Panel:

• Bart Busschots (host) - @bbusschots
• Gazmaz from the My Mac Podcast - @gazmaz
• Simon Parnell from the Essential Apple Podcast - @serenak
• Scott Willsey - @scottaw

The show starts with a little followup from previous stories before moving on to one notable number, one legal story, and a handful of Apple HR stories. The four main stories for July are Apple's updates to the Mac hardware line, Apple's acquisition of Intel's smartphone modem business, some Siri privacy issues, and Apple's Q3 2019 earnings call. The show finishes with a quick rundown of some quick stories that made the news in July 2019.

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!

[audio mp3=”http://www.mymac.com/podcast/lta/LetsTalkApple-EP71-July2019.mp3”]

Followup

• As promised earlier in the year, on July 25^th LG started rolling out updates to some of its smart TVs to enable HomeKit & AirPlay 2 — www.imore.com/…
• Vizio starts its SmarCast 3.0 update to bring AirPlay 2 and HomeKit to its TVs — www.imore.com/…
• CBS All Access is now available in Apple TV Channels — www.imore.com/…
• Parental Control app OurPact returns to the iOS App Store following policy changes announced at WWDC including an enhanced review process for apps that use MDM APIs — www.imore.com/… & arstechnica.com/…
• Apple Card Rollout Scheduled for August — www.macobserver.com/…
• Samsung have announced that they’ll release the supposedly fixed version of the Galaxy Fold in September — www.macobserver.com/…

Notable Numbers

• 🇺🇸 Apple is top of the list for corporate solar energy use in the US — www.imore.com/…

Legal Latest

• 🇺🇸 The US DOJ has announced an anti-trust investigation into tech companies, but did not explicitly name Apple — www.justice.gov/… & www.loopinsight.com/…
  • Possibly related: the FTC are reportedly investigating Apple’s deal with Amazon late last year to remove unauthorised resellers of Apple products from Amazon’s stores — www.theverge.com/…

Apple HR & Acquisition News

• 🇺🇸 Health insurer Anthem has hired a bunch of Apple employees to help it modernize — www.cnbc.com/…
• Nat Brown, Xbox and Valve veteran, has joined Apple — www.imore.com/…
• Apple Software Exec Kim Vorrath Moves to AR Team — www.macobserver.com/… & Apple moves noted “bug wrangler” to AR team to add some stability — www.imore.com/…

Main Stories

1. Mac Lineup Refreshed — www.imore.com/…, arstechnica.com/… & tidbits.com/…
   • Updated MacBook Air with TrueTone display and price dropped to $1099.
     • Note that the SSD was changed to have a faster write-speed but a slower read speed than the previous one (unlikely to be noticeable by regular users) — www.imore.com/…
   • So-called Macbook Pro ‘Escape’ upgrade to include a touch bar, Touch ID, and a Coffee Lake CPU (price left un-changed at $1299).
   • 12" so-called MacBook Adorable retired.
   • SSD prices reduced across the entire Mac lineup — 9to5mac.com/…
2. Apple will Aquire the majority of Intel’s smartphone modem business, including 2,200 Intel employees, for about $1Bn. The deal is expected to close in Q4 of 2019 — www.imore.com/…, arstechnica.com/… & tidbits.com/…
3. Siri & Privacy
   • It emerged in reporting from the Guardian that Apple was using humans to grade some of the anonymised Siri recordings its privacy policies say it retains for a limited time. These humans were not direct Apple employees, but were bound by Apple’s codes of conduct etc.. Some described overhearing clearly private conversations including medial discussions. A major focus for the gradings appears to be a push to reduce un-intended triggers of Siri — www.theguardian.com/…, www.imore.com/…, nakedsecurity.sophos.com/… & 🎧 overcast.fm/…
   • Apple have suspended their grading for now. It will return, but users will have the option to opt-out of the grading — www.imore.com/…
   • Note that Google was doing the same as Apple (and also suspended their reviews of the audio) — arstechnica.com/…
   • Amazon will let you opt out of human review of Alexa recordings — www.theverge.com/…
   • How to delete your data from Siri on your iPhone, iPad, and Mac — www.imore.com/…
4. Apple’s Q3 2019 Earnings Call — www.apple.com/…
   • Apple third-quarter 2019 results and charts! — sixcolors.com/…
   • Transcript: Apple CEO Tim Cook on the company’s 2019 Q3 earnings — www.imore.com/…
   • Apple Q3 2019: $53.8 billion in revenue as services continue to grow — www.imore.com/…
   • Apple Reports Record June Revenues of $53.8 Billion, Guides Higher than Wall Street Expectations — www.macobserver.com/…
   • Virtually every Apple business grew in every region this quarter—except the iPhone — arstechnica.com
   • Apple’s services category is now bigger than the company was ten years ago — www.imore.com/…
   • Apple Wearables Jumped to $5.53 Billion in Q3 2019 — www.macobserver.com/…
   • Related: Tax reforms in EU countries will affect Apple
     • 🇫🇷 U.S. to investigate upcoming French tax on Apple and other tech companies — www.imore.com/…
     • 🇬🇧 New UK Digital Services Tax Will Hit Apple — www.macobserver.com/…
   • Related: Tariff Concerns for Apple
     • Apple Seeks Mac Pro Parts Tariff Exclusion After Move to China — www.bloomberg.com/…
     • Apple’s new Mac Pro won’t benefit from tariff waivers, says Donald Trump — www.imore.com/…
     • Apple CEO: Mac Pros Will Continue to Be Made in U.S. — www.macobserver.com/…
     • Apple stock takes hit after Trump threatens new tariffs — www.imore.com/…

Quick Stories

• Apple have launched their annual back-to-school sale — www.macobserver.com/…
  • Price drops on MacBook Airs, MacBook Pros, iMacs, iMac Pros, iPad Airs.
  • Free Beats headphones with Macs & iPads.
  • Also price reductions on some accessories like Apple Pencil & Smart Keyboard covers.
  • Apple Music free trial period doubled to 6 months for students (in US & Canada at least) — appleosophy.com/…
  • Customers must be able to prove they are in education to qualify.
• Some graphics found on Apple’s website suggest Apple Music’s 3 month free trial may be about to become a 1 month free trial — www.imore.com/…
• With iOS 12.4, Apple introduced a new mechanism for directly transferring data from one iPhone to another without needing to go through iCloud. It can work over Wifi or a direct cable connection — 9to5mac.com/… & www.imore.com/…
• Apple Offering Augmented Reality Art Installations and Sessions — tidbits.com/…
• 🇺🇸 Apple lists the states and products participating in this year’s Sales Tax Holiday — www.imore.com/…
• 🇨🇦 Apple Watch ECG app arrives in Canada — www.imore.com/…
  • Related: Turns out the ECG in the Apple Watch is actually very accurate! Apple Watch ECG vs. hospital EKG: Not the results I was expecting — www.cnet.com/…
• Intel launches first 10th Gen ‘Ice Lake’ CPUs for laptops, 11 chips in all — www.imore.com/…