Tag: Apple

Apple October Event

What a great time to be an Apple fan. Two events in the span of two months! Seems every other year Apple holds a second event in October, after the major iPhone September event and this year all the speculation was correct and Apple will be holding an event on October 30th in Brooklyn, NYC.

What will we see? Let’s delve into all the rumours and speculation.

New iPad Pro

The invitations to the event focused on creativity, so likely, the main event will be new iPad Pro models. These iPad Pros will have edge to edge displays and no home button. It is also expected to have Face ID but it is unclear if it will be housed in a notch like the iPhone Xs. This will be a welcomed design change to the iPad as it hasn’t gone through a major redesign since the iPad Air.

I think we will most definitely see a new iPad Pro will no home button and a greatly reduced bezel, but it won’t be as edge to edge as the iPhone Xs. There will be a 20 to 30 point bezel around the entire iPad so that a Face ID array can fit. Sure, it’s not edge to edge, but it will still look great and will allow for larger displays without increasing the overall footprint.

These iPad Pros will likely have A12x processors, better camera, better battery and the standard refresh updates. It is also believed to use a USB-C port replacing the lightning port and the removal of the headphone jack.

We will probably see the Apple Pencil 2 with AirPod-like pairing and better battery life. It’s also rumoured that the Pencil will be redesigned to make it easier to attach the Pencil to the iPad with magnets.

New MacBooks…Finally

The other, long awaited, major announcement will be the new MacBook. New MacBook Pro models were introduced in the summer and everyone has been waiting to see what Apple is going to do with the MacBook and MacBook Air lines. I’ve written about this before, so I won’t rehash everything, but we will likely see a low cost MacBook Air update or replacement, and a new evolution of the MacBook.

The interesting thing for me is to see what Apple decides to name these new products. In my opinion, I think it’s time for Apple to simplify their entry level MacBooks. Drop the Air, drop the price of the MacBook and have a clear delineation between entry level and Pro notebooks.

New iMacs and Mac minis

We may also see new desktop computers introduced. The iMac might see a refresh but so far no rumours of a major redesign has been mentioned. Also, the Mac mini could see an update, but again no details have surfaced as to what they will look like.

iMacs will for the most part look the same but will see spec bumps. The Mac mini could be a bit of a surprise and we might get a smaller little desktop box.

Audio and accessories

While this might be a distinct section the presentation, we might get mention of AirPower and a solid release date and price. Many believe that the AirPower mat is dead, but signs point otherwise and Apple might finally get it to market.

A bit of a wild card might be new AirPods. Rumours have been swirling that new AirPods are in development with the ability to use “Hey, Siri” as well as better pairing and battery life. While there might be an AirPod 2 in the pipeline, we might not see these until next year.

There’s also another rumour swirling that Apple is developing an Apple branded, high-end noise-cancelling headphones. I am certain Apple won’t be announcing them for sale this year, they might give an early preview like they did with HomePod a couple years ago. It is also unsure if these rumoured headphones are actually happening. These headphones are said to be higher end than Apple owned Beat’s over-ear headphones, so while it won’t be directly competing with the Studio 3’s, Apple would be double dipping into the headphone market.

I, for one, hope these headphones come to market because I’d love to have a set of noise-cancelling headphones that have the convenience of AirPods, Apple’s design, and Siri. Not to mention that, I’m sure Apple will pay very close attention to sound quality. Again, I don’t think we’ll see these until next year, but we might get a sneak peak.

October 30th

This is of course all speculation and we’ll soon find out who’s right and who’s wrong. You can tune into the event at 7am PST on apple.com and on your Apple TV.

CBC’s Story on Apple is Just Bad Journalism

The CBC’s The National’s undercover report on Apple is not investigative reporting, but instead a one-sided, skewed attack just looking to get views.

*Full disclosure, I spent several years as an Apple Genius, but I no longer work for Apple. I am an Apple fan, but I also criticize them when it’s appropriate.

If you haven’t seen it, and you might not have because it was a story that ran on a Canadian TV station, the CBC’s The National, a program known for hard hitting investigative journalism, ran a piece that went “undercover” to an Apple store in Toronto and exposed an Apple employee trying to up sell a customer from their broken computer. It then devolves into an expose on how Apple doesn’t let third parties repair their products, and ends recycling a nearly one year old Batterygate issue which Apple has since addressed. The video glaringly misses and neglects to mention several key facts and interviews only those who help build their case.

The piece starts out with the undercover journalist going to an Apple store with a MacBook Pro with a non-functioning backlight on his display. The technician goes to the back to open up the computer and comes back with bad news. The computer has been liquid damaged and if Apple were to repair the computer it would cost well over $1000. The Genius points out that purchasing a new computer would be a better option. The journalist acts surprised and pushes to see if anything can be done. The Genius finally says, “no.”

Skip to New York City, where the National visits Louis Rossmann, a Youtube computer repair personality who takes a look at the computer. It turns out that the backlight issue isn’t caused by the liquid damage, but from a bent pin in the display cable. Once bent back, the backlight issue is resolved. Note I said the one issue is resolved. The computer is still liquid damaged AF and I’m sure has a load of other issues. The report goes on to claim that the Genius was maliciously trying to sell him a new MacBook for something that coiuld have been fixed in a few minutes.

This is the first red flag for me. Pins don’t bend themselves inside computers. Just like computers don’t get themselves full of water. Clearly, someone opened the computer, bent a pin to cause the issue, then liquid damaged the computer before taking it to the Apple Store. They knew of Apple’s policies and procedures and bent the pin along with giving the laptop a drink. You can read the policies yourself on Apple’s website, but essential it boils down to, Apple will not do partial repairs on a device if they see other components are damaged. It’s to cover themselves as any smart business would do. Imagine Apple repaired a computer that was dumped in a swimming pool. They replace only the display. A month later the customer comes back saying the display isn’t working again. The display gets replaced again. Then a month later the same thing. Ends up being that the logic board is shorting the display cable because it has corrosion in the connector. So, now Apple has gone through three dispalys and now has to replace the logic board. They need to cover themselves and follow procedures. Any smart and thorough repair centre, for any product, would do the same.

I will concede that there is an issue with Apple retail stores and their ability to be thorough. The craziness of an Apple store has some negative effects on service, namely the time that is given to a customer. In this case, if the Genius were allowed to take time to closely inspect the MacBook Pro, he may have found the bent pin, which wouldn’t have needed a repair and would have resolved the immediate issue. That would have changed the whole story. Instead, because of the frantic nature of an Apple store and the pressure from management to take as many customers as possible, Apple often fails to properly inspect devices with the alotted time. That Genius was setup to fail.

The more journalistic approach would have been to bring in several computer with different issues to different stores to see what the Apple store would say to those repairs. But, the report doesn’t do that, because they know that they could only make their point with a liquid damaged computer. One liquid damaged computer doesn’t tell the whole story.

The piece then moves on to Rossmann and this whole right to repair movement. I’ve never heard of it, but the main argument is that Apple doesn’t allow third parties to repair Apple products and that Apple controls all aspects of repair.

What they neglect to mention is that there are thousands of third party authorized repair centre around the world and that repairs at unauthorized and often shady repair shops can lead to subpart to disasterous repairs.

Then there’s some weak argument that Apple’s parts are proprietary and expense which is just another way of gouging the customer. This isn’t news. Apple products have always been proprietary and that’s why it’s expensive. They customize and patient everything and they’ve been doing it since the original Macintosh. It’s not to gouge customers, it’s just a unfortunate by-product of how they design their devices.

The report ends with a, late to the game, look at Batterygate which Apple has addressed since it all came to light late last year. Now, I don’t believe they were forcing people to upgrade their phones as this story suggests, but I do feel Apple should have been more transparent with what they were doing throttling customer’s older iPhones. Having said that, the story doesn’t do anything to explain natural battery depletion, battery replacement costs, and countless other important factors before rendering a judgement. They also, conveniently, don’t mention how Apple addressed the throttling with the update to disable it, or the performance increase in iOS 12. It’s just shotty, and misleading reporting.

In a time of accusations of fake news being thrown around, the media, more than ever, has to be at their best. This showing from CBC’s The National was not at all their best. The whole story is just a witchhunt directed at Apple with manipulated scenarios, targeted interviews and a lack of understanding and prospective. It’s clickbait. The National used to be better than this.

The Next iPhone: Predictions for 2019

Now that the iPhone Xs, Xs Max and Xr have been announced and released (as of this writing, the iPhone Xr hasn’t been released yet), it’s time to have some fun and speculate what next year’s iPhone models will be like.

The newest line up of Apple’s phones were updated versions of last year’s iPhone X, typical of a S-cycle revision. This paves the way for next year being a more dramatic upgrade to Apple’s flagship product, and based off rumoured features and changes we didn’t see this time around, I thought it would be fun to speculate what the 2019 iPhone line up will be like. Let’s look into our crystal ball…

The Name

I feel I could write a whole article on the history of Apple’s naming of iPhone models, but for now I will take a stab at what they will be naming next year’s models.

I think it’s safe to say that Apple has skipped the iPhone 9 and that we will never see an iPhone with that name. Now there’s a chance that the iPhone 8 could evolve into the iPhone 9, but I’m pretty certain that Apple is done with home button models and the iPhone 8 will be the last phone with a forehead and chin.

So, the next logical number after X (10) is 11. I could be making an obvious point here, but there are some interesting possibilities around this. First, if it will be called the iPhone “11”, will it be the iPhone 11 or iPhone XI? The iPhone X used a roman numeral numbering system, which I had thought Apple did away with after getting rid X from macOS. If Apple decides to continue with this numbering system, then we might have to deal with people saying iPhone ex eye. Sigh

Another possibility would be that Apple decides to ditch the romans and go back to regular old numbers. iPhone 11 has a nice look to it.

My prediction for this one is it’ll be called the iPhone 11. X looked good, a single, striking character. XI starts to look awkward, and in 2021, the iPhone XIII looks really weird. And what happens in 2057, when we have iPhone XXX? Not a good look.

To the Max?

Like it or not, Apple will likely stick with “Max” for the large screen version of the iPhone 11. I’m already getting used to saying it, so I’m sure by then no one will care.

iPhone 11 Max looks pretty plausible.

The Internals

Like every iPhone since the iPhone 4, the system on a chip has been an Apple custom designed A-chip processor. Apple will obviously continue to design their own silicon and will continue to name them with the A”insert number here” convention. This year saw the A12 Bionic chip, with the A11 Bionic chip being last year’s chip.

It’s interesting to note that the Bionic moniker was used two years in a row, which was a subtle signal by Apple that the A11 and A12 are very, very closely related.

We will most definitely see the A13 chip. It’s anyone’s guess what fancy moniker Apple will add to this new chip, but it won’t be Bionic again.

As for the specification of the chip itself, there will be more power packed into a 7nm processor. The A12 has a six-core CPU and a four-core GPU and a Neural Engine that can process 5 trillion operations a second. The A13 could have 8-cores CPU with four high performance cores and four power efficient cores. As for the GPU, we might see a five core chip, which could coincide with a new Metal 3 API from Apple.

The Camera

Earlier this year, rumours had been swirling that the iPhone Xs Max would have a triple camera system. But, closer to Apple’s September announcement, it was becoming clear that this wouldn’t the case. Now rumours point to next year’s model getting the new camera system.

Samsung has just announce a triple camera lens phone, while Huawei has had a tri-cam system for a while now. Samsung’s approach was to make the third lens an ultra wide lens that mimics what the human eye sees. Huawei’s approach was to make the third lens a monochromatic lens that would add lighting detail to images.

Apple’s approach to having a three lens array would be to assist in their ongoing efforts in AR. The third lens would be used for wider stereoscopic mapping to help with augmented reality, and for improved Portrait mode thanks to a wider parallax effect. As well, the third lens could be a ultra wide lens or even a macro type lens.

As for the image sensors for this new Camera array, we may finally see Apple up the megapixels count. Since the iPhone 7, the camera has had a 12-megapixel sensor. Might we see a 20-megapixel sensor? Not likely, but expect an upgrade of at least a couple megapixels. Also, expect to see a slightly larger f-stop for even better low light photos.

The Body

I think it’s safe to say that the overall body shape and size will be the same as this year’s lineup. Glass, front and back. Steel frame. Curved edges. The same basic profile since the iPhone 6 which I feel is still a solid look and feel.

We could see some small tweaking of the placement of buttons and switches, but Apple will be sticking with physical buttons a little while longer. This is due to the fact that the only way cases will work on an iPhone is that the buttons are physical.

USB-C

There are rumours of an October 2018 Apple event that will introduce new iPad Pro models with a USB-C port. If this proves to be true, and I think this could be true, I see this coming to 2019 iPhones. It’s going to be controversial, just like when Apple switched to Lightning back in 2012 with the iPhone 5. But, switching to USB-C makes sense as Apple would want to streamline all products to charge using the same power adapters and cables.

The Display

Okay, so the biggest change a year ago, with the iPhone X, was its display. People had their doubts, but within a year I think it’s clear that this is the future of all smartphones. The iPhone 11 will see Apple trying to push the display to the limits.

Apple has been calling the iPhone X and now iPhone Xs displays “edge to edge,” and yes there are less bezels then previous iPhone displays, but it’s not quite edge to edge. Expect Apple engineers to continue reducing the bezels to get a more edge to edge screen.

I can also see Apple upping the resolution of the display. With Apple heavily supporting Dolby Vision in it’s iTunes catalogue, it’s natural that Apple would want to get their displays to near, or even full 4k. It might seem like overkill for such a small screen, but if you consider the 6.5 inch iPhone Xs Max display, it could look amazing.

The Notch

Another area of improvement I’m sure Apple is targeting, is the TrueDepth camera array, or the notch. Pretty much everyone I know that has an iPhone X has gotten so used to the notch that they forget it’s even there. But, when watching a video in full screen, or playing games, you are often reminded of it’s presence.

I’m certain that Apple is going to reduce the size of the array and gain back space on the display. I could see the front camera and infrared camera being combined. The dot projector and flood illuminator could also be combined in some way and made smaller. I expect to see a narrower and flatter TrueDepth camera array that could be half the size.

For anyone who can’t stand the notch, it’s too bad for you. Clearly, Apple doesn’t want to go back to the chin and forehead, and until they can find a way to hide the array under the screen, there will be the notch.

The Sizes

The iPhone Xs comes in two sizes. 5.8 inch and 6.5 inch displays. I don’t see the iPhone getting any bigger than the Max. The Max is the same size as the previous Plus models and I think that’s as far as Apple is willing to go in terms of physical size of an iPhone.

I think the real question is, will we see a 5.8 inch iPhone next year? I will get into the iPhone Xr later in this article, but it’s screen size of 6.1 inch makes you wonder why Apple made it’s screen larger than that of the iPhone Xs.

As weird as having an in-between 6.1 inch screen in the mix, I think Apple will stick with a 5.8 inch model as people do find that size to be just right.

The Price

I’ll keep this section short and simple.

iPhone 11 is going to be expensive. iPhone Xs starts at $999 USD like the iPhone X before it, and the iPhone Xs Max starts at $1099 USD. Expect the same prices next year and start saving up.

What about the R?

This year Apple introduced not just one, but two new iPhone sizes. The 6.5 inch iPhone Xs Max and the iPhone Xr with a 6.1 inch LCD display.

What Apple does with the iPhone Xr next year is going to be interesting. It really depends on how Apple views this product. The iPhone SE was basically an iPhone 5s with an A9 chip. It was in the iPhone lineup for two years and served as an entry level device; or as an iPhone for people who just didn’t want to go bigger than a 4 inch display. Is the iPhone Xr the new iPhone SE? Or will Apple treat this differently and update it along side the flagship models every year as a lower cost variant?

Well, price-wise, the iPhone Xr is not the same category as the iPhone SE, but I feel it serves a similar purpose. I think Apple is planning on keeping this phone around for a while. I don’t think Apple will refresh it every year, maybe every couple years. The current model has an A12 chip. Next year it won’t be refreshed but the price will be dropped. Then the following year it will be refreshed along side the iPhone 11s.

September 2019 is going to be a big

There have been some major iPhone re-designs in the history of the device. The iPhone 4 with it’s sleek Leica-like design. The iPhone 5 had the first change in screen size. The iPhone 6 with the increase in overall size, and the introduction of the Plus size. And, the iPhone X with it’s edge to edge screen and removal of the Home button.

The iPhone 11 won’t be a major re-design, but will have some major refinements to the iPhone X/Xs design. Like the iPhone 7, and to a further extent the iPhone 8, there’s going to be enough changes to entice a lot of people to upgrade.