INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
company this year, and the positive advances, as well as the niggles and missteps, or even downright fails.There was certainly a flurry of
action at the close of 2019 in terms of new Mac products, as you probably noticed
But did these really hit the mark? In short, we think so, but read on for the much longer and more in-depth answer.Note that we are
company performed elsewhere, such as in the mobile arena.(Image credit: Future)Super-sized MacBookApple brought in some rather pedestrian
That said, Apple took much more decisive action in other respects, saving the best for last with a larger MacBook Pro 16-inch going on sale
line-up to consist of the MacBook Air, along with the MacBook Pro 13-inch and 16-inch, and a year which was otherwise trundling along pretty
The larger display is nothing less than stunning, and battery life is fantastic, which is a particularly laudable achievement given the
performance packed into this machine
Plus Apple has addressed pain points like the keyboard, removing the much-complained-about Butterfly switches and replacing them with
MacBook Pro 16-inch was a definite triumph for Apple this year; a fresh jewel in the Mac laptop crown
credit: Future)MacBook gremlinsWith the introduction of new MacBook models seemingly comes the inevitable complaints around various issues
with these laptops, and 2019 was no exception in this respect.The MacBook Pro 16-inch might be a tasty piece of kit, but it can reportedly
suffer from troublesome flaws, namely ghosting with the display, and speakers making nasty popping noises; for some owners, anyway
At least the latter problem has a software fix incoming, by all accounts.There were also issues with some MacBook Pro 13-inch 2019 models
unexpectedly shutting themselves down
Apple admitted these problems existed, and fortunately provided a fix which we detailed here.A further headache for Apple was a flight ban
on some (older) MacBook Pro laptops which was instigated by airlines in the US and across the globe
This was after some MacBook Pro 15-inch models were deemed a fire risk by the Federal Aviation Administration in the US
showing that Apple dipped 6% with its Mac sales (supply issues of some manner were apparently part of this, according to the analyst
firm).The previous quarter, however, witnessed growth of almost 10%, which was second only to top-dog PC manufacturer Lenovo
glean, then, but what about the iPhone? According to the most recent figures from Gartner (for Q3), Apple witnessed a considerable decline
in sales of 12% in the smartphone market
IDC, on the other hand, pegged Apple as dipping a much less worrying 0.6%
afford to lose its footing.Apple did, however, reportedly get more iPhone 11 orders than anticipated upon launch, and increased orders for
Furthermore, profits (rather than revenue) remain particularly strong and way ahead of other manufacturers, according to another recent
report, thanks to loyal customers in the US, Europe and Japan.(Image credit: Brittany Hosea-Small/ AFP/ Getty Images)Mac Pro plusRight at
the close of the year in December, Apple pushed out its all-new Mac Pro
with up to a 28-core Intel Xeon processor, an 8TB SSD, and 1.5TB of ECC system memory (yes, 1,500GB of RAM).Many of the headlines revolved
around how ridiculously expensive the Mac Pro is, and indeed if you want the highest spec, you will be paying well north of $50,000
relative, although that said charging $400 for wheels on the machine does seem rather inexcusable.Still, for the likes of pro videographers
who need heavyweight computing power, this is an excellent machine, and it comes with a matching seriously pricey Pro Display XDR which is
equally premium (featuring a 32-inch Retina 6K display).Despite the expense, and some of the much-highlighted pricing quirks, the Mac Pro
2019 is a definite win for Apple when it comes to the professional target audience
(and with something this pricey, the benefit of that cannot be underestimated, either).(Image credit: Shutterstock; Apple)Catalina
capersHaving covered the main moves on the hardware front throughout 2019, what about software? Apple pushed out its yearly update for macOS
in the guise of Catalina, which was, on balance, a solid operating system release which certainly added some useful new features.These
you already own an iPad, that is), and voice control which facilitates issuing verbal commands to your Mac.Also, iTunes has been ditched,
replaced with Apple Music, Podcasts, Books and TV, powerful and polished apps which offer a lot more on the whole
Particularly with the introduction of Apple TV, which gives macOS users access to the new subscription offering Apple TV+.Of course, the
premium TV+ service was another major release for Apple in 2019, but got off to a slightly wobbly start at least in terms of the launch
aside from a few bugs, and probably the biggest sticking point for upgrading macOS users is that Catalina no longer supports 32-bit
pain.Overall, there was nothing massively exciting in Catalina, but it represents a decent step forward, and equally there was nothing to
really get hung up on.(Image credit: Future)Siri slipupApple did stumble with a privacy blunder in 2019 when it came to its AI assistant
(which now resides on Macs as well as mobiles, of course, and has done since 2016)
improve and better train the digital assistant.The problem being that these were folks outside of Apple, and while the data might have been
anonymized, apparently some very sensitive situations were involved (such as sexual activity, or indeed criminal dealings), plus it was
reportedly relatively easy to discover who the recordings might belong to.In fairness, Apple apologized over the affair and has made it
clear that this practice has ended, and third-party contractors will no longer participate in evaluating and improving the accuracy of Siri
current privacy policy).(Image credit: Future)Concluding thoughts2019 was a pretty positive and productive year for Apple, with some
And it has been greeted with some impressively positive feedback thus far from its target audience (professional creative types).MacBook
include the impact from the recently launched MacBook Pro 16-inch.Perhaps more worrying was some of the gremlins pertaining to the new
MacBook Pro models, and that airline flight ban
for Apple, witnessing some further interesting moves with services like the introduction of Apple TV+, which holds promise (even if it does
TV and Music (the latter exceeded 60 million subscribers in June of this year), not forgetting Apple Arcade.Throw in some more genuine
indeed.We pick out the best and cheapest Apple notebooks in our best laptops list9tB3Dt8vyoK2okrwBE8MW7.jpg?#
