MacRumors

For this week's giveaway, we've teamed up with ColorWare to give MacRumors readers a chance to win a set of custom-painted AirPods, which are available in dozens of different colors.

ColorWare is a company that's been around for quite some time, offering custom paint jobs and unique skins for a range of electronic devices. AirPods can be ordered from ColorWare in custom colors for a fee of $299, with an additional $40 fee to paint the case a matching shade.

At $299 (or $349 with the case), there's a premium for choosing AirPods from ColorWare, but ColorWare is the only site that offers one-of-a-kind color options you can't get anywhere else.

ColorWare's AirPods can be ordered in one of several solid or metallic colors, with both gloss and matte finishes available. Traditional black, gold, silver, and gray shades are options, but there are also a several bright shades in every color of the rainbow. If you want AirPods in teal, red, green, purple, or pink, ColorWare is the way to go.

You can choose to have both AirPods custom painted in the same color along with the case, or you can get each AirPod and the case all in different colors, meaning there are quite a few available color combinations.

ColorWare has been custom-painting devices since 1998 and has had a lot of time to perfect the painting process. The company uses a coating process that includes a primer, an application of a proprietary color formula, and an X2 liquid plastic coating that protects the new color.

Because ColorWare is using traditional AirPods, full AirPods functionality is intact, with a W1 chip for easy pairing, a long battery life, a built-in accelerometer for ear detection, iCloud support for quick device switching, and support for gestures.

We have one set of custom-painted AirPods and Charging Case to give away, with the winner to choose the color and finish of their choice. We've also teamed up with ColorWare to offer MacRumors readers an exclusive 30 percent discount on all iPhone, iPad, and Mac skins, which is a more affordable way to get a fresh device color.

To get the discount, just visit ColorWare's site and click on the MacRumors banner at the top of any page.

To enter to win our giveaway, use the Rafflecopter widget below and enter an email address. Email addresses will be used solely for contact purposes to reach the winners and send the prizes. You can earn additional entries by subscribing to our weekly newsletter, subscribing to our YouTube channel, following us on Twitter, or visiting the MacRumors Facebook page.

Due to the complexities of international laws regarding giveaways, only U.S. residents who are 18 years or older and Canadian residents (excluding Quebec) who have reached the age of majority in their province or territory are eligible to enter. To offer feedback or get more information on the giveaway restrictions, please refer to our Site Feedback section, as that is where discussion of the rules will be redirected.

Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover are planning to combine their online payment options into "a single button," hoping to make customers' shopping easier and reduce friction in the checkout process. The button will be a major competitor to PayPal, and combat what's called "the NASCAR effect," where multiple payment logos and options dot the purchasing interface on online marketplaces "like the side of a race car" (via Bloomberg).

The new project is being headed by Visa and Mastercard, which announced during an industry conference that they will integrate the Visa Checkout and Masterpass payment options into the button. Afterwards, spokespeople for American Express and Discover announced they are joining the project as well. With all of these platforms located behind one button, users who already have payment options saved in each will be able to checkout "with a few clicks."

Still, the project is in early stages, with a name and the visual design of the button still undecided. Visa and Mastercard hope to start moving customers enrolled in Visa Checkout and Masterpass to the new program by the end of this year, and expanded checkout support is expected in 2019.

With all of the major credit and debit card companies joining forces, the new button is believed to be a direct competitor to PayPal, which amalgamates a customer's credit cards, debit cards, and bank accounts into one place for easier checkouts.

The aim, according to the card networks, is to make online shopping simple, letting people finish with a few clicks -- an experience pioneered by PayPal Holdings Inc. Yet some analysts say the coordinated effort may ratchet up competition between cards and PayPal, something long seen as a potential risk to that company’s meteoric growth.

“This is always kind of a looming threat to PayPal,” said Thomas McCrohan, an analyst at Mizuho Americas after the first announcements this week.

In a recent survey, 58 percent of merchants said they accepted PayPal in 2017, followed by Apple Pay at 48 percent, Visa Checkout at 26 percent, Masterpass at 16 percent, and AmEx Express Checkout at 9 percent. By providing a less splintered landscape for online shopping, the credit card companies hope to increase visibility among the "one-button concept" marketplace, where people currently "think of PayPal and Amazon Pay," analyst Raymond Pucci said. "People don't really say, 'Oh yeah, Visa and Mastercard.'"

PayPal has been facing increased pressure from rival payments processors recently, with eBay in February detailing plans to phase out its 15-year-long partnership with PayPal to integrate Adyen as its primary payments platform.

PayPal and eBay have an operating agreement to stay partners through mid-2020, so the Adyen alliance will begin slowly by educating buyers and sellers about the new processor in late 2018 and throughout 2019. By 2021, eBay wants to have "transitioned a majority" of its marketplace customers to Adyen, at which time PayPal will be relegated to a secondary checkout option.

Mastercard, Discover, American Express, and Visa also plan to make checkouts simpler in physical stores, this month eliminating the signature requirement for purchases.

AT&T is planning to add a new streaming service to its lineup called "AT&T Watch," priced at a low cost of $15 per month with the removal of all sports channels. The service will be one of the cheapest streaming bundles available on the market, and will even be free for AT&T wireless subscribers on unlimited plans (via The Wall Street Journal and Variety).

As of now not much else is known about AT&T Watch, including exactly what channels will be on offer, what platforms it will launch on, or even a specific launch date besides "in the next few weeks." When it does debut, the service will undercut Sling TV's cheapest $20/month streaming tier, and be more of a competitor to Philo's $16/month option, which predominantly advertises itself as the over-the-top bundle for people who don't watch sports.

The upcoming skinny bundle was announced yesterday by AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson, during his time on the witness stand where he defended his company's intent to acquire Time Warner. Stephenson mentioned AT&T Watch after the Justice Department argued that AT&T continuously raises prices for traditional DirecTV subscribers, reportedly "emphasizing" the new service and DirecTV Now's entry level $35/month tier, "while acknowledging price increases for traditional DirecTV subscribers."

Often speaking directly to the judge, Stephenson testified on the origins and rationale for the merger, but his examination also veered into other topics, like an email exchange he had with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg following last year’s Allen & Co. Sun Valley conference. He even revealed a new product offering, AT&T Watch, a $15-per-month bundle of channels, countering the Justice Department’s point that AT&T is still raising prices on its traditional DirecTV satellite service.

AT&T's other streaming service, DirecTV Now, extends beyond the entry level $35/month for 60+ channels to $50/month for 80+ channels, $60/month for 100+ channels, and $70/month for 120+ channels. Additionally, the service includes an Apple TV 4K offer that's been ongoing since November 2017, providing the device to new subscribers at no extra cost when they pre-pay for anywhere between three to four months of service.

LG Display is widely considered to be ramping up its OLED display production capabilities in hopes of securing orders for Apple's next-generation iPhone lineup, expected to be released later this year, but mass production challenges have caused the company to fall behind schedule, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The report, citing people familiar with the matter, claims that Apple recently subjected LG to a third round of prototype production for the OLED displays, described as an extra step that most suppliers don't go through for many components.

As a result, opinions within Apple are divided on whether LG Display will complement Samsung as a second source of OLED displays for the upcoming iPhones, according to the report. However, analysts at investment firm Susquehanna estimate that LG will supply as much as 20 percent of OLED displays for the 2018 lineup.

By securing orders from both Samsung and LG for OLED displays, Apple could benefit from more competitive prices and increased supply. Samsung is also one of Apple's largest rivals, so it's easy to see why Apple is aiming for diversification.

Should LG not be in a position to supply Apple with OLED displays for the next iPhones, it's unlikely that customers will notice much of an impact. If anything, availability of Apple's second-generation iPhone X and rumored iPhone X Plus could be slightly tighter, but supplies are typically limited at launch regardless.

eBay today announced a new update for its iOS and Android apps, aimed at further simplifying the item listing process. The headlining feature of the update is a new barcode scanner, allowing sellers to quickly scan the box of an item (if they still have it), select a condition, and click "list your item."

The barcode scanner will automatically populate the listing with all of the requisite details (images, description, suggested starting price), and the process can be finished "within seconds," according to eBay. If you don't have the item barcode you can still search for it by typing in a description, which should populate the listing at around the same rate as the barcode scanner.

eBay's announcement states the streamlined update is aimed at new sellers who aren't yet familiar with the service's in-depth listing options.

“At eBay, we’re dedicated to delivering a seamless and efficient selling experience for both first-time and seasoned sellers alike,” says Kelly Vincent, eBay’s VP of Consumer Selling Product & Engineering.

“This latest update continues to leverage eBay’s structured data, which helps catalogue the 1.1+ billion items on the platform, to instantaneously populate product details, pricing and shipping information in the listing flow. Not only does the catalogue facilitate a superior listing experience, it enables buyers to easily find the great deals offered by our sellers. This is one of many enhancements we’ll be making this year. We’ll continue to leverage structured data and new technology developments to help our sellers ‘get it sold.’”

Late last year eBay updated its search function with the ability for users to find items on its marketplace by taking pictures. Using computer vision technology powered by AI, Image Search lets buyers snap a picture or upload one from their iOS device's Camera Roll to find similar results based on their image.

More recently in 2018, eBay announced major changes that will be coming to its online marketplace regarding how buyers and sellers exchange money. The company's three-year plan is to phase out its partnership with PayPal and eventually make Amsterdam-based payments company Adyen its "primary partner for payments processing globally."

Verizon today announced the evolution of its existing "FamilyBase" parental controls product into "Smart Family," a redesigned app that lets parents track screen time, set content filters, monitor whereabouts, and more.

With the Verizon Smart Family app, parents can instantly pause the internet to manage their kids' screen time, check the battery status of their phone, and look at a summary of their text and call activity. Usage limits can be set by reducing access to texts, calls, and data, and what the parent deems inappropriate can be blocked with content filters for websites and apps.

There is also a location tracking feature with alerts that push to the parent's smartphone, notifying them when their kid arrives or leaves a specified location.

“Being a parent in today’s digital world can be daunting, but it doesn’t have to be,” said Susie Fernandes, senior product manager at Verizon. “We created Verizon Smart Family to give parents the tools they need to help them raise tech savvy kids with a healthy and responsible approach to screen time and content viewing.”

Verizon Smart Family is available to download for free [Direct Link], but eventually requires a monthly subscription to access its features. The two subscription tiers include an entry level $4.99/month option that lacks location tracking and alerts, and a $9.99/month Premium plan with all features included (a 30 day free trial is available for Premium as well).

Apple CEO Tim Cook has touched upon the topic as well, discussing in an interview earlier this year how he has "put some boundaries" on his nephew's smartphone use. He continued: "There are some things that I won't allow; I don't want them on a social network."

Sleep Cycle, a popular and highly downloaded alarm clock and sleep tracking app available for the iPhone, today announced a new Apple Watch app that introduces more features for an even better waking up experience. With the Sleep Cycle for Apple Watch, Sleep Cycle users can enable "snore stopper" and silent wake up options.

Sleep Cycle uses "sound analysis technology" to detect when someone is snoring, subtly alerting them with a silent vibration sent to the Apple Watch for a more restful night of sleep. The company says that this will "not cause you to wake up," but instead simply encourage you to change position and stop snoring.

Additionally, the app has a silent wake up function that taps you with haptics to wake you from sleep and avoid disturbing anyone else nearby. Sleep Cycle will also continuously track your heart rate average, providing data that you can revisit when you wake up.

Available from today, Sleep Cycle’s Apple Watch app release features a snore stopper, a welcomed added feature. In addition to the snore tracker, already available in the existing Sleep Cycle alarm clock app using patented sound analysis technology. Snoring is more likely to occur in certain positions. For example, sleeping on your back can cause your tongue and soft palate to collapse to the back of your mouth.

The Sleep Cycle snore stopper uses the silent haptics function of the Apple Watch to gently nudge your wrist when it detects snoring. The alert will not cause you to wake up. But it will have you change position without knowing it and stop snoring. Much like the old trick of sewing tennis balls onto the back of your pajama shirt. No more snore means better quality sleep – for both the snorer and to the delight of potential roommates.

Sleep Cycle on iPhone also uses the same sound analysis technology that tracks snoring to detect movement in an effort to distinguish different sleep phases and provide information on sleep length and quality. This information, which can be viewed on either iPhone or Apple Watch, is used to determine the best time to wake a sleeping person up in the morning, with the aim of cutting down on grogginess by waking people up during the lightest sleep phase.

Sleep Cycle on Apple Watch follows a few sleep tracking apps that have been popular on the App Store, including Sleep++ (which updated recently with automatic sleep tracking), Pillow, and AutoSleep. For Sleep Cycle, the app is free to download and has a collection of features for free, while other features can be added on with a "premium" subscription at $29.99/year.

Beddit is another well-known sleep monitor app, which was acquired by Apple about a year ago. Beddit's sleep tracking data is accumulated using a thin, flexible sensor -- sold for $149.95 on Apple.com -- that provides detailed sleep analysis in areas like respiration, temperature, movement, snoring, and more. Apple's acquisition of Beddit hinted at potential implementation of similar sleep tracking technology in a future Apple Watch, but as of yet the company has not launched a wearable device with built-in sleep analysis features.

Sleep Cycle is available to download for free on the App Store [Direct Link].

Mitchel Broussard contributed to this report.

Anyone who uses Apple Pay to checkout in the McDonald's iOS app on a Friday in April will have the opportunity to get free Medium fries with their order. The offer for a free side of fries is Apple's latest promotion for Apple Pay, and customers have two more Fridays to take advantage of it: April 20 and April 27.

The McDonald's promotion is valid only with a minimum $1 purchase (excluding tax), is available to each user once per week, and can only be used with Mobile Order & Pay at participating McDonald's. With this feature, customers can place their order in the McDonald's app, pay using Apple Pay during checkout, and then head to their local McDonald's to pick up their food.

The promotional email also touts Apple Pay's support in other fast food restaurants, including KFC, Pizza Hut, and Subway. Within apps, Apple reminds users that they can order ahead in Chipotle, Chick-fil-A, and Jimmy John's. Lastly, the company mentions Apple Pay Cash as a way for users to split lunch orders with friends.

The last few Apple Pay promos offered savings for Adidas and Hotwire, Fanatics, Grubhub and Seamless, TouchTunes, and Fandango.

Netflix today added a slew of 30-second video trailers to its iOS app, after limited testing of the feature since early March.

Optimized for mobile, the trailers ape the look of Snapchat and Instagram Stories, appearing as circular icons on the app's main screen and playing back in a vertical format on iPhones. Netflix offered its rationale for the feature in a blog post on its website:

Today, we are excited to introduce mobile previews (launching today on iOS and coming soon to Android) to the mobile experience. Mobile previews present members with a fun, simple, and easy way to learn about all the new content on Netflix -- and find something great to watch even faster.

Years of testing has made it clear that video previews help our members browse less and discover new content more quickly. With the launch of mobile previews, we are bringing a video browse experience to your mobile phone in a fun and mobile-optimized way.

While watching a trailer, users can tap to play the content being previewed, get more information on it, or add it to their Watch Later list. Tapping the video or swiping across it also skips to another trailer without having to return to the main screen.

The company introduced video previews to its TV and web interface last year, but Netflix says around a fifth of all viewing occurs on mobile devices, which is why previews will be a permanent feature of the app going forward. Currently in the list are 75 custom-crop previews for both original and licensed content, with Netflix expected to add more in future.

Netflix exceeded Wall Street expectations this week by adding 7.4 million new subscribers between January and March, giving it a total of 125 million paying subscribers worldwide – far more than Amazon and Hulu.

The service is now available in 190 countries, and users of the streaming service can expect a crop of new television shows from around the world to debut this year, including a six-part British series called The English Game, a look into the invention of football, written by the creator of Downton Abbey. Netflix says several newly announced movies will also be added in 2018, along with new seasons of existing series, such as Glow.