iPad Air 3 Rumors, AT&T's Free iPhone Deal, MacKeeper Breach, iOS 9.2.1 and OS X 10.11.3 - MacRumors

No 3D Touch for iPad Air 3, Due in First Half of 2016 While Apple introduced the iPad Pro and iPad mini 4 back in October, the company did not launch an updated version of the iPad Air 2, in line with circulating rumors that had indicated an update was unlikely until 2016. We're now hearing a bit more about the iPad Air 3, including word that it should debut sometime in the first half of the year (perhaps at Apple's rumored March media event) and that it will not include support for the 3D Touch functionality introduced on the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus. Apple is said to be working on next-generation 3D Touch technology that will be supported on displays as large as the iPad Pro's, but the technology is not yet ready.   Read Full Article Popular Stories Dec 17, 2015 AT&T Offering 'Buy One Get One Free' Deal on iPhone 6s With the holiday shopping season rapidly coming to a close, AT&T is offering a new "buy one, get one free" deal on select smartphones including the iPhone 6s. It comes with a few strings such as it must be purchased through AT&T Next for a new line of service and the "free" comes in the form of monthly bill credits, but it could still be a good option for some iPhone users. The deal, which runs through December 31, is good with all iPhone 6s and 6s Plus models, but the maximum credit is $650, the full price of a 16 GB iPhone 6s.   Read Full Article MacKeeper Exposes Data on 13 Million Customers Controversial antivirus and system optimization software MacKeeper has made the news for lax security on its database of 13 million customers. Personal information, including weakly hashed passwords, was stored in a database that was left unprotected. MacKeeper has been the subject of much controversy over the years due to its aggressive advertising and questionable utility, with the software's developers having recently reached a settlement to refund customers who believe they were fooled by false advertising.   Read Full Article Apple Seeds First Betas of iOS 9.2.1 and OS X 10.11.3 Apple's holiday break is right around the corner, but that didn't stop its software teams from pushing out initial seeds of new iOS 9.2.1 and OS X 10.11.3 updates. As a minor x.x.1 update, iOS 9.2.1 is likely focused on a few significant bugs that need to be fixed fairly quickly, perhaps including one related to mobile device management (MDM) setups for enterprise and institutional users. OS X 10.11.3 may also be a fairly minor update as things begin settling down a bit more following the first couple of maintenance updates for OS X El Capitan.   Read Full Article Jeff Williams Named Apple Chief Operating Officer, Phil Schiller Takes Over App Store Leadership Apple has announced a few changes to its executive team, led by Jeff Williams being officially named chief operating officer. Williams has essentially served as COO for quite some time since Tim Cook took the reins at Apple, but now he has the official C-level title to go along with it. Perhaps even more significantly, Apple has shifted oversight of the App Store on all platforms from services chief Eddy Cue to marketing head Phil Schiller. The move reduces some of the burden on Cue, who has taken on responsibility for a number of areas in recent years including Apple Pay and Apple Music, while Schiller is a natural fit for the App Store given that he already oversees Apple's developer programs. Finally, Apple's chip guru Johny Srouji has been promoted to the senior executive team and noted marketing expert Tor Myhren will be joining Apple early next year to head up advertising and marketing communications.   Read Full Article Apple Working on Thinner, Brighter Displays at Secret Taiwanese Lab Apple reportedly opened a secret lab in Taiwan earlier this year, with roughly 50 employees (and more to come) currently working on building thinner and brighter displays for Apple's products. Apple is staffing up the former Qualcomm facility with a number of engineers recruited from display firms such as AU Optronics and Qualcomm subsidiary Sollink. Rumors have suggested the facility could be focusing on OLED and/or micro-LED technology such as that obtained by Apple when it acquired LuxVue Technology in 2014.   Read Full Article MacRumors Holiday Gift Guides: Reader and Staff Picks If you're still looking for some final gift ideas, we've put together some gift guides this year that might help provide some inspiration. Check out the recommendations from our editorial staff: Juli, Joe, Mitchel, Marianne, Eric, Matt, and Husain. And don't forget our reader picks, where we collected some suggestions from members of our forums!   Read Full Article

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iPhone 6s Smart Battery Case, iOS 9.2 and Other Software Updates, Apple TV Rumors - MacRumors

Apple Launches Official $99 Battery Enhancing Case for iPhone 6s Apple this week jumped into the iPhone battery case market, introducing a $99 Smart Battery Case for the iPhone 6s in white and charcoal gray. The case includes some nice integration with iOS and conveniently charges via Lightning, but has seen a lot of controversy over its design, which includes a prominent "hump" housing the battery pack itself. Tim Cook even saw fit to weigh in, highlighting how the design allows for a one-piece fluoroelastomer case that can slip easily on and off the iPhone, compared to some of the trickier two-piece designs common on other battery cases.   Read Full Article Popular Stories Dec 11, 2015 Apple Releases iOS 9.2, OS X 10.11.2, tvOS 9.1, and watchOS 2.1 It's been a busy week for Apple on the software front, with the company pushing out software updates for all of its major platforms. The update drawing the most attention is iOS 9.2, which introduces a number of updates and bug fixes, including an apparent fix for unresponsive iPad Pro issues. On the Mac side, Apple delivered OS X 10.11.2 with some improvements to Wi-Fi, Handoff, AirDrop, and more, while the Apple Watch saw the release of watchOS 2.1 with support for new languages and some bug fixes. Finally, the new Apple TV was updated with tvOS 9.1, which brought Siri support for Apple Music as well as much-requested support for the iOS Remote app with the new box. Apple has even more in store on that front, with Eddy Cue revealing Apple plans to launch a new Remote app for iOS with full Siri support for controlling the Apple TV some time in the first half of next year.   Read Full Article Apple Raises iTunes Match and Apple Music Library Matching Limits to 100,000 Tracks As promised earlier this year, Apple has rolled out support for iTunes Match and Apple Music libraries of up to 100,000 tracks for matching and uploading to the cloud. The previous limit had been 25,000 tracks, but Apple indicated at the launch of Apple Music in late June that the limit would be raised to 100,000 later in the year. Eddy Cue confirmed to MacRumors late last week that the increase was indeed going into effect.   Read Full Article Apple's TV Plans Fell Apart Over Content Owners' Resistance to Skinny Bundles One key part of Apple's rumored television strategy that has yet to appear is its much-discussed subscription package of live TV channels, and CBS CEO Les Moonves has now indicated that Apple "pressed the hold button" on those negotiations several months ago amid rumors Apple has been unable to piece together a viable package at its desired $30-40/month price point. A follow-up report from Re/code indicates a major sticking point has been Apple's insistence on a so-called "skinny bundle" containing no more than 20 channels. Content providers have reportedly been reluctant to offer only their top channels for the bundle, believing more of their channels should be included in any packages. On the hardware front, the new Apple TV box has only been out for a little over a month, but one admittedly sketchy report claims Apple is already moving toward production of a fifth-generation set-top box. The new box would include a faster processor and improved heat dissipation, allowing for even better performance. The report claims the next-generation Apple TV could go into production early next year, but that seems awfully soon to us.   Read Full Article Apple Planning March 2016 Event to Unveil Next-Generation Apple Watch, iPhone 6c Possible Too Rumors of an updated Apple Watch and a new 4-inch "iPhone 6c" targeted for launch early next year have been circulating, and a new report claims Apple is planning a March media event where it could show off the new products. Also potentially on the docket would be new Macs, as we're still waiting for most of Apple's Mac lineup to be updated with new and forthcoming Skylake chips from Intel.   Read Full Article Best Buy Offering $100 Discount on Apple Watch If you're looking to get your hands on one of the current Apple Watch models for the holiday shopping season, Best Buy is your best bet right now, as the retailer has knocked $100 off of its full Apple Watch lineup through at least Christmas. In another sign that the Apple Watch continues to go mainstream, Walmart has begun selling a handful of Apple Watch Sport models and some accessories through its online store. The world's largest retailer is, however, not currently offering any discounts on the Apple Watch.   Read Full Article

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iPhone 7 Could Lose Headphone Jack, Thinner and Larger MacBook Airs, Colorful 'iPhone 6c' in Early 2016? - MacRumors

Apple May Replace 3.5mm Headphone Jack on iPhone 7 With All-in-One Lightning Connector While many Apple fans were chasing down Black Friday deals for their holiday shopping, a new report was making the rounds claiming Apple plans to eliminate the 3.5-millimeter headphone jack on next year's iPhone 7. The change would require users to either embrace wireless headphones or use the device's Lightning port with either Lightning-equipped headphones or a Lightning to 3.5mm adapter for traditional headphones. The change is reportedly part of an effort to allow Apple to make the next iPhone even thinner, and Apple already supports headphone connections over Lightning, but the move would certainly still be a controversial one.   Read Full Article Popular Stories Dec 03, 2015 Thinner MacBook Air in 13" and 15" Sizes Coming at WWDC 2016? According to a new report out of Taiwan, Apple is planning a major overhaul of its MacBook Air lineup at WWDC 2016, likely scheduled for next June. The changes would see a thinner design and a complete reworking of internal components. The revamped MacBook Air is also said to arrive in 13-inch and new 15-inch sizes, with Apple potentially dropping the current 11-inch size from the lineup. With the debut of the new MacBook earlier this year, many have assumed Apple intends to merge the MacBook and MacBook Air lines once pricing on Retina displays and other components comes down enough to enable the MacBook to occupy the sub-$1000 entry-level price point for Apple notebooks. A redesigned MacBook Air, however, would indicate Apple plans to continue offering three separate notebook families for an extended period of time.   Read Full Article Amazon Prime Video Coming to New Apple TV Possibly Within a 'Few Weeks' As of late October, Amazon ceased selling the Apple TV and Google Chromecast, citing incompatibility with Amazon's own Instant Video streaming service. But with a new Apple TV launching the following day with support for third-party apps, any lack of Instant Video support was clearly exposed as Amazon's responsibility. Amazon has now informed at least one customer who inquired about Instant Video support for Apple TV that an app is in development and could launch "within a few weeks span." There is, however, no word on whether Amazon will reinstate the Apple TV to its online marketplace once the app launches.   Read Full Article New A9-Based 4-Inch iPhone Expected to Launch Early 2016 With Apple Pay and Colorful Metal Casing Continuing to fuel rumors of a new 4-inch iPhone under development, KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has released a report claiming Apple is indeed targeting an early 2016 launch for the device. Backing up another report from earlier this week, Kuo says the so-called "iPhone 6c" will come in several colors but use a metal shell rather than the plastic body used on the iPhone 5c back in 2013. Kuo also says the iPhone 6c will include an A9 chip, an 8-megapixel rear camera, and NFC for Apple Pay support.   Read Full Article Popular Design App 'Sketch' Leaves Mac App Store Due to Poor Customer Experience Sketch is the latest high-profile app to be removed from the Mac App Store by its creators, with developer Bohemian Coding deciding that the poor customer experience of the store outweighs the benefits of being in Apple's official marketplace. Among the concerns are lengthy app review times, functionality restrictions such as sandboxing, and a lack of support for upgrade pricing. Sketch's departure has reignited the debate about Apple's "broken" Mac App Store and what can be done to improve the experience for both developers and customers.   Read Full Article 2016 U.S. CarPlay Vehicles: Chevrolet, Honda, Volkswagen and More It's been a bit of a slog for Apple's in-vehicle CarPlay solution, with auto manufacturers taking a bit longer than initially anticipated to add support for the feature on their infotainment systems. But with 2016 models rolling into dealerships over the past couple of months, we're starting to see some more momentum for CarPlay. If you're planning to do some car shopping and CarPlay is important to you, check out our extensive list to see what makes and models are currently supporting it. In somewhat related news, Ford has just announced a software update for its second-generation SYNC in-vehicle software that will bring support for Siri Eyes Free mode to over five million vehicles dating back to the 2011 model year. While it's not nearly as powerful as CarPlay, Eyes Free lets the driver interact with an iPhone without needing to look at the device's display, relying on Siri voice recognition and spoken feedback. Ford has also been announced as a CarPlay partner, but has yet to announce specific plans for rolling out that support.   Read Full Article Apple's Swift Programming Language Now Open Source In line with earlier promises, Apple has officially made its Swift programming language open source, allowing anyone to contribute to its ongoing development. Introduced at WWDC 2014, Swift is now Apple's preferred programming language across iOS, OS X, watchOS, and tvOS, and a port of it is now available for Linux. Apple is inviting the developer community on board as work proceeds on Swift 3, the next major update for the language likely arriving later next year.   Read Full Article

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Black Friday Deals on Apple Products, iPad Pro Pencil Art, Apple Pay News - MacRumors

Black Friday 2015: Keep Track of the Best Apple Deals for the Holiday Shopping Season With Thanksgiving in the U.S. coming up this week, it's time for the holiday shopping season to get into full swing. Black Friday, the traditional kickoff for the shopping season, falls on November 27 this year, but retailers are already offering some great deals, so make sure to keep a close eye on our Black Friday roundup as we track the best deals on all kinds of Apple products and accessories. We'll also be posting some of the bigger deals as full news articles, so stay tuned to the front page as well!   Read Full Article Popular Stories Nov 24, 2015 Best Buy Offering Up to $100 Off Apple Watch Today Only in Pre-Black Friday Sale This is a one-day only sale running today (November 24), so we wanted to draw special attention to Best Buy's deal offering $50 off of any Apple Watch Sport and $100 off of any stainless steel Apple Watch. Best Buy is also offering solid savings on the iPad Air 2, with 16 and 64 GB models discounted by $100 and 128 GB models on sale for $125 off. Best Buy will be running these same deals (and more) on Black Friday, but if you want to grab them now to beat the rush, now would be an excellent time.   Read Full Article iPad Pro Artists Share Apple Pencil Drawings Our most popular article this week was actually a blog post highlighting some of the great art being done with the iPad Pro and Apple Pencil. The Apple Pencil has been praised for its natural feel, and MacRumors forum members have been showing off some great examples of what you can do with it. In other Apple Pencil-related news this week, we've seen some interesting and creative demos of the accessory being used for everything from applying image filters to running a music synthesizer, while its pressure sensors have been adapted for use as a crude scale. The Apple Pencil remains in very short supply two weeks after the iPad Pro's launch, with many of those who purchased within minutes of orders going live still waiting to receive their pencils and Apple still quoting 4-5 week shipping estimates for new online orders. Best Buy briefly offered Apple Pencils for sale online last week with fairly quick turnaround time, but has generally been showing them as out of stock since their initial appearance.   Read Full Article Square Launches NFC Reader to Bring Apple Pay to Smaller Businesses Following through on its promise from a year ago, Square this week officially launched its new card reader that allows small businesses and individuals to accept Apple Pay. The $49 reader also includes support for chip-based credit cards. Following last week's launch of Apple Pay support in Canada and Australia in partnership with American Express, other news this week included a new guided tour video for the feature, MasterCard offering free travel on London transit systems for Apple Pay users over the next four Mondays, and word that Apple is aiming for a February launch of Apple Pay in China.   Read Full Article New 'Sidefari' App Allows iPad Users to View Side-by-Side Safari Windows The new side-by-side multitasking functionality available on the iPad Pro, iPad Air 2, and iPad mini 4 has been a great addition in iOS 9, but one thing it lacks is the ability to run two instances of the same app, such as viewing two Safari windows at the same time. Some users have worked around this by using Safari and Chrome side-by-side, for example, but Chrome doesn't support some of Safari's features tied into other core iOS functionality. A handy new app by the name of Sidefari, however, takes the unique approach of harnessing Apple's Safari View Controller feature used to allow apps to open web content without launching Safari directly, with Sidefari using it to run alongside Safari in what amounts to a second browser window.   Read Full Article T-Mobile Announces 'Un-carrier Unwrapped' Promotion Offering Free LTE Data for All Customers for Three Months T-Mobile is continuing its assault on the U.S. carrier industry, this time launching a holiday promotion giving all customers free LTE data during December, January, and February. T-Mobile's Simple Choice postpaid customers are required to opt into T-Mobile's new Binge On unlimited video streaming service and use up their own data allotments and any Data Stash rollover data first, at which point the free bonus data kicks in.   Read Full Article

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Official Apple Watch Dock, iPad Pro and Apple Pencil Tidbits, Rumors on New 4-Inch iPhone and Apple Watch 2 - MacRumors

Apple Launches Magnetic Apple Watch Dock for $79 After some leaked photos showed up early in the week, Apple on Wednesday officially introduced its $79 Magnetic Charging Dock for the Apple Watch. While the company has recently featured a few third-party Apple Watch docks online and in its retail stores, this marks the first dock of its own for the wrist-worn device. The new dock has a flat circular shape with a charging puck in the center, similar to some other recent third-party docks. Apple's dock, however, allows watches to be charged either laid flat across the charger or on the side for Nightstand mode by taking advantage of a hinge that allows the charging puck to be flipped up into a vertical position.   Read Full Article Popular Stories Nov 19, 2015 iPad Pro's Lightning Port Supports USB 3.0 Transfer Speeds, New Adapters in the Works Following last week's launch of the iPad Pro, we've continued to learn more about the device and its capabilities. One tidbit is that the Lightning port in the iPad Pro supports faster USB 3.0 transfer speeds, which will make it easier to transfer data to and from the device. New adapters will, however, be required and Apple has yet to release them. Other iPad Pro news includes a display shootout comparing the quality of the iPad Pro and iPad mini 4 displays to that of the iPad Air 2, and comments by Tim Cook reiterating Apple's position that it has no intention of converging the Mac and iPad product lines, even as the iPad Pro potentially opens the door for more people to go iPad-only for their computing needs. Finally, a number of iPad Pro users have reported their devices becoming unresponsive after charging. In a new support document, Apple has acknowledged that it is aware of the issue and investigating it, while providing users with instructions on how to perform a force restart as an interim fix.   Read Full Article Hands-On With the iPad Pro Apple Pencil Two of the iPad Pro's key accessories, the Apple Pencil and the Smart Keyboard, have been in extremely short supply since the device's launch last week, with many early customers still awaiting delivery and current online orders being quoted 4-5 week shipping estimates. Meager supplies have been trickling into some Apple retail stores for walk-in customers, and we've gotten our hands on one and put together a video overview of the new stylus. In other Apple Pencil news, we've seen one of iFixit's traditional teardowns showing off the guts of the accessory with its tiny folded logic board carrying a handful of chips, and several testers have put the Apple Pencil up against Microsoft's Surface Pen to compare the two devices. Jony Ive has also spoken a bit more about the Apple Pencil, noting it's not envisioned as a replacement for finger-based input on touchscreen devices.   Read Full Article New 4-Inch iPhone Again Predicted to Launch in 2016 A new version of Apple's 4-inch iPhone remains the focus of some rumors this week, with another analyst claiming Apple is aiming to introduce the device in 2016. Yet another rumor claims the device is ready to go whenever Apple elects to launch, but conflicts with some other rumors by claiming it is based on A8 chip rather than the state-of-the-art A9 chip from the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus that has been rumored for the so-called "iPhone 6c."   Read Full Article Some Mac App Store Apps 'Damaged' Due to Expired Security Certificate Last week, a number of users found themselves unable to open apps previously downloaded from the Mac App Store due to some changes Apple made on its end with security certificates. The changes resulted in a number of questions and complaints directed at developers, leading to confusion over what was happening and who was responsible. Apple reverted some of its changes relatively quickly to address the issue, and this week began contacting developers to explain what happened, describe how it fixed the problem, and encourage developers to upgrade to more recent communications protocols for certificates to ensure compatibility going forward.   Read Full Article Quanta Reportedly Developing Next-Gen Apple Watch for 2016 Launch Apple and its manufacturing partner Quanta are reportedly working toward a 2016 debut for the next-generation Apple Watch, with rumors pointing toward a similar second-quarter launch timeframe as seen of the original device. Apple is reportedly also looking to bring on another manufacturing partner to assist Quanta with production on the device, helping to spread the load and increase available supplies. With increased supplies, Apple may be able to accelerate the international rollout of the second-generation Apple Watch, as the original model has been fairly slow to expand to new countries.   Read Full Article

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