Tangible Tech

It's May, time to start keeping an eye out for severe weather, mow your lawn, and get ready for summer coming next month. Today's stories:

• The Apple Watch is credited with saving another life...but this time it wasn't the owner's heart that was having problems
• Olloclip has released the Connect X Lens System for the iPhone X
• The Lumos Smart Bike Helmet gets additional HealthKit and Apple Watch integration, and is available in Apple retail stores
• The third betas of the latest versions of iOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS are now available to developers

Wow, this is the last Monday of the month of April, 2018...which will never be seen again. What happened on this unique date in history? 

• A well-known Apple analyst steps down from his post, leaving a void in the world of Apple rumors
• Sprint and T-Mobile have announced that they're engaged to be married. We're not sure when the nuptials will be held, but they're expecting a 5G network
• Cross-platform writing app Bear got a nice update today, and you can now publish ebooks from Bear if that's what you want to do

Happy Friday! Today's podcast has a fun story about Apple's rumored AR/VR headset that may arrive in 2020, what Apple says you should look for in a Wi-Fi router now that it's no longer making them, and news about a fun Apple Music deal:

• Dual 8K displays blasting your eyes with augmented or virtual reality? A WiGig connection to a powerful but lightweight computer? That's what may be in store for us in 2020 with Apple's rumored AR/VR headset
• Apple has published a recommendation on what prospective Wi-Fi router buyers should look for
• Apple's giving away another month of free music to those who have been on the three-month Apple Music trial but haven't signed up. The deal goes through May 27

It's Thursday, so we'll look at one throwback that failed, some updates to Apple Maps, and how Tim and Donald got along:

• Apple Maps received some good updates during the month, including several indoor airport maps, lane guidance for some European countries, and public transit instructions for five US states
• Tim Cook and Donald Trump had a productive meeting yesterday, with Cook lauding the tax cuts and tax reform, saying that Apple will be investing in the USA
• Remember the flop that was Snapchat Spectacles? Well, Spectacles 2 are out today, with some new features that might make them popular.

Today's podcast has some bragging points for iOS device owners to lord over their Android-owning buddies, word about a new malware variant that's pretending to be an Adobe Flash Player installer, and your new Lexus may have Apple CarPlay (but no touchscreen):

• 76% of all iOS devices are now running iOS 11 with another 19% running iOS 10. Compare that to the tiny 0.5% of all Android devices running Android 8.1 Oreo...
• Malwarebytes found a nasty little malware variant that pretends to be an Adobe Flash Player installer. Hint - don't use Flash
• The 2019 Lexus US luxury sedan will come with CarPlay, but uses a trackpad instead of a touchscreen as a user interface

We have some entertaining short news stories for you on today's podcast:

• Verizon gains subscribers in the March quarter, most likely from the Apple Watch Series 3
• Instagram has a new web tool for downloading all of your content; unfortunately, it was down at the time we broadcasted this!
• Original Mac icon designer Susan Kare is in the news, winning a prestigious medal from the American Institute of Graphics Art and being called upon by Apple to testify on the company's behalf in the Samsung damages retrial
• Amazon can already get into your house if you let them...now they are expanding that capability to cars

Happy Monday! Cheer up, buttercup, there's lots of good news from the world of Apple today:

• Have the Kindle reader app for iPhone or iPad? Good, because it is World Book Day and Amazon wants to give you some free books to celebrate
• Two new Apple ads use light-hearted imagery to convince Android users that it might be a really good idea to switch to iPhone
• HomeKit fans in the US can now purchase the first HomeKit-compatible window air conditioner available in the country; just don't expect to get a bargain price on it
• Does it seem like everyone loves the iPhone X? A survey by Creative Strategies shows that it's extremely popular with the early adopters and has a very high satisfaction rate
• Snapseed has been update for the iPhone X

It's finally Friday, and Apple's probably glad that the stock exchanges are closed for two days after negative analyst reports pushed the company's shares -- and the Dow Jones Industrial Average -- lower. Other news for this Friday:

• Developers who have apps featured in the iOS 11 App Store see huge increases in downloads, according to data from research firm Sensor Tower
• Several questionable "supply chain reports" from Wall Street analysts have driven Apple's share price down almost $13 a share in three days
• AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson announced a new skinny streaming service called AT&T Watch while testifying in the antitrust case against his company over the proposed acquisition of Time Warner

Wow, lots of interesting news in the world of Apple today (except for AAPL's share price tanking, but...) -- Apple's environmental report for 2017 shows significant progress, FoundationDB goes open source, there's good news for snorers, and don't tear apart an iMac Pro and expect Apple to repair it...

• Apple is making good progress on all environmental fronts, including a goal to plan to eventually eliminate the need for mining for materials for its products
• Apple's FoundationDB is now open source, so perhaps developers can add the Dropbox-like sharing functionality to it that we need
• Keep waking up your partner with your snoring? Sleep Cycle will now wake you up with a tap on the wrist from an Apple Watch, so you can change position and hopefully stop snoring
• A YouTube vlogger is griping that Apple won't repair the iMac Pro that he tore apart for an online review

It's hump day, and the week is all downhill from here... Today we have a few stories dealing with competition in the smartphone and smart speaker markets:

• A head-to-head comparison of the iPhone X and Google's Pixel 2 results in a solid win for the iPhone X...but not for Siri
• A Wall Street analyst thinks Apple is working on a cheaper version of the HomePod due to lagging sales
• That same analyst foresees dual-SIM versions of the iPhone coming later this year, both on a less expensive LCD phone and a larger iPhone X
• The continuing lawsuit battle between Qualcomm and Apple is starting to hurt Qualcomm badly, with rumors of layoffs at the San Diego-based chipmaker