MacRumors

Today we're highlighting two new deals: one is a new low price on Apple's 27-inch iMac from Early 2019, and the other focuses on the first price drops we've seen for Apple's official Leather Cases for the iPhone 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max.

thing2Note: 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.

27-Inch iMac

You can get the 27-inch Retina iMac with a 3.7 GHz 6-core i5 processor, 8GB RAM, and a 2TB Fusion Drive for $2,099.00, down from $2,299.00. At $200 off, this price is the lowest that we've tracked for this high-end model of the new 27-inch Retina iMac.

27 imac
Apple updated the iMac with 8th- and 9th-generation Intel processors in March 2019, also including faster memory and new Radeon Pro Vega graphics options. Be sure to head to Amazon soon to check out the new discount before it expires.

iPhone 11 Pro Leather Cases

There are a few sales on the new official Apple Leather Case for the iPhone 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max, which can be found at Amazon and Target.

On Amazon, you can get the Leather Case in Saddle Brown for the iPhone 11 Pro priced at $39.99, down from $49.00 ($9 off). Amazon isn't discounting the Leather Cases for the iPhone 11 Pro Max at the time of writing.

iphone 11 leather case
Target has the Leather Case for the iPhone 11 Pro priced at $39.99, down from $49.00, in both Saddle Brown and Black. The retailer also has the Leather Case for the iPhone 11 Pro Max at the same price of $39.99 ($9 off) in Saddle Brown and Black.

Target customers can choose some items to be picked up at their local store, but if that is not an option you can opt for free two day shipping. If you have a Target Red Card, you can also save an additional 5 percent on the Leather Cases.

Head to our full Deals Roundup for more information on the latest Apple-related discounts.

Related Roundup: Apple Deals

An appeals court in London has reinstated a lawsuit filed against Google that accuses the company of unlawfully gathering personal information by circumventing the iPhone's default privacy settings, according to Bloomberg.

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The collective action, equivalent to a class action lawsuit in the United States, alleged that Google illegally tracked and gathered the personal data of over four million ‌iPhone‌ users in the U.K. between 2011 and 2012. The case was first brought in November 2017 and had been dismissed in October 2018.

"This case, quite properly if the allegations are proved, seeks to call Google to account for its allegedly wholesale and deliberate misuse of personal data without consent, undertaken with a view to a commercial profit," wrote Judge Geoffrey Vos in a ruling today, per the report.

A similar lawsuit was filed in the United States in 2012, when Google was discovered to be circumventing privacy protections in Safari on iOS in order to track users through ads on numerous popular websites.

Specifically, Google took advantage of a Safari loophole that made the browser think that the user was interacting with a given ad, thus allowing a tracking cookie to be installed. With that cookie installed, it became easy for Google to add additional cookies and to track users across the web.

At the time, Safari blocked several types of tracking, but made an exception for websites where a person interacted in some way — by filling out a form, for example. Google added code to some of its ads that made Safari think that a person was submitting an invisible form to Google, thus creating a temporary cookie.

Google stopped this practice after it was reported by The Wall Street Journal, and refuted many details of the report, while Apple closed the loophole in a Safari update shortly after. Google also paid a then-record $22.5 million fine to the Federal Trade Commission over its practices back in 2012.

"Protecting the privacy and security of our users has always been our No. 1 priority," a Google spokeswoman told Bloomberg. "This case relates to events that took place nearly a decade ago and that we addressed at the time."

Apple plans to release a software update later this year that will make Siri more flexible with third-party messaging apps like WhatsApp, Skype, and Facebook Messenger, the company told Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.

siri waveform
Specifically, the update will enable Siri to default to the messaging app that a person uses most frequently to communicate with a given contact. For example, if an iPhone user almost always messages a friend via WhatsApp, Siri will automatically use WhatsApp rather than Apple's own iMessage.

It will still not be possible to straight-up set third-party apps as default on an iPhone. Instead, the report claims Siri will decide which messaging app to use based on interactions with specific contacts. App Store developers will need to enable the new Siri functionality in their apps when available.

Currently, users must specify the third-party app they wish to use to message someone, such as "message John with WhatsApp." Following the software update, a user could simply say "message John" and Siri would automatically know to do so via WhatsApp if it is the most frequently used app in that case.

This functionality will later be expanded to third-party phone apps for calls as well, but no timeframe was specified.

In a statement, Apple also defended the competitive landscape of the App Store in response to another Bloomberg story claiming that Apple's default apps have a growing edge over third-party options in the App Store:

Apple offers our users an experience that is only possible from the integration of hardware, software, and services. From the very first iPhone, we have included apps to provide customers with a great experience right out of the box for making phone calls, playing music, surfing the web, and more. With every generation of iPhone we have advanced the built in capabilities for our customers with a few default apps designed for great performance, long battery life, seamless integration, and industry-leading protections for security and privacy. We have also created the App Store, the safest place to get apps, so customers can choose from millions of apps to find the ones that further enhance their iPhone. In the few categories where Apple also has an app, we have many successful competitors and we're proud that their success is responsible for almost 2 million U.S. jobs in a thriving multibillion dollar market for developers. Our North Star is always to create the best products for our customers and that is why iPhone has the highest customer satisfaction in the industry.

Apple added that the Stories tab in the App Store has exclusively promoted Apple's own software only one percent of the time.

With the iPhone 11, 11 Pro, 11 Pro Max, and 2020 ‌iPhone‌ SE, Apple did away with 3D Touch across its entire ‌iPhone‌ lineup, replacing the former ‌3D Touch‌ feature with Haptic Touch.

In this guide, we'll go over everything you need to know about Haptic Touch and how it differs from the ‌3D Touch‌ feature that's been available since the ‌iPhone‌ 6s.

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What is Haptic Touch?

Haptic Touch is a 3D Touch-like feature that Apple first introduced in the 2018 ‌iPhone‌ XR and later expanded to its entire ‌iPhone‌ lineup.

Haptic Touch uses the Taptic Engine and provides haptic feedback when the screen is pressed on one of Apple's new iPhones. A Haptic Touch is a touch and hold gesture, and it can be used across the iOS 13 operating system.

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Haptic Touch can be used by pressing in a relevant location until a little haptic pop is felt against the finger and a secondary menu pops up, with content varying based on where you're using the feature. A simple tap will activate one of the options on the secondary menu that pops up.

How is Haptic Touch different from 3D Touch?

‌3D Touch‌ supports multiple levels of pressure, so you could have a softer press do one thing and a harder press do another thing. As an example, Apple used the multiple pressure levels for "Peek and Pop" gestures.

On a ‌3D Touch‌ device, you were able "Peek" into a web link to see a preview, and then press harder to pop into it and open it up in Safari, for example. Those secondary "pop" gestures are not available with Haptic Touch because it's a single level of pressure (essentially a long press) rather than multiple pressure levels.

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You can still sort of get the same functionality as Peek and Pop, but now it's more of a Peek and Tap. Just press and hold to activate a Peek with Haptic Touch and then tap the relevant section of the menu or preview that pops up.

Where does Haptic Touch work?

Haptic Touch works everywhere that ‌3D Touch‌ works. You can use it on Home screen app icons to bring up Quick Actions, you can use it on links, phone numbers, addresses, and more to preview content or to activate different gestures on the ‌iPhone‌ or to bring up various contextual menus.

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There are some notable differences in how Haptic Touch and ‌3D Touch‌ behave. As an example, with ‌3D Touch‌, you could press anywhere on the keyboard to turn the iOS keyboard into a cursor. With Haptic Touch, you have to use that gesture on the space bar, which is an adjustment.

Deleting apps has also changed somewhat. Rather than pressing and holding briefly to make the apps "jiggle," a press and hold now brings up an option to "Rearrange" apps, which lets them be rearranged or deleted. You can still use the old method, but the press and hold needs to be a lot longer.

Below are some of the main things that Haptic Touch can do:

  • Activating Live Photos
  • Trackpad activation (with space bar)
  • Expand notification options
  • Activate Quick Actions on the Home screen
  • Bring up quick reply options in Messages
  • Preview links in Safari and access menu options
  • Open new tabs in Safari
  • Preview Photos and bring up menu options
  • Preview Mail messages and bring up quick actions
  • Activate the flash light on the Lock screen
  • Activate the camera on the Lock screen
  • Activate extra features in Control Center
  • Deleting apps (the new Rearrange option)

Haptic Touch essentially works across the iOS 13 operating system and in most of the Apple designed apps, along with some third-party apps. Almost all apps have extra elements that can be activated with a Haptic Touch gesture, so it's worth experimenting to figure out what's what.

Note that on the 2020 ‌iPhone‌ SE, Haptic Touch does not work with notifications on the Lock screen or in the Notification Center.

Does Haptic Touch feel different?

Haptic Touch does feel different, mostly because it works a bit slower than ‌3D Touch‌ gestures. Haptic Touch is a press and hold sensation, while ‌3D Touch‌ is a faster press with force kind of gesture that activates quicker.

The actual haptic feedback component of Haptic Touch feels similar to the feedback received from a ‌3D Touch‌, so in that respect, it's close to indistinguishable. As mentioned, though, there's no secondary level of feedback when using Haptic Touch like there was with ‌3D Touch‌.

Why did Apple get rid of 3D Touch?

‌3D Touch‌ was never available on the iPad, so Apple may have nixed it to make sure the ‌iPhone‌ and the ‌iPad‌ offer a similar experience.

With Haptic Touch and a long press on the ‌iPad‌, the gestures used to get to additional contextual information like Quick Actions are the same. That was never the case with ‌3D Touch‌ -- the ‌iPad‌ simply didn't have the extra gestures available.

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‌3D Touch‌ was also something of a fringe feature that was never mainstream, which could also be a reason why Apple decided to go with something that's simpler and ultimately more intuitive. One single press gesture is easier to use than a press gesture that supports multiple levels of pressure for different actions.

Where are the Haptic Touch controls?

Haptic Touch can be somewhat customized with an adjustable time that it takes to trigger Haptic Touch. You can choose between fast or slow activation, with the default setting being fast.

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This feature is located in the Accessibility section of the Settings app:

  • Open up the Settings app.
  • Choose the Accessibility section.
  • Tap on "Touch."
  • Tap on "Haptic Touch."

There's an option to preview the Haptic Touch feedback options right in the Settings app. Most people are likely going to want to keep the Haptic Touch feedback set to Fast because even Fast is on the slow side compared to ‌3D Touch‌.

The Future of Haptic Touch

Now that ‌3D Touch‌ has been eliminated across Apple's ‌iPhone‌ lineup and ‌3D Touch‌ gestures have been tweaked to be more Haptic Touch friendly even on older iPhones, Haptic Touch seems to be the new standard. We can expect Haptic Touch to be the new feedback feature in iPhones going forward, and it's not likely ‌3D Touch‌ will be making a return.

Guide Feedback

Have questions about Haptic Touch, know of a feature we left out, or want to offer feedback on this guide? Send us an email here.

Related Forum: iPhone

Twitter today announced that its Direct Message (DM) search feature is now available to all users, allowing anyone to search through the DMs they've received.

The new search bar is located above the the DM interface in the Twitter app or on the web and it can be used to locate conversations with specific people and groups.

twitterdmsearch
DM search first debuted in August, when Twitter said that it was testing out the feature. Some users have had the search bar since then as part of the test, but as of today, it's available for everyone.


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

Tag: Twitter

Apple CEO Tim Cook is in Europe this week, visiting local Apple employees and App Store developers and even attending an Oktoberfest celebration.

Cook was in Munich on Sunday before traveling to Berlin, where he visited the offices of Blinkist, an app that distills non-fiction books into bitesize text and audio snippets, similar to CliffsNotes.

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Cook also sat down for an interview with German news site Stern, and his comments were published today in German.

On the topic of the ‌App Store‌ and an anticompetitive lawsuit the U.S. Supreme Court allowed to move forward, Cook said (based on Google translation from German) that "no reasonable person would ever call Apple a monopolist." He said that offering apps through the ‌App Store‌ isn't a limitation, but at an advantage because of Apple's rigorous ‌App Store‌ policies that keep customers safe from malicious apps and illicit content.

[Translated From German] "Customers buy an experience from us, and this experience includes a trustworthy place to buy apps in which we curate and check all applications. " As a result, many apps would not come to the iPhone, such as pornographic offers, explains Cook. "But anyone can take their iPhone and access that content in the browser, but we do not offer it ourselves."

Cook went on to address complaints about Apple offering its own ‌App Store‌ apps and competing with developers.

We have 30 to 40 apps - versus more than two million others." Cook compares the App Store to a supermarket: "The likelihood that it has its own brand is very high, and who benefits from having another product on the shelf? The customer, and that's a good thing."

On the topic of Apple pricing, Cook said that Apple always tries to keep prices "as low as possible." "Fortunately, we were able to lower the price of the iPhone this year," he said, referencing the $699 price point of the ‌iPhone‌ 11.

Cook also answered questions about Apple TV+. When asked about whether Netflix sees the ‌Apple TV‌+ pricing ($4.99 per month in the U.S.) as a challenge, Cook said that he doesn't think competitors are afraid of Apple. "It's not whether Netflix wins and we lose, or we win and they win. Many people use multiple service and we're trying to become one of them."

Following his meeting with Blinkest, Cook moved on to France and met with Ubisoft and Pastagames and then visited students and professors at Polytech Montpellier. Cook also visited several Apple Stores, including Apple Kurfürstendamm, Apple Odysseum, and Apple Champs-Élysées.



Cook's full interview with German site Stern can be read in its original German (or through a translation) on the Stern website.

iPadOS, launched last week, offers almost all of the same features as iOS 13, but there are also a handful of new features exclusively designed for the larger screen, which is why Apple split iOS and iPadOS into separate updates.

In our latest YouTube video and in the article below, we go over some must-know iPadOS tips and tricks that are useful to those who have updated to iPadOS and want to get more familiar with the changes.


iPadOS Tips and Tricks

  • Quick Screenshots - If you swipe up with the Apple Pencil on the iPad's display, you can capture a screenshot that opens right into Markup so you can start editing and annotating it right away.
  • Floating Keyboard - There's a new floating keyboard on the ‌iPad‌ that can be positioned anywhere. To get to it, pinch in on the keyboard until it shrinks down or long press on the keyboard icon to bring up the "floating" option and then tap it. It's a small version of the keyboard that you can put anywhere on the screen, which is ideal for one handed use.
  • QuickPath Keyboard - iPadOS and iOS 13 both have a new native swipe-based keyboard that Apple calls the QuickPath keyboard. Rather than typing, swipe your fingers between letters to spell a word. Hate it? You can turn it off in the Settings app, or just continue to use tap to type, which hasn't gone anywhere.
  • Overhauled Home Screen - You can fit more icons on the ‌iPad‌'s Home screen, and the Today view widget can now be permanently positioned on the Home screen when the ‌iPad‌ is in landscape mode. After installing iPadOS, swipe over to the right and on the widget, select "Add to Home Screen." You can also get to the option from the Edit interface of the widget, and if you pin favorites, those widgets will always display first.
  • Selecting Text - There are several new gestures in iOS and iPadOS 13, but most of these are the most useful on the larger screen of an ‌iPad‌. To select text, simply slide your finger over the text to select it. Use a double tap to select a single word, a triple tap to select a sentence, and a quadruple tap to select a paragraph.
  • Scroll Bar Updates - To scroll faster than you can with a swipe, grab the scroll bar with a finger and drag it up or down to get where you want to go on the page.
  • Moving Cursor - Moving the cursor is easier than ever. Stick a finger on it and drag it wherever you want it to go in a note or document.
  • Cut, Copy and Paste - There are new gestures for copying and pasting in iPadOS. Pinch inwards with three fingers until you see the copy icon, pinch outwards with three fingers to paste, and to cut, use the copy gesture two times in a row.
  • Undo/Redo - When you're typing something up, you can use a three finger swipe to the left to undo and a three finger swipe to the right to redo.
  • Multi-Item Select - To select multiple items, such as items in a list, multiple messages, emails, and more, tap and hold with two fingers and then drag downwards.
  • Slide Over Improvements - You can now drag apps into Slide Over on the left or the right side of the screen, and you can open multiple Slide Over apps. Swap between them with a swipe, and swipe up and hold to get to an interface where you can see all of your open Slide Over apps and close the ones you don't need.
  • Multiple Windows - You can now use two windows of the same app side-by-side in multitasking mode, so you can have two Safari web pages open or work on two Pages documents at once.
  • Multitasking Notifications - There's also a neat feature that lets you drag an incoming notification into a Split View window. When you receive a notification from an app like Messages, just drag it over to one side of the screen to open it in Split View.
  • App Exposé - An App Exposé feature shows you all of the open windows you have for a specific app in Slide Over or Split View. To use it, hold down on an icon in the dock and you'll see all of the open windows. You can also long press on an app's icon on the Home screen and choose "Show All Windows."
  • Mouse Support - iPadOS lets you use a mouse with your ‌iPad‌, but it's not a mainline feature -- it's an Accessibility option. If you want to try it out, pair a Bluetooth mouse with your ‌iPad‌ using the Bluetooth settings and then open up the Accessibility settings, choose Touch, and activate Assistive Touch.

Guide Feedback

Have questions about the new options in iPadOS, know of a tip we left out, or want to offer feedback on this guide? Send us an email here or leave a comment below.

Related Forum: iOS 13

Winston Duke, known for his role M'Baku in "Black Panther," is set to star in Apple's upcoming TV series "Swagger," reports Variety.

Duke will play Ike, a youth basketball coach who used to be a star player. Production on the show is set to begin in October, more than a year after Apple first picked up the series.

"Swagger," which is based on NBA star Kevin Durant's youth basketball experiences, is said to explore the world of youth basketball, the players, their families, and their coaches.

"Swagger" is one of the TV shows that Apple is developing for its Apple TV+ streaming service, which is set to launch in November. As production is first starting, "Swagger" won't be available at launch and will instead be a show premiering at a later date.

‌Apple TV‌+ will cost $4.99 per month for up to six family members, and Apple is offering a free one-year subscription to customers who purchase an ‌Apple TV‌, Mac, iPad, or iPhone.

Apple will today release the first beta of an upcoming iOS 13 update, presumably iOS 13.2, which will introduce a feature that Apple promised at its iPhone 11 and ‌iPhone‌ 11 Pro event: Deep Fusion.

According to The Verge, today's update is aimed at adding Deep Fusion to Apple's newest iPhones.

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Deep Fusion is a new image processing system that uses the A13 Bionic and the Neural Engine. Deep Fusion takes advantage of machine learning techniques to do pixel-by-pixel processing of photos, optimizing for texture, details, and noise in each part of the image.

The feature is aimed at improving indoor photos and photos taken in medium lighting, and it's a feature that will automatically activate based on the lens being used and the light level in the room. The wide-angle lens will use Smart HDR by default for bright scenes, with Deep Fusion activating in medium or low light and Night mode activating for darker scenes.

The telephoto lens will use Deep Fusion primarily, but Smart HDR will activate instead when the lighting is very bright. Dark Mode activates when the lighting is dark. The ultra wide-angle lens uses Smart HDR only and does not support Deep Fusion (or Night mode).

The Verge has a rundown on how Deep Fusion works, with info sourced from Apple. Deep Fusion runs entirely in the background, and unlike Night mode, there's no option to toggle it on or off.

Deep Fusion is a complex process, with the hardware in the ‌iPhone‌ performing several actions when a photo is taken. Prior to when the shutter button is pressed, the camera captures three frames at a fast shutter speed to freeze motion. When the shutter press happens, an additional three photos are captured, and then one longer photo is taken to preserve detail.

The three regular photos and the long-exposure shot are merged into what Apple is calling a "synthetic long," which is different from Smart HDR. Deep Fusion chooses the short exposure image that has the most detail, and then merges it with the synthetic long exposure (it's just two frames that are merged).

The images are then run through a four-step processing procedure, pixel by pixel, aimed at increasing detail and providing instructions to the A13 chip on how the two images (detail, tone, color, luminance and more) should be blended together.

Taking a Deep Fusion shot takes just a bit longer than taking a normal Smart HDR image, right around a second, so Apple will initially show a proxy image if you tap over into Photos right after taking a Deep Fusion shot, though it will quickly be replaced with the full Deep Fusion image.

Update: According to TechCrunch's Matthew Panzarino, the developer beta that features the Deep Fusion update has been delayed and it will not be available today. There is no official word on when it will launch, but John Gruber of Daring Fireball says that it's set to come tomorrow.

Related Forums: iOS 13, iPhone

With last month's iPhone 11 and Apple Watch Series 5 event in the rearview mirror, and several more products in the rumor mill, it is fun to look ahead and speculate about if and when Apple might host an October event this year.

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Apple has several rumored products in its pipeline, including a 16-inch MacBook Pro with a scissor keyboard and an all-new design, refreshed iPad Pro models that will possibly sport triple-lens rear camera systems, a refreshed Apple TV, and just maybe the so-called Apple Tags items trackers if they are ready.

Apple has also yet to reveal a release date for its redesigned Mac Pro, having only teased that it is "coming this fall."

To be clear, there is no guarantee that Apple will host another event this month, but there is certainly a chance given that Apple has done so in five of the past seven years. All of those October events focused on the Mac, iPad, or both, and all took place within the second half of the month.

Last year, for example, Apple hosted an event on Tuesday, October 30 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and it wouldn't be a stretch of imagination to think that an October event this year could take place around the same time.

apple event october schedule
Apple analyst Neil Cybart shared an interesting observation on Twitter today, noting that Apple has reported its quarterly earnings results on a Tuesday for five out of the past six quarters. For the quarter just ended, however, Apple will report its earnings on Wednesday, October 30.


On the same day of Apple's earnings reports, CEO Tim Cook and CFO Luca Maestri join analysts on a conference call to discuss the results.

The above might seem insignificant, but the last time Apple's earnings did not fall on a Tuesday was nearly a year ago, when it shared results on Thursday, November 1. This is likely because on the Tuesday prior, Apple was busy hosting its Brooklyn event, unveiling new iPad Pro, MacBook Air, and Mac mini models.

Naturally, this leads to the idea that Apple could be planning to host an event in the final week of October.

Cybart speculates that Monday, October 28 could be the date of the event, presumably given the two-day gap between Apple's event and earnings call last October, but Apple typically holds events on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday. Tuesday, October 29 is probably a better guess for a potential Apple event this month.

If so, the final week of October could include Apple's event on Tuesday, Apple's earnings on Wednesday, and Apple TV+ launching on Friday.

Of course, Apple could surprise us with invites to an event on a different day of this month and render all of this moot. This is merely speculation for the sake of discussion, and nothing is official until it is official.

Apple today refreshed U.S. iTunes store with a slew of new deals and offers, mainly focusing on horror and thriller movies now that we're in October. Below we've also collected all of the latest discounts on Anker products, with new sales that have kicked off in October.

iTunes Horror Movie Sale

The sale is headlined by a large collection of $1 horror rentals, including a wide range of movies from different sub-genres and decades. These include You're Next, Christine, V/H/S, Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II, and many more.

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

You'll also find horror bundles priced at or under $20, with franchises like Saw, Paranormal Activity, Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and The Conjuring receiving notable discounts. There are also some more recent horror movies on sale, including a bundle of Ari Aster's films Hereditary and Midsommar priced at $19.99, down from $29.99.

We've highlighted many of the movies in the lists below, but be sure to head to iTunes this week to browse the full sale.

$1 Rentals

Under $20 Bundles

midsommar up next

Anker Sale

Anker's discounts include an ongoing sale on its new Midnight Green portable charger and USB-C to Lightning cable, both of which have a shipping estimate of November. Otherwise, below you'll find markdowns on Bluetooth speakers, Lightning and USB-C cables, hubs, and more portable battery packs.

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October Codes

No Codes Needed

Our full Deals Roundup has more information on the latest Apple-related sales and bargains.

Related Roundup: Apple Deals

In celebration of The Big Draw, said to be the world's largest annual drawing festival, Apple is offering free hands-on art sessions with the iPad Pro and Apple Pencil at nearly every Apple Store worldwide throughout October.

During the Today at Apple sessions, participants will use the new Adobe Fresco app on the iPad Pro with an Apple Pencil to draw colorful faces and objects, create an abstract painting, and more. Each session is between 60 and 90 minutes in length, with free registration available on Apple's website.

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The Big Draw sessions include:

  • Art Lab for Kids: Make Your Own Emoji: Kids will learn fun ways to create their own emoji. We'll show them how to draw colorful faces and objects. They'll get hands-on using the Adobe Fresco app on iPad with Apple Pencil to draw an emoji to take home. Devices will be provided.

  • Art Walk: Discovering Color: Collect the colors you observe on your walk to capture your own color palette. Using the Adobe Fresco app on iPad Pro with Apple Pencil, you'll combine them to create an abstract painting to take home. Devices will be provided. Recommended for all skill levels.

  • Art Walk: Drawing from Observation: Transform the way you observe and sketch the world around you. We'll show you how being mindful of people, objects, or places in your surroundings will help you add interesting details to your drawings using the Adobe Fresco app on iPad Pro with Apple Pencil. Devices will be provided. Recommended for all skill levels.

There are also special artist-led sessions at flagship locations like Apple Union Square in San Francisco and Apple Fifth Avenue in New York City.

The Big Draw sessions begin today and run through October 31.

Apple has been rolling out HomePod support for live radio requests to Siri over the last few months, and now users in several countries are reporting success when asking their Apple smart speaker to play live radio stations.

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After announcing the feature at WWDC in June, Apple said it would launch on September 30, but the company recently removed the date from its HomePod product page, suggesting an official global rollout is basically complete.

Apple began testing the live radio request feature in July, starting in Germany, but station requests to Siri on ‌HomePod‌ are now being routinely fulfilled in many countries including the U.S. and the U.K., despite the fact that Apple has yet to issue a HomePod-specific iOS 13 software update. Using a ‌Siri‌ request, ‌HomePod‌ owners should be able to choose from around 100,000 radio stations, according to Apple, with the broadcast catalog drawn from iHeartRadio, Radio.com, and TuneIn.

MacRumors has been testing the ‌Siri‌ feature on ‌HomePod‌ after updating iOS devices to 13.1.2, and it's still a bit finicky, although it's unclear whether that's due to the ‌HomePod‌ software still languishing on 12.4. Radio requests have to be specifically worded – without key words like "radio station" in the question, ‌Siri‌ will often revert to an Apple Music search. Also, only some users appear to be seeing a new Broadcast Radio section in the Music app's Radio tab that lists available stations.

In addition, ‌HomePod‌ owners in the United Kingdom who were hoping to listen to BBC Radio will be disappointed to learn that the British broadcaster has removed its flagship stations from the TuneIn catalog, after the U.S.-based radio app refused to share information on its listeners.

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The BBC now wants people to access its content through BBC apps and via Alexa so that it can collect analytics and better understand what people are consuming, but unfortunately that has left only a handful of local BBC stations and the BBC World Service directly accessible through ‌HomePod‌.

According to Apple's website, additional ‌HomePod‌ features specific to iOS 13, including multi-user support, music handoff, and Ambient Sounds, will not launch until "later this fall."

Related Roundup: HomePod
Buyer's Guide: HomePod (Neutral)
Related Forum: iOS 13

Apple today updated its investor relations page to announce that it will share its earnings results for the fourth fiscal quarter (third calendar quarter) of 2019 on Wednesday, October 30.

The earnings results will offer up some insight into how well the iPhone 11, ‌iPhone‌ 11 Pro, and ‌iPhone‌ 11 Max did during their first week of availability, though Apple no longer breaks out ‌iPhone‌ unit sales so specific data won't be available.

q42019earnings
Apple's guidance for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2019 includes expected revenue of $61 to $64 billion and gross margin between 37.5 and 38.5 percent. If on the higher end of the range, Apple's revenue will beat its Q4 2018 revenue of $62.9 billion.

Guidance for the holiday quarter provided by Apple in its Q4 earnings results will give us the most insight into how the company's newest iPhones are selling.

The quarterly earnings statement will be released at 1:30 PM Pacific/4:30 PM Eastern, with a conference call to discuss the report taking place at 2:00 PM Pacific/5:00 PM Eastern. MacRumors will provide coverage of both the earnings release and conference call on October 30.

Tags: AAPL, Earnings

Look Around, a new iOS 13 Maps feature that's designed to provide a street level view of what's around you similar to Google's Street View is now available in Los Angeles and New York City.

At launch and during the iOS 13 beta testing period, Look Around in Maps was limited to the Bay Area of California, Las Vegas, and parts of Hawaii, but Apple is working to expand it to additional locations.

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Look Around can be used across New York City, from Manhattan and the Bronx to Brooklyn and Queens, and it is also available in Los Angeles from Burbank to Long Beach to Pomona. It's not yet available in Anaheim, Riverside, and other cities further south.

Look Around can be used in the main Apple Maps view whenever there's a pair of binoculars visible. Tapping the binoculars icon launches into a close-up street level view of your location in a little card, which can be tapped again to get a full screen view of Look Around.

Look Around can also be brought up when searching for specific supported locations by tapping on the Look Around card in the search results.

When you're in Look Around mode, tapping on the display lets you move through the area, while tapping in a far off spot in the distance zooms in quickly in a little zoom maneuver that's fun to watch.

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In Look Around mode, notable points of interest like restaurants, businesses, parks, and more are highlighted, but the view is limited to what can be captured from the street since it uses data captured from Apple's mapping vehicles.

Look Around will be expanding to additional locations in 2019 and 2020, and Apple is also still in the process of rolling out its updated maps. Just this morning, the updated maps feature came to New York City right ahead of Look Around.

For those interested in where the new Maps are available and where Look Around is rolling out, the MacRumors forums has a long thread where members share information when new maps features come to additional areas.

(Thanks, Alan and our other MacRumors forum members!)

Halide, a popular camera app designed for iOS devices, was today updated with support for the iPhone 11 and ‌iPhone‌ 11 Pro, with the company adding new features able to take advantage of the hardware in the new devices.

There's a faster lens switcher that uses Haptic Touch to switch between the two focal lengths in the ‌iPhone‌ 11 (wide and ultra wide) and the three focal lengths in the ‌iPhone‌ 11 Pro (wide, ultra wide, and telephoto). Halide's developers say it's quicker, smoother and more intuitive than the standard lens switcher.

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On the ‌iPhone‌ 11 Pro, there's a new Lens Guides feature designed to help users compose shots. The Lens Guides appear when the lens switcher tool is opened, providing overlays of what a shot would look like using a different focal length.

There are no manual focus controls for the ultra wide-angle camera in Halide, and that's because the lens has a fixed focus. The ultra wide-angle camera is not capable of RAW output, nor does Apple's outside the frame feature work with RAW. Halide hasn't added outside the frame functionality at this time.

Smart RAW has been updated for ‌iPhone‌ 11 and 11 Pro, with the exposure engine tuned to produce RAW shots with less noise. Smart RAW improvement for the new iPhones is an ongoing product though, with Halide planning to add additional refinements in the future.

For older iPhones, the new version of Halide includes bug fixes and enhancements, along with RAW exposure improvements for all Smart RAW iPhones.

Halide can be downloaded from the App Store for $5.99. [Direct Link]

Tag: Halide

Apple News+, Apple’s subscription news and magazine service, has launched for users who live in the UK and Australia, Apple announced today.

‌Apple News‌+ subscribers can access more than 150 publications in ‌Apple News‌+, with a one month free trial available to test the service before having to pay the £9.99 (UK) or $14.99 (Australia) monthly fee.

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Available magazines and publications in the UK include The Times and The Sunday Times, Cosmopolitan UK, Elle UK, Esquire UK, FourFourTwo, Empire, Hello!, Cyclist and Grazia, plus US-based newspapers and magazines like The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg Businessweek, National Geographic, Rolling Stone, Vox and more.

Magazines and publications in Australia include The Australian, The Daily Telegraph, Herald Sun, The Courier Mail, The Advertiser, Vogue, Australian Women’s Health, Elle, The Australian Women’s Weekly, Harper’s Bazaar Australia, GQ, Australian Men’s Health, Delicious and Australian Geographic, plus US and UK-based newspapers and magazines.

‌Apple News‌+ has been available in the United States and Canada since March, and it is designed to present magazine and news content in a media rich format on iPhone and iPad. Apple said that ‌Apple News‌+ would come to the UK and Australia as part of iOS 13, though it is also available for those using iOS 12.2 or later and those using macOS 10.14.4 and later.

‌Apple News‌+ was built using Texture, a now-discontinued magazine subscription service that Apple purchased in 2018. It has thus far received some criticism for its formatting (not all publications support Apple’s media rich format) and for its confusing interface, though some improvements have been made since the U.S. launch.

For more on ‌Apple News‌+, make sure to check out our Apple News+ guide.

Apple today updated its line of iWork apps for iOS devices, introducing support for iOS 13 on Numbers, Pages, and Keynote.

Pages and Numbers now offer Dark Mode support, allowing them to work with either light or dark themes on iPhones and iPads. For all of the apps, Apple has also added support for accessing two iWork documents side by side on the iPad using Split View, so you can access two Pages documents side by side, or two Numbers spreadsheets.

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Custom fonts are now supported, screenshots of entire documents can be captured, and files can be accessed from a USB drive, external hard drive, or file server. Additional changes are outlined in the release notes for each app below.

Pages Release Notes:

- Enable Dark Mode to emphasize your content.*
- On iPadOS, use Pages in multiple spaces or edit two documents side by side in Split View.
- Support for new iOS 13 and iPadOS text editing and navigation gestures.*
- Set the default font and font size used for all new documents created from basic templates.
- Use custom fonts installed from the App Store.*
- Capture a screenshot of an entire document, mark it up, then easily share it as a PDF.*
- Access files from a USB drive, external hard drive, or file server.*
- Listen to an audio representation of your chart using VoiceOver.*
- Add accessibility descriptions to audio, video, and drawings.
- Improved accessibility of exported PDFs.
- Support for HEVC-formatted movies, enabling reduced file size while preserving visual quality.
- Select multiple objects by pressing Shift or Command on a hardware keyboard.

Numbers Release Notes:

- Enable Dark Mode to emphasize your content.*
- On iPadOS, use Numbers in multiple spaces or edit two spreadsheets side by side in Split View.
- Support for new iOS 13 and iPadOS text editing and navigation gestures.*
- Use custom fonts installed from the App Store.*
- Capture a screenshot of an entire spreadsheet, mark it up, then easily share it as a PDF.*
- Access files from a USB drive, external hard drive, or file server.*
- Listen to an audio representation of your chart using VoiceOver.*
- Add accessibility descriptions to audio, video, and drawings.
- Improved accessibility of exported PDFs.
- Support for HEVC-formatted movies, enabling reduced file size while preserving visual quality.
- Select multiple objects by pressing Shift or Command on a hardware keyboard.

Keynote Release Notes:

- On iPadOS, use Keynote in multiple spaces or edit two presentations side by side in Split View.
- Support for new iOS 13 and iPadOS text editing and navigation gestures.*
- Use custom fonts installed from the App Store.*
- Capture a screenshot of an entire presentation, mark it up, then easily share it as a PDF.*
- Access files from a USB drive, external hard drive, or file server.*
- Listen to an audio representation of your chart using VoiceOver.*
- Add accessibility descriptions to audio, video, and drawings.
- Improved accessibility of exported PDFs.
- Support for HEVC-formatted movies, enabling reduced file size while preserving visual quality.
- Select multiple objects by pressing Shift or Command on a hardware keyboard.

In addition to updating its iOS iWork apps for iOS 13, Apple has also introduced updates for Numbers, Keynote, and Pages on the Mac. The iWork for Mac updates are minor in scale, focusing on performance improvements and bug fixes. Details are available in the release notes below.

Pages for Mac Release Notes:

- Set the default font and font size used for all new documents created from basic templates.
- Easily add HEVC-formatted movies to documents, enabling reduced file size while preserving visual quality.
- Jump to a specific page in your document using a new menu command.
- Add accessibility descriptions to audio, video, and drawings.
- Improved accessibility of exported PDFs.

Numbers for Mac Release Notes:

- Improved performance when working with large tables.
- Easily add HEVC-formatted movies to spreadsheets, enabling reduced file size while preserving visual quality.
- Add accessibility descriptions to audio, video, and drawings.
- Improved accessibility of exported PDFs.

Keynote for Mac Release Notes:

- Easily add HEVC-formatted movies to presentations, enabling reduced file size while preserving visual quality.
- Jump to a specific slide in your presentation using a new menu command.
- Add accessibility descriptions to audio, video, and drawings.
- Improved accessibility of exported PDFs.

All of the new updates are available now from the iOS App Store and macOS ‌App Store‌.

Apple's iWork apps are free downloads for everyone.