At EA Play 2019, Respawn Entertainment announced that Season 2 is kicking off in Apex Legends with a bang. When it arrives later this summer, it will bring a new Legend with shocking abilities, a new weapon with which to blow away foes, a new and improved Battle Pass, and more. Apex Legends Season 2, called Battle Charge, seems to have first and foremost been designed to respond to players’ warranted complaints about the scarce and lackluster content offered in Season 1, and it seems well-equipped to turn the tides for the shrinking game....

Pro-choice and privacy campaigners are warning that app data and other personal data pulled from smartphones could be used to prosecute women who have had abortions … The concern has been raised in light of the leaked Supreme Court draft opinion that looks set to remove legal protection for both those having abortions and the medical professionals performing them. Indeed, under some state legislation, it could even be illegal to send a text message offering help or support....

Apple has notified developers that App Store prices in Canada, Israel, Mexico, New Zealand, Russia, Singapore and South Africa are increasing. Customers in these regions will see prices for apps and in-app purchases rise within the next 72 hours. If you have a renewing subscription, Apple will notify you with an email about the price change ahead of the next subscription payment, although customers in Russia and South Africa will have to resubscribe manually....

An app to diagnose COVID-19 needs nothing more than a voice sample, according to an Israel-based company. In tests of 2,000 participants, the app achieved an accuracy rate of 81.2%, including asymptomatic carriers … TNW reports. To ensure consistency in the data, and preserve privacy, users are simply asked to count upwards from 50 to 70 to provide the voice sample. The accuracy rate found in the trial is comparable to that of lateral flow rapid tests, but eliminates the need for test kits....

The UK trade regulator is launching an investigation into alleged anti-competitive price-fixing deals within the nascent digital book publishing industry following a “significant number of complaints.” The Office of Fair Trading said the investigation is “into whether arrangements that certain publishers have put in place with some retailers for the sale of e-books may breach competition rules”. However, it added: “The investigation is at an early stage and it should not be assumed that the parties involved have breached competition law....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFUW7GcHsLQ Apple aired a commercial this evening titled “Every Dimension.” It shows off the 15.4-inch Retina MacBook Pro that released yesterday. It looks like the company is ready to push its $2,199 laptop to the masses, but who can afford it? Read more about it in yesterday’s coverage of the Worldwide Developers Conference. Have any of you picked it up? More on the new MacBook Pro: Apple unveils the all new 15....

Apple has sealed a multi-year first-look feature deal to develop and produce sports films with Nike’s Waffle Iron Entertainment and Makeready. According to Deadline, the companies will create films celebrating the power of sport and inspiring next-gen athletes. The Apple TV+ streaming service is already diving into sports; offering Friday Night Baseball for viewers. The service’s Emmy-winning hit TV series Ted Lasso also features a sports-based plot. Additionally, Apple TV+ created the four-part docuseries, They Call Me Magic, about the life and career of famed basketball player, Magic Johnson....

In a new interview with TechCrunch, three Apple executives have shared some interesting details on how the company approached developing the design and features of the Mac Studio and Studio Display. TechCrunch’s Matthew Panzarino sat down with Apple’s Tom Boger – Vice President of Mac and iPad Product Marketing, Shelly Goldberg – Senior Director, Mac and iPad Product Design, and Xander Soren – Director of Product Marketing, Pro Apps. One of the themes Panzarino noticed was the Mac Studio and Studio Display being a clear product from Apple’s Pro Workflows Team that originally came about as it worked on the modular 2019 Mac Pro....

To further its in-house video catalog, Apple is reportedly about to ink a deal to create its first animated film. Bloomberg reports that Apple is currently in talks with Ireland-based animation studio Cartoon Saloon. The movie in question has yet to be created and is reportedly more than a year from release, but Apple has been looking to buy distribution rights in the U.S. as well as other countries. Right now, it’s unclear how Apple plans on releasing the film — whether that’s online only or in theaters....

Advertisers looking to make automated ad purchases on Apple’s iTunes Radio platform will finally be able to do so thanks to changes the company is rolling out now. While in-app iAds have been available for automated targeting for some time now, audio ads that run on free iTunes Radio accounts have always only been available through Apple’s sales representatives. Enhanced customer targeting is also being added to the iAd offering. User phone numbers and email addresses can be anonymously compared against advertisers’ in-house data....

Anthem has released its latest patch, Update 1.03, which will make some major changes to the way players experience EA and BioWare’s game. While there are a significant number of changes, the two most prominent ones are the removal of respawn restrictions and the updates made to the end-games loot tables, two major points of contention and feedback for players. Anthem’s first month of release has been a long, drawn out nightmare for its publisher....

It could be said that Tennis was the original video game. Not the version played on the field, of course, but a virtual version that replaced players with short white lines and the green ball with a white dot. The representation of the sport (and its “table” variant) have come a long way since Pong, but the simple formula of volleying a ball back and forth has remained the same. AO Tennis 2 sees the popular international sport arrive in its most true-to-life version ever, but it proves that without some amount of physicality or a fun twist to the virtual world, tennis should stick to the actual courts....

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Apple has officially announced its third event in three months. The event will take place on November 10 at 10 a.m. PT, and Apple has invited everyone to tune in remotely with the tagline “One more thing.” This event is expected to focus on the upcoming transition to Apple Silicon in the Mac lineup, with Apple having promised its first Apple Silicon machine would come before the end of the year....

When Apple released Safari 6.0 for OS X Lion this morning (and included it with Mountain Lion), we noticed that a version of the web browser is not available for Windows. Sure enough, some users running Apple’s Safari download website on PCs are also not seeing the download. It appears that earlier Safari versions for Windows are still available. Safari 6.0 includes features that are integrated into OS X and Apple’s own ecosystem itself – like offline Reading List and Password Pane – so it makes sense for Apple to pass on Safari 6....

Apple continues to emphasis its belief that consumers should have better access to their medical information. CNBC reports this week that Apple and Microsoft will send a representative to a meeting on Monday, hosted by the nonpartisan Carin Alliance. The goal of the Carin Alliance and this meeting is to support initiatives by the Department of Health and Human Services, focused on making it easier for patients to access and share their medical information....

There were conflicting reports yesterday about the likely location of the new Apple campus the company promised back in January. With a large number of well-paid jobs at stake, there is stiff competition between states. One report said that North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park was the favored option, while another suggested that Northern Virginia was still very much in the running … However, a fresh report today from WRAL claims that Research Triangle Park is ‘a done deal’ if the state agrees to tax incentives for Apple....

Apple has shared a series of new iPhone X ads on its Apple Australia YouTube channel. The ads showcase the iPhone X camera being used to shoot a handful of different weddings, hence the title of “First Dance.” The ads are a continuation of Apple’s “Shot on iPhone” series, which aims to highlight the stunning videography and photography of which the iPhone X is capable. The company has shared a total of four “First Dance” weddings, each of which highlight a different wedding with different age and sexual orientation....

Packed inside the new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus is a new iSight camera with new sensors and focus pixels which allows for autofocusing up to twice as fast. Panorama photos can now include up to 43 megapixels in each photo. The big story here is the iPhone 6 Plus’s camera, which will support optical image stabilization. Rather than relying only on digital image stabilization, the camera borrows a technique from DSLR cameras allowing the sensor to move up and down and side to side....

If you’re in the market for an external GPU for your MacBook Air or MacBook Pro, then you may be interested in the portable eGFX Breakaway Puck from Sonnet. Sonnet’s portable eGPU, which Apple started selling in its stores last April for $399.95, appears to have just dropped in price by 25%. One of several eGPU boxes that Apple sells in its stores, the Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Puck is the smallest and least expensive eGPU that Apple offers....