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

Apple news this week was still littered with stories related to last week’s news about lead designer Sir Jonathan Ive announcing he’s leaving the company after over 20 years. We also saw some interesting mockups of what the iPhone XI could look like, news about a rumored China-only iPhone, the supposed end of the butterfly keyboard, and a new country-of-manufacture for the upcoming Mac Pro.

See the Apple news roundup below for all the latest!

The top Apple news stories of the past week:

• Rumors circulate about Jony Ive’s recent years at Apple: After the news hit that Jony Ive would no longer be an Apple employee, rumors started to pop up about the past few years he’s spent with the company. Stories of missed meetings and a “dispirited” attitude culminated in a report stating that Ive felt the design of Apple products was taking a backseat to operations. Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, called the story “absurd.”
• YouTube channel creates physical iPhone XI mockup (running Android!): A YouTube channel created physical mockups of what the iPhone XI could look like based on renders and leaks. They even loaded Android onto the mockup and skinned it with an iOS theme! Check out the video here.
• Apple could launch a Chinese-exclusive iPhone with an in-display fingerprint sensor: In order to boost flagging iPhone sales in China, Apple could push out a cheaper version of the device. It would forego Face ID — and the expensive associate hardware — and use an in-display fingerprint sensor instead, according to rumors.
• The new Mac Pro won’t be made in the United States: Mac Pros used to all come with a “Made in USA” tag, but that won’t be the case for the new “cheese grater” Mac Pro revealed a few weeks ago. Instead, the Mac Pro will be made in China.
• See you later, butterfly keyboard: According to usually-dead-on analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple is finally going to move on from its controversial butterfly keyboard. The expensive-to-produce keyboard technology helps MacBooks be extra thin, but also causes typing problems. Kuo posits that Apple will move to a cheaper (but still not “regular”) keyboard technology soon.
• Xiaomi clones Apple’s Memoji with slightly different Mimoji: In one of the most blatant cases of an Android-based OEM “borrowing” from Apple, Xiaomi announced a new emoji platform called Mimoji that looks and functions very similarly to Apple’s Memoji. Xiaomi disputes the claim that Mimoji are in any way related to Memoji.
• Most iPhone owners don’t know which iPhone they own: A new report stemming from a survey of U.S. residents suggests that the bulk of iPhone owners don’t know which iPhone they own.

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.