MacRumors

On Friday, June 5, Apple Watch owners will be able to complete a new Apple Watch activity challenge in celebration of World Environment Day.

The challenge, which is listed in the Activity app on the iPhone, asks users to close their Stand rings.

Recognize World Environment Day this Friday. Close your Stand ring on June 5 and earn this award by getting up and moving around for at least one minute during 12 hours that day.

Completing the challenge will award users with a unique badge viewable in the Awards section of the Activity app on ‌iPhone‌ and Apple Watch.

Apple has shied away from offering activity challenges during the global health crisis as people have been indoors, but a stand goal challenge is simple to complete regardless of location and does not require leaving the house.

We still have a few months to go before Apple unveils the iPhone 12, but rumors about the iPhone 13, coming in fall 2021, are already circulating.

Japanese site Mac Otakara today shared a rough 3D printed mockup of a 5.5-inch ‌iPhone‌ said to be coming in 2021, which is from "Alibaba sources." The model may be built on leaked specifications and rumors, but where the info comes from is unclear.

It's a successor to the smaller 5.4-inch ‌iPhone‌ that's expected in 2020, so likely one of the lower-end devices in the 2021 lineup, if accurate. It's the same size as the rumored 5.4-inch ‌iPhone‌, but design changes provide more available display space.

The ‌iPhone‌ features no notch for the TrueDepth camera, and the FaceTime camera is located in the front center. Mac Otakara suggests the ‌iPhone‌ could use Samsung's Under Panel Sensor technology, which would allow cameras to be positioned under a display. The site also speculates about a possible bottom-of-screen camera, a rumor we haven't heard before and which seems unlikely.

Along with no notch, the mockup features ultra thin bezels, and while the camera module is not fleshed out, there are dots that suggest open space for testing different camera modules. Late last month, leaker Fudge (@choco_bit) said that the higher-end ‌iPhone‌ models coming in 2021 will feature four camera setups with LiDAR technology, but it's not clear if that information is accurate.

One other major design change appears to be a USB-C port instead of a Lightning port. There have been rumors about Apple swapping over to USB-C for years now. Another Fudge leak from late last month suggested Apple's ‌iPhone‌ 13 lineup will be portless, combining wireless charging with a Smart Connector system for data transfer.

Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has also said that the high-end 2021 ‌iPhone‌ will have a "completely wireless experience."

Whether we'll end up with a port-free design, USB-C, or another year with Lightning remains to be seen, but past rumors have said that in the long-term, Apple wants an ‌iPhone‌ without external ports and buttons.

‌Mac Otakara‌ says the mockup depicts just one prototype that's under development, so Apple's plans may ultimately change and this mockup is unlikely to represent the final version of the ‌iPhone‌ that we see in 2021.

The Information today published a detailed look at the difficulties Apple has faced trying to assemble its products with robots rather than humans.

The report claims that, beginning in 2012, Apple assembled a team of robotics and automation specialists at a secret lab in Sunnyvale, California to search for ways to reduce the number of workers on its production lines. However, the team is said to have quickly encountered challenges designing some of these automated systems:

Building a robot that can fasten screws is among the hardest challenges in the industry. A robot must pick up the screw at a specific angle and align it with a hole using multiple industrial cameras. Apple uses screws so tiny that robots had no way to measure the force used to drill them in. By contrast, human workers can feel the resistance from their hand and can tell when something is off.

As for putting glue onto display panels, Apple’s specifications are so tight that glue must often be placed within a millimeter of its desired spot inside a product. One former team member said well-trained Chinese workers were more adept at applying glue than their robot counterparts.

While many of the automated systems were abandoned or not implemented, the team apparently did have some success replacing workers with robots for simpler tasks such as testing of products like the Apple TV, Apple Watch, and iPad.

The report provides many more examples of Apple's attempts at ramping up automation, only to experience challenges. In 2014, for instance, Apple attempted to automate assembly of its since-discontinued 12-inch MacBook, but the production line apparently turned out to be more trouble than it was worth due to various issues:

In early trials, the conveyor systems moved erratically, slowing down the movement of parts. A robot that installed the keyboard using 88 small screws kept malfunctioning, requiring humans to come in afterward and rework most of the process. Containers used for moving parts kept piling up on conveyors, creating traffic jams.

These issues apparently led Apple to delay the launch of the 12-inch MacBook by around six months. The notebook was released in April 2015.

The report concludes that, while Apple has not had much success using robots to assemble its products as a whole, automation can be effective for specific parts. A few years ago, Apple also introduced a robot named Daisy that can take apart up to 200 iPhone devices per hour, removing and sorting components for recycling purposes.

Apple's supply chain partners are already developing OLED displays using LTPO backplane technology for 2021 iPhones, according to DigiTimes.

A paywalled preview of the report reads as follows:

iPhone OLED screens may adopt LTPO backplanes in 2021, say sources
Apple has yet to introduce its 5G iPhones for 2020, but its supply chain is already developing OLED screens using LTPO backplane technology for next year's premium iPhone models, according industry sources.

LTPO technology would result in a more power efficient backplane, which is responsible for turning individual pixels on and off on the display. This could pave the way for longer battery life and/or new features like ProMotion or an always-on display.

While leakers Max Weinbach and Jon Prosser have claimed that ProMotion is a possibility on some 2020 iPhones, display analyst Ross Young believes that LTPO is essential if Apple plans to support ProMotion on the iPhone, as it would allow for a variable refresh as low as 1Hz when the device is inactive in order to optimize battery life.

The full report should be released by tomorrow, so we will update our coverage at that time if there are additional details.

Apple CEO Tim Cook today shared an open letter addressing the death of George Floyd while in police custody last month, referring to the "senseless killing" as "shocking and tragic proof that we must aim far higher than a 'normal' future."

The letter is similar to a memo that Cook shared with Apple employees last week, but it adds a few actions that Apple remains committed to, including pushing progress forward on inclusion and diversity, bringing critical resources and technology to underserved school systems, and fighting environmental injustices like climate change, which Apple says disproportionally affects Black communities and other communities of color.

Apple is also donating to organizations that challenge racial injustice and mass incarceration, including the Equal Justice Initiative.

The open letter is featured on the homepage of Apple's website:

Speaking up on racism

Right now, there is a pain deeply etched in the soul of our nation and in the hearts of millions. To stand together, we must stand up for one another, and recognize the fear, hurt, and outrage rightly provoked by the senseless killing of George Floyd and a much longer history of racism.

That painful past is still present today — not only in the form of violence, but in the everyday experience of deeply rooted discrimination. We see it in our criminal justice system, in the disproportionate toll of disease on Black and Brown communities, in the inequalities in neighborhood services and the educations our children receive.

While our laws have changed, the reality is that their protections are still not universally applied. We've seen progress since the America I grew up in, but it is similarly true that communities of color continue to endure discrimination and trauma.

I have heard from so many that you feel afraid — afraid in your communities, afraid in your daily lives, and, most cruelly of all, afraid in your own skin. We can have no society worth celebrating unless we can guarantee freedom from fear for every person who gives this country their love, labor, and life.

At Apple, our mission has been and always will be to create technology that empowers people to change the world for the better. We've always drawn strength from diversity, welcomed people from every walk of life to our stores around the world, and strived to build an Apple that is inclusive of everyone.

But we must do more. We commit to continuing our work to bring critical resources and technology to underserved school systems. We commit to continuing to fight the forces of environmental injustice — like climate change — which disproportionately harm Black communities and other communities of color. We commit to looking inward and pushing progress forward on inclusion and diversity, so that every great idea can be heard. And we’re donating to organizations including the Equal Justice Initiative, which challenge racial injustice and mass incarceration.

To create change, we have to reexamine our own views and actions in light of a pain that is deeply felt but too often ignored. Issues of human dignity will not abide standing on the sidelines. To the Black community — we see you. You matter and your lives matter.

This is a moment when many people may want nothing more than a return to normalcy, or to a status quo that is only comfortable if we avert our gaze from injustice. As difficult as it may be to admit, that desire is itself a sign of privilege. George Floyd's death is shocking and tragic proof that we must aim far higher than a "normal" future, and build one that lives up to the highest ideals of equality and justice.

In the words of Martin Luther King, "Every society has its protectors of status quo and its fraternities of the indifferent who are notorious for sleeping through revolutions. Today, our very survival depends on our ability to stay awake, to adjust to new ideas, to remain vigilant and to face the challenge of change."

With every breath we take, we must commit to being that change, and to creating a better, more just world for everyone.

A fundraiser has been set up on GoFundMe for George Floyd's six-year-old daughter Gianna Floyd and her mother Roxie Washington.

Google has added a new content highlighting feature to its search engine that aims to make it easier to find key information on webpages, reports SearchEngineLand (via The Verge).

The feature works with Google's Featured Snippets, which appear at the top of search results. Clicking a snippet takes the user to the source webpage, but now the browser automatically scrolls down the page to the text that appeared in the snippet and highlights it in yellow.

Google says the feature has been available with AMP pages since December 2018, but this is the first time Google has rolled it out for regular HTML content, too.

Web developers don't need to do anything to get content highlighting working on their sites, as it's all managed at Google's end and happens automatically, although our tests backed up The Verge's claim that, currently, it doesn't always work.

The search shown in the images at the top of our article worked on desktop in Chrome, but not in Safari or Firefox, for example. They didn't work in the mobile versions of these browsers for us at all.

As noted by SearchEngineLand, the feature could have an impact on the ad market, since visitors may be automatically scrolled down past website ads to the highlighted content. In some instances, sites may need to relocate their ads to align with the new Google feature.

Rumors have suggested Apple is working on a services bundle that will offer multiple Apple services like Apple TV+ and Apple Music for one flat monthly rate, and according to 9to5Mac, code found in iOS 13.5.5 seemingly confirms Apple's bundle plans.

Files in iOS 13.5.5 reference a "bundle offer" and a "bundle subscription," and these files weren't in earlier versions of iOS. The files are said to be related to the "management system of Apple's own services subscriptions like Apple News+."

Apple has been rumored to be working on some kind of services bundle since 2018, and most of the rumors have indicated that the company is mulling including ‌Apple Music‌, ‌Apple TV‌+, and ‌Apple News‌+ in the bundle offering.

Right now, ‌Apple Music‌ is priced at $9.99 per month, ‌Apple TV‌+ is $4.99 per month, and ‌Apple News‌+ is $9.99 per month, so a bundle would presumably offer customers a discount while also enticing them to subscribe to all three of Apple's offerings. ‌Apple News‌+ and ‌Apple TV‌+ are not as popular as ‌Apple Music‌, so a bundle could drive growth.

Since late 2019, Apple has been holding discussions with record labels about creating a media content bundle that would include the ‌Apple Music‌ service. At least one record label has voiced concerns, so it's not clear when Apple might be able to secure the deals that will allow it to offer a bundle. A November report from Bloomberg suggested a services bundle could launch as soon as 2020.

Apple in late 2019 experimented with bundling, providing free access to ‌Apple TV‌+ for students who subscribe to the ‌Apple Music‌ service.

New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority has been working to bring its OMNY contactless fare payment system to all buses and subway stations throughout the city, but the rollout of the system has been delayed due to the ongoing public health crisis, reports The Wall Street Journal.

OMNY tap-and-go fare payments with Apple Pay Express Transit support became available at one of New York City's major transportation hubs, Penn Station, back in December 2019, followed by several more stations in early 2020. The rollout was meant to continue on in March and the following months, but installation of digital readers was stopped in late March.

Installation work resumed at the beginning of May, but the completion of OMNY has been delayed by about two months. It was supposed to be finished by October 2020, but now the full system won't be available until the end of December.

While work on OMNY subway support was paused for a couple of months, the bus rollout of the system was accelerated. The MTA now expects to offer contactless payment support on all Manhattan buses by the end of July, and citywide by the end of the year.

At the current time, Staten Island bus stations and about half of the 472 subway stations in New York support ‌Apple Pay‌ through OMNY.

With the OMNY contactless payment system, riders are able to hold an iPhone or Apple Watch near a contactless reader to pay their fare with no authentication necessary, allowing for speedy passage through public transit hubs.

The New York MTA's goal is to bring contactless payment options to all of its subway stations and bus routes. MetroCards, which predate the OMNY system, will continue to work on subway and bus systems until 2023.

Right now, OMNY is limited to full-fare, pay-per-ride usage. Support for 7-day and 30-day fares won't be available until early 2021.

Google today announced native support for the W3C WebAuthn implementation for Google Accounts on Apple devices running iOS 13.3 and above, which improves the security key experience on iOS and allows more security key types to be used with Google accounts and Google's Advanced Protection Program.

With the change, iOS users are able to use Google's Titan Security Keys with NFC, tapping the key on the back of the iPhone when signing in as a security measure.

Lightning or USB security keys like the YubiKey 5Ci can be used with Google accounts if you have an Apple Lightning to USB Camera Adapter. USB-C security keys can be plugged directly into iOS devices with a USB-C port, such as Apple's iPad Pro models.

Google says that it recommends users install the Smart Lock app to use Bluetooth security keys and the ‌iPhone‌'s built-in security key, as this provides a way for the ‌iPhone‌ to function as additional protection for a Google Account.

Google also recommends that Google users who are at higher risk of targeted attacks utilize security keys and enroll in its Advanced Protection Program, which is the feature that allows for extra account protection with physical security keys.

Using a physical security key provides more protection than two-factor verification because it requires you to have the physical key (or the ‌iPhone‌ Key with the Smart Lock app) to sign in to your Google accounts rather than just a digitally generated code.

U.S. federal judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers this week ruled that a class action lawsuit accusing Apple of fraudulently concealing weakening demand for iPhones between August 2017 and January 2019 can proceed in part, as reported by Reuters.

In January 2019, Apple lowered its revenue guidance to $84 billion for the first quarter of its 2019 fiscal year, down from its original forecast of $89 billion to $93 billion. In a letter to shareholders, Apple CEO Tim Cook said that lower than anticipated iPhone revenue, primarily in Greater China, accounted for the entire revenue shortfall.

On an earnings call in November 2018, a few months earlier, Cook touted the "very successful launch of iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max" and also noted that iPhone demand in China was particularly strong during the fourth quarter of its 2018 fiscal year. Apple made no mention of potential iPhone or China weakness on the horizon.

In her order, however, judge Rogers wrote that "absent some natural disaster or other intervening reason, it is simply implausible that Cook would not have known that iPhone demand in China was falling mere days before cutting production lines," likely referring to a Wall Street Journal report that claimed Apple slashed production orders for the iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, and iPhone XR just days after its earnings call.

"It is also implausible that Cook was unaware of emerging market issues in China despite admitting two months later that the Company observed worrying signs throughout the quarter," added Rogers.

On its November 2018 earnings call, Apple also announced that it would no longer be disclosing iPhone, iPad, and Mac unit sales going forward. Rogers said this decision "plausibly suggests that defendants expected unit sales to decline."

Apple's stock price dropped up to 10 percent in the hours after it lowered its revenue guidance, resulting in losses for shareholders. The complaint is led by the Employees' Retirement System of the State of Rhode Island.

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• Parallels Desktop (1-Year Subscription, $79.99 value) - Run thousands of windows apps without compromising on performance.
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• iMazing 2 ($89.99 value) - Manage and transfer all your iOS data between devices in one app.
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• Disk Drill PRO ($89 value) - Recover accidentally deleted files from your Mac.
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• RapidWeaver 8 ($84.99 value) - Design your own website with zero code.
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• DeltaWalker Pro ($59.95 value) - Compare, edit-in place, and merge text files side by side.
• xMind 8 Pro ($129 value) - Organize your ideas with multiple mind mapping charts in one map.

If you're shopping around for an iMac or MacBook to use these apps, our dedicated guides should be helpful. We track the Best Deals on iMac and Best Deals on MacBook Pro and MacBook Air each week. You can also keep up with all of this week's best discounts on Apple products and related accessories in our dedicated Apple Deals roundup.