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Monday, 28 September 2020

Apple Planned to Release Country-Specific Watch Bands for Postponed 2020 Summer Olympics

Apple appears to have been planning to introduce country-specific Apple Watch bands for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, but with the games postponed until 2021 due to the global health crisis, they have yet to be released.

Twitter account L0vetodream shared a few photos of the bands over the weekend, including one for the host country Japan and another for Denmark. The custom Sport Loops were designed to match each country's national flag, and they each have an abbreviated country name printed on the underside, such as DEN or JPN.

Apple released similar country-specific bands for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, with 14 custom Woven Nylon bands made available for the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, South Africa, New Zealand, Mexico, Japan, Jamaica, Canada, China, Brazil, Australia, Germany, and France. The bands were available to the public at only one Apple Store in Rio de Janeiro, retailing for $49 each.

The 2020 Summer Olympics are now scheduled to begin Friday, July 23, 2021.

Related Roundup: Apple Watch Series 6

Tag: Apple Watch bands

Buyer's Guide: Apple Watch (Buy Now)

This article, "Apple Planned to Release Country-Specific Watch Bands for Postponed 2020 Summer Olympics" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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It Took an Aerospace Engineer to Make This Tiny Baby Yoda Toy Fly

As amazingly detailed as action figures have become over the years, there’s still some features toymakers like Hasbro leave out, such as making Baby Yoda’s pod actually fly. It’s so tiny you’d need an aerospace engineer to pull that off, so it’s a good thing that aerospace engineer Adam Woodworth is as big a fan of …

The UK Could Be the First Country to Intentionally Give People Coronavirus to Test Vaccines

The UK is considering a controversial approach to testing potential vaccines for the coronavirus that causes covid-19: intentionally exposing volunteers to the virus, in a strategy known as challenge trials.

Apple Music Renaming 'Get Up! Mix' to 'Workout Mix'

Apple Music is rolling out a small update to its latest weekly playlist, renaming the "Get Up! Mix" to simply "Workout Mix" (via MacStories' John Voorhees). Apple launched the "Get Up! Mix" in March 2020, boosting the weekly curated playlist count to five, including "Favorites Mix," "Friends Mix," "New Music Mix," and "Chill Mix."

The "Get Up! Mix" was built around curating a collection of songs to help ‌Apple Music‌ subscribers get up and move, so the switch to a direct "Workout Mix" makes sense. The new name appears to be rolling out slowly today.

Looks like the ‌Apple Music‌ Get Up Mix is being renamed the Workout Mix: pic.twitter.com/ZZM1QSafnc
— John Voorhees (@johnvoorhees) September 28, 2020

Apple began a large-scale playlist rebranding in 2019, switching "The A-List: Dance" to "danceXL," "The A-List: Hip-Hop" to "Rap Life," "The A-List: Alternative" to "ALT CTRL," and "Best of the Week" to "New Music Daily." All of the playlists essentially stayed the same, but ditched "The A-List" moniker that had been around since ‌‌Apple Music‌‌ launched in 2015.

‌Apple Music‌ received a few updates in iOS 14 this month, with a new "Listen Now" tab that highlights new playlists, albums, and artists that match your listening tastes. ‌Apple Music‌ playlists in the Listen Now section feature larger artwork that is also animated, and pressing the play, pause, next, and back buttons on the Now Playing screen in the app‌ provides haptic feedback.

Tag: Apple Music

This article, "Apple Music Renaming 'Get Up! Mix' to 'Workout Mix'" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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AirPlay 2 and HomeKit Coming to Select 4K Roku TVs and Devices Later This Year

Roku today announced that AirPlay 2 and HomeKit will be rolling out to select 4K TVs and devices as part of a free software update later this year.

AirPlay 2 will enable users to stream videos, music, podcasts, and more directly from an iPhone, iPad, or Mac to a compatible Roku smart TV, with no Apple TV box necessary. And with HomeKit support, users can easily control the TV's power, volume, source, and more using Siri or the Home app on iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

Roku-based smart TVs are available from brands such as TCL, Sharp, Hisense, Hitachi, Sanyo, and RCA, or customers can connect a Roku streaming stick to their existing smart TV via the HDMI port to access the platform.

Roku OS 9.4 will begin rolling out to select Roku players this month and is expected to roll out to all supported streaming players, including the all-new Roku Ultra and Roku Streambar, in the coming weeks. Roku TV models are expected to receive the update in phases over the coming months, according to the company.

Eligible customers who purchase and activate a Roku device from October 23, 2020 to January 31, 2021 will receive a promotional code for three months free of Apple TV+. The offer is limited to new Apple TV+ subscribers.

Tags: HomeKit, Roku, AirPlay 2

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