The FCC filing means T-Mobile and Sprint will be allowed to join together as “New T-Mobile” to become a dominant third carrier in the United States alongside Verizon and AT&T. The Department of Justice approved the merger in July.

The finalized order came after a 3-2 vote along partisan lines, with both Democrats against it. FCC boss Ajit Pai said in a statement that the merger would be good for consumers and the U.S. as a whole:

“It would bring the benefits of the next generation of wireless technology to American consumers and advance American leadership in 5G. It would help millions in rural America benefit from high-speed 5G mobile broadband service… and it would promote competition.”

However, FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel was one of the dissenting voices, and argued that the consolidation of the two companies would likely follow the same path as previous mergers, leading to higher prices and poorer service for the majority of customers:

“We’ve all seen what happens when market concentration increases following a merger. A condensed airline industry brought us baggage fees and smaller seats, even as the price of fuel fell. A condensed pharmaceutical industry has led to a handful of drug companies raising the prices of lifesaving medications, taking advantage of those struggling with illness. There’s no reason to think the mobile-phone industry will be different.”

Together, the two companies have committed to building out a nationwide 5G network covering 97 percent of the U.S. population within three years and 99 percent within six years. T-Mobile and Sprint have also promised that they will not raise prices for three years following the completion of the merger.

In an attempt to ensure a competitive wireless carrier market, the FFC also wants to see Dish become the fourth nationwide facilities-based wireless carrier in the United States. Dish has announced that it plans to deploy a 5G broadband network capable of serving 70 percent of the U.S. population by June 2023.

A number of states have filed an antitrust lawsuit in U.S. federal court to block the proposed transaction, arguing that the merger is not in the public interest, just like AT&T’s attempted acquisition of T-Mobile in 2011 and the attempted merger between Sprint and T-Mobile in 2014, both of which regulators blocked. The lawsuit filed by the bipartisan coalition of more than a dozen state attorneys general remains on the docket and must be resolved before the merger can go forward.

T-Mobile and Sprint anticipate that the merger will be permitted to close by the end of the year. If it does go ahead, it will combine two of the four major wireless carriers in the United States, giving the new company nearly 100 million customers.

This article, “FCC Formally Approves Merger of T-Mobile and Sprint” first appeared on MacRumors.com

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A number of users who updated to version 8.1 of the app, released last week, said that their Twitter timeline was refreshing randomly and making them lose track of what they were reading.

It’s unclear what’s been causing the jumpy auto-scrolling behavior – presumably whatever changes were made to the auto-refresh function were supposed to happen invisibly and update the top of the timeline so that scrolling up to see new tweets would be seamless.

This morning, the company released a fix to its iOS app in the form of version 8.1.5, so make sure you visit the App Store to update if you’ve been affected by the issue. Direct Link

This article, “Twitter Issues iOS App Update to Fix Buggy Auto-Refresh Timeline Behavior” first appeared on MacRumors.com

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OWC’s Thunderbolt 3 Pro Dock is targeted at professional users and includes several features not commonly found on other docks such as an eSATA port and CFast and SD card readers. The dock also includes a 10 gigabit Ethernet port, three USB 3.1 ports, a pair of Thunderbolt 3 ports to allow for daisy chaining, and a DisplayPort 1.2 port. There’s also a locking power connection to help ensure the dock doesn’t come unplugged if it’s moved during use.

For pro users who need some of the more specialized features included in the OWC Thunderbolt 3 Pro Dock, this might be a good option, as we’ve been impressed with the company’s previous dock offerings. It does, however, only offer 60 watts of charging power, so if you’ve got a 15-inch MacBook Pro you likely want to use your regular power adapter and not rely on the dock to power your Mac.

The dock also includes a switch to turn off the internal fan if you need a quiet environment, although OWC warns this should only be done for short periods of time to limit the risk of overheating.

The OWC Thunderbolt 3 Pro Dock is available as of today and is priced at $328.99.

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with OWC. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

This article, “OWC Debuts Thunderbolt 3 Pro Dock With eSATA, 10 Gigabit Ethernet, and More” first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Right now, Apple is reliant on Intel for the processors used across its Mac lineup, but that is perhaps set to change in the future as Apple works to transition over to Arm-based chips similar to the A-series chips used in its iPhones and iPads.

Arm vs. Intel

Right now, Apple uses x86 chips from Intel in all of its Mac products, while its iPhones and iPads use Arm-based chips. x86 chips and Arm chips are built using different architectures.

Intel’s chips are CISC (Complex Instruction Set Architecture) while Arm chips are RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computer). As these names suggest, RISC instructions are essentially smaller and less complex than CISC instructions, which means Arm processors require less power and are more efficient carrying out computing tasks.

Arm chips have historically been seen as not powerful because x86 chips are designed for more robust desktop machines while Arm chips are designed more for lower power applications like mobile devices. Arm has historically focused on power efficiency, while Intel has historically focused on maximizing performance.

Ditching Intel

Apple has been using Intel’s chips in its Mac lineup since 2006 after transitioning away from PowerPC processors. Because Apple is using Intel technology, Apple is subject to Intel’s release timelines and chip delays.

Over the course of the last several years, there have been multiple instances where Intel has seen significant chip delays that have undoubtedly impacted Apple’s product plans. Swapping over to its own house-made chips would allow Apple to release updates on its own schedule and with perhaps more frequent technology improvements.

Apple would also be able to differentiate its devices from competing products with chips designed by its own internal teams, introducing even tighter integration between hardware and software.

Apple’s Arm-Based Chips for iOS Devices

Apple uses an Arm-based architecture for its A-series chips in the iPhone and iPad, and each year, those chips get faster and more efficient. In fact, when introducing the latest A12 and A13 chips, Apple has made it a point to emphasize that these chips are faster than many Intel-based chips in competing devices.

The 2018 iPad Pro models with A12X chips, for example, are close in speed to the 2018 15-inch MacBook Pro models.

With Apple closing the speed gap between Arm and x86, there’s no reason why many of the company’s notebook machines (and even desktop machines) couldn’t be powered by Arm-based chips instead of standard Intel chips.

Apple’s A-series chip packages also include custom-built GPUs, Secure Enclave, memory and storage controllers, machine learning processors, Image Signal Processing, custom encryption, and more, all of which could also be applied to Mac processors.

Arm Chips in Current Macs

The ‌MacBook Pro‌, MacBook Air, iMac Pro, Mac mini and upcoming Mac Pro are already equipped with Arm processors, in the form of the T1 and T2 chips that power the Touch Bar and other features in these machines.

The T2 chip in particular integrates several components, including the system management controller, image signal processor, SSD controller, and a Secure Enclave with a hardware-based encryption engine in addition to powering the Touch Bar and Touch ID.

Arm Benefits

Bringing Arm chips to a Mac could bring efficiency and battery life improvements without sacrificing speed, with Apple also perhaps able to cut down on the size of some of the internal components, thus perhaps allowing for slimmer devices.

An Arm-based MacBook might not need a fan, for example, much like an ‌iPad‌. Apple’s iPads also have superior battery life, another feature that could be brought to the Mac lineup.

Apple’s Rumored Work on Arm-Based Chips

Rumors suggest that Apple employees are working on an initiative codenamed “Kalamata” to make iPhones, iPads, and Macs work more seamlessly together.

One aspect of this involves new custom-built Mac chips that are designed by Apple much like its current iPhone and ‌iPad‌ chips.

Apple eventually wants developers to be able to create an app that can run across all Apple devices, and along with custom-built chips, Apple has also been working on this on the software side with Mac Catalyst. Mac Catalyst lets developers port their ‌iPad‌ apps over to the Mac App Store with minimal effort.

When Will Apple Release an Arm-Based Mac?

Apple is said to be aiming to transition to its own Arm-based chips starting in 2020, though the transition period could take some time.

It’s possible one Mac line, such as the ‌MacBook Air‌, could see an update first ahead of the rest of the Mac family.

Guide Feedback

Have questions about Apple’s work on Arm-based Macs or want to offer feedback on this guide? Send us an email here.

This article, “When Might Apple Release an Arm-Based Mac?” first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Last week, we shared details on a number of complaints from iPhone and iPad users running iOS 13.2 that were seeing poor RAM management on their devices.

The issue caused apps like YouTube and Safari to reload more frequently than normal, with the software “aggressively” shutting down background apps and tasks. From MacRumors forum member Rogifan, who describes the problem:

I was watching a video in YouTube on my iPhone 11 Pro. I pause the video to respond to a text message. I was in iMessage for less than one minute. When I returned to YouTube it reloaded the app and I lost the video I was watching. I noticed this a lot on my iPad Pro too. Apps and Safari tabs reloading a lot more frequently than they did in iOS 12. Very annoying.

In the iOS 13.3 beta, this issue may be fixed. Multiple MacRumors readers in our beta bug fixes and changes thread are reporting improvements in multitasking behavior. We’ve also seen similar reports from Twitter users who are already seeing fewer refreshes. From MacRumors reader The Carny:

Only had it installed for a few minutes so there’s plenty of time for horrors to reveal themselves, but I’ve had no Safari tab refreshes so far. With the amount of app switching I’ve just done, that simply wouldn’t have been the case on 13.2.

More testing will need to be conducted to make sure the issue is fully resolved, but based on multiple similar reports, it looks promising.

This article, “Preliminary Reports Suggest iOS 13.3 Fixes Multitasking Problems” first appeared on MacRumors.com

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With Communication Limits, parents can control who their children are able to contact. Communication Limits apply to the Phone, FaceTime, and Messages apps, along with iCloud contacts.

There are settings to control communication during Screen Time, with options to allow just contacts or everyone to be contacted. There’s also a toggle that either allows or disallows users to be added to a group chat when a contact or family member is in the group.

There’s also a separate setting for communication limits during downtime, which is also able to be set to everyone or just specific contacts.

Finally, there’s a toggle for allowing or disallowing contact editing, which can change some of the contact settings.

Regardless of Communication Limits settings, calls to emergency numbers are always allowed and will turn off communication limits for 24 hours when placed.

With the Communication Limits feature, parents will be able to better control who their children are contacting during different periods of the day, cutting off access to friends during school, for example.

There are other smaller tweaks in iOS 13.3, including an option to disable Memoji and Animoji stickers from showing up on the emoji keyboard and a change to the Apple Watch app that shifts the Digital Crown on the icon from black to gray.

This article, “iOS 13.3 Beta Includes Screen Time Communication Limits” first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Once the proper configuration profile has been installed from the Apple Developer Center, the new watchOS beta can be downloaded through the dedicated ‌‌Apple Watch‌‌ app on the iPhone by going to General > Software Update.

To install the update, the ‌‌Apple Watch‌‌ needs to have at least 50 percent battery, it must be placed on the charger, and it has to be in range of the iPhone.

We don’t yet know what features are included in the watchOS 6.1.1 beta, but once we install the update and figure out what’s new, we’ll update this article.

This article, “Apple Seeds First Beta of watchOS 6.1.1 to Developers” first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Designed for the fourth and fifth-generation Apple TV models, the new tvOS 13.3developer beta can be downloaded onto the ‌‌Apple TV‌‌ via a profile that’s installed using Xcode.

tvOS updates (aside from major releases) have historically been minor in scale, focusing on under-the-hood bug fixes and improvements rather than major outward-facing changes. Apple provides little to no information on what’s included in tvOS beta updates, so we may not discover anything new after installing the software.

In tvOS 13.2, for example, Apple’s only available information was that it included general performance and stability updates.

While we don’t often know what’s new in tvOS during the beta testing process, we let MacRumors readers know when new updates are available so those who are developers can download it upon release.

If we find anything new in the tvOS 13.3 beta, we’ll update this article.

This article, “Apple Seeds First Beta of tvOS 13.3 Update to Developers” first appeared on MacRumors.com

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iOS and ‌‌iPadOS‌‌ 13.3 can be downloaded through the Apple Developer Center or over the air after the proper developer profile has been installed.

We don’t yet know what’s new in the iOS 13.3 update, but it likely includes bug fixes for issues not able to be addressed in the prior update. As a 13.x update, it also likely features some feature changes and updates.

What’s new in iOS 13.3 beta 1:

– Communication Limits – There are now Communication Limits in the Screen Time section of Settings for limiting who children are speaking with via the Phone, Messages, and FaceTime apps.

– Multitasking Bug Fix – The beta appears to fix the iOS 13.2 issue that was causing apps to refresh more frequently than normal.

– Memoji/Animoji Stickers – In the Keyboards section of the Settings app, there’s a new option to prevent Animoji and Memoji Stickers from being displayed on the Emoji keyboard.

– Apple Watch app – The ‌Apple Watch‌ app icon’s Digital Crown is now gray instead of black.

This article, “Apple Seeds First Betas of iOS 13.3 and iPadOS 13.3 to Developers” first appeared on MacRumors.com

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