Originally published at: http://appletalk.com.au/2018/05/thursday-morning-news240518/
Apple’s new data and privacy site lets users download all of the data Apple has on them, including Apple ID info, previous purchases from Apple Stores or the App Stores, AppleCare history, and any data stored within iCloud. While this data download is only available to Europeans for the time being for GDPR compliance reasons, it’s expected the new data and privacy tools will rollout worldwide in the coming months.
The data and privacy portal from Apple also lets you delete or deactivate your Apple ID, should you no longer wish to have one. Deleting an Apple ID is currently available to everyone, but deactivating an Apple ID, which lets you retain the information to be used at a later date, is only available to locations within the EU and Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland.
Apple is offering an $80 credit to customers who paid for an out-of-warranty iPhone battery replacement in 2017 at an Apple Store or Apple Authorised Service Provider. Customers eligible for the out-of-warranty iPhone battery replacement credit will be contacted by Apple, with the credit given as an electronic funds transfer or a credit on the credit card used to pay for the battery replacement.
A second class action lawsuit has been filed against Apple for defective MacBook Pro keyboards, alleging that MacBook Pro keyboards are prone to malfunction from small amounts of dust or debris that accumulate under the keyboard. The complaint points out the defective nature of butterfly switch keyboards, alleging Apple knew about the failures but failed to disclose this information to prospective customers.
Apple SVP of Software Engineering Craig Federighi says APFS support for Fusion Drive is coming “very soon”. Fusion Drives were included by default on a number of iMacs, with Mac minis also available with them, so it’s nice to see Apple supporting the hardware they shipped to customers with their latest filesystem.
Apple manufacturing partner TSMC has started production of this year’s iPhone SoCs. Bloomberg speculates that this year’s SoC — probably called the A12 — will use a 7nm fabrication process, allowing the chips to be smaller, faster, and more efficient than the current generation of 10nm chips.
It says volumes about the state of mobile payments in the US when the mobile payments system of a coffee house is more popular than Apple or Google’s mobile payments systems. Starbucks themselves claim its mobile app for ordering and paying for coffee accounted for 12% of all US transactions in the recent quarter, which seems pretty incredible.
If the Apple Watch isn’t saving your life from high heart-rate notifications when you appear to be resting, it’s also found a new niche in the service industry as a more subtle way of staying in touch, while not visibly checking your phone. Getting your notifications sent to your watch is pretty cool, as it turns out.
MacStories goes hands-on with Spark 2, which now features integrations for teams and apps. There are a bunch of new app integrations if you’re an individual, but if you’re using Spark 2 as part of a team, internal comments can be left on and alongside emails, with shared drafts also being a thing, to help you better manage your emails.
Six Colors points out that Mac OS X is now as old as MacOS Classic, with 6269 days elapsing between when MacOS was released and when it was retired, and when Mac OS X was released to now, although MacOS Classic existed for a few more years in various forms.