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The Spanish version of People magazine is this month featuring the ’50 most beautiful people’ of 2018, featuring celebrities including Demo Lovato, J.Balvin, Amara La Negra, and other figures. Each person gets a bio and a portrait. For the first time, all the photos were shot — including the cover photo — with an iPhone X.
Apple’s interest in exclusive video programming is stretching beyond its original content TV show efforts. Digiday reports that Apple paid Buzzfeed to show the first three episodes of its ‘Future History’ video series on Apple News, a week ahead of Buzzfeed’s other distribution platforms.
Apple gave Buzzfeed a cut of the ads shown on the videos, in addition to upfront payment. Apple has highlighted video stories more prominently in Apple News since iOS 11.3 with several video-focused features.
About eight hours ago, a strange support document was posted by Apple. It listed the HomePod’s available audio sources (copy and pasted verbatim from the tech specs page) and not much else.
Interestingly, though, clicking the Supported Languages link reveals the following message: ‘English, 日本語,Français,Deutsch,English’. This suggests that HomePod is launching soon in France, Germany and Japan. However, we have dug into this story and it’s not quite as clear-cut.
Due to local regulatory rules, FaceTime is blocked on iPhone and iPad devices sold in UAE countries including Abu Dhabi and Dubai. This has been the case for many years. Obviously, the appeal of Apple’s ecosystem is stunted when features like FaceTime are unavailable.
There are promising signs that, soon, the ban will be lifted. Apple is in active negotiations with the United Arab Emirates federal government to permit the use of internet video-chat services on its devices, enabling FaceTime to be unlocked for Apple customers.
As part of its earnings report, Apple has announced an extension of its capital return program. Apple will buy $100 billion worth of its own stock. It will also increase the dividend by 16%.
With the new tax legislation in place, Apple has said that it aims to hold zero net cash. It currently holds about $270 billion in cash. It will spend its excess cash through returns to investors in the form of dividends and share repurchase, as well as investment into expansion and product development.
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We’ve been hearing for a while that Apple is working on a new 13-inch Mac laptop with a Retina display, with entry-level prices set to dislodge the 12-inch MacBook and the MacBook Air in the lineup. In a new report today, Digitimes says that Apple has pushed back assembly of the new laptop into the third quarter.
The price of the new 13-inch MacBook is expected to be around $899, although any plans for a WWDC release appear no longer to be in the cards. The report says supply chain partners are now stuck with piling inventory of parts until Apple gives the go ahead.
The iPhone SE 2 rumor train has been a wild one. There are many conflicting reports about the device, ranging from rumors of a major chassis change to only a minor hardware revision.
These new photos purport to show a fully built iPhone SE 2, with resemblances to some leaked shells first seen in March. They depict a device somewhere in between the two extremes of the rumored specs; a new glass back for wireless charging but a 3.5mm hole for a headphone jack remains.
Indoor mapping lets Apple Maps users explore the internal layout of buildings across multiple floors, with precise location positioning to help you find your way around places like airports and shopping malls.
Apple has today expanded its list of indoor mapping locations with a few new airports; iPhone and iPad can now explore Sydney International, Edinburgh and Hamad Internationl (Doha, Qatar) …
Sonos previously teased AirPlay 2 support for its speakers. In a new announcement to MacObserver, the story is a little bit more nuanced. The company has said that AirPlay 2 will only be compatible with the Sonos One, Sonos Play:5 and the Playbase. Older speakers will not natively support AirPlay 2.
The launch date for AirPlay 2 remains unclear. The whole-home audio solution continues to show up in developer seeds of iOS, but Apple has not provided a specific timeline since it was delayed. Clearly, Sonos are actively working on it however …
Fans of the Harry Potter franchise are in luck this year, with two titles hitting mobile platforms in 2018. One of these games, Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery is now live on the App Store and available as a free download for iPhone and iPad.
The RPG title sees players wandering the streets of Diagon Alley, attending magic lessons and exploring the secrets of Hogwarts. The game includes rich visual environments and features several of the original actors and actresses from the films as voiceover talent. However, the terrible free-to-play nature of this title becomes evident very quickly …
In August 2016, the EU ordered Ireland to collect 13 billion euros (around $15 billion) in back taxes from Apple citing illegal tax benefits from 2003 to 2014. Both Ireland and Apple have rejected the judgement and are appealing the decision in a court battle that will last years.
For the time being, the money will be left in an escrow account. It was announced today that Apple will start paying into that account from next month. This will be the largest ever tax recovery of its kind, if the ruling holds up as lawful.
Apple’s key supplier TSMC is looking ahead to a strong year in terms of profitability, even if total revenue is lower, driven by production of new iPhone chips.
Via Digitimes, TSMC is set to manufacture the system-on-a-chip for 2018 iPhones, dubbed Apple A12. The chip wafers are expected to be made with a 7 nanometer process. The current A11 chip inside iPhone X and iPhone 8 uses a 10nm feature size.
MacGeneration has spotted discussions in the open source WebKit mailing list that include references to iOS 12. Specifically, a contributor included testing logs of a WebKit nightly build running on an iPhone 5s simulator.
This is strong evidence that the iPhone 5s will receive iOS 12, which is a year of updates more than what the iPhone 5 got (iOS 11 is not available for iPhone 5). It’s also just fun to see iOS 12 popping up in places already …
Whilst there may not be as many new features this year in the flagship Apple operating systems as some years past, there is no mistaking that iOS 12 and macOS 10.14 are very much under active development and distribution amongst internal Apple employees is growing.
Our website analytics have recorded a noticeable uptick in Safari browser visits from iOS 12 and macOS 10.14 machines, particularly with bigger spikes just this week.
The same Eurasian regulatory database that tipped the hat on AirPods, iPhone 7, new MacBooks and the latest iPad is back. This time, a new filing discovered by Consomac references a handful of as-yet-unannounced iPhone models spanning eleven model identifiers.
Devices typically appear in this database about a month before the products ship. These iPhone references were posted yesterday, suggesting a new iPhone launch will be debuting in early May/June.
According to a new report from Bloomberg, Apple will utilize its acquisition of Texture to launch its own paid subscription service, incorporating magazines from a variety of publishers.
The new service would be exposed to customers through an upgraded Apple News app, mirroring Apple’s integration of its $9.99 Apple Music subscription inside the Music app.
Russia has begun to block Telegram from operating in the country, after the developers refused to hand over encryption keys to the Russian government. The app has become a popular messaging app for users wanting to talk in private across Android and iOS.
However, a Moscow court ruled that Telegram does not comply with local legislation that federal security must be given access to user communications. Russia is now asking Apple to pull Telegram from the App Store …
This seems a little too good to be true, but the FCC appears to have published photos of a gold iPhone X. Dated from last September and released earlier in April, these photos show an iPhone X unmistakably in an unreleased gold finish.
The prototype device has rich gold stainless steel frame and a lighter gold glass back, which appears to match the gold shade seen in iPhone 8. More photos below …
A fresh report from Ming-Chi Kuo gives KGI’s take on the recent stories of poor market reception for HomePod. The report suggests that Apple could sell 2-2.5 million HomePods across all of 2018, with a million of those from first month pent-up demand.
Most analysts have predicted sales for HomePod around ten million a year, so Kuo’s prediction is quite pessimistic. He says the high price has cut off a lot of the potential market (in the face of tough, cheaper, competition) and that Apple is ‘mulling’ a lower-cost model.
With the glow of the HomePod launch now firmly behind us, focus turns to its market reception. Bloomberg reported last night that HomePod sales were a little lacklustre, and a report from the China Times today repeats a similar message.
The Chinese report says Apple cut monthly HomePod production from 500,000 units a month to around 200,000. However, it does hint at a rumor that Apple is developing a cheaper HomePod model for launch by the end of the year.
The YouTube competitor video site Vimeo has today debuted a new Vimeo app for macOS, available for free in the Mac App Store. The native client simplifies video sharing for Vimeo users, with custom metadata and instant access to share links and embed codes.
Most notably, the app integrates with Final Cut Pro to simplify the workflow of creating a film and pushing it up to Vimeo.
[Update: Apple has shared a press release on its environmental progress and hitting 100% renewable energy.]
Apple has finally hit its goal of running its own operations off 100% renewable energy. All Apple facilities, from Apple Park to its data centers to worldwide fleet of Apple retail stores, are now solely powered by green energy. Last year, it was close at 96%, but now it’s finally hit the magic 100 number.
This figure does not include Apple’s third-party suppliers or manufacturers, although the company is convincing many of those to switch to 100% renewable sources too …
Update: On schedule, you now can order your (PRODUCT)RED iPhone 8 from the Apple Store and third party retailers like Best Buy. Current shipping estimates indicate there is plenty of stock for Friday delivery.
Apple has announced a brand new (PRODUCT)RED iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus, available later this week. The product features a special red back design and a black bezel. For iPhone X, there is no new hardware per se; Apple is releasing a new (PRODUCT)RED leather folio case though.
Apple says the new (PRODUCT)RED iPhone will be available to order from Tuesday, April 10. The product will be in stores this Friday.