Let’s Talk Apple – Ep. 42 (February 2017)

Panel:

Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots
Dr. Robert Carter from the Tech Doctor Podcast – @robert_carter
Dermot Daly from Tapadoo – @dermdaly

The show starts with some quick followups to stories from last month, before moving on to look at a few notable numbers and Apple-related legal stories that made the news in February. The three main stories are reports of more connector changes for Apple, Apple’s 2017 annual shareholder meeting, and Apple’s response to roll-backs of protections for trans kids by the Trump administration. The show finishes with a quick rundown of some other shorter Apple-related stories that made the news in February.

You’ll find detailed show notes below the fold, and if you enjoy this free show, please consider clicking on the donate button at the top of the left side bar – the show is free for you to listen to, but not for Bart to Produce!

Followups

Apple say that the extra battery monitoring they added to iOS 10.2 late last year has born fruit. It highlighted some problems which were addressed in iOS 10.2.1 which was released recently, and on-going monitoring has shown a marked reduction in unexpected shutdowns on iPhones 6 and 6S – www.imore.com/… & arstechnica.com/…
Apple ratchets up it's fight with Australian banks over ApplePay, calling the large banks a cartel (the banks want to negotiate as one block, they asked permission from the regulator and they said no & Apple has always been against the idea) – www.macobserver.com/… & www.imore.com/…

Notable Numbers

Gartner release their worldwide smartphone sales numbers for Q4 of 2016, and 2016 overall – www.gartner.com/…
- Vendor breakdown for all of 2016 shows Samsung at top with 20.5% of sales, followed by Apple with 14.4%, and Huawei with 8.9%
- Vendor breakdown for 2016 Q4 tells a different story though – Apple JUST edges out Samsung for the top stop with 17.9% agains Samsung's 17.8%. Again, Huawei gets the third spot with 9.5%
- The OS breakdown for 2016 Q4 shows Blackberry OS at 0.0%, and Windows Phone at 0.3%. That 0.3% is enough to net Microsoft third place behind iOS at 17.9%, and Android at 81.7%

Legal Latest

Apple expanded its campaign against Qualcomm by filing suit against the company in the UK – www.bloomberg.com/…
Apple wins its appeal against Smartflah LLC – the company had won a $533M verdict against Apple, but a panel of appeals judges has ruled that all three of the patents in question were invalid because they were too abstract – www.reuters.com/… & arstechnica.com/…
Samsung's leader Lee Jae-yong has been indicted on bribery and embezzlement charges in South Korea – www.nytimes.com/…

Main Stories

Connector Kerfuffles:
- Early in the month Apple caused a minor internet panic when they allowed hardware makers to use an ultra-small USB port that is commonly used on cameras (like my Nikon DSLRs) on hardware that is Apple-certified – arstechnica.com/…
- Later in the month, the WSJ put the cat among the pigeons by reporting that Apple would switch to USB-C for the iPhone this year – arstechnica.com/…
  - This reporting has been met with a lot of scepticism E.g.:
Apple's 2017 Annual Shareholders Meeting – www.loopinsight.com/…
- Shareholder proposals to force mandatory diversity on Apple's board and senior management, and to force Apple to reveal all the organisations it donates to were not passed
- Some notable quotes form Tim Cook in the Q&A:
  - "The Mac, Watch, services, iPad are all essential to Apple’s growth. You will see us do more in the pro area. The creative community is very important to us"
  - "Expect us to do more and more where people will view it as a laptop replacement, but not a Mac replacement—the Mac does so much more" (about the iPad)
  - "To merge these worlds, you would lose the simplicity of one and the power of the other." (about merging the iPad and the Mac)
Apple & Other tech companies including Microsoft & Google have come out in opposition to President Trump's rolling back of Transgender rights – www.imore.com/… & politi.co/…
- The Trump administration rolled back guidance put in place to protect trans students right to use the bathroom that matches their gender (as opposed to their birth gender). These protections were an attempt to deal with the fact that 78% K-12 trans students experienced harassment, 35% were physically assaulted, and 12% sexually assaulted.
- The statement from Apple:
  
  Apple believes everyone deserves a chance to thrive in an environment free from stigma and discrimination. We support efforts toward greater acceptance, not less, and we strongly believe that transgender students should be treated as equals. We disagree with any effort to limit or rescind their rights and protections.

Quick Stories

Apple has hired Timothy Twerdahl, the former Director and General Manager of Amazon's Fire TV team – arstechnica.com/…
Apple halts sales of LG's 5K display until LG can fix a problem with the displays where a lack of shielding was causing them to become unusable when placed near sources of EM interference like WiFi routers – arstechnica.com/…
Apple change their policy on 3rd-party screen replacement – they no longer fully void your warranty (only in the US & Canada, at least for now) – www.macobserver.com/…
Apple shows HomeKit a little love, with a dedicated new mini-site showcasing what the technology suite can do – www.imore.com/…
Apple's new campus will open in April, and has been officially named Apple Park. The large auditorium on the campus has also been named – it will be the Steve Jobs Theater – www.loopinsight.com/… & www.apple.com/…
- Related – latest drone footage showing progress on the building work – www.youtube.com/…
Jawbone call it a day on fitness trackers – www.macobserver.com/…
Apple have announced dates for WWDC 2017 – it will run June 5 to 9 in San Jose – www.imore.com/…

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