If the new $549 AirPods Max or the $249 AirPods Pro are a bit pricey for you, don’t worry: According to a new report, Apple plans to launch new “AirPods Lite” wireless earbuds in 2021, priced significantly lower.
The new model would look similar to the current AirPods Pro, but would not include the active noise cancellation feature found in Apple’s top-of-the-line wireless earbuds.
Facebook isn’t happy about what it sees as Apple overstepping its bounds. As reported by Reuters, Facebook says that it hopes new draft EU rules could put Apple in its place when it comes to the power exhibited by the Cupertino tech giant.
“We hope the [Digital Markets Act] will…set boundaries for Apple,” a Facebook spokesperson said. “Apple controls an entire ecosystem from device to App Store and apps, and uses this power to harm developers and consumers, as well as large platforms like Facebook.”
The world may have struggled in 2020, but life’s been good on the App Store — and especially if you’re the makers of PUBG Mobile, Honor of Kings, Pokémon GO, Coin Master, and Roblox.
Those five mobile games all broke $1 billion in takings in 2020, across both iOS and Android. The first two, both made by Tencent, managed to break through the $2 billion barrier, claims a report from app analytics platform Sensor Tower.
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
OK, so a quote most readily associated (falsely) with freedom fighter Mahatma Gandhi isn’t a perfect fit to describe Apple’s decision to ditch the charger with the iPhone 12. But it certainly seems weirdly appropriate here.
The iPhone 12 is seemingly shaping up to be a massive winner for Apple, with a Tuesday report claiming that Apple is set to produce between 20% and 30% more handsets than it did last year.
The report says that Apple has plans to produce up to 230 million iPhones in 2021. While that also includes older handsets like the iPhone 11 and SE, it is primarily driven by “demand for [Apple’s] first-ever 5G” phones, according to Nikkei.
There are all sorts of reasons Apple doesn’t recommend that you drop your iPhone out of airplanes. But, if it does accidentally happen, you may not be totally out of luck.
A report from Brazilian news outlet G1 concerns filmmaker Ernesto Galiotto, who accidentally dropped his iPhone 6 out of a plane at a height of 984 feet. An accompanying video shows that Galiotto was trying to use the device to film over a beach 100 miles east of Rio de Janeiro, when it was whipped out of his hand and sent hurtling toward certain death.
Well, almost certain, that is!
Apple’s fancy AirPods Max headphones officially go on sale today, meaning that if you were lucky (or just organized) enough to have ordered them online right away, they should be winging their way to your home as you read this.
They are also available to buy in Apple Stores, although don’t expect plentiful supplies.
With Apple Fitness+ set to launch Monday, a handful of early reviews say the subscription service is a winner that makes fitness fun.
If you’ve got an Apple Watch and access to gym equipment in your home, it’s practically a no-brainer at $9.99 a month. Could this be a Peloton beater?
Apple Music teamed up with the iconic British artist David Hockney to create a portrait of Beethoven for the artist’s 250th birthday.
Hockney, whose painting “Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)” is the most expensive work of art by a living artist to ever sell at auction, created the Beethoven image using his trusty iPad.
Riots broke out over the weekend at a Wistron factory in southern India that produces iPhones, resulting in around 100 people being arrested. Thousands of iPhones were stolen during the incident.
The riots were reportedly related to allegations about unpaid wages and other exploitation. Workers were allegedly not paid for several months, and made to do mandatory overtime. Protestors broke windows at the factory on the outskirts of Bangalore, pulled down CCTV cameras, and flipped cars onto their sides.
Apple CEO Tim Cook reportedly stepped in to squash an Apple TV+ series that would have chronicled the rise of controversial blogging network Gawker Media.
Earlier this year, Vanity Fair reported that Apple TV+ execs were working with former Gawker writers Max Read and Cord Jefferson, among others, on the series. Not much in the way of details were published. However, it sounds like it could have been a scripted show about the “glory days” of a blog known for “skewering the powerful.”
One of the potential problems? Apple and Cook could have been among the powerful in question.
Since leaving Apple in the middle of last year, Sir Jony Ive has launched a new design agency, LoveFrom, and taken on clients including Airbnb. Now he could be headed for the figurative driver’s seat at Ferrari — as the Italian luxury carmaker’s next CEO. Possibly.
According to a report from Reuters, Ive — by far the best-known designer in Apple history — is in the running to take over as Ferrari’s next CEO. Given Ive’s love of high-end cars, that has to be a job he would be tempted by!
December 13, 1994: Apple strikes a deal with Bandai, Japan’s largest toymaker, to license Mac technology for the creation of a new videogame console called the Pippin.
The device, powered by a PowerPC 603 CPU and running a stripped-down, CD-ROM-based version of Mac OS, shows a struggling Apple is willing to take a chance on something new. Unfortunately, the Pipping becomes a total sales disaster.
With Facebook facing a federal antitrust lawsuit, and a new administration headed for the White House, should Apple be worried about a crackdown on big tech?
While the specifics might be far different for the two companies, D.C.’s apparent thirst for regulation should get Tim Cook sweating.
Disney has announced that its Disney+ streaming service will increase in price by a single, solitary dollar per month. That takes the monthly cost of the streaming service to $7.99 per month — or $79.99 per year if you buy an annual subscription.
Meanwhile, the price of the Disney Bundle, which also ties in Hulu and ESPN Plus, will add the same $1 to its price tag, bringing it to $13.99 per month. These price changes will kick into effect come March 26, 2021.
It’s way too early to have a sense of how many units Apple will sell of its newly announced AirPods Max headphones. But according to a rumor from Digitimes, two of the manufacturers involved with production are “not expecting much” from the “niche” product.
The report cites sources from Compaq Manufacturing and Unitech, two companies reportedly making printed circuit boards for the new headphones. Unsurprisingly, both firms declined to give official responses with their verdicts.
Remember how cool it was the first time you used Apple’s Cover Flow feature to flip through artwork for albums you bought on iTunes? More than a decade after Apple introduced that feature, Apple Music is rolling out a cool update: animated album covers.
Apple added the feature in the beta versions of iOS 14.3 and macOS 11.1. As you might expect, the animated covers are not available across the board on day one. So far, they’re just starting to appear for certain artists — with beta users starting to find them and share them online.
Apple has started building its own cellular modems for use in future devices. Johny Srouji, Apple’s senior vice president of hardware technologies, made the announcement to employees Thursday during a virtual town hall meeting.
The company currently relies on Qualcomm modems, after restoring its relationship with the company following a prolonged clash over patents and royalties. However, Apple has made no bones about its desire to bring this part of its manufacturing in-house. It even bought Intel’s modem business for $1 billion in 2019, the second-largest acquisition in Apple history.
Apple engineers used remote control robots and iPads equipped with custom augmented reality software to guide technicians in overseas factories, due to the coronavirus lockdown.
Usually Apple engineers make frequent visits to places like China, where Apple carries out manufacturing. However, this year’s coronavirus lockdown has made this impossible — leading to Apple having to make some tech-savvy adjustments.
Sometimes, when Apple passes a major financial milestone, I’ll have a pang of regret at not having invested all the money I could lay my hands on on Apple back in the mid-1990s.
But that’s far from the worst missed opportunity involving Apple investment. A new article for Fast Company tells the story of seven early investors who sold their AAPL holdings on the day of the company’s IPO in December 1980.
The “first impressions” reviews of the AirPods Max are out, and, well, they’re pretty darn good.
From the high-quality sound to the stainless steel and other luxury materials to the neat use of magnets to connect the ear pads, the consensus is that the AirPods Max are a premium product in (almost) every way.
As for that wallet-damaging $549 price tag? “Judging from materials execution alone, the AirPod Max feels like it should be more expensive if anything,” says TechCrunch‘s Matthew Panzarino. Check out some of the other initial thoughts below.
Apple has secured the rights to a new scripted anthology series about climate change called Extrapolations.
According to trade publication Variety, the series will reveal the “intimate, unanticipated stories of how the upcoming changes to our planet will affect love, faith, work and family on a personal and human scale.”
The series is created by Scott Z. Burns, a screenwriter, producer and director who wrote The Bourne Ultimatum and Contagion. He also produced the Academy Award-winning climate change documentary An Inconvenient Truth.
Apple could have to ensure that 30 percent of Apple TV+ content is produced in Europe in order to sell in that market, suggests new potential regulation in the works.
Under the General Scheme of the Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill, which has not yet been passed, all streaming platforms would have to abide by these rules.
Apple Park’s conference rooms are named after national parks, such as Grand Canyon. Apple Park has a two-and-a-half mile running track. Tim Cook has never used a selfie stick in his life.
These are three of the revelations that come out of a new Outside podcast episode, featuring a conversation with Cook as he and host Michael Roberts take a stroll through Apple Park. Along the way, the conversation touches on Cook’s love of nature and fitness, the design of Apple Park, AR, Apple’s health contributions, and more.
Apple TV+ snapped up the rights to Blake Crouch’s excellent quantum-tinged parallel universe thriller Dark Matter. Crouch, whose Wayward Pines novels were turned into a sci-fi show of the same name, will adapt his 2016 novel for screen.
The New York Times bestseller Dark Matter follows the story of Jason Dessen, a family man and high-school physics teacher. Walking home one night, Dessen is abducted by a masked stranger and injected with a drug. When he wakes up, he finds that he’s living in a world in which he’s unmarried and has achieved astonishing professional success.