Originally published at: http://appletalk.com.au/2018/05/monday-morning-news140518/
A roundup of iPhone SE successor rumours from the weekend tells us everything we do and don’t know about the device. Case manufacturers are telling us one thing when it comes to the new device, but it’s difficult to predict what kind of a refresh we’ll get. Will the iPhone SE successor feature moderate changes to the external design, or will the smaller form factor lend itself to iPhone X-based tech like the edge-to-edge display and Face ID?
A new way of smelting aluminium is currently being worked on by two of the world’s biggest companies in aluminium, and Apple is right in the middle of the mix with a combined $144 million investment, along with the Governments of Canada and Quebec. Alcoa Corporation and Rio Tinto Aluminium intend to commercialise patented technology that eliminates greenhouse gases from aluminium smelting, with a commercially-viable product expected to be released around 2024. For a company like Apple that cares about its impact on the environment and has many products made from aluminium unibody enclosures, it’s kind of a big deal.
Apple has pulled the plug on plans for an €850 million data centre in Ireland following a number of delays in the approval process. If you remember, Apple first announced two new data centres worth $2 billion to be built in Ireland and Denmark back in 2015. While the Denmark data centre is nearing the first stages of completion, the data centre originally based in Ireland still hasn’t progressed, and now, has been canned entirely.
Apple CEO Tim Cook’s commencement address for Duke University told students to think different and not accept the status quo, challenging them to leave the world better than they found it and to follow in the footsteps of inspirational leaders such as Steve Jobs, Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr. You can watch Cook’s entire commencement speech over on YouTube.
The Wall Street Journal claims Apple will partner with Goldman Sachs to introduce some kind of Apple Pay credit card, with a proposed release date of early next year. Apple Pay Cash already offers peer-to-peer payments via a number of US-based financial institutions, which probably explains why it isn’t available outside of the US at the moment. I suspect Apple’s plans for a credit card, if any, will be similar.
A new lawsuit against Apple alleges the company fails to disclose defective MacBook Pros due to dust or debris rendering the keyboard inoperable. The lawsuit also claims Apple continually refuses to honour its warranty obligations, saying that any reported issues are dismissed or resolved using non-technical methods that do not result in a permanent fix for the issue, with any part replacements also only fixing the issue temporarily.
AppleInsider suggests a number of changes to MacBook Pros that they’d like to see Apple make. I’m surprised Intel’s latest generation of processors is at the top of their list; given the widespread media coverage of MacBook Pro keyboards over the past month or so, I would have thought an updated keyboard would be higher. Either way, I don’t think people hate the butterfly switches, per se, but that they dislike the inconsistent reliability of the keyboard.
The first season of Carpool Karaoke is now available for free via Apple’s TV app. The first episode was available last Friday, and you can expect new episodes weekly. Apple’s 30-second promo video points out that Carpool Karoke was previously only available to Apple Music subscribers, but good guy Apple is now making the episodes available for all.
YouTube quietly rolled out the ability for iPhone X owners to watch HDR content on the platform over the weekend. Curiously, while the most recent iPad Pros can also display HDR content, YouTube doesn’t appear to support those devices just yet, although it’s probably coming. Select the quality on any HDR YouTube video to make sure you’re watching the real deal.
9to5Mac tells us about the Apple Watch Water Lock mode, available on Apple Watch Series 2 or later. When activated, Water Lock will disable all hardware buttons and the display, preventing accidental taps and clicks, and you’ll then need to turn the Digital Crown to disable Water Lock.