Apple has expanded its California fleet of self-driving vehicles from three registered last April to 27 as of early 2018, according to a new report posted by Bloomberg today and sourced from emails with the California Department of Motor Vehicles.
Following the first three vehicle registrations, from July 2017 to January 2018 Apple has registered 24 more Lexus RX450h sports utility vehicles in California as part of its self-driving tests. The company is believed to be "accelerating" efforts to catch up to one of the current leaders in the self-driving field, Alphabet's Waymo.
Work on the "Apple Car" began circulating in rumors from early 2015, when reports of "Project Titan" emerged and pointed towards upwards of 1,000 employees working on developing an electric vehicle at a secret location near the company's Cupertino headquarters. Over time, the project pivoted away from Apple constructing a vehicle of its own to the development of a self-driving software system, which CEO Tim Cook confirmed last summer.
We're focusing on autonomous systems," Cook said in an interview on Bloomberg Television. "It's a core technology that we view as very important."
"We sort of see it as the mother of all AI projects," Cook said in his most detailed comments to date on Apple's plans in the car space. "It's probably one of the most difficult AI projects actually to work on."
Now, Apple is said to be gearing up to compete with Waymo and its self-driving tests, which have currently expanded into six states, encompassing 600 minivans in Phoenix, Arizona alone and now open up to public applicants. Waymo partnered with Lyft last year to begin building a ride-hailing service that aims "to bring autonomous vehicle technology into the mainstream," and then began testing such a service without a safety driver "or any human at all" behind the steering wheel.
iHelpBR editor Filipe Espósito has discovered strings in the first iOS 11.3 beta that refer to a "modern iPad," which is notable since Apple's software engineers referred to the iPhone X as the "modern iPhone" in older firmware, according to both Espósito and developer Guilherme Rambo.
While the "modern iPad" strings could be placeholders, as commonly found in Apple's code, the discovery lends credence to rumors of an iPad Pro with Face ID, which would certainly be a logical next step in Apple's product roadmap.
KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo also expects Apple to release a new iPad Pro with Face ID this year, so there is a good chance the rumor is true. Like the iPhone X, the tablet reportedly lacks a Home button, although it will likely still have an LCD instead of OLED display due to supply, cost, and technological constraints.
It's unclear if the iPad Pro will have a notch for the TrueDepth system, as illustrated in the first mockup above, or if the device will have uniformly slim bezels on all four sides with enough room for the Face ID sensors.
Sonos has announced a limited time sale launching tomorrow, January 26 in the United States and United Kingdom, bundling two of the company's Sonos One speakers together for $349/£349. Individual Sonos One devices cost $199 in the U.S., so the company's new sale offers $50 in savings.
Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Sonos. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.
The sale offers two Sonos Ones for the same price as Apple's $349 HomePod, and is debuting on the same day that customers will be able to pre-order the HomePod in the U.S., U.K., and Australia. With two Sonos Ones, users can have a stereo pair of speakers to enhance sound, or play music across multiple rooms -- two features HomePod will not have at launch.
"Sonos One sounds incredible on its own, but the ability to have a stereo pair or have music in two rooms vs. one at $349 US feels like it's an easy choice for those who truly love music," said Joy Howard, chief marketing officer at Sonos. "We believe in freedom of choice and don't want to lock people into a specific ecosystem – it's why we support more than 80 streaming services globally and will take an agnostic approach to voice assistants as well."
Sonos One supports Amazon Alexa, and the company previously confirmed that Google Assistant is coming later this year. Support for Apple's AirPlay 2 protocol is planned for 2018 as well. Like other smart speakers, Sonos One can be controlled with voice and can read out information sourced from Alexa like the weather and news. Sonos launched the Sonos One in October 2017.
Sonos did not mention how long the new limited sale will last, but confirmed those interested will be able to take advantage of the offer on Sonos.com and through participating retailers. We'll update this post tomorrow if the company creates a new landing page for the sale.
Update 1/26: The Sonos One Bundle is now available to purchase on Sonos.com for $349 with free delivery.
Apple's upcoming iOS 11.3 software update, the first beta of which was seeded to developers on Wednesday, finally adds the small but useful ability to sort App Store reviews on the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.
After tapping on See All under the Ratings & Reviews section in the App Store, users can now sort the reviews according to four categories, including Most Helpful, Most Favorable, Most Critical, and Most Recent.
Most Helpful shows reviews that have received the most "Helpful" feedback from other users. Any user can designate a review as "Helpful" or "Not Helpful" by deeply pressing the text bubble via 3D Touch.
Most Favorable shows reviews with the highest ratings, starting with five stars.
Most Critical shows reviews with the lowest ratings, starting with one star.
Most Recent shows reviews in reverse chronological order, with the most recently submitted reviews appearing first.
There is no way to sort App Store reviews on earlier versions of iOS 11, so this is a welcomed change, especially considering the App Store was showing old, irrelevant reviews from as early as 2008 for some users.
On earlier software versions like iOS 9, reviews could be filtered based on the latest version or all versions of an app, but these sorting options were removed when the section was streamlined on iOS 10 and later.
iOS 11.3 is currently in testing for developers, with a public beta to follow soon. The software update will be publicly released this spring.
Nintendo launched its first iOS mobile game, Miitomo, in March 2016, and this week the company has confirmed it will officially end support for the game on May 9, 2018 (via The Verge).
The company posted a notice [Google Translate] on its Japanese website yesterday, warning Miitomo users of its decision to "terminate the service" on Wednesday, May 9 at 12:00 a.m. (PDT). Ahead of that closure, the company has already ended the sale of "Miitomo coins" through in-app purchases as of today, but coins and game tickets will be given to players as a login bonus so they can shop for items until May 9. In the lead-up to that date, Miitomo will hold "The Final Thank You Festival" with events that celebrate its fans through daily bonuses and sharing Miifotos on Twitter. Then, in the early morning of May 9 all of Miitomo's features will become inaccessible, including Miifotos, messages, and sidekick Miis. Head to Nintendo's website for more information on how to save some of the app's data before it closes.
Nintendo apologized to customers who are fans of the app, and noted that it will issue a refund of unused Miitomo coins purchased through IAPs. The refunds will appear after termination this May.
We recently decided to terminate the service on May 9, 2018 (Wednesday) on the application "Miitomo" for smartphones which started distribution on March 17, 2016.
We are sorry for the customers who have enjoyed it, thank you for your understanding.
As Nintendo's first game for iOS and Android devices, Miitomo was a social networking style game that allowed players to create their own Mii, dress them up, and answer questions to discover new things about their friends. In the proceeding two months after the game launched, many players were seen to abandon the app and conversations about it on social media appeared to die down. SurveyMonkey summed it up in a report by stating that players simply "didn't really get Miitomo."
Twitter is "experimenting" with a new update to its mobile iOS and Android apps that is said to make it easier for users to share videos and photos on the social network.
According to people familiar with the matter, speaking with Bloomberg, the update is still in an early testing phase and could "change significantly" over the next few months, but comes at a time when Twitter is looking to attract more users and convince current users to stick around. The exact design of the update wasn't specified, but Twitter is said to have a working demo of a "camera-centered" update that will "entice people" to quickly and easily post video clips of what's happening near them.
The current method of accessing the camera to post photos and videos on Twitter for iOS
Bloomberg compared the description of the camera feature to Snapchat's mobile apps, which open to the camera first so users can quickly take snaps. In 2016, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey admitted that the network can be confusing to newcomers and called Snapchat "very modern." To be clear, it doesn't appear that Twitter aims to launch "Twitter Stories," but is simply looking to rearrange its app in a way that allows for more prominent placement of the camera.
Twitter Inc. is working on a new Snapchat-style feature that makes it easier to post videos on the social-media company’s app, according to people familiar with the matter, aiming to attract more users and cement a nascent turnaround.
Social-media leader Facebook Inc. has famously copied innovations from Snap Inc.’s Snapchat, a mobile app focused on ephemeral photos and videos that’s popular with younger audiences. Twitter’s latest change suggests that Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey is taking cues from the newer company as well.
Currently, to post a video or photo on the Twitter iOS app, users have to open the app, tap to compose a tweet, tap "camera," capture a video or photo, add it to the tweet, then tap "Tweet." Those near Twitter's testing of the new feature claimed that "the goal of this product is to reduce the number of steps," aligning it with Snapchat's camera-first user interface.
Video has become a priority for many social media companies over the past few years, including Facebook's frequent updates that introduced an Apple TV video-only app, a dedicated video tab for the iOS app, and a simple right-swipe UI to jump into the camera on iOS and post a Snapchat-style Story. Instagram has a similar right-swipe interaction to launch the camera, and was the first of Facebook's apps to begin the copying of Snapchat Stories back in 2016.
Earlier this week Apple announced the official HomePod launch date and revealed more details about the Siri-equipped smart speaker, including a built-in speakerphone feature and support for third-party music app streaming via peer-to-peer AirPlay, both of which anyone in the home can use. However, Apple has yet to adequately clarify the extent of its multi-user functionality with regards to Apple Music and other iCloud integrations, leaving many readers wondering if the HomePod is the right fit for their home.
In possibly the first hands-on HomePod report since Apple's launch date announcement, Refinery29 on Wednesday shed further light on the device's multi-user capabilities. According to the article, many of Siri's personal assistant features can only be tied to the individual iCloud account used to set up the HomePod. These features can be manually disabled by the account holder, but they also appear to be automatically disabled when said account holder isn't home.
Although everyone in your apartment will be able to use the speaker, only the person who sets up HomePod on their iCloud account will be able to send texts, set up reminders, and get calendar notifications via voice commands.
If you do set up personal notifications on HomePod, these will only be available when you are on the network, so you don't need to worry about your texts being read aloud at home when you are at work. If you don't want them read aloud when you're home, you can go into your HomeKit settings and turn off the notifications.
Apple hasn't revealed how the HomePod detects when the owner of the iCloud account it is linked to is home, but the article suggests the speaker is able to keeps tabs on any iOS devices serving the same user account on the same local network. This function also appears to relate to how HomePod makes a (presumably single-user) Apple Music subscription accessible to other users at home when the owner is away, as revealed in documentation shared with Apple Store staff:
Everyone can enjoy music – After HomePod is set up, anyone in the home can enjoy music even when you're not there. HomePod streams Apple Music directly so your iPhone doesn't need to be nearby.
We already know that if no Apple Music subscription is linked to a HomePod during setup, users are still able to play content that's been purchased from iTunes along with Beats 1 radio content and podcasts, but it remains unclear to what extent this content is available to others when the user of the iCloud-linked account isn't home. Also still up in the air is how Apple Music's personally tailored curation service will fare under the pressures of multi-user HomePod access, as well as how Apple Music Family subscriptions will factor in.
Otherwise, the Refinery29 article comments on the HomePod's design and acoustic intelligence similar to what we've heard in previous hands-on reports, including its "crisper and clearer" audio quality when compared against speakers like the Google Home Max, the latest Amazon Echo, and Sonos One. However, it's worth noting Google Home and Amazon Echo can recognize different voices and serve personalized content to multiple users, something which the HomePod doesn't seem capable of at this stage.
At launch, HomePod will be available in the United States, UK, and Australia. In the U.S., it will be priced at $349, and it will cost £319 in the UK and $499 in Australia. Apple will begin accepting orders for the HomePod on Friday, January 26, with the device set to launch two weeks later on Friday, February 9.
After changing the iBooks app to simply be called "Books" in the iOS 11.3 beta that released to developers yesterday, a new report out today by Mark Gurman at Bloomberg states that Apple is preparing to revamp the internals of the iPhone and iPad app as well.
In an update coming in the next few months -- potentially with the public release of iOS 11.3 in the spring -- Apple will redesign Books with a "simpler" interface aimed at highlighting books you're currently reading in a "Reading Now" section.
On the store side of things, Books will gain a marketplace that looks like the new iOS App Store that debuted in iOS 11, tying more of Apple's apps in together aesthetically. There will also be a dedicated tab for audio books.
According to Gurman, this major update to Books is Apple's move to take on Amazon and the Kindle digital book market again. The Books redesign will come nearly five years after Apple and five publishers were found guilty of conspiring to inflate the prices of e-books to weaken Amazon's dominant position in the market.
Apple is working on a redesigned version of its iBooks e-book reading application for iPhones and iPads and has hired an executive from Amazon to help.
This will be the biggest upgrade to Apple’s e-book service in several years and provides renewed competition in a market that Amazon has dominated.
In its preparation to fight against Amazon in the e-book market, Apple last month hired a senior vice president away from Amazon's Audible business. The VP, Kashif Zafar, had also previously worked at Barnes & Noble on its Nook e-reader. His new title at Apple is "Global Head of iBooks," and he'll help Apple with "general management responsibility" across the company's global digital books unit.
Apple on Wednesday began sending out emails to let developers know of changes to the price of App Store apps in several countries, owing to regional adjustments in value added tax (via 9to5Mac).
Apple told developers that since January 1 it had been collecting taxes on the sale of apps and in-app purchases in Armenia, Belarus, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates.
The new policy means Apple is administering collection and remittance of tax to authorities at a rate of 20 percent in Armenia and Belarus; 5 percent in Saudi Arabia; 18 percent in Turkey; and 5 percent in United Arab Emirates. Meanwhile, in Switzerland, existing tax collections dropped from 8 percent to 7.7 percent.
Apple also announced price updates this week for the following countries: Czech Republic, where prices will decrease for apps and in-app purchases (excluding auto-renewable subscriptions); India, where prices will decrease for apps and in-app purchases (including auto-renewable subscriptions); and Turkey, Nigeria, Belarus, and Armenia, where prices will increase for apps and in-app purchases (excluding auto-renewable subscriptions).
As expected, App Store developer proceeds will be adjusted and calculated based on the new tax prices. In addition to the tax and price change notices, Apple reminded developers they can adjust subscription pricing at any time to preserve prices for existing customers. Using iTunes Connect, developers can also check new prices in the Pricing and Availability section of My Apps.
Apple's first store in South Korea is set to open on Saturday, January 27, and ahead of the store's official launch date, Apple has shared photos showing off the new location.
Apple Garosugil is located in the upscale Garosugil shopping area in the heart of the well-known Gangnam District in Seoul. The store, which is south of the Han River, features a 25-foot glass facade with in-store trees that are designed to blur the lines between the store itself and the tree-lined street where it's located.
"We're thrilled to open a new home for our customers in the vibrant city of Seoul and we look forward to continuing to grow in Korea," said Angela Ahrendts, Apple's senior vice president of Retail. "Our stores are gathering places for the community where everyone is welcome to connect, learn and create."
Like all Apple Stores, Apple Garosugil will offer dozens of free daily workshops to tech participants photography, music, art, design, coding, and more. Each session is led by a Creative Pro and hosted in "the Forum," an area of the Apple Store with a dynamic 6K video wall, which is a layout offered in many of the company's retail stores around the world.
Apple says the store will include its full line of products along with a curated collection of accessories located in the "Avenues," aka dedicated display areas where customers can interact with products.
Garosugil is likely to be Apple's 500th retail store, so long as no additional stores open between now and Saturday. Apple currently has 499 retail stores around the world, not counting Apple Watch boutiques and factoring in the September closure of the Simi Valley store.
Apple first announced plans to open its first store in South Korea a year ago, and the location has been under development since then. Apple Garosugil will open up at 10:00 a.m. local time, and Apple is already accepting Genius Bar appointments and Today at Apple signups.
Apple today released the first beta of an upcoming iOS 11.3 update, and it introduces quite a few new features, including several major changes and a long list of smaller tweaks. iCloud Messages, a long-promised feature has finally made its debut in iOS 11.3, and there are new Animoji, new ARKit tools for developers, and tons more.
In the video and post below, we've outlined all of the new features that we've discovered in the iOS 11.3 beta so far.
Ahead of the release of the first beta, Apple outlined many of the upcoming changes in iOS 11.3 in a preview that explains the new features and lets users know what to expect when the update is released to the public this spring.
Messages on iCloud
iCloud Messages is a feature that was highlighted as a key new iOS 11 component when the operating system was introduced at the June Worldwide Developers Conference, but it was pulled from the iOS 11 update while it was still in beta testing and was not reimplemented before iOS 11's September launch.
Apple said the feature would return in a future update, however, and it appears iOS 11.3 is that update. When opening up the Messages app after installing iOS 11.3, you'll be prompted to turn on "Messages on iCloud."
Messages on iCloud will free up space by keeping photos and other message attachments in iCloud, plus it will sync your messages across all of your devices -- even new ones. If you have two-factor authentication and iCloud Backup enabled, Messages on iCloud is automatically enabled.
New Animoji
iOS 11.3 introduces four new Animoji, which are the little animated characters that mimic your facial expressions and voice using the TrueDepth camera. Animoji are limited to the iPhone X, but iPhone X owners with iOS 11.3 will be able to access dragon, bear, skeleton, and lion Animoji, bringing the total number of available Animoji to 16.
ARKit 1.5
For developers, iOS 11.3 introduces ARKit 1.5, an upgraded version of ARKit that can more accurately map irregularly shaped surfaces and recognize and place virtual objects on vertical surfaces like walls and doors. The prior version of ARKit was not able to detect vertical planes.
With ARKit 1.5, augmented reality apps can recognize the position of 2D images like signs and posters, integrating these images into AR experiences like interactive exhibits in a movie theater or a movie poster that comes to life when you view it. ARKit 1.5 also supports 50 percent greater resolution (1080p instead of 720p) and it now works with auto-focus.
Health Records
Apple has worked with several hospitals, clinics, and medical providers to add a "Health Records" feature to the Health app. Health Records is designed to aggregate all of a person's medical records in one easy-to-access spot in the Health app.
Health Records can store data from multiple participating medical institutions, and it can provide users with notifications when lab results and prescriptions are available. Apple says all Health Records data is encrypted and protected with a passcode.
Participating medical providers include Supported providers include Johns Hopkins Medicine, Cedars-Sinai, Penn Medicine, Geisinger Health System, UC San Diego Health, UNC Health Care, Rush University Medical Center, Dignity Health, Ochsner Health System, MedStar Health, Ohio Health, and Cerner Healthe Clinic.
Apple says additional medical facilities will connect to Health Records in the future.
Minor Tweaks and Changes
In addition to these major features highlighted by Apple, there are also several other smaller tweaks and changes that have been made to the iOS operating system in iOS 11.3.
- Apple News - Apple News will now offer a list of the top videos of the day in the "For You" section, and the algorithm that displays the top stories in the For You section has been improved.
- HomeKit - iOS 11.3 introduces official support for HomeKit software authentication options, which will allow developers to add HomeKit support to many existing accessories. Until software authentication was available, developers were required to meet Apple's HomeKit specifications through hardware, limiting HomeKit's backwards compatibility with existing devices.
- Emergency Calls - Support for Advanced Mobile Location (AML) has been introduced in iOS 11.3 to automatically send a user's precise location over GPS or WiFi when making a call to emergency services. AML requires carrier support and it is not available in the United States. It does, however, work in the United Kingdom, Estonia, Lithuania, Austria, Iceland, and New Zealand.
- iBooks - The iBooks app has dropped the "i" and it's now known as just "Books."
- App Store updates - In the App Store's "Updates" tab, the version number for each app and its installation size is now listed right under the app's name, both for updates that have already been installed and updates that are available for download.
- Face ID side button - On the iPhone X, when you install an app in the App Store, there's now a little animation that instructs you to double press the side button to confirm the installation. This animation is also present whenever you need to press the side button, such as when you confirm an Apple Pay payment.
- Privacy screen - When go through the device setup process after installing iOS 11.3, there is a new Privacy screen and icon, which explains that you'll see the icon whenever an Apple app or feature asks to use your personal information.
- Game Center - In Game Center, you're now able to manage your Game Center friends and remove individual people. Prior to this update, you could only remove all game center friends in one go.
- AirPlay 2 - There are some AirPlay 2 features built into iOS 11.3 and tvOS 11.3, which allow music to be controlled on multiple Apple TVs using an iOS device once the updates have been installed.
Face ID Family Purchases - In the iOS 11.3 beta, you can approve family purchases using Face ID, a feature that wasn't previously available.
App Store Review Sorting - In the iOS 11.3 beta, App Store reviews can be sorted based on Most Helpful, Most Favorable, Most Critical, and Most Recent.
Future Additions to iOS 11.3
Apple outlined several features that are coming to iOS 11.3 but haven't been implemented as of yet.
More Detailed Battery Info
A later beta of iOS 11.3 will feature new, more detailed information about the health of a device's battery. The change comes following controversy over power management features implemented in older devices to prevent unexpected shutdowns. Those power management features throttle iPhones with degraded batteries at times of peak power usage to maintain stable performance.
The update should provide a lot more data about battery health, and there will also be an option to let customers turn off the power management feature entirely, though Apple does not recommend disabling it. The new features will be available in Settings -> Battery and are available for iPhone 6 and later.
Business Chat
Business Chat is designed to give iPhone and iPad users a way to communicate directly with businesses using the Messages app. Business Chat will launch in a beta capacity when iOS 11.3 becomes available to the public in the spring.
Select businesses will support the feature at launch, including Discover, Hilton, Lowe's, and Wells Fargo.
Business Chat will let you have a conversation with a service representative, schedule appointments, and make purchases using Apple Pay in the Messages app. Your contact information is not shared when you use Business Chat, and you can end a chat at any time.
Apple Music Videos
Apple is planning to introduce some improvements to music videos in the Apple Music app. According to Apple, Apple Music "will soon be the home for music videos." Users will be able to stream all the music videos they want without ads, and they'll also be able to view and create music video playlists.
Release Date
According to Apple, iOS 11.3 will be released to the public in the spring, which means we're going to see an extended beta testing period. Technically, "spring" kicks off on Tuesday, March 20, so the beta will be in testing throughout the entire month of February and much of March. That will let Apple iron out the bugs to make sure things like iCloud Messages are running smoothly ahead of launch.
While iOS 11.3 is currently limited to developers, Apple plans to make a public beta available for public beta testers in the near future.
The new developer betas of iOS 11.3 and tvOS 11.3 introduce AirPlay 2 features, allowing for multi-room music playback on Apple TVs using your iPhone.
With iOS 11.3 installed on an iOS device and tvOS 11.3 installed on one or more fourth or fifth-generation Apple TVs, you can use AirPlay 2 to stream music to multiple devices at the same time.
For example, with two Apple TVs running tvOS 11.3 set up in different rooms in the house, you can use the iPhone to play the same song on both, successfully using the multi-room audio feature of AirPlay 2.
Installing tvOS 11.3 prompts you to add your Apple TV to your HomeKit setup, and you'll be asked to choose a room for it during the setup process. After that's done, the Apple TV is displayed as an available device in the Home app. You can't do much with Apple TV in the Home app, but you can play and pause music.
Announced as part of iOS 11 back in June when the operating system was first introduced, AirPlay 2 introduces features like multi-room audio playback from iOS devices and improved buffering.
AirPlay 2 functionality is limited to devices running the current iOS 11.3 and tvOS 11.3 developer betas, so it basically only works with the Apple TV right now. AirPlay 2 has not yet officially been released by Apple, but in the future, third-party speakers and Apple's own HomePod will support the feature. When AirPlay 2 compatible devices are widely available, you will be able to use AirPlay 2 to control all of the different speakers and devices located throughout your home, for a full multi-room audio experience.
HomePod, which will be available starting on February 9, will not ship with multi-room audio support. It's possible multi-room HomePod playback will be available once iOS 11.3 launches to the public, however, as iOS 11.3 is not set to be released until the spring.
Apple hasn't provided specific details on when the HomePod will be updated with multi-room support beyond stating that it will come in a later update, and AirPlay 2 was missing from the detailed rundown of iOS 11.3 features that Apple shared this morning ahead of the beta's release, so Apple's plans aren't quite clear.
At the current time, AirPlay 2 on iOS 11.3 and tvOS 11.3 is rather buggy and the implementation is clearly incomplete, but Apple will likely make significant improvements over the iOS 11.3 beta testing period.
Both macOS High Sierra 10.13.4 and iOS 11.3 ship with an updated version of Safari, Safari 11.1. Safari 11.1 incorporates many new features that have been in testing in Apple's Safari Preview browser, introducing new web APIs, security improvements, media changes, and more.
Animated GIFs can be replaced with silent videos in Safari 11.1 to result in smaller downloads, more available colors, and better decoding performance.
In iOS 11.3, Password AutoFill for apps works in web views within apps, which will make it easier to log into a site without having to copy and paste your password each time. Web apps that are saved to the Home screen on iOS devices and web pages in SFSafariViewController can also now use the camera to capture images.
A new security change provides a "Website Not Secure" warning when a user clicks a credit card field or password entry box on an insecure page, and
Intelligent Tracking Prevention, which prevents websites from tracking you around the web, has been improved in Safari 11.1, and there's a new improved Safari Reader extraction engine to improve the Safari Reader experience.
Service Workers, new in Safari 11, are designed to allow background scripts to power offline web applications, and there are several other new APIs including Payment Request API, Directory Upload, Beacon API, HTMLImageElement.decode(), and an updated Clipboard API.
Safari 11.1 is bundled in to iOS 11.3 and macOS High Sierra 10.13.4, both of which are available for developers starting today. Apple plans to release iOS 11.3 and macOS High Sierra 10.13.4 public betas in the near future.
Alongside new iOS 11.3, macOS 10.13.4, and tvOS 11.3 betas, Apple today released a major update for Swift Playgrounds, the iPad app that's designed to teach students how to code.
Swift Playgrounds 2.0 introduces a new feature that lets users subscribe to playgrounds from third-party creators, browse and download their content, and get alerts when new playgrounds are made available from content creators.
The update also includes support for new robots like IBM's TJBot and the Mekamon, accessible via the Add Subscriptions button, and a new gallery view will show all playgrounds including third-party subscriptions in one easy-to-see single view.
A new Locations button is designed to let users open playgrounds from the Files app on the iPad, and documentation for iOS features and commands is now available from the Help button and the tools menu.
The latest version of Swift Playgrounds includes new features to make it easier to discover even more content. Now you can subscribe to playgrounds from your favorite third-party creators, then browse and download their content directly within Swift Playgrounds. You'll automatically see new and updated playgrounds in your subscriptions, a content gallery that shows all playgrounds in a single view, new robots, and much more.
Along with the first beta of iOS 11.3, Apple today also seeded the first beta of a new Xcode 9.3 update to developers. Xcode 9.3 introduces a new Energy organizer that's designed to help developers detect when an app or app extension is using up too much battery life on a user's device.
The Energy organizer will display logs that are generated when an app exceeds a "reasonable CPU threshold" when running in either the foreground or the background, making it easier for developers to pinpoint and fix bugs.
Xcode 9.3's release notes also mention a new 64-bit testing mode in macOS 10.13.4 that will allow developers to test software for 64-bit compatibility as Apple prepares to begin phasing out 32-bit Mac apps. In macOS 10.13.4, end users will see a notification when launching a 32-bit app, which warns them that 32-bit apps will not "run without compromise" in future versions of macOS.
Additionally, 32-bit is not offered as an option in Xcode's build settings UI, and the build system will emit a warning when building for macOS for the 32-bit architecture.
Xcode has also been designed to run more Swift build tasks in parallel with other commands, improving build times for Swift projects. It may, however, also result in increased memory usage during the build.
Xcode 9.3 requires a Mac running macOS 10.13.2 or later, which means the software will no longer run on Macs that continue to use older operating systems like Sierra.
Starting with macOS High Sierra 10.13.4, Apple is commencing with its plan to begin phasing out 32-bit apps on Macs. Apple has promised that macOS High Sierra will be the "last macOS release to support 32-bit apps without compromises."
After installing macOS High Sierra 10.13.4, which is now available in a beta testing capacity, when you open up an app that's a 32-bit app, you'll get a warning about its future incompatibility with the macOS operating system.
This is the first of many warnings Apple plans to provide as it works to put an end to 32-bit Mac apps, and this initial warning will only be shown one time for each app.
Apple's efforts to phase out 32-bit apps on Macs mirror the path it took when ending 32-bit app support on iOS devices. In iOS 10, Apple provided increasingly more insistent warnings to let users know that their apps wouldn't work with future versions of iOS before phasing out 32-bit support entirely in iOS 11.
As of January 2018, all new apps submitted to the Mac App Store must be 64-bit, and all apps and app updates submitted must be 64-bit by June of 2018. The next version of macOS after High Sierra will include "aggressive" warnings about 32-bit apps before they are phased out entirely.
Once 32-bit apps are phased out on Macs, they won't be able to be used at all, so users will need to find replacements for older 32-bit apps that aren't likely to be updated to 64-bit.
Apple today released a new update for Safari Technology Preview, the experimental browser Apple first introduced almost two years ago in March of 2016. Apple designed the Safari Technology Preview to test features that may be introduced into future release versions of Safari.
Safari Technology Preview release 48 includes bug fixes and feature improvements for Storage Access API, SVG, Service Workers, CSS, Web API, Rendering, Web Inspector, Web Driver, WebRTC, JavaScript, and WebAssembly. Today's update also disables the automatic AutoFill of user names and passwords and page load to prevent sharing information without user consent.
Apple's aim with Safari Technology Preview is to gather feedback from developers and users on its browser development process. Safari Technology Preview can run side-by-side with the existing Safari browser and while designed for developers, it does not require a developer account to download.
Apple in iOS 11 promised a new Messages in iCloud feature that will allow customers to save their iMessages in iCloud and sync them across devices. Messages in iCloud was pulled from iOS 11 during the beta testing period, with Apple promising to reintroduce it at a later date.
It was not clear if and when the feature was actually going to be implemented, though, as Apple stripped all mentions of it from the iOS 11 website.
As of iOS 11.3, Messages in iCloud is back and is available for "testing and evaluation purposes," marking the official return of the feature. According to Apple's release notes, once iOS 11.3 beta 1 is installed, Messages will prompt users to turn on Messages in the Cloud when it is first launched.
Messages in the Cloud is automatically enabled for users who have two-factor authentication and iCloud Backup enabled, says Apple.
The new Messages in iCloud feature will be a welcome change for iPhone, iPad, and Mac users who prefer not to delete their messages. Over the course of several years, Messages can take up a lot of space. That space can now be freed up with the bulk of older messages stored directly in iCloud rather than on-device.
Biggest design overhaul since iOS 7 with Liquid Glass, plus new Apple Intelligence features and improvements to Messages, Phone, Safari, Shortcuts, and more. Developer beta available now ahead of public beta in July.
Biggest design overhaul since iOS 7 with Liquid Glass, plus new Apple Intelligence features and improvements to Messages, Phone, Safari, Shortcuts, and more. Developer beta available now ahead of public beta in July.
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Along with the first beta of iOS 11.3, Apple today also seeded the first beta of a new Xcode 9.3 update to developers. Xcode 9.3 introduces a new Energy organizer that's designed to help developers detect when an app or app extension is using up too much battery life on a user's device.
Apple today 
