Apple Breakfast: Apple to ditch Intel at WWDC

Apple generates a lot of news, and it can be hard to keep up. If your mind was on other things this week, our roundup of Apple-related headlines will bring you up to date.

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The end of the affair

Apple’s on the verge of breaking up with Intel, if reports are correct. The company – which already makes its own mobile chips – is going to start making its own ARM-based processors for Mac, and announce the move at WWDC on 22 June.

Long-time Apple followers will recall the momentous day it announced the transition from PowerPC to Intel chips at WWDC 2005. It’s lasted for 15 years, but maybe the time is right for the relationship to end; we’ve been saying for a while that Apple needs to ditch Intel.

New iMac incoming

On Tuesday a well-known leaker predicted that a new-look iMac will launch at WWDC later this month. Nice idea, we all thought, but what evidence is there?

Well, stop right there, because eagle-eyed pundits have noticed that shipping estimates on the 27in iMac have slipped alarmingly, often a giveaway sign that a product is being phased out ahead of a launch.

Stock of the 21.5in iMac, by contrast, is fine (we just checked and Apple offered to deliver one tomorrow), so the obvious conclusion is that only one size of iMac is going to get updated. That would be a shame: a promising rumour had suggested the smaller version was going to be bumped to a 23in screen. Maybe that will happen later in the year.

News in brief

WWDC 2020 is almost upon us: the opening keynote is a week on Monday. As hype builds ahead of the event – despite it being online-only for the first time ever – Apple has released the schedule of events. The keynote speech will be fine (even though it will be weird hearing Tim Cook speak without regular whoops from the audience) but will the company be able adequately to replicate the experience of training workshops and networking events for developers?

An analyst has urged Apple to acquire the search engine DuckDuckGo. The idea is a neat one: DDG fits Apple’s privacy focus perfectly, and the deal would give the company a great way to snatch some of Google’s ad revenue. But the problem is that Apple currently earns billions from allowing Google to be the default search engine in iOS, and this would (presumably) put a stop to that.

Two popular podcast apps have been pulled from the Chinese App Store, seemingly because they allow users to listen to locally banned content. If that’s true it’s understandable that Apple acted in this way, but that hasn’t stopped critics accusing the company of making too many concessions in order to reach the Chinese market.

The public beta of iOS 13.6 is out. There’s a bunch of new features but the most intriguing may be a new Symptom category in Health.

Apple stock recently hit its highest ever Nasdaq listing, trading for $331.75. The company has taken some knocks this year but is thriving regardless; maybe this is why an analyst thinks Apple will be worth $2 trillion within four years – it’s already worth $1.5 trillion.

Talking of trillions, a big chunk of Apple’s value could theoretically be in jeopardy: it’s been sued for a trillion dollars by a customer who was allegedly described as “crazy” in a dispute with an Apple Store employee. We’re pretty sure that payout isn’t going to happen, but here’s a thought: Apple could take the hit and still be worth $500bn.

Apple employees will soon start to move back into Apple Park – rather earlier than at most other tech companies. But it’s a cautious and limited migration, and many staff will continue to work from home for months.

Apple’s TV+ service generally comes off worst when compared to the extensive content libraries on Netflix, Disney Plus and Amazon Prime. That could all be about to change, however: an analyst expects the company to increase its budget and net 100 million subscribers within five years.

Apple is killing off iTunes U and iBooks Author. The company hopes users will switch to Classroom, Schoolwork and Apple School Manager in the one case, and Pages in the other.

It’s nearly summer, and Apple has revealed its summer colours for 2020. That’s to say, it’s launched iPhone cases and Apple Watch straps in four new colours: Coastal Grey, Linen Blue, Seafoam and Vitamin C. Yep, that last one is a colour (orange) as well as the cure for scurvy.

Bugs and problems

Some owners of the iPhone 11, 11 Pro and Pro Max (but mainly the latter two) have reported a problem with green-tinted screens. It happens just after unlocking and disappears a short while later, but there doesn’t seem to be a fix just yet.

…and that’s it for bugs for this week, which is great news for Apple. If you’re interested in the subject, however, you may like to read a new bug-reporting guide that Apple has published ahead of WWDC. It gives an idea how the company deals with problems of this kind, and how it wants to improve the process in the future.

The rumour mill

More hints about the iPhones to expect this autumn: Apple has registered nine new phone models in the Eurasian Economic Union. Nine! We’re fairly sure there will four editions of the iPhone 12 – the 12, 12 Max, 12 Pro and 12 Pro Max – but the additional models are likely to relate to separate versions for different territories. The current iPhone SE, for example, has one model number for Canada and the United States, a second one for the Chinese mainland and a third for everywhere else.

We’re in that strange period, mind you, when the iPhone rumours start to overlap with the ones for the following year. We’ve heard quite a bit about the iPhone 13 already: the latest rumour is that it will have an energy-efficient LTPO screen.

A future iOS update – conceivably iOS 14, although that feels too soon – could allow iPhone owners to compose fake group selfies, even if the participants can’t be in the same place. Handy for lockdown, so maybe Apple will try to rush out the feature in time for this summer’s unveiling.

And that’s it for this week. Stay Appley!