Charlotte Henry's photo

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.

Get In Touch:

Cast and Director of 'The Banker’ Defend Film

Apple TV+ film The Banker has been shrouded in controversy over allegations of sexual abuse. However, Variety report the cast and crew have defended the project.

In a statement, the film’s director, writer, and producer George Nolfi, as well as cast members such as Anthony Mackie, Samuel L. Jackson, Nicholas Hoult, Nia Long, and other key talent say they stand by the film and “its positive message of empowerment.” While expressing sympathy for Cynthia Garrett, they note that the film is not based on the memories of Garrett’s children, but on interviews with Garrett himself, as well as transcripts, court rulings, and articles. “The Banker” tells the story of Garrett and his partner Joe Morris’s successful efforts to circumvent a racist establishment by convincing white man to be the face of their real estate and banking empire. Cynthia Garrett has said the film does not accurately portray her family’s story.

EU Antitrust Regulators Investigating Google

The EU Commission is investigating how Google collects data. Reuters confirmed a story on Monday it originally ran on Friday, demonstrating the 27-nation bloc’s increasing focus on so-called Big Tech.

The EU executive said it was seeking information on how and why Alphabet unit Google is collecting data, confirming a Reuters story on Friday. “The Commission has sent out questionnaires as part of a preliminary investigation into Google’s practices relating to Google’s collection and use of data. The preliminary investigation is ongoing,” the EU regulator told Reuters in an email. A document seen by Reuters shows the EU’s focus is on data related to local search services, online advertising, online ad targeting services, login services, web browsers and others.

Ming-Chi Kuo's Latest iPad Pro and MacBook Pro Predictions

High-profile analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said in his latest note that Apple will release a 12.9-inch iPad Pro and upgraded 16-inch MacBook Pro towards the end of next year. MacRumors rounded up his latest predictions.

Apple is planning four to six products with mini-LED displays over the next two to three years, including a high-end 12.9-inch iPad Pro with an A14X chip in the third quarter of 2020 and a refreshed 16-inch MacBook Pro in the fourth quarter of 2020, according to well-known Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. In a research note with TF International Securities today, obtained by MacRumors, Kuo said the mini-LED displays will “significantly improve productivity and the entertainment experience” without elaborating.

Space Black Hermes Apple Watch Series 5 No Longer Available

The Space Black Hermes Apple Watch Series is not available to order, according to AppleInsider.  It can still be selected from the Apple Website, but there is no delivery date.

Spotted over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, would-be shoppers visiting Apple’s Apple Watch purchase page are unable to pick up the black Hermes model. Prospective purchasers are able to still choose the Space Black color option while using the Apple Watch Studio tool —but the option to add it to cart for delivery or in-store pickup is not available. Anyone hoping to pick up the Space Black Hermes Apple Watch Series 5 shouldn’t concede defeat just yet though. Given that the model is still selectable in the configure tool, and still featured on the Apple product page, it appears only out of stock. But, the lack of an expected delivery date is unusual, especially during the holiday buying season

New Apple Store Opening in Toronto

Apple customers in Toronto can look forward to a new Apple Store. Macrumors shared details about the new downtown location.

The new store will take over a space recently vacated by apparel retailer Abercrombie & Fitch. Apple’s new store will be more than twice as large as the current 4,977-square-foot store, according to an Eaton Centre floor plan. The extra space is much needed, as not only is the Eaton Centre the busiest shopping mall in North America, but it is home to Apple’s only store in Toronto’s downtown core. Apple has three other stores in Toronto at Yorkdale, Sherway Gardens, and Fairview, all within shopping malls.

Samsung and LG to Supply iPhone 12 OLED Displays

The iPhone 12 is set to have OLED displays supplied by Samsung and LG. That is according to industry sources that spoke to South Korean outlet Etnews.

According to the industry, 5.4-inch, 6.1-inch, and 6.7-inch new iPhone models that will be released in the fall of 2020 are expected to be applied with three different sizes of OLED panels. Although there are three types of displays, it is likely that the number of entire iPhone models will be more than four as Apple is also planning to release a model that will support 5G network. It is understood that Samsung Display will be the sole supplier of 5.4-inch and 6.7-inch OLED panels. Specifically, it will supply on-cell touch flexible OLED panels… 6.1-inch OLED panels will be supplied by both Samsung Display and LG Display as 6.1-inch OLED panel will not be an on-cell touch OLED panel but based on film touch method.

Apple Staff Support Tim Cook's Trump Strategy

It is probably fair to say that Donald Trump is not widely popular across Silicon Valley. However, Apple CEO Tim Cook has taken a pragmatic approach to dealing with the U.S. President. A survey conducted for Fortune showed his staff largely agree with it.

The survey, conducted on Fortune’s behalf on the anonymous workplace social network Blind, 81.6% of Apple employees said they support Cook’s efforts to engage the president on matters that “shape policy in Apple’s favor.” Meanwhile, eight in ten respondents said they believe it’s “fair that some of Apple’s products have been exempted from U.S. tariffs on Chinese-made goods.” The findings, which were collected from more than 100 Apple employees between Thursday, Nov. 21 and Monday, Nov. 25 suggest Cook has strong support among his employees in working with Trump to get favorable results for his company.

Disney+ Now Has a 'Continue Watching' Feature

Disney+ had some technical glitches during its otherwise successful launch. It now has a ‘Continue Watching’ feature that was meant to be available originally, Techcrunch reported.

It should show up automatically as a new fourth row, under the “Originals” section. It behaves just as you’d expect, giving you a list of in-progress movies and shows that you’re watching, with a progress bar and the amount of time remaining. Tapping any of the images will jump right back into that content at the place where you left off, and the resume feature works across your logged-in devices. Turns out that this feature was supposed to be live at launch but was removed temporarily prior to the service going live so that the service’s engineers could focus on making sure other elements worked as intended for consumers.

Full Marc Benioff Fireside Chat with Tim Cook

Tim Cook joined Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff onstage at Dreamforce last week. The two men discussed Steve Job’s legacy, Apple’s environmental plans, and privacy. However, the also talked about Apple moving into the enterprise space, and the relationship their firms had. The whole conversation is available on YouTube and is worth a watch.

How Tim Cook Learned to Do Business With Donald Trump

Apple CEO Tim Cook appears to have built a functioning, if not friendly, relationship with U.S. President Donald Trump. He may face criticism for it, but Forbes outlined how Mr. Cook has done this, and the benefits to his firm.

As an openly gay CEO and supporter of Dreamers, Cook might have some personal disdain for the policies of Trump, but as Apple CEO, Cook has found a way to thread the political needle and thrive under the quixotic leader. Apple saved $43 billion by having the ability to repatriate $238 billion under the 2017 tax bill championed by Trump and the Republicans. Apple’s stock has risen over 60% since Cook’s January warning of faltering sales in China that caused the stock to plunge to a year low. Other tech stocks have done well since then, but few as well as Apple. For all of Trump’s bluster and tariff talk, his actions have been selective, and his results have been mixed. Cook has diligently forged a special relationship with Trump that has largely allowed Apple to avoid the brunt of the tariffs, thus buoying Apple’s significant investment in China and calming the fears of investors who might otherwise worry about Apple’s future.

Apple and Nvidia's Relationship Seems to Be Over

It seems that Apple and Nvidia are about to break up for good. Gizmodo noticed in the release note that the latest update of Nvidia’s CUDA platform will be the last to support running and developing applications on macOS.

That means all future versions of CUDA will lack support for Apple devices, which could leave a decent share of the pro community, as well as the hackintosh community, without support for the most popular discrete GPUs being made at the moment. So what is CUDA and why does this mean END TIMES for the relationship between the two companies? CUDA is an Nvidia specific parallel computing platform that lets programs take better advantage of Nvidia’s hardware. This tends to result in better performance in programs like Adobe’s Premiere and AfterEffects and can even result in better performance in some games, like Just Cause 2. The GPUs of Nvidia’s rival, AMD, can’t support CUDA, which has led to some video professionals relying on the macOS platform to grumble over Apple’s long-term reliance on AMD GPUs.