MacRumors

Nike in January announced the launch of iPhone-controlled self-adjusting basketball shoes, and now another popular shoe brand, Puma, is set to launch its own self-lacing sneaker.

The upcoming Puma Fi, which was able to be tested by Engadget's Richard Lai, has been in development for three years. Puma has experimented with automatic shoe technology before with the laceless Autodisc, and is building on that experience with the new model.

Fi is an all-black shoe with a cordless motor at the top that's designed to fit the shoe around the foot, replacing traditional laces. The motor is attached to blue Dyneema strings (a material used in the fishing industry) that tightens when the motor is activated.

The Fi is powered by a removable battery hidden in a water resistant pocket inside of the shoe, and it can be charged by putting the heel of the shoe on an included Qi wireless charging mat or through a charging case.

There are a series of blue LED lights around the tongue of the Fi that light up when the motor is operational and display battery life. The battery lasts for five to seven days before it needs to be recharged, a process that takes 90 to 120 minutes.

According to Lai, the Fi is comfortable and looks and feels like an ordinary sneaker when in use. You can adjust the fit of the Fi with a touch module on the front that supports swipes for tightening the shoe.

The Fi can also be controlled via an iPhone, and there is included Apple Watch support. Using the ‌iPhone‌ controls, you can change the tightness, see battery life, and make small micro adjustments not possible with the on-shoe controls.

With the motor inside, the Fi weighs 428 grams, but Lai said that the weight "wasn't that noticeable" when wearing the shoe. There is a noticeable mechanical noise when operating the shoe, which Lai said "sounds cool."

There are no activity tracking and GPS tracking features in the Fi, but both the Fi and Nike's smart sneaker are just some of the first smartphone-controlled shoes. If the trend catches on, we could see more capable, feature rich iPhone-connected sneakers in the future.

Puma Fi will launch in spring 2020 and it will be priced at $330. Puma plans to launch an open beta program in the future to allow customers to use the sneakers in exchange for product feedback. Those interested should download Puma's PUMATRAC app, where Puma will announce Fi availability. [Direct Link]

Montréal-based law firm Lambert Avocat Inc. has applied for a class action lawsuit against Apple with the Superior Court of Québec, seeking compensation for all persons exposed to a major FaceTime privacy bug that enabled users to eavesdrop on the people they call, according to its website.

The proposed lawsuit seeks compensation for all Canadians who used FaceTime on an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch running iOS 12.1 or later, or a Mac running macOS Mojave 10.4.1 or later, in their possession.

This is the first pending class action lawsuit against Apple we know of in relation to the ‌FaceTime‌ bug. An earlier lawsuit filed by a lawyer in Houston, who claimed the bug allowed an unknown person to listen in on sworn testimony, did not seek class action status according to the court document we reviewed.

Due to the serious privacy implications of the ‌FaceTime‌ bug, there may be more class action lawsuits to follow in the United States and elsewhere.

Widely publicized on Monday, the ‌FaceTime‌ bug allowed one person to call another person via ‌FaceTime‌, slide up on the interface and enter their own phone number, and automatically gain access to audio from the other person's device without that person accepting the call. In some cases, even video was accessible.

We recorded a demonstration of the bug earlier this week:

Apple disabled Group FaceTime as a temporary server-side solution, preventing the bug from working any longer, while it prepares a software update with a permanent fix that will be released "later this week."

It was later reported that Apple may have known about the bug for over a week before it made headlines, something New York government officials are investigating. Apple has yet to provide further comment about the bug beyond promising a software update, but we'll be sure to provide updates as we learn more.

Update: MacRumors has uploaded a copy of the application submitted to the Superior Court of Québec.

Apple shipped an estimated 14.5 million iPads in the fourth quarter of 2018, according to research firm Strategy Analytics.

Apple no longer discloses iPad, iPhone, or Mac unit sales in its earnings reports, leaving us with these estimated figures, which can vary quite significantly between research firms. With the iPhone, for example, estimated shipments have ranged from 65.9 million to 68.4 million to 71.7 million for the quarter.

Apple reported sales of 13.2 million iPads in the fourth quarter of 2017, when it was still disclosing unit sales, so the Strategy Analytics data suggests that iPad unit sales have grown nearly 10 percent on a year-over-year basis.

Strategy Analytics estimates that the ‌iPad‌'s average selling price was $463, an increase of just over four percent from $445 in the year-ago quarter. This sounds unsurprising, as Apple raised prices with its new iPad Pro lineup in 2018, with the cheapest model starting at $799 compared to $649 in 2017.

Apple remained the world's most popular tablet vendor, easily topping Samsung's estimated 7.5 million tablet shipments in the quarter, according to Strategy Analytics. Amazon, Huawei, and Lenovo round off the top five with an estimated 5.5 million, 4.6 million, and 2.3 million shipments respectively.

On an operating system basis, however, Android tablets from multiple brands still commanded an estimated 60 percent of the market.

Apple reported ‌iPad‌ revenue of $6.7 billion in the quarter, a 17 percent increase over the year-ago quarter.

Apple has replenished stock of the iPhone SE on its online clearance store for the third time this month. These are brand new, unopened, and unlocked models starting at $249 in the United States. Availability dwindled very quickly in the each of the first two times the ‌iPhone SE‌ was added, so act fast.

Apple is offering the ‌iPhone SE‌ with 32GB of storage for $249 and with 128GB for $299 in Silver, Space Gray, Gold, and Rose Gold. Tech specs include a 4-inch Retina display, A9 chip, Touch ID, 12-megapixel rear camera, and 3.5mm headphone jack.

Prior to being pulled, the ‌iPhone SE‌ was available with 32GB and 128GB of storage for $349 and $449 respectively, so Apple is offering $100 to $150 off. The device was originally released in March 2016 and was popular among fans of smaller smartphones and those who preferred the iPhone 5-like design.

(Thanks, Bob!)

Taiwanese manufacturer Compal Electronics is expected to be a supplier of the so-called iPad mini 5 when the tablet launches later in 2019, according to DigiTimes. This would likely entail final assembly of the device.

Rumors suggest Apple will release the new ‌iPad mini‌ as early as this spring, likely alongside a new seventh-generation iPad with a slightly larger 10-inch display. Apple's plans to release a new ‌iPad mini‌ have been reported by Ming-Chi Kuo, Mark Gurman, DigiTimes, and the China Times.

Apple has debuted new iPads in March for three consecutive years, including the 9.7-inch iPad Pro in 2016, the fifth-generation ‌iPad‌ in 2017, and the sixth-generation ‌iPad‌ in 2018, so there's a good chance that Apple will unveil the ‌iPad mini‌ 5 and the new 10-inch ‌iPad‌ in a little over a month from now.

Kuo said the new ‌iPad mini‌ will feature an upgraded processor and a lower-cost panel, but few details are known beyond that.

The current iPad mini 4 was released in September 2015. The tablet features a 7.9-inch display with 326 PPI, A8 chip, 2GB of RAM, Touch ID, 8-megapixel rear camera, a Lightning connector, dual speakers, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. It is available with 128GB of storage for $399 (Wi-Fi) and $529 (LTE).

Nintendo has announced that its upcoming Mario Kart Tour game for iOS devices won't be ready until the summer (via The Verge).

The news came in Nintendo's quarterly earnings report released today, exactly a year since the company first revealed it was bringing the game to smartphones.

Little is known about Mario Kart Tour, but the game was originally scheduled for launch before the company's fiscal year ending March 2019.

Nintendo said the decision to delay it had been made "in order to improve the quality of the application and expand the content offerings after launch."

When it eventually arrives, Mario Kart Tour is expected to use the same free-to-play model of other Nintendo mobile titles, with in-app purchases that help players with certain tasks.

Out of Nintendo's five mobile games so far, four have followed this model (Miitomo, Fire Emblem Heroes, Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, Draglia Lost). Only Super Mario Run has used the pay-once price tier.

Apple was the number two smartphone vendor in the world during the 2018 holiday quarter with an estimated 68.4 million iPhones shipped, according to new data shared today by IDC.

IDC's new iPhone shipment estimates come one day after Apple's Q1 2019 earnings call, which corresponds to the fourth calendar quarter of 2018. Apple no longer provides unit sales of ‌iPhone‌, iPad, and Mac, leaving it to analysts to guess just how many devices were sold.

Samsung was the number one smartphone vendor during the quarter, according to IDC, with 70.4 million smartphones shipped for 18.7 percent market share.

Apple, as the number two vendor, held 18.2 percent market share, but saw an 11 percent decline in ‌iPhone‌ shipments. During the holiday quarter of 2017, Apple shipped 77.3 million smartphones, so if IDC's 68.4 million estimate is correct, Apple sold 8.9 million fewer iPhones.

Apple saw iPhone volumes drop 11.5% in 4Q18 marking one of the more challenging iPhone quarters in terms of growth, despite the three new models. Total iPhone volumes were down 3.2% for the full year, which is understandable considering its two largest markets (the United States and China) both experienced the worst year for smartphone performance ever. Apple is certainly not out of the game, but the likelihood of not having a 5G iPhone in 2019 means it will need to tell a strong iPhone and, more importantly, ecosystem story to succeed. If anyone can do it, it is Apple. But it certainly won't be easy when faced with all the other downward market pressures.

IDC's data suggests that Apple sold more devices than Huawei, with Huawei shipping 60.5 million smartphones during the quarter. Huawei and Apple have been fighting for the number two position, with Huawei surpassing Apple during the second calendar quarter of the year.

Huawei is the smartphone vendor that saw the most growth during the quarter, with shipments up 43.9 percent. Oppo and Xiaomi were the number four and five smartphone vendors, respectively, with 29.2 and 28.6 million smartphones shipped.

Overall, IDC says that 375.4 million smartphones were shipped during the quarter, down 4.9 percent year over year and marking the fifth consecutive quarter of decline.

"Globally the smartphone market is a mess right now," said Ryan Reith, program vice president with IDC's Worldwide Mobile Device Trackers. "Outside of a handful of high-growth markets like India, Indonesia, Korea, and Vietnam, we did not see a lot of positive activity in 2018. We believe several factors are at play here, including lengthening replacement cycles, increasing penetration levels in many large markets, political and economic uncertainty, and growing consumer frustration around continuously rising price points."

IDC is more generous with its ‌iPhone‌ shipment estimate than Strategy Analytics. Yesterday, Strategy Analytics said that Apple shipped an estimated 65.9 million smartphones for a 15 percent decline year-over-year. Canalys, meanwhile, is more optimistic and says that Apple shipped an estimated 71.1 million smartphones for a decline of just 7.3 percent year-over-year.

With Apple no longer offering a breakdown of unit sales of the ‌iPhone‌, ‌iPad‌, and Mac, analyst estimates from sources like IDC and Strategy Analytics won't be able to be confirmed.

New York Attorney General Letitia James and Governor Andrew Cuomo are investigating the FaceTime eavesdropping bug on iOS devices that allowed a person to ‌FaceTime‌ another person and hear conversations and see videos even when the call was not answered.

According to Bloomberg, the New York officials will be focusing on Apple's failure to warn consumers about the bug and its slow response.

The ‌FaceTime‌ eavesdropping bug was widely publicized on Monday, and several hours after information on how to execute the exploit spread, Apple disabled the Group ‌FaceTime‌ servers.

"This FaceTime breach is a serious threat to the security and privacy of the millions of New Yorkers who have put their trust in Apple and its products over the years," James said in the statement on Wednesday.

"We need a full accounting of the facts to confirm businesses are abiding by New York consumer protection laws and to help make sure this type of privacy breach does not happen again," Cuomo said in the statement.

Apple is planning to release a software fix that will solve the bug and will allow the company to bring Group ‌FaceTime‌ back online. That update is expected sometime this week.

While the glitch was not widely known until Monday afternoon, Apple was informed about the bug more than a week prior. The person who contacted Apple said that Apple did not respond to multiple attempts to notify the company about the issue.

It's not entirely clear if Apple knew about the bug and was working on a fix internally at the time that it became widespread, but if so, Apple certainly left it functional and did not move to disable Group ‌FaceTime‌ until forced to do so. For that reason, it's not known how long the bug has been present in iOS and how long people may have been quietly exploiting it.

In addition to the inquiry from New York officials, Apple is also facing a lawsuit over the issue. Yesterday, an attorney said the ‌FaceTime‌ bug allowed an unknown person to listen in on sworn testimony during a client deposition.

Apple is working on an updated version of the $329 6th-generation iPad and a new, cheaper iPad mini, Bloomberg today confirmed in an extensive report on Apple's future product plans.

The new version of the ‌iPad‌ will feature a "roughly 10-inch screen," which would be slightly larger than the 9.7-inch model that is currently available. The device is also expected to have a faster processor and a Lightning port instead of a USB-C port.

Apple is also working on an ‌iPad mini‌ 5, a followup to the 2015 ‌iPad mini‌ 4. The ‌iPad mini‌ 5 will be cheaper than the existing model, but no other details were provided.

Prior rumors have suggested both the new ‌iPad‌ and the ‌iPad mini‌ 5 will feature Touch ID Home buttons rather than Face ID, which would be appropriate as both are seemingly positioned as lower-cost devices.

Code found in iOS 12.2 indicates the two new tablets could potentially offer support for the Apple Pencil and Smart Keyboard as well.

According to Bloomberg, Apple could be planning to introduce the new iPads "as early as this spring," which is in line with other recent information.

New ‌iPad‌ models were registered with the Eurasian Economic Commission earlier this month, something that is generally done shortly ahead of a product launch, and references to new ‌iPad‌ models have been found in iOS 12.2.

For the last several years, Apple has held an event in March, and the company could be planning to do the same thing this year. If that's the case, we could see the new ‌iPad‌ and the ‌iPad mini‌ 5 at some point in March.

As for the iPad Pro, Apple is said to be planning a major upgrade for 2020 with a laser-powered 3D camera for augmented reality purposes. No major changes are planned for 2019, and it is unclear if the ‌iPad Pro‌ will get a 2019 update at all.

Apple's iOS 13 operating system, which will likely be previewed this summer at Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference, will include a number of major updates that iOS users have been desiring for years.

According to Bloomberg, iOS 13 will include a dark mode to match the dark mode that was first introduced on macOS with macOS Mojave. It will allow for "easier nighttime viewing."

Improvements to the CarPlay interface are expected, and many iPad-specific upgrades are in the works. Apple will introduce a new Home screen, an option to tab through multiple pages of a single app as you can do in a web browser, and improvements to file management.

Previous rumors have suggested Apple will also introduce a multitasking feature for displaying two windows of the same app side by side, and Apple is expected to expand the availability of its cross-platform apps initiative to developers, making it easier to port apps created for iOS to macOS.

Rumored services that are in the works, including a magazine subscription service in Apple News and a television streaming service, will also come to iOS 13 through updates that will be made available during 2019.

Apple is planning on introducing triple-lens cameras in its 2019 iPhone lineup, reports Bloomberg, confirming many triple-lens camera rumors that we've previously heard.

Like The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg says the followup to the ‌iPhone‌ XS Max will feature a triple-lens camera arrangement, with the ‌iPhone‌ XS and ‌iPhone‌ XR successors to use dual-lens camera arrangements. The third camera will allow for a larger field of view, a wider zoom range, and it will capture more pixels.

Apple is apparently working on a feature that would use that extra pixel data to provide tools for automatically repairing a photo or a video to fit in a subject that "may have accidentally been cut off from the initial shot." An enhanced version of Live Photos is also in the works, increasing the length of the attached video to six seconds.

Some versions of the 2019 iPhones Apple is testing use a USB-C connector instead of a Lightning port, which could mean Apple plans to switch from Lightning to USB-C at some point. An upgraded A-series processor and a new Face ID sensor are planned, but the devices are expected to look similar to this year's model.

‌iPhone‌ camera technology will become even more advanced starting in 2020 as part of a push to further Apple's augmented reality ambitions. According to Bloomberg, the company will debut laser-powered time-of-flight 3D cameras that will result in significant improvements to AR experiences on the ‌iPhone‌.

A time-of-flight (ToF) camera system uses a laser to calculate the time that it takes for the laser to bounce off of objects in a room, using the data to create an accurate 3D image of the surrounding area. This allows for more accurate depth perception and better placement of virtual objects, and it will also result in photos better able to capture depth.

Bloomberg says that the camera will be able to scan areas up to 15 feet from the device. Apple's front-facing TrueDepth camera uses 3D technology but because it's infrared and not laser-powered, it only works at distances of 25 to 50 centimeters. Sony could be Apple's supplier for the new system, with Apple in talks with Sony over sensor tests.

Prior to when the new iPhones are released, we could see the first appearance of the 3D camera system in an iPad Pro upgrade planned for spring 2020. Apple is not planning a major ‌iPad Pro‌ update for 2019.

There were originally some rumors suggesting Apple would introduce a 3D camera system in its 2019 iPhones, but reliable Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said that wouldn't happen as Apple needs 5G connectivity, augmented reality glasses, and a more powerful Apple Maps database to truly take advantage of the AR capabilities afforded by a ToF camera.

Bloomberg confirms that Apple was indeed aiming to put the 3D camera system in this year's iPhones, but ultimately delayed its plans.

Apple's 2020 iPhones will also feature triple-lens arrangements, improved photo capturing tools, and more powerful processors. Bloomberg suggests it could be a prelude to an AR headset, and past rumors have indicated Apple could launch that device as early as 2020.

Facebook is facing the wrath of Apple today for misusing an enterprise certificate meant for internal use to get Facebook users to sideload a data harvesting "Facebook Research" app that violates App Store policies, and as it turns out, Google has been doing the exact same thing.

According to TechCrunch, Google has been distributing an app called "Screenwise Meter" using the enterprise certificate installation method since 2012.

Google has been privately inviting users aged 18 and up (or 13 for those part of a family group) to download Screenwise Meter, an app that is designed to collect information on internet usage, including details on how long a site is visited to apps that are downloaded.

By asking Screenwise Meter users to download the app using an enterprise certificate, Google is able to bypass ‌App Store‌ rules that prevent apps from gathering this kind of data from iPhone users.

Apple just this morning revoked Facebook's enterprise certificate for this exact same activity, which has rendered all of Facebook's internal apps nonoperational and has created chaos at Facebook's headquarters. Facebook employees are not able to use any of the internal apps that they rely on to get work done.

The Screenwise Meter app that Google uses lets users earn gift cards for sharing their traffic and app data. It is part of Google's Cross Media Panel and Google Opinion Rewards programs that provide rewards to people for installing tracking software on their smartphones, web browsers, routers, and TVs.

According to TechCrunch, Google is more forthcoming about the kind of data that it's collecting than Facebook, but that doesn't change the fact that Google is using an app installation method that appears to violate Apple's enterprise certificate rules in the same way the Facebook Research app did.

Additionally, people who install these kinds of apps for rewards may not fully understand the extent of the data that's collected.

Putting the not-insignificant issues of privacy aside -- in short, many people lured by financial rewards may not fully take in what it means to have a company fully monitoring all your screen-based activity -- and the implications of what extent tech businesses are willing to go to to amass more data about users to get an edge on competitors, Google Screenwise Meter for iOS appears to violate Apple's policy.

Apple and Google have not yet commented on the Screenwise Meter app, but if Apple does decide that Google is also violating its enterprise rules, which clearly state that the enterprise program is for distributing internal employee apps only, Google too could see the enterprise certificate used for the Screenwise app revoked.

Apple could also punish Google in the same way that it punished Facebook by revoking all of the company's internal apps that use the same certificate.

Update: Google has issued an apology and has disabled its Screenwise Meter app on iOS devices. "The Screenwise Meter iOS app should not have operated under Apple's developer enterprise program -- this was a mistake and we apologize. We have disabled this app on iOS devices. This app is completely voluntary and always has been. We've been upfront with users about the way we use their data in this app, and we have no access to encrypted data in apps and on devices, and users can opt out of the program at any time."