Category: Apple Insider

In an iPhone Availability Tracker note seen by AppleInsider, JP Morgan analyst Samik Chatterjee writes that aggregate lead times are currently moderating — or normalizing — for the iPhone 12. Those lead times are based on delivery-at-home dates, which could indicate smartphone supply and demand.

Lead times are remaining stable for the iPhone 12 Pro, however. In the third week of availability, the time to receive an iPhone 12 from its delivery date remains at about 10 days worldwide, while delivery of the iPhone 12 Pro maintained an average of 23 days.

In the U.S., delivery times have moderated to about eight days in week three, reduced from 11 days in the second week of availability. Lead times actually rose for the iPhone 12 Pro, from 24 days in week two to 26 days in week three.

For Chinese consumers, delivery times for the higher-tier iPhone 12 Pro model remained stable, while they moderated for the iPhone 12 in the same time period. In both Germany and the U.K., lead times for both the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro normalized.

Although the iPhone 12 is available for in-store pickup in the U.S., U.K., and Germany, the iPhone 12 Pro remains unavailable for pickup in all the regions that JP Morgan tracks.

Year-over-year, there does appear to be higher demand for the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro models than the 2019 iPhone 11 lineup.

In the first week of availability for the iPhone 11, lead times hovered at six days before rising to 12 days in week two. For the iPhone 12, lead times clocked in at 13 days in both week one and week two. Availability for the iPhone 11 Pro remained at around 24 days in both its first and second week of availability. In 2020, the iPhone 12 Pro is seeing lead times of eight to 24 days in that same time period.

As Chatterjee points out in his research note, the success of the iPhone 12 Pro is leading investors to “keenly and optimistically” watch for the start of iPhone 12 Pro Max preorders on Nov. 6.

Announced on October 13, Apple’s new iPhone launch had very much that was unlike any previous year. That started with how the launch was done with another supremely well made video — seriously, the Emmys should add a category for Best Performance by a Tech Executive in a Launch Promotional Series or Mini-Series.

Then this time Apple launched four new iPhones instead of three. And perhaps most significantly in these coronavirus times, it carefully altered the usual mix of features and price.

While the new iPhones, together with the iPhone SE and how Apple retains last year’s iPhone 11 Pro, the company has again got a phone for just about every price point. What’s different is that the whole iPhone 12 range offers features that might previously have been reserved for the higher-end Pro models.

They all have 5G, they now all lack a power adapter and earbuds, and all have the new Ceramic Shield on their front display glass. Speaking of which, there are tiny differences between those displays, but every model has an OLED Super Retina XDR display.

All four new iPhones have the same design, too, which brings the iPad Pro’s flat edges to the phones. This has been so popular that Apple’s got to be wondering what it can do with the iPhone 13 to keep up.

In making the new iPhone 12 range affordable, at least with some models, yet keeping major features across every phone, Apple has made it both simple and hard to choose what to buy. If you were brand new to the iPhone at all, you could now just buy any of them and be sure of getting an extremely good phone.

That’s great, and it’s especially great for the entry-level iPhone 12 model, but it means a lot more head-scratching if you’re comparing the iPhone 12 to the iPhone 12 Pro.

Things are easier with the iPhone 12 mini, and the iPhone 12 Pro Max, although neither was actually available in October. The iPhone 12 mini is smaller than this year’s iPhone SE, yet it contains a bigger screen.

It’s also the lowest-cost iPhone 12, even though many would’ve paid more to get the small form factor. So that could make it even more appealing than the iPhone 12 or the iPhone 12 Pro.

Similarly, the iPhone 12 Pro Max is going to have the best cameras, and significantly better than the rest.

That does make these two iPhone 12 models the right choice for many people, but during October 2020 when they weren’t available, they made that buying choice harder.

Or rather, it’s made the specifics of the buying choice harder, as it made the overall decision to buy a new iPhone more attractive. And in October 2020, we learned just exactly how appealing it is.

The analyst firm with the odd name but the good track record, Above Avalon, announced in October that it appears over a billion people are now using an iPhone. And that’s now as in right now, today, this moment.

So it’s not that Apple has sold a billion of them — we know it long blew past that number — but rather that at this moment, there are a billion people with an iPhone in their hand.

You can say that Android is more successful, and many people do, including Apple in its many 2020 legal cases. But there are countless different Android phones coming from myriad companies.

There’s only one Apple, and a billion iPhones.

Steve Jobs with the first iPhone ever seen in public. There are rather more of them today.

This year, that’s at least in part down to how we reportedly have a deeper emotional connection to our Apple devices than most people do to most other companies. Surveyed specifically to see how brands were faring during the COVID-19 pandemic, MBLM asked people about emotional fulfillment from firms.

Apple came first overall. Using only results from men, Apple came second to Amazon, however as well as the top spot in total, it was also top of women’s votes and those of millennials.

Separately, research firm Piper Sandler claimed this month that 86% of teenage respondents to its survey said that they have an iPhone. Then 89% said they intend to buy one.

There are also quite a few iPads out there, and it does rather look as if those numbers are going to swell because of the iPad Air 4. Apple announced it in September but, quite unusually, both kept us waiting and didn’t specify a release date beyond next month.

Despite countless rumors pegging its release to every day you can think of in the month, Apple practically slipped it out in the end. Pre-orders began on October 16, exactly 31 days after announcement, and alongside the rather more hyped iPhone 12.

Just as with the iPhone 12, though, the iPad Air 4 came with issues that affected buying decisions — although this time, all for the good. Over and over, reviewers, testers, and customers were coming to the conclusion that the iPad Air was the best iPad to buy.

It’s such a good combination of features, and price, that it has become hard to see why many people would buy the 11-inch iPad Pro. Bringing the same design, very similar features, and better performance meant Apple was again offering far more than usual in the lower-priced option.

Which is also a fair description of the one other hardware product Apple revealed this month. The HomePod mini had us all wanting one, and then when it was announced at $99, we all wanted more than one.

Before anyone has even got one to test, the HomePod mini has somehow become much more desirable than the original, full-size HomePod.

October may have seen surveys saying we love Apple devices, and it may have seen Apple earning incredible amounts of our money even before we could buy the HomePod mini. Yet it was also a month where the company continued to be rather battered by criticism.

The now tedious Apple versus Epic Games dispute has continued with neither side offering much of a new level, and Facebook continued trying to make itself appear to be the poor underdog.

This time, “No Discovered Security Breaches in 0 Days” Facebook was arguing against the ad-tracking block that Apple keeps saying it’s going to add to iOS 14. Facebook wasn’t alone this month, as a coalition of publishers and advertisers in France lobbied their government to investigate Apple over unfair competition.

They maintain that every advertiser except Apple will require users to positively elect to allow ad tracking. Apple says yes, but no, because it doesn’t sell its ad-tracking data to anyone else, so you can’t really say it’s the same thing.

October also saw the House Judiciary decide that Apple has monopoly-like power with the App Store. Apple objected “vehemently,” saying that, “our company does not have a dominant market share in any category where we do business.”

Or rather, Apple and its current management team objected. Ex-App Store manager Philip Shoemaker said that Apple had always used the App Store as “a weapon against competitors.”

The House’s examination of Apple — along with big tech firms such as Google, Amazon, and Facebook — was this month just one of the worldwide pressures facing the company. The EU in particular has Apple on what’s being called a “hit list” of tech companies that it wants to apply stricter rules to.

That said, the EU’s chief antitrust executive, Margrethe Vestager, is one of the voices speaking out against breaking up large technology firms. She’s pursuing the plan to implement these more stringent trading and taxation rules, and thinks breaking firms up is a remedy with potentially unintended consequences.

One area we’re looking at for consequences is how Apple may be affected by the Department of Justice deciding to sue Google. The DOJ argues that Google paying Apple billions every year to keep being the default search engine on iOS is a problem.

Talking of worldwide consequences that, if not unintended, were at least not predicted, it was during this month that we really learned how not all 5G is created equal. If you’re in America, it’s likely that you’re still waiting for mmWave 5G, basically the version that has all the speed everyone promises in 5G.

If you’re outside the US, you might be waiting, you might not, but you may as well whistle for mmWave 5G — if you want an iPhone. While it’s hardly Apple’s fault that 5G availability isn’t better, it is entirely Apple’s fault that it has reserved mmWave for only US iPhones.

Then even in the US, there were reports that Dual SIM users wouldn’t get 5G on either of their lines. That may or may not be true, and it may be that Apple can fix it with an update.

None of this seemed to stop many of us from buying the new Apple devices. Around the world, customers lined up outside Apple Stores, and those of us waiting on deliveries soon found that demand was so high that we were going to be waiting a lot longer.

All of which accounts for Apple’s earnings call, where the company revealed that it had earned more than expected this quarter. At $64.7 billion, that’s more than analysts predicted — but repeatedly, Apple said that the figures were better than their own internal estimates.

That probably didn’t include sales in China, which the earnings call tried hard to skip over as quickly as it could. However, it did include what turned out to be a record for Mac sales.

During the last quarter, Apple sold $8 billion worth of Macs. “[This] was an all-time high for Mac in the history of the company. And not just by a little bit, by $1.6 billion, so it was a substantial difference.”

Tim Cook kept using the word “bullish” like he’d just learned it, and maybe that’s why he also took the unusual step of speaking more about the future — even if only ever so slightly.

“Without giving away too much, I can tell you that this year has a few more exciting things in store,” he said.

He didn’t sound as if he were talking of things we already know about, such as Apple Silicon — and certainly didn’t drop any hint about the now expected A14T processor from Apple.

Nor did he seem to mean the MagSafe duo charger that’s been announced but isn’t shipping yet. He didn’t sound as if he were talking about Apple Fitness+, which perhaps some of us are covering our ears over and don’t wish to discuss at this time.

Perhaps he did mean all of this, though. What he definitely did not mean was Apple One — because he had already specifically announced that the bundle would just squeak into the month on the very last day.

When Apple TV officially launched on November 1, 2019, Apple’s long-awaited streaming TV service appeared underwhelming to many observers, a view that stuck well into 2020.

Of the shows that arrived at launch from Apple TV+, none were really cultural breakthroughs, nor were any of the series that followed in the months afterward. Sure, Apple TV+ could point to some creative successes in its first few months, but nothing that really made any real headway.

Nothing Apple put on Apple TV+ made as much of an impact as The Mandalorian, the Star Wars-associated show that Disney+ launched right out of the gate. Competition from new streaming services proliferated throughout the spring and summer of 2020, and when the coronavirus led to millions of households being stuck at home, it was Netflix’s Tiger King that dominated the cultural conversation, not anything on Apple TV+.

However, Apple TV+ has benefited from an impressive hot streak of good news throughout the spring and summer of 2020. It had a couple of series break through, it acquired some impressive movies and shows, and it’s gotten into business with some major talents. And after a pause due to the pandemic, production has resumed on several of the service’s important shows.

Heading into year two, Apple TV+ suddenly looks to be on the upswing.

They may not be Mandalorian-sized hits, but Apple appears to have broken through in 2020 with a pair of shows. Defending Jacob, the mystery and legal procedural starring Captain America actor Chris Evans, was seen as the most popular show for Apple TV+ in the early going.

Chris Evans and Jaeden Martell on “Defending Jacob”

Defending Jacob, unfortunately for Apple, was a limited series, one that ended in such a way that future seasons are practically impossible. However, that’s far from the case with Apple’s other success, Ted Lasso.

Apple TV+, in its first year, got into business with A-list stars, Oscar winners, and creators of great accomplishment. But the show that connected like no other is a half-hour comedy starring a former Saturday Night Live performer and occasional movie actor, about an American football coach leading a soccer club in England.

Ted Lasso, which is based on a series of TV commercials from when NBC started broadcasting the English Premier League in 2013, is undeniably connecting with audiences, due in part to its ethos of unrelenting optimism. Tim Cook said as much, on Apple’s quarterly earnings call on October 29.

“Apple TV+ continues to impress, from fan favorites like Ted Lasso, which has won a worldwide audience with its hopeful tone during challenging times, to critical and award praise, including a Primetime Emmy for Billy Crudup in The Morning Show,” Cook said on the call, which otherwise was light on new information about Apple TV+.

Ted Lasso not only received a second season, but it’s also been renewed for a third, becoming the second Apple TV+ series, after Dickinson, to get a second renewal.

The cast of “Mythic Quest: Raven’s Banquet”

As is often the case with measures of streaming TV audiences, there are no “official” figures in terms of viewership for Apple TV+ shows. Apple has never released them — nor has it released any subscriber numbers. There are no neutral arbiters with universally accepted authoritative numbers about the size of such audiences.

Nielsen recently began releasing weekly ratings figures for streaming TV shows, although Apple TV+ has not yet been included in those ratings. There are, however, various third party research firms and other websites that put out such data.

The “streaming TV guide” Realgood, in early October, released a ranking of the most-watched Apple TV+ shows in the third quarter, which listed Ted Lasso as the most watched series on the platform, with 18.4 percent of the total share of streams. The Morning Show was second, with 15.8 percent, and Defending Jacob third with 10.4 percent. They were followed by See, Mythic Quest, Home Before Dark, Servant, For All Mankind, Central Park, and Little America.

Apple rival Disney+ may have had a big hit with The Mandalorian, which returned at the end of October with its second season, but aside from the one-shot movie Hamilton, Disney’s service hasn’t had another original hit since.

Analyst Rich Greenfield of Lightshed Management, who covers the streaming media world extensively, said on Twitter in early October that “Apple TV+ has meaningfully outperformed Disney+ in year one in terms of original programming, [especially] programming for anyone over the age of 10. [Eddy Cue] and the Apple TV Plus team do not get enough credit, [especially] with no catalog or history in content production.”

Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert

This fall, in addition to its original shows, Apple has released the A24 collaboration On the Rocks, an acclaimed Bill Murray movie from director Sofia Coppola that’s garnered Oscar buzz, and also Bruce Springsteen’s Letter to You, an exceptionally well-mounted making-of documentary about The Boss’ new album. The latter, which had a tie-in with the new Apple Music TV, shows the potential of what Apple TV+ can do with music-oriented programming.

The good news for Apple TV+ has also come from announcements about future projects and talent deals. Throughout the summer and fall, seemingly not a week has gone by without Apple announcing a major deal of some kind.

Apple has acquired some movies that had been slated for theatrical releases pre-pandemic, most notably Tom Hanks’ Greyhound, while it also landed Emancipation, a historical thriller with Will Smith that’s set to arrive in 2021.

Apple landed Killers of the Flower Moon, Martin Scorsese’s next film, back in May, and announced a separate first-look deal with Scorsese’s production company in August.

Leonardo DiCaprio, Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro, of “Killers of the Flower Moon”

The many-time Emmy winner Julia Louis-Dreyfus, A-list movie star Leonardo DiCaprio, and the acclaimed actor Idris Elba are among other huge names who have signed productions deals with Apple this year. Apple also recently signed up movie stars Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne to star in a comedy series called Platonic.

Then, at the end of October, Apple announced that it will host Jon Stewart’s TV comeback, signing a deal to produce a current events series hosted by the former Daily Show host, as well as other shows Stewart will produce. If Stewart, with his new show, can capture the zeitgeist at anywhere near the level he did back in his Comedy Central days, that’s big news for Apple.

Apple’s penchant for talent-friendliness can have its pitfalls. Its documentary series Dear was essentially about famous people being told by fans how awesome they are, in a way that wasn’t the slightest bit entertaining or illuminating. Some shows, like Amazing Stories with Steven Spielberg and Little Voice with J.J. Abrams, invoked a particular big name in their marketing, while those people ended up having little to do with the series creatively.

But clearly, Apple has money to wave at creators. There’s no reason to think these big-name talent deals won’t continue, and it also appears those creators have gotten some freedom.

There were fears around the time of Apple TV+’s launch that it would avoid controversial or adult content, or amount to an “expensive NBC,” as was reportedly joked about internally.

The shows, so far, have included some amounts of violence and sexuality, and with projects on the way from the likes of Martin Scorsese and Seth Rogen, there’s likely more of that on the way. While a least a couple of shows have seen showrunners replaced, including The Morning Show, there have been no stories reported from behind the scenes suggesting Apple was heavy-handed with its influence in the executive suite when it comes to content.

Apple TV+’s “Long Way Up”

A major knock on Apple TV+ when it launched was that it offered subscribers so much less than its rivals did. While Disney+ had the back catalogs of Disney animation, Pixar, Star Wars, Marvel, and more available at launch, Apple TV+ had only its handful of originals. The newer services, especially HBO Max, have also arrived with massive back catalogs of classic movies.

A year on, that’s started to change. There is, of course, more original content from Apple that’s been added over time. There were also reports in May that Apple had begun talks to add older back catalog content to the service.

There’s been no major move in that regard yet, although when Apple debuted the Ewan McGregor docuseries Long Way Up, it also obtained the rights to the two previous seasons of the series, which had been produced elsewhere. This also happened with Apple’s recent deal for the rights to the Peanuts holiday specials.

The potential for additional catalog content is something to watch for Apple TV+ as it enters Year 2.

Disney+

Despite the catalog deficit, there is one big advantage Apple has over several of its streaming counterparts, such as Disney+, HBO Max and Peacock, one that’s become especially clear of late. Apple’s future, as a company, doesn’t depend in any way on its streaming service’s success.

Whether caused by the pandemic or longer-term troubles, many of Apple TV+’s rivals have their core businesses collapsing around them and need to lean on streaming to promise themselves a future.

Disney recently announced a reorganization meant to reorient their entire company around its streaming strategy. AT&T is clearly depending heavily on the success of HBO Max. Comcast, owner of Peacock, is losing cable subscribers at a significant rate.

Apple, on the other hand, has core businesses that are doing much better. It doesn’t own theme parks, a movie studio, a cable or satellite business, or other such declining assets. Therefore, Apple isn’t in a position where it has to use Apple TV+ to paper over failures in other areas of its business.

In addition, as evidenced by that yearlong spree of production deals, Apple doesn’t appear to be holding back on spending when it comes to Apple TV+.

Hailee Steinfeld as Emily Dickinson on Apple TV+’s “Dickinson”

While production was delayed for several months on most Apple TV+ shows, many of them are back before the cameras. Dickinson will debut its second season in January, with The Morning Show and other launch shows likely to return at some point in 2021.

Most of the first batch of shows were renewed by Apple, with other big series, such the high-budget adaption of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation and the Tom Hanks/Steven Spielberg-produced Masters of the Air, are also on the way in year 2, with the latter getting production underway in the spring.

Apple TV+ hasn’t yet matched, say, Netflix when it comes to audience size or cultural ubiquity. But there’s no doubt, after one year, that the service is ahead of where Netflix was a year after it launched its streaming service.

From popular shows to talent deals to a robust pipeline, every indication is that its future is bright. And, even if the near-term is dim, Apple has the patience and wherewithal to wait out the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.

As promised, Apple has now launched its Apple One bundle of services. There are three tiers available, each potentially saving you money depending on which Apple services you already use. Apple has added the ability to switch from paying separately for each of those services like Apple Music, or extra iCloud storage, and instead pay one single price.

To do this, you need to choose what tier you want, then elect to move to it. Apple helps you along the way by recommending what it believes is right for you, based on your existing subscriptions.

1. On your iPhone, go to Settings
2. Tap on your name at the top
3. Then tap on Subscriptions
4. You may have to wait a few seconds, but Apple One will appear as an option
5. Tap on that and Apple will display the three pricing tiers with details
6. Apple also highlights which tier it recommends
7. Tap pick a tier, then make sure you read the details
8. Tap on Start Free trial

That last section about a free trial is potentially confusing. You certainly get a month’s free trial of any service that you do not current use, but beyond that, you don’t. So you may very well find that in each description of the pricing tiers, there’s a line saying “Your existing subscriptions are not eligible for trial.”

Go to Settings, then tap on your name and choose Subscriptions

If you do, you still get the button marked Start Free Trial. Tap on it.

What’s happening is that Apple is charging you for the first month when you subscribe, but it then prorating what you’ve already spent. So after you’ve confirmed your purchase, you can see pricing details on each of your previously separate subscriptions.

For instance, you may see “Apple News+ (Monthly) This subscription will be included in Apple One starting on 30 November 2020.”

As part of this business of transferring from separate subscriptions, which may very well have different renewal dates, you will find that Apple refunds you part of your payment immediately.

Once you’ve gone through this special new signup process, Apple One gets listed alongside all your other subscriptions on your iPhone. Go to Settings, tap on your name, then choose Subscriptions.

While you will still see all your prior Apple services listed, at least until their renewal date occurs, you can tap on Apple One in the list to get more details.

Next, pick your Apple One tier and confirm

Those details include all the regular information about your renewal date, but also repeats the three tiers. You can tap on Plan Details to find out more about what each offers, or you can tap to change to a different tier.

If you really change your mind, then this section in Settings also has the option to either Cancel Apple One, or Choose Individual Services.

You may well decide to go back to individual services. Apple One potentially represents a saving, but if you don’t use all of services in each tier, it will make more sense to pay for them individually.

Rather than joining up and cancelling, though, it’s better to work out in advance whether Apple One truly saves you money each month.

If you’ve already made that calculation, too, you should still consider it carefully because Apple One’s pricing plans include an option that Apple hadn’t previously mentioned. A key difference between the tiers is how much extra iCloud storage you get, but it turns out that you can choose any tier and then elect to add more storage on top of it. So you could choose the lowest-price plan, the Individual tier, which gets you 50GB, but then separately add on another 50GB, 200GB, or 2TB for $0.99, $2.99, or $9.99 on top of your regular Apple One tier.

The production of iPhones has historically led to a reduction in air quality in four key Chinese cities: Zhengzhou, Shenzhen, Chengdu, and Chongqing. By tracking the air quality in these cities, analysts can gauge Apple’s production cycles.

“As of October 26th, air quality data from Zhengzhou, also known as ‘iPhone City,’ shows that industrial production levels have spiked higher recently, about a month later than historical seasonality, which we believe coincides with the ramp in iPhone 12 mass production,” Morgan Stanley analysts Katy Huberty wrote in a note seen by CNBC.

Apple typically announces its new iPhones in September, though it’s likely the coronavirus had slowed down the 2020 production cycle.

To grab the reduced $14.29 price, just check the 20% off coupon box on this Amazon product page and then enter 25% off promo code ZIPXB4W4 during checkout. The offer is set to expire on Oct. 31, but the coupon may end early after it reaches a set number of redemptions.

AppleInsider and Apple authorized resellers are also running additional exclusive deals on hardware that will not only deliver the lowest Apple prices on many of the items, but also throw in bonus discounts on protection plans, software and more. Here are some of the offers:

Apple deals are hitting a fever pitch as retailers issue aggressive price drops on even brand-new hardware heading into Black Friday.

Save $40 instantly on Apple’s new iPad Air 4, with the 64GB Wi-Fi model dropping to $559 in the popular new green color, a record low at B&H Photo. Amazon started the price war on the brand-new iPad Air, but quickly sold out, with units back to MSRP.

According to B&H, inventory is coming soon and limited quantities are available at the discounted price so it’s best to secure your spot in line now. See how this deal stacks up to other retailers in our iPad Air 4 Price Guide.

If you’d prefer the tablet in Rose Gold, Walmart is also running a $40 off promo on the 64GB Wi-Fi Air.

AppleInsider and Apple authorized resellers are also running additional exclusive deals on hardware that will not only deliver the lowest prices on many of the items, but also throw in bonus discounts on protection plans, software and more. Here are some of the offers:

In the trailer, viewers are introduced to some of the children who will be followed in the series. It also presents the premise — follow children during their first 2,000 days on the planet as they learn to talk, think, and love.

“Becoming You” shows how different our journeys can be while highlighting our shared humanity. The series showcases over 100 kids from across the world, from Nepal to Japan and Borneo. The series is set to premiere on November 13.

The series is narrated by Olivia Colman, produced by Wall to Wall Media, and is executive produced by Leanne Klein and Hamo Forsyth.

On October 21, Apple removed the App Store listing for its first-party “Remote” app, a tool that was first introduced as the iTunes Remote before being turned into a controller for the Apple TV. Apple’s removal of the app leaves users with the option of using the bundled Siri Remote for the Apple TV, or the software-based version for their iOS devices, integrated into Control Center.

A series of tweets posted following Apple’s delisting of the app by Alan Cannistraro, a former Apple engineer who originally worked on the app, explains the history of the tool within Apple from its first code written in 2016. According to Cannistraro, he started to write code before he was able to see the iPhone user interface, by using UI elements of his own creation.

Cannistraro was encouraged to go further with his initial efforts as Apple co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs was “nervous the App Store wouldn’t be a hit, so he wanted Apple to have apps,” which Jobs explained to the developer on seeing his work. It was also the first production app to be used by the App Store team to trial the “upload flow” to the App Store, earning its place as the first app on it.

The shipped version was also a stripped-down variant of Cannistraro’s work, as the prototype also enabled the control to turn lights, televisions, and receivers on and off via an IR adaptor, as well as to save and resume a room’s state as a “Scene.” This may have been a precursor to HomeKit, Apple’s smarthome platform which also uses Scenes as a concept, but Cannistraro admits his pitch was a “larger idea around device communication that never got off the ground.”

A later prototype in 2009 was able to use the touchscreen of the iPhone to be a computer mouse, as well as a way to “interact with photos, applications (the original TouchBar) and screensavers” on a Mac, Cannistraro claims.

By 2010, Cannistraro once again sat with Jobs about a version of the Remote app, one that allowed for the control of the Apple TV using swipes. He claims Jobs said at the time “Our next Apple TV Remote should be this without a screen.”

Five years later, which Cannistraro attributed to Jobs’ death pausing “lots of stuff,” the Siri Remote was released, one that almost all Apple TV users are familiar with using, and employs the same control mechanic.

Despite the removal of the Remote for Apple TV from the App Store, Apple still maintains the iTunes Remote app, which is used to manage the playback of media in Apple Music, iTunes, and the Apple TV app on a Mac or a PC.

Apple’s latest iPhone models started to arrive with consumers on Friday, so it wasn’t long after release that the first teardown videos of the devices started to surface. In the first fully-detailed disassembly of the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro, iFixit indicates there’s some changes in the design over the iPhone 11 generation, in order to add 5G functionality.

The initial stage of gaining access in the teardown hasn’t changed much for 2020, with the use of Pentalobe screwdrivers, suction cups, picks, and heat used to lever open the display. Rather than opening on the left-hand edge, a routine that has been in play since the iPhone 7, the iPhone 12 opens from the right-hand edge.

An initial glance at the insides of both non-Pro and Pro models simultaneously has no indications one is better than the other, until the removal of the camera shield. It seems that the two were constructed so alike that Apple uses a plastic spacer in the iPhone 12 where the third camera and LiDAR sensor would be located in the iPhone 12 Pro.

The iPhone 12 and Pro cameras, as well as a camera spacer [via iFixit]

Another change for 2020 is the flipping of positions for the SIM tray, logic board, and battery, which is thought to be due to the larger logic board housing Qualcomm’s 5G chips. The logic board includes the Apple A14 Bionic SoC layered with Micron memory, Samsung flash storage, Qualcomm’s 5G and LTE transceiver, Qualcomm’s 5G modem, Apple’s U1 chip and power management controller, and an Avago power amplifier and integrated duplexer.

To make 5G work properly, the smartphones were found to have mmWave antenna modules embedded in the side of the frame and on the back of the logic board.

For other components, it was found that Apple had changed how the speakers were held in place, with it using Phillips screws and bright orange rubber gaskets instead of adhesive, which may aid repairs. The MagSafe charging arrays use 18 magnets to align the coils in place with the charger, with the polarity of the magnets thought to “expand the effective placement of the phone” while still maintaining proper alignment.

A side-by-side component view of the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro [via iFixit]

In summing up the new models, iFixit suggests Apple has made “some serious design compromises” to add 5G components, with the loss of elements like the L-shaped battery and the smaller logic board. Though not “death by a thousand cuts,” the concessions made by Apple makes the iPhones feel “the least inventive.”

iFixit gave the iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 a “Repairability Score” of 6 out of 10. While display and battery replacements stay as a priority along with modular components inside and the use of screws, the continued use of glue and the increased waterproofing measures “complicate some repairs,” while a broken glass back replacement will requiring the removal of every component from the device.