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Samsung Announces Galaxy S21, S21+, and S21 Ultra Alongside Galaxy Buds Pro and Galaxy SmartTag - MacRumors

Samsung has today announced a range of new devices at its Galaxy Unpacked event, including the Galaxy S21, S21+, and S21 Ultra, as well as Galaxy...

Samsung has today announced a range of new devices at its Galaxy Unpacked event, including the Galaxy S21, S21+, and S21 Ultra, as well as Galaxy Buds Pro earphones and Galaxy SmartTag item trackers. Samsung's latest Galaxy S21 series of smartphones feature a new design, edge-to-edge Dynamic AMOLED 2X Infinity-O display with adaptive 120Hz refresh rate, and 8K video recording. The Galaxy S21 has a lightweight design and a compact 6.2-inch display, while the Galaxy S21+ has a 6.7-inch display and a larger battery. The Galaxy S21 series espouses a new Contour Cut Camera housing that blends into the device's metal frame, and the AI-powered triple-lens camera system itself also sees a number of improvements, with the ability to intuitively assess scenes and adjust the camera settings accordingly. For customers who need the most from their Galaxy device, there is the S21 Ultra, which delivers an "intelligent pro-grade camera system," improved display, Wi-Fi 6E9, ultra-wideband capabilities, and better performance. The S21 Ultra also brings the popular S Pen experience to the Galaxy S series for the first time. With a 6.8-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X display, the Galaxy S21 Ultra is the largest device in the Galaxy S21 series. For the first time, users can enable a 120Hz refresh rate and Quad HD+ at the same time, and the display is 25 percent brighter and has a 50 percent improved contrast ratio. The S21 Ultra features a quad rear camera system with ultra-wide, wide, and dual tele-lenses, 100x Space Zoom, improved Night Mode, and an upgraded 108MP pro sensor that can capture 12-bit HDR photos. All lenses, including the front camera, can shoot video in 4K at 60fps. The S21 and S21+ are available in 128GB and 256GB storage configurations and a range of colors, including Phantom Violet, Phantom Gold, Phantom Red, Phantom Gray, Phantom Pink, and Phantom White, with pre-orders starting today. The S21 Ultra also offers a 512GB model, with Phantom Silver, Phantom Black, Phantom Titanium, Phantom Navy, and Phantom Brown color options, starting at $1,199.99. The Galaxy S21 starts at $799.99 and Galaxy S21+ starts at $999.99. Devices will begin arriving with customers on January 29. In addition to the S21 series of smartphones, Samsung unveiled the Galaxy Buds Pro, with "immersive sound," improved call quality, intelligent ANC, IPX7 water resistance, and enhanced connectivity. With an 11-millimeter woofer for deeper bass and a 6.5-millimeter tweeter for a crisp treble with minimum distortion, the Galaxy Buds Pro achieve what Samsung says is its "best audio experience yet." The Galaxy Buds Pro feature three microphones, a Voice Pickup Unit, Wind Shield technology, Ambient Sound amplification, automatic ANC, and automatic device switching. When used with a Galaxy S21 series smartphone, the Buds Pro offer 360 Audio with Dolby Head Tracking technology, similar to Apple's Spatial Audio feature on AirPods Pro and AirPods Max. The Galaxy Buds Pro can deliver up to eight hours of continuous playback, with an additional 20 hours of reserve power available via the wireless charging case. Galaxy Buds Pro are available for pre-order now in Phantom Black, Phantom Silver, and Phantom Violet for $199.99. The company also introduced the Galaxy SmartTag, a low energy Bluetooth item tracker. The Galaxy SmartTag enables users to quickly and easily locate items based on the strength of the Bluetooth signal in the SmartThings Find app, and users can emit a chime from the tag. The SmartTag is believed to be Samsung's competitor to Apple's long-awaited AirTags item trackers. The Galaxy SmartTag retails for $29.99 and all pre-orders of the Galaxy S21, S21+, or S21 Ultra will also include a free Galaxy SmartTag. An ultra-wideband variant called Tag+ will arrive later in 2021 for $39.99.

WhatsApp Affirms User Privacy Following Backlash Over Data Sharing With Facebook - MacRumors

Following backlash after changing its terms and privacy policy to consolidate a significant amount of data sharing with Facebook, WhatsApp is now...

Following backlash after changing its terms and privacy policy to consolidate a significant amount of data sharing with Facebook, WhatsApp is now assuring users about the privacy measures built into its app. Last week, WhatsApp began informing users of updates to the app's terms of service and privacy policy. The updated agreements, which users must consent to in order to continue using WhatsApp, explicitly give parent company Facebook access to a large amount of user data. While WhatsApp has shared some user data with Facebook for years, this update consolidates data sharing for all users, including those that chose to opt-out of data sharing with Facebook in the past. The updated terms help WhatsApp to integrate more closely into Facebook's family of products, as it aims to provide a more coherent experience to users across services, and enables the company to use gathered information on all users to display targeted ads. The widely-reported change was met with an outcry of displeasure on social media, leading to a rush to download rival messaging app Signal, and has even sparked an antitrust investigation in Turkey. Via posts on social media, WhatsApp is now assuring users that "Our privacy policy update does not affect the privacy of your messages with friends or family." It has also added to its FAQ to address users' privacy concerns relating to data sharing with Facebook. The FAQ explains that WhatsApp and Facebook cannot see a user's private messages or hear their calls. Logs of who users are messaging and calling are not retained and shared location, contact information, and group membership is kept private. WhatsApp suggests that the majority of data sharing with Facebook is derived from communicating with businesses that use hosting services from Facebook or after using Facebook-branded commerce services such as Shops. Either may result in targeted ads being shown to users. However, it is noticeable that WhatsApp has mostly focused on what data is not shared with Facebook, rather than what is. The FAQ update does not acknowledge the fact, as stated under the updated privacy policy, that WhatsApp shares device and interaction information, IP address, and unspecified "other information" with Facebook.

watchOS 7.2 and iOS 14.3 Add Cardio Fitness Notifications - MacRumors

Today's watchOS 7.2 and iOS 14.3 updates introduce a new cardio fitness feature that's designed to let users determine their cardio fitness...

Today's watchOS 7.2 and iOS 14.3 updates introduce a new cardio fitness feature that's designed to let users determine their cardio fitness level and receive notifications on the Apple Watch if it falls into a low range. Apple says that "breakthrough technology" in watchOS 7 lets the Apple Watch determine cardiorespiratory fitness as measured by VO2 max. VO2 max is the maximum amount of oxygen that the body is able to use during exercise, and it can be improved through physical activity.Prior to now the Apple Watch was already able to estimate higher levels of VO2 max during outdoor walks, runs, or hikes, but by taking advantage of all of the sensors in the Apple Watch, in watchOS 7.2 it's now possible for the watch to take cardio fitness measurements as users walk throughout the day, regardless of whether they're tracking a workout. "Cardio fitness is increasingly recognized as a powerful predictor of overall health, and with today's update to ‌watchOS 7‌, we are making it even more accessible to more people," said Jeff Williams, Apple's chief operating officer. "Using its advanced sensors, Apple Watch now brings estimation of low cardio fitness levels from clinics directly to a user's wrist, so people have more insight into how they can improve their long-term health through daily activity." This functionality lets Apple Watch better measure VO2 Max for users who don't often do high-intensity workouts. In a press release announcing the new feature, Apple says that a 2016 study from the American Heart Association recognized a link between low cardio fitness and higher risk of significant health issues like heart disease and high blood pressure later in life. Cardio Fitness is available as a new category in the Health app on iPhone, and fitness level is classified as high, above average, below average, or low relative to people in your same age group and of the same sex. Users can also track how their cardio fitness levels have changed over the past week, month, or year, and if fitness levels fall into the low range, they can get a notification on Apple Watch that includes guidance on improving it.

Outages Reported Across Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger - MacRumors

Facebook services including Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp, and Facebook itself are all currently suffering outages, based on user reports posted to...

Facebook services including Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp, and Facebook itself are all currently suffering outages, based on user reports posted to social media. The majority of issues appear to be focused in European countries, but problems have also been reported in other countries, too, suggesting even more widespread outages.Users of the Facebook-owned apps report issues connecting to the platforms, leaving them unable to post or access news feeds, direct messages, and stories. Facebook hasn't responded to the reports of widespread connection issues yet, but we'll update this article with any further developments.

Apple to Publish Privacy Labels for Preinstalled iOS Apps on Website - MacRumors

Apple today assured that its new requirement for privacy information on the App Store will apply equally to all iOS apps, including its own. ...

Apple today assured that its new requirement for privacy information on the App Store will apply equally to all iOS apps, including its own. This means that the dozens of Apple apps available through the App Store, such as Apple Books and Apple Podcasts, will display the same privacy "nutritional labels" as third-party apps. And for built-in iOS apps, like Messages, Apple says that it will make the same privacy information available to users on its website. Apple says this information will be presented in the same way as it appears on the App Store.This clarification comes in response to Facebook-owned WhatsApp accusing Apple of a double standard with the privacy labels. WhatsApp said that the broad terms displayed in the labels could result in users being concerned about the data that WhatsApp collects, putting it at a competitive disadvantage compared to Apple's built-in Messages app. Developers are required to include this new privacy information when submitting new apps and app updates to the App Store as of December 8. It is unknown when exactly the privacy labels will begin appearing in the App Store. Apple's developer portal offers more information about the new privacy detail requirements.

Reliable Leaker Suggests Redesigned MacBooks in 2021 Will Include Both Apple Silicon and Intel Models - MacRumors

Reliable leaker known as "L0vetodream" has today suggested on Twitter that redesigned MacBooks coming in the second half of 2021 will include...

Reliable leaker known as "L0vetodream" has today suggested on Twitter that redesigned MacBooks coming in the second half of 2021 will include models with both Apple Silicon chips and Intel processors. The brief Tweet came in response to a MacRumors article from earlier today, which outlined a report from Ming-Chi Kuo claiming that Apple plans to release redesigned MacBook models with ‌Apple Silicon‌ in the second half of 2021. L0vetodream simply says that the MacBook redesigns expected in the second half of 2021 will not be only for ‌Apple Silicon‌ models, implying that the redesigns will also come to new Intel-based MacBooks. Apple just released its first ‌Apple Silicon‌ Macs, which include the MacBook Air and lower-end configurations of the 13-inch ‌MacBook Air‌ and Mac mini. While the new MacBook Pro and ‌Mac mini‌ still have a few shortcomings relative to their more expensive Intel counterparts, they are demonstrating better performance in a number of core benchmarks, even matching or outperforming higher-end machines like the 16-inch MacBook Pro in some tasks. As a result, L0vetodream's claim is a bit curious given that these rumored redesigned MacBooks are still more than six months away, which gives Apple time to improve the performance of ‌Apple Silicon‌ even further. In announcing the transition to ‌Apple Silicon‌ chips for the Mac at WWDC in June, Apple said that the transition to ‌Apple Silicon‌ would take about two years and that new Macs with Intel processors were still in the pipeline. We've already seen a few of those with updated 27-inch iMac models in August, and so many have assumed based on the competitive performance of Apple's M1 chip that most of Apple's Macs will be quickly moving solely to ‌Apple Silicon‌, with only specialized models like the Mac Pro and iMac Pro perhaps taking the full two years to make the transition.

Microsoft Releases Office for Mac Beta With Apple Silicon Compatibility - MacRumors

Following Apple's unveiling this week of M1-powered Macs, Microsoft has released a Universal build of its Mac Office 2019 beta for Mac that...

Following Apple's unveiling this week of M1-powered Macs, Microsoft has released a Universal build of its Mac Office 2019 beta for Mac that includes support for macOS Big Sur and compatibility with Apple Silicon machines. This means the latest beta release of apps including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, and OneDrive can be installed and run on Apple's latest 13-inch MacBook Air, 13-inch MacBook Pro, and Mac mini using Appel's Rosetta 2 translation layer. Thanks to Apple's Rosetta 2 translation software, Apple's M1-powered Macs can run x86-64 code that's written for Intel Macs. In contrast to OG Rosetta the version that allowed PowerPC apps to run on Intel-based Macs code isn't interpreted in real-time. Instead, the Rosetta 2 translation process happens entirely on first launch, though there is a slight performance hit as the initial x8664 translation of instructions takes place. Microsoft's announcement sheds light on how the back-end work manifests to the user when its apps are initially launched: Are there any performance considerations for running Office under Rosetta 2 translation? The first launch of each Office app will take longer as the operating system has to generate optimized code for the ‌Apple Silicon‌ processor. Users will notice that the apps 'bounce' in the dock for approximately 20 seconds while this process completes. Subsequent app launches will be fast. Microsoft advises users enrolled in its "Insider Fast" Beta Channel to install the November 2020 release (build 16.43), or later, which includes the latest optimizations for macOS 11 Big Sur. Microsoft says it doesn't have a date or version for a public launch, but whenever the release arrives, it won't be the last, as it will eventually need to be replaced by a version that uses the new Universal 2 binary format that was introduced at 2020 WWDC in June. Apple says Rosetta 2 is a temporary solution for developers to make their existing Intel-based programs to run on Arm-based Macs, meaning they will eventually need to create native apps for ‌Apple Silicon‌ machines. Notably, Apple ended support for OG Rosetta three years after its release.

Apple Reportedly Using iPad Parts in the iPhone 12 Pro to Combat Shortages - MacRumors

Amid long waiting times for the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro around the world, Apple has reportedly placed large orders for older iPhone models and is...

Amid long waiting times for the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro around the world, Apple has reportedly placed large orders for older iPhone models and is reallocating iPad parts to make up for shortages, according to Nikkei Asia Review. Demand for ‌iPhone 12 Pro‌ in particular has been higher than expected, and the issue has reportedly been compounded by supply constraints for specific parts such as power chips and LiDAR components. Apple is said to be reallocating components from ‌iPad‌ models to the ‌iPhone 12 Pro‌ in an effort to prioritize supply shortages, according to two sources of Nikkei Asia. This has ostensibly affected around two million ‌iPad‌ units, scuppering Apple's ‌iPad‌ production plans for this year. To "fill empty space on shelves," Apple is apparently also asking suppliers to prepare more than 20 million iPhone 11, iPhone SE, and iPhone XR models for the holiday shopping season and early next year. The order is equivalent to more than a quarter of the orders Apple placed for the ‌iPhone 12‌ series this year, which is speculated to be around 75 to 80 million units. Nikkei Asia claims that the orders for the ‌iPhone 11‌ and the ‌iPhone SE‌ are close to around ten million units each and faring much better than expected with consumers.

PSA: Apple One Premier Bundle Only Available in US, UK, Canada, and Australia - MacRumors

Apple's new Apple One series of services bundles launches on Friday in over 100 countries and regions, but the top Premier tier will be limited...

Apple's new Apple One series of services bundles launches on Friday in over 100 countries and regions, but the top Premier tier will be limited to the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada. The limited rollout of the $29.95 Premier tier is down to the fact that Apple News+ is currently only available in the above countries. Apple News+ is exclusive to the Premier tier, along with Apple Fitness+, which isn't expected to arrive until later in the year. Here's how the Individual, Family, and Premier tiers stack up:

• Individual: Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, and 50GB of iCloud storage for $14.95 per month
• Family: Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, and 200GB of iCloud storage for $19.95 per month, can be shared among up to six family members
• Premier: Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, Apple News+, Apple Fitness+, and 2TB of iCloud storage for $29.95 per month, can be shared among up to six family members

Microsoft Updates Office Apps for iPad With Mouse and Trackpad Support - MacRumors

Microsoft today announced that the Word, PowerPoint, and Excel apps for iPad are receiving updates that will allow them to use the trackpad and mouse...

Microsoft today announced that the Word, PowerPoint, and Excel apps for iPad are receiving updates that will allow them to use the trackpad and mouse support in iPadOS. The apps will feature a cursor that transforms into the tool that's needed depending on the context of what you're pointing to for easy cursor control, fluid navigation, and precise adjustments. Microsoft says that the trackpad experience will be familiar to those who have used Office on a Mac or PC.And using a mouse or trackpad with ‌iPad‌ for common tasks like highlighting a passage of text in Word, selecting a range of cells in Excel, and moving and resizing graphics in PowerPoint are as simple and intuitive as ever. This experience will be immediately familiar to anyone who has ever used Office on a Mac or a PC and helps make ‌iPad‌ even more versatile and capable for getting more work done. Along with mouse and trackpad support, Microsoft is adding new start screens and a new ribbon of feature menus to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint for a cleaner and more modern user experience. According to Microsoft, many users have already started receiving the updates through a phased rollout, which will reach all users within a couple of weeks.

iPhone 12 Pro Allows You to Measure Someone's Height Instantly Using LiDAR Scanner - MacRumors

iPhone 12 Pro models feature a new LiDAR Scanner for enhanced augmented reality experiences, but the sensor also enables another unique feature: the...

iPhone 12 Pro models feature a new LiDAR Scanner for enhanced augmented reality experiences, but the sensor also enables another unique feature: the ability to measure a person's height instantly using the Measure app. You can even measure the seated height of a person in a chair, according to Apple. When the Measure app detects a person in the viewfinder, it automatically measures their height from the ground to the top of their head, hat, or hair.To measure a person's height, open the Measure app and position the iPhone so that the person you want to measure appears on the screen from head to toe. After a brief moment, a line will appear at the top of the person's head with their height measurement, which appears in either feet and inches or in centimeters depending on whether imperial or metric is selected under Settings > Measure > Measure Units. The circular shutter button in the bottom-right corner allows you to take a photo of the person with their height measurement and share it with them. This feature is limited to devices with a LiDAR Scanner, including 2020 iPad Pro models and the upcoming iPhone 12 Pro Max.

iPhone 12 and 12 Pro Models in Europe Have Regulatory Symbols Engraved on Side - MacRumors

Apple's iPhone 12 and 12 Pro have no visible regulatory symbols in the United States, as the U.S. allows this information to be relegated to the...

I wonder if Apple was forced to do it? Did you bother to read the article?That's not the case in Europe, where regulatory approvals are required to be visible on the device itself.