More From Apple

Dozens of reporters — inside Apple’s Steve Jobs Theater

or back at their offices — spent hours on Sept. 12 tweeting

about Apple, sharing details about its two new iPhones and

Apple Watch.

Yet despite all this free press attention, the tech giant spent

what several marketers considered to be a significant

amount on Twitter. On Sept. 12, Apple had a promoted trend

($200,000 per day), a custom build for “like for reminder”

($250,000 for several days), promoted tweets in at least 12

languages (CPMs depend on budget, going from $0.50 to $8)

and a hashflag and a livestream of the event. The last two

components were probably free, and the other prices are

standard, according to sources. Prices are based on what

Twitter charges individually for the products, according to

interviews with six marketers; Apple may have bought them

as a bundle.

The decision to spend so much on a platform that isn’t

Facebook or Google perhaps isn’t as crazy for a trillion-dollar

company. Apple’s spend is an example of its attempt to

dominate the conversation during a launch and appeal to the

fandom and journalists on Twitter, which has long promoted

itself as a platform that leads the conversation, more so than

the rest of social media. Apple’s early adopters, including

journalists, are perhaps more commonly found on there than

on Facebook, where it’s currently not running any ads.

“Apple is garnering a deeper relationship with their most devout

fans and haters and gaining insight into all of the data around the

launch conversations. I’d love to see the backend of what they got

on that campaign buy,” said Tammy Gordon, president of Verified

Strategy who previously led social marketing at AARP.

Apple Acquisition

Apple, seeking a breakthrough product to succeed the

iPhone, is said to be prepping to ship an AR headset or

device as early as 2020. Akonia’s “HoloMirror” technology

is designed to project full-color images onto the transparent

glass lenses of augmented-reality headsets, according to its

website, a capability that will dovetail with the U.S. giant’s

own efforts. Apple confirmed the deal, first reported by

Reuters, via the typical statement it uses to verify acquisitions

of smaller startups.

While virtual reality immerses the user in a digital world,

augmented reality is intended to overlay visuals and data

onto the real one -- allowing users for instance to look up

details on objects and buildings in their field of view, or a

mechanic to scan repair instructions. It’s been touted as

having wider mass-market appeal than VR, and Apple

Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook has talked up its prospects

on several occasions.

The U.S. giant will have to contend however with a number

of rivals, including Amazon.com Inc. and Google, also

exploring future applications for the nascent technology.

New iPhones

Apple Inc. debuted a trio of iPhones on Wednesday,

holding fast to what’s now a familiar strategy: getting

new buyers to pay higher prices and gobble up more

services, like storage and entertainment, as smartphone

market growth slows.

The iPhone Xs, starting at $999, succeeds last year’s

flagship model with a faster A12 processor and updated

cameras. The iPhone Xs Max is a higher-end version

with a 6.5-inch OLED screen, making it one of the biggest

on the market -- and one of the most-expensive at $1,099 a

nd up. There are 512 GB storage options for the first time.

The third model, called the Xr, is Apple’s biggest hardware

bet of 2018. It retains the key advances of the first iPhone X

-- facial recognition and an edge-to-edge display -- but is

cheaper while being noticeably larger at 6.1 inches. The price

starts at $749, roughly in line with most analysts’ expectations.

Apple used older LCD screen technology and aluminum,

rather than stainless steel, edges.

LG Problem

The chief executive of South Korea’s LG Display, Han

Sang-beom, was determined to deliver a strong message

when he appeared before 1,000 employees at the firm’s

main manufacturing plant last spring.

So he donned a pair of goggles, picked up a hammer, and

smashed a liquid-crystal display screen to bits.

The symbolism was impossible to miss: LCD panels, the

company’s mainstay for years, were being relegated to the

industrial dustbin. The company’s future would depend on

a newer technology, organic light-emitting diode, or OLED.

“I’ve never seen him do such a thing,” said one company

official who was present. “His performance showed a grim

determination to weather this crisis.”

Yet LG Display’s predicament was in many ways one of its

own making. Less than a year earlier, the company had

showered employees with perks and bonuses as profits

rolled in, driven by the company’s leadership in LCD

screens for TVs, computer monitors and smartphones.

But LG Display had misread the market: Chinese

competitors were coming on strong, and by early this

year prices for LCD screens were plummeting. The fat

profits of 2017 turned into big losses in 2018 - and the

company abruptly announced in July that it would slash

$2.7 billion in capital spending it had planned through 2020.

5G Rollout

AT&T today completed its promised list of 12 cities that

will launch its next-generation 5G network in 2018,

announcing that the final five destinations will all be in the

southern United States. The company also announced

early 2019 plans that will bring 5G to the top cities in

California and Nevada.

Two of AT&T’s 2018 5G launch cities are in Texas: Houston

and San Antonio. Florida, Kentucky, and Louisiana each

have one city — Jacksonville, Louisville, and New Orleans,

respectively. They join the previously announced cities of

Atlanta, Charlotte, Dallas, Indianapolis, Oklahoma City,

Raleigh, and Waco in forming a substantially but not

exclusively southern initial rollout for AT&T’s mobile 5G

Service.

Additionally, AT&T announced that four California cities —

Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, and San Jose —

will be getting 5G service in early 2019, alongside Las Vegas,

Nashville, and Orlando. Interestingly, AT&T’s early 5G plans

appear to be substantially omitting New York and other

northeastern parts of the United States, possibly due to

easier or more progressive 5G-related deployment policies

elsewhere in the country.

Unlike rival Verizon, AT&T has committed to launching

standards-compliant mobile 5G services in 2018, beginning

with mobile hotspot “pucks” that will bring up to gigabit

speeds to wirelessly tethered laptops and other portable

devices. Smartphones compatible with the network are

expected to debut in early 2019. Verizon is debuting 5G

strictly in fixed home broadband hardware, starting with a

four-city lineup that includes Los Angeles and Sacramento,

Indianapolis, and Houston.

New iPhones

Much of what’s coming in this year’s iPhones is already

known. When Tim Cook takes the stage on Wednesday,

we’re expecting three new devices. If the leaks and reports

prove correct, we know about most of the important

specifications: The phones will range in size from 5.8 to 6.5

inches. The two flagship models will feature OLED displays

like the iPhone X, while a more budget-friendly option with a

6.1-inch screen will feature an LED screen like older iPhones.

Battery life could improve thanks to a larger capacity battery—

especially in that 6.5-inch model. We’ve even seen possible

metrics for the A12 processor, the chip inside the new devices,

which indicates they’re 10 percent faster than last year’s phone.

But there’s one important spec we’ve heard surprisingly little

about: the phones’ camera system.

In a recent report, a source told Bloomberg that for the two

high-end iPhone models, speed and camera upgrades would

be highlights. However, the details around that are unusually

scarce. At this point, we’re reasonably confident that the new

iPhones cameras won’t include a major hardware change.

Reports that suggested Apple could add a third camera lens

to the rear of the device, a la the Huawei P20 Pro, circulated

earlier this year, but they later fizzled. That looks to be a feature

we won’t see until 2019. It would seem this year’s iPhones will

feature the same-style camera system as the iPhone X—dual

lenses on the back, one wide angle and one telephoto, and a

front-facing camera.

MSFT Xbox Voice Controls

Microsoft is continuing to try to reposition Cortana from

an "assistant" to an "assistance" aide. Today, the company

took another step to realize that vision by starting to enable

Cortana-powered devices to control its Xbox One console.

Alexa-enabled devices are going to be able to do the same,

by the way.

The Xbox team is adding a new Xbox Skill to allow users to

use voice commands to do tasks like turning on and off their

Xbox One consoles; adjust volume; launch games and apps;

start and stop broadcasts on Mixer; capture screenshots and

clips and more. That Xbox Skill will work with Cortana- and

Alexa-enabled devices including Windows 10 PCs, Amazon

Echo, Harman Kardon Invoke, Sonos One; and iOS and

Android devices with the Cortana and/or Alexa apps.

Once Microsoft stopped bundling the Kinect sensor with

Xbox One, and later, ceased making Kinects all together,

there wasn't a way for users without a headset to use voice

commands to control the Xbox console, since there are no

built-in microphones in the console. Today's announcmenet

is a start to remedying that situation.

Microsoft is starting to test this new skill with U.S.-based Xbox

Insiders starting today. The Xbox team will roll out the skill to more

testers gradually via the Insider program. There's no word yet on

when the Xbox Skill will be available to mainstream users and

those outside the U.S.