Today Apple is officially launching its latest service, Apple Card, but only to a subset of users ahead of a broader rollout later this month. The new credit card is limited to US users running at least iOS 12.4, and today it will only be available to certain people who signed up on Apple’s website to be notified about Apple Card. If you’re part of that chosen group, applying for Apple Card can be done right inside the Wallet app, where the card will be added for immediate use upon credit approval; a physical credit card is also mailed out if you choose to receive one, built from titanium. For those who don’t get invited for early access, the full Apple Card launch will arrive before the end of August.
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Apple Card Available Today in Phased Rollout, Full Launch Coming Later in August
Apple Suspends Program In Which Contractors Listened to Recorded Siri Snippets
Last week, The Guardian reported on Apple’s Siri grading program in which contractors listen to snippets of audio to evaluate the effectiveness of Siri’s response to its trigger phrase. That article quoted extensively from an anonymous contractor who said they and other contractors regularly heard private user information as part of the program.
In response, Apple has announced that it is suspending the Siri grading program worldwide. While suspended, Apple says it will re-evaluate the program and issue a software update that will let users choose whether to allow their audio to be used as part of the program.
In a statement to Matthew Panzarino, the editor-in-chief of TechCrunch, Apple said:
“We are committed to delivering a great Siri experience while protecting user privacy,” Apple said in a statement to TechCrunch. “While we conduct a thorough review, we are suspending Siri grading globally. Additionally, as part of a future software update, users will have the ability to choose to participate in grading.”
In an earlier response to The Guardian, Apple had said that less than 1% of daily Siri requests are sent to humans as part of the grading program. However, that’s not very comforting to users who are left wondering whether snippets of their daily life are part of the audio shared with contractors. Consequently, I’m glad to see that Apple is re-examining its Siri quality-control efforts and has promised to give users a choice of whether they participate.
Apple Q3 2019 Results - $53.8 Billion Revenue
Apple has just published its financial results for Q3 2019. The company posted revenue of $53.8 billion. Apple CEO Tim Cook said:
“This was our biggest June quarter ever — driven by all-time record revenue from Services, accelerating growth from Wearables, strong performance from iPad and Mac and significant improvement in iPhone trends,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “These results are promising across all our geographic segments, and we’re confident about what’s ahead. The balance of calendar 2019 will be an exciting period, with major launches on all of our platforms, new services and several new products.”
Estimates and Expectations for Q3 2019 and the Year-Ago Quarter (Q3 2018)
Apple’s revenue guidance for Q3 2019 fell between $52.5 billion and $54.5 billion, with gross margin estimated to be between 37% and 38%.
Going into today’s earnings call, Yahoo Finance said that analysts, who were not expecting extraordinary financial results from Apple, would be focused on News+ and other revenue generated by services,
But according to Bloomberg’s MODL consensus, iPhone sales are expected to fall 10.3% in Q3, pushed lower by the ongoing trade war between the U.S. and China.
The same consensus, however, also points to an increase in sales of iPads, Macs, wearables like the AirPods and Apple Watch, and services by as much as 14.4%. Don’t forget, Apple recently revamped its iPad and Mac lineups, and released a new version of the seemingly ubiquitous AirPods.
In the year-ago quarter (Q3 2018), Apple earned $53.3 billion in revenue. During that quarter Apple sold 41.3 million iPhones, 11.6 million iPads, and 3.7 million Macs. As announced on Apple’s Q4 2018 earnings call, however, the company no longer reports unit sales for any of its products.
Apple Announces Acquisition of Intel’s Smartphone Modem Business
As the stock market closed in the US, Apple announced the acquisition of Intel’s smartphone modem business. As part of the deal, 2,200 Intel employees will join Apple. The company is also buying intellectual property and other assets from Intel like equipment and real estate associated with the business. According to Apple’s press release, the companies anticipate that the transaction will be consummated in the fourth quarter of 2019, subject to regulatory and other conditions.
Combining the acquired patents for current and future wireless technology with Apple’s existing portfolio, Apple will hold over 17,000 wireless technology patents, ranging from protocols for cellular standards to modem architecture and modem operation. Intel will retain the ability to develop modems for non-smartphone applications, such as PCs, internet-of-things devices and autonomous vehicles.
Commenting on the deal, Johny Srouji, Apple senior Vice President of Hardware Technology said:
“We’ve worked with Intel for many years and know this team shares Apple’s passion for designing technologies that deliver the world’s best experiences for our users,” said Johny Srouji, Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Technologies. “Apple is excited to have so many excellent engineers join our growing cellular technologies group, and know they’ll thrive in Apple’s creative and dynamic environment. They, together with our significant acquisition of innovative IP, will help expedite our development on future products and allow Apple to further differentiate moving forward.”
Given Apple’s two-year court battle with Qualcomm that resulted in a settlement earlier this year, the deal with Intel is not surprising. Ever since Apple’s acquisition of P.A. Semi in 2008, Apple has been buying hardware companies that have allowed it to make more of the components that are crucial to the iPhone and its other products. The Intel deal, however, is one of Apple’s largest acquisitions and demonstrates just how serious the company is about 5G technology and gaining independence from Qualcomm.
Apple Releases iOS 12.4 Update with Improvements to Apple News, iPhone Migration Tool, and Other Changes But No Apple Card
Apple has released iOS 12.4 with improvements to Apple News, a new iPhone migration tool, support for the HomePod in Taiwan and Japan, and a fix for the security flaw in the Apple Watch’s Walkie-Talkie app.
With the release of version 12.4 of iOS, downloaded magazines in the My Magazines section of the News app are now available for reading online and offline. The catalog of publications in Apple News includes newspapers like the Wall Street Journal, which previously weren’t listed in the catalog. There’s also a new option to clear downloaded magazines from Apple News by selecting History → Clear → Clear All.
In addition to the changes to News, the update introduces an iPhone migration tool that allows users to wirelessly transfer data from an old to a new iPhone during the setup process, support for the HomePod in Taiwan and Japan, and a fix for the security flaw in the Walkie-Talkie Watch app.
It was widely anticipated that iOS 12.4 would introduce the Apple Card, the credit card the company announced in March, but based on early reports, it looks like users will have to wait a while longer before signing up for the card.
Overcast Launches New Recommendations and Extended Clip Sharing
Over the weekend, podcast client Overcast launched a few new features in its latest update. Most notably, the app’s recommendation engine for suggesting new podcasts has been completely revamped and improved in a big way. Additionally, the recently added feature for sharing video clips of podcasts has an extended length limitation, and you can now set per-podcast settings for new parameters.
Apple Previews New Emoji Arriving in iOS 13, macOS Catalina, and More
Tomorrow is World Emoji Day, and Apple is starting the celebration early by offering a sneak peek at some of the new emoji arriving later this year in iOS 13, iPadOS 13, macOS Catalina, and watchOS 6.
In early February the Unicode Consortium, which makes all emoji approval decisions, debuted the full list of 230 emoji coming this year. Apple notes that this group can be consolidated to fifty-nine new emoji designs, many of which include variations – such as the people holding hands emoji, which can be customized in more than 75 ways to have various mixes of gender and skin tone. Another big theme in this emoji release is a set of disability-themed emoji, which Apple is actually responsible for proposing to the Unicode Consortium last year.
The previous two years, new emoji have launched in the x.1 updates to Apple’s software platforms, which often debut in October. If that tradition holds, we’re just a few short months away from gaining access to the 2019 emoji set.
Screenwriting, Novels, Apps, and More with John August (Part 2)→
Today on Dialog, we conclude our conversation with screenwriter and author John August.
Although August is a screenwriter and author, he’s also been involved in a wide variety of other related projects like the creation of Fountain markup syntax, which is a variant of Markdown designed specifically for screenwriters. He’s also the maker of Highland, a text editor for the Mac with special features for screenwriters and novelists, and Weekend Read, an iOS app for reviewing PDF-formatted screenplays. August even commissioned Courier Prime, and open source typeface that fixes many of the deficiencies found in standard Courier fonts.
You can find the episode here or listen through the Dialog web player below.
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Next week, we’re going to speak to Carrie Patel, a narrative designer at Obsidian Entertainment, who has worked on games such as Pillars of Eternity and The Outer Worlds, which is coming this fall. Patel is also the author of the Recoletta trilogy, a Science Fantasy series set in an underground world. In next week’s first installment of the interview, we dive deep into the world-building, lore, character dialogue, and other elements of creating the narrative surrounding major video game releases.
Apple Cuts Price on MacBook Air, Upgrades Entry-Level MacBook Pro, and Discontinues 12-inch MacBook
Today in conjunction with the kickoff of its Back to School promotion, Apple has announced significant changes to its laptop lineup, updating the MacBook Air and entry-level MacBook Pro while discontinuing the smallest Mac laptop, the 12-inch MacBook.