Month: April 2022

iOS App Review: CPClock for iOS and Apple TV

Dan Uff April 29, 2022 3

Full Disclosure: I am the developer for CPClock. But as I said before, I will give an unbiased review of the app. You maybe surprised at this.

CPClock is created by Connecting People Software Co. and is designed for travelers and business people who want a professional, good looking clock on their desk or nightstand.

It shows the current time, day, date, and weather conditions for the current area. It also has a night clock that's perfect for overnight for travelers that want an easy to see clock.

Cost: $0.99

Pros:

Easy to see from any angel.
Has multicolor display which is user configurable.
Has the ability to actually say the time, day, and date.
Updated local weather conditions.

Cons:

Weather not updated as often as it should be.
Not able to change color of night clock.
Only works in Landscape Mode.

Bottom Line:

A very good travel's or desktop clock for any individual or business person. Can be improved which the developer plans on doing in the coming weeks and months.

App Store Link: Here

 Apple announces its new Self Service Repair Program

Dan Uff April 28, 2022 2

April 27, 2022

PRESS RELEASE

Apple’s Self Service Repair now available

Genuine Apple parts and tools can now be purchased by US customers

CUPERTINO, California Apple today announced Self Service Repair is now available, providing repair manuals and genuine Apple parts and tools through the Apple Self Service Repair Store. Self Service Repair is available in the US and will expand to additional countries — beginning in Europe — later this year.

The new online store offers more than 200 individual parts and tools, enabling customers who are experienced with the complexities of repairing electronic devices to complete repairs on the iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 lineups and iPhone SE (3rd generation), such as the display, battery, and camera. Later this year the program will also include manuals, parts, and tools to perform repairs on Mac computers with Apple silicon.

To start the Self Service Repair process, a customer will first review the repair manual for the product they want to repair by visiting support.apple.com/self-service-repair. Then, they can visit the Apple Self Service Repair Store and order the necessary parts and tools.

Every genuine Apple part is designed and engineered for each product, and goes through extensive testing to ensure the highest quality, safety, and reliability. The parts are the same ones — at the same price — as those available to Apple’s network of authorized repair providers. For certain repairs, customers will receive a credit when returning a replaced part for recycling.

The Apple tools available to customers on the Self Service Repair Store are the same as used by Apple’s repair network. They are custom designed to help provide the best repairs for Apple products, and are engineered to withstand the rigors of high-volume, professional repair operations where safety and reliability are the utmost priority. The high-quality tools offered through Self Service Repair include torque drivers, repair trays, display and battery presses, and more.

Apple will offer tool rental kits for $49, so that customers who do not want to purchase tools for a single repair still have access to these professional repair tools. The weeklong rental kits will ship to customers for free.

Self Service Repair is part of Apple’s efforts to further expand access to repairs. For the vast majority of customers who do not have experience repairing electronic devices, visiting a professional repair provider with certified technicians who use genuine Apple parts is the safest and most reliable way to get a repair.

Over the past three years, Apple has nearly doubled the number of service locations with access to genuine Apple parts, tools, and training, including more than 3,000 Independent Repair Providers. A global network of more than 5,000 Apple Authorized Service Providers supports more than 100,000 active technicians. As a result, in the US, eight out of 10 Apple customers are located within 20 minutes of an authorized service provider.

Also today, Apple published a paper, “Expanding Access to Safe, Reliable, and Secure Service and Repair,” which details Apple’s approach to designing long-lasting products and increasing access to repairs.

About Apple Apple revolutionized personal technology with the introduction of the Macintosh in 1984. Today, Apple leads the world in innovation with iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and Apple TV. Apple’s five software platforms — iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS — provide seamless experiences across all Apple devices and empower people with breakthrough services including the App Store, Apple Music, Apple Pay, and iCloud. Apple’s more than 100,000 employees are dedicated to making the best products on earth, and to leaving the world better than we found it.

Press Contacts

Nick Leahy

Apple

Apple Media Helpline

How to type an upside down question mark on Mac and Windows – ¿

Dan Uff April 28, 2022 4

If you're learning another language or bilingual and need to type an upside down question mark, then this quick how to article is for you.

Here's how on Mac:

Shift+Option+/ types ¿
That's it.

Here's how on Windows:

Ctrl+ALT+Shift+?

Pretty easy, right?

How Apple can make NFL Sunday Ticket Work

CompuScoop Staff April 28, 2022 2

If reports are to be believed, Apple is the successful bidder for the NFL’s Sunday Ticket package, paying at least $500M more a year for the rights for a total worth over $2 billion annually.

This represents a significant coup for Apple, which only recently entered the live sports business with its “Friday Night Baseball” MLB deal. Adding Sunday Ticket, which allows for audiences to watch live out-of-market NFL games (network TV viewers can only view the games with their local teams as well as national games), means Apple will have rights to two out of three of America’s national sports.

Yet the deal is a risk for Apple. While DirecTV never released subscriber counts for Sunday Ticket, it would not have passed on the rights held since 1994 if it was profit making. It was estimated in 2021 that Sunday Ticket had around 2 million subscribers, which would yield $600 million in subscriptions. Even factoring in expensive licenses for bars and restaurants, it is likely Sunday Ticket cost DirecTV around $500M a year.

With the annual rights cost increasing by 33%, Apple will need to see a significant increase in the number of subscribers for the package to 6.7 million in order for it to break even. But that assumes Apple is looking to sell Sunday Ticket as a separate product or add-on for Apple TV+.

It’s far more likely that Apple views Sunday Ticket as a means to propel subscriptions of its SVOD service to the next level. Framing the deal as a content investment designed to net more subscribers, and not as a subscription service in its own right, totally upends assumptions made for the deal.

Instead of needing close to 7 million subscribers paying $300 a year, Apple instead is looking to attract audiences and expose them to other content on the service in the hopes of seeing some stick around once the regular NFL season ends in early January.

It’s no different from how NBCU uses the Olympics to boost Peacock — and note that the Olympics cost $1.29 billion per games (amortized to $646 million per year for a tournament that lasts a couple of weeks every two years).

This speaks to the heart of why Apple is going for the Sunday Ticket business and not, as VIP+ suggested last year, the digital media NFL rights that are also up for grabs. Apple needs subscribers for Apple TV+. That it doesn’t currently release any subscriber updates during quarterly earnings calls suggests it's not comfortable with its current subscriber rates when compared with those for Hulu, Disney+, Paramount+ and Netflix.

Sunday Ticket represents a way to bump subscribers were Apple to eat the cost and use it as content acquisition. VIP+ estimates that the market for Sunday Ticket would grow from 2 million to at least 10 million were it to fall in price from $300 a year to $4.99 a month, or even an additional $5-$10 per month on top of a base subscription.

It’s unlikely that making Sunday Ticket available en masse would upset the apple cart of traditional TV rights for the NFL. Most games available on Sunday Ticket are played in the local window on Sundays (1 p.m. ET/10 a.m. PT), with considerably fewer available — typically 3 or 4 — in the national game-of-the-week slot that alternates between Fox and CBS at 4 p.m. ET/1 p.m. PT. There are no other games played when NBC airs "Sunday Night Football."

When eyed through the lens of a content acquisition and not as a distinctive sell-on business, Apple’s purported Sunday Ticket gain is a smart play. It will give Apple TV+ instant credibility in millions more homes and also help sate Apple’s desire to be seen as a force in the sports world, matching Amazon in a key part of entertainment.

While the two companies compete for prestigious movie and TV awards for high-end content, sports is a way to be relevant to the masses and there’s no greater sport in the U.S. to achieve that than the NFL.

Via: Variety.com