Charlotte Henry

Rumors picked up on by Cult of Mac indicate that a HomePod mini could be on the way at Apple’s October 13 event, a topic discussed on Tuesday’s Daily Observations podcast. However, the same source suggests we may have to wait a bit longer for the second generation of the full-size version.

L0vetodream made the claim Tuesday on Twitter after Apple issued invites to its October 13 “Hi, Speed” event. Apple likely will unveil its final new hardware products of the year at that time… Given that Apple hasn’t updated the HomePod since 2017, it seems to be on Cupertino’s back burner. Perhaps that’s because a lot of smart speaker functionality, outside playing music, can be done on other Apple devices. But many people could be keen to buy a cheaper HomePod. Apple could find success, essentially following the model laid out by the iPhone SE and Apple Watch SE. HomePod SE, anyone?

Payment services like Apple Pay and Apple Card could be the company’s next multi-billion-dollar businesses as the fintech sector grows. That’s according to a note to investors from Cowen analyst Krish Sankar, seen by AppleInsider.

“While Apple has portrayed these digital services as complementary to its mobile hardware platforms, we believe future scaling out of these services globally coupled with increasing depth and sophistication of them could position Apple as an emerging contender in the fintech space,” Sankar writes. Within Apple’s fintech segment, the analyst expects Apple Pay to remain the cornerstone. The platform could see increasing acceptance at U.S. retailers, and Sankar predicts that the contactless payment service will be the largest revenue driver over the next few years, with an expected $800 million in growth annually. Sankar sees Apple Pay growing at an 18% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) through 2023, and markets such as Asia and Europe could allow for even further expansion.

There have been rumors that amongst the iPhone 12 lineup will be a ‘mini’. Macrumors looked at the compromises this might involve and the features that might be missing. Most significantly, this includes reduced battery life.

As the smallest device in the ‌iPhone 12‌ lineup, the ‌iPhone 12‌ mini is also expected to have the smallest battery. Certifications have suggested that the battery capacity of the ‌iPhone 12‌ mini is 2,227mAh. Apple’s current smallest flagship ‌iPhone‌, the 5.8-inch iPhone 11 Pro, has a battery capacity of 3,046mAh battery, making the ‌iPhone 12‌ mini’s capacity 819mAh smaller. Although the A14 Bionic processor and OLED display are likely to improve energy efficiency, the fundamental limits of battery size in the ‌iPhone 12‌ mini are likely to result in an overall smaller battery life.

YouTube initially blocked iOS 14’s picture in picture function on its mobile website. However, Macrumors reported that the capability has now returned.

This is an apparent reversal of a change that YouTube explicitly made following the release of ‌iOS 14‌ which blocked such behavior. At that time, YouTube would only allow that capability for users with Premium accounts. Tonight’s change means that any YouTube visitor can use Picture in Picture in Safari. ‌iOS 14‌ introduced native Picture in Picture capability to the iPhone for the first time, however, apps have to explicitly support the feature. YouTube’s native app has never supported Picture in Picture for any of its users even though iPadOS has offered the capability for some time. There have been reports that YouTube has been testing this feature, but there have been no announcements.

So-called ‘digital upscalers’ have turned grainy footage from bygone eras into high-quality 4k clips. However, Wired reported, some historians are not very happy about it.

Digital upscalers and the millions who’ve watched their work on YouTube say they’re making the past relatable for viewers in 2020, but for some historians of art and image-making, modernising century-old archives brings a host of problems. Even adding colour to black and white photographs is hotly contested. “The problem with colourisation is it leads people to just think about photographs as a kind of uncomplicated window onto the past, and that’s not what photographs are,” says Emily Mark-FitzGerald, Associate Professor at University College Dublin’s School of Art History and Cultural Policy.

Apple is suing a Candian firm, Geep Canada, alleging it resold around 100,000 devices which it had received to strip down and recycle, AppleInsider reported. The companies have been working together since 2014.

According to The Logic, Apple estimates that Geep Canada stole around 100,000 iPhones, iPads, and Apple Watches that it had been hired to recycle. Geep does not deny the thefts, but has filed a counter suit claiming that they were conducted by three “rogue” employees without the knowledge of the company. Apple argues that these employees were in fact senior management at the firm. Although the case has only now been publicly revealed, Apple filed its suit in January 2020 while Geep filed its countersuit in July. Seemingly, Apple discovered the alleged thefts at the end of 2017 or start of 2018, and at some point after that ceased working with Geep. In September 2019, Geep Canada merged with other firms to form Quantum Lifecycle Partners