Panel:

• Bart Busschots (host) - @bbusschots
• Gazmaz from the My Mac Podcast - @gazmaz
• Simon Parnell from the Essential Apple Podcast - @serenak

The show starts with a quick follow-up on Throttle Gate before moving on to the three main stories of the month, the arrival of HomePods in people's homes, Apple's moves to source their Cobalt directly from mines, and the on-going war on privacy. The show finishes with a quick rundown of some shorter Apple-related stories that made the news in February.

You'll find detailed show notes below the fold, and if you enjoy this free show, please consider clicking on the donate button at the top of the left side bar - the show is free for you to listen to, but not for Bart to Produce!

[audio mp3=”http://www.mymac.com/podcast/lta/LetsTalkApple-EP54-February2018.mp3”]

Followup

• Throttle Gate Developments
  • The release of iOS 11.3 beta 2 gave us our first look at the battery management UI Apple promised to ship in iOS11.3 — www.macobserver.com/…
  • Apple responds to a letter from US Senator John Thune which asked specific questions about Apple’s battery management features — arstechnica.com/…
    • iPhone 8, iPhone 8S & iPhone X will not need the same kind of throttling because their newer hardware design prevents the kinds of battery spikes that caused the unexpected shutdowns in earlier models
    • Apple is ‘exploring’ giving partial refunds to customers who paid for the full price of a battery replacement before they reduced the price

Main Stories

1. The HomePod is out, and off to a mixed start
   • The audio quality really does appear to be excellent as we suspected — arstechnica.com/…, www.imore.com/… & www.loopinsight.com/…
   • The HomePod has been found to leave white rings on some surfaces — www.macrumors.com/…
     • Though it’s not alone in that, so does the Sonos One — www.loopinsight.com/…
2. As competition for Cobalt ramps up, Apple moves to purchase it directly from miners — www.bloomberg.com/…
   • Cobalt is a critical ingredient in Lithium-Ion batteries like those Apple uses in just about all their products
   • One of the reasons for the ramp-up of demand for Cobalt is electric cars — arstechnica.com/…
   • Cobalt mines are notorious for their human rights abuses, and buying direct will make it much easier for Apple to source the element ethically — daringfireball.net/…
3. Developments in the Privacy War
   • Apple’s relationship with law enforcement continues to be a lot more nuanced than many realise:
     • Apple Helps Authorities Bring Russian Spam Lord to Justice — www.macobserver.com/…
     • NYPD arms Manhattan cops with the newest tool in fighting crime — the iPhone — www.nydailynews.com/…
   • As expected, Apple has moved forward with its plans to move Chinese iCloud data to China to comply with a new Chinese law
     • It’s now emerged that Apple has been forced to move the encryption keys to China too — www.macobserver.com/…
     • As a result of this move, Apple will need to open a second datacenter in China — www.macobserver.com/…
     • Obviously the laws that apply to Apple apply to other companies too, but that fact sometimes gets lost in the media reports. John Gruber highlighted the fact that Microsoft has been forced to do the same for their Azure cloud services — daringfireball.net/…
     • Related Apple have updated their iOS security documentation to note that they now contract some of their cloud hosting to Google — arstechnica.com/…
   • News has broken that Israeli hacking company Cellebrite now claims to be able to crack any iPhone, even the latest models running iOS 11 — www.macobserver.com/… & nakedsecurity.sophos.com/…

Quick Stories

• More news on news of TV shows Apple is reportedly working on:
  • Apple and Ron Howard Developing Series Based on NBA Superstar Kevin Durant’s Early Career — www.macobserver.com/…
  • Apple Renews Carpool Karaoke: The Series for a Second Season — www.macobserver.com/…
  • M. Night Shyamalan to Produce Straight-to-Series Thriller for Apple — variety.com/…
• Apple Shareholder Meeting Highlights: No Special Dividend, Health Care Opportunity, and No Apple Park Tours — www.macobserver.com/…
• Apple’s moves into the business world continue as they partner with Cisco, Aon, and Allianz to deliver corporate cyber security services — Apple Partnering With Other Companies for Cyber Security — www.macobserver.com/…
• Apple Launches Repair Program for iPhone 7 “No Service” Issues - TidBITS — tidbits.com/…
• Apple to introduce changes preventing old PCs from using the iTunes Store — www.imore.com/… & Apple to suspend iTunes Store support for “obsolete” first-gen Apple TV — arstechnica.com/…
• Apple Launching its Own Primary Health Care Service for Employees — www.macobserver.com/…