Charlotte Henry

Apple and Qualcomm’s epic legal battle appears to be reaching the end. Amongst all their disagreements, they see eye-to-eye on the importance of 5G in the U.S. With a key ruling from the U.S. International Trade Commission expected tomorrow, Bloomberg News reported on the very high-stakes for both firms.

A ruling from the trade commission favoring Apple could undermine Qualcomm’s attempts to defend its business model and keep on charging billions of dollars in technology licensing fees. If Qualcomm prevails, Apple may face restrictions on its ability to import and sell some versions of the iPhone, the main source of its revenue…. The fear in Washington that China will get a global lead in 5G is being stoked by both Apple and Qualcomm to try to win the epic legal battle over technology that currently underpins all smartphones.

LONDON – Britain’s departure from the EU has been delayed. Brexit was supposed to happen this Friday, but, depending on what happens in Parliament this week, will take place on either April 12th or May 22nd. An April 12th departure would mean Parliament had not agreed on a deal and a ‘No Deal’ Brexit was happening. That would see the return of roaming charges for Brits in Europe Wired reported. It will mean using your iPhone in Europe will become much more expensive.

The plan to reinstate roaming charges has been confirmed by the European Commission as part of documents outlining its preparations for the UK crashing out of the EU. “As it is increasingly likely that the United Kingdom will leave the European Union without a deal on 12 April, the European Commission has today completed its ‘no-deal’ preparations,” the Commission said in a statement…The Commission’s documents outline 19 legislative proposals covering everything from financial services to climate policy.

Chemical firms Hexion and Momentive have been hit by a huge Ransomware attack and forced to order hundreds of new computers. Motherboard saw an email from Momentive CEO Jack Boss that referred to a “global IT outage” and the need to deploy “swat teams.” As well as ordering new devices, Momentive has given some employees new email addresses, as theirs remain inaccessible. The attackers left a message demanding payment in Bitcoin.

Based on the ransom message, the ransomware that hit Hexion and Momentive appears to be LockerGoga, the same ransomware that forced an aluminum manufacturing giant Norsk Hydro to shut down its worldwide network this week…On the day of the attack, some of the companies’ Windows computers were hit with a blue screen error and their files encrypted, said the current employee, who asked to remain anonymous as they were not authorized to speak to the press. “Everything [went down]. Still no network connection, email, nothing.”

Air Power, Apple’s much speculated upon charging mat, could be with us by the end of March 2019. That is according to a report in DigitTimes. As MacRumors pointed out, the publication has a mixed record on predicting Apple releases. However, it does feel like a launch is getting nearer. There was even an updated picture of the product hidden in the new Air Pods page.

The report cites unnamed “industry sources” within Apple’s supply chain: ‘Lite-On Semiconductor, a maker of discrete and analog IC components, is expected to see its second-quarter revenues register a double-digit sequential growth as it will soon kick off volume shipments of GPP (glass passivated package) bridge rectifiers needed for Apple’s wireless charger AirPower, according to industry sources. The sources said that Apple’s AirPower wireless charger for iPhones, Apple Watch and AirPods is set to be officially launched in late March, which will significantly drive up Lite-On’s revenues for the second quarter of 2019.’ There are 10 days remaining in March including today.

Apple will not be launching a Netflix competitor on Monday. That is according to Re/Code’s Peter Kafka. He reported that instead, the company will be looking to increase service revenue by helping others sell their streaming subscriptions. He also noted that Apple doesn’t have the back catalogue of content that the likes of Hulu, Netflix, Disney can offer.

One thing Apple won’t do is unveil a serious competitor to Netflix, Hulu, Disney, or any other entertainment giant trying to sell streaming video subscriptions to consumers. Instead, Apple’s main focus — at least for now — will be helping other people sell streaming video subscriptions and taking a cut of the transaction. Apple may also sell its own shows, at least as part of a bundle of other services. But for now, Apple’s original shows and movies should be considered very expensive giveaways, not the core product.

LONDON – Apple has reportedly acquired Italian start-up Stamplay. AppleInsider reported that the deal is worth $5.6 million.  The company provides developers with a backend from which they can run their app in the cloud. It likely attracted Apple’s interest as a way of helping  iOS app developers.

Using a web-based editor, the service can combine together multiple APIs for payments, notifications, messaging, and other elements, with Stamplay handling the majority of the coding. Newspaper Il Sore 24 Ore reports the acquisition is valued at 5 million euro, with the purchase requiring the founders to become Apple employees, though it is unclear if it is an acquihire or a complete acquisition of the business. Founders Nicola Mattina and Guiliano Iacobelli grew the company to have three offices in Rome, London, and San Francisco, and has received about 800 thousand euro in funding. The company also won Visa’s “Everywhere Initiative” project in 2016, gaining it work from the card company.

An official AirPower image was hidden in the source code of the updated AirPods page, it has emerged. 9to5Mac found the image, which showed an iPhone XS and new AirPods being charged on the as-yet unreleased charging mat.  AirPower was not one of the products Apple released during the first half of this week. Indeed, a release date is still unknown.

Many were expecting an AirPower announcement today, following the iMac, iPad Air and iPad mini, and second-generation AirPods, but that didn’t happen this morning at the same time as the prior announcements. We aren’t sure when Apple is planning to announce the mat’s actual release, but clearly the AirPods page was specially designed to be able to incorporate the AirPower mat when it is official. And the change of image asset certainly indicates continued development on the product.

The iPad mini reviews are starting to flood in. In his, Lance Ulanoff noted, somewhat disappointedly, that many features from the old version of the device remain. There is even still a mechanical home button. However, he liked the significantly increased power of the upgraded device. He also though the iPad mini is an excellent tool for augmented reality.

Put simply, there are zero design surprises in the new iPad Mini. It’s still just 0.24 inches thick and 0.66 pounds. (The chassis measures 8×5.3 inches.) My hand is large enough that I can easily wrap my fingers around it, but the Mini is also light and thin enough that it’s quite easy to hold with just two fingers squeezing a single corner. That exquisitely svelte design (thinner even than the 0.3-inch-thick iPhone XS) belies some astonishing power. Because even though Apple didn’t mess with the iPad Mini’s body, it replaced most of the components.

Employers are finding an ever increasing number of ways to keep tabs on what their staff are up to. You might think this would trigger an employee revolt. Yet, aside from some high profile examples, that is not the case. Fast Company explored why workers do not seem to mind being monitored.

While the specter of employers widely abusing workers’ privacy looms large, it doesn’t seem to be much of a real issue in most offices, factories, and shops across the country. “Concern is very broad but not very deep,” says Lewis Maltby, the president of the National Workrights Institute and a longtime advocate for protecting the civil liberties of employees. When he hears from workers, he notes, it’s typically not because management is poking around into private matters; it’s because their personal information was erased without any warning when they left their job and their employer reclaimed a company-owned cellphone.

The Flexgate issue – whereby the ribbon cable that connects the body of some MacBook Pros to their display wears down too quickly, was revealed in January 2019 by iFixit. It seems to be a design flaw. These things happen. However, there has been frustration among users at Apple’s reaction. On The Verge, Vlad Savov said it is time for the company to acknowledge and deal with the issue.

A petition, now numbering more than 15,000, would beg to differ. It calls for Apple to publicly recognize Flexgate as a design flaw, and to commit to repair all MacBook Pro laptops affected by it. I think that’s exactly what Apple should do, and it’s no less than we should expect from a company that touts its reliability and user satisfaction numbers any chance it gets. No one should have to pay upwards of $500 to replace an entire display just because Apple (a) decided to affix a fragile cable to one of the most expensive components in its MacBook Pro, and (b) miscalculated the necessary length of that cable in its first design.