Apple today announced that Paul McCartney's new music video "Who Cares" is available to watch exclusively on Apple Music.
"Who Cares" is a six-minute video starring McCartney and Emma Stone that calls for an end to bullying.
"My hope is that if there are kids being bullied, and there are, maybe by listening to this song and watching this video, they might just think it's not as bad," McCartney said. "It's the kind of thing you can just stand up to and laugh off and get through."
Back in 2014, iPhone user Garrett Wilhelm was using FaceTime on his iPhone 6 Plus while driving, causing him to crash into the back of another vehicle.
The crash resulted in the death of five-year-old Moriah Modisette, and her father, James Modisette, launched a lawsuit in 2017 against Apple for not offering safety warnings or a feature that disables FaceTime while a person is driving.
The lawsuit contended that Apple had, at the time, patented technology that would have prevented FaceTime from being used while a vehicle is being operated, but had not installed it in the iPhone 6. The plaintiffs requested damages from Apple for its "wrongful failure to install and implement the safer, alternative design for which it sought a patent in December 2008."
"At the time of the collision in question, the iPhone utilized by Wilhelm contained the necessary hardware (to be configured with software) to automatically disable or 'lock out' the ability to use [FaceTime] ... However, Apple failed to configure the iPhone to automatically 'lock out' the ability to utilize FaceTime while driving at highway speeds, despite having the technical capability to do so."
The lawsuit against Apple was dismissed after a court decided that Apple was not at fault for the crash, and as of today, a California appeals court has agreed with that decision.
According to the BBC, the appeals court ruled Apple "did not owe the Modisettes a duty of care," and that it was not up to Apple to take responsibility for the actions of individuals using its apps. The family, said the court, could not establish that the design of the iPhone was the cause of the injuries suffered.
Garrett Wilhelm, the driver of the vehicle who killed the girl, was indicted on manslaughter charges. His trial has been delayed several times because the FHI has not yet been able to gather data from his iPhone, but if he is found guilty, he could serve up to 20 years in prison. Wilhelm is set to be tried before a jury on June 3, 2019.
While Apple was not found to be responsible for the crash, the Cupertino company has since implemented a Do Not Disturb While Driving feature designed to prevent iPhone users from accessing apps like FaceTime while operating a vehicle.
Do Not Disturb While Driving was implemented in iOS 11 and it is designed to block incoming messages and phone calls if a phone is not connected to a car via Bluetooth.
Third-party Apple Watch bands have been around since Apple debuted the original Apple Watch back in 2015, typically offering customers a low-priced alternative to styling their watch, as opposed to Apple's bands, which start at $50.
From left to right: Rosé, Orchid, High Tide, and Denim Braxley Bands
A new option for shoppers is now offered by an Austin, Texas-based company called Braxley Bands, which sells $30 Apple Watch bands with a unique twist: they're unibody bands that are fully elastic and stretch over your hand to lay on your wrist.
Installation
Like all other Apple Watch bands, Braxley Bands snap onto the Apple Watch case by sliding the lugs into the cutouts at the top and bottom of the Apple Watch. There is a logo on each band, but they face inward when wearing your Apple Watch, so they won't be visible.
The Braxley Bands didn't fit in my Apple Watch Series 2 quite as snug as the bands made by Apple itself (like my Sport Loop and Classic Buckle), so there was a bit of a wiggle when I would check each side of the band. This wasn't so bad that I worried the Braxley Bands would disconnect, however, and is a reality of some third-party Apple Watch bands.
Once installed, Braxley Bands have one of the simplest processes to place on your wrist: you stretch the band until it's big enough to go over your hand, and slide it up onto your wrist. Some of the company's materials make this more difficult initially, including the Denim and Rosé options I received, leading to a bit of a struggle to stretch the material over the larger part of your hand before it snaps back into place on your wrist.
Apple has signed an exclusive TV development deal with Justin Lin's Perfect Storm Entertainment company, reports Variety.
Justin Lin is known for directing several of the movies in the "Fast and Furious" franchise, including the 2009 "Fast and Furious" revival movie, "Fast Five," and "Fast and Furious 6." He also directed "Star Trek: Beyond" and has worked on episodes of "Community" and "True Detective."
Image Credit: Hee Chul/EPA/REX/Shutterstock, via Variety
Lin's deal with Apple comes after he spent six years working with Sony Pictures TV. His company, Perfect Storm Entertainment, developed several Sony TV shows for CBS including "Scorpion," "S.W.A.T," and "Magnum P.I."
Under the terms of the deal with Apple, Andrew Schneider, who has previously worked with Free Association and Fox 21 Television Studios, will run Perfect Storm Entertainment TV.
Specific details on television shows that Lin will develop for Apple are unknown at this time, but Perfect Storm Entertainment will be exclusively creating content for Apple.
Apple has dozens of original television shows and projects in the works at the current time as it prepares to launch a subscription television and movie service that could debut sometime in 2019.
A full list of the company's television and movie projects can be found in the original content section of our Apple TV roundup.
T-Mobile today announced the launch of its new T-Mobile eSIM app (via VentureBeat), designed to allow iPhone XR, XS, and XS Max users to sign up for T-Mobile as a second carrier via the eSIM feature in the newest iPhones.
U.S. customers who want to try T-Mobile, existing customers that want separate lines, and people traveling to the United States can add T-Mobile as a secondary prepaid line to any iPhone XS, XS Max, or XR using the new T-Mobile app.
T-Mobile is offering three different prepaid eSIM plans:
T-Mobile ONE Prepaid with unlimited voice, text, and data for $70; 30 day expiry
Simply Prepaid with unlimited voice, text, and 10GB of LTE data for $40; 30 day expiry
Tourist Plan with 1000 minutes, unlimited text, and 2GB of LTE data for $30; 21 day expiry
Adding T-Mobile as a secondary carrier on a device is as simple as downloading the T-Mobile eSIM app, entering an email address, and following the activation steps within the app.
At the current time, T-Mobile is only offering prepaid eSIM plans, but the carrier says it will also offer postpaid ongoing eSIM plans in the future. For those looking for an immediate postpaid solution to add an ongoing T-Mobile service plan as a secondary eSIM option to an iPhone, our forum members have outlined a possible solution that some users have been able to get working.
The eSIM, or digital SIM, is designed to let new iPhone users activate a cellular plan from a carrier without the need to use a physical SIM card.
With eSIM support, dual-SIM functionality is available on the iPhone XR, XS, and XS Max, enabled through the existing physical SIM slot and the eSIM in all countries with the exception of China. In China, the new iPhones have two SIM card slots.
T-Mobile is the third U.S. carrier to implement support for the eSIM, following Apple's activation of the feature in iOS 12.1. Verizon and AT&T both added eSIM support to their services last week.
The T-Mobile eSIM app can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]
Amazon this week has discounted the all-new 11-inch iPad Pro by as much as $70 for select configurations. Both Wi-Fi only and Wi-Fi + Cellular models are available in the sale, with the lowest priced iPad starting at $759.00 for the 64GB Wi-Fi model, down from $799.00. These are currently the lowest prices available online for the configurations listed below, although they are being matched at MacMall and B&H Photo in a few instances.
Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with these vendors. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.
Also on Amazon, Anker has a new crop of promo codes available for shoppers this week, aimed at anyone looking for a few last-minute holiday shopping ideas. Amazon Prime members have until Saturday, December 22 to order items with free two-day shipping in time for Christmas, which would put items to arrive on Christmas Eve.
In another sale, Best Buy has the Apple Watch Series 3 discounted by as much as $50 this week. The cheapest Apple Watch in the sale is the 38mm Aluminum model with GPS, priced at $229.00, down from $279.00. Those looking for the larger sized Apple Watch can purchase the 42mm Aluminum model with GPS for $259.00, down from $309.00.
There are GPS + Cellular models available at a discount as well, starting at $329.00, down from $379.00 for 38mm Aluminum. Those looking for Stainless Steel cases will also find a few devices discounted in Best Buy's sale, with these options starting at $579.00 for 42mm Space Black Stainless Steel and rising from there. Head to Best Buy to check out the full list of Apple Watch Series 3 devices on sale.
Best Buy's 20 Days of Doorbusters event is nearly over, and today has a few notable deals. The main discount is Sony's Wireless Noise Cancelling Over-the-Ear Headphones for $114.99, down from $249.99. You can also save on Anki robots: Vector is available for $164.99, down from $249.99, and Cosmo is priced at $125.99, down from $179.99.
Be sure to visit our Deals Roundup for more information on all of the best sales to keep an eye on during the final week of holiday shopping.
One year ago, Apple awarded the meditation app "Calm" as the iPhone app of the year, and since then the company has dethroned the previous #1 meditation app on the iOS App Store, "Headspace." In a new report by The Wall Street Journal out today, the two companies talk about how they are in a "mindful competition" with one another, and about the merits of Apple's best of the year awards system.
Calm (left) and Headspace (right)
Headspace predates Calm (founded in 2010 and 2012, respectively), and dominated the iOS App Store's meditation space throughout its life, until 2018. According to Calm chief product and growth officer Dun Wang, "Since winning App of the Year, we seem to have a much higher growth rate than they do, and we'll surpass them from now on."
Since December 2017, Calm has topped the meditation category in both downloads and mobile revenue, earning $50.7 million in revenue through October 2018, compared to $34.3 million for Headspace, according to Sensor Tower data. One Headspace spokeswoman pointed out that Sensor Tower's data didn't account for subscriptions paid for through its website and corporate partnerships. Both Calm and Headspace cost $12.99/month, but differ when you upgrade to a yearly subscription: Calm is priced at $69.99/year and Headspace is priced at $94.99/year.
Apple's award is said to be "a touchy subject" at Headspace.
“I think people are blowing App-of-the-Year way out of proportion,” says Ben Spero, a managing director at Spectrum Equity, a Headspace investor. “It’s good P.R., but it’s not determinative. It’s not that Apple was saying that Calm is a better app—they’re big fans of Headspace, too,” he says, pointing out that the App Store often features Headspace on its landing page.
Calm co-CEO and co-founder Michael Acton Smith on the competition with Headspace:
“We’re both growing the sector. This is such a huge market, there’s going to be room for a few different winners,” Mr. Acton Smith says. “We want Calm to be the number one, of course—and we wish the others the best for second place.”
Calm and Headspace offer largely the same experiences, with slightly different variations on meditation. A Calm subscription grants you access to a new "Daily Calm" meditation every day, new featured Sleep Stories narrated by celebrities like Matthew McConaughey, mindful music, and a central meditation tab with dozens of classes that offer 7 to 21 days of focusing on anxiety, stress, happiness, self-esteem, and more.
Headspace offers classes for focus, exercise, and sleep; an "Everyday Headspace" with new meditation topics each day; mini-meditations; sleep sounds; and more. Both apps have coaches that guide you through everything so that you can follow the exact steps for each meditation.
Recently, Headspace has signed deals with more than 300 companies to integrate the app into employee health and wellness benefits, but according to a Calm investor these are just vanity partnerships: "Calm has managed to overtake Headspace because they've been laser-focused without getting distracted by the types of vanity partnerships, like with sports teams, that look good in the press but don't move the needle."
Still, Dun Wang at Calm says that sometimes companies approached by Headspace will then contact Calm and ask if they want to put in an offer as well. "It's working out great for us. We don't need to be the ones making the cold calls to win these projects."
Next, Headspace plans to make waves by becoming the first prescription meditation app for certain chronic illnesses, by seeking Food and Drug Administration approval. If granted, Headspace could be covered by health insurance.
As of writing, Calm is #1 on the Health & Fitness iOS App Store chart for top free apps, while Headspace is #5. You can download Calm [Direct Link] and Headspace [Direct Link] for free from the iOS App Store.
Apple is rolling out a new promotion that offers customers a 10 percent bonus when adding funds directly to their Apple ID account in the United States between December 17-20. The bonus applies once on up to $200 and was first highlighted by Japanese blog Mac Otakara.
The funds can be used towards purchases on the iTunes Store and App Store, an iCloud storage subscription, and so forth.
To add funds directly to an Apple ID, go to Settings > Your Name > iTunes & App Store and tap your Apple ID > View Apple ID. Sign in if necessary, tap "Add Funds to Apple ID," tap the amount that you want to add, and confirm your selection. There's also a shortcut available at the bottom of the App Store.
Adding funds to an Apple ID requires having a valid payment method on file and is particularly useful for prepaid credit cards.
Some customers might report that after they've updated to iOS 11.3, the microphone on their iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus doesn't work and the speaker button is grayed out when they make or receive a call.
Symptoms: - The speaker button is grayed out during calls - Other people are unable to hear the customer on cellular or FaceTime calls - If a customer plays back a video or voice memo that they've made after installing iOS 11.3, there is no sound
Apple's document then provided troubleshooting steps for its service providers to follow, including disconnecting any Bluetooth headsets or accessories connected to the iPhone. If the issue persisted, and the iPhone was out-of-warranty, Apple advised service providers to "request a warranty exception" with the company.
For a short time, Apple Stores and Apple Authorized Service Providers were able to proceed with repairs at no cost to the customer.
"I just had my wife's iPhone 7 replaced this morning," wrote one MacRumors forum member on July 30, 2018, in a discussion topic about the issue. "Out of warranty and Apple took care of the bill. The mic on the device had failed."
The exemptions abruptly ended in July of 2018, though, when Apple deleted its internal document related to the microphone issue and prevented free repairs from being processed through its service portal. Since then, many Apple retail and support employees have refused to acknowledge the policy ever existed.
MacRumors has received several emails from affected customers since we published our article in July, but there has been little we can do to help. Apple did not respond to our original request for comment, so we've followed up today.
The microphone issue appears to remain a problem as of iOS 12.1.1, but Apple's document never identified a cause. Based on the number of users affected, it is almost certainly a hardware defect, so it's unclear why Apple is no longer offering free repairs and forcing customers to pay out of pocket for a fix.
Apple's out-of-warranty repair fee for this issue is over $300 in the United States, according to affected customers on the MacRumors forums and Twitter. iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus devices still within Apple's limited one-year warranty period or covered by AppleCare+ remain eligible for a free repair.
"I had this issue a month ago and paid $349 for a replacement," said one MacRumors reader in an email. "Two weeks ago my brother in law started having the same issue with his iPhone 7 Plus and today my wife's iPhone 7 started doing the same thing. It's a new phone and barely 15 months old."
"Unfortunately, I like hundreds have been told by Apple that 'we don't know what you're talking about,' and Apple wants $319 to send me a refurbished phone that they can't tell me won't have the same problem," another reader emailed.
Twitter is home to similar complaints:
so ios 12 broke all of my iphone 7’s microphones and apple wants $320 to replace it... what do i do
— michael (@meantomatoes) December 6, 2018
Called @AppleSupport because iPhone 7+ microphone stopped working during calls. It’s a common issue, not damage. Their answer: pay us! Apple doesn’t support its products or customers. #Pixel3 looking pretty good... https://t.co/LQJS37yEYc
— Michael Seth (@wolfms) November 24, 2018
@Apple I upgraded my Iphone 7 to IOS 12.1 - it just stopped working, does not work speaker, microphone, does not make calls, I do not hear anything. It was u updated the software to 12.1 and stoped everything.
— Ana Carol Oliveira (@anacsso) November 3, 2018
@AppleSupport@AppStore you guys have some shaddy gray policies about your products. I have an iphone 7 Plus with a grayed out microphone, issue wich applies for a recall product, i went to an apple store and they told me I have to pay 475 usd to get it solved.
— Paola Valdez (@paola0666) October 21, 2018
It's worth noting that a few customers have managed to argue their way to a free repair, but this is not the common result.
Apple has a track record of great customer service, and it offers several different public repair programs for hardware issues on various products, but it appears to be leaving customers in the dust here for reasons unclear. We'd love to hear Apple's side of the situation if the company chooses to respond.
In the meantime, repairs can be initiated by booking an appointment at a Genius Bar or at an Apple Authorized Service Provider via the Contact Apple Support page: iPhone → Repairs & Physical Damage → Unable to Hear Through Receiver or Speakers → Built-in Speaker → Bring In For Repair.
Senior Tesla designer Andrew Kim has left his role at the automotive company to join Apple (via The Verge). Kim is the the latest in a long line of Tesla employees who have left the company for Apple, including Tesla lead engineer Doug Field's return to Apple this past August.
Kim's work history includes user interface design at Microsoft, contributions to HoloLens and Xbox One S, and designs for Tesla's Model 3, S, X, and Y. His LinkedIn profile confirms his move to Apple this month, but doesn't specify what he'll be doing at the company outside of being a "Designer." Due to his history, it could be work on Apple's rumored AR glasses, Project Titan, or something else entirely.
Project Titan is Apple's long-rumored vehicle project, which is believed to have originated in 2014 and could see a consumer Apple Car available between 2023 and 2025, according to Ming-Chi Kuo. This estimate came from a report in August, but previous rumors suggested that focus on Project Titan has shifted to autonomous driving software for cars instead of a vehicle specifically designed by Apple.
Kuo's report and news about Apple's hiring of Tesla employees -- now including Kim -- have reignited the speculation that Apple could again be planning to build its own vehicle. If accurate, the future Apple Car would have Apple's autonomous driving software built inside of a car designed by the Cupertino company.
Chinese smartphone maker Huawei today introduced the Nova 4, featuring what has become known as a "hole-punch" display.
The "hole-punch" design refers to the tiny hole for the 25-megapixel front camera, rather than the controversial notch, allowing for a nearly edge to edge display. Of course, this means the Nova 4 lacks the necessary sensors for 3D facial recognition and instead relies on a fingerprint scanner for authentication.
The display still has a thicker bottom bezel, known as a "chin," so this still isn't a completely full-screen design.
As noted by The Verge, the Nova 4 follows in the footsteps of Huawei's View 20 and Samsung's new Galaxy A8s as the latest smartphone with a "hole-punch" display. The Nova 4 also has a triple-lens rear camera setup, including a main 48-megapixel lens, a trend that some 2019 iPhones are expected to follow.
Galaxy A8s
There's a slim chance that Apple ever adopts the "hole-punch" design for iPhones due to the TrueDepth system for Face ID, unless it invents new ways to integrate all of the various sensors under the display. The more likely possibility is that the notch is here to stay for now, but gets slimmed down over time.
The Nova 4 is currently limited to China, priced around the equivalent of $490. Huawei will likely expand availability to select other regions soon, although its devices aren't available through any major carriers in the United States.
Two and a half months after Apple announced the completion of its Shazam acquisition, the music recognition iOS app is now completely ad-free [Direct Link]. Previously, Shazam would present users with various border advertisements throughout the app, similar to most other ad-supported iOS apps, but as long as you are on version 12.5.1 you will no longer see any ads in Shazam.
The app still opens on the main "tap to Shazam" screen, where you can discover a song by allowing Shazam to listen to it. To the left of the main screen is the "My Shazam" area, where the app keeps a list of all the songs you have Shazamed recently. To the right of the main screen is Shazam's "Discover" tab with artist, song, and playlist recommendations, user posts, friend Shazams, and more.
Shazam finally going ad-free comes one year after Apple first announced its plans to acquire Shazam back in December 2017. At the time, Apple said, "Apple Music and Shazam are a natural fit," and that the two companies "have exciting plans in store." In September 2018, Apple completed the acquisition and said that the Shazam app would become ad-free soon.
In October 2018, Shazam began informing its users about the Apple acquisition and aligning its data privacy policies with those of Apple. Shazam has been built into Siri since iOS 8 and there are connections with Apple Music in the Shazam app, and Apple is expected to further integrate the music recognition service with its products down the line.
It appears that the App Store on iOS devices has been experiencing an issue causing missing ratings and reviews over the past day or so.
The problem was alerted to us by MacRumors reader Robin van Doorn, who noticed that his apps Centraal Beheer and Run Trainer suddenly have around 1,000 fewer ratings displayed in the App Store. Other developers have acknowledged the glitch on Twitter, although not every developer is affected.
While some developers have seen their ratings count return to normal, others have tweeted about the issue within the past few hours:
Hey @AppStore there seems to be a bug with the number of ratings displayed for all apps (it’s been showing a much lower number than the actual for a couple days).
— Kyle Richey (@ConquerApathy) December 17, 2018
Bug on the Apple App Store? Half the number of ratings in the search results vs when on the app listing? pic.twitter.com/KGS0nA1anc
— Ryan Murton (@ryan_murton) December 17, 2018
Hoping this is just a temporary glitch but my apps lost 50% of their #AppStore#ratings overnight... Go fix it Apple, thanks 😅😑
— Edouard Barbier 👨🏻💻📲 (@barbieredouard) December 17, 2018
The unexplained drop in App Store ratings, first reported by the blog The Apple Post, is visible in the App Store Connect dashboard for some developers. A few users have shared screenshots of a discrepancy between the number of ratings displayed in App Store search results and specific app listings as well.
It's not entirely clear if the issue is limited to certain regions or other parameters, but hopefully Apple resolves the issue for everyone soon.
The New York Times today printed an interesting article exploring how Apple co-founder Steve Jobs set up a Macintosh manufacturing plant in Fremont, California in the 1980s that failed early on into its tenure.
Titled "When Apple Was Homegrown," the piece by John Markoff offers an insight into Jobs' fascination with Henry Ford's mass automobile manufacturing in Detroit and the high-quality manufacturing capabilities of Japanese companies like Sony, and how Jobs aimed to synthesize the two cultures in a "highly automated" Mac factory.
Apple's ill-fated California Macintosh facility (Credit: Terrence McCarthy for NYT)
"Steve had deep convictions about Japanese manufacturing processes," recalled Randy Battat, who joined Apple as a young electrical engineer and oversaw the introduction of some of the company's early portable computers. "The Japanese were heralded as wizards of manufacturing. The idea was to create a factory with just-in-time delivery of zero-defect parts. It wasn't great for business."
Construction of the plant, located just across San Francisco Bay from Apple's headquarters, began in 1983. The first reporters to tour it were told that factory labor would account for 2 percent of the cost of making a Macintosh, thanks to its state-of-the-art production line. Expectations were therefore high, but the practical realities of working at the plant were markedly different.
Mr. Gassée, a French specialist in office automation, had just been promoted to president of Apple’s product division by John Sculley, then Apple's chief executive, and was responsible for the company's engineering and manufacturing work. When he first started, Mr. Gassée decided to spend two days learning how the company actually built its products by working on a factory production line.
[...]
"I embarrassed myself attaching a display to the computer bezel with a screwdriver," Mr. Gassée recalled in a recent interview. At the end of his shift, Mr. Gassée grabbed a broom and swept up the parts that had fallen off the production line. "It was really shameful," he said of the noticeably slipshod process.
Lacking the requisite schooling and subcontractors, Apple's Macintosh manufacturing in California was unable to reach the production volume that Jobs had envisioned. Eight years later, the plant was shuttered.
Jobs made a second attempt to establish a manufacturing culture in Silicon Valley shortly after leaving Apple. In 1990 he oversaw another $10 million plant to build his Next personal workstation. The facility featured robotic devices, but it too was unable to produce in quantities that would support a long-term assembly operation, and it failed just like its Apple predecessor.
Jobs' thinking on manufacturing had changed by the time he returned to Apple in 1997, and the next year he hired veteran supply chain overseer Tim Cook as Apple's senior VP for worldwide operations. Apple's manufacturing outsourcing quickly expanded to form a sprawling ecosystem of global suppliers.
"When I started my career, all my flights were to Japan," said Tony Fadell, one of the hardware designers of the iPod and iPhone at Apple. "Then all my flights went Korea, then Taiwan, then China."
Aside from specialist operations like the Mac Pro facility in Austin, Texas, the vast majority of Apple's manufacturing takes place outside of the U.S. Indeed, in recent years under Cook's watch as CEO, Apple's complex web of global suppliers has boomed in response to the demand of making products like the iPhone for mass markets. "You can't bring manufacturing back because of those webs," said Andrew Hargadon, a former Apple product designer who worked on the Macintosh Powerbook Duo in the early 1990s. "You would have to bring the entire community back," he told Markoff.
Recently, Apple announced plans to build a new $1 billion campus in Austin, Texas, as well as plans for a general expansion of operations over the next three years in cities across the United States. The plans are expected to create thousands more jobs, although the large majority of them aren't thought to be in manufacturing. Apple says it is on track to create 20,000 jobs in the U.S. by 2023.
Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.
To go with the new 11 and 12.9-inch iPad Pro models, Apple designed a second-generation Apple Pencil. In addition to doing away with the Lightning connector thanks to a new built-in magnetic charging method, the Apple Pencil 2 also supports tap gestures.
Tap gestures can be used to do things like swap between a drawing tool and an eraser in a sketching app, which is a super handy way to switch between two tools quickly. You can customize the settings of your Apple Pencil 2 on your iPad. Here's how:
Open up the Settings app on the iPad with the Apple Pencil connected.
Choose the "Apple Pencil" section.
Select the function you want the tap gesture to have.
You can choose between three options for the tap gesture on the Apple Pencil: Switch Between Current Tool and Eraser, Switch Between Current Tool and Last Used, and Show Color Palette. You can also choose to turn the tap feature off entirely if it's not useful.
Forbes recently challenged a variety of smartphone face-recognition systems with a 3d printed head modeled after the author's head.
The head was printed at Backface in Birmingham, U.K., where I was ushered into a dome-like studio containing 50 cameras. Together, they combine to take a single shot that makes up a full 3D image.
The final model took a few days to generate at the cost of just over £300. With it, the author tested it out against four Android smartphones and the iPhone X. All Android phones tested were able to be unlocked with the fake 3d printed head.
If you're an Android customer, though, look away from your screen now. We tested four of the hottest handsets running Google's operating systems and Apple's iPhone to see how easy it'd be to break into them. We did it with a 3D-printed head. All of the Androids opened with the fake. Apple's phone, however, was impenetrable.
The Android phones tested included the LG G7 ThinQ, Samsung S9, Samsung Note 8 and OnePlus 6.
It's been long known that many implementations of facial recognition amongst Android phones have been less secure than Apple's Face ID system. Some of those face recognition systems have been fooled with simple photographs. Apple's Face ID, however, also includes IR depth mapping and attention awareness technology. The attention awareness alone may be enough to explain the inability for a static 3d printed head to unlock the iPhone X. That said, the iPhone X's Face ID has been fooled in the past with more sophisticated printed 3d heads.
In macOS Mojave, you can choose to encrypt and decrypt disks on the fly right from the desktop. Using this convenient Finder option, we're going to show you how to encrypt a USB flash drive (or "thumb drive"), which is useful if you're traveling light and want to take sensitive data with you for use on another Mac.
Finder uses XTS-AES encryption, the same encryption that FileVault 2 uses to prevent access to data on a Mac's startup disk without a password. Note that the following method is only compatible with Macs – you won't be able to access data on the encrypted drive using a Windows machine.
If this is a requirement, you'll need to use a third-party encryption solution like VeraCrypt. With that in mind, here's how to securely encrypt your USB flash drive.
Attach the USB flash drive to your Mac and locate its disk icon on your desktop, in a Finder window, or in the Finder sidebar, then right-click (or Ctrl-click) it and select Encrypt "[USB stick name]"... from the contextual menu.
(Note that if you don't see the Encrypt option in the dropdown menu, your USB flash drive hasn't been formatted with a GUID partition map. To resolve this, you'll need to erase and encrypt the USB drive in Disk Utility – before that though, copy any data on the drive to another location for temporary safekeeping.)
When you select Encrypt, Finder will prompt you to create a password, which you'll need to enter the next time you attach the USB flash drive to a Mac. (Don't forget this, otherwise you'll lose access to any data stored on the USB drive!) Once you've chosen a password, verify it, add a meaningful hint if desired, and click Encrypt Disk.
The encryption process depends on how much data you have on the USB flash drive, but you'll know it's completed when its disk icon disappears and re-mounts. You'll now be able to access the contents of the USB flash drive as usual, but if you physically detach it and re-attach it to your Mac you'll be prompted to enter the password.
Note that the prompt includes an option for macOS to remember this password in my keychain. Check the box, and whenever you attach the USB stick to your Mac again you won't be prompted to enter the password and you'll have automatic access to it, just like any other drive.
If you ever want to decrypt the USB flash drive in future, right-click (or Ctrl-click) its disk icon, select Decrypt "[USB stick name]" from the contextual menu, and enter the password to turn off encryption protection.
How to Encrypt a USB Flash Drive in Disk Utility
Before proceeding, make sure you've copied any data on the USB flash drive to a safe location, like your Mac's internal disk.
Launch Disk Utility, located on your Mac in Applications/Utilities.
In the Disk Utility toolbar, click the View button and select Show All Devices if it isn't already ticked.
Select your USB flash drive in the sidebar by clicking its top-level device name (i.e. not the volume name that's listed beneath it).
Click the Erase button in the toolbar.
Give the USB flash drive a name.
Next, click the Scheme dropdown menu and select GUID Partition Map. (It's important to do this first before the next step, otherwise you won't see the encryption option in the Format dropdown.)
Now click the Format dropdown menu and select Mac OS Extended (Journaled, Encrypted).
Click Erase.
Enter your new password, enter it once more to verify, include a password hint if desired, then click Choose.
Click Erase once again, and wait for your disk to be formatted and encrypted.
Once the process is complete, copy across your sensitive data to the blank USB flash drive, where it will be automatically encrypted and secured with a password.
Apple's newest iPad Pro models, available in 11 and 12.9 inches, are the first iPads not to feature a Home button. On traditional iPads, you press on the volume button and the home button to take a screenshot.
On the new iPad Pro models, taking a screenshot is just as easy, but the gesture is a bit different. To capture a screenshot, press on the power button located at the top of the device and the volume up button located on the right of the device at the same time.
The two buttons are located closely together, so it's just a quick pinch gesture. This is the same way you take a screenshot on the iPhone X and later, Apple's iPhones without home buttons.
Make sure to press the volume up button and not the volume down button as the volume up + power gesture is the only gesture that will capture a screenshot. Pressing volume down and power will ignore the volume down and turn the display off. You'll also need to make sure just to press and release, as holding down the buttons will initiate a restart.