Originally published at: https://appletalk.com.au/2018/11/tuesday-morning-news201118/
The Sydney Morning Herald has the inside story on Apple News curation as it pertains to Australia, telling us about Apple News’ Australian editors that reaches 5 million Australians every month, with Australia being one of the three countries that has access to Apple News, and Sydney being one of the four international outposts of Apple news editors. But why Apple is now in the news business is a little more complex, with editors saying that while many publications can choose to publish on Apple News, its the editors jobs to surface the best, unbiased, balanced, content.
In an interview with HBO’s Axios, Apple CEO Tim Cook discussed Apple’s ongoing commitment to user privacy, which then turned into a discussion regarding why Apple chooses Google’s search engine as the default in millions of iOS devices. Cook’s response was that while Google’s search still provides the best search experience for its users, Apple has put a lot of work into building privacy and security measures into Mobile Safari.
Apple has confirmed on its website sharing locations of mapping vehicles that it is collecting pedestrian-level data in San Francisco and surrounding Californian counties. Speculation says Apple’s pedestrian beats will improve navigation directions for those on foot, but it’s an interesting problem even without considering the amount of ground these folks need to cover.
Sources speaking to the Wall Street Journal claim that Apple is cutting orders for its latest iPhones, including the iPhone XS, XS Max, and XR, ahead of reports that sales for those devices have been weaker than expected. That’s perhaps not as much of a problem as you might think, given that Apple’s increased selling prices raise their revenue numbers that way, and now that we won’t have unit sales numbers from Apple, maybe it won’t matter at all.
AppleInsider wondered if the new Mac mini was capable of operating within its own thermal envelope. Their tests looked at performance under sustained load and thermal throttling, and while the Intel CPU clock speed was reduced from its Turbo max, at no point did it ever drop below the base clock speed, making it a great performer under all work loads.
If you use iCloud for Windows, you can’t currently update to Windows 10 version 1809 due to an issue where uses may see issues updating or syncing shared photo albums. Both Microsoft and Apple are working together to provide an updated version of iCloud for Windows that will allow users to upgrade, although there’s currently no timeframe on when that will be available.
Macworld’s Dan Moren highlights the three things Apple needs to bring to the Mac and iPhone. It always felt curious that Apple chose to add its superseded Touch ID technology to the latest MacBook Air instead of Face ID, although I’m sure there’s at least some justification in holding off bringing touch interaction to Macs given the poor reception of the Touch Bar. And as for the iPhone, well, people have been asking for Pencil support for years now, but using a regular-sized Pencil on the iPhone still seems a little silly.
Six Colors explains that the iOS keyboard cursor movement shortcut isn’t a new feature, but does highlight poor feature discoverability in iOS. It’s the kind of thing that Apple should absolutely be highlighting in its built-in Tips app, which should have an endless laundry list of features that it can cover that will help everyone use their iOS devices better.
A concept case for the Apple Watch Series 4 turns it into an old-school iPod, but I’m wondering why you would opt to carry something around in the palm of your hand when you can wear it on your wrist. I mean, it’s cool and all, but even having a pod case for your older model Apple Watch isn’t that useful when the one you wear on your wrist is going to do the same thing.
Apple’s latest ad gives you five reasons why an iPad Pro can be your next computer, and while some of them are direct comparisons to computers, the points all play to the iPad Pro’s strengths.
