Apple's Twitter account has been breached by bitcoin scammers who have also hacked the Twitter accounts of Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Microsoft CEO Bill Gates, and more.

Apple users should be careful not to believe the fake tweet, which is a scam to collect bitcoin. Twitter has been deleting the fake tweets, but the scammers who have breached the accounts have been repeatedly posting them.

The tweet that was posted on the Apple Twitter account has since been deleted. Given the number of high profile accounts that have been breached, the hack may have originated from a Twitter security vulnerability.

Apple does not actually use its official Apple Twitter account on the platform, reserving it for sending out reminders ahead of events and advertisements.

Update: Twitter says that it's looking into the security breach and will provide an update after implementing a fix.

We are aware of a security incident impacting accounts on Twitter. We are investigating and taking steps to fix it. We will update everyone shortly. — Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) July 15, 2020

Update 2: Twitter appears to have disabled all tweets from verified accounts, so no one with a verified account is able to tweet at this time.

We’re continuing to limit the ability to Tweet, reset your password, and some other account functionalities while we look into this. Thanks for your patience. — Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) July 15, 2020

Apple is expanding AppleCare+ monthly payment options to Canada, Australia, and Japan, allowing customers in these countries to pay for ‌AppleCare‌+ for iPhones, iPads, and Apple Watches on a monthly basis.

The online Apple Stores in Canada, Australia, and Japan aren't yet providing monthly payment options when checking out after new device purchases, but an AppleCare+ support document confirms the feature is rolling out.

In the United States, Australia, Canada, and Japan, when you purchase ‌AppleCare‌+ coverage for your iPhone, iPad, or Apple Watch, you can choose to pay monthly or pay upfront for 24 months of coverage. (For ‌Apple Watch‌ Edition and Hermes, you can pay upfront for 36 months.) If you paid upfront, you can go to mysupport.apple.com to continue coverage* on a monthly basis after the 24 or 36 months is over.

Customers in Australia, Canada, and Japan can opt for monthly payments along with customers in the United States, where the monthly payment option rolled out in September 2019.

Monthly payment plans continue to renew each month until canceled, and ‌AppleCare‌+ coverage on a monthly plan continues beyond the standard 24 or 36 month (for the ‌Apple Watch‌ Hermes) period as long as monthly payments are continued.

Customers who purchase ‌AppleCare‌+ up front and pay the full price for a standard ‌AppleCare‌+ plan can later upgrade to a monthly plan to continue ‌AppleCare‌+ support beyond 24 months. Monthly payments for ‌AppleCare‌+ vary based on device and country.

Apple's iOS 13.6 update, released today, appears to enable FaceTime in the United Arab Emirates, a country where the ‌FaceTime‌ app was previously unavailable for use.

According to MacMagazine and multiple Twitter users, the ‌FaceTime‌ feature is accessible after installing the iOS 13.6 update. Apple did not mention the update in the iOS 13.6 release notes, and support documents haven't been updated as of yet.

iOS 13.6 is out and it’s official... FACETIME IS AVAILABLE IN UAE. Now I can recieve my phone calls on all my devices 😭! — Saif Alshehhi (@saif_a7med95) July 15, 2020

Local regulatory rules have blocked ‌FaceTime‌ in the UAE, but rumors over the course of the last few years have suggested that Apple was working with government officials to lift the ban on ‌FaceTime‌.

All phones sold in the United Arab Emirates have ‌FaceTime‌ disabled by default, but installing iOS 13.6 should unlock the feature. There have also been multiple reports that ‌FaceTime‌ is available in the UAE on devices running iOS 14 as well.

‌FaceTime‌ also used to be banned in Saudi Arabia but it became available in the iOS 11.3 update.

Update: MacMagazine, the site that originally reported the changes, now says that for ‌FaceTime‌ to work in the UAE, the iPhone needs to be set to another region. This indicates that ‌FaceTime‌ is not yet officially available in the United Arab Emirates.

Apple this week provided a Safari 14 beta to developers and some of its AppleSeed testers, a program that is separate from the public beta and is offered on an invite-only basis.

Safari 14 is the new version of Safari that's included with macOS Big Sur. It introduces customization options that let people choose wallpapers and start page options, plus it is faster and more power efficient.

Eingeladen, um Safari 14 zu testen. Sehr gerne! pic.twitter.com/MvZubhm2cJ — OS-Privacy (@OS_Privacy) July 15, 2020

The update includes a Privacy Report option that provides a rundown on how many trackers have been blocked from profiling you for cross-site tracking purposes, and there are built-in translation features.

Safari 14 monitors passwords saved in iCloud Keychain and alerts people about data breaches, and it includes support for using Extensions with select websites.

Developers who are have macOS Big Sur installed already have access to Safari 14, and Apple's experimental Safari Technology Preview browser also has Safari 14 features, but the release this week provides Safari 14 to developers who have not upgraded to Big Sur.

The beta is also the only way for developers running macOS Mojave to access Safari 14 features as ‌Safari Technology Preview‌ is now limited to macOS Catalina and macOS Big Sur.

Apple is planning to release a public beta of macOS Big Sur to public beta testers in the near future, which will provide Safari 14 to an additional group of people. For now, developers running Big Sur will get Safari 14 automatically, and those running Catalina or Mojave can download it from the Apple Developer site. Invited AppleSeed members can also download Safari 14 for Catalina and Mojave.

As part of the iOS 13.6 and macOS 10.15.6 updates, Apple is introducing new features for Apple News and its Apple News+ subscription service, including audio stories.

Audio stories include audio versions of the best stories from ‌Apple News‌, a daily audio news briefing created by ‌Apple News‌ editors, and curated local news collections launching in five cities and regions.

‌Apple News‌ editors plan to release about 20 audio stories per week across a wide range of interests, with the stories narrated by professional voice actors. Apple says we can expect pieces from Esquire, Essence, Fast Company, GQ, New York magazine, Sports Illustrated, TIME, Vanity Fair, Vogue, Wired, and newspapers that include The Wall Street Journal and the Los Angeles Times.

‌Apple News‌ audio stories are a feature limited to ‌Apple News‌+ subscribers in the United States, but the daily audio news briefing, called ‌Apple News‌ Today, is free for all ‌Apple News‌ users.

‌Apple News‌ Today will feature highlights of some of the "most fascinating stories in the news" and will be available Monday through Friday in the ‌Apple News‌ app in the United States and in Apple Podcasts.

Along with audio stories, Apple is adding new local and regional news outlets for readers, including The Charlotte Observer, the Miami Herald, and The News & Observer from Raleigh, North Carolina, plus a curated local news experience available in the Bay Area, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco.

The curated news feature will include coverage of topics that are important to local communities like dining and restaurants, weather, news and politics, and more.

"‌Apple News‌ showcases so much great journalism, and we're excited to help bring it to life in new ways with ‌Apple News‌+ audio stories and a new daily news show, ‌Apple News‌ Today," said Lauren Kern, editor-in-chief of ‌Apple News‌. "We also greatly value our many local news partners -- our new local news feature highlights their work for readers who live, and are interested, in those communities."

The new ‌Apple News‌ features are available today as part of the free iOS 13.6 update. Audio stories and ‌Apple News‌ Today can be accessed through the new "Audio" tab in the ‌Apple News‌ app. ‌Apple News‌ is free, while ‌Apple News‌+ costs $9.99 per month after a one-month free trial. Just today, Best Buy began offering a four month free trial for those who are new subscribers and a three month free trial for those who subscribed before.

Apple today released iOS and iPadOS 13.6, major updates that come more than a month after the launch of iOS and iPadOS 13.5.1. iOS and ‌iPadOS‌ 13.6 introduce new Health, Apple News, and software update features.

The iOS and ‌iPadOS‌ 13.6 updates are available on all eligible devices over-the-air in the Settings app. To access the updates, go to Settings > General > Software Update. Apple has also released an iOS 12.4.8 update for older devices unable to run iOS 13.

The software introduces a toggle for customizing updates, providing users with granular control over the downloading and installing of new iOS and ‌iPadOS‌ versions.

iOS users can decide if their iPhone or iPad should automatically download an iOS update when connected to WiFi, and when that update should be installed.

A Download iOS Updates toggle turns automatic downloads on or off, and an Install iOS Updates toggle lets users choose to install a software update overnight as a device charges. The new update feature will be a welcome change for ‌iPhone‌ and ‌iPad‌ users who prefer to stay on older versions of iOS and do not want their devices to update automatically.

iOS 13.6 also brings support for Car Key, a feature available in both ‌iOS 13‌ and iOS 14. Car Key is designed to allow an ‌iPhone‌ or an Apple Watch to be used in lieu of a physical key to unlock an NFC-enabled vehicle.

Car Key needs to be implemented by car manufacturers to function, and BMW is one of Apple's first partners. BMW's Digital Key for ‌iPhone‌ feature will let ‌iPhone‌ owners tap to unlock their vehicles, start the car by placing the ‌iPhone‌ in the smartphone tray, place limitations on young drivers, and share keys with up to five other users.

Car Key will work in a wide range of BMW models, including the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, X5, X6, X7, X5M, X6M and Z4 if manufactured after July 1, 2020. An iPhone XR, XS, ‌Apple Watch‌ Series 5, or newer is required, as is the iOS 13.6 update.

In the Health app, there's a new "Symptoms" section that lets users add symptoms of various illnesses, choosing from options such as body and muscle aches, appetite changes, coughing, dizziness, headache, nausea, and more.

For the ‌Apple News‌ app, iOS 13.6 adds a feature that saves your place in an ‌Apple News‌ article when you start reading something and then exit out of the article or app, handy for long-form content.

‌Apple News‌ in iOS 13.6 also includes new Apple News+ Audio feature where Apple will offer some news stories in an audio capacity, but this option was not activated during the beta.

Apple's full release notes for the update are available below:

iOS 13.6 adds support for digital car keys, introduces audio stories in ‌Apple News‌+, and contains a new symptoms category in the Health app. This release also includes bug fixes and improvements.

Digital car keys
- Unlock, lock, and start your compatible car with your ‌iPhone‌
- Securely remove digital keys from a lost device via iCloud
- Share digital keys easily with iMessage
- Driver-specific profiles so you can configure shared keys for full-access or restricted driving
- Power reserve lets you unlock and start your car for up to five hours after ‌iPhone‌ runs out of battery

‌Apple News‌
- Audio stories are professionally narrated versions of some of the best reads from ‌Apple News‌+, selected and produced by the ‌Apple News‌ editors as part of your ‌Apple News‌+ subscription
- ‌Apple News‌ Today is a new, free audio briefing on the day's top stories from the ‌Apple News‌ editors, also available in the Podcasts app
- A new Audio tab makes it easy to find ‌Apple News‌ Today and Apple

News+ audio stories
- CarPlay allows you to listen to ‌Apple News‌ Today and ‌Apple News‌+ audio stories while on the road
- Local news in your Today feed provides extensive coverage of San Francisco, the Bay Area, Los Angeles, Houston, and New York City
- More stories available from local news providers with a subscription to ‌Apple News‌+
- Your daily newsletter from ‌Apple News‌ can now be personalized with stories that reflect your interests

Health
- New category for symptoms in the Health app, including symptoms logged from Cycle Tracking and ECG
- Ability to log new symptoms, like fever, chills, sore throat or coughing, and share them with third-party apps

This update also includes bug fixes and other improvements.
- Adds a new setting to choose if updates automatically download to your device when on Wi-Fi
- Addresses an issue that could cause apps to become unresponsive when syncing data from iCloud Drive
- Fixes an issue that could cause data roaming to appear to be disabled on eSIM even though it remained active
- Fixes an issue thats causes some phone calls from Saskatchewan to appear as originating from the United States
- Addresses an issue that could interrupt audio when making phone calls over Wi-Fi Calling
- Fixes an issues that prevented some ‌iPhone‌ 6S and iPhone SE devices from registering for Wi-Fi Calling
- Resolves an issue that could cause the software keyboard to appear unexpectedly when connected to certain third-party hardware keyboards
- Fixes an issue that could cause Japanese hardware keyboards to be incorrectly mapped as a U.S. keyboard
- Addresses stability issues when accessing Control Center when Assistive Touch was enabled
- Provides a mechanism for administrators to specify domains to exclude from traffic carried by always-on VPN connections

iOS and ‌iPadOS‌ 13.6 could be one of the final updates to the ‌iOS 13‌ operating system as Apple shifts its focus to iOS 14, which is available for developers and public beta testers and set to be released this fall.

Apple today released macOS Catalina 10.15.6, the sixth official update to the ‌macOS Catalina‌ operating system that was released in October 2019. ‌macOS Catalina‌ 10.15.6 comes over a month after the launch of macOS Catalina 10.15.5 with Battery Health Management features.

‌‌macOS Catalina‌‌ 10.15.6 is a free update that can be downloaded from the Mac App Store using the Update feature in the System Preferences app.

No new features were found in ‌macOS Catalina‌ 10.15.6 during the beta testing period, but the update adds local Apple News stories in San Francisco, the Bay Area, Los Angeles, Houston, and New York City, plus it introduces customization for the daily newsletter from ‌Apple News‌.

Apple says the update also fixes an issue where certain USB mouse and trackpads could lose connection, which is a problem that was affecting USB 2.0 devices that were used with new MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models.

‌macOS Catalina‌ 10.15.6 introduces local news in your Today feed in ‌Apple News‌ and improves the security and reliability of your Mac.

‌Apple News‌
- Local news in your Today feed provides extensive coverage of San Francisco, the Bay Area, Los Angeles, Houston, and New York City
- More stories available from local news providers with a subscription to ‌Apple News‌+
- Your daily newsletter from ‌Apple News‌ can now be personalized with stories that reflect your interests

This update also includes bug fixes and other improvements.
- Adds a new option to optimize video streaming on HDR-compatible Mac notebooks for improved battery life
- Fixes an issue where the computer name may change after installing a software update
- Resolves an issue where certain USB mouse and trackpads may lose connection

Some features may not be available for all regions, or on all Apple devices.
For more detailed information about this update, please visit: https://support.apple.com/kb/HT210642
For detailed information about the security content of this update, please visit: https://support.apple.com/kb/HT201222

‌macOS Catalina‌ may 10.15.6 may be one of the final updates to the ‌macOS Catalina‌ operating system as Apple shifts its focus to macOS Big Sur, the newest version of macOS set to be released this fall.

If you're in the United States, you can head to Best Buy today and get four months of Apple News+ for free. This offer is available for any new subscriber to Apple News+, but we've confirmed that if you previously signed up for the subscription news service and then cancelled, you can also take advantage of the Best Buy promotion and receive three months of ‌Apple News‌+ for free.

You can find this offer on Best Buy's website, where you can add it to your cart and checkout to receive an email for the redemption of your ‌Apple News‌+ free trial. It is not available for anyone outside of the United States. After the three or four month trial, ‌Apple News‌+ will auto-renew for $9.99/month until you cancel it.

Outside of this offer, ‌Apple News‌+ typically gives new users a one month free trial. The service launched in 2019, offering subscribers a way to track and read news from a variety of news publications, like The Wall Street Journal and The Los Angeles Times.

Recently, Apple has faced some issues with its publishing partners, with The New York Times pulling support for ‌Apple News‌+ last month. According to the publication, ‌Apple News‌+ does not "align with its strategy of building direct relationships with paying readers."

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

Apple is re-closing eight more retail stores across the United States, in the states of Maryland, Missouri, Virginia, and Wisconsin.

Apple Towson Town, Maryland
According to Michael Steeber on Twitter, the following stores will be closed from today:

• Leawood (Leawood) – Kansas
• Towson Town Center (Towson) - Maryland
• Country Club Plaza (Kansas City) - Missouri
• MacArthur Center (Norfolk) - Virginia
• Lynnhaven Mall (Virginia Beach) - Virginia
• Bayshore (Glendale) - Wisconsin
• Hilldale (Madison) - Wisconsin
• Mayfair (Wauwatosa) - Wisconsin

Six of the 28 stores in California that have not yet re-closed are also reportedly returning to curbside service. They are Valley Fair and Oakridge in Santa Clara County, North County in San Diego County, Roseville in Place County, Arden Fair in Sacramento County, and Santa Rosa Plaza in Sonoma County.

Steeber notes that all the above California stores are in indoor malls that were forced to close, being located in counties on the state monitoring list.

With coronavirus outbreaks across the United States continuing to spike, Apple has been forced to re-close many retail locations that had previously reopened, with stores in Maryland, Ohio, Tennessee, North Carolina, Florida, and more shuttered at the current time. In these locations, Apple is asking retail employees to work remotely in work from home support roles that the company has been offering since March.

Retail employees are able to serve as support advisors to handle online service requests and questions from customers unable to receive services in store.

Spotify has launched two new charts showing what top and trending podcasts users are listening to on the streaming service.

"Top Podcasts" and "Trending Podcasts," which have been rolled out in 26 markets on Spotify mobile, show users the most popular podcasts in their region based on listener numbers.

Top Podcasts lists the top 200 overall shows in the selected region or category, while Trending Podcasts displays the top 50 rapidly rising shows.

Certain markets, including Brazil, Australia, Germany, Mexico, Sweden, the UK, and the U.S., offer up even more detailed data and separate out the Top Podcasts by category, allowing users to more easily find the genres they're interested in.

Spotify users can find the new charts by tapping the Podcasts category in Search and selecting "Podcast charts."

To coincide with the new feature, the service is also updating its Spotify for Podcasters experience. Creators will now get a notification on their dashboard when their podcast is charting, and they can then turn it into a visual card for sharing their success on social media.

The EU General Court today overturned a ruling by the European Commission stating that Apple should pay 13 billion euros ($14.5 billion) in tax to the Irish government.

The court sided with Apple, and said the EU authority, led by antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager, had failed to show Ireland's tax arrangements with the company were illegal state aid. Today's decision can be appealed.

Both Apple and Ireland appealed the original 2016 ruling, which stated that Apple owed the country over 13 billion euros in tax payments because the arrangements between the two countries were unfair.

In today's ruling, the General Court stated:

"By today's judgement, the General Court annuls the contested decision because the Commission did not succeed in showing to the requisite legal standard that there was an advantage."

#EUGeneralCourt annuls the decision taken by the @EU_Commission regarding the Irish #TaxRulings in favour of @Apple #Apple #EUCommission #StateAid pic.twitter.com/KoF6r1n82S — EU Court of Justice (@EUCourtPress) July 15, 2020

In 2016, Apple CEO Tim Cook called the EC's original decision "total political crap" and said that Apple believed it would be reversed. "The decision is wrong, and it's not based on law or facts, it's based on politics. And I think it's very important that we stand up and say that very loudly," said Cook at the time.

In an emailed statement to Bloomberg, Apple said that it welcomed today's ruling.

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.

NBC Universal's Peacock streaming service launched nationally today, adding another competitor to the crowded streaming market that already includes Apple TV+, Netflix, Disney+, HBO Max, and Hulu.

The service, which became available to some Comcast subscribers in April, is now available on iOS and Apple TV, and operates a free tier and a premium tier.

The free tier includes 13,000 hours of programming, while the premium tier costs $4.99 a month and features over 20,000 hours of TV, movies, news, sports and other content produced by NBC Television, NBC News, and Universal.

Both tiers include commercials, but the premium tier runs fewer ads and offers access to new original content, such as the dystopian drama "Brave New World," as well as access to shows the day after they're broadcast on TV. Peacock also offers an ad-free "premium plus" tier that costs $9.99 a month.

The service features NBC shows such as "30 Rock," "Cheers," "Downton Abbey," and "Saturday Night Live," with live sporting events to include four exclusive English Premier League matches on July 15 as well as coverage of the U.S. Open Championship.

Like HBO Max, Peacock is not available on Amazon Fire TV or Roku. According to CNBC, NBCUniversal does not want want Peacock to be included in Amazon Channels, where Amazon would take a cut of new subscriptions and would be the one collecting credit card information and other user data.

As for Roku, NBC Universal was reportedly unable to agree on how much of Peacock's ad inventory the smart TV platform can sell.

That's left the ‌Apple TV‌ set-top box as the main beneficiary, as it gets to add yet another name to its exclusive list of supported streaming services.