Apple generates a lot of news, and it can be hard to keep up. If your mind was on other things this week, our roundup of Apple-related headlines will bring you up to date.
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Warning: scam VPNs on the App Store!
Avast has warned about three ‘VPN’ apps – freely available on Apple’s App Store at the time, although one seems to have been taken down since – that, according to the antivirus company, do not work and are designed solely to trick people into buying expensive subscriptions.
It calls them ‘fleeceware’ and says they fall into a grey area “because they are not malicious per se. They simply charge users absurd amounts of money.” What a line that is.
Make sure you use a VPN service from a reputable supplier. Read our guide to the best iPhone VPNs for detailed advice.
Logic Pro breaks our scoring system
We reported on the launch of Logic Pro X 10.5 back in May, and expressed cautious optimism about the new features. We’ve now posted our review of the update, and our reviewer was so impressed he warned that we “may well have to start rethinking the maximum number of stars that can be awarded”.
There are many significant additions in what is nominally just a point update – although you could say the same thing about macOS Catalina – and any one of them would have justified Apple in charging a fee. But no, it’s a free update for anyone who already owns the software.
News in brief
Tim Cook has posted a letter responding to the killing of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement. “To the Black community,” he writes, “we see you. You matter and your lives matter.”
You remember last week we reported on a jailbreak for iOS 13.5? Well, Apple has slammed shut the window that allowed that to work. iOS 13.5.1 puts a stop to unc0ver’s jailbreak.
Apple quietly doubled the cost of a RAM upgrade on the entry-level MacBook Pro last weekend; the firm has now explained that this is a “price correction” to bring it in line with the same upgrade for the MacBook Air and iMac. That doesn’t quite fly, given that those other Macs come with newer RAM, and we think you should steer clear of the cheapest Pro, in any case.
The latest security update for Mac blocks a Terminal command that used to let you hide macOS update prompts. You’ll just have to click Remind Me Tomorrow like the rest of us.
You may recall our report on iOS 14 being leaked months early. Stephan Wiesend from Macwelt, our sister site in Germany, has written about why this is a big problem. (That’s a translation, so don’t worry if you can’t read German!)
And Apple will be worth a cool $2 trillion within four years, according to an analyst. It broke the single trillion as recently as 2018, but the company’s focus on services and wearables puts it in a great position to be worth as much as 526 Manchester Uniteds.
Bugs and problems
Owners of the iPad Pro 10.5in from 2017 – and in a few cases, the iPad 11in from 2018 – are reporting serious problems since updating to iPadOS 13.4.1. They’re suffering random unwanted restarts, sometimes as little as 30 seconds after first turning on, and it doesn’t seem to be any better in iPadOS 13.5.
A bug has been afflicting Mac users for four years without a patch. It causes Mail to pop up when using a Mac in fullscreen mode, and was present as long ago as macOS Sierra (10.12), according to a developer.
There was a bug in the ‘Sign in with Apple’ service that could have allowed the hijacking of your Dropbox, Spotify or Airbnb account. But it was spotted by a developer named Bhavuk Jain, who received a bounty of $100,000, and patched.
Also on the good-news front, a bug in macOS Catalina that could have allowed hackers to run malicious code has been patched. We recommend that you grab the latest update as soon as possible.
The rumour mill
After widespread rumours that the iPhone 12 would be delayed by at least a month and perhaps until 2021, things appears to be back on track. Sources indicate that production will begin next month.
The next iPad Air will have a 10.8in screen and USB-C instead of Lightning. There’s precedent there, since the iPad Pros have USB-C, but this would still be a big call and we remain… unconvinced. The next iPad Pro, meanwhile, will have 5G – but that won’t happen until 2021.
The next Apple Pencil could be black. Takes us back to the first black iPod nano – this would be crazily popular.
Paying for Apple Music, TV+, News+ and Arcade would set you back around £30/$30 a month. The good news is that Apple appears to be planning a bundle deal where you get the lot – or perhaps just the first three – at a reduced rate. We could see that announced at WWDC 2020.
Looking forward to installing iOS 14 this autumn – and perhaps the beta too when it’s released this summer? The good news is that, according to a “trusted source” within Apple development, iOS 14 will run on all the same iPhones that could run iOS 13 – although this will be the last update for the iPhone 6s and the old iPhone SE. And it will feature a built-in translator.
Speaking of sources, do you ever wonder which can be trusted and which ones are just hot air? So do we. We have therefore attempted to answer the question Who is the most reliable Apple leaker?
And that’s it for this week. Stay Appley!
Via MACWORLD