MacRumors

Apple has stopped selling the Nest Learning Thermostat and the Nest Smoke Alarm in its stores and has confirmed to Mashable that it will no longer be carrying Nest products. The Nest thermostat was still available online earlier this month, but a search for the Nest thermostat or smoke alarm now redirects customers to other HomeKit products.

Apple's decision to stop offering Google's Nest products in its retail stores and online comes just over a month after the first HomeKit-compatible products became available for purchase. In early June, Lutron, iHome, Elgato, Ecobee, and Insteon began offering a range of smart lights, plugs, thermostats, room monitors, and more, all of which work with HomeKit.

The HomeKit-compatible Ecobee3 smart thermostat is a direct competitor of the Nest, so it's no surprise Apple has opted to stop offering Google's products in order to highlight accessories that are compatible with its own smart home platform.

This isn't the first time Apple has stopped offering products that directly compete with its own product offerings. Last year, the company stopped selling Fitbit activity tracking devices ahead of the launch of the Apple Watch and also culled several other activity trackers from its store earlier this year.

Apple's decision to stop selling the Nest thermostat comes as the company is working to revamp accessory lineups in its retail stores, cutting back on the number of accessories offered and packaging many of them in boxes that match its own design aesthetic.

Honda today at its high-tech research facility in Mountain View introduced its new 2016 Accord with support for both CarPlay and Android Auto, reports Re/code. The ninth-generation sedan will be the first Honda vehicle to support CarPlay as the Japanese car maker aims to expand the iPhone-based dashboard system across its vehicle lineup throughout 2016 and beyond.

Apple has listed Honda as a CarPlay partner on its website for several months, but the car maker has not been entirely clear about its launch plans until today. GM is also committed to supporting CarPlay in 2016 across its Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick and GMC vehicle brands, while Kenwood recently began shipping its lineup of aftermarket CarPlay and Android Auto systems.

An image said to depict the front panel of the upcoming "iPhone 6s" has been shared by French site Nowhereelse.fr [Google Translate] this afternoon, giving us our first glimpse at the screen for the device.

According to the site, the front panel images were shared by an informant who also said that the iPhone parts are currently in production and ready to be shipped to iPhone 6s assembly lines for use in the Silver and Gold iPhone 6s.

As an "S" upgrade, the iPhone 6s and the iPhone 6s Plus are not expected to feature physical design changes, so as is expected, the front panels said to be for the iPhone 6s look identical to front panels for the iPhone 6. Previous iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus part leaks have also confirmed that the casings for the device carry the same design as the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, but there may be small design improvements and material changes to bolster strength and durability.

Nowhereelse.fr mentions that its source could not confirm if the panel included sapphire crystal or hints of Force Touch support. While the addition of Force Touch has been widely rumored for Apple's next-generation iPhones, sapphire crystal displays are not expected and the devices are likely to continue using Gorilla Glass. While there were a few rumors hinting at the possibility of sapphire for the next-generation iPhones, rumors about such a feature have not picked up and no new sapphire deals have become apparent.

Along with Force Touch, the next-generation iPhones are rumored to include an improved 12-megapixel camera, an A9 processor, better Touch ID support, 2GB RAM, and a new rose gold color option.

Mass production of the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus is rumored to be beginning this month, with early production having started in late June.

Apple today declared its support for the Equality Act of 2015, introduced by members of congress this afternoon. The Equality Act would expand the Civil Rights Act of 1964, adding sexual orientation and gender identity to the legislation that outlaws discrimination based on race, color, religion, or national origin.

In a statement to the Human Rights Campaign, Apple echoed sentiments on equality that it has shared several times before:

At Apple we believe in equal treatment for everyone, regardless of where they come from, what they look like, how they worship or who they love. We fully support the expansion of legal protections as a matter of basic human dignity.

The Equality Act will ensure full federal equality for all LGBT Americans, including those who live in the 31 states that do not currently have non-discrimination legislation, protecting LBGT citizens from discrimination when seeking jobs, housing, public accommodations, education, and more.

Cook himself has made several impassioned speeches on non-discrimination and equality and has publicly opposed harmful religious freedom legislation. Last fall, Cook became the first Fortune 500 CEO to publicly come out as gay, an announcement he made in an effort to "bring comfort to anyone who feels alone" and to "inspire people to insist on their equality."

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.

The latest numbers from research firm IDC reveal that the premium smartphone market continues to be a largely two-horse race between Samsung and Apple, which accounted for 21.7% and 14.1% market share in the second quarter respectively. The rival tech companies combined for 35.8% quarterly market share, finishing well ahead of emerging Chinese competitors Huawei, Xiaomi and Lenovo during the three-month period ending June 30.

IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker shows that smartphone vendors shipped a total of 337.2 million smartphones worldwide in the second quarter, an 11.6% increase from the 302.1 million units shipped in the year-ago quarter. The growth was driven by not only premium devices sold by Apple and Samsung, but also the growing number of affordable handsets available in emerging countries such as China and India.

Apple increased 2.4 percentage points to 14.1% during the second quarter compared to its 11.7% market share in the year-ago quarter, while market leader Samsung experienced a year-over-year decline as its market share slipped from 24.8% to 21.7%. Apple closed the gap on the continued strength of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, with the company announcing it sold 47.5 million iPhones in the third quarter of the fiscal year earlier this week.

Apple and Samsung continue to dominate the smartphone operating system race, trailed by Huawei, Xiaomi and Lenovo with 8.9%, 5.3% and 4.8% market share in the second quarter respectively. All other smartphone makers accounted for a combined 45.2% quarterly market share. Overall mobile phone shipments in the second quarter reached 464.6 million units worldwide.

Apple today launched its annual Back to School promotion, offering a free pair of Beats Solo2 On-Ear headphones to qualifying students, parents of students and educators that purchase an eligible Mac, including the iMac, MacBook, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air and Mac Pro. As usual, the Mac mini and refurbished Macs are excluded from the deal. iPhones and iPads are also absent from this year's promotion.

Apple will apply an instant credit in the amount of $199.95 to cover the full cost of the Beats Solo 2 On-Ear headphones in gloss black, white, red, blue, gray or pink. Apple is also offering the option to upgrade to Beats Solo2 Wireless On-Ear Headphones in space gray, silver or gold for $100 extra, which is the remaining balance after the $199.95 credit is applied.

Apple's Back to School promotion offered up to a $100 Apple Store gift card with the purchase of a qualifying Mac, iPhone or iPad in past years, including the 2014 and 2013 promotions, but the iPhone and iPad are not included in this year's deal. Apple has outlined the full eligibility requirements for the program in its terms and conditions for the United States [PDF] and Canada [PDF] on its website.

Apple has traditionally launched its Back to School program during June or early July, with the second Tuesday of July being the target date for several years in a row, but this year's launch has come later in the month than expected. Apple has also moved away from offering free Apple Store or iTunes gift cards for the first time since offering a free iPod touch with a qualifying Mac in 2010 and prior.

Apple's Back to School promotion runs from today through September 18, 2015 at Apple Retail Stores, and between August 6, 2015 and September 18, 2015 on the Apple Online Store, in the United States, Puerto Rico and Canada. Apple has not yet officially announced the promotion in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Denmark or several other European countries that have offered the deal in previous years.

Juli Clover contributed to this report.

Update 9:30 AM Pacific: Apfelpage.de and iFun.de report that the same promotion will be offered in Germany starting August 6.

While the release of the Apple Watch has seen a boom in third-party docks and stands for the device, those accessories have needed the stock charger that Apple supplies to charge the Apple Watch. However, Apple will soon allow manufacturers to make official third-party Apple Watch docks and stands with integrated chargers, according to 9to5Mac.

However, the charging components are currently only available in "sample quantities" and official plans for accessories with integrated chargers cannot be submitted for approval. It's unknown when the first Apple Watch docks and stands with integrated chargers will be available.

Apple today seeded second betas of iOS 9 and OS X El Capitan to public beta testers, nearly two weeks after beta testers received access to the first public betas. Today's iOS 9 public beta offering has a build number of 13A4305g, which means content-wise, it's the same as the fourth iOS 9 beta that was seeded to developers yesterday. The version of OS X El Capitan public beta testers are receiving is also identical to El Capitan beta 4.

Beta testers who have signed up for Apple's beta testing program and already have the first public betas installed can update over-the-air for iOS 9 or through the Software Update mechanism in the Mac App Store for OS X.

The iOS 9 beta includes the return of Home Sharing for music, which was removed in iOS 8.4, and it's the first beta that supports Apple's new iPod touch. Other changes include a new look for Handoff in the app switcher and a bug fix that once again allows the volume buttons on an iOS device to serve as a shutter for the camera. A full list of changes in the beta can be found in our iOS 9 beta 4 tidbits list.

OS X El Capitan beta 4 focused more on performance improvements and bug fixes with few outward changes to the operating system.

Both iOS 9 and OS X El Capitan 10.11 are expected to be released in the fall.

The latest data from research firm Strategy Analytics estimates that the Apple Watch captured 75.5% global smartwatch market share during its launch quarter, trailed by Samsung's estimated 7.5% market share.

Strategy Analytics estimates that Apple sold 4 million Apple Watches in the second quarter of 2015, while runner-up Samsung sold an estimated 400,000 smartwatches during the three-month period ending June 30.

Many analysts have adjusted their Apple Watch sales estimates following the company's earnings report on Tuesday, with the consensus now ranging between 2.2 million and 3 million units sold, so Strategy Analytics's 4 million estimate seems overly high. Nevertheless, it is clear that the Apple Watch has become the best-selling smartwatch since its release.

Neil Mawston, Executive Director at Strategy Analytics, added, “We estimate Apple Watch shipped 4.0 million units and captured a dominant 75 percent smartwatch marketshare worldwide in Q2 2015. Apple Watch launched in sixteen major countries and saw decent take-up from iPhone loyalists in the United States and elsewhere. Apple Watch has clearly raised the bar for the global smartwatch industry. The ball is now in the court of rivals, like Samsung, to respond.”

The launch of the Apple Watch helped the overall smartwatch market grow an estimated 457% annually to reach a record 5.3 million units in the second quarter of 2015. Strategy Analytics reports that smartwatch shipments were higher in this quarter than throughout all of 2014, when Samsung led the market and an estimated 4.6 million smartwatches were shipped globally.

Samsung held a commanding 73.6% global market share in the smartwatch market in the year-ago quarter, but the South Korean electronics maker now trails the Apple Watch by a significant margin. Apple Watch is currently available in the United States and eighteen other countries, and the wrist-worn device is set to launch in New Zealand, Russia and Turkey on July 31.

Apple and Samsung together accounted for 8 in 10 smartwatches sold, similar to the two-horse race between the rival tech companies in the smartphone market. Strategy Analytics estimates that other manufacturers shipped a combined 900,000 smartwatches during the second quarter of 2015 for 17% market share, down from 26.4% market share in the year-ago quarter despite selling 600,000 more smartwatches.

Apple CEO Tim Cook said that Apple Watch sales "exceeded expectations" during the company's third quarter earnings report on Tuesday, but stopped short of providing any specific sales figures. Cook's only comment was that Apple Watch sales during its first nine weeks of availability were higher than sales of the original iPad and iPhone when those devices first became available for sale.