Apple

According to rumors out of Taiwan, Apple is eyeing the gaming PC market and plans to release a gaming-focused computer next year. The rumor claims the device will cost up to US $5000 but doesn't offer much information. The rumor doesn't even say whether the gaming computer will be a desktop or laptop.

B&H is discounting MacBook Pros by as much as US$1850 as part of their Mega Deal Zone promotion. The entry level 13-in MacBook Pro (2018) is available for just $1299, while the top-tier Core i9 15-in model is selling for $2699. The sale ends on 31st December at 11:59 EST.

A lawsuit was recently filed against Apple, claiming that the company engaged in willful patent violation. The issue at hand is that the Apple Watch Series 3 allegedly violates a patent filed by Dr. Joseph Wiesel with regards to atrial fibrillation detection technology.

Taiyo Yuden, one of Apple’s capacitor suppliers, indicated that capacitor demand may increase next year due to the introduction of 5G iPhones. The capacitor maker has seen profits rise this year on the back of increased capacitor sales to Samsung and Huawei, both of which introduced 5G phones. A 2020 5G iPhone may take Taiyo Yuden’s shares to even greater heights.

Jony Ive, Apple’s former design head, made a $129,000 contribution to the Daily Mail’s “Be a Tree Angel Campaign.” The campaign, running over the course of National Tree Week, seeks to spread awareness and enhance the UK’s green cover.

Ookla, the organization behind speedtest.net, has launched a free VPN. Speedtest VPN is a free virtual private network service, currently only for users of the Speedtest Android and iOS apps. The VPN is currently in beta and caps users' bandwidth, but a paid tier is coming once the VPN exits beta.

Following a damning New York Times report, popular chat app ToTok was pulled from the Google Play Store. The report indicated that the app was UAE government spyware masquerading as a chat app to monitor the personal information of millions of users.

Apple suppliers Goertek and Luxshare are reportedly seeking financing to invest in Vietnamese AirPods Pro manufacturing. In the context of the ongoing US-China trade war and rising wages in China, this marks another instance of production shifting from China to neighbouring lower-wage countries.

Japanese publication Macotakara got their hands on what is allegedly an iPhone 12 case mockup. The design appears to conform closely to predictions that analyst Ming Chi-Kuo made earlier, including an iPhone 4-like edge design.

Sony's image sensor business is in high demand. Even running its factories 24/7 cannot keep up with demand. Sony's semiconductor business expects to generate over US $9 billion in revenue this year, about $8.15 billion of which comes from smartphone camera sensors.

The iPhone XR topped global sales charts in the third quarter of 2016, marking its fourth consecutive quarter at the top, according to Counterpoint Research. Other entrants in the top 10 global sales charts for 2019Q3 include Samsung's mid-range handsets (the Galaxy A series), a trio of Oppo phones, Xiaomi, and Huawei.

iFixit recently took on the new Mac Pro and rated it 9 out of 10 for repairability. A “Fixmas miracle,” the 2019 model is far easier to repair than older “trashcan” Macs. Together with the new public repair manuals, servicing is more user-friendly than ever.

Apple recently revamped its Apple Security Bounty program. The new Bounty program is open to all researchers and substantially ups the reward ceiling. Is this enough to help Apple find critical iOS and macOS vulnerabilities in time?

OWC has unveiled its 64 or 128GB RAM stick kits for the new Mac Pro. They come in 768GB to 1.5TB SKUs, meaning a user can match Apple's factory maximum with this third-party memory. However, this option may also enable some savings.

Third quarter financial results show that Apple continues to reign supreme in the smartphone space. Reports indicate that Apple secured over half of the industry's profits and one-third of its revenue.

Reports indicate that Apple is keen on investing in satellite technology. If the company’s under-wraps satellite project succeeds, data transfer to iDevices could be possible without the internet. In an era of increased digital surveillance, this could provide users with greater control over their own data.

Surnamed "Northern Wind," this year's last major update to War Thunder comes with a full aircraft tech tree and two premium tanks for Sweden alongside two new naval maps, a few solid graphics engine upgrades — including Ray Traced Global Illumination and HDR support, as well as over a dozen of new ships, aircraft, and vehicles for other nations.

Opera released a variant of its browser optimized for gaming earlier this year. Now, it has announced that the same app, known as GX, is compatible with macOS as well as Windows. Therefore, those using such systems can now use features such as Twitch support and network limiters in their browser.

A bug in iOS 13.3 allows users to easily circumvent the Communication Limits feature. While Communication Limits is supposed to block users (specifically children) from communicating with or adding unknown or unapproved numbers, simply setting up the phone to not sync to iCloud will bypass the feature and allow users to add new numbers without verification.

Apple recently acquired control of U.K. startup Spectral Edge Ltd., a company that developer AI-based photo processing software. The software merges an infrared picture with a traditional photograph to sharpen the image and improve color balance. Apple may use this technology in future iPhones, though in its current state, it relies on infrared cameras.

Huami is a wearables OEM that has made a name for itself largely through its Amazfit brand of smartwatches. However, it has revealed that it intends to push into additional product categories next year. The company has secured a CES 2020 booth, at which its new products may be revealed.

The latest version of macOS Catalina (10.15.2) brings a slew of minor updates and bug fixes. Interestingly, the update may have fixed the speaker snap, crackle, and pop issues reported by some Macbook and Macbook Pro users, though nothing official has been stated by Apple.

The iPhone may be doing well in Western markets, but the handset saw a massive 35% year-over-year drop in shipments in China last month. This news from Credit Suisse analysts flies in the face of prior predictions from Apple and others that claimed the iPhone 11 would do well in Chinese markets due to high demand. The most likely cause for the drop in sales lies at the feet of policy; the ongoing trade war between the U.S. and China has driven iPhone prices up in the mainland, likely killing demand in the process.

At least 60% or more of US consumers aged 55 years or more favor Fitbit when buying a wearable. This is due to the demand for smartwatches and fitness trackers in the relevant age ranges. However, Apple is more popular among those aged 18 to 24.

Apple's new Mac Pro is expensive, but most of the components seem worth the asking price (for the most part). But what about the wheels? At its asking price of $400, Apple is pushing the limits of supply and demand.

Get ready for what could be the most expensive cheesegrater in your life: the new Mac Pro is here. It is now available to pre-order from Apple.com and retailers such as B&H. This new PC has configurations that go from 4- to 6-figure USD prices.

As surprising as this might be for many of us, "iPhone 11" was the only tech-related search in the global top 10 queries that people entered on Google Search this year. Ranked fifth globally, Apple's handset only managed to grab the ninth spot in the most popular Google Search topics stateside.

In addition to the significant performance boost over its predecessor of up to 12 percent, the latest driver package for AMD Radeon video cards also comes with brand new features such as Radeon Boost, Integer Scaling, and a brand-new AMD Link app. AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition also comes with a fully redesigned gaming application.

AZIO has a new RGB mechanical keyboard up for crowdfunding on Indiegogo. This one has a less retro appearance, yet is still touted to be high-end in terms of its materials and build quality. It also has the OEM's new FOKAL spinning control, which can be used for a variety of sliding-value options and also acts as a 360-degree joystick.

Apple is suing Gerard Williams III, one of the founders of Nuvia, for breaching an intellectual property contract and soliciting Apple employees to leave Apple and work at Nuvia. Williams denies that he actively recruited Apple employees and claims that Apple intruded on his privacy by reading through his personal text messages.

OPPO's Inno Day 2019 event was mostly dominated by upcoming products such as its AR headset. However, it also teased new wearables that may launch soon as well. They are a new pair of truly wireless (TWS) earbuds, as well as a square-faced smartwatch.

The update that was supposed to add a few high-tier dual-barreled tanks to the Russian tech tree sadly fails to do so, leaving the Anonymizer feature as the only big change for World of Tanks 1.7. However, Crew Directives — previously available for bonds — can now be purchased only for credits.

According to analyst Jun Zhang of Rosenblatt Securities, Apple may cut its production of the iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max by as much as 25% in both December and March due to a market shift toward 5G smartphones. However, Zhang's predictions are at odds with other analysts, who claim that the iPhone 11 family is selling quite well.

Apple is said to be planning a successor to the iPhone SE for next March, which has hitherto been referred to as the iPhone SE 2. The comparatively compact smartphone will apparently sport an iPhone 8 design, with an informed source now being cited that Apple will call it the iPhone 9.

The eSIM market is thought to be capable of growing rapidly in terms of shipment volumes until 2025. New research on the same subject now shows that its value will exceed US$700 million by the end of the year. This may be driven by their use in consumer-grade devices, as well as in newer cars and in the internet-of-things (IoT).

The panel-maker Vizio has reported that it "exceeded expectations" over the Black Friday/Cyber Monday period just gone, having sold 500,000 or more units of its smart TVs between these days in 2019. For example, it sold 87% more premium 4K UHD big-screens year-on-year (YoY) compared to the same event in 2018.

MAGFAST is a company set up to offer power accessories with an innovative magnetic interface. Its largest product is the Extreme, a charging station with 3 Qi-wireless charging coils on its top. It can also support USB type C, type A and Lightning-ported devices - as well as jump-leads for a car.

Garmin has launched its Venu wearable in the Indian market. It has a smartwatch form factor, with a round 1.2-inch AMOLED display, but also has modes to track over 20 fitness-related activities and an inbuilt coaching interface for workouts. It will go for 37490 INR (or about US$525) when it is released to Amazon.in on December 15, 2019.

Apple has finally admitted to secretly tracking the location data of iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max users. The company stated that the tracking was necessary for the Ultra Wideband (UWB) hardware in the 2019 iPhones to meet regulatory standards. Some countries require that UWB radios be disabled within their borders. Apple further stated that a future iOS update will allow users to fully disable this location tracking.

The smallest MacBook Pro released this year has an issue and one that could seemingly strike at any time. Apple has acknowledged that many MacBook Pro 13 machines released from July onwards this year are experiencing random shutdown issues, but is yet to address it with a proper solution.

Apple and Qualcomm are pushing hard into the launch of a 5G iPhone. According to Qualcomm's president Cristiano Amon, the release of a 5G-capable iPhone is the chip manufacturer's "priority number one" in their relationship with Apple. However, some roadblocks may keep a 5G iPhone from hitting markets in 2020.

Apple returns with a new MacBook Pro that addresses many of the concerns that we had about the fourth-generation models. While the MacBook Pro 16 may look an awful lot like its 15-inch predecessor, Apple has made several tweaks that make it a pleasure to use.

Due to copious amounts of data collected by Google from smartphones running Android, iPhones are often seen as a more privacy-conscious option. One of the key comparisons is the relative ease of disabling all location requests on iPhone, compared to the various hoops you must jump through on Android, but that appears to be less clear-cut with the iPhone 11 Pro.

The new Snapdragon 865 was unveiled yesterday. The device has now been benchmarked on an outdated version of Geekbench. Recorded scores show it throwing blows with the Apple A12 Bionic, matching the Apple A13 in multi-core, while equalling the Exynos 9825 in single-core and destroying it in multi-core.

Two new rumours about next year's iPhones are doing the rounds, and they imply that Apple is considering making its smartphones better value for money. Heresy, right?

Some subscription-based streaming platforms have become huge for a number of reasons, the total lack of ads being one of them. However, there are emerging alternatives that reinstate this potential disadvantage back in return for no monthly fee. Research has shown that their uptake in the United States has increased by nearly 10% over the last 12 months.