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Charlotte Henry

Charlotte is a media junkie, covering how Apple is not just a revolutionary tech firm, but a revolutionary media firm for TMO. She is based in London, and writes and broadcasts for various outlets.

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'iPhone 12' With 'A14' Processor May be as Fast as iPad Pro

It appears that the much-rumored ‘iPhone 12’ could be as fast as an iPad Pro. That’s according to Geekbench scores for the potential ‘A14’ processor, uncovered by AppleInsider.

It is expected that the “iPhone 12” will have improved performance, and these scores show massive gains year-over-year. Apple has been seeing huge gains in their chipsets despite the rest of the industry hitting a bit of a performance wall. New Geekbench testing, discovered by AppleInsider purporting to be from the A14 processor shows the first A-series processor to cross the 3.0 GHz mark. The 12.9-inch iPad Pro has an A12X chipset with 8 cores and scores 1110 on a single core, and 4568 on the multi-core. The scores for the alleged A14 go beyond even that.

R.E.M. 'It's The End of the World' Enters iTunes Top 100

The R.E.M classic It’s End of the World As We Know It has entered the iTunes top 100 for the first time, 33 years after it was released, according to data from Pop Vortex. When the New York Daily News reported on the data on Friday the track was at number 73 in the chart. On Monday, it was up at number 39.

The spike in the 1987 song’s popularity likely comes in the wake of the World Health Organization declaring that the menacing coronavirus spread has reached pandemic levels. The tune, which name-checks the likes of cultural icons Lenny Bruce, Leonid Brezhnev, rock critic Lester Bangs and conductor Leonard Bernstein, was positioned at No. 73 Friday evening — just a shade below its Billboard Hot 100 peak of No. 69 in 1987. The single was downloaded more times than Lizzo’s “Good as Hell,” “Lose You to Love Me” by Selena Gomez and even Taylor Swift’s “The Man,” according to Pop Vortex.

Apple Dominates Greatest Designs of Modern Times List

Apple featuress heavily a new 100 greatest designs of modern times list recently released by Fortune. The iPhone came out on top, with the Mac and iPod also in the top 10.

With regards to No. 1 on our list, Apple’s iPhone, respondents did not speak so much to its physical design—as handsome as its various iterations have been—but to the way in which the device has transformed human communication and nearly every aspect of how we live. “Not only an instant way to be constantly connected,” said Kathleen Brandenburg of design consultancy IA Collaborative, of the device, “but a flexible, ever-evolving design that becomes whatever each user wants it to be.”

YouTube Replacing 'Trending' Tab With 'Explore'

YouTube is replacing its ‘Trending’ tab with a new ‘Explore’ one, Gizmodo reported. The feature was tested for nearly two years, and will now roll out across both iOS and Android.

It appears YouTube will feature videos in those destination pages based on content it already knows you like. When I click the gaming section, for example, I see videos about Age of Empires 2Teamfight Tactics, and clips from gaming channels I’m already subscribed to. So in a sense, destination pages are just a more targeted place to check out videos for stuff you already like, and maybe find new content that YouTube’s algorithm thinks you might enjoy. YouTube says it plans to continue adding new destination pages in the future, and while the initial lineup looks decent, there are a couple major topics, like sports, that didn’t make the roster.

PSA - Don't Buy Apple Products From Random People

It probably won’t come as a surprise to many reading this site, but you shouldn’t buy Apple products from total strangers. No. Really. iMore has details of a recent scam in the UK.

To be fair, the latest victim, Dylan Obeegadoo, was shown real Apple products before he handed over the cash; here’s his version of the events: “Dylan Obeegadoo told Black Country Live that two fraudsters, James and Frankie, approached him in a Churchill Shopping Centre in Dudley on Thursday, March 5, and offered the expensive products. After examining the two electrical items, which were real, he handed to the cash machine to withdraw £500 and met the duo outside their car. But the Dylan said the con artists managed to switch the bags during a convincing scam and said he was left with two bottles of fizzy pop and a cardboard box.”

First ARM Macs Could Arrive in 2020

Apple is preparing to move its Macs to use ARM processors, starting with the MacBook. The first ones could arrive by the end of this year, according to a note by analyst Ming Chi-Kuo, seen by Cult of Mac.

In his latest note to investors, Kuo reveals that Apple could ship its first ARM-powered Mac by the end of 2020. It is believed a MacBook will make the switch first — ahead of Apple’s desktop machines. However, almost all Macs could use ARM chips eventually. The transition will obviously take time. Switching CPU architectures would require all software, including the macOS operating system itself, to be rewritten. Existing apps and games would not be compatible without some kind of emulator.

How TAG Huer is Trying to Compete With The Apple Watch

By any measure, the Apple Watch has won. The device helps Apple dominate the wearables market and outsells all its rivals by a significant margin. However, TAG Huer is hoping the 2020 version of its Connected smartwatch will help it stay in the game. Wired took a look at the device.

Its Monaco watches are square so it’s conceivable that we could one day see a square smartwatch from the brand, but the new TAG Heuer Connected shows that we’re unlikely to get a device that doesn’t look and act like a conventional watch. That’s unsurprising from a Swiss watchmaker, but it’s also notable in that it makes TAG Heuer one of the only genuine alternatives to Apple remaining. Five years after its first smartwatch, the 2020 edition of the TAG Heuer Connected isn’t dramatically different. The team of 30, up from four and now based in Paris, is doubling down on the idea of watch craftsmanship, both on the hardware and in the digital watch faces, and adding its own custom Sports app for golf, running and cycling.

Is The Event You're Going to Canceled Yet?

A large number of events, including major tech conferences, have been canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. Given the constantly evolving situation, it can be hard to keep track of what is happening to events you were due to go to. Luckily, isitcanceledyet.com is helping to keep people as up to date as possible. Scroll through and you can check if what you were meant to attend is still going ahead.

Apple Seeds watchOS Beta Five

Apple seeded the fifth Beta of watchOS 6.2 to developers on Wednesday. MacRumors took a look at some of the new features on offer.

watchOS 6.2 introduces ‌Apple Watch‌ App Store support for in-app purchases, which will allow developers to create and sell ‌Apple Watch‌ apps that offer in-app purchase options and subscriptions. Code in iOS 13.4, the companion update to watchOS 6.2, suggests that both the ‌iPhone‌ and the ‌Apple Watch‌ will in the future have a “CarKey” feature that will let them be used in lieu of a car key to unlock NFC-capable vehicles. It’s not clear if this feature will be available when watchOS 6.2 launches, but it is in the works.

These Children Accidentally Racked up a £600 Bill on Their iPads

We’ve heard stories about children inadvertently running up huge bills on their parent’s credit cards before, but it never gets less painful for those involved. One parent shared their story with The Guardian after their children spent £600 ($764) on online gaming platform Roblox. Apple apparently did eventually refund the money, spent via the children’s iPads, after being contacted by the newspaper.

My nine and eight-year-old kids spent £602 via my iTunes account buying merchandise from the online gaming platform Roblox. I hadn’t realised my bank card would be available to use on my children’s iPads. When I discovered the spending spree I contacted Apple for a goodwill refund. The answer was: “Sorry we can’t help you but do have a nice day.” I then explained my predicament to Roblox. Their response was to terminate my children’s accounts, without any warning on the grounds that they “take fraud very seriously”.