Apple:
Apple today announced it will host its annual Worldwide Developers Conference in San Jose from June 3 through June 7 at the McEnery Convention Center.
Apple’s first 2019 Special Event will be livestreamed on March 25, at 18:00 CET. This event will most probably focus on services, including a magazine subscription service and a TV service similar to Netflix. I’m not holding my breath for new hardware.
I’m really curious as to how Apple will structure all these subscriptions. Separately? Bundle them together? Will they even be available outside the US? Two more weeks and we’ll find out.
Macs, like many other computers, have always had their share of problems. These past few years feel particularly bad though, so here’s my quick take on the current state of the Mac lineup.
Chance Miller, for 9to5Mac:
According to the analyst, Apple will release a new MacBook Pro between 16-inches and 16.5-inches with an all-new design. Further, Kuo says Apple will return to the display market with a 31.6-inch 6k3k monitor. This display is said to feature a Mini LED-like backlight design, giving it “outstanding picture quality.”
I hope this means that the display will fill out the bezel, like other manufacturers have been doing for the past year or so. Keeping my fingers crossed for a standard connector to the display too instead of a proprietary solution (and 120 Hz), which is probably just wishful thinking.
John Paczkowski, reporting for Buzzfeed News:
Apple has settled on a date for its first big product announcement of 2019. Sources tell BuzzFeed News that the company plans to hold a special event on March 25 at the Steve Jobs Theater on its Apple Park campus. Headlining the gathering: that subscription news service that has been all over the news today. Unlikely to make an appearance: next-generation AirPods, or that rumored new iPad Mini.
Sources described the event as subscription-services focused, but declined to say anything about Apple’s stand-alone video streaming service, which is also rumored to debut in 2019.
My feelings towards Apple and their decisions have steadily changed over the past few years, ever since Tim Cook took over. Quite frankly, I am actually dreading what Apple will unveil at this event.
Benjamin Mullin, Lukas Alpert and Tripp Mickle, for The Wall Street Journal:
Apple Inc.’s plan to create a subscription service for news is running into resistance from major publishers over the tech giant’s proposed financial terms, according to people familiar with the situation, complicating an initiative that is part of the company’s efforts to offset slowing iPhone sales.
In its pitch to some news organizations, the Cupertino, Calif., company has said it would keep about half of the subscription revenue from the service, the people said.
A publisher would need to restructure a few things to adapt to this ‘Netflix for News’. What happens if or when Apple changes their mind? Or the structure of the service? Or abandons it, as they have done with things in the past? Even a 70/30 split would be greedy. I also assume access to this service would require an Apple device — I am strictly against siloing off the internet, which was designed to be open and accessible. Someone at Apple needs a reality check.
I have been using Apple’s keyboards almost solely since 2008, starting with the silver keys on my now sold 17-inch MacBook Pro. I then graduated to an Apple Wireless Keyboard, the 2013 MacBook Air and 2014 MacBook Pro keyboards, an Apple Magic Keyboard1, and I’m currently on a 2016 MacBook Pro butterfly keyboard, which has been already replaced once in April 2018. My frustration with the last two has led me on a long quest to find a mechanical keyboard, which would bring back to the joy to typing once more — I am currently using a Vortex Race 3, custom programmed to my liking, which I also use with my iPad Pro. So that’s my background, but what’s up with headline?
The Amazon Flex app is where you will spend most of your time scheduling and completing your deliveries. So it only makes sense that after signing up and getting approved for Amazon Flex, your next step is to download the Amazon Flex delivery app on your phone and start making deliveries!
Unfortunately, because Amazon Flex is not a program that is completely open to the public, the Amazon Flex app cannot be found on the Google Play store or the App Store. Instead, you must manually install the Amazon Flex app on your phone through a special process. The instructions are quite different for iPhone and Android, so be sure to reference the correct section depending on the phone type that you are using!
So that’s the big three tech giants all accounted for. Who’s next?
Tom Warren, for The Verge:
Apple shut down Google’s ability to distribute its internal iOS apps earlier today. A person familiar with the situation told The Verge that early versions of Google Maps, Hangouts, Gmail, and other pre-release beta apps stopped working alongside employee-only apps like a Gbus app for transportation and Google’s internal cafe app. The block came after Google was found to be in violation of Apple’s app distribution policy, and followed a similar shutdown that was issued to Facebook earlier this week.
Nicole Nguyen, for Buzzfeed News:
In a statement, Google told BuzzFeed News, “We’re working with Apple to fix a temporary disruption to some of our corporate iOS apps, which we expect will be resolved soon.” Apple told BuzzFeed News, “We are working together with Google to help them reinstate their enterprise certificates very quickly.”
Hands were slapped, but I wonder how many more companies are using enterprise certificates for things they shouldn’t be.
Tom Warren, for The Verge:
Apple has shut down Facebook’s ability to distribute internal iOS apps, from early releases of the Facebook app to basic tools like a lunch menu. A person familiar with the situation tells The Verge that early versions of Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and other pre-release “dogfood” (beta) apps have stopped working, as have other employee apps, like one for transportation. Facebook is treating this as a critical problem internally, we’re told, as the affected apps simply don’t launch on employees’ phones anymore.
This won’t change how Facebook operates. John Gruber recently called Facebook ‘a criminal enterprise’ and I’m finally willing to agree with him — that company should be treated as such by everyone. Quite frankly, I wouldn’t lose any sleep if they were completely booted from the App Store (including Instagram, WhatsApp, and all their other assets).
Mark Gurman and Debby Wu, for Bloomberg:
Apple is also testing some versions of this year’s iPhone line that includes a USB-C connector instead of the Lightning port that has been used on iPhones since 2012, indicating that the company plans an eventual switch, according to one of the people […]
Beyond iPhones, Apple plans to release an updated version of its lower-cost iPad with a roughly 10-inch screen and a faster processor as early as this spring, according to people familiar with the plans. That device is expected to retain the Lightning port, according to one of the people. The company is also readying a new, cheaper iPad mini, its smallest tablet that hasn’t been updated since 2015, the people said.
Apple’s next operating system update, iOS 13, will include a dark mode option for easier nighttime viewing and improvements to CarPlay, the company’s in-vehicle software. There will also be iPad-specific upgrades like a new home screen, the ability to tab through multiple versions of a single app like pages in a web browser, and improvements to file management. The company will also integrate two new services, including a magazine subscription service and its original video content efforts, via iOS updates this year.
This summary by Mark Gurman, potentially confirming previous leaks, makes me feel like I won’t be upgrading my iPhone this year – the new camera module will allegedly only be present on the XS Max’s successor, which is just too big to use comfortably. I was a bit surprised that he didn’t corroborate the leak about the XR’s successor getting a dual-camera setup though.
In terms of hardware, I can’t wait for a new iPad Mini. I doubt I’ll buy one — having two iPads is overkill — but still I fondly recall my first generation iPad Mini. It was just so comfortable to use around the house and in transit.
In terms of software, I can’t wait to get my hands on the new iOS 13 beta this June — 2019 will hopefully be the year of meaningful iPad updates.
Kartikay Mehrotra and Mark Gurman, for Bloomberg:
An Apple Inc. hardware engineer was charged by the U.S. with stealing the iPhone maker’s driverless car secrets for a China-based company, the second such case since July […]
Jizhong Chen was seen by a fellow Apple employee taking photographs Jan. 11 with a wide-angle lens inside a secure work space that houses the company’s autonomous car project, about six months after he signed a strict confidentiality oath when he was hired, according to a criminal complaint in federal court in San Jose, California.
Prosecutors said Chen admitted to taking the photos and backing up some 2,000 files to his personal hard drive, including manuals and schematics for the project, but didn’t tell Apple he had applied for a job with a China-based autonomous vehicle company.
Will the James Bonds of the world adapt to this new reality, in which stealing code for autonomous cars is more important than trying to steal nuclear launch codes?
Jason Snell, on Six Colours:
On January 29, Apple’s executives spoke with analysts on a conference call following its release of its quarterly results. This is a complete transcript of those statements.
Benjamin Mayo, for 9to5Mac:
A significant bug has been discovered in FaceTime and is currently spreading virally over social media. The bug lets you call anyone with FaceTime, and immediately hear the audio coming from their phone — before the person on the other end has accepted or rejected the incoming call. Apple says the issue will be addressed in a software update “later this week”.
In the meantime, Tim Cook tweeted:
We must keep fighting for the kind of world we want to live in. On this #DataPrivacyDay let us all insist on action and reform for vital privacy protections. The dangers are real and the consequences are too important.
Twitter user MGT7500 claims to have reported the bug days ago:
My teen found a major security flaw in Apple’s new iOS. He can listen in to your iPhone/iPad without your approval. I have video. Submitted bug report to @AppleSupport…waiting to hear back to provide details. Scary stuff!
At this point it’s not even the bug itself that irritates me, but the manner in which apple handles such reports. It’s unacceptable to call “all hands on deck” only after news of the bug goes public.
Apple Newsroom:
Today, Office 365 is available for the first time on the Mac App Store, making it easier than ever for Mac users to download Word, Outlook, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and the whole suite of Microsoft’s popular apps. Users can also purchase a subscription for Office 365 from within the apps, so they can get up and running instantly.
Office 365 for Mac has been designed specifically to support features that are unique to the Mac experience — features like Dark Mode and Continuity Camera in macOS, as well as the MacBook Pro Touch Bar and the Mac’s industry-leading Trackpad.
I can’t help but wonder what Apple’s cut on Office is. 70/30? 85/15? It surely can’t be 100/0‽
Samuel Axon, writing for Ars Technica:
Today, Apple quietly began taking orders for battery-equipped cases for all three 2018 iPhone models—iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, and iPhone XR. The value proposition and designs are essentially the same as with battery cases made by Apple for prior iPhones.
While the cases are probably made well enough, the 30% price hike is unacceptable. I’m not a person that needs extra battery life often, so buying one at these prices and not being able to use it when I go to a newer iPhone makes no sense whatsoever. On the other hand, a good power bank will keep going for years — my 10K mAh Xiaomi is still fine after being actively used for 5 years, it holds its charge, and it cost me around 20-30 USD. And it can also charge all my other devices.
Taylor Dixon, for iFixit:
The issue is fairly simple: the current generation of MacBook Pro laptops (2016–present) uses flexible ribbon cables to connect the display to a display controller board beneath the Touch Bar. These cables wrap over the board, where they’re secured by a pair of spring-loaded covers—and they’re subjected to the stress of bending with every opening and closure of the laptop. Within a seemingly short time, those cables are starting to fatigue and tear. The backlight cable is generally the first to go, producing the infamous “stage light” symptoms, and eventually giving out entirely when the laptop is opened more than about 40° […]
But the bigger problem is that, in an apparent effort to make the display as thin as possible, Apple designed the cables as part of the display, so they cannot be replaced. This means that when (not if) those cables start to fail, the entire display unit needs to be replaced, as opposed to one or two little cables—effectively turning a $6 problem into a $600 disaster.
Imagine if you had to replace half of your car because a cable stopped working. This is simply horrible design.
Tim Cook:
Last year, before a global body of privacy regulators, I laid out four principles that I believe should guide legislation:
First, the right to have personal data minimized. Companies should challenge themselves to strip identifying information from customer data or avoid collecting it in the first place. Second, the right to knowledge—to know what data is being collected and why. Third, the right to access. Companies should make it easy for you to access, correct and delete your personal data. And fourth, the right to data security, without which trust is impossible.
But laws alone aren’t enough to ensure that individuals can make use of their privacy rights. We also need to give people tools that they can use to take action. To that end, here’s an idea that could make a real difference.
I still trust Apple more than any other company to care about my privacy (though their deal with China makes me wary) — I hope they don’t screw this up as badly as they did their pricing.
Alex Allegro, for 9to5Mac:
A report from China’s National Business Daily says Chinese iPhone vendors received word yesterday regarding price cuts to iPhone 8, 8 Plus, XR, XS and XS Max.
The biggest price cut comes to the iPhone XR, which allegedly is seeing a 450 yuan (~$66) discount, bringing the total XR price to 5250 yuan (about $770). Generally though, most iPhones are seeing a 400 yuan (~$59) reduction.
What about the rest of the world?
Sean Hollister, for The Verge:
AMD has been lagging behind Nvidia for years in the high-end gaming graphics card race, to the point it’s primarily been pushing bang-for-the-buck cards like the RX 580 instead. But now at CES, the company says it has a GPU that’s competitive with Nvidia’s RTX 2080. It’s called the Radeon VII (“Seven”) and it uses the company’s first 7nm graphics chip, one we’d seen teased previously.
It’ll ship February 7th for $699, according to the company. That’s the same price as an standard Nvidia RTX 2080.
Can’t wait for Apple to introduce this card into their line-up in 2022, when it’s obsolete.
Joseph Menn for Reuters:
A senior Apple Inc security expert left for a much lower-paying job at the American Civil Liberties Union this week, the latest sign of increasing activity on policy issues by Silicon Valley privacy specialists and other engineers.
Jon Callas, who led a team of hackers breaking into pre-release Apple products to test their security, started Monday in a two-year role as technology fellow at the ACLU. Prior to his latest stint at Apple, Callas designed an encryption system to protect data on Macs and co-founded communications companies Silent Circle, Blackphone and PGP Corp. […]
Callas said he felt particular kinship with Google employees pressing to have more of a say in the company’s prospective deal to return to mainland China with a censored search engine.
“A bunch of people have in fact woken up and said ‘Where are we, where are we going?’” Callas said. “These employees are wanting more discussion and access to what’s going on.”
Callas said phone makers had improved security and he wanted to see progress continue and widen without companies succumbing to pressure to install back doors.
There could be a simple explanation for his choice but the elephant in the room is Apple in China.
Steve W. Berman and Jerrod C. Patterson:
iMac and MacBook owners have reported dark smudges and spots on the interior of the screens of their desktop computers as well as excessive slowness and break downs of their computers related to the lack of filter on Apple computers. The computer intakes air to cool its components, but with no filter, dust gets trapped inside. This affects the screen and logic board of the computer, leading to dust stuck behind the screen and gummed up motherboards, causing the computer to run slow and/or overheat.
According to many consumer reports online and across Apple’s support forum, the smudging substantially interferes with the functionality and use of the premium displays, especially for creative purposes such as photo editing, digital illustration and other activities requiring precise visual capabilities. The smudging often appears soon after purchase (but after Apple’s standard warranty period has expired).
When iMac owners raise the issue with Apple, Apple refuses to remedy the defect, forcing owners of affected iMacs to pay more than $500 to fix this screen defect, and even more if they wish to replace parts integral to the computer’s speed and performance.
I wholeheartedly support this, as my iMac had exactly the same problem. I sold it after having the screen replaced six times over a period od 3 years. Apple paid for the repair without question four times and I had to strong-arm them for the remaining two. I was delicately led to believe there would not be a seventh.
After an unofficial investigation in Poland, I found that every single iMac model since 2004 has exhibited this issue. Not every single iMac of course, but a decent percentage of every model. This has not been acknowledged or fixed by Apple since, nor are there are any repair programs.
Jon Porter, for The Verge:
Apple has resumed production of the iPhone X due to weaker than expected demand for its latest XS and XS Max models, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal. The move is allegedly due to an agreement made with Samsung to purchase a certain quantity of OLED screens. With this year’s OLED-equipped models failing to sell in the quantities needed to fulfill the terms of the deal, the report suggests that Apple is turning to last year’s model for a solution. Apple ceased selling the iPhone X in stores when the XS was first released.
If this turns out to be true, I’d be very surprised. Perhaps less so, if these phones only ended up in carriers’ hands, but this would be without precedent.
Michael Potuck, for 9to5Mac:
While Portrait mode depth editing arrived with the iPhone XS, XR and the 2018 iPad Pro, the feature isn’t available on iPhone X, 8 Plus, and 7 Plus. Today, Google is rolling out support for the feature with Google Photos for iOS.
It’s been argued that the iPhone X isn’t fast enough to support the editing of bokeh. I called it out after the keynote. Now Google is joining in, assisting users of “old” iPhones and bringing them functionality that Apple should have provided on day one.
Apple recently unveiled new Macs, iPhones, and iPads. They are continuing their trend to increase ASPs and milking their customers. This is a hostile practice towards its users and completely unacceptable to me personally. I compiled a list of things which the company should remedy below, before it’s too late.
Marco Arment:
The Apple Watch is an amazing feat of technology. It’s a computer. It can display anything. With no mechanical or physical limitations to hold us back, any watch-face design from anyone could plausibly be built, enabling a range of creativity, style, and usefulness that no single company could ever design on its own.
But they won’t let us. In a time when personal expression and innovation in watch fashion should be booming, they’re instead being eroded, as everyone in the room is increasingly wearing the same watch with the same two faces.
Open this door, Apple.
Apple could hand pick a few designers and developers for all I care. The current selection of Watch faces is stale and long in the tooth too. They need to address this sooner rather than later.
Owen Wilson, on Charged:
The company took just an hour to unveil sweeping updates to its existing hardware, and what’s clear after the dust has settled is that Microsoft’s hardware division is a force to be reckoned with. Apple’s dominance on the high-end laptop space looks shakier than ever, because Microsoft’s story is incredibly compelling.
Rather than building out a confusing, incompatible array of devices, Microsoft has taken the time to build a consistent, clear portfolio that has something to fit everyone across the board […]
I really loved one thing about the Surface Book (review unit) I had a while back — when I was done typing, I could just detach the screen and use it as a tablet… or run desktop Lightroom, which I can’t do on my iPad Pro.
Microsoft, it seems, has removed all of the barriers to remaining in your ‘flow.’ Surface is designed to adapt to the mode you want to be in, and just let you do it well. Getting shit done doesn’t require switching device or changing mode, you can just pull off the keyboard, or grab your pen and the very same machine adapts to you.
It took years to get here, but Microsoft has nailed it. By comparison, the competition is flailing around arguing about whether or not touchscreens have a place on laptops. The answer? Just let people choose.
This coherency is what I had come to expect from Apple, but iPad and MacBook look messier than ever. Sure, you can get an iPad Pro and Apple Pencil, but you can’t use either of them in a meaningful way in tandem with your desktop workflow. It requires switching modes entirely, to a completely different operating system and interaction model, then back again.
I won’t even bother writing about the sorry state of Apple’s hardware updates but there is one thing that frustrates me daily. I usually start work on my iPad, and when I get to the tougher stuff, I pull out my MacBook Pro. It’s not even because I can’t do that work on the iPad, but because I can get it done 50% faster on MacOS. I would love to just attach/detach the screen or keyboard, instead of switching computers.
Greg Knauss, on App Store Review rejecting release notes, mentioning the iPhones XS and XR by name:
You’ll note that I didn’t mention the names “iPhone XR” or “iPhone XS Max.” However, Apple again responded with a rejection […]
Apple apparently considers referencing the devices that an application is designed to run on not relevant to its functionality.
So on September 20, 2018, I squared my shoulders, modified the release notes again, and resubmitted the app:
A change was made. We can’t tell you what the change was, because that’s disallowed by Section 2.3 of the Program License Agreement. But we can’t not tell you what it was, because that’s disallowed by Section 2.3 of the App Store Review Guidelines. This leaves the app in a state of quantum indeterminacy, and the waveform can only collapse when someone doing App Store reviews stops observing it.
Apple — sensing that I might not be taking the process seriously — responded […]
We had the same situation and I was as baffled as Greg. Hats off to him for standing his ground and fighting absurdity.
I was hopeful for new iPads at this event but given how big of an impression the Apple Watch Series 4 made on me, I’m not feeling let down. I will, however, complain about the prices because I consider them to be absurd. Not by much but nevertheless… absurd.
Steven Levy published a whole trove of anecdotes from Apple’s execs, including Steve Jobs, on Wired:
Espinosa: When Steve returned, I drove down to the local Flag and Banner store, bought a pirate flag, stuck an Apple sticker on it and cable-tied it to the bridge across the atrium. It was there for about four hours before security took it down.
I’m halfway through. They’re a must-read.