News & Reviews:   Apple

The ongoing coronavirus pandemic means that health professionals and helpers on the frontlines constantly need to wear masks. Now, tech companies are looking to aid in the efforts by donating large numbers of masks. So far, companies like Apple and Facebook have already done so.

Last week, people were able to go through iOS 14's coding to find hints of many new upcoming products. At the time, it was hinted that a new iPad Pro is indeed coming. Sources have mentioned that we will likely be seeing four new models and the latest leak reinforces that claim.

As the Movement Restriction begins tomorrow (18 March) until 31 March 2020, many businesses will be closing down temporarily until further notice. Our local cinema theatres will follow suit, but there are other services such as Grab Malaysia continuing their business as usual. In this latest news, it seems that our authorized Apple reseller, Machines, will also be closed during the same period.

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).