MacRumors

The so-called "Apple Car" may not be a car after all, but rather an electric van, according to German site Manager Magazin.

The report, loosely translated below, claims Apple's industrial design group has designed prototypes of the van with black and silver finishes:

After that, the Apple Car could come in the form of an electric van. Apple's engineers have designed specimens with black and silver paint, designed in the typical industrial design of the iPhone group. Apple also researches on its own batteries, electric motors, special seats and interior components.

Last year, The New York Times reported that Apple had signed a deal to use Volkswagen vans as self-driving shuttles to transport employees around its various campuses and office buildings in the San Francisco Bay Area. It's possible the vans could be designed by Apple and manufactured by Volkswagen.

The context of this report really depends on how ambitious Apple's plans are. Early reports suggested that Apple was developing an electric vehicle under the codename Project Titan, but later reports have suggested that Apple may be focused on the underlying electric and self-driving technologies only.

Apple recently hired former Tesla lead engineer Doug Field to lead the project alongside longtime Apple executive Bob Mansfield. Last month, Apple reportedly removed more than 200 employees from the team, but Apple said "we continue to believe there is a huge opportunity with autonomous systems."

In any case, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo believes Apple is unlikely to release a vehicle until 2023 to 2025.

Apple already uses a fleet of LiDAR-equipped vans to collect mapping data, as part of its efforts to improve Apple Maps. Each van is equipped with an iPad and a Mac Pro to assist the drivers with surveying streets and neighborhoods.

Via: Reuters

Apple and investment bank Goldman Sachs plan to launch a joint credit card later this year, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The report claims the card will be rolled out to Apple employees for internal testing in the next few weeks and officially launch later this year. The card would be accessible through the Wallet app on iPhone, potentially with unique features for setting spending goals, tracking rewards, and managing balances.

Executives have discussed borrowing visual cues from Apple's fitness-tracking app, where "rings" close as users hit daily exercise targets, and sending users notifications about their spending habits. There also could be notifications based on analysis of cardholders' spending patterns, alerting them for example if they paid more than usual for groceries one week.

The card will be issued by Goldman Sachs and use Mastercard's payment network, according to the report. The card is said to offer around two percent cashback on most purchases and potentially more on Apple products and services.

Apple has tweaked the Wallet app's interface in the iOS 12.2 beta, potentially foreshadowing the credit card's arrival.

The Wall Street Journal first reported on these plans last year, noting that the Goldman Sachs card could replace the Barclaycard Visa with Apple Rewards currently issued in the United States. Apple is expected to collect a higher percentage of fees from the Goldman Sachs card, boosting its services revenue.

Apple Music vice president Oliver Schusser spoke with German blog Macerkopf this week, revealing that European developers have now earned over $25 billion from the App Store since its inception in 2008.

Schusser also noted that customers have downloaded and streamed over 50 billion episodes of 650,000 active shows on Apple Podcasts.

Apple provided MacRumors with Schusser's full remarks in English:

Our services division which includes the content stores, Apple Pay and iCloud storage is on target to be a $40 billion business annually. In January we announced developer earnings on the App Store have reached $120 billion. Payments to European developers have just passed $25 billion. Apple Music now has 50 million paid users around the world since launching just under 4 years ago. We're the the #1 music streaming service in the US and the leading music service globally on iPhone. Our customers love the amazing content, whether it's through playlists, Radio, Beats 1, or suggestions in For You. Apple Music was the first place to hear great new music from Nicki Minaj, The Weeknd and Frank Ocean to name a few last year. Beats 1 also hosts exclusive and popular artist-led shows from Drake, Nicki Minaj, Ezra Koenig, Lars Ulrich and Elton John. The final update I'd like to share today is around podcasting where our customers have downloaded and streamed over 50 billion episodes of 650,000 active shows on Apple Podcasts.

Other figures mentioned in the remarks were previously known, including that developers have earned over $120 billion globally since the App Store launched and that Apple Music has over 50 million paying subscribers.

(Thanks, Andre!)

Apple recorded its biggest decline in iPhone sales for almost three years over the holiday quarter, according to new market research data by Gartner.

Apple sold 64 million iPhones in the fourth quarter of 2018, down from 73 million in Q4 2017. Those numbers followed a pattern of declining smartphone sales globally in Q4 2018, with growth of just 0.1 percent over the period and 408.4 million units shipped.

Despite retaining its second place position with 15.8 per cent market share behind market leader Samsung (17.3 percent), Apple bared the brunt of the decline, seeing its 18 percent global market share in Q4 2017 reduced to 16 percent in Q4 2018.

The analyst firm said ‌iPhone‌ sales were hit hardest in Greater China, where it found Apple's market share dropped to 8.8 percent in Q4, down from 14.6 percent in Q4 2017. Samsung also recorded a smaller market share over the holiday period year on year, recording 17 percent, down from 18 percent in 2017.

Third-placed Huawei closed the gap on Apple by selling 60 million phones in Q4 2018, up from 44 million in Q4 2017, expanding its share from 10.8 percent in Q4 2017 to 14.8 percent. Oppo, in fourth, registered 7.6 percent, up from 7.3 percent in Q4 2017, while Xiaomi took a 6.8 percent share, down slightly from 6.9 percent the previous holiday quarter.

"Demand for entry-level and midprice smartphones remained strong across markets, but demand for high-end smartphones continued to slow in the fourth quarter of 2018," said Anshul Gupta, senior research director at Gartner. "Slowing incremental innovation at the high end, coupled with price increases, deterred replacement decisions for high-end smartphones."

For 2018 as a whole, global smartphone sales grew by 1.2 percent year on year, with 1.6 billion units shipped. Market leader Samsung saw a 1.9 percent decline in share and Apple lost 0.6 percent over the previous year, but Huawei, Xiaomi and Oppo all saw overall gains of 3.2 percent, 2.1 percent, and 0.3 percent, respectively.

According to Gartner, Chinese brands actually boosted their overall sales thanks to broad appeal in emerging markets like China and India, while the worst declines of the year took place in North America and mature Asia/Pacific market regions.

Beyond the overall slowdown in the smartphone market, Gartner put Apple's poor quarterly performance down to buyers delaying upgrades and compelling alternatives from Chinese vendors.

"Apple has to deal not only with buyers delaying upgrades as they wait for more innovative smartphones, but it also continues to face compelling high-price and midprice smartphone alternatives from Chinese vendors. Both these challenges limit Apple’s unit sales growth prospects," said Gupta.

Last month, Apple issued a rare warning that revenue for the quarter would come in at least $5 billion below the company's original guidance, with Apple pointing to a number of factors including the later launch of the ‌iPhone‌ XR, general weakness in China, and fewer upgrades as customers took advantage of Apple's reduced pricing on battery replacements in 2018 to extend the lives of their current phones.

Apple later posted revenue of $84.31 billion and net quarterly profit of $19.965 billion, compared to revenue of $88.3 billion and net quarterly profit of $20.1 billion, in the year-ago quarter. However, even with the earnings warning, the quarter was the second-best in Apple's history in terms of overall revenue and profit, trailing only the first fiscal quarter of 2018.

Apple CEO Tim Cook recently said that the company is "rethinking" ‌iPhone‌ prices outside of the United States and may lower prices to boost sales. Apple has already started lowering the price of the ‌iPhone‌ for third-party distributors in China, and price cuts could also be introduced in other areas like India and Brazil, where the ‌iPhone‌ is prohibitively expensive and has seen stalled growth due to high pricing.

Fast Company today published its annual rankings of the 50 most innovative companies in the world, with Apple dropping from 2018's top spot to 17th place this year.

According to the rankings, the most innovative company for 2019 is Chinese tech firm Meituan Dianping, which "expedites the booking and delivery of services such as food, hotel stays, and movie tickets." In 2018, the platform facilitated $33.8 billion in transactions for more than 350 million people in 2,800 cities.

Other companies in the top five include Singapore-based ride-hailing company Grab, NBA, The Walt Disney Company, and women's fishing e-commerce service Stitch Fix. Square, Oatly, Twitch, Shopify, and Alibaba Group also filled positions higher than Apple, whose in-house processor achievements in 2018 were highlighted:

Apple's most impressive new product of 2018 wasn't a phone or a tablet, but a chip: the A12 Bionic. Debuting in last fall's iPhones, it's the industry's first processor based on a seven-nanometer manufacturing process. The A12's 6.9 billion transistors deliver dramatically faster performance, lower power consumption, and more raw muscle for intensive applications.

Last year Apple was given first place for its 2017 accomplishments, which included the iPhone X, the Apple Watch Series 3, ARKit, and its work to improve medical care with CareKit and ResearchKit. The year previous it was ranked the number four most valuable company.

To create these rankings, Fast Company says that more than three dozen editors, reporters, and contributors surveyed thousands of companies to identify the most notable innovations of the year and trace their impact on businesses, industries, and the larger culture.

In addition to a master list, Fast Company publishes a breakdown of most innovative companies by sector. Apple topped the list in the "Consumer Electronics" category, beating out companies like Google, Microsoft, and Dell.

macOS, the operating system that runs on Apple's Macs, has tons of hidden shortcuts, keyboard commands, and features that have gone under the radar. In our latest video over on our YouTube channel, we dug deep into macOS and came up with a list of useful but lesser known tips and tricks.

You might think you know everything there is to know about the Mac, but we bet there's something new here you've never come across or have forgotten over time, so make sure to check out our video.

• Continuity Camera - In macOS Mojave, Apple introduced a feature that lets you take a photo on an iPhone or iPad and have it ported over to the Mac into the document or app of your choosing. To get to Continuity Camera in any app where it's supported, go to Edit > Insert From Your ‌iPhone‌ or ‌iPad‌. From there, choose "Take Photo" or "Scan Document," and it will automatically activate the camera on your iOS device so you can snap a quick photo. You can also right click in most documents to bring up a menu with the option.
• Password Protect a Folder - Your Mac is protected by a password, but you can add an extra layer of security by password protecting any folder. To do it, open up Disk Utility, select "File" from the menu, choose "New Image" and then "Image from Folder." From there, select the folder you want to protect and create a password. Delete the original folder, and you'll need to enter a password when opening the new folder.
• Custom Lock Screen Message - There's an option in macOS to create a custom message that shows up on the Lock screen, which is useful if you misplace your Mac because you can put in a phone number and an email address that people will see right when it's opened up. To get to it, go to System Preferences > Security & Privacy > General > Set Lock Message.
• Emoji Quick Access - It can be a chore to add emojis to documents, texts, and social media on macOS going through the menu insert options, but there's a keyboard command that will bring up the macOS emoji selector interface in any app. Just press Control, Command, and Space Bar all at once.
• WiFi Passwords in Keychain - Want to find a lost password for a WiFi network you've connected to before? It's stored right on your Mac in Keychain. Open up Keychain Access, choose System, and locate the WiFi name you're looking for. Right click on it (or double click), choose "Get Info," and then select "Show Password."
• Copy Paste Screenshots - You can take and share a screenshot without cluttering up your desktop using the hidden screenshot copy paste feature. Hold Command + Control + Shift + 4, select what you want to screenshot, and it's copied to your clipboard. From there, you can paste it within any app, and there's no screenshot on your desktop when you're done.
• Messages Screen Sharing - Need to help a parent or a friend with an issue on the Mac? You can use Messages to access their screen to make it easier. Just open up Messages, select the name of the person you want to help, and then click on "Details." Click on the screen sharing icon to connect. You can also click on "Buddies" at the top to get more screen sharing options.

Have other useful Mac tips that we didn't share here? Let us know in the comments and we might include them in a future tips and tricks video.

Apple today released a white paper outlining its self-driving car testing procedures as required by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration [PDF via CNET].

The short seven-page document is scant on details about Apple's autonomous car project, but the company says that it is "excited about the potential of automated systems" in many areas, including transportation.

Apple believes autonomous driving systems have the potential to "enhance the human experience" through road safety improvements, increased mobility, and broad social benefits.

Each vehicle that's deployed (Apple uses Lexus SUVs outfitted with LiDAR equipment) is put through "rigorous verification testing" using simulation and closed-course proving grounds.

Apple explains how its autonomous vehicles work, which is basic self-driving vehicle functionality. The software senses what's around it, such as other vehicles, bicycles, or pedestrians using LiDAR, radar, and cameras before a planning component pulls that information together to predict what will happen next.

Using this information, Apple's system delivers commands for the steering, braking, and propulsion systems.

Apple analyzes every action that the system takes, especially scenarios and malfunctions where the safety driver is required to take over. Apple vehicles were in two accidents in 2018, though neither was the fault of the self-driving system and self-driving mode was only activated in one instance.

Every new autonomous driving feature implemented sees rigorous verification testing using test scenarios crafted from data gathered on public roads.

All proposed changes to our ADS software are first subjected to rigorous and comprehensive simulation testing that evaluates the software against predetermined criteria. After passing these simulation tests, the entire system then undergoes on-road testing at closed-course proving grounds. Software changes may be nominated for operation on public roads only after passing this array of extensive simulations and closed-course proving ground tests.

Software that passes to public road testing is incrementally deployed across the test vehicle fleet, with each stage monitored and analyzed. Additionally, changes deemed safety-critical undergo an extra phase of testing conducted by our most experienced drivers and operators.

All in all, Apple's white paper is rather dull and contains information shared by most companies that operate self-driving vehicles, but there are some interesting tidbits and insights into the company's focus on safety and secrecy.

All vehicles go through daily inspections and functionality checks before each outing, and Apple holds daily meetings with safety drivers to review software information and test routes.

Each vehicle is monitored by a safety driver and an operator, with Apple's safety drivers required to undergo rigorous training that includes a defensive driving course, classroom instruction, simulations, operational training, and supervised public road driving.

Drivers must keep both hands on the wheel at all times, work one shift per day, and are required to take frequent rest breaks to stay alert while driving.

Apple is still in the early stages of development on its autonomous driving software, and rumors have suggested the company could potentially release some kind of vehicle in 2023 to 2025.

Vehicles are equipped with a "persistent visual display" of the systems' mode, visible and audible signals when the system returns control to the safety driver, and "multiple, redundant, and fault-tolerant" mechanisms for taking control of the vehicle. Steering, braking, and acceleration commands have set limits to ensure actions can be safely anticipated and interrupted by the driver.

For more on Apple's car project, make sure to check out our Apple Car roundup.

Alongside its new Galaxy S10 smartphone lineup and the Galaxy Fold, Samsung today announced a new wearable accessory, the Galaxy Buds.

The Galaxy Buds are Samsung's new wire-free earbuds, similar to the AirPods. Samsung focused on sound with the Galaxy Buds, partnering with AKG. An Enhanced Ambient Sound feature allows users to better hear their surroundings with the earbuds in the ears, and an Adaptive Dual Microphone provides clear voice in loud and quiet environments alike.

Samsung says the Galaxy Buds are 30 percent smaller and lighter than the previous-generation earbuds, making them Samsung's most compact wearable earbuds yet. The battery in the Galaxy Buds supports 5 hours of calls or six hours of music on one charge.

There's a wireless charging case that's used to charge the Galaxy Buds, and it can be charged using any Qi-based wireless charger. It can also be charged via a Galaxy S10 smartphone using the new wireless PowerShare feature.

The Galaxy Buds support Bixby integration for making calls, sending text messages, checking battery level, and more.

Samsung's Galaxy Buds come in three colors -- white, yellow, and black -- and will be available for purchase on March 8. The Galaxy Buds will be priced at $129.99, but customers who pre-order a Galaxy S10 or S10+ can get a free pair of Galaxy Buds.

Along with the Galaxy Buds, Samsung today also unveiled two new wrist-worn devices, the Galaxy Watch Active and the Galaxy Fit. The Galaxy Watch Active is a round smart watch with a minimal design, featuring blood pressure monitoring, heart rate monitoring, stress checking and breathing exercises, fitness tracking, and Bixby integration.

The Galaxy Fit is a thin, lightweight wearable that's made for activity tracking. It features automatic workout tracking, heart rate monitoring, built-in alerts and messages, data like weather, calendar, and alarms from your smartphone, and more.

The Galaxy Watch Active will be available starting on March 8 for $200, while the Galaxy Fit is coming in the second quarter of 2019.

At an "Unpacked" event in San Francisco, California, Samsung today unveiled its 2019 device lineup, with a range of smartphones that will be competing with Apple's 2018 and 2019 devices.

Samsung's biggest announcement was the impressive Galaxy Fold, that can transform from a 4.6-inch smartphone to a 7.3-inch tablet for $1,980, but Samsung also had a whole line of other smartphones, including the Galaxy S10 and S10+.

Both devices use an "Infinity-O" display with smaller camera cutouts. The 6.1-inch Galaxy S10 has a super small hole punch cutout at the top of the display for the 10-megapixel camera, while the 6.4-inch Galaxy S10+, which has two cameras (8 and 10 megapixels) and an RGB depth sensor for adjusting depth of field, has a slightly larger oval-shaped cutout.

The display maxes out at 1,200 nits of brightness, which beats the iPhone, and it offers 60 million colors at 100 percent accuracy. It supports HDR10+ and cuts down on blue light by 44 percent for more comfortable viewing.

Underneath the display of the S10 and S10+ is an ultrasonic fingerprint scanner for biometric security. Samsung says that because it uses ultrasonic technology, it works well in bright light and in wet conditions. Samsung is using "vault-like security" for more protection.

The new smartphones come in different glass finishes, and there's also a premium ceramic option in black or white.

There's a triple-rear camera system in the S10 smartphones, with a 12-megapixel wide-angle lens, a 12-megapixel telephoto lens, and a 16-megapixel ultra-wide 120 degree lens for wider-angle landscape shots. It's able to record video in HDR10+ and features advanced stabilization.

The Galaxy S10 features a 3,400mAh battery, while the S10+ has a 4,100mAh battery. The S10 has 128 and 512GB storage options, as does the S10+, but the S10+ also has a premium tier 1TB storage option.

Samsung's new devices feature a Wireless PowerShare option that lets a Samsung smartphone wirelessly charge another device such as a second Samsung phone or Samsung's upcoming earbuds.

Pricing on the S10 starts at $900, while the S10+ starts at $1,000.

Along with the Galaxy S10 and S10+, Samsung is introducing two other smartphones that are lower and higher-end. The Galaxy S10e, a lower-cost device that sounds like an ‌iPhone‌ XR competitor, features a 5.8-inch display and a $750 price tag. It features just two rear cameras and a 3,100mAh battery.

On the high end, Samsung debuted the Galaxy S10 5G, a smartphone that features a 6.7-inch display, 5G connectivity, and all of the other bells and whistles of the S10 lineup. It features 256GB of storage and a 10-megapixel front-facing camera with a 3D depth sensor, and instead of three rear cameras, it has four: a telephoto, a wide-angle, an ultra wide-angle, and a 3D Depth camera.

Samsung will accept pre-orders for the Galaxy S10e, S10, and S10+ starting on February 21, with the smartphones set to launch on March 8. The higher-end Galaxy S10 5G will launch in the second quarter of 2019, with pricing not yet announced.

At its Unpacked 2019 event that took place in San Francisco today, Samsung officially unveiled its foldable smartphone, the Galaxy Fold. According to Samsung, the Galaxy Fold is a powerful smartphone and a revolutionary tablet all in one, a device that "defies category."

When folded up, the Galaxy Fold has a 4.6-inch display that's designed to fit in the palm of a hand, and when opened up, it has a 7.3-inch display that's tablet sized. It works with a hidden hinge with gears that are under the display. You can't see the hinge, providing a seamless look for the device.

Described as a luxury device, the Galaxy Fold comes in four colors: black, silver, green, and blue, and with some color options, the outside hinge shade can be customized.

Samsung worked with Google to create apps optimized for the dual-display fold, which supports a feature called App Continuity to keep the same apps open regardless of whether the Galaxy Fold is open or closed. With Google Maps, for example, in a folded mode you can see the map, but if you open it up, you can see a whole lot more.

Inside, there's a 7-nanometer processor, 12GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage, with Samsung describing it as one of the most powerful smartphones on the market. There's a 4,380mAh battery, which is actually two batteries on either side of the hinge.

It has six cameras -- three on the back, two on the inside, and one on the front so it can capture images no matter which way it's folded.

Galaxy Fold comes in two versions, one with LTE and one with 5G. Pricing starts at a whopping $1,980 and it will be available starting on April 26. It will ship with Samsung's upcoming AirPods competitors, the Galaxy Buds.