MacRumors

Apple's new wire-free Powerbeats Pro are set to launch this Friday after pre-orders became available last week, and ahead of their official debut, we were able to get a pair to test out to find out whether Apple's latest Beats-branded earbuds are worth the $250 price tag.

While Apple is planning to sell the ‌Powerbeats Pro‌ in four colors, including ivory, moss, navy, and black, only the black version is available right now, with the other options coming later in the summer.

‌Powerbeats Pro‌ share many features with the AirPods, but the design is totally different because they're aimed at vigorous physical activity like sports and working out. There are a set of earhooks that wrap around your ear to keep the ‌Powerbeats Pro‌ in place, along with four sets of ear tips for a customized fit.

Multiple tips means the ‌Powerbeats Pro‌ will fit most people, and while it's early, we found them to be lightweight and comfortable overall, though any earbud is going to cause ear fatigue after long periods of usage. This kind of around the ear fit isn't going to appeal to everyone, and it can take a bit of practice to be able to get them positioned in your ears correctly.

The ‌Powerbeats Pro‌ fit on the ears super securely, and it's unlikely these are going to fall out of your ears during physical activity. ‌Powerbeats Pro‌ fit in the ear canal unlike the AirPods, and will drown out ambient noise, which is something to be aware of. We tested these out with sunglasses and found them comfortable, so these may work well for those who wear glasses regularly.

As for sound quality, with the tips positioned correctly in your ears, the ‌Powerbeats Pro‌ sound impressive. Everything is full, crisp, and clear, and parts of songs remain distinguishable. Bass sounds great and is not muddy, which can be an issue with other wire-free headphones.

‌Powerbeats Pro‌ have a carrying case, but it's a lot bigger than the AirPods case. It's not really pocketable, and it's worth noting that wireless charging is not an included feature. You need to charge this case using a Lightning cable. Opening up the case causes the ‌Powerbeats Pro‌ to pair with your device just like the AirPods and thanks to the H1 chip, easy pairing, easy device swapping, and "Hey Siri" support are all ‌Powerbeats Pro‌ features.

We were impressed with how quickly the ‌Powerbeats Pro‌ were able to pair with an iPhone, and it's worth noting that the Live Listen feature available on the AirPods is also available on ‌Powerbeats Pro‌. Live Listen is designed to let the ‌iPhone‌ serve as a microphone, amplifying the ambient noise around you and beaming it to your earbuds.

Automatic play/pause functionality will pause audio when you remove an earbud and play it again when it's put back in place, a super handy feature, and there are some physical buttons for doing things like playing music, pausing music, adjusting volume (these buttons are at the top) and skipping tracks. Physical buttons are nice, but it's not always easy to use the button on the first try and it takes a bit more effort than the tap controls on the AirPods.

‌Powerbeats Pro‌ offer up to nine hours of listening time per earbud along with 24 hours of additional battery life from the charging case, plus there's a fast fuel feature that offers up 1.5 hours of playback with a five minute charge. We haven't had the ‌Powerbeats Pro‌ long enough to test the battery life sufficiently, but we'll be providing more detail in a future video.

So are the ‌Powerbeats Pro‌ worth the $250 price tag? We think the answer is yes if you're looking for a set of earbuds that have a secure, comfortable fit with all of the features offered by the AirPods. They're perfect if you live an active lifestyle or are looking for a more traditional earbud fit than the AirPods offer.

We'll be doing a follow up video comparing the ‌Powerbeats Pro‌ to the AirPods, so make sure to keep an eye out for that tomorrow, and for more info on ‌Powerbeats Pro‌, check out our Powerbeats Pro guide.

Apple's chief designer Jony Ive is set to speak at the Dalkey Book Festival in Dublin, Ireland on Saturday, June 15 at 6:00 p.m.

Ive will be joined by actor and comedian Stephen Fry for a session titled "The Object of Language and the Language of Objects."

Actor, comedian, raconteur, and author, Stephen Fry shares his wit and wisdom with Jony Ive, the man who, by designing three of the most iconic products of our age - the iPod, iPad, and iPhone- has changed your world probably more than any other single living human being.

Truly a one-off event featuring treasured polymath, Stephen Fry, and Apple design guru, Jony Ive. Two global superstars mark the tenth anniversary of the festival by sharing one stage at Dalkey!

Tickets were available for the event from the Dalkey Book Festival website for 30 euros, but have all sold out at this time.

Stephen Fry and Jony Ive know one another, and in 2015, Fry wrote a profile on Ive following the announcement of his chief design officer title. In the past, Fry has also profiled Steve Jobs, and he's long been acquainted with Apple executives.

Google's annual I/O developer conference took place today, and the Mountain View-based company announced a number of changes and updates, some of which will be coming to Google products available on iOS devices and others that are of interest as services that compete with Apple services.

Google Search

Google plans to enhance Google Search with the addition of "Full Coverage" news, providing a more balanced view of news when searching for something. Right now, Google News has a timeline and a feature that displays different viewpoints of the same story, and these options are coming to Search as well.

Google Search is also going to index podcasts in the future, allowing users to search for podcast content, not just title. Podcast episodes will be able to be listened to in search results.

New augmented reality features will be available in Google Search, with 3D augmented reality models coming to search results. You'll be able to do things like view a pair of shoes you're searching for in the real world while shopping. On stage, Google showed off an animated shark that was pulled from the web and broadcast into the room using AR.

Retailers that already use 3D assets will be able to add 3D models to Google Search results with just a few lines of code, and Google is working with NASA, Samsung, Target, Wayfair, and others.

Search is getting an Incognito feature that will allow you to make Google searches without having the data added to your Google account.

Google Duplex

Google is updating Duplex, the service that makes calls for you, with web support, which will allow it to make rental car bookings, reserve movie tickets, and fill in web forms, similar to existing auto fill features.

You'll be able to say something similar to "Hey Google, book a rental car from Hertz for my next trip," and Duplex will pull up the website and start filling out all the necessary information. You'll be prompted to fill out information that it doesn't have, but it's able to pull data from calendar, Gmail, and Chrome. It's a feature coming to Android phones later this year, and an iOS device launch date isn't known.

Google Maps

Incognito mode, which has long been available in Google's Chrome browser, is being expanded to the Google Maps app so you can get directions privately.

On Pixel devices, Google Maps is getting an AR walking mode, which shows walking directions in real time overlaid over the real world.

Google Lens

Google Lens is being updated with some new features, such as the ability to read a menu and highlight the most popular dishes, or to read a receipt and automatically calculate a tip.

Privacy

Google plans to make Google Account information more easily accessible from your profile in all major Google products. This is in addition to the recently announced feature that will automatically clear search and location history every three months or every 18 months.

Google Assistant

Google showed off a next-generation version of its Google Assistant, which is much speedier (Google says 10x faster) than it was previously, and smarter as well. In a demo on stage, Google Assistant was able to accurately and quickly respond to rapid fire requests, which is something Apple's Siri voice assistant can't do.

The "Hey Google" wake word wasn't required for this process, which ran through commands like checking the weather, bringing up a contact, turning on the flashlight, and taking a selfie all within seconds. Personalization features will bring up tailored voice results using a "Picks For You" feature, which can suggest personalized recipes, podcasts, and more. Google's updated Google Assistant is coming to new Pixel phones later this year.

Google Assistant is also coming to Waze in the next few weeks, and on Android devices, Google is implementing a new Driving Mode for Google Assistant, coming this summer.

Android Q

Google shared some details on Android Q, the next-generation version of the Android operating system that runs on Android devices.

A Live Caption feature will add real-time subtitles for any audio that's playing on an Android device, and it's available with or without an internet connection because it's done on-device.

A Smart Reply feature will offer up suggested actions, similar to how ‌Siri‌ suggestions work on iOS devices. Android Q, like iOS 13, will have a built-in system-wide dark mode option.

Google is aiming to address privacy concerns and bring Android privacy more in line with iOS privacy with a comprehensive set of privacy tools for limiting developer access to personal information. There's also an Android OS Framework that will provide over-the-air security updates from Google that will work without a reboot of the device and that will be installed in the background.

Screen Time-like features are coming to Android Q with Focus Mode, which will limit access to apps that are distracting, such as social media apps. Parental Controls are also being improved, with options that will let parents restrict apps on an app by app basis. Android Q is available today on 21 devices in a beta capacity, including all Pixel smartphones.

Google Home

Google today announced that all of its smart home products will be unified under the "Nest" brand, which it purchased a few years back. Under the new brand, Google debuted the Nest Hub Max, a device with a 10-inch display that's designed to be a home control hub with a dashboard for controlling smart home products.

It also works like a Nest Camera, but is set up for multiple people with Face Match technology. It has privacy controls so nothing is streamed or recorded sans permission, and there's a green light that comes on when it's recording.

When not in use, it can display photos, serving as a digital photo frame, and it can be used to play YouTube videos and other TV/movie content. Nest Hub Max is launching this summer for $229. Google's original Nest Hub is also now available for $129, a $20 discount.

Google Pixel

Google announced two new lower-cost smartphones, the Pixel 3a and 3aXL, with prices starting at $399. It includes many features the Pixel line is known for, including high-quality cameras with front and rear portrait modes and the well-known Night Sight feature. Call screening and adaptive battery life are also included, with the latter feature allowing the Pixel 3a to get up to 30 hours of battery life on a single charge.

Google on stage threw some shade at Apple, comparing the Pixel's Night Sight Mode to an iPhone X image, and pointing out that it continues to have a headphone jack for those who prefer a greater range of headphone options.

Google's new Pixel 3a devices are available starting today in the United States.

Apple has begun offering users the chance to add 10 percent extra credit to their App Store and iTunes accounts this week, similar to past offers from the company. For this deal, you'll have to add money to your Apple ID account from a credit or debit card connected to your account.

To add the funds on your iPhone, visit the ‌App Store‌, tap your profile picture, and then tap "Add Funds to ‌Apple ID‌." Here you can choose from $1.00 to $200.00 to add to your account in order to get the 10 percent bonus credit. This means that the most you can get out of the offer is $20 in free iTunes credit when adding $200 to your account.

The promotion will last through Friday, May 10 and is available in the United States as well as other regions, including Japan. With the credit in your iTunes account, you can rent or purchase iTunes movies and TV shows, buy books in Apple Books, pay for your Apple Music or iCloud subscriptions, and much more.

Apple today uploaded a new video to its YouTube channel promoting its iPhone trade-in program, which allows people to trade in their older devices when purchasing a new one to get an Apple gift card or to simply recycle broken electronics.

Apple either refurbishes iPhones that are traded in and resells them, or recycles older unusable devices for the components.

You've done great things with your iPhone, but at some point, you'll be ready for something new. You can easily trade it in with Apple so it can be refurbished and put back into the world so someone new can do their own great things with it.

But if your device is at the very end of its life, materials inside will be recovered and recycled. Either way, you can continue to do what you love while respecting the planet.

At the end of the video Apple uses the tagline "Do one last great thing with it." The new ad is featured on Apple's environmental website, which provides more detail on how the trade-in program works.

Apple has been heavily promoting its trade-in program in recent months as a way to cut down on the cost of new devices and to further its environmental protection efforts.

Apple today seeded the fifth beta of an upcoming iOS 12.3 update to developers, one week after releasing the fourth beta and over a month after the launch of iOS 12.2, an update that introduced Apple News+, new Animoji, and more.

Registered developers will be able to download the new iOS 12.3 beta from Apple's Developer Center or over-the-air once the proper configuration profile has been installed from the Developer Center.

iOS 12.3 and tvOS 12.3 introduce a new version of Apple's TV app, which has been updated with a new look and fresh functionality.

In the new TV app, "Watch Now" and "Up Next" are still front and center for keeping track of what you're watching, but there's a new machine learning-based recommendation engine that will suggest content based on your viewing preferences and history.

The app's interface has been streamlined with sections for movies, TV shows, sports, and kids content, and on iOS, there's a separate bottom bar for the library, search, and Watch Now options.

There's a new "Channels" feature in the TV app, which is one of the major new components of Apple's services push. Channels are subscription services that you can sign up for and watch within the TV app without having to open up another app.

So, for example, if you come across a show you want to watch on your iPhone or Apple TV that's on Showtime or Starz, you can tap to subscribe right in the TV app, and then you can watch that show without having to open another app.

Some of the new Channels that will be supported include CBS All Access, Starz, Showtime, HBO, Nickelodeon, Mubi, The History Channel Vault, and Comedy Central Now. During the beta, though, users can subscribe to Showtime, Starz, Smithsonian, EPIX, and Tastemade.

You'll still get recommendations for content from services that aren't a part of the Channels feature, but non-channel content will need to be watched in a third-party app. The TV app also houses iTunes TV shows and movies.

When Apple debuts its ‌Apple TV‌+ service this fall, all of the company's original TV shows and movies will also be accessible in the TV app.

Apple potentially has a legal battle on its hands over iPhone 7 audio chip issues informally known as "Loop Disease."

Two class action lawsuits filed against Apple in California and Illinois over the last week accuse the company of knowingly selling the iPhone 7 and ‌iPhone‌ 7 Plus with an audio chip defect that causes issues ranging from a grayed-out speaker button to customers not being heard during phone calls and FaceTime video chats.

The nearly identical complaints, viewed by MacRumors, allege that "the materials used in the ‌iPhone‌'s external casing are insufficient and inadequate to protect the internal parts," eventually resulting in the audio chip losing electrical contact with the logic board due to "flexion" of the device during regular use.

Apple is accused of actively concealing the defect and failing to provide free repairs to affected customers outside of a brief period last year, thereby breaching its warranties and violating multiple California and Illinois consumer protection laws.

The plaintiffs, including California residents Joseph Casillas and De'Jhontai Banks and Illinois residents Brianna Castelli, Karen Lyvers, and Matthew White, are seeking damages "likely in the millions of dollars" on behalf of all other affected ‌iPhone‌ 7 and ‌iPhone‌ 7 Plus customers in the United States.

The plaintiffs are also seeking an order that requires Apple to repair, recall, and/or replace the affected iPhones and to extend the warranties of the devices for a reasonable period of time. A jury trial has been demanded.

In an internal document obtained by MacRumors in May 2018, Apple acknowledged a related microphone issue affecting some iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus models. The document, provided to Apple Stores and Apple Authorized Service Providers, described the same audio issues mentioned in the class action lawsuits.

Apple's document said service providers could request a "warranty exception" for affected iPhones, which resulted in free repairs for at least some customers, but that abruptly ended in July 2018 after Apple deleted the document.

Since then, many Apple employees have failed to acknowledge the internal guidelines ever existed, resulting in many customers having to pay an out-of-warranty fee of over $300 in the United States for a fix. Of course, some customers have managed to argue their way to a free repair, but this is not common.

‌iPhone‌ 7 and ‌iPhone‌ 7 Plus devices still within Apple's limited one-year warranty period or covered by AppleCare+ remain eligible for a free repair, but the audio chip issues usually take time to manifest, and warranty coverage has lapsed on many of the devices since they were released in September 2016.

MacRumors has repeatedly contacted Apple for comment regarding the audio chip issues, but we have never received a response.

The complaints are embedded below.

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A new article by Bloomberg has highlighted some customer and employee frustrations with the state of Apple's retail business, particularly in the wake of changes introduced by former retail chief Angela Ahrendts. According to some current and former Apple employees, the retail stores have become more focused on branding than satisfying shoppers, leading to more complaints lodged against some stores.

Ahrendts left Apple last month after first joining the company in 2014, and Apple executive Deirdre O'Brien has succeeded Ahrendts in the retail position. The shake-up happened as Apple's retail business faces more and more issues alongside slowing iPhone sales.

O'Brien is now tasked with revitalizing Apple's retail business, even if that means moving away from the idea of Apple retail stores as social gathering places, which was the initiative spearheaded by Ahrendts. The former retail chief built stores with less clearly defined locations for checking out and speaking to Apple's Geniuses, in an effort to promote the company as a luxury shopping brand amid the launch of the first Apple Watch and its $17,000 Apple Watch Edition models.

According to Bloomberg's sources, this led to customer confusion and was accompanied by other issues, like less skilled employees and the removal of the traditional Genius Bar at some stores.

The overhaul of the Genius Bar has been especially controversial. Customers looking for technical advice or repairs must now check in with an employee, who types their request into an iPad. Then when a Genius is free, he or she must find the customer wherever they happen to be in the store. Ahrendts was determined to get rid of lineups, but now the stores are often crowded with people waiting for their iPhones to be fixed or batteries swapped out.

Apple was “trying to streamline things,” says one employee, “but in the process made things more difficult for some customers.”

One former Apple executive said that O'Brien is looking to borrow from the past and break up Apple stores into more clearly defined sections. These include areas that promote Apple's growing services business, like Apple Music and Apple TV+. A few employees speculated that she will also bring back the original Genius Bar.

To help boost sales in the interim, Apple has begun offering discounts on iPhones, cheap financing, trade-in offers, and more. These offers were seen around the world, including specific promotions in Australia and China, with Apple typically e-mailing customers about the limited-time discounts. In the United States, Apple even updated its website to promote a monthly payment option for iPhone XR and XS trade-ups.

The first Apple retail store that will open under O'Brien will be the Carnegie Library location in Washington, D.C. on May 11. As of now, Apple still sees its stores as communal gathering places. According to CEO Tim Cook, "We should probably come up with a name other than 'store,' because it's more of a place for the community to use in a much broader way."

Visit Bloomberg to read the full article: "How the Apple Store Lost Its Luster".

Samsung on Tuesday acknowledged that it is unable to provide a firm release date for its Galaxy Fold smartphone and has contacted pre-order customers in the United States to apologize for the delay (via Reuters).

"If we do not hear from you and we have not shipped by May 31st, your order will be canceled automatically," the South Korean tech giant's U.S. subsidiary told Galaxy Fold pre-order customers in an email late on Monday, which was confirmed by a Samsung spokeswoman.

In a statement given to Reuters, Samsung said that U.S. regulations required the company to notify customers that pre-orders would be canceled if the product did not ship by May 31.

The South Korean company originally planned to roll out its $1,980 foldable phone on April 26, but was forced to delay the launch after several units sent out to reviewers broke during testing.

After recalling the review units, Samsung contacted pre-order customers on April 22, saying it would announce a new release date "in the coming weeks" and would take measures to strengthen the display protection. The device's screen was shown to be vulnerable to debris ingress, thanks to an iFixit teardown that was later removed at Samsung's request.

The development is the latest in a series of embarrassing events for Samsung, whose hybrid tablet/smartphone was supposed to demonstrate the company leading innovation in the mobile space. Still, at least the device in its current state won't get into the hands of thousands of customers around the world, which would likely have turned into a larger problem.

Samsung has said it plans to make at least 1 million Galaxy Fold handsets in the first year of production, compared to the total 300 million phones it produces annually on average. It originally closed pre-orders for the device early because of "high demand."

At the Berkshire Hathaway shareholder conference this weekend, Apple CEO Tim Cook sat down for an interview with CNBC's Becky Quick, and that interview aired this morning on Squawk Box.

During the discussion, Cook covered topics like Warren Buffett's Apple investments, Apple's company mission, how Apple runs, internal debate topics, privacy, acquisitions, and more.

Cook said that when he heard that Warren Buffett invested in Apple stock, he said he thought to himself "Wow, this is really cool." An investment from "the ultimate long-term investor" is an "honor and a privilege," Cook said. "I mean, wow, it's Warren Buffett is investing the company. And yeah, so, it felt great."

Buffett's decision to invest in Apple meant that he viewed it as a consumer company, not a technology company because Buffett doesn't invest in tech companies he doesn't understand. Cook says that while Apple is in the tech industry, the consumer is the company's focus. "We think technology should be in the background, not the foreground," said Cook. Cook went on to reiterate something that he's said many times before - Apple's goal is to enrich people's lives.

Our mission is to make the best products in the world in those areas which we choose to participate that enrich people's lives. And so, if we can't make the best product, we don't go in. If we can make a great product but it doesn't help anybody, it doesn't enrich their life, then we're not going to go into that either. And so that's a pretty narrow funnel then because you're working on a few things. And we know in order to do them at the quality level we want to do them, we can only do a few.

Apple is a large company, but Cook says that in "some ways," it's "like a big startup." Apple is organized, but teams work together on projects and are "empowered to come up with new things." Apple has a "heavy debate culture" where the best ideas are debated. "And then we choose the best of the best to decide what to spend our time on," said Cook.

Apple employees debate on trends, new technologies, features, and categories to enter or not enter. One "healthy debate" was when Apple entered into the smart watch business.

A very healthy debate. And about what it could eventually do for people. And how much emphasis to place on the health and fitness side of that. You know, where to put the the relative balance. You could imagine, there's an incredible set of features in the watch just to do things like curate when you're interrupted, and people are now taking calls on them. And sort of the- the things that you would think is part and parcel to the iPhone, but in a curated manner. And- or you could, to put the emphasis on fitness and health, and so forth. And we've elected to do some of this, in a great way.

Cook said that he himself has always believed that to enrich someone's life, wellbeing is in the "top two or three," and he went on to speak about the importance of democratizing access to health features like the ECG in the Apple Watch Series 4. "Things like this, these are profound things," said Cook.

Privacy comes up in almost all interviews with Cook, and the CNBC interview was no exception. Cook said that privacy is "foundational" to the way that Apple runs, because Apple "works for the consumer." Cook said that Apple feels a "level of responsibility" to protect everything on your phone because of the depth of information that it contains.

But we don't want to use you as our product. And we just have a fundamental issue with doing that. And we've always thought that the building of a detailed profile about your life could result in tragic things. Whether it's a breach of your own privacy or something where the data itself could be used in a nefarious way. And so, we've never thought it was right to do it, and we've always thought that you owned it.

Cook went on to say that he's frustrated tech is seen as monolithic, lumping Apple in with other companies like Facebook. "We don't traffic in your data," said Cook. "We very much are on your side. We also curate our platform."

Pivoting to acquisitions, Cook said that Apple has purchased 20 to 25 companies over the course of the last six months or so, purchasing a company "every two to three weeks." Some of those acquisitions are known, but many of them go under the radar for months and even years.

Cook's interview, with more detail on privacy and other topics, can be watched in its entirety over at CNBC.