What’s Going on with Apple Company

What's Going on with Apple Company

Apple Event — September 15, 2020 [Video]

Video uploaded by Apple on September 15, 2020

What’s Going on with Apple Company

As we all – even the naysayers do, deep down, admit it already – everyone is interested in what’s going on with Apple. OK, almost everyone. OK, almost anyone who is involved with phones, tablets and other gadgets in any way (like, there’s any difference from just “pretty much anyone”). So we found it appropriate to grace you with some bits and pieces of latest news / more-or-less reliable rumors concerning the company and its products.

1. From September 2020, Singapore has one more thing to be smug about, and yes, that thing is Apple-related. To wit, it’s a new Apple selling point, but it’s not your regular store: it’s a floating one. No kidding, this huge transparent hemisphere does float off the Singapore coast, on Marina Bay, allowing the shoppers (and the clerks, natch (to admire the unobscured skyline from whatever angle. The fully glass made structure is lit through the eye-like aperture on the top, and there are shades around the dome, protecting your eyes from the direct sunlight and assisted in this important task by a lot of plants. Now, the notion of “buying experience” just has taken on a whole new meaning.

This huge transparent hemisphere does float off the Singapore coast, on Marina Bay, allowing the shoppers (and the clerks, natch (to admire the unobscured skyline from whatever angle.

2. It has recently been reported that Apple has significantly outdone such a mighty competitor (we were tempted to say “player”, but that would be a cheap shot) as Spotify. Namely, the latter’s growth is, according to the latest figures, 2.5 times slower than that of Apple Music, which also remains most popular in the USA in this field. Considering how much younger it is than Spotify, “not a mean feat” doesn’t begin to cover it. (Though some might point out that we all tend to go for newer and shinier things. Then again, any software which is five years old can’t be honestly called new these days).

3. Another Apple success in the selling field, what else is new… But still: Apple Watch just has taken another crown: the company sold seven times as much of them as their main rivals. And what sweetens the victory even further, it’s the latest, not earlier (and cheaper) model we are talking about.

Apple Watch just has taken another crown: the company sold seven times as much of them as their main rivals.

4. And, just to round up the bestselling news, those wouldn’t be complete without a reference to this Apple’s stalwart and main pillar, the iPhone, now would they? So here goes: the newest one currently on sale, the iPhone 11 is still the market champion. Judging by the statistics, not a single competitor comes close in terms of popularity. Good for Apple, sad for some.

5. The ad makers can now rest easier for some while: this scary (for them) opt in permission for tracking users, planned to become compulsory with iOS 14, has been postponed until the beginning of 2021. So the app providers now have more time to adapt to (read “come to terms with”) this new customers’ freedom. And the rest of us will have to grin and bear the fact that our long wait has become a bit longer.

6. The CEO of Epic Games just one more time confirmed how influential Apple is by calling the company’s prohibition of “Fortnite” from its Store a potential “death sentence” for his firm. That is understandable indeed, having in mind Apple shop’s omnipresence in the digital world and its overall importance for the gamers, but with all due sympathy, this extreme wording sounds a bit manipulative, considering the fact that Epic itself won’t comply with Apple’s rules even during the trial. You can’t have it both ways, guys, find your position and stick with it first, then complain.

The CEO of Epic Games just one more time confirmed how influential Apple is by calling the company’s prohibition of “Fortnite” from its Store a potential “death sentence” for his firm.

7. Also, in relation to the above, it seems like we are not alone with this impression of Epic’s side of the story and reaction to the current events. Their spoof of Mac’s “1984” commercial, for example, wasn’t found very funny or appropriate by the blockbuster maker Ridley Scott, who directed the movie in the first place. Ironically, though, his issue with the lampoon appears to be not the fact itself, but said lampoon’s lack of bite. He called the message of the ad “too ordinary”, and for those making the games aimed primarily at the younger audience, that may be even a stricter sentence than the aforementioned prohibition.

8. And finally for today, among many pluses of the aforementioned iOS 14 will be the increased performance of your Apple phone, tablet and computer cameras, thanks in large part to the according app’s upgrades. Now you will be able to make pictures much more quickly (in some cases, the process will get 90 percent quicker). Even the app’s opening speed is to shoot up 25 percent. And there is the option to boost shooting’s tempo even more by switching on “Prioritize Faster Shooting” mode in the “Camera” section of Settings. Then, the compatibility of Quick Take (the option to use the shutter button as a video switch) got notably widened: you now can have it both on XS – regular and Max versions alike – and XR, in addition to the models that allowed for it before. And, to round it up, there are also two important new toggles – Mirror Front Camera and Exposure Adjustments – have been added to the Camera’s overall Settings and Preserve Settings respectively. The former does exactly what it says, switching the camera into the default selfie mode (for those who rarely take other types of pictures), whereas the latter applies all your exposure adjustments to every next photograph you take.