Apple's latest Apple Pay Promo allows Jimmy John's customers who spend $10 or more to redeem a free drink with their purchase using Freaky Fast Rewards and ‌Apple Pay‌.

Jimmy John's customers can get the deal when they spend at least $10 when ordering ahead in the Jimmy John's app, on the jimmyjohns.com website, or in store, with the free drink available through September 27.

The deal is valid only at participating locations, and the Freaky Fast Rewards program from Jimmy John's is required to place a qualifying order that's paid for with ‌Apple Pay‌. One reward is available per Freaky Fast Rewards account.

Following the release of iOS 14 last Wednesday, Apple has stopped signing iOS 13.7, which means downgrading to iOS 13 after upgrading to iOS 14 is no longer possible.

Apple routinely stops signing older versions of software updates after new releases come out in order to encourage customers to keep their operating systems up to date.

As of Monday, ‌iOS 14‌ was installed on approximately 26 percent of active iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch devices, and earlier today, the first jailbreak for ‌iOS 14‌ devices was released. The jailbreak only works with devices that have an A9 chip and earlier because of new security mitigations put in place by Apple.

‌iOS 14‌ is the current publicly available version of iOS that people can download, but there's also a version of iOS 14.2 that has been provided to developers and public beta testers. iOS 14.2 introduces a new Shazam Music Recognition feature for the Control Center, while also bringing some other Apple Music-related Control Center tweaks.

Apple with iOS 14 introduced widgets on the Home Screen, leading to unprecedented levels of customization for the iPhone. Combined with Shortcuts that let you change an app's icon, ‌iOS 14‌ lets you create a whole new look for your ‌Home Screen‌.

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We've been following along with some of the ultra creative alternative Home Screen designs that MacRumors readers have come up with and thought we'd even try to build out a custom app icon and home screen setup to mimic an old school Mac design. In the video up above, you can check out our superficial attempt at making ‌iOS 14‌ look like Mac OS X Aqua, arguably one of the most iconic Mac looks.

Widgets are simple enough to use and hundreds of apps are now updating with innovative widgets that you can add to the Today Center and the ‌Home Screen‌ with just a few taps. Widgets run the gamut from weather to fitness to finance and travel, so there's a good chance most of your favorite apps have widgets you can incorporate into a design.

There are also apps that are dedicated just to making different customizable ‌widgets‌ with unique styles and functions, such as Widgetsmith, or Widgeridoo, which are essential to custom designs. We've used Widgetsmith for our OS X setup because it lets us create ‌widgets‌ with custom graphics.

Widgets are simple enough to use, but taking a ‌Home Screen‌ design to the next level requires custom icons, something possible through Apple's Shortcuts app. Custom icons are more pretty than useful, and everything you create a custom icon for will route through the Shortcuts app, which is less than ideal.

We've seen custom designs that have taken hours upon hours to create, and even our own Aqua theme took quite awhile to complete, so expect to invest some time if you want a unique ‌iPhone‌ ‌Home Screen‌. Our setup looks fantastic and is reminiscent of an old-school Mac, but it's worth noting that it's not particularly functional. Most of our ‌widgets‌ are really just for show, so creating a design that's nice looking and useful is a real effort.

If you want to recreate our "Mac OS X Aqua theme" for the ‌iPhone‌, we've got a link to the assets available here. All the elements, however, are really just a carefully crafted illusion. But we'd love to see a developer build functional Mac OS X Dashboard styled ‌widgets‌, and for Apple to allow for transparency in icons and ‌widgets‌.

Wondering how to set it all up? Just check out our how to on using Home Screen widgets and our how to on customizing app icons using Shortcuts.

Have you made an awesome ‌Home Screen‌ setup that you want to share? Post it down below in the comments, and feel free to share your icon skins, wallpapers, and widget setups.

Apple today updated its iWork apps designed for iOS devices, introducing new iOS 14 features and support for Pages, Numbers, and Keynote.

All three of the apps now support the Scribble feature that was introduced in iPadOS 14, allowing Apple Pencil owners to handwrite anywhere in any text field within the iWork apps, with the written text then converted right into typed text.

The new feature will let ‌Apple Pencil‌ users write out Pages documents, Numbers spreadsheets, and Keynote presentations without having to swap over to the keyboard to fill in data.

Apple has also added new editable shapes in each of the apps along with support for the redesigned iOS and ‌iPadOS 14‌ image picker. Full release notes for each app are below:

Pages

• Use Scribble to write by hand with ‌Apple Pencil‌, and your words will automatically convert to text. Requires ‌iPadOS 14‌.
• Select from new report templates to help you get started.
• Enhance your documents with a variety of new, editable shapes.
• Easily find pictures and videos using new zoom and search capabilities in the redesigned image picker. Requires ‌iOS 14‌ or ‌iPadOS 14‌.

Keynote

• Use Scribble to write by hand with ‌Apple Pencil‌, and your words will automatically convert to text. Requires ‌iPadOS 14‌.
• Use the new Outline View to focus on the structure and flow of your content without other distractions.
• Play YouTube and Vimeo videos right in your presentations.
• Movie export now supports a wide selection of formats and frame rates.
• Hold the option key while dragging an object to duplicate it.
• Easily find pictures and videos using new zoom and search capabilities in the redesigned image picker. Requires ‌iOS 14‌ or ‌iPadOS 14‌.
• Enhance your presentations with a variety of new, editable shapes.

Numbers

• Use Scribble to write by hand with ‌Apple Pencil‌, and your words will automatically convert to text. Requires ‌iPadOS 14‌.
• Forms are now easier to create and customize. Add a form to any table or use the new Basic Form template.
• Improved performance when working with large tables.
• Easily find pictures and videos using new zoom and search capabilities in the redesigned image picker. Requires ‌iOS 14‌ or ‌iPadOS 14‌.
• Enhance your spreadsheets with a variety of new, editable shapes.

Apple has also updated the Mac versions of Pages, Keynote, and Numbers with new report templates and editable shapes.

All of the new updates are available from the iOS App Store and macOS ‌App Store‌ as of this morning.

• Pages for iOS [Direct Link]
• Keynote for iOS [Direct Link]
• Numbers for iOS [Direct Link]
• Pages for macOS [Direct Link]
• Keynote for macOS [Direct Link]
• Numbers for macOS [Direct Link]

Apple's iWork apps for Mac and iOS are free downloads for all users.

Linksys today announced that its line of Linksys Velop Tri-Band mesh routers are now compatible with HomeKit, making good on a promise to introduce ‌HomeKit‌ support.

Unfortunately, support is being implemented on a rolling basis. A limited number of Velop Tri-Band users in the U.S. will be able to update their routers to add ‌HomeKit‌ support through a free firmware update made available in the Velop app for iOS and iPadOS.

After the initial launch, a phased rollout will continue to bring ‌HomeKit‌ support to other users in the United States along with those in other countries.

With ‌HomeKit‌ integration, Linksys Velop routers will be able to be managed through the Home app on the iPhone, iPad, and Mac, providing secure access to HomeKit-enabled accessories. There are options to define how each accessory is able to communicate within the home and through the internet.

Through ‌HomeKit‌, Velop users can choose to firewall off ‌HomeKit‌ accessories to prevent them from communicating with other WiFi devices on a home network and untrusted internet services to prevent hacking attempts and provide better security for connected home devices.

HomeKit-compatible Velop Tri-band model numbers that work with ‌‌HomeKit‌‌ include A03, WHW0301, WHW0301B, WHW0302, WHW0302B, WHW0303, and WHW0303B.

Linksys has been working on ‌HomeKit‌ support for some time. Back in February, the company mistakenly updated its website with information suggesting the ‌HomeKit‌ update would roll out in the near future, but Linksys later clarified that the launch timing was inaccurate.

Apple today seeded the eighth beta of an upcoming macOS Big Sur update to developers for testing purposes, close to a week after releasing the sixth beta and more than two months after the new update was unveiled at the Worldwide Developers Conference.

The macOS Big Sur beta can be downloaded through the Apple Developer Center and once the appropriate profile is installed, subsequent betas will be available through the Software Update mechanism in System Preferences.

macOS Big Sur introduces a refreshed design to the Mac operating system, overhauling the entire look from the curvature of the window corners to the dock icons to the system sounds. Everything feels fresh but familiar, with a lighter and more modern appearance. There's a new customizable Control Center that mirrors the Control Center on iOS devices, putting key system controls right at your fingertips.

The Notification Center has been redesigned with iOS-style widgets that are available in multiple sizes, plus there are more interactive notifications that are now grouped by app to make it easier to see what's going on. Safari is faster and more battery efficient, plus there's a new start page that can be customized with wallpapers and sections that include Reading List and iCloud Tabs, which makes Safari more tailored to your individual usage needs.

Tabs have been redesigned, there's a built-in language translation feature, Chrome and Firefox Extensions can be ported to Safari, and YouTube supports 4K video playback. There's also an option to choose which sites an extension works with for greater privacy. Speaking of privacy, a new Privacy Report feature lets users know the trackers Safari is blocking when you visit websites.

Messages is more similar to the Messages app on iOS with support for pinned conversations, mentions, inline replies, and Memoji creation, plus the built-in search feature has been overhauled to make it easier to find links, photos, and conversations in the app.

Apple redesigned the Maps app to add support for Look Around, indoor maps, and Guides, which are lists of notable attractions, restaurants, and more created by trusted sources. Maps can also be used to generate directions for cycling routes and electric vehicle trips that can be sent to iPhone, and shared ETA updates are now viewable on the Mac.

Photos includes a better Retouch tool, Apple Music's For You section has been replaced with a Listen Now section, HomeKit Secure Video cameras support Face Recognition and Activity zones, and Siri can answer a wider range of questions than before.

In the future, the macOS Big Sur App Store will help users better understand privacy practices with clear info on the information that an app collects, and after installing macOS Big Sur, you'll see faster updates that begin in the background and then finish more quickly to make it easier to keep your Mac up to date.

Apple in the third beta of macOS Big Sur changed the battery icon for the Battery section in System Preferences, refining the design to make it look more clean and streamlined. The beta testing period also brought a new design for the Music app icon (it's red), and some color changes to the buttons and icons inside the music app.

According to Apple, the eighth beta of macOS Big Sur fixes an issue with the kernel that could cause applications to quit unexpectedly. Apple says that this beta qualifies for 50 percent of the Apple Security Bounty bonus payment for security researchers who discover issues that are unknown to Apple or reintroduced in this release.

For more on everything that's new in macOS Big Sur, make sure to check out our roundup.

Apple is on the cusp of launching its first 5G iPhone models, according to Marc Allera, the CEO of British Telecom's consumer brands BT and EE.

"We are just days away from Apple's next major launch, a 5G iPhone, which will be a huge boost for 5G," said Allera, in an internal video presentation shared with the company's employees today. "Teams in all parts of Consumer have been preparing all year to win this launch, and be Europe's number one partner for Apple."

Apple's services chief Eddy Cue made a brief appearance during the video, praising EE for becoming the first carrier to offer smartphone plans bundled with multiple Apple services, including Apple Music, Apple Arcade, and Apple TV+.

While new iPhones are usually announced in September, multiple reports claim that Apple plans to unveil its iPhone 12 lineup in October this year. This timeframe was effectively confirmed by Apple itself, which during its June quarter earnings call indicated that supply of new iPhones would be available "a few weeks later" this year.

Four new iPhone 12 models are expected, including one 5.4-inch model, two 6.1-inch models, and one 6.7-inch model, all with OLED displays, 5G support, and a new flat-edged design. Rumors have suggested that Apple may opt for a staggered launch, with some models launching later than others, but the exact order of the rollout remains to be seen.

Microsoft has today announced plans to bring a new design to its Outlook for Mac app along with several other improvements and features for Outlook on iOS and watchOS.

In preparation for the public release of macOS Big Sur, Microsoft has been testing a new design for Outlook on Mac. The design includes Microsoft's Fluent icons and several design cues from Big Sur such as rounded corners. To make the design more simple, Microsoft's Ribbon interface has been removed. The end product is an amalgam of the design languages of Apple and Microsoft.

Reading and writing emails has been improved with the implementation of a new mail compose UI, single-line views, and an "ignore" feature. Collapsible panels and a compressible message list allow for greater customization of the main view.

Outlook's contacts system has also been tweaked, with separation of contacts and co-workers within events and emails, detection of frequent contacts, and a new feature to mark contacts as favorites. Calendar and search has been improved with groups and emphasis on relevance, and there is greater integration with Microsoft Teams.

Microsoft's sync technology from iOS, Android, and Windows Mail will also be coming to Outlook for Mac, resulting in much faster sync between platforms. Support for iCloud and IMAP accounts is also said to be coming soon. The update is set to arrive for all Mac users in mid-October.

Microsoft also announced a number of smaller updates to Outlook for iOS, including a new calendar widget to display upcoming meetings from multiple accounts on the home screen, emoji reactions, voice commands, and an expansion of Play My Emails to Canada, Australia, India, and the UK.

Apple Watch complications will be coming to Outlook for watchOS 7, allowing users to see their number of unread emails or calendar status. These additions to Outlook for iOS and watchOS are marked to arrive later this year.

Apple's system status page indicates that a handful of its services are currently down or experiencing issues, including Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple TV Channels, the App Store, the Mac App Store, the iTunes Store, and more.

The multi-service outage appears to be quite widespread and affects users on multiple devices, including the iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV. However, not all users are affected, so your mileage may vary.

Update 9:53 a.m.: Apple says that all issues have been resolved.

Dubai-based streaming video service STARZPLAY today announced that it is now available through Apple TV Channels.

Starting today, customers in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar, Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt can sign up for a seven-day free trial and subscribe directly to STARZPLAY in the Apple TV app for $11 per month. Apple TV Channels content can be streamed on demand or downloaded for offline viewing.

STARZPLAY offers both Hollywood and Arabic movies, TV shows, documentaries, kids' entertainment, and original content. The service features thousands of titles, ranging from the original series "Baghdad Central" to fan favorites like "The Big Bang Theory." The service is a subsidiary of the U.S. network STARZ.

Built into the Apple TV app, the Apple TV Channels feature allows users to subscribe to and watch content from participating services without downloading any apps, including HBO, STARZ, Showtime, EPIX, and more.

The Apple TV app is available on the iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac, Apple TV, select Roku and Amazon Fire TV devices, and select Samsung, LG, and VIZIO smart TVs.

Amazon today introduced some of the first discounts on the Apple Watch Series 6 and Apple Watch SE, providing up to $15 off select models.

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Starting with the 40mm GPS Apple Watch Series 6, you can get this model in Silver Aluminum with a White Sport Band for $384.99, down from $399.00. Similarly, the Space Gray Aluminum model is on sale.

$15 OFF

Apple Watch Series 6 For $384.99

If you're looking for a cellular model, Amazon has the 40mm cellular Apple Watch Series 6 in Space Gray Aluminum with a Black Sport Band for $484.99, down from $499.00. You can get the same Apple Watch in 44mm for $514.99, down from $529.00.

Moving to the Apple Watch SE, you'll find the 44mm GPS model in Space Gray Aluminum at a slight discount of $299.99, down from $309.00.

$10 OFF

Apple Watch SE For $299.99

For the cellular model, Amazon has the 40mm Gold Aluminum Case with a Plum Sport Loop for $319.99, down from $329.00.

Given the popularity of the new models and the introduction of their first discounts, shipping estimates for every Series 6 and SE are seeing lengthy waits of up to four weeks. If you purchase today at a discount, however, you can lock in the savings before they expire.

A few of the major carriers also have some early offers on Apple Watch Series 6 and SE. You can find all the details about those deals in our post, and be sure to visit our full Deals Roundup to shop for even more Apple-related products and accessories.

Apple's Macs and iPads continue to have the highest satisfaction score among PC and tablet makers in 2020, according to new data shared today by the American Customer Satisfaction Index.

In the 2020 Household Appliance and Electronics Report, Apple earned an ACSI score of 82, a one point drop from the score that it earned in 2019. Apple's satisfaction score beat out Samsung (81), Acer (78), Amazon (78), ASUS (77), Dell (77), HP (77), and others.

The score includes laptops, tablets, and desktop machines, but when splitting them out, Samsung and Apple are tied for customer satisfaction when it comes to tablets, according to the ACSI. Apple and Samsung also dominate laptop rankings, while there are narrower margins for desktop machines.

When it comes to overall customer satisfaction ratings across all manufacturers, desktop PCs, notebooks, and tablets still lag behind overall smartphone satisfaction, with desktops continuing to have the highest average satisfaction ratings.

The overall industry rankings mimic results from the cell phone industry, where Apple and Samsung have long been locked in a two-way battle at the top for customer satisfaction. Despite slipping 1%, Apple leads the PC industry with an ACSI score of 82 that matches its rating in the cell phone industry. Samsung again holds second place, just a point lower at 81--a score that also matches its cell phone rating.

Both Apple and Samsung have shown high and stable customer satisfaction for the past five years--separated by just a point in all but one of those years. Apple continues to beat the field across the entire customer experience, receiving its highest mark for design. Samsung shines when it comes to value, rating best in class among all PC makers.

Factors that influence customer satisfaction ratings include design, graphics and sound quality, availability of accessories, software and apps, ease of operation, system crashes, and processor speed.

To create its scoring system and compile device scores, the ACSI uses data from interviews with 14,698 customers to analyze customer satisfaction with personal computers, computer software, household appliances, TVs, and more. Customers surveyed were asked to evaluate their experiences with recently purchased products of the largest manufacturers.

AppleCare+ is now available in Norway, according to Apple's Norwegian website. Previously, ‌AppleCare‌ was the only option in Norway for Apple devices. ‌AppleCare‌ essentially only extends the standard warranty on Apple products, but ‌AppleCare‌+ includes two instances of accidental damage with a deductible.

‌AppleCare‌+ is supported on Mac, iPhone, iPad, ‌iPad‌, Apple Displays, iPod, and Headphones in Norway. The Apple TV retains standard ‌AppleCare‌, as has been the case in other regions, and is not eligible for ‌AppleCare‌+. The HomePod does not seem to be supported by either ‌AppleCare‌ plan in Norway at this time.

Apple has recently been making a number of changes to ‌AppleCare‌ worldwide, including extending AppleCare eligibility to one year in the U.S. and Canada, changing accidental damage cover, and the lowering cost of theft and loss deductables.

Apple has also expanded ‌AppleCare‌+ monthly payments to Canada, Australia, and Japan, as well as the UK and Germany.

Update: ‌AppleCare‌+ is also now available in Finland and Denmark. The expansion to all three countries seems to have occurred alongside Apple's September 15 event.

Prior to September 15, ‌AppleCare‌+ was only available in Scandinavia in Sweden, likely because the country has physical Apple Stores.

The team behind the "Checkra1n" jailbreaking tool for iOS has released version 0.11.0 of its software with support added for iOS 14, but only on a limited number of devices.

checkra1n 0.11.0 is now available, adding support for ‌iOS 14‌ on A9(X) devices and below. A10 devices and above NOT SUPPORTED YET, read our statement 👇https://t.co/SIjT4PeZEX — checkra1n (@checkra1n) September 22, 2020

In a statement accompanying the announcement of the software release, the team said that it needed "more time to work around a new security mitigation" added by Apple before it could support jailbreaking ‌iOS 14‌ on newer devices.

In ‌iOS 14‌, Apple added a new mitigation to SEPOS on A10 and above (except on Apple TVs and iBridge): if the device was booted from DFU mode and the Secure Enclave receives a request to decrypt user data, it will panic the device. Since checkm8 does not give us control over the Secure Enclave, this is not trivial to workaround. However, with the recently published blackbird vulnerability, we are able to get control of the Secure Enclave on A10 and A10X and disable this mitigation. Support for A10 and A10X devices is being worked on and is expected to be ready in the coming weeks.

As a result of the security mitigation, the new version of "Checkra1n" works for ‌iOS 14‌ and iPadOS 14 on the following devices.

• iPhone 6s, 6s Plus, and SE
• iPad (5th generation)
• ‌iPad‌ Air 2
• ‌iPad‌ mini 4
• iPad Pro (1st generation)
• Apple TV 4 and 4K

The team said it hoped to support newer devices in the coming weeks, with support for ‌iPhone‌ 8, ‌iPhone‌ 8 Plus, and ‌iPhone‌ X to "be addressed in a future statement."

"Checkra1n" is made by the same security researchers responsible for last year's "checkm8" exploit, which was found on nearly every chip made by Apple and paved the way for a permanent, non-patchable jailbreak on hundreds of millions of affected iOS devices.

"Checkm8" was the first publicly available boot room exploit for iOS devices since the ‌iPhone‌ 4 in 2010.

Apple CEO Tim Cook this evening spoke at The Atlantic Festival where he discussed privacy, antitrust issues, remote work, and his relationship with United States President Donald Trump.

Cook's interview starts at about 15 minutes into the video
On the topic of the ongoing U.S. antitrust investigation into Apple, Google, Facebook, and Amazon, Cook said that "big companies deserve scrutiny," something that's "fair but important" for the American government. He said he has "no issue" with Apple being investigated, and that he hopes people will ultimately hear Apple's story and come to see that the company is not a monopoly.

I think that big companies deserve scrutiny. And I think that's not only fair but important for the system that we have in America. And so I have no issue at all in Apple being put underneath the microscope and people looking and probing. My hope is that as people heard our story and as they continue to hear our story that it will become as apparent to them as it is to us that we have no monopoly. There is no monopoly here.

We're in very, very competitive markets like smartphones, smartwatches, and tablets and personal computers. These things are fiercely competitive. They're basically street fights for market share. Our core strategy as a company to make the best not the most... that basic strategy will never produce a monopoly. It's very rare, almost impossible for the best to become the most as well. Somebody will choose a commodity product and there's enough people that will buy the commodity product that it will have more share. And that's true in all of the different fields we're in.

I'm hoping people heard that and heard how we conduct ourselves because this is very important to us. We always do what we believe is right and conduct ourselves with the utmost integrity and professionalism. I hope that that came across and that we can unpeel from this investigation.

On his relationship with Trump and what it's like interacting with the President, Cook said that he views the specific conversations he's had with Trump as "private conversations" and wouldn't get into what's been discussed, but he did reiterate something he's said several times before: that it's better to be involved than not to be part of the conversation.

I believe that it's much better to be involved, whether you're in agreement on an issue or I think it's even more important to engage when you disagree on something. And so what we do at Apple is we focus on policy. We don't focus on the politics. And so it keeps us out of the sort of the daily scrum of politics and keeps us very focused on the things that are very important to us.

As for the shift to working from home for many Apple employees, Cook said "it's not like being together physically" and that he can't wait for "everybody to be able to come back," confirming that Apple is not going to be one of those companies that lets employees work from home long term.

Cook did, however, say that "some things" work really well virtually, and so that things aren't going to return to just how they were.

In all candor, it's not like being together physically. And so I can't wait for everybody to be able to come back into the office. I don't believe that we'll return to the way we were, because we found that there are some things that actually work really well virtually. But things like creativity and the serendipity that you talk about, these things, you depend on people kind of running into each other over the course of a day. We have designed our entire office such that there are common areas where people congregate and talk about different things. And you can't schedule those times.

And so I think the vast majority of us can't wait until we can be back in the office again. You know, hopefully that occurs sometime next year, who knows exactly what the date may be. We've got about 10-15 percent working today in the office. I'm in the office at different points during the week as well, but the vast majority, 85 to 90 percent of the company is still working remotely.

Cook's full interview, which also goes into detail on Apple's view of how the United States has responded to COVID-19, climate change and the California wildfires, privacy, international policy, his future plans, and more can be watched through the YouTube video up above from The Atlantic.

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.