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Mass production of microLED displays will begin next year, says Apple supplier Foxconn

Apple has yet to complete its transition from LCD to OLED, but will at some point move beyond this to microLED screens. Key supplier Foxconn has announced that it expects to begin mass production of the advanced display tech late next year.

Foxconn made the announcement as it revealed a partnership with Porotech for microLED to be used in future AR headsets …

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Massive Marriott and Starwood data breaches require 13 fixes, says the FTC

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has responded to a series of massive Marriott and Starwood data breaches, ordering the companies to make no fewer than 13 changes to ensure it can’t happen again.

More than 344 million customers were impacted by three separate security breaches, which revealed personal data that included credit card details and passport information …

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All American Airline flights grounded on Christmas Eve – now resumed [U]

All American Airline flights are currently grounded on Christmas Eve due to an unspecified ‘technical issue.’ AA subsidiaries are also unable to fly, and the company says it can’t say when the problem will be fixed …

Update: It was later revealed the problem was a software outage preventing weight and balance calculations. Flights are now resuming …

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Apple wanted the iPhone 18 to be that ‘single slab of glass’ but it looks unlikely

Former Apple design chief Jony Ive had long seen the holy grail of iPhone design to be “a single slab of glass” without any bezels. A new supply-chain report says Apple had hoped that the iPhone 18 would see it achieve that objective, but it now looks unlikely.

The goal, says the report, is to have the entirety of the front of the device be display, with the screen flowing seamlessly into the sides of the phone …

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Google court filing makes bizarre suggestion about iPhone and iPad

The iPhone and iPad could have different default search engines, argues a Google court filing, as the company attempts to protect its $20B a year deal with Apple.

Google’s annual payment to Apple to be the default search engine in Safari looks certain to be banned in an antitrust case, but the search giant is hitting back with a number of counterproposals …

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Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses could get a display next year

Ray-Ban Meta have been the most successful smart glasses to date, offering an appealing mix of features in a form factor which is visually indistinguishable from normal sunglasses.

So far, all of the AI functionality, notifications, and messaging features have relied on the glasses reading things to you through integrated speakers, but a new report says a future model will get a display, and that it could launch as early as next year …

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M5 Pro chip could separate CPU and GPU in ‘server grade’ chips

One of the key elements of Apple’s A-series and M-series chips is the System-on-a-Chip (SoC) design which tightly integrates all the components within a single package. This includes both CPU and GPU.

But a new report suggests that the M5 Pro chip may take a different approach of having more separated CPU and GPU in order to improve performance and boost production yields …

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Kuo reiterates variable aperture lens coming to iPhone 18, not 17

There have been consistent reports that we can expect a future iPhone to offer a variable aperture lens within a year or two, but there’s been disagreement about whether the new feature will launch in the iPhone 17 or iPhone 18.

Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo previously said the major camera upgrade was coming to the iPhone 18, while The Information pointed instead to the iPhone 17. Kuo has now doubled-down on his earlier prediction …

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An Apple smart doorbell would be a sure-fire winner – for all of us

A report over the weekend suggested an Apple smart home doorbell with support for Face ID is in development. It follows an earlier report of an Apple smart home camera next year.

While it could be argued that both are commodity products, and that Apple’s most important contribution is the HomeKit platform rather than the hardware, there seems little doubt about the opportunity here …

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App Store has hundreds of ‘risky’ apps rated as appropriate for kids [U: Apple responds]

Even a brief review of the App Store revealed more than 200 “risky or inappropriate” apps rated as ok for children, according to a new report. They had collectively notched up more than 550 million downloads.

Two child safety groups say that more than 25% of the child-rated apps they reviewed gave cause for concern, suggesting that the total number of problematic apps is very much higher …

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How to use AirTag sharing when travelling with family and friends

I didn’t waste any time when AirTags first came out, immediately buying eight of them: for five bags, keys, a videography rig, and a bicycle. But I’ve also repurposed some of them during trips for some AirTag sharingwith friends, and iOS 18.2 makes this option even better.

I’ve confessed before to being something of a bagaholic, so the first thing I did was to slip an AirTag into each of my main bags, where they live almost permanently …

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AI video editing coming to Instagram next year, using text prompts

AI video editing based on text prompts is coming to Instagram next year, with the company’s head showing off the ability to do things like change your clothing and video background, as well as some funkier stuff like adding animated characters.

The company had earlier shown a demo video (below) of completely AI-generated video, stating that it was just a research project, but it seems the first practical application of the tech is arriving sooner than expected …

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Apple’s Vision Pro strategy will succeed in creating a two-tier market – TrendForce

Apple’s Vision Pro strategy of launching a very high-end professional product first, and a more affordable consumer version second, is likely to prove successful in the long-run, predicts market intelligence company TrendForce.

The company says that although many have criticized the very high price tag, the device has still captured a respectable 5% of the market, and has created expectations which competitor brands will need to meet …

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Almost half of developer revenue now comes from subscriptions

Analytics data suggests that we’re downloading fewer iPhone apps this year than last, but spending significantly more money on them. That’s because almost half of developer revenue now comes from subscriptions.

App Store downloads declined slightly in the past 12 months, but the total spend increased dramatically from $73.7B last year to $91.6B this year …

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