MacRumors

Apple plans to refresh its MacBook Air lineup with faster processors in September, according to IHS Markit analyst Jeff Lin's latest Emerging PC Market Tracker report, published Thursday and shared by Forbes:

Apple is also expected to update the 13.3-inch MacBook Pro and Retina MacBook Air with the new MacOS Catalina and new processors in September, according to Lin.

Forbes also cites Lin as saying the 13-inch MacBook Pro receiving a processor refresh in September as well, which likely refers to the base model without the Touch Bar, dubbed the "MacBook Escape" for its physical Esc key. The 13-inch ‌MacBook Pro‌ with Touch Bar just received a processor refresh in May.

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The ‌MacBook Air‌ was last updated in October 2018, when it received a long-awaited Retina display, 8th-generation Intel Core processors, butterfly keyboard, larger trackpad, Touch ID, Thunderbolt 3 ports, new color options, and more.

Apple rarely refreshes any Macs in September, often waiting for October instead, but these would be fall updates either way. IHS has close ties to Apple's supply chain, having accurately revealed the original 10.5-inch iPad Pro's resolution nearly four months in advance and LTPO on the Apple Watch.

Lin also believes that Apple plans to release the rumored 16-inch MacBook Pro in September. Again, this could end up being October too, but it sounds increasingly likely that the 16-inch ‌MacBook Pro‌ is coming this year.

Related Roundup: MacBook Air
Tags: IHS, Jeff Lin
Related Forums: MacBook Pro, MacBook Air

Apple today shared three new ads on its YouTube channel in Australia, highlighting iMessage encryption, App Store privacy, and iPhone recycling, as part of its ongoing "That's iPhone" marketing campaign around the world.


Apple also shared a new Shot on ‌iPhone‌ XS video and a companion behind-the-scenes video on its main YouTube channel on Saturday:



The video was shot on the ‌iPhone‌ by Donghoon Jun and James Thornton of Incite, in collaboration with WET, and commissioned by Apple.

When Apple has to make a difficult decision regarding an app in the App Store, its fate is determined in a meeting of a group called the Executive Review Board or ERB, led by Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller.

The detail was shared in a CNBC report on how the ‌App Store‌ works, which gives an inside look at Apple's ‌App Store‌ review team.

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The Executive Review Board meets once per week and discusses controversial apps or iPhone apps that might be infringing on ‌App Store‌ guidelines, and it has the final word on whether an app can stay on the store or if it's going to be removed.

The ERB also creates the policies for Apple's Worldwide Developer Relations department, otherwise known as the App Review team that looks over every app submitted to the ‌App Store‌. Last year, the ERB was the team that decided to ban the controversial Infowars app from the ‌App Store‌ for violating Apple's content policies.

Apple runs multiple App Review teams around the world, and according to CNBC, recently opened up new offices in Cork, Ireland and Shanghai, China. Over the course of the last few years, hiring for the team has ramped up.

People on the app review team are paid hourly, have employee badges, and receive healthcare, like any other Apple employee with Apple opting to use a full in-house team rather than relying on contractors. The main App Review team is based out of an office in Sunnyvale, California, which is close to Apple's Cupertino campuses.

According to CNBC, new hires start out on ‌iPhone‌ apps, but as reviewers gain more experience, are able to evaluate apps with in-app purchases and subscriptions as well as Apple TV and Apple Watch apps. Each reviewer claims a batch of apps using a web portal, then checks over the app using an iPad (or Apple Watch or ‌Apple TV‌ for those apps). The app is compared to Apple's ‌App Store‌ guidelines, and reviewers decide whether to accept, reject, or hold the app.

Reviewers are expected to get through 50 to 100 apps per day, and evaluating most apps takes a short amount of time. Number of apps reviewed per hour is tracked by Apple, and they're also evaluated on whether or not review decisions are later overturned.

When an app is rejected, developers can appeal to the App Review Board, which is separate from the Executive Review Board, to get the decision overturned. Several appeals may eventually send an app to the ERB, though. Most apps are rejected for common reasons, but edge cases or apps that are publicly sensitive go to ‌Phil Schiller‌'s ERB for more careful evaluation.

Apple doesn't give apps from major companies special treatment, according to CNBC, and all apps are required to go through the same exact review process.

For more on how the ‌App Store‌ review process works, make sure to check out CNBC's full report.

Apple's upcoming Apple Card credit card is now being tested by both its corporate and retail employees ahead of a planned summer launch, and unsurprisingly, some images of the card have leaked out.

We already know what the ‌Apple Card‌ looks like thanks to Apple's promotional materials, but it's still interesting to see the design in person, with iMore sharing some photos provided by an Apple employee.

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In person, the titanium card is as minimalist as it looks online, with the front featuring a simple embossed Apple logo, a chip, and a name, which in iMore's image, has been removed for privacy. There's no card number or expiration date included, nor is there a CVV on the back.

The ‌Apple Card‌ won't use a traditional card number, instead generating virtual card numbers and confirmation codes for purchases, which can be obtained from the Wallet app on the iPhone.

The back of the ‌Apple Card‌ is just as barren as the front, featuring embossed Goldman Sachs and Mastercard logos, along with a magstripe at the back. Goldman Sachs and Mastercard are Apple's ‌Apple Card‌ partners. For those curious, the ‌Apple Card‌ appears to weigh in at 14.75 grams.

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Apple delivers the ‌Apple Card‌ in a plain white sleeve with an Apple logo on the front. The inside is multicolored, representing the different purchase categories that will be listed and colorized inside the Apple Wallet app when you make an ‌Apple Card‌ purchase.

According to iMore, Apple is approving people with a range of credit scores. A person with a credit rating between 600 and 700 was approved, though with a $1,000 credit limit. APRs range from 13.24 percent to 24.24 percent.

After applying for the card, it took the Apple employee iMore spoke to approximately one week to receive their ‌Apple Card‌.

Apple is planning to launch the ‌Apple Card‌ in the summer, and employees testing the card are running the iOS 12.4 update, which is currently in beta. Apple has seeded four betas of iOS 12.4 so far, and it's probably not too far off from release.

It's not clear if the ‌Apple Card‌ release will be tied to the launch of iOS 12.4, but it's certainly a possibility, and suggests the ‌Apple Card‌ is coming in the near future.

For more information on the upcoming ‌Apple Card‌, make sure to check out our full Apple Card guide.

For this week's giveaway, we've teamed up with Tap to give MacRumors readers a chance to win one of the company's wearable keyboards, which Tap believes is the keyboard of the future.

Available for $199, the Tap is a keyboard that's unlike anything else that you've used because it turns your fingers into the keys, letting you type letters, numbers, and symbols with simple taps.

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The Tap uses a series of finger-worn rings with built-in sensors that are designed to detect your tap gestures. The rings are adjustable and can fit a wide range of hand sizes, and because it's wearable, you can basically use the Tap Keyboard wherever you happen to be.


Typing each letter of the alphabet is done with a different tap. To make an "A," for example, you tap your thumb in a downwards motion. A single tap of the index finger makes an "E," and to create a "K" you tap your thumb and ring finger downwards at the same time.

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Learning to use the Tap Keyboard can take a few days to a few weeks because learning and mastering an entirely new way of typing takes some time. When I reviewed the Tap last year I was able to learn how to use it in about a week of practicing for 30 minutes a day.

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Tap makes a fun, intuitive app called the TapAcademy to teach you how to use the Tap. It's a 30-day course that requires just 10 minutes a day to memorize all the letters, numbers, and symbols you need to use the Tap. There are Tap-designed games to play too.

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The Tap is a Bluetooth keyboard, so it works with all Bluetooth-enabled devices, including your Mac, your iPhone, and your iPad. There's also a built-in mouse replacement feature that lets you use your thumb as a mouse for navigation.

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On the ‌iPhone‌, there are some neat features to be aware of. There are plenty of built-in iOS shortcuts for doing things like searching, selecting apps, and getting to the Home screen, and multiple Accessibility options are supported. There are Tap controls for VoiceOver commands, such as choosing an item, reading what's on the page, and more, and it works with the iOS Switch Control feature. You can map switches to any finger tap, making Tap inclusive and useful for those with visual impairments or limited mobility.

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The Tap Keyboard has been out for over a year now, and the company behind it has had time to refine the technology. A recent firmware update made the Tap more accurate on soft surfaces (like a leg), and it added a new option for pairing the Tap with up to three devices and switching between them with a button press.

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We have two of the Tap Keyboards for MacRumors readers. To enter to win our giveaway, use the Gleam.io widget below and enter an email address. Email addresses will be used solely for contact purposes to reach the winners and send the prizes. You can earn additional entries by subscribing to our weekly newsletter, subscribing to our YouTube channel, following us on Twitter, following us on Instagram, or visiting the MacRumors Facebook page.

Due to the complexities of international laws regarding giveaways, only U.S. residents who are 18 years or older and Canadian residents (excluding Quebec) who have reached the age of majority in their province or territory are eligible to enter. To offer feedback or get more information on the giveaway restrictions, please refer to our Site Feedback section, as that is where discussion of the rules will be redirected.

The contest will run from today (June 21) at 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time through 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time on June 28. The winners will be chosen randomly on June 28 and will be contacted by email. The winners will have 48 hours to respond and provide a shipping address before new winners are chosen.

Amazon is discounting the 64GB Wi-Fi version of the latest 12.9-inch iPad Pro, now priced at $824. At $175 off the original price of $999, this is the lowest price ever seen among the major Apple resellers for this configuration of the 2018 iPad Pro.

appleipadprodesign2Note: 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 also a few high-end cellular options available on sale, including the 512GB 12.9-inch iPad Pro ($200 off) and the 1TB 12.9-inch iPad Pro ($200 off). These are both all-time-low prices as well, discounted to $1,299 and $1,699, respectively.

12.9-Inch iPad Pro Sale

  • 64GB, Wi-Fi - $824, down from $999 ($175 off, lowest ever)

Apple updated the iPad Pro line in October 2018, with all-new edge-to-edge displays that removed the traditional Home button in favor of the new TrueDepth camera system and Face ID. These tablets also support the Apple Pencil 2 and new Smart Keyboards.

Head to our full Deals Roundup to stay up-to-date on all the latest discounts.

Related Roundups: Apple Deals, iPad Pro
Buyer's Guide: iPad Pro (Buy Now)

Netflix is testing a new pop-out picture-in-picture feature that's designed to let Netflix users watch videos in a small floating box that hovers above other applications, reports Engadget.

The pop-out player allows users to click a small icon at the bottom of the screen. Once the pop-out window appears, it can be resized and positioned anywhere on a computer's display.

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Image via Engadget

The pop-out player is designed to stay on top of whatever else you're doing on your computer, and it can be closed by clicking the X in the player, choosing Back to Browse, or closing the Netflix tab. Subtitles are not currently supported in the pop-out browser.

Netflix appears to be testing the feature with a limited number of users at the current time, and Netflix has yet to announce the feature. Netflix did confirm to Engadget that the pop-out player is "only a test" in an image, so it's not clear when and if the player will roll out to additional users.

Tag: Netflix

Apple in iPadOS introduced some performance improvements between the iPad Pro and the Apple Pencil, cutting latency from 20ms to 9ms with the new software.

Third-party developers who make apps that use the ‌Apple Pencil‌ will also be able to take advantage of some of these latency improvements, Apple software development chief Craig Federighi confirmed last week.

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Federighi shared the information in a response to an email sent by Artstudio Pro developer Cladio Juliano, who tweeted what Federighi had to say last week. The info was highlighted today in a tweet by developer Steve Troughton-Smith.

In the email, Federighi explains that third-party developers have had access to predicted touches via UIKit since iOS 9, and with iOS 13, developers will receive the "latest and greatest" touch prediction advancements in minimizing PencilKit drawing latency.

Federighi explains just how Apple introduced the latency improvements, and he points out that there's a small gap of 4ms that developers won't have access to at the current time because Apple didn't have a way to safely expose the capability to developers. From Federighi's email:

Note that we achieve low latency through a combination of several techniques: Metal rendering optimizations, touch prediction, and mid-frame event processing. Third-party developers can achieve similar low-latency drawing experiences by taking advantage of Metal rendering and touch prediction best practices covered in the WWDC Sessions I've referenced below.

With these you can achieve nearly all of the improvements you've seen in PencilKit drawing with your own renderer. (There does remain a small gap: 4 ms of our improvement comes from a technique called mid-frame event processing; we are looking for ways to expose this capability to third party engines in the future, but for this year this one was only safely achievable through tight integration within our frameworks).

For developers, the WWDC sessions Federighi suggests include PencilKit, Adopting Predicted Touches, and Metal Performance Optimization.

In a nutshell, the information shared by Federighi confirms that third-party apps that take advantage of the ‌Apple Pencil‌ will be getting some of the same latency improvements that we'll be seeing when using the ‌Apple Pencil‌ within native functions like Markup.

The ‌Apple Pencil‌ latency improvements are built into iPadOS, the version of iOS 13 that is designed to run on the iPad. All of Apple's current iPads support the ‌Apple Pencil‌. ‌iPad Pro‌ models work with the ‌Apple Pencil‌ 2, while the 6th-generation ‌iPad‌, iPad mini, and iPad Air work with the original ‌Apple Pencil‌.

Related Forum: iOS 13

Mozilla has patched two zero-day security vulnerabilities in Firefox that allowed backdoors to be installed on Macs, bypassing Apple's usual XProtect and Gatekeeper protections. Firefox users should update the browser immediately.

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Ars Technica's Dan Goodin:

Mozilla released an update on Tuesday that fixed a code-execution vulnerability in a JavaScript programming method known as Array.pop. On Thursday, Mozilla issued a second patch fixing a privilege-escalation flaw that allowed code to break out of a security sandbox that Firefox uses to prevent untrusted content from interacting with sensitive parts of a computer operating system.

The zero-days were exploited by unnamed hackers this week, but so far, attacks are known only to have targeted Mac users involved in cryptocurrency.


As noted by Mac security expert Patrick Wardle, XProtect and Gatekeeper provided no protection in this case, as they only scan applications that have a quarantine flag set. Fortunately, this may change in macOS Catalina.

Firefox users on Mac should update the web browser to version 67.0.4 as soon as possible to keep themselves protected.

More details can be read at Ars Technica.

Samsung is the exclusive supplier of OLED displays for the iPhone X and newer, as part of a supply agreement with Apple. Due to fewer iPhone sales than anticipated in recent quarters, however, Apple has reportedly ordered fewer OLED displays from Samsung than both companies initially expected.

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Due to the shortfall, Korea's ETNews reports that Apple now owes Samsung a penalty in the amount of hundreds of millions of dollars. Instead of paying cash, however, the report claims Apple has offered multiple options, including committing to OLED display orders for future products like "tablets and notebooks."

This aligns with a recent report from Korean site The Elec that claimed Samsung is in talks with Apple about supplying OLED displays for an all-new 16-inch MacBook Pro and future iPad Pro models.

16 inch MBP Solo

MacRumors mockup of 16-inch MacBook Pro

We first heard about a potential 16-inch to 16.5-inch MacBook Pro from well-known analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who said the notebook will launch at some point in 2019 with an "all-new design," but he did not comment on which display technology the notebook will use or share any other details.

Kuo has also previously claimed that two new iPad Pro models will enter mass production between the fourth quarter of 2019 and the first quarter of 2020, but again, he did not say which display technology the tablets will use.

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Beyond that, Kuo expects Apple to launch several new products with Mini-LED backlights over the next two years, including a 10-inch to 12-inch iPad in late 2020 or early 2021 and a 15-inch to 17-inch MacBook in the first half of 2021, so it's unclear exactly how far away we are from the first OLED-based iPads and Macs.

Apple's transition to OLED started with the Apple Watch, followed by the ‌iPhone‌ X, so the iPad Pro and ‌MacBook Pro‌ would continue that natural progression of the technology from smaller to larger displays.

OLED displays could have several benefits for future ‌iPad Pro‌ and ‌MacBook Pro‌ models, including lower power consumption, increased brightness, sharper colors, and faster response times compared to LCDs. OLED panels are often thinner, too, which could lead to slimmer and lighter product designs.

Related Roundups: iPad Pro, MacBook Pro
Related Forum: MacBook Pro

Apple today kicked off a new Activity Challenge, this one celebrating the International Day of Yoga. To earn the award, you'll have to complete a yoga workout that lasts 15 minutes or more at any time today. Apple holds these challenges for many different holidays and events throughout the year, but this is the first time it has marked the International Day of Yoga.

yoga day challenge
In order to be sure that your workout is counted towards the Activity Challenge, you'll need to use any app that adds yoga workouts to Apple's Health app. The first-party Workout app for Apple Watch offers Yoga tracking as well. Once completed, you'll gain the award in the Activity app, under the Limited Edition awards section, as well as a set of stickers that can be used in Messages.

Apple has hosted a few Activity Challenges so far in 2019, including one for Earth Day, one for Heart Month, and one that was exclusive to Apple employees. Each challenge always tasks the user with completing an exercise of some sort in a given time frame, and the rewards typically offer stickers for Messages and a new badge in the Activity app.

Related Roundup: Apple Watch 11
Buyer's Guide: Apple Watch (Buy Now)

AT&T is the fastest mobile network in the United States according to PCMag's latest annual mobile network comparison, which was released this morning.

For the test, PCMag employees drove through 30 cities and 25 states across the U.S. and ran more than 60,000 mobile speed tests to determine the speediest mobile network. The tests were conducted using Samsung Galaxy S10 devices on networks from AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint.

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This year, AT&T edged out Verizon, the winner for the past five years, thanks to AT&T's focus on improving its LTE network in preparation for 5G technology. While all four networks improved overall on both speed and reliability compared to last year, AT&T improved a bit more than the others.

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AT&T won or tied for first place in 15 of the 30 cities tested, and it tied or came out on top in all rural regions. AT&T was on top overall in the northwest, southwest, north central, and northeast, while Verizon won in the south central region and T-Mobile came out ahead in the southeast.

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AT&T has been making improvements to its 4G network and has been labeling those 4G enhancements as "5GE," but really it's the same 4G LTE technology offered by other wireless companies as well. Still, these efforts to improve the 4G network ahead of 5G have led to overall speed boosts for AT&T customers.

The full results of PCMag's 2019 mobile carrier speed testing can be found over on the PCMag website.

Google has no future plans to release additional tablet devices and has even canceled two models that were in development, the company confirmed to Computerworld today.

Google has not released a tablet in 2019, but did come out with the Pixel Slate in 2018. Google was working on two smaller tablets, but ultimately decided to stop focusing on the tablet form factor in favor of laptops.

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The Pixel Slate was Google's first Pixel-branded tablet offering, and as Computerworld clarifies, Google considers a tablet to be a device that detaches completely from a keyboard base or has no physical keyboard at all. Google considers its two-in-one convertible devices like the Pixelbook to be laptops, not tablets.

Google announced its plans to discontinue work on tablets to employees yesterday, and those working on tablet-related projects will be reassigned.

A Google spokesperson directly confirmed all of these details to me. The news was revealed at an internal company meeting on Wednesday, and Google is currently working to reassign employees who were focused on the abandoned projects onto other areas. Many of them, I'm told, have already shifted over to the laptop side of that same self-made hardware division.

It's not clear why Google has ultimately decided not to pursue the tablet form factor, but the company may be finding it difficult to compete with Apple and Samsung, the top two tablet vendors worldwide.

Apple's iPad is responsible for the most worldwide shipments, and over the course of the last few years, Apple has been aiming to hit all price points with the 6th-generation ‌iPad‌, iPad mini, iPad Air, and iPad Pro models.

Google plans to continue offering support and updates for the Pixel Slate until June 2024, and the Chrome OS team will continue to focus on tablets and laptops in its software development. Though Google is discontinuing its own tablets, there are other manufacturers who produce Chrome-based tablets.

Google will be shifting focus to laptops, with a laptop-oriented Pixelbook product planned before the end of the year, and will also continue focusing on its Pixel line of phones.

Tag: Google

Apple today released a new AirPort Base Station Firmware Update for the Airport Express, AirPort Extreme, and AirPort Time Capsule.

According to Apple, the new 7.8.1 update "improves the security of your base station" and is recommend for all Apple 802.11n Wi-Fi Base Stations. This update is for 802.11n Base Stations and not the 802.11ac models, which are already running 7.9.1 firmware.

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There are no details on what security fixes are included, but owners of these devices should download and install the update using the AirPort Utility app for iOS devices.

Apple discontinued its entire AirPort wireless router lineup in April 2018 and no longer offers these devices for sale.

Apple promised to continue offering service and parts for AirPort Base stations for the next five years, which includes firmware updates to address security issues.

Apple today announced the launch of a voluntary recall and replacement program for 15-inch MacBook Pro models with Retina display sold between September 2015 and February 2017 due to battery failure issues. Affected batteries may overheat and pose a fire safety risk.

Customers are being asked to stop using affected ‌MacBook Pro‌ units until they can take steps to have their batteries replaced following Apple's instructions. Apple says affected units in need of replacement can be identified by entering a Mac's serial number in the recall program page.

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The recall affects just the 15-inch ‌MacBook Pro‌ from 2015 and does not impact later models released in 2016 and beyond. Those with 15-inch 2015 machines are instructed to find an Apple authorized service provider, make an appointment at an Apple retail store, or contact Apple's support staff to arrange a mail-in repair.

Apple warns that the ‌MacBook Pro‌ will be sent to an Apple Repair Center for service in all cases and that service could take one to two weeks to be completed. Batteries will be replaced free of charge.

Earlier this year, a video of a ‌MacBook Pro‌ that caught on fire and produced copious amounts of smoke made the rounds on Twitter and Reddit. The machine in question was a 2015 ‌MacBook Pro‌ with a 15-inch Retina display, and it could potentially be linked to the recall.

macbook pro smokingGiven that affected 15-inch ‌MacBook Pro‌ models are in danger of overheating and catching on fire, those with machines that need a replacement battery should be sure to visit an Apple retail store or get in contact with Apple support before continuing to use their Macs.

Related Roundup: MacBook Pro
Buyer's Guide: MacBook Pro (Buy Now)
Related Forum: MacBook Pro

Harry Potter: Wizards Unite was planned to debut on the iOS App Store and Google Play tomorrow, June 21, but Niantic has surprise launched the augmented reality game one day early. You can download the app right now on the iOS ‌App Store‌ for free, if you live in the United States or United Kingdom [Direct Link] (via TechCrunch).

Inspired by Pokémon Go, Harry Potter: Wizards Unite tasks players with joining the Statute of Secrecy Task Force to explore iconic Wizarding World locations that have been placed in the real world. This means that to get the most out of the app, you'll have to trek out into the real world to find various magical artefacts, creatures, and other wizards.

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The story behind the game is that some kind of calamity has hit the Wizarding World, causing certain "Foundables" -- various in-game collectibles like fantastic beasts -- to begin appearing in the muggle world. Because of this event, witches and wizards have formed the Statue of Secrecy Task Force, tasking new recruits with capturing the artefacts and protecting the secret of magic.

Similar to Pokémon Go, real-world locations will be hotspots for various activities in Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, allowing players to learn new spells and capture beasts using the AR features of iPhone devices. There are also real-time cooperative elements where you can join friends to battle high-level enemies. Players will be able to choose to specialize in different magical professions, like being an Auror or Magizoologist, to learn unique skills as well.

Head to Niantic's website for the game to learn more, and to the iOS ‌App Store‌ to download it today [Direct Link].

GLSEN, an organization dedicated to creating safe and inclusive K-12 schools for LGBTQ youth, has announced that Apple CEO Tim Cook will receive its "Champion Award" for his ongoing commitment to fighting for LGBTQ rights. The awards ceremony will take place on October 25 at the Beverly Wilshire hotel in Los Angeles.

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Cook provided the following statement:

I am grateful to GLSEN for this honor and for all their work to ensure the LGBTQ community is treated with dignity and respect. At Apple, our commitment to inclusion helps us do our best work, each and every day. Innovation depends on openness to new ideas, a culture of curiosity and a climate free from shame and stigma — that's true not only true for Apple, I believe it's true for everyone.

Since becoming CEO, Cook has strongly pushed for inclusion and diversity, which Apple refers to as its "greatest strength" on its website. "To create products that serve everyone, we believe in including everyone."

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues 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.

One week ago today Spotify launched a revamped "Your Library" tab that the company said was "designed to get you to the content you want faster." According to Spotify subscribers on r/Spotify, this update has done the complete opposite and made navigating large music libraries nearly impossible, with the main purpose apparently made to promote Spotify's burgeoning interest in podcasts.

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On r/Spotify this week, over a thousand users have gotten behind a post asking for the "old" Spotify to come back, with a few hundred comments discussing the various problems with the update. People have a lot of different thoughts on the update, but the consensus on what went wrong appears to be that Spotify stripped features in Your Library to make room for the new Podcasts tab.

In the process, the Songs tab was removed and the recently played section has been moved and downgraded, showing fewer artists and songs and removing some of its customization features. We've linked some of the Reddit users who provided specific complaints about the update below:

u/TehCrag: "Basically they removed the Songs tab and the Recently played section. And the albums tab only shows full albums that you have saved, so if you have 3 songs from the same album, they would be in the ‘liked songs’ playlist instead... which doesn’t have an alphabet scroll bar.

Also there’s a giant podcast tab next to music. They’re pushing them hard."

u/Skippin101: "There is no alphabetical "scroll bar" on the right side of the liked songs, artists, or albums pages. If I want to play a song that starts with "Z", I have to manually scroll all the way to the bottom instead of tapping the "Z" letter on the right side like before.

The recently played tab is a huge downgrade. It's now on the homepage, features far less artists/playlists, isn't customizable (i.e. you can't remove an artist or playlist from it or re-arrange it), can't be used in offline mode, and, worst of all by a country mile, when you click on a recently played artist it takes you to their artist page instead of showing you which songs you've saved by that artist."

Due to these changes, a thread recently began on r/AppleMusic welcoming Spotify users who are moving over to Apple's streaming service instead, which appears to be quite a lot. Some Spotify users pointed out that they moved from Apple Music to Spotify for features like the recently played section in Your Library, which let them quickly jump back into the albums they had just listened to.

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Now that this and other features have been removed, talk of canceling Spotify and moving to ‌Apple Music‌ has increased. Even on Twitter, searches for "Spotify update" lead to numerous tweets about users frustrated with the UI changes and asking Spotify to revert the update.

There have been a handful of controversial app updates over the past few years, including platforms like Snapchat. That app's November 2017 update, which was aimed at getting users to more clearly see the distinction between friends and celebrities, was so disliked that Snapchat ended up reverting some of the changes. The company still lost millions of users in the process.

Spotify has yet to comment on the reaction to the new update.