MacRumors

Apple has decided to sell its upcoming iPhone 12 models without a few accessories such as a power adapter and wired EarPods, according to Taiwanese research firm TrendForce, corroborating a widespread rumor.

TrendForce notes that iPhone 12 models will be more expensive for Apple to manufacture due to 5G support, so removing these accessories from the box will be one way that the company reduces costs. In turn, Apple plans to introduce a new 20W fast charger for iPhone 12 models that will be sold separately, according to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.

Kuo said that the iPhone 12 lineup will have similar pricing as the iPhone 11 lineup, which includes the iPhone 11 starting at $699, the iPhone 11 Pro starting at $999, and the iPhone 11 Pro Max starting at $1,099 in the United States.

Apple would likely tout the environmental benefits of shipping iPhone 12 models without a charger or EarPods, as such a move could result in slimmer packaging, less waste, and reduced emissions from both manufacturing and transportation. From a business perspective, the move would likely also increase AirPods sales.

Apple does still plan to include a Lightning to USB-C cable in the box with its upcoming iPhones, according to Barclays analyst Blayne Curtis.

While new iPhones usually begin shipping in late September, Apple recently indicated that supply will be available "a few weeks later" this year. According to leaker Jon Prosser, Apple plans to introduce new Apple Watch and iPad models via press release in September, followed by new iPhones at a (presumably virtual) event in October.

Multiple developers have seen increased activity from Apple's web crawler Applebot in their website logs recently, reigniting speculation that Apple could be planning to launch a full-fledged search engine eventually. However, it's more likely that any possible uptick relates to Apple's efforts to improve Siri and Spotlight search results.

Jon Henshaw, founder of digital marketing insights firm Coywolf, kicked off the speculation with a blog post this week in which he said that Applebot had begun regularly crawling his websites on a daily basis, something he had not noticed previously. And on Twitter, Stack Overflow engineer Nick Craver and digital marketing consultant Michael James Field also noted spikes in Applebot crawling on websites they oversee in recent days.

Like other web crawlers, Applebot scans the web to help determine how search results should be ranked based on several factors, including user engagement, the relevancy and matching of search terms to a page's topics and content, the number of links that a page has received from other websites, and a page's design characteristics.

As noted by Henshaw, Apple updated its Applebot support document in July with new details:

• Added how to verify traffic from Applebot
• Expanded details on the Applebot user agent, including differences between its desktop and mobile version
• Expanded robots.txt rules
• Added a section stating that they don't just crawl HTML, but also render pages similar to Google
• Added a section on search rankings and the factors that affect how it ranks web search results

Given that Apple promotes itself as a privacy-focused company without an ad- or data-driven business model like Google or Facebook, it is uncertain if it would ever want to go down the avenue of launching a full-fledged search engine, although DuckDuckGo has at least shown that it can be accomplished with privacy in mind.

The idea of an Apple search engine has been speculated since at least 2015, when Apple first confirmed its Applebot and posted a series of search-related job listings.

For now, Applebot likely remains dedicated to improving Siri and Spotlight search results, as Apple states in its support document. During its WWDC keynote in June, for example, Apple said that Siri can provide over 20 times as many facts as three years prior.

Amazon has today announced "Halo," a new wearable with health and fitness tracking capabilities, reports The Verge.

The Amazon Halo wristband consists of a sensor module and a band that attaches to the top of it. The sensor contains an accelerometer, a temperature sensor, a heart rate monitor, two microphones, an LED indicator light, and a button to turn the microphone on or off. The Halo offers a week-long battery life and a "swimproof" water resistance up to 5ATM. The device is compatible with both iOS and Android, but it will not be compatible with other health apps such as Apple Health.

Unlike the Apple Watch or Fitbits, the Amazon Halo band does not have a screen. It is instead reliant on an accompanying app, with no ability to check the time, steps, or any other information directly from your wrist. It also has no GPS, Wi-Fi, cellular connectivity, or Amazon Alexa voice-control.

The Halo's more advanced features are unlocked by an ongoing subscription, separate from Amazon Prime. The subscription will offer a selection of "labs" developed by Amazon partners. The labs are effectively short challenges designed to improve specific health areas and encourage routines.

Halo has two unique functionalities not present on the Apple Watch. The first of these is use of a user's phone camera via the Halo app for full-body 3D scans to determine body fat percentage. The second is the ability to listen for emotion in a user's voice and track mood.

Body scans take four photos of different sides of a user's body, and then uploads them to Amazon's servers where they are combined into a 3D body scan which can calculate body fat.

The Halo's microphone listens to the tone of a user's voice throughout the day and reports back on their emotional state. It detects the pitch, intensity, rhythm, and tempo of a voice and then categorizes the instances into "notable moments" that users can go back and review. Users can mute the microphone at any time by holding down the side button until a red blinking LED appears.

The wristband is also able to track sleep, steps, and cardiovascular health, similar to the Apple Watch. Unlike Apple Watch, however, it only records cardio fitness on a weekly basis rather than daily. The app then offers an abstracted weekly activity score from all of this information.

The Halo band can automatically detect activities such as walking and running, but every other type of exercise needs to be manually entered into the app. The Halo band also has no ability to detect falls, offer stand prompts, or proactively alert users to heart conditions like atrial fibrillation. Interestingly, Amazon told The Verge that it has not submitted the device to the FDA for any sort of approval, including the less rigorous "FDA clearance" classification common on many other fitness bands.

It appears that Amazon has taken a more laid-back approach with more of a general focus on lifestyle tracking, rather than active sport and exercise tracking. Halo's low cost, lack of screen, and emphasis on unique features make it an interesting competitor to the Apple Watch.

The Halo band is set to cost $99.99, with an optional subscription for $3.99 per month for access to advanced features. Amazon will also sell a large variety of band styles in a range of colors. Sport bands will be $15.99 and fabric bands will cost $19.99. The Amazon Halo launches today as an invite-only early access program for an introductory price of $64.99.

Apple Newsroom today received a redesign with an emphasis on featured stories and shared a new profile of educator Portice Warren. Apple Newsroom is where Apple shares press releases for journalists, and also broader Apple-related stories lately.

The profile highlights how Warren, a fourth grade science and social studies teacher in Birmingham, Alabama, will be using Apple tools and resources likes the Everyone Can Code curriculum and Clips app to provide remote learning to her students this year.

"Planning is going to be a key factor for me as an educator, but I know Apple resources are helping give me the roadmap I can take moving forward with my students," said Warren. "I also know I have to keep myself balanced, because I'm going to have 64 students and 100-plus parents that I'm going to have to be a source of encouragement for."

Warren is one of nearly 500 educators who participated in a virtual coding academy this summer as part of Apple's Community Education Initiative, designed to bring coding, creativity, and workforce development opportunities to communities that are traditionally underrepresented in technology, according to Apple.

"Ten years from now, I want my students to look back and see the powerful impact remote learning had on them, and that it was a positive transition," added Warren. "There are going to be a lot of challenges, but I won't let my students fall through the cracks. I know there is going to be a lot of hard work involved, but in the long run it will pay off. And that investment in their future is my purpose."

New adventure game "The Last Campfire" has arrived on Apple Arcade. The title comes from Hello Games, creators of "No Man's Sky," and tells the story of "a lost ember trapped in a puzzling place, searching for meaning and a way home."

The game follows the journey through wilderness "filled with lost folk, strange creatures, and mysterious ruins," in the hope of lighting the last campfire. The "storybook world" setting of the game allows for the exploration of unique, atmospheric environments and unusual characters.

The story is said to be "intimate and beautiful," with the creative team aiming to make "an artistically focused single-player adventure game."

The Last Campfire was first announced in December 2018, and is now launching on PC, PS4, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox One, in addition to ‌Apple Arcade‌.

This month has seen ‌Apple Arcade‌ gain several new titles, including "Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time," "Next Stop Nowhere," and "Game of Thrones: A Tale of Crows."

Apple will grow its share of the true wireless earbuds market by a third this year, despite losing its dominant position in the space to more affordable alternatives, according to Counterpoint Research (via Bloomberg).

Apple accounted for nearly half of all sales of true wireless earbuds in 2019 and is expected to grow to 82 million units this year, according to the report. However, its lead has been eroded by the arrival of Chinese rival brands, shrinking its share to just over a third of the market (35%). Xiaomi remains in second place with 10%, while Samsung sits in third with a 6% share.

According to the report, specialized Chinese brands like the $90 Lypertek Tevi offer comparable performance to Apple's AirPods at a lower price, while the $180 1More True Wireless ANC rival the noise-canceling smarts of AirPods Pro, which cost $250. Samsung's new Galaxy Buds Live are also ANC-equipped and come in at under $170.

"The low-to-mid end segment including Chinese brands and U.S. makers such as JLab is taking away share from the premium market," said Counterpoint analyst Liz Lee. "Competition between Samsung and Apple is likely to intensify in the latter half of the year, as positive reviews of the Buds Live and increased investment from Samsung are expected to close the gap between the two," she added.

Samsung is projected to more than double its true wireless earbuds sales this year, growing from 8 million to 17 million, while Apple’s AirPods family is forecast to go from 61 million to 82 million.

• Samsung's Galaxy Buds Live vs. Apple's AirPods Pro

Apple is rumored to be working on a third-generation version of the AirPods, although Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has said that third-generation AirPods won't be coming in 2020, with mass production to begin in the first half of 2021.

The third-generation AirPods are expected to adopt a more compact integrated system-in-package (SiP) that's similar to the SiP used in the ‌AirPods Pro‌, which will allow the audio features of the AirPods to be integrated into a casing more similar in design to the ‌AirPods Pro‌. Current AirPods use surface-mount technology (SMT).

There have also been multiple rumors suggesting Apple is working on a version of the ‌AirPods Pro‌ that have a cheaper price tag and no Active Noise Cancellation. Jon Prosser and another leaker, "l0vetodream," believe that these are "AirPods X," a version of the ‌AirPods Pro‌ designed for sports and running.

DigiTimes has referred to these entry-level earbuds as the "AirPods Pro Lite," and claims that Apple originally planned to launch these new AirPods in early 2020, but has postponed them until the second half of 2021.

According to Apple analyst ‌Ming-Chi Kuo‌ these "‌AirPods Pro‌ Lite" or "AirPods X" earbuds that might be launching in September or October aren't AirPods at all, but are instead headphones in the Beats family.

Popular note-taking app and PDF editor GoodNotes has been updated to support document sharing over iCloud for the first time.

After updating to version 5.5.0, users will be able to share individual notes and entire folders of notes using unique URLs, as well as collaboratively edit the same note with others at the same time.

Users can share documents from their GoodNotes library by tapping a document title, which opens a context menu containing the new Collaborate option. If a user is already working in a document, they can tap the share icon to reveal the same option.

Shared documents display a special icon in the GoodNotes library, and can also be accessed from a new Shared tab in the app's navigation bar. Changes to shared documents sync via ‌iCloud‌ and take around 15 to 30 seconds to show up on other devices, and anyone with the link can open and edit a shared document in GoodNotes.

The developers concede that this way of working is unlikely to replace real-time collaborative whiteboard apps, but it does offer a means of working together on things like calendars, meeting notes, grocery lists, and so on over an extended period of time.

GoodNotes 5 costs $7.99 and can be downloaded for iPhone and iPad from the App Store. [Direct Link]

Photos of an alleged leaked manual for an unreleased iPad Air have emerged on social media this morning suggesting Apple's next middle-tier iPad option could feature an all-screen display in lieu of a Home button, with Touch ID integrated into the Power button instead.

Originating from Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu and shared on Twitter by leaker DuanRui, the photos depict a Spanish-language manual for an iPad Air with an edge-to-edge screen similar to the iPad Pro.

The manual makes no mention of Face ID, however, and instead instructs users to activate "Touch ID with the top button to unlock the iPad Air," above an image of an iPad with a noticeably longer power button.

On other pages, the manual references USB-C connectivity rather than Lightning, and shows a Smart Connector on the rear of the device to connect a Magic Keyboard and other compatible accessories.

Multiple rumors suggest Apple will release a new iPad in the near future, but there has been some confusion over the model of the device as well as its display size.

Anonymous Twitter account L0vetodream has claimed that Apple is working on an 11-inch iPad Air with an all-screen display that uses an under-display version of Touch ID rather than Face ID like the iPad Pro.

Meanwhile, DigiTimes has suggested a 10.8-inch iPad Air is coming in the second half of 2020, while Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo also expects Apple to release a 10.8-inch iPad in the second half of 2020. However, Kuo has not specified if the 10.8-inch iPad is an Air or a low-cost standard iPad.

It's not impossible that these rumors refer to the same device shown here, and that the confusion over the details stems from Apple's novel implementation of Touch ID, which allows it to offer an all-screen mid-tier device without the prohibitive costs of the TrueDepth camera system required for Face ID.

It's worth noting that the only previous mention we have seen of Touch ID integrated into a power button was in a January 2020 research note from Kuo, which said that Apple plans to release an LCD iPhone with a Touch ID power button on the side of the device in the first half of 2021.

The next-generation version of the iPad Air has already been rumored to feature a USB-C port like the iPad Pro, instead of a Lightning port, and that's what we see here.

Apple in late August registered seven new iPads with the Eurasian Economic Commission, some of which could be a new iPad Air. Leaker Jon Prosser has also claimed that Apple will release an unspecified new iPad in September, with an announcement done via press release. It's not clear if this refers to the iPad Air, but it is possible given prior rumors of an iPad Air release in the second half of 2020.

Bear in mind these photos have not yet been verified and Twitter leaker DuanRui does not have much of a track record, but has previously leaked photos of a new Lightning to USB-C cable allegedly shipping with upcoming iPhone 12 models.

The antitrust hearing that Apple CEO Tim Cook, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos participated in back in July confirmed that all of the companies are engaging in "behavior which is deeply disturbing and requires Congress to take action," according to Representative David Cicilline, the chairman of the House antitrust panel leading the inquiry.

Cicilline made the remarks in an interview with Bloomberg, where he said that the investigation has confirmed that Apple, Google, Amazon, and Facebook are all abusing their market power to the detriment of consumers.

"The kind of common theme is the abuse of their market power to maintain their market dominance, to crush competitors, to exclude folks from their platform and to earn monopoly rents."

Cicilline said that he is prepared to deliver recommendations as soon as next month, and that Congress must act urgently to protect consumers. Cicilline did not go into detail about the recommendations the panel would deliver, but he says he's working with Republicans to find common ground on "biggest, boldest ideas."

According to Bloomberg, Cicilline did mention the possibility of a Glass-Steagall law for technology platforms, which would prevent tech companies from both running a platform and competing on it at the same time.

"That's a big idea," he said about separating the two functions. "It would be one way to try to separate out what is a relationship fraught with conflicts that I think is promoting tremendous market dominance and bullying behavior by Amazon, as an example."

The antitrust committee's report will address four areas: changes to current antitrust laws, reforms aimed at the tech sector, strengthening private antitrust litigation by plaintiffs, and ensuring the DoJ and FTC have the resources to do their jobs.

The U.S. House Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee has been investigating Apple, Google, Amazon, and Facebook since July 2019, culminating in a hearing with the CEOs of all of the companies.

For Apple, the subcommittee has focused on the company's App Store policies and fees, specifically instances where it has rejected apps and changed App Store rules to its apparent benefit, such as when it began rejecting some parental control apps for using Mobile Device Management after the release of the Screen Time feature.

As the antitrust investigation has unfolded, Apple has been involved in some public battles over ‌App Store‌ policies and fees, first with the "Hey" email app and currently with Epic Games.

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.

There are hundreds of new features in iOS 14, many of which are immediately obvious like the new Home Screen widgets, the App Library, pinned conversations and mentions in Messages, a compact UI for Siri and Phone calls, and more, but there are also tons of features that are less immediately obvious.

In this guide and accompanying video, we've rounded up some of the most useful hidden features you'll find in the iOS 14 update. Note that some of these features are limited to Apple's newer iPhones and do not work with older models.

Sound Recognition

Sound Recognition is a useful Accessibility feature created for those who need help listening to their surroundings. When enabled, Sound Recognition allows the iPhone to listen for sounds like running water, a fire alarm, a dog barking, a baby crying, shouting, car horns, doorbells, and other related sounds.

When the ‌iPhone‌ detects one of these sounds, it sends a notification so you're immediately alerted when something is wrong. In our testing, Sound Recognition has been accurate, making it a useful option for anyone who needs it. Note that when Sound Recognition is turned on, the ‌iPhone‌ is not able to listen for "Hey ‌Siri‌" commands.

• How to Use the Sound Recognition Accessibility Feature in iOS 14

4K Videos on YouTube

With iOS 14, you can watch 4K YouTube videos on the ‌iPhone‌, iPad, and most notably, the Apple TV. The ‌iPhone‌ and the ‌iPad‌ don't have 4K displays, but do offer video that's higher than the prior 1080p resolution limit.

Content on ‌iPhone‌ and ‌iPad‌ can be viewed in 1440p HDR or 2160p HDR, while the ‌Apple TV‌ supports full 4K video. You can choose quality when watching a YouTube video in the YouTube app by tapping on the cog-shaped wheel to adjust the settings.

Private WiFi Address

When you're connected to a WiFi network in iOS 14, you can tap into the settings of that network and make sure "Private Address" is toggled on. Private Address is a privacy feature that helps to prevent the tracking of your ‌iPhone‌ across different WiFi networks.

This is a feature that's enabled by default, and it's one that's particularly useful if you're using open WiFi sources frequently. Apple will also provide a warning if Private Address functionality is not available, so you can know if a WiFi network has greater access to tracking capabilities.

Get to the Private Address settings by opening up the Settings app, tapping on WiFi, and tapping the "i" button next to the WiFi network that you're connected to or that you want to connect to. From there, make sure Private Address is toggled on.

Mirror Front Camera

When you take a selfie with an ‌iPhone‌ with the standard Camera app, it flips the image so that it's the opposite of the mirror image that's shown in the preview (aka not a mirror image of you).

In iOS 14, you can choose to force the camera to capture mirror image selfies by opening up the Settings app, selecting Camera, and toggling on the "Mirror Front Camera" option. A lot of social networking apps use mirrored selfies so many people are more accustomed to mirroring functionality than the flipped selfies that the ‌iPhone‌ uses.

Toggling on Mirror Front Camera can provide a more unified selfie taking experience across multiple platforms.

FaceTime Eye Contact

Apple in an iOS 13 beta added an "Attention Aware" feature that tweaks your FaceTime video to make it look like you're making eye contact with the person you're chatting with even though you're looking at the ‌iPhone‌ or ‌iPad‌'s display.

The feature was ultimately pulled, but it made its way into iOS 14 as an "Eye Contact" option, which can be toggled on in the ‌FaceTime‌ section of the Settings app. Eye Contact lets you "establish natural eye contact" while using ‌FaceTime‌ by changing the appearance of where you're focusing.

Navigation History Stack

If you're deep into an app's settings and want to quickly get back to where you were, there's a new history stack feature that you can access with a long press.

Just long press on any back button and then use a finger to select the prior screen you want to get back to. This feature works in Settings, the Files app, and anywhere else that you might get lost in different menus and options.

Photo Captions

There has long been an option to add captions to photos in the macOS Photos app to make specific images easier to find, and in iOS 14, that feature is also available on the ‌iPhone‌ and the ‌iPad‌.

In the ‌Photos‌ app, just swipe up on any single photo you're looking at to see additional details and then tap on "Add a Caption" and type in whatever you want.

Volume Up/Down Camera Controls

There are some useful new volume button camera controls in iOS 14, which expand on the camera button as shutter functionality. If you press and hold the Volume Up button while the Camera app is open, you can take a series of burst mode photos (a bunch of photos in quick succession).

If you hold down the Volume Down button with the Camera app open, you can capture a QuickTake video, which lets you capture video without having to take the time to swap out of photo mode. Volume Up for Burst needs to be enabled in the Camera section of the Settings app, but QuickTake with the Volume Down button is enabled by default.

Prevent Apps From Downloading to Home Screen

Since there's now an App Library feature on the ‌iPhone‌ that lets you get to all of your installed apps, there's no longer a need for apps to be downloaded to the ‌Home Screen‌.

If you choose to, you can prevent newly downloaded apps from showing up on the ‌Home Screen‌ by opting to download them solely to the App Library. There's a toggle for enabling App Library only downloads in the ‌Home Screen‌ section of the Settings app.

Hide App Pages

Again, with the App Library, there's less need for specific app pages for organizing apps. If you want to get rid of a page of apps for a cleaner ‌Home Screen‌ and usage experience, long press on the ‌Home Screen‌, tap on the series of dots at the bottom, and then uncheck whichever app pages you don't want to see.

Picture in Picture Collapsed Window

In the ‌iPhone‌'s new Picture in Picture mode, which works with videos on the web, ‌FaceTime‌, and more, if you pull a Picture in Picture window over to the side of the display, you can hide the video while the audio continues to play.

The hidden video feature lets you continue to chat on ‌FaceTime‌ or listen to a video while giving you full access to your ‌iPhone‌'s screen for whatever you need to do.

Photos Zoom

iOS 14 lets you pinch zoom much further into your photos in the ‌Photos‌ app, which is great if you have a photo where you want to see the detail up close.

Back Tap

Back Tap is an Accessibility feature that lets users double tap or triple tap on the back of the ‌iPhone‌ to perform various actions.

Back tap can be used to do things like access Control Center, Notification Center, the Lock screen, the Home screen, or the App Switcher, or it can change the volume, bring up ‌Siri‌, mute the ‌‌iPhone‌‌, take a screenshot, or access a Shortcut, and it can be set up to work with Accessibility features like Assistive Touch, Magnifier, or VoiceOver.

The Back Tap options can be accessed in the Settings app by tapping Accessibility > Touch > Back Tap. Tapping to trigger an action works well when the ‌‌iPhone‌‌'s back is tapped in any spot on the device with either the double tap or triple tap gesture.

Hide Photos Albums

The ‌Photos‌ app on the ‌iPhone‌ has long had a feature for hiding photos from the main library, but all of those hidden photos are easily accessible in the obviously named "Hidden" album.

In iOS 14, there's a toggle in the Settings app that lets you hide the "Hidden" album so it doesn't show up in the albums list, making it harder to find hidden images. The Hidden album is, however, still available in the image picker in other apps.

More iOS 14 Info

For more on what's new in iOS 14, make sure to check out our iOS 14 roundup, which has a detailed rundown of all of the features that are included in the update.

We've also created in-depth guides on many of the iOS 14 features, and those are listed below.

• iOS 14 Privacy Features: Approximate Location, Clipboard Access Warnings, Limited Photos Access and More
• iOS 14 and watchOS 7 Sleep Features: Sleep Mode, Wind Down, Sleep Tracking and More
• Safari iOS 14 Guide: Privacy Report, Built-In Translation, Compromised Password Alerts and More
• What's New in iOS 14 Maps: Cycling Directions, Guides, Refine Location and More
• iOS 14's New AirPods Features: Spatial Audio, Better Automatic Device Switching, Battery Notifications and More
• iOS 14: Apple's Built-In Translate App That Works With 11 Languages
• iOS 14's Compact Interface: Phone Calls, FaceTime, Siri and More
• Magnifier in iOS 14 Gets Overhauled UI and New Features, Can Be Added to Home Screen
• iOS 14: How to Use Picture in Picture Mode on iPhone
• iOS 14 Home Screen Changes: App Library, Widgets, Hiding Apps and More
• iOS 14: Everything New in Messages
• Car Keys: A New Feature That Lets You Unlock a Car With Your iPhone or Apple Watch
• iPadOS 14 Features You Need to Know
• Top iOS 14 Features: Compact Phone Calls, Back Tap, Widgets, App Library and More

Have questions about iOS 14 and or want to offer feedback on this guide? Send us an email here.

Apple is teaming up with Gallaudet University for a multifaceted collaboration that will provide students with accessible technology, learning opportunities, and career options, according to Gallaudet University President Roberta Cordano.

Starting this fall, Gallaudet plans to provide all of its students and faculty with an iPad Pro, Apple Pencil, and Smart Folio for the ‌iPad Pro‌ for learning and teaching, with students and teachers at the Laurent Clerc National Deaf Education Center also participating.

The benefits to Gallaudet of having the Apple technology include increased personalized learning capabilities, greater digital fluency, an increase in student performance and engagement, quicker turnaround time for assessments, improved record-keeping of students' progress, and instant communication between peers and teachers. It also presents new opportunities for innovative learning and teaching strategies.

Apple devices are among the most accessible ever and continue to transform the way learners learn and teachers teach. Gallaudet is very excited to be partnering with Apple, and most especially to be part of their efforts to increase opportunities for tens of millions of students with disabilities all over the world.

Gallaudet will be the first university to participate in a new Apple scholarship that's available for students of color with disabilities, and students will be provided with the tools and guidance to develop bilingual apps in American Sign Language (ASL) and English.

Scholarships will support students who are pursuing degrees and coursework in information technology, computer science, and other science, technology, and mathematics fields.

Apple plans to provide Gallaudet students with an opportunity to participate in the annual Worldwide Developers Conference, and there's a new recruitment program with Gallaudet available through Apple Carnegie Library. The store employs more than 30 team members of the deaf and hard of hearing community, and many of those are Gallaudet students or alumni.

In partnership with Apple Carnegie Library, Gallaudet and Clerc Center work to develop customized training, sessions, and programming for students, faculty, staff, and K-12 teachers.

Epic Games tomorrow plans to launch a new season of Fortnite, which is where new content, skins, map updates, and objectives are introduced for players to keep the gameplay fresh and dynamic. This week's season is Marvel themed.

This morning, ‌Epic Games‌ confirmed that it has no plans to give in and remove the direct payment option from the Fortnite app on iOS devices, which means the app continues to be in violation of the App Store rules and cannot be updated. Fortnite for iPhone, iPad, and Mac will not get the new season.

In addition, when the new season is released, Fortnite for iOS and macOS players will no longer be able to play the game alongside Fortnite players on PCs, Android devices, and consoles, as there will be two separate versions of the game. The updated version with the Chapter 2 Season 4 content available to Fortnite players on other platforms, and the non-updated version of Fortnite on Apple's platforms.

‌Epic Games‌ confirmed to The Verge that cross-platform play will not be possible, and ‌iPhone‌, ‌iPad‌, and Mac Fortnite players will only be able to play with one another. That means Fortnite users who have friends on other platforms will not be able to play with those friends.

Epic was hoping to get a temporary restraining order from a judge that would have forced Apple to allow Fortnite to remain in the ‌App Store‌ and be updated while the court case plays out, but the judge ruled against ‌Epic Games‌ because the current situation is of its own making.

The judge who made the decision told Epic that all it needs to do is "take it back to the status quo and no one suffers any harm," but Epic is apparently refusing to do so. During the hearing for the restraining order, Epic's lawyers said that the company wouldn't "go back into an anticompetitive contract." Epic has updated its FAQ with a similar statement:

Apple is asking that Epic revert Fortnite to exclusively use Apple payments. Their proposal is an invitation for Epic to collude with Apple to maintain their monopoly over in-app payments on iOS, suppressing free market competition and inflating prices. As a matter of principle, we won't participate in this scheme.

Apple on August 28 plans to terminate the ‌Epic Games‌ developer accounts, and it's not entirely clear what will happen when that occurs. Fortnite could stop working entirely, or it could continue to run in its current incarnation on devices that have already downloaded it.

It's not clear why Fortnite couldn't be updated on macOS because it's not distributed through the Mac App Store, but it seems that ‌Epic Games‌ is going to withhold updates on all Apple platforms.

Though Fortnite is in danger and will not be updated on Apple devices, Apple has been blocked from terminating the developer accounts for Epic International, which handles the Unreal Engine. Apple had originally planned to terminate the ‌Epic Games‌ developer account and all linked accounts, but Epic was able to get a temporary restraining order to prevent that from happening.

A hearing for a preliminary injunction is scheduled for September 28, and that's the next opportunity for either Epic or Apple to get a new decision that will shift the current orders. Unless ‌Epic Games‌ decides to comply with the ‌App Store‌ rules, Fortnite will be unable to be updated for at least the next month, if it continues to work at all after the ‌Epic Games‌ developer account is terminated.

Apple today seeded the first beta of an upcoming iOS 13.7 update to developers to introduce new COVID-19 Exposure Notification options. The iOS 13.7 beta comes more than a month after the release of iOS 13.6, which introduced Car Keys and Apple News+ audio features.

The iOS 13.7 beta can be downloaded from the Apple Developer Center or over the air once the proper developer profile has been installed

According to Apple's release notes, the iOS 13.7 beta allows users to opt-in to the ‌Exposure Notification‌ system without the need to download an app that supports the functionality, which is how the feature works on in iOS 14. In iOS 14, there's a toggle to "Turn on Exposure Notifications" which then lets you know if the feature is available in your country, state, or region through a contact tracing app.

Using Exposure Notifications continues to require an app, and Apple says that System availability still depends on support from the local public health authority, but iOS 13.7 makes it easier to figure out whether an app is available to you. It also adds a dedicated ‌Exposure Notification‌ section to the Settings app, rather than burying the feature in the Privacy section of Settings.

There's also a new iPadOS 13.7 beta that has been released alongside iOS 13.7, and as iPadOS does not support ‌Exposure Notification‌, that update focuses on bug fixes and performance improvements.

Facebook today warned advertisers that Apple's upcoming anti-tracking tools could cause a more than 50 percent drop in Audience Network publisher revenue due to the removal of personalization from ads within apps.

In a blog post, Facebook said that it does not collect the identifier from advertisers (IDFA) from Facebook-owned apps on iOS 14 devices, as Apple added a feature that requires users to agree to ad tracking to prevent cross-app and cross-site tracking used to provide targeted ads. Facebook says that it's not a change that it wants to make, but Apple has "forced this decision."

Apple devices offer an "Identifier for Advertisers" (IDFA) that Facebook and its advertising partners use for ad targeting purposes. In iOS 14, the IDFA is an opt-in feature, providing more transparency for users who would prefer not to be tracked in apps and on websites.

This is not a change we want to make, but unfortunately Apple's updates to iOS14 have forced this decision. We know this may severely impact publishers' ability to monetize through Audience Network on iOS 14, and, despite our best efforts, may render Audience Network so ineffective on iOS 14 that it may not make sense to offer it on iOS 14 in the future.

Facebook warns that iOS 14 could render Audience Network ineffective in iOS 14, and so it might not be offered on the platform in the future. Facebook says that it will have limited ability to deliver targeted ads in iOS 14. Some iOS 14 users will see no ads from Facebook's Audience Network program, while others will see less relevant ads. Publishers and developers who use Facebook's Audience Network program should count on lower CPMs.

While it's difficult to quantify the impact to publishers and developers at this point with so many unknowns, in testing we've seen more than a 50% drop in Audience Network publisher revenue when personalization was removed from mobile ad install campaigns. In reality, the impact to Audience Network on iOS 14 may be much more, so we are working on short-and long-term strategies to support publishers through these changes.

iOS 14 has a prominent "Tracking" section in the Privacy portion of the Settings app, where users can disable the option for apps to track them all together. Even if this feature is toggled off, apps must still ask permission to track users across apps and websites owned by other companies, which is a blow to the silent ad-related tracking that has been going on behind the scenes.

Facebook says that many of its developers and publishers will be "hurt" by iOS 14 at an "already difficult time," and that it plans to invest time and resources into building monetization products for publishers and supporting platforms outside of iOS 14.

Apple has registered eight Apple Watches and seven iPads in Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) filings discovered by Consomac.

The Apple Watch filings follow previous model identifiers, with the A2375, A2376, A2355, and A2356 likely being cellular models, and the A2291, A2292, A2351, and A2352 being GPS-only models. These likely encompass the upcoming Apple Watch Series 6. Apple Watch Series 6 parts were spotted in database filings earlier this month, and the new models are expected to feature blood oxygen monitoring.

The unannounced iPads use the previously unknown model identifiers A2270, A2316, A2072, A2324, A2325, A2428, and A2429. As the iPad model identifiers are split between two separate filings with different numbers of identifiers in each, two different iPads may be soon to release.

It is unlikely that the split is the result of filing the same ‌iPad‌'s cellular and WiFi-only models separately, as is the case with the Apple Watch filings. The two iPads may be updated iPad Pro models and redesigned iPad Air models, both of which have been rumored to arrive next month.

Similar EEC filings have preceded the launch of new Apple products on numerous occasions, including multiple ‌‌iPad‌‌, ‌iPad Pro‌, ‌iPhone‌, Mac, Apple Watch, and AirPods models. The filings are legally required for any encrypted devices sold in Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Russia.

Earlier this month leaker Jon Prosser suggested that new Apple Watch and ‌iPad‌ models will launch in September, with the ‌iPhone‌ 12 event set to take place later in October. The filings effectively confirm that the release of new ‌iPad‌ and Apple Watch models is imminent.

In an update to its FAQ today, spotted by The Verge, Epic Games has confirmed that the upcoming season of Fortnite will not be available to players on iPhone, iPad, or Mac due to the company's legal battle with Apple.

From the FAQ:

Apple is blocking Fortnite updates and new installs on the App Store, and has said they will terminate our ability to develop Fortnite for Apple devices. As a result, Fortnite’s newly released Chapter 2 - Season 4 update (v14.00), will not release on iOS and macOS on August 27.

If you still want to play Fortnite on Android, you can access the latest version of Fortnite from the Epic Games App for Android on Fortnite.com/Android or the Samsung Galaxy Store.

Earlier this month, Epic Games strategically violated Apple's rules regarding in-app purchases by introducing its own direct payment option for in-game currency in the Fortnite app for iOS. Apple promptly removed Fortnite from the App Store, preventing Epic Games from updating the game to provide iPhone and iPad players with access to the new season, which releases August 27 on other platforms like Windows, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4.

U.S. Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers this week decided not to force Apple to put Fortnite back on the App Store, but she did grant a temporary restraining order that prevents Apple from terminating access to Epic Games' developer accounts related to its Unreal Engine game engine. A final decision on an injunction will be made in September.

In a statement, Apple said it would be glad to welcome Fortnite back to the App Store if Epic Games removes the direct payment option from the game while the case proceeds:

We thank the court for recognizing that Epic's problem is entirely self-inflicted and is in their power to resolve. Our very first priority is making sure App Store users have a great experience in a safe and trusted environment, including iPhone users who play Fortnite and who are looking forward to the game's next season. We agree with Judge Gonzalez-Rogers that "the sensible way to proceed" is for Epic to comply with the ‌App Store‌ guidelines and continue to operate while the case proceeds. If Epic takes the steps the judge has recommended, we will gladly welcome Fortnite back onto iOS. We look forward to making our case to the court in September.