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Apple is finally moving ahead with their AR/VR headset with mass production set to begin in March 2023 at Pegatrons manufacturing plants, according to a new report from DigiTimes. DigiTimes expects Apple to unveil the product to the public the month after starting mass production which contradicts previous rumors from Apple analyst Ming Chi Kuo of the headset being unveiled at an Apple event in January. The report also claims that the production scale will be very limited with Apple planning to aim the headset at commercial markets with a high price point. The previous estimated shipments for the device annually were 2.5 million units, but now they're between 0.7 - 0.8 million units. It's also expected that the device won't be profitable for manufacturers especially those who benefit from large scale productions, but manufacturing partners are willing to work with Apple to prove their qualifications of producing future headsets for Apple. While the headset has been rumored to launch many times in the past, many reports have claimed that Apple is finally ready to introduce their new product category next year and give developers the time they need to start developing apps for realityOS.

Here are the top stories from this week. You can learn more about each story by clicking the link below. Apple Announced their annual Holiday Gift Guide for this year Apple's Holiday Gift Guide allows customers to learn more about Apple's product lineup this holiday season and also about which product they can give out as a gift to their family or loved ones. New EU law might force Apple into allowing other app stores on their platform A new law passed by the EU might mean that Apple will have to allow third party app stores on their platform as well as sideloading. Apple isn't a fan of having a third party app stores on their platform since they like to control the users experience. Twitter laid off nearly 50% of their entire workforce after Musk's acquisition Twitter's massive layoff comes after Musk's acquisition of the company and his efforts to make the platform a better place for free speech. Musk claims the layoffs were necessary to keep the company stable and profitable. Twitter's app updated with new $8 Twitter Blue subscription The new subscription will allow any subscriber user to have a blue verification checkmark as well as other benefits including priority replies and fewer ads. Apple addresses iPhone 14 Pro shipment delays In a new press release, Apple has addressed that they're anticipating lower shipments than usual of the iPhone 14 Pro. Check out our review of the new iPad 10th generation Check out our review of the new 2022 iPad Pro Check out our review of the new 2022 Apple TV 4K All articles featured in The Apple Square Stories this week are from the News section or Reviews section of the website. You can learn more about each story by clicking the button below the preview.

Apple addressed the situation in China and how it will impact the shipments of iPhone 14 Pro this holiday season. The company claims that iPhone 14 Pro shipments will be lower than anticipated due to the COVID-19 restrictions at Foxconn's assembly plant in Zhengzhou, China where the iPhone's are manufactured. Apple had this to say about the situation in their press release on Apple Newsroom: COVID-19 restrictions have temporarily impacted the primary iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max assembly facility located in Zhengzhou, China. The facility is currently operating at significantly reduced capacity. As we have done throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, we are prioritizing the health and safety of the workers in our supply chain. We continue to see strong demand for iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max models. However, we now expect lower iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max shipments than we previously anticipated and customers will experience longer wait times to receive their new products. We are working closely with our supplier to return to normal production levels while ensuring the health and safety of every worker. Apple claims that these restrictions are causing their supply chain factories to operate at reduced capacity which will result in longer wait times for customers.

After a series of rumors about the future of Twitter and Twitter Blue, Elon Musk, the new owner and CEO of Twitter announced on Twitter that Twitter Blue subscriptions will now cost $8. The benefits of having Twitter Blue for $8 includes the fact that any user who is subscribed will receive a verified checkmark as well as other benefits including priority replies and fewer ads. Celebrities who are at risk of identity theft in the platform will also have to pay $8 to keep their verified checkmark. Many have criticized Musk's new move for the platform and the fact that he opened up the blue checkmark for everyone on Twitter. The blue verification checkmark on Twitter was for public figures or companies who can easily be impersonated on the platform by others, and the purpose of it was so users will know which account is legitimate. Musk claims this move is done to give "power to the people" on the platform and to make everyone on the platform equal. Musk also claims that the new update will reduce spam on Twitter which was a key reason for Musk's acquisition. The update is now available to download for Twitter users.

Elon Musk has layed off nearly half of Twitter's entire workforce on Friday including those from the teams which are responsible to keep twitter's platform safe from misinformation ahead of the US midterms. Other teams impacted by the massive layoffs are policy, product trust and safety, tweet curation, communications, ethical AI, research, data, machine learning, social good, accessibility, and a few teams from engineering. The massive layoff comes after Elon Musk fired Twitter CEO, Parag Agrawal, and Twitter's CFO. Many other top level executives have been layed off from the company and some have resigned from their positions. Some employees at the company claim that the layoffs and lack of employees at the company means that Twitter will have many problems in the future with their infrastructure and how they operate. They expect the platform to have many glitches as well as have frequent outages. The emails notifying employees about their employment status at the company went out at 9am Pacific Time on Friday with employees who were layed off being notified via their personal email while employees who weren't layed off, being notified via their work email. Many employees who were layed off immediately lost all access to their work account and login to Twitter's servers along with some being locked out the night before. Twitter also kept their offices closed on Friday with badge access shut off at Birdhouse. Twitter employees were notified that badge access will remain shut off until Monday November 7th. Twitter also asked some of the layed off employees to return back to Twitter after realizing they might have layed them off by mistake and will require their skills for Musk's vision for Twitter. Musk claims his massive layoff was necessary to keep Twitter profitable since the company is known to be unprofitable and most of its revenue comes from ads. This comes at a time when most tech giants in Silicon Valley are reducing their workforce and or freezing recruitment of new employees. Companies like Lyft, Upstart, and Meta have also been reducing their workforce to stay profitable. Musk has been called out by many government officials saying the company must announce massive layoffs 60 days prior to doing so and that Musk has broken many federal laws and California state laws. Many Twitter employees have even sued the company for the massive reduction in headcount.

Apple officially launched their Holiday Gift Guide for 2022 along with many new holiday perks for customers. You can view Apple's Holiday Gift Guide on their website and learn more about their products, as well as what's new this year. With the information provided by Apple customers will be able to find the perfect gift and it will make their shopping experience easier. Apple stores worldwide will also provide holiday shopping experiences to their customers with extended return dates and assistance with shopping for products. Apple announced "Spirited" alongside their Holiday Gift Guide, which is a Christmas musical premiering this month on Apple TV+ and theaters.

Today IKEA announced its new Dirigera smart hub which is compatible with Matter. With Matter, devices can connect to smart home voice assistants like HomeKit, Alexa, and Google Home. The new hub will work with smart home products from IKEA as well as smart home products with Matter compatibility. IKEA also updated its smart home app to help new users with the smart home experience. The hub will also be compatible with Apple HomeKit later this year.

Live Activities was introduced in iOS 16 which is a notification that keeps you updated on real time activities which include your Starbucks order, live score for a sports game, or the location of your Uber driver, and more. It helps you keep an eye of things directly from the Lock Screen and is very convenient especially on iPhone 14 Pro where it directly integrates into the Dynamic Island so you can continue to browse through apps while viewing Live Activities above. Here's how to enable the feature on your iPhone, you will need to install iOS 16 if you haven't done so already: Open the Settings app Once open, scroll down and tap Face ID & Passcode Enter your passcode Toggle the switch next to Live Activities to on and it should turn green under "Allow Access When Locked", Live Activities should now be enabled on your iPhone and you can start receiving notifications from apps that support the feature.

The Withings Thermo Thermometer is a smart thermometer which quickly gives you accurate clinical temperature readings and syncs right to your iPhone and iPad. It allows you to track your temperature while also giving you advice on how to cure your fever and what medication to take based on the type of fever you have. Thermo measures the temporal artery to detect your temperature. The device has a colored led which illuminates the user's temperature on the side and tells the user if their temperature is normal based on their age. The device can support up to 8 users and the user's name will appear on the device. They will also have a profile on the app with their temperature and symptom history, and will receive advance health advice. The Smart Thermostat is compatible with your iPhone or iPad running iOS 8 or later and it's available to purchase for $99.95.

TheAppleSquare Gift Guide is a new service from TheAppleSquare Guides which will help you decide which consumer gift to get this holiday season. It's often hard to pick which product will be the right gift and that's where we come in to help. The service will be available this entire holiday season for free and will get directly delivered to your inbox if you're a member of TheAppleSquare Blue. For more information about Gift Guide and all our other services please visit our services page. FTC Disclaimer: TheAppleSquare Gift Guide will consist of links from our affiliate partners including Amazon, Walmart, Target, and more. We will earn a small commission when you use our affiliate links to purchase items.

The new Apple TV 4K is a much better upgrade than last year's model which only had the new redesigned Siri Remote. Here are our thoughts on the new Apple TV 4K and if you should buy it. The 2022 Apple TV 4K includes the A15 Bionic chips which provides 50% faster CPU performance and 30% faster GPU performance and has support for HDR10+ which dynamically optimizes HDR10 content for your screen based on metadata. It also supports WiFi 6 and the 64GB option features an ethernet port for wired connection. The Siri Remote now has a USB-C port for charging and remains the same with all the great features from the previous model. The Apple TV 4K is a great buy for users who have a 4K TV and want to experience HDR10+ content and it's also more affordable with a starting price of $129.

The new 2022 iPad Pro is now available in stores and here are our thoughts on the new device and if it's worth upgrading to. To start off, the updates on the new iPad Pro are very minor compared to previous generations. It still features an 11-inch and 12.9-inch display option as well as the new M2 chip. The iPad Pro is also the first Apple product to have support for WiFi 6E. The camera on iPad Pro can now shoot ProRes video and there's a new hover feature for Apple Pencil which allows you to view your mark right before you start drawing. The iPad Pro features the M2 chip which provides 15% faster CPU performance and up to 35% faster GPU performance compared to the previous iPad Pro with M1. It also has 15% - 16% greater multi-core performance compared to M1. A big update on the iPad Pro is the way it interacts with the Apple Pencil. iPad Pro can now detect Apple Pencil at least 12mm above the display. The new Apple Pencil hover feature acts more like a mouse or trackpad and will zoom in on an object or highlight an icon when you hover your Apple Pencil over it. The new hover feature for Apple Pencil works great for those who want to draw and see their marks before drawing them. We can't really say anything more about the iPad Pro since then updates were very limited and the only difference is most likely in performance. The iPad Pro is for users who want to use their iPad to do things like rendering and creating sketches which require the capabilities of the M2 chip do so. There's no need to upgrade if you have a 2018 iPad Pro or later since the design and everything else is mostly the same.