Apple spent time reinventing the mouse pointer to make it perfect for iPad, revealed Craig Federighi, the company’s senior vice president of software engineering, in a new interview.

Its brand-new system, which debuted in iPadOS 13.4 in March, is inspired by Apple TV and designed to feel familiar to those who have never used a mouse or trackpad with iPad before.

“We set out to design the cursor in a way that retains the touch-first experience without fundamentally changing the UI,” Federighi said.

A handful of Apple and Google employees turned a novel approach to fighting COVID-19 from a spark of an idea to a pandemic-fighting tool in less than a month. The tech giants combined forces in March, intent on creating a contact-tracing app capable of monitoring the movements of people who might have come in contact with someone infected with the coronavirus.

CNBC reported inside details Tuesday on how Apple’s initial contact-tracing project — code-named “Bubble” — went from two employees to dozens, and enlisted the help of others at Google.

Apple’s amazing new Magic Keyboard might be a must-have accessory for some iPad Pro owners, but it comes with one big tradeoff. The combined weight of both devices makes the package heavier than a MacBook Air.

That’s something you’ll want to bear in mind if you use an iPad Pro for its portability. If it doesn’t put you off, however, you’ll want to check out the early hands-on videos that show the Magic Keyboard in action.

Apple on Friday confirmed that its annual Worldwide Developers Conference will go ahead in June with “an all-new online format” and not take place at a conference center as has happened since the first WWDC in 1987.

The high-tech giant said the approach was essential amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, but that it was determined to deliver a full program with an online keynote and developer sessions. Apple has also confirmed it will commit $1 million to local San Jose organizations to offset revenue loss as a result of WWDC going online-only.

Apple has reportedly subpoenaed Santander Bank and $50 billion intelligence contractor L3Harris Technologies as part of its ongoing battle with cybersecurity startup Corellium.

Apple wants to know how both groups are using Corellium’s software. This software lets companies run virtual versions of iOS for security and functionality testing.

The challenges Apple has experienced with buggy iOS 13 is causing it to rethink the way it builds and tests operating systems, starting with iOS 14.

According to Bloomberg, software boss Craig Federighi recently announced the changes at a “kickoff” meeting. The new approach will make it easier for testers to be able to switch on and off new features. This is so they can better work out how the features independently impact software functionality.

Apple has upgraded five executives to Vice President status. This includes one returning early iPhone executive, a report from Bloomberg notes.

Paul Meade is the new VP of hardware engineering, Jon Andrews is now VP of software engineering, Gary Geaves is VP of acoustics, and Kaiann Drance is VP of marketing. Apple has also brought back Bob Borchers, who has been named VP of product marketing.

One of the cool things about Apple is how accessible its senior execs are. Steve Jobs started the practice of making his email address public knowledge, and would often respond to users’ comments. Tim Cook continued that philosophy, and has said he spends hours responding to people’s emails.

Over the weekend, an email posted to Reddit featured Craig Federighi’s message to a young fan wanting to pursue coding. Here’s what Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering had to say.

One of the most-requested productivity features for iMessage probably won’t be added in an iOS update anytime soon.

A Reddit user recently posted an email exchange he had with Apple VP of software Craig Federighi asking for a scheduled iMessage feature for iPhone and iPad. Federighi revealed that Apple has actually considered and is still considering the feature. However, there are a couple of issues with how scheduled iMessages are received that has caused Apple to hold back on the idea for now.

Read Craig’s explanation of why it hasn’t been added yet:

When Apple introduced ARKit in 2017, the augmented reality platform was hailed as a game-changer. Two years later, Apple’s AR push looks ready to deliver the type of experience that gets CEO Tim Cook so excited he wants to scream.

Thanks to a trio of new augmented reality tools for iOS 13, and the very real possibility of an Apple AR headset on the horizon, 2019 promises to be the start of something truly special for Apple’s augmented reality efforts.