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The Mandated-to-be-Factual Edition Sunday, February 3, 2019

The iPhone XR Is Apple's Top Phone, And Other iPhone Sales Secrets, by Jason Snell, Tom's Guide

In an unusual disclosure in early January, Apple CEO Tim Cook warned the world that Apple's prior rosy forecast for the holiday quarter had proved to be inaccurate. This week, the company finally released the official figures for that period, and hopped on a phone call with financial analysts to provide a little more detail about what's going on with Apple's business.

These statements, while obviously self-serving, are legally mandated to be factual. And anytime Apple lets a bit of information about its business leak out, it's worth paying attention. In fact, we learned quite a few tidbits about Apple's iPhone business thing week.

Butterfly Keyboard Reliability Has Delayed My Next Apple Lease For My School, by Bradley Chambers, 9to5Mac

Until Apple can get back to the reliability of the 2015 MacBook Pro and 2015 MacBook Air, I am going to struggle to purchase laptops in bulk.

App Of The Week: NanoStudio 2, by Craig Grannell, Stuff

The first thing most people do when armed with a new music app is head to the instruments. NanoStudio 2 has only two, but the Obsidian synth rivals the very best on iOS. Even if you go no further than the bundled presets, you’ll revel in 300 varied patches, and the list can be instantly filtered using AND and OR operators.

The Real Lesson Of Facebook's Apple Dust-up Shows Why Zuckerberg's 'Hacker Way' Is Even More Dangerous Than We Thought, by Troy Wolverton, Business Insider

But the fact that it was willing to risk even the wrath of Apple — a company that has no small amount of power over Facebook's ability to reach consumers, customers, and even its own employees — shows just how brazen the social networking company has become. Its appetite for data on its users and competitors is so ravenous that it's willing to cross seemingly any and every line to get it, no matter what the potential risk.

Ikea's Slow And Steady Plan To Save The Smart Home, by Brian Barrett, Wired

A year and a half ago, Ikea became a smart home company, introducing a line of connected light bulbs to complement its lingonberries. This spring, it adds its second product category to its Home Smart lineup: a set of smart blinds, called Fyrtur, that open and close with the tap of a wireless remote or a voice command. Blinds might seem an odd choice to build on Ikea’s IoT momentum. In fact, there’s no better sign that the company has a better grip on the smart home than just about anybody.