MacRumors

Scotland is the latest country to implement Apple's and Google's Exposure Notification API in their COVID-19 contact tracing app, now available on the App Store.

The Protect Scotland app was developed by NHS Scotland and is based on the exposure notification technology that was jointly developed by Google and Apple. Some other countries that have implemented or are committed to implementing the API include Italy, Latvia, Switzerland, Germany, Poland, Saudi Arabia.

Built into iOS 13.5 on the Apple side, the API allows iPhones and Android smartphones to interface with one another for contact tracing purposes. If and when you happen to be nearby someone who later tests positive for COVID-19, you can receive a notification and take the appropriate steps to self isolate and seek medical help if necessary.

Apple recently rolled out a new Exposure Notifications System that does not require an app to be downloaded for the feature to be turned on. After updating to iOS 13.7, a new ‌Exposure Notification‌ section appears in the Settings app where there's a toggle to "Turn on Exposure Notifications."

Activating Exposure Notifications lets you know if the feature is available in your country, state, or region through a contact tracing app. In areas that are participating in the Exposure Notifications Express program, users can turn on Exposure Notifications without the need to download an app.

Apple and Google have stressed the privacy of their Bluetooth-based solution, which must be enabled in the Settings app under Privacy > Health > COVID-19 Exposure Logging to function. Read our Exposure Notification guide for more details.

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.

New puzzle game "A Monster's Expedition" has arrived on Apple Arcade. The title comes from Draknek, developers of "Cosmic Express," and offers players an "adorable" open-world adventure in which they must push over trees to create pathways and explore islands near and far.

The game includes hundreds of islands to visit – some right in front of you, others "well off the beaten track for true puzzle lovers." The game uses simple but deep mechanics providing several possibilities to discover and learn about "mythical humans" from the perspective of curious monsters.

"A Monster's Expedition" is suitable for players of the age of four and above, and can be played on iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV through the ‌Apple Arcade‌ subscription gaming service.

Google in August announced the launch of a new Google Maps app that's designed for the Apple Watch, and at the time, Google said that it would be rolling out "in the coming weeks."

The Apple Watch app has gone live based on reports from Reddit users who downloaded the latest iPhone update and were able to install the Google Maps app on the Apple Watch.

The Google Maps app for Apple Watch mirrors the directions that have already been input on the ‌iPhone‌, and there is no option for getting directions directly on the Apple Watch. It is reliant on the iOS version of the app, but provides access to saved destinations such as work and home.

The app offers turn-by-turn directions along with ETAs so you know when you can expect to arrive to your destination. Multiple travel modes, including navigation with car, public transit, bike, or by foot are available, and there is a Google Maps complication that can be set up.

Google Maps can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]

Apple's design team has created a new kind of protective mask that's being distributed to retail and corporate employees, reports Bloomberg.

The mask is called the Apple Face Mask and it was developed in-house in Cupertino by the Engineering and Industrial Design teams at Apple. Last week, an Apple employee sent MacRumors an image of the mask design, which can be seen up above.

The Apple Face Mask features a three-layer design that filters both incoming and outgoing particles like many cloth masks, and it can be washed and reused up to five times. The mask has a design with a triangle shape to accommodate the nose without fogging glasses, a rounded section for the chin, and adjustable strings for the ears.

Apple told Bloomberg that it conducted "careful research and testing" to find appropriate materials to filter the air while not disrupting supplies of medical personal protective equipment.

Apple's employees will begin receiving Apple Face Masks over the course of the next two weeks. Apple also provides basic surgical masks to customers who visit its stores, but these are not Apple-designed masks.

Update: This article has been updated. The original article referenced a second mask, the ClearMask, but it turns out the second mask was not designed by Apple. Apple is, however, distributing the ClearMask to some of its retail employees because it shows the entire face so that people who are deaf and hard of hearing can understand what the wearer is saying. Apple is also working on its own transparent mask to be distributed to employees in the future.

Update 2: MacRumors has received additional photos of the Apple Face Mask.

Update 3:

Mark Gurman shares a series of unboxing photos of the Apple Mask:

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.

As rumors about Apple's AirTags ramp up, AirTag competitor Tile is planning to launch a new "Premium Protect" service that will provide up to $1,000 to reimburse customers who subscribe for their lost items.

Tile already has a premium plan that provides Smart Alerts when an item is left behind, free replacement batteries each year, and 30-day location history, but the $30 subscription service (per year) does not include item reimbursement.

As highlighted by Engadget, the Premium Protect service will cost $100 a year and will offer all of the same features as the premium service, but with the promise of up to $1,000 if Tile can't help users locate a lost item within seven days.

Premium Protect will cover Tile trackers as well as items that have built-in Tile tracking features like SkullCandy earbuds and the HP Elite Dragonfly laptop, with the warranty provided in partnership with warranty company Cover Genius.

Using the feature will require users to sign up, register the associated tile, and take a photo of the item that it is attached to. Tile says that Premium Protect is considered a service warranty on the Tile network rather than an insurance policy on the item.

If the Tile network is able to locate the item but it's unable to be safely retrieved, Tile will not provide reimbursement for the item. If the Tile network can't find the item at all, then it is eligible for replacement. According to Tile, the Tile network is able to find around 90 percent of items that are marked as lost.

Tile CEO CJ Prober told Engadget that Tile is system agnostic, which is a benefit that it offers over Apple's rumored AirTags. "Our customers aren't forced to choose a single platform and are advantaged by Tile being system-agnostic. We work with Android, Apple and other platforms people are already using and want to use to help find their lost stuff," he said.

Tile's Premium Protect service is going to launch in the fall, with current rumors also suggesting that Apple's AirTags could launch before the end of 2020, perhaps alongside the new iPhone 12 models.

Apple today seeded the eighth betas of upcoming iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 updates to developers for testing purposes, one week after seeding the seventh betas and over two months after unveiling the new software at the WWDC keynote.

Registered developers can download the betas over the air after installing the proper profile from the Apple Developer Center.

iOS 14 introduces a redesigned Home Screen that supports widgets on iPhone for the first time, plus widgets have been redesigned and can now be customized in three sizes through the new widgets gallery.

An App Library shows all of the apps installed on an ‌iPhone‌ in one place, both in an icon view and in an alphabetical list. With all of the apps in the App Library, app icons and ‌Home Screen‌ pages can be hidden for a cleaner look.

Incoming phone calls and FaceTime calls no longer take up the entire ‌iPhone‌/iPad display, and Siri requests have also been minimized so summoning ‌Siri‌ doesn't monopolize the screen. ‌Siri‌ is smarter in iOS 14 and can send audio messages, and dictation can now run on device. A Picture in Picture mode allows users to watch videos or use ‌FaceTime‌ while using other apps.

App Clips lets users take advantage of some app features without needing to download a full app, useful for quick actions like purchasing a coffee, making a restaurant reservation, or renting a scooter, where downloading an entire app would be a hassle. App Clips can be scanned from QR codes, NFC tags, or Apple-designed App Clip Codes, plus they can be shared in Messages or accessed from Safari.

In the Messages app you can now pin important conversations, use @mentions in group chats, and take advantage of inline replies to keep multi-person conversations better organized. There are new Memoji options and group chats can be assigned icons with photos, emoji, or Memoji.

The Health app supports the Apple Watch's new Sleep Tracking feature and there's a Health Checklist for managing health settings, and in the Weather app, there's more info on precipitation and severe weather events.

Cycling directions are available in the Maps app with directions incorporating elevation, how busy a street is, and stairs, plus for those who own electric vehicles, there are options for routes with EV charging stops.

Digital Car Keys let an ‌iPhone‌ be used in lieu of a physical key, a feature that's coming soon to BMWs, and CarPlay now lets users set wallpapers.

A new translate app provides text and voice translations to and from 11 languages, and there are tons of new privacy protections. Developers need to get user permission before accessing devices on a local network, limiting access to photos, and providing apps with approximate locations instead of exact locations.

Safari has a Privacy Report that lets you know which websites have trackers, and there are new icons on the Home screen that let you know when an app is using a camera or microphone. Third-party browser and mail apps can be set as default for the first time, and Apple added new AirPods capabilities.

As for the ‌iPad‌, the Apple Pencil can now be used in any text field, with handwritten text converted automatically to typed text thanks to the new Scribble feature.

There are tons more features in iOS 14 and iPadOS 14, so make sure to check out our iOS 14 roundup and our iPadOS 14 roundup for a full list of everything new. We also highlight all of the new feature tweaks and changes introduced with each beta iteration, and you can see the changes from beta 2, beta 3, and beta 4 in our beta 2, beta 3, beta 4, beta 5, beta 6, and beta 7 tidbits articles.

Beta 3 brought a new red Music icon, changes to the design of the Music Library in the Music app, a Clock widget, an updated Screen Time widget, while beta 4 added an Apple TV widget and improvements to search. Beta 5 introduced a larger Apple News widget option, a scrolling clock wheel for apps like Alarm Clock, an option to turn on Exposure Notifications, and a feature to better hide photo albums, while beta 6 added spatial audio settings and beta 7 added Dark Mode options for the rainbow wallpapers.

iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 are available to registered developers and public beta testers at this time. Beta testing for ‌iOS 14‌ will last for a couple of months, with the update set to be released in the fall alongside new iPhones.

Now that Epic Games' developer account has been terminated, Apple is also ending access to other services, such as Sign in with Apple. According to ‌Epic Games‌, Apple will no longer let users sign in to ‌Epic Games‌ using Sign in with Apple as of September 11, which is in two days.

Epic says that customers who use Sign in with Apple to access their ‌Epic Games‌ accounts should make sure their email and password are up to date, and the company is offering an FAQ on how to update an account email address and password so ‌Epic Games‌ users don't lose access to their accounts.

Customers who do not update to a standard email address and password will not be able to log in to their accounts, but after September 11, those who did not transition from Sign in with Apple may be able to contact ‌Epic Games‌ to have their accounts recovered manually.

Sign in with Apple is a feature that allows Apple device users to sign in to accounts and services using their Apple ID, with that info obscured from the website or service for privacy purposes. It's similar to Google and Facebook account sign in options, but with Apple promising greater privacy through options like Hide My Email.

The feature was introduced as part of iOS 13 and apps and services have been adopting it since then. Apple requires any app that uses Google and Facebook login options to also offer Sign in with Apple.

Update: According to ‌Epic Games‌, Apple is providing an "indefinite extension" and will not be ending access to Sign in With Apple.

Satechi today announced the launch of its Quatro Wireless Power Bank, which offers wireless and portable charging options for the iPhone, AirPods, and Apple Watch.

There's a small wireless charging pad to accommodate the ‌iPhone‌, AirPods, or AirPods Pro, along with a built-in Apple Watch charging puck for charging the Apple Watch. The charging pad offers up to 5W of charging power for Qi-based devices and 2.5W for the Apple Watch.

The Quatro also includes a 12W USB-A port and a USB-C port that can be used to fast charge an ‌iPhone‌, an iPad Pro (it supports up to 18W), or charge the Quatro itself when it's out of power.

Satechi says that its 10,000mAh Power Bank was designed with an Apple aesthetic in mind, and it's meant to be compact to fit easily into a purse or backpack. LED indicator lights let you know what the charge level is at.

The Quatro Wireless Power Bank can be purchased from the Satechi website for $100 and shipments will start in mid-October, but customers who pre-order now can get a $20 discount using the promo code QUATRO when checking out on Satechi's website.

With the launch of so-called iPhone 12 models inching closer, mobile carriers are in the process of preparing marketing materials for the devices, as evidenced by a placeholder email shared by reputable leaker Evan Blass today.

As widely rumored, the email indicates that iPhone 12 models will support faster 5G cellular networks. The email also suggests that pre-orders will end on Tuesday, October 20, and while it does look like iPhone 12 models won't be announced until next month, carriers are unlikely to be privy to any specific dates this far in advance.

Apple is expected to introduce four new smartphones, including the iPhone 12 in 5.4-inch and 6.1-inch sizes and the iPhone 12 Pro in 6.1-inch and 6.7-inch sizes. Rumors suggest that all of the devices will feature OLED displays, 5G support, and a new flat-edged design, while the Pro models are said to feature a LiDAR Scanner and a new dark blue color option.

In the meantime, Apple has announced that it will be holding a virtual event on Tuesday, September 15 at 10 a.m. Pacific Time that will reportedly be focused on new Apple Watch models and perhaps the rumored iPad Air 4 with slimmer bezels.

Yubico, a company that sells physical security keys for two-factor authentication, today announced the launch of the new YubiKey 5C NFC, pairing USB-C and NFC support in a single device.

According to Yubico, the YubiKey 5C NFC is the first multi-protocol security key that supports smart cards. With the NFC integration, the YubiKey 5C NFC features tap-and-go authentication that works with all major browsers and operating systems, plus it continues to offer a physical USB-C connector.

Like other devices in the YubiKey lineup, the YubiKey 5C NFC is a hardware-based two-factor authentication dongle that is designed to work with hundreds of services to make logins more secure. It's more convenient than software-based two-factor authentication because you don't need a security code. Just connect it to a USB-C device or tap it on an NFC-compatible iPhone to authenticate.

"The way that people work and go online is vastly different today than it was a few years ago, and especially within the last several months," said Guido Appenzeller, Chief Product Officer, Yubico. "Users are no longer tied to just one device or service, nor do they want to be. That's why the YubiKey 5C NFC is one of our most sought-after security keys -- it's compatible with a majority of modern-day computers and mobile phones and works well across a range of legacy and modern applications. At the end of the day, our customers crave security that 'just works' no matter what."

YubiKey 5C NFC is compatible with common password management apps like 1Password and LastPass, and it also works on the web. It supports multiple authentication protocols such as FIDO2 and WebAuthn, FIDO U2F, PIV (smart card), OATH-HOTP and OATH-TOTP (hash-based and time-based one-time passwords), OpenPGP, YubiOTP, and challenge-response, so a single key can work with multiple services and applications.

The YubiKey 5C NFC can be purchased for $55 from the Yubico website.

Google-owned navigation app Waze now lets users send directions from the Waze website straight to the mobile app, thanks to an update announced this week.

The change means Waze users can now plan and view their journey on a bigger screen via the Waze Live Map, which features real-time traffic information, and then send the details from the desktop to the Waze app on their iPhone.

To use the new feature, make sure you've updated to the latest version of Waze, then follow the steps below:

1. On a desktop web browser, visit the Waze Live Map.
2. Click the Log In button in the top-right corner.
3. Scan the QR code that appears with your ‌iPhone‌'s camera to log in.
4. Plan your route by setting an origin, a destination point, and when you want to travel.
   

5. Click Save to App.
6. Open the Waze app on your ‌iPhone‌ and you should see the pre-planned route ready to follow. If you planned to arrive at a particular time, the app will send you a reminder of when you need to leave, taking into account real-time traffic conditions.

Waze can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]

Apple has added Smart App Banners to the latest iOS 14 beta that prompt Safari users to open its News app when viewing the website of a publisher that is part of Apple News+.

First spotted by AppleInsider, the new in-app Safari prompts use Apple's Smart App Banner API, first introduced in iOS 13, which allows developers to prompt users to download their third-party app from the App Store or a corresponding link from Safari.

In this case, Apple is using the Smart App Banner framework to direct users to its own News app when they visit a website hosted by a publication that is also an ‌Apple News‌+ partner. It's worth noting that the banners only appear for users who subscribe to ‌Apple News‌+.

The Smart App Banner code on affected pages is reportedly unchanged, making it seem likely that it's a change to the way Safari handles publisher URLs, but it remains unclear if developers are able to control which banner appears.

The news follows a similar change Apple made in iOS 14 and macOS Big Sur that directs users who tap to read a news story in Safari to the ‌‌Apple News‌‌ app instead of to the publisher's website.

Many ‌‌Apple News‌‌+ users have been asking for a way to open up web links in ‌‌Apple News‌‌+ to avoid paywalls on the web, so ‌‌Apple News‌‌+ subscribers that pay for the service are likely to be appreciative of the new feature.

However, it has not gone down well with some large publishers, three of which have said they were not informed of the change and are now evaluating whether to terminate their relationship with ‌Apple News‌+ as a result.

There have been multiple reports suggesting publishers are unimpressed with the revenue generated from ‌‌Apple News‌‌+, which has fallen below Apple's initial promises. Apple has not only struggled to entice new publishers to ‌the paid service, it has had difficulty gaining new subscribers since it launched in March 2019.

Apple's 5-nanometer-based A14X processor, which is destined for the first Apple Silicon Mac and the next-generation iPad Pro, will enter mass production in the fourth quarter of this year, reports DigiTimes.

Apple will kick off its 5nm wafer starts at TSMC for its new Apple Silicon processors starting the fourth quarter of 2020, with monthly output estimated at 5,000-6,000 wafers, according to industry sources.

Apple is gearing up for the upcoming launch of its new-generation MacBook and iPad Pro series powered by its self-designed Arm-based processors, which will be fabricated using TSMC's 5nm EUV process technology, the sources indicated.

Last year, TSMC announced a $25 billion investment in the new 5nm node technology in a bid to remain the exclusive supplier of Apple's processors, and it already appears to have paid off.

A report late last month from The China Times claimed that the first Apple Silicon Mac to use TSMC's 5nm process will launch by the end of the year in the form of a super-lightweight 12-inch MacBook with a battery life of between 15 and 20 hours.

According to the Chinese report's sources, the 12-inch MacBook will reportedly use the A14X processor, which is based on the 5-nanometer A14 chip that will be used in the upcoming iPhone 12 models. Codenamed "Tonga," the A14X is also set to be used in the next-generation iPad Pro and will go into production by the end of the year, said the report.

Apple announced at its WWDC developer conference in June that its Macs will transition from Intel x86-based CPUs to its self-designed Arm-based Apple Silicon processors over the next two years. Bloomberg has said that Apple is currently developing at least three Mac processors that are based on the A14 chip.

Apple's first Mac processors will have 12 cores, including eight high-performance cores and at least four energy-efficient cores, according to Bloomberg. Apple is said to be exploring Mac processors with more than 12 cores for further in the future, with the company already designing a second generation of Mac processors based on the A15 chip.

Apple is rumored to be planning to release a high-end 12.9-inch iPad Pro with a mini-LED display supplied by Innolux in the first half of 2021. Apple was originally planning to launch the device in the fall of 2020, but is unable to meet that deadline with the global health crisis, and now multiple sources suggest a 2021 launch. Trial production on the new iPad Pro reportedly began in June.