News on the sidelines the week of March 19-25

Apple is developing new models of Home Pod devices with screens and cameras, and LG may shut down the smartphone sector completely and fine Apple with $ 2 million in Brazil, and another fine of $ 309 million for patent infringement, officially stopping the iMac Pro, and Facebook is developing a version of Instagram for children, And other exciting news on the sidelines ...

Facebook is developing a version of Instagram for children under the age of 13

Instagram executives are planning to create a version of the app for children under the age of 13.

“I am delighted to announce that from now on, we will give young people more of our attention, and we will focus on privacy to ensure the best possible experience for teens and create a version of Instagram that allows those under 13 to use it safely,” wrote Vishal Shah, Vice President of Product at Instagram, on Thursday.

It is worth noting that the current Instagram policy prevents children under the age of 13 from using it.

According to the report, the work will be overseen by Adam Mossere, president of Instagram, and led by Pavni Diwangi, a vice president who joined the parent company Facebook last December and previously worked at Google, where it oversaw products focused on children, including YouTube Kids.

This announcement comes two days after Instagram announced that it needs to do more to protect its young users after the spread of child abuse, bullying and attacks that teens face on the app.

The iMac Pro is running out of stock again in the US after being discontinued

Earlier this month, Apple confirmed that the iMac Pro had been discontinued. And the phrase "until quantities run out" appeared in several countries. The standard iMac Pro remains available in most parts of Europe and Asia, but it is clear that the end of this product is beginning to loom very soon, especially after it is sold out in the United States.

The iMac Pro was released in December 2017, and it hasn't received any material updates for its entire life and is still selling for $ 4999. And that the 27-inch iMac introduced in August 2020 has become the preferred choice for the vast majority of iMac users according to Apple.

IPhone production may face disruptions due to the lack of an OLED screen

Last month, Samsung was forced to shut down its Texas chip manufacturing plant due to major winter storms. The plant is responsible for 5% of the global supply of chips for smartphones and personal computers, and its shutdown has caused widespread global shortages. The factory manufactures chips for Samsung OLED screens that Apple uses in the iPhone, which may cause disruptions in the production of the iPhone.

The report does not elaborate further, how this will affect production, will it be delayed or will there be alternatives and other alternative plans. Going back to last year, as the Corona virus invaded the world, Apple suppliers were forced to close factories in China and elsewhere around the world. This led to delaying the launch of the iPhone 12 to October instead of September.

The iMac Pro has been officially discontinued, removed from Apple's website, and is no longer available for purchase

After it was depleted from the United States, Apple decided to officially stop production of the iMac Pro as of last Friday, as the device is no longer available for purchase from any of Apple's online stores. It was removed from the dedicated page on the Apple website, and with the iMac Pro‌ page deleted, there was no longer an option to buy an iMac Pro‌ in the US or any other country, the device was no longer listed in the Apple Store app, and the search did not show iMac Pro‌ listings.

Apple has to pay $ 309 million for infringing DRM patents

A federal jury in Texas ordered Apple to pay about $ 308.5 million to a local licensing company for violating a digital rights management patent.

PMC, or Personalized Media Communications, filed a lawsuit against Apple in 2015 for allegedly violating its seven patents that are used to distribute encrypted content through the company's iTunes applications, app store and Apple Music.

Apple appealed the PMC case in the US patent office, but the appeals court overturned that decision in March 2020, and the trial has resumed. Apple told Bloomberg that it was disappointed with Friday's ruling and would appeal the decision.

"Cases like this, brought by companies that do not manufacture or sell any products, stifle innovation and ultimately harm consumers," the company said in an emailed statement.

PMC is a company that doesn't just produce anything. It has more than 100 patents in its portfolio and all it has to do is give permits and make money for it. . When such firms employ strict legal tactics to enforce patent rights beyond the actual patent value, they are often referred to as patent trolls.

John Harvey, founder of PMC, revealed the inventions for the first time in 1981. It licensed major companies including Cisco Systems, DirecTV, Motorola, Sony and Zynga.

And another fine of $ 2 million for Apple in Brazil

Apple was fined nearly $ 12 million in the Brazilian state of Sao Paulo for breaches of consumer law for not having a charger in the box for the newer iPhones. Brazil's Consumer Protection Agency, Procon-SP, has fined Apple after intense scrutiny of the decision to remove the power adapter from iPhone XNUMX cases, saying that doing so would reduce carbon emissions and deplete rare metals.

And in December, the Brazilian agency informed Apple that selling iPhones in the country without an included charger in the box violated consumer protection law. Apple responded to the agency's concerns by saying that most customers already have backup chargers and therefore it is not necessary to include another charger in the iPhone box.

As a result, Fernando Kibes, CEO of Procon-SP, gave a stern warning to Apple after the fine, saying it needed to respect and understand Brazilian consumer law as well as enterprises. In addition to the fine for not having a charger, Apple is also fined for misleading customers about the water resistance of the iPhone devices, due to Apple's refusal to repair iPhone devices that are damaged due to water, and not including them in the warranty, this is other than other charges due to the delay and forcing users to buy IPhone is newer.

Apple was surprised by developers complaining about the app review process

Apple told the Australian Competition Authority that it was "surprised" to hear that some developers have concerns about the App Store and the process in which applications are reviewed, rejected or approved for distribution on the platform.

In September last year, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) launched an investigation of Apple's App Store and Google's Play Store to examine consumer experiences, suppliers and developers in Australia.

The panel is due to release an interim report of its findings based on customer and developer submissions on March 31. In a final attempt, apparently to alleviate the concerns highlighted in the report, Apple provided the committee with some additional information related to the application on the App Store ‌ and its review process, and said that it is "surprised to hear this, and that it" invests a lot of time and resources in dealing with developers directly "to ensure the quality of the applications On the platform, including the human review system and that all human reviewers ensure that the applications are "reliable, work as expected, respect user privacy, and are free from objectionable content."

IPhone 13 will be launched at the end of September

Apple will likely return to the usual time frame in September, when at least some iPhone 13 models will be launched this year, with availability in the third week of the month, according to Wedbush Dan Ives analyst, for what is clear from the stability of the supply chain and it is in better shape now. He said there might be a possibility of delays until October XNUMX due to the ongoing product adjustments, or there could be other possible reasons such as Samsung's stumbling in the production of OLED screens, for example. Or the existence of health repercussions due to Corona.

Ives claims that the iPhone 13 lineup could come with a 1 TB storage option and a LiDAR scanner across all four models, although Ming-Chi Kuo believes LiDAR will still be limited to the Pro models.

LG may suspend the smartphone sector after failing to find a buyer

In January, LG announced that it was studying exit options from the smartphone industry, although LG was once the world's third-largest smartphone maker and a major competitor to Apple in the industry, the company's smartphone sector has seen a drop in shipments and accumulated losses. It has reached $ 4.5 billion over the past five years, leading to contemplation of selling it or closing it completely.

Apple is developing new models of HomePods with screens and cameras

Bloomberg's Mark Gorman mentioned that Apple is developing new speakers with screens and cameras. These reports indicate that Apple will introduce new HomePod models with a screen and camera to compete with the likes of the Nest Hub Max from Google, Amazon's Echo Show, and Facebook's Portal, but Gorman says that launching such a product will not be soon, and there is no guarantee that Apple will offer it in the first place. .

YouTube is investigating an "Something went wrong" issue in the Apple TV app

Some Apple TV 4K and Apple TV HD users have received a “Something went wrong” error message when trying to upload videos using the YouTube app on tvOS. The problem does not appear to be widespread, and it only appears when a user logs into their YouTube account on Apple TV.

YouTube on Twitter confirmed that it is investigating the problem and working to fix it, and to solve this problem, some users on Apple's support site mentioned a successful method by deleting the YouTube application and reinstalling it on Apple TV, then entering with the "Use my phone" option.

Miscellaneous news

◉ Apple stopped downgrading to iOS 14.4, and it is no longer possible to downgrade any work from iOS 14.4.1 to iOS 14.4 if you upgrade the iPhone or iPad to it.

Tim Cook, Craig Federighi, Phil Schiller, and Scott Forrestle testify in the case of Epic v. Apple.

◉ Just hours after the iMac Pro was officially discontinued, Apple also discontinued the 512GB and 1TB SSD storage for the 21.5-inch iMac in 4K resolution, leaving only 256GB and a 1TB Fusion Drive storage option as the only options for customers.

◉ Opera released a major update and redesign for its XNUMX-year-old Opera Touch app, only calling it Opera.

You can download the new application and explore its features

‎Opera: AI browser with VPN

Free

Developer	Opera Software AS

Receive a popular typing app Ulysses For Mac, its XNUMXnd major release, introducing new publishing features and additional options for users to customize the visual appearance of their writing environment.

Yesterday, March 24, Apple celebrated the 20th anniversary of launching Mac OS X for the first time.

◉ Ron Okamoto, who had been working as Apple's App Store Developer Relationships head since 2001, retired responsible for overseeing the App Store review process and policies, distributing tools to allow developers to create and sell apps, developer support, communications and awards, and managed the developer conference Annual global. Susan Prescott, Apple's chief marketing officer, will take over.

◉ Glass interfaces that were said to be for the iPhone 13 were leaked, and in which the size of the bump appears less than the current one and the location of the speaker hole was modified to be at the top of the bump.

Samsung plans to start manufacturing low-temperature polycrystalline (LTPO) OLED displays for Apple starting in the first half of 2021, according to a new report from UBI Research. LTPO displays use less power than standard OLED screens and will allow Apple to implement the 120Hz refresh rates that are rumored to arrive in the iPhone 13 lineup.

◉ Apple is looking for a potential radical redesign of the Apple Watch, including a circular watch face, a flexible wrapping screen, and digitally customizable watch straps, according to a new patent.

◉ Reports indicated that Apple adopted the "Fresnel Lens" design for the glasses, allowing them to be lightweight and not exceeding 150 grams.

Apple has released the fifth beta version of the upcoming iOS 14.5 and iPadOS 14.5 updates for developers.

Apple has also released the fifth beta version of the upcoming tvOS 14.5 update for developers. And the launch of the fifth beta version of the watchOS 7.4 update for developers as well, with the "Time to Walk" feature, expansion of ECG support, and a new Unity watch face.

Intel has designated a Windows page as part of a campaign in which Intel attacks Mac computers and calls for Windows use.

◉ It also released the fifth beta version of the highly anticipated macOS Big Sur 11.3 update for developers for testing purposes.

Telegram has launched the voice chat feature for channels, allowing content owners in Telegram to conduct chats like ClubHouse without any restrictions in number. Do not forget to follow the Telegram channel for iPhone Islam.

◉ It is rumored that Apple is working on a new iPad Pro device that will contain an upgraded A14X chip, codes to indicate this have been found in the fifth beta version of iOS 14.5.

WhatsApp announced the suspension of support for the iOS 9 system, thus it is required for WhatsApp to have an iPhone 5 and later.

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