Luke Dormehl - page 68

Apple leaker Jon Prosser shared new details — including the alleged price and storage options — for the 2020 iPhone 12 refresh in a new video Monday.

Prosser said Apple will offer a pair of regular iPhone 12 handsets and another pair of iPhone 12 Pro devices. Each line will sport two screen size options — although the iPhone 12 Max will be the same size as the iPhone 12 Pro regular, while the 12 Pro Max will be biggest of all.

But you’d better be ready to shell out for the most expensive option!

Apple’s new 13-inch MacBook Pro was more of a minor tweak than a major upgrade. But Twitter leaker @L0vetodream suggests that Apple’s rumored, improved 14-inch MacBook Pro could be on the way — although not until next year.

The 14-inch MacBook Pro was expected by some fans as a replacement for the 13-inch laptop. However, this didn’t happen and, as a result, a lot of the innovative new features of the 16-inch MacBook Pro are still MIA.

To make sure that the AirPods fit as many ears as possible, Apple engineers worked with Stanford University to create a giant database of information about ear dimensions.

That’s according to Greg Joswiak, Apple’s vice president of product marketing, quoted in a new article for Wired, published over the weekend.

Apple is looking to ramp up its investment in India, shifting close to a fifth of its current production capacity from China to Indian manufacturers, according to a Monday report from the Economic Times.

“We expect Apple to produce up to $40 billion worth of smartphones, mostly for exports through its contract manufacturers Wistron and Foxconn,” a senior government official told the publication.

Lately, all kinds of stories have circulated online about TV host Ellen DeGeneres not exactly being the nicest person in Hollywood. But one mentioned in a recent New York Post article had an Apple tie-in.

According to the article, Ellen once phoned up none other than Steve Jobs himself to complain that the font size was too small on the iPhone after she lost her glasses and was unable to read the screen.

 Could Apple’s A-series chips eventually be manufactured in the United States? That’s one possible outcome if the Trump administration gets its way. The ongoing debate around domestic chip production and the chips act could play a significant role in shaping this future.

According to a report published Sunday by the Wall Street Journal, the White House wants to “jump-start” the development of new chip factories in the U.S. to help reduce reliance on Asia for critical technology. And it’s in talks with current A-series chipmaker TSMC and others to do so.

Rapper 50 Cent claims that he personally pitched Steve Jobs on paying him $150,000 to promote the iPod in his 2003 music video for the hit song “P.I.M.P.”

“You think you could sell an iPod? I could sell an iPod,” 50 recalled telling Jobs in a recent interview. “Jimmy [Iovine] will tell you, in that 10 minutes that I sat there, I got [Jobs] to give me $150,000. [It was] the first time Apple did product placement in anything, any music video.”

A new Apple TV 4K, powered by the company’s A12X chip from 2018’s 11-inch iPad Pro, is primed to drop any day, claims tipster Jon Prosser.

“Apple got no chill right now,” Prosser tweeted Thursday. He adds that he has not yet heard a projected date of release.

Apple is awarding $10 million from its Advanced Manufacturing Fund to COPAN Diagnostics, a company making sample collection kits for COVID-19 coronavirus testing.

This funding will let COPAN “rapidly accelerate” its supply of collection kits for hospitals across the United States, helping it expand production to more than a million kits per week by early July.

Want to know how the new 13-inch MacBook Pro stacks up against its predecessor or other MacBooks on the market? A new report by Japanese language Apple blog Macotakara compares the Geekbench CPU scores for various MacBooks.

The new 13-inch MacBook Pro, announced earlier this week, has a Geekbench score of 4565 and 1093 for multi and single core scores for its Intel Core i7 variant. Meanwhile, the lower spec Intel Core i5-sporting MacBook Pro model scores 4489 and 1066. That’s only marginally better than 2019 13-inch models.

Although, if pure processing power is what you’re after, you’re better off opting for the 16-inch MacBook Pro Apple debuted last year!

Apple TV+ show For All Mankind is currently between seasons — with season one concluded, but season two stalled by the same production challenges facing everyone in Hollywood right now.

To make sure that the retro space drama stays in people’s minds, however, Apple Wednesday dropped a new video providing a narrated tour of one of the show’s locations. Check it out below.

Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Drew, two of the high profile executives Apple brought in with its $3 billion purchase of Beats, are profiled in the new issue of GQ. While both have stepped back from their daily involvement with Apple, the article nonetheless briefly touches on Cupertino’s 2014 Beats purchase — and why Iovine says it made total sense for Apple.

Iovine, who stepped aside as head of Apple Music in 2018, said that he and Dre now spend their time searching for the next Steve Jobs, via a focus on education.

On Thursday, Australia became the first country outside of China to reopen large numbers of Apple Stores as 21 of its 22 retail outlets opened their doors again for the first time in more than six weeks.

The Australian Apple Stores, like all others outside China, have been closed since March 14. They were temporarily shuttered due to the spread of COVID-19.

The UK’s National Health Service has launched its contact-tracing app — but experts quoted by the Daily Mail Tuesday claim that its non-privacy focused approach to tracking the spread of coronavirus could make it illegal.

They also claim its incompatibility with Apple and Google’s contact-tracing API may cause chaos for traveling Brits.

Microsoft Outlook for iPad and iPhone now makes it easier to stop your inbox getting clogged up with massive multi-reply email threads copying in large numbers of people.

The “Ignore Conversation” feature is a handy new feature added for version 4.36.0 of the app. Here’s what you need to know.

Apple’s built-in laptop security safeguards, introduced with the 2018 MacBook Pros, are hitting independent repair shops and electronics recyclers hard, a report by Motherboard claims.

The system combines software security locks, various diagnostic requirements and Apple’s T2 security chip. Together, they mean that Macs stop working if they’re operated on by someone not using Apple’s proprietary repair tools.

All Apple Stores except one will reopen in Australia on Thursday, May 7, claim the official Apple webpages for 21 of 22 brick and mortar stores.

Australian Apple Stores, like all others outside China, have been closed since March 14. This is due to the coronavirus pandemic.

A fully kitted-out version of Apple’s swanky new 13-inch MacBook Pro will set you back a pocket-busting total of $4,099.

Here’s what the extra cash gets you — and what the most expensive upgrades are.

Apple unveiled a new 13-inch MacBook Pro on Monday, bringing a slew of upgrades to its smaller high-end laptop.

It’s available to order today, starting at $1,299 for regular customers or $1,199 for students and teachers.

Apple will unleash its updated 13-inch MacBook Pro Monday, according to Apple leaker Jon Prosser.

“Incoming. Today’s the day,” Prosser wrote in a tweet, linking to a previous one about the new 13-inch MacBook Pro, codenamed J223.

An amazing new augmented reality demo shows how the future of cut, copy and paste might work.

Created by Cyril Diagne, a 34-year-old artist, designer and programmer currently in residence at the Google Arts & Culture Lab in Paris, the demo shows images of objects being dragged from the real world and dropped into Photoshop on a Mac. That’s an AR application that any designer could get on board with!

In a virtual commencement address to Ohio State University grads Sunday, Apple CEO Tim Cook talked about challenges the world faces in the time of COVID-19 and implored the outgoing students to “build a better future than the one you thought was certain.”

Cook, by now a seasoned commencement speaker, also discussed what he’s been doing during the coronavirus lockdown and mentioned his experiences working with Steve Jobs. You can check out his full commencement speech below.

Running out of things to watch during lockdown? Streaming service Crackle is bringing “thousands” of free movies and TV shows to Plex, the digital media and organizational app that launched its ad-supported streaming service in December.

Having initially rolled out movies by Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM), Lionsgate and Legendary, it’s now introducing a plethora of free titles from Crackle. These include the likes of hit movies Captain Phillips, Patriot Games and The Illusionist, alongside TV shows like Hell’s Kitchen and Roseanne.

Smartphone shipments took a major tumble in the first quarter of 2020 as coronavirus wreaked havoc on the supply chain and demand. That’s the conclusion drawn by three of the top mobile-tracking research firms, Strategy Analytics, Canalys, and IDC.

While their numbers don’t all tally perfectly they tell the same overall picture. While Apple wasn’t immune to the decline, however, it fared better than some of its rivals.

iPad app downloads had their first positive quarterly growth in four years during the first three months of 2020, app analytics platform Sensor Tower claims.

In a new report, the firm says that quarterly downloads of apps for the iPad surpassed 1.1 billion worldwide in Q1. Meanwhile, consumer spending in iPad apps crossed $2 billion for the first time ever. Not bad for a time when the world is in the midst of coronavirus lockdown.