MacRumors

Nearly two years after Amazon stopped selling the Apple TV, a listing for the Apple TV 4K has been spotted on the website by 9to5Mac.

The Apple TV 4K is currently listed as out of stock, but the fact that it has been added back is fueling speculation that Amazon may be prepared to launch its Prime Video app on the tvOS App Store imminently.

At its Worldwide Developers Conference in June, Apple confirmed that Amazon Prime Video is coming to Apple TV later this year. At its iPhone X event earlier this month, it reiterated that release date.

An unverified rumor earlier this week claimed Amazon Prime Video may launch on the Apple TV alongside the debut of the NFL's Thursday Night Football games on the online retailer's streaming video service this week.

Amazon Video allows Prime members to instantly stream tens of thousands of movies and TV episodes, with hundreds of thousands of titles available to buy or rent, including many that are 4K and HDR.

Amazon removed all Apple TV and Chromecast product listings from its website in October 2015 because the devices did not offer Prime Video, which it said may cause confusion for customers.

Of course, the Apple TV and Chromecast also compete with Amazon's own Fire TV streaming media players.

Apple said Amazon had never submitted a Prime Video app for the tvOS App Store, or else it would have been happy to offer it. The app has been available for iPhone and iPad and several other platforms for many years.

Whatever the case may be, it appears Prime Video for Apple TV might finally be just around the corner.

Since hitting an all-time high of $164.94 on September 1, Apple's stock price has steadily declined throughout the month. Apple's closing price of $150.55 on Monday represents a nearly nine percent decline in just under four weeks.

Despite some negativity surrounding the stock, one Wall Street analyst believes the recent skid is a buying opportunity.

"We believe concerns around the strength of this cycle are misplaced and we would be aggressive buyers of the stock during this correction," said Brian White, a longtime Apple analyst at investment banking firm Drexel Hamilton.

White believes the staggered launch of the iPhone 8 and iPhone X is confusing industry observers, who are perhaps worried by reports of shorter lines at Apple retail stores and lower adoption rates of the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus.

"We believe more consumers in the developed parts of the world will pass on the iPhone 8/8 Plus and buy the iPhone X," added White, in a research note obtained by MacRumors. "Those that are on the fence will likely wait to see the iPhone X."

White is one of the most bullish Apple analysts, with a lofty $208 price target for the iPhone maker. If the price were to rise that high, Apple would be over a trillion dollar company based on market capitalization.

Raymond James analyst Tavis McCourt also said Apple's recent pullback is a "trading opportunity." His survey indicated there could be higher demand for the iPhone X than the firm initially anticipated.

Apple's slide has held back the Dow Jones, which is still up around 1.5 percent since the start of September. But it's not the only tech stock in the red, as Amazon, Facebook, and Netflix all declined Monday.

By comparison, Apple's stock price was up nearly 5 percent over this same period in each of the past two years.

Apple is up over 1 percent in early market trading today.

iFixit has shared an Apple TV 4K teardown, providing a closer look at the device's internal design and components.

We already know the Apple TV 4K is equipped with Apple's 64-bit A10X Fusion chip, and now the teardown confirms the device has a total of 3GB of LPDDR4 RAM supplied by SK Hynix. That's up from 2GB RAM in the previous Apple TV.

The new power supply is rated for 12V at 1.083A, a modest increase over the 12V at 0.917A power supply in the previous Apple TV.

According to the teardown, Apple merged the new fan with the heat sink/EMI shield assembly from the fourth-generation Apple TV to create a larger thermal assembly for cooling and ventilation.

iFixit said the bottom of the unit has been redesigned with a total of eight exhaust ports and a new, replaceable fan driven by a Nidec brushless motor.

Beyond the return of a Gigabit Ethernet port and the removal of the USB-C diagnostic port, which we learned about before the teardown, the Apple TV 4K's design is largely the same as the previous Apple TV.

iFixit gave the Apple TV 4K a repairability score of 8 out of a possible 10 points. The device is easy to open and has modular components, but they're soldered to the logic board, so board-level soldering or full board replacements are required.

Previously unconfirmed details about the internal specifications of Apple's iPhone X appear to have been revealed on China's official communications certification board, including the device's system memory, CPU clock speed, and battery capacity.

First spotted this morning by mobile leaker Steve Hemmerstoffer, the filing with the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's Telecommunication Equipment Certification Center (TENAA) lists the iPhone X as having a 2,716mAh battery. For reference, the iPhone 8 is believed to have a 1,821mAh capacity battery.

The step up in battery capacity is probably a direct result of the iPhone X's OLED screen, a display technology that despite usually requiring less energy than an equivalent LCD panel, probably draws more overall power because of its 5.8-inch size (iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus have 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch screens, respectively).

The TENAA listing also gives the A11 Bionic chip a 2.4GHz clock speed and says the handset is backed by 3GB of RAM, two details that are believed to conform with the iPhone 8 Plus.

iPhone X pre-orders officially begin on October 27 and in-store availability is expected on November 3, although rumors suggest the device will be in short supply until early 2018.

The iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus are more expensive for Apple to manufacture than the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, according to component cost estimates research firm IHS Markit shared today with Bloomberg.

An entry-level iPhone 8 with 64GB of storage costs Apple an estimated $247.51 in raw materials, an increase of almost $10 compared to the $237.94 it cost Apple to make last year's 32GB iPhone 7.

The 64GB iPhone 8 Plus costs an estimated $288.08, up from $270.88 for the iPhone 7 Plus.

To compensate for the increased cost, Apple charges $699 for the 64GB iPhone 8 in the United States, up from the $649 starting price it charged for the 32GB iPhone 7 in 2016. The iPhone 8 Plus is priced starting at $799, up from $769 in 2016.

"The added value went to memory, camera, and processing. That's where we can materially identify where they've improved the overall product, and hence why they can command a higher price for it," according to Wayne Lam, an analyst at IHS.

According to Bloomberg, some of the most expensive components in the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus include the screens and the mechanical enclosures. Apple's new glass-bodied devices are built around a strong internal frame and include new displays with True Tone support.

Compared to iPhone 7 pricing, the wireless charging module increases costs by $2, the A11 Bionic chip costs $5 more, and the larger 256GB storage options increase prices by $6.

IHS's component costs are only estimates of what the iPhone 8 and the iPhone 8 Plus cost to manufacture, and sometimes those estimates are not spot on. For example, while IHS told Bloomberg cost $237.94 to manufacture an iPhone 7 in 2016, its initial estimates following the iPhone 7's release were at $219.80.

These estimates also only look at raw component costs and do not take into account other iPhone manufacturing expenses like research and development, software creation, advertising, and distribution, so this information, while interesting, is not an accurate measurement of Apple's profit margin for the iPhone 8 and the iPhone 8 Plus.

Back in 2015, Apple CEO Tim Cook said that cost breakdowns are generally "much different than the reality." "I've never seen one that is anywhere close to being accurate," he added.

The initial version of macOS High Sierra released this morning limits the new Apple File System (APFS) to Macs that have all-flash built-in storage, excluding iMacs and Mac mini machines that feature Fusion Drives.

Apple announced the limitation last week in a support document that said the initial release would not allow Fusion Drives to be converted to APFS, implying future support, and now Apple software engineering chief Craig Federighi has confirmed APFS will indeed be coming to Fusion Drives in a later update.

Federighi shared the info in an email sent to MacRumors reader Michiel, who asked if APFS would be added later.

"Yes, we plan to add support in a future update," replied Federighi.

Fusion Drives, available as a storage option for Apple's iMac and Mac mini desktop machines, combine a hard drive with flash storage to provide the speed of an SSD with the affordability of a standard hard drive. Frequently accessed files are stored using flash storage, while less frequently used files are moved to the hard drive.

The first macOS High Sierra beta released in June did include support for Fusion Drives and converted iMacs and Mac minis to APFS, but support was removed in subsequent betas and was not reimplemented, presumably due to stability problems and bugs with the feature.

Apple File System is a more modern file system than HFS+ and is optimized for solid state drives. It is safe and secure, offering crash protection, safe document saves, stable snapshots, simplified backups, and strong native encryption.

Developers who happened to install APFS on their machines have been provided with instructions for how to convert back to HFS+ for the time being.

Apple's macOS High Sierra press release also confirms the company's plans to introduce APFS support for Fusion Drives and standard HDDs, but Apple has not offered a timeline on when we can expect the APFS update to be released.

According to Apple, the glass used for its new iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 devices is the most durable glass ever used in a smartphone, but that hasn't helped the device resist shattering in a series of drop tests.

SquareTrade, a company that provides extended warranties for electronic devices, conducted drop tests on the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and, for comparative purposes, the Galaxy Note 8, which also has a glass body.

Both of the iPhone 8 models and the Galaxy Note 8 shattered on all sides in every single drop test, including front and back drops at a distance of six feet, a 22-foot shot drop test, and a tumble test. Each test was conducted using the same equipment.

Ultimately, Square Trade gave the iPhone 8 a breakability score of 67, the iPhone 8 Plus a breakability score of 74, and the Galaxy Note 8 a breakability score of 80. At 67 and 74, iPhone 8 and 8 Plus are at "medium risk" of breakage from a drop, while the Galaxy Note 8 is at "high risk." The Galaxy Note 8 fared worse because it was non-functional after some of the tests, while the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus remained usable despite the broken glass.

YouTuber JerryRigEverything also did a drop test on the iPhone 8 in a case and without a case. It survived a drop from knee height and was okay after one fall from waist height because it landed on the aluminum frame, but the glass broke after a second waist-high drop. The iPhone 8 in a case unsurprisingly fared better.

Another YouTube drop test that compared the iPhone 8 Plus to the iPhone 7 Plus, and the iPhone 8 Plus shattered on the first drop. The iPhone 7 Plus survived a drop on its back, of course, as it has an aluminum body.

Drop tests are never scientific and are not a reliable measure of durability because of the many variables involved when a device is dropped, but it's clear that even with the most durable glass used in a smartphone, the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus are more prone to catastrophic breakage than previous-generation iPhones.

While both sides of the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus are now made of glass, the display and the body don't appear to share the same repair costs, so if you drop it on the wrong side, it's going to be an expensive fix.

With AppleCare+, Apple charges $29 for replacement for a broken display, but a broken glass body is subject to the $99 "other damage" repair fee rather than the screen replacement fee. Sans AppleCare+, a display repair for the iPhone 8 costs $149 and an "other damage" repair costs $349. iPhone 8 Plus repairs are even more expensive at $169 for the display and $399 for the body.

Apple is also charging more for its AppleCare+ plans this year, with AppleCare+ for iPhone 8 priced at $129 and AppleCare+ for iPhone 8 Plus priced at $149. AppleCare+ covers two incidents of accidental damage.

Following the release of a new version of iOS, there are typically complaints about battery problems, issues with apps, and minor bugs, and the launch of iOS 11 has proven to be no exception.

On reddit, numerous users who have installed iOS 11 claim to be experiencing much slower app performance, app crashes, and other similar issues. The initial reddit post calls launching apps "an absolute chore," a sentiment echoed by dozens of additional comments.

Ever since I upgraded, launching apps is an absolute chore. Safari, Reddit, ESPN, Yahoo, texts, etc all have a terrible time opening. They either crash back to home, freeze and require closing the app or take well over a minute to load. I never had a single issue with my 7+ before last night and now suddenly it's like this phone is stuck in quicksand. I've never had to hard reset this phone before but I've had to do it twice in the past two days.

Users are complaining that their phones "just get stuck on apps" and that a hard reset is the only way to fix the problem. Reddit, Snapchat, Twitter, Facebook, Messenger, Safari, and more are all affected apps. Sometimes, apps refuse to open just launching from the Home screen, while at other times, apps launched from Notifications won't work, and there are issues with Bluetooth.

I've been using the beta and it's been super fine for me. But now on the GM I get all the same issues. Apps don't launch, or if they finally do they crash. Things are freezing and crashing. Sometimes just bringing up CC stalls my phone and makes it unresponsive. Something in the update broke the Bluetooth controls connection and now I can't use the skip button from my transmitter (which worked in the beta) to change songs.

The Now Playing widget in the Control Center is also a chief complaint, with multiple users unable to control songs on Spotify and Apple Music using the widget, and some users say their battery life has taken a serious hit since updating.

Not all customers who upgraded to iOS 11 are seeing these issues but based on the reddit thread, it seems a fair number of people are having problems. App updates and subsequent iOS 11 updates are likely to resolve these issues over time, but customers who want an immediate fix can try some of the methods reported to work on reddit

Some reddit users claim that resetting their settings (Settings --> General ---> Reset --> Reset All Settings) fixed all of the app issues, while others have restored their devices and set it up as new to solve the problem. Others have backed up and restored and had better results. From one reddit user on backup and restore:

Exactly. I think people think this is a placebo effect but it really does work. Brought my 6S from a sluggish beast to more or less the same performance I had in iOS 10.

Multiple iPhone models appear to be affected, with redditors reporting issues on the iPhone 6s, iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, and other earlier models. The iPhone 8 and 8 Plus do not appear to be affected, and there are few complaints about iPad Pro models.

With the release of macOS High Sierra, Apple is now collecting data from the Safari browser using differential privacy technology, reports TechCrunch. Apple is aiming to gain information about browsing habits to help identify problematic websites that use excessive power or too much memory.

This form of data collection is the first of its kind for Safari, aimed at identifying sites that use excessive power and crash the browser by monopolizing too much memory. Apple is also documenting the popularity of these problematic domains, in order to prioritize which sites it addresses first.

Apple first announced its adoption of differential privacy in 2016 alongside the debut of iOS 10. Differential privacy is a technique that allows Apple to collect user information while keeping user data entirely private. It uses hashing, subsampling, and noise injection to enable crowd-sourced learning without compromising user privacy.

Differential privacy is already in use on Mac and iOS devices for emoji use, search predictions, predictive text, and other small features that use machine learning for improvement.

Because of this, Apple does not have a specific message about the new Safari data collection when macOS High Sierra is installed, and it is lumped in with the general Mac analytics data notice that is presented when setting up a new Mac. From Apple's Privacy notice regarding analytics:

If you agree to send Mac Analytics information to Apple, it may include the following:
- Details about app or system crashes, freezes or kernel panics.
- Information about events on your Mac (for example whether a certain function such as waking your Mac was successful or not).
- Usage information (for example, data about how you use Apple and third-party software, hardware, and services).

Analytics data contains your computer's hardware and software specifications, including information about devices connected to your Mac and the versions of the operating system and apps you're using on your Mac. Personal data is either not logged at all in the reports generated by your Mac, is subject to privacy preserving techniques such as differential privacy, or is removed from any reports before they're sent to Apple.

While users are given the option to turn off analytics when setting up a Mac, there's also a Security and Privacy setting that can be accessed to turn it off any time. To get to the feature, click on the Apple at the top of the menu bar, and choose "System Preferences." From there, open up Security and Privacy, select the "Privacy" tab and then choose Analytics to choose whether or not to share data with Apple.