French consumer electronics company Withings has announced a trio of new wearable products at CES, including a three-in-one health monitor and two smartwatches, one with electrocardiogram (ECG) capability.
The health monitor is an upper arm cuff called the BPM Core that can take blood pressure, valvular health, and ECG readings, the latter of which can identify atrial fibrillation or irregular heartbeat in users.
The cuff inflates to take the blood pressure readings and heart-rate measurements, and displays them on the built-in LED matrix display, which includes instant traffic-light feedback showing normal, moderate, and high blood pressure readings.
To use the ECG function, the wearer has to place the hand of their other arm on the stainless steel sensor for 20 seconds, while the digital stethoscope involves placing a sensor on the user's chest for 20 seconds. In-depth results are sent wirelessly to the Withings Health Mate app.
Withings says its BPM Core is currently awaiting FDA clearance but that the cuff should go on sale for $249 in the second quarter of this year.
The company's two new analog-face fitness trackers come under the Move moniker and both track activity and sleep, with the Move ECG also able to take electrocardiogram readings when users touch both sides of the bezel.
The watches can recognize activities including running, walking, and swimming, feature water resistance up to 50 meters and up to 12 months of battery life.
The Move will initially be available in five color options priced at $70, with pre-orders now open and shipping expected to begin on February 5. The Move ECG comes in white and black, costing $130, and will be available in the second quarter of 2019. See the Withings website for more information.
At this year's Consumer Electronics Show, which takes place this week, popular iPhone accessory maker Belkin is introducing a number of new products, including new cables, chargers, and power banks.
Cables
Belkin is introducing several new Boost Charge cables in various lengths including 4ft, 6ft, and 10ft. All of the cables come equipped with a leather strap for organization purposes, putting an end to tangles, and there's a new speckled design available in black and white.
Cables are priced between $24.99 and $34.99, and will be available from the Belkin website in spring 2019. Belkin plans to offer USB-A to Lightning cables, USB-A to USB-C cables, and USB-C to Lightning cables. Belkin will be one of the first third-party companies to come out with a USB-C to Lightning cable, as Apple only recently began allowing accessory companies to offer them.
Chargers
Belkin is introducing both a USB-C Car Charger and a USB-C Home Charger, both of which come equipped with included 4ft USB-C cables. The USB-C chargers are ideal for charging the iPad Pro, MacBook, or iPhones with a USB-C to USB-A cable.
Belkin says the chargers are compatible with all QuickCharge and Power Delivery Devices up to 27W. The Car Charger and Home Charger will be priced from $39.99 to $44.99 and will be available in spring 2019 from the Belkin website.
Power Bank
Along with new cables and charger options, Belkin is debuting a Boost Charge Power Bank USB-C 20K, a 20,000mAh charger able to fast charge the 11-inch iPad Pro and the 12.9-inch iPad Pro through an included USB-C cable.
It can also fast charge an iPhone when used with a USB-C to Lightning cable, and there's an additional 12W USB-A port for charging USB-A devices. Belkin says the power bank supports most USB-C devices, including the MacBook and Nintendo Switch.
Belkin plans to begin offering the Boost Charge Power in spring 2019 from the Belkin website.
Lightning Headphones
Belkin's final Belkin-branded product debuting at CES is a set of Rockstar Lightning headphones, ideal for all devices that no longer feature a headphone jack.
The headphones feature silicone ear tips for enhanced fit and seal for noise isolation, and they're sweat and water resistant. Belkin says they've been designed for comfort and quality performance, with enhanced durability that prevents cable strain.
The Rockstar Headphones with Lightning connector will be available in summer 2019, with Belkin also planning to launch headphones with a USB-C connector later this year.
Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Belkin. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.
Belkin is adding to its lineup of HomeKit-compatible Wemo-branded smart devices with the upcoming launch of two new Wemo Light Switches that are set to come out in 2019.
The Light Switches will work with HomeKit, joining the Wemo Mini Smart Plug and the Wemo Dimmer, devices that offer full HomeKit compatibility without the need for the Wemo Smart Bridge.
Other Wemo products, such as the Insight Smart Plug, Motion Sensor, and existing Light Switch connect to HomeKit setups through the Wemo Smart Bridge. The newest Wemo products are much more convenient, offering a HomeKit connection without the use of the bridge.
Priced at $39.99 for single-pole and $49.99 for 3-way, the Wemo Light Switches feature an updated design that blends in well with a home's decor.
The new Wemo Light Switch options will be available in spring/summer 2019 from the Wemo website.
With Apple having discontinued its AirPort lineup last year and mesh Wi-Fi becoming more and more popular due to its robust coverage and performance, the company's users are increasingly looking to third-party networking options. Belkin-owned Linksys has been one of the leaders in the mesh Wi-Fi market with its Velop lineup, and it's the only brand of Wi-Fi system Apple now carries in its stores and online.
While the Velop systems have been popular for their performance and unobtrusive design, some users have been looking for something a bit more traditional that offers wired ports, and that's why Linksys today is announcing the MR8300 Tri-Band Mesh Wi-Fi router. It's a standalone Wi-Fi router that offers many of the features power users are accustomed to, including three radios (one 2.4 GHz 802.11n and two 5 GHz 802.11ac), four adjustable antennas with beamforming to deliver maximum signal coverage, and 4 gigabit LAN ports for wired connectivity. There's also a USB 3.0 port for connecting peripherals such as shared network storage.
If that sounds pretty much like a traditional router, it is, but the MR8300 also includes built-in mesh technology that integrates with the Velop systems, so you can use it as a hub to build your mesh network around. The integration helps you evolve your network over time if your needs change such as moving from a small apartment where a single router is sufficient to a larger home where you can benefit from a mesh setup.
I've had the MR8300 in my house for a couple of weeks, using it both in place of and integrated with my existing tri-band Velop nodes, and it's offered solid coverage and performance for my home.
Unlike the Velop nodes or Apple's AirPort products, the MR8300 doesn't have a sleek design, instead prioritizing performance with its large adjustable antennas. It's not unusual for Wi-Fi router design, but if you're coming from something like the AirPort lineup it can be a little bit of a visual shock that might give you pause when considering just how visible you want your Wi-Fi router to be.
The MR8300 isn't the most powerful Wi-Fi router you can buy, with Linksys itself offering some higher-end options like the EA9500 with eight antennas, eight Gigabit Ethernet ports, and faster transfer speeds, for example, but the MR8300 offers a nice balance of performance, price, and mesh expandability.
For nearly a year, I've been using a three-node tri-band Velop system in my 1850 square foot, two-story home, with the primary node located in first-floor family room at one end of the house. My office is located at the exact opposite end of the house and up a floor, and while I get decent Wi-Fi speeds in my office, it feels like I do need to be careful with the placement of my Velop nodes to ensure a good signal, as the node in the center of my home has occasionally complained about a weak connection to the primary node.
The MR8300 isn't able to fully cover my entire house on its own from its peripheral location, managing an average of only 27 Mbps down and 11 Mbps up from my 100/100 Google Fiber service when connecting from my office at the opposite end of the house, but that's not surprising considering my previous experience with Wi-Fi routers in my house. If you have a smaller home or are able to locate the router in a more central location, coverage should be just fine. Moving close to the router yielded speeds of around 95 Mbps up and down.
While my router's location in my house isn't ideal for full Wi-Fi coverage on its own, it is in my family room with an Xbox and an Apple TV, so the ability to use stable wired connections for those devices is a plus.
So if your setup is like mine and you find your router can't give you adequate coverage on its own, that's where the MR8300's Velop technology comes in. You can easily add one or more Linksys Velop nodes to the MR8300, letting your network grow with you while giving you the benefits of both fast gigabit wired connections and mesh Wi-Fi technology.
The Linksys iOS app makes it easy to set up and manage the company's routers, and it takes only a few minutes to get the MR8300 up and running, with plenty of customization options available in the app. And if you want to add Velop nodes to the network, the app makes it easy to do so. It takes a few minutes for each node to start up and configure itself, but the process is extremely simple. And once everything is up and running, the app lets you check on the status of each node and see at a glance which nodes and Wi-Fi bands your devices are connected to.
Once I had my Velop nodes added to the MR8300, I was able to achieve speeds in excess of 92 Mbps up and down throughout my home.
The Linksys MR8300 is scheduled to be priced at $199.99, although Linksys is currently listing it at $179.99 in the company's online store. The MR8300 is launching today and will also be available through Best Buy and Amazon.
That's the same price as a single tri-band Velop node, but it offers a bit more in the way of features such as the wired ports. The MR8300 is also nearly identical to the EA8300 router from Linksys priced at $139.99, so you're essentially paying $60 for the new Velop compatibility.
Velop Tri-Band users may also be interested in new Linksys Shield subscription services launching this year to help protect your network on an ongoing basis. First up next month is a Parental Control Subscription priced at $4.99 per month or $49.99 per year that offers filtering for adult, violent, or other types of content at the router level to help keep kids safe online. A separate Network Security Subscription priced at $1.99 per month or $19.99 per year will be launching later in 2019 to help protect against threats from malicious sites by checking your traffic against a database of known threats.
Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Linksys, Best Buy, and Amazon. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.
Moen today announced that its U by Moen smart shower system is receiving several upgrades for compatibility with voice assistants, making it easy to turn on and adjust your shower simply by speaking.
The most notable addition for Apple users is HomeKit support, which will reportedly come to U by Moen this quarter, to be followed by Google Assistant integration. U by Moen is already compatible with Amazon Alexa, but Moen is announcing improved integration as a Smart Home Skill, unlocking more intuitive commands.
To activate U by Moen shower, users can ask their voice assistant to remotely start, stop and pause the shower with the sound of their voice. Once they have created personalized presets in the U by Moen app, homeowners simply state the name of the preset or specify a specific water temperature for the shower within the command. [...]
- Apple HomeKit: Users can ask Siri to remotely start the shower, saying "Siri, turn on my shower," or "Siri, start preset 'Post-Workout Shower.'"
U by Moen was initially shown off at CES 2017, with the smart capabilities managed through smartphone apps. CES 2018 saw the announcement of Alexa and Siri support for the "first half of 2018," but Siri integration obviously didn't arrive in that timeframe, so here's hoping this year's announced timing is a bit more on target.
U by Moen is available at an MSRP of $1,225 for a two-outlet version or $2,265 for a four-outlet version, and that doesn't include any shower heads or installation by a plumbing professional, so it doesn't come cheaply. But for those who might already be considering a bathroom remodel and want the ultimate in smart home technology, U by Moen might be worth a look.
Serial phone leaker Steve Hemmerstoffer has partnered with Indian tech site Digit to release some new renderings claimed to be of the next-generation iPhone, presumably scheduled to launch around September of this year.
The distinguishing feature of the renderings is the rear camera, which is a large, unusual-looking patch housing three lenses in a triangular configuration, a flash, and a microphone.
Given the extremely odd appearance, we'd ordinarily dismiss such renderings out of hand unless additional evidence surfaced, but Hemmerstoffer has a long track record of sourcing information from the supply chains of Apple and other phone manufacturers. He does, however, acknowledge that this is a "freakingly early leak" and plans may change before the phone design is finalized.
Some sources have indicated Apple is working on "time-of-flight" depth sensing for higher-quality augmented reality experiences, but reliable analyst Ming-Chi Kuo is skeptical that the technology will make it into Apple's 2019 iPhones. A more traditional third camera lens could still be used for other purposes, however, such as for improving low-light performance or offering improved optical zoom capabilities.
Phone manufacturers have recently been racing to boost their camera lens counts to three, four, or even five in an arms race to make their devices stand out with unique features. Apple, however, has chosen to be selective in how it competes on rear camera specs, largely focusing on software and chip enhancements to improve photo quality while gradually moving to dual-lens rear cameras in its highest-end models.
Speck today announced the launch of the Case-E, a new tablet case that's aimed to protect iPads that are being used by children. The Case-E is a followup to the Speck iGuy, one of Speck's most popular iPad cases.
The Case-E, like the iGuy comes in bright colors and uses soft but sturdy materials that are easy to grip. Case-E features 6-foot drop protection along with detachable EVA foam "arms" that kids can hold onto.
The arms serve as a stand for use in landscape or portrait mode, and there's a tie for securing it to a vehicle's headrest when in the car.
Speck plans to begin offering the Case-E iPad case for $39.95 starting during the first quarter of 2019. It will be available from the Speck website, and it is compatible with the last five generations of 9.7-inch iPads.
Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Speck. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.
Following today's news that Samsung and Apple have worked together to bring an iTunes Movies & TV app and AirPlay 2 support to 2018 and 2019 Samsung smart TVs, Apple has updated its AirPlay page with additional info on how that feature will be implemented on TVs. Among the details described as coming soon:
- Apple says "leading TV manufacturers" will be including AirPlay 2 support in their TVs, indicating that this initiative will not be a Samsung exclusive. Apple has not, however, announced additional TV partners or a timeline for when AirPlay 2 will come to these other brands. Samsung's support is rolling out in a firmware update for 2018 TVs and built into 2019 models "beginning this spring."
- AirPlay 2-enabled TVs will act just like any other AirPlay 2 speaker, meaning you can send many different types of audio from an iOS device or your Mac to your TV. Music being sent to your TV via AirPlay 2 can also be synced with other AirPlay 2 speakers.
- You can already control AirPlay content such as play/pause, fast forward, and rewind via a Lock screen widget or Control Center on your iOS device, and Apple has confirmed that AirPlay content on smart TVs can be controlled the same way, including control of the TV volume.
- Smart TVs with AirPlay 2 will also integrate with Siri and HomeKit, meaning you can use your voice to request that a specific show be played on a specific TV, for example.
It's unknown whether we can expect to hear more announcements about Apple's smart TV partnerships this week at CES, but we'll certainly be looking forward to more details about which TVs will support greater integration with Apple's services and when.
Eve, known for its line of HomeKit-enabled smart products, today announced two new accessories that will be coming out later this year: the Eve Light Strip and the Eve Energy Strip.
The Eve Light Strip claims to be the brightest HomeKit-enabled LED strip available to date with 1,800 lumens and support for full-spectrum white and millions of colors. For comparison's sake, the Hue Lightstrip Plus, a competing product, is 1600 lumens.
At 1,800 lumens, the Eve Light Strip will put out a good amount of light, allowing it to replace a standard room lamp at its brightest levels. Though it measures in at 6.6 feet, the Eve Light Strip can be cut at one foot intervals for smaller areas, or increased to 32.8 feet by adding extensions.
Eve Light Strip comes equipped with preset colors that can be easily activated, and there are tools within the Eve app to allow users to create their own scenes.
Eve Light Strip connects to a home's WiFi setup and it is HomeKit compatible, so it responds to Siri voice commands and works in conjunction with other HomeKit products.
Debuting alongside the Light Strip is the Eve Energy Strip, a power strip that offers up three HomeKit connected outlets in a black housing that's enveloped in an aluminum frame for durability. Each of the three outlets can be controlled independently, or all three can be controlled together.
With HomeKit connectivity, the Eve Energy Strip is able to monitor power consumption, and users can set autonomous schedules and control attached appliances using voice control, the Home app, or the Eve app. Scheduling works even without a WiFi connection.
According to Eve, the Energy Strip features protection mechanisms to safeguard against power surges, overvoltage, and overcurrent, making connected devices immune to electrical faults.
Eve Light Strip will be available for $79.95 from the Eve website and from Apple starting in February. Extensions will be available for $49.95.
Eve Energy Strip will be available for $119 from the Eve website starting in March.
Samsung today announced that it has worked with Apple to integrate iTunes movies and TV shows, as well as AirPlay 2 support, into its latest smart TVs. The features will roll out to 2018 models via a firmware update this spring and will be included on new 2019 models. iTunes movie and TV show access will come via a new dedicated app for Samsung's TV platform, available in over 100 countries.
With the new iTunes Movies and TV Shows app on Samsung Smart TVs, Samsung customers can access their existing iTunes library and browse the iTunes Store to buy or rent from a selection of hundreds of thousands of movies and TV episodes — including the largest selection of 4K HDR movies. iTunes Movies and TV Shows will work seamlessly with Samsung’s Smart TV Services, such as Universal Guide, the New Bixby and Search, to create a consistent experience across Samsung’s platform.
Apple's Internet Software and Services chief Eddy Cue weighed in on the partnership, noting "We look forward to bringing the iTunes and AirPlay 2 experience to even more customers around the world through Samsung Smart TVs, so iPhone, iPad and Mac users have yet another way to enjoy all their favorite content on the biggest screen in their home."
Apple yesterday posted a support document addressing the 2018 iPad Pro bending snafu that's been circulating around the internet over the course of the last couple of weeks.
In the document, Apple describes the new design of the unibody enclosure of the device and how cellular models use a new co-molding process to create the antenna bands in the chassis.
To provide optimal cellular performance, small vertical bands or “splits” in the sides of the iPad allow parts of the enclosure to function as cellular antennas. For the first time ever on an iPad, these bands are manufactured using a process called co-molding. In this high-temperature process, plastic is injected into precisely milled channels in the aluminum enclosure where it bonds to micro-pores in the aluminum surface. After the plastic cools, the entire enclosure is finished with a precision CNC machining operation, yielding a seamless integration of plastic and aluminum into a single, strong enclosure.
Apple says this process helps ensure the new iPad Pro models can meet a flatness specification of no more than a 400 micron deviation along any side, which less than the thickness of four sheets of paper. This is a tighter specification than on any previous model, but Apple says the new design could make any minor deviations more visible than before.
The new straight edges and the presence of the antenna splits may make subtle deviations in flatness more visible only from certain viewing angles that are imperceptible during normal use. These small variances do not affect the strength of the enclosure or the function of the product and will not change over time through normal use.
New iPad Pro owners first began noticing slight bends in their tablets shortly after the launch of the new device, prompting them to share their concerns on the MacRumors forums. iPad Pro users were worried about the structural integrity of the device, which is the thinnest iPad ever.
Users are encouraged to contact Apple if they believe their devices do not meet Apple's stated specifications, and the company reminds users of a 14-day return period and one-year warranty available on Apple products.
Apple devices have previously had issues with bending, and there was major consumer outcry over a "bendgate" controversy with the iPhone 6 Plus, which saw the iPhone bending due to regular use. iPad Pro owners are, understandably, concerned about another bendgate situation.
Apple last month told The Verge that the slight bending that some iPad Pro models are exhibiting is a side effect of the manufacturing process, caused by cooling of the metal and plastic components, but the new support document offers additional detail on the situation. While no official Apple statement was included in The Verge's article, it clearly said that Apple did not consider the bend to be a manufacturing defect, leading to customer confusion.
In the heart of Las Vegas, where the Consumer Electronics Show is set to kick off next week, Apple has put up a giant sign touting the security of its devices.
The billboard, which was noticed by Engadget's Chris Velazco, plays on an iconic Las Vegas tourism slogan: "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas." "What happens on your iPhone, stays on your iPhone," reads the sign, which is located near the Las Vegas Convention Center and many prominent Las Vegas hotels.
CES will see thousands of tech industry attendees, members of the media, and tech exhibitors, and Apple's decision to put up a billboard here is interesting as the company does not have a presence at the show.
Apple competitors like Amazon, Samsung, and Google will be present at CES showing off smart home devices, smartphones, and other products, and while Apple employees are likely to be in attendance, Apple will not be highlighting any of its devices at the event.
It's not entirely clear when the billboard was put in place, but it seems clear that it's aimed at CES attendees who will be seeing products from companies with less of a privacy focus like Google and Amazon. Apple is not-so-subtly reminding the tech industry of its heavy emphasis on privacy, with the billboard offering up a link to Apple's dedicated privacy website.
The Consumer Electronics Show starts on Tuesday, January 8 and lasts through the end of the week.
Pandora today launched an updated version of its iOS app, which includes a redesigned Apple Watch experience with features that Pandora users have been requesting.
Pandora built its new Apple Watch app from the ground up with features that include remote access playback, the option to favorite songs right from the Now Playing screen, and, most importantly, offline playback.
Apple Watch owners who use Pandora will be able to listen to the streaming music service without an internet connection. There is a catch though -- using Pandora sans internet requires a Pandora Plus or Premium subscription.
Pandora Plus is priced at $4.99 per month, while Pandora Premium is $9.99 per month. Pandora Plus offers up unlimited personalized stations, unlimited skips and replays, four stations for offline listening, and no ads.
Pandora Premium, though, allows users to search for music and play any song, as well as create custom playlists and download any music for offline listening.
As The Verge points out, Pandora users will not be able to stream music with an Apple Watch's cellular data connection, a feature limited to Apple Music.
You asked, and we listened! By popular demand, we bring you a brand new, built-from-the-ground-up app that's seamlessly integrated into the Apple Watch experience, so now you can: - Access remote playback controls. - Give your favorites a Thumbs Up directly from the Now Playing screen. - Listen without an internet connection! Pandora Plus & Premium subscribers get access to offline content - no phone required.
To use the new Pandora Apple Watch app, Apple Watch owners will need to have the latest version of watchOS, watchOS 5, installed.
Pandora can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]
Nintendo earned approximately $348 million from its iOS and Android apps in 2018, according to new estimates shared this week by analytics firm Sensor Tower.
Player spending hit a new record of $117 million during the fourth quarter of 2018, a 47 percent increase over the fourth quarter of 2017. Overall, Nintendo increased its earnings 15 percent compared to 2017.
Much of the money that Nintendo earned came from Fire Emblem Heroes, its most popular title. Fire Emblem Heroes accounted for approximately 66 percent of Nintendo's 2018 revenue, with more than $230 million spent in the game across the globe.
Since its debut, Fire Emblem Heroes has earned more than $487 million.
Though it is Nintendo's newest game, Dragalia Lost brought in an estimated $58.4 million worldwide, while Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, which turned a year old in November, earned Nintendo $48.6 million during 2018.
Nintendo's original mobile game and first paid title, Super Mario Run, brought in just $10 million in 2018, down from $31 million in 2017.
In 2019, Nintendo plans to expand its portfolio of mobile titles with the launch of Mario Kart Tour, set to be released in March. Like Fire Emblem Heroes, Dragalia Lost, and Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, Mario Kart Tour will be free to play and supported through in-app purchases.
Charter Spectrum subscribers can sign up to get an Apple TV for $7.50 per month following the release of the new Spectrum TV app for the 4K Apple TV, the company announced today.
Customers who want a 4K Apple TV as part of their charter subscriptions will need to pay $7.50 per month plus tax over a period of 24 months, making the total cost of the device somewhere around $180. That is the standard price for a 4K Apple TV purchased outright from Apple.
The Apple TV 4K is being offered in lieu of a traditional cable box, and with the Spectrum app, which was released yesterday, it allows Charter Spectrum subscribers to access all of their cable content.
The Spectrum TV app offers access to live channels and tens of thousands of OnDemand programs, as well as all of the other content that an Apple TV has to offer.
Charter's Spectrum TV app and the Apple TV 4K work with the Zero Sign-on feature, designed to let Charter Spectrum users automatically sign into apps that require cable authentication when connected to accompanying Charter Spectrum internet services.
Charter is the first cable operator in the United States to offer support for Zero Sign-on. Charter says that when an Apple TV is first set up in a Spectrum household, it will detect the Spectrum customer's broadband network, automatically signing them in to the Spectrum TV app and other supported apps without the need to enter a username or password.
To use the Spectrum TV app and take advantage of Zero Sign-on, customers will need to subscribe to both Spectrum TV and internet services.
Phishing scams attempting to get info out of Apple users are nothing new, but scammers are growing more clever and scams are getting harder to distinguish from actual Apple communication.
On his Krebs on Security site, security researcher Brian Krebs today outlined one of the latest phishing scams he's seen, where an incoming phone call appears to be from a legitimate Apple support line.
As described by Krebs, Jody Westby, CEO of security consulting firm Global Cyber Risk, received an automated call on her iPhone warning her that services containing Apple user IDs had been compromised.
The message asked her to call a 1-866 number, and in the Phone app, the call looked like a call from Apple, with the number listed as 1(800)MYAPPLE, the name listed as Apple Inc., and with Apple's Infinite Loop website.
Westby contacted Apple support via the official Apple Support page and asked for an employee to contact her. She was assured that the call was not legitimate, but when looking in her recent calls list, she saw that real support call had been lumped in with the fake call.
Original scam call info on the left, with scam call info lumped in with actual Apple support call on right.
The scammers spoofed Apple's phone number and the iPhone was unable to distinguish between the real and fake calls, making it look like Westby had, in fact, been contacted by Apple multiple times, when that was not the case. Westby told Krebs that this is a convincing scam that people may fall for.
"I told the Apple representative that they ought to be telling people about this, and he said that was a good point," Westby said. "This was so convincing I'd think a lot of other people will be falling for it."
Krebs went ahead and called the number that the scammers had asked Westby to call, where an automated system claimed he had reached Apple Support. A minute later, a person came on the line and asked about the reason for the call. Krebs responded that he was told to call about a breach at Apple, was placed on hold, and the call disconnected with no resolution.
A similar report hit Twitter this morning from Fantastical developer Michael Simmons, who says he received a scam phone call that also spoofed Apple's number.
I just got a scam call from “Apple” with their caller ID spoofed! The voicemail was their robodialer, so it got clipped off, but I heard “So not perform any online activities. Press 1 to speak with an AppleCare agent.”
Be careful out there!!https://t.co/FqeYG8lvd9
— Michael Simmons (@macguitar) January 4, 2019
Krebs believes scammers are aiming to obtain personal and financial details from Apple users to get payment, perhaps for tech support services. As he rightly points out, it is both shocking and concerning that Apple devices are unable to tell the difference between a legitimate call from Apple and someone attempting to spoof Apple.
With these kind of phone-based scams, it's a good idea to disconnect the call and get in touch with Apple via the actual support site to avoid being fooled. Apple support does not cold call users in this manner, so these calls are almost always fake, but scammers are skilled social engineers and people do fall for these scams.
Apple has a dedicated support page with information on how to avoid fake support calls, phishing emails, and other scam techniques that malicious individuals employ to extract information from Apple users.
In a press conference at the White House this afternoon, U.S. President Donald Trump weighed in on Apple's recent revenue woes, suggesting the company will "be fine" despite its downgraded Q1 2019 guidance.
When asked about Apple's announcement and its potential impact on the U.S. economy, Trump erroneously said that Apple has "gone up hundreds of percent" since he's been president. "Apple was at a number that was incredible and they're going to be fine. Apple is a great company," Trump said.
Apple has not, of course, seen a "hundreds of percent" increase in its stock price, with the number instead at around 20 percent since Trump's January 2017 inauguration.
Trump went on to say that he's unconcerned about Apple because its devices are made "mostly in China," seemingly blaming that fact for Apple's financial issues. He also once again reiterated that should Apple move its manufacturing to the United States, and suggested he's friends with Apple CEO Tim Cook.
"Don't forget this Apple makes their product in China. I told Tim Cook, who is a friend of mine, who I like a lot: 'Make your product in the United States, build those big, beautiful plants that go on for miles it seems, build those plants in the United States.'"
Apple outlined many reasons for the change in its guidance, which is now at $84 billion and down from the $89 to $93 billion November estimate, but manufacturing problems in China were not among those reasons.
Instead, Apple said that the issue was caused by Chinese consumers not purchasing iPhones, which is unrelated to where iOS devices are assembled.
Apple also pointed towards iPhone launch timing, a strong U.S. dollar, supply constraints, trade tensions, and weak iPhone upgrade numbers due to fewer carrier subsidies and the low-priced battery replacements that were available throughout 2018.
According to Apple CEO Tim Cook, rising trade tensions between the U.S. and China caused by Trump's trade war have had an impact on Apple's bottom line. Back in November, Trump suggested that a 10 percent tariff could be implemented on iPhones and laptops imported from China, but thus far, additional tariffs have not been imposed.
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.
Back in January 2018, a class action lawsuit was filed against Apple for the Meltdown and Spectre vulnerabilities that affected a wide range of processors from Intel and ARM, including those used in Apple's Macs and iOS devices.
Meltdown and Spectre were hardware-based vulnerabilities designed to take advantage of the speculative execution mechanism of a CPU, allowing hackers to gain access to sensitive information.
Apple quickly mitigated Spectre and Meltdown with software patches, but a class action complaint was filed against Apple alleging that Apple knew about the design defects in June 2017 and did not more promptly inform the public.
The complaint also suggested that Apple would not be able to adequately patch Meltdown and Spectre without slowing the performance of its processors by between five and 30 percent, a claim that turned out to be untrue.
As pointed out by AppleInsider, the class action lawsuit against Apple was today dismissed for "lack of standing and failure to state a claim."
According to the ruling, the plaintiffs in the case were not able to allege injury because none of their devices were accessed via Spectre or Meltdown and no degradation in performance was personally experienced by the plaintiffs.
Furthermore, the court said that even if some devices were affected by Meltdown and Spectre as evidenced in some of the benchmarks submitted by the plaintiffs, it does not suggest that all users experienced slower performance, nor were the plaintiffs able to prove that their iOS devices diminished in value.
Given these reasons, Apple's motion to dismiss was granted, though the plaintiffs in the lawsuit are able to provide an amended complaint by January 24, 2019.
