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 has released a cool new ad today called Flight that highlights the cellular capabilities of the Apple Watch. In the ad created by film director Jonathan Glazer, renowned skydiver Inka Tiitto runs through the forest with her watch and then is catapulted into the sky where she dances amongst the clouds, to then plummet back into the ocean.
The ad shows off the Watch’s Maps turn-by-turn navigation features, and the ability to answer the phone from anywhere thanks to the cellular radios …
Apple is planning a multi-year roadmap for its cross-platform app project. First previewed at last year’s WWDC with the launch of the News, Stocks, Home and Voice Memos app, Marzipan makes it near-automatic for developers to port iPad apps to macOS.
A third-party SDK for Marzipan will launch at this year’s WWDC for iPad and Mac universal apps. According to Bloomberg, Apple plans to add Marzipan-esque conversion of iPhone to Mac apps in 2020. The publication also says that Apple has ‘weighed previewing’ a new version of the Mac Pro at the conference.
iOS 12.2 beta 3 just dropped and contains a few user-facing tweaks as we reported here. For developers, there are new discount options for auto-renewing subscriptions.
Apple has also released a set of design resources for Siri Shortcuts, for iOS and watchOS. The company also released the SF Compact Rounded font to developers, which is used in several places inside watchOS.
Now available in the US and Canada, the Eve Flare is a HomeKit-compatible multicolor light from Eve Systems. The Flare launched in Europe last year.
The Flare is an orb moodlight that you can leave on the charging inductive base, or pick it up and move it around your house for up to six hours at a time. You can turn the light on or off with Siri or the Home app through HomeKit, as well as change the hue and brightness. The Flare can of course participate in your HomeKit scenes and automations too. It is rated at IP65 water resistance so you can take it outside and not worry too much about precipitation from the weather.
The iPad mini 5 is not going to be the most exciting of updates according to recent reports. Macotakara says informed accessory manufacturers indicate the new iPad mini will look almost identical to the iPad mini 4 design. Update: More corroboration from multiple sources …
In a new report from The Information, the site details a few purported anecdotes of Huawei trying to steal Apple trade secrets. The tactics involved Huawei engineers appealing to Apple’s manufacturers and suppliers with promises of big orders, but instead using the opportunity to pry on processes specific to Apple’s component production.
In one example, Huawei engineers working on a smartwatch met with a supplier last fall. According to the report, the engineers tried to eke out specs about the Apple Watch’s heart rate sensor by making promises of big orders.
Continuing its string of iPhone promotions recently, Apple has a new offer for its Australian customers. As of this week, you can order Apple products in Australia with 0% financing for 2 years. And, if you buy an iPhone on financing, you get $50 (Australian dollars obviously) in cashback.
Chinese media outlet Economic Daily News is reporting that Inventec is already producing a new version of AirPods with a different exterior material for the earbuds and charging case, as well as a black color option.
The report indicates that they will go on sale in the spring alongside the AirPower wireless charging mat. EDN says the new AirPods are expected to boost Inventec’s first quarter earnings, as the publication has a supply chain focus.
Just like we saw happen last month, Apple has extended the final date of its iPhone trade-in promotion. We can tell this from the small print on the Apple.com/cn homepage. Yesterday, it said that the deadline for iPhone XS/XR boosted trade-in was February 17. Now, it says the offer continues until March 25.
This likely signals yet another extension to the ‘limited time’ promotion worldwide. Still, outside of the US, customers can only benefit from the additional trade-in value at an Apple retail store.
A Chinese media report on the social media site Weibo, via iGeneration, claims that Apple will expand the iPhone XS lineup to include a new red color option later this month. Presumably branded as PRODUCT(RED), it would join the red iPhone XR that Apple has sold since launch.
Yesterday, 9to5Mac was alerted to a flaw in a third-party utility app for Instagram, called Exposure. The app helps brands connect with Instagram posters, automating the collection of agreements to use imagery for commercial purposes.
It just so happens that Apple was using this tool for its Shot on iPhone campaign. 9to5Mac contacted Apple to report the security issue. Following an investigation, a few hours later, Apple cut ties with the Exposure service. (Update: Statement from the parent company of Exposure below)
Pixelmator Pro 1.3.1 has just been released to the Mac App Store, the app can now import iPhone Portrait photos and automatically extract the depth data as a masking layer. You can then enable the mask in one click to isolate the foreground from the background. There’s also a fun new comic book effect.
Onleaks has tweeted that whilst the AirPods wireless charging case is set to be released imminently, but the brand new ‘AirPods 2’ may launch later this year, according to a ‘yet unconfirmed but seemingly reliable source’ …
We appear to have hit that time when everyone starts looking forward to the first Apple event of the year. There are quite a few new Apple products and services in the wings, which means there’s plenty of room for rumor and speculation about the date of the spring event.
Update 2/11/2019: Samsung now says its 2019 QLED TVs are now available to purchase or pre-order. The upcoming iTunes app and AirPlay 2 feature will be available in a future update to compatible 2019 and 2018 TVs.
Apple and Samsung today announced a partnership to put iTunes TV shows and movies onto Samsung Smart TVs from the spring. The iTunes video content will be exposed through a special app that sits alongside existing apps like Netflix, Hulu and YouTube.
The TVs will also become AirPlay 2 receivers, marking the first official AirPlay integration for third parties. The features will launch on 2019 Samsung Smart TVs and most 2018 Samsung Smart TVs through a software update.
Apple has been compelled to add a statement regarding the outcome of a ‘planned obsolescence’ lawsuit to its homepage in Italy. The court ruled showed that Apple did not provide adequate information about the impact of performing the iOS 10.2.1 update, which introduced the infamous iPhone performance throttling for degraded batteries.
Whilst we have yet to see firm evidence on the design of the 2019 iPhone, there has been back and forth rumors about whether the new iPhone would use Lightning or USB-C.
Japanese site Macotakara says that not only will the 2019 iPhone use Lightning, Apple will also continue to bundle the same 5W charger and USB-A to Lightning cable in the box. This is seen as a cost saving measure. It seems that customers wanting faster iPhone charge times will still have to buy accessories, like the 12W iPad charger.
Digitimes has published several reports overnight, which we are combining here, as the Chinese reporters end their Lunar New Year holiday week. The site claims that TSMC will continue to be the exclusive manufacturer of Apple’s A-series chips, with the A13 debuting in the 2019 iPhones to be fabricated using a 7 nanometer process.
The supply chain centric site also reiterates earlier claims that new AirPods and new iPads are coming in the first half of 2019.
The Apple Podcasts app gets a small, but certainly welcome, new feature in iOS 12.2. You can now tap on the More options menu to access a new podcast feature for episodes: Mark as Played …
Earlier this week, Apple has reorganized its online page where it details upcoming data collection operations for Apple Maps. This takes the form of cars equipped with LIDAR and photographic cameras being driven around cities, and ‘pedestrian’ surveys where Maps employees walk around wearing backpacks fitted with similar sensors. The data is ultimately fed back into Apple Maps to improve accuracy. The page now reports that ground surveys will begin in Andorra in April.
Security researcher Linuz Henze has shared a video demonstration of what is claimed to be a macOS Mojave exploit to access passwords stored in the Keychain. However, he has said he is not sharing his findings with Apple out of protest.
According to the latest research study by CIRP, the HomePod holds a 6% share of the 66 million install base of smart speakers in the United States, or about 4 million units.
The HomePod stood its ground through the shopping season but continues to trail the Google Home and Amazon Echo offerings in market share, which offer a range of cheaper models.
The FaceTime bug that made waves as result of 9to5Mac’s coverage last week was actually first reported to Apple by Grant Thompson and his mother in Arizona a week earlier. However, deficiencies in the Apple bug reporting process meant that the report was not acted upon by the company …
Update: Anker MFI Lightning to USB-C cables now available on Amazon!
Apple is finally opening up the MFi program for third-parties to make Lightning to USB-C accessories. Renowned Apple accessory maker Anker says it will be launching its USB-C to Lightning cable later this month, the first to market.