Panel:

• Bart Busschots (host) - @bbusschots
• Gazmaz from the My Mac Podcast - @gazmaz
• Kelly Guimont from App Camp for Girls - @verso
• Chuck Joiner from MacVoices - @chuckjoiner
• Simon Parnell from the Essential Apple Podcast - @serenak

The show starts with a few quick followups from last month’s show, followed by a quick look at some notable numbers that made the news in December, some Apple HR news stories, and a look at two Apple-related court cases including Apple -v- Qualcomm. The three main stories for the month are some new types of fraud that were briefly active on the iOS App Store, the on-going fight for privacy, and bent iPad Pros. The show finishes with a quick rundown of some other stories that made the news in December.

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-EP64-December2018.mp3”]

Followups

• As proimised last month, Apple Music arrived on Amazon Echo devices on December 17^th — tidbits.com/…
  • Related: No Echo? No problem—Apple Music to work on other Alexa-enabled devices — arstechnica.com
• Also as promised, limited suppor for eSIMs in iPhone XS & XR devices has come to T-Mobile — www.macobserver.com/…
• Tim Cook delivered his keynote speach to the ADL’s (Anti Defamation League) Annual Summit on Anti-Semitism and Hate, having received their Courage Against Hate Award. In his speech he explained why Apple won’t tolerate white supremacists or conspiracy theoriests on their platforms — arstechnica.com/…
  • Watch the keynote — www.loopinsight.com/…
• The WatchOS 5.1.2 update has enabled ECG functionality for US Apple Watch 4 users — arstechnica.com/…
  • Anecdotes of life-saving results soon followed, e.g. An Apple Watch told a 46-year-old man he had an irregular heartbeat. It was right. - ABC News — abcnews.go.com/…
  • Related: Apple Assembles the Biggest Heart Study Ever — www.fool.com/…
• Bloomberg’s Big Hack story continues to look ever less plausible as an independent 3^rd-party audit of Supe Micro motherboards finds absolutely no evidence of hardware or software tampering of any kind — www.reuters.com/… & arstechnica.com/…

Notable Numbers

• Data from the latest Mixpanel report supports the hypothesis that iPhone upgrade cycles are extending to 2–3 years — www.applemust.com/…
• New numbers from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners show more Android users switching to iOS after the launch of the iPhone XS & XR models than switched after the launch of the iPhone X and 8 — www.cnbc.com/…
• New projections from eMarket predict that one in ten Americans will have smart watches by the end of 2019, and many of them will be older so-called baby-boomers — www.cnet.com/…

Apple HR News

• Jon Callas, a security expert who lead a team within Apple that tried to hack Apple’s products to enhance their security has left Apple to take up a position with the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) — www.businessinsider.com/…
• Apple Elevates Machine Learning to Senior Vice President Role on Executive Leadership Team — www.macobserver.com/…
  • Related: Siri shows signifficant improvement as compared to last year in Loup Ventures’ 2018 Annual Smart Speaker IQ Test — loupventures.com/…
• Tamara Hunter, out-going vice president of casting at Sony Pictures Entertainment, is joining Apple as head of casting — variety.com/…
• Apple has hired designer Andrew Kim away from Tesla. He had previously worked for Microsoft — www.theverge.com/…
• CNBC reporst that Apple has been hiring doctors to help develop its health-related technologies — www.macobserver.com/…

Legal Latest

• The US Court of Appeals in CA has dismissed a lawsuit against Apple that was attempting to hold the company responsible for an accident which was caused by a driver using iMessages while driving — www.bbc.com/…
• Apple -v- Qualcomm
  • Apple ordered to stop selling iPhones in China due to patent infringements [Update] — www.imore.com/…
  • Qualcomm says a Chinese court has banned sales of older iPhones nationwide — arstechnica.com
  • Apple Fighting China iPhone Ban — www.macobserver.com/…
  • Apple China says it will push software update to get past Qualcomm iPhone ban — www.loopinsight.com/…
  • Apple says iOS update will avoid Qualcomm patents, China iPhone ban — arstechnica.com
  • Apple Releasing Updates Next Week to try and Resolve Qualcomm China Dispute — www.macobserver.com/…
  • Manufacturers ‘Gearing Up’ for Qualcomm Trial — www.macobserver.com/…
  • Apple Releases iOS 12.1.2, Likely to Address Qualcomm Patent Issue — tidbits.com/…
  • Qualcomm Says Apple Still ‘Flouting’ the Law — www.macobserver.com/…
  • Qualcomm bans the sale of iPhones in another country, this time Germany — www.imore.com/…
  • Qualcomm Wants Apple Lawyers Jailed or Fined — www.macobserver.com/…

Main Stories

1. New kinds of iOS app fraud briefly make an appearance in the App Store before being shut down by Apple:
   • iPhone ‘Heart Rate’ app on App Store attempts to scam customers out of $90 using Touch ID [U: Removed] — 9to5mac.com/…
   • iOS apps used Touch ID feature to trick users into paying hefty fees — arstechnica.com
2. The battle for privacy heats up again

   • Microsoft President Brad Smith called for regulation of facial recogntion technology in a speech delivered at the Brookings Institute think-tank — nakedsecurity.sophos.com/…

     We don’t believe that the world will be best served by a commercial race to the bottom, with tech companies forced to choose between social responsibility and market success. We believe that the only way to protect against this race to the bottom is to build a floor of responsibility that supports healthy market competition. And a solid floor requires that we ensure that this technology, and the organizations that develop and use it, are governed by the rule of law.

     We must ensure that the year 2024 doesn’t look like a page from the novel 1984.

   • 15 US senators have introduced the Data Care Act, a data protection bill for the US. This is the start of what is likely to be a very long process, and it may well go nowhere, but it’s an interesting practical move towards better data protections for US citizens — www.macobserver.com/…

   • Australia has passed a controvercial anti-encryption law — www.macobserver.com/… & arstechnica.com/…

   • India Wants Tech Platforms To Break Encryption And Remove Content The Government Thinks Is “Unlawful” — www.buzzfeednews.com/…

   • Apple released their 2018 transparency report — www.apple.com/…
     • U.S. Government had 4,570 Device Requests for Apple in 2018 — www.macobserver.com/…
3. “Bend Gate 2” (the iPadPro Edition)
   • Some 2018 iPad Pros are Shipped Bent but Apple said that’s Normal — www.macobserver.com/…
   • Apple’s Dan Riccio Says 2018 iPad Pro ‘Meets or Exceeds’ Quality Standards of Design and Precision, More Info to Come — www.macrumors.com/…
   • Bent iPad Pros Aren’t Slowing Down Sales — www.macobserver.com/…

Quick Stories

• Apple Discontinues Apple Music Connect — tidbits.com/…
• Apple announced that they will be building a new $1Bn campus in Austin TX that will employ 15,000 people — www.apple.com/…, www.macobserver.com/… & arstechnica.com/…
• Apple launches a new online store for US military veterans (similar to their education store) offering a 10% discount — www.macrumors.com/…
• Apple Changes App Store Rules to Allow Users to Gift In-App Purchases to Friends and Family — www.macrumors.com/…
• Apple Launches New iPhone XS Case and Apple Watch Band Color Options — www.macrumors.com/…
• Apple have expanded their iPhone trade-in program to more countries – it’s now available in the US, UK, Australia, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Austria, Belgium, Germany, Spain, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland & Sweden — www.macobserver.com/…
• Apple Pay News:
  • Apple Pay Launched in Germany — www.macobserver.com/…
  • Australian CommBank Adding Apple Pay in January — www.macobserver.com/…
  • Swiss Apple Pay Issue Resolved — www.macobserver.com/…
  • Related: research by PEW shows that fewer and fewer Americans are using cash. E.g. in 2018 only 53% of Americans now make sure to always carry cash, down from 60% in 2015 — www.pewresearch.org/…
• Reports about Apple’s original content project continued to flow in December:
  • Apple Trying to Acquire Israeli Drama Starring Richard Gere — www.macobserver.com/…
  • Apple Orders J.J. Abrams Series Starring Jennifer Garner — www.macobserver.com/…
  • Apple Lands Rights to Charlie Brown, Snoopy and Co. in New Peanuts Deal — www.hollywoodreporter.com/…