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Tech Update

Apple, Xiaomi Lead Wearables Market Surge: IDC

by onkar
written by onkar

The global market for wearable tech surged in the third quarter, fueled by the Apple watch and gains from Chinese manufacturers, a market tracker said Thursday.

The research firm IDC said some 21.7 million wearables were sold in the past quarter, a jump of 197 percent.

Fitness tracker maker Fitbit maintained the top spot with a 22.2 percent market share and unit sales of 4.7 million, according to IDC.

Although Apple has not disclosed sales of the smartwatch which went on sale earlier this year, IDC estimated the tech giant sold 3.9 million units for a market share of 18.6 percent.

Chinese electronics firm Xiaomi vaulted into third place with a 17.4 percent market share, as unit sales surged more than 800 percent, IDC said.

Garmin, the Swiss maker of GPS equipment and consumer technology, was the number four vendor with a 4.1 percent share, followed by Chinese electronics firm BBK at 3.1 percent.

“The early stages of the wearables market have led to tight competition among the leading vendors, and Chinese vendors have seized upon market momentum to grab market share,” said IDC analyst Ramon Llamas.

“China has quickly emerged as the fastest-growing wearables market, attracting companies eager to compete on price and feature sets. In addition, multiple vendors have experimented with a broad range of products and applications.”

IDC said Fitbit led the market with its Fitbit Charge and Fitbit Surge fitness trackers, making gains in the corporate wellness market.

Apple managed a slight increase from the previous quarter, mostly the result of additional markets coming on line, according to IDC.

Xiaomi’s inexpensive Mi Band was a hit in the past quarter, with more than 97 percent of its sales in China, the research firm said.

Garmin held a strong position by focusing on wearables for running, golf, swimming, hiking, and aquatics while BBK and its XTC subsidiary focused exclusively within China, and with just one device, a children’s phone watch, IDC said.

[“source-gadgets.ndtv”]

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Internet

Apple, Facebook strategies could kill the open internet, Mozilla says

by onkar
written by onkar

Mozilla makes the popular Firefox web browser.
Mozilla has a warning for web users: the push by some companies to squeeze ever more internet consumption into apps risks undermining the neutral, public internet.
The urge to caution comes amid a widening debate over the way clunky advertisements and behavioural trackers have slowed down the web and introduced security risks for unsuspecting users. Companies including Apple and Facebook have rolled out their own ways of coping with the problem, from introducing support for ad-blocking in iOS to a special feature in Facebook’s mobile app, called instant articles, which hosts web content on Facebook’s servers to speed loading times.
Though well-intentioned, moves such as these could create new gatekeepers and silos of information access online, said Mozilla, which produces the popular Firefox web browser.
“I would definitely say that’s something we’d be concerned about,” Chris Riley, Mozilla’s head of public policy, said in an interview. “We are strong believers in the power of the web as a generative and pro-innovation environment.”
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By circumventing the flawed internet with technical workarounds that drive more web users to proprietary platforms, Silicon Valley firms could fragment the open internet — and draw focus away from the key principles Mozilla says should motivate tech companies. For example, companies should improve the web’s overall performance and security instead of blocking or banning specific types of content, such as advertising. They should also offer users “meaningful controls,” according to a blog post Mozilla published recently.
“If content blocking creates new gatekeepers who can pick winners and losers in the publishing space or who favour their own content over others’, it ultimately harms competition and innovation,” the post read.
Facebook declined to comment on the matter, and Apple didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Other companies have sought to speed up the internet by stripping away all but the most important code in a web page. This is the logic underpinning Accelerated Mobile Pages, a project by Google. Web sites that use Google’s code not only stand to load more quickly for technical reasons, but the faster speed also may cause those pages to be ranked higher in Google searches.
Efforts to carve up the web with alternative services that circumvent the internet, or specific parts of it, would lead to the “slow death of the Web,” predicted the Verge’s Nilay Patel.
“So it’s Apple vs Google vs Facebook, all with their own revenue platforms,” said Patel. “Google has the web, Facebook has its app, and Apple has the iPhone. This is the newest and biggest war in tech going today.”
It’s a war that Mozilla is trying to stop.
“If we can’t figure out how to improve consumer trust, our industry is in for a very, very difficult future,” Riley said. “We’re at sort of the precipice of a broad understanding of the threats to consumer trust going forward, and content blocking is one major piece of that.”
He added, “I do think there are going to be opportunities to work within the tech industry to build a better path together.”

[“source-smh”]

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Gadgets News

Apple testing iPhones that ditch lightning ports in favor of USB-C

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

Apple to Ditch Lightning Port in Favor of USB-C on 2023 iPhones: Kuo | Beebom

Apple Inc. is testing future iPhone models that replace the current Lightning charging port with the more prevalent USB-C connector, according to people with knowledge of the situation, a move that could help the company conform with looming European regulations.

In addition to testing models with a USB-C port in recent months, Apple is working on an adapter that would let future iPhones work with accessories designed for the current Lightning connector, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the matter is private.

If the company proceeds with the change, it wouldn’t occur until 2023 at the earliest. Apple is planning to retain the Lightning connector for this year’s new models.

By moving to USB-C, Apple would streamline the collection of chargers used by its various devices. Most of the company’s iPads and Macs already rely on USB-C rather than Lightning. That means that Apple customers can’t use a single charger for their iPhone, iPads and Macs — an odd setup given Apple’s penchant for simplicity. Wireless chargers for both the iPhone and Apple Watch also use a USB-C connector for their power bricks.

Apple, based in Cupertino, California, declined to comment on the change.

The move, which analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has also predicted, would come with trade-offs — and potentially create confusion for customers. USB-C chargers are slightly larger than the Lightning connector, but can offer quicker charging speeds and data transfers. The new connectors also would be compatible with many existing chargers for non-Apple devices, like Android phones and tablets.

But the majority of Apple accessories — including AirPods, the Apple TV remote, the MagSafe battery pack and the MagSafe Duo charger — still use Lightning. The USB-C adapter in development could mitigate that issue, but it’s unclear if Apple would include that in the box or make customers pay extra for it.

There’s also a wide range of third-party accessories, such as chargers, car adapters and external microphones, that use the existing connector. A switch would force third-party providers to redesign their products.

And the shift would lessen Apple’s control over the iPhone accessories marketplace. Apple forces accessory makers to pay it to use the Lightning connector and partake in a stringent approval process. USB-C is a standard used by many consumer device makers, including most Android phone manufacturers, making it less likely that Apple will be able to exert its usual level of control.

In recent years, Apple also has worked on iPhones without any charging port, seeking to promote the MagSafe wireless charging system introduced in 2020. But a wireless connection is often slower at charging a phone’s battery and doesn’t sync data with other devices as quickly. It’s also not practical in all situations, such as the setup in some cars.

A key reason for making the change is the European Union’s decision to force phone and other device makers to adopt USB-C. In April, legislation for such a requirement was approved by a majority vote.

“Mobile phones, tablets, digital cameras, headphones and headsets, handheld video-game consoles and portable speakers, rechargeable via a wired cable, would have to be equipped with a USB Type-C port, regardless of the manufacturer,” according to the legislation.

Apple has said the European law would hurt its ability to innovate. “We are concerned that regulation mandating just one type of connector for all devices on the market will harm European consumers by slowing down the introduction of beneficial innovations in charging standards, including those related to safety and energy efficiency,” the company said last year.

Apple could conceivably release a version of the iPhone for Europe that is compliant while keeping Lightning elsewhere. But having multiple versions of the same iPhone with different connectors would probably bring even more confusion, as well as supply-chain headaches.

It’s unclear if Apple might ultimately abandon the USB-C switch if the European law fails to materialize. Many consumers have been calling for the change regardless, for the sake of simplicity.

A move to USB-C would be the second port change in the iPhone’s history. Starting with the original iPhone in 2007 through the iPhone 4s in 2011, Apple used the 30-pin iPod connector popularized years earlier. With the iPhone 5, Apple switched to the smaller Lightning port, touting its more durable design that could be inserted into the iPhone in either direction.

[“source=indianexpress”]

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Gadgets News

Apple to offer paid parental leave and more sick days to retail employees

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

Workers staff a new Apple retail store during a media preview in San Francisco, California, U.S., May 19, 2016. REUTERS/Noah Berger

Apple will expand benefits for all of its retail employees in the US, beginning April 4th. Bloomberg reports the new benefits include increased vacation and sick days, paid parental leave and more. It will impact both full-time and part-time employees across all 270 Apple Stores nationwide.

The tech giant’s offer of more generous benefits didn’t come out of the blue. Apple, like many corporations, is having a tough time recruiting and retaining hourly workers in a tight labor market. A number of media outlets, including The Verge, Gizmodo, 9to5Mac and others have reported on the grim realities of Apple’s retail operations, which include low pay, stressful workloads and low employee morale. Staffing shortages due to Covid-19 led to many stores operating on reduced hours or closing altogether. Dozens of Apple employees staged a Christmas Eve walkout in order to protest their working conditions. The testimony of these workers presents a stark contrast to Apple’s financial standing during the pandemic, which has produced several consecutive record-breaking quarters.

Apple will double the number of paid sick days for both full-time and part-time employees. Full-time retail employees will receive 12 sick days instead of six. The company will also be more lenient in granting sick leave, allowing workers to use sick leave for mental health days or in order to take family members to the doctor. Part-time workers will also receive paid vacation days and paid parental leave for up to six weeks.

The company’s benefits expansion follows similar moves by Amazon, Walmart and Fedex to retain hourly and front-line employees. Thousands of frontline workers have since quit or retired due to stressful and dangerous working conditions during the Covid-19 pandemic. But labor rights advocates point out that many of these improvements, such as bonuses or hazard pay, are either temporary or have since been rolled back.

[“source=engadget”]

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Education

Making the Grade: What’s the state of Apple in education in 2019?

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

Apple’s long had an interesting in their products being used in primary, secondary, and university settings. I believe this is partly due to the revenue opportunities (including e-rate), but I also know that Apple truly does care about the learning environment of students. One thing to consider for Apple is by investing in education, they are investing in their future customers and future employees. After attending the ISTE conference in Philadelphia, I have a clearer picture of where Apple is at, and where they are headed in Education. I love some of their strategies, and I have concerns about other parts, so I wanted to put all my thoughts together in a State of Apple in Education in 2019.

About Making The Grade: Every Saturday, Bradley Chambers publishes a new article about Apple in education. He has been managing Apple devices in an education environment since 2009. Through his experience deploying and managing 100s of Macs and 100s of iPads, Bradley will highlight ways in which Apple’s products work at scale, stories from the trenches of IT management, and ways Apple could improve its products for students.

In March of 2018, I attended Apple’s education event and came away less than impressed.

They need to build an “all in solution.” Apple is targeting teachers, but Google is targeting IT departments. Google is touting ease-of-management and deployment. Apple is touting new apps with Apple Pencil support.

Apple’s problems in education actually have less to do with the iPad being $299 or $259. They have a lot more to do with the story that they are framing in education being considered a pipe dream for a lot of the education market.

Education didn’t need a faster iPad. Education didn’t need Apple Pencil support. Those are great features for a consumer-friendly iPad, but education needed a clearer signal from Apple that they understand how school districts actually operate around the country and around the globe.

At the end of the day, students still have to pass standardized tests. They still have to meet all of their mandated requirements. I’m not sure an iPad with Apple Pencil support and some new GarageBand sound packs are really going to make that big of a difference as fun as they may be.

Since then, Apple has continued to double down on its “Everyone Can Create” strategy. Last fall, they released Evryone Can Create Curriculum on Apple Books.

Designed to help unleash kids’ creativity throughout their school day, Everyone Can Create teaches students to develop and communicate ideas through drawing, music, video and photos on iPad. The new, free project guides give teachers fun and meaningful tools to easily fold these skills into any lesson, assignment and subject. Everyone Can Create joins Apple’s successful Everyone Can Code initiative as one-of-a-kind programs for teachers that keep students excited and engaged.

As I’ve sat back and watched Apple and Google’s strategies from 40,000 feet, it’s clear they see education moving in different ways. Google values knowledge work (research, reports, spreadsheets, etc) where Apple values creativity (photo editing, augmented reality, music creation, podcasting, video creation, etc). Which one is right? I think modern students need a mix of both. Both types of devices (Chromebook and iPad) are well suited to the strengths of each company’s software platforms.

Going back to the ISTE conference, Apple took a unique approach this year. Instead of a booth in the Expo Hall, they took over multiple rooms in a connecting hotel to create a pop-up classroom experience. I was impressed. While Apple can often get the reputation of ignoring conferences in favor of their own events, they put in some serious effort to ISTE. Don’t take my word for it, though. I got to speak with Math teach from Texas on her thoughts:

Apple’s Pop-Up Classroom at ISTE leveraged a space theme across 6 stations of activities, transporting educators with an out-of-this-world experience. Lessons designed to utilize photo, video, music, drawing, coding, and augmented reality were shared in a playground format centered around creativity. Opportunities to interact with Apple Distinguished Educators and members of the Apple education team allowed for an irreplaceable human connection with one-on-one or small, intimate groups as participants moved at their own pace throughout the room. Personalized conversations proved inspirational as the relative magnitude of the large conference seemed a far reach from the calming environment of the Pop-Up Classroom.

This hands-on digital playground sparked creative lesson design as the participants were welcomed and encouraged to take the Apple Pop-Up Classroom Workbook, including completed tasks, with them upon exiting the experience. And, sample activities and resources to take back to school were made accessible on the Apple Teacher Learning Center at appleteacher.apple.com for everyone, including those who did not attend ISTE.

The augmented reality (AR) station in the Pop-Up Classroom highlighted the AR Makr app loaded with space-themed elements to coordinate with the rest of the stations. The possibilities for AR in schools are only restricted by the imagination. Opportunities for lesson design with AR spans storytelling to language acquisition practice, geography, re-creation of historical scenes, and mathematical scale and geometric spatial reasoning, just to name a few. – Mary Kemper, Director of Mathematics at Coppell Independent School District.

Apple ISTE
Apple ISTE 3
Apple ISTE 2

You can get a clear vision of what Apple wants education to be about. They want more of students getting to express themselves in new and exciting ways using the latest technology. I want that as well, and I think most teachers do as well. For Apple to realize that vision, they have some work to do, though. Here’s what I think Apple needs to focus on in education in 2019 and beyond.

Focus on Identity Management and App Roll Out Methods

Clever

I’ll talk about the problem of identity management in education until it’s no longer a problem. For me, it has to be a key part of Apple’s education plans in 2019 and beyond. For learning to be personalized, school districts need easier ways to deal with student login information across multiple apps. One company that is working to address this problem is Clever. Clever is a single sign-on service for K–12. Here’s the interesting pitch: it’s free for schools to use. Clever makes money by charging the applications that want to integrate with it. It’s a pretty simple pitch: Schools who use Clever get a free SSO (single sign-on) service that is geared towards education. Applications that integrate with Clever can promote ease of deployment to potential customers. It’s a win/win for everyone. Clever solves a problem that Apple school’s have. Why hasn’t Apple purchased Clever? If I was running education product marketing at Apple, I would be screaming to acquire them and make their technology at the center of the iPad deployment story. Apple’s app lineup is great, but The App Store has thousands of apps that extend the iPad even further. Clever creates a turn-key approach to app deployment and the iPad excels partly because of the App Store. Clever or Clever-like technology needs to be at the heart of Apple’s iPad story in Education. While they have launched Federated Authentication with Azure AD and Apple School Manager, this doesn’t work with schools who don’t use Azure AD or apps that don’t work with Azure AD.

Continue Desktop Class Safari Focus

As wide-ranging as the apps from the App Store is, Safari is still a crucial tool in K–12. One of the key features of iPadOS 13 is a desktop-class Safari. I wrote in June of 2018 that mobile Safari was holding the iPad back. I stand by everything in that article, and Apple looks to be addressing it. The web is an ever-changing platform, and Apple must continue to make sure Safari on iPadOS is usable for 100% of websites (including Google Drive/Docs/Spreadsheets). As important as the App Store is, school’s need to be able to count on iPad’s version of Safari just like they can with Chrome on Chromebooks. Web apps aren’t going away, and Safari needs to be a key focus of the iPadOS team for Apple to succeed in education in 2019 and beyond.

Wrap Up on Apple Education in 2019

Apple’s pricing for the iPad in K–12 is aggressive (as long as they keep updating the low cost iPad). They’ve got the app ecosystem to compete. They’ve got a vision of where they want education to go (moving away from simply knowledge work to embracing the creativity of students). Their challenge is less vision and more back-end/technical. Schools need an easier way to deploy user accounts across all of their apps. They need to continue to have access to a desktop-class Safari. If Apple keeps moving the ball forward while not forgetting the practicalities of how their products and services are deployed to the end-users, they will be well set up for continued success. Apple’s challenge in the long term is showing their products and services can be deployed and managed just as easy as Google’s can be. Google’s challenge will be expand the capabilities of ChromeOS to match the creative aspects of the iPad.

[“source=9to5mac”]

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Tech Update

Weekly Tech Recap: New Apple Services, Mission Shakti, PUBG Mobile Beta Update 0.12.0 and More

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

Image result for Weekly Tech Recap: New Apple Services, Mission Shakti, PUBG Mobile Beta Update 0.12.0 and MoreApple Announces TV+, Arcade Game Streaming, New News+ app And Updates to Apple Pay With Apple Card

The much-awaited Apple TV app update is finally here. The first addition is Apple TV Channels, which adds HBO, Showtime, Epic, Starz and more services, which can be subscribed and accessed from within the TV app. Apple will continue to curate content for individual preferences, with advanced machine learning

Huawei P30 Pro Goes Official With Quad-Cameras, 5x Optical Zoom, 4,200mAh Battery And More

The new P30 Pro was announced yesterday which offers a unique quad camera setup with the company’s SuperSpectrum 40-megapixel sensor, an optical zoom lens offering 5x zoom, and a time-of-flight (ToF) camera to capture depth.

Mission Shakti: What Exactly is an A-SAT Weapon Deployed to Defend Space Frontiers

The ‘Mission Shakti’ operation by the Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) and the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), the PM said, involved the A-SAT destroying the live satellite, all in three minutes.

Exclusive: Meet The Aspiring Doctor Who’s Also a Pro PUBG Mobile Gamer

One of the qualifying pro-PUBG Mobile players in the tournament was Angad Singh Chahal, AKA TheExper1ment. Angad is a part of team ‘The Dreamers’ which managed to reach the top 20 finalists during the India Series 2019.

BJP Supporters Dominate Ads on Facebook, And we Know Because of The Transparent Political Ads Policy

An advertiser with the name Bharat Ke Mann Ki Baat spent Rs 11,562,550 on putting out 2,498 adverts on Facebook during the month. The same advertiser also spent Rs 10,831,546 on 1,227 adverts, which ran without a disclaimer.

Apple Pushed Another Critical Service With News+, Apple Card, TV+ and Arcade, And it is Called Privacy

It has been brewing for a while. The entire privacy debate has been raging on ever since the explosive Cambridge Analytica data scandal that damaged Facebook’s credibility. Apple has often positioned itself above the rest of the tech companies, when it comes to user data privacy. Just this month, Apple pushed out a series of iPhone advertisements with the “privacy matters” pitch.

Mumbai Youth Bags Rs 1.2 Crore Package at Google’s London Office. And No, He’s Not from IIT

The coding enthusiast is currently a student of Shree LR Tiwari Engineering College, Mira Road, Maharashtra. He was called for an interview by Google after the company saw his profile on a programming website that hosts various competitive programming challenges, as per a report.

Dhanbad Scores 95.3 Percent 4G Availability, Highest Among 50 Indian Cities

According to OpenSignal’s measurements for 4G availability, Dhanbad scored 95.3 percent, becoming one of only two cities among India’s 50 cities to pass the 95 percent mark. The other city was Ranchi which scored 95 percent in 4G availability.

Sony WI-C600N Wireless Earphones Review: Impeccable Quality And Noise Cancellation, But Pricey

The company recently launched the WI-C600N wireless earphones that come with noise cancellation and support for Google Assistant. The Sony WI-C600N wireless earphones are priced at Rs 10,990. Now while I was a little sceptical about how efficient these earphones would be at blocking noise, boy was I in for a surprise.

PUBG Mobile 0.12.0 Update Beta: New Weapons, Updated Zombie Mode, Friendly Spectate And More

The new beta update for PUBG Mobile is out. We recently spotted version 0.12.0 that is rolling out globally and brings some new features, which could eventually be added to the commercial version of the game. Expect two new weapons, a new Zombie mode, friendly spectate, crosshair colour options, quick chat updates, companion eagle and more.

[“source=news18”]

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Online Marketing

Apple Resorts to Promo Deals, Trade-Ins to Boost iPhone Sales

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

Apple Resorts to Promo Deals, Trade-Ins to Boost iPhone Sales

Apple is experimenting with iPhone marketing strategies it rarely uses – such as discount promotions via generous device buyback terms – to help goose sales of its flagship product.

Company executives moved some marketing staff from other projects to work on bolstering sales of the latest handsets in October, about a month after the iPhone XS ₹ 94,322 went on sale and in the days around the launch of the iPhone XR ₹ 70,849, according to a person familiar with the situation. This person described it as a “fire drill,” and a possible admission that the devices may have been selling below some expectations. The person asked not to be identified discussing private strategy changes.

Since then, Apple has embarked on a series of aggressive trade-in offers that have temporarily reduced the cost of some of its latest iPhones, a rare step for a company that’s been raising device prices in recent years to lift revenue and profit. Apple spokeswoman Trudy Muller declined to comment.

On Sunday evening, Apple kicked these efforts into high gear, adding a new banner to the top of its website advertising the iPhone XR for $449 (roughly Rs. 31,700), $300 less than its official sticker price. The deal, noted with an asterisk and described at the bottom of the page, requires customers to trade in an iPhone 7 Plus ₹ 44,699, a high-end handset from two years ago.

Apple has lost about a fifth of its market value since the start of October on signs of waning iPhone demand. On Monday, iPhone supplier Cirrus Logic. cut its holiday quarter sales forecast 16 percent due to “recent weakness in the smartphone market.” Apple has also stopped reporting iPhone unit sales, sparking concern its most-important product is no longer growing.

The new marketing push may give holiday sales a bump and help the company with a broader goal of increasing the number of Apple devices in use. However, the approach may undermine a key bullish argument from analysts: That higher prices will make up for lackluster unit sales.

Last week, the company started offering a limited-time promotion that boosts the trade-in value of older iPhones by between an additional $25 to $100. Apple retail employees have also been told in recent weeks to mention the program more often to consumers in stores, according to another person familiar with the situation. Some Japanese wireless carriers also cut iPhone XR pricing last week by way of subsidies.

Last year, there were similar concerns about sales of the iPhone X ₹ 74,999, and the handset ended up selling well. And Apple has used similar marketing tactics before. In 2007, it cut the price of the iPhone by $200, less than three months after the device launched. When the iPhone 3G debuted in 2008, Apple worked with carriers to subsidise the cost. It has also quietly increased trade-in values for older iPhone models in the past.

Apple marketing executive Greg Joswiak tried to quell concern about sales by telling CNET last week that the iPhone XR has been the company’s best seller since it went on sale at the end of October.

Regardless of such efforts, “investors are very focused on the longer term strategy and growth outside of iPhones, given what we’ve seen now coming out of this last iPhone cycle,” Wedbush Securities analyst Daniel Ives said. “In a fearful technology environment, investors aren’t going to give Apple the benefit of the doubt.”

Apple is working on several new products and services, including an augmented-reality headset, driverless car technology, and digital offerings like original video. Analysts also expect a new business model centered on subscriptions.

Those options are riskier than the iPhone, which for a decade enticed millions of consumers to hand over hundreds of dollars for a new handset every two years like clockwork. The public hasn’t flocked to AR technology in the same way yet, while Netflix has a huge head start in digital video, Alphabet’s Waymo leads in autonomous vehicles, and Amazon.com’s Prime service has nailed subscriptions online.

“The question yet again is ‘what’s the next phase of innovation?'” Michael Olson, an analyst at Piper Jaffray, said. Apple spent $35 billion on research and development from 2016 to 2018. The technology that emerges from this huge investment “needs to become a new engine of growth,” he added.

Finding another hit like the iPhone will be almost impossible. Since Apple launched the device in 2007, it’s become one of the most successful products on Earth. The gadget generated $167 billion in revenue during Apple’s latest fiscal year, about the same as Alphabet and Walt Disney Co. combined.

Apple aims to have technology ready for an AR headset in 2019 and could ship a product as early as 2020, people familiar with the situation told Bloomberg late last year. Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook considers AR, which overlays images and data on views of the real world, as potentially revolutionary as the smartphone.

It’s unclear if the gadget will be a hit. The market is nascent, and early entrants like Google’s Glass eye wear failed. Microsoft Corp.’s HoloLens has done slightly better by focusing on business and military uses, while startup Magic Leap recently released a headset to mixed reviews.

Apple specialises in doing hardware better than early movers in consumer technology, so there’s hope. Still, the market has a long way to go to match the iPhone. There will be almost 5 million AR head-mounted displays shipped in 2022, according to researcher IDC. That compares with sales of more than 200 million iPhones a year currently.

Emerging markets offer a source of growth for Apple’s iPhone business. But the company continues to struggle in several of these regions. The holy grail of all emerging markets is India, which Cook recently said saw “flat” sales in the fourth quarter. Apple sold fewer than 1 million smartphones in the country in the first half of 2018, according to Counterpoint Research.

To crack that market, Apple may need to embrace even bigger and more-permanent iPhone discounts than the ones it’s trying in the US this holiday.

“Apple is faced with the conundrum of needing to look into the mirror and decide if they should come out with an even lower-priced iPhone,” said Ives.

[“source=cnbc”]

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Tech Update

New Apple iPad Pro review roundup: not quite ready to replace laptops

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

The early reviews of the Apple iPad Pro 11 and iPad Pro 12.9 (2018) are out, but they are a little reluctant to render a final verdict. The tablets (the big one especially with 1TB of storage) can cost a ton of money and they feature several fundamental changes, so more time is needed for definitive conclusions.

Here are some of the early impressions that agree on some points, though not all. The new Pencil and keyboard, the USB-C port and the new chipset are almost universally praised, but Apple’s new tablet still falls short of perfection in some cases.

Engadget points out that USB-C can be a game changer – the accessories you use on your Mac (e.g. a USB microphone can be used in Garageband) now work on the tablet with no adapters. Speaking of accessories, Engadget’s review was written on the Smart Keyboard Folio.

The Verge is similarly excited by USB-C, but highlights a flaw – iOS doesn’t support USB storage out of the box. Also, the port can only do one thing at a time, so you need Bluetooth headphones if using the speakers isn’t an option. The magnetic charging system of the new Pencil is great, the double tap gesture less so. Apparently artists are more used to having a button on the side.

TechCrunch disagrees and says that the double tap gesture feels natural. The keyboard proved stable and was “approved for lap use”, which is something to consider when looking at the new MacBook Air. The Pencil and keyboard were rated so highly, that TechCrunch believes your’e not getting the full iPad Pro experience without them.

LaptopMag wasn’t impressed with the 64GB base storage, the lack of a touchpad also impacts the Pro’s ability to replace a laptop. That said, that the A12X Bionic chipset is so powerful that it outperformed Core i7-based laptops in some tasks (while being thinner and lighter and offering great battery life to boot).

Wired sees the new iPad Pros as a possible but limited replacement for laptops. Multitasking, even on the larger screen, still isn’t up to par. Wired found the keyboard to be wobbly, counter to other reviewer’s impressions.

CNET also sees the accessories as necessary, but bemoans how quickly the costs add up. Software limitations and having a single port make the price harder to swallow. Face ID performance was described as “scary fast”.

Pocket-Lint found that iOS 12.1 is holding the new iPad Pros back from being proper MacBook replacements. User experience can vary quite a bit – e.g. connecting an external hard drive is possible, but unless you have the right app, you can even access the file directory. Multitasking is not on Mac OS X level yet, despite support for external 5K monitors.

Mashable is impressed by Face ID’s ability to work in any orientation (and questions why the new iPhone’s can’t do that as well), but notes a potential issue – depending on how you hold the tablet, you can cover up the TrueDepth camera with your hand.

[“source=gsmarena”]

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Gadgets News

Apple Store Robbed in Broad Daylight, Thieves Grab Products Worth USD 27,000 in Seconds

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

Apple Store Robbed in Broad Daylight, Thieves Grab Products Worth USD 27,000 in Seconds

HIGHLIGHTS

  • The robbery happened at the Fresno Fashion Fair Mall
  • The thieves managed to rob 26 Apple products
  • This included the iPhone 6, iPhone 7, iPhone 7, iPhone 8, and iPhone X

An Apple Store in California was robbed in broad daylight, with many customers in the store at the time of robbery. Four men in hooded jackets entered the Apple Store, picked up several Apple products, and fled with what is reported to be $27,000 (roughly Rs. 18,57,000) worth of goods. The robbers managed to pick up an iPhone 6, iPhone 7, iPhone 8, and even an iPhone X from the Store.

This incident happened this Saturday morning at the Apple Store located inside the Fashion Fair Mall in Fresno, California. ABC7 News reports that the group of men entered the store and started grabbing all the things they could grab from the display tables at the store. They managed to steal a total of 26 products from the store, worth $27,000. They took all the things they could, including many iPhones, and ran out of the store in a matter of seconds, all of this, while customers and Apple employees looked on.

The robbers managed to flee the spot, and the police think that the boys were not more than 18 years old. “One customer stood by the door to prevent them from leaving but was knocked out of the way. Right now we are looking for four, or five, we believe there was a getaway driver, black males anywhere from 16 to 18 years old. Various iPhones, the iPhone 6, iPhone 7 and 8, and even the new iPhone X was taken in this grand theft,” Lt. Mark Hudson of the Fresno Police Department told the publication.

[“Source-gadgets.ndtv”]

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Amazon, Google Lead Global Smart Speaker Market, With Apple at Fourth: Strategy Analytics

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

Amazon, Google Lead Global Smart Speaker Market, With Apple at Fourth: Strategy Analytics

HIGHLIGHTS

  • Amazon and Google accounted for 70 percent share of shipments
  • Apple sold 600,000 HomePods
  • With 43.6 percent share, Amazon shipped four million smart speakers

Amazon and Google accounted for 70 percent share of the global smart speaker shipments in the first quarter of 2018, with Apple selling 600,000 HomePods in the period, a new report said on Friday.

According to market research firm Strategy Analytics, global smart speaker shipments reached 9.2 million units in the first quarter.

With 43.6 percent market share, Amazon shipped an impressive four million smart speakers during the quarter though its global market share nearly halved from the same period in 2017.

Google (26.5 percent market share with 2.4 million sales) and Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba (7.6 percent market share) consolidated their number two and three rankings, while Apple with six percent share became the fourth largest smart speaker brand worldwide.

“Amazon and Google accounted for a dominant 70 percent share of global smart speaker shipments in Q1 2018 although their combined share has fallen from 84 percent in Q4 2017 and 94 percent in the year ago quarter,” said David Watkins, Director at Strategy Analytics.

This is partly as a result of strong growth in the Chinese market for smart speakers where both Amazon and Google are currently absent.

“Alibaba and Xiaomi are leading the way in China and their strength in the domestic market alone is proving enough to propel them into the global top five,” he added.

Today’s smart speakers are by no means the finished article but they have captured the consumer imagination.

“We are clearly heading towards a time in the not too distant future when voice becomes a standard mode of technology interaction alongside established approaches like keyboard, mouse and touchscreen,” Watkins said.

 

[“Source-gadgets.ndtv”]

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