MacRumors

Apple's new Blackmagic eGPU Pro, first introduced alongside the Mac mini and MacBook Air in late October, can now be purchased from the online Apple Store.

Orders placed today for the $1,199 new eGPU are set to be delivered from January 15 to January 23. It's not known how much stock Apple has available, so those delivery times could slip after the first orders are placed.

The Blackmagic eGPU Pro features a Radeon RX Vega 56 graphics processor with 8GB HBM2 memory, two Thunderbolt 3 ports, four USB 3 ports, an HDMI 2.0 port, a DisplayPort 1.4 port, and 85W of power delivery, enough to power the 15-inch MacBook Pro.

Like the prior non-Pro Blackmagic eGPU, the new version features an all-in-one aluminum enclosure. All of Apple's Thunderbolt 3-enabled Macs, including the Mac mini, the MacBook Air, and the MacBook Pro, work with the Blackmagic eGPU Pro.

When the eGPU was announced, Apple originally said it would be released in late November, but Apple later updated the product page to note that it wouldn't be released until December. Apple hit the December deadline, but deliveries won't begin until 2019.

Apple this morning released an updated version of iOS 12.1.2 that features a new "16C104" build number, up from the "16C101" build number used for Monday's release.

We don't know why Apple has released a new version of iOS 12.1.2, but the updated build is likely meant for those who have not yet updated to the new software. It could contain small bug fixes or tweaks that are not significant enough to require a full release.

iOS 12.1.2 is available only on the iPhone, and it can be downloaded over-the-air in the Settings app. To access the update, go to Settings > General > Software Update. If you've already updated to iOS 12.1.2 earlier this week, you probably won't see the newer version.

iOS 12.1.2 was an update that Apple rushed out with a few bug fixes and some important software changes in China meant to deal with patent infringement issues.

On December 10, a Chinese court issued a preliminary sales ban on the iPhone 6s through the iPhone X in China after deciding that Apple had infringed on two patents related to resizing photos for use with wallpaper and closing apps.

The iOS 12.1.2 update in China changed the behavior of iPhones, introducing a new shrink-style animation when force closing apps and a new share sheet for setting contact and wallpaper images.

This particular part of the iOS 12.1.2 update only affected users in China and has not changed the behavior of iPhones in other locations. With the tweak, Apple has said it is in compliance with the Chinese court's ruling and has continued to sell older iPhones, despite objections from Qualcomm.

Beyond the change to iPhone behavior in China, the iOS 12.1.2 update also fixed a cellular connectivity issue in Turkey and addressed some eSIM activation issues.

Apple today announced John Giannandrea, who handles machine learning and AI for the company, has been promoted to the Apple's executive team and is now listed on the Apple Leadership page as a senior vice president.

Giannandrea joined Apple as its chief of machine learning and AI strategy in April 2018, stealing him away from Google where he ran Google's search and artificial intelligence unit.

At the time, Apple said Giannandrea would lead the company's AI and machine learning teams, reporting directly to Apple CEO Tim Cook. Giannandrea took over leadership of Siri and combined Apple's Siri and Core ML teams.

According to Apple's press release announcing the promotion, Giannandrea's team has focused on advancing and tightly integrating machine learning into Apple products, leading to more personal, intelligent, and natural interactions for customers while also protecting user privacy.

Apple CEO Tim Cook says that the company is "fortunate" to have Giannandrea at the helm of its AI and machine learning efforts.

"John hit the ground running at Apple and we are thrilled to have him as part of our executive team," said Tim Cook, Apple's CEO. "Machine learning and AI are important to Apple's future as they are fundamentally changing the way people interact with technology, and already helping our customers live better lives. We're fortunate to have John, a leader in the AI industry, driving our efforts in this critical area."

Prior to joining Apple, Giannandrea spent eight years at Google, and in the time before that, he founded two companies, Tellme Networks and Metaweb Technologies.

Giannandrea's April hiring came amid ongoing criticism of Siri, which many have criticized for its shortcomings in comparison to AI offerings from companies like Microsoft, Amazon, and Google. Apple made serious strides improving Siri in 2018, building out the capabilities of the AI assistant with features like Siri Shortcuts in iOS 12.

In a statement issued to CNBC, Apple has indicated that it plans to appeal a German court's decision to issue a preliminary injunction—aka sales ban—on select iPhone models containing chips from Intel and Apple supplier Qorvo.

In the meantime, Apple said iPhone 7 and iPhone 8 models will not be available for purchase at its retail stores in Germany:

Qualcomm's campaign is a desperate attempt to distract from the real issues between our companies. Their tactics, in the courts and in their everyday business, are harming innovation and harming consumers. Qualcomm insists on charging exorbitant fees based on work they didn't do and they are being investigated by governments all around the world for their behavior. We are of course disappointed by this verdict and we plan to appeal. All iPhone models remain available to customers through carriers and resellers in 4,300 locations across Germany. During the appeal process, iPhone 7 and iPhone 8 models will not be available at Apple's 15 retail stores in Germany. iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max and iPhone XR will remain available in all our stores.

Earlier today, reports said a German court ruled that select iPhone models containing a combination of chips from Intel and Apple supplier Qorvo violated one of Qualcomm's patents around so-called "envelope tracking," a feature that helps preserve battery life when sending and receiving wireless signals.

In its statement, Apple said the latest iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, and iPhone XR models remain available for purchase at all of its stores in Germany. The older iPhone 7 and iPhone 8 models will also remain available for purchase at authorized resellers and carriers in Germany, according to the company.

Reuters reported that the preliminary injunction will not go into immediate effect if Apple appeals, but legal expert Florian Mueller of FOSS Patents informed MacRumors that the injunction "is enforceable even during an appeal," which perhaps explains why Apple pulled iPhone 7 and iPhone 8 models from its shelves in the country.

Mueller also said the ruling applies up to the iPhone X, which Apple no longer sells in Germany, which would explain why the iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, and iPhone XR remain available for purchase in the country.

Qorvo's intellectual property lawyer Mike Baker via CNBC:

We believe our envelope tracking chip does not infringe the patent in suit, and the court would have come to a different conclusion if it had considered all the evidence. We're disappointed that the inventor and designer of our chip, who attended the hearing, wasn't given the opportunity to testify or present other evidence that disproves Qualcomm's claim of infringement. The International Trade Commission has already determined that our envelope tracker chip does not infringe the U.S. counterpart to the patent at issue in this case. We currently do not expect that this decision will have any impact on our business with Apple.

Intel's general counsel Steven Rodgers:

Qualcomm's goal is not to vindicate its intellectual property rights, but rather to drive competition out of the market for premium modem chips, and to defend a business model that ultimately harms consumers.

Apple and Qualcomm are engaged in a major legal battle spanning multiple countries, including China, where a court issued a similar preliminary injunction on select iPhones last week over two separate Qualcomm patents.

Apple continues to sell the affected iPhone models in China and believes it is in compliance with the ruling. Earlier this week, it made some minor changes in iOS 12.1.2 to address the Qualcomm patents in China, including introducing a new animation for force closing apps.

Last year, Apple accused Qualcomm of anticompetitive business practices over chip-related licensing fees, while Qualcomm has accused Apple of sharing its trade secrets with Intel among other illegal actions. In the U.S., the FTC is also taking Qualcomm to court next month over the alleged monopolistic behavior.

Update: In a press release, Qualcomm said the judgment is immediately enforceable once Qualcomm posts the necessary bonds and that Apple's request to the court for a stay of the injunction was denied. Qualcomm says the court also found Apple liable for monetary damages in an amount to be determined.

Qualcomm's general counsel Don Rosenberg issued the following statement to MacRumors:

Two respected courts in two different jurisdictions just in the past two weeks have now confirmed the value of Qualcomm's patents and declared Apple an infringer, ordering a ban on iPhones in the important markets of Germany and China.

Qualcomm expects to post the required bonds within a few days.

A court in Germany today ruled that some iPhone models equipped with Intel modems infringe on a Qualcomm hardware patent, and issued a preliminary injunction on those devices, according to Reuters and CNBC. However, the reports claim the ruling will not go into immediate effect if Apple appeals, and it almost certainly will.

Matthias Zigann, the judge presiding over the case, ruled that iPhones that contain a combination of chips from Intel and Apple supplier Qorvo violated one of Qualcomm's patents around so-called "envelope tracking," a feature that helps preserve battery life when sending and receiving wireless signals.

The preliminary injunction would prevent affected iPhones, excluding the iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, and iPhone XR, from being sold in Germany.

Last week, a Chinese court also issued a preliminary injunction on the iPhone 6s through iPhone X after the court found those devices violated two separate Qualcomm patents related to app management and photo editing. Apple continues to sell those iPhone models in China, though, despite the ruling.

Apple said it believes it is in compliance with the Chinese court order, but it later released iOS 12.1.2 with minor changes to address the Qualcomm patents, including a new animation for force closing apps and tweaked settings for contact and wallpaper images. The changes were only made in China.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, Qualcomm's chief lawyer Don Rosenberg said that Apple continues to "flout the legal system" by violating the preliminary injunction in China and by releasing misleading statements about the ruling.

Apple called Qualcomm's efforts in China "another desperate move by a company whose illegal practices are under investigation by regulators around the world," and said that "Apple and many other companies, consumers, and government will suffer truly irreparable harm" if the sales ban were to be upheld.

The litigation in Germany and China is part of a larger legal battle between Apple and Qualcomm. Last year, Apple accused Qualcomm of anticompetitive business practices related to licensing fees, while Qualcomm has accused Apple of sharing its trade secrets with Intel, its new modem supplier in iPhones.

In the U.S., the FTC filed a complaint against Qualcomm over its business practices last year. The case is set to go to trial in California next month.

Update: Apple has confirmed that it plans to appeal the ruling. In the meantime, it is pulling iPhone 7 and iPhone 8 models from its shelves at its retail stores in Germany, but not resellers or carriers.

Apple analyst Gene Munster of Loup Ventures recently tested the accuracy of digital assistants on four smart speakers by asking Alexa, Siri, Google Assistant, and Cortana a series of 800 questions each on the Amazon Echo, HomePod, Google Home Mini, and Harmon Kardon Invoke respectively.

The results indicate that Siri on the HomePod correctly answered 74.6 percent of the questions, a dramatic improvement over the speaker's 52.3 percent success rate when Loup Ventures asked it a similar 782 questions in December 2017.

Siri on the HomePod remained less accurate than Google Assistant on the Google Home, which correctly answered 87.9 percent of questions in the test. Meanwhile, Alexa on the Echo and Cortana on the Invoke trailed Siri on the HomePod, correctly answering 72.5 percent and 63.4 percent of questions in the test.

Munster attributed the HomePod's improved accuracy to "the enabling of more domains in the past year," as a series of software updates in recent months have enabled the speaker to make and receive phone calls, schedule calendar events, set multiple timers, search for songs by lyrics, and more.

Methodology

Loup Ventures says it asked each smart speaker the same 800 questions, and they were graded on two metrics: whether the query was understood and whether a correct response was provided. The question set was designed to "comprehensively test a smart speaker's ability and utility" based on five categories:

• Local – Where is the nearest coffee shop?
  

• Commerce – Can you order me more paper towels?
  

• Navigation – How do I get to uptown on the bus?
  

• Information – Who do the Twins play tonight?
  

• Command – Remind me to call Steve at 2 p.m. today.

The venture capital firm said it continues to modify its question set in order to reflect the changing abilities of digital assistants. "As voice computing becomes more versatile and assistants become more capable, we will continue to alter our test so that it remains exhaustive," said Munster.

Results by Category

Google Assistant on the Google Home correctly answered the most questions in four out of the five categories in the test, but fell short of Siri on the HomePod in the "command" category, according to Loup Ventures:

HomePod's lead in this category may come from the fact that the HomePod will pass on full SiriKit requests like those regarding messaging, lists, and basically anything other than music to the iOS device paired to the speaker. Siri on iPhone has deep integration with email, calendar, messaging, and other areas of focus in our Command category. Our question set also contains a fair amount of music-related queries, which HomePod specializes in.

Loup Ventures found the HomePod and Google Home stood "head and shoulders above the others" in both the "local" and "navigation" categories due to propriety data in Apple Maps and Google Maps respectively. "This data is a potential long-term comparative advantage for Siri and Google Assistant," said Munster.

What's Next

Siri's shortcomings were brutally exposed on the HomePod, which relies almost entirely on the assistant to function, so anecdotal evidence of improvement is a good sign, but Apple still has significant ground to make up against its competitors.

Loup Ventures acknowledged that Siri remains limited on the HomePod compared to its expanded capabilities on the iPhone. "This is partially due to Apple's apparent positioning of HomePod not as a 'smart speaker,' but as a home speaker you can interact with using your voice with Siri onboard," said Munster.

The venture capital firm said it will continue to compare the HomePod to other smart speakers over time amid rapid advancements in artificial intelligence.

Shortly after the new 2018 11 and 12.9-inch iPad Pro models shipped out to customers, some MacRumors readers found bends in their tablets. Unsurprisingly, new iPad owners were upset and disappointed to find unwanted defects in devices that cost hundreds of dollars, but according to new information from Apple, a slight bend isn't out of the ordinary.

Apple told The Verge that some 2018 iPad Pro models are indeed shipping with a "very slight bend in the aluminum chassis," which is a "side effect of the manufacturing process" that is not expected to worsen over time or negatively affect the iPad's performance "in any practical way."

Apple says the bend, which can impact both sizes of the new 2018 iPad Pro models, is caused by a cooling process involving the iPad Pro's metal and plastic components during manufacturing. Apple told The Verge that the bend is not considered to be a defect.

2018 iPad Pro models that are exhibiting this problem have it right out of the box, according to Apple, so it does not appear to be an issue that shows up over time. There were videos indicating that the new iPad Pro models bend more easily than other models, but Apple says that concerns over the iPad Pro's "structural rigidity" are "unfounded" and that it "stands by the product." Apple has not experienced higher-than-normal return rates for the 2018 iPad Pro.

The Verge suggests that those who are irritated by the bend "shouldn't have any trouble exchanging or returning" an iPad Pro at an Apple Store, but that statement likely only applies to devices that are still under the return policy. Apple typically does not replace devices experiencing issues that are not considered manufacturing defects, so it's not entirely clear if those with bent tablets outside of the return period will be able to get replacements.

Apple experienced major consumer outcry over a "bendgate" controversy with the iPhone 6 Plus, which saw that iPhone bending due to regular use. Apple rectified the problem with later iPhone models, and given the concern over the potential for a similar issue, it's no surprise that Apple is attempting to reassure customers that this is a manufacturing issue that won't worsen over time.

Despite the fact that iPad Pro models experiencing this minor bend allegedly won't end up with future problems because of it, many iPad Pro users may be unhappy with the slight cosmetic and functional problems caused by an uneven surface.

Apple today made a tweak to its App Store Review Guidelines, allowing developers to implement a new feature that will let iOS users purchase in-app content as a gift.

Right now, iOS users can purchase paid apps as gifts for other iOS users, but there's no way to purchase in-app content as a gift. As more and more apps work on a free-to-try or subscription basis with various content only available through an in-app purchase, this change to the in-app purchase rules makes sense.

The new in-app purchase gifting rule is outlined in Apple's updated App Store Review Guidelines.

Before the change: "Apps should not directly or indirectly enable gifting of in-app purchase content, features, or consumable items to others."

After the change: "Apps may enable gifting of items that are eligible for in-app purchase to others. Such gifts may only be refunded to the original purchaser and may not be exchanged."

It's not entirely clear how gifting an in-app purchase will be handled, but Apple may be planning to add new in-app purchase gifting options to its App Store interface. Apple may soon send more information about the in-app purchase gifting change to developers.

Right now, to gift a paid app to a person, a user needs to open up the App Store, tap on the three dots icon next to an app's price, and choose the "Gift App..." option. This brings up an interface for sending an App Store credit for a specific app to a contact via email.

Apple today seeded a new beta of an upcoming iOS 12.1.3 update to developers, just a few days releasing iOS 12.1.2, an update that focused on bug fixes for the eSIM feature and changed certain iPhone features in China after a Chinese court found that some iPhones infringe on Qualcomm patents.

Registered developers can download the new iOS 12.1.3 beta from Apple's Developer Center or over-the-air once the proper configuration profile has been installed from the Developer Center.

The iOS 12.1.3 beta actually includes the same content that was destined for the iOS 12.1.2 beta, and it appears to be labeled as a second beta rather than a first beta. When Apple released iOS 12.1.2, it featured a build number of 16C101, while the first iOS 12.1.2 beta released for developers had a later 16D build number.

Apple appears to have tweaked iOS 12.1.2 to include some emergency bug fixes and the aforementioned software changes in China, rushing the update out and pushing content originally planned for iOS 12.1.2 to iOS 12.1.3 instead.

Apple was forced to push iOS 12.1.2 out earlier than expected after a Chinese court decided on December 10 that Apple's iPhone 6s through iPhone X infringed on two Qualcomm patents related to resizing and reformatting photos for wallpaper and the app switcher.

The court enacted a preliminary sales ban on the iPhone, leading Apple to make tweaks to the iOS software in China. Apple changed the way apps close when you swipe up on an open app from the app switcher, and it tweaked the share sheet interaction for setting contact and wallpaper images.

Apple has not stopped selling its iPhones in China, despite protests from Qualcomm, and it has said that it is in compliance with the court's preliminary order.

iOS 12.1.3 will mark the fourth update to iOS 12. We don't yet know what features are included, and no major changes were found in the original iOS 12.1.2 beta that was the precursor to iOS 12.1.3. As a 12.x.x update, iOS 12.1.3 likely focuses on minor changes, bug fixes, and operating system tweaks.

If we find anything new in the iOS 12.1.3 beta, we'll update this post.

Update: Apple has made the new beta of iOS 12.1.3 available to public beta testers.

Apple today highlighted a series of holiday-themed photographs shot on its latest iPhones, the XR, XS, and XS Max.

All of the photos were shared on social networks by iPhone users, highlighting new iPhone features like Smart HDR, better blurring in Portrait mode, and improved low-light performance.

Apple has shared other "Shot on iPhone" images from its user base, highlighting images shot on iPhone XR and iPhone XS after each iPhone's release.

In its post of holiday-related iPhone photographs, Apple recommends users check out the how to section of its website for tips on how to capture great photos and videos.