MacRumors

Samsung in February announced its most expensive non-foldable smartphone to date, the Galaxy S20 Ultra, which has a starting price of $1,400, which is $300 higher than the starting price of Apple's $1,099 iPhone 11 Pro Max.

First off, the S20 Ultra has a 6.9-inch OLED display that looks fantastic. Out of the box, it's set to 1080p with a 60Hz refresh rate, but you can bump that up to a 120Hz refresh rate for super smooth scrolling. If you want to use the QHD setting with a higher resolution, you'll be limited to a 60Hz refresh rate, likely due to battery life concerns.

The Galaxy S20 Ultra includes 12 to 16GB RAM (16GB for the highest-end option priced at $1,600), 128 or 512GB of storage (again for that $1,600 model), an SD card expansion slot, a Snapdragon 865 processor (Qualcomm's latest and fastest chip), an in-display fingerprint sensor, and a 5,000mAh battery, which offers impressive battery life.

Samsung has also outfitted the Ultra with some impressive cameras, though some of what's new is a little bit gimmicky. There's a 108-megapixel wide-angle lens that can take some great photos, but 108-megapixel images are massive in size and aren't super great when you're taking a bunch of photos and using smartphone storage.

The lens uses a large sensor that lets in a lot of light to create natural depth of field effects, but we've had some trouble getting the camera to focus properly due to some bugs that Samsung has yet to address.

There's also a 100X Space Zoom feature that's impressive on the surface because it lets you zoom in super far, but a 100X zoom photo isn't actually usable because it's so grainy and unclear. The more modest 30x zoom, though, is quite good.

You can do 8K recording on the Galaxy S20 Ultra, but with the lack of focus tracking, the huge crop factor, and the large file sizes, it's not really worth it because 4K video is more than suitable and it offers better focusing tools. We're going to do a full camera comparison with the S20 Ultra and the ‌iPhone 11 Pro Max‌ later this week, so make sure to check back for that video.

The S20 Ultra, like the entire S20 lineup, comes with 5G connectivity, which is major selling point. Most people can't really take advantage of 5G networks yet because they're still in the early stages of rolling out, but people who own S20 smartphones will be ready to take advantage of 5G when it's ready.

Right now, 5G is kind of hit or miss. The fastest 5G, mmWave, is limited to some urban areas and suffers from interference from buildings and trees, while 600MHz 5G, designed for rural areas, isn't a whole lot faster than LTE at the current time. 5G is going to get better and it's going to get better quick once 5G is standard across all smartphones, but for now, it's not an entirely necessary feature.

It's not really fair to compare Samsung's February 2020 smartphones with Apple's September 2019 smartphones as Apple is working on upgraded iPhones with specs that better match those found in the S20 lineup, but until those new iPhones come out in fall, Samsung's S20 lineup, and the S20 Ultra in particular, is one of the most powerful smartphones on the market.

Many people may buy their smartphones on plans that split the payments across 24 months and also offer regular upgrades with trade-in, but $1,400 is still a lot to pay even over many months. So is the Galaxy S20 Ultra worth it? No, not for most people.

Just like the ‌iPhone 11 Pro Max‌ isn't for every user, the Galaxy S20 Ultra is aimed at those who want the best of the best in terms of specs. We wouldn't recommend the ‌iPhone 11 Pro Max‌ to the average user over the iPhone 11, and the Galaxy S20 Ultra is also not for the average user, which is why Samsung is selling it alongside the $999 S20 and the $1,200 S20+.

What do you think of Samsung's S20 Ultra? Would you shell out that amount of money for a smartphone? Let us know in the comments.

Apple is no longer allowing its employees to travel to Italy or South Korea because of the coronavirus outbreak affecting those countries, reports Bloomberg.

Apple had already restricted employee travel to China, which is an issue because Apple engineers often visit China at this time of year to prepare for the manufacturing of new iPhones.

"We have instituted specific travel restrictions in a few countries including China, South Korea, and Italy," Apple said in a memo sent out to employees. Apple recommends employees manage meetings through phone calls and video chats.

"There are many ways to continue to manage our ongoing meetings and activities through calls and video. If you do have travel planned, we suggest you work with your managers to consider delaying or canceling business travel which could be postponed or managed through virtual meetings."

At the current time, employees are only able to travel to those areas for business-critical reasons and must have approval from a company vice president.

Apple only has one supplier in Italy, STMicroelectronics, but it works with multiple suppliers in South Korea. One Apple supplier in South Korea, LG Innotek, shut down earlier this week after a factory worker tested positive for coronavirus. The factory, which is in Gumi, South Korea, is close to Daegu, where many of the COVID-19 cases in the country are centered.

Apple also operates one store in South Korea and 17 in Italy, but none of those have been shut down at this time.

Apple has also said that "deep cleaning protocols" are considered a "top priority" and are in effect across stores, offices, and employee shuttles. Apple recommends that any employee who is sick, especially with a fever or severe cough, should take sick leave "until they have fully recovered."

Google today canceled its upcoming I/O developer conference that was set to take place on May 12 to May 14 at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, California due to the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak sweeping the United States.

In emails sent out to Google I/O attendees, Google says that it is canceling the physical I/O event but will explore other ways to connect with the developer community. Refunds for I/O will be provided by March 13.

Due to concerns around the coronavirus (COVID-19), and in accordance with health guidance from the CDC, WHO, and other health authorities, we have decided to cancel the physical Google I/O event at Shoreline Amphitheatre.

All guests who have purchased tickets to I/O 2020 will receive a full refund by March 13, 2020. If you don't see the credit on your statement by then, please reach out to io@google.com. Guests who have registered for I/O 2020 will not need to enter next year's drawing and will be automatically granted the option of purchasing an I/O 2021 ticket.

Over the coming weeks, we will explore other ways to evolve Google I/O to best connect with our developer community. We will keep the Google I/O website updated with additional information.

Google is the second major tech company to cancel a developer event, following Facebook's decision to cancel F8 last week. As with Facebook's F8 event, Google's I/O conference is similar in scale to WWDC, attracting approximately 5,000 developers from around the world.

I/O would have taken place in Mountain View, California, but the canceled F8 conference was set to be held at the McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, California, the same venue that Apple uses for WWDC.

Apple has not announced dates for WWDC 2020, but based on past events, June 8 to June 12 are the likely dates that Apple is targeting. If those dates are accurate, WWDC would be a month after F8 and about three weeks after I/O.

Apple may still have some time before it makes a decision about whether to cancel WWDC this year due to coronavirus concerns, but with Facebook and Google both canceling May events, it's not looking good.

The coronavirus has already caused the cancellation of several major events that include Mobile World Congress and the Game Developers Conference.

COVID-19 has infected more than 90,000 people and more than 3,000 have died, primarily in China. COVID-19 is currently spreading in the United States, and in the San Francisco Bay Area, where I/O, F8, and WWDC take place, there have been nine confirmed coronavirus cases, including several in people who caught it from community transmission with no known travel and no known contact with an infected person.

Apple today seeded the fourth betas of upcoming iOS and iPadOS 13.4 updates to developers, one week after the release of the third betas and more than a month after the release of iOS and iPadOS 13.3.1.

iOS and ‌‌iPadOS‌‌ 13.4 can be downloaded from the Apple Developer center or over the air once the proper developer profile has been installed. On the iPhone 11, 11 Pro, and 11 Pro Max, Apple requires the beta to be installed over the air using the configuration profile.

iOS and iPadOS 13.4 are major updates, bringing several major new features to the ‌iPhone‌ and the iPad. There's a new toolbar in the Mail app that's available when viewing an email, featuring a more logical design to address complaints about the Mail layout in iOS 13.

The update design moves the reply icon away from the delete icon, making it much harder to accidentally delete an email, and it adds Folder and Compose icons.

iCloud Folder Sharing, designed to let users share folders in iCloud Drive with other people, is available as of iOS 13.4. ‌iCloud‌ Folder Sharing was first announced at WWDC last year, but it has taken Apple several months to implement it. The feature shows real-time updates so file changes will sync across the devices of all people with access to a specific folder.

There are nine new Memoji and Animoji stickers included in the update, featuring emoji-style poses like shocked face, face with hearts, eyes rolling, and more.

There's a subtle but important change to the way the URL bar works in Safari. In iOS 13.4, you can tap into the URL bar right away even when a URL is highlighted, which is different behavior from iOS 13.3.1. In iOS 13.3.1, an extra tap outside of a URL was required to deselect it before it could be tapped to be edited.

There are new Settings in the TV app that are designed to allow users to control streaming and downloading over WiFi and cellular, introducing new data saving options for those without unlimited streaming plans.

There are hints of a new CarKey API in iOS 13.4, which would allow the ‌iPhone‌ to be used to lock, unlock, and start a car that has NFC capabilities. This functionality hasn't been announced by Apple as of yet, but it will ‌iPhone‌ owners to use their devices in lieu of a car key. Sharing features will also be available for assigning keys to friends and family members through the Messages app.

Code in iOS 13.4 also suggests Apple is working on an over-the-air recovery feature that would allow the ‌iPhone‌ and the ‌iPad‌ to be restored without the need for a computer.

Though not an iOS specific feature, Apple with iOS 13.4, macOS 10.15.4, tvOS 13.4, and Xcode 11.4 is allowing developers to create apps with universal purchase support, which means Apple device users will be able to purchase one app that works across multiple platforms.

There are new controls for calls and third-party navigation apps in CarPlay, along with keyboard shortcuts for the Photos app, changes to location requests for apps requesting user location, a new Shazam Shortcuts action, options for remapping hardware keys of a keyboard connected to the ‌iPad‌, and more.

For a full list of all the new features that have been found in iOS and iPadOS 13.4 so far, make sure to check out our dedicated what's new articles for beta 1 and beta 2.

Apple has six mini-LED products in the works that are set to debut in 2020 and 2021, and production is not expected to be delayed by the coronavirus, according to a new note to investors sent out this morning by Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.

Apple is developing a 12.9-inch iPad Pro, a 27-inch iMac Pro, a 14.1-inch MacBook Pro, a 16-inch ‌MacBook Pro‌, a 10.2.-inch iPad, and a 7.9-inch iPad mini. Kuo does not provide specific launch dates for the items with the exception of the ‌iMac‌ Pro, which he says will launch in the fourth quarter of 2020, and the 7.9-inch ‌iPad mini‌, which he says will launch in 2020.

The product research and development for mini LED remain unaffected by the COVID-19. The visibility for commercialization has even exceeded the expectations in our previous report.

The trend for Apple’s development and promotion of mini LED are more identifiable in five years. We predict that Apple is currently developing six mini-LED-support products (vs. the previous report of only two products), including a 12.9-inch iPad Pro, a 27-inch iMac Pro in 4Q20, a 14.1-inch MacBook Pro (upgraded from 13.3-inch), a 16-inch MacBook Pro, a 10.2-inch iPad, and a 7.9-inch iPad mini in 2020.

Of particular interest in Kuo's note is the mention of the 14.1-inch ‌MacBook Pro‌, as this is the first indication that we've had that Apple is planning a new size for its smaller ‌MacBook Pro‌ offering. The 14.1-inch ‌MacBook Pro‌ will be sold alongside a refreshed 16-inch ‌MacBook Pro‌. The mention of an ‌iMac‌ Pro is also notable as Apple has not refreshed its ‌iMac‌ Pro since it launched in 2017.

According to Kuo, Apple's mini-LED products are expected to come out in 2020 and 2021, but in previous notes, Kuo has said we can expect to see the 16-inch ‌MacBook Pro‌ with a mini-LED display in the fourth quarter of 2020, so that could also be when the 14.1-inch version will launch.

Kuo has also said that the mini-LED version of 12.9-inch ‌iPad Pro‌, which is expected to be a high-end option, will launch in the fall of 2020. Current rumors indicate that this fall 12.9-inch model will come after a spring refresh of other ‌iPad Pro‌ models.

Last month, Apple launched a Night Mode photo challenge, inviting customers around the world to share their best low-light photos captured with the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, or iPhone 11 Pro Max.

Apple today revealed the six winning photos from thousands of submissions worldwide. The winning photos will be featured in a gallery on Apple.com, on Apple's social media platforms, and on billboards globally. Apple said it will pay a licensing fee to the winning photographers for use of such photos in its marketing.

Konstantin Chalabov / Moscow, Russia / iPhone 11 Pro:

Andrei Manuilov / Moscow, Russia / iPhone 11 Pro Max:

Mitsun Soni / Mumbai, India / iPhone 11 Pro:

Rubén P. Bescós / Pamplona, Spain / iPhone 11 Pro Max:

Rustam Shagimordanov / Moscow, Russia / iPhone 11:

Yu "Eric" Zhang / Beijing, China / iPhone 11 Pro Max:

Apple's panel of judges shared their thoughts on what made these photos stand out from the pack in the press release.

AAPL shares surged 9.3 percent on Monday as the U.S. stock market rebounded and Apple's rating was upgraded by an analyst who said the company was more prepared than its competitors to absorb the impact of the coronavirus outbreak (via Reuters).

Oppenheimer raised its rating on Apple stock from "perform" to "outperform", arguing that the stock had become too cheap since its 16.5 percent drop on February 12 that hovered until Friday's close.

As Barrons notes, the rally meant Apple enjoyed its biggest single-day move in more than 11 years.

Apple played a significant role in Monday's historic rally. Shares of the iPhone maker soared 9.3%, the stock's largest one-day move in more than 11 years.

The $24.45 per share gain contributed 172 points to the Dow Jones Industrial Average's 1,296 point gain. Apple (ticker: AAPL) closed the day at $298.91, after trading as high as $301.44 during the day's session. The stock peaked at $327.20 on Feb. 12.

Apple's stock has yo-yoed amid the developing COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak, and last week saw major fluctuations within the span of hours.

The viral epidemic in China prompted many of Apple's suppliers to suspend production at their factories in February and Apple retail stores temporarily closed out of an abundance of caution.

Apple CEO Tim Cook last week said he felt "China is getting the coronavirus under control," and added that the number of reported infections in the region is "coming down day by day by day." Major iPhone assembler Foxconn today said it expects its Chinese plants to resume normal operation by the end of the month.

Apple's rally boosted the company's market value by $111 billion, while its market capitalization now stands at $1.3 trillion, although that's still shy of the company's all-time high of $328 set on January 29, 2020, which saw its market cap grow to over $1.4 trillion.

iPad Pro models are currently showing limited availability at stores in major cities in the U.S., Australia and across Europe, Boomberg's Mark Gurman reported today.

According to a review of Apple's website that was conducted on Monday, the non-cellular 12.9-inch ‌iPad Pro‌ with 512GB storage is sold out at all Apple stores in the Los Angeles area, while the same model and other versions are also sold out at many stores in New York City.

Some Apple store employees said they started noticing reduced iPad Pro inventory in the last week. They asked not to be identified discussing private product information.

Gurman's report leads by speculating that the supply constraints may be a possible sign of the coronavirus outbreak's impact on Apple's manufacturing supply chain, but he also concedes that the shortages could be due to new incoming ‌iPad Pro‌ models. Apple sometimes slows the flow of product units coming into its various sales channels as the next-generation models approach launch.

Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo expects Apple to launch an upgraded ‌iPad Pro‌ during the first half of 2020, perhaps as early as this month, with Apple planning to release a next-generation model with a rear-facing time-of-flight (ToF) camera system supporting 3D sensing for immersive augmented reality experiences.

Recent rumors suggest Apple is planning to hold an event on Tuesday, March 31, so if new iPad Pros are in the works for the first half of 2020, they could well be announced at this event.

However, even if an announcement is imminent, it's still possible the new ‌iPad Pro‌ model supplies could be constrained or delayed due to a slowdown in production caused by the coronavirus outbreak in China. A DigiTimes report last month claimed the new ‌‌iPad Pro‌‌ models have been slow to ramp up following the extended Lunar New Year holiday, although the Taiwan-based website maintained that launch of the new devices is expected "around March."

Gurman notes that AirPods Pro and built-to-order Macs are also continuing to show shipping delays, and some Apple Watch Series 3 and Series 5 models are listed as unavailable to buy online, although the Series 3 watch and Airpods Pro were constrained before the viral outbreak was reported.

Apple's latest iPhones and other iPads remain widely available in the U.S., although the iPhone 11 is listed as unavailable in some European countries and Australia.

In addition to the new ‌iPad Pro‌‌, rumors suggest Apple is planning to release a new low-cost iPhone and an updated 13-inch MacBook Pro, while more outlying launch possibilities for the first half of 2020 include a MacBook Air update, Apple's Tile-like "AirTags" item trackers, and perhaps a wireless charging mat.

Apple recently said it wouldn't meet its guidance for the March quarter due to the impact of the COVID-19 coronavirus, citing both constrained ‌iPhone‌ supplies worldwide and lower customer demand for Apple products in China as the main impacts on performance for the quarter.

Production on Apple's devices has been stymied in recent weeks due to delays caused by the coronavirus outbreak in China. Many of Apple's China-based suppliers had to shut down for two weeks or more in February, and there are still staffing issues as factories work to ramp up production around travel bans, quarantines, and other problems.

Amid the China coronavirus outbreak, which has caused Apple to announce that it won't make its March quarter revenue goals, The Wall Street Journal has taken a look at Apple's reliance on China and why Apple is likely to continue to be dependent on China for the foreseeable future.

Apple's operations team has been raising concerns about the company's reliance on China, and as early as 2015, there were suggestions that Apple relocate assembly of one or more products to Vietnam, allowing Apple to start training workers and creating component providers outside of China.

Senior managers shot down the idea at the time, and transitioning away from China has been "too challenging to undertake." Apple has, however, begun to move some production outside of China. Apple has moved AirPods Pro assembly to Vietnam due to tariffs, and now produces some iPhones in India, but a complete break "is impossible."

As The ‌Wall Street Journal‌ points out, Apple CEO Tim Cook has been downplaying the need for changes in the supply chain. On Friday, Cook said in an interview that if there are supply chain changes because of the coronavirus, it will be "adjusting some knobs, not some kind of wholesale fundamental change."

Apple is not able to break away from China because China has hundreds of thousands of employees, both skilled and unskilled, that have expertise in manufacturing Apple's devices.

Finding a comparable amount of unskilled and skilled labor is impossible, said Dan Panzica, a former Foxconn executive. The population in China has allowed suppliers to build factories with a capacity for more than 250,000 people. The number of migrant workers in China, who do much of Apple's production, exceed Vietnam's total population of 100 million. India is the closest comparison, but its roads, ports and infrastructure lag far behind those in China.

"You're not going to be able to have mega-factories anywhere else," Mr. Panzica said. "You're going to have to break them up."

Should Apple decide to move production out of China, that could impact device sales in the country. China is responsible for close to a fifth of Apple's total revenue.

Apple's relationship with China began many years ago, when Foxconn began making iPods in 2001 and the iPhone in 2007. As Apple device sales have grown, the factories that assemble Apple devices have also grown in tandem, resulting in what The ‌Wall Street Journal‌ describes as a "triangle of interdependency."

Apple grew to depend on Foxconn to make devices and Chinese consumers to buy them. Foxconn built its business by leaning on China's vast workforce and control over land to construct factories. And China became beholden to Foxconn as the nation's largest private-sector employer and Apple as a trainer of new technology suppliers.

Apple did plan to assemble some ‌iPhone‌ 11 models in India, but the effort was halted before a single manufacturing line was set up, as Apple believed India was not ready to supply the skilled labor or robust infrastructure that Apple expects. ‌iPhone‌ 11 models were produced in China instead.

That's not likely to change in 2020 because there's no supply chain in place and workers in India aren't ready to produce the high-end iPhones that are expected to be released in 2020. As for U.S. production, Apple is manufacturing some Mac Pro models in the United States (those sold in the United States), but ‌Mac Pro‌ models sold in the rest of the world are still manufactured in China because the U.S. also doesn't have the skilled labor force that China has available.

The ‌Wall Street Journal‌'s full report on Apple's dependence on China can be read on The Wall Street Journal website.

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