MacRumors

Apple's augmented reality headset will enter mass production as soon as the fourth quarter of this year in time for an early 2020 launch, according to a new report out today from Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo and seen by MacRumors.

In his latest research note with TF International Securities, the analyst says Apple will cooperate with third-party brands to launch its first head-mounted AR product in 2020, with Changying Precision tipped to be the main chassis supplier.

A Kuo report in March claimed Apple would launch an AR product in 2020 that could be ready by the middle of next year. However, Kuo has brought forward his predicted time of release and the analyst now believes the launch window for the product will fall in the second quarter of 2020.

Back in July, a DigiTimes report claimed Apple had suspended its AR headset project, but just last month, code found in Xcode 11 and iOS 13 confirmed that Apple is still working on an augmented reality headset of some kind.

Within the internal Find My app bundle that MacRumors exclusively shared, there is also an icon depicting what appears to be an AR or VR headset that looks similar to the Google Cardboard.

Kuo understands that Apple's AR glasses will be marketed as an iPhone accessory and primarily take a display role while wirelessly offloading computing, networking, and positioning to the iPhone.

Designing the AR glasses to work as an iPhone accessory is also expected to allow Apple to keep the glasses slim and lightweight, rather than trying to pack in all the processing hardware into the one device.

As early as November 2017, Bloomberg reported that Apple was developing an AR headset. Apple originally aimed to have it ready by 2019, but the company was relaxed about not shipping a product until 2020. The report said the headset would run on a new custom operating system, based on iOS, and dubbed "rOS" for "reality operating system."

In addition, today's report underlines Kuo's previous prediction that the most important change to the Apple chassis industry chain in 2020 will be the upgrade of the 5G iPhone's metal mid-frame/chassis.

For Apple's 2020 iPhones, Kuo believes the company will adopt a new metal frame structure reminiscent of the iPhone 4, which will significantly increase the unit cost due to the increase in processing procedures and the integration of composite materials.

Today's report from the respected Apple analyst also covered Apple's iPad Pro and MacBook plans for 2020, which we've covered in a separate article.

Twitter's support account today announced that Twitter used some customer email addresses and phone numbers that were provided for account security for advertising purposes, which Twitter says was done "unintentionally."

More specifically, email addresses and phone numbers were used in Twitter's Tailored Audiences and Partner Audiences advertising systems. Tailored Audiences is a feature that's designed to let advertisers target ads to customers based on the advertiser's marketing lists, while Partner Audiences is similar.

According to Twitter, when an advertiser uploaded a marketing list, it "may have matched" people on Twitter to their list based on the email or phone number the Twitter account holder provided for security purposes.

Twitter says that it "cannot say with certainty" how many people were affected, and the company has issued an apology. "We're very sorry this happened and are taking steps to make sure we don't make a mistake like this again," reads a help document.

Personal data was not provided externally with partners or other third parties, and as of September 17, the issue has been fixed and phone numbers and email addresses collected for account security are no longer being used for advertising.

Apple today began adding the 13-inch MacBook Air and the lower-end 13-inch MacBook Pro to its online store for refurbished products in the United States, offering the machines at a discount for the first time.

Both of the new machines were first released in July 2019. The updated MacBook Air features a True Tone display, an updated butterfly keyboard that's more durable, and a lower price point.

As for the lower-end MacBook Pro, the July 2019 update brought Touch ID, a Touch Bar, faster processors, and a True Tone display to Apple's entry-level machines.

Pricing on the ‌MacBook Air‌ starts at $1,099 new and pricing on the entry-level ‌MacBook Pro‌ starts at $1,299. Apple is offering discounted prices on both stock and custom configurations, with multiple options available. Discounts are right around 15 percent off.

The refurbished store is a little bit wonky at this time and isn't listing the ‌MacBook Pro‌ and ‌MacBook Air‌ models in the proper order, but it should be cleared up soon. For now, buyers will need to browse through the dedicated ‌MacBook Pro‌ and ‌MacBook Air‌ sections to find specific machines.

Stock will fluctuate on a day to day basis, so it can take some time for various configurations to show up. Refurbished models ship out right away and are available for delivery later this week.

All of Apple's refurbished products go through a rigorous refurbishment process before being offered for sale, which includes inspection, repairs, cleaning, and repackaging. Like new purchases, refurbished Macs come with a one-year warranty that can be extended with an AppleCare+ purchase.

For tips on purchasing a refurbished product, make sure to check out our guide.

One of macOS Catalina's biggest new features for developers is Mac Catalyst—initially known as Project Catalyst—which Apple says makes porting iPad apps to the Mac as easy as checking a box in Xcode.

However, more work is required for the iPad apps to truly resemble native Mac apps, and Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports that some developers have encountered "several problems" with Catalyst so far.

For example, the report claims that James Thomson had to work harder than he expected to get his popular PCalc calculator app for iPad to run well on the Mac. Thomson said the Mac version initially "looked like an iPad app floating on a larger Mac screen," so he had to redesign much of the user interface.

Thomson added that some older Macs struggle to handle Catalyst-based apps that use Apple's high-level 3D graphics framework SceneKit.

Lukas Burgstaller, developer of the RSS reader Fiery Feeds for iPad, also "ran into all sorts of walls" trying to adapt the iPad app to the Mac interface using Catalyst, but the report does not mention any specific issues he faced.

On the consumer side of things, the report notes that Catalyst results in users paying twice for the same app across iOS and macOS.

"As a user, I don't want to pay again just to have the same app," well-known developer Steven Troughton-Smith told Bloomberg. "As a developer, I don't want my users to have to make that decision."

Troughton-Smith touched on some of the issues developers are facing with Catalyst, noting that Mac versions of some apps can't hide the mouse cursor while video is playing, or may have issues with video recording, two-finger scrolling, or using the keyboard and full-screen mode in video games.

The report adds that two upcoming Catalyst apps that had been featured on Apple's website since June were removed this week, including comic book app DC Universe and the racing game Asphalt 9. It is unclear if the Mac apps are no longer planned or delayed, or if any of the Catalyst issues reported were a factor.

Netflix also confirmed that it has no plans to develop a Mac app using Catalyst at this time, according to the report.

Despite all of this, Troughton-Smith believes Catalyst is the "future of Mac app development," and he is impressed with many of the first apps. There might just be a few growing pains along the way.

macOS Catalina was widely released on Monday.

Update: Gameloft says Asphalt 9 for Mac via Catalyst has been "slightly delayed" in order to "polish the experience" and that it will launch later this year, according to a follow-up tweet from Gurman.

"The iTunes Store is unable to process purchases at this time. Please try again later."

If you are receiving this error when opening third-party apps on an iPhone or iPad today, you are not alone. We've been alerted to the issue by several MacRumors readers, and there are many more complaints flowing in on Twitter.

The cause of the issue is not yet known. Apple's system status page does not currently reflect any issues with the iTunes Store or App Store, but the page is often delayed. We'll update this story as new information becomes available.

Amid rumors that Apple is developing a Tile-like accessory that will help users keep track of their personal belongings, Tile today announced a new smart tracker called the Sticker, along with an updated Tile Slim.

About the size of a quarter, the Tile Sticker is the company's smallest tracker to date, and features waterproofing and a 3M adhesive backing for attaching it to most metal and plastic objects, including remote controls, cameras, and outdoor gear. The Tile Sticker is available in black and in twin packs for $39.99, or a pack of four for $59.99.

Meanwhile, the Tile Slim assumes a new compact form factor that's the shape and thinness of two credit cards. It also now features a three-year battery life, a speaker that's twice as loud as the previous model, and a 200-foot range. The Tile Slim also comes in black and costs $29.99 for a single device.

In addition, Tile's most popular tags – the Mate and Pro – have had their ranges extended to 400 feet. The Tile Mate costs $24.99 and the Tile Pro can be had for $34.99. All Tile trackers are available today from Tile's website, Amazon, and other retailers.

Based on assets discovered in iOS 13 by MacRumors, Apple's equivalent electronic tracker accessory is expected to be a small, circular tag with an Apple logo in the center.

The tags will be closely integrated with the new Find My app in iOS 13 and macOS Catalina, which merged Apple's previous ‌Find My‌ iPhone and ‌Find My‌ Friends services into one.

While not available in public betas of iOS 13, the internal build contains a new "Items" tab in the ‌Find My‌ app for iPhone and iPad, which allows users to track the location of personal belongings.

Noted Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has said he expects Apple's tags to feature ultra-wideband or "UWB" technology, which can be found in the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max.

Ultra-wideband is a short-range, low-power radio technology that is able to provide more precise indoor positioning than Bluetooth LE and Wi-Fi, suggesting that Apple's tags will be more accurate at pinpointing the location of lost items than Tile's current item trackers, which rely on Bluetooth LE.

Apple's tagging products went unmentioned at its September 10 event, but it's possible the company could make some sort of announcement soon, possibly during an October event.

Apple has several rumored products in its pipeline that could make an appearance as early as this month, including a 16-inch MacBook Pro with a scissor keyboard and an all-new design, refreshed iPad Pro models that will possibly sport triple-lens rear camera systems, and a refreshed Apple TV.

Apple has delayed the introduction of iCloud Folder Sharing in macOS Catalina until spring 2020, according to its website.

The key cloud storage feature has spent months in development and would have allowed users to share folders in their iCloud Drive with other Apple users via a private link.

It first appeared in early beta versions of iOS 13, before it was pulled prior to the official release for iPhones and iPads last month after problems arose during testing. As expected, ‌iCloud‌ Folder Sharing hasn't made it to the Mac either. macOS Catalina was launched on Monday.

In early beta versions of macOS Catalina, right-clicking a folder in ‌iCloud Drive‌ revealed a submenu that allowed you to generate a private link to the folder and share it via AirDrop, Messages, Mail, or with people in your contacts.

Anyone who received the link was able to access the folder in ‌iCloud Drive‌, add new files, and stay up-to-date with the latest file versions.

On its macOS Catalina features page, Apple says ‌iCloud Drive‌ folder sharing is now "Coming this spring." In contrast, on its iOS 13 features page, Apple says the feature is coming to iPhones and iPads "later this fall," although it's still unclear whether Apple just hasn't updated the page to reflect the extended delay. Either way, the latest iOS 13.2 beta 1 still does not appear to support the function.

As it stands, it's only possible to share individual files in iCloud Drive, which puts it at a significant disadvantage when compared to rival cloud-storage services like Google Drive and Dropbox, which have provided folder-sharing capabilities for years.

If you still want to use ‌iCloud‌ to share multiple files, you could try sharing a compressed zip containing several files, or creating a sparseimage file using Disk Utility and putting files in that for sharing over icloud. Otherwise, an alternative cloud service is suggested for now.

Samsung's Galaxy Note 10+, the company's newest flagship device, was unveiled just a month ahead of the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro, and it's one of the main competitors to Apple's newest iPhone devices.

Both have triple-lens camera setups, so we thought we'd compare the camera quality of the iPhone 11 Pro Max with the camera quality of the Galaxy Note 10+ to see if one has an edge over another.

The ‌iPhone 11 Pro Max‌ has 12-megapixel telephoto, wide-angle, and ultra wide-angle lenses. The Galaxy Note 10+ has the same general lens setup, but with a 12-megapixel telephoto lens, a 12-megapixel wide-angle lens, and a 16-megapixel ultra wide-angle lens, so it wins out when it comes to megapixels for the ultra wide-angle camera.

When it comes to photo quality, both of these cameras can take some amazing photos and a lot of the variance is going to depend on your personal shooting conditions, including subject, lighting, and other factors, but there are some differences to be aware of.

The Galaxy Note 10+ seems to overdo highlights, washing out photos and overexposing them in some situations, while the ‌iPhone 11 Pro Max‌ doesn't tend to do that. The Galaxy Note 10+ also has a tendency to oversaturate images somewhat, while the ‌iPhone 11 Pro Max‌ offers more true to life colors.

Some people prefer that slight oversaturation and the brighter light areas that the Samsung device can produce, even if it's not quite as accurate to what you're seeing in front of you when taking a photo. You can, of course, tone down saturation in post processing for Galaxy Note 10+ photos or bump it up for ‌iPhone 11 Pro Max‌ photos, but out of the camera, colors can tend to look a bit more vibrant on the Galaxy Note 10+.

Though the Galaxy Note 10+ has a higher megapixel ultra wide-angle camera than the ‌iPhone 11 Pro Max‌, it doesn't really produce better pictures. Quality seems similar between the two devices, and on the ‌iPhone 11 Pro Max‌, the new ultra wide-angle sensor is lacking some of the better features of its wide-angle camera, such as a lower aperture, larger sensor, optical image stabilization, and support for Night Mode.

So while the ultra wide-angle camera can get you some great wide shots of landscapes, architecture, and people, it's best for better lighting conditions, and the same seems to be true of Samsung's ultra wide-angle lens.

The Note 10+ and the 11 Pro Max each offer a nighttime mode for low-light photography, and both do a great job in poor lighting conditions using this feature. The Galaxy Note 10+'s penchant to overexpose can result in some brighter night time shots in some situations, but that's not always a desired effect. Night mode on the ‌iPhone 11 Pro Max‌ is designed to make sure a night time photo feels like it was taken at night, and that's an area where Apple excelled.

Samsung offers a feature called Live Focus, designed to offer an adjustable live background blurring effect for front and rear-facing photos, while the iPhone offers Portrait Mode. Both of these are similar, and have seen improvements over prior-generation smartphones from each manufacturer. Edge detection is better than ever, and the background blurring is better, so it's tough to pick a winner in this category.

As for video, both photos produced impressive 4K footage at 60 frames per second, though the 11 Pro Max had better auto stabilization features without having to delve into settings.

Both smartphones have similar front-facing setups. The ‌iPhone 11 Pro Max‌ has a 12-megapixel front-facing lens while the Galaxy Note 10+ has a 10-megapixel front-facing lens. There's a caveat with the iPhone's front-facing camera - in zoomed in shots (there's an option to zoom in and out now), the photos that you're getting by default are seven megapixels. You need to use the zoomed out mode to get the full 12-megapixel resolution.

When it comes to quality, the front-facing camera of the Galaxy Note 10+ seems to be a bit sharper than the ‌iPhone 11 Pro Max‌, with more detail, while the iPhone 11 Pro has better color accuracy. Sometimes the Galaxy Note 10+ may be a bit too sharp for some people, so preference between the two will come down to how sharp you want your selfies to be.

Of course, the ‌iPhone 11 Pro Max‌ has Face ID for 3D facial biometric authentication, which the Note 10+ can't match. It does offer iris scanning and facial recognition capabilities, but neither are secure enough to serve as the sole authentication method for payments so there's still a fingerprint sensor.

When it comes down to it, both the ‌iPhone 11 Pro Max‌ and the Galaxy Note 10+ are capable of producing incredible, crisp photos that can often rival what you'll get out of a dedicated camera. Neither one is clearly better than the other, and choosing one will come down to platform preference more than anything else.

That said, the Galaxy Note 10+ appears to be better for those who prefer a more saturated, color rich image and exaggerated highlights, while the ‌iPhone 11 Pro Max‌ appears to be better at producing colors and lighting that's more true to life.

Do you prefer Note 10+ or ‌iPhone 11 Pro Max‌ and think there's a clear winner? Let us know in the comments.