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News
Kuo sees min-LEDs in Apple's future
Kuo told his investors in a research note that he think Apple will launch at least six new products with min-LEDs this year
Probably the most exciting one in my opinion is a new 14.1-inch MacBook Pro to replace the current 13-inch
In addition it's expected that an updated smaller MacBook Pro would adopt the new scissor switch Magic Keyboard Apple introduced with the 16-inch MacBook Pro last year.
The advantages of using mini-LED screen panels are that they are thinner and offer a rich wide color gamut, high contrast ratios, high dynamic range, and localized dimming.
The other products Kuo expects Apple to launch in 2020 with min-LED displays are a 12.9-inch iPad Pro, a 27-inch iMac Pro, an updated 16-inch MacBook Pro, a 10.2-inch iPad, and a 7.9-inch iPad mini
The only product he put a possible release date on was the iMac Pro which he predicts to arrive in the fourth quarter of the year.
Apple leaker CoinX, who has had some successful predictions in the past, posted on Twitter that updates to the Mac mini and iMac lines may be "coming soon"
Didn't provide any specific timeline
The Mac mini was last updated in 2018
The iMac Line got a CPU update last spring.
Most likely any updates would be simply performance upgrades bringing in new CPUs and possibly GPUs
Probably not much if any changes to the designs or port configurations.
Apple feels COVID-19 impact
As we've mentioned on past shows the iPhone 8 SE 2 (iPhone 9) has entered the final phase of verification before assembly begins
It's expected to possibly get an announcement soon, possibly at the end of March
The device is expected to have a 4.7-inch LCD screen and Touch ID with a faster A13 chip and an increased 3GB of RAM.
Starting with 64GB of storage and a USD $399 starting price.
Supplies and it's release date could be impacted by the coronavirus outbreak
In fact there was news that Apple has deferred shipments of printed circuit boards from a supplier into the second quarter
Apple retail store have reportedly been warned about short supplies on replacement iPhones according to Bloomberg.
The constraints are expected to last for two to four weeks
According to the report some stores are also noticing shortages of repair components as well.
The New York Post also claims that iPhone 11 supplies in NYC are running low
Apple had announced that they would not be attending SXSW 2020
They were going to be premiering three Apple TV+ originals at the event
The "Beastie Boys Story," "Central Park" and "Home"
Later after Apple made their announcement about not attending (and unrelated to Apple's decision) the festival organizers announced that the entire festival was being cancelled this year.
Santa Clara county is recommending that companies in the county, like Apple and Google, postpone or cancel mass gatherings.
It's likely too early fro any announcement, but this could potentially impact WWDC
Apple has also asked their to work from employees to home this week if their job allows for it
AirPods Pro "Lite"?
DigitTimes claims production will begin around early to mid April.
What "lite" means is just a guess at this point
Likely will be and update for the original Air Pods picking up the design of Air Pods Pro, but not having the active noise cancellation.
Would likely have the Wireless Charging case and retain the $199 USD price.
Possible new Apple Watch feature
9to5Mac says they have seen iOS 14 code snippets that seem to indicate a new health feature coming to an updated Apple Watch
The ability to detect blood oxygen levels
They say it's unclear at this point if the new feature would require new hardware (which I suspect) or if it could be enabled in a software update
The existing Apple Watch Series 5 hardware is believed to be capable of measuring blood oxygen level through the built-in heart rate monitor
The feature would supposedly trigger a notification to the wearer if it detects blood oxygen saturation below a certain level.
Apple is also reportedly working on improvements to the Apple Watches ECG readings
It was recently revealed that readings can be inconsistent with heart rates between 100 and 120 beats per minute.
We had also previously heard that Apple is planning to add built in sleep tracking capabilities to a future Apple Watch as well.
There seems to be a bug in some units that can cause the screen to go suddenly and permanently blank.
A brief flicker or flash may appear before the screen goes blank.
Affected devices were manufactured between March 2019 and October 2019
Any 3rd gen iPad Air experiencing this issue will be repaired by Apple or an Apple Authorized Service Provider free of charge.
The new program covers affected third-generation iPad Air models for two years after the first retail sale of the unit.
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Feedback, commentary, opinions
Not buying from Apple can shorten your warranty
At first I was in disbelief, but I was shocked to discover what listener Alan had emailed me about was true
They had purchased a set of Beats over the ear headphones from Target
There was an issue and he contacted Apple to have them repaired under the original one-year warranty.
He was told he would have to pay for the repair. When he questioned it and escalated he was asked where they item was purchased and was asked to show a receipt
He was then told he'd get a "one-time" exception for the repair.
When he asked why it was an "exception" he was told that the warranty started when Target purchased the headphones from Apple and had expired in 2019.
He was also told that this was "standard" Apple policy for all Apple products sold by 3rd party retailers (at least in the US)
Crazy, right? I thought so too and did some more research. It's almost correct.
Not surprisingly the Apple "senior" support person didn't quite give the whole story.
It is true that for Apple products sold in third party stores like Best Buy, Target, or Walmart the warranty is logged in Apple's system as beginning when the store bought the items from Apple.
The reason is that when Apple sells in bulk to these stores the inventory is no longer in Apple's system and they don't maintain any records for when those items are sold.
They do have the serial number records and it's those that get attached with that erroneous "sales" date.
So what you need to do if you purchase from any retail store that is NOT Apple
I would register the product with Apple.
Then contact Apple Support via phone or chat and ask them to retroactively change your warranty period.
You will need proof of your purchase and proof of the purchase date so be prepared to provide a purchase receipt.
Let's be frank about Apple TV+ shows
I want to hear your opinions about the shows on Apple TV+
There are a LOT of really mediocre to bad reviews out there.
This is despite shows, like The Morning Show, picking up awards in their first season and on an entirely new streaming service, which is rare.
Apple's shows scored about 69% with critics, but have scored 87% with audiences.
That's an 18% gap.
Shows on other services like Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon have between a 2-6% discrepancy
And while Apple's shows have the lowest scores among critics they have the highest scores among audiences. Beating out even Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, HBO, and Disney+
I was most disappointed when I heard the reboot of Amazing Stories was getting panned by critics
I watched it and while it's not going to win any awards I thought it was great
It was true to the kind of great innocent sun stories that were in the original series.
What Spielberg was trying to recreate. The kind of 50-60s popcorn matinées.
Guess if it doesn't have loads of sex, nudity, and graphic violence then it's "boring" and "unimagined" for todays critics.
In general, so far, I think everything on Apple TV+ I've watched I've enjoyed. Some more than others.
My favorites so far have been For All Mankind, Mythic Quest: Raven's Banquet, Dickinson, and The Morning Show.
I'm also curious to see what happens in the second season of See.
I've enjoyed a couple of the Little America stories.
Yes maybe the quantity is not there yet, but so far for me they are living up to the quality
