MacRumors

Following the release of iOS 14.4.1 on March 8, Apple has stopped signing iOS 14.4, the previous version of iOS 14. With the software no longer being signed, it is no longer possible to downgrade from iOS 14.4.1 to iOS 14.4 if you've already upgraded your iPhone or iPad.

Apple routinely stops signing older versions of software updates after new releases come out in order to encourage customers to keep their operating systems up to date.

iOS 14.4.1 was a security fix update that addressed a WebKit vulnerability that could allow maliciously crafted web content to execute code.

iOS 14.4.1 is the current publicly available version of iOS that people can download, but Apple has also provided iOS 14.5 to developers and public beta testers for testing purposes. iOS 14.5 is one of the biggest updates to ‌iOS 14‌ to date, introducing a feature for unlocking an ‌iPhone‌ when wearing a mask with an Apple Watch, adding Dual-SIM 5G support, introducing compatibility with the latest gaming controllers, and more.

Apple's Beats by Dre brand today announced Powerbeats Pro in a new colorway that's being released as part of a collaboration with FaZe Clan.

FaZe Clan is a professional esports organization and its merchandise is largely red and black, so Apple has designed red and black ‌Powerbeats Pro‌ in the pattern that FaZe Clan often uses.

According to a tweet from the Beats by Dre Twitter account, the FaZe Clan ‌Powerbeats Pro‌ will be limited edition and will be sold through NTWRK, an app that allows customers to shop limited edition sneaker and streetwear drops. The FaZe Clan ‌Powerbeats Pro‌ will be available on March 22.

Apple previously teamed up with FaZe Clan for the launch of the ‌Powerbeats Pro‌ in spring colors in May 2020. Beats by Dre used a drone to send the ‌Powerbeats Pro‌ to members of the FaZe Clan.

With the launch of iOS 13, Apple introduced Shortcuts support and the Shortcuts app, adding a whole range of new functionality to the iPhone. Shortcuts have continued to be popular since their debut, and in iOS 14, the addition of Home screen widgets made it even easier to get to your Shortcuts, so we thought we'd round up some of our most useful Shortcut options for iPhone and iPad.

• Photos Toolkit - Photos ToolKit is an all-in-one shortcut that can resize images, convert images to different formats, rotate images, combine images in a collage, make GIFs, and more.
• Make PDF - As the name suggests, the Make PDF shortcut can turn documents and webpages into PDFs.
• Apple Frames - Apple Frames from from MacStories' Federico Viticci adds frames to screenshots taken with your iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch and makes them look nicer. It's a favorite that we use often here at MacRumors.
• Dictate to Notes - With Dictate to Notes, you can use voice dictation to create a note in the Notes app, which is useful for jotting down quick thoughts without having to type something out.
• YouTube PiP - If you want to be able to watch YouTube in Picture in Picture mode on the iPhone, this is the app for you. With an app called Scriptable, when you run YouTube PiP through the Share Sheet, it will open a YouTube video in a floating window.
• Music Finder - To identify a song that's playing nearby you can use Shazam, but Shazam saves music to Apple Music, which is not ideal if you're a Spotify user. Music Finder identifies a song and saves it to your Spotify playlist.
• Set AirPlay - Set AirPlay makes it easier to swap between your iPhone and your other AirPlay devices, saving you a few taps if you want to switch sources quickly.
• Url Shortener - URL Shortener makes long and unsightly URLs shorter, which is useful when you need to share a naked URL. It lives in the Share Sheet, so all you have to do is select the Shorten URL option when viewing a website and it will generate a short URL. Alternatively, you can copy a link and run it from the Shortcuts app, which will shorten the last copied URL.

Do you have a favorite Shortcut? Let us know in the comments and we may feature it in a future video.

Back in January, Sonnet announced updated versions of its eGPU Breakaway Pucks, offering new options equipped with Radeon RX 5500 XT and RX 5700 graphics processors for Intel-based Macs. The docks connect to a host Mac over Thunderbolt 3 and allow for more powerful graphics capabilities than the included graphics in many Macs while also providing some dock capabilities such as additional USB ports and display connections.

I've been testing out both versions of the Breakaway Puck for a few weeks now, and I've found that they do offer significantly better graphics performance, particularly if you're using an older machine like the 2016 15-inch MacBook Pro with Radeon Pro 450 graphics that I use as my main machine.

Both models of the eGPU Breakaway Puck have the same design, featuring a metal enclosure with perforations on the top, front, and sides to help ventilate the dock, which can get quite hot during heavy usage. A large fan is designed to exhaust heat out through the top of the dock, and it will cycle on and off as needed.

The docks measure in at about 6 inches by 5 inches and about 2 inches high, so a bit larger than some standard Thunderbolt 3 docks like my favored CalDigit TS3 Plus, but the Sonnet docks of course come with eGPU capabilities and the large fan that require a larger size. It's still a pretty compact design that fits well on a desk.

The overall look is pretty unobtrusive with the black metal and fairly small branding with the company and product name. The most distinctive design element is a wavy blue light on the top of the dock that gives it a bit of a splash and lets you know that it's powered up and connected to a computer.

The Radeon RX 5500 XT version comes with 4GB of GDDR6 video memory, while the Radeon RX 5700 model comes with 8GB.

To quantitatively assess the eGPU performance, I ran several benchmarks using both my machine's built-in graphics and the Breakaway Pucks, and I unsurprisingly found significant improvements when using the eGPU.

For my first test, I used Geekbench 5's Compute Benchmark, which rang up Metal scores of averaging 12,085 over three runs using the built-in discrete graphics on my ‌MacBook Pro‌. Scores improved substantially when I added Sonnet's Breakaway Puck to my system, with the 5500 XT yielding Metal scores averaging 41,595 and the 5700 averaging 56,249. As a point of comparison, I also ran the test on an M1 MacBook Air with 7-core GPU, and that came in with an average score of 18,828.

My next set of tests came from the GFXBench Metal suite of benchmarking tools, and I similarly found massively improved frame rates in several popular offscreen benchmark tests, again averaged over three runs for each test. In all three benchmarks, the 5500 XT Breakaway Puck delivered approximately four times as many frames per second as my ‌MacBook Pro‌ did on its own, while the 5700 XT puck's advantage was more like five to six times. As with the Geekbench tests, the ‌M1‌ ‌MacBook Air‌ came in somewhere in the middle.

My final set of tests involved some rendering using DaVinci Resolve. My test footage was a nearly 11-minute 4K clip that I rendered without any additional processing to 1080p using several different codecs: H.264, Apple ProRes 422, and Apple ProRes 422 HQ.

These tests are where things started to get a bit more interesting, as while both pucks cut render times by more than half compared to my ‌MacBook Pro‌ running on its own, the results for the two pucks were very similar and in some cases, the 5500 XT GPU performed better than the 5700 GPU.

With DaVinci Resolve also having just been updated with Apple silicon support, I was also able to run the tests on my ‌M1‌ ‌MacBook Air‌, where I once again found intermediate performance, which is quite impressive for a low-end consumer machine using Apple's first effort at a custom Mac chip, and it'll be very interesting to see how much Apple can improve performance on upcoming M-series chips aimed at more powerful Macs.

I talked with the folks at Sonnet about my results and my observations that the renders were not making full use of the eGPUs' capabilities over the course of each run, starting out at nearly 100% but tailing off toward 70% or less after a minute or so.

Sonnet's engineering team concluded that it appeared the rest of my ‌MacBook Pro‌'s hardware was a limiting factor in my tests, as even when using an eGPU, the CPU and other components like system memory can become performance bottlenecks. In those cases, the eGPU ends up being at the mercy of thermal throttling or other constraints of the host system and unable to reach peak speeds.

For that reason, it's worth highlighting that, at least for my ‌MacBook Pro‌, the very similar performance between the two eGPUs means that for certain tasks the 5500 XT puck performs just as well as the more expensive 5700 puck, so that's something you might want to consider if you're weighing a purchase.

Moving on to the dock capabilities of the pucks, you won't see the breadth of port options available on some regular Thunderbolt docks, but they do give you some decent expansion options. Displays are obviously a big feature for docks to support, and Sonnet's pucks come equipped with a downstream Thunderbolt 3 port, a DisplayPort 1.4 port, and an HDMI 2.0b port for maximum connectivity.

4K and 5K displays, and even Apple's 6K Pro Display XDR, are all compatible with the Breakaway Puck, and I tested things out with an LG UltraFine 5K display and had no issues. The puck can support up to four 4K displays simultaneously if you take advantage of the DisplayPort and HDMI ports and then use a Thunderbolt 3 to Dual DisplayPort or Dual HDMI adapter.

It would be nice to see a few other port options like Ethernet or some additional USB-C ports, but at least the two 5 Gbps USB-A ports support a broad range of peripherals. The dock can supply up to 60 watts of power to a host computer, which may not be quite enough if you've got a more powerful machine like a 15-inch or 16-inch ‌MacBook Pro‌, so you may have to connect a separate power adapter.

The fan on the Breakaway Puck does put out a decent bit of noise, so if you're used to a quiet work environment it will definitely be noticeable as it cycles on and off, particularly if it's placed prominently on your desk.

For power users who really need the GPU horsepower these Breakaway Pucks can provide, they are a solid addition in a space-saving and even portable design. With souped-up graphics capabilities, display connectivity, and some additional USB expansion, they are good options that can pay for themselves if you're a professional user looking to speed up graphics-intensive tasks. Most consumers will not, however, have a need for this additional hardware.

It would be nice to see some even newer and higher-end GPU options in these pucks, but it no doubt takes time to get them integrated into these dock designs, and there's undoubtedly also some effort by Sonnet to target a balance between price and power that will result in the broadest appeal for these accessories.

Of course, things become murkier looking toward the future, as Apple's latest Macs based on Apple silicon don't support eGPUs. But there are still plenty of Intel-based Macs out there, so Mac eGPU solutions like Sonnet's Breakaway Pucks will have a market for some time to come.

Sonnet's eGPU Breakaway Pucks come bundled with a fairly large external power brick that you'll need to tuck away somewhere and a 0.5-meter Thunderbolt 3 cable. The RX 5500 XT version is priced at $599.99 through Amazon and Sonnet, while the RX 5700 version is priced at $899.99 through Amazon and Sonnet.

Note: Sonnet provided MacRumors with the Breakaway Pucks on loan for the purpose of this review. No other compensation was received.

For this week's giveaway, we've teamed up with Amadine maker Belight Software to offer MacRumors readers a chance to win an 11-inch iPad Pro and an Apple Pencil 2, the perfect hardware combination for use with the Amadine app.

For those unfamiliar with Amadine, it's a vector drawing and illustration app that's available for the iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Amadine is designed with an intuitive, easy to understand interface that makes vector graphic work accessible to beginners and more experienced artists alike. It has all of the features of the Amadine Mac app, but has been optimized for a touch and Apple Pencil experience.

If you've never drawn in an iPad app before, Amadine is straightforward enough that you can spend 10 minutes learning the tools and then have enough knowledge to create simple graphics and eventually, more complex works of art.

There's a Quick Start Guide that lets you jump right in with gesture tutorials, a series of videos that teach you how to use the tools, and an online help interface for when you need assistance.

Amadine works seamlessly with the Apple Pencil on all compatible iPad models, with support for pressure sensitivity. All of the tools you might need for creating vector art and illustrations are included.

There are more than 30 vector design tools for drawing, editing, slicing, and typing, including the Pen tool for precision-driven curve creation. You can add multiple strokes and fills with stroke profiles available, and text can be included along a path or inside a shape.

Paths can be added using the Path and Draw tools, with options to add, remove, and rearrange anchor points. Points can be converted to corner points and smooth points, plus there are Knife, Scissor, and Eraser tools for editing paths and shapes. All paths and shapes can use multiple strokes, fills, and gradients.

With the draw tool, users can take advantage of the Brushes built into the app to use with the freehand Pencil tool for creating smooth vector lines. The Width tool allows for the creation of unique strokes that can be used in drawings, and there are graphics effects options like Inner Glow, Outer Glow, Shadow, and Blur to add depth and style.

Amadine is free to download and the full feature set is available, but the free version is limited to a single document at a time. To work with multiple documents and to share those documents across devices, a one-time $9.99 purchase is required.

Belight Software is providing a 128GB 11-inch iPad Pro and Apple Pencil 2 so one lucky MacRumors reader can try out the Amadine iPad app for creating art. To enter to win our giveaway, use the Gleam.io widget below and enter an email address. Email addresses will be used solely for contact purposes to reach the winners and send the prizes. You can earn additional entries by subscribing to our weekly newsletter, subscribing to our YouTube channel, following us on Twitter, following us on Instagram, or visiting the MacRumors Facebook page.

Due to the complexities of international laws regarding giveaways, only U.S. residents who are 18 years or older and Canadian residents (excluding Quebec) who have reached the age of majority in their province or territory are eligible to enter. To offer feedback or get more information on the giveaway restrictions, please refer to our Site Feedback section, as that is where discussion of the rules will be redirected.

The contest will run from today (March 19) at 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time through 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time on March 26. The winner will be chosen randomly on March 26 and will be contacted by email. The winner will have 48 hours to respond and provide a shipping address before a new winner is chosen.

Due to the impacts on Samsung's production of OLED displays as a result of a global chip shortage, iPhone production could be facing disruptions, according to Nikkei Asia.

Last month, Samsung was forced to shut down its chip fabrication plant in Texas due to large winter storms. The plant is responsible for 5% of the global supply of chips for smartphones and personal computers, and its closure has caused a widespread global shortage. The plant makes chips for Samsung OLED displays, which Apple uses for the ‌iPhone‌.

The Samsung Texas plant manufactures telecommunications chips for the U.S. semiconductor giant Qualcomm. The facility also produces chips for organic light-emitting diode panels and for image sensors.

The supply crunch hitting Qualcomm will affect a wide range of smartphone makers that rely on the company for key components. Apple, which procures OLED panels from Samsung, could also face disruptions in iPhone production.

The report doesn't elaborate on the specifics, including which ‌iPhone‌ models would be impacted or the length of the aforementioned disruptions. Last year, due to the global health crisis, Apple suppliers were forced to close factories in China and elsewhere around the world. The closures led to the delayed launch of the ‌iPhone‌ 12 in October, which typically happens in September.

Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says, however, that the 2021 ‌iPhone‌ should be expected in September, specifically saying that Apple suppliers are poised to begin mass production within Apple's usual summer timeframe. Reports last year indicated mass production for the ‌iPhone‌ 12 series did not begin until September.

Apple Music appears to have removed the personalized artwork for ‌Apple Music‌'s personal radio stations feature, replacing users' artwork with a uniform graphic.

Personalized algorithmic radio stations is a popular ‌Apple Music‌ feature that auto-generates a custom radio station for a user based on their listening habits and preferences.

‌Apple Music‌ previously generated a custom personal radio station graphic based on a user's ‌Apple Music‌ profile picture, but Apple now appears to have removed this feature, replacing all personal radio station artwork with an identical red graphic. The change may be in line with a number of amendments to ‌Apple Music‌'s artwork that have taken place over the last year, such as animated album covers.

The change, first spotted by users on Reddit, appears to have taken place very recently. Some users seem to be unhappy about the change, commenting that the "profile picture variant made it feel more personal than this." Another downside seems to be that when listening to another user's personal radio station now, the only way to tell who the station is from is by a small profile picture in the bottom right-hand corner, rather than from the artwork itself.

Earlier this month, Apple confirmed that the iMac Pro is being discontinued. The standard configuration of the computer has remained available "while supplies last," but even this configuration is out of stock again in multiple countries.

Apple's online store lists the iMac Pro as "Currently Unavailable" in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Australia, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and select other countries. The standard iMac Pro remains available across much of the rest of Europe and Asia, but with lengthy shipping estimates. It's likely that iMac Pro availability will continue to fluctuate, but the end of the line is clearly in sight for the computer.

Released in December 2017, the iMac Pro received no substantial hardware refreshes over its lifetime and continues to be sold for $4,999.

Apple said the 27-inch iMac introduced in August 2020 has become the preferred choice for the vast majority of pro iMac users. The latest 27-inch iMac configured with a 10-core Core i9 processor is both faster and less expensive than the standard iMac Pro with a 10-core Xeon W processor. Apple said customers who need even more performance and expandability can choose the Mac Pro, released in December 2019.

For customers who are still interested in the iMac Pro, Apple recently added a variety of configurations to its refurbished store.

Apple is rumored to be working on a redesigned iMac with Apple silicon for release later this year, so many customers may want to exercise patience. The new iMac's design is said to be inspired by Apple's high-end Pro Display XDR, with a flat back, slimmer bezels around the display, and no metal "chin" below the display.

Facebook is developing a version of Instagram that's specifically aimed at children under 13, according to an internal company post (via BuzzFeed News).

"I'm excited to announce that going forward, we have identified youth work as a priority for Instagram and have added it to our H1 priority list," Vishal Shah, Instagram's vice president of product, wrote on an employee message board on Thursday. "We will be building a new youth pillar within the Community Product Group to focus on two things: (a) accelerating our integrity and privacy work to ensure the safest possible experience for teens and (b) building a version of Instagram that allows people under the age of 13 to safely use Instagram for the first time."

Instagram's policy prohibits kids under 13 from using the platform. Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri later confirmed in a tweet that a version of the popular photo sharing app is "something we're exploring."

"Kids are increasingly asking their parents if they can join apps that help them keep up with their friends," wrote Mosseri. "A version of Instagram where parents have control, like we did [with] Messenger Kids, is something we're exploring. We'll share more down the road."

The news follows a blog post from Instagram earlier this week in which the Facebook-owned company described changes coming to the platform with the aim of "protecting young people."

In the post, Instagram admitted that some young users "can lie about their date of birth," when signing up to the platform, and said it now asks some new users for a form of age verification, but the post didn't mention its work on a distinct platform specifically for children.

In 2017, Facebook launched Messenger Kids, which is aimed at children between the ages of 6 and 12. Following the launch, several children's health advocates called on Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to discontinue the product, citing research that "excessive use of digital devices and social media is harmful to children and teens, making it very likely this new app will undermine children's healthy development."

Facebook said it had consulted multiple experts during the app's development, although a Wired report later revealed that the company had financial relationships with many of the people and organizations that advised on the product.

In 2019, The Verge reported on a bug in Messenger Kids that allowed children to join groups with strangers. Facebook soon acted to resolve the issue, claiming it had only affected a "small number of group chats."

Apple CEO Tim Cook has penned an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal, calling for more action to be taken against systemic racism and the need to speak up in light of the disproportionate impact that the pandemic has had on communities.

Cook's piece highlights how the pandemic has impacted various communities differently and draws on his personal experience of growing up during the civil rights movement.

In simple theory, a disease should affect all of us equally. But in plain fact, the opposite is true. We have all seen, in real time, how structural discrimination and obstacles to opportunity do their work in a crisis. In our communities, every burden—from rates of infection and care outcomes, to economic adversity, to the challenges of virtual learning when schools are closed—falls heaviest on those for whom true equity has always been farthest from reach. As someone who grew up during the civil-rights movement, it has been frustrating to see how much work is still to be done but heartening to see the degree to which people of good will have set aside comfort with the status quo to march and to demand something better.

As the end of the pandemic nears, Cook says it is a collective responsibility to ensure that moving forward, all individuals, communities, companies, and governments do everything they can to ensure a hopeful and "durable" future for all.

When the pandemic recedes, we can't simply assume that healing follows. It falls on all of us—individuals and communities, companies and governments—to ensure that what's ahead is not just the end of a disease but a durable and hopeful future for all who sacrificed and endured during this unprecedented time.

The global health crisis has forced millions of students to learn remotely from home, and Cook says Apple is committed to building "powerful learning tools and [sharing] them freely with tens of thousands of teachers, educators, and parents." Cook goes on to describe Apple's multiple investments for Black and underrepresented communities.

And it's led us to undertake major new investments through our Racial Equity and Justice Initiative. These projects include the Propel Center in Atlanta, which we're helping to build in partnership with the country's historically Black colleges and universities, to support the next generation of leaders of color in fields ranging from machine learning to app development, entrepreneurship to design; and our first Apple Developer Academy in the U.S., in downtown Detroit, home to more than 50,000 Black-owned businesses and no shortage of great ideas for the app economy.

Cook ends with a hopeful message, saying that if anything, he hopes this pandemic has taught us that there is a need to speak up and that a long history of injustice should not be used as an excuse to do nothing.

The old saying goes that the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, but the second best time is today. If this pandemic has taught us anything, I hope it’s that none of us can use injustice’s long history as an excuse not to act. Our lives on this planet are precious and fleeting, and fate has a way of reminding us that society is only as strong as those who, for too long, have gone overlooked and undervalued.

Cook's full op-ed can be read with a subscription to The Wall Street Journal.

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's upcoming mixed reality headset will be equipped with an advanced eye tracking system, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said this evening in a note to investors that was seen by MacRumors.

The eye tracking system will feature a transmitter and receiver that can detect and analyze eye movement information, providing users with images and information based on algorithms.

Apple's eye tracking system includes a transmitter and a receiver. The transmitting end provides one or several different wavelengths of invisible light, and the receiving end detects the change of the invisible light reflected by the eyeball, and judges the eyeball movement based on the change.

Kuo says that most head-mounted devices are operated by handheld controllers that can't provide a smooth user experience. He believes that there are several advantages to an eye tracking system like the one Apple will use, including an intuitive visual experience that interacts seamlessly with the external environment, more intuitive operation that can be controlled with eye movements, and reduced computational burden in the form of a reduced resolution where the user is not looking.

There is no word yet on whether Apple's headset will be able to support iris recognition, but Kuo says that based on hardware specifications, an iris recognition feature should be possible. If this can be implemented, Kuo expects users will be able to use it for a "more intuitive Apple Pay method" when using headsets.

This is not the first time we've heard rumors of an eye tracking system. The Information previously said that the headset will feature advanced eye tracking capabilities along with more than a dozen cameras for tracking hand movements.

Kuo earlier this month said that Apple would release its mixed reality headset in "mid-2022," with the headset to then be followed by augmented reality glasses in 2025.

Prior rumors have indicated that the headset will offer both VR/AR capabilities, much like other mixed reality headsets on the market. The headset will include Sony's Micro-OLED displays to provide a "see-through AR experience" as well as a VR experience.

Bloomberg has said that the headset will be a "mostly virtual reality device" offering a 3D environment for gaming, watching videos, and communicating. AR functionality will be limited, and Apple plans to include powerful processors to handle the gaming features.

The headset is expected to be "portable" and lighter than other head-worn VR devices on the market, but it will carry a premium price and could cost somewhere around $1,000 in the United States.

Despite campaigning heavily against Apple's upcoming anti-tracking rules, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg today said that Facebook will "be in a good position" when Apple begins enforcing App Tracking Transparency and could even benefit from the changes.

"It's possible that we may even be in a stronger position if Apple's changes encourage more businesses to conduct more commerce on our platforms by making it harder for them to use their data in order to find the customers that would want to use their products outside of our platforms," Zuckerberg said in a Clubhouse meeting this afternoon.

As CNBC points out, this is the most positive statement that Facebook has made yet about Apple's its App Tracking Transparency rules. It's possible that Facebook is changing its narrative as it has become clear that Apple has no plans to delay the implementation of App Tracking Transparency, and Facebook's attempts to stop it gave gained little steam.

With the launch of iOS 14.5, apps like Facebook will have to get express user permission before accessing an iPhone's advertising identifier or IDFA, which is used to track usage across apps and websites for ad targeting purposes.

Facebook has railed against Apple's planned privacy updates, taking out full page newspaper ads that aimed to position Apple as the enemy of small businesses. Facebook has claimed that businesses that use Facebook's advertising tools will suffer because they won't be able to target ads as effectively as they can now, but there are questions about how much data small businesses need to get their ads in front of the right customers.

App Tracking Transparency will impact Facebook's view-through conversion tracking, which lets ad companies determine how many people saw an ad and didn't click it, but later made a purchase related to the ad. The IDFA allows Facebook to match up those who buy an item with those who saw an ad, but without the IDFA, advertisers will not be able to accurately measure the effectiveness of Facebook and Instagram ads.

According to CNBC, Facebook has been preparing for App Tracking Transparency with the introduction of Facebook Shops and Instagram Shops, where brands can list and sell items directly on the social networks. Zuckerberg said that more than 250 million people are actively using the shops feature.

There are signs that Apple's retail store operations are beginning to return to normal as some locations have once again started allowing U.S. customers to try on AirPods.

According to Bloomberg, Apple stores that are open for customer walk-ins are letting customers test out AirPods, something that has been restricted since Apple Stores first began closing last spring.

Apple still has stores that are operating on a pickup-only basis as "Express" locations, and in these areas, there is no option to try on AirPods, but in all other stores, customers can test the AirPods, AirPods Pro, and AirPods Max.

All of Apple's retail locations in the United States were reopen as of March 1, with that date marking the first time all stores were operational since stores started closing in March 2020.

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 is cracking down on Chinese tech companies that are working on ways to get around upcoming App Tracking Transparency rules, reports Financial Times.

Starting in iOS 14.5, Apple plans to begin requiring app developers to obtain express user permission before accessing an iPhone's advertising identifier or IDFA, and earlier this week, news suggested that the state-backed China Advertising Association was testing a tool to skirt Apple's rules.

Apple on Thursday sent warnings to at least two Chinese app developers using methods to track app usage without user permission. "We found that your app collects user and device information to create a unique identifier for the user's device," reads Apple's email, which says that the developer must update the app to comply with App Store rules within 14 days or risk its removal from the ‌App Store‌.

According to Financial Times, the app developer in question was using a tool called CAID, which was developed by the aforementioned China Advertising Association. The China Advertising Association this week said that CAID it is not "in opposition" to Apple's privacy policy, but that may not be accurate given the warnings that Apple sent out today.

A Chinese marketing industry veteran told Financial Times that "big and small firms" in China are all considering CAID, but Apple's recent actions "will put a stop to these tests." Some of the biggest tech companies in China, such as Baidu, ByteDance, and Tencent, are all testing or implementing CAID to identify users.

ByteDance, for example, has recommended that developers use its SDK to issue CAID1 and CAID2 identifiers. One is based on a user's IP address and the other is based on the phone's IMEI, which is a unique identification number. The CAID1 and CAID2 identifiers violate Apple's rules because they do not ask for user permission before collecting this data. ByteDance has also recommended that developers use "fingerprinting and probabilistic matching" to identify users, which is also against the ‌App Store‌ Guidelines for App Tracking Transparency.

The China Advertising Association said that it is developing additional services that will collect and store personal data from users to create a "fingerprint" for each person. Any app that uses the CAID system will collect user data and send it to a central server to create a CAID identifier that will be used for cross-app user identification purposes. The CAA claims that users can opt out of CAID, but by Apple's definitions, it is not allowed in the first place.

Tech experts believe that Chinese apps plan to tweak their apps in "numerous ways" to get past Apple's ‌App Store‌ review team, with one likening it to a "cat-and-mouse" game. Apple has said multiple times that apps that disregard user preference when it comes to ad tracking will be rejected, which could lead to difficulties with Chinese companies and the Chinese government going forward.

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.

Astropad today announced the launch of "Project Blue," a new public beta initiative that introduces cross-platform support for connecting an iPad to a PC. With the beta, ‌iPad‌ artists can use an ‌iPad‌ as a wireless drawing tablet for a PC by mirroring their Windows desktop to their iPads.

Prior to today, the Astropad software could turn an ‌iPad‌ into a drawing device able to be used with a Mac, but the functionality is now available for ‌iPad‌ owners who want to use a PC instead of a Mac.

Project Blue is optimized for drawing with the Apple Pencil, and the ‌iPad‌'s touch gestures can be customized to access tools and shortcuts in Windows apps. An ‌iPad‌ can be paired with a Windows PC over WiFi or using a USB connection.

Project Blue requires a PC laptop or desktop running Windows 10 64-bit build 1809 or later and an ‌iPad‌ running iOS 9.1 or later.

For the time being, Project Blue is available for free, and later this year, it will be folded into the full suite of Astropad products. Those who want to test out Project Blue can sign up on Astropad's website.

Apple today provided updated figures on the diversity of its workforce over the last two years, indicating that its promise to be more inclusive has resulted in a steady increase in representation amongst its employees.

The last time Apple provided figures on its workforce was in 2018, so this is the first time since than that the company has provided a breakdown of the different races, ethnicities, and genders within its workforce. Apple breaks down diversity into separate sectors of the company, including Leadership, Retail, and Retail Leadership.

Overall, Apple says that since 2018, it has increased the share of Asian employees by four percentage points, while other races and ethnicities also saw increased representation in multiple categories. Over the last two years, Apple says that 42% of new retail hires have been women, and women have filled 49% of retail leadership positions since January of last year.

Apple's gender split is also continuing to narrow, with women representing 34% of all employees, up from 33% in 2018 and 30% in 2014. The increase is even more extensive in employees under 30 years old, where the share of women has risen from 31% to 40% since 2014.

Apple says that members of underrepresented communities occupy more than 60% of current Apple Store jobs and 50% of retail leadership positions. Alongside the updated numbers, Apple today redesigned its Inclusion and Diversity webpage, featuring new testimonials from employees, and further highlights its commitment to be equitable and diverse.

As part of its barrage of attacks against M1 Macs, Intel this week launched a "PC vs. Mac" website that's biased heavily in favor of PC machines that are equipped with Intel chips and that makes questionable claims about Apple's ‌M1‌ Mac lineup.

Intel's website says that Apple's ‌M1‌ Mac benchmarks don't "translate to real-world usage" and that when compared to PCs with 11th-Generation Intel chips, ‌M1‌ MacBook features "just don't stack up."

Intel positions PCs as more "personalized" to fit a user's "specific hardware and software needs," while the ‌M1‌ Macs offer "limited" device support, games, and creation applications. "The bottom line is a PC offers users a choice, something that users don't get with a Mac," reads the website.

PCs offer a "complete touch screen" instead of the "constrained Mac Touch Bar," along with "2 for 1 Form Factor options" while Apple makes customers pay for "multiple devices and gear." The website highlights specific software like AI-based content creation tools from Topaz Labs that are allegedly faster on 11th-generation Intel Core chips, and faster Chrome performance.

A PC is built for the user. They can run whatever software and games users want to run and accommodate all plug-ins you love. The possibilities are endless with a PC versus Apple's rigidly controlled walled garden.

Intel this week launched a major anti-Apple silicon ad campaign targeting the ‌M1‌ Macs. A series of ads released on YouTube star former "I'm a Mac" actor Justin Long extolling the benefits of Intel-based PC machines.