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Tuesday, 11 February 2020

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Cruise Ship Denied Entry by Multiple Countries Over Coronavirus Fears Despite Having No Cases

The government of Thailand has denied a Dutch-based cruise ship entry to its ports over coronavirus fears, despite the fact that no one on board has any signs of the illness that has killed at least 1,018 people and sickened over 43,000 globally.

Apple Expected to Sell More Than 100 Million True Wireless Hearables in 2020

Apple is predicted to sell more than 100 million true wireless hearables in 2020 as it continues to dominate the global market, according to new data from Counterpoint Research.

In a report published today, Counterpoint said the global market size for true wireless hearables had beat expectations, growing 53 percent in the fourth quarter of 2019, compared to the same quarter the year previous.

In total, 51 million units were sold in the quarter, while 130 million were sold for the full year. The U.S. was the main driver for the quarter, growing 76 percent year on year and accounting for 35 percent of the global market. Seasonal promotions and Apple's launch of AirPods Pro at the end of October.

The launch of Apple's new ‌AirPods Pro‌ model in late October helped the company record steady 44% growth in 4Q19, with 6m units sold despite supply shortages. Apple's market share fell slightly to 41% QoQ as it attempted to keep up with swift overall market growth; market share for the full year reached 47%.

Looking at the year ahead for the true wireless hearables market, Counterpoint senior analyst Liz Lee said:

"We expect Apple to sell more than 100m true wireless hearables in 2020, including AirPods Pros, to maintain their comfortable lead in the market. The real competition will be for second place, especially in the premium market; Samsung, which sold 8m Galaxy Buds last year, will need further upgrades to those expected in the Galaxy Buds Plus, including noise cancellation and other advanced features and designs, in order to beat its rivals."

The upbeat figures come despite concerns that ‌AirPods‌ and ‌AirPods Pro‌ manufacturing could be impacted by the coronavirus outbreak, leading to greater supply shortages.

In a January investor note, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said he expects Chinese company Goertek to begin assembly of ‌AirPods Pro‌ in the first half of the year. The addition of a second supplier alongside Luxshare Precision should help improve supply of the popular earphones, which continue to face multi-week shipping estimates on Apple.com.

Apple is rumored to be considering bundling ‌AirPods‌ with future iPhone models coming in 2020. Given the high price of ‌AirPods‌, though, and their popularity as a standalone product, it seems unlikely that will happen.

Rumors suggest Apple plans to round out its audio wearable lineup with a set of high-end over-ear headphones, which, according to Kuo, are under development at Apple's Cupertino headquarters. Kuo did not provide any details about these headphones beyond claiming that they will support Bluetooth. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman previously reported that Apple-branded over-ear headphones were under development, but it is unclear if they were canceled, became the Beats Solo Pro, or otherwise.

This article, "Apple Expected to Sell More Than 100 Million True Wireless Hearables in 2020" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Apple Joins the FIDO Alliance to Help Develop and Promote Authentication Standards

Apple has joined the Fast Identity Online (FIDO) Alliance, an open industry association whose mission is to develop and promote stronger authentication standards and help reduce the world's over-reliance on passwords.

Apple joins existing members Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, Samsung and others in a common goal to secure online connections and support the adoption of the U2F authentication standard, which the alliance hosts.

Universal 2nd Factor (U2F) is an open standard that strengthens and simplifies two-factor authentication (2FA) using specialized USB or near-field communication (NFC) devices based on similar security technology found in smart cards. U2F security keys can be used as an additional method of two-step verification in online services that support the U2F protocol, such as Google, Dropbox, and Facebook.

Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Opera browsers natively support U2F. With iOS 13.3, Apple's Safari also supports FIDO2-compliant physical security keys like the Lightning-equipped YubiKey.

With Safari support, the YubiKey 5Ci is a useful tool that can be more convenient than software-based two-factor authentication because there's no need to enter a security code -- you simply plug it in to an iPhone or Mac (there's also a USB-C connector) to authenticate. Support for FIDO2-compliant USB security keys using WebAuthn was previously added to Safari 13 in macOS.

FIDO was founded in 2013 by a group including Lenovo and Paypal to address the lack of interoperability among strong authentication. MacGeneration was first to spot Apple's logo added to the list of board members.

Tag: Apple security

This article, "Apple Joins the FIDO Alliance to Help Develop and Promote Authentication Standards" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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from MacRumors: Mac News and Rumors - All Stories https://ift.tt/37nalwQ

Monday, 10 February 2020

Reports: Judge to Rule in Favor of Dreaded T-Mobile and Sprint Merger

U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero is set to allow the $26.5 billion T-Mobile and Sprint merger to go forward, clearing the path to merge the nation’s third and fourth-largest wireless carriers into a single behemoth that would rival Verizon and A&T, reports indicated on Monday night.