Opinion pieces & commentary

Case maker Olixar created quite a stir yesterday when it started selling screen covers based on what it believes is the design of the next-generation iPhone SE.

It illustrated this with a render that shows a classic iPhone SE casing updated with a full-screen display and iPhone X style notch. It’s not the first time we’ve seen the concept, of course, but Olixar was sufficiently convinced to throw some money at it …

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Tim Cook yesterday tweeted in celebration of 20 years of iMac.

20 years ago today, Steve introduced the world to iMac. It set Apple on a new course and forever changed the way people look at computers.

Even twenty years later, I still like the design of the original iMac. In fact, despite not being a desktop guy, I love all the various iterations of iMac designs through the years …

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I’ve written on a couple of occasions about how Apple’s approach to Siri differs from the intelligent assistants offered by Amazon and Google.

The tl;dr version is that Apple has gone all-in on privacy, while Google takes the ‘hoover up as much data as possible’ approach, and Amazon has opened up Alexa to, well, anyone who wants to make it do something.

But while Apple’s privacy focus explains some of Siri’s limited abilities, it doesn’t excuse them all. HomePod brought Siri’s limitations into sharp focus, and the upcoming introduction of Siri to two new products will further increase the pressure for a smarter Siri …

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Apple had plenty of good news yesterday. Revenue, profit and iPhone sales were all up. Any doubts about the iPhone X were pretty firmly laid to rest. ‘Other’ products – which includes Apple Watch, AirPods and HomePod – set a new record, at almost $4B sales. Services grew 31% to hit another all-time record.

But when you look at what Apple said about that Other products category, there was one notable omission …

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Back in 2015, I gave my view of how I’d revamp the MacBook line-up. Leaving aside the specific sizes, based on a then-rumor that never panned out, I suggested that it didn’t make sense to retain three categories.

It seemed to me untidy to have a range which ran MacBook Air then MacBook then MacBook Pro. Assuming the reports of this year’s MacBook Air are broadly correct, things could potentially get even messier this year.

Already, the smallest laptop sits in the middle of the price range, but the rumors say this year’s MacBook Air will have a Retina display and a ‘slim design.’ If the new MacBook Air gets slimmer, and it gets a Retina display, then why would anyone pay $1299 for a MacBook rather than $899 for a MacBook Air with a slightly bigger screen … ?

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Apple’s announcement that it is discontinuing its AirPort product line wasn’t exactly a surprise. As we noted earlier, Bloomberg reported back in 2016 that Apple had disbanded the team responsible for its wireless routers, and we first spotted the company selling third-party ones.

But while it isn’t a surprise, I do think it’s the wrong decision – and a particularly ill-timed one …

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Yesterday I finished reading A Higher Loyalty, the book written by former FBI director James Comey.

I did manage to resist the temptation to jump ahead to the juicy bits, and my patience was rewarded: a lot of what he says about his interactions with President Trump and his administration are a lot more meaningful when placed into the context of what comes before. Especially the contrast with his relationship – or lack of it – with the Obama administration.

But it was the brief section dealing with the FBI’s infamous battle with Apple which stood out for me …

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A Bloomberg report suggests that Apple has lowered sales forecasts and reduced orders for the HomePod. The report was based on data from Slice Intelligence indicating that sales were strong at launch but rapidly tailed off.

The headline number in the report did seem to support the contention that the HomePod is selling poorly.

Three weeks after the launch, weekly HomePod sales slipped to about 4 percent of the smart speaker category on average.

But that gives a rather misleading impression, for six reasons …

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Apple yesterday announced a really impressive achievement: its entire global operations are now 100% powered by renewable energy. That encompasses everything from retail stores and local offices through data centers to its Apple Park campus.

Unlike many companies, Apple doesn’t cheat by buying offsets.

“You could go out and buy carbon credits and offsets–nope,” says Jackson firmly. “You could go out and wait for other people to do projects and say ‘Can I have some of that please? How much will you charge me for some of your clean energy?’ No.”

Last time it updated us, the figure was 96%. When you don’t cheat, getting there with that last few percent is a far bigger achievement than it might sound, and I think Apple deserves every credit for this …

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Getting a conventional doctor’s appointment can be one of life’s more annoying experiences. In the UK, at least, you can’t always get one at short notice unless it’s an emergency. You may not be able to get a convenient time-slot. And you’ll often have to take time off work to travel perhaps an hour or more round-trip for a consultation lasting ten minutes.

Video consultations have been available for some time, but it’s only recently – thanks to a trial here in the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) – that I got around to trying it for myself. And I’m sold …

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Apple has been rather quiet about an all-new Mac Pro it first teased a year ago. We did, though, learn two new things yesterday.

Last year, all that Apple said about timing was that the new machine wouldn’t be released that year.

As part of doing a new Mac Pro — it is, by definition, a modular system — we will be doing a pro display as well. Now you won’t see any of those products this year; we’re in the process of that. We think it’s really important to create something great for our pro customers who want a Mac Pro modular system, and that’ll take longer than this year to do.

That left open the possibility that the machine might be launched in 2018, or it might be later – and we now know it’s the latter …

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This morning’s report that Apple is working on an iPhone with a curved display sounds like it will be a rather modest change from the iPhone X.

Apple is also developing iPhone displays that curve inward gradually from top to bottom, one of the people familiar with the situation said.

That seems to be referencing a rather subtle curve that may, like the very slight curve at the bottom of the iPhone X, be almost indistinguishable from a flat screen. Technically, of course, the iPhone X display is fully curved, as it folds back underneath itself to make possible the near-bezel-free design …

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It’s almost exactly a year since I last discussed the possibility of Apple ditching Intel in favor of Macs powered by Apple-designed CPUs. I argued then that it was a question of ‘when’ rather than ‘if,’ echoing a view earlier expressed by my colleague Chance.

Bloomberg yesterday suggested that the ‘when’ might be 2020. That might seem like an ambitious timescale, but I do firmly believe two things. One, Apple is already running ARM-based Mac prototypes internally. Two, if it doesn’t happen in 2020, it won’t be too long afterwards …

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HomePod reviews almost universally agreed on two things: the speaker sounds incredibly impressive for the size and price, and Apple’s smart speaker is the least-smart one on the market. Both Amazon’s Echo and Google’s Home speakers were found to be significantly more capable when it comes to answering questions and carrying out tasks.

This is not, of course, coincidence. Amazon opens its Alexa ‘recipes’ up to any third-party developer, and Google has long snaffled-up as much data as it can to make its smart assistants as capable as possible. Apple, in contrast, carefully controls the personal data available to both itself and to third-party developers …

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Our education specialist Bradley Chambers wrote a lengthy piece yesterday explaining the flaws in Apple’s iPad-centric education strategy. The whole piece is well worth a read, but he outlined three main barriers to the superficially attractive vision presented by Apple, even before you consider the purchase cost of the iPads themselves:

• Books are tied to Apple IDs, so schools would have to re-purchase textbooks annually
• Teachers simply don’t have time to create their own interactive books
• Apple’s apps don’t integrate with the established IT systems used by schools

But while the new budget iPad may not be a great fit for most schools, it is a smart move for the consumer market …

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Whenever a big company is in the news for the wrong reason, it’s never long before a #Delete<Company> hashtag appears. We saw it most recently with #DeleteUber.

The thing about these campaigns is that some people do – but most don’t. If Facebook were simply facing a one-off controversy over its negligence in allowing a third-party to misuse data, then with the right handling, it would soon be business as usual.

But the signs so far are that the social network isn’t handling this crisis well. Couple this to longstanding grumbles about newsfeeds, and the #DeleteFacebook campaign could easily become a serious threat to the company’s future …

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Apple set expectations for the March 27 event with the invite: ‘creative new ideas for teachers and students’. It’s going to be themed and directed at education markets, no question.

But that doesn’t mean the event will be irrelevant to an average consumer outside of a school. Whilst software announcements will almost certainly focus on things like Apple Classroom, any new hardware revisions affect normal customers just as much as schools. Here’s what I’d like to see happen.

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OLED superseded LCD because it’s brighter, has better color saturation, and is more power-efficient. microLED is expected to replace OLED within the next few years for the same reasons – it improves on all three of those factors.

I don’t believe that Apple’s ‘secret manufacturing facility‘ for microLED screens indicates any desire or plan on Apple’s part to move into large-scale component manufacturing, but I do think it’s a very smart move.

I suspect there are three reasons Apple has established the facility …

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Some eighteen states have now signed a Right to Repair bill, with California the latest to sign up. The bills say that manufacturers must facilitate DIY and third-party repairs by publishing repair information and making both replacement parts and diagnostic tools available to consumers.

I’m instinctively on the side of those who think that devices should be both repairable and expandable by their owners. But I do recognize the trade-offs that involves …

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The MacBook Air has been one of Apple’s more neglected product lines. The 11-inch model was discontinued in 2016, and the 13-inch model hasn’t seen any major updates since 2015.

I thought I knew why Apple was keeping the machine in the lineup: it needed an entry-level Mac to bring people into the ecosystem, and at a time when most people buy laptops, the Mac mini wasn’t going to be it. The 12-inch MacBook was the obvious successor, but at $1299 it was just too expensive.

So my theory was that Apple was holding onto the MacBook Air until it was able to bring the 12-inch MacBook price down to hit the magic $999 number. But it now seems that Apple has a different, more ambitious plan …

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A KGI note over the weekend suggested that Apple is planning to release new ‘high-end over-ear headphones‘ – though not until late fall at the earliest.

Without my experience of the HomePod, I’d have merely shrugged at the report. Apple hasn’t exactly made a name for itself for headphone quality, either through its own-brand EarPods and AirPods, or through the Beats-branded products it has promoted since buying the company …

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