SAN RAMON, Calif. (AP) — Apple unveiled its next iPhone line-up, including a model that offers twice the storage available in earlier versions and other modest upgrades to last year’s editions that proved to be a big hit among consumers devouring the latest technology during the pandemic.

The pre-recorded video event streamed Tuesday gave Apple a chance to present a polished story following a turbulent few weeks. The recent bumps included a hastily patched security vulnerability that could let hackers secretly take control of iPhones and other Apple devices; a backlash to the company’s plans to scan iPhones for images of child sex abuse and a federal judge’s ruling that chipped away further at the competitive barrier Apple built around its app store, which generates billions of dollars in profits each year.

As has been the case since Apple’s late co-founder unveiled the first iPhone in 2007, Apple executives talked reverently about the latest model, even though it isn’t dramatically different from the version Apple released nearly a year ago.

Like last year’s model, the new iPhone 13 will come in four different designs, with prices starting from $700 to $1,100. They’re scheduled to be in stores September 24.

“It’s an incremental upgrade,” said Gartner analyst Tuong Nguyen. “Some of the new features are impressive, but most of them are not noticeable or practical for most users.”

Possibly the most notable change in the latest high-end iPhone 13 will be an option for a full terabyte of storage — that’s 1,000 gigabytes — on the device, up from its previous maximum of 512 gigabytes. That’s enough storage to accommodate roughly 250,000 photos, or about 500 hours of high definition video.

Having a massive amount of storage could become more important to many consumers with the advent of ultra-high definition video and ultrafast wireless 5G networks that will make downloading content faster and easier, Nguyen said.

Apple is also promising better cameras on the iPhone 13, including an improved ultrawide lens, a cinematic-like video feature and technology for better nighttime pictures. (The latter mirrors a feature Google has long offered in its line of Pixel phones, which haven’t been big sellers yet.) As usual, the latest iPhones are supposed to have longer-lasting batteries, too.

“We keep making the iPhone more capable,” Apple CEO Tim Cook boasted.

These kinds of incremental upgrades have become routine for Apple and other device makers in recent years as the pace of smartphone innovation slowed, even while prices for some phones have climbed above $1,000. That trend has prompted more consumers to hold on to their older smartphones for longer periods.

But the release of last year’s iPhone 12 unleashed one of Apple’s biggest sales spurts since 2014, possibly because the pandemic helped make homebound people realize it was time to get a newer and better model than what they had been using. Through the first six months of this year, Apple’s iPhone sales have surged by nearly 60% from the same time last year.

That boom has helped push Apple’s stock price near its all-time highs recently, giving the company a market value of about $2.5 trillion — more than twice what it was before the pandemic began 18 months ago.

Apple’s shares dipped 1% Tuesday in a sign that that investors weren’t excited by what they saw in the new iPhones.

Although the iPhone is still by far Apple’s biggest moneymaker, the company has been trying to supplement its success with peripheral products such as its smartwatch. The Cupertino, California, company used Tuesday’s showcase to provide a preview of its next Apple Watch, which will feature a thinner, more rounded and brighter display.

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SAN RAMON, Calif. (AP) — The judge who will decide a case challenging Apple’s stranglehold on its iPhone app store indicated on Monday she would like to promote more competition but without dismantling a commission system that reaps billions of dollars for the technology powerhouse.

U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers isn’t likely to issue a decision until this summer. But she opened a window into her thoughts during a three-hour session with lawyers for Apple and its adversary, Epic Games, during the final day of a three-week trial in Oakland, California.

Gonzalez Rogers’ line of questioning suggested she sides with much of the defense that Apple has mounted to justify the 15% to 30% commissions it collects for in-app transactions on the iPhone to help pay for the technology powering its devices.

Epic Games, the maker of the popular videogame Fortnite, has been trying to prove the fees are the price-gouging tool of a monopoly hatched within the “walled garden” Apple has built around the iPhone, the app store, its software and other devices such as the iPad and iPod.

To loosen Apple’s tight-fisted control, Epic wants Gonzalez Rogers to issue an order that would require Apple to open the iPhone and its other mobile products to rival app stores. Those alternatives would include Epic’s still-unprofitable app store, which charges a commission of just 12%.

Apple’s app store, in contrast, has become far more profitable than its late co-founder, Steve Jobs, ever envisioned when he opened it 13 years ago. Precisely how profitable wasn’t revealed in the trial, although an Apple executive conceded the company had brought in at least $20 billion as of June 2017.

Gonzalez Rogers doesn’t seem to believe the fees are unreasonable, let alone illegal. That’s in part because because Apple’s commissions mirror those charged on in-app commissions by the app store feeding about 3 billion devices powered by Google’s Android software, as well as those imposed by major video game consoles — Sony’s PlayStation, Microsoft ’s Xbox and Nintendo’s Switch.

The judge also seemed to support Apple’s right to maintain a rigidly controlled ecosystem of products that has won over consumers around the world, including many who pay more than $1,000 to buy an iPhone.

“Your formulation seems to ignore the reality that customers choose an ecosystem,” Gonzalez Rogers told Epic lawyer Gary Bornstein. “It is Apple’s business strategy to create a particular type of ecosystem that is incredibly attractive to purchasers, to its consumers. So if those consumers choose to enter into an ecosystem … that’s what you know you’re buying into.”

Bornstein countered that most consumers don’t understand the extent they will be locked into Apple’s ecosystem and often pay scant attention to the costs of in-app purchases that are tiny compared to the price of an iPhone.

That still didn’t seem to convince Gonzalez Rogers that Apple is running on monopoly, but other statements made it clear she still might find the company is engaging in anticompetitive behavior. During some points in the trial, she has seemed trouble by a provision in Apple stores that forbids in-app notices that purchases can also be made through web browsers and other means that evade Apple’s commissions.

Apple contends allowing in-app links to other payment options besides its own would expose iPhones and other mobile devices to security and privacy threats. When facing some tough questioning from Gonzalez Rogers during his four-hour appearance on the witness stand Friday, Apple CEO Tim Cook also conceded that allowing links within apps to other payment options would undercut the company’s profits.

The judge revisited the issue during Monday’s session. At one point, she wondered aloud whether Apple could just allow apps to insert a notice reminding consumers that payments can made in web browsers, without posting a direct link to the checkout stand. That sort of notice, she mused, wouldn’t be much different than a merchant’s display of the different credit cards — Visa, Mastercard, America Express or Discover — that has long been a staple at cash registers.

During the course of their closing arguments, the lawyers for Epic and Apple each made dramatic pitches in an attempt to get Gonzalez Rogers to see things their respective ways.

Bornstein repeatedly asserted that Apple is trying to paint itself as a “benevolent overlord” acting in the best interests of consumers and the developers of the 1.8 million apps now in the store, up from just 500 in 2008. “But it’s not enough to say, ‘We’re a great company, we’re doing well, and we’re a nice guy,’” Bornstein argued.

Apple lawyer Richard Doren reminded the judge that opening the iPhone to other app stores would weaken a security system that protects consumers and developers alike. Epic “wants Apple to drop its gloves, stand in the middle of the arena and take malware attacks through unreviewed apps,” Doren argued.

Gonzalez Rogers said last week that she hoped to issue her decision by Aug. 13. But on Monday warned she may need even more time to review thousands of pages of information submitted during the case.

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In the TikTok shared by user Brie Thomason, a digital camera using an infrared lens is seen filming an iPhone user observing his home screen. As the iPhone user stares at the device, Thomason’s digital camera captures the iPhone snapping multiple infrared images every five to 10 seconds.

Since the video was uploaded to social media on May 8, it has garnered over 230,000 likes and over 18,000 shares, alarming some and catching many off guard.

While this discovery may cause some users to panic, Apple says this is actually just an aspect of the iPhone that allows users to control their face ID and Animoji (the animated emoji function).

According to Apple, this feature is available on iPhone X and later and iPad Pro models with the A12X Bionic chip.

The company says this feature is part of the new ‘TrueDepth IR camera.’ This camera, housed in the black notch at the top of the display, includes a number of high-tech components such as a ‘flood illuminator,’ infrared (IR) camera and an infrared emitter.

Officials say as an iPhone is used, it emits 30,000 infrared dots in a known pattern when a face is detected, enabling the iPhone X to generate a 3D map of a user’s face. According to the team, this TrueDepth IR camera can also do this fast enough to support the creation of 3D motion data as well.

So, yes, your iPhone is essentially taking “invisible” photos of you, but not for the reasons you would think

Reem Ikram | Nexstar Media Wire

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SAN RAMON, Calif (AP) — Apple CEO Tim Cook will take the witness stand this Friday in a high-stakes courtroom battle over the lucrative commissions the iPhone maker has been raking in from its mobile app store.

The timing of Cook’s highly anticipated testimony was confirmed Wednesday when a federal judge granted Apple’s request to allow the 60-year-old executive to be the first witness sworn in Friday morning during a trial that has been unfolding in an Oakland, California, courtroom since the beginning of this month.

The trial revolves around an antitrust lawsuit filed last year by Epic Games, the maker of the popular video game Fortnite.

Epic is trying prove that commissions ranging from 15% to 30% on transactions in apps installed on iPhones, iPads and iPods are part of a monopoly that Apple has created around a fortress blocking other payment options on its mobile devices.

Apple has brushed off the allegations as a desperate attempt by Epic to boost its own profits by breaching a contract covering a system that requires a small portion of the 1.8 million apps in its store to pay the commissions on transactions. Apple says the commissions help it pay for the technology powering its products, including the security and privacy protections that has helped make iPhone so popular.

Cook will be taking the stand as Apple prepares to wrap its case before the two sides make their closing arguments and answer U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers’ questions about the evidence on Monday. His appearance also will serve as a sort of bookend to the testimony of Epic CEO Tim Sweeney, who took the stand for two days during the first two days of trial.

The CEOs’ testimony could be a study in contrasts. Cook has emerged as a polished, confident public speaker since inheriting his CEO job nearly a decade ago from Apple’s late co-founder Steve Jobs. But Sweeney is far more soft spoken, and often had to be asked to speak up during his testimony that at times included statements that seemed to bolster Apple’s defense.

Cook will also have the advantage of listening to how Epic’s lawyers have been grilling Apple executives who have been taking the stand. That list has included Phil Schiller, Apple’s former marketing guru and a Jobs confidant who was on the stand Monday and Tuesday. Apple’s software chief, Craig Federighi, took the stand Wednesday to discuss the various ways the company insulates its products from hackers.

The specter of Jobs is likely to be raised while Cook is on the stand, based on Epic’s strategy in the so far. Epic lawyers have repeatedly referred back to Jobs’ initial predictions that Apple wouldn’t make much money from the app store when he unveiled it 13 years ago.

Since then, the app store has become more successful than anyone envisioned and a major contributor to the profit growth that has helped give Apple its current market value of nearly $2.1 trillion. Just how much money Apple makes from the app store has remained a heated point of contention during the trial, although Schiller conceded during his testimony that the Cupertino, California, had pocketed at least $20 billion from it through June 2017, based on calculations from figures publicly released as that time.

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SAN RAMON, Calif. (AP) — Apple is following through on its pledge to crack down on Facebook and other snoopy apps that secretly shadow people on their iPhones in order to target more advertising at users.

The new privacy feature, dubbed “App Tracking Transparency,” rolled out Monday as part of an update to the operating system powering the iPhone and iPad. The anti-tracking shield included in iOS 14.5 arrives after a seven-month delay during which Apple and Facebook attacked each other’s business models and motives for decisions that affect billions of people around the world.

“What this feud demonstrates more than anything is that Facebook and Apple have tremendous gatekeeping powers over the market,” said Elizabeth Renieris, founding director of the Technology Ethics Lab at the University of Notre Dame.

But Apple says it is just looking out for the best interests of the more than 1 billion people currently using iPhones.

“Now is a good time to bring this out, both because of because of the increasing amount of data they have on their devices, and their sensitivity (about the privacy risks) is increasing, too,” Erik Neuenschwander, Apple’s chief privacy engineer, told The Associated Press in an interview.

Once the software update is installed — something most iPhone users do — even existing apps already on the device will be required to ask and receive consent to track online activities. That’s a shift Facebook fiercely resisted, most prominently in a series of full-page newspaper ads blasting Apple.

Until now, Facebook and other apps have been able to automatically conduct their surveillance on iPhones unless users took the time and trouble to go into their settings to prevent it — a process that few people bother to navigate.

“This is an important step toward consumers getting the transparency and the controls they have clearly been looking for,” said Daniel Barber, CEO of DataGrail, a firm that helps companies manage personal privacy.

In its attacks on Apple’s anti-tracking controls, Facebook blasted the move as an abuse of power designed to force more apps to charge for their services instead of relying on ads. Apple takes a 15% to 30% cut on most payments processed through an iPhone app.

Online tracking has long helped Facebook and thousands of other apps accumulate information about their user’s interests and habits so they can show customized ads. Although Facebook executives initially acknowledged Apple’s changes would probably reduce its revenue by billions of dollars annually, the social networking company has framed most of its public criticism as a defense of small businesses that rely on online ads to stay alive.

Apple, in turn, has pilloried Facebook and other apps for prying so deeply into people’s lives that it has created a societal crisis.

In a speech given a few weeks after the Jan. 6 attacks on the U.S. Capitol, Apple CEO Tim Cook pointed out how personal information collected through tracking by Facebook and other social media can sometimes push people toward more misinformation and hate speech as part of the efforts to show more ads.

“What are the consequences of not just tolerating but rewarding content that undermines public trust in life-saving vaccinations?” Cook asked. “What are the consequences of seeing thousands of users join extremist groups and then perpetuating an algorithm that recommends more?”

It’s part of Apple’s attempt to use the privacy issue to its competitive advantage, Barber said, a tactic he now expects more major brands to embrace if the new anti-tracking controls prove popular among most consumers.

In a change of tone, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently suggested that Apple’s new privacy controls could actually help his company in the long run. His rationale: The inability to automatically track iPhone users may prod more companies to sell their products directly on Facebook and affiliated services such as Instagram if they can’t collect enough personal information to effectively target ads within their own apps.

“It’s possible that we may even be in a stronger position if Apple’s changes encourage more businesses to conduct more commerce on our platforms by making it harder for them to use their data in order to find the customers that would want to use their products outside of our platforms,” Zuckerberg said last month during a discussion held on the audio chat app Clubhouse.

In the same interview, Zuckerberg also asserted most people realize that advertising is a “time-tested model” that enables them to get more services for free or at extremely low prices.

“People get for the most part that if they are going to see ads, they want them to be relevant ads,” Zuckerberg said. He didn’t say whether he believes most iPhone users will consent to tracking in exchange for ads tailored to their interests.

Google also depends on personal information to fuel a digital ad network even bigger than Facebook’s, but it has said it would be able to adjust to the iPhone’s new privacy controls. Unlike Facebook, Google has close business ties with Apple. Google pays Apple an estimated $9 billion to $12 billion annually to be the preferred search engine on iPhone and iPad. That arrangement is currently one element of an antitrust case filed last year by the U.S. Justice Department.

Facebook is also defending itself against a federal antitrust lawsuit seeking to break the company apart. Meanwhile, Apple is being scrutinized by lawmakers and regulators around the world for the commissions it collects on purchases made through iPhone apps and its ability to shake up markets through new rules that are turning it into a de facto regulator.

“Even if Apple’s business model and side in this battle is more rights protective and better for consumer privacy, there is still a question of whether we want a large corporation like Apple effectively ‘legislating’ through the app store,” Renieris said.

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