MacRumors

AMD today announced new Radeon Pro W6000 series graphics cards suitable for workstations like the existing Intel-based Mac Pro.

Built on 7nm-based AMD RDNA 2 architecture, the new higher-end Radeon Pro W6800 graphics card delivers up to 79% faster graphics performance than the previous-generation Radeon Pro W5700, although this is based on a test system powered by an AMD Ryzen 9 5950X processor rather than an Intel processor. The W6800 also features 32GB of high-speed GDDR6 memory with ECC support, and 128MB of AMD Infinity Cache.

AMD says the W6800 graphics card is available now from leading retailers for a suggested price of $2,249. For comparison, the W5700X graphics card is a $600 built-to-order upgrade option for the Mac Pro, which starts at $5,999 itself.

There's also a new mid-range W6600 graphics card that features 8GB of high-speed GDDR6 memory with ECC support, and 32MB of AMD Infinity Cache. AMD expects the W6600 to be available in the third quarter of 2021 for a suggested price of $649.

Last, there's a new Radeon Pro W6600M graphics option for workstation-class notebooks.

Apple on Monday revealed iOS 15 with redesigned notifications, major changes to FaceTime, and new tools that help users reduce distractions. Amongst the comprehensive set of tools for reducing distractions is the ability to disable app badge notifications for all apps on the Home Screen, resulting in a much cleaner ‌Home Screen‌ look.

App badge notifications can be disabled when users are in Do Not Disturb or "Focus" mode. Users running the iOS 15 beta can go to Settings -> Focus, and choose either Do Not Disturb or any of the other Focus modes listed. Then under Customization, tap Hide Notification Badges.

Now, when that Focus or Do Not Disturb mode is enabled, all apps will no longer show a notification badge on the ‌Home Screen‌. Users can, of course, disable notification badges on a per-app basis; however, this is a global option that impacts all apps on the ‌Home Screen‌.

Another customization feature is the ability to rearrange ‌Home Screen‌ pages. With iOS 14, Apple introduced the ability for users to disable individual ‌Home Screen‌ pages thanks to the introduction of App Library, but many users were disappointed to find that ‌Home Screen‌ pages cannot be rearranged. On iOS 15, Apple allows users to tap and hold on individual ‌Home Screen‌ pages and rearrange them. In addition, Apple also now allows users to delete a page completely rather than disable it.

Alongside iOS 15, Apple also introduced iPadOS 15, macOS Monterey, watchOS 8, and tvOS 15. Catch up on all the WWDC announcements here.

Apple is in "early-stage talks" with two Chinese companies about the supply of batteries for a future Apple Car, according to a new Reuters report.

Apple is in early-stage talks with China's CATL and BYD about the supply of batteries for its planned electric vehicle, four people with knowledge of the matter said.

The discussions are subject to change and it is not clear if agreements with either CATL or BYD will be reached, said the people who declined to be named as the discussions are private.

One of Apple's conditions for battery suppliers is said to be the building of manufacturing facilities in the United States.

However, CATL, which is the world's biggest automotive battery maker and supplies several major car makers including Tesla, is reportedly "reluctant" to build a U.S. factory because of the ongoing political tensions between Beijing and Washington, in addition to the costs that would be involved.

According to Reuters' sources, Apple is in favor of using lithium iron phosphate batteries that are cheaper to produce because they use iron instead of nickel and cobalt, which are more expensive. However, it's not clear if discussions with CATL and BYD involved any of Apple's own technology or designs.

The last few months has seen a flurry of reports, some conflicting, about potential specifics on an ‌Apple Car‌.

Apple appears to be intensely researching all aspects of car engineering and manufacturing, but there are questions around what form Apple's vehicle project may take, with some reports suggesting Apple may be looking to leverage its software and chip design expertise to create a kind of next-generation vehicle platform for other manufacturers to use.

Bloomberg in January reported that Apple 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.

Apple has also reportedly lost "several" top managers from its internal Apple Car project, codenamed "Project Titan," causing a potential setback to the launch of a self-driving car.

Vast swathes of the web are currently offline, including Reddit, Spotify, Twitch, gov.uk, Hulu, HBO Max, Quora, PayPal, Vimeo, Shopify, CNN, The Guardian, The New York Times, BBC News, Bloomberg, and Financial Times sites.

The outage is down to a glitch in content delivery network provider Fastly's servers. Fastly has confirmed it's investigating an outage on its status website. Having nothing to do with Fastly, none of Apple's services are currently impacted. MacRumors.com and the MacRumors forums continue to operate as normal.

Update: After identifying the issue, Fastly says it has implemented a fix that seems to be allowing most affected websites to recover from the outage.

At its WWDC keynote on Monday, Apple announced that iCloud is getting a premium subscription tier called "‌iCloud‌+," which includes tentpole privacy features like Private Relay and Hide My Email. Another feature included in ‌iCloud‌+ that wasn't discussed in the keynote is the ability to create a custom email domain name.

From Apple's iOS 15 features preview page, under the ‌iCloud‌+ section:

Custom email domain
Personalize your iCloud Mail address with a custom domain name, and invite family members to use the same domain with their iCloud Mail accounts.

In essence, what this means is that when ‌iCloud‌+ goes live, Apple will allow users to change their ‌iCloud‌ Mail address completely. For instance, the email address jonnyappleseed@icloud.com could be changed to jonny@appleseed.com, forgoing the icloud domain reference entirely for a more personalized or businesslike look.

Additionally, Apple will allow users to invite family members to use the same domain name with their own ‌iCloud‌ Mail accounts, although it's not currently clear if family members will need to be part of Family Sharing for this to work.

For users of Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, and other email providers, this sort of email address personalization has been available for a long time, so Apple could eventually prise some customers away from the competition with this move. It remains to be seen whether custom email domains for ‌iCloud‌ Mail will have certain limitations that rivals don't set, though.

We've reached out to Apple for additional information. Either way, expect more details as we approach the launch of ‌iCloud‌+ in the fall.

Apple alongside the second-generation Apple TV 4K debuted a redesigned version of the Siri Remote, which is now available to customers with new ‌‌Apple TV‌‌ orders and as a $60 standalone replacement for the original ‌‌Siri‌‌ Remote. In lockstep with the hardware change, iOS 15 also includes a redesigned ‌Apple TV‌ ‌Siri‌ Remote interface in the Control Center.

In iOS 14, the current Remote UI takes cues from the previous-generation ‌Siri‌ Remote, with Menu, ‌Siri‌, Play/Pause and Home buttons below a large gesture pad, mirroring the glass touch surface.

Likewise, the new UI in many ways resembles the redesigned new-generation ‌Siri‌ Remote, and now includes Back, Mute, Power, and channel buttons, while the iPhone's physical Side/Power button becomes the ‌Siri‌ button.

Despite these welcome changes in the iOS 15 beta, there are still some bugs that Apple needs to iron out to get the new ‌Siri‌ Remote working consistently, so it may not be wise to update to the iOS 15 public beta as soon as it becomes available in July just to start using it. iOS 15 will be officially released in the fall.

Apple is currently rolling out spatial audio and lossless audio for Apple Music, offering subscribers a more immersive and higher-quality audio experience. Later this year, however, Apple will also bring dynamic head tracking to songs in the Apple Music catalog.

From the FAQ section of a newly updated Apple support document:

Is spatial audio with dynamic head tracking available for music?

We are excited to announce that spatial audio with dynamic head tracking is coming to Apple Music in the fall. Dynamic head tracking creates an even more immersive experience for spatial audio. It brings music to life by delivering sound that dynamically adjusts as you turn your head. And you can experience spatial audio with dynamic head tracking on AirPods Pro and AirPods Max with a compatible iPhone or iPad.

When you consider Apple's current implementation of dynamic head tracking, it's not entirely clear how it will apply to music. In its existing form, dynamic head tracking can be experienced when watching video on iPhone and iPad with headphones that support spatial audio, but it's the video element that's key.

Spatial audio uses the gyroscope and accelerometer in the ‌headphones‌ and the iOS device to track the motion of your head and your ‌device's position, comparing the motion data, and then remapping the sound field so that it stays anchored to your device even as your head moves.

Apple Music videos with spatial audio enabled already support dynamic head tracking in this way, but given that there's no visual element involved when listening to audio tracks, Apple presumably has a different implementation in mind that will create more depth to the listening experience. Individual instruments and effects may remain locked in place in a virtual soundstage when you turn your head, evoking the experience of being in the audience at a live gig, for example.

At any rate, Apple says that Apple Music subscribers will be able to experience it for themselves "in the fall," which is also when iOS 15 will be released to the public, so the two could well drop together.

Apple is aiming to debut its first augmented reality (AR) headset in the second quarter of 2022, according to a new research note from analyst Ming-Chi Kuo seen by MacRumors.

The research report focuses on prospects for key Apple supplier Genius Electronic Optical, and notes that the company will benefit from a number of upcoming VR and AR products from the likes of Facebook, Sony, and Apple.

We predict that Apple will launch AR HMD [head-mounted display] devices in 2Q22. The device will provide a video see-through AR experience, so the lens is also needed, and Genius is also a key supplier.

Apple has been rumored to be working on a pair of AR-related headsets, led by an initial "mixed-reality" device that has variously been rumored to be launching in 2021 or 2022. A sleeker pair of augmented reality glasses is rumored to follow, perhaps around 2025.

As recently as January, Kuo was predicting that Apple's initial AR headset would debut sometime in 2021, but by March he had pushed his prediction back to "mid-2022," more in line with today's report.

Bloomberg's Mark Gurman also indicated back in March that an announcement about the headset could come in the "next several months," but there has been no sign of such an announcement, and today's WWDC keynote would have been a prime opportunity.

Some of the uncertainty about timing may be related to a potentially lengthy gap between announcement and launch for the AR headset. As a new platform for Apple, the company may want to announce it a number of months ahead of any product launch to give developers time to prepare. Reports have, however, indicated that Apple's first AR headset will be a pricey, high-end device largely targeted at developers rather than the broader public.

Kuo's report today on Genius Electronic Optical also touches on iPhone 13 production, noting that it appears Genius will be the exclusive supplier of wide-angle and telephoto camera lenses for the upcoming ‌iPhone‌ 13 lineup, at least through the end of this month. Apple's other supplier for these components, Largan, is said to have failed to meet Apple's requirements and has been asked to temporarily halt component shipments.

Genius is currently picking up the slack following Largan's misstep, and Kuo believes Genius will ultimately be responsible for 65–70% of shipments for these lens components, up from market consensus of a 40–50% share.

Following Apple's announcement during the WWDC keynote that Spatial Audio and Lossless Audio for Apple Music would be rolling out today, the feature now appears to be going live for some users.

For many users, restarting their device appears to trigger activation of the feature, but others have reported that a restart hasn't helped, so users may just need to be patient until it becomes available to them.

Once it's available, you'll see a new option in the Music section of the Settings app where you can choose whether Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos is Off, Always On, or Automatic, with the Automatic option using Dolby Atmos content when your device is connected to output accessories like AirPods and compatible Beats that your device recognizes as supporting the feature. For other types of headphones, you may need to manually select the Always On option.

A separate section offers options for Lossless Audio, where you can turn the higher-quality audio files on and then choose from more granular options to specify what quality of music files your device should use when streaming over cellular, streaming over Wi-Fi, or downloading music.

In the Music app, you'll also be able to see which albums support Spatial Audio and Lossless Audio, thanks to new labels in the album details sections.

(Thanks, @JGobel!)

Today's WWDC keynote event saw Apple introduce iOS 15, iPadOS 15, macOS Monterey, watchOS 8, and tvOS 15, all of which have exciting new features that will make the Apple ecosystem better than ever.

For those that did not get a chance to see the keynote event and don't want to spend close to two hours watching it later, we've condensed everything Apple announced into nine minutes, providing a quick overview of everything notable.

In addition to our video, we've also rounded up all of our coverage of Apple's announcements to give you a complete overview of everything new that's worth knowing about.

iOS 15

• Apple Announces iOS 15: First Look at New Features
• Apple Unveils New FaceTime Features Like Spatial Audio, SharePlay, Voice Isolation, and More
• iOS 15 Features Redesigned Notifications and New Notification Summary Sorted by Priority
• Apple Reveals Redesigned Weather iOS App With Dark Sky-Like Notifications and Full-Screen Maps
• You'll Be Able to Add Your Driver's License to Your iPhone in Select States Starting With iOS 15
• iOS 15 Compatible With All iPhones That Run iOS 14
• Apple Seeds First Betas of iOS and iPadOS 15 to Developers
• Apple Won't Make You Upgrade to iOS 15 and Will Continue to Provide Security Updates for iOS 14
• iOS 15 Includes Built-In Password Authenticator With Autofill, Replacing Google Authenticator and Authy
• Apple Temporarily Expands iCloud Storage in iOS 15 for Backing Up Data and Transferring to a New Device
• Apple Adds New Outfits, Glasses, Headwear and Accessibility Options to Memoji in iOS 15
• iOS 15 Brings FaceTime to PC and Android Users With New Option to Join on the Web
• iOS 15 Photos App Now Displays EXIF Metadata for Images
• New Separation Alerts in iOS 15 Let You Know If You Leave an AirTag or Apple Device Behind
• iOS 15 Find My App Lets You Find Devices That Are Turned Off or Erased
• HomeKit Secure Video Cameras Can Notify You When a Package Has Arrived Starting With iOS 15
• Apple Maps Lets You Set Leaving or Arrival Times When Getting Directions in iOS 15

iPadOS 15

• Apple Introduces iPadOS 15: First Look at New Features
• iPadOS 15 Features Widgets Anywhere on Home Screen and App Library
• iPadOS 15 Allows You to Build iPhone and iPad Apps on an iPad
• iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 Gain New App Store, Find My, Contacts, Sleep, Game Center and Mail Widgets
• iOS 15, iPadOS 15, and macOS Monterey Introduce System-Wide Translation, Translate App Expands to iPad

macOS Monterey

• Apple Announces macOS Monterey With Shortcuts App, Updated Safari Browsing, 'Focus' Do Not Disturb Features, and More
• Safari Browser to Get UI Overhaul and New Features Including Tab Groups
• Shortcuts App Coming to Mac, Automator Will Remain Supported
• TestFlight Finally Coming to The Mac
• Apple Seeds First Beta of macOS 12 Monterey to Developers
• Here Are All the Macs Compatible With macOS Monterey
• Apple Brings Low Power Mode to Mac and iPad With macOS Monterey and iPadOS 15
• Apple Highlights New Privacy Features in iOS 15 and macOS Monterey, Including Microphone Indicator on Mac

watchOS 8

• Apple Reveals watchOS 8: First Look at New Features
• Apple Unveils New Health App Features Like Walking Steadiness, Trends, Lab Results, Health Sharing, and More
• Apple Watch Introducing New Tai Chi and Pilates Workout Types in watchOS 8
• Apple Bringing New Portrait Mode Photo Watch Face to watchOS 8
• Apple Seeds First Beta of watchOS 8 to Developers
• watchOS 8 Allows Users to Set Multiple Timers

tvOS 15

• Apple Announces Range of New Home Features for HomePod Mini, Apple TV, and Apple Watch
• HomePod Mini Launching in More Countries, Can Be Used as Apple TV Speaker Starting This Fall
• Apple Seeds First Beta of tvOS 15 to Developers

iCloud+

• Apple Announces iCloud+, Combines Paid Storage With Privacy Features Like Hide My Email

Other Stories

• WWDC 2021 Apple Event Live Keynote Coverage: iOS 15, macOS 12, and More
• Apple Music's New Spatial Audio Feature Launches Today
• Redesigned Apple Maps Expanding to Spain and Portugal Today, Italy and Australia Later This Year
• Public Betas of iOS 15, iPadOS 15, macOS Monterey, tvOS 15 and watchOS 8 Coming in July
• Apple Updates App Store Review Guidelines, Says Developers Can Now Appeal Over Perceived Unfair Treatment
• Apple Makes Screen Time API Available to Third-Party Developers
• iOS 15 'iCloud Private Relay' Feature Won't Be Available in China, Belarus, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and More

Rewatch the Keynote

For those who do want to watch the full keynote, a replay is available in the Apple TV app, on Apple's Events website, and on YouTube.

Stay Tuned to MacRumors

Make sure to stay tuned to MacRumors this week because we're going to be sharing in-depth videos and articles highlighting all of the new features in the software updates that Apple introduced today.

We'll also be publishing roundups, guides, and how tos on everything that you need to know about the new software, and we'll have coverage of each new feature as we delve further into the updates.

Alongside iOS 15, Apple introduced an iCloud+ service that adds new features to its paid ‌iCloud‌ plans. One of these features is ‌iCloud‌ Private Relay, which is designed to encrypt all of the traffic leaving your device so no one can intercept it or read it.

Apple did not mention country limitations for the feature when announcing it, but Apple told Reuters that Private Relay will not be launching in China, Belarus, Colombia, Egypt, Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkmenistan, Uganda, and the Philippines,

According to Apple, regulatory reasons are preventing the Private Relay feature from launching in those countries.

Private Relay sends web traffic to a server that is maintained by Apple to strip the IP address. Once IP info has been removed, Apple sends the traffic to a second server maintained by a third-party company that assigns a temporary IP address and then sends the traffic to its destination, a process that prevents your IP address, location, and browsing activity from being used to create a profile about you.

Involving an outside party in the relay system is an intentional move that Apple says was designed to prevent anyone, including Apple, from knowing a user's identity and the website the user is visiting.

‌iCloud‌ Private Relay is available with any paid ‌iCloud‌ storage plan, and Apple has not changed pricing, so upgraded ‌iCloud‌ storage tiers start at $0.99. ‌iCloud‌+ also includes a new Hide My Email feature that lets you create unique, random email addresses that forward to your personal inbox, and it allows for ‌iCloud‌ Mail addresses to be personalized with a custom domain name.

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 Maps received a major overhaul in iOS 15 and in addition to new details in cities, an interactive globe, and enhanced driving directions, there are a handful of other smaller features that are available.

When getting directions in the Maps app, there's a new feature that lets you choose a time to arrive or a time to leave, which lets you get prospective commute lengths ahead of time.

If you tap on "Leaving Now" next to "My Location" when getting directions to a specific spot, you can choose to get directions with a "Leave at" or "Arrive by" time that lets you select dates and times to leave at or arrive by.

This is a feature that's long been available for Google Maps, but until now, there was no way to get estimated travel times in advance of a trip using the ‌Apple Maps‌ app.

Other new Maps features include 3D road level perspectives for complex interchanges, step-by-step augmented reality directions when walking, a redesigned transit experience, new place cards with updated info about businesses, improved search functionality, and a dedicated Maps user profile for reporting issues, selecting favorites, and choosing a preferred mode of transit.

Starting with iOS 15 and iPadOS 15, which will be publicly released in the fall, security cameras and video doorbells that support HomeKit Secure Video can now detect and notify you when a package has been delivered.

HomeKit Secure Video, available on iOS 13.2 and later, leverages iCloud to securely stream and store video clips from compatible HomeKit-enabled indoor and outdoor cameras and doorbells, with end-to-end encryption. HomeKit Secure Video cameras and doorbells are managed through the Home app like other HomeKit accessories.

Apple today introduced a new iCloud+ subscription plan that combines Apple's existing iCloud storage tiers with privacy features such as Hide My Email, iCloud Private Relay, and expanded HomeKit Secure Video support, at no additional cost.

iCloud+ expands HomeKit Secure Video, allowing for unlimited cameras:

• 50GB of iCloud storage with one HomeKit Secure Video camera for $0.99 per month
• 200GB of iCloud storage with up to five HomeKit Secure Video cameras for $2.99 per month
• 2TB of iCloud storage with an unlimited number of HomeKit Secure Video cameras for $9.99 per month

The first betas of iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 were seeded to developers earlier today, and public betas will be released in July, according to Apple.

Apple is making some major improvements to the Find My app in iOS 15, making it easier to keep track of your Apple devices and AirTags.

With the ‌Find My‌ network, Apple says that you can locate devices even after they've been turned off, a feature that's helpful if a missing device is stolen and disabled or if a lost device has a low battery.

It's not clear how this feature works, but it likely will show the last known location that your device was known to be at.

Apple also says that the ‌Find My‌ network paired with Activation Lock can locate a lost device even after it's been erased, so thieves will not be able to wipe your device to disable tracking.

To ensure that nobody is tricked into buying a stolen device that's still locked to your Apple ID, the Hello screen will clearly show that your device is locked, locatable, and still owned by someone else.

Apple in iOS 15 is adding new Separation Alerts to the Find My app, which will let you know if you leave an Apple device, a device attached to an AirTag, or a Find My-enabled third-party device behind.

Enable separation alerts, and if you leave a device, AirTag, or compatible third-party item behind, your iPhone will alert you with notifications and Find My will give you directions to your item.

For any item in the ‌Find My‌ app, whether it's an ‌AirTag‌ or an Apple device, you can tap into it and select the "Notify When Left Behind" toggle. This will send an alert if you get out of range of your item.

You can set exceptions for certain locations, such as if your item is safely at home, and this new feature should help you keep a much better watch over items that are easy to lose like AirPods.

With the launch of iOS 15, iPadOS 15, and macOS Monterey, Apple is making its Screen Time API available to third-party developers, which will let official Screen Time data be used in parental control apps.

Apple first unveiled Screen Time in the iOS 12 update that was released in 2018, allowing users to keep track of the amount of time spent in iOS apps. Parents were also able to use Screen Time for Parental Control purposes, limiting apps and device usage.

Since launch, Screen Time has been built directly into the iPhone and no APIs or SDKs have been made available to developers prior to now, which app developers have not been happy with. That's set to change with iOS 15. From Apple's iOS 15 features page:

Developers can use the Screen Time API in parental controls apps to support an even wider range of tools for parents. The API provides developers with key features like core restrictions and device activity monitoring, all in a way that puts privacy first.

Ahead of when Apple launched Screen Time, it started banning many parental control apps that used Mobile Device Management to let parents control iOS devices belonging to their children. The change led to antitrust issues for Apple following complaints from developers that made parental control apps.

In 2019, developers petitioned Apple to release a Screen Time API that would let them access the same functionalities that are available with the built-in Screen Time feature to level the playing field. Apple may have finally implemented the feature to ease some of the antitrust scrutiny that it is facing from lawmakers in various countries.

Apple today announced that iOS 15, iPadOS 15, and macOS Monterey feature system-wide translation, allowing users to translate text by simply selecting it and tapping or right clicking on the Translate option that appears.

iPhone, iPad, and Mac users can also translate selected text in photos as part of a new Live Text feature in the latest software versions.

Apple also announced that the Translate app is available on the iPad starting with iPadOS 15, after launching on the iPhone last year. On both iOS 15 and iPadOS 15, a new Auto Translate feature lets users translate speech without tapping the microphone button in a conversation, and selecting languages is now easier with convenient drop‑down menus.

For a more detailed overview of new iOS 15 features, read our announcement coverage.

If you've ever wanted to see the EXIF data for a photo right on your iPhone Photos app, then you're going to want to install the iOS 15 update right away.

With iOS 15, each image in the ‌Photos‌ app has a new "Info" button available that displays image format, the details of the camera used to capture it, and the location where it was taken.

Prior to now, there was no way to view this information directly in the ‌Photos‌ app on the ‌iPhone‌, so you had to use either a third-party app, a Shortcut, or a different device to view it.

This interface can be used to add captions and to see the location where a photo was taken, plus there is an option to adjust metadata such as date captured.

Some photos will also have a sparkle next to the Info button, which means there's info that you can see in Look Up mode. On a photo of a flower, for example, the ‌Photos‌ app is able to compare it to other flower images on the web, providing a possible identification for the flower type. In the screenshot below, this is indeed an accurate assessment of the type of flower in the image.

There's also a new option to tap the "Live" button for any Live photo to automatically turn it a Loop, Bounce, or Long Exposure.