8 News and Help
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News and Help The plan is to collate any news in this document. I’ll then archive the content to another document so we can still access it but we only need to access the same document for all the new news. August 2020 Apple Updates, Improvements and Company News macOS Catalina 10.15.6 includes improvements to Apple News, a new option to optimise video streaming on HDR-compatible Mac notebooks for improved battery life, improvements to USB mouse and trackpad handling, and a fix for an issue that could cause the software update process to change the computer's name. 10.15.6 and the corresponding security updates for Mojave and High Sierra address a variety of serious vulnerabilities. Safari 13.1.2 is part of Catalina 10.15.6 and is also available for Mojave and High Sierra. It addresses 11 security issues, some of which can be remotely exploited to execute arbitrary code. iOS 13.6 brings the much-heralded digital car keys feature (initially for very recently made BMWs, and including key sharing via Messages and a 'power reserve' allowing keys to be used up to five hours after the phone's battery runs out). iOS 13.6 and iPadOS 13.6 include Apple News improvements (including audio news), a 'symptoms' category in the Health app, and various changes and fixes relating to software updates, iCloud Drive, Wi-Fi calling, and other features. The updates also address a total of 29 issues that could be variously exploited to execute arbitrary code, view sensitive information, and allow cross-site scripting, among others. watchOS 6.2.8 supports the digital car key feature on Apple Watch Series 5 or newer, and addresses various security issues and other bugs. There is no indication at this stage that tvOS 13.4.8 delivers anything other than patches for security and other bugs. iOS 12.4.8 and watchOS 5.3.8 delivers unspecified bug and security fixes. HomePod 13.4.8 delivers "general improvements for stability and quality." A second developer beta of macOS Big Sur was released in early July. The public beta should be out by our August meeting. The second developer betas of iOS 15 and iPadOS 14 also appeared. Universal binary support in Big Sur doesn’t just cover ARM and Intel CPUs – Apple has documented that ARM64, 32-bit PowerPC, 64-bit PowerPC, i386 and x86_64 code can be included in an app. Furthermore, each of these supports subtypes, so it’s possible to include code optimised for specific CPU models, just as Firefox fork TenFourFox does for G3, G4 and G5 PowerPC. iPhone, iPad or Apple Watch buyers now have the option of paying for AppleCare+ coverage month by month. Those who pay upfront can switch to monthly payments after their initial 24 or 36 months are over. We previously mentioned Apple’s independent repair shop program for businesses that repair iPhones. It gives them access to genuine parts plus official tools and manuals. The program has now been extended to Europe and Canada. There’s no word of when it might reach Australia. Branding valuation company BrandZ’s list of the world’s most valuable brands put Apple in second place for the fifth consecutive year. Apple’s brand was valued at $352.2 billion, behind Amazon’s $415.8 billion. The next eight places were taken by Microsoft, Google, Visa, Alibaba, Tencent, FaceBook, McDonald’s, and MasterCard. According to industry analyst Gartner, Mac shipments increased by 5.1% year-on-year during the second quarter of 2020. Apple took an estimated 6.7% of the PC market, coming in fourth behind Lenovo, HP and Dell. The iPhone 11 has gone into production at a Foxconn plant near Chennai, apparently primarily for sale in India. Apple reportedly plans to open an online Apple Store for India this quarter, to be followed by physical Apple Stores starting with Mumbai. Bloomberg’s 2019 Pay Index says Apple CEO Tim Cook was the second-highest-paid CEO in the US. His $US133.7 million pay was mostly in the form of stock awards, as his base salary was ‘just’ $US3 million, with $US7.7 million in bonuses. Cook was way behind Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who ‘earned’ $US595.3 million. Apple is reportedly increasing MacBook Pro production over the next few months to meet increased demand. Apple has applied for a patent for a scheme for interacting with an electronic device through a mix of eye movements, blinks and stares, possibly in combination with other controls such as a touchpad or speech recognition. Apple is being sued by headphone maker Koss, which claims AirPods and Beats wireless headphones infringe five patents on wireless headphones. The European Commission’s General Court has annulled a 2016 ruling that said Apple had to pay €13 billion ($21 billion) in back taxes to the Republic of Ireland. Apple and Ireland took the case to the General Court, arguing that the Commission was wrong in determining the tax arrangement to be unfair. Apple’s shares rose 1.6% on the news, but one further appeal can be made by the EC. Last November, Apple announced a $US2.5 billion affordable housing fund for California, made up from $US1 billion in affordable housing investments, $US1 billion in mortgage assistance for first-time buyers, and $US300 million worth of Apple-owned land. So far, this has involved a contribution to “the construction of over 1,000 new units of deeply-affordable and supportive housing for the community’s most vulnerable populations across Silicon Valley”, and “mortgage and down payment assistance to hundreds of first-time home buyers to date, with additional benefits for teachers, veterans, and firefighters.” Newly announced are a plan to build “more than 250 new units of affordable housing across the Bay Area, as well as a mortgage and down payment assistance fund and an affordable housing investment support program,” and “a new project in Santa Clara that will create 80 new units, designed for seniors who are currently homeless or at risk of falling into homelessness.” Apple announced it will be carbon-neutral by 2030. Its pledge covers itself and suppliers. Apple also unveiled Dave, a robot designed to extract precious metals from Apple devices. Apple Future Developments The new Tom Hanks movie Greyhound was so successful that Apple is reportedly planning to release a first-run movie each month on Apple TV+. (Stephen recommends Greyhound to anyone who doesn’t dislike war movies.) Tipsters predict a September announcement for the iPhone 12, but with at least some models not shipping until October. They also predict a 13-inch MacBook Pro and a 24in iMac with ARM CPUs will ship by the end of the year. An ARM MacBook Air is tipped for late 2020/early 2021. The latest version is that Apple will unveil the iPhone 12, the Apple Watch 6 and a new iPad on 8 September, with updated Intel iMac configurations to be released any day now. A purported Apple leaker claims the ARM MacBook and ARM MacBook Pro will cost around $US799 and $US1,099 respectively (that’s about $US200 less than their Intel equivalents), and will be announced on 27 October. The same source suggests the iPhone 12 models will be more expensive than their iPhone 11 equivalents. Previous tips suggested the prices would be similar to the iPhone 11. The rumour mill suggests all four models of the iPhone 12 will support both the sub-6GHz and mmWave 5G networks, but 2021’s iPhone 13 will only support the band that’s most common in the country where it is sold. That could be an issue as international travel returns to its previous levels. Looking further ahead, periscope lenses, which use mirrors to provide a much greater optical zoom without a corresponding increase in thickness, are tipped for the 2022 iPhones (iPhone 14?). Such lenses are already used in the Huawei's P30 Pro smartphone, released last year. Apple filed a related patent in 2016. Regulatory filings made by Apple in various countries has revealed that iPhone 12 batteries will have capacities around 10% less than their iPhone 11 counterparts. 5G and 120Hz ProMotion displays are more power-hungry than 4G and previous iPhone displays, suggesting that iPhone 12 battery life may well be down on that of the iPhone 11. However, a later rumour says the A14 chip is being made with a 5-nanometer (5nm) process, and consequently will use up to 30% less power than its predecessor despite being up to 15% faster. Apple has indicated that ARM-based Macs will support Thunderbolt via USB-C. The graphics performance of ARM-based Macs could match or exceed that of Intel-based Macs with discrete GPUs, according to Apple. This is apparently due to the way the on-chip ARM GPU renders a small area of an image at a time (reducing the memory bandwidth needed) and by deciding which pixels are hidden before rendering the area. Chipmaker TSMC is reportedly preparing 80 million A14 chips for the next-gen iPhone 12, and expects production of Apple’s ARM chips will grow significantly in the second half of 2021. An iPad Pro with mini LED display is tipped for the first quarter of 2021. Such displays have high brightness and contrast ratios, and have a wider operating temperature range than other technologies. The next AirPods are tipped to physically resemble AirPods Pro rather than the current AirPods. Apple’s rumoured AR glasses are being tipped for early 2022 release, following a report claiming that their semi-transparent lenses have “passed the prototype stage and entered trial production”, supposedly at Foxconn.