MacRumors

With the release of macOS Mojave today, third-party Mac app developers are releasing updates to take advantage of features like Dark Mode and other new Mojave additions.

Dark Mode options in third-party apps will let them blend right in to Mojave's new Dark Mode, which is a systemwide dark theme that can be used in lieu of the traditional light mode theme. We've rounded up a list of prominent apps that are embracing macOS Mojave's new features.

1Password - Popular password management app 1Password is introducing support for Dark Mode with a new darker theme that blends right into the macOS Mojave operating system.

1Password's new update also includes a Safari App Extension to make it easier to input 1Password info into Safari webpages, it features a hardened runtime to make it so other processes on your computer can't access it, and it's been notarized with the new notary service in macOS Mojave that Apple introduced to make apps more secure.

Banktivity - Personal finance management app Banktivity, priced at $70 for new customers and $34.99 for those upgrading, is getting an update that adds support for macOS Mojave's Dark Mode. Version 7 of the app also includes expanded search features, summary view customization options, lot selection, improved envelope budgeting, calendar support, and more.

Things 3 - Popular todo app Things 3 for Mac is gaining Dark Mode support for macOS Mojave, and it will automatically change between light and dark based on a user's system setting in the Mojave operating system, but there are custom controls as well. The new dark theme is also available for Things customers running older versions of macOS.

OmniFocus 3 - Task management app OmniFocus, priced at $39.99 or $79.99 for the Pro version, is getting a major update today, which introduces version 3. The updated app has a redesigned, modernized interface that will feel familiar but fresh to OmniFocus 2 users. It includes tags for better organization, a forecast view to see tasks and calendar events in order, and enhanced repeating tasks. OmniFocus implemented a dark mode a few years back and it works great with macOS Mojave.

Agenda - Note taking app Agenda has added a new dark theme for macOS Mojave, and it's been designed to activate when you have your Mac set to Mojave's Dark Mode. The updated Agenda app has been designed to use the look and feel of the Mojave Dark Mode interface while retaining the clean, modern style of the Agenda app. The new darker theme is also available in Agenda for older versions of macOS.

Transmit - Panic's Transmit 5 app for file transfers has been updated with a new dark theme that matches the Dark Mode in macOS Mojave.

Do you have favorite Mac apps that were updated with support for Dark Mode? Let us know in the comments.

Researcher Patrick Wardle, who has uncovered many security flaws in Apple's macOS operating system, today shared some details on a new vulnerability that he's found in the newly released macOS Mojave update.

As outlined by BleepingComputer, Wardle discovered that he was able to access Contacts data from the address book using an unprivileged app, as demonstrated in the video below.

"I found a trivial, albeit 100% reliable flaw in their implementation," he told us, adding that it allows a malicious or untrusted app to bypass the new security mechanism and access the sensitive details without authorization.

The bypass does not work with all of the new privacy protection features in macOS Mojave, and hardware-based components, such as the webcam, are not affected. Full details on the vulnerability are not available yet, as Wardle plans to share technical details in November.

In the macOS Mojave update, Apple made a change that requires explicit user consent for apps to access location data, camera, contacts, calendars, reminders, messages history, Safari data, mail databases, and other sensitive data, which should prevent the vulnerability that Wardle demonstrates.

Apple will undoubtedly address the security flaw discovered by Wardle in an upcoming update to macOS Mojave.

Apple today released the newest version of its operating system for Macs, macOS Mojave, to the public. macOS Mojave is a free download that's available today for anyone who has a compatible Mac, and it comes after 11 rounds of betas.

macOS Mojave can be downloaded from the Mac App Store, with a direct link to the download available here.

Dark Mode is accompanied by Dynamic Desktops, aka wallpapers that subtly change throughout the day to mimic the progress of the sun across the sky outside.

In the afternoon, for example, the lighting of the Mojave Desert wallpaper is at its peak brightness and the image of the desert is depicted as it would be if you visited it in the daytime with well-lit sand dunes and a bright blue sky.

At night, the sky in the wallpaper shifts to darker blue to reflect that it's now evening. The shift between daytime and nighttime happens gradually over the course of the day, so you'll see subtle changes each time you look at your Mac's display. It's a neat new feature that can be enabled in the Desktop & Screensaver section of preferences.

macOS Mojave also includes Stacks, a new desktop organization system that keeps desktop files neat and organized to cut down on clutter. The Finder window has been enhanced with a new Gallery View for previewing larger versions of photos and documents, a Sidebar for easier navigation, a revamped Quick Look option for quick document editing, and Quick Actions, so you can do more in the Finder window than ever before.

Screenshots that you take on the Mac can now be edited using built-in Markup tools and a new management options that also allow for easy screen recording. Continuity camera, a useful new feature, allows you to import photos and document scans directly from an iPhone or iPad to the Mac.

The Apple News, Stocks, Home, and Voice Memos apps have been ported from iOS to macOS as part of a multiyear project Apple is working on to make it easier to bring iOS apps to Macs, and Apple has introduced several new privacy protections to keep your data safer than ever.

Apple is also making it harder for websites to track you with a range of new Safari tools, and it's also easier to make and store secure, hard-to-guess passwords for each and every website.

Apple has added an entirely revamped Mac App Store to macOS Mojave that makes it easier to discover apps with a featured section and specific categories for games, creative apps, productivity apps, apps for developers, and more.

macOS Mojave was initially supposed to include a Group FaceTime feature that includes support for chatting with up to 32 people at one time, but it was removed in the macOS Mojave beta and will be introduced in a future Mojave update.

macOS Mojave drops support for many older Macs compared to macOS High Sierra and it is compatible primarily with machines manufactured in 2012 or later. A full list of Macs that can run Mojave is below:

• MacBook (Early 2015 or newer)
• MacBook Air (Mid 2012 or newer)
• MacBook Pro (Mid 2012 or newer)
• Mac mini (Late 2012 or newer)
• iMac (Late 2012 or newer)
• iMac Pro (2017)
• Mac Pro (Late 2013, plus mid 2010 and mid 2012 models with recommended Metal-capable GPU)

For more details on all of the features included in macOS Mojave, make sure to check out our macOS Mojave roundup.

iPhone XS Max has the best smartphone display ever, according to display testing and calibration firm DisplayMate Technologies.

iPhone XS Max has a number of notable improvements over the original iPhone X, including higher peak brightness and better color accuracy, and matches or sets smartphone display records in a number of areas, according to Dr. Raymond M. Soneira, President of DisplayMate Technologies.

For example, DisplayMate says the iPhone XS Max has a peak full-screen brightness of up to 660 nits for the sRGB and DCI-P3 color gamuts, which improves screen visibility in high ambient lighting conditions. By comparison, the iPhone X achieved a peak full-screen brightness of 634 nits in its year-ago tests.

DisplayMate measured the iPhone XS Max's screen reflectance to be 4.7 percent, close to the lowest that it has ever measured for a smartphone. As a result of this high brightness and low reflectance, the iPhone XS Max has one of the best contrast ratings in high ambient light on any smartphone it has ever tested.

DisplayMate provides an extensive overview of the iPhone XS Max display, concluding that it is a "very impressive top tier smartphone display."

Based on our extensive Lab Tests and Measurements the iPhone XS Max receives our DisplayMate Best Smartphone Display Award, earning DisplayMate's highest ever A+ grade by providing considerably better display performance than other competing smartphones.

Of note, the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max use the same display technologies.

DisplayMate's iPhone XS Max OLED Display Technology Shoot-Out article is a worthwhile read for anyone looking for comprehensive analysis and testing of the iPhone XS Max display. DisplayMate has been a provider of display calibration software for consumers and technicians since 1991.

Apple today announced it has completed its acquisition of music recognition service Shazam, after reaching a preliminary agreement in December. Apple says the Shazam app will soon become ad-free for all users.

Oliver Schusser, Vice President of Apple Music:

Apple and Shazam have a long history together. Shazam was one of the first apps available when we launched the App Store and has become a favorite app for music fans everywhere. With a shared love of music and innovation, we are thrilled to bring our teams together to provide users even more great ways to discover, experience and enjoy music.

Shazam is a popular service that can identify the names and lyrics of songs, music videos, TV shows, and more, simply by listening to and deciphering whatever is playing. Shazam has apps across iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, iMessage, and Mac, and has been built into Siri since iOS 8.

Apple announced its plans to acquire Shazam in a statement provided to MacRumors and other media outlets back in December:

We are thrilled that Shazam and its talented team will be joining Apple. Since the launch of the App Store, Shazam has consistently ranked as one of the most popular apps for iOS. Today, it's used by hundreds of millions of people around the world, across multiple platforms. Apple Music and Shazam are a natural fit, sharing a passion for music discovery and delivering great music experiences to our users. We have exciting plans in store, and we look forward to combining with Shazam upon approval of today's agreement.

Shazam issued the following statement at that time:

We are excited to announce that Shazam has entered into an agreement to become part of Apple. Shazam is one of the highest rated apps in the world and loved by hundreds of millions of users and we can't imagine a better home for Shazam to enable us to continue innovating and delivering magic for our users.

Apple completed its acquisition of Shazam just a few weeks after European regulators approved of the merger. Terms of the deal have not been disclosed, but a report from TechCrunch's Ingrid Lunden valued it around $400 million.

Shazam's app was optimized for iOS 12 on Friday.

In a research note obtained by MacRumors today, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has provided launch-weekend takeaways for the iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, and Apple Watch Series 4, all of which went on sale Friday.

Kuo says that iPhone XS Max demand is "better than expected," with the 6.5-inch model outselling the iPhone XS by three to four times. He says the 256GB storage option is most popular, with the 512GB configuration subject to a "serious shortage" due to Samsung being the only reliable supplier.

We have determined that the demand for XS Max is better than expected (3–4 times that of XS). The gold and space-grey colors are significantly more popular than the silver. 256GB is the most popular, and 512GB is subject to a serious shortage because only Samsung can currently ship NAND Flash well. We are positive that XS Max shipments will grow steadily in 4Q18 thanks to demand from Asia market and the gift season.

The well-known analyst believes Apple Watch Series 4 demand is "much better than expected," with supplies likely to remain tight until Compal begins mass production starting from November, as a secondary supplier alongside Quanta.

Apple Watch Series 4 demand is much better than expected. The capacity of the assembler Quanta is full already; therefore, the supply cannot improve significantly until second supplier Compal's mass production for Apple Watch Series 4 starting from November. We have increased the Apple Watch shipment forecast in 2018 from 18mn to 18.5–19.5mn units.

Kuo believes the iPhone XR will be a hot seller, with more customers upgrading to that model than the iPhone 8 series spurred last year. He is also confident that the device's display-related production bottleneck will "markedly improve" beginning in mid to late October. iPhone XR pre-orders begin October 19.

Kuo expressed similar opinions following the first weekend of iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, and Apple Watch Series 4 pre-orders last week.

A new report out this morning by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman and Ian King takes a look into Apple's pricing strategy for the storage capacities on the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max. Specifically, Bloomberg says that the biggest upsell for the iPhone XS and XS Max is the new 512GB storage option, which will help Apple make $241 more per iPhone than the 64GB option.

512GB is the highest storage capacity that Apple has yet to release on an iPhone, and the company charges customers a lot more for NAND storage chips than it pays suppliers. IHS Markit analyst Wayne Lam explains that storage costs Apple about 25 cents per gigabyte, and the company charges customers about 78 cents per gigabyte. Because of this, Lam says that storage "is absolutely the most profitable iPhone feature."

In research compiled by Bloomberg, the 64GB iPhone XS cost Apple $23.68 for the NAND storage specifically, the 256GB cost $66.24, and the 512GB cost $132.48. In terms of revenue, the 512GB storage option is estimated to make Apple $241 more per iPhone than the 64GB tier, an increase from $107 between the highest and lowest storage tiers in last year's iPhone X.

According to data from InSpectrum Tech, the market price of NAND flash memory is half of what it was a year ago, but Apple's storage tiers for the iPhone have not reflected these savings.

“Storage is one of their levers to create more revenue and is absolutely the most profitable iPhone feature,” says Wayne Lam, an analyst at researcher IHS Markit Ltd. Adding more isn’t much work for Apple, because it just means swapping a chip, he adds, “whereas when you increase the screen size, you have to completely re-engineer the phone.”

The 78¢-per-gig charge hasn’t budged since last year. Of course, Apple uses contracts to lock in the price of such components as Nand flash, so it may not be benefiting yet from recent price declines. So far, though, storage costs customers more on an iPhone than on, say, a Samsung Note 9. Samsung Electronics Co. charges 65¢ a gig to move from the 128GB Note 9 phone to the 512GB model.

With more storage, users can save more photos, videos, documents, music, movies, podcasts, books, and more on their iPhones, without having to worry about deleting old items for more space. Of course, Apple also offers iCloud storage at $0.99/month for 50GB, $2.99/month for 200GB, and $9.99/month for 2TB. This means that if a 512GB iPhone XS or XS Max user wants to back up most of the content on their device, they will need to opt for the $9.99/month option.

In terms of the prices for these new iPhones, which begin at $750 for the not-yet-released iPhone XR and increase to $1,449 for the 512GB iPhone XS Max, Apple CEO Tim Cook has said that the company is aiming to "serve everyone." In an interview with Nikkei, he explained that "if you provide a lot of innovation and a lot of value, there is a segment of people who are willing to pay for it," referring to the steeper prices of this year's iPhone XS and XS Max.

iFixit has completed a teardown of the Apple Watch Series 4, providing a look inside a larger 44mm model with LTE.

Apple pundit John Gruber has compared this to the leap in design brought by the iPhone 4, and we might even go a bit further and call it an iPhone 5: a device that knows its priorities, and wants to look as elegant inside as out.

At first glance, the internal design of Series 4 models looks more or less the same as previous models, with the battery and Taptic Engine taking up most of the space. Dig deeper, however, and the changes become evident.

• 1.12Wh battery in the 44mm model, which is 20% less capacity than the 1.34Wh battery in 42mm-sized Apple Watch Series 3 models.
  

• A thinner and longer Taptic Engine, but iFixit says it still takes up a lot of space that could have gone to a larger battery.
  

• The barometric sensor may have been relocated to the speaker grille for access to the outside atmosphere. The sensor had its own dedicated hole beside the microphone on Apple Watch Series 3 models.
  

• The new Apple S4 chip is secured only with screws, whereas the processor is also "fiercely glued" in previous Apple Watch models.
  

• The golden ring is likely a streamlined antenna system, as iFixit says it has not seen the usual fiddly brackets or golden gaskets.
  

• The entire rear casing pops off more easily.
  

• The display is not only larger, but also thinner.

iFixit says the Apple Watch Series 4 is nearing iPhone levels of repairability, with the highly-glued display being the primary remaining obstacle. Beyond that, they say the battery is straightforward to replace.

Update: A previous version of this article said Apple Watch Series 4 models have 4% more battery capacity, as iFixit mentioned, but that was based on comparing a 44mm Series 4 model with a 38mm Series 3 model. 44mm and 40mm Series 4 models actually have 20% less battery capacity compared to 42mm and 38mm Series 3 models respectively, although Apple says battery life remains up to 18 hours.