MacRumors

A video purporting to be of the third-generation Apple Pencil has today been shared online, showing a glossy finish that mirrors previous leaks.

The brief video from Twitter account @ileakeer, spotted by 9to5Mac, shows an ‌Apple Pencil‌ with a glossy finish much like the first-generation model, but with the flat edge that was added on the second-generation version for magnetic charging. The design mirrors previously leaked images suggesting that Apple is returning to the glossy finish for the ‌Apple Pencil‌.

Other reports from the leaker "Uncle Pan Pan," who seemingly leaked the entire spring range of iPhone cases, have also said that Apple is actively preparing to launch the third-generation ‌Apple Pencil‌.

It is not clear what new features may be coming to the new ‌Apple Pencil‌, but it seems that upgrades may be more focused on the internals of the accessory rather than any significant external design changes. Nevertheless, it is not unreasonable to expect some added functionality over the current model to justify a new iteration of the device.

The leaked video serves as yet another indication that the launch of the third-generation ‌Apple Pencil‌ is imminent and will likely be announced at the "Spring Loaded" Apple event next week alongside new iPad Pro models.

Facebook is facing calls from an international coalition of children's health advocates to abandon its plans to build a version of Instagram for kids, reports The Guardian.

The campaign follows news that broke in March which revealed that Facebook is developing a version of Instagram that's specifically aimed at children under 13. Instagram's current policy prohibits kids under 13 from using the platform.

In an open letter organized by the youth advocacy non-profit the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, dozens of groups, individual advocates, and researchers call on Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to ditch the plan, arguing that it would put young people at risk and do more harm than good.

A growing body of research demonstrates that excessive use of digital devices and social media is harmful to adolescents. Instagram, in particular, exploits young people's fear of missing out and desire for peer approval to encourage children and teens to constantly check their devices and share photos with their followers. The platform's relentless focus on appearance, self-presentation, and branding presents challenges to adolescents’ privacy and wellbeing.

Younger children are even less developmentally equipped to deal with these challenges, as they are learning to navigate social interactions, friendships, and their inner sense of strengths and challenges during this crucial window of development. Moreover, young children are highly persuadable by algorithmic prediction of what they might click on next, and we are very concerned about how automated decision making would determine what children see and experience on a kids' Instagram platform.

The letter goes on to argue that pre-teens who have established existing Instagram accounts by lying about their date of birth are unlikely to migrate to a "babyish" version of the platform, and that the real target for a kids' version of Instagram is a much younger cohort that doesn't currently use the platform.

Last month, Congress Democrats Edward Markey, Kathy Castor, Richard Blumenthal and Lori Trahan wrote to Zuckerberg to say they had "serious concerns" about his plans to make a version of Instagram for children.

"Facebook has an obligation to ensure that any new platforms or projects targeting children put those users' welfare first, and we are skeptical that Facebook is prepared to fulfill this obligation," the lawmakers wrote.

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.

Microsoft has released a new Kids Mode for its popular Edge browser that allows children to discover the web in a fun way while limiting their access to only approved sites.

Aimed at pre-teens, Kids Mode can be accessed via the profile button in the toolbar, although it doesn't require a child account or a profile to use. It offers options for age ranges 5-8 and 9-12 years old.

Both ranges provide the highest level of tracking protection and use Bing's SafeSearch to filter out adult content from searches, but the 9-12 range adds a news feed to the tab with curated articles from MSN for Kids that includes subjects like science, fun facts, and animals.

Microsoft includes 70 popular kids' sites in its built-in whitelist, and parents and guardians can add more sites if they choose. If a kid tries to navigate to a site outside of that allowed list, they’ll be greeted with a friendly block page, encouraging them to either ask for permission or try navigating elsewhere.

Kids Mode features customizable themes that include Disney and Pixar wallpapers, and Microsoft believes it will be a "game-changer" for parents, with children spending more time online. Kids Mode is available in the browser's latest updates for iOS and Mac.

Firefox will soon hand over FTP requests to other applications, as Mozilla begins to phase out the browser's long-standing FTP implementation in the next stable release.

Mozilla announced its intention to disable support for the FTP protocol last year, but the plan was delayed because of the global health crisis.

One of the oldest network protocols still in use, FTP handles file transfers between a server to a client, but it's no longer considered a secure way of uploading and downloading resources, and there are no good reasons to prefer it over HTTPS.

FTP will be disabled by default in Firefox 88, set to be released on April 19. Come June, all code relating to FTP will be removed altogether with the release of Firefox 90.

"Most places where an extension may pass 'ftp' such as filters for proxy or webRequest should not result in an error, but the APIs will no longer handle requests of those types," wrote Mozilla add-ons manager Caitlin Neiman in a blog post.

"To help offset this removal, ftp has been added to the list of supported protocol_handlers for browser extensions. This means that extensions will be able to prompt users to launch a FTP application to handle certain links."

When Firefox 90 is released, users will need a dedicated FTP browser to access remote servers in the future. Google removed FTP support with the release of Chrome 88 in January.

Information and alleged CADs of the upcoming iPhone 13 series, shared in a video from EverythingApplePro, indicates that Apple plans to make this year's ‌iPhone‌ camera module significantly bigger, likely to make way for larger sensors and sensor-shift stabilization.

According to the CADs shared in the video, the ‌iPhone‌ 13 mini, Pro, and Pro Max camera module will all be a "perfect square." Dimensionally, the ‌iPhone‌ 13 Pro Max camera system will protrude 0.87mm more than the current iPhone 12 Pro Max. As a result, the overall body thickness will also increase by .25mm, according to the CADs. The camera module of the ‌iPhone 12 Pro Max‌ will be 3.38 taller and 4.77 wider.

For the ‌iPhone‌ 13 mini, the CAD shows a diagonal camera setup for the 5.4-inch form factor ‌iPhone‌. Specific measurements from the CAD say that the camera setup will protrude 0.99mm more than the iPhone 12 mini, and be 3.06mm longer in width, and 0.14mm shorter in height. The overall ‌iPhone‌ 13 mini body will be 0.26mm thicker.

Moving over to the ‌iPhone‌ 13 Pro, the camera module itself will be 3.41mm taller and 4.81mm wider than the current ‌iPhone‌ 12 Pro. The significantly larger camera housing will include a larger LiDAR sensor, and while not mentioned in today's video, will likely include better accuracy for corners, edges, and AR. Alongside the increase in actual size, the camera system for the 13 Pro will protrude 3.65mm, compared to the 2.79mm of the current high-end ‌iPhone‌ 12 Pro.

The majority of the information shared today by EverythingApplePro was echoed in a previous report this week from 91Mobiles, who failed to provide specific dimensions, but did offer a look at the larger camera setups. The CADs from EverythingApplePro also corroborate previously leaked information regarding the notch. According to the CADs, Apple will move the earpiece to the bezel of the display, making the notch smaller.

Owners of OPPO's Watch and Band wearables can now use their devices with iPhone, thanks to OPPO's HeyTap Health companion app making it onto the App Store.

Spotted by XDA Developers, the HeyTap app lets OPPO users collect and analyze fitness tracking data collected by the wearables. Users can personalize watch faces, customize workout and health settings, and sync tracking data with Apple Health.

In addition, the app tracks SpO2 data from the Band, and users can keep tabs on their sleep quality, heart rate, and daily activity goals. iOS notification support is also included, so OPPO users can get ‌iPhone‌ notifications on their wrist.

OPPO launched its Watch in China last year, and the Watch and Band have since been made available in additional markets worldwide. Its introduction was met with derision in some quarters because of its similar design to Apple Watch.

OPPO HeyTap is a free download from the ‌App Store‌. [Direct Link]

The Clipper card, used for most transit options in the San Francisco Bay Area, now supports Apple Pay with Express Transit Mode. Starting today, Clipper cards can be added to the Wallet app on an iPhone and Apple Watch and used wherever Clipper cards are accepted.

Clipper cards can be reloaded directly in the Wallet app, making it more convenient to travel throughout the Bay Area. Apple has a dedicated Clipper card website with details on how to transfer a Clipper card to the ‌iPhone‌.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, Clipper cards are used for BART, Caltrain, Muni, VTA and more. With Express Transit Mode, transit can be authenticated with a tap and no need to use Face ID, Touch ID, or touch a transit machine.

Anker, a company known for its range of accessories designed for Apple products, recently came out with one of the first MagSafe-compatible battery packs, so we thought we'd check it out to see how it compares to a standard battery pack.

Design wise, Anker's power bank looks like a typical battery pack, but it has magnets built in that are designed to adhere right to the back of an iPhone 12 model. It's made from a plastic material with some rubber accenting, and it's fairly small and lightweight given that it needs to attach to an ‌iPhone‌ magnetically.

The PowerCore Magnetic 5K Wireless Power Bank is MagSafe-compatible, not MagSafe, so it is limited to 5W charging rather than 15W charging like a MagSafe charger. At 5W, it's going to charge at slower speeds, but since it is able to adhere to the back of an ‌iPhone‌ magnetically, it's more convenient than a standalone power bank because it stays in place.

Magnetic strength is decent, but it stays adhered best when used with a MagSafe-compatible ‌iPhone‌ case. Without a case, the magnet is decent, but the hold is better with a magnetic case.

With a 5,000mAh capacity, the PowerCore Magnetic Power Bank can charge an iPhone 12 mini to full, but for other iPhones, you're only going to get a partial charge. Anker says it can charge the ‌iPhone‌ 12 and 12 Pro to 95 percent and the iPhone 12 Pro Max to 75 percent, so it doesn't have as much capacity as other power banks on the market, but it's still a useful charge amount when you're in a pinch because of its portability and ease of use.

The PowerCore Power Bank can be charged over USB-C, and you can check the charge level with the indicator lights that are next to the USB-C port on the device. You can use Anker's power bank with other Qi-enabled accessories, but the magnetic attachment feature is limited to the ‌iPhone‌ 12 models.

The PowerCore Magnetic 5K Power Bank can be purchased from Amazon for $40, but Anker is having supply issues at the current time and it is out of stock.

Docker today announced that it has launched a new version of Docker Desktop for Mac with Apple silicon support, allowing developers to use the Docker software on the M1 MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, and Mac mini.

Prior to launching, the version of Docker Desktop for Mac with ‌M1‌ compatibility has been available as a technical preview, and Docker says that testers have found the software to be faster and quieter.

The Apple silicon version of Docker is also "just as easy" to get up and running on an ‌M1‌ Mac, allowing developers to rapidly code and test with consistency between development and production environments. Developers can build and run end-to-end on Arm architecture from Docker Desktop on ‌M1‌ Macs to Arm-based cloud servers like AWS Graviton 2.

Docker Captain Ajeet Singh Raina said that the new software will "let you do everything you've been able to do on a Mac already, and you'll be able to do it faster and with less noise."

Docker for Mac [Apple Silicon] can be downloaded from the Docker website.

Apple today announced it is introducing new Fitness+ workouts geared specifically toward pregnancy and older adults, as well as several new Yoga, High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), and Strength workouts for beginners.

The new Workouts for Pregnancy, Workouts for Older Adults, and Workouts for Beginners will be available in Apple Fitness+ on April 19.

The new pregnancy workouts consist of 10 workouts across the Strength, Core, and Mindful Cooldown categories. Every workout is 10 minutes long and designed to accommodate any stage of pregnancy and any fitness level, and includes tips for modifying workouts using a pillow for comfort as the body changes during pregnancy, according to Apple.

The workouts for older adults are focused on strength, flexibility, balance, coordination, and mobility.

Apple is also expanding its roster of Fitness+ trainers by introducing a new Yoga and Mindful Cooldown trainer, Jonelle Lewis, in addition to welcoming current Fitness+ trainer Anja Garcia to the HIIT team.

Last, actress and activist Jane Fonda will share inspiring stories, photos, and a few of her favorite songs in the next episode of Time to Walk in honor of Earth Day. This episode will also be available April 19. Launched in January, the Time to Walk feature provides Apple Fitness+ subscribers with audio stories from influential people that Apple Watch users can listen to with AirPods or other wireless headphones while walking.

Apple Fitness+ is a subscription-based workout video service, available in the United States, the UK, Australia, Canada, Ireland, and New Zealand. A one-month free trial is available for all Apple Watch users.

Peloton appears to be rolling back its support for Apple GymKit on the Bike+, which was one of the first consumer-oriented machines to feature the option of Apple Watch integration, according to Connect The Watts.

Peloton was among the first companies to support GymKit on its home fitness machines, allowing users to easily and directly pair their Apple Watch with their bike. This meant that users could see heart rate information from the Apple Watch on the machine and feed workout metrics into the Apple Watch, the Activity app, and the Health app automatically.

After disabling Apple Watch pairing for Strength and Yoga workouts on the Bike+, one of Peloton's latest updates disables the ability to directly pair the Apple Watch with the Bike+ during Bootcamp workouts. This means that the only remaining class to still work with the Apple Watch is Cycling.

Peloton's responses to complaints about the feature removal on Instagram have claimed that the company hopes "to support GymKit for additional class types in the future," but have inadvertently proven that the gradual removal of GymKit features that has occurred so far is intentional and not a bug.

The move has caused outrage among some Peloton customers, particularly since GymKit was sold as a premium feature on its $2,495 Bike+, and was not available on the cheaper $1,895 Peloton Bike. The Bike+ launched only seven months ago and was largely seen as the only viable consumer option for using GymKit at home.

It is possible that Peloton is planning on releasing its own fitness-oriented smartwatch in the future, which may explain the gradual removal of GymKit features. Peloton purchased fitness smartwatch maker Atlas Wearables earlier this year, so it seems to be a matter of time before the company leverages that acquisition to launch its own integrated smartwatch.

The company would likely want to encourage users who have already invested in costly equipment and an ongoing $39 per month subscription to remain within the Peloton ecosystem with its own smartwatch. Rumors suggest that an announcement of a Peloton smartwatch could come as soon as the end of this month.

Another possibility is that Peloton is concerned about endorsing the Apple ecosystem now that there is a cheaper rival service in the form of Apple Fitness+. Peloton may suspect that Apple Watch users would be attracted to Apple Fitness+, and therefore would not want to provide any additional cause to purchase one by offering integrated features.

Update: Peloton has now confirmed to The Verge that GymKit no longer works in Bike Bootcamp classes and instead will "only be available in cycling classes for now." The Peloton spokesperson also said "Peloton is committed to bringing the GymKit integration to all workouts and disciplines within Apple's terms of service," which seems to suggest that Bootcamp workouts and others that have lost GymKit support did not fall under Apple's terms of service, but it is not yet clear why this would be the case.

Apple recently announced that it will be hosting a virtual event on Tuesday, April 20, and alongside new products like an iPad Pro with a Mini-LED display, new colors are expected for iPhone cases and Apple Watch bands.

Twitter user "Tommy Boi" recently shared a photo of some of the allegedly new colors, including Cantaloupe, Pistachio, Capri Blue, and Amethyst (from left to right).

The leaks have since continued, with Twitter user "Majin Bu" having shared a photo showing off three more allegedly new colors, including a sky blue, mustard yellow, and a red, which could potentially be the existing (PRODUCT)RED case. It's likely that many of these colors will be extended to new Apple Watch bands, like the Sport Band and Solo Loop.

iPhone case and Apple Watch band colors are often refreshed on a seasonal basis. These latest color options will likely be added to Apple's online store following Tuesday's event, which begins at 10 a.m. Pacific Time. We'll have full coverage of Apple's announcements across our MacRumors platforms, so be sure to follow along next week.

Blogger Siobhán Ellis has successfully integrated their electric car into their Apple HomeKit setup, adding in-app toggles for door locking, climate control, and more.

The setup, which is outlined in detail on the blog Practical HomeKit, allows multiple elements of a Jaguar I-Pace electric vehicle to be monitored, controlled, and automated using the Home app.

Using a HomeBridge plugin for the Jaguar InControl API called homebridge-jlr-incontrol, Ellis was able to feed data about the vehicle, such as charging status, charge level, pre-conditioning, and more, into ‌HomeKit‌, as well as send back basic commands. The plugin apparently required "a fair amount" of manual configuration and presented a few warnings, but it works correctly just like many other HomeBridge-based workarounds for ‌HomeKit‌.

Many functions of the vehicle, including climate control, pre-conditioning, locking and unlocking, and charging, are now viewable and controllable in the Home app from any location.

Integration into the Home app allows automations to be created based on battery level, such as automatically charging the car from a HomeKit-enabled power outlet when the battery percentage is low. Ellis also has an automation to pre-condition the temperature of the car and its batteries based on events in the Calendar app. It is also possible to automatically unlock the car at a time of day or under certain conditions.

To accompany the Apple-oriented vehicle upgrades, Ellis added wireless CarPlay. Jaguar does not support wireless ‌CarPlay‌, but Ellis was able to implement the feature herself using a wireless ‌CarPlay‌ adapter called CPLAY2air. Ellis also mounted a MagSafe charger on the dashboard for convenient iPhone charging.

Although this setup has to be created manually via HomeBridge, it shows how it may be useful to add a vehicle to ‌HomeKit‌. Integration with ‌HomeKit‌ opens up the possibility of creating useful Shortcuts as well as Home automations for the vehicle.

With services such as ‌CarPlay‌ available in most new vehicles, new services such as Car Keys expanding, and Apple collaborating with brands such as BMW and Porsche to bring Apple-integrated features to vehicles, it is not inconceivable to think that an official ‌HomeKit‌ integration for cars could be added in the future, especially in view of proof-of-concept projects such as this.

Apple today announced a "first-of-its-kind carbon removal initiative" called the Restore Fund that will make investments in forestry projects to remove carbon from the atmosphere while generating a financial return for investors.

Launched with Conservation International and Goldman Sachs, Apple says the $200 million fund aims to remove at least one million metric tons of carbon dioxide annually from the atmosphere, equivalent to the amount of fuel used by over 200,000 passenger vehicles, with a viable financial model aimed at increasing investment in forest restoration.

Apple says this effort is part of the company's goal to become carbon neutral across its entire "value chain" by 2030. Apple plans to directly eliminate 75 percent of emissions for its supply chain and products by 2030, while the fund will help address the remaining 25 percent of Apple's emissions by removing carbon from the atmosphere.

Apple's environmental chief Lisa Jackson:

Nature provides some of the best tools to remove carbon from the atmosphere. Forests, wetlands, and grasslands draw carbon from the atmosphere and store it away permanently in their soils, roots, and branches. Through creating a fund that generates both a financial return as well as real, and measurable carbon impacts, we aim to drive broader change in the future — encouraging investment in carbon removal around the globe. Our hope is that others share our goals and contribute their resources to support and protect critical ecosystems.

As part of this initiative, Apple and Conservation International have partnered with local conservation organizations in Kenya to restore degraded savannas in the Chyulu Hills region. If similar efforts are scaled up across Africa, Apple says savannah restoration could remove hundreds of millions of tons of carbon from the atmosphere each year.

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 preparing to release a third-generation Apple Pencil, according to a leaker on the Chinese social networking platform Weibo, suggesting it could conceivably appear alongside new iPads at Apple's upcoming "Spring Loaded" April event.

The claim comes from Weibo account "Uncle Pan Pan," which doesn't have much of a track record for sharing accurate Apple information, although it was first to share images that allegedly showcase new colors for Apple's 2021 spring iPhone 12 case collection.

While the latest claim should be taken with a grain of salt, it does hark back to an image shared last month by a proven leaker that allegedly shows a third-generation ‌Apple Pencil‌.

Besides looking glossy, the input device shown in the image looks very similar to the current, second-generation ‌‌Apple Pencil‌‌, which was introduced with the 2018 iPad Pro. The second-gen device is shorter than the original version and charges inductively.

The ‌Apple Pencil‌ depicted also appears to have a considerably larger tip component than in existing versions, with a much longer section that screws into the ‌‌Apple Pencil‌‌ itself, possibly hinting at new technology to support additional features or provide greater drawing accuracy.

Apple still sells the first-generation ‌Apple Pencil‌, mainly to appeal to eighth-gen iPad and iPad mini 5 owners, since the second-gen version only works with the ‌iPad Pro‌ and iPad Air. An ‌Apple Pencil‌ 3 could theoretically bring new functions exclusive to Apple's next high-end ‌iPad Pro‌.

Apple is expected to use its April 20 event to unveil a new 11-inch and 12.9-inch ‌iPad Pro‌, with the higher-end model featuring a brand new mini-LED display. Well-connected Bloomberg journalist Mark Gurman believes that these new iPads will be an "iterative update" to the ‌iPad‌ line.

In today's Weibo post, "Uncle Pan Pan" also shared an image allegedly showing AirPods 3, although Apple isn't expected to launch the third iteration of AirPods until the third quarter of this year, which would rule them out of Apple's April event.

Apple has updated its Transporter app for developers with native support for Apple silicon Macs, while Microsoft has done the same for its Remote Desktop app.

The Transporter app lets developers drag and drop binaries for quick upload to App Store Connect and easily view details like progress, warnings, errors, and delivery history.

The added support for Apple silicon means developers working on an M1-equipped Mac mini, MacBook Air, or 13-inch MacBook Pro should see a significant performance improvement when carrying out the above tasks, not to mention better battery efficiency.

Version 1.2.1 of Transporter also brings stability improvements and bug fixes. Transporter is available as a free download on the Mac App Store.

Microsoft continues its work to bring native M1 support to its Mac apps, with its Remote Desktop being the latest to benefit. The app is designed to give Mac users access to a Windows PC via RemoteFX, and includes the ability to access local Mac files from Windows applications as well as printer capabilities.

As with Transporter, the same general improvements that come with Apple silicon support should apply to the latest version of Remote Desktop, version 10.6.0 of which also brings client-side IME support when using Unicode keyboard mode and bug fixes. Remote Desktop is available as a free download from the Mac App Store.

(Via The 8-Bit.)

Apple supplier TSMC today said it is doing all it can to increase productivity and alleviate the worldwide chip shortage, but that tight supplies will likely continue into next year (via Reuters).

The comments followed a reported 19.4% rise in the Taiwanese firm's first-quarter profit, which beat market expectations, thanks to strong chip demand and a global shift to home working.

TSMC did not mention Apple specifically, but it is a major Apple supplier and this suggests that the ongoing chip shortage could continue to impact Apple. TSMC produces A-series chips for the iPhone, iPad, and Apple silicon chips for the Mac. Foxconn, another Apple supplier, said in March that it expects the global chip shortage to extend into the second quarter of 2022.

An earlier report claimed Apple is facing a global shortage of certain components for some of its MacBook and ‌iPad‌ models, which is causing the Cupertino tech giant and its suppliers to postpone production of the products. Samsung is also said to be feeling the impact in its production of OLED displays, which Apple uses in its iPhones.

The ongoing chip shortage was caused by supply chain issues that arose during the global health crisis and weather-related events like the freeze in Texas that shut down Austin chip plants.

As chip factories struggled to keep up with standard outputs during the pandemic, demand surged as people purchased devices for an at-home lifestyle, leading to higher prices. As a result, electronics companies bought up all available supply, leading chip makers to run at capacity.

TSMC's business was initially boosted by the shortage, but it is now impacting manufacturers of high-performance computing (HPC) products like smartphones and laptops.

"Our first-quarter business was supported by HPC-related demand, balanced by a milder smartphone seasonality than in recent years," said Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Wendell Huang, referring to high performance chips.

"Moving into second quarter 2021, we expect our revenue to be flattish, as HPC-related demand will continue to grow, offset by smartphone seasonality."

At its earnings briefing, TSMC said it expects to post revenues of between $12.9 billion and $13.2 billion in the second quarter of 2021, which is a 1% sequential increase at the midpoint.

TSMC said this month it plans to invest $100 billion over the next three years to significantly expand its production capacity to meet ever-increasing demand. The new investment came the same week that Apple reportedly booked all of TSMC's production capacity for 4nm process chips, which are expected to be used in "new generation" Mac computers.