MacRumors

Apple today announced that Apple Fitness+ will feature the UK's Prince William on Time to Walk and Apple Music 1 on December 6.

Prince William will close the second season of Time to Walk with a holiday special episode. During the episode, Prince William discusses the importance of keeping mentally fit, going outside of your comfort zone, and the value of listening.

Time to Walk is a selection of Apple Fitness+ audio experiences on the Apple Watch that feature influential people as they share personal stories and memories, photos, and music to explore thoughts on purpose and gratitude, levity, and thought-provoking topics. Each episode is recorded while the guest walks outside or in locations that are meaningful to them.

The series has featured Dolly Parton, Anthony Joshua, Randall Park, Jane Fonda, Camila Cabello, Kurt Fearnley, Naomi Campbell, Draymond Green, Bebe Rexha, Min Jin Lee, Shawn Mendes, Stephen Fry, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Kesha, and more as guests.

Apple added that it is making donations to three charities around the world chosen by Prince William that focus on mental health: Crisis Text Line in the U.S., Shout 85258 in the UK, and Lifeline in Australia. These charity provide free, confidential crisis support.

Prince William's holiday special episode will be released on December 6, available to Apple Fitness+ subscribers on demand in the Fitness app on the Apple Watch, and, in a first for Time to Walk, it will also be streamed three times on ‌Apple Music‌ 1.

Apple says that listeners who tune in on Monday, December 6, at 8 a.m. local time in London and Los Angeles; and on Tuesday, December 7, at 8 a.m. local time in Sydney, should plan on a 38-minute walk.

Intel is looking to develop a closer relationship with TSMC, Apple's largest and most important chip supplier, to avoid possible clashes with the Cupertino tech giant over TSMC's 3nm chip production, according to DigiTimes.

Yesterday, we reported on TSMC beginning pilot production of its ‌3nm‌ process that will eventually be used in future Apple silicon Macs. Apple currently uses a 5nm process in its latest iPhones, Macs, and iPads.

Ahead of Apple's adoption of the smaller chip process in its products, Intel is now trying to establish a clear relationship with TSMC to ensure the Taiwan supplier will fulfill its orders for a rumored upcoming ‌3nm‌ GPU, without conflicting with Apple's orders.

‌DigiTimes‌ reports today that high-level executives from Intel plan to visit Taiwan and TSMC in mid-December to discuss ‌3nm‌ chip production and production capacity. The report says that during their meeting, Intel will be "striving for more available ‌3nm‌ process capacity at TSMC" and that "Intel is eyeing a closer tie with TSMC to avoid fighting with Apple for the available process capacity."

A report last month said that Intel would be looking to adopt TSMC's ‌3nm‌ process for its upcoming Meteor Lake processors. Intel currently doesn't utilize any smaller processes, and handing off the job to a third-party, such as TSMC, is a way Intel can possibly catch up to Apple.

Apple is undertaking a two-year-long transition that will phase out Intel chips in its Mac lineup in favor of Apple silicon. The transition officially began in November 2020 with the M1 chip in the 13-inch MacBook Air, Mac mini, and MacBook Pro. Apple furthered its transition this year with the 24-inch iMac, followed more recently by the new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros.

The 27-inch ‌iMac‌, the Mac Pro, and a high-end ‌Mac mini‌ remain the only Intel-based Macs in the lineup. Apple has described Intel's chips as "power-hungry processors" and has credited the efficiency and size of Apple silicon for some more radical Mac design changes, such as those seen in the most recent ‌iMac‌.

The United States Federal Trade Commission today announced that it has filed a lawsuit to block Nvidia from acquiring Arm in a deal worth $40 billion.

According to the FTC, the deal would give Nvidia, one of the largest chip companies, control over computing technology and designs that rival firms rely on to develop competing chips. The FTC believes an acquisition would stifle "innovative next-generation technologies." The combined firm would be able to "unfairly undermine" Nvidia's competitors.

"The FTC is suing to block the largest semiconductor chip merger in history to prevent a chip conglomerate from stifling the innovation pipeline for next-generation technologies," said FTC Bureau of Competition Director Holly Vedova. "Tomorrow's technologies depend on preserving today's competitive, cutting-edge chip markets. This proposed deal would distort Arm's incentives in chip markets and allow the combined firm to unfairly undermine Nvidia's rivals. The FTC's lawsuit should send a strong signal that we will act aggressively to protect our critical infrastructure markets from illegal vertical mergers that have far-reaching and damaging effects on future innovations."

Nvidia's plan to acquire Arm from SoftBank was announced back in September 2020. At the time, Nvidia said that it would use the Arm acquisition to create the "world's premiere computing company for the age of AI." Nvidia pledged to continue Arm's open licensing model and customer neutrality, but that hasn't convinced companies like Qualcomm, which has opposed the deal.

Qualcomm in February told the FTC, the European Commission, the UK Competition and Markets Authority, and China's State Administration for Market Regulation that it was against Nvidia's acquisition of Arm. Qualcomm said that Nvidia could become the gatekeeper for Arm's technology, which could prevent other chipmakers from using it.

Qualcomm has suggested that the only way that Nvidia could make its acquisition profitable would be to restrict Arm's technology. Arm licenses its chip technology to more than 500 companies, including Apple, so there are major concerns around potential licensing changes.

The FTC has sided with Qualcomm, and believes that the merger would give Nvidia "the ability and incentive" to use control over Arm technology to undermine its competitors and reduce competition. According to the lawsuit, an Nvidia acquisition of Arm could impact high-level advanced driver assistance systems, DPU SmartNICs for datacenter servers, and Arm-based CPUs for cloud computing service providers.

An acquisition would also give the merged company "less incentive to enable otherwise new beneficial features or innovations" if Nvidia decides that these innovations would harm Nvidia.

Apple released macOS Monterey to the public in the fall, and the new desktop OS brings a whole slew of useful new features and changes to apps like Safari, Maps, FaceTime, Notes, Photos, Messages, and more.

Beyond the headline features, Apple has also made numerous tweaks and changes to macOS that aim to make the time you spend using your Mac‌ more efficient, more functional, and more enjoyable. To that end, we've pulled out 40 additions and improvements to Monterey, some of which may have gone under your radar, and we've highlighted 20 of them in the video up above. Keep reading to refresh your memory or perhaps learn something new.

1. Click to Save Photos in Messages

There's a good chance you'll want to save the photos you receive in the Messages app to your ‌Photos‌ library, and macOS Monterey makes this easier than ever.

You no longer have to right-click or open the image (or stack of images) to save it. Simply click the Save to Photos button to the right of the image instead.

2. Change Mouse Pointer Color

Apple has made it possible to change the color of the mouse pointer from the standard white outline and black fill, to pretty much any color combination you want.

To do so, go to System Preferences -> Accessibility, then click Display (under "Vision") in the left column. Click the Pointer tab in the window of options, and you'll find Pointer outline color and Pointer fill color settings. Click the color swatch to choose a custom color from the palette that appears. You can always click Reset to revert to the default colors.

3. Manage APFS Snapshots in Disk Utility

In the macOS Disk Utility app, you now have access to individual APFS drive snapshots. An APFS snapshot is a read-only copy of its parent APFS volume, taken at a particular moment in time, and you can maintain these snapshots and copy items from them, provided you know what you're doing (see Disk Utility's Help menu for more).

To view them as a list, simply select a volume and choose View -> Show APFS Snapshots from the menu bar. The fixed order list shows you the name, creation date, and cumulative size of each snapshot, while the most recent snapshot has a partition symbol beside its "Tidemark." Select a snapshot from the list and you can right-click or use the ellipsis button at the bottom left corner of the list to mount the snapshot, rename it, and delete it.

4. Test Network Quality

It's now possible to measure the quality of your Mac's internet connection directly from within macOS. Simply open a Terminal window and type networkQuality into the command prompt.

After a short while, you'll have an upload/download measurement, along with the number of "flows" (test packets) used for the responsiveness (network round trips) test. The upload/download capacity is roughly the same result metric you get from online internet speed tools like Speedtest by Ookla, although it tests upload and download concurrently rather than sequentially.

5. Protect Mail Activity

In the Mail app, a new feature called Mail Privacy Protection prevents senders from using invisible pixels to collect information about you. It does this by preventing senders from knowing when you open their email, and masks your IP address so that it can't be linked to your other online activity or used to determine your location.

To turn on the feature in Mail, select Mail -> Preferences... in the menu bar, click the Privacy tab, and then check the box next to Protect Mail Activity. If you leave it disabled, you can still independently opt to Hide IP address and Block All Remote Content.

➜ Click here to read more...

Apple today seeded the fourth betas of upcoming iOS and iPadOS 15.2 updates to developers for testing purposes, two weeks after seeding the third betas and a month after the launch of iOS 15.1 and iPadOS 15.1.

iOS and iPadOS 15.2 can be downloaded through the Apple Developer Center or over the air after the proper profile has been installed on an iPhone or an iPad.

iOS and iPadOS 15.2 add support for App Privacy Report, a feature that Apple first highlighted back at WWDC. With App Privacy Report, you can see how often apps are accessing sensitive info granted to them through privacy permissions, such as location, camera, microphone, and contacts.

The feature also gives you details on the various domains that apps and websites are contacting, so you can keep an eye on what your apps are doing behind the scenes and where your data might be going.

App Privacy Report can be enabled by opening up the Settings app, selecting the Privacy section, and choosing App Privacy Report. From there, you can toggle it on. After you start using apps, data will begin showing up in this spot. Apple shows seven days worth of data.

iOS 15.2 introduces an updated version of Apple's Messages Communication Safety feature for kids, and it adds a Legacy Contacts feature that lets you set a person who can access your Apple content like photos in the event of your death.

Apple added a new "Items That Can Track Me" option in the Find My app for scanning for nearby items, and the TV app on ‌iPad‌ has a new sidebar to make navigation simpler. In the Mail app, there's also a new option to use the Hide My Email feature when composing or replying to an email.

There's a tweaked Notification Summary that gives summaries more of a card-style look, a toggle in the Camera app for Macro mode on ‌iPhone‌ 13 Pro models, and an update to Emergency SOS. The Auto Call feature can now be enabled by pressing on the side button rapidly or holding down the side button and the volume button together. Apple has added a longer eight-second countdown (up from three seconds) to give you more time to cancel an accidental dial.

For a full list of features that have been added with each beta, we have dedicated guides for the initial beta, the second beta, and the third beta.

Apple today seeded the fourth beta of an upcoming watchOS 8.3 beta to developers for testing purposes, with the new software coming two weeks after the launch of the third beta and a month after the release of watchOS 8.1.

To install ‌‌‌watchOS 8‌‌‌.3, developers will need to download the configuration profile from the Apple Developer Center. Once installed, ‌‌‌watchOS 8.3‌‌‌ can be downloaded through the dedicated Apple Watch app on the iPhone by going to General > Software update.

To update to new software, an Apple Watch needs to have 50 percent battery life, it must be placed on the charger, and it needs to be in range of the ‌‌‌‌iPhone‌‌‌‌.

No new features were found in the first three betas of watchOS 8.3, so we don't yet know what's included in the update.

Tears of Joy continued to be one of the most popular emoji used worldwide in 2021, according to the Unicode Consortium's list of the top emoji used throughout the year.

The 😂 emoji accounts for over five percent of all emoji use, and the only other emoji that comes close is the heart emoji (❤️).

Other top emoji in 2021 included rolling on the floor laughing face, thumbs up, loudly crying face, hands pressed together, face blowing kiss, face with hearts, face with heart eyes, and smiling face, or in emoji: 😂 ❤️ 🤣 👍 😭 🙏 😘 🥰 😍 😊.

The most popular emoji haven't changed much over the past couple of years, and in fact, crying laughing face and red heart were also the top two emoji in 2019, which was the last time that the Unicode Consortium shared emoji data. Other emoji on the list have shifted position and there are a few that are new to the top 10 list, such as thumbs up and face with hearts.

The Unicode Consortium also broke emoji down by category to discover the top used smileys, people emoji, symbols, clothing, animals, travel emoji, objects, and food emoji, with graphs of the frequency of use available on the Unicode Consortium website.

Party popper is the most popular event emoji, for example, followed by balloon and gift. Fire is the most popular weather emoji, unsurprisingly, and the most popular plant emoji is the rose. The butterfly is the most used bug emoji, and rabbit face is the most used mammal emoji.

Of the clothing emoji, the crown is the most popular, and the birthday cake is by far the most popular sweet food emoji. Hot beverage is the most popular drink emoji, and in the fruit category, strawberry takes the top spot.

More on the most popular emoji in 2021 can be found through the Unicode Consortium's full 2021 emoji breakdown.

Amazon today announced that its Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) service is now offering a "preview" of M1 Mac mini instances in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) regions of U.S. East and U.S. West, with other regions to be available when the instances are fully released.

An "instance" is a virtual server available for rent through Amazon's EC2 service for running apps on AWS infrastructure. Intel-based Mac mini instances were already available since last year, but M1 models will provide improved performance, allowing developers building apps for the iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Apple TV to benefit from faster builds.

From the announcement:

If you are a Mac developer and re-architecting your apps to natively support Macs with Apple silicon, you may now build and test your apps and take advantage of all the benefits of AWS. Developers building for iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Apple TV will also benefit from faster builds. EC2 M1 Mac instances deliver up to 60% better price performance over the x86-based EC2 Mac instances for iPhone and Mac app build workloads.

More details are available on the Amazon Web Services website and there is also a sign-up form for the M1 Mac mini instances preview.

Apple's chipmaking partner TSMC has kicked off pilot production of chips built on its 3nm process, known as N3, according to Taiwanese supply chain publication DigiTimes.

The report, citing unnamed industry sources, claims that TSMC will move the process to volume production by the fourth quarter of 2022 and start shipping 3nm chips to customers like Apple and Intel in the first quarter of 2023.

As usual, this process advancement should allow for performance and power efficiency improvements, which can lead to faster speeds and/or longer battery life on future iPhones and Macs. The first series of Apple silicon Macs powered by M1 chips already deliver industry-leading performance per watt while running impressively quiet and cool.

The first Apple devices with 3nm chips will likely debut in 2023, including iPhone 15 models with an A17 chip and Apple silicon Macs with M3 chips — all names are tentative. The Information's Wayne Ma last month reported that some of the M3 chips will have up to four dies, which the report said could translate into those chips having up to a 40-core CPU, compared to the 8-core M1 chip and 10-core M1 Pro and M1 Max chips.

In the meantime, Macs with M2 chips and iPhone 14 models are expected to use chips based on TSMC's N4 process, which is another iteration of its 5nm process.

We've been keeping an eye on AirPods deals in the wake of Black Friday, and before today only the AirPods 3 have seen a return of Black Friday pricing. However, Amazon now has the AirPods Max at their best price of the year of $429.00 in Sky Blue and Space Gray, down from $549.00.

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Amazon. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

If you missed this deal last week, today could very well be one of the last times in 2021 that you'll be able to order the AirPods Max at this price in time for the holidays. Space Gray is in stock and will arrive by December 8 for users in the United States, but Sky Blue's availability is quickly dwindling and may not ship to your location in time for the 24th. Order now if you're interested.

Amazon's pricing on the AirPods 3 is at $149.99, down from $179.00, and this model is in stock and will also arrive sometime next week. We track sales for every model of the AirPods in our Best AirPods Deals guide, so be sure to bookmark that page while you shop around for the wireless headphones.

Update: This deal has now expired for both Space Gray and Sky Blue AirPods Max models.

Along with naming its editorial picks for the top apps and games of 2021, Apple today shared charts for the most downloaded free and paid apps and games in the United States across 2021.

The number one most downloaded free iPhone app was TikTok, followed by YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook. The top paid iPhone apps included Procreate Pocket, HotSchedules, The Wonder Weeks, and TouchRetouch.

Popular free iPad apps included Netflix, Disney+, and Zoom, while GoodNotes 5, Notability, Duet Display, and Procreate were popular paid iPad apps.

Top games on iPhone and iPad included Among Us!, Roblox, Project Makeover, Minecraft, and Heads Up. Apple this year also highlighted the top Apple Arcade games, which included The Oregon Trail, NBA 2K21, and Sneaky Sasquatch. Apple's top 10 lists for each category are listed below.

iPhone

iPad

Apple Arcade

Top Apple Arcade Games:

• The Oregon Trail
• NBA 2K21 Arcade Edition
• Sneaky Sasquatch
• Sonic Racing
• SpongeBob: Patty Pursuit
• Skate City
• PAC-MAN Party Royale
• Cut the Rope Remastered
• Hot Lava
• Angry Birds Reloaded

The top charts can also be viewed in the Today section of the App Store on the iPhone and the iPad.

Apple today shared its 2021 App Store Award winners, highlighting the 15 best apps and games selected by Apple's global App Store editorial team. The top apps were chosen for their quality, innovative technology, creative design, and positive cultural impact.

"The developers who won App Store Awards in 2021 harnessed their own drive and vision to deliver the best apps and games of the year -- sparking the creativity and passion of millions of users around the world," said Tim Cook, Apple's CEO. "From self-taught indie coders to inspiring leaders building global businesses, these standout developers innovated with Apple technology, with many helping to foster the profound sense of togetherness we needed this year."

Toca Life World, from Toca Boca, was named Apple's iPhone App of the Year. Designed for children, the app allows players to create their own worlds and bring their stories to life.

Apple's iPad App of the Year is LumaFusion, a popular mobile video editing app. It is recognized as one of the best ways to edit video on an iPhone or an iPad, with a wide range of editing tools and effects.

Multiplayer online battle arena game League of Legends: Wild Rift won the title of iPhone Game of the Year for its online play, and MARVEL Future Revolution was Apple's pick for iPad Game of the Year.

Apple picked a Mac app and game of the year, an Apple TV app of the year, and an Apple Arcade game of the year, with details below.

• Mac App of the Year: Craft Docs and Notes Editor, from Luki Labs Limited.
• Mac Game of the Year: Myst, from Cyan.
• Apple TV App of the Year: DAZN Sports Streaming, from DAZN Group.
• Apple TV Game of the Year: Space Marshals 3, from Pixelbite.
• Apple Watch App of the Year: Carrot Weather, from Grailr.
• Apple Arcade Game of the Year: Fantasian, from Mistwalker.

Apple also highlighted "Connection" as the trend of the year, recognizing a selection of apps and games that brought people together in meaningful ways. Apps acknowledged in this category include Among Us!, Bumble, Canva, EatOkra, and Peanut.

Each App or Game of the Year winner will receive a physical App Store award that's modeled after the design of the App Store logo. Each award is created from 100 percent recycled aluminum and it has the name of the winner engraved on the side.

Apple has informed some of its component suppliers that demand for the iPhone 13 models is slowing ahead of the holidays, reports Bloomberg. Reports of weakening demand come as delivery estimates for the ‌iPhone‌ 13 and 13 Pro have started to improve, with the devices available to ship before Christmas.

Apple in October cut 2021 iPhone 13 production by as many as 10 million units because of industry wide chip shortages. Apple was planning to produce 90 million ‌iPhone‌ 13 models in 2021, but Broadcom and Texas Instruments were unable to deliver enough components.

According to Bloomberg, Apple was aiming to make up the shortfall in 2022 when supplies improve, but Apple has now informed vendors that it may not end up getting the necessary orders from customers.

During Apple's fourth quarter earnings call in October, Apple CEO Tim Cook said that the supply constraints on iPhones, iPads, and Macs had already cost Apple around $6 billion, and that the supply issues would continue into December.

At launch, available ‌iPhone‌ 13 and ‌iPhone‌ 13 Pro models sold out quickly, and for a good month after launch, there were long lead times on shipments. Cook said during the call that Apple was "working feverishly" to boost iPhone 13 supplies, and it appears that stock is now catching up with demand.

Apple's newest store in Berlin, Germany is set to open on Thursday, December 2, Apple announced today. Apple Rosenthaler Straße is the first Apple Store in the Mitte borough of Berlin, and it joins Apple Kurfürstendamm in the city.

"We're excited to open our second store in Berlin, right in the heart of Mitte," said Deirdre O'Brien, Apple's senior vice president of Retail + People. "Blending Apple's exceptional technology and tools with the creative passion we share with this community gives us the opportunity to create something really special for our customers in Germany."

Located near the Hackesche Höfe, Apple Rosenthaler Straße is located in a historic part of the city that's surrounded by design firms and art studios. The store features the same general ‌Apple Store‌ design that Apple has deployed worldwide with dedicated tables that highlight product options, a Forum and video wall, and a dedicated area for product pickups. There are seven-meter high floor-to-ceiling windows and towering trees inside to complete the look.

To celebrate the store's opening, Apple plans to host Berlin artists from illustrator collective Parallel Universe. Each artist will draw their take on Mitte's creative spirit using an iPad Pro, and customers can also start signing up for Today at Apple classes.

Next year, the Berlin store will offer Today at Apple Creative Studios, an initiative that provides career-building mentorship, industry skills training, tools, and creative resources to underrepresented communities.

Apple Rosenthaler Straße is set to open on Thursday, December 2, at 10 a.m. CET in Berlin. Customers will be able to book appointments for an introduction to the store and shopping, with limited capacity and social distancing measures in place. Starting on December 3, the location will offer walk-ins, pickups, and Genius Bar support.

Amazon today has the MagSafe Battery Pack for $74.99, down from $99.00. The accessory is in stock and ready to ship today, and it's sold by Amazon.

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with some of these vendors. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

This sale has been applied automatically, so you won't need a discount code. The best price we've ever seen on this accessory was at $74.24 at Verizon, so today's deal is nearly a match of the lowest-ever price on the MagSafe Battery Pack.

The MagSafe Battery Pack magnetically attaches to the iPhone 12 or iPhone 13, providing wireless charging while traveling. In total, the accessory is compatible with the iPhone 12, iPhone 12 mini, iPhone 12 Pro, iPhone 12 Pro Max, iPhone 13, iPhone 13 mini, iPhone 13 Pro, and iPhone 13 Pro Max.

You can also visit our full Deals Roundup to shop for even more Apple-related products and accessories.

Apple's Car project recently lost one of its engineering directors, with Michael Schwekutsch departing the company to join air taxi startup Archer Aviation.

As discovered by CNBC, Schwekutsch updated his LinkedIn profile to note that he has taken on a role of senior vice president of engineering at Archer. Archer is an aerospace company that is developing an all-electric aircraft that supports vertical takeoff and landing for navigation within cities.

Schwekutsch first joined the Apple Car project in March of 2019, and he served as a senior director of engineering on the special project group, aka the Apple Car team. Prior to that, he was Tesla's vice president of engineering.

Apple's car development has seen continual management shifts over the course of the last few years. Back in September, special projects vice president Doug Field left Apple for Ford after a three-year stint heading up Apple Car development alongside Bob Mansfield and John Giannandrea.

AI chief John Giannandrea is still overseeing Apple Car development, but with Field's departure, Apple recently brought on Apple Watch chief Kevin Lynch to pitch in. Under Lynch's leadership, the Apple Car project is moving ahead, with Apple aiming to produce a fully autonomous electric vehicle. Apple wants to design a self-driving car that does not require human intervention, a goal that car manufacturers have yet to achieve.

Apple is planning to launch a self-driving car within four years with an aggressive launch timeline around 2025, but whether Apple can achieve that goal remains to be seen.

Apple today seeded the fourth beta of macOS Monterey 12.1 to developers for testing, and while the much-anticipated Universal Control feature is still not enabled, the latest beta does appear to resolve an issue with the "Tap to Click" trackpad gesture.

Since the release of macOS Monterey earlier this year, some users have reported that the "Tap to Click" trackpad gesture would intermittently fail to work. The issue appears to have affected a variety of Macs, ranging from the M1 MacBook Air with a built-in trackpad to an Intel-based iMac paired with a standalone Magic Trackpad.

Following the release of the fourth macOS 12.1 beta today, several users across the MacRumors Forums and Reddit have indicated that they are no longer experiencing issues with "Tap to Click" after updating to this version.

"Tap to Click" can be enabled in System Preferences under Trackpad > Point & Click, allowing users to tap with one finger to click.

macOS 12.1 should be publicly released before the end of the year, with a key new feature being SharePlay, which will allow users to watch movies and TV shows, listen to music, and share their screen with friends and family on FaceTime calls. SharePlay is already available on iOS 15.1, iPadOS 15.1, and tvOS 15.1.