[MUSIC]
What's up?
Brian Tong here and welcome to the Apple Byte for everything good and bad inside the world of Apple.
Plenty of good stuff this week but let's start off with iPads.
Now French website Consomac has found that Apple's registered new tablets with the Eurasian Economic Commission Try saying that ten times fast.
And that suggests an iPad refresh is coming soon with March being the likely target.
In the past similar required filings with the EEC have been submitted for AirPods, iPads, iPhones and Apple Watches, all within one to two weeks before they were released.
Now, two of the model numbers, A1893 and A1954, don't correspond with any current iPad.
The best guess, at the very least, we'll see the rumored refresh 9.7 inch iPad.
The iPad mini hasn't seen an update for a few years, and we're heard plenty rumors about the all new designed iPad Pro with face ID But that could be held back even until WWDC in June.
Either way, this is a strong indication something is cooking real soon.
All right, let's play a little catch up with some HomePod news that happened since last week's show.
Yes, the HomePod isn't the only smart speaker that leaves marks on some wood surfaces.
The Sonos 1 has shown it does the same thing as well, and this is not just a HomePod thing.
Now, leather accessory company, Pad&Quill Jumped on this real fast and is offering a leather coaster that's described as state of the art surface protection for 19.95.
Now you can always take Apple's advice from their cleaning and taking care of your HomePod support page.
They say if you're concerned about this, we recommend placing your HomePod on a different surface.
See, people are telling me you can just like rub some mayonnaise on them and the rings will go away.
Like, does that really work?
But what if you're a miracle whip kind of person?
Does that work too?
Like these questions need answers in the comments.
All right Fast Company put out their list of the worlds most innovative companies for 2018.
And who's at the top of that list?
At number one, drum roll please.
[SOUND]
It's Apple, of course it's Apple.
Now Fast Company says their AirPods, Apple Watch series 3, AR kit and iPhone X were the reasons and they were praised for their ambitious software and hardware projects.
They also say artificial intelligence is a point of advantage for Apple, where they have made major in roads despite competition from Google and Amazon.
Now, I'd like to celebrate their reasons but I'm sorry, are we talking about the same company here?
Like all the Apple juice drinkers you come at me, but let's be real.
They have the sales numbers, no doubt.
But their products are more like evolutionary, with one of Apple's buggiest software years ever in 2017.
So much that they're prioritizing quality and slowing down future development, and AI is an advantage for them?
Okay, maybe privacy is with that, but have they even used an AI other than Siri?
Come on, let's be real.
That's a bad apple, and we know who's going to get the next Big exclusive interview with Apple.
Fast company, now Netflix came in second, Square in third, and Tencent in fourth.
Instagram came in at 12th, so I guess being an innovative company also means deliberately copying features from another platform and taking their audience.
Alright, Apple just released the third beta for iOS 11.3 and tvOS 11.3 for developers.
But it's removed the AirPlay 2 functionality that was in the previous betas.
It used to be able to try it out by playing music from an iPhone to two different rooms with Apple TVs.
And it also allowed you to add an Apple TV to the home kit set-up.
That's completely gone now.
We're not sure when it's coming back.
It was buggy and not fully functional, but the AirPlay 2 is a big part of the HomePod features for stereo sound A multi [UNKNOWN] that's been delay.
Are you probably prompted update to this iOs 11.2.6 this week, it's the 11th official update to iOs 11.
This fixes the telugu bug that causes messages or other messaging apps to crash because he was unable to render a specific character.
The one that looks like this in the indian language, telugu All right, MAC rumors reports WWDC 2018 will be heading back to San Jose in June.
San Jose's Convention Center has already booked every week in the month with other conventions except for the first week in June where WWDC would most likely fall on June the 4th to the 8th.
Now WWDC attendees go through this random lottery to get tickets.
And if you're lucky enough to come back to San Jose, make sure you go to [UNKNOWN] for the Orange Sauce.
Trust me on this, okay?
And this story is a real headline.
Apple employees keep walking into the glass walls of the new spaceship campus.
See, sometimes the jokes just write themselves.
Sure, this spaceship is perfect looking, with its 45-foot tall curved glass panels.
But, according to Bloomberg, employees with their heads buried in their own iPhones, are walking directly into the glass panels.
Ouch.
Some staff even started sticking post-it notes on the doors as a visual cue- But they were removed because they detracted from the building's design.
Of course they did.
And you know what?
That's a bad apple.
Aah!
Thanks for that one, Nico Garcia.
You're awesome, bro.
And you know what?
I honestly don't know anyone who'd be stupid enough to do that.
[LAUGH] I think she called me on [SOUND] Dang that's crazy that dude looks just like me.
And before we go the Apple Byte is hooking you up with that smart speaker that you wouldn't mind getting for free.
Just go to this link on screen, right here.
FIll out the form and you'll have a chance to win one of two home pods thanks to cnet and the Apple Byte.
See after all these years it finally pays off to watch this show All right, that's gonna do for this week.
You can email me at theapplebyte@cnet.com or tweet @BRIANTONG.
Thanks so much for watching, catch you all next time for another bite of the apple.
[MUSIC]
Here we go, let's do this.
[UNKNOWN] Economic commission, [UNKNOWN] economic commission, [UNKNOWN] [INAUDIBLE].
All right, I'm good, I'm good.
