MacRumors

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!)

Apple has purchased artificial intelligence startup Voysis with the aim of improving Siri, reports Bloomberg. Voysis offers a platform that allows digital voice assistants to better understand natural language.

The company worked to improve voice assistants in online shopping apps, allowing software to better interpret requests from users. The website, which is now defunct, said that the technology used client databases with AI tools that deeply understand the specifics of products, services, and vocabulary to make the user experience "easier, faster and more intuitive."

The Voysis platform allowed customers to hone in on search requests with simple phrases like "I need a new LED TV" or "Just show me the 4K ones." Voysis said that shoppers could use voice to find what they're looking for 3x faster than typing using these kind of requests.

Bloomberg speculates that Apple could use Voysis' technology to improve ‌Siri‌'s understanding of natural language, or offer the Voysis platform to developers to improve how ‌Siri‌ works with apps.

Apple confirmed the acquisition to Bloomberg with its standard acquisition statement: "[Apple] buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans."

Apple has acquired multiple AI startups over the course of the last five years, such as Xnor.ai, Turi, VocalIQ, Perceptio, Emotient, and more, to improve ‌Siri‌ and other AI-based offerings.

Four U.S. senators, Bob Menendez, Kamala Harris, Cory Booker and Richard Blumenthal, on Friday sent a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook expressing concern over "the safety and security of Americans' private health data" in regard to the recently released COVID-10 website and app, reports Bloomberg.

The senators questioned Cook about Apple's data-sharing practices and safeguards, and whether the COVID-19 app complies with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). They also want details on Apple's agreements with federal or state governments for the development of the app.

When announcing the app and the website, which Apple developed with the CDC, the White House Coronavirus Task Force, and FEMA, Apple said that any data users provide on the COVID-19 website or app is not shared with Apple, the CDC, or any other government agency, as specified on the COVID-19 website. What little information Apple does collect, such as how people use the site, is used for bug fixes.

Apple is not collecting your answers from the screening tool. To help improve the site, Apple collects some information about how you use it. The information collected will not personally identify you.

Apple also does not require users to sign in to use the app and the data is not associated with a user's Apple ID, nor does it ask for any personally identifiable information.

Consistent with Apple's strong dedication to user privacy, the COVID-19 app and website were built to keep all user data private and secure. The tools do not require a sign-in or association with a user's Apple ID, and users' individual responses will not be sent to Apple or any government organization.

Apple debuted the COVID-19 website and app on March 27. It serves as a screening tool where users can answer questions about symptoms, exposure risk, and more, to receive CDC recommendations on the next steps they should take, such as social distancing or obtaining a test.

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.

Apple is offering employees significant discounts on products that include the HomePod and Beats headphones, according to details on the deals shared by MacGeneration and 9to5Mac.

Apple is said to be clearing stock of Beats headphones and HomePods, providing them to employees through an internal deals program. The ‌HomePod‌ is available at a 50 percent discount, dropping the price to $149.50, while Beats are also available at a reduced price.

There's no confirmed word on why Apple is offering HomePods and Beats headphones to employees at a discount, but in the case of the ‌HomePod‌, there are rumors that Apple is working on a new lower-cost model that could come out at some point this year.

Apple may also simply have excess ‌HomePod‌ and Beats stock due to reduced sales or a miscalculation in production.

Apple has offered similar deep discounts on products to employees a few times in the past, and provides smaller discounts on all of its products for employees who want to make a purchase through an employee store.

Update: An employee has shared additional information on discounts with MacRumors. Along with the ‌HomePod‌ and Beats headphones, Apple employees can also buy Apple Watch Series 4 Hermès at prices starting at $749, and Apple Watch bands at a major discount, with some Sport Loops and Sport Bands available for just $19.60.

Multiple refurbished Mac options are further discounted for employees, and the discounted Beats lineup includes the Solo Pro, Studio3 Wireless, BeatsX, Powerbeats Pro, and more. The Beats headphones are discounted by up to 40 percent.

On the 10th anniversary of the iPad launching in stores, Agile Partners co-founder Jack Ivers has shared an interesting story about how his company managed to get in Apple's good graces and ultimately gain access to prototype iPads.

The story begins in 2008, when Agile Partners released GuitarToolkit as one of the first iPhone apps on the App Store. The app used the iPhone's microphone to detect musical notes in an incoming audio stream to see the real-time pitch of a guitar string. Apple has long had an interest in music, so the app quickly caught its eye.

In 2009, Apple covertly reached out to Agile Partners about featuring GuitarToolkit in a worldwide advertising campaign:

We began receiving calls that went as follows:

Apple: We need you to internationalize GuitarToolkit for the following languages: Japanese, simplified Chinese, German, French, and Spanish. By next week please.

Agile: Ummm ... why?

Apple: Sign this NDA.

Agile: Here you go. So tell us more.

Apple: We're considering featuring GuitarToolkit in an advertising campaign, but no promises. Will you do the internationalization?

Apple was asking us to jump, and it didn't take too much reflection to respond, "how high?" GuitarToolkit ended up being featured in a series of worldwide print and TV campaigns, including one that appeared on the back cover of many of the most prestigious magazines in the U.S. and around the world.

GuitarToolkit ended up being featured on the back cover of many popular magazines:

Then, in February 2010, just days after Steve Jobs unveiled the original iPad, an Apple executive reached out to Agile Partners requesting a quick conversation about something "important." After signing a very strict NDA, Agile Partners ended up being invited to Apple's headquarters to develop an iPad version of their GuitarToolkit app.

Agile Partners was provided with access to prototype iPads to develop its app and, unsurprisingly, they were located in a "locked, nondescript, unlabeled room on the second or third floor on the building that housed the Infinite Loop cafeteria."

The room had blackout curtains hanging inside the door so that, even when the door was open, you couldn't see inside. The room had three or four sturdy industrial tables, each with an iPad prototype chained to it. Each iPad was completely encased in what appeared to be Kevlar, with just the screen and home button exposed. Almost none of the industrial design was visible – bezels, back, edges, even the iPad's thickness, were all obscured by the bulky case.

Each table also had a Mac with a special Xcode that could build to the iPad. We spent the day tweaking app settings for the new screen dimensions, getting past beta glitches, and finally successfully building TabToolkit on the prototype iPads.

Agile Partners eventually became VIP attendees at WWDC 2010, where its iPad app received an Apple Design Award.

Following two interest rate cuts by the U.S. Federal Reserve in March, the Apple Card's base APR has now decreased from 12.49 percent to 10.99 percent for some cardholders, including MacRumors reader Zed and others on Reddit.

This is at least the third time that the Apple Card's APR range has been lowered since the credit card launched in August 2019.

Due to current affairs, Apple recently launched a customer assistance program that allows Apple Card holders to skip their March and April payments without incurring interest charges. To enroll in the program, read Apple's support document.

Key features of the Apple Card include color-coded spending summaries in the Wallet app, no fees beyond any applicable interest, and up to three percent daily cashback.

To apply for an ‌Apple Card‌, simply open the Wallet app on an iPhone running iOS 12.4 or later, tap the plus button in the top-right corner, and follow the on-screen steps. The process takes just a few minutes, and if approved, your digital ‌Apple Card‌ will be ready for purchases immediately. A physical titanium-based Apple Card is also available for use at retail stores that do not accept contactless payments.

"Legend of the Skyfish 2" is this week's addition to Apple Arcade on the iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV:

A hundred years have passed since the hero known as Little Red Hook ended the reign of terror of Skyfish, the Lord of the Deep Seas… and now the peace that civilization struggled so much to build is in danger again.

As the last Red Hook guardians, you and your master must use the atypical tool of your clan – the Combat Fishing Pole – as both a weapon and a grappling hook to face the rising threat.

Unveil an exciting story as you journey in a world full of intriguing characters and devious traps. Explore gorgeous landscapes and mysterious dungeons while defeating mutant abyssal creatures.

"Legend of the Skyfish 2" is available on the App Store with an Apple Arcade subscription. The service provides iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, and Mac users with access to over 100 games with no in-app purchases or ads for $4.99 per month or $49.99 per year.

Apple paid out $75,000 to a hacker for identifying multiple zero-day vulnerabilities in its software, some of which could be used to hijack the camera on a MacBook or an iPhone, according to Forbes.

A zero-day vulnerability refers to a security hole in software that is unknown to the software developer and the public, although it may already be known by attackers who are quietly exploiting it.

Security researcher Ryan Pickren reportedly discovered the vulnerabilities in Safari after he decided to "hammer the browser with obscure corner cases" until it started showing weird behavior.

The bug hunter found seven exploits in all. The vulnerabilities involved the way that Safari parsed Uniform Resource Identifiers, managed web origins and initialized secure contexts, and three of them allowed him to get access to the camera by tricking the user to visit a malicious website.

"A bug like this shows why users should never feel totally confident that their camera is secure," Pickren said, "regardless of operating system or manufacturer."

Pickren reported his research through Apple's Bug Bounty Program in December 2019. Apple validated all seven bugs immediately and shipped a fix for the camera kill chain a few weeks later. The camera exploit was patched in Safari 13.0.5, released January 28. The remaining zero-day vulnerabilities, which Apple judged to be less severe, were patched in Safari 13.1, released on March 24.

Apple opened its bug bounty program to all security researchers in December 2019. Prior to that, Apple's bug bounty program was invitation-based and non-iOS devices were not included. Apple also increased the maximum size of the bounty from $200,000 per exploit to $1 million depending on the nature of the security flaw.

When submitting reports, researchers must include a detailed description of the issue, an explanation of the state of the system when the exploit works, and enough information for Apple to reliably reproduce the issue.

This year, Apple plans to provide vetted and trusted security researchers and hackers with "dev" iPhones, or special iPhones that provide deeper access to the underlying software and operating system that will make it easier for vulnerabilities to be discovered.

These iPhones are being provided as part of Apple's forthcoming iOS Security Research Device Program, which aims to encourage additional security researchers to disclose vulnerabilities, ultimately leading to more secure devices for consumers.

Apple has added an anti-eavesdropping feature to the 2020 iPad Pro that ensures the microphone hardware is disabled when a case is attached to the iPad and closed.

The security feature was first introduced in 2018 in MacBook models using Apple's T2 security chip, which includes a hardware microphone disconnect feature that disables the mics when the notebook's lid is closed.

As spotted by 9to5Mac, an updated version of Apple's Platform Security document makes clear that the anti-eavesdropping is also available on all 2020 ‌iPad Pro‌ models when using an MFi-compliant case.

iPad models beginning in 2020 also feature the hardware microphone disconnect. When an MFi compliant case (including those sold by Apple) is attached to the iPad and closed, the microphone is disconnected in hardware, preventing microphone audio data being made available to any software—even with root or kernel privileges in iPadOS or in case the firmware is compromised.

Apple updated the 11-inch and 12.9-inch ‌iPad Pro‌ models last month with a faster A12Z Bionic chip, a new 10MP Ultra Wide camera to complement the traditional 12MP camera, and a LiDAR depth scanner for improved augmented reality experiences.

For some 2018 ‌iPad Pro‌ owners at least, these updates are relatively modest, but the new security features outlined in Apple's documentation may be enough to tempt more privacy-conscious users.

Apple today informed employees that its Apple retail stores in the United States will remain closed until early May, and Apple employees will continue to work from home until then.

In a memo to employees, excerpts of which were shared by Bloomberg, Apple's retail chief Deirdre O'Brien said that Apple is "continuing to monitor local conditions for every Apple facility on a daily basis" and that reopening decisions will be made on after "thorough, thoughtful reviews and the latest guidance from local governments and public health experts."

For now, Apple's flexible work arrangements "will remain in place for all offices, and all retail stores will remain closed, until early May."

In Santa Clara County, where Apple Park, Infinite Loop, and many other corporate offices and retail stores are located, there is a shelter in place order that will remain in effect until May 3. It prevents all nonessential businesses from being open and requires employees to work from home. Apple's corporate offices will not be able to reopen until that order is lifted.

According to O'Brien, Apple is "working on options" to ensure that parents have the flexibility to adjust their schedules as necessary as many are also looking after children who are no longer able to school.

Apple had previously planned to begin reopening some stores in the first half of April, and that could still be the plan for some of its stores outside of the U.S. At the current time, all stores outside of China are closed and have been shuttered since March 14.

Another clue has surfaced to suggest that Apple's rumored lower-cost iPhone SE successor will likely be released soon.

Earlier today, 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. Given the original iPhone SE was a 4-inch device, and the iPhone 7 and iPhone 8 are 4.7-inch devices, this is likely a reference to the rumored 2020 model of the iPhone SE.

The product listing does not 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.

MacRumors reader Gijs Van Laer alerted us to this product listing earlier today and it has since been shared by Aaron Zollo and others on Twitter.

Apple's new low-cost iPhone is set to launch as early as Friday, April 3, according to a new report from 9to5Mac that cites a tip from a "highly trusted reader." The site says that while it can't be certain about the launch date, "Apple could reveal and begin taking orders for the new ‌iPhone‌ as soon as tomorrow."

Apple is said to be planning to call the new ‌iPhone‌, which is expected to be priced somewhere around $399, the "‌iPhone‌ SE" just like the 2016 ‌iPhone‌ SE, which was also positioned as a low-cost device.

The 2020 ‌iPhone‌ SE is expected to come in white, black, and PRODUCT(Red) color options, and Apple will offer 64, 128, and 256GB storage capacities.

Prior rumors have suggested that the low-cost 2020 ‌iPhone‌ SE will be identical to the 4.7-inch ‌iPhone‌ 8 when it comes to design, featuring thick top and bottom bezels and a Touch ID Home button. It will have a single-lens rear camera, NFC support, and the same A13 chip that's in the ‌iPhone‌ 11 and 11 Pro.