Apple's Year in Review, $29 iPhone Battery Replacements Coming, Best Wireless Chargers - MacRumors

Brought to you by: Year in Review: Everything Apple Introduced in 2017 With 2017 drawing to a close, it's a good time to look back at everything that happened this year in the Apple universe. We've put together a summary of all of Apple's major announcements from this year, as well as a look back at the rumors and leaks that preceded them. We've also taken a look at the new apps and games that appeared on the scene in 2017, so make sure to check out our posts and videos highlighting the best apps of the year and the top ten games released in 2017.   Read Full Article Sponsored Stories Artificial Intelligence Makes Your Photos Look Fantastically Good This Christmas! Ever wondered what it would be like to edit photos perfectly, within seconds? Your dreams come true with the world’s first fully automatic photo enhancer! Photolemur 2.2 Spectre is the smartest solution for making your photos look amazing. The magic lies in smart image recognition technology. Powered by AI and our customers’ love, this December Photolemur 2.2 Spectre was №1 on Product Hunt and got featured at the top U.S. App Store. Just drag and drop your photos, let the smart algorithms analyze them in the most accurate manner possible, and get ready to be amazed — your photos will look exactly like a real life image, before it was captured in the camera. The power of AI is fully under your control. Move the Opacity slider to choose the intensity of retouch applied to your photo. Photolemur 2.2 Spectre does all that magic with curves, layers, and colours that photographers do — only automatically, and instantly! Love surprises? Photolemur has great gifts and wonderful offer for MacRumors readers. Make your Christmas amazing this year! Get Photolemur 2.2 Spectre with 70% off Take Photo lighting course from F. Doorhof Get Picaboo hardcover photo book Get this incredible Christmas offer now! Visit Sponsor Popular Stories Dec 28, 2017 Apple to Offer $29 iPhone Battery Replacements, More Battery Health Info in iOS The controversy over Apple's throttling of devices with degraded batteries to prevent unexpected shutdowns continues to rage, with the company now facing a number of lawsuits related to the move. In response to the controversy, Apple has issued a statement apologizing for any confusion, clarifying why it adopted the power management strategies it did, and laying out changes it plans to make. Apple says that starting in late January and running through December 2018, any customer with an iPhone 6 or newer who requires a new battery can receive one for $29, down from the usual $79 price. Apple will also be rolling out an iOS software update early next month that will offer users more information on the health of their devices' batteries.   Read Full Article Best Wireless Chargers for iPhone X, iPhone 8, and iPhone 8 Plus With the iPhone X, 8, and 8 Plus becoming the first of Apple's phones to support the Qi wireless charging standard, interest in charging pads and stands is surging. We've taken a look at two dozen chargers at varying price points, so make sure to check out our guide to help you decide which ones are right for you. There's a variety of sizes and form factors available, and we'll keep updating the guide with more options as we have a chance to test them.   Read Full Article Apple CEO Tim Cook Earned $102 Million in 2017, Must Now Fly Privately for Security Reasons Apple this week filed its proxy statement ahead of its February shareholders meeting, and in the document the company disclosed that CEO Tim Cook earned a total of $102 million in compensation in 2017. Cook's compensation included $3.06 million in salary plus $9.33 million in bonuses and stock worth $89.2 million. The document also reveals that Apple is now requiring that Cook travel by private aircraft for "security and efficiency" reasons for all business and personal trips.   Read Full Article iMac Pro Base Model Teardown Reveals 2x SSD RAID Configuration and Four 8GB DIMM Modules The iMac Pro is making its way into the hands of customers this week, and that means teardown experts have already started ripping it open to see what's inside. Third-party parts and accessory retailer OWC has shared a video of its teardown, showing the four RAM modules inside and that the base 1 TB SSD actually consists of a pair of 512 GB modules in a RAID configuration. If you're still looking to pick up an iMac Pro, it looks like base configurations are starting to become available for pickup from Apple's retail stores. For those looking for higher-end stock and custom configurations, waits can stretch out from a week or two to as much as 5–7 weeks for those waiting on the top of the line 14-core and 18-core processors.    Read Full Article

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Apple's Throttling of Older iPhones, Universal Mac and iOS Apps, New Mac Pro Still Coming, AirPods Shortages - MacRumors

Brought to you by: Apple Addresses Alleged Throttling of iPhones With Degraded Batteries Earlier this month, a reddit post gained significant traction for its claims that Apple appeared to be throttling the performance of iPhones as their batteries degrade over time.  Interest in the issue continued to build in the wake of that report, and this week Geekbench developer John Poole shared data visualizing just how performance on these phones has suffered under various iOS versions. Apple responded to the outcry yesterday, describing the phenomenon as an effort to extend the lives of devices with failing batteries. As the batteries age, at some point they become unable to deliver enough voltage under periods of high load, causing the devices to unexpectedly shut down entirely. Apple's power management strategies now slow down performance to limit voltage draw and keep these phones running. While Apple's efforts appear justified, it does seem the company could have done a better job informing customers what was happening and letting them know that a battery replacement would fix the issue.   Read Full Article Sponsored Stories Exclusive Flash Sale for MacRumors: All Udemy Courses for Only $10 Each Until December 24 This holiday season, Udemy.com, the largest destination for online courses, is having a flash sale for all MacRumors Subscribers. All courses normally valued at over $200 are on sale for just $10 each. Gift yourself mobile development skills, a graphic design bootcamp, or game development lessons just in time for the holidays. All courses are on sale for $10 until midnight Christmas Eve. Enjoy lifetime access to each course, along with a 30-day money-back guarantee. Head into the holidays with all the tools to learn valuable, in-demand skills. Indulge in your potential at Udemy.com. This holiday season, what will you learn? Visit Sponsor Popular Stories Dec 21, 2017 Apple Plans to Let Developers Release Universal Apps That Work Across iPhone, iPad, and Mac Apple is working on a plan to allow developers to release universal apps that work across iPhone, iPad, and Mac, according to Bloomberg. The change is tentatively planned to come as part of iOS 12 and macOS 10.14 next year and could be announced at WWDC 2018. It's not yet clear if Apple will merge its iOS and Mac App Stores, but either way the change could give a boost to the Mac platform and help make it easier for developers to maintain feature parity across all of Apple's platforms.   Read Full Article Apple Continues to Work on All-New Mac Pro With Upgradeable Design The current "trash can" Mac Pro turned four years old this week, and according to a line in last week's press release announcing the iMac Pro, Apple is still working on an all-new Mac Pro with an upgradeable design, paired with a new pro-level display. Back in April, Apple took the rare step of outlining the future roadmap for its professional desktop, seeking to assuage concerns that Apple had abandoned the market. At the time, Apple said the new Mac Pro would debut after 2017, and we've yet to hear about a more specific timeframe.   Read Full Article Apple Watch Series 3 Costs More Than $10/Month on Most Carriers, Can't Be Reactivated Without Fees When the Apple Watch Series 3 was introduced back in September, it seemed like LTE connectivity would be a simple $10/month fee for the convenience of being able to remain connected even while leaving your iPhone at home. In practice, it's not quite that simple, as users have been finding out over the past few months and even more are discovering now that the initial three-month free promos many carriers were running are coming to an end. In addition to the $10/month access charge, there are also taxes and fees that can push the actual cost up toward the $15 range. Unlike cellular service for iPads, you also can't simply turn LTE Apple Watch service on and off as needed. Putting your service on hold typically involves fees adding up to several months of service, and canceling entirely and restarting at a later date incurs fresh activation fees.   Read Full Article Apple Is Currently Sold Out of AirPods Until January Many customers who had been hoping to pick up AirPods as holiday gifts this week have been disappointed, as Apple has almost entirely sold out of the popular earphones until January. A few retail stores still have them in stock, but most brick-and-mortar stores and the online store are showing availability of early to mid January at this point. Apple has said it will launch a new case for the AirPods that will enable wireless charging with the company's upcoming AirPower charging mat in 2018, but according to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, the AirPods themselves are also due to be updated in mid to late 2018. Details on just what upgraded features we can expect have not been revealed.   Read Full Article iMac Pro Orders Begin Shipping to Customers Early iMac Pro orders are beginning to ship out to customers for delivery next week, meeting Apple's goal of launching the professional desktop in December. Models are supposed to also be arriving in stores this week, although we've yet to see any reports of them appearing and they remain unavailable for in-store pickup in the company's online store. For those looking at the high-end 14-core and 18-core iMac Pro models, the first orders won't begin shipping out until around the end of January, likely pushing deliveries into February.   Read Full Article

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iMac Pro Available to Order, HomeKit Security Issue, Apple Acquires Shazam - MacRumors

Brought to you by: iMac Pro Now Available to Order With 8 to 18 Cores and Prices Ranging From $4,999 to $13,199 Meeting its goal of a December launch announced back at WWDC in June, Apple today began taking orders for the iMac Pro, which starts at $4,999 and maxes out at over $13,000 for a fully loaded model. In addition to up to an 18-core processor, the iMac Pro offers up to 4TB of SSD storage, up to 128GB of ECC RAM, and up to an AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64 graphics processor with 16GB of HBM2 memory.  8-core and 10-core orders placed today will arrive right around the new year, while 14-core and 18-core machines won't ship out for 6–8 weeks, putting their arrival around early February. Make sure you get all of the options you want at the time of ordering, as even upgrading the RAM afterwards will require a trip to an Apple store or authorized service center. The iMac Pro comes in a space gray finish with matching keyboard, mouse, and keyboard, but unfortunately for others looking to buy the them, those special gray accessories can only purchased alongside the machine. The iMac Pro also features a new T2 chip that builds upon the T1 chip found in the MacBook Pro with Touch Bar. The T2 chip integrates several previously separate components, including the system management controller, image signal processor, audio controller, and SSD controller, as well as a Secure Enclave that supports encrypted storage and secure boot capabilities.   Read Full Article Sponsored Stories Exclusive Offer: Get 15 Percent Off Pad & Quill Accessories for iPhone, iPad, MacBook, and Apple Watch We've got an exclusive offer for MacRumors readers this week: 15 percent off accessories for iPhone, iPad, MacBook, and Apple Watch at Pad & Quill. Just use the promo code MR15 at checkout by Thursday, December 21 to receive your discount. Pad & Quill offers high-quality artisan-made accessories in leather and wood that have proven popular with our readers over the years — leather sleeves and cases, Apple Watch bands and charging stands, and more. Check out our blog post on the exclusive deal or head straight to Pad & Quill to start shopping.   Visit Sponsor Popular Stories Dec 14, 2017 Apple Releases iOS 11.2.1 Update With HomeKit Remote Sharing Fix Following the recent discovery of a significant HomeKit security issue, Apple last week pushed out some server-side fixes to address the problem, but the fixes necessarily disabled remote access for shared users. That functionality was restored this week with the release of iOS 11.2.1 and tvOS 11.2.1. Beyond the HomeKit issue, iOS 11.2.1 also addressed a camera autofocus issue that had been affecting a number of iPhone X, iPhone 8, and iPhone 8 Plus users.     Read Full Article Apple's Alleged Throttling of Older iPhones With Degraded Batteries Causes Controversy A recent reddit thread has generated a significant amount of discussion about what appears to be throttling of iPhones with degraded batteries, intentionally slowing down their performance in a likely effort to reduce power draw. This is separate from the low power mode Apple offers to help users conserve power when their battery levels start to run down, and users who had noticed the throttling and replaced their batteries have reported significant improvements in benchmark performance.   Read Full Article Apple Acquires Shazam and Says 'Exciting Plans' Are Ahead Apple this week announced its intention to acquire Shazam, the music recognition service that has long been a popular app on iOS and even integrated into Siri and Apple Music. Apple hasn't said exactly what it aims to do with Shazam and its technology beyond having "exciting plans in store," but Shazam's expertise in music recognition, machine learning, and augmented reality could be beneficial for a number of Apple's current and future initiatives.   Read Full Article Face ID in iPhone X vs. 'Face Unlock' Facial Recognition in OnePlus 5T While Apple has touted the revolutionary nature of Face ID and its 3D face scanning, a number of Android phone manufacturers offer simpler face unlock capabilities. We took at look at the new OnePlus 5T (as well as Samsung's Galaxy Note 8) and compared them to the iPhone X to see just how these different implementations of facial recognition compare. Speaking of the iPhone X and competitors, we're already seeing several new phones being unveiled in China that look extremely similar to the iPhone X, complete with the "notch" at the top of the screen. None of these phones appear to contain anything close to the amount of technology and sensors packed into the notch area as Apple has done with the TrueDepth camera system, so these clones are likely just mimicking the iPhone X design.   Read Full Article Final Cut Pro X 10.4 Released With Support for 360º VR Video Editing, HDR and HEVC Video, and Much More Alongside today's launch of iMac Pro orders, Apple also released Final Cut Pro X 10.4, bringing a host of new features and improvements to the company's professional video editing software. Highlights include 360º VR video editing, HDR support, and new color tools like a white balance picker. It also includes support for HEVC, the new video format introduced in macOS High Sierra and iOS 11, and direct import of iMovie for iOS timelines.  Apple also updated Final Cut Pro's companion apps in Motion and Compressor, as well as its professional audio editing app Logic Pro X, all to optimize compatibility with the iMac Pro and add other enhancements.   Read Full Article

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Amazon Prime Video Comes to Apple TV, Apple Pay Cash Launches, Wired and Wireless iPhone Charging Compared - MacRumors

Brought to you by: Amazon Prime Video App Launches on Apple TV Amazon Prime Video has finally launched on Apple TV, following through on Apple's announcement at WWDC back in June that the app would be launching before the end of the year. Available in over 100 countries, the app allows subscribers to the Amazon Prime Video service to watch a wide array of content directly on their Apple TVs, and it comes with support for 4K HDR and integrates with Apple's TV app in countries where Apple offers it. The Amazon Prime Video app is compatible not only with the fourth-generation and 4K Apple TV models, but also the third-generation set-top box. Make sure to check out our hands-on video to see what the new app has to offer.   Read Full Article Sponsored Stories Clean Up Your Inbox Today (& Keep It That Way Forever) With SaneBox We’ve partnered up with SaneBox to bring you an exclusive $25 credit for new users. Just sign up through this link. SaneBox is like a super-smart assistant who’s been with you for years and knows what’s important to you. It moves unimportant emails from the inbox into a new folder and summarizes them in a digest, where you can quickly bulk-process them. An average SaneBox customer saves 12+ hours/month. Additional features: SaneBlackHole - Instantly unsubscribe from annoying marketers, mailing lists and newsletters SaneReminders - Get a reminder if someone doesn’t respond to you SaneSnooze - Snooze non-urgent emails SaneAttachments - Automatically upload attachments to Dropbox, Evernote, Box, etc. ...and more features to enhance your existing email setup With glowing reviews from TechCrunch, Forbes, The New York Times and emailers everywhere, you can rest assured that you will fall in love with email again. And it’s risk free—cancel and your email returns to the way it was. Visit Sponsor Popular Stories Dec 07, 2017 Apple Releases iOS 11.2 Early to Address Date Bug As the clock rolled over to Saturday, December 2 around the world, a number of iPhone users found their devices stuck in crashing and respringing cycles related to an issue with time-based local notifications. In order to address the issue, Apple pushed out iOS 11.2 ahead of schedule with a rare Saturday release in the middle of the night U.S. time. The update not only addressed the crashing issue, but brought a number of other fixes and new features including faster 7.5-watt wireless charging for the latest iPhones and a fix for another autocorrect bug, One thing it didn't initially bring was support for person-to-person Apple Pay Cash payments, as Apple also needed to turn on some server-side infrastructure to make that happen.   Read Full Article Apple Pay Cash Now Available for iOS 11.2 Users Following the emergency release of iOS 11.2 over the weekend, Apple on Monday began flipping the switches to activate Apple Pay Cash for U.S. users on iOS 11.2 via a virtual Discover debit card. Apple officially announced the Apple Pay Cash launch on Tuesday, and support for it came to the Apple Watch later in the day with the debut of watchOS 4.2. If you're in the U.S., make sure to follow along with our how-to walking through steps to set up Apple Pay Cash.   Read Full Article iPhone X Charging Speeds Compared: The Fastest and Easiest Ways to Charge Your iPhone With the release of iOS 11.2, the latest iPhones now support faster 7.5-watt wireless charging. But what's the best way to charge your phone? We tried a number of different methods, including the 5-watt wired charger Apple includes with the phones, 5-watt and 7.5-watt wireless options, and higher-powered USB-A and USB-C options. USB-C chargers at 18 watts or higher will give you the fastest charge, but the best bang for your buck still comes from the 12-watt USB-A charger, which you might already have lying around if you have an iPad.   Read Full Article SIM-Free iPhone X Now Available From Apple Online Store in the United States Apple this week began selling SIM-free iPhone X units in the United States, meaning that customers can now purchase an unlocked iPhone at full price without needing to specify a carrier. SIM-free models are popular with those who want the flexibility to switch carriers as needed, and their launch is generally a good sign that supplies are stabilizing. SIM-free phones are compatible with both GSM and CDMA networks, which means they have a Qualcomm modem rather than an Intel modem. A recent study has shown that the Qualcomm devices have somewhat better LTE performance than Intel devices, particularly in areas with poor signal. The gap has, however, narrowed compared to the difference seen between Qualcomm and Intel models of the iPhone 7 last year.   Read Full Article Apple Reportedly Planning to Release Most Affordable 9.7-inch iPad Ever in Late 2018 After dropping the entry-level price for a 9.7-inch iPad to $329 earlier this year, one rumor claims Apple is planning to go even lower next year, introducing a new model in late 2018 with a price tag in the $259 range. It's not entirely clear how Apple would be able to get down to that price level, but if they do it could certainly shake up the tablet market where Apple has dominated at the high-end while leaving the extreme low-end to competitors. After several years of shipment declines for both Apple and the tablet market in general, iPad shipments have rebounded in the past two quarters on the strength of the new $329 iPad and new iPad Pro models.   Read Full Article

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