Thursday, October 31, 2019

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Apple Promotes Multiple Senior Directors to Vice President Roles

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Over the course of the last few weeks, Apple has promoted several of its senior directors and given them vice president titles, reports Bloomberg.

Paul Meade has been promoted to vice president of hardware engineering, while Jon Andrews is Apple's new vice president of software engineering. Meade has been leading hardware development for Apple's future augmented reality headset, while Andrews oversees the architecture of Apple's operating systems under Craig Federighi.


Gary Geaves, who runs audio technology development for AirPods and HomePod, has been named to a new acoustics vice president role, and Kaiann Drance, who was on stage during the iPhone 11 announcement, is now a vice president of marketing, reporting to Greg Joswiak.

Bob Borchers, a former iPhone executive who worked at Google and Dolby, has also returned to Apple to take on a vice president of marketing role. Borchers was around for the early days of the iPhone, serving as a spokesperson and appearing in Apple tutorial videos about the device.

According to Bloomberg, he will now oversee iOS, iCloud, and privacy marketing matters, also under Greg Joswiak.

None of these new appointments made Apple's Leadership page, which is reserved primarily for senior vice presidents and some key VP roles. In total, Apple has around 100 vice presidents who report to its executive team.


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Review: Mophie's Latest Wireless Chargers Will Juice Up Multiple Devices at Once, But Are Expensive

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Mophie earlier this year came out with several multi-device charging solutions after Apple failed to deliver the AirPower. The $80 Dual Wireless Charging Pad can charge two devices at one time, while the 3-in-1 Wireless Charging Pad ($140) is designed to charge an iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPods all at once.

Design wise, these chargers are fairly simple, made from a black plastic covered with a suede-like fabric for grip and protection from scratches. Mophie also makes a version that's a glossy black plastic for those that don't like the ultrasuede look, and it's sold on the Apple online store.


I'm not a huge fan of the suede because of the way that it can look discolored depending on the lay of the fabric, but it's a clean enough design and the suede keeps the devices properly in place while charging. I'm also not sure the black plastic is the best material given the price of these chargers, but again, there's nothing wrong with it. It's simple and clean, if a bit boring.

The Dual Wireless Charging Pad is a simple oblong charging pad that houses a single iPhone in landscape orientation or two iPhones positioned in portrait orientation. There's a line on each side, directing users where to place each iPhone for proper charging positioning.


The bottom features a rubber ring for stability on a desk or a table, and there's a port for the charging cable and an additional spot to plug in another USB-A cable, such as a cable for charging an ‌Apple Watch‌. Both of Mophie's chargers come with rather large power bricks that offer enough power to charge multiple devices.


The 3-in-1 Wireless Charger has a similar design with the same black suede base and a dedicated spot for each device. The right side, which is flat, is meant to charge an iPhone, while there's an indentation where ‌AirPods‌ are meant to lie. This indentation was designed for the original ‌AirPods‌ and not the AirPods Pro, so I'm not sure if it's going to work for Apple's newest ‌AirPods‌.


Above the indentation for the ‌AirPods‌, there's a little ‌Apple Watch‌ charging puck that's actually a detachable piece that you need to snap into place, which isn't my favorite design. It's easy to get in the right area, and I suppose it's there so you can remove it and charge something else, but it seemed to give me charging issues.


I had a problem where I needed to take it out and reseat it a few times to get my ‌Apple Watch‌ to charge right. I also noticed that at times, I have to take the ‌Apple Watch‌ off of the charger multiple times to get it to start charging, which is not ideal. I didn't have issues with charging the iPhone on either charger, though, and the ‌AirPods‌ also charged fine.

The charging puck does allow the ‌Apple Watch‌ to be put in Nightstand mode, so you can glance over and see the time if it's at your bedside. Both charging pads feature LED lights at the front so you can make sure a given device is charging properly

Mophie's wireless chargers offer 7.5W charging speeds for Apple devices, including after the iOS 13 patch that seems to have limited some 7.5W wireless chargers to 5W instead of 7.5W.


With the 3-in-1 Wireless Charging Pad, the iPhone XS Max charged from zero to 23 percent after a half an hour, and 43 percent after an hour. The iPhone 11 Pro Max charged to 21 percent after a half hour and 38 percent after an hour, which is in line with other 7.5W wireless chargers.

I saw similar charging speeds from the Dual Wireless Charging Pad, which charged the ‌iPhone XS‌ Max to 21 percent after a half an hour and 42 percent after an hour. The ‌iPhone 11 Pro Max‌ charged to 22 percent after 30 minutes and 38 percent after an hour.

Bottom Line


Mophie's charging products are always good quality and are typically reliable, but Mophie is known for its premium pricing and these wireless chargers are no exception.

The Dual Wireless Charging Pad is $80 and the 3-in-1 Wireless Charging Pad is $140, which is a lot to ask, even if it is in line with other higher-end wireless products like those from Nomad.


At these price points, it's difficult to flat out recommend Mophie's chargers, and with the 3-in-1 in particular, I have reservations because of the ‌Apple Watch‌ charging issues I experienced. There's nothing that makes these wireless chargers stand out from other similar options on the market, which is disappointing.

I like Mophie's products for the most part, but given the build quality, pricing, and charging issues, the Dual Wireless Charging Pad and the 3-in-1 Wireless Charging Pad feel like a bit of a miss. Mophie does sometimes have sales, so if you can get these at a cheaper price point, they're a whole lot more appealing. Otherwise, I'd recommend shopping around for a better deal.

How to Buy


The Dual Wireless Charging Pad and the 3-in-1 Wireless Charging Pad can be purchased from the Zagg website for $80 and $140, respectively.

Note: Mophie provided MacRumors with a 3-in-1 Wireless Charger and Dual Wireless Charger for the purpose of this review. No other compensation was received. MacRumors is an affiliate partner with some of these Mophie. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

Tags: Mophie, Zagg

This article, "Review: Mophie's Latest Wireless Chargers Will Juice Up Multiple Devices at Once, But Are Expensive" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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How to connect an iPad or iPhone to a TV

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Want to mirror your iPhone or iPad to your TV so you can watch photos, video or streaming TV? Here's how to connect an iPhone or iPad to a TV and mirror its screen output

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Airtel Data Roll Over Facility for Broadband Users Revoked, Customers Approach Twitter to Raise Complaints


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Complaints Mounting About iOS 13.2 Being 'More Aggressive at Killing Background Apps and Tasks'

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A growing number of iPhone and iPad users have complained about poor RAM management on iOS 13 and iPadOS 13, leading to apps like Safari, YouTube, and Overcast reloading more frequently upon being reopened. We've lightly edited some of the comments to correct things like capitalization.


MacRumors forum member Rogifan:
I was watching a video in YouTube on my iPhone 11 Pro. I pause the video to respond to a text message. I was in iMessage for less than one minute. When I returned to YouTube it reloaded the app and I lost the video I was watching. I noticed this a lot on my iPad Pro too. Apps and Safari tabs reloading a lot more frequently than they did in iOS 12. Very annoying.
MacRumors forum member Radon87000, using an iPad Pro on iPadOS 13.2:
I was working on a spreadsheet in Excel and I switched to a YouTube video for like 10 mins or so and when I switched back, the app was no longer in memory. Not just that, it also flushed all Safari tabs out of memory too. None of the games are staying in memory after 20 mins.
MacRumors forum member HappyDude20:
iOS 12 was perfect and [I] miss it for the main reason that any time I use the app switcher to go back to my previous app such as Safari or Instagram or Facebook or anything really, the app refreshes. Back in iOS 12 I could go back [to] multiple app[s] and it wouldn't refresh. It was perfect. I'm running on an iPhone 7 Plus if it makes any difference but feel it shouldn't.
Based on anecdotal comments from affected users, the issue appears to have become worse as of iOS 13.2 and iPadOS 13.2. Artist, designer, and developer Nick Heer wrote this on his blog yesterday:
I'm used to the camera purging all open apps from memory on my iPhone X, but iOS 13.2 goes above and beyond in killing background tasks. Earlier today, I was switching between a thread in Messages and a recipe in Safari and each app entirely refreshed every time I foregrounded it. This happens all the time throughout the system in iOS 13: Safari can't keep even a single tab open in the background, every app boots from scratch, and using iOS feels like it has regressed to the pre-multitasking days.
On his blog, developer Michael Tsai has rounded up similar complaints on Twitter.

Marco Arment:
I've noticed this since the first 13.2 betas, and Overcast users keep reporting it as well: background apps seem to be getting killed MUCH more aggressively than before.

(Especially on the iPhone 11 if you use the camera, presumably because it needs so much RAM for processing.)
Christopher Stephens:
Every single app on my iPhone 7 iOS 13.2 gets killed every time I close. No backgrounding. And each tab on safari when I move to a new one. So frustrating
Cabel Sasser:
This really affected Prompt. Extremely annoying to lose SSH connections when switch apps.

In yesterday's update we rolled out a semi-cheesy but effective fix: "Connection Keeper" keeps a running GPS-based log of where you connect to servers. Side effect: connections stay alive.
More complaints are found in this Twitter thread, in this Reddit thread, in the Apple Support Communities, and elsewhere on the web.


Affected users are hoping this issue can be resolved in a future software update. We've reached out to Apple for comment.

Related Roundups: iOS 13, iPadOS

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