CES 2019, AirPlay 2 TVs, iPad Pro 'Bendgate' Update, 2019 iPhone Leak - MacRumors

Brought to you by: CES 2019: All of the Best Announcements From Las Vegas Apple typically doesn't make a direct appearance at CES, the massive annual electronics show in Las Vegas, although the company this year did engage in a bit of gamesmanship by posting a huge billboard highlighting its commitment to privacy that keeps most personal content on users' devices. Apple was involved in one big CES announcement that we'll talk about below, but otherwise there was the usual assortment of fanciful and practical products announced and displayed at the show. Head over to our CES 2019 news hub and catch up on all of our coverage from this week.   Read Full Article Sponsored Stories MacUpdater Keeps All Your Apps Up to Date Effortlessly Keeping all of your installed apps up-to-date can be pretty time-consuming, unless you don't use any apps or exclusively download from the Mac App Store. The time it takes to find the updates, download, install and clean up can add up to quite a few hours each week - time that you can now save with MacUpdater. MacUpdater automatically scans your apps and lets you know when there are updates available. In most cases, MacUpdater can even download and install the update for you with a single click. You can also queue as many updates as you want. When MacUpdater can't perform an update automatically, it can still help you by launching proprietary updaters (Adobe), launching apps that have built-in updaters, or opening the download website for convenience. It can even find updates within the Mac App Store, track apps that have entered or exited the Store or find apps that have been renamed or replaced with successor apps. MacUpdater currently detects updates for over 35,000 apps and can automatically update more than 5,000 popular apps. MacUpdater is permanently free for discovering updates for your apps. Updating more than 10 apps requires a one-time-purchase (9.99$/€) - no subscription or even registration needed. Visit Sponsor Popular Stories Jan 10, 2019 Apple Shares List of AirPlay 2-Enabled Smart TVs From Samsung, LG, Sony, and Vizio The biggest Apple-related announcement out of CES was Apple's partnerships with leading TV manufacturers to increase integration with Apple's ecosystem. Samsung had the most significant announcement in that regard, revealing that its smart TVs will gain support for built-in AirPlay 2, as well as a dedicated iTunes Movies & TV app that will let Apple users access their video content straight from their TVs. LG, Sony, and Vizio also announced AirPlay 2 and HomeKit support for their TVs, although they won't be getting the iTunes app. Check out Apple's full list of AirPlay 2-enabled smart TVs, as well as a few more details from Apple on what you'll be able to do with the integration.   Read Full Article Apple Addresses 2018 iPad Pro 'Bending' Controversy, Says Subtle Deviations May Be More Visible Due to New Design The controversy over new iPad Pro models arriving with a slight bend in the chassis right out of the box continues to make news, with Apple last weekend sharing a new support document explaining the situation. According to Apple, flatness standards for the new iPad Pro are even tighter than for previous generations at 400 microns of deviation along any side, but slight deviations may be more visible due to the new design of the device with flatter edges. Apple also describes the new "co-molding" process used on cellular models to yield a "seamless integration of plastic and aluminum into a single, strong enclosure" for the cellular antennas.   Read Full Article 2019 iPhone's Triple-Lens Rear Camera Design Allegedly Showing in New Renderings We've been hearing for a while that at least some of the 2019 iPhone models could include a triple-lens rear camera, but new renderings from frequent source OnLeaks reveal a pretty crazy layout with the three lenses in a triangular arrangement. OnLeaks admits this is a "freakingly early leak" and things could change before the device design is finalized, so we'll have to see if this pans out. In other iPhone rumors, one analyst claims the 2019 models could adopt USB-C, a smaller notch, and Touch ID integrated into the display. Most of this seems pretty unlikely aside from the smaller notch, which has previously been rumored as a possibility. In fact, just this week, Apple's supplier AMS announced it has developed light and proximity sensors that can be placed beneath OLED displays. AMS didn't specifically say the technology is coming to the iPhone this year, of course, but it would be a good way to achieve that smaller notch we've been hearing about.   Read Full Article Yes, the 2018 MacBook Air's FaceTime HD Camera is Awful Since the release of the new MacBook Air late last year, there have been a number of complaints about the poor quality of the FaceTime camera. The specs list it as the same 720p resolution used in the previous-generation model and in the MacBook Pro, but anecdotal reports have indicated it doesn't perform as well as those other machines. To try to determine whether there is a legitimate issue with the new MacBook Air's camera or if users are just expecting too much given the better specs seen on iOS device front cameras, we compared the new MacBook Air to various other machines in a side-by-side test. In short, it's probably a combination of both: FaceTime camera quality on all of Apple's notebooks is pretty poor compared to iOS devices and the iMac Pro with its 1080p camera. But we did also see signs that the 2018 MacBook Air's camera is even worse than the one from the 2015 model, with fuzziness particularly evident in areas of high detail.   Read Full Article Unreleased iPad Mini With Redesigned Cellular Antenna Appears in Photos We've been hearing scattered rumors of an updated iPad mini, and this week we saw our best evidence yet in the form of leaked photos of an iPad mini rear shell, logic board, and other parts that are unlike anything officially released. The photos show a similar rear shell design to the current iPad mini, with the exception of a more modern design for the cellular antennas. While the current iPad mini uses a plastic window at the top rear of the cellular models, this version has only a thin band similar to that seen on iPad Pro models prior to 2018. In addition, the logic board has a somewhat different layout compared to the current iPad mini. The main chip shows up as an A9 in diagnostics reports, which is surprisingly old for a new device, so we'll have to see if Apple goes with a newer chip in the released product or if the company is really trying hard to keep costs down.   Read Full Article

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What to Expect in 2019, Apple Earnings Warning, AirPower Still Missing - MacRumors

Brought to you by: What to Expect From Apple in 2019: New iPhones, Modular Mac Pro, iPad Mini 5, Updated AirPods and More Happy New Year! We've broken out our 2019 calendars, so it's a great time to take a look at what we can expect to see Apple release this year. We know there will be new iPhones, and Apple has promised a revamped Mac Pro, but there's much more on our list so make sure to check it out. We also want to hear about what you want to see this year, so let us know! It's also a good time to take a look back at 2018, and we did just that in a pair of articles over the past week. In the first one, we summarized all of Apple's major products introduced in 2018, which included the usual iPhone, Apple Watch, iPad, and Mac updates, but a few special ones including the HomePod launch and the first Mac mini update in four years. Our second retrospective piece examined 2018's biggest leaks that led up to Apple's product announcements. As usual, we saw a number of leaks from Apple's supply chain, but Apple itself was unusually leaky this year, accidentally revealing details on a number of its products before their releases.   Read Full Article Sponsored Stories Forbes Insights Report: Why Collaboration Efforts Go Awry Employees are overloaded with requests to collaborate, but a tech solution without an underlying strategy won’t solve the problem. Forbes Insights and Dropbox Business can help.       Visit Sponsor Popular Stories Jan 03, 2019 Apple Lowers Revenue Guidance for Q1 2019 Citing 'Fewer iPhone Upgrades' Than Anticipated Apple this week took the highly unusual step of reducing its earnings guidance for the just-ended December quarter, shaving around $7 billion off of its revenue estimate. In a letter to investors, Apple CEO Tim Cook primarily cited "fewer iPhone upgrades" than anticipated as the culprit, with unexpected weakness in the Chinese market being the most significant contributing factor. The announcement sent shockwaves through the market, with Apple's stock opening down almost 10 percent following the news and extending losses that have seen Apple's share price decline by 35 percent over the past two months. Cook is holding an "all-hands" meeting with Apple employees today to discuss yesterday's announcement and alleviate potential fears about the implications. Apple will officially announce its December quarter earnings on January 29. Meanwhile, law firms are already circling to assess whether it's worth filing suit against Apple over alleged "materially misleading business information" given to investors prior to yesterday's press release.   Read Full Article Netflix's New Interactive 'Black Mirror: Bandersnatch' Episode Doesn't Work on Apple TV Netflix late last week premiered "Black Mirror: Bandersnatch," an interactive episode of the popular science fiction series that lets viewers make decisions to influence how the episode proceeds. While it's a neat concept, it doesn't work on Netflix's Apple TV app, so you'll need to watch it on another device. It's an unfortunate omission considering Apple TV is a great device for Netflix consumption. In other Netflix news, the company has officially stopped allowing new and returning users to sign up for subscriptions through its iOS app. The move means all signups must go through the Netflix website, skirting around App Store policies that see Apple taking a cut of in-app subscriptions. It's a bit of an inconvenience for users, but Netflix obviously thinks it's worth it in order to avoid paying Apple what some have estimated to be several hundred million dollars in commissions over the next few years.   Read Full Article AirPower Misses Promised 2018 Launch, But Might Not Be Canceled At its September 2017 unveiling of the iPhone X and iPhone 8, Apple also introduced AirPower, a wireless charging mat capable of charging up to three devices (iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPods) simultaneously. Apple said AirPower would launch in 2018, but following a number of reports of technical problems with the accessory, it failed to launch by the end of the year. We still don't know if or when AirPower will finally launch, but well-connected developer Steve Troughton-Smith says he's heard "they've finally fixed it," so our fingers are crossed that a launch could come relatively soon.   Read Full Article New Apple Pencil Sandpapered to Look and Feel Like a Real Pencil In a neat do-it-yourself project, one ambitious Reddit user went to significant lengths to make the new second-generation Apple Pencil look and feel like a real wood pencil. By sandpapering the device to give it a rougher texture and using some paint and fabric dye, the user did a remarkably good job of giving it a realistic pencil look. It took a little experimentation and the user says one of the Apple Pencils he used no longer functions after apparently being exposed to a too-warm dye bath, so be careful if you decide to attempt a similar project yourself!   Read Full Article iPhone XS-Like Smart Battery Case Icon Spotted in Action on iOS 12.1.2 We've been seeing increasing evidence of an upcoming revamped Smart Battery Case that could be compatible with Apple's latest iPhone models, with icons found in iOS and watchOS showing a new design that loses the chin seen on the current version of the accessory for older iPhones. A similar icon has now been revealed in action on iOS 12.1.2, thanks to one user who decided to hack apart much of an iPhone 7 Smart Battery Case and plug it into his iPhone X. Lo and behold, the Batteries widget on his iPhone displays an icon of the unreleased Smart Battery Case designed to fit the more recent iPhone.   Read Full Article

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New iPad Mini in 2019?, Favorite Apps of 2018, Siri on HomePod Improving - MacRumors

Brought to you by: Apple Will Reportedly Launch iPad Mini 5 and Entry-Level 10-inch iPad Next Year Apple hasn't updated the iPad mini in over three years, but next year might finally be the year we see a new model if a new report and a leak are to be believed. According to China Times, Apple is preparing to launch a fifth-generation iPad mini in the first half of 2019, bringing the price down to help boost overall iPad sales. Notable analyst Ming-Chi Kuo shared similar thoughts a couple of months ago, so perhaps there's something to this rumor. A new photo leak even claims to show a third-party case for this updated iPad mini, with cutouts potentially pointing to a four-speaker array, a vertical rear camera/microphone layout, and the inclusion of a headphone jack. Beyond the iPad mini, China Times also claims Apple is planning to update its 9.7-inch iPad in the second half of next year, bumping the display to 10 inches with slightly slimmer bezels.   Read Full Article Sponsored Stories Xmas Freebie - Best iTunes Alternative to Back Up iPhone Data (Get Licensed MacX MediaTrans) Don’t forget to tidy up your iPhone and back up valuable iPhone contents at the end of the year. If you want a tool more convenient than iTunes, then MacX MediaTrans is the best choice to finish the tasks seamlessly. As the best iTunes alternative, this Mac app is able to transfer iPhone videos, photos, music, ebooks and other files with ease. During this time-limited Xmas promotion, all MacRumors subscribers can get the $59.95 valued MacX MediaTrans for free! What makes MacX MediaTrans the Best iTunes Alternative: 1. Supports two-way sync photos, videos, music, ebooks, podcasts, etc between iPhone/iPad and Mac. 2. Supports selective backup of iPhone photos, music, and videos on Mac. 3. Blazing fast file transfer speed. Transfer 100 4K photos in only 8 seconds. 4. The only iPhone manager to encrypt private iPhone/Mac files with the highest level of security. 5. Convert video/photo formats, remove iTunes DRM, make iPhone ringtones, turn iPhone into USB drive. 6. Intuitive interface, user-friendly operations, no annoying iTunes errors. In addition to the MacX MediaTrans giveaway, you are also invited to get involved in the MacXDVD Christmas contest to win an iPhone XR, Apple Watch and power bank. Enter to unlock your luck!   Visit Sponsor Popular Stories Dec 27, 2018 10 of the Best macOS and iOS Apps of 2018 Over on our YouTube channel, we occasionally featured some of our favorite iOS and Mac apps throughout 2018, and with the year drawing to a close, we decided to put together a highlight video showing off some of our absolute favorites from this year. We've featured five Mac and five iOS apps, ranging from utilities to drawing apps to games, so be sure to check out our video and let us know what your favorites are!   Read Full Article Useful Tips, Tricks, and Walkthroughs for New Apple Watch Series 4 Owners Did you get a new Apple product for the holidays? If so, you'll want to check out our guides offering links to tips, tricks, and walkthroughs that will help you get the most out of your new devices. We've got guides for the Apple Watch Series 4, iPad and iPad Pro, iPhone, and Mac. And if you got an iTunes/App Store gift card in your stocking and don't know what to spend it on, take a look at our suggestions.   Read Full Article Apple's Dan Riccio Says 2018 iPad Pro 'Meets or Exceeds' Quality Standards of Design and Precision, More Info to Come Following last week's controversy over Apple claiming that it was normal for some 2018 iPad Pro devices to ship with slight bends in the chassis, Apple executive Dan Riccio responded to a customer email, noting that the original report on Apple's stance did not include an official company statement. According to Riccio, the new iPad Pro "meets or exceeds" all of Apple's quality and precision standards, including an even tighter flatness standard than used on previous generations. Riccio said the company would be releasing additional information to the media later in the day, but we've yet to see any such release so far.   Read Full Article Siri on HomePod Asked 800 Questions and Answered 74% Correctly vs. Just 52% Earlier This Year Siri on HomePod has been criticized for its limited capabilities compared to Amazon's Alexa and Google's Assistant, but a new study suggests Siri on Apple's smart speaker is rapidly improving. Analyst Gene Munster tested the accuracy of Siri, Alexa, Google Assistant, and Microsoft Cortana on four smart speakers, asking each assistant 800 questions and tracking whether the assistants were able to understand and provide proper responses to each query. Siri correctly responded to 74.6 percent of the queries, up from 52.3 percent a year ago. That still lagged behind Google Assistant's 87.9 percent accuracy rate but topped Alexa's 72.5 percent and Cortana's 63.4 percent rates.   Read Full Article B&H Photo and Expercom Offering Year-End Sales on Macs and iPads If you got some cash for the holidays or are perhaps trying to squeeze in some last-minute business purchases before the end of the year, B&H Photo and Expercom are both offering excellent year-end sales on Macs and iPads. B&H's sale ends this Friday, while Expercom's ends on December 31, so act quickly if you want to take advantage of the discounted prices! Also be sure to check out our Deals Roundup, which is regularly updated to help you find the best prices on a variety of Apple and general tech products.   Read Full Article

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Bent iPad Pros 'Not a Defect,' HomePod Box 'Glitter Bomb' Trap, 3D-Printed Head Fools Android Phones - MacRumors

Brought to you by: Apple Says Some 2018 iPad Pros Ship Bent, But It's Normal and Not a Defect Well, this is a new one: Apple has acknowledged that some 2018 iPad Pro units may arrive out of the box with a slight bend in the chassis, but the company says that the bend is normal and does not compromise function. As a result, it appears Apple will not be replacing affected units unless customers elect to return them during their 14-day return windows. We really aren't sure what to make of Apple's acknowledgment on this. It seems rather unbelievable that consumers should be expected to consider a bent brand-new device acceptable, especially when you think about the possibility of Apple denying warranty repairs down the road due to "damage." Issues aren't limited to this year's iPad Pro models either, as we're seeing increasing reports of 2017 iPad Pro models developing bright spots on their displays above the home button. The issue doesn't seem to appear until after a number of months of use, so most users won't experience it until their devices are out of warranty and Apple repair staff have so far generally not been willing to offer free replacements or repairs for this issue.   Read Full Article Sponsored Stories [Unlimited Giveaways] Get Your Free iPhone Cleaner & iPhone Data Exporter and Win an 8-in-1 Bundle Suite The countdown for Christmas gifts is on! Now you can get a free license for iMyFone Umate, an effective iPhone cleaner for Mac and Windows, to delete junk files, cache and memory hogs, and boost your iPhone (or iPad) speed and get it performing like new again. Another great desktop app you can get for free is iMyFone iTransor Lite, an iPhone exporter that removes iTunes restrictions and allows you to selectively transfer any data you want like photos, videos, contacts, messages, notes, and more from iOS devices, iTunes backups and iCloud backups onto a PC or Mac for further use. In addition to the giveaways, you can get an 8-app bundle suite, which contains awesome tools for iPhone data recovery, iPhone eraser for privacy protection, iPhone music transfer, iPhone backup & restore, SD card and hard drive recovery, iPhone WhatsApp Recovery, and more. Visit Sponsor Popular Stories Dec 20, 2018 Engineer Builds Glitter Bomb Trap for Package Thieves Out of HomePod Box Former NASA engineer, apparent Apple designer, and prominent YouTuber Mark Rober this week broke the internet by playing a trick on porch pirates trying to steal packages. Rober and a friend spent six months turning a HomePod box into a "glitter bomb" designed to shower a package thief with glitter upon opening the box. Taking things to the next level, Rober equipped the package with four camera phones to catch the thieves' reactions and GPS capabilities to track and recover the package after the thefts. The thieves' reactions are priceless, and Rober's video has racked up over 36 million views in just three days.   Read Full Article 3D Printed Head Fools Android Face Recognition, iPhone X 'Impenetrable' In order to put smartphone facial recognition technology to the test, Forbes commissioned a £300 3D-printed head and used it to try to unlock a number of different phones. All four Android phones tested (LG G7 ThinQ, Samsung S9, Samsung Note 8, and OnePlus 6) were successfully unlocked using the dummy head, while Apple's iPhone X was judged "impenetrable" in the test. Apple's Face ID feature is notable for its security, which leverages the TrueDepth camera system to create a 3D map of the user's face based on thousands of infrared dots while also requiring attention awareness in order to unlock. Facial recognition on most Android phones is considerably less secure, and most of these phones also include fingerprint sensors for more sensitive applications like payment authorization.   Read Full Article Apple's Newest Mac Pro Turns Five Years Old At WWDC 2013, Apple offered a sneak peek at an all-new Mac Pro, with Phil Schiller famously using the line "Can't innovate, my ass" on stage. The new Mac Pro was promised to launch later in the year, and Apple began taking orders on December 19, 2013, which means the machine is now five years old. In early 2017, Apple's Craig Federighi acknowledged the company had "designed ourselves into a bit of a thermal corner" with the Mac Pro as technology shifted toward using larger single graphics processors that the Mac Pro was unable to accommodate. Apple promised that a new, modular Mac Pro was in the works but that it wouldn't be launching anytime soon, and earlier this year Apple confirmed that the new Mac Pro "is a 2019 product." In the meantime, Apple's innovative 2013 Mac Pro is heading off to kindergarten.   Read Full Article Apple Confirms iOS 12.1.2 Addresses Qualcomm Patents, Introduces New Force Closing App Animation in China Last week, Qualcomm won an import ban in China on the iPhone 6s through iPhone X after a court ruled Apple had infringed on a pair of Qualcomm software patents. Apple is appealing the ban and has continued selling the affected devices in the country, but the company rushed out an iOS 12.1.2 release early this week that not only fixes a few eSIM-related bugs but also addresses the Qualcomm patent issues. For users in China, the update changes the force closing animation in iOS, with apps now shrinking into themselves rather than being flicked off the top of the screen when being closed. The Qualcomm patent battle also extended to Germany this week, where a court has issued a sales ban on iPhones ruled to be infringing entirely different Qualcomm patents related to preservation of battery life when sending and receiving wireless signals. Apple says it will halt sales of the iPhone 7 and iPhone 8 in its German retail stores while it appeals the ban. Apple's latest iPhones are not included in the ban.   Read Full Article Apple Music Now Playable on Amazon Echo Speakers via Alexa in United States Apple and Amazon have rolled out an interesting new partnership that lets Amazon Echo owners in the United States stream from Apple Music and even set it as the default music service on their devices. Currently, only Amazon Echo devices are supported, but Amazon says Apple Music will be expanded in the future to include non-Amazon speakers that have Alexa support. In other Apple Music news, Apple late last week announced it is shutting down the "Connect" feature of the service that let artists share updates and photos with followers on the service. Apple has immediately discontinued the ability to post new Connect content and removed existing content from artist pages and users' "For You" tabs, although existing Connect content will remain available via search until May 24, 2019. With Connect meeting a similar fate as the previous Ping social network that was discontinued in 2012, it's clear that Apple Music and iTunes just can't generate momentum with proprietary social features.   Read Full Article

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