News & Reviews:   Apple

News of an iPhone 9 isn't all that new, but now there are rumours that Apple also has an iPhone 9 Plus in the works. Recently, it was said that details for the iPhone 9 Plus were found within iOS 14's codes. This could be a larger variant of the iPhone 9 that's expected to launch sometime this year.

Ever since the US FCC listing of the Powerbeats 4 appeared, it was obvious that the wireless earbud model was on its way. But since the Apple event in March 2020 is no longer happening, it seems like the company won't be waiting to sell it before officially announcing it. In fact, the new model was recently spotted in a store in New York.

There's been quite a few news on the Apple A14 Bionic chip in the last week or so, such as the confirmation of its mass production in April 2020. Apple has clearly begun to test its engineering samples too, considering that the Geekbench 5 score for the chip has appeared. And boy, it's one heck of a benchmark score.

With the covid-19 strain of novel coronavirus now declared a pandemic, it has become all the more important to enact drastic prevention measures. This is why Apple has announced that it will be closing all of its retail stores outside of China till 27 March 2020.

Today, Apple is the latest company to announce that their annual Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) will be held in June 2020. However, like many conferences and events nowadays, the company will host it in a new online format for their consumers, media and app developers. The WWDC 2020 will showcase what's new for iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS and tvOS. 

Apple's court woes are not over just yet. Not long after having to pay a settlement to the California court, the tech giant could now be fined by the French Competition Authority for anti-competitive practices. The official announcement is expected to be made next Monday.

As more online social platforms adapt dark mode, the next one in the list is WeChat. According to sources, the WeChat team from China announced on Weibo that the beta test for Android users is already completed. As for Apple iOS users, the dark mode update is in the plans for the next update (whenever that is). 

There may be a lot of production concerns when it comes to Apple. Fortunately, the unveiling of the Apple iPhone 12 series later this year doesn't seem to have been affected yet. This year's iteration of the iPhone is expected to come in three models and at least one of it will come with a 3D depth camera.

Last time, we have heard news like OPPO is going to build their own chipset while Apple will be building 5G modems for the iPhones. These days, it seems like it is a good idea for tech companies to supply themselves components that are needed to produce their products, not to say after witnessing Huawei coming through the trade war. Going back to Apple, the tech giant is rumoured to launch new MacBooks without Intel processors this year, and will use self-made processors instead.

Apple fans have just been hit by another sucker punch by the coronavirus. An inside source within Apple has claimed that the launch of the iPhone 9/SE2 has been postponed until further notice. In addition, the WWDC 2020 that is scheduled for June 2020 will also be cancelled.