MacRumors

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.

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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.

Much of the discussion centered on privacy, as it often does in interviews that Cook participates in. He reiterated once again how important privacy is to Apple.

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.

This always felt like a poor use of widget space, but fortunately iOS 15 adds a new 2x2 widget that displays the full calendar month with the current day highlighted. In another related change, you can now make a calendar a custom color using the color picker, in addition to the seven default color options that the Calendar app offers.

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.

Apple considered offering a black version of the ceramic Apple Watch Edition Series 5, according to newly-shared images of the prototype casing.

The images, shared on Twitter by the prototype collector and leaker known as "Mr. White," show a prototype black ceramic Apple Watch casing, alongside the white ceramic version.

The ceramic Apple Watch Edition Series 5 was never available in a black color option, only being available in a striking gloss white finish. Apple marketed the ceramic white Apple Watch Edition as a high-end option starting at $1,249, owing to its extremely unique finish.

At the time, Apple lauded the ceramic casing as strong, light, and scratch-resistant, being four times as hard as the stainless steel finish, while also featuring a "pearly, lustrous finish" that is extremely resistant to scratches and tarnishing.

The process of creating the Apple Watch Edition case begins with a high-strength zirconia powder that's combined with alumina to achieve its rich, white color. Each case is then compression molded, sintered, and polished using a diamond slurry, which results in a remarkably smooth surface and an exquisite shine. With this precise level of workmanship, every Apple Watch Edition case takes days to make.

The black ceramic finish shown in the images looks very similar to the Space Black stainless steel Apple Watch, and while it is slightly lighter in color, it is not unreasonable to speculate that the similarity of the finishes could be the reason why Apple never took the black ceramic case forward.

Apple introduced a ceramic Apple Watch Edition with the Series 2, which went on to offer a gray ceramic option with the Series 3. While there was no ceramic Apple Watch Edition for Series 4 models, Apple revived the high-end white ceramic Edition model for the Series 5. With the latest Apple Watch Series 6, there is again no ceramic version, with the Edition models featuring a cheaper titanium casing only.

A partial Apple Card outage impacting the ability of some customers to make in-store purchases using their ‌Apple Card‌ with Apple Pay is facing its second day in a row of issues, according to Apple's system status page.

On Monday, Apple said that some customers would be unable to make in-store purchases with their ‌Apple Card‌, and two days later, the issue continues to persist. These new issues follow a widespread Apple Card outage earlier this month that lasted several hours, impacting all ‌Apple Card‌ customers. The current issue facing some ‌Apple Card‌ customers is limited to in-store purchases, but online purchases seem to be working as normal.

‌Apple Card‌ launched in 2019 as a tightly integrated financial service into Apple's products and services. Apple has partnered with Goldman Sachs to be the issuing bank for the card, meaning it's currently limited to just the United States. ‌Apple Card‌ features are integrated into the Wallet app with color-coded spending summaries, no fees, and up to three percent cashback on purchases, paid out daily.

Update: Apple's system status page now says that the issue is resolved and ‌Apple Card‌ is working as normal.

In 2016, Apple considered an "audacious" plan to launch its own healthcare service, based on a subscription, with "Apple doctors" at clinics for customers, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The project, which has since stalled due to internal concerns, was to offer customers an all-encompassing healthcare service that would integrate data collected from the iPhone and Apple Watch. On the project's heels, an internal team studied how data collected from the Apple Watch could improve healthcare service.

One of its most ambitious healthcare ideas was a plan to offer primary-care medicine, conceived in 2016, according to documents and the people familiar with the plan. An Apple team spent months trying to figure out how the flood of health and wellness data collected from users of its smartwatch, first released in 2015, might be used to improve healthcare, the people said.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has said one of Apple's greatest contributions to humanity will be in health, and at one point, its biggest idea of that contribution would be its own healthcare service.

One of its most ambitious healthcare ideas was a plan to offer primary-care medicine, conceived in 2016, according to documents and the people familiar with the plan. An Apple team spent months trying to figure out how the flood of health and wellness data collected from users of its smartwatch, first released in 2015, might be used to improve healthcare, the people said.

The team decided one of the best ways to realize that vision was to provide a medical service of its own, said people familiar with the plan, linking data generated by Apple devices with virtual and in-person care provided by Apple doctors. Apple would offer primary care, but also continuous health monitoring as part of a subscription-based personalized health program, according to these people and the documents.

In 2017, a year after the idea was first conceived, Apple took over health clinics near Apple Park to set up testbeds for the new health service. Dr Sumbul Desai, of Stanford University, manages the project. The testing at those clinics continues to this day, however, they have yet to move past "a preliminary stage."

Dr Desai's project and team have faced pushback from Apple employees. Some employees, including midlevel managers, have been critical of the way Dr Desai's unit "discourages critical feedback," including allegations that the unit provided inaccurate data about the performance of the test clinics, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Employees concerned about the culture pointed to a 2019 meeting during which a midlevel manager raised questions about data, according to people familiar with the meeting and the documents. Dr. Desai responded angrily, leading some present to conclude that critical questions were unwelcome, according to the people and the documents. The manager left Apple weeks later, and the episode contributed to her departure, documents show.

One initiative driven by Dr. Desai's team was an app being tested among Apple employees called HealthHabit. According to the report, it was meant to "connect people with clinicians via chat and encourages them to set health challenges." The app struggled with low downloads and enrollment, with half of the users who had downloaded the app in May not enrolling. The app's struggle has caused concerns over the accuracy of the data being collected.

Data supporting the app's hypertension program has caused new concerns among employees about the integrity of internal data and analysis, some of the people said.

During a presentation for all Apple health employees in March, Mr. Williams praised the clinics' results in treating hypertension and pointed to them as evidence supporting the HealthHabit app's potential, according to people who saw the presentation. He suggested that the company may have wider ambitions for the app if it is successful, they said.

At the same meeting, Apple's COO, Jeff Williams, also reportedly presented data that showed that "91% of patients in Apple's clinics with more severe stage-two hypertension improved to healthier stages or normal." An Apple spokesperson responded, saying that the statistic cited by Williams was for an internal program and not a product.

Apple's idea of launching its own healthcare service has stalled internally, and the company is likely keen on first building up its health infrastructure through more robust and meaningful health features for the Apple Watch, ‌iPhone‌, and various health studies. For example, Apple is reportedly considering and studying ways to include a blood-sugar sensor and temperature sensor in future iterations of the Apple Watch.

Twitter is considering offering users the ability to "unmention" themselves in other people's tweets as part of a wider privacy drive for the social media platform.

The early concept has been shared by Twitter designed Dominic Camozzi, who says the idea behind it is to help users control unwanted attention.

An example image shows a notification when the user has been mentioned in a tweet, with an option to "Unmention yourself" (i.e. remove your Twitter handle from it) without the author of the tweet being notified of the change.

In another related option currently being weighed up, Twitter could send you a notification when someone you don't follow mentions you, allowing you to review the tweet, unmention yourself from it, and block that user from mentioning you again.

Additionally, Camozzi is toying with the idea of giving users the ability to "control mass mentions" by preventing anyone on the platform from mentioning them for one day, three days, or seven days, thereby providing respite for anyone inundated with activity related to their account.

As with all early concepts, these changes may or may not be implemented by Twitter, and the company is actively looking for feedback from users regarding the ideas.

(Via Engadget.)

With the popularity of Disney+ showing no signs of abating, Disney is satisfied with its paid subscriber model and has no plans to introduce a cheaper ad-supported tier anytime soon.

That was the take-home message from Disney CEO Bob Chapek when asked about the possibility of a cheaper plan offering for its video streaming service, according to The Verge. Speaking at the Credit Suisse 23rd Annual Communications Conference on Tuesday, Chapek said:

"We're always re-evaluating how we go to market across the world, but we've got no such plans now to do that. We're happy with the models that we've got right now. We won't limit ourselves and say no to anything. But right now, we have no such plans for that."

Discounted plans for ad-supported streaming have become increasingly popular with other services such as Hulu (which is owned by Disney) and HBO Max, which introduced an ads tier in May which cut its rate by $5. However, when it looks at the upward curve of its subscriber figures graph, Disney clearly sees no need for an alternative to its paid-for subscription.

Indeed, Disney in March raised the price of its subscription streaming service by a dollar, from $6.99 to $7.99, with the yearly subscription also increasing. Despite the price hike, Disney+ continues to increase its subscriber base. In May the company said it had reached over 103 million global paid subscribers and that it expected to more than double that number by 2024, potentially surpassing Netflix.

Disney+ launched at the same time as Apple TV+, but it has grown much more rapidly given the available back catalog of Disney, Marvel, and Star Wars content, along with new TV shows like "The Mandalorian," "WandaVision," and "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier."

Apple has never provided details on ‌‌Apple TV‌+‌ subscribers so there's no direct comparison to be made, but Apple's subscriber numbers are nowhere near Disney's because Apple still has many people who are on free trials that have been continually extended.

That's set to change soon, however. From July 1, Apple is reducing its one year free trial of ‌Apple TV‌+ with eligible Apple device purchases to just three months, which will truly test the staying power of its audience.

Apple is working hard to bolster its selection of original movies and TV shows, but it will be several years yet before ‌‌Apple TV‌+‌ has a catalog that can compete with Disney+. Going forward, Disney has set a target of 100+ new titles per year across Disney Animation, Disney Live Action, Marvel, Star Wars, and National Geographic.

Sonos is today participating in an antitrust hearing on the smart home, where Sonos legal chief Eddie Lazarus had some commentary to share on the smart home market and the dominance of companies like Amazon, Google, and Apple.

Headed up by Amy Klobuchar, the Subcommittee on Competition Policy, Antitrust, and Consumer Rights is today hosting a hearing on "Protecting Competition and Innovation in Home Technologies." Most of Sonos' complaints relayed by Lazarus are focused on Amazon and Google, but he did have a few comments about Apple.

In particular, Sonos has taken issue with the way that Apple is implementing Siri support for third-party companies. Apple at WWDC announced that third-party companies are able to integrate ‌Siri‌ voice control into their HomeKit devices, but "Hey ‌Siri‌" commands are relayed through a HomePod or HomePod mini, making an Apple device a requirement.

Take Apple's announcement that it will now license Siri to third parties in the smart home. As reported in The Verge, Apple will only license Siri to companies that utilize the HomePod as a central hub to connect with Siri Thus, Apple is conditioning interoperability with Siri on companies placing a competitive Apple product alongside their own.

Lazarus also said that while Google, Apple, and other companies are working on interoperability through initiatives like Matter, he's skeptical that this will lead to consumer choice or foster genuine interoperability between different smart home platforms. He also warns that because Apple and Google control the standard, they have control over the "pace of innovation."

No doubt the dominant companies will suggest that new legislation is unnecessary in light of the initiatives they have underway -- like the "Matter" alliance -- that are working towards a degree of smart home standardization to facilitate interoperability. It may well be that these efforts will yield some positive results for the makers of back-end devices, such as light bulbs, garage door openers, and the like by enabling them to interoperate with any of the three major ecosystems (Alexa, Assistant, Siri) using a uniform code base. But count me a skeptic that these types of initiatives will foster consumer choice at the front-end -- where consumers control their smart home devices -- or do much, if anything, to foster genuine interoperability across the siloed ecosystems of gatekeepers. From the user's perspective, the choices among a very few walled gardens will likely remain the same. One could imagine, furthermore, a Trojan Horse aspect to all this. Those who control the standard and its evolution effectively control the nature and pace of innovation, including the innovations dreamed up by their competitors. The standard Matter is working on, as I understand it, is basically a creature of Google and Apple code. That is hardly a formula for fair competition or more creative invention. It's a formula for further entrenching the dominance of the very few.

Because Amazon and Google dominate the smart speaker market, most of what Lazarus had to say focused on those two companies. He complained that as a condition of allowing Google Assistant on Sonos speakers, Sonos had to agree to allow just one voice assistant at a time, even though it supports multiple.

But Google demanded as a condition of having Google Assistant in our products that we never allow concurrency with another general voice assistant. As a result, today Sonos customers must open an application and manually choose which single voice assistant will be configured on their device. This forced choice degrades the consumer experience, but it is arguably good for Google, which is betting that most users will choose Google Assistant as the default voice assistant and then stick to the Google ecosystem.

He said that Google and Amazon have a history of taking on competitors by producing copycat products sold at subsidized prices, which is something that Sonos and other smart speaker companies aren't able to compete with.

Amazon and Google have now come to control roughly 85% of the U.S. smart speaker market. This is terrible for innovative dynamics because it hamstrings those companies that have better products that cannot be sold at a loss and consumers lose. In addition to protecting the future profits of their dominant products and services, cross-subsidization ultimately will result in the same anticompetitive effects as "traditional" below-cost predatory pricing; prices are sure to go up once these dominant companies have driven the other companies out of the market and reduced competition.

Google and Amazon have also allegedly copied Sonos advertising initiatives to confuse consumers.

If things don't change, Lazarus warns that in the future, every smart home will be controlled by a few dominant companies.

We see two possible futures for the smart home. In the first scenario -- resulting from the current trajectory we're on -- every smart home will be controlled by one of a few dominant companies, Google, Amazon, or perhaps Apple or Facebook will squeeze in too. These behemoths will exert overwhelming control over the direction of innovation and what new ideas make it to market, ultimately replicating a market structure that history tells us inhibits innovation and competition. Consumer choice will also wither. Consumers will find themselves channeled into the siloed ecosystems of a Google or an Amazon in a self-reinforcing dynamic of network fueled dominance.

With revamped antitrust law and enforcement level, the U.S. government could "broaden the playing field," according to Lazarus, allowing Sonos and other companies to "innovate and bring novel experiences to customers," with multiple companies competing based on product and services merit.

The Mayo Clinic today debuted support for the Apple Health records feature available on the iPhone, allowing Mayo Clinic patients to add their medical records to the Health app.

Health Records is a feature that's designed to allow patients to view and aggregate all of their health data in one easy-to-access spot on the ‌iPhone‌. More than 700 institutions and 12,000 care locations now offer support for Health Records in the United States, Canada, and the UK.

Mayo Clinic patients who have a Patient Services Account can access that data through the Health app using their Patient Services username and password. The feature is opt-in and available as an option for Mayo Clinic patients with an ‌iPhone‌.

"There are more ways than ever for patients to be actively engaged in their health care, and smartphone apps can be helpful for accessing records and tracking daily fitness and diet," says Steve Ommen, M.D., medical director of Experience Products for Mayo Clinic's Center for Digital Health. "We want patients who are interested in these apps to be able to use them securely and enhance their health care at Mayo Clinic."

Health Records are downloaded onto the ‌iPhone‌ using an encrypted connection, with the data stored on the user's device and encrypted with a passcode to ensure everything is kept private. Health Records data is not available to Apple.