Apple News

Apple Watch Series 4 in a
Space Black Stainless Steel Case with Space Black Milanese Loop (40mm and 44mm)

Tyler Clifford for CNBC:

Dexcom will launch a number of upgrades for its G6 diabetes system over the next year, including its direct-to-Apple Watch version, CEO Kevin Sayer said Thursday.

Apple CEO Tim Cook earlier this year said he wanted to leave a mark on the health care industry under his tenure at the iconic technology giant. The collaboration between the two companies would allow diabetes patients to track glucose on Apple’s top wearable device.

“It’s coming,” Sayer said in a sit-down interview with Jim Cramer on “Mad Money.” “And this tool is great for people with diabetes.”

MacDailyNews Take: This is, unfortunately, a huge market which makes it a very big opportunity for Apple Watch:

Apple Watch could become the essential device for hundreds of millions of people with diabetes.

According to the International Diabetes Federation:

Sam Unsted for Bloomberg:

A resolution to U.S.-China trade tensions could add as much as $25 a share to Apple Inc.’s stock price and take it back to a $1 trillion market value, according to Wedbush Securities analyst Daniel Ives. A $25 increase would be about 13% above Apple’s closing price of $194.15 a share on Thursday and would take its market value back into 13 figures.

Apple in August became the first U.S. company with a $1 trillion value, though it’s been below that since November.

A U.S.-China deal “would take away the primary China risk which is a dark cloud over the stock now,” Ives wrote in a note. Investors now are pricing in a harsher impact on Apple than Ives sees playing out based on how the situation stands today, “despite the noise.”

Ives also said the risk-reward on Apple remains compelling at the current price and that the company is the safest among FAANG stocks from any antitrust threats.

MacDailyNews Take: One might expect that a U.S.-China trade deal would have a positive effect on stock prices, Apple’s included. That said, the market is an unpredictable beast, as always.

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes for ZDNet:

The market for third-party Lightning cables for the iPhone is massive, and it’s growing by the day. In fact, I don’t think a week goes by when I’m not sent a pitch for some new “wonder cable” that sounds too good to be true.

In fact, the market is now getting so crowded that companies are resorting to out and out lies to try to make their cable stand out.

Here are some iPhone cable myths that are simply not true.

• The indestructible cable
• Super-fast charging cables
• The cable Apple supplies is poor

MacDailyNews Take: We use, and swear by, Anker Powerline Lightning Cables. They are Apple MFi-Certified, less expensive than Apple’s Lightning cables, and we’ve had only success using them.

Dan Moren writes for Macworld:

…Beyond just the features that Apple has included (or hasn’t) in the next versions of its software platforms, there’s also a lot to glean from these [WWDC 2019] announcements about the company’s future plans. In some cases they’re obvious; in others, you just need to read between the lines a little bit. As I pored over Apple’s website, I noticed a few things that made me think about what the folks in Cupertino might have in store.

Browse through the list of features for iOS 13 and iPadOS and something might catch your eye: an entire sub-heading devoted to improvements specifically for India. This includes everything from an Indian English voice for Siri to support for all 22 of India’s official national languages to new Indian fonts and typing prediction for Hindi…

With iOS 13’s swap for the “press and hold” feature, I wouldn’t be surprised to see 3D Touch quietly shuffled off in this year or next year’s flagship iPhone, consigned to the dustbin of history as an experiment that didn’t quite pay off…

MacDailyNews Take: India, obviously, is a high priority and there is much headroom in that market for Apple to finally begin to serve. While we loved (and stil love) 3D Touch, most or all of what it offers can be accomplished via long presses and haptics. That’s a good thing as it delivers 3D Touch features to all iOS devices, not just those equipped with 3D Touch-capable screens. It also saves Apple money from having to produce complicated hardware which will hopefully translate into more palatably priced iPhones at the high end.

Juli Clover for MacRumors:

Apple at the 2019 Worldwide Developers Conference introduced watchOS 6, the latest version of the software designed for the Apple Watch. watchOS 6 brings some notable improvements to watchOS, including new apps, a dedicated App Store, new watch faces, updated health features, and tons more.

For the first time, watchOS 6 brings a dedicated App Store to the Apple Watch, letting you search for, browse, and download apps right on your wrist even when an iPhone isn’t available. The update also further untethers the watch from the iPhone, as it allows developers to create apps that are just for the Apple Watch and don’t need to be tied to a companion iPhone app…

When it launches in the fall, watchOS 6 will be available on all Apple Watch models with the exception of the original Apple Watch…

MacDailyNews Take: watchOS 6 looks very good and it’s already pretty fast even in early beta mode, so this is shaping up to be a very strong release later this year for all non-Series 0 Apple Watch owners! The Apple Watch App Store and the ability for developers to create independent Watch apps are going to be huge for Apple Watch going forward!

Zac Hall for 9to5Mac:

Apple upgraded CarPlay in iOS 12 with support for third-party navigation apps including Google Maps and Waze, allowing drivers to use alternatives to Apple Maps for the first time. CarPlay has an even bigger update in iOS 13 with the introduction of Dashboard, new apps, and updates to existing apps.

CarPlay in iOS 13 has several design changes that make the infotainment system feel more like the iPhone X and later. For example, the virtual Home button has been replaced with two icons showing the app launcher or new Dashboard feature. The icon is in the same location (bottom left or right depending on where you’re driving) and works the same with long-presses invoking Siri, but the virtual Home button inspired by the pre-iPhone X era has been retired.

One of the biggest subtle changes to CarPlay in iOS 13 is independent app views, a feature that solves a classic problem with CarPlay. Before iOS 13, CarPlay directly reflected what app was active on your iPhone. If the app on your iPhone wasn’t a CarPlay app, then CarPlay would simply show the Home screen.

Now in iOS 13, CarPlay switches apps independently from iPhone. This solves the classic problem of a driver relying on Maps for navigation while a passenger uses the iPhone for something else — especially if you’re letting your passenger charge their iPhone while you use their navigation. And if you’re the driver, you can rely entirely on CarPlay and leave your iPhone screen off or on the CarPlay screen…

MacDailyNews Take: Tons or screenshots in the full article – check it out. It’s certainly nice to see that staccato-inducing Home button inexorably going the way of the dodo! The X-class gesture UI just makes iOS and iPadOS so much more fast and fluid.

Malcolm Owen for AppleInsider:

Consumers wanting to own their own foldable smartphone have a while longer to wait, after AT&T cancelled all pre-orders for the ill-fated Samsung Galaxy Fold, while Huawei has advised it will be holding back the launch of its own flexible screen launch to perform more testing before releasing the Mate X.

Samsung delayed the release of the Galaxy Fold after early reviews of the smartphone revealed the screen was prone to breaking at the hinge… A teardown of the Galaxy Fold reveals some concerning problems with the design, such as the 7-millimeter gap in the bezel where the two halves met, which could be an inlet for debris. When folded, the spine was “flanked by massive gaps” that could allow more debris inside and to cause further damage.

The concerns with Samsung’s Galaxy Fold has prompted a rethink by another manufacturer. CNBC reports Huawei is delaying its own Mate X foldable smartphone from its original June launch until September, in order to carry out extra tests on the device to avoid a similar fiasco.

MacDailyNews Take: Gee, that’s too bad. (smirk)

As with fingerprint and facial recognition, when Apple debuts a foldable iPhone, then foldable smartphones will have been done right. — MacDailyNews, January 17, 2019

We’ll see a mess of weird attempts before Apple shows how it’s to be done, as usual. — MacDailyNews, January 23, 2019

If and when Apple debuts a foldable iPhone, they’ll be showing the world how it should be done and what to copy going forward. As usual. — MacDailyNews, February 27, 2019

Roberta Rampton for Reuters:

U.S. President Donald Trump met with Apple CEO Tim Cook on Thursday to discuss trade and other hot-button issues facing the tech company as Trump deliberates whether to make good on his threat to hike tariffs on imports from China.

Trump’s meeting with Cook was disclosed by daughter and adviser Ivanka Trump during an event that Trump held with governors on skills development.

Cook is a frequent visitor to the White House and has worked with Ivanka Trump on her job training and education initiatives… On Thursday, Trump spoke with Cook about “trade, U.S. investment, immigration and privacy,” White House spokesman Judd Deere said.

MacDailyNews Take: That was an extremely wide range of issues discussed!

MacDailyNews Note: Please keep the discussion civil and on-topic. Off-topic posts and ad hominem attacks will be deleted and those who post such comments will be moderated/blocked. Permanent loss of screen name could also result.

Malcolm Owen for AppleInsider:

The new Mac Pro is a highly modular computer, making it ripe for upgrades and on-site servicing. But, the connector used for the built-in storage suggests replacements may have to be bought from Apple directly.

The flash storage modules will be offered in four different setups: One 256GB module, two 512GB modules for 1TB of total capacity, two 1TB modules for 2TB of capacity, and two 2TB modules for 4TB of capacity. Storage is encrypted by the T2 Security Chip, similar to other Mac models.

The information Apple provides isn’t enough detail to confirm what kind of SSDs are being used by the Mac Pro, but what the image reveals is that it isn’t any standard SSD that is in use with other devices… It also doesn’t appear to be the same sort of connection Apple uses in some of its other products, as far as AppleInsider is aware.

MacDailyNews Take: Sounds like this is a security (T2) issue, but we’ll wait to see what the deal is when Apple ships Mac Pro units to customers.

The complete Apple iPad lineup now includes Apple Pencil support, best-in-class performance, advanced displays and all-day battery life.

Alex Sherman and Kif Leswing for CNBC:

Comcast and Charter have learned a hard lesson as they build out their mobile offerings: this is Apple’s world, and they’re just living in it.

As part of their deal to carry the iPhone with their fledgling mobile plans, Apple has compelled the two largest U.S. cable companies to sell large numbers of other Apple devices as well, according to people familiar with the matter.

The cable providers decided they could not offer a viable mobile service to compete with Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile without carrying the iPhone, giving Apple ample leverage in negotiations, said the people.

While the exact details of Comcast and Charter’s agreement are private, Comcast has to sell a certain number of iPads, in the thousands, at a subsidized cost — with Comcast paying for the difference between the discounted price and the retail price, the people said.

Charter has a different agreement with Apple because the second-largest U.S. cable company allows its customers to use Apple TVs as replacement set-top devices for Charter’s legacy boxes.

MacDailyNews Take: In other, fewer words:

Apple uses leverage to extract favorable terms in business deals.

Shocking.

Jonathan Morrison via YouTube:

My initial review of the 2019 Mac Pro! Got some exclusive time with the new Mac Pro which packs up to 28-cores, 1.5TB of RAM and 4 GPUs.

Here’s a breakdown of everything you need to know!

Jonathan Morrison again via YouTube:

My initial review of the Pro Display XDR! Apple’s new 2019 Mac Pro is no doubt but I’m most excited for Apple’s Pro Display XDR which is a 32-inch 6K HDR Display that pack 1,000 nits of sustained brightness and rivals monitors up to $40,000. Yes, the $999 Apple stand sold separately is inarguably overpriced but even if Apple charged $5,999 and included the stand, it would be a great deal.

MacDailyNews Take: Exactly. It’s need vs. want.

All of those bitching about a $999 display stand are “wanters,” not “needers.” (Plus, they’ve never shopped for high-end production gear, obviously, where a handle for your camera can easily cost more than that.)

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Fred Mertz” and “TheloniousMac” for the heads up.]

Jennifer Jacobs and David McLaughlin for Bloomberg:

Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook visited the White House on Thursday to discuss Trump administration’s efforts to develop job training programs that meet the changing demands of U.S. employers.

The meeting was part of the American Workforce Policy Advisory Board, a working group that includes many corporate leaders. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and President Donald Trump’s daughter and adviser Ivanka Trump unveiled the initiative earlier this year.

“The private sector’s really stepping up,” Ivanka Trump said on Thursday. “We’ve secured commitments. Tim Cook from Apple, who was here today, he’s been a real force on both the advisory board and his commitment to life-long learning generally.”

Emily Birnbaum for The Hill:

President Trump and Apple CEO Tim Cook held a meeting at the White House on Thursday, the latest in a series of closed-door discussions between the president and top tech executives.

Trump told reporters during a lunch meeting with governors that he met with Cook earlier in the day, according to pool reports.

Trump has met with top tech executives including Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Google CEO Sundar Pichai in recent months…

Trump has previously indicated a fondness for Apple’s Cook, and in March made headlines when he referred to him as “Tim Apple.”

MacDailyNews Take: Hopefully, it was a productive meeting.

MacDailyNews Note: Please keep the discussion civil and on-topic. Off-topic posts and ad hominem attacks will be deleted and those who post such comments will be moderated/blocked. Permanent loss of screen name could also result.

Daniel Howley for Yahoo Finance:

While the Trump administration’s ban on Huawei is causing trouble for the smartphone maker and the U.S. companies it does business with, Apple might be able to steal a win from the move. According to UBS analysts Timothy Arcuri and Munjal Shah, Apple has a chance to gain smartphone market share at Huawei’s expense.

That would be a big benefit to Apple, which, according to data from FactSet, is expecting a steep drop in revenue as a result of the ongoing trade war between the U.S. and China.

Without the support of U.S. tech expertise including chips and Google’s Android operating system, Huawei may not be able to meet user demand for smartphones in regions including Europe where the company is popular with consumers. What’s more, the U.S. government’s insistence that Huawei is a security threat could make customers less willing to pay up for the company’s devices.

And that could mean more people buying Apple’s products.

MacDailyNews Take: In a just world, which this is clearly not, all Android-based iPhone knockoffs would be banned from sale for blatantly infringing on Apple iPhone’s intellectual property and trade dress.

Here’s what Google’s Android looked like before and after Apple’s iPhone:

Apple’s products came first, then Samsung’s:

And, here’s what cellphones looked like before and after Apple’s iPhone:

People who buy Android phones and tablets reward thieves.

Andrew O’Hara for AppleInsider:

With the steadily approaching launch of Apple TV+, the Apple TV set-top box itself is more important than ever. To help bolster its place in the living room, Apple brought a slew of changes with tvOS 13.

Starting out, you are met with a refreshed Home screen. There is a new semi-opaque dock at the top of all the app icons which sits atop a new, more immersive background.

The background now encompasses the entire screen and not just the portion above the bar. Apps need to be updated to take full advantage of this but it certainly looks better.

Apple’s upcoming gaming subscription service has received its own app icon here in tvOS 13…

MacDailyNews Take: Apple Arcade for Apple TV (and Mac, iPhone, and iPad) has “Hit!” written all over it!

Apple Xinyi A13 will open Saturday in Taipei’s bustling Xinyi district. At Apple’s latest store in Taiwan, customers can explore Apple’s full line of products, take their creativity further and get technical advice and support.

For the first time, Apple will host artist-led Today at Apple sessions in Taiwan featuring world-class creators, including local artists based in Taiwan. Programming kicks off with a six-week Stage for Creativity series starting opening day, with a performance from singer Eve Ai.

Apple Xinyi A13 features a two-story, free-standing pavilion design with a carbon fiber reinforced roof.

Every day, free Today at Apple sessions are offered on art and design, photography, video, music, coding, app development and more. The hands-on group sessions inspire learning and encourage connection between participants looking to take their skills to the next level.
New to Taiwan, customers can get personalized technical support on their devices in the Genius Grove, working side-by-side in the store with Geniuses under the comfortable canopy of trees.

Apple Xinyi A13 will host artist-led Today at Apple sessions for the first time in Taiwan in the store’s Forum.

Over half of the 155 team members at Apple Xinyi A13 come from stores across the region and collectively speak more than 10 languages. Creative Pros, the liberal arts equivalent to Apple’s technical Geniuses, are experts in one or more areas of the arts and ready to pass along their knowledge to Apple users of all levels.

Inside Apple Xinyi A13, two unique, marble composite stairs descend to the lower level.

Apple Xinyi A13 opens Saturday at 10 a.m. Nearly 4 million people have visited the Apple Store in Taiwan since Apple Taipei 101 opened almost two years ago.
To sign up for Today at Apple sessions, visit apple.com/tw/today and the Stage for Creativity page.

MacDailyNews Take: Congrats, Taipei!

Apple today released macOS Mojave 10.14.5 Boot Camp Update.

This update addresses an issue which prevents creation of a new Boot Camp partition on iMac and Mac mini with Fusion Drive.

File Size: 1.9MB
System Requirement: macOS Mojave 10.4.5

More info and download link here.

Today Apple released a new version of Logic Pro X, its professional music production software, with performance updates for all users and optimizations that take advantage of the groundbreaking power of the all-new Mac Pro. Making full use of the Mac Pro hardware, Logic Pro X 10.4.5 will now support up to 56 processing threads, allowing pro music producers and film composers to work through incredibly demanding music projects with unprecedented ease.

Mac Pro together with Logic Pro X 10.4.5 allows pro musicians to do things never before possible in the production process. With the new Mac Pro, Logic can now run up to five times the number of real-time plug-ins compared to the previous generation Mac Pro. Logic Pro X 10.4.5 increases the available track and channel count for all users, now supporting up to 1,000 audio tracks and 1,000 software instrument tracks, providing four times the number of available tracks for the most complex productions. Additionally, Logic Pro X now supports 1,000 auxiliary channel strips, 1,000 external MIDI tracks and 12 sends per channel strip. Users can also expect improved responsiveness of the Mixer and Event List when working with large sessions, and projects with numerous Flex Time edits and tempo changes perform more efficiently than ever.

Pro musicians are already expressing their excitement for the Mac Pro with Logic Pro X, saying:

“Logic is my primary creative tool for composing music, playing a key role in creating the scores for ‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse’ and ‘The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance.’ When you’re working, time is incredibly valuable and you never want to lose the flow of new musical ideas. I’m really excited to see the increased performance of Logic Pro X 10.4.5 along with the power, expandability and configurability of the new Mac Pro — together they will help me work even faster and let me focus more on being creative.” — Daniel Pemberton, composer for “Black Mirror,” “Yesterday” and “Ocean’s 8”

“Sometimes, a producer will subconsciously avoid exploring certain creative ideas because they think their hardware and software might hold them back. Logic Pro X 10.4.5 and the new Mac Pro are going to lift those limitations. In addition to the dramatically increased track count, there are a lot of little things in the new version of Logic that really add up. It’s great seeing Apple’s commitment to delivering these high performance tools for pros.” — Stuart Price, producer and mixer for The Killers, Madonna, Coldplay and Seal

“Music producers use technology to help us produce our art, and we’ve been waiting a long time for a system without limitations or bottlenecks. I’m deeply impressed by the remarkable performance of the new Mac Pro and Logic Pro X. This is a genuine turning point, as the creative possibilities now seem endless.” — Rich Costey, producer and mixer for Muse, Foster the People, Snow Patrol and Chvrches

“As someone who uses Logic for everything I create musically, I got a huge kick seeing all the performance tweaks coming in Logic Pro X 10.4.5. And the expandability of the new Mac Pro will give it longevity and a home in my studio for a long time to come. It’s clear that Apple is committed to the pro community, and I love that they are really listening and paying attention to our needs.” — Oak Felder, producer for Demi Lovato, Drake, Alicia Keys and Rihanna

Additional new features in Logic Pro X 10.4.5, include:
• The loop browser can filter by loop type and allows drag and drop of multiple loops into your project simultaneously.
• The redesigned DeEsser 2 plug-in provides more options to reduce sibilance on audio tracks.
• MIDI beat clocks can be sent to individual ports, each with unique settings like timing offset and plug-in delay compensation.

Availability
Logic Pro X 10.4.5 is available today as a free update for all existing users, and is available on the Mac App Store for $199.99 (US) for new customers. For more information, visit apple.com/logic-pro.

Apple is rolling out a new map with richer details and better road coverage.

Om Malik:

Seven years ago, Apple decided that it’d had enough of using Google’s mapping data. They realized that maps and mapping services were so strategic that they couldn’t really afford to depend on a smartphone rival. So, they began building their own, and in September 2012, the company launched Apple Maps. And if I am being honest, the program has always been akin to that baby face that only a mother can love.

During the keynote at the recently concluded WWDC 2019, Apple executives made a big deal about the massive improvements in the Maps… My reaction to Apple Maps was a shrug. So, they are finally catching up to Google — but will they ever be able to catch up with Google Maps?

So when I think of Apple Maps, no matter how improved they might be, all it does is remind me of Bing — an also-ran that can never catch up to Google, because more people use Google’s search… But 10 years in, globally, it still has less than one percent of usage share on mobile. On desktops where Microsoft is the dominant Operating System provider, it has a mere 8.24 percent of market share, behind Baidu with its 10 percent usage share, and not even close to Google, which has a 75.5 percent usage share.

For the month of May 2019, Google Maps was ranked at number eighth among all applications in the United States, and it was ranked fifth in Europe. The new Apple Maps may be nice to look at, and it might be quite improved, but it will always be — at best — a distant second. It is the Bing of maps.

MacDailyNews Take: Malik employs some slight of hand here by comparing apples and oranges. He states that after 10 years, Bing has less than 1% usage share globally. So why does Malik then compare Apple Maps to Bing in terms of app “rank” (which we assume mean downloads as Malik provides no further explanation or source)?

So that he can call Apple Maps the “Bing of Maps,” that’s why.

Let’s compare apples to apples instead: After 10 years, Bing has less than 1% usage share globally. After just 6 years, Apple Maps already had 11% usage share globally* – and that’s year-old data and before the current round of significant improvements, including rebuilding the app from the ground up!

As of 2017, 75% of iOS users used Apple Maps, not Google Maps. That doesn’t sound anything like “Bing.”

The fact of the matter is that the world’s best customers — those with disposable income and the proven will to spend it — use Apple Maps, not Google Maps.

“source: The Manifest navigation app survey, July 2018

B&H Photo has announced their latest deals available for the Apple iMac. Right now, you can purchase either a 21.5″ iMac with Retina 4K Display or 27″ iMac with Retina 5K Display, both Mid-2017, and receive an instant savings of hundreds of dollars.

The Apple iMac is a phenomenal computer with 7th-Generation Kaby Lake Intel Core processors, excellent AMD Radeon Pro graphics, and an impressive wide-gamut display that make it ideal for creatives. Being an all-in-one computer, the iMac manages to keep a slim profile of just 5mm, giving it a sleek, streamlined look that belongs in nearly any work environment. Multiple options and upgrades are available if you are looking for more power. Both the 21.5″ and 27″ models can be configured with additional RAM, bigger and better SSDs, faster processors, and improved graphics cards to fit different workflows.

Apple iMac

Kits are also available that include AppleCare+ with the iMac for additional savings. AppleCare+ provides added security for your investment, adding two years of additional hardware, software, and telephone support coverage to your device. This totals three years of coverage and should provide some peace of mind that you will always be able to get your computer back up and running quickly in the event you encounter an issue. A major advantage of this protection plan is that you gain accident coverage for up to two incidents during the warranty period, though this is subject to a service fee, determined by the type of damage.

MacDailyNews Note: More info via B&H here.

Neil Cybart for asymso:

WWDC 2019 included a vast list of releases and it’s quite difficult to summarize. The focus is always on software updates but this year the list seems more exhaustive than usual… If there is one thing I took away as most significant it would be the iPadOS spin-off. I don’t quite know how this will change the fortunes of the iPad but in declaring itself a platform distinct from iOS it signals that iPad can evolve rapidly in a new direction. The promise and problem with the iPad has always been that it was great hardware held back by software that was not able to take advantage of it.

The last iPad Pro release hinted at what was coming: it had a full-size keyboard and an immensely capable processor and screen.

[At WWDC 2019] we saw new features such as split view for the same app, Files folder, doc sharing, USB and SD drives support, Zip/Unzip, Desktop class Safari optimized for touch. Download manager, custom fonts, new text editing gestures (copy/paste/floating keyboard). Pencil latency improvement. All these changes are geared toward “productivity” or Pro use.

And yet, the iPad is not Mac. It will remain separate and target Mac non-consumers. Indeed there are three times more iPad users than Mac users and it’s quite possible that the iPad base can expand further with enhancement into productivity.

MacDailyNews Take: Enhancing productivity, indeed focusing on productivity, certainly can’t hurt iPad user base expansion!

We find that there are many older users longing to make iPad work like a laptop, because that’s what they know.

Take a look at a twelve-year-old who’s only really ever used an iPad for personal computing. It’s an eyeopener. It’s like looking into the future.

The answer isn’t to try to make the iPad into a MacBook. The answer is to provide all the tools possible in iOS for developers to make robust apps that can take advantage of the multi-touch paradigm. — MacDailyNews, May 16, 2017