Apple has been both praised and criticized over their rigid standards for the App Store. Parents tend to appreciate knowing that porn and other indecent material will not be readily available via apps. The ones where it is able to be found can be restricted through parental settings, making parental control realistic and not too difficult for those who want to take advantage of it.
While the release of the ECG feature for the Apple Watch Series 4 has grabbed headlines recently, Apple is making more moves that show just how important health tracking is for them going forward. First off, Apple has been quiet about sleep tracking since their acquisition of Beddit back in 2017, but it looks like that is finally changing.
This not your typical click-bait piece bashing away at Apple over their recent tumble from the highest peak of the corporate world. It also isn’t a “rally the troops for the cause” piece from a blind fanboy. I’m just really curious where things are going to end up at this point. Apple’s stock price has fallen so far that it’s hard to see an end at the moment.
There is still plenty of kindling for the fire, too. Every day brings new reports of suppliers cutting forecasts and prognosticating doom and gloom. There is also a steady stream of articles from analysts telling us why they are right this time. Maybe they are. Maybe it’s a repeat of last year. Maybe it’s somewhere in between.
Apple’s stock has taken a beating this month, and it sunk even lower today after comments from Donald Trump in a Wall Street Journal interview pointed toward the possibility of additional trade tariffs. The President of the United States casually tossed around comments about how easily people can stand a 10% tariff on all electronics imported from China. Evidently, he isn’t all that concerned with preserving the economic gains of the last year, because tariffs like these will kill them fast enough to make your head spin.
I was intrigued when I saw the demo of NBA 2K19 from 2K during Apple’s iPad Event. I have owned previous versions of this game on several platforms, most recently 2K17 on the original 12.9″ iPad Pro and 2K18 on the Nintendo Switch. The iPad version was one of the first games that I played with an MFi Bluetooth game controller. I actually put some time in it, but I also didn’t have any real gaming alternatives at the time. The game was ok, but could be pretty slow and plodding. However, what kept me coming back was the possibilities of gaming on a really nice, portable 12.9″ display. That is an experience that other devices at the time couldn’t match.
It feels like it was just last year that we were right here. Analysts, bloggers, the tech press, and even the mainstream financial press thought they had Apple this time. The iPhone X was a dud. The fall was happening and they all called it. Except it didn’t. And they didn’t. Hell, it wasn’t even last year. It was earlier this year.
Some scrambled for cover while the smart ones just threw up their hands and admitted they had it wrong, but anyone with any sense could see what really happened. The press blew it, but boy Warren Buffett didn’t.
Apple dropped a surprise bombshell during their Fourth Quarter Financial Call a few days ago, informing analysts that they will no longer report device sales or make sales projections. This is a major shift away from what people have come to expect from Apple, so it has caused a mini uproar among analysts, the tech press and Apple blogs.
Based on a recent update from noted Apple leaker Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple’s iPad Mini may turn out to be the vampire of the company’s mobile hardware lineup. I had completely given up hope of anymore updates or refreshes, but it seems that you just can’t kill this thing. According to many of you who have contacted me about the Mini over the last year, that is a good thing.
OnePlus is a company that I have a lot of respect for. They have been able to fill a niche in the smartphone market while others companies have fallen away by listening to their users and serving them well. They make good quality hardware that works well with Android, and they have a devoted following because of it. Their market share is small and they really aren’t known anywhere outside of the tech bubble, but they have passionate fans within it for good reason.
Apple working on its own original shows and video content is one of the worst kept secrets in both tech and Hollywood right now. Their intentions were revealed with the mediocre Planet of the Apps and the somewhat better longer-form version of Carpool Karaoke, which is still alive and kicking. However, while these two trial balloons have been out there for all to see, all of Hollywood has been hearing the names of well-known actors, producers, and show-runners attached to projects that Apple has secured for future release and taking notice of just how serious they are about this new venture.
After another round of leaks and software data mining, it looks like the iPad Pro’s rumored switch from a Lightning Port to USB-C is all but confirmed. This shift is a big deal, as it moves the iPad Pro lineup more in line with Apple’s notebook computers than its smartphones. When you consider that the lower-cost iPad still has Lightning, this becomes an even more notable distinction between devices.