Charlotte reacts to Apple’s ‘By Innovation Only’ event which saw the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro unveiled. There were also upgrades to the iPad and Apple Watch, and release date and pricing information for Apple Arcade and Apple TV+.
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.
Articles by Charlotte Henry
AppleCare+ Plans Lasting Service Life of Product Arrive Quietly
New monthly AppleCare+ service plans that last last the entirety of a products service life were revealed quietly this week.
Facebook Tightening Suicide and Self-Harm Prevention Policies
On World Suicide Prevention Days Facebook announced it was tightening its policies around preventing suicide and self-harm.
iPhone 11 Gets Muted Response in Asia
There was much fanfare around the launch of the iPhone 11 Tuesday. However, Reuters reported, that the new device did not receive su a warm welcome in Asia.
The iPhone 11, launched on Tuesday for $50 less than last year’s base XR model, was met with a limp response from social media users in Asian markets that are dominated by Huawei Technologies and Samsung Electronics. Despite the reduction, the iPhone 11, and even the higher-end models with more camera lenses, are set to come up short in Asia. “Apple’s new phones were no surprise at all. Only tangible change is having an additional camera on their premium model,” said Park Sung-soon, an analyst at Seoul-based Cape Investment & Securities.
LG Launches 8K TVs With AirPlay 2 Support
LG launched two new 8K televisions which support AirPlay and Homekit, with the siganture model costing $30,000.
Rewatch Apple iPhone 11 Special Event in a Flash
There was a lot to take in during the Apple ‘By Innovation Only’ special event Tuesday. And it was nearly two hours long. You can rewatch the whole thing, but Apple also helpfully posted a video bringing together the best bits. It is a bit of an advert, of course, but I think it is quite effective. It shows how much Apple did actually pack in during the event.
Apple Fifth Ave Reopening September 20
Apple Fifth Ave will reopen September 20, the same day as the new iPhones become available to customers, the company has revealed.
Apple Watch Series 5 Tells Time (And Does Other Stuff Too)
Apple played a few videos during the “By Innovation Only” event Tuesday. My favorite was the clip introducing the Apple Watch Series 5. It was funny, and riffed on the “yeah, but does it tell time,” snark too often thrown at the Apple Watch. At the same time, it showed off all the features in the latest iteration of the device.
First Trailer For 'See' Starring Jason Momoa
Apple used the ‘By Innovation Only’ event to show the first trailer for its forthcoming Apple TV+ series See. The show stars Jason Momoa as Baba Voss. It takes place in the far future where a virus has left any survivors blind. However, Baba Voss’ twins were born with sight. See arrives on Apple TV+ on November 1.
Apple Announces New Health Studies and Research App
Apple announced three major new health studies in partnership with major research and academic institutions and unveiled a new Research app.
Apple TV+ Launching November 1 for $4.99 a Month
Apple TV+ will launch on November 1, 2019 costing $4.99 a month after a free trial. Customers who purchase a new device will get a year free.
McDonalds Purchases AI Firm to Speed up Drive-Thru
McDonalds purchased Apprente Tuesday, as it doubled down on AI investment . The move followed its purchase of another AI firm, Dynamic Yield, earlier in 2019. The idea, reported Wired, is to help speed up drive-thru and get you your Big Mac quicker.
Apprente’s speech-based artificial intelligence deals within the relatively narrow confines of quick-service restaurants. As with Dynamic Yield’s decision engine, which switches up menu items based on what it thinks consumers want at any given time and location, Apprente’s ultimate goal is to increase the speed of any given transaction. Anyone who’s had to repeat their order into a squawking speaker knows that pain. Apprente calls its technology “sound-to-meaning,” in contrast to “speech-to-text.” The distinction, other than having a nice ring to it, is that unlike many voice AI models, Apprente says it does not transcribe what the customer says, and then infer meaning from that transcript. It goes directly from speech signals to result.
Apple Backs Increasing Songwriter Pay. No Other Streaming Service Agrees.
When the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) ruled that songwriters should get paid more per stream, Apple agreed. All the other major music platforms did not. Instead, they chose to appeal the ruling. Music Business Worldwide explained the ongoing legal wranglings.
Spotify, Amazon, Google, and SiriusXM/Pandora are now appealing this ruling because, to cut a long story short, they argue it could unfairly advantage Universal Music Group, Sony Music Group, and Warner Music Group — who all own both major record companies and major music publishers. Apple stands alone in refusing to appeal the CRB’s judgement. Spotify et al’s appeal, filed last month, argues that, to avoid giving the major music companies too much power, a ‘cap’ should have been introduced by the CRB Judges, which would ensure that no method of payout to publishers could ever exceed the equivalent of $0.80 per paying subscriber, each month, of each service.
50 Attorneys General Launch Google Antitrust Probe
Attorneys general from 48 U.S. states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico launched an antitrust probe into Google Monday. The drive was led by Texas attorney general Ken Paxton, CNBC reported. It followed the launched of similar action against Facebook on Friday.
The probe includes attorneys general from 48 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. California and Alabama are not nvolved in the probe, Paxton said at a press conference. Other attorneys general at the media conference emphasized Google’s dominance in the ad market and use of consumer data. “When there is no longer a free market or competition, this increases prices, even when something is marketed as free, and harms consumers,” said Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody, a Republican. “Is something really free if we are increasingly giving over our privacy information? Is something really free if online ad prices go up based on one company’s control?”
The Apple Watch is a Slow Burning Success
When Tim Cook first showed-off the Apple Watch it was not necessarily clear what it was for. But, said James Titcomb at the Telegraph, it has proved to be a success.
New gadgets rarely come out of the gates fully formed; technology is an iterative process. The problem for Cook was that the company’s previous products had delighted instantly. The appeal of the iPod and iPhone were obvious as soon as they were touched. The Watch, by contrast, has been that rare thing for Apple: a slow burner. Unlike its predecessors, which were close to the finished item when launched, the original Apple Watch felt like a prototype, one that has since developed it out in the open. More recent versions have dramatically improved. Apple has dispensed with any pretence of the Watch being a luxury good, and stopped attempting to squeeze aspects of the iPhone onto its small screen.
Foxconn and Apple Admit Employing Too Many Temporary Workers
Apple and Foxconn conceded that they employed too many temporary workers following a critical report by China Labor Watch.
Catching an iPhone X...On a Rollercoaster...at 130km/h
Having your iPhone fall out your pocket and break is pretty annoying, so it is particularly great if you or someone else catches it before it gets smashed on the ground. Well, that is exactly what Samuel Kempf did. Except he was on a rollercoaster travelling at 130 km/h (via iClarified). He posted the video to YouTube. It had been viewed nearly 5.2 million times at the time of this writing. In the description, Mr. Kempf explained: “I was in Spain at Port Aventura on shambhala ride and saw the person a few rows ahead drop their IPhone X. long story short I caught it. this roller coaster is moving at over 130kms…was once Europe’s tallest and fastest coaster.. only recently beaten.”
Apple Marunouchi Opens in Tokyo
Apple’s latest Tokyo Store, Apple Marunouchi, opened Saturday to large crowds, becoming the company’s biggest retail outlet in Japan.
Google launches open-source differential privacy library
Google released an open-source version of its differential privacy library Friday, TechCrunch reported. The library powers some of the company’s core products.
“Whether you’re a city planner, a small business owner, or a software developer, gaining useful insights from data can help make services work better and answer important questions,” writes Miguel Guevara, a product manager in the company’s Privacy and Data Protection Office. “But, without strong privacy protections, you risk losing the trust of your citizens, customers, and users. Differentially-private data analysis is a principled approach that enables organizations to learn from the majority of their data while simultaneously ensuring that those results do not allow any individual’s data to be distinguished or re-identified.” As Google notes, the current version of the Apache-licensed C++ library focuses on features that are typically hard to build from scratch and includes many of the standard statistical functions that developers would need (think count, sum, mean, variance, etc.).
Qualcomm 5G Chips Coming to Mid-Priced Phones
Qualcomm will expand use of its 5G chips into mid-priced phones. Reuters reported the shift from being almost exclusively in top-end phones will happen in 2020.
Qualcomm is already supplying phone makers such as Samsung Electronics Co Ltd (005930.KS) with chips for 5G wireless data networks, which are expected to be faster than current 4G and LTE networks. But those chips have typically been from the San Diego chip suppliers’ most expensive line, its Snapdragon 8 series. Qualcomm said in remarks prepared for the IFA tech fair in Berlin that it plans to add 5G capabilities to its lower-cost Snapdragon 6 and 7 series devices, which could make 5G phones available at lower prices than the current models, mostly flagship devices priced at a premium. Qualcomm’s 6 and 7 series Snapdragon chips are found in devices from Lenovo Group Ltd’s (0992.HK) Motorola, Xiaomi Corp (1810.HK), Oppo and Vivo that retail in the $300 range.
Siri to Learn How to "Play This on That" in iOS 13
Siri is inline for some significant upgrades, including Find My Friends, the App Store and Shazam support and “play this on that” requests.
24/7 Apple Fifth Avenue Store Approaching Re-Opening
The rennovated Apple Store Fifth Avenue now has the tag line ‘Always Open to Minds’ and will will be open 24/7.
Siri Script Rewritten to Deflect Feminism Questions
Apple rewrote Siri’s script to deflect questions on topics such as feminism or the #metoo according to leaked intenral documents.
Activists Ask Jeff Bezos to Buy Amazon Rainforest
Some creative climate activists approached Jeff Bezos with an investment opportunity this week. They asked the Amazon boss to buy the rainforest that shares his company’s name, which is still on fire. Adweek spoke one of the creative directors behind the project.
According to a creative director who helped spearhead the project, he and another creative came up with the idea a few weeks ago while on a shoot in Spain. As they reflected on the news of the rainforest burning, and 16-year-old climate change activist Greta Thunberg’s weeks-long trek to New York on an emissions-free yacht, they became uncomfortable when steaks were served during lunch since Brazil’s booming agribusiness sector has contributed to the rainforest fires. “We had to go lay in the grass and look at the trees,” he said. “It was in that moment that we were like, ‘What can we do?’”