Benjamin Mayo

Seemingly in response to a recent spotlight on scammy apps that aim to confuse users in taking up free trials that turn into expensive recurring subscriptions, Apple is reassessing and pulling apps with highly priced subscriptions (via Forbes).

In particular, Apple appears to be rejecting apps that prominently feature buttons to start free trials … which attempt to hide the reality that the free trial will convert into a costly recurring subscription when the trial ends.

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Pixelmator Pro for Mac is today releasing a pretty substantial update to its image editing app. The new version adds a brand new light theme, and a revised dark theme, to align with macOS Mojave’s Light and Dark modes.

There’s also a new machine-learning enhance feature, support for Quick Actions in the Mojave Finder and some batch effect actions in Automator. Pixelmator Pro also now supports SVG Fonts for richer, graphic, typography.

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Update: The AirPods are now back in stock with regular delivery estimates. Panic over!.

Amidst rising expectations for another Apple event, readers have noticed that Apple AirPods have gone out of stock across Apple Stores in Europe. The online Apple stores for the UK, France, Germany, Spain and many other European countries are all reporting that AirPods are ‘Out of Stock’, despite having availability just a couple of hours ago.

AirPods are unlikely to be getting a major revamp until next year, but Apple did promise that it would start shipping a wireless charging case for AirPods by the end of 2018 …

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Apple has apologized following a recent spate of account hacks in China. The company said ‘we are deeply apologetic about the inconvenience caused to our customers by these phishing scams’, which it said affected a ‘small number’ of user accounts.

Although details on exactly what happened have not been disclosed, Apple said that the affected accounts were not secured with two-factor authentication. This allowed criminals to phish for account credentials and then extract money using apps like Alipay, as reported last week.

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When Apple announced the iPhone XS and iPhone XR last month, it began selling a range of cases for the XS, including its usual Apple-branded silicone and leather cases. However, it did not appear to talk about any official accessories for iPhone XR.

It turns out — it did. At the bottom of some press releases in certain countries, like Canada, the original iPhone XR press release mentions that Apple will release a clear case for the iPhone XR. This line is only present on certain country’s Apple Newsroom portals. It does not appear on the US site, which is why it has gone mostly unnoticed until now. A tipster has provided a photo of what Apple’s first-ever clear case looks like …

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Apple has been firing on all cylinders recently with its CPU chip design; Apple’s A12 chip continued this trend and allows for the iPhone XS to easily outstrip the competition on speed tests and benchmarks. Of course, whilst Apple designs these chips in-house it does not manufacture them. That responsibility lies on TSMC’s shoulders. TSMC has been the exclusive manufacturer for Apple’s chips since the A10 chip in 2016.

According to Digitimes, that trend is set to continue with the next generation of processors which will power the fall 2019 iPhones. Apple has publicly praised TSMC for being able to mass produce to high quality, and be agile to new technology. At the A12 debut last month, Apple boasted how it was able to be the first company to ship phones with chips fabricated at a 7nm process — in large parts thanks to TSMC’s competency.

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Mixpanel reported that Apple had crossed the magic 50% milestone for iOS 12 at the weekend, and now Apple has released its first usage numbers which are based off visits to the App Store.

Apple says 50% of all devices are running iOS 12, and 53% of devices introduced within the last four years. This four-year time span metric is new, and it means that it only counts devices launched since September 2014 (iPhone 6 and later).

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Apple and Genius today announced a partnership which sees Genius apps gain a new inline Apple Music player, and Apple gets a new data source for its lyrics database. Apple has offered lyrics as part of its Apple Music subscription service since iOS 10.

This announcement means Apple will now gather lyrics data from another source, expanding the quantity and accuracy of lyrics available on songs in the Apple Music library …

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Ming-Chi Kuo has today released a report that is good news for Apple. The first week of October is a national holiday in China. Kuo is reporting that most domestic phone manufacturers saw sales fall year-over-year during Golden Week. Kuo blamed insufficient innovation, and believes that some proportion of consumers are leaning on older iPhone models or awaiting the upcoming iPhone XR launch on October 26.

Kuo says that he estimates iPhone XR replacement demand in China to be higher than last year’s cycle with the iPhone 8.

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Dialog has been part of the Apple supply chain for some time, but has faced financial uncertainty amidst rumors Apple is developing its own power management chips. In an interesting turn of events this morning, Apple and Dialog announced a new business agreement where Apple will license power management technology from Dialog, in exchange for an upfront $300 million payment and another $300 million in purchase agreements over the next three years.

In addition to transferring technical assets, the company announced Apple is hiring the ~300 staff who currently work at Dialog on Apple-related projects. This deal dramatically helps ramp up Apple’s custom chip efforts in areas like power management and charging.

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The Information is reporting today on Apple’s five-year struggle to tackle iPhone repair fraud. The scheme centres around crime gangs who were buying or stealing iPhones, removing valuable parts like CPUs and screens, and then claiming their devices were broken at Apple Stores and getting the Genius to replace them under warranty. The parts were then sold on.

At its peak, Apple was seeing 60% of warranty repairs in China and Hong Kong as being fraudulent, literally costing Apple billions of dollars per year. Apple first started taking the problem seriously in 2013, and the report goes on to detail the cat and mouse game that then ensued between the criminals and Apple as the company tried to tackle iPhone repair fraud …

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Facebook has entered the smart speaker market, attempting to battle Amazon Echo and Google Home. The Facebook Portal is more tablet than speaker, with both models featuring large touchscreens. The natural comparison is the Echo Show, and Facebook is undercutting slightly on the price. The entry-level Facebook Portal will sell for $199, launching in November. The Portal+ is in the Apple HomePod price range, priced at $349.

The Portal touts a 10-inch display and the Portal+ has a 15-inch panel — so big. They both feature webcams with video calls using Facebook webcams, and it integrates Amazon Alexa to provide most of its smart speaker features.

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Update: The date has now rolled over again in Australia and everyone’s watches are working normally again. Nevertheless, expect Apple to release a software fix for this issue so that it doesn’t affect users in other countries, whose DST transitions are just around the corner.

A bug with the complications on the new Infograph faces in Apple Watch Series 4 is causing some very unhappy Watch owners today. Users in Australia have just experienced the daylight saving time change and are finding their Watches are now stuck in reboot loops.

Specifically, it seems the large Activity complication on the Infograph Modular face is not handling the loss of an hour elegantly, and instead causing the entire device to crash and reboot …

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Apple launched iOS 12 with much fanfare earlier this month but early adoption appeared sluggish. However, in the following weeks, iOS 12 adoption has actually outpaced iOS 11 now, according to data from Mixpanel.

iOS 12 is now installed on more than 50% of active iPhones, iPads and iPod touch devices. It took iOS 11 a month to reach this milestone; iOS 12 has achieved it in under twenty days.

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Bloomberg has today published a report claiming that companies including Amazon and Apple found Chinese surveillance chips in their server hardware contracted from Super Micro. Bloomberg claims Apple found these chips on its server motherboards in 2015. Apple is strongly refuting this report, sending out press statements to several publications, not just Bloomberg.

In a statement to CNBC, Apple said ‘we are deeply disappointed that in their dealings with us, Bloomberg’s reporters have not been open to the possibility that they or their sources might be wrong or misinformed.’.

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From today, Apple is announcing the first partners for its new contactless ID card features introduced in iOS 12 and watchOS 5. Students at Duke University, University of Alabama and University of Oklahoma, can now add their ID card to the Apple Wallet app on the iPhone and Apple Watch.

By using contactless NFC readers, students can use their digital ID card to access dorms, dining halls, library and the gym. You can also use it to pay for bookstore supplies, laundry usage and restaurant meals.

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The Everyone Can Create curriculum is now available as a free download in the App Store, after initially being announced at the March education event. The series is made up of four main interactive books, spanning photography, music, video production and drawing. All the activities revolve around creation on the iPad itself.

There is also a teacher guide to aid with learning. Apple pitches these as complete set of digital materials for schools to teach in lessons to kids and are offered for free online.

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Forbes has discovered what is believed to be the first known case of law enforcement using Face ID to gain access to a suspect’s phone data, by requiring the person to present his face to the iPhone X found on his person.

Everything appears to be conducted legitimately, with the FBI using their search warrant as authorization for the Face ID unlock. US law does not give the same protections to a person’s biometrics data in the same way as a PIN code that exists only in a person’s mind. This case will no doubt spur discussion about whether the law should be changed.

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