Originally published at: http://appletalk.com.au/2017/05/monday-morning-news080517/
Phil Schiller was interviewed by website NDTV recently, due to Apple’s SVP of Worldwide Marketing being in Bengaluru to open an app accelerator. Although the interview happened just before Apple announced it would be overhauling the Mac Pro, Schiller still had thoughts to share on topics such as App Store pricing, devices such as Google Home and Amazon’s Echo, and Swift adoption among developers.
Everyone keeps talking about how China is a large market for Apple, which it is, but there’s a bigger problem. John Gruber of Daring Fireball writes that iPhone owners in China aren’t as loyal as other countries, which leads to less people buying iPhones when Apple release a new model. Coupled with the same iPhone 6 design that’s been around for a few years, and that leads to mediocre financial results, all because of one country.
While debate still rages about how many new iPhones we’ll get this year, one analyst from JPMorgan believes we’ll see at least two. The “new” iPhone will sport the edge-to-edge display that’s become the norm for flagships this year, while the refreshed iPhone will come with a glass back. It’s also said that AirPods may be bundled with the new iPhone, but that would make them so hard to find that you might as well not even try.
Handbrake has been infected with malware. One of their download mirrors was compromised, and anyone who downloaded Handbrake between the 2nd of May and 6th May needs to check their machine. The good news is, the forum post on the issue has steps to tell if you’re infected, as well as for removal of the malware.
A separate kind of malware disguised itself as Adobe Flash, but contains backdoor malware. Worse, it’s even signed by a valid developer certificate, bypassing the usual Gatekeeper restriction. While the developer certificate has since been revoked, you can still check if you’ve been infected by using Malwarebytes or manually looking in a few different places.
The good news for developers is that Apple has added source and referrer data to app analytics within iTunes Connect. The new stats are supposed to provide greater insights to developers about where users discover their apps, allowing developers to see what apps or websites people are downloading their app from.
The latest bank to support Apple Pay in Australia is HSBC. Frustratingly, there’s still no word on when three of the big four will be coming to the Apple Pay party.
Matt Gemmell writes about the damage Apple has done to independent developers. It’s not just about the race to the bottom in terms of App Store pricing, but all of the expectations that come along with it — free updates for life, regardless of how many devices you own or buy, and more.
Russell Ivanovic of Shifty Jelly replaced his Mac mini with an Intel NUC, which is one thing, but then he went and installed macOS on it due to not wanting to mess around with Windows 10 and getting proper TV support up and running.
The first major update to Apple’s latest app, Clips, adds improvements to the way live titles work within the app. There’s also a sharing improvement that lets you share to your most-used contacts.