Apple today seeded the golden master version of macOS 10.15 Catalina to developers, three days after seeding the tenth macOS Catalina beta and over three months after the new Mac operating system update was first unveiled at the Worldwide Developers Conference.

The golden master version of macOS Catalina represents the final version of the update that will be provided to the public at release. The new macOS Catalina software can be downloaded using the Software Update mechanism in System Preferences after installing the proper profile from the Developer Center.

macOS Catalina eliminates the iTunes app, splitting it into Music, Podcasts, and TV apps. The three new apps offer similar functionality to iTunes, but are split up by feature. iOS device management is still available on the Mac, but it’s now done through the Finder rather than iTunes.

With a new Sidecar feature, you can turn your iPad into a second display for your Mac with just the click of a button. The Apple Pencil works with Sidecar, so you can turn your iPad into a drawing tablet in apps like Photoshop and Illustrator.

Your Apple Watch can be used to approve security prompts for passwords and other info in macOS Catalina, and Macs with a T2 chip now support Activation Lock, making them more secure. There’s a new Find My that brings the Find My Mac app to the Mac for the first time and even lets you track your devices when they’re offline, or, in the case of notebooks, closed.

Screen Time is available on the Mac as well as iOS devices, and Project Catalyst, a new Apple initiative, will let developers easily port their iPad apps over to the Mac to increase the number of Mac apps available.

There’s a new Photos interface that surfaces your best photos organized by day, month, or year, there’s a new start page in Safari, Mail has new tools for muting email threads and blocking senders, and the Reminders app has been overhauled.

32-bit apps no longer work in macOS Catalina, which is something to be aware of before installing the beta.

For more details on macOS Catalina, make sure to check out our macOS Catalina roundup. Apple is planning to release macOS Catalina sometime in October.

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Costco is offering Apple’s HomePod for $199.97 today, which is about $100 off the regular price of $299.00. The retailer is only selling the Space Gray version of the HomePod, but those who place an order can expect the speaker to arrive within three to five business days (with an added $4.99 for shipping and handling).

At $199.97, this is one of the lowest prices we’ve seen on the HomePod, and is a good chance for anyone looking to add more of Apple’s smart speakers to their HomeKit setup. Of course, you’ll need a Costco account to see the deal, which starts at $60/year. If you’re a member, head to Costco today to browse the HomePod sale before it expires.

Apple dropped the price of the HomePod from $349.00 to $299.00 in April 2019. This price drop followed numerous discounts from well-known retailers like Target, Costco, and Best Buy, most of which began following a big discount on the HomePod during Black Friday 2018.

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Apple plans to release a lower-priced “iPhone SE 2” in the first quarter of 2020, according to noted analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.

In a research note with TF International Securities, obtained by MacRumors, Kuo said the device will feature a similar form factor design and specifications as the iPhone 8, with a faster A13 chip and 3GB of RAM:

We forecast that Apple will launch the more affordable iPhone SE2 in 1Q20. For the most part, the form factor design and hardware spec are similar to iPhone 8‘s. The most significant hardware spec upgrade will be the adoption of the A13 processor and 3GB LPDDR4X. iPhone SE2 will likely increase iPhone’s market share and benefit Apple’s promotions for service and content. We expect that the iPhone SE2 shipment will reach 30–40mn units in 2020.

Kuo believes the “iPhone SE 2” will be the “best upgrade choice” for an estimated 100 million remaining iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus users, serving as a “key growth driver” for Apple in 2020. He believes these customers have low desire for new features like Face ID and multiple cameras, suggesting the “iPhone SE 2” will stick with Touch ID and a single-lens rear camera.

Kuo’s prediction lines up with multiple other sources that have claimed Apple plans to release a new lower-cost iPhone 8-esque device next year, including the Taiwanese publication Economic Daily News, Japanese publication Nikkei Asian Review, and Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman and Debby Wu.

Those earlier reports indicated the device will sport a 4.7-inch display and a Touch ID home button like the iPhone 8. Apple continues to sell the iPhone 8 from $449, while the iPhone SE was $349 prior to being discontinued. When new, the iPhone 8 and iPhone SE started at $699 and $399 respectively.

This article, “Kuo: Apple to Launch ‘iPhone SE 2’ in Early 2020 With Similar Design as iPhone 8, A13 Chip, and 3GB RAM” first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Epistar president Chin-Yung Fan said his company’s clients are developing notebooks, tablets, smartphones, and monitors with Mini-LED backlighting systems, which will naturally boost demand for Mini-LEDs in the second half of 2020, according to Taiwanese industry publication DigiTimes.

Epistar is an Apple supplier, leading to the possibility that the iPhone maker is one of the unnamed clients working on Mini-LED products, as previously rumored, but Epistar declined to comment on any specific clients.

Last week, noted Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of investor firm TF International Securities said Apple plans to release an iPad with a Mini-LED display between the fourth quarter of 2020 and the first quarter of 2021, followed by a MacBook with a Mini-LED display in the first or second quarter of 2021.

Kuo said Epistar will be one of Apple’s suppliers for those iPad and MacBook models. Epistar is the largest LED manufacturer in Taiwan.

Kuo expects the iPad and MacBook to be positioned at the high end of their respective product lines due to costly Mini-LED display components, suggesting they will be iPad Pro and MacBook Pro models. He previously said the iPad will have a 10-12 inch screen and the MacBook will fall in the 15-17 inch range.

Kuo added that the Mini-LED backlit 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 good wide color gamut performance, high contrast and dynamic range, and local dimming for truer blacks.

The future iPad and MacBook displays will each use approximately 10,000 LEDs, compared to 576 in Apple’s upcoming Pro Display XDR, according to Kuo. Each LED is said to be very small — below 200 microns in size.

Apple continues to use traditional LCDs across its entire iPad and Mac lineups for now, but if this rumor proves to be accurate, we can expect the first Mini-LED models within the next 12 to 18 months or so. Prices will likely start on the higher side, but the technology should shuffle its way down the lineup over the years.

This article, “Apple Supplier Epistar Says Clients Are Working on Mini-LED Products Amid Rumors of Mini-LED iPad and MacBook” first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Adobe today released updated versions of Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements, the company’s affordable photo and video editing software aimed at casual users who want to improve their photos and videos with simple editing tools.

Photoshop and Premiere Elements 2020 feature updated Adobe Sensei AI technology, new guided edits for walking users through various features within each app, and updated ways to share content.

Since the 2019 version, opening up the Home Screen in Photoshop and Premiere Elements has shown automatically generated photo and video slideshows with different effects powered by Adobe Sensei.

In 2020, there are new effects like Black and White Selection, Pattern Brush for overlaying patterns on photos, Painterly for interesting masking and crops, and Depth of Field for blurring backgrounds to bring out subjects.

Photoshop Elements has new editing features that users can take advantage of for quick but powerful edits. There’s an option that will automatically colorize black and white photos or tweak the colors in an existing color photo.

With one-click subject selection, users can select the subject of a photo with a click and then apply an effect or cut out a subject to put it in another photo.

There’s a new skin smoothing feature that will automatically smooth and refine the skin of a subject in a photo using Adobe Sensei technology, and Adobe has added several new Guided Edits (aka tutorials). Guided Edits include making unwanted photo objects vanish and adding creative sparkle to photos using pattern brushes.

New this year is an option to create and order more than 140 items using photo prints from Fujifilm Prints and Gifts service (U.S. only), which is now built into Photoshop Elements.

Premiere Elements 2020 has been updated with a Reduce Noise effect that makes videos more crisp, cutting down on noise in low light videos. There are also several new Guided Edits for creating time-lapse videos, replacing static skies with moving skies, and filling the frame to match the video (such as when a video is taken in portrait orientation).

Also new to Premiere Elements is a Smart Tags feature for identifying the content in videos, and HEIF and HEVC support.

For more on what’s new in Photoshop and Premiere Elements 2020, make sure to check out Adobe’s website. The updates are available for purchase from Adobe for $99 each starting today, with bundle and upgrade pricing available.

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CloudApp, software designed for visual collaboration and content sharing, received a major update today to add new functionality to the app.

The app has seen an overhauled interface that better matches macOS Catalina and iOS 13, Apple’s newest operating systems. CloudApp for the Mac features larger interface elements and a streamlined design meant to improve the overall look and feel of the app.

Collections and Favorites are also new additions, making it easier to share screen recordings, GIFs, videos, photos, and more with colleagues. Collections lets CloudApp users better organize their content, keeping it right at their fingertips for quick access. Users can create a Collection of commonly used files, get to those files right from a folder on the desktop, and easily share the content.

CloudApp imagines multiple use cases for Collections. Customer service representatives, for example, can create a Collection of videos, screenshots, and GIFs for answering common customer questions, while marketing teams can keep design elements on hand.

Favorites, meanwhile, are aimed at making it faster for CloudApp users to get to their most used Drops from the desktop. Favorites can be accessed from the new Favorites section, right next to Collections and Drops.

CloudApp is also gaining new short links, doing away with the cl.ly short links in favor of share.getcloudapp.com links. CloudApp says these are more customer friendly, direct, and offer better security with SSL. Paid customers can continue to offer links with a customized domain.

CloudApp can be downloaded from the CloudApp website. It’s free for individual users and can be used to create and share videos, GIFs, screenshots, and more. The free plan is limited to 5 minutes of screen recording and 100MB of storage.

Paid individual plans are available for $9 a month with unlimited video recording, and team plans are available for $8 per user per month.

This article, “CloudApp for Mac Gains Collections, Favorites, an Updated Design and More” first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Apple has reportedly banned an app that allows Hong Kong protestors to track protests and police movements in the city state, despite increasing international condemnation against the violence used by the authorities.

According to The Register, Apple has told the makers of the HKmap Live app that it can’t be allowed in the App Store because it helps protestors to evade the police.

“Your app contains content – or facilitates, enables, and encourages an activity – that is not legal … specifically, the app allowed users to evade law enforcement,” the American tech giant told makers of the HKmap Live on Tuesday before pulling it.

Opposition to the Chinese state and the Hong Kong authorities has grown louder, driven by an escalation in violence against protestors over the past week. On Wednesday, thousands of people took to the streets of Hong Kong to denounce the shooting of an unarmed teenage student by police.

Tsang Chi-kin was shot in the chest at point-blank range on Tuesday. He remains in hospital in stable but critical condition after surgery to remove the bullet, which narrowly missed his heart.

The rise in police violence has led protesters to make use of digital networking and collaborative tools to organize street gatherings, with services like HKmap Live being used to help them avoid what they perceive as government-orchestrated attacks.

This isn’t the first time Apple has acted to remove apps from the App Store to abide by Chinese law. In July 2017, Apple removed the majority of VPN apps from the App Store in China, following regulations passed earlier in the year that require such apps to be authorized by the Chinese government.

Update: Apple is reviewing its decision to reject HKmap Live, reports Bloomberg, and is likely investigating whether the software violates local laws. It’s not yet clear if the app will be re-added to the App Store and the developer has not yet received an update from Apple following the commencement of the new review.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues 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.

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Three-quarters of Netflix subscribers have no intention of subscribing to either Apple TV+ or Disney+ when they launch next month, according to surveys conducted by Piper Jaffray (via CNBC).

According to the investment banker’s survey of 1,500 Netflix subscribers, roughly 75 percent don’t intend to subscribe to the upcoming rival streaming services, although those who do subscribe to Apple TV+ or Disney+ also expect to keep their Netflix subscription going.

“Our survey suggests that the majority (~75%) of Netflix subscribers do not intend to subscribe to either Disney+ or Apple TV+. For those that do expect to use one of these offerings, the vast majority expect to also maintain their Netflix subscription,” Piper Jaffray analyst Michael Olson said.

“Most existing Netflix subscribers appear to be trending towards multiple streaming video subscriptions, especially as many continue to reduce their spend on traditional TV offerings,” Olson said.

The survey should provide some comfort for Netflix investors following news of slowing subscriber growth over the last three months, along with fears about the effect that the new streaming competition will have on the company’s stock price.

As CNBC‘s Michael Bloom notes, optimistic forecasts for Netflix were nearly universal on Wall Street as recently as July, but Netflix stock has since dropped nearly 30 percent and effectively wiped out its 2019 gains.

Amid the challenges, Netflix has been looking at new marketing strategies to help fend off its upcoming rivals. For example, the streaming leader has been offering non-subscribers access to the first episode of its new series, Bard of Blood, for a limited time.

Apple TV+ launches on November 1, with Disney+ arriving a little over a week after, on November 12. Apple is offering a one-year free trial of Apple TV+ to anyone who buys a new iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Mac, or iPod touch.

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Nintendo’s latest smartphone app Mario Kart Tour has been downloaded over 90 million times since it launched last week, according to new download estimates shared by Sensor Tower.

The number eclipses both Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp and Super Mario Run, which were downloaded a respective 14.3 million times and just under 13 million times in their debut week, making Mario Kart Tour Nintendo’s biggest mobile game launch to date.

Breaking down the figure across platforms, the free-to-play game was downloaded 36.5 million times on iOS devices, while the Android version was downloaded 53.3 million times.

In terms of overall revenue driven by in-app purchases, Mario Kart Tour earned $12.7 million, so it hasn’t reached the heights of Fire Emblem Heroes, which earned Nintendo $28.2 million in its first week. Super Mario Run meanwhile clocked up $16.1 million in its debut week, making Mario Kart Tour the company’s third-biggest game.

Across platforms, $9.6 million (75.5 percent) was spent in-game by iOS device users, while Android IAPs amounted to $3.1 million (24.5 percent). Most spending occurred in the U.S. with $5.8 million, followed by Japan ($4 million) and France ($752,000).

Announced in January 2018, Mario Kart Tour was delayed several times before its debut last week. The game features an optional “Gold Pass” subscription, which introduces various in-game items and badges and also unlocks the faster 200cc mode. Nintendo is offering a two-week free trial, after which it costs $4.99 a month.

Mario Kart Tour is a free download from the App Store, requires iOS 10 or later to play, and officially supports iPhone 5s or iPad Air and later devices. A Nintendo Account is also required to play the game. [Direct Link]

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Microsoft today held an event in New York City to show off both new Surface devices and some new dual screen devices that are coming in the future.

MacRumors videographer Dan was in attendance at the event and was able to capture some footage of the newly announced products for an overview that can be watched over on our YouTube channel.

Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos.

Microsoft’s most exciting unveil was the Surface Neo and the Surface Duo, two foldable dual display devices. The Neo is tablet sized while the Duo is phone sized, and both have two displays that aren’t connected together into one display but are instead displayed side by side with a hinge.

The Surface Neo features two nine inch displays that can fold out into a larger 13-inch form factor, while the Duo has two 5.6-inch displays that fold out into an 8.3-inch tablet.

You can hold these devices like a book, using one side for one app and the other side for another app, or you can fold them up into a more traditional form factor. They can also be unfolded into a laptop shape if desired.

The Surface Neo (the larger of the two) has a detachable Bluetooth keyboard and a Wonder Bar that’s similar to the Touch Bar on Apple’s laptops but larger and with more functionality.

Windows 10X, new custom software based on Windows 10 but designed for dual displays runs on the Neo, while the Duo, which is in fact Microsoft’s first smartphone since the Windows Phone in 2017, runs a heavily skinned version of Android.

These two devices were by far the most interesting devices Microsoft had to show off, but unfortunately, they’re not launching until the holiday season in 2020 and Microsoft didn’t even have prototypes available for attendees to test out.

As for what’s available now, Microsoft overhauled its Surface lineup. The new Surface Pro X, designed to compete with the 12.9-inch iPad Pro, features a 13-inch display and it’s super slim and light. It has a cover that integrates with a new Surface Slim Pen, and there’s an SSD that’s user accessible.

The Surface Pro X features an SQ1 processor, LTE connectivity, 13 hours of battery life, and 2 USB-C ports. It’s priced starting at $999 and will be available in early November.

Microsoft also unveiled a new version of its Surface Laptop 3, which comes in new colors and finishes, has a larger trackpad, and is equipped with a USB-C port. There’s a standard 13-inch model and a new larger 15-inch model that uses AMD Ryzen Surface Edition chips.

Pricing on the Surface Laptop 3 starts at $999 for the 13-inch model and $1199 for the 15-inch model, with Microsoft planning to release both later this month.

Microsoft’s final product of note is the new Surface Earbuds, which are wire-free earbuds that are designed to compete with Apple’s AirPods. The Surface Earbuds have an unusual look, with an in-ear piece that fits into the ear and a circular disk that’s quite large and sits in the outer part of the ear.

The disk supports gestures for controlling playback and live transcription for communicating across multiple languages. Microsoft is charging $249 for its Surface Earbuds, and they’ll be available later in the year.

This article, “Microsoft Debuts New Dual-Screen Devices, Updated Surface Laptops and More” first appeared on MacRumors.com

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