This week in Apple: The top news from Android's main competitor

The big Apple news this week happened just yesterday, with lead designer Sir Jonathan Ive announcing he’s leaving the company after over 20 years. We also saw some interesting patents for a camera on the Apple Watch, news about Apple’s investment in the self-driving car industry, a new subscriber milestone for Apple Music, and more evidence to suggest some ARM-based Macs are on the way.

See the Apple news roundup below for all the latest!

The top Apple news stories of the past week:

• Lead designer Jony Ive no longer an Apple employee: The man responsible for the design of the iPhone, iPod, iPad, and countless other Apple products announced he is leaving the company. He will start his own design firm with Apple as its first client, but he will no longer work directly for Apple.
• Intel will auction off its mobile patents after fallout with Apple: Due to Apple dropping Intel in favor of Qualcomm for iPhone hardware, Intel will now hold an auction to dump its thousands of patents related to mobile. The company plans to completely leave the smartphone industry.
• Apple Watch to come with a camera in the future?: A new patent filed by Apple and approved by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office lays out a theoretical way Apple could bring a camera to its smartwatch. The camera would actually live in a flexible band, not in the watch itself.
• Apple Watch shipments had a great year in 2018: Speaking of the Apple Watch, the product category saw 22 percent more shipments in 2018. A large chunk of that significant growth is attributed to the success of the Series 4 version of the wearable.
• Self-driving car company acquired by Apple: Although we still know nothing about an Apple car, the company keeps investing in car companies. Recently, Apple acquired self-driving car company Drive.ai for an undisclosed sum.
• ARM-based Macs on the way?: Apple recently hired one of ARM’s lead CPU and system architects, Mike Filippo. This could mean that Apple will move away from using Intel chipsets in its Mac computers and instead use its own chips, which would be in line with what it does with the iPhone.
• Apple Music crosses major subscriber milestone: According to iTunes chief Eddy Cue, Apple Music has over 60 million paid subscribers. That’s certainly a lot, but the company still has a way to go to beat Spotify’s 100 million paid subscribers.

Thinking about making the switch?

If you are currently an Apple user thinking about making the switch to Android, we have multiple articles and guides that can help you with that process. Despite how it might seem, moving from iOS to Android is easier than ever, and many of the services and systems on iOS have similar or even the same counterparts on Android.

The best place to start would be our guide on how to switch from iPhone to Android, which goes over all the basics. We also have more specific guides, such as how to transfer your calendar from iPhone to Android. We also have app guides that will give you the best alternatives to iOS staples, such as our list of best alternatives to FaceTime on Android.

If you’re looking for a great Android device to replace your iPhone, consult our list of the best Android smartphones available now.