Let’s Talk Apple – Ep. 47 (July 2017)

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Panel:

The show starts with some quick followup stories before moving on to look at some Apple-related notable numbers, legal news, and staff changes that made the news in July. The four main stories for the month were Apple’s Q3 earnings call, the death of the traditional iPod, the continuing battle against encryption, and the leaking of some information about the up-coming iPhone through an accidentally released software update for the HomePod. The show finishes with a quick rundown of some shorter Apple-related stories that made the news in July.

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!

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Followups
  • Continuing its focus on AR & VR, Apple has joined the WebVR Community – www.macobserver.com/…
  • Continuing its focus on Machine Learning, Apple has added a new sub-site to their website dedicated to the topic and show-casing ML research being carried out within Apple – www.imore.com/…
  • Toshiba are back at the negotiating table as their deal to sell their NAND flash division seems to have fallen apart, this puts Apple & Foxconn back into contention – www.macobserver.com/…
  • Carpool Karaoke launches on Apple Music on August 8, and Apple have released a trailer – www.macobserver.com/…
  • The dispute between Imagination Technologies and Apple rumbles on – Imagination took a swipe at Apple in their earnings report, Apple hit back by saying they told Imagination they would be terminating their relationship back in 2015 so as to give the company plenty of time to prepare – www.macobserver.com/…
Notable Numbers
  • Survey of US smartphone users finds that Siri remains the most-used voice assistant in the US, but the percentage of iPhone users using Siri has dropped by half, while usage of other voice assistants like Cortana and Alexa have grown at a fast pace (from a low baseline) – social.techcrunch.com/…
  • Benchmarking by Macworld shows that Safari 11 is the fastest browser on the Mac, beating Chrome, FireFox & Opera – www.imore.com/…
  • Apple top CoStar’s US retail sales rankings, making a whopping $5,546 per ft2 of retail space compared to an average of just $325 per ft2 – daringfireball.net/…
  • Apple tops the Fortune 500 profitability top–10 – www.macobserver.com/…
  • Strategy Analytics estimate that Apple Watch shipments have surpassed 30M – www.macobserver.com/…
Legal Latest
  • The Qualcomm -v- Apple dispute continues:
    • Qualcomm files suit requesting a ban on iPhone imports into the US – www.macobserver.com/…
    • The Computer & Communications Industry Association files documents with the US PTO in support of Apple and against the Qualcomm’s request to have iPhone imports banned – www.macobserver.com/…
    • Smartphone manufacturers Foxconn Technology, Compal Electronics, Pegatron Corp., and Wistron Corp. file a law suit in support of Apple against Qualcomm – www.macobserver.com/…
    • Intel file papers in support of Apple against Qualcomm’s requested iPhone import ban with the US ITC – www.macobserver.com/…
  • Apple ordered to pay $506M for infringing University of Wisconsin-Madison patents – www.macobserver.com/… & www.reuters.com/…
  • During their recent earnings call, Nokia let it be known that as part of their recent out-of-court patent deal, Apple paid the company $2bn – www.macobserver.com/…
Staffing Changes
  • Apple has promoted Isabel Ge Mahe from Vice President of Wireless Technologies to Managing Director of Greater China – www.macobserver.com/…
  • Apple has promoted Deirdre O’Brien from Vice President of Worldwide Sales and Operations to Vice President of People (head of all things HR) – www.imore.com/… & www.macobserver.com/…
Main Stories
  1. Apple’s Q3 2017 Earnings Report – www.apple.com/…, tidbits.com/… & www.imore.com/…
  2. Apple Re-organises its iPod line
    • iPod Shuffle & iPod Nano removed – no more non-iOS iPods – www.imore.com/…
    • iPod Touch lineup simplified to just 32GB and 128GB models, and prices reduced – www.imore.com/…
  3. The fight against encryption continues
  4. Apple accidentally publish firmware for the HomePod, and in so-doing inadvertently release previously un-known information about both the HomePod itself and the next flag-ship iPhone model – daringfireball.net/…
Quick News
  • Apple have launched a repair program for first-generation Apple Watches who’s back comes loose – tidbits.com/…
  • Apple have launched their 2017 Back to School promotion – free Beats headphones with purchases of qualifying Macs and iPad Pros – www.imore.com/…
  • Apple adds a smart home experience to 46 of its stores around the world – social.techcrunch.com/… & www.macobserver.com/…
  • Apple have finally added TouchID to their Apple Store app (not to be confused with the standard iOS App Store app) – www.macobserver.com/…
  • PayPal comes to Apple’ stores as a payment option. For now the feature is only available in Canada & Mexico, but a world-wide rollout is on the way – www.imore.com/…
  • ApplePay is coming to Denmark, Finland, Sweden, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) later this year – www.imore.com/…
  • Apple TV continues to improve with the addition of 10 more service providers to the Single Signon feature in the US, and adds 7 new content providers to the Universal Search feature – www.macobserver.com/… & www.macobserver.com/…
  • Apple have partnered with Australian manufacturer Cochlear who have released the first made for iPhone Cochlear implant (it has been approved for sale in the US by the FDA) – social.techcrunch.com/…
  • Adobe finally kills Flash, announcing a wind-down that will see all support for the plugin ended in late 2020 – www.macobserver.com/…

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