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Saturday, 4 April 2020

New Low-Cost 'iPhone SE' Could Launch Soon

We've been hearing about a new low-cost iPhone for almost exactly a year now, and it looks like it may finally be ready to launch, with new details suggesting a launch is imminent. The new phone will apparently recycle the iPhone SE name used for Apple's previous dedicated budget phone, but this version will look nearly identical to the iPhone 8 but with upgraded internals.

iPhone 8
The new iPhone SE will reportedly be available in white, black, and red and come in 64, 128 and 256 GB capacities. Apple itself even briefly leaked some confirmation on the new device's name, updating the name of an existing Belkin screen protector for the iPhone 7 and 8 to include a reference to the SE in its online store.

AirTags Leaked in New Apple Video

Whoops! Apple on Thursday referenced its widely rumored AirTags item tracking tags in a support video uploaded to YouTube.

The video was inconspicuously titled "how to erase your iPhone," but on a settings screen for the Find My app, AirTags were clearly mentioned in fine print that indicates "offline finding enables this device and AirTags to be found when not connected to Wi-Fi or cellular."

MacRumors uncovered evidence of AirTags within iOS 13 code last year. The item trackers will compete with Tile, helping users keep track of their personal belongings, such as their keys, wallets, and backpacks.

Apple Acquires Weather App Dark Sky

Well, this was unexpected.

The popular iPhone and iPad weather app Dark Sky this week announced that it has been acquired by Apple. There will be no changes to the app, and it will remain available for purchase in the ‌App Store‌.

Apple will be ending Dark Sky support on Android and Wear OS on July 1, 2020. Dark Sky's API will also stop working at the end of 2021, which will impact other popular weather apps like CARROT Weather that use Dark Sky as a data source.

Apple Lets Amazon Prime Video App Offer In-App Purchases on iPhone, iPad and Apple TV

The Amazon Prime Video apps for iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV now allow customers to purchase and rent movies and TV shows within the app, with Apple allowing Amazon to use its own payment system, skirting the traditional in-app purchase screens.

While this would appear to violate Apple's App Store rules that require all content purchased in apps to go through Apple's in-app purchase system and result in Apple taking a cut of the revenue, Apple says that Amazon Prime is now part of an existing program for a small handful of "premium" video apps, which allows them to use their own payment methods instead of in-app purchases.

MacRumors Newsletter

Each week, we publish an email newsletter like this highlighting the top Apple stories, making it a great way to get a bite-sized recap of the week hitting all of the major topics we've covered and tying together related stories for a big-picture view.

So if you want to have top stories like the above recap delivered to your email inbox each week, subscribe to our newsletter!
This article, "Top Stories: Apple Leaks iPhone SE and AirTags, Apple Buys Dark Sky, and More" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Friday, 3 April 2020

Apple Music Was Second Biggest Global Music Streaming Service in 2019

Global online music streaming subscriptions were up 32 percent year-over-year in 2019, hitting 358 million subscribers, according to new estimates shared today by Counterpoint Research.

Spotify was the market leader with a 31 percent share of total revenue and a 35 percent share of total paid subscriptions, while Apple Music earned the second place slot with a 24 percent share of total revenues in the industry and a 19 percent share of the total paid subscriptions. ‌Apple Music‌'s subscription base grew an estimated 36 percent year-over-year.

Amazon Music, YouTube Music, and Tencent Music all trailed both ‌Apple Music‌ and Spotify.

"Spotify maintained its top spot with the help of promotional activities like free Spotify Premium for three months, price cuts, customized campaigns like Spotify and a focus on exclusive content. Tech giants like Amazon, Apple, Google have started focusing on music streaming and have sufficient cash at their disposal to give stiff competition to Spotify. ‌Apple Music‌ is making improvements in its app like the introduction of night mode, curated playlists to target a group, etc. Similarly, Amazon Music has been trying lossless music and is creating its own niche where it competes with Tidal."

More than 80 percent of total streaming music revenue came from paid subscriptions, while the rest came from advertisements and partnerships with brands and telcos.

Counterpoint Research believes that online streaming music subscriptions will grow more than 25 percent year-over-year to exceed 450 million subscriptions by the end of 2020.

Apple last shared specific ‌Apple Music‌ subscriber numbers in June 2019, announcing that the service had reached 60 million paid subscribers. That number is likely quite a bit higher now, but Apple has not shared new official subscriber totals in 2020.

Tags: Spotify, Apple Music

This article, "Apple Music Was Second Biggest Global Music Streaming Service in 2019" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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Hurricane Season on Top of a Pandemic Will Be a Nightmare

Trying to evacuate your home before a hurricane hits is hard enough. Now imagine doing it against the backdrop of the ongoing covid-19 pandemic.

Buy Committee: Should I Buy Hori's Split Pad Pro Controller While It's on Sale?

Buy Committee, our own Quentyn needs your help deciding on whether to plunk down and buy Hori’s Split Pad Pro (Daemon X Machina Edition) for the Nintendo Switch.

Siri Might Be Getting a Huge Improvement

Apple regularly acquires artificial intelligence startups to build up Siri’s capabilities, but its latest purchase might make Siri more conversational. According to Bloomberg, Apple just bought Voysis, an AI startup that makes it easier to use a voice assistant to buy stuff in shopping apps.