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The ads, five in total, highlight how to start a podcast, create a presentation, go paperless, use AR to design a space, and how to record notes on iPad Pro.

Following the third-generation iPad Pro announcement during Apple’s “There’s more in the making” event, it has been continuously praised for being “faster than most PC laptops.” The performance is thanks to the A12X Bionic chip that is “the smartest, most powerful chip, ever,” according to Apple.

The performance of the new iPad Pro is further highlighted within each of the advertisements Apple has published to date, including the new ones.

Microsoft ended Windows Phone support in July 2017 and closed Windows 10 Mobile active development in October of the same year, which directly led to the death of the platform. Due to the lack of app developers, the number of Windows 10 Mobile apps is small and the basic user base cannot be established.

Furthermore, Microsoft is also announcing that its AI assistant Cortana will no longer be a competitor of Google Assistant and Amazon Alxea. Instead, CEO Satya Nadella says that he seeks Cortana could integrate with the popular platforms rather than fight against them, and it has already partnered with Amazon to bring the integration to Alexa users, while it continues to negotiate Google on the matter.

We're excited to bring HomePod to our customers in mainland China and Hong Kong markets. We can't wait for them to experience how great it sounds in their home, we think they are going to love it.

Like the mainstream smart speakers on the market, HomePod has an always-on voice assistant and the ability to connect to other devices for smart home controls, but Apple is also concentrating on its differences from other smart speakers. Sound quality is a differentiating factor in HomePod: can create a rich, full and delicate experience for those music lovers.

HomePod matches with Apple Music perfectly, although it don't music streaming service like the QQ Music or Spotify, you can still play songs from third-party apps via AirPlay. Additionally, users can ask Siri to do tasks such as send a text message, control HomeKit devices, or even make a phone call with it, and Apple specifically added the "play bedtime story" command only to the Chinese market.

Among them, TSMC, the core supplier of Apple's A-series chips, dropped its revenue forecast for the first quarter of 2019 at the latest earnings conference, which is expected to fall by 22%. The company said that high-end smartphones have seen a "sudden drop in demand" and blamed the slump in revenue to the US-China trade war and economic uncertainty.

Nidec, another Apple supplier that supplies the iPhone's vibration motor, has a similar situation. The company cut its 2019 full-year revenue outlook ""We have faced extraordinary changes," Nidec Chairman Shigenobu Nagamori told reporters at a Thursday news conference as the company reversed a previous forecast of a record profit"

Multiple reports suggest that Apple asked its suppliers to cut iPhone XR, XS, and XS Max production by 10 percent for the next three months, mainly due to the impact of iPhone sales in Greater China. For this reason, Apple has taken a number of measures to awake the Chinese market.

Image Via The National

Apple will release at least two new iOS devices in the first half of this year, according to sources from the supply chain via Digitimes, and suppliers are preparing to produce two new iPads, both new iPads are "entry-level" versions, including the much anticipated iPad mini 5 and the new iPad.

iPhone XR 2 With Better LTE Performance

According to the latest research report from Barclays, the next-generation iPhone XR will use a 4x4 MIMO antenna design. 4x4 MIMO refers to Multiple-Input Multiple-Output, which means that the next iPhone XR will be featured with 4 antennas to improving faster data speed. The current iPhone XS and XS Max uses the 4x4 MIMO antenna design, whereas the current iPhone XR uses 2x2 MIMO.

Samsung's upcoming Galaxy S10 series, which is on schedule to be announced on February 20th in the Unpacked event, will see a major overhaul when it comes to design. as it's said to feature the so-called hole-punch display, a front-panel cutout that’s literally just the camera, similar to the Notch on the iPhone XS.

However, an early benchmark suggests that the Galaxy S10 + cannot keep up Apple's 2018 flagship, the iPhone XS in terms of performance, yet, it even worse than the previous year's iPhone X. (Via Slashleaks)

After Tim Cook issued a letter to shareholders earlier this month, he held an all-hands meeting with employees, where the CEO was asked whether the company would take a freeze on hiring in response. Cook said at the time that he did not think the move was an ideal solution. However, Cook said that some departments should "cut back on hiring",
Cook said he hasn't completely decided which divisions will cut back on hiring, but he said that core units like the Apple AI team will still greet newcomers at a faster pace. He also emphasized that the rate of hiring does not measure the importance of the sector to Apple's future. Moreover, the cut on hiring will not affect Apple's new Campus in Austin, Texas, or the expansion of the California area.

Apple has been actively hiring new staff for the past decade, but the growth in the number of employees has slowed in recent years. Apple added a total of 9,000 employees in the last fiscal year to a total of 132,000 employees. and added about 7,000 employees in the previous year.