Earlier this month, we told you about an auction for a Steve Jobs business card listing him as Chairman of the Board at Apple Computer. The business card features Apple's classic rainbow logo and an address of 20525 Mariani Avenue, across the street from Apple's Infinite Loop campus in Cupertino, California.
Boston-based RR Auction has since announced that the business card, estimated to fetch a modest $500, was sold for a considerably larger sum of $6,259 this week. For that price, one might think it was signed by Jobs, but it was not.
During the same auction, a copy of the February 1984 premiere issue of Macworld magazine signed by Jobs sold for $47,775, easily topping its $10,000 estimate. Limited copies of the issue are still in circulation, and Jobs was typically reluctant to provide his autograph, making it even more of a collectible.
Jobs signed the magazine at the grand opening of Apple's iconic Fifth Avenue store in New York in May 2006, writing "to Matt, steven jobs" on the front cover, which features a photo of himself next to a trio of original Macintosh computers.
For this week's giveaway, we've teamed up with Speck to offer MacRumors readers a chance to win an iPhone case bundle for the iPhone XR, XS, XS Max, X, or 8/8 Plus that comes with a Presidio Stay Clear case, a Presidio Pro case, and two of Speck's GrabTabs.
Speck makes a range of Presidio cases for the iPhone, all with varying designs and levels of protection. The Presidio Pro, priced from $40 to $45, is one of Speck's more protective cases with a dual-layer design.
With two layers of protection, the Presidio Pro offers protection from drops of up to 10 feet. A raised bezel around the edge of the screen protects the display when it's face down, and it comes in multiple colors including black, red, pink, blue, and gray.
Also included in the bundle is the Presidio Stay Clear, also priced at $40 to $45. The Presidio Stay Clear is, as the name suggests, an entirely clear case that shows off the design of the iPhone, making it the perfect choice for the colorful iPhone XR.
The Presidio Clear offers two layers of protection to keep your iPhone safe from drops up to eight feet, and it has a raised bezel in case it falls face down. All of Speck's cases allow for wireless charging.
To go along with the two cases in the bundle, Speck is including two of its new GrabTabs. Priced at $9.99, the GrabTab is an alternative to the PopSocket, offering up a loop that allows you to keep a solid grip on your iPhone.
The GrabTab attaches to the back of the iPhone or an iPhone case, and when not in use, the loop pops down so it doesn't add a lot of bulk to your iPhone. GrabTabs also serve as a stand so you can use it when watching videos, and they come in multiple colors and designs.
We have four iPhone case bundles from Speck to give away to MacRumors readers. 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 (December 14) at 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time through 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time on December 21. The winners will be chosen randomly on December 21 and will be contacted by email. The winners will have 48 hours to respond and provide a shipping address before new winners are chosen.
Apple Music can now be streamed on Amazon Echo speakers via Alexa in the United States, a few days ahead of schedule.
As spotted by 9to5Mac, it is now possible to link Apple Music with your Amazon account in the Alexa app for iPhone and use Alexa voice commands to control playback of songs, playlists, and Beats 1 on Apple Music on Amazon Echo speakers.
To access this feature, simply use a voice command such as "Alexa, play music by Ed Sheeran on Apple Music" or "Alexa, play today's hits on Apple Music." Apple Music can also be set as the default music service in the Alexa app, so that "Apple Music" does not need to be specified each time.
Other streaming music services supported on Echo speakers include Spotify, Deezer, Vevo, SiriusXM, Tidal, and Pandora.
Apple and Amazon announced this new partnership in late November, with Amazon saying it is "committed to offering great music providers to our customers," and referring to Apple Music as "one of the most popular music services."
Apple Music playback on Amazon Echo speakers is currently limited to the United States.
In one of the bigger deals for Apple's upcoming streaming TV service, Variety reports today that the Cupertino company has made a deal with DHX Media to produce all-new "Peanuts" content that will be exclusive to Apple.
Image via Variety/Peanuts Worldwide LLC
Under the deal, DHX and its subsidiary Peanuts Worldwide will develop and produce the original series, specials, and shorts, while Apple will release it on its streaming service. One such project will be a Peanuts short featuring astronaut Snoopy that will be themed around STEM education, which Apple has long supported.
It's unclear what else will be coming to Apple's service from the Peanuts characters, and the report makes no mention of Apple gaining the rights to existing Peanuts content. The franchise dates back to 1950, when Charles M. Schulz created the Peanuts comic strip, which has now grown into a larger media franchise of TV specials, feature films, short films, merchandise, and more.
Best Buy today kicked off a new three-day sale that will last all weekend and end on Sunday at 11:59 p.m. CT. The sale is full of great last-minute gift ideas for the holidays, and Best Buy still promises free shipping on everything all season. Orders for most items placed before 10:30 a.m. CT on December 20 will arrive before Christmas Eve.
Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with these vendors. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.
The first items in the sale are last year's iPhone X, 8, and 8 Plus, with savings of up to $150 for qualified activation for Verizon or Sprint customers. Savings are deducted off the full price of the iPhone and reflected in reduced monthly payments over the life of the device, including as low as $18.75/month for 24 months (and $150 down payment) for an iPhone X on Sprint.
Best Buy also has four models of the mid 2018 MacBook Pro with Touch Bar discounted by up to $200, but these prices are beaten by B&H Photo. We've collected each model on sale at Best Buy, along with B&H Photo's discount price, in the list below.
The Best Buy sale has quite a few other items discounted this weekend, so we've created a list of some of the highlights below, but be sure to head to Best Buy to shop the full sale before it ends Sunday night.
In other sales, this week MacRumors partnered up with accessory company Elevation Lab to offer our readers 40 percent off savings on a variety of the company's iPhone docks. You can find all three deals below, and to gain access to the savings enter the exclusive promo code DOCKDEALS18 during the checkout screen on Amazon. This sale will also expire on Sunday evening.
Amazon is also offering certified refurbished MacBook Pros from 2017 and select iPad models at discounted prices today. The cheapest MacBook Pro available is the 13-inch Touch Bar model with 8GB RAM/256GB HD at $1,199.99, down from $1,499.99. These MacBook Pros are sold by Woot and have been inspected and tested to be in working condition, and also come with a 90-day Woot warranty.
The iPads on sale include the 64GB iPad Air 2, 32GB iPad from 2017, and 128GB 12-inch iPad Pro in Silver and Space Gray. Amazon's price on the iPad Air 2 is $277.00, and shoppers can expect similar refurbished warranty coverage for these devices.
Other last-minute Christmas shopping ideas can be found below:
Targus - 15 percent off sitewide sale (with code TARGUS15SAS)
Nodus - 15 percent off sitewide sale (with exclusive code MACRUM20)
Pad & Quill - Save up to 25 percent on iPhone cases
Kano - Get the Harry Potter Coding Kit for $79.99, down from $99.99 through the end of 2018
Mujjo - Save 15 percent on all products with coupon code #sinatra (expires 12/19)
As a final note while you're shopping around online this weekend, some of Anker's best last-minute December deals will be expiring early next week. Anker's portable battery packs, wireless chargers, Bluetooth speakers, Lightning and USB-C cables, and Christmas sets make perfect holiday stocking stuffers and gifts, so be sure to head to our Deals Roundup to checkout the full list before the bargains begin disappearing on Monday, December 17.
Satechi today announced that three of its USB-C hubs are now available to pre-order in a gold color that resembles the finish of the latest MacBook Air.
Slim USB-C Multi-Port Adapter V2 - $69.99: 4K HDMI, SD and microSD card readers, one USB-C port with Power Delivery, and two USB-A ports. Plug-and-play with 2015 and newer MacBook, 2016 and newer MacBook Pro, 2018 MacBook Air, and 2018 iPad Pro.
USB-C Multi-Port Adapter 4K With Ethernet V2 - $89.99: 4K HDMI, Gigabit Ethernet, SD and microSD card readers, one USB-C port with Power Delivery, and three USB-A ports. Plug-and-play with 2015 and newer MacBook, 2016 and newer MacBook Pro, 2018 MacBook Air, and 2018 iPad Pro.
USB-C Pro Hub Adapter - $99.99: 4K HDMI, SD and microSD card readers, one USB-C port with Power Delivery, one USB-C port, and two USB-A ports. Plug-and-play with 2016 and newer MacBook Pro and 2018 MacBook Air.
This is purely a cosmetic change, with pricing and functionality of the USB-C hubs unchanged compared to the existing silver and space gray variants. Orders will begin to ship in January, according to the accessory maker.
Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Satechi. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.
SplashData published its annual list of the worst passwords of the year this week, sourced from more than five million passwords leaked on the internet this year. Like previous years, 2018 saw numerous high-profile data leaks, but many people have continued to use easily guessable passwords for their online accounts.
The new password autofill feature in iOS 12
For the fifth consecutive year, "123456" and "password" are the top two most popular passwords online. New entries on the list include "111111", "sunshine", "princess", "666666", "654321", and "donald" at number 23. SplashData CEO Morgan Slain discussed the list: "Hackers have great success using celebrity names, terms from pop culture and sports, and simple keyboard patterns to break into accounts online because they know so many people are using those easy-to-remember combinations."
Higher up the list, popular passwords include people's names like "daniel", "hannah", and "thomas"; pop culture references like "solo", "tigger", and "lakers"; random items like "cookie" and "banana"; birth years like "1990" and "1991"; and simple phrases like "whatever" and "test". As Slain explained, using super-simple phrases like these for any account online is a bad idea because it's so easy to guess what they are.
“Our hope by publishing this list each year is to convince people to take steps to protect themselves online,” says Slain. “It’s a real head-scratcher that with all the risks known, and with so many highly publicized hacks such as Marriott and the National Republican Congressional Committee, that people continue putting themselves at such risk year-after-year.”
In total, SplashData estimated that almost 10 percent of people have used at least one of the top 25 worst passwords on this year's list, and nearly 3 percent of people have used the worst password at one time, "123456". Most of the five million passwords that were leaked and evaluated for the report came from users in North America and Western Europe.
To help users stay safe, SplashData said that their passwords should be no shorter than twelve characters and have mixed types of characters in each one. Every log-in should have a different password, and investing in a password management app to store everything, generate random new passwords, and automatically log into websites is always a good idea.
Apple itself introduced a new password autofill feature in iOS 12 this year, making it easy to connect to third-party password apps and fill out your passwords throughout iOS. If you haven't tried it out yet, check out our guide on using the feature to find out how it works.
iPhone XR demand has been lower than expected, according to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who has slashed his overall iPhone shipment forecast by 20 percent for the first quarter of 2019. He now expects Apple to move 38-42 million iPhones in the quarter, down from his original estimate of 47-52 million.
Kuo, in a research note with TF International Securities, obtained by MacRumors:
We have reduced our 1Q19 iPhone shipment estimation by 20% to 38–42mn units (vs. our previous forecast of 47–52mn): We cut the 1Q19 iPhone shipment estimation again for the following reasons. (1) Lower-than-expected XR demand. We have reduced our 1Q19 XR shipment estimation to 15–20mn units vs. our previous forecast of 20–25mn units. (2) The increase in orders of legacy iPhone models cannot offset the decline of XR and XS series shipments because of the low season impact.
Apple reported sales of 52.2 million iPhones in the first quarter of 2018, which corresponds with the second quarter of Apple's fiscal year, so as few as 38 million units in the first quarter of 2019 would be a significant year-over-year decline.
For the iPhone XR in particular, Kuo has revised his shipment estimate to 15-20 million for the first quarter, down from 20-25 million.
Kuo estimates annual iPhone shipments will fall between 205 million and 210 million in 2018, and based on that, forecasts that annual iPhone shipments in 2019 will decline up to 10 percent to a range of 188 million to 194 million. This would fall below Wall Street's consensus estimate of around 212 million units in 2019.
While this news paints a pessimistic outlook for the iPhone, declining unit sales will likely be at least partially offset by the rising average selling price of iPhones. Apple's latest iPhone lineup is its most expensive yet, with the $349 iPhone SE discontinued and the iPhone XS Max topping out at $1,449 with 512GB of storage.
Kuo:
We believe that the iPhone ASP could at least keep growing YoY until 3Q19, and it will offset the YoY shipment decline. However, most suppliers will face growth challenges due to iPhone shipment decline. We believe that specific suppliers can grow, thanks to the component price increase or the ability to obtain new orders, but the visibility of the beneficiary list will not be clear until 1Q19 because some spec and order allocations of 2H19 new iPhone models are not confirmed yet.
Apple will no longer be disclosing unit sales in its quarterly earnings reports going forward, so investors will have to look towards iPhone revenue to determine how well the handset is selling. If unit sales are particularly bad, then a rising average selling price might not be enough to hide the weakness.
Apple has been aggressively marketing its latest iPhones. On its website, for example, the iPhone XR and iPhone XS take up the entire homepage with advertised starting prices of $449 and $699 respectively. However, each have an asterisk that leads to fine print that says pricing is based on an iPhone 7 Plus trade-in.
Apple's earnings results for the first quarter of 2019 will likely be released in May, so we're still some time away from real numbers.
Apple is reportedly looking to shift production of older iPhones to Taiwanese supplier Pegatron in an effort to avoid losing billions in revenue as a result of its patent dispute with Qualcomm.
Earlier this week, Qualcomm was granted an import ban on the iPhone 6s through iPhone X in China after the court found those devices violated two Qualcomm patents.
However, according to documents seen by Nikkei Asian Review, smartphones produced by Pegatron are exempt from the ban because the Taiwanese supplier paid license fees for the contested software, whereas rival iPhone assemblers Foxconn and Wistron did not.
One of the sources with direct knowledge of the situation said Apple had held initial discussions with Pegatron about whether the Taiwan-based company could take on more iPhone production to make up for the impact of the ban. No decision has yet been taken, however.
[...]
Taking into account a consumer shift to newer models, it is estimated that the order barring production of older iPhone models by Foxconn and Wistron could hit Apple's sales by some $5 billion in 2018 or 3% of total iPhone revenue.
This could be halved to about $2.5 billion if Pegatron is exempted, two sources said. And if Apple later decides to ask Pegatron to step up production, the impact would be even less, the sources added.
Apple has warned that upholding the iPhone ban would cause "truly irreparable harm" to Apple, other companies, and consumers if it is forced to withdraw its devices from the market.
Late on Thursday, Apple said it will release a software update to iPhone users in China early next week that the company says should address the patent-related issues.
In macOS, transparency – or more properly, translucency – is a visual effect many apps use to create a sense of depth by hinting at content residing in the background.
An example of transparency is when content behind a window shows through in interface elements like menus and sidebars. It's evident in the screenshot above, for example, in which the colors of the desktop wallpaper bleed through the sidebar in the Photos app.
A similar effect is sometimes used within app interface elements that are windowed, allowing window content to show through other elements like toolbars. An instance of this can be seen below, where the folders are visible through Finder's toolbar as if through frosted glass.
The effect can look cool, but it can also be distracting if you're trying to focus on content, especially if you're editing photos. Fortunately, macOS lets you turn off transparency, but the way to do it isn't immediately obvious. The following steps show you how.
How to Disable Transparency in macOS Mojave
Launch System Preferences from your Mac's Dock, from the Applications folder, or from the Apple menu bar ( -> System Preferences...).
In a court filing related to the ongoing dispute with Qualcomm that has resulted in a partial ban on iPhone sales in China, Apple this week warned that upholding the ban would cause "truly irreparable harm" to Apple, other companies, and consumers if Apple is forced to withdraw its devices from the market, according to Bloomberg.
The ban would cost Apple millions of dollars a day and affect both the Chinese government and consumers, the company added, noting it has created 5 million jobs in China across the supply chain and third-party software developers.
The Chinese government "may suffer hundreds of thousands of tax losses" from the iPhone ban because of lost taxes from sales of the devices, the company also said, citing estimates of 50 million units sold in the country in 2017. [...]
"Apple and many other companies, consumers, and government will suffer truly irreparable harm," the company said in the filing.
As a result, Apple says the ban would force Apple to settle with Qualcomm, a move that would lead the entire mobile phone industry to "relapse into the previous unreasonable charging mode and pay high licensing fees."
Apple and Qualcomm have been locked in a patent battle over chip-related license fees, but the current issue instead stems from separate patents that cover allowing users to "adjust and reformat the size and appearance of photos" and "managing applications using a touch screen when viewing and navigating apps."
Qualcomm earlier this week won an import ban on iPhone 6s through iPhone X models, although Apple has argued the ban does not apply to devices running iOS 12, so it has continued sales for the time being. In an effort to expand its victory, Qualcomm is now seeking to include Apple's latest iPhone XS and iPhone XR devices in the ban.
Update 8:30 PM: Apple says it will push a software update to iPhone users in China early next week that the company says should address the patent-related issues, according to Reuters.
“Based on the iPhone models we offer today in China, we believe we are in compliance,” Apple said.
“Early next week we will deliver a software update for iPhone users in China addressing the minor functionality of the two patents at issue in the case.”
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.
Commonwealth Bank (CBA) today announced that next month it will become the second of Australia's "Big Four" banks to support Apple Pay, ceding to customer demand after a multi-year dispute with Apple over fees and access to the NFC chip in iPhones. CBA is the largest retail bank in Australia and has long been a notable holdout from Apple Pay.
Angus Sullivan, Group Executive of Retail Banking Services, said: “We recently wrote to our customers asking them what the bank could do differently and we received lots of excellent suggestions.
“One of the things we heard repeatedly from our customers is that they want Apple Pay and we’re delighted to be making it available in January 2019.
“We are committed to making changes that benefit our customers and simplify our business. We will continue to look for more opportunities to innovate and listen, to ensure our customers get the best experience when they bank with us. Responding to customer demand for Apple Pay underscores our commitment to becoming a better, simpler bank.
Three of the Big Four banks (Commonwealth Bank, NAB, and Westpac) attempted to engage in collective bargaining with Apple in an effort to force Apple to open up the iPhone's NFC capabilities to support other digital wallets such as those offered by the banks themselves.
ANZ was the only the one of the Big Four banks in Australia willing to engage in talks with Apple over Apple Pay support, and the bank launched Apple Pay in April 2016. Dozens of smaller Australian banks later followed suit, but the remaining three major banks continued their holdout until today's announcement from Commonwealth.
Apple today announced that its Apple Music Connect social platform for artists is in the process of shutting down, suffering the same fate as Ping, the company's previous social network for music removed from iTunes in October 2012.
In a letter shared with artists via 9to5Mac, Apple said artists will no longer be able to post to Connect as of today, with the feature now removed from artist pages and the "For You" tab in Apple Music. Apple says all previously uploaded Connect content will remain searchable in Apple Music until May 24, 2019:
We've made a few changes to Apple Music that we'd like to tell you about.
We're always looking for ways to enhance our focus on artists and help them better connect to fans. So we've given Artist Pages an all-new design and added new, personalized Artist Radio.
Today we're streamlining music discovery by removing Connect posts from Artist Pages and For You. This means you'll no longer be able to post to Connect as of December 13, 2018, but all previously uploaded content will still be searchable until May 24, 2019. You can still create Artist Playlists with the latest version of Apple Music.
We're also excited about the latest beta of Apple Music for Artists, which gives you everything you need to understand your music's impact across Apple Music, as well as valuable audience insights. You can even upload your own photo to use on your Artist Page. Sign up for free today.
Thank you for helping us make Apple Music a vibrant community for artists and fans.
Connect had its own tab in Apple Music when the app first launched in 2015, but its presence was later reduced to a section in the "For You" tab.
Your app data from the new Mac App Store on macOS Mojave is now available in App Store Connect. Now you can find out how many times your app was seen on the Mac App Store, how many times your product page was viewed, and how many new customers downloaded your app. You can also see sales numbers for in-app purchases as well as for paying users, and more.
The dashboard was previously limited to iOS and tvOS apps.
Costco began selling select Macs this week in the United States, and it is offering a particularly notable deal of $200 off the new MacBook Air. The deal is available on its website, with in-store pickup available.
The base model 2018 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. Costco's regular price on this configuration will be $1,149, or $50 off, once the sale ends.
Unfortunately, for anyone hoping to purchase one as a Christmas gift, Costco says the base model MacBook Air will ship the week of December 26.
If you don't have a Costco membership, and happen to live near a Micro Center store, the Apple Authorized Reseller is still offering $200 off the new MacBook Air at its 25 locations. Unlike Costco, this deal extends to the higher-end 2018 MacBook Air with 256GB storage for $1,199, down from $1,399 at Apple.
If neither Costco nor Micro Center is an option, Amazon is offering $140 off the base model 2018 MacBook Air in silver, bringing the price down to $1,059. While not as good of a deal, remember that a Costco membership costs $60.
These are the best deals we've seen on the new MacBook Air since its release in early November. The latest model features a long-awaited Retina display, faster eighth-generation Intel processor, up to 16GB of RAM, up to 1.5TB of SSD storage, Touch ID, and the Apple T2 Security chip with "Hey Siri" support.
Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Amazon. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a commission, which helps us keep the site running.
Apple has reportedly given a straight-to-series order for a show starring Jennifer Garner and executive produced by J.J. Abrams.
"My Glory Was I Had Such Friends," based on the 2017 memoir of the same name by Amy Silverstein, will follow a group of women who supported Silverstein as she waited for a second life-saving heart transplant, according to Variety.
The series reunites Garner and Abrams, who worked together on the ABC show "Alias" between 2001 and 2006. Garner starred in the drama series, which was created by Abrams and produced by his company Bad Robot Productions and what was then called Touchstone Television, now known as ABC Studios under Disney.
Bad Robot Productions will also produce this series in association with Warner Bros. Television, as part of a deal between the companies.
Garner most recently starred in the HBO series "Camping," and she also starred in the 2017 film "The Tribes of Palos Verdes," according to the report. She is also known for her work in films like "Dallas Buyers Club," "13 Going on 30," and "Juno."
Abrams and Bad Robot have previously produced shows like "Lost," "Fringe," "Person of Interest," and the ongoing HBO series "Westworld." Abrams is also known for films like "Super 8," "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," and the "Star Trek," "Mission: Impossible," and "Cloverfield" franchises, the report adds.
While it is a common belief that iPhones have become thinner and thinner over the years, when Apple could be keeping them the same size and including larger and longer-lasting batteries, the opposite is true in reality.
As mentioned on Reddit, iPhones have gradually become thicker since 2014, capped off by the iPhone XR, the thickest model since the iPhone 4s in 2011:
iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus: 6.9mm and 7.1mm
iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus: 7.1mm and 7.3mm
iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus: 7.1mm and 7.3mm
iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus: 7.3mm and 7.5mm
iPhone X: 7.7mm
iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max: 7.7mm
iPhone XR: 8.3mm
The trend may come to an end next year, however, as Korean website ETNews [Translated] reports that 2019 iPhones could be thinner and lighter due to Apple adopting Samsung-designed OLED display tech called Y-OCTA, which integrates the typically-separate touch-screen layer into the display panel itself.
There's a good chance the reduction in thickness could be negligible, however, as the display panel is already a very thin component. The bigger advantage for Apple may be reduced costs, as the report claims that the Y-OCTA displays are less expensive to manufacture, lowering the iPhone's bill of materials.
Last week, tech analyst Anne Lee of Japanese research firm Nomura said 2019 iPhones will "likely have the same form factors" as the iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, and iPhone XR, including body size and displays. Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo expects iPhone screen sizes to remain 5.8-inches, 6.1-inches, and 6.5-inches in 2019.
Apple still doesn't offer a full online web player for Apple Music, but this week software engineer Naveed Golafshani shared a new project on Reddit, allowing Apple Music subscribers to get access to their full library and other Apple Music features on the web. The web player can be found at playapplemusic.com, and to see your Apple Music library you can click "log in" in the bottom left corner of the screen.
The player then provides an Apple authentication pop-up, where you'll have to log into your Apple ID and let the web player access Apple Music, media library, and listening activity for your account. Afterwards, you'll be able to see normal Apple Music tabs like Search, Browse, For You, and Library. In Library, you can access your Recently Added items, Artists, Albums, Songs, and Playlists.
To play a song, simply click on it and the player will update at the bottom with an image of the album, playback controls, and track scrubber. At the bottom right corner are settings for the bitrate, up next, and volume. If you hover over a song, you can also click on the ellipsis icon to select it to play next or play later in your up next queue. On macOS and Safari, keyboard controls for play/pause will also directly control the web player.
There are a few limitations to the web player, like not being able to specifically customize the order of up next, the Browse tab is pared down, and Radio options don't exist, but otherwise the site is a solid and well-built realization of Apple Music. Additionally, the web player will load with an optimized layout for mobile web.
Apple was believed to be potentially working on an Apple Music web player over the summer, but as of yet nothing has come to fruition from the company.
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