The Impromptu - Insightful Tech Analysis

Synopsis: Apple held an event on March 25th to introduce the future of Apple services. There is a lot to unpack and we do so succinctly to explain what you need to know and why it's important.

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Duration: 1:15:00

Present: Michael Norton, Alex Knight

Apple services March 25th event

• Apple News
  • News must be trusted
  • #1 news app
  • Introducing magazine subscriptions
  • Apple News +
  • Lots of the big publishers you'd expect from news, sports, fashion, etc
  • Magazines can have live covers, adding a great visual component to peak your interest. Gorgeous layouts with beautiful typography, full size high resolution photos, optimized for modern devices (bye bye PDFs)
  • Advertisers cannot track your behaviour
  • $9.99/month + free access for your entire family
  • Now available in Canada in both English and French, and will include a lot of Canadian content
• Apple Pay
  • Coming to major transit services, first Portland, Chicago, New York
  • New service: Apple Card (rethinking the credit card)
    • lower interest fees
    • better rewards
    • Privacy and security baked in
      • Unique per device card number
      • authenticated with Touch ID and Face ID
      • Apple does NOT know what you bought, where you bought, or how much you paid for it
      • All privacy handled locally on the device in secure enclave
      • No user data sold to third parties
    • once approved, you get access to your credit card immediately in your wallet (no waiting for it in the mail)
    • Apple Wallet provides stats on your card
      • spending habits, week by week or by month
      • instant chat support directly from Apple
      • No cryptic statements, using machine learning and maps data to show actual names of businesses you bought from
      • Daily cash (cash back rewards) This is a big deal
        • Use it to spend in stores, send to friends, pay off your balance
        • 2% daily cash back
        • 3% daily cash back when purchasing from Apple Stores
      • NO FEES WHATSOEVER
      • No penalty interest rates (didn't mention the number), even if you miss one payment
      • Interest rate goes between 13% and 24% "depending on creditworthiness". Not actually that low.
      • Partnered with Goldman Sachs and Mastercard
      • For places that don't support Apple Pay, you can use the physical card, mede out of titanium
        • Beautifully minimalist design, no CVV or card number data
• App Store
  • New service: Apple Arcade. World's first mobile gaming subscription service (working with a lot of big game devs on this)
  • cross platform between iOS and macOS
  • Empowering developers with an easy API
  • Single subscription with exclusive games (100+)
  • Arcade will have a separate tab in the App Store
  • Offline capability
  • Pickup where you left off on any device
  • No ads and no additional in-app purchases
  • Parents can limit access to time spent on the service
  • privacy and secure (no tracking without your explicit consent)
  • Family members can use the service without paying
  • Available this fall in over 150 countries (pricing to come later)
• TV
  • Network tv services integrated into Apple TV
  • Internet based provides like Hulu and Playstation Vue integrated in
  • Apple TV Channels
    • Only pay for what you want
    • All in one app
    • On-demand with no ads
    • Offline access
    • Best possible audio and video quality
    • Redesigned app to make it easier to find what you want
    • Curated content suggestions
    • Personalized content for you, using machine learning
    • Live sports (notifications from your favourite teams)
    • No more separate apps for Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, HBO, Showtime, Starz, etc
    • One click trial signup for video services, directly in the app
    • Brand new "kids" experience
    • New TV OS update this May
    • TV app coming to macOS this fall
    • Apple TV app coming to smart TVs
      • Samsung this spring
      • LG
      • Sony
      • Vizio
      • Roku
      • firetv
    • Coming to 100+ countries
    • Apple TV + (this is a big deal)
      • All new original video content service to compete with Netflix and Prime
      • Some big players involved
        • Steven Spielberg
        • Reese Witherspoon, Jennifer Aniston, Steve Carell announce new show (Morning Show)
        • Jason Momoa, Alfre Woodard
        • JJ Abrams, Sarah Bareilles
        • M. Night Shyamalan
        • Oprah Winfrey.

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Synopsis: Apple announces an event on March 25 and WWDC from June 3-7, and Spotify issues a rebuttal to Apple's rebuttal about unfair App Store terms.

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Duration: 45:46:00

Present: Michael Norton, Alex Knight

• Apple to host annual Worldwide Developers Conference June 3-7 in San Jose
• Spotify Responds to Apple's Response Over App Store Flap, Calls Company a 'Monopolist'
• Addressing Spotify's claims
• Google Play Store transaction fees

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Synopsis: Mark Zuckerberg pens a letter addressing Facebook's stance on data encryption and privacy and future plans to make their platform safer, but is it all just PR fluff?

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Duration: 56:44:00

Present: Michael Norton, Alex Knight

• A Privacy-Focused Vision for Social Networking

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Synopsis: The Guardian has reported that documents have been discovered that reveal a secretive global lobbying operation by Facebook, targeting hundreds of legislators and regulators in an attempt to procure influence across the world. So what now?

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Duration: 51:46:00

Present: Michael Norton, Alex Knight

• Revealed: Facebook's global lobbying against data privacy laws
• These Developers Say It Took Three Years And A Chance Meeting To Get Facebook To Deal With Their Country's Fake News
• Foldable iPhone suggested in new Apple patent

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Synopsis: We follow up one the Huawei 5G security debate, ask the question if foldable smartphones are the future, and figure out who will use Microsoft's new Hololens 2.

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Duration: 1:00:23

Present: Michael Norton, Alex Knight

• Samsung Galaxy Fold
• Microsoft's mixed reality HoloLens 2 headset is official

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Synopsis: Numerous countries have banned Huawei products. Increasing tension between China and the West, and now growing concern that Huawei's 5G technology is a security risk and should be removed from Canada's cellular infrastructure. But what are the consequences and drawbacks of doing so?

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Duration: 42:54:00

Present: Michael Norton, Alex Knight

• Banning Huawei from Canada's 5G networks could be costly for taxpayers

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Synopsis: Did Apple fire Angela Ahrendts from her position as head of Apple Retail, or did she leave of her own accord? Either way, it's time to make room for someone new who can fix the long wait times and degraded customer service experience.

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Duration: 54:30:00

Present: Michael Norton, Alex Knight

• Apple retail chief Angela Ahrendts to leave company in April
• No thank you, Mr. Pecker

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Synopsis: Apple revokes Facebook's enterprise developer certificate after they breach clearly defined rules. Shortly following this, Google also gets hit by Apple and then Apple itself lands in hot water with a terrible FaceTime security issue.

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Duration: 41:20:00

Present: Michael Norton, Alex Knight

• Apple, Google have apologized for privacy issues but Facebook is just sorry they got caught
• Apple exec met with teenager who found FaceTime bug at his Arizona home, will be eligible for bug bounty program

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Synopsis: Nintendo announces something, microtransactions are only going to get bigger, new AirPods, iPods (really), iPads, iOS 12.2 alludes to the future, and a new Mac Pro update.

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Duration: 52:24:00

Present: Michael Norton, Alex Knight

• Nintendo Declines After Delaying Metroid Prime 4 Game for Switch
• PUBG 'Lite' Beta For PCs Is Coming For Free To Take On Fortnite
• Apple Leaks Predict New iPads, iPad Mini And, Astonishingly, A New iPod
• AirPods 2 Revealed In Leak To Be Nearly Here, Boasting Brilliant New Feature

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Synopsis: Microsoft has announced the end of Windows Phone and is ceding the market to Android and iOS, but can one cede control when it never really had a slice of the pie?

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Duration: 59:42:00

Present: Michael Norton, Alex Knight

• The End of Microsoft's Windows Phone Is Here

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Download: Episode 172: Goodbye, Windows Phone