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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We haven’t quite been able to get to the bottom of this one, but there appears to be some kind of problem with accessing Apple services, including the App Store and Apple Music, for iOS 11 devices.
Whilst Facebook employees are currently struggling to launch their own apps, Facebook is still able to update its own customer-facing app on the App Store. Today, it did just that.
Apple and American Airlines have partnered to offer customers access to Apple Music in the sky, with no added fees. As long as you are subscribed to Apple’s $9.99/month subscription service, you will be able to stream your music on American Airlines flights without having to pay for WiFi access.
The deal means Apple Music subscribers can access their library, discover new music and listen to Beats Music in the air without paying more on any American Airline domestic flight that features Viasat satellite WiFi.
If you can remember what happened a year ago, the BatteryGate furore led Apple to reduce the cost of iPhone battery replacements from $79 to $29. Apple ended the discount at the end of 2018. iFixit today announced that they are not ending their price match and will continue selling their iPhone battery replacement kits for $29.99 through 2019.
Following its earnings report, Tim Cook today announced that Apple will be lowering iPhone prices in some markets outside of the United States, to bring prices more in line to what they were before recent currency fluctuations hit (via Reuters).
UPDATE: Apple has taken Group FaceTime offline in an attempt to address the issue in the interim.
A significant bug has been discovered in FaceTime and is currently spreading virally over social media. The bug lets you call anyone with FaceTime, and immediately hear the audio coming from their phone — before the person on the other end has accepted or rejected the incoming call. Apple says the issue will be addressed in a software update “later this week”.
Naturally, this poses a pretty big privacy problem as you can essentially listen in on any iOS user, although it still rings like normal, so you can’t be 100% covert about it. Nevertheless, there is no indication on the recipient’s side that you could hear any of their audio. There’s a second part to this which can expose video too …
Apple is said to be planning to launch a subscription service for games. A report from Cheddar cites five anonymous sources that suggest Apple is talking to game developers to be part of a new subscription service.
Similar to Netflix, users would pay a set fee for unlimited access to a selection of titles. Further details like pricing or availability were not stated.
The New York Times features a fun story today, shining some light on why big companies struggle to build products at scale in the United States.
It claims that Apple failed to find a suitable domestic screw supplier for a particular Mac Pro part. It had to turn to China to source the part to prevent the ‘Made in the USA’ 2013 Mac Pro launch from being delayed further.
Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo was one of the first to predict the iPhone sales weakness for the holiday quarter, cutting estimates by 20% in mid-December, largely due to weak Chinese demand for iPhone XS and iPhone XR.
With a new TF Industries report out today, he says that the ‘worst is soon over’ and predicts that iPhone shipments beyond March will be higher than market consensus.
Apple has overhauled its developer guidance for in-app subscriptions, with new pages in the Human Interface Guidelines and App Store documentation pages. The revamp reorganizes existing advice into a more modern design with clearer segmentation of sections, as well as clearly detail some ground rules for the first time.
For instance, the price of a monthly subscription must be clearly shown. Conversions into yearly savings, or similar advertising copy, should be less prominent than the actual amount customers pay in each renewal period.
The New York Times is reporting that Facebook plans to combine messaging services across its applications, merging chats from WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger. A WhatsApp user would be able to start a chat with an Instagram user, breaking down barriers between Facebook’s social platforms.
A Messenger user would be able to send an end-to-end encrypted conversation with someone who only has a WhatsApp account for instance. Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp will remain separate apps on the home screen but the common messaging features will be unified.
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Apple surprised announced its new HomeKit and AirPlay Smart TV initiative at CES earlier this month, with the first official compatible TVs launching in the spring. As we reported last night, iOS 12.2 includes the necessary foundations to support these new features.
Developer Khaos Tian hacked the HomeKit protocol to simulate adding a smart TV accessory to the Home app. He shared some screenshots and videos of these features ‘in action’ …
Overnight, Apple has extended its iPhone trade-in offer in Japan. Similar to the offer available in the US, international Apple customers can trade in their old iPhone at an Apple Store and get iPhone XS or iPhone XR at a discount. These deals are marketed on the Apple homepage as ‘limited time’.
In some countries, the fine print actually states an end date. When the boosted trade-ins launched in Japan in late December, it said it would end January 31. Now, the same page says the deal ends February 28 …
Whilst stocks last, Apple is listing the iPhone SE for $249 on its clearance site. Apple stopped selling the iPhone SE last September, and all new products feature home-button-less designs with larger screens …
The AirPods continue to be a smash hit sensation for Apple. However, having launched more than 2 years ago at this point, the focus in the tech community has moved to expectations as to when the AirPods 2 will come out, the first hardware update to Apple’s wireless earbuds.
A report from Digitimes today says Apple will release AirPods 2 within the first six months of 2019. Moreover, it claims that the earbuds will be redesigned to support health monitoring functions.
The Pixelmator team is pretty relentless when it comes to updates. One month after the last update, there’s another Pixelmator Pro update hitting the Mac App Store now with another round of new features and improvements.
Apple is purportedly looking to drop LCD screens from its iPhone lineup, starting with the 2020 iPhone. This year’s iPhone XR successor would be the last flagship LCD model, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal.
The move to OLED will enable “more flexible handset design”, hinting at an ambitious 2020 iPhone roadmap. We already see this somewhat today with the iPhone XR featuring larger bezels than its OLED counterparts.
As part of its Martin Luther King Day celebrations, Apple has shared a newsroom article highlighting the charitable giving and volunteering efforts of its employees.
The company announced that Apple’s Giving program has raised more than $365 million for nonprofits around the world since it began eight years ago. It also shines light on some of its volunteering initiatives, including a coding class in Ireland run by volunteers from Apple’s Cork campus.
I get good battery life with my iPhone X as is, and my home office lifestyle means I’m never that far from a plug, so I’m admittedly not the target market for a battery case. Nevertheless, the announcement of Apple’s Smart Battery Case for iPhone XS, XS Max, and XR piqued my interest.
I wanted to dip my toes in to see what using a Smart Battery Case is like. Read after the jump for some of my takeaways, and also be sure to check out our review from earlier in the week for a more thorough walkthrough of what’s new.
Apple is seemingly set to debut at least two new iOS devices in the first half of this year.
Digitimes is reporting that touch-screen suppliers are gearing up to supply components for two new iPads in the coming months. These tablets are described as ‘entry-level’ models, including a long-awaited update to the iPad mini 4 and an update to the 2018 $329 9.7-inch iPad.
Apple Pay now supports dual-network debit cards in Australia. This enables users to avoid credit card fees at merchants that support eftpos (electronic funds transfer) at point of sale.
Update: An earlier version of this article pointed to the cases’ smaller mAh capacity. However, the Wh on these cases is actually higher than the previous models because the voltage was doubled. The article has been corrected to reflect this.
Apple’s smart battery cases for iPhone XS, XS Max, and iPhone XR went on sale last night, with Apple touting up to 75% extra usage time. Apple did not state the battery’s capacity in the Apple Store tech specs.
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The fate of AirPower continues to be an evolving mystery. The AirPower Wireless Charging Mat was mentioned briefly in the Apple Store description for the new Smart Battery Cases, and is still visible on the Malaysian Apple Store, via MacRumors.
Onleaks kicked off iPhone 11 rumor frenzy about a week ago showing renders of a square camera bump that featured three cameras in awkward alignment. Today, he has partnered with CompareRaja to show what he believes is an alternative iPhone 11 prototype currently circulating manufacturing plants.
The phone depicted here is much easier on the eyes, with a slimmer camera bump and smaller notch on the front screen. The contrast in appearance between each of the purported protoypes is significant but Onleaks says both prototypes are legitimate …