Apple has saved 861,000 metric tons of copper, tin, and zinc ore by removing power adapters from iPhones, starting last year. That’s one of the tidbits from Apple’s factoid-studded Environmental Progress Report, released Friday.
It showcases how Apple is working toward its efforts of achieving net carbon neutrality across its whole supply chain by 2030. As Apple notes, that includes “How [an Apple product is] designed, how it’s made, how it’s shipped, how it’s used, [and] how it’s recycled.”
Both Apple and Amazon pride themselves in technology that “just works.” One thing that hasn’t previously “just worked,” however, was the cumbersome way purchases had to take place on the Amazon-owned Audible audiobook service.
While people who listen to their audiobooks on iPhone have to use the iOS app, and this app allowed them to search the catalog for other titles, there was no way to actually buy a new book via the app. Instead, users had to go to Audible.com to buy the books they wanted, before switching back to the app to listen to them.
It’s a busy day for Apple TV+ — with plenty of new material to watch on the Apple streaming video service. In addition to a new episode of For All Mankind, there is a plethora of new nature documentaries, narrated by some big names, and more.
Here’s what Friday, April 16 has in store for subscribers.
Apple on Thursday unveiled a $200 million fund to back responsible forestry efforts around the world. The Restore Fund, launched with Conservation International and Apple Card partner Goldman Sachs, aims to remove at least 1 million metric tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere every year.
That would be equivalent to removing more than 200,000 passenger vehicles from the road.
Apple may be on the verge of showing off new AirPods and a third-gen Apple Pencil, claims a tipster on Chinese social media platform Weibo.
An image, posted by user UnclePan, shows what they claim are the next-gen AirPods, along with text claiming that Apple is currently gearing up to show off the Apple Pencil.
Apple’s A-series chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd (TSMC) has warned that constrained chip supply will continue for the rest of this year and into 2022.
While it didn’t specifically mention Apple, it nonetheless admitted that capacity will remain “tight” for the immediate future. TSMC is currently gearing up to manufacture the A-series chips for Apple’s next-gen iPhone, set to debut in the fall. This will reportedly begin in May.
Earth Day takes place on April 22 and, as it has for years, Apple has its own tie-in promotions ready to help publicize the annual event dedicated to environmental protection.
From today through Earth Day, Apple will donate $1 to Conservation International — up to a maximum of $1 million — for every Apple Pay transaction via Apple’s website, the Apple Store app, or in physical Apple Stores.
Can the iPhone and Apple Watch help predict illnesses like COVID-19? That’s the question being asked by researchers from Apple, the Seattle Flu Study, and the University of Washington — and you can help them answer it. And get loaned an Apple Watch for the duration of the six-month study for your troubles.
The study is currently recruiting for participants who live in the greater Seattle area. Participants must have “higher than normal risk of respiratory illness because of frequent exposure to other people through work or other activities, health conditions, or other factors.”
This year’s iPhone notch looks set to get a bit smaller, with the latest evidence for this being an image posted to Twitter by user DuanRui, who frequently posts material shared on Chinese social media.
While not guaranteed to be genuine, the image does depict an iPhone display with slimmer — in width, not height — notch. Apple introduced the distinctive iPhone notch in 2017 with the iPhone X’s edge-to-edge display. It contains the Face ID sensing tech, front camera, and speaker.
Apple’s market cap has climbed more than $13 billion this year alone, equal to the company’s entire net worth in mid-2004. But that’s still enough to make it an underperformer next to its tech titan peers.
In a Wednesday report, the Wall Street Journal notes that Apple has risen 1.3% in 2021 so far. That’s compared to an average of 16% for Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook, and Google parent company Alphabet. It’s also way less than the 81% Apple soared in 2020.
Apple will debut an under-display Face ID setup to debut in 2023, TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claims in a Wednesday report to clients, seen by Cult of Mac.
Kuo doesn’t elaborate on the feature but, provided he’s accurate, this could potentially mean the end of the “notch” which has been a part of the iPhone design dating back to 2017’s iPhone X.
The iPhone mini looks unlikely to last longer than one more generation, based on a Wednesday report from a reliable Apple tipster.
Looking forward to the 2022 iPhone, TFI International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo suggests Apple will continue its recent pattern of releasing four models. However, these will include higher-end 6.7-inch and 6.1-inch iPhones like the current Pro lineup, and lower-end models in the same sizes.
The 5.4-inch iPhone mini sounds like it’ll be nowhere to be found.
Lisey’s Story, an Apple TV+ series based on a 2006 Stephen King novel, will debut on Apple TV+ on June 4. It’s about the widow of a famous author who discovered a passageway to a parallel dimension that inspired his work.
Unlike many screen adaptations of King’s work, the horror master himself wrote the scripts for Lisey’s Story. The eight-part series stars Julianne Moore and Clive Owen. J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot Productions produced the show.
Apple TV+ may be only a bit-player in the streaming wars, but on a pound-for-pound quality basis, it could actually be outperforming its competitors.
That’s according to a new study by Self Financial, which compared TV and movie data from Netflix, HBO Max, Prime Video, Disney+, Hulu and Apple TV+ to find out which offered the best quality viewing experience.
LG Magna e-Powertrain is the latest company to be linked with Apple to potentially build an electric car.
According to a Tuesday report, the two parties are “very near” to signing a deal, although contract fine print is still being discussed.
Sen. Josh Hawley introduced a bill Monday that would ban mergers and acquisitions by companies with market caps in excess of $100 billion. If passed, the bill could have a massive impact on technology companies, including Apple.
Apple, for the record, currently has a market cap of $2.2 trillion. Other tech giants worth upward of $100 billion include Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, Facebook, Uber, Airbnb and Netflix.
Siri may have just revealed the date for Apple’s rumored April event. According the voice assistant, Apple’s next event will take place one week from now on April 20.
This is likely to be the event at which Apple debuts its next-gen iPad Pro, the eagerly anticipated AirTags item trackers and a new iPad mini.
Microsoft has acquired Nuance Communications, the speech recognition AI company which helped* power Siri.
Microsoft snapped up Nuance for a massive $16 billion ($19.7 billion, inclusive of Nuance’s net debt). That’s the most it has spent on a company since buying LinkedIn for $26 billion in 2016.
Both Apple and Google have blocked an update to England and Wales’ Department of Health contact-tracing app, built using the tech giants’ API.
The update was intended to be released to coincide with the relaxation of lockdown measures in the United Kingdom. However, it apparently breached one of Apple and Google’s main rules: Apps built with the contact-tracing technology are not allowed to gather location data that could track users.
Apple TV+ is looking to ramp up its investment in original movies, and has hired a former WarnerMedia executive to help it, according to The Information.
The report cites “two people familiar with the situation” as saying that Apple wants to “beef up its original film production” to better compete in the streaming stakes.
Apple is working on a new smart home product that would combine Apple TV, a HomePod speaker and a camera for FaceTime or Zoom-style video conferencing, Bloomberg reported Monday.
The company “has been a laggard in the smart-home space, but [this] versatile new device in early development could change that,” according to the story, which describes the in-development product as “Apple’s most ambitious smart-home hardware offering to date.”
Apple continues to run into production challenges with its next-gen iPad Pro, but they won’t stop the tablet from debuting later this month, reports Bloomberg.
If you plan to get one, you might want to brace yourself for a wait, though. The next iPad Pro — notably, the larger, 12.9-inch model — could prove tough to get your hands on in the early days.
Apple Music TV, the 24-hour streaming music video channel that serves as Apple’s version of classic MTV, is now available outside the United States.
Apple launched the free music video channel stateside last October. Jump forward six months, and it can now be viewed by people in Canada and the United Kingdom. While that represents only a small fraction of the places Apple does business in, it suggests that the company is keen to roll out this service further afield.
Apple’s ProMotion technology, which delivers buttery-smooth scrolling and motion content on some iPads, may come to the iPhone this year.
According to a report from Digitimes, the next-gen iPhone will adopt LTPO (low-temperature polycrystalline oxide) backplane technology that could enable 120Hz screen refresh rates. The current iPhones have a refresh rate of just 60Hz.
iPhone models made up a massive 6 out of 10 of the top-selling smartphones in January 2021, according to a report from Counterpoint Research.
The report suggests that the top-selling handset was the regular iPhone 12, followed in short succession by the iPhone 12 Pro Max and iPhone 12 Pro.