Opinion pieces & commentary

Apple’s reliance (some would say over-reliance) on China has been a hotly-debated topic for some time. The company’s efforts to boost Apple production outside China have never been of greater interest than now, however, when the coronavirus outbreak is having a substantial impact inside the country.

India has been one of the countries making a concerted effort to win more of Apple’s manufacturing business, but a couple of reports have highlighted some of the challenges to making this a workable option …

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It’s time for Apple to give us a larger iMac.

The company first launched a 27-inch iMac in 2009. Following on from earlier 17-, 20-, 21.5- and 24-inch models, it seemed huge at the time!

But it’s not 2009 anymore. We now live in a world where 34-inch monitors are commonplace, 40-inch ones are not unusual – and there are even 49-inch models around, from Dell, LG , and Samsung. Alongside these, the iMac display, impressive as it is in terms of resolution, looks cramped …

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A report yesterday indicated that Apple is planning to release a Smart Keyboard with trackpad for the iPad.

Apple is planning to release an iPad keyboard accessory later this year that will include a built-in trackpad, the latest step in its effort to position the tablet device as an alternative to laptop computers, according to a person familiar with the matter. The company will likely release the accessory alongside the next version of the iPad Pro expected later this year, the person added.

Our poll suggests huge interest in the idea …

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A Bloomberg report says Apple is considering allowing iPhone and iPad users to choose third-party default iOS apps for things like email and web-browsing.

Currently, you can use third-party apps, of course, but as we explained earlier, you can’t set them as the defaults.

It is not possible for the user to tell iOS that it prefers the third-party browser over Safari; any tapped links will open in Safari every single time. Similarly, there are many competing email apps in the App Store but shortcuts to composing a new email will only ever show the system Mail compose sheet …

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We learned yesterday that the California Supreme Court ruled against Apple in a bag search case: deciding whether or not the company has to pay retail workers for the time spent for their bags to be checked at the end of their shifts.

Staff had complained that they not only had to remain in the store for the time taken by the search itself but could be waiting around up to 45 minutes in the queue for the search – all of which time was unpaid…

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Apple Pay revenue hasn’t gotten much attention so far. The most valuable role Apple Pay plays for the Cupertino company is further lock-in to the ecosystem.

Once you’ve experienced the convenience of Apple Watch payments in particular, and know the security you get from the use of Apple Pay on any device, it’s not something you’ll want to give up. (Sure, there’s Google Pay and Samsung Pay too, but it still adds friction to switching platforms.)

But a news report yesterday prompted me to do some back-of-an-envelope calculations, and I reckon Apple’s mobile wallet service is rapidly headed toward becoming a multi-billion dollar revenue stream…

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Malwarebytes is out with a new report in which it states that Mac malware is growing faster than that for Windows.

For the first time ever, Macs outpaced Windows PCs in number of threats detected per endpoint […]

In total, we saw approximately 24 million Windows adware detections and 30 million Mac detections.

That’s getting a lot of headlines today, but there are three key things that need to be understood…

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There was an interesting concept last week, exploring possible improvements to multitasking on iPad.

The argument made by Ryan Christoffel was that the multitasking capabilities of an iPad lack discoverability, and are unnecessarily hard to use even once you know how they work.

I think he’s absolutely right, and I like his context menu idea. However, I also think we shouldn’t necessarily be reinventing the wheel when it comes to a multitasking user interface…

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It was reported earlier this week that we might see an Apple wireless charger after all, despite the AirPower debacle.

Some have suggested this isn’t a great idea, simply reminding everyone of Apple’s failure to deliver what it originally promised: a single charging mat that allowed you to charge iPhone, AirPods, and Apple Watch by laying them anywhere on the device. Compared to that, an ordinary wireless charger would be a massive climbdown – and what’s the point anyway when everyone makes them… ?

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Subscription apps have been one of most controversial developments over the past few years. Developers love the model, because it gives them that most valuable of things: recurring revenue. That not only provides a more secure personal income, but also enables them to fund ongoing development that should see users enjoy regular updates.

But while developers love subscription apps, many users hate them. No matter how much they may like the app and understand the rationale, there’s growing unease at the way the costs add up…

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There’s no single factor that explains Apple’s record earnings in the holiday quarter. The reality with a company of Apple’s size will always involve multiple elements, some of which will be rather mundane.

Services revenue, for example. Sure, the story Apple would like to point to is the glitz of its latest high-profile launch, Apple TV+, but there’s almost nobody paying for it at this point. The largest single contributor of Services cash will likely be the billions that Google pays to be the default search engine on iOS devices. A further significant chunk will come from the equally boring AppleCare policies, iCloud storage tiers, and the like.

But I think there is also a more exciting aspect to it…

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There’s always been one major problem with Apple’s privacy claim that ‘What happens on your iPhone, stays on your iPhone‘: it isn’t true of iCloud backups.

Although Apple uses end-to-end encryption for both iMessage and FaceTime, it doesn’t do the same for iCloud backups. They are encrypted, but Apple holds the key, meaning that the company has access to a copy of almost everything on your phone – and that includes stored messages.

I’d long expected Apple to fix this, but a report today claims that the company has decided not to…

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Way back in 2014, European lawmakers made a broadly sensible proposal that could have hurt Apple. The European Union’s Radio Equipment Directive called for a European charger standard asking all smartphone manufacturers to use compatible chargers.

There were two key elements to the proposal. First, a common voltage and amperage. Second, a connector to plug a charger into a smartphone…

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Ok, the pedants among us will argue that today isn’t the end of the decade – that’s really a year from now – but it seems as good a time as any to look back at my favorite Apple products over the years.

For some of us, of course, Apple products have been part of our lives for far longer than one decade. In my case, the first product to make my list dates back more than three decades…

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It’s coming up to the end of the year, and it’s time for me to write my take on Apple’s report card 2019.

Just as I’ve done for 2016, 2017 and 2018, I’m taking a look back at what the company has achieved during the year, focusing this year on its rather extensive number of product launches.

These started with a whimper – a new iPad mini which looked exactly like the old iPad mini – and ended with a bang, the release of the much-hyped all-new Mac Pro…

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Not quite a feature request, but a small favor I’d ask of Apple and third-party app developers alike: please set aside some time to fix your small but annoying bugs.

It’s the thing that would probably make the biggest difference to my day-to-day experience of Apple devices. Not because any of the bugs I’m discussing are major ones, but because they cause me minor but persistent irritation for months or even years …

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Apple yesterday announced the long-rumored 16-inch MacBook Pro — but what I really want now is a widescreen MacBook Pro.

The machine the company did launch is an appealing one if you’re upgrading from a pre-2016 model. You get a lot of bang for your buck, especially when it comes to SSD storage, which is now more sensibly priced given the ultrafast spec you’re getting…

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A report yesterday suggested that anyone eager to get their hands on the long-rumored Apple Glasses might have to wait a while. An internal presentation reportedly said that we won’t see third-party devices until 2022, and Apple Glasses until 2023.

But what was perhaps most interesting was the claim that Apple believes its glasses product will replace the iPhone within a decade…

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An iPhone subscription would once have sounded like a bad joke. But these days it’s a growing reality.

Apple has long faced a problem. Its biggest cash cow is the iPhone, historically generating the majority of the company’s revenues. But where people once bought a new iPhone every couple of years on average, that upgrade cycle has been gradually lengthening. It’s now in the 3-4 year range for the average buyer…

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There’s a new report today suggesting that we may be seeing Apple-branded HomeKit accessories as the company explores ways to boost the popularity of smart home technology.

According to a new report by Bloomberg, Apple is investing heavily in its smart home division in an attempt to grow the company’s presence in the smart home market.

Whilst HomeKit has grown significantly in the last few years, it trails Google Home and Amazon’s Alexa platforms in terms of the sheer number of compatible devices. The company is apparently looking at ways to encourage more manufacturers to make HomeKit accessories, and may even release smart home accessories of its own, following the HomePod’s muted reception.

From one perspective, that makes no sense…

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