MacRumors

For this week's giveaway, we've teamed up with WaterField Designs to offer MacRumors readers a chance to win either a Vitesse Messenger Bag or an iPhone Camera Bag.

The Vitesse Messenger Bag, priced at $159 (or $169 with cycling strap) is made from a stylish waxed canvas in brown or navy. It holds up to a 15-inch MacBook Pro in an unpadded laptop pocket, and it also has several additional pockets that can hold an iPad and other accessories.

In addition to the laptop compartment, there are two waterproof zip pockets at the front, a main inner compartment, a hidden ultrasuede-lined phone pocket, and three accessory compartments for cables, battery packs, and other small devices.

The Vitesse is designed for commuting, with a nylon adjustable strap and optional stabilizer messenger strap, but it also looks nice enough to take into the office.

WaterField Designs' iPhone Camera Bag, priced at $99 for black ballistic nylon or $129 for leather, is designed to hold an iPhone, mobile lenses, and a small tripod, while remaining compact and easy to carry.

There's a pocket for holding a cell phone and battery, a mesh zipper pocket for accessories like cords, and a customizable lens pocket with four dividers that can be rearranged to fit each user's needs.

The body of the camera bag is lined with foam to keep everything safe, secure, and protected from drops, and soft lining prevents scratches. Using a set of straps at the bottom, you can also attach a small mobile tripod. It can be used with either a shoulder strap or hooked into a belt using leather loops.

We have one of each of these bags from WaterField Designs to give away. To enter to win, 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.

The contest will run from today (December 15) at 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time through 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time on December 22. The winners will be chosen randomly on December 22 and will be contacted by email. The winners will have 48 hours to respond and provide a shipping address before new winners are chosen.

Sam's Club is launching a member exclusive one day event tomorrow, December 16, with discounts and promotions on the iPad Pro, Apple Watch Series 3 and Series 2, iPhone X, and a few Beats by Dre products. To gain access to the deals, you'll need a Sam's Club membership, which start at $45/year.

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Sam's Club. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

The sale items will be available to purchase in your local Sam's Club store (beginning at 7:00 a.m. ET) as well as online (beginning at 12:01 a.m. ET), but the retailer noted that there are limited quantities on all items. Some products will see discounts only lasting December 16, while others will run through Christmas.

Below are a few of the Apple products and accessories with promotions or deals at Sam's Club tomorrow (note that the Beats Solo 3 deal is already up):

• iPhone X - Get a $150 Sam’s Club Gift Card with activation on installment: AT&T, Verizon and USCell
• 12.9-inch and 10.5-inch iPad Pro, 256GB - $125 off starting 12/16
• Apple Watch Series 3 and Series 2 - $25 off only on 12/16
• Powerbeats3 Wireless - $128 only on 12/16 (matching Amazon and Walmart)
• Beats Solo3 - $198 through 12/25 (compared to $240 at Amazon and $220 at Walmart)
• $50 iTunes Card - $42.98
• $100 iTunes Card multipack - $84.47

Although $25 off isn't the best deal we've seen for Apple Watch Series 2 models this season, it is one of the first straight cash discounts on Series 3, which as of yet have only received promotions for store credit of some kind, like at Kohl's on Black Friday. This should knock down the non-cellular Aluminum Series 3 devices to about $305 for 38mm and $335 for 42mm. Cellular models in Aluminum will be $375 for 38mm and $405 for 42mm.

Check out the catalog for the December One Day Only event at Sam's Club for a longer list of products, and then head over to our Deals Roundup for more holiday sales.

Microsoft this week announced that the beta for its main Xbox iOS app will soon allow testers to enable party chat and speak with friends who are in a party on Xbox One, with a wide launch expected to follow. Those interested can sign up for the Xbox app beta, run through Apple's TestFlight program, on Microsoft's website. The party chat mode is already available on the Android beta of the Xbox app, as spotted on Reddit (via Engadget).

Details on the party chat feature are scarce, but it appears that it will work similarly to Nintendo's Switch Online mobile app, although likely won't be as game-specific. Nintendo's app was created due to the fact that the Switch console itself lacks a voice chat feature, so players in online games like Splatoon 2 are required to use the Switch Online app if they want to talk with friends. As of today, Splatoon 2 is still the only game supported in the app, despite numerous other online games being available for Switch, like Mario Kart 8.

For the Xbox app, players will be able to chat with their friends who are playing on Xbox -- or on the mobile app themselves -- even when not at home near their console. Otherwise, the app allows users to view their friend list, send messages, post updates and game clips, purchase games on the store, and more. The Xbox app is available to download for free on the iOS App Store [Direct Link].

Chinese smartphone makers Huawei and Xiaomi are reportedly in discussions with carriers AT&T and Verizon, who may begin selling each company's flagship Android smartphones in the United States as early as next year.

The negotiations are still in progress, and it's possible no final agreements will materialize, according to Bloomberg News.

The news echoes an earlier report from The Information that claimed AT&T has tentatively agreed to sell at least one Huawei smartphone, which was believed to be a high-end model resembling the company's flagship Mate 10 handset.

A partnership with AT&T and/or Verizon would be a major win for Huawei, already the world's third largest smartphone maker by market share behind Samsung and Apple, which dominate the smartphone market in the United States.

Huawei is the most popular smartphone maker in China, and it has aggressively pushed into Europe and Canada, but it has considerably less brand awareness in the United States since no major carriers sell its smartphones in the country. American customers currently have to resort to retailers such as Best Buy, Walmart, or Amazon to purchase a Huawei smartphone.

If it wants to achieve its lofty goal of becoming the largest smartphone maker in the entire world by 2021, Huawei will almost certainly have to secure these types of agreements with AT&T, Verizon, and other carriers.

Huawei remained in third place with an estimated 39.1 million smartphone shipments worldwide last quarter, according to research firm Strategy Analytics, while Apple reported sales of 46.7 million iPhones over that period. In the United States, Huawei held just a 0.2 percent share of the smartphone market as of June 2017, according to Counterpoint Research.

Meanwhile, Xiaomi said it aims to roll out smartphones in the United States within two years. Xiaomi is also considering opening retail stores in the country to increase its brand presence, according to the report.

In the United States and a select few other countries today is Free Shipping Day, a shopping holiday in which most participating retailers offer free shipping with no minimum purchase required. Although lesser-known than previous shopping events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday, Free Shipping Day is a great opportunity for last-minute shoppers to get orders in ahead of Christmas, because most retailers joining in on the shopping holiday also guarantee delivery by December 24th.

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.

Over 900 retailers are participating in the event, so chances are there is a store you might be interested in that you can place an order for free shipping today. Some websites require a code and also go beyond free shipping to offer you discounts and other promotions.

Below we've listed a few places joining in on the event:

• Target - Free shipping on all orders
• Best Buy - Free shipping on all orders
• OtterBox - Free 2-day shipping on all orders
• LifeProof - Free shipping on all LifeProof Protective Cases and accesories, 10 percent off purchase (Code: LPFS17)
• Speck - Free 2-day shipping on all orders, $15 gift card with purchase of $30 or more
• Office Depot/OfficeMax - Free shipping on all orders
• Bose - Free expedited shipping on all orders
• Belkin - Free ground shipping on all orders
• Sonos - Free shipping sitewide (Code: FRE2NDYSHP17)
• Case-Mate - Free sitewide shipping, $10 off order (Code: SHIP10)
• Brydge - Free shipping on all orders
• Macy's - Free shipping on all orders
• JCPenney - Free shipping on all orders (Code: SHIP3)
• B&H Photo - Free next day shipping until 4:00 p.m. ET on December 21
• Twelve South - Free 2-day shipping and orders made by 2:00 p.m. on December 20 have guaranteed Christmas delivery

Although this is a one-day-only shopping event, some stores are stretching their free shipping and guaranteed Christmas delivery policies further into this weekend and early next week, so make sure to read the promotion and delivery promises at each website you visit for more information.

There are also numerous stores taking part in the event that require a minimum purchase to be made for free shipping to be activated. These include Amazon ($25 or more), Walmart ($35 or more), Verizon ($49 or more), GameStop ($50 or more), and others that FreeShippingDay.com has listed on its website (which is loading slowly today, likely due to high traffic).

As a note for Apple.com, the company is offering free next-day delivery on in-stock items ordered by 3 p.m. local time on December 22, so you still have one week from today to get your Apple orders in for Christmas.

Visit our Deals Roundup for more sales and promotional offers that might help you out during your holiday shopping.

Apple in June promised to introduce new analytics features for podcasters, providing in-episode analytics options for tracking people listening, where in a podcast listeners stop and skip content, whether ads are skipped, and how long people generally listen for.

Starting today, Apple's podcast analytics feature is rolling out in a beta capacity, reports TechCrunch.

In recent years, podcasts have been growing in popularity, which is what led Apple to finally introduce dedicated analytics tools. Apple also redesigned the Podcasts app entirely in iOS 11, implementing a much improved end user experience with better linearity for podcast episodes.

Apple's new podcasts analytics feature uses anonymized data to make sure user privacy is preserved while also allowing developers access to data that will improve their podcast performance. Data is available from iOS 11 and iTunes 12.7 users.

Podcasters can access the new analytics options for free starting today in iTunes Connect.

Apple iTunes Chief Eddy Cue will attend the Pollstar Live! 2018 Conference where he will sit down for a QA session with Variety Executive Music Editor Shirley Halperin, Variety reported today.

Cue's official title is vice president of Internet Software and Services, and he oversees both iTunes and Apple Music along with Apple Pay, Maps, iCloud services, Apple's video efforts, and more.

"Eddy Cue and his team at Apple have changed the way we listen to music, played a transformative role in artist discovery, and ignited the passion of music fans," said Ray Waddell, president, Media & Conferences, for Oak View Group, producers of Pollstar Live! "We are thrilled to have him address the attendees at Pollstar Live! and can't wait to hear what he has to say."

Other speakers at Pollstar Live! 2018 include William J. Bratton, Troy Carter, Coolio, Mark Cuban, Marc Geiger, Michael Rapino, Alan Krueger, James E. Meyer, Roger Lynch, and more.

The Q&A session, entitled Apple and the Music Business, will take place on the morning of February 7, 2018 at the InterContinental hotel in Downtown Los Angeles. Pollstar Live! is a three day event that starts on February 6.

Apple released iOS 11.2.1 on Wednesday with multiple bug fixes, but an emoji-related issue continues to affect the Messages app on iOS devices.

The bug happens as follows: start a fresh conversation with a new recipient in the Messages app, send a single emoji as the first message, and much of the interface will essentially go blank with the top menu disappearing.

The glitch effectively renders the Messages app unusable until it is force closed and reopened through the multitasking menu.

The bug has affected most iPhone, iPad, and likely iPod touch models since at least iOS 11.1.2. MacRumors is able to reproduce the issue on iOS 11.2, iOS 11.2.1, and the first iOS 11.2.5 beta released yesterday.

The issue is prevalent in both iMessage conversations with blue bubbles and SMS conversations with green bubbles.

While this bug is a minor one, it adds to a growing list of issues that have surfaced over the past several versions of iOS 11 and macOS High Sierra, including a major Mac vulnerability that provided easy access to the root superuser.

Beyond the root bug, Apple has also dealt with a HomeKit-related vulnerability, an iPhone camera autofocus issue, iOS autocorrect bugs, and iPhone X glitches in cold weather, among other problems, in recent weeks.

We've alerted Apple about this bug shortly prior to publishing this article and we'll provide an update if and when we learn about a fix.

Apple today released the first public beta of iOS 11.2.5 to its public beta testing group, one day after seeding the first beta to developers and also one day after releasing iOS 11.2.1, an update that addressed a HomeKit vulnerability.

Beta testers who are members of Apple's beta testing program will receive the iOS 11.2.5 beta update over-the-air after installing the proper certificate on an iOS device.

Those who want to join the beta testing program can sign up on Apple's beta testing website, which gives users access to iOS, macOS, and tvOS betas. iOS betas are not always stable and should not be installed on a primary device.

No new features were discovered in the first developer beta of iOS 11.2.5, so it's not entirely clear what new features this beta introduces.

It's possible it focuses primarily on security improvements and bug fixes, and if that's the case, we may not know the extent of what's in the update until it sees a public release complete with detailed release notes.