MacRumors

One of the biggest ad data brokers has come out in support of Apple CEO Tim Cook's call for federal privacy legislation to regulate the collection and use of personal data in the United States.

In a statement Thursday evening provided to Business Insider, data broker Acxiom confirmed its support for federal privacy legislation. "Acxiom, like Mr. Cook, also supports a national privacy law for the US, such as GDPR provides for the European Union," it read.

A data broker acts as a middleman, transferring user data between different companies and parties. In his TIME op-ed yesterday, Cook called such an entity "a company that exists purely to collect your information, package it and sell it to yet another buyer."

In a message consistent with Apple's policy that privacy is a "fundamental human right," Cook railed against this market for user information, which he said operates in a "shadow economy" that's largely unchecked, "out of sight of consumers, regulators and lawmakers."

Responding to Cook's clarion call, Acxiom said that it had been "actively participating in discussions with US lawmakers" for years but denied that it partook in a "shadow economy" that operates unchecked.

We agree that we must root out the nefarious players in the ecosystem, and Acxiom’s data privacy impact assessment (DPIA) process ensures we don’t do business with questionable companies. We look forward to working with people across the industry, including Apple, to ensure transparency, access and control is available to all people.

In his TIME op-ed, Cook argued for the creation of a "data-broker clearinghouse" that all brokers would be required to register, which would enable consumers users to track transactions that include their data and delete it forever if desired.

"As this debate kicks off, there will be plenty of proposals and competing interests for policymakers to consider," said Cook. "We cannot lose sight of the most important constituency: individuals trying to win back their right to privacy."

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.

Apple on Tuesday released new Smart Battery Cases for the iPhone XS, XS Max, and XR, offering a convenient but expensive way for ‌iPhone‌ users to get additional battery life.

The Smart Battery Cases will be in stores starting tomorrow, but we got our hands on the ‌iPhone‌ XS Max and XR versions early to check out the features and to see if they're worth the $129 price tag.

The cases look similar to the prior Smart Battery Cases Apple offered for the ‌iPhone‌ 7, consisting of a silicone shell with a bump at the back that contains the battery. The cases are easy to grip, but bulky, and the ‌iPhone‌ XS Max version adds a decent bit of weight.

There's a 10.1 Whr battery inside of the cases, which is higher capacity than previous Smart Battery Cases. You can expect to get about 50 to 75 percent additional battery from each case, depending on what you're doing.

Specifically, on the ‌iPhone‌ XS Max with the Smart Battery Case, you'll get up to 37 hours of talk time, up to 20 hours of internet use, and up to 25 hours of video playback.

The ‌iPhone‌ XS with XS ‌Smart Battery Case‌ offers up to 33 hours of talk time, up to 21 hours of internet use, and up to 25 hours of video playback, while the ‌iPhone‌ XR with ‌iPhone‌ XR ‌Smart Battery Case‌ offers up to 39 hours of talk time, up to 22 hours of internet use, and up to 27 hours of video playback.

The cases support Qi wireless charging, so you can charge them using a Qi-based charger (though it won't fit on some upright models) or a Lightning cable. You can even fast charge if you have a USB-C to Lightning cable and a compatible USB-C power adapter, such as the 30W MacBook charger. You don't have to use Apple's solutions -- any 18W+ USB-C PD power adapter will work.

You need to attach the Lightning connector in the case to the Lightning port in the ‌iPhone‌, but because the case has its own Lightning port, you can use it as a passthrough for Lightning accessories like headphones.

With the ‌Smart Battery Case‌ attached, you can check how much battery life is left in the case using a widget in the Today section of the Notification Center or via the Lock screen. Your ‌iPhone‌ will always use the battery provided by the case before expending its own battery, but when charging, your ‌iPhone‌ will charge first.

All in all, the ‌Smart Battery Case‌ is one of the simplest ways to get extra battery life for the ‌iPhone‌ because it doesn't require an extra external accessory or a cable and there are multiple ways to charge it, but that convenience definitely comes at a cost.

Do you think Apple's Smart Battery Cases are worth shelling out $129? Let us know in the comments.

Major Apple suppliers in Asia have been cutting their 2019 sales forecasts and some have cited an "extraordinary" drop in Chinese demand, reports Nikkei.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), which supplies the A-series chips used in the iPhones and other devices, is forecasting a 22 percent drop in revenue for the January to March quarter. TSMC said there was a "sudden drop in demand" for high-end smartphones, also attributing its revenue decline to the U.S.-China trade war and economic uncertainty.

The same thing goes for Nidec, a company that supplies the vibration motor in the iPhone. Nidec has dropped its full-year profit outlook by upwards of 25 percent after slumps were seen in November and December.

"We have faced extraordinary changes," Nidec Chairman Shigenobu Nagamori told reporters at a Thursday news conference as the company reversed a previous forecast of a record profit. [...]

The tide shifted in November, however. "We saw big slumps in November and December," Nagamori said. "Orders, sales and shipments in all business segments around the world saw major shifts," he explained.

Apple has forecast its own decline in revenue, dropping guidance for the holiday quarter to $84 million, down from an earlier November estimate of $89 to $93 million.

Apple has asked its suppliers to cut ‌iPhone‌ XR, XS, and XS Max production by 10 percent for the next three months and has implemented its own reduction in hiring for certain divisions amid the slump.

The company is attempting to boost ‌iPhone‌ sales by dropping prices in China and offering increased trade-in values in the U.S. and other countries.

Apple has inked a deal for a 10 episode season for an as-of-yet untitled science fiction series from Simon Kinberg and David Weil, reports Deadline.

Simon Kinberg is known primarily for his work on the "X-Men" series, as well as movies like "Mr. & Mrs. Smith," "Jumper," "Chappie," "The Fantastic Four," and "The Martian."

Kinberg, Weil, and Genre Films President of TV Audrey Chon will serve as executive producers on the show, which is said to be a large budget, ambitious, character driven show.

No additional details are available about the series, with specific information being kept under wraps. The show is set to go into production this summer, and it will join more than a dozen other television shows that Apple has in the works.

Apple is developing several science fiction shows, including "Amazing Stories," from Steven Spielberg, an untitled space drama developed by Ronald D. Moore, "See," an futuristic world-building drama starring Jason Momoa, and a TV series adaptation of Isaac Asimov's "Foundation" novels.

Apple is expected to debut the first of its TV shows as part of an upcoming streaming series that is set to be announced in 2019.

While recent reports have suggested Intel will supply Apple with 5G modems for 2020 iPhones, the chipmaker has struggled with its consumer 5G modems, to the extent that Apple has allegedly "been unhappy" with Intel's progress.

Despite its apparent displeasure with Intel, a report in November claimed that Apple had not considered reopening conversations with Qualcomm about supplying 5G modems for 2020 iPhones. Instead, Apple recently testified that it held conversations with Samsung and MediaTek as potential alternative suppliers.

In a research note obtained by MacRumors today, however, analysts at investment bank Barclays said they "still believe there is a good chance Apple will have to use Qualcomm for the 5G modem in their 2020 phones." They also believe such a deal may result in the two companies settling their ongoing lawsuit.

It's a bold claim, as Apple and Qualcomm are engaged in a bitter legal battle around the world. The saga began in 2017 when Apple sued Qualcomm over anticompetitive business practices related to royalties. Qualcomm has denied the allegations and says the iPhone wouldn't exist without its innovations.

Apple COO Jeff Williams recently testified that Qualcomm has been unwilling to provide Apple with any new wireless chips since the legal battle began, with each company seemingly trying to gain the upper hand on the other. As of now, neither company appears willing to back down.

Qualcomm is widely considered to be leading the industry with its 5G efforts though, and there's a good chance its 5G modems will outperform similar offerings from Intel, so perhaps the two companies will find a way to settle their differences.

The next-generation iPhone XR will feature a 4x4 MIMO antenna design, according to a Barclays research note obtained by MacRumors.

4x4 MIMO, short for multiple-input, multiple-output, has the potential to significantly improve LTE transmission by increasing the number of data paths between cellular towers and a mobile device to four. Simply put, the next ‌iPhone‌ XR would feature four antennas, allowing for faster data speeds.

‌iPhone‌ XS and ‌iPhone‌ XS Max models feature Gigabit-class LTE with a 4x4 MIMO antenna design, while the current ‌iPhone‌ XR supports 2x2 MIMO.

A few months ago, PC Magazine reported that the ‌iPhone‌ XS and ‌iPhone‌ XS Max have "significantly better" LTE performance than the ‌iPhone‌ XR based on testing conducted by Cellular Insights and Rohde & Schwarz. The difference was especially noticeable in weak signal conditions, the results indicated.

Of course, regardless of how many antennas an ‌iPhone‌ has, data speeds can be affected by factors such as network congestion, distance from the tower, physical obstructions, environmental conditions, and interference.

Apple is said to be launching two new tablets in the first half of this year, including the rumored "iPad mini 5" as well as a likely replacement for its current entry-level iPad.

DigiTimes made the claim today in a report highlighting stable shipment expectations for Apple's touch panel suppliers, Taiwan-based General Interface Solution (GIS) and TPK Holding.

Apple reportedly plans to launch two entry-level tablets in the first half of 2019, including a fifth-generation iPad mini and another entry-level iPad model, said the sources.

The claim follows a rumor carried last month by the China Times that Apple is preparing to launch a new ‌iPad mini‌ in the first half of 2019, followed by a new entry-level ‌iPad‌ in two versions, with at least one featuring a 10-inch display within a narrower frame.

Reliable Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claimed in October that Apple is working on a new version of the ‌iPad mini‌ with an upgraded processor and a lower-cost display panel, with the device being launched in 2018 or 2019.

Ironically, Kuo's prediction came two months after DigiTimes said it did not believe Apple plans to introduce an updated ‌iPad mini‌, and in fact has "no further plan" for the smaller tablet.

An alleged case for the next-generation ‌iPad mini‌ also surfaced in December that featured a vertical camera cutout, suggesting a camera arrangement similar to the iPad Pro with a rear flash, and a center microphone cutout.

Apple hasn't updated its smallest ‌iPad‌ since September 2015, but the device did receive a price cut in March 2017, with a 128GB capacity model costing $399.

As for the entry-level ‌iPad‌, Apple was previously reported to be launching the two new low-priced versions in 2019 to boost the sales growth of its affordable tablet options. The 9.7-inch ‌iPad‌ was last updated in March 2018 and in the same month the year before that.

Today's DigiTimes report cites industry sources claiming GIS will supply over 40 percent of the touch panels for the new iPads, while TPK and China-based O-film Technology will provide the remaining 60 percent.

U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) on Wednesday introduced the American Data Dissemination Act, legislation that would require the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to submit detailed recommendations for privacy requirements that Congress can impose on tech companies like Apple, Facebook, Google, and Twitter.

The bill is intended to address the lack of a single, comprehensive federal law regulating the collection and use of personal data in the United States with clear protections that consumers can understand and the FTC can enforce.

Well timed with the news, Apple CEO Tim Cook has penned an op-ed for Time Magazine calling on Congress to pass comprehensive federal privacy legislation in the United States. He also challenges companies to strip identifying information from customer data or avoid collecting it in the first place.

In the op-ed, Cook said he believes "data broker" companies that collect, package, and sell personal information should be required to register with the FTC and provide critical transparency information to the agency, and that consumers should have the power to easily access and delete that data if desired.

"Right now, all of these secondary markets for your information exist in a shadow economy that's largely ­unchecked," wrote Cook.

In 2014, the FTC published a report stating that "data brokers collect and store a vast amount of data on almost every U.S. household." Of the nine data brokers it examined, the FTC said one had a database with "information on 1.4 billion consumer transactions and over 700 billion aggregated data elements."

Cook's full op-ed was provided to MacRumors in advance:

In 2019, it's time to stand up for the right to privacy—yours, mine, all of ours. Consumers shouldn't have to tolerate another year of companies irresponsibly amassing huge user profiles, data breaches that seem out of control and the vanishing ability to control our own digital lives.

This problem is solvable—it isn't too big, too challenging or too late. Innovation, breakthrough ideas and great features can go hand in hand with user privacy—and they must. Realizing technology's potential ­depends on it.

That's why I and others are calling on the U.S. Congress to pass comprehensive federal privacy ­legislation—a landmark package of reforms that protect and empower the consumer. Last year, before a global body of privacy regulators, I laid out four principles that I believe should guide legislation:

First, the right to have personal data minimized. Companies should challenge themselves to strip identifying information from customer data or avoid collecting it in the first place. Second, the right to ­knowledge—to know what data is being collected and why. Third, the right to access. Companies should make it easy for you to access, correct and delete your personal data. And fourth, the right to data security, without which trust is impossible.

But laws alone aren't enough to ensure that individuals can make use of their privacy rights. We also need to give people tools that they can use to take action. To that end, here's an idea that could make a real difference.

One of the biggest challenges in protecting privacy is that many of the violations are invisible. For example, you might have bought a product from an online ­retailer—­something most of us have done. But what the retailer doesn't tell you is that it then turned around and sold or transferred information about your purchase to a "data broker"—a company that exists purely to collect your information, package it, and sell it to yet another buyer.

The trail disappears before you even know there is a trail. Right now, all of these secondary markets for your information exist in a shadow economy that's largely ­unchecked—out of sight of consumers, regulators, and lawmakers.

Let's be clear: you never signed up for that. We think every user should have the chance to say, "Wait a minute. That's my information that you're selling, and I didn't consent."

Meaningful, comprehensive federal privacy legislation should not only aim to put consumers in control of their data, it should also shine a light on actors trafficking in your data behind the scenes. Some state laws are looking to accomplish just that, but right now there is no federal standard protecting Americans from these practices. That's why we believe the Federal Trade Commission should establish a data-­broker clearinghouse, requiring all data brokers to register, enabling consumers to track the transactions that have bundled and sold their data from place to place, and giving users the power to delete their data on demand, freely, easily and online, once and for all.

As this debate kicks off, there will be plenty of proposals and competing interests for policymakers to consider. We cannot lose sight of the most important constituency: individuals trying to win back their right to privacy. Technology has the potential to keep changing the world for the better, but it will never achieve that potential without the full faith and confidence of the people who use it.

Cook's op-ed is consistent with Apple's belief that privacy is a "fundamental human right." Apple aims to "minimize its collection of personal data," according to its privacy website, and stresses that the "the customer is not our product."

Apple emphasized its commitment to privacy with a billboard near CES 2019 that read "what happens on your iPhone, stays on your ‌iPhone‌."

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.

Samsung is planning to announce its new 2019 flagship smartphones on February 20, but ahead of their debut date, benchmarks of the new S10+ model were shared on Slashleaks.

According to the data, Apple's current crop of iPhones, equipped with A12 chips, will outperform the Snapdragon 855 processor in Samsung's smartphone.

The Galaxy S10+, which features 6GB RAM, earned a single-core Geekbench 4 score of 3413 and a multi-core score of 10256.

Comparatively, the A12 Bionic chip in the iPhone XS features a single-core Geekbench score of 4797 and a multi-core score score of 11264.

Apple's A-series chips often outperform the Qualcomm chips that Samsung uses because Apple is designing its chips in house and is able to offer tighter integration between hardware and software. As AnandTech explained in a review of the ‌iPhone‌ XS and XS Max, Apple's chips are also far more efficient:

Overall the new A12 Vortex cores and the architectural improvements on the SoC's memory subsystem give Apple's new piece of silicon a much higher performance advantage than Apple's marketing materials promote. The contrast to the best Android SoCs have to offer is extremely stark - both in terms of performance as well as in power efficiency. Apple's SoCs have better energy efficiency than all recent Android SoCs while having a nearly 2x performance advantage. I wouldn't be surprised that if we were to normalise for energy used, Apple would have a 3x performance efficiency lead.

While benchmarks are often not reflective of real world usage, the data does suggest that Apple's 2018 iPhones will be a good deal faster than Samsung's 2019 smartphones. Given that both the A12 and the Snapdragon 855 are super fast processors able to handle gaming and day to day tasks with ease, Android users won't be at a serious disadvantage.

Since Samsung hasn't released the Galaxy S10+, there's still a chance these details could be off, but it's unlikely since we're quite close to the debut of the device.

Apple plans to cut back on hiring for some divisions of the company after disappointing iPhone sales during the holiday season, reports Bloomberg.

Apple CEO Tim Cook shared the news with employees at an all-hands meeting earlier this month. According to sources in attendance, Cook was asked if Apple would implement a hiring freeze, but he said that he didn't believe that was an ideal solution. Instead, select divisions will see reduced hirings.

Cook at the time said Apple had not yet determined which divisions would cut back on hiring, but groups like the AI team will continue to add employees. Cook also told employees that a division's importance to the future of Apple is not measured through hiring rates.

It's not clear how extensive the hiring reduction will be, but new Apple offices planned in Austin, Texas and Los Angeles, California will not be impacted. In 2018, Apple added 9,000 new employees, and in 2017, Apple added 7,000 new employees. According to a recent SEC filing, Apple employs a total of 132,000 people, including its retail locations.

Apple is expecting revenue of $84 billion for Q1 2019, down from a November estimate of $89 to $93 billion and a $4.3 billion drop from the year-ago quarter.

Cook provided multiple reasons for the drop, including ‌iPhone‌ XS, XS Max and XR launch timing, a strong U.S. dollar, supply constraints, economic weakness and trade tensions in China, and weak ‌iPhone‌ upgrade numbers due to fewer carrier subsidies and low-priced battery replacements.

According to Bloomberg, internally, Apple executives have positioned declining ‌iPhone‌ sales as an opportunity for innovation, and Apple is also planning to bolster its growing services category with third-party integrations and an upcoming streaming TV service.

Following Cook's talk with employees, some Apple senior vice presidents held separate meetings with vice presidents, senior directors and other managers in their groups to emphasize that the iPhone sales slowdown is an opportunity for new innovation, according to one of the people.

In addition to fewer new hires in some divisions, Apple has also cut iPhone XR and XS production by 10 percent due to flagging ‌iPhone‌ sales, and it is encouraging more upgrades by dropping prices in China and offering increased trade-in values in the U.S. and other countries.