MacRumors

We've teamed up with WIMO Games to offer MacRumors readers a chance to win an iPhone 13 Pro to celebrate the launch of strategy board game RPG Dice: Heroes of Whitestone, which came out recently and can be downloaded from the App Store.

RPG Dice: Heroes of Whitestone is a tabletop-style strategy game where the goal is to roll the dice to move across the board, engaging in battles, buying goods from merchants, and completing quests.

In the game's story, the people of Whitestone are under attack and it's up to the player to lead heroes into battle against orcs, elves, and goblins to restore peace.

Gameplay consists of rolling dice to move around the board, and then there are also dice-based battles where an element of luck determines the attack you perform and the damage that you do. You can choose the attack to perform, and you will be able to select from various hero options.

Battles will reward you with gold and experience for leveling up your heroes, and there are different classes to work with. There are paladins, wizards, and rogues to choose from. In addition to defeating standard enemies, the game offers boss battles, dungeon crawls, hero gauntlet battles, and even player vs. player encounters. Gamers can join guilds to team up and fight in PvP arenas, and collaborate with friends to fight formidable enemies.

RPG Dice: Heroes of Whitestone is a free-to-play game so it doesn't cost anything to download, but there is an energy system that limits gameplay. There are in-app purchases to add additional energy, but it regenerates throughout the day as well so it can be played with no monetary investment.

RPG Dice: Heroes of Whitestone can be downloaded on the ‌iPhone‌, iPad, or Mac, and one lucky MacRumors reader will win an ‌iPhone‌ 13 Pro to play the game. The ‌iPhone‌ 13 Pro is Apple's latest flagship device, with the winner able to choose color.

To enter to win, use the Gleam.io widget below and enter an email address. Email addresses will be used solely for contact purposes to reach the winners and send the prizes. You can earn additional entries by subscribing to our weekly newsletter, subscribing to our YouTube channel, following us on Twitter, following us on Instagram, or visiting the MacRumors Facebook page.

Due to the complexities of international laws regarding giveaways, only U.S. residents who are 18 years or older, UK residents who are 18 years or older, and Canadian residents (excluding Quebec) who have reached the age of majority in their province or territory are eligible to enter. All federal, state, provincial, and/or local taxes, fees, and surcharges are the sole responsibility of the prize winner. To offer feedback or get more information on the giveaway restrictions, please refer to our Site Feedback section, as that is where discussion of the rules will be redirected.

The contest will run from today (February 9) at 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time on February 9 through 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time on February 16. The winner will be chosen randomly on February 16 and will be contacted by email. The winner will have 48 hours to respond and provide a shipping address before a new winner is chosen.

Apple's Safari and WebKit team has asked for feedback on Twitter amid criticisms of the browser's bugs and missing support.

Jen Simmons, an Apple Evangelist and developer advocate on the Web Developer Experience team for Safari and WebKit, Tweeted that "Everyone in my mentions [is] saying Safari is the worst, it's the new IE." This led her to ask users for feedback, preferably highlighting specific bugs and instances of missing support that inhibits websites and apps.

Simmons also urged users who notice bugs that are "several years old and not fixed" to contact her with a link from bugs.webkit.org or a Feedback number from Apple's Feedback Assistant so it can be looked into more closely. The call for feedback has largely been received positively.

Safari has been met with complaints from some users in recent years over the browser's bugs, user experience, and website compatibility. The problems reached fever pitch last year when Apple unveiled a substantial redesign for Safari at WWDC, which was met with widespread criticism that accused the changes of being "counterintuitive." After months of tweaking the ambitious redesign in response to feedback, Apple eventually gave up on the changes just before the public release of iOS 15, iPadOS 15, and macOS Monterey, reverting to the previous Safari design by default.

Apple has also been criticized for demanding apps that browse the web to use the WebKit framework and WebKit Javascript on iOS and iPadOS, a policy that effectively bans non-WebKit based browsers. This has caught the attention of regulatory agencies, including the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which said that "due to the WebKit restriction, Apple makes decisions on whether to support features not only for its own browser, but for all browsers on iOS." A previous tweet from Simmons appears to suggest the importance of maintaining the WebKit restriction.

Following consultation with developers, the CMA is considering forcing Apple to reverse the ban on non-WebKit based browsers to allow for more competition. It is unclear if Apple's latest push for feedback is related to the growing regulatory pressures around Safari.

Amazon today has Apple's 256GB Wi-Fi iPad for $449.00 in both Silver and Space Gray, down from $479.00. This sale represents a match of the all-time low price on this model of the 2021 10.2-inch iPad.

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.

The iPad is shipped and sold directly from Amazon, with delivery as soon as next week for most customers in the United States. The entry-level 64GB Wi-Fi model isn't currently being discounted, and it's been a while since we saw that iPad hit its lowest-ever price.

The iPad features a 10.2-inch Retina display with True Tone, the A13 Bionic chip, an 8MP Wide rear camera and 12MP Ultra Wide front camera, and a Home button with Touch ID. It's also compatible with the first generation Apple Pencil as well as Apple's Smart Keyboard.

For even more iPad deals, head to our full Best Deals guide for iPad. In that guide we track the best discounts online for iPad, iPad mini, iPad Air, and iPad Pro.

Vivaldi for Mac received an update today that brings yet more new features to the highly customizable web browser, including a handy way of managing multiple tabs using horizontal scroll.

Most modern web browsers usually handle multiple tabs by shrinking the tabs into smaller and smaller segments to fit them all in on screen, but this can quickly look cluttered and make it progressively harder to identify each tab in the squeeze.

In an effort to avoid this situation, version 5.1 of Vivaldi brings a new Scrollable Tabs feature that lets users scroll through the tab row horizontally to reveal more full-width tabs.

Tabs are navigated horizontally by click-dragging with the cursor, or using the arrows on the left and right of the tabs. Another way to view tabs is to long-click the arrows to get a full list of all open tabs.

The Horizontal Scrolling feature can also be combined with Vivaldi's existing Two-level Tab Stacks option, enabling users to scroll two rows of grouped tabs and take advantage of tab group previews for exhaustive tab management.

In addition to Scrollable Tabs, this version of the browser also brings a new built-in Reading List, a new repository for offline reading that maintains each article's read/unread state, with no service signup required.

Elsewhere, Vivaldi has also added a Quick Settings Panel on the Start Page, enabling quicker access to the full gamut of customizable Start Page options, including things like background images, favorites, speed dials, and search field settings.

Vivaldi browser 5.1 is a free download for Mac available directly from the Vivaldi website, featuring built-in tracking protection, tab tools, a translation feature, Chrome extensions support, and much more.

New references to "realityOS," the AR/VR operating system that will run Apple's rumored mixed reality headset, have been found in App Store upload logs and Apple open source code this morning.

Apple is working on at least two AR projects that include an augmented reality headset set to be released in late 2022 or 2023, followed by a sleeker pair of augmented reality glasses coming at a later date.

According to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, the headset will feature two M1-style Apple silicon chips providing Mac-level computing power, and offer an innovative experience with seamless switching between AR and VR modes.

The AR/VR headset is expected to run a new operating system, previously referred to as "rOS," which stands for Reality Operating System. Just as tvOS runs Apple TV, macOS runs Macs and watchOS runs Apple Watch, "rOS" is expected to power Apple's AR headset. First unearthed by Bloomberg in 2017, the AR/VR operating system is internally codenamed "Oak."

According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, Apple wants to create an ‌App Store‌ for the headset, with a focus on gaming, streaming video content, and video conferencing. It has been described by Bloomberg as an "all-encompassing 3-D digital environment" designed for gaming, media consumption, and communication.

However, Apple's long-rumored AR/VR headset could be delayed until 2023 after being beset with issues during the development process, according to Bloomberg. Rumors initially suggested that Apple's AR/VR headset would come out at some point in 2022, perhaps at WWDC in June, but there are still development issues that Apple needs to overcome.

(Thanks, Matthew!)

The second beta of iOS 15.4 addresses an iOS 15 bug that was allowing the iPhone to upload some Siri recordings to Apple even when users had previously opted out of doing so, Apple said in a statement to ZDNet.

Recordings were mistakenly kept for some users who disabled the option to share their ‌Siri‌ voice interactions or dictation with Apple for the purpose of improving the voice assistant. Apple told ZDNet that it turned off the setting for "many" ‌Siri‌ users in iOS 15.2, but iOS 15.4 apparently fixes the issue.

With iOS 15.2, we turned off the Improve Siri & Dictation setting for many Siri users while we fixed a bug introduced with iOS 15. This bug inadvertently enabled the setting for a small portion of devices. Since identifying the bug, we stopped reviewing and are deleting audio received from all affected devices.

Apple said that when the bug was initially identified, it stopped reviewing the audio from affected devices and deleted the accidental recordings, but there is no word on why the company did not inform users of this issue when it was first discovered or when the setting was disabled in iOS 15.2.

There is no word on how many recordings Apple accidentally collected nor who was affected.

When updating to iOS 15.4 beta 2, there is a setup screen that asks users to choose whether to Improve ‌Siri‌ & Dictation by sending Apple recordings. Opting out is meant to prevent Apple from collecting and reviewing recordings of ‌Siri‌ interactions.

Apple first introduced the toggle to disable ‌Siri‌ recordings in October 2019 with the launch of iOS 13.2. It was added after it was discovered that Apple hired contractors to listen to a small percentage of anonymized ‌Siri‌ recordings to evaluate ‌Siri‌'s responses with the purpose of improving reliability.

Some of those contractors complained that they regularly heard confidential details while listening to the audio recordings. In response, Apple temporarily suspended its ‌Siri‌ grading practices and added the opt-out feature and an option to delete all previously collected ‌Siri‌ recordings.

Apple today seeded the second betas of iOS 15.4 and iPadOS 15.4 to developers for testing purposes, and while there aren't as many new features as we got in the first betas, there are some notable additions and changes worth highlighting.

Tap to Pay on iPhone

With the second beta of iOS 15.4, Apple introduced support for the "Tap to Pay on iPhone" feature that is designed to allow NFC-compatible iPhones to accept payments through Apple Pay, contactless credit and debit cards, and other digital wallets, without requiring additional hardware.

Tap to Pay on ‌iPhone‌ is enabled in the iOS 15.4 beta, but it does require third-party providers to add support, so it is not yet available for use. There are no outward-facing signs of it that are visible to end users, but there's a new "PaymentReceived" sound file and images that show off the Tap to Pay interface.

Code suggests that reward passes and refunds will be available with Tap to Pay.

Face ID With Mask Tweaks

When unlocking your ‌iPhone‌ while wearing a mask with the new Face ID with a Mask feature, you might be prompted to "Look Down" to unlock your device. This will pop up if you're holding your ‌iPhone‌ lower than eye level as the ‌iPhone‌ needs eye contact for the mask unlocking feature to work.

Preparations for Digital IDs in Wallet

Apple may be planning to roll out support for digital IDs and driver's licenses in iOS 15.4. There isn't a ton of evidence for this at the current time, but there is a mention of the feature in the PassKit code.

"Find out when your driver's license or state ID is ready to use and get important updates about your ID," it reads.

Captive WiFi Network Support on HomePod

Graphics found in the iOS 15.4 code confirm that Apple is adding support for captive WiFi networks on the HomePod, allowing them to be used in situations where there's a web portal or an additional sign-up step to access WiFi.

This is common in hotels, dorms, and similar situations where logins are required for WiFi.

Other Code Tweaks

There are other mentions of new features in the code that don't necessarily link to visible changes in the iOS 15.4 update, but might turn out to be something in a later beta.

• "You cannot manage or cancel any external purchases through the App Store. For more information contact the developer." This is a new line of code in the ‌App Store‌ framework. This likely relates to the option for dating apps in the Netherlands to offer non-App Store payment options.
• A "Manage My Sports" mention in the News Feed framework provides further evidence that Apple is planning to offer expanded sports integration to the Apple News app. There are also mentions of other sports-related info, hinting at a new sports content push.

Everything Else New in iOS 15.4

iOS 15.4 also adds support for ‌Face ID‌ with a Mask, introduces Universal Control, adds new emojis, and tweaks several other features.

We have a full list of changes introduced in the iOS 15.4 betas so far in our complete iOS 15.4 features guide.

Following the release of macOS Monterey 12.2 last month, some Mac users who installed the software update started to experience excessive battery drain during sleep mode, seemingly due to Bluetooth accessories frequently waking up the machines. The issue appears to affect Macs running the first beta of macOS 12.3 as well.

Many affected users found their Mac's battery life dropped from 100% to 0% while in sleep mode overnight. A few users tried to identify a cause in Terminal and found that Bluetooth accessories were frequently causing a "DarkWake from Deep Idle" that resulted in the Mac repeatedly waking from sleep and draining the battery's charge.

Fortunately, it appears that the second beta of macOS 12.3 seeded today may resolve the issue. In a tweet, Mr. Macintosh said his 2018 MacBook Pro that was experiencing the issue on the first beta of macOS 12.3 is no longer affected on the second beta.

macOS 12.3 will likely be publicly released around March or April, providing a fix for all affected users. In the meantime, users can disable Bluetooth on their Mac or disconnect all Bluetooth accessories overnight to prevent battery drain.

One major iOS 15 feature that we are still waiting for is the ability to add a driver's license or state ID to the Wallet app on the iPhone and Apple Watch in participating U.S. states. Apple's website says this feature is coming in early 2022.

In the meantime, Apple continues to prepare for the feature's impending launch. In the second beta of iOS 15.4 seeded today, MacRumors contributor Steve Moser uncovered a new line of code in the Wallet app that states "Find out when your driver's license or state ID is ready to use and get important updates about your ID."

Apple last year announced that Arizona and Georgia will be among the first states to support the feature and said that Connecticut, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Oklahoma, and Utah will follow. Other states like Colorado, Delaware, Florida, and Louisiana already offer their own digital ID apps and could work with Apple on Wallet app integration.

Apple said select TSA security checkpoints will be the first locations where ID cards in the Wallet app can be presented, followed by retailers and venues in the future.

While there are code-level preparations for the feature, it is still not possible to add a driver's license or state ID to the Wallet app in the second beta of iOS 15.4. The feature could be enabled by time iOS 15.4 is publicly released around March or April, given Apple's early 2022 timeframe, but this remains to be seen.

The second beta of iOS 15.4 adds code for the new "Tap to Pay" feature that Apple announced this morning. "Tap to Pay on iPhone" is designed to allow NFC-compatible iPhones to accept payments through Apple Pay, contactless credit and debit cards, and other digital wallets, without requiring additional hardware.

Tap to Pay on ‌iPhone‌ is enabled in the latest beta, but it does require third-party providers to add support, so it is not yet available for use. There are no outward-facing signs of it that are visible to end users, but there's a new "PaymentReceived" sound file and images that show off the Tap to Pay interface.

MacRumors contributor Steve Moser has also discovered references to a "ContactlessReaderUIService" in the code, as well as mentions of alerts that end users will see. The feature will support reward passes and refunds.

• ‌iPhone‌ ready to accept a contactless payment.
• Hold your card or device to the seller's ‌iPhone‌ and wait for the success sound.
• To accept contactless payments, turn on NFC and try again.
• The payment timed out for your security. Try again when you are ready to accept a payment.
• Multiple reward passes applied
• Pay %@ %@
• Refund from %@ for %@"
• Try Again & Hold Card Longer
• Use your ‌iPhone‌ to accept payments from contactless credit and debit cards, ‌Apple Pay‌, or any other contactless payment devices.

The Tap to Pay feature will work with the ‌iPhone‌ XS or later, and will allow supported iOS apps to accept ‌iPhone‌ to ‌iPhone‌ payments. At checkout, a merchant is able to prompt a customer to hold their ‌iPhone‌, Apple Watch, contactless credit or debit card, or other digital wallet close to the merchant's ‌iPhone‌ to complete a payment over NFC.

Stripe has announced that it will be the first payment platform to offer Tap to Pay on ‌iPhone‌ to business customers, including Shopify users, later this spring. Apple Stores in the U.S. will also roll out support for the feature later this year.

Apple today seeded the second beta of an upcoming macOS macOS Monterey 12.3 update to developers for testing purposes, with the new software coming two weeks after the release of the first macOS Monterey 12.3 beta.

Registered developers can download the beta through the Apple Developer Center and after the appropriate profile is installed, betas will be available through the Software Update mechanism in System Preferences.

macOS Monterey 12.3 is a major update that introduces Universal Control, a feature that Apple first teased at WWDC and then delayed for several months. ‌Universal Control‌ is designed to allow you to use a single mouse/trackpad and keyboard across multiple Macs and iPads (with iPads running iPadOS 15.4).

After updating your devices to macOS 12.3 and iPadOS 15.4, ‌Universal Control‌ works automatically, allowing your Mac's cursor and keyboard to work on the iPad and vice versa. It's simple and intuitive to use, and the second macOS 12.3 update adds an icon that you'll see in the menu bar to denote that it's activated.

maOS Monterey 12.3 adds support for updating the AirPods firmware when the earbuds are connected to a Mac, plus it deprecates kernel extensions used by Dropbox and Microsoft OneDrive, and it eliminates Python 2, with Apple instructing developers to use an alternative scripting language like Python 3 going forward.

Apple today seeded the second betas of upcoming iOS 15.4 and iPadOS 15.4 updates to developers for testing purposes, with the new software coming two weeks after Apple seeded the first betas of iOS 15.4 and iPadOS 15.4.

Developers can download iOS 15.4 and iPadOS 15.4 through the Apple Developer Center or over the air after the proper profile has been installed on an iPhone or iPad. Apple warns that the fifth-generation 12.9-inch iPad Pro and third-generation 11-inch ‌iPad Pro‌ will not be able to update to iPadOS 15.4 beta 2 via IPSW, an issue that will be addressed in a later release.

iOS and iPadOS 15.4 introduce some of the most significant changes we've seen in an update since iOS 15 launched. On the ‌iPhone‌ 12 and 13 models, there's now an option to use Face ID while wearing a mask with no Apple Watch required for authentication. It works just like Face ID, but it scans the area around your eyes when you're wearing a mask.

On ‌iPad‌, iPadOS 15.4 brings the long awaited Universal Control feature. Paired with a Mac running macOS Monterey 12.3, Universal Control allows multiple Macs and iPads to be controlled with a single cursor and keyboard. It's a feature that works seamlessly after installing the updates, and it is simple and intuitive to use.

There are 37 new emojis with the addition of Emoji 14 characters, so you can now use emojis that include melting face, biting lip, heart hands, bubbles, beans, face with diagonal mouth, palm up hand, eggs, troll, low battery, coral, lotus, and more.

Other new features include full 120Hz ProMotion support for app animations on ‌iPhone‌ 13 Pro models, EU vaccine certificates in the Wallet app, the ability to turn off notifications for Shortcuts automations, keyboard brightness controls in Control Center on the ‌iPad‌, an Apple Card widget, iCloud Keychain notes, support for adding custom email domains to ‌iCloud‌ Mail right on device, and a SharePlay option in the share sheet.

We have a full list of all of the features introduced in iOS 15.4 and iPadOS 15.4 in our dedicated guide highlighting everything new in the update.

Apple today seeded the second beta of an upcoming watchOS 8.5 update to developers for testing purposes, with the software coming two weeks after the release of the first watchOS 8.5 beta.

To install ‌‌‌watchOS 8.5, developers will need to download the configuration profile from the Apple Developer Center. Once installed, ‌‌‌watchOS 8.5‌‌‌ can be downloaded through the dedicated Apple Watch app on the iPhone by going to General > Software update.

To update to new software, an Apple Watch needs to have 50 percent battery life, it must be placed on the charger, and it needs to be in range of the ‌‌‌‌‌iPhone‌‌‌‌‌. You'll also need the accompanying iOS 15.4 update before you can install watchOS 8.5.

watchOS 8.5 introduces support for Emoji 14 characters, with new additions including melting face, biting lip, heart hands, bubbles, beans, face with diagonal mouth, palm up hand, eggs, troll, low battery, coral, lotus, and more.

We didn't discover any other major features in the watchOS 8.5 update, but we'll update this article should we find anything new.

Stripe today announced a closed beta program for Apple's upcoming "Tap to Pay on iPhone" feature, with a sign-up form available on its website. The payment platform said the feature is "coming this spring" in the United States.

Tap to Pay on iPhone will allow newer iPhones to accept payments via Apple Pay, contactless credit and debit cards, and other digital wallets, with no additional hardware required. Apple said Stripe will be the first payment platform to offer Tap to Pay on iPhone to its partners, including Shopify for its Point of Sale app "this spring."

Tap to Pay on iPhone will allow individual merchants and small businesses in the U.S. to accept contactless payments in supported apps with an iPhone XS or newer. At checkout, the merchant will simply prompt the customer to hold their own iPhone or Apple Watch, contactless credit or debit card, or other digital wallet near the merchant's iPhone, and the payment will be securely completed using NFC technology.

Apple's new feature will turn iPhones into contactless payment terminals without additional hardware like a Square Reader, providing for a simple and convenient experience. It appears that the feature will be exclusive to the U.S. at launch.

Tap to Pay on iPhone will work with contactless credit and debit cards from leading payment networks, including American Express, Discover, Mastercard, and Visa, according to Apple. The feature will be available to participating payment platforms and their app developer partners in an upcoming iOS beta version.

Apple is introducing improved benefits for its retail employees in order to attract and retain workers in the current labor market, reports Bloomberg.

Updated benefits are applicable to both full time and part time employees, with Apple now offering 12 paid sick days, up from six. Sick days can be used for mental health leave, illnesses, or taking family members to the doctor.

Apple is also providing more vacation days, with an increase in the available vacation days coming after three years of employment instead of five years of employment. Vacation days will be offered to part time employees for the first time, with Apple providing up to six paid vacation days per year.

Part time employees are now eligible for up to six weeks of paid parental leave and will have the option to ramp up work time for the first four weeks when returning, and Apple is also offering part time workers access to discounted emergency backup care for children or elderly family members.

Many companies have been having trouble retaining retail staff amid the pandemic, leading to staffing shortages. In response, companies have upped wages for employees, and, as Apple is doing, added expanded benefits to be competitive with other businesses. Apple's updated benefits will be available starting on April 4.

CalDigit today introduced its new Thunderbolt Station 4 dock with 18 ports, which it claims is the most on any Thunderbolt dock ever.

The dock features three Thunderbolt 4 ports, with one of them providing up to 98W of pass-through charging to compatible Macs, including the latest 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro. The dock is also equipped with three USB-C ports (3.2 Gen 2), five USB-A ports (3.2 Gen 2), SD and microSD card slots (UHS-II), one DisplayPort 1.4 port, one 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet port, an audio in jack, an audio out jack, and a combo audio in/out jack.

The dock is also compatible with Macs and iPads featuring Thunderbolt 3 or USB-C ports, with some functionality limited depending on the device.

While the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro brought back many ports, the dock can expand connectivity even further and serve as a hub for connecting external displays, microphones, headphones, speakers, and other equipment.

Priced at $359.95 in the United States, £324.99 in the United Kingdom, and €324.99 in the EU, the dock can be ordered through CalDigit's online store in those regions starting today. CalDigit said the dock will launch in other regions in mid-March.