MacRumors

Following yesterday's report on Apple's new 16-inch MacBook Pro which could be announced as soon as Wednesday, Bloomberg journalist Mark Gurman this morning shared some additional details about the upcoming machine via Twitter.

According to Gurman, the display on the new ‌MacBook Pro‌ is less than four percent larger than the current 15.4-inch ‌MacBook Pro‌, suggesting to him that "it's really going to be about the higher resolution" rather than a significant material increase in screen real estate.

Gurman offers no clues as to the exact resolution, but reliable IHS Markit analyst Jeff Lin claimed in June that the 16-inch ‌MacBook Pro‌ would feature an LCD panel with a resolution of 3,072×1,920 pixels supplied by LG Display. For comparison, the 15-inch ‌‌MacBook Pro‌‌ has a resolution of 2,880×1,800 pixels.

In addition, Gurman says the new 16-inch ‌MacBook Pro‌ will have "impressive speakers" and "noise cancelling microphones," which sounds like a reference to an improved ambient noise reduction feature enabling users to capture less background noise when using the built-in microphones, thereby improving dictation and FaceTime calls.

Otherwise, Gurman reiterates Apple's focus on providing users with a more reliable keyboard that uses a new scissor switch mechanism, which is "similar to the iMac external Magic Keyboard."

The new 16-inch machine, which will be the largest laptop Apple has offered for sale since the 17-inch ‌‌MacBook Pro‌‌ was discontinued, will replace the current 15-inch model and "cost about the same," Gurman revealed on Tuesday. The 15-inch ‌‌MacBook Pro‌ starts at $2,399.

Apple is said to have been holding private press briefings at its luxury loft mansion in New York City this week, likely providing media sites with review units for first impressions. Apple will surely announce the new 16-inch ‌‌MacBook Pro‌‌ via press release, as there are no more Apple events expected this year.

Apple's new high-end modular Mac Pro is set to be released in December, according to a new report from Bloomberg.

The launch timing of the ‌Mac Pro‌ was shared in a report on the new 16-inch MacBook Pro, which is set to come out as soon as tomorrow.

Apple unveiled the new 2019 ‌Mac Pro‌ in June at its Worldwide Developers Conference, but since then has not provided any details on its prospective release date.

A December launch would be in line with the launch of the 2013 ‌Mac Pro‌, which came out on December 18, and the 2017 iMac Pro, which came out on December 14.

The new ‌Mac Pro‌ is designed for Apple's pro user base with a heavy focus on upgradeability and expansion. It features a traditional PC shape, but with an Apple-esque stainless steel frame with a lattice pattern that maximizes airflow.

The ‌Mac Pro‌ uses workstation-class Xeon processors with up to 28 cores, and it supports up to 1.5TB of high-performance memory. Pricing on the new ‌Mac Pro‌ will start at $6,000.

Alongside the ‌Mac Pro‌, Apple will likely launch the Pro Display XDR, which is a 32-inch 6K display with a resolution of 6016 x 3384 and more than 20 million pixels. Pricing on the Pro Display XDR will start at $5,000.

While Bloomberg has disclosed a December launch month for the ‌Mac Pro‌, there's still no word on a specific date. Given past launch timelines, it could come on either the week of the 9th or the week of the 16th.

Apple's upcoming 16-inch MacBook Pro is set to replace the current 15-inch ‌MacBook Pro‌, which is priced starting at $2,399, according to a new report from Bloomberg.

The new 16-inch machine, which will be the largest laptop Apple has offered for sale since the 17-inch ‌MacBook Pro‌ was discontinued, will "cost about the same" as the current 15-inch model.

Prior reports suggested the 16-inch ‌MacBook Pro‌ would be sold alongside the 15-inch model as a higher-end, more expensive option, but it sounds like it won't be quite as pricey as first expected.

The new ‌MacBook Pro‌ is said to feature a revamped keyboard that's designed to be "more reliable," and previous rumors have indicated that it will abandon the butterfly switch mechanism Apple has been using for a new scissor switch mechanism.

The display of the upcoming machine will be brighter, and Bloomberg suggests it will appeal to video and photo editors, gamers, and software developers.

As for launch timing, Bloomberg believes that the new ‌MacBook Pro‌ will come out as soon as Wednesday, with the Mac Pro to then follow at some point in December.

Apple this week has been holding private press briefings at its luxury loft mansion in New York City, likely providing media sites with review units for first impressions. Apple will announce the new 16-inch ‌MacBook Pro‌ via press release, as there are no more Apple events expected this year.

Apple in late October released a new 13.2 software update for the HomePod with a bunch of new features, but it turned out the update was bricking some HomePods.

Apple addressed the bug in an updated 13.2.1 software release a couple days later, making the new functionality available without the risk of ruining a ‌HomePod‌. In our newest YouTube video, we go over all of the new ‌HomePod‌ features for MacRumors readers who may have been put off by the bug reports.

Multi-User Support and Voice Detection

With the new update, ‌HomePod‌ can distinguish between different users in the household, introducing multi-user support for the first time.

Siri is able to tell who is speaking, allowing each person in the home to access their own selection of music, playlists, radio stations, and preferences.

Setting up multi-user support requires a device running iOS 13.2 or later, and you need to invite your family members to be a member in the Home app. From there, open the Home app, choose Home Settings, tap on your user profile under people, and then turn on the "Recognize My Voice" option.

Apple has more info on setup in a dedicated support document.

Handoff Support

If you're listening to a song on your iPhone and want to transfer it over to your ‌HomePod‌, you can do so with iOS 13.2.1's new Handoff feature.

To use Handoff, have a song playing on the ‌iPhone‌ and then bring it over to the top of the ‌HomePod‌. The audio playing on the ‌iPhone‌ will swap over to the ‌HomePod‌, pausing audio on the ‌iPhone‌. You'll get a notification letting you know about the transfer of content, and while this feature is still a bit buggy, it's useful.

Handoff works with the Apple Music app, podcasts, phone calls, and more. If you don't want to use the feature, you can turn it off in the Settings app by going to General > AirPlay > Handoff and toggling off "Transfer to ‌HomePod‌."

Adding Music to HomeKit Scenes

When creating or editing a HomeKit scene, you can now add songs from your ‌Apple Music‌ Library. You can, for example, create a "Good Morning" or "Relax" scene that does things like change the lighting and start a song playing on ‌HomePod‌.

Just select the "‌HomePod‌" option when creating a scene under the list of accessories. From there, choose the "Play Audio" option and then select "Choose Audio" to select a song.

Ambient Sounds

The 13.2.1 update also introduces a neat new feature called Ambient Sounds, which is designed to let you ask Siri to play relaxing sounds like rain, white noise, and more.

There are seven different options that you can choose from:

• Rain
• Stream
• White Noise
• Fireplace
• Forest
• Night
• Ocean

To use Ambient Sounds, just ask ‌Siri‌. Asking ‌Siri‌ to play Ambient Sounds will select a random sound, but you can also ask for a specific sound with a command like "Hey ‌Siri‌, play rain sounds."

Setting a Sleep Timer

Ambient Sounds can be set up with a sleep timer so that the noise automatically turns off after a set period of time. When an Ambient Sound is playing, ask ‌Siri‌ to set a sleep timer for a set amount of time.

"Hey ‌Siri‌, set a sleep timer for 45 minutes," for example, will play the ambient noises for 45 minutes before the ‌HomePod‌ turns off.

If you don't want to listen to Ambient Sounds, this also works with any music that happens to be playing.

Downloading the Update

Downloading the new ‌HomePod‌ software can be done by opening up the Home app, selecting "Home Settings" after tapping the house icon in the upper left corner, and choosing the "Software Update" option. If the "Install Updates Automatically" feature is turned on, your ‌HomePod‌ has likely already updated to 13.2.1.

Walmart this week announced a new partnership with Apple, which allows the Walmart Voice Order feature to be used with Siri.

With this option, Apple users can ask ‌Siri‌ to add items to their Walmart Online Grocery Cart through a new ‌Siri‌ Shortcut. After pairing an account, customers can create a shopping cart by saying "Add to Walmart" and then naming the product they want to purchase.

Once finished shopping, customers can place the order with the Walmart app and then Walmart personal shoppers will gather the items. Customers can have their orders delivered or pick them up at a local Walmart store. Items can be added to the Walmart cart on iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Mac, HomePod, and CarPlay.

According to Walmart, the more customers use the feature, the better the experience will be. The app is designed to quickly and accurately identify desired items based on purchase history.

For example, if a customer says, "add orange juice to my cart," we'll make sure to add the specific orange juice the customer buys regularly. Instead of saying "Great Value organic orange juice with no pulp," they'll simply say: "orange juice" and we'll add the right one.

The voice ordering feature is aimed at letting customers add to a list of items over time as they realize what they need for a weekly shopping trip. Walmart customers interested in using the feature can go to the Walmart Grocery App and choose the "Voice Shopping" option on their account page.

Minecraft Earth, Microsoft's new augmented reality Minecraft game, is now available on iOS and Android devices in the United States.

Microsoft has been testing Minecraft Earth in other countries like the UK, Australia, Canada, Iceland, Mexico, New Zealand, Philippines, Sweden and South Korea, but now it is also available in an early access capacity in the U.S.

Minecraft Earth is designed to let users access a tabletop mode that displays Minecraft creations in the real world at life size, bringing Minecraft designs to life.

Gamers will be able to add a buildplate. creating an interactive Minecraft diorama. Tappables, which unlock in-game materials, will be able to be found in the real world, such as on a walk, and resources can be used for crafting and smelting. There are also monsters to encounter and other discoveries to make.

Multiple players can team up with one another to create structures together, and in adventure mode, there's an option to battle against hostile mobs to survive.

The app can be downloaded for free from the App Store, though it is a freemium title and "Minecoins" can be purchased in app.

The iOS 13.3 update that is currently available to developers and public beta testers has a new Safari feature that supports NFC, USB, and Lightning FIDO2-compliant security keys.

This option was activated in the first beta of iOS 13.3, but in the second developer beta, Apple has added details about it in the release notes.

Now supports NFC, USB, and Lightning FIDO2-compliant security keys in Safari, SFSafariViewController, and ASWebAuthenticationSession using the WebAuthn standard, on devices with the necessary hardware capabilities.

With the iOS 13.3 update, Safari will support physical security keys like the Lightning-equipped YubiKey, which can be used for more secure two-factor authentication.

Yubico announced the YubiKey 5Ci back in August, but at the time of launch, it was of limited usefulness because it did not work with Safari, Chrome, or other major browsers, though it was compatible with apps like 1Password.

With Safari support, the YubiKey 5Ci is a legitimately useful tool that can be more convenient than software-based two-factor authentication because there's no need to enter a security code -- you simply plug it in to an iPhone or Mac (there's also a USB-C connector) to authenticate. Support for FIDO2-compliant USB security keys using WebAuthn was previously added to Safari 13 in macOS.

Other NFC, USB, and Lightning-based security keys will also work with Safari following the iOS 13.3 update. There's no word yet on when iOS 13.3 will be released, but we may see it sometime in December after a few more weeks of beta testing.

The Facebook for iOS app appears to be accessing the iPhone or iPad's camera in the background when the app is in use, according to multiple reports on Twitter.

When scrolling through the Facebook timeline, several users saw the camera activated in the background, as demonstrated in the tweets below.

One Facebook user found it through an interface bug that shows a small sliver of the display when looking at a photo, while another found it when rotating a device.

Both The Next Web and CNET were able to reproduce the issue and confirmed that the camera is activated in the background when using Facebook on iOS. The issue appears to impact iPhones running iOS 13, including the newest release version of iOS 13, iOS 13.2.2. Devices running iOS 12 do not appear to be impacted.

Facebook vice president of integrity Guy Rosen this morning said that it "sounds like a bug" and that Facebook is looking into it, but Facebook has not officially commented on the issue.

Security researcher Will Strafach told TechCrunch that it appears to be a "harmless but creepy looking bug."

For the Facebook app to access the camera in the background, camera and microphone access must be enabled in the Settings app. Those concerned about the bug can disable Facebook's access to these features on the ‌iPhone‌ and the ‌iPad‌, or delete the Facebook app.

Apple today seeded the second betas of upcoming iOS and iPadOS 13.3 updates to developers, one week after seeding the first beta and two weeks after the release of iOS 13.2 with new emoji, Siri privacy controls, Deep Fusion, and more.

iOS and ‌‌iPadOS‌‌ 13.3 can be downloaded through the Apple Developer Center or over the air after the proper developer profile has been installed.

iOS 13.3 introduces Communication Limits for Screen Time, a feature that Apple promised would be coming in an iOS 13 update. Communication Limits allow parents to control who their children are able to contact both during downtime and during Screen Time.

Communication Limits include FaceTime, Phone, and Messages, along with iCloud contacts. Calls to emergency numbers are always allowed and will turn off communication limits for 24 hours when placed.

The iOS 13.3 update also appears to address a multitasking issue where iOS 13.2 users were seeing poor RAM management that caused apps like YouTube and Safari to reload more frequently than normal.

After installing iOS 13.3, affected users are now seeing fewer refreshes when accessing these apps, doing another task, and then opening them again.

In the Keyboards section of the Settings app (under General), there's a new toggle that prevents Animoji and Memoji stickers from being displayed as an option on the Emoji Keyboard, and when editing a video, there's an option to save the edited version as a new clip rather than saving over the original.

Apple has also tweaked the Apple Watch app icon, changing the color of the Digital Crown from black to gray.

Apple plans to announce its widely rumored 16-inch MacBook Pro this week, according to a tweet from Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.

In another tweet, Gurman suggested the announcement will be made by Wednesday. The news would likely be shared in the form of a press release on the Apple Newsroom and would also likely coincide with early hands-on impressions of the 16-inch MacBook Pro from select media outlets and YouTube channels.

9to5Mac recently reported that Apple appears to be holding private press briefings of some kind at its luxury loft mansion in New York City this week, likely to facilitate those 16-inch MacBook Pro first impressions. Multiple out-of-town tech reporters have tweeted that they are in or headed to New York City over the last few days.

Rumors suggest the 16-inch MacBook Pro will feature slimmer bezels around the display, a more reliable scissor switch keyboard, a standalone Touch ID sensor, and possibly a much-requested physical Esc key. Pricing is unknown, but would likely be higher than the $2,799 high-end 15-inch MacBook Pro.

For what it's worth, 15-inch MacBook Pro models with AMD Radeon Pro Vega graphics options became available to order on the Wednesday of this week a year ago, along with a (PRODUCT)RED version of the Apple Watch Sport Loop. Apple also launched its annual holiday gift guide on the same day.

After rampant rumors, supply chain clues, and leaked imagery from macOS Catalina, the 16-inch MacBook Pro might be 24 hours or less away.