Swedbank, one of the largest banks in Sweden, has today announced support for Apple Pay. "We want to be able to provide our customers a good range of digital and mobile services and ‌Apple Pay‌ is a sought-after service among our customers. We are pleased to now be able to broaden our mobile payment offer with yet another secure and smart alternative, which will provide lots of added value for our customers", said Lotta Lovén, Head of Digital Banking at Swedbank.Swedbank customers are now able to add their Mastercard credit cards and Maestro debit cards to the Wallet app by tapping the plus button in the top-right corner. ‌Apple Pay‌ can be used anywhere contactless payments are accepted with a compatible iPhone or Apple Watch. It is also accepted by select apps and websites. ‌Apple Pay‌ launched in Sweden in October 2017, and with Swedbank now on board, up to 4.1 million more customers can gain access to the service in the country. ‌Apple Pay‌ will be available in more than 40 countries and territories by the end of 2019, according to Apple CEO Tim Cook. (Thanks to a tipster from Estonia!) Update: As noted by MacRumors reader Adam Perjesi, ‌Apple Pay‌ is also now available at Bank Austria and Raiffeisen Bank in

Following on from yesterday, DigiTimes has provided additional details on several Taiwan-based supply chain makers said to be "poised" to receive orders for components that will be used in a 12.9-inch iPad Pro with mini-LED display that Apple plans to launch in 2020. Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claimed earlier in the week that Apple plans to release four to six products with mini-LED displays over the next two to three years, including a high-end 12.9-inch ‌iPad Pro‌. Kuo has said the mini-LED displays will "significantly improve productivity and the entertainment experience," and has previously said that mini-LED displays will allow for thinner and lighter product designs, while offering many of the same benefits of OLED displays used on the latest iPhones, including higher contrast ratio, higher brightness, and deeper blacks. According to DigiTimes, the supply chain makers ready to receive orders for the components include Epistar, General Interface Solution (GIS), Taiwan Surface Mounting Technology (TSMT), Zhen Ding Technology, and Flexium Interconnect. LED wafer and chip maker Epistar will compete for orders for mini LED chips from Apple through Te Opto, its joint venture with Japan-based Toyoda Gosei, the sources noted. Epistar will supply mini LED chips sized 200-micron x 200-micron and estimates that such an ‌iPad Pro‌ will use up to 10,000 mini LED chips, the sources indicated. For mini LED backlight units (BLUs), Apple originally chose Radiant Opto-Electronics but the company was conservative about investment in expanding production capacity, the sources

Spotify added a Sleep Timer to its Android app earlier this year, and this week, it's making the feature available for Spotify users on iPhone and iPad. Keep reading to learn how to use the Sleep Timer and get a good night's sleep. What's the Spotify Sleep Timer For? Basically, the Sleep Timer feature is for anyone who goes to bed with Spotify playing on their iOS device and wants it to automatically stop playing after they've fallen asleep. It's a useful function to have if you don't want your ‌iPhone‌ playing through that carefully chosen playlist or podcast series when you're not awake to enjoy it. It can also help save your battery, and potentially your data allowance if you're streaming over cellular. How to Use the Spotify Sleep Timer Spotify is rolling out the feature via a software update, so make sure you've downloaded the latest version of the Spotify app from the App Store before following these steps. If you don't see the function in the Spotify app, check back later in the day, by which time the rollout will have hopefully reached you. Launch the Spotify app on your ‌iPhone‌ or ‌iPad‌. Start playing your music or podcast of choice. Select the "now playing" screen so that the artwork and playback controls are front and center. If you're listening to music, tap the three dots in the top-right corner of the screen. If you're listening to a podcast, tap the little moon icon in the bottom-right corner. Scroll down and select Sleep Timer from the list of options that appear. Select a duration for your timer. There are six increments to choose from,

Russian President Vladimir Putin today signed new legislation requiring all smartphones, computers, and smart TVs sold in the country to come pre-installed with Russian software, reports Reuters. Proponents of the law claim it will help Russian developers better compete with foreign tech firms. The legislation has also been pitched as a way of sparing consumers from having to download software after purchasing a new device. Electronic retailers have already criticized the law, which is due to come into force on July 1 next year, and say the legislation was adopted without consulting them. The law has also sparked fears that Russia could use the pre-installed apps as a way to spy on its citizens. It's still unclear how tech companies will react to the news, although Apple has previously threatened to pull out of the Russian market if a complete ban on selling its products without pre-installed apps was introduced, Russian media reported earlier this year. Responding to today's news of the law, an unnamed Apple source reportedly told the Kommersant business daily: "A mandate to add third-party applications to Apple's ecosystem would be equivalent to jailbreaking. It would pose a security threat, and the company cannot tolerate that kind of risk." According to The Moscow Times, the government will draw up a list of software which tech companies will need to pre-install, and a list of the devices covered by the law, expected to include computers, tablets and smart TVs alongside mobile phones. The Russian government has cracked down on internet freedoms in

The inaugural Apple Music awards take place tomorrow at the Steve Jobs Theater in Apple Park, and in typical Apple fashion, the company has designed a series of unique vinyl-inspired awards to be presented to the winners. Each award features a polished sheet of glass and a machined and anodized aluminum body, between which is suspended Apple's custom 12-inch silicon wafer – the same chips that power the company's iPhones and iPads, and included in the commemorative design as a "symbolic gesture," says Apple. The wafers start as a perfect 12-inch disc of silicon with nanometer level flatness. Copper layers are deposited and patterned by ultraviolet lithography to create connections between billions of transistors. The result of this multi-month process, before it is sliced into hundreds of individual chips, is stunning and distinctive. In a symbolic gesture, the same chips which power the devices that put the world’s music at your fingertips sit at the very heart of the ‌Apple Music‌ Awards.The ‌Apple Music‌ Awards will kick off with a bespoke performance from Billie Eilish, whose full-length debut album WHEN WE FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? was the most played album on ‌Apple Music‌ this year. Eilish will be awarded ‌Apple Music‌'s Album of the Year as the most streamed album of 2019, with more than a billion streams on ‌Apple Music‌. Billie will also receive the award for Songwriter of the Year, which will go to both her and her brother FINNEAS. Also during the event, the Breakthrough Artist of the Year award will be presented to Lizzo, while the Song of the Year award

Sony has begun rolling out a software update for some of its smart TVs that enables AirPlay 2 and Apple HomeKit support, including its XBR Z9F and XBR A9F series of 4K and 4K OLED TVs. Earlier this year, Sony announced that ‌AirPlay‌ 2 and ‌HomeKit‌ support would come to some of its mid-range and high-end smart TVs by way of a software update. This Android 9 Pie update makes good on that promise, and also includes Dolby Atmos support. The update is available for the 2018 A9F and Z9F models as well as the 2019 A9G, Z9G, X950G, and X850G (55, 65, 75, 85-inch). TV tech site FlatpanelsHD notes that the 2018 A9F and Z9F models weren't listed as compatible models in Sony's original announcement, but they've since been included. ‌AirPlay‌ 2 support will allow users to stream videos, music, photos, and more directly from an iPhone, iPad, and Mac to compatible Sony smart TVs, complete with lock screen controls. ‌HomeKit‌ support will enable users to easily control the TVs using Siri voice commands or the Home app on ‌iPhone‌, ‌iPad‌, and Mac. The software update is available in the United States, Canada, and Latin America. There's no word yet on the availability of the update in Europe and elsewhere, but presumably Sony plans to extend the staggered rollout beyond these regions. To update the Android-based software, you need to press the HELP button on the remote control and select "System software update." If you don't see the update, enable the "Automatically check for update" option, and a notification will appear on your TV when the update is available. Samsung, LG,

If you take your Mac everywhere with you, there's a good chance that it has connected to a number of private and public Wi-Fi networks over that time. These networks are remembered by macOS so that in the event that your Mac encounters one of them again, it can connect to it automatically and you won't have to manually select it or enter the password. If you want, you can edit this list of "preferred networks" that your Mac keeps and change individual network connection settings. Whether you want to remove redundant networks or just forget a specific one, the following steps guide you through the process. How to Forget a Wireless Network on Mac Click the Wi-Fi icon in the top-right corner of the Mac menu bar. Select Open Network Preferences.... Click Advanced. Click a network in the list to select it. (To select multiple networks, hold the Command key while clicking them.) You can also drag networks higher up the list to prioritize them over other local networks. Click the minus ("–") icon below the list to forget the selected network. Note that in the main Network pane of System Preferences there are two checkboxes. The first allows you to specify whether your Mac is allowed to automatically join the currently connected network, while the second allows you to force your Mac to ask you before it joins new

Apple has officially announced that its long-awaited Mac Pro and Pro Display XDR will be available starting in December. Apple also announced that the new ‌Mac Pro‌ will be available with up to 8TB of SSD storage, after originally promising up to 4TB. The base model ‌Mac Pro‌ starts at $5,999 and features an 8-core 3.5GHz Intel Xeon processor, a Radeon Pro 580X GPU, 32GB of RAM, and 256GB of SSD storage. Additional technical specifications and configure-to-order options are available on Apple's website. The high-throughput machine was originally announced in June, when Apple promised a "fall" release. Apple confirmed December today:Today, Apple also announced that the all-new ‌Mac Pro‌, the world's best pro desktop, and Apple Pro Display XDR, the world's best pro display, will be available in December. Designed for maximum performance, expansion and configurability, ‌Mac Pro‌ features workstation-class Xeon processors up to 28 cores, a high-performance memory system with a massive 1.5TB capacity, eight PCIe expansion slots and a graphics architecture featuring the world's most powerful graphics card. Pro Display XDR features a 32-inch Retina 6K display with P3 wide and 10-bit color, 1,600 nits of peak brightness, 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio and a superwide viewing angle, all at a breakthrough price point.Apple is also releasing the Pro Display XDR alongside the ‌Mac Pro‌ next month. The high-end monitor costs $4,999, or $5,999 for a version with a "nano-texture" matte coating. The stand costs $999 and a VESA mount costs $199. Today's announcement was brief, and Apple

Ahead of the imminent launch of Apple's new 16-inch MacBook Pro, several benchmark results have appeared on Geekbench that allegedly come from a Mac model designated "MacBookPro16,1" and, if true, confirm some of the machine's rumored hardware specifications. Many of the results indicate that the 16-inch ‌MacBook Pro‌ will feature Intel 9th-generation Coffee Lake Refresh processors, which would be in line with the 15-inch ‌MacBook Pro‌ released in May. Some benchmarks show an 8-core Core i9 processor with a 2.4GHz base clock speed. In addition, OpenCL scores list the machines as having Radeon Pro 5300M and 5500M graphics, and up to 32GB RAM. We've spotted references to Radeon Pro 5300M and 5500M in macOS Catalina code, so there's a good chance these are legit.

Apple is celebrating Thanksgiving this year by urging U.S. Apple Watch owners to bag a special achievement by recording a minimum walking or running distance on Thursday, November 28. As with past holidays, ‌Apple Watch‌ owners can earn an exclusive badge and an iMessage sticker if they complete the challenge. To earn the turkey-themed badge and sticker, ‌Apple Watch‌ wearers must clock up a 5-kilometer (3.1 mile) walk, run, or wheelchair workout. Apple's Thanksgiving Day challenge was first spotted by Kyle Seth Gray, who shared his discovery on Twitter. To record the activity, wearers need to use Apple's stock Workout app or a third-party app that feeds data to Apple's HealthKit. An ‌‌Apple Watch‌‌ user's history of achievements can be viewed any time via the Achievements tab on the iOS Activity app. Apple first challenged ‌Apple Watch‌ owners to get out on Thanksgiving Day in 2016, and then again in 2017, but no challenge was forthcoming in 2018. Thanksgiving is a U.S. holiday, so the challenge obviously won't show up for ‌Apple Watch‌ users set to other regions. The last special activity challenge Apple promoted occurred on Monday for Veterans

Following yesterday's report on Apple's new 16-inch MacBook Pro which could be announced as soon as Wednesday, Bloomberg journalist Mark Gurman this morning shared some additional details about the upcoming machine via Twitter. According to Gurman, the display on the new ‌MacBook Pro‌ is less than four percent larger than the current 15.4-inch ‌MacBook Pro‌, suggesting to him that "it's really going to be about the higher resolution" rather than a significant material increase in screen real estate. Gurman offers no clues as to the exact resolution, but reliable IHS Markit analyst Jeff Lin claimed in June that the 16-inch ‌MacBook Pro‌ would feature an LCD panel with a resolution of 3,072×1,920 pixels supplied by LG Display. For comparison, the 15-inch ‌‌MacBook Pro‌‌ has a resolution of 2,880×1,800 pixels. In addition, Gurman says the new 16-inch ‌MacBook Pro‌ will have "impressive speakers" and "noise cancelling microphones," which sounds like a reference to an improved ambient noise reduction feature enabling users to capture less background noise when using the built-in microphones, thereby improving dictation and FaceTime calls. The screen on the new ‌MacBook Pro‌ is less than 4% larger than the current 15.4 inch. So it’s really going to be about the higher resolution, impressive speakers, noise cancelling microphones and of course the all new keyboard (similar to the iMac external Magic Keyboard).— Mark Gurman (@markgurman) November 13, 2019 Otherwise, Gurman reiterates Apple's focus on providing users with a more reliable keyboard that uses a new scissor switch

Last week, Disney CEO Bob Iger revealed that Disney+ will launch in the United Kingdom and other select European countries on March 31, 2020. Iger didn't mention how much European customers would have to pay to access its 500 feature films and over 7,500 shows, including the entire Pixar library and a raft of original content. However, one MacRumors reader appears to have discovered the British and French pricing plans ahead of time, simply by switching between Apple accounts on his iPhone. Jean-Marc first downloaded the Disney+ app from the US App Store using his US Apple ID, and then switched to his French Apple ID, followed by his British Apple ID. The Disney+ subscription screen subsequently presented him with the following monthly and yearly pricing plans. France: €7.49 per month or €75.99 per year. UK: £6.99 per month or £68.99 per year.Of course, these prices haven't been officially announced by Disney and could be subject to change before the service launches in Europe next year. However, given that Disney+ costs $6.99 per month in the U.S. (or $69.99 per year), it was pretty much expected that the dollar price would be mirrored in pound sterling. As for the price in Euros, it's unclear if this applies only to France or to other Euro-using countries as well. We do know that Disney+ costs €6.99 in the Netherlands (€69.99 per year) because of its early trial there, so perhaps we can expect some variation between EU territories. Otherwise, the annual prices given are equal to 12 months at €6.33/month and £5.75/month, respectively,

Twitter is set to roll out a new feature called "Topics" that allows users to follow conversations about subjects of interest, similar to how they'd follow an account. According to an official Twitter blog post, Topic suggestions will soon start appearing in user timelines and in search, based on what they tend to look for and already follow on the social media platform. When a user follows a topic, like a music band, sports team, or celebrity, they'll see tweets from a broad range of accounts that share the same interest. Previously, all of the work was on you to figure out the best way to keep up with what's happening by following certain accounts, searching for it, or looking in the Explore tab for the latest. Now, you have the option of seeing the most relevant and interesting Tweets about what you care about with a single tap, and the conversation will come to you.A Topics option already appears in the mobile app's sidebar menu, but currently just shows an introductory screen for the feature. When the feature rolls out in full, it will list the topics you've followed. Hot takes? Always. Hot topics? Brand new.Now you can follow specific topics to discover the Tweets you care about. pic.twitter.com/3tVBRFuTYd— Twitter (@Twitter) November 11, 2019 Future features will include the ability to preview the feed content of a topic before choosing to follow it, the ability to add topics to lists, and the ability to mute topics. Twitter says that Topic suggestions will start showing up in timelines and in searches from November 13, with a worldwide

Apple premiered its limited drama series "Truth Be Told" at The Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Los Angeles, California, on Monday night. Octavia Spencer Set to debut on Apple TV+ next month, the show stars Octavia Spencer in the role of Poppy Parnell, a podcaster who aims to reopen a murder case that she was involved in solving 18 years earlier that put Warren Cave (played by Aaron Paul) behind bars. Spencer's character is unsure if she made a mistake when she helped put Paul's character (Warren Cave) in prison, and with her podcast, she tries to discover the truth and determine whether Cave was wrongfully convicted. Based on the novel by Kathleen Barber, "Truth Be Told" is said to offer a unique glimpse into America's obsession with true crime podcasts and challenges its viewers to consider the consequences when the pursuit of justice is placed on a public stage. Beginning December 6, the first three episodes of "Truth Be Told" will be available to watch on ‌Apple TV‌+ in over 100 countries and regions around the world, with new episodes rolling out weekly, every Friday. You can watch the trailer for the series here. Left to right: Haneefah Wood, Mekhi Phifer, Ron Cephas Jones, Annabella Sciorra, Elizabeth Perkins, Reese Witherspoon, Nichelle Tramble Spellman, Octavia Spencer, Aaron Paul, Michael Beach. ‌Apple TV‌+ costs $4.99 per month with a family of six able to watch for that price point. Apple is also providing customers who purchase an ‌Apple TV‌, Mac, iPad, or iPhone with a free one-year

Apple banking partner Goldman Sachs has issued another statement regarding allegations made earlier in the week that some credit decisions for Apple Card have been made in a discriminatory manner on the basis of gender. In a typed statement, an image of which was shared on Twitter on Monday night with the comment "We hear you #AppleCard," Goldman Sachs retail bank CEO Carey Halio said that the bank would take another look at credit lines for customers who expected higher limits. "We have not and never will make decisions based on factors like gender," Halio said. "In fact, we do not know your gender or marital status during the ‌Apple Card‌ application process."The CEO added that Goldman Sachs worked with a third-party to review its credit decisioning process "to guard against unintended biases and outcomes." If you believe that your credit line does not adequately reflect your credit history because you may be in a similar situation, we want to hear from you. Based on additional information that we may request, we will re-evaluate your credit line.Over the weekend, app developer David Heinemeier Hansson claimed on social media that his ‌‌Apple Card‌‌ credit limit was twenty times that offered to his wife, even though the couple has been married for many years, file joint tax returns, and live in a community property state where all income and assets acquired while married are considered jointly owned. Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak also reported that his ‌‌Apple Card‌‌ credit limit was ten times that offered to his wife, with the Wozniaks in a similar financial

The Messages app in macOS offers users a convenient way of communicating with friends, family, and colleagues across a variety of Apple devices. With Messages for Mac, you can send unlimited messages to any Mac, iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch that uses iMessage, Apple's secure-messaging service. If you have an ‌iPhone‌, you can also send and receive SMS texts. The following steps show you how to get Messages set up on your Mac, while the second set of steps explain how to set up Messages in iCloud, which keeps your messages in sync between your Mac and your iOS devices. How to Set up Messages on Your Mac Launch the Messages app on your Mac – you can find it in the Applications folder. It can also be found in the Dock on new Macs. You'll be asked to sign in. Enter the same Apple ID that you use with Messages on your ‌iPhone‌ and other Apple devices. If you have two-step or two-factor authentication turned on for your Apple ID, enter your verification code. Select Messages -> Preferences... in the menu bar. Select the iMessage tab. Tick the box next to Enable Messages in ‌iCloud‌ (this will keeps your messages in sync between your Mac and your iOS devices). Tick the phone number and email addresses at which you would like to be reached. Using the dropdown under Start new conversations from: choose which phone number or email address you want people to see when you start a new conversation. Tick the red traffic light in the top-left corner of the window to close Messages preferences.If you enabled Messages in ‌iCloud‌, you'll also want to make sure it's

It used to be the case that adding funds to your Apple ID required redeeming an iTunes Gift Card bought from a store, but Apple now lets you use a debit or credit card right on your iPhone or iPad to do the same thing. Adding funds to your Apple ID allows you to make purchases from the iTunes Store, iBooks Store, and App Store on any of your Apple devices. It's easy to add funds to your Apple account once you know how. Simply follow these steps. How to Add Funds to Your Apple ID Launch the ‌App Store‌ app on your ‌iPhone‌ or ‌iPad‌. Tap your profile picture in the top-right corner of the screen. Tap Add Funds to Apple ID. Tap one of the preset amounts, or tap Other to enter a custom amount. Tap Next. Authorize the transaction using Face ID, Touch ID, or your passcode. You can check how much credit you have on your Apple ID any time. Simply open the ‌App Store‌ app and tap your profile picture, and you'll see the amount right under your Apple ID

Instagram is to begin testing hiding content "likes" in the United States this week. The change will first be rolled out to a limited number of accounts in the U.S., and users of those accounts will still be able to see how many likes they got on their own posts. The plan was announced at WIRED25 by head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, who also took to Twitter to share the news. "It's about young people," Mosseri said during the Wired panel. "The idea is to try to 'depressurize' Instagram, make it less of a competition and give people more space to focus on connecting with people that they love, things that inspire them." "It means we're going to put a 15-year-old kid's interests before a public speaker's interest," he added. "When we look at the world of public content, we're going to put people in that world before organizations and corporations."Hiding likes would fundamentally change the way Instagram works, as liking photos and garnering likes is one of the platform's main features. Heads up! We've been testing making likes private on Instagram in a number of countries this year. We're expanding those tests to include a small portion of people in the US next week. Looking forward to the feedback!— Adam Mosseri (@mosseri) November 9, 2019 The Facebook-owned, photo-based platform has conducted similar trials in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Ireland, Italy, Japan, and New Zealand. The removal of Instagram likes follows other recent user-focused changes, like the addition of a timer that shows users how long they've spent in the app, and the removal of the Instagram

Apple's new Mac Pro, still listed on Apple's website as "coming this fall," has been spotted in the wild this weekend at the studio of DJ and producer Calvin Harris. New ‌Mac Pro‌ spotted in Calvin Harris Instagram video On Saturday, Harris posted an Instagram story featuring some of his music and offering his followers a peek into his production studio, in which a ‌Mac Pro‌ with signature cheese grater case and carry handles can be seen sat on the floor next to a desk. The sighting suggests Apple has shared the new high-throughput machine with creative professionals to give them a feel for its power and potential ahead of its public release, which could be any day now. The all-new ‌‌Mac Pro‌‌ boasts up to 28-core Intel Xeon processors, up to 1.5TB of ECC RAM, up to 4TB of SSD storage, and up to AMD Radeon Pro Vega II Duo graphics with 64GB of HBM2 memory. The computer also has eight PCIe expansion slots for maximum performance, expansion, and configurability. A new design includes a stainless steel frame with smooth handles and an aluminum housing that lifts off for 360-degree access to the entire system. The housing also has a unique lattice pattern to maximize airflow and quiet operation. Apple announced the ‌Mac Pro‌ on June 3, and the company has been teasing a fall release on its website ever since, without specifying a launch date. The machine received FCC approval on October 30, suggesting pre-order availability is not far away. The ‌Mac Pro‌ starts at $5,999, so this machine is only for the most serious professional users. They could also twin it with

Emoji gained currency in electronic communications thanks to phone texting, but you don't need to be on your iPhone to insert these now-iconic facial expressions in your text – you can use them on Mac, too. This fact may come as a surprise to some Mac users, as it's not exactly obvious how to access them in macOS, but it's actually very easy, as the following steps show. How to Use Emoji on Your Mac Click the text field in which you'd like to insert an emoji, like an email subject or social media post. Press the keyboard shortcut Command-Control-Space to bring up the emoji picker. Double-click the emoji that you want to use and it will be inserted where your cursor is. If you don't see the one you want, use the search field to enter a face, object, or action description. Emoji categories include Smileys & People, Animals & Nature, Food & Drink, Activity, Travel & Places, Objects, Symbols, and Flags. How to Add the Emoji Picker to Your Mac's Menu Bar If you're a frequent emoji user, you can make things easier by adding the emoji picker to the menu bar at the top of your Mac's screen. Click the Apple  symbol in the top-left corner of your screen. Click System Preferences.... Click Keyboard. Tick the box next to Show keyboard and emoji viewers in menu bar. Close System Preferences.You'll find the emoji and keyboard viewer icon in the top-right corner of the menu