MacRumors

Benjamin Lyon, who was heading up a sensor team working on the Apple Car, recently departed Apple to join space startup Astra as the company's chief engineer.

Lyon shared the news in an interview with TechCrunch, where he said that he moved on to Astra because he was interested in Astra's vision as it works on small satellite deployment. "I think the Astra vision is this magical combination of fundamentally taking the rocket science out of space. How do you do that? Well, you better have a great foundation of a team, and a great foundation of core technologies that you can bring together in order to make a compelling series of products," he said.

Prior to leaving Apple, Lyon worked on the iPhone, input devices and sensor hardware, and finally, the Apple Car. In 2016, he was working under Bob Mansfield, but Apple Car leadership has since shifted to AI chief John Giannandrea. Prior to leaving Apple, Lyon was reporting to Doug Field, the former Tesla engineer serving as vice president on the project.

Lyon has been on the Apple Car team since 2014, and according to Bloomberg, weathered all of the changes in leadership until moving on to Astra this year.

Apple has commissioned LG Display to develop a display panel destined for a foldable iPhone, according to the Chinese-language version of DigiTimes.

Citing industry sources, DigiTimes claims that LG Display is assisting Apple with the development of a foldable OLED display panel for an ‌iPhone‌. It is not clear, however, if LG Display will supply Apple with this display panel for mass production once it has been developed.

Samsung has been rumored to be Apple's supplier of choice for an OLED foldable display and the company was said to have provided Apple with a large number of foldable display samples for testing last year, so it is unclear how the news of a collaboration with LG fits into this. Apple has used both LG and Samsung OLED displays for the ‌iPhone‌ to date, and it is possible that the display for the long-rumored foldable ‌iPhone‌ may be provided by both suppliers.

Yesterday, it was reported that Apple is planning to launch a foldable ‌iPhone‌ with a 7-inch OLED display and Apple Pencil support as soon as 2023. Apple has been researching foldable devices since 2016, but rumors surrounding a foldable ‌iPhone‌ have noticeably increased in recent months, suggesting that the device may be gathering momentum behind the scenes.

Starting today, Twitter users in India will have the ability to send voice messages in their Twitter DMs that are up to 140 seconds long, the company announced (via The Hindu).

Twitter says the rollout in India will be conducted in phases, so not all users will see the feature straight away. For users who do, there’ll be a new icon that replaces the typical "Send" button within existing or new chats on iOS and Android that starts the recording. Once you begin recording, Twitter starts a countdown from 140 seconds until you press stop, or the time runs out. Before you send the audio message, Twitter does offer you the ability to listen to the recording.

The ability to record and send messages is currently only available on iOS and Android, while users on the web can only so far listen to recordings. With the rollout in India today, Android Central reports the feature is now available in three countries: India, Brazil, and Japan.

Twitter announced plans to bring voice messages to chat last year as part of its effort to offer users more options to "express themselves in conversations." Support for voice messages follows the rollout of audio tweets in June, and recent testing of audio group room chats called "Spaces."

Disney+ is set to expand its streaming service offering next week with a rollout of its more adult-aimed Star brand to existing subscribers in Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada.

According to CNET, the Star brand will include content from Disney Television Studios, FX, 20th Century Studios, and 20th Television that's more adult-friendly, as opposed to the all-ages content that's currently available on Disney+.

Disney is also reportedly adding parental controls to the Star content to prevent children from gaining unapproved access.

As well as a long list of familiar movies and shows, Star will feature some original content that's currently only available on Hulu and ABC in the U.S., including "Victor," teen drama "Love," detective show "Big Sky," animated series "Solar Opposites", and Marvel show "Helstrom."

Movies including "Can You Ever Forgive Me," Danny Boyle's "The Beach," "Gone in 60 Seconds," and "Taken" will appear on the Star service in March, and every season of The Golden Girls is coming to Disney+ this summer. Disney is also set to bring more Marvel movies to subscribers in Europe within a year.

February 23 is the date that the app will be added to Disney+ for existing subscribers in the above regions. The European countries set to get the Star content include the U.K., Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Austria, Switzerland, Portugal, Belgium, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Iceland.

The Star brand and additional content arrive at a cost, though, as Disney+ is getting a price bump in these regions. In the U.K., the monthly subscription rate is set to increase from £5.99 to £7.99, or £59.99 to £79.90 per year, with an equivalent increase in the EU in euros. Current subscribers however will enjoy a pay freeze until August 23.

The increased cost is in line with a $1 price hike for subscribers in the United States that will come into effect on March 26.

New data shows that Chromebook laptops outsold Mac computers for the first time over the course of a full year in 2020, a year largely driven by commercial demand for lightweight, powerful, and affordable personal computers. The data from IDC (via GeekWire) shows that Windows continues to dominate the market, although its share declined over the course of the year as Chrome OS surged past macOS into second place.

For the full year, the market share of Windows was down 4.9% in 2020 compared to 2019, while the Mac grew from 6.7% to 7.5%. IDC's data includes collective information about desktops, laptops, and workstations, and doesn't provide a breakdown of specific different product types. It is worth noting, however, that Chrome OS includes products made by Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, and Lenovo.

Demand for personal computers skyrocketed during 2020, largely thanks to the shift to working and learning at home. Market data estimates that in Q4 of 2020, the Mac grew by around 30% compared to the same quarter the previous year. In comparison to other makers, Apple had the most significant year-over-year growth in the quarter.

In addition to market shifts due to changes in work and school patterns, the fourth quarter of 2020 notably also saw Apple launched its first Apple silicon Macs, which have been very well received.

Apple's iPhone 12 Pro Max held the title of most popular 5G smartphone in 49 of 50 U.S. states as of January 2021, according to PCMag, citing data from Speedtest.net parent company Ookla and research firm M Science.

The methodology behind the rankings:

M Science directly tracks sales, and gave us cumulative sales figures up until Jan. 23. Ookla looks at the usage of its Speedtest apps on consumers' phones, and gave us data for tests taken in January. They agree that the iPhone 12 Pro Max is the most popular 5G phone in the US.

The standard iPhone 12 Pro was the most popular 5G smartphone in Vermont and the Washington, D.C. capital region, the report claims.

While the iPhone 12 Pro Max, iPhone 12, and iPhone 12 Pro took the top three spots in the rankings, the smaller iPhone 12 mini was far less popular, in line with reports indicating that the 5.4-inch device has faced lackluster sales. Samsung's Galaxy S20+ and Galaxy S20 Ultra rounded out the top five best-selling 5G smartphones.

iPhone 12 models support ultra-fast mmWave 5G in the United States, and rumors suggest that iPhone 13 models will expand mmWave support to additional countries.

Apple today seeded the second beta of an upcoming macOS Big Sur 11.3 update to developers for testing purposes, with the new beta coming two weeks after the launch of the first beta and a little over two weeks the release of macOS Big Sur 11.2, a bug fix update.

Developers can download the ‌‌macOS Big Sur‌‌ 11.3 beta using the Software Update mechanism in System Preferences after installing the proper profile from the Apple Developer Center.

macOS Big Sur 11.3 introduces more customization options for Safari, adding a way to rearrange the different sections on the Start Page like Favorites, Reading List, Siri Suggestions, Privacy Report, and more. Developers also have access for a new integration to develop features for the Start Page.

The update also includes optimizations for using iOS apps on M1 Macs. When running iPhone and iPad apps on ‌M1‌ Macs, there's a Touch Alternatives preference pane that allows users to set keyboard commands for touch input alternatives, plus iPadOS apps launch with a larger window if the Mac's display allows it. Touch Alternatives can be enabled for ‌iPhone‌ or ‌iPad‌ apps by clicking on the app's name in the menu bar and then selecting the Preferences option. Touch Alternatives let you customize taps, swipes, and drags.

In the Reminders app, reminder lists can be sorted by Due Date, Creation Date, Priority, or Title, and there is an option to print lists by going to File > Print. Reminders can also be moved manually across lists with drag and drop, something that wasn't possible before.

Apple is adding a new "Made For You" library shortcut in Apple Music for finding personal mixes and Replay playlists, and the Listen Now section has been updated with support for highlighting live events.

There are new sorting options in the Reminders app along with options to print, and ‌Apple Music‌ has been updated with a Made for You shortcut and a live events option in the Listen Now section.

In the Apple News app, there's a redesigned ‌Apple News‌+ tab with a dedicated "For You" section and a new Browse tab that makes it easier to browse through available content. The new For You section is designed to help ‌Apple News‌+ users find favorite magazines and newspapers much faster, plus it adds new tools for managing downloaded issues.

macOS Big Sur 11.3 also adds support for the latest PlayStation 5 DualSense and Xbox Series X/S controllers for use with macOS games.

In the ‌Apple Music‌ app, there's a new autoplay feature that allows the streaming service to continue to play music after a playlist or music queue ends. ‌Apple Music‌ sources music similar to what's in a person's ‌Apple Music‌ library, similar to the autoplay feature added in iOS 14.

With this feature enabled, ‌Apple Music‌ audio will not end even after a playlist or album is over. To check that it's on, play a playlist or album and then click on the three dot/line menu button in the upper right hand corner. From there, make sure the infinity symbol is toggled on.

There's also an updated "Support" interface when accessing "About This Mac." The new design includes details on your warranty and it allows for starting a repair right from the Mac interface.

The tab works similarly to the AppleCare coverage menu in the iOS Settings app, which lets users request repairs, buy an ‌AppleCare‌ plan, and check their coverage.

Code in macOS Big Sur 11.3 suggests that the Optimized Battery Charging feature will now make sure the Mac's battery is fully charged before a scheduled calendar event. The Mac will charge to 100 percent three hours before a calendar event's start time.

Optimized Battery Charging is designed to preserve the lifespan of the Mac's battery by limiting the amount of time that a Mac sits at 100 percent battery.

macOS Big Sur 11.3 brings support for HomePod Stereo pairs, allowing a set of paired HomePods to be set as the default sound output option, with the two HomePods showing up as a single selectable speaker rather than separate as in prior versions of macOS.

Apple today seeded the second betas of new iOS 14.5 and iPadOS 14.5 updates to public beta testers, with the new betas coming two weeks after the release of the first public betas and just a day after Apple provided the second beta software to developers.

Public beta testers who have signed up for Apple's beta testing program can download the iOS and iPadOS‌ 14.5 updates over the air after installing the proper certificate from the Public Beta website on an iOS device.

iOS 14.5 adds a new feature that lets you unlock your iPhone with your Apple Watch when you're wearing a mask, alleviating the need to use a passcode to get into an ‌iPhone‌ with Face ID when you have a mask on. Using this feature requires both iOS 14.5 and watchOS 7.4, and it is opt-in. It can be activated in the Settings app under ‌Face ID‌ & Passcode.

Dual-SIM 5G support is now available globally on ‌iPhone‌ 12 devices, so if you have more than one phone number associated with your ‌iPhone‌, both lines can now take advantage of 5G networks. Previously, Dual-SIM functionality was limited to LTE in all countries except for China.

With iOS 14.5, iPadOS 14.5, and watchOS 7.4, AirPlay 2 support is available for Apple Fitness+, which lets a workout played on the ‌iPhone‌ or the iPad to be AirPlayed to an ‌AirPlay‌ 2-compatible smart TV or set-top box.

The latest PlayStation 5 DualSense and Xbox Series X controllers are compatible with the ‌iPhone‌ and the ‌iPad‌ after updating, and there's a new feature that lets Siri make an emergency call for you.

iOS 14.5 includes a Waze-like crowdsourcing feature for reporting accidents, hazards, and speed checks along a route in Maps when getting directions.

There's a new "Report" button available in the Apple Maps app that lets you tap to report an accident, hazard, or speed trap at your location in the ‌Apple Maps‌ app, which is a feature that mapping app Waze offers. This is available directly on the ‌iPhone‌ and in CarPlay.

iOS and iPadOS 14.5 add a new feature for choosing a default streaming music service to use with ‌Siri‌. So if you prefer Spotify over Apple Music, for example, you can now choose Spotify as the default app to use with ‌Siri‌ and all ‌Siri‌ song requests will go through Spotify without the need to add "on Spotify" to the end of ‌Siri‌ requests.

Though not in the update as of yet, iOS 14.5 has code that suggests Apple is adding Family Sharing functionality for the Apple Card, allowing multiple users to share a single card. iOS 14.5 is the update where Apple will officially enable App Tracking Transparency, so developers will need to ask for and receive a user's permission to track their activity across apps and websites for ad targeting purposes.

The second beta of iOS 14.5 adds new emoji characters, new Shortcuts, ‌Apple Music‌ tweaks, and more, with a full list of changes available in our beta 2 guide. A complete list of features in iOS 14.5 so far can be found in our iOS 14.5 guide.

Apple has said that iOS 14.5 will be released to the public in the early spring, so we can expect to see a launch at some point in March, with the spring season officially starting on March 20. Apple has also seeded a new beta of tvOS 14.5 to fourth and fifth-generation Apple TV users who are signed up for the public beta.

Apple today seeded the second beta of an upcoming watchOS 7.4 update to public beta testers, with the new beta coming two weeks after the first public beta and a day after the release of the second developer beta.

The ‌watchOS 7‌.4 update can be downloaded after upgrading your iPhone to the public beta version of iOS 14.5. After installing iOS 14.5, the watchOS 7.4 software should show up, as long as you have the proper profile from Apple's beta software website. To update to the new software, the ‌Apple Watch‌ needs to have 50 percent battery life, it must be placed on the charger, and it must be in range of the ‌‌‌‌‌‌‌iPhone‌‌‌‌‌‌‌.

Alongside iOS 14.5, watchOS 7.4 introduces a new "Unlock with Apple Watch" feature that lets an ‌iPhone‌ with Face ID use an unlocked and authenticated Apple Watch as a secondary authentication measure when you're wearing a mask, alleviating the need to enter a passcode to unlock the ‌iPhone‌.

‌Face ID‌ does not work when wearing a mask, but this new Apple Watch feature provides an easy but still secure way to access the ‌iPhone‌ without the hassle of a passcode. It's similar to the Apple Watch unlocking on Mac and can be enabled in the Settings app under ‌Face ID‌ & Passcode.

An unlocked Apple Watch paired with ‌Face ID‌ can unlock the ‌iPhone‌ when a mask is worn, but it's only for mask usage. The Apple Watch cannot be used to authenticate Apple Pay or App Store purchases, nor can it be used to unlock apps that require a ‌Face ID‌ scan. In these situations, the mask will need to be removed or a passcode/password will need to be used instead.

When the Apple Watch unlocks the ‌iPhone‌, you'll feel a haptic tap on the wrist and will receive a notification on the watch, similar to how it works when using the watch to unlock a Mac.

For those who use Apple Fitness+, the watchOS 7.4 update combined with iOS 14.5 and iPadOS 14.5 enables AirPlay 2 for Apple Fitness+, so workouts can be streamed to an ‌AirPlay‌ 2-enabled TV or set-top box. Apple Watch metrics do not show up on the screen when AirPlayed, however, and that feature is limited to ‌iPhone‌/iPad/Apple TV.

watchOS 7.4 is going to be available in a beta capacity for several weeks, with Apple planning to release the update in the early spring.

Utah will officially launch a COVID-19 contact tracing system based on Apple and Google's exposure notification API on Wednesday, according to a press release by the State's health department.

The system will utilize Apple and Google's exposure notification system, which notifies users with the feature enabled if they've come in contact with an individual who has tested positive for COVID-19. Utah is notably one of the few states that initially rejected using the system, and instead opted to use its own system based on less accurate and private GPS and Bluetooth tracking.

Utah's director for the Department of Health Center for Health and Informatics says that contact tracing will enable the state to better manage the pandemic and the outbreak of the virus.

"Contact tracing is an important part of how public health responds and stops disease outbreaks. People who have been in close contact with someone who has COVID-19 are more at risk of getting infected and making others sick,"

Unlike other states which are offering standalone apps, Utah's approach will work without an app and only require{s} users with the latest version of iOS and Android to enable exposure notification within the settings app. In practice, when two individuals with the system enabled come in "close proximity" to one another, they exchange "anonymized 'tokens' that log that close interaction for 14 days."

If someone logs a positive test result for COVID-19 into the system, other individuals who were logged to have come in close contact with them within the last 14 days are alerted to get tested and go into self-quarantine. The system will officially launch on Wednesday, February 17, and Utah residents will receive notification alerts over the course of the week encouraging them to enable the system.

Apple on Tuesday released the second betas of iOS and iPadOS 14.5 to developers, and while there were some new additions worth highlighting, most of the more notable features were thought to be already available in the first set of betas.

However, developer Federico Viticci today discovered another neat new feature not seen in previous versions of iOS 14.5: Apple Music subscribers can now share lyrics as text as well as audio clips containing the sung lyrics.

While viewing the real-time lyrics of a playing song, it's possible to long press individual lines and share them via the Actions menu, which includes support for Instagram Stories.

According to Viticci, if users opt to share over iMessage, an ‌Apple Music‌ card appears in the conversation, and will even allow the recipient to play that specific part of the song in Messages via a playback button.

It's also possible to select up to five lines of lyrics from a specialized share screen, enabling users to create longer cards for use in Instagram Stories and iMessage.

Previously, changes in ‌Apple Music‌ in the second iOS 14.5 beta were only thought to include some additional interface gestures for playing and queuing songs, along with some minor cosmetic tweaks.

For all the other changes that have been spotted in the first and second betas of iOS 14.5, be sure to check our dedicated roundup.

Apple was easily the largest buyer of semiconductor chips in 2020, according to the latest data collected by Gartner. Apple spent $53.6 billion and took 11.9% of the global market share, representing 24% growth year-on-year, while Samsung was the second biggest buyer, spending $36.4 billion and taking 8.1% of the market, representing 20.4% growth year-on-year.

Together, the two companies consumed over $90 billion of the chips in 2020, a $16.6 billion total increase compared to 2019, making up 20 percent of the worldwide market.

Apple retained its position as the No. 1 global semiconductor customer in 2020, thanks mainly to the continued success of AirPods, special demand for Mac computers and iPads, and increasing NAND flash consumption. "Increasing demand for mobile PCs and tablets due to working from home significantly drove the production of Macs and iPads through 2020," said Masatsune Yamaji, research director at Gartner. "The company also began its transition to Apple silicon for its Mac product line in the second half of 2020."

The top 10 companies in 2020 remained the same as in 2019, but increased their semiconductor spend by 10% in 2020, and accounted for 42% of the total market, up from 40.9% in 2019. Samsung benefited from a big reduction in spending by Huawei, which remained in third position, despite being down 23.5% from 2019.

"The U.S. government increased trade restrictions on Huawei in 2020, limiting its ability to purchase semiconductors, which, in turn, limited its smartphone supply and reduced its market share. However, the Chinese market remains important for semiconductor vendors, as other Chinese smartphone OEMs stepped in to fill the vacuum created by Huawei in the second half of 2020," said Yamaji.

Among the top 10 companies, Xiaomi increased its spending the most (26%) in 2020, having been minimally impacted by the global health crisis thanks to its mainly online-driven sales model. Sanctions on Huawei also enabled Xiaomi to gain more market share in the smartphone market.

Epic Games has filed an antitrust complaint against Apple in the European Union, broadening its legal battle against the tech giant by attempting to appeal to the EU's differing interpretation of antitrust issues compared to those in the United States (via The Wall Street Journal).

Last September, ‌Epic Games‌‌‌ added a Fortnite update that allowed customers to purchase in-game currency directly from ‌Epic, skirting Apple's in-app purchases. That is against Apple's rules, and the move led Apple to pull the app from the App Store, which Epic clearly anticipated, as it wasted no time in taking Apple to court and releasing an anti-Apple marketing campaign simultaneously.

In August, Apple followed through with a threat to terminate ‌‌‌Epic Games‌‌‌' developer account and countersued Epic in October, claiming breach of contract. Last year, Google pulled Fortnite from the Google Play Store for the same reason – introducing a payment system that bypasses the standard app store policy that sees the hosting platform take a 30% share of in-app purchases.

Epic's legal complaint against Apple in the EU joins plaintiffs including Spotify that have prompted a formal investigation by the European Commission into Apple's alleged anticompetitive behavior.

"What's at stake here is the very future of mobile platforms," said Epic founder and Chief Executive Officer Tim Sweeney. "We will not stand idly by and allow Apple to use its platform dominance to control what should be a level digital playing field."

Sweeney said that while the legal case filed in Europe targets Apple, "the broad outlines… are equally applicable to Google, though the timing may be different."

Europe uses different standards than the U.S. when it comes to antitrust issues, focusing more on fairness between competitors than their impact on consumers, which the U.S tends to focus on. Epic has also filed similar lawsuits in Australia and the U.K., accusing Apple of an abuse of dominance.

The European Commission has yet to comment on Epic's complaint, which remains confidential. However, the Commission's ongoing investigation, launched last year, into how Apple Pay is the only contactless payment service allowed on iOS devices, may factor into its considerations of Epic's argument that Apple's operating system should be open to competing stores.

The Mechanical Licensing Collective today announced (via Variety) that Apple and other digital service providers have paid a total of $424,384,787 in historical unmatched royalty fees.

Of that total, Apple paid $163,338,890 which was the highest fee paid out. Spotify paid $152,226,039, which marked the second highest payment. After that, Amazon paid $42,741,507, and Google paid $32,855,222. Other streaming services like Pandora, iHeart Media, SoundCloud, and Deezer paid smaller amounts.

The Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC) that collected the funding is a nonprofit organization that was created in 2019 by the Music Modernization Act and designated by the U.S. Copyright office.

Starting in January 2021, the MLC began providing blanket licenses to eligible streaming and download services in the United States. It collects royalties due under those licenses and then pays them out to songwriters, music publishers, and others to make sure creators are receiving the proper funds for their work. Prior to now, song-by-song licensing was used, making it difficult for streaming services to deliver the proper royalties to all those involved in a song's creation.

The back fees that were paid by streaming companies in January and February are related to the Music Modernization Act's limitation on liability for past infringement. Songwriters, music publishers, composers, and others have long struggled to be paid by streaming music services, which the MLC is meant to address. Music streaming providers also sent data linking royalties to creators, and the MLC's job will be to review and analyze the data provided by the streaming music companies to find and pay the proper copyright holders.

Songwriters, composers, music publishers, and others will be able to register with the MLC to receive the payments that they're owed. The MLC will begin sending out payments in April.

A total of 20 DSPs separately transferred accrued historical unmatched royalties to The MLC as required in order for them to seek the MMA's limitation on liability for past infringement. In addition to the accrued unmatched royalties transferred to The MLC, the DSPs concerned also delivered more than 1,800 data files, which contain in excess of 1.3 terabytes and nine billion lines of data.

The transfer of these monies represents the culmination of a months-long effort on the part of The MLC and these DSPs to develop and implement the specifications for these usage reports. With these historical unmatched royalties and usage reports now in hand, The MLC can begin the process of reviewing and analyzing the data in order to find and pay the proper copyright owners.

Going forward, music providers like Apple are required to send the MLC monthly usage data on streaming content along with the corresponding royalties, which the MLC will dole out. For unmatched royalties, the MLC maintains a database that creators can search to see if they're due missing money.

Apple today informed developers that "health pass" apps can only be submitted by developers that are working with recognized public health authorities.

A "health pass" app is classified as an app that generates a pass that's used to enter buildings and access in-person services based on testing and vaccination records.

Apple says that to make sure these apps are responsibly handling sensitive data and providing reliable functionality, they're being limited to developers work with test kit manufacturers, laboratories, and healthcare providers.

With the recent release of COVID-19 vaccines, we've seen an increase in apps that generate health passes used to enter buildings and access in-person services based on testing and vaccination records. To ensure these apps responsibly handle sensitive data and provide reliable functionality, they must be submitted by developers working with entities recognized by public health authorities, such as test kit manufacturers, laboratories, or healthcare providers. As with other apps related to COVID-19, we also accept apps submitted directly by government, medical, and other credentialed institutions.

Apple has been restricting COVID 19-related apps since March. Apps providing data on COVID must be submitted by developers working with recognized entities such as government organizations, health-focused NGOs, companies deeply credentialed in health issues, and medical or educational institutions. Apple does not allow COVID 19-themed entertainment or game apps, nor any other app not submitted by a qualified developer.

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 informed Apple Authorized Service Providers that it will be introducing a new same-unit repair method for iPhone 12 mini and iPhone 12 models exhibiting certain issues that would typically require a whole-unit replacement.

In an internal memo, obtained by MacRumors, Apple said technicians will be able to offer same-unit repairs starting February 23 for iPhone 12 mini and iPhone 12 models that are unable to be powered on or are experiencing issues with the logic board, Face ID system, or the enclosure of the device, such as cracked rear glass.

Apple Authorized Service Providers (and likely Genius Bars) will have a new "iPhone Rear System" part available to them that consists of the rear enclosure of an iPhone with all components except the display and rear camera, including the battery, logic board, wireless charging coil, Taptic Engine, Face ID system, and so forth.

If a customer has an iPhone 12 mini with cracked rear glass, for example, technicians will be able to replace the entire rear portion of the device, with the new enclosure affixed to the original display and rear camera. For this reason, the customer's display and rear camera must be free of damage or functional failures in order for their device to qualify for this same-unit repair method, according to Apple.

The new repair method will be available in all countries and regions where the iPhone 12 mini and iPhone 12 are sold, according to Apple. iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max models do not appear to be eligible at this time.

In its memo, Apple said this move supports the company's ongoing commitment to reducing the carbon footprint of every product it sells.