MacRumors

Apple manufacturing partner Foxconn has been studying the possibility of moving iPhone production to the United States, according to Japanese website Nikkei Asian Review, leading to hopeful speculation some iPhones could one day be "Made in America" rather than be assembled and imported from China.

The report claims Apple asked both Foxconn and rival supplier Pegatron, which denied the request, to look into making iPhones stateside, although Foxconn chairman Terry Gou is said to be less enthusiastic about the idea due to inevitably higher production costs in the United States compared to China.

"Apple asked both Foxconn and Pegatron, the two iPhone assemblers, in June to look into making iPhones in the U.S.," a source said. "Foxconn complied, while Pegatron declined to formulate such a plan due to cost concerns."

In a speech at Liberty University in Virginia earlier this year, President-elect Donald Trump said "we're going to get Apple to start building their damn computers and things in this country instead of in other countries," while he has also threatened to introduce a 45% tax on products imported from China.

Apple CEO Tim Cook previously told 60 Minutes it manufactures iPhones in China because of "skill," not lower wages. Cook said China has put an "enormous force on manufacturing," adding that the U.S. workforce has a smaller number of individuals with the "vocational kind of skills" needed.

China put an enormous focus on manufacturing. In what we would call, you and I would call vocational kind of skills. The U.S., over time, began to stop having as many vocational kind of skills. I mean, you can take every tool and die maker in the United States and probably put them in a room that we're currently sitting in. In China, you would have to have multiple football fields.

Meanwhile, an industry executive told Nikkei the U.S. does not have the "cluster of suppliers" needed to manufacture iPhones. In Asia, Taiwan's TSMC makes A-series chips for iPhones, Japan's Sharp and Japan Display supply iPhone displays, and South Korea's SK Hynix and Japan's Toshiba produce memory chips for the device.

"To make iPhones, there will need to be a cluster of suppliers in the same place, which the U.S. does not have at the moment," the executive said. "Even if Trump imposes a 45% tariff, it is still possible that manufacturers will decide to continue production overseas as long as the costs together with the tariffs are lower than the amount they need to spend on building and running production lines in the U.S."

U.S. manufacturing would inevitably raise concerns about Apple's profit margins and, in turn, how much the iPhone costs for customers. iPhone 7 component costs are estimated to start at $220, compared to a base price of $649, although Cook has previously dismissed third-party cost estimates as being highly inaccurate.

TSMC and Sharp have acknowledged that while U.S. manufacturing would prove more expensive, the companies would certainly consider the move over losing a major customer such as Apple. But, for now, the idea likely remains a stretch even in light of new political pressures.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Adding to the pile of recent guesswork rumors centering around the launch of Apple's AirPods, this week a collection of foreign retail websites have listed the Bluetooth headphones with new dates suggesting availability before the end of the year.

First off, today Mac4Ever discovered that French retail website Fnac has posted the AirPods for pre-order, with a suggested shipping date of November 30. If true, that would mark a launch following Black Friday and Cyber Monday, but still leave customers plenty of time to add AirPods to their holiday shopping list.

Last week, a launch supposedly set for around tomorrow, November 18, was floated by an Apple reseller, which reportedly told a customer it would be getting AirPods stock today, November 17. Although an impending launch as soon as tomorrow is unlikely, many Apple retail stores have been receiving demo units of the AirPods to demonstrate to customers and teach employees how to use them, suggesting Apple still intends to launch the device sooner rather than later next year.

Earlier in the week Letem svetem Applem discovered that Czech website Alza had listed the AirPods as launching December 2016. That date has since been removed from the site, which now simply states that it "accepts pre-orders" for the AirPods.

If production does begin in December, as predicted by Barclays, that still leaves the option that AirPods might not launch until January 2017, which was one of the first delayed date estimates for the headphones after Apple postponed the launch beyond October. Despite that rumor, and a few other extraneous websites that mark AirPods availability as late as March 2017, many still believe it's most likely that Apple will get the AirPods out in time for the holiday shopping season.

With the highly divergent launch dates sprouting up online, it's clear that no one officially knows exactly when the AirPods will come out. On Apple.com, the AirPods are listed as both "coming soon" and "currently unavailable." Following the delay, Apple explained that it needed "a little more time" with the AirPods before they would be ready to launch, but didn't divulge specific reasons why it chose to do so.

Apple today announced it has opened registration for free one-hour "Hour of Code" workshops between December 5 and December 11 at all 487 of its retail stores worldwide. This year's workshops will include an introduction to Apple's new educational Swift Playgrounds coding app for iPad.

“Hour of Code embodies our vision for Apple stores as a place for the community to gather, learn and be entertained,” said Angela Ahrendts, Apple’s senior vice president of Retail. “We’re proud to introduce the Swift Playgrounds app into the workshops and honored to again work side-by-side with Code.org on this incredibly important initiative. Hour of Code is one of the absolute highlights of the year for both our teams and the families that visit our stores.”

Since 2013, Apple has hosted Hour of Code workshops during Computer Science Education Week to teach kids and students the basics of computer science using non-profit website Code.org's programming tutorials.

Apple said it has developed new tools to extend the Hour of Code initiative into schools and community centers, including a free facilitator guide offering lesson ideas, group activities, and more. Apple will also provide resources to assist ConnectED schools in the U.S. with hosting their own Hour of Code workshops.

Those interested can register through Apple's Hour of Code page.

Apple is widely rumored to release its first iPhone with an OLED display next year, but reports have been conflicting about its potential screen size.

KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo previously said Apple will launch a 5.8-inch iPhone with a curved OLED display and glass casing next year, while Barclays analysts recently called for a 5-inch iPhone with a curved, bezel-free OLED display. Japanese website Nikkei also expects a new glass-backed 5-inch iPhone.

Now, in a new research note, Kuo said the much-rumored premium iPhone model will indeed have a 5.8-inch OLED panel, but with a smaller actual active display area of between 5.1 and 5.2 inches. Kuo said this is for "specific design purposes," which likely points towards a wraparound or curved display of some sort.

We predict OLED iPhone will be 5.1-5.2”, despite various market speculation. In terms of the display size of the OLED iPhone, current information from the upstream points to 5.8”, while that from the downstream points to 5”, which does not conflict, in our view. We predict OLED iPhone will adopt a 5.7-5.8” flexible OLED panel (with Samsung (KR) as the exclusive supplier). Nonetheless, for ‘specific design purposes’, the actual active area may be around 5.1-5.2”. Other than the OLED model, we expect Apple to launch new 4.7” and 5.5” TFT-LCD iPhone models.

Kuo reiterated the all-new OLED-based iPhone will be accompanied by new 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch iPhones with traditional LCD displays.

Amazon is set to cut its Prime annual membership price from $99 for a year to $79 on Friday, November 18. The one-day sale will run from 12am ET until 11:59pm PT and is only available for new members.

Amazon customers in the U.K. can take advantage of a similar promotion beginning today: Anyone who signs up for Amazon Prime between now and the end of Friday will receive a year's subscription for £59 instead of the usual £79 asking price, essentially amounting to three free months of the service.

The promotion coincides with the release of Amazon's new motoring show "The Grand Tour", the first episode of which can be streamed or downloaded on Friday morning by Prime members in the U.K., U.S., Germany, Austria, and Japan. Amazon says the show will be available to watch in 200 countries from December.

The benefits of Prime membership include free one-day delivery on eligible items, access to Amazon Prime Video and Prime Music, unlimited cloud photo storage with Prime Photos, access to the Kindle Owner's Lending Library, and early access to Amazon's Black Friday "lightning" deals.

Members also get an exclusive discount on subscriptions for Amazon's new Music Unlimited streaming service, giving them access to 40 million songs, compared to the 2 million included in the standard Prime Music package.

Apple's four main OLED suppliers won't be able to meet the production capacity necessary to match demand for the 2017 iPhone, according to a new report from Bloomberg. Supply constraints are expected to last until 2018.

OLED screens are more difficult to produce in mass quantities than LCD screens, which means Apple is "at the mercy" of suppliers who are willing to produce them in the necessary quantities. Bloomberg notes that the supply constraints may force Apple to either restrict OLED use to one version of the next iPhone or push adoption of the technology back.

While Apple and Samsung have an exclusive OLED deal for 2017, it doesn't guarantee that the company will be able to meet Apple's demand. For example, Samsung's OLED supplies have already been constrained due to its own smartphones, like the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge.

Apple's OLED screen order is for displays larger than 5 inches, according to Bloomberg. The Cupertino company has ordered an initial round of 100 million units over the next year, but Samsung will only be able to provide a portion of that for the Holiday 2017 quarter. Apple may face troubles if Samsung can't meet its demand.

If Samsung sees supply constraints in its ramp up of OLED panels for the fall 2017 iPhone launch, Apple may not have another major provider to fall back on. That’s why Apple usually has multiple suppliers for key components. For example, it has sourced LCD panels from all of the major Asia-based display makers. For next year, at least, it appears that OLED supply chain may be a single-company affair.

On Tuesday, KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said that he believes Apple will launch an all-new OLED iPhone alongside 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch LCD iPhones. While all three iPhones are likely to sport a new design with a glass back, the new OLED iPhone will have a curved edge-to-edge display. Kuo previously said the OLED iPhone would sport a 5.8-inch display with a bezel-free design.

Apple has a team of people working on integrating augmented reality functionality into the iPhone's camera app, reports Business Insider. Employees from several different augmented reality companies Apple has acquired are said to be involved in the effort, including those from Metaio and Flyby Media.

Citing sources familiar with Apple's plans, Business Insider says Apple's goal is for consumers to be able point the phone at a real-world object and have that object be recognized. Apple is already working on similar technology using machine learning techniques and has built basic object recognition capabilities into the Photos app.

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Object recognition in the camera app would potentially allow for the real-time recognition of objects, but it is more complex than what is available in the Photos app because it involves 3D objects. Such a feature could be used for spacial recognition and mapping, among other things.

Facial recognition and manipulation may also be a goal, perhaps allowing the camera app to be used to apply Snapchat-style augmented reality filters to people. Apple is said to be planning to release an augmented reality SDK for developers following the debut of the rumored camera feature, which would allow third-party apps access the AR camera technology too.

Another early feature for Apple's AR integration into the camera app could be to recognize and manipulate people's faces. Apple integrated facial recognition technology into the photos app in the most recent version of its iOS software, and purchased FaceShift, a company with similar technology in 2015.

Recent rumors have suggested Apple's ultimate augmented reality ambition may be a set of smart glasses, which would connect wirelessly to the iPhone and display "images and other information" to the wearer.

A recent hire, John Border, seems to confirm Apple's rumored interest in smart glasses. Border, who describes himself as a "subject matter expert" in head-worn displays, plastic optics manufacturing, and camera systems and image sensors, recently joined Apple after serving as the chief engineer at Osterhout Design Group, a company that developed a set of smart glasses.

Apple's work on smart glasses is said to be in the early stages, and no product is expected to debut before 2018 should the project continue. It is not clear when Apple might introduce AR functionality in the camera app.

To appease video content makers and lure new video services to the App Store, Apple plans to cut the fees it charges streaming video apps, reports Bloomberg.

Apple normally takes a 30 percent cut of all App Store app purchases and subscriptions, but for subscription-based streaming video apps like Netflix and Hulu, Apple plans to cut its fee to 15 percent. Apple has already reduced the fees for some of its video partners, and will soon extend the 15 percent rate to all subscription video services that are integrated with the company's upcoming TV app.

Apple's hefty cut of sales made via its App Store has long angered partners, some of whom have accused the technology giant of anti-competitive behavior. The concessions speak to the growing importance of video to Apple, which next month will introduce a new app devoted to TV shows and movies.

For non-video subscription apps, Apple will continue to charge 30 percent, but will reduce that amount to 15 percent after an Apple customer has been subscribed to the service for a year, a change that was announced earlier this year.

Fee reduction rumors come as Apple is preparing to launch the aforementioned TV app, which will be available on both the fourth-generation Apple TV and iOS devices. Currently in beta testing, the TV app is designed to make it easier for users to find content to watch across multiple apps.

Because TV app is reliant on third-party content providers, it is in Apple's best interest to lure as many content providers to its platform as possible for the best user experience.