MacRumors

Apple today revealed three new games coming to Apple Arcade on July 3, including town-building strategy game Outlanders 2: Second Nature, side-scrolling action game Punch Kick Duck+, and the calm and relaxing game Zen Koi Pro+. All games available on Apple Arcade are ad-free and do not offer in-app purchases.

More details about these games can be found on the Apple Newsroom, and the App Store descriptions for each title are pasted in part below.

Outlanders 2:

Welcome back to the Outlands! A new, courageous generation of outlanders is ready to redefine life on the Outlands, with new approaches to building and surviving, uncharted heights and horizons, and an ecosystem more vibrant than ever before.

Outlanders 2 is the latest installment of the charming town-builder that captivated players with its imaginative levels, easy-to-understand but hard-to-master gameplay, and offbeat humor.

Punch Kick Duck+:

Fighting is all about timing. Just ask any duck.

The right move + right time = swift victory.

All you need to do is PUNCH KICK DUCK!

The cruel Baron Tigrisso has imprisoned you in his tower. Fight hordes of the Baron's hench-critters as you battle up the tower to confront your captor.

Zen Koi Pro+:

Collect & nurture colorful koi fish as they grow & transform into dragons in this calming, offline game. Find your zen & unwind with enchanting music & beautiful visuals.

Accessible through the App Store, Apple Arcade is a subscription-based service that provides access to hundreds of games across the iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, and Vision Pro, all free of ads and in-app purchases. The service received its first price increase last year, with U.S. pricing rising from $4.99 to $6.99 per month.

Ahead of WWDC next week, Apple has announced the winners of its annual Apple Design Awards, honoring 14 best-in-class apps and games.

Here are this year's winners, with one app and one game chosen per category:

• Delight and Fun: Bears Gratitude (app) and NYT Games (game)
• Inclusivity: oko (app) and Crayola Adventures (game)
• Innovation: Procreate Dreams (app) and Lost in Play (game)
• Interaction: Crouton (app) and Rytmos (game)
• Social Impact: Gentler Streak (app) and The Wreck (game)
• Visuals and Graphics: Rooms (app) and Lies of P (game)
• Spatial Computing: djay Pro (app) and Blackbox (game)

Apple says this year's winning apps and games were selected based on "stellar design, technical achievement, and innovation." More details about each app and the developers behind them can be found on Apple's website.

In past years, Apple Design Award winners have been revealed at a presentation during WWDC, so Apple pre-announcing the list is a notable change.

WWDC begins with Apple's keynote on June 10 at 10 a.m. Pacific Time, with the company expected to unveil iOS 18 and other major software updates.

Today we're tracking a pair of deals on Amazon, which is discounting the M2 MacBook Air to multiple all-time low prices, as well as the Apple Studio Display. Both devices are in stock on Amazon with delivery estimates between June 8 and June 12 as of writing.

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Amazon. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

Starting with the M2 13-inch MacBook Air, Amazon this week has every model available for $170 off, which are matches for the record low prices on this version of the MacBook Air. These prices are available to all shoppers and do not require a coupon code.

The 256GB model is on sale for $829.00 and the 512GB model is available for $1,029.00. These deals are only available on Amazon right now, and the retailer has each model on sale in all four colors.

Following the introduction of the M3 MacBook Air, Apple knocked the price of the 13-inch M2 MacBook Air down by $100, and it's still selling them alongside the M3 model. The main difference between the two generations lies in the performance upgrade that the M3 chip brings, so if your priority is saving money you stand to benefit from Amazon's steep discounts.

Secondly, Amazon has again dropped the price of the Apple Studio Display (Standard Glass) down to $1,299.99, down from $1,599.00. This is the model with the tilt-adjustable stand, although you can find the same deal on the VESA mount adapter model right now on Amazon.

The Apple Studio Display is a 27-inch monitor that features 5K resolution, supports up to 600 nits of brightness, P3 Wide color for vivid colors, and True Tone to match the white balance of the display to the lighting in the room. There is an upgraded nano-texture glass model, but we aren't tracking any deals on that one this week.

Head to our full Deals Roundup to get caught up with all of the latest deals and discounts that we've been tracking over the past week.

Popular Mac menu bar management utility Bartender was recently quietly sold to another company, a fact that only came to light after app monitoring service MacUpdater alerted users that updates to the app from version 5.0.52 could be potentially unsafe due to the lack of transparency surrounding the situation.

The original developer has since acknowledged the sale. However, the new Bartender owner is a largely unknown entity that has reportedly hiked Bartender's purchase options, and is alleged to have added code to the app that may be associated with collecting analytics data on users.

Given that Bartender requires extensive permissions to operate in macOS, including screen recording, the whole event has understandably left many users concerned about privacy. Fortunately, Bartender is not the only app of its kind. So unless Apple ever gets round to integrating better menu bar management into macOS, here are some alternative menu bar utilities that are worth considering.

• Vanilla (Free) – Simple app that lets you hide menu bar icons. Just hold Command and drag icons between hidden and visible sections. Vanilla Pro ($10) adds keyboard shortcuts, a removed section, start at login, and an auto-hide option after 5 seconds.
  
• Ice (Free) – Menu bar management tool that hides items, offers an always-hidden section, show on hover, show on click, show on scroll or swipe, automatic rehide, and app menu overlap correction. Also includes hotkeys, launch at login, and options to change menu bar appearance.
• Hidden Bar (Free) – Lightweight tool that lets you drag a divider between icons in the menu bar to separate hidden and shown sections. Includes launch at login, auto-hide durations, show/hide global shortcut, and full menu bar mode.
• iBar (Free) – This tool hides menu bar icons which can be revealed in a floating bar that extends below the notch on MacBook Air and MacBook Pro.
• Barbee ($3.99) – Management tool with similar interface to Bartender. Includes sections for shown, hidden, and always hidden items, as well as extensive menu bar appearance settings. Also offers ability to quickly search your menu bar items in a Spotlight-style floating window.
• OnlySwitch (Free) – More than just a menu bar management tool, OnlySwitch offers a broad range of customizable toggle switches designed to offer quick access to system and other settings, such as hide desktop icons, dark mode, hide MacBook notch, mute mic, and more.

If you are a BetterTouchTool user, Andreas Hegenberg has a thorough tutorial on how the utility can be used to hide menu bar items. Know of a great Mac menu bar management tool that we haven't highlighted? Let us know in the comments below and we might append it to this article.

Apple Mail in iOS 18 is set to receive substantial improvements powered by new AI capabilities, including more powerful search, generative "Smart Replies," and email composition assistance.

According to a new report from AppleInsider, results returned when performing a Mail search will be beefed up to include additional information from Contacts, locations, and locally stored documents.

Meanwhile, "Smart Replies" will rely on Apple's on-device large-language model (LLM), internally known as Ajax. Combined with Siri's deep integration with Mail and the virtual assistant's ability to create replies on the fly at the user's request, Smart Replies are being developed to streamline communication and save time.

Associated with the new Mail features is a new system-wide writing tools framework that could enable text editing via ‌Siri‌. The framework is apparently included in pre-release versions of iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS 15.

Although little is known about its implementation, the report claims that it could help change the style or tone of the user's text as they type an email or message. If a user wanted to sound less casual, for example, they could ask ‌Siri‌ to "Make this text more professional."

The report offers a number of other tidbits related to "Project BlackPearl" – Apple's codename for some cross-system AI and machine learning enhancements – including automatic email categorization based on content (e.g. time sensitivity), ability to summarize emails and email threads, as well as notification summaries based on topic.

Bloomberg's Mark Gurman has previously touched on many of the other rumored new AI features mentioned in the report that are coming to iOS 18 and macOS 15. You can find more details about them in our previous coverage.

Swiss-based privacy startup Proton today announced the availability of Proton Pass for Mac and Linux, bringing the encrypted password manager to every platform for the first time.

Proton Pass features end-to-end encryption for all stored data, and includes a built-in two-factor authentication system, passkey support, and secure password sharing, as well as a Hide-My-Email feature to protect against spam and phishing.

The macOS version of Proton Pass also comes with a Safari extension, which aims to simplify password management and credential filling within Apple's browser. In addition, unlike Safari's default password manager, Proton Pass allows users to sync across multiple different browsers and devices, for simplified access across all platforms.

Proton Pass uses the Argon2 hashing algorithm, which is included within its offline mode feature, and is available to customers on a paid plan. The encryption method is designed so that passwords and sensitive information remain protected against unauthorized access, even when not connected to the internet.

Proton Pass also integrates Proton's recently announced Pass Monitor functionality, which provides proactive alerts for credentials exposed on the dark web, identifies weak and reused passwords, and checks for missing two-factor authentication.

According to Proton, the password manager will also soon support TouchID on macOS, allowing users to unlock their accounts using their fingerprints. This feature will be provided as an automatic update in the coming weeks.

Proton Pass is available for free with unlimited devices and Password Health included. For a limited time, the company is also offering users the chance to upgrade to the premium Pass Plus plan at a discounted rate of $10 for the first year (usually $23.88). Pass Plus includes support for passkeys, the full Pass Monitor experience with dark web monitoring and Proton Sentinel, as well as all the standard features of Proton Pass, including access to the web app.

Proton Pass for macOS and Linux are available to download now from the Proton website.

Apple has revealed its commitment to a minimum of five years of iPhone security software updates from the date a device is launched, thanks to a new legal requirement in the United Kingdom (via Android Authority).

Earlier this year, the U.K. established new Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure (PSTI) regulations, which force companies that sell internet-capable products in the country to comply with certain security requirements.

One of the requirements of the PSTI is that companies define a support period, or minimum length of time, for which security updates will be provided after sale. A "security update" is defined by the regulation as a "software update that protects or enhances the security of a product, including a software update that addresses security issues which have been discovered by or reported to the manufacturer."

In compliance with the regulation, Apple has submitted a public regulatory filing for the iPhone 15 Pro Max. The PSTI filing shows that the device's "defined support period" is a "minimum five years from the first supply date." The "first supply date" is listed as "September 22, 2023," which is when the iPhone 15 series launched.

Unlike Samsung and Google, Apple is not usually explicit about its legacy software support for iPhone devices, so the five-year minimum should come as good news to Apple users holding onto older devices. However, as Android Authority notes, both Samsung and Google guarantee seven years of security updates as well as Android OS updates for their devices, which is two years longer than what Apple is guaranteeing here.

That said, Apple typically provides older devices with the latest security updates longer than the stated five-year period. For example, just this March Apple pushed a security update to iPhone 6s models, which launched in September 2015, or nine years ago.

Going back further, in November 2020, Apple released an update to patch major security issues for the ‌iPhone‌ 5S, which was released in 2013. That's seven years after the device went on sale. In other words, while the minimum-five year period is now set in stone, iPhone users can take comfort in the fact that Apple has a strong history of keeping legacy devices in the loop for several years longer.

Apple will finally address a Safari restriction workaround that has been around for years after the bug was highlighted by The Wall Street Journal's Joanna Stern. Kids who are restricted from viewing certain websites with the Screen Time feature are able to paste a string of characters in the address bar in Safari in order to get around parental controls.

In a report on Screen Time, Stern says that she was able to use a string of characters on her son's iPad, bypassing the restrictions that prevent access to websites with pornography, violent images, and more. She was able to get around Screen Time on devices running iOS and iPadOS 15, 16, and 17, as well as macOS Sonoma.

In a statement to Stern, Apple said that it is aware of an "issue with an underlying web technology protocol for developers, which allows a user to bypass web content restrictions." A fix is planned for "the next software update."

Security researchers that spoke to Stern said the bug was first reported to Apple in March of 2021, after it was found that inputting a string of characters would get around website restrictions implemented by parents and web blacklists on company devices. The hack worked to bypass restrictions on iPhones, iPads, and Macs.

Apple told the researchers that it was not a security issue, and instead directed them to submit a report using the Feedback tool. After the report was submitted, there was no word back from Apple. Attempting to resubmit the bug to Apple was met with no response.

Apple ignored the issue for three years until Stern was contacted and publicized the problem. It appears that the workaround was not well-known or widely exploited, as the two security researchers that discovered it never shared it.

In addition to promising a fix, Apple said that it is committed to improving the process that's used to receive and escalate bug reports.

Stern's report highlights several other bugs with Screen Time, including issues with app limits, Screen Time usage charts, notifications for more time, and Ask to Buy. Apple improved Screen Time with iOS 17.5, implementing fixes for app and device usage tracking, app limits, and time requests, but the company says there will be additional updates in upcoming software releases.

Some of Lowe's retail locations are now offering an in-store Apple Vision Pro experience that is designed to allow customers to personalize and visualize their dream kitchen with the help of a Lowe's associate.

Available in select stores in North Carolina, California, and New Jersey to begin with, the experience provides customers with an Apple Vision Pro to use the Lowe's Style Studio app that launched alongside the Vision Pro in February. Lowe's Style Studio offers a 3D kitchen environment that can be customized with hundreds of real-world materials, fixtures, and appliances.

While Vision Pro owners are able to use the Style Studio app at home, many Lowe's customers who are planning a kitchen remodel might not have a Vision Pro available to see the different kitchen options. They can instead visit a Lowe's location to partake in an immersive kitchen visualization session.

A Lowe's employee will guide customers through the kitchen creation process during a one-on-one appointment, where there are 80 billion design combinations available. Completed kitchen setups can be saved, emailed, texted, or AirDropped as a PDF, with the content in the kitchen able to be purchased through Lowe's.

From June 8 to June 12, the Vision Pro demo is available at the Central Charlotte, NC Lowe's, and from June 22 through June 25, it will be available at Lowe's stores in North Bergen, New Jersey and Sunnyvale, California. Customers in these areas will be able to book a session online, with Lowe's also able to accommodate some walk-ins.

The Vision Pro version of the Apple Developer app has a special immersive Environment included that can be used as a backdrop for watching session videos when WWDC begins next week.

Apple's Environment for the Developer app features a black background with neon light animations in the colors of the WWDC artwork that Apple is using this year. It serves as a visually interesting background that's not too distracting for those who want to watch WWDC content with the world shut out.

The Environment is similar to those that Apple has created for general use, such as Yosemite, Mount Hood, and the Moon. It can be accessed when using the Apple Developer app, and immersion can be adjusted with the Digital Crown.

WWDC is set to begin next Monday, with a keynote event that will take place at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time. The keynote can be watched in the Apple Developer app, on YouTube, in the Apple TV app, or on Apple's website. WWDC sessions will be available starting on Monday, with Apple releasing new content throughout the week.

The Vision Pro Developer app can be downloaded from the visionOS App Store for free.

Throwboy is known for its pillows that look like classic Macs, but the company is expanding with a new range of pillows that are modeled after Apple's app icons.

Designed to look like the Messages, Mail, Apple Music, Finder, and Notes icons, the pillows are made from a soft, plush material that Throwboy says has a lush and cozy touch. Thick poly filling inside gives the pillows a "cuddly, bouncy feel" and the design on each pillow is embroidered for durability.

Get your hands on the essential set containing all five app-themed pillows. Whether you're a messaging, music, notes, mail, or icons fan, this collection has got you covered. Made with careful attention to detail and plush material, each pillow captures the true essence of our digital realm in a cuddly form. Perfect for your sofa, bed, or anywhere you want to flaunt your tech-loving side. Embrace your inner geek with The App Pillow Collection - the perfect addition for any digital enthusiast!

Each pillow measures in at 13 by 13 inches, and there is a woven label on the back that can be used to hang them on the wall for those who don't want to use them as cushions.

The set of five pillows is priced at $225, but each pillow is also available individually for $47 for those who want to buy the pillow of their favorite app.

Customers who bought the $700 AI Pin from Humane should stop using the Charge Case Accessory that came with the device, Humane said in emails that went out today. The email, which was shared by The Verge, says the charging case "may pose a fire safety risk."

Humane claims that it is contacting customers "out of an abundance of caution." After a report of a charging issue, Humane says that it looked into the Charge Case and found a quality issue with the battery cell. A third-party vendor supplied the cell, and Humane said that it is no longer working with that supplier.

Humane is working to find a new battery vendor, and the company says the problem is limited to the Charge Case. The AI Pin, Battery Boosters, and Charge Pad are not impacted, so the device can still be charged.

Customers should stop using and charging the Charge Case Accessory "immediately." Humane is not issuing a recall or refunding customers, but it will be providing customers with two months of the Humane subscription for free.

The AI Pin, which launched in November, is a standalone device that was designed specifically for AI. It attaches to a clothing item using a magnetic battery system, and it responds to questions and queries. There is a "laser ink display" that is able to project information onto the user's hand, and a built-in camera.

Humane's AI Pin did not fare well in reviews, and it was widely criticized for its poor performance.

Fans of large numbers will be happy to know that Apple became a $3 trillion company again today based on market cap, which is the total value of all of the company's outstanding shares. However, chipmaker Nvidia stole the moment.

Nvidia not only crossed the $3 trillion mark today for the first time ever, but it overtook Apple to become the world's second most valuable company as of market close today, trailing only Microsoft. Nvidia's stock price has more than tripled over the past year amid strong demand for its artificial intelligence (AI) server chips.

Apple became the world's first $3 trillion company in January 2022, and it has recrossed that mark several times since then. However, this is the first time that Apple has dropped to be the world's third most valuable company since 2019.

Apple is expected to unveil its own AI strategy during its WWDC keynote next week, with iOS 18 rumored to feature a smarter version of Siri powered by a large language model (LLM) and many other new AI features. Apple has also reportedly partnered with OpenAI to integrate ChatGPT on the iPhone, but the exact implementation remains to be seen.

AAPL closed at $195.87 today, down from a 52-week high of $199.62.

The Apple Weather app appears to be experiencing an outage, with some users seeing it fail to load or take 30 seconds or more to update to the current conditions.

There are reports about the Weather app on social media, and we've also confirmed that it is not fully functional for some users, but Apple's System Status page is not reporting an outage as of yet.

We'll update this post when the Weather app is functioning as normal.

Update: The iOS Weather app appears to be back up, but the macOS version is still down.

Update 2: Apple's System Status page is now reporting a Weather outage limited to next-hour precipitation in Alaska, but the Weather issue appears to be much more extensive than that.

Update 3: Apple has updated the System Status page again to confirm an outage that started at 2:10 p.m. Eastern Time. Apple says that the Weather app may be slow or unavailable.

Update 4: Apple removed Weather from the System Status page, but the Mac app continues to be down and the iOS Weather app loads slowly.

Assassin's Creed Mirage is now rolling out for the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max, as well as iPad Air and iPad Pro models equipped with the M1 chip or newer.

The game will be available in the U.S. starting tomorrow, June 6, according to the App Store. However, due to time zones, it is already available in countries like Australia, New Zealand, India, and Singapore, with Europe to follow in a few more hours.

Ubisoft previously announced that Assassin's Creed Mirage will be free to play for 90 minutes on the iPhone and iPad, and users will be able to unlock the full version with a single $49.99 in-app purchase. However, the game will be 50% off through June 20, so users will be able to unlock unlimited gameplay for $24.99 for the first two weeks.

Ubisoft says the iPhone and iPad versions of Assassin's Creed Mirage offer the same experience as the console version, but with touch-based controls.

The game's description in the App Store:

In Assassin's Creed® Mirage, you are Basim, a cunning street thief with nightmarish visions, seeking answers and justice. After an act of deadly retribution, Basim flees Baghdad and joins an ancient organization – The Hidden Ones. As he learns their mysterious rituals and powerful tenets, he will hone his unique abilities, discover his true nature, and come to understand a new Creed – one that will change his fate in ways he never could have imagined.

Assassin's Creed Mirage was first released for Xbox, PlayStation, and Windows in October.

With the A17 Pro chip, the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max support hardware-accelerated ray tracing and mesh shading, allowing for improved graphics rendering in games. This hardware upgrade has allowed for more AAA games on the iPhone, such as multiple Resident Evil titles and Death Stranding Director's Cut.

Apple has added an unannounced Thread radio in most of the Macs and iPads that have been released in the last eight months, according to a report from The Verge. Thread is not listed as a feature in the specifications for the devices released since September 2023, but FCC reports suggest that a Thread radio is indeed included.

Thread radios have been added to the M4 iPad Pro models, the M2 iPad Air models, the M3/M3 Pro/M3 Max MacBook Pro models, the M3 MacBook Air models, and the M3 iMacs.

It is possible that the Thread radios inside of the devices are inactive at the current time, which may be why Apple does not list Thread as an included feature. The Verge was not able to get a response from Apple on whether the Thread radios are functional or dormant.

Device makers have to list and test all radios contained in a product because of FCC regulations, which is why a Thread radio is listed in the FCC report for each device, but not included on the specifications website.

Thread is a mesh network that links smart home devices together, extending their range and reliability. It is an improvement over Bluetooth, and it is an important component of the Matter smart home protocol. Thread connects devices together, and Matter allows them to communicate with one another.

For Thread to work, a Thread border router is needed, and devices have to have Thread built in. Thread border routers include the Apple TV 4K, the HomePod, and the HomePod mini, among other smart home products. The ‌HomePod‌ and the ‌Apple TV‌ 4K have a known Thread radio that Apple has announced, as do the iPhone 15 Pro models, but Apple has not confirmed that Thread is in any of its other devices.

With a Thread radio, a Mac or iPad could serve as a Thread border router or a Home Hub for HomeKit devices, but right now that capability is not included in devices other than the ‌HomePod‌ and ‌Apple TV‌. iPads used to be Home Hubs (before Thread), but Apple eliminated that functionality.

As The Verge points out, the Thread radios in the Mac and ‌iPad‌ models could be for futureproofing purposes. Apple said the ‌iPhone‌ 15 Pro models had Thread for "future opportunities for Home app integrations," and Thread could in the future be used for connecting Apple Watches and other devices instead of Bluetooth.

Apple's supply chain will begin shipping the Vision Pro headset to countries outside of the U.S. by mid-June, according to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.

In a brief post on social media platform X today, Kuo said the UK, France, Germany, China, Japan, and Singapore will be among the countries that begin receiving Vision Pro shipments later this month. Other countries that could be part of this expansion wave include Australia, Canada, and South Korea, we previously reported.

Apple could share international availability details for the Vision Pro during its WWDC keynote on June 10, alongside visionOS 2. The headset is expected to launch in the first countries outside of the U.S. before the end of July.

visionOS 2 will include more Apple apps optimized for the Vision Pro headset, and address other "missing features," according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. The update could also introduce some kind of respiration tracking feature, and add Apple Pencil Pro support to the Vision Pro, based on rumors over the past few months.

Apple first launched the Vision Pro in the U.S. in early February.