MacRumors

Top-rated eBay shop ElectronicsValley today has the 27-inch 5K iMac from October 2015 for $1,299.99, down from $2,299.99. This model has a 3.3 GHz Intel Core i5 6th Generation processor, 8GB of RAM, 2TB of hard drive storage, and was the first of Apple's iMacs to come with the updated Magic Mouse 2 back in 2015. ElectronicsValley describes the iMac as "New," and its customers have left a largely positive feedback percentage of 99.1 percent on its store.

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with some of these vendors. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

ElectronicsValley often has multiple New-condition Apple products on sale, currently including sales on last year's MacBook Air refresh:

• 13-inch MacBook Air, 2017, 1.8 GHz, 8GB RAM, 128GB HD - $861.59, down from $999.00
• 13-inch MacBook Air, 2017, 1.8 GHz, 8GB RAM, 256GB HD - $1,062.59, down from $1,199.00

Also today, The Home Depot is offering select Leviton dimmers and switches for up to 30 percent off, including a few HomeKit-compatible switches. The company has a 2-pack of the Leviton 15 Amp Decora Smart Switch for $62.96, down from $89.94. The switch can connect to Apple's Home iOS app and allow users to control lights on their iPhones and iPads or with Siri. There are a few other switches available, all with limited stock and with sale prices that will expire by the end of the day.

A few other deals worth mentioning today include savings on Speck's Presidio Power case for the iPhone 7, priced at $30.00 for a limited time, down from $99.95. Amazon and Best Buy also continue to offer notable savings on BeatsX, with both retailers pricing the headphones at $89.99, down from $149.99, in select colors.

For those who are interested but haven't yet taken advantage of ongoing deals from DirecTV Now and Sonos, be sure to head to our full Deals Roundup for more information on each sale. The limited time offers for a free 32GB Apple TV 4K with DirecTV Now and bundle of two Sonos One speakers have been around since November 2017 and January 2018, respectively, and are expected to expire sometime in the spring.

Apple today seeded the fourth beta of an upcoming watchOS 4.3 update to developers, two weeks after seeding the third beta and a little over two weeks after releasing watchOS 4.2.3, a minor update focusing on bug fixes.

Once the proper configuration profile has been installed from the Apple Developer Center, the new watchOS beta can be downloaded through the dedicated Apple Watch app on the iPhone by going to General --> Software update.

To install the update, the Apple Watch needs to have at least 50 percent battery, it has to be placed on the charger, and it needs to be in range of the iPhone it's paired to.

watchOS 4.3 introduces support for Nightstand mode in portrait orientation, a feature that was previously only available when the watch was placed in landscape orientation. There's also a new charging animation when the Apple Watch is placed on the charger, a new app loading animation, your Activity data is now displayed on the Siri watch face, and the battery complication more accurately reports battery life.

The watchOS 4.3 update also brings the return of a much-desired feature that allows music playing on the iPhone to be controlled using the Music app on the Apple Watch.

In prior versions of watchOS, starting with watchOS 4, the Music app could only be used to control music playing on the watch itself. With the tvOS 11.3 beta installed, there's also an option to control music playing on the Apple TV with the watch.

Apple plans to release watchOS 4.3 to the public in the spring, and until then, it will be limited to developers. Apple offers public betas of tvOS, iOS, and macOS, but watchOS betas are not available for public beta testers because there's no way to revert to an earlier version of watchOS once an update is installed.

Apple has debuted a new Activity Challenge for Apple Watch wearers today, this one focused on celebrating International Women's Day. To complete the challenge and earn the achievement, you'll have to double your Move ring on March 8, the day that commemorates the movement for women's rights around the world.

The award for completing the challenge will be a set of still and animated stickers you can send to friends and family members within Messages. You'll find the new Activity Challenge by opening the Activity iOS app, tapping the Achievements tab, and tapping the icon for the International Women's Day Challenge achievement, which should be located at the very top of the page.

The new challenge follows one from February that encouraged users to close their Apple Watch's exercise ring for seven days in a row as a promotion for Heart Month. Apple has regularly added Activity Challenges to the Activity app on iOS over the past few years, marking major holidays like Thanksgiving and New Year's with challenges that encouraged users to avoid staying sedentary during each holiday.

Apple Watch isn't the only area where Apple has been celebrating International Women's Day, with the company debuting a series of female-focused spotlight categories in the iTunes Movies store earlier this week on iOS, macOS, and tvOS. The "Leading Ladies" section offers films like Wonder Woman, Mean Girls, Mad Max: Fury Road, and Room for under $10 for a limited time.

In Apple Music, a "Celebrating Bold Women" card has been featured in the Browse tab for the past few days, linking subscribers to playlists, essential albums, up-and-coming artists, women who made history, and a breakdown of Leading Ladies in musical genres like pop, jazz, rock, and more.

Washington this week became the first state to pass a new law -- House Bill 2282 -- that restores and protects certain net neutrality rules, after the Federal Communications Commission voted 3-2 in favor of repealing net neutrality nationwide late last year. Washington state's new rules were signed into law by Governor Jay Inslee yesterday, and prevent internet service providers from blocking and slowing down content online (via The New York Times).

Many multi-state lawsuits began cropping up following the net neutrality vote in December, but this marks the first time that a state has directly gone against the FCC and enacted its own regulations on how ISPs are regulated within the state. Now, the Washington state law will go into effect starting June 6, 2018, barring ISPs from blocking websites, throttling speeds, or charging its customers more for faster speeds on select sites "in a way that benefits the broadband company and partner websites."

These actions are now technically legal under the repeal of net neutrality by the FCC, made official by its entry into the Federal Register in February and becoming nationwide law itself April 23, 2018. The law signed by Inslee is said to "immediately" put back into place consumer protections provided by net neutrality rules, and was "passed with broad bipartisan support in the state legislature."

“Today we make history: Washington will be the first state in the nation to preserve the open internet,” Inslee said during today’s bill signing ceremony. “We’ve seen the power of an open internet. It allows a student in Washington to connect with researchers all around the world — or a small business to compete in the global marketplace. It’s allowed the free flow of information and ideas in one of the greatest demonstrations of free speech in our history.”

Besides Washington state, lawsuits and movements against the FCC have appeared in nearly two dozen states, with bills in each appearing similar to the one signed by Governor Inslee this week. Washington state's law -- and any others that appear in the future -- are expected to end up in court, because part of the FCC's rules passed under the repeal of net neutrality explicitly mentioned that states could not create their own rules.

Various tech companies also joined together in a lawsuit against the FCC filed on Monday, with Etsy, Foursquare, and Kickstarter among the companies banning together to fight the net neutrality repeal. Before the 3-2 vote in December, Apple was vocal against the potential repeal of net neutrality, emphasizing its stance in a letter last August that urged the FCC not to roll back the rules. Apple said this repeal could risk "fundamentally altering the internet as we know it today—to the detriment of consumers, competition, and innovation."

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.

Popular camera app Halide, which provides iPhone users with more control when taking pictures with their iPhones, today received a major update that introduces several new features.

Photos with Portrait effects are now available in the Halide app, with Halide incorporating a mix of smart facial detection and point of interest detection to create Portrait mode photos with background blur effects.

Portrait Mode is combined with a new "Depth Peaking" feature that's designed to show an outline of the camera's 3D space when capturing a photo that uses depth effects. A new Portrait Preview mode will also show a preview of what Portrait effects will look like when turned on.

All depth-enabled photos captured with Halide can be viewed using a new 3D photo viewer, allowing users to "walk around and through" captured scenes to see depth in a new way.

On the iPhone X, Halide now offers support for the front-facing TrueDepth camera, offering a new set of depth tools for taking selfies with Portrait effects within the Halide app. The front-facing camera also supports Depth Peaking and can allow users to export depth maps to be loaded in other image editors.

In addition to these new features, Halide 1.7 offers faster photo capture times, better responsiveness, and a quicker startup time, along with new design features and support for opening photos in the Darkroom photo editing app with a single touch.

To celebrate the launch of the new version of Halide, the app is discounted to $2.99 for the next 48 hours. [Direct Link]

Google Maps' Street View technology has been updated today to include virtual tours of 11 Disney parks for parents and children to explore in advance of a coming trip, or to rekindle memories of previous visits.

We're all about new fantastic points of view. Today Street View is going the distance, from California to Florida, to make Disney part of your world. Be our guest at 11 Disney Parks, and with Street View, anything your heart desires will come to you—castles, rides, attractions to infinity and beyond.

The Street View coverage takes in castles, rides and attractions around the various Parks, such as Florida's Magic Kingdom Park and the Avatar-themed world of Pandora in Animal Kingdom. The feature currently only includes parks in the United States, but that may change in future, given Google's recent efforts to expand its coverage of touristic landmarks across Europe and Asia through the service.

Google Maps can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]

Netflix today announced a platform-wide update to introduce expanded parental controls that will give parents more granular access to the television shows and movies their children are watching.

A new PIN parental control for individual movies and TV shows is being added, so parents will be able to block access to specific content if so desired.

. We understand that every family is different and that parents have differing perspectives on what they feel is appropriate to watch at different ages. While we already provide PIN protection for all content at a particular maturity level for Netflix accounts, PIN protection for a specific series or film provides families with an additional tool to make decisions they are comfortable with.

Netflix also plans to begin offering more prominent maturity level ratings for a series or a movie once a Netflix user hits play on a title. Ratings are available before starting a movie or a TV show, but Netflix is expanding their availability to make sure members are "fully aware of the maturity level as they begin watching."

According to Netflix, these parental control changes will be rolling out to Netflix members on all Netflix-compatible devices "in the coming months."

Google today announced the launch of a new Google Search app extension for Messages, which can be accessed through the dedicated Messages App Store available within the Messages app on the iPhone and iPad.

When having a conversation with someone in the Messages app, you can tap on the new Google Search icon to bring up an interface that allows you to conduct Google searches without the need to exit the Messages app.

There are quick buttons to access the weather, restaurants located nearby, attractions in the area like parks and museums, trending news stories, and trending videos. You'll also see a search bar at the top of the interface for traditional searches, and there's a GIF button for quickly searching for GIFs to share. This functionality is limited to the United States at the current time.

The Google app for iOS now supports an iMessage extension to help you search and share GIFs, restaurants and videos, whenever you're messaging a friend. You can tap on the icon for "Food" or "Nearby" to share your favorite locations, or perform a search and share a card directly into the conversation. Want to research a new restaurant before sharing it with friends? Just tap on the restaurant card, and we'll take you to the Google Search page, where you can look up the busiest times, as well as menus and reviews. Switch to GIF Search mode, and you can find and share a "happy birthday" GIF.

Google's new iMessage extension is available today, with no need to update the app or install anything to get the new feature. It's automatically available in Messages through the iMessage apps drawer.

In addition to the new iMessage extension, Google today also announced a new related suggestions option in Safari. When you share a webpage with Google using the Share extension on an iOS device, Google will show suggestions for related content so you can learn more about a particular topic without the need to type a new query into the search box.

You can bring up this new option by visiting a webpage, selecting the Share icon, and then choosing the "Search Google" shortcut.

The final feature Google added to the Google iOS app today is support for drag and drop on the iPad. With drag and drop, you can move text, images, links, and more to and from the Google app.

Google for iOS can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]

Smart locks are one of the more popular types of HomeKit accessories, and Yale's Assure Lock SL deadbolt announced last October is one of the more interesting options on the market today. It's available in Polished Brass, Oil Rubbed Bronze, and Satin Nickel, and I've been using the Oil Rubbed Bronze for the past few months.

With the Assure Lock SL, Yale has pursued an interesting strategy of offering a $169 basic keyless entry deadbolt that can also accommodate one of several optional $50 hardware modules that add support for HomeKit, Z-Wave, or Zigbee smart home integration.

Locking Overview and Design

While most smart deadbolts allow users to lock and unlock from the outside with both a keypad code and a standard key, the Assure Lock SL foregoes support for a standard key entirely. As a result, it allows for a much cleaner look from the outside with only a small keypad visible, and it obviously also prevents the lock from being manually picked.

It sounds like a dangerous design decision that could easily leave you locked out if your batteries run out, but Yale has a solution to that dilemma – touching a standard 9V battery to a pair of terminals on the bottom of the lock will provide enough power to allow you to enter your code and unlock the door. Other manufacturers like Schlage and Kwikset are also hopping on this bandwagon as a solution toward eliminating keys entirely, so it's likely to become even more popular in the future.

Now, I don't know anyone who carries a 9V battery everywhere they go, so it means if your lock loses power while you're gone you'll need to run to the store, borrow one from a neighbor, or maybe even keep one hidden outside your door. It's obviously more work than just unlocking with a key, but part of the appeal of smart locks is that you don't need to carry keys with you. Hiding a key outside your door has some risk because anyone who finds it can unlock your door, but a hidden 9V battery is useless unless the person also knows your unlock code for the keypad.

While the decision to omit support for a traditional key makes for a very clean look from the outside, unfortunately the same isn't as true for the inside. As with most smart locks, the interior component is a relatively bulky affair, needing room for manual deadbolt control, electronics, and space for 4 AA batteries to power the unit. In addition, there needs to be room for the network module to add support for HomeKit, Z-Wave, or Zigbee.

Hardware Installation

Installation is straightforward and will be generally familiar to anyone who has installed even a traditional deadbolt. After your old deadbolt has been removed, you pretty much just repeat the process in reverse, inserting the latch through the edge of the door and then sandwiching it with the exterior touchscreen assembly on one side and an interior mounting plate on the other side, being careful that the posts on the mounting plate line up with the proper holes on the exterior and that the cable from the exterior touchscreen is fed through to the inside of the lock.

Yale provides three pairs of bolts in different lengths to secure the two sides together, depending on the thickness of your door. Just make sure you have everything lined up and level before you tighten them down. A rubber gasket around the edge of the exterior escutcheon helps provide a solid level of weather protection.

From there it's a matter of connecting the cable to the interior assembly, feeding the cable past a guide to secure it so that it doesn't get pinched when everything is assembled, and using three short screws to attach the interior escutcheon to the mounting plate. Install the matching strike plate on the door frame opposite the latch if you wish, and your lock is ready to be tested for manual operation to make sure everything is properly aligned.

Once everything looks good, you're ready to install the four AA batteries and screw on the battery compartment cover, and the lock will power up with verbal cues to help walk you through the programming process. The verbal cues are a nice addition beyond the normal beeps that provide feedback on most other locks.

Programming

Programming is fairly simple, with the lock itself offering voice guidance starting with the creation of a Master PIN code that allows for changing settings, and then up to 25 user codes to provide door access. From there, you're good to go if you're happy with the factory settings, but you can also customize a fair number of options, including whether the lock should automatically re-lock 30 seconds after opening, whether an interior indicator light should come on to confirm locked status, one-touch locking so you can lock your door without having to enter a user code, and more.

There's also a Privacy option that lets you use a button on the inside of the lock to enter a "do not disturb" mode that temporarily disables all user codes to keep even authorized users from entering.

I found it was easiest to complete the traditional setup process before moving on to adding in the HomeKit compatibility, so once the initial programming was done, I unscrewed the battery compartment cover, removed the batteries, and inserted the iM1 network module into the slot. Reinstalling the batteries and battery cover starts the system back up, and you use the Master PIN code to enroll the module.

Once that's done, you can use the Yale Secure iOS app to get the lock online via Bluetooth and synced up with your HomeKit data. Installing a network module also increases the number of user codes you can store for the lock from 25 to 250.

General Operation

While smart features handled through an app or HomeKit are nice, a smart lock also needs to work well in manual operation, and the Yale Assure Lock SL handles that well. It offers a sleek, unobtrusive look from the outside, and with a touchscreen interface, aside from a Yale logo it's completely blank until you activate it. Once you touch the screen, it lights up brightly to make it easy to see in the dark, and the backlit numbers won't wear off like on some other keypad locks.

Compared to other locks that can only communicate with simple beeps, the Assure Lock SL includes a small speaker that lets it emit not only several different tones to help convey information, but also provide voice guidance during setup in three languages: English, Spanish, and French. The voice guidance can also provide information during normal operation, such as alerting someone trying to enter that Privacy mode has been turned on or if they've taken too long between entering digits of the PIN code and their time has expired.

Overall operation is smooth, with the keypad accurately registering presses even with gloves on. After entering a PIN code when unlocking the door, you do have to press the checkmark key to confirm your entry, which feels like an unnecessary extra keypress, but that's a minor quibble.

Yale Secure App

The Yale Secure app for managing lock functions from your phone is a simple app, but it offers a clean look based on a black, yellow, and white color scheme. It supports multiple homes and displays all of your compatible Yale locks that are online, making it easy to lock and unlock with a tap.

It also lets you manage assigned user codes, monitor battery level, and adjust all of the settings you'd otherwise need to manage in a bit more cumbersome manner directly from the lock's touchscreen. User codes can be easily added and deleted as needed, but it would be nice if codes could be set to automatically expire after a period of time or only allow entry at certain times.

Finally, the app keeps an eye out for firmware updates for your lock and applies them when they're available. This isn't a full HomeKit app, so you won't be able to use Yale Secure to see the status of other HomeKit devices or set up automation with multiple devices here.

HomeKit Operation

As with other HomeKit-enabled smart locks, the Yale Assure SL can be controlled via Siri or Apple's Home app for iOS, and it can be integrated with other HomeKit products through automation routines to activate based on groupings into rooms or scenes, or with triggers where an event on one HomeKit device causes another device to be activated.

Throughout my testing, the lock was responsive to HomeKit commands, with its status showing up quickly in the Home app and quickly locking or unlocking from either Siri commands or the Home app, regardless of whether I was home or away. With a range of HomeKit devices around the house, setting up a "Good Night" scene makes it easy to ensure all lights are turned off, doors are locked, and the garage door is closed before heading off to bed.

Battery Backup

As I outlined above, there's no physical cylinder for unlocking the Assure Lock SL with a key, so if the batteries in the lock die, Yale's backup solution is to touch a 9V battery to terminals on the bottom of the lock to give it enough power to open up. If you can get your hands on a 9V battery easily enough, it's pretty nice solution, and hopefully you won't ever have to use it if you heed low-battery warnings and make sure your lock's batteries don't run out.

I tested out the 9V battery backup method several times, and while it's a little finicky getting a good connection to the terminals and holding the battery steady, once you've got everything in place the lock powers up just fine and lets you lock and unlock normally.

After three months of occasional use, the Yale Secure app is still reporting 83 percent battery life remaining on the set of AA batteries that came with the lock. If this is indeed accurate and a relatively linear measure of battery life, battery changes should be few and far between, further limiting the potential need to use the 9V battery backup solution.

Wrap-up

The Yale Assure Lock SL is a very nice smart lock. It performs well in all three aspects of operation: direct interaction with the lock, app management, and HomeKit integration. It's proven reliable with solid battery life, and the 9V battery backup system is an innovative method for eliminating the need for keys entirely.

At $169 plus an additional $50 for the HomeKit module, the Assure Lock SL is fairly pricey, but not completely out of range compared to competing products. On the one hand, the separate network modules make it easy to add support for a smart home system after purchase and you only have to pay for it if you want it, but on the other hand, $50 feels a bit high and it only lets you work with your choice of a single smart home protocol.

The Yale Assure Lock SL with included iM1 HomeKit module is available for $219.99 in Satin Nickel, Polished Brass, and Oil Rubbed Bronze from a variety of retailers such as Best Buy (Satin Nickel/Polished Brass) and Amazon (Satin Nickel/Polished Brass). Amazon also has the lock/module package in Oil Rubbed Bronze, but is charging $249.99 for some reason.

Note: Yale/Assa Abloy provided the Assure Lock SL to MacRumors free of charge for the purposes of this review. No other compensation was received. MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Best Buy and Amazon and may earn commissions on purchases made through links in this article.

Apple today seeded the fourth beta of an upcoming tvOS 11.3 update to developers for testing purposes, two weeks after seeding the third beta and two weeks after releasing the tvOS 11.2.6 update.

Designed for the fourth and fifth-generation Apple TV models, the tvOS 11.3 developer beta can be downloaded onto the Apple TV via a profile that's installed using Xcode and Apple Configurator.

Early tvOS 11.3 updates introduced support for AirPlay 2, allowing the Apple TV to be added to the Home app as part of a HomeKit setup and enabling multiple Apple TVs in separate rooms to play the same song, but that functionality was removed in tvOS 11.3 beta 3.

It is not yet clear if Apple plans to re-add AirPlay 2 features ahead of the release of tvOS 11.3, but it's a possibility because there are still several betas to go.

Other new features in tvOS 11.3 include enhancements to Match Content support, automatic frame rate switching on the fourth-generation Apple TV (a feature that was added to Apple TV 4K in a past tvOS update), and automatic mode switching for AirPlay video sessions.

Update: Apple has also seeded a fourth beta of tvOS 11.3 for public beta testers.