Techlife News #359

Twenty years after Larry Page and Sergey Brin set out to organize all of the internet’s information, the search engine they named Google has morphed into a dominating force in smartphones, online video, email, maps and much more. That resounding success now has regulators and lawmakers around the world questioning whether the company has become too powerful as its ubiquitous services vacuum up sensitive information about billions of people hooked on its products. Google’s search engine remains entrenched as the internet’s main gateway, and its digital advertising business is on pace to generate about $110 billion in revenue this year. Much of that revenue now flows through Google’s Android operating system, which powers 80 percent of the world’s smartphones. Google also runs the biggest video site in YouTube, the most popular web…

The event started with a short movie showing an Apple employee running around the Cupertino complex, performing various feats of parkour, with an urgent package to deliver to Tim Cook. Is this the new iPhone or Apple Watch to be unveiled in the presentation? It turned out to be the slide clicker to go through the presentation! Tim Cook, part-time movie star, full-time Apple CEO, came out in the same clothes he was wearing in the movie to warm applause and cheers. He announced that Apple had just celebrated another milestone – this time that the company was about to ship its two-billionth iOS device. The first announcement was the much anticipated Apple Watch Series 4 with notable design and engineering improvements which Cook described as “the definitive intelligent guardian for your health”. Next…

THE NEXT-GENERATION iPHONE IS HERE It would be hard to imagine a September without an iPhone event, and this month did not disappoint. On September 12, Tim Cook and friends took to the stage at the Steve Jobs Theater on the Apple Park Campus in Cupertino, California for its much-publicized ‘Gather Round’ event, where the firm showed off its next-generation iPhones. Although many of the features were rumored - indeed, the iPhone XSwas leaked several weeks before its official unveiling - the keynote did include some surprises, including the announcement of a lower-cost iPhone. In this week’s edition, we delve deeper into one of the most exciting keynote presentations in Apple history and explore some of the features of the brand new iPhone XS, XS Max, and more. iPHONE XS AND XS MAX:…

The idea of a low-cost iPhone has been rumored for a number of years. Indeed, Apple has experimented with more affordable models in the past, with the firm launching the iPhone5C back in 2013 and then iPhone SE in March2016 to appease ‘customers who enjoy smaller screen sizes’. As well as adopting a smaller screen, the devices were praised for bringing the iPhone - and iOS ecosystem - to a whole new audience of consumers who couldn’t afford a flagship iPhone, and to children as a ‘My First iPhone’ device. But after several years without a refresh, rumors were rife that Apple was to launch aChina-only model with dual SIM-card but laterleaks confirmed that the iPhone XR would be unveiled at the September 2018 iPhone event. As expected, Apple used its…

President Donald Trump concedes that some Apple Inc. products may become more expensive if his administration imposes “massive” additional tariffs on Chinese-made goods, but he says the tech company can fix the problem by moving production to the U.S. “Start building new plants now. Exciting!” Trump said in a tweet aimed at the Cupertino, California-based company. This week, Apple said that a proposed new round of $200 billion in additional tariffs on Chinese imports would raise prices on some of its products, including the Apple Watch and the Mac mini. The company is highly exposed to a trade war between the U.S. and China. It makes many of its products for the U.S. market in China, and it also sells gadgets including the iPhone in China, making them a potential target for Chinese…

Today’s teens are always on their smartphones, many check social media “constantly” and prefer texting over face-to-face communication. But a new poll finds that these same teens also say that social media has a positive effect on their lives, helping them feel more confident, less lonely and less depressed. The poll was released Monday by Common Sense Media, a San Francisco-based nonprofit group focused on kids’ use of media and technology. It found that 89 percent of teenagers have their own smartphone. That’s up from 41 percent in 2012, the last time the survey was conducted. But while 2012’s teens were all over Facebook, the age group’s presence on the social network has plummeted in the past six years. Only 15 percent of teens now say Facebook is their main social network. In…