Category: Apple

The second beta of iOS 11.4 has arrived for testers running their iPhones, bringing several bug fixes along with the new Messages in iCloud.  The beta is only available to those who have registered their devices in the Apple beta program with the official release of the new version expected to be late in May or early June.

The big new feature in this build is Messages in iCloud which returns to the beta program.  It originally showed up in the 11.3 beta program but was dropped and not released as part of that update.  It appears that Apple has been doing their homework and will allow users to enable it.  This will allow for new messages to be sync’d to your iCloud account along with photos and videos which will save space on your iPhone.

While it is far to early to call the Apple HomePod a failure, it is certainly clear that Apple’s take on the smart speaker is struggling to gain ground in the market.  According to a new report at Bloomberg, the company has cut orders of the smart speaker and stores are starting to have inventories of the device pile up as they simply can’t get them sold.

The HomePod has been available for roughly ten weeks now and has managed to land about 10% of the smart speaker market.  That is a distant 3rd behind Amazon Echo (73% of the market) and Google Home (14%).  These figures are according to Slice Intelligence.

If you like your ultra thin Google Pixelbook or any ultra thin laptop for that matter, you have in part to thank Steve Jobs and Apple.  10 years ago today, Apple introduced the Macbook Air.  It was a radical departure from what laptop design, including Apple themselves, had been to that point.  Sporting a single USB-A port, headphone jack and power connector, the Macbook Air ditched all the conventional things at the time like a DVD drive and spinning hard disks internally.  It also introduced a multi-touch touchpad.

Instead, Apple moved to SSD drives internally and ditched the DVD drive altogether, seeing a future where they simply wouldn’t be needed.  They were right as we know now ten years on but at the time, it was radical thinking.

Huawei continues to make huge strides in the smartphone market and their surge over the course of 2017 continues.  Counterpoint, a global technology research firm, has just released their latest Market Pulse for July 2017.  In that report, the Chinese manufacture has jumped over Apple to take the number two position in global smartphone sales percentage.  Perhaps even more impressive in this is the fact that they made this jump without a “hero” device like Apple’s iPhone 7 or Samsung’s Galaxy S8.

Samsung is by far the leader in smartphone sales percentage globally with just over 20%.

The July report from Counterpoint is the fifth consecutive month of gains in market share by Huawei and they have distanced themselves from others in the highly competitive Chinese manufacturing market.  Still, as the report points out, the risk to Huawei is their over dependence of their home market and expansion into Europe and North America will need to happen for them to hold on to that 2nd place solidly.

Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference, WWDC, kicks off on Monday, June 5th.  For those who are attending, there is an updated official app of the conference now in the App Store.  The update brings the full schedule of the conference including keynotes and working sessions as well as maps to help you find your way around and get curated video playlists.  It’s a solid update and is handy for those who are attending and those who won’t be making it.

The WWDC app includes a lot of information on the venue tab.  This year’s event is being held at the McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, California and on the Venue tab you will find maps of the convention center, check-in information, Wi-Fi information and key information for attendance.

For those of you who have an iPhone, iPad or Mac, there is a fun update to Apple Maps for you today.  The server-side update will now show you all of the detail of the new Apple Park campus which is slated to open up next month.  The update shows you the estimated $5 billion “Spaceship” main building but also shows you the walking trails throughout the campus as well as the Steve Jobs Theater, the location where it is expect new Apple product releases will happen.

There is nothing you need to do to your iPhone, iPad or Mac.  The update is on the server so just go to Maps and search for Apple Park and you’ll get it right away.