MacRumors

Apple today unveiled second-generation AirPods with a new H1 chip that enables hands-free Siri and up to an extra hour of talk time, and there are a handful of details worth mentioning surrounding the announcement.

• The new AirPods require iOS 12.2, watchOS 5.2, or macOS 10.14.4 and later, which are all currently in beta testing. With the new AirPods arriving to customers early next week, this means the software updates should be publicly released on or around March 25 event day.
  

• Apple removed an image of its ‌AirPower‌ wireless charging mat from its AirPods page today. However, many sources believe the AirPower is coming soon. Apple announced new iPads on Monday, new iMacs on Tuesday, and new AirPods on Wednesday, so it is possible the ‌AirPower‌ could follow on Thursday or Friday, but no reliable rumors have indicated that will be the case.
  

• Apple has discontinued the original AirPods. The new lineup includes the second-generation AirPods paired with either a wired charging case for $159 or with a wireless charging case for $199. The wireless case is also sold separately for $79 and is compatible with the original AirPods.
  

• According to Mark Gurman, these AirPods were initially planned to go on sale last year. As he has previously reported, Gurman says Apple is working on a subsequent pair of AirPods with noise cancellation and water resistance that were originally planned for release later this year, but he now speculates that they could arrive in 2020.
  

• MacRumors received a tip earlier this month claiming that Apple would announce new iPads, iMacs, and iPods on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of this week, and while most of this information proved to be accurate, new AirPods ended up arriving on Wednesday instead of a new iPod touch. Multiple sources still expect a new iPod touch, but announcement timing is unclear.

For more details about the new AirPods, read our earlier coverage of the announcement.

Alongside the second generation of AirPods, Apple today refreshed its iPhone case and Apple Watch band lineup for spring. In Silicone cases for iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max you can now choose from Spearmint, Papaya, and Delft Blue.

The iPhone XS Smart Battery Case is now available in a Pink Sand color option, after first launching in just White and Black.

iPhone XS Leather Cases are gaining Cornflower, Sunset, and Lilac. The same colors can be found for iPhone XS Max Leather Cases, iPhone XS Leather Folio, and iPhone XS Max Leather Folio.

Apple Watch Sport Bands are also matching the new iPhone case colors in Spearmint, Delft Blue, and Papaya. You can get these in 40mm or 44mm to fit all previous generations of Apple Watch and Apple Watch Series 4.

In Sport Loop there is Papaya, Cerulean, Spearmint, and Lilac as well. Just like Sport Bands, these are available in both 40mm and 44mm sizes.

The Nike Sport Band lineup also updated with Black/Hyper Grape, Spruce Fog/Vintage Lichen, and Teal Tint/Tropical Twist. These bands are made with the same fluoroelastomer as Apple's Sport Bands.

There are also new Nike Sport Loop bands, in Spruce Fog, Teal Tint, Hyper Grape, Summer White, and Black.

New Modern Buckle colors include Cornflower, Lilac, and Sunset. These join new Leather Loop colors in Cornflower and Sunset as well.

Lastly, new Hermès options include Rose Sakura/Craie/Argile Swift Leather Double Tour, Bleu Lin/Craie/Bleu du Nord Swift Leather Double Tour, and Etoupe Swift Leather Double Tour. Single Tour bands get the same new colorways.

Head to Apple.com to purchase the cases and bands, and check out our post on the second generation of AirPods for more information on Apple's latest wireless headphones.

Apple today in a press release introduced new second-generation AirPods powered by an Apple-designed H1 chip that enables hands-free "Hey Siri" functionality and up to 50 percent more talk time compared to the original AirPods.

Apple says the H1 chip in the new AirPods makes switching between the iPhone, Apple Watch, iPad, or Mac up to two times faster, and enables up to a 1.5x faster connection time for phone calls and up to 30 percent lower gaming latency.

Hands-free ‌Siri‌ allows AirPods users to say "Hey ‌Siri‌" to change songs, make phone calls, adjust the volume, get directions, and more.

The new AirPods get up to three hours of talk time per charge, compared to up to two hours with the previous generation. Other battery life figures remain the same, with up to five hours of listening time per charge and more than 24 hours of total battery life from extra charges stored in the case.

The new AirPods have the same outward design as the original and remain available in white only.

The new AirPods are available to order on Apple.com and in the Apple Store app starting today with a wired charging case for $159, the same price as the original AirPods, and with a wireless charging case for $199. Both options will be available at Apple Stores and select resellers starting next week.

The wireless charging case is also available individually for $79 for use with both the first-generation and second-generation AirPods. An LED light indicator located on the front of the case shows the charge status at a glance.

Apple also announced that free engraving is now available on any AirPods charging case for orders placed on Apple.com and in the ‌Apple Store‌ app.

After first confirming its plan to acquire certain parts of 21st Century Fox in December 2017, today The Walt Disney Company has officially closed its $71.3 billion acquisition of Fox (via The Hollywood Reporter). The deal had to go through various regulatory and antitrust reviews, and Disney saw a bit of competition with Comcast for Fox's assets throughout 2018.

Now, Disney owns 20th Century Fox Film and Television studios, the FX stable of networks, National Geographic, and the Fox-related cable and international TV businesses, like India's Star India. The acquisition has also made Disney the majority owner of Hulu thanks to Fox's 30 percent stake in the streaming service, combined with Disney's existing 30 percent stake. Disney is said to also be looking into acquiring WarnerMedia's 10 percent Hulu stake, but will leave the service as it is and focus mainly on its upcoming Disney+ platform instead of altering Hulu.

For Disney+, the company now has a huge back catalog of Fox films and TV shows to bolster its not-yet-released streaming service, and potentially entice more customers to join. It's already been confirmed that Disney+ will host "the entire Disney motion picture library," signaling the end of the Disney Vault in the process and allowing subscribers to stream any Disney film they desire.

There will also be new original TV shows and films based on Disney properties, like The Mandalorian set in the Star Wars universe, and a Marvel show focused on Tom Hiddleston's Loki. Disney plans for the service to be family-friendly and educational, with shows based on Monsters, Inc. and documentaries about Walt Disney Imagineering. This content will now be combined with Disney-owned Fox properties, including films from the X-Men and Avatar franchises, and many more.

The impact of the acquisition is expected to lead to between 4,000 and 10,000 layoffs. What's leftover of the new Fox Corporation will now focus on news and sports in the United States more so than entertainment programming, including the Fox broadcast network, TV stations, the Fox News channels, and Fox Sports, none of which Disney acquired.

Disney's interest in Fox started with its bid to acquire a large portion of Fox's assets for $52.4 billion in stock in late 2017. Comcast entered with its own $65 billion cash offer for Fox's assets, leading to Disney's increased $71.3 billion cash and stock bid in June 2018. At the time that it bowed out of the running for Fox, Comcast CEO Brian L. Roberts congratulated Disney and its CEO Bob Iger and commended the Murdoch family and Fox "for creating such a desirable and respected company."

With the acquisition, Disney+ is also becoming a big competitor to current and future streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, and Apple's own TV service, which is set to be unveiled next week. Apple's platform is taking the Disney+ approach, with many original TV shows and films produced by Apple that will be mixed in with purchased content from third parties. We don't know yet how much Apple's service will cost or what shows will be available at launch, but we should get more details in just a few days, as the company's "It's Show Time" event kicks off on Monday, March 25 at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time.

Cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Lab has filed an antitrust complaint against Apple with the Russian Federal Antimonopoly Service relating to the company's App Store distribution policy. The action comes less than a week after Spotify filed its own complaint against Apple with EU antitrust regulators over the tech giant's "unfair" ‌App Store‌ practices.

Kaspersky's complaint is specifically to do with Apple's removal of the Kaspersky Safe Kids app. In a blog post on the Kaspersky website, the firm says it received notice from Apple last year that the app, which had been in the ‌App Store‌ for three years, did not meet ‌App Store‌ guidelines owing to the use of configuration profiles.

Kaspersky was told by Apple that it would need to remove these profiles for the app to pass review and remain in the ‌App Store‌, but the Russian firm had argued this action essentially crippled the app. "For us, that would mean removing two key features from Kaspersky Safe Kids: app control and Safari browser blocking."

The first allows parents to specify which apps kids can't run based on the ‌App Store‌'s age restrictions, while the second allows the hiding of all browsers on the device so that web pages can only be accessed in the Kaspersky Safe Kids app's built-in secure browser.

Kaspersky argues that the change in Apple's policy regarding parental control apps coincided with the release of iOS 12 and Apple's own Screen Time feature, which lets users monitor the amount of time they spend using certain apps and websites, and set time restrictions. Kaspersky calls it "essentially Apple's own app for parental control," and claims that's why Apple changed its tune on the firm's Safe Kids app and other apps like it.

From our point of view, Apple appears to be using its position as platform owner and supervisor of the sole channel for delivering apps to users of the platform to dictate terms and prevent other developers from operating on equal terms with it. As a result of the new rules, developers of parental control apps may lose some of their users and experience financial impact. Most important, however, it is the users who will suffer as they miss out on some critical security features. The market for parental control apps will head toward a monopoly and, consequently, stagnation.

Kaspersky says it wants to continue its "winning relationship with Apple," but on "a more equal footing," and hopes that its application to the Russian Federal Antimonopoly Service will "benefit the market at large" and require Apple to "provide competitive terms to third-party developers."

Kaspersky's dispute has parallels with the antitrust complaint brought against Apple by Spotify last week. The music streaming service filed the complaint with the European Commission, accusing the iPhone maker of enforcing ‌App Store‌ rules that "purposely limit choice and stifle innovation at the expense of the user experience" and "acting as both a player and referee to deliberately disadvantage other app developers."

Apple responded to the complaint two days later, labeling it "misleading rhetoric" and arguing that "Spotify wants all the benefits of a free app without being free." A day later, Spotify fired back, claiming "every monopolist will suggest they have done nothing wrong" and that, consequently, Apple's response was "entirely in line" with its expectations.

As we reported this morning, Apple today cut the prices of higher-end MacBook Pro SSD upgrades by up to $400, and as it turns out, there have been pricing changes to components in other Mac machines as well.

For the MacBook Air, released in 2018, upgrading to a 1.5TB SSD on either base model is now $100 cheaper, with the SSD upgrade pricing options listed below.

Entry-level MacBook Air SSD options:

• 256GB SSD - +$200 (No change)
• 512GB SSD - +$400 (No change)
• 1.5TB SSD - +$1,100 ($100 off)

Higher-end MacBook Air SSD options:

• 512GB SSD - +$200 (No change)
• 1.5TB SSD - +$900 ($100 off)

Apple has also dropped the price of the 2TB SSD upgrade option in the Mac mini by $200, with the new SSD upgrade pricing options listed below.

Entry-level Mac mini SSD options:

• 256GB SSD - +$200 (No change)
• 512GB SSD - +$400 (No change)
• 1TB SSD - +$800 (No change)
• 2TB SSD - +$1,400 ($200 off)

Higher-end Mac mini SSD options

• 512GB SSD - +$200 (No change)
• 1TB SSD - +$600 (No change)
• 2TB SSD - +$1,200 ($200 off)

Apple has also quietly dropped the price of the 64GB RAM upgrade in the Mac Pro, which is the 2013 model that has not seen an update in many years.

Prior to today's update, upgrading the base ‌Mac Pro‌ configurations from 16GB RAM to 64GB Ram cost $1,200, but Apple has dropped the price by $400. It now costs $800 to upgrade from 16GB RAM to 64GB RAM. Upgrading to 32GB RAM continues to cost $400 over the base 16GB option.

Apple's long-awaited AirPower could be launching in the near future, based on coding changes that 9to5Mac's Guilherme Rambo says he found in the latest iOS 12.2 beta, released yesterday morning.

There have been "significant changes" to the wireless charging code in the beta update, including "code responsible for identifying that two devices are charging on the same mat," which could indicate that Apple is planning an ‌AirPower‌ launch soon.

Apple's ‌AirPower‌ charging mat will be able to charge an iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPods (with a new wireless charging case) all at once. The ‌AirPower‌ charging mat was first announced in 2017 alongside the ‌iPhone‌ X, but has seen production difficulties that led to multiple delays.

In the iOS 12.2 beta specifically, there are changes to the 3D animations that are displayed on the largest of the charging devices to let you know charging levels.

Apple has been silent on the ‌AirPower‌ ever since announcing it, but there have been continual signs that the Cupertino company is still working on it, including multiple recent rumors that a launch is happening in the spring.

Apple on Monday introduced a new iPad Air and an iPad mini 5, and today introduced refreshed iMacs, suggesting it is perhaps aiming to roll out all of its spring hardware updates ahead of its services-focused event on March 25.

Ahead of when the iPads and iMacs launched, we heard from a source that suggested Apple would debut new products on Monday through Wednesday, with a new iPod touch set to be announced tomorrow. We haven't heard word of an ‌AirPower‌ launch or an AirPods launch with new wireless charging case, but that doesn't mean it's not going to happen.

There's a chance we will see ‌AirPower‌ and AirPods this week, but if not, it certainly seems like we're at least a bit closer to a debut.

A new Sports Illustrated article offers a look inside Apple's so-called sports surveillance room at its Results Way office complex in Cupertino, California, where a team of Apple employees have been monitoring sports events for newsworthy and unpredictable moments for almost a year now.

The report says the team manages the sports subsection in Apple's TV app and its Apple TV interface, highlighting what's available around the clock and sending notifications about exciting moments like a playoff game reaching triple overtime.

Apple's services chief Eddy Cue reflected on the company's broader goal of curating sports, using retired NBA superstar Kobe Bryant's 81-point performance in an otherwise unremarkable Los Angeles Lakers vs. Toronto Raptors game in the 2006 NBA playoffs as an example of a sports moment worth highlighting.

"It was amazing to watch, but the vast majority even of Lakers fans didn't see it," said Cue. "As a fan, I've always looked at it as an opportunity."

For now, though, Apple doesn't appear to have any larger ambitions with sports. Asked how much he thinks about competing against Facebook and Amazon, both of which have experimented with airing live sports games on their platforms with exclusive rights, Cue responded "not a lot, honestly."

From the report:

"That's not to say we would never do sports, because who the heck knows," he said. "Never is a long time, but I don't think that's a problem right now." Sports rights are deeply fragmented, with different owners split by platform and region. "You really can't own all the rights, so therefore at some point you need to solve some other problems," Cue said. "You can't design for owning the rights because if that's the only thing you're doing you're always going to be tiny."

In other words, don't expect Apple to have its own sports broadcasts in its widely expected streaming video service, although it could provide sports content from partnered networks.

Read the full Sports Illustrated article for a deeper dive into Apple's sports content efforts.

Alongside a refresh of the iMac and new Radeon Pro Vega graphics options for the ‌iMac‌ Pro, Apple today quietly lowered the price of some of the storage upgrade options for the MacBook Pro.

2TB and 4TB SSD upgrade options for 13 and 15-inch machines are now more affordable, with Apple dropping prices as much as $400.

Upgrading to 2TB of storage on the 13 and 15-inch MacBook Pro models is now $200 cheaper, while upgrading to 4TB on the 15-inch MacBook Pro is $400 cheaper.

SSD upgrade pricing for the MacBook Pro models is below:

Entry level 15-inch MacBook Pro:

• 512GB SSD - +$200 (No change)
• 1TB SSD - +$600 (No change)
• 2TB SSD - +$1,200 ($200 off)
• 4TB SSD - +$3,000 ($400 off)

Higher-end 15-inch MacBook Pro:

• 1TB SSD - +$400 (No change)
• 2TB SSD - +$1,000 ($200 off)
• 4TB SSD - +$2,800 ($400 off)

Entry level 13-inch MacBook Pro:

• 512GB SSD - +$200 (No change)
• 1TB SSD - +$600 (No change)
• 2TB SSD - +$1,200 ($200 off)

Higher-end 13-inch MacBook Pro:

• 1TB SSD - +$400 (No change)
• 2TB SSD - +$1,000 ($200 off)

It's not unusual for Apple to adjust storage prices for its products, especially at the higher end, as prices fluctuate and come down over time after a machine has been released. Apple has changed storage prices for various Macs multiple times over the years.

Apple's MacBook Pro models are not designed to have the SSD upgraded after purchase as the storage is soldered to the motherboard, so the price drop is nice to see for those who want to purchase more storage to futureproof their machines.

With less than one week to go until Apple's "It's Show Time" media event, the company is said to still be courting major news companies to join its revamped Apple News subscription service (via Business Insider). The debut of this service is expected to occur alongside the big focus of the event, Apple's streaming TV service.

During Apple's meetings with news publishers, the company is reportedly pointing to Apple Music to showcase evidence of its previous subscription success and convince partners to join. One source said that the company is pitching itself as a savior to the publishing industry, but some publishing executives have said that Apple's logic is flawed.

"Based on our experiences with Apple Music, we're very good at running a subscription business," said one publishing exec, describing how Apple pitched the service. "We know how to build a subscription business, and we're going to do that for news."

But the critics say that comparison is flawed. Music, along with entertainment, is inherently different from news. A lot of news articles are interchangeable in a way that music artists or movies aren't. Plus, most people don't want 100 magazines; they just want the ones they're already fans of.

The revamped ‌Apple News‌ service is rumored to use Apple's acquisition of Texture to combine subscriptions to magazine and news sites for one monthly fee. But, one digital publishing executive went so far as to say that "no one wants an all-you-can-eat magazine service." The executive, whose company won't be participating with Apple in its new enterprise, went on to say that "magazines are passion points, whereas music, you do want a library."

Apple is said to still be courting major newspapers, but The New York Times and The Washington Post have yet to join according to sources. Some publications do see a benefit to Apple's service, however, and are working on deals to join, like The Wall Street Journal.

In general, publishers also have many questions that Apple has yet to answer, a sentiment that seems to be a running theme for the March 25 event, as the exact same concern was raised by Hollywood insiders partnering with Apple's streaming TV service. For the news side, publishers wonder about how much reader data they will see, brand visibility, loss of direct subscribers in favor of the ‌Apple News‌ bundle, if the service will have a presence on Android, and more.

The reveal of the ‌Apple News‌ and streaming TV services isn't too far away now, as Apple's "It's Show Time" event will kick off at 10:00 am Pacific Time on Monday, March 25.

Apple may have plans to announce a new seventh-generation iPod touch in a press release as early as tomorrow.

MacRumors received a tip earlier this month claiming that Apple would announce new iPads, iMacs, and iPods on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of this week, and so far this information has proved to be accurate with the arrival of new iPad Air and iPad mini models on Monday and an iMac refresh today. Naturally, we now expect Apple to introduce a new iPod touch tomorrow.

If accurate, this week's series of hardware announcements suggest that Apple may be clearing its docket to primarily focus on its widely expected news and video services at its March 25 event at Steve Jobs Theater.

Last month, oft-reliable analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said he expects a new iPod touch with an upgraded processor to launch in 2019, while developer Steve Troughton-Smith uncovered references to a new iPod touch model in iOS 12.2 code back in January, so there is evidence to suggest a refresh is upcoming.

The iPod touch is certainly due for an update. The current model was released back in July 2015 with a 4-inch Retina display, A8 chip, 8-megapixel rear camera, and a home button sans Touch ID. To ensure the iPod touch remains capable enough to receive iOS updates for at least a few more years, an upgrade to an A10 Fusion or A11 Bionic chip would be appropriate.

Beyond that, it is unclear if the new iPod touch would have many new features, as the device has become a niche product used mostly by children and some developers as an affordable testing device. All other iPods were discontinued in 2017.

The current iPod touch remains available in six colors with 32GB and 128GB of storage for $199 and $299 respectively.

The Verge has obtained never-before-seen photos of a development board for the original iPhone, providing an interesting look back at the measures Apple took to ensure the smartphone remained as much of a secret as possible.

The large circuit board contains nearly all of the original ‌iPhone‌'s components, including its processor, memory, storage, 30-pin dock connector, camera, home button, SIM card slot, and antennas for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. There are also some non-iPhone parts such as two Mini-USB connectors for accessing the baseband.

While this particular Engineering Validation Test (EVT) prototype has an ‌iPhone‌ display attached, the report notes that some boards were even supplied without the screen, meaning that many Apple engineers working on the original ‌iPhone‌ back in 2006-2007 had no idea what the handset would eventually look like.

The Verge's Tom Warren:

If an engineer inside Apple received a development board like this without a screen, component video and RCA connectors on the side of the board could be used to connect it to a display. Engineers could also test headphone connectivity, thanks to stereo line out ports on the side. Even the iPhone's main camera is mounted on the board for testing, and there's a giant space left to test the battery. If engineers didn't have a battery connected, a DC connector at the top can be used for external power. Apple also left room for what is marked as "prox flex" for proximity sensor testing.

Nowadays, Apple uses security shields for ‌iPhone‌ prototypes, but this early board is a fascinating look back at Apple's secrecy leading up to Steve Jobs' famous introduction of the ‌iPhone‌. The full article is a worthwhile read.

Alongside a spec bump to standard iMac models, Apple today quietly added 256GB RAM and Radeon Pro Vega 64X graphics options to the iMac Pro.

Upgrading to 256GB of 2,666MHz DDR4 ECC memory will set you back a steep $5,200, more than the $4,999 price of the base ‌iMac‌ Pro itself. Radeon Pro Vega 64X graphics can be added for $700. Both are configure-to-order options.

Apple has also lowered the prices of some existing ‌iMac‌ Pro upgrade options. As examples, 64GB of RAM dropped from $800 to $400, 128GB of RAM dropped from $2,400 to $2,000, Radeon Vega Pro 64 graphics dropped from $600 to $550, and 4TB SSD storage dropped from $2,800 to $2,400 in the United States.

A maxed out ‌iMac‌ Pro now runs $15,699.

(Thanks, Mark Little!)