MacRumors

Apple's new Mac Pro and Pro Display XDR became available to order last week and, on schedule, the first deliveries to customers have begun. The photos below were shared by MacRumors forum member K. Johansen from Oregon.

As suspected, it appears the new Mac Pro is only assembled in Texas for orders placed in the United States, Canada, and other countries in the Americas. French blog MacGeneration has confirmed that a new Mac Pro delivered to a customer in France today has fine print indicating it was assembled in China.

The new Mac Pro starts at $5,999, while the Pro Display XDR retails for $4,999.

Apple today announced that it will be collaborating with ABC News to provide up-to-the-minute coverage of the key events of the 2020 U.S. presidential election through the Apple News app.

The coverage will begin with the Democratic primary debate on February 7, 2020 in New Hampshire. Apple News will feature ABC News videos and live-streaming coverage, as well as FiveThirtyEight polling data, infographics, and analysis during key moments in the 2020 election, according to Apple.

Apple News, ABC News, and WMUR-TV will also partner for the February debate, the first to be held after primary voting begins.

The partnership will extend through Super Tuesday, the Republican and Democratic National Conventions, the general election debates, election night, and the 2021 presidential inauguration.

Note: Due to the political 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.

TIME has published a list of what it believes are the 10 most important gadgets introduced in the last decade, and three Apple products have made the cut, including the iPad, Apple Watch, and AirPods.

The original iPad was unveiled by the late Steve Jobs in 2010, while the Apple Watch and AirPods were released in 2015 and 2016, respectively.

"Before the iPad's introduction in 2010, the idea of a 'tablet computer' was mostly relegated to slick science fiction movies and unwieldy laptop-adjacent monstrosities running terrible software," writes TIME's Patrick Lucas Austin. "Apple's iPad — like the iPhone before it — resulted in a cultural shift for personal computing, and set the tone for the next decade of portable devices."

Austin adds that the Apple Watch "set the standard for what a smartwatch could do," while he believes AirPods are "the gold standard of truly wireless audio," especially after the launch of AirPods Pro.

The list also includes the Tesla Model S, Raspberry Pi, Google Chromecast, DJI Phantom, Amazon Echo, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox Adaptive Controller.

Apple Arcade is now available with an annual subscription option, priced at $49.99 per year in the United States, $59.99 per year in Canada, £49.99 per year in the UK, and €49.99 per year in many other European countries.

Until now, Apple Arcade was only available with a $4.99 per month subscription in the United States, totaling $59.88 in a year. In other words, the annual subscription effectively provides 12 months of Apple Arcade access for the price of 10 months in return for paying upfront — a savings of $9.89.

To switch to the annual subscription plan on an iOS device, open the App Store, tap on your profile photo in the top-right corner, tap on Subscriptions, tap on Apple Arcade, and select the one-year option.

Apple Arcade provides access to over 100 games across iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, and Mac, all without ads or in-app purchases.

The annual option was first spotted by German blog iFun.de.

With Christmas under two weeks away, we're now entering last-minute holiday shopping season. Although some of the best deals may have already come and gone this year, many brands and retailers still offer solid discounts online and in stores, giving shoppers a chance to finish off their shopping lists just in time.

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

For this reason, in this article we've accumulated as many notable Apple-related sales we could find across the internet, ranging from accessory brands like Mophie and Twelve South, to discounts on Apple products like the HomePod. Of course, shipping estimates and costs will vary greatly from store to store, but if you place an order soon, most of these retailers are still ensuring delivery by Christmas day.

We also have a few exclusive discounts mixed into the sales below, letting our readers save a little extra at places like Mophie, Twelve South, Pad & Quill, Nimble, and more. These sales allow our readers to save on portable chargers, iPhone battery cases, screen protectors, and much more. Be sure to check out all of these deals in the lists below.

Pad & Quill

MacRumors has partnered with Pad & Quill to give our readers a chance to save on Apple accessories all the way through Christmas day. With our first discount code, you can save 20 percent on any Apple related product, including those for iPhone, Apple Watch, iPad and MacBook. Enter the code MR20 to access this sale.

Otherwise, you can use the code MR15 to take 15 percent off Pad & Quill's other products, like its premium leather bags, wallets, and desk accessories. These two codes essentially cover the entirety of Pad & Quill's website, and are a perfect opportunity to shop for anyone on your holiday list who loves high-quality accessories for their Apple devices.

Nimble

Eco-friendly brand Nimble is offering our readers 30 percent off sitewide this holiday season with the exclusive promo code MACRUMORS30. With this promotion you can save on Nimble's portable chargers, wireless chargers, iPhone cases, and more.

Nimble's products are made from highly sustainable materials and come inside plastic-free packaging. The company also runs a one-for-one tech recovery project, placing a disposable bag with every product it sells. In these bags, customers can send back their old or unused tech so that it can be recycled responsibly.

In terms of shipping, Nimble offers free two-day shipping and returns, so be sure to browse the retailer's website soon to place your order in enough time before Christmas.

Twelve South

At Twelve South, you can get 15 percent off your entire order with the promo code MacRumors15. This promo code will last through December 31 at 11:59 p.m. ET for users in the United States.

Twelve South has numerous accessories that are specifically made for Apple products, like AirSnap for AirPods, HiRise Wireless for iPhone, and BookBook Vol. 2 for iPad Pro. You can browse for some holiday shopping ideas of your own in Twelve South's gift guide.

Mujjo

At Mujjo, MacRumors readers can save 15 percent by using the coupon code MacRumors15. This code will last through December 19. Mujjo offers a collection of leather Apple accessories, including iPhone cases and iPad sleeves, so be sure to head to Mujjo.com to check out their products before Thursday.

Best Buy

Best Buy still has Apple's HomePod at its current best price of $199.99, down from $299.99. This is the discount we previously saw on Black Friday last month, and Best Buy has brought the sale back just in time for Christmas.

The retailer also has some discounts on Beats headphones, Apple Watch Series 4, and more in its ongoing 12 Days of Discounts sale event. More information on the event can be found on BestBuy.com.

➜ Click here to read rest of article...

Repair site iFixit managed to get a Mac Pro on Friday, and has kicked off its traditional teardown with an uncasing and first impressions video.

The video shows the process of removing the ‌Mac Pro‌'s aluminum case and it takes a look at some of the internal components.

For those interested in a quick look at what's inside the ‌Mac Pro‌ and how the different components work, the video is worth checking out.

iFixit plans to share a full ‌Mac Pro‌ teardown next week, likely on Tuesday.

Through Apple's AC Wellness services that offer health benefits to Cupertino employees, Apple has begun providing its staff with free genetic testing, reports CNBC.

AC Wellness operates on-site health clinics on and near Apple's Cupertino campuses, and through a partnership with Color Genomics, employees are able to get genetic screenings for diseases.

Genetic testing is expected to help employees uncover health problems that could turn into risks later in time, allowing patients to take preventative steps. Color's test is able to look for gene mutations associated with cancer and cardiovascular disease.

The test created by Color is not sold directly to consumers and is instead ordered by clinicians at AC Wellness, with a follow up appointment required to discuss the health results.

A year to the day after Apple announced plans to spend $1 billion on a new corporate campus in Austin, Texas, to initially support 5,000 employees with the potential to grow to 15,000, television station WRAL in Raleigh, North Carolina, has shared an update and a few new details related to North Carolina's attempts to attract the new campus.

While it didn't conduct a public competition like Amazon, Apple was open about its plans to construct a new corporate campus, announcing its intentions in January 2018. A number of cities emerged as top contenders to land Apple's new campus, but by May 2018, sources were reporting that it was all but a "done deal" that the new campus would be located in North Carolina's Research Triangle Park (RTP) near Raleigh and Durham, with a temporary location for up to 1,000 employees planned for an existing office building in nearby Cary.

Months went by without an official announcement from Apple, and with Apple ultimately revealing the campus would be built in Austin, many have wondered what went wrong in what appeared to be late-stage negotiations between Apple and North Carolina.

The December announcement seemed to surprise the governor and state legislative leaders, who hours later released a joint statement touting economic growth in North Carolina and pledging to "keep doing everything we can" to attract jobs. [...]

Since then, there's been little explanation about how or why the deal dissolved by year's end.

But given the company's notorious penchant for secrecy, [North Carolina Senate Majority Leader Harry] Brown said, media coverage of the potential plans for North Carolina didn't help.

"Apple and companies like it are very sensitive to information getting out, and there's a possibility that could have hurt the negotiations with Apple a year ago," he said.

Even since the Austin announcement, there have been some curious developments in North Carolina that have hinted Apple may still have plans for the area. Most notably, in December 2018 just weeks after the Austin announcement, a mysterious entity known as Acute Investments purchased several tracts of land in RTP totaling around 280 acres, a massive investment that did not come with any public announcements. The Acute Investments representative listed on the deeds for the properties is local attorney Bruce Thompson, who is registered as a lobbyist for Apple, among other companies.

As a result, Apple has long been suspected of being the mystery buyer in RTP, and today's report from WRAL indicates that North Carolina Commerce Secretary Tony Copeland has finally confirmed that the land is indeed "controlled by Apple."

In an interview with WRAL News last week, Commerce Secretary Tony Copeland declined to provide specifics about the state's active recruitment of Apple. But he did point to a purchase of about 280 acres of Wake County land in Research Triangle Park for almost $50 million in late December 2018, just weeks after Apple's Austin announcement. [...]

Reached this week by phone, Thompson declined to comment.

But Copeland confirmed in the interview that the land is "controlled by Apple."

In addition, the state of North Carolina continues to refuse to release any information regarding its negotiations with Apple for the new campus, claiming that the project remains "open." Governmental authorities are typically required to release information to the public about their corporate recruitment efforts once a given project has ended, but North Carolina continues to insist the Apple project, known by its code name of "Project Bear," has not been closed.

So given that the new campus has been announced for Austin and ground has now been broken there, it's unclear what Apple's plans are for North Carolina. Are negotiations actually still underway for yet another Apple campus to be located in RTP, or is the continued "open" status of the project simply a ploy by Apple to try to keep its negotiations secret for as long as possible? And why spend tens of millions of dollars on RTP land when Austin had already been chosen?

Is Apple looking at yet another significant campus in the near future, or is it banking land and leaving negotiations with North Carolina open as a backup plan or to provide options for much further down the road? It's not clear when we'll have answers to these questions, but given Apple's appetite for office space, it would not be surprising if the company finds itself looking to expand again in the not too distant future.

Shortly after the Pro Display XDR became available to order this week, Stephen Hackett of Relay FM noted that the iMac Pro was not included in the list of Mac models compatible with the display on Apple's website.

Fortunately, video editor Thomas Grove Carter has since demonstrated that the iMac Pro can in fact drive the Pro Display XDR, but only at a 5K resolution. This is likely because the iMac Pro uses Intel's older "Alpine Ridge" Thunderbolt 3 controller without enough bandwidth to drive a 6K display.

To use the Pro Display XDR at its full 6K resolution, the display must be connected to the new Mac Pro with MPX Module GPUs, a 2018 or later 15-inch MacBook Pro, a 16-inch MacBook Pro, or a 2019 iMac. To our best knowledge, all of these models are equipped with Intel's newer "Titan Ridge" Thunderbolt 3 controller.

The Pro Display XDR also works at full 6K resolution with any Mac with Thunderbolt 3 ports paired with a Blackmagic eGPU or Blackmagic eGPU Pro. Those external GPUs are equipped with the "Titan Ridge" controller as well.

The Pro Display XDR is aimed at professional users, with a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio and a peak brightness of 1,600 nits. It is priced at $4,999 and up.

(Hat tip to Myke Hurley!)

AT&T today announced that it has launched its 5G network in its first ten markets: Birmingham, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, Providence, Rochester, San Diego, San Francisco, and San Jose. AT&T has PDF maps of coverage areas within these cities in its press release, and the carrier is aiming for nationwide 5G coverage in the first half of next year.

For the time being, customers with the new Samsung Galaxy Note10+ 5G will be able to access AT&T's 5G network, with more devices coming in the future. Apple is expected to launch its first 5G iPhones next year, likely in its usual September timeframe.

The 5G network AT&T is launching today is for the sub-6GHz spectrum, which offers broad coverage at speeds that are a step up from LTE. A separate flavor of 5G operates on the mmWave spectrum and offers even faster speeds but with shorter range, and is thus best suited for very dense, highly trafficked areas. AT&T refers to its mmWave 5G service as 5G+, and it launched in pockets of 12 markets almost exactly a year ago.

Noted analyst Ming-Chi Kuo believes there will be four flagship 2020 iPhones next September, with all of them capable of supporting both sub-6Hz and mmWave 5G technology in select markets such the United States, Canada, Japan, South Korea, and the United Kingdom. Other countries will see only sub-6Hz support, while 5G may be disabled entirely in other countries where 5G isn't widely available, in order to reduce Apple's costs.

AT&T was of course notorious for branding some of its enhanced 4G LTE network as "5G Evolution" or "5GE," which began appearing in the iPhone status bar with iOS 12.2, confusing some users who thought they were able to access true 5G networks.