MacRumors

Apple today seeded the third beta of an upcoming update to tvOS, the new operating system that runs on the fourth-generation Apple TV. Today's beta comes just over one week after Apple seeded the second tvOS 9.1 beta and three weeks since the tvOS was released alongside the fourth-generation Apple TV.

The third tvOS beta is available as an over-the-air update to those who have installed the first two betas. Installing an initial tvOS beta is a more involved process than installing a beta update for iOS or OS X. The update requires the Apple TV to be connected to a computer with a USB-C to USB-A cable, with the software downloaded and installed via iTunes.

We don't yet know exactly what is included in the new version of tvOS, as most changes thus far appear to be under-the-hood updates. Apple's release notes for the update include references to networking and scrolling tweaks, and it's likely tvOS 9.1 will include fixes for bugs and issues that have been discovered in the software since the Apple TV's official launch. We will include any other external facing changes below.

tvOS 9.1 will mark the first significant update to tvOS and the second update to the operating system. The first tvOS update, tvOS 9.0.1, was released to the public on November 9.

Apple today seeded the fourth beta of iOS 9.2 to developers and public beta testers for testing purposes, just over one week after seeding the third iOS 9.2 beta and a full month after releasing iOS 9.1 to the public. As a .1 upgrade, iOS 9.2 will mark the second major update to iOS 9.

The fourth beta of iOS 9.2, build 13C5075, is available as an over-the-air update and through the Apple Developer Center. Public beta testers can download the update over the air. Apple has also released Xcode 7.2 beta 4.

Earlier betas of iOS 9.2 included changes to the Safari View Controller, which is what allows a pop-up Safari window to be used in third-party apps. In iOS 9.2, Safari View Controller supports third-party Action Extensions, letting apps like 1Password to be accessed in the Safari view of other apps like Tweetbot.

Safari View Controller has also been updated with the ability to long tap on the Reload button to reload content without content blockers and it now supports the request desktop site function. The second iOS 9.2 beta improved Safari View Controller further, introducing support for dismissing it with an edge swipe.

Along with improvements to Safari View Controller, iOS 9.2 also introduces Arabic support for Siri, support for AT&T's NumberSync Wi-Fi Calling feature and it includes bug fixes for iCloud Keychain, Apple Watch syncing and pairing, audio quality when streaming to stereo systems, and more.

Following a handful of leaked images yesterday, TechCrunch has confirmed that Apple has launched an official Apple Watch magnetic charging dock today for $79.

German blogger Benjamin Scholtysik managed to get his hands on the official dock from the Apple Store in Berlin, but the accessory does not appear to be on the Apple Online Store or stocked at Apple Retail Stores in the United States yet.

The dock cost €89 in the Berlin Apple Store and allows users to charge the Apple Watch both flat and in Nightstand mode. The accessory also comes with a 2M lightning cable that attaches to the base of the dock to provide charge to the magnetic adapter at its center. Scholtysik posted an unboxing and impressions video of the dock on his YouTube channel (via 9to5Mac), showcasing the packaging of the accessory and detailing the way it transforms from a flat orientation into Nightstand mode.

It remains unclear when the new first-party product will make its way to the Apple Online Store and Apple Retail Stores in the U.S. and other countries. With the holiday shopping season kicking into high gear in just over a week, it makes sense for the company to add the accessory to its retail locations and online options in time for new Apple Watch owners this holiday.

Update: The Apple Watch Magnetic Charging Dock has appeared on Apple's website and is available for purchase right now for $79.00, with an estimated shipping date of Friday, November 20 at the fastest speed. Apple retail stores should be getting the new dock on the same day, according to the new page.

The Chicago Tribune has obtained an exclusive first look at Apple's planned new flagship store in Chicago, which will be placed alongside the Chicago River. The new store will "echo" legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright's Prairie Style homes, which Wright pioneered near the city.

The store will be located near the historic Michigan Bridge and include a "grand flight of stairs" that will go from street-level to a walkway alongside the Chicago River's north bank. On the street-level side, the store will have an entry pavilion that's 14-feet high. Pedestrians entering from N. Michigan Avenue will have to proceed downward onto the sales floor via stairs or an elevator.

The new flagship will have glass walls with a thin, high-strength carbon fiber roof. The 20,000 square-foot store will replace a vacant food court, and an Apple spokesman confirmed to the Chicago Tribune that it wants to start construction next year. The Tribune notes that the new store could be a "boon for the neighborhood", shifting retail focus on Michigan Avenue further south and encouraging development of future architectural projects in the area.

The store is being headed by Norman Foster of Foster + Partners, Apple's frequent architectural partner and the firm in charge of its new Cupertino headquarters. Apple is scheduled to present a proposal on the new store to the Chicago Plan Commission on Thursday, but a department spokesman told the Tribune that the presentation is a formality as the planning department has already approved the proposal. Additionally, Apple already has a deal in place with Zeller Realty Group, the owner of the territory the new Apple Store will reside on.

Apple's current flagship store in Chicago is the four-story North Michigan Avenue store, which it has occupied since 2003. According to the Tribune, the new flagship could give Apple greater visibility in the area and higher sales. More renderings of the new store can be seen at the Chicago Tribune's website.

Apple has updated its system status page to reflect widespread issues affecting multiple Apple products and services since approximately 7:30 PM Pacific, including the App Store, Apple TV, iBooks Store, iTunes Match, iTunes Store, Mac App Store and Radio.

Many users are also unable to fully access or use the Apple website, Apple Online Store, Apple ID, Apple Music, FaceTime, iCloud, iMessage, Mail, TestFlight and several other Apple services, suggesting possible larger server or DNS issues.

Apple's standard response on its system status page says it is investigating and will provide a status update as more information becomes available.

Update 8:38 PM: Apple's system status page now indicates the issues have been resolved, and users are indeed reporting Apple's services are up and running once again.

Last week some users and developers experienced an issue that displayed a "damaged" error when attempting to open select apps from the Mac App Store, including popular apps like 1Password, Tweetbot and Byword. Today, Apple has sent an email to developers explaining what happened and how to fix their apps.

In the email, which developer Donald Southard Jr. shared on Twitter, Apple explains that the company issued a new security certificate for the Mac App Store in September in anticipation of the expiration of the old certificate. The new certificate used a stronger SHA-2 hashing algorithm instead of the old SHA-1 algorithm. Hashing algorithms are used by certificate authorities to sign security certificates.

However, two issues caused users to experience errors when starting up apps. The first issue, according to Apple, is that there was a caching issue with the Mac App Store that required users to restart their computers and re-authenticate with the Mac App Store to clear out the old cache. Apple says it's working on a fix for this in an upcoming OS X update. The other issue is that some apps were running an older version of OpenSSL that didn't support SHA-2. Apple says it replaced the SHA-2 certificate with a new SHA-1 certificate last Thursday night.

Finally, Apple says that "most of the issues are now resolved", but that some apps might still experience problems if the apps make "incorrect assumptions" about the Mac App Store's security certificates. Apple asks developers to make sure their code adheres to the Receipt Validation Programming Guide and to resubmit apps for expedited review if necessary. The AppleCare support team has also been briefed with the latest troubleshooting information for users.

As of today, Apple has launched an in-store pickup feature in Canada and Australia allowing customers in those countries to order and pay for devices online and pick them up in retail Apple Stores. Personal Pickup has long been available in the United States, but this is the first time it's expanded to additional countries.

MacRumors reported on the possible expansion of Personal Pickup in early November after receiving word Apple was training retail employees in Australia, France, Canada, the UK, and other countries. While Personal Pickup has currently only expanded to Canada and Australia it may roll out to additional countries in the near future.

Personal Pickup is available for a number of Apple products, from Macs and Apple TVs to the iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch. When an order is placed for an in-stock item for Personal Pickup, Apple employees get it ready to go and then send an email to a customer whenever it's ready. Out of stock items are able to be shipped to a store for Personal Pickup.

This week has been big for both Australia and Canada. Along with the availability of Personal Pickup, both Canada and Australia have also gained Apple Pay through a partnership with American Express. Apple Pay is available in Canada as of today and will be available in Australia on Thursday.

Over the course of the last week, Apple appears to have ceased selling two popular smart lock products in its retail stores and online. Neither the August Smart Lock nor the Kwikset Kevo Wireless-Enabled Deadbolt Lock are listed on Apple's website, but both were still for sale on November 13.

The August Smart Lock and the Kwikset Kevo are both Bluetooth-enabled locks that allow users to unlock their doors using their iPhones. It is not clear why Apple has decided to stop selling the locks, but it could be in an effort to highlight only products that offer HomeKit compatibility. The Kwikset Kevo and the August Smart Lock are not HomeKit-enabled products and cannot be used with other HomeKit devices.

While Apple is no longer selling the Kwikset Kevo or the August Smart Lock, it is selling the Schlage Sense Smart Deadbolt, another smart lock that does offer HomeKit compatibility. The Schlage Sense Smart Deadbolt is in fact the only locking product that offers HomeKit integration thus far. August has debuted a second-generation product that includes HomeKit integration, and when that begins shipping to customers, it's possible Apple may continue offering the August Smart Lock in its stores.

Apple has also pulled the Belkin WeMo switch from its online store, suggesting it may be ceasing to offer several home-connected products that are not also offering HomeKit to avoid confusing its customers.

Apple sells quite a few HomeKit products in its retail stores and online, offering devices from Ecobee, Philips, Elgato, Lutron, and Schlage.

To promote the iPad Pro, Apple Pencil, and Smart Keyboard, several Apple executives gave interviews to a number of media outlets ahead of the release of the tablet and its accessories. Last week we shared a Jony Ive interview from The Telegraph where he spoke on the Apple Pencil, and today, Wallpaper has published a second Ive interview with even more of the design chief's thoughts on the stylus accessory.

Speaking on the conception of the Apple Pencil, Ive said that while it was originally "fundamentally important" to develop a user interface that was based on fingers, Apple discovered there were people who would benefit from an instrument that would enable more precise interactions for drawing and writing. Ive said developing the Apple Pencil and iPad Pro in tandem was essential for a natural drawing experience.

It was important that we develop the UI based upon multi-touch, based on our fingers. The reasons are obvious. I think it is equally obvious that you're just not as dexterous as you are with a pen or a pencil for certain things.

What we found is that there's clearly a group of people that would value an instrument that would enable then to paint or draw in ways that you just can't with your finger. And I suspect that this isn't a small group of people. I don't think it's confined to those of us who went to art school.

Ive went on to talk about the naming of the Apple Pencil, explaining that he preferred "Pencil" to "stylus" because stylus "seems a product that's about technology," while Pencil "seems very analogue in its association."

Apple has a specific role in mind for the Apple Pencil, and that is not as a finger replacement. According to Ive, the Pencil is for making marks, while the finger is to be used for other user interface interactions. Each tool has its purpose, with the Pencil serving as a "far better" way to make marks on the iPad Pro.

I think there's a potential to confuse the role of the Pencil with the role of your finger in iOS, and I actually think it's very clear the Pencil is for making marks, and the finger is a fundamental point of interface for everything within the operating system. And those are two very different activities with two very different goals.

So we are very clear in our own minds that this will absolutely not replace the finger as a point of interface. But it is, and I don't think anybody would argue, a far better tool than your finger when your focus becomes exclusively making marks.

For more of Ive's opinions on the Apple Pencil, his full interview is worth checking out over at Wallpaper. The Apple Pencil can be ordered from the online Apple Store for $99, but shipping dates range into late December. Apple retail stores have begun receiving larger Apple Pencil shipments as of today, so customers hoping for an Apple Pencil may want to seek one out in a store.

Following the recent discovery that malicious app InstaAgent was stealing Instagram passwords from users, Instagram has instituted much stricter rules for accessing its API, effectively killing off a large number of apps that read Instagram feeds.

In a notice posted today on its developer site, Instagram explains it will no longer permit apps that access the Instagram feed API, as that API is being shut down. In the future, third-party Instagram apps will have much more limited capabilities.

We've updated our Platform Policy to explicitly list the use cases we will support moving forward. These include apps and services that:

Help individuals share their own content with 3rd party apps, such as apps that let you print your photos and import an Instagram photo as a profile picture.

Help brands and advertisers understand and manage their audience, develop their content strategy, and get digital rights to media. Established apps in this space may apply for our newly announced Instagram Partner Program.

Help broadcasters and publishers discover content, get digital rights to media, and share media using web embeds.

Starting today, Instagram is instituting a new review process and preventing new apps from using its APIs until it starts conducting reviews on December 3. Existing apps have until June 1, 2016 to comply with Instagram's new platform rules, and the users/self/feed and media/popular API endpoints will be available until the end of the review period. Instagram is also launching a new Sandbox Mode to allow developers to privately build and test apps using Instagram's APIs.

Instagram's new policy will put an end to dozens of questionable third-party Instagram apps that promised users new followers and the ability to track follows and unfollows. Apps are no longer able to use "like," "share," "comment," or "follower" exchange programs nor can they use follower information for "anything other than analytics" without Instagram's permission.

Unfortunately, as no apps will be able to access the full Instagram feed, it will also have an impact on legitimate Instagram clients for the iPad and the Mac, where Instagram is not natively available. As TechCrunch points out, this will affect apps like Retro, Flow, Padgram, Webstagram, Instagreat, and more.

With today's changes, Instagram says it plans to institute a "more sustainable environment built around authentic experiences on the platform" and give users more control over their content.

Apple has confirmed to AP that Apple Pay support is coming to pizza chain Domino's by year's end, followed by cinnamon roll chain Cinnabon next year. The news comes less than two months after Apple said Starbucks, KFC and Chili's locations will begin supporting Apple Pay starting next year.

Apple said Tuesday that Cinnabon will add Apple Pay to all its U.S. locations next year, while Domino's company-owned pizza stores will get it by year's end. Earlier, Apple said Starbucks will conduct a pilot this year, with a broader rollout next year, while KFC will launch next spring.

Apple Pay is accepted at more than 1 million locations in the U.S., and at over 250,000 more locations in the U.K. The mobile payments service launched in Canada for American Express cardholders earlier today, with participating retailers including Apple, Indigo, McDonald's, Tim Hortons, Staples and more.

While Cinnabon and Domino's also have Canadian subsidiaries, both chains will support Apple Pay at U.S. locations only at launch.

Apple also confirmed that Apple Pay will launch in Australia on Thursday, November 19, exclusively for American Express customers. Apple Pay will launch in partnership with American Express in Spain, Singapore and Hong Kong next year. Apple has not disclosed plans for other countries.

Apple Pay gained support for Tesco Bank and TSB in the U.K. today, in addition to nearly 100 new participating U.S. issuers.

While the iPad Pro launched nearly a week ago, many early adopters have been unable to get their hands on the companion Apple Pencil. With shipping estimates of 3-4 weeks or longer for the accessory on the Apple Online Store, some prospective buyers have been checking their local Apple Retail Stores for stock and tracking their results in our discussion forums.

Beginning early Tuesday, it appears that more Apple Retail Stores in the U.S. have begun receiving very limited Apple Pencil stock. MacRumors forum member JuanKr shared the above picture of Apple Pencil stock at the SoHo Apple Store in Manhattan, New York, while we have independently confirmed Apple Pencil stock as of writing at the Oakridge Apple Store in San Jose, California.

MacRumors forum members have shared a handful of other Apple Stores with Apple Pencil stock over the past 24 hours, listed below, although some have since sold out and we cannot guarantee stock remaining at every store due to the combination of limited supplies and strong demand. We recommend calling your local Apple Store prior to visiting, but some customers have had better luck in person.

- SanTan Village in Gilbert, AZ
- Arrowhead in Glendale, AZ
- Burlingame Avenue in Burlingame, CA
- Los Cerritos in Cerritos, CA
- South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, CA
- Century City in Los Angeles, CA
- Manhattan Village in Manhattan Beach, CA
- UTC in San Diego, CA
- Union Square in San Francisco, CA
- Oakridge in San Jose, CA
- Valley Fair in Santa Clara, CA
- Park Meadows in Lone Tree, CO
- Evergreen Walk in South Windsor, CT
- Stamford Town Center in Stamford, CT
- Lenox Square in Atlanta, GA
- Boylston Street in Boston, MA
- CambridgeSide in Cambridge, MA
- Derby Street in Hingham, MA
- Bethesda Row in Bethesda, MD
- Crabtree Valley Mall in Raleigh, NC
- King Street in Charleston, SC
- Haywood Mall in Greenville, SC
- Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, NY
- Grand Central in Manhattan, NY
- West 14th Street in Manhattan, NY
- Easton Town Center in Columbus, OH
- Walnut Street in Philadelphia, PA
- Pentagon City in Arlington, VA
- Short Pump Town Center in Richmond, VA
- Bellevue Square in Bellevue, WA
- University Village in Seattle, WA
- Georgetown in Washington D.C.

The first batch of Apple Pencil online orders began shifting to "Preparing for Shipment" status earlier this week, while Smart Keyboards remain scarce both online and in stores. Most Apple Stores have plenty of Logitech Create keyboards available for the iPad Pro as an alternative.

Apple today shared five new ads for the fourth-generation Apple TV on its YouTube channel, highlighting a handful of notable and popular apps that are available for the new device. These mark some of the first Apple TV ads Apple has released since the fourth-generation Apple TV launched in late October.

Each ad is just sixteen seconds in length and depicts one of five Apple TV apps and games, including Crossy Road, Netflix, HBO NOW, Disney Infinity 3.0, and Asphalt 8. The videos show a brief glance at each app before cutting to an overall view of the new interface of the Apple TV.

The fourth-generation Apple TV features both an entirely new operating system and a full App Store for the first time, letting users access apps and games on the device. These new Apple TV ads, which will help with app discovery, will likely start showing up on TV over the course of the next few days.

Update 11/18: Apple has added one more Apple TV video to YouTube, this time highlighting the ABC app.

Apple today seeded the fourth beta of an upcoming OS X 10.11.2 El Capitan update to developers and public beta testers, just one week after seeding the third beta and a full month after releasing OS X 10.11.1, the first OS X El Capitan update, to the public.

The fourth beta, build 15C47a, is available through the Software Update mechanism in the Mac App Store and can be downloaded through the Apple Developer Center. Public beta testers can download the beta through the Mac App Store.

We don't know exactly what improvements the 10.11.2 update will bring to OS X El Capitan, because the betas seem to be focused on under-the-hood upgrades with no apparent outward-facing changes. It’s likely to include bug fixes, security enhancements, and performance improvements to address problems that have popped up since the release of OS X 10.11.1.

Apple's release notes for OS X 10.11.2 have asked developers to focus on Networking, Graphics, Mail, Wi-Fi, Calendar, USB, Notes, Photos, and Spotlight.

Apple is developing its own in-house docking solution for charging the Apple Watch, reports French site iGeneration [Google Translate]. Citing sources with knowledge of Apple's plans, iGeneration says the dock will be called simply the "Magnetic Charging Dock," a name also seen in alleged packaging photos below.

Circular in shape, the dock appears to support the Apple Watch in two orientations, both laid flat over the top in portrait mode and on its side in landscape mode, useful for Nightstand mode. The charging puck within the dock seems to adjust from flat to upright to accommodate both orientations.

The Magnetic Charging Dock is said to come with a Lightning cable that will be used to charge the Apple Watch through the dock, but it does not include a USB power adapter. The packaging for the dock lists a price of €89, which likely means it will be priced at $79 in the United States.

At $79, the Magnetic Charging Dock is significantly more expensive than Apple's dock for the iPhone, but it appears to have a more complicated design with the ability to support both portrait and landscape charging. It is not known when the dock might go on sale, but the completed packaging signals an imminent release date.

Update: German site Grobgebloggt.de (via Apfelpage.de) has shared photos of the Magnetic Apple Watch dock. It ships with a 2M Lightning cable.