MacRumors

As Tim Cook meets with French president Emmanuel Macron in Paris today, a new rumor is looking to the week ahead and what could potentially be announced by the Apple CEO as he continues his trip around France. According to information gained by Mac4Ever, Apple is set to announce its appearance at Station F, described as one of the largest centers for entrepreneurs in Europe and the largest startup facility in the world.

According to our information, Apple would open - it is a first - an official cell in one of the largest centers of welcome for entrepreneurs in Europe. We do not yet know all the details, but the Apple would plan to deploy a small team, to help developers, especially in the creation and validation of applications.

Earlier this year, Apple opened its own iOS App Accelerator facility in Bangalore, built to support engineering talent and boost the growth of India's iOS developer community. Apple has eagerly supported and promoted the App Store and its developer community over the years, since it and other Apple services -- Apple Music, Apple Pay, AppleCare, iTunes, and iCloud -- continue to grow and contribute to much of the company's revenue.

In terms of Cook's current trip, he has visited an iPhone X component supplier, the Normandy American Cemetery, and a few app-based startups. More details of his meeting with Macron -- expected to cover international tax laws -- should begin to surface throughout the day.

Apple CEO Tim Cook is in Paris today ahead of a meeting with the French president Emmanuel Macron at 4:15 CEST. Before that meeting happens, Cook has a full itinerary for his day and the CEO has been documenting parts of his travels on Twitter.

Cook's first Tweet noted his visitation to Eldim, a company based in Normandy that specializes in creating advanced optical metrology tools. Eldim is a component supplier of the upcoming iPhone X, providing Apple with critical components of the iPhone X's Face ID biometric security system.

While in Normandy, Cook visited the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial, which honors the American lives that were lost in Europe during World War II.

Cook's visit to France in 2017 follows a troublesome period of months for Apple back in 2016, when the European Commission ruled that Apple received illegal state aid from Ireland and ordered the company to pay $14.5 billion in back taxes. Apple appealed the decision in December of 2016 by arguing the European Commission made "fundamental errors" in its ruling, but the Cupertino company has noted that it expects the case to continue for several years.

In the wake of these reports, Cook called the tax avoidance claims "total political crap," writing an open letter that stated Apple has become "the largest taxpayer in the world," and that the company "follows the law and we pay all the taxes we owe."

Update: Cook also visited the offices of "CoachGuitar," an app that teaches users how to play the guitar.

Apple has quietly released iTunes 12.6.3, which reintroduces the ability to download App Store apps and ringtones from within the iTunes desktop software.

Apple is making this version of iTunes available because "certain business partners might still need to use iTunes to install apps", but the download is basically available to anyone looking to reinstate the functionality that was removed in iTunes 12.7.

If you've already installed a newer version of iTunes, you can download this version of iTunes on your Mac, PC 32-bit or PC 64-bit and run the installer. After installation is complete, you can continue to deploy apps with iTunes. You won't be prompted to download new versions of iTunes after you install this version.

Installation packages for Mac and PC (32-bit and 64-bit) are available for download on the support page. After the installation, most users will need to rebuild their iTunes Library. To do this, hold down the Option key when the app launches and in the dialog window that appears choose "Create Library...". Give the new library a name that's different to your existing library, and then migrate over your albums using the Add to Library... option under the Files menu.

Apple released iTunes 12.7 in September and said the new version was designed to focus solely on music, movies, TV shows, podcasts, and audiobooks, which was the reason behind the removal of the built-in App Store. Following the change, apps and ringtones could only be downloaded on an iOS device.

This special "business edition" of iTunes includes compatibility with iOS 11, iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and iPhone X. It's not clear how long Apple will offer iTunes 12.6.3, and the company does not provide technical support for this version, but for those who want the functionality it could be a useful makeweight until Apple comes up with an alternative solution.

(Thanks, Luming!)

With its iPhone X debut and the introduction of Face ID, Apple has now tilted interest in the mobile industry away from under-display fingerprint recognition, and instead towards camera-based 3D sensing technologies as the ideal user authentication solution. That's according to the latest research note from respected KGI securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.

According to the new note seen by MacRumors, inquiries by Android smartphone vendors into 3D-sensing technologies have at least tripled since Apple unveiled its TrueDepth camera and Face ID technology, which replaces traditional Touch ID fingerprint recognition in the iPhone X, set to launch in November.

While under-display optical fingerprint recognition is only a spec upgrade from capacitive solutions, 3D sensing embodies a revolutionary user experience and warrants a premium on gross margin. 3D sensing not only enables facial recognition in security applications and allows users to create fun expressions like Apple's Animoji, on a more important level, it is a key factor in the development of AR. We therefore believe brand vendors are willing to spend more for related components.

Currently, the solutions available to Android phone vendors are said to be from Qualcomm and Himax, Orbbec, and Mantis Vision, with the more mature Qualcomm-Himax solutions attracting the most attention.

Kuo went on to say he believes the next two to three years will see shipments of 3D sensor-equipped Android devices to exceed those with under-display fingerprint recognition by a factor of two or three or more. This will be mainly due to 3D-sensing's wider compatibility with LCD screens than under-display optical fingerprint recognition, which is exclusive to OLED panels, said Kuo.

The KGI analyst also believes Samsung's continual dominance of the high-end OLED panel market over the next two to three years will mean shipments of under-display optical fingerprint recognition will remain significantly capped.

Regular MacRumors readers may recall that some reports claimed Apple struggled to implement under-display fingerprint recognition for its most advanced iPhone to date and instead opted for facial recognition as the exclusive authentication method as a result. In retrospect however, Kuo accurately contradicted that report shortly after it appeared, while well-connected Apple journalist John Gruber has also cast doubt on the assertion that Touch ID had been planned for iPhone X, claiming Apple had been "all-in" on replacing Touch ID with Face ID for over a year.

In an earlier report, Kuo said he believes it will take Apple's Android competitors up to two and a half years to replicate the functionality and user experience of the TrueDepth Camera in the iPhone X. He has also previously said that should Apple's TrueDepth camera prove to be popular with consumers, all of the company's future iPhones are likely to adopt the feature.

Face ID will become available to the public starting on November 3, the official launch date for the iPhone X.

Benchmarking company Futuremark recently set out to debunk long-running speculation that Apple intentionally slows down older iPhones when it releases new software updates as a way to encourage its customers to buy new devices.

Starting in 2016, Futuremark collected over 100,000 benchmark results for seven different iPhone models across three versions of iOS, using that data to create performance comparison charts to determine whether there have been performance drops in iOS 9, iOS 10, and iOS 11.

The first device tested was the iPhone 5s, as it's the oldest device capable of running iOS 11. iPhone 5s, released in 2013, was the first iPhone to get a 64-bit A7 chip, and iOS 11 is limited to 64-bit devices. Futuremark used the 3DMark Sling Shot Extreme Graphics test and calculated all benchmark scores from the iPhone 5s across a given month to make its comparison.

The higher the bar, the better the performance, and based on the testing, GPU performance on the iPhone 5s has remained constant from iOS 9 to iOS 11 with just minor variations that Futuremark says "fall well within normal levels."

iPhone 5s CPU performance over time was measured using the 3DMark Sling Shot Extreme Physics test, and again, results were largely consistent.

Charts for other devices, including the iPhone 6, 6s, and 7, show some mild dips and increases when it comes to GPU performance. In the iPhone 6 and 7, GPU performance is up compared to previous-generation versions of iOS.

CPU performance across those three devices has dropped slightly, something Futuremark attributes to "minor iOS updates or other factors." "A user would be unlikely to notice this small difference in everyday use," says the site. Based on its benchmarking comparisons, Futuremark claims "there are no signs of a conspiracy."

Our benchmarking data shows that, rather than intentionally degrading the performance of older models, Apple actually does a good job of supporting its older devices with regular updates that maintain a consistent level of performance across iOS versions.

Raw CPU and GPU power across devices does not offer a complete picture of performance on an older device that's updated to a new operating system, however, nor are benchmarks an accurate measure of real world performance. Apple may not be deliberately slowing down older devices with its software updates, as some have speculated, but there are other factors to take into account.

New features that eat up more system resources can make a device feel slower, as can more system intensive design elements and other tweaks and changes designed for newer devices that are more powerful.

Apple's operating system updates also introduce more advanced APIs and technology for its newest devices, leading to built-in and third-party apps that are aimed at more powerful devices and may not be optimized on older devices, resulting in an older device feeling more sluggish than a newer device following an iOS update.

Sometimes, there are also early bugs in the software that need to be worked out through additional updates. For example, we've seen complaints of app slowdowns and performance drops from users who have installed iOS 11, issues that may be resolved as Apple tweaks and updates the iOS 11 operating system.

Apple design chief Jony Ive spoke this afternoon at TechFest 2017, an event held in New York City. Ive sat down for an interview with The New Yorker editor David Remnick to answer some questions about his design philosophies, his time at Apple, and what it was like working with Steve Jobs, who served as a "wonderful teacher" for Ive.

Ive's TechFest talk wasn't streamed live, but Business Insider was on hand at the interview and shared a live blog with some of Ive's responses and discussion points, and The New Yorker also shared several quotes on its Twitter account.

He went on to say that there are "many opportunities" around displays, and as silicon becomes smaller and more efficient, "the opportunities are extraordinary." Ive also says he's excited about AI and the kind of "good tools" it can lead to.

"The phone we just announced a few weeks ago. That technology is something we'd been working on for five years. We had prototypes. This is an interesting one, theres's a tendency, and I understand it, with the benefit of hindsight, it all seems inevitable."

"For 99 percent of the time, it didn't work for us. For 99% of the development cycle all we had were things that failed."

Developing new products, says Ive, requires a mix of curiosity and focus, to ask the right questions while staying focused on getting a product into development. "There are 55 reasons it hasn't been done before," he said. "So you have to be so focused, determined." Ive says maintaining that level of focus is "exhausting."

Ive touched on his relationship with Steve and the ideals that Jobs instilled in the company. Money was never the focus for Steve Jobs, even when he returned to the company and started making major cuts to the product lineup at the time. "The focus was 'the products aren't every good, are they. Let's focus on making some good products,'" said Ive.

Sometimes design inspiration at Apple comes from poorly designed products, and that was the case with the iPhone. According to Ive, a loathing for the current phones at the time motivated Apple to come up with something new. "You think there has to be a better way of doing it," said Ive.

Apple executives have said several times that Apple's products are designed for people and not for profit, a sentiment that Ive echoed in his interview. "Most things are built in an opportunistic way, to a cost, or to a schedule, they're not built to people," he said.

On the topic of design overall, Ive says that he remembers the process most fondly, not the product. He says he's been fortunate to work with extraordinary people. "If I get to sit down for 2 hours with one of the world's best silicon chip designers, I could not be happier," said Ive.