MacRumors

Apple today seeded the fourth beta of an upcoming iOS 11.4 update to developers, one week after seeding the third beta and over a month after releasing iOS 11.3, a major update that introduced several new features.

Registered developers can download the new iOS 11.4 beta from Apple's Developer Center or over-the-air once the proper configuration profile has been installed from the Developer Center.

The iOS 11.4 update introduces a new ClassKit framework for educational institutions, which supports new features announced at Apple's March 27 education-focused event.

For regular users, the iOS 11.4 update adds features that were originally present in the iOS 11.3 beta but removed ahead of release.

It includes support for Messages on iCloud, designed to store your iMessages in iCloud rather than on each individual device, allowing for improved syncing capabilities. Currently, incoming iMessages are sent to all devices where you're signed in to your Apple ID, but there is no true cross-device syncing.

Messages on iCloud will allow you to download all of your iMessages on new devices, and a message deleted on one device will remove it on all devices. Older messages and attachments are also stored in iCloud rather than on-device, saving valuable storage space.

The iOS 11.4 update also includes AirPlay 2 features, with the Apple TV once again available in the Home app. With AirPlay 2, the same audio content can be played in multiple rooms on devices that support AirPlay 2. AirPlay 2 includes a feature that lets you ask Siri on one device to play content on another AirPlay 2-enabled device. So, for example, you can ask Siri on iPhone to play content on your Apple TV in another room if you're running the iOS 11.4 and tvOS 11.4 betas.

There were initially signs of support for HomePod stereo sound in the first iOS 11.4 beta, a long-promised feature, but stereo sound didn't work properly and the mention was removed in the second beta. It's not clear if it will return for the update's release.

For the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus, there is a new (PRODUCT)RED wallpaper available, which is not available on iPhone X.

iOS 11.3, the previous update to iOS 11, introduced a new Battery Health feature for monitoring the status of your iPhone's battery, Business Chat for iMessage, which lets you communicate with companies directly in the Messages app, ARKit 1.5 with augmented reality improvements, new Animoji on iPhone X, Health Records from participating medical providers, and more.

Update: Apple has made a new version of iOS 11.4 available to public beta testers.

Apple's stock price has established a new all-time high, as shares exchanged hands for slightly above $187 in intraday trading today.

Apple's stock price has been steadily increasing for over a week, driven by the company's successful earnings report on May 1 and Berkshire Hathaway buying 75 million additional Apple shares in the first three months of 2018. North American stock markets have also been rallying in general since Friday.

Berkshire Hathaway now holds 240.3 million shares in Apple, worth over $44 billion at the stock's current price, and the holding company's billionaire CEO Warren Buffett continues to praise the company with bullish comments.

"I clearly like Apple… we bought about five percent of the company. I'd love to own 100 percent of it," he quipped, in an interview with CNBC. "We like very much the economics of their activities, and we like very much the management and the way they think, and the way they act," he added.

Buffett was only joking about his intention of owning 100 percent of Apple shares, which wouldn't be possible due to financial and regulatory considerations, but the comment is a testament to his confidence in the iPhone maker.

Buffett wasn't the only billionaire to offer praise, as Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said Apple is an "amazing company" in an interview with CNBC, at Berkshire Hathaway's annual meeting. "The top tech companies do have a very strong profit position right now but Apple has the most of all."

Apple now has a market cap fluctuating around the $915 billion mark, as it inches closer to becoming the world's only trillion dollar publicly traded company. Amazon is second closest to that milestone, with a market cap around the $775 billion mark, followed by Microsoft and Google's parent company Alphabet.

In a research note following Apple's earnings results last week, Apple-focused analyst Brian White said Apple remains "one of the most underappreciated stocks in the world with a valuation that remains depressed."

"After the Apple supply chain came crashing down over the past couple of weeks and the market quickly cast an ominous dark cloud over Apple's stock, the company delivered strong second quarter results last night and a solid outlook," wrote White, in a note obtained by MacRumors. "Moreover, Apple minted a new $100 billion stock repurchase program and hiked its dividend by 16 percent."

Looking ahead, Apple's guidance of between $51.5 billion and $53.5 billion in revenue in the third quarter of its 2018 fiscal year would be an all-time high for that period. Its current record for the quarter is $49.6 billion in 2015.

Apple is likely to launch at least one new iPhone model with a triple-lens rear camera in the second half of next year, according to the Taipei Times, citing a research note from Yuanta Securities analyst Jeff Pu.

The report does not provide any additional details, but a Chinese report from the Economic Daily News last month suggested the camera system will have a 6P lens design with up to 5x zoom and at least one 12-megapixel lens.

The addition of a third lens would likely enable 3x optical zoom on an iPhone for the first time, enabling users to magnify the image in the viewfinder by up to 3x without a blurry reduction in quality like digital zoom. iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone 8 Plus, and iPhone X models feature 2x optical zoom for comparison.

A triple-lens rear camera would likely be a feature reserved for Apple's highest-end iPhones, so if accurate, this rumor probably applies to a third-generation iPhone X and/or iPhone X Plus launching around September 2019.

Huawei's new P20 Pro smartphone is the first with a triple-lens rear camera system, including a 40-megapixel lens, a 20-megapixel monochrome lens, and an 8-megapixel telephoto lens with 3x optical zoom. The Verge's Vlad Savov said he prefers the P20 Pro's camera over those on the iPhone X and Galaxy S9.

For anyone hoping this might be a 2018 move instead, former KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has previously ruled out any significant changes occurring to the iPhone X's current dual-lens rear camera system this year.

Today marks the 20th anniversary of the late Steve Jobs introducing the iMac, in what has become a defining moment in Apple's storied history. Apple CEO Tim Cook commemorated the occasion on Twitter today.

"This is iMac," said Jobs, who had returned to the helm of Apple as interim CEO just eight months prior, after being ousted from the company twelve years earlier. A large crowd erupted with applause at the Flint Center, the same theater where Jobs unveiled the original Macintosh back in 1984.

The excitement centered upon the fact that the iMac didn't look anything like other desktop PCs of the time. This wasn't a typical boxy monitor-and-tower in dull beige. This was an all-in-one machine with curvy, translucent plastic, first in bondi blue, and later in several other colors of the rainbow.

Jobs was as charismatic as always on stage:

This is iMac. The whole thing is translucent. You can see into it. It's so cool. We've got stereo speakers on the front. We've got infrared right up here. We've got the CD-ROM drive right in the middle. We've got dual stereo headphone jacks. We've got the coolest mouse on the planet right here. All of the connectors are inside one beautiful little door here—the Ethernet, the USB stuff. Around the back, we've got a really great handle here. The back of this thing looks better than the front of the other guys, by the way.

iMac was all about getting everyday people connected to the internet. In fact, the letter I in iMac stood for internet, according to Ken Segall, the creative director who came up with the name for the computer. It also stood for individual, instruct, inform, and inspire, according to Apple's presentation.

More importantly, the iMac was a turning point for Apple, a company that had lost its direction by the mid-1990s. Apple was hundreds of millions of dollars in debt, had a bloated product lineup with over a dozen Macintosh models, and seemed to lack a clear plan forward. That is, until Jobs stepped in.

Jobs aimed to simplify Apple's product lineup with a four-quadrant product matrix, with one desktop computer and one portable computer for consumers and professionals respectively. iMac filled the consumer-desktop quadrant.

Jobs in Apple's press release for the iMac:

We designed iMac to deliver the things consumers care about most—the excitement of the Internet and the simplicity of the Mac. iMac is next year's computer for $1299; not last year's computer for $999.

Today we brought romance and innovation back into the industry. iMac reminds everyone of what Apple stands for.

The original iMac pioneered many industry firsts such as USB, FireWire, and quiet fan-less operation, and while the removal of the floppy drive and legacy ports was controversial, the computer ultimately pushed the industry forward.

The original iMac's tech specs:

• PowerPC G3 processor clocked at 233MHz
  

• 15-inch display with 1,024×768 resolution
  

• Two USB ports and Ethernet with a built-in software modem
  

• 4GB hard drive
  

• 32MB of RAM, expandable to 128MB
  

• 24x CD-ROM drive
  

• Built-in stereo speakers with SRS sound
  

• Apple-designed USB keyboard and mouse
  

• Mac OS 8.1

The strategy was effective, as the iMac kickstarted Apple's return to profitability, just months after it flirted with potential bankruptcy. iMac sales topped 278,000 units in the first six weeks, and in October 1998, Apple reported earnings of $106 million in its fourth quarter, contributing to its first profitable year since 1995.

The naming scheme lived on with the iPod in 2001, iPhone in 2007, and iPad in 2010, products that led Apple to become the world's most valuable company.

The success of the iMac was due in part to a significant marketing campaign developed by ad agency TBWA/Chiat/Day. The ads, both in print and video form, focused on the iMac's design and the simplicity of both setting it up and connecting to the internet. A few of the spots featured actor Jeff Goldblum.

A sampling of taglines from the campaign:

• Yum.
  

• Sorry, no beige.
  

• Chic. Not geek.
  

• High-technicolor.
  

• No artificial colors.
  

• The rebirth of cool.
  

• The most colorful way to the Internet.
  

• Family vehicles for the information superhighway.
  

• The thrill of surfing. The agony of choosing a color.
  

• The most dramatically new Macintosh since the original.

In the two decades since, the iMac has undergone several revisions, keeping up with rapid technological advancements. Over those years, Apple's attention to both design and function hasn't wavered.

In 2002, the iMac received its first significant redesign, with a thin flat-panel display affixed to a white semicircular base with a cantilevered metal arm. In 2004, Apple integrated the main logic board, optical drive, and other components behind the display, allowing for a thinner aluminum stand.

In 2007, Apple ditched white plastic and gave the iMac an aluminum enclosure backed by black plastic. A model with a complete aluminum unibody enclosure was released in 2009, and slimmed down in 2012. In 2014, the iMac gained 4K and 5K Retina displays. And, in 2017, the powerful iMac Pro was released.

It is 1998, though, that will always be remembered as the year Apple started a new chapter of success. Happy birthday to the iMac.

Apple has several major iPad-focused features planned for next year's iOS 13 update, codenamed "Yukon," according to information shared by Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman on Twitter.

Apple is said to be working on a revamped Files app, in-app tabs similar to the tabs that are available in macOS apps, support for using the same app side-by-side in Split View multitasking mode, and unspecified improvements to Apple Pencil. Some of this information was previously shared by Gurman in reports on Bloomberg, but details such as a revamped Files app are new.

Gurman also previously said that some features originally planned for iOS 12 will be pushed back to iOS 13 to allow Apple to work on bug fixes and performance improvements. These features include a redesigned Home screen (which will include changes on the iPad) and a revamped Photos app.

iOS 11, the current version of iOS, was also an iPad-focused update, introducing the Files app, a revamped iPad dock, a new App Switcher, Drag and Drop support, new Apple Pencil features like Instant Markup and Instant Notes, a redesigned QuickType keyboard, and more.

iOS 12, coming this year, will offer fewer new features than Apple had originally planned, but Gurman believes Apple will introduce at least one major change that also affects macOS 10.14 - support for cross-platform apps. Apple is said to be working to implement features that would allow apps designed for the iPhone and the iPad to run on the Mac, but there has been some disagreement over when this feature will debut.

Daring Fireball's John Gruber says Apple will not introduce this functionality until iOS 13 and macOS 10.15, so it is unclear if it will indeed be coming in iOS 12. Gurman does, however, often share accurate information on Apple's software updates ahead of their release.

Other features planned for iOS 12 include additional Animoji characters, a new Animoji interface and Animojis on iPad, FaceTime support for Animoji, updated parental controls with a new Digital Health tool to allow parents to better monitor screen time, a revamped Stocks app, an enhanced version of Do Not Disturb, and support for multiplayer augmented reality games.

Apple will unveil iOS 12, macOS 10.14, tvOS 12, and watchOS 5 at its upcoming Worldwide Developers Conference that kicks off on Monday, June 4. The first day will include a keynote event where Apple will share all of the new features coming in the software updates, and following the keynote, developers will be provided with access to the software to begin to prepare their apps ahead of a fall public launch.

Mercedes-Benz has confirmed that its new MBUX infotainment system will feature support for wireless CarPlay in future vehicles.

The all-new 2019 A-Class will be Mercedes-Benz's first vehicle equipped with the MBUX system when it goes on sale later this year, according to a spokesperson for the automaker's parent company Daimler in Germany. Wireless CarPlay will expand to other new Mercedes-Benz vehicles in 2019, the spokesperson told MacRumors.

The automaker previously announced that the 2019 A-Class will be available in a sedan model in the United States, while a hatchback version will also be sold in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and select other regions. The spokesperson said wireless CarPlay will be available in all of those markets.

A spokesperson for Mercedes-Benz in the United States declined to comment on MBUX's wireless capabilities until midsummer. It's still early, so it's possible the company's exact vehicle and market rollout of wireless CarPlay could change.

Barring announcements from other automakers, Mercedes-Benz will likely become the second to offer vehicles with wireless CarPlay functionality, after BMW rolled out the feature starting with its 2017 5 Series a few years ago. Apple first introduced wireless CarPlay in 2015 alongside iOS 9.

Alpine Electronics also offers an aftermarket infotainment system with wireless CarPlay for self-installations in other vehicles.

Every other automaker that offers CarPlay currently uses a wired implementation that requires connecting the iPhone to the system with a Lightning to USB cable. The platform is available in well over 300 vehicle models, and it's generally considered to be a highly desired feature with strong customer satisfaction.

Following its acquisition by Apple, Texture this week announced plans to shutter its Texture magazine subscription app for Windows users at the end of June.

As noted by The Verge, Texture recently sent out emails to its users letting them know that the Windows service will be discontinued on June 30th, and the company also added a notice to its website.

Texture says the Windows app, which has not been updated in some time, is being shut down to "keep things working smoothly." The discontinuation of the app may have been on the horizon regardless of the acquisition by Apple based on its infrequent updates and poor reviews.

Texture is an all-access pass to the world's best magazines. To keep things working smoothly, older versions of the app sometimes need to be retired. After June 30th, 2018, the Texture Windows app will no longer be available. Your Texture subscription will continue to be available on compatible phones or tablets running iOS or Android and on Fire HD tablets along with ongoing access to all the magazines you have selected as your favorites.

Windows users who are losing access to Texture through the Windows platform will be able to continue to access Texture using smartphones and tablets running iOS or Android, but there will no longer be a way to read Texture magazines on a Windows PC.

Apple first announced plans to acquire Texture in mid-March. At the time, Apple iTunes chief Eddy Cue said Apple was "committed to quality journalism from trusted sources and allowing magazines to keep producing beautifully designed and engaging stories for users."

For those unfamiliar with the service, Texture offers subscribers unlimited access to more than 200 digital magazines for $9.99 per month. Available titles include major magazines like Cosmopolitan, People, Better Homes and Gardens, Time, Bloomberg Businessweek, Forbes, Condé Nast Traveler, Allure, Billboard, Town & Country, ELLE, Good Housekeeping, National Geographic, Rolling Stone, Vogue, and more.

Rumors have suggested Apple plans to use its Texture acquisition to launch an upgraded Apple News app with a subscription-based news service that would include Texture's magazine subscription options.

The news subscription option, which would be similar to Apple Music but for news and magazines, would provide a boost to Apple's growing services category.