MacRumors

Apple today lowered the prices of AppleCare+ plans for MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro models equipped with the M1 chip. Coverage offered by the plans, as well as accidental damage fees, appear to remain unchanged.

In the United States, AppleCare+ for the MacBook Air now costs $199, down from $249. The new price applies to both M1 and Intel-based MacBook Air models, although Apple no longer sells the Intel-based model directly.

For the 13-inch MacBook Pro, Apple has split AppleCare+ into two separate plans for the M1 and Intel-based models, with pricing for the M1 model lowered to $249, down from $269. Notably, the price of AppleCare+ for the Intel-based 13-inch MacBook Pro remains $269, so customers opting for the Apple silicon model now receive a slight discount.

The new lower prices are also available in other countries we've checked, such as Canada, with discounts varying based on the local currency.

Customers who recently purchased AppleCare+ for one of the affected MacBook models can contact Apple Support for assistance with cancelling their current AppleCare+ plan and purchasing a new one at the lower price, according to information obtained by MacRumors, but Apple did not provide a cutoff date for eligibility.

AppleCare+ for Mac provides up to two incidents of accidental damage protection every 12 months, each subject to a service fee of $99 for screen damage or external enclosure damage, or $299 for other damage. AppleCare+ also provides 24/7 priority access to Apple's technical support representatives by online chat or phone.

Update: The lower AppleCare+ prices for the 13-inch MacBook Air and MacBook Pro powered with the M1 chip are now available in the United Kingdom.

Popular Apple-owned music discovery app and service Shazam is celebrating a new milestone today, surpassing more than 1 billion Shazams per month and a total of 50 billion tags since the app was first launched.

"Shazam is synonymous with magic," said Oliver Schusser, Apple's vice president of Apple Music and Beats, "both for the fans getting a song recognition almost instantly, and for the artists being discovered. With 1 billion recognitions a month, Shazam is one of the most popular music apps in the world. Today's milestones show not only people's love for Shazam, but also the ever-growing appetite for music discovery around the world."

Shazam launched as a text message service in 2002, but started seeing significant growth when the App Store launched in 2008, and with it, the Shazam app.

Shazam hit its first billion tags at the 10 year mark, but now less than 10 years after that, Shazam has successfully matched more than 50 billion tags with 51 million songs. The first Shazam result ever was "Jeepster" by T. Rex, and that result was delivered over a text message.

The 50 billionth milestone Shazamed song was Evangeline's Mandopop song "框不住的愛 (不插電版)," and Tone and I's "Dance Monkey" continues to be the most Shazamed track of all time.

Shazam is built right into Apple devices so you can ask Siri to identify a song, or you can access music recognition functionality through the Control Center on iPhone and iPad. There's also a Shazam app available from the ‌App Store‌.

Going forward, Apple is making a ShazamKit feature available to developers, allowing third-party apps to integrate Shazam's audio recognition technology into their apps. Apps will be able to match music to Shazam's song catalog, but it can also be used to match any prerecorded audio to custom results. Apple plans to release ShazamKit later this year.

Apple has today announced that it is awarding "innovation grants" worth five million dollars to four historically black colleges and universities (HBCU), as reported by USA Today.

Alabama A&M University, Howard University, Morgan State University, and Prairie View A&M University will receive the grants as part of Apple's wider $100 million Racial Equity and Justice Initiative that was announced earlier this year.

The grants, set to be issued over a three-year period, are part of Apple's New Silicon Initiative. The scheme is intended to help students prepare for careers in hardware technology and chip design. The grants will support each university's engineering school and help expand emerging hardware technology courses. Apple's vice president of environment, policy, and social initiatives, Lisa Jackson, said in a statement:

The HBCU community is home to incredible Black talent and we are thrilled to work alongside these universities to enhance the opportunities for their students. We know many jobs of the future will be in innovative areas like silicon engineering and we want to help ensure the leaders of tomorrow have access to transformational learning opportunities.

The "innovation grants" will also include select scholarships, fellowship opportunities, and internships at Apple, giving students the opportunity to engage with Apple engineers and learn from their experience.

Apple today launched its seasonal back-to-school sale for the upcoming school year in the United States and Canada, offering students free AirPods alongside purchases of select Macs and iPad models.

Similar to last year's promotion, this year's offer includes free AirPods alongside the purchase of a MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, the new 24-inch iMac, the Mac Pro, Mac mini, and the new M1-powered iPad Pro and the iPad Air. Alongside the free AirPods, qualifying students and educators can get 20% off AppleCare+ with their purchases.

During checkout, customers can upgrade their AirPods to include wireless charging for just $40 or upgrade to the AirPods Pro for $90. The promotion seems to only be live in the United States and Canada at the time.

Apple shipped an estimated 40.4 million iPhone 12 devices during the first quarter of 2021, according to new data shared by Strategy Analytics. The figure suggests Apple has maintained its grip on the global 5G smartphone market, despite indicating a 23% dip compared to the fourth quarter of 2020, when Apple shipped 52.2 million units.

Apple enjoyed booming sales in the 5G market in the three months following the launch of in first 5G-equipped ‌iPhone‌ models, but since then its rivals have upped their game in an increasingly competitive premium smartphone market by releasing new 5G models.

Chinese vendor Oppo took second place in the same quarter, shipping 21.5 million units for a 15.8% market share, up 55% from the fourth quarter of last year. Fellow Sino-mobile maker Vivo managed to ship 19.4 million units, a 62% gain on the last quarter.

Samsung took fourth place with 17 million 5G handsets shipped, earning it just 12.5% of the market but a sizeable 79% growth on Q4 2020. Xiaomi shipped 16.6 million units during the quarter, taking 12.2% of the market, up 41% quarter-over-quarter.

"Samsung is performing well with new 5G models, such as Galaxy S21 5G, S21 ultra 5G and S21+ 5G, in South Korea, North America, and parts of Europe," said Ville-Petteri Ukonaho, associate director at Strategy Analytics. "Meanwhile, Apple dipped 23% QoQ, following a blowout Q4 2020 where the new 5G iPhone was wildly popular as a gift during the holiday season.

"We forecast global 5G smartphone shipments to reach a record 624 million units for the full-year 2021, soaring from 269 million in full-year 2020."

All of the iPhones in Apple's ‌iPhone‌ 12 lineup support 5G, but not all 5G networks are equal. There's the super fast mmWave (millimeter wave) 5G and the slower but more widespread sub-6GHz 5G.

Apple currently only sells the mmWave ‌iPhone‌ 12 in the United States, which allocates to only 30-35% of overall ‌‌iPhone‌ 12‌ shipments. However, support for sub-6Ghz 5G networks appears to have been enough to fuel the demand for ‌iPhone‌ 12 models more globally.

Apple is planning to increase the availability of 5G mmWave capable ‌iPhone‌ models to more countries around the world with the release of the ‌iPhone‌ 13 later this year, offering even more customers access to the faster and newer technology where the infrastructure is increasingly becoming more widely available, according to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.

In iOS 15, Apple has added separation alerts to the Find My app, which let you know when you leave an AirTag or other Apple device behind. Separation alerts also support Find My-enabled third-party accessories. This article explains how you set them up.

Called "Notify When Left Behind," the new ‌Find My‌ separation alerts let you know every time you are separated from your item at an unknown location, which can be helpful for items you take with you while traveling or visiting public locations.

The feature automatically sets your home as a Trusted Location (somewhere where you leave your items frequently and don't want to be notified every time), so you need to add your home address to your contact card in the Contacts app before enabling it.

The following steps run through the process of setting up separation alerts in the latest iOS 15 developer beta, a version of which will be available to the public next month.

1. Launch the Find My app on your iPhone.
2. Select the Devices or Items tab, and tap on the device that you want to set up the alerts for.
3. Tap Notify When Left Behind.
   
   

4. Toggle on the switch for Notify When Left Behind.
5. Under "Notify Me, Except At," tap New Location to set a Trusted Location where you don't want to receive alerts.
6. In the "Add Location" map screen, search or enter an address in the input field. You can define the radius of the ringed geofence for your trusted location by dragging the blue dot or using the Small, Medium, or Large options at the bottom. Tap Done when you're finished.
7. If there are no more location exceptions you want to add, tap Done.
   

Now the next time you leave your ‌AirTag‌ or other Apple device behind in a public place, you'll receive an alert informing you in good time, giving you a chance to retrieve it before you travel any further.

Of course, these alerts depend on you not leaving your ‌iPhone‌ behind (there's currently no equivalent separation alert available on Apple Watch for this scenario, sadly), so that's the device you won't want to forget, wherever it is you go.

Apple will make iOS 15 available for general release this fall.

Following in the footsteps of Apple and Spotify, Facebook will launch its own podcast platform offering next week, based on emails seen by The Verge.

According to the messages, which were sent to podcast page owners, Facebook will roll out the podcast service on June 22, and content creators will be able to link their show's RSS feed to Facebook, which will generate News Feed posts for all subsequent episodes.

"Facebook will be the place where people can enjoy, discuss, and share the podcasts they love with each other," said the company in the emails.

Podcast episodes will appear in a forthcoming "Podcasts" tab, which was teased by the company in April. Facebook will also offer podcast creators an optional feature that lets listeners create clips of shows of up to one minute in length for sharing.

Facebook isn't asking for a cut of any revenue that podcasters generate, but the terms of service state that Facebook reserves the right to make "derivative works" with content distributed on its platform.

The move follows growing interest in podcasts as another potential market of original content, with Apple recently launching its own paid subscriptions service in the Podcasts app. Apple takes 30% of all subscription revenue that creators generate in their first year on the platform, and after that, Apple takes a 15% cut.

Spotify has invested heavily in deals to exclusively distribute podcast shows in recent years, and offers a similar podcast subscription feature to Apple, except the streaming service doesn't collect revenue on any of the content it hosts.

Apple is reportedly eyeing a new partnership with LG that would allow the South Korean tech giant to sell iPhones, iPads, and Apple Watches at its more than 400 retail "LG Best Shops" in South Korea, according to a report from Business Korea.

LG recently shut down its smartphone business, leaving retail space previously used for marketing its handsets being left empty. Apple is now, apparently, eyeing to use that retail space to sell its own iPhones, iPads, and Apple Watches. Apple's own retail presence in South Korea is still relatively small, and accepting a deal with LG to sell its products at more than 400 "LG Best Shops" is an easy way to expand its presence.

The two companies are reportedly discussing the establishment of separate Apple corners within the shops that are directly run by Apple employees or allowing LG Best Shop employees to sell Apple products after LG Electronics acquires the right to the sale of Apple products. The two sides have yet to decide when the partnership starts, but some market experts predict that it will be some time after the end of July when LG Electronics completely pull out of the smartphone business

According to the report, LG and Apple are at a disagreement over the sale of Mac computers. LG sells its own "Gram" laptops, and offering Apple's Mac in the store would be a disadvantage. As a result, the two sides are likely only to agree on selling iPhones, iPads, and Apple Watches. An LG spokesperson said in a statement to Business Korea that "nothing has been decided yet" and that they're "exploring all possibilities."

Update: According to a new local report, LG has suspended talks with Apple to potentially sell iPhones, iPads, and Apple Watches at its "LG Best Shops" across South Korea. The report notes that LG has been spectating public opinion around the prospect of a partnership with Apple and has ultimately decided to discontinue talks.

A key new feature of macOS Monterey is the ability to AirPlay content to a supported Mac from other Apple devices, such as an iPhone or iPad, and we've confirmed with Apple that this will include Apple Fitness+ workout videos with one limitation.

After starting an Apple Fitness+ workout on an iPhone or iPad, users will be able to wirelessly stream the audio and video to a supported Mac using AirPlay, providing a convenient way to view the workouts on a larger screen. The only drawback to using Apple Fitness+ with AirPlay is that on-screen metrics such as heart rate and calories burned are not displayed on the Mac, but they can still be viewed on an Apple Watch.

AirPlay to Mac is supported on the following Mac models running macOS Monterey:

• MacBook Pro (2018 and later)
• MacBook Air (2018 and later)
• iMac (2019 and later)
• iMac Pro (2017)
• Mac mini (2020 and later)
• Mac Pro (2019)

We've encountered issues with Apple Fitness+ workouts over AirPlay on macOS Monterey, but the software update is currently in beta. The feature should be functional by time macOS Monterey is publicly released later this year.

Apple Fitness+ was not supported on the Mac until now, as there is no Fitness app for Mac and the service is not available on the web.

Launched in December 2020, Apple Fitness+ is a subscription-based service that provides access to a library of workout videos updated on a weekly basis. Apple Fitness+ can be accessed in the Fitness app on an iPhone, iPad, or Apple TV, and requires an Apple Watch Series 3 or later with a few exceptions. The service is priced at $9.99 per month or $79.99 per year in the United States and is available in five other countries.

Update: Bloomberg inaccurately interpreted the original comments and has since drastically changed the wording of its article. The original Bloomberg piece said that Apple would be prohibited from pre-installing its own apps on iPhones.

The updated Bloomberg article has been rewritten to clarify that the antitrust legislation prohibits Apple from preventing users from removing Apple-created apps on their Apple devices, which is quite different.

Under the legislation, users would need to be permitted to remove any Apple-created app. Apple already allows many of its own apps to be deleted, but core apps like Messages, Photos, and Phone cannot be removed. The bill does NOT prevent Apple from pre-installing its own apps, it prevents Apple from blocking users from deleting pre-installed apps. Our original article is below.

Apple would not be permitted to sell iPhones with its own apps installed under proposed U.S. antitrust legislation that was released last week. Representative David Cicilline confirmed the self-preferencing ban in a discussion with reporters, details of which were shared by Bloomberg.

Rather than pre-installed apps, Apple would have to offer other app options for consumers to download. Right now, iPhones come with a range of free Apple-designed apps from Messages and FaceTime to Calendar and Notes.

"It would be equally easy to download the other five apps as the Apple one so they're not using their market dominance to favor their own products and services," said Cicilline.

Preventing Apple from selling iPhones with its own apps installed would drastically change the iPhone's setup process, making it considerably less streamlined, more complicated, and potentially more expensive if customers were prompted to purchase or subscribe to third-party apps and services to replicate the functionality that Apple provides at no cost.

According to Cicilline, this would also apply to Amazon Prime because Amazon's ability to sell its own products over third-party products disadvantages some sellers.

U.S. House lawmakers last week debuted sweeping bipartisan antitrust legislation in the form of five different bills aimed at major tech companies like Apple, Amazon, Facebook, and Google. The bills would apply to businesses that have a market capitalization of $600 billion and at least 50 million monthly active users in the United States.

If passed, these bills would overhaul competition laws that have not been revisited for decades and would lead to significant changes in the tech industry. The House Judiciary Committee will review the five bills at a hearing next week.

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 CEO Tim Cook this morning participated in a virtual interview at the VivaTech conference, which is described as Europe's biggest startup and tech event. Cook was interviewed by Guillaume Lacroix, CEO and founder of Brut, a media company that creates short-form video content.

We've been focused on privacy for over a decade. We see it as a basic human right. A fundamental human right. And we've been focused on privacy for decades. Steve used to say privacy was stating in plain language what people are signing up for and getting their permission. And that permission should be asked repeatedly. We've always tried to live up to that. [...]

If everyone is worried someone else is watching them, they begin to do less, think less. And no one wants to live in a world where freedom of expression narrows. Privacy goes to the heart of just one of the key values of Apple.

Talk of privacy values led to a discussion of "GAFA," an acronym used in France that lumps Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon together. Cook said he doesn't like that particular acronym because it paints a picture that "all companies are monolithic in nature," and those companies have "different business models and different values."

If you look at Apple and look at what we do, we make things. We make hardware, software, and services, and we try to make sure that at that intersection, they work seamlessly together. We focus on making the best, not the most.

Cook was also asked about regulation, specifically in Europe because the event was taking place in France. He commented on the GDPR, and said Apple would support even stronger privacy laws.

There's very good regulation coming out of Europe like the GDPR. The GDPR set not only a standard, but really set the stage for the world to adopt GDPR because most of the companies are multinational companies and are implementing this around the world regardless of the regulations in those places. We were big supporters of GDPR from the beginning, and we would support going even further than the GDPR in privacy because there's still so much left to do in the privacy world.

Cook spoke about current regulatory changes that are being discussed in Europe, and would force sideloading on the iPhone. Cook said that such a move would destroy the security of the ‌iPhone‌.

Current Digital Services Act language that is being discussed would force sideloading on the iPhone. This would be an alternate way of getting apps onto the iPhone. As we look at that, that would destroy the security of the iPhone and a lot of the privacy initiatives that we've built into the App Store, where we have privacy nutrition labels and App Tracking Transparency that forces people to get permission to track across apps.

These things would not exist anymore, except in people that stuck with our ecosystem, and so I worry deeply about privacy and security. What we're going to do is constructively take part in the debate and hope that we can find a way forward. As I said, there are good parts of the regulation... like there are parts of the DSA that are right on. I think it's just one of those areas where we have the responsibility to say when it's not in the best interest of our user, that it's not.

Cook went on to point out that Android has 47x more malware than iOS. "Why is that?" he asked. "Because we've designed iOS in such a way that there's one App Store and all of the apps are reviewed prior to going on the store." Cook said that he's "optimistic" about the discussions, and that Apple will be "standing up for the user."

Cook was also asked about how Apple reconciles its environmental goals with shipping a new ‌iPhone‌ every year, but he mostly skirted the question with a discussion of Apple's environmental efforts and plans to make the entire supply chain carbon neutral by 2030. "A great product for the user and a great product for the planet can be one in the same," said Cook. "And that's the objective we set for ourselves."

On the topic of future technology, Cook was asked about what he expects to see in the ‌iPhone‌ 30, 20 years in the future.

Well, it will be better than the iPhone 12. You can count on that. It will solve more problems for people. At the root of it, what Apple is all about is making the best products that really enrich people's lives. We won't work on one that where we don't feel like we can meet that mission. And so we only do a few things.

Cook said that he's excited about "so many things" coming in the future, including AR and AI.

In terms of what I'm excited about, I'm excited about so many things. I'm a great believer in the power of technology to help people. We approach the future with great humility because we know we can't predict it. I'm not one of those people that can say I can see 20 years out or 30 years out and tell you what is going to happen. I really don't believe anyone can. We approach it with great humility.

I get excited about AR because I see it as technology that can enhance life in a broad way. We've been working on AR first with our iPhones and iPads, and later we'll see where that goes in terms of our products. The key thing is that it can enrich people's lives.

I get excited about AI and the ability to remove some of the things that keep people down and do work and free up leisure time for people.

Cook said that he's "exceedingly optimistic" about the intersection of technology and health. Apple initially looked at the Apple Watch from a wellness point of view, but then started getting emails from people who had discovered heart problems from the heart rate sensor, which led to Apple adding more health features into the Apple Watch.

I'm exceedingly optimistic about the intersection of technology and health. when we started shipping the watch we did so with thinking about it from a wellness point of view. but we put a heart rate sensor on it... and I was getting tons of emails from people who found heart problems that they didn't know about. So we started adding more function to the watch.

Cook said that the "idea of continually monitoring the body" is a "big idea that has a long roadmap ahead of it."

Cook was asked about Apple's failures, and he says that Apple fails all the time, but tries to do so internally as to not impact customers.

I fail daily at something. We do allow ourselves to fail. We try to fail internally instead of externally because we don't want to involve customers in the failure, but we develop things and subsequently decide not to ship. We begin going down a certain road and sometimes adjust significantly because of a discovery that we make in that process. And so absolutely, failing is a part of life and it's a part of it whether you're a new company, a startup, or you're a company that's been around awhile and trying different things. If you're not failing, you're not trying enough different things.

At the end of the discussion, Cook was asked about the Apple Car, and he of course declined to comment. "In terms of a car, I've got to keep some secrets," Cook said. "There always has to be something up our sleeve, so I don't think I'll comment on the car rumor."

Other topics of discussion included working through COVID, Apple's efforts to create face shields, disinformation, climate change, taxes, and more, all of which can be found in the full interview.

With no sign of redesigned MacBook Pro models at this year's WWDC, when can customers expect the much-anticipated new models to launch?

A number of reports, including investor notes from Morgan Stanley and Wedbush analysts, claimed that new ‌MacBook Pro‌ models would be coming during this year's WWDC. This did not happen, much to the disappointment of ‌MacBook Pro‌ fans, who have been anticipating redesigned machines with Apple silicon chips.

The "M2" chip purportedly destined for the next-generation ‌MacBook Pro‌ models has already entered mass production, according to supply chain sources, but there have been several reports that Apple has experienced unexpected delays with the production of the new models.

The supply of mini-LED display components were apparently constrained by shortages and production problems. Apple supplier TSMT, a key vendor believed to be involved in the production of mini-LED displays for the ‌MacBook Pro‌, has now reportedly resolved technical difficulties around the component, but this seems to have left the MacBook Pros behind schedule.

DigiTimes recently reported that Apple suppliers will begin component shipments, such as keyboard backlights, for new ‌MacBook Pro‌ models in the third quarter of this year, which starts in July and runs through September, indicating that mass production may begin around this time. Nikkei Asia claimed that Apple plans to begin mass-producing two new MacBook laptops in the second half of the year, rescheduled from the previous timeframe of May to June.

Reliable Bloomberg journalist Mark Gurman said that new ‌MacBook Pro‌ models could launch as soon as this summer, but analyst Ming Chi-Kuo, Nikkei Asia, and Taiwanese research firm TrendForce have given a broader prediction that new ‌MacBook Pro‌ models will arrive in the second half of 2021, which currently seems to be the best prediction.

DigiTimes has also cautioned that volume production of the 14-inch ‌MacBook Pro‌ may be postponed until the fourth quarter of 2021 and the new 16-inch model may be postponed until the first quarter of 2022, especially if hindrances to ramped up Taiwanese production fail to improve. Other industry reports have suggested that the MacBook Pros may be delayed until 2022 entirely. Even so, most reports still seem to be centered on a 2021 launch date.

In previous years, Apple has usually held two events toward the end of the year, starting in September. While the first of these events usually sees the unveiling of new iPhone and Apple Watch models, a following event often sees the introduction of new Mac models. Apple events in October have seen the launch of new iMac, Mac mini, and MacBook Air models, as well as various ‌MacBook Pro‌ updates. Last November, Apple introduced the ‌MacBook Air‌, ‌MacBook Pro‌, and ‌Mac mini‌ with the M1 chip.

The range of reports on the launch of the new ‌MacBook Pro‌ models, including supply chain information about the production schedule, also seems to broadly point to a launch date in this region, around October.

It is also important to bear in mind that Apple may unveil the MacBook Pros with a substantial delay before they ship to customers, much like how the newest iPad Pro models did not ship for a month after they were announced. A delay could allow Apple to reveal the new machines sooner, such as alongside the ‌iPhone‌ 13 lineup, but then accommodate delays to mass production by shipping slightly later on in the year or toward 2022.

The new 14-inch MacBook Pro and 16-inch MacBook Pro models are rumored to feature new designs, brighter panels with higher contrast, function keys with no Touch Bar, more ports, and a MagSafe connector for charging. For more on what to expect, make sure to check out our dedicated MacBook Pro rumor guide, which contains all the details we know about Apple's new machines so far.

In a wide-ranging interview about Apple's work and progress in the field of health, the company's vice president of technology, Kevin Lynch, has hinted that Apple may someday use sensor fusion with AirPods to provide more health data to customers.

Currently, the iPhone and Apple Watch both utilize a wide array of sensors to provide users with health data and information independently. In addition, Apple also uses sensor fusion, which combines data from sensors onboard the Apple Watch and ‌iPhone‌ to provide users with a more comprehensive view of their health. In an interview with TechCrunch, Lynch has hinted that Apple may add AirPods to the process of sensor fusion to provide more health data to Apple users.

Perhaps one place to look for even more potential in terms of future health capabilities lies in sensor fusion, however. Walking steadiness is the result of not just the iPhone or the Apple Watch acting independently, but of what’s possible when the company can use them in combination. It’s another place where Apple’s tight integration of software and hardware give it an edge, and it multiplies as Apple’s ecosystem of devices, and the sensors they carry, continues to grow.

I ended our interview by asking Lynch about what kind of possibilities might open up when you consider that AirPods, too, contain their own sensors and gather different data that could complement that monitored by the iPhone and Apple Watch in terms of health.

“We already do sensor fusion across some devices today, and I think there’s all kinds of potential here,” he said.

The suggestion from Lynch lines up with reporting from reliable Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who has said that Apple does plan to introduce health tracking for AirPods. More recently, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports that the second-generation AirPods Pro, due for release next year, will include "updated motion sensors with a focus on fitness tracking."

During the remainder of the interview, Lynch also discusses new health features in iOS 15, such as Health Tracking and Walking Steadiness. The executive, who has led Apple Watch development, also discussed how the Apple Watch has evolved into an "intelligent guardian" for users' health.

Kevin Lynch and Apple's Deidre Caldbeck also joined YouTuber Rene Ritchie for an interview about the Apple Watch and health.

We've highlighted several new features coming in iOS 15, like the return of the text cursor magnifier and the ability to rearrange Home Screen pages, but additional tidbits continue to surface that we think readers will find noteworthy.

Per-App Accessibility Settings

Last week, we highlighted a new Control Center option that lets you set the text size for individual apps. But per-app accessibility settings don't end there.

Individual app customizations also include adjustments to bold text, button shapes, toggle switches, transparency, contrast, color, motion, and more, allowing you to effectively remodel many app elements that you find particularly burdensome to use.

Small Calendar Month Widget

Annoyingly for many iOS 14 users, the square Calendar widget only shows the current day and any events, rather than the full calendar month, which can only be displayed in the larger 2x4 widget.

Improved Siri Suggestions

Apple continues to work hard to improve Siri in iOS 15, not only in terms of voice requests, which now get processed on your device instead of being sent to the cloud, but also when it comes to ‌Siri‌ suggestions, as evidenced by the following suggestion spotted by a Redditor.

The user had simply wished someone in their contacts a happy birthday during a Messages conversation, which resulted in the notification "‌Siri‌ Found a Birthday" and the option to update that contact card with their birth date. This is similar to the existing suggestion to add someone to your contacts if they say their name or have Share Name and Photo turned on, but adds another layer of contextual awareness.

Custom Frequency of Notification Summaries

In iOS 15, notifications have been redesigned, and Apple now also includes a Notification Summary option that uses on-device machine learning to automatically populate notifications based on priority in a new lock screen design.

You can select which apps are included in these summaries, which are delivered to your lock screen at a time of your choosing. For example, you could opt to have them delivered during your lunch break, after dinner, or last thing before bedtime. If that sounds a little too infrequent, no problem – you can have up to 12 individual notification summaries within a 24-hour period, which could be timed hourly over the course of a working day, for instance.

Along with macOS Monterey and iPad iOS 15, iOS 15 is currently in developer beta with a public beta due next month and an official release sometime in the fall.