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Apple and Google deliver support for unwanted tracking alerts in iOS and Android
Apple and Google have worked together to create an industry specification — Detecting Unwanted Location Trackers — for Bluetooth tracking devices that makes it possible to alert users across both iOS and Android if such a device is unknowingly being used to track them. This will help mitigate the misuse of devices designed to help keep track of belongings. Today Apple is implementing this capability in iOS 17.5, and Google is now launching this capability on Android 6.0+ devices.
With this new capability, users will now get an “[Item] Found Moving With You” alert on their device if an unknown Bluetooth tracking device is seen moving with them over time, regardless of the platform the device is paired with.
If a user gets such an alert on their iOS device, it means that someone else’s AirTag, Find My accessory, or other industry specification-compatible Bluetooth tracker is moving with them. It’s possible the tracker is attached to an item the user is borrowing, but if not, iPhone can view the tracker’s identifier, have the tracker play a sound to help locate it, and access instructions to disable it. Bluetooth tag manufacturers including Chipolo, eufy, Jio, Motorola, and Pebblebee have committed that future tags will be compatible.
AirTag and third-party Find My network accessories were designed from the beginning with industry-first privacy and safety protections, and Apple has remained committed to innovating and supplementing these protections to keep consumers safe. This cross-platform collaboration — also an industry first, involving community and industry input — offers instructions and best practices for manufacturers, should they choose to build unwanted tracking alert capabilities into their products. Apple and Google will continue to work with the Internet Engineering Task Force via the Detecting Unwanted Location Trackers working group to develop the official standard for this technology.
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MacDailyNews Note: More info about Apple and Google’s “Detecting Unwanted Location Trackers” specification here.
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Apple News+ introduces Quartiles, a new original spelling game, and Offline Mode for subscribers
Apple News+ introduced Quartiles, a new original spelling game, and a new Offline Mode that automatically provides recent and personalized News content for subscribers when they’re not connected to Wi-Fi or a cellular network. Both features are available with iOS 17.5 or later for News+ subscribers.
“We’re always working to improve the experience for our News+ subscribers,” said Lauren Kern, editor-in-chief of Apple News, in a statement. “Our new daily word game Quartiles is a fun addition to our popular crossword offerings. And Offline Mode makes it easy to access the hundreds of magazines, newspapers, narrated articles, and more included in a News+ subscription — no matter where you are.”
Quartiles challenges players to form words by selecting tiles containing two to four letters, and users collect points based on word length. New puzzles are available each day, and players can also choose to share a Quartiles puzzle with other News+ subscribers.
Quartiles is the latest addition to the Puzzles collection available to News+ subscribers. With iOS 17, Apple introduced a daily crossword and mini crossword puzzle for News+ subscribers in the U.S. and Canada. News+ subscribers can also access a new Puzzles Scoreboard to see personalized stats and streaks for each puzzle, including their solve rate and their longest streak.
Apple News+ subscribers can now enjoy Offline Mode on iPhone and iPad to automatically download Top Stories, Apple News Today audio briefings, full magazine issues and narrated articles from News+ publishers, and puzzles to access later, without Wi-Fi or a cellular connection. When the device is back online, downloaded content will automatically refresh, and downloads will be optimized to maximize space on the device.
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MacDailyNews Note: Apple News offers millions of people in the U.S., U.K., Canada, and Australia access to quality journalism from a variety of top publications, curated by its team of editors, and is the most used news app in the countries where it is available. A subscription to Apple News+ is available for $12.99 per month and includes access to hundreds of top newspapers and magazines, including The Wall Street Journal, Vogue, The New Yorker, People, The Athletic, and more; a catalog of narrated audio articles from Apple News+ publishers, available to listen to in the Apple News and Apple Podcasts apps; and a daily crossword and mini crossword puzzle created in partnership with The Puzzle Society, and original spelling game Quartiles.
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Ars Technica reviews Apple’s M4 iPad Pro: ‘a technical marvel; impressively quick’
Apple earlier this month unveiled the groundbreaking new iPad Pro in a stunningly thin and light design, taking portability and performance to the next level. Available in silver and space black finishes, the new iPad Pro comes in two sizes: an expansive 13-inch model and a super-portable 11-inch model. Both sizes feature the world’s most advanced display — a new breakthrough Ultra Retina XDR display with state-of-the-art tandem OLED technology — providing a remarkable visual experience. The new iPad Pro is made possible with the new M4 chip, the next generation of Apple silicon, which delivers a huge leap in performance and capabilities. M4 features an entirely new display engine to enable the precision, color, and brightness of the Ultra Retina XDR display. With a new CPU, a next-generation GPU that builds upon the GPU architecture debuted on M3, and the most powerful Neural Engine yet, the new iPad Pro is an outrageously powerful device for artificial intelligence.
Samuel Axon for Ars Technica:
The iPad Pro is so much faster than most people need it to be — so loaded with expensive, cutting-edge technology — that it seems like it exists more for Apple to show off what it’s truly capable of than it does for most actual user needs…
The M4 is the perfect example of this; it’s ridiculously fast, yes, but there are only a few applications that can truly make any use of that speed in a way that feels meaningfully different from the M2 found in the current-generation iPad Air, and even in those apps, you’re generally looking at edge cases or very specific features.
On the other hand, the OLED screen is extraordinary, and even folks who aren’t display nerds will absolutely see the difference. If you’re looking for a high-end movie-viewing experience on your next flight, look no further than these tablets (or Apple’s Vision Pro). The screen on the iPad Air is fine for that, but it’s nowhere near as good as what you get with the Pro now. The screen is the main reason I would consider buying a Pro instead of an Air. It’s not a small difference.
In a way, it almost looks like the iPad Pro is a testing ground for new technologies like the M4 and OLED that might come to the more flexible Mac platform in the near future.
The iPad Pro is an amazing device, and it’s a delight to use for some kinds of tasks. But despite continual refinement, the limitations of iPadOS compared to the flexibility (and better pro software support) of macOS mean I’m more excited about what these new developments might mean for future Macs than anything else.
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MacDailyNews Take: iPad Pro. Come for the display, stay for the M4 which will give you many, many years of headroom into which to grow.
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Will Apple ever take the training wheels off iPadOS?
Apple’s M4 iPad Pro models offer incredible, almost unbelievably amazing hardware, but the iPad experience, for iPad pro users especially, remains frustrating as Apple’s multi-touch training wheels remain stubbornly in place in iPadOS, in too many spots, even after nearly a decade and a half of development (or lack thereof).
Federico Viticci for MacStories:
First, as I’ve said multiple times, I love my iPad and want the platform to get better. If you care about something or someone, sometimes you have to tell them what’s wrong in order to improve and find a new path forward. I hope this story can serve as a reference for those with the power to steer iPadOS in a different direction in the future.
Second, lately I’ve seen some people argue on Mastodon and Threads that folks who criticize iPadOS do so because their ultimate goal is to have macOS on iPads, and I wanted to clarify this misunderstanding. While I’m on the record as thinking that a hybrid macOS/iPadOS environment would be terrific (I know, because I use it), that is not the point. The reality is that, regardless of whether macOS runs on iPads or not, iPadOS is the ideal OS for touch interactions. But it still gets many basic computing features wrong, and there is plenty of low-hanging fruit for Apple to pick. We don’t need to talk about macOS to cover these issues.
Lastly, I wanted to provide readers with the necessary context to understand what I mean when I mention the limitations of iPadOS. My iPad setup and workflow have changed enough times over the years that I think some of you may have lost track of the issues I (and others) have been experiencing. This article is a chance to collect them all in one place.
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MacDailyNews Take: From iPadOS inexplicably not coming with a built-in Calculator app after 14 years (it’s finally expected to appear in iPadOS 18 this fall) to multitasking remaining “a fractured mess” to the lack of background processes and system-wide utilities and well beyond, the in-depth full article is a must-read for iPad users, would-be iPad users, and Apple’s iPadOS team. Highly recommended – read the full article here.
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Apple releases macOS Sonoma 14.5, iPadOS 17.5, iPadOS 17.5, watchOS 10.5, tvOS 17.5, and HomePod Software 17.5
Apple on Monday released macOS Sonoma 14.5, iPadOS 17.5, iPadOS 17.5, watchOS 10.5, tvOS 17.5, and HomePod Software 17.5.
macOS Sonoma 14.5 includes the following improvements and bug fixes:
• Quartiles is a new and original daily word game that is now available in Apple News+
• Scoreboard in News+ Puzzles gives you access to new player data for Crossword, Mini Crossword and Quartiles, including stats and streaks.
iOS 17.5 and iPadOS 17.5 offer the following features:
• Apple News
– Offline mode in Apple News+ gives you access to the Today feed and News+ tab, even when you don’t have an internet connection
– Quartiles is a new and original daily word game that is now available in Apple News+
– Scoreboard in News+ Puzzles gives you access to new player data for Crossword, Mini Crossword and Quartiles, including stats and streaks
• Tracking Notifications
– Cross-Platform Tracking Detection delivers notifications to users if a compatible Bluetooth tracker they do not own is moving with them, regardless of the operating system with which the device is paired
watchOS 10.5 includes new features, improvements and bug fixes, including a new Pride Radiance watch face.
tvOS 17.5 includes bug fixes and performance tweaks.
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MacDailyNews Take: Happy updating!
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Apple asks U.S. court to dismiss ‘implausible’ lawsuit alleging iCloud monopoly
Apple is asking a federal judge on Friday to dismiss a proposed consumer class-action lawsuit claiming the company overcharges customers by monopolizing cloud storage for users of its devices.
The tech giant asked a San Jose, California federal judge on Friday to dismiss the two-month-old case, which alleges Apple violated antitrust law by coercing customers to use the company’s iCloud service to back up core data and device setting files.
The lawsuit also said Apple was improperly “tying” the sale of two separate products, its iPhones and iCloud storage service, which is free up to a certain amount of data before it becomes a subscription plan.
Apple in its filing said its customers are not required to use iCloud, arguing that there is robust competition for cloud storage.
It said its storage policy — allowing third-party storage for photos and videos but not for users’ restricted data files needed to “restore” an Apple device — is designed to guarantee high levels of security.
The company also said the claim that it foisted higher prices on consumers was “implausible” based on publicly available information showing Apple’s pricing is competitive, and was “based entirely on dubious allegations regarding margins.”
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MacDailyNews Take: As with Macs, iPhones and iPads work with third-party online storage services such as Box, Dropbox, One Drive, Google Drive etc. Apple’s Files file management app for iPhones and iPads allows users to browse local files stored within apps, including files stored in third-party cloud storage services including Box, Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive, etc.
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Apple set to expand Vision Pro sales outside of U.S. next month
Apple is reportedly preparing to start selling its Apple Vision Pro spatial computer in markets outside the U.S., including Germany, France, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, and China.
Mark Gurman for Bloomberg News:
The company plans to bring the Vision Pro to international markets for the first time after its Worldwide Developers Conference early next month, the people said.
Apple has maintained its usual secrecy and hasn’t told employees in the training sessions where exactly the Vision Pro will be available. But the company is training workers from Germany, France, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and China, indicating that those areas will be some of the first international markets for the device.
Though the headset saw a surge of interest out of the gate in the US, demand has died down and some retail stores are selling only a couple of units per week at most, Bloomberg News has reported. The number of appointments for demos has also declined significantly, with some stores saying that some customers book demos and never actually show up.
Overseas customers have been able to get the Vision Pro through unofficial resellers, and there was an initial burst of demand through those channels. But consumers in places like Hong Kong are now seeing the gadget resold below the retail price.
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MacDailyNews Take: Initiate the next phase!
Apple Vision Pro is a devkit for developers, not for average users, and should have been released as a devkit for developers. – MacDailyNews, March 26, 2024
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New Jersey Apple Retail Store vote down unionization
Apple employees at a Short Hills, New Jersey retail store have voted against joining a union. The vote was 57-41 against joining the Communication Workers of America (CWA) union in an election that ended on Saturday.
Reuters:
It was the first union election at an Apple store since 2022, when workers at a pair of stores in Maryland and Oklahoma voted to unionize. Since then, the CWA has withdrawn petitions to hold elections at several stores…
Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In a statement last month responding to a petition to hold the election at the Short Hills store, the company said it provided “top tier” pay and benefits to retail workers.
The CWA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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MacDailyNews Take: 57 of Apple Short Hills employees are smart. They didn’t fall for the scam.
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Apple Music celebrates the launch of inaugural 100 Best Albums list
Apple Music today announced the release of its 100 Best Albums of all time, a celebratory list of the greatest records ever made, crafted by Apple Music’s team of experts alongside a select group of artists, including Maren Morris, Pharrell Williams, J Balvin, Charli XCX, Mark Hoppus, Honey Dijon, and Nia Archives, as well as songwriters, producers, and industry professionals. The list is an editorial statement, fully independent of any streaming numbers on Apple Music — a love letter to the records that have shaped the world music lovers live and listen in.
Apple Music is bringing its 100 Best Albums to life with a countdown celebration beginning today, revealing 10 albums each day for the next 10 days, along with a brand-new 100 Best microsite, new and exclusive content, dedicated Apple Music Radio episodes, and so much more. The countdown will culminate on the final day with the reveal of Apple Music’s top 10 albums of all time during a broadcast radio special.
“100 Best brings together all the things that make Apple Music the ultimate service for music lovers — human curation at its peak, an appreciation for the art of storytelling, and unparalleled knowledge of music and an even deeper love for it,” said Rachel Newman, Apple Music’s senior director of content and editorial, in a statement. “We have been working on this for a very long time, and it’s something we are all incredibly proud of and excited to share with the world.”
“Putting this list together was a true labor of love, both in that it was incredibly difficult to do and in that we are all so passionate about it,” said Zane Lowe, Apple Music’s global creative director and lead anchor for Apple Music 1, in a statement. “We were tasked with selecting the 100 best — that’s practically mission impossible. But as music fans, it was also amazing to really take a minute and sit and think about the music and albums and artists that we love so much in this context. If this list sparks more debate among fans outside of Apple Music and gets people talking passionately about the music they love, then we’ve done what we set out to do.”
The first 10 albums, revealed today, offer a glimpse into Apple Music’s unique approach with 100 Best. With seven of the 10 records hailing from the 21st century, two from the 90s, only one from the 70s, and various genres represented, the list spotlights contemporary artists like Tyler, The Creator; Robyn; Lorde; Travis Scott; Solange; Burial; and more who have helped define this century through their music and its influence on others.
100. Body Talk, Robyn
99. Hotel California, Eagles
98. ASTROWORLD, Travis Scott
97. Rage Against the Machine, Rage Against the Machine
96. Pure Heroine, Lorde
95. Confessions, USHER
94. Untrue, Burial
93. A Seat at the Table, Solange
92. Flower Boy, Tyler, The Creator
91. Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1, George Michael
“There are so many fun facts for our listeners to discover about these albums,” said Scott Plagenhoef, Apple Music’s global head of music programming. “For example, two of the records revealed today were promoted without the image of the artist, but for opposite reasons — Burial’s Untrue because the artist was still operating anonymously at the time, and George Michael’s Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1 because the artist was actually retreating from fame.”
Discover, Learn, and Share with Friends
To accompany the list, today Apple Music also revealed a dedicated microsite that will update every day of the countdown, making it easy for listeners to follow along. Available now at 100best.music.apple.com, the new 100 Best microsite spotlights in-depth analysis of each album, archival interviews, and more, and makes it easy for fans to share their favorite albums with friends and on their social channels.
Explore records 100-91 of Apple Music’s 100 Best Albums at 100best.music.apple.com.
Follow Along on Apple Music Radio
Fans will also be treated to a full 100 Best Albums Radio takeover on Apple Music Hits, where round-the-clock specials with Apple Music Radio hosts and daily specials at 9 a.m. PT (noon ET) will be broadcasted, plus exclusive content will drop every day on demand on Apple Music and Apple Podcasts.
The last 10 albums will be revealed on Wednesday, May 22, with a special roundtable discussion broadcasting globally on Apple Music that features guest artists Nile Rodgers and Maggie Rogers reflecting on the list alongside Apple Music’s own Zane Lowe and Ebro Darden. Lowe will also curate a special mashup-style DJ mix featuring songs from all 100 Best Albums.
Apple Music will keep the momentum going after the countdown ends with an additional week of 100 Best Albums Radio takeover on Apple Music Hits.
All 100 Best Albums recipients will be given an award comprised of blasted anodized aluminum, sourced entirely from recycled Apple products, in a unique polished PVD gold. The design on the back of the award takes its cues from a vinyl LP record and is inscribed with the artist’s name, the album title, and the album’s year of release.
Explore Apple Music’s 100 Best Albums at 100best.music.apple.com and check back daily to discover the full list. Get exclusive content by following @AppleMusic on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and X.
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MacDailyNews Take: #1? The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds? The Beatles Abbey Road? What do you think?
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Apple reportedly finalizing terms to incorporate OpenAI’s ChatGPT technology into operating systems
Apple reportedly is close to a deal with ChatGPT-creator OpenAI to integrate its generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) technology into its operating systems for Macs, iPhones, iPads, and more. Apple stock rose Monday on the news.
Patrick Seitz for Investor’s Business Daily:
In morning trades on the stock market today, Apple stock climbed 1% to 184.94.
Adding AI to Apple’s next handsets, the iPhone 16 series, will give consumers a reason to upgrade, Wedbush Securities analyst Daniel Ives said in a client note Monday. Apple also could monetize some AI services through subscriptions, he said.
“As more apps and tasks are able to be completed with generative AI, Apple stands to monetize a significant revenue base over the coming years with its massive and unmatched 2.2 billion (unit) installed base (of hardware),” Ives said.
He added, “We would expect Apple to build out a next level Siri technology with OpenAI that can do complex tasks for Apple users and more advanced features that will eventually be a separate monthly subscription service along with other AI features.”
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MacDailyNews Take: WWDC starts on June 10th – not long now!
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Following Apple’s lead, Big Tech embraces a hallmark of pre-internet stocks
Shareholders aren’t just seeing their stock prices swell, they are getting paid too. The dividend, its importance demoted over the past couple of decades by the tech boom, is having a moment again, and Big Tech follows Apple into dividends.
Hamza Shaban for Yahoo Finance:
The dividend trend reflects the double role that tech giants hold in society and on Wall Street. They want to be perceived as growth engines, obsessed with frontier tech and fixated on reshaping the future. But they are also mature, cash-rich companies with market caps that start with a “T.”
Startup versions of these companies would scoff at the idea of paying back a dividend. It suggests their growth days are behind them, that executives don’t have a vision for how to deploy their resources. But in this post-pandemic, pre-AI moment, Big Tech wants to prove they can do two things at once: build the infrastructure to dominate the coming era and show investors they have the fiscal discipline and confidence to return value consistently.
That the recent wave of dividend announcements has come alongside disclosures of ballooning AI spending reinforces the dual message.
Earnings are rising and with it are massive stock buybacks. The recent wave of repurchases, including Apple’s record-breaking $110 billion plan, is the largest sum of buybacks since 2018.
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MacDailyNews Take: While Apple’s dividend is nothing to write home about – now up to 25-cents per share – Apple’s buybacks are unmatched. In 2018, it was Apple that initiated the buyback boom with a then-record $100 billion program. Apple then launched five other share repurchase programs: $75 billion in 2019, $50 billion in 2020, $90 billion in 2021, $90 billion in 2022, $90 billion in 2023, and, now the record $110 billion in 2024. No other firm, tech or otherwise, comes close.
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Apple to power some AI features with via data centers using Apple Silicon
This year, Apple will power some of its upcoming artificial intelligence features via data centers equipped with its own Apple Silicon chips as it races to catch up to rivals by infusing its devices with myriad AI capabilities.
Mark Gurman for Bloomberg News:
The company is placing high-end chips — similar to ones it designed for the Mac — in cloud-computing servers designed to process the most advanced AI tasks coming to Apple devices, according to people familiar with the matter. Simpler AI-related features will be processed directly on iPhones, iPads and Macs, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the plan is still under wraps.
The move is part of Apple’s much-anticipated push into generative artificial intelligence — the technology behind ChatGPT and other popular tools. The company is playing catch-up with Big Tech rivals in the area but is poised to lay out an ambitious AI strategy at its Worldwide Developers Conference on June 10.
The first AI server chips will be the M2 Ultra, which was launched last year as part of the Mac Pro and Mac Studio computers, though the company is already eyeing future versions based on the M4 chip.
Relatively simple AI tasks — like providing users a summary of their missed iPhone notifications or incoming text messages — could be handled by the chips inside of Apple devices. More complicated jobs, such as generating images or summarizing lengthy news articles and creating long-form responses in emails, would likely require the cloud-based approach — as would an upgraded version of Apple’s Siri voice assistant…
For users who want a chatbot, Apple has held discussions with Alphabet Inc.’s Google and OpenAI about integrating one into the iPhone and iPad. Talks with OpenAI have recently intensified, suggesting that a partnership is likely.
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MacDailyNews Take: Apple’s “Operation Catch TF Up” continues unabated!
As we explained in early April:
Apple was caught flat-footed, due to a lack of vision on the part of leadership. They were, uh, focused elsewhere. Apple’s traditional data center network is not fit for generative AI. It will take years and billions of dollars to catch up just to where GenAI leaders (OpenAI, Microsoft, Alphabet, etc.) are today.
So, the only solution is to partner with a [Google, OpenAI, Baidu, etc.] for the real GenAI stuff while pretending (marketing) really hard that some on-device AI Apple has whipped up in a few months is “insanely great Apple innovation” that’s at the heart of Apple’s 2024’s AI announcements when it’s really just an adjunct… Watch Apple make a big show of its on-device AI at WWDC and run many ads touting it from June onwards.
Apple hopes to buy time for the data center buildouts and investments that will be required for them to someday own their own AI technology and not have to license it from the likes of [Google, OpenAI, Baidu, etc.].
This is what happens after a decade plus with a caretaker CEO at the helm after he hits the last page of his iteration playbook, yet attempts to stay in the game for too long.
See also:
• Work on Apple Vision Pro began under Steve Jobs – August 23, 2023
• Contrary to popular belief, Steve Jobs knew about Apple Watch – February 13, 2023
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Ahead of new iPads, Apple took 35.2% share of worldwide tablet market in Q1
After more than two years of decline, worldwide tablet shipments posted modest year-over-year growth of 0.5% in the first quarter of 2024 (1Q24), totaling 30.8 million units, according to preliminary data from the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker. The last time the market recorded growth was in the second quarter of 2021, after which shipments began to slow due to saturation. While macroeconomic issues persist, the rebound in shipments this quarter was driven by the start of a refresh cycle though long-term volumes are unlikely to match the surge seen during the pandemic. However, the shift towards premium tablets is a silver lining as consumers seek productivity-oriented devices.
1Q24 Company Highlights
• Apple faced a bit of a lull last year due to the poor economy and the absence of new iPad models and declined 8.5% year over year. The company has focused on clearing out inventory of older models prior to the expected launch of new models in 2Q24. Apple managed to hold the number 1 position with 9.9 million units shipped in 1Q24.
• Samsung ranked second with shipments of 6.7 million units in 1Q24, which was a year-over-year decline of 5.8%. Promotions from competing brands in Europe and Asia/Pacific and the lack of new products held back Samsung’s growth. However, the company is focused on improving its user experience by including AI capabilities in its latest products and focusing on premium products to capitalize on this year’s replacement cycle.
• Huawei retained the third position this quarter with year-over-year growth of 43.6% and shipments of 2.9 million units. The Chinese tech giant likely benefitted from the resurgence of its smartphone business and managed to grow its market share by 2.8 basis points compared to 1Q23.
• Lenovo ranked fourth this quarter with year-over-year growth of 13.2%. Like many other vendors, Lenovo has been able to grow its detachable portfolio since the pandemic, with its Tab P series models driving shipments. However, slate tablets still represent nearly 80% of Lenovo’s shipments.
• Xiaomi retained its spot in the top 5 with impressive growth of 92.6% year over year and shipments reaching 1.8 million units. Outside of China, which is its largest market, Xiaomi grew by triple digits across almost all regions where it ships.
“The tablet market started showing signs of recovery in the first quarter. The real gains will come from the next refresh cycle, followed by growth within commercial segments as more tablets are used in the education sector and the gig economy,” said Anuroopa Nataraj, senior research analyst with IDC’s Mobility and Consumer Device Trackers, in a statement. “However, these factors won’t suffice as the attrition driven by competition from PCs and smartphones will contribute to a lackluster outlook for the tablet market. That said, there is potential upside driven by AI capabilities similar to what’s expected in other device types.”
Top Five Tablet Companies, Worldwide Shipments, Market Share, and Year-Over-Year Growth, Q1 2024
(Preliminary results, combined company view for the current quarter only, shipments in millions)
Source: IDC Worldwide Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker, May 3, 2024
Table Notes:
• Data is preliminary and subject to change.
• Shipments include shipments to distribution channels or end users. OEM sales are counted under the company/brand under which they are sold.
• The “Company” represents the current parent company (or holding company) for all brands owned and operated as subsidiary.
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MacDailyNews Take: Not bad, seeing that quarter was near the end of Apple’s protracted iPad lull. And, if you’re going to get a tablet, get a real iPad, not some pretend iPad from a South Korean dishwasher maker or Chinese Communist Party-backed hack – sheesh!
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Apple TV+ shares first look at ‘Women in Blue’ (‘Las Azules’), new Spanish-language crime drama
Apple TV+ on Thursday unveiled the premiere date for and a first look at “Women in Blue” (“Las Azules”), its upcoming ten-episode Spanish-language crime drama led by Ariel Award nominee Bárbara Mori (“Perdidos en la noche,” “La Negociadora,” “La mujer de mi hermano”). Created by International Emmy Award-winning showrunner and director Fernando Rovzar (“Monarca,” “Sr. Ávila”) and Pablo Aramendi (“Tijuana,” “Los elegidos”), “Women in Blue” will make its global debut with the first two episodes on Wednesday, July 31, 2024 on Apple TV+, followed by one episode weekly through September 25.
Set in 1970 and inspired by true events, “Women in Blue” tells the story of four women who defy the norms of the time and join Mexico’s first female police force, only to discover that their squad is a publicity stunt to distract the media from a brutal serial killer. As the body count grows, María (Bárbara Mori), whose determination to catch the killer becomes an obsession, Gabina (Amorita Rasgado), whose father is a renowned cop, Ángeles (Ximena Sariñana), a brilliant fingerprint analyst, and Valentina (Natalia Téllez), a young rebel, set up a secret investigation to achieve what no male officer has been able to do and bring the serial killer to justice.
The series stars Mori, Sariñana, Téllez, Rasgado, Miguel Rodarte, Leonardo Sbaraglia, Christian Tappan, and Horacio García Rojas.
Fernando Rovzar, Emmy Award nominee Wendy Riss (“Yellowstone,” “Genius,” “The Killing”), Erica Sánchez Su (“Monarca,” “La Venganza de las Juanas,” “Paramédicos”), Sandra Solares (“Point Break,” “Y tu mamá también,” “Instructions Not Included”) and International Emmy Award winner Billy Rovzar (“Monarca,” “Control Z,” “Sr. Ávila”) serve as executive producers. The series is produced for Apple TV+ by Lemon Studios.
Apple TV+ offers premium, compelling drama and comedy series, feature films, groundbreaking documentaries and kids and family entertainment, and is available to watch across all of a user’s favorite screens. After its launch on November 1, 2019, Apple TV+ became the first all-original streaming service to launch around the world and has premiered more original hits and received more award recognitions faster than any other streaming service in its debut. To date, Apple Original films, documentaries and series have earned 488 wins and 2,143 award nominations and counting, including multi-Emmy Award-winning comedy “Ted Lasso” and historic Oscar Best Picture winner “CODA.”
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MacDailyNews Note: Apple TV+ is available on the Apple TV app in over 100 countries and regions, on over 1 billion screens, including iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Apple Vision Pro, Mac, popular smart TVs from Samsung, LG, Sony, VIZIO, TCL and others, Roku and Amazon Fire TV devices, Chromecast with Google TV, PlayStation and Xbox gaming consoles, and at tv.apple.com, for $9.99 per month with a seven-day free trial. For a limited time, customers who purchase and activate a new iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, or Mac can enjoy three months of Apple TV+ for free.
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Apple’s iPad event was an AI appetizer
Apple’s recently hatched plan to catch up to rivals in artificial intelligence, specifically in generative AI (GenAI), have begun to be revealed, starting with the company’s May 2nd conference call with analysts following its Q224 earnings release and with this week’s
“Let Loose” iPad event showcasing the company’s new M4 SoC, with a new Neural Engine for artificial intelligence and machine learning.
M4 has an extremely fast Neural Engine — an IP block in the chip dedicated to the acceleration of AI workloads. This is Apple’s most powerful Neural Engine ever, capable of an astounding 38 trillion operations per second — an astouding 60x faster than the first Neural Engine in Apple’s A11 Bionic (launched September 12, 2017). Together with next-generation ML accelerators in the CPU, the high-performance GPU, and higher-bandwidth unified memory, the Neural Engine makes M4 an extremely powerful chip for AI.
Daniel Howley for Yahoo Finance:
The M4 unveiling… [serves] as an appetizer for the AI features the company will present at its WWDC event in June, when Apple is widely expected to debut a slew of generative AI-powered software features for its various devices.
Apple pointed to a number of the M4’s AI bona fides during the keynote, with vice president of platform architecture Tim Millet specifically noting that the chip is capable of 34 [sic 38] trillion operations per second, a measurement commonly used when describing a chip’s AI performance.
Millet also said that the M4’s neural engine is more powerful than any neural processing unit in any AI PC. That’s a direct shot at Intel (INTC), AMD (AMD), and Qualcomm (QCOM), which are preparing to or are already rolling out their own AI PC chips designed to run large language models on Windows laptops and desktops.
The company also didn’t provide information about the M4’s performance while training or running large language models (LLMs), something that Intel, Qualcomm, and AMD regularly point to as indicators of their chips’ strengths.
Still, the fact that Apple gave consumers, and Wall Street, an early look at its AI thinking is important.
The company is widely viewed as behind the curve when it comes to the generative AI race, and investors are banking heavily on WWDC serving as Apple’s big AI coming-out party.
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MacDailyNews Take: Yes, Apple missed it, but they have the resources necessary to catch up quickly (and, hopefully, someday lead the way) in AI.
Clearly, Apple is not as innovative as it was under Steve Jobs who even started the company’s work on Apple Silicon, Apple Watch, and Apple Vision Pro, but, thanks to Jobs and Cook’s subsequent management of iterations of products and services conceived during Jobs’ tenure, including the retail store buildout which is responsible for a significant portion of Apple’s growth, the company now has more than enough money to make up for Cook’s lack of vision. – MacDailyNews, April 23, 2024
Tim’s not a product person, per se. – Steve Jobs
Until it gets another visionary leader (fingers crossed; Apple’s history has shown – cough, Sculley, Spindler, cough – that the next CEO could be far, far worse than the very competent caretaker Cook), Apple can afford to miss things like generative AI – which they clearly did – and then use its huge war chest to catch up – which they’re doing right now (fun times and 80-hour weeks inside Apple Park!) – and, hopefully, surpass rivals (or at least be as good). Apple will very likely unveil their catch-up work within months (this June at WWDC 2024) in iPhones (and iPads, Apple Watches, etc.) with built-in on-device generative AI and other new AI-driven features. – MacDailyNews, February 14, 2024
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Get Apple’s M2 MacBook Air for just $829 via Amazon, the lowest price ever
Amazon’s new price drop on Apple’s M2 MacBook Air delivers the lowest price on record, with a $170 discount bringing the laptop down to just $829, the lowest price ever.
The $170 discount, a limited time deal at Amazon, applies to the 13.6-inch MacBook Air with M2 chip with an 8-core CPU and 8-core GPU. It comes with 8GB RAM and 256 GB storage.
About this item:
• STRIKINGLY THIN DESIGN — The redesigned MacBook Air is more portable than ever and weighs just 2.7 pounds. It’s the incredibly capable laptop that lets you work, play or create just about anything — anywhere.
• SUPERCHARGED BY M2 — Get more done faster with a next-generation 8-core CPU, up to 10-core GPU and up to 24GB of unified memory.
UP TO 18 HOURS OF BATTERY LIFE — Go all day and into the night, thanks to the power-efficient performance of the Apple M2 chip.
• BIG, BEAUTIFUL DISPLAY — The 13.6-inch Liquid Retina display features over 500 nits of brightness, P3 wide color and support for 1 billion colors for vibrant images and incredible detail.
• ADVANCED CAMERA AND AUDIO — Look sharp and sound great with a 1080p FaceTime HD camera, three-mic array and four-speaker sound system with Spatial Audio.
• VERSATILE CONNECTIVITY — MacBook Air features a MagSafe charging port, two Thunderbolt ports and a headphone jack.
• EASY TO USE — Your Mac feels familiar from the moment you turn it on, and works seamlessly with all your Apple devices.
• BUILT TO LAST — The all-aluminium unibody enclosure is exceptionally durable. And free software updates keep things running smooth and secure for years to come.
• SIMPLY COMPATIBLE — All your go-to apps run lightning-fast — including Microsoft 365, Zoom, and many of your favorite iPhone and iPad apps.
• COMES WITH APPLECARE WARRANTY – Every Mac comes with a one-year limited warranty and up to 90 days of complimentary technical support. Get AppleCare+ to extend your coverage.
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MacDailyNews Take: Get ’em while the last (not long, we suspect) here.
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Music streaming firms urge European Commission to reject Apple’s App Store proposal
A group that represents audio streaming firms including Spotify and France’s Deezer in Europe has urged the European Commission to reject Apple’s tab proposal in a music streaming case.
Digital Music Europe expressed concern in a letter submitted to the European Commission on Tuesday that Apple’s proposal to comply with the regulator’s March order, in which the iPhone-maker was fined 1.84 billion euros ($1.98 billion), does not provide concrete and effective remedies.
Apple was fined by the EU in March for thwarting competition from music streaming rivals via restrictions on its App Store.
Subsequently, the iPhone-maker announced measures to make it easier for music streaming apps on its App Store in the European Economic Area to inform users of other ways to purchase digital services, as it looks to comply with a European Union mandate.
Under Apple’s proposal, streaming services can include links to their websites to inform users of payment options outside its App Store and the company would charge a 27% commission on transactions made through a link.
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MacDailyNews Take: The “Digital Music Europe” group of whiners want to use Apple’s App Store to advertise lower prices else where for free. This makes zero sense. Does some quasi-governmental confederation force Target to allow Walmart to advertise lower prices inside Target stores for free? Of course, not.
“This boils down to the fact that Spotify wants to use the platform that Apple built and maintains at great expense for free.” – MacDailyNews, March 13, 2019
The European Union arose because the Europeans couldn’t compete on their own with the rest of the world, so they each lined up to surrender their national sovereignty, unique cultures, and dignity for an undemocratic, opaque, wasteful, bloated, bureaucratic quasi-governmental blob – and, even with the EU’s thumbs all over the scale, they still can’t compete. – MacDailyNews, March 4, 2024
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Twitter creator Jack Dorsey quits Bluesky board, endorses Elon Musk’s X as ‘freedom technology’
Jack Dorsey has left the board of social networking service Bluesky, which he helped fund a year ago after the sale of a bastardized heavily-censored Twitter (which degenerated to that sorry state under Dorsey himself) to Elon Musk, who promptly revealed the censorship, removed it along with thousands of obviously superfluous employees, and renamed it “X.”
Vlad Savov for Bloomberg News:
The Twitter co-founder took to the Musk-owned platform, now rebranded X, to tout his new philanthropic grants to open internet protocols, which he described as “freedom technology.” He also added X to that class of tech, elaborating only to say that corporations can build upon open protocols too.
Dorsey whittled down the list of people he follows on X to just three: Musk, Edward Snowden, and Stella Assange, wife of the imprisoned WikiLeaks publisher. It suggested an apparent warming of relations between X’s owner and Dorsey…
don’t depend on corporations to grant you rights.
defend them yourself using freedom technology.
(you’re on one)
— jack (@jack) May 4, 2024
Bluesky is a network and protocol launched to pursue Dorsey’s platonic ideal for Twitter as a service without central control…
Dorsey responded to a question on X as to whether he was still on the Bluesky board with a “no.”
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MacDailyNews Take:
Under whose watch did Twitter degenerate into a festival of censorship, working hand-in-hand with government & NGOs to thwart freedom of speech clearly favoring one side of the political spectrum? Oh right, that disaster happened under Jack Dorsey's watch. https://t.co/FsGua0gaW7
— MacDailyNews (@MacDailyNews) May 8, 2024
Elon Musk’s Take:
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 7, 2024
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Apple’s ‘Crush’ iPad Pro ad sparks backlash from sensitive types
As far as sparking interest, Apple’s new iPad Pro ad is crushing it, literally. A bunch of uh, sensitive types, are up in arms over some used instruments, cameras, cheap busts of composers, tube TVs, some paint, etc. being flattened in the name of good ol’ American commerce. Your local public elementary school – provided your music programs haven’t been cut in order to fund yet another wasteful useless program* some corrupt politician’s second vacation home – goes through more crappy instruments under buses, lost, bent, dropped – every month than Apple’s “Crush!” ad.
Marlene Lenthang for NBC News:
To promote its new, ultra-thin iPads, the tech giant on Tuesday released an ad in which an industrial press crushes an array of creative objects to birth a new iPad.
The iPad Pro ad features some of art’s greatest tools — books, paint cans, statues, musical instruments including a piano, an old-model TV, an arcade game machine — getting pulverized into oblivion to the cheery tune of Sonny & Cher’s “All I Ever Need Is You.”
Though the company is usually praised for its clever marketing, many people on social media were quick to criticize the commercial, calling it “destructive” and saying it is “crushing symbols of human creativity and cultural achievements to appeal to pro creators.”
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MacDailyNews Take: Oh, the humanity! “Many people** on social media were quick to criticize?” You don’t say. Shocking. First time on social media, Marlene?
Guess what? We don’t care. Mission accomplished, Apple marketing! Great job and crush 10x more in your next iPad ad!
Tools are constantly replaced by newer tools. iPhone replaces myriad tools. iPad does the same.
Apple's ad isn't even a new concept (it's just executed better). Here's LG's ad for its Renoir KC910 iPhone knockoff from 2008): https://t.co/cTsrxbD823 pic.twitter.com/FFRXe6HsXm
— MacDailyNews (@MacDailyNews) May 9, 2024
*Amidst a national debt of $34.7 trillion and counting
**Who need to get a life
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Apple’s new iPad Pros are shockingly thin
Apple’s new iPad Pro is the thinnest Apple product ever with a shockingly thin and light design, taking portability to a whole new level.
The 11-inch model is just 5.3mm thin, and the 13-inch model is even thinner at a striking 5.1mm, while both models are just as strong as the previous design. The 11-inch model weighs less than a pound, and the 13-inch model is nearly a quarter pound lighter than its predecessor — allowing pro users to extend their workflows in new ways and in more places. The new iPad Pro is available in two gorgeous finishes — silver and space black — both with 100 percent recycled aluminum enclosures.
Available in silver and space black finishes, the new iPad Pro comes in two sizes: an expansive 13-inch model and a super-portable 11-inch model. Both sizes feature the world’s most advanced display — a new breakthrough Ultra Retina XDR display with state-of-the-art tandem OLED technology — providing a remarkable visual experience. The new iPad Pro is made possible with the new M4 chip, the next generation of Apple silicon, which delivers a huge leap in performance and capabilities. M4 features an entirely new display engine to enable the precision, color, and brightness of the Ultra Retina XDR display.
With a new CPU, a next-generation GPU that builds upon the GPU architecture debuted on M3, and the most powerful Neural Engine yet, the new iPad Pro is an outrageously powerful device for artificial intelligence. The versatility and advanced capabilities of iPad Pro are also enhanced with all-new accessories. Apple Pencil Pro brings powerful new interactions that take the pencil experience even further, and a new thinner, lighter Magic Keyboard is packed with incredible features. The new iPad Pro, Apple Pencil Pro, and Magic Keyboard are available to order starting today, with availability in stores beginning Wednesday, May 15th.
After holding and playing with the device for a few minutes, I can say pretty confidently that Apple’s not kidding about how much more svelte the new model is. At 5.3mm thick for the 11-inch model and 5.1mm for the 13-inch tablet, this new iPad is noticeably thinner and lighter than anything the company has made before.
It’s such a big difference that the larger model, which I’ve always felt was kind of preposterously huge, feels much more comfortable to hold and use. (And it’s technically even larger now, up to 13 inches from 12.9 before.) You can tell the difference between the Pro and the new Air from practically across the room, and as someone who has carried around an 11-inch Pro for the last year and a half, it’s really a big difference.
It’s kind of wild how much lighter and thinner the new Pro feels in your hand.
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MacDailyNews Take: Closer and closer to a sheet of glass!
What we want to do is we want to put an incredibly great computer in a book that you can carry around with you and learn how to use in 20 minutes… and we really want to do it with a radio link in it so you don’t have to hook up to anything and you’re in communication with all of these larger databases and other computers. – Steve Jobs, 1983
Steve Jobs introduces the original 13mm-thick iPad with its 9.7-inch LCD on January 27, 2010
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