Apple

After Apple seemingly blocked its iMessage for Android solution, the company posted that Beeper Cloud is “now fully working with iMessage.”

But that’s not its famed “breakthrough” Beeper Mini approach that runs directly on Android phones and sends messages straight to Apple’s servers — that’s still broken. Beeper co-founder Eric Migicovsky told The Verge in an email that Beeper Cloud uses Pypush and doesn’t use Mac servers owned by the company.

Update December 9th, 2023, 1:55PM ET: Updated with input from Beeper co-founder Eric Migicovsky.

That said, things with Beeper Mini might be a little messed up while you wait. The company posted that the fix is “very close, and just a matter of a bit more time and effort.”

The company says it’s resetting the counter on trial memberships as soon as the fix is int... but because of how iMessage works, it won’t fall back to SMS for up to a day.

Users reported issues like delayed notifications on Friday, and a Reddit user who says they’re on the Beeper team says that the company is “dealing with an outage on the Beeper Mini side.”

Seems like it’s just a blip and that Beeper Mini will live another day.

Update, December 8th, 5:01PM ET: Welp.

Tang Tan, the company’s vice president of product design for the iPhone and Apple Watch, is stepping down in February, according to a report from Bloomberg. He also oversaw the team that works on the AirPods.

Sources tell Bloomberg that Tan’s departure “is a blow,” adding that “he made critical decisions about Apple’s most important products.” Earlier this week, Bloomberg also reported that Steve Hotelling, the exec in charge of Apple’s touchscreen tech, health sensors, and Face ID, is retiring.

Marques Brownlee is once again crowdsourcing opinions on photos. You can head to the voting site where, in three categories (standard, low-light, and portrait mode), you’ll see the same photo taken by 20 different smartphones and judge which one you prefer in side-by-side comparisons.

Last year’s results revealed some notable differences in how different phones process the same situation — we’ll find out soon how far apart they are now.

Code was spotted in Spotify’s iOS app suggesting the service might re-enable in-app payments, but the company says they’re not coming back.

“We have no plans to switch IAP [in-app payments] on at the moment,” Spotify’s global head of corporate and policy communications, Farshad Shadloo, tells The Verge.

Spotify removed the feature in 2016 to avoid Apple’s up to 30 percent commission on digital in-app purchases, and earlier this year migrated old subscribers off the payment method.

Bloomberg reports that Steve Hotelling is retiring from Apple. I had never heard of him, but this paragraph from Bloomberg underscores just how much he’s contributed to Apple’s products:

The executive is named on hundreds of patents, including ones related to the iPhone and iPad’s multitouch screen, and known for being one of the inventors of Touch ID — a key feature for authenticating users on Apple devices. “No one was more brilliant than Steve,” said a longtime peer at the company.

Some of chip chief Johny Srouji’s direct reports will be taking over Hotelling’s work.

In the tvOS 17.2 release candidate, the two apps push users toward the TV app, according to 9to5Mac. The change, assuming it sticks around when tvOS 17.2 is released publicly, isn’t much of a surprise; Bloomberg reported in October that Apple was planning to discontinue the iTunes Movies and TV shows apps in favor of the TV app.

Bloomberg’s sources say that the conclusion to the European Commission’s probe into iMessage should spare Apple from needing to offer other companies some level of interoperability with the service.

The investigation officially ends in February, with new Digital Markets Act rules aimed at Big Tech’s ”platform gatekeepers” coming into full effect in March, with the intent of creating a level playing field for all.

According to a report in The Elec, LG Innotek is working on an under-display camera (UDC) that might find its way into future iPhones.
But that could take some time. Apple reportedly wasn’t happy with recent component samples it was sent, and one analyst thinks the iPhone won’t get a UDC until 2027 (though the Face ID cutout could disappear and move under the screen earlier in 2025).

Apple announced collaborative playlists for Apple Music at WWDC, and while it appeared in some iOS 17.2 betas, it’s not present in Tuesday’s iOS 17.2 release candidate, 9to5Mac reports. Barring an unexpected surprise, you shouldn’t expect to see collaborative playlists in the final release.

Apple’s iOS 17 website still says the feature is coming “later this year,” but at this rate, I doubt that’s going to happen.

Then you should watch this excellent video from Quinn Nelson at Snazzy Labs. He breaks down exactly what it's doing behind the scenes and why it will likely be a challenge for Apple to stop it from working.

As MacRumors writes, Apple designated the original iPhone SE “vintage” today. The 2016 budget phone crammed the A9 chip — same as Apple’s priciest model at the time — into the flat sides, metal back, and chamfered edges of the 5S.

The first SE got its last major OS update with iOS 15 over two years ago, and it’s been five since Apple last sold it. Does that make our iPhone SE video review vintage, too?

My everlasting search for a new Sonic game that isn’t soul-crushing or a technical mess may have come to an end but there’s a catch: it’s only available on Apple Arcade.

Sonic Dream Team, which Polygon makes sound like a better version of Sonic Superstars, launches today on Apple Arcade.

Also coming today to Apple Arcade is another dream game, Disney meets Animal Crossing sim Disney Dreamlight Valley: Arcade Edition, along with Puzzle & Dragons Story and Turmoil+.