It's like unicorns or the Loch Nes monster. Rumors of it's existence are legendary yet we have yet to have a confirmed sighting of the magical white creature outside of some marketing photos in a keynote.
DigitTimes seems to believe the product is actually finally "in production" and should be in store "later in 2019"
But then again they told use the same thing last year, "by the end of March 2018".
Maybe they'll be right the second time around?
Or maybe not, they backtracked on the "entered production" part of the report
We have heard similar reports from other sources including ones that say Luxshare Precision and Pegatron are in production.
All the "reliable" sources say it's true so it must be, right?
Steve Troughton-Smith, Sonny Dickson, even Ming Chi-Kuo
I'll believe it when I can plunk down my $200 US (we don't know the actual price) in an Apple Store (and no I WON"T be buying one).
Snow in the underworld. Target will have Apple Pay.
Someone needs to send Satan a parka.
Apple says Apple Pay is rolling out to 1,850 Target locations in the US in the coming weeks.
REDcards cannot be added to Apple Pay.
They are also getting Apple Pay support at 7,000 Taco Bell and 2,200 Jack in the Box locations in the United States in the next few months.
In 2018 Apple added major US retailers like Costco, CVS and 7-11 stores.
Apple says with these additions, 74 percent of the top 100 merchants in the US and 65 percent of all retail locations across the country now support Apple Pay.
Apple Stagelight not a new video app
Some owners of 2016 and newer Apple Macbook Pros have started reporting issues the the backlighting on their displays.
The effect is evenly spaced bright "hotspots" along the bottom bezel of the display being dubbed the "stagelight" effect. Looks like old vaudeville stage apron up lighting
The uneven backlighting seems to the the beginning of a complete backlight failure for many.
iFixit brought the issue to light in a recent post and says the culprit seems to be failing flex cables that connect the display to the display controller board.
They call the cables, "thin" and "fragile"
The big problem is depending on use the issue can take time to develop so many owners might find themselves outside their AppleCare warranty
The repair can be costly because the cable is integrated into the display.
Reports of some users able to get a repair outside of warranty.
Remember if you're in the EU you might have some recourse under local consumer protection laws
Not clear how frequent or widespread the issue is.
If the issue is frequent or wide enough there's always a possibility Apple could issue an official warranty extension program.
Apple updates all the OSes
iOS 12.1.3
Some Sprint customers reported permanently disabled or extremely spotty cellular data coverage after the update.
Apple TV 4K and fourth-generation Apple TV that fixes some bugs and improves performance.
New betas are also out to developers and also already revealing some secrets
iOS 12.2 and macOS Mojave 10.14.4 show support for the News App in Canada
A hidden "landing page" in the News app indicating a service called, "Apple News Magazines"
Rebranding of the acquired "Texture" service
No indication on the cost, but it's currently $9.99 USD/mo for access to over 200 magazines.
MacOS Mojave 10.14.4 will add TouchID support for Safari AutoFill.
AirPod 2 rumors
DigitTimes is reporting they expect Apple to release the next generation of AirPods some time in the first half of the year
Among the rumored updated features
Health monitoring functions. They don't say what. heat rate monitoring? Movement sensors?
Bluetooth 5 and maybe a W2 chip
Possible noise cancelling (be great if it was configurable)
Hey Siri functionality
Seeming backed up by a "Set up" interface discovered in iOS 12.2. beta.
They don't say, but seems to me a launch of AirPod 2s, Air Power, and the Air Pod charging case at a Spring even also announcing Apple's new streaming video service would be a great event.
Meanwhile on the iPad rumor front…
Apple registered seven unreleased iPad models with the Eurasian Economic Commission database
Likely new versions of the iPad 9.7 inch and iPad mini
References to four new iPad models found in the iOS 12.2 beta
No FaceID?
There was also a reference to an iPod Touch model in iOS 12.2.
No biometric references.
Apple reduces Titan staff
CNBC reported that Apple has gone through a "restructuring" of the staff for it's autonomous vehicle project know as "project Titan"
The program, which is overseen by Bob Mansfield and Doug Field.
An Apple representative acknowledged the restructuring, noting the company is moving forward with wider development of autonomous systems and technologies.
Apple's statement said that some groups are being moved to projects in other parts of the company, where they will support machine learning and other initiative.
Many of the reports are citing that about 200 employees were "laid off" from the project, but based on Apple's statement it's not clear if all or some of those employees were let go or merely reassigned to other projects.
The Motley Fool reports that Apple's Johny Srouji (Apple's SVP of Hardware Technologies) is NOT a candidate for Intel CEO and has told his staff that he has no plans to leave Apple.
iPhone XR is 'bestselling' iPhone
New data from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP) says the iPhone XR accounted for about 39 percent of all iPhone sales over the last fiscal quarter.
It also showed that the iPhone XS and XS Max combined made up 26 percent of sales.
The data also showed that among the XS series the Max outsold the "mini" by about two to one
One area where consumers seem to be paying up is for storage. The report claims that, "The percentage of iPhone buyers who paid up for increased storage grew to 38% this quarter from 33% in the year ago quarter."
Apple has cited sales in China as a big factor in their recent struggles with iPhone sales
New data from Strategy Analytics suggests that Apple shipped about 2.5 million fewer iPhones in China in 2018 vs 2017.
34.2 million devices versus 36.7 million
The fourth quarter was particularly bad according to the report with Apple shipping just under 11 million phones vs the 14 million they did in the same quarter in 2017.
Like a bad case of being turned into a newt, Ming Chi Kuo, say it will get better
The analyst told his investors the ‘worst is soon over’
Predicting that iPhone shipment beyond March will be higher then market consensus. And thinks 2019 totals will eventually fall at up to 190 million units.
For the Apple's second quarter he believes unit sales will be almost flat from the previous at around 34-37 million units.
That would still be a 15% year over year decline, but far less then the 29% predicted drop in the first quarter
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PDFPen
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It's not fun to talk about, but this is the time of year I rely on PDFPen the most. Tax time.
I'm dealing with all kinds of documents and forms.
I do everything paperless so it's OCR and search are critical.
Also marking up and adding annotations to items that I want to go over with my tax professional.
Filling out "fake forms", adding signatures.
Finally securing documents with passwords to send digitally to my tax professional (I call with the password).
Gives you all kinds of plane and flight data on airplanes flying anywhere in the world.
Has an AR mode where you can point your iPhone at a plane in the sky and it will show you the info about that flight.
Scheduling a Genius Bar appointment
Dick wrote in to express some of his frustrations with Apple's new support web site
It is now much more difficult to schedule an in store Genius Bar appointment
Basically the system forces you through a support wizard.
Select the product or service you're having issues with
Select the type of issue you're having
Will show recommended support articles or discussions
Depending on the nature of the issue you may get the option to schedule an appointment
More typically it will attempt to direct you to Chat or Phone support first.
I did some playing around and for most software issues you will not be given the option to make a Genius Bar appointment.
I can certainly understand Dick's frustrations. In the past it was much easier to go in and get personal support from a Genius at an Apple Store for any issue
I also understand what Apple is trying to do
Anyone who's tried to get a Genius Bar appointment knows it's near impossible. They are often backed up for days.
Apple is trying to weed out as many in-store visits as possible, especially for software issues that can likely be handles remotely
If you've never tried the "Schedule a Call" option I hugely recommend it.
They are very prompt at calling you at the scheduled time.
They can also remotely view and control your iOS devices.
If you need to schedule an appointment for some issues you might have to go through phone or chat as a first level of support on some issues
If you absolutely need to get an in store appointment here are some options
Drop in appointments. Just be ready to wait and possibly not be able to get an appointment that day
Select a "hardware" issue on the support site (don't really recommended this if you're not having a hardware issue)
On the website the "Make appointment" seems to always be the last option. In the Apple Support app, you need to click the "See all" link on the "Schedule a Call" screen.
The trouble with trade-ins
Javier wrote in to share his recent experience with a trade-in offer from Apple
Apple has aggressively been pushing this and will give you an "estimated" value for your old device on their website.
You get an offer, they give you a offer for a discount off your purchase, you get a new device, they send you a mail-in kit for the old device, it's received and inspected, if everything meets the condition you claimed then they issue a refund for the agreed amount.
Now you probably already know where this is going.
Javier was offered $200 for his iPhone 6 Plus. He bought a new iPhone XR and deleted all the accounts and erased and re-installed the OS on his old device before sending it in.
A week after he sent the old device in he was notified the offer had "changed". When he checked it was now "$0". The reason cited was they claimed they could not load the OS.
He was able to "reject" the new offer and the device is being sent back, but not after already paying full price for a new device.
Also he ran into an issue with the "reject" button on the site not working and it took days for him to get in contact with the company handling the trade-ins, "Phobios".
Yup, Apple contracts with a 3rd party for trade-ins
There was a lot of finger pointing at this point.
Because of the timeframe, a few days to get the mail-in kit, a few days fro them to receive it, five days before getting the "new" offer, and the back and forth to reject the offer we was now outside the 14-day return window.
Luckily Javier said he'd likely have kept the iPhone XR anyway, but it was been a sour experience.
We still don't know what happened with Javier's phone as it's not back from the 3rd party vendor yet. I'll give an update as soon as I know.
Some advice I would have if you're planning a trade in:
Do it in store if at all possible. They will evaluate the device in store and give you instant credit.
If you can use the "gift card" option online, though this might mean being without a device for a while.
Consider a private sale. More of a hassle, but generally you'll make more money.
Stopping robocalls
Corrie wrote in with a frustrating problem that anyone who owns a smartphone know all too well. Robocalls, spam phone calls, neighbor calls, and telemarketing
We all suffer from it. it's annoying.
Corrie had heard about apps that you can buy, and usually subscribe to, that promise to protect you.
