Apple is bumping up prices in the App Store in some regions, the company announced on Wednesday. Citing taxes and foreign exchange rate changes, Apple says that apps will become more expensive in the following regions:
Bahrain: Increase of value-added tax from 5% to 10%
Ukraine: New value-added tax of 20%
Zimbabwe: New digital services tax of 5%
Furthermore, there are some changes that involve the proceeds for developers. Prices will remain unchanged in the following regions but developers’ proceeds will be adjusted to account for some tax changes
The Bahamas: Decrease of value-added tax from 12% to 10%
Oman: New value-added tax of 5%
Tajikistan: Decrease of value-added tax from 18% to 15%
Finally, three other regions will be subject to changes, again this involves the proceeds that developers receive from the App Store.
Austria: Value-added tax rate reversion to 10% after temporary decrease to 5% for qualifying e-books and audiobooks
Latvia: Value-added tax rate decrease from 21% to 5% for qualifying e-books and e-publications
Romania: Value-added tax rate decrease from 19% to 5% for qualifying e-books, audiobooks, and e-publications
What does it mean for you?
If you live outside the aforementioned regions – absolutely nothing. Otherwise, expect prices of apps to go up if you live in Ukraine, Bahrain, or Zimbabwe. As for the other six countries, it would be up to the developers.
Some might choose to bump up the prices in order to keep the same level of proceeds from the App Store, while others might leave their app prices alone. Apple leaves the choice to the developers with the following statement:
“You can change the price of your apps and in-app purchases (including auto-renewable subscriptions) at any time in App Store Connect. If you offer subscriptions, you can choose to preserve prices for existing subscribers.”
The changes are expected to go into effect in the following days. When this happens, the Pricing and Availability section of My Apps will also be updated.
There aren’t many new products to gather the attention and hype that the Apple Glasses AR/VR headset has managed to accumulate in the past few months. Apple’s rumored wearable often occupies headlines and leaks about its features are flying left and right.
The latest Apple Glasses rumored feature could benefit people with prescription glasses. According to a new patent, granted to Apple on Thursday, the new Apple Glasses might feature a system of lenses that adjust to match the user’s prescription.
The patent in question is titled “Tunable and foveated lens systems,” and describes a clever system of lenses that can be manipulated to act as a regular pair of glasses. The difference is that the system adjusts the position of the lenses automatically, and any person – with or without prescription glasses – could use it without any problems.
This can be achieved by using a stack of liquid crystal lenses – the liquid material inside can change its optical properties when a current passes through it. Apple says in the patent documents that such a system can also help people with various vision problems, such as presbyopia (inability to focus at a certain distance).
The clever system manages to circumvent one big obstacle that lies before smart glasses technology – users with regular prescription glasses. Using another pair of smart glasses on top of your prescription glasses is far from comfortable, and manufacturers normally would have to offer different models with different dioptric parameters to suit every consumer out there. Using this futuristic adjustable lens system could not only make smart glasses much more comfortable and approachable but help advance vision-correction technology.
Bear in mind, though, that Apple (and every other big tech company) files for hundreds of patents every year. Seeing this cool feature on paper doesn’t mean that the actual product will have it onboard. Let’s quickly browse through all Apple Glasses patents that we’ve unearthed so far. One of the latest and most futuristic patents so far was the “Direct retinal projector.” As the name suggests, Apple is looking for ways to project the image directly onto the user’s retina.
Another cool patent from last year describes Apple Glasses adjusting to ambient lighting, decreasing the ambient light in order to boost the brightness of the projected image. Much less high-tech was the patent filing describing how Apple Glasses could be used to unlock other gadgets nearby – most wearable devices already have such functionality.
The rumored self-cleaning feature of the Apple Glasses is far more interesting. The patent involved describes a way to “shake” the device free of dust using vibration.
Finally, another patent filing showed how Apple Glass might detect sound and direct you to its origin. That might turn out to be a very useful feature for a device you wear on your head and look (kinda) through it.
Plastic or metal frames
Two 8K resolution displays
120Hz refresh rate
Wi-Fi 6E connectivity
LiDAR in the frame
Gesture and voice controls
UI called Starboard
Adjustable lenses
Price: $499
Release date: 2025
A major Apple Glass leak revealed a $499 price, and also suggested an announcement date sometime in Q3/Q4 2021, which is clearly not happening. According to tech analyst and insider Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple Glasses won’t be ready until 2025.
Not every iOS update is chock full of features. Today, Apple released iOS 15.2.1 and iPadOS 15.2.1 to fix a couple of minor issues. The update fixes a bug that caused Messages not to load photos sent via an iCloud link. It also exterminates a bug that prevented third-party CarPlay apps from responding to inputs.
To update your iPhone or iPad go to Settings > General > Software Update. If you’re a member of the Apple Beta Software Program, you will also receive a link to download and install the second betas of iOS 15.3 and iPadOS 15.3. It’s been three weeks since the first beta versions of iOS 15.3 and iPadOS 15.3 were released, and about a month since iOS and iPadOS 15.2 were dropped by Apple.
Thus far, it isn’t clear what we might expect from the upcoming iOS 15.3 update although there are some new features that are expected from Apple such as the ability to put Digital IDs in the Wallet app. States (in alphabetical order) that have agreed to offer this include: Arizona, Georgia, Connecticut, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Oklahoma, and Utah. Florida is reportedly in talks to be included.
Apple first discussed putting Digital IDs inside the Wallet app back at WWDC seven months ago. This feature was not found in both beta 1 and beta 2 of iOS 15.3 and iPad OS 15.3
Another feature that could come to iPadOS 15.3 is called Universal Control. This allows iPad and Mac users to control their devices using the same keyboard and mouse. It is now scheduled to be released this spring following a delay.
Apple originally called for a fall 2021 release of Universal Control but had to push back the release date. With that in mind, we might not see this surface on a stable release until iPadOS 15.4 is pushed out by Apple.
This update is too minor to join the Apple Beta Software Program for, but anytime you don’t want to wait to try out an upcoming iOS feature, you can enter the program and receive beta updates OTA. Remember though, most beta updates are not stable and you could find that your most important iOS capabilities are incapacitated. Or, you might find that the beta update has your device drinking battery juice like Andy Capp consumes ale.
If you can’t wait for the stable update to be disseminated, you can quit the beta program and install a backup that you created in iTunes before entering the beta program. You’re still going to lose the data created since you made the backup. Another option is to factory reset your device which is one thing that this writer compares to the sound of scratching nails on a blackboard.
Or, you can join the beta program, install the beta software, and simply quit the beta program when the next stable build of the software is released to the public. For example, let’s say you must have (for some reason) iOS 15.3 while it is still being tested. So you go to the Apple Beta Software site and install iOS 15.3 beta 2. And you sit through beta 4 and by beta 5 the battery life of two hours and twenty minutes (just an exaggeration because we don’t know what the battery life will be on beta 4 and beta 5 or even if there will be a beta 4 and beta 5) is driving you batty.
As we said, if you have a fairly recent backup to load, things might not be so bad. But if you forgot to create a backup and don’t feel like performing a factory reset, you can stay in the beta program until the next public version of iOS is available which in this scenario would be iOS 15.4.
If that is your game plan, you can quit the beta program and install iOS 15.4 by going to Settings > General >Profiles & Device Management. Select iOS 15 & iPadOS 15 Beta Software Profile, and tap on Remove Profile. Once that is complete, you would update to the next stable release (iOS 15.4 in this example).
It appears that Uber has ended support for its Apple Watch app. Many users noticed that they no longer have the ability to use Uber’s Apple Watch app to order a ride.
When a user opens Uber’s Apple Watch app, the app displays a message that Uber no longer supports this app and suggests users use the mobile app instead.
Confusingly, although Uber’s Apple Watch app doesn’t work anymore, it is still available in the App Store and can still be downloaded and installed. Uber also didn’t reflect the change on its support site. The support site still says that users can use Uber’s Apple Watch app to order a ride.
In 2015, Uber launched its app for the Apple Watch, which always had a few limitations compared to the iPhone version. Uber’s Apple Watch app didn’t support uberPOOL for sharing a ride with someone headed in the same direction as you. Uber’s Apple Watch app also lacked the fare splitting option and the ETA sharing feature through which you can share your trip details with friends or family. You also couldn’t use your Apple Watch to contact the Uber driver.
It appears that users were unhappy with the way Uber’s Apple Watch app worked. Users on Reddit have complained about the little information the Apple Watch version offered. A Reddit user also mentioned having “bad experiences” with Uber drivers owing to the inability to select a destination via their Apple watch when ordering an Uber.
Uber is not the first to end support for its Apple Watch version of the app. Back in 2018, Uber’s competitor Lyft pulled out its Apple Watch app from the app store and ended its support.
Around 2020, Uber also silently ended the support for its wearOS version of the app. Users then had reported the inability to log into the app. Many users had also complained about having various problems with the wearOS version. Some users even had said that Uber’s wearOS app never really worked for them. It is possible that due to the numerous issues the Uber wearOS app had, many users preferred using the mobile version instead. And if this is the case, there is no surprise why Uber decided to stop supporting the WearOS app.
Apple’s first genuinely new product in a while is expected to see the light of day in the second half of 2022, and it is the alleged AR/VR headset. The rumor mill has been spilling out all kinds of reports and rumors about the device, one of which reveals Apple’s intent for its implementation.
More recently, a new report from the well-known and respected tech analyst Ming-Chi Kuo pulls the curtains yet even more. He claims that the headset will be powered by the same 96W USB-C power adapter that comes with the MacBook Pro.
At first glance, this piece of information might seem boring or even unworthy of being mentioned. However, it could be a showing sign of the power that stands behind Apple’s mixed reality wearable product. Previous rumors say that it will be rocking a Mac-level computing power, which would explain the big power adapter.
To be more precise, Kuo has stated that there will be two processors that will contribute to the headset’s capabilities: a 5nm chip and a 4nm one, supposedly manufactured by TSMC. He also says that one of the chips will be similar in performance to that of the M1 SoC, while the other will be responsible for all the sensors.
Needless to say, this first iteration will likely be a very niche product, going for insane amounts of money and reserved for the early adopters and developers. That is why Apple is said to make only a small number of them for 2022.
That being said, Kuo predicts that the next generation will enter the market with a more competitive price point and slowly become more affordable and available. Tim Cook, Apple’s current CEO, has expressed a tremendous interest in the technology. Significant amounts of investments are being made in both VR and AR, so both are probably here to stay and have some part to play in the future
The first of its kind, a law preventing app market operators—the likes of Apple and Google—from necessitating app developers to use specific payment systems were imposed by Korea’s National Assembly in September 2021. Today, on January 11, 2022, Apple has agreed to the regulation and will allow payment systems different from its own in the App Store.
Apple did not say the exact fee it will be charging app developers for using an outside payment system, but it did say it will be lower than that for its own, which is 30 percent. The exact commission rate for outside payments and the date on which it will be implemented will be determined after discussions with Korea’s ICT regulator are finished, said the tech giant.
Google agreed to the new regulation a bit earlier, back on December 18. It charges 26 percent for outside payments. It’s expected that Apple will decide on a similar percentage as well.
While this might seem like a huge win for app developers, and it is a win, some industry officials are concerned about whether there will be any substantial effects. One such official said that, in actuality, it is much easier and more convenient for developers to use the payment systems that Apple or Google offer, for example, than to do that with outside ones.
A good example of that is the payment system of Korea’s own One Store market operator. Even though it charges only 5 percent commission for using outside payment methods and 20 percent for its in-house one, developers choose to use the latter.
The regulation, therefore, does not help app developers at all. It will only end up burdening app users because app developers will reflect commissions charged for payment systems at the prices of their apps. But this is the furthest a government can regulate, given that most countries operate under a capitalist system.
No matter how effective things turn out to be, the successful implementation of the regulation itself is enough of a big step on its own. It is the first domino to be pushed and could likely be the one to set a chain reaction across other countries that will try and achieve the same goal in their way.
After discontinuing the Beats Powerbeats wireless earbuds, Beats EP wired on-ear headphones, and high-end Beats Solo Pro wireless on-ear headphones just a couple of months ago, Apple appears to have also pulled the Beats Pill+ plug more recently.
This was of course a long time coming, as the portable Bluetooth speaker made its commercial debut all the way back in 2015, but seeing the $229 product officially and permanently going away is still notable for a number of different reasons.
First and foremost, as you can easily notice, the disappearance of the Pill Plus leaves both the official Beats website and Apple’s own US e-store without a single Beats-branded speaker option. This bad boy was also the first of its kind to see daylight after the Dre-founded company was acquired by the Cupertino-based tech giant in 2014 in exchange for a whopping $3 billion.
That highlights the minimal attention Apple gave its audio-focused subsidiary all these years, at least on the surface. Of course, the Beats name was at one point rumored to go extinct altogether for marketing purposes, which hasn’t yet happened and is unlikely to happen anytime soon given that the true wireless Studio Buds and Fit Pro earbuds are still under a year old.
The only speaker Apple is selling at the time of this writing is the in-house $99 HomePod Mini, which features significantly more advanced technology than the Beats Pill+ in a few key departments while forcing its users to hug a wall at all times.
If that sounds too inconvenient, you might be happy to know the fully portable battery-powered Pill Plus is still available (in presumably limited numbers) from major US retailers like Walmart or Target at or around its original list price.
Then again, our complete roundup of the best portable Bluetooth speakers money can buy includes several great alternatives at comparable or lower prices, all of which are alive, kicking, and younger than Apple’s Beats Pill+.
In a story written by Apple itself, the company today revealed how its Services unit fared in 2021. This is the business segment that Apple started to rely on after iPhone shipments peaked in 2015 and with the number of active iPhone units worldwide now at 1 billion, Apple decided to focus on offering Services, many with recurring subscription plans such as Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple News+, Apple Fitness+, Apple Arcade, and others.
This was a brilliant strategy and here’s why. If Apple can’t sell an iPhone user a new iPhone, it can still get him/her hooked on Apple Music, or Apple News. And with one billion iPhones still being used, the odds are that Apple is going to earn plenty of recurring income each month. And this doesn’t include Services such as Apple Pay from which Apple takes a small percentage of the amount of a transaction being paid for with the service.
Apple created a goal in fiscal 2017 of reaching $50 billion in Services revenue by fiscal 2020. It was a goal that Apple took seriously and not only did it hit the target, by fiscal 2021 Apple generated $68 billion in Services revenue.
There are other apps available that collect huge sums of money even if not all of these revenues are recurring. The App Store is a good example of that. Some apps require one-time payments and others do ask for monthly payments; either way, Apple takes its 15% to 30% cut. App Store sales soared to record heights this year during the period between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve leading the way for double-digit year-over-year growth in revenue
For calendar 2021, the top paid app in the App Store was Procreate Pocket, an app that allows users to sketch and paint on iPhone handsets. That was followed by HotSchedules (a business app), The Wonder Weeks, TouchRetouch, and Facetune. The top five paid games in the App Store included Minecraft, Heads Up!, Bloons TD 6, Monopoly, and Geometry Dash.
Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Services said, “Apple’s world-class portfolio of services proved essential in 2021, as people worldwide sought new ways to keep entertained, informed, connected, and inspired. With over 745 million paid subscriptions, Apple continues to connect the world’s developers, artists, and storytellers with users across more than a billion devices, delivering powerful tools, content, and experiences that enrich their lives in profound ways every day.”
Apple Music had a big year in 2021 with 90 million tunes now available to stream in lossless audio. Spatial audio allows music to be delivered in that 3D space around the listener’s head. Music sounds like it is coming from the front, the back, and the sides of the user. Other new features added to Apple Music this past year included autoplay, lyrics share, city charts (featuring the top songs in 100 cities), motion cover art, enhanced search, Shared with You (which bundles together content sent to you by your contacts), and the revised Listen Now tab.
Apple says that its Apple News app has been the number one news app in every market where it is available. Apple Pay added nine new markets including Colombia, Israel, and Mexico. Apple says that the mobile payment platform is available in approximately 60 countries and regions, and has 9,000 bank partners worldwide.
Apple Wallet in 2021 added the ability to store COVID-19 vaccination cards in the secure digital wallet and in 200 cities worldwide, tapping an iPhone or Apple Watch will allow commuters to pay for their train and bus fare. And college students can digitally store their campus identification on their wallet apps.
Continuing to rise from the ashes of a horrible release, Apple Maps added amazingly detailed 3D maps, “custom-designed landmarks, and a beautiful nighttime mode with a moonlit glow that activates at dusk.” These detailed “City Experience” maps are available to iPhone and CarPlay users in London, Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia, San Diego, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. Later this year these maps will also be available in Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver.
And lastly, in 2021 Apple One became available in more locations. These plans bundle popular Apple Services into one monthly payment. For example, the Individual Plan offers Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, and 50GB of Apple iCloud+ for $14.95 per month saving users $6 per month. The Family Plan offers the same services albeit with a bit more iCloud storage (200GB) for $19.95 per month saving subscribers $8 monthly.
And for $29.95 each month, the Premier Plan comes with Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, 2T.
For a short period of time today, Apple’s stock market valuation exceeded three trillion dollars. The tech company and iPhone manufacturer hit that valuation when it topped $182.856 a share on Monday, briefly reaching a new high at $182.88. By closing time, the stock had dropped back to $182.01. Apple’s shares rose $4.44 on the first trading day of the new year.
Remember the early days of the pandemic when investors dumped big tech names like Apple? Since its pandemic low, Apple’s stock has tripled adding two trillion dollars in market capitalization. Apple’s shares are up 41% since the start of last year making it one of the best performers among the Dow Industrials.
You might recall the race that Apple had with Amazon more than three years ago to see which firm would be the first U.S. publicly traded firm to reach $1 trillion in value. Apple hit that mark on August 2nd, 2018. After hitting that mark, Apple’s shares declined 30% as it cleared the decks in anticipation for its run to a two trillion dollar valuation which it hit on August 19th, 2020.
Apple has all engines on “go” right now with the iPhone 13 series continuing to be red hot, and with iPads selling well thanks to the never-ending pandemic. The Apple Watch remains the world’s top-selling timepiece and next year Apple is expected to enter the mixed reality space with a new headset. Interestingly, the company has seen its valuation surge by a factor of nine since the death of co-founder and co-CEO Steve Jobs from pancreatic cancer in 2011.
Ironically, at the time he passed, Jobs owned just a small amount of Apple shares. His fortune came from an 8 percent stake in Disney that he received from the $7.4 billion acquisition of Pixar by Disney in 2006. Based on the current valuation of Disney, Jobs would be worth $22 billion today which is well behind the $226 billion that Elon Musk is reportedly worth. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is believed to be worth $202 billion (you don’t suppose that Bezos still uses an Amazon Fire Phone, do you?)
Tech stocks, including Apple, played a big role in the 27% gain earned by the S&P 500 last year. Apple, Tesla, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Alphabet combined to produce a 31% increase.
The Journal’s iconic “Heard On The Street” column noted that it has taken nine months for Apple to tack on its latest trillion bucks in valuation even though the prospects for the company haven’t changed during that time period. In fact, the Journal mentions research firm Visible Alpha and its forecast that iPhone unit sales will rise only 1% this year compared with 24% last year.
This is not a short-term slowdown say analysts surveyed by FactSet. Over the next three years, Apple will grow its top line by only 5% a year putting Apple dead last among other tech giants including Amazon. The latter’s valuation is $1.3 trillion less than Apple’s even though the Echo manufacturer garnered 25% more revenue than Apple last year
Amazon is also expected to see its revenue grow 16% a year over the next three years compared to the aforementioned 5% for Apple. Apple’s products and services are doing quite well but the iPhone still makes up half of its revenue and has benefited from deals offered by the carriers looking to get more 5G phones into customers’ hands.
Apple certainly enjoyed a bountiful fiscal 2021 with revenue up 33% to $365.8 billion, meaning that the company took in one billion clams each and every day. That was a company record, by the way, and operating income soared 64% to $108.9 billion. This was the first time Apple produced a double-digit growth rate in three years.
Once Apple’s shares stabilize over three trillion dollars, it will be time to watch out for the rise to four trillion. However, one day the growth just won’t be there and then it truly will be the time to see what Apple has under its sleeves as the next big thing.
A new Apple patent, published by the US Patent & Trademark Office, may enable iPhones to charge accessories through their screen glass.
According to the patent drawings, wireless charging may be functional on one section of the screen while the other stays usable. However, it is unknown whether the charging area of the screen would display anything while the accessories are being charged. The applicable accessories must also support wireless charging in order to charge through the wireless charging screen.
The “Through-Display Wireless Charging” patent may only support accessory charging. So, if Apple incorporates this patent into its iPhones and iPads, they may be able to charge such as earphones, smartwatches, or styluses, for example through their screens, rather than other smart devices.
The wireless charging screen may be especially useful when using the Apple Pencil. When a user finishes working with the Apple Pencil, they may simply place the pencil on the screen of their iPhone or iPad to begin charging it.
Currently, you can charge your second-generation Apple Pencil wirelessly, but in order to do that, you need to attach it to the right side of your iPad.
Earlier this month we told you that Apple and the Chinese government signed a secret deal valued at $275 billion. Apple reportedly made the payment to prevent the Communist Chinese government from taking regulatory actions against the company. And as we noted in our story about the payment, Apple is now receiving favored treatment in the country.
According to The Information, since the deal was made, Apple has turned to more supply chain partners from China in order to keep up the end of the deal it made with the country. For example, a year after the $275 billion deal was made, Apple had China’s Luxshare assemble AirPods and it has pulled orders from long-time iPhone assembler Foxconn and gave them to Luxshare. The report notes that Apple’s deal with Luxshare raises the latter’s status placing it among Apple suppliers who assemble a finished product and also handle the packaging.
With Luxshare’s star on the rise, Foxconn is understandably getting nervous about the possibility of losing Apple’s business. So, it has assembled a team to study the company which we told you about over two years ago.
Over the last 10 years, Apple has been sending its engineers to work with Chinese companies to help them learn how to build its products. Apple is acutely aware that it needs to maintain a certain reputation in China, especially since the country is responsible for 20% of its business. It also is the largest market in the world for smartphones followed by India and the U.S.
In a way, replacing Foxconn with Luxshare for iPhone production is a risky move by Apple since U.S.-Chinese trade relations remain volatile and you never know when the Commerce Department might decide to punish more companies in the country outside of Huawei. Currently, Luxshare manufactures some iPhone 13 models, AirPods, and the Apple Watch.
If there is one country that Apple is heavily relying on, it is Taiwan. In addition to having Taiwan-based firms like Foxconn, Wistron, and Pegatron build its important devices, Apple is the largest customer of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the foundry that builds the chips used in Apple products. There is some concern that China might seek to “takeover” Taiwan.
But does Apple have anything to worry about here? After all, $275 billion goes a long way and that payment seems to have provided Apple with special favors and could protect the company even in the unlikely event that China attempts to take control of Taiwan and the country’s tech manufacturers.
When the deal with China was made, Apple CEO Cook signed a 1,250-word “memorandum of understanding” between Apple and a Chinese government agency called the National Development and Reform Commission. Apple received some exemptions from regulations in the country while it helped the Chinese develop “the most advanced manufacturing technologies.”
Apple also agreed to use more components from Chinese suppliers, sign deals with software firms in the country, make direct investments in Chinese tech companies, work on research with universities based in China, train the country’s most talented tech workers, and more. And this is where Luxshare comes in. As far back as October 2020, Beijing felt that Luxshare was an up-and-coming company that could help China’s standing in the global tech industry and it wanted Apple to help prop up the firm.
At the time that Reuters made its report in 2020, one of its sources said, “Luxshare is set to rise … it’s just a matter of how fast it could be. It makes sense for China to build up its own supply chain and Luxshare is in line with that state policy.”
Designed to act as a key finder that helps people find lost objects, the AirTag is surely one of Apple’s most controversial products. Although the Cupertino-based company included various technologies on the AirTag to prevent unwanted tracking or stalking, it’s still very easy to bypass the device’s software.
Frightening reports about people that have been tracked to their homes in order to have their cars stolen have been making headlines throughout the year. Not to mention that Android users aren’t even alerted by the built-in audible alarm that’s usually triggered by a smartphone when an AirTag is detected nearby.
Tile-like item trackers have existed before and will continue to exist, but one manufactured by Apple was deemed to attract a lot of buzzes. Although the AirTag got a lot of negative publicity, there’s no reason not to buy one as long as Apple continues to sell the Tile-like item tracker.
All the more so if you live in Japan where Apple has just launched a limited edition AirTag that celebrates the Japanese New Year. You can’t get this one from anywhere else in the world, and even if you live in Japan, just the first 20,000 customers who purchase an eligible iPhone will receive a limited edition AirTag.
The tiger logo on the limited edition AirTag signifies the year of the Tiger in Japan, which will start on January 1, 2022. You’ll have to buy an iPhone 12, iPhone 12 mini, or iPhone SE on January 2 or January 3 to qualify for the limited edition AirTag.
On top of that, customers buying various Apple products in the first few days of 2022 will receive
A tweet sent by an organized group of Apple employees has announced a walkout for Christmas Eve. The tweet, sent under an account called Apple Together, reads, “Calling all Apple workers and patrons! Tomorrow, December 24th, 2021, Apple workers are staging a walkout/callout to demand better working conditions.
The group’s members work in retail, corporate, and AppleCare and are banding together in an attempt to bring change to Apple. Another message inside the tweet asks Apple employees and others not to cross the picket line and says, ” We are Apple. We deserve a respectful workplace. We deserve paid sick time. We deserve protection on the frontlines. We deserve proper mental healthcare.”
At the bottom of the message, the group adds, “Demand that Apple upholds its image with your wallet. Don’t stop in stores. Don’t stop online.” On the AppleTogether website, the organization says, “Apple prides itself on its commitment to diversity, equity, and an environment where everyone can do their best work. But Apple has fallen short of this goal for so many of our current and former teammates, so we made space to share those stories with #AppleToo.”
Considering that Apple has closed eight stores in the U.S. and Canada since the latest COVID surge, and you might find yourself facing a picket line at some of the locations that are open, you might want to delay that visit you’ve been planning. Sure, you can always shop online but not if you want to back the striking employees.
Apple is testing out a new expansion in its iPhone 13 production near Chennai, India, in a trial contract with a Foxconn plant located in the area.
Apple first contracted the Foxconn plant to produce the iPhone 12 5G, but recently a long-winded bout of food poisoning and ongoing protests brought about a full shutdown of the plant (ordered by Foxconn itself), negatively impacting iPhone 12 5G production in the country.
However, neither the series of unfortunate events nor the temporary closure seems to have fazed Apple in the least, the company has already begun a test trial of iPhone 13 production in the same Foxconn plant.
If all goes to plan, Apple plans to not only use this new plant to provide a domestic supply of the latest iPhone flagship series but will also begin exporting units internationally by February of next year.
Even Apple has been affected by the ongoing global chip supply shortage around the world, causing some frustratingly long lead times on iPhone 13 series orders across the board—but that clearly isn’t stopping the company from continuing to expand its manufacturing facilities around the world.
If the stint with the Foxconn plant in Chennai works out, Apple reports that it should significantly improve the global supply of the iPhone 13, as about 20-30% of iPhone production in India in general (and not just in the Chennai plant) ends up being exported internationally.
Although iPhone sales in India have been favoring the slightly older iPhone 12 and iPhone 11 models, the iPhone 13 demand has also already proved greater than the current supply has been able to cover within the country.
With the new domestic Foxconn plant contracted by Apple, Market tracker IDC India’s research director Navkendar Singh has reported that this should finally help cover local demand in India more efficiently, besides improving the global supply:
“A lot of local production scaling up will depend on component availability,” he said. “The local production of iPhone 13 in India may ease a bit the low supplies in the country.”
When Apple released iOS and iPadOS 15 three months ago, iPhone and iPad users with vision problems were upset. The update took away several commands that allowed Siri to help those with poor vision play their voicemail, recite their call history list, send an email, and more. This was a slap in the face to iPhone and iPad users who have vision problems and who relied on help from Siri to use their devices.
Well, the good news is that the other day, with the release of iOS 15.2, Apple returned the following commands to Siri’s vocabulary:
Hey Siri, do I have any voicemails?
Hey Siri, play my voicemail messages.
Hey Siri, check my call history.
Hey Siri, who called me?
Hey Siri, send an email.
Hey Siri, send an email to (name of person).
Before the release of iOS 15.2, asking Siri any of those questions resulted in this response from Apple’s digital assistant: “Sorry, I can’t help with that.” Talk about adding insult to injury. But now, when you ask Siri to perform one of the above tasks, she will gladly do so.
Several bug fixes were part of iOS 15.2 including one that prevented Siri from working when using the VoiceOver feature with your iPhone locked. VoiceOver is another feature found in Settings > Accessibility and it allows a person to use his iPhone even if he can’t see the screen through the use of hand gestures. The update also exterminated a bug that made ProRAW images appear over-exposed in third-party editing apps.
Other bugs that were killed off in iOS 15.2 include one that prevented video streaming apps from loading content on iPhone 13 series models, one that posted calendar events on a wrong day for Microsoft Exchange users, one that didn’t update Now Playing information for certain apps while using CarPlay, and one that again in CarPlay, wouldn’t allow HomeKit scenes that include a garage door to run when your iPhone is locked.
To update your iPhone to iOS 15.2 and iPad to iPadOS 15.2, go to Settings > General > Software Update.
