Panel:
- Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots
- Chuck Joiner from MacVoices – @chuckjoiner
- Lynda Gousha from the Silicon Valley MUG – @llg4cdg
- Nick Riley – @spligosh
The show starts with some quick followup stories before moving on to look at some Apple-related notable numbers and legal stories that made the news in May. The four main stories are Science -v- fitness trackers, Apple’s $1Bn investment in advanced manufacturing in the US, the noticeable up-tick in malware targeting the Mac, and developments in AI virtual assistants announced in May. The show finishes with a quick rundown of some companies Apple have acquired, some staffing changes at Apple, and some other quick Apple-related stories that made the news in May.
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 assembles their first iPhones in India – www.marketwatch.com/…
- Tim Cook has reportedly been seen on Apple’s campus testing a blood-glucose tracking Apple Watch – www.cnbc.com/…
- Imagination Technologies (the GPU manufacturer Apple announced it would stop using in 2 years last month) has officially triggered the dispute regulation process defined in their patent contract with Apple – www.macobserver.com/…
- Apple have launched a website for the in-store educational sessions it announced last month – social.techcrunch.com/…
- iTunes is coming to the Windows Store so it will run on Windows S – www.imore.com/…
Notable Numbers
- Numbers released by Morgan Stanley show that 92% of iPhone users planning to upgrade their phones in the next 12 months are “somewhat likely” or “extremely likely” to buy another iPhone – www.cnet.com/…
- The majority of tills (Point of Sale devices) in the UK now accept limitless Apple Pay payments – www.telegraph.co.uk/…
Legal Latest
- Apple and Nokia reach an agreement to end their patent dispute in which Apple paid Nokia and undisclosed sum of money and have agreed to on-going licensing payments, and Nokia is “providing certain network infrastructure product and services to Apple” – www.macobserver.com/…
- In a case taken by food giant Kraft against beverage flavouring company TC Heartland the US Supreme Court have tightened the rules on patent law suits a little, making jurisdiction-shopping a little harder. The patent venue statute, 28 U. S. C. §1400(b), provides that “[a]ny civil action for patent infringement may be brought in the judicial district where the defendant resides, or where the defendant has committed acts of infringement and has a regular and established place of business” – the case revolved around the definition of resides, and the court found that “As applied to domestic corporations, ‘reside[nce]’ in §1400(b) refers only to the State of incorporation” – www.reuters.com/…
- Security company RSA has sued Apple & Visa, claiming Apple Pay infringes their patents – www.macobserver.com/…
Main Stories
- Science -v- Fitness Trackers, including the Apple Watch
- Researchers at UCSF (University of California, San Francisco) find that the Apple Watch can detect abnormal heart rhythms with 97% accuracy – social.techcrunch.com/…
- Researchers at Stanford find that the Apple Watch is the most accurate heart-rate monitor, and the least inaccurate calorie burn tracker – www.imore.com/…
- Related (perhaps) – Numbers from Strategy Analytics show that Apple have surpassed Fitbit and become the top wearables manufacturer (by unit sales) – www.macobserver.com/…
- Apple Launches a €1Bn Investment Fund for ‘Advanced’ Manufacturing in the US – arstechnica.com/…
- Watch Tim Cook make the announcement on Jim Cramer’s Mad Money show on CNBC – www.cnbc.com/…
- Apple invest $200M of this fund in Corning’s glass manufacturing facilities in Harrodsburg KY – www.imore.com/…
- Attackers are turning their attention to the Mac
- The Snake trojan has been ported to the Mac and distributed as a fake Adobe installer – www.imore.com/… & www.macobserver.com/…
- One of the official download servers for the popular Mac DVD-ripper Handbrake was hacked and malware injected into the packages users downloaded – arstechnica.com/…
- A big month for digital assistant devices
- Amazon added voice calling to their Alexa app and their Echo and Echo Dot devices – www.macobserver.com/…
- Amazon announced the Echo Show, and Alexa devices with a screen – www.theverge.com/…
- Microsoft have launched a Cortana device they are calling Invoke – www.macobserver.com/…
- Google have released a voice assistant app for iOS – venturebeat.com/…
- Google have added hands-free calling to their Google Home device – www.imore.com/…
Corporate Comings & Goings
- Apple have bought Beddit, a sleep-tracking company that has already released an Apple Watch app – arstechnica.com/…
- Apple has bought Lattice Data, a company that specialises in extracting useful information from so-called dark data – www.imore.com/…
- Denise Young Smith has been promoted from Vice President, Worldwide Talent and Human Resources to Vice President for Inclusion and Diversity – www.imore.com/…
- Apple have hired Lauren Kern, and editor from the New York Magazine to become the first editor-in-chief of Apple News – www.macobserver.com/…
- Apple have hired Esin Terzioglu away from Qualcomm where he was an Engineering VP, and appointed him as a Wireless SOC lead – appleinsider.com/…
- Related – Apple have updated their website to give the executive profiles a face-lift, and to convert their old PR site to a new News Room page – www.macobserver.com/…
Quick Stories
- Apple have rolled out extended coverage for faulty iPad Pro keyboards, extending normal coverage to 3 years – arstechnica.com/…
- Both Tim Cook & Jeff Williams made TIME’s list of the 20 most influential tech leaders – www.imore.com/…
- Related – this year’s charity auction of lunch with Tim Cook (for the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Human Rights) raised a record $688K – www.macobserver.com/…
- Carpool Karaoke coming to Apple Music on August 8 – www.imore.com/…
- Apple have confirmed that they will be streaming the WWDC keynote on Monday June 5 @10am PDT – www.macrumors.com/…