After Twitter discontinued the original Vine service in 2016 and transitioned it into "Vine Camera," Vine co-founder Dom Hoffman said he was developing "a follow-up to Vine" that would serve as a sort of Vine 2 app.
Hoffman didn't provide much info on the second-generation Vine app, but he did say that it was self-funded and would be released at some point in 2018.
It doesn't look like that's going to happen, though, as Hoffman today announced that the Vine 2 project has been postponed for an "indefinite amount of time" citing legal and financial reasons.
Vine 2, he says, will not work as a personally funded project and it needs to operate as a company with "sizable external funding," which he does not have the resources to start up at this time due to his work on Interspace and Byte.
The code and ideas still exist, but until everything else comes together, we can't move forward.
Again, this is indefinite, which means that it could take a long time. But it's necessary.
I'm very, very sorry for the disappointment. If it's any consolation, I think it would have been even more disappointing if this service had been developed and released incorrectly, which is where we were headed. I'd like for us to get it right.
The community forums that were set up for the Vine 2 project will continue to be available for community members who had joined, and Hoffman says that any changes to future Vine projects will be announced there.
Vine was founded in June of 2012 and was acquired by Twitter before its launch in January of 2013. The Vine service became a huge hit after launch and it developed a dedicated fan base, but after it began to wane in popularity, Twitter decided to shutter it.
Twitter has turned the original Vine app into Vine Camera, an app that allows users to create six-second video loops that can be shared on Twitter.
HTC today sent out emails and updated its website with a teaser image for an upcoming event that will see the launch of its next flagship device.
The image in question features smartphone components overlaid with a date, and given that HTC is teasing a new smartphone, it would be logical to assume these are HTC components, but as AnandTech points out, HTC's image features iPhone 6 parts.
HTC's teaser image
It is not clear why HTC is teasing its next-generation smartphone with components from an Apple device that's four years old rather than the upcoming device or at least an HTC smartphone, but it's an embarrassing mistake for the company to make.
iPhone 6 components, via iFixit
HTC's May 23 event will likely see the debut of the HTC U12, the successor to the HTC U11.
Update: HTC told CNET that it intentionally used parts from other smartphones to represent the "jumble" of parts that HTC competitors "inelegantly cram into their phones."
"We're glad people are studying our teaser so closely. The fact people have noticed parts from different phone models is exactly right - they represent the jumble of parts (specs) that our competitors inelegantly cram into their phones, while the space in the middle outlining HTC's next phone represents 'a phone that is more than the sum of its specs.'
To be clear, none of the parts illustrated in the teaser came from the phone we're announcing May 23rd; people will have to tune in to htc.com that day to find out more..."
iTunes chief Eddy Cue will be forced to testify in the ongoing Apple v. Qualcomm legal dispute, reports Bloomberg.
A San Diego judge on Friday ordered Cue to be deposed in the case, siding with Qualcomm and ignoring Apple's arguments against the deposition. Eddy Cue handles Apple's services businesses, including Apple Music, Apple's television products, iTunes, and more.
In November, Qualcomm filed a motion to depose Cue. Apple pushed back stating that Cue's role overseeing services made him unrelated to the case. Qualcomm cited past Apple statements pinpointing Cue as one of the lead negotiators when the iPhone launched in 2007 exclusively on AT&T Inc.'s network in the U.S.
As previously shared, Apple CEO Tim Cook is also set to provide testimony in the Apple v. Qualcomm trial on June 27. It's not clear when Eddy Cue will be interviewed.
Along with Cue and Cook, other Apple executives including Chief Operating Officer Jeff Williams, marketing chief Phil Schiller, and vice president of hardware technologies Johny Srouji will be involved in the case.
Apple and Qualcomm have been facing off in a legal battle since the beginning of 2017, when Apple sued Qualcomm for $1 billion for charging unfair royalties on Apple products.
Apple claims Qualcomm charges excessive fees for "technologies [it] has nothing to do with," while Qualcomm claims its technology is "at the heart of every iPhone."
Qualcomm has since countersued Apple for a licensing breach, and both companies have levied patent lawsuits against one another. Qualcomm has also been seeking import and export bans on some iPhones in the United States and China.
Apple has several major iPad-focused features planned for next year's iOS 13 update, codenamed "Yukon," according to information shared by Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman on Twitter.
Apple is said to be working on a revamped Files app, in-app tabs similar to the tabs that are available in macOS apps, support for using the same app side-by-side in Split View multitasking mode, and unspecified improvements to Apple Pencil. Some of this information was previously shared by Gurman in reports on Bloomberg, but details such as a revamped Files app are new.
Gurman also previously said that some features originally planned for iOS 12 will be pushed back to iOS 13 to allow Apple to work on bug fixes and performance improvements. These features include a redesigned Home screen (which will include changes on the iPad) and a revamped Photos app.
Somewhat. iOS 13 “Yukon” will have a big iPad-focused feature upgrade as well, including an updated Files app. some other things in the works are tabs in apps like in MacOS, same app side by side, Apple Pencil stuff. The home screen redesign is iPad focused.
— Mark Gurman (@markgurman) May 4, 2018
iOS 11, the current version of iOS, was also an iPad-focused update, introducing the Files app, a revamped iPad dock, a new App Switcher, Drag and Drop support, new Apple Pencil features like Instant Markup and Instant Notes, a redesigned QuickType keyboard, and more.
iOS 12, coming this year, will offer fewer new features than Apple had originally planned, but Gurman believes Apple will introduce at least one major change that also affects macOS 10.14 - support for cross-platform apps. Apple is said to be working to implement features that would allow apps designed for the iPhone and the iPad to run on the Mac, but there has been some disagreement over when this feature will debut.
Daring Fireball's John Gruber says Apple will not introduce this functionality until iOS 13 and macOS 10.15, so it is unclear if it will indeed be coming in iOS 12. Gurman does, however, often share accurate information on Apple's software updates ahead of their release.
Other features planned for iOS 12 include additional Animoji characters, a new Animoji interface and Animojis on iPad, FaceTime support for Animoji, updated parental controls with a new Digital Health tool to allow parents to better monitor screen time, a revamped Stocks app, an enhanced version of Do Not Disturb, and support for multiplayer augmented reality games.
Apple will unveil iOS 12, macOS 10.14, tvOS 12, and watchOS 5 at its upcoming Worldwide Developers Conference that kicks off on Monday, June 4. The first day will include a keynote event where Apple will share all of the new features coming in the software updates, and following the keynote, developers will be provided with access to the software to begin to prepare their apps ahead of a fall public launch.
"We planned the notch design before Apple," said Hwang Jeong-hwan, chief of LG's mobile division, in an interview. "The display design may look similar to that of other smartphones, but boasts differentiated features."
LG is one of several Android smartphone makers that have unveiled iPhone X lookalikes in the months following the debut of Apple's flagship handset, alongside the likes of Asus, Huawei, and others. One notable holdout is Samsung, with its latest Galaxy S9 devices retaining uniform top and bottom bezels.
Google introduced support for "the latest edge-to-edge screens" with a "display cutout for camera and speaker" in Android P, the next major version of its mobile operating system that will be seeded to devices like the G7 ThinQ.
Apple has previously said the iPhone X reflects the next decade of smartphones, suggesting the controversial notch will remain for the foreseeable future. However, a questionable report from Korean website ET News recently suggested that Apple may remove the notch from iPhones starting with 2019 models.
Mercedes-Benz has confirmed that its new MBUX infotainment system will feature support for wireless CarPlay in future vehicles.
The all-new 2019 A-Class will be Mercedes-Benz's first vehicle equipped with the MBUX system when it goes on sale later this year, according to a spokesperson for the automaker's parent company Daimler in Germany. Wireless CarPlay will expand to other new Mercedes-Benz vehicles in 2019, the spokesperson told MacRumors.
The automaker previously announced that the 2019 A-Class will be available in a sedan model in the United States, while a hatchback version will also be sold in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and select other regions. The spokesperson said wireless CarPlay will be available in all of those markets.
A spokesperson for Mercedes-Benz in the United States declined to comment on MBUX's wireless capabilities until midsummer. It's still early, so it's possible the company's exact vehicle and market rollout of wireless CarPlay could change.
Barring announcements from other automakers, Mercedes-Benz will likely become the second to offer vehicles with wireless CarPlay functionality, after BMW rolled out the feature starting with its 2017 5 Series a few years ago. Apple first introduced wireless CarPlay in 2015 alongside iOS 9.
Every other automaker that offers CarPlay currently uses a wired implementation that requires connecting the iPhone to the system with a Lightning to USB cable. The platform is available in well over 300 vehicle models, and it's generally considered to be a highly desired feature with strong customer satisfaction.
For this week's giveaway, we've teamed up with Nomad to offer MacRumors readers a chance to win a rugged, high-quality USB-C cable designed for Apple's latest Macs that use USB-C and other USB-C accessories like the Nintendo Switch or Android smartphones.
Priced at $39.95, Nomad's USB-C cable supports full 100W power transfer and 10Gb/s USB 3.1 data transfer speeds, making it compatible with all of Apple's USB-C devices. It will charge your MacBook, 13-inch MacBook Pro, or 15-inch MacBook Pro at full speed paired with an appropriate power adapter.
With more and more device manufacturers adopting USB-C, it's always useful to have an extra USB-C cable around, especially because Apple's USB-C power adapters designed for MacBook and MacBook Pro models don't ship with USB-C cables. If you want to pick up a spare, you'll need to buy a cable separately.
Nomad describes its USB-C cable as "ultra rugged" because it's made from a braided ballistic nylon and an extra thick wire gauge with a polyamide core, making it resistant to wear and tear from daily use. Nomad has also included reinforced RF shielding for fast data sync, along with a thick fire resistant PVC jacket.
The cable measures in at 1M in length, an ideal size for use at home or when traveling, and you can be sure that it's going to hold up well even if you're a little rough with it.
We have eight of Nomad's USB-C cables to give away to MacRumors readers. To enter to win, use the Rafflecopter widget below and enter an email address. Email addresses will be used solely for contact purposes to reach the winners and send the prizes. You can earn additional entries by subscribing to our weekly newsletter, subscribing to our YouTube channel, following us on Twitter, or visiting the MacRumorsFacebook page.
Due to the complexities of international laws regarding giveaways, only U.S. residents who are 18 years or older and Canadian residents (excluding Quebec) who have reached the age of majority in their province or territory are eligible to enter. To offer feedback or get more information on the giveaway restrictions, please refer to our Site Feedback section, as that is where discussion of the rules will be redirected.
The contest will run from today (May 4) at 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time through 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time on May 11. The winners will be chosen randomly on May 11 and will be contacted by email. The winners will have 48 hours to respond and provide a shipping address before new winners are chosen.
As noted by The Verge, Texture recently sent out emails to its users letting them know that the Windows service will be discontinued on June 30th, and the company also added a notice to its website.
Texture says the Windows app, which has not been updated in some time, is being shut down to "keep things working smoothly." The discontinuation of the app may have been on the horizon regardless of the acquisition by Apple based on its infrequent updates and poor reviews.
Texture is an all-access pass to the world's best magazines. To keep things working smoothly, older versions of the app sometimes need to be retired. After June 30th, 2018, the Texture Windows app will no longer be available. Your Texture subscription will continue to be available on compatible phones or tablets running iOS or Android and on Fire HD tablets along with ongoing access to all the magazines you have selected as your favorites.
Windows users who are losing access to Texture through the Windows platform will be able to continue to access Texture using smartphones and tablets running iOS or Android, but there will no longer be a way to read Texture magazines on a Windows PC.
Apple first announced plans to acquire Texture in mid-March. At the time, Apple iTunes chief Eddy Cue said Apple was "committed to quality journalism from trusted sources and allowing magazines to keep producing beautifully designed and engaging stories for users."
For those unfamiliar with the service, Texture offers subscribers unlimited access to more than 200 digital magazines for $9.99 per month. Available titles include major magazines like Cosmopolitan, People, Better Homes and Gardens, Time, Bloomberg Businessweek, Forbes, Condé Nast Traveler, Allure, Billboard, Town & Country, ELLE, Good Housekeeping, National Geographic, Rolling Stone, Vogue, and more.
Rumors have suggested Apple plans to use its Texture acquisition to launch an upgraded Apple News app with a subscription-based news service that would include Texture's magazine subscription options.
The news subscription option, which would be similar to Apple Music but for news and magazines, would provide a boost to Apple's growing services category.
"The Button" from Fibaro is the latest HomeKit accessory that's designed to add physical control options to your HomeKit setup, making it easier to access HomeKit devices without an iOS device or HomePod.
Design wise, The Button looks like you might expect something called "The Button" to look. Made of smooth plastic, it has a small round base that holds a slightly larger button that depresses to activate HomeKit commands.
I like the look of the button, and it offers a satisfying button-like press that's better than some of the other competing button and tap-style devices that offer physical HomeKit controls. The button I reviewed was white, but it is also available black and red.
The Button supports just three gestures: a single click, a double click, and a press and hold. This limits what can be done with The Button, so a household may need more than one if there are a lot of HomeKit products and you want granular control over each one.
You can attach the button to a wall or a desk using included adhesive or by nailing the plastic mounting plate into the wall. You can also just use it sans adhesive or mounting plate if it's just sitting on a desk or nightstand, or if you want to be able to move it around.
There is no light to indicate that The Button is turned on and has power, but you can enable an audio feedback option in the settings section of the Fibaro app to have it beep when a button press is activated.
Setting up The Button is a little more involved than the setup process for some other HomeKit products. You need to press down and rotate The Button in a counterclockwise direction (like a childproof pill bottle) to open it up to remove the battery blocker.
Once open, you need to take out the user-replaceable 1/2AA battery that powers the accessory to remove the small piece of paper before putting the battery back in place and closing it back up. From there, you can download the Fibaro app or the Home app and add it to a HomeKit setup using the QR code in the manual or on the bottom of The Button.
I thought the Fibaro app was one of the worst HomeKit apps I've ever used. It's cluttered, has an unintuitive UI, and uses a color scheme that makes text hard to read. It also has no real instructions on programming The Button, which is going to be confusing for those who are new to HomeKit and unfamiliar with automations.
Most users will probably be better off controlling and programming The Button with the Apple Home app, where you can more easily assign Scenes and automations to each button press.
With The Button, you can do things like activate a specific scene to turn off all of the lights in the house at night, lock the door, and turn down the thermostat, or turn on all the lights in the morning and turn up the thermostat, all depending on which HomeKit devices you have installed and what you want The Button to do.
I set a single press to turn off all of the lights in my office with the exception of my night lights, and a double press turns them all back on in the morning. A long press sets an evening scene that dims the lights. The Button can do a huge variety of things depending on the HomeKit products you own, but I've found it most useful for lighting. It can turn lights on and off, dim lights, change colors, and more.
The Button was always responsive during my testing over the past couple of weeks, with each of the three button presses clearly activating each scene assigned to it. I didn't run into any connectivity problems or other issues while using The Button, which is always a plus.
Bottom Line
When you just want to turn the lights on or execute a quick action, it can be a hassle to pull out your iPhone and open up the Home app or use Siri. Physical control products like The Button add a lot of convenience to a HomeKit setup, and they're a must have for guests who don't have access to your HomeKit devices but need to control something simple like a light.
At $60, The Button is more expensive than competing options like the Eve Button, or the Hue Tap, but it's on par with the Logitech Pop and it's arguably one of the more fun button devices you can purchase given its intuitive button design and the range of colors it's available in.
Apple has acknowledged a microphone issue affecting a limited number of iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus models running iOS 11.3 or later.
In an internal document distributed to Apple Authorized Service Providers this week, obtained by MacRumors, Apple said affected customers may experience a grayed-out speaker button during phone calls. The issue may also prevent affected customers from being heard during phone calls or FaceTime video chats.
Apple Authorized Service Providers have been instructed to first ask customers to disconnect or power off any Bluetooth headsets or other audio accessories connected to their iPhone to see if that alleviates the problem.
If the speaker button remains grayed out during a call, the service providers have been instructed to run audio diagnostics. Affected devices will display a "device could not detect dock" or "accessory not supported" alert in the diagnostic pane, in which case the service provider can initiate a repair for the iPhone.
If an affected iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus is no longer covered by warranty, Apple says its service providers can request an exception for this particular issue. Apple's document does not specify if the repairs will be completed free of charge, but it seems likely given the circumstances.
While this does not appear to be a widespread problem, there are have been some complaints about microphone issues on iOS 11.3 scattered across MacRumors, Reddit, Twitter, and the Apple Support Communities in recent months.
It's unclear why iOS 11.3 and subsequent software versions are unintentionally disabling microphones on some iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus units. Apple mentions that some of the devices may require a repair, suggesting the software update could somehow be causing a hardware defect, but information is lacking.
Affected customers can schedule an appointment with an Apple Authorized Service Provider or with the Genius Bar at an Apple Store via the Contact Apple Support page: iPhone → Repairs & Physical Damage → Unable to Hear Through Receiver or Speakers → Built-in Speaker → Bring In For Repair.
Apple has not confirmed this issue publicly, but MacRumors has verified the document's authenticity with a reliable source. However, outside of our control, some Apple employees may be unaware of or deny the information. In that event, we recommend escalating your case to a senior AppleCare advisor if possible.
MacRumors has reached out to Apple for clarity on this issue. If and when we hear back, we'll update this article.
eBay today launched its latest site-wide coupon event, in celebration of Star Wars Day. With the offer, you can get 15 percent off everything across eBay with just a few exclusions: Coins & Paper Money, Gift Cards & Coupons, and Real Estate categories.
Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with eBay. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.
The 15 percent off coupon is running for one day only and ends later today, May 4, at 4:00 p.m. PT. To use it, you'll need to make a purchase on eBay worth $50 or more, pay for the item or items by the coupon's expiration time today, and enter the promo code PMAY4TH in the redemption code field. The discount caps at a maximum value of $100, and applies only to the purchase price and excludes shipping, handling, and taxes. Users with an address in the United States, Canada, Latin America, and the Caribbean are eligible for the coupon.
There are numerous Apple products that can be purchased at a discount with eBay's coupon today, including a HomePod sold by alldayzip. Although the store has the speaker priced at $360, $10 above its normal price tag, with 15 percent off you can get a brand new HomePod for $306.00 in Space Gray or White. For more ideas, browse eBay's Daily Tech Deals page, which currently has new and refurbished items like Apple Pencil, UE Boom 2, iPad Pro, and more.
Just like the last coupon, the new Star Wars Day discount code is available across all of eBay, so even if you can't find Apple products you're interested in, there should be plenty of other items on the site that could be made a bit cheaper with the 15 percent off sale. The coupon is a one-time use code, so if you're planning to purchase multiple items to get a discount, make sure to purchase them all at once.
For more information on the code visit eBay's landing page, and then head over to our full Deals Roundup for descriptions of other sales.
Apple CEO Tim Cook this morning tweeted out congratulations to People en Español, a Spanish-language magazine which has an issue coming out covering the 50 most beautiful people of 2018. The issue's cover and other individual shots were captured using Apple's iPhone X, as Cook pointed out in his tweet.
The June issue includes actors and singers like Demi Lovato, Ricky Martin, Maluma, Maite Perroni, J Balvin, Jonn Leguizamo, and Geraldine Bazán. People en Español's list mostly focuses on Latino stars from film, television, music, sports, and politics.
Apple and Tim Cook typically share when the iPhone is used to capture images for magazine covers and other media, like last September when TIME Magazine exclusively used the iPhone's camera for its "Firsts: Women Who Are Changing The World" photo shoot. More recently, Cook posted a series of images taken during Holi festivities in India, captured by photographers Prashanth Viswanathan, Amit Mehra, and Ashish Parmar all using the iPhone X.
In an effort to reach a wider audience for its "Shot on iPhone" campaign, Apple last August finally joined Instagram. The @Apple account posts videos, user-submitted photos, and shares Stories all taken on an iPhone.
iPhone X was the world's most popular smartphone for the second consecutive quarter, according to research firm Strategy Analytics.
Strategy Analytics estimates that iPhone X shipments totaled 16 million units in the first three months of 2018, making it the best-selling smartphone model during that period, as it was during the final three months of 2017.
"For the second quarter running, the iPhone X remains the world's most popular smartphone model overall, due to a blend of good design, sophisticated camera, extensive apps, and widespread retail presence for the device," said Juha Winter, a senior analyst at Strategy Analytics.
Much of the doom and gloom centered around Apple suppliers like AMS and TSMC warning about weaker smartphone demand. Apple CEO Tim Cook has dismissed those kind of reports in the past, noting that the company's supply chain is very complex, and that conclusions shouldn't be drawn from singular data points.
Even if a particular data point were factual, it would be impossible to interpret that data point as to what it meant to our business. The supply chain is very complex and we have multiple sources for things. Yields can vary, supplier performance can vary. There is an inordinate long list of things that can make any single data point not a great proxy for what is going on.
In reality, Apple accounted for the top four best-selling smartphones worldwide last quarter. iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus were the second and third most popular, with an estimated 12.5 million and 8.3 million shipments respectively, while the iPhone 7 took fourth place with around 5.6 million shipments.
The research lines up with Cook's recent revelation that "customers chose iPhone X more than any other iPhone each week in the March quarter, just as they did following its launch in the December quarter." He added that the iPhone X is a "Super Bowl winner," even if "you want them to win with a few more points."
Apple on Tuesday reported that it sold 52.2 million iPhones last quarter, but it doesn't break out the sales on a model-by-model basis. However, the average selling price of an iPhone was $728 in the quarter, up from $655 in the year-ago quarter, suggesting the higher-priced iPhone X did sell relatively well.
Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi's budget Redmi 5A was the sole Android smartphone to crack the top five on the best-selling list, with an estimated 5.4 million shipments last quarter. Samsung's new Galaxy S9 Plus, launched in the final month of the quarter, ranked sixth with an estimated 5.3 million shipments.
iPhone X may not have lived up to the hype of some overblown Wall Street expectations, but in the end, the device was a key contributor to Apple's record-breaking revenue in the first half of its 2018 fiscal year.
Apple has begun inking deals with publishers in Apple News to gain timed exclusive video series on the platform, as it competes with news distribution outlets on Facebook, Google, and Twitter. In a new article today, Digiday highlights BuzzFeed News as one of the first major partnerships for the video initiative on Apple News, with the debut of docu-series "Future History: 1968" last month.
Under the partnership, BuzzFeed News launched the first three episodes of Future History: 1968 exclusively on Apple News, and then one week later expanded them to Facebook Watch, YouTube, Twitter, and the BuzzFeed app. BuzzFeed head of audience development Roxanne Emadi says Apple paid the publisher for first-window rights to the show's first three episodes and cut BuzzFeed a share of ad revenue.
Apple has become so serious about competing with Facebook, Google/YouTube and Twitter as a distribution outlet for news publishers that it’s paying publishers to unveil shows on Apple News first.
“We’re focused on really just in-depth, unique video experiences and finding partners to support that,” Emadi said. “It’s very different than what you’re used to, which is social video and news feed video.”
After its launch on April 21, Future History: 1968 was featured in video galleries for an entire weekend on Apple News and got included in push notifications of users that follow the publisher in the app. According to Emadi, during the first week of the show's availability on Apple News it received "several hundreds of thousands" of views across the three episodes. On April 28 the show launched on YouTube, Facebook Watch, and Twitter, amassing over 110,000 views across all three since then.
The show focuses on major events that happened in 1968, including the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and the space race, but the depictions of each event are filtered through a modern lens. For example, conversations between King and his wife are shown visually as a text message thread. The episodes are mostly formatted in a vertical orientation to fit on iPhone screens without having to transition into landscape mode, and the shortest one runs at just over eight minutes.
Apple has been working on beefing up Apple News recently, with a report last month suggesting that the company will introduce a subscription-based plan into Apple News within the next year. The company has also been pushing for higher-quality and lengthier video series on the platform, although publishers are said to remain hesitant as the app "hasn't delivered on the revenue front."
Limited revenue and hassles with placing ads alongside content are some of the reasons that publishers are reluctant to adopt Apple News. This could change, as Apple reportedly plans to allow publishers to use the ad tech they already employ on their sites, such as Google's DoubleClick for Publishers, to deliver third-party ads in the Apple News app. For publishers embracing the app, they have noted that Apple News can yield a flood of traffic to articles, with Vox.com stating in February that Apple News accounted for as much as 60 percent of traffic for some stories.
With the release of iOS 11, Apple nixed its built-in integration with Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, and Vimeo, a feature that allowed iPhone and iPad users to store their third-party account information and access it within apps that needed to use those services.
The equivalent feature remains in macOS High Sierra, although Apple has removed it completely from macOS 10.14 Mojave, which many users are likely to welcome in light of the recent data scandal.. While we wait for macOS Mojave to be released in the fall, this article shows you how to manually remove third-party accounts like Facebook from Macs running macOS 10.13.
Note that the following guide only deletes associated third-party accounts at the system level of your Mac – you'll still be able to access your Facebook account and related data by logging into Facebook.com (where you can delete your account permanently) or via the official iOS app, for example.
Berkshire Hathaway bought 75 million additional Apple shares in the first three months of 2018, CEO Warren Buffett told CNBC on Thursday, signaling the billionaire investor's continuing confidence in Apple.
In February last year, Buffett revealed that his holding company held around 133 million shares in Apple prior to the company's record-breaking earnings results on January 31, 2017, worth over $17 billion at the time. Today it holds 240.3 million shares worth $42.5 billion.
"If you look at Apple, I think it earns almost twice as much as the second most profitable company in the United States," Buffett told CNBC.
Historically, Buffett has shied away from investing in technology companies, but the business magnate has suggested he sees Apple more as a consumer company. Reuters reports that Berkshire's latest Apple investment serves as a way of reducing the corporate group's $116 billion in cash and equivalents, without having to acquire a whole company.
Apple posted revenue of $61.1 billion and net quarterly profit of $13.8 billion in the first quarter of the year, up from revenue of $52.9 billion and net quarterly profit of $11.0 billion in the year-ago quarter. Apple said it will start a new share buyback authorization of $100 billion following the record revenue and profit numbers.
Twitter is suggesting that all Twitter users update their passwords following a glitch that exposed some passwords in plaintext on its internal network.
As outlined in a blog post, Twitter says that it recently found a bug that "stored passwords unmasked in an internal log." The bug was fixed, and an internal investigation shows that there was no breach or misuse.
We mask passwords through a process called hashing using a function known as bcrypt, which replaces the actual password with a random set of numbers and letters that are stored in Twitter's system. This allows our systems to validate your account credentials without revealing your password. This is an industry standard.
Due to a bug, passwords were written to an internal log before completing the hashing process. We found this error ourselves, removed the passwords, and are implementing plans to prevent this bug from happening again.
Despite the fact that no one appears to have accessed the plaintext passwords, Twitter is recommending that all users "consider" changing their passwords "out of an abundance of caution" both on Twitter and on any other site where the same password was used.
If you're a Twitter user, you can change your password on the web by accessing your Twitter settings and selecting the password option. You will need to enter a current password and then choose a new one. In the Twitter iOS app, you'll need to sign out to initiate a password change.
Using a unique password for every login is the best way to make sure you stay secure in the event of a data breach, something best managed with an app like 1Password or LastPass.
Twitter is recommending users choose a unique, strong password and then protect their accounts with two factor authentication.
As part of its recent Q1 earnings call, TSMC announced that its 7-nanometer FinFET process node has entered into high volume manufacturing (HVM), meaning we could see consumer devices featuring the process as soon as the second half of this year.
Previous reports indicated that TSMC is expected to have sole production responsibility for Apple's upcoming A12 chip and its variants expected to debut in new iPhone and iPad products starting this fall. The 7nm node (referred to as CLN7FF, 7FF, or simply N7) is expected to have an approximate 40 percent power and area benefit over TSMC's 10nm FinFET process, utilized in Apple's A11 processors.
Additionally, as reported by EETimes, TSMC has offered insight into its technology roadmap, both for its silicon processes and for its device packaging technologies. TSMC is believed to have wrested sole ownership of production for Apple's processors away from the dual-sourcing arrangement with Samsung due to its advancements in wafer-level packaging. (What also went largely unnoticed at the time was TSMC's introduction of land-side capacitors attached directly to the substrate.)
Building on the packaging leadership established with its InFO packaging offerings, TSMC has now announced six new packaging types aimed at a variety of devices and applications.
The InFO technique is getting four cousins. Info-MS, for memory substrate, packs an SoC and HBM on a 1x reticle substrate with a 2 x 2-micron redistribution layer and will be qualified in September.
InFO-oS has a backside RDL pitch better matched to DRAM and is ready now. A multi-stacking option called MUST puts one or two chips on top of another larger one linked through an interposer at the base of the stack.
Finally, InFO-AIP stands for antenna-in-package, sporting a 10% smaller form factor and 40% higher gain. It targets designs such as front-end modules for 5G basebands.
But that’s not all. TSMC introduced two wholly new packaging options. A wafer-on-wafer pack (WoW) directly bonds up to three dice. It was released last week, but users need to ensure that their EDA flows support the bonding technique. It will get EMI support in June.
Finally, the foundry roughly described something that it called system-on-integrated-chips (SoICs) using less than 10-micron interconnects to link two dice, but details are still sketchy for the technique to be released sometime next year. It targets apps from mobile to high-performance computing and can connect dice made in different nodes, suggesting it may be a form of system-in-package.
The announcement of these packaging technologies is important because they will enable a variety of different package and interconnect structures for Apple's SoCs, with the immediate benefit being novel interfaces to in-package memory. While InFO offers height, performance and thermal advantages for Apple, they still must interconnect to the RAM seated on top of the application processor through the use of wire bonds in a package-on-package configuration.
This interface presents thermal challenges and limits the width and speed of the memory bus interface due to the type of interconnects. The IC industry has seen quite a bit of effort into novel memory technologies such as High Bandwidth Memory (HBM), but this technology has largely been relegated to graphics processors aimed at scientific, research, and extreme enthusiast use due to the high cost and low yield associated with the silicon interposers that enable the chip-to-memory connections. The fact that TSMC has unveiled a variant of InFO directly aimed at this solution bodes well for its increased adoption in the industry in a variety of products.
The InFO-oS process is of much more near-term interest for mobile device makers such as Apple, where the memory bus widths would be much lower, but the per-pin bandwidth is much higher, as seen in LPDDR4. According to a TSMC report, the "oS" portion this technology refers to on-substrate, where die-partitioning would take place.
This would seem to allow for a 2.5D solution where the memory die is placed alongside the processor die as opposed to suspended above via a mold compound as seen in the original InFO-WLP packaging, enabling the higher interconnect density. However, the retention of a redistribution layer means a mold compound must still be in play, so a more thorough technical disclosure could help eliminate some of the ambiguity with this naming convention. While this would eliminate die-stacking, it would increase the total footprint of the packaged solution, which would still be a concern in a size-constrained mobile package.
TSMC InFO variants
While Apple could eventually move to an HBM solution, which affords much greater memory bandwidth at lower power levels, the wafer-on-wafer (WoW) announcement is a genuine step towards true 3D integrated circuits, where eventually dies would be stacked directly on top of each other and interconnected through vias placed directly in the IC die.
The innovation for TSMC here would be in exactly how it packages these dies together, and what the interfaces look like as well as what type of redistribution layers (RDLs) they offer. While not directly applicable to Apple's line of processors, the InFO-AIP is also an important development, as radio frequency (RF) front-ends stand to take on another order of complexity with their adoption of much wider frequency bandwidths needed for 5G standards.
Beyond the 7nm node, TSMC also shared its outlook for the foundry's successive nodes, 7nm+ and 5nm. 7nm+ will be TSMC's first node to feature extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography, which stands to simplify the mask process by eliminating the need for multiple patterning in many areas to define smaller features.
Following 7nm+ will be 5nm, which would enter risk production late next year if current timelines hold, meaning volume production would occur sometime in 2020, though likely too late for a fall 2020 product launch, even with the most optimistic timelines. Though EUV has been long-awaited and will solve many problems in the industry, it brings a host of its own issues and will not bring huge performance jumps in successive nodes, nor will it grant smoother node transitions, as 5nm already presents its own EUV challenges.
The node delivers 35% more speed or uses 65% less power and sports a 3x gain in routed gate density. By contrast, the N7+ node with EUV will only deliver 20% more density, 10% less power, and apparently no speed gains — and those advances require use of new standard cells.
Still, the above news is encouraging, as Apple should be able to enjoy the benefits of a new technology node for at least two out of the next three years. This will offer a boost as its processor architecture gains slow down, and the advent of new packaging techniques will allow Apple to overcome bandwidth and thermal constraints in ways that were simply not possible before.
TSMC has also offered hope for the future, painting the picture beyond 5nm in broad strokes with plans for newer transistor topologies such as silicon nanowires, and moving beyond silicon as the prime semiconducting medium to materials that ultimately offer higher carrier (electrons and holes) mobility.
TSMC also detailed ways to improve the conductivity and reduce the parasitics associated with the interconnects present in the silicon die. Ultimately, these interconnects often dictate how quickly transistors can switch due to the effective line load on them, and that is a concern all the way from the die to the package and on to the PCB. TSMC seems to be diligently pursuing a variety of solutions for its customers on two of those fronts, and its packaging solutions are bringing more and more of those PCB components straight into the device package to combat the third element.
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