News - page 489

Government-ordered quarantines in place to contain a deadly coronavirus outbreak in China have forced Apple to temporarily close three stores in the country.

Apple’s good news about a record-breaking quarter this week have been tempered as executives monitor conditions in a country critical to the mass production of its most popular devices, especially the iPhone.

Apple’s most recent iOS update eliminates the connectivity issues plaguing iPhone XR owners on O2, the U.K.’s second-largest carrier.

Many users have been unable to make calls or browse the internet without being connected to Wi-Fi. But O2 today confirmed that updating to iOS 13.3.1 restores normal functionality.

The iPhone may always be No. 1 in the minds and hearts of its users. Samsung, though, always had the shipment numbers to claim its smartphones made it the world’s best-selling brand.

Then the iPhone 11 lineup showed up. Now market research shows Apple has currently surpassed Samsung or, at the very least, is tied as the smartphone brand king.

Amazon has pipped Apple and Google to the no. 1 spot in this year’s Brand Finance Global 500 ranking.

The somewhat unorthodox ranking system looks at the world’s 500 most valuable brands across all sectors and countries. It then assigns a “brand value” based on a royalty rate that companies could get for licensing their name in the open market.

A draft bill by Republican Senator Lindsey Graham could possibly land Apple and assorted other tech giants with major lawsuits. The proposal would potentially affect tech companies who offer services with strong encryption.

It asks the government to come up with a list of best practices for tech companies to prevent cases child exploitation and abuse. That could mean banning such encryption, and making tech companies more responsible if their services are used to share these materials.

For most people, tap and swipe-based gestures are the perfect way to navigate on an iPad. That’s not true for everyone, however. This is why the makers of a new eye-tracking system called Skyle have developed this innovative iPad Pro accessory.

Built with the accessibility audience in mind, the system lets users insert their 12.9-inch iPad Pro into a smart protective case, plug in an eye tracker, and then use a special Skyle app to navigate their iPad with nothing more than well-placed glances.

Apple TV+ is adding Damages and Bridesmaids star Rose Byrne to its growing stable of stars. The streaming service is reportedly “preparing to give a series order” to a new series titled Physical, starring Byrne.

The show, which will blend comedic and drama elements, is set in a 1980s SoCal beach community. Rose Byrne plays a housewife who finds new fulfilment in the world of aerobics.

Apple has been ordered by a California jury to pay $837.7 million in damages for breaching Wi-Fi technology patents owned by the California Institute of Technology. 

Apple says it plans to appeal the verdict.

Apple’s 2020 flagship iPhone is rumored to have a pristine screen free of that dreaded notch.

But a social media post from a Xiaomi vice president claims the “entire industry” is far from solving the light transmission problems caused by placing front-facing cameras behind the screen.

According to Tim Cook, users won’t see any ads on Apple TV+ anytime soon. Or ever.

“For the TV+ business, we feel strongly that what that customer wants is an ad-free product,” Cook said during Tuesday’s record-breaking Apple earnings call. Considering how much money Apple could rake in from advertising, that’s leaving a lot of cash on the table. But it’s also completely the right thing to do.

Before Xnor.ai was acquired by Apple, the startup was working with the US military on Project Maven, a controversial Artificial Intelligence project related to drone imagery. That collaboration stopped when Apple purchased the company, according to an unconfirmed report.

The full list of 117 emoji coming to Unicode 13.0 was revealed by the Unicode Consortium today ahead of their addition to smartphone keyboards later this year.

While the new list of emoji is short on new smiley faces it does add a number of interesting characters such as ninjas, a gender-neutral version of Santa Claus, a polar bear, bison and a bunch of other miscellaneous items.

Take a closer look at each one:

Ruslan Meshenberg made the jump to Apple TV+ after leaving Netflix, a top rival of Apple’s new streaming service. As the former VP of Productivity Engineering, he brings years of experience to a platform that’s still getting off the ground.

Apple TV+ shows are drawing plenty of attention, according to a market-analysis firm. Six of the ten most popular streaming series premiering last quarter were reportedly made by Apple.

Executives at AT&T have quickly learned that building a streaming service to compete with Apple TV+ and Netflix isn’t going to be cheap. During the company’s latest earnings call, AT&T revealed that it has already lost $1.2 billion during the creation process of HBO Max that is set to launch this May.

Apple is far from done with Touch ID. The latest research note from reliable TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo indicates the technology will return with at least one iPhone coming in 2021 — and it will have a new home.

Apple is expected to integrate a fingerprint scanner into a new capacitive power button on the side of its more affordable LCD device.

Apple keeps a very tight lid on iPhone security, but that might actually benefit very sophisticated hackers, according to some security experts.

This is how Saudi Arabia was allegedly able to hack Jeff Bezos’s iPhone X.

Elon Musk’s Tesla Cybertruck was laughed at by critics for its angular, alien look. But the futuristic design may win more style points on an iPhone.

Russian luxury jeweler Caviar is showing off its latest mod job, a titanium iPhone 11 Pro inspired by Musk’s prototype of an electric truck unveiled in December.

Apple is planning a huge lineup of products for early 2020, including a brand-new AirPower alternative, according to reliable TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.

Fans can also look forward to a low-cost iPhone, upgrades to iPad Pro and the MacBook lineup, high-end headphones, and more before the summer, he reported.

Prepare your wallets for one hell of a beating!

Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo warns that Apple could experience product shipment delays and other risks if the deadly coronavirus spreading in China is not significantly contained before March.

In a note to investors Wednesday obtained by Cult of Mac, the respected soothsayer also warned that the coronavirus has caused consumer confidence in a market Apple has been trying to grow, especially with smartphones.

Apple’s first-quarter results have triggered confidence among analysts that the future of the company is stronger than ever on the back of the iPhone.

Wall Street analysts began reporting Wednesday their thoughts on the tech giant – everything from strong sales growth in China, to rumors of a new low-cost iPhone to a 5G-ready mobile later this year.

The iPhone 11 reportedly accounted for a massive 1 out of 10 of all smartphones sold in Europe and the United States during the last quarter of 2019. The iPhone also made market share gains in every major market — including the big five European countries, the US, China, Japan, and Australia.

As if people needed another reason to be wowed by Apple after its blow away earnings call Tuesday!

Apple’s big iOS 13 update has now made its way to an impressive 70% of all iPhones and 57% of all iPads, Cupertino’s latest data reveals.

Just 23% of Apple smartphones are running iOS 12, while a mere 7% are running an earlier version of its software. A whopping 77% of all devices introduced in the last four years have been upgraded.

Apple has reduced the price of HomePod to $280, a further reduction on the $349 it charged initially for its smart speaker. Unfortunately, you’ll have to be living in India to take advantage of it.

Having released the HomePod in 2018 in the United States, Apple has finally launched it in India. This heavily populated market is comparable in size to China. However, Apple has not yet been able to make too many inroads in terms of sales.

The latest Dropbox update finally brings dark mode to iPhone and iPad.

The feature works alongside your system settings, so it can be enabled and disabled automatically based on your dark mode schedule. That means Dropbox will no longer blind you at night.