NBC today announced that its upcoming Peacock streaming video service is set to launch in the United States on July 15.

The service, which will offer upwards 7,500 hours of programming including NBC shows and Universal movies, will features three subscription tiers.

NBC will offer an ad-supported tier that people can watch for free, and there will be two premium paid tiers that include live sports and early access to NBC’s late night shows.

The $4.99 per month premium tier will include ads, while a $9.99 per month version will be available ad-free. Providing access to live sports will allow NBC to differentiate the Peacock service from Disney+, Netflix, and Apple TV+.

In addition to on-demand content and live sports, Peacock will include live breaking news coverage, same-day rebroadcasts, curated shorts, and access to “Dateline” and “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt.” Premium subscribers will get exclusive access to additional TV shows and movies, for a total of 15,000 hours of content.

Peacock will also include original TV shows and films, such as Tina Fey’s upcoming “Girls5Eva” and an adaptation of the classic Aldous Huxley novel “Brave New World.”

Customers who already subscribe to Comcast and Cox can get free access to the premium with ads version of Peacock, or pay $5 per month for the ad-free version. Comcast X1 and Flex customers will get access to Peacock on April 15, months ahead of the July 15 launch date.

More details on Peacock are available through the investor webcast that NBC shared today and accompanying PDFs that list all of the movies and TV shows that will be accessible with Peacock.

This article, “NBC’s Streaming Service ‘Peacock’ Launching in July With Three Subscription Tiers” first appeared on MacRumors.com

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In a news story about an Apple employee who has started a barbershop for at-risk youth, Apple today said that between its own donations and employee donations, it donated more than $100 million to charitable causes in 2019.

Apple says that 21,000 Apple employees donated their time and donated $42 million to causes they care about. Combined with Apple’s 1-for-1 donation match and $25 match per volunteer hour, the total amount donated climbed to over $100 million.

Apple’s vice president of Environment, Policy, and Social Initiatives Lisa Jackson said the company has a mission to “change the world for the better, and give back to the communities in which we live and work.”

“Apple employees like Jaz embody this culture of giving every day, volunteering over a quarter of a million hours last year. We share a deep commitment to our local communities and doing what we can to cause more good.”

Much of Apple’s story focuses on Jaz Limos, an Apple Park Visitor Center manager in Cupertino who launched Saints of Steel, a nonprofit pop-up barber shop for at-risk youth and people looking for employment and housing.

Saints of Steel was largely funded by Apple. 80 percent of the donations for the first year came from Benevity, a corporate giving program used by Apple, and 74 percent of that donation was made by Apple.

In its first year, the organization was almost fully funded by volunteers and donations from Apple. “Our board, when we first started, was primarily made up of Apple employees who just jumped in and rolled up their sleeves,” Limos says. “We saw the power of Benevity and the company match program, because it funded the majority of our ability to run this program.”

More info on Saints of Steel and Apple’s donations can be found in the full Apple Newsroom article on the topic.

This article, “Apple and Apple Employees Donated $100 Million to Various Charitable Causes in 2019” first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Apple today announced that, in the next few days, prices of App Store apps and in-app purchases, excluding auto-renewable subscriptions, will decrease in Thailand and increase in Pakistan due to foreign exchange rate fluctuations.

Additionally, on January 1, 2020, a 7% sales tax for overseas digital services was introduced in Singapore. App Store developers based in Singapore who provide their GST number in App Store Connect will not have their proceeds affected, according to Apple. Otherwise, proceeds will be adjusted accordingly.

This article, “Apple Announces App Store Price Changes in Two Countries, Reminds Developers About New Tax in Singapore” first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Apple and the NBA today announced that they have partnered on a new Apple Music playlist, as noted by Bloomberg.

The report notes that the new Base:Line playlist will have about 40 songs with a hip-hop focus. The songs will also be available through the NBA’s app and website, and will be featured in game highlights shared on social media.

Apple plans to refresh the playlist weekly, with the songs sourced from independent label UnitedMasters.

This article, “Apple Music and NBA Partner on New Playlist, Songs Will Be Featured in Game Highlights” first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Best Buy’s newest Apple Sale Event is discounting a trio of Beats by Dre wireless headphones, Mac notebooks, and the iPad Pro. This includes notable low prices on the Studio3 Wireless Headphones and Powerbeats Pro, as well as ongoing best deals on the iPad Pro in both 11-inch and 12.9-inch models.

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

For the Powerbeats Pro, Best Buy’s $199.99 price tag is a match for the lowest-ever price seen on these headphones (also available at Amazon). On sale, the Studio3 Wireless Headphones are typically around $200, so Best Buy’s $189.99 is another notable discount going on this week.

We’ve also collected a few deals on the 15-inch MacBook Pro, old MacBook Air, and the iPad Pro. For the tablet, Best Buy is matching prices previously introduced on Amazon earlier this week, while also providing a few lowest-ever discounts not available anywhere else for high-end models with 1TB of storage and cellular support.

Best Buy Apple Sale Event

Beats

• Studio3 Wireless Noise Canceling Headphones – $189.99, down from $349.99
• Powerbeats Pro – $199.99, down from $249.99
• Powerbeats3 Wireless – $94.99, down from $199.99

Macs

• 2017 MacBook Air, 8GB RAM, 128GB Flash Storage – $799.99, down from $999.99
• 15-inch MacBook Pro, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD – $1,999.99, down from $2,399.99
• 15-inch MacBook Pro, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD – $2,399.99, down from $2,799.99
• 15-inch MacBook Pro, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD – $2,799.99, down from $2,999.99

11-Inch iPad Pro

• 64GB, Wi-Fi – $674.99, down from $799.00 ($124 off)
• 256GB, Wi-Fi – $799.99, down from $949.00 ($149 off)
• 512GB, Wi-Fi – $949.99, down from $1,149.00 ($199 off)
• 1TB, Wi-Fi – $1,149.99, down from $1,349.00 ($199 off)
• 64GB, Cellular – $824.99, down from $949.00 ($124 off)
• 256GB, Cellular – $949.99, down from $1,099.00 ($149 off)
• 512GB, Cellular – $1,099.99, down from $1,299.00 ($199 off)
• 1TB, Cellular – $1,299.99, down from $1,499.00 ($199 off)

12.9-Inch iPad Pro

• 64GB, Wi-Fi – $874.99, down from $999.00 ($124 off)
• 256GB, Wi-Fi – $999.99, down from $1,149.00 ($149 off)
• 512GB, Wi-Fi – $1,149.99, down from $1,349.00 ($199 off)
• 1TB, Wi-Fi – $1,349.99, down from $1,549.00 ($199 off, lowest ever)
• 64GB, Cellular – $1,024.99, down from $1,149.00 ($124 off)
• 256GB, Cellular – $1,149.99, down from $1,299.00 ($149 off)
• 512GB, Cellular – $1,299.99, down from $1,499.00 ($199 off)
• 1TB, Cellular – $1,499.99, down from $1,699.00 ($199 off, lowest ever)

Be sure to visit our full Deals Roundup to shop for even more Apple-related products and accessories.

This article, “Deals: Best Buy’s Latest Apple Sale Has Low Prices on Beats Headphones and iPad Pro” first appeared on MacRumors.com

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iPhone 12 models will feature a “refreshed” front-facing TrueDepth system that benefits Apple supplier Lumentum, according to Barclays analysts Blayne Curtis, Thomas O’Malley, and Baylie Harri. This suggests that Face ID could be improved on iPhone 12 models, but no specific details were provided.

In a research note provided to MacRumors, the analysts added that the rear-facing camera system on iPhone 12 Pro models will feature 3D sensing based on a time-of-flight solution, as widely rumored. They also expect iPhone 12 Pro models to be equipped with 6GB of RAM, up from 4GB in iPhone 11 Pro models.

The biggest change of all could come next year, as the analysts said they see potential for Apple to remove the Lightning connector from at least one iPhone model in 2021, echoing a prediction shared by fellow analyst Ming-Chi Kuo last month. This could result in wired EarPods being removed from the box, they said.

Kuo has said that Apple plans to release five new iPhone models in 2020, including a lower-end “iPhone SE 2” or “iPhone 9” by the end of March and four higher-end, 5G-enabled models in the fall.

Correction: A previous version of this article listed Apple supplier Lite-On Semiconductor in the first paragraph. The supplier mentioned in the research note was actually Lumentum.

This article, “Barclays: iPhone 12 Models Will Have ‘Refreshed’ Face ID System, Lightning Connector Could Be Dropped in 2021” first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Apple’s recent purchase of Seattle startup Xnor.ai, which specializes in on-device artificial intelligence, appears to have had a knock-on effect on home security cameras made by Wyze, another Seattle-based company.

The Verge reports that the Wyze Cam V2 and Wyze Cam Pan rely on Xnor.ai’s on-device people detection, but now that Apple owns the company, the support has been pulled in a beta firmware update currently rolling out to Wyze customers’ devices.

As it happens, Wyze issued a statement in November 2019 saying that Xnor.ai had terminated their contract, and that a firmware update rolling out in mid-January 2020 would remove the feature from its cameras. Whether Xnor.ai planned to be acquired by Apple in January, or it already had been acquired, remains unknown.

Despite the apparent forewarning, Wyze says it is still working on an in-house people detection replacement feature, but it promises to launch it as a free update sometime this year.

Given Apple’s deep interest in personal privacy, an acquisition of technology for handling AI on device shouldn’t raise any eyebrows. Xnor.ai’s work could potentially be incorporated into future iPhones, improving Siri and other AI and machine learning-based tasks that are done on device.

This article, “Apple’s Acquisition of AI Company Leaves Wyze Cameras Without People Detection” first appeared on MacRumors.com

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New questions have been raised about the FBI’s latest request that Apple break its iPhone encryption, after Forbes uncovered a search warrant strongly indicating that federal agents already have tools that can access data on Apple’s latest ‌iPhone‌ models.

The report says that FBI investigators in Ohio recently used the GrayKey hardware box to unlock an iPhone 11 Pro Max. The ‌iPhone‌ belonged to Baris Ali Koch, who was accused of helping his convicted brother flee the country by providing him with his own ID documents and lying to the police. He has now entered a plea agreement and is awaiting sentencing.

Koch’s lawyer confirmed to Forbes that the ‌iPhone‌ was locked with a passcode when it got in the hands of the FBI and that the code was never revealed to law enforcement, nor was the defendant forced to use his face to unlock the phone via Face ID.

Created by a company named Grayshift, GrayKey is a portable gray box that has previously been used by law enforcement to crack the passcode on iPhones. Complete details on how the latest GrayKey works are not known, although Apple continually works to fix the kinds of exploits used by such devices.

Ohio FBI search warrant

Forbes has previously revealed a GrayKey brochure that showed it worked on older devices, and the two iPhones acquired by the FBI in the most recent Pensacola case are an ‌iPhone‌ 5 and an ‌iPhone‌ 7, which strongly suggests that investigators are already capable of unlocking them.

President Donald Trump and Attorney General William Barr have also weighed in on the latest ‌iPhone‌ encryption stalemate between Apple and the FBI, with both urging the tech giant to assist in unlocking the iPhones used by the Pensacola shooter.

Justice department officials claim to need access to the iPhones to see messages from encrypted apps like Signal or WhatsApp to find out if the shooter discussed his plans or had help. Apple says it has already provided law enforcement officials with information from the shooter’s iCloud account, which amounts to all the data in its possession.

Statements by Apple suggest it is gearing up for a battle similar to the one it faced in 2016 in the San Bernardino shooter case, indicating the company has no plans to create a backdoor in its software, regardless of the U.S. government’s motives. Apple has previously said that doing so would create “new and dangerous weaknesses” and that weakening security “makes no sense.”

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Political News 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.

This article, “FBI Successfully Unlocks iPhone 11 Pro in Ohio, Casting Doubt on Claims it Needs Apple’s Help in Florida Mass Shooter Case” first appeared on MacRumors.com

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