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 few followup stories, one notable number, a few legal stories, one acquisitions, and a quick overview of news related to Apple's original content. The four main stories are round 2 of the Apple -v- US DOJ back-door battle, iCloud encryption, Apple's Q1 2020 earnings, and two trade wars & a virus. The show ends with a quick rundown of some smaller Apple-related stories that made the news in January.

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-EP77-January2020.mp3”]

Followup

• Apple begins to sell Sonos as the speaker company accuses Google and Amazon of patent theft — www.imore.com/…
• Rejoice! Apple Card customers can now export monthly transactions — www.imore.com/…
• Adobe’s Creative Cloud now supports ‘Sign In with Apple’ — www.imore.com/…
• iOS 13.3.1 has been released and contains the promised toggle to disable all location tracking, even for control of the U1 chip — arstechnica.com/…
• Apple News launches ‘special coverage’ of the 2020 presidential election — www.imore.com/…
• The Apple TV app is now available on 2019 LG Smart TVs — www.imore.com/…

Notable Numbers

• 🇺🇸 Smartwatches and fitness trackers are now worn by 1 in every 5 Americans — www.imore.com/…

Legal Latest

• 🇺🇸 Apple -v- Gerard Williams (Nuvia founder): Willians failed to have Apple’s suit dismissed in the Santa Clara County Superior Court — www.imore.com/…
  • Williams claimed Apple’s action against him was illegal because of CA’s ban on non-complete clauses. The judge disagreed:

    “[the law doesn’t permit an employee] to plan and prepare to create a competitive enterprise prior to termination if the employee does so on their employer’s time and with the employer’s resources.”

  • Williams also claimed Apple invaded his privacy by reading SMS messages on his Phone sent on his work phone. Since the phone in question was owned by Apple, the judge also disagree with this.
  • Apple’s lawsuit against former chip lead could have implications for startups — www.imore.com/…
  • Apple lawsuit tests if an employee can plan rival startup while on payroll — www.reuters.com/…
• 🇺🇸 Apple -v- WiLan: On re-trial, the damages Apple must pay WiLan have been reduced from $145M to $85M — www.imore.com/…
• 🇺🇸 CalTech -v- Apple & Broadcom: Apple and Broadcom ordered to pay over $1 billion for patent infringement — www.imore.com/…
  • Related: Apple and Broadcom chip deals now worth a casual $15 billion — www.imore.com/…

Apple HR & Acquisition News

• Apple Acquires AI Company Xnor.ai for Image Recognition Tools — www.macobserver.com/…
  • Related Opinion: How Apple’s Xnor.ai acquisition could bring the Siri boost we’ve been waiting for — www.macworld.com/…

Apple Original Content Update

• Apple TV+ Wins First Award, As Billy Crudup Takes Home Critics’ Choice Honor — www.macobserver.com/…
• ‘The Morning Show’ star Jennifer Aniston picks up a SAG Award for best female actor — www.imore.com/…
• ‘Little America’ creator Lee Eisenberg signs multi-year Apple TV+ deal — www.imore.com/…
• Apple signs multi-year Apple TV+ deal with Seinfeld actress and producer Julia Louise-Dreyfus — www.imore.com/…
• Apple announces new TV+ docuseries ‘Dear…’ to feature Oprah, Stevie Wonder and Big Bird — www.imore.com/…
• ‘Defending Jacob’ with Chris Evans lands on Apple TV+ on April 24 — www.imore.com/…
• Apple announces new ‘Home Before Dark’ drama will reach Apple TV+ April 3 — www.imore.com/…
• Apple outs animated musical comedy ‘Central Park’ for Apple TV+ — www.imore.com/…
• There’s a new official trailer for Apple TV+’s ‘Visible: Out on Television’ — www.imore.com/…
• Oprah explains why she backed away from Apple TV+ sexual assault doc — www.imore.com/…
• Apple TV+’s ‘Little America’ producer Lee Eisenberg says the show will get a podcast — www.imore.com/…
• AppleTV+ teases new ‘Beastie Boys Story’ live documentary that will arrive in April — www.imore.com/…
• Apple picks up ‘Boys State’ documentary for Sundance high of $12M — www.imore.com/…
• Apple inks exclusive deal with former President of Programming at Starz — www.imore.com/…
• Apple Hires Netflix Engineer Ruslan Meshenberg — www.macobserver.com/…
• Apple TV+ to air comedy-drama ‘Physical’ featuring Rose Byrne — www.imore.com/…
• Cecily Strong will star in Apple TV+ musical comedy from the writers of ‘Despicable Me’ — www.imore.com/…
• Apple TV+ series ‘Foundation’ will be Ireland’s largest-ever production — www.imore.com/…
• Related: Analyst: Fewer than 10% of eligible customers may have used Apple TV+ free trial — www.imore.com/…

Main Stories

1. 🇺🇸 DOJ -v- Apple: Round 2
   • 🇺🇸 The dispute between Apple and parts of the US government over encryption that rekindled in December escalated massively in January:
   • Apple privacy director says back doors to iPhone data can’t help solve crimes — www.imore.com/…
   • FBI asks Apple to help it unlock iPhones of naval base shooter — nakedsecurity.sophos.com/…
   • We learn that the shooter had an iPhone 5 & an iPhone 7 (both of which they have the tools to crack): Justice Department announces the findings of the Florida base shooting — www.imore.com/…
   • We learn that Apple actually co-operated as much as they could, and did so promptly, handing over gigabytes of data: Apple blasts FBI claim it was unhelpful in Pensacola shooter investigation — www.imore.com/… & The FBI doesn’t need Apple to unlock Pensacola gunman’s phones — www.imore.com/…
   • Apple says no to unlocking shooter’s phone; AG and Trump lash back — nakedsecurity.sophos.com/…
   • President Donald Trump says that Apple should ‘step up to the plate’ and unlock criminal’s phones — www.imore.com/…
   • President Trump at Davos: Apple has keys to the criminal mind! — www.imore.com/…
   • Apple is privately preparing for legal battle with DOJ over iPhone encryption — www.imore.com/…
   • Related News
     • The FBI Used a GrayKey to Obtain Data From a Locked iPhone 11 Pro Max — daringfireball.net/…
     • Apple publishes transparency report on Government requests for data — www.imore.com/… & China and US top user data requests in Apple transparency report — nakedsecurity.sophos.com/…
     • This is what a $10 million iPhone-cracking lab looks like — www.imore.com/…
   • Analysis
     • Barr’s Encryption Push Is Decades in the Making, but Troubles Some at FBI — www.wsj.com/…
     • How Modern iPhone Encryption Works — daringfireball.net/…
     • Here’s the Data Apple Can Give to Law Enforcement — www.macobserver.com/…
     • An avenue by which it might be technically possible to give an iPhone ‘the software equivalent of cancer’ — www.loopinsight.com/…
   • Related Opinion
     • Op-ed by former NSA director General Michael Hayden: Encryption Backdoors Won’t Stop Crime But Will Hurt U.S. Tech — www.bloomberg.com/…
     • Wall Street Journal Editorial Board op-ed backs Apple in encryption battle — www.loopinsight.com/…
     • FBI vs. iPhone Encryption, Round Two: Pensacola Shooter — daringfireball.net/…
     • 🎧 Vector with Rene Ritchie: FBI vs. Apple — overcast.fm/…
     • FBI vs. Apple: The politics of privacy and the assault on encryption — www.imore.com/…
2. 🇺🇸 Did Apple Kill End-to-End iCloud Encryption at the FBI’s Request?
   • The original report: Exclusive: Apple dropped plan for encrypting backups after FBI complained - sources — www.reuters.com/…
   • Report claims that Apple may have abandoned plans to fully encrypt iCloud backups after FBI complaint — www.imore.com/…
   • Reuters: Apple cut backup end-to-end encryption plans after FBI complained — arstechnica.com/…
   • Apple Allegedly Dropped Full iCloud Backup Encryption under FBI Pressure — tidbits.com/…
   • Did the FBI get Apple to kill iCloud backup encryption? — www.imore.com/…
   • Apple allegedly made nice with FBI by dropping iCloud encryption plan — nakedsecurity.sophos.com/…
   • Related Information:
     • 2016 WSJ Story on Apple’s Plans for E2E Encryption for iCloud Data — daringfireball.net/…
     • Mossberg in 2016 told us about “The iCloud loophole” — www.loopinsight.com/…
     • Tim Cook to Der Spiegel a Little Over a Year Ago: Apple Will Eventually No Longer Have a Key to iCloud Data — daringfireball.net/…
     • Android 9 and Later Offers Encrypted Backups to Google Android Users — daringfireball.net/…
   • Related Opinion:
     • Regarding Reuters’s Report That Apple Dropped Plan for Encrypting iCloud Backups — daringfireball.net/…
     • 🎧 Vector with Rene Ritchie: Did Apple Kill iCloud Backup Encryption for the FBI? — overcast.fm/…
     • Securing iCloud: Why it’s time for an end-to-end encryption option for our backups — www.imore.com/…
3. Apple’s 2020 Q1 Earnings Call (new record for Q1) — www.apple.com/…
   • Apple Reports Record Q1 Revenue of \$91.8 Billion and Record Q1 EPS of \$4.99 — www.macobserver.com/…
   • Apple reports a blowout Q1 2020, but names coronavirus as a worry for the next quarter — arstechnica.com/…
   • Apple Q1 2020: $91.8 billion in revenue in record-setting first quarter — www.imore.com/…
   • Transcript: Apple CEO Tim Cook on the company’s 2020 Q1 earnings — www.imore.com/…
   • Apple’s wearables revenue overtakes Mac for the first time ever — www.imore.com/…
   • iPhone 11 was the best seller each and every week of the holiday quarter — www.imore.com/…
   • 📊 Analysis: Jason Snell’s superb charts: Apple reports a record $91.8 billion holiday quarter — sixcolors.com/…
   • Opinion:
     • Regular panelist Lynda Gousha’s Analysis:

       1. Quarter was fantastic - the only two minor quibbles were that the Services revenues weren’t higher - in terms of % growth, and growth in Japan was down, due to some ’regulatory changes’.
       2. Forecast was good
       3. Stock has been performing exceptionally well - up until the corona virus hit.
       4. Corona virus could be a really big deal, maybe more from governments' (both US & China) responses than from the virus itself. (I’m gleaning my thoughts from listening to Doctors & economists’ comments on Bloomberg Surveillance podcast). Dangers to Apple include people not going out to stores due to not going out, &, more serious - in some ways - supply chain issues. Apple does almost always have suppliers in more than one location in order not to be damaged too badly by issues like this, but given that so much assembly is done in China….. Hard to tell. Longer term - say 2 years, this won’t be a big deal, but in the interim, it will be.
       5. Apple itself, a long with some long term institutional investors, are likely to take this as an opportunity to buy the stock.
       6. A friend is putting together a spreadsheet showing number of shares outstanding over the years. Since Apple’s buyback program began, it looks like about 1/3 of the shares outstanding at that time have been repurchased. This, of course, impacts the EPS number of which financial types are so fond. Hard to tell if they take note of that, though the financial analysts we speak of so often, & on whom Ken reports so much damn well should be taking note of it. Of course the top line number, revenue, is not impacted.
       7. On the conference call itself, there were lots of new analysts, and some ‘old familiar’ ones missing. Most amusing of the articles I had a chance to look at, was this one, by Jason Snell. I agree w/his take, FWIW.

     • Things Apple Didn’t Want to Talk About in its Q1 Earnings Report — www.macobserver.com/…
   • Related Stories:
     • Apple’s market cap surpasses value of Germany’s entire DAX index — www.imore.com/…
     • Report: Apple sold nearly 60 million AirPods in 2019, grabbing 71% of totally wireless headphone revenue — 9to5mac.com/…
     • Gartner: Q4 Mac shipments down, despite PC market’s return to growth — www.imore.com/…
     • Despite a worldwide decline in overall tablet sales, the iPad continues to grow — www.imore.com/…
     • 🇺🇸 2019: App Store subscription spending outstrips Google Play by $2.5 billion — www.imore.com/…
     • 🇮🇳 iPhone Sales in India Increased Six Percent in 2019 — www.macobserver.com/…
4. Trade wars & Viruses
   • 🇺🇸 🇪🇺 US -v- Europe:
     • 🇫🇷 At Davos President Trump negotiated a suspension of France’s plans to impose taxes on American tech giants in anticipation of an OECD report on taxing multinationals — appleinsider.com/…
     • 🇬🇧 Chancellor Sajid Javid Says UK Will Proceed With Digital Sales Tax, Despite U.S. Protest — www.macobserver.com/…
   • 🇺🇸 🇨🇳 US -v- China:
     • New US-China trade deal will finally put the threat of tariffs to bed for Apple — www.imore.com/…
     • Apple’s supply chain continues to reduce dependence on China:
       • Report: Pegatron is the latest Apple partner to look beyond China — www.imore.com/…
       • Apple partner Wistron has opened its third iPhone factory in India — www.imore.com/…
       • Wistron will reportedly assemble key iPhone component at an Indian facility — www.imore.com/…
   • 🇨🇳 The Chinese Coronavirus outbreak:
     • Apple to close its entire China operation ‘out of an abundance of caution’ amidst coronavirus outbreak — www.imore.com/…
     • Apple suppliers set to resume full-scale production February 10 — www.imore.com/…
     • Analysis:
       • The coronavirus outbreak could be devastating for Apple — www.imore.com/…
       • Report: Extended coronavirus factory closures would cause big iPhone impact — www.imore.com/…

Quick Stories

• Apple launches Smart Battery Case replacement program for iPhone XS, XS Max, and XR — www.imore.com/…
• Microsoft Releases Edge Chromium Browser for macOS — www.macobserver.com/…
• Apple Watch Connected gym partnership aims to turn activity into rewards — www.cnet.com/…
• Apple Providing Free Replacement AirPods Pro Tips Under AppleCare+ — www.macrumors.com/…
• FitBit & Withings add Blood Oxygen tracking (SPO2) before the Apple Watch:
  • Fitbit beats Apple Watch to monitoring blood oxygen levels — www.imore.com/…
  • Withings ScanWatch has the one feature everyone wishes the Apple Watch had — www.imore.com/… (Announced at CES but not due for release until autumn)
• 📌 🇪🇺 The European parliament have overwhelmingly voted in favour of moving forward with regulations to standardise smartphone chargers. The resolution calls on the European Commission to prepare legislation by July — www.macobserver.com/… & www.imore.com/…
  • Apple is not in favour of this move: Apple hits back at EU charger proposals, says it would create “unprecedented volume” of waste — www.imore.com/…

Legend

Note: When the textual description of a link is part of the link it is the title of the page being linked to, when the text describing a link is not part of the link it is a description written by Bart.

Emoji	Meaning
🎧	A link to audio content, probably a podcast.
flag	The story is particularly relevant to people living in a specific country, or, the organisation the story is about is affiliated with the government of a specific country.
📊	A link to graphical content, probably a chart, graph, or diagram.
💵	A link to an article behind a pay-wall.
📌	A pinned story, i.e. one to keep an eye on that’s likely to develop into something significant in the future.