Apple Resuming Smartphone Production Better Than Rivals

While iPhone sales will inevitably be hit by the coronavirus outbreak, Apple is resuming smartphone production at a better rate than many of its key rivals. That’s according to a note to investors seen by AppleInsider.

Cowen analysts believe global smartphone builds for the second quarter will be down 17% year-on-year. Though it will be a 4% rise in units in terms of sequential quarters, it will allegedly still be worse than the 15% year-on-year decline seen in the first quarter. For Apple in particular, it will be seeing a decline, but not at the same level. Cowen forecasts iPhone builds in the second quarter will be 35 million units, which works out to be a 5% drop quarter-to-quarter and a year-on-year decline of 13%, while Android builds will be down 18% overall year-on-year… “With the current state of the global economy, iPhone unit supply and demand expectations could continue to fluctuate in the coming months,” writes Cowen. The firm highlights how Foxconn’s workforce has “broadly recovered from the COVID-19 shutdown by the end of March,” which helps the outlook on Apple’s figures.

Adobe Bundles Photoshop and Fresco for $9.99 a Month

Adobe announced today that it will bundle Adobe Fresco and Photoshop for iPad under one US$9.99/month plan.

The offer is available to customers who buy Photoshop on iPad or upgrade to Adobe Fresco premium through the App Store, as well as to Creative Cloud customers who buy the Photoshop Single App or All Apps plan on Adobe.com. Early adopters who already have a Creative Cloud membership are eligible too.

The new iPad Pro Floats on a Magic Keyboard

Apple has released a beautiful video, once again showing off the capabilities of the new iPad Pro. Featuring a lively, selfie-taking, kingfisher, it highlights how the device “floats” on the Magic Keyboard. The clip is soundtracked by Anna of the North’s song Dream Girl. The video also shows that Apple is not holding off on using its “your next computer is not a computer” advertising slogan for the iPad Pro which some feel confuses its product line.

Sonos Radio, Free and Ad-Supported Streaming Service, Launches on All Sonos Devices Today

On Tuesday, wireless speaker company Sonos announced the rollout of Sonos Radio, a free and ad-supported streaming service that runs on all Sonos devices. The new Sonos Radio service will arrive by way of a software update and will include Artist Stations, Sonos Sound System, Genre Stations, as well as music, news, and sports from a growing list of over 60,000 world-wide radio stations.

Programmer, Author, Podcaster Rosemary Orchard - TMO BGM Interview

Rosemary Orchard describes herself as a geek, nerd, and programmer. She works full time as a developer of web applications, but her real loves are automation and productivity. She’s also a book author and podcaster.

Rosemary told me the story about how she started with computers and programming. After a bad experience with a Toshiba notebook and Windows Vista, she bought a MacBook Air for her university work—and loved it. At this point, she was still pursing human languages, but in time gravitated towards, instead, creating computer software that would make peoples lives easier. And she never looked back. We talked about her Web app development, her books (one on Shortcuts) and finished with how she learned to podcast. Today she does two. You’ll enjoy hearing how Rosemary’s career has developed.

Disagreement Over How to Proceed with European Coronavirus Contact Apps

Apple and Google have teamed up to help build contact-tracing apps, aimed at helping reduce the spread of coronavirus. However, there is disagreement in Europe over how to progress, Reuters reported.

Scientists and researchers from more than 25 countries published an open letter on Monday urging governments not to abuse such technology to spy on their people and warning of risks in an approach championed by Germany. “We are concerned that some ‘solutions’ to the crisis may, via mission creep, result in systems which would allow unprecedented surveillance of society at large,” said the letter that gathered more than 300 signatures. Tech experts are rushing to develop digital methods to fight COVID-19, a flu-like disease caused by the novel coronavirus that has infected 2.4 million people worldwide and been linked to 165,000 deaths.

Xcode for iOS Might Mean You Can Write Software on Your iPhone

Developers may soon be able to code on their iPhone or iPad with Xcode on iOS/iPadOS 14. I don’t imagine many people are going to settle down to a big coding session on their iPhone, but I can imagine them doing it on an iPad. If Xcode does come to iPadOS it would cement a move we already saw with the latest iPad Pro – Apple is blurring the lines between a laptop and a tablet. Cult of Mac took a look at the latest rumors.

This report comes from Jon Prosser, founder of YouTube channel Front Page Tech, who recently correctly predicted the launch date of the 2020 iPhone SE. On Monday, Prosser said via Twitter “XCode is present on iOS / iPad OS 14. The implications there are HUGE”… Whenever anyone suggests that iPads have become as powerful as MacBooks, someone always asks, “Does it do Xcode?” The implication is that iPads are just toys — only Macs are real computers. But if Prosser is correct, then devs will be able to use iPad or Mac, whichever they prefer.

Leaks Claim AirTags Will Have Speakers, Activation Lock, Work With Non-U1 Devices

A report today claims that Apple’s rumored AirTags product will have speakers and will work with devices that don’t have the U1 chip. They will also require activation lock as a security measure.

Alongside the speaker, Fudge also says that the AirTags will come with an accelerometer, which detects motion. Fudge does not elaborate on this, so we don’t know entirely what it is for.

The most recent thing Fudge announced was that the AirTags may come in multiple different colours, which could be really cool. However, if AirTags are anything like AirPods, colours might not ever arrive.

I’m glad to know that they won’t require a U1 chip. It’s a “claim” by this leaker but if Apple required a chip for the tags to work, this would lock out a significant portion of its user base, so that part seems likely to me.

Bendy Suction Phone Mount: $23.99

We have a deal on a very interesting smartphone mount. It’s bendy and it has suction pads on it, which makes its name appropriate: Tenikle 2.0.  It’s essentially modeled after a three-tentacled octopus with suction pads on each of those limbs. You can then wrap one or two of the limbs around whatever you need—or use them as feet—and use the suction pads on the third limb to hold your iPhone (or Android device). And you can roll it into a ball for storage and portability. Tenikle 2.0 is $23.99 through our deal.

How The Colorful iMac Saved Apple

The iMac is credited with saving Apple during its darkest days. Designed by Sir Jony Ive, it is the first Apple machine I remember really being conscious of. The colorful range of computers first went on sale in the U.S in August 1998 and by April 2001 five million had been shipped. On AppleInsider, William Gallagher reflected on the device’s staggering success.

This machine took the innovation Apple had done before, it took the company’s ethos of strong design and a complete appliance-like tool, and it shouted about it all. Where the Mac had literally said “Hello,” the iMac figuratively said, “look at me.” And people listened. The iMac was announced by Steve Jobs on May 6, 1998, but it didn’t go on sale in the US until August 15 that year. Two weeks later, it was released in Europe and Japan. Two years, eight months, and four days later on April 19, 2001, Apple announced that it had shipped its five millionth iMac. That makes approximately 5,112 iMacs sold every day. It’s one iMac every 1.183 seconds. No wonder it saved the company.

Cloudflare Tool ‘Is BGP Safe Yet’ Tells You if Your ISP is Safe

Cloudflare recently released a tool called Is BGP Safe Yet. It lets people check whether their ISP has security protections against BGP hijacking.

Those improvements are most effective with wide adoption from ISPs, content delivery networks like Cloudflare, and other cloud providers. Cloudflare estimates that so far about half of the internet is more protected thanks to heavy hitters like AT&T, the Swedish telecom Telia, and the Japanese telecom NTT adopting BGP improvements. And while Cloudflare says it doesn’t seem like the Rostelecom incident was intentional or malicious, Russian telecoms do have a history of suspicious BGP meddling, and similar problems will keep cropping up until the whole industry is on board.

Neither my ISP nor my VPN provider are safe against hijacks.

Leaks Reveal Google Pay Card as Rival to Apple Card

Leaked images of a Google Pay Card reveal that Google is busy creating a rival to Apple Card. There will also be an associated virtual card with it.

The Google card and associated checking account will allow users to buy things with a card, mobile phone or online. It connects to a Google app with new features that let users easily monitor purchases, check their balance or lock their account. The card will be co-branded with different bank partners, including CITI and Stanford Federal Credit Union.

I remember getting a card associated with my Google Pay account back in 2015 or so. They released it long before the Apple Card, but like many Google products it eventually got canceled.