Vector

Google Podcasts has just arrived on iOS and I sat down with the founder and head of product, Zack Reneau-Wedeen from Google, to find out all about it, and chat all about podcasts in general.

Yeah, grab an extra beverage or several!

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• ‎Google Podcasts on the App Store
• Google Podcasts: Discover free & trending podcasts – Apps on Google Play

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Back in 2018, Apple didn't just do what they've usually done with new iPads — make them thinner, lighter, and faster. Well, yes, of course they did, but they also did something more. They made them modern, with smaller bezels, Face ID, and a new, magnetic, capacitive Apple Pencil.

Like with the iPhone X, it was a once-in-a-decade revolution. So, now, some 18 months later, we're back to evolution — a wider processor, a second, wider camera, an intriguing new LiDAR scanner, and, coming this May, a full-on new laptop mode thanks to a new, scissor-switch and trackpad powered Magic Keyboard.

So, how far has it come in 2020?

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The MacBook Air, Apple's most popular Mac, is fully, finally back.

And I don't say that lightly. In October of 2018, Apple brought the Air out of hibernation and gave it a modern makeover. Mostly.It got the updated design, high density, Retina display, and USB-C interface that made the 12-inch MacBook, its once-and-former-successor, so compelling.

But, it also inherited the butterfly keyboard, which was meant to be thinner and more stable, but ultimately proved to be divisive and unreliable.

It got Intel's coreM low-power chipset, which was fine for casual and ultra-mobile workflows, but wasn't up as robust as the former Air's Core I.

And, it was more expensive. Not than the 12-inch or the initial prices of the previous Airs, but than the low, low price the immediately previous Air had dropped to over the years.

Now, some 18 months later, Apple is aiming to fix all of that with an even more modern update. Again, mostly.

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LINKS:

• MacBook Air - Apple

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Apple has cried HAVOK and let slip the devices of March. That includes new MacBooks Air, new iPads Pro, a bumped up Mac mini, and new spring colors for Apple Watch bands and iPhone cases.

Pretty much everything that was made new back at the October 2018 event has been updated now, today.

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So… what exactly are the new Powerbeats 4 and what do they mean in the age of Powerbeats Pro?

Let's take a look!

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So, here's what seems to have happened: An internal build of iOS 14, which previous reports have pegged as "Azul", the Spanish or Portuguese word for "blue", got leaked.

Now, this has happened before. Sometimes they were accidentally left and found on the public web, sometimes someone didn't get what they want or were upset with someone in their reporting chain, so they had a little tantrum and leaked it, and sometimes someone just wants to see the world, and their team's work, burn.

Regardless, these aren't betas. Those typically come on keynote day in June. These are internal development builds and are made for internal, developer-fused hardware, and require an internal restore process to run.

So, when these builds do leak, you need someone who not only understands code, but code diving and reverse engineering to go through the binary and see what clues can be found in icons, text strings, class names, and more.

I am not one of those people. I'm the opposite of one of those people. So, if I described any of that wrong, just let me know in the comments.

But, that's basically what just happened with iOS 14 and so we've seen an avalanche of blog posts describing what the more tech savvy bloggers have found.

Now, it's important to remember that, depending on how old the build is, some of the features they found might have been deferred and some might not have been added in yet. As I've said before, there's many a slip twixt a list and a ship. So, if come the June keynote, what we get is different than what was leaked, don't blame Apple. You chose to read the early draft script and that's never the same as the final film.

Cool? Cool. Let's get into it.

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LINKS:

• iOS 14: Release date, features, rumors, etc - 9to5Mac
• iOS 14: Everything We Know | MacRumors

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GDC, the game developer's conference, is canceled. Facebook's F8 conference is canceled. Geneva Auto Show, canceled. South-by-south west, canceled. Several U.S. states have declared emergencies. Italy is on lockdown. Santa Clara County, Silicon Valley, has effectively issued a short-term ban on events.

Now, Apple doesn't typically pre-announce anything. Not products. Not events. But, that Apple will hold a worldwide developers conference — WWDC — the first week of June each year, every year, was one of the safest bets in tech today. Until today.

So, if COVID-19, the novel coronavirus, prevents Apple's from holding it's annual macOS, iOS, tvOS, watchOS, and now iPadOS, event, what could the company possibly do instead?

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Rumor has it, Apple will be releasing not three new iPhones like last year, not even four new iPhones, but a whopping 5 new iPhones in 2020. Sure, it's nothing compared to the 879 new phones Samsung will likely release this year, but for Apple, it's a lot. Like… a lot a lot.

So, why?

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Apple has tentatively agreed to settle the iPhone BatteryGate class-action lawsuit in the U.S. to the tune of $500 million dollars. This follows a €25 million fine last month.

So, how did this all go so wrong for Apple… and why?

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LINKS:

• Apple and iOS 10.2.1 address unexpected shutdowns on iPhone 6, iPhone 6s | iMore
• iPhone Slow: What you need to know | iMore
• #iPhoneSlow: What the analysts and experts have to say | iMore
• Apple agrees to $500 million settlement for throttling older iPhones - The Verge

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Late last year, after a bunch of petulant pundit hot takes about how the iPhone 11 would be doomed, so very doomed because it didn't have 5G, I did my best to calmly, rationally explain why those first-generation modems were too hot and power hungry, the networks so few and far between, and the capacity nowhere nearly at mainstream iPhone scale yet.

And… the iPhone 11 somehow managed to not only survive without a lick of 5G, but thrive. As in a best-selling. So, yeah, told you so, whatever.

But now, this year, the next-generation modems are slightly better, the networks are slightly bigger, and even though 5G is still a mess, rumor has it Apple will be going all-in come the fall.

But what does that really mean?

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