Tag: Apple

Apple working on wireless headset for both AR, VR

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Apple is reportedly working on a standalone Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) headset that will combine both technologies.

According to a report in CNET, the headset, code-named “T288”, would tap into the iPhone-maker’s own chips and is slated for release in 2020.

“The company is working on a headset capable of running both AR and VR technology, according to a person familiar with Apple’s plans. Plans so far call for an 8K display for each eye — higher resolution than today’s best TVs — that would be untethered from a computer or smartphone,” CNET reported late Friday.

“The project is still in its early stages but is slated for release in 2020. Apple still could change or scrap its plans,” the report added.

The Cupertino-headquartered giant has invested in smaller VR projects but the headset marks a major investment in VR, a tech that could transport users into a different, digitally created world.

The device would reportedly connect to a dedicated box using a high-speed, short-range wireless technology.

The box would be powered by a custom Apple chipset and would act as the brain for the AR/VR headset, the report said.

Apple has recently introduced “ARKit” — the company’s AR development platform which could only recognise horizontal surfaces while placing virtual objects.

“ARKit can now recognise and place virtual objects on vertical surfaces. Using advanced computer vision techniques to find and recognise the position of 2D images ARKit can integrate these real world images into AR experiences,” the company said recently.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

EU moves to regulate tech giants’ business practices

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Tech giants including Google, Apple and Amazon will for the first time face rules governing their commercial relations with smaller businesses under a law proposed by the European Union on Thursday.

The new rules will specifically target app stores, search engines, e-commerce sites and hotel booking websites such as Expedia, requiring them to be more transparent about how they rank search results and why they delist some services.

The proposal would also give companies the right to collectively sue online platforms if they do not respect the new rules on non-discrimination and transparency.

Music streaming services such as Spotify have been pushing for Brussels to address relations between platforms and businesses, saying the former have an incentive to disadvantage competitors’ services.

Apple’s entry into the music streaming field with Apple Music sparked concerns from other companies, such as Spotify, which have argued that the 30% cut Apple takes of subscriptions in its App Store gives its own service an unfair advantage.

Under the EU’s proposal, which will have to be approved by the European Parliament and member states before becoming law, online platforms will have to appoint mediators to deal with complaints and bear at least half the costs.

Platforms will also have to describe in their terms and conditions any differentiated treatment they give to their own services versus those offered by other businesses.

“Platforms and search engines are important channels for European businesses to reach consumers but we must make sure they are not abusing their power, and thus bring harm their business users,” said Mariya Gabriel, EU Commissioner for the Digital Economy.

“We are taking a very important step with clear rules on transparency, efficient dispute settlement and the launch of an observatory to analyse online platforms’ practices in greater detail.”

However, music streaming companies said such transparency requirements did not go far enough.

“In order to be effective, the regulation must also address the discriminatory practices that arise when a platform provider is also the direct competitor with those third parties,” said Hans-Holger Albrecht, President of Digital Music Europe which includes Spotify, Deezer and Soundcloud.

CCIA, which represents Google, Amazon and eBay, said online platforms go to great lengths to maintain good relations with their business users because it was in their own interest.

“There is no evidence of a systemic problem that would justify regulation through the strongest legislative instrument available to the EU. A more flexible approach, rather than an outsized, one-size-fits-all Regulation, would be more conducive to the growth of Europe’s digital economy,” said Jakob Kucharczyk, Vice President, Competition & EU Regulatory Policy at CCIA.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Trump, top aides talk trade with Apple CEO Cook at White House

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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President Donald Trump and two top aides talked about trade issues with Apple Inc chief Tim Cook on Wednesday as the White House prepares to try to avert a trade war with China, a manufacturing hub for the iPhone maker.

Cook, who has urged calm during the recent flare in U.S. trade tensions with China, held private talks with Trump in the Oval Office. He also spoke with the president’s top economic adviser Larry Kudlow and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer.

Trump is preparing to send a delegation to China to try to head off a trade war that stands to harm Apple, the world’s largest technology company, and other hardware makers that build products in China.

Trump has threatened a new round of $100 billion in tariffs on Chinese products that could target cellphones, computers and other consumer goods. China retaliated against an initial round of $50 billion in tariffs.

The meeting, which the White House said had been in the works for a couple of weeks, came the day after Cook sat at Trump’s head table at his first state dinner, held in honor of French President Emmanuel Macron.

A White House official described the meeting as “good” but neither the White House nor Apple provided details of the discussions.

Trump said earlier on Wednesday that he was looking forward to seeing Cook. “We will be talking about many things, including how the U.S. has been treated unfairly for many years, by many countries, on trade,” he said on Twitter.

Cook also had strong relations with Trump’s predecessor in the White House, Democratic President Barack Obama. He sat at the head table for Obama’s 2015 state dinner honoring Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Cook has been to China at least three times since October, including paying a visit to Xi.

‘GOOD GUY’

Cook has become one of Trump’s favorite CEOs to name-check in speeches. This was a surprising turn after a rocky start to their relationship. During his election campaign, Trump urged supporters to boycott Apple and criticized the company for making its products in China.

As president, Trump has called Cook a “good guy” and mentioned him by name at least 10 times during public remarks, including during his speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January and during several high-profile interviews.

The president frequently uses Cook and Apple as an example of how he says his tax cut package is creating jobs because it spurred the company to repatriate earnings it had held overseas.

Trump has frequently said he would not consider his presidency successful unless Apple builds manufacturing plants in the United States.

Apple has a market capitalization of $835 billion and 123,000 employees, 84,000 of whom are in the United States. The company said in January it plans to spend $30 billion in capital expenditures in the United States over the next five years, $10 billion of that on data centers.

Apple said its spending will create 20,000 new jobs through hiring at existing campuses in Cupertino and Austin as well as at a planned new campus.

Cook has also developed ties with Trump’s daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner, both senior advisers at the White House who work on tech training and government IT modernization issues.

His praise for Cook aside, Trump, a Republican, has had a sometimes tense relationship with the U.S. technology industry, based in Democratic strongholds such as California’s Silicon Valley and in Seattle. He has clashed with the tech sector on issues including trade, immigration and the environment.

Cook has publicly objected to Trump’s decision to end a program protecting from deportation young immigrants who were brought illegally to the United States as children. He was also among business leaders who criticized Trump after the president cast equal blame on white nationalists and anti-racism activists for violence last year in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Samsung ships over 8 million Galaxy S9 and S9+ in first month

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Korean tech giant Samsung seems to have hit a jackpot with its newly launched Galaxy S9 and S9+models. As per a report by the analyst firm Canalys, the company has shipped over 8 million units of the fl agship models within just a month of their launch.

The performance by the new models, as per the report in their launch period is similar to that of its predecessor S8 series but not as good as that of the S7 series that had surpassed the 9 million mark. “Samsung’s performance is impressive, considering the Galaxy S9 is not a major step up from the S8…Samsung has made significant improvements to its go-to-market strategy, with wider availability of the S9 in more markets at launch… it is clear that as the worldwide market slows, Samsung will sacrifice margin to defend its share,” analyst Ben Stanton was quoted saying in the report.

The success of the new model also comes as per the report at a time when the rival Apple encountered a disappointing quarter for its iPhone X that saw less than 14 million shipments. “Apple’s iPhone X performance in Q1 is a clear indication of the challenges that premium smartphones now face…The novelty of premium smartphones is wearing off,” stated analyst TuanAnh Nguyen, who was quoted in the report.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Apple to shut its last Watch-exclusive store in May

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Apple will shut down its last of the three Apple Watch-exclusive stores — located in Tokyo — it built when it launched the wearable in 2015.

On May 13, the last Apple Watch-exclusive store will close its doors. Twitter user Shotaro Akiba has shared a photo on the microblogging platform showing the department store’s announcement, Engadget reported on Sunday.

Apple had shut down the other two stores in London and Paris last year.

According to 9to5mac website, the shop held a sale in which it was selling the remaining Apple Watch Edition inventory for as little as $700.

These 18-karat gold watches were sold for at least $10,000 and as much as $17,000 when they first became available, the report said.

Earlier this month, high-profile applications, including Instagram, Amazon, Google Maps and Twitter, pulled out their apps from the WatchOS.

Driven by Apple Watch Series 3 shipments, the Cupertino-headquartered giant shipped a record 18 million Watch devices in 2017 — an increase of 54 per cent compared to the previous year.

“The Series 3 was the key growth driver, as total shipments of the latest version of Apple’s Watch were just under nine million, making up nearly half of all shipments in 2017,” Singapore-based market research firm Canalys said.

Apple’s shipments in the fourth quarter of 2017 grew by more than 32 per cent over the fourth quarter of 2016 to eight million — the highest-ever number of shipments in a single quarter for any wearable vendor.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Steve Jobs had to convince Tim Cook to join Apple in 1998 — here’s how he did it

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Today, Tim Cook is one of the most powerful people in Silicon Valley and the CEO of the world’s most valuable company, with Apple‘s market value above $870 billion. But, 20 years ago, it took a convincing sales pitch from legendary founder Steve Jobs before he agreed to take a job at Apple.

In early 1998, Jobs had just returned to Apple a year earlier after more than a decade away. The company had been on the edge of failurebefore his return, and the turnaround was still in its early stages — the iconic iMac had not been released (it came out later that year) and the iPod was still a few years away. So heading there wasn’t the easy decision it might be today.

Recruiters for Apple had been after Cook, a vice president at Compaq, which was then the world’s biggest seller of PCs worldwide. He turned them down several times, he told Charlie Rose in 2014. But then he thought, “I’m going to go out and take the meeting. Steve created the whole industry that I’m in, I’d love to meet him.”

When the pair got together, “Well, I’m just thinking I’m going to meet him and all of a sudden he’s talking about his strategy and his vision,” said Cook.

And Cook was impressed.

“I’d always thought that following the herd was not a good thing… He was doing something totally different,” said Cook. For example, at the meeting, Jobs described to Cook “what later would be called the iMac.”

Cook was taken.

“The way that he talked, and the way the chemistry was in the room, it was just he and I,” he told Charlie Rose. “I looked at the problems Apple had, and I thought you know, I can make a contribution here. And working with him, and this is a privilege of a lifetime.

“And so all of a sudden I thought, I’m doing it. I’m going for it….”

Those around Cook balked.

“Any purely rational consideration of cost and benefits lined up in Compaq’s favor, and the people who knew me best advised me to stay at Compaq,” Cook said in a 2010 commencement speech that he delivered at his alma mater, Auburn University, a year before taking overas Apple CEO.

“One CEO I consulted felt so strongly about it he told me I would be a fool to leave Compaq for Apple.”

Cook did it anyway. Taking the job “didn’t make sense. And yet, my gut said, go for it. And I listened to my gut.”

He joined Apple in 1998 as senior vice president of worldwide operations.

In his 2010 Auburn commencement speech, Cook noted that it was pure intuition that told him to stake his career on Jobs’ vision of Apple’s future.

“There are times in all of our lives when a reliance on gut or intuition just seems more appropriate — when a particular course of action just feels right,” Cook told the graduates. “And interestingly, I’ve discovered it’s in facing life’s most important decisions that intuition seems the most indispensable to getting it right.”

Obviously, the decision served Cook well: He became Apple’s chief operating officer in 2007 and even ran the company briefly in 2009, when Jobs was on medical leave, before becoming CEO when Jobs died in 2011 from pancreatic cancer. Apple was already one of a handful of the world’s biggest companies when Cook took over for Jobs and its market value is now more than 2.5 times what it was in 2011.

Source: Make It, CNBC.com

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Apple, Philip Morris, chip stocks lead Wall Street slide

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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US stocks dropped on Thursday, weighed down by a broad-based decline in technology stocks from Apple to chipmakers as well as a tumble in consumer staples such as Philip Morris and P&G.

A warning from Taiwan Semiconductor (TSMC), the world’s largest contract chipmaker and an Apple supplier, on soft demand for smartphones and on the semiconductor industry’s growth this year sparked a tumble in chip stocks.

Apple’s shares also fell 2.3%, with analysts telling Reuters that TSMC’s warning was related to the iPhone maker. Apple was the biggest drag on the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq.

TSMC’s U.S.-listed shares fell 6.3%. Intel declined 3.1%, falling the most on the Dow. All stocks on the Philadelphia SE Semiconductor index were in the red, with the index itself tumbling 3.9%.

The S&P consumer staples sector declined 3.2% as Philip Morris plunged 17.4% after the tobacco company’s weak results and forecast.

Philip Morris was the biggest drag on the S&P and also dragged rival Altria down 7.8%.

Also weighing was Procter & Gamble, which dropped 2.5% after the Dow component said shrinking retailer inventories and higher commodities and transportation costs squeezed its margins.

At 11:23 a.m. EDT the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 57.28 points, or 0.23%, at 24,690.79, the S&P 500 was down 15.70 points, or 0.58%, at 2,692.94 and the Nasdaq Composite was down 53.47 points, or 0.73%, at 7,241.77.

Still, not everything was gloomy.

The financial sector was up a healthy 1.1%, helped by a jump in American Express and as bank stocks bounced with 10-year Treasury yields reaching near one-month highs.

AmEx jumped 7.1% after the credit card issuer topped Wall Street profit estimates as record investments in card rewards contributed to higher customer spending.

“What’s happening in this season is even if you meet, that’s not good enough, you’ve got to beat convincingly,” said JJ Kinahan, chief market strategist at TD Ameritrade in Chicago.

Of the 52 companies among the S&P 500 that have reported first-quarter earnings through Wednesday, 78.8% topped profit expectations, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Another bright spot was Amazon, which gained 1.6% after the e-commerce retailer said it now has more than 100 million Amazon Prime members globally.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 2.00-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 1.58-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P index recorded 23 new 52-week highs and 11 new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 80 new highs and 37 new lows.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Apple Music appoints new head, hits 48 million subscribers

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Apple Inc on Thursday appointed a new executive to oversee its Apple Music streaming business and hit 48 million subscribers, the company said.

Apple said it had appointed Oliver Schusser as vice president of Apple Music and international content. Schusser, who joined Apple 14 years ago, will report directly to Apple senior vice president Eddy Cue and will also oversee Apple’s services outside the United States, including the App Store and iTunes.

Apple’s top streaming music rival Spotify Technology SA has 71 million so-called premium subscribers, a figure that includes users who have given the company a credit card number for a free trial. Spotify became a public company earlier this month after holding a so-called direct listing on the New York Stock Exchange.

On a comparable basis, the Apple Music service has 48 million subscribers, 40 million of whom are paying subscribers and 8 million of whom are on a free trial, Apple said. Both firms charge $9.99 a month for streaming music but provide discounts for student and family plans.

Variety magazine earlier reported the new subscriber figures and Schusser’s promotion. He previously built up Apple’s services businesses outside the US in 155 markets, including China, Japan and Latin America, Apple said.

Apple’s services business, which includes Apple Music, the App Store and iCloud, is becoming increasingly important to the Apple’s financial outlook because the smart phone market has matured and iPhone sales growth has slowed. In its most recent quarter, Apple’s services business grew 18% to $8.4 billion, missing analyst expectations of $8.6 billion.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Apple co-founder protests Facebook by shutting down account

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak is shutting down his Facebook account as the social media giant struggles to cope with the worst privacy crisis in its history.

In an email to USA Today, Wozniak says Facebook makes a lot of advertising money from personal details provided by users. He says the “profits are all based on the user’s info, but the users get none of the profits back.”

Wozniak says he’d rather pay for Facebook. He says “Apple makes money off of good products, not off of you.”

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will testify on Capitol Hill on Tuesday and Wednesday about the company’s ongoing data-privacy scandal and how it failed to guard against other abuses of its service.

Facebook has announced technical changes intended to address privacy issues.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Boeing, Apple lead slide as China-U.S. trade spat intensifies

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Boeing and Apple led a slide in big U.S. manufacturers and technology companies on Wednesday, bearing the brunt of a deepening trade conflict between China and the United States.
China and the United States announced tariffs on $50 billion of each others` imports. But, while Washington`s list covers many obscure industrial items, Beijing`s covers 106 key U.S. imports including soybeans, planes, cars, and chemicals.
The speed with which the trade struggle between the two countries is ratcheting up – China took less than 11 hours to respond with its own measures – led to a sharp selloff in global stock markets and commodities.
At 9:44 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 399.81 points, or 1.66 percent, at 23,633.55. The S&P 500 fell 28.57 points, or 1.1 percent, at 2,585.88 and the Nasdaq Composite was down 75.51 points, or 1.09 percent, at 6,865.77.
The S&P opened and stayed below its 200-day moving average, a key support level watched by traders technical analysts, while the Dow held just above that mark. The Nasdaq dipped into negative territory for the year.
“Tariffs by themselves and an escalating trade war would certainly have deleterious effects on just about everything,” said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at Cresset Wealth in Chicago.
The declines were broad based. All 30 Dow components were lower. About 469 of the S&P 500 components were lower. The industrials index`s 1.8 percent slide was the most among the 11 major S&P sectors, as has been the case since the trade war fears surfaced.
Shares of Boeing, the single largest U.S. exporter to China, tumbled 4 percent. Caterpillar fell 3 percent.
Ford, General Motors, Fiat Chrysler and Tesla fell between 0.8 percent and 1.88 percent.
While manufacturers were the bigger losers as a group, the technology sector`s 1.74 percent drop weighed the most on the market.
Major tech names Apple and the FANG group – Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Alphabet were down between 1.4 percent and 2.6 percent.
Chipmakers, many of which have the highest revenue exposure to China among S&P 500 companies, also fell. All components of the Philadelphia chipmakers index were lower, led by AMD`s 5 percent drop.
“As a sector, technology has the most to lose from a world in which global trade is restricted and of course, some of the subjects of the tariffs, will also be hit,” said Rick Meckler, president of investment firm LibertyView Capital Management in Jersey City, New Jersey.
Among the few bright spots was Lennar, whose shares jumped 6.2 percent after the homebuilder`s quarterly revenue beat estimates as it sold more homes at higher prices.
Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 9.42-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and a 5.74-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow