DisplayMate is out today with a comparison of iPad displays following the introduction of Apple’s new larger 12.9-inch iPad, and the results might surprise you.

While the larger display on the iPad Pro is one of the device’s standout features on Apple’s latest and greatest iPad, the iPad mini 4, introduced alongside the iPad Pro to not quite as much fanfare, actually beats out its bigger sibling in several categories. The iPad Pro, however, does hold its own and DisplayMate’s analysis shows a number of improvements Apple has made to make it one of its best displays for a mobile device yet.

DisplayMate also spotted a new “Metal Oxide TFT Backplane” and “a lower refresh rate when the images remain static,” both of which make the display Apple’s most power efficient of all its iPad models. DisplayMate also adds that the “Display Power Efficiencies for the iPad mini 4 and iPad Pro are 22% to 33% higher than the iPad Air 2.”

And while the iPad Pro beat out Apple’s last full size iPad, the iPad Air 2, with “Very Good” or “Excellent” scores for each of the categories DisplayMate tested (including the highest true contrast ratios of any tablet LCD yet), the iPad mini 4’s display did beat out the iPad Pro in a few areas making it still Apple’s best tablet display overall for its iPad lineup.

Areas the iPad mini 4 beat iPad Pro include Color Gamut, which the report notes is not as good on iPad Pro due to “over saturated Blue primaries, which reduces their Color Accuracy.”

The iPad mini 4 also won for Absolute Color Accuracy and low screen reflectance.

And lastly, the report sheds some light on how the iPad Pro display performs versus Microsoft’s Surface Pro 4, noting that the iPad has “much lower Screen Reflectance (2.6 versus 5.6 percent)” and that the Surface has “much better Absolute Color Accuracy”.

You can check out DisplayMate’s full in-depth report here.

Filed under: iOS Devices Tagged: analysis, benchmarks, color accuracy, contrast, DisplayMate, ipad mini 4, iPad Pro, lcd, metal oxide tft backplane, screen reflectance

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Nobody who watched the news coverage of the terrorist attacks in Paris could fail to be moved by the scenes and the stories emerging from it. It was undeniably a horrific series of events, and it’s only human nature to want action to be taken to reduce the likelihood of future such atrocities.

But there is always a danger at such times that emotion, rather than rational thought, will drive government policy-making. I won’t get into the broader theme there, as there are more appropriate forums for that, but there is one aspect that is very much on-topic for us: the battle between Apple and governments over encryption.

There have already been unattributed reports that the terrorists in Paris used encrypted communication. I have no idea whether there is any specific evidence for that, but it would hardly be damning were such evidence to emerge: it would be frankly astonishing if they hadn’t.

There are three reasons why Apple is right to maintain that it will continue to offer end-to-end encrypted communication no matter how much governments in the USA, UK and elsewhere may protest … 

But let’s begin with a reminder of Apple’s position. Apple uses end-to-end encryption for both iMessages and FaceTime. As Tim Cook told Charlie Rose last year, this means that it would be impossible for it to decrypt the messages even if a government insisted.

We’re not reading your email, we’re not reading your iMessages. If the government laid a subpoena on us to get your iMessages, we can’t provide it. It’s encrypted and we don’t have the key.

The company also introduced strong encryption for iPhones and iPads in iOS 8 so that it would again be impossible for the company to break into the device locked with a passcode.

So Apple is going further here than most companies. It is not just saying it would push back against government pressure to reveal user data, it is saying that it has deliberately arranged things so that it is completely unable to do so.

That’s a strong position, and there’s some pretty heavy-duty opposition to it – including the United States Attorney General, the FBI, the DOJ and other law-enforcement agencies. Among the claims you’ll find in those links are that Apple is putting people beyond the law, risking the life of a child and that the iPhone would be the terrorists’ “communication device of choice.” Since the Paris attacks, the Homeland Security Committee and CIA have joined in.

So what are the three reasons that I still think Apple’s position is right?

First, there is nothing new about having to balance out the conflicting demands of freedom and security. Or, to use Benjamin Franklin’s terms, liberty and safety.

Those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.

We live in a world where it would be technologically feasible to ensure that virtually no crime could go undetected. We could fit CCTV cameras on every street, in every home, in every building. We could all have trackers embedded beneath our skin. We could force everyone to provide both fingerprints and DNA samples to hold in a global database. We could make it illegal to fit curtains or blinds to windows. And so on.

We don’t do any of these things because we value freedom and privacy, and we consider that the risks involved are a price worth paying for the ability to live our lives free from tyranny and surveillance.

The Snowden revelations woke the world to the extent to which we’d already headed down this slippery slope, and the general view of the population has been that indiscriminate mass surveillance is a step too far. We take the view that wiretaps and other forms of electronic surveillance will of course be necessary to facilitate investigations by police and security services, but that such surveillance should be both targeted and subject to judicial oversight.

Second, Apple is absolutely right to say that the moment you build in a backdoor for use by governments, it will only be a matter of time before hackers figure it out.

You cannot have an encryption system which is only a little bit insecure any more than you can be a little bit pregnant. Encryption systems are either secure or they’re not – and if they’re not then it’s a question of when, rather than if, others are able to exploit the vulnerability.

Couple a deliberately weakened form of encryption to laws requiring Internet service providers and telecoms companies to stockpile large volumes of user data and you’d create the biggest goldmine the world has ever seen for criminals to commit identity theft and other forms of fraud. Not just private enterprise criminals, either, but rogue nations too.

Think how cautious we have to be today. We’ve all received convincing-looking phishing emails in amongst the laughable ones. Most of us these days, when we receive a phone call claiming to be from a bank, take their name, hang up and then call them back on the main switchboard number. Just imagine how much more paranoid we’d have to be if a fraudster could ‘prove’ that they are the claimed bank or other company by providing some transaction data.

A world in which all of our data is ‘protected’ by encryption systems with loopholes would be a nightmare.

Third, it won’t work. It’s technological illiteracy to imagine that breaking encrypted messages is any kind of solution.

Do governments seriously imagine that if we pass laws banning fully-encrypted communications that terrorists would suddenly abandon them and use the new, deliberately weakened versions? Or if doing so drew too much attention to them that they wouldn’t find other ways to hide their communications?

Steganography, for example. It’s technically trivial to embed hidden messages inside what appears to be a perfectly ordinary family photo in such a way that it’s almost impossible to detect. There are literally scores of apps to do that, and that’s just a single method. There are almost endless numbers of ways to disguise messages.

As Tim Cook has said:

We shouldn’t give in to scare-mongering or to people who fundamentally don’t understand the details.

So weakening encryption would mean sacrificing core principles of civilized societies in the name of security. It would provide not just our own government but foreign governments and criminals with access to our data. And it would do absolutely nothing to prevent terrorists from communicating in secret.

There is not one single reason for Apple to give in to government pressure to abandon its stance on customer privacy, and three very good reasons for it not to.

Do you agree? Or do you think that governments are right to insist that security must take precedence over privacy? Take our poll, and share your thoughts in the comments.

Filed under: AAPL Company, iOS, iOS Devices, Opinion Tagged: Apple, Encryption, Government, policy, privacy, Protection, Security

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In addition to a going live in Canada and adding two more banks in the UK, Apple Pay has seen a giant expansion of new bank partners in the United States today as well. If you’re still waiting for your bank to work with Apple Pay so you can use the mobile payment service, check the list below to see the latest:

Acme Federal Credit Union
Alpine Bank
Alpine Credit Union
Altier Credit Union
American 1 Credit Union
American Trust and Savings Bank
Ashland Credit Union
Augusta Metro Federal Credit Union
Avidia Bank
Bank Independent
Bank of New Hampshire
Bay Area Credit Union
Broadway National Bank
Calumet Bank
Camden National Bank
CapCom Credit Union
Calumet Bank (removed)
Century Bank & Trust
Citizens Bank of Edmond
Citizens Bank of Washington County
Citywide Banks
CoastHills Credit Union
Commercial Banking Company
Community Bank NA
Decatur Earthmover Credit Union
EverBank
F&M Bank
Farmers State Bank
First Atlantic Federal Credit Union
First Citizens Ban
First Command Bank
First Commerce Credit Union
First Florida Integrity Bank
First National Bank & Trust Co.
First National Bank of Oklahoma
First Priority Bank
Florida Credit Union
Great Lakes Credit Union
H&R Block
Hawaii State Federal Credit Union
Heartland Bank & Trust Company
Homeland Credit Union
Idaho Independent Bank
International Finance Bank
Iroquois Federal
Johnson City Bank
Kane County Teachers Credit Union
Kekaha Federal Credit Union
Kinetic Credit Union
Klerberg Bank
Lake City Bank
LaTerre Federal Credit Union
Leyden Credit Union
Marblehead Bank
Marshall Community Credit Union
MECU
Members First Community Credit Union
Members First Credit Union of New Hampshire
Metro Employees Credit Union
MidSouth Bank NA
Montgomery Bank NA
MountainOne Bank
NB&T
Nebo Credit Union
Neighbors Federal Credit Unio
NewDominion Bank
Northeast Credit Union
Northwest Federal Credit Union
Oak Valley Community
OAS Staff Federal Credit Union
Oklahoma Central Credit Union
Oklahoma Employees Credit Union
OnPoint Community Credit Union
OUR Credit Union
PCM Credit Union
Peoples State Bank
Railroad & Industrial Federal Credit Union
RIA Federal Credit Union
River Works Credit Union
Rocky Mountain Credit Union
Sb1 Federal Credit Union
Seacoast Bank
SECNY Federal Credit Union
Sikorsky Credit Union
Southbridge Savings Bank
Southwest 66 Credit Union
State Bank of Southern Utah
SunWest Educational Credit Union
Texas Dow Employees Credit Union
Tinker Federal Credit Union
Tonawanda Valley Federal Credit Union
TransWest Credit Union
Winslow Community Federal Credit Union
Woodlands Bank
Zeal Credit Union

With Apple Pay continuing to roll out with even more issuing partners in the United States every few weeks since it debuted last fall, recent reports have said Apple is working on adding a person-to-person payment feature to Apple Pay sometime next year. The feature could work using Apple’s iMessage, according to another report.

Other Apple Pay features aside from payments have also started rolling out recently. Walgreens officially added support for its Balance Rewards card through Apple Pay, replacing QR code scanning with wireless authorizing with Touch ID and NFC. Before that, Kohl’s became the first retailer to allow its retail card to work in Apple Pay.

And although it already works within the app, Starbucks will soon start accepting Apple Pay at a number of its stores with a larger rollout happening next year. Still waiting for your bank to work with Apple Pay after today’s big expansion? I’ve personally got one card left to go … let us know in the comments.

Filed under: Apple Pay Tagged: Apple, Apple pay, Apple Pay banks

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There aren’t many iPad Pro-specific keyboards out there — Apple’s $170 Smart Keyboard and Logitech’s $150 Create (reviewed here) are the first two, if you can find them, with at least a few others announced and on their way to stores. But there’s really no need to wait on iPad Pro-specific keyboards, or spend a king’s ransom for one. Tons of iPad-compatible Bluetooth keyboards are already available, and thankfully at much lower prices.

Depicted with an iPad Pro on its box, Zagg’s Messenger Universal ($70) is clearly an alternative to Apple’s Smart Keyboard. Just like Apple’s accessory, Messenger Universal combines a full-sized keyboard with a magnetic iPad Pro-ready stand that folds down to a small size. But it skips the iPad Pro-only Smart Connector in favor of Bluetooth, and rather than serving as an oddly thick screen cover, takes the shape of a standalone folio that you can carry around as needed. Although it fits the iPad Pro perfectly, Messenger Universal works with all iPads — and other devices — so you needn’t feel constrained to using the keyboard with only a single tablet…

Measuring roughly 12″ wide by 7.3″ tall by 0.6″ thick at its largest points when closed, Messenger Universal is around twice the thickness of the iPad Pro, roughly the same width, and around 1.3″ shorter. Much of the thickness comes from a brushed metallic-style vinyl and microfiber folio that wraps around the all-plastic keyboard; this folio unfolds into a three-segment Smart Cover-like triangular stand, leaving the keyboard to stick out around 7.3″ from the front of the reclining iPad.

Because Zagg uses Bluetooth wireless rather than a Lightning or Smart Connector to connect the keyboard to the iPad Pro, Messenger Universal has an advantage over Apple’s Smart Keyboard and Logitech’s Create: it can accommodate an iPad Pro in either landscape or portrait orientation. While I personally prefer to type on the Pro in landscape mode, and Zagg’s box suggests that landscape typing will give you the “best experience,” some readers have been asking for a keyboard with options, and Messenger Universal accommodates them. The iPad Pro slides into a lip right underneath the top edge of the keyboard, and is lap-safe regardless of whether it’s in portrait or landscape orientation, though clearly a little more precarious in portrait mode.

Zagg’s keyboard design is in the middle of the pack when it comes to design frills. Pairing is effortless — just press the Bluetooth button (F12), select Messenger Universal from the iPad’s Bluetooth menu, and they work together without further interaction; compatibility is similarly guaranteed across multiple platforms, including iOS, Windows, and Android devices. Like most Bluetooth keyboards, Messenger Universal has a three-month rechargeable battery inside, and comes with a micro-USB cable for charging. A power switch on the side toggles the keyboard on and off, but magnets inside the cover can put the keyboard to sleep when the lid is closed, conserving battery life.

Messenger Universal’s island-style keys have a little more travel than the ones on Logitech’s Create, and a matte texture that may particularly appeal to users with slippery fingers. Apple and Logitech tend to favor keys with a smooth texture that’s great for indoor use, but not grippy, which is where Zagg’s material excels. Users who prefer audible “clicks” when typing will like the clitter-clatter of typing on Messenger; those seeking quieter keys may prefer to look elsewhere. While the keyboard could very easily pass for the typing surface of Apple’s classic black plastic MacBook, it has iOS-ready function keys such as a Home icon, a Lock button, search, and audio control buttons, which work across platforms. And unlike Create, Messenger Universal has a dedicated screenshot button (F3) and a dedicated multitasking button (F4), but no brightness controls, nor keyboard backlighting.

If there’s any real issue in Messenger Universal’s design, it would be in the triangular stand, which is strong, but only supports one angle; as these photos show, you can fold the lid in two ways, but the actual difference between them is really minimal. Zagg describes the roughly 45-degree angle as “ideal,” which I suspect people on airplanes may take issue with, and it’s at least 15 degrees more of a recline than I’d personally find perfect. During typing on a flat surface, I found it to be a comfortable angle for both seeing and touching the screen — assuming there’s enough surface space to use it — but for video viewing, use in a lap, or in cramped quarters, you may wish for a different angle.

After using the iPad Pro for a week, I have to say that I feel considerably more inclined to recommend a “use it only as needed” keyboard such as Messenger Universal rather than a “take it everywhere” option like Logitech’s Create. The key selling point of a tablet is to free the user — most of the time — from the weight and bulk of a laptop, and to the extent that a keyboard is occasionally needed, Messenger Universal can be there to augment the iPad Pro with both a stand and a superior typing surface. If you want a keyboard to use specifically with your iPad, particularly one that perfectly fits the large iPad Pro, Messenger Universal is a very good option for $70. At this point, I’d only suggest spending more if you need the backlighting, multi-device pairing, or smaller size that something such as Logitech’s $100 K811 can offer, and have another stand in mind for your iPad.

Filed under: iOS Devices, Reviews Tagged: Bluetooth, iPad Pro, Keyboards, stands, Zagg

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The Apple SIM, which allows iPad owners to use a range of carriers at home and overseas without having to swap SIMs, is now available in Japan. Apple has added Japanese carrier au to its list of supported networks.

Apple first offered its own SIM in the U.S. and UK, later adding Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Turkey to the list.

Although you can only get the SIM in 13 countries, you can use it in more than 90 thanks to the inclusion of GigSky back in June.

Filed under: AAPL Company Tagged: apple sim, iPad, Japan

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T-Mobile is extending its popular Music Freedom service, which allows unlimited use of Apple Music and other streaming music services without eating into your data allowance, to MetroPCS prepaid customers – albeit under a slightly different name. T-Mobile said that its Music Unlimited service would be available on a range of plans, starting from just $40/month.

Music Unlimited includes more than 30 music streaming services, including Apple Music, Pandora, Spotify, Slacker, iHeart Radio, and Google Play Music. Music Unlimited is available to new and existing MetroPCS customers on Metro’s new $40, $50, and $60 unlimited plans.

The company is also offering a Binge On equivalent, known as Data Maximizer. This compresses streaming video streams down to DVD quality to allow customers to stream three times as much video content for the same data usage … 

All MetroPCS plans get Data Maximizer, while Music Unlimited is offered on single line plans from $40 and family plans from $35/line. You can find details of the qualifying plans here, and the full list of 33 supported streaming music services here.

Back in the summer, T-Mobile said that its customers were streaming up to 131M songs a day. The revised MetroPCS plans come into effect on Thursday 19th November.

Filed under: Apple Music Tagged: Apple Music, MetroPCS, Spotify, Streaming media, T-Mobile

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Canaccord Genuity estimated back in July that Apple was taking home 92% of the profits in the entire smartphone industry, and now says the figure climbed even higher last quarter, hitting 94%. Samsung was the only other company to make a profit, says the report, with 11% – the somewhat odd math explained by the fact that everyone else is losing money.

Investors Business Daily quotes analyst Michael Walkley predicting continued strong performance by Apple.

“Apple dominated the premium-tier global smartphone market during calendar Q3, with record share of industry profits,” Walkley said in the report. “We believe the iPhone 6 and 6S products should continue to post strong sales and high-end smartphone market share gains.

“With only 31% of the iPhone installed base having upgraded to the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus devices by Apple’s fiscal Q4 2015 (ended Sept. 26), we anticipate continued strong replacement sales through calendar 2016 and beyond.”

Tim Cook said last month that Apple was expecting big things from the holiday quarter.

We are heading into the holidays with our strongest product lineup yet, including iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, Apple Watch with an expanded lineup of cases and bands, the new iPad Pro and the all-new Apple TV.

The company reported record earnings in its fiscal 2015 year, which ended in September.

Photo: Ryan Emberley/Invision for Apple/AP Images.

Filed under: AAPL Company Tagged: AAPL, AAPL profit, Apple Inc, Apple profit, iPhone, Samsung

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As expected, Apple Pay is now available in Canada. You can use use eligible American Express bank cards to make mobile payments at a whole host of retailers that support the NFC technology across Canada. Apple Pay retailer mobile payments works with iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus. Some had suggested that Apple may need to push out an iOS software update but iOS 9.2 remains in beta — this all works from within the Wallet setup on iOS 9.1.

To add cards in Apple Pay, open Wallet app and click on the ‘Add Debit/Credit Card’ option. Unlike the launch in US and UK, which supported many regional banks, the Canadian Apple Pay launch is limited to just American Express cards. It’s not known if Apple intends to continue expansion into other Canadian banks. Apple also has announced a similar deal in Australia: using American Express as the conduit to launch Apple Pay there. Apple Pay with American Express is coming to Spain, Singapore and Hong Kong in 2016.

For Canada, Apple Pay is supported a wide variety of big retailers like McDonald’s, Walmart and of course Apple Stores. Look for the normal contactless logo in store to see if Apple Pay is supported.

Filed under: AAPL Company, Apple Pay, iOS, iOS Devices Tagged: Apple pay, Canada, mobile payments

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iPad Pro officially launched last week to the public after initially being announced back in September. The device launched in Apple’s standard trio of color choices, as well: silver, gold, and Space Gray. As with all Apple products, the Touch ID ring found on the Space Gray model is black, while the ring is gold on the gold model and silver on the silver model, just like you’d expect. At least one user, however, has received an iPad Pro with a different color combination…

A 9to5Mac reader has shared the above image and the video blow that both clearly show a silver iPad Pro featuring a gold Touch ID ring. The reader purchased his iPad Pro through AT&T with LTE and 128GB of storage. Everything else about the iPad is correct – the back is silver, the edges are silver, and the iPad Pro shown on the box is silver with a silver Touch ID ring.

When our reader contacted Apple about the problem, they told him it’s an “extremely rare” manufacturing error, but that he would need to go through AT&T to get a replacement. Likewise, AT&T also claimed it was a rare production issue and even told him that he could get a lot of money for it on eBay.

We’ve yet to see any other instances of this issue, making it all the more interesting as to how this could have happened in the first place. In the end, our reader, Nick, decided to hold onto his unique silver iPad Pro with a gold Touch ID ring. If you ask me, it’s a pretty cool “manufacturing error” for a device to feature and actually looks really nice.

Below is a video of Nick’s iPad Pro:

Thanks Nick!

Filed under: AAPL Company Tagged: gallery, images, iPad Pro, Touch ID

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Third-party keyboards have been supported on iOS since version 8 shipped last year, but even today they’re still often plagued by poor performance and other issues related to Apple’s implementation. Today, Google has released a Chrome for iOS update that disables support for third-party keyboards entirely because of such issues.

It’s not clear which issues exactly were behind this decision, as the company only lists a very broad description of the problem: “Third-party keyboards have been disabled due to crashes caused by a bug in iOS 9.”

The update, which brings the app to version 46.0.2490.85, also includes a fix for a display bug with the app’s location/search bar.

We’ve reached out to Google for a comment on when this feature might be available again. We’ll update this post when they respond.

Filed under: Apps Tagged: Google Chrome

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