MacRumors

Apple last month introduced the new "Find My" Network Accessory Program, built to allow third-party products to work with Apple's own ‌Find My‌ app. While Apple's AirTags have yet to be formally announced, this program was seen as a way for Apple to level the playing field with competing Bluetooth location trackers, like Tile, and avoid accusations of Apple monopolizing the market.

In a new report today by The Washington Post, there are more aspects to this program that haven't been previously detailed, including far stricter rules for third-party companies using the ‌Find My‌ app. According to an anonymous developer who shared a secret 50-page PDF from Apple about ‌Find My‌, customers who use Apple's app to locate a device will be barred from using third-party services simultaneously.

Although the details remain sparse, this suggests that while you will be able to link a Tile tracker to ‌Find My‌ and use Apple's app to locate a lost wallet, for example, you would then be prevented from using Tile's own app to do the same. Additionally, because of Apple's restrictions to "always allow" location access, every outside company will have to ask each Apple user for permission to obtain their location, which is a notable hindrance for item location apps.

Another issue pointed out by developers is their limited access to the iPhone's Bluetooth antenna and other Apple hardware. While the ‌Find My‌ app can use these pieces of hardware whenever it needs to, third-party software can only use the Bluetooth antenna within certain thresholds, and if the developers go beyond that Apple cuts their access off and prevents the software from working. Notably, according to these developers, Apple does not inform them what the specific threshold is.

Following the announcement of Apple's ‌Find My‌ app and amid the rumors swirling of Apple's own Bluetooth tracking hardware, Tile began taking action against Apple. The company accused Apple of abuse of power and of illegally favoring its own products in a letter sent to the European Union in May. Tile said that Apple was making it more difficult for users to operate the Tile Bluetooth trackers on iOS devices, "by selectively disabling features that allow for seamless user experience."

Despite the claims made by developers in The Washington Post today, Apple spokesman Alex Kirschner said that the company sees its Find My Network Accessory Program as helpful to smaller companies that lack resources to build a location-finding service: "If you were a smaller player interested in getting into the finding space and you haven’t built a finding network, this allows you to do that." Apple has denied that its policies are anticompetitive.

Garmin has been hit by a ransomware attack that encrypted the smartwatch maker's internal servers, forcing it to shut down its call centers, website, and the Garmin Connect service, which users rely on to sync their activity via the mobile app.

In messages shared on Twitter, the company apologized to users and gave details on the extent of the forced shutdown.

The attack also affected Garmin's aviation database service, flyGarmin, which supports aviation navigational equipment, and some production lines in Asia, according to ZDnet.com.

Officially, Garmin has not referred to the outage as the result of a ransomware attack, but company employees have since taken to Twitter and described it as such.

Taiwanese tech news site IThome published an internal memo from Garmin's IT department to its Taiwan-based factories announcing two days of maintenance on Friday and Saturday, which sources told the website was down to a "virus."

(Via The Guardian.)

Apple Maps appears to have started alerting users of self-isolation guidance for international travelers if they've recently been at an airport.

Kyle Seth Gray shared on Twitter an alert he received on his iPhone after being at an airport, suggesting the notifications are targeted geo-location based alerts, rather than being linked to any personal details about international travel.

The linked CDC guidance advises recent travelers to take their temperature with a thermometer twice a day to check for fever, to stay at home and avoid contact with others, not to take public transport, and to stay 2 meters away from other people.

‌Apple Maps‌ started displaying COVID-19 testing locations within ‌Apple Maps‌ in April.

(Via 9to5Mac.)

Apple's iPhone 11 is now being made in India, the first time a top-of-the-line model has been manufactured in the country, according to a report by the The Economic Times.

The flagship smartphone is being manufactured at a Foxconn plant near Chennai, and Apple is planning to increase production in phases and may even consider exporting ‌iPhone‌ 11 handsets made in India, reducing its dependence on China.

Apple also sells China-made ‌iPhone‌ 11 handsets in India, so stepping up local production is a way to make the most of the government's Made in India initiative, which could see Apple save 22 percent on import duties and give it the option to potentially reduce prices.

A previous ET report said Apple could be planning to produce up to $40 billion worth of smartphones in India through contract manufacturers Wistron and Foxconn. Foxconn is also planning to invest $1 billion in the country to expand a local ‌iPhone‌ assembly plant, according Reuters.

Apple is rumored to be expanding its presence in India by introducing an online Apple Store in the third quarter of 2020. The company is also reportedly working on opening retail locations in the country beginning with a store in Mumbai.

An antitrust hearing held by the U.S. House Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee where Apple chief Tim Cook was set to join other big tech CEOs is likely to be postponed, according to a report on Thursday.

The hearing involving Cook, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Alphabet/Google CEO Sundar Pichai, and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was supposed to happen next Monday, but two sources told CNBC that it was now unlikely to take place due to a conflict with the memorial service for the late representative John Lewis.

The hearing is meant to be the culmination of a more than year-long investigation into the four tech giants. After the hearing, lawmakers plan to publish a report based on their findings and propose legislation to bring antitrust laws up to date to deal with issues unique to digital marketplaces.

A recent report by The Information underlined Cook's initial reluctance to take part in the hearing, and how under the pressure of a potential subpoena, Cook ultimately agreed to participate.

Cook is said to have spent the better part of a month preparing for the hearing, which may touch on a wide range of subjects from App Store policies to Apple's disputes with the FBI over providing methods for law enforcement to access locked devices to Apple's relationships with China.

Update: The antitrust hearing with Apple CEO ‌Tim Cook‌ and other tech CEOs has been officially postponed. A new date has not been announced.

During its second quarter earnings announcement, Intel today said that it has delayed the rollout of its 7-nanometer chips by six months, which pushes the release date to late 2022 or early 2023 (via Tom's Hardware).

Intel's yields for its 7nm process are now twelve months behind its internal target. From Intel's earnings release:

The company's 7nm-based CPU product timing is shifting approximately six months relative to prior expectations. The primary driver is the yield of Intel's 7nm process, which based on recent data, is now trending approximately twelve months behind the company's internal target.

Intel CEO Bob Swan in the Q2 2020 earnings call said that Intel identified a "defect mode" in the 7nm process and has invested in "contingency plans" that include external third-party foundries. At the end of the call, Swan said that he's "not happy" with Intel's 7nm performance. Intel was originally aiming to release 7nm chips in 2021.

While the new 7nm process is in development, Intel plans to launch 10nm-based "Tiger Lake" chips in the near future, and the company's 10nm-based server CPU "Ice Lake" is on track for launch later this year. A new line of client CPUs codenamed "Alder Lake" will launch in the second half of 2021, which will include its first 10nm-based desktop CPU.

Intel has struggled with multiple yield issues over the years, which has led to chip delays and roadmap changes. Intel's issues are perhaps one of the reasons that Apple has decided to ditch Intel chips in favor of its own Arm-based chip technology for Macs. Apple has in the past been forced to delay updates or use older chips because of delays in Intel's production plans.

Starting this year, Apple is transitioning the Mac lineup to its own Apple Silicon chips, with the first Mac processors to be based on the 5-nanometer A14 chips in the works for the 2020 iPhone lineup.

Apple hasn't provided details on which Macs will get Apple Silicon chips first, but rumors suggest the 13-inch MacBook Pro and 13-inch MacBook Air models could be updated with the new chips before the end of the year. Apple says it will take two years to transition away from Intel chips entirely.

Apple designed iOS 14 with several new features that improve how the AirPods and the AirPods Pro work with iPhones and iPads, including spatial audio, better device switching, battery notifications, and Headphone Accommodations for those who need help with sounds and frequencies.

This guide covers all of the new features that Apple added for the AirPods in iOS 14.

Spatial Audio (AirPods Pro Only)

When Apple announced spatial audio during the Worldwide Developers Conference, it was a feature that was a major surprise and one that sounded like something out of a science fiction movie. Spatial audio makes audio sound like it's coming right from your device rather than coming from headphones, providing a unique listening experience.

With spatial audio, Apple uses dynamic head tracking and iPhone positioning to bring a movie theater surround sound experience to the ‌AirPods Pro‌. Using directional audio filters and subtle adjustments to the frequencies that each ear receives, spatial audio is able to put sounds anywhere in space for a more immersive audio experience when watching TV shows and movies.

Spatial audio is able to take advantage of the gyroscope and accelerometer in the ‌AirPods Pro‌ and ‌iPhone‌ to track head movement and device location, comparing motion data and remapping the sound field on the fly so it stays anchored to the ‌iPhone‌ even as your head moves around.

Spatial audio was enabled through a firmware update that was released in September, and using the feature requires the firmware update along with the iOS or iPadOS 14 update. On ‌iPhone‌, spatial audio works with the ‌iPhone‌ 7 and later.

On iPad, spatial audio works with the iPad Pro 12.9‑inch (3rd generation) and later, the ‌iPad Pro‌ 11‑inch, the iPad Air (3rd generation), the ‌iPad‌ (6th generation) and later, and the iPad mini (5th generation).

• How to Use Spatial Audio on AirPods Pro
• All the Apps That Support Spatial Audio

Automatic Device Switching

AirPods and ‌AirPods Pro‌ already feature quick and easy device switching for devices where you're signed in with your iCloud account, but iOS 14, iPadOS 14, tvOS 14, watchOS 7, and macOS Big Sur make device switching even easier.

With the updates installed, AirPods and ‌AirPods Pro‌ automatically switch between your devices that are paired to the same ‌iCloud‌ account. So if you're listening to music on your ‌iPhone‌ but switch over to watching a video on your Mac, your AirPods will seamlessly connect to the Mac.

Right now, you can swap quickly, but on most devices it requires accessing the Bluetooth settings for your secondary device if the AirPods are already paired to a primary device.

Automatic device switching requires an ‌iCloud‌ account and it works on ‌iPhone‌, ‌iPad‌, iPod touch, Mac, and Apple Watch with the latest software versions installed. Automatic switching works with the ‌AirPods Pro‌ and the second-generation AirPods, and it is not compatible with the original AirPods. It also works with Powerbeats, Powerbeats Pro, and Beats Solo Pro.

• AirPods: How to Automatically Switch Between Devices

Battery Notifications

If your AirPods are getting low on battery and need to be charged, your ‌iPhone‌ or ‌iPad‌ will let you know with a notification so you can charge them up before they die completely.

Optimized Charging

To maximize the longevity of the AirPods, Apple added a new Optimized Battery Charging feature in iOS 14. Optimized Battery Charging lets the AirPods learn your daily charging routine and will wait to finish charging past 80 percent until they're needed.

Apple uses a similar battery optimization feature for iPhones and Macs to extend the total battery life of the devices. Avoiding having a lithium ion battery at max charge continually can better preserve battery health over time.

Headphones Accommodations

Headphones Accommodations is an Accessibility feature for those who are hard of hearing, and it's able to amplify soft sounds and adjust frequencies to make music, movies, calls, and more sound more crisp and clear.

You can get to the Headphones Accommodations functionality in the Accessibility section of the Settings app by tapping on AirPods > Audio Accessibility Settings > Headphone Accommodations.

From there, you can get access to all of the different options available such as tuning audio for Balanced Tone, Vocal Range, or Brightness or adjusting the volume of soft sounds to be louder.

There's also a Custom Audio Setup that walks through a test with soft speaking and different music to determine whether you have specific audio preferences that should be compensated for with the Headphone Accommodations feature.

Headphone Accommodations works with the Transparency mode on ‌AirPods Pro‌ too, making quiet voices louder and tuning the sounds of the environment around you to meet your audio needs.

• iOS 14: How to Enhance Speech, Movies, and Music When Listening on AirPods and Beats

Hearing Health

Apple expanded Hearing Health protections in iOS 14 and watchOS 7 and the ‌iPhone‌ now sends notifications to the Apple Watch when you're listening to music too loud and can reduce your headphones volume to a safe level once you've hit the World Health Organization's recommended safe weekly listening dose.

Reduce Loud Sounds, a new feature under Sounds & Haptics, can be enabled to analyze headphone audio and reduce any sound that is over a certain decibel level, which you can set yourself. These features work with the AirPods and ‌AirPods Pro‌, along with other headphone options.

• iOS 14: How to Reduce Loud Sounds When Listening Over Headphones

Control Center Volume Monitor

If you have the "Hearing" feature added to Control Center when you listen to music with the AirPods or other headphones, you can see a live meter of the volume level to make sure the decibel level is safe.

Just swipe down from Control Center and tap on the ear icon (after it's been added to Control Center) to see the live reading.

• iOS 14: How to Check Headphone Audio Level in Real Time

AirPods Pro Motion API

Apple designed a Motion API for the ‌AirPods Pro‌ that developers can take advantage of. The Motion API lets developers access orientation, user acceleration, and rotational rates, which is useful for fitness apps and games.

Developers can build the API into apps that ‌AirPods Pro‌ owners will be able to download.

Guide Feedback

Have questions about the new iOS 14 AirPods capabilities, know of a feature we left out, or or want to offer feedback on this guide? Send us an email here.

Apple partner Corning today unveiled its latest product, which it is calling Gorilla Glass Victus. Gorilla Glass Victus is more scratch resistant than previous versions of Gorilla Glass, and Corning says that manufacturers who use it for their devices will see significant gains in drop and scratch performance.

Corning shared a video showing off Gorilla Glass Victus surviving a series of tests, including drops of up to two meters. In a Knoop Diamond Scratch Test, the Victus glass was able to withstand an 8 Newton Load, beating out competing products that were tested alongside it, and it was also able to withstand more pressure and more drops before succumbing to breakage.

Corning regularly comes out with new versions of Gorilla Glass that are more impact resistant, but improved scratch resistance has been harder for the company to improve upon in a significant way.

Devices made with Victus glass should be able to better withstand scratches, but they still won't be invulnerable. When The Verge asked Corning VP Jaymin Amin if bits of dirt, sand, metal, and other materials could still cause a scratch, Amin said that kind of caveat would likely apply to "any glass material." Gorilla Glass Victus, though is able to "reduce those instances quite dramatically."

Corning has been a longtime Apple supplier, with Gorilla Glass used in devices across Apple's product lineup. Apple in 2017 provided Corning with $200 million for research, development, and new equipment as part of Apple's Advanced Manufacturing Fund. Apple provided another $250 million in late 2019.

Corning told The Verge that at least one smartphone manufacturer found Victus to be so much better than Gorilla Glass 6 that it has decided to put a thinner layer of the new glass on its devices instead of maximizing durability, but there's no word on which manufacturer this was.

Samsung will be the first manufacturer to introduce a product with Victus glass in the coming months, and other unspecified manufacturers are also working on devices with Victus Glass.

Following a drop in ad revenue, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey today told analysts that the social media company is exploring additional ways to make money, which could include some kind of subscription service.

According to CNN, Dorsey said Twitter is likely planning some tests this year of different approaches, but there is a "a really high bar" for when Twitter would ask customers to "pay for aspects of Twitter." The comments were made as part of Twitter's second quarter earnings report.

Twitter is in the "very, very early phases" of exploring different options, and the comments come following a Twitter job opening earlier this month that sought someone to work on a subscription platform codenamed "Gryphon."

Like most other social networks, Twitter is a free service that currently makes money from ad revenue, but Dorsey said there "is a world" where Twitter could also have a complementary subscription service.

"We want to make sure any new line of revenue is complementary to our advertising business," Dorsey said. "We do think there is a world where subscription is complementary, where commerce is complementary, where helping people manage paywalls ... we think is complementary."

Spending on advertising has dropped amid the ongoing public health crisis, which has impacted social networks and other services and sites that rely on ad revenue. Twitter's second quarter ad revenues came in at $562 million, down 23 percent from Q2 2019.

Twitter's earnings report comes following the major Twitter hack last week that saw bitcoin scammers manipulating Twitter employees to gain access to Twitter's internal systems. The scammers were able to access the accounts of many high-profile companies and individuals, including Apple, and Twitter is still working on managing the aftermath of that attack.

Verizon today announced the launch of a new feature called Silence Junk Callers, which is designed to recognize calls identified by Verizon as potential spam or fraud and then automatically send them to voicemail.

Verizon says that this feature is available to Verizon customers who have upgraded to the Call Filter Plus service and who are running the iOS 14 beta.

Call Filter Plus costs $2.99 per month for a single line and it provides services like spam detection, spam filtering, caller ID, spam look up, and a personal block list.

There is a free Call Filter service that Verizon offers, but it does not work with the new Silence Junk Callers feature at this time and it is limited to spam detection and spam filtering. Later this year, Verizon plans to provide the Silence Junk Callers option to all customers with Call Filter for free, so it won't always be limited to the premium subscription plan.

Several states have undertaken an investigation that is seeking to determine whether Apple deceived customers, according to documents discovered by the Tech Transparency Project and shared by Axios.

Details on the investigation are sparse, and it's not clear what Apple is under investigation for. The documentation suggests that the Texas attorney general could sue Apple for violating deceptive trade practices in the state as part of a multi-state investigation, but little else is known.

The document that was shared with Axios is from March and it says that Texas AG's Consumer Protection Division initiated an investigation "for enforcement purposes," and if violations are found, "enforcement proceedings" will be initiated.

As Axios points out, the consumer protection law in Texas policies practices that are false, deceptive, or misleading, but again, there's no specific word on what Apple did to trigger the investigation. A spokesperson for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton declined to comment to Axios on the investigation, as did Apple.

Apple also is facing a U.S. antitrust investigation alongside Google, Facebook, and Amazon, as well as an antitrust complaint from the European Commission, both of which are focusing on Apple's App Store fees and policies.

Apple CEO Tim Cook is set to testify in the U.S. antitrust hearing on Monday, July 27 at 12:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

Apple today seeded the second public betas of upcoming iOS and iPadOS 14 updates to its public beta testing group, two weeks after seeding the first iOS and iPadOS 14 betas to public beta testers. The second public beta corresponds to the third developer beta that was released yesterday.

Public beta testers who have signed up for Apple's beta testing program can download the iOS/‌iPadOS‌ 14 updates over the air after installing the proper certificate from the Public Beta website on an iOS device, with instructions available in our how to. The updates should not be installed on primary devices as this is beta software and could have serious bugs.

• How to Install iOS 14 (Public and Developer Betas)

iOS 14 brings changes to the Home Screen, including widget support. Widgets can now be placed right next to your apps, and with the focus on widgets, Apple has introduced new widgets from default apps and is allowing them to be customized in three sizes.

You can put widgets anywhere on any app page, with new widgets able to be found in the widget gallery. Along with widgets, Apple has introduced an App Library, which is an interface that shows all of the apps on your iPhone both in smart folders that are created automatically and in an alphabetical list.

With the App Library providing access to all your apps, there's now an option to hide entire app pages from your ‌iPhone‌, so you can avoid a cluttered Home Screen.

Apple has worked to make the ‌iPhone‌'s interface more compact, and incoming phone calls and Siri requests no longer take over the whole screen and are instead presented in a banner style, a feature also available on iPadOS.

There's a Picture in Picture mode for watching videos or using FaceTime while doing something else at the same time on the ‌iPhone‌. The Messages app has new features focused on group conversations like pinned conversations, mentions, and inline replies.

A new App Clips feature lets you use small bite sized bits of an app without the need to download the whole app, useful for times when you need an app to buy a coffee, rent a scooter, or make a restaurant reservation. App Clips will work through Apple-designed App Clip codes, NFC tags, or QR codes, and can also be shared in Messages or from Safari.

The Health app supports the Sleep Tracking feature added in watchOS 7, and the ‌iPhone‌ will support the Sleep Mode and Wind Down features designed to help you get a better night's sleep. There's also a new Health Checklist that makes it easier to manage health and safety features like Emergency SOS, Fall Detection, and Medical ID.

The Weather app now provides info on severe weather events and minute-by-minute precipitation readings (U.S. only), and the Maps app supports cycling directions for the first time so bike riders can plan routes with info like busy streets, elevation changes, stairs, and more. Maps also now lets electric vehicle owners plan routes with EV charging spots.

The Home app is smarter with automation suggestions and an Adaptive Lighting feature that lets HomeKit lights adjust their color temperature throughout the day, plus there are new features for ‌HomeKit‌ Secure Cameras.

A new Apple-designed Translate app provides text and voice translations to and from 11 languages, and with an on-device mode, translations can be done entirely on your phone.

Tons of new privacy features have been added in iOS and iPadOS 14. Apps need permission before accessing devices on a local network, you get notified when an app accesses the clipboard, and there are little icons in the status bar of the ‌Home Screen‌ when an app is using the camera or the microphone.

There are also new options for limiting access to select photos and providing apps with an approximate location rather than an exact location for better privacy protection. Safari has Privacy Report that tells you which trackers sites are using, and in the future, the App Store will include a summary of developers' privacy practices in an easy-to-read format.

AirPods can now seamlessly and automatically switch between devices, and AirPods Pro gain a new spatial audio feature for surround sound complete with dynamic head tracking.

As for iPadOS 14, it includes most of the new iOS 14 updates, minus the ‌Home Screen‌ redesign. The biggest change is the new Scribble feature that lets you use the Apple Pencil to write on any text field, with the written text converted to typed text.

Scribble works throughout the operating system so you can use the ‌Apple Pencil‌ for Safari searches, adding new items in Calendar and Reminders, sending Messages, handwriting in the Notes app, and more.

The beta 3 update for developers included a new red Music icon, changes to the design of the Music Library in the Music app, a Clock widget, an updated Screen Time widget, and more, with details available in our beta 3 tidbits article.

For more on everything that's new in iOS and iPadOS 14, make sure to check out our iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 roundups, which have a detailed look on all of the new features.

With Apple gradually reclosing many of its U.S. stores as coronavirus cases increase, The Wall Street Journal has taken a look at Apple's strategies and criteria for deciding when and where to close stores, viewing the company as a retail bellwether.

As noted by analyst Gene Munster in the video, Apple's massive cash reserves and its heavy online presence mean that the company can be more aggressive about closing its locations than many other retail companies. As a result, tracking the company's store closures provides an interesting glimpse of what's happening in various areas of the country and trends looking forward.

Apple shared a few specific details about its store closure criteria with The ‌Wall Street Journal‌, noting that it takes into account the following factors from county-level data:

• Case numbers
• Positivity rates
• Hospital, ICU and ventilator usage
• Asymptomatic testing
• Other factors

Apple says it uses publicly available data as much as possible, but if that data isn't available, it will contact public health departments to request it.

Apple closed all of its retail stores outside of Greater China in mid-March, and in mid-May it began reopening most of its U.S. stores. Just a month later, however, Apple began reclosing many of its retail locations, and nearly half of its U.S. stores are currently closed.

Apple CEO Tim Cook is set to join Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Alphabet/Google CEO Sundar Pichai, and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in an antitrust hearing held by the House Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee next Monday, but a new report by The Information takes a look at Cook's reluctance to participate in the hearing and how he and Apple have tried to navigate a polarized political environment.

Some two weeks after the other tech CEOs had agreed to participate in the hearing, Cook was still holding out for fear of getting caught up in issues more relevant to those other companies than Apple.

There was a simple reason for his holdout. According to people familiar with his thinking, Cook was firm in his belief that Apple didn't belong with a group of companies increasingly viewed as antitrust malefactors by lawmakers and regulators, including Amazon, Facebook and Google. What’s more, Cook had spent much of the last four years mostly avoiding the kind of toxic political environment that has engulfed the CEOs of those companies over everything from privacy to censorship to treatment of workers.

But under the pressure of a potential subpoena from Representative David Cicilline, chairman of the committee and a critic of Apple's App Store policies, Cook ultimately agreed to participate in the hearing.

The report indicates that Cook has spent the better part of a month preparing for the hearing, which may touch on a wide range of subjects from App Store policies to Apple's disputes with the FBI over providing methods for law enforcement to access locked devices to Apple's relationships with China.

The full paywalled report goes into much more detail about how Cook has delicately balanced relationships on both ends of the political spectrum, trying to stay above the fray largely by keeping quiet. That approach has helped Apple maintain stability in turbulent times, winning exemptions from tariffs on many of its products and avoiding much of the scrutiny that has been aimed at other tech companies.

Still, Apple and Cook aren't completely immune to criticism, and it remains to be seen whether next week's hearing will lead to any action on antitrust and other fronts.

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.