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Apple And Google No Longer World’s Top Brands

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The latest Brand Finance Global 500 report out and contains some surprises this year.

In the battle of the Brands, two companies have long topped the list:  Apple and Google.  This year, there’s a new Sheriff in town.  Amazon blew past the top two claiming the top spot for itself.  It is now the most valuable brand in the world with an impressive $150.8 billion dollar value.

David Haigh, the CEO of Brand Finance had this to say about the upset in the rankings:

“Jeff Bezos once said that ‘brands are more important online than they are in the physical world.’  He has proved himself right by choosing the name Amazon, known as the largest, most powerful river in the world, as 23 years later the Amazon brand carries all before it as an unstoppable force.  The strength and value of the Amazon brand gives it stakeholder permission to extend relentlessly into new sectors and geographies.  All evidence suggests that the amazing Amazon brand is going to continue growing indefinitely and exponentially.”

The new number two, Apple, saw the value of its brand increase by a hefty 37% to $146.3 billion.  While impressive, the report stresses that Apple’s long-term prospects look bleak because the company has failed to diversify. It relies on its aging line of iPhones for more than a third of its total revenue, which hampers its opportunities for growth.

Third ranked, Google’s brand saw more modest growth in value (just 10 percent), and now stands at $120.9 billion.  Like Apple, the report stresses that although Google is a Titan in certain sectors (search, cloud, and Mobile OS), its relatively narrow focus has kept it from unleashing the full power of its brand in the same way Amazon has.

All hail the new King of the brands, Amazon!

Some Smartwatches May Be Able To Diagnose Diabetes

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That smartwatch you’re wearing might save your life.  Literally.

A new study conducted by the University of California San Francisco, and a healthcare startup called Cardiogram revealed that smartwatches and other wearables were able to detect diabetes in previously diagnosed patients an impressive 85 percent of the time.

The study monitored health statistics of more than 14,000 smartwatch wearers (both Android and Apple) over the course of several months.  All health data that was collected was fed into a deep neural network which compared the collected data to samples taken from people both with, and without diabetes.

Obviously, while 85 percent is good, it falls short of greatness.  Then again, the AI routine (dubbed “DeepHeart”) is still in its infancy and is all but certain to continue improving over time.

That’s important, given how many people in America have diabetes.  It is estimated that there are more than 100 million Americans who either have the disease or who are prediabetic, and many of these haven’t been diagnosed yet.

Given these results, and in a bid to further improve DeepHeart’s accuracy, the company plans to incorporate the AI into the next update of its app on both iOS and Android platforms.

All that to say, if you currently have and wear a smartwatch or other wearable, it may help you in ways you can’t even begin to imagine.  This is the bleeding edge of a segment of the market that is only just beginning to emerge.  At this point, it’s so new that it would be difficult even to say it’s in its infancy.  Although we can’t know for certain what new revelations and advances wearable technology will bring to the medical field, based on what we’ve seen so far, we can say there will be a bunch of them, and they’ll all be exciting.

If you’ve been considering getting one but haven’t yet, this is a pretty solid reason to do so.

iPhone Throttling Issue To Be Addressed In Upcoming Update

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Recently, Apple found itself in hot water with its normally adoring user base. This happened when it became known that the company was intentionally throttling (slowing down) the speed of older iPhones.

The company’s intentions were good.  They clearly meant well.  The move was designed to even out performance in older equipment.  As cellphone batteries age, they tend to lose charge more quickly.  What was happening was that people with older equipment would drop from 20% battery to 0% in the blink of an eye, causing their old phones to simply shut down at inopportune moments.  Apple’s strategy was simply designed to help keep that from happening.

Well-intentioned or not, the company didn’t formally announce the change, and it was discovered by chance by security researchers.  Needless to say, the legions of people who still use older iPhones were not amused and the company has faced backlash from an angry user base since.

Apparently, the backlash got bad enough that they listened.  Apple just announced that as of the next OS update, version 11.3, the OS will include a toggle switch that will allow users to choose whether or not to throttle their  phones to extend battery life.

This is the latest in a series of moves the company has made to get back in the good graces of its users.  Previous efforts have included a public apology and an offer to reduce its fee for battery replacement to just $29.

This has been a PR disaster for the company.  It probably won’t hurt their bottom line much, but perception matters. While the company has been trying bravely to save face, the simple truth is that this was a self-inflicted and avoidable wound.

There’s a lesson here for businesses of all shapes and sizes.  Transparency matters, and if you’re going to do something that directly impacts large segments of your user base, be upfront about it and give them a viable choice.

Better Parental Controls Underway For Apple Devices

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Recently, a group of investors wrote an open letter to Apple, urging the company to do more in regards to offering better and more robust parental controls on the devices the company makes.  Although the group of investors control some $2 billion in Apple stock, this is a drop in the proverbial bucket, given the company’s $900 billion market cap.  Nonetheless, the letter seems to have gotten Apple’s attention.

In a statement published in the Wall Street Journal, the company said: “We think deeply about how our products are used and the impact they have on users and the people around them.  We take this responsibility very seriously, and we are committed to meeting and exceeding our customers’ expectations, especially when it comes to protecting kids.”

Previously, the company has touted the suite of parental controls it’s had in place on the devices it makes since 2008.  For example, every iPhone sold has a settings app with a parental controls section that allows adults to control in-app purchases, install and delete apps, and restrict website access.

Those are all good things, but the group of investors is pushing for more.  Although the company has not released any details about their planned enhancements, it does appear that the letter has prompted them to think even more deeply about the matter, and in that same letter, also requested that apple aid research that studies what impacts excessive smartphone use has on mental health.

To their credit, Apple has done more with  parental controls than many, if not most other tech companies, and it is very good to see that they’re listening and responding to the concerns of their investors.  This kind of responsiveness bodes well, and depending on the particulars of their plan, it could well cause other companies in the industry to attempt to match their moves.

Vertical Video Support On YouTube For iOS Finally Here

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The owners of Android devices have been able to properly view vertical videos for more than two years, but for Apple users, it was a different story.

Instead of getting the traditional full-screen experience when viewing vertical videos, Apple users were saddled with annoying vertical bars that would appear on either side of the video itself.  It’s a small thing, but undeniably annoying. Now, at long last, the problem has been solved and now Apple users can enjoy the same vertical, full-screen experience as the rest of us.

YouTube announced the upgrade in a tweet that read as follows:

“Bye-bye, black bars.  Now the YouTube player on iOS will automatically adapt to the shape of the video you’re viewing!”

It matters because smartphones were designed to be held in that position, so it’s the natural way to interact with the device, no matter what you’re doing with it, including watching videos.

There’s one caveat, however:  A surprising number of vertical videos won’t go full screen because they’ve actually been encoded with black bars on the sides, which technically makes them landscape vids that are only mimicking the appearance of a vertical video.

Now that YouTube has made this change, over time, you’ll probably see fewer and fewer videos shot like this and uploaded. In the short to medium term, don’t be the least bit surprised if you run into videos shot like this on a regular basis.

Why it took the company so long to update the Apple version of their app with this functionality, no one knows, but it’s not hard to hazard a few guesses.  In any event, it’s not something that’s likely to have a major impact on your life, but it is a welcome change and we were happy to see it.

Older iPhones Are Being Purposefully Throttled, According To Apple

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Not long ago, observant Reddit users noted and began discussing a curious phenomenon. It appeared that older iPhones were unexpectedly slowing down, and no one could name the reason why.

It caught the attention of a number of security researchers who delved more deeply into the issue, including a man named John Poole, who confirmed the Reddit claims. His tests confirmed that on iPhone 6s and 7s, Apple made tweaks to iOS versions 10.2.1 through 11.2.0.

These changes are designed to throttle the phone’s performance when the battery degrades beyond a certain point. While the company itself has subsequently confirmed the findings, they didn’t offer much in the way of a detailed explanation other than to say:

“Our goal is to deliver the best experience for customers, which includes overall performance and prolonging the life of their devices. Lithium-ion batters become less capable of supplying peak current demands when in cold conditions, have a low battery charge or as they age over time, which can result in the device unexpectedly shutting down to protect its electronic components.

Last year we released a feature for iPhone 6, iPhone 6s and iPhone SE to smooth out the instantaneous peaks only when needed to prevent the device from unexpectedly shutting down during these conditions. We’ve now extended that feature to iPhone 7 with iOS 11.2, and plan to add support for other products in the future.”

If you have an older iPhone, you may find yourself in disagreement that throttling its performance optimizes your user experience, and admittedly, it isn’t an optimal solution. On the other hand, having your phone power down unexpectedly when the battery life still reads 40 percent can be worse than annoying.

The only way around it is to replace your battery, which will not trigger the throttle built into the OS.

Apple Might Be Working On Universal Apps Across Mac, iOS

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Apple has been quietly working on something called “Project Marzipan” for a couple of years now, and it appears that they’re getting closer to unveiling it.

The company seeks to bring its MacOS and iOS platforms closer together by developing universal apps that will work in either environment. This mirrors Microsoft’s Universal Windows app strategy, where apps can detect the environment they’re running on and adjust their display and navigation accordingly.

Project Marzipan presents some real challenges for Apple because MacOS programs use an entirely different set of development tools, although there is some overlap. The programming language called Swift, for example, can be used to make apps that run in either environment and if the company placed a greater emphasis on it, the process of creating their own universal apps would be greatly simplified.

The thinking behind Marzipan seems to be driven by the company’s desire to breathe new life into the Mac App Store, which hasn’t seen nearly the level of success as their iOS Store. The move would be a boon to developers because creating a common platform would allow Mac app developers to get their product in front of more potential customers.

Another potential reason is that the company may be planning to ultimately merge MacOS and iOS into a singular operating system that runs every Apple product. It’s a compelling theory, but the company has said nothing to confirm it.

In any event, if Apple goes ahead with Marzipan, and at this point, all indications are that they will, then we can expect a public announcement to that effect at next year’s World Wide Developer Conference. The first of the universal apps should appear not long after that, although the process of merging the two app stores and building out a robust collection of universal apps could take more than a year.

Fake Symantec Blog Post Is Spreading Mac Malware

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Sometimes hackers opt for a stealthy approach. Other times, their attempts are downright brazen.  That’s definitely the case with a newly launched malware campaign that seeks to spread “Proton Mac,” a strain of malware designed to steal passwords from Mac users.

The hackers registered a domain very similar to Symantec’s blog, mirrored its content and then created a fake post about a new version of CoinThief, which was moderately successful back in 2014.

After going into a bit of faux analysis about this nonexistent threat, the post recommended downloading a nonexistent piece of software called “Symantec Malware Detector” which it claimed was the best means of protecting against the new version of CoinThief. Unfortunately, “Symantec Malware Detector” is actually Proton Mac in disguise.

It’s a good scam, and it’s proven to be highly effective thus far. Its effectiveness is due in no small part to the fact that references to the post have been tweeted, initially by fake Twitter accounts, and later, by a growing number of legitimate ones.

Although the fake blog is quite good, it doesn’t stand up to intense scrutiny. For one thing, the email address used to register the domain isn’t a Symantec address. For another, their SSL certificate comes from Comodo, rather than Symantec’s own certificate authority. Unfortunately, the overwhelming majority of users don’t look that closely at websites they visit, so they are unlikely to recognize the fake for what it is.

If you have downloaded “Symantec Malware Detector,’ then you’ve got Proton Mac running on your machine right now.

It’s designed to log your username and password in plain text, sending this and any other PII (Personally Identifiable Information) on your machine to a hidden file. It will also capture browser auto-fill data, keychain files and the like, and send all of this to the hackers controlling the software.

If you have been infected, you should treat all online passwords as having been compromised and change them immediately, once you have verified that the malware has been completely removed from your system. Enabling two-factor authentication will also help make you more secure.

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