Originally published at: https://appletalk.com.au/2018/10/friday-morning-news121018/
Apple has semi-acquired Dialog Semiconductor, with a total of $600 million going to the UK-based chipmaker that’s been working with Apple since the early days of the iPhone. As part of the deal, $300 million will go towards the acquisition of 300 employees (who were already working closely with Apple engineers, will now work for Apple), as well as Apple licensing power-management technologies and other assets owned by Dialog, with the remaining $300 million to be paid in advance for products produced by Dialog within the next three years. While more efficient power management is likely to have some impact on real-world battery life, it’s also said that the acquisition will improve Apple’s operating efficiencies in this area.
Music encyclopaedia Genius has partnered with Apple, offering both their lyrics database for songs within any of Apple’s Music apps, and allowing Apple Music subscribers to listen to full songs in-browser on the Genius website. It’s unclear which service was previously providing lyrics for Apple Music, but being able to listen to full tracks on a web interface while you browse similar artists and tracks is pretty neat, and could be great for some new music discovery.
A report from CNBC claims Apple will give away its original content to device owners as part of its digital video strategy. The idea is that while Apple will offer free content within the TV app to entice users, subscription streaming video channels from pre-existing content companies will also be offered alongside Apple’s own free offerings, with a big reveal date of early next year also claimed by the article.
Chinese payment firms AliPay and WeChat Pay say thieves are using compromised Apple IDs to make unauthorised payments using the linked payment method, which sounds a lot like an issue for any Apple ID with linked payment method, irrespective of region. And indeed, Apple’s recommendation is to set a strong password and enable two-factor authentication to secure your Apple ID from unauthorised logins.
In his latest research note, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo discusses Apple’s opportunity with the iPhone XR which will launch at the end of the month. It’s due to lower sales from Apple’s competitors in China over certain periods, but also due to the XR’s lower price (compared to the XS and XS Max), despite having many of the same headlining features and longer battery life than its more expensive siblings.
China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology database has seen three new models of iPad registered, as well as an unknown Bluetooth device belonging to Apple in the filing that could be a refreshed version of the Apple Pencil. Previous regulatory filings have seen new models of iPads being released, so it’s possible that this could be the iPad Pro refresh we’ve been hearing about for months now.
Apple’s patent application for detecting spoofed calls seems like a great idea to combat telemarketing and other types of phone call fraud. The idea is that any device receiving an incoming call could perform certain checks to determine if the call was genuine, then alert the user if there was indication that it was coming from a different source than claimed.
Apple’s support article of status icons and symbols on Apple Watch is a handy guide for what all the icons on your Apple Watch mean.
A post from the Apple subreddit tells us about the built-in protection in iOS 12 against fake software keyboards, likely to prevent phishing attempts from third-party websites. The warning message says keyboards aren’t allowed when websites are displayed in full-screen mode, although this isn’t something that I’ve heard about as an attack vector.
I had to check my calendar this morning to confirm that it wasn’t April 1st, because according to this story from AppleInsider, Kanye West just pitched the idea of a hydrogen-powered plane, worked on by Apple, to replace Air Force One, to the president of the United States. Just when you thought American politics couldn’t get more interesting!