MacRumors

As discovered in the first beta of iOS 13.4, Apple is working on a new "CarKey" feature that will allow an iPhone or an Apple Watch to unlock, lock, and start NFC-compatible vehicles.

CarKey "keys" live in the Wallet app and as we found in the first beta, can be shared with other people so you can allow others temporary access to your car. In the second beta of iOS 13.4, there's updated wording concerning sharing, which makes it clear that digital car keys will be able to be sent to people using the Messages app.

CarKey keys will be able to be shared with people in individual conversations but not in group conversations. From iOS 13.4 beta 2:

CarKey is not available in group conversations. You can send CarKey in conversations with an individual.

Sharing a CarKey with someone will allow that person to use their ‌iPhone‌ or Apple Watch to access a compatible car by holding the device near an NFC reader located inside of the vehicle. Keys can be permanent (for a spouse) or temporary (for a valet driver or mechanic).

People who receive a digital key over the Messages app will see text letting them know how it works.

[Vehicle Owner] invited you to use their [Vehicle Model] with unlock & drive access. This allows you to use your iPhone and Apple Watch to unlock/lock the car, start the engine and drive.

CarKey access, like Apple Pay and Apple Cash, is authenticated biometrically using Face ID or Touch ID to make sure the person holding the ‌iPhone‌ is the person with permission to access a car, though there is an "Express Mode: that would presumably work without the need for authentication.

Apple will be partnering with vehicle manufacturers for CarKey, which indicates that it may be a factory installed option much like CarPlay. CarKey requires a vehicle with NFC, so it is something that vehicle manufacturers will need to implement as ‌CarPlay‌ was.

Apple is a member of the Car Connectivity Consortium (CCC), which has developed an NFC-based Digital Key 2.0 specification made available at the end of 2019. The new specification establishes a secure connection between mobile devices and vehicles over NFC.

The CCC is also working on a Digital Key 3.0 specification based on Bluetooth Le and Ultra Wideband, enabling passive location-aware keyless access. Apple's ‌iPhone‌ 11, 11 Pro, and 11 Pro Max support Ultra Wideband, so this is CarKey functionality we could see in the future.

There is no word yet on when CarKey will be announced by Apple or when it will start rolling out to new vehicles, but a launch could come with the public release of iOS 13.4.

With Apple rumored to be holding an event on March 31, the CarKey announcement could be made at the event as we expect iOS 13.4's release to coincide with the debut of new devices.

With the first beta of iOS 13.4, Apple introduced a redesigned Mail toolbar that moves the reply icon away from the delete icon, a design that people had complained about since the release of iOS 13 because it made it easy to accidentally delete an email by tapping the wrong button.

The first beta featured the delete button on the far left, the reply button on the far right, and folder and flag buttons in the middle, but with the second beta that was released this morning, Apple has once again tweaked the design.

As seen in the image above, the new toolbar features a compose icon on the far right, a reply button next to it, a folder icon, and then the delete icon, still on the far left.

The updated design eliminates the dedicated flag icon, which is presumably not a feature that most people use on a regular basis. The inclusion of a compose button makes more sense and offers more utility than the prior flag icon. For those who do often use the flag icon, it can be accessed after tapping the reply button.

We may see more tweaks to the Mail toolbar in upcoming betas, but this at least seems like a much more logical design that should satisfy people who have been unhappy with the iOS 13 Mail app toolbar.

A video featuring an alleged "iPhone 9" aka "‌iPhone‌ SE 2" or low-cost ‌iPhone‌ surfaced on TikTok today, sparking discussion that this is the design of the affordable $399 device that Apple will release in the next couple of months.

The ‌iPhone‌ in the image features thick top and bottom bezels, a Touch ID Home button, and a seafoam green color, but notably, it also has an ‌iPhone‌ 4-style design, which is not at all in line with current rumors.

Everything we've heard about the low-cost ‌iPhone‌ suggests it's going to be physically identical to the ‌iPhone‌ 8 but with an upgraded A13 processor, which makes sense given its price tag.

Rumors suggest Apple is going to price the device at $399, and at that price point, it's unlikely Apple is putting development resources into an entirely new device design like the one that's depicted here.

The ‌iPhone‌ in the image is likely a modified ‌iPhone‌ 8 or similar that has a custom casing installed. There are custom casings like this available for those who want to change the design of their older iPhones, and that's what we're probably seeing.

As mentioned before, we're expecting the new low-cost ‌iPhone‌ to look identical to the ‌iPhone‌ 8, but with upgraded internals. It will be similar to the ‌iPhone‌ SE, which adopted Apple's ‌iPhone‌ 5 design with more modern components.

Rumors suggest that the new low-cost ‌iPhone‌ is going to launch in the first half of 2020, with Apple said to be planning an event for March 31. If there is indeed a March 31 event where the new ‌iPhone‌ is shown off, we can expect a launch to follow on April 3.

Update Feb 20: Forum member primarycolors has discovered an aftermarket casing for an ‌iPhone‌ 8 that appears to match the one seen in the video.

Apple today seeded the second betas of upcoming iOS and iPadOS 13.4 updates to developers, two weeks after the release of the first betas and two weeks after the release of iOS and iPadOS 13.3.1.

iOS and ‌‌iPadOS‌‌ 13.4 can be downloaded from the Apple Developer center or over the air once the proper developer profile has been installed. On the iPhone 11, 11 Pro, and 11 Pro Max, Apple requires the beta to be installed over the air using the configuration profile.

iOS and iPadOS 13.4 are major updates, bringing several major new features to the ‌iPhone‌ and the iPad. There's a new toolbar in the Mail app that's available when viewing an email, featuring a more logical design to address complaints about the Mail layout in iOS 13.

The update design moves the reply icon away from the delete icon, making it much harder to accidentally delete an email, and it re-adds Folder and Flag icons.

iCloud Folder Sharing, designed to let users share folders in iCloud Drive with other people, is available as of iOS 13.4. ‌iCloud‌ Folder Sharing was first announced at WWDC last year, but it has taken Apple several months to implement it. The feature shows real-time updates so file changes will sync across the devices of all people with access to a specific folder.

There are nine new Memoji and Animoji stickers included in the update, featuring emoji-style poses like shocked face, face with hearts, eyes rolling, and more.

There are hints of a new CarKey API in iOS 13.4, which would allow the ‌iPhone‌ to be used to lock, unlock, and start a car that has NFC capabilities. This functionality hasn't been announced by Apple as of yet, but it will ‌iPhone‌ owners to use their devices in lieu of a car key. Sharing features will also be available for assigning keys to friends and family members.

Though not an iOS specific feature, Apple with iOS 13.4, macOS 10.15.4, tvOS 13.4, and Xcode 11.4 is allowing developers to create apps with universal purchase support, which means Apple device users will be able to purchase one app that works across multiple platforms.

There are new controls for calls and third-party navigation apps in CarPlay, along with keyboard shortcuts for the Photos app, changes to location requests for apps requesting user location, a new Shazam Shortcuts action, options for remapping hardware keys of a keyboard connected to the ‌iPad‌, and more.

For a full list of all the new features that have been found in iOS and iPadOS 13.4 so far, make sure to check out our dedicated what's new article.

Qualcomm this week introduced the Snapdragon X60, its third-generation 5G modem for mobile devices. The company says the first 5G smartphones featuring the X60 are expected to launch early next year.

Built on a 5nm process, the X60 packs higher power efficiency into a smaller footprint compared to its 7nm-based predecessor, the Snapdragon X55. In the context of an iPhone, this could allow for longer battery life and more room inside the device for a larger battery or additional components.

Smartphones with the X60 will also be able to aggregate data from both mmWave and sub-6GHz bands simultaneously to achieve an optimal combination of high-speed and low-latency network coverage.

Multiple reports have indicated that Apple plans to use the Snapdragon X55 in its first 5G iPhone models, widely expected to be released later this year. The new X60 modem would be suitable for 2021 iPhones, but beyond that, it has been reported that Apple is developing its own modem for use in iPhones by 2022 or 2023.

Following beta testing, Microsoft today released its new Office app for iPhone, bringing together Word, Excel, and PowerPoint in a single app.

The main benefit of the unified Office app is that it requires only a single download with a much smaller file size, but it does have a few unique features, including camera integration for easily converting photos of documents and tables into Word and Excel files. The app also has a new Actions pane that supports a number of common tasks like signing PDFs and scanning QR codes.

Microsoft explains some of the benefits of the new Office app in a blog post:

The Office app delivers several key benefits including:

- Combining Word, Excel, and PowerPoint in a way that simplifies the experience with fewer apps to download or switch between. It requires far less phone storage than installing individual apps while maintaining virtually all the capabilities of the existing mobile apps people already know and use.

- Integrating our Lens technology to unlock the power of the camera with capabilities like converting images into editable Word and Excel documents, scanning PDFs, and capturing whiteboards with automatic digital enhancements to make the content easier to read.

- Adding new functionality for common tasks people often encounter when working on a phone—things like making quick notes, signing PDFs, scanning QR codes, and transferring files between devices.

The new Microsoft Office app is available on the App Store for the iPhone and on the Google Play Store for Android. Microsoft says the app will be optimized to support the iPad soon. The app is free to use, even without signing in, but an Office 365 subscription starting at $6.99 per month is required to unlock premium features.

Microsoft's standalone Word, Excel, and PowerPoint apps remain available and were recently updated with a simplified three-tab layout.

(Thanks, Michaël!)

Adobe is celebrating the 30th anniversary of Photoshop today with several updates to the app across the Mac and iPad.

A key new feature on the Mac is support for Dark Mode on macOS Mojave and later. Photoshop already has a dark user interface on the Mac, but now system dialogs like the File menu will also be dark based on the systemwide appearance selected in System Preferences > General.

The desktop app has also received Content-Aware Fill improvements. Now, you can make multiple selections and apply multiple fills without leaving the workspace. You can use the new "apply" button to iterate your fills before committing, and click "OK" only when you are finished, according to Adobe.

Adobe says it has also improved the output quality and performance of Lens Blur on the desktop, and made performance improvements, claiming that clicking interactions like panning and zooming are smoother and more responsive.

On the iPad, the headline new feature is the Object Selection tool, which can automatically find the object within a selected area for you based on Adobe Sensei machine learning.

Adobe explains:

The Object Selection tool is designed to give you speed, but also more control over the selection process on more complex images. For example, it is the right tool if you have images with multiple objects, or when selecting a part of an object, or if you want this part but not that part, or need to isolate more than one object in an image. With the Object Selection tool, you draw a rectangular region or even a crude lasso around the area you want to select, and the tool automatically finds and selects the primary objects inside the defined region.

Photoshop for iPad is available on the App Store.

Apple has updated its website to indicate that it will reopen 10 more stores across China, following closures due to the coronavirus outbreak that originated in Wuhan.

The stores, listed below, will reopen on February 19 for limited business hours of 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., or 12 a.m. to 6 p.m. local time until further notice, as noted by iMore.

Chengdu

• Apple Chengdu Vientiane City
• Apple Chengdu Taikoo Li

Dalian

• Apple Dalian Han Lung Plaza
• Apple Centennial City

Guangzhou

• Apple Pearl River New City
• Apple Sky Plaza

Quingdao

• Apple Quingdao Vientiane City (pictured)

Shanghai

• Apple Hong Kong Plaza
• Apple Nanjing East Road
• Apple Pudong

Apple reopened all five of its retail stores in the Beijing area on February 14, operating on similar limited hours.

Apple has yet to announce reopening dates for its other stores in mainland China, which remain listed as closed on its website due to the viral outbreak. Apple began working toward re-opening its corporate offices and contact centers in the country last week.

Reports suggest ongoing delays from the coronavirus outbreak in China will likely impact iPhone production, in particular its upcoming low-cost iPhone, and inventories of existing models could remain low until April or longer.

The coronavirus has infected more than 75,000 people, and there have been at least 1,870 deaths, primarily in China.