MacRumors

A group of U.S. chip companies, including Intel, Qualcomm, Micron, and AMD, have today sent a letter to President Joe Biden to request "funding for incentives," while Apple supplier TSMC is undertaking a considerable expansion as chip demand outstrips supply (via Reuters).

The letter to the President asked for "substantial funding for incentives for semiconductor manufacturing" to be included in his economic recovery and infrastructure plans. The letter from the U.S. firms noted that the U.S. share of semiconductor manufacturing has dropped from 37 percent in 1990 to 12 percent today.

This is largely because the governments of our global competitors offer significant incentives and subsidies to attract new semiconductor manufacturing facilities, while the U.S. does not.

Working with Congress, your administration now has a historic opportunity to fund these initiatives to make them a reality. We believe bold action is needed to address the challenges we face. The costs of inaction are high.

Intel, in particular, has suffered from a myriad of problems. With major client Apple dropping Intel for its own custom silicon, and Microsoft expected to follow suit in the near future, Intel has struggled to deliver technological innovations. This is after the company has repeatedly reported delays with its latest processors, while its main competitor, AMD, has proceeded to capture valuable market share. After a major investor pushed Intel to shake up its entire business model, the company is hoping that new CEO Pat Gelsinger will help it to find its way.

While subsidies for chip manufacturing and semiconductor research have been authorized by Congress, the quantity of funding has yet to be decided. The association of companies hopes to receive significant funding in the form of grants or tax credits to claw back market share.

The formal request comes amid a global shortage of chips, which have hampered the automotive industry and popular games consoles in particular. The majority of the supply of the constrained chips comes from Taiwan and Korea, which have come to dominate the industry in recent years.

EETimes is today reporting that unlike the U.S. firms, TSMC, Apple's main chip supplier, is raising $9 billion from bonds to expand production. The company has approved the establishment of a $186 million subsidiary in Japan to expand research on materials for three-dimensional chips, following unconfirmed reports that TSMC plans to open its first overseas chip-packaging facility in Japan. TSMC also plans to combat U.S. chip makers on home territory this year by opening a new manufacturing facility in the U.S. state of Arizona.

TSMC is currently trying to meet unprecedented demand that exceeds its production capacity as global demand for secure supplies of chips skyrockets, boosting component prices by as much as 15 percent in the past two financial quarters. The chip shortage has not severely affected Apple since TSMC gives it priority over other clients such as Microsoft, Sony, Volkswagen, and Toyota because it holds much larger orders.

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 this week shared a short film on its YouTube channel in France called "Le Peintre," which translates to "The Painter." Shot on the iPhone by Paris-bared director J.B. Braud, the video depicts a house painter who rings the doorbell of a large house and gradually realizes that he is the victim of a misunderstanding, according to Apple.

Apple has highlighted the video on a new page on its French website that promotes iPhone 12 models as being able to shoot cinema-quality video.

From February 15 to February 28, Apple will be hosting virtual Today at Apple sessions with French filmmaking professionals, including Braud. Anyone can register for these free sessions, hosted over Webex, but they will likely be in French only.

Apple is also promoting the video on Twitter with a #LePeintre hashtag, complete with a custom paintbrush hashflag icon, as spotted by MacRumors reader Aaron.

Apple has announced that students who have yet to subscribe to Apple Music can now get a six-month free trial – double the standard three months offered to students – in the United States and select other countries.

Apple says the promotion is open to students in the United States studying for a bachelor degree, post-graduate degree, or an equivalent Higher Education course at a University or College. Eligibility in Canada extends to Post-Secondary School students, and in Japan to junior, technical colleges, and special courses.

Students must verify their eligibility by confirming your student status through UNiDAYS. The limited time promotion ends April 30, 2021. When the trial ends, the ‌Apple Music‌ plan for students is $4.99 per month, compared to the standard $9.99 per month for individuals.

This is only the second time Apple has offered students a limited time six-month promotion offer for ‌Apple Music‌. The last one arrived in July 2019. This latest one was first spotted by a Twitter user and subsequently reported by The 8-Bit.

Google-owned mapping app Waze has been updated with support for Audible audiobook streaming, according to a press release on the Audible website.

The integration with Waze means drivers with an Audible membership can access its catalog of more than 600,000 Audible Originals, audiobooks, podcasts, and other audio programs.

"We are very excited to kick off 2021 by welcoming Audible into the Audio Player family," said Adam Fried, Head of Global Partnerships at Waze. "Audible is such a beloved brand with a huge catalogue of content and we're thrilled to be able to bring it straight to their drives. Our users have already driven over 100 billion kilometers while listening to content from streaming services on our Audio Player, and we can't wait to bring this experience to even more users thanks to our collaboration with Audible."

Audible members can listen on Waze by launching the Waze app and tapping the music note icon to select Audible as their audio player. Audible members will also receive next turn directions from Waze inside the Audible app.

"We're delighted to be able to offer our members around the world a new way to access Audible," said Derek Murphy, VP, Business Development at Audible. "Whether you're listening to the latest Audible Original or catching up on a recent best-seller, Audible on Waze allows you to seamlessly enjoy audio content that entertains, inspires and informs you."

Audible is the latest streaming service to integrate its audio experience into Waze by using the Waze Audio Kit. Other streaming services that feature as part of Waze's Audio Player Program include Pandora, Deezer, iHeartRadio, NPR One, and TuneIn Radio.

Waze can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]

Google is testing a dark mode for its desktop search website that responds to a user's system display setting, a move that may have gained traction to alleviate eye strain issues for people working longer hours from home.

The test appears to have limited rollout at the moment, but as the images show, the very dark gray theme extends not only to the Google homepage but search results, too.

It's unknown when dark mode for desktop search could be officially rolled out globally. "We're always testing new ways to improve our experience for our users, but don't have anything specific to announce right now," Google told The Verge.

It's not the first time we've seen dark mode appear on Google's desktop search, either. The feature appeared for some users back in December, but then quietly disappeared into the internet ether.

Apple introduced Dark Mode way back in 2018 with macOS Mojave and iOS 13, and support for the system-wide option is now a staple feature of most native and third-party apps on both mobile and desktop.

But as we learned from Google's protracted stop-start efforts to bring dark mode to Gmail, there's no saying when or even if this change will ultimately see the light of day.

However, there are alternative methods available for getting rid of the plain white background on your Google searches. One of them we like is the browser extension Dark Reader, which is available for Safari, Chrome, Firefox, and Microsoft Edge.

Starting with iOS and iPadOS 14.5, Apple will proxy Google's "Safe Browsing" service used in Safari through its own servers instead of relying on Google as a way to limit which personal data Google sees about users.

Safari on iOS and iPadOS includes a built-in feature called "Fraudulent Website Warning." As Apple describes it, having the feature enabled will prompt Safari to warn users if they're visiting a suspected phishing website, or in other words, a website attempting to steal your data such as username, passwords, and other information.

In order to provide this feature, Apple relies on Google's "Safe Browsing," a database/blocklist of websites crawled by Google of websites that it deems to be suspected phishing or scam. In practice Google sends Safari a list of hashed prefixes of URLs that it determines to be malicious/phishing, Safari then checks the website you're trying to visit against the list from Google. Any match in hashed prefix will cause Safari to request the full URL link from Google, and by using the hashed prefix, Google never sees the website's URL you're trying to go to.

While Google doesn't know which specific URL you're trying to visit, it may collect your IP address during its interaction with Safari. Now on iOS/iPadOS 14.5, that's no longer the case. As confirmed by the Head of Engineering for WebKit, Apple will now proxy Google's Safe Browsing feature through its own servers instead of Google as a way to "limit the risk of information leak."

Screenshots posted on Reddit of incoming/outgoing connections on a device running the latest iOS 14.5 beta shows a new "proxy.safebrowsing.apple" URL, and testing by MacRumors shows the same URL alongside "safebrowsing.g.applimg.com" and "token.safebrowsing.apple" being used to proxy "Safe Browsing."

The new change in iOS and iPadOS is part of a comprehensive set of privacy-focused features for the iPhone and iPad and Apple's recent forceful push towards more stringent privacy features/rules. In addition to the change in "Safe Browsing," iOS 14.5 will also require apps to asks for user's permission before tracking them across other apps and websites.

The new requirement called "ATT" or App Tracking Transparency has caused companies such as Facebook and Twitter to voice concerns about how the new feature will impact their bottom-line, specifically when it comes to personalized advertising.

Another noteworthy feature in the upcoming update is crowdsource reporting for accidents, speed traps, and hazards within Apple Maps. Apple released the first beta to developers and public beta testers last week and says that iOS and iPadOS 14.5 will roll out to the public in the "early spring."

Though Google has promised to update its suite of apps with App Privacy labels to comply with App Store rules that Apple began enforcing in December, many of its major apps have gone months without an update and still list no privacy information.

It's been so long since Google last updated the Gmail app, in fact, that Gmail now displays a warning that the latest security features are unavailable. As discovered by Techmeme editor Spencer Dailey, when you go to log into a new account in the Gmail app for iOS, it gives a warning that you should update and suggests that you only continue with the sign in "if you understand the risks."

Unfortunately, there is no update available for the Gmail app. Version 6.0.201115 of the Gmail app is the only available version of Gmail on the iPhone and iPad, and it hasn't been updated since December 1.

Google on January 5 claimed that it would be adding privacy data to its app catalog "this week or next week," but by January 20, most apps still had not been updated with the App Privacy labels.

Google has since quietly been adding labels to apps like YouTube, but major apps like Gmail, Google Search, Google Photos, Google Maps, and others still do not have privacy details. Even in apps that have gained with labels, there have been no feature or security updates for the most part.

It continues to be unclear why Google is taking so long to add App Privacy labels to its iOS apps, and there's no word yet on when Gmail will get an update. Google has been regularly updating its Android apps, and the last update for the Android Gmail app was released on February 9.

There has been speculation that Google is hesitant to provide the privacy label data because of the negative feedback that other companies like Facebook have received, but there's still no confirmed explanation. Dailey suggests in his blog post on the issue that Google's delay could perhaps be due to behind the scenes efforts to overhaul some of its data collection methods, and if there is indeed tweaking like that going on, it would explain why many of the main apps have yet to be updated.

App Privacy labels have been required since iOS 14.3 and are designed to provide customers with details about what data an app collects from them so they can make an informed choice when opting to install an app. App developers are required to self-report privacy information in the ‌‌App Store‌‌, and developers must identify all data collection and use cases.

Update: Google has pushed a server side update that removes the out of date warning when attempting to sign into a new account in the Gmail app.

A Northern California judge today dismissed a class action lawsuit that accused Apple of the "unlawful and intentional" recording of confidential Siri communications without user consent.

The class action lawsuit was first filed in August 2019 after it became known that Apple had employed contractors to listen to and grade some anonymized ‌Siri‌ conversations for product improvement purposes.

Those contractors told The Guardian that they overheard confidential medical details, drug deals, and other private information from accidental ‌Siri‌ activations, and some expressed concern that users were not adequately informed about the recordings.

As noted by Bloomberg, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White said that the plaintiffs in the class action case did not provide enough detail about the alleged recordings that Apple collected. The plaintiffs are required to prove that they have suffered injury from Apple's actions in a "concrete and particularized" way that's not "conjectural or hypothetical."

All of the allegations in the lawsuit were based on information that was included in the original story from The Guardian highlighting Apple's use of contractors to analyze ‌Siri‌ data, with the plaintiffs providing no proof that their own private data was accidentally collected by Apple and misused.

The Guardian article does not plausibly suggest that all Apple's devices were subject to accidental triggers and review by third party contractors, much less that such interception always occurred in reasonably private settings. The article discusses frequency of accidental triggers primarily in relation to the Apple Watch and the HomePod speakers, neither of which are owned by the Plaintiffs.

Moreover, the article expressly states that only a "small portion" of daily Siri activations including were sent to contractors and that they included both deliberate and accidental activations. Finally, although the article describes private communications among the recordings sent to contractors, Plaintiffs allege no facts to suggest that their own private communications were intercepted by accidental triggers.

Though Apple's motion to dismiss the lawsuit was granted, the judge in the case is allowing the consumers involved in the lawsuit to revise and refile within 20 days, so Apple is not in the clear as of yet.

Following the class action lawsuit and other negative public feedback, Apple temporarily suspended and overhauled its ‌Siri‌ evaluation program, and in iOS 13.2, added an option to let users delete ‌Siri‌ history and opt out of sharing audio recordings.

If you recently picked up one of the new M1 Macs that Apple released in November, or received a new Mac for the holidays, you may be in search of useful accessories to go along with it. In our latest YouTube video, we rounded up some great Mac accessories that are worth checking out.

MacRumors videographer Dan has highlighted several of his favorite Mac products, ranging from storage options to displays, docks, and more. A list of what's in the video is below.

• WaterField Designs Vero Leather MacBook Sleeve ($119) - If you have MacBook Pro or a MacBook Air and are looking for a sleeve option, the Vero from WaterField Designs has a slim fit, protective design that slips right into a bag or backpack.
• WaterField Designs Executive Messenger Bag ($379) - Looking for something more than a sleeve? The Executive Leather Messenger Bag from WaterField Designs has lots of pockets for housing all of your accessories plus there's padding for your MacBook.
• Twelve South PlugBug Duo ($50) - The Plugbug Duo is a little add-on for your MacBook charger that provides two USB-A ports that can be used for your accessories, with power provided by the MacBook power adapter.
• Twelve South ParcSlope ($60) - The ParcSlope is a stand that's designed to elevate your MacBook or iPad to a more comfortable working position, raising the screen and adding additional airflow.
• LG UltraFine 4K Display ($700) - LG's 4K 23.7-inch display is an ideal companion for Apple Macs, given that it was designed for Apple devices. It connects over Thunderbolt 3, offers up to 85W of charging power, and it has two Thunderbolt 3 ports and three USB-C ports.
• Brydge Vertical Dock ($170) - The Vertical Dock from Brydge holds your MacBook upright and is a solid docking solution for using your machine in clamshell mode. It connects via two USB-C ports, and then there are an additional two accessible ports at the back of the dock.
• 13-inch LineDock ($349) - Designed for 13-inch machines, the LineDock is a docking solution that attaches to the bottom of your MacBook. It adds extra battery life and up to 1TB storage, plus it has 100W passthrough charging and a total of nine ports including HDMI, Mini DisplayPort, SD card slot, USB-A and USB-C options.
• Aukey PowerZeus 500 ($460) - If you need power for your devices in an emergency or while off the grid, Aukey's PowerZeus 500 offers a 518Wh capacity that can charge up a MacBook several times with enough juice left over for other devices. There's also the smaller Power Titan 300 if you don't need quite as much power.

What are your favorite Mac accessories that you would recommend to others? Let us know in the comments.

The North Dakota Senate this week introduced a new bill that would prevent Apple and Google from requiring developers to use their respective app stores and payment methods, paving the way for alternative app store options, reports The Bismarck Tribune.

According to Senator Kyle Davison, who introduced Senate Bill 2333 yesterday, the legislation is designed to "level the playing field" for app developers in North Dakota and shield customers from "devastating, monopolistic fees imposed by big tech companies," which refers to the cut that Apple and Google take from developers.

Specifically, the bill would prevent Apple from requiring a developer to use a digital application distribution platform as the exclusive mode of distributing a digital product, and it would keep the company from requiring developers to use in-app purchases as the exclusive mode of accepting payment from a user. There's also wording preventing Apple from retaliating against developers who choose alternate distribution and payment methods.

Apple Chief Privacy Engineer Erik Neuenschwander spoke out against the bill, saying that it "threatens to destroy the iPhone as you know it" by requiring changes that would "undermine the privacy, security, safety, and performance" of the ‌iPhone‌.

Neuenschwander said that Apple "works hard" to keep bad apps from the App Store, and North Dakota's bill would "require us to let them in."

Apple does not allow apps to be installed on iOS devices outside of the ‌App Store‌ and there are no alternate app store options that are available. Apple reviews every app that is made available for its customers to download, something that would not happen with a third-party app store option.

Apple also does not let app developers accept payments through methods other than in-app purchase except in select situations, a policy that has led to Apple's legal fight with Epic Games. ‌Epic Games‌ added an alternate payment method to Fortnite last year, leading the app to be banned from the ‌App Store‌.

Basecamp co-founder David Heinemeier Hansson, who was also embroiled in a legal fight with Apple over email app "HEY" last year, testified in favor of SB 2333 and said that it gives him hope that "tech monopolies aren't going to rule the world forever."

In 2020, Apple faced a U.S. antitrust inquiry into its ‌App Store‌ fees and policies, which resulted in a 450 page report calling for new antitrust laws focused on promoting fair competition in digital markets, strengthening laws related to mergers and monopolization, and restoring vigorous oversight and enforcement of antitrust law.

No federal legislation has been introduced as of yet, and the North Dakota Senate committee did not take action on the bill. Senator Jerry Klein said that there's "still some mulling to be done" in reference to the bill.

Apple today informed developers about some upcoming pricing changes for apps and in-app purchases in Cameroon, Zimbabwe, Germany, and South Korea, with Apple introducing a new VAT in some countries and adjusting pricing in others.

Apple says that when taxes or foreign exchange rates change, prices on the App Store in certain regions and some proceeds need to be adjusted. In Zimbabwe and Cameroon, proceeds will be adjusted and proceeds will be calculated based on the tax-exclusive price.

• Cameroon - New value-added tax of 19.25%
• Zimbabwe - New value-added tax of 14.5%

In Germany and South Korea, prices of apps and in-app purchases are increasing, but auto-renewable subscription prices will remain the same.

• Germany - Value-added tax rate reversion to 19% after temporary decrease to 16%. ‌App Store‌ pricing will not change.
• South Korea - Prices of alternative tiers for apps and in-app purchases (excluding auto-renewable subscriptions) will be adjusted to allow for additional locally relevant pricing conventions.

When the changes go into effect, the Pricing and Availability section of My Apps for developers will be updated, and app pricing can be changed any time using ‌App Store‌ Connect. Full pricing changes are available on Apple's site. [PDF]

Designer Antonio De Rosa has created 3D renders of Apple's long-rumored mixed-reality headset based on recent reports about the device, giving the first photorealistic look at the mysterious Apple device.

De Rosa tentatively titles Apple's mixed-reality headset device the "Apple View," but there has been no evidence that this is the company's chosen moniker. What Apple may call the device remains pure speculation. Nevertheless, in terms of design, the render appears to have carefully considered many of the points put forwards by recent reports about the device, which have proliferated in recent months as it edges closer to production.

The main inspiration for the render is clearly the basic sketch provided by The Information, which said that it had seen internal Apple images of a "late-stage prototype" late last year. If the images seen by The Information are correct, De Rosa's renders may offer the most reliable look yet at the design of Apple's mixed-reality headset.

The Information described the headset's design as a "sleek, curved visor attached to the face by a mesh material and swappable headbands." The report claimed that the headbands will be offered in a variety of colors, which De Rosa has rendered. A headband containing batteries to extend the headset's battery life, as well as one with speakers for Spatial Audio from AirPods Pro and AirPods Max, are also believed to be undergoing tests.

The Information also said that Apple's headset will be equipped with more than a dozen cameras and JP Morgan has speculated that the device will include various LiDAR scanners, much like the iPad Pro or the iPhone 12 Pro. De Rosa appears to have included these in his render.

While these cameras and scanners are believed to be used to track users' hand movements, one of the main features of the headset is understood to be the ability to pass video of the real world through the visor and display it to the user, creating a "mixed-reality effect." Bloomberg's Mark Gurman described the headset as follows:

As a mostly virtual reality device, it will display an all-encompassing 3-D digital environment for gaming, watching video and communicating. AR functionality, the ability to overlay images and information over a view of the real world, will be more limited.

The headset is said to contain two ultra-high-resolution 8K displays and advanced eye-tracking technology. Since the device is too compact to allow users to wear glasses, Bloomberg explained that Apple has developed a system in which custom prescription lenses can be inserted into the headset over the displays.

Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has said that Apple will reveal an augmented reality device this year, and according to JP Morgan, the device will launch in the first quarter of 2022. The headset is expected to be priced around $3,000, competing with the likes of Microsoft's HoloLens 2, which costs $3,500.

Visit De Rosa's website to see his full selection of product renders, one of which was among the first depictions of the Apple Watch from 2012.

In a wide-ranging interview with CNN Business, Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Games, says that his company spent months preparing its lawsuit against Apple, which is internally codenamed "Project Liberty."

Epic launched an all-out assault against Apple after it removed Fortnite from the App Store in August after the app implemented a direct payment method for in-app purchases. App Store policy requires all apps to use its own system for in-app purchases which gives Apple a 30% commission for all purchases made. Epic's refusal to comply with the policy resulted in the app getting kicked from the platform.

Sweeney says in his interview that Epic "spent months" developing and preparing its lawsuit against Apple, which was notably launched and announced publicly within hours of Fortnite's removal from the ‌App Store‌.

Internally, Epic calls the lawsuit "Project Liberty," clearly echoing the idea that the lawsuit is meant to open up Apple's platforms further for smaller developers, hence providing them "liberty". Despite the focus of the lawsuit being the ‌App Store‌'s 30% commission policy, Sweeney says it actually comes down to the idea that he believes open platforms are "the key to free markets and the future of computing".

Developers have been questioning whether the 30% commission is a fair price for developers to pay back to Apple, given, for example, that ‌Epic Games‌ made $1.3 billion from Fortnite in-game purchases in 2020.

‌Epic Games‌ had a valuation of $17.3 billion at the end of last year, and on the financial front, Sweeney says Epic has "the financial independence" to conduct its suit against Apple and Google, largely thanks to the fact that ‌Epic Games‌ is not a publicly listed company.

When pressed for specifics on how much its lawsuit against Apple was costing Epic, Sweeney refused to reply, simply saying it is consuming "lots and lots" of time from company leadership. It's clear, however, that with millions of Apple users unable to play Fortnite on their devices, the company is likely experiencing some financial struggle given iOS users have generated more than $1.2 billion in revenue for Epic since it launched on the platform, according to Sensor Tower data cited by CNN Business.

All in all, however, Sweeney says the struggles are worth it due to the fear that the future of platforms such as the ‌App Store‌ will be completely dominated by platform owners like Apple, and have no other developers on them.

"[The companies] will just do that industry by industry and app category by app category until they've gobbled up everything that matters. And who will be left?" said Sweeney. "A million indie developers who collectively together make a small percentage of revenues on the app store because these businesses are too small to be attractive to steal."

Lastly, Sweeney addresses controversial comments he made in November in which he stated that the fight for civil rights and Epic's fight for platform "liberty" are similar. The comments caused widespread backlash, and in response, Sweeney says he believes "it's perfectly healthy" to draw similarities between "vital causes in the history of the world" and the fight on app platforms.

"The point is if you really want to make a difference, you have to buck the system," Sweeney said in response to the criticism. "I think there's a lot we can learn from any of the past struggles in humanity and I think it's perfectly healthy to apply struggles from vital causes in the history of the world to struggles over smaller issues like software platforms."

Most recently, ‌Epic Games‌ filed a complaint against Apple in the UK, claiming that Apple's removal of Fortnite from the ‌App Store‌ was "unlawful" and seeking for the app to be reinstated. The UK complaint followed in the footsteps of Epic's agreements in the United State and Australia. In all countries, Epic says it's not asking for damages from Apple and is simply seeking "fair access and competition that will benefit all consumers". Both companies are preparing to face off in court in July of this year.