MacRumors

Apple has allegedly begun removing iOS apps originating in Iran from the App Store, according to reports over the weekend. Tech news site Techrasa posted a story claiming that the biggest e-commerce service, Digikala, had its app removed from the store a few days ago (Via TechCrunch).

The removal appears to relate to international trade laws. No official App Store exists for Iran, so Iranian startups and developers often register their apps as being outside the country to get onto the store.

Apple has been allowing the Iranian apps onto the App Store since September 2016. Digikala runs the Shaparak payment system which is totally isolated from international systems, so in theory it would not contravene Apple's terms and conditions. Several Iranian banks also offer iOS apps that are side-loaded onto phones, notes TechCrunch.

The Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations issued by the U.S. Department of the Treasury puts blocks on the Iranian market, which is home to 82 million people, 40 million of which use smartphones. According to Techrasa, Apple has sent the following to Iranian startups attempting to upload apps:

"Unfortunately, there is no App Store available for the territory of Iran. Additionally, apps facilitating transactions for businesses or entities based in Iran may not comply with the Iranian Transactions Sanctions Regulations (31CFR Part 560) when hosted on the App Store. For these reasons, we are unable to accept your application at this time. We encourage you to resubmit your application once international trade laws are revised to allow this functionality."

It's still not clear exactly what part of the regulations the apps have contravened. We'll update this story if further details emerge in due course.

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.

Apple Maps has been updated with comprehensive transit data for the Houston, Texas metropolitan area, enabling iPhone users in the city and select Harris County suburbs to navigate using public transportation, including METRO buses and METRORail. Amtrak also goes through Houston, as previously supported by Apple Maps.

Apple introduced Transit in Maps as part of iOS 9 in select cities around the world, including Baltimore, Berlin, Boston, Chicago, London, Los Angeles, Mexico City, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Sydney, Toronto, and over 300 cities in China. The feature has its own tab in Apple Maps on iOS 10 for entering directions.

Transit routing continues to expand to several other cities, including Atlanta, Columbus, Dallas-Fort Worth, Denver, Honolulu, Kansas City, Melbourne, Miami, Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Montréal, Pittsburgh, Portland, Prague, Rio de Janeiro, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, San Antonio, San Diego, Seattle, Vancouver, and Victoria.

Last month, Apple expanded transit directions throughout Great Britain, beyond the London area already supported. The feature now works almost anywhere in England, Scotland, and Wales, such as Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Bristol, Portsmouth, Nottingham, and Cardiff.

NRG Stadium in Houston will play host to Super Bowl LI between the Atlanta Falcons and New England Patriots on Sunday, February 5.

(Thanks, Ram!)

British carrier Three has seeded a carrier settings update—version 27.1—that enables native Wi-Fi calling on iPhones.

Three previously required iPhone customers to use its free Three inTouch app for Wi-Fi calling, but the carrier settings update released on Friday introduces system-level support for Wi-Fi calls and texts under Settings > Phone > Wi-Fi Calling.

We know that sometimes you can't get signal when you're indoors, but that shouldn't mean that you have to go off the grid. With Three inTouch Wi-Fi Calling, you can call and text whenever you're on Wi-Fi in the UK, even if there’s no mobile signal.

Three joins EE and Vodafone among carriers in the U.K. with native support for Wi-Fi calling on iPhones.

Today marks the beginning of the Chinese Lunar New Year, and to celebrate the Year of the Rooster, Google has teamed up with 12 museums from Beijing to Washington to create a new online exhibition that can be visited through the Google Arts & Culture iOS app.

Across Asia and around the world, families are coming together, houses and neighborhoods are being dressed up in red and traditional lanterns are being hung. If you're still wondering about what the fireworks are all about, Google Arts & Culture is here to help you learn more about this centuries-old tradition.

Titled 'Arts of the New Moon', the exhibition features rich video and interactive graphics to showcase a range of arts and crafts connected to the ancient tradition, taking in ancient calligraphy, contemporary painting, performing arts, woodblock prints, and more.

The app includes Google Cardboard-compatible VR portals to explore iconic places, like the Ge Garden in Yangzhou and the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum in Japan. Elsewhere, users can follow the zodiac animals across 1,000 years of art history, and kids can play New Year-themed games starring the Red Rooster.

The Google Arts & Culture app is a free download for iPhone and iPad available on the App Store. [Direct Link]

Nanoleaf started out in 2013 as small company offering a Kickstarter project for an energy efficient light bulb, which led to the launch of the HomeKit-enabled Nanoleaf Smarter Kit, a set of three standard-style bulbs connected by a hub.

Nanoleaf's first HomeKit accessory worked well but was rather ordinary, something that can't be said about its newest product, the Aurora Smarter Kit. Inspired by the aurora borealis phenomena, the Aurora is like no other HomeKit product -- or lighting product -- on the market.

Design and Setup

The Aurora Smarter Kit includes nine plastic triangles with LEDs in each corner, a main connector that plugs into one of the triangles and into a standard wall socket, adhesive strips, and connectors to connect and power each triangle.

While one triangle needs to be attached to the power source (which can power up to 30 triangles), the others triangles draw power through the main triangle using small plastic connector tabs that can be placed on any side of each individual triangle. That means the triangles can be arranged in an endless number of patterns, and triangles beyond the additional nine can be added to the design.

➜ Click here to read more...

For this week's giveaway, we've teamed up with Grovemade to offer MacRumors readers a chance to win one of the company's wood iPhone cases and a matching dock. All of Grovemade's products, ranging from Apple accessories to desk sets, are made from high quality wood and leather, and everything matches.

Grovemade's docks, priced at $79, are made from wood and solid aluminum. Available in Walnut or Maple, the base of the dock is crafted from solid aluminum with a handmade wooden cap. An iPhone cable routes up through the aluminum base for charging purposes, and it's heavy enough that it's super stable on a desk.

Docks are available for all Apple iPhones from the iPhone 5 and later, and our giveaway winner will be able to choose the wood and size appropriate for their iPhone.

Grovemade offers four different iPhone case styles, ranging in price from $139 to $59. The Leather iPhone Wallet Case ($129-$139) features a frame carved from walnut or maple wood and covered with vegetable-tanned leather. It keeps the display safe from scratches and bumps but leaves the screen and all ports accessible.

The Leather Case ($109-$119) is a standard-style iPhone case with a wood frame and a backplate made from vegetable-tanned leather. Like the Wallet Case, the leather of the Leather Case will wear in and develop a unique look with use.

Grovemade also makes both a plain wood iPhone Case ($89 to $99) and a minimal iPhone Bumper, both designed to add minimal bulk while still protecting an iPhone. The iPhone Case uses a thin stick-on backplate combined with the iPhone Bumper to prevent dings and scratches.

All cases are available in Walnut or Maple wood and fit the iPhone 6 and later. Some of the cases are also available for the iPhone 5, 5s, and SE.

We're giving away one case and one dock to two MacRumors readers. 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 U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Thursday published an Apple patent application for a "sublimator/vaporizer" invention, leading to sensational headlines suggesting Apple might release a vape or enter the vaping industry. In actuality—and this could go without saying—the invention is completely unrelated.

The patent instead relates to a semiconductor device fabrication process Apple uses to create chips for its devices. The application describes a canister that can be used to vaporize or sublimate a substance, which in Apple's case would be for delivering substances to a substrate during the deposition or etching process.

The patent's assigned inventor Tetsuya Ishikawa, a senior manager at Apple in the nanotechnology field, lists photolithography as one of his skills on his LinkedIn profile. He also holds several other patents related to semiconductor fabrication. So, in the end, it is pretty safe to say, no, Apple is not working on a vape.

Apple has formally joined the Partnership on AI as a founding member, confirming an earlier report, the organization announced today.

Apple has joined the Partnership on AI as a founding member. The company has been involved and collaborating with the Partnership since before it was first announced and is thrilled to formalize its membership alongside Amazon, Facebook, Google/DeepMind, IBM, and Microsoft.

Siri co-founder Tom Gruber, who heads advanced development of the assistant at Apple, will serve on the Partnership's inaugural Board of Trustees.

The Partnership on AI is a non-profit research consortium established in September to "study and formulate best practices, to advance the public's understanding of AI, and to serve as an open platform for discussion and engagement about AI and its influences on people and society," according to its website.

Apple has always been notoriously secretive, but it recently started allowing its AI and machine learning researchers to publish papers. The company's contributions to the broader artificial intelligence research community could help it attract top talent that would not otherwise want to join the tech giant.

Apple has been recruiting talent and acquired several AI-related companies in recent months, including Turi, VocalIQ, Perceptio, and Emotient, to build out its in-house AI team led by Carnegie Mellon professor Russ Salakhutdinov.

Apple is rumored to be working on "enhanced" Siri capabilities for next-generation iPhones to keep up with competitors such as Amazon's Alexa.

The U.K.'s Ministry of Defense has chosen Apple's iPhone 7 over Samsung as the "device of choice" for its military personnel, according to a report by TechRepublic this week.

Telecoms company BT is said to be working with the country's MoD to harden the security of the phone so that military officers can discuss and store sensitive information on the device. Steve Bunn, technical business manager for defense at BT, said the phone would eventually be capable of being switched between different modes depending on which security level was appropriate.

"We've been working very closely with them to develop what we've commonly called a 'dual-persona device'. Essentially this means you can have voice at official and at secret."

BT is also working with the MoD to create "secure storage containers" on the device to hold sensitive data, revealed Bunn.

BT is said to have begun using a Samsung Note 4 to develop the bespoke military communications device, but testing quickly revealed that the security of the Android OS wasn't sufficient and the project was transferred to Apple's phone.

Despite Apple's high-profile reputation for upholding iOS security standards, the MoD's switch to iPhone bucks a trend in the defense industry, which tends to prefer phones running Android because of the ease with which the operating system can be altered.

As noted by TechRepublic, the GSMK CryptoPhone, which runs a heavily stripped-down version of Android, is currently in active use among military and security bodies around the world.

Update: BT has since contacted MacRumors with the following statement: "We would like to clarify that the MoD has not expressed any views about the suitability of dual-persona technology from specific handset/technology vendors and is prototyping a range of devices."

Mozilla has added more than 20 new languages to Firefox Focus, its privacy-centric browser that automatically blocks all trackers as users navigate around the web.

The latest update to the stripped-down web browser – which features an "Erase" button at the top of the app to erase all browsing history, searches, cookies, and passwords instantly – means users can now browse privately in 27 languages.

The additional support includes Arabic, Azerbaijani, Czech, Welsh, German, Spanish, French, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Dutch, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Slovak, Swedish, Turkish, Ukrainian, Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese, among many other tongues.

One of the complaints about the previous version of Focus was that it forced users to use a default search engine. Mozilla says it's listened to criticism and added a new option that allows users to select an alternative search service, which includes non-tracking engine DuckDuckGo.

When using Focus's most stringent tracker blocking setting, occasionally some sites visited in the app may fail to display as intended, making viewing content difficult. To compensate for this, Mozilla has also added a new button that allows users to open the web page in Firefox or Safari instead.

The first incarnation of the Focus brand came in 2015 in the form of a content blocker for iOS 9. In November of last year, Mozilla launched Focus as a fully functioning privacy browser.

Firefox Focus is available to download from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]

Lawmakers in Nebraska, Minnesota, New York, Massachusetts and Kansas have introduced legislation aiming to legalize "Right to Repair" rules for electronic devices, including Apple's iPhone, reports Motherboard. The laws would require manufacturers to sell replacement parts to independent repair shops and customers, and force them to make service and diagnostic manuals public.

The bills are aimed at diluting the "authorized repair" model that most tech products subscribe to, making electronic device repair more similar to the car repair. The legislation is modeled after the Motor Vehicle Owner's Right to Repair Act, which passed in Massachusetts in 2012. That law effectively became national legislation as auto manufacturers didn't want to bother dealing with different legislation in each state.

The legislators behind the New York bill say that authorized repair shops result in "high repair prices and high overturn of electronic items." Additionally, many independent repair shops end up purchasing parts from Chinese grey markets or taking parts from recycled electronics to compete. This results in raids from the Department of Homeland Security as the independent shops end up unknowingly selling counterfeit parts.

Apple currently runs the Apple Authorized Service Provider Program, which allows companies to obtain Apple-genuine parts, reimbursement for repairs covered by Apple's warranties, a performance-based bonus program, on-the-spot technical service, comprehensive repair information, inclusion on Apple's website and more. However, the program requires businesses to allow Apple to review financial records, maintain high levels of customer service, establish a credit line with Apple and agree to promote the Apple brand and AppleCare. It also does not include individual customers who may want to repair their devices on their own.

The bills are being pushed by Repair.org, a lobbying firm representing independent repair shops. Repair.org tells Motherboard that it is focusing its effort on the New York bill since it's being considered for the third year and even had momentum last year until lobbyists from groups backed by Apple and other manufacturers stepped in to kill the legislation.