MacRumors

Apple this week released a new ad for the Powerbeats Pro, which launched in May in the United States in Canada. The new commercial spotlights the accessory by showing how seven runners from the Paris Running Club joined a 280km relay in Iceland.

Called the "Zero Dark Project," the ad explains how each runner used the ‌Powerbeats Pro‌ to stay motivated through music during the lengthy relay race.

In the wilderness of Iceland, 7 runners from Paris Running Club undertook a relay like no other. Fueled by the new Powerbeats Pro, with up to 9 hours of listening time (24 hours with charging case), they faced a daunting 280km to chase a sun that wouldn’t set for days. A daring challenge that changed their lives forever. This is the Zero Dark Project.

‌Powerbeats Pro‌ are Apple's first totally wireless Beats earphones, equipped with the same H1 chip as the second-generation AirPods for hands-free "Hey Siri" and faster connection speeds between the iPhone, Apple Watch, and other devices.

The ‌Powerbeats Pro‌ feature adjustable, secure-fit ear hooks and earbud tips with four size options. ‌Powerbeats Pro‌ are priced at $249.95 in the United States and $329.95 in Canada. As of now you can only get the accessory in Black, while Ivory, Moss, and Navy colors will be available later this year.

Best Buy has introduced its Black Friday in July sale this week, beginning with early access for My Best Buy members and expanding wide tomorrow. The sale includes Apple products like the Apple Watch Series 3 and 4, iPad, MacBook Pro, and more.

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with these vendors. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

Apple Watch

In the sale, there are a number of Apple Watch models being discounted, including two of the Series 3 devices. You can get the 42mm Nike+ Series 3 (GPS + Cellular) in Space Gray Aluminum for $309, down from $409. That same discount is also available for the 42mm Series 3 (GPS + Cellular) in Silver Aluminum.

There are also quite a few newer Series 4 models on sale today, all of which have been discounted by $50. Prices start at $349 for the 40mm Aluminum models and $379 for the 44mm Aluminum models, and raise from there. You can also save on some Stainless Steel models, starting at $699 for 44mm models.

MacBook Air (Late 2018)

Both Best Buy and Amazon have new sales on the MacBook Air from late 2018 going on this week.

• 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD - $949.99, down from $1,199.00 [Amazon / Best Buy]
• 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD - $1,099.00, down from $1,399.00 [Amazon / Best Buy]

MacBook Pro

Best Buy has a few current low prices on a selection of older model MacBook Pros, many of which are currently only available for My Best Buy members.

• Mid 2017, 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD - $1,099.99, down from $1,299.00 [Amazon / Best Buy]
• Mid 2018, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD - $1,449.99, down from $1,799.99 [Best Buy]
• Mid 2018, 8GB RAM, 512GB SSD - $1,599.99, down from $1,999.99 [Best Buy]
• Mid 2018, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD - $1,999.99, down from $2,399.99 [Best Buy]
• Mid 2018, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD - $2,299.99, down from $2,799.99 [Best Buy]

iPad

Best Buy has a few sales on the 2018 9.7-inch iPad, but Amazon is beating Best Buy's prices nearly across the board.

• Wi-Fi, 32GB - $249.00, down from $329.00 [Amazon]
• Wi-Fi, 128GB - $329.99, down from $429.99 [Best Buy]
• Cellular, 32GB - $379.00, down from $459.00 [Amazon] (Lowest Ever)
• Cellular, 128GB - $429.99, down from $559.00 [Amazon] (Lowest Ever)

Miscellaneous

• iTunes Gift Cards - $50 gift cards for $40
• Beats Solo3 Wireless Headphones - $159.99, down from $179.99
• Belkin - Save $10 on select accessories
• Hyperdrive - Save $30 on select USB-C Hubs
• Insignia - Save 50 percent on select portable chargers

Visit our full Deals Roundup to shop more sales and bargains happening right now.

Apple started underlining its privacy stance earlier this year with a billboard marketing campaign that began in Las Vegas and later came to Canada, and this week the company has extended it to Europe.

Brought to our attention by Macerkopf.de, the new billboards in both Hamburg and Berlin play on their location, while emphasizing how much importance Apple attaches to user privacy and data protection.

Draped across the Port of Hamburg is a long banner-style poster with a picture of an iPhone and an accompanying slogan which translates into English as "The gate to the world. Not to your information."

Elsewhere in Hamburg, an ‌iPhone‌ billboard on the side of a property reads, "Reveals as little about Hamburgers as Hamburgers."

Meanwhile, in Berlin, a tower block billboard with the same recognizable ‌iPhone‌ image runs with the phrase, "Welcome to the safe sector."

All of the posters in Germany round out with the slogan, "Privacy. This is ‌iPhone‌."

Apple's Las Vegas billboard, which was put up ahead of CES 2019, played on the well-known tourism saying: "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas." The sign read, "What happens on your ‌iPhone‌, stays on your ‌iPhone‌."

Apple has long said it believes privacy is a "fundamental human right," and as part of that, it aims to minimize its collection of customer data and disassociate it from an individual user when it does. The tech company also has a dedicated privacy website.

Apple Music has invited DJ Khaled to be its first "Artist-in-Residence," Khaled announced today on his Instagram account (via Billboard).

Khaled says that as Artist-in-Residence, he will be taking over "the biggest playlists on the platform" every month while also debuting new artists.

Khaled called on record labels and artists to "hit him up" to collaborate, and he announced his first takeover playlist: Office DJ. Next month, Khaled says that he plans to debut a "Gymflow playlist vibe."

Any workplace could use a little pick-me-up. And few people are better at elevating heart rates and boosting productivity than DJ Khaled, Apple Music's first-ever artist in residence. He's staging a corporate takeover with this exclusive, handpicked playlist, serving up new and old classics from hip-hop, R&B, reggae, and pop--Khaled's areas of expertise--specifically designed to carry everyone from opening bell through end-of-day air horn.

Khaled's playlists are available for free to ‌Apple Music‌ subscribers.

Costco recently updated its iOS app to add a Digital Membership Card for the first time, allowing customers to enter the store and make purchases without the need to have a physical card.

Costco has long had an iOS app, but the app did not include support for adding a digital version of the Costco membership card, instead requiring customers to present their actual cards for purchases.

According to a Reddit thread from May, Costco began testing the new Digital Membership Card in October with employees, and announced its upcoming rollout in the spring.

To use the Digital Membership Card, Costco customers can download the Costco app and sign into their Costco.com accounts to verify their membership. Once that's done, the Digital Membership Card is available through the new "Membership" tab in the app.

Along with offering a QR code that can be scanned at Costco, the Membership section of the app allows Executive Members to view their two percent reward balance and renew their memberships online.

The Costco Digital Membership app can't be added to the Apple Wallet app at this time unfortunately, but because Costco does accept Apple Pay, the addition of the Digital Membership Card to the Costco app allows customers to shop with just a smartphone. The Digital Card can be used to verify membership, while ‌Apple Pay‌ can be used for purchases.

(Thanks, Errin!)

Apple has doubled down on its privacy features in iOS 13, giving iPhone and iPad users a more granular view of how apps access their location information.

On Apple devices, the location services that apps can tap into use GPS, Bluetooth, and crowd-sourced Wi-Fi hotspot and cellular mast locations to determine your approximate location. The good news is that iOS 13 makes you more aware of how often apps are tracking you, as well as their motivation for doing so, and importantly it makes sure you're in control of your data.

If an app grabs your location data, iOS may display a popup notification showing you a map with the data that the app has tracked, as well as the specific reason why the app is tracking you, along with the question "Do you want to continue allowing this?"

Armed with this information, you'll usually be given three options: Allow While Using App, Allow Once, and Don't Allow. The first option limits the app's access to your location data to when the app is actively being used, the second allows it to track your location just this once, while the third disables location tracking completely.

You can expect to see the "Just Once" option appear when you first launch a just-installed app. Otherwise, you can check out how apps on your device are using location services anytime you like by opening the Settings app and tapping through to Privacy -> Location Services.

From here, you can change each app's permissions (Never / Ask Next Time /While Using the App / Always) and you'll also learn the reason why an app wants to access your location, allowing you to enable or disable location services on an ad-hoc basis.

The options you choose will depend on the app in question – some apps may have just cause to track your whereabouts in the background, while others may not. The point is Apple wants you to be in control of this behavior, so you can expect similar periodic notifications about what an app is up to with your location information.

7-Eleven has announced that it will offer a free pair of second-generation AirPods with a wired charging case to the first 500 customers who place a $50 order through its 7NOW delivery app for iOS and Android on Thursday, July 25.

7NOW app users will receive a push notification revealing when the flash deal begins, and it will also be announced on 7-Eleven's social media accounts, according to 7-Eleven's website. The first 500 eligible customers who place an order totaling at least $50 before sales tax will qualify for free AirPods.

AirPods will be available on a first-come, first-served basis while supplies last, so placing a $50+ order does not guarantee that you will receive a free pair. The offer is limited to U.S. residents who are at least 18 years of age.

Winners will receive an e-mail from 7-Eleven within 72 hours to claim their AirPods. Delivery is estimated to take 4-6 weeks. Here are the full rules.

7NOW delivery is only available in select markets.

(Thanks, Jason!)

OpenTable, a popular online platform for making restaurant reservations, today announced that it has partnered with Caviar, Grubhub, and Uber Eats to offer delivery and pick-up options at thousands of restaurants.

When searching for a restaurant or visiting a restaurant profile page in the OpenTable app, users will now see a "get it delivered" button, which will direct them to the restaurant's preferred delivery partner to complete the transaction. For restaurants with multiple delivery partners, OpenTable will list each option.

OpenTable says the delivery feature will be available starting today as part of an update to its iOS app, free on the App Store.

Lockdown, a new app launching today, is designed to be an open source firewall, letting users block any connection to any domain, including those that use ad tracking services and analytics platforms to monitor device usage.

Lockdown is free to download and use, and because it operates on device, it collects no user data. Lockdown uses Apple's VPN setup to function, though it is not a VPN and will not obscure your own IP address.

Using Lockdown, you can block any domain, including those from companies like Facebook, and the app comes with a pre-set list of recommended domains to block to prevent tracking. Facebook tracking and other analytics tracking options from companies like Google, Mixpanel, and more are automatically blocked upon installing the app, and you can add your own custom lists too.

In addition to preventing unwanted tracking, the Lockdown app promises faster browsing speeds because unwanted connections are blocked, saving loading time.

Lockdown comes from the team behind Duet Display, and in the future, the app will offer a paid option that includes VPN functionality. Lockdown's developers are hoping that the launch of the app will incentivize developers to use more privacy-focused analytics frameworks and app discovery methods that rely less on trackers from major companies like Google and Facebook.

Lockdown can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]

Tennessee State University last week launched the HBCU C2 Presidential Academy, a new initiative that's designed to expose students of color to coding and app development, reports The Tennessean.

The HBCU C2 Presidential Academy invited students from 14 historically black colleges and universities to learn from Apple. The program is designed to make sure that TSU and other HBCUs remain at the forefront of technology.

"The goal is to make sure HBCUs are not only up to date, but are creators and innovators of this new technology," said Robbie Melton, TSU's interim Dean of Graduates and Professional Studies and the initiative's main facilitator.

"Coding and app development is a growing part of the global workforce, and we want to help make sure people of color, especially our students, are equipped with the knowledge and skills to be competitive, and successful," said TSU President Glenda Glover.

Apple CEO Tim Cook this morning tweeted about the initiative, where students learned Swift using Apple's coding curriculum and were asked to think of applications that can better the community. Apple provided equipment, scholarships, and professional development services to TSU students as part of the effort.

"Students of all backgrounds should have the opportunity to learn to code," said Jackson. "We are proud to be part of a sustainable community network that is increasing access to teaching and learning."

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