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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macOS Mojave will be released for everyone to download from the Mac App Store on September 24. As ever, the update is free for all Mac users on supported hardware.
The update includes Dark Mode, Dynamic Wallpaper and 4 new apps ported from iOS.
Apple has announced its next-generation iPhone XR, one of its three 2018 flagship iPhones. The iPhone XR is lower-cost than the iPhone XS whilst retaining the slim bezel, notched screen with Face ID and gestural navigation. Available in 64 GB, 128 GB and 256 GB, starting at $749.
The iPhone XR has a bigger LCD display than the iPhone 8 Plus, Apple is calling it ‘Liquid Retina’ — although it is not as waterproof as iPhone Xs. iPhone XR offers an hour and a half more battery than the iPhone 8 Plus.
The sitemap leak is turning up a goldmine of info. The 6.1-inch iPhone will indeed be called iPhone Xr, and it will be offered in six colors: black, white, red, yellow, coral and blue.
The URLs confirm it will have a 6.1-inch display and offered in three storage options; 64 GB, 128 GB and 256 GB.
In trademark Apple event ceremony, the Apple Store is down ahead of the new product announcements at the 10 AM PT presentation at Apple Park. The store will return when the event concludes with promo pages for all of the new products — it is not guaranteed that anything will be available to buy today.
We are expecting the iPhone Xs, iPhone Xs Max, and the 6.1-inch iPhone ‘Xr’ to comprise most of the show, but we also expect a big segment for the fourth-generation Apple Watch.
Apple seems to have updated its sitemap a bit ahead of schedule, as spotted by AllThingsHow. The URLs include references to the upcoming Apple Watch models. The new Apple Series 4 models will come in new sizes: 40 mm and 44 mm.
We have already got a glimpse of the new Watch thanks to our earlier leak. Apple will officially announce the new models later today. More below:
On the morning of Apple’s event to announce the 2018 iPhone lineup, Ming-Chi Kuo has released a report targeting the 2019 models. It’s a relatively minor comment on the rear camera of next year’s iPhones; Kuo says that unlike market consensus, he does not expect a time-of-flight depth system to be added to the 2019 iPhone rear camera.
Everyone is looking forward to the Apple event on Wednesday, and whilst we generally have a good idea of what the new high-end iPhone Xs will be, some of the finer details for the event remain unclear.
We aren’t sure yet how many products Apple will announce at the event, beyond the new phones and redesigned Apple Watch. For the 6.1-inch iPhone, Bloomberg backs up some earlier reports and says that the device will be available in ‘limited quantities initially’. It also says that Apple considered to call the device ‘iPhone Xr’.
A (relatively sketchy) leak posted to Weibo this morning purports to show a slide from an internal presentation at China Mobile, one of the largest iPhone carriers worldwide (via Macotakara). It claims that the 6.1-inch model is named ‘iPhone XC’ and the new high-end 6.5-inch phone is ‘iPhone XS Plus’. It also raises a few more details on pricing and availability …
Update: The feature now appears to have fully rolled out, with separate sections for latest releases, albums, live albums, singles & EPs, and playlists.
Apple Music has updated to better separate content items on artist pages. Previously, Apple Music treated albums the same as singles and EPs; the latter would appear as album listings of single tracks. With a behind-the-scenes update rolling out now, artist pages now feature a separate Singles & EPs section, which declutters the Album section to only feature real albums.
Apple continues to improve the appeal of its $9.99/mo music service. Earlier today, Apple Music rolled out new Top 100 playlists.
The EU has approved Apple’s acquisition of Shazam (via Reuters), the music recognition and discovery service. Apple announced it was buying the company in December, but had to wait on EU approval which launched an anticompetitive investigation to decide whether Apple’s purchase would lock out competition and unfairly elevate Apple Music.
We expect iOS 12 will be released to all users about a week after the September 12 event, as the operating system will come preinstalled on the new iPhones that are almost certainly launching on the 21st.
Today, Apple has started advertising to iOS 11 devices ahead of the release, with the Tips app sending alerts that highlight some of the changes.
Pixelmator Pro today released its latest update to the Mac image editor, with a back-to-school sale price of $29.99 (normally $59.99). The new version includes a myriad of new effects (including some ports from the original Pixelmator that didn’t make the cut first time round), a new machine learning powered Auto Selective Color option, and the ability to copy effects and adjustments from one layer and paste into another.
The new effects include Light Leak and Bokeh. Light Leak lets you add synthetic refractions of light over the top of a photo, like adding the ray of a sunshine or small speckles dotted around the ‘lens’. There is also a bokeh effect for adding ‘soap bubbles’ to portraits.
A report from Macerkpof cites sources who claim to know the pricing for the upcoming iPhone lineup. Pricing rumors are always sketchy so take this for what it’s worth, but the site reports that the sources have been reliable in the past. Their pricing indicates that the 6.1-inch LCD iPhone will cost around $699. The iPhone Xs would be in the $800 range (seemingly taking the spot of the iPhone 8 Plus which retails for $799).
Thanks to the relentless rumor mill, we already have a decent idea what features to expect from the iPhone XS and iPhone 9 (final name TBA) when they are unveiled on September 12. As the iPhone X closes in on retirement, USA Today/SurveyMonkey conducted a survey of 1,665 US adults to ask what customers most want.
The iPhone X’s notched screen was controversial when it debuted last year, but has become mostly accepted by critics over time (and has now been copied for almost every new Android phone outside of Samsung’s Galaxy devices). This survey says customers don’t care that much either; ‘remove the notch’ was picked by 10 percent of respondents, the lowest feature request on the list. It probably isn’t too hard to guess what come in at the top spot …
Written by the creator of the original iPhone keyboard, Creative Selection is available now (Amazon, iBooks) and explores Apple’s software development process for the iPhone, iPad and more.
Written by the engineer that made the original iPhone keyboard, this is my favourite book focused on the ‘modern’ Apple era. It covers Apple’s decision-making strategy under Steve Jobs, what it is like to demo for the man himself, a deep dive into how the iPhone keyboard came to be, and much more in between. Read on for my review of some of the book’s best bits.
A major update to the new iPad Pro is on the way. This has been common knowledge in the rumor mill for a while. What is still up in the air is the exact industrial design of the new hardware. We expect the new 11-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Pro to launch by the end of the year, but we aren’t 100% certain if it will be a part of next week’s September iPhone XS event.
In collaboration with Onleaks sources, MySmartPrice has mocked up renders of what they believe the new iPad will look like based on the latest schematics and leaks. In addition to the thinner equidistant bezels, these renders show that Apple is swapping curved chamfered edges of the last few iPad generations with new squared-off flat sides. Interestingly, it looks like the iPad will also be getting iPhone-style antenna lines.
In an announcement to developers through App Store Connect last night, Apple is requiring that all new apps and updates include a link to their developer’s privacy policy in the app metadata. The new rules come into effect from October 3rd.
It seems like even if the app is a plain utility that does not connect to the internet, it must now host a website with a privacy policy page.
Apple has just announced the 2018 fall event ‘Gather round’ where the company will announce its new flagship iPhone lineup, the Series 4 Apple Watch, redesigned iPad Pro hardware, and maybe some new Macs. Apple has confirmed on its website that it will indeed livestream the event, from 10 AM PT on September 12, live from the Steve Jobs Theater
Apple bought the exclusive rights to an Ed Sheeran documentary earlier this year. The documentary, Songwriter, has now been released. With an active Apple Music subscription, you can find the 1 hour, 24 minute film in the TV & Movies section in the Music app’s Browse tab, or in iTunes on the desktop.
Apple’s 2018 iPhones are shaping up to land with a big splash. Although Apple is yet to announce its new models, or its event to announce the new models, the expectations are already high; three new models, an iPhone X successor, a new 6.5-inch iPhone X Plus and a mass market 6.1-inch LCD iPhone with thin bezels and Face ID just like the iPhone X.
Digitimes says that Apple suppliers are gearing up to ship the most new iPhones ever, fuelled by strong adoption of the ~$700 6.1-inch model, which will bring the best parts of the iPhone X to accessible price points.
Bloomberg is out with a new report this morning that doubles down on many of the 2018 iPhone rumors we’ve been hearing for a while, along with a few new tidbits on Apple’s product line.
Echoing previous reports, the design of the three new models will mirror the iPhone X, in 5.8-inch, and new 6.1-inch and 6.5-inch screen sizes. Aside from design and screen size, Bloomberg says Apple will focus on speed improvements and upgrades to camera quality.
Apple appears to be partnering with all four of the big US carriers with a new iCloud introductory offer. Customers upgrading their iPhone plans get recommended to visit a special iCloud link (first discovered on this Reddit thread), which lets customers get 2 free months of the 200 GB iCloud tier, ostensibly to ‘get ready for your new iPhone’.
The offer is only available to new iCloud customers in the US, and automatically renews if not cancelled at the normal $2.99 pricepoint. If eligible, you can grab the offer here with this direct link.
There appears to be some prolonged issues with Apple’s CloudKit service today, which Apple offers to developers as a way to store user data and sync across devices. Several developers have reported to us that they have seen data for their apps temporarily wiped in the last 24 hours as the CloudKit service experiences some form of outage.
The developer system status page is reporting an issue with the CloudKit Dashboard, the backend admin interface that developers use to manage their CloudKit containers. Clearly, these issues affect more than just the dashboard, but Apple’s system status page does not have an entry for CloudKit itself.
Update: Simply Mac has said that there are multiple inaccuracies in the story, but did not go into detail. We’ll update more if we hear more.
Simply Mac is one of the largest Apple Authorised Service Provider chains in the world, however it has had a fractious relationship with Apple in recent months. Repair stores need special equipment to conduct official iPhone repairs, such as machines that pair a Touch ID or Face ID Secure Enclave to the new display unit, but Apple does not give these out freely. Simply Mac had resorted to conducting third-party unofficial screen repairs, which angered Apple.
However, 9to5Mac has learned that the two companies have now reached a deal. Apple is paying to fit the new machinery and implement various security upgrades into about 30 Simply Mac stores. In exchange, Simply Mac will cease conducting all third-party repairs.