MacRumors

ColorWare, known for its customization offerings for AirPods, Xbox controllers, Nintendo Switch components, and more, today introduced custom-painted AirPods 3.

AirPods 3 are available in a range of custom paint colors, including bright glossy shades, metallics, and matte colors. Every color of the rainbow is available, as are various shades of black, silver, and gold.

Each AirPod can be painted a different color, and the case can be customized in a different shade as well. Custom paint jobs for the AirPods are priced at $319, but the price goes up to $369 when adding in the case too. AirPods are priced at $179 direct from Apple, so getting a custom color is at least $140 more expensive.

Still, even at that price point, ColorWare is the only way to get AirPods that are not white because Apple still does not offer AirPods in black or other colors.

With ColorWare's painting, all of the AirPods 3 features remain intact such as MagSafe connectivity for the case, spatial audio, adaptive EQ, and more, and the paint does not impact the functionality.

Custom AirPods 3 can be ordered from ColorWare starting today, and they will ship out in about two to three weeks.

Netflix today announced the full official rollout of its Netflix Games feature, which will allow Netflix users to play a handful of games on their mobile devices.

At the current time, Netflix is making games available for Android users, but support for iOS is "on the way." Netflix says that it's early days, but its goal is to build a library of games offering "something for everyone."

Games available today include "Stranger Things: 1984," "Stranger Things 3: The Game," "Shooting Hoops," "Card Blast," and "Teeter Up."

Accessing games on Netflix requires a Netflix subscription, and there are no ads, additional fees, or in-app purchases, which is how Apple's gaming service, Apple Arcade, operates. Android users will now see a dedicated games row and games tab in the Netflix app, and will be able to select games to download and play.

It's not clear how the iOS version of the app will work. Netflix can have a "catalog" app like its main Netflix app (or a separate Games app) that lists gaming titles, linking out to games that can be downloaded from the App Store. Alternatively, Netflix can use a web-based solution, but games would need to be streaming titles.

Netflix says that it will continue to improve the mobile gaming experience in the coming months, but there is no word yet on when Netflix's games will come to iOS devices.

Facebook is shutting down its Face Recognition system and will delete the facial data of more than 1 billion of its users, Facebook parent company Meta announced this morning.

People who opted in to Face Recognition will no longer be automatically recognized in photos and videos, and their facial recognition templates will be deleted.

According to Facebook VP of Artificial Intelligence Jerome Pesenti, Facebook is making this change because it needs to weigh the positive use cases for facial recognition against growing societal concerns" as regulators "have yet to provide clear rules."

Facial recognition has been available on Facebook since 2011, and at the time that it debuted, Facebook turned the feature on automatically for more than 500 million people. The option, called Tag Recognition at the time, was designed to recognize Facebook users in photos and videos posted by other users, tagging all of the people in the photo.

There were immediate privacy concerns with the launch of the feature, which have persisted to this day. Facebook in December 2017 introduced an expanded Face Recognition feature and with it, an opt-out option.

Facebook says that more than a third of Facebook's daily active users have facial recognition enabled, and the change required "careful consideration." It will disable an Automatic Alt Text feature for blind users that automatically provided the names of people in photos.

Though Face Recognition in its current incarnation is shutting down, Facebook will continue to work on facial recognition technologies.

Looking ahead, we still see facial recognition technology as a powerful tool, for example, for people needing to verify their identity, or to prevent fraud and impersonation. We believe facial recognition can help for products like these with privacy, transparency and control in place, so you decide if and how your face is used. We will continue working on these technologies and engaging outside experts.

But the many specific instances where facial recognition can be helpful need to be weighed against growing concerns about the use of this technology as a whole. There are many concerns about the place of facial recognition technology in society, and regulators are still in the process of providing a clear set of rules governing its use. Amid this ongoing uncertainty, we believe that limiting the use of facial recognition to a narrow set of use cases is appropriate.

Face Recognition and the features that it enables will be officially removed "over the coming weeks." When disabled, people will no longer be automatically recognized in photos, and will no longer see suggested tags.

WIRED has announced that Apple's former design chief Jony Ive will sit down with Vogue's longtime editor-in-chief Anna Wintour to discuss his latest endeavors, the future of design as he sees it, and more at the virtual RE:WIRED event next week.

Ive's conversation with Wintour will take place Tuesday, November 9 at 9:30 a.m. Pacific Time. Registration for the event is free and available online.

Our world is facing some of the most critical challenges of all time. While the last decade ushered in dramatic technological acceleration, the last 18 months have kicked off a tectonic societal shift in how we live, work, and connect.

Generating sustainable and strategic solutions to these challenges—from both communal action and heroic innovation—requires us to rewire discourse and the way we think. This is RE:WIRED.

Join us this November for a series of conversations between technologists and people who think hard about the consequences for those technologies on society, economics, sustainability and, ultimately, our future.

Ive left Apple in 2019 to form an independent design company LoveFrom with fellow designer Marc Newson. Apple said it would remain one of Ive's primary clients, but it's unclear which Apple products he has helped to design since his departure from the company. Apple did confirm that Ive was involved with the design of the colorful 24-inch iMac released in April, but it did not say if any of that work occurred after he left Apple.

LoveFrom has reached multi-year design partnerships with brands like Airbnb and Ferrari.

Ive's participation in RE:WIRED was spotted earlier by 9to5Mac. Other speakers at the two-day event will include CISA director Jen Easterly, actor John Cho, EVgo CEO Cathy Zoi, Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel, and more.

Apple classified the fourth-generation iPad as an obsolete product as of November 1, meaning the device is no longer eligible for hardware service worldwide, according to an internal memo obtained by MacRumors. The fourth-generation iPad has yet to be added to Apple's public-facing vintage and obsolete products list, but it should be soon.

Released in November 2012 alongside the original iPad mini, the fourth-generation iPad did away with Apple's classic 30-pin connector and adopted the Lightning connector that had debuted in the iPhone 5 just weeks earlier. The fourth-generation iPad also gained Apple's A6X chip for up to twice the CPU performance and up to twice the graphics performance of the A5X chip in the third-generation iPad that had launched in March 2012.

Apple also classified the Late 2012 model Mac mini as an obsolete product as of November 1, according to the memo.

Amazon is continuing its pre-Black Friday discounts from yesterday with a new collection of solid markdowns on Apple products and accessories. Today we're tracking sales on Apple Pencil 2, Apple TV 4K, and the MacBook Air.

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.

Apple Pencil 2

Following a deal at Verizon late last week, Amazon is now providing the best current deal on Apple Pencil 2 at $99.99, down from $129.00. This sale is a match of one of the lowest prices that we've ever tracked for the Apple Pencil 2, and as of writing it's only available on Amazon.

We very rarely see the Apple Pencil 2 dip below this sale price, so if you've been on the hunt for one at a discount, now's a great time to buy. The Apple Pencil 2 is compatible with the following iPads: iPad mini (6th generation), iPad Air (4th generation), 12.9-inch iPad Pro (3rd, 4th, and 5th generations), and 11-inch iPad Pro (1st, 2nd, and 3rd generations).

Apple TV 4K

Next, Amazon has the 32GB Apple TV 4K (2021) for $169.00, down from $179.00. This is the second-best price that we've ever tracked on this model of the Apple TV 4K, and it's been the most consistent discount on the accessory.

You can also get the 64GB Apple TV 4K for $189.98, down from $199.00. We've seen this Apple TV 4K discounted by an additional $10, so this sale is another second-best price. Both of these Apple TVs are sold by Amazon, and they're in stock and ready to ship today.

MacBook Air

Lastly, you can get the 256GB M1 MacBook Air for $899.00, down from $999.00 in all three colors of Gold, Silver, and Space Gray. This is currently the best price available online among the major Apple resellers, and overall it's the second-best price we've tracked.

The 512GB M1 MacBook Air is also on sale, available for $1,149.99, down from $1,249.00. Similar to the 256GB model, this is a second-best price on this 2020 MacBook Air. Both notebooks are shipped and sold directly from Amazon.

Head to our full Deals Roundup to get caught up with all of the latest deals and discounts that we've been tracking over the past week.

Firefox today released Firefox 94 for iOS devices, which introduces a new homepage design that adds several quality of life improvements to the browser. Firefox says that the new features are designed for "short bursts of online interactions that are constantly interrupted by life."

The update adds a feature that jumps back to the last open active tab so you don't lose what you were browsing when you close the app, and recently saved bookmarks are easier to find and get to.

All of your recent searches are also now grouped by topic, so you can return to something you were researching with just a tap.

Firefox is also planning to add a way to get rid of tabs that are no longer relevant to you. When this feature releases on iOS in the coming months, tabs you have not visited in the last 14 days will be moved to an inactive state where they're still viewable, but they no longer clutter the tab view.

On the desktop, Firefox 94 adds 18 new themes to choose from with six new limited-time seasonal colorways, and it uses Apple's low power mode for fullscreen video on YouTube and Twitch to extend battery life for long viewing sessions.

There's also a new Site Isolation feature to protect Firefox users against side-channel attacks like Spectre.

The iOS version of Firefox can be downloaded from the App Store, and the Mac version can be downloaded from the Firefox website.

Apple bucked a trend when it unveiled macOS Monterey in June featuring an abstract wallpaper graphic, breaking an eight-year tradition of using a photo of the natural landscape that inspired the latest Calfornia-themed version name.

This change came as a shock to YouTuber and photographer Andrew Levitt and his friends Jacob Phillips and Taylor Gray, whom together have made recreating macOS wallpapers something of a tradition.

Once the trio of friends had come to terms with the new abstract wallpaper, they concluded that it was supposed to represent Monterey Canyon, which is deep underwater and impossible to photograph. So, instead they decided to create their own Monterey landscape, but finding the right shot came with its own problems, as their intrepid video diary explains.

After several false starts, the group eventually found an ideal location – Lone Cypress on Pebble Beach – and, using time-lapse photography, were able to create a not only a still image but also a dynamic wallpaper that changes according to the time of day.

They have since made both the still shot and the dynamic version available to download. The following steps explain how to install the dynamic version of the Monterey wallpaper.

1. Click the Apple symbol in the menu bar and select System Preferences....
2. Click Desktop & Screen Saver in the preferences pane.
   
   

3. Select one of the official wallpapers that come with macOS, such as "Catalina," "Big Sur," or "Monterey Graphic," and set it to Dynamic.
   
   

4. Open a Finder window and navigate to the "macOS Monterey.heic" wallpaper you downloaded.
5. Right-click (or Ctrl-click) on the file and select Services -> Set Desktop Picture from the contextual menu.
   

Follow the creators on Instagram: Andrew Levitt, Jacob Phillips, and Taylor Gray.

Notability users have been left frustrated and annoyed after the developer of the popular Mac and iOS note-taking app revealed on Monday that it has switched to a subscription-based model, and that key features included in original app purchases will stop functioning after one year.

Previously available as a one-off $8.99 purchase, Notability for iPhone, iPad, and Mac is now free to download on the App Store, but not all the features are available in the "freemium" version, and those that are included have editing limitations.

To get "the full Notability experience" offered by version 11.0 of the app now requires an annual $14.99 subscription, which includes unlimited note taking and access to additional features that are otherwise available as in-app purchases.

As far as it affects current users who purchased the full app, key features will become non-functional after one year, after which they will have to subscribe to retain the feature set they originally paid for. In other words, no grandfathering scheme is currently being offered. Addressed to those users, a Medium post from the Notability Blog explains:

Thank you for your support all these years. You will be able to continue using Notability as you do now for the next year for free. You will continue to have access to any items or technology you previously purchased. If you would like access to more premium content or technology like MyScript's Handwriting Recognition and Math Conversion, you may choose to subscribe at any point. After the year is up, you can choose to become an annual subscriber or use the free version of Notability.

Thousands of Notability users have taken to Twitter and Reddit to express their frustration with the unexpected change.

As many users have pointed out, on the face of it, the change appears to violate Apple's App Store Review Guidelines, which state "if you are changing your existing app to a subscription-based business model, you should not take away the primary functionality existing users have already paid for." We've reached out to both Notability and Apple for comment.

Notability has garnered an Apple Editors' Choice spot and is regularly a top-ranked app worldwide on the App Store. The app has gained widespread popularity with students and teachers alike, as it includes a variety of note-taking, journaling, and drawing tools, and can be used to mark up imported documents.

The other popular note-taking app for iOS and Mac that Notability is often compared to is GoodNotes, which remains available as a one-off $7.99 purchase on the App Store.

Several popular apps have switched to subscription models in recent years as a way to stave off dwindling income after years of free updates, but some developers have taken a different and less divisive approach.

For example, just over a year ago the developers of popular paid-for camera app Halide released Halide Mark II as a whole new app, and gave it to all users of the original app for free, with all the new features and updates free for a year. After the year is up, the app continues to work, but to get additional features requires an optional subscription or a one-time purchase.

Amid long waiting times for iPhone 13 models around the world, Apple has reportedly reallocated iPad parts to make up for shortages, in another signal that the global paucity of chips is impacting Apple's supply chain.

‌iPad‌ and ‌iPhone‌ share common components including core and peripheral chips, which means Apple is able to shift supplies between the devices to prioritize one or the other, reports Nikkei Asia.

Production of the iPad was down 50% from Apple's original plans for the past two months, sources briefed on the matter said, adding that parts intended for older iPhones were also being moved to the iPhone 13.

Apple foresees stronger demand for ‌iPhone‌ 13 models, especially in the months immediately following launch that lead into the holiday season. Nevertheless, demand for iPads remains strong, with total ‌iPad‌ shipments in the first nine months of this year totaling 40.3 million, up 17.83% from the same time a year ago, according to IDC data.

The last time Apple prioritized iPhones over iPads was last year, when it reallocated some ‌iPad‌ parts to the ‌iPhone‌ 12 amid supply chain constraints during the peak of the global health crisis.

Apple's financial results for the fourth fiscal quarter of 2021 revealed all-time record revenues for Mac and Services, but Apple's performance was only roughly in line with analyst expectations and was almost certainly held back by component shortages that have led to lengthy shipping estimates for many products.

LG today announced that owners of 2016 to 2021 model 4K or 8K LG Smart TVs will be eligible for a free three-month Apple TV+ trial starting November 15 in the United States and over 80 other countries and regions where Apple TV+ is available.

The trial will be available through the LG Content Store and must be redeemed by February 20, 2022. The offer is limited to first-time Apple TV+ subscribers, so anyone who has already trialed Apple's streaming video service cannot take advantage of this promotion. There is a limit of one free trial per eligible LG Smart TV and per Apple ID.

Apple TV+ normally offers a free seven-day trial, with pricing then set at $4.99 per month. Apple also continues to offer a free three-month trial of the service with the purchase of a new iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Apple TV, or Mac.

Apple TV+ competes with the likes of Netflix and Disney+ by offering a slate of original programming, ranging from the award-winning comedy series "Ted Lasso" to the star-studded drama series "The Morning Show."

Following the launch of the Beats Fit Pro this morning, Apple has discontinued several older Beats headphones options, including the $150 Powerbeats, the $250 Beats Solo Pro, and the $130 Beats EP on-ear headphones.

These Beats headphone options were listed on Apple's online store as of yesterday, but today, attempting to visit one of the links for the products brings up a warning that the accessories are no longer available for purchase.

Twitter users noticed the absence of the Beats headphones earlier today, and it appears they disappeared from Apple's site shortly after the debut of the Beats Fit Pro.

With the discontinuation of the Powerbeats, Beats Solo Pro, and Beats EP, Apple's beats lineup now includes the Beats Studio Buds, Powerbeats Pro, Beats Pro Over-Ear Headphones, Beats Flex, Beats Studio3, Beats Solo3, Beats Fit Pro, and Beats Pill+, all of which can be purchased from Apple's website.

Apple today also introduced temporary price drops for several older Beats options, including the Beats Flex, Beats Studio Buds, and the Power Beats Pro, which are available at discounts ranging from $20 to $50.

Starting later this week, Apple Stores and Apple Authorized Service Providers will be able to offer customers an iPhone XR as a loaner device during lengthier repairs in the U.S. and other regions, according to an internal memo obtained by MacRumors.

iPhone XR will be available as a loaner starting November 4, which will be an upgrade over the iPhone 8 that Apple currently offers as a loaner. As a one year newer device than the iPhone 8, the iPhone XR has more modern features like Face ID and Dual SIM support, and the iPhone XR also has a newer A12 Bionic chip for faster performance.

If an Apple Store determines that a customer's iPhone must be mailed off to an Apple repair center to be serviced, the customer would be eligible to receive an iPhone XR for free until their regular iPhone is ready for pickup.

Apple's iPhone Loan Agreement provides more details, including that customers must return the loaner iPhone no more than 14 days after the date that Apple notifies them that their repaired iPhone is ready for pickup.

Apple CEO Tim Cook will be one of the speakers at DealBook, an online summit from The New York Times that's hosted by Andrew Ross Sorkin, Sorkin announced today.

Cook is set to appear on Tuesday, November 9 at 10:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m., and according to the site's description, he will speak on the future of the internet, the next tech innovations, and more.

What is the future of the internet? What innovations will make the next leap possible? What battles should we be willing to fight? The leader of the iconic tech giant shares his vision.

The event will also feature General Motors CEO Mary Barry, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, WeWork co-founderAdam Neumann, actor Dax Shepard, and more.

Join us for two extraordinary days, celebrating the 20th anniversary of DealBook. We're bringing together some of the most influential minds in business, policy and culture to take stock of a world in the midst of rapid reinvention, grappling with the ripples of Covid and rewriting the rules in real time.

Registration for the event is free and can be done on the DealBook website.

Apple is offering discounts on several of its Beats headphones options in the United States, dropping prices from $20 to $50 depending on the product. The Beats Flex, Apple's most affordable Beats headphones, are available for $50 at the current time, a discount of $20 off of the regular $70 price.

Beats Flex are earbuds with a wire between them, and they come in blue, black, yellow, and gray. Apple first introduced Beats Flex in October 2020 with a $50 price point, but prices went up in September due to rising component costs. Beats Flex are now back at their original pre-increase price.

Apple has also dropped the price of the Beats Studio Buds and the Powerbeats Pro. Beats Studio Buds are available for $130, a $20 discount off of the original $150 price.

Apple introduced Beats Studio Buds in June 2021, and they were the first Beats-branded wire-free earbuds designed to compete directly with the AirPods. Apple today unveiled the Beats Fit Pro, its second-generation totally wire-free earbuds with ANC, and those earbuds sell for $200 and are not discounted at the current time.

The biggest discount is available on the ‌Powerbeats Pro‌, Apple's wire-free earbuds with earhook to keep them in place. The Powerbeats Pro are available for $200, a $50 discount off of the regular $250 price.

Apple's Beats discounts are listed as "special" deals that will be available for a limited amount of time. Apple today also kicked off its holiday shopping season with an extended return policy. All purchases made from November 1, 2021 to December 25, 2021 can be returned to Apple through January 8, 2022.

Amazon is also price matching Apple on all of the Beats discounts. The Beats Flex are available from Amazon for $50, and the Beats Studio Buds are available for $130. Amazon is offering even lower prices on the Powerbeats Pro, with the black, ivory, red, and navy shades available for $150.

Apple seems to have no plans to replace the iPhone's Lightning port with a USB-C port to bring it in line with Macs and iPads, but robotics student Ken Pillonel spent months hacking an ‌iPhone‌ to add a USB-C port.

In early October, Pillonel shared a video demonstrating the "world's first ‌iPhone‌ with a USB Type-C port," and now he's shared a second video explaining how he pulled it off.

Pillonel explains how he built a proof of concept and the steps that he went through to design a functional USB-C port that actually fit inside the ‌iPhone‌. It's a technical video, but it does walk through all the steps for those who are interested and for those who might want to attempt their own modification.

The modded ‌iPhone‌ X with a USB-C port is being auctioned off on eBay, with Pillonel guaranteeing a functional phone on arrival. Buyers are forbidden from updating or erasing the ‌iPhone‌, opening it up, or using it as a daily phone. So far, the bidding has exceeded $800.

Some users who recently upgraded to macOS Monterey are experiencing a bug known as a "memory leak," a scenario in which a specific macOS process or application is bugged out and stays running for prolonged periods in the background, consuming abnormally high amounts of memory or RAM.

It's difficult to pinpoint precisely what models of Mac computers are affected; however, the range is relatively wide, including the newly released 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros. Reports on Twitter, Reddit, the MacRumors Forums, and the Apple Support Communities consist of users reporting their Mac warning that the system has "run out of application memory" or that specific applications are consuming ridiculously high amounts of RAM in Activity Monitor.

Some reports call out the macOS Control Center as the main culprit, with YouTuber Gregory McFadden sharing a screenshot of Control Center using up to 20GB of RAM on their 64GB M1 Max 16-inch MacBook Pro. Other users are also sharing similar experiences on the MacRumors Forums and Reddit.

Another cluster of related reports includes Mozilla Firefox. As shown in the tweets below, Firefox for some users is taking up incredibly high amounts of memory, as high as 80GB for one user.

Excluding Firefox and Control Center related reports, more widespread reporting from users across different platforms suggest the more common bug is the pop-up "Your system has run out of application memory."

The pop-up is seemingly being shown to users despite minimal use of their Macs with considerable amounts of memory to spare. In some instances, some users have suggested that restarting the Mac helps, while others say the pop-up reappears shortly after. A user on the Apple Support Communities noted their experience:

Since downloading Monterey I receive repeated messages "your system has run out of application memory". This is only occurred since downloading Monterey. When examining activity monitor pages seems to be the main culprit using up 18 GB and more! Is this evidence of a memory leak for Pages with Monterey os? Restart makes no difference.

Mac users on the MacRumors Forums (1, 2, 3, 4), the Apple Support Communities (1, 2), and Reddit, are noting similar experiences. Just earlier today, we reported on user reports that the macOS Monterey update is bricking some older Mac computers. Given that and issues surrounding memory usage for some users, it may be best for users still on macOS Big Sur to wait until the second version of macOS Monterey before upgrading.

Apple today released tvOS 15.1.1, a minor update to the tvOS operating system that first launched in September 2021. The tvOS 15.1.1 update comes one week after the launch of tvOS 15.1, software that brought SharePlay support to the Apple TV.

tvOS 15.1.1 can be downloaded over the air through the Settings app on the ‌Apple TV‌ by going to System > Software Update. ‌‌‌‌‌Apple TV‌‌‌‌‌ owners who have automatic software updates enabled will be upgraded to tvOS 15.1.1 automatically.

Apple's tvOS updates are typically minor in scale, focusing on under-the-hood bug fixes, performance updates, and small tweaks rather than major outward-facing changes. According to Apple's tvOS support document, today's update brings the TV app, Siri, and the App Store to South Korea as the ‌Apple TV‌ recently launched in the country.