MacRumors

Apple has removed Dashboard support from WebKit, not long after it was discovered that the feature has been completely dropped in macOS Catalina, according to a changelog spotted by Japanese blog Mac Otakara.

While this news is not entirely surprising, it eliminates any slim hope that Dashboard might have returned in a future beta of macOS Catalina. The feature has already been disabled by default since OS X Yosemite, but it can still be manually enabled within Mission Control in System Preferences as of macOS Mojave.

Dashboard, first introduced in OS X Tiger in 2005, was effectively a secondary desktop on the Mac that housed a variety of customizable widgets, ranging from sticky notes and the weather forecast to a clock and a calculator. These widgets have relied on Safari's open source WebKit engine for rendering.

Dashboard appears to remain functional in macOS Mojave for now, although it is clearly a legacy feature and some widgets do not work. After over 14 years, the feature is about to ride off into the sunset for good.

With the launch of iOS 13, Apple decided to split iOS 13 for the iPad into its own dedicated operating system called iPadOS. Going forward, iPadOS will be the version of iOS that runs on Apple's ‌iPad‌ devices.

iPadOS includes all of the features of iOS 13, plus some additional tweaks and changes made specifically for a device with a larger display. In our latest video, we went hands-on with iPadOS to check out the new features.

As mentioned above, iPadOS includes almost all of the iOS 13 features, such as Dark Mode, Find My, new app updates, Sign In with Apple, and more.

There are also iPad-specific features, though, such as a new Home screen that features smaller app icons so you can fit more apps on each page. The new Home screen also lets you move the Today view widgets from the left side of the screen onto the Home screen itself so you can see at-a-glance info like weather, upcoming events, news headlines, and more, whenever your ‌iPad‌ is in landscape mode.

Multitasking features specific to the ‌iPad‌ have also been overhauled. Split View now supports multiple windows from the same app, so you can do things like view two Safari pages side by side, and in Slide Over, you can now have multiple Slide Over windows open, flipping between them as needed for quicker swapping between apps.

You can keep all the apps you need to access occasionally stored in Slide Over, dragging upwards on the display to see everything that's open. App Exposé, a new feature available when you press on an app's icon, is designed to show you all of the windows from a particular app.

Apple improved Apple Pencil latency, dropping it from 20ms to 9ms, and Markup is more deeply integrated everywhere in iPadOS. You can tap on the corner of the display with an ‌Apple Pencil‌ to open up Markup, which can be used for webpages, documents, screenshots, emails, and more. A redesigned tool palette offers up quick access to tools and color palettes, and there's a new ruler and a new pixel eraser.

Like iOS 13, iPadOS brings support for external drives to the Files app, along with new folder sharing capabilities. A Column View lets you see previews of your files, and Quick Actions support allows you to do things like mark up and rotate images and create PDFs right from the Files app.

Safari has a new download manager and will always load the desktop version of a site, and there are new gestures that while also available on iPhone, work well on the ‌iPad‌'s larger display. Scrolling through long documents and webpages is faster through a new gesture that lets you grab the scroll bar and drag it, and selecting text can now be done by dragging a finger over it.

Selecting a word can be done with a double tap, selecting a sentence can be done with a triple tap, and a quadruple tap selects a paragraph at once. Double tapping selects elements like phone numbers and email addresses, and you can now pick up the cursor and move it wherever you want. There are new pinch-based gestures for copy and paste, and a new three finger swipe for undoing and redoing.

Both iPadOS and iOS 13 introduce a new swipe-based keyboard called the QuickPath keyboard, but in iPadOS, you can grab the keyboard and move it wherever you want on the display for a floating keyboard that offers one-handed typing access.

Used with macOS Catalina, the ‌iPad‌ can become a second display for your Mac thanks to the new Sidecar functionality, and the ‌iPad‌ now supports both mice and Xbox/PS4 game controllers.

For more detail on iPadOS, make sure to check out our iPadOS roundup.

Google today confirmed that its upcoming Pixel 4 devices will feature a square-shaped rear camera bump, a feature also rumored to be coming to the 2019 iPhones.

A case maker's mockup for the Pixel 4 smartphones leaked earlier this week, and today, Google confirmed the news itself in a tweeted image showing off the new design.

Google's rear camera setup appears to include two lenses, a microphone, a flash, and a "spectral sensor" at the top that accounts for things like light flicker when filming an LCD display.

Apple too is planning to use a square-shaped camera bump for its 2019 devices, based on leaked rumors, renders, and cases. Just this week we checked out some cases designed for the 2019 iPhone lineup that have large square cutouts to accommodate the new camera arrangement.

Apple's square-shaped camera bump is expected to house triple-lens camera setups for the ‌iPhone‌ XS and XS Max successors, along with a dual-lens camera setup for the ‌iPhone‌ XR successor.

Based on leaked information, the three lenses in Apple's camera arrangement are set into a triangle shape. There are two lenses at the left as on the current flagship iPhones, along with one lens in between them set off to the right and a flash above that.

Google's setup, meanwhile, has the two lenses for its camera arranged horizontally with a flash at the bottom. Both of these setups provide more space between the flash and the lenses and there may be other benefits to square-shaped arrangement that both companies are taking advantage of.

Apple is expected to launch its 2019 iPhones in September, while Google's are also rumored to be coming in the fall. Historically, Google's new Pixel phones have come out in October, so while Google has beaten Apple to the punch officially showing off a square-shaped rear camera design first, Apple's 2019 flagship smartphones should launch first.

Apple last week unveiled a new Sign In with Apple option, offering up a convenient, privacy-focused alternative to sign-in options from companies like Google, Facebook, and Twitter.

Apple collects no data and provides little data to the apps and websites you use with the feature, and it even offers an option to keep your email safe. In an interview with The Verge, Google product management director Mark Risher, who oversees Google's secure sign in tool, shared his thoughts on Apple's new feature.

Risher says that Google's own tool is not as data hungry as it was made out to be, and that it's not used for advertising or re-targeting. "There was a bunch of innuendo wrapped around the release that suggested that only one of them is pure and the rest of them are kind of corrupt, and obviously I don't like that," he said.

The only moment logged is the moment of authentication, according to Risher, info that's not distributed anywhere. Risher also suggested Apple's feature is more invasive because it will be logging emails received from companies when the email obscuring feature is used. "We'll see how the details work out," he said.

Risher went on to explain that Google tries to "set a very high bar" but is judged by the "worst behavior" in the Android ecosystem. He said the innuendo from Apple that Google's tool is less privacy focused "was a little annoying" because Google is "trying to really hold [itself] to a high standard."

Ultimately, Risher said that he believes the technology will make people safer.

I honestly do think this technology will be better for the internet and will make people much, much safer. Even if they're clicking our competitors button when they're logging into sites, that's still way better than typing in a bespoke username and password, or more commonly, a recycled username and password.

Risher likened log-in protection offered by Google and Apple to storing money in a bank to alleviate fears people might have about having all of their login data handled by a single company like Apple or Google.

People often push back against the federated model, saying we're putting all our eggs into one basket. It sort of rolls off the tongue, but I think it's the wrong metaphor. A better metaphor might be a bank. There are two ways to store your hundred dollars: you could spread it around the house, putting one dollar in each drawer, and some under your mattress and all of that. Or you could put it in a bank, which is one basket, but it's a basket that is protected by 12-inch thick steel doors. That seems like the better option!

Risher's full interview with is available on The Verge website and is worth checking out, but Google today is also making its own privacy-focused feature announcement for iOS users - the ability to use an Android smartphone as a two-factor verification key for logging into Google accounts.

Starting today, iPhone and iPad users with an Android smartphone can use the Android security key feature to verify their logins to Google accounts from the Android device.

The feature utilizes Google's Smart Lock App as part of a two-step verification system designed to keep Google accounts safer. After the security key feature is added to an Android device, it can be set up to pair with the ‌iPhone‌ to confirm logins over Bluetooth.

While the iPhone XR already has the longest battery life of any iPhone ever, a new supplier-focused report from Korean website The Elec claims that the 2019 version of the device will feature an even larger battery capacity.

The report claims the next ‌iPhone‌ XR will have a 3,110 mAh battery, around 5.7 percent larger than the 2,942 mAh battery in the current model:

China's ATL (Ameperx Technology Limited) has kicked off mass production of batteries for the successor to Apple's iPhone XR forecast to be unveiled later this year, according to those close to the matter on June 9. Battery packaging will be done by another Chinese firm, Huapu Technology.

The new batteries will have a capacity of 3110mAh, which is more than a 5% improvement from the 2942mAh of the iPhone XR.

That means the next ‌iPhone‌ XR's battery would still have slightly less capacity than the 3,174 mAh battery in the current ‌iPhone‌ XS Max, but the latter device consumes more power overall. Moreover, the next-generation ‌iPhone‌ XS Max is expected to gain a larger battery too.

Back in April, reputable analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said that battery capacities for the next iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, and iPhone XR could increase by 20 to 25 percent, 10 to 15 percent, and up to five percent respectively to accomodate the rumored two-way wireless charging feature on all three devices.

Apple is widely expected to unveil its trio of 2019 iPhones in September as usual. The next ‌iPhone‌ XR is expected to be upgraded to a dual-lens rear camera system and is rumored to be available in new green and lavender colors.

Of note, The Elec is not a site with an established track record in relation to Apple rumors. Last month, the website claimed that Samsung is in talks with Apple about supplying OLED displays for a 16-inch MacBook Pro and future iPad Pro models. For now, treat these rumors with at least some skepticism.

Via: PhoneArena

Apple plans to lease a large office complex in Seattle's booming South Lake Union neighborhood, near Amazon, according to multiple commercial real estate sources cited by the Puget Sound Business Journal.

The report claims the two-tower development at 333 Dexter Avenue would give Apple around 630,000 square feet of office space, enough for 4,200 employees using the industry standard of 150 square feet per employee. It is unclear whether Apple has signed the lease yet or if negotiations are still ongoing.

In late 2018, Apple announced plans to establish a new site in Seattle, and it may have been alluding to this office. Apple also plans to expand its Seattle workforce to more than 1,000 employees by 2021, perhaps explaining why data-crunching website Thinknum is seeing an uptick in Siri job openings at the company.

Apple has been steadily growing its presence in Seattle over the past five years. In 2017, Apple confirmed that its Seattle engineering hub is focused on artificial intelligence and machine learning, technologies that power the likes of Siri and advanced facial recognition on the iPhone X and newer.

Last year, Apple reportedly expanded its office space at Two Union Square, a 56-story tower in Downtown Seattle.

Apple's artificial intelligence efforts are led by former Google executive John Giannandrea.

Apple-owned Beats has delayed the launch of its totally wireless Powerbeats Pro headphones in select European and Asian countries.

Powerbeats Pro orders will now begin in July in Austria, Brazil, Belgium, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, the Netherlands, Russia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, and Taiwan, according to fine print on the Beats website. The headphones were initially slated to launch in June in these regions.

As in other countries, the headphones will only be available in black at launch. Ivory, moss, and navy colors will be released later this year.

‌Powerbeats Pro‌ first launched in the United States and Canada in early May, followed by the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Australia, and China. Shipments are already considerably backlogged, with orders placed today on Apple.com estimated for delivery between June 28 and July 8 in the United States.

‌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.

Like the Powerbeats3, the ‌Powerbeats Pro‌ feature adjustable, secure-fit ear hooks and earbud tips with four size options. They're essentially sportier AirPods, complete with a durable design and sweat resistance. They'll last up to nine hours per charge, with more battery life via an included charging case.

‌Powerbeats Pro‌ are priced at $249.95 in the United States and at €249.95 in most European countries, including Italy and Spain.

The postponed launch in Japan was first reported by Japanese blog Mac Otakara.