MacRumors

Apple today donated $5 million to the Hand in Hand: A Benefit for Hurricane Relief Fund to support those who have been affected by both Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma.

Hand in Hand is planning to host a live telethon on Tuesday, September 12 to raise additional money for hurricane relief efforts. Proceeds from the upcoming telethon will benefit the Rebuild Texas Fund, Feeding Texas, Save the Children, United Way, Habitat for Humanity, and DirectRelief.

Celebrities and performers like George Clooney, Matthew McConaughey, Justin Bieber, Beyonce, Stephen Colbert, Julia Roberts, Robert De Niro, Ellen DeGeneres, Drake, Jamie Foxx, Tom Hanks, Barbra Streisand, Oprah Winfrey, and more are set to make appearances during the telethon.

In addition to donating $5 million, Apple is also planning to allow Apple customers to donate to Hand in Hand through the App Store and iTunes as if often does in similar disaster situations.

"On behalf of everyone at Apple, our hearts go out to the millions of people whose lives have been disrupted by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, and the many more still bracing for Irma's impact," said Apple's CEO Tim Cook. "We applaud Hand in Hand for bringing together people from all over the country to help one another at a time when so many desperately need it. In addition to Apple's direct contribution to the relief and recovery efforts, we're making it easy for anyone in the US to make their own donations to Hand in Hand through the App Store and iTunes."

Apple last week donated $2 million to the Red Cross to benefit those affected by Hurricane Harvey, and raised an additional $1 million through employee and iTunes donations.

Hurricane Harvey caused widespread flooding and destruction in Texas and Louisiana last week, while Hurricane Irma, now a category 4 storm, is forecasted to make landfall in Florida this weekend. Irma hit Puerto Rico and several Caribbean islands over the course of the week, with St. Martin, St. Barts, Anguilla, Barbuda, and the British and U.S. Virgin Islands seeing some of the worst devastation.

Apple today updated its official WWDC app to version 6.0.2, introducing a handful of bug fixes and bringing Handoff support for the app for the first time.

With Handoff, you can begin watching a video in the WWDC app and continue it on another iOS device or in the Safari browser on a Mac by tapping the Handoff icon as you would with any other Handoff interaction.

Along with Handoff support, the app introduces improved navigation on the Apple TV when swiping up and down, it makes sure previously downloaded videos remain available when switching between HD and SD, and it fixes an issue that caused previously downloaded videos to be lost when upgrading.

Apple's WWDC app is the official app for the Worldwide Developers Conference. It houses all of the WWDC videos from sessions that have been conducted over the years and allows them to be streamed on iOS devices and the Apple TV.

During conferences, it also provides times for sessions and labs, indoor event mapping, full schedules, and important news updates.

The WWDC app can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]

Today we've rounded up some of the past week's best deals that have come to Apple products, accessories, and apps, all of which are still alive at the time of writing. If you're looking for discounts on newer models of the MacBook Pro, B&H Photo has discounted special configurations of both the late 2016 models by up to $700, and the mid 2017 models by up to $200. These include MacBook Pros both with and without the Touch Bar. Check out more details in the lists below:

MacBook Pro

Late 2016

• 13-inch MacBook Pro: 2.0 GHz CPU, 256GB SSD, 8GB RAM, Intel Iris Graphics 540 - $1,199.00, down from $1,499.00

• 15-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar: 2.6 GHz CPU, 256GB SSD, 16GB RAM, AMD Radeon Pro 450 - $1,899.00, down from $2,399.00

• 15-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar: 2.7 GHz CPU, 512GB SSD, 16GB RAM, AMD Radeon Pro 455 - $2,099.00, down from $2,799.00

Mid 2017

• 13-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar: 3.1 GHz CPU, 256GB SSD, 16GB RAM, Intel Iris Plus Graphics 650 - $1,899.00, down from $1,999.00

• 13-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar: 3.1 GHz CPU, 512GB SSD, 16GB RAM, Intel Iris Plus Graphics 650 - $2,099.00, down from $2,199

• 15-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar: 3.1 GHz CPU, 1T SSD, 16GB RAM, AMD Radeon Pro 560 Graphics - $3,199.00, down from $3,399.00

Accessories

Although Force Friday II was last weekend, many of the toys sold during the promotion have already been discounted. B&H Photo has three of PROPEL's Star Wars-themed drones marked down by $20, including the T-65 X-Wing Star Fighter Quadcopter, TIE Advanced X1 Quadcopter, and 74-Z Speeder Bike Quadcopter. Each drone can be controlled by an iOS or Android smartphone and can fly with speeds of up to 35mph.

Best Buy has discounts on a few Apple accessories, including $10-$30 off a wide variety of Speck cases for the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air. You can also get $50-$60 off select Ultimate Ears Bluetooth speakers, including the UE Boom 2 and UE Megaboom. This brings the price of the speakers down to as low as $139.99 for the UE Boom 2, and $249.99 for the UE Megaboom. DailySteals has the smaller UE Roll 2 on sale for $54.99, down from $99.99.

Even cheaper than Speck's cases at Best Buy are two Insignia Hard Shell accessories: one for the 13-inch MacBook Air and one for the older model 13-inch MacBook Pro. Both cases are priced at $6.99, down from $34.99.

At Costco, iTunes gift cards are on sale for members only: get $20 off a $200 iTunes gift card, $10 off a $100 card, and $2.50 off a $25 card. The deal ends September 11, and the codes are delivered to your email.

Apps and Games

Along with the usual iOS app sales, this week The Humble Store has an End of Summer sale occurring with big sales on notable games that you can play on a compatible Mac computer via Steam. Some games taking part in the sale include The Walking Dead: Season 1 for free, down from $24.99; Alien: Isolation The Collection for $12.49, down from $49.99; Mad Max for $7.99, down from $19.99; Broken Age for $3.99, down from $19.99; and Gone Home for $5.99, down from $14.99.

Thousands of more games are on sale through September 21, although sales on certain games will end before that. At the top right of each game's page, you'll find a countdown clock that serves as a reminder of how long before that game's discount ends. Be sure to double check that the games are compatible with Mac by looking for the Apple logo in the "Platform" and "Operating System" fields on the bottom left of each page.

Some iOS apps on sale this week worth checking out include:

• Batman - The Telltale Series - Free (Episode One), down from $4.99

• Streaks Workout - Free, down from $2.99

There are plenty more deals to discover, so visit our Deals Roundup for more discounts on Apple products and accessories, including a list of items marked down for Walmart's End of Summer Sale.

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with some of these vendors

This week over on TouchArcade has been all about playing catch up after attending PAX West in Seattle. If you've never been to a PAX event, and are at all into any aspect of gamer culture, I promise you'll have a very good time there. Whether you're into card games, board games, video games, or any other form of gaming you'll find something there for you. It's really sort of incredible just how welcoming PAX events are, and how much there is to do. For our purposes, the show floor was packed with mobile games, even though mobile was by no means the star of the show.

We loved the original Reigns and have been closely following the development of its sequel, Reigns: Her Majesty. We got a walkthrough of the game with its creator, and the sequel is shaping up to be exactly what we wanted: More Reigns. This time around you play as a queen, there are loads more cards, and there's a zodiac system which puts a unique spin on every new play through. It sounds like there are many other secrets and discoveries to be made while playing, but they're keeping those things close to their chest until the game is released.

Hidden deep inside of the Square Enix booth at PAX was a playable version of Final Fantasy XV: Pocket Edition which we spent a good twenty minutes with. The game is everything we'd hoped it would be, and the first playable episode seems surprisingly one to one with the "full" console version of the game. All of the dialog is there, the quests seem the same, the level-up system feels identical, and overall it looks as if they're delivering on the promise of having a full-featured version of Final Fantasy XV for mobile. Details are still few and far between regarding when it'll specifically be released, but, it's going to be a premium episodic game with the first taste that we played given away for free.

Armello is a digital board game that has had a fascinating lifecycle so far. It was originally pitched as an iPad game back in 2011, but when the game was finally finished it ended up being released on Steam and consoles. The pivot to other platforms turned out incredibly well for developer League of Geeks, who have continued to release loads of additional content for the title. At PAX we experienced one of the things that's the most fun about covering mobile: When a developer just says, "Hey, check this out," and pulls a game out of their pocket. It'd seem Armello is finally on its way to iOS, even if it is a good six years late. The game has been received so well on other platforms, at this point I'm just excited to finally have it on my iPhone.

We saw tons more games at PAX, so if following upcoming iOS titles is something you're in to, check out our full roundup post for links to everything we saw.

For years now, it's felt like Wizards of the Coast has been struggling to figure out what to do with digital versions of Magic the Gathering. Magic Duels was the last attempt, and while we had overall positive first impressions, the game ended up with a unique problem: Due to design decisions and deck limitations, Duels ended up being too casual for hardcore Magic players and too hardcore for casual Magic players. It never seemed to find its audience, and support for the game was dropped this summer.

Yesterday, Wizards revealed Magic the Gathering Arena, which seems to double down on providing a "real" Magic experience while making a client that looks exponentially nicer than Magic Online. This hopefully should allow Wizards to regain some ground in the Twitch viewing and esports department that Hearthstone has stolen away. While the beta is currently only available on PC, they've stressed that it's built in Unity and will be coming to every platform that makes sense — making a Mac and mobile release feel unbelievably inevitable.

Speaking of Hearthstone and esports, this week Blizzard announced a brand new venue called the "Blizzard Arena" in Los Angeles which is said to be a "cutting-edge, live-event destination." There aren't a ton of details yet on what the Blizzard Arena is going to be like, but if nothing else it's pretty incredible that we're living in an age where video games are getting popular enough that companies are building entire stadiums to host their games being played as esports. If you thought this whole "esports" thing was a fad, well, this is one of the (many) nails in the coffin of that line of thinking.

In Pokemon Go news, Niantic is hinting at both Pokemon trading and peer to peer battling coming to the game. The interview with Bloomberg details the vision for the future of the game, which I've got to admit, sounds pretty awesome. That being said, while I realize the game is still very popular, I as well as everyone I know locally eventually ended up getting bored of it and stopped playing. I'd love to see a parallel universe where Pokemon Go had simply launched with all of these features they see in their "vision." I bet it would be significantly more popular than it is now, as Niantic allowed way too many people to get tired of the early game where there really wasn't anything else to do beyond wander around, catch Pokemon, and participate in gym battles.

A ton more happened this week in the world of mobile gaming, but most of my time was consumed with PAX. Definitely check out our PAX roundup, and for way more news, reviews, game releases, and everything else you'd ever need to follow along with iOS gaming be sure to visit TouchArcade!

For this week's giveaway, we've once again teamed up with BlackPods to offer MacRumors readers a chance to win a pair of AirPods that have been painted black to better match darker devices. Our last BlackPods giveaway was one of the most popular we've done, so we thought we'd get a second pair of BlackPods out to one of you.

If you missed our first giveaway, BlackPods takes a set of Apple's AirPods and then paints them using a proprietary coating system that's been designed just for the AirPods. It uses a three-phase finishing procedure for a high-quality finish, and each pair of BlackPods is completed by hand and given a "rigorous" quality inspection.

BlackPods sells the BlackPods Classic in a high-gloss black finish, and the BlackPods Stealth in a matte satin finish. The company charges $279 for the BlackPods Classic, while the BlackPods Stealth are priced at $299. Apple's AirPods are normally priced at $159, so that's a $120 to $140 premium, but the finish is impeccable and is otherwise unobtainable.

Along with selling finished sets of painted AirPods, BlackPods also allows customers to send previously purchased AirPods for customization. The painting service costs $99 for glossy black and $119 for matte black. The process takes approximately 10 days and covers both the AirPods and the Case.

BlackPods are simply re-painted AirPods, so the functionality is the same as standard AirPods directly from Apple, with a W1 chip for simple pairing, long battery life, accelerometer-based ear detection, and gesture support.

We have one full set of BlackPods to give away to a MacRumors reader, with the winner able to choose either the Stealth or Classic finish. To enter to win, use the Rafflecopter widget below and enter an email address. Email addresses will be used solely for contact purposes to reach the winner and send the prize. You can earn additional entries by subscribing to our weekly newsletter, subscribing to our YouTube channel, following us on Twitter, or visiting the MacRumors Facebook page.

Due to the complexities of international laws regarding giveaways, only U.S. residents who are 18 years of age or older are eligible to enter. To offer feedback or get more information on the giveaway restrictions, please refer to our Site Feedback section, as that is where discussion of the rules will be redirected.

The contest will run from today (September 8) at 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time through 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time on September 15. The winner will be chosen randomly on September 15 and will be contacted by email. The winner will have 48 hours to respond and provide a shipping address before a new winner is chosen.

Western Digital recently introduced its newest SanDisk-branded backup product for iOS devices, the SanDisk iXpand Base, which combines nightly charging with backing up to make for an easy and intuitive way to protect your data.

The idea is to put the iXpand Base on your nightstand, plug it into the wall, and then plug your iPhone into the Lightning port at night. This charges the iPhone and allows it to transfer your photos, videos, and contacts to the Base for the purpose of backing up.

Design

The iXpand Base is a palm-sized tapered surface that's designed to serve as a sort of platform on which to rest your iPhone while it charges at night. The bottom of the base is made from aluminum, while the top is covered in a soft, textured rubber material that keeps the iPhone securely on its surface.

At the back, there's an SD card slot that houses an SD card where your backups are stored and there's a microUSB cable that is attached to a plug that provides power to the Base.

➜ Click here to read more...

Apple is facing an uphill struggle in its attempts to wean Chinese smartphone users off cheaper rival devices in a saturated mobile market, according to a new Bloomberg report.

With Apple gearing up to sell its most ambitious but most expensive iPhone yet, local competitors like Huawei, Oppo, and Xiaomi are already poised to compete by launching their own less expensive feature-packed devices around Apple's September 12 "iPhone 8" launch date.

While it sticks to a global template that's served it well, local vendors have become adept at technology design while tailoring phones to local tastes, such as with dual SIM capability. In a show of confidence, Huawei Technologies Co., Xiaomi Corp. and likely Vivo -- far from front-running or avoiding the iPhone the way movie studios juggle summer tentpoles -- are tackling the U.S. company head-on by timing new products around the publicity avalanche sure to engulf Apple’s Sept. 12 launch.

"The challenge comes from Vivo, Oppo and Huawei, they can replace Apple in high-end markets priced around $500, even as Apple remains dominant in the ultra high-end $600 plus segment," said Kiranjeet Kaur, an analyst with industry consultancy IDC. "We don't expect big growth as China's market is now very saturated. The biggest demand for the new iPhone will come from the replacement market."

Part of the problem is that many of the features Apple will debut in its so-called "iPhone 8", such as a full-screen display and wireless charging, are already available in some form to consumers in China, albeit at a much lower price point. Adding to the difficulty is that local vendors have become more skilled at efficient smartphone design and are particularly adept at tailoring smartphones to local preferences.

On the software side, the ubiquitous WeChat app has been described as the iPhone's "toughest rival" in the country. The app offers users an entire ecosystem where they can pay for services, text, call cabs, watch videos, play mobile games, and access cloud-based "mini programs", or apps that don't need to be downloaded to a device to be used. WeChat is said to have captured nearly 35 percent of each user's monthly smartphone usage time, averaging about 1 billion monthly active users in total.

Combined, these market factors make it increasingly difficult for Apple to prise away users from rival devices and platforms, which doesn't bode well in a market which the company has historically struggled to penetrate.

To counter these obstacles, Apple has previewed new features coming in iOS 11 that specifically cater to Chinese customers, such as QR code scanning with the native camera app, a keyboard that makes Chinese characters easier to input, and a new mapping app that shows traffic camera locations.

But with supply of new iPhones expected to be tight in the upcoming months, Apple's Chinese rivals may be seeing their best chance yet to lure buyers away with features aimed at local users, such as dual SIM devices that support multiple phone numbers, high capacity memory and storage, and advanced selfie cameras.

Apple and the iPhone have taken fourth place in China, behind Oppo, Vivo, and Huawei, according to market research firm Warren Captial, while in April Kantar Worldpanel's data noted that iOS dropped to its lowest share of the China smartphone market since 2014.

Canalys estimates Apple's Chinese smartphone shipments will grow by just 1.4 percent to 22.5 million units in the second half of 2017. Meanwhile, the upcoming OLED iPhone's rumored $1,000-plus price tag may end up pushing iOS fans toward local alternatives, "because even well-heeled buyers are price-sensitive", said Jia Mo, an analyst from Canalys.

Update: In a lengthy post last week, Neil Cybart at Above Avalon came to a different conclusion, arguing that consolidation in the Chinese smartphone market has seen top vendors increase their shares more at the expense of smaller Android vendors than Apple.

Cybart believes Apple's pricing premium in China means the company operates largely in a separate market from other manufacturers, and following the combination of expansion to China Mobile and the launch of the larger-screen iPhone 6 in 2014, it has been "much harder for Apple to find pockets of premium users in China ready to buy their first iPhone."

Fitbit has announced a new partnership with glucose monitoring device company Dexcom that is set to bring diabetes monitoring capabilities to the fitness tracker company's new Ionic smartwatch.

The deal initially means Ionic users will be able to connect a Dexcom device to the Fitbit app and seamlessly transfer up-to-date glucose level data to the smartwatch, making the information more easily accessible on their wrist.

"The collaboration between Dexcom and Fitbit is an important step in providing useful information to people with diabetes that is both convenient and discreet," said Kevin Sayer, President and CEO, Dexcom. "We believe that providing Dexcom CGM data on Fitbit Ionic, and making that experience available to users of both Android and iOS devices, will have a positive impact on the way people manage their diabetes."

There's nothing in the partnership to suggest the Ionic smartwatch will be able to give continuous glucose monitoring readouts on its own when it's released next month – current continuous glucose monitoring systems require a small sensor that's worn under the skin to monitor glucose levels – but Fitbit shares jumped 13 percent on the news, a high for the company since January, when it laid off some of its employees and announced its smartwatch plans.

Dexcom also has a deal with Apple to bring its features to the Apple Watch this year, while owners of Dexcom monitors can already view their glucose data on an Apple Watch – advanced devices by Dexcom include a transmitter, which can display glucose information directly to an iPhone app.

Apple is thought to be working on a non-invasive real-time glucose monitor for a future version of Apple Watch. In April, a CNBC report suggested Apple had a team of biomedical engineers working to develop sensors for non-invasively monitoring blood glucose, with work on the sensors far enough along that the company had started conducting feasibility trials.

Apple CEO Tim Cook was reportedly spotted in May testing a prototype glucose monitor that's connected to his Apple Watch. Cook, who is said to be aiming to understand how his blood sugar is affected by food and exercise, has been seen wearing the device around the Apple Campus.

Spotify has announced its first live music event in the U.K., just days after Apple axed its own annual London music festival (via The Verge).

Called "Who We Be", the event is scheduled to take place at London's Alexandra Palace on November 30 and will have a rap and grime theme, with a line-up featuring the likes of Dizzee Rascal, Bugzy Malone, Cardi B, Giggs, J Has, and Stefflon Don.

The festival gets its name from Spotify's curated Who We Be playlist, which has a 140,000-strong following. Subscribers to the playlist can take advantage of a pre-sale ticker offer that starts on Saturday 9, while general ticket sales begin on Monday 11. Tickets can be ordered from Spotify's event website.

Apple's Music Festival had a decade-long run before it was confirmed that the company had decided to bring the tradition to an end. The free annual concert's performances had been broadcast live and on-demand through Apple Music since 2015. Apple provided no reason for ending the annual festival nor any indication that it will return anytime soon.

The iPhone offers a high-quality camera that Apple improves with every iteration, and the photos and videos that it takes have been used for fashion runways, feature films, and other professional applications.

TIME Magazine is the latest publication to exclusively use the iPhone's camera for a photo shoot, with its new "Firsts: Women Who Are Changing The World" series, which features iPhone images captured by Brazilian photographer Luisa Dörr.

Over the course of the last year, Dörr has used an iPhone 5, iPhone 6, iPhone 6s, and iPhone 7 to capture photos of notable and accomplished women like Hillary Clinton, Oprah Winfrey, Melinda Gates, Sylvia Earle, Alice Waters, Mae Jemison, Cindy Sherman, and more.

In a TIME interview, Dörr says she uses an iPhone because it offers great pictures anytime, anywhere, and it because "feels less intrusive" to the subject when the photo is captured with an iPhone instead of a standard camera. Dörr's images are unique because she uses only natural light and sometimes a reflector to capture women who are often photographed with more lighting and production equipment.

I like the simplicity of how these pictures are made. But the best part is that as a photographer, you feel extremely light and free. It is almost as if I can make pictures with my hand. There's no noise, gadgets, tools or plugs--just the subject and myself.

I was always trying to imagine these portraits as paintings. I'm fascinated by the landscapes and topographies from women's faces, their stories and context. I'm interested in the way life and time is writing on all of them--not just with physical marks but also with more spiritual traces.

Dörr says the women she photographed were "surprised" to be the subject of a photoshoot with an iPhone and no other equipment, and that oftentimes, she did her work in just minutes. The shortest shoot was two minutes and the longest shoot lasted 20 minutes.

Each portrait was captured using the regular iPhone camera with the square format, and automatic HDR was turned on for more lighting detail in the photographs.

Dörr's full interview can be read over at TIME, as can an accompanying piece on how TIME Director of Photography Kira Pollack discovered Dörr and recruited her to work on the project.

Each week, Apple chooses an "App of the Week" to highlight in the App Store, making it free to download for seven days. This week's pick is a fitness app called Streaks Workout, which is normally priced at $2.99.

Streaks Workout was first launched in December of 2015 and has never before been free to download.

Described as a "personal trainer that you actually want to use," Streaks Workout is designed to offer up exercises that require no equipment and can be done anywhere. As described by Apple's App Store editors:

Sometimes we get so intimidated by complex exercise plans that we just give up and seek solace in the snack cupboard. Streaks Workout, like its to-do list sibling, eases us in by breaking down workouts into fun, easy-to-tackle chunks. In as little as six minutes--or more if we're feeling ambitious--we've done our daily exercise and charted our progress. Why didn't anyone tell us it could be this simple?

The app features 18 exercises to choose from and four different workout lengths (6, 12, 18, and 30 minutes). There's a built-in timer, exercise demonstrations, and statistics that can be tracked over time. All workouts are also uploaded to Apple's Health app.

Streaks Workout is available for the iPhone, Apple Watch, iPad, and Apple TV.

Streaks Workout can be downloaded for free for the next seven days, and after that, a new App of the Week will be chosen. [Direct Link]

Apple's iCloud Mail servers seem to be experiencing some downtime, with multiple reports on Twitter suggesting the service is unavailable for a number of users.

iCloud Mail issues appear to have started just before 2:00 p.m. Pacific Time, which is around when we here at MacRumors first noticed problems with our own accounts.

Affected users are seeing pop up alerts when attempting to access their iCloud Mail messages. Some alerts are blank, while others let users know there was a problem loading Mail.

At this time, Apple's System Status page is not reporting any outages. It's not clear how many people are experiencing problems with Mail, but not everyone is affected.