Apple

Apple Store, Shanghai

The Chinese government, through the state-run Global Times newspaper, has said that iPhone sales ‘will suffer’ if president-elect Trump follows through on his threatened trade war when he takes office. The comment was made in response to Trump’s campaign promise to apply 45% tariffs to Chinese imports.

If Trump imposes a 45 percent tariff on Chinese imports, China-US trade will be paralyzed. China will take a tit-for-tat approach then. A batch of Boeing orders will be replaced by Airbus. US auto and iPhone sales in China will suffer a setback […]

The new president will be condemned for his recklessness, ignorance and incompetence and bear all the consequences.

The Global Times editorial also claimed that Trump would not in any case have the authority needed to apply the 45% tariff …

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[First of all, I would like to say that this is but my very own take, which is not necessarily shared by my colleagues here at 9to5Mac and therefore not an editorial, staff-wise opinion piece. It represents my view and my view only, so try to keep that in mind.]

Up until not too long ago, I used to ask myself a simple question: if I were to pick one company — and one company alone — to rely on for all of my “tech needs”, which one would I choose? The answer would come rather swiftly: Apple.

As a critic (by nature more than profession) I have always seen the vast majority of products skeptically, but that didn’t take from the fact that the Cupertino giant made what I considered to be the best smartphone, the best tablet, the best computers and even two of the most valid operating systems around, accounting for a sweet, unified and well-connected package that would make me feel like I didn’t have to look outside of it. It was Apple’s dream of ecosystem lock-in, essentially.

However, as my view of this universe has got more and more panoramic — especially in the last year of collaboration with the sister site 9to5Google, which has helped me a lot to gain even more direct experience with Apple’s competition — I started to have a feeling that this bubble was somewhat bursting.

And this feeling is something I simply haven’t been able to shake, and one that has brought me, like apparently many others, to think that the well-oiled profit machine Apple Inc. may have lost some of its touch, for what concerns the present and, more importantly, the future…

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Two days ago Microsoft announced their Microsoft Surface Studio, and I wrote a piece on how it was their answer to Apple’s own desktop solutions. It was hard to compare the products’ philosophies, especially when I don’t think macOS is ready for a complete touchscreen experience. Then Apple announced their new MacBook Pro lineup yesterday and it dawned on me: the Touch Bar on the new MacBook Pro is Apple’s first distinct step into creating a touchscreen display experience in their MacBook line.

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The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Apple isn’t totally ruling out a Time Warner acquisition as talks between the network and AT&T appear to be moving forward. Yesterday it was reported that AT&T is looking at the possibility of a merger with Time Warner, then today it was separately reported that the talks could be much further along than previously reported. Now the WSJ is adding that Apple is once again monitoring the situation closely and has even approached the company in the last few months…

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Apple is set to reveal new Macs on Thursday at what will likely be the last special event hosted at the company’s 1 Infinite Loop campus in Cupertino. Early next year Apple’s giant Campus 2 headquarters will open and include a dedicated theater for these types of events, so the surprise Mac event is one last hurrah for the current Apple HQ.

And even though it may be about to be replaced with something bigger and better, 1 Infinite Loop does have something fairly new of its own: a dedicated Apple Store that reopened last fall. Apple’s campus store has always sold exclusive collectables like T-shirts and pens, and the Jony Ive-designed retail store adds Apple products just like traditional Apple Stores.

The shirt styles and souvenirs offered change regularly, but head below to see what you can expect to find at the 1 Infinite Loop Apple Store that’s not sold anywhere else if you visit.

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At the JAMF Nation User Conference (JNUC) this week, IBM’s Fletcher Previn delivered an update on the company’s rollout of Macs internally since it introduced Apple computers as an option for employees for the first time last year. In just over a year, IBM passed its original goal of deploying 50,000 Macs and is now at 90,000 internally. That makes it the largest enterprise Mac deployment anywhere, and Previn described how it’s helping the company cut costs.

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One of the areas where Apple has seemingly fallen behind its competition — or, more likely, not yet ready to disclose its technology’s full potential — is artificial intelligence. However, there’s no denying that the company is pushing hard towards bettering its existing products (like Siri) behind closed doors, and the latest AI hire is but another proof of such commitment…

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Bloomberg reports that Apple this week won an appeal in its long-running case against Samsung over its slide-to-unlock patent.

The decision reinstates an original $119.6 million verdict owed to Apple that a U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled was wrongly thrown out in a previous decision back in February.

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One of the bigger features with the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus is definitely the improved optics and camera quality, but exactly what does this boil down to for video enthusiasts? There’s no doubt that the iPhone 7 takes some amazing photography, but its video capabilities are far superior in my opinion. Don’t believe me? With 4K video recording, optical and digital image stabilization, and an f1.8 aperture, these new iPhones are pretty incredible…

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Eddy Cue, Tom Gruber, Alex Acero, Craig Federighi

Apple is continuing to add to its team of machine learning experts in Cupertino. TechCrunch reports that Apple has acquired Tuplejump, which describes itself as a service that “presents all your data in a familiar format” on their now-removed website. An Apple spokesperson gave TC the usual non-denial confirmation regarding the acquisition:

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According to a new report from the Wall Street Journal and confirmed by an Apple spokesperson, Apple has hired former Time Warner Cable executive Peter Stern. Stern will report to Eddy Cue and will carry a vice president title working on tasks related to Apple’s growing cloud services, including Apple Music.

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Bragi’s “The Headphone” wireless earbuds

Ahead of Apple’s iPhone 7 event tomorrow, the latest supply chain analysis from KGI analyst Ming-Chi Kuo notes that Apple is developing a Bluetooth-like wireless chip likely to be used in new wireless headphones.

The report follows our own report from earlier this year that Apple was working on cord-free wireless earbuds ahead of its new iPhones, the first expected to remove the 3.5mm headphone jack. KGI adds that the headphones will target a higher-end market than the company’s Beats brand:

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In this week’s top stories: Apple officially scheduled its iPhone 7 event for next Wednesday, September the 7th, as yet more details of the device and a second-gen Apple Watch 2 leaked this week. Head below for these and more of our top shared stories:

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Now less than a week away from Apple’s ‘See you on the 7th’ iPhone 7 event, there’s a lot we know about the device and other product announcements Apple has planned for next week. A dual-camera system for iPhone, a new and improved Apple Watch 2 with GPS, new wireless headphones, and much more. Here’s what we expect to see at Apple’s iPhone event next week…
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Two new drone flyover videos today give us an up-to-date look at construction progress at Apple’s Campus 2 site set to become the company’s new Cupertino headquarters early next year.

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Update: Apple so far is using the account only for a promoted/sponsored tweet campaign not visible from its main profile.

An @apple Twitter account has existed for more than five years, but until today has been completely dormant, with blank profile and header images. That’s now changed: there’s an Apple logo for the profile image, and the iPhone 7 event graphic as the header. So far, though, no tweets.

It’s looking likely that Apple plans to start tweeting in time for next week’s launch of the iPhone 7, with some speculating that the company may live-tweet the event …

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Bloomberg reports that Apple is to go head-to-head with Snapchat and Instagram by developing its own video-sharing app as part of a push to target younger users. The company is said to said to be motivated by the fact that social apps generate the greatest level of engagement on the iPhone, Facebook users averaging 50 minutes a day, Snapchat users 30 minutes.

The goal behind the project’s development is to offer simple video editing with tools that appeal to the generation of users growing up with Snapchat and Instagram, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the plans are private […]

Apple’s current plan calls for its project to become a stand-alone app, presumably as a download via the App Store, but the company may decide to package the functionality into the iPhone’s existing camera application, the people said.

The focus will be on short, fun videos that are super-quick to create …

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Retail chain Target is blaming Apple in part for its latest disappointing quarterly earnings results. Yahoo Finance reports that Target management cites a 20% year-over-year decline in Apple product sales during the quarter for overall electronics sales dropping.

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