If you’ve been waiting for a sapphire glass for iPhone display, stop holding your breath because Apple’s $200 million investment in Corning says that’s not going to happen. The investment comes from Apple’s recently announced Advanced Manufacturing Fund, and is going to be used for Corning research and development, capital equipment needs, and state-of-the-art glass processing.
Apple
Five Apple Videos for Shooting with iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus
Apple released five videos to YouTube Thursday evening, all of them designed to teach you how to shoot on iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus. Topics include shooting action, shooting “great portraits,” shooting close-ups, shooting vertical panoramics (panos), and shooting without Flash. We’ve got all five of them.
Tim Cook Is No Steve Ballmer
A piece at Seeking Alpha argues that Tim Cook needs to be replaced as CEO of Apple because he’s “identical to Steve Ballmer.” Bryan Chaffin was specifically asked what he thought, so here’s the short version: it’s balderdash—Tim Cook is no Steve Ballmer.
Spot the Apple Product Placement in this SNL Video with Melissa McCarthy as Sean Spicer
Saturday Night Live has a new video trailer promoting Melissa McCarthy as White House spokesperson Sean Spicer, and it was retweeted by Apple VP Lisa Jackson. It could be that she’s a huge Melissa McCarthy fan—because yeah—or it could be the Apple product placement at 38 seconds.
Imagining a Siri Smarthome, Apple and Sleep Tracking, and the Real iPhone 8 - ACM 410
With Alexa Show and Microsoft Invoke, Bryan and Jeff envision the Siri smarthome of the future to make the case for an Apple Siri device. They also talk about what Apple might do with sleep tracking technology from Beddit, as well some sexy new renders of Apple’s unannounced iPhone 8.
Apple Just Bought a Sleep Tracking Company
Apple is—at last—getting into the sleep tracking business. 9to5Mac reported that Apple purchased Beddit, a firm that makes sleep-tracking hardware and apps for Apple’s iPhone and Apple Watch.
Apple Invites Press to 2017 WWDC Keynote
Apple officially invited members of the press to its World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC) keynote. The conference will be held at the McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, CA, from June 5th to June 9th, with the keynote on June 5th.
Apple Pushes 5th Developer Beta for tvOS 10.2.1
Apple released tvOS 10.2.1 beta 5, build 14W585, Thursday. There are no patch notes for the release, but at this stage of the development cycle Apple is most likely focused on squashing bugs.
Apple's Developer Job Stats, iPhone 8 Function Bar - TMO Daily Observations 2017-05-04
Apple CEO Tim Cook says the company has created about 2 million developer jobs. John Martellaro and Jeff Butts join Jeff Gamet to dive into those numbers, plus they look at a rendering of what may be the function bar area on this fall’s iPhone 8.
Imagination Technologies Triggers Dispute Resolution Over Apple GPU Designs
It looks like Imagination Technologies and Apple haven’t found a way to kiss and make up because now they’ve entered into a formal dispute process. Imagination said on Thursday it started the process because it hasn’t been able to reach an agreement with Apple over licensing its tech for iPhone GPUs.
Apple Will Launch $1 Billion Investment Fund for Advanced Manufacturing
Apple CEO Tim Cook announced Wednesday that his company was creating a US$1 billion investment fund for advanced manufacturing. Mr. Cook made the announcement during an interview with Jim Cramer on CNBC’s Mad Money. Bryan Chaffin says: think robots.
Apple Opens up App Store Referral Data to Developers
Apple announced Wednesday that developers would have access to AppStore “Sources and Referral Data.” In more direct terms, Apple is making it easier to find out where their customers are coming from. This will help them market their apps and acquire new users.
Dr. Mac on Procrastinating, Touch-Screen Macs, and Siri at Home - ACM 409
Bob “Dr. Mac” LeVitus joins Bryan and Jeff to talk about his new book, Working Smarter for Mac Users. It’s all about beating procrastination. They also talk about Apple, toasterfridges, and touch-screen Macs, and whether Apple would compete with Amazon’s Alexa in the home.
Imagine What Mac Sales Would Do If Apple Did Something Crazy Like Update All the Macs
During the second quarter of 2017, Apple saw Mac unit sales increase by a modest four percent. Jeff Butts, ever the dreamer, imagines what would happen if Apple gave us new Macs across all the various form factor categories, from the Mac Mini to the Mac Pro.
![Apple Reports .9B in Revenues, Expands Shareholder Capital Return to 0B [Update]](https://www.macobserver.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/aapl-stock-graph-wide.jpg)
Apple Reports $52.9B in Revenues, Expands Shareholder Capital Return to $300B [Update]
Apple reported US$52.9 billion in revenues during the March quarter on Tuesday. That’s up year over year from $50.6 billion. Earnings clocked in at $11 billion, or $2.10 in earnings-per-share, up year-over-year from $1.90. The company announced a boost in its shareholder capital return program from $200 billion to $300 billion.
Microsoft Launches a New Assault on Apple: Surface Laptop
On May 2nd, Microsoft presented its latest product in the Surface family, the Surface Laptop. This is a pure laptop, in the style of Apple’s MacBook line, and has a 13.5-inch display. Notable is the low weight, 2256 x 1504 display, fabric keyboard, four available colors, Windows 10 S and a claimed 14 hour battery life.
Tim Cook Charity Auction with Lunch at Apple Park, Price Quickly Jumps to $65,000
Apple CEO Tim Cook is once again auctioning off a lunch date for charity, but this time that lunch will take place at Apple Park. While the auction closes on May 16th, 2017, it quickly jumped to $65,000 with six bids from four different rich bidders.
Apple Seeds 5th Developer Preview of macOS Sierra 10.12.5
Apple released the 5th developer preview of macOS Sierra 10.12.5 on Monday. The patch notes say nothing besides the boilerplate note that the release. “improves the stability, compatibility, and security of your Mac.”
Apple's Siri Speaker Might Look Like a Miniature Mac Pro
The rumors of Apple’s competitor to the Amazon Echo have taken a credible turn, with a well-connected but secretive leaker sending details to journalists. Jeff Butts has the latest update on the unnamed Siri speaker.
Will Apple Compete with Alexa and the Qualcomm Royalty Battle - TMO Daily Observations 2017-04-28
Will Apple release an Alexa-like device as a Siri-powered hub? Bryan Chaffin and John Martellaro join Dave Hamilton to discuss how wrong the latter two are. They also chew over Apple’s escalating royalty battle with Qualcomm.
Apple Escalates Royalty Battle with Qualcomm, Suspends Payments
The royalty fight between Apple and Qualcomm got real Friday after Apple suspended supplier payments ultimately destined for the chip maker. Apple said it was suspending payments until the courts decide how much Apple owes.
Apple's Using a Lexus for Self-Driving Car Tests
Bloomberg got pictures of a Lexus that reportedly belongs to Apple. An unnamed source gave the news outlet photos of the Lexus and claimed it emerged from an Apple facility known to be part of Project Titan. That’s Apple’s self-driving car project. The car is a Lexus RX450h SUV, and it has a sporty, “top-of-the-range 64-channel LIDAR, at least two radar and a series of cameras.” One must extend a measure of trust to the unnamed source, but it seems reasonable to imagine this is an Apple vehicle. If not, it’s going to be very like the kind of system Apple would be using to develop its self-driving technology. Apple veteran (legend) Bob Mansfield has refocused and pared down the Project Titan team. Its exclusive focus as of now is thought to be developing a self-driving system before moving on to an actual car. The long and the short of this story, however, is that people care what Apple is doing, even if it’s just testing technology using off-the-shelf components and a nice SUV. Bloomberg has more pics and a GIF of the car.
Jimmy Iovine Wants Apple Music to Be a Movement in Pop Culture
Music legend and Apple executive Jimmy Iovine wants nothing less than for Apple Music to be, “an overall movement in popular culture.” Apple Music is Apple’s streaming music service, but the company has been running original video content, too. Not so much as, say, Amazon or Netflix, but Bloomberg said its an experiment that could get bigger.
Could 'Apple Cash' Take on Venmo?
Rumors swirl around Apple like confetti after a wedding. The latest addition to the speculation mill is that Apple is once again looking to enter the money transfer service. Jeff Butts has all the details about what he thinks might be called “Apple Cash.”