Charlotte Henry

Google announced that it is shutting down its Allo messaging app. Analyzing the development, Engadget’s Nick Summers noted that Allo “has struggled to coax users away from established messaging apps such as iMessage and Facebook Messenger.” The app will stop working in March 2019.

Google’s new lineup will be simpler, but not necessarily better. There’s a chance, of course, that every carrier and OEM will add RCS support before March 2019, making Messages a viable option. The uptake over the last seven months, however, doesn’t fill me with confidence. If RCS remains a niche, I’ll have to stick with Whatsapp to communicate with most people. Which is a shame, because I liked Allo and believe a semi-popular, Google-run messaging app could be good for the wider industry. It would give Apple and Facebook some much-needed competition in the West, at least.

Daring Fireball’s John Gruber noticed something interesting when he was going through Apple’s Best of the Year awards. When talking about its iOS app of the year, Procreate, Apple had to explain how to Undo and Redo. This would not be necessary on a desktop – there are established conventions for these functions. While there are conventions iOS, they are not implemented with anywhere near the force they are on desktops and so for some apps something so seemingly basic required explanation.

What it comes down to, I think, is that the menu bar has become a vastly underestimated foundation of desktop computing. Once heralded, the menu bar is now seen as a vestige. I’m not arguing that iOS should have a Mac-style menu bar. I’m simply pointing out that without one, iOS is an 11-year-old platform that is still floundering to establish consistent conventions for some basic features, let alone complex ones, that are simple and obvious on the Mac.

There has been a lot of Apple Store news recently – from major new openings in Bangkok and Paris to makeovers at Covent Garden in London. On Tuesday, the Guardian published an interesting extract of an article that appeared in Logic, a new tech magazine. It puts forward a more uncomfortable view of life in an Apple Store and the psychology behind the hugely successful retail outlets.  I don’t buy the author’s argument entirely, but it certainly got me thinking.

When we think of “tech,” we rarely think of retail stores, and when we think of “tech workers” we rarely think of the low-waged “geniuses” who staff them. Most media coverage of tech companies encourages us to forget that the vast majority of their employees are not, in fact, coders in Silicon Valley: they’re the suicidal assemblers of your phone, the call-center support staff, the delivery drivers and the smiling shop floor staff who make up the majority of Apple’s workforce.

For years Apple led the race to be the world’s most valuable public company thanks to the huge profits it generated. However, powered by cloud computing, its competitors are now in hot pursuit. As Therese Poletti points out in her latest MarketWatch column, both Microsoft and Amazon have recently managed to take the lead, albeit briefly. Google-owner Alphabet is not far away either. The battle between “steady and solid cash and earnings” from Apple and potential growth from the cloud is then in full swing, but what will investors back?

Investors betting on Apple’s competitors for the top spot are not looking at results, however, as much as growth rates and tech trends. Namely, the growth of cloud computing, which is dominated by the other three companies at the top of the valuation list. The two companies closest to Apple’s spot are reporting huge growth in their cloud-computing businesses, where they offer cloud services for a huge range of customers, large and small. Staid old Microsoft, which has never been an official part of the much-vaunted FAANG grouping of tech stocks, surged into a zone of its own this year, propelled by hefty growth in the cloud.

Lightning to USB-C cables from third-party accessory makers look set to arrive in early 2019.  MacRumours has seen relevant. documentation that was given to Hong-Kong based website ChargerLabs. The paperwork indicated that firms in Apple’s Made for iPhone program should have the required parts by the middle of January 2019. This means the Lightning to USB-C products could arrive in shops in February or March.

Last week, Apple informed members of its Made for iPhone or “MFi” licensing program that Lightning to USB-C cables for charging and syncing are now permitted to be manufactured. These cables require a new Lightning connector with part number C94, which Made for iPhone program members can now order. Apple is selling the new Lightning connector to eligible hardware manufacturers for $2.88 per, and it is estimated to ship in six weeks, according to documentation shared with MacRumors by Hong Kong website ChargerLab.

iPhone users will not have 5G connectivity until 2020, according to Bloomberg. Citing people familiar with the plans, Bloomberg reported that Apple will follow the path it took with 3G and 4G and wait before offering devices that can connect to the 5G network. There is also speculation that Apple’s ongoing feud with chip-maker Qualcomm may have been involved with the time frame. However, Qualcomm’ CEO Steve Mollenkopf said recently that he expects that dispute to be resolved in the coming months.

Apple’s previous calculations — proven correct — were that the new networks and the first versions of rival smartphones would come with problems such as spotty coverage, making consumers less compelled to immediately make the jump. This time, 5G boosters argue the switch is a much bigger speed upgrade, making Apple’s decision to wait riskier. The networks will open the floodgates to new types of mobile computing, 5G advocates say.

Uber has hired Nat Beuse, who served for a long time at the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. He will oversee the firm’s self-driving vehicles, Reuters reported. Mr. Beuse said Uber’s “approach to self-driving vehicles is an opportunity to make a difference in the safe commercialization of this revolutionary technology.”  The report noted that Mr. Buese is not the only public official to recently join a firm looking to make progress with self-driving vehicles. Both Waymo and General Motors have made similar hires.

“Uber’s approach to self-driving vehicles is an opportunity to make a difference in the safe commercialization of this revolutionary technology, which I’ve spent a considerable amount of time working with in recent years,” Beuse said in a statement released by Uber. “It’s clear to me that the team here is dedicated to prioritizing safety.” Last month, Uber asked Pennsylvania for permission to resume self-driving car testing on public roads and said it had improved the autonomous vehicle software, more than seven months after it suspended testing following a deadly crash in Arizona. Uber is still waiting for approval, a spokeswoman said.

Google has extended its AI-powered call screening function from the Pixel 3 to the Pixel 2 and XL. The call screening feature gives users the ability to ask a caller to give their name and reason for their call. The call recipient then gets a real-time transcription of the answer and can decide whether to reject the call, answer it or ask for more information. Ben Lovejoy of 9to5Mac would like to see Apple roll out call screening to the iPhone. I suspect he is not the only one.

Phone calls are the most annoying form of spam because they take the most time to deal with, so any tech which makes these less hassle is welcome. And, over time, telemarketers are going to experience more and more automated call rejections, and the effectiveness of the sales method will decline, effectively discouraging the use of the method altogether.  Apple already has all the necessary tech for this type of call-screening. Siri is capable of both speaking to callers and performing real-time speech-to-text transcription – the only new thing Apple would need to add is the interception of the call.