MacRumors

Apple has shared a new "Shot on iPhone XS" video featuring Toronto Maple Leafs stars Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner on its YouTube channel in the U.S. and Canada, just in time for the start of the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs tonight.


In the short clip, Matthews films a day in the life of Marner as the teammates travel, practice, greet fans, and more.

The Maple Leafs are set to face the Boston Bruins in the first round of the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs on Thursday at 7:00 p.m. Eastern on NBCSN and CBC. The playoffs begin tonight with ten teams hitting the ice, including the President's Trophy winning Tampa Bay Lightning versus the Columbus Blue Jackets.

nhl apple
Earlier this year, while in nearby San Jose for the 2019 NHL All-Star Game, Matthews joined NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, Edmonton Oilers star Connor McDavid, and Apple's marketing chief Phil Schiller at Apple's Infinite Loop campus to discuss how technology is improving the game of hockey.

Rapper Wiz Khalifa today announced that a new documentary series about his career, called "Wiz Khalifa: Behind the Cam," will launch exclusively on Apple Music on Wednesday, April 17. The series will feature five episodes that "go into the most intimate aspects of Wiz's life," through archival footage and various interviews with friends and family (via Variety).

wiz apple music
The series is launching between both of Khalifa's performances at Coachella, taking place this weekend and the weekend of April 19. The project's executive producer, Michael Strahan, said that the team was excited to work with ‌Apple Music‌ on the series for a chance to "give the world an intimate look into the rise of an entertainment icon."

The trailer takes a different approach to that of most music documentaries, showing footage of a teen Wiz at an in-store meet-and-greet attended by one person, and rapping for a handful of people at a basketball court. His mother and longtime associates talk about his early drive and dedication, even when he was performing for hardly anyone — and of course the trailer ends with him rapping the same song later in his career for thousands of people.

Although Apple is shifting its video focus to Apple TV+, it appears that music-related documentaries and behind-the-scenes films will remain on ‌Apple Music‌. However, Apple removed the TV & Movies section on ‌Apple Music‌ in a recent iOS update, which introduced a revamped layout to allow for quickly navigating curated music playlists.

You can still find these documentaries on their respective artists' profiles if you know what you're searching for, and Apple typically promotes the latest ones on the Browse page's carousel. On macOS, TV & Movies is still available at the top of the Browse tab, including behind-the-scene films about Ed Sheeran, Kesha, Shawn Mendes, Sam Smith, and more.

The next major release of macOS will feature standalone Music and Podcasts apps alongside Apple's promised TV app coming to the Mac this fall, according to 9to5Mac's Guilherme Rambo, who has discovered icons for the apps. Rambo says he has confirmed the plans with sources familiar with the matter.

podcasts tv mac icons

Image via 9to5Mac

The report also claims that the existing Books app on Mac will be redesigned to look more like the Apple News app on Mac.

Like the ‌Apple News‌, Home, Stocks, and Voice Memos apps on macOS Mojave, Rambo says the new Music, Podcasts, and TV apps will be built with Apple's so-called Marzipan developer tools, which allow for a single app to be designed to run across iPhone, iPad, and Mac with a similar codebase.

Despite the standalone Music and Podcasts apps, Rambo says iTunes will stick around on the next major macOS release, as it is still used for some legacy purposes like manual syncing of older iPhones, iPads, and iPods.

Apple's plans to bring UIKit-based Music, Podcasts, and possibly Books apps to the Mac were first hinted at by developer Steve Troughton-Smith on Twitter last week. Apple should unveil macOS 10.15 alongside iOS 13, watchOS 6, and tvOS 13 at WWDC 2019, which kicks off on June 3 in San Jose.

Related Roundup: Apple TV
Buyer's Guide: Apple TV (Don't Buy)

Britain's Prince Harry has revealed that he is working with Oprah Winfrey on a documentary series for Apple TV+ about mental health, due for launch sometime next year.

prince harry
The Prince, also known as the Duke of Sussex, announced the partnership on his official Instagram account. The multi-part series is being co-created and executive produced by the Prince and Winfrey and has already been in development for several months.

The dynamic multi-part documentary series will focus on both mental illness and mental wellness, inspiring viewers to have an honest conversation about the challenges each of us faces, and how to equip ourselves with the tools to not simply survive, but to thrive. This commitment builds on The Duke of Sussex’s long-standing work on issues and initiatives regarding mental health, where he has candidly shared personal experience and advocated for those who silently suffer, empowering them to get the help and support they deserve.

[...]

Quote from HRH: "I truly believe that good mental health - mental fitness - is the key to powerful leadership, productive communities and a purpose-driven self. It is a huge responsibility to get this right as we bring you the facts, the science and the awareness of a subject that is so relevant during these times. Our hope is that this series will be positive, enlightening and inclusive - sharing global stories of unparalleled human spirit fighting back from the darkest places, and the opportunity for us to understand ourselves and those around us better. I am incredibly proud to be working alongside Oprah on this vital series."

Oprah appeared during Apple's services-focused March event, where she announced two documentaries coming to ‌Apple TV‌+ that would focus on sexual harassment and mental health themes, but the host made no mention of the latter series' connection with royalty.

Prince Harry has vigorously campaigned about mental health and spurred several initiatives in recent years to improve openness and support for sufferers. The Prince has also spoken candidly about his own personal experiences and struggles, particularly with regards to how the death of his mother, Princess Diana, affected both him and his brother, William.

‌Apple TV‌+, coming this fall in over 100 countries, will be an ad-free, subscription based service, with Apple's original shows and movies available via ‌Apple TV‌+ in the new ‌Apple TV‌ app.

Apple today added to its collection of Apple Watch Series 4 ads with a new short video highlighting its selection of Apple Watch bands, which come in many varieties including the Sport Band, Sport Loop, Milanese Loop, Modern Buckle, Hermès, and more.

Apple Watch Series 4 is completely redesigned. And now you can give it a fresh look with new bands in a variety of styles and colors.

Apple has been promoting the Apple Watch Series 4 frequently in recent months, with a "Flight" ad and a series of tutorial videos.

Apple's next Activity Challenge for Apple Watch owners will take place on Earth Day, which falls on Monday, April 22. Apple Watch users will be able to earn the Earth Day 2019 badge by doing any workout for 30 minutes or more.

Details on the upcoming challenge were shared this afternoon on Twitter by Kyle Seth Gray, who also shared images of the achievement badge and accompanying iMessage sticker those who complete the challenge will receive.

appleearthdaychallenge
Apple hosts Activity Challenges for major holidays and well-known events, and for the past several years, there's been an Earth Day Challenge. Goals in both 2017 and 2018 were the same as the 2019 goal -- complete a 30 minute workout.

Apple often celebrates Earth Day in a variety of ways, and Apple retail employees are likely to don green shirts in honor of the environment-focused event. Apple retail stores are also likely to be updated with green leaf accents on their logos, something that Apple does on Earth Day each year.

Apple has done two other Activity Challenges this year to celebrate International Women's Day in March and Heart Month in February.

With an Apple News+ subscription, you can download magazines for offline reading, but Apple doesn't provide an easy way to see what's downloaded and what's not. You can tell on an individual magazine basis by checking to see if a download icon (cloud and arrow) is available, but there's no section in ‌Apple News‌+ for managing offline content.

You can, however, still check to see what's downloaded, though you'll need to turn off your WiFi and LTE to do so.

  1. Open up the Control Center on your iPhone or iPad.
  2. Tap on the Airplane Mode icon to disable WiFi and your cellular connection if using an LTE ‌iPad‌. applenewsairplanemode
  3. Open up the ‌Apple News‌ app.
  4. Tap on the ‌Apple News‌+ section.
  5. Let it load.

When the ‌Apple News‌+ section is done loading whatever content is available, you'll see a list of all of the magazines that have been downloaded for offline reading.

applenewsofflinemagazines
You can tap on any one of the magazines that you've downloaded to read it, and to download more, simply turn WiFi and LTE back on.

For more on ‌Apple News‌+, make sure to check out our dedicated ‌Apple News‌+ guide. ‌Apple News‌ users can follow MacRumors on ‌Apple News‌ using this link.

Apple News+ includes a feature that lets you download your favorite magazines for offline reading so you can check them out even when you don't have a WiFi or cellular connection, such as while on a flight.

Here's how to do it:

  1. Open up ‌Apple News‌+ on iPhone or iPad.
  2. Choose a magazine, either from your My Magazines list, the search feature in ‌Apple News‌, or the browse feature in the ‌Apple News‌+ section.
  3. Tap on the download icon underneath the magazine's title. It looks like a little cloud with an arrow through it. applenewsofflinereading
  4. Tapping on the download icon will make the magazine available to read offline.

You can use the browse feature or the My Magazines feature to add current issues for offline reading, but make sure to use the search feature or tap a magazine's name when reading it to go to the main overview that will let you download past magazine issues.

For more on ‌Apple News‌+, make sure to check out our dedicated ‌Apple News‌+ guide. ‌Apple News‌ users can follow MacRumors on ‌Apple News‌ using this link.

The Apple News+ service lets you access current and past issues of more than 200 magazines, but the interface for the app is a bit confusing and it can be hard to find past issues.

There are a couple methods that will let you see back issues of magazines, which we've outlined below.

Accessing Back Issues Through a Magazine's Overview Page

Every magazine has an overview page in ‌Apple News‌+, and though it's not immediately obvious, it's easy to get to.

  1. Open up ‌Apple News‌.
  2. Select the ‌Apple News‌+ section.
  3. Tap on any magazine that you want to read. backissuesapplenews1
  4. Tap on the title of the magazine at the top of the app.

This method will let you see the overview page for the magazine, where all back issues are listed. You can swipe to scroll through them and tap the download icon to download them for offline reading.

Accessing Back Issues Through Search

You can get to the same magazine overview page through the search function in ‌Apple News‌, without having to open up a magazine.

  1. Open ‌Apple News‌.
  2. Access search. On iPad, it's on the sidebar. On iPhone, it's under the "Following" tab.
  3. Search for the magazine you want to find. backissuesapplenews2
  4. Tap the magazine's name.

All of the back issues for the magazine will be listed under "Recent Issues," and you can swipe through them as mentioned above.

While Texture users had issues dating back years, ‌Apple News‌+ is limited to issues of magazines from March 2018 on, which is the date when Apple acquired the Texture app.

Back issues before March 2018 are not available within ‌Apple News‌+, but going forward, Apple will presumably continue to keep older issues of magazines available.

For more on ‌Apple News‌+, make sure to check out our dedicated ‌Apple News‌+ guide. ‌Apple News‌ users can follow MacRumors on ‌Apple News‌ using this link.

Apple makes a keyboard designed for the 11 and 12.9-inch iPad Pro models, the Smart Keyboard Folio, but some people dislike it because of the thin keys, the lack of key travel, and the high price tag. For those who don't like the ‌Smart Keyboard‌, Logitech has designed the Slim Folio Pro, a new keyboard case available for the 2018 ‌iPad Pro‌ models.

Logitech's Slim Folio Pro is more affordable than Apple's ‌Smart Keyboard‌, with the 11-inch version priced at $120 and the 12.9-inch model priced at $130. For comparison's sake, Apple charges $179 for its 11-inch Slim Folio Keyboard and $199 for the 12.9-inch model.

logitechkeyboardipadpro2
Design wise, the Logitech Slim Folio Pro is a lot thicker than the Apple Smart Folio Keyboard and it adds quite a bit of weight and bulk to my iPad. I am not and have not ever been a fan of thick cases that add a lot of extra weight to my devices, and for my iPads, I almost always go case free and use a Smart Cover. With my ‌iPad Pro‌, I've been using Apple's Folio, which is already more thickness than I like.

logitechkeyboardempty
If you're like me and prefer devices with thin cases or with no case, the Logitech Slim Folio Pro probably isn't going to be what you're looking for, but let me go into a bit more detail on how it works and how it looks on the ‌iPad‌.

Like the Smart Folio Keyboard from Apple, the Slim Folio Pro is available in dark gray. It would be nice to have color options, but the gray is an appropriate neutral color. The Slim Folio Pro connects to the ‌iPad Pro‌ using Bluetooth, so you're going to need to set it up in the Settings app the first time you use it. After that, though, it connects quickly when you put it in typing mode and start to use it.

logitechkeyboardwithipad
There's a base rubber and plastic case that the ‌iPad Pro‌ fits into, which provides protection for the ‌iPad‌ when it's not in use. There's thick rubber at the corners and on the left side, but on the right, there's an open space because that's where the Apple Pencil 2 goes for charging purposes. The top and bottom are also left open because of the speakers and the USB-C port.

➜ Click here to read more...

At Macworld Boston in 1993, Apple introduced a prototype device called the Wizzy Active Lifestyle Telephone, or the W.A.L.T., the company's first desktop telephone and, like the Newton, a precursor to the iPhone.

Little is known about the W.A.L.T., and while it's been seen in images, there's never been a video of it in action, until today. Sonny Dickson this morning shared a video that shows the W.A.L.T. being used, and it's a fascinating look at early Apple technology.


Unsurprisingly, the W.A.L.T. takes a while to start up given its age, but it's functional, running Mac System 6. The W.A.L.T. featured a touchscreen, fax functionality, on-display caller ID, a built-in address book, customizable ringtones, and online banking access.

As shown in the video, it had a series of hardware buttons for activating various functions, and it worked with a connected stylus that could be used for navigation and writing. There's a ton of lag when using the stylus, though, so writing doesn't look great.

applewalt
The video walks through many of the available operating system options, from a user identification card to fax settings, which included options for customizing notifications, creating greetings, and more.

W.A.L.T., which was designed with telephone company BellSouth, was made from PowerBook 100 parts, and according to Dickson, prototypes came with an "unusual" manual that included basic instructions like "Do not use WALT near water" and "Do not drop WALT."

walt2
Apple shelved W.A.L.T. and ultimately did not release the device, but the remaining prototypes provide an interesting look back at Apple's development efforts more than 25 years ago.

Dickson also has a selection of photos showing the hardware inside of the W.A.L.T., which are well worth checking out if you're interested in classic Apple hardware.

Apple this month added Jaunt VR founder Arthur van Hoff to its AR/VR team, according to van Hoff's updated LinkedIn profile that was first noticed by Variety.

Van Hoff is now working as a senior architect at Apple, with no other detail provided. His company, Jaunt VR, created VR capture hardware, including a $100,000 3D VR camera, the Jaunt One.


Rumors of troubles at the company started in 2018, and in October, Jaunt VR let go of much of its staff, pivoting from VR hardware to augmented reality. Jaunt is now focusing on building a platform for the scaled creation of AR content.

At the time, van Hoff said he would be leaving Jaunt by the end of 2018, and it appears he ended up at Apple instead. It's not clear specifically what he's doing at the Cupertino company, but given his expertise in AR and VR, he's likely joined Apple's augmented and virtual reality efforts.

Prior to founding Jaunt, van Hoff was CTO of Flipboard, software and services CTO at Dell, and an engineer at TiVo.

Rumors have suggested Apple is working on developing a set of AR smart glasses, which could be released as soon as 2020. Apple also has other AR/VR prototypes in the works, and there have been mixed rumors that have also pointed towards the possibility of some kind of virtual reality hardware product in the future.

Related Roundup: Apple Vision Pro
Buyer's Guide: Vision Pro (Neutral)
Related Forum: Apple Vision Pro

Apple today seeded the second beta of an upcoming macOS Mojave 10.14.5 update to its public beta testing group, a day after seeding the beta to developers and a little over a week after releasing the first macOS Mojave 10.14.5 public beta.

The macOS Mojave update can be downloaded using the Software Update mechanism in the Mac App Store after downloading the appropriate profile from Apple's beta testing website. Apple's beta testing site gives users access to iOS, macOS, and tvOS betas.

macbookairmojave
We don't yet know what improvements the macOS Mojave 10.14.5 update will bring, but it likely focuses on bug fixes and performance improvements for issues that weren't able to be fixed in the macOS 10.14.4 update.

There were no notable features found in the first two developer betas of macOS Mojave 10.14.5.

Related Forum: macOS Mojave

Apple today seeded the second beta of an upcoming iOS 12.3 update to its public beta testing group, one day after seeding the beta to developers and a little over a week after releasing the first public beta.

Beta testers who have joined Apple's beta testing program will receive the iOS 12.3 beta update over-the-air after installing the proper certificate on an iOS device.

appletvapp 1
Those who want to download the new beta can do so after signing up for the beta program, which gives access to iOS, macOS, and tvOS betas.

iOS 12.3 brings the new TV app that Apple first introduced at its March 25 event. The TV app is an updated version of the original TV app, offering up TV shows, movies, sports, news, and more all in one easy-to-access spot.

The updated TV app has improved content recommendations available through a new "For You" section in the app, which will suggest shows and movies you'll like based on your past watched history.

appletvchannels 1
There's also a new feature called Channels. Channels are subscription services that you can sign up for and watch in the TV app without having to open up another app. Some of the new Channels include CBS All Access, Starz, Showtime, HBO, Nickelodeon, Mubi, The History Channel Vault, and Comedy Central Now. During the beta, users can subscribe to Showtime, Starz, Smithsonian, and Tastemade.

In the future, the TV app will also house Apple TV+, Apple's upcoming streaming service for its original TV shows and movies.

Related Forum: iOS 13

Apple today seeded the second beta of an upcoming tvOS 12.3 update to its public beta testing group, one day after providing the beta to developers and a little over a week after seeding the first public beta.

The tvOS 12.3 public beta can be obtained by going to the Settings app on the Apple TV and navigating to the Software Updates section under "System." "Get Public Beta Updates" will need to be toggled on, and once it is, the ‌Apple TV‌ will download the beta software.


tvOS 12.3 includes the revamped ‌Apple TV‌ app that Apple debuted at its services-focused event on Monday. The new TV app is a better version of the original TV app, offering up access to TV shows, sports, news, and more in one spot.

There's still a "Watch Now" section with an "Up Next" feature for keeping track of what you're in the middle of watching, but there's a new "For You" feature that recommends new content based on what you've previously watched.

A new "Channels" option lets you subscribe to third-party services like Showtime, Starz, and HBO right within the TV app, and you can even watch all of the content from the services included in Channels right in the TV app without having to open a third-party app.

Channels will include CBS All Access, Starz, Showtime, HBO, Nickelodeon, Mubi, The History Channel Vault, and Comedy Central Now, but during the beta, only Showtime, Starz, Smithsonian, and Tastemade are accessible. You can subscribe in the TV app and get a one-week free trial before you're charged.

The TV app is on the ‌Apple TV‌ and iOS devices, and it's even available on the third-generation ‌Apple TV‌ through an upcoming software update that Apple plans to release. Apple has said the new TV app is coming in May, so we can expect tvOS 12.3 to be released then.

Related Roundup: Apple TV
Buyer's Guide: Apple TV (Don't Buy)

Apple is now offering data migration services for free when customers purchase a new Mac or need to have a Mac replaced for repair reasons. Prior to this month, data migration was priced at $99.

macbookairmojave
TidBITS heard about the policy change from a reader and was able to confirm it with an Apple Store Operations Specialist.

Beginning April 2, there will be no cost for Data Migrations with the purchase of a new Mac or Data Transfers with a repair.

As 9to5Mac points out, data migration was included as a feature in Apple's One to One program, which was shut down in 2015. One to One allowed customers to pay $99 when purchasing a new Mac to get a year's worth of instruction and help. When Apple ended One to One, data migration was still available as a one-time $99 service.

Going forward, Apple store employees will be able to help new Mac buyers move information from their old machine to their new machine. Apple also offers do-it-yourself migration software in the form of the Migration Assistant offered when setting up a new Mac.

LG is set to launch its new G8 smartphone this Thursday, and ahead of launch, we've gotten our hands on one to try out the smartphone's new Air Motion features, which are touchless gesture-based controls.

Apple has been rumored to be working on such a feature for future iPhones, so we thought we'd see how LG's version works as a glimpse of what we might be able to expect from Apple in the future.


Air Motion is designed to let you use different hand positions, shapes, and gestures to do things like open apps, control media playback, take screenshots, answer phone calls, silence alarms, and more.

It's super cool in theory, but in practice, it's not exactly simple to use because you need to get the LG G8 to recognize the proper gesture. In our testing, it took quite a bit of time for us to learn how to use the gestures, and even now, we haven't mastered it.

You need to hold your hands pretty close to the G8's display for Air Motion gestures to activate, and the smartphone lets you know that it's waiting for a hand movement when there's a multicolored bar at the top of the screen.

Once the gesture mode is activated you can move your hands back, but need to keep them within the gesture circle. If that sounds confusing, well, it is, but the Air Motion feature does get easier to use over time.

Gesturing is no faster than picking up the phone and opening an app or changing the volume in most cases, so this certainly feels more gimmicky than something useful at the current time. It has the potential to be useful if your hands are dirty or wet, but most of the time, it's not a feature most people are likely to use.

Along with gestures, the LG G8 also has a "Hand ID" feature for reading the veins on a person's hands to unlock the smartphone. Hand ID is certainly unique in the world of smartphone biometrics, and it's limited to unlocking - you can't authenticate payments or replace app passwords and will need to use the more traditional fingerprint sensor for that.

Hand ID requires a hand to be placed palm up toward the front facing camera of the smartphone for your vein placement to be read, but, unfortunately, it's as hard to use as Air Motion, if not harder.

A 2018 rumor from Bloomberg suggested Apple is working on iPhones that will use touchless gesture controls, allowing users to hover over the iPhone to navigate through the iOS operating system using a finger, but without having to touch the display.

At the time, it was compared to Samsung's Air Gestures in Android smartphones that let users do things like jump between web pages, swipe between pictures, pages, or music tracks, accept calls, and more.

If Apple moves forward with that rumored gesture technology, it could show up in iPhones as early as 2020, according to Bloomberg's two-year timeline for the feature. It's not yet clear if Apple is continuing to experiment with gestures, though, as we haven't heard any information on such a feature coming to the 2020 ‌iPhone‌ lineup.

What do you think of the LG G8? Are touch-free gestures something you'd like to see in a future ‌iPhone‌? Let us know in the comments.

Tag: LG

In January, Netflix announced that it was raising the prices for all of its subscription tiers, making the popular "Standard" tier increase from $10.99/month to $12.99/month. This change took effect immediately for new customers signing up for Netflix, while existing customers were grandfathered into their prices for a limited time.

netflix price hike
That time is now almost up, as Netflix has begun emailing grandfathered customers on the day of their subscription renewal, warning them that their monthly subscription cost will be going up in May. A warning will also appear within the Netflix mobile app. This change affects all tiers: the cheap "Basic" tier will rise from $7.99 to $8.99/month, the popular HD "Standard" tier will rise from $10.99 to $12.99/month, and the 4K "Premium" tier will rise from $13.99 to $15.99/month.

In the email, Netflix says that this price hike is required to improve the service so that subscribers can have "even more" TV shows and movies to enjoy. Netflix has been quickly increasing the amount of original content on its service as third parties remove their films and TV shows and create their own streaming platforms, like Disney has done for its upcoming service Disney+. In order to fund all of the original productions, subscription costs have now increased for all Netflix users.

We hope you have been enjoying your Netflix membership. We are writing to let you know about an upcoming change. Your monthly price is increasing to $12.99 on Thursday, May 9th 2019. Why? We’re hard at work improving Netflix so that you can have even more great TV shows and movies to enjoy.

Here’s to watching what you want, when you want, where you want. You can change your plan, or if you do not wish to continue your membership, as always you can cancel any time at netflix.com/cancel.
We're here to help if you need it. Visit the Help Center for more info or contact us.

–The Netflix Team

This new price hike represents a jump of between 13 percent and 18 percent, which is Netflix's biggest price increase since it launched streaming 12 years ago. According to a CNBC report, Netflix will also use the extra cash to finance debt that it's recently taken on to "ward off streaming threats" from rivals like Apple, which just revealed its Apple TV+ streaming service that's set to launch later in 2019.

As of 2019, this is the fourth price hike for Netflix subscribers in the streaming service's history. The HD Standard tier was priced at $7.99/month, rose to $8.99/month in 2014, and then to $9.99/month in 2016, when CEO Reed Hastings reported an "unexpected" loss of subscribers due to the hike. In November 2017 the tier rose to $10.99/month, and now it will be priced at $12.99/month.

Tag: Netflix