Target's inventory system may be leaking details on upcoming Apple products that are set to be released in the near future. A listing for "Airpods (X Generation)" with a price tag of $399 popped up this morning, and there are also apparently new listings for "Apple TV Gen X," "Apple iPod Touch X Generation" and "Apple Watch Series X" bands.
Target employees sent images of the listings to 9to5Mac. These are all placeholder names and could be representative of future products, though it's not clear if that's the case. We don't know what these listings are, why they're in Target's system, or if they're accurate, so the information should not be taken as concrete evidence of new devices.
The Apple TV Gen X lists a price of $180, the Apple iPod Touch X Generation lists a price of $400, and the Apple Watch Series X band prices are listed at $50.
There haven't been rumors of an upgraded iPod Touch, and the iPod touch last saw a refresh in May 2019, so it's not clear if the $399 iPod touch listing is correct. Pricing on the iPod touch starts at $199, and while it does go up to $399, that's for the high capacity model. We are expecting a new low-cost iPhone with a starting price point of $399, so there is a possibility that the iPod touch placeholder is for an iPhone and not an iPod. It could also be for a refreshed 256GB iPod touch, or the price could be wrong entirely since it's a placeholder.
We've seen multiple previous hints of a new Apple TV in the works in iOS 13 releases, with the device featuring an upgraded A12 Bionic chip. $179 is the price point of the 32GB 4K Apple TV, so it's possible that this listing is more evidence of the imminent release of a new Apple TV model.
The Apple Watch band listings are also easily explainable as Apple refreshes its Apple Watch band offerings on a regular basis, typically with every Apple event. Apple has held events in March for the last few years, and rumors suggest that we're getting a late March event this year, perhaps on March 31st.
If there is indeed a March 31st event, we could see some of the products listed in Target's inventory. Rumors have suggested the new low-cost iPhone will be a highlight at the event, and an Apple TV, an updated iPad Pro, and the rumored AirTags are also possible new products that could debut next month.
Slickwraps, a company that develops skins for Apple devices like the iPhone and Mac, yesterday suffered a data breach that saw customer info like names and addresses leaked.
News of the leak surfaced when hackers who got into the database sent out emails to Slickwraps' customer base of more than 370,000 users letting them know about Slickwraps' poor security.
Prior to the breach, Slickwraps was warned of the vulnerabilities in its site (linked to the create a skin feature) multiple times by a security researcher who goes by Lynx on Twitter, who has now deleted all of his tweets.
Lynx informed Slickwraps about the data breach on February 15, and attempted to get in touch with the company several times over the course of the last week, as outlined by an article shared on Medium that has now been suspended by Medium. Lynx had his emails ignored and was even blocked by Slickwraps on Twitter after attempting to inform the site of its security vulnerabilities.
Lynx's interactions with Slickwraps were not exactly polite and he was dealing with customer support staff that were clearly confused about what was going on based on the now-removed Medium article, but Slickwraps blatantly ignored multiple warnings about its poor security before the data breach. Lynx says that he did not send out the emails that were delivered to Slickwraps customers yesterday and that it was a third-party data breach that happened after his article was published, but with his Medium post suspended and all of his tweets deleted, he may be in some hot water for the public way that he disclosed the vulnerabilities in the site.
After the emails went out and customers became aware of the data breach, Slickwraps finally commented on the situation. An initial statement tweeted by Slickwraps (which is based in the United States) claimed to have just heard about the data breach on "February 22" when it was still February 21, which was a clear lie because Lynx documented his attempts to get in touch with the company on Twitter. Slickwraps later deleted the statement and tweeted a new one with the correct date. From Slickwraps' statement:
There is nothing we value higher than trust from our users. In fact, our entire business model is dependent on building long-term trust with customers that keep coming back.
We are reaching out to you because we've made a mistake in violation of that trust. On February 21st, we discovered information in some of our non-production databases was mistakenly made public via an exploit. During this time, the databases were accessed by an unauthorized party.
The information did not contain passwords or personal financial data.
The information did contain names, user emails, addresses. If you've ever checked out as "GUEST" none of your information was compromised.
Slickwraps goes on to say that it is "deeply sorry" for the oversight and promises to "learn from this mistake." It recommends that users reset their account passwords and be watchful for any phishing attempts.
Going forward, Slickwraps says that it will enhance its security processes, improve communication of security guidelines to Slickwraps employees, and make user-requested security features a "top priority." The company says that it is also partnering with a third-party cyber security firm to audit and improve security protocols.
Slickwraps' data breach demonstrates the importance of penetration testing for any site that deals with customer data. Data breaches are pretty much impossible to avoid these days, but customers can protect themselves somewhat by using unique passwords for every site and using two-factor authentication where appropriate.
Apple this morning shared a new video in its ongoing "Shot on iPhone series, this time focusing on the Valley of Fire State Park located in Overton, Nevada.
Fifty miles from Las Vegas lie the remains of a monumental geological process sculpted by 200 million years of wind and water , an ocean of rock, a valley of fire.
The video was captured in 4K using the ultra wide-angle camera of an iPhone 11 Pro. It highlights the different Valley of Fire rock formations in bright, vivid colors.
Apple has shared many videos in its "Shot on iPhone" series that is designed to show off the photographic and video taking capabilities of its iPhones. The last long form video was "Powder," and it focused on pro snowboarders.
Target's internal inventory system appears to include a listing for a product called "Apple Airpods (X Generation) priced at $399," according to multiple Target employees who got in touch with YouTuber John Prosser.
Prosser speculates that the name could refer to Apple's over-ear headphones that are rumored to be in development, but the listing is not accompanied by an image and includes no other information other than the name and the prospective price.
Notably, the spelling of "Airpods" is wrong, so Apple Airpods (X Generation) may just be a placeholder name for something coming in the future. The $399 price tag is $150 higher than Apple's most expensive AirPods, the AirPods Pro, so if the product is real, it is a higher-end headphone option in the AirPods line. There are three SKUs with the X Generation name, suggesting three prospective colors.
Multiple Target employees have started reaching out to me about this 🤔
Showing up in their systems and on UPC scanners is this mysterious “Apple AirPods (X Generation)” listing, priced at $399. 👀
AppleInsider says that it spoke to multiple Target employees after learning of the listing, and while there was no information to be gleaned about the origin of the image, the employees said placeholders for new products with pricing information are common, but product names aren't always accurate.
The employees suggested that products with a placeholder "ship within a month" or sometimes "as soon as a week" after appearing in the Target inventory system, so if there is indeed a new AirPods product in the works, it could be coming soon. Apple is rumored to be holding an event on March 31st where the new AirPods could be announced alongside the low-cost iPhone that's in development.
There have been recent rumors about "AirPods Pro Lite" with no specific information on what that might be, but such a product would likely be available at a lower cost than the AirPods Pro and is presumably not the product referenced in the Target listing. Apple has no other known AirPods-style earbuds in the works, but has been rumored to be working on high-end over-ear headphones since 2018.
Little has been heard in the way of rumors about the high-end headphones, and there was some speculation that the rumors had actually been referencing the $300 Beats Solo Pro that launched back in October, but it's possible there's another set of headphones on the horizon.
With a number of products apparently just about ready to launch, we're starting to hear our first specific rumors about the possibility of an Apple media event near the end of next month, although continued impacts from the COVID-19 coronavirus epidemic are leading to some uncertainty about Apple's plans.
Other news and rumors this week included more mentions of "AirPods Pro Lite" earphones, "AirTags" item trackers, the "CarKey" NFC functionality appearing in iOS 13.4 betas, and some of our first rumors about iOS 14.
Read on for all the details, and make sure to watch our video covering some of these stories and more.
Apple Event Rumored for March 31: iPhone 9, iPad Pro With 3D Sensing, More?
Apple often holds its first media event of the year in March, and that trend might continue in 2020.
Keep in mind that Apple's plans may change due to the unpredictability of the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak in China. Apple already announced that it does not expect to meet its revenue guidance that it provided for the March quarter due to the outbreak.
'AirPods Pro Lite' Production Reportedly Delayed Due to Coronavirus Outbreak
The publication describes the "AirPods Pro Lite" as an "entry-level version" of the existing AirPods Pro, but no features or specifications have been outlined.
All in all, details are slim right now. "AirPods Pro Lite" is somewhat of an oxymoron, as "Pro Lite" just sounds like regular AirPods, but it has been speculated that perhaps Apple will release a less expensive version of the AirPods Pro with the same design and sound quality but without noise cancellation.
Supply Chain to Ramp Up for Apple's Item Tracking Tags in Second to Third Quarter of 2020
MacRumors uncovered evidence of Apple working on item trackers in iOS 13 code last year, including an unreleased "Items" tab in the Find My app and a potential "AirTag" name for the tags, which would attach to everyday belongings like keys and backpacks for tracking purposes. Ultra Wideband support would allow for more precise location accuracy than Wi-Fi or Bluetooth LE.
Apple's Upcoming 'CarKey' Feature Will Let You Send Digital Keys Using Messages App
As discovered in the first beta of iOS 13.4, Apple is working on a new "CarKey" feature that will allow an iPhone or an Apple Watch to unlock, lock, and start NFC-compatible vehicles.
It appears that Apple will be partnering with vehicle manufacturers for "CarKey," indicating that it may be a factory installed option like CarPlay. It remains unclear when Apple plans to announce this feature.
Latest Foldable Smartphones Experiencing Failures and Durability Issues
Foldable smartphones are the latest device trend, with companies such as Motorola and Samsung having released new foldable smartphones over the course of the last few weeks.
The first foldable smartphone from Samsung, the Galaxy Fold, had major durability issues that caused its launch to be delayed. Samsung's newest foldable device, the Galaxy Z Flip, seems to be faring a bit better so far, but there are still some complaints about its build quality and problems with the display. The same is true of Motorola's latest smartphone, the RAZR.
Each week, we publish an email newsletter like this highlighting the top Apple stories, making it a great way to get a bite-sized recap of the week hitting all of the major topics we've covered and tying together related stories for a big-picture view.
