MacRumors

Following reports that the UK government had dropped plans to heavily regulate Apple and other big tech companies using a new Digital Markets Unit (DMU), the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has assured that it will empower the DMU with statutory powers to penalize firms that do not meet its rules (via Reuters).

The government announced plans to set up the DMU in 2020, stating that it would grant powers to the body to create a code of conduct that big tech companies have to abide by in the UK or face fines of 10 percent of annual turnover. An interim report published by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) earlier this year was intended to focus the DMU's attention, and it was met with an aggressive response from Apple.

While the DMU currently exists with around 60 members of staff, it has no powers beyond the CMA's existing capabilities. The DMU is currently working on a number of investigations, including into the terms of Apple's App Store and Apple and Google's "duopoly" over mobile ecosystems. A government spokesperson yesterday confirmed that the DMU will be given powers to address the "predatory practices" of some big tech companies with the aim of boosting competition and giving users more control.

The DCMS's proposals include provisions to make it easier for users to switch between iOS and Android, and give users more control over search engines and how their data is used. App developers would be able to distribute their apps "on fairer and more transparent terms." There are also plans to give small and medium-sized businesses better pricing from services offered by big tech companies, as well as insights into the algorithms that drive traffic and revenues. Digital minister Chris Philp said:

The dominance of a few tech giants is crowding out competition and stifling innovation... We want to level the playing field and we are arming this new tech regulator with a range of powers to generate lower prices, better choice and more control for consumers while backing content creators, innovators and publishers, including in our vital news industry.

The DMU will be able to fine companies that break its code of conduct 10 percent of their annual global turnover, with an extra five percent of daily global turnover added per day that the violation continues. In Apple's case, this could quickly reach fines of tens of billions of dollars if it is found to have broken the DMU's rules. Senior managers could also face civil penalties if their companies are deemed to have not engaged properly with requests for information.

A spokesperson for the DCMS declined to comment on if legislation to empower the DMU will be included in this year's Queen's Speech, which sets out the government's agenda for the coming year. It is still unclear when exactly the powers will come into force, with the government simply saying that the necessary legislation will come "in due course."

Apple's ecosystem is increasingly coming under intense scrutiny by governments around the world, including in the United States, Japan, South Korea, the European Union, and more, with a clear appetite from global regulators to explore requirements around app store policies, app sideloading, and interoperability.

Note: Due to the political or social nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Political News 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.

As AirPods Pro were under development in the years before their launch in 2019, Apple was pushed by a small team of HR managers to adopt a more transparent and less secretive work atmosphere for employees, a departure from the ultra-secretive and siloed work culture that leads to most of the company's products.

The revelation comes from a guest article on Fast Company written by Chris Deaver, a former Apple HR manager who worked at the company from 2015 to 2019. In the article, Deaver describes, as is well-known, Apple's stringent culture of product secrecy and confidentiality. Employees working on products such as the Mac or iPad have no insight into what teams working on the iPhone or other products are doing, creating a great sense of exclusion for some employees.

That culture of immense Apple secrecy and confinement of information often left employees working on different products and disciplines in uncomfortable dilemmas of not knowing who they can speak to and who they must keep secrets away from out of fear of legal or work-related punishments. "How do I operate like this? If I can only share information with certain people, how do I know who and when? I don’t want to end up fired or in jail," Deaver quotes one employee saying during his time at the company.

Beyond personal and social dilemmas for employees, the culture of secrecy also caused friction across teams at the company. Deaver describes his role as part of the HR department as having to deal with internal disputes, which he said often came from complaints of "that team not sharing."

Deaver, alongside a close business friend, Ian Clawson, conceived a small team of HR experts and partners to think of a new, more transparent way for Apple's teams to work that would result in less friction during the development of products. Deaver said he was inspired to do this based on his experience having seen the development of the original AirPods, which reportedly left staff feeling burned out and frustrated.

Teams were innovating for months in silos only to finally converge in the eleventh hour before launch, ending up in five- or six-hour-long daily meetings, causing tremendous friction and burnout. People were frustrated. They wanted to leave or to “never work with that one person again.”

How could Apple have avoided the internal turmoil we faced with the development of AirPods? How do cultures take the shape they do? These questions and the inspired sessions with Ian, led me to form a mini braintrust at Apple. As a small group of HR partners, we started to explore this by getting curious about the Apple culture.

The brainstorming of this team ultimately led Apple to adopt a more transparent and collaborative work culture for the ‌AirPods Pro‌. Instead of separate groups working in silos, all on the same products but not being able to communicate or work together, Apple opted for an open, free-flowing workflow for the ‌AirPods Pro‌.

As teams converged with leaders becoming more open, connected, and driving higher quality collaboration than ever before. We spent time coaching, collaborating, and influencing key leaders and engineers driving the next frontier of AirPods. What emerged was a braintrust with regular sessions, openness, and connection that brought to life the insanely great, noise-canceling AirPods Pro. It was a testament to innovation, but also to the power of sharing. Yes, sharing could be done in the context of secrecy.

The new culture was internally dubbed "Different Together," a play on Apple's iconic "Think Different" campaign. Part of Apple's priority in maintaining high secrecy is preventing leaks and rumors about what the company is working on. As Deaver tries to prove, Apple can both be secretive and collorbaritve simultaneously, as demonstrated by the development of ‌AirPods Pro‌.

Feral Interactive has been porting games to the Mac since 1996, earning it a reputation for extremely faithful, high-quality PC and console conversions. With Apple's transition from Intel processors to Apple silicon across the Mac lineup now almost complete, MacRumors asked the publisher and developer how it thinks the Mac gaming landscape has changed in the intervening years and where it could be headed.

"The changes have been cyclical, but bringing games to the Mac platform over that time has had its challenges," admits Feral. "Apple's move from PPC to Intel, 32-bit to 64-bit and, most recently, Intel to Apple silicon – all of these required transitional periods and substantial work, but in each case they facilitated a situation in which better games could be brought to Mac. What has remained constant is that there is a community of Mac users who want to play games on their computers. There's an audience for good games that are well optimized for the platform."

That doesn't mean Mac gamers haven't felt perpetually frustrated at Apple's seeming lack of interest in the Mac as a gaming-capable machine. As many Mac gaming fans will know, Apple has historically hamstrung the Mac's graphics power by using integrated Intel graphics and designed-for-mobile GPUs in its laptops and all-in-one desktop machines. For this reason, Feral says that apart from their interest in a game, licensing negotiations, and the proven success of a given IP, the other big variable it has always had to consider when porting a triple-A title is how demanding a game is – and if a Mac can handle it.

"Before [Apple silicon], nearly all the most popular Apple computers, particularly their entry level laptops, used Intel Integrated Graphics. That was a problem. We had to spend a large part of extended development cycles optimizing games to make sure they ran as well as possible on devices which were not intended or designed for gaming," says Feral.

"The problem is that AAA games often push the limits on hardware, and we need to be confident that we can get a game to run well on a broad range of machines, often stretching back several years. However, the current transition to Apple silicon opens up some exciting opportunities. In comparison to the previous generation of Intel-based Macs, it offers a big step up in power, and for games that translates to better performance and enhanced graphical fidelity."

"This gives us a greater degree of freedom in looking at more demanding games, as we have greater confidence that they can be made to work well on a broad range of Macs including entry-level laptops, which represent a big chunk of the potential audience."

It hasn't just been hardware that Feral has had to contend with – Apple's shifting software standards have also been a challenge to overcome. In 2018, for example, Apple deprecated OpenGL and OpenCL and encouraged game developers to move to Metal, which is pitched as a platform-optimized, low-overhead API for developing graphics-intensive software.

"When Apple announced Metal for macOS, its implementation of OpenGL already fell well short of DirectX in terms of performance and was missing many of the features needed for gaming," says Feral. "However, Metal is a big step forward, simply by being a performant graphics API."

"We started work the day Apple announced Metal for Mac, and provided a lot of feedback and feature requests to Apple, much of which, to their credit, they acted on." Feral went on to release its first Metal game in early 2017 and updated a number of its older games to use Metal instead of OpenGL. "The benefits of doing so was that it allowed them to run natively on the latest Macs, and in many cases brought big performance improvements," says the publisher.

Feral has already released a native Apple silicon game (Total War: Rome Remastered), and while developing exclusively for Apple silicon will depend on the player base, the specific game requirements, and support from third-party middleware, Feral says that the combination of Apple silicon's power and a modern graphics API in Metal has improved the situation "hugely."

Feral promises it will continue to support Intel Macs "for as long as it is both technically feasible and commercially viable." But while it understands the importance of continuing to support owners of older machines, "with ever more demanding games, we are already beginning to see the end of support for Macs with Intel processors coming into view."

A case in point: Earlier this week Feral released Total War: Warhammer III for Apple silicon Macs only. Reflecting its acceptance of the gradual demise of Intel-powered Macs as gaming platforms, Feral admitted that "Unfortunately, during testing, there were severe performance and stability issues on Intel Macs with integrated Intel GPUs. This means we cannot support them for this game, and will not be able to add support for them in the future."

As for the prospects for Apple silicon Macs and the future of Mac gaming more generally, Feral is bullish. "We're enthusiastic about its renewed capability as a gaming platform. We intend to remain focused on bringing great games to the platform, making them run as well as possible, and supporting them for a long time."

WhatsApp has announced it is rolling out multiple new features today that have undergone long testing periods, including emoji reactions, bigger file transfers, and larger groups.

WhatsApp has been working on message reactions – or "Tapbacks" in Apple Messages parlance – for some time, with evidence of their development first coming to light last summer.

The feature gives messaging app users a quick and easy way to respond to a message (a thumbs-up or thumbs-down in iMessage, for example) without having to type out a lengthier text-based reply in the chat thread.

Similar to Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp users will soon see a row of emoji just above a message. To begin with, only a handful of common reactions are available, but WhatsApp parent company Meta has said that support for "all emojis and skin-tones" will be added in the future.

WhatsApp is also rolling out a much larger 2GB cap for file transfers between users of the instant messaging platform. WhatsApp's file-sharing capabilities have become a key feature of the service, and the app has included the ability to share media files within conversations since 2017, but its 100MB file size limitation hasn't changed in that time.

Upping the limit to 2GB should make the platform a lot more amenable to sharing video clips and other large media file types, which would also be securely transferred via WhatsApp's end-to-end encryption.

Also from today, WhatsApp is expanding the default maximum size of group chats, upping the cap from 256 to 512 users. In its blog post announcing the new features, WhatsApp says the larger group limit is being rolled out "slowly," while message reactions and larger file size transfer limits are currently rolling out to users globally and should be available in the current version of the app.

We're five months into 2022 with the Worldwide Developers Conference on the horizon, to be followed not too long after by Apple's September event. The second half of the year is shaping up to be exciting, as rumors suggest we can look forward to an array of updated Macs, iPhones, and accessories set to launch. In our latest YouTube video, we rounded up the five products we can't wait to get our hands on.

• MacBook Air - The MacBook Air is getting its biggest refresh since 2010, which puts it at the top of our list. Apple is going with a fresh iMac-like design, which means the ‌MacBook Air‌ is expected to get fun new colors and off-white bezels and white keyboard like the 24-inch iMac. It's also going to get a new look, with Apple finally abandoning the tapered look for a more streamlined MacBook Pro-style look. Rounding out the upgrades, the ‌MacBook Air‌ is expected to be one of the first to adopt the M2 chip, a follow up to the M1. The ‌M2‌ is rumored to feature an 8-core CPU and a nine or 10-core GPU.
• Mac Pro - The Mac Pro is perhaps the most exciting product coming in 2022 because it will see Apple finishing its transition to Apple silicon. After the ‌Mac Pro‌ comes out, Apple will no longer be reliant on Intel chips, and the Mac Studio has shown us that the ‌Mac Pro‌'s Apple silicon chip is going to be impressive. The ‌Mac Pro‌ is expected to feature a chip that has up to a 40-core CPU and a 128-core GPU, double the M1 Ultra.
• iPhone 14 Pro Max - All of the iPhone 14 models will be an upgrade over the ‌iPhone‌ 13 models, but we picked the 14 Pro Max because it's going to get all of the bells and whistles. It will not have a notch, with Apple instead implementing a dual display cutout look with a pill-shaped cutout and a circular cutout. It will come in new colors, include camera improvements, and have a faster A16 chip, which actually won't be coming to the ‌iPhone‌ 14 and 14 Max.
• AirPods Pro - Apple is finally going to refresh the AirPods Pro in 2022, and they could have an all-new design that does away with the short stem at the bottom. Apple is testing a more rounded, compact shape. There are also rumors that the next-generation AirPods will feature support for Apple Lossless audio and improved Find My integration that will let them play a sound if they're lost.
• Apple Watch Series 8 - Last but not least, the Apple Watch Series 8 launch is going to be interesting because there's a new model coming this year - a rugged model. In addition to the standard Apple Watch Series 8, Apple is rumored to be working on a more durable version of the Apple Watch aimed at athletes, hikers, and those who use the watch in more extreme conditions. A body temperature sensor and car crash detection are also rumored features.

What do you think of our list? What are you looking forward to from Apple? Let us know in the comments.

Apple Music appears to be affected by a bug that is causing the app to install itself directly into the dock when downloaded from the App Store, with the app even replacing other first and third-party apps located in the dock.

There have been several complaints about the problem on Twitter from users who downloaded ‌Apple Music‌ and then had it replace another app. Kevin Archer, for example, had ‌Apple Music‌ replace Spotify in his dock.

Archer claimed that the app was only replacing non-Apple apps, but that appears to be incorrect, as TechCrunch tested the bug and had ‌Apple Music‌ install itself over the Camera app, Twitter, and Safari. We had it install over the Mail app and Dropbox, so music apps are not being targeted or solely impacted.

There have also been complaints that ‌Apple Music‌ is setting itself as the default music service when it is downloaded even if another music app was set as the default, but we have not been able to replicate this behavior.

iOS devices running iOS 15.4.1 are affected, and we were also able to get ‌Apple Music‌ to install itself over another app in the iOS 15.5 beta. Other older versions of iOS 15 also appear to be exhibiting the same issue. There's even a complaint from 2019, well before iOS 15.

As TechCrunch points out, this behavior has not explicitly been explained as a bug by Apple, but it is likely unintended. Apple has already been accused of favoring its own apps over third-party apps and is facing regulatory scrutiny, so there's little chance that Apple would blatantly replace third-party apps with its own.

There also appears to be no set pattern to the apps that ‌Apple Music‌ will replace, with Apple's own apps replaced as well, nor does the issue happen consistently. Epic CEO Tim Sweeney has, however, suggested that Apple "rigged" iOS to replace apps with ‌Apple Music‌.

Given that the ‌Apple Music‌ issue is receiving quite a lot of attention, including accusations of preferential treatment, Apple will likely address it soon.

Update: Apple told MacRumors that it is aware of the issue and is looking into it.

Microsoft today announced that Fortnite is available through its Xbox Cloud Gaming service, which means iPhone and iPad users can play Fortnite for free with just a Microsoft account.

Fortnite is the first free-to-play game that has been aded to Xbox Cloud Gaming, which is still available in a beta capacity. Xbox Cloud Gaming is available in 26 countries and Fortnite can be played on Android smartphones and tablets, and Windows PCs in addition to iPhones and iPads.

Nothing needs to be installed since Xbox Cloud Gaming is browser-based over-the-air gaming, and there is no membership required because Fortnite is free. The game supports native touch controls or a connected controller.

With Fortnite available via Xbox Cloud Gaming, ‌iPhone‌ and ‌iPad‌ users who have not been able to play Fortnite on their mobile devices since the game was pulled from the App Store will once again be able to get access.

Cloud-based gaming service GeForce NOW has also been beta testing Fortnite support on iPhones and iPads, but Fortnite on GeForce NOW is only available in a closed beta. Fortnite through Xbox Cloud Gaming is available to anyone with a Microsoft account.

Apple has no plans to allow Fortnite back into the ‌App Store‌ while its legal battle with Epic Games is ongoing, so cloud-based gaming is the only way to access the popular battle royale game on iOS devices.

Apple this week lowered its estimated trade-in values for select Mac, iPad, and Apple Watch models in the United States.

Apple has reduced trade-in values for the MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, MacBook, iMac, iMac Pro, Mac Pro, Mac mini, iPad Pro, iPad Air, iPad, iPad mini, Apple Watch Series 3 through Apple Watch Series 6, Apple Watch SE, and select Samsung and Google smartphones. Apple is also no longer accepting Apple Watch Series 2 trade-ins.

iPhone trade-in values are unchanged.

New trade-in values:

• MacBook Pro: Up to $1,000
• MacBook Air: Up to $400
• MacBook: Up to $220
• iMac Pro: Up to $1,500
• iMac: Up to $850
• Mac Pro: Up to $2,000
• Mac mini: Up to $450
• iPad Pro: Up to $655
• iPad Air: Up to $290
• iPad: Up to $190
• iPad mini: Up to $200
• Apple Watch Series 6: Up to $150
• Apple Watch SE: Up to $120
• Apple Watch Series 5: Up to $120
• Apple Watch Series 4: Up to $85
• Apple Watch Series 3: Up to $50

Previous trade-in values:

• MacBook Pro: Up to $1,350
• MacBook Air: Up to $490
• MacBook: Up to $315
• iMac Pro: Up to $2,135
• iMac: Up to $1,200
• Mac Pro: Up to $2,720
• Mac mini: Up to $600
• iPad Pro: Up to $680
• iPad Air: Up to $335
• iPad: Up to $200
• iPad mini: Up to $205
• Apple Watch Series 6: Up to $170
• Apple Watch SE: Up to $135
• Apple Watch Series 5: Up to $135
• Apple Watch Series 4: Up to $105
• Apple Watch Series 3: Up to $70
• Apple Watch Series 2: Up to $20

The full list of values can be found on Apple's trade-in website.

Satechi today has introduced a new sale across a variety of its best wireless chargers, offering 20 percent off these accessories for a limited time. This sale includes discounts on wireless chargers for iPhone, Apple Watch, AirPods, and a few options for simultaneously charging multiple devices at once.

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

To see these discounts, you can add any of the accessories below to your cart on Satechi's website and enter the code MOTHER at the checkout screen. This event will run through Sunday, May 8, and as of now only focuses on Satechi's wireless chargers and is not a sitewide discount.

iPhone

• USB-C Magnetic Wireless Charging Cable - $24.00, down from $29.99
• Aluminum Type-C Wireless Charger - $32.00, down from $39.99

AirPods

• USB-C Wireless Charging Dock for AirPods - $24.00, down from $29.99

Apple Watch

• USB-C Magnetic Charging Dock for Apple Watch - $32.00, down from $39.99

Multi-Device

• Dock5 Multi-Device Charging Station - $48.00, down from $59.99
• Aluminum 2-in-1 Magnetic Wireless Charging Stand - $48.00, down from $59.99
• 2-in-1 Headphone Stand with Wireless Charger - $64.00, down from $79.99
• Quatro Wireless Power Bank - $80.00, down from $99.99
• 3-in-1 Magnetic Wireless Charging Stand - $96.00, down from $119.99
• Trio Wireless Charger with Magnetic Pad - $96.00, down from $119.99

Be sure to visit our full Deals Roundup to shop for even more Apple-related products and accessories.

Apple, Google, and Microsoft today announced plans to expand support for a passwordless sign-in standard created by the FIDO Alliance and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), promising a faster, easier, and more secure sign‑in process.

The expanded standards-based capabilities will give websites and apps the ability to offer an end-to-end passwordless sign-in option, according to the announcement. Instead of entering a password, users will sign in through the same action that they take multiple times each day to unlock their devices, such as Face ID on the iPhone.

The new approach is described as "radically more secure" compared to passwords and legacy multi-factor technologies, such as one-time passcodes sent over SMS.

Apple, Google, and Microsoft already support FIDO Alliance standards across their platforms, but expanded support will give users two new capabilities for more seamless and secure passwordless sign-ins, as outlined in the announcement:

1. Allow users to automatically access their FIDO sign-in credentials (referred to by some as a "passkey") on many of their devices, even new ones, without having to reenroll every account.
2. Enable users to use FIDO authentication on their mobile device to sign in to an app or website on a nearby device, regardless of the OS platform or browser they are running.

These new capabilities are expected to become available across Apple, Google, and Microsoft platforms over the coming year, the announcement said.

"Working with the industry to establish new, more secure sign-in methods that offer better protection and eliminate the vulnerabilities of passwords is central to our commitment to building products that offer maximum security and a transparent user experience — all with the goal of keeping users' personal information safe," said Kurt Knight, Apple's Senior Director of Platform Product Marketing, in a press release.

The European Union's wide-reaching new regulations to target Apple and other big tech companies will come into effect in early 2023, according to EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager (via TechCrunch).

The EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA) could force Apple to make major changes to the App Store, Messages, FaceTime, third-party browsers, and Siri in Europe. For example, it could be forced to allow users to install third-party app stores and sideload apps, give developers the ability to closely interoperate with Apple's own services and promote their offers outside the ‌App Store‌ and use third-party payment systems, and access data gathered by Apple.

One of the more recent additions to the DMA is the requirement to make messaging, voice-calling, and video-calling services interoperable. The interoperability rules theoretically mean that Meta apps like WhatsApp or Messenger could request to interoperate with Apple's iMessage framework, and Apple would be forced to comply.

In a speech at the International Competition Network conference in Berlin, Vestager said that the DMA "will enter into force next spring and we are getting ready for enforcement as soon as the first notifications come in." The DMA was originally supposed to come into effect in October 2022, suggesting that there has been a slight delay in preparing for the new legislation. Vestager also mentioned that the first enforcements could follow soon after the regulation is in place, and discussed the EU's ongoing preparations:

This next chapter is exciting. It means a lot of concrete preparations. It's about setting up new structures within the Commission, pooling resources... based on relevant experience. It's about hiring staff. It's about preparing the IT systems. It's about drafting further legal texts on procedures or notification forms. Our teams are currently busy with all these preparations and we're aiming to come forward with the new structures very soon.

EU lawmakers provisionally approved the DMA in March. The European Parliament and the European Council must give final approval to the legislation before it can come into force. Big tech companies that meet the criteria to be designated a "gatekeeper" must declare their status to the European Commission within three months after the regulation comes into effect, and there is an additional two month period for the EU to confirm a gatekeeper's designation, meaning that it may still be some time before companies face enforcement measures.

Apple is almost certain to be classified as a "gatekeeper," due to the size of its annual turnover in the EU, its ownership and operation of platforms with a large number of active users, and its "entrenched and durable position" due to how long it has met these criteria, and will therefore be subject to the rules set out in the DMA.

Beyond the European Union, Apple's ecosystem is increasingly coming under intense scrutiny by governments around the world, including in the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, South Korea, and more, with a clear appetite from global regulators to explore requirements around app sideloading and interoperability. Vestager suggested that a significant level of cooperation is already occurring as part of preparations for the DMA, and urged national competition authorities around the world to closely cooperate:

For that next chapter, close cooperation with competition authorities, both inside and outside the EU will be crucial. This is irrespective of whether they apply traditional enforcement tools or have developed their own specific regulatory instruments, like the German digital regulation. Close cooperation will be necessary because we will not be short of work and we will not be short of novel services or practices to look at. And the efforts needed at a global scale are enormous. So we will need to work together more than ever.

Many of you will be watching the roll out of the DMA with great interest. This will be a mutual learning experience. The EU has worked hard to find the right balance, and I think we have come up with something that is tough but also very fair. It goes without saying that the more we, as an international competition community, are able to harmonize our approach, the less opportunity there will be for global tech giants to exploit enforcement gaps between our jurisdictions.

The DMA says that gatekeepers who ignore the rules will face fines of up to 10 percent of the company's total worldwide annual turnover, or 20 percent in the event of repeated infringements, as well as periodic penalties of up to 5 percent of the company's total worldwide annual turnover. Where gatekeepers perpetrate "systematic infringements," the European Commission will be able to impose additional sanctions, such as obliging a gatekeeper to sell a business or parts of it, including units, assets, intellectual property rights, or brands, or banning a gatekeeper from acquiring any company that provides services in the digital sector.

So far, Apple has heavily resisted attempts by governments to enforce changes to its operating systems and services. For example, Apple simply chose to pay a $5.5 million fine every week for ten weeks in the Netherlands instead of obey orders from the Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) to allow third-party payment systems in Dutch dating apps. Earlier this week, the ACM announced that Apple's rules surrounding Dutch dating apps remain insufficient.

Note: Due to the political or social nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Political News 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 has agreed to settle a long-lasting six-year class-action lawsuit that accused it of knowingly slowing down iPhone 4S devices following the iOS 9 update in 2015, agreeing to pay some ‌iPhone‌ 4S owners who had experienced poor performance $15 each for their claims.

The class-action lawsuit was initially filed in December 2015 by plaintiffs representing a group of ‌iPhone‌ 4S customers from New York and New Jersey. The lawsuit accused Apple of falsely marketing the iOS 9 update as providing enhanced performance on devices it supports, including the ‌iPhone‌ 4S.

Plaintiffs collectively filed the operative Complaint in this action alleging that the Class was harmed when consumers downloaded iOS 9 onto their iPhone 4S devices after being exposed to Apple’s allegedly false description of the new operating system. Plaintiffs contend that Apple misrepresented that iOS 9 was compatible with the iPhone 4S and would improve or “enhance performance” for its customers that downloaded the software update. Instead, Plaintiffs contend, iOS 9 significantly slowed down the performance of their iPhone 4S devices.

Apple marketed iOS 9 with the tagline "The most advanced mobile experience. Now even more so." The update included proactive Siri Suggestions, Slide Over, Split View, Picture in Picture on iPad, etc. On the ‌iPhone‌, Apple promised "under-the-hood refinements [that] bring you more responsive performance." The class-action lawsuit argues that the claim was false marketing for the ‌iPhone‌ 4S, the oldest ‌iPhone‌ iOS 9 supported.

Under the settlement, Apple allocated $20 million to compensate ‌iPhone‌ 4S owners in New York and New Jersey who experienced poor performance after updating to iOS 9. Customers who believe they are entitled to the $15 must "submit a declaration under the penalty of perjury that, to the best of their knowledge, they downloaded iOS 9, or any version thereof, onto their ‌iPhone‌ 4S... their ‌iPhone‌ 4S experienced a significant decline in performance as a result, are entitled to a payment of $15 per applicable device."

A website will be created where customers who believe they are entitled to the settlement will be able to submit a form, providing their name, email, ‌iPhone‌ 4S serial number (if possible), and mailing address. See the full motion here.

Feral today released Total War: Warhammer III, an Apple silicon optimized version of the latest part in the Total War series based on Games Workshop's Warhammer fantasy fictional universe.

Like other titles in the Total War series, the game features turn-based strategy and real-time tactics in which players move armies around the map and manage settlements, engaging in diplomacy with, and fighting against, computer-controlled factions or other gamers online in multiplayer battles.

WARHAMMER III plunges players into a cataclysmic power struggle between mortals and daemons with each aiming to save or exploit the power of a dying god. Featuring seven diverse playable races - including the video-game debuts of Grand Cathay and Kislev - alongside ground-breaking new features such as the Realm of Chaos campaign, eight-player multiplayer, and the customizable RPG-like Daemon Prince Legendary Lord.

In addition to the above lands, the game features a Prologue campaign, which promises a new Total War experience designed for both new players and those requiring a refresher course on the game's mechanics. In this narrative-driven mode, players learn basic and advanced techniques of tactical warfare before going on to engage in the main Warhammer III campaign, which takes place within the Realm of Chaos, said to be the source of all magic in the Warhammer Fantasy setting.

Total War: Warhammer III was originally released on Windows PC in February 2022, so this port from Feral is not too far behind. To play Total War: Warhammer III requires macOS 12.0.1 or later and a Mac powered by Apple's M1 chip (8-core CPU/7-core GPU) or better, 8GB of RAM, and 125GB of storage space. The game can be purchase directly from the developers at the Total War: Warhammer III store or on Steam.

Google plans to soon launch the "Pixel Buds Pro," a high-end version of its Pixel Buds line that it hopes will compete with the likes of Apple's AirPods Pro and Samsung's Galaxy Buds Pro.

Leaker Jon Prosser said in a tweet this week that the Pixel Buds Pro were slated to launch "soon," and come in four colors: Real Red, Carbon, Limoncello, and Fog. While not disclosing a specific date, Prosser's tweet comes just a week before Google plans to hold Google I/O, its version of Apple's WWDC conference where it's expected to announce a new low-end Pixel 6 and an all-new Pixel Watch.

Beyond the “Pro” name, rumors have yet to surface about what design and features the Pixel Buds Pro will include to rival Apple’s popular ‌AirPods Pro‌. The current Pixel Buds, the Pixel Buds A-Series, feature silicone ear-tips and cost $99 compared to the $249 for the ‌AirPods Pro‌ or $179 for the newest low-end AirPods 3. The A-Series buds, however, lack features typically attributed to a "Pro" earbud, such as Active Noise Cancelation.

In typical Google fashion, the Pixel Buds Pro can also be expected to feature the Google Assistant built-in with intelligent features, such as Adaptive Sound that adjusts volume level depending on your surroundings and touch controls. For a comparison of how Google's previous-generation Pixel Buds stacks up to the ‌AirPods Pro‌, be sure to check out our video.

Retail packaging images of Sony's highly anticipated next-generation WH-1000XM5 headphones have leaked online, confirming the recently rumored new design and suggesting a launch might not be far away.

Originally shared on a Sony subreddit, the photos show the pictures on the box corroborate the rumored redesign, replacing the shrouded arms that swivel on the 1000XM4's with an exposed arm that has a single contact point at the earcups, which look slightly bigger than on the previous generation.

The images however put one aspect of the rumor in doubt. Last month, Germany-based TechnikNews reported that an anonymous retail source suggested the WH-1000XM5's will have a battery life of up to 40 hours with active noise cancelation on, which is 10 hours longer than the XM4's. Details on the box list though 30 hours of battery life.

One possible explanation is that the 30 hours relates to noise cancelation on when Sony's Hi-Res LDAC audio coding technology is enabled, and this increases to 40 hours when LDAC isn't active, but that's just speculation. Alternately, Sony may have chosen to reduce the battery capacity to reduce overall weight while maintaining battery life due to more efficient components, but again, we won't know for sure until the product launches.

When that will happen isn't clear, but given that the retail packaging appears to be finalized with possible units already in the wild suggests that they could become available sooner rather than later. The short term confidentiality date on the headphones' FCC filings is said to end on August 8, but the XM5's could always debut earlier. For reference, Sony announced the XM4's in June 2021.

Notably, a post over on the Korean Naver blog doubles down on the new headphones' improved noise cancelation function and sonics, and suggests that supply chain issues could see a higher price than the XM4's, which retail at $349. Either way, we should know all the details fairly soon and learn just how they stack up compared to what will be their main rival, Apple's $549 AirPods Max.

Update: "Yep," tweeted Jon Prosser in response to this article. The YouTube leaker claims the XM5 headphones have a 30-hour battery, and Sony will announce them on May 12 with a $399 price tag.

Update 2: Sony has begun teasing its XM5 headphones announcement on its websites with a partial image of the new design and an event date of May 12.

Meta, still better known as Facebook, plans to hire fewer new employees for the remainder of 2022 than previously planned, the company's chief financial officer, David Wehner, said in an internal memo obtained by Business Insider that partly blamed Apple.

In the letter to Meta employees, Wehner said that the company needs to "take another look at our priorities and make some tough decisions about what projects we go after in both the short and medium-term." Due to slower than expected revenue growth for the last quarter, which Wehner partly blames on Apple's ATT (App Tracking Transparency) framework, Meta will hire fewer employees for the rest of 2022.

Wehner said this change "will affect almost every team in the company," adding "this will be an opportunity to reprioritize work to make sure we're all focused on the most important things." Wehner remains optimistic, however, about what's to come despite a turbulent last few quarters.

Most notably, Wehner said that Meta hopes its incorporation of AI into its ad business will help mitigate losses caused by Apple's ATT framework. The ATT framework, launched in 2020, gives users a choice on whether they wish to be tracked or not across apps and websites owned by other companies. More than any other company, Meta was and continues to be vocal against giving users that choice.

When users first open an app on iOS 14.5 and later, they can choose "Allow Tracking" or "Ask App Not to Track." With the latter, that app no longer has access to a critical piece of information known as IDFA, or Identifier for Advertisers, which makes it harder to target personalized ads to that user.

In December 2020, Meta took out a full-page ad in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post calling Apple's privacy changes bad for small businesses. Meta said in the ad that "limiting how personalized ads can be used does impact larger companies like us," adding Apple's "forced software update" will "limit businesses' ability to run personalized ads and reach their customers effectively."

Over a month later, Apple's CEO Tim Cook said in a speech that Apple has long championed user privacy and that ATT is a step in the right direction. "ATT responds to a very real issue," Cook said. "Technology does not need vast troves of personal data, stitched together across dozens of websites and apps, in order to succeed. Advertising existed and thrived for decades without it. And we're here today because the path of least resistance is rarely the path of wisdom."

Referencing data brokers and ill-intended companies, Cook added, "it has never been so clear how it degrades our fundamental right to privacy first, and our social fabric by consequence." Zuckerberg said that Apple's privacy features are targeted at changing how Meta operates, claiming the changes are only self-serving to Apple.

Cook said in a tweet that even with ATT, Meta can "continue to track users across apps and websites as before" but that thanks to ATT, users now simply have a choice.

Ulysses today reached version 26, and this update brings a few more welcome feature additions and improvements to the popular writing app for Mac and iOS.

For almost as long as it's existed, Ulysses has included a Dashboard sidebar that can be revealed to show, amongst other things, writing progress statistics for the current sheet in the editor, such as average reading time and character and word count.

However, the developers have recognized that sometimes it's very useful to be able to have a particular stat permanently in view as you're writing, without having to have the Dashboard open with its mine of information taking up valuable editing space. As such, in the latest version of Ulysses for Mac, a single stat can now be displayed right within the editor, in the top-right corner of the window.

Clicking on the new "Editor counter" allows users to select which statistic they want to see updated in real time as they write, with options for reading time and counters for words, characters, characters without spaces, sentences, average words per sentence, paragraphs, lines, and pages.

Elsewhere in version 26 for Mac and iOS, the developers have optimized the publishing flow by adding dedicated buttons for quick access to publishing and separating out the publishing preview. In addition, there's added support for more blogs, and the setup process for Wordpress accounts has been simplified using the modern REST API.

This update also fixes a crash when sharing a sheet from Ulysses and a potential delay when opening the editor, as well as a crash that occurred when sharing a sheet from Mac to iPad when using Universal Control.

Ulysses can be downloaded for free on the App Store, with version 26 rolling out to existing users today. After a 14-day trial period, a subscription is required to unlock the app on all devices. A monthly subscription costs $5.99, while a yearly subscription is $49.99.

Students can use Ulysses at a discounted price of $10.99 per six months. The discount is granted from within the app. Ulysses is also included in Setapp, the subscription-based service for Mac applications created by MacPaw.

Apple last week announced the launch of a new Self Repair program, which is designed to allow iPhone 12, ‌iPhone‌ 13, and ‌iPhone‌ SE owners to repair their devices on their own using manuals, tools, and replacement parts sourced directly from Apple.

We were curious how the Self Service Repair program works and how it compares to the simplicity of bringing a product in to Apple for repair, so we had MacRumors videographer Dan Barbera order up a repair kit to replace the battery of his iPhone 12 mini.

Dan describes himself as the opposite of a handyman and he's never done an ‌iPhone‌ repair before, so we thought he'd be the perfect representation of the average consumer who just wants to save some money by doing DIY repairs.

To start out with, we ordered a kit and components on the day that the program went live, and received it not too long after, so the turnaround time for what we needed was fairly quick. It's worth noting that for most of the repairs, you need the parts and Apple's repair kit. The repair kit comes in two separate packages, and the two boxes weigh in at a whopping 79 pounds. You get it for a week before you need to send it back via UPS, or else Apple charges you $1300.

It's inconvenient to have to deal with one 40 pound repair kit and a second 30 pound repair kit, so that's a negative right off the bat. It costs $49 to get the kit and $70.99 for the ‌iPhone 12 mini‌ battery bundle, though you get $24.15 back for sending in old parts.

That means it costs a total of $95.84 to do a battery swap on the ‌iPhone 12 mini‌, and comparatively, it's $69 to have Apple swap it out, so it's not really cost effective to do that repair on your own.

Note that you can order the parts alone without the tool kit, but Apple's repair manual instructs users to use tools in the kit that they wouldn't otherwise have on hand, such as an Apple-designed battery press.

You can purchase all of the tools individually so you have them on hand for repairs, but Apple's components are expensive. A battery press is $115, a torque driver is $99, a heated display removal pocket is $116, and a display press is $216, and all of these are needed for battery removal according to Apple's repair manual.

It is not cost effective for someone who wants to make a single repair to use anything but the rental kit, though some of the individual part purchases will make sense for repair outlets who want to get their hands on Apple-designed tools.

As for the actual repair process, Dan found it to be difficult, even with Apple's instructions and tools. It was frustrating to get into, and there were components missing from the kit that were required by the manual, such as tweezers and heat protective gloves.

Dan needed to go to the store on two separate occasions to get more supplies, and because of this, the repair took the better part of the day. Dealing with adhesive was time consuming and almost put a stop to the self repair.

Overall, for the layperson, it's probably better to take your phone to a professional for repair rather than attempting to fix it yourself. This is especially true of repairs for things like the battery and the display, which are generally cheaper to have Apple replace.

If you're feeling brave, you can save some cash if you need a camera, Taptic Engine, or speaker repair, but make sure to study the manual and know what you're getting into. It's well worth watching Dan's full video up above to get a complete picture of the repair process and what's involved.