Taking a break from holiday shopping? Great. You can check out the important Apple headlines from the past week in this slideshow. Click on the link to get more information.
An email sent in response to a user regarding the graphics problem by Apple software engineering chief Craig Federighi says that the upcoming macOS Sierra 12.2.2 update includes a fix for the problem.
The strange thing is that Apple sent out AirPods to a handful of tech reviewers a couple months back, and those reviews were published around the expected launch date in October. (They were mostly positive.)
The diagnostic tool will presumably come in the form of iOS 10.2 next week. Apple has said that the issue stems from some batteries being overexposed to “controlled ambient air” during manufacturing.
Apple, unsurprisingly, is working on a lot of the same problems as other companies that are exploring machine learning: recognizing and processing images, predicting user behavior and events in the physical world, modeling language for use in personal assistants, and trying to understand how to deal with uncertainty when an algorithm can’t make a high-confidence decision.
Also: Apple’s ‘excited’ about self-driving car potential (IDG News Service)
The feature is only available for U.S. users, which is where the bulk of cable provider hassles exist anyway. At launch, only 10 cable providers support single sign-on including CenturyLink Prism, DirecTV, Dish, GVTC, GVA, Hawaiian Telecom, Hotwire, MetroCast, and Sling.
“Sales growth is off the charts,” Cook said. “In fact, during the first week of holiday shopping, our sell-through of Apple Watch was greater than any week in the product’s history. And as we expected, we’re on track for the best quarter ever for Apple Watch.”
Additionally, Apple revealed that 60 percent of Apple Music subscribers have not purchased content from the iTunes Store, pointing to a shift in media consumption.
Also: Apple shares the top 50 songs played on Beats 1 during 2016, Drake & Chance the Rapper lead the way (9to5Mac)
The App Store editors announced 2016’s best apps and games for iOS devices, alongside popular music, TV, and movie picks from Apple Music and the iTunes Store. Looks like 2016 was quite the year for Apple entertainment.
The court, in an 8-0 decision, kicked back the patent award to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, saying the lower court calculated the patent award based on the whole iPhone, while the design patents may cover only pieces of the device.
Also: U.S. Supreme Court leaves gap in Samsung-Apple patent ruling (IDG News Service)
Presumably, any potential NHL-Apple deal would be similar to the MLB’s in that each teams’ use of the iPad would be optional. That’s very different from Microsoft’s deal with the National Football League where the use of the Surface tablet is mandatory.
The deal is far from finalized, however, and the movie studios could end up choosing another platform, like Amazon or Google Play.
[In French]