MacRumors

In what appears to be a reversal of course, the BBC today reported that the United Kingdom's National Health Service will adopt Apple's and Google's Exposure Notification API for its COVID-19 contact tracing app after all.

Other countries that have committed to using the API include Italy, Latvia, Switzerland, Germany, Poland, and Saudi Arabia, among others.

Apple released the API as part of iOS 13.5 last month. At the time, the company said that 22 countries had requested and received access to the API, along with the U.S. states of Alabama, North Dakota, and South Carolina.

Apple and Google created the API to allow iPhones and Android smartphones to interface with one another for contact tracing purposes. If and when you happen to be nearby someone who later tests positive for COVID-19, you can receive a notification and take the appropriate steps to self isolate and seek medical help if necessary.

The API relies on Bluetooth, is designed with privacy in mind, and is disabled by default. Read our Exposure Notification guide for more details.

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.

South Korea's antitrust regulator has decided to allow Apple to map out a set of measure to address its anti-competitive business practices in the country, reports the Korea Herald.

The Fair Trade Commission investigated Apple Korea for requiring SK Telecom, KT Corp, and LG Uplus Corp to pay the cost of television advertisements and warranty service for its iPhones.

The investigation found that Apple holds a clear advantage over local mobile carriers and that handing over the cost of advertisements was another means of squeezing the profits of the carriers, according to the report.

The law requires that Apple comes up with a correction scheme necessary to restore competition practices or to improve business practices. The commission said it will review detailed corrective measures crafted by Apple Korea and decide whether to approve them.

Apple Korea welcomed the commission's decision and issued the following statement.

"We don't believe we have done anything wrong but are happy to put this process behind us so we can focus on doing even more for our customers and communities," Apple Korea said in a statement.

Apple has faced criticism over its business practices in the country before. In April, the FTC ordered the company to change unfair provisions in its contracts with certified repair service partners which stipulated that the firms could not file lawsuits against Apple within a year after any dispute.

The repair service partners were seen to have little choice but to agree with the terms, due to the market power of Apple's iPhones. Apple complied with the FTC order and changed the contracts.

In 2015, the FTC also ordered Apple to allow customers refunds for repair services.

YouTube channel creator EverythingApplePro caused a minor Twitter storm this morning by claiming a CAD image of the so-called "iPhone 12" suggests some rumors floated by leakers about Apple's upcoming lineup are off base.

The leaked CAD image in question shows the same size of notch and triple-lens camera layout as found on the current ‌iPhone‌ 11 Pro series. Previous rumors have suggested Apple's 2020 iPhones will have a smaller notch and a rear LiDAR 3D camera in addition to the three existing lenses.

EverythingApplePro now believes that only the larger 6.7-inch "iPhone 12 Pro Max" will get LiDAR. The expected 3D camera setup was also absent in molds and designs leaked earlier this week.

It's worth noting that CAD images of unreleased iPhones shared online are usually presented as official designs leaked from production factories, but are often made by case makers themselves to predict the design of unreleased devices. With that in mind, it may be that the notch is no smaller in these designs because case makers would probably not need to have an accurate replica of that area. The same could also be said about the absence of the fourth camera lens in the renders.

Other CAD images have shown a Smart Connector-style input where the SIM card try used to be. EverythingApplePro now thinks the "Smart Connector" is actually an mmwave antenna. According to rumors, all of the iPhones in the ‌iPhone‌ 12 lineup will feature 5G connectivity, though it's not yet clear if all models will have super fast mmWave support in all countries.

Apple is expected to announce four iPhones in three different sizes this fall: A 5.4-inch ‌‌iPhone‌‌, a 6.7-inch ‌‌iPhone‌‌, and two 6.1-inch iPhones. One 6.1-inch model and the 6.7-inch model will be higher-end iPhones, while the other 6.1-inch ‌‌iPhone‌‌ and the 5.4-inch ‌‌iPhone‌‌ will be lower-end models and successors to the ‌‌iPhone‌ 11‌.

Rumors also suggest at least two of the new iPhones coming in 2020 will feature a significant redesign with a metal frame that's similar to the frame of the ‌iPhone‌ 4 or the iPad Pro.

Several other rumor mongers have since waded into the Twitter thread with their own claims and counterclaims. Suffice to say there is much disagreement on the origins and accuracy of the shared CAD image. Apple is expected to begin production of its 2020 ‌‌iPhone‌‌ lineup next month. For more on what to expect from the 2020 ‌‌‌iPhone‌‌‌ models, be sure to see our dedicated roundup.

MacBook Air and MacBook Pro owners who have one of the new 13-inch 2020 models released earlier this year appear to be experiencing problems with USB 2.0 accessories that connect to their machines though a hub or adapter.

There are a number of complaints about the issue on the MacRumors forums, Reddit, and the Apple Support Communities. Affected customers appear to be seeing devices connected to the Mac randomly disconnect, as explained below by a MacRumors reader.

At random times the USB devices connected to the mac though a usb-c hub would just lose connection and stop working all at the same time. This happened with two different USB-C hubs (both expensive, one of them is Satechi which was recommended in many threads), so I am leaning towards ruling out the hubs being at fault.

I'm connecting a few things in the hub - HDMI for an an external monitor, USB audio interface (powered by the mac) and a mouse. When the issue occurs, the mouse and the USB audio interface stop working, but the HDMI connection continues to work without issues, each time.

The issue happens at random moments and there are no steps to reproduce it. It seems to be happening more often when at least two usb devices are connected at the same time.

There are many other similar complaints about disconnection and freezing issues when using USB 2.0 accessories that connect to a Mac through a hub, though there seems to be no clear pattern as to which accessories are affected or when the issue occurs, making it difficult to determine what could be causing the disconnects.

MacBook owners have run into connectivity problems with all kinds of devices that require a USB-A connection, including mice, keyboards, and other accessories. Multiple hubs have been tested, which suggests that the issue is not caused by a particular brand of hub, and it also appears that most of the complaints are limited to USB 2.0 accessories rather than USB 3.0 and 3.1 accessories.

SMC resets, safe mode, Disk Utility repairs, different user logins, and operating system reinstalls have all been unsuccessful addressing the bug, which suggests that it may be something that Apple needs to fix in a future software update, if it is a software problem.

A Reddit user found that USB 2.0 devices that become unresponsive remain indefinitely in the System Information even if unplugged from a hub, while USB 3.0 devices behave properly, so this is one possible cause. He was able to solve the problem with a Thunderbolt CalDigit hub, but whether that fix will work for all impacted machines is unknown, and CalDigit Thunderbolt hubs are pricey.

Apple has a USB 2.0 issue with either the chipset they are using, or a Catalina bug regarding the handling and refreshing of USB 2.0 devices.

However this can be worked around.

USB-C hubs vary in their functionality and there are two types:

1. USB hubs that are transparent proxies
- The Anker, Satechi and StarTech hubs
2. USB hubs that are terminating proxies
- The CalDigit hub and anonymous person on the internet and their monitor hub

Transparent proxies take the USB 2.0 input and present it as USB 2.0 to the MacBook Pro. The Mac or Catalina then will do something wrong and the USB 2.0 devices will freeze / become unresponsive at some point (minutes or hours after being attached).

Terminating proxies take the USB 2.0 input, terminate it, and present it as a fresh input that is USB 3.0 to the MacBook Pro. Everything is good in this scenario.

Multiple ‌MacBook Pro‌ and ‌MacBook Air‌ owners have contacted Apple so Apple may be aware of the issue and could have a fix in the works. Apple has been replacing some affected machines with new models, but users report that the problem persists even when a new Mac is provided.

Twitter today announced the launch of a new feature that's designed to allow people to tweet with their voice, sending voice-based messages instead of text.

Twitter is where you go to talk about what's happening. Over the years, photos, videos, gifs, and extra characters have allowed you to add your own flair and personality to your conversations. But sometimes 280 characters aren't enough and some conversational nuances are lost in translation. So starting today, we're testing a new feature that will add a more human touch to the way we use Twitter - your very own voice.

Voice tweets can be created by opening up the tweet composer and tapping the new wavelengths icon. From there, a screen opens with a user's Twitter icon, which can be tapped to begin a recording.

Twitter users can capture up to 140 seconds of audio, but continuous recording is possible and longer audio will create multiple voice tweets.

Voice tweets will appear on the Twitter timeline just like other tweets. Listening to a voice tweet can be done by tapping on the image, and on iOS, playback starts in an audio player that's docked at the bottom of the timeline users can continue to scroll through Twitter.

Twitter is testing voice tweets with a limited number of people on Twitter for iOS at the current time, but the company says that in the coming weeks, everyone on iOS should be able to send voice tweets.

Apple won't be able to hold its traditional Apple Camp sessions for children this year as Apple Camp takes place in Apple retail stores, so the company has debuted a digital version instead.

Apple Camp at home will provide kids aged 8-12 a series of digital programs focused on video, art, design, and coding.

Apple plans to offer a self-guided activity book for kids to complete, along with live virtual sessions with Apple Store Creatives.

Live sessions, which will be hosted over Webex, will last for 30 to 60 minutes, while the activity book Apple has created is a Pages document that kids can complete at their own pace.

Apple Camp registrations are not yet open, but parents can sign up to be notified when registrations become available on the Apple Camp website.

Apple Watch continued to lead the smartwatch industry with an estimated 5.2 million shipments worldwide in the first quarter of 2020, well ahead of Huawei, Samsung, Fitbit, and others, according to research firm Canalys.

Canalys said the Apple Watch did see slow performance in North America and Europe during the quarter, however, which it attributes to Apple customers "switching their attention to AirPods as a 'must-have' accessory." Apple's market share declined to an estimated 36.3 percent for the quarter, down from 46.7 percent in the year-ago quarter.

Huawei trailed in second place with an estimated 2.1 million shipments and 14.9 percent market share for the quarter, followed by Samsung with an estimated 1.8 million shipments and 12.4 percent market share.

Canalys expects lifetime Apple Watch shipments to reach 100 million units within the next few months, five years after the device launched.

Apple does not provide a breakdown of Apple Watch sales in its earnings reports, so take these estimated figures with a proverbial grain of salt. Apple's "Wearables, Home and Accessories" category did set a new all-time revenue record of $6.3 billion last quarter, including sales of the Apple Watch, AirPods, Beats products, Apple TV, HomePod, iPod touch, and both Apple-branded and third-party accessories.

Apple yesterday announced 350 winners for its Swift Student Challenge, the prize for which is an exclusive WWDC20 jacket and pin set. Today, some of those winners have begun sharing a look at the jacket and pins on social media (via 9to5Mac).

These students were tasked with creating an interactive scene in a Swift playground, which could be experienced within three minutes. Winners of this challenge now own a jacket that imitates a plaid design created with emoji, as well as pins of various emoji and Apple iconography.

In previous years, the winners would also have received free admission and accommodations for WWDC in San Jose. Because the event is being held virtually this year, these winners will also gain access to one-on-one developer labs with Apple engineers next week.

Facebook is adding the option for users to turn off all political advertising in the Facebook and Instagram apps from today, the company has announced in a blog post.

The option will pop up for users directly on any political ad that appears on the two Facebook-owned platforms. Users will also be able to hide ads by clicking on the advertisement or by accessing a new menu option in either of the app's ad settings.

The new ability to disable political ads will apply to political, electoral, and social issue ads from candidates, Super PACs and other organizations that include the "Paid for by" political disclaimer.

The option will appear immediately for some U.S. users and roll out more broadly in the coming weeks. Facebook says is also plans to make the setting available outside the U.S. in countries where it has enforcement on ads about social issues, elections and politics.

In addition, Facebook says it is ensuring ads are more transparent by making sure the "Paid for by" disclaimers on political ads follow them after they've been shared. It is also allowing anyone who uses the company's Ad Library to track ad spending for Congressional races, rather than just making it available for U.S. presidential campaigns.

Along with the changes to how it manages political ads, Facebook also announced a Voting Information Center that will provide information on how and where to vote, as well as how to register to vote and how to vote by mail. Users can also turn on alerts that will remind them to vote and direct them to polling places when voting begins in November.

"We've built some of the most advanced systems in the world to combat election interference," said Facebook. "The Voting Information Center will be another line of defense."

In an op-ed published in USA Today, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg suggested these efforts were a response to criticisms about the platform's lack of action to curb the spread of misinformation online.

"Everyone wants to see politicians held accountable for what they say — and I know many people want us to moderate and remove more of their content. We have rules against speech that will cause imminent physical harm or suppress voting, and no one is exempt from them. But accountability only works if we can see what those seeking our votes are saying, even if we viscerally dislike what they say.

"Ultimately, I believe the best way to hold politicians accountable is through voting, and I believe we should trust voters to make judgments for themselves. That's why I think we should maintain as open a platform as possible, accompanied by ambitious efforts to boost voter participation."

Facebook says its goal is to register 4 million voters this year using Facebook, Instagram and Messenger, which is double the number of people it believes it helped register in 2016 and 2018.

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's head of diversity and inclusion Christie Smith is leaving the company, according to a Bloomberg report today. Unlike her predecessor, who reported directly to CEO Tim Cook, Smith reported to Apple's senior VP of retail and people, Deirdre O'Brien.

"Inclusion and diversity are core Apple values and we deeply believe the most diverse teams are the most innovative teams," Apple said in an emailed statement confirming the news. "Christie Smith will be leaving Apple to spend more time with her family and we wish her well. Our Inclusion and Diversity team continues to report directly to Deirdre O’Brien on the Executive Team."

Smith's exit was planned two months ago, according to Apple, but Bloomberg's sources report that Tuesday was her last day at work. Her LinkedIn account has been updated to reflect the change in employment status, but Apple has not yet named a replacement.

Smith joined Apple in 2017 and took over the role from Denise Young Smith, who lasted just six months and left after apologizing for controversial comments she made about the mostly white makeup of Apple's executive team.

Smith brought extensive experience to the role, drawn from her 28 years building and leading high performance teams. Prior to joining Apple, Smith was with Deloitte for 17 years as a Client Advisory Principal.

The move comes just a week after CEO ‌Tim Cook‌ announced Apple's Racial Equity and Justice initiative, with a $100 million commitment. Cook says the initiative will build on Apple's existing work in the racial justice space, significantly broadening its scope and impact through a model that was also used for Apple's environmental efforts.

Apple maintains an inclusion and diversity website and shares regular updates on its efforts to diversify its workforce, push pay equity, and work with underserved communities to empower students and educators.

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 planning to stream its upcoming WWDC keynote event on YouTube, and today, the company uploaded a WWDC Special Event video to its YouTube channel in preparation.

The video allows YouTube users to set reminders for the keynote, which kicks off at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time on Monday, June 22. The reminders will alert YouTube users about the stream ahead of when it starts so it won't be missed.

Apple also plans to stream the keynote on its Apple Events website, though the Apple Events app on the Apple TV, in the Apple Developer app, and on the Apple Developer website, giving Apple fans and developers multiple ways to watch.

For those unable to tune in to one of Apple's streams, MacRumors will be covering the event live both here on MacRumors.com and through our MacRumorsLive Twitter account.

A new email app called "Hey" from the team at Basecamp has run into trouble with Apple for refusing to offer a subscription option that can be purchased in the iOS app.

Hey, which launched on Monday, is priced at $99 per year. Subscriptions for the service must be purchased on the Hey website and are not offered in the iOS app because Hey's developers don't want to pay Apple a 15 to 30 percent cut of their fees.

Apple, however, has told the Hey team that customers need to be able to purchase the service in the iOS app and that if in-app purchases are not implemented, the Hey app could be removed from the App Store. Apple has a long running rule that apps can't link to outside purchase options and must use the in-app purchasing tools when offering paid content or subscriptions, but many apps skirt that rule by avoiding in-app purchases and not providing links to outside websites.

Netflix and Spotify, for example, do not allow customers to sign up for or subscribe to their services on the iPhone or the iPad, and do not link to their respective websites. Each app instead offers a message about sign ups being unavailable in the app.

The Hey email app does the same thing, and as Basecamp CTO David Heinemeier Hansson explains in an interview with Protocol, the team thought that it would be exempt from Apple's rules because it's following in the footsteps of apps like Netflix.

Downloading the Hey app presents a simple sign in screen with no sign up option, and tapping on the "Help Me" link informs users that there are no sign up options in the app. Like Netflix and Spotify, it does not direct users to the website to sign up.

Updates for Hey have been stalled until the developers comply with Apple's request to add in-app purchase options, and despite appeals and escalation requests, Apple has held firm on the requirement. Apple says that Hey does not qualify as a "reader" app, which means new users need to be able to sign up within the app using in-app purchases.

Apple didn't respond to a request for comment. But on Tuesday afternoon, it sent Basecamp a slightly softer written notice. "We noticed that your app allows customers to access content, subscriptions, or features they have purchased elsewhere, but those items were not available as in-app purchases within the app," it said. Because Hey didn't qualify as a "Reader" app, Apple said that existing subscribers could log in as normal but Hey needed to make all subscriptions available to new users as in-app purchases.

It's not entirely clear why Apple is requiring Hey to provide an in-app subscription option when it allows Netflix and Spotify to decline to offer in-app purchase options while still having their apps in the ‌App Store‌.

Hey's developers do not intend to comply with Apple's request for in-app purchase options. "There is never in a million years a way that I am paying Apple a third of our revenues," Heinemeier Hansson told Protocol. That is obscene, and it's criminal, and I will spend every dollar that we have or ever make to burn this down until we get to somewhere better."

Update: Apple provided a statement to Protocol and said that it made a mistake approving the Hey app in the first place when it didn't conform to Apple's guidelines. Apple said that sign-in only apps are allowed for business services, but not consumer products.

Apple told me that its actual mistake was approving the app in the first place, when it didn't conform to its guidelines. Apple allows these kinds of client apps -- where you can't sign up, only sign in -- for business services but not consumer products. That's why Basecamp, which companies typically pay for, is allowed on the App Store when Hey, which users pay for, isn't. Anyone who purchased Hey from elsewhere could access it on iOS as usual, the company said, but the app must have a way for users to sign up and pay through Apple's infrastructure. That's how Apple supports and pays for its work on the platform.