MacRumors

Apple's expensive HomePod speaker accounted for just six percent of the U.S. smart speaker installed base through the fourth quarter of 2018, according to research firm Consumer Intelligence Research Partners.

CIRP estimates that the U.S. installed base of smart speakers reached 66 million units last quarter, suggesting that ‌HomePod‌ sales in the country have totaled around 3.96 million units since the speaker became available to order in January 2018. Apple does not disclose exact ‌HomePod‌ sales figures.

By comparison, the Amazon Echo and Google Home accounted for a commanding 70 percent and 24 percent of the installed base respectively as of last quarter, with both products proving to be popular holiday gifts.

At $349, the ‌HomePod‌ is significantly more expensive than the Amazon Echo and Google Home. The small, entry-level Amazon Echo Dot and Google Home Mini models in particular were available for as low as $25 during the holiday season, while the ‌HomePod‌ is only available in one size.

"Amazon and Google both have broad model lineups, ranging from basic to high-end, with even more variants from Amazon. Apple of course has only its premium-priced ‌HomePod‌, and likely won't gain significant share until it offers an entry-level product closer to Echo Dot and Home mini," said CIRP co-founder Josh Lowitz.

To improve sales, many resellers offered the ‌HomePod‌ for $249 during the holiday season. Even now, the speaker is available for $279.99 at Best Buy, a $70 discount compared to its price on Apple.com.

In fairness, the ‌HomePod‌ also launched two to three years after many of its competitors, and sales remain limited to the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Spain, Mexico, China, and Hong Kong. But without a steeper price cut, the speaker faces an uphill battle.

In April 2018, well-connected analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said Apple was "mulling" a "low-cost version" of the HomePod, potentially due to shipments of the current version being "far below market expectations." A report out of China said the lower-cost ‌HomePod‌ could be priced between $150 and $200 in the United States.

It's unclear if Apple would be willing to release a ‌HomePod‌ speaker with inferior sound quality versus the current model. Last year, a Chinese report said the lower-priced ‌HomePod‌ could actually be a Siri-enabled Beats speaker.

CIRP bases its findings on its survey of 500 U.S. owners of the ‌HomePod‌, Amazon Echo, and Google Home, surveyed from January 1-11, 2019, who owned one of those speakers as of December 31, 2018.

Apple has reached a deal with French authorities to pay an undeclared amount of back-dated tax, according to multiple reports today.

Apple's French division confirmed the tax payment agreement to Reuters, but didn't disclose how much it had agreed to pay, although French media suggest the sum is around 500 million euros ($571 million).

"As a multinational company, Apple is regularly audited by fiscal authorities around the world," Apple France said in a statement. "The French tax administration recently concluded a multi-year audit on the company's French accounts, and those details will be published in our public accounts."

France has been working diligently to stop tech companies like Apple from exploiting tax loopholes in the country. The loopholes are said to have allowed Apple to "minimize taxes and grab market share" at the expense of Europe-based companies.

French President Emmanuel Macron is one of the leaders behind the tax crackdown on international tech companies, with a goal of bringing a more unified corporate tax system across the nineteen euro area states.

As noted by iPhon.fr, Apple and French tax authorities reached the agreement for the payment of several years of unpaid taxes in December, according to French newspaper L'Expansion. The agreement followed a meeting in October between Apple CEO Tim Cook and President Macron, in which both reportedly agreed that a solution would ultimately be enacted by the European Union rather than France.

Apple has had trouble with French tax activist groups accusing the company of wide-scale tax evasion and occupying its Parisian retail stores. In February 2018, Apple sued the activist group "Attac" for its protests in stores, but the High Court of Paris denied Apple's request for an injunction that would have blocked the group from protesting.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Avi Bar-Zeev, who was the co-creator of Microsoft's HoloLens, has left his position at Apple, reports Variety.

Bar-Zeev was reportedly working on Apple's augmented reality headset, which rumors have suggested could launch as early as 2020. Bar-Zeev left his position at Apple in January and provided the following statement to Variety:

"I left my full-time position at Apple in January. I had the best exit one can imagine. I have only nice things to say about Apple and won't comment on any specific product plans."

Prior to joining Apple, Bar-Zeev worked at Microsoft and helped to found and invent the HoloLens, Microsoft's mixed reality headset. Before that, he worked at Disney and helped develop VR experiences, and he worked at Keyhole, a company that was purchased by Google and became the foundation of Apple Maps.

"Developed key prototypes to rapidly prove concepts, explore, educate and build support. Developed user stories and technical requirements for the long-term roadmap, while working across design and engineering to ensure success," reads Bar-Zeev's profile.

Apple is said to have developed multiple virtual and augmented reality headset prototypes, and rumors seem to have coalesced around a pair of smart glasses that will be coming as soon as next year.

The Apple Glasses supposedly have a dedicated display, a built-in processor, and an "rOS" reality operating system based on iOS.

There have also been a few rumors suggesting Apple is also exploring a powerful AR/VR headset with 8K displays for each eye and support for both AR and VR applications.

It's not entirely clear just yet what Apple's first augmented or virtual reality headset will look like, but we may not have too much longer to wait to find out.

Roku is in talks with Apple about supporting AirPlay 2, with the two companies currently working out details surrounding the partnership, according to a source familiar with the matter. The plans are not finalized and are subject to change.

We're told that ‌AirPlay‌ 2 support is likely to arrive in the form of a Roku OS software update for Roku media players, which can be used with virtually any smart TV. The update would likely extend to smart TVs with Roku OS preinstalled, including select models from Sharp, TCL, Insignia, Hisense, Sanyo, and RCA.

It's unclear when the software update might be released or if it will be limited to select Roku players and TVs. We're told the partnership may extend to Apple Music, suggesting that Roku OS could gain an app to access the streaming music service alongside existing apps for Spotify, Amazon Music, and Pandora.

Last month, we asked Roku if it was willing to work with Apple on ‌AirPlay‌ 2 support and a spokesperson said "we don't have anything to share regarding this now." Roku did not immediately respond to our follow-up request for comment today, while Apple rarely comments on its plans in advance.

With ‌AirPlay‌ 2 support, Roku users would be able to stream video, audio, photos, and more directly from an iPhone, iPad, or Mac to their smart TVs. HomeKit is also coming to many smart TVs, enabling users to control volume, playback, and more using Siri or the Home app on an ‌iPhone‌, ‌iPad‌, or Mac.

Last month, Apple announced that select ‌AirPlay‌ 2-enabled smart TVs are coming from leading brands such as Samsung, LG, Vizio, and Sony. Samsung's latest smart TVs are also getting an exclusive iTunes app for movies and TV shows.

Some AT&T users who have installed the new iOS 12.2 beta are noticing their iPhones displaying a '5G E' connection to AT&T's network, which is AT&T's misleading name for an "upgraded" version of 4G LTE.

AT&T began rolling out its fake 5G icon to Android smartphones in early January, and it now appears the change is extending to the iPhone.

The "E" stands for Evolution, a new brand name AT&T is using for some parts of its LTE network. According to AT&T, 5G Evolution reaches a peak theoretical wireless speed of 400Mb/s, which does not match 5G data transfer speeds and is in fact the same as traditional LTE speeds.

AT&T claims that 5G Evolution is the "first step on the road to 5G," bringing improvements to already-existing LTE networks. Technically, 5G Evolution uses technologies already employed by other carriers.

How are we doing it? With enhancements like carrier aggregation to add more "lanes" to the highway that data travels on. 4x4 MIMO to double the number of antennas that can send data back and forth. And 256 QAM to make data transmission more efficient. All this adds up to faster speeds for you.

According to AT&T, its "5G Evolution" network is live in more than 400 markets, with more to come. Other carriers, such as T-Mobile, have made fun of AT&T for its misleading branding.

Update: AT&T has provided the following statement to MacRumors on the new icon in iOS 12.2 beta 2: "Today, some ‌iPhone‌ and iPad users could start seeing our 5G Evolution indicator on their devices. The indicator simply helps customers know when they are in an area where the 5G Evolution experience may be available."

In the latest iOS 12.2 beta, Apple has introduced four new Animoji characters that can be used in the Messages and FaceTime apps. The new Animoji include a giraffe, a shark, an owl, and a boar.

Animoji are designed to work on devices with a TrueDepth camera system, which now includes modern iPhone and iPad Pro models. Animoji are animated, 3D emoji characters that you control with your face.

When you use an Animoji, the TrueDepth camera nalyzes more than 50 muscle movements in different areas of the face, detecting movement of the eyebrows, cheeks, chin, eyes, jaw, lips, eyes, tongue, and mouth.

There are a total of 24 Animoji now, including the four new ones. Existing Animoji include monkey, robot, cat, dog, alien, fox, poop, pig, panda, bunny, rooster, unicorn, lion, dragon, skull, bear, tiger, koala, t-rex, and ghost.

When Animoji launched in 2017 alongside the ‌iPhone‌ X, there were 12, with Apple steadily adding new fun characters to play with.

Apple today seeded the second beta of an upcoming iOS 12.2 update to developers for testing purposes, two weeks after seeding the first beta of iOS 12.2 and a little over two weeks since the release of iOS 12.1.3.

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 brings Apple News to Canada for the first time, with Canadian iPhone and iPad users able to read news stories in English, French, or both.

The update introduces support for AirPlay 2 and HomeKit on third-party TVs, 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 with tvOS 12.2, you can ask Siri to play specific content on your ‌HomeKit‌ devices like the Apple TV.

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 and introduced new Safari features, with a full list available in in our iOS 12.2 tidbits post.

Apple plans to improve Safari privacy in iOS 12.2 through a new Motion & Orientation Access toggle located under Settings --> Safari --> Privacy & Security. The setting needs to be turned 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 is likely to see several rounds of beta testing before it launches to the public.

What's new in iOS 12.2 beta 2: The update introduces four new Animoji, which can be used in the Messages and FaceTime apps. It also displays battery percentage on the Lock screen instead of the date, something that's a bug, and on AT&T devices, it shows a new "5G E" icon. AT&T users should not be fooled, though, this is not true 5G and is instead still LTE despite the labeling.

Apple today began selling refurbished iPhone X models for the first time since the device was released in November 2017. Stock will likely deplete quickly, so we recommend using Refurb Tracker to monitor inventory.

The listing can be found under Featured Offers on the main Certified Refurbished page on Apple.com for the time being.

Unlocked models in Space Gray and Silver are available with 64GB and 256GB of storage for $769 and $899 respectively in the United States, down from Apple's original pricing of $999 and $1,149 respectively for the equivalent brand new models. Orders placed today are estimated to arrive later this week.

Apple is also offering refurbished, unlocked iPhone X models in the United Kingdom, with prices starting at £769.

Apple says all refurbished ‌iPhone‌ models are thoroughly inspected, tested, cleaned, and repackaged with a new white box and all manuals and accessories. Apple also installs a new battery and replaces the outer shell, making it nearly impossible to distinguish between a refurbished and brand new ‌iPhone‌.

Any refurbished ‌iPhone‌ model comes with Apple's standard one-year warranty effective on the date the device is delivered. The warranty can be extended to up to two years from the original purchase date with AppleCare+ for ‌iPhone‌ X, at a cost of $199 in the United States and £199 in the United Kingdom.

Note that the original prices that Apple lists for the ‌iPhone‌ X appear to be based on the current price of the device at select resellers.

Apple began selling refurbished iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus models in November.