Yesterday, T-Mobile and Sprint announced that they will merge. If the government approves, then we will have only three major wireless companies in the United States. In the communications that I have seen from the two companies, including a joint website that went live yesterday, one of the main themes was that this merger would promote 5G, the next generation of wireless technology. This makes me wonder, what will 5G bring us, and when can we start to use it on the iPhone?
And:
The CTIA, a trade organization for the wireless industry, says that 5G can be 100 times faster than 4G, and a chart on its website predicts a transition from 100 Mbps download speeds to 10 Gbps. 5G will also feature low latency that can make the internet five times more responsive when you initiate each request.
All very interesting, but the most interesting nugget in the piece?
To date, wireless cell technology has been based on huge towers with antennas 125 feet in the air which would provide service for several miles. But it turns out that 5G will be different. 5G is much faster, but the signal doesn’t go nearly as far. So instead of a smaller number of tall towers, 5G will work with a large number of microcells placed around 500 feet apart, often on streetlights or utility poles.
But it won’t just be that microcell on a utility pole. As reported by Allan Homes earlier this year in the New York Times, “[m]uch of the equipment will be on streetlights or utility poles,” but it will often be “accompanied by containers the size of refrigerators on the ground.”
That’s a pretty significant infrastructure requirement. Which, to me, means we’ll only see 5G in the most urban settings.
The whole article is fascinating, suggests we’ll first see 5G iPhone/iPad support in 2020.
Apple on Tuesday reported financial results for its fiscal 2018 second quarter, which ended on March 31, 2018. The company posted quarterly revenue of $61.1 billion, an increase of 16 percent from the year-ago quarter, and quarterly earnings per diluted share of $2.73, up 30 percent.
“We’re thrilled to report our best March quarter ever, with strong revenue growth in iPhone, Services and Wearables,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “Customers chose iPhone X more than any other iPhone each week in the March quarter, just as they did following its launch in the December quarter. We also grew revenue in all of our geographic segments, with over 20% growth in Greater China and Japan.”
Apple sold 52.2 million iPhones in the quarter, up from the 50.7 million sold in the same quarter in 2017. The company sold 9.1 million iPads, up from the 8.9 million sold a year ago, and they sold 4 million Macs, down from the almost 4.2 million sold in 2017’s second quarter.
Services, which Apple has been focusing on in recent years, was up from $7 billion in the second quarter of 2017 to $9.1 billion in the most recent quarter.
Apple stock closed the day up $3.84 at $169.10 and is currently up an additional $6.80 at $175.90 in after hours trading.
Last week Apple made official news we’d suspected for a very long time: It’s discontinued the AirPort line of network routers. Apple says once its current stock of supplies is depleted, that’s it. Apple hasn’t needed its own line of networking gear for many years…In light of that, it’s little wonder why Apple’s decided to deprecate the AirPort line. Apple’s kept them pretty moribund for the past few years, too, with no significant changes to them for years.
I will still maintain that Apple had a great opportunity here it wasted by neglect, not unlike many other technologies Apple championed but ultimately ignored over the years.
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The news that Apple is discontinuing the AirPort line, although expected, is a bitter pill to swallow for many Mac enthusiasts that love the no-nonsense, easy to administer backup and recovery features on the Time Capsule series. Even though the Time Capsule will be no more, you can still use Time Machine for your backup and recovery purposes in your post-AirPort world.
I imagine this is a question a lot of people have since Apple announced it would discontinue the AirPort product line. The good news is, the Time Machine technology will work, without a Time Capsule.
The company, which filed for chapter 11 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware, said it will continue to operate during the proceedings as it focuses on reorganizing around its core businesses. Gibson plans to wind down its Gibson’s Innovations business, which is largely outside of the U.S.
This is mismanagement at its worst. The Les Paul is my favorite guitar and I’m hopeful that someone will be able to save that instrument.
Last week, we reported that Tronical—the German company most well-known for its “robo-tuning” devices—had sued Gibson for $50 million. Now, Gibson has responded to Tronical’s lawsuit with a lawsuit of its own.
It’s true that most guitar players didn’t like the robot tuners that Tronical made, but I didn’t mind them. I have them on one of my more recent Les Pauls and they work fine, but I get why people don’t like them. Still, all of this Gibson mismanagement, financial problems, and lawsuits make me sad.
This is a pretty clever solution for folks who use wired earpods with the newer model iPhone that eliminated the 3.5mm headphone jack. Not to mention it goes hand-in-hand with the previous post.
Apple will probably stop bundling a Lightning-to-3.5 millimeter adapter with this fall’s new iPhones, according to a Barclays memo obtained by AppleInsider.
And:
“We currently model no dongle this year,” wrote Barclays’ Blayne Curtis. The analyst didn’t provide any immediate evidence for the assertion.
It’s a rumor, and one I take with a fair sized grain of salt. But it did start the train going for me.
First, is it inevitable that Apple will kill off the headphone jack on the Mac and the rumored updates of the SE? I just bought Apple’s latest iPad and it comes with a headphone jack. Will future iPads kill the headphone jack or is this purely an iPhone issue, where the real estate is much rarer?
Next, consider the Lightning to 3.5mm adapter that ships with the latest iPhones. To me, it serves an important purpose, a bridge to the world of inexpensive wired headphones. I’ve got a bunch of these sitting around my house, ranging in quality, but all usable if I have access to a 3.5mm port.
I also own a set of AirPods. I love my AirPods and use them almost exclusively. But two things about my AirPods:
They are not cheap.
They are way easier to misplace than a pair of wired earpods. Which makes me hyper-careful about taking them out (which makes me less likely to lose them, I suspect).
If Apple does eliminate the Lightning to 3.5mm adapter or the headphone jack from the SE and future iPads, they are truly raising the bar on the cost of membership in the Apple ecosystem.
My son currently has an older iPhone and is angling for a replacement. He likes the smaller form factor of the SE, but will buy the current model (with a headphone jack) if the rumored newer model ships without a headphone jack.
His thinking? Bluetooth earpods are expensive. I tend to lose stuff. I can’t afford to replace AirPods if I lose them. And I will. And I will lose the dongle, too. If I lose wired earpods, no big deal. I can replace them for $10.
I get that logic. And the SE is the low end iPhone, the most likely purchase for someone who cares about price.
One thing that is clear to me is the complexity of this problem. I think it’ll be hard for Apple to unify its headphone strategy across its product line. And I find that interesting.
Apple is developing the strategy as part of the next major iOS and macOS updates, said the people, who requested anonymity to discuss an internal matter. Codenamed “Marzipan,” the secret project is planned as a multiyear effort that will start rolling out as early as next year and may be announced at the company’s annual developers conference in the summer. The plans are still fluid, the people said, so the implementation could change or the project could still be canceled.
True? Not true? It’s a rumor (from last December), but one that got a lot of traction.
This “Marzipan” rumor got a lot of people excited. But Gurman’s report is so light on technical details that the excitement is based mostly on what developers hope it could mean, not what’s actually been reported. The less specific the rumor, the easier it is to project your own wishes upon it. And, oddly perhaps, we haven’t seen any additional rumors or details about this project in the four months since Gurman’s original report.
I’ve heard a few things, from first- and second-hand sources. Mostly second-hand, to be honest, but they’re all consistent with each other.
Click over to Daring Fireball to read said scuttlebutt. Interesting and, because it’s John Gruber, there’s a level of credibility that takes it beyond typical rumormongering.
There are a lot of little tweaks in macOS that I rely on to make a Mac feel like my own. Placing frequently accessed folders on the right side of the Dock, turning off auto-correct, and turning up mouse and trackpad tracking speed are all in this category for me.
A rather hidden but critical example is Hot Corners. My Mac just feels broken with Hot Corners disabled, and my workflow is severely slowed. Here’s how it works.
First thing first, I couldn’t agree more. Hot Corners, part of Mission Control, is an incredibly valuable part of the Mac interface. I expect most of the folks reading this are aware of this longstanding Mac feature. But if you have never taken the time to set this up, or if you are critical support for other, less knowledgable or just plain newer Mac folks, jump on over to Zac’s article and pass the knowledge along.
One thing that really appeals to me about Hot Corners is a bit of science, wrapped up under the title Fitts’ Law. From the Fitts’ Law Wikipedia page:
This scientific law predicts that the time required to rapidly move to a target area is a function of the ratio between the distance to the target and the width of the target. Fitts’s law is used to model the act of pointing, either by physically touching an object with a hand or finger, or virtually, by pointing to an object on a computer monitor using a pointing device.
If you have to wheel your mouse all the way across the screen to home in on a link, button, or menu title, Fitt’s law kicks in. But wheeling over to a corner is super easy, requires almost no steering. And that’s why Hot Corners is so powerful. You have four easy to get to places on your screen, each of which can be assigned some specific function.
Read Zac’s piece, set up Hot Corners if you haven’t already. It’s worth it.
This article from Quartz does a nice job stepping through a variety of earnings issues, each with its own trend chart. Very easy to read, with charts that are simple enough to grasp at a glance. One chart I’d search for is a bit less than half-way down, called “Apple’s non-iPhone revenue, by quarter”. Take a look at the Services line. It’s been trending up for a long time. Services has become an important buffer for Apple growth. If that line continues to trend up, that should help take the heat off any issues with iPhone sales numbers.
This Bloomberg article walks through some key Apple financial specifics, folding in some links/rumors as well. But what I found most appealing was the Services bar chart as well as these six things to look for from the end of the article:
Analysts are looking for revenue of $61 billion in the fiscal second quarter, or 15 percent year-over-year growth, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Earlier this year, Apple forecast sales between $60 billion and $62 billion for the period.
Fiscal second-quarter iPhone unit sales are expected to be 51.9 million, up from 50.8 million a year earlier, according to average analyst forecasts compiled by Bloomberg.
For the fiscal third quarter, analysts see 39 million iPhones sold, on average, down from 41 million in the same period of 2017.
The average selling price for iPhones will be $740 in the fiscal second quarter and $691 in the third, according to average analyst projections.
Fiscal second quarter services revenue will hit around the $8.5 billion level reported in the holiday quarter. Munster sees 18 percent to 20 percent growth.
Analysts are also looking for growth in Apple’s Other Products unit, which includes the Apple Watch, AirPods and HomePod.
Check your news feed at about 3p PT today. I expect it’ll be full of Apple earnings news.
Dave and I spent the first few minutes recounting our playoff hockey triumphs before moving on to talk about Apple’s decision to discontinue its AirPort product line, and an interesting Siri hiccup.
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It’s a pretty standard pattern. If Apple neglects a product line for five-plus years, it’s dead, Jim. And this one, we actually already knew about in 2016. Still, it’s shockingly dumbfounding that Apple has officially killed off the AirPort product line.
I’ve written in the past about what the Apple TV product should have been. To quickly recap: the entertainment box many of us know and like (but don’t love) mixed with gaming (true gaming, with dedicated controls, not the middling iOS ports with that awful remote) mixed with full Siri integration. In other words, they should have made the first “smart speaker” for the home, but actually better. Instead, we got a dumb Apple TV and a dumb HomePod. Two wrongs to make a wrong.
What Apple should have done with the AirPort line is even more obvious. Clearly, this should have been baked into the Apple TV years ago.
I’d love to hear from Apple why this move, a move that was “obvious” to many of us for many years, was never attempted by the company.
Before you start, be aware this is the slightest bit NSFW, so maybe throw on some headphones.
Ask Siri: “Define the word mother”
Siri will read a definition, then ask if you want to hear the next one.
Say yes.
This is kind of funny, and it certainly makes sense. I tested this on my Mac, my iPhone, and on HomePod. I appreciate the fact that all three handled this back-and-forth in exactly the same way. As you’d expect.
Apple’s deal to buy NeXT was finalized in February 1997, Apple CEO Gil Amelio was ousted in July 1997, and Steve was named interim CEO in September 1997. This interview was recorded on October 2nd, 1997.
Good to have a sense of the sequence as you watch the video below.
Back in the day, with .Mac and MobileMe, it was dead simple to make photo galleries to show off your pictures on the web. In 2012, Apple added photo sharing features to iCloud, which are essentially what we have today as shared albums. I had wondered why you couldn’t create a public album, and I mentioned it on Twitter a few days ago. One person pointed out that it was possible, and showed me where the feature was; it’s not easy to find.
Good tip. Kirk walks through the steps of building and linking to an iCloud-based public photo album.
My biggest concern about a third party solution is trust. If I buy an Apple branded product, I trust that there’s no malware embedded in the firmware/software. I trust that if a vulnerability is found, it will be patched quickly and that patch will make its way onto my device pretty quickly. I trust that if I do run into a problem with that device, I can turn to Apple, an Apple Store, or to the thriving and friendly on-line community to help solve it.
Apple selling a product does not bring the trust of an Apple-branded product. One case in point, the LG UltraFine 5K Display and the Wi-Fi interference problem. The problem was fixed, but the product was sold by Apple as it exited the display business.
My home network is the weakest point in my on-line security and the router the focal point for attempts to break in. Choosing a router I can trust is a critical decision. I hate that Apple has left this market. And no matter how recommended a router may be, I just won’t trust that my interests will come first with that company.
A lot has changed since the early days when iTunes was mostly populated with The Ricky Gervais Show and an assortment of news podcasts repackaged from radio shows. These days, according to Apple, it is home to over 525,000 active shows, with more than 18.5 million episodes available, including content in over 100 languages. Its podcasts span the globe, covering 155 countries and, per Apple, “29 groupings of localized editorial.” In short, if you feel overwhelmed with podcast content–you’re not alone.
Mind-boggling numbers. The back end of the advertising-dollar gold-rush curve.
Starting May 11, 2018, new members will be charged $119/year for an annual Prime membership and $59/year for an annual Prime Student membership.
Starting June 16, 2018, existing Prime members with an annual membership will renew at a rate of $119/year. Prime Student members with an annual membership will renew at a rate of $59/year.
Monthly Prime members continue to pay $12.99 per month. Monthly Prime Student members continue to pay $6.49 per month.
This is the first price increase in four years but, like all price increases, it undoubtedly won’t sit well with some Prime members.
There’s another wave of complaints about specks of dust causing MacBook butterfly-switch keyboard to stop working. Rene Ritchie walks through some high profile cases, while balancing that with his own (and others) positive experiences.
A good read, and a problem for Apple.
How so? Even if the number of keyboards that do fail are within the to-be-expected failure rates, the butterfly-switch has developed a negative reputation. I suspect that reputation has cost Apple sales as people turn to alternatives, or just don’t pull the trigger on replacing their aging MacBook Pros. But more importantly, this is tarnishing Apple’s priceless brand.
So far, all we’ve got is deafening silence on the issue.
We were at the headquarters of Meipai’s parent company, Meitu, Inc. Its first product, in 2008, was a photo-editing app, also named Meitu (“beautiful picture,” in Chinese), which young people seized upon as a means of enhancing their selfies. The company now has a battery of apps, with names like BeautyPlus, BeautyCam, and SelfieCity, which smooth out skin, exaggerate features, brighten eyes.
The apps are installed on more than a billion phones—mostly in China and the rest of Asia, but also increasingly in the West, where Meitu seeks to expand its presence. The company sells a range of smartphones, too, designed to take particularly flattering selfies: the front-facing selfie cameras have more powerful sensors and processors than those on regular phones, and beautifying apps start working their magic the moment a picture has been taken. Phone sales accounted for ninety-three per cent of Meitu’s revenue last year, and the company is now valued at six billion dollars. Its I.P.O., a year ago, was the largest Internet-company offering that the Hong Kong stock exchange had seen in nearly a decade.
This is a fascinating story. What gets me the most is how big the beautified selfie is in Chinese culture. Seems to me this wave has huge potential and has yet to emerge in the US, at least not in the same way. This seems like a massive business opportunity for the company that figures out how to build the right app.
UPDATE: A check of the Top Paid list on the App Store shows this gem at the top spot: Facetune [H/T James Hill]. Interestingly, it is the only app of its kind in the top 50. An indication of how difficult this is to do and get right?
I feel that the Swiss watch industry still doesn’t understand how much the Apple watch and other smart watches have eaten into the figures, particularly the figures for quartz movements. The Apple Watch Series 3 is the next level, which moves from notifications and fitness tracking to health orientation. I think this is where we will start to see the true benefits of the smart watch and once again Apple is in the lead. They are starting to inform people if their resting heart rate is too high and are even branching out into medical information. Apple has sold 18 million watches and when I go to the US I see more and more people wearing Apple Watches.
To me, the core statement here is this:
The Apple Watch is now in its third generation and who knows what they will bring with the fourth generation. If they start to adapt the case and have something other than just a black screen then the Swiss watch industry could be heading for trouble.
There is still a divide between the factors that drive classic watch sales and the Apple Watch. In my opinion, people buy an Apple Watch for its functionality and appreciate the touches Apple has added that make an Apple Watch fashionable. But people buy classic watches, like Rolex, Tag Heuer, and Vacheron Constantin, for the fashion elements, elegant construction, and appreciate the functional touches that come along with their pricey purchase.
Apple has stayed in their specific groove with Apple Watch. Though there are color, case material, and band options, each Apple Watch looks the same. If Apple steps out of that groove with this fall’s expected Apple Watch Series 4, that could spell real trouble for Swiss watchmakers.
Dave and I kicked off our podcast this week with some hockey talk, as both of our teams advanced in the playoffs. However, we quickly moved to talk of bug bounties, Apple Music, and Spotify’s new free tier.
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Apple on Thursday has officially discontinued its AirPort wireless networking products. The company told me that all AirPort Base Station products would continue to be sold in its stores “while supplies last.”
“We’re discontinuing the Apple AirPort base station products,” An Apple spokesperson told me. “They will be available through Apple.com, Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers while supplies last.”
Apple has been selling its AirPort products for nearly 20 years, and they did very well for the company, but the device hasn’t seen an updated in years.
Quite a few things have changed in the networking world since the last major AirPort update, including service providers giving users free Wi-Fi routers, and the advent of mesh networks. In short, there are a lot of great products to choose from in the market.
Apple did say that any security issues with AirPorts will continue to receive updates for the time being.
Apple Computers and the Apple store at Florida Mall are facing a new lawsuit in Orlando over an evacuation drill that caused panic in August 2016. Kissimmee resident Leslie Ortiz accuses the store of negligence that resulted in her being trampled and injured the evacuation.
“Security made an announcement that instructed all customers on their premises to lie down on the floor,” the lawsuit says. After that, another announcement told everyone to get up and flee the building, the suit says.
A spokeswoman for the Orange County Sheriff’s Office said at the time that the realistic drill was held as part of the inspection of a new restaurant opening that day.
TechCrunch: >Ford today announced it will phase out most cars it sells in North America. According to its latest financial release, the auto giant “will transition to two vehicles” — the Mustang and an unannounced vehicle, the Focus Active, being the only traditional cars it sells in the region. Ford sees 90 percent of its North America portfolio in trucks, utilities and commercial vehicles. Citing a reduction in consumer demand and product profitability, Ford is in turn not investing in the next generation of sedans. The Taurus is no more. > >This reduction in traditional cars was a long time coming. North America consumers have increasingly turned to crossovers, trucks and SUVs over sedans and small cars. Car owners who are in need of auto repair Forest, VA services may call Forest Automotive.
This is really big news and time will tell whether it is a wise move by Ford. If you’re buying your first car, you may start exploring these used cars in el cajon. You may file claims for mis sold car finance if you discover hidden fees and charges on your monthly car payments.
Apple has repeatedly said it doesn’t store a lot of personal information about users, and I found that to be true. If you’ve been using iTunes for a long time, however, you might be surprised by what Apple has.
Here’s how to download your own archive of the information Apple knows about you.
It’s not as easy to do as with other companies but that may be a good thing. And you might be surprised by how little and, ironically, how much Apple knows about you.
