MacRumors

Google today updated its Google Maps app for the iPhone to add support for widgets that can be added both to the Today View and the Home Screen.

There are two separate widget options. The first allows users to check traffic conditions, store opening times, restaurant reviews, and more for a given location, while the second is designed to let users find places that are nearby like restaurants, gas stations, and grocery stores.

The widget can be used to get quick access to home directions as well, and it has a search interface available for inputting directions right from the ‌Home Screen‌.

The Google Maps widget can be accessed using the "+" button either in the Today View or on the ‌Home Screen‌ after downloading the latest version of the app. [Direct Link]

Apple chip supplier TSMC is planning to manufacture chips with a 2nm fabrication process by 2024, according to Nikkei Asia.

TSMC plans to build a new factory on 50 acres of land for two-nanometer chips in Hsinchu, Taiwan, scheduled to begin manufacturing operations in 2024. Construction has been cleared to begin in early 2022, with equipment being installed in 2023.

For context, if Apple continues with its current naming system for its custom silicon chips, we may tentatively expect the first 2nm Apple chips to be the "A18" or the "M5." While there have not been any reports of Apple planning to move to a 2nm process yet, it seems inevitable that the company will do so in tandem with TSMC since it is Apple's sole processor supplier with an expansive manufacturing capacity.

TSMC's manufacturing capabilities are also considerably more advanced than rival companies like Intel, which have been mired by delays and stagnation with older manufacturing processes, enabling Apple, as a major TSMC client, to maintain a competitive edge with its custom silicon chips. Earlier this week, Intel announced plans to make chips for Qualcomm.

The A14 and M1 chip debuted in devices last year and were Apple's first chips to be manufactured with a 5nm fabrication process. Apple is believed to have already booked an order with TSMC for 4nm custom silicon chips, which are due to begin production this year, ahead of the supplier offering 3nm chips from 2022. 2nm chips in 2024 would be another progression of this miniaturization process.

TSMC is undergoing a rapid global expansion to meet demand, building a 5nm chip facility in Arizona and expanding its 28nm factory in Nanjing, China, while also weighing up the possibility of opening new factories in Japan and Germany.

Sonnet in June announced a new DuoModo series of mix and match modular Thunderbolt expansion options both for the desktop and for rack installation, and we thought we'd take a hands-on look at the new offerings for MacRumors readers who are looking to power up their desktops.

There are three interchangeable expansion modules that are part of the DuoModo line, including a three-slot PCIe card system, an eGPU card system, and a Mac mini mounting system with an integrated Thunderbolt storage dock, plus a series of enclosures. Since these are mix and match you can pick and choose, but Sonnet also offers a few preconfigured options.

The DuoModo Echo III includes one x16 and two x8 PCIe slots that connect to a Mac's Thunderbolt port, along with a 400W power supply and a 75W auxiliary power connector for cards that require additional power.

Sonnet's DuoModo eGPU Module, which is what most MacRumors readers may be interested in, supports full-length, full-height 2.5-slot width GPU cards, and it has built-in variable-speed fans for cooling purposes. It's future proof with an 800W power supply. We used an AMD Radeon 6800 in the eGPU with an Intel ‌Mac mini‌ and saw OpenCL and Metal scores of 97499 and 132543, respectively, vastly outperforming the 4561 OpenCL and 4522 Metal scores from the integrated Graphics 630 card.

There's also a DuoModo xMac mini Module that holds an Intel or M1 ‌Mac mini‌ and allows it to be mounted in an enclosure. There's a built-in Thunderbolt 3 storage dock with two 10Gb/s USB-C ports, one USB-A port, and one 40Gb/s Thunderbolt 3 port. It also has two M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD sockets to let users add up to 16TB of storage.

These modules can go in one of Sonnet's enclosures, such as the Dual-Module Desktop Enclosure. Sonnet's dual enclosure holds any two of the DuoModo modules, and there's also a single-module option.

Sonnet's DuoModo system is comprehensive, versatile, and easy to use for those who need professional expansion options. Make sure to check out our video up above to see the DuoModo in action.

A new "Today at Apple" session shared on YouTube today explores how to shoot and edit "otherworldly" photos in Night mode on an iPhone with the help of photographer Maria Lax and Landon, a Creative at Apple Grand Central in New York City.

Apple says its free "Today at Apple" sessions are meant to inspire hands-on creativity in photography, art, design, video, coding, music, and more using Apple products and accessories like the iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Pencil. Initially hosted exclusively at Apple Stores, the sessions started to be offered online during the pandemic, and Apple also started uploading sessions to YouTube earlier this month.

This is the second "Today at Apple" session uploaded to YouTube, with the first exploring how to draw yourself as a "Peanuts" character in the Pages app using an iPad and Apple Pencil, with the help of "The Snoopy Show" storyboard artist Krista Porter.

Apple has sent a cease and desist letter to a leaker based in China as part of its continuing attempts to curtail leaks of unreleased products, according to Vice.

A Chinese citizen who shared images of stolen Apple prototypes on social media was sent a warning letter from Fangda Partners, Apple's law firm in China, on June 18, 2021. An extract from the letter read:

You have disclosed without authorization a large amount of information related to Apple's unreleased and rumored products, which has constituted a deliberate infringement of Apple's trade secrets. Through investigation, Apple has obtained relevant evidence about your unauthorized disclosure of Apple's unreleased and rumored products. Your intentional infringement is specifically manifested as: publishing unpublished information about Apple's new products through social media platforms, including but not limited to the design and performance of these new products.

The letter went on to ask the seller to stop obtaining, advertising, and selling leaked Apple devices and requested information about anyone who provided them with leaked devices. The leaker was also asked to sign a document agreeing to comply with the requests within 14 days of receiving the letter. It is not clear who the Chinese citizen was that leaked the prototype devices in this particular case.

A previous Vice investigation revealed that there is a gray market fueled by Chinese Apple or Foxconn employees who sneak unreleased hardware out of factories, which allows resellers to acquire devices to sell to collectors, some of who post images on social media.

Elsewhere, the original Twitter account of the leaker known as "Mr. White," with the handle @laobaiTD, was deleted around June 11. There is a new Mr. White account on Twitter posting images of Apple prototypes, but the original @laobaiTD was responsible for images purporting to depict a shorter, third-generation Apple Pencil and second-generation AirPods Pro circuitry.

Mr. White leaked accurate images of the iPhone 12 Pro's rear glass, an iPhone 12 mini display unit, the A14 chip, the iPad mini 5's chassis, and more, all before their official release, as well as leaked images of unreleased products such as a black ceramic Apple Watch Series 5, a Jet Black iPhone X, and a fifth-generation iPod touch with an alternate design.

The letter from Apple lines up with others sent last month to the reliable leaker known as "Kang," "CConceptCreator," who created leaker Jon Prosser's accurate renders of AirPods Max before they were released, and others. Another leaker called "Jin Store" on Twitter, who leaked images of accurate molds of the iPhone 12 lineup, told Vice that he had not received a letter from Apple.

While it seems that many of these letters were sent just over a month ago, it is increasingly clear that June saw a fierce and widespread attempt from Apple to cull information coming from individual leakers outside the United States.

Starting with iOS 15, iPadOS 15, macOS Monterey, and watchOS 8, Apple will cut back on integration between Siri and third-party apps, drastically reducing the type and number of commands users will be able to invoke through the virtual assistant for third-party apps.

On a developer support page, Apple says that a number of SiriKit intents and commands will no longer be supported with the public release of all of its upcoming operating systems this fall. Apple lists a total of 22 SiriKit commands that will no longer be supported, with the most notable one being that users will no longer be able to book a ride, such as with Uber.

Alongside removing support for ride-booking apps to integrate with ‌Siri‌, Apple is also cutting back on ‌Siri‌'s ability to integrate with to-do apps. With the new changes, users of popular to-do and note apps, such as Things 3 or Todoist, will no longer be able to create a new task list, delete a task, or amend a note by simply asking ‌Siri‌. The ability to create new tasks, however, will remain.

Additional changes include the deprecation of SiriKit intents that allow users to make bill payments with third-party apps, search for bills, or transfer money between two accounts within a specific app. Apple is also cutting back on several CarPlay intents, removing the ability for users to use ‌Siri‌ to set an audio source in a car, adjust climate, seat, or defroster settings.

Ahead of when these changes go into effect, Apple advises that developers update their apps to remove any marketing material, such as graphics or instructional material, that informs users of the ability to use ‌Siri‌ to conduct certain tasks. Apple further notes that developers will not need to remove the soon to be deprecated SiriKit APIs from their apps code but will receive warnings when attempting to compile their apps with Xcode.

Make plans to update any promotional activities that highlight the functionality provided by these APIs in your app. Please note that the symbols will remain in the SDK, so you don't need to remove the API calls from your app. However, you'll receive compile-time warnings alerting you to the deprecation going forward.

Apple is rather quiet on why it's deciding to suddenly limit ‌Siri‌'s integration with third-party apps, especially as the company is in the midst of growing concerns around anti-competitive conduct. Several developers, companies, and governments are investigating Apple regarding alleged actions that stifle competition from third-party developers, and at the same time, further promote first-party apps and services.

The latest round of changes to SiriKit may spark additional concerns, as some large developers will no longer be offered features that are available to first-party apps made by Apple.

Alternatively, the latest move by Apple may be part of its plan to consolidate users and developers into using Shortcuts. Shortcuts allow users to create a custom phrase that triggers a specific task for a third-party app. Developers can expose a specific task, such as sending a message through Instagram to Shortcuts, allowing users to create a specific phrase that triggers the task when invoked through ‌Siri‌.

With the new updates, if a user attempts to make a command not supported for third-party apps, ‌Siri‌ will respond by saying that the command cannot be completed. iOS 15, alongside iPadOS 15, macOS Monterey, and watchOS 8, are all set to be released this fall and are currently in beta testing with developers and public beta testers.

During today's earnings call for the third fiscal quarter of 2021 (second calendar quarter), Apple CEO Tim Cook was asked how Apple decides what components to purchase and what components to develop, and Cook said that Apple asks if it can be done better.

We ask ourselves if we can do something better. If we can deliver a better product. If we can buy something in the market and it's great and it's as good as what we can do, we're going to buy it. We'll only enter where we have an ability to do something better and therefore make a better product for the user.

Cook went on to explain that the M1 chip is a great example of that. "We have the ability within our silicon team to make a product that's appreciably better than what we could buy," he said.

Response to the ‌M1‌ chip has been "unbelievable," and has been powering Mac and iPad sales that are constrained. "That's how we look at that and whether we should enter a market or not," said Cook.

The ‌M1‌ chip has allowed Apple to cut ties with Intel, and Apple is no longer reliant on Intel technology or Intel release timelines. In the future, Apple is also planning to come out with its own modem chips, reducing its reliance on Qualcomm.

Apple experienced "strong double digit growth" in the number of iPhone users who were upgrading an older device or swapping to an ‌iPhone‌ from an Android device, Apple CEO Tim Cook said during today's earnings call covering the third fiscal quarter of 2021.

Cook said that it was the largest upgrade quarter for Q3 ever, and that the ‌iPhone‌ 12 upgrade cycle on the whole was "very strong." Sales of the ‌iPhone‌ 12 Pro and the iPhone 12 Pro Max were "particularly strong."

Going forward, Cook said that Apple feels "really good" about the future of the ‌iPhone‌ because 5G penetration remains "very low" and there's a lot of opportunity for sales growth in the 5G market. "We're in the very early innings of 5G," Cook said. "There are only a couple countries that are in the double digits."

The high number of new ‌iPhone‌ users and ‌iPhone‌ users upgrading to new models drove record sales momentum, with the ‌iPhone‌ ultimately bringing in $39.6 billion during the quarter.

During today's earnings call covering the third fiscal quarter of 2021 (second calendar quarter), Apple CFO Luca Maesteri said that Apple is expecting supply constraints to affect the iPhone and the iPad in the coming quarter.

"The supply constraints that we've seen in the June quarter will be higher in the September quarter," said Maestri. The constraints will impact ‌iPhone‌ and ‌iPad‌ sales in particular.

It is not clear if these predicted supply constraints will affect the ‌iPhone‌ 13 models that are expected to launch in September.

Apple CEO Tim Cook was asked whether the supply constraints will continue into the holiday quarter, but Cook said that he doesn't want to predict that. "We're going to take it one quarter at a time," he said. "We will do everything we can to mitigate whatever set of circumstances we're dealt." Cook went on to say that the constraints that Apple is seeing are the same constraints that are impacting other companies as well.

The majority of the constraints are of the variety that others are seeing. I would classify it as industry shortage. We do have some shortages in addition to that where the demand has been so great and so beyond our own expectation that it's difficult to get the entire set of parts within the lead times that we try to get those. It's a little bit of that as well. As I said before, the latest nodes, which we use in several of our products, have not been as much of an issue. The legacy nodes are where the supply constraints have been, on silicon.

Cook also said that though Apple is expecting supply constraints, component costs in the aggregate have declined, but Apple is currently paying out more for freight than it would like.

Apple's Wearables, Home, and Accessories category saw strong growth during the third fiscal quarter of 2021, Apple CEO Tim Cook said during today's earnings call.

The category brought in $8.8 billion, up 36 percent from $6.5 billion in the year-ago quarter. According to Cook, the category set a new all-time June quarter revenue record.

Wearables, Home, and Accessories includes the Apple Watch, AirPods, AirPods Pro, AirPods Max, HomePod, Beats headphones, and more. AirTags is in this category, and Cook said that the response to AirTag has been "enthusiastic" and "very strong."

Nearly 75 percent of customers who purchased an Apple Watch during the quarter were new to the Apple Watch, and Apple Watch is one of the main drivers of wearables revenue.

Apple's services category, which includes the App Store, Apple Music, Apple Pay, AppleCare, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, Apple Fitness+, and more, saw another quarter of incredible growth according to Apple's earnings results for the third fiscal quarter of 2021 (second calendar quarter).

Services brought in $17.5 billion during the quarter, up 33 percent from $13.2 billion in the year-ago quarter and up from $16.9 billion last quarter.

Cloud services, ‌Apple Music‌, advertising, video, and payments saw all-time revenue records, while the ‌App Store‌ saw a new June quarter revenue record.

During the earnings call announcing the results, Apple CFO Luca Maestri said that Apple's install base of devices hit a new all-time high as well, which helps drive services growth.

Apple now has more than 700 million paid subscriptions, which is up 150 million from last year, and is four times the number of subscriptions that Apple had four years ago.

Paid accounts on digital content stores reached a new all-time high across each geographic segment, and paid accounts increased by double digits.

Apple CEO Tim Cook highlighted the 35 Emmy nominations that ‌Apple TV‌+ shows have received, and he said that ‌Apple TV‌+ viewers are loving shows like "Ted Lasso" and "Mythic Quest."

Macs and iPads are selling in record numbers as people continue to work and learn from home. According to Apple's latest earnings report for the third fiscal quarter of 2021 (second calendar quarter), Apple's Mac category brought in $8.8 billion, up from $6.5 billion in the year-ago quarter.

Sales were just a bit down from the second fiscal quarter of 2021, when Apple's Macs brought in $9.1 billion in revenue. iPad revenue was at $7.4 billion, up from $6.6 billion in the year-ago quarter and again, just barely trailing Apple's second quarter earnings results.

According to Apple CEO Tim Cook, the ‌iPad‌ had its best June quarter in nearly a decade, while the Mac set a new June quarter revenue record. Apple CFO Luca Maestri said the last four quarters have been the Mac's best four quarters ever.

The earnings report covers sales of the M1 Mac and ‌iPad‌ machines, including the ‌M1‌ 24-inch iMac and the ‌M1‌ iPad Pro models that were released earlier this year.

Apple today announced financial results for the third fiscal quarter of 2021, which corresponds to the second calendar quarter of the year.

For the quarter, Apple posted revenue of $81.4 billion and net quarterly profit of $21.7 billion, or $1.30 per diluted share, compared to revenue of $59.7 billion and net quarterly profit of $11.25 billion, or $0.65 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Apple's top-line numbers shattered June quarter records for the company.

Gross margin for the quarter was 43.3 percent, compared to 38.0 percent in the year-ago quarter. Apple also declared a quarterly dividend payment of $0.22 per share, payable on August 12 to shareholders of record as of August 9.

“This quarter, our teams built on a period of unmatched innovation by sharing powerful new products with our users, at a time when using technology to connect people everywhere has never been more important,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We’re continuing to press forward in our work to infuse everything we make with the values that define us — by inspiring a new generation of developers to learn to code, moving closer to our 2030 environment goal, and engaging in the urgent work of building a more equitable future.”

As has been the case for over a year now, Apple is once again not issuing guidance for the current quarter ending in September.

Apple will provide live streaming of its fiscal Q3 2021 financial results conference call at 2:00 pm Pacific, and MacRumors will update this story with coverage of the conference call highlights.

Apple earnings call recap ahead...

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Apple today released the fourth betas of iOS 15 and iPadOS 15, introducing additional refinements to the new features that are coming in the software updates. In these betas, Apple has introduced changes for Safari, Notifications, Focus mode, and more.

Safari Updates

Apple is continuing to refine the design of Safari on the iPhone, and in iOS 15, there are tweaks to improve usability.

Share Button

The dedicated Share button for sending an article to someone has been relocated to the tab bar again, replacing the prior info button.

Reload

There's once again a reload button available next to the domain name for quick access to reloading a page. Apple had removed this in a prior beta and made it a long press gesture. Reload can also be accessed through the Share button.

Show Bookmarks

When you long press on the URL bar, there's now an option to "Show Bookmarks," which makes it much easier to get to your bookmarks.

Reader Mode

When Reader Mode is available on a website, there's now a little icon that can be tapped to enter into it. Reader mode is also accessible through the Share interface.

iPadOS 15

Apple has also updated the design of Safari on the iPad, bringing it in line with the macOS Monterey Safari design. macOS Monterey on Safari now includes a separate tab bar option.

MagSafe Battery Pack Support

Support for the MagSafe Battery Pack has been added in iOS 15 beta 4, so if you have one of the new accessories, it now shows up in the Battery widget and in the Settings app.

Lock Screen Camera Icon

Apple has very slightly tweaked the design of the Lock Screen Camera icon, removing the button on the left side and increasing the size of the flash and the lens ring. The Settings icon has also been updated.

Shortcuts

Shortcuts has gained a "Return to Home Screen" action that can be used in automations.

Notifications

The Notifications icon in the Settings app has been updated with a new look.

Apple has also added a new toggle for disabling notifications when Screen Sharing or Screen Mirroring.

Share Focus Status

In the Messages app, you can tap on a contact's name and choose whether or not to share your Focus status with them.

App Store Account Design

Apple is now using its new settings layout in for the App Store account section, with rounded edges and separate sections for each account option.

Photos Memory Sharing

There's now a functional interface for sharing Memories in Photos, with an option to choose a song that's appropriate for sharing if an Apple Music song is not available to be shared for copyright reasons.

More Features

Know of a feature that we left out? Let us know in the comments.

The next-generation iPad Air will feature a design that's similar to the third-generation iPad Pro, according to Japanese site Mac Otakara.

Citing a Chinese supplier, the site says that the fifth-generation ‌iPad Air‌ will continue to feature a 10.9-inch display and a Touch ID button on the side, but it will gain a dual-lens camera system with Wide and Ultra Wide cameras.

A LiDAR Scanner is also a possibility for the ‌iPad Air‌, though it is not guaranteed and the supplier did not know for sure. Additional features include a four speaker audio system and a 5G mmWave chip.

Mac Otakara expects the fifth-generation ‌iPad Air‌ to feature an A15 chip, and while today's rumor includes no detail on a release date, prior information has suggested an early 2022 launch.

There's also no mention of an OLED display, and multiple other rumors have suggested that Apple is working on an iPad Air-sized ‌iPad‌ with an OLED display. The ‌iPad Air‌ is expected to use OLED technology while the ‌iPad Pro‌ line will stick with mini-LED technology.

‌Mac Otakara‌ also says that its "latest information" indicates the upcoming ninth-generation low-cost ‌iPad‌ and the iPad mini 6 "do not seem to be any different" from the existing eighth-generation ‌iPad‌ and ‌iPad mini‌ 5.

The site suggests that it's possible that the only update will be an update to the A14 chip, with a design change not coming until 2022 or later.

That is not in line with previous rumors, especially about the ‌iPad mini‌ 6. We've heard reports from reliable sources like Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo and Bloomberg's Mark Gurman that have suggested the next ‌iPad mini‌ will have a larger display and possibly no Home button.

The ‌iPad mini‌ 6 is expected to come out this fall, so we don't have too much longer to wait to find out which rumor set is true. We're either getting a small refresh that does not tweak the design, or a larger refresh that brings the ‌iPad mini‌ in line with the ‌iPad Pro‌ and ‌iPad Air‌.

As for the low-cost ‌iPad‌, ‌Mac Otakara‌ earlier this year said that it would look similar to the iPad Air 3, but it's no longer clear if that's accurate.

The latest beta update of macOS Monterey, released to developers today, has brought Live Text functionality to Intel-based Mac computers, removing the requirement for users to use an M1 Apple silicon Mac to utilize the feature, according to Rene Ritchie.

Live Text, included in the forthcoming macOS Monterey, iOS 15, and iPadOS 15 updates, allows users to interact with text within images, such as phone numbers, addresses, and more. With Live Text, text inside images also becomes selectable, allowing users to cut and copy the text into apps.

Apple at first stated that an ‌M1‌ Apple silicon Mac is a requirement for Live Text on macOS Monterey, but with the latest beta, it's been expanded to Intel-based Mac computers.

macOS Monterey, alongside iOS 15, iPadOS 15, tvOS 15, and watchOS 8, will be released to all users this coming fall. Learn more about macOS Monterey and all of it's new features using our guide.