Lyft today revealed that a loyalty program for its customers, "Lyft Rewards," will begin rolling out for select passengers in December, allowing these users to be rewarded for using the service.
The program will work by tracking each time you use Lyft to get around, netting you points for every dollar that you spend on the ride-hailing service. With enough points, you'll earn rewards like an upgrade to Lyft Lux or discounts on a future ride. In the app, Lyft will show you how close you are to your next reward.
The company says that it will continue to work on Lyft Rewards over time, and is brainstorming future additions to the service, including reward perks like ride upgrades, access to more experienced rivers, and double points days.
Following the December 2018 rollout for select riders in various cities, Lyft Rewards will be available to more riders in the new year. The company says it will begin sending out email notifications to those eligible for the December phase of the program sometime soon.
Volkswagen today announced that subscribers of its Car-Net service can now use the iOS app and Siri to lock and unlock their car. The Siri command for this will be, "Hey Siri, lock my car."
With the feature, Volkswagen owners can also start and stop a charging session for electric cars, set a specific temperature in the car, locate the car, turn on the defroster, check estimated mileage, check charge levels, and enable the honk and flash alarm commands.
The company also confirmed that Car-Net supports Apple's new Siri Shortcuts app, allowing drivers to set personalized phrases that activate these Volkswagen connected car abilities alongside other smart home commands.
“We are constantly looking at innovative ways to make VW Car-Net more convenient and relevant for our customers,” said Abdallah Shanti, EVP, Global Chief Information Officer Volkswagen Brand & Car-IT. “With Siri Shortcuts, creating voice commands to use with our mobile app was a great opportunity to do just that! Integration with Siri helps our drivers keep eyes on the road and hands on the wheel.”
Siri Shortcuts debuted in iOS 12 this past September, allowing users to create complex commands that tie together numerous apps, services, and smart home devices into one speakable phrase. To get the update for the VW Car-Net app, you'll need iOS 12 or later on iPhone [Direct Link].
Noted analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has issued a new research note today, cutting his shipment estimates for the iPhone XR due to several factors. He believes that some of the decline will be offset by higher demand for iPhone XS and older "legacy" models, but he is still reducing his overall iPhone shipment forecasts by 15–20 percent for the first quarter of 2019.
We have reduced our iPhone XR shipment estimation from 100mn units to 70mn during the new product lifecycle (4Q18–3Q19) for the following reasons: 1) Negative impacts on consumer confidence from the trade war, especially in the Chinese market, 2) expectations from more users for more affordable XR or the dual-camera and narrower bezel design to be provided at the current price level, and 3) competition from Huawei's Mate 20 series. We have reduced our XR shipment estimations for 4Q18, 1Q19, and 2Q19 by 30–35%, 25–30%, and 25–30% to 30–35, 20–25, and 10–15mn units, respectively.
Kuo believes that iPhone shipments for the current quarter will be in the same 75–80 million range he previously predicted, while he has lowered his first-quarter estimate to 47–52 million from a previous range of 55–60 million.
Kuo's prediction is somewhat curious given that he raised his early iPhone XR estimate a little less than a month ago and cited stronger demand than seen for the iPhone 8 last year with the potential for more stable demand over time.
Apple's stock price is down over 4 percent today, outpacing broader market declines and falling to its lowest point since the end of July.
Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo published a new report over the weekend, related to the introduction of new antenna technology that could be coming in next year's iPhone lineup. According to the analyst, Modified PI (MPI) will replace Liquid Crystal Polymer (LCP) to become the mainstream antenna technology for the 2019 iPhones, but LCP will still be found in the smartphones.
Kuo says that complicated production processes of LCP and Apple's lower bargaining power against LCP material suppliers will contribute to this change. LCP is also said to be more brittle and as such unfavorable for module production yield rate, so improving these rates has the chance to lower the antenna's performance based on current technology limitations.
In total, Kuo believes that there will be a mix of LCP and MPI antennae in the upcoming 6.5-inch, 5.8-inch, and 6.1-inch iPhone models for 2019: four MPI antennae and two LCP antennae. Currently, the iPhone XS, XS Max, and XR are equipped with six LCP antennae. With the switch, LCP shipments for the new iPhones in 2019 will decrease by at least 70 percent year-on-year.
As we enter the era of 5G, Kuo estimates that both MPI and LCP "will coexist" during the transition to the new wireless communications standard. While the market is reportedly confident that the coming 5G era will boost LCP materials growth, Kuo says this expectation may be corrected because many mid-range and low-end smartphones will likely switch to MPI antennae during the transition from 4G to 5G.
Besides antennae, current rumors for the 2019 iPhones again predict three models will launch next year: two OLED models (5.8-inch and 6.5-inch) and one LCD model (6.1-inch). Kuo has previously predicted that the 2019 iPhones will feature a new flood illuminator that will improve Face ID by lowering the impact of the invisible light from the environment, and the notch on these models could be smaller as Apple may combine the front-facing camera and the Face ID sensors.
Following teardowns of the new MacBook Air and Mac mini, the repair experts at iFixit have today published their teardown of the 11-inch iPad Pro.
Images via iFixit
To start, iFixit removed the display from the tablet and the first thing they noticed were the audio components of the new iPad Pro, made up of four woofers and four tweeters.
The speakers and logic board cover impeded access to the iPad Pro's A12X Bionic chip, but eventually iFixit accessed the full logic board. On it, they found the A12X Bionic SoC, 64GB Toshiba flash storage, two Micron RAM totaling 4GB, the NFC controller, Apple's Wi-Fi/Bluetooth module, two Broadcom touch screen controllers, and a Texas Instruments power controller.
With its sights set on the iPad Pro's battery, iFixit discovered that the 2018 tablet's battery is slightly more repairable than the previous generation. This is because Apple is again using stretch-release battery tabs again with the 11-inch iPad Pro, with six U-shaped strips in total. iFixit explained that each of these strips include two tabs, so fixers have a second chance at repairability should one of them break.
After this smooth opening with the adhesive strips, iFixit still faced a large amount of adhesive running down the left side of the battery. Eventually, the repair experts got the battery free and found a 7,812 mAh battery running at 3.77 V for 29.45 Wh, which is a slight downgrade in comparison to the 30.8 Wh pack of the 10.5-inch iPad Pro.
Looking at the Face ID components, iFixit pointed out that this is the same basic hardware previously seen in Apple devices since the iPhone X, just in "a slightly modified form factor." iFixit then removed the speakers, Apple Pencil charging board, and USB-C port, which is fully modular, unlike previous iPads. Unlike the Lightning ports on the older iPad models -- which were soldered to the logic board -- the USB-C port on the 11-inch iPad Pro can be replaced independently of the main logic board.
Lastly, iFixit used its ultrasonic blade to teardown the new Apple Pencil and discover its battery, wireless charging coil, alignment magnets, and Broadcom touch controller. The experts also noticed what looked like a capacitive grid, thought to be used to register the user's tap inputs on the new Apple Pencil. According to iFixit, this particular grid also helps the Apple Pencil know where on the Pencil you tap, not just when, so the experts wondered if more complex gestures could be coming.
Overall, the 11-inch iPad Pro has received a 3/10 repairability score, with 10 being the easiest to repair. The major bonuses for the new iPad Pro's repairability were the modular USB-C port and lack of a physical home button, which "eliminated a common failure point" and could further simplify repairs. Still, iFixit noted that adhesive was nearly everywhere inside of the iPad Pro, and will make all repairs more difficult.
Apple today announced a new display replacement program for the iPhone X, which will see the company replacing iPhone X displays that exhibit touch issues.
According to Apple, some iPhone X displays can experience problems with responsiveness due to a display module component that can fail. Affected devices have a display or part of a display that does not respond to touch or responds intermittently, or a display that reacts without being touched at all.
Apple says that customers experiencing this issue can get a replacement display module from an Apple retail store or Apple Authorized Service Provider at no cost.
There is no serial number check nor specific time period that outlines when affected devices were sold, so presumably this display component failure can impact any iPhone X device. Complaints about ghost touches and displays that fail to respond to touch have been circulating on the MacRumors forums for several months now, dating back to when the iPhone X was first released.
iPhone X users with a display that has these symptoms should visit an Apple retail store location, find an Apple Authorized Service Provider, or contact Apple Support to arrange mail-in service to get a replacement.
Apple recommends customers back up their iPhones to iTunes or iCloud before pursuing repair, and the company warns that other damage, such as a cracked screen, may need to be addressed before the display repair can be completed.
This Apple program does not extend the standard warranty coverage of the iPhone X, and repairs may be restricted or limited to the original country of purchase. The program covers affected iPhone X devices for three years after the first retail sale of the unit.
Apple says that if customers affected by this issue already paid for a repair, they can contact Apple Support for a refund.
Apple today announced the launch of a new SSD service program for the 13-inch MacBook Pro sans Touch Bar after determining that the 128 and 256GB SSDs in a limited number of these machines have an issue that can result in data loss and failure of the drive.
Apple says that 13-inch MacBook Pro models with affected drives were sold between June 2017 and June 2018, and Apple will provide service for these drives free of charge.
MacBook Pro owners can submit their serial number on the page announcing the program to see if their machines are eligible for servicing. Apple recommends that affected machines be serviced as soon as possible to avoid loss of data.
13-inch MacBook Pro models with Touch Bar and older 13-inch MacBook Pro models are not affected.
Customers will need to visit an Apple retail location, an Apple Authorized Service Provider, or contact Apple Support for a mail-in repair. Apple says that all machines needing service should be backed up first, with the company outlining the repair steps:
Prior to service, it's important to do a full back up of your data because your drive will be erased as part of the service process.
- A technician will run a utility to update your drive firmware which will take approximately one hour or less. - Your 13-inch MacBook Pro will be returned to you with macOS re-installed. - After service, you will need to restore your data from a backup.
Apple also recommends having another device, such as an iPhone, available to view the Apple support article with details about restoring data from a backup since the Mac in question will not be able to access the internet until it is updated.
Apple says that files corrupted due to this issue will not be able to be restored, and any damage to the MacBook Pro that impairs the ability to service the drive will need to be addressed first, possibly at customer expense.
The program covers affected MacBook Pro models for three years after the first retail sale of the unit, but it doesn't extend the standard warranty coverage of the 13-inch MacBook Pro. Customers who already paid for a repair for a drive failure can contact Apple Support for a refund.
Back before the iPhone X came out, there were rumors suggesting Apple would do away with the Home button by implementing Touch ID under the display of the device, preserving the fingerprint sensor while allowing for an edge-to-edge display.
That didn't end up happening and Apple ultimately replaced Touch ID with Face ID, but since then, other companies have implemented in-display fingerprint recognition technology.
OnePlus recently unveiled its new OnePlus 6T, one of the first commercially available smartphones in the United States that's using in-screen fingerprint recognition technology. We were able to get our hands on one of the new smartphones to see if Apple is missing out on anything with its Face ID implementation.
There are instances where a fingerprint sensor offers benefits over facial recognition. Face ID, for example, doesn't work well when you're laying in bed and the phone is held in landscape or when an iPhone is flat on a desk. With a fingerprint sensor, those are non-issues.
Fingerprint sensors have their own problems, though, and as we discovered with the OnePlus 6T, in-display fingerprint technology isn't as great as it sounds. OnePlus' implementation is slow and inaccurate, a major negative compared to Face ID.
With the OnePlus 6T, you need to make sure to place your finger in the designated spot on the display for your fingerprint to be recognized, and sometimes you need to hold it there for what seems like a long time before it reads the fingerprint. Touch ID and Face ID both unlock almost instantly, so the wait with the OnePlus 6T makes a huge difference.
Had Apple pursued in-display fingerprint technology its implementation might have been better than what OnePlus came out with, and there's still a chance the tech OnePlus is using will improve with software updates or future iterations, but we'll never know if Apple would have done it better.
Apple is all in on Face ID, which is now in both modern iPhones and iPads, and the company has said that other solutions, like in-screen or rear-facing Touch ID, were never under consideration once it decided to pursue Face ID.
Apple's Face ID technology is still so advanced that no other company, OnePlus included, has managed to match it as of yet. And in-display technology still has a ways to go, it seems, with most major Apple competitors instead opting for rear-facing fingerprint sensors as a way to achieve edge-to-edge displays.
Do you miss Touch ID and wish Apple would have worked towards an in-display fingerprint sensor, or do you prefer Face ID? Let us know in the comments.
For this week's giveaway, we've teamed up with Understands to offer MacRumors readers a chance to win a high-quality iMac stand or shelf made from wood.
Understands makes a selection of stands, shelves, and drawers that are designed to accompany the iMac, though there's potential for these to also work with other computer monitors. Each stand is made entirely from salvaged urban wood, with different options like ash, walnut, and cherry available.
There are many one-of-a-kind stands and shelves available with unique designs, live edges, bark accents, and other features. Prices range from $35 for the smallest shelves to $399 for the largest configuration with multiple drawers, but most are priced around $100 to $150. There are six main configurations, outlined below.
The Evo, priced at $99 to $129, features an iMac undermount, so it adds storage to the area above your iMac's stand while also raising it to an optimal viewing height. It is available with or without a drawer, and there's space to store the Apple Magic Keyboard underneath it. At the back, there are cutouts for cords, which allow them to be routed into the drawer for storing and charging devices like iPhones and other peripherals.
Priced at $300, the Planet features a total of three cork-lined drawers for holding accessories and peripherals, with one additional hidden drawer and built-in hand-cut dovetail joinery. The Planet, made from ash harvested sustainably in Illinois, is also an undermount design that fits over the iMac's stand with rear-facing cutouts for managing cables.
Priced at $99, the single-drawer Aspire also features an undermount to raise the iMac up just a bit to put it at an ideal viewing angle, and built-in cable management lets you charge your devices like iPhones and iPads without messy cables everywhere.
Made from birch with walnut trim, the Bolt comes in multiple sizes and can hold a single monitor/iMac or multiples. The Bolt stands are 9 inches deep and have customizable height options ranging from three to five inches. Prices range from $49 for a nine-inch single iMac version to $119 for a 42-inch model.
The Butler is a little shelf that's designed to fit on the back of the iMac where it can hold storage devices and other knick knacks. It's an ideal place to put your SSDs and hard drives because it keeps cables out of the way. There are multiple wood options for the Butler, along with 15 and 20-inch size configurations. The Butler is priced from $59 to $79.
Priced at $189, the Ray is another iMac stand with an undermount design that raises the iMac up to an ideal viewing height. It features a pen tray, a large cork-lined main drawer big enough to hold an iPad, and space underneath to put the Apple Magic Keyboard. As with other Understands options, there's built-in cable management with felt cable grips so you can hide your cords away.
For our giveaway, Understands is offering MacRumors readers a chance to win one of four $400 gift cards that can be used to purchase anything on the Understands website.
To enter to win, use the Rafflecopter widget below and enter an email address. Email addresses will be used solely for contact purposes to reach the winners and send the prizes. You can earn additional entries by subscribing to our weekly newsletter, subscribing to our YouTube channel, following us on Twitter, following us on Instagram, or visiting the MacRumorsFacebook page.
Due to the complexities of international laws regarding giveaways, only U.S. residents who are 18 years or older and Canadian residents (excluding Quebec) who have reached the age of majority in their province or territory are eligible to enter. To offer feedback or get more information on the giveaway restrictions, please refer to our Site Feedback section, as that is where discussion of the rules will be redirected.
The contest will run from today (November 9) at 11:45 a.m. Pacific Time through 11:45 a.m. Pacific Time on November 16. The winners will be chosen randomly on November 16 and will be contacted by email. The winners will have 48 hours to respond and provide a shipping address before new winners are chosen.
As information on Black Friday sales continues to grow, Sam's Club is planning a one-day-only sale for tomorrow, November 10, and it includes a few Apple items. The focus is $30 off Apple's AirPods, which will mark the wireless headphones down to $117.00, from their current price of $147.00 for Saturday only and available online only. This is the lowest-ever straight discount from a major retailer for the AirPods.
Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Sam's Club. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.
Sam's Club is also offering $50 off select models of Apple Watch, but the retailer didn't specify yet which models it will be. Online shoppers can expect $50 savings on the aluminum Series 3 models, and the Sam's Club circular for the sale does link to a page that includes Series 4 as well, so it's possible we could see one of the first discounts on the latest Apple Watch tomorrow.
For iPad, Sam's Club will take $150 off the 10.5-inch iPad Pro with 64GB, 256GB, and 512GB options available online only. Best Buy is also in the midst of its own pre-Black Friday sale with similar discounts on the 10.5-inch iPad Pro, but it appears the Sam's Club $150 offer will beat Best Buy's $125 discount on the 64GB and 256GB options at least.
The online sales will open up in the morning at 12:01 a.m. ET on SamsClub.com, and doors at physical locations will open at 7:00 a.m. local time tomorrow morning. You'll need to be a Sam's Club member to take advantage of any of these sales, and you can find more information on how to join right here.
If you're planning your Black Friday shopping now, be sure to visit our full Black Friday Roundup, which as of today includes detailed information on sales from Best Buy, Walmart, Target, Incase, Griffin, Incipio, and many more. As a note, we are now exactly two weeks away from Black Friday on November 23.
Micro Center retail stores are offering an impressive $200 off new MacBook Air models, including custom configurations, starting today. This is by far the best deal we've seen on the new MacBook Air just released this Wednesday.
A new base model MacBook Air with a 1.6GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor, 8GB of RAM, 128GB of SSD storage, and Intel UHD Graphics 617 is available for $999, down from Apple's regular price of $1,199. An upgraded model with 256GB of storage is available for $1,199, down from $1,399 regularly.
Micro Center says the deal is available at its retail stores only and not online, although an order can also be reserved online for in-store pickup. The official Apple Authorized Reseller has 25 locations across the United States, many of which appear to be open on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
Micro Center says the deal is limited to one per household, and supplies are likely extremely limited, so we recommend calling ahead if you are planning on visiting one of their stores. There's no indication when the sale ends, so act fast.
Amazon and Apple have reached an agreement that will see Amazon selling an expanded selection of iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch devices through its online storefronts in the United States, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Japan, and India, reports CNET.
In the near future, Amazon will offer its customers the Apple latest devices, which includes the new 2018 iPad Pro models, the iPhone XR, the iPhone XS and XS Max, Apple Watch Series 4 models, the 2018 Mac mini, and a selection of Beats headphones. The products will be available through Apple-authorized resellers on Amazon's marketplace.
Certain Apple products will not be included on Amazon's site, such as the HomePod, which directly competes with Amazon's line of Echo devices.
In a statement provided to CNET, Amazon said that it added Apple products because it's always aiming to improve the customer experience.
"Amazon is constantly working to enhance the customer experience, and one of the ways we do this is by increasing selection of the products we know customers want," an Amazon spokesperson said in a statement Friday morning. "We look forward to expanding our assortment of Apple and Beats products globally."
At the current time, many Apple products are not available on Amazon's site or are sold through unreliable third-party marketplace sellers at non-standard prices. With the new agreement, Apple devices will be available at regular retail prices.
Independent sellers who offer new and used Apple products on Amazon will have their listings removed after January 4, 2019, under the new deal. Those sellers will need to apply to become Apple authorized resellers on Amazon to continue to offer their wares.
As CNET points out, while this deal will provide customers with access to a greater selection of Apple products at standard prices, it could potentially impact the used Apple device market on the platform.
Apple plans to donate to fire relief efforts in Northern and Southern California, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced on Twitter this morning.
It continues to be fire season in California, and right now, the dry, windy weather has led to three major fires in the state. The Camp Fire, north of Sacramento, has burned upwards of 70,000 acres, with residents of Chico and Paradise being evacuated. Many homes have been destroyed in Paradise, California.
In Southern California, the Hill Fire and Woolsey Fire are raging in Los Angeles and Ventura counties. The Woolsey Fire is approaching Malibu, a well-known area of Los Angeles, and residents are being evacuated. Upwards of 75,000 homes in Ventura and Los Angeles counties have already been evacuated and some structures have reportedly been destroyed.
Santa Ana winds that exacerbate the fires are expected to continue through Friday and into Saturday, with a second round of winds forecasted to start on Sunday and last through Tuesday.
Praying for the safety of our neighbors, loved ones and all those affected by the rapidly spreading fires in California. We’re grateful to the firefighters and first responders working to keep everyone safe. Apple is donating to relief efforts for Northern & Southern California.
— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) November 9, 2018
Apple often provides aid during serious environmental disasters. Late last year and earlier this year, Apple donated several million towards fire relief aid for other fires that impacted California.
While the new MacBook Air with a Retina display can only be configured with one processor option, a 1.6GHz dual‑core eighth‑generation Intel Core i5 processor, Apple may have prototyped a faster version too.
A benchmark result on Geekbench last week has surfaced via Slashleaks for an unreleased Mac, codenamed AAPJ140K1,1, powered by a dual-core eighth-generation Core i7 processor with a base clock speed of 1.8GHz. The exact model is not listed, but its logic board has the same part number as the new MacBook Air.
As further evidence, the benchmark result lists 16GB of 2133 MHz LPDDR3 RAM, an existing upgrade option for the new MacBook Air. And the Core i7-8510Y appears to be part of Intel's low-power Amber Lake lineup, as is the Core i5 in the new MacBook Air, although it's not listed on Intel's ARK database.
The apparent MacBook Air with a Core i7 chip has a multi-core score of 8,553 on Geekbench, which would make it roughly 8.5 percent faster than the average multi-core score of the existing option with a Core i5.
Geekbench founder John Poole told MacRumors that nothing about the benchmark result looks fake to him, although that possibility can't be entirely ruled out. If real, however, it suggests that a 2018 MacBook Air with a Core i7 exists within Apple, but obviously hasn't been released to the public.
It's reasonable to assume that Apple prototypes several different versions of its products, and not all of them see the light of day. Why the MacBook Air with a Core i7 wasn't released is anyone's guess — maybe it ran too hot, or Apple elected to keep the dual-core Core i7 a MacBook Pro option, or something else.
If Apple does plan to add the Core i7 as an upgrade option for the new MacBook Air, it's hard to envision that it would do so anytime soon considering the notebook was just refreshed. Apple has bumped up the MacBook Air's processor mid-product-cycle in the past, though, so there is some precedence for the move.
All in all, there is possibly a new MacBook Air with a Core i7 in the wild that Apple decided not to ship or may ship at a later date.
Apple today shared a story about how the iPhone's accessibility features enable blind veteran and surfboarder Scott Leason to live independently.
Scott Leason surfboards at Mission Beach
A veteran of the U.S. Navy, Leason was blinded in 1993 after seven years of service. After years of adapting to his new normal, he received an iPhone 5 in 2012, along with training from Sarah T. Majidzadeh, assistant chief of blind rehabilitation at the Tibor Rubin VA Medical Center in Long Beach, California.
Leason is one of many individuals who are blind or have low vision who rely on the iPhone's built-in VoiceOver screen-reading software for daily tasks.
"It's a lot easier to navigate with the phone," Leason told Apple for its story. "I think a lot of the visually impaired prefer the iPhone because they can do everything on it. And VoiceOver works pretty darn good."
VoiceOver is a gesture-based reader introduced on iPhone in 2009, which made it the world's first fully accessible smartphone user interface for the blind, according to Apple. 76 percent of blind and low-vision people using a mobile screen-reading platform choose VoiceOver, per a December 2017 survey by WebAIM.
Scott Leason uses his iPhone XR to prepare for a surf
A competitive surfboarder, Leason has since upgraded to an iPhone XR, which he uses to review the day's surf reports via the Surfline app to prepare for the day's ride, typically at Mission Beach in San Diego. He also wears an Apple Watch Series 4 to track his surfing workouts in the water and at home.
"It's amazing how long ago 10 years feels in the world of technology," said Kevin Waldick, assistant director at the Mission Bay Aquatics Center. "He was not very technologically savvy at all, but when he got his iPhone he was like 'I can just do it. This is amazing.' And so Apple does a really amazing job of making that accessible."
Scott Leason starts a surfing workout on Apple Watch Series 4
Leason was the first blind champion at the USA Adaptive Surfing Championships at Oceanside Harbor North Jetty in June 2016. The same year, he won second place in men's tricks at the USA Water Ski competition in Harmony, North Carolina. In 2018, he competed in seven competitions in four different sports.
"I'm independent," Leason concluded. "That's the best way to describe the iPhone: independence."
The repair experts at iFixit have completed their teardown of the new Mac mini, providing a look inside the portable desktop computer.
Disassembly of the new Mac mini remains fairly straightforward. iFixit popped off the plastic bottom cover with its opening tool and then used a Torx screwdriver to unfasten the familiar antenna plate underneath.
With access to the inside, iFixit then unscrewed the fan and popped out the logic board with some old-fashioned thumb pressing. While the RAM in the previous-gen Mac mini from 2014 was soldered to the logic board, the new Mac mini has user-upgradeable RAM, as discovered earlier this week.
As seen in older iMacs, the RAM is protected by a perforated shield that allows the memory modules to operate at a high frequency of 2666 MHz without interfering with other device functions, according to iFixit. To upgrade the RAM, the shield can be removed by unfastening four Torx screws.
Other silicon on the logic board of this particular Mac mini includes the Apple T2 security chip, a 3.6GHz quad-core Intel Core i3 processor, Intel UHD Graphics 630, 128GB of flash storage from Toshiba, an Intel JHL7540 Thunderbolt 3 controller, and a Gigabit Ethernet controller from Broadcom.
Despite the good news about the RAM, the CPU and SSD are soldered to the logic board, as are many ports, so this isn't a truly modular Mac mini.
iFixit awarded the new Mac mini a repairability score of 6/10, with 10 being the easiest to repair, topping the latest MacBook Air, MacBook, MacBook Pro, iMac, and iMac Pro, and trailing only the 2013 Mac Pro.
"Back in the day, a Pro Mac meant a computer you could upgrade, configure, and connect as you pleased," iFixit's teardown concludes. "This new mini aligns so well with that ideal that we're surprised it didn't earn itself a "Pro" title—especially compared to the increasingly closed-off MacBook Pro line."
The new Mac mini earned its higher repairability score thanks to its straightforward disassembly with no tough adhesive or proprietary pentalobe screws and user-upgradeable RAM. However, it didn't earn a perfect score due to the soldered-down CPU, storage, and ports, impacting repairs and upgrades.
The follow-up to discontinued six-second video sharing app Vine is coming online early next year, according to the original co-founder.
Dom Hoffman announced the Vine 2 project back in November 2017, but in a May update said that it had been postponed for an "indefinite amount of time," citing legal and financial reasons.
However, Hoffman has now revealed via Twitter that a new looping video app called "byte" is on course for a spring 2019 launch.
The original Vine was founded in June 2012 and was acquired by Twitter prior to its launch in January 2013. The Vine service became a huge hit after launch and developed a dedicated fan base, but after it began to wane in popularity, Twitter decided to shutter it.
Twitter turned the original Vine app into Vine Camera, which allows users to create six-second video loops that can be shared on Twitter.
Readers interested in the follow-up to Vine can sign up to receive updates on platform's launch at the byte website.
If you plan to give away, sell or trade in your Mac, you should de-authorize your iTunes account on the computer first, as this removes its access to content that you bought from the iTunes Store, iBooks Store, or App Store, including things like music, movies, TV shows, apps, and books.
Apple puts a five-computer limit on an account for accessing iTunes protected content, so it's worth remembering to deauthorize before you part ways with a computer, but of course that might not always be possible. Say your Mac stops working or gets stolen, for example. What then?
Fortunately, if you no longer have access to the device you want to deauthorize, you can still do so by following the steps below on another computer. The process deauthorizes all computers associated with your account, but also lets you re-authorize the devices you still own.
Note that Apple lets you deauthorize all computers once per year, and the procedure on a Windows computer is the same as on a Mac. Keep reading to learn how it's done.
Launch iTunes on your Mac.
If you aren't signed in already, select Account -> Sign in... from iTunes' menu bar.
Enter your Apple ID and password, and click Sign In.
Select Account -> View My Account... from the menu bar.
On the Account Information page, click the Deauthorize All button at the lower right of the Apple ID summary section. This button will only appear if you have more than one computer authorized.
In the pop-up dialog window, click Deauthorize All.
Click OK in the Deauthorization Complete dialog window.
To re-authorize the current computer, select Account -> Authorizations -> Authorize This Computer... from the menu bar.
Enter your Apple ID and password in the dialog window, and click Authorize.
Click OK at the dialog confirming successful authorization.
Biggest design overhaul since iOS 7 with Liquid Glass, plus new Apple Intelligence features and improvements to Messages, Phone, Safari, Shortcuts, and more. Developer beta available now ahead of public beta in July.
Biggest design overhaul since iOS 7 with Liquid Glass, plus new Apple Intelligence features and improvements to Messages, Phone, Safari, Shortcuts, and more. Developer beta available now ahead of public beta in July.
Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo published a new report over the weekend, related to the introduction of new antenna technology that could be coming in next year's iPhone lineup. According to the analyst, Modified PI (MPI) will replace Liquid Crystal Polymer (LCP) to become the mainstream antenna technology for the 2019 iPhones, but LCP will still be found in the smartphones.
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