Gadgetory

we're back what's going on Brian Tong here and welcome to the Apple bite it's so good to be back for all the good and bad inside the world of Apple after CES and then you know I took a little break a little swim with a whale shark in Cabo but what a week to come back to with plenty of meaty news now the home pod gets an official February 9th release date with pre-orders this Friday on January the 26th and we'll get to that but let's start with the latest from Apple now the Cupertino kids posted a preview of iOS 11.3 that brings new features and it just makes me sad that the first thing they led with is an emojis I know they're fun but come on this is iOS eleven point three now AR Kit 1.5 comes to the party and can now recognize vertical surfaces like walls and doors and can place on them it previously could only really handle horizontal places like a flat table so this is an important upgrade business chat will come to select apps like Lowe's or Wells Fargo that will let you directly chat to businesses through the messages app the health app will be able to view health records from specific medical providers and the most important feature that gets buried like more than halfway down iOS 11.3 will show you your battery health and recommend if your battery needs to be serviced you'll also be able to see if Apple's power management feature you know that thing that throttles your phone's performance is active and they'll give you the option to turn it off I know you might not still like this but if they're at least giving users these options that's a good Apple of course it is that's also after they were exposed for doing it so you know a little give-and-take all right iCloud messages looks like it's making an appearance in the iOS 11.3 beta for developers but Apple didn't mention it it appears to be back for testing and evaluation purposes and where is airplay to that brings multi-room audio these were features touted back in June of last year like last year major features in iOS 11 and we're still waiting almost eight months later you know what that's a bad apple yeah the first one of 2018 congratulations now the developer beta is out with the public beta coming shortly which now leads us to the home pod and no I'm not throwing out any bad apples at it just yet Apple announced the home pod pre-orders will again open this Friday on January the 26th in the US UK and Australia for 349 US dollars now France and Germany will get it later this spring but there's been no announced timeframe for other countries like Canada but you know what you guys still have great maple syrup now Apple care will be $39 and we'll cover the home pod for two years you'll have to pay an additional $39 each time you damage it and it can have up to two damage incidents similar to the iPhone and other Apple care products but Apple's press release really tells us everything we need to know about it on launch there will be no multi user support none but an even bigger fail no multi-room audio support so why was this product too late again they talked up having stereo sound come on with two home pods when they announced it but a that feature won't be available on launch so again what was the delay for Apple has touted it as the best sounding smart speaker and we'll see if it is but if you're looking for something really special from the home pod the only thing it has a chance of doing better than the Amazon echo or the Google home even the Sonos one is sounding better it's behind feature wise in every other way from Siri smart home device compatibility third-party music services and apps or smart skills like we know you're coming late to the smart suitor party you delayed the launch to fine tune it but in the past you would at least bring something compelling to the table like this is truly a speaker for the hardcore Apple enthusiasts right now and it's arguably apple's weakest entry into an established market that we've ever seen and yeah now it's that time that's a bad apple now will it get better yes it will but there's been this really bad pattern that Apple is now establishing as their identity and brand showcase a product early promise new features and then release an incomplete product and use roughly 6 months or even more to finally get it up to speed knowing that your loyal fan base is probably gonna buy it anyways like they did this with the Apple watch series three witches finally a product that I can get behind the Apple TV promised dolby atmos in a software update but let's see we're still waiting close to five months for it we talked about iOS 11 already in its flagship feature delays and guess who's next in line the home pod and you know what I'm not hating on Apple but this is honestly just wake up this is the new Apple and it hurts as someone who knows how great they used to be like a lot of you complain that come on get a host who likes Apple but it's because you just have no idea how great this company used to be now our home pod review will be coming out once I get it and I hope they can impress me because right now I'm not so sure for 349 now we can't have a show without iPhone 10 rumors and the latest ones KJ's securities ming ching-kuo got people's heads spinning claiming Apple will discontinue the current iPhone 10 instead of lowering its price and potentially cannibalizing sales with an iPhone 10 that is like $8.99 or cheaper in 2018 now if this is true that would mean apples 2018 iPhone lineup would consist of an updated second gen 5.8 inch iPhone 10 the rumor to the larger 6.5 inch iPhone 10 plus and then this rumored mid-range 6.1 LCD based screen iPhone the commercial Times reports that the 6.1 inch or will have an even more advanced LCD screen compared to pass ones with a cutout for the true depth camera system that I won't complain about so you won't keep writing get over it in the comments so think about it we're basically 7 months away from the next iPhone announcement yikes and check this out I don't know how y'all feel about this but I think Apple is kind of trolling the Apple byte after they released this ad during our break like she's in the tree almost the entire time and I'm almost positive like they released this specifically as a response to a YouTube show because they're always watching a show about Apple on YouTube yeah that's it all right that's gonna do it for this week's show if you're pre-ordering the home pod I'll see you there you can email me at the Apple bite at cnet.com or tweet me at Brian Tong thank so much for watching we'll catch y'all next time for another bite of the Apple