MacRumors

Amazon today is discounting the latest iPad Air to a new all-time-low price. Specifically, the 256GB cellular model is available for $649, down from $779 and the lowest price we've ever seen this model among the major Apple resellers online.

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

There are a few other iPad Airs discounted today, including some Wi-Fi models. None match the extent of the discount on the 256GB cellular model, although all listed below represent new low prices.

2019 iPad Air Sale

• Wi-Fi, 64 GB - $469.00, down from $499.00 ($30 off, lowest ever)
• Wi-Fi, 256 GB - $614.00, down from $649.00 ($35 off, lowest ever)
• Cellular, 256 GB - $649.00, down from $779.00 ($130 off, lowest ever)

Apple updated these iPad Air models in March of this year, with a new 10.5-inch display, Touch ID Home button, headphone jack, A12 Bionic processor, support for the Apple Pencil 1, and compatibility with the Smart Keyboard. This device sits between the lower-end 9.7-inch iPad and the 11-inch iPad Pro.

For more sales and bargains, head to our full Deals Roundup.

B&H Photo and Amazon are discounting the 2018 MacBook Air and a few models of the 2018 iPad Pro this week. Additionally, we've listed Anker's latest deals below, as well as a reminder about our exclusive Eve Room discount ending soon.

2018 MacBook Air

With the surprise launch of an updated MacBook Air yesterday, B&H Photo and Amazon have debuted discounts for last year's models.

• 128 GB SSD - $999.00, down from $1,199.00 ($200 off) [Amazon / B&H]
• 256 GB SSD - $1,199.00, down from $1,399.00 ($200 off) [Amazon / B&H]

2018 iPad Pro

Amazon has up to $250 off the 11-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Pro from late 2018, with many discounts representing lowest-ever prices for these models.

11-Inch

• Cellular, 64 GB - $799.99, down from $949.00 ($150 off)

• Cellular, 256 GB - $949.00, down from $1,099.00 ($150 off)

• Cellular, 512 GB - $1,099.99, down from $1,299.99 ($200 off, lowest ever)

• Cellular, 1 TB - $1,449.99, down from $1,699.99 ($250 off, lowest ever)

12.9-Inch

• Wi-Fi, 64 GB - $849.00, down from $999.00 ($150 off)

• Wi-Fi, 512 GB - $1,149.00, down from $1,349.00 ($200 off, lowest ever)

• Wi-Fi, 1 TB - $1,499.00, down from $1,749.00 ($250 off)

• Cellular, 64 GB - $949.00, down from $1,149.00 ($200 off, lowest ever)

• Cellular, 512 GB - $1,299.00, down from $1,499.00 ($200 off, lowest ever)

Anker's New Discounts

This summer, Anker is discounting everything from USB hubs to Bluetooth speakers and Lightning cables. We've rounded up these discount codes below, all of which expire sometime in July.

• Anker 4-Port USB 3.0 Hub - $5.99 with code ANKERUSB3 and on-page coupon, down from $10.99 (exp. 7/12)

• PowerPort Atom III Slim - $27.99 with code ANKER141, down from $34.99 (exp. 7/14)

• SoundCore 24-Hour Bluetooth Speaker - $20.99 with code SDCSPK3102 and on-page coupon, down from $27.99 (exp. 7/14)

• PowerLine+ II USB-C to USB-A [3ft] - $7.99 with code ANKE8462, down from $11.99 (exp. 7/16)

• PowerPort III 30W Foldable USB-C Charger - $22.49 with code ANKER861, down from $29.99 (exp. 7/25)

• PowerDrive 36W 2-Port USB-C Car Charger - $18.39 with code ANKER427, down from $22.99 (exp. 7/25)

• PowerLine Lightning [1ft] - $7.49 with code ANKER1FT, down from $9.49 (exp. 7/30)

• Powerline+ II USB-C to Lightning (6ft) - $19.19 with code ANKERCTL6, down from $23.99 (exp. 7/31)

Eve Room Exclusive Sale

We're entering the last day of our exclusive Eve Room sale, which discounts the Eve Room to $79.96, down from $99.95. To see this deal, head to Evehome.com, add the Eve Room to your cart, click on the "Have a promo code?" prompt at the top of the checkout screen, and enter the code MacRumors20 to take 20 percent off the device. The code expires tomorrow, Thursday, July 11.

The promo code only applies to a single Eve Room and will not apply to the retailer's double pack of Eve Room units that you can buy for $179.90. Head to Evehome.com to browse and purchase the Eve Room before the sale ends.

The Eve Room is a small, palm-sized device that can track the temperature, humidity, and air quality within your home, and connects to Apple's HomeKit platform so you can ask Siri about the air quality. When it detects harmful in-home pollutants, Eve Room can give you a heads up about opening a window or turning on an air purifier, ensuring that your home's air is as clean as possible.

Our full Deals Roundup has more information on all of the latest sales and discounts happening this week.

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.

Apple has announced that its HomePod speaker will be available to order in Japan and Taiwan later this summer.

The speaker has had a slow worldwide rollout since launching in February 2018, with availability currently limited to the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Spain, Mexico, China, and Hong Kong.

In April, Apple lowered the price of the HomePod from $349 to $299 in the United States. As of the fourth quarter of 2018, the speaker had an estimated worldwide market share of just four percent, according to Strategy Analytics.

Pricing will be ¥32,800 in Japan and NT$9,900 in Taiwan.

From this week, users of Alexa devices in the United Kingdom will be able to get expert health advice from the voice-activated smart speakers, thanks to a partnership between Amazon and the National Health Service.

When health-related queries such as "Alexa, how do I treat a migraine?" or "what are the symptoms of flu?" are put to the devices, Amazon's algorithm will use information from the NHS website to provide answers.

Britain's NHS says the technology will help patients the elderly, blind and those who cannot access the internet through traditional means, to get professional NHS-verified health information in seconds, potentially reducing the pressure on the NHS and GPs, specifically when it comes to providing information for common illnesses.

Currently, Alexa gets its answers to health-related questions from a number of sources, including the Mayo Clinic and WebMD. As a point of contrast, Apple's Siri currently retrieves answers to health-related queries from Wolfram Alpha and Wikipedia.

Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Matt Hancock offered the following comments on the new Amazon-NHS partnership:

We want to empower every patient to take better control of their healthcare and technology like this is a great example of how people can access reliable, world-leading NHS advice from the comfort of their home, reducing the pressure on our hardworking GPs and pharmacists.

Through the NHS Long Term Plan, we want to embrace the advances in technology to build a health and care system that is fit for the future and NHSX will drive this revolution to bring the benefits to every patient, clinician and carer.

In addition, Hancock told Sky News there are "privacy rules" in place to prevent peoples' information being sold on, and that the government was "up for doing this sort of collaboration with other tech companies".

The Royal College of GPs welcomed the move, but warned that independent research will be needed to ensure the advice given out is safe.

Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard, chairwoman of the RCGP, told Sky News:

"This idea is certainly interesting and it has the potential to help some patients work out what kind of care they need before considering whether to seek face-to-face medical help, especially for minor ailments that rarely need a GP appointment, such as coughs and colds that can be safely treated at home.

"However, it is vital that independent research is done to ensure that the advice given is safe, otherwise it could prevent people seeking proper medical help and create even more pressure on our overstretched GP service."

NHS experts believe half of all health-related searches will be made through voice-assisted technology by 2020. The U.K. government has set up a unit called NHSX to boost the use of digital technologies in the health service over the next few years. Measures already being pursued include an expansion of electronic prescribing and the use of artificial intelligence to analyze scans.

A CNBC report on Tuesday brought attention to a slew of recent hires away from Apple's Health team to health insurer Anthem, which is trying to improve the user-friendliness of its consumer technology.

According to the report, Anthem has hired half a dozen current or former Apple employees over the last few months, including veteran Apple staff as well as relative newcomers to the company.

Among the new hires are senior machine learning researcher Stefanos Giampanis, and Apple Health's Toni Trujillo Vian, an Apple veteran of 24 years.

The health insurer also hired Ted Goldstein, a former Apple vice president from 2002 to 2007, to run its AI and health data efforts, about six months ago, and some lower-level folks like Berick Bacani, a former Apple operations specialist, as a UX designer on the digital team.

CNBC notes that the health insurer's Apple pedigree actually dates back a few years: Anthem's vice president of commercial, Aneesh Kumar, started his career in the 1990s as a product manager at Apple.

In addition to the Apple staff migration, the insurer has gained another high-profile recruit from the tech world: Udi Manber, who headed Google's search team, is now a technical advisor at Anthem.

Apple's staff departures are particularly notable given that the company is supposed to be redoubling efforts to improve its health-related tech. For example, Apple in 2018 acquired Tueo Health, a startup working on an app to help parents monitor asthma symptoms in sleeping children.

At WWDC 2019, Apple also announced that new health and fitness capabilities are coming to the Apple Watch in watchOS 6, due to be released in the fall. New features include Activity Trends, a new Noise app uses the Apple Watch microphone to monitor environmental noise, and a Cycle Tracking app for tracking menstrual cycles.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has previously said that health is a major focus of Apple, and that health may actually end up being "Apple's greatest contribution to mankind."

HBO and WarnerMedia today announced an all-new streaming service called HBO Max, which will combine HBO content with shows and films from CNN, TNT, TBS, The CW, TCM, Adult Swim, and much more.

The full list of Max Originals follows:

• “Dune: The Sisterhood,” an adaptation of Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson’s book based in the world created by Frank Herbert’s book Dune, from director Denis Villeneuve
• “Tokyo Vice,” based on Jake Adelstein’s non-fiction first-hand account of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police beat starring Ansel Elgort
• “The Flight Attendant,” a one-hour thriller series based on the novel by Chris Bohjalian, which will star Kaley Cuoco, who is also executive producing alongside Greg Berlanti
• “Love Life,” a 10-episode half-hour romantic comedy anthology series starring “Pitch Perfect” star Anna Kendrick, who will also executive produce alongside Paul Feig
• “Station Eleven,” a postapocalyptic limited series based on Emily St. John Mandel’s international bestseller, adapted by Patrick Somerville and directed by Hiro Murai
• “Made for Love,” a 10-episode, half-hour, straight-to-series adaptation based on the tragicomic novel of the same name by Alissa Nutting, also from Somerville and directed by S.J. Clarkson
• “Gremlins,” an animated series from Warner Bros. Animation and Amblin Entertainment based on the original movie

Existing HBO shows like Game of Thrones and Big Little Lies will be available on HBO Max. Other content on HBO Max includes all of Friends, The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Pretty Little Liars, and many of the DC shows on The CW, like Batwoman.

There are also some exclusive deals with producers Greg Berlanti (director of Love, Simon and producer of Arrow and The Flash) and Reese Witherspoon. Berlanti is set to produce four movies focused in the young adult space and Witherspoon's Hello Sunshine company will produce at least two films. In total, HBO Max is set to premiere with 10,000 hours of premium content.

“HBO Max will bring together the diverse riches of WarnerMedia to create programming and user experiences not seen before in a streaming platform. HBO’s world-class programming leads the way, the quality of which will be the guiding principle for our new array of Max Originals, our exciting acquisitions, and the very best of the Warner Bros. libraries, starting with the phenomenon that is ‘Friends,’” said Robert Greenblatt, chairman, WarnerMedia Entertainment and Direct-To-Consumer.

The full list of programming companies supporting HBO Max include: Warner Bros., New Line, DC Entertainment, CNN, TNT, TBS, truTV, The CW, Turner Classic Movies, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, Crunchyroll, Rooster Teeth, and Looney Tunes. WarnerMedia said there will be more programming than these channels and companies, but hasn't been specific about what those might be yet.

The new service is being announced one year after AT&T completed its acquisition of Time Warner, which owns HBO. At the time, AT&T leadership suggested it was planning to increase the amount of content released by HBO so that the company has more hours of user engagement, instead of only seeing peak numbers during major broadcasts, like for the final season of Game of Thrones.

HBO Max will launch in the spring of 2020.

Apple has announced that students who have yet to subscribe to Apple Music can now get a six-month free trial, double the standard three months, in the United States and select other countries. The limited time promotion ends September 26, 2019, according to an internal memo obtained by the blog Appleosophy.

When the trial ends, the Apple Music plan for students is $4.99 per month, compared to the standard $9.99 per month for individuals.

While various carriers have offered extended Apple Music trials, this is the first time Apple has offered a six-month trial itself. The offer is part of Apple's annual Back to School promotion in which students can also get a free pair of Beats headphones with the purchase of an eligible Mac or iPad.

(Thanks, Holden Satterwhite!)

Moment has announced its first accessory for drones called the Moment Air, which launches today on Kickstarter. The new accessory is an anamorphic lens for consumer drones, which can be attached to devices like the DJI Mavic 2 Pro and Mavic 2 Zoom.

Moment said that the Moment Air ($299.99; $199 on Kickstarter) delivers cinematic footage thanks to a proprietary design that minimizes lateral chromatic aberration while using a unique set of coatings, which delivers a horizontal flare associated with vintage anamorphics.

Because of this, the Moment Air can show off unique flares in different conditions, including sunsets, to make footage stand out. The lens has a 2.40:1 Cinemascope aspect ratio for video and an anti-reflection lens coating.

Moment Air includes a unique counterweight system that ensures the accessory is locked and balanced around the drone's camera. Additionally, Moment said that the accessory is light enough to ensure the drone can fly uninterrupted.

There is no standard for how to attach and balance a lens on a drone, so we made one. Introducing our Lock and Balance Mounting System. It’s a two part design with a lens on one side and a counterweight on the other. The two parts clamp together over the drone’s camera, creating a secure lock that doesn’t impede the gimbal.

There are a few other drone accessories announced by Moment today, including the new Airlight Droner Filters ($119.99; $99 on Kickstarter). These filters enhance drone footage with cinematic glass that provide smooth, color neutral images, without adding unnecessary weight to the drone.

Lastly, Moment is selling the Ultra Thin Photo Case ($29.99; $25 on Kickstarter), which is thin enough to fit within a drone controller, gimbal, or tripod, and is compatible with the iPhone XR, XS, and XS Max.

These accessories are on Kickstarter as of today, with special early bird prices for those who back the project before the public launch. Moment said that the accessories will ship in November.