Apple has announced new features for watchOS 4, including major updates coming to Workouts, Activity, Music, all-new watch faces, and "GymKit," which provides a seamless connection between Apple Watch and gym equipment.
New Activity upgrades will deliver intelligent coaching and tailored encouragement to each user, with Apple Watch notifying users every morning when they're close to earning an Achievement. Suggestions on how to improve to match the previous day's activity levels will also be surfaced.
The new Siri watch face, which provides 'the most relevant information throughout the day'
As the day nears an end, Activity will also be able to tell users exactly how long they should walk to close their Activity Rings, and new unique Monthly Challenges will be designed directly for each user's goals.
“Apple Watch is the ultimate device for a healthy life and is now more intelligent than ever with watchOS 4,” said Jeff Williams, Apple’s chief operating officer. “We’ve created a truly individualized experience with the smartest Activity and Workout apps, the Siri watch face that shows you the information you need when you need it and we’re seamlessly bringing users their favorite music right on the wrist.”
Apple has updated the Workout app to include auto-sets for pool swim workouts, as well as new motion and heart rate algorithms for High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) workouts. The company said that users doing back-to-back workouts, like anyone training for a triathlon, will be able to combine multiple workouts into one linked-together data set "to capture overall calorie and time measurements."
With GymKit, Apple said that customers will be able to use certain cardio equipment at Gyms to pair their Apple Watch directly to treadmills, ellipticals, indoor bikes, and stair steppers from brands like Life Fitness and Technogym. With a simple tap, the Apple Watch will speak with the equipment, and vice versa, including data on calories, distance, speed, floors climbed, incline, and pace.
A new Siri watch face will bring up information and will dynamically update based on time of day, daily routines, and showcase pertinent data from apps like Activity, Alarms, Breathe, Calendar, Maps, Reminders, Wallet, and Apple News, for which there is now an Apple Watch app. A redesigned Music app on Apple Watch will automatically sync to My New Music Mix, My Favorites Mix, and most listened to music, giving users a better music-listening experience with watchOS 4, particularly with AirPods.
Apple has announced the newest software update for its Mac computers, which it's calling "macOS High Sierra." At the WWDC keynote this afternoon, Craig Federighi said that High Sierra brings along improvements and refinements across the system and builds off what the company created in macOS Sierra last year.
macOS High Sierra will deliver new video and graphics technologies that will lay the groundwork for even more improvements to macOS down the line, according to Apple. The big additions in High Sierra include Apple File System (APFS), support for High-Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC), and an all-new version of Metal -- simply called Metal 2 -- which will allow Apple's advanced graphics tech to power even more Mac apps, including machine learning and VR-based content.
“macOS High Sierra delivers important forward-looking technologies and new opportunities for developers wanting to tap into the power of machine learning and create immersive VR content on the Mac,” said Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering. “The core technology innovations in macOS High Sierra, combined with our advances in hardware, will continue to push the Mac forward in exciting new ways.”
As it has on iOS, APFS will grant macOS devices enhanced performance, security, and reliability thanks to its advanced architecture that's been optimized for modern users' high storage needs. Apple said that APFS makes day-to-day operations such as copying files "instantaneous," as well as helping to protect user data from power outages and crashes, and keeps files secure with native encryption. High Sierra will maintain read-and-write compatibility with previously formatted HFS drives, and Apple said that the integration of APFS into macOS has been designed to accomodate for any potential future advancements in storage technology.
With support for HEVC (H.265), High Sierra devices will be able to enable video streaming and playback of 4K video files at high quality, while dwindling the size by 40 percent in comparison to the current H.264 standard. Apple said that the new HEVC update will allow for "high-quality video streaming" on networks where only basic HD streaming was previously possible. High Sierra will work in tandem with today's refreshes of the iMac and MacBook lines to deliver fast and power-efficient HEVC encoding and editing.
Metal 2 will bring a refined API and improved performance to Apple's graphics technology, allowing developers to accelerate development of their apps in a number of ways. The technology introduces support for machine learning used in speech recognition, natural language processing powers, and computer vision capabilities. With Metal 2 and the new Mac hardware line-up, High Sierra will be able to support VR content creation for the first time on Mac.
During the keynote, Apple announced a couple of big name game studios are putting their support behind VR on Mac, including Valve and Epic.
Drawing on the performance of Metal 2 and the latest Mac hardware, macOS High Sierra adds support for VR content creation for the first time, enabling developers to create immersive gaming, 3D and VR content on the Mac. Leading VR companies are joining Apple to drive VR innovation on the Mac with features coming later this year — Valve is optimizing their SteamVR platform for macOS and enabling connection of the HTC Vive headset, while Unity and Epic are bringing their VR development tools to macOS. Also later this year, Final Cut Pro X will add support for professional 360-degree workflows with the ability to import, edit and export 360-degree video.
Apple also promised that many of its most popular apps will be updated with refinements in High Sierra, including major new additions within Photos. A new always-on sidebar will give users a glimpse at their albums and a few organization tools, while a redesigned Edit view includes new toolsets. Live Photos can also be turned into GIFs that repeat now, and Memories will be curated around new topics, including some for pets.
In High Sierra, Photos will support external editors, so other apps like Photoshop and Pixelmator can be launched directly within Apple's Photos app, and any edits made will be saved back to the user's Photos library. Additionally, support for third-party project extensions like Animoto, Shutterfly, ifolor, WhiteWall, and Wix, will give users the ability to print and publish their favorite pictures directly within Photos.
Other macOS High Sierra app updates include:
- Safari can automatically use Reader to open articles in a clean, uncluttered format, while Autoplay Blocking stops media with audio from automatically playing in the browser. - Intelligent Tracking Prevention in Safari uses machine learning to identify and remove the tracking data that advertisers employ to follow users’ web activity. - Mail search gets faster and easier with Top Hits, which puts the most relevant results at the top of a user’s message list. - Siri on the Mac responds with a natural and more expressive voice, and when using Apple Music, it learns music preferences, creates custom playlists and answers music trivia. - Notes adds simple tables, where a user can type in cells, make edits and move rows and columns. - Spotlight provides flight status information, including departure and arrival times, delays, gates, terminals and even a map of the flight path. - iCloud File Sharing lets users share any file stored in iCloud Drive and collaborate with other people.
Developers will be able to gain access to a beta of macOS High Sierra beginning today, and public beta testers will be able to download the new system software later in June. Later in the fall, High Sierra will officially launch to the public, along with iOS 11 and watchOS 4.
Apple today announced an all-new iMac model, called the "iMac Pro," with an expected launch date this December and starting at $4,999. The company called the computer "the most powerful Mac ever" and it's been designed specifically for pro-level users with demanding workflows.
The 27-inch iMac Pro includes a Retina 5K display, up to 18-core Xeon processors, and up to 22 Teraflops of graphics computation achievable on the high-end configurations. The iMac Pro also marks the first time than a desktop Mac will come in Space Gray, including the iMac Pro's Magic Keyboard, Magic Trackpad 2, and Magic Mouse.
Apple said that with the powerful desktop, users will be able to take advantage of advanced graphics editing, virtual reality content creation, and real-time 3D model rendering.
“We’re thrilled to give developers and customers a sneak peek at iMac Pro. This will be our fastest and most powerful Mac ever, which brings workstation-class computing to iMac for the first time,” said John Ternus, Apple’s vice president of Hardware Engineering. “We reengineered the whole system and designed an entirely new thermal architecture to pack extraordinary performance into the elegant, quiet iMac enclosure our customers love — iMac Pro is a huge step forward and there’s never been anything like it.”
The iMac Pro includes an all-flash architecture and new thermal design, allowing the desktop Mac to deliver up to 80 percent more cooling capacity than current iMacs, but in the same iMac design. The iMac Pro comes with the new Radeon Pro Vega GPU, the most advanced graphics ever in a Mac, and features up to 16GB of on-package high-bandwidth memory. With the new power, iMac Pro can deliver up to 11 Teraflops of single-precision compute power, powering the computer's real-time 3D rendering and VR abilities.
In terms of storage, iMac Pro supports up to 4TB of SSD and up to 128GB of ECC memory. Thanks to four Thunderbolt 3 ports, users can also connect up to two high-performance RAID arrays and two 5K displays at the same time, further beefing up their pro-level workstations. For the first time on a Mac, the new iMac Pro features 10Gb Ethernet for up to 10 times faster networking speeds.
In addition to the iMac Pro announcement, Apple kept the pro-level reveals coming today by stating that the company is working on "a completely redesigned, next-generation" Mac Pro that is being built for users who required the highest-end, high-throughput system performance. A new high-end pro-level display will also be coming sometime soon.
The iMac Pro will be available in December, with a price starting at $4,999. Those interested can discover more details about the new computer on Apple's website.
Apple announced internal updates to its entire range of MacBooks today at its WWDC keynote, with all models shipping today.
The main upgrade announcement is that seventh generation Intel Kaby Lake processors are now included in all upgraded 12-inch MacBooks and MacBook Pros. The 12-inch MacBook now supports up to 1.4 GHz Core i7 processor with Turbo Boost up to 3.6 GHz, and can be purchased with up to 16GB of RAM.
Meanwhile, the updated 13-inch MacBook Pro features Kaby Lake processors up to 3.5 GHz Core i7 with Turbo Boost up to 4.0 GHz, and the 15-inch MacBook Pro goes up to 3.1 GHz Core i7 with Turbo Boost up to 4.1 GHz.
Intel Iris Plus Graphics 640 are included in the base configuration of 13-inch MacBook Pro, with Intel Iris Plus Graphics 650 included in the higher spec option. Elsewhere, the 15-inch MacBook Pro now comes standard with more powerful Radeon Pro 555 discrete graphics with 2GB video memory, while a Radeon Pro 560 with 4GB memory is also available as an option.
In addition, the updated 12-inch MacBooks feature new SSDs that are up to 50 percent faster than those found in the previous generation, according to Apple.
Finally, the MacBook Air, one of Apple's most popular notebooks, received a new 1.8GHz processor to bring it up to speed with equivalent ultra-slim laptops.
The 12-inch MacBook starts now starts at the lower price of $1,299. Meanwhile, the 13-inch MacBook Pro with function keys starts at $1,299 or $1,799 with Touch Bar. The 15-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar starts at $2,399.
The updated iMac, MacBook, MacBook Pro and MacBook Air are available to order today on apple.com, and available to buy in Apple Stores starting on Wednesday, June 7.
As predicted, Apple today announced a new iOS 11 app called Files at its WWDC Keynote in San Jose, California.
The new Files app for iOS brings together files and documents stored in the cloud across various apps and services, including third-party cloud storage like Box, Dropbox, OneDrive, and Google Drive.
The new Files app keeps everything in one place, whether files are stored locally, in iCloud Drive or across other providers like Box, Dropbox and more, and with Drag and Drop available across the system, moving images and text is easier than ever.
With an interface similar to Finder on the Mac, Files for iOS lets users organize and structure their files with proper folders and subfolders, with various file-based options available at a touch.
Earlier today, a new placeholder app listing for a "Files" app appeared on the iOS App Store. iOS 11 is expected to be released by Apple in the fall.
At WWDC today Apple revealed a collection of iPad-specific abilities coming to iOS 11, including a new customizable dock that can be accessed from any screen, multitasking features, new app switcher, and support for Drag and Drop.
iOS 11 makes multitasking on iPad even more powerful with a new customizable Dock that provides quick access to frequently used apps and documents from any screen, and a redesigned app switcher makes it easier to move between pairs of active apps, used in Split View and now Slide Over.
From the new dock, apps can be dragged and instantly added into Slide Over view, where users can drag images, text, URLs and more across a variety of different apps. A new QuickType keyboard will be more productive as well, with users able to get access to different punctuation within specific key bindings.
Apple today revealed "the largest AR platform in the world," which it's calling ARKit. The new developer platform will help app creators bring high-quality AR experiences to iOS devices using the built-in camera, processors, and motion sensors found in iPhone and iPad.
Apple is introducing a new platform for developers to help them bring high-quality AR experiences to iPhone and iPad using the built-in camera, powerful processors and motion sensors in iOS devices. ARKit allows developers to tap into the latest computer vision technologies to build detailed and compelling virtual content on top of real-world scenes for interactive gaming, immersive shopping experiences, industrial design and more.
In a demo, Craig Federighi showed off features of the enhanced AR integration into iPhone, including improvements that will be coming to games like Pokémon Go. The company noted that thanks to ARKit's integration within iOS, users won't need any special equipment to take advantage of the augmented reality features.
ARKit-fueled applications are expected to begin arriving with iOS 11 this fall.
iOS 11 will see a complete overhaul of the App Store on iPhone and iPad, with a new design that looks visually similar to Apple Music's iOS app and new tabs that include Today, Games, Apps, Updates, and Search. In-app purchases are also becoming more discoverable within the new App Store, with featured placement on app product pages, in search results, and as featured items by the editors in the new tabs.
The store page for each app includes detailed information about the app, screenshots, videos, and a purchase button, similar to the current App Store. The store will feature a new App of the Day, Game of the Day, and The Daily List, with the best apps currently available for users to download.
“Together with our incredible developer community, we’ve made the App Store the best app platform in the world, and more than 500 million unique customers visit it every week,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “Now, we are taking everything we’ve learned from the App Store over the past nine years and putting it into a stunning new design. Every element of the new App Store is richer, more beautiful and more engaging.”
Within the announcement, Apple also revealed that Monument Valley 2 is launching today exclusively on iOS.
All of the new App Store features will debut alongside iOS 11 this fall.
A new safety feature is coming to iOS 11 this fall called "Do Not Disturb While Driving," which will block unnecessary notifications to your iPhone when it's connected via Bluetooth to a vehicle. Apple said it'll also be able to use speed-detection to know if a user is in a car while it's moving.
iOS 11 introduces a new way to help drivers stay more focused on the road with Do Not Disturb while driving. iPhone can detect when you may be driving and automatically silence notifications to keep the screen dark. Users have the option of sending an auto reply to contacts listed in Favorites to let them know they are driving and cannot respond until they arrive at their destination.
When you're driving, Messages will auto-reply with a specific text message to those trying to reach you that you currently can't reply to their text. Users who are passengers will be able to tell iOS 11 and grant full notification access to their iPhone.
Apple Pay will soon get a person-to-person payments feature within Messages in iOS 11, allowing users to send money to friends and family members directly within a text conversation.
Apple said that when users get paid, they will receive money in a new "Apple Pay Cash" account, which they can then use instantly to make a purchase using Apple Pay in stores or online, send as a payment to someone else, or transfer it from Apple Pay Cash to their bank account.
Apple announced three new types of Apple Watch faces as part of WatchOS 4 during its keynote at the Worldwide Developers Conference on Monday in San Jose, California.
A new Siri watch face powered by machine learning and "Siri intelligence" comes with a top left complication that allows the wearer to receive dynamically updating notifications from a range of Apple apps and services, like Apple Home, Calendar, and Weather. The watch face offers "proactive assistance" depending on your schedule and the time of day, according to Apple, and users can rotate the Crown for more details.
The second new watch face in WatchOS 4 is a "trippy" animating kaleidoscopic face that plays on photos in a user's photo album to generate visuals when the user rotates the crown.
The last new watch face is actually a set of three Disney inspired ones to supplement the existing characters. Woody, Jessy, and Buzz from Toy Story are included, and all have animating vignettes when interacted with.
At WWDC this morning, Apple has confirmed that Amazon Prime Video will finally be coming to Apple TV and tvOS sometime later this year. With the new app, users will be able to add Amazon Prime TV content directly into Apple's TV app.
Apple CEO Tim Cook didn't mention any further details about the Amazon Prime Video on tvOS announcement, besides saying that, "You'll be hearing a lot more about tvOS later this year."
Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) kicks off today in San Jose with the traditional keynote being held for the first time in many years at the McEnery Convention Center.
The keynote begins at 10:00 AM Pacific Time / 1:00 PM Eastern Time, and we're expecting to see a number of announcements including both software such as iOS 11 and OS X 10.13, and hardware potentially including Mac notebook and iPad Pro updates.
Apple is providing a live video stream on its website and via Apple TV.
In addition to Apple's video stream, we will be updating this article with live blog coverage and issuing Twitter updates through our @MacRumorsLive account as the keynote unfolds. Highlights from the event and separate news stories regarding today's announcements will go out through our @MacRumors account.
Sign up for our newsletter to keep up with Apple news and rumors.
The full keynote transcript is available after the jump.
Apple shares are trading around 1 percent lower today, just ahead of WWDC 2017, after one analyst issued a rare downgrade of the stock.
"We are downgrading AAPL to Sector Weight and recommend investors reduce position sizes," said Andy Hargreaves, equity research analyst at Pacific Crest Securities, in a note to clients. "We believe AAPL anticipates strong performance in the iPhone 8 cycle, while providing relatively little weight to risks through the cycle or the potential for iPhone sales to decline in fiscal 2019."
Wall Street remains largely upbeat about Apple's stock heading into the second half of this year, as investors anticipate the so-called "iPhone 8" to be a hit among customers, but Hargreaves believes the stock has limited upside, as he said hype surrounding the hotly-anticipated device appears to be "priced in."
Hargreaves anticipates the upside of the iPhone 8 to be offset by key risks, including the "potential for gross margin pressure, diminishing value of the mobile operating system, and the likelihood for declines in iPhone unit sales beyond the iPhone 8 cycle due to market saturation and elongating."
Hargreaves also believes iPhone sales will likely resume declining in 2019, as the iPhone 8 will result in above-average sales in 2018 that are unlikely to be matched once Apple returns to a normalized upgrade rate, similar to what happened after pent-up demand for the larger-screened iPhone 6 started to fade.
AAPL was trading at $153.85 at the time of publication, after opening at $154.34, but remains only slightly off its all-time high.
Getting an iPhone repaired at select Apple-authorized repair shops is about to get a lot faster for customers.
Apple's proprietary iPhone calibration machine via Motherboard
ComputerCare, a computer repair shop in Santa Clara, California, today announced that it has been selected as one of only three Apple Authorized Service Providers in the United States to participate in a new pilot program that will allow it to manage iPhone repair and calibration completely onsite.
As part of this pilot program, ComputerCare and two other yet to be named repair shops have received a specialized and proprietary calibration machine from Apple to ensure that iPhone repairs are fully compliant with Apple's specifications and security requirements for features such as Touch ID and Multi-Touch.
ComputerCare said the calibration machine is compatible with the iPhone 6s and newer, although Apple has been using the machines since as early as 2013. The calibration process is said to take approximately 15 minutes to complete.
With an in-house calibration machine, ComputerCare said it will be able to drastically speed up repair times for its customers, as it will no longer need to ship repaired iPhones to Apple for final testing and calibration.
"We already manage iPhone repairs at our facilities, but because of the devices' specialized security features, the current process requires them to be shipped to Apple for final testing and calibration before being returned to customers," said Georgia Rittenberg, President of ComputerCare. "Having a calibration machine onsite helps us to remove that extra step in the process and dramatically reduces turnaround times."
Apple already has iPhone calibration machines in the back of every Apple Store, enabling Genius Bar employees to perform same-day repairs for most issues. But, not every customer lives near an Apple Store, so expanding the machines to select third-party repair shops is convenient.
If the pilot program is successful, Apple will presumably consider providing a larger number of Apple Authorized Service Providers with calibration machines in the future. Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Apple and Amazon will join Foxconn in a bid to win Toshiba's NAND memory chip unit, which has been on sale since March and was previously said to finally conclude bidding sometime in June. Nikkei quoted Foxconn chairman Terry Gou as saying that Apple and Amazon will "chip in funds" to help Foxconn win the final bid (via Reuters).
Gou left out the exact amount of the funding that Apple and Amazon would provide, and it was also mentioned that Japanese manufacturer Sharp, which Foxconn acquired last year, will also take place in the bidding. In an official statement, Foxconn referenced Apple and Amazon by calling the U.S. companies "strategic partners" in the bid for Toshiba's memory chip unit, while mentioning that more details would come "at the appropriate time."
Apple Inc and Amazon.com Inc will join Foxconn's bid for Toshiba Corp's semiconductor business, the Nikkei business daily quoted Foxconn Chairman Terry Gou as saying on Monday. The two U.S. technology giants plan to "chip in funds", Gou said in an interview, according to the newspaper.
"Of course Apple and Amazon are offering money together, but I cannot comment on how much funds each company is putting on the table," Gou said at a hotel in Osaka.
The sale of Toshiba's chip unit has been riddled by a legal battle with Western Digital over the past few weeks, making it uncertain who -- if anyone -- would end up winning the bid for the unit. Following the announcement of the initial sale, Apple was reportedly looking into spending several billion dollars for a "substantial stake" in the Toshiba memory chip unit, as well as potentially partnering up with Foxconn in the bidding war.
Foxconn has already been suggested as an unlikely winner of the unit due to its deep ties with China, with the Japanese government likely to oppose any winning bid that would take key Toshiba chip technology out of the country. Foxconn's previous bid of $27 billion was reportedly rejected by Toshiba, so now it appears that the manufacturer will beef up its offering for Toshiba's unit with the help of Apple, Amazon, and Sharp, although it's unclear if more money will be enough for the China-based company to win.
According to Gou, if Foxconn would win Toshiba's chip unit it plans to keep the Japanese leadership in place, which it hopes is a way to appease the Japanese government ahead of the end of bidding.
"We will definitely not undermine nor interfere with [Toshiba's existing management]. We will treat them like the way we have been treating Sharp," Gou said, adding that he was confident that Foxconn stood a good chance of winning the bid.
"We let Japanese [managers] run Sharp ... we are also hoping that Toshiba's memory unit will survive into the next 50 to 100 years at least, like Sharp."
Other bidders include Broadcom and South Korea's SK Hynix, and the winner is expected to be announced sometime this month, ahead of Toshiba's next shareholder meeting.
Update: Terry Gou has said that, "Apple is in for sure," in regards to the Foxconn-led group aiming to win Toshiba's memory chip unit. According to a Reuters report, Tim Cook and Apple's board of directors approved the decision to participate in the bidding.
As we get closer to Apple's WWDC 2017 keynote, which is set to kick off today at 10 a.m. Pacific Time, several developers have taken to Twitter to share the swag they've received at the conference this year. The items include a Levi's denim jacket with a custom WWDC17 logo and a collection of Apple-themed enamel pins.
The Levi's trucker jacket comes in black, includes fits and sizes for both men and women, and has two interior pockets large enough to fit an iPhone 7 Plus.
The pins handed out to WWDC attendees this year include a collection of six Apple designs, including the old rainbow-themed Apple logo, the "hello" Mac greeting, the Swift logo, an emoji with sunglasses, the original Macintosh, and the Metal logo.
A few developers have noted that the pin packs include different designs, with separate collections including an iMessage heart bubble, thumbs up emoji, Activity rings, and more. In addition, each developer has received personalized pins that represent their home country.
WWDC scholarship attendees at the conference are also taking away an Apple TV dev kit, as one 9to5Mac reader pointed out. Students and STEM organization members who won a scholarship got free tickets to WWDC, normally priced at $1,599, and received free lodging as well this year at the San Jose State University dorms, located approximately 15 minutes away from the venue when walking.
MacRumors will be providing live coverage of the WWDC keynote in a live blog on the MacRumors.com front page, as well as via the MacRumors Live Twitter account. Any reader interested in avoiding spoilers for this year's keynote can check out our spoiler-free video stream, which will be updated with a direct link to the presentation once it becomes available from Apple.
Apple's online store has temporarily closed its virtual doors ahead of today's WWDC opening keynote at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time.
When clicking on the "Buy" button for any product on Apple's website, be it a MacBook or accessories, the online store currently says "we're busy updating the Apple Store for you" and advises customers to "please check back soon."
During the keynote, Apple is expected to announce updated 12-inch MacBook and MacBook Pro models, alongside major new versions of its iOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS software platforms.
Apple is also rumored to possibly debut a 10.5-inch iPad Pro and smart speaker with Siri, positioned as an Amazon Echo and Google Home competitor, but those announcements could be delayed until later this year.
Apple routinely closes its online store in the hours leading up to its special events, but that's not typically the case ahead of its Worldwide Developers Conference, since the keynote is usually focused on software only.
For that reason, the store's downtime today is a good sign that new products of some kind will be announced imminently.
WWDC has been absent of major hardware announcements since 2013, when Apple unveiled redesigned models of the Mac Pro, MacBook Air, and its AirPort Time Capsule and Extreme wireless routers.
MacRumors.com will be providing news coverage and a live transcript of the WWDC opening keynote on Monday at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time. Twitter users can follow @MacRumorsLive for live updates.
Update: Apple's online store became functional again at approximately 5:10 a.m. Pacific Time, but only briefly as Apple fixed an earlier message that incorrectly said to check back starting at 8:01 a.m. Pacific Time.
Apple shares are trading around 1 percent lower today, just ahead of WWDC 2017, after one analyst issued a rare downgrade of the stock.
