SJ105: Mike's iPhone XS Max, iPads Pro predictions, Apple Watch, our Upgrade Guide & more

Last week we promised a summary of Ars Technica’s extensive reviews of Android 9 (“Pie”) and iOS 12, cadets, but we ran out of time for it this week due to the flood of reviews and benchmarks on the latest new iPhones — including some hands-on comments from Mike, who snagged an Xs Max immediately and has had some time to try it out. We also examine the Apple Watch Series 4 and the forthcoming iPad Pro models, some neat features of iOS 12, and more. Among other things noted: sweet carrier deals on new iPhones, watchOS 5 upgraders get a new heart-health feature, Apple is dominating both the premium smartphone market as well as the premium smart speaker market, some discoveries in the iOS 12.1 beta code that reveal iPad plans and features, a quick review of the quick new Safari for Mac, and the Music Modernization Act. There’s also some bad news, of course, such as the Newegg breach, Evernote’s layoffs, Qualcomm’s loss, Chinese tariffs, and a fresh new batch of “the iPhone Xs is dooooomed” from pundits (who said the same thing about the iPhone X — some people never learn). We also have our usual Engineering Report featuring Optane SSDs, Master & Dynamic, and Tesla, and finish off with yet another creepy aspect of your Alexa devices. We’ve set aside time next week for that Android 9 and iOS 12 summary, cadets, so the pop quiz has been postponed -- but you'd better take a double ration of your study pills for next time!