Apple today released a new update for Safari Technology Preview, the experimental browser Apple first introduced four years ago in March 2016. Apple designed the Safari Technology Preview to test features that may be introduced into future release versions of Safari.
Safari Technology Preview release 116 includes bug fixes and performance improvements for Web Extensions, Web Inspector, Web Audio API, MediaRecorder, CSS, Rendering, JavaScript, WebAuthn, Media, Web API, URL Parsing, Storage Access API, Accessibility, and WebDriver.
The current Safari Technology Preview release is the built on the new Safari 14 update included in macOS Big Sur with support for Safari Web Extensions imported from other browsers, tab previews, password breach notifications, web authentication with Touch ID, and more.
The new Safari Technology Preview update is available for both macOS Catalina and macOS Big Sur, the newest version of the Mac operating system.
Apple's aim with Safari Technology Preview is to gather feedback from developers and users on its browser development process. Safari Technology Preview can run side-by-side with the existing Safari browser and while designed for developers, it does not require a developer account to download.
Verizon today announced the launch of the "5G Fleet Swap," a new program that's designed to allow enterprise customers to trade in their entire fleet of smartphones and upgrade to an iPhone 12 for zero upfront cost.
After the transition, the iPhones used by each business will have zero cost (for the iPhone 12 mini) or a low monthly cost.
Customers can choose to trade in smartphones from Verizon or any other carrier and upgrade to any iPhone in the iPhone 12 lineup. The program will make it easier for businesses to make the transition from 4G to 5G.
"The iPhone 12 lineup is the best for business, with an all-new design, advanced 5G experience, industry-leading security and A14 Bionic, the fastest chip ever in a smartphone," said Susan Prescott, Apple's vice president of Markets, Apps and Services. "Paired with Verizon's 5G Ultra Wideband going indoors and 5G Fleet Swap, an all-new device offer for enterprise, it's now easier than ever for businesses to build transformational mobile apps that take advantage of the powerful iPhone 12 lineup and 5G."
Verizon highlighted some of the apps that businesses can better take advantage of over a 5G connection, such as IBM's Maximo Visual Inspection app for monitoring production line defects and JigSpace for accessing documents and manuals with detailed augmented reality experiences for building of technical equipment.
Verizon also announced two 5G ultra wideband rollouts for enterprise customers. General Motors and Honeywell are the first companies to get 5G ultra wideband service at their facilities.
Apple today released a revised version of macOS 11.0.1 Big Sur, which appears to be available for some Mac users who had not previously installed the macOS 11.0.1 update.
It's not clear why Apple has released a new version of macOS Big Sur 11.0.1, but 11.0.1 is the launch version of Big Sur on all Macs except for M1 Macs. Those who have already updated to macOS Big Sur will not see this update, but those who are coming from Catalina or an earlier version of macOS will get the new release.
Today's update comes a little over a week after Apple first released macOS 11.0.1 Big Sur. The new version has a build number of 20B50, while the prior version had a build number of 20B29.
The new software can be downloaded by opening up System Preferences and choosing the Software Update option.
macOS Big Sur is a major update that brings a redesigned look to the Mac with Control Center, new widget options. Safari is faster and more battery efficient and there are new privacy protections and a translate option, plus it supports 4K YouTube playback.
Apple today announced that upcoming neo-noir psychological thriller "Losing Alice" will debut on Apple TV+ on Friday, January 22. The first three episodes will premiere on that date, with the final five episodes following weekly.
Written and directed by Sigal Avin, "Losing Alice" follows aging director Alice and her growing obsession with young screenwriter Sophie.
Using flashbacks and flash-forwards in a satisfyingly complex narrative that takes the viewer through the conscious and subconscious of its protagonist's mind, the series follows Alice (played by Ayelet Zurer), a 48-year-old female film director, who feels irrelevant since raising her family. After a brief encounter on the train, she becomes obsessed with a 24-year-old screenwriter femme fatale, Sophie (played by Lihi Kornowski), and eventually surrenders her moral integrity in order to achieve power, relevance and success. In addition to Ayelet Zurer, the series stars Lihi Kornowski, Gal Toren, Yossi Marshak, Shai Avivi and Chelli Goldenberg.
"Losing Alice" is the latest in a series of Apple Originals from across the world, including Israeli thriller "Tehran," upcoming international espionage thriller "Slow Horses," "Pachinko" based on the best-selling novel, and "Suspicion," based on Israeli series "False Flag."
Apple in iOS 14 is planning to introduce a new App Tracking Transparency feature that will let users know when companies want to track them across apps and website. Following outcry from developers like Facebook and ad networks unprepared for the change, Apple delayed the implementation of the anti-tracking functionality until early 2021.
Eight civil society organizations recently sent a letter [PDF] to Apple expressing disappointment over the feature's delay, and Apple today penned a strongly worded response confirming its commitment App Tracking Transparency.
Apple says that it too is concerned about users being tracked without their consent and having their data bundled and resold by advertising networks. Tracking across apps and websites owned by multiple companies and data sold by data brokers can be "invasive and "creepy," according to Apple.
Too often, information is collected about you on an app or website owned by one company and combined with information collected separately by other companies for targeted advertisements and advertising measurement. Sometimes your data is even aggregated and resold by data brokers, which are third parties you neither know nor interact with.
Facebook and other ad networks have complained that Apple's anti-tracking efforts are anticompetitive and will impact small businesses. Apple says it is not against the reasonable collection of user data, but wants to empower customers to make their own choices about what data is collected and how it is used.
In a statement that seems aimed directly at Facebook's complaint about the impact on small businesses, Apple says that advertising that respects privacy was the standard prior to the growth of the internet.
Advertising that respects privacy is not only possible, it was the standard until the growth of the Internet. Some companies that would prefer ATT is never implemented have said that this policy uniquely burdens small businesses by restricting advertising options, but in fact, the current data arms race primarily benefits big businesses with big data sets. Privacy-focused ad networks were the universal standard in advertising before the practice of unfettered data collection began over the last decade or so.
Apple directly calls out Facebook's advertising practices further in the letter after highlighting its own privacy-focused policies.
By contrast, Facebook and others have a very different approach to targeting. Not only do they allow the grouping of users into smaller segments, they use detailed data about online browsing activity to target ads. Facebook executives have made clear their intent is to collect as much data as possible across both first and third party products to develop and monetize detailed profiles of their users, and this disregard for user privacy continues to expand to include more of their products.
Apple's full letter is available to read below, and the missive concludes with a statement that Apple is looking forward to implementing the App Tracking Transparency feature. There is no timeline for when the functionality will be rolling out, however.
Update: In a statement provided to MacRumors, Facebook said that Apple's letter is a "distraction" away from Apple's own privacy issues. Facebook also said that Apple is using its dominant market position to self-preference data collection while making it nearly impossible for competitors to use the same data.
"Apple is being accused of monitoring and tracking people's private data from their personal computers without their customers' knowledge through its latest update to macOS - and today's letter is a distraction from that. They have a history of this. The same happened when it was revealed that Apple had violated people's privacy and allowed millions of people's private audio to be accessed without their knowledge through a vulnerability in FaceTime. In that instance, they enforced against our internal business apps to change the topic. Sadly, we're not perfect and it worked.
The truth is Apple has expanded its business into advertising and through its upcoming iOS14 changes is trying to move the free internet into paid apps and services where they profit. As a result, they are using their dominant market position to self-preference their own data collection while making it nearly impossible for their competitors to use the same data. They claim it's about privacy, but it's about profit. Don't take our word for it. Small business advocates are speaking up about the crushing effect this will have on small business's personalized advertising. As the Executive Vice President for Policy at the Interactive Advertising Bureau said today, 'Don't be fooled: the ad industry is still in a bind & Apple's chokehold on small business is still real...Sadly, for consumers & businesses, it'll change the rules of the game in its favor.' Indeed, we are not fooled. This is all part of a transformation of Apple's business away from innovative hardware products to data-driven software and media."
Apple today released iOS 14.2.1, a bug fix update that comes two weeks after the launch of iOS 14.2 and is available for Apple's new iPhone 12 models.
The iOS 14.2.1 update can be downloaded for free and it is available on all eligible devices over-the-air in the Settings app. To access the new software, go to Settings > General > Software Update.
According to Apple's release notes, iOS 14.2.1 addresses several serious bugs that were found in the new iPhone 12 devices. It fixes a bug that caused some MMS text messages not to be received in both single person and group chats, and it fixes a bug that caused the Lock Screen of the iPhone 12 mini to become unresponsive.
It also includes a fix for Made for iPhone hearing devices that were experiencing sound quality issues. Apple's release notes are below.
iOS 14.2.1 addresses the following issues for your iPhone: - Some MMS messages may not be received - Made for iPhone hearing devices could have sound quality issues when listening to audio from iPhone - Lock Screen could become unresponsive on iPhone 12 mini
There have been multiple complaints about all of these issues. For the iPhone 12 mini, users were seeing problems when swiping up from the bottom of the Lock Screen or when pressing the flashlight or camera buttons.
The missing text messages primarily affected iPhone users who were in group chats with Android users, with the bug causing some Android text messages to fail to show up in the chat.
Apple did not acknowledge these problems, but there was a support document on the third issue, which was causing some people with Made for iPhone hearing aids and devices to experience unexpected noises like loud static or intermittent audio.
Apple is also testing iOS 14.3, and has seeded two betas of that update to developers so far. iOS 14.3 brings ProRAW functionality to the new iPhones and it also will introduce the Fitness+ service.
Apple in August said that cloud gaming services were allowed on the App Store, but that each individual game must be submitted to be reviewed by Apple's App Store team. Submitting hundreds of games to the App Store is so far not something any cloud gaming service has wanted to do, and those services are instead opting for web access.
Google is working on a progressive web version of Stadia that will run on Safari, and a public beta test will be available in the coming weeks.
Microsoft is also developing a web-based version of its xCloud gaming service, and Amazon's Luna game service works on iOS devices using the web browser. Just today, NVIDIA announced browser support for its streaming gaming service GeForce NOW, with plans to bring Fortnite back to iOS devices.
Google launched Stadia one year ago today, allowing subscribers to play cloud-based games on compatible laptops, PCs, Macs, phones, and tablets. Stadia requires an internet connection of 10Mb/s or more, and while it's free to use, games must be purchased. Google also offers Stadia Pro for $10 per month with access to some free games and higher resolution streaming rates.
According to Google, more than 80 games have been added to Stadia over the last year, and starting soon, Google will be offering free-to-play content even for non subscribers.
In a new interview for CNBC, The Wall Street Journal's Joanna Stern and Daring Fireball's John Gruber discussed their thoughts about Apple's transition to Apple Silicon with the M1 and showed a real-world comparison of the new MacBook Pro's 720p camera.
During the course of the interview, it became apparent that Gruber was using the M1 MacBook Pro's built-in webcam, while Stern actively chose to use an external camera connected to the M1 MacBook Pro. The result is a clear comparison between the MacBook Pro's 720p camera and an external camera in a realistic video-call use-case.
Though it is clear that the cameras are different, the quality of the MacBook Pro's camera does seem to be a surprising step up from previous generations. This is likely because the M1 chip's Image Signal Processor enables sharper images, as well as more detail in shadows and highlights on video calls.
In August, Apple upgraded the 27-inch iMac's camera from 720p to 1080p, but the new MacBook Air and MacBook Pro remained at 720p resolution.
Amid glowing reviews for the M1-powered Macs, the 720p camera was the most heavily maligned aspect of the new MacBook Air and MacBook Pro. For example, The Verge's Nilay Patel said, "We really considered giving these machines 10 out of 10 review scores, but this camera is bad enough to keep that from happening, especially on a pro laptop that costs more than the Air."
Hyundai continues to expand wireless CarPlay and Android Auto to more of its vehicle models, including the 2021 Elantra, which began arriving to dealerships in the United States and Canada earlier this month. The new Elantra is available with up to two 10.25-inch displays — one for the digital cluster and one for infotainment options like wireless CarPlay.
2021 Elantra is available with up to two 10.25-inch displays
Hyundai is also offering wireless CarPlay in 2021 models of the Tucson, Santa Fe, Venue, and Palisade, while Cadillac has introduced wireless CarPlay across virtually its entire 2021 vehicle lineup, as noted by Cadillac Society.
Wireless CarPlay works over Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, eliminating the need for the iPhone to be connected to the infotainment system with a Lightning cable. The wireless connectivity will soon become more important, as reputable analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has previously claimed that Apple will introduce at least one high-end iPhone without a Lightning connector in 2021, resulting in the device being completely portless.
Apple has already started transitioning to a wireless ecosystem by removing the headphone jack on iPhones and subsequently releasing AirPods, introducing MagSafe wireless charging and accessories on iPhone 12 models, and so forth.
At this point, it's still unclear if or how a portless iPhone would work with vehicles that use wired CarPlay, beyond the use of aftermarket adapters that seem somewhat hacky and don't work in all vehicles. Apple may offer a solution when a portless iPhone becomes official, or it might come down to waiting for more automakers to adopt wireless CarPlay.
We've been tracking early Black Friday deals in our dedicated Black Friday Roundup, and in an effort to prepare our readers for the big shopping event we're highlighting sales store-by-store in the lead-up to November 27.
Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Walmart. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.
Next up on the list is Walmart, which has been holding numerous pre-Black Friday sales but as of yet had not shared its full plans for next week. Now, however, we have a clearer picture of all the deals you'll see if you choose to shop Walmart on November 27 (and 25 and 26).
Walmart's Black Friday Schedule
Just like Best Buy, all Walmart stores will be closed on Thanksgiving Day. Walmart is encouraging shoppers to head to its online store on November 26 instead, with online sales officially kicking off November 25 at 7 p.m. ET. You can check out the Walmart Black Friday newspaper ad for more details.
Wednesday, November 25 - Online sales start 7 p.m. ET
Thursday, November 26 - Stores closed, online sales continue
Friday, November 27 - Black Friday sales begin online at 12 a.m. ET, and in stores at 5 a.m. local time
Covid-19 Safety Efforts: Walmart will ask customers to form a single-file line for anyone who appears at a location before 5 a.m. on November 27. Associates and Walmart's "Health Ambassadors" will offer sanitized shopping carts and encourage social distancing practices, while also reminding customers to wear masks.
During any in-store Black Friday event, Walmart will meter customers into the store to help reduce congestion and promote social distancing once the store begins to fill up. There will also be specific traffic for shopping down the right-hand side of aisles to reduce clustering.
Walmart has been spreading out Black Friday deals all month among three major "Deals for Days" sales, and in this effort the retailer has hoped that its in-store shopping experience will be safer and more manageable this year. If you choose to order online, you can opt for delivery to your home or contactless curbside pickup as well.
Walmart Black Friday - Online shopping begins November 25
There are quite a few solid Apple-related deals that will appear at Walmart this year, including the lowest price we've ever seen on a new pair of AirPods Pro at $169. You should also keep an eye out for deals on Apple Watch Series 3 and Beats headphones.
Of course, it's not just Apple products being discounted at Walmart. You can also save on Vizio and Samsung 4K TV sets, video games, Fitbit products, Shark vacuums, Google Nest branded products, Roku streaming media players, and more.
Walmart's Black Friday ad confirms that it will have stock for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X on its website beginning Wednesday, November 25. These aren't being discounted, but it's worth noting when stock will return for the new generation of consoles if you haven't been able to secure an order yet this year.
Other video game offers include the popular Nintendo Switch with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe bundle that we're seeing at multiple retailers in 2020. This set includes the Nintendo Switch, a digital download of Mario Kart 8, and three months of Nintendo Switch Online at $299. Check out more video game deals below:
Apple has secured the rights to an upcoming "Tetris" film that will explore the elaborate story behind the iconic tile-matching video game, according to Deadline. Filming is expected to begin in early December in Scotland.
According to the report, the film will star British actor Taron Egerton as Henk Rogers, a Dutch video game designer who eventually secured the rights to "Tetris" and licensed the game to Nintendo for its original Game Boy. Egerton is best known for playing Elton John in "Rocketman" and Gary "Eggsy" Unwin in the "Kingsman" films.
The film, set to be released on Apple TV+, is being produced by Matthew Vaughn's Marv Films, which was also behind the "Rocketman" and "Kingsman" films. The cast is still being finalized for some roles, including Russian software engineer Alexey Pajitnov, who first created "Tetris" in 1984. A release date has yet to be targeted.
GeForce NOW, NVIDIA's streaming gaming service, today announced the launch of Safari integration, which will bring Fortnite and other games to Apple's iOS devices through the Safari browser.
The new Safari integration is available in a beta capacity, and NVIDIA says that many games in the GeForce NOW library can be played on iOS devices. Using GeForce NOW on an iOS device requires a gamepad, and keyboard and mouse-only games are not available. NVIDIA has a list of recommended gamepads.
NVIDIA is working alongside Epic Games on a touch-friendly version of Fortnite that will run on iOS devices through Safari, so Fortnite is not launching today, but it will be coming soon.
Rumors earlier this month suggested that Fortnite would return to Apple's devices through a partnership with NVIDIA, and when the game launches on the GeForce NOW service, it will be the first time Fortnite has been accessible on iOS devices since the Apple vs. Epic Games dispute kicked off in August.
With GeForce NOW, users must own a game to play it through an iOS device, and streaming is available at up to 1080p and 60 frames per second. More than 750 PC games are supported, and NVIDIA adds new games regularly.
GeForce NOW can be accessed on iPhone or iPad through Safari by visiting the GeForce NOW website. The service is priced at $4.99 per month for a Founders membership, with a 6-month subscription available for $24.95.
Apple today issued a press release highlighting its partnership with Boys and Girls Clubs, looking in particular at how the Atlantic City club has integrated Apple programs and technologies.
Apple is aiding a new set of technology labs created by the Boys and Girls Club as part of its 21st Century Academic Enrichment Program by providing a large number of iPad and Mac devices. The labs, which focus on science, technology, engineering, art, and math, as well as design and career training, also include Apple's Everyone Can Code, Everyone Can Create, and Develop in Swift programs.
In total, Apple is donating 2,500 devices to club locations in Alabama, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, D.C., Wisconsin, and the Atlantic City club in New Jersey, to support learning.
The company has set out its commitment to work with local clubs to help them explore the full potential of its devices, and show them how they can further integrate Apple coding and creativity programming into their curricula.
Chinese display maker BOE has reportedly failed yet again to secure a supply order from Apple for OLED panels for iPhones.
According to TheElec, OBE is still facing manufacturing issues at its Chengdu plant in Sichuan province, meaning the display maker has failed to secure Apple's validation for the OLED screens for the second time this year.
BOE's plant in Mianyang – in the same province – suffered the same fate in June, due to a low production yield rate of around 20 percent.
Apple's review for Chengdu began in September but only lasted a month and ended in failure in October, according to the report. BOE will now have to wait until the first half of 2021 to reattempt to clinch a supply deal, which means next year's iPhone series will likely use panels made by Samsung and LG Display.
BOE will have to wait until between May and June before it learns the results of its third review. If it does pass, the panels it supplies will be able to be used for refurbished iPhone 12 models.
Apple is expected to ship next year's "iPhone 13" in four models and similar sizes to this year's iPhone 12 series, but the OLED panels used for the next-generation iPhone are said to be more technologically sophisticated.
Rumors suggest Apple is planning to adopt 120Hz ProMotion displays for at least two models in next year's iPhone lineup, made possible by a shift to low-power LTPO OLED technology. LTPO offers a more power efficient backplane, which turns the individual pixels on and off on the display, and allows for better battery life.
The two models with LTPO are likely to be the Pro models, which are the ones rumored to adopt ProMotion technology. All four 2021 iPhone models are expected to use on-cell touch screens as well, which allows multitouch functionality to be embedded on top of a thin-film transistor (TFT) rather than as a separate component above the display.
Apple has announced the winners of the second annual Apple Music Awards, which recognize "the best and boldest musicians of 2020 and their enormous impact on global culture."
The awards honor achievements in music across five categories, with winners chosen through a process that reflects both Apple Music's editorial perspective and what customers around the world are loving most.
Apple plans to kick off its Apple Music Awards celebration on Monday, December 14, with a week of special performances, fan events, interviews, and more, streaming worldwide on Apple Music, Apple Music TV, and the Apple TV app.
"The Apple Music Awards is our opportunity to recognize and honor the incredible artists who we feel have deeply impacted and inspired the world and our customers, and helped us feel connected through music this year," said Oliver Schusser, Apple's vice president of Apple Music and Beats. "We have an exciting week of music planned in December and are very much looking forward to celebrating together with these artists and their fans."
Apple's full article has a more complete list of details on all of the artists that are to be honored with a special Apple-designed award.
Quicken has released version 6.0 of its popular finance and budgeting software that's twice as fast on Apple Silicon, according to the press release.
The new version is a universal app that allows it to run natively on Apple's M1-powered machines for a faster and more seamless user experience, while the interface builds on Apple's new UI design signature for macOS Big Sur.
"Quicken made a name for itself as the first personal finance solution to be used and trusted by millions of users," said Quicken CEO Eric Dunn. "As the market leader, we are proud to be on the cutting edge with this announcement of our support for Apple Silicon and Big Sur, featuring an upgraded yet familiar user experience and significantly improved performance. Quicken's reports run twice as fast on Apple Silicon, demonstrating the power of Apple Silicon's new CPU."
This version promises to make it easier for users to manage all of their financial accounts in one place, with new tabs and icons that can be used to display all transactions across accounts with one click.
New features offer a more seamless experience around account settings and payments, according to the company, and in addition to updates in the Bills & Income section, the update also offers deeper analysis in New Worth Drill-Down Reports.
Quicken for Mac is available from the company's website. There are several price plans available for Quicken for Mac starting at $35.99 per year, which includes phone and chat support along with a 30-day risk-free guarantee.
While the A14 Bionic chip in iPhone 12 models was the first chip in the smartphone industry to be manufactured based on a 5nm process, Apple and its chipmaking partner TSMC are reportedly pushing ahead on even smaller nodes.
Taiwanese research firm TrendForce today reported that Apple plans to use TSMC's next-generation 5nm+ process for the A15 chip in 2021 iPhones. TSMC's website says the 5nm+ process, which it refers to as N5P, is the "performance-enhanced version" of its 5nm process that will deliver additional power efficiency and performance improvements.
Looking farther ahead, TrendForce believes it is highly likely that the A16 chip in 2022 iPhones will be manufactured based on TSMC's future 4nm process, paving the way for further improvements to performance, power efficiency, and density.
These continued process advancements should result in future iPhones continuing to provide industry-leading performance among smartphones, while the power efficiency gains could contribute to longer battery life. And considering that TSMC also manufactures Apple Silicon chips, including the 5nm-based M1 chip, these process advancements will likely extend to Apple's chips in future Macs — perhaps an "M1X" or "M2" chip or so forth.
Rumors suggest that future Apple Silicon Macs will include new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models with an all-new form factor as early as Q2 2021, in addition to a redesigned 24-inch iMac and a smaller version of the Mac Pro.
Codeweavers posted a blog post and video tonight showing off CrossOver running on an Apple M1MacBook Air. This video shows Team Fortress 2 running on a new M1 MacBook Air:
CrossOver is software (based on Wine Project) that runs Microsoft Windows apps on the Mac by translating Windows APIs into their Mac equivalents. The Codeweavers team was able to run the current version of CrossOver on the new Apple M1 MacBook Air under Rosetta 2 to achieve this feat.
That's incredible when you consider that we're on literally the cheapest Apple Silicon device you can buy - one that gets thermally throttled and is missing a GPU core.
I can't tell you how cool that is; there is so much emulation going on under the covers. Imagine - a 32-bit Windows Intel binary, running in a 32-to-64 bridge in Wine / CrossOver on top of macOS, on an ARM CPU that is emulating x86 - and it works! This is just so cool.
Codeweavers maintains a compatibility database so you can see what might work under CrossOver. They were also able to run Quicken, Among Us, and Witcher 3.
Apple today released a new update for Safari Technology Preview, the experimental browser Apple first introduced four years ago in March 2016. Apple designed the Safari Technology Preview to test features that may be introduced into future release versions of Safari.
Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Walmart. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.
