Lending credence to that rumor, Barclays analyst Blayne Curtis today in a research note said the so-called "iPhone 8" will come bundled with a 10W power adapter with a USB-C connector and an integrated USB-C Power Delivery chip.
Curtis said the USB-C Power Delivery chips built into both the iPhone and 10W power adapter will be supplied by Cypress Semiconductor. The research note suggests it'll be the same CYPD2104 chip used in the new 10.5-inch iPad Pro.
An excerpt from the Barclays research note distributed to clients, obtained by MacRumors and edited slightly for clarity:
We believe that in the iPhone 8, Apple likely includes Cypress Semiconductor's USB-C Power Delivery chip in the phone and an additional chip within the power brick in box (likely a new 10W, which would use a more integrated solution with Cypress Power Delivery).
Like the new 10.5-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Pro, the so-called "iPhone 8" would be capable of fast charging with a Lightning to USB-C cable connected to the new 10W power adapter or Apple's 29W USB-C power adapter for MacBook.
Apple will presumably include a Lightning to USB-C cable in the box if it's going in this direction, possibly instead of the traditional Lightning to USB cable. Apple could also opt to include a female USB-C to male USB-A adapter in the box.
Steve Jobs' iconic black turtleneck will be making a comeback of sorts this summer, with the company behind the original garment, Issey Miyake Inc., announcing a new version coming this July for $270 and called the "Semi-Dull T" (via Bloomberg).
The model that Jobs wore was officially retired from production following his death in 2011, and a protege of Miyake, Yusuke Takahashi, is said to be the designer of the new turtleneck.
The new garment is said to have the same slim black aesthetic as the ones worn by Jobs throughout the latter half of his career as Apple CEO, particularly on stage during major product announcement keynotes.
The model was retired from production in 2011, after Jobs’s death, but in July, Issey Miyake Inc.—the innovative craftsman’s eponymous clothing brand—is releasing a $270 garment called the Semi-Dull T. It’s 60 percent polyester, 40 percent cotton, and guaranteed to inspire déjà vu.
Don’t call it a comeback. The company is at pains to state that the turtleneck, designed by Miyake protégé Yusuke Takahashi with a trimmer silhouette and higher shoulders than the original, isn’t a reissue. And even if the garment were a straight-up imitation, its importance as a cultural artifact is more about the inimitable way Jobs wore it.
All the same, the company said that it's not a reissue or "comeback," because it has an even "trimmer silhoutte and higher shoulders" than the one Jobs wore, including during his final Apple keynote appearance at WWDC 2011.
The new Semi-Dull T
Bloomberg's report on the turtleneck includes a bit of the shirt's origin story, wherein Jobs unsuccessfully attempted to pitch a vest-like uniform for workers at Apple. Instead, the former Apple CEO came up with a uniform for himself based on his existing wardrobe of jeans, sneakers, and "stacks of black turtlenecks" he had already purchased from Miyake.
About ten months after the first reported cases of Galaxy Note 7 fires began circulating online, Samsung is gearing up to re-launch the smartphone "initially" only in South Korea, according to people familiar with the company's plans (via The Wall Street Journal). Referred to as the Galaxy Note 7 FE, or "Fandom Edition," the launch is said to be coming on July 7 in the country, and it'll represent the third debut for Note 7 devices following the original launch last August, and a widespread recall and replacement later in 2016.
Even those replacement devices caught fire, but Samsung has chosen to continue the Note 7 brand with the new Fandom Edition and bring a "relatively modest" stock of inventory to retailers in South Korea. In total, it's believed 400,000 Note 7 Fandom Editions will debut among three major telecom companies in the country.
Samsung will bring the Fandom Edition to market "with different components," instead of the faulty battery components that caused the first launch and some replacement devices to catch fire. Any word on a wider launch for the Fandom Edition was not mentioned by the sources.
A refurbished version of the premium smartphone, whose global recall last year garnered unwanted attention for the South Korean technology giant after some caught fire, is coming to retailers’ shelves on July 7 with different components under the name Galaxy Note 7 FE, according to people familiar with the matter.
The refurbished Note 7 will be priced below 700,000 South Korean won ($616), although smartphone prices are generally adjusted up to the point of release due to fluctuating market conditions, the person said.
Samsung's intent to keep the Note brand alive was detailed in a report earlier this month, which also pointed towards the unveiling of the Galaxy Note 8 coming sometime in August. Since the Note 7 was discontinued, Samsung released the mid-cycle Galaxy S8 smartphone in April, with the company saying pre-orders for the device were its "best ever" and analysts suggesting that the S8's messaging and launch helped it to begin recovering from the Note 7 disaster.
Over the past few weeks, former Apple executives that originally led the team behind the iPhone's creation have been reminiscing about the time before the smartphone's debut, which will see its tenth birthday tomorrow, June 29. The latest interview has been posted by Wired, with "father of the iPod" Tony Fadell discussing the multiple prototypes of the original iPhone, Apple's attempt to create a touchscreen MacBook, the poorly received collaboration between Apple and Motorola in the Rokr, and more.
Addressing the "many different origin stories for the iPhone," Fadell pointed out that such stories were the result of Apple's multiple running projects and prototypes that it had for the iPhone. These included four big brands: "a large screen iPod" with a touch interface, an "iPod phone" that was about the size of an iPod mini and used a click wheel interface, the Motorola Rokr, and even an ongoing attempt to get a touchscreen onto a MacBook Pro to further prove the feasibility of the technology that would eventually end up in the iPhone, and never in a MacBook.
The touchscreen Macbook project was basically trying to get touchscreen technology into a Mac to try to compete with Microsoft tablets. Steve was pissed off, and wanted to show them how to do it right. Well, that might have been the project to show Microsoft how to do it right, but they quickly realised there was so much software and there were so many new apps needed, and that everything had to be changed that it was very difficult. Plus the multitouch itself, we didn't know we could scale it that large to a full-screen display. Those were the challenges over on Mac.
At the time before the launch of the iPhone, the iPod was Apple's most popular product, and Fadell remembered the company's yearly pressure to continue to grow the brand and entice customers "every holiday." Eventually, Apple's collaboration with Motorola was catalyzed by the company's concern over its users asking themselves, "Which one am I going to take, my iPod or my cell phone?" Apple didn't want to lose that argument, so it introduced the first iTunes support in a cell phone in 2005 with the Rokr, which Fadell said "was not deliberately made poor."
Limitations of the Rokr included a firmware restriction of 100 songs to be loaded at any one time on the cell phone, as well as a slow music transfer process from a computer in comparison to devices at the time specifically dedicated to music playback. Motorola eventually ditched iTunes in the Rokr line as Apple continued releasing iPods like the 2005 iPod nano and its ability to hold up to 1,000 songs, which Motorola saw as undercutting Rokr. Of course, rumors were also ramping up surrounding Apple's work on a phone of its own.
No, it was not deliberately made poor. Not at all. We tried our best. Motorola would only do so much with it. Their software team was only so good. Their operations system was only so good. And that experience just didn't work very well. It was a clash of all kinds of problems, it wasn't a case of trying to not make it good.
We were trying to do this because we didn't want cell phones to come eat our lunch, OK? The Motorola Rokr died much earlier than the arrival of the iPhone. This was us trying to dip our toe in the water, because we said, 'Let's not make a phone, but see how we can work with phones to see if we can have a limited number of songs on a phone'. So people could use iTunes and then they would want to move over to an iPod. It wasn't about making it less good because the iPhone was coming. This was well before the iPhone was even thought of.
The company's concerns during its iPod days even looked forward into current technology, particularly over storage capacities and the "celestial jukebox." Fadell said that Apple foresaw users no longer needing to be concerned with storage tiers and paying more for more space, because it "could see a time" when network speeds would ramp up alongside better technology and lead to streaming and downloading directly on a mobile device, like Apple Music and Spotify.
It was very clear, after the Rokr, and after everything we had learned in what it was going to take, that the worry was about the 'celestial jukebox' - people wouldn't have to buy large capacity iPods, 150GB or so, because they were soon going to be able to download. So we had an existential problem, people were not going to have to buy larger and larger iPods. The high-capacity iPods were where we were making all our money, and if they could download at any time - and we could see the time when the networks were going to get faster because of 3G - we were like 'oh my God, we're going to lose this business' to this music jukebox in the sky, which is basically what Spotify is.
In the rest of the interview, Fadell dives into the iPhone team's massive dissection of every possible mobile device at the time to scope out the competition, the remaining similarities between current generation iPhones and original iPods, and the ongoing legacy of 2007's first iPhone.
Fadell said that it changed his life, and "how my kids are growing up compared to how I and my wife grew up," but he hopes iPhone users remember to unplug every now and then: "...it requires all of us to make the proper changes in our lives to make sure we don't lose the analogue portion of our life and we don't just stay digital and mobile all the time."
Popular messaging platform Viber announced an update to its mobile app today that includes an overhaul of its Chat Extensions feature, offering users access to a raft of sources of third-party content right from within the chat window.
Starting today, directly in their private chat screen, users can find and share their favorite videos from YouTube, songs from Spotify, the perfect stay from Booking.com and soon compelling original content from VICE Media. Alongside these providers, users can find other valuable content to enrich their conversations from GIPHY, Guggy and Getty Images.
One of the feature's being highlighted by the company is the addition of the YouTube extension. Viber said YouTube videos were among the most popular form of link-sharing among its users worldwide, and now Google's video platform is accessible directly within the chat screen. Users can search, share and even play YouTube videos without leaving their conversations.
Elsewhere, the Spotify extension allows users to access all of their music and share it in the chat app, while the VICE chat extension brings content spanning news, culture, food, fashion, music, sports, tech and more.
"Viber's Chat Extensions platform is an exciting environment for VICE’s stories," said Sterling Proffer, Senior Vice President, Head of Business Strategy & Development for VICE. "As we continue to aggressively grow our cross-platform distribution, it's still context that matters most. The stories we tell are great additions to any conversation, and making that effort seamless to Viber's 800 million users is a no-brainer."
Viber said it would also launch local services in Russia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Philippines and elsewhere. Based on its API, selected content and service providers will be able to build their own chat extensions and create new ways for users to enrich their chats.
Viber's new Chat Extensions will roll out gradually, becoming available globally in the coming days. Viber is a free app for iOS available on the App Store. [Direct Link]
In January, the United States Federal Trade Commission filed a complaint against Qualcomm that accused the company of using anticompetitive tactics to remain the dominant supplier of baseband processors for smartphones, violating the FTC Act. This week, U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh of San Jose, California ruled that the FTC's antitrust lawsuit against Qualcomm can proceed, forcing the supplier to face legal battles both from U.S. regulators and in an ongoing $1 billion lawsuit from Apple (via Reuters).
Judge Koh denied Qualcomm's motion to dismiss the FTC's lawsuit, because the FTC had so far "adequately alleged" anticompetitive tactics were being used by Qualcomm. Don Rosenberg, executive vice president and general counsel of Qualcomm, said that the "FTC will have the burden to prove its claims, which we continue to believe are without merit."
The Federal Trade Commission's antitrust lawsuit against Qualcomm Inc can proceed, a federal judge ruled late on Monday, meaning the iPhone chip supplier must now wage a fight with U.S. regulators even as it contests a separate $1 billion lawsuit filed by Apple Inc.
The FTC highlighted Qualcomm's "no license, no chips" policy under which the San Diego company refuses to sell chips unless customers also sign a patent license agreement and pay Qualcomm fees. Qualcomm refused to grant licenses to its rivals in order to keep a monopoly, the FTC alleged.
Although a final ruling is still far away, Rosenberg mentioned that Qualcomm looks forward to "further proceedings in which we will be able to develop a more accurate factual record." In response to the FTC's original complaint from January, Qualcomm cited a "flawed legal theory, a lack of economic support, and significant misconceptions about the mobile technology industry" in its first legal defense.
For Apple's lawsuit, the Cupertino company sued Qualcomm for $1 billion days after the FTC filed its first complaint in January, arguing the company had charged unfair royalties for "technologies they have nothing to do with." As the case continued throughout the year, in mid June Apple broadened its claims against Qualcomm, stating that Qualcomm wrongly bases its royalties on a percentage of the entire iPhone's value, despite supplying just a single component of the device.
Referred to as Qualcomm's "double dipping, extra reward system," Apple argued that these tactics were the same kind that the U.S. Supreme Court recently forbade in a lawsuit between Lexmark and a small company reselling its printer cartridges. After Qualcomm set its sights on four major Apple suppliers for failing to pay royalties on the use of Qualcomm's technology in the assembly of Apple's devices, Apple said that Qualcomm had revealed "its true bullying nature."
Urban Armor Gear (UAG) has announced the launch of its new Metropolis Series Cases designed for Apple's new 10.5-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Pro.
The Metropolis cases meet U.S. military specification standards for 360-degree comprehensive protection from drops and shocks, with an impact-resistant soft core and a tactile non-slip exterior grip.
A smart cover protects the iPad Pro's screen and functions as a multi-position stand, while corner bumpers provide extra drop protection for the tablet's display.
The cases also come with onboard storage for an Apple Pencil, and the smart cover is removable which ensures the cases are compatible with Apple's Smart Keyboard. Elsewhere, the oversized ports and cutouts provide plenty of space for attaching third-party cables and accessories.
The Metropolis Series Case costs $59.95 for the iPad Pro 10.5-inch and $89.95 for the iPad Pro 12.9-inch. Both cases come in Black, Red, and Cobalt, and can be ordered off the Urban Armor Gear (UAG) website.
As predicted, Vivo showcased fingerprint sensor technology embedded in a smartphone screen on Wednesday at the Mobile World Congress 2017 in Shanghai. The 'Under Display Fingerprint Scanning Solution' is based on Qualcomm technology and was demonstrated running on prototype devices based on the existing Vivo Xplay 6 phone.
Vivo claimed the under-display fingerprint solution, which doesn't require a physical button for the sensor, is "the first to be demonstrated by a smartphone manufacturer". The technology enables the use of a "true full-screen display and an integrated unibody and mechanical waterproofing design", said the company.
"In Vivo's R&D plan, fingerprint scanning will not be carried out by an independent button or region. It will be realised more subtly under the screen, behind the metal shell, or even in the frame.
"Based on ultrasonic technology, the fingerprint recognition technology can be further expanded to realize user interaction, such as gesture recognition, security verification and other fields, which will greatly enhance user experience."
Vivo told Engadget that while the fingerprint scanning function was limited to a small region on the prototype devices, in theory the same sensing technology could be applied across the entire screen, but that it would significantly increase production cost.
Following the unveiling, Qualcomm issued a press release announcing the development of new fingerprint scanners that work through displays, thick glass, and metal, with underwater operation, heartbeat and blood flow detection.
"We are excited to announce Qualcomm Fingerprint Sensors because they can be designed to support sleeker, cutting-edge form factors, unique mobile authentication experiences, and enhanced security authentication," said Seshu Madhavapeddy, vice president, product management, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. "This provides OEMs and operators with the ability to offer truly distinct, differentiated devices with added value on truly groundbreaking new devices."
Qualcomm claimed the technology was capable of scanning through OLED display stacks "of up to 1200um", and was the first commercially announced to scan through up to 800 µm of cover glass and up to 650 µm of aluminum, an improvement over the previous generation's 400 µm capability for glass or metal. The company said it had designed the technology as an integrated solution with Qualcomm Snapdragon mobile platforms, and as standalone sensors that can be used with other non-Snapdragon platforms.
Qualcomm said the fingerprint sensors for glass and metal will be available to OEMs this month and should arrive in commercial devices in the first half of 2018. The sensors for displays are expected to be available to OEMs for evaluation in the fourth quarter of 2017.
Apple's upcoming "iPhone 8" is rumored to include a fingerprint-sensing display, but the company has reportedly faced significant challenges in its efforts to develop the technology for its radically redesigned flagship device, due to release in the fall.
Apple is currently in a major legal battle with Qualcomm over its LTE modems, so it seems unlikely the company would consider offering its technology for inclusion in future iPhones. However, the announcement at least demonstrates that the technology is viable, which lends further credence to reports that Apple has perfected its own screen-embedded fingerprint recognition solution. The technology will give Apple's OLED iPhone a significant advantage over its biggest rival, Samsung, which is expected to stick with a rear fingerprint scanner for this year's Galaxy Note 8.
Apple is expected to unveil the iPhone 8 and more traditional "iPhone 7s" and "iPhone 7s Plus" models around the usual September timeframe for iPhone updates, although rumors have suggested supplies of the more expensive OLED handset could be tight for up to several months after the official debut.
Uber yesterday introduced a new ride-hailing feature in its mobile app that lets users request a ride for a friend or family member in a different location.
Uber announced the news in a blog post on its website, suggesting the feature would let users "request a ride for a loved one" such as a senior with limited mobility who doesn't have an Uber account or a smartphone.
Now, when you set the pickup away from your current location, we'll automatically ask whether the ride is for a family member or friend. You can then select the rider from your address book, set their destination, and request the ride on their behalf.
Once the ride is on its way, the loved one receives a text message with the driver's details and a link to track their route. The feature also includes an option for the rider to contact the driver directly, and vice versa.
The feature is available now in over 30 countries, with more coming soon, according to Uber. The Uber app is a free download for iPhone available on the App Store. [Direct Link]
Following the release of iOS 10.3.2 on May 15, Apple has stopped signing iOS 10.3.1, the previous version of iOS that was available to consumers.
Customers who have upgraded to iOS 10.3.2 will no longer be able to downgrade their devices to iOS 10.3.1.
Apple routinely stops signing older versions of software updates after new releases come out in order to encourage customers to keep their operating systems up to date.
iOS 10.3.2 is now the only version of iOS 10 that can be installed on iOS devices by the general public, but developers and public beta testers can download iOS 10.3.3, a future update that is being beta tested and could see a release in the near future.
Apple recently updated its Maps app to add transit directions and data for Madrid, Spain, one of the cities where hints of transit support first surfaced months ago.
When searching for directions in Madrid, transit options that include the Empresa Municipal de Transportes de Madrid bus line, the Cercanías Madrid, and the Madrid Metro are now available. Madrid does not, however, have full transit routes visible in the Maps app as of yet, so transit support is still rolling out.
Transit directions were first added to Apple Maps in 2015 as part of iOS 9. At launch, transit information was only available in a handful of cities, but Apple has been working hard to expand the feature to additional locations. Transit information is now live in dozens of cities and countries around the world, with a full list available on Apple's iOS 10 Feature Availability website.
Other cities that could soon gain transit support based on transit station outlines Apple has added include Perth, Australia; Las Vegas, Nevada; Phoenix, Arizona; Rome, Italy; Taiwan; and several German states, including Hamburg, Bremen, Niedersachsen, and Schleswig-Holstein.
Popular streaming radio service Pandora plans to stop offering its service in New Zealand and Australia, a spokesperson told Billboard this afternoon. Australia and New Zealand are currently the only non-U.S. locations where the company operates, and Pandora has decided to focus its business solely on the United States.
A Pandora spokesperson told Billboard that after much analysis, it was decided to discontinue operations in the two countries over the next few weeks. "While our experience in these markets reinforces the broader global opportunity long-term, in the short-term we must remain laser-focused on the expansion of our core business in the United States," the rep said.
Pandora plans to begin shutting down operations in the two countries over the course of the next few weeks, which means its international offices in those locations will be shuttered. Pandora has somewhere around 5 million listeners in Australia and New Zealand, and it employs approximately 60 people at its offices in Australia.
As Pandora prepares to pull out of Australia and New Zealand, Pandora founder Tim Westergren today stepped down from his position as CEO, also exiting the company's board of directors. Pandora president Mike Herring and CMO Nick Bartle are also leaving the company.
In a statement, Westergren, who has twice left his role as CEO over the years, said Pandora is "perfectly poised for its next chapter." Under his leadership, Pandora launched its "Pandora Premium" on-demand streaming service and got a major investment from SiriusXM.
Westergren said, "I am incredibly proud of the company we have built. We invented a whole new way of enjoying and discovering music and in doing so, forever changed the listening experience for millions. I came back to the CEO role last year to drive transformation across the business. We accomplished far more than we anticipated. We rebuilt Pandora's relationships with the music industry; launched a fantastic Premium on-demand service, and brought a host of tech innovations to our advertising business. With these in place, plus a strengthened balance sheet, I believe Pandora is perfectly poised for its next chapter."
As of Q1 2017 [PDF], Pandora had 4.71 million subscribers across its Pandora Plus and Pandora Premium subscription options, and more than 80 million active users. Until March, Pandora didn't offer a service that competed with Apple Music, but Pandora Premium is seeing significant early interest, with 500,000 trial subscriptions during its first weeks of availability.
Apple Music now has more than 27 million subscribers, a new number shared by Apple on June 5.
Animator and illustrator Wahyu Ichwandardi has shared one of his newest projects on Twitter this week, where he recreated the entire two-minute trailer for Star Wars: The Last Jedi on a vintage Apple IIc from 1984, using the bitmap paint program Dazzle Draw and a KoalaPad+, both from the same year (via TechCrunch).
The project required 48 floppy discs and 288 image files, totaling 6MB of storage space. For post processing, Ichwandardi used Apple Disk Transfer ProDOS software and a floppy disc emulator device to copy all 288 image files onto a modern MacBook Pro. The result is a full recreation of the first trailer for Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which debuted online in April.
Cita-cita waktu masih kecil di th 80an: bikin trailer Star Wars pakai komputer Apple bermonitor monochrome, baru kesampaian sekarang. pic.twitter.com/kUV28VB5pq
— Pinot (@pinotski) June 26, 2017
It took Ichwandardi about three weeks to finish the project due to working with the limitations of the vintage hardware and software. Specifically, because Dazzle Draw doesn't have a layers feature, the illustrator had to physically lay an acetate sheet over the Apple IIc's monitor in order to create a guide for the animation in every frame of the trailer.
Complex animations required him to actually trace the characters and motion from the real trailer and redraw it back into Dazzle Draw. More information about his design process can be found in the video below.
Ichwandardi has posted a few updates regarding the Star Wars project on his Instagram page, where users can also check out some other art made on an Apple IIc. These include posters for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, and Star Wars: The Last Jedi, as well as an image of former Apple CEO Steve Jobs.
Facebook this week announced it has added several new features to video chatting in its Messenger app for iPhone and iPad.
In both one-on-one and group video chats, Messenger users can now add or use animated reactions, filters, effects, and new masks, while Facebook has added a conveniently placed camera icon to take a screenshot of your video chat.
For animated reactions, Messenger users can choose one of five emoji icons: love, laughter, surprise, sadness, or anger. Tapping an emoji generates a related reaction that animates on the screen for a short period of time.
On the artificial intelligence side, Facebook has expanded the capabilities of Messenger's built-in "M" personal assistant, adding a "save it for later" function, birthday wishes, and call initiations, according to Engadget.
The personal assistant, which is currently available in the United States only, is designed to provide proactive suggestions in Messenger [Direct Link].
Over the past few days, some Apple Music subscribers have noticed the appearance of a new playlist in the "For You" tab of the music streaming app, called "My Chill Mix." Redditor Elliotblyth posted about the playlist recently, noting that their iPad remains on iOS 10 and that they have not yet installed the iOS 11 public beta that released yesterday. Still, a few commenters on the Reddit post have noted the appearance of My Chill Mix while on the iOS 11 beta.
In screenshots, the playlist doesn't have a description like My Favorites Mix and My New Music Mix, but a few users who have been listening to the playlist have given a decent description of what kind of music it includes. As a point of comparison, currently My Favorites Mix (refreshed every Wednesday) gives subscribers a list of the songs they most listen to, while My New Music Mix (refreshed every Friday) recommends newly released music that aligns with the taste of a user's previous listening history.
My Chill Mix is said to be similar to My New Music Mix, but without the rule that only newly released tracks can be in the playlist. This means that Apple Music will pull from music selections that are both old and new, all based on each user's personal listening history and likes/dislikes, to propagate My Chill Mix every Sunday. For subscribers who don't see the new playlist, asking Siri to "play My Chill Mix" sometimes works.
Apple describes My Chill Mix as follows: "Tailored to your music tastes, My Chill Mix is a selection of songs to help you relax and unwind." The playlist originally appeared in the watchOS 4 preview page after WWDC, with Apple including My Chill Mix among the playlists that will automatically sync to Apple Watch. Since then, any mention of the playlist has been removed from that page on Apple.com.
My New Music Mix and My Favorites Mix originally appeared on the iOS 10 public beta last September, a few months after WWDC 2016 when Apple originally announced that personally curated playlists would be coming to Apple Music. A few tweaks are coming to Apple Music in iOS 11 as well, including a new social feature where subscribers can make profiles, share playlists, see their friends' playlists, and browse their friends' listening history.
Despite selling for $159, considerably less than the Apple Watch at between $269 and $1,499, longtime Apple analyst turned venture capitalist Gene Munster believes AirPods will be "bigger than the Apple Watch" over the next decade.
Munster predicts that AirPods will contribute "about the same amount of revenue" to Apple's pocket as the Apple Watch by the company's 2022 fiscal year. He also predicts that AirPods will have an average price of $200 by then, as the product shifts towards what he calls "augmented audio."
AirPods: Bigger Than Apple Watch. Over the next 10 years, we anticipate that AirPods will be bigger than the Apple Watch as the product evolves from simple wireless headphones to a wearable, augmented audio device. While both AirPods and Apple Watch should continue to grow, we see AirPods contributing about the same amount of revenue as Apple Watch by FY22. We expect the AirPods ASP to increase from $159 today to $200 in FY22 as the product shifts to augmented audio.
Apple doesn't disclose AirPods or Apple Watch sales in its quarterly earnings results. Both products are instead grouped into its "Other Products" category, alongside sales of iPods, Apple TVs, Beats products, and accessories. Any revenue or sales numbers that circulate around are purely estimates.
Apple reported $2.87 billion revenue from "Other Products" last quarter, a 31 percent increase from $2.18 billion in the year-ago quarter.
Early last month, Apple CEO Tim Cook said the response to AirPods has been "great," with the wireless earphones remaining hard to come by.
"Demand for AirPods significantly exceeds supply, and growth in Beats products has also been very strong," said Cook. "In fact, when we combine Apple Watch, AirPods, and Beats headphones, our revenues from wearable products in the last four quarters was the size of a Fortune 500 company."
Despite launching over six months ago, AirPods continue to have a 6-week shipping estimate for orders placed on Apple's website. Some third-party resellers have occasionally had them in stock with earlier delivery.
Apple analyst Neil Cybart recently said Apple is "underpricing" the Apple Watch and AirPods in an effort to bring new users into its ecosystem. He said this pricing strategy was "unimaginable" ten years ago, when Apple was often accused of pricing products artificially high—aka the so-called "Apple Tax."
Cybart said a strong case could have been made for Apple to price AirPods at $249, or even $299. By selling them for $159, he thinks Apple has "removed all available oxygen from the wireless headphone space," and forced other wireless headphone makers to cut their own prices in order to remain competitive.
AirPods have been well received by early adopters, achieving a 98 percent customer satisfaction rate in a recent survey conducted by Experian and market research firm Creative Strategies.
A new campaign by Greenpeace today has rated the repairability of six Apple devices against the smartphone, tablet, and laptop market at large, the purpose of which is to highlight planned obsolescence in the technology industry. Greenpeace partnered with iFixit to assess over forty different devices that debuted between 2015 and 2017, with iFixit's teardown repairability scores serving as the basis for the data.
Apple's products looked at in the campaign included the iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, 9.7-inch iPad Pro, iPad (fifth generation), 13-inch MacBook Pro, and 12-inch MacBook (refreshed in 2017). All products were rated in the following categories: battery replaceability, display replaceability, no special tools needed, and spare parts available.
Scoring worst on the list were the two MacBooks, which each got a 1/10, and the two iPads didn't fare much better, both getting 2/10 marks in the campaign. The new iPhone 7 models were much higher, both receiving a 7/10 with positive check marks in display replaceability but red x's in all other categories.
Microsoft had trouble in the ratings as well, with its Surface Pro 5 and Surface Book both rated at 1/10. Conversely, the brands abiding by Greenpeace's repairability mantra included Fairphone, Dell, and HP, which all had products rated at 10/10 on the campaign's scale.
Ultimately, Greenpeace wants to bring awareness to the phenomenon of planned obsolescence, which the company's IT sector analyst, Gary Cook, said "adds to growing stockpiles of e-waste," due to difficult repairability shortening device lifespan. Cook noted that, "improving the repairability of electronic products is technically achievable and brands should be prioritizing this in their product design."
“Electronics take a massive amount of energy, human effort, and natural resources to make,” said iFixit CEO Kyle Wiens. “And yet, manufacturers produce billions more of them every year—while consumers keep them for just a few years before tossing them away. E-waste is one of the fastest growing waste streams in the world. We should be able to make electronics a more sustainable part of our lives.”
In an environmental report earlier this year, Greenpeace awarded Apple with an "A" rating, calling it the most environmentally friendly technology company in the world, for the third year in a row. That report looked specifically at energy transparency, renewable energy commitment, energy efficiency and mitigation, renewable procurement, and advocacy.
A new patent filed by Apple in 2015, and published today by the United States Patent and Trademark Office, shines some light on what the company could be working on in regards to sleep tracking technology and its recent acquisition of Beddit. Called "Adjusting alarms based on sleep onset latency," the new patent describes in detail a system that could receive data from devices like an iPhone, Apple Watch, or a Beddit-like flat, flexible sensor, and intelligently track user behavior to help them get their best night sleep possible (via AppleInsider).
The patent explains that most people have typical bedtime habits recurring every night, such as going to the bathroom, shutting blinds, taking a shower, etc. These "sleep ritual activities" directly affect each person's "sleep onset latency," or the amount of time it takes you to fall asleep after first lying down and attempting to go to sleep. The problem with most modern alarm apps is that they can't understand a restless night's sleep, or a lengthy sleep onset latency period, and Apple's new patent tries to address these issues.
The first step is for the sensors to determine your sleep ritual activities, and Apple's patent has a few ways to go about doing that. One is by using sound data, so when the device detects someone brushing their teeth, taking a shower, "or any other activity that generates an identifiable or unique sound," the sleep tracking system can start accumulating data for that night's sleep because it knows you're about to try to rest. Other tips related to sleep rituals for Apple's sleep tracking system include user movement, light/dark levels in a room, and even app usage.
In some implementations, sleep logic can identify sleep ritual activities based on application usage. For example, the user may have a habit of using specific software applications installed on computing device immediately before going to bed. The user can check calendar application. The user can set a wake up alarm using alarm clock application.
The user can use social media applications, news applications, a game application, an e-book reader application, and/or other applications before going to sleep. Sleep logic can monitor application usage before the predicted sleep time (e.g., 1 hour before, 0.5 hour before, etc.) and determine which applications the user uses before the user's predicted sleep time. Sleep logic can store the detected application use activities as sleep ritual activities in sleep ritual database.
Taking this information into account, once you actually try to go to bed, the sleep tracking system will begin looking at how long it actually takes you to fall asleep (heartrate and breathing are mentioned), remembering your sleep ritual activities and calculating how they affected your sleep onset latency. Apple's theoretical system would also understand when you're obviously not asleep, like if you're currently on your iPhone on another connected device, and adjust tracking accordingly.
All of this data then feeds into how the system would be able to automatically adjust pre-set alarms because of a potentially inconsistent sleep pattern. The basic idea of the patent simply adds on sleep latency duration to the following morning, so if the system tracked that it took you 45 minutes to fall asleep, and you have an alarm for 7:00 AM, it would wake you up at 7:45 AM.
Of course, that risks some users getting a later start on their day than they are comfortable with, so Apple's patent has a wide range of features that can prevent you from not waking up later than you intend to. The system would recognize calendar data, so if you have an appointment at 7:30 AM, your 7:00 AM alarm wouldn't be adjusted. Likewise, travel time to your first appointment of the day would be taken into account.
Similar to nighttime rituals, the system is said to also track how long your morning rituals last over time. Using this data, it'll also be able to figure out the best wake up time, so if you have a long morning ritual, your alarm might go off earlier than someone whose morning ritual is faster. Over time, all of the data gathered by the sleep tracking system would help users "feel more rested" throughout their day, according to Apple's new patent.
Particular implementations provide at least the following advantages: the mobile device can help the user feel more rested by automatically adjusting an alarm or suggesting an earlier bedtime based on the determined sleep onset latency to ensure that the user gets enough sleep; the mobile device can automatically determine sleep onset latency using various sensors of the mobile device; the mobile device can automatically identify sleep patterns that may be adversely affecting the user.
Additionally, Apple's patent even discusses an in-depth "nap function" for sleep tracking. In the user interface (seen below, image right), you would set up a nap schedule, determine when you want to wake up, and press and hold on the iPhone's display to begin your nap. The system would know the sleep onset latency because of this applied pressure, so when you first apply your finger to the display, it'll know the period has begun, and when you begin to release pressure (i.e. doze off), it knows you've begun napping.
An alternative "power nap function" describes a way for a device -- here a "wearable device such as a watch" is specifically mentioned -- to wake you up when the system determines that you've entered and stayed in a deep sleep for a period of previously-determined time. After figuring out when your heart rate and breathing rate have reached the "deep sleep threshold" for a period of time, the system would begin waking you up, so you can "realize the benefit of sleep without the grogginess that is experienced when a user is awakened from a deep sleep."
The specific kinds of sensors referenced in the patent -- including light- and sound-based sensors -- are implemented in modern iPhones, but it's unclear whether a sleep tracking system described in today's patent would simply be an addition to an existing Apple device, a new iteration of a product like Beddit, or a combination of both. Apple slowly began expanding its sleep tracking support with "Bedtime" in the iOS 10 Alarm app, but that feature simply tracks the hours between when a user manually inputs a bedtime and when they silence the morning alarm, with no ability to understand how long the user is actually sleeping.
Of course, it's still unclear exactly what Apple intends to do with Beddit's technology, and today's patent comes with the usual warning to take everything detailed in it with a grain of salt. For a closer look at Beddit, check out the technology behind the flexible sensor, as well as our own review of Beddit's sleep monitor.
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