The HomePod may have just dropped, but Apple’s not the only tech giant to be getting into the smart speaker business in 2018. According to a new report, Facebook will be launching two smart speakers this year — with July being given as “the latest” that they could make their debut.
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway firm has massively increased its AAPL holdings, while ditching virtually all its IBM stock, showing how confident the super investor is of Apple’s immediate future.
Buffett’s firm increased its Apple holdings by 23.3 percent to 165.3 million shares, according to SEC filings. The firm took a dimmer view of IBM, however, and made the decision to drop a massive 94.5 percent of its holdings, leaving it with just 2.05 million shares.
A new report from Bloomberg suggests that Apple’s $349 HomePod smart speaker costs the company around $216 in components, giving Apple a 38 percent margin.
If accurate (and we’ll come to that!), the figures suggest that despite charging users considerably more money than Amazon and Google charge for their rival smart speakers, Apple is actually earning smaller margins than Google Home’s 66 percent and Amazon Echo’s 56 percent.
But the numbers almost certainly don’t tell the whole story.
An apparent bug has left some HomePod owners unable to get their new Apple smart speakers up and running. Complaints about a mysterious “Setup Failed -6722” error message surfaced soon after HomePod launched last Friday.
Shuffle and skipping are two great tools for listening to new music on your iPhone, using Apple Music. You can download lots of new music to your iPhone, then set it to shuffle while you take a walk. If you’re also wearing a pair of AirPods, a double tap on one of them will skip any tracks you don’t like. It’s a great way to listen to new music, with one big, annoying side-effect: You end up with lots of unwanted downloads cluttering up your iPhone.
But with one simple smart playlist, you can fix that right now.
Note: For Valentine’s Day only, all of Speidel’s iconic Twist-O-Flex Apple Watch bands are 10 percent off! Perfect for him or her.
Today’s all about showing the one you love just how much you care. I say it’s a great opportunity to throw a little love your own way.
Speidel — purveyor of the original stretchy, stainless steel Twist-O-Flex bands — agrees. This Valentine’s Day only, treat yourself to 10 percent off these great Apple Watch bands in Silver, Brushed or Black stainless steel. These bands are for both men and women.
Read our full review below and visit our Watch Store to check out these iconic bands.
HomePods are already making their mark in new homes across the country — but not in a good way.
Apple customers started noticing that HomePod can damage wood furniture by leaving a white ring after resting on a table for just a few minutes or days.
We’d all rather that folks sent short messages via iMessage, or WhatsApp, or another civilized format that encourages brevity, but they insist on email. But what if your emails could pop up on your iPhone’s lock screen and be as easy to reply to as an iMessage. If you set it up right, your regular iPhone Mail app can do exactly that, using Push and VIP email. Let’s take a look.
There’s no better time than now to get a cheap deal on the Apple Watch Series 3, now that Apple is starting to sell refurbished units.
Apple’s online store stocked up on refurbished Apple Watch Series 3 units this week, giving customers the opportunity to get Cupertino’s best wearable at a discount.
Apple may be expanding its supply chain further by buying storage chips from the Chinese memory chipmaker Yangtze Memory Technologies, a new report states.
What makes this interesting is that the chips will reportedly be used only in iPhones and other devices for the Chinese domestic market. It suggests that Apple may be willing to modify its iPhone manufacturing process in order to please the Chinese government’s push toward more local manufacturing.
It’s all very well to know how far you ran, cycled and swam. But the whole point of exercise is not just to clock the miles. It’s supposed to make you more fit. So, how do you know if all those sweaty miles are actually doing any good? One way is by measuring your heart rate recovery time.
Fortunately, watchOS 4 provides a reliable way to see this data, and thus monitor changes in your fitness level. Here’s how you can use Apple Watch to keep your workout goals on track.
The iPhone’s controversial “notch” will get smaller this year, according to one group of investors.
Apple is expected to integrate Face ID into all three handsets it has planned for 2018. A smaller TrueDepth sensor means the cutout at the top of the iPhone’s display won’t need to be quite so big.
One of the key secrets of super successful people is that they read. A lot. After all, Elon Musk didn’t learn how to build cars or rockets by watching YouTube videos; he’s got a daily diet of books.
YouTube TV has hiked its prices after adding a whole bunch of new channels.
The service, which came to Apple TV earlier this month, now hosts Turner networks like CNN, Adult Swim and Cartoon Network — but for an extra $5 a month.
Professional grade acoustic tests appear to confirm that the HomePod is indeed the real deal as far as speakers go.
Apple has been talking up its smart adaptive speaker and high-end audio processing algorithms since the HomePod was first shown off at last year’s WWDC event. According to Apple, the HomePod can adapt its sound to fill any room it’s put in. It seems it wasn’t kidding!
Google will roll out an awesome Chrome ad blocker Thursday that takes aim at some of the most invasive forms of online advertising.
The new Chrome ad-blocking feature won’t annihilate ads entirely. But users won’t need to worry about full-page ads, ads with auto-playing sound and video, or flashing ads anymore.
Apple has no time for your drones! Yesterday was Apple’s annual investors meeting, and one of the attendees tweeted this photo of signage erected at Apple Park declaring it a “no drone zone.”
Given Apple’s insistence on privacy — and Tim Cook declaring that keeping Apple products under wraps is the “bane of [his] existence” — that’s not necessarily a surprise. Still, it does mean that Apple is seemingly none too happy about the myriad drone flyover videos which keep on showing up online.
Apple’s upcoming 6.1-inch iPhone will be a smash hit, according to one reliable analyst.
It is expected to become the most popular model in the 2018 lineup, thanks mostly to its more affordable price tag. Sales could total a whopping 100 million units over its lifetime.
When you’re a company the size of Apple and under the scrutiny that Apple is, keeping secrets is hard.
That’s what Tim Cook told investors during Tuesday’s annual investors meeting, during which he described how, “keeping stuff confidential is the bane of my existence.” In other words, with the exception of the visitor’s center, you shouldn’t expect a tour of Apple Park any time soon!
The CEO and co-founder of Flipboard has some harsh words for Apple’s rival Apple News aggregation app.
Speaking at the Code Media conference, Mike McCue said that Apple News is “a product … living in the past,” and is lacking behind Flipboard in some very important ways.
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The end of money can’t come soon enough for Apple CEO Tim Cook.
During Apple’s annual shareholders meeting today, Cook told investors that mobile payments like Apple Pay haven’t taken off quite as fast as hoped. However, he said he sees promising signs that the death of cash could soon be upon us.
Ever since the iOS 11.2 update back in November 2017, the iPhones 8 and X have supported “wireless” fast charging. This allows inductive charging mats to pour 7.5 watts of battery-juicing power into Apple’s latest iPhones. Previous to that, Qi charging mats could only supply a pathetic five watts of charging power. To take advantage of this, you’ll need a charger capable of Apple Fast Charging. Zens has a few new gadgets that will do just that. Let’s take a look.
The life of Kevin Durant is set to be the inspiration for Apple’s next major TV show.
Apple has been scooping up TV shows like crazy the last few months and the latest project to get the iPhone maker’s thumbs up is a show that will explore Durant’s early life along with the world of Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) basketball the players, families and coaches involved.
Instead of recognizing the voices of various users and serving up their personal tunes, HomePod is tied to one person’s Apple Music library. That leads to an unfortunate side effect: Whenever anyone in your home tells your HomePod to play a track, that song is added to your listening history.
That means your teenagers’ ironic Ramones session, or your spouse’s un-ironic David Hasselhoff listen-a-thon, will pollute your listening history — and affect your future recommendations. Here’s how to stop that from happening.