Top 10 Most Discussed MacRumors Stories of 2019: AirPower Canceled, Apple Card Launches, and More

MacRumors published thousands of stories in 2019, as part of our continued coverage of the latest Apple news and rumors. Below, we look back at the top 10 most discussed stories of the year in our forums, with topics ranging from the AirPower mat being canceled to the launch of the Apple Card.

airpower apple card

  1. Apple Officially Cancels AirPower (1,948 comments): At its iPhone X event in 2017, Apple previewed a new wireless charging mat called AirPower that would have been able to charge an iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPods simultaneously, regardless of each device's position on the mat. Apple failed to release the mat in 2018 as promised, however, leading to relentless rumors and speculation. In March 2019, Apple's hardware engineering chief Dan Riccio finally came out and said the AirPower was canceled due to the product's inability to meet its high standards.
  2. Apple Card Rolling Out Today to Limited Number of Customers (1,920 comments): After being previewed at its March 2019 event, Apple rolled out its all-new credit card to select users in the United States in the first week of August 2019, followed by a wider launch later in the month. Built into the Wallet app on an iPhone, the Apple Card features Apple Pay support, up to 3% daily cashback, color-coded spending summaries, zero fees beyond interest, and much more.
  3. Live 2019 iPhone Event Coverage: 'By Innovation Only' (1,855 comments): Live coverage of Apple's September 2019 event at Steve Jobs Theater, where the company unveiled the iPhone 11 lineup, Apple Watch Series 5 models, and 10.2-inch iPad.
  4. Live Apple Event Coverage: 'It's Show Time' (1,537 comments): Live coverage of Apple's March 2019 event at Steve Jobs Theater, where the company unveiled four new services: Apple News+, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, and Apple Card.
  5. Live From WWDC 2019: Coverage of Apple's Keynote with iOS 13, macOS 10.15, and More (1,494 comments): Live coverage of Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference from the McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, California. Apple announced iOS 13, iPadOS, macOS Catalina, tvOS 13, and watchOS 6, in addition to previewing its new Mac Pro and Pro Display XDR.
  6. AirPods Pro Launching on October 30 for $249 (1,173 comments): With a press release, Apple introduced higher-ends AirPods Pro with several improvements over regular AirPods, including active noise cancellation, improved sound quality, and water resistance.
  7. Spotify on Apple's Response to App Store Dispute: 'Every Monopolist Will Suggest They Have Done Nothing Wrong' (1,094 comments): Last year, Spotify filed an antitrust complaint against Apple in Europe over unfair App Store practices. Apple labeled the complaint as "misleading rhetoric" and argued that "Spotify wants all the benefits of a free app without being free." Spotify fired back, claiming that "every monopolist will suggest they have done nothing wrong."
  8. Apple to Release Mac Pro and Pro Display XDR on December 10 (1,037 comments): Over two years after confirming that it was working on a new Mac Pro, Apple finally announced that the new Mac Pro and companion Pro Display XDR would be available to order starting December 10, 2019. Watch our hands-on video!
  9. Intel Expecting Apple to Transition to Custom Arm-Based Chips Starting in 2020 (1,007 comments): Apple is planning to ditch Intel processors and transition to custom Arm-based chips starting in 2020, according to Bloomberg. Axios then cited multiple unnamed sources within Intel who said the rumor is true.
  10. Apple Reveals All-New Mac Pro With Up to 28-Core Processor and 1.5TB of RAM, Starting at $5,999 (989 comments): After years of anticipation, Apple previewed its new Mac Pro at WWDC 2019 with up to 28-core Intel Xeon processors, 1.5TB of RAM, and 8TB of SSD storage. Base pricing of $5,999 was announced, but it was not until months later that maxed-out pricing of over $50,000 was revealed.

MacRumors will celebrate its 20th anniversary next month, having been founded on February 24, 2000. We look forward to another year of sharing the latest Apple news and rumors and we thank all of our readers for their support.

Popular Stories

cook trump

Trump Responds to Apple Keeping Diversity Policies

Wednesday February 26, 2025 6:32 am PST by
In an all-caps post on Truth Social today, U.S. President Donald Trump said Apple should fully end its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies. Tim Cook meeting with President Trump in 2017 "APPLE SHOULD GET RID OF DEI RULES, NOT JUST MAKE ADJUSTMENTS TO THEM," he wrote. Trump's post comes one day after Apple held its annual shareholders meeting, during which a majority of...
iOS 18

Apple Says iOS 18.4 Will Be Released in April With These New Features

Wednesday February 26, 2025 7:15 am PST by
In a recent press release, Apple confirmed that iOS 18.4 will be released in April. From the Apple News+ Food announcement:Coming with iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4 in April, Apple News+ subscribers will have access to Apple News+ Food, a new section that will feature tens of thousands of recipes — as well as stories about restaurants, healthy eating, kitchen essentials, and more — from the...
apple watch ultra snow

6 Features Coming to the Apple Watch Ultra 3

Tuesday February 25, 2025 9:00 am PST by
The Apple Watch Ultra 3 is expected to launch later this year, arriving two years after the previous model with a series of improvements. While no noticeable design changes are expected for the third generation since the company tends to stick with the same Apple Watch design through three generations before changing it, there are a series of internal upgrades on the way. By the time the ...
iPhone Fold Vertical Feature

Apple's 2026 Foldable iPhone Has No Visible Display Crease – Report

Tuesday February 25, 2025 2:58 am PST by
Apple is making significant headway on its long-rumored foldable iPhone, with a new report suggesting the company has achieved a major breakthrough by effectively eliminating the screen crease that plagues current foldable devices. According to Korean publication ETNews, Apple is finalizing its component suppliers for the foldable iPhone, with the selection process expected to be completed...
trump iphone dictation issue

Apple Fixing 'Trump' Dictation Processing Bug

Tuesday February 25, 2025 1:18 pm PST by
Multiple iPhone owners today noticed a pronunciation processing issue that causes the word "Trump" to momentarily show up when using dictation to send a message with the word "racist." In some cases, when speaking the word racist through the iPhone's built-in dictation feature, the iPhone briefly interprets the spoken word as "Trump" and "Trump" text shows up in the Messages app before being ...
airpods pro purple

Here's When AirPods Pro 3 Are Rumored to Launch

Monday February 24, 2025 9:14 am PST by
According to a post on X today from a leaker known as Kosutami, Apple plans to launch AirPods Pro 3 in May or June this year. The leaker also claimed that an AirTag 2 will launch around the same time. Kosutami is best known as a collector of prototype Apple hardware, but they have occasionally shared accurate information about Apple's future product plans. For example, they accurately...
airtag orange

AirTag 2 Rumored to Launch in May or June With These New Features

Monday February 24, 2025 6:11 am PST by
Apple plans to launch a second-generation AirTag in May or June this year, according to a post today from a leaker known as Kosutami. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman previously reported that a new AirTag would be released in mid-2025. May or June would align with that timeframe. Below, we recap three new features rumored for the AirTag 2: With a second-generation Ultra Wideband chip, the...
ios 18 4 carplay

iOS 18.4 Includes a Small But Useful Change for CarPlay

Sunday February 23, 2025 2:23 pm PST by
The first beta of iOS 18.4 is now available, and it includes a small but useful change for CarPlay. As we noted in our list of iOS 18.4 features, CarPlay now shows a third row of icons, up from two rows previously. However, this change is only visible in vehicles with a larger center display. For example, a MacRumors Forums member noticed the change in a Toyota Tundra, which can be equipped...

Top Rated Comments

JimmyBanks6 Avatar
67 months ago
Can you do an equivalent article for the 2010's
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Joe Rossignol Avatar
67 months ago

Can you do an equivalent article for the 2010's
Here is all-time: https://forums.macrumors.com/forums/macrumors-com-news-discussion.4/?order=reply_count&direction=desc
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
benshive Avatar
67 months ago
Even with the failed AirPower project I think that 2019 was a really good year for Apple :)
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Analog Kid Avatar
67 months ago

This kind of statistic is heavily influenced by how many articles Macrumors publishes on a specific topic and how close time-wise these multiple articles are published. Other things like time of the day (and week) will also affect the results.
It seems like there was an article every week reminding us AirPower wasn‘t shipping yet but still nobody could restrain themselves from commenting about Apple not delivering a charging mat that they thought was too expensive and unnecessary...

The great AirPower whinge of ‘18/‘19 was truly something to behold.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
JilzVT Avatar
67 months ago
The people have spoken - more tech stuff, less entertainment stuff!
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
44267547 Avatar
67 months ago

AirPower wasn’t Apple’s finest hour.
That’s because Jim, it was only mentioned for a minute during the keynote. ?

Seriously though, what’s the big deal? Do you think Apple is the first company to cancel a product because they couldn’t successfully launch it due to XYZ reason(s)? It’s not like they had this marketed for quite some time, it was mentioned briefly during a keynote. Who cares that they didn’t release it, the fact that they owned up to it and didn’t release a product that potentially could pose problems, says more about the company itself. I mean, not to pick on Samsung, but they have a lengthy history of releasing products that have been flawed and/or half-baked <—which transcends into damaging the reputation.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)