Month: April 2019

Apple Slashes Price of iPhone XR in India by 25%

CompuScoop Staff April 4, 2019 0

“Apple Inc has cut prices of one of its latest iPhones in India by around one-fourth, sources said, as the U.S. tech giant looks to boost sales in the world’s second-biggest smartphone market following a similar move in China,” Sankalp Phartiyal reports for Reuters.

“The price of the 64 GB iPhone XR has been reduced by at least 17,900 rupees ($259) due to a price cut and a credit card cashback campaign, two people with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Thursday,” Phartiyal reports. “On Apple’s India website, the price of the 64 GB iPhone XR was unchanged at 76,900 rupees, but is on sale for less than 59,000 rupees at stores, the people said. Prices for the two other XR variants [128GB and 256GB] have also dropped, they said.”

“The change in pricing of the iPhone XR is a short-term promotional offer, an industry source said,” Phartiyal reports. “‘The focus of this entire (price cut) exercise is to win customers who would have thought of going to Samsung or OnePlus, to make them think whether they can spend some extra money on an iPhone XR – it’s more bang for the buck,’ said Rushabh Doshi of tech research firm Canalys.”

Read more in the full article here.

Apple cuts price of HomePod worldwide – Now $299.00 in the United States

CompuScoop Staff April 4, 2019 0

“Apple has officially lowered the price of the HomePod worldwide. In the price has fallen from $349 to $299,” Benjamin Mayo reports for 9to5Mac.

“HomePod has seen promotional discounts at many third party retailers (eg: it’s $279 right now at Best Buy) over its lifespan, but now Apple has dropped the smart speaker’s standard list price,” Mayo reports. “This price cut represents a roughly 15% drop and seemingly applies to every region, not just the US. For example, the UK price has fallen from £319 to £279.”

Even when priced at $349, Mayo reports, “HomePod has carved a solid niche for itself and dominates the market for smart speakers above $250.”

Feds bust $900,000 iPhone repair and return scam in Oregon, USA

CompuScoop Staff April 4, 2019 0

“Two engineering students in Oregon are accused of bringing thousands of counterfeit iPhones to Apple and having them replaced with real ones that they then shipped to China for sale,” William Gallagher reports for AppleInsider.

“Students Yangyang Zhou and Quan Jiang, both Chinese nationals studying in Oregon, are accused of getting Apple to replace their counterfeit iPhones with real ones. Each iPhone was replaced under Apple’s repair policies and the thousands of phones were then sent to China where they were sold,” Gallagher reports. “Apple reportedly estimates the cost of the fraud to be $895,800.”

“According to court records as reported by The Oregonian newspaper, Applereceived more than 3,000 warranty claims from Jiang and in 1,493 cases replaced his phone,” Gallagher reports. “At the time of the alleged fraud, Zhou and Jiang were both living in Corvallis, Oregon, and were on student visas to study engineering. Jiang was studying at Linn Benton Community College and Zhou at Oregon Sciences University.”

Read more in the full article here.

Apple Music comes to the United Kingdom with a new skill update

CompuScoop Staff April 4, 2019 0

“Amazon has brought Apple Music to Alexa smart speakers for the first time in the UK,” Andrew Griffin reports for The Independent.The feature was already available in the US but is slowly rolling out across the world.”

“It means that people are no longer limited to only Amazon Music and Spotify as ways for Alexa to play music,” Griffin reports. “Apple Music will work like those same services, allowing people to ask for a song or radio station and have it play from Apple Music.”

“Though it has been available on other platforms such as Android, and even other smart speakers like Sonos systems,” Griffin reports, “the tie-up with Alexa makes it the first time that Apple Music songs can be requested using a voice assistant that isn’t Siri.”

Read more in the full article here.