MacRumors

Swathes of AT&T customers in the U.S. are said to be experiencing problems accessing voicemail, based on reports on social media and the network's support forums.

The issues have apparently been going on for several weeks, but while AT&T says it's aware of the problem, the company hasn't yet provided a detailed explanation or given an indication of when it might be fixed.

Late on Wednesday, The Verge highlighted a 40-page thread in AT&T's support forums that's full of users relating their experiences trying to access voicemail, to no avail. Android users are being met with error messages, while iPhone users are unable to view the Visual Voicemail feature to manage their recordings. People have also reported problems on Google Pixel phones and Motorola phones.

The first reports date back to October 1, and customers are said to be affected in several states, including Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Nevada, and North Carolina. AT&T representatives responding to the complaints have claimed that the issues are due to a "vendor server problem," but it's still unclear which manufacturer is being referred to, while a statement given to The Verge similarly lacks detail:

"A recent software update to some devices may be affecting our customers' voicemail. We are working with the device manufacturer to issue a patch to resolve this and apologize for any inconvenience this has caused."

The current AT&T advice for affected customers who need immediate access to voicemail is to create a new mailbox by calling customer service. However, customers who go down this route are being warned that they will lose all saved and unheard messages. The only alternative, it seems, is to simply wait it out and hope AT&T resolves the issue sooner rather than later. We'll update this article if we learn of any developments.

Apple today updated its Mac Configuration Utility for authorized technicians with instructions on how to place the new Mac Pro in DFU mode, according to a reliable source. For existing Macs, this software is used to pair components like the logic board to the Apple T2 security chip after a repair is completed.

We have elected not to share any screenshots to protect our source, but a generic image of the Mac Configuration Utility is below. An option for the new Mac Pro has been added alongside the iMac Pro, Mac mini, and notebooks.

Our source was informed that this move likely means the new Mac Pro will be released imminently. Apple previewed the new Mac Pro at WWDC 2019 in June and said the computer will be available to order at some point this fall, but it has yet to specify a release date.

The all-new ‌Mac Pro‌ is a powerhouse, with up to 28-core Intel Xeon processors, up to 1.5TB of ECC RAM, up to 4TB of SSD storage, and up to AMD Radeon Pro Vega II Duo graphics with 64GB of HBM2 memory. The computer also has eight PCIe expansion slots for maximum performance, expansion, and configurability.

A new design includes a stainless steel frame with smooth handles and an aluminum housing that lifts off for 360-degree access to the entire system. The housing also has a unique lattice pattern to maximize airflow and quiet operation.

Apple says the new ‌Mac Pro‌ provides over 300W of power to the CPU and has a "state-of-the-art thermal architecture" to allow the processor to run "fully unconstrained all the time." This is a significant change from the previous ‌Mac Pro‌, which Apple eventually admitted led it "into a bit of a thermal corner."

Facing mounting criticism that it had abandoned its professional customers, Apple made the rare move of announcing that it would be releasing a new Mac Pro in April 2017, over two years before the computer was unveiled.

The new ‌Mac Pro‌ will start at $5,999 in the United States with an eight-core Intel Xeon processor, 32GB of ECC RAM, Radeon Pro 580X graphics, and 256GB of SSD storage. Apple will also be selling the 32-inch Pro Display XDR with 6K resolution for $4,999, although the stand for the monitor costs an extra $999.

With the chances of an October event becoming increasingly slim, Apple could announce Mac Pro availability via press release.

Apple today released the fourth betas of upcoming iOS and iPadOS 13.2 updates to developers, a week after seeding the third betas and a month after the release of iOS 13.1.

iOS and iPadOS 13.2 can be downloaded through the Apple Developer Center or over the air after the proper developer profiles have been installed.

iOS 13.2 introduces Deep Fusion for the cameras in the iPhone 11 and ‌iPhone‌ 11 Pro models. Deep Fusion is a new image processing system that uses the A13 Bionic and the Neural Engine. Deep Fusion takes advantage of machine learning techniques to do pixel-by-pixel processing of photos, optimizing for texture, details, and noise in each part of the image.

The feature is aimed at improving indoor photos and photos taken in medium lighting, and it's a feature that will automatically activate based on the lens being used and the light level in the room.

In the second beta, Apple added support for dozens of new emoji characters on iOS and iPadOS. Orangutan, sloth, otter, skunk, and flamingo are the new animals included in the update, while new food items include garlic, onion, waffle, falafel, butter, oyster, maté, and ice cube.

New faces, gestures, and poses include yawning face, pinching hand, person kneeling, person standing, and new people holding hands options that are both gender and skin tone inclusive, plus accessibility-related emoji like deaf person, person in wheelchair, guide dog, and more. There are also tons of other emoji characters coming, outlined in our iOS 13.2 emoji article.

The update brings a promised privacy option that allows users to opt out of sharing their Siri and dictation audio recording with Apple, and it adds an option to delete ‌Siri‌ and dictation history. These settings provide users with more control over how their ‌Siri‌ recordings are used.

Apple has reintroduced the Announce Messages with ‌Siri‌ feature, which lets ‌Siri‌ read incoming messages without having to unlock the ‌iPhone‌. The feature works with the second-generation AirPods and the Beats Pro.

The betas include new privacy settings for Apple's upcoming Research app, a new Transfer to HomePod toggle in the Settings app to turn on ‌HomePod‌ handoff, an updated volume bar in Control Center that displays AirPods and Beats icons, and an option to display multi-function HomeKit products as multiple tiles or a single tile.

Also included is an option to delete apps right from the Home screen, and on the ‌iPhone‌ 11 and 11 Pro, an option to change video recording settings right from the Camera app.

Both betas of iOS 13.2 have also included hints of Apple's third-generation AirPods, expected in 2020. The AirPods have a fresh look with a body that resembles the current AirPods, but with rubber tips, likely for the rumored noise cancelation feature.

Additional details on what's new in iOS 13.2 can be found in our iOS 13.2 tidbits articles for beta one and beta two.

Foxconn and Compal Electronics have obtained orders to assemble 2020 models of the Apple Watch, which would be Series 6 models if Apple sticks to its naming scheme, according to industry sources cited by DigiTimes. The report adds that Luxshare Precision will likely take orders for older Apple Watch models.

A preview of the upcoming report:

Compal, Foxconn land orders for next-gen Apple Watch:
Compal Electronics and Foxconn Technology Group (Hon Hai Precision Industry) have obtained orders for the 2020 series of Apple Watch, while China-based Luxshare ICT will likely take orders for old-generation Apple Watch devices, according to industry sources.

This news follows another DigiTimes report that claimed Quanta Computer will likely stop assembling the Apple Watch in 2020 due to alleged "profit concerns." Quanta has been a primary Apple Watch manufacturer since 2015.

Apple Watch Series 6 rumors are still slim, but it has been reported that Apple has a team of biomedical engineers working on a method for non-invasively monitoring blood glucose levels using optical sensors, technology that could potentially make its way into the Apple Watch at some point in the future.

MacRumors also discovered references to sleep tracking on the Apple Watch being developed internally, with Bloomberg claiming the functionality could be released in 2020 if testing is successful. Apple accidentally mentioned an unreleased Sleep app for watchOS in an App Store screenshot earlier this month.

Rumors suggest 2020 could also be the year the Apple Watch gets a MicroLED display, and if true, Series 6 models could potentially have thinner, brighter, and more power efficient displays compared to current OLED models.

Apple just released Series 5 models in September, with key new features including an always-on display, a new Compass app, international emergency calling on cellular models, 32GB of internal storage, and new titanium and ceramic casing options. Series 6 models would likely arrive in September 2020.

Today marks the 18th anniversary of Steve Jobs unveiling the original iPod at a small event on Apple's Infinite Loop campus. While the iMac started Apple's renaissance in 1998, it was the launch of the iPod in 2001 that truly set Apple on a path towards becoming the world's most valuable company.

Jobs famously pitched the original iPod as offering "1,000 songs in your pocket." The combination of its 5GB hard drive and 0.75-inch thickness was impressive at the time, with the device also featuring a two-inch screen, up to 10 hours of battery life, a FireWire port, and the first iteration of the iconic click wheel.

"With iPod, Apple has invented a whole new category of digital music player that lets you put your entire music collection in your pocket and listen to it wherever you go," said Jobs in Apple's press release from October 23, 2001. "With iPod, listening to music will never be the same again."

While many people were thrilled about the iPod, others were not so impressed. Here is a sample of some comments from the MacRumors forum thread about the iPod from the day it was announced, with some light editing for clarity:

I still can't believe this! All this hype for something so ridiculous! Who cares about an MP3 player?

Hey - here's an idea Apple - rather than enter the world of gimmicks and toys, why don't you spend a little more time sorting out your pathetically expensive and crap server line up? Or are you really aiming to become a glorified consumer gimmicks firm?

We live in the YEAR 2001… not 6,000 years from now when ridiculously awesome technology will exist. No other MP3 player has a hard drive like this… 5 gigs… Rio of the same size offers 64 megs… get over your moping… this is revolutionary… plus it's just the beginning.

This is not like any other MP3 player on the market, imagine being able to store several days worth of music at once! The iPod will be great for travelers, students, heck anyone who is really into music.

There are already two products similar to this on the market. The Nomad Jukebox and the Archos Jukebox which can come with a 20 gig hard drive. The iPod is obviously a lot cooler and has FireWire, but it is far from revolutionary. I for one am disappointed and think that Apple is making a mistake by trying to get into this market.

This is a nice product. A firewire MP3 player/HD with 5 GB capacity in such a small package. It is a little overpriced for such a device, though.

Opinions are similarly split in this Slashdot thread from the day the iPod was announced.

In an October 2001 column for The New York Times, well-known tech writer David Pogue described the iPod as "the most beautiful and cleverly engineered MP3 player ever," suggesting that it would become a smash hit if Apple lowered its price and made it compatible with Windows:

Apple clearly believes that the iPod's advances in size, speed, function and elegance are worth the $150 price premium, but not everyone feels that way. In an informal poll at the Macworld.com Web site, 40 percent of Mac fans indicated that they would not be buying an iPod, and every single one cited the price.

It should also be noted, however, that the remaining 60 percent had either already ordered iPods or were virtually drooling into their keyboards. They are among the first to succumb to the lure of the most beautiful and cleverly engineered MP3 player ever. But if Apple ever lowers the iPod’s price and develops Windows software for it, watch out: the invasion of the iPod people will surely begin in earnest.

In July 2002, Apple did just that, lowering the price of the 5GB iPod to $299 and extending compatibility to Windows. iPod went on to become the best-selling digital music player in history — at least until smartphones.

More links related to the original iPod:

• Apple Presents iPod press release
  

• Apple's homepage on October 23, 2001
  

• The New York Times announcement coverage
  

• WIRED announcement coverage
  

• UPenn Computing announcement coverage

Apple discontinued the iPod classic in September 2014, followed by the iPod nano and iPod shuffle in July 2017. The only model still available for purchase is the iPod touch, which received a minor refresh last May.

Ahead of the launch of Apple TV+ on November 1, Bloomberg Businessweek has explored Apple's foray into original content in a feature titled "The One Where Apple Tried to Buy Its Way Into Hollywood."

Many of the the reported details are already known, ranging from some Hollywood executives frowning upon Apple's culture of secrecy to Apple spending over $250 million on the ‌Apple TV‌+ series "The Morning Show," including over $1 million per episode for stars Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon.

In its early discussions about scripted programming, Apple also reportedly considered a project involving actor Keanu Reeves, known for his roles in movies like "The Matrix," "John Wick," and "Speed."

‌Apple TV‌+ is Apple's upcoming subscription-based streaming video service, launching November 1 in over 100 countries. The service will be available on the ‌Apple TV‌ app on iPhone, iPad, ‌Apple TV‌, Mac, and other platforms, including online at tv.apple.com, for $4.99 per month with a seven-day free trial.

‌Apple TV‌+ is led by former Sony Pictures Television executives Jamie Erlicht and Zack Van Amburg, who have reportedly been tasked with securing original content that is appropriate to be previewed in Apple's retail stores around the world, although it seems there will be some exceptions to that rule.

‌Apple TV‌+ will debut with the aforementioned "The Morning Show," which also stars Steve Carell, as well as the post-apocalyptic thriller "See" starring Jason Momoa, coming-of-age comedy series "Dickinson" starring Hailee Steinfeld, kids shows "Snoopy in Space" and "Helpsters," and more.

Since September 10, customers who purchase any ‌iPhone‌, ‌iPad‌, ‌Apple TV‌, iPod touch, or Mac can get one year of ‌Apple TV‌+ for free.

Apple Pay has overtaken the Starbucks mobile app to become the most popular mobile payment system in the United States, claims a new report out today.

According to eMarketer, ‌Apple Pay‌ became the market leader last year, when 27.7 million Americans used the app to make a purchase. Since then, however, ‌Apple Pay‌ has grown even faster than expected.

In 2019, ‌Apple Pay‌ will have 30.3 million users, or 47.3 percent of mobile payment users. That compares with Starbucks' 25.2 million customers via its mobile app in the same year, representing 39.4 percent of mobile payment users.

"Apple Pay has benefited from the spread of new point-of-sale (POS) systems that work with the NFC signals Apple Pay runs on," said eMarketer principal analyst Yory Wurmser. "The same trend should also help Google Pay and Samsung Pay, but they will continue to split the Android market."

Citing data from Digital Trends, the analysis predicts ‌Apple Pay‌ will be available in 70 percent of U.S. retailers by the end of 2019. In contrast, the Starbucks app has commanded a 40 percent market share of mobile payments for the last few years, but growth potential is limited because it can only be used in Starbucks stores.

Total spending via contactless mobile payments will approach $100 billion this year in the U.S., according to eMarketer. On average, that is equivalent to a user spending $1,545 per year, up more than 24 percent over last year.

Nearly 64 million people (30 percent of all U.S. smartphone users) are expected to make use of mobile payments this year, a 9.1 percent increase over 2018. In terms of demographics, nearly 50 percent of all smartphone users are adults aged 25 to 34, so the growth of mobile payments is expected to be strongest in this age group, although digital wallet use is said to be growing across the board.

"Although a growing number of millennials feel secure using payment apps, virtually all still find credit and debit cards equally convenient," said eMarketer forecasting analyst Vincent Yip. That bodes well for Apple Card, which launched earlier this year. ‌Apple Pay‌ is now in 47 markets and in the June quarter, started adding more new users than PayPal, with monthly transaction volume growing four times as fast.

Selena Gomez today released a new song and video entitled "Lose You to Love Me," and the entire video was shot in black and white using an iPhone 11 Pro.

Apple has released a one-minute clip of the video as part of its ongoing "Shot on ‌iPhone‌" series, but the full video is available on Gomez's YouTube channel.

As noted by Billboard, the video was shot by noted music video director Sophie Muller.

Apple has released quite a few different types of photos and videos in its "Shot on ‌iPhone‌" series, including stills, sports-themed videos, and short films. More recently, Apple has expanded the campaign to include musicains and bands on tour and even ASMR videos.

Google last week announced its newest flagship smartphones, the Pixel 4 and the Pixel 4XL, both of which are meant to compete with the iPhone 11 and ‌iPhone‌ 11 Pro, Apple's newest devices launched in September.

In our latest YouTube video, we went hands-on with a Pixel 4XL and an iPhone 11 Pro Max to compare the cameras in the two devices to see how they measure up against one another.

Both the Pixel 4XL and the ‌iPhone‌ 11 Pro have impressive cameras, and when it comes to standard shots taken with the rear-facing image, there's little difference in quality. Both smartphones are producing some great images, though the ‌iPhone 11 Pro Max‌ tends to create images with a cooler tone while the Pixel 4XL has a warmer overall tone.

Each smartphone does well with highlights and shadows, but the Pixel 4XL has a feature for adjusting these settings in real time while they need to be post processed on the ‌iPhone‌. The ‌iPhone‌ does have one edge - a third ultra wide-angle camera lens. The Pixel 4XL is limited to two cameras, a standard wide-angle and a telephoto lens, so it can't quite match the capabilities of the ‌iPhone 11 Pro Max‌.

Google pioneered Night Sight (the equivalent of the ‌iPhone‌'s Night Mode) last year, and the feature continues to be impressive this year. Night Side and ‌Night Mode‌ are quite similar, and it's tough to pick a clear winner for low-light photos. The ‌iPhone 11 Pro Max‌ tends to produce photos that look a bit more natural, while the Pixel 4XL offers up sharper, more vibrant night time images that sometimes have blown out highlights.

When comparing Portrait Mode, the Pixel 4XL seems to produce sharper images and it has superior edge detection in most cases. It's imperfect and there are times that the ‌iPhone‌ wins out, but in most of our test images, the Pixel 4XL does a better job with Portrait Mode photos.

For the front-facing camera, the Pixel 4XL has a new wide-angle lens that can capture more around you, plus it produces some super sharp photos, especially in Portrait Mode. There's an option for a wider-angle field of view with the ‌iPhone‌'s camera too, but the images from the Pixel 4XL appear to be just a bit better even though they have a warmer tone.

The Pixel 4XL has a Night Sight option for the front-facing camera, which gives it an edge over the front-facing camera of the ‌iPhone 11 Pro Max‌ as it can take better selfies in low lighting conditions.

When it comes to video, the ‌iPhone 11 Pro Max‌ wins. Google appears to have focused more on photo quality than video quality, and both the front and rear-facing cameras are a bit lacking. The Pixel 4XL supports 4K video but maxes out at 30 frames per second, while the ‌iPhone 11 Pro Max‌ supports 60 frames per second. Both have solid stabilization capabilities, but the ‌iPhone‌ 11 Pro has a preferable color profile and look compared to the Pixel 4XL.

All in all, both of these smartphones have high-quality cameras capable of producing some impressive images, which makes it difficult to choose a clear winner. Preference is generally going to come down to platform choice and small aesthetic differences between features like color profile.

Which smartphone's camera do you prefer? ‌iPhone 11 Pro Max‌ or Pixel 4XL? Let us know in the comments.