Apple's ASMR Venture, LOL Samsung, AAPL Buybacks with Charlotte Henry - ACM 520

Apple has posted plenty of “Shot on iPhone”: videos, but four new ASMR videos mark the first time where the content is more about the experience than it is about the device that made it. Bryan Chaffin is joined by guest-host Charlotte Henry to discuss it. They also talk about Samsun’s lame decision to pull an old ad from its YouTube channel that mocked an Apple move that Samsung is following today. So lame. They also look at Apple’s gargantuan effort to buy $24 billion of its own stock in just the June quarter.

How to Apply for Apple Card [Video]

Apple has published a video called Apple Card — How to apply. It shows the simple steps needed to apply for the company’s new credit card, which is being rolled out to a limited number of customers starting today. The entire process is handled through the Wallet app in iOS 12.4. The video skips over the approval wait, but an early-access user at TechCrunch wrote that it takes a minute or two. Some of the information you have to fill out is also autofilled from your Apple ID information.

Digging into Apple's T2 Chip

AppleInsider has a good piece on Apple’s T2 chip. It’s incomplete in that it doesn’t cover the T2’s built-in image signal processor and SSD controller, but it’s still good info to have, and we recommend it.

If you spent any time looking into which Mac desktop or notebook to buy before you paid out for a shiny new machine, you’ll have seen Apple’s website extolling the fact that many of them have T2 security chips. That’s nice. Only, it’s more than nice, it’s more than a way to invisibly secure your Mac, it is a process that has a dramatic and visible effect on just about everything you do.

Apple, Microsoft, and a Partnership Between Them

Jason Perlow argues that Apple and Microsoft go together like “a burger and fries” and should enter into a partnership.

Microsoft’s Azure and 365 are the keys to Apple’s future products and services being able to fulfill their highest potential. In particular, Microsoft’s investments around AI and Machine Learning in the cloud would make the difference between Siri remaining the industry’s biggest not-so-intelligent agent joke — and becoming the very smartest in the industry. But only if the companies committed to building a single intelligent agent together.

I don’t necessarily agree, but then again Apple’s partnership with IBM surprised me.