MacRumors

Microsoft this week began testing mouse and trackpad support in the latest beta versions of its Word and Excel apps for iPad. The functionality was introduced in version 2.42 of each app, available through Apple's beta testing service TestFlight.

Mouse and trackpad support provides rich visual feedback when editing documents or spreadsheets. When using a trackpad, the cursor displays as a circle on the screen, popping up only when you have a finger on the trackpad. The circle then morphs into various other shapes when hovering over app icons, text fields, or other on-screen elements.

iPadOS 13.4 introduced trackpad and mouse support on all iPad Pro models, the iPad Air 2 and later, the fifth-generation iPad and later, and the iPad mini 4 and later. Keyboards with built-in trackpads include Apple's Magic Keyboard, Brydge's Pro+ for the iPad Pro, Logitech's Combo for the 10.2-inch iPad and the 10.5-inch iPad Air, and more.

Microsoft previously said that mouse and trackpad support in the Word, Excel, and PowerPoint apps will be made available to all users at some point this fall.

Apple will launch a 12.9-inch mini LED-backlit iPad Pro in early 2021 and a mini LED-backlit MacBook in the second-half of next year, according to DigiTimes.

The Taiwan-based industry publication claims Epistar will supply the over-10,000 mini LEDs used in each ‌iPad Pro‌ tablet. Meanwhile, Apple is expected to recruit Osram Opto as another supplier of mini LEDs for use in a new "high-end" MacBook, which lines up with supplier information cited by respected analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.

Osram Opto Semiconductors is expected to supply backlight-use mini LED for high-end MacBook in second-half 2021, becoming Apple's second supplier of such chips next to Taiwan-based Epistar, according to industry sources.

Apple is expected to launch 12.9-inch mini LED-backlit iPad Pro in early 2021, with each tablet to use over 10,000 mini LEDs solely supplied by Epistar, the sources said. Epistar is ready to start production of mini LEDs by modifying its blue-light LED chipmaking equipment for producing such mini LEDs in third-quarter 2020, the sources noted.

Kuo has long predicted that a high-end 12.9-inch ‌‌iPad Pro‌‌ would likely be Apple's first mini-LED product. Kuo believes that production will begin on mini-LED displays for the ‌iPad Pro‌ in the fourth quarter of 2020, though a launch may not come until next year.

Kuo has said a mini-LED version of a 16-inch MacBook Pro is in the works for a possible late 2020 release, and that Apple is also working on a mini-LED 14.1-inch MacBook Pro, although he hasn't provided launch information for the latter beyond suggesting there are several mini-LED devices in the works for 2021. According to Taiwanese research firm TrendForce, Apple suppliers won't begin competing to win manufacturing orders for new 14-inch and 16-inch ‌MacBook Pro‌ models with mini-LED displays until the first quarter of 2021.

Kuo has previously said that mini-LED displays will allow for thinner and lighter product designs, while offering many of the same benefits of OLED displays used on the latest iPhones. Mini-LED displays, which use on the order of 1,000 to 10,000 individual LEDs, can offer deeper, darker blacks, brighter brights, richer colors, and better contrast compared to traditional LED-based displays, though the technology comes at a significant increase in cost for the time being.

Apple contract manufacturer Foxconn is running its massive Zhengzhou factory in China 24 hours a day to produce the new iPhone 12, according to Chinese media reports.

Apple's main ‌iPhone‌ manufacturer in China is said to be cancelling workers' holidays and introducing mandatory overtime with additional bonuses for longer-serving staff, according to information garnered from employees, recruitment ads, and local media.

The factory’s ‌iPhone‌ assembly unit has reportedly offered a 10,000 yuan ($1,466) bonus for any worker who started after September 18, stays for at least 90 days and works at least 55 days. For people who joined after September 26, the bonus was 8,500 yuan ($1,246).

Many employees have also been asked to cancel upcoming holidays around the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day this week to ensure timely delivery of the new ‌iPhone‌, initial shipments of which are rumored to be going out to distributors on October 5, with Apple's iPhone-centric event rumored to follow on October 13.

The dates are later than usual for Apple, owing to production delays because of the global health crisis. But as with any other year, Foxconn needs as many hands on deck as possible at its factory in Zhengzhou to assist with mass production of the upcoming iPhones.

Apple is widely expected to announce four ‌‌iPhone‌ 12‌ models, including a 5.4-inch model, two 6.1-inch models, and a 6.7-inch model, all with OLED displays and 5G connectivity. The more affordable 5.4 and 6.1-inch devices are expected set to ship out ahead of the more expensive 6.1-inch and 6.7-inch Pro devices, which are believed to be coming in November.

For everything we expect from the ‌‌iPhone‌ 12‌ lineup, read our in-depth roundup.

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.

Rumors suggest Apple's iPhone 12 launch event will be held on October 13, with the more affordable 5.4 and 6.1-inch devices set to ship out ahead of the more expensive 6.1-inch and 6.7-inch Pro devices, and this morning hit-and-miss leaker Jon Prosser has further committed to that date by providing alleged details on Apple's first shipment of finalized ‌iPhone‌ 12 units.

Prosser claims the initial shipment of ‌iPhone‌ 12 units will go out to distributors on October 5 in advance of the launch event, and this will include the 5.4-inch ‌iPhone‌ 12 "mini" – which he says is "definitely the final marketing name" – and the lower end 6.1-inch ‌iPhone‌ 12 model. Prosser asserts that the two higher-end Pro models will be announced at the same event but will ship later in November.

Prosser also claims that the more affordable models will come in 64, 128, and 256GB storage capacities, which conflicts with a claim he made in May that Apple's ‌iPhone‌ 12 lineup will start with 128GB of storage. Prosser's explanation for the earlier misinformation is that it was given "well before even the [production validation test] ‌iPhone‌ 12 units had started," and in fact it is only the ‌iPhone‌ 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max that will start at 128GB.

By changing his claims about storage capacities, Prosser has aligned himself with proven leaker L0vetodream, who said as early as May that the more affordable 5.4-inch and 6.1-inch devices will start with 64GB while the Pro devices will start with 128GB.

Prosser is a leaker with a mixed track record when it comes to Apple's plans. In August 2020, he claimed new Apple Watch and iPad models would be introduced via press releases. In September 2020, Prosser even narrowed down the day of these press releases to Tuesday, September 8, but no products were announced that day. Instead, Apple sent out invites to its "Time Flies" event, where it did introduce new Apple Watch and ‌iPad‌ models a week later.

Earlier this month, however, Prosser was accurate when he said an eighth-generation ‌iPad‌ and a lower-priced Apple Watch model would be unveiled at Apple's "Time Flies" event, but no new iPhones or AirPods Studio headphones.

Shortly after launching iOS 14, Apple introduced an upcoming iOS 14.2 update, which is now available to developers and public beta testers ahead of a public release that could come at some point in October.

The iOS 14.2 update mainly focuses on the Control Center, introducing a new Music Recognition toggle that deepens the Shazam integration in the iPhone and iPad. We thought we'd test out the new Shazam toggle in the Control Center in our latest YouTube video, giving those who haven't installed the beta a look at what it does.

For those unfamiliar with Shazam, it's designed to listen for music that's playing, providing a song title and artist for identification purposes. Apple's iPhones and iPads have long had Shazam integration, available through the Shazam app and by asking Siri to identify a song that's playing.

After years of ‌Siri‌ integration, Apple acquired Shazam in 2017, and the acquisition was finished in 2018, but until now, Apple hasn't made a move to make song recognition a system-level function.

iOS 14.2 adds a new "Music Recognition" toggle to the Control Center, which you can tap whenever music is playing to get a song recognition. Note that Music Recognition is distinct from Sound Recognition, an Accessibility feature introduced in iOS 14 to help those who are hard of hearing listen for sounds like alarms.

The Music Recognition toggle doesn't show up in Control Center by default (at least in the beta), but it can be enabled by opening up the Settings app, choosing Control Center, and then scrolling down and tapping the "+" button next to Music Recognition.

Tapping the Music Recognition button in Control Center will cause an ‌iPhone‌ or ‌iPad‌ to listen for a song that's playing, and when a song is recognized, you'll be notified through a pop up banner. Tapping the banner opens up Shazam, but a long press will give you the option to open the song right in Apple Music, which is handy for ‌Apple Music‌ subscribers.

Music Recognition works with songs playing in the ambient environment as well as songs playing on your ‌iPhone‌. So if you're watching a video and want to know what song is in it, you can just tap the Music Recognition toggle to find out. It even works when AirPods are connected, so the sound doesn't need to be out loud. This was possible with a ‌Siri‌ command before, but the functionality is easier to use with the simple Control Center toggle.

Along with Music Recognition, there are a few other bonus tweaks in the iOS 14.2 update. The Now Playing interface in Control Center has been redesigned and now, when there's no music playing, it will show suggestions based on songs and albums that you've listened to recently. The design has also been streamlined, and if you want to AirPlay to other devices, there's now a little toggle to tap that brings up all nearby ‌AirPlay‌ 2 compatible devices in a list, rather than displaying them at all times in the widget.

iOS 14.2 also adds one more Accessibility feature, enhancing the Magnifier app on the ‌iPhone‌. There's now an option to turn on People Detection in Magnifier, which lets the app detect people to let those with low sight know when someone is within six feet. The People Recognition option is also able to identify specific people that have been labeled in the Photos app using the ‌iPhone‌'s facial detection feature.

The iOS 14.2 update is available to both developers and public beta testers at this time, so anyone can test it out if desired. It is a beta, so expect some bugs. iOS 14.2 will likely be in beta testing for some time as we await new iPhones, with a launch perhaps coming later in October.

The ongoing legal dispute between Apple and Epic Games continued on today, with a preliminary injunction hearing taking place this morning. We're still waiting to hear the judge's official ruling, but it looks like Epic is not going to be granted an injunction to allow Fortnite back into the App Store as the case unfolds.

Many of the arguments that lawyers for Apple and ‌Epic Games‌ made were similar to the original arguments made in the hearing for the temporary restraining order, which did not exactly go in Epic's favor as Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who is overseeing the case, declined to order Apple to allow Fortnite back into the store at that time.

‌Epic Games‌ continued to argue that Apple has an ‌App Store‌ monopoly and charges excessive fees, but the judge pointed out that the 30 percent rate that Apple collects is the "industry rate" collected by PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo, Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy, Google, and more. "It's all 30 percent and you just want to gloss over it," the judge said to Epic's lawyers.

In response, Epic claimed that consoles are "different" because the hardware is sold at a loss, but the judge was unconvinced. "There doesn't seem to be evidence supporting what you're saying," she said.

Epic said that it wants to create its own store to distribute apps on iOS, but Apple's anticompetitive behavior prohibits it. In response, Apple's lawyers said the request was an indictment of Apple's "entire business model" focused on the "safety, security, and privacy of its users."

Judge Rogers questioned Epic on when, exactly Apple became a monopoly given that its ‌App Store‌ rules have remained unchanged since the ‌App Store‌ launched, which Epic had no solid answer for, responding only that it was a monopoly when Fortnite came to iOS in 2018. She also said that walled gardens have existed for four decades and that what Apple's doing isn't too different. "They created a platform," she said.

She also reiterated that ‌Epic Games‌ made a "calculated decision" to defy Apple's ‌App Store‌ rules, and the court doesn't provide injunctions for contractual disputes. Epic was "not forthright," she said. "There are people in the public who consider you guys heroes for what you did, but it's not honest."

There was a suggestion that the 30 percent fee Epic is meant to be paying Apple could be put into an escrow account that would be doled out at the end of the legal dispute, which is one potentially way that Fortnite could make it back into the ‌App Store‌ in the near future, but it's not clear if the two companies will agree to that.

As noted by CNET, Judge Gonzalez Rogers recommended that Apple and ‌Epic Games‌ consider a trial by jury, which would ensure that the final judgement is better able to stand up to a future appeal. Apple and Epic will need to request the jury trial, however. Regardless of whether there is a trial by jury, the full case is expected to be heard in July 2021.

HYPER, known for its line of HyperJuice chargers, power banks, cables, and more designed for Apple devices, recently debuted its latest charging product on Kickstarter.

The HyperJuice Stackable GaN Charger is equipped with a passthrough AC outlet and up to four ports, depending on the model. With the power adapter, you can charge up all of your Apple devices with up to 100W of power while also leaving the outlet free for other devices.

There's a 65W version with a single USB-A port and two USB-C ports along with a 100W version with a single USB-A port and three USB-C ports. The passthrough outlet offers up to 1500W of power for household appliances, fans, televisions, and more.

The "stackable" part of the name refers a function that several of the HyperJuice chargers stack up on top of one another, so a single outlet can power multiple computers and accessories.

GaN or Gallium Nitride technology allows HYPER to offer a powerful charging capabilities in a smaller package than a traditional charger, and it's a technology that many manufacturers are taking advantage of these days. HYPER says its 100W charger is smaller than every other 100W charger on the market.

The HyperJuice charger also has foldable prongs to keep it compact for travel purposes. It comes in black and white, but Kickstarter backers will receive the black version, with white set to be released at a later date.

The HyperJuice Stackable GaN Charger can be pre-ordered from Kickstarter, with the products expected to ship out in December 2020. Pricing starts at $39 for the 65W model, but there are variable pricing models based on how many of the chargers are sold, and some of the early deals have sold out. Full pricing details can be found on the Kickstarter website.

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

Apple appears to have been planning to introduce country-specific Apple Watch bands for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, but with the games postponed until 2021 due to the global health crisis, they have yet to be released.

Twitter account L0vetodream shared a few photos of the bands over the weekend, including one for the host country Japan and another for Denmark. The custom Sport Loops were designed to match each country's national flag, and they each have an abbreviated country name printed on the underside, such as DEN or JPN.

Apple released similar country-specific bands for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, with 14 custom Woven Nylon bands made available for the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, South Africa, New Zealand, Mexico, Japan, Jamaica, Canada, China, Brazil, Australia, Germany, and France. The bands were available to the public at only one Apple Store in Rio de Janeiro, retailing for $49 each.

The 2020 Summer Olympics are now scheduled to begin Friday, July 23, 2021.

Apple Music is rolling out a small update to its latest weekly playlist, renaming the "Get Up! Mix" to simply "Workout Mix" (via MacStories' John Voorhees). Apple launched the "Get Up! Mix" in March 2020, boosting the weekly curated playlist count to five, including "Favorites Mix," "Friends Mix," "New Music Mix," and "Chill Mix."

The "Get Up! Mix" was built around curating a collection of songs to help ‌Apple Music‌ subscribers get up and move, so the switch to a direct "Workout Mix" makes sense. The new name appears to be rolling out slowly today.

Apple began a large-scale playlist rebranding in 2019, switching "The A-List: Dance" to "danceXL," "The A-List: Hip-Hop" to "Rap Life," "The A-List: Alternative" to "ALT CTRL," and "Best of the Week" to "New Music Daily." All of the playlists essentially stayed the same, but ditched "The A-List" moniker that had been around since ‌‌Apple Music‌‌ launched in 2015.

‌Apple Music‌ received a few updates in iOS 14 this month, with a new "Listen Now" tab that highlights new playlists, albums, and artists that match your listening tastes. ‌Apple Music‌ playlists in the Listen Now section feature larger artwork that is also animated, and pressing the play, pause, next, and back buttons on the Now Playing screen in the app‌ provides haptic feedback.

Roku today announced that AirPlay 2 and HomeKit will be rolling out to select 4K TVs and devices as part of a free software update later this year.

AirPlay 2 will enable users to stream videos, music, podcasts, and more directly from an iPhone, iPad, or Mac to a compatible Roku smart TV, with no Apple TV box necessary. And with HomeKit support, users can easily control the TV's power, volume, source, and more using Siri or the Home app on iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

Roku-based smart TVs are available from brands such as TCL, Sharp, Hisense, Hitachi, Sanyo, and RCA, or customers can connect a Roku streaming stick to their existing smart TV via the HDMI port to access the platform.

Roku OS 9.4 will begin rolling out to select Roku players this month and is expected to roll out to all supported streaming players, including the all-new Roku Ultra and Roku Streambar, in the coming weeks. Roku TV models are expected to receive the update in phases over the coming months, according to the company.

Eligible customers who purchase and activate a Roku device from October 23, 2020 to January 31, 2021 will receive a promotional code for three months free of Apple TV+. The offer is limited to new Apple TV+ subscribers.

The upcoming iPhone 12 lineup may launch earlier than usual in South Korea, reports The Korea Herald.

South Korean telecoms firms speaking to The Korea Herald have said that the ‌iPhone‌ 12 lineup will launch ahead of its usual schedule. Normally, the release of new iPhones in South Korea comes about one month after launch in the United States. Last year, the ‌iPhone‌ 11 arrived in South Korea on October 25, considerably later than its September 20 launch in the U.S.

South Korea was the first to commercialize 5G telecommunications in April 2019, and as of July this year, the country already has almost eight million 5G users. South Korea is expected to be a key market for Apple since the ‌iPhone‌ 12 lineup will be the first with 5G, so this may explain the earlier launch. Crucially, the iPhone 12 Pro Max may be the first smartphone available in South Korea to support the high-frequency 28GHz band for 5G communications, making it considerably more appealing to those with access to the frequency.

Apple is also likely looking to expand its South Korean market share, where it currently owns just 19 percent of the market. Samsung dominates the South Korean smartphone market at 67 percent. An earlier launch, in alignment with other key regions such as the United Kingdom and Germany, may help the company gain more of a foothold in South Korea, and indicates how the country is increasingly important to Apple.

The sources added that South Korean telecoms operators are preparing for the launch of ‌iPhone‌ 12 models in late October or early November. Rumors now seem to be pointing toward the iPhone 12 being unveiled on Tuesday, October 13, followed by a launch on October 23.

For the last few years, Amazon has been hosting an epic Prime Day sale that offers up deals and discounts on a huge range of products, and like 2019, this year's Prime Day will actually take place over two days, kicking off at midnight on October 13.

As usual, Amazon already has some early Prime Day deals on its website exclusively for Prime subscribers, with early discounts on Alexa devices and other Amazon products. Prime Day itself will include discounts on everything from tech products to home products, clothing, toys, and more.

Prime Day 2020 is a little later in the year than usual because of the ongoing global health crisis, but when it starts, Amazon's website will be filled with lightning deals that kick off at different times over the course of the day, with the available products rotating over time. Lightning deals last for as long as stock lasts, and some of the better deals can go quick.

Last year, we did a live blog covering all of the best Apple-related deals available during Amazon's Prime Day, and we plan to do similar coverage this year so make sure to tune in to MacRumors on October 13 and 14 for help sorting through all of the sales.

Prime Day sales are designed for Amazon Prime members, and a Prime membership is required to get the deals, although non-Prime customers can get access to the deals by signing up for a free 14-day Prime trial in October and then choosing not to continue to paid membership at the end of the trial period.

Prime Day discounts will be available to Amazon customers in the United States, U.K., U.A.E, Spain, Singapore, Netherlands, Mexico, Luxembourg, Japan, Italy, Germany, France, China, Canada, Belgium, Austria, Australia, and – participating for the first time this year – Turkey and Brazil.

Scribble is one of the most notable new features in iPadOS 14, and in a new interview with Popular Mechanics, Apple SVP of software engineering Craig Federighi has revealed more details about how it was developed and how it works on iPad.

With Scribble in iPadOS 14, you can use an ‌Apple Pencil‌ to write in any text field, and the written text is then converted to typed text. The feature means you can use the ‌‌Apple Pencil‌‌ without having to swap over to a keyboard when you need to compose an email, write a Calendar event, visit a URL, send an iMessage, or conduct a search.

Federighi explained to Popular Mechanics how Scribble's early development relied on extensive data gathering involving analyzing how people from all over the world write things down.

"When it comes to understanding [handwriting] strokes, we do data-gathering. We find people all over the world, and have them write things," says Craig Federighi, senior vice president of software engineering at Apple. "We give them a Pencil, and we have them write fast, we have them write slow, write at a tilt. All of this variation."

That methodology is distinct from the comparatively simple approach of scanning and analyzing existing handwriting. Federighi says that for Apple's tech, static examples weren't enough. They needed to see the strokes that formed each letter. "If you understand the strokes and how the strokes went down, that can be used to disambiguate what was being written."

The job of integrating stroke-based recognition with character and word prediction is all done on-device, something that machine learning and raw processing power makes possible, explained Apple's software chief.

"It's gotta be happening in real time, right now, on the device that you're holding," Federighi says. "Which means that the computational power of the device has to be such that it can do that level of processing locally."

Thanks to Scribble and iPadOS 14, an ‌iPad‌‌ can be used almost entirely with touch and tools, and there's little need to type. If you're someone who prefers writing by hand, ‌Scribble‌ introduces tools that only enhance the experience. Check out the hands-on video above to see Scribble in action.

A federal judge on Sunday granted TikTok a preliminary injunction that temporarily halts an order from the Trump Administration that would have banned new app downloads in the United States beginning on Monday, reports The New York Times.

Should the order have gone into effect, Apple and Google could have been forced to remove TikTok from their respective app stores, and users who already have the app installed would no longer receive updates.

TikTok can avoid a potential ban by selling its United States business to an American-based company. Last week, it was announced that TikTok would be partnering with Oracle and Walmart to form TikTok Global, a new company that would be headquartered in the United States. Under the initial proposal, Oracle would be responsible for storing user data and could also review TikTok's current source code and that of any subsequent updates.

"We're pleased that the court agreed with our legal arguments and issued an injunction preventing the implementation of the TikTok app ban," a spokesman for TikTok said on Sunday after the judge's decision. "We will continue defending our rights for the benefit of our community and employees. At the same time, we will also maintain our ongoing dialogue with the government to turn our proposal, which the president gave his preliminary approval to last weekend, into an agreement."

President Trump signed an executive order in August giving ByteDance, TikTok's parent company, 90 days to sell its U.S. TikTok business due to possible national security threats from the China-based company. The preliminary injunction granted to TikTok, however, does not block additional restrictions set to be imposed in November that would render the app unusable in the country.

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.

One of the new features that arrived in iOS 14 is called App Clips. App Clips is described by Apple to be a "small part of your app" that can be available to users at just the right moment.

App Clips focus on finishing one task quickly. An ideal App Clip experience allows users to open and complete a task in seconds.

Instead of requiring an App Store download, they can be loaded and run via Safari, and once done with the experience, the full app download is offered to the user. Early examples given by Apple included take-out order apps, scooter rental apps, or apps to set up an appliance for the first time.

Game developer Firi Games has implemented an App Clip for their space shooter game Phoenix 2. The App Clip can be played by visiting their Phoenix 2 website on an iOS 14 device and tapping "Play" on the banner that appears on the top of the screen.

The introduction of Phoenix 2 is also available as an App Clip. App Clips are a new iOS 14 feature that allows you to run a part of an app without any download from the App Store. Try it yourself by tapping the 'play' button in the banner at the top of this website (requires Safari on iOS 14; the banner does not show if you have Phoenix 2 already installed).

After a few moments of downloading the assets, the introduction level to Phoenix 2 appears playable as a native App Clip on your device.

The demo plays just like a native app but without any app installation. Once done with the demo, a link to the ‌App Store‌ is available to the full game [Free]. TouchArcade wrote about the experience and thought the "frictionless experience" for game demos held a lot of potential for ‌App Store‌ game discovery.