MacRumors

Apple has lost a legal bid to block Swatch from registering Steve Jobs' famous "One more thing" saying as a trademark in the UK, reports The Telegraph.

Apple argued that the Swiss watchmaker had trademarked the slogan in "bad faith," as it has been associated with Apple for more than 20 years.

The late Steve Jobs often used the phrase to announce new products at the end of Apple presentations. Apple last used the slogan in reference to its Mac-focused virtual Apple event held in November 2020, when it announced the first Apple silicon Macs.

However, a High Court judge on Monday backed the Swiss watchmaker in the trademark row by overturning a previous decision that went Apple's way, despite the judge acknowledging that Swatch may have trademarked the phrase merely to irritate the tech giant.

On Monday, judge Iain Purvis overturned a previous decision that sided with Apple, saying that even if Swatch had meant to "annoy" Apple, the company could not stop it from doing so.

He added that the phrase may have originated with the 1970s television detective Columbo, a character who was known for cornering criminals by asking them "just one more thing."

This isn't the first time Apple and Swatch have faced off in court over trademark disputes. Apple had already failed to block Swatch from trademarking the phrase in Australia, and in years past the two companies have battled over other phrases commonly attributed to Apple.

In 2017, Apple filed a complaint in a Swiss court over the use of the slogan "Tick Different" in a Swatch marketing campaign, arguing that the watchmaker was unfairly referencing the Apple's 1990s "Think Different" ad campaign for its own gain.

In order to successfully win that case, Apple had to show that Swatch's use of the phrase triggered an association with Apple products in the minds of at least 50 percent of consumers.

Meanwhile, Swatch claimed its use of "Tick Different" had its origins in an 80s Swatch campaign that used the phrase "Always different, always new", and argued that any similarity with Apple was purely coincidental.

Two years later the Swiss court agreed with Swatch that Apple's "Think Different" was not known well enough in Switzerland to warrant protection, and that Apple had not produced documents that sufficiently backed up its case.

Before the Apple Watch launched, Apple and Swatch were rumored to be joining together on a smartwatch, but nothing came of it. Swatch filed an application for an "iSwatch" trademark when rumors first began swirling that Apple planned to enter the market. It later managed to block Apple's own UK trademark application for "iWatch."

In January, MacRumors reported that Apple Pay was likely to launch in South Africa sometime this year. As expected, ‌Apple Pay‌ has now started to go live in the country for customers of a select number of banks.

MacRumors readers and bank customers on Twitter report seeing prompts to add their cards to ‌Apple Pay‌. So far, it seems that only Discovery, Nedbank, and Absa customers are able to add their cards to Apple's Wallet app.

To add a card to ‌Apple Pay‌, customers should open the Wallet app, tap the plus button, and follow the on-screen instructions. It's important to note that banks must first add support for ‌Apple Pay‌. Attempting to add an unsupported bank card will result in a pop-up reading, "Your issuer does not yet offer support for this card."

Apple's South African website hasn't yet been updated to reflect ‌Apple Pay‌'s rollout in the country, which isn't unusual, as rollout seems to have just begun in the past few hours.

Apple first launched ‌Apple Pay‌ in 2014 in the United States, and in the years since, it's slowly expanded to more countries around the world. Last month, ‌Apple Pay‌ officially launched in Mexico.

(Thanks Grant, Pieter, and Ludolph!)

Apple has booked the initial production capacity of 4nm chips with long-time supplier TSMC for its next-generation Apple silicon, according to industry sources cited in a new report today from DigiTimes.

From today's report:

Apple has already booked the initial capacity of TSMC's N4 for its new-generation Mac series, the sources indicated. Apple has also contracted TSMC to make its next-generation iPhone processor dubbed A15, built using the foundry's N5 Plus or N5P process node, the sources said.

TSMC is expected to kick off production for Apple's A15 chip that will power the upcoming iPhone 13 series by the end of May, the sources noted.

The latest Apple silicon, the M1 chip, is the first of its kind in the industry based on the 5nm process. The A14 Bionic chip in the iPad Air and iPhone 12 lineup is also based on the 5nm process. According to the report, Apple is already looking to the 4nm chip process for its next-generation Apple silicon.

A timeframe for when these new 4nm chips will debut isn't provided, but ‌DigiTimes‌ does report that TSMC will move to volume production of the new process in Q4 of 2021, ahead of the previously set 2022 timeframe. Additionally, Apple plans to use an enhanced version of the 5nm process for the A15 chip in the ‌iPhone‌ 13, with production set to get underway by the end of May.

The smaller process reduces the chips' actual footprint and provides better efficiency and performance. Apple's expected to launch multiple new Macs this year with more powerful Apple silicon chips; however, there's no indication that any will be based on the 4nm process.

Rumors that Apple intends to launch a new Apple TV have been around for some time, with the headlining feature being a more powerful processor for gaming and all-round performance benefits. However, alongside a new powerful chip, new evidence is pointing towards a possible new ‌Apple TV‌ remote also shipping alongside the TV set-top box.

According to a report from 9to5Mac, citing people familiar with Apple's plans, the company has been developing a new ‌Apple TV‌ remote under the codename "B519," which differs from the current "B439" codename for the existing remote. Specifics on what to expect from the new remote aren't provided; however, 9to5Mac believes the changes will be "significant."

The last time Apple updated the remote was with the ‌Apple TV‌ 4K in 2017, when the company added a white border around the Menu button. However, the remote has remained unchanged since, while its slimline design and lack of physical navigation buttons continues to divide users.

MacRumors recently discovered that within the tvOS 14.5 beta, Apple has renamed the remote from "Siri Remote" to "‌Apple TV‌ Remote" in multiple instances across the system. The system-wide change in wording could indicate that the new remote will have less of a focus on ‌Siri‌ and instead be designed around more traditional content navigation and other TV functionality.

The United States Federal Trade Commission is abandoning its antitrust lawsuit against Qualcomm, reports Bloomberg. The FTC will not seek a Supreme Court review of a 2020 federal appeals court decision that determined that Qualcomm's licensing practices are fair and not anticompetitive.

In a statement, FTC chairwoman Rebecca Kelly Slaughter said that the FTC's conclusion that Qualcomm violated antitrust laws was correct, but the agency is facing "significant headwinds" attempting to get the appeals court ruling overturned.

"Given the significant headwinds facing the Commission in this matter, the FTC will not petition the Supreme Court to review the decision of the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in FTC v. Qualcomm. The FTC's staff did an exceptional job presenting the case, and I continue to believe that the district court's conclusion that Qualcomm violated the antitrust laws was entirely correct and that the court of appeals erred in concluding otherwise. Now more than ever, the FTC and other law enforcement agencies need to boldly enforce the antitrust laws to guard against abusive behavior by dominant firms, including in high-technology markets and those that involve intellectual property. I am particularly concerned about the potential for anticompetitive or unfair behavior in the context of standard setting and the FTC will closely monitor conduct in this arena."

The FTC originally sued Qualcomm in 2017, accusing the company of using anticompetitive tactics to remain the main supplier for baseband processors for smartphones.

In May 2019, the FTC initially won its lawsuit against Qualcomm, with Judge Lucy Koh ordering Qualcomm to renegotiate all licensing terms with its customers and make patent licenses available to rival cellular modem suppliers on fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory or "FRAND" terms. Qualcomm was also told not to enter exclusive agreements for the supply of modem chips.

Qualcomm appealed the ruling and in 2020, scored a major victory. The appeals court overturned Judge Koh's decision, and vacated the order mandating that Qualcomm re-establish all of its licensing deals.

The appeals court said that Koh's ruling went "beyond the scope" of antitrust law and that Qualcomm's licensing practices were not anticompetitive because Qualcomm is "under no antitrust duty to license rival chip suppliers."

With the FTC not planning to further pursue the case after the appeals court ruling, the four-year antitrust legal battle that Qualcomm has been facing is effectively over.

The FTC's lawsuit ran concurrent with the now-resolved legal dispute between Apple and Qualcomm. Apple accused Qualcomm of unfair licensing deals and overcharging for the iPhone components that it supplied to Apple, but Apple dropped the case and reached a settlement with Qualcomm in 2019 after it became clear there were no other options for 5G modems for use in 2020 iPhones.

Apple had planned to use Intel chips, but Intel was not able to produce the chips that Apple needed and ultimately sold its modem business to Apple for $1 billion. Apple plans to use Qualcomm chips for the next few iPhones, but the company is working on manufacturing its own modem chips in house for future devices.

Apple accessories like watch bands and cases are often imitated by companies who want to make a quick buck fooling customers, and the new MagSafe charging line is no exception. There are dozens of fake ‌MagSafe‌ and ‌MagSafe‌ Duo chargers out there that consumers need to watch out for.

Over on our YouTube channel, MacRumors videographer Dan took a look at some fake ‌MagSafe‌ charging options that are floating around, comparing them to the real thing.

Apple's ‌MagSafe‌ chargers can charge an iPhone 12, 12 Pro, or 12 Pro Max at up to 15W, and the 12 mini at up to 12W. These charging speeds are limited to genuine Apple ‌MagSafe‌ accessories created by Apple and those that use certified ‌MagSafe‌ technology like Belkin. Any other charger, including the fake ‌MagSafe‌ Duo and fake ‌MagSafe‌ that we show off in the video, maxes out at right around 7.5W, so buying a fake charger might seem like a good idea to save some money, but you're not going to get ‌MagSafe‌ speeds.

This also goes for all of the "magnetic" charging accessories that third-party companies are introducing for the ‌iPhone‌ 12 lineup. These magnetic accessories are able to use the magnets in the ‌iPhone‌ 12 models to attach to the back of an ‌iPhone‌ quickly, but charging speeds on anything not officially ‌MagSafe‌ is limited to 7.5W so far.

There's nothing wrong with these third-party magnetic charging accessories so long as you're aware of the charging limitations, which companies don't always make clear. Magnetic accessories are basically identical to Qi-based chargers and the magnetic connection is handy, so if you don't mind slower charging speeds, you can save some money not going with ‌MagSafe‌.

What you'll want to avoid is anything that's modeled directly after a ‌MagSafe‌ charger from Apple and anything that actively uses the ‌MagSafe‌ name that's not certified, as these are fake, not going to charge at the proper ‌MagSafe‌ speeds, and could be unsafe. Make sure to watch our video to see these fakes in action, and keep an eye out for them when making a purchase so you don't get hoodwinked with slow charging speeds.

Apple today announced that it is expanding its Independent Repair Provider Program to more than 200 countries, which is nearly every country where Apple products are sold.

First introduced in 2019, the Independent Repair Provider Program is designed to provide repair shops with access to genuine parts, tools, repair manuals, and diagnostics for performing out-of-warranty repairs for Apple devices.

Repair providers of all sizes, including those who are not Authorized Apple Service Providers, are able to obtain genuine Apple parts and repair manuals to offer "safe and reliable repairs" for Apple products. Apple provides independent repair shops with the same free training and tools provided to AASPs and Apple retail locations.

According to Apple, there are more than 1,500 Independent Repair Provider locations across the United States, Canada, and Europe. There is no cost to join the program, but repair providers must have an Apple-certified technician to perform the repairs. Apple says that the certification process is "simple" and free of charge, and when an employee has become a certified technician, qualifying repair providers are able to purchase genuine Apple parts and tools at the same price as AASPs.

Starting later this week, repair providers in Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Cook Islands, Fiji, Guam, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Laos, Macao, Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, New Zealand, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Tonga, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Vanuatu, and Vietnam can learn more and apply to become Independent Repair Providers.

Later this year, the program will launch in a range of additional countries, with a full list available in Apple's announcement.

To encourage employees to get the COVID-19 vaccine, Apple is offering paid time off for vaccine appointments and paid sick leave for those who experience side effects, reports Bloomberg.

Apple does not have its own supply of vaccines and is not providing shots to workers, so employees will be required to get vaccines through their state's medical facilities.

Since last spring, Apple's campuses in Cupertino, California and other cities have been largely shut down, with most employees working from home. Retail stores around the world were also shuttered for most of the year.

Vaccines will hasten Apple's campus re-openings and will get employees back to work sooner. Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a March interview that he "can't wait" for employees to return to in-person work. Cook said that people need to be together because you can't plan collaboration and innovation.

"Innovation isn't always a planned activity. It's bumping into each other over the course of the day and advancing an idea that you just had. And you really need to be together to do that."

Cook in March said that Apple had no firm return to work date for employees, but in California, where Apple's two main campuses are located, all people over the age of 16 will be eligible to get vaccinated starting on April 15. Cook last year told employees that staff could return to the campuses as early as June.

Retail employees have returned to work as all Apple Stores in the United States have been reopen since March 1, but many corporate employees are still working from home.

Note: Due to the political or social nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Political News forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

The App Store and Mac App Store are currently experiencing an outage, according to Apple's System Status page. Apple says that ‌App Store‌ services could be slow or unavailable for some users, with the problem starting at 10:05 a.m. Pacific Time.

Other services like iCloud Drive, iCloud Mail, and iMessage are also listed as experiencing issues, with some users unable to access Apple's services.

Curiously, though Apple is reporting several outages, there are few complaints on Twitter and other social networks about problems with the ‌App Store‌, iMessage, and Mail.

Update: According to Apple's System Status page, all of the outages have now been addressed and services should be up and running.

The number of eSIMs installed in devices will increase from 1.2 billion in 2021 to 3.4 billion in 2025, mostly thanks to Apple and Google devices, according to a study conducted by Juniper Research.

eSIMs are small modules embedded directly into devices that provide cellular connectivity by storing multiple network operator profiles, removing the need for a physical SIM card in an ejecting tray.

The adoption of eSIMs in devices is expected to increase 180 percent by 2025, with as much as 94 percent of global eSIM installations being driven by the consumer electronics sector. Other contributors include the industrial and public sectors.

Although widespread adoption is reliant on network operators, Apple and Google devices are highlighted as the most important drivers in the adoption of eSIM frameworks, accelerating the growth of the technology in the industrial and public sectors. The research paper urges device manufacturers to place more pressure on operators to support eSIM frameworks and accelerate market maturation.

Apple has pioneered the commercialization of eSIM technology since the launch of the cellular Apple Watch Series 3. eSIM has since proliferated to the iPad Pro and iPhone in 2018.

The upcoming iOS 14.5 update is also expected to add support for dual 5G-band using the physical SIM as well as the eSIM chip. This functionality was previously only available in mainland China.

eSIM adoption by more carriers is likely to lead to the eventual removal of the SIM card tray on the ‌iPhone‌ and create more internal space, but as shown by the limited support for eSIM on cellular versions of the Apple Watch in some regions, there is still some way to go before the technology has truly widespread use.

Hyper today officially launched the HyperJuice Magnetic Wireless Battery Pack for the iPhone 12 lineup, allowing customers to utilize MagSafe and wireless charging technology to power up their iPhones on the go.

The battery pack only uses ‌MagSafe‌ to align itself magnetically to the ‌iPhone‌ 12 – it doesn't actually do the charging using ‌MagSafe‌ technology. Instead, it will charge the ‌iPhone‌ using standard 7.5W wireless Qi charging. The pack weighs 120 grams and has a built-in 5,000 mAH battery, meaning an ‌iPhone‌ 12 can be fully charged twice on the go.

The battery pack itself charges over USB-C, which also means it doubles as a portable standard power bank for any smartphone, thanks to its USB-C port that supports up to 12W of charging power. The battery pack design is straightforward, featuring a four-stage LED charging indicator and an on-off button on the bottom. Hyper says the battery pack features "industry-leading advanced temperature control, overcharge protection, and foreign object detection."

The HyperJuice Magnetic Wireless Battery Pack is available for order now for $39.99.

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner Hyper Shop. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

Apple prototyped models of the first-generation iPad with two ports for expanded docking options, according to images of a prototype unit.

Shared on Twitter by Apple device collector Giulio Zompetti, the images reinforce previous reports that Apple was planning to offer two 30-pin connector ports on the original ‌iPad‌, with one on the base below the Home Button, and one on the left-hand side.

Zompetti explained that Apple was initially planning to offer a "dual dock system" on its first tablet. Presumably, this would have functioned in much the same way that the smart connector did on the first and second-generation ‌iPad‌ Pros, third-generation iPad Air, and seventh and eighth-generation ‌iPad‌, in order to be able to connect to the Smart Keyboard or accessories such as Logitech's Logi BASE ‌iPad‌ charging dock in landscape mode. The two-port system apparently also supported concurrent charging.

Beyond docking in accessories such as keyboards, two ports could also have opened up the option for connecting to multiple wired accessories such as external hard drives or SD card readers via a dongle for compatibility with the 30-pin connector, without the need for a multi-port adapter.

Prototype first-generation iPads with two ports have been seen a number of times before, with some images even showing the internals of a two-port ‌iPad‌. Patents depicting the dual-port design have also come to light in the past.

Apple reportedly chose to remove the feature in the design verification testing stage. While Apple has launched 22 different ‌iPad‌ models in six screen sizes, every ‌iPad‌ model to date has only had just one port for data transfer and charging.

Given that some ‌iPad‌ power-users hope that the tablet will one day feature more than one port to aid productivity, it is interesting that Apple considered implementing such a feature long before the creation of the iPad Pro or even the switch to a USB-C connector on some models. Some may believe that the images prove that Apple saw the ‌iPad‌ as a productivity-oriented device long before it was truly capable of doing so with features such as multitasking, the Files app, or mouse support.

At its product launch event today, Xiaomi announced a wireless charging pad that's capable of charging three devices, each up to 20W simultaneously, for a total of 60W across the pad.

Xiaomi says the charging pad includes 19 wireless charging coils, enabling devices to be charged anywhere they're placed on the pad. Typical wireless chargers require precise and nimble placement of devices for them to receive a charge. Xiaomi is looking to challenge the status quo, giving customers more freedom as to where they place their devices.

The pad will charge any device that supports Qi wireless charging, including newer iPhones and AirPods. Xiamoi's pad bears striking similarities to Apple's now canceled AirPower charging mat, which it announced in 2017, only to cancel two years later due to its inability to meet its own high-quality standards.

Apple never announced a price for ‌AirPower‌, so a comparison is hard to make. Xiamoi's wireless charging pad will retail for $90.

Xiaomi's devices, ranging from smartphones to tablets, have been publicly criticized in the past for heavily borrowing design elements from Apple's iPhones and iPads, and adopting marketing materials tactics similar to Apple's.

A prototype Leica camera designed by former Apple designers Sir Jony Ive and Marc Newson is heading to auction in June (via The Verge).

The camera prototype features many of the subtle industrial design cues Ive and Newson are known for, particularly on their Apple products. The exterior is also made of Ive's preferred lightweight material, aluminum. While the camera is not directly affiliated with Apple, it is clear to see the selective curves, polished finishes, and minimalism that have become synonymous with Apple's product designs.

The prototype Leica camera was produced during the development of a one-off Product (RED) Leica M that was sold at a charity auction in 2013 for $1.8 million. A total of 561 models and nearly 1,000 prototype parts were made during the camera's design process.

Ive and Newson teamed up to create a range of products for the Product (RED) auction, including an aluminum desk, a striking red Mac Pro, and a set of solid gold EarPods, among other items.

A year after the auction, Newson joined Ive at Apple and became responsible for the design of the Apple Watch, having previously worked for wristwatch manufacturer Ikepod.

Both Ive and Newson departed Apple in 2019 to found the design company LoveFrom. Apple has said in the past that it was LoveFrom's first client and that Ive and Newson are still "very involved."

The camera is said to be from the "final development step" of the design process and comes with a matching Apo-Summicron 2/50 mm ASPH lens. The device, described as being in "B+" condition, has a starting price of around $118,000. It is estimated to reach between $235,000 and $295,000 in bidding.

Apple has not produced a dedicated camera since it released the 0.3 Mpx Apple QuickTake in 1994, but the prototype Leica may give the best glimpse yet of what a modern Apple camera could look like today.

In the fourth quarter of 2020, Apple saw its iPhone shipments in Gulf countries increase by 55% compared to the quarter prior, thanks to the launch of the 5G enabled ‌iPhone‌ 12 and last year's ‌iPhone‌ 11 lineup, according to market research by IDC.

In total, the region saw smartphone shipments grow by 2.3% in the last quarter of the year compared to Q3, to a total of 2.26 million units. Specifically, Saudi Arabia represented nearly half of all smartphones shipped in the region for Q4. However, it witnessed an overall decline in shipments compared to the previous quarter. The UAE represented 26.1% of smartphone shipments for the region in the quarter and saw overall growth compared to Q3.

Quarter-on-quarter, Apple saw a significant increase of 55% in ‌‌iPhone‌‌ shipments, growth that was primarily enabled by the ‌‌iPhone‌ 12‌ and last year's ‌‌iPhone‌ 11‌ lineup. Akash Balachandran, IDC's senior research analyst, says that if it were not for shortages amongst Apple's supply chain, ‌iPhone‌ shipments would have been more prominent in the quarter.

Apple still, however, rests behind Samsung as the leading smartphone maker in the region. Samsung holds 42% of the market share for the GCC, 3% less than it did the previous quarter. Apple saw its market share increase by 7% to 23% in the final quarter of the year.