MacRumors

Due to the impacts on Samsung's production of OLED displays as a result of a global chip shortage, iPhone production could be facing disruptions, according to Nikkei Asia.

Last month, Samsung was forced to shut down its chip fabrication plant in Texas due to large winter storms. The plant is responsible for 5% of the global supply of chips for smartphones and personal computers, and its closure has caused a widespread global shortage. The plant makes chips for Samsung OLED displays, which Apple uses for the ‌iPhone‌.

The Samsung Texas plant manufactures telecommunications chips for the U.S. semiconductor giant Qualcomm. The facility also produces chips for organic light-emitting diode panels and for image sensors.

The supply crunch hitting Qualcomm will affect a wide range of smartphone makers that rely on the company for key components. Apple, which procures OLED panels from Samsung, could also face disruptions in iPhone production.

The report doesn't elaborate on the specifics, including which ‌iPhone‌ models would be impacted or the length of the aforementioned disruptions. Last year, due to the global health crisis, Apple suppliers were forced to close factories in China and elsewhere around the world. The closures led to the delayed launch of the ‌iPhone‌ 12 in October, which typically happens in September.

Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says, however, that the 2021 ‌iPhone‌ should be expected in September, specifically saying that Apple suppliers are poised to begin mass production within Apple's usual summer timeframe. Reports last year indicated mass production for the ‌iPhone‌ 12 series did not begin until September.

Apple Music appears to have removed the personalized artwork for ‌Apple Music‌'s personal radio stations feature, replacing users' artwork with a uniform graphic.

Personalized algorithmic radio stations is a popular ‌Apple Music‌ feature that auto-generates a custom radio station for a user based on their listening habits and preferences.

‌Apple Music‌ previously generated a custom personal radio station graphic based on a user's ‌Apple Music‌ profile picture, but Apple now appears to have removed this feature, replacing all personal radio station artwork with an identical red graphic. The change may be in line with a number of amendments to ‌Apple Music‌'s artwork that have taken place over the last year, such as animated album covers.

The change, first spotted by users on Reddit, appears to have taken place very recently. Some users seem to be unhappy about the change, commenting that the "profile picture variant made it feel more personal than this." Another downside seems to be that when listening to another user's personal radio station now, the only way to tell who the station is from is by a small profile picture in the bottom right-hand corner, rather than from the artwork itself.

Earlier this month, Apple confirmed that the iMac Pro is being discontinued. The standard configuration of the computer has remained available "while supplies last," but even this configuration is out of stock again in multiple countries.

Apple's online store lists the iMac Pro as "Currently Unavailable" in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Australia, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and select other countries. The standard iMac Pro remains available across much of the rest of Europe and Asia, but with lengthy shipping estimates. It's likely that iMac Pro availability will continue to fluctuate, but the end of the line is clearly in sight for the computer.

Released in December 2017, the iMac Pro received no substantial hardware refreshes over its lifetime and continues to be sold for $4,999.

Apple said the 27-inch iMac introduced in August 2020 has become the preferred choice for the vast majority of pro iMac users. The latest 27-inch iMac configured with a 10-core Core i9 processor is both faster and less expensive than the standard iMac Pro with a 10-core Xeon W processor. Apple said customers who need even more performance and expandability can choose the Mac Pro, released in December 2019.

For customers who are still interested in the iMac Pro, Apple recently added a variety of configurations to its refurbished store.

Apple is rumored to be working on a redesigned iMac with Apple silicon for release later this year, so many customers may want to exercise patience. The new iMac's design is said to be inspired by Apple's high-end Pro Display XDR, with a flat back, slimmer bezels around the display, and no metal "chin" below the display.

Facebook is developing a version of Instagram that's specifically aimed at children under 13, according to an internal company post (via BuzzFeed News).

"I'm excited to announce that going forward, we have identified youth work as a priority for Instagram and have added it to our H1 priority list," Vishal Shah, Instagram's vice president of product, wrote on an employee message board on Thursday. "We will be building a new youth pillar within the Community Product Group to focus on two things: (a) accelerating our integrity and privacy work to ensure the safest possible experience for teens and (b) building a version of Instagram that allows people under the age of 13 to safely use Instagram for the first time."

Instagram's policy prohibits kids under 13 from using the platform. Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri later confirmed in a tweet that a version of the popular photo sharing app is "something we're exploring."

"Kids are increasingly asking their parents if they can join apps that help them keep up with their friends," wrote Mosseri. "A version of Instagram where parents have control, like we did [with] Messenger Kids, is something we're exploring. We'll share more down the road."

The news follows a blog post from Instagram earlier this week in which the Facebook-owned company described changes coming to the platform with the aim of "protecting young people."

In the post, Instagram admitted that some young users "can lie about their date of birth," when signing up to the platform, and said it now asks some new users for a form of age verification, but the post didn't mention its work on a distinct platform specifically for children.

In 2017, Facebook launched Messenger Kids, which is aimed at children between the ages of 6 and 12. Following the launch, several children's health advocates called on Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to discontinue the product, citing research that "excessive use of digital devices and social media is harmful to children and teens, making it very likely this new app will undermine children's healthy development."

Facebook said it had consulted multiple experts during the app's development, although a Wired report later revealed that the company had financial relationships with many of the people and organizations that advised on the product.

In 2019, The Verge reported on a bug in Messenger Kids that allowed children to join groups with strangers. Facebook soon acted to resolve the issue, claiming it had only affected a "small number of group chats."

Apple CEO Tim Cook has penned an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal, calling for more action to be taken against systemic racism and the need to speak up in light of the disproportionate impact that the pandemic has had on communities.

Cook's piece highlights how the pandemic has impacted various communities differently and draws on his personal experience of growing up during the civil rights movement.

In simple theory, a disease should affect all of us equally. But in plain fact, the opposite is true. We have all seen, in real time, how structural discrimination and obstacles to opportunity do their work in a crisis. In our communities, every burden—from rates of infection and care outcomes, to economic adversity, to the challenges of virtual learning when schools are closed—falls heaviest on those for whom true equity has always been farthest from reach. As someone who grew up during the civil-rights movement, it has been frustrating to see how much work is still to be done but heartening to see the degree to which people of good will have set aside comfort with the status quo to march and to demand something better.

As the end of the pandemic nears, Cook says it is a collective responsibility to ensure that moving forward, all individuals, communities, companies, and governments do everything they can to ensure a hopeful and "durable" future for all.

When the pandemic recedes, we can't simply assume that healing follows. It falls on all of us—individuals and communities, companies and governments—to ensure that what's ahead is not just the end of a disease but a durable and hopeful future for all who sacrificed and endured during this unprecedented time.

The global health crisis has forced millions of students to learn remotely from home, and Cook says Apple is committed to building "powerful learning tools and [sharing] them freely with tens of thousands of teachers, educators, and parents." Cook goes on to describe Apple's multiple investments for Black and underrepresented communities.

And it's led us to undertake major new investments through our Racial Equity and Justice Initiative. These projects include the Propel Center in Atlanta, which we're helping to build in partnership with the country's historically Black colleges and universities, to support the next generation of leaders of color in fields ranging from machine learning to app development, entrepreneurship to design; and our first Apple Developer Academy in the U.S., in downtown Detroit, home to more than 50,000 Black-owned businesses and no shortage of great ideas for the app economy.

Cook ends with a hopeful message, saying that if anything, he hopes this pandemic has taught us that there is a need to speak up and that a long history of injustice should not be used as an excuse to do nothing.

The old saying goes that the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, but the second best time is today. If this pandemic has taught us anything, I hope it’s that none of us can use injustice’s long history as an excuse not to act. Our lives on this planet are precious and fleeting, and fate has a way of reminding us that society is only as strong as those who, for too long, have gone overlooked and undervalued.

Cook's full op-ed can be read with a subscription to The Wall Street Journal.

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's upcoming mixed reality headset will be equipped with an advanced eye tracking system, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said this evening in a note to investors that was seen by MacRumors.

The eye tracking system will feature a transmitter and receiver that can detect and analyze eye movement information, providing users with images and information based on algorithms.

Apple's eye tracking system includes a transmitter and a receiver. The transmitting end provides one or several different wavelengths of invisible light, and the receiving end detects the change of the invisible light reflected by the eyeball, and judges the eyeball movement based on the change.

Kuo says that most head-mounted devices are operated by handheld controllers that can't provide a smooth user experience. He believes that there are several advantages to an eye tracking system like the one Apple will use, including an intuitive visual experience that interacts seamlessly with the external environment, more intuitive operation that can be controlled with eye movements, and reduced computational burden in the form of a reduced resolution where the user is not looking.

There is no word yet on whether Apple's headset will be able to support iris recognition, but Kuo says that based on hardware specifications, an iris recognition feature should be possible. If this can be implemented, Kuo expects users will be able to use it for a "more intuitive Apple Pay method" when using headsets.

This is not the first time we've heard rumors of an eye tracking system. The Information previously said that the headset will feature advanced eye tracking capabilities along with more than a dozen cameras for tracking hand movements.

Kuo earlier this month said that Apple would release its mixed reality headset in "mid-2022," with the headset to then be followed by augmented reality glasses in 2025.

Prior rumors have indicated that the headset will offer both VR/AR capabilities, much like other mixed reality headsets on the market. The headset will include Sony's Micro-OLED displays to provide a "see-through AR experience" as well as a VR experience.

Bloomberg has said that the headset will be a "mostly virtual reality device" offering a 3D environment for gaming, watching videos, and communicating. AR functionality will be limited, and Apple plans to include powerful processors to handle the gaming features.

The headset is expected to be "portable" and lighter than other head-worn VR devices on the market, but it will carry a premium price and could cost somewhere around $1,000 in the United States.

Despite campaigning heavily against Apple's upcoming anti-tracking rules, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg today said that Facebook will "be in a good position" when Apple begins enforcing App Tracking Transparency and could even benefit from the changes.

"It's possible that we may even be in a stronger position if Apple's changes encourage more businesses to conduct more commerce on our platforms by making it harder for them to use their data in order to find the customers that would want to use their products outside of our platforms," Zuckerberg said in a Clubhouse meeting this afternoon.

As CNBC points out, this is the most positive statement that Facebook has made yet about Apple's its App Tracking Transparency rules. It's possible that Facebook is changing its narrative as it has become clear that Apple has no plans to delay the implementation of App Tracking Transparency, and Facebook's attempts to stop it gave gained little steam.

With the launch of iOS 14.5, apps like Facebook will have to get express user permission before accessing an iPhone's advertising identifier or IDFA, which is used to track usage across apps and websites for ad targeting purposes.

Facebook has railed against Apple's planned privacy updates, taking out full page newspaper ads that aimed to position Apple as the enemy of small businesses. Facebook has claimed that businesses that use Facebook's advertising tools will suffer because they won't be able to target ads as effectively as they can now, but there are questions about how much data small businesses need to get their ads in front of the right customers.

App Tracking Transparency will impact Facebook's view-through conversion tracking, which lets ad companies determine how many people saw an ad and didn't click it, but later made a purchase related to the ad. The IDFA allows Facebook to match up those who buy an item with those who saw an ad, but without the IDFA, advertisers will not be able to accurately measure the effectiveness of Facebook and Instagram ads.

According to CNBC, Facebook has been preparing for App Tracking Transparency with the introduction of Facebook Shops and Instagram Shops, where brands can list and sell items directly on the social networks. Zuckerberg said that more than 250 million people are actively using the shops feature.

There are signs that Apple's retail store operations are beginning to return to normal as some locations have once again started allowing U.S. customers to try on AirPods.

According to Bloomberg, Apple stores that are open for customer walk-ins are letting customers test out AirPods, something that has been restricted since Apple Stores first began closing last spring.

Apple still has stores that are operating on a pickup-only basis as "Express" locations, and in these areas, there is no option to try on AirPods, but in all other stores, customers can test the AirPods, AirPods Pro, and AirPods Max.

All of Apple's retail locations in the United States were reopen as of March 1, with that date marking the first time all stores were operational since stores started closing in March 2020.

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 is cracking down on Chinese tech companies that are working on ways to get around upcoming App Tracking Transparency rules, reports Financial Times.

Starting in iOS 14.5, Apple plans to begin requiring app developers to obtain express user permission before accessing an iPhone's advertising identifier or IDFA, and earlier this week, news suggested that the state-backed China Advertising Association was testing a tool to skirt Apple's rules.

Apple on Thursday sent warnings to at least two Chinese app developers using methods to track app usage without user permission. "We found that your app collects user and device information to create a unique identifier for the user's device," reads Apple's email, which says that the developer must update the app to comply with App Store rules within 14 days or risk its removal from the ‌App Store‌.

According to Financial Times, the app developer in question was using a tool called CAID, which was developed by the aforementioned China Advertising Association. The China Advertising Association this week said that CAID it is not "in opposition" to Apple's privacy policy, but that may not be accurate given the warnings that Apple sent out today.

A Chinese marketing industry veteran told Financial Times that "big and small firms" in China are all considering CAID, but Apple's recent actions "will put a stop to these tests." Some of the biggest tech companies in China, such as Baidu, ByteDance, and Tencent, are all testing or implementing CAID to identify users.

ByteDance, for example, has recommended that developers use its SDK to issue CAID1 and CAID2 identifiers. One is based on a user's IP address and the other is based on the phone's IMEI, which is a unique identification number. The CAID1 and CAID2 identifiers violate Apple's rules because they do not ask for user permission before collecting this data. ByteDance has also recommended that developers use "fingerprinting and probabilistic matching" to identify users, which is also against the ‌App Store‌ Guidelines for App Tracking Transparency.

The China Advertising Association said that it is developing additional services that will collect and store personal data from users to create a "fingerprint" for each person. Any app that uses the CAID system will collect user data and send it to a central server to create a CAID identifier that will be used for cross-app user identification purposes. The CAA claims that users can opt out of CAID, but by Apple's definitions, it is not allowed in the first place.

Tech experts believe that Chinese apps plan to tweak their apps in "numerous ways" to get past Apple's ‌App Store‌ review team, with one likening it to a "cat-and-mouse" game. Apple has said multiple times that apps that disregard user preference when it comes to ad tracking will be rejected, which could lead to difficulties with Chinese companies and the Chinese government going forward.

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.

Astropad today announced the launch of "Project Blue," a new public beta initiative that introduces cross-platform support for connecting an iPad to a PC. With the beta, ‌iPad‌ artists can use an ‌iPad‌ as a wireless drawing tablet for a PC by mirroring their Windows desktop to their iPads.

Prior to today, the Astropad software could turn an ‌iPad‌ into a drawing device able to be used with a Mac, but the functionality is now available for ‌iPad‌ owners who want to use a PC instead of a Mac.

Project Blue is optimized for drawing with the Apple Pencil, and the ‌iPad‌'s touch gestures can be customized to access tools and shortcuts in Windows apps. An ‌iPad‌ can be paired with a Windows PC over WiFi or using a USB connection.

Project Blue requires a PC laptop or desktop running Windows 10 64-bit build 1809 or later and an ‌iPad‌ running iOS 9.1 or later.

For the time being, Project Blue is available for free, and later this year, it will be folded into the full suite of Astropad products. Those who want to test out Project Blue can sign up on Astropad's website.

Apple today provided updated figures on the diversity of its workforce over the last two years, indicating that its promise to be more inclusive has resulted in a steady increase in representation amongst its employees.

The last time Apple provided figures on its workforce was in 2018, so this is the first time since than that the company has provided a breakdown of the different races, ethnicities, and genders within its workforce. Apple breaks down diversity into separate sectors of the company, including Leadership, Retail, and Retail Leadership.

Overall, Apple says that since 2018, it has increased the share of Asian employees by four percentage points, while other races and ethnicities also saw increased representation in multiple categories. Over the last two years, Apple says that 42% of new retail hires have been women, and women have filled 49% of retail leadership positions since January of last year.

Apple's gender split is also continuing to narrow, with women representing 34% of all employees, up from 33% in 2018 and 30% in 2014. The increase is even more extensive in employees under 30 years old, where the share of women has risen from 31% to 40% since 2014.

Apple says that members of underrepresented communities occupy more than 60% of current Apple Store jobs and 50% of retail leadership positions. Alongside the updated numbers, Apple today redesigned its Inclusion and Diversity webpage, featuring new testimonials from employees, and further highlights its commitment to be equitable and diverse.

As part of its barrage of attacks against M1 Macs, Intel this week launched a "PC vs. Mac" website that's biased heavily in favor of PC machines that are equipped with Intel chips and that makes questionable claims about Apple's ‌M1‌ Mac lineup.

Intel's website says that Apple's ‌M1‌ Mac benchmarks don't "translate to real-world usage" and that when compared to PCs with 11th-Generation Intel chips, ‌M1‌ MacBook features "just don't stack up."

Intel positions PCs as more "personalized" to fit a user's "specific hardware and software needs," while the ‌M1‌ Macs offer "limited" device support, games, and creation applications. "The bottom line is a PC offers users a choice, something that users don't get with a Mac," reads the website.

PCs offer a "complete touch screen" instead of the "constrained Mac Touch Bar," along with "2 for 1 Form Factor options" while Apple makes customers pay for "multiple devices and gear." The website highlights specific software like AI-based content creation tools from Topaz Labs that are allegedly faster on 11th-generation Intel Core chips, and faster Chrome performance.

A PC is built for the user. They can run whatever software and games users want to run and accommodate all plug-ins you love. The possibilities are endless with a PC versus Apple's rigidly controlled walled garden.

Intel this week launched a major anti-Apple silicon ad campaign targeting the ‌M1‌ Macs. A series of ads released on YouTube star former "I'm a Mac" actor Justin Long extolling the benefits of Intel-based PC machines.

Developers need to look out for "XcodeSpy," a malicious Xcode project that installs a custom variant of the "EggShell" backdoor on a macOS computer, according to new research shared today by SentinelOne (via Ars Technica).

Xcode is software designed for developers who want to write apps for the iOS and macOS platforms, and the malicious project that's circulating mirrors TabBarInteraction, a legitimate open source project.

Developers who download the XcodeSpy project think they're getting TabBarInteraction, but the malware includes a hidden "run Script" executable that downloads and installs the EggShell open source back door that's able to spy on users through the microphone, camera, and keyboard as well as upload and download files.

Two variants of the custom EggShell attack were found to be uploaded in Japan, first in August and then in October, so this is an attack that's been out in the wild for some time.

We have thus far been unable to discover other samples of trojanized Xcode projects and cannot gauge the extent of this activity. However, the timeline from known samples and other indicators mentioned below suggest that other XcodeSpy projects may exist. By sharing details of this campaign, we hope to raise awareness of this attack vector and highlight the fact that developers are high-value targets for attackers.

SentinelOne says that all Apple Developers that use Xcode should exercise caution when using shared Xcode projects.

We have a special Thursday giveaway this week, coming to you from Boss Team Games and Gamaga, who want to celebrate the launch of strategic turn-based fighting game Cobra Kai: Card Fighter, which can be downloaded today from the App Store.

Boss Team Games and Gamaga are offering an iPhone 12 Pro to one lucky MacRumors reader, which will come with in-game currency to spend in Cobra Kai: Card Fighter. Two other winners will also get in-game cash to enhance the gameplay experience.

Cobra Kai: Card Fighter, as the name suggests, is a fighting game. It retells the first two seasons of the popular Cobra Kai Netflix show, with players able to choose between rebuilding and reopening the Cobra Kai dojo with Johnny Lawrence or sticking with the traditional Miyagi-do Karate with Daniel LaRusso.

In the game, players will build their dojos, recruit students from the TV series, and train them up to become All Valley Champions before challenging other senseis from around the world. There's a single-player story mode and a PvP multiplayer tournament mode.

Gameplay is card based, with cards based on karate punches, throws, and kicks, plus special attacks and combos for every fighter. Choosing a winning series of cards requires strategy, but with the fight-based theme, the game is action packed. In between challenges, players can train their fighters, level up their belt ranking, build decks, and customize characters.

Cobra Kai: Card Fighter is available starting today, and one lucky winner can enter our giveaway to win an ‌iPhone‌ 12 Pro (in the color of your choice), plus $15,000 in-game cash to make purchases like Training Room upgrades, Student Booster Packs, and Tokens.

A second place winner will receive $10,000 in-game cash for the Cobra Kai: Card Fighter game, and a third place winner will receive $6,000 in-game cash. To enter to win our giveaway, use the Gleam.io widget below and enter an email address. Email addresses will be used solely for contact purposes to reach the winners and send the prizes. You can earn additional entries by subscribing to our weekly newsletter, subscribing to our YouTube channel, following us on Twitter, following us on Instagram, or visiting the MacRumors Facebook page.

Due to the complexities of international laws regarding giveaways, only U.S. residents who are 18 years or older are eligible to enter. To offer feedback or get more information on the giveaway restrictions, please refer to our Site Feedback section, as that is where discussion of the rules will be redirected.

The contest will run from today (March 18) at 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time through 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time on March 25. The winner will be chosen randomly on March 25 and will be contacted by email. The winner will have 48 hours to respond and provide a shipping address before a new winner is chosen.

Twitter today announced that it is testing a new iOS feature that's designed to allow Twitter users to view YouTube videos right in their timeline without having to swap over to the YouTube app.

Starting today, Twitter for iOS users who see a YouTube video in their timeline can watch the video without leaving the Twitter app. Prior to now, watching a YouTube video on Twitter required tapping on a link and opening up the YouTube app on iOS devices.

Twitter will also soon launch a new "Spaces" chat room feature that's similar to social networking app Clubhouse. With Spaces, Twitter offers users public chat rooms that users can create or join. The host who created the Space has speaking privileges to talk to those who join, and can designate up to nine other speakers. Twitter plans to launch Spaces for everyone in April.

Apple CEO Tim Cook is eager for employees to return to the office following the pandemic and in an interview with People, he said he anticipates Apple implementing a "hybrid environment" to return to in-person work.

Cook said that it's important for people to "physically be in touch" because you can't plan collaboration and innovation.

"Innovation isn't always a planned activity," Cook adds. "It's bumping into each other over the course of the day and advancing an idea that you just had. And you really need to be together to do that."

Apple has an open floor plan model that's designed to encourage employees to interact with one another, and Cook says that Apple is still "figuring out" how to manage that as people return to work. The time away from the office has, however, taught Apple that some things are "perfectly great" to do virtually.

"We have realized and learned that there are some things that are perfectly great to do virtually across Zoom or WebEx, whatever, or FaceTime, whatever you might have. So I think it'll be, I'll call it a hybrid environment [for] a little bit."

Cook also took the opportunity to point out the work that Apple employees did while working remotely. Cook said that Apple had an "enormous, prolific period" with the introduction of the 5G iPhone 12 lineup and the M1 Macs. "These are major, major accomplishments," he said.

"We're very much an in-person team because we believe that's best for collaboration," Cook told People. "But we knew that was no longer possible, or not possible for this period of time. And so we had to reinvent ourselves."

Cook said that there was no firm return to work date, but he "can't wait" for Apple employees to be back at work.

In addition to commenting on Apple's future plans for employees returning to work, Cook answered a series of quick questions about his daily routine. Cook said that he goes to bed right around 9:30 p.m., and wakes up at 4:00 a.m. He opens up Apple News first thing in the morning, and coffee and his iPhone are two things he can't live without.

Cook said that he recently "binged" Apple TV+ series "Ted Lasso," and that strength training is his favorite workout. Cook also said that he last FaceTimed his nephew, his favorite emoji is the peace sign emoji (✌️) and that he hopes to take a trip to Glacier National Park in the future.