MacRumors

Apple in iOS 13 made changes to the way location tracking permissions work, and there's no longer an option for apps to ask to "Always Allow" location tracking.

Instead, Apple allows users to select "Allow While Using the App," "Allow Once," or "Don't Allow," which some app creators have taken offense to. The leaders of seven companies that make apps for iOS devices banded together to write an email to Apple CEO Tim Cook to speak out about the changes, with the details shared by The Information.

The companies that wrote to Cook are upset that there's no longer a readily available "Always Allow" option. Users can still turn on "Always Allow" in the Privacy section of the Settings app, but it's not available by default and requires additional steps.

As an example, Zenly, a location tracking app owned by Snap, needs to have location tracking on permanently to function. Since there's no option to turn on "Always Allow," Zenly has to have a clunky secondary display screen that instructs users to open up the Privacy settings on their iPhones to change the location setting. This makes consumers more aware of apps that are tracking them continually, but it is an extra step that app developers must contend with.

According to the companies who wrote to Cook, the changes could potentially lead users to think their apps are broken unless they're "savvy enough" tweak Privacy settings. These are the companies whose leaders wrote to Cook about the privacy changes:

• Tile - Makes tracking devices for wallets, keys, and other objects.
• Arity - A company owned by Allstate that developers technology for measuring driver risk.
• Life360 - An app for sharing location with family and friends.
• Zenly - A location sharing app owned by Snap.
• Zendrive - A company that makes driver assessment apps.
• Twenty - A social networking app for finding friends nearby.
• Happn - A dating app.

The app creators suggested Apple create a two-step process that would let users grant apps access to locations as a solution, but it's not clear if Apple has plans to implement changes.

The companies were also concerned about changes Apple is making to a VoIP feature designed to let apps run in the background to listen for calls, but that was being abused for other tracking purposes. Apple doesn't plan to let developers use Apple's PushKit API for anything beyond voice calls in iOS 13.

While the companies admit that apps used this feature for tracking user location and for gathering data, they claim the change will hurt important app features. As an example, Life360 reportedly uses the feature to access a user's location to dispatch emergency services when a customer is involved in a car accident.

The email ends by pointing out that Apple's own apps do not need to get user permission to access user location, such as for Find My, which is built into the iPhone as a way to keep track of iOS and macOS devices.

"Like you, we are committed to ensuring that privacy is a top priority, but are concerned that the current implementation will create user confusion that actually undermines this goal," the e-mail to Cook reads. "The changes also have the added effect of removing critical geolocation functionality while simultaneously not applying to Apple's own apps, some of which compete with the products we develop."

In response to questions about the email, an Apple spokesperson told The Information that Apple's goal is to make the App Store a safe, trusted source for apps and to give its users the best products and ecosystem in the world.

We take responsibility for ensuring that apps are held to a high standard for privacy, security and content because nothing is more important than maintaining the trust of our users. Users trust Apple--and that trust is critical to how we operate a fair, competitive store for developer app distribution. Any changes we make to hardware, software or system level apps is in service to the user, their privacy and providing them the best products and ecosystem in the world.

In addition, Apple said that it is working with some of the companies that signed the email to find alternative methods for features that are being obsoleted, such as background tracking for purposes other than voice calls.

Apple also says that while system apps like ‌Find My‌ don't need to make location tracking requests from users, some Apple apps distributed through the ‌App Store‌ will abide by Apple's processes for requesting user permission to access location information. The full report with additional details can be read over at The Information.

Along with many new features for the iPhone and the iPad, iOS 13 brings updates to CarPlay, overhauling the interface for the first time in years and adding useful new functionality.

In our latest YouTube video, we went hands-on with ‌CarPlay‌ in iOS 13 to give MacRumors readers an idea of what's new with Apple's in-car platform.

‌CarPlay‌ in iOS 13 has a redesigned and revamped Home screen with new table views, rounded corners, and an updated Home button that swaps between a dashboard icon and an app row icon depending on what app you're using.

The new tile-like user interface displays the Maps app, Shortcuts, Siri suggestions, Music Now Playing interface, and upcoming Calendar events all at a glance, which is convenient. Tapping on any of the tiles opens up the relevant app. You can, of course, still access the standard icon list from previous versions of ‌CarPlay‌ with a swipe.

In the new Calendar app, you can see all of your upcoming events for the day, which is useful for when you get in the car in the morning. If a calendar event has a location associated with it, you can tap on the event and get directions to where you need to go.

Maps has an updated look and feel, and it takes advantage of all of the features in iOS 13. In supported areas, there's better detail for roads, buildings, parks, and more, and you can use the Favorites and Collections features to route to saved locations. It's also easier to find points of interest along your current route in Maps.

‌Siri‌ in Maps uses more natural language, which is a great update. As an example, instead of hearing "Turn right in 1,000 feet," ‌Siri‌ might instead say "turn right at the next traffic light."

Updates to the Music app make it easier to navigate through your music library, playlists, radio stations, and more, so you can find just what you want to hear with little effort. The Now Playing UI has also been updated with album art throughout the entire ‌CarPlay‌ interface, which is an improvement over ‌CarPlay‌ in iOS 12.

There's ‌Siri‌ support for third-party navigation apps, so you can ask ‌Siri‌ to do something like route you home using the Waze app instead of Apple Maps. In the future, ‌Siri‌ support could also come to music apps like Spotify in ‌CarPlay‌ thanks to new SiriKit APIs. You're also now able to use "Hey ‌Siri‌" across all vehicles for easier ‌Siri‌ activation.

For those with HomeKit products like garage door openers, there's a handy ‌Siri‌ suggestions feature that does things like bring up an icon to open up your garage when you approach home. There are multiple ‌Siri‌ suggestions like this that are going to vary based on your ‌CarPlay‌ usage, but it's definitely a neat and useful addition.

‌CarPlay‌ has a Settings app in iOS 13, so you can adjust Do Not Disturb While Driving, turn ‌Siri‌ on and off, turn off album art, and switch the appearance between the default dark mode and a new lighter user interface.

Also new to ‌CarPlay‌ is support for using ‌CarPlay‌ and your ‌iPhone‌ at the same time. In earlier versions of ‌CarPlay‌, if you had Maps up but wanted to do something like change the music on your phone, it would kick you out of Maps on ‌CarPlay‌. That's not the case anymore, so now you can have Maps up while doing other things on your ‌iPhone‌.

All in all, iOS 13 brings some much needed changes to the ‌CarPlay‌ experience, and it should be a welcome update for ‌CarPlay‌ users. Know of an iOS 13 ‌CarPlay‌ feature that we left out? Let us know in the comments.

Japan Display will supply OLED displays for new Apple Watch Series 5 models slated to launch in the second half of 2019, according to the latest prediction from well-known analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.

In a research note with TF International Securities shared with Chinese media outlets today, Kuo forecasted that Japan Display will gradually increase its proportion of OLED display orders for the Apple Watch, starting with 15-20 percent of orders in 2019 and reaching 70-80 percent in 2021.

Kuo believes that Apple will also gradually increase the proportion of LG's supply of OLED displays for iPhones, and tap Chinese manufacturer BOE as an additional supplier, in a bid to diversify its supply chain.

Apple Watch Series 5 models will likely be unveiled next month alongside a trio of new iPhones. This would hardly be a surprise, as Series 1 through Series 4 models all launched in September, but specific rumors about Series 5 models have actually been relatively quiet, so this is nice reassurance.

For example, Kuo previously said a "new ceramic casing design" would be "added" to the Apple Watch lineup, but he did not explicitly mention Series 5 models. Reuters also reported that Japan Display would begin supplying OLED displays for the Apple Watch, but likewise did not specify Series 5 models.

Looking farther ahead, rumors suggest that Apple Watch Series 6 models will adopt MicroLED displays in 2020.

Apple today filed a lawsuit against Corellium, a mobile device virtualization company that supports iOS. Corellium describes itself as the "first and only platform" that offers iOS, Android, and Linux virtualization on ARM.

In the lawsuit, filed today in the Southern District of Florida, Apple accuses Corellium of copyright infringement for illegally replicating the operating system and applications that run on the iPhone and the iPad.

Corellium's business is based entirely on commercializing the illegal replication of the copyrighted operating system and applications that run on Apple's iPhone, iPad, and other Apple devices. The product Corellium offers is a "virtual" version of Apple mobile hardware products, accessible to anyone with a web browser.

Specifically, Corellium serves up what it touts as a perfect digital facsimile of a broad range of Apple's market-leading devices--recreating with fastidious attention to detail not just the way the operating system and applications appear visually to bona fide purchasers, but also the underlying computer code. Corellium does so with no license or permission from Apple.

According to Apple, Corellium's iOS virtualization product infringes on Apple's copyrights. "Corellium has simply copied everything: the code, the graphical user interface, the icons -- all of it, in exacting detail," reads the lawsuit.

Corellium's product creates digital replicas of iOS, iTunes, and user interface elements available on a web-based platform or a custom platform built by Corellium. It is designed to create virtual iOS devices for the purpose of running iOS, and at the recent Black Hat USA conference, Corellium emphasized that its "Apple product" is an exact copy of iOS, able to allow researchers and hackers to find and test vulnerabilities.

Apple goes on to say that though Corellium poses its product as a research tool for those aiming to discover security vulnerabilities, the company's actual goal is "profiting off its blatant infringement" by encouraging users to sell discovered information on the open market to the highest bidder.

Apple says it does not want to encumber "good-faith security research" but instead is aiming to end Corellium's "unlawful commercialization of Apple's valuable copyrighted works."

On information and belief, Corellium makes no effort whatsoever to confine use of its product to good-faith research and testing of iOS. Nor does Corellium require its users to disclose any software bugs they find to Apple, so that Apple may correct them. Instead, Corellium is selling a product for profit, using unauthorized copies of Apple's proprietary software, that it avowedly intends to be used for any purpose, without limitation, including for the sale of software exploits on the open market.

Apple is seeking a permanent injunction to prevent Corellium from continuing to offer a product that replicates iOS. Apple also wants Corellium to destroy all infringing materials that it's collected, and pay Apple damages, lost profits, and attorney fees.

Apple is directly or indirectly responsible for creating a total of 2.4 million jobs in the United States, the company announced today.

Apple says that this is four times the number of American jobs that were attributable to the company compared to eight years ago, and that it is on pace to directly contribute $350 billion to the U.S. economy as announced last year.

That 2.4 million figure includes Apple's own employees and those at U.S. companies that create components for Apple devices or otherwise work at Apple, such as battery testing company Maccor and modem company Broadcom, which has a manufacturing facility in Colorado.

Apple also works with Texas company Finisar, and since getting $390 million as part of Apple's Advanced Manufacturing Fund, Finisar is on track to fill 500 full-time positions. Finisar will soon begin shipping the VCSELs used to power Face ID. According to Apple, it spent a collective $60 billion across 9,000 American companies in 2018.

The App Store, says Apple, is responsible for 1.9 million American jobs, up by 325,000 over the course of the last 2.5 years.

Several states saw double-digit growth during that period, including a 43 percent increase in North Carolina, representing almost 15,000 new jobs, and a 50 percent increase in Florida, which added almost 30,000 new jobs. Pennsylvania saw a 64 percent increase in growth, going from 40,800 jobs in 2016 to more than 67,000 today.

Apple itself currently employs 90,000 employees across 50 states and is on track to create 20,000 new jobs across the U.S. by 2023 with new campuses in Seattle and San Diego.

Apple today released the seventh beta of iOS 13, and an image hidden within the update suggest Apple is going to hold an event to show off new iPhones on Tuesday, September 10.

An iOS 13 screenshot in the beta, covertly named "HoldForRelease," features the Calendar app with the date set to Tuesday the 10th.

The screenshot was originally found by iHelpBR, and the site points out that a similar screenshot was found last year ahead of the September 12 iPhone event with a September 12 date.

September 10 is a very likely date for the ‌iPhone‌ event based on the dates of past ‌iPhone‌ events, and we would be surprised were it not held on that date. Almost all ‌iPhone‌ events in recent history have been held during the second week of September, and generally on Tuesdays.

Last year's Wednesday, September 12 event was an anomaly because September 11 fell on a Tuesday and Apple prefers Tuesday or Wednesday to Monday in order to give members of the media time to travel.

We've also heard the September 10 date bandied about from multiple sources that have contacted us. All three new iPhones are expected to debut at the event and see a release shortly after. Last year, the ‌iPhone‌ XS and XS Max were released in September ahead of the ‌iPhone‌ XR, which came in October.

With the ‌iPhone‌ event likely to be held on September 10, pre-orders for the new devices could take place on September 13 with a launch to follow on September 20. Apple often releases iOS updates two days ahead of when new iPhones become available, so iOS 13 could be released on September 18.

In an annual test comparing Google Assistant, Siri, and Alexa on smartphones, Loup Ventures' Gene Munster found that ‌Siri‌ was able to correctly answer 83 percent of questions, beating Alexa but trailing behind Google Assistant.

Munster asked each digital assistant 800 questions during the test to compare how each one responded. Alexa answered 79.8 percent of questions correctly, while Google Assistant answered 92.9 percent of questions correctly.

Compared to last year, ‌Siri‌ has seen improvement. During the July 2018 test, ‌Siri‌ answered 79 percent of questions correctly compared to the 83 percent of questions answered right this time around. Alexa last year was at 61 percent while Google Assistant was at 86, so there have been digital voice assistant improvements across the board.

This test covered smartphones specifically, comparing iPhones and Android devices. Munster says that smartphones were isolated from smart speakers because while underlying technology is similar, "use cases vary." ‌Siri‌ was tested on an iPhone running iOS 12.4, Google Assistant on a Pixel XL, and Alexa in the iOS app.

Questions were based on five categories and all assistants were asked the same 800 questions. Each question set was designed to "comprehensively test a digital assistant's ability and utility." Some of the sample questions across each of the categories:

• Local - Where is the nearest coffee shop?
• Commerce - Order me more paper towels.
• Navigation - How do I get to Uptown on the bus?
• Information - Who do the Twins play tonight?
• Command - Remind me to call Jerome at 2 pm today

‌Siri‌ did best in the command, local, and navigation categories, faring less well in the information and commerce categories. ‌Siri‌ actually won out in the command category, but trailed behind Google Assistant in other categories.

Siri continues to prove more useful with phone-related functions like calling, texting, emailing, calendar, and music. Both Siri and Google Assistant, which are baked into the OS of the phone, far outperformed Alexa in the Command section.

Munster says that the continued rate of improvement "continues to surprise" based on the notable improvements that each voice assistant has demonstrated over the course of the last few years.

In the future, Loup Ventures expects to see further improvements from extending the feature sets of each voice assistant.

Apple today released the seventh beta of iOS 13 to developers, bringing new bug fixes and refining iOS 13 and iPadOS features introduced in previous betas.

Now that we're up to the seventh beta, changes and tweaks are getting much more minor, but there are still a few new things worth noting.

- Folders - Folder backgrounds are once again gray, with changes made in the previous beta reverted.

- Dark Mode - The Dark Mode Control Center widget wording has been tweaked. Instead of saying Light Appearance or Dark Appearance, it now says Light Mode or ‌Dark Mode‌.

- Deleting Attachments in Messages - You can once again delete photo and other attachments from Messages. In a conversation, tap on the "i" and long press on a photo, link, or document to bring up a menu to delete it.

- Blocked Senders in Mail - There are new options to determine what to do with messages from blocked senders. You can move them to the trash or mark as blocked and leave them in the inbox (the default option).

- Silence Unknown Callers - When toggling on Silence Unknown Callers, there's new text in the Phone app that lets you know incoming calls will continue to ring from people in your contacts, recent outgoing calls, and Siri Suggestions.

- All Photos View - When viewing "All ‌Photos‌" in the main ‌Photos‌ tab in iOS 13, ‌Photos‌ are displayed in a grid three across instead of the smaller thumbnails that were available before by default.

- Find My - Notify When Found is now working in the ‌Find My‌ app in this beta. There's also a new "Help a Friend" option in the Me tab that opens up iCloud.com so a friend can locate a lost device.

- Do Not Disturb - Do Not Disturb settings now sync properly between iPhone and Apple Watch.

Know of a feature that's new in iOS 13 beta 7 that we left out? Make sure to let us know in the comments and we'll update this article. For more on what's new in iOS 13, make sure to check out our iOS 13 roundup.

Apple today seeded the seventh betas of iOS 13 and iPadOS to developers for testing purposes, a week after releasing the sixth betas and two months after unveiling the new operating system at the Worldwide Developers Conference.

Registered developers will need to download the profile for the iOS 13 and iPadOS betas from Apple's Developer Center. This beta, like earlier betas, can be downloaded over-the-air once the proper profile has been installed.

Apple split iOS 13 and iPadOS into separate updates in 2019, one designed for iPhone and one designed for iPad. iPadOS is identical to iOS 13 in almost every way, though there are some iPad-specific features such as new multitasking capabilities. For the most part, the two operating systems share the same features.

iOS 13 is a huge update with a long list of new features. Perhaps the most noticeable outward-facing change is a systemwide Dark Mode that changes the entire look of the operating system from light to dark, darkening everything from system elements to apps.

Apple overhauled the Photos app, introducing a new ‌Photos‌ tab that curates your entire ‌Photos‌ library and shows you a selection of highlights organized by day, month, or year, and there are revamped Photo editing tools.

For the first time, you can edit video right in the ‌Photos‌ app, cropping, rotating, applying filters, and adjusting lighting and color. There's a new High-Key Mono lighting effect, and for Portrait Lighting in general, intensity can be adjusted.

There's a less obtrusive volume HUD, a new Find My app that combines ‌Find My‌ ‌iPhone‌ and ‌Find My‌ Friends and lets you track your devices even with they don't have an LTE or WiFi connection.

A Sign In with Apple feature (not yet active) gives you a convenient and data safe way to sign into apps and websites, providing an alternative to Facebook and Google sign in options. Apple's even able to generate single-use randomized email addresses so you don't have to give your real info to apps and websites.

Maps features a new street-level "Look Around" mode and a Collections feature for making lists of places, Reminders has been entirely overhauled to make it more functional, there's a profile option in Messages along with new Memoji and Animoji stickers, and Siri has a new voice.

CarPlay in iOS 13 has been overhauled with a new look, multiple sets of AirPods (or Powerbeats Pro) can be connected to the same phone so you can share music with a friend, ‌Siri‌ on HomePod can detect multiple voices for multi-user support, and ‌HomePod‌ also supports Handoff.

There are a ton of additional new features and changes coming in iOS 13, and for a full rundown of what you can expect, you should check out our iOS 13 roundup.

Each new beta brings new features and changes to iOS 13, and the sixth beta added a ‌Dark Mode‌ toggle to Control Center, changes to folder transparency, updates to some privacy warnings, new splash screens, and more.

Apple today announced that its retail store in Zurich, the most populous city in Switzerland, will be moving at the end of the month.

As noted by Swiss blog MacPrime, Apple Bahnhofstrasse will be relocating to Rennweg 43 on Saturday, August 31, just down the street from its current Bahnhofstrasse 77 address. The new store will still be just steps away from Bahnhofstrasse, a main downtown street in Zurich known for shopping.

Apple Bahnhofstrasse originally opened in 2009. Apple has three other stores in Switzerland in Basel, Geneva, and the outskirts of Zurich.

The move was highlighted by Storeteller on Twitter.