MacRumors

A new report from South Korea's ETNews insinuates that iPhones may have a smaller notch in 2019 or beyond.

The report, citing industry sources, claims Apple is "looking into" combining the front-facing camera and Face ID on next year's iPhones, a move that could certainly reduce the size of the TrueDepth sensor housing.

According to industries, it is heard that Apple is planning to strengthen face sensing function starting from 2019 models. That is why it is planning to increase number of parts that will be used for iPhones and is looking into combination of a face recognition module with a camera module.

The confusing bit is that the report mentions a singular face recognition module, whereas Face ID is powered by an infrared camera, dot projector, and flood illuminator. The report doesn't specify how Apple would manage to combine these components, so like many very-early-on rumors, this one isn't entirely clear yet.

The notch is easily the most controversial attribute of the iPhone X's design. While many early adopters don't mind the small cutout at the top of the display, others have heavily criticized it, including The Outline's Joshua Topolsky.

The "notch" on the new iPhone X is not just strange, interesting, or even odd — it is bad. It is bad design, and as a result, bad for the user experience. The justification for the notch (the new Face ID tech, which lets you unlock the device just by looking at it) could have easily been accomplished with no visual break in the display. Yet here is this awkward blind spot cradled by two blobs of actual screen space.

Unfortunately for those critics, it doesn't look like the smaller notch will arrive in 2018, as new iPhones and iPads set to launch later this year are expected to have the same TrueDepth sensor housing as the iPhone X.

Back in November, KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said Face ID will be featured on a second-generation 5.8-inch iPhone X, a larger 6.5-inch iPhone X Plus, and a new mid-range 6.1-inch iPhone. Apple will also release at least one iPad Pro model with Face ID this year, according to Bloomberg News.

LG Innotek will reportedly supply all or the majority of 3D sensing modules for the next-generation iPhone and iPad models, based on an $821 million investment, which may have been funded at least partially by Apple.

Apple faces its first legal action over Meltdown and Spectre in the United States, even though the vulnerabilities were found to affect nearly all computers and other devices, according to court documents reviewed by MacRumors.

Meltdown and Spectre are serious hardware-based vulnerabilities that take advantage of the speculative execution mechanism of a CPU, allowing hackers to gain access to sensitive information. All modern Intel, ARM, and AMD processors are affected, with many patches and mitigations already released.

Anthony Bartling and Jacqueline Olson filed a class action complaint against Apple last week in a U.S. district court in San Jose on behalf of anyone who purchased a device with an ARM-based processor designed by Apple, ranging from the A4 to A11 Bionic chips used in iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and Apple TV models.

The complaint alleges that Apple has known about the design defects giving rise to the Meltdown and Spectre vulnerabilities since at least June 2017, and could have disclosed details to the public more promptly.

An excerpt from the complaint:

ARM Holdings PLC, the company that licenses the ARM architecture to Apple, admits that it was notified of the Security Vulnerabilities in June 2017 by Google's Project Zero and that it immediately notified its architecture licensees (presumably, including Apple) who create their own processor designs of the Security Vulnerabilities.

The complaint added that it is unlikely Apple would be able to fully and adequately release fixes for Meltdown and Spectre without the performance of its processors decreasing by between five and 30 percent.

Apple addressed Meltdown in macOS High Sierra 10.13.2 and iOS 11.2, while Spectre mitigations were introduced in a macOS 10.13.2 supplemental update and iOS 11.2.2, both of which were released early last week.

Despite one dubious claim that Apple's patch for Spectre resulted in a significant performance decrease on one developer's iPhone 6, Apple said its testing indicated that its mitigations had no measurable impact on its Speedometer and ARES-6 tests and an impact of less than 2.5 percent on the JetStream benchmark.

The complaint expects at least 100 customers to be part of the proposed class, with the combined sum of compensatory and punitive damages expected to exceed $5 million if the case proceeds to trial.

A group of Israelis have filed a request with the Haifa District Court to file a class action lawsuit against Apple, Intel, and ARM over Meltdown and Spectre as well, according to local news publication Hamodia.

iPhone Slowdown Lawsuits Continue to Mount

Apple continues to face an increasing number of lawsuits that either accuse the company of intentionally slowing down older iPhones, or at least of failing to disclose power management changes it made starting in iOS 10.2.1.

In the United States, the iPhone maker now faces at least 39 class action complaints as of January 15, according to court documents compiled by MacRumors. Additional lawsuits have been filed in France, Israel, Russia, Korea, and Vietnam, with another pending in Canada, bringing the total to 45.

Many of the lawsuits demand Apple compensate all iPhone users who have experienced slowdowns, offer free battery replacements, refund customers who purchased brand new iPhones to regain maximum performance, and as Apple has already promised, add more detailed info to iOS about a device's battery health.

We've already answered many frequently asked questions about Apple's power management process, and covered the issue extensively, so read our past coverage for more information about the matter.

Today marks the tenth anniversary of the late Steve Jobs unveiling the MacBook Air, the world's thinnest notebook at the time.

After introducing the AirPort Time Capsule and sharing some iPhone and Apple TV news, Jobs walked over to his podium, grabbed a manilla envelope, and pulled out the sleek MacBook Air. The crowd at Macworld erupted with applause as Jobs held the ultra-light notebook in the palm of his hand.

The thinness came at a cost. The base model ran $1,799 for a 1.6GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB of RAM, and an 80GB hard drive. A maxed out version was also available for $3,098, around $300 more than the base Mac Pro at the time, with a faster 1.8GHz processor and a 64GB solid-state drive.

MacBook Air was all about firsts. The notebook was Apple's first without a CD/DVD drive, first to ditch a range of ports and connectivity options, first with a multi-touch trackpad, first to have the option for SSD storage, first to weigh just three pounds or less, and first with a mercury-free display.

A single design decision also epitomized the past decade of Apple: a flip-down door on the right side of the machine provided access to only a single USB port, a headphone jack, and a micro-DVI port.

We've seen Apple go down this path many times since: it introduced the MacBook with just a single USB-C port, reduced the MacBook Pro's connectivity to Thunderbolt 3 ports, and removed the headphone jack on the iPhone 7. Each change generated controversy, but ultimately set the course for its future.

Stephen Hackett of 512 Pixels has shared a great piece titled The MacBook Air: A Decade's Worth of Legacy over at MacStories that dives into the notebook's history. He also put together the video below.

A decade later, the MacBook Air remains a product in Apple's lineup, but likely only because it is a lower-cost option. Beyond a minor speed bump last June, the notebook hasn't been updated since March 2015, and it very well may be discontinued once Apple feels able to sell its 12-inch MacBook for around $999.

Apple today has honored the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. with a full-page tribute on its website. A photo of Dr. King is accompanied by a famous quote of his: "The time is always right to do what is right."

Apple CEO Tim Cook also shared a quote from Dr. King on Twitter and added "let's find the light and the love, together."

Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the United States, a federal holiday in commemoration of his birthday. The iconic leader of the African-American civil rights movement would have turned 89 years old on Monday.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Toyota today is introducing its all-new 2019 Avalon at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, and MacRumors has learned it is the automaker's first vehicle with support for Apple's CarPlay.

Toyota and Lexus plan to expand CarPlay compatibility to other 2019 model year and beyond vehicles with its Entune 3.0 and Enform 2.0 multimedia systems respectively, according to company spokesperson Brian Lyons. Toyota and Lexus vehicles with CarPlay will initially be sold in the United States only.

Entune 3.0 is already included with the 2018 Camry and 2018 Sienna, so CarPlay should be available in 2019 models of those vehicles at the very least. Toyota told us it hasn't finalized plans for all other vehicles yet.

Toyota said its CarPlay implementation will be wired, so connecting an iPhone via USB will be required. Entune 3.0 will also be compatible with Amazon's Alexa voice assistant in the United States, as Toyota announced at CES 2018 last week. It looks like Android Auto isn't supported at this time.

Toyota often competes for the title of world's largest automaker, and it was by far the most notable brand to not support CarPlay until now, lagging months or years behind competitors like Ford, General Motors, Fiat Chrysler, BMW, Audi, Mercedes-Benz, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, and Volkswagen.

Toyota had been listed as a committed CarPlay partner on Apple's website since 2014, but it had no plans to adopt the platform as of February 2015. "We may all eventually wind up there, but right now we prefer to use our in-house proprietary platforms for those kinds of functions," the company said at the time.

Then, in early 2016, Toyota entered into an agreement with Ford and Livio to deploy SmartDeviceLink, an open source multimedia system rivaling CarPlay and Android Auto. Ford and Toyota established a consortium in early 2017 to accelerate development of the open source software platform.

A recent survey indicated that an increasing number of customers consider CarPlay a must-have feature, so Toyota's support for Apple's software platform should benefit both new vehicle buyers and its bottom line.

Below is a list of some of the other new vehicles with CarPlay support debuting at the auto show this week:

Apple periodically updates a list of over 200 vehicle makes and models available with CarPlay on its website.

Update: Toyota has now shared a press release that reveals the 2019 Avalon has a new nine-inch capacitive touchscreen. CarPlay is a standard feature on all trim levels of the vehicle, which goes on sale in late spring 2018.

Update 2: Toyota informed MacRumors that its CarPlay implementation will be wired, so connecting an iPhone via USB will be required. We're also told that CarPlay will be available in select 2019 model year and beyond Lexus vehicles with its Enform 2.0 multimedia system in the United States.

Update 3: Toyota told us that it doesn't have any plans to support CarPlay in pre-2019 vehicles at this time, even though models like the 2018 Camry and 2018 Sienna have its Entune 3.0 system.

Apple currently has no plans to make any major upgrades to its MacBook Pro lineup in 2018, according to DigiTimes. Of course, if accurate, the report doesn't rule out a MacBook Pro refresh or update of any kind this year.

An excerpt from the report, citing sources within Apple's supply chain:

The sources revealed that Foxconn had been aggressively working to land more MacBook orders from Apple during the past few years by offering attractive quotes. Since Apple has not had a major upgrade to its MacBook product line since the releases of its new MacBook Pro devices at the end of 2016 and has no plan for one in 2018, the US-based vendor is planning to shift orders for models that are already in mass production to Foxconn to save costs and reduce risks.

Apple's manufacturing partner Foxconn could land a large number of additional MacBook orders this year, the report adds. The increase could come at the expense of Quanta Computer, which has been Apple's major MacBook supplier in recent years.

Taiwan-based Foxconn has reportedly been working to boost its chances of notebook orders from Apple by offering attractive quotes. Apple will therefore switch MacBook orders to Foxconn for models that are already in mass production as a way to save costs and reduce risks, according to the sources cited.

Foxconn is expected to begin mass shipments to fulfill the new orders in the second quarter of 2018, said the sources. Foxconn and Quanta both declined to comment on their clients or orders. The sources pointed out that Apple started outsourcing the assembly for some of MacBooks' components to Foxconn's plants in Shenzhen, China in the second half of 2017.

Despite the news, Quanta is expected to remain Apple's biggest supplier going into 2018. According to DigiTimes' research, out of 15 million MacBooks shipped to Apple a year, the shipment ratio between Quanta and Foxconn has been at around 8:2 for the past five years. Last year alone, Quanta had a 79.5 percent share and Foxconn took 20.5 percent.

Quanta is said to be looking to other brand vendors to offset the impact of the loss of orders, as it aims for similar growth to the market average in 2018. The Taiwan-based firm shipped 38.7 million notebooks last year, up five percent on year, and is currently the largest notebook supplier for HP, Apple, Acer, and Asus.

Quanta also maintains orders for the Apple Watch, and is said to be teaming up with Israeli-based augmented reality company Lumus to manufacture lenses for smart glasses. It's not clear if Quanta and Lumus are working with Apple on a future AR headset or smart glasses, but it is a possibility as rumors suggest Apple has a wearable augmented reality product in the works.

Drone videographer Duncan Sinfield has shared the first new Apple Park drone footage of 2018 on YouTube today. The three minute video includes shots of Apple Park's large central courtyard, employee fitness center and basketball courts, the Steve Jobs Theater, and more.

The first part of Sinfield's new video focuses on the landscaping within Apple Park's courtyard, which is still being finished up in the new year. Greenery now covers most of the space and surrounds the main water feature, which is complete. Landscaping has been a major part of the last few Apple Park drone videos -- most recently in one shared by Matthew Roberts last month -- with most of the large equipment moved off of the campus since the majority of construction is now complete.

In the new video, you can also briefly see the Steve Jobs Theater and Apple Park Visitor Center. The main atrium is captured, as well as the outside dining terrace where employees can sit and eat lunch. One of the areas where construction remains ongoing is the piece of land between the Steve Jobs Theater and the main spaceship building, where some vehicles and equipment remain inside of a red fence.

Although small pieces of construction and landscaping remain, employees have already moved into Apple Park and the Visitor Center opened to the public last November. Next month will mark one year since Apple officially named the campus "Apple Park," at the time explaining that it would take more than six months to move its planned 12,000 employees to the site.

Apple today has shared two new iPad Pro ads titled Augment Reality and Take Notes. The short 15-second clips, set to the song "Go" by Louis The Child, are part of a larger campaign ongoing since last year.

The first ad focuses on how the iPad Pro can run augmented reality apps based on Apple's new ARKit platform for iOS 11.

The second ad focuses on how the Apple Pencil can be used to create multimedia notes on an iPad Pro running iOS 11, along with the ability to draw, type, or drag and drop photos from Apple's Files app. A few clips from this ad were previously shared in Apple's longer What's a Computer? ad in November.

The two ads follow yesterday's new 38-second ad titled A New Light, in which Apple explained how Portrait Lighting offers studio quality lighting effects without a studio and showed off various examples.