MacRumors

The winners of the 13th annual iPhone Photography Awards have been announced today, following submissions from thousands of photographers from around the world.

Dozens of photographs taken via iPhone were chosen as winners, with the grand prize going to street photographer Dimpy Bhalotia from the United Kingdom, for her photo called "Flying Boys."

Follow-up winners include Artyom Baryshau from Belarus with "No Walls," Geli Zhao from China for an untitled image; and Saif Hussain of Iraq with "Sheikh Of Youth."

In total, the ‌iPhone‌ Photography Awards gave out awards to photographers from Australia, Bahrain, Belarus, Canada, China, Colombia, France, Hong Kong, Italy, Iraq, Israel, Japan, Netherlands, Peru, Philippines, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Taiwan, the United Kingdom and the United States.

You can view the full collection of winners on the iPhone Photography Awards website.

Apple and Amazon are under investigation by Italy's antitrust regulator over allegations that the two companies have been blocking the sale of Apple and Beats devices to resellers in order to stifle competition (via Reuters).

The L'Autorit Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato (AGCM) is looking into the allegation, which has been made by legal but unauthorized resellers who could theoretically sell the hardware at a discounted price.

In a press release (translated) today spotted by setteBIT, the ACGM said it was investigating Apple and Amazon for alleged contravention of Article 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.

The purpose of the investigation is to ascertain whether Apple and Amazon have implemented a restrictive agreement to prohibit the sale of Apple and Beats branded products by electronics resellers not participating in Apple's official program, who legitimately purchase products from wholesalers and then resell them to retailers.

In the Authority's view, the agreement to exclude certain parties from the marketplace appears to have the potential to reduce competition by raising barriers to the outlet of online sales markets to the detriment of unofficial resellers, which are usually small and medium-sized enterprises that sell on the web using marketplace services.

The AGCM did not say how long the investigation would take, but did acknowledge that officials carried out inspections at the local offices of both companies this week. Apple has yet to comment on the matter.

This isn't the first AGCM investigation into Apple. A previous probe looked into the company for iPhone battery slowdowns, which the antitrust watchdog said was a form of planned obsolescence and subsequently slapped Apple with a 10 million euro fine.

Apple will launch a next-generation version of AirPods Pro in the second half of next year, according to a new report today.

According to DigiTimes' sources, at least some of the next-gen AirPods Pro models will be assembled by Inventec Appliances in Vietnam, with current generation AirPods Pro manufacturers Luxshare and GoerTek also taking a share.

Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who often reliably predicts Apple's product plans, has previously said that Apple is working on a second-generation version of the AirPods Pro that will go into mass production into the fourth quarter of 2021 to the first quarter of 2022, suggesting no AirPods Pro refresh in 2020 or early 2021.

Future AirPods could include light sensors, which could be used for health monitoring features. DigiTimes has suggested the new sensors could be included in AirPods in one to two years. Health monitoring features could let the AirPods monitor heart rate, step counts, and health conditions, as well as detect head movements.

Apple is also rumored to be working on a third-generation version of the lower-end AirPods, for a planned rollout in the first half of 2021. Kuo originally said the third-generation AirPods will look similar to the current AirPods with no design changes, but later said that the new AirPods will feature a form factor design "similar to AirPods Pro."

The third-generation AirPods are expected to adopt a more compact system-in-package (SiP) that's similar to the internals of 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.

Facebook says it is bringing a new personal fundraising tool to Instagram that allows users to raise money for causes they support. The feature is similar to an existing fundraising system on Facebook, but this one will begin as a small test for users in the U.S, the U.K., and Ireland.

Users with access to the test will see the new option in Instagram in Edit Profile -> Add Fundraiser -> Raise Money. They can then choose a photo, select a category, and then add details to help tell their story and encourage others to donate.

When people donate to a fundraiser, they can choose to keep their information hidden from the public, but the creator of the fundraiser will be able to see their username, name on their profile and donation amount. After a fundraiser ends, the funds go to a designated bank account.

According to Facebook, anyone who can use Instagram's donation sticker to donate is also eligible to donate to personal fundraisers. The company says each Instagram fundraiser lasts 30 days, but there's no limit to the number of times it can be extended. Users must be at least 18 years old to create a fundraiser, and donations are accepted after the fundraiser is approved.

Google this week announced several new security features for its G Suite services, and the most notable for Gmail users is a pilot of an email specification that allows brand logos to display within authenticated emails.

Brand Indications for Message Identification (BIMI) is developed by the AuthIndicators Working Group, and requires emails to pass Google's anti-abuse validation, after which it brands the incoming message with a logo of the company that sent it.

Our BIMI pilot will enable organizations, who authenticate their emails using DMARC, to validate ownership of their corporate logos and securely transmit them to Google. Once these authenticated emails pass all of our other anti-abuse checks, Gmail will start displaying the logo in existing avatar slots in the Gmail UI.

By authenticating messages using the existing DMARC system and requiring strong authentication, the spec aims to give users and email security systems increased confidence in the source of emails while creating a trusted brand presence.

Google says it will be starting the BIMI pilot in the coming weeks with a limited number of senders. To learn more about BIMI, you can visit the working group's website.

Apple analyst Ming Chi Kuo today released a new report detailing his research on which lens suppliers will begin providing parts for Apple in the coming years.

We predict that Semco, the best Korean lens supplier, and Sunny Optical, the best Chinese lens supplier, will enter the Apple lens supply chain in 2H20 and 2021, respectively.

The new suppliers are said to hurt the revenue of Genius Electronic Optical, which presently provides lenses for Apple.

While the ins and outs of which suppliers source Apple's parts may not be of great interest to consumers, Kuo references another shift that will be of interest to iPhone buyers. Kuo believes that Semco will be providing a large percentage of new periscope telephoto lenses to Apple for the 2022 ‌iPhone‌.

Kuo previously reported on Apple's design plans for periscope lenses in conjunction with Taiwanese supplier Genius Electronic Optical, though it seems those plans may have changed.

Periscope lenses have already seen their way into some smartphones and provide manufacturers a way to provide much higher optical zoom in a smartphone-sized package. Huawei, for example, ships the P30 Pro which offers a 5x true optical zoom using a similar mechanism. A 10x optical zoom phone is reportedly also in the works from Huawei.

Apple has filed patents related to periscope lenses as recently as 2016. According to the description included in the patent, light would be channeled into the camera through a primary lens, bounced off of the included mirror in the smartphone, and then would be sent to a secondary lens that moves up and down for the purpose of zooming in. Apple describes it as a "folded telephoto camera lens system".

macOS Big Sur, an update significant enough that Apple called it macOS 11 instead of macOS 10.16, introduces design changes, feature updates, and app tweaks that make macOS feel refreshingly new and streamlined.

In our latest YouTube video, we've highlighted some of the best features coming in macOS Big Sur that will make upgrading to the new software worth it.

• Fresh Design - macOS Big Sur overhauls the macOS interface with a design meant to be fresh but familiar at the same time. Windows have a lighter appearance and cleaner look with rounded edges, there are new icons, the menu bar has been redesigned to be more useful, and there are new, more cohesive symbols throughout the OS. On the whole, most of the tweaks are minor, but all together, it's a welcome change.
• Control Center - Part of the macOS Big Sur redesign includes a new Control Center accessible from the menu bar, which puts useful Mac functions just a click away. It has quick access controls for WiFi, AirDrop, Bluetooth, volume, and display and keyboard brightness, along with toggles for options like Dark Mode, True Tone, and Night Shift. It's also customizable, so you can make sure your most used controls are readily available.
• Notification Center - Notification Center received one of the biggest design updates in macOS Big Sur, with Apple redesigning widgets and changing the way notifications work. Widgets more closely match the widgets introduced in iOS 14, with customizable sizes and functions to go along with the updated look. Notifications are now grouped together by app, which makes them more readable, and many notifications are more interactive with options to do things like reply to an email without opening the Mail app.
• Safari Customization - You can set a wallpaper for Safari in macOS Big Sur, choosing from one of Apple's options or a photo of your own. You can also add Favorites, Frequently Visited websites, Siri Suggestions, Reading List, iCloud Tabs, and the new Privacy Report to the Safari start page so you can have your most used Safari functions more readily available.
• Safari Privacy Report - Privacy Report is a new Safari feature that lets you know which trackers Safari is blocking from tracking you across the web. You can see what trackers a website has installed by clicking on the little shield button in Safari, but Apple also provides a Tracking Report with info on trackers blocked each week and which trackers are used across the most sites.
• Safari Tab Preview - Safari tabs have been updated in macOS Big Sur, and if you hover over any tab you have open, you can see a little preview of the site. The preview lets you get a glimpse of what's in the tab so you don't need to click all the way over to it to see what it is, which is handy when you have a bunch of tabs open.
• Safari Translation - There's a built-in translation feature in Safari, which lets you translate languages with a click so you don't need to install a separate extension. Apple's built-in translation option works with English, Spanish, Chinese, French, German, Russian, and Brazilian Portuguese.
• Messages - Messages in macOS Big Sur is now a Mac Catalyst app, so it's got much of the same functionality that's available in Messages for iOS. It supports all of the new iOS 14 features like pinned conversations, inline replies, and mentions, plus there's an updated Photos picker, an option for creating and sharing Memoji stickers, an images search for finding trending images and GIFs to share, and support for Message effects like balloons, confetti, and more. Search is also much improved and brings up separate listings for conversations, photos, contacts, and locations, similar to Messages for iOS.
• Battery Usage - In the Battery section of System Preferences, Apple now provides details on the Mac's battery life over 24 hours or the last 10 days, broken up by battery level and screen on usage so you can see how your battery is performing. Apple also brought back an estimate of remaining battery life, which is a feature that was removed from macOS Sierra in 2016.
• Video Editing - The Mac ‌Photos‌ app now supports video editing, so you can adjust parameters like light and color, add filters, and crop and rotate videos without having to use a third-party app.
• New Startup Sound - There are a whole bunch of new and updated sounds in macOS Big Sur and we have a video coming that will exclusively cover sound changes, but there's one major update worth noting here -- the return of the macOS startup sound. macOS Big Sur once again chimes when the Mac is booted up.

There are many more new features in macOS Big Sur, and more detail on what's coming in the update can be found in our macOS Big Sur roundup. macOS Big Sur is limited to developers at the current time, but Apple should be making a public beta available in the near future.

It's been increasingly clear that Apple has been working on an AR/VR Headset for the consumer market. Originally expected as early as 2020, the most recent rumors place its release in 2021 or 2022.

But what's been less clear is the exact feature set a pair of AR/VR Apple Glasses will provide. Rumors have been scattered over the functionality with some internal debate about the direction of the unreleased headset -- ranging from an ultra-powerful wearable product to a more limited accessory for the iPhone.

A newly revealed patent application from Apple uncovered by AppleInsider shows some intriguing research that Apple has been doing into the field as far back as 2016.

In the patent, Apple addresses the question of how someone wearing a pair of Apple Glasses would be able to interact with the mixed virtual/real environment they are looking at. When using an ‌iPhone‌ or iPad as an AR viewfinder, the user would typically tap on the screen to interact with objects shown on the screen. But when wearing an AR headset, the same task would be cumbersome. Previous attempts at directly interacting with an AR environment required additional hardware such as a glove or finger sensors. Meanwhile, trying to visually detect finger-to-surface contact is not accurate enough to be useful.

Apple describes how it can more elegantly accomplish this task by using infrared heat sensing to detect when a user touches a real-world object.

The present disclosure is related to a method and device for detecting a touch between at least part of a first object and at least part of a second object, wherein the at least part of the first object has a different temperature than the at least part of the second object. The method includes providing at least one thermal image of a portion of the second object, determining in at least part of the at least one thermal image a pattern which is indicative of a particular value or range of temperature or a particular value or range of temperature change, and using the determined pattern for detecting a touch between the at least part of the first object and the at least part of the second object.

The method could then allow Apple Glasses to visually project controls onto real-world objects and react when they are touched by the user by sensing the heat transfer when touching the object.

As with all patent applications, we can't be certain Apple will incorporate this technology into its future products. But we do believe Apple is planning on releasing an Apple AR/VR headset. Full details can be found in our Apple Glasses roundup.

Apple unveiled its ‌Siri‌ (or ‌Apple TV‌) Remote with touch surface in 2015 alongside the fourth-generation ‌Apple TV‌, and it's never been a particularly popular accessory.

Last year we saw Swiss telco Salt launch an alternative remote control for the Apple TV 4K set-top boxes that it includes in its domestic broadband TV bundle, and yesterday AppleInsider surfaced another potential alternative for anyone frustrated with Apple's native Remote.

Function101's "Button Remote for Apple TV" costs $30 and looks very similar to the Swiss model, but this one will be available in the U.S. later this month, providing another option for anyone watching one of the Salt models on eBay, where they sell at a hefty premium.

The Button Remote includes directional arrows in place of the Siri Remote's glass Touch surface, a power button in addition to a Menu button, along with separate volume and channel rockers and traditional media playback buttons. There's no Siri button included, however.

If that omission is a deal breaker but you can't live with Apple's own remote, you could always control your Apple TV using an iPhone or via your Apple Watch.

Apple today announced a target of becoming carbon neutral across its entire business and manufacturing supply chain by 2030.

Apple is already carbon neutral across its global corporate operations, and this new commitment means that by 2030, every Apple device sold will have net zero climate impact.

"Businesses have a profound opportunity to help build a more sustainable future, one born of our common concern for the planet we share," said Tim Cook, Apple's CEO. "The innovations powering our environmental journey are not only good for the planet — they've helped us make our products more energy efficient and bring new sources of clean energy online around the world. Climate action can be the foundation for a new era of innovative potential, job creation, and durable economic growth. With our commitment to carbon neutrality, we hope to be a ripple in the pond that creates a much larger change."

Apple plans to reduce emissions by 75 percent by 2030 while developing innovative carbon removal solutions for the remaining 25 percent of its comprehensive footprint, according to its newly released 2020 Environmental Progress Report. Apple says it will provide a roadmap for other companies looking to reduce their impact on climate change.

Separately, Apple told the BBC News that any company hoping to become a supplier would have to commit to "be 100 percent renewable for their Apple production" within 10 years.

Apple today also posted a video on its YouTube channel called "A climate change promise from Apple," promoting its pledge to make its carbon footprint non-existent by 2030.

Apple will host free online art sessions for high school students in Chicago next week as part of its continuing "Today at Apple" virtual event series.

Titled Sentrock's Summer Studio, the online sessions take place on July 27 through July 31, and feature some of Chicago's "most influential creators," including Sentrock, Hailey M Losselyong, Norma Ojeda, Nikko Washington and Lizz Ortiz.

Calling all Chicagoland high school students! From July 27–31, join Sentrock Studio and Young Chicago Authors with Today at Apple for a week of free virtual art sessions for students ages 14–18.

Each day you'll go behind the scenes with a lineup of Chicago's most influential creators to find inspiration in their studios, learn illustration tips and techniques, and make artwork inspired by their visual styles. Bring your imagination and whatever you have to draw on.

The virtual events are the result of a collaboration with Secret Walls and Young Chicago Authors, and will run on the above dates from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. local time over Webex. For more details including how to sign up, click the link.

Last year, YouTuber and photographer Andrew Levitt teamed up with his friends Jacob Phillips and Taylor Gray to recreate all of Apple's default wallpapers included in macOS Catalina.

Following Apple's unveiling of macOS Big Sur at the WWDC conference in June, they again set out to recreate Apple's newest default wallpaper, with no preparation, within just one week.

The task was even more challenging this time, however, as the default ‌macOS Big Sur wallpaper showcases the dramatic rugged mountainous area of California's Central Coast region from an elevated vantage point 4,000 feet over the ocean.

After doing some research, Levitt and his friends found out that a drone wouldn't be able to get the shot, and regardless, flying drones off the coast of Big Sur is against the law. So the team got in touch with a helicopter pilot, who coincidentally turned out to be the same pilot that flew out Apple's own photographer to get the original shot.

After having to deal with thick fog on the first attempt, the team headed out a second time and managed to get the same shot. Check out the original video for some dramatic footage captured on the Big Sur coastline.

Follow the creators on Instagram: Andrew Levitt, Jacob Phillips, and Taylor Gray.

Google is rolling out new bike sharing information as part of its cycling route coverage in Google Maps. The new feature means users will be able to get directions using rented bikes from docked bike-share schemes like Divvy in Chicago and Santander Cycles in London.

The new functionality means it will be possible to get end-to-end navigation routes that include walking directions to get to the nearest bike dock, cycling directions to get from one dock to another, and then walking directions to your intended destination.

Starting today, when you look up biking directions, you’ll see end-to-end directions that include docked bikeshare information. Steps will include detailed walking directions to bikeshare stations near your starting point along with live bike availability, turn-by-turn cycling directions to the bikeshare station closest to your destination with live dock availability, and, finally, walking directions from there to your final destination. And, for some cities, Maps will show you links to open the relevant bikeshare app to book and unlock the bike.

The functionality is rolling out over the coming weeks, after which users will be able to find docked bike share directions in the following 10 cities:

• Chicago, U.S. (Divvy/Lyft)
• New York City, U.S. (Citi Bike/Lyft)
• San Francisco Bay Area, U.S. (Bay Wheels/Lyft)
• Washington, DC, U.S. (Capital Bikeshare/Lyft)
• London, England (Santander Cycles/TfL)
• Mexico City, Mexico (Ecobici)
• Montreal, Canada (BIXI/Lyft)
• Rio De Janeiro, Brazil (Bike Itaú)
• São Paulo, Brazil (Bike Itaú)
• Taipei and New Taipei City, Taiwan (YouBike)

Google introduced biking directions in Google Maps ten years ago, and it's now available in nearly 30 countries. In iOS 14, Apple Maps route mapping will also consider bike lanes and dedicated cycling paths, and take elevation into account. The functionality will debut in the U.S. in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco Bay, and Shanghai in China.

Apple CEO Tim Cook, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Alphabet/Google CEO Sundar Pichai, and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg are all set to participate in an antitrust hearing next Monday held by the United States House Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee as part of an ongoing antitrust investigation on competition in digital markets.

Ahead of the hearing, the committee spoke with Microsoft president and chief legal officer Brad Smith, with The Information sharing details on the virtual meeting.

The committee wanted to talk with Smith so he could "provide Microsoft's perspective as a big tech company" formerly involved in antitrust regulation over Windows, but Smith also reportedly shared Microsoft's concerns with the way Apple operates the App Store.

Topics covered included Apple's arbitrary ‌App Store‌ approval processes, the 30 percent cut that Apple takes from app purchases and subscriptions, and requirements that developers use Apple's in-app purchase system.

At a Politico event in June, Smith expressed similar sentiments and said that it's time for regulators to take a look at app stores and the payment requirements.

"They impose requirements that increasingly say there is only one way to get on to our platform and that is to go through the gate that we ourselves have created. In some cases they create a very high price per toll - in some cases 30% of your revenue has to go to the toll keeper."

"The time has come - whether we are talking about D.C. or Brussels - for a much more focused conversation about the nature of app stores, the rules that are being put in place, the prices and the tolls that are being extracted and whether there is really a justification in antitrust law for everything that has been created."

Microsoft distributes multiple apps in Apple's ‌App Store‌, and is required to pay Apple 15 to 30 percent for any customers who subscribe to its Office 365 service through Apple's platform.

‌Tim Cook‌ and other tech CEOS will testify in the antitrust hearing on Monday, July 27 at 12:00 p.m. Eastern Time, and a livestream will be available on YouTube.