iPhone 7

Apple’s latest iPhone 7 Plus ad takes place in a barbershop

A brand new television commercial for iPhone 7 Plus's dual-lens camera surfaced Monday on Apple's official YouTube channel. Titled “Barber,” the ad showcases Apple's Portrait camera mode made possible by the dual-lens system found on the back of the company's latest Plus smartphone.

Running one minute and ten seconds long, the video takes place in a barbershop and shows the device being used to take depth-of-field shots of customers having their hair done.

Physical prints are then created and displayed on the front of the store to draw in new customers until a lone line emerges outside the shop.

“In Portrait mode on iPhone 7 Plus, you don’t just look good. You look fantastic,” says the video's description. Portrait shooting mode blurs out the background and focuses on the subject in the foreground to create a DSLR-like depth-of-field effect.

And here is the new television commercial.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcMSrKi8hZA

Song: “Fantastic Man” by William Onyeabor

According to Apple CEO Tim Cook, iPhone 7 Plus has emerged as the most popular Plus model the company has released yet. Last week, Apple posted more than three-dozen videos tips to help customers get the most from their iPhone 7 camera.

How do you like Apple's latest iPhone ad?

Let us know by leaving a comment below.

Apple shares videos tips on getting the most from iPhone 7 camera

Apple has published a new mini-website with nearly two dozen how-to videos covering iPhone 7 photography. Titled “How to shoot on iPhone 7”, the mini tutorials run about forty seconds each and deal with various topics of interest, including taking depth-of-field images with Portrait mode on iPhone 7 Plus, using tap to focus, adjusting exposure, taking low-light images, capturing selfies with the timer, snapping vertical panoramic photographs, taking stills while filming video and more.

Here are Apple's photography how-tos.

How to shoot action

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhZnMBnosJk

“Use Burst mode to capture that perfect split second”.

How to shoot without flash

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwMJv0_wa-M

“Make the most of light sources around you to brighten up your photo.”

How to shoot vertical panoramas

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VY2FqNAk0mM

“Boldly go from base to summit with a vertical pano.”

How to shoot close-ups

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElHnXjbGAm4

“Life looks different from 10 cm away. See how to capture it beautifully every time.”

How to shoot great portraits

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvvXIt7XwXE

“Use Portrait mode to take an amazing photo of a friend.”

More photography tips and techniques can be explored via the new mini-site.

Hey Apple, we need to talk about AirPods (again)!

AirPods teaser

On the back of their latest earnings call, a fair bit of renewed attention has been paid to Apple’s prodigious AirPods. In it, we got confirmation of what owners of the cordless headphones likely already knew, and what analysts were anticipating: AirPods crush customer satisfaction surveys and the sales are, to quote Tim Cook, a runaway success. As such, surely the Cupertino head office must feel in a party mood with regard to their EarPods successor?

Put it this way, something tells me the sound and sight of popping bottles and Eddy Cue flailing his arms to the sound of Pharrell’s Happy will have to wait - because for all their success, almost half a year into their lifecycle AirPods remain a problem child. It only takes one metric and four words to back up that not so outlandish case: ships in six weeks.

Undercover factory worker spills the beans on security measures to prevent iPhone leaks

As part of his summer project, NYU grad student Dejian Zeng spent six weeks working undercover in a Chinese factory operated by iPhone manufacturer Pegatron. In a video interview with Business Insider's Kif Leswing, he reveals some of the security measures designed to prevent unwanted leaks as part of preparations ahead of iPhone 7 production.

Here's an interesting excerpt from the interview:

In the workshop, we were originally producing iPhone 6s and during that time that we were in the workshop they were already building up some facilities or infrastructure to build the assembly line for iPhone 7.

And they had this big curtain that blocked everything.

While we were in the same workshop, we saw nothing. And later on, we were moved to another sub-factory building to do work there for a while, because they need to rebuild the assembly line that we are working on also.

The following points from the interview stood out for me:

It's “impossible” for workers to take photos, let alone carry some components out Workers are required to leave their phones, keys and other metals in a locker room No metal is allowed inside the factories There are security cameras in every assembly line Security involves access cards, facial recognition cameras and metal detectors

The security level increased sharply ahead of iPhone 7 production.

For starters, management at the factories installed two metal detectors and increased their sensitivity, in turn creating problems for female workers wearing bras.

“All of a sudden, on that specific day, they couldn’t pass the security door, and they needed to go back and change everything,” said Dejian.

He says regular assembly line workers were strictly prohibited from bringing their cameras or phones inside the factories, unlike high-level managers who could bring their phones.

“I’m not sure whether photos can get leaked by that,” he said.

But even high-level managers were asked to wake up their phone's screen every time they went through the metal detectors so that security personnel could determine that they weren't carrying an unfinished iPhone unit concealed in a fake phone case. And if a worker does get caught attempting to carry an iPhone out of the factories, they're sent to the police.

In spite of all the security, leaks do happen and they're a fact of life.

Who's to stop a person from running to the press to tell them what they saw inside the factories? After they started building iPhone 7, some employees were able to confirm to the media that the device would come without headphone jack and with two cameras on the back.

“Those are some things that we can see and we can remember and we can tell the media later on,” said Dejian. Apple is known for holding its contractors to the highest security standards.

In that regard, the following excerpt is revealing:

When I was producing iPhone 6, I did see Apple come for audits. I think it was two or three times.

And every time when they come, the manger in the factories got very nervous. They would tell us you need to follow the procedure and sit straight, and don’t talk.

When they kicked off iPhone 7 production, Apple staff was there “every single day”.

Factory workers are reportedly aware of how popular the iconic smartphone is and think it’s “very cool” that they get to see Apple's unreleased products before anyone else.

The full video interview is available on Business Insider.

The best wallpaper apps for iPhone

Every so often as an iPhone user, we get a little bored with the optics of our device and feel the need to give it a fresh coat of paint. Cases and skins aside, the fastest and most immersive option to shake things up visually is to go down the wallpaper path, which we very much love assisting you with here at iDB.

Granted there is no shortage of wallpapers anywhere on the internet, at the same time the ever-growing demand for more has also given rise to a bevy of unusable, flat-out lousy offers. So where to turn to for quality material you ask? We’ve got your back on that, as we have compiled a list of the best wallpaper apps available on the App Store today.

Time to dust off your iPhone’s home screen and live it up in your pocket!

Turn iMessage, WhatsApp, and Line voice messages into text with Textify

Sending your friends voice recordings on messenger platforms such as iMessage, WhatsApp or Threema is surely not everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s hard to overlook its rising popularity in certain circles. Be it for faster communications or text weariness amongst younger people, voice messages are rife in chats today and that is despite the one clear downside they have: unlike texts, they are not very discreet, which makes them basically unobtainable in a host of potential situations.

Understanding the (circumstantial) issues with voice messages, Apple were the first to offer voicemail transcriptions in iOS 10 and now Textify joins the cause to bring a similar service to an even wider audience. The speech recognition app provides spoken word-to-text transcriptions for all your favorite messenger platforms including iMessage, WhatsApp, Threema, and Line. And suffice it to say that it wouldn’t be on iDB if it was not surprisingly powerful at that. Here’s how it works.

How to have the Music app only show songs stored on your device

Thanks to the introduction of goodies like the iCloud Music Library and more recently Apple Music, your Music app on iPhone and iPad has not only turned from a luscious red color into a plain icon, but has also become decidedly more convoluted.

The main change since the coming of the cloud-based additions to the Music app? Songs no longer have to be stored locally on your device in order to be visible and playable. In case you haven’t yet found the trick hiding in plain sight to only play the songs downloaded to your device (and prevent exorbitant data charges), let’s fill you in now!

Battery showdown: Galaxy S8+ vs. iPhone 7 Plus

Samsung's top-of-the-line Galaxy handsets are typically outfitted with some of the best-performing batteries. That said, you could imagine our surprise when we learned that the battery in Samsung's flagship Galaxy S8+ performed worse than the cell powering Apple's iPhone 7 Plus, as per a new test carried out by review website PhoneArena.

YouTuber builds his own red iPhone 7 with black front

When Apple unveiled its new iPhone 7 (PRODUCT)RED Special Edition with vibrant red aluminum finish, some people who have been expecting an all-black front face, like yours truly, were left disappointed.

I'll be the first to admit that a red iPhone with a black screen would look way better than the white bezel.

YouTuber Danny Winget aka JerryRigEerything took it upon himself to build his own Frankenstein red iPhone with a black bezel using a full screen replacement, and the results look fantastic.

Red iPhone 7, new 9.7″ iPad & updated iPhone SE now available

Apple's new iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus (PRODUCT)RED Special Edition, a new 9.7-inch iPad model (called simply “iPad”) and iPhone SE with twice the storage are now available to order. The red iPhone can be purchased worldwide via Apple's online stores and brick-and-mortar locations. The new iPad can be ordered from apple.com and starts delivering to customers and arriving next week in Apple Stores, through select carriers and Apple Authorized Resellers.

Camera+ updated with RAW saving improvements, 3D Touch Peek and Pop & more

Camera+, my favorite iPhone photography app, was updated this morning on App Store with new features putting more RAW power at your fingertips while adding support for Peek and Pop gestures in the app on 3D Touch-enabled devices like the iPhone 6s/7 series. Building on the previous update which enabled RAW shooting and editing, the new Camera+ version 9.1 includes new RAW options for saving and exporting images at the best possible quality.