MacRumors

Ahead of the Apple Card's planned summer launch, Apple is now testing its upcoming Goldman Sachs credit card with thousands of retail workers, reports Bloomberg.

Apple was previously allowing its corporate employees to test the ‌Apple Card‌, but is now expanding testing to a much larger group through an internal beta program that launched this week.

Employees are able to sign up directly from their personal devices, with the Apple Pay portion of the card activated immediately and a card scheduled to be sent within two to three weeks. Employees are receiving APRs between 13.24 percent and 24.24 percent, the same APR range that will be provided to consumers.

With thousands of retail workers available, the expansion marks the first wide scale test, allowing Apple to find and address bugs and other problems before the ‌Apple Card‌ launches to the public.

Apple employees have been asked not to discuss the card, but they are allowed to use it in public to make purchases.

Screenshots of the employee beta of the Apple Card show that test versions of the card are fully functional and include the ability to receive daily cash back, pay bills, see an order status for a physical card and receive technical support via text messaging. Users can also schedule payments, access their credit limit and manage connected bank accounts, among other tasks. Users will also have the ability to set the Apple Card as the default payment method for Apple purchases.

The ‌Apple Card‌, created in partnership with Goldman Sachs, is deeply integrated into the iPhone and the Apple ecosystem. It offers 3% cash back on Apple purchases, 2% cash back on all ‌Apple Pay‌ transactions, and 1% cash back on all other purchases.

Purchases are tracked in the Wallet app on the ‌iPhone‌, providing a breakdown of spending across different categories like health, food, shopping, and more. While the ‌Apple Card‌ offers higher rewards for ‌Apple Pay‌ purchases, for instances where a traditional purchase is required, Apple is providing customers with a physical card made from titanium.

Apple is planning to launch the ‌Apple Card‌ in the United States this summer, and Bloomberg says Apple has already been discussing an expansion into Europe with financial regulators. The employees using the card are running iOS 12.4 on their devices, and the iOS 12.4 update is expected to bring ‌Apple Card‌ support.

We've had four betas of iOS 12.4 so far, so a launch may not be too far off.

For a look at the ‌Apple Card‌ and what to expect when it launches, make sure to check out our dedicated Apple Card guide.

The Apple News, Voice Memos, Home and Stocks apps on the Mac will be getting major updates and new designs to make them more Mac-like, Apple's software chief Craig Federighi told CNET in an interview.

News, Voice Memos, Home, and Stocks were all apps that were ported over to the Mac in 2018's macOS Mojave as part of the precursor to Project Catalyst, Apple's newly announced feature designed to let iOS developers easily adapt their apps for the Mac.

Since their Mac launch, the four apps have mirrored the style of an iOS app, offering little more in terms of design and functionality. Now that Project Catalyst has launched, though, Apple plans to revisit these early Mac app ports.

Federighi says that because the underlying technology has improved over the course of the last year, the apps will be "automatically" upgraded thanks to Project Catalyst's more unified, native Mac framework. Apple also plans to make additional improvements on top of that to create a Mac experience.

"We've looked at the design and features of some of those apps and said we can make this a bit more of a Mac experience through changes that are independent of the use of Catalyst, but are just design team decisions," Federighi said. "When I read some of the initial reviews of those apps, people were saying, 'Obviously this technology is causing them to do things that don't feel Mac-like.' Honestly, 90% of those were just decisions that designers made ... People took that as 'this feels iOS-y' and therefore they thought it was a technology thing. Actually, it was a designer preference. So part of [the upgrade] is we said we've got to co-evolve with our user base around the aesthetics of the Mac experience. And so we made some adjustments to the apps."

Federighi also explained that the iOS-like feel to the apps in macOS Mojave was more of a design decision than a result of porting them over to the Mac, but given complaints, Apple made an effort to "co-evolve" with the Mac user base to design a more Mac-like experience in macOS Catalina.

The new ‌Apple News‌, Voice Memos, Home, and Stocks apps aren't in the macOS Catalina beta at the current time, but Federighi said we can expect to see them when the public beta launches. "Wait for the public beta," Federighi told CNET. "We're still tuning everything up. That's where it gets really good."

Apple has said that iOS 13, macOS Catalina, and tvOS 13 betas will launch at some point in July, which is just two weeks away.

Apple today announced that every Best Buy store across the United States now offers certified repairs and service for Apple products.

The electronics retailer already serviced Apple products at about 225 stores and now does so at all of its 992 stores nationwide, according to Reuters, which is good news for customers who reside in states without any Apple Stores, including Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

Apple's press release:

By expanding to every Best Buy store across the US, customers in cities including Yuma, Arizona; Sioux City, Iowa; Twin Falls, Idaho; Casper, Wyoming and Bismarck, North Dakota will have more convenient access to Apple repairs. Plus, Best Buy’s Geek Squad has nearly 7,600 newly Apple-certified technicians ready to make same-day iPhone repairs or to service other Apple products.

Apple-certified repairs at Best Buy and other Apple Authorized Service Providers are performed by trained technicians who use genuine Apple parts, and every repair is backed by Apple, according to the company.

Including all of Best Buy's nearly 1,000 locations that now offer Apple-certified repairs, Apple now has over 1,800 authorized third-party service providers in the United States, which it says is "three times as many locations as three years ago." Apple also has over 270 retail stores that facilitate repairs across the country.

Tara Bunch, Apple's vice president of AppleCare:

At Apple, we're dedicated to providing the best customer service in the world. If a customer ever needs to repair their products, we want them to feel confident those repairs are done safely and correctly. We're always looking at how we can reliably expand our network of trained technicians and we're excited to partner with every Best Buy store so it's even easier for our customers to find an authorized repair location near them.

Apple customers can initiate a repair on Apple's support website.

Apple Watch users will be able to delete stock apps from the Apple Watch starting in watchOS 6, according to TechCrunch.

This will make it possible to delete many of Apple's built-in apps on the Apple Watch, including Alarm, Timer, Stopwatch, Remote, Camera Remote, Radio, Walkie-Talkie, ECG, Breathe, Noise, Cycle Tracking, and others, the report indicates. A few core apps like Heart Rate and Messages will not be deletable.

Some of Apple's apps can already be removed from the Apple Watch, like Calendar, Stocks, and Weather, as deleting a built-in app on an iPhone also removes the app from a paired Apple Watch. However, this method does not work for watchOS apps that lack an iOS counterpart like Timer and Radio.

watchOS 6 will allow almost any built-in app to be deleted directly on the Apple Watch. As already possible with third-party apps, users will be able to delete built-in apps by pressing and holding to enter so-called "wiggle mode" and then tapping the "X" button that appears above an app icon.

This functionality has yet to be enabled as of the second developer beta of watchOS 6, but it's still very early. The report indicates it will be ready in time for the public release of the software update in September.

With the U.S.-China trade war seemingly showing no signs of slowing down, a new report claims that Apple is getting serious about diversifying its supply chain in an effort to reduce its reliance on Chinese manufacturing.

Specifically, Apple has asked several of its major suppliers to evaluate the cost implications of shifting 15 to 30 percent of their production capacity from China to Southeast Asia countries as it prepares for a "fundamental restructuring of its supply chain," according to the Nikkei Asian Review.

Key iPhone assemblers Foxconn, Pegatron, Wistron, major MacBook maker Quanta Computer, iPad maker, Compal Electronics, and AirPods makers Inventec, Luxshare-ICT and Goertek all have been asked to evaluate options outside of China, multiple sources say. Many other Apple suppliers such as print circuit board and casing providers are closely monitoring where these major assemblers would shift their production.

The countries being considered for diversification include Mexico, India, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Malaysia, with India and Vietnam among the favorites for ‌iPhone‌ assembly, according to the report. Apple supplier Wistron already assembles a limited quantity of iPhones in India.

As part of the efforts, Apple reportedly has a so-called "capital expense studies team" tasked with negotiating with suppliers and governments.

While these plans are said to have been triggered by the trade war, the report claims that Apple has decided the risks of relying so heavily on manufacturing in China are "too great and even rising" even if the trade war is eventually resolved.

"A lower birthrate, higher labor costs and the risk of overly centralizing its production in one country. These adverse factors are not going anywhere," said one executive with knowledge of the situation. "With or without the final round of the $300 billion tariff, Apple is following the big trend [to diversify production]," giving itself more flexibility, the person added.

Apple currently relies on Chinese and Taiwanese companies for the vast majority of its manufacturing needs, so diversifying its supply chain would obviously take time. The report cites a source who believes it would take at least 18 months for production to begin in new locations.

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.

Dish Network is close to securing a deal to pay $6 billion for Sprint's Boost Mobile brand and wireless spectrum, reports Bloomberg.

Sprint is selling Boost Mobile in an effort to unload assets to gain regulatory approval for its upcoming merger with T-Mobile. The two companies have been aiming to sell Boost Mobile to appease U.S. regulators who believe the merger raises antitrust concerns.

The United States Justice Department wants Sprint and T-Mobile to ensure there continues to be a fourth major carrier in the country as the combined T-Mobile and Sprint company would leave just AT&T and Verizon as the other major carriers. Sprint and T-Mobile's combined company, set to be called T-Mobile and led by John Legere, would have close to 100 million customers.

Sprint and T-Mobile first announced a merger agreement in April 2018, but the completion of the deal requires government approval. As of May, U.S. regulators were said to be "leaning against" approving the merger unless some of T-Mobile and Sprint's assets were sold off.

Dish may be planning to announce a deal as soon as this week, according to sources who spoke to Bloomberg. The terms of the deal have not yet been finalized and it could still fall through, however.

Apple appears to be in the process of decoupling the iPhone from the watchOS update process on the Apple Watch.

In the first beta of watchOS 6, the Apple Watch gained its own over-the-air software update mechanism under Settings > General > Software Update. As on the ‌iPhone‌, the mechanism checks for any available watchOS update and, if prompted, downloads the update directly to the Apple Watch.

The mechanism became functional on Monday when Apple seeded the second beta of watchOS 6 to developers.

As noted by Jeremy Horwitz, however, users still must review and accept the watchOS terms and conditions using an ‌iPhone‌. Hopefully this is a temporary step that Apple removes before watchOS 6 is publicly released in September.

Updating an Apple Watch's software previously required using the Apple Watch app on an ‌iPhone‌ for the entire process.

This change is in line with the Apple Watch gradually becoming more independent from the ‌iPhone‌. In 2017, for example, Apple Watch Series 3 models launched with cellular capabilities for making phone calls and more without an ‌iPhone‌. And in watchOS 6, the Apple Watch received its own on-wrist App Store.

Nintendo's newest mobile game, Dr. Mario World, is set to launch on iOS and Android devices on Wednesday, July 10, Nintendo announced on Twitter this evening.

First announced in January, Dr. Mario World is based on the 1990 puzzle game Dr. Mario that tasked players with arranging different colored pills as they fell from the top of the screen to clear them from the game board and eliminate viruses.

Nintendo has launched a website for Dr. Mario World, complete with videos on the gameplay. Like the original game, Dr. Mario World is a match three, where the goal is to clear viruses from the board by making matches.

Players need to eliminate all of the viruses before running out of a set number of capsules. Scoring is based on how many capsules are left at the end of a level. Nintendo says there will be five worlds at launch, with more to be added in the future.

Dr. Mario World is a freemium game and there will be in-app purchases that allow you to continue to play the game after your stamina diminishes (though it also refills over time). Diamonds can be purchased for adding more capsules, replenishing the aforementioned stamina meter, and purchasing items.

Dr. Mario can be pre-ordered via the iOS App Store starting today. [Direct Link]

Apple-owned Beddit recently launched a new beta testing program that's designed to allow those who own the new Beddit 3.5 device released in December to test new and upcoming features.

In a new "Beta Program" section of the Beddit website (via 9to5Mac), Beddit says it is launching a new customer beta program that will let customers contribute to "making the product even better."

Through the Beddit Beta Program, you will have early access to new versions of the Beddit app before the general public. Participants will share valuable feedback with Apple Inc. ("Apple") such as app use, app settings, sleep results, and other diagnostic information. We may also request additional feedback through surveys. More information about how this data will be shared with Apple will be explained in an informed consent form that you must complete before starting the program.

The beta program will provide early access to new versions of the Beddit app prior to when those updates are released. No specific details on what features might be tested were included.

Participants must own a Beddit Sleep Monitor (version 3.5), must be located in the United States and using Beddit only in the United States, and need to be at least 22 years old but not over 75 years old.

Participants must also agree to receive email communications from Apple "from time to time" about the Beddit Beta Program.

Beddit 3.5 owners can sign up for the beta on the website by clicking on the "Enroll Now" button to send an email to the Beddit support staff.

Apple released the updated Beddit 3.5 back in December. The new model received some criticism for doing away with features like an ambiguous "sleep score," but in our review, we found it to be much more accurate than the Beddit 3 sleep monitor.

The Beddit 3.5 marked the first new version of the device since Apple's 2017 acquisition of the company. It's not clear what Apple is doing with sleep data collected from the Beddit, but it could be used for developing a future sleep-related Apple product, such as sleep tracking capabilities for Apple Watch.

Apple this morning released the second iOS 13 beta for developers, addressing bugs, introducing new bugs, and adding and refining iOS 13 features.

There are no super exciting new changes in the second beta of iOS 13, but several features that were not functional in the first beta are now working. All of the changes we've found so far are below:

- SMB Server Connectivity - One of the new features in iOS 13 is an option in the Files app to connect to server using SMB. This feature wasn't working in the first beta, but is functional in beta 2, so iOS 13 users can do things like connect to a home NAS.

- APFS Drives in Files - APFS formatted drives are now supported by the Files app.

- Downtime - According to Apple's release notes, the Downtime feature in Screen Time now syncs to the Apple Watch.

- Safari Share Sheet - When sharing a webpage from the Safari Share Sheet, there are new options to share it as a PDF or a Web Archive. There's also an "Automatic" option that picks the most suitable format for each app or action.

- Notes Checklists - In iOS 13 beta 2, there's a new option to automatically move checked off items in a list to the bottom of the list. You can adjust this in settings or use the popup that comes up the first time you create a list after updating to beta 2.

- Maps Splash Screen - When opening up the Maps app for the first time there's a splash screen that lets you know all of the new features in the update.

- New Animoji Stickers - There are new Animoji stickers available in iOS 13 beta 2 that feature new poses.

- High-Key Mono Lighting - The new High-Key Mono Portrait Mode Lighting option is available in beta 2 on 2018 iPhones.

- Portrait Mode Lighting Slider - The slider that allows you to adjust the intensity of Portrait Mode lighting options is now available.

- HomePod and Apple TV Features - When opening up the Home app in beta 2, there's a new splash screen that lets you know about multi-user recognition on ‌HomePod‌ and profiles on ‌Apple TV‌. You'll be instructed to set up Hey Siri if it's not activated already, and prompted to add your profile to ‌Apple TV‌.

Voice Control - When the Voice Control Accessibility feature is turned on, there's a blue microphone icon at the top of the device to indicate that the iOS device is in Voice Control mode.

CarPlay - The Now Playing section of ‌CarPlay‌ features album art in beta 2.

There are a number of other known issues that developers should be aware of before installing the beta, all of which are available through the release notes provided with the software on the developer website.

We've heard reports that iOS 13 beta 2 and iPadOS beta 2 feel more stable than the original betas, but there are a number of remaining bugs and Apple still warns against installing the software on a main device.

Apple today seeded the second betas of iOS 13 and iPadOS to developers for testing purposes, two weeks after first unveiling the new updates at the Worldwide Developers Conference.

Registered developers will need to download the profile for the iOS 13 and iPadOS betas from Apple's Developer Center. Beta 2 can be downloaded over the air after the profile has been installed and the iPhone or iPad has been restarted.

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

iOS 13 is a huge update with a long list of new features. There's a new systemwide Dark Mode that changes the entire look of the operating system from light to dark, from system elements to apps.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The beta testing period will allow Apple to work out bugs ahead of the release of iOS 13 and iPadOS, and it will let developers build iOS 13 and iPadOS features into their apps ahead of a public release coming this fall.

While the betas are limited to developers at the current time, Apple plans to make a public beta available in July.

Update: All of the new features in the second beta are listed in our What's New in iOS 13 Beta 2 article.