MacRumors

A number of developers are upset with an increasingly problematic iCloud server issue that is causing some apps that have implemented ‌iCloud‌ support to fail to sync properly.

As outlined on the Developer Forums and on Twitter, there are CloudKit connectivity issues that have been occurring since November. Some users of apps that have ‌iCloud‌ support built in are seeing the following message: "Request failed with http status code 503."

The developers behind popular note taking app GoodNotes have been seeing the problem frequently enough that they wrote a support document for customers who are running into the error message. The GoodNotes team says that the app automatically retries to connect and thus the issue gets solved eventually, but they're not sure what's causing the connectivity error to begin with.

HTTP 503 is a temporary error code ("Service unavailable") indicating iCloud servers aren't responding correctly to requests from your devices. The error typically gets resolved as GoodNotes automatically retries, but we're getting many reports of the error lingering on, causing sync failures.

This issue is not apparent to us and we've escalated the case to Apple Technical Support team for investigation. It seems it's happening to other apps as well.

Some developers have noted that their apps have worked without issue for years prior to the sudden appearance of the ‌iCloud‌ server issue that is apparently causing the error message. From a developer on Apple's forums:

I have the same issue with a relatively small percentage of my users. They are getting 503 errors now, but last year did not. My code hasn't changed. I'm not even sure how to file a bug report because I cannot replicate the issue on my devices and it's occurring on a relatively small percentage of my users.

A handful of developers have been able to get help from Apple engineering, and one was able to change their ‌iCloud‌ container for their developer account to fix the issue, but there appear to be many developers who are still having issues.

Other developers have resorted to building ‌iCloud‌ status dashboard into their apps so customers can see when ‌iCloud‌ is non-functional.

‌iCloud‌ failures are a major problem for app developers because the end user of the app doesn't know that it's an Apple issue, so customers blame the app developers for a non-working sync feature that they have no control over.

Multiple developers have reported the ‌iCloud‌ syncing bug to Apple, but it has gone widely unaddressed based on the number of complaints and the fact that the issue has seemingly persisted for at least the last couple of months. It's likely that the problem popped up with the launch of iOS 15 and its sister updates, and it's not clear when a fix might be available.

Customers experiencing ‌iCloud‌ issues should be aware that it's likely an issue on Apple's end and not a bug that app developers can address at this time.

AT&T today announced the launch of upgraded AT&T Fiber plans, which support speeds of up to 5 Gigabits for some customers. There are two separate plans, one "2 GIG" plan and one "5 GIG" plan, available to new and existing AT&T Fiber subscribers.

According to AT&T, the new plans are available to nearly 5.2 million customers across 70 metro areas including Los Angeles, Atlanta, Chicago, San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles, Raleigh, Miami, and Dallas, with a full list available on AT&T's website.

AT&T Fiber 2 GIG is priced at $110 per month plus taxes, while the highest-speed AT&T Fiber 5 GIG plan is priced at $180 per month plus taxes.

AT&T is enacting a new "straightforward pricing" policy, which means there are no data limits, no equipment fees, no annual contract, and no "deals" that will see prices increase at 12 months. These high-end plans include AT&T ActiveArmor internet security, "next-gen WiFi support," and HBO Max access.

With the launch of these new multi-gigabit internet plans, AT&T is calling itself the "fastest major internet provider." AT&T intends to continue to expand its faster connection speeds to additional customers, with plans to cover 30 million customer locations by the end of 2025.

Three months after their launch, the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros continue to experience high demand and seemingly short supply, with shipping dates for both models stretching into multiple weeks in several of Apple's key markets.

In the United States, the baseline 14-inch MacBook Pro with the M1 Pro chip is estimated to ship in three to four weeks, promising an arrival by at least mid-February. The 14-inch MacBook Pro with the higher-end ‌M1 Pro‌ configuration or the M1 Max chip faces an even longer wait, heading well into at least early March.

With the larger 16-inch model, the baseline configuration is seeing five to six weeks for estimated delivery, with higher configurations seeing shipping dates estimated to be in late February or early March. In the United Kingdom and Canada, the highest-end 16-inch MacBook Pro shows shipping dates of between five and eight weeks on Apple's online store at the time of writing.

There are several reasons for the continued long wait that Apple customers are experiencing with Apple's latest MacBook Pros. Apple has continued to suffer the consequences of a global chip shortage that cost the company $6 billion last quarter, pandemic-related restrictions possibly limiting device production, on top of high demand for the latest laptops given their major redesign.

With the new MacBook Pros, Apple brought back many features highly requested by longtime Mac users, such as additional ports including HDMI, MagSafe, and an SD card slot. Apple also redesigned the MacBook Pros, making them heavier and thicker to accommodate the more powerful ‌M1 Pro‌ and ‌M1 Max‌ chips.

Apple will announce Q1 2022 earnings later this week where it's expected to provide insight on the sales of the iPhone 13, AirPods 3, the new MacBook Pros, and other new products it announced in the fall.

The Dutch Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) has ruled that Apple's plan to allow App Store dating apps to use third-party payment methods for in-app purchases does not sufficiently meet the requirements of a previous ruling. As a result, the ACM has hit Apple with an initial 5 million euro fine as a consequence, and fines will continue to be assessed at 5 million euros per week up to a maximum of 50 million euros until Apple complies.

Last week, following Apple's announcement that dating apps in the Dutch ‌App Store‌ would have the option to let users use third-party payments for in-app purchases, the ACM said it would assess whether those changes meet the requirements of a previous ruling. The ACM had previously ruled that Apple's ‌App Store‌ is unfair and Apple was engaging in anti-competitive business practices.

Apple's announced changes fail to "satisfy the requirements," the ACM said today in a press release. "At the moment, dating-app providers can merely express their 'interest'. In addition, Apple has raised several barriers for dating-app providers to the use of third-party payment systems," the ACM added, alluding to the fact that dating apps must first ask and receive approval for a special ‌App Store‌ entitlement to point users to third-party payment methods.

Apple's plan also appears to require developers to choose between offering a third-party in-app purchase option or being able to direct users to outside payment options, and the ACM says Apple must allow developers to offer both options.

Apple must adjust its conditions for access to the Dutch App Store for dating-app providers. In the App Store, dating-app providers must also be able to use payment systems other than Apple's payment system. In addition, dating-app providers must have the ability to refer to payment systems outside of the app. This had been laid down in an order subject to periodic penalty payments that ACM imposed on Apple in August 2021. On December 24, 2021, the court ruled that this part of the order could be published.

One major question about Apple's plans is its intent to continue to receive a commission for in-app purchases made with dating apps, even if the developer uses a third-party payment method. Apple has yet to reveal what the commission will be or how it plans to implement it.

Apple's CEO Tim Cook had previously said that even if developers were to use third-payment methods, Apple would continue to receive a cut for all in-app purchases made but noted that such a system does not yet exist. We've reached out to Apple for comment on the ACM's conclusion and the 5 million euro fine.

Beats Fit Pro will be available to pre-order worldwide starting today, including in the UK, Ireland, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Sweden, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, and more.

First released in the United States a few months ago, Beats Fit Pro are ideal for athletes, with flexible wingtips providing a more secure fit in the ear. The wireless earbuds have similar features as the AirPods Pro, including active noise cancellation with "Transparency" mode, spatial audio with dynamic head tracking, an H1 chip for one-tap pairing and automatic switching between Apple devices, Hey Siri support, and more.

Beats Fit Pro will be available to pre-order through Apple's online store, with black, white, stone purple, and sage gray color options. Pre-orders will begin at 3 p.m. in the UK, according to Beats, with pricing set at £199.99 in that country.

Beats Fit Pro also feature up to six hours of listening time per charge, compatibility with Android devices, IPX4-rated water and sweat resistance, a USB-C charging case, customizable silicone ear tips with three size options, and more.

For more details about Beats Fit Pro, read our hands-on coverage of the earbuds from last year.

MediaTek has conducted the world's first live demo of Wi-Fi 7 for "key customers and industry collaborators," paving the way for the wireless network technology to enter mainstream consumer hardware as early as next year, according to the company.

Taiwan-based MediaTek said the demos demonstrated the ability of Wi-Fi 7 to achieve the maximum speed defined by IEEE 802.11be, the official name for the Wi-Fi 7 standard. The company said it also highlighted its multi-link operation (MLO) technology. MLO aggregates multiple channels on different frequency bands at the same time to allow network traffic to still flow seamlessly even if there is interference or congestion on the bands. "Filogic" simply refers to MediaTek's Wi-Fi 7 connectivity portfolio.

"The rollout of Wi-Fi 7 will mark the first time that Wi-Fi can be a true wireline/Ethernet replacement for super high-bandwidth applications," said Alan Hsu, corporate vice president and general manager of the Intelligent Connectivity business at MediaTek. "MediaTek’s Wi-Fi 7 technology will be the backbone of home, office and industrial networks and provide seamless connectivity for everything from multi-player AR/VR applications to cloud gaming and 4K calls to 8K streaming and beyond."

"Faster broadband Internet access and more demanding applications such as higher resolution video streaming and VR gaming are driving demand for Wi-Fi 6, Wi-Fi 6E, and soon Wi-Fi 7," said Mario Morales, group vice president, Semiconductors at IDC. "Wi-Fi 7's advances in channel width, QAM, and new features such as multi-link operation (MLO) will make Wi-Fi 7 very attractive for devices including flagship smartphones, PCs, consumer devices and vertical industries like retail and industrial; as service providers begin to deploy a wider spectrum of hotspots across these market segments."

Wi-Fi 7 is said to deliver 2.4x faster speeds than Wi-Fi 6, even with the same number of antennas, since Wi-Fi 7 can utilize 320Mhz channels and supports 4K quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) technology.

The Wi-FI Alliance says Wi-Fi 7 could provide speeds of "at least 30" gigabits per second (Gbps) and should exceed that to reach 40Gbps, which is the same speed as Thunderbolt 3. As noted by ArsTechnica, Wi-Fi 6 supports speeds up to 9.6Gbps, while its predecessor, WiFi 5, has a max output of 3.5Gbps. Wi-Fi 6 is the marketing name given to 802.11ax technology, which is supported by all iPhone 11 and later models, the newest iPad mini, iPad Air, iPad Pro, and all Macs powered by Apple silicon.

The next step up from Wi-Fi 6 is Wi-Fi 6E. Devices supporting Wi-Fi 6E use a dedicated 6E spectrum with up to seven additional 160MHz channels, while Wi-Fi 6 devices share the same spectrum as other Wi-Fi 4, 5, and 6 devices, and they only operate on two 160MHz channels. Some reports suggested Apple's iPhone 13 series would include Wi-Fi 6E, but the rumors never panned out. Looking ahead, this year's iPhone 14 is expected to adopt Wi-Fi 6E and Apple's forthcoming AR/VR headset is also expected to support it to meet the needs of the high-end, immersive experience it will deliver, according to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.

MediaTek has been involved in the development of the Wi-Fi 7 standard since its inception and is eager to drum up excitement for its Wi-Fi 7 Filogic connectivity portfolio, but the protocol hasn't been finalized by the Wi-FI Alliance yet, so it's difficult to say when consumer devices will actually support it. MediaTek says products with Wi-Fi 7 are expected to hit the market starting in 2023. Regardless, given that Apple has yet to adopt Wi-Fi 6E in any of its devices, support for Wi-Fi 7 is likely to be some way away.

China-based display maker BOE will supply Apple with OLED LTPO displays for the higher-end models of the iPhone 15 lineup in 2023, according to a new report from The Elec.

Following unsuccessful attempts by the Chinese maker in 2020 to supply displays for the iPhone 12 series, BOE joined Apple's list of display makers to produce panels for the baseline 6.1-inch iPhone 13 earlier this year. Apple's higher-end iPhone 13 Pro and ‌iPhone 13 Pro‌ Max displays, which require more advanced technology, are made by Samsung.

According to today's report, BOE is looking to expand its ability to manufacture OLED LTPO displays, which enable a variable refresh rate of up to 120Hz, in time for the ‌iPhone‌ 15 Pro, expected in 2023. For the iPhone 14 series expected this fall, BOE will continue to supply displays for only the lower-tier handsets while Pro series displays will continue to rely on Samsung and LG.

For the first time since the ‌iPhone‌ X, Apple is rumored to be planning a major redesign of the display on the higher-end ‌iPhone 14‌ models, including removing the notch. Apple is rumored to be replacing the notch with a hole punch and a pill-shaped cutout at the top of the display for the TrueDepth system and front-facing camera.

Apple is working on a number of new products that are set to launch this fall, and Bloomberg's Mark Gurman says that it will be "the widest array" of new devices that Apple has introduced in its history.

In his latest "Power On" newsletter, Gurman explains that Apple is working on four new flagship iPhones (iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Max, iPhone 14 Pro, and iPhone 14 Pro Max), an updated low-end MacBook Pro, a refreshed larger-screened iMac, a new Mac Pro, a redesigned MacBook Air, second-generation AirPods Pro, three Apple Watches (Series 8, SE, and Rugged), a low-end iPad, and new iPad Pro models.

We've shared details on many of these devices before and information on what to expect can be found through the links below or through our dedicated upcoming products guide that walks through everything that Apple is expected to unveil this year.

According to Gurman, most of the new products are expected in the fall months, but there is a possibility that the iMac could come earlier. Apple is planning a spring event in March or April that will see the launch of the 5G iPhone SE, a refreshed iPad Air with an A15 chip, and perhaps at least one Mac.

Apple may use the spring event to bring the M1 Pro chip to another Mac, either a higher-end iMac or Mac mini, but the bulk of the Mac refreshes, which will include a new version of the Mac Pro and an entirely overhauled MacBook Air, are unlikely to happen before the fall.

Gurman speculates that the upcoming iPad Pro will have an M2 chip and wireless charging, features that make it a candidate for a fall launch rather than a spring launch. Apple did, however, submit regulatory filings for nine new iPads and three new iPhone models, so it is possible more than one iPad could be refreshed at the spring event.

Apple had also planned to introduce its AR/VR headset in 2022, but rumors have suggested that the device's debut may have been pushed back to 2023 as there are still issues that need to be worked out.

Apple's spring event last year took place in April, so we could see a similar timeline this year. The spring event will be followed by the Worldwide Developers Conference in June, which will see the launch of iOS 16 and macOS 13, and then in fall, with so many products planned, Apple is likely to hold at least two events.

Apple has always emphasized the depth of thought that goes into the design of its products. In the foreword to Designed by Apple in California, a photo book released by the company in 2016, Jony Ive explains how Apple strives "to define objects that appear effortless" and "so simple, coherent and inevitable that there could be no rational alternative."

But every once in a while even Apple gets it wrong, and a tech company's coherent rationale for the way a product should be designed can translate into end-user irritation, or even a customer's personal hell. Here we take a look back at a handful of Apple's most questionable design decisions in recent memory. See if you agree, and let us know in the comments of any other Apple products that you think didn't live up to their billing.

1. Magic Mouse 2

Announced way back in 2015, the Magic Mouse 2 was heralded at its launch as yet another Apple innovation, due to its touch-sensitive surface that can recognize swipes and gestures as well as clicks. On the face of it, the sleek curves and glossy, seamless top surface of Apple's mouse makes it come across as a paragon of Apple design, until you come to charge it.

In an oft-queried decision, Apple opted to put the charging port on the underside of the Magic Mouse 2, suggesting to many that it had sacrificed usability for design. Arguably, Apple could have located the port on the front edge of the mouse, like most other wired and wireless mice, which would have allowed users to charge it while using it at the same time. But no.

In April 2021, six years later, Apple announced the latest iMac, which boasts various neat functional design tweaks over its predecessors, like the Ethernet port in the charging brick, for instance. The Magic Mouse 2 comes included with the new iMacs and even sports several colors to match the all-in-one machines, but Apple still expects users to flip over their mouse and plug in a Lightning cable, which makes it not only unusable but also slightly pathetic-looking.

Apple's Magic Mouse 2 originally went on sale in the United States for $79 and that's the same price you'll pay for it today.

2. Apple/Siri Remote (2015-2021)

It's hard to downplay the amount of venom that's been aimed at the original Siri Remote since Apple first included it with the Apple TV in 2015, and if you never got to use the thing, that might seem a bit harsh.

After all, it had a clickable touchpad at the top that responded to swipes and gestures for navigating tvOS, and two uncomplicated columns of buttons clearly positioned below for controlling media playback. It even had an accelerometer and doubled as a game controller.

All good, you might think. But in practice, most users agreed it was an absolute clanger and an ergonomic disaster. The consensus was that Apple's Remote design was too small and too thin, which meant when it wasn't making your hands look worryingly huge it had got lost down the back of the sofa or between the cushions.

Then there was its non-intuitive button layout, which could be gauged best by the level of frustration that attended mistakenly pressing the ‌Siri‌ button to get back to the menu. Even now, few will have forgotten the very high sensitivity of the glass touchpad that sometimes made onscreen navigation a bit like watching Olympic curling.

All of this of course assumed you hadn't been holding it backwards, which almost every user did on at least a weekly basis. Thanks to its uncompromising symmetry, one end of the remote was practically indistinguishable from the other in low light. Not only that, the Remote only came in black and had no backlighting to speak of, as though Apple had intentionally set out to make locating it in the dark some kind of twilight challenge.

In a move that likely saddened no-one, Apple banished the ‌Siri‌ Remote to the annals of tech history in 2021 when it unveiled the latest ‌Apple TV‌ 4K and a much-improved, all-new Siri Remote with a new clickpad interface offering five-way navigation.

3. Apple Pencil (1st Gen)

Another device that falls into the goofy-looking-when-charging category is the first-generation Apple Pencil, which was released in 2015, the same year as the Magic Mouse 2. Apple built a male Lightning connector under the cap that allows it to be plugged into an iPad for power, which sort of makes sense if you think about it.

In most situations when the ‌Apple Pencil‌ runs out of power, there's an ‌iPad‌ right there to plug it into, and to be fair, it charges pretty fast, offering around 30 minutes of usage after being plugged in for only 15 seconds. In that sense, it just works. But there's no getting around the fact that also just looks weird.

This could arguably be a case of Apple choosing function over form, but it doesn't appear to have taken into account the potential damage that could be inflicted on both devices if you accidentally wack the pencil on something when it's plugged in. How many ‌iPad‌ Lightning ports have been killed as a result remains unknown.

When the ‌Apple Pencil‌ is plugged in and charging, you obviously can't charge your ‌iPad‌ (unless you plug the pencil into an iPhone, say) and unless you're using the ‌iPad‌ in landscape orientation, it makes using your tablet awkward. In other words, you can't charge the pencil and the tablet at the same time.

Apple still sells the first-generation ‌Apple Pencil‌ for $99, but thankfully it adopted magnetic charging for the second-generation version, thus restoring a partial sense of harmony to the ‌iPad‌ lineup.

4. AirPods Max Smart Case

When Apple unveiled its $599 high-end AirPods Max over-ear headphones in 2021, there was as much online chatter about Apple's included Smart Case as the headphones themselves.

Apple says the case is designed to put the ‌AirPods Max‌ into an "ultra-low power state that helps to preserve battery charge when not in use." Granted, that's useful when your headphones don't come with a proper off switch, but it's the odd look of the case that seems to trigger unusual associations in the mind.

The Smart Case quickly birthed an avalanche of memes, which have irreverently compared it to all sorts of things, from handbags to lingerie, and even body parts. Bra comparisons aside though, most would agree that Apple seems to have de-prioritised the practicalities of travel in its pursuit of iconic fashion. Nilay Patel, writing for The Verge:

I have no idea what's going on with the AirPods Max case, which is a goofy one-piece contraption that's folded and glued over on itself to form a case. It looks very much like a purse when wrapped around the headphones, which is at once fun and clever and also not the point of a headphones case that needs to survive in a backpack. It does not appear very protective, feels like it will get dirty fast, and generally does not hold a candle to the nice hard cases that come with almost every other set of premium headphones.

You'd think that a case that comes with a pair of premium headphones provides them with protection when tossed into a backpack, but when it comes to Apple's Smart Case, many users would urge you to think again. The lack of coverage offered by the case material leaves the headphone's metal so prone to scratches that you'd be forgiven for erring on the side of caution and carrying them in your hand instead for everyone to see. And maybe that's the point.

5. Butterfly Keyboard (2015-2019)

Apple in 2015 and 2016 introduced updated keyboards for its pared-down MacBook and MacBook Pro machines, debuting new butterfly keys with home switches beneath each key that minimized thickness without losing that satisfying press under the fingers. Sadly, it wasn't long before Apple's butterfly keyboard was called out as one of the company's worst design decisions thanks to their rage-inducing penchant for failure.

All butterfly keyboards in MacBook Pro, MacBook, and MacBook Air models introduced between 2016 and 2019 (and 2015 in the case of the MacBook) had butterfly keys that simply couldn't stand the test of time. The mechanism was so delicate and fragile that the tiniest piece of grit could break a key. What made things worse was Apple's laptop construction, which meant replacing that single borked key required taking your MacBook to an Apple repair center where the entire machine had to be completely disassembled.

In 2016, instead of replacing the keyboard wholesale, Apple introduced a second-generation version, suggesting the issues had been fixed. However, broken keys continued to be reported, much to Apple's chagrin. Rather than admitting defeat, however, Apple continued to beat its favorite dead horse by tweaking the butterfly mechanism in successive machines released in 2018 and 2019. But the complaints didn't go away.

In May 2018, a spate of class action lawsuits were brought against Apple on behalf of users who had been affected by broken butterfly keys and were angry that Apple had refused to honor its warranty obligations and fix the keyboards for free.

A month later, Apple implicitly acknowledged the issues when it launched an "extended keyboard service program," for MacBooks equipped with butterfly keys, and in May 2019, the program was expanded to encompass all MacBook models equipped with a butterfly keyboard, although an outright admission that it had put its faith in a bad design was never forthcoming.

In a notable swipe at Apple for its refusal to accept its design was intrinsically flawed, the Wall Street Journal's Joanna Stern published an editorial typed up on one of the defective keyboards, but without corrections. The article went mainstream, publicly embarrassing Apple.

We'll likely never know how widespread the keyboard problems were, but we do know Mac users breathed a collective sigh of relief when Apple unveiled the 2019 16-inch MacBook Pro with a redesigned "Magic" keyboard with a scissor switch mechanism featuring 1mm of travel, an inverted "T" arrangement for the arrow keys, and a physical Escape key next to the Touch Bar.

6. Mac Pro (2013-2019)

"Can't innovate, my ass," remarked Apple's Phil Schiller during the announcement of the redesigned Mac Pro in 2013. It was a moment of on-stage hubris that would go down in Apple lore, on par with Steve Jobs' "You're holding it wrong" in the face of ‌iPhone‌ 4 antenna issues. Schiller's snipe was directed not at the audience in attendance, but at armchair critics who pointed at the existing ‌Mac Pro‌'s lack of upgrades and claimed Apple had largely abandoned its pro user base and was out of ideas.

Apple believed its radical vision for the future of the pro desktop proved the naysayers wrong. Indeed, despite its relatively niche market compared to the appeal of its other smash-hit products, Apple was showing it had gone to great engineering lengths to innovate. And innovate it had. Apple said its new ‌Mac Pro‌ offered twice the overall performance of the previous generation while taking up less than one-eighth of the volume, thanks to its unified thermal core. Everything inside was cooled by one large fan at the top, which could spin more slowly than smaller fans and keep the Mac quiet under heavy load.

Intel Xeon processors were twinned with dual AMD FirePro workstation GPUs, enabling the machine to deliver seven teraflops of computing power. But while the powerful hardware and the black aluminum cylinder that housed it all was unmistakably Apple-esque in its ambitions, there were notable concerns. Everything was cleverly designed to improve thermal dissipation, but that meant expansion had to be served externally by Thunderbolt 2 ports.

Most creative pros couldn't overlook its lack of internal slots to upgrade graphics cards and add more memory. Even Apple seemed unsure how to update its internals – as recently as 2019, it was possible to buy a trashcan ‌Mac Pro‌ from Apple without hardly an update in the six years since its release.

Apple was all too aware of the criticism its ‌Mac Pro‌ redesign had attracted, and ended up doing something out of character. The famously secretive company hardly ever reveals its plans for new products, but felt it had to assuage growing concerns from the Mac's pro base that the company had lost its way.

At a meeting with reporters in 2017, Apple executives apologized and admitted the 2013 ‌Mac Pro‌ model had been a mistake, having been designed into a thermal corner. To rectify the situation, Apple promised a new modular ‌Mac Pro‌ system more akin to its traditional "cheese grater" tower design, a new external display, and a new ‌iMac‌ Pro model for professional users. This time Apple did deliver on its promises, and the "trashcan" ‌Mac Pro‌ was laid to rest in 2019.

As we roll into the latter half of January, we're starting to hear more about a potential spring Apple event, which is likely to take place in March or April. There are a number of potential announcements on deck, so an event would be a good opportunity for Apple to get them all out there.

We've also been going back and forth on some iPhone 14 rumors, and we've taken a look at a number of rumored Apple products that are a bit further down the road. Read on below for details on all of these stories and more!

New iPad Air, Macs, and iPhone SE With 5G Likely to Be Announced at Apple Event This Spring

Apple plans to a hold a spring event to announce a new iPhone SE with 5G support and other hardware, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. The event will likely take place in March or April, he said.

In addition to a new iPhone SE, other products rumored to be announced at the event include a fifth-generation iPad Air with similar features as the new iPad mini, a redesigned 27-inch iMac with M1 Pro and M1 Max chips, and a high-end Mac mini with M1 Pro and M1 Max chips.

Earlier this week, Apple filed several unreleased iPhone and iPad model numbers in a regulatory database. These filings are likely for new iPhone SE and iPad Air models at a minimum.

Apple Says Option to Stay on iOS 14 With Security Updates Was Always Meant to Be Temporary

When iOS 15 was released in September, Apple gave users an option to stay on iOS 14 and continue to receive security updates, but as MacRumors reported last week, this is no longer an option.

Apple has since informed Ars Technica that the option to stay on iOS 14 and receive security updates was always meant to be temporary. Users now must update to iOS 15 to continue to receive security updates.

U.S. Senate Panel Approves Antitrust Bill That Would Allow Sideloading

The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee this week approved the American Innovation and Choice Online Act, which means it will now move on to the Senate floor for a vote, and there could be big implications for Apple.

The bill would require major changes to the App Store if passed in its current incarnation. For example, it would allow sideloading of apps outside of the App Store on the iPhone and iPad. In a letter this week, Apple warned that sideloading will subject customers to "malware, ransomware, and scams."

ProMotion Display Now Expected to Remain Exclusive to iPhone 14 Pro Models

iPhone 13 Pro models feature ProMotion, which allows for the display to have a variable refresh rate up to 120Hz for smoother content and scrolling. The refresh rate can also go as low as 10Hz to preserve battery life depending on the type of content on the screen.

While it was rumored that ProMotion might expand to all iPhone 14 models, display industry consultant Ross Young this week claimed the feature will remain exclusive to the Pro models.

Six Rumored Apple Products You're Unlikely to See This Year

Much has been said about what consumers could see from Apple in 2022, but the company is also working on a handful of rumored products that aren't expected to be unveiled for at least another 12 months, and in some cases a lot longer.

With that in mind, we've put together a list of six rumored Apple products that are unlikely to launch this year, including a hybrid Apple TV/HomePod device.

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Each week, we publish an email newsletter like this highlighting the top Apple stories, making it a great way to get a bite-sized recap of the week hitting all of the major topics we've covered and tying together related stories for a big-picture view.

So if you want to have top stories like the above recap delivered to your email inbox each week, subscribe to our newsletter!

Earlier this week, Apple began requiring that customers taking advantage of educational discounts in the United States verify their status as a teacher, student, or school staff member through UNiDAYS.

The requirement was a major change as Apple had never asked customers to go through a verification process in the United States before, and now, just three days after verification was added, Apple has removed it.

As of today, discounted iPads, Macs, and other products can be purchased from Apple's education website in the U.S., and Apple is not asking for any proof that a customer is a student or teacher.

After the UNiDAYS requirement rolled out, there were complaints from some MacRumors readers that suggested the UNiDAYS site was broken for staff member verification, as it was asking customers to upload a student ID with an expiration date. Staff members were prevented from obtaining discounted products, which could be why Apple has nixed the requirement.

It is not clear if Apple will reimplement an institution verification process after working out kinks to make it available for students, teachers, and school staff, but for now, there is no requirement to make a discounted purchase.

Apple has long required UNiDAYS verification in countries like the United Kingdom, so it would not be too much of a surprise to see it added again as a requirement in the United States at some point in the future.

Today you can get Apple's 24-inch 7-Core GPU, 256GB iMac for a new record low price of $1,239.92, down from $1,299.00. This model is sold by Expercom on Amazon and it's available in Silver and Blue.

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

This deal beats the previous best price by about $10, making it the new all-time low price on this model on Amazon. You'll also find the 8-core, 256GB model discounted this week on Amazon in Silver and Orange.

You can keep track of ongoing sales on Apple's iMac line by visiting our Best iMac Deals guide. There, we keep track of the best iMac offers from Amazon, Adorama, B&H Photo, and other retailers, so be sure to check back often if you're shopping for an iMac for the first time, or thinking of upgrading.

Apple today shared a new Valentine's Day gift guide with categories including music, health, entertainment, creativity, photography, and video.

The gift guide promotes a wide variety of Apple products and accessories for Valentine's Day, with some of the more affordable options including an Apple Watch band, an iPhone case, an AirTag, AirPods, an Apple Pencil, and a HomePod mini.

Many products are available with free engraving for a personalized touch, including the iPhone, iPad, Apple Pencil, AirPods, and AirTag.

Apple gift cards are always a popular gift idea as well and can be used towards products and accessories from the Apple Store, in addition to the App Store, Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Fitness+, Apple News+, Apple Arcade, iCloud+ storage, and more.

For this week's giveaway, we've teamed up with Electronic Finishing Solutions to offer MacRumors readers a chance to win a Sonos Roam speaker that's customized with the MacRumors logo.

Electronic Finishing Solutions bills itself as a company with high-end electronic customization experts. It offers a selection of customized AirPods, speakers, earbuds, headphones, and other devices. Companies often like to provide customized devices for clients or employees, and Electronic Finishing Solutions can add logos or other branding.

Customized Sonos Roam speakers can be ordered in quantities ranging from a single set to more than 100, with pricing starting at $249.99. The speaker itself is $180, so the customization process is a $70 surcharge, but cost goes down with a higher number of units ordered.

All of Electronic Finishing Solutions' customized products can be ordered as a single device or in multiples, so individuals can take advantage of the customization as well. Customized devices make fun corporate gifts for clients or for anyone who wants to gift friends or family with a custom set of headphones or speakers.

Personalization services are all-inclusive and Electronic Finishing Solutions works with customers to get the perfect look for a customized product, with production beginning after a proof is approved by the customer. Orders ship in 5 to 10 business days, but faster shipping is available and there's even a direct fulfillment service.

As for the Sonos Roam speaker, it is a lightweight, battery-operated speaker that's ready for the outdoors with IP67 water resistance and drop protection. It offers a 10+ hour battery life and it is compatible with AirPlay 2.

Electronic Finishing Solutions has made three custom Sonos Roam speakers to give away to MacRumors readers. To enter to win, use the Gleam.io widget below and enter an email address. Email addresses will be used solely for contact purposes to reach the winners and send the prizes. You can earn additional entries by subscribing to our weekly newsletter, subscribing to our YouTube channel, following us on Twitter, following us on Instagram, or visiting the MacRumors Facebook page.

Due to the complexities of international laws regarding giveaways, only U.S. residents who are 18 years or older, UK residents who are 18 years or older, and Canadian residents (excluding Quebec) who have reached the age of majority in their province or territory are eligible to enter. All federal, state, provincial, and/or local taxes, fees, and surcharges are the sole responsibility of the prize winner. To offer feedback or get more information on the ‌giveaway‌ restrictions, please refer to our Site Feedback section, as that is where discussion of the rules will be redirected.

The contest will run from today (January 21) at 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time through 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time on January 28. The winners will be chosen randomly on January 28 and will be contacted by email. The winners will have 48 hours to respond and provide a shipping address before new winners are chosen.

Apple's 256GB Wi-Fi iPad has dropped to $449.00 today on Amazon, from $479.00. This sale is available in both Space Gray and Silver color options, and both are in stock and ready to ship today.

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

Compared to previous discounts, Amazon's discount is an all-time low price on this model of the 10.2-inch iPad. Markdowns on these models have been less consistent than other iPads over the past few months, so those interested should check out Amazon's sale soon.

For even more iPad deals, head to our full Best Deals guide for iPad. In that guide we track the best discounts online for iPad, iPad mini, iPad Air, and iPad Pro.

Following months of bleak news about Peloton's "precarious state," including the revelation that it has halted production of its bikes and treadmills, Apple is being floated as a potential buyer of Peloton's troubled fitness business.

Yesterday, CNBC reported that Peloton will temporarily stop production of its connected fitness products due to a "significant reduction" in consumer demand, a pressing need to control costs, and amplified competitor activity. In a confidential company presentation earlier this month, Peloton told employees that products such as the Bike, Bike+, and Tread will be out of production for between six weeks and six months.

As a business, Peloton has high customer acquisition costs, translating to high product pricing. Toward the end of last year, the company reduced the price of its entry-level bike by almost 20 percent to $1,495 in an attempt to drive up sales through the end of 2021. It then emerged that the company is planning to lay off 41 percent of its sales and marketing staff.

CNBC also revealed that the company's fiscal forecasts do not take into account new delivery and setup fees between $250 and $350 that customers will have to pay on top of the cost of the Bike or Tread. In addition, Peloton has seen low email capture rates for its upcoming $495 strength training product, "Peloton Guide."

In a press release preannouncing its upcoming financial results yesterday, Peloton CEO John Foley said that the company is now "taking significant corrective actions to improve our profitability outlook and optimize our costs." Peloton's stock has since plunged 24 percent, now floating around 85 percent below where it was trading this time last year, and even $5 less than when it went public in 2019. There are also indications that Peloton is losing market share in the connected fitness industry.

The Information reports that Peloton's production halt and the precarious state of its business looks like a prelude to an acquisition by a bigger company, positing that Apple is the ideal candidate to buy Peloton:

If Peloton is to have a future, it would be better off as part of a bigger, more diversified company. Apple is an ideal candidate to take on that project. It has the Fitness+ subscription service for classes and it markets the Apple Watch as a device that can help with jogging and other exercise activities. It could close Peloton's stores and sell the equipment through its own stores. And hey, after today, Peloton's market capitalization is down to $7.9 billion. Cook could pay for that by dipping into the change jar in his kitchen.

The idea of Apple acquiring Peloton is gathering steam among market observers, with the possibility being weighed up by The Motley Fool and Inc., among others.

Analyst Neil Cybart recently highlighted how Peloton is now actively threatened by Apple Fitness+, which is considerably cheaper, costing up to $388.01 less annually for digital classes alone. Cybart cautioned that without major changes in 2022, "Peloton is on track to be a Fitbit 2.0 - a company unable to compete with the giants subsidizing health and fitness tracking as an ecosystem feature."

Apple will no longer include EarPods with every iPhone sold in France, starting on January 24, according to a notice posted by a French carrier (via iGeneration). Apple was previously required to include EarPods in the box with the ‌iPhone‌ due to a French law that required every smartphone sold in the country to come with a "handsfree kit," but the law has now been changed in favor of reducing the environmental footprint of digital devices.

Starting with the iPhone 12 in 2020, Apple stopped including EarPods and the power adapter from the ‌iPhone‌ box, claiming it was doing so in part to reduce its environmental footprint. With both accessories removed, the ‌iPhone‌ box was made drastically thinner. Apple also removed both items from older ‌iPhone‌ models it continued to sell.

Despite Apple's announcement, the company was required to continue shipping iPhones with EarPods in France. Apple's lawful obligation to include the EarPods was based on the precautionary principle, because the risks of exposing developing brains to electromagnetic waves are not clearly known, according to French law.

Now, that's all about to change. According to a new bill passed in the French assembly, smartphone manufacturers will no longer be forced to include headphones in the box. Instead, they just need to ensure that compatible headphones are available separately as an optional accessory. According to a notice posted by French carrier Fnac, iPhones will no longer ship with EarPods in the box starting on January 24. A machine translation of the poster reads:

DEAR CUSTOMERS,
We would like to inform you that our manufacturers are no longer required to supply headphones/hands-free kits with their smartphones in France. This new law, adopted in late 2021, aims to reduce the environmental footprint in France.

The Xiaomi brand is concerned, for products purchased from the week of January 17, 2022. The same will be true for the Apple brand as of from the week of January 24, 2022
THANK YOU FOR YOUR UNDERSTANDING

Apple's regional website for France continues to show EarPods as an item included in the box with the ‌iPhone‌ alongside a USB-C to Lightning cable, although this will likely be updated soon. While it did remove the EarPods from the box, Apple reduced the headphones' price to $19, down from $29, when the ‌iPhone 12‌ launched in September 2020.

Apple's decision to remove EarPods and the power adapter from the ‌‌iPhone‌‌ box was controversial in other countries, too. For example, Apple was fined $2 million in Brazil for not including the power adapter with iPhones.