A couple of months after Pennsylvania’s Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman had a stroke in May, his Republican opponent and former TV personality Mehmet Oz posted a link to his more than 3 million Twitter followers. “Hoping to make it to a *Fetterman for Senate* campaign event? Details are linked below!”

The website, paid for by Oz’s campaign, depicted Fetterman as an overweight, shirtless and “lazy” “basement bum” as he recovered. Fetterman returned to the campaign trail in mid-August and leads Oz, who’s been endorsed by Donald Trump, in the latest polls. 

The move instantly became the subject of national talk shows, cementing social media even further as America’s latest battleground ahead of the 2022 midterm elections. And that battle is turning bleak.

Many candidates are now following in the steps of Trump, whose frequent harassing, bullying and rule-breaking posts to Twitter turned the political world upside down during his 2016 bid for the White House and then his four years in office. As a result, political and social media researchers say, the midterm elections have seen Trump-like behavior become the norm rather than the outlier. Candidates and elected officials are more often taking to Twitter to spread lies and disinformation, to attack their perceived enemies, and to troll fellow politicians. 

Further, a majority of Republican nominees on the ballot for this November’s midterm elections have denied or questioned the outcome of the 2020 presidential election, according to a report from the Washington Post, posing a threat to America’s democratic principles.  

On some extremist-filled alternatives like Gab and Telegram, candidates are calling for civil war and advocating violence against the government while they echo Trump’s rhetoric that their political opponents are evil.

“Time to take the gloves off,” Florida Republican congressional candidate Laura Loomer wrote on the social networking apps Gab and Telegram in August after a scandal over Trump’s reported hiding of top-secret government documents at his Mar-a-Lago residence and golf club triggered a raid from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Loomer, who’s described herself as “pro-white nationalism” and a “#ProudIslamaphobe,” continued to attack the FBI even after the Department of Justice said it found many of the US government’s most sensitive secrets at Trump’s complex, despite his staff’s declarations they’d already been returned. 

“If you’re a freedom loving American, you must remove the Words decorum and civility from your vocabulary,” Loomer wrote. “This is a WAR!” She was banned from Twitter in 2018 for violating the site’s rules against hateful conduct. 

Just south of her, Republican Luis Miguel, a candidate for the Florida House of Representatives, took it a step further. “Under my plan, all Floridians will be able to shoot FBI, IRS, ATF, and all other federal troops on sight,” Miguel tweeted. “Let freedom ring.”

These posts are extreme, and in Miguel’s case got him reportedly banned from Twitter. Both candidates lost their primary bids. They also didn’t respond to requests for comment. But experts say their approach to social media follows a pattern of dangerous internet-grown fanaticism invading the political world, particularly on Twitter.

People may turn to massive platforms such as Instagram, TikTok and YouTube to get the latest news on their favorite celebrities, talk about big sports games or participate in the hottest new trend. But Twitter in particular has solidified its foothold in American politics, turning into a crucial tool for lawmakers to communicate with both their constituents and the media organizations that follow them. And the results have dramatically reshaped the political process as well.

“In the last 10 years, we’ve seen an increase in the amount of resources devoted to social media,” said Bradford Fitch, head of the nonpartisan Congressional Management Foundation, which works with lawmakers’ offices to help improve how they operate. Congressional offices now typically have two people devoted to media, rather than one person a decade ago, he added. And more lawmakers are now posting to their accounts, rather than having aides do it for them. 

“On some level because it hits and accelerates the national psyche,” he said. “We are seeing over time, the incentives are for members of Congress to be outrageous.”

Tesla CEO Elon Musk, one of Twitter’s most-followed users who’s finalizing a $44 billion purchase of the company, has said he plans to remove the few guardrails Twitter has to discourage harassment and bad behavior. Such a move has been widely criticized by civil rights and anti-hate groups, including the Anti-Defamation League, who say Twitter needs more moderation, not less.

Of course, social media didn’t create hyper-partisan lawmakers. Congress has over the years been home to plenty of bullies, conspiracists and other unsavory types. In the 18th century, for example, two lawmakers got into a brawl on the floor of the House of Representatives over the country’s diplomatic approach to France. In the 19th century, one senator drew a pistol and pointed it at his rival in the Senate chamber during a debate over slavery. Though today’s antics are comparatively tame, there are still plenty of lawmakers who pushed conspiracy theories about everything from climate change to the racist lie Trump himself promoted that President Barack Obama wasn’t born in the US, thus disqualifying him from public office.

Meanwhile, attention online isn’t a guarantee of success. Freshman North Carolina Rep. Madison Cawthorn quickly became a right-wing social media star when he was sworn in as one of the youngest lawmakers ever. Though he’d become a celebrity, controversy soon followed. He lost his seat to a lesser-known Republican primary opponent in May.

Social media has even changed how lawmakers communicate when they’re at home and at the US Capitol. Fitch’s research found that members are much more partisan on social media when they’re in DC, rather than the people-pleasing persona they take on at home. 

Republican strategists have said social media offers another telling benefit. Posting online allows politicians to circumvent traditional news organizations that often ask questions and hold them accountable for whether they’re spreading a lie or telling the truth.

Social media wave

Trump’s 2016 campaign and his four years as president ushered in a new era of extremism among lawmakers, but he wasn’t the first elected official to use social media. 

Most historians and industry experts point back to Barack Obama, whose 2008 presidential campaign used websites and social media to share videos watched by more than 50 million people on YouTube alone, according to researchers at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business. Obama’s campaign also sent out messages to its 13 million-member-strong email list, created a specialized volunteer social network with more than 2 million profiles and took in more than $500 million in online donations. 

Obama’s messages weren’t extreme like Trump’s. Obama’s team treated social media as more an arm of his presidency than a window into his mind. Trump tweeted about everything from discussing the latest TV ratings to attacking immigrants to dismissing gay rights, as well as making threats of military action that could trigger a nuclear war. 

Many of Trump’s pronouncements were quickly labeled as racist, sexist and anti-Muslim, but that only appeared to strengthen his appeal. “He was the one saying the things people were thinking,” said Mike Rothschild, a journalist whose book The Storm Is Upon Us dissects the social media-fueled conspiracy theory QAnon, which focuses on Trump’s rumored efforts to fight his perceived enemies. “It’s the politicizing of everything.”

At first, Republicans in DC scoffed at Trump’s style. But after he won the presidency in 2016, they began to emulate his approach. And many of them received similar attention too.

On Jan. 3, 2021, Lauren Boebert, a little-known freshman congresswoman and owner of a gun-themed bar from Rifle, Colorado, posted a campaign-style video to Twitter after arriving in Washington, DC. In it, she confidently walks down a Capitol Hill street with a gun on her hip. 

“Even though I now work in one of the most liberal cities in America, I refuse to give up my rights, especially my second amendment rights,” she can be heard saying amid rock ‘n’ roll-inspired background music. “I will carry my firearm to DC and in Congress.”

It was effective. The 33-year-old congresswoman racked up more than 6 million views, over 10,700 retweets and 51,300 likes.

Boebert and her colleagues like Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene have not just used their accounts to stake out positions and attack critics but also to regularly fundraise and sell merch too. Greene moved many of her posts to the messaging app Telegram after Twitter banned her account earlier this year for repeatedly spreading COVID disinformation. A hat she sold after the Trump raid declared, “Defund the FBI.” 

Boebert, Greene and Cawthorn were among the 147 Republicans who voted to overturn the 2020 election results on Jan. 6, 2021. 

Not all lawmakers are using Twitter to harass colleagues or spread lies. New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a notable liberal star, has also become a national figure in large part because of her Twitter and Instagram use. She typically posts about key moments from congressional hearings, her positions on important issues, clap-backs at critics and the occasional personal moment, like her success playing the online battle game League of Legends. 

But what’s stood out about an increasing number of lawmakers, Rothschild says, is that they’re not just extending political debates and their process to the online world. Many of them are on the extreme right, and they’re posting wild comments like Boebert’s promise to carry her gun on Capitol Hill. The posts speak to their base and grab attention from critics, whose outrage often helps drive their message even further.

“You’re seeing this filter down to state and local council meetings, where people show up and spout crazy stuff and it goes viral,” he added. “It turns everything into a Twitter argument.”

Social media frenzy

A lawmaker’s ability to grab attention on social media may be a critical part of campaigning, but it’s not a guaranteed path to success. Some lawmakers have gone from shining stars to sudden flameouts, in part because of their bombast.

One such member was Cawthorn, the far-right representative from North Carolina who quickly drew a following for sharing conspiracy theories on his social media accounts, including some related to QAnon. Cawthorn focused so much on messaging that he told Republican colleagues, “I have built my staff around comms rather than legislation,” according to a 2021 memo obtained by Time magazine.

But he also had Trump’s habit of making comments that were later criticized as false or misleading, including his own admission that a campaign video ad claiming he had planned to serve in the Navy “with a nomination to the US Naval Academy in Annapolis” wasn’t true. Shortly after he accused other Republican lawmakers of participating in drug-fueled orgies earlier this year, he lost his seat to a nationally unknown primary challenger. He’ll leave office in January.

Meanwhile, Twitter permanently suspended Trump from its site after his fiery rhetoric, threats and efforts to overturn his loss of the 2020 presidential election helped to fuel the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on Congress. And Greene was stripped of her committee assignments in February after her apparent support for violence against her political opponents.

Lawmakers appear to be shifting strategy in response. Both Trump and Greene have decamped to alternative social networks. Trump built his own Truth Social, which allows him to post whatever he wants though it bans many of his critics.

Others like Loomer and Greene, meanwhile, have begun relying on peer-to-peer messaging apps like Telegram, which aren’t as public facing as a Twitter account but also don’t draw as much criticism or moderation either. “They can be easily forwarded, they’re targeted to supporters, and they aren’t easily tracked,” said Betsy Sigman, a distinguished teaching professor emeritus at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business.

For now, at least, candidates like Pennsylvania’s Oz appear focused on mainstream social media apps like Twitter and Instagram. That’s where Oz has continued posting articles and videos attacking Fetterman’s stroke recovery.

The post The Normalizing of Extreme Politics Is Playing Out on Twitter first appeared on Joggingvideo.com.

Back in 2007, David Barnard’s plans for buying his first iPhone were simple. He was going to walk up to AT&T store during the weekend and buy one. That’s it.

But his brother Sam convinced him otherwise. 

It took a simple phone call to persuade David to drive to the Apple Store in San Antonio and wait in line, and be one of the very first people to buy one.

That iPhone launch has always been a treasured memory for David, who was captured by a San Antonio Express-News photographer as he, his brother and sister-in-law were standing at the front of the line and as they entered the store. David’s reaction shortly after getting his hands on the coveted device ended up in the newspaper.

The iPhone launches took on an additional layer of meaning after Sam passed away from cancer in 2015.

“We fought like cats and dogs as kids, and then we started to kind of bond around being Mac nerds,” David says. 

Fifteen years later, David is still a self-professed “hopeless fanboy,” but much of everything else has changed. As the iPhone went mainstream, Apple turned from an underdog to a titan of industry. Its sales jumped more than 15-fold to $366 billion last year, up from $24 billion for all of the iPhone’s launch year in 2007.

See also: iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max Review: Welcome to Apple’s Dynamic Island

The tech industry’s grown alongside Apple as well. Back in 2007, billions of people were online and using computers, but today the scale is much larger. Facebook, now the world’s largest social network with more than 2.9 billion users logging each month, counted fewer than 100 million back then. And the global smartphone market was less than 10% the size it is today.

Yet those iPhone lines aren’t what they used to be.

Industry watchers, historians and analysts agree there are many reasons the lines no longer materialize like in years past. One reason is e-commerce, which today allows people like Barnard to buy their iPhones online and easily have them shipped to their doorstep. Smartphones have also become so mainstream, there isn’t as much cachet in being the first on your block with the latest gadget.

We have more complex feelings about the tech industry than we did back then too. The past few years, tech companies have been awash with controversies regarding how they handle (or mishandle) our personal privacy, how they’ve helped create vast government surveillance networks, or how they’ve allowed shocking amounts of hate and violence to spring from their products.

See also: iPhone 14 Review: A Good Upgrade for Most People

Today, we’re only just beginning to reckon with the aftereffects of putting internet-connected supercomputers in our pockets.

“The smartphone itself is a device loaded with positive and negative association,” said Margaret O’Mara, a history professor at the University of Washington and author of The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America.

To be sure, Apple is only one company, even if it is the world’s most highly valued one at about $2.45 trillion. Regulators and lawmakers around the world are generally more focused on reining in peers like Facebook parent Meta, Google and YouTube parent Alphabet, Amazon and Twitter, whose platforms and services have helped embolden people seeking to tear down modern democracy itself.

Still, O’Mara says, even if there are fewer lines outside Apple Stores, the diehards were still there for the iPhone 14 launch Friday. Others, meanwhile, have moved online, to social networks and live streaming platforms, where they share, debate, discuss and obsess.

“There are still very intense and passionate fandoms with an eagerness to be the first in line, so to speak, or to be engaged,” she said.

Getting excited

Bob O’Donnell never stood in line for an Apple device, but he did go to book release parties for the Harry Potter series with his kids. “It was an event,” he said.

A longtime industry analyst and now founder of Technalysis Research, O’Donnell said it’s just harder to generate those levels of excitement for a lot of things, let alone a tech gadget. “Literally, everyone has a smartphone now, and so now it’s not as special or unique,” he added.

Still, he says, Apple may be able to draw those lines again if it ever gets around to releasing its long-rumored headset, particularly because virtual reality has struggled to live up to its hype.

John Maeda says Apple goggles may not bring out the crowds, but the even-longer-rumored Apple Car would. The technologist and author, who’s worked at MIT Media Lab and Silicon Valley VC firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, among other places, said what’s helped Apple stand out is its ability to build well-designed products with similarly well-written software to power them. “Companies that can do both are rare,” he said.

It’s also why people like David Barnard are still excited about iPhones 15 years after the first one landed on store shelves. Shortly after the iPhone launched, Barnard began shifting his career to app development, which eventually led him to his current job as a developer advocate at app sales platform RevenueCat. Barnard eagerly preordered the iPhone 14 Pro a week before its debut, and said he’s looking forward to trying the Dynamic Island, a new way to switch between apps at the top of the screen.

And if he hadn’t been able to get an iPhone delivered to his home, Barnard said you’d probably have found him in line with a couple friends outside an Apple Store.

“I might complain on Twitter, but I would do it,” he said. “And I would be happy and excited to do it, because it is an experience.”

The post Why People Don’t Line Up for iPhones as Much Anymore first appeared on Joggingvideo.com.

It happened to Chuck Noland when the airplane he was on one Christmas Eve for work was caught in a terrible storm and crashed into the ocean. He was the only survivor. For four years, he was stuck, alone, on an island. If he’d had Apple’s iPhone 14, he may have been able to signal for help.

Noland is a fictional character, played by Tom Hanks in the hit 2000 survival movie Cast Away. But the iPhone 14 is very much real.

On Wednesday, Apple introduced a series of features built to make people feel more safe, be it while diving in the ocean or hiking off the grid or during more everyday tasks like looking for a friend in a crowd or driving home from school. Among them, car crash detection and a way to use satellites to call for help even when you don’t have cell service.

“These products have become essential in our lives,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said during the company’s event Wednesday. As if to emphasize the point, company executives repeated the word “essential” nearly a dozen times while showing off its newest products. “They’re always with you, useful wherever and whenever you need them, and are designed to work seamlessly together on their own.”

While many of these features may seem extreme — how often do you go backpacking in the desert? — they add to a sense of trust Apple’s hoping to forge. At a time when much of our collective faith in the tech industry has been shaken by seemingly endless privacy breaches, political controversies and bald-face lies from tech executives, the very idea that Apple wants us to trust it even more may seem silly.

And if we’re not reckoning with the tech industry’s power in our lives, we’re debating whether we’ve become too dependent on it all. It’s gotten so bad that some people regularly go on “digital detoxes,” seeking out vacation spots beyond the signals of cellular carriers, in hopes of disconnecting from the seeming nonstop pace of modern life.

But the iPhone maker is charting a path by leaning on its health and safety features, alongside a growing list of privacy enhancements so effective they’ve frustrated advertisers, law enforcement and other tech companies.

“Apple’s developing this concept of personal safety, and bringing it to a whole new level,” said Tim Bajarin, an analyst with Creative Strategies. He added that Apple’s competitors will likely try to replicate Apple’s safety features too, but the tech giant’s larger approach to security, privacy and now personal safety will help it stand out. “Fundamentally, they’re saying, ‘Look, we’re going to look out for you, we’ve got your back.'”

Increasing safety

Though Apple’s still adding new safety features to its devices, it’s been focused on these ideas for many years. 

In 2017, Apple added an optional feature to the Apple Watch to detect abnormal heartbeats, something that many customers have since said warned them of health issues before a potential heart attack or stroke. In 2018, the company added fall detection for the Apple Watch, which calls emergency contacts and the authorities if you don’t respond that you’re OK after a tumble. That too has gone on to save lives.

While new features like crash detection and satellite calls for help may be designed for Apple’s latest iPhone, the company appears to be trying to add safety technology to older devices as well. With its free iOS 16 software update for iPhones and iPads later this month, Apple will include Safety Check to help domestic violence victims more easily escape abusive situations. It’s also adding Lockdown Mode, meant to restrict iPhone communication features to protect the owner from a potential hacking attack.

It doesn’t take much to imagine how Apple’s new satellite functionality will help people in an emergency. There are so many examples of people like Aaron Ralston, a hiker and rock climber who in 2003 got stuck for days in Utah’s Canyonlands National Park without a phone or any other way to call for help. 

What will set Apple apart, industry watchers say, is that creating these technologies required complex interplay of software, sensors and infrastructure like enough satellites in the sky for it to work.

Apple said it worked with first responders to develop its emergency satellite feature, asking users questions about whether they’ve been hurt and how badly to more efficiently relay information to people getting help. It also had to build relay stations to call 911 in places where emergency operators don’t accept text messages.

“It took years to make this vision a reality through game changing hardware software and infrastructure innovation,” Ashley Williams, a manager of satellite modeling and simulation at Apple, said during the company’s presentation Wednesday.

Though no other tech companies currently offer a similar feature, T-Mobile and SpaceX have announced plans to offer similar technologies in the next couple years as well. Verizon has a similar partnership with Amazon’s Project Kuiper. Analysts say more are likely on the way.

A growing trend

As Apple passes its 15th year making iPhones, one of the toughest challenges it faces is how to reinvent the supercomputer in our pockets. Sure, the company can make the device work faster, and improves the camera each year, but what more can it do?

Longtime Apple watchers say this year’s Apple Watch and iPhone may hold the key. “They’re trying to figure out the real issues that real people are struggling with,” said Maribel Lopez, an analyst at Lopez Research. 

“Some of the features were for everybody, and some of them were for very specific people,” she added. But they all revolved around solving longstanding problems, like what to do when cellular service isn’t working, in addition to basic stuff like making the devices less likely to break when we drop them. “We’re in a world where people just want to go out the door with their phone or their watch and not worry about it.”

The post Apple’s iPhone 14, Apple Watch Ultra Promise Peace of Mind as Their Killer App first appeared on Joggingvideo.com.

When Apple CEO Tim Cook and other executives reveal the new iPhone 14 at the company’s headquarters in California on Wednesday, will prospective buyers ooh and aah over new features, like the rumored always-on screen technology, faster gaming performance or smaller notch where the selfie camera sits? Maybe so. But the single most important feature Apple will bet on to attract customers is one that’s already been part of the iPhone family for two years: 5G wireless speeds.

Sure, for some people, 5G is old news. For others, it’s merely a bigger number than 4G that came before. But data is piling up that indicates 5G wireless is becoming nearly as important for today’s iPhone buyers as long battery life and high storage capacity, the two features people care about most for when buying new phones. 5G connectivity, the current wireless standard that has been available for several years now from all of the major US carriers, is also the second-most cited reason people told researchers at the consultancy Deloitte that they’d switched mobile providers, behind “better value for the money.”

The clamor for 5G is a far cry from how the service was perceived at launch and in the early years, when 5G switched on with lots of fanfare but little actual coverage. But the carriers have poured billions of dollars into the infrastructure and airwaves to support it, which has resulted in better service in many places. 

Apple’s Newest Releases

• iPhone 14 Pro, Pro Max Review: Welcome to Apple’s Dynamic Island
• iPhone 14 Review: A Good Upgrade for Most People
• Apple Watch Series 8 Review: Improvement By Degrees
• Apple Watch SE Review: Almost Everything I Want
• Apple iOS 16 Released: New iPhone Features From the Update

Now playing:
Watch this:

What to Expect at Apple’s Sept. 7 iPhone Event

9:09

Cook is one of 5G’s biggest boosters, citing it nearly every time he’s discussed iPhones in public since first offering the technology with the iPhone 12 in 2020. “5G has been an accelerant,” he said in July when discussing future prospects for his company’s handset, despite rising inflation and a possible looming recession. “I think there’s reason to be optimistic.”

Read more: How to Watch the iPhone 14, Apple Watch Series 8 Launch Event

Every year seems to be a test of the iPhone’s continued popularity, and that’ll continue with good reason this year too. The iPhone is the company’s singular most important product by nearly any measure. Apple rang up more than $191.97 billion in iPhone sales last year, which was more than half of its overall revenue. Much of the iPhone’s technology has seeped into the rest of its business as well, with related products like the Apple Watch, AirPods headphones and iPad tablet becoming multibillion-dollar businesses unto themselves. 

It’s also helped to push Apple’s value to more than $2.5 trillion, up from the $60.7 billion Wall Street valued the company at just before the device was first announced 15 years ago. Now, Apple is the most valued company on the planet, followed by oil giant Saudi Aramco, Microsoft, Alphabet (Google), Amazon and electric car maker Tesla.

The big iPhone picture

This year, though, the iPhone’s success won’t just be a measure of sales that add to Apple’s profits. It’ll also be a bellwether for the larger economy, giving some sense of whether people are willing to spend at a time when our collective confidence in the economy has fallen to its lowest point in decades. Businesses large and small have slowed new hiring or begun to lay off staff, as Snap, the smaller social networking competitor to Facebook, did last week.

Yet 5G, as yawn-worthy as it is within the tech industry, may be Apple’s key to success navigating the souring economy we all seem to be facing. Wedbush Securities estimates about 240 million of the 1 billion iPhones being used worldwide haven’t been upgraded in the past three and a half years and thus aren’t running on 5G networks.

Those owners of older iPhones will likely upgrade at some point, particularly as wireless carriers pack on perks like free subscription movie and TV services to entice people to upgrade. “The stickiness of the iPhone upgrade cycle is still being underestimated,” Wedbush analysts wrote in a message to investors earlier this summer. “This continues to remain Apple’s unique advantage over other technology stalwarts.”

Dream a little 5G upgrade dream

An odd aspect of the 5G upgrade cycle may be that while people are buying in — as in, they don’t want to buy new non-5G phones — 73% of respondents to Deloitte’s surveys said they wanted a “better understanding” of what 5G offers, and 30% said they’re disappointed by “a perceived lack of innovative apps and services that leverage 5G.”

When carriers began promoting 5G several years ago, they talked of next-generation wireless technology that could usher in a new sci-fi-device-laden future. The promise of 5G showed up everywhere, from self-driving cars to remote medical care to smart cities.

Read more: Everything We Know So Far About the iPhone 14

So far, 5G has largely delivered on its promises of higher speed and increased reliability, but that’s about it.

Carriers, meanwhile, have convinced people 5G is necessary in part by turning off older 3G service, effectively pushing some people to upgrade and indirectly putting 4G users on notice that they, eventually, will be next.

Now, with economic uncertainty on the horizon, people are having to think more carefully about device purchases they may not upgrade again for several years.

“If you’re going to buy a smartphone, you’re going to buy the best you can at a certain price point,” Maribel Lopez, longtime industry watcher and head of Lopez Research. “People have to make serious choices when they’re looking at 30% increases in food costs and doubled gasoline prices.”

“No one, unless you need a value phone, would buy a 4G phone today,” she added.

Now playing:
Watch this:

Our iPhone 14 Wish List

8:35

Apple’s shiny iOS 16 update

All these trends don’t mean Apple’s iPhone is a guaranteed hit, with or without an unfolding economic downturn happening around the world.

To sweeten the iPhone 14’s introduction, Apple’s teams are working hard to offer software updates with its iOS 16 software update, like new “widgets” to add info to the lock screen, undo-send in Mail and heightened security. 

They’re also rumored to be polishing new features like the always-on display, which would allow iPhones to show limited information on the screen even when it’d be typically turned off, and emergency satellite texting, which could come in handy if you’re stranded on a desert highway or in the middle of the ocean.

Read more: Every iPhone 14 Feature I Want to See at Apple’s Next Event 

For some people, that all may seem like unnecessary features just to have something new on the box this year. But Creative Strategies analyst Carolina Milanesi said Apple has to be careful to introduce features that matter to early-first adopters and premium purchasers, who are “critical to the brand perception.”

“You can’t leave that high-end user feeling left out or forgotten,” she said. And for everyone else, she’s expecting carriers to offer subsidies and other give-aways to convince people that the real big changes will be to the value they get out of the phone. 

The post Apple Launches iPhone 14 Wednesday. Its Success Depends on This Unexpected Thing first appeared on Joggingvideo.com.

Apple has set the date for its latest iPhone’s debut. The new device, which is expected to be called the iPhone 14 and include an always-on display, will be unveiled on Sept. 7 at 10 a.m. PT (1 p.m. ET). Rumors suggest the new iPhone lineup will nix the Mini in favor of a new Max model, joining the rumored iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max, and potentially increase the price by about $100 over last year’s. Apple may also have plans to excise the iPhone 14’s notch in favor of a hole-and-pill-shaped front camera, at least for the Pro models. 

In addition to the iPhone 14, Apple’s may also use the event to unveil the Apple Watch Series 8, which will reportedly look similar to last year’s model but have more health features such as a fever sensor, as well as improved durability.

The tech giant has invited press to its Apple Park headquarters in California for the event, though it’ll also offer a livestream on Apple.com and other streaming services. As is typical, Apple didn’t say much in its invitation about its upcoming iPhone event. The invitation shows an Apple logo seemingly set in a night sky, suggesting potential camera improvements or last year’s rumored satellite emergency calling. The image looks like something we might see from the James Webb Space Telescope, whose stunning photos have already begun changing how we see the cosmos since first being released earlier this summer. In its announcement, Apple included the teaser words “Far out.” 

Read more: How to Watch the iPhone 14, Apple Watch Series 8 Launch

The new features for both the iPhone 14 and Apple Watch 8 may help Apple stand out from Samsung and other device makers during what is expected to be heightened competition this year. People have been cutting back on tech purchases, leading to surprisingly low sales reports from chipmaker Intel, as well as sudden ad business shortfalls for Google parent Alphabet and Facebook parent Meta. And they’re not alone.

Our collective confidence in the economy has fallen through the floor, thanks to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic mixed with continual inflation and a looming recession. One survey from the University of Michigan found that consumer sentiment is at its lowest point in at least 70 years.

That means Apple will have to fight even harder to win over new iPhone owners. Samsung, for its part, made Apple’s job a little easier by announcing its flagship Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Galaxy Z Flip 4 at their standard prices of $1,800 and $1,000, respectively, earlier this month. It also raised the prices of its Galaxy Watch 5 and Galaxy Buds 2 Pro by $30 apiece. 

Apple so far isn’t acting worried. Over the past couple of years, Apple’s notched its biggest revenue and profits each holiday shopping season, largely on the popularity of 2021’s iPhone 13 and 2020’s iPhone 12. Apple CEO Tim Cook has previously cited the advanced cameras, long battery life and well-regarded software as reasons people continue choosing iPhones. But he also said that 5G, the super-fast wireless technology Apple began using two years ago, is likely to push even more people to upgrade.

“5G has been an accelerant,” he said when speaking to investors on a conference call last month. He added that although the technology is spreading through some places, like China, the EU and US, other parts of the world haven’t begun using it as much. And so as 5G expands, he said, “I think there’s reason to be optimistic.”

While the iPhone will be a key product we see at Apple’s event this year, and likely what most people focus their attention on, the company’s expected to have other devices to show off. Those include new Mac computers with upgraded chips and new iPads.

The post Apple Event Confirmed: The iPhone 14 May Launch Next Week first appeared on Joggingvideo.com.

Apple has weathered nearly every storm of the past two decades. Its iMacs and iPods powered through the dot-com crash at the turn of the century, and its iPhones helped it power past the great recession a decade later. But the tech giant may have met its match with the latest spike in inflation.

The Cupertino, California, company is set to release a financial report for its fiscal quarter on Thursday afternoon, giving us a look at its revenue and profit from April through June. Apple watchers typically treat the event as a formality — akin to a temperature check at the doctor’s office — before the company’s typical blockbuster holiday shopping season begins this fall with the launch of the next iPhone.

But this time could be different.

Wall Street has become accustomed to Apple’s hemming and hawing about how the COVID-19 pandemic’s effects are still hard to plan around or mitigate. But on Thursday, analysts will be poring over the financial data for any signs of how worldwide inflation, mixed with historically low unemployment rates and a tight job market, has changed the company’s fortunes.

“The Street is well aware of weakness this quarter,” Wedbush Securities analyst Daniel Ives wrote in a note to investors last week. But, he said, iPhone demand appears to be “holding up well despite the fears.”

That isn’t the case for everyone though. On Tuesday, Walmart — the largest retailer in the US — said customers are starting to pull back on spending amid higher prices for food and fuel. The International Monetary Fund, meanwhile, warned that the economies of the US, China and Europe may be on the brink of a global recession. All raising the question of whether a luxury brand like Apple will be able to continue weathering the coming storms.

Any long-term Apple watcher knows well the jitteriness around the company’s fortune. Apple’s earnings releases are typically preceded by a procession of analyst notes and seemingly gloomy headlines, only to be followed by the company’s usually upbeat results. But some people still can’t shake the fear that Apple’s rocket-like rise from near bankruptcy in 1998 to the world’s largest company today will eventually end, and potentially with a shocking turn of fortunes.

Though the laws of gravity say whatever goes up must eventually come down, Apple’s been able to beat average Wall Street estimates for its profits every quarter since February 2020, when it first warned investors about the coronavirus pandemic, according to data compiled by Reuters. This quarter, it’s expected to report $1.16 per share in profits, off $82.7 billion in sales.

“The stickiness of the iPhone upgrade cycle is still being underestimated by investors,” Ives said, noting his team’s estimate that 240 million of the 1 billion active iPhones in the world today haven’t been upgraded in roughly 3.5 years. “This importantly speaks to the Apple growth path over the next 12 to 18 months.”

That growth path will be driven by the iPhone, which still represents more than half the company’s revenue. While Evercore ISI analysts said they’ll be watching for signs of how Apple can grow beyond its 1 billion active iPhones, they didn’t sound an alarm either. “We do see demand remaining intact in the coming quarters barring major further macroeconomic shock,” they wrote.

Mad world

When the coronavirus pandemic was initially beginning, investors on Wall Street were terrified the economy would come to a screeching halt as the world entered a series of lockdowns, disrupting everything from manufacturing to shipments to shopping. The tech industry largely came out ahead though, as people began stocking up on new computers to work and learn from home. They bought and played video games at record rates, and they signed up for subscriptions for HBO Max, Disney Plus and Apple TV Plus, growing them into sizable competitors to Netflix.

Two years into the pandemic, investors have found new things to worry about. Even though the coronavirus pandemic is by no means over — the latest variant, called BA.5, is considered extremely contagious and “substantially” evades antibodies from prior infections — the new financial threat of inflation has emerged around the world. Persistent supply shortages, exacerbated by Russia’s attack on Ukraine, have combined with rising wages and near-record employment statistics to create a financial whirlwind of rising prices for gas, food and housing, threatening to push up costs for nearly everything else in the process or kickstart a recession.

The tech industry has responded, meanwhile, by “hitting the brakes on hiring,” Jefferies Research analyst Brent Thill wrote last week. Those moves, by Google, Twitter and, yes even Apple according to Bloomberg, raised new fears among investors that “weakening hiring trends could be an early signal that companies are observing slowing demand.”

Now the question Apple CEO Tim Cook and his team will likely face Thursday is whether that slowing demand is indeed real, and what he plans to do about it. After all, Apple’s expected to announce its next-generation iPhone 14 in the fall, the most important of its product releases alongside new iPads, Apple Watches and Mac computers.

But even if we all stop buying as many iDevices, Morgan Stanley analysts say, Apple appears ready for that too. “Over the last 40-plus years, Apple has built a market-leading technology platform with dominant positioning across several, large hardware end markets,” they wrote last week.

Now it’s moving toward focusing on subscriptions, which offer more predictable and long-term sales. “The path to over $3 trillion of market cap,” they said, will be built on a mass of subscriptions that are “cheaper than a cup of coffee.”

The post Apple Navigated the Pandemic to Record Sales, Profits. Inflation May Change That first appeared on Joggingvideo.com.

What’s happening

Apple said demand for its phones continues to grow, despite the uncertain economy.

Why it matters

The tech giant’s comments are starkly different from Facebook parent Meta and Google parent Alphabet, which both reported surprise drops in ad sales.

What’s next

Apple says it’s upbeat about 5G wireless and continuing demand from people upgrading their devices.

Over the past week, many of tech’s biggest names have sounded alarms about the economy. Google parent Alphabet and Facebook parent Meta have reported surprise drop-offs in online advertising spending. And Intel shocked investors with a 22% drop in sales, its biggest revenue drop in more than a decade. 

Apple, meanwhile, kept chugging. The iPhone maker said its sales actually grew in the three months ended in June, despite another wave of infections from the coronavirus pandemic and the highest inflation in decades. And, CEO Tim Cook told analysts on a conference call Thursday that there “was no obvious evidence of macroeconomic impact” his company’s phones over the past three months. 

“When you think about the number of challenges in the quarter, we feel really good about the growth that we put up,” he added.

Apple’s fiscal first quarter was marked by continued demand for the company’s latest smartphone, hitting almost $40.7 billion in sales, up nearly 3% from the $39.6 billion it reported last year. That’s notable considering its latest iPhones largely range in price from the $699 iPhone 13 mini to $1,099 iPhone 13 Pro Max. 

Its Mac computers, iPad tablets and wearables categories all saw slight drops in sales, which Apple’s CFO Luca Maestri attributed at least in part to manufacturing constraints across the industry and throughout China, whose zero-tolerance policy against the COVID-19 pandemic has led to lockdowns in some of its most populated areas. 

Apple’s services effort, which includes its $5 per month Apple TV Plus, was the only other division that showed growth. 

“It’s a mixed bag in terms of what we believe that we saw,” Cook said.

Apple’s latest financial disclosures are just the latest sign of how the coronavirus pandemic and events halfway around the world can impact the economy in radical ways. Though many businesses struggled through the pandemic, our reliance on big tech fueled increased financial performance across the industry, until recently. Now, as the world grapples with the highest inflation in decades, retailers like Walmart have begun warning that customers are slowing purchases. 

Apple’s stock closed up less than 1% at $157.35 per share before the release and rose another 1% afterward. Earlier this year, investors pushed the company’s shares above $3 trillion for a short period before the broader market — including tech stocks — began a precipitous fall amid rising energy prices and interest rates. It’s currently valued at about $2.5 trillion.

Tale of two tech economies

Apple’s results, and the tenor of its earnings release, were markedly different from Google and Facebook, both of whose businesses are largely built on delivering advertisements. Microsoft also reported slowed advertising growth.

“We seem to have entered an economic downturn that will have a broad impact on the digital advertising business,” Facebook parent Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a call with analysts Wednesday. “It’s always hard to predict how deep or how long these cycles will be, but I’d say that the situation seems worse than it did a quarter ago.” 

Amazon, meanwhile, said it saw no slowdown in consumer demand, with sales rising 7% to $121.2 billion in the three months ended in June. That beat analyst expectations of $119.1 billion and didn’t even include its annual Prime Day shopping event, which occurred earlier this month. Samsung as well announced rising profit and sales, driven by continued strong sales of chips it manufactures.

For its part,  Apple said it notched profits of $19.4 billion, down 10% from the same last year. That translates to $1.20 per share in profit, off nearly $83 billion in overall revenue, which itself was up nearly 2% from the $81.4 billion reported last year. It was also enough to beat average analyst estimates, which were $1.16 per share in profits on $82.8 billion in revenue, according to surveys published by Yahoo Finance.

Sales in the Americas reached nearly $37.5 billion, up more than 4%. In Europe, revenue rose slightly to $19.2 billion, up from $18.9 billion. The company said revenue dropped in Greater China, in part because of COVID lockdowns, pushing sales down 1% to $14.6 billion. 

Another bright spot for investors was Apple’s outlook, which suggested the next-generation iPhone will arrive on schedule before the end of September (the iPhone 13 was released Sept. 24 last year). Apple said it expects year-over-year sales growth will “accelerate” when compared with its just-reported June quarter. And, supply constraints are expected to be lower as well.

Cook stopped short of guaranteeing an iPhone 14 was on the way, which is typical as the company rarely tips its hands about the future during a quarterly earnings release. But he did say he’s hopeful about continued demand, in part because people are still upgrading to 5G wireless technology.

“5G has been an accelerant,” he said, adding that while the technology is spreading through some places, like China, the EU and US, other parts of the world haven’t begun using it as much. And so as 5G expands, he said, “I think there’s reason to be optimistic.”

The post Apple’s iPhone Is Powering Through the Slowing Economy first appeared on Joggingvideo.com.

Apple has agreed to pay $50 million to settle a class action lawsuit from customers who claimed the keyboards in the company’s MacBook laptops made between 2015 and 2019 had a design defect. 

The settlement, filed late Monday in a California court, contends that Apple knew about the defect in its “butterfly” keyboards and that it “fraudulently concealed” the issue from customers. Apple denied wrongdoing.

“The proposed settlement to resolve this case is not an admission of guilt or wrongdoing of any kind by Apple,” the proposed settlement states. Reuters earlier reported the news. Apple didn’t immediately respond to a request for further comment.

The proposed agreement marks a final chapter for one of Apple’s most criticized products. When the company introduced its butterfly keyboards in 2015, it positioned the technology as an improvement on decades-old designs.

“It had some things it did really well, like creating a much more stable key platform. It felt more firm and flat under your finger —  some people really like that, but other people weren’t really happy with that. We got sort of a mixed reaction. We had some quality issues we had to work on,” Schiller said in an interview with CNET’s Roger Cheng in 2019. “People sometimes underestimate how much work goes into a keyboard, and that’s why most keyboards in the industry don’t change for 10 or 20 years.”

Apple ultimately switched away from butterfly keyboards in 2019, a move CNET reviewer Dan Ackerman said was “for the best.”

Still, the company faced lawsuits over the technology, which it now appears on the verge of settling. As part of its agreement, Apple would pay $50 million, with lawyers for the customers saying people who replaced multiple keyboards will get maximum payouts of $395, while people who replaced one keyboard may get up to $125 and people who replaced key caps may get up to $50.

The post Apple Reaches Settlement Over MacBook ‘Butterfly’ Keyboards to Pay $50 Million first appeared on Joggingvideo.com.

Apple’s former design chief, and a key executive who worked with co-founder Steve Jobs to save the company from bankruptcy and turn it into the titan of industry it is today, has reportedly parted ways with his former employer.

The New York Times reported Tuesday that Ive and Apple have agreed to stop working together, citing two sources with knowledge of their contractual agreement. 

The move comes three years after Ive stepped away from his role as Apple’s design leader to begin his own firm, LoveFrom. Back then, Ive said he felt the time was “right” for his departure, and said he hoped to keep working with the company for “many, many years to come.” Apple didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The post Apple No Longer Working With Former Design Head Jony Ive first appeared on Joggingvideo.com.

What’s happening

Apple is developing a new “Lockdown Mode” for its iPhones, iPads and Mac computers. It’s designed to fight industrial-strength hacking like the NSO Group’s Pegasus.

Why it matters

Though these attacks happen to a small group of people, the threat is growing. Pegasus was used by to spy on human rights activists, lawyers, politicians and journalists around the world. Apple says it’s identified similar attacks on people in 150 countries over the past eight months.

What’s next

Apple will release Lockdown Mode for free later this year and says it’s planning regular updates and improvements. The company has also expanded its bug bounties and established a grant to encourage further research toward this issue.

Apple for years has marketed its iPhones, iPads and Mac computers as the most secure and privacy-focused devices on the market. Last week, it bolstered that effort with a new feature coming this fall called Lockdown Mode, designed to fight targeted hacking attempts such as the Pegasus malware, which some governments reportedly used on human rights workers, lawyers, politicians and journalists around the world. Apple also announced a $10 million grant and up to $2 million bug bounty to encourage further research into this growing threat.

The tech giant said that Lockdown Mode is designed to activate “extreme” protections to its phones, such as blocking attachments and link previews in messages, potentially hackable web browsing technologies, and incoming FaceTime calls from unknown numbers. Apple devices will also not accept accessory connections unless the device is unlocked, and people can’t install new remote management software on the devices while they’re in Lockdown Mode as well. The new feature is already available in test software being used by developers this summer and will be released for free publicly in the fall as part of iOS 16, iPadOS 16 and MacOS Ventura. Here’s how to use Apple’s Lockdown mode on an iPhone.

“While the vast majority of users will never be the victims of highly targeted cyberattacks, we will work tirelessly to protect the small number of users who are,” said Ivan Krstić, Apple’s head of security engineering and architecture, in a statement. “Lockdown Mode is a groundbreaking capability that reflects our unwavering commitment to protecting users from even the rarest, most sophisticated attacks.”

Enlarge Image

Along with the new Lockdown Mode, which Apple calls an “extreme” measure, the company announced a $10 million grant to the Dignity and Justice Fund, which was established by the Ford Foundation, to help support human rights and fight social repression.

The company’s efforts to enhance its device security comes at a time when the tech industry is increasingly confronting targeted cyberattacks from oppressive governments around the world. Unlike widespread ransomware or virus campaigns, which are often designed to indiscriminately spread furthest and quickest through homes and corporate networks, attacks like those using Pegasus are designed for quiet intelligence gathering.

Read more: Why Apple’s developing a new level of security for your iPhone

Enlarge Image

Last September, Apple sent out a free software update that addressed Pegasus, and then it sued NSO Group in an effort to stop the company from developing or selling any more hacking tools. It also began sending “Threat Notifications” to potential victims of these hacking tools, which Apple calls “mercenary spyware.” The company said that while the number of people targeted in these campaigns is very small, it’s notified people in about 150 countries since November.

Other tech companies have also expanded their approach to security in recent years. Google has an initiative called Advanced Account Protection, designed for “anyone who is at an elevated risk of targeted online attacks” by adding extra layers of safety to logins and downloads. Microsoft has been increasingly working to dump passwords.

Apple said it plans to expand Lockdown Mode over time, and announced a bug bounty of up to $2 million for people who find security holes in the new feature. For now, it’s designed primarily to disable computer features that may be helpful but that open people to potential attacks. That includes turning off some fonts, link previews and incoming FaceTime calls from unknown accounts. 

Read more: How to Use Apple’s Lockdown Mode to Guard Against an Industrial-Strength iPhone Hack

Apple representatives said the company sought to find a balance between usability and extreme protections, adding that the company is publicly committing to strengthening and improving the feature. In the most recent iteration of Lockdown Mode, which is being sent to developers in an upcoming test software update, apps that display webpages will follow the same restrictions that Apple’s apps follow, though people can preapprove some websites to circumvent Lockdown Mode if needed. People in Lockdown Mode will also have to unlock their device before it’ll connect with accessories.

Encouraging more research

In addition, Apple said it hopes a planned $10 million grant to the Dignity and Justice Fund will help encourage more research on these issues and expand training and security audits for people who might be targeted.

“Every day we see these threats broadening and deepening,” said Lori McGlinchey, director of the Ford Foundation’s Technology and Society program, who is working with technical advisers including Apple’s Krstić to help direct the fund. “In recent years, state and non-state actors have used spyware to track and intimidate human rights defenders, environmental activists and political dissidents in virtually every region of the world.” 

Ron Deibert, a professor of political science and director of the Citizen Lab cybersecurity researchers at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto, said he expects Apple’s Lockdown Mode will be a “major blow” to spyware companies and the governments who rely on their products.”

“We’re doing all we can, alongside a number of investigative journalists working this beat, but that’s been it, and that’s a huge asymmetry,” he said, adding that Apple’s $10 million grant will help attract more work toward this issue. “You have an enormous industry that’s very lucrative and almost entirely unregulated, profiting from huge contracts from governments that have an appetite to engage in this type of espionage.”

Now playing:
Watch this:

Testing iOS 16 (Edit/Delete Sent Messages, New Lock Screen…

16:22

The post Apple’s New Lockdown Mode for iPhone Fights Hacking first appeared on Joggingvideo.com.