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  The front of the 2020 27-inch iMac. [credit: Samuel Axon ]

It’s a weird time to be in the market for a new Mac. Earlier this summer, Apple announced that it will begin rolling out Apple Silicon —its in-house-designed riff on ARM processors as seen before in the iPhone and iPad—to the Mac product line. That marks a seismic shift in direction for the Mac.

But the company also said it would be releasing new Macs that use Intel’s CPUs—the more traditional choice for desktop and laptop computers—in the future and supporting Intel-based Macs for years to come.

Enter the new 27-inch iMac, announced just a couple of weeks ago. It’s the first new Mac product since the Apple Silicon announcement, and it’s a refresh for one of the company’s most iconic and popular products—one that’s been falling behind the rest of the Mac lineup for a while now.

Enlarge / The 27-inch iMac. (credit: Apple)

Apple has released software updates for three of its operating systems: iOS for iPhones and iPods, iPadOS for iPads, and macOS for Macs. The updates are small and focus on bug fixes rather than adding new features.

The updates are labeled iOS 13.6.1, iPadOS 13.6.1, and macOS 10.15.6 Supplemental Update. Typically, iOS or iPadOS updates that have two decimal points are bug-fix updates, and releases that bring new features have just one decimal point.

The mobile device update fixes a problem that prevented storage for being cleared as intended, addressed a bug that could cause "some displays to exhibit a green tint," and fixed an issue "where Exposure Notifications could be disabled for some users." As for macOS, just two changes are named by Apple: a fix for a "stability issue" related to virtualization apps, and a wake-from-sleep problem unique to the brand-new iMac that just released.

Enlarge / The key art for this year's conference. (credit: Apple )

Today, Apple announced more details about its 2020 Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), including some initial details about online sessions and the start time of the keynote.

Said keynote is slated to begin on Monday, June 22, at 10:00am PDT (1:00pm EDT; convert to your time zone here ), and we'll be liveblogging the event here at Ars as it transpires. During these WWDC keynotes, Apple executives typically take the stage to detail Apple's software plans for the year.

Of course, nothing is going to be typical about this year's keynote, as it will be held entirely online for the first time as a result of the pandemic. Still, we expect a similar slate of announcements to what we've seen in previous years. Software like the operating systems for the Mac, iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch is almost always the focus in the WWDC announcements, but the company has used the event to announce major new hardware products or services before.

Enlarge / The front of the 2019 iPad Air. (credit: Samuel Axon)

Earlier this week, Apple notified app developers of a revised set of App Store review guidelines—the rules by which Apple curates its iOS/iPadOS, tvOS, watchOS, and macOS App Stores.

Among many other things, the revised rules expand the definition of what constitutes a spam app and also clarify that developers are able to use push notifications to serve ads to users (provided users have explicitly opt in to them) and limit submissions of certain types apps to trusted organizations in regulated or sensitive industries.

The most controversial of these changes has been the clear statement that developers can serve ads to users via push notifications. At one point in the past, Apple's guidelines stated that push notifications "should not be used for advertising, promotions, or direct marketing purposes or to send sensitive personal or confidential information." Now the guidelines state:

Enlarge / The iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus, which will now gain consumers $40 less in trade-in value than before. (credit: Samuel Axon)

Apple has proudly touted its trade-in and recycling programs, mentioning them prominently at major events, during investor calls, and on its website. But in changes that quietly went into effect this week, the company reduced the trade-in value for many of its products, meaning consumers will get less money for their old iPhones and other devices than they did previously.

MacRumors reported the news based on looking at values estimated on Apple's online store before and after the change, and the site listed the tracked changes. Trading in an iPhone XS Max was previously estimated to fetch the consumer $600 towards an upgrade, but that number is now $500. The iPhone 8 estimate has gone down from $220 to $180, an iPad Air from $100 to $70, and an Apple Watch series 4 went from $110 to $100.

It's interesting to note, however, that Mac trade-in values were barely affected, if they changed at all. And all Apple Watch models except the newest series 4 model also remained the same. It's mainly the iPhone and iPad product lines that have been impacted.

Enlarge / Maybe this textbook is from the Ma Bell era? #ThanksStockGettyImages (credit: designer491 / Getty Images)

Once upon a time, there was a phone company—or rather, the phone company. AT&T Corp., the venerable "Ma Bell," provided nearly all telephone service to nearly all Americans for decades... until it didn't. The company infamously broke up on New Year's Day in 1984, splitting into the seven "Baby Bells," regional carriers that could compete with other long-distance providers for consumer dollars.

The split wasn't just for funsies. The baby Bells were the ultimate result of a settlement between AT&T and the Justice Department, the culmination of an antitrust case that began nearly a decade earlier. It was the first time the feds broke up a communications company for antitrust reasons—and 35 years later, it retains the dubious distinction of being the last.

The decades of deregulation since the Reagan administration have brought us to a whole new era of massive corporate consolidation and the rise of a new wave of conglomerates in sectors that didn't even exist 40 years ago. The growth at the top in tech has been particularly stratospheric: Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, and a handful of others that have risen since the turn of the century now dominate our economy and our communications in a powerful way.