Benjamin Mayo

Apple announced today that it has invested $10 million to COPAN Diagnostics, as part of its Advanced Manufacturing Fund for US businesses. COPAN Diagonistics is a manufacturer of collection kits for coronavirus samples. The investment will help the company grow production levels to more than one million kits per week.

In the past, Apple has used the Advanced Manufacturing Fund to invest in companies directly related to its supply chain, like Corning glass, or Finisar — the VCSEL laser manufacturer whose components form part of the Face ID TrueDepth camera system.

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Apple continues its hiring spree with Apple TV+. Today, it was revealed that the company has hired the BBC’s factual controller, Alison Kirkham, who will join Apple’s growing original content division based in the United Kingdom.

Apple also announced that it has set an overall deal with Alena Smith, the showrunner of ‘Dickinson’. Dickinson was the first complete series released on the Apple TV+ service, with all episodes streaming from November 1st.

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There has been a recent upswell in complaints from AirPods Pro owners that their earphones aren’t quite working as well as they did when they first got them. One such issue making waves on the Apple forums is that users are noticing crackling noises coming from their earbuds.

This week, Apple has released a couple of support articles that specifically mention troubleshooting steps to try, for users experiencing issues with Active Noise Cancellation or if they are hearing crackling/static noises.

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After several years in the rumor mill, Apple officially announced its new original content streaming service Apple TV+ at an event last March, at a media event packed with celebrities and famous faces … but with almost no trailers of the shows themselves. With millions of users set to take advantage of Apple’s free one-year trial offer, Apple debuted TV+ on November 1st, 2019. And priced at $4.99/month, Apple undercut Netflix, Disney, and every other streaming service.

However, many questioned whether a service that launched with 8 shows and no back catalog could compete. So how has TV+ fared six months on?

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Apple today updated the 13-inch MacBook Pro with the Magic Keyboard, alongside performance and tech spec improvements. The new 13-inch Pro features scissor switch keys, marking the end of the butterfly keyboard MacBook era.

The new MacBook Pro is available to order today, starting at $1299. Apple has doubled the base SSD storage across all configurations.

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Apple today shared a trio of new TV ads, all advertising its Apple TV+ service. Apple TV+ debuted in November with 8 original shows, and the company has steadily grown the library ever since. Uptake of the $4.99/month service remains unclear, with analyst consensus pitting TV+ as taking about 3-5% of the US streaming market. Depending on your perspective, that’s either a flop or a good start, considering TV+ is a new service that relies solely on brand new originals rather than established franchises and a back catalog.

Nevertheless, Apple’s attempts at original content video stretch out several years at least and the initial launch figures almost don’t matter. Watch the new ad spots after the break.

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The smartphone market is expected to decline as much as 16.5% in the second quarter, according to the latest estimates by TrendForce. Of course, the cause of this precipitous drop is the continuing economic impacts of the coronavirus.

TrendForce believes the first quarter of 2020 saw a 10% decline in smartphone output, and that will worsen in Q2 as businesses feel the brunt of a full quarter of coronavirus lockdowns. The firm currently estimates an 11.3% decline for the full year, which means it expects some degree of recovery in the second half of the year.

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With everyone stuck at home, more and more people are resorting to video chat tools like FaceTime to stay connected. Apple is adding a new setting in iOS 13.5 to improve the experience on a busy Group FaceTime call…

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Update: The Apple Maps COVID-19 database is now live across the United States and Puerto Rico. Users can search for COVID-19 testing locations or view them on the map directly. Expect it to spread to more countries soon. Screenshot and original story below.

Continuing Apple’s efforts in helping fight the coronavirus, Apple Maps will soon display testing sites directly on the map.

Apple has launched a portal for hospitals, healthcare providers and businesses to register as a COVID-19 testing location. Apple will review the application and when approved, the location will start appearing on Apple Maps.

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The UK National Health Service is forging ahead with plans to release its own coronavirus contract tracing app for iOS and Android. Unfortunately, the app will not use of the Apple/Google privacy-conscious exposure notification framework, and instead the NHS are rolling their own solution, as reported in a statement to BBC News today.

The NHS app will send exposure events to a centralized server, which means it will necessitate that users share more information than if they had adopted the official Exposure Notification API, which Apple and Google are evangelizing. The approach will also drain user’s batteries faster, which could impact uptake of the app by the public.

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Echoing other reports, the Wall Street Journal is today reporting that Apple is about a month behind on iPhone production. This means the iPhone 12 will likely launch later than the usual September window, as a result of the impacts of the coronavirus on the supply chain.

Apple will launch four new iPhone 12 models this year, one 5.4-inch model, one 6.7-inch model, and two 6.1-inch models. This means Apple will be offering its latest flagship devices in new smaller and larger form factors. The current iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro lines feature 5.8-inch, 6.1-inch, and 6.5-inch displays.

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Apple is set to release its first Mac based on a custom ARM chip next year, according to Bloomberg. This lines up with the previous timeline reported from Bloomberg, which cited late 2020/2021 timeframe, and other reports from publications like analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.

Bloomberg says that Apple is working on a range of chips aimed for future Macs. The first Apple-designed chip will apparently be based on a 5-nanometer fabrication process, and feature 12 CPU cores: 8 high-performance cores and 4-efficiency cores.

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Tim Cook held talks with European Commissioner Thierry Breton yesterday regarding the upcoming contact tracing frameworks, that Apple and Google are jointly collaborating on. The companies announced a privacy-preserving API that allows devices to be notified when another user’s device who reports positive for COVID-19 was in close proximity, based on Bluetooth, without sharing the identities of said user.

However, some governments want more data like location information and user identification. Breton said that tech companies should do everything possible to develop solutions for the national use cases, but did not mention specific cases. As reported by iGeneration, Cook also announced a new date for the rollout of the contact tracing API.

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As a consequence of the coronavirus supply chain disruption, Apple has reportedly delayed the release of the first 5G iPad to 2021. Economic Daily News reports that the product was originally meant to launch in the fall, but the epidemic has interfered with the roadmap.

You can expect that Apple is prioritizing the 5G iPhone 12 launch above all else, as it is the company’s central revenue and profit driver. We have already heard how flagship iPhone testing is behind schedule, and may launch weeks later than planned. Originally, the rumor mill was indicating that there would be two iPad hardware updates in 2020, with a fall iPad Pro to follow up on the 2020 iPad Pro and Magic Keyboard releases. However, it now seems like that is no longer on the cards.

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Apple officially expanded the reach of its services offerings today, bringing key content businesses to more countries.

The expansion sees the App Store, Apple Arcade, Apple Podcasts, and iCloud launch in 20 new countries. Meanwhile, Apple Music debuts in a total of 72 new markets. Users signing up to the Apple Music free trial in 52 of the new countries will be able to use the service for free for six months, compared to the usual three-month trial offers.

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Rounding up a few leaks of forthcoming Apple products, the Twitter account @L0vetodream has shared various predictions about Apple products recently, with details on Apple’s March and April releases turning out to be spot on.

One interesting thing he said in March was that Apple is developing its own game controller, and that there will be a future iPad with a mini-LED display and Apple will use under-screen Touch ID to achieve the slim bezel design, rather than Face ID. He also predicted that Apple will remove the large earpiece receiver from future iPhones, something that can now be seen in the latest iPhone 12 schematics leaks (via Jon Prosser).

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