MacRumors

Best Buy today launched a 24-hour flash sale that includes heavy discounts on MacBook Air, MacBook Pro with and without Touch Bar, fifth-generation iPad, Apple Watch Series 3, and iMac. Best Buy's new sale has the best prices available online for many of the products today, with discounts reaching as much as $400 off high-end MacBook Pro configurations.

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

You can find all of the Apple products on sale at Best Buy today only in the list below, all of which represent refreshes from 2017. Remember that students and parents of students can save an extra $50 on Mac notebooks when signing up for Student Deals.

• MacBook Air - Save $300 on select models / as low as $649.99 with Student Deals
• MacBook Pro without Touch Bar - Save up to $350 on select models / as low as $949.99 with Student Deals
• MacBook Pro with Touch Bar - Save up to $400 on select models / as low as $1,449.99 with Student Deals
• Fifth-gen 9.7-inch iPad - Save $80 on Wi-Fi models / as low as $249.99 for 32GB
• Apple Watch Series 3 - Save $30 / as low as $299.00 for 38mm Aluminum
• 21.5-inch iMac (3.4 GHz, 8GB RAM, 1TB Fusion Drive) for $1,274.99, down from $1,499.99. Other iMacs also $200 off.

Best Buy has numerous other items on sale today, including $200 off Bragi The Dash headphones, $100 off Beats Solo3 Wireless headphones, $170 Beats Studio2 Wireless headphones, discounts on HD and 4K TVs, and more. Be sure to check out all the items on sale over at Best Buy, and make your purchases before the discounts expire tonight at 11:59 p.m. CT.

You can also head over to our full Deals Roundup for more information on sales happening this week.

Google this week announced that it has acquired popular GIF search platform Tenor for an undisclosed sum. In the announcement post, Google said that web and mobile searches have "evolved" over the years and Google Image searches pertaining to GIFs have seen an increased amount of traffic -- "we see millions of searches for GIFs every day."

Following a recent update to the iOS and Android Google app that introduced more context around images, Google said it will now "bring GIFs more closely into the fold" through the Tenor acquisition. No specifics have been given yet, but the company said that Tenor will help Google surface GIFs "more effectively" in Google Images and, particularly, in the mobile Gboard app.

We’ve continued to evolve Google Images to meet both of these needs, and today we’re bringing GIFs more closely into the fold by acquiring Tenor, a GIF platform for Android, iOS and desktop.

With their deep library of content, Tenor surfaces the right GIFs in the moment so you can find the one that matches your mood. Tenor will help us do this more effectively in Google Images as well as other products that use GIFs, like Gboard.

Tenor is available as its own app on a variety of devices, including iOS and macOS, but Google promised that the GIF service will "continue to operate as a separate brand" so these apps won't be affected by the acquisition. Google will also help Tenor through investing in the service's technology, as well as in relationships with content and API partners.

Tenor has a long list of brand partners including movie studios, TV networks, video game publishers, and more that it partners with to propagate its service with the latest and most relevant GIFs. The company also fuels the GIF searches of other apps, including Facebook and WhatsApp in certain regions. About a year ago, Tenor rebranded and updated its Mac app to become the first app to place GIFs within the MacBook Pro's Touch Bar.

Following revelations that emerged last week about Facebook's misuse of user data, the company today said it has "heard loud and clear" that it needs to make it easier for users to know how to control their own privacy settings and data. These updates to Facebook mobile and on the web "have been in the works for some time," according to Facebook chief privacy officer Erin Egan, "but the events of the past several days underscore their importance."

The first update is found in a redesigned settings menu on mobile devices, so instead of settings that are spread across "nearly 20 different screens," they're all in one place. This area is also now cleaned up so outdated menus are gone and it's more clear what user information can and can't be shared with apps.

A new Privacy Shortcuts menu launches users into an area where they can look at information regarding privacy, security, and ads "in just a few taps." This menu is also now clearer, has more visuals, and provides simple explanations for how each control option works. Below you'll find a breakdown of everything you can do when jumping into Privacy Shortcuts:

Make your account more secure: You can add more layers of protection to your account, like two-factor authentication. If you turn this on and someone tries to log into your account from a device we don’t recognize, you’ll be asked to confirm whether it was you.

Control your personal information: You can review what you’ve shared and delete it if you want to. This includes posts you’ve shared or reacted to, friend requests you’ve sent, and things you’ve searched for on Facebook.

Control the ads you see: You can manage the information we use to show you ads. Ad preferences explains how ads work and the options you have.

Manage who sees your posts and profile information: You own what you share on Facebook, and you can manage things like who sees your posts and the information you choose to include on your profile.

In a new area called Access Your Information, users can access and manage data -- like posts, timeline memories, items on a profile, reactions, comments, and items searched for -- so that it can be easily deleted. Facebook said it's also making it easier to download the data shared on the site. Users can download a secure copy of photos uploaded, contacts, timeline posts, and more, "and even move it to another service."

Next, the company said that it plans to update its terms of service with the inclusion of "commitments to people," as well as update its data policy to "better spell out" what data is collected and how it's used. In total, Facebook said that all of these updates are about transparency, and "not about gaining new rights to collect, use, or share data."

Apple CEO Tim Cook this past weekend described the Facebook scandal as "dire," calling for stronger privacy regulations in the wake of news that data firm Cambridge Analytica amassed data on 50 million Facebook users without their consent and targeted messages to voters during the 2016 presidential election. Facebook has now delayed the launch of its own entry into the smart speaker market, and CEO Mark Zuckerberg is set to testify in front of Congress on privacy in the coming weeks.

Apple Maps transit directions are now available in St. Louis, Missouri and several metropolitan areas in Virginia, including Richmond and the Hampton Roads region of Virginia Beach—Norfolk—Newport News.

By selecting the Transit tab in Apple Maps on iPhone, iPad, or Mac, users can now access MetroBus bus routes and MetroLink train routes in the St. Louis area, GRTC bus routes in the Richmond area, and HRT bus, train, and trolley routes in the Virginia Beach—Norfolk—Newport News area, including arrival and departure times.

Apple Maps has aggressively expanded its transit-supported cities over the past two months to include Tucson, Arizona; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Orlando, Florida; and Columbia, Charleston, and Greenville in South Carolina.

When the feature launched in 2015, it was initially limited to Baltimore, Berlin, Boston, Chicago, London, Los Angeles, Mexico City, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Sydney, Toronto, and around 300 cities in China. Since then, Apple has expanded the feature to dozens of additional cities around the world.

A list of cities with transit support in Apple Maps can be found on the iOS Feature Availability page on Apple's website, although it has yet to be updated to reflect these latest additions in Missouri and Virginia.

(Thanks, Bernd and Ram!)

Facebook has chosen not to unveil its latest smart connected devices at the company's F8 developer conference in May, in part because of the ongoing data-privacy scandal that has engulfed the social network, according to people familiar with the matter.

Bloomberg reports that Facebook's new home products, which include a video-capable smart speaker featuring the company's own digital assistant, are now being held back from public view, pending a deeper review into the devices' processing of user data. Although the hardware wasn't expected to launch until the fall, Facebook had planned to preview the devices at its annual developer summit, according to the paper's sources.

The devices are part of Facebook's plan to become more intimately involved with users' everyday social lives, using artificial intelligence -- following a path forged by Amazon.com Inc. and its Echo in-home smart speakers. As concerns escalate about Facebook’s collection and use of personal data, now may be the wrong time to ask consumers to trust it with even more information by placing a connected device in their homes. A Facebook spokeswoman declined to comment.

In the last few weeks, Facebook has come under increasing scrutiny over its user data practices, after reports emerged that political advertising firm Cambridge Analytica procured information on 50 million social network users without seeking permission.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is set to testify in front of Congress on privacy in the coming weeks, but the chief executive has so far refused a British request to appear before a parliamentary committee and answer questions about the social network's involvement in data misuse.

Popular Twitter client Twitterrific 5 for Mac and iOS received a major update today, introducing features that bring it on par with the official Twitter apps and competing third-party Twitter apps.

Starting today, Twitterrific users can attach 140-second or shorter videos to tweets on both iOS and Mac. On iOS, a video can be inserted by tapping the camera when composing, and on Mac, you a video can be added by clicking on the camera button.

The app is also gaining official support for Twitter muting, so users and accounts that have been muted will sync between Twitter and Twitterrific with muted content removed from the timeline. Muted users do not generate push notifications, and all previously muted screen names will be auto upgraded to official Twitter mutes.

Muffling has been improved in Twitterrific with the following new features:

- Defining any muffle rule to apply only for a single user
- Muffling mentions from a specific person or mentions of a specific person
- Muffle tweets that quote someone specific
- Avoid seeing retweets from a specific person about someone else
- For full details, check out the knowledge base: https://twitterrific.com/help/muffles

Twitterrific for iOS includes several improvements such as better responsiveness when attaching media to a tweet, new rule suggestions for the Muffle submenu of the Actions menu, a easier-to-access Translate option in the Actions menu, a shortcut for muting the author of a tweet, and a media picker that sorts the most recent photos and videos at the bottom.

On Mac, the reading position marker is now updated when closing a timeline, user search results and listings indicate if a user has been muted or blocked, and there's a new shortcut for muting the author of a tweet.

Twitterrific for the Mac can be downloaded from the Mac App Store for $7.99. [Direct Link]

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

The price of the new sixth-generation iPad didn't change in the United States compared to the previous fifth-generation model, but prices for the new tablet have been lowered in several other countries around the world.

Prior to the launch of the new iPad, rumors had suggested it could be priced as low as $259 in the United States, which did not happen, but the price has indeed dropped slightly in multiple countries.

In the UK, for example, the entry-level fifth-generation iPad was priced at £339, with the new sixth-generation model available for £319.

In Canada, the fifth-generation 32GB iPad cost $449, while the equivalent sixth-generation model is now available for $429.

In Germany, France, and other European countries, the new iPad is priced starting at €349 to €369, down from €399 to €419. Prices appear to be lower in most, if not all European countries.

Prices have not changed in all countries where the new iPad is available. In New Zealand and Australia, for example, prices remain unchanged, starting at A$469 and NZ$539, respectively. Prices have also not shifted in some Asian countries, including Japan, Singapore, and Korea, but prices are lower in others like China, and Thailand.

In the United States, the entry-level 32GB sixth-generation iPad is priced at $329, the price as the fifth-generation model. A 128GB version is available for $429, while Wi-Fi + Cellular models can be purchased for an additional $130 over the standard Wi-Fi only price.

eBay this afternoon launched another Spring Savings coupon, which is designed to allow customers to take 15 percent off of almost anything on eBay.

The 15 percent off coupon lasts for a few hours only, running from 1:00 p.m. Pacific Time to 8:00 p.m. Pacific Time, or 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time to 11:00 p.m. Eastern Time. To get the deal, customers will need to make a purchase on eBay worth $25 or more, pay for the item ahead of the coupon's expiration date, and enter the coupon code PREPSPRING in the coupon redemption field.

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

eBay's coupon is available to eBay accounts registered in the United States and Canada, and the maximum discount allowed on an item is $50. The deal excludes gift cards and coupons, coins and paper money, and real estate. The coupon is a one-time use code, so if you're planning to purchase multiple items to get a discount, make sure to purchase them all at once.

For more information on the code visit eBay's landing page, and head over to eBay's Daily Deals tech section to get started on shopping for ideas before the sale ends tonight. For more sales and discounts, make sure to check out our Deals Roundup.

The App Store appears to be experiencing issues at this time, with many customers unable to access the store to make purchases and install updates to apps. It appears the iTunes Store is also affected.

Affected customers are getting a popup message that reads: "The iTunes Store is unable to process purchases at this time. Please try again later."

The App Store issues have been ongoing for approximately a half hour now, but no outage is listed on Apple's System Status page.

We'll update this post when the issue is resolved. Problems like this are often fixed quickly, so apps shouldn't be unavailable for too long.

Update: Apple's System Status page now displays issues with the App Store, Apple TV, iTunes U, iTunes Store, Volume Purchase Program, and Mac App Store.

Back in early 2016, the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation failed to pursue all possible solutions to unlock the iPhone 5c owned by San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook before demanding Apple's help accessing the device, reports Reuters.

The information was shared today in a report issued by the Department of Justice's Office of the Inspector General.

According to the report, the FBI's in-house unit that handles breaking into mobile devices did not begin looking for outside help to unlock Farook's iPhone until the night before the FBI demanded Apple's help through a court filing.

The FBI was aware that one of the vendors contacted at that point in time had "almost 90 percent completed" a technical solution that would allow the FBI access to the phone. The FBI, though, in its court filing with Apple at the time, said there were no other options for accessing the device.

A judge ended up ordering Apple to help federal investigators access the data on Farook's iPhone by creating a tool that would bypass the auto-erase function and allow investigators to submit an unlimited number of passwords to attempt to unlock the iPhone.

Apple, of course, opposed the order and refused to build such a tool, leading to a long and drawn out legal battle with the FBI that only ended when the FBI admitted it had indeed found another way to access the device.

Communication failures at the FBI were to blame, causing some officials to "misunderstand the status" of the FBI's efforts to open the device. That led to delays seeking help from the FBI and the vendor that was ultimately able to unlock the iPhone.

The report from the Department of Justice comes as some law enforcement officials are again pushing for backdoor access into electronic devices to aid in criminal investigations.

Both DOJ and FBI officials have been quietly meeting with security researchers to explore technology that would allow "extraordinary access" to encrypted devices like the iPhone without weakening a device's defenses against hacking.

Earlier this week, Apple's Craig Federighi reiterated Apple's stance that such a backdoor would be dangerous. "Weakening security makes no sense when you consider that customers rely on our products to keep their personal information safe, run their businesses or even manage vital infrastructure like power grids and transportation systems," he said.

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.

At today's education-focused event in Chicago, Apple announced several new features for its suite of iWork apps for Mac and iOS devices, and those updates have now been pushed out in new versions of the apps that are available for download now.

All of the iWork apps for iOS, including Keynote, Pages, and Numbers, are compatible with the Apple Pencil both on iPad Pro models and the new sixth-generation iPad, which now supports Apple Pencil.

In all three apps, you can draw and write with the Apple Pencil and use it for navigational purposes instead of a finger. In Pages, there's also a new Smart Annotation beta that's designed to allow you to use the Apple Pencil to add comments and marks to a Pages document, and you can add Apple Pencil drawings.

Pages for iOS also includes a new digital books templates for creating books, donut charts, real-time collaboration for documents stored in Box, and more. Full release notes for Pages for iOS are below:

- Draw, write, and annotate using Apple Pencil on supported devices, or use your finger.
- Easily add drawings with pen, pencil, crayon, and fill tools.
- Use Smart Annotation Beta to add comments and marks that stay anchored to their associated text.
- Make beautiful digital books using new book templates.
- Collaborate in real time on documents stored in Box.
- Add an image gallery to view a collection of photos on the same page.
- Use presenter mode to easily read and auto scroll text while giving a speech.
- Create and edit paragraph styles and character styles.
- View pages side by side as you work.
- Turn on facing pages to format your document as two-page spreads.
- Create master pages to keep the design consistent across your page layout document.
- Change your document orientation to landscape or portrait.
- Enhance your documents with a variety of new editable shapes.
- Use donut charts to visualize data in an engaging new way.
- Use conditional highlighting in tables to change the appearance of a cell when the value meets specified conditions.
- New option to automatically format fractions as you type.

In Keynote for iOS, there's an option to animate your drawings during slideshows, and you can more easily change the theme of a presentation. Donut charts have been added for visualizing data in new ways, and there's an interactive image gallery for viewing collections of photos. Full release notes for Keynote for iOS are below:

- Draw and write with Apple Pencil on supported devices, or use your finger.
- Animate drawings during slideshows.
- Collaborate in real time on presentations stored in Box.
- Easily change the theme of a presentation.
- Adjust presentation slide size and aspect ratio.
- Use donut charts to visualize data in an engaging new way.
- Add an interactive image gallery to view a collection of photos.
- Enhance presentations with a variety of new editable shapes.

Numbers for iOS offers new options for sorting and filtering tables, new donut charts, and interactive image gallery, editable shapes for spreadsheets, and more. Full release notes for Numbers for iOS are below:

- Draw and write with Apple Pencil on supported devices, or use your finger.
- Collaborate in real time on spreadsheets stored in Box.
- Use conditional highlighting in tables to change the appearance of a cell when the value meets specified conditions.
- Powerful new options for sorting and filtering tables.
- Improved, customizable import of CSV and text data, with support for custom delimiters and fixed-width files.
- Use donut charts to visualize data in an engaging new way.
- Add an interactive image gallery to view a collection of photos.
- Enhance spreadsheets with a variety of new editable shapes.
- Full bidirectional support for Arabic and Hebrew.

While Apple Pencil support in iWork for iOS was Apple's big announcement, all of the company's Mac apps have also gained new features in line with new features added to the iOS versions of the apps.

All Mac apps have been updated with support for real-time collaboration on spreadsheets stored in Box (macOS High Sierra required), and there are new donut charts for visualizing data in an "engaging new way." A new interactive image gallery is available in all three for viewing a collection of photos, and there's support for adding new editable shapes and reducing the file size of documents.

In Numbers for Mac, Apple has improved imports of CSV and text data with support for custom delimiters and fixed-width files, while in Pages, there are new book templates for creating digital books. You can also now view pages side by side as you work with two page spreads available, and master pages can be added to keep design consistent across your document. There's also a new Pages option for automatically formatting fractions while you type.

All of Apple's iWork apps are free downloads that can be obtained from the App Store and Mac App Store.

- Pages for iOS [App Store]
- Keynote for iOS [App Store]
- Numbers for iOS [App Store]

- Pages for macOS [Direct Link]
- Keynote for macOS [Direct Link]
- Numbers for macOS [Direct Link]

To go along with the new sixth-generation iPad, Apple announced two accessories designed by Logitech -- a $99 Rugged iPad Keyboard Case and a unique $49 Crayon Stylus that shares many characteristics with the Apple Pencil.

The Crayon Stylus looks similar to the Apple Pencil, with a slim aluminum body and an Apple Pencil-style tip. Interestingly, Logitech's website says that the Crayon has been designed for and is compatible with the 6th-generation iPad, suggesting it's not going to work with the iPad Pro.

iMore's Serenity Caldwell was able to get a bit more information on the Crayon from Logitech, and it turns out it's using the same technology as the Apple Pencil. It has the same latency, tilt, and palm rejection features as the Apple Pencil, but there is no pressure sensitivity.

The Crayon connects to the iPad via a single frequency and does not use Bluetooth, and it will last for up to 8 hours before needing to be recharged via an included Lightning port, much like the one on the Apple Pencil. Crayon works with all of the apps that support the Apple Pencil.

Just press the on button and start writing or drawing on iPad right away -- it's that easy. Logitech Crayon connects to iPad instantly with no complex device pairing or other delays.

There was speculation ahead of Apple's event that a lower-cost Apple Pencil might be in the works given the $99 price point of Apple's device, and it appears that we did indeed get that, but from a third-party manufacturer. Students who have a sixth-generation iPad will be able to use the Crayon or the Apple Pencil with the tablet.

Compared to the Apple Pencil, the Logitech Crayon has a more kid-friendly design with a pry-resistant smart tip that requires a special tool when the tip needs replacing. The rubber cap at the end that covers the Lightning connector is also tethered to the Crayon so it doesn't get lost.

It's not entirely clear why the Crayon is not backwards compatible with iPad Pro models, and we've asked Logitech for clarification.

Logitech does not plan to release the Crayon to the public at this time, with the accessory limited to teachers. Teachers will be able to purchase it for $49 starting this summer.