MacRumors

Apple today updated its website to promote a monthly payment option for iPhone XR and ‌iPhone‌ XS trade-ups in the United States.

With the trade in of an older ‌iPhone‌ at an Apple Store in the United States, customers can get a new ‌iPhone‌ XR for as low as $18.99 per month or a new ‌iPhone‌ XS for as low as $29.99 per month for 24 months as part of a limited time promotion.

Paying in full remains an option, with the ‌iPhone‌ XR and ‌iPhone‌ XS starting at $449 and $699 respectively with the trade-in of an ‌iPhone‌ 7 Plus or ‌iPhone‌ 8. Trade-in values are up to $100 higher than usual as part of Apple's promotion, which doesn't have an end date in the U.S. yet but ends February 28 in Asia.

The monthly payment trade-in option is not available online. There is zero interest collected and a credit check is required.

Apple has been heavily promoting ‌iPhone‌ XR and ‌iPhone‌ XS trade-ins with a banner on the homepage of its website, store signage, emails to older ‌iPhone‌ users, and more since shortly after the smartphones launched last year.

Earlier this month, Apple slashed its revenue guidance by up to $9 billion for the first quarter of its 2019 fiscal year. In a letter to shareholders, Apple CEO Tim Cook said the company is undertaking and accelerating multiple initiatives to improve its results, including making it simple to trade in a phone at its stores.

Apple has registered seven unreleased iPad models in the Eurasian Economic Commission database this week, including models A2123, A2124, A2126, A2153, A2154, A2133, and A2152, according to the Indian blog MySmartPrice.

The filings are legally required for any encrypted devices sold in Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Russia.

These models could represent new versions of the iPad mini and the 9.7-inch ‌iPad‌, which may become 10 inches based on recent rumors.

Multiple sources have claimed Apple plans to launch a so-called iPad mini 5 and a new entry-level iPad with a 10-inch display, replacing the existing 9.7-inch model, including the China Times and supply chain-focused website DigiTimes. Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo also said a new iPad mini is in the works last year.

Eurasian Economic Commission filings like these have foreshadowed the release of new Apple products on numerous occasions, including multiple iPad and iPad Pro models, the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, Apple Watch Series 2 and Series 4, AirPods, the 2018 MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, and several other devices.

March is a common month for both Apple's first event of the year and ‌iPad‌ refreshes, so perhaps we'll see new models then.

Notably, Apple hasn't updated the ‌iPad mini‌ since September 2015.

Update: A seventh ‌iPad‌ model — A2126 — was also filed in the Eurasian database today.

The Los Angeles rail and bus transit system should allow iPhone-owning members of the public to use Apple Pay for fare payments before the year is out.

MacRumors can confirm that LA Metro, the transit agency that manages integration of the TAP card system in the Los Angeles Area, said it is working with Apple to support mobile payments for iPhones, with rollout scheduled for this fall. The information was obtained in a public information request under California law.

The support comes as part of a major update to the TAP system currently underway, which includes upgraded fare boxes across the transit system that will receive real-time data about fares purchased by the public online, a new TAP mobile app with TAP Wallet support to debut in late summer, and eventual support for Android phones with NFC, although the timeframe for the latter is unknown.

‌Apple Pay‌ support would enable commuters to hold a compatible iPhone or Apple Watch near a TAP card reader to pay their fare on buses and at turnstiles in subway stations throughout the TAP system.

The process is similar to using ‌Apple Pay‌ for in-store payments. Depending on the ‌iPhone‌, that means double-pressing the home button or side button, authenticating with Touch ID or Face ID, and holding the device near the card reader. Apple Watch payments are also activated by double-pressing the side button.

Los Angeles would join a handful of cities with transit systems that already support Apple Pay, including Chicago, Portland, and Salt Lake City in the United States, Beijing and Shanghai in China, and other global cities like London and Tokyo.

LA Metro's introduction of ‌Apple Pay‌ support is expected to increase public use of the transit system, which despite offering good accessibility, has seen its ridership figures wane in recent years.

A 2016 study by the University of Minnesota found the LA Metro to be the third most comprehensive system in the entire United States. However, in a metropolitan area of 13 million people, only about 360,000 people use rail on an average weekday, and just 855,000 ride the bus.

By contrast, in New York City, which has a population of around nine million, about five million people ride the subway on an average weekday.

Ahead of Chinese New Year, which falls on February 5, Apple has shared a new "Shot on iPhone" film created by Jia Zhangke.

Called, "The Bucket," the film was captured entirely on an ‌iPhone‌ XS, and it features a family wrapping up their Chinese New Year celebrations. A mother packs up goods for her son to take back to the city, equipping him with a heavy bucket to lug home.

The film uses ‌iPhone‌ techniques like slo-mo and Depth Control, with Apple uploading two additional behind-the-scenes tutorial style videos.

The full film shared by Apple features the ending line "The taste of home will always bring us back," while the other videos use the tagline "Capture the taste of home this Chinese New Year with ‌iPhone‌."

Apple is hoping to encourage sales of the ‌iPhone‌ during Chinese New Year, a major holiday in China. Earlier this month, Apple dropped the price of the ‌iPhone‌ XR and other iPhones for its channel partners, allowing third-party vendors to purchase iPhones more cheaply to pass those savings on to customers.

Apple is planning to pay the photographers who win its "Shot on iPhone" photography contest, the company announced today in an updated press release.

Apple clarified its position on payment for the photographs following multiple complaints from artists that were highlighted earlier today by The Verge.

The "Shot on iPhone" contest was first announced on Tuesday, and at the time, Apple appeared to be offering no compensation to the photographers. Winners would be paid in exposure, with Apple planning to display winning photographs on social media and on billboards.

Photographers were understandably upset at a company the size of Apple asking for artistic work sans compensation.

Apple now says that all photographers who win the contest will receive an unspecified licensing fee for the use of their photos on billboards and other marketing channels. It was not previously clear if Apple had intended to pay licensing fees, as the prior language released by the company did not mention it.

Apple believes strongly that artists should be compensated for their work. Photographers who shoot the final 10 winning photos will receive a licensing fee for use of such photos on billboards and other Apple marketing channels.

The updated information is available in the press release announcing the contest and the PDF with the official rules.

Apple's "Shot on ‌iPhone‌" contest kicked off on January 22 and will run through February 7 at 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time. The contest will be judged by both professional photographers and a selection of Apple employees with photography expertise.

Apple shipped an estimated 34.2 million iPhones in China in 2018, down from 36.7 million in 2017, according to new data shared today by Strategy Analytics.

During the fourth calendar quarter of 2018 (Apple's first fiscal quarter), Apple shipped 10.9 million iPhones, down from 14 million in the fourth quarter of 2017.

Apple surpassed Xiaomi to become the number four smartphone vendor in the country, but its iPhone sales fell short of Huawei, OPPO, and Vivo, all Chinese companies that make more affordable smartphones.

For 2018 in total, Apple came in fifth in China, trailing behind the four major Chinese smartphone vendors. Huawei was the number one vendor in China, shipping an estimated 105.1 million smartphones during the year. OPPO shipped 82.8 million, Vivo shipped 79.3 million, and Xiaomi shipped 50 million.

Apple lost market share in the fourth quarter of 2018, but gained ground overall in 2018. Apple held 10.1 percent of the smartphone market in the fourth quarter of 2018, down from 11.5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2017. Apple's total 2018 marketshare was 8.4 percent, up from 8 percent.

Despite the slight year-over-year jump, Apple trails all major Chinese smartphone vendors in the country when it comes to market share, including Huawei, OPPO, Vivo, and Xiaomi.

Fourth quarter smartphone shipments in China declined by 11 percent annually, with a total of 107.9 million units shipped by all vendors. That's down from 121.3 million in the fourth quarter of 2017. Smartphone shipments also fell 11 percent annually, with 408.5 million smartphones shipped in China in 2018 down from 459.6 million in 2017.

Overall smartphone shipments have declined for five consecutive quarters in China, which has heavily impacted Apple. Apple recently downgraded its guidance for the first fiscal quarter of 2019 (which is the fourth calendar quarter), blaming the move on poor ‌iPhone‌ sales, primarily in China.

Strategy Analytics Director Linda Sui said that the holiday quarter was Apple's worst performance since early 2017. Apple's ‌iPhone‌ shipments have dropped on a year-over-year basis in China for 8 of the last 12 quarters.

Apple has been under pressure in China for the past three years. Ongoing patent battles with Qualcomm are a distraction, while Apple is being heavily criticized for its expensive retail prices. Apple is in danger of pricing the iPhone out of China."

To boost sales in China, Apple has cut the prices of its iPhones for third-party distributors in China, allowing distributors to provide iPhones at lower prices for Chinese customers. The biggest discounts have been on the iPhone XR.

Apple's lowered pricing comes just ahead of the Chinese New Year in February, with Apple hoping the discounts will lure shoppers into purchasing a new ‌iPhone‌ during the holiday.

The iOS 12.2 beta, which was seeded to developers this morning, includes a hidden setup screen that confirms Apple's work on a new version of the AirPods with a "Hey Siri" feature.

The new setup screen, which was uncovered by 9to5Mac, indicates AirPods users will be able to activate ‌Siri‌ with a "Hey ‌Siri‌" command. The currently available AirPods do not support "Hey ‌Siri‌" functionality, and rumors have suggested Apple is working on a second-generation version.

When the second-generation AirPods are available, users will be asked to set up the "Hey ‌Siri‌" feature when pairing the AirPods to an iOS device for the first time. With "Hey ‌Siri‌" activated, AirPods users will be able to ask ‌Siri‌ questions without the need to tap on the earphones.

Rumors of second-generation AirPods have been circulating for some time, and "Hey ‌Siri‌" functionality has been an expected feature. Apple itself showed off "Hey ‌Siri‌" capabilities on the AirPods during the introduction to its September 2018 keynote event introducing new iPhones.

The inclusion of the "Hey ‌Siri‌" setup menu in iOS 12.2 perhaps suggests that we're nearing the release of second-generation AirPods.

We've also been expecting second-generation AirPods to feature a wireless charging case to be used with the AirPower, and the delay of the ‌AirPower‌ has presumably led to the delay of the new AirPods. It's not clear if Apple is planning to release an AirPods update without the ‌AirPower‌, but in recent weeks, we've heard rumors suggesting the ‌AirPower‌ is finally being manufactured, which means we could see a release in the next few months.

Yesterday, a new AirPods rumor from DigiTimes suggested Apple would introduce next-generation AirPods with an unspecified "health monitoring" feature during the first half of 2019. Whatever health functionality ‌DigiTimes‌ is talking about could be included alongside wireless charging and the confirmed "Hey ‌Siri‌" feature.

Reliable Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has also said that we can expect new AirPods to be released in early 2019.

Apple today released the first beta of iOS 12.2 for developers, and while it doesn't bring as many new changes as we might have hoped for in a 12.x update, there are still quite a few minor tweaks to be aware of.

Below, we've listed all of the new features and changes that we've discovered in iOS 12.2 so far, and we'll update this post should any additional features be found.

- Apple News for Canada - iOS 12.2 expands the availability of Apple News to Canada for the first time, with news sources available in either English or French.

- HomeKit TV Support - Apple recently announced that HomeKit support is coming to a number of third-party TVs, and iOS 12.2 introduces the infrastructure to allow users to add their TVs to ‌HomeKit‌.

- Home Controls for TVs - Open up the Home app, tap the house-shaped icon in the upper left, choose "Home Settings" and you'll see an updated section for "Allow Speaker & TV Access," which was previously just "Allow Speaker Access." This setting lets you choose who can access and send content to your speakers and TVs.

- Redesigned TV Remote - The TV Remote feature in Control Center has been redesigned with a more streamlined look that takes advantage of the entire display and does away with the large Home button. The TV Remote also has a new dark interface, which was added in beta 3.

- New Screen Mirroring Icon - There's a redesigned Screen Mirroring icon in the Control Center that features two displays rather than a single display and an arrow.

- Wallet - The Wallet interface has been slightly tweaked when viewing a single card within the Wallet app. The info button has been relocated to the top, and there's now a "Done" button instead of an option to tap other cards at the bottom of the app. Transaction information is now listed more clearly, with a longer history available. The main wallet interface is largely unchanged, but the "+" button to add a new card is now black instead of blue. These changes may have been implemented ahead of a credit card partnership Apple is rumored to be entering with Goldman Sachs, which could be unveiled soon.

- Apple Pay Cash - There's an "Add Money" option in Wallet when you select the Apple Pay Cash card. Before, you needed to go into the more detailed ‌Apple Pay‌ Cash view to add money to the card.

- New AirPlay icon - Some users are seeing a new AirPlay icon when AirPlaying to certain devices.

- Safari search arrows - When entering a search term or website in the main bar in Safari, under the "Google Search" autofill section, there are now little blue arrows. Tapping an arrow adds the text to the search field, so you can get more targeted search results with just a few taps. In prior versions of Safari, tapping on a Google Search result simply conducted the search.

- Unsecure websites - Sites that do not use a secure HTTPS connection are now prominently listed as "Not Secure" in the Safari menu bar. There was a "Not Secure" feature in prior versions of iOS, but it only showed up on pages requesting a password or credit card. Now any unencrypted site shows the "Not Secure" heading.

- Air Quality in Maps - In the Maps app, there's a new option to display Air Quality alongside weather readings. It can be activated in the Maps section of the Settings app.

- Downtime in Screen Time - When using the Downtime feature in Screen Time, you can set Downtime options on a day by day basis. Prior to iOS 12.2, you weren't able to select specific days and times to activate Downtime.

- Safari Privacy - Apple is improving Safari's privacy in iOS 12.2 through a new Motion & Orientation toggle located under Settings --> Safari --> Privacy & Security, which is disabled by default. The setting needs to be enabled on to allow websites to display content that relies on motion data from the accelerometer and gyroscope in the iPhone and iPad.

- Lock screen charging fix - The second beta of iOS 12.2 had a pesky bug that caused the ‌iPhone‌'s charge to be displayed on the Lock screen instead of the time. In beta 3, that's been fixed.

- Apple News logo - In the ‌Apple News‌ app, instead of spelling out "‌Apple News‌," Apple uses the "" symbol along with the word "News," similar to ‌Apple Pay‌.

-‌Apple News‌ app icon - Along with a new logo, ‌Apple News‌ has a new app icon featuring a stylized red N on a field of white.

- About screen - The interface for viewing information about your ‌iPhone‌ has been updated and rearranged in a more logical way with info like model number and serial number at the top with carrier information at the bottom.

- Group FaceTime bug fix - The Group ‌FaceTime‌ bug has been addressed in iOS 12.2 and Group ‌FaceTime‌ is now once again available to iOS 12.2 users.

Siri Apple Store suggestions - There's a new section under Siri & Search > Apple Store that indicates ‌Siri‌ in iOS 12.2 will be able to suggest Today at Apple sessions for you based on your Safari and app usage.

- Control Center Remote icon - The Remote icon in Control Center now resembles a remote instead of using an Apple TV logo.

Intelligent Tracking Prevention in Safari - In iOS 12.2, Apple is adding updates to Safari's Intelligent Tracking Prevention feature to make it even harder for websites to track you. Apple is also nixing support for Do Not Track, an outdated opt-in feature that many websites ignored.

Audio Messages quality - Audio messages, which can be sent in the Messages app, sound a lot better in iOS 12.2 thanks to the adoption of a new 24000 Hz Opus codec that makes spoken audio sent to friends and family crisper, clearer, and louder. The higher quality audio messages can be sent and received from devices running the iOS 12.2 update.

The iOS 12.2 update is available to both developers and public beta testers at the current time. It's not yet known when Apple plans to release the update, but because it includes hints of the new ‌Apple News‌ service, which is expected to debut in late March, it could be released right around that time.

iOS 12.2 and macOS Mojave 10.14.4, available in a beta capacity for developers as of this morning, expands the availability of Apple News app to Canada for the first time.

Canadian iPhone, iPad, and Mac owners can use ‌Apple News‌ in both English and French, with Apple's release notes indicating a bilingual experience is available when following a channel in a second language.

Apple says that publications available during the beta testing period do not reflect all of the content that will be available, and Top Stories and Digests are not updated as frequently as they will be when the feature officially launches.

‌Apple News‌ first launched in iOS 9 in 2015, and initially, it was only available in the United States. It later launched in Australia and the UK, and those countries, along with Canada, are the only countries where the app can be accessed without adjusting the region location.

Canadians who are using ‌Apple News‌ for the first time (and U.S. readers) can access MacRumors content by following this link.

‌Apple News‌ in Canada is limited to developers at the current time, but will be available to public beta testers as well when Apple releases public betas. iOS 12.2 and macOS Mojave 10.14.4 should see an official launch after several weeks of beta testing.

Apple today seeded the first beta of an upcoming iOS 12.2 update to developers, just a couple of days after the release of iOS 12.1.3, a minor update that introduced bug fixes for Messages, Photos, the iPad Pro, and the HomePod.

Registered developers can download the new iOS 12.2 beta from Apple's Developer Center or over-the-air once the proper configuration profile has been installed from the Developer Center.

As a 12.x update, the new software may include more significant features than the prior 12.x.x updates that we've had recently. iOS 12.2 will mark the second major update to iOS 12 after iOS 12.1, an update that brought eSIM support and Group FaceTime.

We don't yet know what's new in iOS 12.2, but once we've installed the software, we'll update this post with any new features that are discovered.

What's new in iOS 12.2: Today's update expands the availability of Apple News to Canada for the first time. It also brings support for TVs in HomeKit and adds an updated AirPlay icon.

The TV Remote feature in Control Center has been redesigned with a more streamlined look that takes advantage of the entire display and does away with the large Home button.

According to Apple's release notes for the update, there are some known issues. Users may be unable to authenticate in Apple Pay within Wallet after selecting a card, and users may be unable to purchase prepaid data plans using cellular data. Siri does not work in iOS simulators.

High and low heart rate notifications and irregular heart rhythm notifications are available as read-only category samples in HealthKit.