Follow Benjamin on Threads to keep up with his latest projects. Benjamin blogs about Apple news and rumors and posts insightful product and app reviews. Read his work on 9to5Mac and his personal blog.
Benjamin Mayo also creates apps for iOS as a professional indie developer and contractor; more details here. Email to discuss making your iOS project.
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Apple had Oprah on stage at its March event to announce two documentaries focusing on sexual harassment and mental health. They did not say that the show production had links to royalty …
Today, the Instagram account representing the Duke & Duchess of Sussex announced that Prince Harry will be a co-creator and executive producer on the mental health documentary.
TF Securities’ Ming-Chi Kuo has released a report which lays out Apple’s product interest in mini-LED technology. Kuo says that Apple will launch a 31.6-inch (6K resolution) external display in the second or third quarter of 2019 and feature a mini-LED backlight.
By late 2020 or early 2021, Kuo says that Apple will also launch a new iPad and new MacBook with mini-LED displays. It seems that whilst the 2019 31.6-inch display will only use mini-LED technology for the backlight, these future iPad and MacBook would feature true end-to-end mini-LED screens. This is why the timeline for these products stretches further into the future.
The Pixelmator team is today launching a new iPad app called Pixelmator Photo, a variant on their existing Pixelmator suite focused on non-destructive editing for photographers.
The app is available in the App Store now for $4.99. It takes the essence of the Pixelmator Pro experience to an interface tuned for the iPad tablet form factor, concentrated on photography.
In yet another abuse of the enterprise distribution program, security analyst Lookout has identified apps (via TechCrunch) that were pretending to be published by cell carriers in Italy and Turkmenistan. The apps were available for iPhone users to download through Safari as they were signed by an enterprise certificate. These apps used carrier branding and pretended to offer utilities for the users’ cell plans when in reality they would ask for every permission they could to track location, collect contact, photos, and more, and had the capability to listen in on users’ phone conversations.
Apps using enterprise certificates are not available through the App Store, but malicious criminals can target iOS users through Safari (perhaps with a phishing attack-esque email) and get people to download the app over the web, outside of the purview of the App Store review process.
Japanese Apple blog Macotakara is making some unorthodox claims this morning regarding the 2019 iPhone lineup. Previous rumors had indicated that the 2019 lineup would be direct successors to the 2018 iPhone XR, iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max.
Today’s report, citing reliable Chinese supply chain sources, suggests that in addition to spec bumps to the XR and XS, there will be two new 2019 iPhone models with 6.1-inch and 6.5-inch OLED displays. These models would be specially designed to accommodate the rumored triple-camera system.
Update: Amazon Echo customers in UK & Ireland can now use Apple Music. Open the Alexa app and go to Settings -> Music -> Link New Service to get started.
Following the Apple Music launch on Amazon Echo speakers in the US, Apple Music is now available on the Amazon Fire TV as well. The Apple Music skill can now integrate with Alexa on Fire TV, so you can ask your TV to play Apple Music with your voice.
Moreover, Amazon announced that it is now expanding Apple Music on Amazon Echo to more countries. The service will be available to Echo owners in the United Kingdom ‘in the coming weeks’.
Apple has officially lowered the price of the HomePod worldwide. In the price has fallen from $349 to $299, breaking the $300 level. HomePod has seen promotional discounts at many third party retailers (eg: it’s $279 right now at Best Buy) over its lifespan, but now Apple has dropped the smart speaker’s standard list price.
This price cut represents a roughly 15% drop and seemingly applies to every region, not just the US. For example, the UK price has fallen from £319 to £279.
Apple is now selling a very interesting Anker accessory, called the Anker PowerCore Fusion with Power Delivery. In a package about the same size as Apple’s laptop chargers, this unit doubles as both a USB-C wall charger and a 5000 mAh portable battery, for charging on-the-go.
It has been common knowledge in the rumor mill that Apple is not ready to debut an iPhone in 2019 with 5G radios. Apple has never been early to adopting new cellular standards and 5G deployment in 2019 is very scarce anyway.
However, general consensus has indicated that Apple wants to release a 5G iPhone model in 2020. UBS analyst Timothy Arcuri released a report today that says there is an increasing likelihood that Apple will not be able to launch a 5G iPhone next year.
In a continuation of its Logitech Slim Folio for iPad accessories, Logitech today announced the Slim Folio Pro keyboard case for third-generation iPad Pro models. The 11-inch iPad Pro case costs $119.99 and the 12.9-inch case costs $129.99.
According to Digitimes this morning, Apple is laying the groundwork in the supply chain to launch three new iPhones in 2020 featuring OLED displays. The current flagship lineup offers OLED screens on iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max, but the iPhone XR uses a lower-resolution LCD panel to save money.
This pattern is set to continue for the 2019 generation, but Apple will shake things up next year. The three 2020 iPhones will reportedly come in new screen sizes: 5.42-inch, 6.06-inch and 6.67-inch diagonally.
In China, Apple has lowered prices across its lineup in response to a lowering of VAT (sales tax) in the region from 16 to 13%, which went into effect today, reducing the entry price of iPhone and its other product lines. The changes were first reported by CNBC and 9to5Mac has seen documentation that confirms the new pricing.
The Chinese Apple Online Store went down for maintenance yesterday as the company rolled out the price changes across its product lines.
Apple has announced today that it is unable to ship the AirPower charging mat and have cancelled the project, via TechCrunch.
In a statement from Dan Riccio, Apple apologized to customers that had been waiting for the product to come out. The AirPower mat was originally announced in September 2017 alongside the iPhone X. Apple was silent on the project for a year and a half, and today confirmed that AirPower is cancelled.
Apple announced today that developers can now advertise their apps in App Store Search in an additional 46 countries.
The Apple AirPods have led the truly-wireless earphone industry and maintained their crown ever since their release in late 2016. The changes introduced in AirPods 2, or AirPods (second-generation) as Apple describes them, don’t shake the boat but help AirPods maintain their lead.
I received my AirPods with Wireless Charging Case yesterday morning in the UK, so I’ve had about a day to get a feel for them. Most of the changes are obvious, but welcome, improvements to the truly-wireless formula. Wireless charging remains a bit of a question mark for me, thanks in large part to the continued absence of a certain charging mat. Here’s what’s new …
Update: The ITC board has just rejected a different case of infringement. The decision below will be reviewed with a final decision by July. No iPhone ban just yet. Apple’s statement is below.
The Qualcomm-Apple patent battle continues. A US judge has ruled that some iPhone models have infringed on Qualcomm patents.
The ruling from the International Trade Commission judge means that the judge recommended an import ban on some iPhone models, however the decision may have to be reviewed by the full commission before a ban comes into effect. The ban is unlikely to affect the latest models like iPhone XS and iPhone XR.
Update: It appears Apple has fixed the crashing problem with a server-side change.
The launch of Apple News+ is not going as smoothly as Apple had probably hoped. Many iPhone and iPad users are finding that the Apple News app is crashing repeatedly after updating to iOS 12.2.
According to sources, Apple is aware of the issue and is rapidly working on a fix. It’s not clear if the company will need to rush out a new iOS 12.2.1 software update or if the problem can be addressed server-side.
One trend of the announcements yesterday was there was not too much love given to consumers outside of the United States. The Apple Card was announced as a US only product; a credit card that is integrated into the iPhone Wallet and offers 2-3% cashback on transactions made with Apple Pay.
Goldman Sachs CEO Richard Gnodde told CNBC that the company is exploring international opportunities for Apple Card but did not go into detail …
In iOS 12.2 and macOS 10.14.4, you may notice a new warning in the URL bar when browsing the web in Safari. It says the page you are visiting is “Not Secure”. But what does this mean? Are you less secure than you were before?
Following the event today, Apple has not released any new hardware but it has rebranded the 2015 fourth-generation Apple TV as the Apple TV HD. The set-top box, formerly known as simply ‘Apple TV’, now has a better name that it distinguishes it from the newer Apple TV 4K.
Apple has lifted the curtain on its original content television show plans and showed the first snippets today of its own-produced TV shows. The company previewed what it has in a store in a fast-cut montage trailer. The Apple TV+ service will debut in the fall — pricing is yet to be announced.
Apple has just unveiled its new premium News service featuring premium newspaper and magazines for $9.99 a month. The service is branded as News+ and is available today with the release of the new iOS and macOS software updates. $9.99 includes family sharing, so you can share with up to six Family members at no extra cost.
The service is integrated directly into the News app and features magazines from National Geographic, Popular Science, New Yorker, Vogue, Rolling Stone and more.
Apple has publicly turned on its March 25 event live stream early this time around, teasing eagle-eyed viewers by occasionally raising the curtain to reveal … something.
For the first time, Apple will present its Services vision to the public at tomorrow’s March 25 event. The Wall Street Journal has posted a lengthy article today detailing the timeline of how Apple got to this moment, with Tim Cook intimately involved in steering the ship towards Services as early as 2014.
The report says that Apple will charge for its original content. Subscriptions to HBO, Showtime, Starz will apparently cost $9.99 each as part of Apple’s TV app, and premium Apple News will also carry a $9.99 price tag.