via iMore), customers who get an AirPod with the 2D3 firmware are unable to pair it with the existing unreplaced AirPod, leaving the AirPods unable to be used together.

Apple has apparently been shipping these AirPods running the unusable firmware since March 25 or earlier, so some customers have been without a functional set of AirPods for a few weeks. From Reddit:

Having the same problem. Had the left replaced originally and that came with 2D3. Apple then replaced the right and that came with 1A673. I could get them to pair individually, but that's ridiculous.

I eventually got through to a senior advisor yesterday who used screen sharing to take a look for himself; he was totally confused and handled it great so far. He made himself the assignee for my case and I'm expecting a call back today after he left me with some tips from engineering. Those tips didn't work and now it appears both AirPods are fried. I can no longer get any AirPod to pair with my phone. The case is fine since I can pair my wife's AirPods with my phone using my case.

The advisor did admit that I'd never be able to get these to pair since the lesser versioned AirPod wouldn't be able to update to a non-public version. He even said there's little documentation on it, and that what likely happened is when it was made, 2D3 was about to be released but ended up not coming out because of bugs.

Apple's support staff has been unable to help customers, and even after multiple AirPods shipments, customers have been unable to get a working set. From MacRumors reader blue_marzipan:

I have the same problem and have spent the last 2 days trying to get Apple to help. The issue is the firmware 2D3 is not available for update yet. I finally got to a Senior Adviser and he said he could not help me other than send me another set but could not check the firmware before shipping so may or may not match. They have sent me 2 left ones, both with the 2D3 firmware which of course won't sync with the other one and cannot be updated. The adviser wasn't helpful at all. He said if many people report the problem (in my case it took 48hrs to get to him), then engineers might look at it. Otherwise there was nothing he could do for me.

And from MacRumors reader SorsCode, who is experiencing the same problem:

Update: Not a good one, but an update. I'm on my 4th replacement on the right Airpod now and still haven't been able to get one with 2D3 on it. They have sent me both Left and Rights at the same time. All my lefts have been 2D3 and my rights have been all over the place. Escalating tonight to see if we can just stop the madness and get a refurbished set sent.

According to a person on Reddit who spent 10 hours talking to Apple's support staff over the course of a week, the 2D3 AirPod problem appears to be somewhat widespread, and given that Apple's teams are working from home right now, there's no available word on when the new 2D3 firmware might be released to solve the problem.

There will be no solution until the new firmware is released, but in some cases, Apple's support team has been replacing affected replacement AirPods with new, functional sets that are running older firmware. This doesn't appear to be universal, though, and there are still some who are struggling to work out the problem.

This appears to be an issue that is primarily impacting customers who own the second-generation AirPods, but there have been a few reports from customers who own AirPods Pro that have been affected.

Amid the current work-from-home restrictions in place throughout the United States and other countries, tech companies are grappling with how their summer internship programs will work, and Axios has rounded up statements from a number of the largest employers to see what their plans are.

Summer internship programs are important for both interns and the companies, as they provide valuable experience and contacts for students while companies can use them for recruiting purposes as they later look to bring some of those interns into full-time roles.

While some companies are moving their internship programs online, Apple told Axios that it is currently planning a mix of online and in-person opportunities and is looking to bring on over 1,000 interns this summer.

Apple, which told Axios it plans to hire more than 1,000 people for a mix of online and in-person internships and pledged in a statement to "extend to our interns the same precautions and care that we're extending to all our other personnel as a part of the ongoing COVID-19 response."

With universities and businesses still largely shut down, however, the situation remains fluid and it remains to be seen what types of activities will be permitted or appear reasonable a month or two from now.

Multiple third-party resellers in China are offering discounts on the iPhone 11 lineup this week, with savings up to an equivalent of $227 off a high-end iPhone 11 Pro Max, according to the South China Morning Post.

On JD.com, the 64GB version of the basic iPhone 11 now costs 4,999 yuan (US$708), 500 yuan (US$70) cheaper than the original price. The more expensive iPhone 11 Pro has an even steeper price cut that shaves off 1,200 yuan (US$170). And the top-tier iPhone 11 Pro Max is selling for a whopping 1,600 yuan (US$227) off.

The savings are likely passed on by Apple in an attempt to bolster demand during a time when consumer confidence and spending is lower, although the company declined to comment on whether it had authorized the price cuts and ‌iPhone‌ 11 prices on Apple's Chinese website have not been reduced.

Chinese resellers offered similar discounts on ‌iPhone‌ XS and ‌iPhone‌ XR models in early 2019, shortly after Apple lowered its revenue guidance for the first quarter of its 2019 fiscal year due to fewer ‌iPhone‌ upgrades than it had anticipated, particularly in the Greater China region.

HBO today announced that its HBO GO and HBO NOW streaming services will no longer be available on second-generation and third-generation Apple TV models starting April 30, 2020.

In a support document on its website, HBO says this change is being made "in order to provide the best streaming experience":

In order to provide the best streaming experience, we need to make some changes to our supported devices list. Starting on April 30, 2020, HBO GO will no longer be available on the Apple TV (2nd and 3rd generation). Not sure which Apple TV you have? Identify your Apple TV model

If Apple TV was your primary streaming device, here are some other ways to stream HBO GO on your TV:

- Stream HBO GO using another streaming player or a game console. For a list of supported devices, see Supported devices.
- Use AirPlay to stream HBO GO to your Apple TV.
- Use an HDMI cable to connect your phone, tablet, or computer to your TV.
- Use Chromecast to cast HBO GO from your phone, tablet, or computer to your TV.

There is an identical notice for HBO NOW.

HBO's announcement comes just as a number of third-generation Apple TV users have also been struggling with accessing YouTube content.

Apple Music today told independent record labels that it is launching a $50 million advance royalty fund to make sure that artists get paid amid the ongoing pandemic.

In letters sent out to record labels that were seen and shared by Rolling Stone, Apple said that livelihoods are at risk and that it "wants to help."

These are difficult times for the music industry globally. Livelihoods are at risk, with multiple sources of income that our industry relies on vanishing overnight. Apple has a deep, decades-long history with music, and we are proud to be in close partnership with the best labels and artists in the world. We want to help.

Today Apple Music is announcing the creation of a $50 million-plus fund available as advances on future royalties to independent labels, to help them pay artists and maintain operations.

Royalty advances will be offered to independent labels with a direct Apple Music distribution deal who meet a minimum quarterly threshold of $10,000 in Apple Music earnings. Each advance will be based on the label's past earnings, and will be recoupable against the label's future earnings. This offer is in good faith that labels will channel funds to artists and label operations based on financial need.

Label agreements for the advances will be posted in iTunes Connect, in the Agreements, Tax, and Banking module, on April 10. To receive an advance you will need to accept the Royalty Advance agreement and be on the latest Apple Music distribution agreement before May 8, 2020, at 11:59 p.m. PDT.

We hope that together we can help provide stability for artists by sustaining an enduring and vibrant music sector. If you have additional questions, please contact us.

Independent record labels that earn at least $10,000 in quarterly ‌Apple Music‌ earnings will qualify for royalty advances, and a direct ‌Apple Music‌ distribution deal is required.

According to Rolling Stone, the music industry has been struggling in recent months, as live music has been put on hold and many concert tours and major music festivals have been postponed or canceled. Music streaming is also down and artists are pushing back release dates for albums.