Originally published at: https://appletalk.com.au/2018/11/friday-morning-news301118/
Apple’s Newsroom is telling us the story of the good work Apple is doing supporting HIV treatment via its partnership with (RED). Roughly a third of the organisation’s over $600 million raised since its inception has been via Apple, its largest corporate partner, and HIV treatment services are now available all over the world to many who did not have access to it before, thanks to Apple’s help.
Apple VP of Product Marketing Greg Joswiak has told Cnet that the iPhone XR has been outselling the iPhone XS and XS Max ever the former device launched on October 26. Joswiak says the iPhone XR has been the most popular iPhone each and every day since the day it became available, which is in line with early reviews which said the iPhone XR was the one most people should get, unless they really needed or wanted the additional niceties of the iPhone XS, or the larger screen of the iPhone XS Max.
A new class action lawsuit targets Apple for failing to install dust filters in MacBooks and iMacs, which results in dust buildup within machines and expensive repairs for consumers. Law firm Hagens Berman argues Apple has failed to address the build-up of dust — one of the most simple and well-known problems in technology — in its otherwise reliably and quality-made products, leading to cooling issues and usability issues as dust gets stuck behind the screens of iMacs, for example.
Apple has announced that it will be attending the world’s largest machine learning conference next week. The 2018 Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems in Canada runs from December 2 through to December 8, and is apparently in its 32nd year, which seems like an extremely long time for a field that has only recently began to become mainstream.
An iOS developer has built a web-app that lets you visualise your Apple Music listening history. To get a breakdown of your listening habits from Apple Music data, MacRumors explains you’ll need to download your Apple Media Services Information file from Apple’s privacy and data portal, then trust Pat Murray when he says no data ever leaves your computer and all computation is done in-browser.
David Barnard has posted numerous examples of how smaller apps get away with gaming the App Store, while slightly larger companies fall victim to inconsistently-applied App Store guidelines. For every developer that is trying to do the right thing and provide consistent, great experiences for all of its users, there are hundreds of apps that flout common conventions, trick users into expensive recurring subscriptions, or pop-up messages during regular use because they can.
AppleInsider claims Apple has destroyed the potential of the iPad Pro’s Smart Connector by moving it to the back of the device. The prime example is Apple’s new Smart Keyboard Folio, which now has a back piece in addition to the keyboard component, preventing from using just the keyboard part, or a different kind of back protection, all because the keyboard needs to interface with the Smart Connector. While there weren’t many other accessories using the Smart Connector beforehand, the move basically guarantees even less third-party accessory manufacturers will use it now.
Jean-Louis Gassée recounts the somewhat troubled birth of the original Macintosh in the content of the time. Gasée says the Macintosh’s late arrival to the computing market, expensive price, and poor positioning became an opportunity for him to get transferred to Apple as the head of Macintosh development — a role recently vacated by Steve Jobs.
AppleInsider has what they call a surprisingly long history of Apple’s AirPods, but it’s not that long. Sure, there have been a few patents over the years, and there have been some detours along the way with the acquisition of Beats, but once Apple removed the headphone jack, AirPods became a thing, and now I see them pretty much everywhere.
Apple’s latest ad is for Group FaceTime, showing off a group of Elvis impersonators singing along to Elvis’ “There’s Always Me” using Group FaceTime available in iOS 12.1.