Luke Dormehl - page 30

Apple TV+ delivers the shivers with Calls debut and Servant season finale

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Calls
New on Apple TV+ today.
Photo: Apple

Thriller fans should brace for an Apple TV+ binge-a-thon this week. They can watch all nine episodes of creepy new show Calls, which debuted on Apple TV+ Friday,  or take in the first two full seasons of M. Night Shyamalan’s gripping Servant.

The Servant season finale arrived today alongside a new episode of alt-history space race show For All Mankind.

Forget swiping, Apple’s AR headset will react to what users are looking at

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Hololens
Microsoft's HoloLens are currently the mixed reality glasses to beat.
Photo: Microsoft

Apple’s upcoming augmented reality head-mounted display will be controlled by eye-tracking technology, TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says in a note sent to clients Friday.

Instead of using hand controls, the technology will be able to detect wearers’ eye movements and blinking, then instantly compute the required information so it can be seen on the device’s micro-OLED display.

Apple’s rumored March event may have been a ploy to catch leakers

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Chess
Apple's playing 4D chess while most of us are playing checkers.
Photo: Unsplash/GR Stocks CC

The misinformation about Apple’s March April special event may have been an attempt by Cupertino to catch out the people leaking information about the company’s plans.

That’s according to Jon Prosser, one of several reporters who shared March 23 as the date of Apple’s next special event. Prosser was so sure of it he even said he’d shave off his eyebrows if he was wrong. Well, he was wrong. But it all may have been a cunning plan from Apple.

WhatsApp will stop working on iPhones running iOS 9

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WhatsApp-dark-mode
Make sure you'll be able to continue using WhatsApp.
Photo: WhatsApp/Cult of Mac

WhatsApp has updated its app requirements, meaning that all users must now run at least iOS 10, as released in 2016.

That means that iPhone 4s users can no longer run the popular messaging app. Instead, anyone who wants to use WhatsApp must have an iPhone 5 or later. Otherwise WhatsApp will stop working.

Apple store policy let staff ‘surprise and delight’ customers with free replacements

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China iPhone sales
I'm guessing Tim Cook would qualify for "favored customer" status.
Photo: Apple

Apple store workers have a certain number of freebies they can use to “surprise and delight” unsuspecting customers, according to an ex-employee whose video about the supposed policy went viral.

“People would come in with like water-damaged phones and you’re not allowed to replace those without a fee,” TikTok user @Tanicornerstone says. “However, the geniuses used a ‘surprise and delight’ to be able to give somebody a free replacement.”

Pro tip: Customers who come off as jerks need not apply for such special treatment.

Apple will release its first mini-LED MacBook Air in 2022

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2020 MacBook Air
MacBook Air could get a fancy new display next year.
Photo: Apple

Apple will introduce its first MacBook Air with mini-LED display panel in 2022, TFI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claims in a new research note to clients published Thursday.

Kuo previously reported that the next-gen displays will be introduced to the high-end MacBook Pro this year. They are also rumored to be part of the next 12.9-inch iPad Pro, debuting in April. Kuo’s latest report, seen by Cult of Mac, suggests that they will also be introduced to Apple’s entry-level laptops, too.

Apple’s clean-energy projects will cut carbon emissions equal to 200,000 cars

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Green Bonds
The name's Bond. Green Bonds.
Photo: Apple

Apple funded 17 Green Bond projects last year, which will ultimately help avoid an average of 921,000 metric tons of carbon emissions being pumped into the environment each year. That’s the equivalent of removing nearly 200,000 cars from the road, Apple says.

In an update on its planned $4.7 billion Green Bond spend, Apple notes that its new projects will generate a massive 1.2 gigawatts of renewable energy globally.

Apple’s rumored March event reportedly will take place in April

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Apple April Event — Oops!
Time marches on. So do March events.
Photo: Cult of Mac

Apple’s next product launch will take place in April, not March, a soon-to-be-eyebrowless Jon Prosser claimed Wednesday. Prodigious leaker Prosser had been so sure of his predicted date of March 23 for Apple’s next event that he wagered the integrity of his own facial hair on it. Now he’s admitting defeat.

“The event is in April,” Prosser tweeted. In a follow-up, he suggested that Apple had not previous hosted an April event, so “I get it if you’re skeptical. But here we are.”

Apple removes 1 million-plus counterfeit product listings in 2020

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AirPods Pro with black background discounts
Counterfeit AirPods Pro seem particularly in-demand online.
Photo: Apple

Apple employs a “dedicated team of experts” who work with law enforcement, social media companies and e-commerce sites to remove counterfeit products from sale, the company says.

“The safety of our customers is our first priority, and the risks associated with counterfeit products can be very serious,” an Apple spokesperson told Bloomberg. “… In the last year we have sought the removal of over 1 million listings for counterfeit and fake Apple products from online marketplaces, including Facebook and Instagram.”

Proposed Utah bill could block porn on iPhones as default

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Pornhub image
Law could mean mandatory filters in Utah.
Photo: PornHub

Conservative lawmakers in Utah want to put a legally mandated default block on pornography on all phones and tablets sold in the state.

They have previously referred to porn as a “public health crisis.” However, the main focus of the would-be legislation would supposedly be to stop kids from accessing adult material online. Adults would be able to turn off the filter should they so wish.

HomePod failure shows Apple should quit making pricey niche products

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homepod
Watch out, AirPods Max! You might be next.
Photo: Apple

After throwing in the towel on the original HomePod after just three years, Apple should stop releasing pricey, niche products.

They don’t sell well — at least not well enough to keep Apple interested, apparently — and it’s not fair to consumers who shell out big bucks, then get stuck with a product that vanishes after just one generation.

Yes, Apple says it will continue to support the full-size HomePod with software updates, even as it refocuses on the $99 HomePod mini. But the old-school HomePod is a dead-end product.

You can read the HomePod debacle as an admission of failure regarding Apple’s framing of the device as a smart speaker rather than high-end audio gear. But it’s more than that. It’s an illustration of Apple’s faltering strategy of creating premium products for niche corners of the market.

China bans encrypted messaging app Signal

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Signal app
Signal app offers strong encryption.
Photo: Signal

End-to-end-encrypted messaging app Signal is secure. So secure, in fact, that it’s the European Union’s encrypted messaging app of choice.

Unfortunately, it’s also secure enough that it’s gotten on the wrong side of the Chinese government. China has reportedly banned the app in mainland China as of March 16, TechCrunch reports. This is one day after its website was blocked in the country.

China works to circumvent iOS 14.5’s App Tracking Transparency

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Your iPhone will soon offer a bit more privacy.
Apple is making it tougher for apps to track users.
Graphic: Apple

China’s state-backed China Advertising Association is already looking for ways to get around Apple’s upcoming App Tracking Transparency feature, the Financial Times reported Tuesday.

The organization’s approach reportedly involves something called a “CAID.” This can supposedly act as an alternative means of tracking users to the iPhone’s ad identifier, or IDFA. TikTok parent company ByteDance issued a guide for app developers that describes how marketers “can use CAID as a substitute if the user’s IDFA is unavailable.”

iPhone will soon ship with government-approved apps preinstalled in Russia

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App Store image
New rules will kick in next month.
Photo: James Yarema/Unsplash CC

Apple devices sold in Russia will come preinstalled with Russian-made software approved by the government starting next month, a report published Tuesday suggests.

This is in response to a law, coming into force April 1, designed to promote the domestic tech sector. It affects all smartphone manufacturers, not just Apple.

Apple TV+ scores 2 Oscar noms as streaming dominates

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Apple TV+ enters the world of auteur animation with new animated film Wolfwalkers.
Wolfwalkers was one of the Apple movies to get a nomination.
Image: Apple TV+

Apple TV+ has picked up its first ever Oscar nominations — although it still looks like a bit of an underachievement for the Cupertino tech company.

With Academy Award noms now announced, Apple has picked up two: Best Animated Feature Film for Wolfwalkers and Sound Design for Greyhound. The results will be announced April 25.

We don’t know anything about iOS 15 yet. And that’s great, because Apple spoilers suck.

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iPadOS 14 is good but iPadOS 15 just needs some new features to even better.
Things have been reassuringly quiet on the iOS 15 front.
Concept: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac

We don’t know anything about iOS 15 yet. And I’m totally OK with that. By comparison, this time last year we already knew plenty about iOS 14. This year, Apple’s somehow managed to keep leaks to virtually zero — despite the fact that many Apple engineers are working from home right now.

Here’s why I’m not shedding any tears over the lack of leaks. And why, frankly, I’d be happy if that same secrecy extended to other Apple products, too.

Joyful AirPods Pro ad will make you want to ‘Jump’

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AirPods
Apple's new AirPods ad is full of pep.
Photo: Apple

Apple shows off the untethered joyfulness and Active Noise Cancellation/Transparency features of its AirPods Pro in a new ad, titled “Jump,” which Apple debuted over the weekend.

The ad depicts an AirPods Pro user breaking social distancing rules as he moves through a vibrant city, playing jump-rope and otherwise pulling off some impressive acrobatic moves. It’s a fun two-minute ad set to the 2020 song “Fallin’ Apart” by Young Franco.

Days of explosive growth for AirPods may already be over

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AirPods Pro with black background discounts
AirPods have been a massive winner for Apple since 2016.
Photo: Apple

The massive growth days of the AirPods may already be over, according to renowned Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.

In a new note to clients seen by Cult of Mac, Kuo said he anticipates a year-over-year decline in AirPods shipments in 2021. If true, this would be the first year in AirPods history that sales didn’t experience explosive growth.

Apple Car could drive Apple to $3 trillion market cap

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Apple Car
Could this be what pushes Apple to its next financial milestone?
Photo: Torsten Dettlaff/Pexels CC

The arrival of the Apple car could push Apple’s market capitalization to an almost unimaginable $3 trillion, analysts at Citigroup and Wedbush claim.

Since Apple is currently worth $2.05 trillion, that would mean a surge of approximately 50% on its present value. Apple is already the most valuable public company in the world.

Latest Apple Pay offer grants discounts on groceries and meal boxes

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Apple Pay
You've got until next week to take advantage of the offer.
Photo: Apple

Apple has teamed up with grocery and meal deal services Instacart, HelloFresh, and Daily Harvest for its latest Apple Pay offer.

Running from now through March 17, users can receive two free months of Instacart Express membership, plus $5 off their first order, along with reductions on HelloFresh, and Daily Harvest. Check out more details below.