Follow Benjamin on Threads to keep up with his latest projects. Benjamin blogs about Apple news and rumors and posts insightful product and app reviews. Read his work on 9to5Mac and his personal blog.
Benjamin Mayo also creates apps for iOS as a professional indie developer and contractor; more details here. Email to discuss making your iOS project.
Follow @bzamayo on Twitter and follow @bzamayo on Threads.
Last year, Apple redesigned its developer forums, where the company invites registered Apple developers to discuss Apple platform frameworks and APIs. Apple engineers have some presence there too. However, the new website was criticized for being hard-to-use and too stripped down to be useful …
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Digitimes reports that Apple is expected to beat out Samsung this year as the biggest purchaser of AMOLED smartphone screens.
Apple’s demand is higher than ever with the entire iPhone 12 lineup and the upcoming iPhone 13 lineup all featuring OLED screens. Apple suppliers are said to be pulling in components in June as they prepare for iPhone 13 mass production in the July timeframe.
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Last year, Apple’s production schedules were significantly disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic and the iPhone 12 series ended up shipping one month later than usual. So far this year, Apple seems to be circumnavigating the headwinds (including chip shortages and rising COVID-19 spread in some areas) and the flagship iPhone 13 is on track for a standard fall release, probably in September.
Digitimes today reported that TSMC has started production for the A15 chip, which will power the new iPhone lineup.
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In his latest video, Jon Prosser claims that the upcoming M1X-powered Mac mini will also introduce a new generation of industrial design for Apple’s standalone Mac. This model is expected to replace the higher-end space grey Intel Mac mini in the lineup, with the M1 Mac mini sticking around as the entry-level machine.
According to Prosser, the 2021 Mac mini will feature a new external chassis with a “plexiglass-like” reflective surface on the top, in an otherwise aluminium enclosure …
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The Apple TV remote does not feature labelled buttons for features like fast forward and rewind, but it is very easy to do. Here’s how to fast forward, rewind, scrub and skip through TV shows and movies on Apple TV.
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The new Apple TV 4K begins arriving at customer’s doorsteps from today, and Patrick O’Rourke at Mobile Syrup has an interview with Apple VP Tim Twerdahl on the new box and its redesigned remote.
Most notably, Twerdahl highlights the potential capabilities of the HDMI 2.1 port including the high-frame rate 4K HDR output and support for eARC, which allows sound from all TV sources to output to a connected HomePod. Twerdahl says Apple is committed to “making great audio products for the home”, an important note given that the eARC feature currently only works with the 2018 HomePod, a product Apple has discontinued.
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Update: The company has released a new software update and this issue has now been resolved. To update to the latest version of the NOW app, search for NOW in the App Store on the Apple TV 4K and press the Update button. (You can alternatively wait for the system to update the app automatically.)
NOW (nee NOW TV) is one of the leading streaming services in the UK, offering access to Sky channels, TV shows and movies. Although the NOW TV app has never been the leading example of quality on tvOS App Store, it has at least worked …
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Apple enabled HomePods to be used as the default audio output for Apple TV with a software update released last fall. This allowed all audio from the Apple TV to be sent to HomePod speakers, with a simulated Dolby Atmos soundstage.
With the new Apple TV 4K, tvOS supports HDMI ARC and eARC for the first time. This means that all audio from all input sources can now go out over the HomePod speakers, assuming you have an ARC-compatible TV set.
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Apple TV+ today launches its highly-anticipated mental health docuseries executive produced by, and featuring interviews with, Prince Harry and Oprah Winfrey. Apple has released the entire series in one go. Sign up for Apple TV+ to watch all five episodes.
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Apple system status page is currently reporting an error with the iMessage service. For the last few hours, Apple says ‘users may be unable to access this service’.
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The new lineup of 24-inch iMac with M1 chips start arriving to customers this Friday, and the reviews just dropped. Apple has gone all in color with this generation, with the new iMac coming in seven vibrant finishes and the computer ships with color-coded accessories, power cable, default wallpaper, … and, yes, even matching Apple stickers.
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Apple Music officially announced that it is bringing lossless music quality options to its entire catalog at no extra cost, starting in June. Apple says lossless quality will be available for more than 75 million tracks in the Apple Music library.
It is also launching support for Spatial Audio music with songs authored in Dolby Atmos. Users will be able to listen to select albums with an immersive 3D sound-space on AirPods, AirPods Pro, AirPods Max and Beats headphones with a H1 or W1 chip. Apple says thousands of Dolby Atmos songs will go live in June.
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Update: Designer Stijn de Vries has found an apparent logo for the Apple Music Lossless feature.
Apple Music is currently promoting a teaser for a special announcement later this week. Several different signs point to it being the addition of a lossless audio streaming option for Apple Music subscribers.
9to5Mac has now found more code references to back up the hype. In the source code of the Apple Music web app, we have found new references to ‘Lossless’ and ‘Hi Res Lossless’ music …
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Apple Music has started teasing a special announcement coming soon, on the main Browse tab in the Music application.
The teaser comes as Apple is rumored to announce a new lossless audio tier for its music subscription service, perhaps with Spatial Audio enhanced 3D music.
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In April, Apple participated in a judiciary competition subcommittee hearing on App Store policy and monopoly power. Representatives from Spotify, Match (parent company of Tinder), and Tile made their case as to Apple’s anticompetitive actions.
In a formal letter today, Apple’s Chief Compliance Officer Kyle Andeer has directly responded to their complaints. Apple characterized the companies’ testimony as “focused more on grievances related to business disputes with Apple than on competition concerns with the App Store”. Apple then goes into detail with the issues raised by each company …
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The Find My network is used by Apple to report locations of items and devices via the data connection of any nearby iPhone, Mac, or other Apple device. Security researcher Fabian Bräunlein has today released a blog post demonstrating how the Find My network can be exploited as a generic data transfer mechanism.
By faking the way that an AirTag broadcasts its location as an encrypted message, the hack allows packets of arbitrary data to be transmitted over the Find My network, and therefore arbitrarily using the data connection of any nearby Apple device with Find My enabled.
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Tech industry heavyweights including Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, and more are forming a coalition to lobby the US government to fund additional production capacity for chip fabrication. The “Semiconductors in America Coalition” is backing the CHIPS for America Act, in which President Biden is requesting Congress fund for $50 billion.
The money will be used to build out additional chip manufacturing capacity in the United States. The main casualty of the global chip shortage is carmakers like Ford, but Apple admitted on its last earnings call that supply of some MacBook and iPad models will be affected too.
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The legal battles surrounding Apple’s App Store continue to mount up. A class action lawsuit was filed this week at London’s Competition Appeal Tribunal, alleging that UK Apple users have been overcharged for apps for years.
The suit argues that Apple’s dominance in the app market enabled it to charge ‘excessive’ fees, citing Apple’s typical 30% commission of paid apps and in-app purchases. If upheld, possible compensation for UK consumers could top £1.5 billion (or about $2 billion).
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After first being teased during the original Apple TV+ announcement back in March 2019, Apple TV+ today officially unveiled ‘The Me You Can’t See’. It will premiere on May 21st.
The docuseries will feature stars and athletes discussing their battles with mental health, as well as personal stories from people across the world, and interviews with psychological experts.
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Apple has already awarded $450 million from Apple’s Advanced Manufacturing Fund, and today it announced an additional $45 million investment. Apple says that its prior funding helped Corning to develop the resilient and durable Ceramic Shield glass, which debuted as the cover glass in the iPhone 12.
It remains unclear whether Corning’s supply of Ceramic Shield glass is an exclusive deal, or if its research will be extended to other phone manufacturers in the future. The press release says the strengthened glass-ceramic was a result of collaborative research by Apple and Corning experts.
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Apple has seen strong sales of its first 5G iPhone lineup, the iPhone 12 series. All iPhones today use custom Apple silicon for their CPU/GPU and such, but the cellular modem is external and manufactured by Qualcomm.
For a while, it has been reported that Apple is developing its own in-house 5G modem. The rumored timelines on when this work will be complete have varied. Today, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said that he expects Apple to include its 5G modem with the 2023 iPhone ‘at the earliest’.
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Deezer is the latest music streaming service to announce native HomePod integration. When the HomePod first launched, it required an Apple Music subscription to play music, without using AirPlay. But last year, Apple opened up the APIs to support third-party services …
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A user on Reddit has found a secret debug mode for the AirTags Precision Finding interface, seemingly out of frustration.
Alex Magri-Olson discovered that tapping on the name of the accessory four times makes a secret debug menu appear, which was clearly used internally by Apple employees whilst the feature was in development.
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Following a couple reports that Apple was planning this expansion, Apple today notified developers that they can sign up for their app to be advertised on the main page of the App Store’s Search tab.
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