Apple stock has already recovered to its pre-coronavirus lockdown levels, but according to two investment firms much larger gains are on the horizon.
Speaking with CNBC, Todd Gordon, managing director at Ascent Wealth Partners, argued that Apple could be set to rally an additional 40% from its current share price. That would take Apple to $490 — or $135 above its $355 all-time high.
One of the creators of newly launched email service Hey accuses Apple of behaving like gangsters by allegedly threatening to remove the app from the App Store if it did not start selling its premium subscription through Apple’s platform — thereby giving Apple a cut of the profits.
“Like any good mafioso, they paid us a visit by phone,” Basecamp CTO David Heinemeier Hansson wrote in a long Twitter thread. “…[W]ithout even as much of a curtesy euphemism, [Apple said] they’d burn down our store (remove our app!), lest we paid up.”
Christie Smith, Apple’s vice president of inclusion and diversity, has left the company after two-and-a-half years in the role. Smith worked under Apple’s SVP of Retail and People Deirdre O’Brien.
Smith’s departure was reported by Bloomberg and confirmed by Apple. Her departure had been planned for a couple of months, but Tuesday was her last day.
Apple has posted the YouTube live stream link that will allow viewers to tune in to its WWDC 2020 keynote next week.
The June 22 event will kick off at 10 a.m. Pacific, streaming directly from Apple Park. This is the second time Apple has streamed a special event on YouTube, following last year’s iPhone unveiling.
Last week, a new job forced Ollie Parker to build his work-from-home setup. No small task, but the British accountant made the most of it and he quickly whipped up a cozy setup great for grinding.
“I just finished the build of it all last week as I started a new job working from home,” he said. “And then I have my Xbox connected and play some Warzone in my spare time.”
The heart of Parker’s setup is a 2019 MacBook Pro attached to a 34-inch LG UltraWide Curved Monitor mounted on a Humanscale MW Monitor Arm.
Artists can use an iPad or iPhone to create augmented reality experiences with Adobe Aero. And today the software added support for embedding audio into AR experiences. It’s now possible to add sound effects to virtual objects overlaid on the real world by this app.
Aero is free, and is intended for creatives not coders.
The studio that created Oscar-nominated The Secret of Kells will bring its latest animated feature to Apple TV+ before the end of 2020. Wolfwalkers is set in medieval Ireland, and tells the story of two girls who transform into wolves.
Travelers looking for a lightweight external monitor for their MacBook can turn to AirTab. This comes in at only 1.1 pounds and 0.19 inches thick.
And the AirTab Touch adds a 10-point touchscreen without increasing the bulk.
Apple has reportedly picked up international broadcasting rights for Tehran, a spy drama about a young Israeli agent trying to destroy an Iranian nuclear reactor.
The eight-episode Israeli series, created and written by Moshe Zonder (Netflix’s Fauda), could be coming to Apple TV+ very soon.
A Chinese video sharing app which ripped off was heavily inspired by TikTok in its design has been booted out of the App Store, shortly after it was removed from the Google Play Store due to reports of plagiarism.
Zynn not only closely resembled TikTok in its design, but also in much of its content. A previous report from Wired claimed that many popular TikTok users have had their content (and even knockoff user profiles) shared on the rival app. That didn’t go over well!
Stories picked by Apple News’ human editors are far more likely to represent a diverse range of outlets — and be more serious and less focused on celebrities and entertainment — than its algorithmically curated alternative, researchers claim.
Jack Bandy and Nicholas Diakopoulos from Northwestern University analyzed thousands of Apple’s “Top Stories” and “Trending” articles over a 10-month period. They discovered that the latter, which are determined algorithmically, show stories from significantly fewer outlets, predominantly CNN or Fox News. Articles from BuzzFeed and People also figured heavily in the mix — with an emphasis on light news.
Apple says that it is disappointed to be targeted in two new antitrust investigations by the European Union. The two antitrust investigations, into both the App Store and Apple Pay, were announced Tuesday.
“It’s disappointing the European Commission is advancing baseless complaints from a handful of companies who simply want a free ride, and don’t want to play by the same rules as everyone else,” Apple told Reuters in a statement. “We don’t think that’s right — we want to maintain a level playing field where anyone with determination and a great idea can succeed.”
According to Wedbush analyst Dan Ives, Apple has overcome whatever delays it faced in manufacturing the iPhone 12 and, as of now, the devices should debut in September as planned. Shipping would take place early the next month.
While that’s marginally later than last year’s launch date, it suggests that Apple has managed to claw back its schedule after coronavirus rocked the supply chain earlier this year.
Apple faces another antitrust complaint in the European Union, this time from Japanese tech company Rakuten. The anti-competition complaint relates to Apple’s e-book business, the Financial Times reported Tuesday.
In response, the EU opened an official investigation into the App Store. On Tuesday, EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager said the government will scrutinize Cupertino’s business practices. “We need to ensure that Apple’s rules do not distort competition in markets where Apple is competing with other app developers, for example with its music streaming service Apple Music or with Apple Books,” Vestager said. “I have therefore decided to take a close look at Apple’s App Store rules and their compliance with EU competition rules.”
The Apple App Store ecosystem contributed over half a trillion dollars to the global economy in 2019, according to a study commissioned by Apple.
This total encompasses far more than just what iPhone or Mac users pay for software. It includes transactions done through these apps, from grocery deliveries to streaming services.
Apple inadvertently confirmed rumors that iPhones will soon function as car keys. Buried in the privacy information for Apple Wallet in the iOS 13.6 Beta is a lengthy description of the upcoming feature.
Called “Adding and Managing Car Keys,” the verbiage details how wireless keys can be added to Wallet and how they can be shared.
The Apple Developer app is the one-stop-shop for all the information devs need, but until now there’ve only been versions for iPhone and iPad. On Monday, the company finally brought out a version for Mac. This guide to the 2020 Worldwide Developers Conference comes a week before WWDC kicks off.
And while this event will be entirely online, Apple is sending out press invites anyway.
Summer is just starting but Apple is already thinking back-to-school. College students and teachers can save up to $200 on a MacBook or iMac. Or up to $100 on iPads. And get a pair of AirPods gets thrown in for free.
In previous years, Apple’s back-to-school promo always included Beats headphones. This is the first time AirPods have been part of the deal instead.
Apple has updated its 16-inch MacBook Pro buying options by offering the new Radeon Pro 5600M mobile GPU. This joins the existing Radeon Pro 5300M and 5500M GPU options for the MacBook Pro.
Kitting out the new MacBook Pro with a AMD Radeon Pro 5600M GPU with 8GB of HBM2 memory adds $700 onto the base model MacBook Pro. According to Apple, it will improve performance by up to 75% compared to the 5500M configuration. Is that worth it? It absolutely depends on how much of a pro user you are!
Apple has expanded its 0% Apple Card financing option for products, including the Mac, iPad, AirPods Pro, AirPods, and Apple Pencil. (No Apple Watch, though!)
The company previously launched a 0% Apple Card financing option for iPhone in December. However, this is the first time that Apple has expanded this to cover other Apple products. Tim Cook suggested that Apple would be expanding the program during Apple’s most recent earnings call.
Sports merchandise online store Fanatics is offering customers in the U.S. a 20% on selected goods so long as they buy them using Apple Pay. The special offer, the latest example of Apple partnering with a retailer for an Apple Pay promotion, is being marketed as a Father’s Day special offer.
Father’s Day 2020 falls on Sunday, June 21. The offer, however, is valid only through 11.59pm EST on June 19. That means that you’ll need to get a bit organized, rather than just settling for the “buy dad a last minute gift the night before” act.
Apple’s “foldable” iPhone will use dual displays to get around the foldable screen problem that plagues other folding phones like Samsung’s beleaguered Galaxy Fold, claims Apple leaker Jon Prosser.
“The current prototype has two separate display panels on a hinge,” Prosser wrote in a tweet Monday. He claims the foldable iPhone prototype boasts “round, stainless steel edges like current iPhone 11 design” and features no notch. Instead, there is a “tiny forehead” on the outer display that houses the Face ID sensors.
In another piece of possible evidence that this year’s iPhone 12 handsets will feature ToF (time-of-flight) camera sensors, a report published Monday claims that component makers in the Apple supply chain are gearing up their production for mass-manufacturing.
Time-of-flight camera sensors typically work by emitting a laser pulse which is used to bounce off objects. By measuring how long it takes for the laser to hit the object and return to the sensor, you can work out how far away it is. This makes it possible to create detailed 3D maps of spaces. That could help Apple in both improving its iPhone camera tech and augmented reality ambitions.
When it comes to how much content you get for your dollar, Amazon Prime Video is the best value VOD (video-on-demand) service and Apple TV+ is the worst, claims movie and TV search engine Reelgood.
At a time when new streaming services are launching all the time, the company ran the numbers to compare the likes of Netflix, HBO Max, Prime Video, Hulu, Disney+, and Apple TV+. Unsurprisingly, Apple TV+ doesn’t fare too well.
Images which showed up on Twitter over the weekend depict what may be the new iPhone 12 series of handsets with both physical molds and CAD drawings.
As expected, this includes four different versions, rumored to include a 5.4-inch handset, two 6.1-inch versions, and a giant 6.7-inch edition. More importantly, though, the images showcase the handsets’ reported redesign — with flatter edges like the iPhone 4 or newer iPad Pro models.