Apple decided to postpone a March product launch event after continuing delays in the production of an expected successor to the iPhone SE, a source at Apple confirmed to Cult of Mac.
A number of other problems played into the decision to delay the event that was being planned, including the worsening impact of the COVID-19 strain of the coronavirus in California and elsewhere.
With COVID-19 spreading in the San Francisco Bay Area, and at least one upcoming event at a critical planning stage for the high-tech giant, Apple must make some tough decisions about how to proceed, according to conference experts contacted by Cult of Mac.
Apple faces mounting pressure to decide whether to cancel, delay or change the format of its annual Worldwide Developers Conference, typically held in June. The same holds true, although to a lesser extent, for Apple’s rumored March product keynote.
“There’s a lot to consider for Apple and it won’t be easy,” said Ian McGonnigal, marketing executive with Experiential Executive, who has consulted on conference and convention planning with more than a dozen Fortune 500 companies. “Reputation is a huge challenge here and that’s part of it. Companies don’t want to appear tone-deaf to what’s going on out there.”
In an age when almost every detail of an Apple keynote leaks ahead of time, Tim Cook managed to pull some genuine surprises from the hat Tuesday. Taking the stage at the Steve Jobs Theater at Apple HQ, Cook and Co. announced at least three big things we weren’t expecting at all.
This in itself is a surprise. Even though Cook pledged that Apple is “doubling down” on secrecy, most of the big details about new Apple products typically trickle out ahead of time. Most of the main features of the 2019 iPhones already leaked. Every Apple blog and YouTube channel under the sun has been playing with detailed iPhone mockups and models for weeks.
Still, Cook’s surprise trifecta did not consist of insignificant things. All three were fairly big and meaty announcements — and there wasn’t a peep about them ahead of time. Here’s what took us by surprise during the “By Innovation Only” event.
The WWDC 2019 keynote came packed with exciting announcements. As in past years, I ended up with four pages of drawings in my notebook. I sketched out the biggest new features coming to tvOS 13, iOS 13, macOS Catalina and watchOS 6. And then there’s the new Mac Pro and Pro Display XDR.
As seen in my first sketchnote, above, tvOS 13 adds multi-user support and support for Xbox One and PlayStation DualShock 4 game controllers for Apple Arcade. Meanwhile, watchOS 6 will bring an App Store directly to the Apple Watch, a new Noise app, and a new Cycle tracking app for women.
For a quick visual recap of the highlights of the WWDC 2019 keynote, check out the rest of my sketchnotes below.
Update: Apple says “Sign in with Apple” will be mandatory for third-party apps that require sign-ins, according to these new App Store guidelines. That means apps that currently use Facebook or Google to sign in will also have to support “Sign in with Apple.”
“It will be required as an option for users in apps that support third-party sign-in when it is commercially available later this year,” the new guidelines say.
Apple is targeting Facebook with a new privacy feature in iOS 13 that privately logs users into third-party apps and services.
Called “Sign in with Apple,” it aims to replace popular cross-web login services like ones offered by Facebook and Google.
The new privacy feature prevents third-party apps and web services from tracking users via their logins. It creates private, disposable logins for every service or app.
Watching Monday morning’s “It’s show time” keynote, I was struck by how much Tim Cook is stamping his values on what Apple is doing.
While writing a book about Cook last year, I accidentally stumbled on six values he has been championing at Apple:
These are the things Cook has been pushing internally since taking over from Steve Jobs in 2011. These are the priorities of his leadership, reflecting the things he wants to get done and the internal values that guide what Apple employees do and how they do it.
Monday’s keynote was a chance to witness these values in action, to see the kinds of products and services his priorities are helping to create.
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Brace yourself for an Apple event like no other. In a little over a week, Cupertino execs — and probably a passel of Hollywood stars — will give us our first peek at Apple’s (not so) secret video-streaming service. As the company pushes its growing slate of services, Apple likely will put new hardware on the back burner.
Find out what to expect at Apple’s “It’s show time” event. Then treat yourself to the rest of the week’s best Apple news, how-tos and reviews. It’s all wrapped up for free in the latest edition of the easy-readin’ Cult of Mac Magazine for iOS. Download it now. Or get all the posts in the roundup of links below.
Plus: Don’t miss the big St. Patrick’s Day sale in the Cult of Mac Watch Store.
The first Apple event of 2019 is nearly here. Tim Cook and friends are set to take the stage at the Steve Jobs Theater on March 25 to unveil the company’s newest goodies, only instead of unveiling some shiny new gadgets you can buy, Apple is supposedly going to bust out some services you can subscribe to.
The Apple rumor mill has been working in overdrive leading up the event, so we have a pretty solid idea of what we’ll see.
If you hate Apple keynote spoilers, stop reading now.
Whether it’s songs or compilations of all the superlatives thrown around, Apple keynotes are frequently the inspiration for some pretty darn hilarious and creative parodies.
Now the folks from the hugely popular “Bad Lip Reading” YouTube channel have stepped into the arena with a video reinterpreting Apple’s recent keynotes. Check it out below:
When you compare the iPhone 4 to the iPhone XS, virtually everything has changed. All except the script Apple uses when introducing its new handsets to the public.
This is the tongue-in-cheek observation of James Brown, a YouTuber and Reddit user who posted a video comparing the use of adjectives from Steve Jobs in 2010 with Apple executives talking about the iPhones XS and XS Max at last week’s new product showcase.
