AMC today announced the upcoming launch of a new movie-watching service that's designed to compete with MoviePass, allowing AMC customers to watch several movies per week for a monthly fee.
While MoviePass permits customers to watch one movie per day for $9.95 per month, there have been questions about its long-term sustainability. AMC's "Stubs A-List" offering will let customers watch three movies per week for $19.95 plus tax, which it claims is a "sustainable price."
MoviePass does not permit customers to watch more than one movie per day or to rewatch movies they've already seen once, both features that are included in the Stubs A-List program.
Stubs A-List can be used at all AMC, AMC Dine-in, and AMC Classic theatres in the United States, with other perks that are not available through MoviePass. Customers can book tickets online in advance, including at AMC Theatres with reserved seating, and it includes IMAX, Dolby Cinema, RealD 3D, Prime, and Big D movies.
AMC's new offering also includes all of the benefits of its AMC Stubs Premiere program, with "VIP service levels" at theatres, no online ticketing fees, and discounts on food and beverages, such as free upgrades on popcorn and soda.
Stubs A-List will be available starting on Tuesday, June 26.
Instagram today announced the launch of IGTV, a new video streaming service that's designed to compete with YouTube. The news was shared during a live broadcast from Instagram's headquarters in San Francisco.
With the launch of IGTV, which is mobile first and built with smartphones in mind, content creators on Instagram can now upload videos that are as long as one hour to Instagram, up from a single minute.
IGTV focuses on full-screen vertical video, with the ability to interact with other users while watching videos. Anyone can upload IGTV content to Instagram starting today.
Longer-form video content on the social network can be discovered through the IGTV section of the Explore Tab, with Instagram highlighting popular videos from well-known Instagram users. Instagram is also releasing a standalone IGTV app that's going to launch in the next few weeks.
In the upcoming IGTV app, content will begin playing as soon as it's opened, which Instagram says is meant to be "just like turning on the TV." You'll be able to watch content from people you already follow on Instagram, with the new app also suggesting content based on your interests.
IGTV has channels that are based around creators. When you follow a creator, their content will be displayed for you to watch.
Instagram today also announced that it now boasts 1 billion monthly active users, giving it a huge user base for the new IGTV video service.
Update: The new IGTV app is now available for download from the iOS App Store. [Direct Link]
Apple today announced that this Friday's episode of "Carpool Karaoke: The Series" will feature James Marsden (Teddy) and Evan Rachel Wood (Dolores), two of the main characters in HBO's popular "Westworld" series.
A trailer for the new episode was shared on YouTube, depicting the duo singing songs like "Ironic" by Alanis Morissette and an improvised version of Salt-N-Pepa's "Shoop," renamed to "Loop" with Westworld-related lyric replacements.
The new episode of "Carpool Karaoke: The Series" will air on Friday, June 22 and it will be available to watch for free in Apple's TV app, which is available on the Apple TV and iOS devices.
Apple debuted its first new 2018 episode of "Carpool Karaoke" last week, featuring the cast of TAG, including Jeremy Renner, Ed Helms, and Jon Hamm.
Apple is partnering up with Sesame Workshop to create a range of programming for children, reports Variety. The partnership was established by Zack Van Amburg and Jamie Erlicht, who have been heading up Apple's video efforts.
Sesame Workshop is a non-profit organization that develops educational children's programs such as "Sesame Street," a popular, well-known, long-running program for kids.
According to the terms of the deal, Sesame Workshop will develop live-action and animated series, along with an Apple-exclusive puppet series. Content created for Apple will be original and will not include "Sesame Street," which airs on PBS and HBO.
Apple is, however, rumored to be pursuing a deal with Cartoon Saloon, which has previously produced animated films aimed at both children and adults, including "The Secret of Kells," "The Song of the Sea," and "The Breadwinner."
Microsoft today announced a rebranding of its news engine that's been powering sites like MSN.com since 1995, which the company is simply calling "Microsoft News." The name will replace the previous "MSN News" smartphone app beginning today across devices for iOS, Android, Microsoft Edge, Windows 10, Skype, Xbox, and Outlook.com (MSN.com will retain its name).
The revamped app curates news via publishing partners, human editors, and artificial intelligence, ensuring readers are up-to-date on the topics they care about. News sites include over 3,000 brands in all major global markets, like The New York Times, The Washington Post, BBC News, and more, all including text and video content.
Users can personalize the app by prioritizing favorite news topics and selecting interests to follow in the news feed. Microsoft says that publishing partners can connect with their audiences and earn money for the content that users read within Microsoft News.
In terms of UI features, the iOS app includes a dark theme, supports the iOS widgets feature, has customizable breaking news alerts, and more:
- New personalization upgrades, including the ability to tailor interests to follow in your news feed – such as World News, Personal Finance, Fitness and many more – and to roam interests across devices and local news options for top cities - Simplified access through seamless integration with iOS and Android widgets - Continuous reading, for a smooth content experience
Microsoft News comes one month after Google revamped its own Google News app on iOS devices, with a few similar features like personalized news suggestions, combined AI/human curation, and more. Google News replaced the existing Google Play Newsstand app, much like Microsoft News is replacing the MSN News app.
Both apps are competitors to Apple News, which provides similar news curation features across a user's iOS devices. In iOS 12 this fall, Apple News will gain a redesign that introduces a Browse tab to make it easier to discover new channels or jump straight to favorites, and the app on iPad will be updated with a new sidebar for simpler navigation.
Apple today released a new update for Safari Technology Preview, the experimental browser Apple first introduced over 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.
Today's Safari Technology Preview 59 update includes support for Intelligent Tracking Prevention 2.0, which Apple announced on stage at the Worldwide Developers Conference. The feature prevents social widgets from tracking you without your permission and introduces other tracking prevention updates.
Apple says there are several known issues with the new release on macOS Mojave.
Text does not render properly in the Smart Search Field when in Dark Mode, and customers who are running the update on macOS Mojave beta 2 will need to login to websites when restarting the application or could be required to log in again on some websites when launching a new window.
Safari Technology Preview release 59 also includes bug fixes and feature improvements for Web Animations, Payment Request, JavaScript, Editing, Storage Access API, Security, Service Workers, Compatibility, WebRTC, Web API, Media, Web Inspector, Accessibility, and iCloud Keychain Password Manager.
The new Safari Technology Preview update is available for both macOS High Sierra and macOS Mojave, the newest version of the Mac operating system that's currently being beta tested by developers.
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.
Last month, Europe implemented its General Data Protection Regulation in an effort to protect the data of all individuals within the European Union, with some aspects affecting users worldwide. According to a new report by Axios, the White House is "in the early stages" of figuring out what a federal approach to online data privacy would look like in the United States.
So far, special assistant to President Trump on tech, telecom, and cyber policy Gail Slater has met with industry groups about the issue. Discussions include possible "guardrails" for the use of personal data online, according to a few sources familiar with the talks. Furthermore, Slater has talked about the implementation of GDPR with Dean Garfield, CEO of the Information Technology Industry Council, which represents tech companies like Apple and Google.
Slater and the Trump administration have reportedly referred to the U.S. proposal as a "counter-weight to GDPR," aimed at ensuring that the European law doesn't become the global standard of online privacy, sources said. Still, Slater also stated that there is no desire to create a "U.S. clone" of the European rules.
Axios theorized that one possible outcome from the conversations could be an executive order that leads to the development of a privacy framework for U.S. citizens.
One option is an executive order directing one or more agencies to develop a privacy framework. That could direct the National Institute of Standards and Technology, an arm of the Commerce Department, to work with industry and other experts to come up with guidelines, according to two sources.
An executive order could also kick off a public-private partnership to lay out voluntary privacy best practices, which could become de-facto standards, according to sources.
News about the potential new privacy practices comes as "pressure" is being placed on lawmakers in the U.S., following high-profile data breaches like the Facebook/Cambridge Analytica scandal. Beginning with reports in March, it was discovered that Facebook was connected with consulting firm Cambridge Analytica, which itself was tied to Trump's 2016 presidential campaign. Using a survey app called "This Is Your Digital Life," the firm secretly amassed data from millions of Facebook users that targeted and attempted to sway votes in the election.
Slater claimed that "giving consumers more control over their data" and "more access to their data" are high marks of the GDPR, suggesting these aspects would be emphasized in the U.S. law.
"We're talking through what, if anything, the administration could and should be doing" on privacy, Slater said at a conference hosted last month by the National Venture Capital Association
In the wake of GDPR, Apple itself launched a new Data & Privacy website that lets users download all of the data associated with their Apple ID. While the feature was limited to Apple accounts registered in the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland at launch, Apple said it will roll out the service worldwide "in the coming months."
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.
Toshiyasu Abe, a resident of Vancouver, Washington, has filed a lawsuit against Apple in Oregon district court this week, accusing the company of infringing upon his patent with Key Flicks and 3D Touch on select iPhone and iPad models.
The patent in question is No. 6,520,699, granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office in February 2003.
Mr. Abe has been an entrepreneur and inventor for nearly his entire life. In the early 2000s, Mr. Abe dedicated substantial time and resources into developing, promoting, and protecting the then-novel user interface device claimed in United States Patent No. 6,520,699, titled "KEYBOARD."
Like most patents, the description and claims for this one are very long and exhaustive, but from a high level, it at one point refers to a "user interface device" comprising "a plurality of buttons displayed on a touch sensitive screen," with "each button being associated with a plurality of characters or functions."
Here's how the patent is described in the complaint, obtained by MacRumors:
The '699 patent covers at least a touchscreen device having a plurality of buttons displayed on the screen, each button being associated with a plurality of characters or functions. When a user touches or taps on a button, the device will respond by displaying a plurality of characters or functions associated with that button. The device can also detect an applied force and direction of motion, which enables a user to simply flick or swipe their finger toward the desired character or function to thereby select that character or function.
There are several other embodiments of the invention, including physical thumb control pads on a mobile phone, notebook, or steering wheel in a vehicle, each with a multitude of pressure-sensitive, geometrically-shaped keys.
Various embodiments of the patent
The touchscreen embodiment does sound similar to how accented characters are managed on the iPhone keyboard. When a user taps on the E key, for example, a menu appears with diacritics such as È, É, Ê, and Ë. The user then slides their finger over the desired character and releases to input it in a text field.
Abe believes Apple's infringement extends to the Flick Keyboard, introduced in iOS 11 for select iPad models. When enabled, the feature allows an iPad user to simply tap and swipe down on a key to input a number or symbol. If a user taps and swipes down on the D key, for example, a $ symbol is inputted.
The complaint alleges that 3D Touch also infringes upon his patent, given its pressure-sensitive, multifunction attributes.
Apple is also said to be further inducing infringement by aiding and abetting the development of third-party iPhone keyboards and apps that implement flick-style keys and 3D Touch, available through the App Store. Abe, who is Japanese, said flick input has particularly gained popularity in Japan.
Japanese keyboard for iPhone
The accused products include at least the following iPad and iPhone models sold in the United States: iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone X, iPad Air, iPad Air 2, iPad mini 2, iPad mini 3, iPad mini 4, 9.7-inch iPad, 9.7-inch iPad Pro, and the 10.5-inch iPad Pro.
The complaint alleges that Apple has known of Abe's patent since at least as early as 2009, when he first gave written notice of its infringement. The plaintiff allegedly exchanged a number of emails with Apple, and engaged in at least one phone call with the company's in-house counsel, but no agreement was reached.
Then, in 2017, the complaint alleges that Abe discovered an increase in Apple's infringing activities relating to the release of iOS 11, prompting him to send Apple another patent infringement notification letter last December. Apple and Abe communicated again, through counsel, but nothing transpired from the talks.
Abe is seeking damages adequate to compensate him for Apple's alleged infringement of his patent, in an amount to be proven at trial, but no less than a reasonable royalty. The court still has to agree to hear the case.
Apple senior vice president of retail Angela Ahrendts gave a new interview today at Cannes Lions, an annual international festival in France that celebrates individuals and companies in creative spaces. During her talk, Ahrendts discussed a variety of topics related to Apple and its pivot away from retail "stores" over the last few years to become community gathering places (via NBC News).
Thank you to the creative community who joined us at #CannesLions today to hear about #TodayatApple and how our retail experience inspires learning, unlocks creativity and encourages human connection. pic.twitter.com/64i4NL9SeY
— Angela Ahrendts (@AngelaAhrendts) June 20, 2018
Ahrendts' discussion also included Apple vice president of marketing communications Tor Myhren, and the SVP of retail explained that Apple's approach is to be "in the human business" and to "humanize technology."
I love the creative arts... that's kind of when we came up with the tagline: maybe we're in the human business. Maybe the largest tech company has these 65,000 kids and maybe it's our job to humanize technology.
Looking to the future of retail in general, Ahrendts mentioned numbers from an analytic firm that suggest while the majority of shopping will move online, many customers will still venture out to physical locations to finalize a purchase. This means that shoppers will use apps and online websites to research products and items, and perhaps reserve them for in-store pickup, much like Apple already does today.
You have your instincts and you use a lot of smart outside guys, and the smart outside guys they don't say retail is dying. They say digital is gonna grow at three times the rate of physical, but in the next five years... 75 percent of people will shop online, shop to learn [about what they want to buy], but 75 percent of business will still be done in physical stores.
Because of this, Ahrendts explained that "retail isn't going away" or "dying," but it will have to "evolve" as time passes. Apple has already made moves to change up Apple retail locations with next-generation layouts that emphasize communal gathering and encourage interactivity during Today at Apple sessions. This plays into another of Ahrendts' talking points in the interview, when she said, "I think [retail] has to serve a bigger purpose than just selling."
Ahrendts also discussed an internal social network that Apple calls "Loop," which was built for the company to measure how well it is doing in its retail mission to keep customers happy, accomplished through surveying both customers and retail employees. Loop is examined by Ph.D. students and results in data that helps Apple executives "improve systems" surrounding its retail business.
Ahrendts went on to discuss Apple store employees:
“They are not hired to sell," she said. "There is no commission, no quotas. What we’ve tried to do is keep uniting them around the big vision and the impact we want to make.”
Ahrendts routinely discusses Apple's next-generation retail plans in interviews, and last year even appeared onstage at the iPhone X event to briefly talk about retail and Today at Apple sessions. Shortly following that September event, Ahrendts climbed to the 13th spot on Fortune's Most Powerful Women list for 2017, jumping from 14th in 2016 and 16th in 2015.
21st Century Fox and the Walt Disney Company today announced a new deal that increases the value of Disney's original December 2017 offer from $28 a share at $52.4 billion to $38 a share at $71.3 billion, with a new cash component. This agreement "is superior to the proposal" from Comcast made earlier this month, according to an unnamed representative speaking for Fox (via The Wall Street Journal).
Additionally, the new Fox-Disney deal states that Fox shareholders will be able to receive their consideration "in the form of cash or stock," subject to 50/50 proration. The updated deal comes six months after Disney first announced its intent to acquire certain parts of 21st Century Fox, including Twentieth Century Fox Film and Television Studios, Fox-related cable and international TV businesses, and Fox's 30 percent stake in Hulu, among other assets.
Comcast entered as a competitor earlier in June at $35 per share for a total of $65 billion -- an offer that Disney has now beat. Fox has mentioned in the past that talks with Disney were more advanced than any other potential buyer, and it appears that the two companies are trying to work out a deal that values Fox's assets in the wake of Comcast's increased bid.
Nothing is finalized yet, however, and if shareholders are thought to be favoring a cash-heavy deal, people familiar with the matter told WSJ that Disney is "in position to inject cash into its offer."
Some Fox shareholders might prefer a premium cash offer like the one Comcast is offering, even though the capital gains would be taxable. Other shareholders, particularly the large institutional shareholders that are Fox’s biggest investors, tend to care much less about taxes, Mr. Willens added.
With either company, the deal will have to face regulatory hurdles and get approved by the Justice Department. However, Comcast waited to make its bid on Fox until a U.S. District Court Judge approved of the merger between AT&T and Time Warner, which set a precedent for similar cases. According to Comcast, the court's approval should "nullify" any of Fox's regulatory concerns, which is the reason Fox rejected Comcast's original offer in April 2018.
Feral Interactive today announced the release of Tropico for iPad, scheduled for a debut sometime "later this year." Originally published by Kalypso Media from Tropico 3 onwards, Feral noted that this will mark the first time Tropico has been ported to iPad.
Tropico is a city building game set on an island in the Caribbean, where the player takes on the role of the island's dictator El Presidente as they build up the island's infrastructure and manage its economy. This includes city building, issuing "edicts" to the populace, creating monuments, and more.
“With its delightful mix of strategy and tongue-in-cheek humour, the Tropico series has long been a favourite of desktop and console gamers alike,” said David Stephen, Managing Director of Feral Interactive. “Re-imagining its gameplay for mobile has been great fun; we’re excited by the results, and are delighted to be bringing it to iPad.”
“We are thrilled to be working with Feral Interactive to further expand the Tropico IP to iPad gamers across the globe,” said Marcus Behrens, Publishing Director for Mobile at Kalypso Media. “Tropico has captured the hearts and imagination of millions of gamers during its 17 year history and this transition to tablet takes the brand on a whole new and exciting journey.”
Feral mentioned that Tropico for iOS has been "redesigned and developed" for mobile devices, and when it launches on iPad it will be a premium, full-priced game with no in-app purchases. The tablet-optimized app will feature new touch controls with an easy-to-navigate user interface that Feral developed in the transition from PC/console to iPad.
In line with previous Feral announcements, no other details were given for Tropico, so we'll have to wait until closer to launch for a specific date and list of which iPads the game will run on. This year, Feral has ported a handful of games to Mac computers as well, including Rise of the Tomb Raider, Total War Saga: Thrones of Britannia, and Life is Strange: Before the Storm.
Popular battle royale game Fortnite has earned more than $100 million in revenue in its first 90 days of availability on iOS devices, according to new data shared by app analytics firm Sensor Tower.
The figure means Epic Games' title for iPhone and iPad has become the second-fastest app to reach the milestone in its category. Clash Royale retains the top revenue record, earning the same amount in only 51 days.
It took Fortnite’s mobile players 90 days to spend $100 million in the game. We looked at how this compared to its rivals above. Among them, Clash Royale managed the fastest time from launch to the $100 million milestone on iOS, accomplishing the feat in just 51 days. Fortnite, however, reached this point nearly three months faster than Knives Out and Honor of Kings, at 173 and 179 days, respectively.
When it was in beta, Fortnite earned more than $1.5 million, and during its first month of availability on iPads and iPhones, the game brought in $25 million. It only took two weeks for that to double to $50 million. Six weeks later, that figure has also doubled, which is all the more impressive given that Fortnite was invite-only for the first three months.
Fortnite is free to download, but encourages players to buy "V-Bucks" in the app so they can purchase customization items like emotes, outfits, gliders, and more. The minimum in-app purchase is $9.99 for 1,000 V-Bucks, but players can spend more if they want. Players are also able to earn V-Bucks in game, but must invest a lot of play time to do so.
PUBG, another battle royale game that launched shortly after Fortnite, has not been as successful – Sensor Tower estimates that it has grossed around $5.2 million on iOS, and attributes the lower figure in part to its loot box monetization strategy. While Fortnite offers unique items available for a limited amount of time, PUGB only allows players to purchase randomized boxes that can result in duplicate and non-useful items.
Apple CEO Tim Cook announced on Apple's earnings conference call last month that Apple Pay would be launching in Ukraine, Poland, and Norway in the near future, and with the addition of Norway today those promises have been fulfilled. Apple Pay launched in Ukraine just over a month ago.
Kristen Wiig is no longer set to star in an upcoming Apple comedy series due to a scheduling conflict with "Wonder Woman 1984," reports Variety. Wiig's exit from the series and the reason behind it were confirmed by an Apple video spokesperson.
As was announced back in January, Wiig was set to play the lead role in a 10-episode comedy show based on the "You Think It, I'll Say It" short story collection from Curtis Sittenfeld. The show would have been Wiig's first regular television role since leaving "Saturday Night Live" in 2012.
Wiig is instead set to play the villain Cheetah in "Wonder Woman 1984," which is set to be released in November of 2019. The first of Apple's television shows have also been rumored to be debuting in 2019, explaining the scheduling conflicts.
Curtis Sittenfeld's book features 10 stories that "upend assumptions about class, relationships, and gender roles in a nation that feels both adrift and viscerally divided," according to its description on Amazon. According to Variety, Apple still wants to develop the series and the producers for the show are regrouping.
Apple has dozens of other television projects in the works at the current time, with a full list available in the original programming section of our Apple TV roundup.
Apple this morning released the second beta of iOS 12 to developers, and as expected, there are tweaks and changes to many of the new features introduced in iOS 12.
Changes to Screen Time include new options to sort by device and view additional details on a per app basis, while tweaks made to Battery Usage make it easier to see which apps are eating up battery. There are several other smaller changes in iOS 12 beta 2, which we've listed below.
- Battery Usage - The charts for activity and battery level for the last 24 hours have been redesigned in iOS 12 beta 2, and some of the wording has been updated in this section.
- Screen Time - Apple has removed a toggle for clearing Screen Time data, and the interface for adding time limits to apps from the main Screen Time screen has been tweaked. In the first beta, when you tapped an app it went right into the limits interface, but now tapping on an app displays more info on the app, including daily average use, developer, category, and more, and lets you tap to set a limit. There's also a new splash screen when opening Screen Time for the first time.
- Screen Time By Device - There's now an option to view activity on a single device or all devices.
- Notifications - There's a new toggle in the Notifications section of the Settings app that allows you to toggle off Siri Suggestions for individual apps. In iOS 12, Siri makes suggestions about limiting the notifications you receive from apps that aren't often used.
- Password AutoFill - There's a new interface for autofilling a password saved in iCloud Keychain.
- Voice Memos - There's a new introductory splash screen for Voice Memos in iOS 12 beta 2.
- Face ID - When unlocking content using Face ID, the iPhone X now says "Scanning with Face ID."
- Photos - The text size for the "Media Types" and "Albums" listings in the Photos app is now much bigger, making it easier to read.
- Photos Search - In iOS 12 beta 2, Photos appears to support more advanced searches. For example, if you search for a specific date like July 10, it will show all photos from all years taken on July 10. This is different than the behavior in iOS 12 beta 1.
- iPhone apps on iPad - When you open iPhone apps on the iPad, like Instagram, they're now displayed in a modern device size (iPhone 6) in both 1x and 2x mode.
There are also multiple known issues in the second developer beta of iOS 12, with full details available from Apple's developer site. We've listed a handful of the more prominent problems users might run into:
The Weather widget is not functional.
Universal Links might not open the expected target app.
Netflix might unexpectedly quit when downloading a video.
Twitter might display a blank login screen.
Playback might not pause when one AirPod is removed from your ears.
CarPlay might not connect to certain vehicles.
Group FaceTime calls can't be initiated between iOS 12 beta 2 and iOS 12 beta 1. FaceTime calls may also be interrupted by a poor connection message, and FaceTime might unexpectedly quit.
Screen Time must be re-enabled after installing iOS 12 beta 2, and all Screen Time settings are reset after updating.
Voice Memos might not sync between devices even when iCloud syncing is enabled.
iOS 12 is limited to developers at the current time, but Apple has promised a public beta for its public beta testing group before the end of June, so we could be seeing a public beta as soon as later this week.
In the first watchOS 5 beta, the Walkie-Talkie app, which is one of the key new features in the update, was unavailable and said only "Coming Soon," but in the second watchOS 5 beta, the Walkie-Talkie feature is available.
When you launch the Walkie-Talkie app after installing the second beta update, you'll be able to scroll through your contacts and choose a person to connect to. The person on the receiving end of your Walkie-Talkie message will hear their Apple Watch beep and then they'll see a screen that will allow them to approve a connection.
At the current time, it appears that you can only choose "always allow" when opting to enable a connection with a person.
Once a two-way connection is established, you simply press and hold down on the talk button to communicate, as does the person on the other end. Conversations, which we've been testing, are crisp and clear with excellent audio quality.
If your Apple Watch is on silent mode, Walkie-Talkie ignores it, so you're still going to hear Walkie-Talkie beeps and incoming conversations. The same is true for Do Not Disturb Mode and Theater Mode, but there is a Walkie-Talkie volume toggle accessible by turning the Digital Crown. With a push-to-talk connection turned on, you and the person you're connected to can chat at any time, with no additional approval options available.
You can have multiple Walkie-Talkie conversations going at once, with each conversation listed in the app.
While a Walkie-Talkie conversation is enabled with another person, both of you will see a yellow Walkie-Talkie icon at the top of the Apple Watch.
If you want to mute a Walkie-Talkie conversation so you can no longer be contacted, you can scroll up on the Walkie-Talkie app interface and toggle off the "Available" icon. When unavailable, if someone tries to speak to you, they'll see a message that you are unavailable, and you'll receive a notification.
If you want to resume your conversations with people, you can turn the toggle back to "Available" and everything will work as normal. Both people in the conversation need to have themselves set to "Available" in the Walkie-Talkie app for it to be fully functional.
Walkie-Talkie and the other watchOS 5 features will be limited to developers until watchOS 5 is released in the fall, as Apple does not provide betas of watchOS to the public.
There are a few exclusive deals we have to share today, beginning with a partnership with accessory company Elevation Lab. Over on Amazon, our readers can purchase Elevation Lab's DraftTable or DraftTable Kit for 20 percent off, marking the accessories down to $39.96 and $55.96 respectively. Just head to Amazon and enter the code MACLAB20 during the checkout process before the code expires on Friday, June 22 at 11:59 p.m. PT.
DraftTables work with all sizes of iPad Pro (and even accommodate the iPad mini) and are designed to ensure a rock-solid base for working on Apple's tablet, with wide angle adjustment that ensures comfort for all-day workflows. The slightly more expensive DraftTable Kit also includes Elevation Lab's ArmRest so you can draw for hours without fatigue and the PencilStand which locks to a flat surface so it can't tip over.
In our second exclusive deal this week, we've partnered with RAVPower to kick off a string of exclusive discounts that will be launching every week over the course of the summer. Things are starting with a 40 percent discount on RAVPower's 7.5W HyperAir Fast Wireless Charging Pad that's compatible with iPhone X, 8, and 8 Plus, and can be purchased for just $23.99 with code MACRUMP34, down from $39.99 -- the best price in the accessory's history according to the company.
This sale will last through next Monday, June 25 at 11:59 p.m. PT, and then one week from today we'll continue the RAVPower sale event with another exclusive discount for our readers. We'll be keeping a tab on the sale in our Deals Roundup as it continues, so be sure to head there for the latest information.
In other RAVPower discount news, the company also released a new collection of exclusive discount codes for our readers, with savings as high as 36 percent off:
These codes will be available for our readers for most of the summer, expiring on July 31 at 11:59 p.m. PT. As usual, you can head over to our full Deals Roundup for even more sales going on this week, including discounts on Mac software from StackSocial, a one-day Amazon Gold Box deal on a Late 2015 5K iMac, and more.
Apple today seeded the second beta of an upcoming watchOS 5 update, two weeks after releasing the first beta following the 2018 Worldwide Developers Conference Keynote and one week after releasing an updated watchOS 5 beta 1 with a bug fix. watchOS 5 is the newest version of the software that runs on the Apple Watch.
To install the beta, you'll need the proper configuration profile, which can be obtained through the Apple Developer Center. Once the profile is in place, the watchOS 5 beta can be downloaded using the dedicated Apple Watch app on the iPhone by going to General --> Software Update.
To update, the Apple Watch must have 50 percent battery, it must be placed on an Apple Watch charger, and it must be in range of the iPhone. It would be wise to install the beta on a secondary device instead of a primary device given that this is an early version of the watchOS 5 software that still has bugs to be worked out.
The first version of the initial watchOS 5 beta was pulled by Apple shortly after it was released due to reports that the beta had been bricking some Series 2 Apple Watches, rendering them unusable. Apple on June 11 released an updated version of the first beta.
watchOS 5 is a major update to watchOS, introducing Activity Competitions so you can compete on workouts with friends, Walkie-Talkie with push-to-talk functionality for quickly communicating with the people you talk to most, and auto workout detection to make it easier than ever to start and stop workouts.
Other new features include an improved Siri watch face with support for third-party apps, a dedicated Apple Podcasts app, new Workout types that include Yoga and Hiking, new features for runners, WebKit support for viewing some web content on Apple Watch, and enhanced notifications, which will make notifications on the Apple Watch interactive.
watchOS 5 is only available to developers and will not be provided to public beta testers (because there's no way to downgrade Apple Watch software), so non-developers will need to wait until the software is officially released in the fall to try it out.
The watchOS 5 update runs on all Series 1, Series 2, and Series 3 Apple Watch models. It is not available for the first-generation "Series 0" Apple Watch models, likely due to performance and battery issues.
Apple today 
