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AirPods 2 going dark

Reports are coming out that Apple's next generation of AirPods are already in production and should be arriving in the next few months

The main feature updates being thrown around are a new "grippier" material for both the earbuds and case. Also, a new black color.

At least one report also mentions improved audio quality with greater bass response.

There could also be new integrated health features like Heart Rate monitoring.

Support for Bluetooth 5.0

It's believed the new AirPods might not be released until the Fall, but the AirPower charging mat and the AirPod wireless charging case could come sooner maybe in March

Apple supposedly has been dealing with interference and heat issues with AirPower.

Some reports suggest Apple has had to increase the thickness on the design slightly.

Rumor suggests a price of $150 USD for AirPower

Pricing is expected to remain the same at USD $159, though a few reports have cited a price increase to $199 USD

Design of 5th gen iPad mini

Rumors the next iPad mini will likely look a lot like the "old" one

I think most people will be OK with that

Will keep the Lightning connector, TouchID, and the 3.5mm headphone jack

Same bezels and overall size.

Will move the rear mic to the top center.

Big reason is it's also expected to have a new lower price.

Currently $399. in 128GB size, I would hope $299 for 128GB, about $30 cheaper then a 32GB 9.7-inch iPad

The big question is how far will the internals be updated?

Probably not an A12, but you'd hope at least an A10

Maybe Apple Pencil support, like the latest 9.7-inch iPad?

Apple may have March event

There is beginning to be a strong belief in the Mac community that Apple will hold a special event to announce new stuff on March 25th.

What that stuff will be is largely up to debate, but the most recent reports are leaning toward a services based announcement

We know that Apple is preparing both their new video service and news subscription service.

The premium news service is expected to remain at $9.99/mo with access to paywalled news sites

Publishers are reportedly balking at Apple's proposed revenue deal which is 50% in a pool that would be divided up by how many people are reading your stuff.

Many already have successful premium services of their own and they like having access to subscriber data, like email addresses

Apple is counting on the power of their News app and it's reach on devices and with readers.

Ads can also still be sold and publishers would get 100% of their own ad sales and 70 percent of Apple provided ads.

There are rumors of a separate magazine subscription service in the works as well.

Apple News reportedly attracts about 90 million readers a month, but how many of those would convert to the news service is the question.

i'm less interested if newspapers and magazines are separate subscriptions. I'd really like to see an "Apple Prime" like membership that includes iCloud, Apple Music, Newspapers, Magazines, and Video.

Apple might announce the new video service on the 25th, but it may not be ready until summer 2019 or even the fall according to Variety

The event is expected to take place at the Steve Jobs Theater on the Apple Park Campus in Cupertino

They could show clips at the event and some of their series stars and producers like Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, Jennifer Garner, and JJ Abrams may be in attendance at the event

Apple is also supposedly getting set to market not only the service, but many of the individual shows themselves.

It's unclear if Apple's service will be a paid subscription offering to free to owners of existing Apple devices.

Apple plans to sell third-party subscription services from inside the TV app, but so far it sounds like only CBS and Viacom (CBS All access, Starz, and Showtime) are on board. HBO is said to be close (Odd since they already offer subscriptions through Apple), but Netflix and Hulu (in ways direct competitors to Apple's service) are holding out.

Apple seems to be pushing their 30 percent cut again. Currently offer HBO 15 percent?

The benefit to consumers would be consolidating all their streaming services and payments under and single source.

Rumored to be ditching family-friendly content rules that have blocked earlier projects.

What about the hardware?

AirPods, AirPower, iPad Mini?

May only be part of a press release or maybe a separate event (seems less likely)

For the future of 2019

Analyst Ming Chi Kuo dropped some bombshells in a research note late Sunday

Apple will produce a 16 to 16.5 inch MacBook Pro in 2019 aimed at hardcore gamers and pro designers

He also said Apple will have an "easy to upgrade" Mac Pro along with a 31.6-inch 6k3k Apple Display.

New iPhones and iPads including "bilateral" wireless charging (they can charge or be charged)

He re-iterated the rumor of a triple lens camera system.

Also mentioned blogger batteries and "frosted" glass.

Says that the 2019 will retain the lightning connector.

Sys iPad will be bumped to 10.2-inches and iPad mini 5 is coming

Apple's cars disengage more often

The California DMV published their self-driving car disengagement reports for the period of December 2017 to November 2018

"disengagement" is when the self driving car turns control back over to human operators

The report includes when the system itself hands control over, or when the human steps in to take control.

It's worth noting the data is self reported, so we're trusting the companies reporting data on their own systems.

Apple logged 871.65 disengagements per 1,000 miles or 1.1 miles per disengagement

Google’s Waymo logged just 0.09 disengagements per 1,000 miles. That's 11,154.3 miles per disengagements.

That looks bad, but remember a lot i in how the companies are reporting numbers

Apple notes in a document on the DMV website that they are extremely conservative in reporting their disengagement numbers

They likely overreport vs other companies. In fact in June they changed their methods of identifying the disengagements and for the after June 2018 period they had just 28 "Important" disengagements and achieved 2,004 miles per disengagements.

One way Apple hopes to make the cars safer is with vehicle to vehicle communication. They have filed patents for a "Wireless vehicle system for enhancing situational awareness."

Apple bypasses German iPhone ban

Apple is once again selling the iPhone 7 and iPhone 8 in Germany after a German court ordered an import ban on the devices in December.

The ban was ordered back in December when a judge ruled in favor of Qualcomm in a dispute over cellular related patent involving the Intel modems Apple used in some of the devices

Apple is getting around the ban by selling versions of those devices that use only Qualcomm modems.

Acquisitions and org charts

Apple promoted their senior director of iPhone partner marketing, Fred Casanova, to Senior Director, Worldwide Product Marketing

In the process looks like they added, "all aspects of Product Marketing for Apple’s Augmented Reality initiative" to his list of responsibilities.

Apple reportedly acquired a UK digital marketing startup called DataTiger

It's not clear what Apple's plan for DataTiger is.

Obviously Apple does a lot of marketing and builds marketing into it's products for developers, advertisers, and publishers

Apple also reportedly acquired a SF voice startup called PullString

The deal is believed to be worth around $40 million

Originally the company started creating interactive voice apps for children’s toys, but have recently expanded into IoT products for Echo and Google Assistant.

Likely the technology could be integrated into Siri and ultimately products like the HomePod.

Apple has hired Sam Jadallah the founder of a failed smart lock company, Otto, and a former VP from Microsoft.

A CNBC story says he will be working on Apple's "Home" app, but other sources say he's stepping in to lead Apple's Home team.

Almost all of these changes seem to point in some way to Apple's drive to more and more focus on software and services

Specifically in the areas of home automation, voice interfaces, and AR

They should bring short term improvements to things like Siri and HomeKit

Longer term I think it shows the trend to more "screenless" based or "device independent" computing experiences.

Think about it, 20 years from now will we still be using a "smartphone" as we know it? Some combo of wearable devices and could services will probably be more common.

I've said it before, but what does the future look like when we take away mice, track pads, and keyboards as our primary forms of computer input?

Note I said "primary" form. I still think keyboards and trackpad will be around.

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Changing Apple Retail

With Angela Ahrendts leaving Apple Retail many in the community are starting to discuss the retail experience at the Apple Store

Bubbling to the surface are many complaints about crowded stores and long lead times to get appointments at the Genius Bar

What do you think about the "Today at Apple" program?

Have you ever been to a session?

I have not, but we did try one of the summer camp sessions and I thought it was great.

There are several ideas being thrown around about how to solve these problems.

Just open more locations.

Apple Retail has 70,000 employees at 506 stores worldwide

They service 500 million visitors per year

Not sure this would solve the issues

One idea I heard was to maybe separate retail from support

Like the have Town Squares, maybe they should have "Genius Lounges".

Could even offer coffee and snacks. Apple TVs showing Apple shows

Place them next to or near Apple Stores or even in locations where there are not Apple Stores.

That said, I've been asking you to share your recent Apple Retail store stories with me and I have to say most of the ones I am getting are positive

Occasionally there will be situations where it took multiple calls or trips to the Apple Store, but in the majority of cases Apple is taking care of you.

Apple gift card scams

Here's a situation that's a bit of a cautionary tale and also one where Apple stepped up.

Wayne sent me an email detailing how he was contacted via email by what appeared to be a friend asking him to send him $400 of Apple Gift Cards

He went so far as to go to his local Apple Retail store to purchase the cards, but luckily before he sent them along to his friend he decided to check with him via phone.

As you might have guessed, it was a scam.

Apple actually has [details about this scam](https://support.apple.com/itunes-gift-card-scams) on their web site

You can call 800-275-2273 and say "gift cards" when prompted if you think you've been targeted by one of these scams

Luckily Wayne didn't send them, but he still had the issue that he purchased the cards. iTunes and Apple Store gift cards are not refundable.

He was told this by phone support and in store

Ultimately Wayne was able to get a refund but he had to go through some hoops, I assume with Apple's fraud team.

Had to a police report and then sending copies of the police report, copy of the receipt and the front and backs of the four gift cards to Apple.

They said it would then take 4-6 weeks to get the refund check.

Wayne got the check in about two weeks.

So happy ending, but a good warning.

Where'd my Mail go?

Received an email from Fred with an email question I get frequently especially when people transition from POP email to IMAP

I even get this from IMAP users as well

Fred had an old AT&T POP account that they transitioned to IMAP.

Not long after that Fred noticed that he was no longer seeing some of his emails on his iPhone or iPad, but they were still in the folder he moved them to in Mail on his Mac.

The issue was he was moving them into a folder in the "On My Mac" section of Mail and not to one under the IMAP account

Can especially happen if you set up the folders under POP

POP often was set up to "leave message on server" and each device would grab a copy.

IMAP is different because all email is on the IMAP server and then any actions you take on that email locally are sync'd to the server and to your other devices.

In this case if you take an email out of the INBOX and move it the "On My Mac" location it's doing exactly that, removing it from the server and storing it locally on your Mac.

That is why the other devices no longer have access.

Luckily the fix is pretty easy. Just set up your folders (really mailboxes) on the IMAP server and move your messages in there.

1) On your Mac in Mail under the Mailbox menu choose “New Mailbox…”

2) In the New Mailbox dialog for “Location:” choose your IMAP Email account (server)

3) Give the Mailbox a name, like “Saved Emails” or maybe “My Project”

4) Click “OK”

This will create the new Mailbox on your IMAP server. Now you can simply drag any emails from your “On My Mac” mailbox into this new IMAP mailbox.

Then they should sync to the server and be available from that same IMAP mailbox on all your other devices

I personally like my INBOX clean, so I have a TON of IMAP mailbox folders that I use to organize my emails into projects, tasks, etc.

Shortcut data collection

Recently here and on the "cancelled" iOS Show podcast I was mentioning my intermittent issues with AirPods

It seemed to often happen this one area of my neighborhood durning my walk and I've developed my own conspiracy theories as to why

We are a military town secret wifi jamming weapons testing is not out of the realm of possibility.

Ivor wrote me to say he has had similar troubles, but he wanted to gather data.

He Shortcut: (AirPod Failures) to do it.

Basically it prompts you about which AirPod had the issue

Records the date, time, and Apple Maps location

Appends and saves it to a Note

Genius! I had never thought of using Shortcuts as a data collection tool (at least not in this way), but what a great use case.

You can add the item to the widgets or have Siri trigger it, "Hey Siri, My AirPods Failed"

So how about you, what are you using Shortcuts for?

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