iPhone

Samuel Axon, Ars Technica, does a good job laying out both sides of this long-simmering argument. Why Apple should, why they likely won’t ever again release a 4″ iPhone.

Jim and I discussed this on last week’s Dalrymple Report. The new iPhone SE tells the tale, I think.

I think it boils down to this: I believe people who would prefer a smaller iPhone are still buying an iPhone. They are not moving to another platform. From a sales perspective, there’s no incentive for Apple to make a smaller phone. This ship has sailed.

This is not about Gruber’s review of the SE, this is from a post titled, “The Quadrennial iPhone SE Schedule”.

A few highlights:

The fact that our collective concern about the time we spend on our phones has grown alongside the physical size of our phones is not a coincidence. The 4-inch 2016 iPhone SE felt like a statement in that regard, whether intended by Apple or not.

An excellent point. Though I still wish for a 4″ form factor, for folks with small hands, no pockets. But we do spend ever more time, do an increasing amount with our phones. Much of that work depends on, and is made possible by, a more complex processor, one that depends on a bigger body for heat dissipation and a larger battery. Not to mention more components.

I think the 4″ form-factor has sailed, part of the past.

Gruber talks about the SE name. From this Fortune article by Jason Cipriani:

Shortly after Apple announced the iPhone SE, I had the chance to ask Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing, the meaning of “SE” in the phone’s name, which deviates slightly from its previous “S” format. SE is an abbreviation for “Special Edition,” Schiller said, a name that, to him, recalled the Macintosh SE, a computer the company released in the late 1980s.

Back to Gruber:

Now we have a second iPhone SE — the first time Apple has reused an old name for a new iPhone. What makes “special edition” apt for the two iPhones bearing the SE name is the way they differ, strategically, from regular edition iPhones.

You could argue that the iPhone X could have been called the iPhone SE, but I do get the naming logic there. That was a fork in the road model, not a one-off special edition.

There’s so much more to Gruber’s post. Take the time to make your way through the whole thing. It’s a terrific read.

The tagline is:

iPhone SE vs. your iPhone. Go.

Pick your iPhone model on the left, scroll to see various comparisons between the new SE and what you have now. Apple’s been doing this side-by-side forever, but this page is specific to the SE.

Good link to share for folks considering the new phone.

My take? This is a great deal, especially for folks running older gear, or folks looking to dip their toes into the Apple ecosystem. I think Apple will sell a ton of these.

Try as I might, I have not been able to unlock my iPhone with a mask on. Makes sense. With a mask on, my nose is gone, my beard is gone. My own family couldn’t recognize me.

If you have this same experience, give this training process a try, see if it works for you.

This seems a monumental event for network television, the ultimate leveling brought about by the quality available in a cell phone. Wondering if Apple will sponsor this show.

https://twitter.com/conanobrien/status/1240475537635602432

Kirk McElhearn:

Major events continue to be cancelled around the world, due to the Covid-19 coronavirus outbreak.

The first major event was the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, scheduled to be held in late February. Since then, Google and Facebook announced the cancellation of their developer conferences, and other smaller events have been cancelled as well. Yesterday, the London Book Fair was cancelled. And today, the news says that both Apple and Netflix have pulled out of SXSW, the annual everything festival in Austin, Texas, due to start in about a week.

And:

So what if Apple does delay the iPhone 12? I’ve long felt that the annual upgrade cycle for mobile phones is artificial and unnecessary. In the early days, there were big changes from model to model, but now we see tiny incremental changes, mostly affecting the devices’ cameras. What if Apple decided to move to a two-year cycle, starting with the next model?

Makes me wonder if coronavirus is going to change some basic behaviors. Simple things, like the normalcy of shaking hands. More complex things, like building a conference with the goal of putting thousands of people into the same room, and into the same room with key company personnel.

And, as Kirk points out, might coronavirus change events that depend on precise timing, as the yearly rollout of new iPhones depends on the stability and timing of the worldwide supply chain.

Apple:

iPhone photographers around the world answered the call to participate in the Night mode photo challenge, sharing their captivating Night mode images shot on iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max. A curated panel of judges selected six winning photos from thousands of submissions worldwide. The winning images will be featured in a gallery on apple.com and Apple Instagram (@apple) and will appear globally on billboards.

Hard to pick a favorite, but that red tree calls to me. Also love the hanging laundry shot. Great pics.

[VIDEO] If you have any interest in taking video, take a few minutes to watch Rene Ritchie play with (and explain) FiLMiC’s DoubleTake app (the one they teased at the iPhone 11 rollout event). The video is embedded in the main Loop post.

The app is free and, surprisingly, works on older iPhones, as far back as the iPhone Xs, Xr, though not quite in the same way as the iPhone 11.

Want to try DoubleTake out yourself? Here’s the App Store link.

Lots of detail. At the top of the page, tap/click Camera for the rear facing camera review from Nov ’19, tap/click Audio for the audio review from Oct ’19.

Nikkei Asian Review:

Apple has asked its suppliers to make up to 80 million iPhones over the first half of this year, people familiar with its planning told the Nikkei Asian Review, a rise of over 10% on last year’s production schedule that could boost the company’s near-record share price.

And:

However, suppliers warned that blistering pace of production could be complicated by the outbreak of the coronavirus in China’s Hubei Province, given that their main manufacturing centers are in nearby Henan and Guangdong provinces, with more than 100 confirmed cases as of Monday afternoon, and in Shanghai, with over 50 confirmed cases.

Good news, bad news. And no way to truly gauge the coronavirus impact.

As to sales impact, I suspect that people will be willing to wait longer for their iPhones if Apple can’t make them fast enough.

Follow the headline link to follow the rumor, as you like. But, to me, this is key:

It will look similar to the iPhone 8 from 2017 and include a 4.7-inch screen.

If the inches doesn’t give you a sense of phone size, the iPhone 8 is 4.7 inches. The iPhone SE is 4 inches. So the idea of this new phone being an SE 2 doesn’t click for me.

I know a lot of people (small hands, small or no pockets) who would love a 4″ phone. If the rumor is true (and it sure seems like it is), there’s no future for the 4″ form-factor.

Joe Rossignol, MacRumors:

Apple today began selling certified refurbished iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max models for the first time since the devices were released in September 2018.

At the time of writing, the refurbished models are available in Space Gray, Silver, or Gold with 64GB, 256GB, or 512GB of storage through Apple’s online store in the United States. All of the models are unlocked, aka SIM-free.

Follow the headline link for all the pricing info.

One example: A 64GB iPhone XS Max, $799. Compare that to a 64GB iPhone 11 Pro Max at $1099.

Nick Heer, on the FBI asking Apple for a backdoor version of iOS:

At no point — then or now — has Cook or anyone at Apple publicly confirmed how such a backdoor may be installed, or if it’s even possible. Presumably, it would use the iOS update mechanism, but how could permission be granted if the passcode to the iPhone isn’t known?

Nick then takes a Mac with a clean Catalina install, and an iPhone that has never been connected to that Mac, creating a simulation of a stolen, locked iPhone. He then installs an iOS update on that iPhone, all done without entering a passcode.

That said:

To be clear, my iPhone still prompted for its passcode when the update had finished its installation process. This did not magically unlock my iPhone. It also doesn’t prove that passcode preferences could be changed without first entering the existing valid passcode.

But it did prove the existence of one channel where an iPhone could be forced to update to a compromised version of iOS. One that would be catastrophic in its implications for iPhones today, into the future, and for encrypted data in its entirety. It is possible; it is terrible.

Does Nick’s experiment show a weakness in the process? Could a compromised iOS update be added which disables the passcode?

Certainly interesting. Taking this with a grain of salt, at least until someone follows this all the way through and unlocks an iPhone using this approach. Which I hope never happens.

Nikkei Asian Review:

In an interview, Cook told Nikkei that Seiko Advance is the “reason” Apple was able to release its top-of-the-line iPhone 11 Pro in a new color called Midnight Green.

And:

Midnight Green is not the only color Seiko Advance provides for the iPhone 11 Pro — it is also behind the Gold, Space Gray and Silver models. “We are the sole supplier of colors for the iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max,” said Kabe.

But, in my mind, Midnight Green is notable, noticeable, an evolution in metal iPhone colors.

Interesting article. Turns out, Seiko Advance has been an Apple partner since 2011. A relatively tiny company, doing an important job for Apple.

This seems like an impossibly great deal, especially if you are considering plunking down cash for Apple TV+. Even without a plan, you’ve got an iPod (fill it with songs for that long plane trip), a first phone for the kids, and a cheap entre into Apple TV+.

UPDATE: Now sold out. Hope you got one.

UPDATE: Back in stock. Seems like it goes in and out of stock, so try again if you saw sold out

Mark Gurman, Bloomberg:

Apple Inc. avoided 15% tariffs on its most important products, the iPhone, iPad and MacBooks, after U.S. President Donald Trump signed off on a trade deal with China.

The new import duties were due to kick in Dec. 15 and could have added about $150 to the price of iPhones during the crucial holiday shopping season, according to Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives.

Can’t help but think the $150 per iPhone dump of cold water on Apple’s holiday sales were the primary driver for this deal with China.

Motherboard:

On Sunday, a security researcher who focuses on iOS and goes by the name Siguza posted a tweet containing what appears to be an encryption key that could be used to reverse engineer the Secure Enclave Processor, the part of the iPhone that handles data encryption and stores other sensitive data.

And:

Two days later, a law firm that has worked for Apple in the past sent a DMCA Takedown Notice to Twitter, asking for the tweet to be removed.

And:

Apple confirmed that it sent the original DMCA takedown request. The company said that it retracted the request but Twitter had already complied with it and had taken the tweet down. Apple then asked Twitter to put the tweet back online.

Interesting. Here’s the original tweet. Apparently, this is a firmware decryption key specific to an iPhone XR running iOS 13.4 beta 4. Not sure the value of this tweet, but clearly it got Apple’s attention.

Why do this? Is this the path to jailbreaking iOS 13? The fact that Apple backed off, asked for the tweet to be restored, makes it seem like there’s no real issue here. Much ado about nothing?

First things first, take a look at this article from iFixit, provocatively titled, Apple’s Activation Lock Will Make It Very Difficult to Refurbish Macs.

Every month, thousands of perfectly good iPhones are shredded instead of being put into the hands of people who could really use them. Why? Two words: Activation Lock. And Macs are its next victim.

“We receive four to six thousand locked iPhones per month,” laments Peter Schindler, founder and owner of The Wireless Alliance, a Colorado-based electronics recycler and refurbisher. Those iPhones, which could easily be refurbished and put back into circulation, “have to get parted out or scrapped,” all because of this anti-theft feature.

That’s an astonishing number. Four to six thousand locked iPhone a month? Wow!

My immediate reaction was, where do these phones come from? How is it possible that so many people didn’t take the time to wipe/unlock their phones before they turned them in. Just wondering what percentage of these phones are stolen.

From the article:

“People don’t realize that if you don’t properly reset your device, that phone is effectively bricked once you send it to me,” Schindler explains. “They’re just not thinking through the steps, or don’t connect the fact that [Find My iPhone] is a permanent, neverending lock on the phone. They think, ‘Oh, well, I turned the phone off, Find My iPhone must be turned off too.’ They don’t associate it with bricking the phone.”

And that leads to this comment from Walt Mossberg:

https://twitter.com/waltmossberg/status/1202220681523552256

My two cents: Activation Lock is not the villain here. Lack of education is the villain.

If the recycling company made unlocking the phone part of the process of accepting a phone, this would be a non-issue. Every link in the chain of getting the phone from the user to the recycler needs to push this back up the chain, make sure every phone that leaves a user’s hands is unlocked, as a matter of course.