MacRumors

Apple's senior vice president of software engineering, Craig Federighi, has today defended the company's controversial planned child safety features in a significant interview with The Wall Street Journal, revealing a number of new details about the safeguards built into Apple's system for scanning users' photos libraries for Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM).

Federighi admitted that Apple had handled last week's announcement of the two new features poorly, relating to detecting explicit content in Messages for children and CSAM content stored in iCloud Photos libraries, and acknowledged the widespread confusion around the tools:

It's really clear a lot of messages got jumbled pretty badly in terms of how things were understood. We wish that this would've come out a little more clearly for everyone because we feel very positive and strongly about what we're doing.

[...]

In hindsight, introducing these two features at the same time was a recipe for this kind of confusion. By releasing them at the same time, people technically connected them and got very scared: what's happening with my messages? The answer is...nothing is happening with your messages.

The Communications Safety feature means that if children send or receive explicit images via iMessage, they will be warned before viewing it, the image will be blurred, and there will be an option for their parents to be alerted. CSAM scanning, on the other hand, attempts to match users' photos with hashed images of known CSAM before they are uploaded to iCloud. Accounts that have had CSAM detected will then be subject to a manual review by Apple and may be reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC).

The new features have been subject to a large amount of criticism from users, security researchers, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and Edward Snowden, Facebook's former security chief, and even Apple employees.

Amid these criticisms, Federighi addressed one of the main areas of concern, emphasizing that Apple's system will be protected against being taken advantage of by governments or other third parties with "multiple levels of auditability."

Federighi also revealed a number of new details around the system's safeguards, such as the fact that a user will need to meet around 30 matches for CSAM content in their Photos library before Apple is alerted, whereupon it will confirm if those images appear to be genuine instances of CSAM.

If and only if you meet a threshold of something on the order of 30 known child pornographic images matching, only then does Apple know anything about your account and know anything about those images, and at that point, only knows about those images, not about any of your other images. This isn't doing some analysis for did you have a picture of your child in the bathtub? Or, for that matter, did you have a picture of some pornography of any other sort? This is literally only matching on the exact fingerprints of specific known child pornographic images.

He also pointed out the security advantage of placing the matching process on the iPhone directly, rather than it occurring on ‌iCloud‌'s servers.

Because it's on the [phone], security researchers are constantly able to introspect what’s happening in Apple’s [phone] software. So if any changes were made that were to expand the scope of this in some way —in a way that we had committed to not doing—there's verifiability, they can spot that that's happening.

When asked if the database of images used to match CSAM content on users' devices could be compromised by having other materials inserted, such as political content in certain regions, Federighi explained that the database is constructed from known CSAM images from multiple child safety organizations, with at least two being "in distinct jurisdictions," to protect against abuse of the system.

These child protection organizations, as well as an independent auditor, will be able to verify that the database of images only consists of content from those entities, according to Federighi.

Federighi's interview is among the biggest PR pushbacks from Apple so far following the mixed public response to the announcement of the child safety features, but the company has also repeatedly attempted to address users' concerns, publishing an FAQ and directly addressing concerns in interviews with the media.

Apple may be forced to remove the Lightning port from the iPhone in favor of USB-C, according to legislation expected be presented by the European Commission next month, Reuters reports.

The legislation would establish a common charging port for all mobile phones and other relevant devices in all European Union countries. The move is expected to primarily affect Apple, since many popular Android devices already feature USB-C ports.

In 2018, the European Commission tried to reach a final resolution on the issue but it failed to come into law. At the time, Apple warned that forcing a common charging port on the industry would stifle innovation and create electronic waste as consumers were forced to switch to new cables.

• The EU Wants All Phones to Work With Interoperable Chargers, Here’s What That Means for Apple's Lightning Port

A European Commission impact assessment study conducted in 2019 found that half of all charging cables sold with mobile phones had a USB micro-B connector, 29 percent had a USB-C connector, and 21 percent had a Lightning connector. The study suggested five options for a common charger, with various options that cover ports on devices and ports on power adapters.

Last year, the debate was reignited as the European Parliament overwhelmingly voted in favor of a common charger, citing less environmental waste and user convenience as the main benefits.

The executive branch of the European Union is currently drafting the legislation, according to sources speaking to Reuters, which is expected to be presented next month.

Note: Due to the political or social nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Political News 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.

Apple employees are now joining the choir of individuals raising concerns over Apple's plans to scan iPhone users' photo libraries for CSAM or child sexual abuse material, reportedly speaking out internally about how the technology could be used to scan users' photos for other types of content, according to a report from Reuters.

According to Reuters, an unspecified number of Apple employees have taken to internal Slack channels to raise concerns over CSAM detection. Specifically, employees are concerned that governments could force Apple to use the technology for censorship by finding content other than CSAM. Some employees are worried that Apple is damaging its industry-leading privacy reputation.

Apple employees have flooded an Apple internal Slack channel with more than 800 messages on the plan announced a week ago, workers who asked not to be identified told Reuters. Many expressed worries that the feature could be exploited by repressive governments looking to find other material for censorship or arrests, according to workers who saw the days-long thread.

Past security changes at Apple have also prompted concern among employees, but the volume and duration of the new debate is surprising, the workers said. Some posters worried that Apple is damaging its leading reputation for protecting privacy.

Apple employees in roles pertaining to user security are not thought to have been part of the internal protest, according to the report.

Ever since its announcement last week, Apple has been bombarded with criticism over its CSAM detection plans, which are still expected to roll out with iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 this fall. Concerns mainly revolve around how the technology could present a slippery slope for future implementations by oppressive governments and regimes.

Apple has firmly pushed back against the idea that the on-device technology used for detecting CSAM material could be used for any other purpose. In a published FAQ document, the company says it will vehemently refuse any such demand by governments.

Could governments force Apple to add non-CSAM images to the hash list?
Apple will refuse any such demands. Apple's CSAM detection capability is built solely to detect known CSAM images stored in iCloud Photos that have been identified by experts at NCMEC and other child safety groups. We have faced demands to build and deploy government-mandated changes that degrade the privacy of users before, and have steadfastly refused those demands. We will continue to refuse them in the future. Let us be clear, this technology is limited to detecting CSAM stored in iCloud and we will not accede to any government's request to expand it. Furthermore, Apple conducts human review before making a report to NCMEC. In a case where the system flags photos that do not match known CSAM images, the account would not be disabled and no report would be filed to NCMEC.

An open letter criticizing Apple and calling upon the company to immediately halt it's plan to deploy CSAM detection has gained more than 7,000 signatures at the time of writing. The head of WhatsApp has also weighed into the debate.

Apple in iOS 15 is making several improvements to Spotlight, aka the universal search feature that can be accessed on the iPhone or iPad's Home Screen with a downward swipe.

Spotlight is a one-stop resource for accessing everything you might want to find on an iOS device, and in iOS 15, it's better than ever. This guide highlights all of the new features that are coming to Spotlight with Apple's latest update.

Rich Search Results

Apple's Siri knowledge database has been expanded and the Spotlight feature now supports rich search results, so you can get more information than before directly from the Spotlight interface.

If you search for a movie or a TV show, for example, and then tap on the result, you'll see information like how you can watch the show, the actors, trailers, seasons, links to the TV app, Messages discussions you've had about the content, ‌Siri‌ suggested search results, and more.

With iOS 14, a search such as this brings up a much more limited range of information, typically limited to a web search.

Rich search results work for all kinds of search topics, including contacts, actors, musicians, movies, and TV shows. With contacts, it will bring up a full contact card with Message interactions, shared links, Wallet transactions, Find My location, photos from apps, and emails in addition to the standard contact info, making the Spotlight search much more informative.

Web Images Search

Spotlight can be used to search for images on the web. So, for example, if you type "cat images" into the Spotlight search interface, Spotlight will now provide a selection of the most popular web images.

Tapping into an image will show you additional images related to the image you tapped, and you can continue tapping through images to find just what you're looking for.

The web images search feature can be used to find pictures of people, animals, plants, landmarks, monuments, and more. It doesn't work for every search, but for most topics, just adding an "images" to the search is a quick way to bring up image web results.

Photos Search

In addition to searching the web for images, Spotlight can also now look for specific pictures in your own photo library. When you search for "cat photos" or "dog photos," for example, Spotlight surfaces the photos that are stored on your device in the "Photos From Apps" section.

If you tap into a search, you can see additional search results, and there's also an option to open up the ‌Photos‌ app to see all the photos that are relevant to the search.

You can search through your Photo Library in Spotlight by location, people, scenes, and specific objects that are in the photos like a pet or a plant.

‌Photos‌ that were shared with you through the Messages app can be found in Spotlight by using a contact name in the search.

Lock Screen Spotlight Search

If you swipe downward on the Lock Screen of the ‌iPhone‌, you can get to the Spotlight search interface without having to unlock the ‌iPhone‌.

A Spotlight search conducted while the ‌iPhone‌ is locked does not bring up personal information like your own photos, text messages, and contacts, focusing instead on general content from the web, ‌Siri‌ Knowledge, News, Stocks, dictionary, and more.

All personalized results only come up when the ‌iPhone‌ is unlocked, so if someone gets ahold of your ‌iPhone‌, they can use it for search purposes but will not be able to see your info.

Install Apps

App Store searches have been improved in iOS 15, and if you search for an app that you want to use, you can now install it right from Spotlight without leaving the Spotlight search interface.

Delete Apps

In addition to installing apps using Spotlight, you can also search for an app that you have installed and uninstall it right from the search interface.

To delete an app, conduct a search and then long press on the result to bring up the delete interface.

Drag Apps From Spotlight to Home Screen

If you search for an app using Spotlight, you can grab it with a long press and drag it out of search and onto your ‌Home Screen‌, which can be a useful way to rearrange apps.

You'll need to do a press, hold, and drag gesture with one finger while using another to swipe up to the ‌Home Screen‌ with the other, exiting the Spotlight search. From there, you can drag the app icon to any of your app pages.

Maps Spotlight Search Improvements

If you search for a business that supports Apple's App Clips feature, you can see action buttons on the Maps result in Spotlight. You can do things like access menus or tickets, see reservations, make an appointment, order takeout or delivery, see waitlist and showtime information, get parking details, and more.

Spotlight Search Warnings

As part of a suite of Child Safety features, Apple is expanding guidance for ‌Siri‌ and Spotlight that will offer resources to help children stay safe online and get help with unsafe situations.

If a user searches for topics related to Child Sexual Abuse Material, for example, Apple will offer interventions that will explain to users that interest in this topic is harmful and problematic, offering resources on ways to get help.

Guide Feedback

Have questions about the new Spotlight features in iOS 15, know of a feature we left out, or want to offer feedback on this guide? Send us an email here.

This year, Apple has already released several new products, including new iPads, the 24-inch iMac, the new Apple TV, and of course, AirTags. Looking ahead to the next few weeks, the list of 2021 Apple products will grow even longer as Apple prepares to reveal the next iPhones, MacBook Pros, and more.

There has been an avalanche of rumors about this year's fall season and what Apple has planned for the remainder of 2021. The cloud of product rumors can make it hard to stay updated with what new devices to expect and when. To help, we've created this guide for MacRumors' readers that outlines what events we could see and what we should expect.

Apple's last event was the Worldwide Developers Conference in June, which focused on upcoming updates to iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, and watchOS. Before that, the company's first event of 2021 focused on new products was held on April 20 and included the M1 iPad Pro, ‌iMac‌, and more.

Due to the global health crisis, both 2021 and all events of 2020 have been held virtually online. Under normal circumstances, Apple would have held standalone events at the Steve Jobs Theater in Apple Park, with a live audience consisting of Apple employees, members of the media, special guests, and others. While some may have hoped that the 2021 iPhone event would be held in person following five virtual online events, that's highly unlikely to be the case.

iPhone 13 Apple Event

The global health crisis last year not only required Apple to hold its typically in-person events online, but it also delayed the launch of the ‌iPhone‌ 12 to October, one month behind the usual schedule. Every September, Apple has released its new iPhones, but lockdowns and suppliers' restrictions meant that timeframe wasn't met. This year, though, things are looking different.

Multiple reports from credible outlets and journalists have pointed to Apple releasing its new iPhones on time in September this year. Apple last released its flagship ‌iPhone‌ in September 2019, with an event at ‌Apple Park‌ on September 10. Apple tends to have its events on Tuesdays, previously to give members of the audience sufficient time to travel to California to attend the product announcement. Still, even now, with digital events requiring no such travel, Apple has stuck to a preference of Tuesday.

Knowing that, we can make some educated guesses as to when Apple will hold its ‌iPhone‌ event this year. This September, Tuesdays will land on the 7, 14, 21, and 28. Looking at Apple's pattern of holding events towards the middle of the month, it's a reasonable guess to assume that the 2021 ‌iPhone‌ event could be held on Tuesday, September 14.

Of course, this is all speculation. However, Apple is one to stick to a strict routine when it comes to scheduling events, and such predictions based on the company's previous event planning behavior have proven accurate. With the date possibly set, here's what we can expect:

• ‌iPhone‌ 13 mini, ‌iPhone‌ 13, ‌iPhone‌ 13 Pro, and ‌iPhone‌ 13 Pro Max: Expect significant new camera features, more advanced displays, improved performance, battery life, and smaller hardware changes.
• Apple Watch Series 7: May include a complete redesign featuring smaller display bezels and flat edges, more advanced health tracking capabilities, and bolstered internals.
• Third-Generation AirPods: The next generation of the standard AirPods could feature a design more in-line with the AirPods Pro with silicone ear tips, a redesigned charging case, and improved connectivity. The new AirPods have been rumored for some time, with recent reporting suggesting a launch alongside the new ‌iPhone‌ 13.

Apple could, ultimately, decide to include more in its September event. However, given the event's mainstream coverage, it may want to focus on its more popular products rather than reveal other new devices such as upcoming Apple silicon Macs.

Apple Silicon Mac Event

This year, one of the most rumored and highly anticipated product releases is the redesigned 14 and 16-inch MacBook Pro. The new laptops are expected to feature the most radical redesign to the ‌MacBook Pro‌ since 2016, with new ports, the death of the Touch Bar, a brand-new display based on mini-LED technology, and a powerful Apple silicon chip.

To anyone who follows the Apple news and rumor cycle, it will feel as if these MacBook Pros have been rumored for an eternity, but their long-awaited reveal is close. Last year, Apple announced its first Apple silicon chip, the ‌M1‌, and an updated 13-inch MacBook Air, ‌MacBook Pro‌, and Mac mini at a November event.

Apple is likely to follow a similar path this year, separating its ‌iPhone‌ and Apple Watch announcements from these new MacBook Pros. All credible reports suggest a launch before the end of the year. While it's harder to pinpoint a specific date for this event compared to the September ‌iPhone‌ event, there is a relative timeframe we can look into.

An account that goes by the name of "Dylan," which has shared accurate information in the past regarding Apple's plan, including details about the 24-inch ‌iMac‌ weeks before its launch, has stated the new MacBook Pros are set to launch in late October to early November. Here are the possibilities for when we could see an Apple silicon Mac event this year, based on that information:

• Tuesday, October 19
• Tuesday, October 26
• Tuesday, November 9

An unlikely possibility is that Apple releases the new MacBook Pros through a press release on its website, similar to how it released the ‌AirPods Pro‌ in 2019 and updated ‌iPad Pro‌ in 2020. That, however, is highly unlikely as Apple will likely want to tout in an elegant way the new MacBook Pros, their design, and their powerful performance aimed at high-end professional users.

Surprise Third Event?

In 2020, Apple held three separate events in the fall, with one focusing entirely on the redesigned iPad Air, 10.8-inch iPad, and Apple Watch. This year, Apple is working on a less significant round of updates to its ‌iPad‌ family. Rather than update two ‌iPad‌ models, Apple is expected to release only an updated iPad mini this fall.

Given this, it's unlikely Apple will hold an entire event dedicated to just a single ‌iPad‌ model. Instead, it may decide to include the iPad mini at its Apple silicon or ‌iPhone‌ event or none and release it via a press release.

What else is in store for 2021?

With new iPhones, Apple Watches, MacBook Pros, and AirPods all possibly awaiting a launch this fall, is there anything else? In short, probably not. While Apple is continuing to work on several other products, such as a larger Apple silicon ‌iMac‌, they're not expected to be released until early 2022. Apple is also working on a redesigned ‌Mac mini‌, Mac Pro, and ‌MacBook Air‌, all expecting a release next year.

For a more comprehensive roundup of what else Apple is working on, be sure to check out our full 2021 Apple product guide.

Apple is working on updated icons for the macOS versions of its iWork apps, according to images discovered by MacRumors. The new icons are included in the framework of macOS 12 Monterey beta 5 that handles the display of collaboration links in apps such as iMessage.

The images of the new macOS iWork icons for Pages, Numbers, and Keynote are relatively low-resolution given the small size they are displayed at for sharing purposes, but it's clear they are a mix of the flat design and solid background colors of the iWork icons first introduced with iOS 7 and the latest macOS versions introduced for Big Sur in November 2020 that feature more photorealistic elements.

The macOS 12 Monterey Pages icon keeps its orange theme, the 45-degree angle of the pen, and written line of the iOS-style Pages icon while replacing the flat pen glyph with a more realistic-looking white pen, compared to the current macOS Pages icon that features a photorealistic orange pen on a white pad of paper.

The upcoming Numbers icon for Monterey moves from the current graph paper background to the solid green background of the iOS Numbers icon. It features a white version of the bar chart currently seen on the macOS icon with shadows for the bars and omits the line under the bars that is seen on iOS.

The refreshed Keynote icon features the same blue background of the iOS Keynote icon rather than the white slide grid view of the macOS icon. The podium and pie chart document are similar to the version seen on the current macOS Keynote icon, but with the color of the podium changed from blue to white.

The new icons should be included with the iWork apps when they are updated for macOS 12 Monterey later this year. It is not clear at this time whether these icons will also come to the iWork suite for iOS alongside iOS 15.

Apple today seeded a new public beta of the macOS 12 Monterey beta to public beta testers, allowing non-developers to test the new macOS Monterey software ahead of its public release. The fourth beta comes two weeks after Apple released the third macOS Monterey public beta.

Public beta testers can download the macOS 12 Monterey update from the Software Update section of the System Preferences app after installing the proper profile from Apple's beta software website.

macOS Monterey introduces quite a few major updates for the macOS operating system. Universal Control, for example, lets a single mouse, trackpad, and keyboard be used across multiple Mac or iPad devices, and it's now possible to AirPlay directly to a Mac from an iPhone, ‌iPad‌, or even another Mac.

Safari has an updated tab bar and support for Tab Groups to keep tons of tabs organized, and FaceTime now features support for spatial audio, Portrait Mode (M1 Macs only) and Voice Isolation for cutting out background noise. A SharePlay ‌FaceTime‌ feature lets Apple TV users watch TV, listen to music, and share their screens with one another.

Shared With You, another new feature, keeps track of the music, links, podcasts, news, and photos that people are sent in Messages, highlighting it in the relevant apps. Notes has a new Quick Note feature for jotting down thoughts, and the Shortcuts app is now available on the Mac.

A dedicated Focus mode helps people stay on task by cutting out background distractions based on what's going on, and there's an updated Maps app with a whole slew of new features. With Live Text, Macs can now detect text in photos or provide details on animals, art, landmarks, plants, and more in images. The new beta adds Live Text support for Intel Macs.

Mail Privacy Protection hides IP and prevents tracking through invisible pixels, and iCloud Private Relay keeps Safari browsing protected. There are many other new features in ‌macOS Monterey‌, with a complete overview available in our macOS Monterey roundup.

Apple will likely unveil its next-generation iPhones next month, and ahead of time, Taiwanese research firm TrendForce has outlined its expectations for the devices.

TrendForce said its latest investigations indicate that some of the notable hardware upgrades for the iPhone 13 models will include a faster and more power efficient 5nm+ chip that will presumably be named the A15 Bionic, support for mmWave 5G in additional countries outside the United States, and space-saving internal circuitry that will likely allow for larger batteries inside the devices. All of these features have been rumored previously.

As for pricing, TrendForce believes the iPhone 13 series will be priced similarly as the iPhone 12 series, assuming that Apple is able to effectively control manufacturing costs, due to the lack of many significant hardware upgrades. While the iPhone 12 series was announced in October last year, likely due to pandemic-related delays, the research firm said Apple will return to a September release for the iPhone 13 series this year.

TrendForce said iPhone shipments will likely maintain a growth trajectory in the third quarter of 2021 following the launch of the iPhone 13 series.

Apple has teamed up with singer Billie Eilish on a new short film to promote Apple Music's recently launched Spatial Audio feature.

The 90-second video, created by Apple Music in close collaboration with Eilish, mashes up the songs "Getting Older" and "GOLDWING" from the artist's latest album "Happier Than Ever." Eilish is seen singing in front of a vanity mirror, and as the song transitions, her reflections start to multiply in additional mirrors surrounding her, which Apple said is a metaphor meant to represent what it's like to listen to Spatial Audio.

Apple said Spatial Audio takes the listening experience of the new album to new heights, bringing dimensionality to Eilish's vocal performance.

Based on Dolby Atmos, Spatial Audio provides a surround sound experience, making songs sound like they are coming from all around you. Thousands of Apple Music songs have been made available in Spatial Audio since the feature rolled out in June, including Lady Gaga's "Rain on Me" and Kanye West's "Black Skinhead," and Eilish's new "Happier Than Ever" album can also be listened to in the immersive audio format.

Satechi today announced the launch of a new USB-C Clamp Hub, an add-on accessory designed to be used with the new 24-inch M1 iMac models.

The USB-C Clamp Hub has 3 USB-A ports that support 5Gb/s transfer speeds, a micro/SD card reader, and a USB-C port, and it attaches to the ‌iMac‌ using a single USB-C port at the back of the machine.

A knob at the back of the hub secures it to the ‌iMac‌, and while it is made from an aluminum material that is designed to match with Apple's devices, it is only available in a silver color.

Satechi's USB-C Clamp Hub is available from the Satechi website for $54.99. Customers can get a 15 percent pre-order discount using the promo code IMAC15 at checkout.

Foxconn, one of Apple's largest suppliers, has said it will begin construction of all-electric vehicle plants in the United States and Thailand this year, with hopes of them being operational by 2023, according to a report from Nikkei Asia.

From the report:

Foxconn, the world's largest contract electronics producer, on Thursday said it will build electric vehicle manufacturing facilities in the U.S. and Thailand next year, as the key iPhone assembler accelerates efforts to catch the rising EV wave to offset the slowing smartphone industry.

Foxconn has already ruled out Mexico as a location but is in negotiations with three states in the U.S. to build its first EV manufacturing plant in North America, Nikkei Asia has learned. Those include Wisconsin, which just agreed with Foxconn to amend its former plan of investing $10 billion in the state -- a promise Foxconn made in 2017.

At first, Foxconn will use the U.S. plant to build vehicles for its client Fisker, although there could be a potential expansion to serve Apple in the future.

Apple is widely reported to be working on its own vehicle and is thought to be looking for third-party companies to help it launch the Apple Car. One report vaguely referenced Foxconn as a potential candidate for the Apple Car's production, but Apple is also looking at other possible suppliers. Apple is reportedly committed to ensuring that the battery used in the Apple Car is produced in the United States, but Foxconn does not produce batteries.

Apple researchers have discovered that wearable devices like AirPods can be used to estimate a user's respiratory rate, opening up another potential avenue in biometric health sensor smarts.

Respiratory rate (RR) is a clinical metric used to assess overall health and physical fitness. In a paper highlighted on the Apple Machine Learning Research website and spotted by MyHealthyApple, researchers found that "wearable headphones" are able to pick up audible inhalations and exhalations during exertion using the device's on-board microphones.

According to the paper, the appeal of remote estimation of RR is that it offers a cost-effective method of tracking disease progression and cardio-respiratory fitness over time using "accessible, aesthetically acceptable," non-invasive wearable devices.

Data was collected from 21 individuals using microphone-enabled, near-field headphones before, during, and after strenuous exercise. RR was manually annotated by counting audibly perceived inhalations and exhalations.

A multi-level convolutional neural network was used to achieve signal clarity among other things and the results observed show that RR can be estimated with a concordance correlation coefficient (CCC) of 0.76 and a mean squared error (MSE) of 0.2, demonstrating that audio can be a viable signal for passively estimating RR.

[...]

Results presented validate that RR can be estimated from audio captured using wearable microphones, enabling the detection of heavy breathing conditions and the monitoring of RR changes, a measure of cardio-respiratory fitness, over time. The findings show promise for further development of a respiratory health tool with a larger study cohort.

While the paper doesn't name AirPods as such, Apple is known to have explored the potential of adding health monitoring features to the truly wireless earphones. For example, one Apple patent describes an earbud-based fitness monitoring system which integrates an advanced biometric sensor that can detect physiological metrics including temperature, heart rate, perspiration levels and more, through skin contact and via built-in motion sensors.

Meanwhile, DigiTimes has suggested that health sensors could be included in AirPods in one to two years, and Apple's vice president of technology Kevin Lynch in June 2021 said that Apple may one day build health features into the AirPods to provide users with additional health data.

Apple is already expected to add support for respiratory rate tracking via a user's Apple Watch in iOS 15. Code seen by MacRumors suggests that the Health app will be able to display respiratory rate data after a workout or upon waking up, along with blood glucose highlights and heart rate.

The debut of new health monitoring features in ‌iOS 15‌ cannot be taken as concrete evidence that Apple is planning to bring them to the Apple Watch Series 7, but we'll find out soon for sure. The Apple Watch Series 7 is expected to be announced in September, alongside third-generation AirPods that ape the AirPods Pro design.

Zoom has introduced a new feature called Focus Mode that's designed to prevent students from distracting each other during virtual classrooms.

When enabled, Focus Mode allows the teacher or lecturer taking the class to see all the students, while each student can only see the teacher.

The setting can be activated at any time by the teleconferencing host, so for example it could be turned on for lecture periods to reduce distractions from students' video feeds and then turned off for group discussion.

Focus Mode is available on the free desktop Zoom client, therefore lending itself to other uses, like business meetings, family gatherings and so on.

Zoom announced the new feature in a blog post offering other back-to-school tips to get children prepared for virtual or hybrid learning. Version 5.7.5 of Zoom for Mac is available to download from the Zoom website.

Apple is reportedly changing up the way it produces camera modules for its iPhone, now opting to individually produce each of the camera lenses separately, rather than procure them together and have them pre-assembled, according to a report from The Elec.

The report notes that up to last year, Apple's ‌iPhone‌ camera lenses were produced by its suppliers LG InnoTek, Sharp, and O'Film. The lenses were "pre-assembled." Now, Apple is consolidating the production of its camera modules to its largest supplier, Foxconn, to save costs.

Up to last year, Apple has procured double and triple camera modules from its suppliers LG InnoTek, Sharp, and O'Film that are pre-assembled.

But it is now procuring these camera modules individually and gave the job of assembly to Foxconn. The measure is being done to save cost.

Foxconn, in preparation for its new camera assembly responsibility, has received new inspection equipment from the South Korean firm Hyvision System. The new system will check whether the wide, Ultra Wide, and Telephoto cameras' lenses, including their optical axis and image sensors, are correctly aligned on higher-end ‌iPhone‌ models. An incorrect alignment could result in drastically reduced image quality.

The new changes are being done to "save costs," but it remains unclear if those savings would be presented to customers. It's also unclear whether the new production methodology and Foxconn's role in camera assembly will be in practice for the upcoming ‌iPhone‌ 13. Given that the new iPhones are already in production, that's unlikely to be the case.

Apple today released a new developer tool that is designed to force devices running iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 to prioritize a 5G connection over a WiFi connection when on an insecure WiFi network or when a WiFi connection is slow.

5G devices running iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 can automatically prioritize connecting via 5G instead of WiFi when the performance of WiFi networks you visit occasionally is slow, or when you are connected to captive or insecure WiFi networks. Install the 5G Preferred Over Wi-Fi profile ("profile") on devices running iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 Beta 4 or greater to greatly increase the likelihood of seeing 5G preferred over Wi-Fi connections and to ensure your networking path logic is optimized for situations where 5G will be preferred. For more information, see https://developer.apple.com/5g/.

Apple says that developers who want to prioritize 5G usage on their devices can do so by running the fourth beta of iOS 15/iPadOS 15 or later and downloading the 5G Preferred Over WiFi Profile.

In iOS and iPadOS 15, Apple has already added a new feature that causes 5G devices to automatically prioritize 5G when it provides an improved connection over WiFi, so this developer tool should boost that capability even further.

Apple today seeded the fifth beta of macOS Monterey, the newest version of the macOS operating system. The fifth beta comes two weeks after Apple released the fourth macOS Monterey beta, and it is available to both developers and public beta testers.

Registered developers can download the beta through the Apple Developer Center and once the appropriate profile is installed, betas will be available through the Software Update mechanism in System Preferences. Public beta testers can install the proper profile from Apple's public beta testing website.

As with all new betas, Apple recommends not installing the new macOS update on a primary machine because it is early release software and could have bugs.

macOS Monterey introduces Universal Control, a feature that lets a single mouse, trackpad, and keyboard be used across multiple Mac or iPad devices, plus there's a new AirPlay to Mac feature.

Safari has been redesigned with a new tab bar (with a toggle for two different designs as of the third beta) and support for Tab Groups, and FaceTime has gained spatial audio, a Portrait Mode on M1 Macs, and Voice Isolation for cutting out background noise. There's also a new SharePlay ‌FaceTime‌ feature that lets Apple users watch TV, listen to music, and share their screens with one another.

Shared With You, a separate feature, keeps track of the music, links, podcasts, news, and photos that people are sent in Messages, highlighting it in the relevant apps. Notes has a new Quick Note feature for jotting down thoughts, and collaboration is easier with mentions and an Activity View.

The Shortcuts app from iOS is now available on the Mac, and Focus helps people stay on task by cutting out background distractions. There's an updated Maps app with a whole slew of new features, and with Live Text, Macs can now detect text in photos or provide details on animals, art, landmarks, plants, and more in images.

Mail Privacy Protection hides IP and prevents tracking through invisible pixels, and iCloud Private Relay keeps Safari browsing protected. There are many other new features in macOS Monterey, with a full rundown available in our macOS Monterey roundup.

Update: While Apple initially also pushed the update to public beta testers, it appears it was pulled soon after.