The annual Swift Student Challenge is a coding challenge that tasks students with creating an interactive scene in the Swift Playgrounds app. Apple said winners would receive exclusive WWDC 2021 outerwear, which appears to consist of a beanie and a pullover sweater.
Winners also received a set of WWDC 2021 pins, including the Finder icon on Mac, a "Make it beta" message bubble, and others, plus a one-year Apple Developer Program membership if they have reached the age of majority in their country.
WWDC 2021 begins next Monday, June 7 with a Keynote at 10 a.m. Pacific Time. Apple is expected to unveil major new software updates, including iOS 15, iPadOS 15, macOS 12, watchOS 8, and tvOS 15. Read our WWDC 2021 roundup for more details.
The new Nomad case is compatible with Apple MagSafe and is made of Horween leather, available in Rustic Brown and Black. A Moment M-Series Lens is not included, but the case does come with the Moment drop-in lens mount, standard camera ring, and Moment lens interface.
The full list of Moment lenses that are compatible with the new case are the Wide 18mm lens, Tele 58mm lens, Anamorphic lens, 14mm Fisheye lens, and Macro lens. There are also two lanyard attachment points on the case, but it does not come with a lanyard.
Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Nomad. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.
As of today, Apple has failed to add any new games to Apple Arcade for two months. Prior to April 2, the company added new games to Apple Arcade intermittently on Fridays, similar to how Apple TV+ content is released, but since the launch of new categories of games two months ago, the service has seemingly taken a backseat.
On April 2, Apple announced that 30 new games would immediately arrive on the service, bringing the total number of games to over 180. Some of these games came under the new categories of "Timeless Classics" and "App Store Greats," which added existing games to the service. The additions indicated a change in strategy for Apple Arcade, which was until then reliant on exclusive "Arcade Originals" only.
Despite the significant news for Apple's mobile gaming subscription service, more than eight weeks have now passed with no new games being added to the platform. Even so, Apple is promoting a number of new games as "coming soon," including the narrative-focused card game "Solitaire Stories," fast-paced puzzler "Frenzic Overtime," and turn-by-turn RPG "Legends of Kingdom Rush."
Starting on Friday, June 4, Apple Arcade is expected to resume weekly additions to the service after this hiatus period.
Apple Arcade launched in September of 2019 as an ad-free mobile game subscription service with no in-app purchases. Apple Arcade is available across the iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Apple TV, and Mac for $4.99 per month, or as part of the Apple One bundle.
Apple has lost "several" top managers from its internal Apple Car project, codenamed "Project Titan," causing a potential setback to the launch of the self-driving car, according to a new report from Bloomberg.
Apple Inc. has lost multiple top managers of its self-driving car team in recent months, a sign of attrition at the division involved in what could become an important future product.
In recent days, Dave Scott, who led teams working on robotics related to the car, left to become the chief executive officer at Hyperfine, a health care company developing next-generation MRI systems. Before Scott’s departure, Jaime Waydo, who led autonomous car safety and regulation teams, departed to become the chief technology officer at Cavnue, a startup focused on the safety of autonomous cars on public roads.
In February, Benjamin Lyon, who helped create Apple’s original car team several years ago and was key in the future project’s development, left to become the chief engineer at Astra, a company developing technology for sending satellites to space.
Over the last few months, a flurry of reports have surfaced detailing potential specifics on an Apple Car. Bloomberg has previously reported that the self-driving vehicle is still in early development and is still at least five years away, while reliable Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo believes that the vehicle is unlikely to launch until 2025 at the earliest.
Despite the recent departure of some top-level managers from the project, Apple has added notable executives to "Project Titan." In February, the Cupertino tech giant hired a former Porsche executive with experience in chassis design. You can learn more about the Apple Car and everything we know about it using our guide.
An Apple job listing has mentioned "homeOS," an otherwise never-before heard of Apple operating system, ahead of WWDC next week.
Spotted by developer Javier Lacort, the Apple job listing for a Senior iOS Engineer in Apple Music explicitly mentions "homeOS" on two occasions, alongside Apple's other operating systems including iOS, watchOS, and tvOS.
You'll get to work with system engineers across Apple, learning the inner-workings of iOS, watchOS, tvOS and homeOS, and optimizing your code for performance in ways only Apple can. Come join our team and make a real difference for music lovers worldwide.
The Apple Music Frameworks team owns the technology stack that enables the system-integrated Apple Music experience on all of our mobile platforms: iOS, watchOS, and homeOS.
Interestingly, the job listing mentions homeOS as a "mobile platform," seemingly highlighting it as more akin to iOS and watchOS than systems like macOS and tvOS, but it is not clear why that would be the case.
The operating system could simply be a rebranding of Apple's current smart home software, in much the same way iOS for iPad was rebranded iPadOS and OS X was changed to macOS, or potentially an entirely new OS.
Earlier this year, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman commented that Apple still lacks a "unifying strategy" for the smart home market. It is possible that homeOS could be software designed to spearhead a more centralized smart home strategy, perhaps unifying the HomePod's audioOS and the Apple TV's tvOS. Apple is rumored to be developing a combined Apple TV and HomePod device and a HomePod with a screen. For now, what homeOS will precisely entail remains purely speculative.
Apple's homeOS could feasibly debut as soon as next week at WWDC, where the company is expected to unveil major updates to its various operating systems.
Update: Apple has now removed "homeOS" from the job listing and replaced it with HomePod and tvOS. "You’ll get to work with system engineers across Apple, learning the inner workings of iOS, watchOS, tvOS and HomePod, and optimizing your code for performance in ways only Apple can," reads the replacement text.
In November of 2020, Phoenix city officials approved financial incentives and government support for the new plant. The city agreed to provide $200 million in support to build infrastructure including roads and sewers, according to a notice from the city's council.
TSMC estimates that its total spending on the project, including capital expenditure, will be approximately $12 billion from 2021 to 2029, with the facility expected to directly create over 1,600 high-tech professional jobs.
Construction of the Arizona plant is now said to be "well under way." The facility will mass-produce chips fabricated with a five-nanometer process by 2024. TSMC has been gradually miniaturizing its process over the years, going from a 16nm A10 chip in iPhone 7 models, to a 7nm A13 chip in iPhone 11 models, and a 5nm process for the iPhone 12's A14 chip. Likely clients for the chips from the Arizona factory include Nvidia, Qualcomm, and Apple.
TSMC already operates a factory in Camas, Washington and design centers in Austin, Texas and San Jose, California, so the Arizona facility will be its second manufacturing site in the United States. The company's main factories are located in Taiwan.
The new Arizona plant will increase the opportunity for Apple's custom silicon chips, such as the A14 or M1 chip, to be feasibly manufactured within the United States.
Apple CEO Tim Cook will be one of the speakers at the upcoming "Viva Technology" conference, being held digitally and physically between June 16 and June 19, according to a tweet from the conference's official page (via iMore).
Based out of Paris, France, the conference is an opportunity to break down "traditional barriers between grassroots innovators and global leaders" and is "Europe's biggest startup and tech event." Given the nature of the event, Cook is likely to speak about Apple's overall role in supporting startups and entrepreneurs through its different platforms, such as the App Store.
Tim Cook last attended a public forum in March and has previously used public appearances such as these to echo Apple's stance on user privacy and its values. The conference will include more than 3,000 investors from around the world and more than 13,000 startups. More details can be found on its website.
Google promised in December of last year that the Apple TV app would expand to more devices in the Android TV OS ecosystem in the near future. The Apple TV app, which offers viewers access to Apple TV+ content and more, is now available for download through the Google Play Store on Android TV OS devices.
Apple's global security chief, Thomas Moyer, has been cleared by a California judge of bribery charges following accusations that the security chief participated in a scheme to donate 200 iPads worth $75,000 to the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office in exchange for concealed gun permits, Reuters reports.
According to the charges brought forward in November, Moyer agreed to donate 200 iPads to the Sheriff's office in exchange for concealed gun permits for Apple's security team at a 2019 meeting. Furthermore, according to prosecutors, Moyer acted upon the request of Santa Clara County Undersheriff Rick Sung, who allegedly threatened to withhold the permits unless the iPads were donated.
Ultimately, a California judge believed that the iPad donations offered by Moyer came as a misunderstanding. According to the judge, by the time Moyer had offered the iPads, he was under the belief that the permits were already issued, rather than the iPads being a requirement for their issuance.
Judge Eric S. Geffon of the Superior Court of Santa Clara County found on Tuesday that Moyer had been in talks with the Sheriff's Office about permits for more than a year by the time of the 2019 meeting. By then, Geffon wrote, the evidence suggests Moyer believed the permits were already approved and would be issued soon.
Judge Eric S. Geffon also further noted that the argument against Moyer is "pure speculation" and "not supported by the evidence presented to the grand jury." Moyer, in a statement, thanked the court for "giving this case such careful consideration, and for allowing me to move forward with my life."
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.
Ahead of the beginning of this year's WWDC, Apple has set out another marketing campaign on Twitter by enabling a special Twitter hashflag with the "#WWDC21" hashtag across the social network. This year's hashflag includes an icon resembling the thumbs-up Tapback effect from iMessage.
According to Jane Manchun Wong's Hashflag Browser, the new hashflag will last until June 6, one day short of when the developers conference will begin. While unclear, the new hashflag seems to be a "pre-conference" hashflag rather than the hashflag used throughout the conference. Apple, could, of course, extend this hashflag beyond June 6.
Normally, such as in the past with the latest April 20 "Spring Loaded" event, there is a special animation when liking tweets with the corresponding event hashtag. At the time, the WWDC hashflag includes no such animation. However, given it ends on June 6, Apple may be planning other hashflags that will run throughout the week of the conference.
WWDC officially kicks off on June 7 at 10 a.m PT with a keynote where we're expecting to see iOS 15, iPadOS 15, macOS 12, tvOS 15, and watchOS 8. Some tenuous rumors also suggest that the announcement of the long-awaited redesigned MacBook Pro will also make an appearance at the conference.
Apple is continuing to prepare for the WWDC keynote thats set to take place on Monday, June 7, and has today updated its Developer app with new features ahead of the event.
The update adds details on all of the pavilions, session videos, 1-on-1 labs, and coding and design challenges available as part of WWDC 2021, plus it introduces sign ups for the WWDC 2021 labs.
There are also a series of new stickers available for developers to use in the Messages app. From Apple's release notes:
- Explore all WWDC21 has to offer, including pavilions, session videos, 1-on-1 labs, Coding & Design Challenges, and more. - You can sign up for labs at WWDC21 from directly inside the Developer app, as well as receive notifications about your upcoming appointments. - Check out all-new stickers for WWDC21. - We've fixed bugs and added various other enhancements.
More than 50% of iPhone 13 models set to be shipped later this year will support mmWave, according to a paywalled preview of a DigiTimes report, in line with rumors that mmWave will be supported in more regions.
"Apple will launch its next-generation iPhone series - tentatively dubbed the iPhone 13 - later in 2021, according to industry sources, which believe that more than 50% of the total iPhone 13s set to be shipped this year will be 5G mmWave models," the preview said. The full report should be published by tomorrow with additional details.
Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo and other sources have claimed that iPhone 13 models will support ultra-fast mmWave 5G bands in additional countries, with likely candidates including Canada, Japan, Australia, and some European countries. By comparison, mmWave support on iPhone 12 models is limited to the United States.
mmWave is a set of 5G frequencies that promise ultra-fast speeds at short distances, which is suitable for dense urban areas. By comparison, sub-6GHz 5G is generally slower than mmWave, but the signals travel further, better serving suburban and rural areas.
When we tested Verizon's mmWave network with a Samsung smartphone in Chicago in mid-2019, we were able to hit download speeds of close to 2Gb/s, but speeds vary drastically based on your position and proximity to the nearest 5G tower. For a more detailed comparison of 5G bands, read our mmWave vs. sub-6GHz 5G iPhone Guide.
Mozilla today announced the public release of Firefox 89 for macOS with a redesigned and modernized core browsing experience.
The latest version of the browser features a simplified toolbar with less frequently used items removed, allowing the focus to be on the most important navigation items. Menus and prompts have also been streamlined across Firefox to have cleaner designs and clearer language. The more consistent styling extends to many other elements of the browser.
Firefox 89 also features floating tabs that contain information and other cues when you need them, like visual indicators for audio controls.
For macOS users, Firefox 89 now features the familiar "elastic" scrolling effect utilized in many other applications. A gentle bouncing animation will indicate that you reached the end of the page while scrolling.
Another feature added for macOS users is support for multi-touch "smart zoom." Users can double tap with two fingers on the trackpad, or with a single finger on the Magic Mouse, to zoom the content beneath the cursor into focus. This multi-touch gesture has long been supported by Apple's default Safari browser as well as Google Chrome.
Firefox 89 contextual menus are now native on macOS and support Dark Mode too.
Apple is preparing for the Worldwide Developers Conference that kicks off next Monday, today launching a YouTube live stream where viewers can sign up to get a reminder when the event begins. Apple's keynote event will take place on Monday, June 7 at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time.
In addition to live streaming the event on YouTube, Apple also plans to make the WWDC 2021 keynote available through the Events website and in the Apple TV app. Apple today also created an Events page for WWDC 2021, which is where the live stream will be available.
WWDC will see the unveiling of iOS 15, iPadOS 15, macOS 12, watchOS 8, and tvOS 15, plus there's a chance we could hear details about the future of Apple silicon, including the possible unveiling of new MacBook Pro models. New Macs are not guaranteed and the rumors are tenuous at this time, but it could happen.
At a minimum, though, we'll get a first look at what to expect over the course of the next year in terms of software and features. We know little about iOS 15 at this time, but Apple is making improvements to notifications and Messages, with details available in our iOS 15 roundup.
MacRumors will have full coverage of next week's keynote both on MacRumors.com and through our MacRumorsLive Twitter account.
Apple Music is celebrating Pride this year with a new space that's designed to highlight the LGBTQ+ community both in June and year-round. For Pride month, Apple plans to release new content each Sunday that focuses on Equality, Resilience and Community.
Content will include Pride Talks, which are short original videos that include conversations with Rob Halford (Judas Priest), Ben Platt, MNEK, girl in red, and more, plus guest-curated playlists featuring music selected by Hayley Kiyoko (taking over Love Her, Lover), Mykki Blanco (RESIST!), Troye Sivan (Strike a Pose), Tayla Parx (Here 'n' Queer), and Claud (Thrive).
Apple also plans to feature exclusive DJ mixes and Apple Music radio shows and specials that will air on Apple Music 1, Apple Music Hits, and Apple Music Country. There will be Apple Music TV 24-hour takeovers on June 6, 13, 20, and 27 as well.
Apple now has a dedicated Apple Music Pride page where users can find all of the videos, playlists, and interviews celebrating Pride. The page will be available year-round.
Pride month is a major celebratory month for Apple, and each year the company celebrates in various ways. This year, Apple has released new Apple Watch Pride bands and watch faces, and there will also likely be features for the App Store and Apple TV+ in the coming weeks.
In past years, Apple has marched in the annual San Francisco Pride parade, which is one of the biggest Pride events in the United States. The parade was canceled last year and it has also been canceled this year, but Apple will likely return to the parade if it's reinstated in 2022.
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 today updated its suite of iWork apps, including Pages, Keynotes, and Numbers for iOS and macOS, with new features related to Schoolwork and the ability to link web pages, email addresses, and phone numbers to different shapes and objects.
For Pages and Numbers on iOS and macOS, the updates include the ability for users to link different elements, such as a link to a web page, an email address, and phone number to different shapes, objects, lines, and text boxes.
Pages, Numbers, and Keynote also now enable teachers using Apple's Schoolwork feature to "view student progress, including word count and time spent." The updates are available for free via the App Store on iOS and macOS.
WWDC 2021 kicks off in six days, and ahead of time, Apple has announced the 36 finalists for this year's Apple Design Awards. The awards honor excellence in innovation, ingenuity, and technical achievement in app and game design.
Apple will announce the winners of this year's Apple Design Awards on Thursday, June 10 at 2 p.m. Pacific Time. The awards show will be streamed via the Apple Developer app and the Apple Developer website.
