Yesterday, I posted on the latest iPad Mini rumors, saying that the more the reports pick up, the closer we are getting to an announcement event. Well today, BuzzFeed reported that Apple’s Spring Event will take place March 25th, which seems to line up with their dates for Spring events the last two years. This also syncs up with rumors that new hardware will be available on March 29th.
Before WWDC, I predicted that Apple would start talking about subscription unification during the Keynote. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen, but it turned out to not be the right time. No one expected any of Apple’s new video content to be ready or announced then, but there was speculation that we might hear something about their Texture acquisition and plans to integrate it with Apple News. Adding a third subscription to Apple Music and iCloud (with a fourth for Video obviously on the way in the next year or so) would have made WWDC the perfect opportunity for such an announcement. I guess Apple has a lot more patience than fans like myself do.
It has been quite a two month run for Apple News. The app has already gained increasing traction and popularity since Apple made several upgrades in year two. I can see this from direct experience, as iPad Insight routinely sees a higher number of views on Apple News than we do from the web or Flipboard. And as we have gained followers, those numbers have progressively increased. It is a very good publishing platform with a lot of forward momentum right now.
Photo Source: Patently Apple
There is a lot of smoke on the topic of touch and virtual interface for there not to be a fire somewhere. We have the Touch Bar that Apple added to the MacBook a couple of years ago. A couple of weeks ago, Apple was awarded a patent for a clamshell device with an OLED keyboard. Now, as reported by Patently Apple, an Apple patent application for a virtual keyboard that was filed in 2017 was published just a couple of days ago. Where the awarded patents was fairly open ended, this application has some valuable specifics and diagrams,
(Photo Source: texture.com)
Apple is anything but boring. You never know when a crazy rumor will come out, a patent for something off the wall will be awarded, or like today, they will buy a company out of the blue. My family and I were on a trip this weekend and driving back today. Before we left the hotel, I took a look around Twitter, Flipboard, and Apple News to see if there was anything going on that I needed to be aware of. There was little of note, and nothing that I needed to jump right on. I ended my driving shift after 2 1/2 hours only to find out that Eddy Cue announced Apple’s acquisition of popular subscription magazine service, Texture.
I’ve seen an interesting combination of concern, complaints, dismissiveness, and derision over the HomePod across Twitter, Apple blogs, and tech sites over the past few days. The preorder and announcement of the final release date for the device, as well as a lack of any other substantive Apple news at the moment seem to have stoked the fires of discussion and opinion.
I can understand many of the reasons, and I even agree with many of you that Siri isn’t on par with other digital assistants in many ways, that the HomePod’s high price could be a limiting factor, and that it is showing up more than fashionably late to a fast-moving party. However, despite the concerns and complaints, the reasons behind the design and focus of the HomePod still make sense if you look at Apple’s recent hardware and software efforts.
In this week’s Apple Slices, we have several bits and pieces of Apple News to cover as we continue to march toward WWDC. On that note….
Time to take some small bites out of the current Apple news, now that there is a little bit beyond the early-onset iPhone 8 insanity that I complained about last week. And, as some of you many have noticed, there are a few changes afoot around here, as well.
The Rundown is our recurring Facebook Live video segment that covers the site’s posts from the previous week, some Apple News, and some things that are coming soon on the site.
If you have any questions or comments, either on the Rundown, or things you would like to see covered on the site in the future, feel free to let me know. Thank you for tuning in, and see you next week!