MacRumors

New next-generation Apple Maps vehicles have been seen on the streets of Los Angeles, according to Business Insider. While Apple has previously been using minivans to collect mapping data, the new vehicles are Subaru Impreza wagons.

The Subarus feature new LIDAR equipment that we have not previously seen either on Apple's Maps minivans or on the Lexus SUVs that it is using to test self-driving capabilities in Northern California.

Apple has been collecting street-level data from vehicles equipped with multiple cameras and advanced LIDAR systems since 2015. In fact, its original minivans sparked speculation about work on an autonomous vehicle, which turned out to be true, but the minivans from 2015 on were always dedicated to maps.

Apple is using the data that it has gathered from its mapping vehicles in iOS 12, with the revamped Maps app that's been rebuilt from the ground up for better accuracy and more detail.

Apple is no longer relying on a third-party Maps provider, instead using the information it has collected over the past three years from vehicles driving across the United States and other countries.

The new Maps app, available in California at the current time, offers up improvements to traffic, real-time road conditions, road systems, new construction, and changes in pedestrian walkways along with more detail and accuracy when it comes to displaying foliage like grass and trees, parking lots, building shapes, and more.

It's not clear why Apple has switched to a new type of mapping vehicle, nor what new equipment it is using, but prior setups have included four LIDAR arrays, eight cameras, a GPS rig, a measurement tool attached to a rear wheel for precise distance tracking and image capture, and inside, a Mac Pro for storing all the data.

The new vehicles appear to be limited to Los Angeles at this time, but a similar setup was spotted in San Francisco in an unmarked white Subaru. If Apple is using a new type of mapping vehicle, we could see them in additional areas in the United States soon.

Apple maintains a full list of all of the locations where it is gathering mapping data at any given time for "future Apple Maps updates" on its website.

Apple Music and lyric database Genius today announced a partnership, allowing Apple Music subscribers to visit Genius and play any song in full on the song's lyric page. This will work both on the Genius website and in its iOS app.

The partnership will also beef up Apple Music's own lyric database with Genius's information, providing the music streaming service with lyrics to "thousands" of songs. Apple first introduced lyrics in Apple Music with the launch of iOS 10 in 2016, and now the feature will be enhanced with Genius.

“Being able to read lyrics and annotations on Genius while you listen along on Apple Music is a dream Genius experience,” said ​Ben Gross, Genius’s Chief Strategy Officer​. “We’re proud to make Apple Music our official music player, and we’re doubly excited to bring Genius lyrics to their amazing platform.”

To use the Apple Music player on Genius, search for any song, and then tap "connect account" when the player pops up. This process will require you to allow Genius to access your Apple Music, media library, and listening activity, and once you accept you'll be able to listen to full tracks within Genius on the web (desktop and iOS mobile web) and in the iOS app.

In Apple Music, you can check on a song's lyrics by tapping the ellipsis icon at the bottom right of the player screen on iOS, then tapping "Lyrics." Not every song supports lyrics, and it's unclear how soon the Genius encyclopedia of lyrics will be added to Apple Music.

CVS Pharmacy has officially launched support for Apple Pay nationwide this week, a few months after Apple CEO Tim Cook confirmed that the retailer would be accepting Apple Pay later in the year. CVS has been gradually rolling out support for Apple Pay at its stores in recent weeks, and now it appears to be officially complete.

Using Apple Pay, CVS customers can now pay for their items on compatible iPhones and Apple Watches, by placing the devices close to a near field communication (NFC) payment terminal at checkout. In a marketing email being sent out to customers, Apple encourages shoppers to check out at CVS with its mobile wallet:

Get your essentials in a flash. Buying snacks, vitamins, personal care, and prescriptions from CVS Pharmacy just got faster and more secure.

At the launch of Apple Pay in 2014, CVS disabled NFC payment terminals at some of its locations in order to stop the use of Apple Pay. A few years later, the company debuted "CVS Pay," which used a barcode-based system to allow customers to check out using their smartphone and the CVS Pharmacy app.

Now that CVS has turned around and rolled out Apple Pay support, there are just a few remaining large retail chains refraining from supporting Apple's mobile wallet. This includes Target, which previously said it has no plans to accept Apple Pay in its stores and instead launched a "Wallet" feature in the Target iOS app, allowing customers to pay for their groceries and other items with their smartphone at checkout.

Another is Walmart, which has followed a similar trajectory as Target: the company confirmed it has no plans to support Apple Pay in its retail stores, instead pushing its own "Walmart Pay" mobile wallet checkout option. As with CVS, these companies could eventually decide to accept Apple Pay as a checkout option for customers, but as of now it doesn't appear like this will happen anytime soon.

Apple Pay launched in the United States in October 2014, providing tap-to-pay functionality with a compatible iPhone or Apple Watch after setting up a supported credit or debit card in the Wallet app. Apple Pay is now available in more than 20 countries, and now also supports a person-to-person payment feature called Apple Pay Cash.

In a research note obtained by MacRumors, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said cumulative smartphone shipments from four major brands on the Chinese market, including Huawei, Oppo, Vivo, and Xiaomi, declined 10 percent on a year-over-year basis during China's Golden Week, a national holiday and major sales period.

The well-known analyst attributed the year-over-year decline to a lack of innovative selling points among Chinese-brand smartphones. Kuo is positive on the trends of triple-lens cameras and fingerprint sensors under the display in smartphones, but said only limited models currently support both functions.

Kuo also cautioned that the US-China trade war "may be affecting consumer confidence, which makes the replacement cycle longer."

A third reason is that some consumers—particularly existing iPhone owners—will opt for more affordable legacy iPhone models or wait for the iPhone XR, according to Kuo, who expects replacement demands for the iPhone XR in China will be better than last year's demand for the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus.

Extrapolating from Golden Week, Kuo said smartphone shipments in China in 2018 as a whole may be "lower than expected." He estimates shipments may decline 10-15 percent to 410 million units on a year-over-year basis.

Chinese brands have to rely on overseas markets for further growth, according to the research note, shared with investors Thursday. Kuo remains confident about Huawei's future shipment momentum because the brand has "the best competitiveness among Chinese brands in overseas markets," the note said.

As for Apple, the iPhone XR represents an opportunity for the company to increase its market share and revenue in the Greater China region, where it has faced increasing competition from the likes of Huawei, Oppo, Vivo, and Xiaomi.

With a lower starting price of $749 in the United States, the iPhone XR lacks some of the bells and whistles of the flagship iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max, including an OLED display and glass rear casing, but it has many identical tech specs and longer battery life than both of the more expensive models.

iPhone XR pre-orders begin Friday, October 19 in more than 50 countries, followed by in-store availability on Friday, October 26.

Apple has finalized a business agreement with Dialog Semiconductor to license its iPhone power management technology and transfer technical assets, in a deal worth $600 million.

As part of the agreement, Apple will acquire some of the Anglo-German chipmaker's assets and 300 of its R&D staff, which is around 16 percent of Dialog's workforce. Dialog's shares rose as much as 34 percent on the news, their highest since 2002.

Announcing the deal on Thursday, Dialog said Apple would pay it $300 million in cash for the transaction and prepay a further $300 million for products to be delivered to Apple over the next three years. Commenting on the news, Apple SVP Johny Srouji told TechCrunch:

Dialog has deep expertise in chip development, and we are thrilled to have this talented group of engineers who've long supported our products now working directly for Apple. Our relationship with Dialog goes all the way back to the early iPhones, and we look forward to continuing this long-standing relationship with them.

Dialog shares took a tumble in late 2017 when the company admitted that Apple, its top customer, could build its own power management chips for future iPhones without the chipmaker's help.

The admission came as a serious blow to Dialog, which exclusively designs the current main power management chip for iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch models. Apple reportedly accounted for nearly three quarters of Dialog Semiconductor's revenue in 2016.

However, today's agreement gives Dialog time to reduce its dependence on Apple, which the chipmaker predicts will account for three-quarters of its sales over the course of this year.

Dialog CEO Jalal Bagherli told Reuters the chipmaker could now look forward to a "managed, smooth" transformation of the business as it seeks new opportunities for growth in other markets that could include home speakers, fitness trackers or smart watches.

The deal represents a huge investment for Apple, which will take over Dialog facilities in Italy, Germany, and the U.K., expanding its chip research and development significantly across Europe. Subject to regulatory approval, the deal is expected to close in the first half of 2019.

Apple CEO Tim Cook tonight announced that Apple will be donating to recovery and relief efforts for those in the Gulf Coast region who are located in the path of Hurricane Michael.

Apple's worldwide Mac shipments were down in the third quarter of 2018, according to new preliminary PC shipping estimates shared this afternoon by Gartner.

During the quarter, Apple shipped an estimated 4.9 million Macs, compared to 5.4 million in the third quarter of 2017 for an 8.5 percent drop. Apple's market share also declined, dropping from 8 percent in 3Q17 to 7.3 percent in 3Q18.

HP came in second with 14.6 million PCs shipped for 21.8 percent market share, while Dell was third with 10.7 million PCs shipped and 16 percent market share. Acer and Asus both shipped around 4 million PCs for 6.1 and 6 percent market share, respectively.

Falling Mac sales come amid stagnant growth for the overall worldwide PC market. A total of 67.2 million PCs were shipped during the quarter, an 0.1 percent increase from the third quarter of 2017.

Apple also saw a decrease in Mac shipments in the United States during 3Q18. Apple shipped a total of 2 million Macs during the quarter, down from 2.2 million in 3Q17, for a 7.6 percent drop in growth and 13.7 percent market share.

IDC also released its own shipment estimates this afternoon, noting a similar decline in sales for Apple. According to IDC, Apple shipped 4.8 million Macs during the quarter, down from the aforementioned 5.4 million, a decline of 11.6 percent.

In IDC's rankings, Apple falls below Lenovo, HP, Dell, and Acer, coming in as the number five worldwide PC vendor. IDC's data also suggests an overall worldwide PC market decline of 0.9 percent rather than the 0.1 percent growth noted by Gartner.

Apple could see its Mac shipments jump back up during the fourth quarter of 2018 and the first quarter of 2019 as there are multiple Mac updates that we're expecting towards the end of the year, perhaps as early as October.

It's important to note that data from Gartner and IDC is preliminary and the numbers can shift, sometimes dramatically and sometimes less so. Last year, for example, Gartner said that Apple shipped 4.6 million Macs worldwide during the third quarter of 2017 when the actual number was significantly higher at 5.4 million.

Apple is developing a new digital video service that will combine the company's own subscription services and original television content with content from various media companies, reports CNBC.

Citing sources familiar with Apple's plans, CNBC says that Apple will provide Apple-owned and created content for free to customers who own devices like the iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV, with the television shows housed in the company's TV app.

Apple already offers its current popular TV show, "Carpool Karaoke: The Series" for free to all users within the TV app. "Carpool Karaoke" was initially limited to Apple Music subscribers, but was moved to the TV app as a free offering earlier this year.

The upcoming streaming service will also include subscription channels where customers will be able to sign in to access content from other companies like HBO and Starz. The channels will be similar to Amazon Prime Video channel subscription options, with customers able to access all of their content within the TV app rather than needing to download and sign into individual apps.

Apple has more than a dozen original television shows in the works right now, with the company aiming to produce television shows with broad consumer appeal that won't taint its brand image. For that reason, rumors suggest Apple is avoiding risqué content that avoids nudity, raw language, and violence.

Current shows run the gamut from sci-fi to comedy, with a full list of all of Apple's products available in our Apple TV roundup. Several shows have started the casting process, including "Serial," a drama about a podcast that reopens a murder case, an untitled space drama from Ronald D. Moore, and an epic world-building drama called "See."

Rumors have suggested Apple is spending $1 billion on original content in 2018, and according to CNBC's sources, the company has been seeking out "tent pole" franchises that could draw customers to a future Netflix-style subscription service.

Peter Stern, who joined Apple in 2016, is working alongside iTunes chief Eddy Cue to establish deals with media companies in an attempt to put together Apple's planned streaming service. Stern is said to have a lighter touch than Cue, with experience in the cable industry that could help him secure the content deals Apple has previously been unable to attain.

To go along with the video subscription service, Apple is also aiming to talk print media companies into joining Texture, the magazine subscription service that it purchased earlier this year. News organizations are reluctant to give Apple control of the subscriber billing relationship, a struggle Apple will need to overcome to establish a full newspaper and magazine subscription service.

Apple is planning to launch a revamped TV app in early 2019, which is likely when we'll hear more about its upcoming subscription plans.