Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference commences on Monday with an opening keynote, where the company previews the next major versions of its software platforms, and usually shares some other announcements.
Ahead of the keynote, Bloomberg's well-sourced Mark Gurman has outlined what he expects Apple to discuss on stage:
A series of Digital Health tools in the Settings app on iOS 12 that will help users monitor how much time they spend using their devices and individual apps, helping to address concerns about smartphone addiction.
ARKit 2, including a new mode that allows for a multiplayer mode in augmented reality games. Another mode is said to allow objects to be dropped into an area and virtually remain in place.
Apple could reveal its reported plans to allow iOS apps to run on Macs as early as this year. The wording suggests it's not entirely clear if Apple plans to discuss the project at WWDC or later.
Minor new features for snoozing notifications, tracking the stock market, making video calls, and sending Animojis via FaceTime.
Overall, Gurman expects this year's software updates across iOS, macOS, tvOS, and watchOS to be more "muted," with "bigger changes later," as Apple has decided to focus more on the quality and stability improvements this year, according to an internal meeting the company reportedly held earlier this year.
Planned new iOS 12 features that have been shelved until 2019 are said to include a redesigned home screen with more information, an artificial intelligence upgrade to the Photos app, and new file-management tools for iPads.
Unfortunately for those hoping to see Apple refresh its product lineups at WWDC, Gurman suggests that "a suite of new gadgets is unlikely," although a surprise hardware announcement or two cannot be entirely ruled out. Hopefully, an update will also be provided about Apple's AirPower charging mat.
Gurman claims Apple is working on refreshed MacBook, MacBook Pro, iPad Pro, and Apple Watch models, and a new low-cost MacBook, but he doesn't expect any of those devices to be ready until "later this year."
Refreshes to the 12-inch MacBook and MacBook Pro lines with next-generation Intel chips ready "later this year."
A pair of new Apple Watch models that keep the overall size of the current models, but include slightly larger, edge-to-edge screens. The new models are expected to support watch bands from existing models.
Gurman outlined most of these expectations in his previous reporting over the past year.
WWDC's opening keynote begins on Monday at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time at the McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, California. MacRumors will be in attendance at the keynote, with live coverage both here on MacRumors.com and through our @MacRumorsLive account on Twitter.
MacRumors will also have pre-event coverage, beginning around 8:00 a.m. Pacific Time, and post-event hands-on coverage if applicable.
In April, the Russian government banned secure messaging app Telegram and this month asked Apple to remove it from the iOS App Store completely in the country, citing the potential for terrorist communication via the app since Telegram refused to allow Russia to read user messages. As this unfolds, Telegram CEO Pavel Durov posted an update for users early this morning in an effort to explain why some features "don't work correctly under iOS 11.4" (via ArsTechnica).
According to Durov, Apple has been "preventing" the Telegram iOS app from updating on a global scale, dating back to when Russia banned the app in April. Durov says that his company chose to do the "only possible thing" and refused to provide Russia with decryption keys to access user messages, "preserving the right of our users privacy in a troubled country."
He continued by stating, "Unfortunately, Apple didn't side with us." The CEO says Apple's restricting of Telegram dates back to mid-April and while Russia represents a small subset of its user base (7 percent), Apple's actions affect all Telegram users around the world. Because of this, the launch of iOS 11.4 on Tuesday has broken some Telegram features like stickers, and caused the company to miss its deadline for compliance with the GDPR for users in the European Union.
Apple has been preventing Telegram from updating its iOS apps globally ever since the Russian authorities ordered Apple to remove Telegram from the App Store. Russia banned Telegram on its territory in April because we refused to provide decryption keys for all our users’ communications to Russia’s security agencies. We believe we did the only possible thing, preserving the right of our users to privacy in a troubled country.
Unfortunately, Apple didn’t side with us. While Russia makes up only 7% of Telegram’s userbase, Apple is restricting updates for all Telegram users around the world since mid-April. As a result, we’ve also been unable to fully comply with GDPR for our EU-users by the deadline of May 25, 2018. We are continuing our efforts to resolve the situation and will keep you updated.
By missing the deadline, Telegram users in Europe won't have the same level of security and privacy in comparison to compliant apps, and a lack of updates could put the platform at a higher risk of vulnerability. Apple has yet to comment on the issue or explain its stance, but Durov hopes to "resolve the situation" soon as the company continues its efforts to get the iOS app up to date for all users.
This is far from the first time Telegram has been in hot water with both Apple and Russia. Earlier in February, Apple pulled Telegram from the App Store due to reports of "inappropriate content" being hosted on the messaging service, but it made a return a few hours after disappearing, once Telegram put additional protections in place.
For Russia, the government previously threatened a ban on Telegram last summer after repeated efforts to obtain more information about the company were ignored. While seemingly innocuous, Russia's request for a "form with information" on Telegram would effectively add the company to the state regulators' registry, further requiring Telegram to retain users' chats and to share encryption keys with Russian authorities if asked. Similar requests date back to 2014.
As of writing, Telegram Messenger for iOS was last updated on March 24, 2018.
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.
Netflix appears to be testing -- or slowly rolling out -- a new user interface control scheme for its iOS app, which enables an unobtrusive volume indicator and lets users jump forwards or backwards in a video with a quick double-tap gesture.
As spotted by Redditor mm2nam, the update brings Netflix's video controls closer to those of YouTube on iOS, which lets users double tap on the right edge of the screen to fast forward 10 seconds and on the left side to rewind 10 seconds. Netflix's implementation includes the double tap gesture, as well as physical buttons on the screen that appear after you tap once on the video to bring up the playback controls.
Quick time jump controls have become increasingly popular in a variety of apps and in certain products, with Apple itself using a similar feature on its Siri Remote for Apple TV. On fourth and fifth generation devices, users can swipe to the right and click to jump forward 10 seconds and the same to go back 10 seconds, as long as the app supports Apple's native playback controls.
In regards to the volume indicator, Netflix currently has a bit of an unclear method for this piece of UI: some users lack an indicator completely, while others still see Apple's large, semi-translucent square that blocks most of the video every time the volume is toggled. It appears that along with the new 10-second playback gestures, Netflix is also planning to release a unified and unobtrusive volume indicator, which sits at the top of the screen, similar to YouTube and Instagram.
With no further information available regarding the update, it's unclear how widely available it is and if it will be launching for all users soon. Many users on the original Reddit thread commented about not having the update, and no one at MacRumors has yet seen either the double tap gestures or new volume indicator. We've reached out to Netflix for comment and will update the post if we hear back.
Back in 2016, Nokia acquired health startup Withings in a deal estimated at $192 million, hoping to re-establish its presence in the consumer electronics market. Nokia did this by rebranding Withings' iOS compatible products under its own name, with devices like the Withings Steel Watch and Withings Go fitness trackers becoming the Nokia Steel and Nokia Go.
Unfortunately for the company, the acquisition has largely been seen as a failure, with the digital health division earning just $62.4 million in 2017, part of Nokia's overall $27.9 billion in revenue for the year. Because of this, the company announced earlier in May that it would sell the division back to Withings co-founder, Eric Carreel, and today that deal has officially closed (via TechCrunch).
Financial terms were not given for the sale, but it is said to have included 200 employees rejoining Carreel under the Withings brand. Moving forward, Carreel said that the next steps for the renewed Withings brand will be a "relaunch" of its products focused on preventive health coming by the end of 2018.
“I am delighted to start working again with the brilliant teams that made the brand such a great success” said Carreel in a statement. “We have an exciting challenge ahead of us as we continue to push the boundaries of connected health.”
“We are still only just starting to discover what connected health can really bring to people,” said Carreel in a statement. “From now on we must concentrate our efforts on developing tools capable of advanced measurements and the associated services that can help prevent chronic health conditions. Today’s technologies allow us to imagine solutions that have the potential to benefit the lives of millions of people, and our ambition is to ensure that we, as Withings, lead the way with technological advances and intuitive designs.”
Withings offers connected products like scales, activity tracking smart watches, blood pressure monitors, smart thermometers, sleep trackers, and more, and according to TechCrunch it "sounds like it will keep all of these in place" after the relaunch. The news of the deal closing also brought confirmations of an executive shakeup in Nokia, with president Gregory Lee exiting Nokia and Maria Varsellona stepping up to the duty from a chief legal officer position.
In late 2016 Nokia and Apple entered a series of legal battles that began when Nokia sued Apple for patent infringement in the United States and Germany. As the dispute escalated, Apple decided to remove all Withings products from Apple.com and most Apple retail locations around the world, since the connected health devices were at the time under the Nokia umbrella. Although many of the Nokia-branded products have since returned to Apple.com, Withings should have a much easier time selling its smart scales and more when it returns to its original branding scheme later this year.
Apple appears to have opened a new engineering hub in Oregon, expanding the company's presence in the Pacific Northwest tech sector.
Apple Store at Pioneer Place in Portland
The Oregonian via Patently Apple reports that the offices are located in Washington County, near the border between Beaverton and Hillsboro, in the western suburbs of Portland. The building's exact location has not been disclosed.
Apple has already hired close to two-dozen employees to work at the hub, including a number of people who previously held senior research or engineering roles at chipmaker Intel, according to the report. The information was gathered from job postings, social media profiles, and a person familiar with the matter.
Apple poaching Intel engineers has fueled speculation about its rumored plans to release the first ARM-based MacBook as early as 2020, although it's common for major companies to recruit talent from each other.
Intel's largest concentration of facilities and talent is located in Washington County, with four campuses and approximately 20,000 employees as of the end of 2017. Notably, Intel has CPU design teams based out of Oregon that lead development of processors based on 14nm and 10nm fabrication processes.
MacRumors performed a basic job search on Apple's website and came across listings for hardware engineers with expertise in design verification and validation of Apple's system-on-a-chip designs, like the A11 Fusion chip in the latest iPhones. All of the openings have a listed location of Portland, Oregon.
Apple has existing operations in the region, including a software development team in Vancouver, Washington, a data center site in Prineville, and an advanced computation group in southeast Portland, according to the report.
A few days after updating its iOS app to version 3.0, Philips Hue today is launching the "Philips Hue Sync" app for Mac and PC computers. Using the app, users can sync their Hue lights to films, music, and games that they're interacting with for an even more "immersive experience," according to the company.
The app works by creating light scripts for nearby Hue lights, based on screen-grabbed content from the Mac and what Philips calls a "smart color algorithm." With this information gathered, the app then matches the chosen Hue lights to the on-screen action of games and films in real time.
For music, Philips Hue Sync creates light scripts based on the beat and type of song "on the fly," and matches the playing music with dynamic lighting effects. Any of these features can be further customized, including brightness levels, "immersion controls" from subtle to intense, and a mode change for easily switching out the color pallet.
To set up the app, users will need to create a new entertainment area within the updated Philips Hue app on iOS or Android devices. Entertainment areas can encompass everything from one Hue bulb to a collection of devices like Hue Light Strips and table lamps (totaling up to 10 lights), but they most be color capable. Then simply download the Philips Hue Sync app for Mac, connect to a bridge, and choose the new entertainment area in the start-up menu.
Following the 3.0 iOS app update and the new Sync app for Mac, Philips is planning a line of Hue lights for outdoors that will be coming in July. With the outdoor Hue bulbs, users can connect and control their lighting on a patio, balcony, or other environments outside. The new lights include the Philips Hue Lily, which can be used to highlight key features in a garden, and the Philips Hue Calla, which can be placed in the ground and light pathways through outdoor spaces.
Chinese technology firm Xiaomi held a product launch event in Shenzhen today and unveiled the Mi 8, a 6.21-inch OLED smartphone that most observers would agree bears more than a passing resemblance to Apple's flagship iPhone X.
Xiaomi's Mi 8 isn't the first recent smartphone to sport an iPhone X-esque notch and probably won't be the last, but there are several other similarities between the two devices that are worth highlighting.
Xiaomi's eighth-anniversary Mi 8 AMOLED smartphone
For example, the cellular signal, battery, and Wi-Fi symbols sit either side of the notch, just like in iOS 11. In addition, the higher-tier Mi 8 model features the Xiaomi equivalent of Animojis as well as facial authentication – two tentpole features of Apple's iPhone X.
Flipping over the Mi 8 reveals a rear dual-lens camera system in vertical orientation, giving the back of the device an appearance that could be easily mistaken for Apple's smartphone.
The naming convention that Xiaomi has chosen for its new phone also arguably takes a page out of Apple's playbook – the Mi 8 follows the company's previous Mi 6 model, jumping a number in order to mark Xiaomi's eighth anniversary in the smartphone business.
Apple's iPhone X, pronounced "ten", skipped the number 9 and adopted the more flashy Roman numeral to reflect its next-generation technology, while also being a nod to the iPhone's tenth anniversary.
In terms of specs, the Mi 8 packs a 20-mexapixel front-facing camera, while the rear dual-lens array features two 12-megapixel cameras. Xiaomi claims the device's onboard dual GPS enhances location accuracy. This is also the first Android smartphone to use Qualcomm's new Snapdragon 845 chipset, which features on-device AI processing and a Gigabit LTE X20 modem.
Xiaomi's eighth-anniversary Mi 8 AMOLED smartphone
The company also announced a premium Explorer version of the Mi 8, which comes with a pressure-sensitive integrated finger scanner and a semi-transparent rear chassis.
Xiaomi's devices, ranging from televisions to tablets, have been publicly criticized in the past for heavily borrowing design elements from Apple's iPhones and iPads and adopting marketing materials tactics similar to Apple's.
In the most recent case just last year, Apple won the right to prevent Xiaomi from registering its "Mi Pad" mobile tablet device as an EU trademark because the name was deemed too similar to Apple's iPad.
The Xiaomi Mi 8 will be available in China beginning June 5, starting at RMB 2699 ($420), with a smaller 5.88-inch sized "SE" model available June 8 and priced from 1799 RMB (or $280). The Mi 8 Explorer Edition is priced at RMB 3699 ($520) and will be available at a later date.
Xiaomi has recently made a push into European markets, so it stands to reason that the company's latest smartphones will make their way over there in the not-too-distant future. Xiaomi hopes to enter into the U.S. smartphone market by the end of the year.
Pixelmator Pro, a graphics and image editing app from the Pixelmator team, received its first major update today to introduce new features that include MacBook Pro Touch Bar support, new tools for exporting images, auto color adjustment options, a Tutorials page, and more.
The app now includes full support for the Touch Bar on recent 13 and 15-inch MacBook Pro models, providing quick access to tools for making color adjustments, choosing effect presets, selecting colors for brushes, and more. The Touch Bar has been designed to offer up the most useful options whenever you switch to a new tool.
New Export for Web features are designed to allow users to prepare and optimize images for the web with advanced compression techniques in just a few clicks. The Pixelmator team says these tools compress images to the smallest size possible without a loss of quality.
Quick Export offers up a web-friendly image optimized with your most-used settings, while a new Slice tool is meant to make it easier to create web designs by slicing images into smaller images with the option of optimizing each one separately.
There are new Auto White Balance, Auto Lightness, and Auto Hue & Saturation tools that are powered by machine learning. These tools are meant to let users make one-click adjustments to optimize photos. Pixelmator says its machine learning algorithm was trained on millions of images to identify the contents of a photo and select the best lighting, contrast, and colors.
Other new features in Pixelmator Pro include support for opening and exporting vector images using the SVG format, support for exporting HEIF images, live previews when formatting text or tweaking layer blend options, a Select Color Range tool for selecting similarly colored areas of an image, and a whole new Tutorials page designed to help new users learn the ins and outs of Pixelmator Pro.
Dozens of other tweaks and bug fixes have been added, with release notes available on the Pixelmator Pro website.
Pixelmator Pro, which requires macOS High Sierra and a Metal-compatible graphics card, can be downloaded from the Mac App Store for $59.99. [Direct Link]
The 2018 Worldwide Developers Conference is set to kick off in five days, and ahead of the event, Apple has started decorating the McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, California, which is where the conference will take place.
Apple's WWDC 2018 convention center decorations feature the same design as the rest of Apple's WWDC imagery used for the WWDC site, invitations, and app, featuring 3D buttons, toggles, and text on a white background.
Apple has taken over the entire front entrance of the convention center, as it did with last year's decorations. Additional banners and decorations will be added over the course of the weekend.
Since last year, Apple has been hosting WWDC in San Jose, a departure from the many years where the event was held at Moscone West in San Francisco.
The San Jose location is closer to Apple's campuses and office spaces in Cupertino and the rest of the South Bay, and it is also more affordable for developers due to cheaper hotel options in the area.
Apple's 2018 Worldwide Developers Conference will begin on at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time on June 4 with a keynote event where Apple is expected to debut new versions of iOS, macOS, tvOS, and watchOS, perhaps alongside a few hardware surprises that could include refreshed Macs and iPads.
We'll have live coverage of the keynote event both here on MacRumors.com and on our MacRumorsLive Twitter account. Make sure to tune in after the keynote too, as we'll have ongoing coverage of Apple's announcements and new software features throughout the week.
OnePlus announced its new flagship phone, the OnePlus 6 on May 16, taking the opportunity to poke fun at Apple for removing the headphone jack from the iPhone while also copying a key Apple design -- the notch.
The OnePlus 6 is the latest Android phone to adopt a notch, so we thought we'd check it out and compare it to the iPhone X in our latest YouTube video.
The new OnePlus 6 features a 6.28-inch AMOLED display with minimal bezels and a small notch at the top. The notch houses the front-facing camera and ambient light sensors, but it is smaller than the notch on the iPhone X because OnePlus, like other Android manufacturers, has not been able to mimic the full TrueDepth camera system from the iPhone X as of yet.
It does, however, have facial recognition capabilities, but 2D, not 3D. 2D facial recognition is less secure than the 3D facial recognition Apple has implemented and cannot replace a fingerprint sensor as a biometric option.
Like the iPhone X, the OnePlus 6 features an all-glass body, with two vertically positioned rear cameras and a fingerprint sensor for security purposes.
Inside, the OnePlus 6 does have some impressive hardware. It uses Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon 845 processor and it includes 6 to 8GB of RAM, depending on the storage space, which is 64GB at minimum. Comparatively, Apple's latest iPhone X offers just 3GB RAM, but Apple devices tend to use hardware more efficiently due to the tight integration between hardware and software.
OnePlus continues to offer a headphone jack in the OnePlus 6, but did opt to ship the smartphone alongside the $69 OnePlus Bullets Wireless headphones, the company's answer to the AirPods.
What do you think of the OnePlus 6? How does it measure up to the iPhone X? Let us know in the comments.
Earlier in May, MacRumors and Anker launched an exclusive new sale for our readers with discount codes available for a handful of useful Anker accessories. Now that June is fast approaching, the sale is set to end tomorrow, May 31. If you've been holding off on taking advantage of any of the exclusive codes, consider this a friendly reminder to get your orders in today.
All of Anker's products on offer are sold on Amazon, so if you're interested simply add an accessory to your cart, proceed to the checkout screen, enter the relevant promo code into the Gift cards & promotional codes field, and then click "Apply." As usual, Amazon Prime customers can get free two-day shipping on all orders.
Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with these vendors. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.
Products in the sale range from iPhone cases to Lightning cables and wall chargers, so take another look at everything discounted in the list below:
In other reminders, anyone still on the fence about the DirecTV Now/Apple TV 4K promotion should definitely consider their options before the end of the day, as we outlined in an article last week. The promotion for 3 months of DirecTV Now at $105 and a 32GB Apple TV 4K at no extra cost could expire for good tomorrow, but there's still a chance that AT&T will keep the popular sale around for a while longer. Even if it does go away, it's also likely that AT&T will re-up the deal again this fall with new terms, as it has for the past two years.
Later this week, T-Mobile is kicking off the summer with a new buy one, get one sale on smartphones from Apple, Samsung, LG, and more. For Apple, the deal starts June 1 and will let customers buy one iPhone 7, 7 Plus, 8, 8 Plus, or X, and get a second device of equal or lesser value for up to $700 off. Under the offer, users can't mix and match brands, and both devices must be bought on T-Mobile's Equipment Installment Plan. The rebate will be received in the mail through a prepaid MasterCard Card in six to eight weeks.
Below we've rounded up a few other notable deals happening this week, including one of the lowest prices ever for the Beats Studio3 Wireless Over-Ear Headphones at Walmart.
Walmart - Get the Beats Studio3 Wireless Over-Ear Headphones for $214.97 in White, Red, and Blue, down from $349.99
eBay - Save $15 using code P15HOME when shopping in select categories (Home & Garden, Sporting Goods, Baby, Pet Supplies, and Crafts) in the eBay app on iOS or Android
Verizon - Get a $50 Mastercard as a rebate when spending $200 or more on accessories like AirPods, Nest products, Beats, and more (exp. 6/2)
Head over to our full Deals Roundup to catch up with every sale and offer going on as May comes to a close, including another MacRumors exclusive sale, this one with RavPower.
Apple's latest original television series is a half-hour show about the life of poet Emily Dickinson, which is set to star Hailee Steinfeld, reports Variety.
Apple recently gave a straight-to-series order for the show, which is described as a "comedic look into Dickinson's world" that explores the "constraints of society, gender, and family from the perspective of a budding writer who doesn't fit into her own time."
Image via Shutterstock
Emily Dickinson was a prolific American poet known for short lines, slant rhyme, and irregular use of punctuation. Much of her work focused on death and immortality, and she lived a reclusive life.
Hailee Steinfeld will take on the titular role of Emily Dickinson. Steinfeld, who is also a musician, is known for her roles in "True Grit," "Pitch Perfect 2," "Pitch Perfect 3," "Ender's Game," and most notably, 2016 coming of age film "Edge of Seventeen." The Emily Dickinson show will mark Steinfeld's first serious television role.
Alena Smith, who was previously a writer on "The Affair" and "The Newsroom," will serve as writer and executive producer on the series. David Gordon Green, known for "Stronger," Red Oaks," "Vice Principals," and "Pineapple Express" will direct.
Apple has more than a dozen original television shows in the works, which are outlined in our Apple TV roundup. It's not yet clear when we will see the first of the shows debut and on what platform, but rumors have suggested they could start launching in 2019. The first of Apple's shows was picked up in October of 2017, so a 2019 timeline makes some sense.
As Apple prepares to introduce iOS 12 at the Worldwide Developers Conference next Monday, a group known as the Digital Wellness Warriors have launched a petition calling on Apple to allow third-party developers to make changes to the iOS interface and user experience to allow apps to implement digital health features to help users manage their digital wellbeing.
The petition comes amid rumors suggesting Apple is working on implementing several native digital health features into iOS 12, but the scope and content of what Apple's digital health options will include is unknown as of yet.
The Digital Wellness Warriors ask for an open iOS interface SDK that would allow for wellness-related features available through third-party Android apps to be ported over to iOS.
Several examples are listed in the petition, including replacement home screens that would offer "decluttering and dimming," an SMS autoresponder, screen covers to "nudge users towards healthier behaviors," contextual modes for limiting access at certain times, phone usage monitoring, and app usage insights.
We ask that Apple commit to opening its SDK to developers to allow us to make the changes to the iOS interface and user experience that consumers are demanding.
In order to prevent potential abuses of greater access to APIs and permissions, we anticipate and welcome a strict approval process so that well-intended developers can demonstrate how their products will improve the wellbeing of iOS users.
Apple has always maintained strict control over the user experience and design of the iPhone, so it is unlikely that this petition is going to spur the company to introduce an SDK that would allow for developers to make major changes to the interface, even with a stricter review process.
It also seems unlikely to happen as Apple is planning on implementing its own digital health tools in iOS 12, which will perhaps provide details on app usage and screen time along with more robust Do Not Disturb controls for blocking incoming notifications and calls.
The Digital Wellness Warriors, which includes app developers like Siempo, Lilspace, Flipd, HAPPI, Bagby, and others, are asking for signatures on their petition. As of now, the petition has garnered just under 350 signatures.
While CarPlay has become very common in cars over the past several years, most manufacturers are still relying on a wired implementation that requires the user to plug his or her iPhone in using a Lightning cable connected to one of the vehicle's USB ports.
One common justification for the slow adoption of wireless CarPlay has been that the car is an easy place to charge your phone, so it pays to plug it into your car to top off the battery while you're driving. But with Apple's latest iPhones supporting Qi wireless charging and more car manufacturers starting to include Qi charging pads as options on their vehicles, we thought it would be worth taking a look at how such a setup works in the real world.
BMW's Plant Spartanburg
BMW recently invited me down for a tour of Plant Spartanburg in South Carolina, which is BMW's largest plant in the world and produces 1,400 vehicles per day from the X3, X4, X5, and X6 lines. I also got to take part in the Performance Center Delivery program at the BMW Performance Center, a program that is typically available to anyone who purchases a new BMW and elects to pick it up at the factory.
Off-road course at BMW Performance Center
During the program, an instructor introduced me to the capabilities of some of the company's cars, including Dynamic Stability control on the skid pad, ABS handling in panic braking situations, and general vehicle handling on a road course. A follow-up off-road experience in an X3 offered a taste of high-water driving, climbing, descending, moguls, and more. After that, I was oriented on a 2018 X3 M40i and sent off on my own time to test out its capabilities, focusing on the CarPlay integration with BMW's iDrive infotainment system.
2018 BMW X3 M40i
As far as CarPlay goes, it's a fairly standard experience, as Apple primarily controls how the feature functions. On the X3, CarPlay requires the Premium or Executive tier with a widescreen 10.3-inch display that also supports onboard navigation (the standard center display is 6.5 inches), the CarPlay interface takes up the left two-thirds of the screen while a split screen function allows you to display one of a number of widgets such as current audio selection, vehicle information, or other options on the right side of the screen.
Center display with CarPlay in split screen
Wireless CarPlay
Where BMW's CarPlay implementation differs from nearly every other manufacturer is that it's entirely wireless. In fact, wired CarPlay isn't even supported in BMWs, so setup is just a bit more complicated than you might be used to, but the pairing process to get things up and running is still pretty simple.
Pairing for wireless CarPlay happens over Bluetooth for ease of initial data transfer, but the actual CarPlay communication happens over Wi-Fi for a stable, higher-bandwidth connection. It's remarkably convenient to just hop in the car and have CarPlay pop up on the screen without having to take your phone out of your pocket.
CarPlay pairing over Bluetooth
One inconvenience of the wireless-only CarPlay implementation in BMWs is that it's harder for guests to use their phones with the system. If you're in the car every day, it's a minor inconvenience to spend a minute walking through the pairing process the first time you set it up. But for a guest who may only be in the vehicle once, either as driver or passenger, you have to go through that pairing process to add his or her phone to the vehicle rather than simply plugging the iPhone in and granting CarPlay permission.
Wireless Charging and Hotspot
If you're going for a longer drive, you might want to charge your phone while you're in the car, and that normally means plugging in a Lightning cable. It's another accessory to remember, a split second of finickiness as you get the cable plugged in, and then the actual cable draped over your dashboard or center console while you're driving. Some vehicles offer a tidier solution where you can store your phone away while plugged in, such as in the center console, but that too takes a few extra steps.
With the $500 wireless charging and Wi-Fi hotspot option on the X3, you've got a convenient wireless charging pad located right at the front of the center console. You can just toss your phone down onto it, and it begins charging while wireless CarPlay pops up on the display. A small status light near the front edge of the charging pad shines blue while charging and red if things aren't quite right like the alignment is off.
iPhone X on Qi charging pad with status light at front edge
In practice, I found the charging surface quite forgiving in terms of placement, and only once did I run into a red light situation with improper device alignment. The charging surface is plenty large, with even a Plus-sized iPhone in an Apple case fitting with room to spare.
Even Plus-sized iPhones fit comfortably
Charging speeds leave a bit to be desired, however, as I typically found the charging pad only able to maintain or slightly increase the battery level during use. For example, during one 90-minute drive while using Apple Maps via CarPlay, the wireless charger in the X3 was only able to boost my iPhone X battery from 46 percent to 54 percent. Taking time to ensure optimal alignment of the phone with the charging pad might yield a bit better results, but if you're looking for a quick charge this isn't the way to go. Still, it's better than allowing your phone to run down on a long road trip as you're using it for maps, music, and more.
The vehicle will also warn you if you're about to leave your phone in the car on the charging pad, sounding a chime and popping up a warning on the dashboard as you exit the car if a device is still on the charger. It's nice to have a reminder, but I found it sounding a bit too often simply because it takes a second for the charger to recognize the phone has been removed. So if you're like me and the last thing you do before opening the door is grab your phone, you'll still get an occasional warning because the car hasn't realized the phone has already been picked up.
There's one other quirk that stems from the wireless CarPlay setup that's related to its use of Wi-Fi to make the connection. When you're using wireless CarPlay, you can't also connect the phone to the car's Wi-Fi hotspot, as the phone's Wi-Fi connection is already being used. If you try to connect to the hotspot, your iPhone will prompt you that you need to disconnect from CarPlay.
It's not a huge deal, as vehicle Wi-Fi hotspots are most useful for devices that don't have their own cellular access. In fact, you may even have your car as a separate line on the same account as your phone, in which case the data is likely all coming from the same bucket anyway, regardless of whether you're using a direct cellular connection on the phone or routing through the Wi-Fi hotspot.
BMW's Wi-Fi hotspot service is provided by AT&T, and the X3 comes with a free trial lasting three months or 3 GB, whichever comes first. After that, you'll need to subscribe either on a standalone basis or by adding it as a line to an existing account.
CarPlay Subscription Pricing
BMW has generated some controversy with its recent shift in pricing model for CarPlay support. Initially, CarPlay was a standalone $300 option on BMW vehicles, but with the 2019 model year, BMW is shifting to a subscription model. Instead of a separate upfront option charge, CarPlay support is included in any of the packages that support navigation, but only for one year. After that, you'll have to sign up for a subscription priced at $80 per year.
The controversy unsurprisingly centers around this shift to a subscription model, which on the surface appears to make little sense considering there are no ongoing costs to BMW associated with the feature. Once the hardware support for CarPlay is included in the vehicle, it just works, which suggests an upfront fee should be the obvious way to charge for CarPlay.
As BMW tells me, however, the subscription model offers owners more flexibility as technology rapidly evolves. For one, many people who own or lease cars only keep them for a few years, so the subscription model ends up being cheaper than a $300 upfront fee for these users, particularly with the first year free.
Including CarPlay support in all BMWs with navigation also makes it easier for owners to add the service in the future if they decide they want CarPlay or if the vehicle changes owners. A simple software unlock will activate CarPlay once a subscription is purchased, which will even be possible straight from the ConnectedDrive Store right in the car.
Now, I may be in the minority of car owners, but I tend to keep my vehicles for ten years or more, which would make the shift to a subscription model a bad deal for me, so it would be nice if BMW offered the option of a flat fee or a subscription.
Better yet would be if CarPlay was simply part of the navigation package with no additional charges required at all. It would mean non-CarPlay users would be paying for a bundled feature they won't use, but at some point it's worth keeping things simple and just grouping it all together in one package. The incremental cost of supporting CarPlay for manufacturers must be relatively small, as it's available even in fairly low-priced cars at this point, although BMW's wireless CarPlay implementation likely costs them a bit more.
iDrive
BMW's iDrive system has been around for over 15 years and is currently on version 6. Over the years, it's generally regarded as having become one of the most intuitive and best-looking infotainment systems available from car manufacturers, which is a welcome contrast in a field where many manufacturers do a very poor job.
The iDrive system offers three main ways to interface with the system, including the large touchscreen (a recent addition for BMW), a Nuance-based voice assistant, and the iconic iDrive controller knob within easy reach next to the gearshift on the center console.
iDrive controller knob next to gearshift
There's actually even a fourth way of performing some functions, and that's Gesture Control that lets you wave your hand near the dashboard to do things like turn volume up or down and accept or decline phone calls, but it's rather gimmicky when you've got buttons for those functions right at your fingertips on the steering wheel. With 360º camera views around the car, you can even use pinching gestures to pan around the vehicle, but again, the real-world usefulness here is pretty minimal.
360º views
BMW's voice assistant works quite well, and both BMW's assistant and Siri are invoked using the same button on the steering wheel – a quick press activates the BMW assistant, while holding the button brings up Siri.
Assistant/Siri button at bottom right of right-side cluster
The iDrive controller knob is a convenient and powerful control mechanism that allows for a wide variety of inputs within easy reach. The knob itself turns like a dial to scroll through options (including through various interactive buttons in CarPlay), and pressing the knob down registers your selection. The knob can also be rocked forward, backward, and side to side to quickly navigate through the various menu hierarchies.
Text entry unsurprisingly leaves a bit to be desired, as each letter must be selected from a rotary display, but even here BMW has simplified things by making the surface of the knob touch sensitive so you can quickly draw the desired letter with your finger. Either way, text entry is slow and clunky, so you're definitely going to want to use voice input if possible.
Text entry by drawing on top of controller knob
Surrounding the knob is a series of buttons for media, communications, menu, map, options, and a back button. Those will quickly take you straight to the corresponding popular functions, and they even intelligently integrate with CarPlay so that, for example, if you've been using Apple Maps in CarPlay, hitting the Map button will take you there. But if you've been using the onboard navigation, the button will pop up that feature.
The main iDrive 6 display consists of a series of six cards offering functions like media/radio, communications, navigation, vehicle data, notifications, and Connected Drive app services like weather, news, Yelp, and more. The cards can be rearranged as desired.
iDrive main screen
Navigation works quite well, with traffic support and several different viewing options. If you want to dedicate the entire 10.3-inch display to navigation, you can do that, and you'll see a wide panoramic view of the route in front of you.
iDrive navigation in widescreen mode
The Premium tier and above include a heads-up display, which projects your vehicle's speed and the current speed limit onto the windshield in the lower portion of your field of view. It can also pop up audio options as you change stations or sources from the steering wheel, so you don't have to take your eyes off of the road. Finally, it will also show upcoming turns when using the built-in navigation system, and that's one important reason why you might want to use BMW's navigation system rather than CarPlay.
Heads-up display with speed and navigation
Wrap-up
BMW already offers a solid infotainment system in the form of iDrive, but CarPlay provides another option for those users embedded in the Apple ecosystem. With wireless CarPlay and Qi charging support built into the vehicle, everything is nearly seamless, and it's hard to overstate the convenience of having CarPlay just work every time you step into the car. Having to plug in a cable doesn't seem like much of a hurdle, but it's one more thing to think about and an extra few seconds of fumbling when you're just trying to get where you're going.
All of this convenience doesn't come cheaply, however. BMW's aren't entry-level vehicles to begin with, and then you have to add on at least the Premium tier to get the large display with navigation capabilities in order to get CarPlay. On 2018 models, CarPlay support is an additional $300 on top of that. Starting with 2019, there's no additional charge for the first year, but then you're stuck paying for a yearly subscription to access a hardware feature, which is unfortunate.
If you want wireless charging, that's another $500 upfront fee, which does also get you a convenient hotspot to let the kids surf the Internet on their iPads in the back seat, but remember that after three months it's also going involve another monthly fee to AT&T.
Still, if you don't mind opening up your wallet, the combination of wireless CarPlay and Qi charging is undoubtedly handy, and here's hoping it comes to other car brands and trickles down to lower-priced models and packages over time.
Apple today seeded the first beta of an upcoming tvOS 11.4.1 update to developers for testing purposes, one day after releasing tvOS 11.4, an update that introduced support for AirPlay 2.
Designed for the fourth and fifth-generation Apple TV models, the new tvOS 11.4.1 developer beta can be downloaded onto the Apple TV via a profile that's installed using Xcode.
We're not yet sure what fixes and changes the tvOS 11.4.1 update might bring, but it's likely to focus on bugs that have been discovered since the release of tvOS 11.4.
Apple's tvOS updates have historically been minor in scale, and Apple does not often provide us with detailed notes outlining what's new. We'll update this post should anything be found in the beta.
Apple's work on tvOS 11 is winding down as the company is now focusing on tvOS 12, which is set to be unveiled at the Worldwide Developers Conference next week.
Apple today seeded the first beta of an upcoming watchOS 4.3.2 update to developers, one day after releasing watchOS 4.3.1, a minor bug fix update that addressed a startup issue.
Once the proper configuration profile has been installed from the Apple Developer Center, the new watchOS beta can be downloaded through the dedicated Apple Watch app on the iPhone by going to General --> Software update.
To install the update, the Apple Watch needs to have at least 50 percent battery, it must be placed on the charger, and it has to be in range of the iPhone.
It's not yet clear what features will be introduced in the watchOS 4.3.2 update, but as another 4.3.x update, it's likely to be minor in scale, addressing bug fixes and making other small improvements to the operating system.
watchOS 4.3.2 is likely to be one of the final updates to the watchOS 4 operating system. Apple has begun work on watchOS 5, which will be provided to developers next week at the 2018 Worldwide Developers Conference.
Apple today seeded the first beta of an upcoming macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 update to developers for testing purposes, which comes as macOS 10.13.5, an update that's expected to include Messages in iCloud, is still in testing.
The new macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 beta can be downloaded through the Software Update mechanism in the Mac App Store with the proper profile installed.
We don't yet know what improvements the sixth update to macOS High Sierra will bring, but it likely focuses on bug fixes and performance improvements for issues that were not able to be addressed in macOS High Sierra 10.13.5.
We'll update this post if any new features or notable bug fixes are discovered in the new macOS 10.13.6 beta.
Work on macOS High Sierra is wrapping up, with Apple now shifting focus to the next-generation version of macOS, macOS 10.14, which will be unveiled next week at the Worldwide Developers Conference.
Apple today seeded the first beta of an upcoming iOS 11.4.1 update to developers, one day after releasing iOS 11.4, an update that introduced AirPlay 2 and Messages in iCloud.
Registered developers can download the new iOS 11.4.1 beta from Apple's Developer Center or over-the-air once the proper configuration profile has been installed from the Developer Center.
We don't know what new features are included in the iOS 11.4.1 beta, but it is likely to focus on bug fixes and performance improvements to address issues discovered since the release of iOS 11.4.
Apple's work on iOS 11 is wrapping up, as iOS 12 is set to be released to developers next week following the keynote event of the 2018 Worldwide Developers Conference.
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