MacRumors

With foldable smartphones from the likes of Samsung and Huawei now out in the open, speculation has been piqued over whether Apple will follow suit. We know the company has explored ideas related to foldable phones in patent applications, but Apple is unlikely to release a foldable iPhone unless it can meet strict quality standards, and judging by the bulky designs and expensive price tags of early foldable devices, that could still be some ways off.

One innovation in particular that Apple could be holding out for is foldable glass. Early folding phone manufacturers have been relying on plastic polymers to make their flexible displays, but unlike glass, plastic creases and crinkles over time. The material is also less robust and easier to scratch, which is why the deviation from traditional glass smartphone panels is all the more noticeable.

Corning, the makers of Gorilla Glass, is known to be actively developing a foldable glass solution that could one day find its way into a future foldable ‌iPhone‌. Corning is a long-time Apple supplier, and its Gorilla Glass products have been used in the ‌iPhone‌ and the iPad for several years, which makes its current work on glass that's 0.1mm thick and can bend to a 5mm radius all the more interesting.

"In a glass solution, you're really challenging the laws of physics, in that to get a very tight bend radius you want to go thinner and thinner, but you also have to be able to survive a drop event and resist damage," Corning general manager John Bayne recently told Wired.

"The back of the problem we're trying to break, the technical challenge, is, can you keep those tight 3- to 5-millimeter bend radii and also increase the damage resistance of the glass. That's the trajectory we're on."

According to Wired, Corning is combining its experience with Willow Glass, which can roll up like a sheet of paper, and Gorilla Glass, which gets its strength from an ion-exchange process. Unfortunately, that process involves dipping glass into a molten salt solution, and salt corrodes the transistors found in display applications, which makes Willow Glass unsuitable for phones. Corning's work is currently focused on overcoming this challenge.

"We have glasses we've sampled to customers, and they're functional, but they're not quite meeting all the requirements," Bayne says. "People either want better performance against a drop event or a tighter bend radius. We can give them one or the other; the key is to give them both."

Bayne thinks the company's foldable glass will be ready for the mainstream in a couple of years. With a bit of luck, the $200 million that Apple granted Corning out of its $1 billion Advanced Manufacturing Fund will help the U.S. company achieve that goal.

iFixit reports that Apple may have already taken steps to reduce the likelihood of 2018 MacBook Pro users experiencing display lighting issues dubbed Flexgate. Affected machines could see uneven lighting that looks like a "stage light" effect with the display potentially failing completely over time.

iFixit was tipped off by MacRumors forum user Olivia88 posting in our Flexgate megathread that their 2018 13" MacBook Pro appeared to have a longer cable than previous models. iFixit confirmed this finding:

Since we were just wrapping up writing the repair manual for the 2018 model anyway, we checked inside our 2018 15” MacBook Pro again to measure its cable against its 2016 predecessor—and found the 2018 cable was, in fact, a full 2mm longer. Since this change appears in both our 15” model and Olivia88’s 13” model, it’s plausible this change is present in multiple, if not all, 2018 MacBook Pros.

iFixit speculates that this could prevent some of the wear and tear that had previously caused the failure though they weren't able to say for certain.

Apple has yet to publicly acknowledge the issue, and our Flexgate guide covers what your options are if you are affected by this issue.

Apple recently acquired the patent portfolio of Lighthouse AI, a home security company that went out of business at the end of last year, reports London-based site IAM.

Lighthouse AI created in-home security cameras with people, pet, and facial recognition that used advanced AI techniques to distinguish adults from kids and to customize alerts. It also supported voice-based natural commands like "let me know if the kids aren't home by 4pm on weekdays" and "what did the kids do while I was out yesterday?"

Lighthouse had several patents that have been snapped up by Apple. Most include standard security camera features, but there are a couple that are related to the depth sensing technology that Lighthouse used. A list of granted and pending patents that Apple purchased (via AppleInsider) are below:

• 9,396,400: Computer-vision based security system using a depth camera
• 9,965,612: Method and system for visual authentication
• 10,009,554: Method and system for using light emission by a depth-sensing camera to capture video images under low-light conditions
• 20170032192: Computer-Vision Based Security System Using a Depth Camera
• 20180367962: Two-Way Communication Interface for Vision-Based Monitoring System
• 20180246964: Speech Interface for Vision-Based Monitoring System
• 20180374325: Method and System for Incident Sharing in a Monitoring System

Lighthouse ultimately went out of business because it was unable to compete in a crowded home security camera market where it was pitted against higher-profile companies like Ring, Nest, Logitech, and Arlo.

There have never been rumors suggesting Apple has an interest in creating a home security camera product, but some of the technology used by Lighthouse could be applied to other hardware. Apple already uses facial recognition technology in iPhones and iPads with the launch of Face ID, and it is rumored to be including 3D camera tech in 2020 iPhones and iPads.

Apple today seeded the fourth beta of an upcoming iOS 12.2 update to developers for testing purposes, two weeks after seeding the third beta of iOS 12.2 and a month after the release of iOS 12.1.4.

Registered developers can download the new iOS 12.2 beta from Apple's Developer Center or over-the-air once the proper configuration profile has been installed from the Developer Center.

iOS 12.2 expands Apple News to Canada for the first time, with Canadian iPhone and iPad users able to read news stories in English, French, or both. Apple says that during the beta, content will be more limited than it will be when the update is released.

There are four new Animoji included the iOS 12.2 beta, including a boar, a shark, a giraffe, and an owl. Animoji can be used within the Messages and FaceTime apps.

The software introduces support for AirPlay 2 and HomeKit on third-party TVs in light of recent AirPlay 2 announcements, with a new option for limiting TV access joining the speaker access option in the Home app. There's also a redesigned TV remote in Control Center, and when paired with tvOS 12.2, you can ask Siri to play specific TV shows, movies, and music on your ‌HomeKit‌ devices like the Apple TV.

For some AT&T users, there's a new "5G E" icon for the cellular signal, replacing the standard LTE icon. This is a bit misleading of AT&T, because the ‌iPhone‌ does not support 5G, nor is the network AT&T calls 5G E actual 5G. Instead, it's an upgraded version of LTE, with more info available here.

The Wallet app's interface has been streamlined and tweaked, there's a new interface for Apple Pay Cash, and the Downtime feature in Screen Time now allows you to customize by day. Apple has also made minor changes to some icons, including the ‌AirPlay‌ icon, and introduced new Safari features, with a full list available in our iOS 12.2 tidbits post.

Apple is improving Safari's privacy in iOS 12.2 through a new Motion & Orientation toggle located under Settings > Safari > Privacy > Security, which is disabled by default. The setting needs to be enabled on to allow websites to display content that relies on motion data from the accelerometer and gyroscope in the ‌iPhone‌ and ‌iPad‌.

iOS 12.2 confirms that Apple is planning to release second-generation AirPods with "Hey ‌Siri‌" support, thanks to a hidden "Hey ‌Siri‌" AirPods setup screen in the beta. The inclusion of the AirPods setup option in the beta indicates that Apple could perhaps be planning to release new AirPods when iOS 12.2 is released.

The update also features hints of an upcoming Apple News subscription service, which could see a Texture-like magazine service added to Apple News. The iOS 12.2 update is likely to see several rounds of beta testing before it launches to the public.

Everything new in iOS 12.2 beta 4

- ‌Apple News‌ - Apple has introduced a new icon for ‌Apple News‌ with a simpler design featuring a stylized red N on a field of white.

- Control Center Remote icon - The Remote icon in Control Center now resembles a remote instead of using an ‌Apple TV‌ logo.

Update: Apple has also made the fourth beta of iOS 12.2 available to public beta testers.

Google's Project Zero team in November found a "high severity" macOS kernel flaw that was recently disclosed (via Neowin) following the expiration of a 90 day disclosure deadline.

As explained by Google, the flaw allows an attacker to modify a user-owned mounted filesystem image without informing the virtual management subsystem of the changes, meaning a hacker can tweak a file system image without user knowledge.

This copy-on-write behavior works not only with anonymous memory, but also with file mappings. This means that, after the destination process has started reading from the transferred memory area, memory pressure can cause the pages holding the transferred memory to be evicted from the page cache. Later, when the evicted pages are needed again, they can be reloaded from the backing filesystem.

This means that if an attacker can mutate an on-disk file without informing the virtual management subsystem, this is a security bug. MacOS permits normal users to mount filesystem images. When a mounted filesystem image is mutated directly (e.g. by calling pwrite() on the filesystem image), this information is not propagated into the mounted filesystem.

According to Google, Apple has not yet fixed this issue. Apple is planning to implement a fix in an upcoming software update, however.

We've been in contact with Apple regarding this issue, and at this point no fix is available. Apple are intending to resolve this issue in a future release, and we're working together to assess the options for a patch. We'll update this issue tracker entry once we have more details.

Google released the details on the bug without a fix from Apple because of its Project Zero policies. After discovering a security flaw, Project Zero provides details to the company that makes the software, providing them with 90 days to fix it before disclosure.

Google then publicly shares details on security flaws when a bug is fixed or when the 90-day deadline expires. Apple was informed of the bug in November, and the 90 day period elapsed without a fix.

Mac users should, as always, be wary of the files they're downloading to avoid attacks like this, making sure to download files only from trusted sites. It's not known if this is a bug that's easy to exploit, but Google has marked it as severe because it has the potential to bypass macOS safeguards.

If you have ever complained about Siri on Twitter or likewise, your feedback could actually make its way to Apple executives.

A recent Apple job listing seeks an engineering program manager to "monitor what the world is saying about ‌Siri‌ through social media, news, and other sources." This will include detecting "‌Siri‌ issues that are going viral or otherwise trending" and reporting them to the ‌Siri‌ team and its leadership.

Based on user feedback, the employee will be required to provide recommendations for next steps on areas where the ‌Siri‌ user experience could be improved. The person will also work with Apple's marketing teams to ensure external information like Apple support documents are updated to clear up misunderstandings.

The employee will have a secondary responsibility of working alongside ‌Siri‌ software engineers to ensure the success of Apple marketing campaigns, press events, product announcements, and product launches involving ‌Siri‌.

As noted by VentureBeat, which first discovered the job listing, the employee will be able to "drive rapid-response solutions," hopefully meaning the company will quickly address any trending issues before they become embarrassing headlines like the major FaceTime privacy bug unearthed in late January.

Any improvements to ‌Siri‌ would be welcomed, as the assistant is widely considered to have fallen behind its rivals Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. ‌Siri‌ has already shown some signs of progress lately under the leadership of Apple's recently promoted artificial intelligence chief John Giannandrea.

The USB Promoter Group standards body today announced the pending release of a new USB4 specification.

USB4 converges the Thunderbolt and USB protocols as part of Intel's goal to make Thunderbolt available on a royalty-free basis, which should result in wider and cheaper availability of Thunderbolt accessories like docks and eGPUs.

As USB4 is based on Thunderbolt 3, it offers data transfer speeds up to 40 Gbps, which is twice as fast as the bandwidth of the latest USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 specification. USB4's underlying Thunderbolt 3 protocol also means the specification supports up to two 4K displays or one 5K display over a single cable.

The simplest way to view USB4 is as Thunderbolt 3, but royalty free for manufacturers. Intel will continue to offer Thunderbolt 3 on a standalone basis with a few advantages over USB4, including more support with reference designs and technical issues for manufacturers, according to The Verge.

USB4 will use the USB-C connector design and will be backwards compatible with USB 3.2 and USB 2.0 specifications.

The USB4 specification is on track to be published around the middle of 2019. Over 50 companies are actively participating in the final stages of review of the draft specification, which should include Apple, Intel, and Microsoft, but it might take a few years until the first USB4 devices are released.

In July 2017, Qualcomm filed suit against Apple in San Diego federal court, accusing the iPhone maker of infringing on six U.S. patents related to graphics processing architecture, power consumption, and envelope tracking technologies. Nearly two years later, the case is finally headed to trial.

The trial begins today with jury selection, with proceedings expected to take up to two weeks. It will be the first time a U.S. jury is involved in the major legal battle between the two companies, according to Bloomberg.

The legal battle between Apple and Qualcomm spans multiple countries. The dispute began in January 2017 when Apple sued Qualcomm for an alleged $1 billion in unpaid royalty rebates, just days after an FTC complaint alleged that Qualcomm engaged in anticompetitive patent licensing practices.

Qualcomm has countersued, alleging that its "innovations are at the heart of every iPhone" and "enable the most important uses and features of those devices," adding that it "simply is untrue that Qualcomm is seeking to collect royalties for Apple innovations that have nothing to do with Qualcomm's technology."

Last week, analysts at investment bank Barclays said that Qualcomm is seemingly "running out" of time to reach a settlement with Apple if it wants to win 5G modems orders for the first 5G-enabled iPhones, expected in 2020.

Apple CEO Tim Cook and other executives are getting deeply involved with the behind-the-scenes production of the company's original television shows, which are set to debut later this year. Apple has been "difficult" to deal with on the project, according to unnamed agents and producers working with Apple on its foray into streaming TV (via The New York Post).

Cook and other executives have been described as "intrusive," with the biggest complaint involving numerous notes that Apple has been sending streaming partners as they watch each show and contribute their opinion. Other sources stated there has been a "lack of transparency" and "lack of clarity" on what Apple wants throughout the process.

One agent noted that Apple has been "very involved," explaining that writers and directors typically prefer to work without heavy oversight from higher-ups in corporate. This involvement has included a repeated note sent by Cook telling producers and showrunners, "don't be so mean!" It's unclear which shows this note has been sent to, and how many.

“Tim Cook is giving notes and getting involved,” said a producer who has worked with Apple. One of the CEO’s most repeated notes is “don’t be so mean!,” the source said.

Cook has visited the sets of multiple shows, including the Vancouver set of See, a futuristic science fiction show, and the Los Angeles set of the morning show drama starring Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon.

In terms of the launch, Apple's nitpicking over content and technology has caused numerous delays, and content partners are said to be slightly irritated about these delays. Original rumors suggested the service would see a public launch by the spring of 2019, but now it's believed Apple won't launch its streaming TV service until summer or fall 2019, although an event on March 25 will see the public announcement of the service.

Amid all of this, one producer stated that Apple's overall goal isn't clear enough and that a lack of clarity has caused confusion among many entertainment partners.

Another frustration is that Apple also keeps moving the target on what it wants, sources said.

“They are making big changes, firing and hiring new writers. There’s a lack of clarity on what they want,” the producer said. “A lot of the product is not as good as they hoped it to be,” he said.

We've seen similarly opposing reports over the past few months, with some suggesting that Apple was looking to avoid mature content on its TV shows and others claiming that the company was on the hunt for the next Breaking Bad. Apple might be okay with mature content, as long as it has substance and isn't gratuitous, but again today The New York Post's sources suggest that Apple's notes to showrunners include keeping content suitable for families.

At the same time, it's unclear which shows these notes were given to as Apple has well over a dozen TV shows in development, with vastly different genres among each. We'll know more about Apple's streaming TV service soon enough, as the company's rumored March 25 event is three weeks from today.

A German teenager who discovered a macOS Keychain security flaw last month has now shared the details with Apple, after having initially refused to hand them over because of the company's lack of a bug bounty program for the Mac.

Eighteen-year-old Linus Henze dubbed the zero-day macOS vulnerability he found "KeySteal," which, as demoed in the video above, can be used to disclose all sensitive data stored in the Keychain app.

Henze said he decided to reveal the details to Apple because the bug "is very critical and because the security of macOS users is important to me."

After Henze released the video in early February, Apple's security team reached out to him, but the researcher said he wouldn't disclose the details without a cash reward, arguing that discovering the vulnerabilities takes time.

"Even if it looks like I'm doing this just for money, this is not my motivation at all in this case," said Henze. "My motivation is to get Apple to create a bug bounty program. I think that this is the best for both Apple and Researchers."

Apple has a reward program for iOS that provides money to those who discover bugs, but there is no similar payment system for macOS bugs.

In the wake of the launch of the Galaxy Fold, Samsung has begun shopping around its foldable display technology to other companies. ETNews (Translate) reports that they have specifically provided samples to Apple and Google:

According to the industry on the 27th, Samsung Display made a set of foldable display and delivered it to Apple. This set, which is actually powered like a smartphone, has a 7.2-inch size foldable panel. 7.2 inches is 0.1 inches smaller than the Samsung Folder 'Galaxy Fold'.

Samsung has historically been both supplier and competitor to Apple and other smartphone manufacturers and provides the OLED screens for Apple's top of the line iPhones. According to the report, Samsung doesn't intend to keep foldable technology to itself and is instead working to dominate as a supplier for the technology. Samsung is said to be able to produce about 2.4 million units a year at this time but is considering moving up to 10 million units a year depending on demand.

Apple has been known to be working on foldable display technology for years with patents on the implementation of similar technology. While there are ongoing rumors that Apple has been testing such technologies in the lab, Apple has not been speculated to implement the technology until 2020 at the earliest.