MacRumors

Apple CEO Tim Cook is set to receive an award from the Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar this month, reports Bloomberg.

Cook is scheduled to meet with the Irish Taoiseach in Dublin on January 20 to receive the award, "in recognition of the iPhone maker’s 40 years of investment in Ireland," according to IDA Ireland, the country's investment agency.

Apple's business relationship with Ireland has faced significant opprobrium in recent years. In 2016, the European Commission found that the company received illegal state aid from Ireland.

Apple and Ireland both appealed the ruling, but the European Commission opened litigation against Ireland in October 2017 for its failure to procure Apple's back taxes.

Apple has already finished paying the $13 billion in back taxes it owes. If the order is eventually overturned, the money will be returned to Apple.

In 2018, Apple abandoned plans to build a $1 billion data center in Ireland after facing significant pushback from local residents concerned about its potential effects on local animals as well as arguments over its proximity to a shut-down nuclear power plant in Wales.

Apple's European headquarters are located in Cork, and last year it expanded the campus with a new building that provides space for an additional 1,400 employees.

Apple's European Job Creation page reveals that it now supports 1.7 million jobs across Europe, including around 1.5 million jobs attributable to the App Store ecosystem, some 17,000 of which are based in Ireland.

Apple's website notes that it "has been based in Cork for over 35 years and now directly employs 6,000 people throughout Ireland supporting all aspects of the business." The company also says its Irish team has "doubled in size over the last five years and includes over 80 different nationalities."

Apple saw a significant jump in smartphone shipments in China last month thanks in part to the popularity of the iPhone 11, according to Bloomberg.

The iPhone maker’s shipments in China grew 18.7% year on year in December to roughly 3.18 million units, according to Bloomberg calculations based on government data on overall and Android device shipments. The increase marked an acceleration from the prior months, which were buoyed by the iPhone 11’s release in September. The numbers come from the China Academy of Information and Communication Technology, a government think tank.

Apple's ‌iPhone‌ 11 and ‌iPhone‌ 11 Pro brought significant improvements in battery life and camera quality over previous models, and have been well received by consumers and critics in China.

Apple's business last year in the country was strengthened in other ways, too. The company benefited from a sales tax cut that allowed it to decrease the price of its products, while investors took comfort in what Apple CEO Tim Cook called a "much better tone" in the China-U.S. trade relationship.

Looking ahead, the double-digit growth in shipments bodes well for Apple in the buildup to the Chinese New Year, which falls in late January this year.

However, the company still has some work to do if it is to put a significant dent in the market share of local vendors led by Huawei, which gained a dominant position domestically last year, despite its struggles abroad.

During the January 2019 CES event, TiVo demoed a TiVo app to the Apple TV, but a year later, the project is "in limbo" and an Apple TV app is no longer being actively developed.

In an interview with TechHive at CES 2020, TiVo vice president of consumer products and services Ted Malone said that while ‌Apple TV‌ app plans haven't been canceled, it's not TiVo's focus at this time.

"My bet is we'll get Android, and because of that we'll get the Fire TV, because it's the same app, just different qualifications," Malone said. "I think Roku and Apple are in limbo."

TiVo had initially planned to release new apps for Roku, ‌Apple TV‌, Fire TV, and Android TV at some point in 2019, allowing TiVo users to access TiVo DVRs on other TVs throughout the home without the need to purchase TiVo Mini boxes, but limited resources, technical challenges, and strategy changes have delayed those plans.

According to Malone, TiVo has to transcode video before sending it to other devices, which results in quality and performance issues that TiVo has not been able to resolve. The company has also been working on the TiVo Stream 4K and the TiVo+ streaming service, and an ‌Apple TV‌ app is not a priority.

Malone said that TiVo needs to "double down" on the streaming market and not get distracted by a "bunch of things people want, but aren't really going to move the needle."

Apple is kicking off 2020 with an all-new Night Mode photo challenge, inviting users around the world to share their best Night Mode photos captured with the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, or iPhone 11 Pro Max.

iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro models turn on Night Mode automatically when the camera detects low-light situations. A crescent moon icon at the top of the display turns yellow when the feature is active.

Apple will accept submissions from today through January 29. A panel of 10 judges will evaluate submissions and reveal five winning photos on March 4. You must be 18 years of age or older to participate, and Apple employees are not eligible. Apple has shared a PDF with full rules and eligibility details.

Apple says photos are allowed to be edited with Apple's Photos app or third-party apps and software. If edited, you must state what apps or filters you used in the image caption or comment. Any photo shot with the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, or iPhone 11 Pro Max in Night Mode since September 20 qualifies.

The winning photos will be shared on Apple's website and on its Instagram, Twitter, WeChat, and Weibo pages. They may also appear in ads and on billboards, at Apple Stores, or in a third-party photo exhibition. Apple says it will pay a licensing fee to the winning photographers for use of such photos in its marketing.

To participate in the challenge, share your Night Mode photos on Instagram and Twitter using the hashtags #ShotoniPhone and #NightmodeChallenge. Weibo users can participate using #ShotoniPhone# and #NightmodeChallenge#. Apple says to note which iPhone model you used to capture your image in the caption.

High-resolution photos can also be emailed to shotoniphone@apple.com, using the file format "firstname_lastname_nightmode_iPhonemodel."

Apple ran a similar Shot on iPhone photo challenge last January.

In addition to select LG smart TVs, Apple today announced that its Apple TV app will be available on select Sony and Vizio smart TVs later this year. Apple shared the news in a press release highlighting the success of its various services.

When available, the Apple TV app will allow owners of newer LG, Sony, and Vizio smart TVs to stream Apple TV+ shows and movies, use the à-la-carte Apple TV Channels feature, access their iTunes libraries of movies and TV shows, and buy or rent more than 100,000 shows and movies from the iTunes Store.

The Apple TV app is already available on the iPhone, iPad, Mac, PC, Apple TV, select Roku and Amazon Fire TV devices, and select Samsung smart TVs.

Apple has marked the close of a "historic 2019" for its services offerings with a press release celebrating Apple Arcade, Apple TV+, Apple News+ and Apple Card, as well as the continued success of its App Store, Apple Music, and iCloud.

"2019 was the biggest year for Services in Apple's history. We introduced several exciting new experiences for our customers, all while setting the standard for user privacy and security," said Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president of Internet Software and Services. "We begin the new decade with incredible momentum and gratitude to our customers who have shown such enthusiasm for all of our Services, and we continue to celebrate the work of the world's best creators, storytellers, journalists and developers."

Here are some key takeaways from Apple's services highlights of 2019, including some things that the company says customers can look forward to in 2020:

• ‌App Store‌ customers spent a record $1.42 billion between Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve, a 16 percent increase over last year, and $386 million on New Year's Day 2020 alone, a 20 percent increase over last year and a new single-day record.
• Over 50 percent of ‌Apple Music‌ listeners have used the new time-synced lyrics feature that was introduced in 2019 with iOS 13.
• ‌Apple TV‌+ "made history" as the first streaming platform to receive multiple Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild nominations in its launch year, and is the first and only streaming service to debut instantly in over 100 countries and regions.
• ‌Apple News‌ draws over 100 million monthly active users in the US, UK, Australia and Canada.
• In 2020, ‌Apple News‌ will provide live coverage of key moments in the US presidential election in partnership with ABC News.
• Apple Podcasts now delivers listeners over 800,000 shows in 155 countries.
• In 2019, entry to more than 150 stadiums, ballparks, arenas and entertainment venues around the world was available with contactless tickets on iPhone and Apple Watch.
• In 2020, customers will be able to tap their ‌iPhone‌ and Apple Watch to ride trains and buses in Washington, D.C., Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Foshan, Guangdong, and will be able to access dorms and services at additional universities across the US.
• Over 75 percent of ‌iCloud‌ users are protected with two-factor authentication, an extra layer of security designed to ensure that no one else can access their account or data.

During its last earnings call of 2019, Apple revealed that in the fourth fiscal quarter of 2019 its services segment brought in $12.5 billion, up from $10.6 billion in the year-ago quarter and $11.46 billion in the third quarter of 2019. Services grew 18 percent year-over-year, and Apple said that it saw growth in all regions around the world.

Apple CEO Tim Cook said that almost every one of Apple's services had set new all-time revenue records, including its search ad business, ‌‌Apple Music‌‌, Apple Care, cloud services, and the ‌‌App Store‌‌. Apple's services category is now the size of a Fortune 70 company by revenue.

Apple's chief privacy officer attended a discussion panel at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Tuesday to debate the state of consumer privacy, marking the first time in 28 years that Apple has been at CES in an official capacity.

Jane Horvath, Apple's senior director for global privacy, joined an all-female panel consisting of representatives from Facebook, Procter & Gamble and the Federal Trade Commission. During the discussion, Horvath defended Apple's use of encryption to protect customer data on mobile devices.

"Our phones are relatively small and they get lost and stolen," Horvath said. "If we're going to be able to rely on our health data and finance data on our devices, we need to make sure that if you misplace that device, you're not losing your sensitive data."

Apple has held a consistent position regarding its use of encryption, even if that means it has limited ability to help law enforcement access data on devices involved in criminal investigations.

Just this week, the FBI asked Apple to help unlock two iPhones that investigators believe were owned by Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani, who carried out a mass shooting at a Naval Air Station in Florida last month. Apple said that it had already given the FBI all of the data in its possession.

Apple's response suggests it will maintain the same stance it took in 2016, when the FBI demanded that Apple provide a so-called "backdoor" into iPhones, following the December 2015 shooter incidents in San Bernardino. Apple refused, and the FBI eventually backed down after it found an alternate way to access the data on the iPhone.

Horvath took the same tack by saying that Apple has a team working around the clock to respond to requests from law enforcement, but that building backdoors into software to give law enforcement access to private data is something she doesn't support.

"Building backdoors into encryption is not the way we are going to solve those issues," Horvath said.

Horvath went on to talk up Apple's "privacy by design" technologies like differential privacy, user randomization in native apps and services, the on-device facial recognition in the Photos app, and minimal data retrieval for Siri. Horvath also confirmed that Apple scans for child sexual abuse content uploaded to iCloud. "We are utilizing some technologies to help screen for child sexual abuse material," she said.

Horvath became Apple's chief privacy officer in September 2011. Prior to her work at Apple, Horvath was global privacy counsel at Google and chief privacy counsel at the Department of Justice.

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