MacRumors

Apple this week surprised us with the debut of a new $99 MagSafe Battery Pack for the iPhone 12 lineup, taking the place of the full battery cases Apple has traditionally launched for its iPhones.

Other news and rumors this week included the release of the third betas of iOS 15 and Apple's other upcoming operating systems, our best look yet at the iPhone 13 in the form of some dummy units we were able to get our hands on, and a rumored webcam upgrade for the upcoming redesigned MacBook Pro models. Read on for details on these stories and more!

Apple Launches $99 MagSafe Battery Pack

This week saw Apple release a new MagSafe Battery Pack that magnetically attaches to the back of the iPhone 12 mini, iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro, and iPhone 12 Pro Max, providing additional hours of battery life on the go. Here's everything you need to know about the MagSafe Battery Pack, including a reverse wireless charging feature.

Apple has also made the AirTag Leather Loop and AirTag Leather Key Ring available in additional colors.

Here's What the iPhone 13 Lineup Will Look Like

We're likely about two months away from Apple unveiling its rumored iPhone 13 lineup with several new features, including a smaller notch, a smoother 120Hz display on Pro models, camera upgrades, and potentially even a new Matte Black color option.

MacRumors obtained iPhone 13 dummy models and shared them in a hands-on video this week, providing a closer look at their expected design and features.

New 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro Rumored to Feature Upgraded 1080p Webcam

It's been a long time coming, but rumor has it that upcoming 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models will feature an improved 1080p webcam.

The new MacBook Pro models would be following in the footsteps of the latest iMac models, which are also equipped with a 1080p webcam for crisper video quality in this Zoom and FaceTime era. MacBook Pro models are currently equipped with a 720p webcam.

Everything New in iOS 15 Beta 3

The third betas of iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 are now available for developers, and there are several changes, including a relocated Safari address bar and other design tweaks to the mobile web browser.

The third beta of macOS Monterey is also out and it likewise features a redesigned Safari tab interface following complaints.

The latest watchOS 8 beta lets users install software updates with less than 500MB of available storage, a change that is likely aimed at the Apple Watch Series 3, as the GPS-only version has only 8GB of internal storage.

You'll Soon Be Able to Stream Windows on a Mac or iPad

Microsoft this week announced Windows 365, a new cloud service that will allow Windows to be streamed to virtually any device, including a Mac or iPad, complete with apps, data, and settings.

While the browser-based service will be limited to businesses when it launches in early August, it is conceivable that the feature will become available for consumers at some point in the future.

'Apple Pay Later' Feature in the Works

Apple is reportedly working on a new service that will let users make purchases with Apple Pay and pay in monthly installments over time, similar to "buy now, pay later" options offered by the likes of PayPal and Affirm. The feature is supposedly dubbed "Apple Pay Later" internally at Apple.

The feature could be similar to Apple Card Monthly Installments, except with no Apple Card required, making monthly installments available to a much wider group of iPhone users.

MacRumors Newsletter

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!

Apple CEO Tim Cook today announced that Apple plans to donate to organizations in Western Europe to support flood relief efforts.

More than 125 people have died in unprecedented flooding in Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands, with high waters damaging roads, homes, bridges, and other infrastructure. Another 1,300 people are missing, with multiple small villages devastated by flood waters.

Apple often donates money during natural disasters and has donated several times to fund wildfire relief efforts in California. Most recently, Apple donated to organizations in Texas amid harsh winter temperatures in February.

Fakespot, which is known for analyzing reviews from popular websites to determine their accuracy, today had its iOS app removed from Apple's App Store.

According to The Verge, Amazon sent Apple a takedown request, which led to the app being pulled. Fakespot's iOS app just launched in June, and it was designed to allow users to log into Amazon and buy items while using the Fakespot engine to analyze the reviews.

Amazon said that Fakespot's app was "wrapping" the website without permission and that the app could potentially be exploited to steal Amazon customer data. Amazon sent the initial takedown notice in June, and today, Apple kicked the app from the ‌App Store‌.

Amazon claimed that Fakespot violated Apple's 5.2.2 ‌App Store‌ guideline that prevents apps from using, accessing, monetizing access to, or displaying content from a third-party service if not authorized to do so. A statement from Amazon said that the app was giving customers "misleading information" about Amazon sellers.

"The app in question provides customers with misleading information about our sellers and their products, harms our sellers' businesses, and creates potential security risks. We appreciate Apple's review of this app against its Appstore guidelines."

Fakespot founder Saoud Khalifah told The Verge that Apple did not give it an opportunity to solve the problem. "We just dedicated months of resources and time and money into this app," he said. He went on to say Amazon's willingness to "bully little companies" showcases "cracks in their company."

A search for Fakespot confirms that the Fakespot app is no longer available for download from the iOS ‌App Store‌. While it was active, it had more than 150,000 installs.

Fakespot is well known for analyzing Amazon reviews and providing a rating or grade on how many of those reviews come from actual people. Amazon says that it regularly analyzes products with reviews that Fakespot calls out as untrustworthy, but that Fakespot's findings "were wrong more than 80% of the time."

Amazon says that Fakespot does not have the appropriate information to "accurately determine the authenticity of a review." Fakespot's website continues to be active and is available for Amazon shoppers to use, plus there is a browser extension for Chrome and Firefox.

Update: Apple in a statement provided to MacRumors explained that the dispute was between Amazon and Fakespot, and that Fakespot had been contacted multiple times.

This was a dispute over intellectual property rights initiated by Amazon on June 8 and within hours we ensured both parties were in contact with one another, explaining the issue and steps for the developer to take to keep their app on the store and giving them ample time to resolve the issue. On June 29, we again reached out to Fakespot weeks before removing their app from the App Store.

Apple has long had a Do Not Disturb function that can be activated when you want to mute incoming notifications to avoid being bothered, but with iOS 15, Apple is taking Do Not Disturb to a new level with Focus.

With Focus, you set an activity that you're doing, such as working, exercising, reading, or spending time with family, and block out the notifications that are unrelated to those tasks. It's basically Do Not Disturb but with more options for refining what you see and what you don't see. This guide highlights everything that you need to know about iOS 15's Focus mode.

Accessing Focus Mode

Focus, like Screen Time, lives in the Settings app. It's grouped up with Notifications, Sounds & Haptics, and Screen Time on iOS.

You can also activate, manage, and create new focuses through the Control Center on iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

Creating and Editing Focuses

In a nutshell, with any Focus mode, you can select who can contact you and which apps, if any, can send you notifications. Focus mode lets you personalize the people and apps able to contact you based on what you're doing.

Apple has several pre-made Focus options like Do Not Disturb, Driving, and Sleep, but you can also create your own Focus modes and choose which apps are able to send you notifications.

You can set up different Focus modes for work, personal time, working out, gaming, reading, cooking, or anything else you can think of where you don't want to be disturbed.

In the Focus section of Settings or through the Control Center, you can tap on the "+" button to create a new Focus, or tap on one of the existing Focus modes to tailor it to better suit your needs.

You can select a pre-prepared Focus goal or create something entirely custom, choosing an icon and an icon color. With any Focus mode, you can decide if you want to get notifications from people during the Focus, and if so, which people.

From there, you can select which apps are allowed to send you notifications, and then you can choose whether or not you want to receive Time Sensitive notifications.

Time Sensitive notifications are a new notification class in iOS 15. A notification marked as time sensitive can be allowed to bypass Focus mode. Notifications that are classed as time sensitive are those that are immediately important, such as someone at the door, a food delivery, a ride pickup, and more.

• iOS 15: How to Create a Focus
• iOS 15: How to Customize a Focus
• iOS 15: How to Delete a Focus
• iOS 15: How to Allow Time Sensitive Notifications to Bypass Focus Mode

Focus Setup Suggestions

When creating a Focus, your device will use on-device intelligence and data gathered about your past activity to suggest apps and people you might want to allow notifications from.

Activating a Focus

To activate one of your Focus modes, just toggle it on using the Control Center. This is the simplest way to turn on a Focus, disable a Focus, and swap between Focus modes.

When a Focus is active, the Control Center will display the name and the icon of the Focus mode, so you know at a glance that a Focus is turned on. Focus modes also display on the Lock Screen of your iPhone.

• iOS 15: How to Activate a Focus

Cross Device Functionality

When you activate a Focus on one device, it activates across all of the devices you're signed into with your Apple ID so you won't be disrupted even if you switch from an iPhone to an ‌iPad‌ or a Mac.

If you want Focus mode to be activated on one device and not another, you can toggle off "Share Across Devices" in the Focus mode section of the Settings app.

Letting People Know Focus Mode is Active

In any Focus that you create or edit, you can opt to toggle on the "Focus Status" option. This option lets apps like Messages tell people that you have your notifications silenced.

When someone goes to send you an iMessage, if Share Focus Status is toggled on, they'll see a small message at the bottom of the app that says "[Person] has notifications silenced." People can choose to send a message anyway regardless of Focus status if there's something important that needs to be shared.

Focus Status sharing is available in Apple's built-in apps like Messages and there's also an API for developers to build it into their apps too.

Auto-Reply

For some Focus modes like Driving, you can activate an "Auto-Reply" option that will let people know that you're busy and will get back to them later. Auto-Reply messages can be customized, and this is an option for the previous Do Not Disturb While Driving feature that has been folded into Focus.

Breakthrough Messages

If you have your Focus Status on and are blocking incoming notifications, people can opt to send an urgent message. You can choose to allow or or disallow urgent messages, which bypass your restrictions.

Lock and Home Screen Refinements

With a Focus mode enabled, you can choose to show only select app pages and hide all notification badges from the Home Screen. With this feature, you can dedicate a specific screen of apps to a given Focus mode, blocking out distractions like social networking apps and leaving you only with what's relevant.

On the Lock Screen, you can choose to use a dim feature and decide whether silenced notifications should be shown on the Lock Screen.

• iOS 15: How to Adjust Home Screen and Lock Screen Settings in Focus Mode

Focus Smart Activation

If you toggle on the Focus Smart Activation feature, your device will use signals like your location and app usage to decide when to automatically turn on a Focus mode throughout the day. With this enabled, your iPhone might activate a work Focus mode when you leave the house in the morning to head to the office, turning it off again when you get home.

• iOS 15: How to Enable Smart Activation for Focus Modes

Focus Automations

You can set a Focus mode to activate at a certain time, at a certain location, or when a specific app is opened using Automations.

• How to Schedule and Automate Focus Modes

Guide Feedback

Have questions about Focus in iOS 15, know of a feature we left out, or want to offer feedback on this guide? Send us an email here.

Apple has decorated some of its retail stores around the world with a series of colorful stripes that are designed to celebrate the International Collection of Apple Watch bands that were released in June.

Several photos of the decorated Apple Store locations have been shared on Twitter, showing off stripes in different country colors. Both the new Apple Watch bands and the striped ‌Apple Store‌ decorations come ahead of the 2021 Olympic Games that are set to begin in Tokyo, Japan on Friday, July 23. Apple Stores in Japan, Italy, the U.S., and other countries are featuring the new design.

Apple's International Collection features Apple Watch bands dedicated to the following countries:

• Australia
• Belgium
• Brazil
• Canada
• China
• Denmark
• France
• Germany
• Great Britain
• Greece
• Italy
• Jamaica
• Japan
• Mexico
• Netherlands
• New Zealand
• Russia
• South Africa
• South Korea
• Spain
• Sweden
• United States

Bands are priced at $49.99 each and feature the same design and materials as other Sport Loop options. Apple has also made matching watch faces available.

For this week's giveaway, we've teamed up with Astropad to offer MacRumors readers a chance to win a Luna Display adapter that can turn an extra Mac or iPad into a secondary display for a primary Mac.

Priced at $130, the Luna Display adapter dongle is designed to plug into a Mac using a USB-C port (on newer Macs) or a Mini DisplayPort, and when paired up with the Luna Display software, a main Mac (or even a PC) can be connected to an ‌iPad‌ or another Mac using Wifi.

With this setup, you can take advantage of old hardware or add an extra display to your workflow without having to spend money on another device.

The Luna Display extends a Mac's display to the secondary Mac or ‌iPad‌, allowing the device to be used as a second screen, something that's especially useful as people continue learning and working from home.

Apple's ‌iPad‌ and Mac do have a built-in Sidecar function that can turn an ‌iPad‌ into a secondary display for a Mac without the need for an accessory, but this only works with a Mac and an ‌iPad‌ while the Luna Display supports Mac-to-Mac connectivity. Luna Display is also able to work with older iPads that don't support ‌Sidecar‌.

Starting this fall, Apple will allow Mac to Mac AirPlay with macOS Monterey, but Luna Display still has multiple benefits over ‌AirPlay‌ technology. ‌AirPlay‌ is limited to newer Mac models and up to 1080p display resolution, and the trackpad and keyboard only work with the primary Mac.

Luna Display offers full native resolution, works with older Mac models, offers keyboard and trackpad support for both Macs, and offers low latency performance. As of May, the Luna Display's Mac-to-Mac feature works over Ethernet and Thunderbolt in addition to WiFi.

With Mac-to-Mac mode, the primary Mac needs to be running OS X El Capitan or later, while the secondary Mac can be running OS X Mountain Lion or later, so the dongle works with machines that are quite old, giving them new life. For the best performance, Astropad suggests a 2012 MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, Mac mini, iMac, or later, or a 2013 Mac Pro or later.

Luna Display provides full keyboard, trackpad, and mouse support on both connected Macs in Mac-to-Mac mode, and it has native support for M1 Macs. PC owners can use the Luna Display adapter for Windows, which extends the desktop from PC to ‌iPad‌, allowing devices to work interchangeably.

For iPads, the Luna Display is compatible with the ‌‌iPad‌‌ 2 or later, all iPad mini models, all iPad Pro models, and all iPad Air models, with iOS 9.1 or later as the only requirement. Performance is faster on newer iPads, but older models work well too.

We have five Luna Display adapters 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 and Canadian residents (excluding Quebec) who have reached the age of majority in their province or territory are eligible to enter. 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 (July 16) at 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time through 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time on July 23. The winners will be chosen randomly on July 23 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 today seeded the second public beta of the macOS 12 Monterey beta to public beta testers, allowing non-developers to test the new macOS Monterey software ahead of its public release. The second beta comes two weeks after Apple released the first macOS Monterey public beta.

Public beta testers can download the macOS 12 Monterey update from the Software Update section of the System Preferences app after installing the proper profile from Apple's beta software website.

macOS Monterey introduces quite a few major updates for the macOS operating system. Universal Control, for example, lets a single mouse, trackpad, and keyboard be used across multiple Mac or iPad devices, and it's now possible to AirPlay directly to a Mac from an iPhone, ‌iPad‌, or even another Mac.

Safari has an updated tab bar and support for Tab Groups to keep tons of tabs organized, and FaceTime now features support for spatial audio, Portrait Mode (M1 Macs only) and Voice Isolation for cutting out background noise. A SharePlay ‌FaceTime‌ feature lets Apple TV users watch TV, listen to music, and share their screens with one another.

Shared With You, another new feature, keeps track of the music, links, podcasts, news, and photos that people are sent in Messages, highlighting it in the relevant apps. Notes has a new Quick Note feature for jotting down thoughts, and the Shortcuts app is now available on the Mac.

A dedicated Focus mode helps people stay on task by cutting out background distractions based on what's going on, and there's an updated Maps app with a whole slew of new features. With Live Text, Macs can now detect text in photos or provide details on animals, art, landmarks, plants, and more in images.

Mail Privacy Protection hides IP and prevents tracking through invisible pixels, and iCloud Private Relay keeps Safari browsing protected. There are many other new features in ‌macOS Monterey‌, with a complete overview available in our macOS Monterey roundup.

In the developer beta that corresponds to the second public beta, Apple changed the default design of the Safari tab bar following multiple usability complaints. There's now a dedicated address bar at the top of the Safari window, with tabs arranged below it, rather than an all-in-one integrated design. Those who preferred the original design can use the View menu to toggle off "Show Separate Tab Bar."

Apple today seeded the second betas of iOS and iPadOS 15 to public beta testers, allowing non-developers to download and test the new updates ahead of their fall release. The second public betas come two weeks after Apple released the first public betas.

Public beta testers who have signed up for Apple's beta testing program can download the iOS and iPadOS 15 updates over the air after installing the proper certificate from the Public Beta website.

iOS 15 is adding new features for FaceTime, tools for reducing distractions, updated notifications, and privacy enhancements. ‌FaceTime‌ supports SharePlay for watching TV, listening to music, or screen sharing with friends, while a Shared with You feature keeps track of the songs, website links, pictures, and more that friends send you.

Focus is designed to help keep you on task by cutting out notifications you don't want while you're busy, and there's a new notifications summary feature that prevents you from being inundated with unimportant notifications throughout the day.

Safari has a redesigned look with a compact tab bar that's located at the bottom of the screen, plus Tab Groups let users save open tabs for later. Maps has a new zoomed out globe view and a new 3D view in select cities, plus there's more road detail and an AR-based walking direction feature.

The Wallet app will support IDs and more kinds of keys in iOS 15, and Photos gains updates to Memories and a new Live Text feature that uses on-device intelligence to recognize the text in an image, making it searchable and copyable. Spotlight is better than ever, and processing for Siri requests is now done directly on device.

Mail Privacy Protection in the Mail app stops senders from seeing your IP address and knowing if you've opened up an email, and an App Privacy Report gives you details on how often apps use permissions like camera and location access.

There are a ton of other new features available in iOS and iPadOS 15, with full details available in our roundup. The latest developer beta introduced Safari refinements, updates to the Focus interface, and more, all of which should be in the second public beta.

Apple has also seeded new public betas of tvOS 15 and watchOS 8 to its public beta testing group. tvOS 15 can be downloaded by opening up the Settings app on the ‌Apple TV‌, navigating to the Software Updates section under "System," and then toggling on "Get public Beta Updates" after signing up to beta test on Apple's public beta website.

watchOS 8 can be downloaded can be downloaded after upgrading your iPhone to the public beta version of iOS 15. After installing ‌iOS 15‌, the proper ‌watchOS 8‌ profile from Apple's beta software website must also be installed. The software can be accessed by going to General > Software Update in the Apple Watch app on ‌iPhone‌. To update, ‌Apple Watch‌ needs to have 50 percent battery life, it must be placed on the charger, and it must be in range of the ‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌iPhone‌.

Kevin Lynch, who is well known at Apple for overseeing work on the Apple Watch, is set to take on a role leading the development of the Apple Car, reports Business Insider.

Several sources within Apple told Business Insider that Apple has been called on to help lead the Apple Car project, which has undergone several shifts in leadership over the years.

Right now, Apple Car development is overseen by John Giannandrea, Apple's AI and machine learning chief who took over the reins from Bob Mansfield after Mansfield retired in 2020. Rumors about the Apple Car have suggested that leadership issues and internal strife have impacted the project, which is perhaps no surprise given what a massive undertaking it is.

Prior to bringing the Apple Watch to fruition, Lynch worked at Adobe and helped create Creative Cloud, plus he has worked on Apple's healthcare strategy team, so he has a diverse background. Business Insider says that his title will not change and he will continue to be involved with both the Apple Watch and Apple's health initiatives, but he is stepping back from Jeff Williams' health care staff and will be replaced by director of health software engineering Evan Doll on that team.

Apple is now at a stage where it is sourcing components, talking with suppliers, and making deals with manufacturing partners for the Apple Car, requiring more hands-on help from experienced executives within Apple.

Work on an Apple Car is still in the early stages and multiple sources have said that a finished self-driving vehicle could be released sometime between 2025 to 2028. We have more on the development of the Apple Car in our Apple Car roundup.

iPhone 12 models have held their value better than iPhone 11 models did after the same amount of time, according to a new report by SellCell.

During the six months following launch, the iPhone 12 models lost on average 34.5 percent of their value, while during the same period after the launch of the iPhone 11 lineup, iPhone 11 models lost 43.8 percent of their value. This means that iPhone 12 models are currently holding their value 9.3 percentage points better than the iPhone 11 models did during the six months after launch.

Although the launch of the iPhone 12 prompted the iPhone 11 models to lose eight percent of their value in three months and ten percent of their value within nine months, the iPhone 11 models are now steadying in their depreciation.

Out of the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max, the iPhone 11 has depreciated the least with a loss of only 31.7 percent, despite being the least expensive model. This is 17.5 percent less depreciation than the iPhone 11 Pro and nine percent less depreciation than the average across all three handsets.

Throughout the 21 months since its launch, the iPhone 11 still performed best, having lost 49.1 percent of its value overall. The iPhone 11 Pro, on the other hand, was the worst performer, losing 56.9 percent of its value in the 21 months since its launch.

In the iPhone 12 lineup, the iPhone 12 mini depreciated the most, losing 41 percent of its value after six months. This is almost nine percent more depreciation on average than the other devices evaluated, perhaps indicating reduced demand. Even so, each of the iPhone 12 models recovered value. The iPhone 12 Pro Max lost 49.2 percent in month one, but by month six, the handset recovered 20.3 percent of its MSRP.

Overall, both the iPhone 11 and iPhone 12 series of devices lost 40 to 50 percent of their value within the first four weeks of launch on average. The iPhone is still by far the best smartphone for value retention regardless of the exact model. For example, a previous study has shown the iPhone 12 holds its value 20 percent better than the Samsung Galaxy S21.

The surging popularity of AirPods has reportedly resulted in record numbers of counterfeit wireless headphones being seized at the U.S. border.

According to The Information's Wayne Ma, roughly 360,000 counterfeit wireless headphones with a retail value of $62.2 million were confiscated in the first nine months of the U.S. government's fiscal year, based on data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection. By comparison, the report claims 295,000 counterfeits with a retail value of $61.7 million were seized at the U.S. border in the entire 2020 fiscal year.

U.S. Customs told The Information that 80% of all counterfeit products coming into the U.S. were from mainland China or Hong Kong. While it's unclear how many of the seized counterfeit headphones were AirPods, U.S. Customs said seizures have increased 50% in the past five years as products such as Apple's earbuds have gained popularity.

The retail value of counterfeit wireless headphones seized by U.S. Customs appears to have skyrocketed following the release of AirPods Pro in October 2019.

MacRumors shared a comparison of real and fake AirPods Pro back in 2019:

The Information examined counterfeit AirPods Pro sold in Hong Kong in December, noting that they had a genuine Apple serial number and were physically indistinguishable from legitimate AirPods Pro, and even had functional active noise cancellation and Transparency mode features. The report claims one of the only ways to determine that the AirPods were fake was by looking up their firmware version, which was incorrect.

Today marks the release of three remastered classics on Apple Arcade, including Angry Birds Reloaded, Doodle God Universe, and Alto's Odyssey: The Lost City.

Angry Birds Reloaded features familiar physics-based bird slingshotting action from the original game, with new characters and visual enhancements. There is also a new game mode with eagles wreaking havoc on the island.

Doodle God Universe is a world building game that tasks players with mixing and matching elements like water and stone to create an entire universe.

First released in 2018, Alto's Odyssey is an award-winning endless sandboarding game with beautiful procedurally generated graphics, dynamic lighting and weather conditions, and original music. In the Apple Arcade edition of the game, players embark on a sandboarding journey to find a new biome called The Lost City and unearth the secrets hidden within, with the classic Alto's Odyssey experience preserved.

The classic endless runner Jetpack Joyride+ is also coming to Apple Arcade on July 23.

Additional classic games were added to Apple Arcade in April, including Fruit Ninja Classic, Monument Valley, and Cut the Rope Remastered.

Priced at $4.99 per month or $49.99 per year, Apple Arcade provides access to a catalog of around 200 games without ads or in-app purchases across the iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV, with additional titles added periodically.

Twitter is testing a new timeline layout in which photos are stretched to the edge of the display with no horizontal margins, mimicking the design layout of popular photo and video sharing apps, such as Instagram.

The new layout was shared by Jane Manchun Wong on Twitter, who often uncovers what features and changes Twitter is working on behind the scenes. The change is still in testing, but according to a screenshot shared by Wong, photos will now go edge-to-edge, compared to the current layout that features horizontal margins on either side of photos.

Separately, while Twitter announced this week it would be shutting down "Fleets," its stories-like function in August, the company is possibly eyeing a possible new feature, the most wanted by users.

In a tweet (via 9to5Mac), the company's product lead, Kayvon Beykpour, surveyed his followers as to whether they would subscribe to "Twitter Blue," the platform's monthly subscription service, if it offered users the ability to edit tweets for a few minutes after they were posted.

While there is no say as to whether the ability to edit tweets will ever become a reality, the company's product lead survey is certainly telling that Twitter is once again exploring the idea and attempting to garner public opinion.

Ahead of its global premiere next week, Apple today held a screening event for season two of the Apple TV+ hit comedy series "Ted Lasso" at the Pacific Design Center in Los Angeles, and was attended by the cast and creators of the show, including Apple CEO Tim Cook.

"Ted Lasso" first aired last year as one of the first original series for the ‌Apple TV‌+ platform and has since grown in popularity. The second season of the show, which will consist of 12 episodes with an episode premiering every Friday, will premiere on ‌Apple TV‌+ on Friday, July 23. Even before its debut, Apple has already renewed the show for a third season, which the creators of the show have hinted may be the last.

This week "Ted Lasso" scored an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Comedy Series, alongside 20 overall nominations. Jason Sudeikis, who plays Ted Lasso in the show, was also nominated for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series.

Apple today launched the third part of its annual Back to School promotion, with back to school deals now available in most countries in Europe, some countries in Asia, and the Middle East.

Higher education students and educators can get a set of free AirPods with the purchase of select Macs and iPads, which is the same deal that went live in the United States and Canada in June and Australia and New Zealand in January.

Qualifying devices include the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, 24-inch iMac, Mac Pro, Mac mini, M1 iPad Pro, and iPad Air. The low-cost iPad, iPad mini, and refurbished products from Apple are not eligible for the promotion, but all educational purchases are available at discounted prices through the dedicated EDU store in each country.

Apple customers who make a qualifying purchase can get the second-generation AirPods for free, or upgrade to AirPods with Wireless Charging or AirPods Pro for an additional fee. Students are also eligible for AppleCare+ at a 20 percent discount.

Apple's Back to School promotion requires verification through UNiDAYS in many countries, with full terms and conditions available on the promotional pages for Apple's country-specific websites.

Back to School deals are available to students and educators in countries that include the UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Austria, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Belgium, Poland, Portugal, Czech Republic, Netherlands, Russia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Singapore, and Thailand.

Apple was the number three worldwide smartphone vendor in the second quarter of 2021, according to smartphone shipment estimates shared today by Canalys.

Apple's iPhone sales were surpassed by smartphone sales from Samsung and Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi, with Xiaomi surpassing Apple and taking the number two spot for the first time.

Samsung was the most popular smartphone vendor with 19 percent market share and 15 percent growth, while Xiaomi earned 17 percent market share thanks to an 83 percent growth in smartphone sales during the quarter. Apple was responsible for 14 percent market share, followed by Oppo and Vivo with 10 percent each.

Xiaomi's growth is thanks to overseas business, with the company increasing shipments by more than 300 percent in Latin America, 150 percent in Africa, and 50 percent in Western Europe. Xiaomi is known for selling more affordable smartphones, and its average selling price is around 75 percent cheaper than Apple's iPhones.

Going forward, to overtake Samsung, Canalys suggests that Xiaomi will need to increase its sales of high-end devices like the Mi 11 Ultra, which is priced at over $900.

So a major priority for Xiaomi this year is to grow sales of its high-end devices, such as the Mi 11 Ultra. But it will be a tough battle, with Oppo and Vivo sharing the same objective, and both willing to spend big on above-the-line marketing to build their brands in a way that Xiaomi is not. All vendors are fighting hard to secure component supply amid global shortages, but Xiaomi already has its sights set on the next prize: displacing Samsung to become the world's largest vendor.

Global smartphone shipments vary from quarter to quarter, and it's usually Apple and Samsung taking the first and second spots. In the fourth quarter of 2020, Apple was the number one smartphone vendor in the world due to strong sales of the iPhone 12 models, so Apple may overtake Xiaomi in subsequent quarters as the launch of the iPhone 13 approaches.