MacRumors

Apple's 2016 MacBook Pro has failed to receive a purchase recommendation from Consumer Reports due to battery life issues that were encountered during testing. Battery life reportedly "varied dramatically" from one trial to another.

According to a new report that covers the new MacBook Pro, the machine is the first of Apple's MacBooks that has not received a Consumer Reports recommendation.

The MacBook Pro battery life results were highly inconsistent from one trial to the next.

For instance, in a series of three consecutive tests, the 13-inch model with the Touch Bar ran for 16 hours in the first trial, 12.75 hours in the second, and just 3.75 hours in the third. The 13-inch model without the Touch Bar worked for 19.5 hours in one trial but only 4.5 hours in the next. And the numbers for the 15-inch laptop ranged from 18.5 down to 8 hours.

Consumer Reports says that a laptop's battery generally varies by less than five percent from test to test, but because of the "disparate figures" found in the MacBook Pro test, an average battery life consumers might expect to see could not be determined.

For that reason, Consumer Reports used the lowest battery score, which prevented the MacBook Pro from getting a recommendation. "Consumer Reports finds that all three MacBook Pro laptops fail to meet our standards for recommended models," reads the report.

Some customers who bought a 2016 MacBook Pro began complaining of ongoing battery life issues with the machine shortly after purchasing, which ultimately led Apple to remove the "Time Remaining" battery life estimate in the macOS Sierra 10.12.2 update.

While removing the indicator didn't fix battery life issues, some other tweaks may have been implemented at the same time, as there have been reports of better battery life following the update.

Apple claims that its own internal testing has seen the MacBook Pro performing up to the company's standards, providing up to 10 hours of battery life when watching iTunes movies or browsing the web.

Apple declined to provide a comment to Consumer Reports, but had this to say: "Any customer who has a question about their Mac or its operation should contact AppleCare."

Apple continues to position the Apple Watch as "the gift of go" with a new ten-second ad called "Go Swim" that shows an Apple Watch Series 2 being used in a backyard swimming pool. It is the seventh ad in Apple's "the gift of go" ad campaign for the Apple Watch this holiday shopping season.

The ads will likely appear on TV in the United States, and possibly elsewhere, alongside "Go Surf," "Go Ride," "Go Play," "Go Run," "Go Out," and "Go Dance" ads shared earlier this month. Apple said it set a new Apple Watch sales record during the first week of the holiday shopping season.

The first Android Wear 2.0 smartwatches will launch in the first quarter of next year, according to Android Wear product manager Jeff Chang, who took part in an exclusive interview with The Verge.

The two new flagship models will not have Google or Pixel branding, but rather branding from the undisclosed company manufacturing them—so one of Asus, Huawei, LG, Motorola, or a few other brands.

Following the launch of the two new smartwatches, the Android Wear 2.0 update will be pushed out for some, but not all, existing Android Wear watches:

Following the launch of Google's two flagship models, other vendors will release new Android Wear 2.0 smartwatches throughout 2017. The first Android 2.0 smartwatches are expected to be announced at CES in the first week of January. Other product unveilings will follow at the Baselworld trade show later in 2017.

The new Android Wear smartwatches will compete with the Apple Watch, which remains the best-selling smartwatch following the launch of new Series 2 models in September. Google also faces competition from Samsung, which runs its own Tizen software on its smartwatches rather than Android Wear.

Android Wear 2.0 will support native, standalone apps that do not require a paired smartphone to work, in addition to Android Pay and Google Assistant. The new version will also feature Apple Watch-like complications on watch faces and a Material Design makeover. The final developer preview will be released in January.

Niantic has announced Pokémon GO is now available for Apple Watch as expected, enabling players to discover nearby Pokémon and collect items from PokéStops directly from their wrists. The companion app is bundled with the latest update to Pokémon GO for iPhone [Direct Link], version 1.21.2, rolling out on the App Store now.

Pokémon GO for Apple Watch enables players to log each play session as a Workout, with gameplay counting toward personal Activity rings, receive notifications about nearby Pokémon, view distances toward hatching Pokémon Eggs, receive notifications when Eggs hatch and medals are awarded, and more at a glance.

Pokémon GO cannot be fully played on Apple Watch, as once you encounter a Pokémon, you must catch it from your iPhone. Nevertheless, it should allow players to stare less at their smartphone screens and focus on the real world around them while playing the game, which should dually make catching Pokémon safer.

Nintendo recently began sending email surveys to a few Super Mario Run players who linked the iOS game with their My Nintendo account, MacRumors has learned.

The 10-minute long survey asks basic questions pertaining to how users found out about the game, what modes they liked, and how much they are willing to pay for a game like Super Mario Run. The survey fluctuates between multiple choice and written answers.

The survey's construction and questions are similar to the ones Nintendo used to give out to Club Nintendo users so they could receive points to spend on exclusive merchandise from the company. Now, it appears Nintendo is aiming to discover for itself what players think of Super Mario Run, following a week of press that mostly centered around the opinion that $9.99 is too high a price for the amount of content presented within the game.

With the new survey, players can now give Nintendo their own thoughts on the matter. One of the questions even asks if users would play a sequel to Super Mario Run "if one was released in the future." As of now, Nintendo is supposed to be gearing up to announce more information on the launch of Animal Crossing and Fire Emblem for iOS, both said to debut before March 2017 if the company's original plan from 2015 remains intact.

The negative reactions to the pricing structure and online requirements of Super Mario Run have gone so far as to cause Nintendo's stock to lower earlier this week, with players rating the game a 2.5/5 on average on the App Store. Although news has been scarce, in May it was reported that Animal Crossing and Fire Emblem would adopt the free-to-play model, with users able to purchase in-game items and boosts of some kind after downloading at no cost.

Miitomo -- Nintendo's first true iOS game -- was free-to-play, but the user base slacked off precipitously after launch, with data suggesting "users didn't really get" the game and its basic, social network inspired gameplay loop.

Super Mario Run [Direct Link] got its first update this week, introducing a new "Friendly Run" mode where players can compete against ghosts of friends and family members, with the caveat that no coins or Toads can be collected during each run. There's also a few new holiday-themed items in the Kingdom Builder shop.

(Thanks, Dan!)

AirPods became available for purchase on Apple's website on December 13, and customers who ordered quickly began receiving their shipments as early as December 19. Orders quickly became backlogged, however, and Apple's shipping estimate slipped to four weeks in less than two hours, and to six weeks by the following day.

For customers that ordered within the past nine days, the six-week wait potentially meant waiting until late January or early February to get the all-new wireless earphones. Fortunately, as is often the case, Apple is now shipping many of those orders sooner than expected, with some deliveries now slated for late December.

"Just received my shipping notice for my AirPod order," said MacRumors reader York in an email. "The original delivery date was January 12, but it should arrive on December 28th." Likewise, another reader with an original December 29 delivery estimate has now seen his AirPods ship with an estimated delivery date of December 23.

In the AirPods order tracking topic in the MacRumors discussion forums, a handful of other customers with estimated delivery dates ranging from December 29 to January 12 claim their AirPods have now shipped for delivery as early as this week. For some of those customers, AirPods will arrive just in time for Christmas.

"Awesome, mine were scheduled for delivery on the 29th, but suddenly they are supposed to get here tomorrow, the 22nd," said one person. "Order scheduled for delivery on January 12th has shipped with a delivery date of December 28th," said another, noting his shipment was still in China.

With only three days remaining until Christmas, customers may now be pushing their luck to find AirPods in time for the holidays, but a lucky few have managed to find a pair at an Apple Store or place an order through resellers such as Best Buy and the United Kingdom's Carphone Warehouse over the past few days.

Other resellers such as Sprint and Verizon have unfortunately been less reliable, as some customers were able to purchase AirPods from these vendors only to later receive an email saying the order could not be fulfilled at this time. AT&T also has AirPods on sale, but it is unclear when orders will ship.

AirPods are Apple's all-new $159 wireless earphones. The cord-free earphones instantly turn on and connect to your iPhone, Apple Watch, iPad, or Mac when taken out of their charging case thanks to Apple's custom W1 chip. Likewise, audio automatically plays as soon as you put them in your ears and pauses when you take them out.

AirPods are controlled mainly by Siri. Doubling tapping an earpiece invokes Siri, and voice commands can be used to adjust the volume, change the song, make a call, and so forth. AirPods deliver up to 5 hours of listening time on one charge, and a 15-minute fast charge provides up to 3 hours of listening time.

Amid rumors suggesting Apple is planning on introducing at least one iPhone model with a flexible OLED display in 2017, Bloomberg has taken a closer look at Japanese company Canon Tokki, the corporation responsible for making the machines that will likely be used to create OLED displays for the iPhone.

Canon Tokki is said to produce nearly all of the machines that make OLED Displays. Each ELVESS OLED machine is actually a vacuum production system that's 328 feet in length and is used to deposit red, blue, and green pixels on a glass surface using evaporating organic materials.

Canon Tokki has developed key technologies for the production process that have significantly reduced the margin of error, leading to much higher yields that other companies can't compete with.

According to Bloomberg, Canon Tokki reportedly makes fewer than 10 machines per year and has a two-year backlog due to high-demand, but it is not clear if this will have an impact on Apple. Apple is rumored to be using OLED displays produced by Samsung, and much of the equipment may already be on hand.

Samsung's own line of smartphones have used OLED displays for several years, but Blooomberg does warn that Samsung may not be able to make enough OLED displays to meet Apple's demand due to low yield rates.

The potential production bottleneck is raising questions over Apple's ability to feature OLED displays in next year's iPhones, and whether the Cupertino, California-based company will be able to line up additional suppliers. The current wait for a machine, which can cost more than 10 billion yen ($85 million) each, is about two years.

"We are doing all we can to increase output and make that wait shorter," said Chief Executive Officer Teruhisa Tsugami, adding that demand from display makers, including Samsung Display Co., LG Display Co. and Sharp Corp., will remain strong for the next three years.

OLED displays offer superior contrast and better power efficiency for improved battery life compared to traditional LCDs. OLED displays can also be made from flexible plastic and can be made much thinner.

According to rumors, Apple will release at least one iPhone model that uses an OLED display in 2017, but rumors have disagreed on what the display will look like. While some rumors suggest the iPhone 8 will use a curved OLED display that wraps around the edges of the device (similar to the Galaxy S7 Edge), others point towards less dramatic curves, suggesting a flat OLED display that eliminates all bezels for an edge-to-edge design.