Mac Sales Still Dropping, Apple's Siri Turns 5 Years Old, Samsung's Note 7 Woes to Benefit Apple - MacRumors

Mac Sales Continue to Slide Amid Lack of Updates The vast majority of Apple's Mac lineup is in significant need of an update, with our Buyer's Guide issuing "Don't Buy" recommendations on all but the MacBook due to the age of the current models. We're expecting some updates as soon as later this month, but in the meantime Mac sales are being hit hard as consumers hold off on making purchases. New estimates from research firms Gartner and IDC suggest Mac sales were down 13 percent year-over-year in the July–September quarter, which has long been Apple's best-performing quarter due to the company's strength in the education market.   Read Full Article Popular Stories Oct 13, 2016 Walt Mossberg Calls Siri 'Too Limited and Unreliable' to Compete in 'Coming AI Wars' Five years after its introduction on the iPhone 4s, Siri still has some glaring deficiencies in its capabilities, leading longtime tech columnist Walt Mossberg to pen a piece for The Verge entitled "Why does Siri seem so dumb?" Mossberg gives several examples of query sequences where Siri fell short in his testing, while Google Now was generally able to provide the requested information. Apple is continually improving Siri, but Mossberg argues that ongoing failures to accurately handle various queries will only drive users to become frustrated to the point that they stop using Siri altogether.   Read Full Article 'Dash' App Removed From App Store for Alleged Review Manipulation There has been a considerable amount of debate and speculation over the past week regarding the case of "Dash," a popular Mac and iOS documentation browser that was pulled from Apple's App Stores after the developer's account was canceled due to alleged review manipulation. The move has generated split opinions on whether Apple or the developer is in the wrong, with Apple arguing it has proof of fraudulent reviews from a second account linked to Dash's developer. The developer, however, claims that he only assisted his mother in setting up a developer account and later transferred some of his old apps to her, while he had no knowledge of any improper activity on that account.   Read Full Article Apple Shares Hit New High for 2016 as Samsung Scraps the Galaxy Note 7 The fast-moving saga of the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 reached a climax this week with the company officially discontinuing the new phone and recalling all original and replacement devices after continued reports of the devices smoking or catching on fire. The move has benefited Apple as a number of Note 7 users have decided to make the switch to an iPhone in the wake of the incident, driving optimistic stock traders to boost Apple's share price to its highest levels of 2016.   Read Full Article Jimmy Iovine on the Future of Apple Music: 'We're Building the Right Hybrid' Apple Music executive Jimmy Iovine is continuing to speak out on where the company sees the streaming music service to be heading, amid some recent controversy over Apple's strong push into exclusives that some view as hurting the industry. In a new interview with Billboard, Iovine discusses how Apple is working to develop "the right hybrid" that is "technologically and culturally adept." Seeking to position Apple Music as an "adjunct to labels and artists", Iovine says his hand-picked team will do "whatever we believe is great."   Read Full Article Apple Seeds Third Beta of iOS 10.1 to Developers and Public Testers Apple is likely wrapping up work on its next set of software updates, issuing its third beta of iOS 10.1 to developers and public beta testers. The update will bring the new "Portrait" camera mode to the iPhone 7 Plus and deliver some additional tweaks and fixes for devices across the board. We've also seen new betas of macOS Sierra 10.12.1, watchOS 3.1, and tvOS 10.0.1, all of which should be seeing public releases in the relatively near future.   Read Full Article

This email was sent to dasdisdusonline.apple@blogger.com Click here to unsubscribe or Update subscription preferences View in Browser | Subscribe to this mailing list. MacRumors.com, LLC 4870 Sadler Rd. Suite #300 Glen Allen, VA 23060 USA