Apple March Event Cancelled, Russian iPhone Bloatware & MagSafe mini

0:00 On today's Apple Daily
0:35 Russian Bloatware comes to iPhone?
1:52 Where’s my invite?
3:49 MagSafe mini & AirTags
7:13 Notification Squad

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Russian Bloatware comes to iPhone

From next month, in order to comply with Russian Law, Apple will allow a dialogue box at initial set up to appear for Russian iPhones with a list of state approved web browsers, antivirus, messenger and email clients to be installed by default, a list provided by the Russian government.

Sounds terrifying, but these Apps will be able to be de-selected individually to prevent their installation and can also be deleted after set up if required. In the grand scheme of things, its more akin to being asked which web browser or search engine you want on Windows than getting an Android with its own skin and a full set of just worse than standard apps installed already when you get it.

So… where’s my invite?

All of the Apple Twittersphere was waiting with baited breath this afternoon for an Apple event invite. Then, we still were in the evening. And then, we all got sad.

So what’s going on? Well, the assumption that we’d get the invites today is because we got them a week before the events at the end of last year. But that’s just what we guessed.
Apple can do what they like. They could tell us 3 mins before the event that it was happening, and the entire tech journalism world would drop everything and watch, and I think Apple knows that. They could drop the announcement at a crazy time of night and let YouTubers from a different part of the world know about it first while thier normal video makers sleep and just confuse everyone. So could we still get an announcement?
Yes, we could.

AirTags & MagSafe Mini?
Now we’re of course awaiting the announcement of AirTags basically any day now, maybe at a March 23rd event, or a March 30th event, or via a 6am press release, who knows. But one thing that we’ve not had confirmation on with AirTags is how we should charge them, or if we even need to. Just in case you’re new to the channel, or Apple news, or what Youtube is, AirTags are Apple’s answer to the Tile tracker - a small piece of tech about the size of a bottle cap, or the dome on the back of an Apple Watch (which may be important to the story so I hope you’re taking notes), which can be attached to your important stuff, so if you lose it, you can find it again. It’ll work using a combination of technologies. If you’re near it, the U1 chip in your iPhone will be able to detect it and guide you to it, within about 10cm accuracy. And if you can’t find it within that amount of space… I’m not sure how much more help you can be given.


So, back to how they’re powered. Anything that is going to be out and about all the time with you needs to have a good battery life, and these are no exception. There have been conflicting rumours about this in the run up to their currently future release, unless you’re watching this in the future, in which case, are Hoverboards a thing yet? Early rumours suggested they may use a replaceable button cell battery, but I can’t thing of anything less Apple. The last accessory that had those was probably the remote for the Apple TV 3rd Gen, the first one with 1080p capability.

Add to that the issue that having a replaceable battery means holes in the device, a device you’re likely to take out and about with you. That could get wet. Apple will want these to have as few points of failure as possible, so a sealed unit is most likely, and I don’t see they adding a lightning port either. The obvious solution has to be wireless charging - and there have been registrations for wireless reverse charging being built into iPhone 12, potentially using the MagSafe coils, so the idea is that you can charge…something on the back of the iPhone from its battery. Cool, but what if you don’t have the latest iPhone?

So what else could MagSafe mini be used for? Perhaps future AirPods cases, While the current wireless charging cases can use Qi, it seems that Apple would prefer to have something magnetic at least so that the charging is more reliable. Perhaps when Apple’s VR Headset comes, that too could use the method, along with peripherals like Magic Mouse, Trackpad or even the next Apple TV Remote? I’m sure there could be other applications too, so let me know your thoughts in the comments.