MacRumors

In a recent piece by The Wall Street Journal, hardware analyst Stephen Baker commented on the state of holiday sales figures for both Apple and Samsung. While many believed Apple would have it easy this season due to Samsung's Galaxy Note7 crisis, Baker said that "Apple's own lack of a wowing product this year" meant that woeful Note7 owners opted for other high-end Galaxy phones, and not the iPhone 7.

“Most of those who bought or wanted to buy a Note 7 opted for a different high-end Galaxy phone,” Mr. Baker said. “Samsung was able to fend off other Android competition, and Apple, too, thanks to Apple’s own lack of a wowing product this year.”

Apple decided to not release the first weekend sales numbers for the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus back in September, because it felt the results were "no longer a representative metric" due to demand outweighing supply. Samsung officially halted sales of the Galaxy Note7 worldwide in early October, but another industry analyst, Chetan Sharma, continued Baker's thread by commenting on the iPhone 7's lack of "a compelling enough feature set," which wasn't enough to convince owners of potentially exploding Note7 devices to switch ecosystems.

“Apple has the strongest ecosystem, with its hardware, software and app and content stores,” said consumer tech and mobile industry consultant Chetan Sharma. “IPhone users looking for an upgrade stick with Apple. But in a year when Samsung dropped the ball in a huge way,” he said, Apple “didn’t have a phone with a compelling enough feature set to lure Samsung owners away.”

Earlier this week, Yahoo-owned mobile analytics firm Flurry released data surrounding the top device activations by manufacturer between 12/19 and 12/25, confirming that Apple was again at the top of the list with 44 percent activations, while Samsung came in second at 21 percent. In comparison to the previous year, Apple dropped from 49 percent and Samsung climbed slightly from 19 percent.

Ultimately, the two analysts admitted that both Apple and Samsung "made mistakes this year that cost them growth." Sharma said that "the timing couldn’t have been worse for Samsung and it couldn’t have been better for Apple. But the truth is neither company capitalized this year.”

In the first few days of December, financial firm Oppenheimer summed up the current negative cloud surrounding Apple -- fueled by mixed-to-negative consumer reception and its first revenue decline since 2003 -- and stated that the company could be heading into a "decade-long malaise" if it doesn't turn things around.

Apple CEO Tim Cook toured the New York Stock Exchange with his nephew this morning, where he took a few moments to do a quick interview with CNBC.

Cook said he couldn't comment on business when asked, but he told the interviewer that Apple has had a "great" holiday season. "It's been a great holiday," he said.

When questioned about Apple's recently released AirPods and the lack of available stock, Cook called the AirPods a "runaway success." "We're making them just as fast as we can," he said.

Introduced in mid-December, the first AirPods began shipping out to customers during the week of December 19th, the first day retail stores began carrying the accessory.

AirPods have proven to be popular with Apple users, and supplies have been constrained since launch. Retail stores and third-party retailers are receiving regular shipments, but many customers have not yet been able to purchase AirPods. Online orders placed today won't ship out for six weeks.

Reviews of AirPods have been largely positive, with customers praising the sound quality, battery life, ease of connectivity, and better than expected Bluetooth range, but some users have been having battery trouble with their Charging Case.

After the AirPods launched online and then arrived to the first set of customers earlier in December, some users have begun realizing that the charging case that comes with the headphones isn't holding Apple's advertised 24 hours of charge. In theory, the charging case should only lose noticeable amounts of charge when the AirPods are low on battery and recharging within the case, and when users flip the pack open to check battery levels or otherwise activate Bluetooth with a connected Apple device.

The unlucky set of users facing the battery issues, however, are noticing that the AirPods case drains by upwards of 40 percent in mere hours, with the AirPods at 100 percent inside and minimal Bluetooth activation.

While some feared this is just the way Apple intended the headphones and companion charging case to work, Redditor severinskulls has posted about his experience with the problem, and the replacement AirPods he got that do not have an apparent faulty charging case. In most cases, the AirPods themselves are not facing any shortened battery life issues.

The old AirPods Charging Case:

I was having the exact same issue you had. Airpods in case, go to bed with full charge and waking up with 15%-20% of the case charge gone. Thats a full charge cycle for the airpods themselves!

I spoke to apple support online. They had no answer how long the charge of the case should last when the airpods are not in use. They made an appointment for me instore as all diagnostics at the moment are being handled instore they said. Cut to this morning, go in for my appointment. The genius was very friendly. I was his first airpods case. Turns out he also has no info on whether this rate of the battery draining is normal. He said that definitely they are designed to lose charge over time as cycling the charge improves the health of the airpod batteries. However as I pointed out, going from a full charge to empty in two days while they are sitting there unused seems way too fast. To be safe, he placed my airpods. So i got a brand new pair.

The new AirPods Charging Case:

Sooooo I just checked. Airpods and case were 100% at 9pm last night. Checked just now at 9am the next morning and they are STILL at 100%, both the pods and the case. I had bluetooth on my phone on all night too. With the other pair in the same situation, I would have lost 14-20% charge by now.

So there we go, case closed (pun?), there is a battery life problem suffered by the airpods. I'm going to write back feedback to apple now. You should get your airpods replaced because they shouldnt lose as much charge as what youre experiencing.

When the AirPods first came out, the initial impressions of the battery life for both the headphones and the charging case were overall positive. A handful of MacRumors forum members were fans of the speedy charge rate of the AirPods, the granular settings of the iOS battery widget, and the battery life of the charging case as well. Mentions of battery drainage issues with the AirPods case began about a week ago, around the time the first customers had been using the headphones for a few days.

In a teardown last week by iFixit, it was theorized that the Charging Case was the cause of the AirPods' delay from October to December. The root of the problem was a few empty spaces discovered within the solder joints of the case's chip. This is referred to as "voiding," which iFixit said "could be evidence of low quality standards, or a rushed product release."

The exact scope of the affected AirPods user base is unclear. Some users are speculating that the problem could be an initial charge cycle hiccup that irons itself out over time, but a few owners that have had the AirPods since day one are still posting about battery drainage issues with the charging case today. On the other hand, there are many other users who have reported normal experiences with the case and its advertised 24 hours of battery life. Apple hasn't commented on any of the reports.

Back in November, a report from Japanese site Mac Otakara suggested Apple would add a sixth "Jet White" color option to its iPhone 7 lineup, and while no Jet White iPhone has surfaced as of yet, a video making the rounds tonight hints at what a Jet White iPhone might look like if Apple does indeed release such a device.

The video, shared by Sonny Dickson, appears to depict an iPhone 7 and an iPhone 7 Plus, both with white casings. While the iPhone 7 Plus features an Apple logo, the iPhone 7 model does not, suggesting it is very likely fake.

Similar iPhone 7 and 7 Plus casing replacements can be found on various auction sites like Alibaba, so it seems the iPhones in the video are sporting third-party shells rather than representing actual forthcoming iPhone models.

Should Apple decide to release a glossy white color option to sell alongside the glossy Jet Black iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, both of which have proven to be highly popular with customers, it could potentially look something like the shells of the devices in the video.

Mac Otakara did not indicate when Apple might release its white iPhone 7, and suggested the information, obtained from supply chain sources, could be "unreliable," so it continues to be unclear if and when we will see actual "Jet White" iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus models.

Apple's product lineup has expanded over the past couple of years with the addition of the Apple Watch, a third notebook line, and most recently AirPods, and while 2016 turned out to be a bit of a disappointment for some with the Mac in particular seeing many models go the entire year without an update, there were still a number of significant updates.

As we reach the end of the year, it's worth a look back at some of the more notable and accurate rumors and leaks from 2016 to see how the sometimes long and winding road of rumors led to the product launches we eventually saw.

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Apple's iPhone and iPad were the most popular mobile devices gifted during the holidays this year, according to new data shared by Yahoo-owned mobile analytics firm Flurry.

Flurry examined device activations by manufacturer between 12/19 and 12/25, finding Apple devices to be twice as popular as Samsung devices.

44 percent of all new phone activations were Apple iPhones, while Samsung smartphones accounted for 21 percent of activations. Huawei, LG, Amazon, Oppo, Xiaomi, and Motorola trailed behind with between two and three percent of activations each.

While Samsung is slowly growing in popularity throughout the holiday season, up 1% from last year, Apple devices continue to be the gift to give. Holding the third and fourth positions for activations are Huawei and LG; which is remarkable, as both manufacturers do not have an individual device within the top 35 devices activated. Their high rank is likely due to the fact that they have wide variety of devices and affordable options (hundreds of phablet and medium phones) for consumers to choose from.

Google's Pixel smartphone, which came out in October, did not make Flurry's list.

Last year, Flurry released a similar report, and Apple devices made up 49.1 percent of all device activations, while Samsung devices came in at 19.8 percent.

Phablets, or smartphones and tablets ranging in size from 5 inches to 6.9 inches, continued to grow in popularity. In 2016, the phablets category, which includes the 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus, 6s Plus, and 7 Plus, was responsible for 37 percent of total device activations. Medium-sized phones, like the 4.7-inch iPhone 6, iPhone 6s, and iPhone 7, were responsible for 45 percent of all activations. Activations of full-sized tablets, like the iPad, have continued to wane.

To gather its data, Flurry measured smart device activations and app downloads from the hundreds of thousands of apps it tracks from December 19 to December 25.

Apple may introduce a new 5-inch iPhone model that sports a unique vertical dual-camera system that sits alongside the existing 4.7- and 5.5-inch models, according to Japanese blog Mac Okatara. The 5-inch model would act as the medium size in the 2017 lineup.

The report, which comes from a Taiwanese supplier, says that the new models, dubbed the iPhone 7s, would be an updated version of the iPhone 7. The new 5-inch model, however, would rearrange the iPhone 7 Plus' dual camera into a vertical alignment rather than a horizontal one.

Earlier this month, Mac Okatara reported that the iPhone 7s and 7s Plus would retain the aluminum design of the iPhone 7. However, the report said the new phones would come in an all-new red color. Multiple reports have stated that there will be three new iPhone models in 2017, including updated 4.7- and 5.5-inch models with LCD screens and a premium model with an OLED display and glass casing.

The new report corroborates an earlier Nikkei report that said a new 5-inch iPhone would arrive in 2017. However, Nikkei reports that the three iPhone models in 2017 will have new glass-backed designs. In November, KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said it's likely the 2017 iPhones will switch to new glass casings to support wireless charging.

While Mac Okatara was the first to report that Apple would replace the headphone jack in the iPhone 7 and debut a new gloss black color, its track record is not perfect. In November, it reported the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus would get a new "Jet White" color that has not yet materialized.

Just after the Christmas shopping period, B&H Photo is offering impressive deals on the new 15-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar. B&H is offering $200 off with a free copy of Parallels 12, which is worth $79.95.

2.6 GHz 15-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar - $2,199, down from $2,399 ($200 off)
2.7 GHz 15-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar - $2,599, down from $2,799 ($200 off)

B&H is also offering non-Touch Bar 13-inch MacBook Pros for $100 to $150 off. Those who purchase those models will also receive a free copy of Parallels 12.

MacRumors is an affiliate partner with B&H Photo Video and may sometimes get paid if you click one of the above links and purchase a product or service.

Earlier in December, Apple announced that it would begin allowing its artificial intelligence and machine learning researchers to publish and share their work in papers, slightly pulling back the curtain on the company's famously secretive creation processes. Now, just a few weeks later, the first of those papers has been published, focusing on Apple's work in the intelligent image recognition field.

Titled "Learning from Simulated and Unsupervised Images through Adversarial Training," the paper describes a program that can intelligently decipher and understand digital images in a setting similar to the "Siri Intelligence" and facial recognition features introduced in Photos in iOS 10, but more advanced.

In the research, Apple notes the downsides and upsides of using real images compared with that of "synthetic," or computer images. Annotations must be added to real images, an "expensive and time-consuming task" that requires a human workforce to individually label objects in a picture. On the other hand, computer-generated images help to catalyze this process "because the annotations are automatically available."

Still, fully switching to synthetic images could lead to a dip in the quality of the program in question. This is because "synthetic data is often not realistic enough" and would lead to an end-user experience that only responded well to details present in the computer-generated images, while being unable to generalize well on any real-world objects and pictures it faced.

This leads to the paper's central proposition -- the combination of using both simulated and real images to work together in "adversarial training," creating an advanced AI image program:

In this paper, we propose Simulated+Unsupervised (S+U) learning, where the goal is to improve the realism of synthetic images from a simulator using unlabeled real data. The improved realism enables the training of better machine learning models on large datasets without any data collection or human annotation effort.

We show that this enables generation of highly realistic images, which we demonstrate both qualitatively and with a user study.

The rest of the paper goes into the details of Apple's research on the topic, including experiments that have been run and the math proposed to back up its findings. The paper's research focused solely on single images, but the team at Apple notes towards the end that it hopes to sometime soon "investigate refining videos" as well.

The credits on the paper go to Apple researchers Ashish Shrivastava, Tomas Pfister, Oncel Tuzel, Josh Susskind, Wenda Wang, and Russ Webb. The team's research was first submitted on November 15, but it didn't get published until December 22.

At the AI conference in Barcelona a few weeks ago, Apple head of machine learning Russ Salakhutdinov -- and a few other employees -- discussed topics including health and vital signs, volumetric detection of LiDAR, prediction with structured outputs, image processing and colorization, intelligent assistant and language modeling, and activity recognition. We'll likely see papers on a variety of these topics and more in the near future.

Starting on January 2, Apple plans to hold a special New Year's Sale both online and at all of its retail locations in Japan, continuing a long tradition of offering something special on January 2 in the country.

Up until 2016, Apple took part in the Japanese tradition of offering "Fukubukuro" or "lucky bags" to customers. Fukubukuro used to contain an assortment of random Apple products at a price of approximately $300. Some bags contained things like backpacks, speakers, and other small accessories, but there was always a chance to win a larger product, like a MacBook Air or an iPad.

The Fukubukuro tradition is still ongoing in Japan, but 2015 was the last year that Apple participated, opting instead for in-store sales and doing away with the long lines retail locations used to see as people hoped to snag one of the limited edition bags.

It is not clear what kind of discounts Apple will be offering on January 2, but it could be similar to the Black Friday event in the United States, which saw the company offer Apple Store gift cards up to $150 with the purchase of Macs, iPads, iPhones, and more.

Apple is also likely to offer additional sales in various countries around the world ahead of Lunar New Year, set to take place on Saturday, January 28.

iTunes gift cards are a common gift for the tech enthusiast during the holidays. The cards can be used to purchase apps, games, music, movies, TV shows, books, and more, making it difficult to decide what to buy with your freshly unwrapped gift. We're here to help with some hand-picked recommendations.

Didn't get an iTunes gift card under the tree? PayPal is offering 10% off iTunes e-gift cards through December 30 in the United States for use on U.S. storefronts only. Available denominations include $25, $50, and $100 for $22.50, $45, and $90 respectively. PayPal is also offering a $50 iTunes e-gift card for $42.50 via eBay in the United States for a limited time. While iTunes gift cards can occasionally be found for 15% off, these are a few of the best deals currently available.

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is the script for a two-part play based on a new original story J.K. Rowling helped to write. The book was released in July as the eighth story in the Harry Potter series, nearly a decade after the final Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows book was released.

The story begins 19 years after the events of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Harry Potter is now an overworked Ministry of Magic employee, a husband, and father of three school-aged children, including his youngest son Albus, who struggles with the weight of a family legacy he never wanted.

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is available in a digital format for $14.99 on the iBooks Store [Direct Link] for iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

Texture — Unlimited Access to 200+ Magazines

Texture is an iPhone and iPad app that provides unlimited access to over 200 of the world's most popular magazines for $9.99 per month. New users who purchase a subscription as an in-app purchase get a 7-day full trial.

Some of the magazines available include People, Vogue, Rolling Stone, National Geographic, GQ, Sports Illustrated, Wired, Maxim, Men's Health, GQ, Bloomberg Businessweek, ESPN, Entertainment Weekly, and many others.

Magazines can be read on up to five devices per subscription, including offline by tapping download on a specific issue. Both new issues and a searchable archive of over 5000 past issues are available. A full catalog of available magazines, additional details, and sign-up promotions can be found on the Texture website.

Texture is a free download on the App Store [Direct Link] for iPhone and iPad. The app won a Best of 2016 award on the App Store.

Super Mario Run

Super Mario Run launched on the App Store for iPhone and iPad ten days ago, becoming the first official smartphone and tablet game featuring the iconic Nintendo character. The game is free to try for the first three courses, while unlocking all 24 courses in the World Tour requires a one-time $10 in-app purchase.

The game is a timed runner designed for one-handed gameplay. Mario runs forward automatically as players tap to jump, collect coins, pounce on Goombas, avoid obstacles, and reach the flagpole at the end of each course before the timer runs out. In the end, Mario must rescue Princess Peach from Bowser.

A challenge mode called Toad Rally allows players to compete with friends or strangers to see who can obtain the highest score while performing stylish moves. Toad Rally requires Rally Tickets, which can be acquired in a variety of ways, such as clearing worlds or through bonus games in your own kingdom.

Meanwhile, a Kingdom Builder mode enables players to create their own kingdom and customize it using coins and toads gathered in Toad Rally. Super Mario Run has since gained a new Friendly Run mode similar to Toad Rally, but items, coins, or new toads collected do count toward a player's public totals in this mode.

Super Mario Run has been downloaded over 40 million times, but some players have criticized the $10 cost to unlock the full game due to limited gameplay. But, in the game's defense, there are technically 72 courses given players have to collect pink, purple, and black challenge coins on each of the 24 courses.

Super Mario Run is available on the App Store [Direct Link] for iPhone and iPad. An always-on Wi-Fi or cellular connection is required.

Apps on Sale

A number of popular iPhone and iPad apps are on sale through the holidays, including Day One, Tweetbot, Alto's Adventure, Byword, djay Pro, Duet Display, NBA 2K17, Limbo, SteamWorld Heist, Severed, Battleheart Legacy, PCalc, Pennies, Drafts, Don't Starve: Pocket Edition, Broken Age, and many others.

More deals, including discounts on Mac apps, can be found on AppShopper or in the App Santa promotion, which runs through December 26. TouchArcade has also finalized its list of the 100 best games available this year. As a reminder, no new or updated apps will appear on the App Store until after December 27.

Apple Music Subscription

iTunes gift cards can be used to pay for an Apple Music subscription, which costs $9.99 per month for individuals, $14.99 per month for families with up to six people, and $4.99 per month for students in the United States and Canada. Prices and student plan availability vary in other countries.

Those looking for a slightly better deal on an annual Apple Music subscription should consider a 12-month Apple Music gift card, which Apple sells for $99. A 12-month subscription to Apple Music normally costs $120 when paying for the service directly with iTunes credit or another form of payment, so you can save $20.

Minecraft for Apple TV

Minecraft for Apple TV launched last week, giving players the familiar task of venturing into a randomly generated world and customizing it to their liking.

Minecraft: Apple TV Edition is $19.99 and can be purchased directly from the tvOS App Store on the fourth-generation Apple TV.

Holiday Movies

With the holidays and winter weather upon us in the northern half of the world, now is a better time than ever to snug up on the couch and relax. Apple is offering a wide range of holiday movies in HD for $10 or less in the United States for a limited time, so this may be a good way to spend some iTunes credit.