Apple Insider – Page 124

Posted on January 28, 2019 by — Leave a comment

Apple spent $60 billion with 9,000 American manufacturers in 2018 alone

By Mike Wuerthele
Monday, January 28, 2019, 08:10 am PT (11:10 am ET)

Apple is heralding its commitment to American companies, and has detailed its involvement with manufacturers, plus its role in expanding businesses that supply components for the iPhone and Mac.

Finisar’s manufacturing plant in Texas

Apple noted on Monday that its $390 million investment from Apple’s Advanced Manufacturing Fund allowed component manufacturer Finisar to turn an unoccupied building in Sherman, Texas into “a bustling operation full of people who will supply that future business.” Finisar makes the vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser, or VCSEL, part of the TrueDepth camera system, crucial for Face ID in the iPhone X and later.

“VCSEL wafers are nearly as thin as a human hair and contain hundreds of layers measuring only a few atoms in thickness,” said Apple. “They require a highly advanced and precise manufacturing operation, as well as skilled technicians with specialized training.”

Since 2011, the total number of jobs created and supported by Apple in the United States has more than tripled —from almost 600,000 to 2 million across all 50 states. Beyond Apple’s noting the $60 billion spent in the year from the Advanced Manufacturing Fund, Apple’s 2018 expansion supports more than 450,000 jobs on its own.

Apple notes that the touch sensitive glass for iPhone and iPad is made by Corning at a 65-year-old facility in Harrodsburg, Kentucky. Cincinnati Test Systems in Ohio designed a first-of-its-kind equipment to ensure iPhone is water resistant.

Other electronics manufacturers cited by Apple include Broadcom in Fort Collins, Colorado, Qorvo in Hillsboro, Oregon and Skyworks in Woburn, Massachusetts. All three make wireless networking and communications components for Apple.

The Advanced Manufacturing Fund is geared toward supporting U.S. manufacturing. Apple’s first investment took place in May 2017, when it spent $200 million on Corning —the company that makes the Gorilla Glass used in many Apple devices.

“We’re really proud to do it,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said when the fund was announced. “By doing that we can be the ripple in the pond, because if we can create many manufacturing jobs, those manufacturing jobs create more jobs around them.”

The Advanced Manufacturing Fund goes beyond Apple’s $1 billion investment in SoftBank’s Vision Fund, a $100 billion resource created to accelerate the development of technology around the world. Some $50 billion of the Vision Fund will be directed toward U.S. endeavors.

Posted on January 27, 2019 by — Leave a comment

Apple got tablets right, and created a whole new market with the iPad

The launch of the original iPad on January 27, 2010 saw pundits guaranteeing its failure, some Apple fans disappointed, and Steve Jobs turning out to be right. Again.

Steve Jobs unveils the original iPad

In the last few months before the much, much anticipated iPad was launched on January 27, 2010, competitors had been talking up their own tablets. Then suddenly it was rumored that Apple’s one was going to be called the iSlate and competitors such as Microsoft were calling everything they could ‘slate PCs.’

Three days before the iPad was announced, Microsoft’s then-CEO Steve Ballmer even unveiled three such slate PCs. He did so in his typical hesitant, clunky style and launched a video that was over practically before he’d introduced it.

Given that and the way he belabored that all the slate PCs he showed were prototypes, it all felt a little desperate. Apple was coming, it seemed to say, and rivals were afraid.

Microsoft, for one, should really have been feeling chagrin. As far back as 1996, its founder Bill Gates wrote in his book The Road Ahead that “in the future lots of people will be taking handwritten notes on computer tablets rather than paper.”

True, by then we’d already seen the Apple Newton so Gates’s book wasn’t as visionary as it seemed to think. However, Microsoft had done more than talk about tablets, it had released Microsoft Windows for Pen Computing in 1992. Then by the early 2000s, companies were making Pocket PCs.

Microsoft had tablets long before Apple. Many, many companies had tablets. It was just that nobody was buying them.

So this is where we were in early 2010. The entire computing industry was waiting for an Apple tablet, the world’s press was going to cover its launch. And then, as now, Apple didn’t say a word about what was coming.

The earliest official indication of something, anything, happening came on January 18, 2010, when Apple issued a press invitation to the launch. It was less cryptic than usual as it blatantly said: “Come see our latest creation.”

Apple’s invitation to what would be the launch of the iPad

At 10am Pacific on Wednesday, 27 January, 2010, Steve Jobs stepped out onto the stage at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco. He didn’t pause the way he had with the iPhone three years before. He didn’t say that this was a day he’d been waiting for.

Yet he could have done because as we found out much later, the story of the iPad began much earlier. It began earlier even than the iPhone.

Origin story

You know that the Newton was Apple’s first tablet computer, albeit one that needed you to use a stylus instead of your fingers. It’s debatable whether there is really a line from the Newton MessagePad to the iPad but if this were a case of evolution, we’ve found the missing link.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5q8erQQEi0&w=560&h=315]

That 2012 video is a demonstration of a pen-based Mac that was made around 1992 but never shipped as a commercial product in the US. It was called the Apple Penlite and the version shown here is a stylus-based tablet version of the Macintosh PowerBook Duo.

Reportedly, though, there was also a version that ran with what we would now call multi-touch gestures.

Apple dropped that and it dropped the Newton but in 2004 Steve Jobs revealed that Apple had continued looking at a PDA. “We got enormous pressure to bring back the Newton or do a PDA and we looked at it,” he said at the D2 All Things Digital Conference. “And we said, wait a minute, 90 percent of the people who use these things just want to get information out of them, they don’t necessarily want to put information into them on a regular basis. Cellphones are going to do that.”

At the time, he said this as if that were the end of it, that cellphones were a market that Apple could never compete in. Yet by this moment in 2004, Apple had produced a technology that would end up becoming the iPhone. It’s just that it wasn’t looking at a phone then, it was looking to do a tablet.

CAD drawings from 2004 of the iPad (Source: The Verge)

That image and others were later to be used as exhibits in an Apple vs Samsung court case where we also saw photographs of later prototype iPads.

It’s odd just how unclear and uncertain the origins of the iPad are given that it and the iPhone are so important to Apple and that none of this was so very long ago. Yet while the CAD drawings show a date of 2004, Walter Isaacson claims in his Steve Jobs biography that the idea for the iPad didn’t come until 2005.

Even then he recounts two different versions. One is that Jony Ive and his team had been working on improving the trackpads of the MacBook Pro when they developed multi-touch. Ive showed Jobs a version of their attempt to move multi-touch onto a screen. Isaacson reports that Jobs then said that “this is the future.”

Alternatively, Isaacson also recounts a version that sounds more colorful and apocryphal but which he backs up with quotes from Jobs and Bill Gates. Reportedly Gates and Jobs were at a dinner party for the birthday of a Microsoft engineer who, says Jobs, “badgered me about how Microsoft was going to completely change the world with this tablet PC software.”

Apparently this wasn’t a new topic for this unnamed Microsoft engineer —”this dinner was like the tenth time he talked to me about it” —but each time the conversation was about using a stylus. “But he was doing the device all wrong,” continued Jobs. “As soon as you have a stylus, you’re dead… I was so sick of it that I came home and said ‘F*** this, let’s show him what a tablet can really be.'”

What is clear that this work to make a tablet was changed into making a phone. We know this from how Jobs, Ive and others have said so, but also from the fact that it happened. The iPhone came out in 2007 and it wasn’t until 2010 that the tablet appeared.

It’s not as if the road from idea to tablet was easy but once the iPhone was done, and also was such an overwhelming success, the iPad was at least more assured.

Except that Apple was new to tablets and so many other companies had tried and failed. The iPad’s success was of course going to be down to its technology but also very much to how Apple positioned it.

And as much as unveiling the hardware on January 27, 2010, Jobs was really selling us on the idea of an iPad.

Showman

Steve Jobs got a standing ovation when he stepped out onto that Yerba Buena Center for the Arts stage and he got it before he even said “Good morning.” He got the welcome because this was his public return to Apple after having taken six months leave while recovering from a liver transplant.

The extent of applause did seem to surprise him and he did still look ill, but he was soon into a very astutely prepared presentation.

Steve Jobs on stage for the first time after his liver transplant operation

Twice he teased about being there to show us all something new and then instead said he wanted to tell us other things first. He gave a typical update on the state of Apple and of course the numbers were impressive, or at least they were at the time.

While they’ve now all been dwarfed by the company’s later success, in January 2010 Jobs was able to report that the company had sold its 250 millionth iPod. He was able to say that there were 284 Apple Stores and that they’d seen 50 million visitors in the last quarter. He could tell us that there were now over 140,000 applications in the App Store and that they’d been downloaded over 3 billion times.

It was all the regular stuff but in this presentation it was specifically laying the ground work for how Apple was the company to deliver a tablet. How it was the firm that would of course get this right.

After the numbers about the stores, Jobs showed an image of himself and Steve Wozniak from the earliest days of Apple and then paused. “We started Apple in 1976,” he said. “Thirty-four years later, we just ended our holiday quarter, our first fiscal quarter of 2010, with $15.6 billion dollars of revenue. That means Apple is an over-50 billion dollar company. Now, I like to forget that because that’s not how we think about Apple but it is pretty amazing.”

Steve Jobs recalls forming Apple with Steve Wozniak

It was also the cue for him to expand on the revenue number, to talk to us about how Apple gets this from three product lines. Those were the iPod, iPhone and the Mac.

“Now what’s really interesting about this is that iPods are mobile devices,” he said. “iPhones are mobile devices. And most of the Macs that we ship now are laptops. They’re mobile devices. Apple is a mobile devices company, that’s what we do.”

Remember that competitors had been making tablets for at least a decade. Here was Steve Jobs saying that Apple was bigger and better than them all. “It turns out that by revenue, Apple is the largest mobile devices company in the world now.”

He belabored the point, driving home that Apple was larger than Sony —or at least that company’s mobile devices business —and the same with Samsung and Nokia.

With us all now fully briefed on Apple’s stature in the mobile devices market, he finally went into the iPad part of the presentation. Or appeared too.

Jobs quotes the Wall Street Journal on the hyped-up rumors of an Apple tablet

“But before we get to that,” he said to laughter, “I want to go back to 1991 when Apple announced and shipped its first PowerBooks.”

Now he was underlining Apple’s hardware expertise and how it led the industry. He spoke of how the PowerBook made the laptop into what we now recognize as one. “It was the first laptop that had a TFT screen the first modern LCD screens. It was the first laptop that pushed the keyboard up, creating palm rests and had an integrated pointing tool, in this case a trackball.”

Amazingly, we’re only just over six minutes into this presentation but Jobs has primed us to think that Apple is the best mobile devices company in the world and also the best at making laptops.

And finally, it was here.

“A question has arisen lately,” said Jobs. “Is there room for a third category of device in the middle? Something that’s between a laptop and a smartphone. The bar is pretty high. In order to really create a new category of devices, those devices are going to have to be far better at doing some key tasks. They’re going to have to be far better at doing some really important things. Better than the laptop. Better than the smartphone.”

He sketched out some tasks like browsing the web, doing email, reading.

“If there’s going to be a third category of device, it’s going to have to be better at these kinds of tasks than a laptop or a smartphone. Otherwise it has no reason for being. Now, some people have thought that that’s a netbook. The problem is that netbooks aren’t better at anything.”

He dismissed netbooks for their lack of speed, lack of quality and poor software. He said they’re “just cheap laptops and we don’t think that they’re a third category of device.”

And then he said “But we think we’ve got something that is and we’d like to show it to you today for the first time. And we call it the iPad.”

The first time we saw the word iPad

It’s as well that Jobs had done all this work positioning the iPad because just about the instant that slide appeared, so did the first criticisms of the device. The very first criticism, though, was valid. It was about the name iPad.

Among many references online to Maxi-Pad tampon and among Twitter references to #iTampon, there were criticisms that clearly no women work in Apple’s naming department. Fast Company‘s Alissa Walker or perhaps her headline writer said it best, though, in a piece called “Apple’s iPad Name Not the First Choice for Women. Period.”

Slated

If you got an original iPad when it actually went on sale in April that year, your first reaction was surprised at how small it was. Then after a few minutes of using it, you tended to forget that and even come to think the opposite. Seeing a full website page at a time did feel like, as Jobs said, “holding the internet in your hands.”

Look at the bezels on the original iPad

The majority of critics did not wait to get one, did not wait for it to go on sale, before they were pronouncing the iPad a certain flop.

Business Insider called it “a big yawn” and a disappointment, saying that Jobs “didn’t deliver.”

InfoWorld didn’t even wait for the announcement, let alone the product, before it went a bit crazy with the idea of a “coming Apple tablet-pocaplypse.” Written for IT professionals in corporations, it advised “an outright ban [on the iPad] is in order.” It even told them to make any excuse they liked but ban the iPad and “seek to contain the situation by offering up an alternative tablet solution running the IT-supported and IT-approved Windows 7 operating system.”

John C Dvorak was always more of a clickbait and shock-jock style of pundit but he at least waited until the announcement, even if he didn’t see an iPad himself. Still, he reckoned it was a serious misstep. “I’m of the opinion and hope that this device is only released as a market test and placeholder for something more spectacular in the future,” he wrote.

Spectacular future

If Dvorak’s notion of a market test was bizarre for a business writer, you could say that he was right that something more spectacular would be coming in the future.

Despite the critics, despite being late to the whole idea of tablets, Apple made the iPad and we bought it in our millions. It’s had some ups and downs since that 2010 launch but it’s also got progressively more spectacular.

You’ve seen how shockingly huge the bezels on the original model now seem to us. Here’s another way to see the difference between then and now.

Main image: 2018 11-inch iPad Pro home screen. Inset, to scale: original iPad home screen

The main image is a home screen from the current 11-inch iPad Pro. The two devices have slightly different dimensions. The original iPad was 9.56 inches by 7.47 inches and the 2018 model is 9.74 inches by 7.02 inches.

However, look at the inset image. That’s the home screen of an original iPad and it’s rendered here to scale. This is how far just the quality of the iPad screen has come since January 27, 2010, when Jony Ive said that the iPad was “magical”.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2l6gXMi_ht8&w=560&h=315]

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Posted on January 26, 2019 by — Leave a comment

Taking a look at the rumors surrounding Apple’s ‘AirPods 2’

Apple’s AirPods are a highly popular accessory, but with the possibility of a second-generation on the way that could include health tracking-related features, the next version is likely to be both more useful and even more desirable. AppleInsider looks at the rumors surrounding the upcoming earwear.

Familiar yet new

A recent report from Digitimes claimed Apple is set to release AirPods 2 sometime in the first half of 2019, packing some new health monitoring features and other upgrades, like wireless charging and Hey Siri support. The upgrades sound great and we’re all excited to see what’s in store for the next-generation of AirPods.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFLl5ZjKKq0&w=560&h=315]

Wireless charging is coming to the AirPods, and we know that for a fact as Phil Schiller announced the optional AirPods wireless charging case alongside the AirPower charging mat at Apple’s 2017 September event. If the wireless charging case will still be an optional purchase for either the original or next-gen AirPods, then the new version of AirPods will surely maintain the same form factor as before.

In February of 2018, rumors came out of a new pair of AirPods featuring Hey Siri support, improved water resistance and an upgrade to the W2 chip. A few months later at Apple’s September Event, we were shown a short clip of one of Apple’s staff using the Hey Siri feature with AirPods and running through a shallow pool of water at Apple’s new headquarters, hinting at better water resistance.

An Apple illustration of a wireless charging AirPods case on the unreleased AirPower charging mat

We can surely expect those features to come, and I personally believe the new AirPods will feature Bluetooth 5 and the W3 chip instead of W2, since the Apple Watch Series 4 already packs the W3 chip.

On Thursday, a “Hey Siri” configuration tool was discovered in the first iOS 12.2 beta, seemingly confirming the addition of the function for AirPods, though not necessarily advising if it would work with the current generation or that a new iteration is required.

There have also been rumors concerning future AirPods gaining active noise-cancellation, but we haven’t heard much about that beyond whispers.

Healthy improvements

A big expected change for the next generation is the inclusion of health monitoring features.

Almost two years ago, Apple filed for three patents titled “Earbuds with biometric sensing.” A more recent revelation is a patent that describes ways to allow an earbud to fit more securely within the ear canal, allowing it to have better contact with the skin.

Considering their content, these patents are more than likely meant for the AirPods.

An image from an Apple patent showing how an earbud could be made to contact the ear, making it more useful for PPG measurements

Given the existing patents, we can expect the integration of a photoplethysmogram (PPG) sensor, the same used in the Apple Watch to measure a user’s heart rate.

Interestingly, the patents talked about a temperature sensor which can possibly detect both the core temperature of the user and ambient temperature as well. The patents also mentioned a sensor to measure blood oxygen levels, which can be useful for things such as keeping track of your aerobic endurance.

Also alluded to was the use of electrodes that can cooperatively measure a number of different biometric parameters, like galvanic skin response or electrical activity of the heart, which is a different implementation of the same core technology that’s used in the Apple Watch Series 4 to perform an electrocardiogram (ECG).

An ECG test using AirPods would simply measure the impulses going to each ear and make sure they’re no irregularities.

But of course, there’s no guarantee that we’ll see this feature in the next-gen AirPods. Knowing Apple, better sound quality is likely as well.

The past is too good

Now, with all of those exciting features and updates coming to the new AirPods, what could possibly be the biggest threat to their sales? Well, none other than Apple’s current AirPods themselves.

If you think about, many people are extremely happy with their AirPods, and if they’re already satisfying your wireless earphone needs, why should you spend at least another $160 for an updated set?

Apple’s current version of the AirPods.

There is always something new coming. You can always wait for the next version of something —but that’s a harder wait if you don’t have a set, and don’t know exactly when the next version is arriving.

There is excitement surrounding the possibility of updated AirPods.However, when reality strikes and Apple announces the price of these new AirPods, a lot of current AirPods owners are going to have to decide if those new features will add enough value to their lives to make them worth spending the cash all over again.

It will probably come down to an individual judgement if the health monitoring features are worth it.

Posted on January 25, 2019 by — Leave a comment

New iPad and fifth-generation iPad mini on the way according to Russian regulatory filings

By Malcolm Owen
Friday, January 25, 2019, 07:56 am PT (10:56 am ET)

Filings with the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) appear to indicate new models of iPad could be on the way, with six model numbers potentially covering both a refresh of the standard-sized iPad as well as the rumored fifth-generation iPad mini.

The fourth-generation iPad mini

The new filings with the EEC reveals the six model numbers are “tablet computers” and are registered to Apple. Published today, the notification advises the tablets are certified for sale in Russia, due to the inclusion of encryption-related features.

The six model numbers are A2123, A2124, A2133, A2152, A2153, and A2154, reports MySmartPrice. The sequential nature of the model numbers, and the grouping, suggests there are at least two different types of device they apply to, with the A2123 and S2124 likely to be for a different model to the rest.

EEC filings showing new model numbers for Apple “tablet computers”

The presence of the filing suggests there could be a launch of new iPad models in the relatively near future, but doesn’t advise of when exactly it could be. Considering the last iPad launch took place in March 2018, excluding the iPad Pro refresh, it is likely that whatever Apple has planned for the iPad product family will be unveiled at around the same time.

The iPad refresh is rumored to include elements borrowed from the design of the iPad Pro, potentially incorporating a larger display in a similar-sized body and a thinner construction. A 10-inch display has been touted, though a shift to Face ID from Touch ID has yet to be suggested.

Little has been speculated about the new iPad mini, except that it would be a new low-priced model compared to the more recent release. If launched, it would be the first update to the product line in over three years.

Posted on January 24, 2019 by — Leave a comment

The next HomeKit could have very precise geofencing, accurate to within feet

HomeKit could be more responsive to a user’s needs depending on where they are in a future update, with Apple considering the possibility of adding hyper-local position tracking to the smart home platform with an accuracy of just feet to suggest what items a user wants to control based on their location in the home.

HomeKit enables users to control multiple devices from their iPhone or iPad

Apple’s Home app is the central focal point of a user’s HomeKit network, with it used to control automation functions and to remotely change settings and modes on a wide variety of compatible network-connected devices. It is a fairly straightforward system once it is set up, and could even be managed from the compact screen of an Apple Watch if required.

Home is able to divide up devices in a Smart Home into “Rooms,” giving users a quick and easy way to sort through their connected elements, and to trigger multiple items as a group. While using Rooms is simple, Apple believes the concept could be widened further.

In a patent application published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Thursday titled “Using in-home location awareness,” Apple suggests a future where users could be provided more items to control in the Home app, with it automatically populating items on the screen depending on the mobile device’s physical location, and without needing to select a specific room.

An example illustration from the patent application showing additional items appearing in the Home app.

Apple notes that users perform the same or repeated actions with devices while in a particular location, such as closing the garage door from the kitchen when they return home, or changing the temperature on a thermometer while in the living room. However, since an item like a garage door wouldn’t necessarily be considered part of a kitchen, it may not be included within a designated kitchen “room.”

To solve this, the patent application suggests determining the physical location of the controlling device, and presenting items that are typically interacted with by the user while in that particular position.

The method involves the collection of data relating to various signals detected when users perform actions, such as MAC addresses of wirelessly-networked devices, Bluetooth device addresses and that device’s signal strength, IP addresses, universally unique identifiers (UUID) and truncated UUIDs.

A flowchart showing how HomeKit could determine if an accessory should be displayed (left), and graphs showing how location clusters can be determined based on signal strength and usage (right)

In effect, by knowing what items it can sense and the signal strength, the mobile device can determine physically where it is within a home, and in turn which room it is located within. If the mobile device knows it is within range of accessories in a general location, it could also assume the user is in a usual place for specific interactions, if they have previously been performed in that area.

Once it detects the user is in a specific place, the Home app could then automatically offer up control of the usually-controlled items to the user.

The decision to provide more immediate access to certain device controls could also be influenced by other elements, such as if the user is near to a location rather than within it. Light sensors, temperature sensors, and weather sensing could also play a part in whether or not to offer controls, such as the system only automatically offering control of external lights if a light sensor says it’s dark, or the thermostat could be offered up if a temperature sensor says it’s cold.

As with other patents and applications, the publication of such filings is not a guarantee that the concepts described will make an appearance in future products or services, but do indicate where has recently put effort into research and development.

In this case, since Apple has the Home app already in existence, and does not require the need for additional hardware, it is entirely plausible for the features in the patent application becoming a reality in a future update.

HomeKit already includes support for geofencing, which can enable actions to be performed when a user is within or out of range of the home. For iOS 11, multi-person geofencing was introduced, allowing for conditional triggers to be applied if part or an entire group is out of the home, such as turning off all lights if the house is detected as empty.

It is also logical that, if Apple were able to implement location tracking in a home, it could also feasibly add hyper-local geofencing at the same time. This could take the form of lights turning on automatically when a user is in a particular room, or turning off fans or other devices if the user moves to a different floor.

One of the more recent changes made to HomeKit is the introduction of support for Siri Shortcuts, which allows users to enable various HomeKit routines via a custom Siri command.

Posted on January 23, 2019 by — Leave a comment

YouTube TV goes nationwide in time for Super Bowl, but some markets missing channels

By Roger Fingas
Wednesday, January 23, 2019, 07:52 am PT (10:52 am ET)

Live streaming service YouTube TV is now officially available across the U.S., though some small gaps remain and other regions may lack access to one or more of the four major broadcasters.

The service should be accessible by 98 percent of Americans, YouTube said in an announcement, promising that the remaining 2 percent will come onboard shortly. Prior to this week YouTube TV was already in the country’s “top 100” markets, but another 95 have been added.

The expansion is presumably geared towards becoming a destination for this year’s NFL Super Bowl, scheduled for Feb. 3. The game is one of the few remaining TV “events” in a world of on-demand streaming, attracting tens of millions of viewers and even more in advertiser dollars. Some Americans will even buy new TVs in prepartion for gameday parties.

Parts of YouTube’s coverage map lack ABC, Fox, and/or NBC, The Verge commented. That won’t interfere with the Super Bowl, which is on CBS, but one of the selling points of YouTube TV has been access to the “Big Four” broadcasters, something other streaming TV options can’t always offer.

Other features of the service include an unlimited cloud DVR and support for up to 6 accounts per household. It currently costs $40 per month after a free trial, with add-on packages for channels like Showtime and AMC Premiere. Conspicuously absent though is HBO, along with Viacom channels such as Comedy Central.

Supported Apple devices include Macs, iPhones, iPads, and Apple TVs.

Posted on January 22, 2019 by — Leave a comment

Apple exec admits Qualcomm was the only option for 4G in the iPhone for years

By Roger Fingas
Tuesday, January 22, 2019, 07:43 am PT (10:43 am ET)

Potentially aiding Qualcomm’s trial defense against the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, Apple has admitted that for years, there was no other realistic option but Qualcomm when it wanted 4G modems for iPhones.

While the company considered alternatives like Broadcom, Ericsson, and Intel as far back as 2012, none of them could meet specifications, Apple’s director of cellular systems architecture Matthias Sauer said in testimony on Jan. 18, as reported by Bloomberg. The company relied on Qualcomm 4G modems until 2016’s iPhone 7.

Apple did consider using Intel for a 2014 iPad, Sauer added, but skipped the idea out of business reasons and a decision that it didn’t need the specifications it had been looking for, such as carrier aggregation.

The FTC’s lawsuit accuses Qualcomm of antitrust violations by forcing chip buyers to sign patent licenses at inflated rates. The Commission rested its case last week.

Qualcomm has defended its practices by a number of means, for example pointing to the high cost of innovation. Apple though has called the chipmaker’s demands “onerous,” at one point asking Apple to cross-license all its intellectual property to get a direct license for standards-essential patents, something Apple decided to skip.

COO Jeff Williams recently revealed that Apple wanted to return to a mix of Intel and Qualcomm modems for 2018 iPhones, but was shot down by Qualcomm CEO Steve Mollenkopf. The two companies have been engaged in a global legal war since 2017, instigated by Apple, which sued over nearly $1 billion in rebates allegedly withheld as retaliation for cooperation with antitrust investigators.

Posted on January 21, 2019 by — Leave a comment

Deals: $300-$700 off 2018 15″ MacBook Pros; $200-$300 off iMac 5Ks; up to $150 off 2018 Mac mini

By Christine McKee
Monday, January 21, 2019, 07:56 am PT (10:56 am ET)

Kicking off Monday morning, Apple authorized resellers are knocking hundreds off Macs, providing shoppers with the lowest prices anywhere. Save $300 to $700 on high-end 2018 MacBook Pros, with limited availability at the reduced prices. Apple’s new 2018 Mac mini is also on sale starting at $749, while current 27-inch iMac 5Ks are up to $300 off with prices as low as $1,599.

Apple iMac 5K Mac mini and 2018 MacBook Pro

These deals, which offer shoppers cash savings of up to $700 off, deliver the lowest prices available from an Apple authorized reseller, according to our Apple Price Guide. Additional perks, such as free expedited shipping on orders shipped within the contiguous U.S. and no tax collected in a number of states, are also available at many retailers.

2018 MacBook Pro deals

Those in the market for a desktop can also save $200 to $300 instantly on popular 27-inch iMac 5K models.

iMac markdowns

Apple’s latest Mac mini is also marked down today, with discounts of up to $150 off.

2018 Mac mini on sale

Additional Apple Deals

AppleInsider and Apple authorized resellers are also running a handful of additional exclusive promotions this month on Apple hardware that will not only deliver the lowest prices on many of the items, but also throw in discounts on AppleCare, software and accessories. These deals are as follows:

Posted on January 20, 2019 by — Leave a comment

Apple again starts selling iPhone SE, this time on clearance for $249

By Andrew O’Hara
Saturday, January 19, 2019, 07:26 pm PT (10:26 pm ET)

Apple returned the iPhone SE to its U.S. online store on Saturday, but only as part of a clearance effort to seemingly liquidate the remaining stock of the discontinued handset.

At a new special price, those who are interested can grab a brand new, unopened iPhone SE for only $249 with 32GB or 128GB for $299. They come fully unlocked sporting the same specs as when it was introduced in 2016. As a refresher, the iPhone SE includes the A9 Apple processor, Touch ID, and the four-inch form factor.

Those current prices are $100 and $150 off respectively compared to Apple’s prices before the phone was removed from sale.

Currently, Apple is only selling phones with displays above 4.7-inches, much to the chagrin of small-handed iPhone lovers. MacRumors was first to spot the discounted offering.

Grab one while you can because, with the discount, these likely won’t last too long. Gadget reseller Gazelle has some used models available as well, though they are also selling through.

It isn’t clear how long the iPhone SE will remain supported by iOS. The A9 processor first shipped with the iPhone 6S in September 2015.

Posted on January 19, 2019 by — Leave a comment

How to get started with a new HomePod, and get more out of it

Apple’s HomePod starts with a simple setup and it ends with you forgetting you didn’t always have music surrounding you. In between, though, there are details to consider about that first setup and many options for when you move the HomePod to a new room. AppleInsider takes a dive into the use of Apple’s latest speaker.

If you’ve just got a HomePod then you’ll use your iPhone to set it up and we’ll show you what you need to do. Yet after that initial setup, it’s very unclear what you can do if, for instance, you move the HomePod to another room.

It’s not as if HomePods are difficult to carry around, though they are startlingly heavy. It’s also not as if you have to do anything to make a HomePod recognize that it’s been moved and should start adjusting its speakers to the new environment.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgyfGfjBOzo&w=560&h=315]

Rather, it’s that if you’ve initially identified the HomePod as being in your den and now it’s in your office, good luck figuring out how to change that label. We guarantee that across the nation there are HomePods in kitchens who are labelled Living Room and plenty of people who neither know nor care.

As long as they only use the HomePod to play tracks directly from Apple Music, that’s fine. It’s when you want to send audio from your iOS devices that it begins to be an issue. Even then, though, if you only have the one HomePod, you’ll cope. Yet it’s still a case of having to remember to choose Bedroom in AirPlay even though that HomePod is now in your study.

The problem is that HomePod doesn’t get its own app as the Apple Watch does and it’s also not found under Bluetooth the way AirPods are. Instead, it’s part of the Home app and each HomePod is a separate accessory that can be included in automation.

If you have two HomePods, for instance, you could have one set up as part of your evening routine so that at sunset, the HomePod in your den can start playing jazz. And the one in your kitchen can play some cool country. So long as you remember which one you’re asking to play this music.

However, we do get the ability to say what room of our house the HomePod is in —and we even get the option to give the speaker a name —so let’s use it.

Out of the box

Rip that HomePod out of its packaging and stumble a little as you find out just how densely heavy these little things are. Then, though, make sure your iPhone or iPad has been updated to the latest software.

Apple HomePod packaging

There’s more. Your iOS device probably has all of this already set up but you need it. The device must be signed in to iCloud. If it isn’t, go to Settings, tap on your name at the top of the screen and then on iCloud.

Last, make sure that Bluetooth is switched on and also that the iOS device is on your Wi-Fi network.

This all takes far longer to say than to do. In the great majority of cases, your iPhone or iPad will already be setup for this and shortly you’re going to see just how fast Apple makes adding a HomePod.

Surface tension

In theory, you can place your HomePod anywhere you like. In practice, it’s got to be near a mains outlet. You can always add an extension socket but you’re stuck with Apple’s own cable as that’s hard-wired into the HomePod.

Apple also recommends that you leave six inches of space around it and that the HomePod isn’t pressed up against a wall.

HomePod on Wood

We’d add that you should avoid wooden surfaces. This is not as big a deal as it appeared when the HomePods first came out, but it is possible that one will leave a white ring on the wood. It depends on how that wood was oiled but the surface can react with the silicone ring at the bottom of the HomePod.

If you happen to know that your wooden surface has been treated with a silicon type of polish, then you could place the HomePod somewhere else. If that’s the best spot, though, or if you have no earthly way of knowing what’s been done to the wood before, put the HomePod there anyway.

The worst that is likely to happen is that you will get such a ring after a few days but it can be removed by cleaning. Or, actually, you can just take the HomePod away and the ring may well disappear by itself over time.

This is fast

You’ll love this bit. Plug the HomePod into power and wait for it to chime. There’ll also be a white light that pulses on the top of the speaker. When there is, hold your iPhone next to the HomePod.

The initial setup screen you see on iPhone

A popup dialog will appear showing the HomePod and displaying a Set Up button. This is the same as you get on the Apple Watch but the setup procedure that follows is, if anything, even easier.

Where are you?

The very first question you get after pressing Set Up is Where is the HomePod? and there’s a list of answers.

It only helps for identification later but pick the room you’re going to put the speaker

That list includes choices such as Bedroom, Living Room, Entrance and Office. It makes zero difference which you pick as far as how the HomePod will work. Apple doesn’t automatically set the HomePod to be louder if you’ve picked the office and quieter in the bedroom, for instance. It’s solely for identification later.

So tap on one to choose it and then press Continue.

Getting personal

Next, the HomePod setup screen on your iPhone asks for a type of permission called Personal Requests. You’re going to say yes by tapping on Enable Personal Requests but it’s worth being clear about just what this means.

This page of the setup is quite straightforward about how saying yes means anyone can use this HomePod to do various things. What they will actually be using is your iPhone, they’re just talking to it via the HomePod.

So that’s why the setup says that it will allow anyone to read and send messages, and so on.

Allow Personal Requests unless you’ve great reason not to. It’s just so handy.

This is genuinely one of the best things about HomePod because it means you come as close to a Star Trek-style of ambient computing as possible. Just say to the air that you want to place a call to someone and the HomePod will do it.

Yet it’s also the worst part of the HomePod because it is so specifically tied to you and your iPhone. If your partner tries to phone someone through the HomePod, it’s going on your cellular bill. Similarly, anyone can add a calendar event or a reminder but they’re adding it to you.

Add in that the HomePod is tied to your Apple Music account so it has only your playlists. Add in that any music anyone else asks it to play will have an impact on how Apple curates your weekly Favorites list, too.

Then the HomePod becomes this brilliant device for you and merely a great one for the rest of the household.

Still, you are you and this is your HomePod, you might as well get all the value you can out of the money you spent. So tap on Enable Personal Requests.

One more thing to note, incidentally. All of this using the HomePod to add things to your iPhone only works when that phone is on the same Wi-Fi network as your HomePod. If it isn’t, if you’ve switched Wi-Fi off for some reason, Siri on the HomePod will explain to you what’s wrong. Really irritatingly, though, it will sometimes explain it to you twice.

Maybe that’s covered under the next screen, Terms and Conditions, but we nod through that one just as fast you do.

Accounts and Settings

You noticed that this setup required your iPhone to have Bluetooth switched on. Everything you’ve done so far has been over Bluetooth and of course it has. There’s no control on the HomePod to tell it which is the right Wi-Fi network, let alone any keyboard to let you enter a password it.

Tap on Transfer Settings and your HomePod will pick up your Wi-Fi network, password and much more

All of that is handled by this next and final step. Accounts and Settings offers to pass details from your iPhone to your HomePod. Those details include which Wi-Fi network and what password, but also your iCloud account login and others such as your choice of Siri voice.

Tap the Transfer Settings button. You’ll hear a chime on the HomePod and the iPhone setup screen will change to show a picture of that HomePod.

When it’s done, that screen will change to one saying hello to you and the HomePod will speak. “Welcome to HomePod,” your new speaker will say. “You can’t tell, but I’m waving.”

If you can figure out why that’s gently amusing instead of irritating, you’re a better person than we are, but it is. It’s a make-you-smile moment that leads you into some training.

You’re being trained

Siri tells you that you can get the HomePod’s attention by saying “Hey, Siri”, and then it walks you through trying that out through a couple of examples.

The last example has you asking Siri to play some music, and it does. This is the moment when you’re going to realise that yes, you spent your money well. Siri will play some music based on what it believes you like from your previous Apple Music selections but if you want a suggestion, say “Hey, Siri, play Hymn Orchestrated by Midge Ure.”

It’s not such a loud song that it’s going to get the neighbors annoyed, but it will shake your floor. When you’ve jolted your head at how clear and strong the music is, say “Hey, Siri, turn it down”. Or be more specific and say “Hey, Siri, turn the volume to 20 percent.”

That’s it

Your HomePod is setup with all your details and what you won’t have noticed is that it is also setup for the specific room you’ve put it in. It’s setup for the exact position you’ve placed it within that room, too.

HomePod has scoped out the area and adjusted its speaker output to mean that you get its best possible sound regardless of where you are in the room.

Which just raises the first of several questions about what happens when you want to move rooms or make any other substantive changes.

Moving stories

If you want to move your HomePod to another part of your house or even another part of your room, unplug it and move it. When you then plug it back into power, it will automatically do its scanning to work out the best use of its many internal speakers.

You don’t have to do anything else at all. The HomePod will play music just as well in your office as in the living room, regardless of where it thinks it is.

Nonetheless, open the Home app on your iPhone. Under its Home section, there will be a button somewhere with an icon of a HomePod and the name of the room you said it’s in.

Tap and hold on that button. If you just tap it, the HomePod either starts playing or pauses its playback if it’s already working. Tapping and holding gets you a very bare screen with a small image of a HomePod and then two buttons.

Alarms is just like the alarms section of your iPhone’s Clock app and it’s where you can set new ones or see when your existing ones are going to sound.

Then there’s the Settings button and that’s the one to tap.

In the Home app, search for HomePod and then press and hold to get settings

There are a lot of options within this HomePod settings app but you’re going to ignore most of them. They’re ones such as controlling how you can use Siri and what voice that will use. You’ll also find a section where you can specify whether HomePod will play music that has explicit lyrics or not.

This is one setting that was automatically taken from your iPhone so if you cared about explicit lyrics there, the HomePod already cares about them here.

Instead, the sections that you’re going to find useful when you’re moving the HomePod around are all at the top of the screen. First there’s one that just says HomePod. This is grayed-out as if you can’t edit it, but you can.

If you choose to, tap on that gray HomePod word and start typing a name for your HomePod.

Right beneath it, there’s a section called Room and on that same line there is the name of the room you’ve said your HomePod is in. Tap on that name and you get a list of alternatives.

Among the many things you can adjust there is a setting for what room the HomePod is in

The list is a standard one with items like Living Room, Master Bedroom and so on but it also takes all the ones you’ve ever set up in the Home.

Pick the room you’ve moved the HomePod into or tap on Create New if it’s not already on the list. When you do that, you get the option to give the room a name and also to pick a wallpaper for it.

This is moving away from HomePod-specific issues to how Home and HomeKit works so just briefly, if you assign the device to a room, you can later see it listed with everything else there.

On the main screen of Home, there is also a section called Rooms and this shows you all of the HomeKit devices room by room. It’s not the fastest system. Each room gets its own page and you have to swipe along to reach the right one.

Each room has its name at the top but to help you focus after you’ve got bored swiping, you can choose to have any or all rooms have their own wallpaper. This can mean any image you like but there’s also the option to take a photo. So if you move the HomePod into the den, you could take a photo of the den with it there.

Favorites

Back in the HomePod’s settings page, there is then a switch called Include in Favorites. In theory, switch this on would put the HomePod into Control Center. Or rather, Control Center can have a Home button and tapping on that gets you a grid of favorite devices that includes the HomePod but also, for instance, lightbulbs.

The trouble is that there’s only room for nine favorites. As the default is for Include in Favorites to be on, you very rapidly fill up all nine slots. And there’s nothing to tell you that you have.

You have to swipe down on your iPhone to get Control Center, tap the Home button and then see whether your HomePod is there. If it isn’t, you have to go back through all the devices in your Home app and switch off this Include in Favorites switch for some of them.

You can add HomePod to a Home button in Control Center

If you want to, that is. It is handy to be able to get Control Center and just tap to switch off the lights in the living room, kitchen and den then to switch on the ones for the landing and the bedroom.

It feels less handy to have a button to play or pause HomePod. Maybe you’ll sometimes leave the room and only remember later that it’s playing. Otherwise, skip adding HomePod to Favorites and instead just get in the habit of calling out “Hey, Siri, stop.”

Advantages

Maybe the Home app isn’t a quick one to use but if you list the HomePod in the right room, you could save time later. Say you’ve got it in your office and you’re heading there in the dark one cold winter morning. Call up the office room and you might be able to tap to switch on the lights, turn on the heating and set the HomePod playing.

It depends on what devices you have but HomePod can both be controlled by HomeKit and it can control it right back.

So it’s worth taking a moment to set all this up. Plus there is one more important part of this Home app’s setup for HomePod and it’s to do with the single best thing you can do to your speaker.

Get another one

Yes, HomePod is expensive. Nonetheless, when you’ve got one, you will soon want two. And then when you get that second HomePod, if you’re setting it up on the same Wi-Fi network as the first, it will know.

You’ll be prompted to set them up as a pair. If you do want them in the same room then you do want them as a pair.

Still, they are expensive and a single HomePod on its own is very good so you might well buy the second one for a different part of your house. In that case you would say no to creating a pair when you’re initially setting up the second one.

Later, though, you will either buy a third HomePod because these things are only as resistible as your bank account says, and you will then want to pair up two of them. Plus, if you haven’t already heard that two HomePods together sound incredible, let us be the first to tell you. Two HomePods together sound incredible.

To pair two up some time after the initial setup, go to the Home app. Press and hold on either of them to bring up settings. So long as the two are on the same Wi-Fi network, the settings page will now have an extra option.

Right underneath the Include in Favorites section there will be a new button called Create Stereo Pair.

The HomePod whose settings you’re adjusting will be one of the pair and you get to select any other HomePod you’ve got as the second. Then you can choose which is to be the left speaker and which the right, or swap them around again as you need.

It takes time

Initially you wonder if the HomePod is going to be worth the money, especially when it costs far more than rivals such as Amazon Echo. Then when you’ve got one, you hear how great it is and you get a kind of new-toy feel for a time.

Later you might add a second HomePod or you might not, but this is how you know that you’ve made a good buy. At some point you are going to be in a room without a HomePod and you’ll announce to the air that you want to play some music.