Year: 2016

When iPhone 7 Home button fails, iOS 10 offers a nice software workaround

MacRumors forum member “iwayne” has noticed that iOS 10 offers an interesting software workaround for when the iPhone 7's non-moving Home button fails.

Should that ever happen to you, iOS 10 will instantly create a software-based Home button centered at the bottom of the screen.

Not unlike the AssistiveTouch accessibility feature that many iPhone owners in Asia use regularly over fear of breaking the physical Home button, iOS 10's new onscreen button could hint at how a bezel-less iPhone 8 might work without a physical Home button.

Why I’m excited for AirPods

There has been a lot of takes on Apple’s new wireless headphones, the AirPods. Some people brush them off as just expensive and unnecessary. Others insist you’re going to lose them instantly. However, after Apple’s keynote, the AirPods may be what I am looking forward to most.

US government bans Samsung’s Note 7 from all domestic flights

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and The Department of Transportation (DoT) have banned Samsung's recalled Note 7 smartphones from all domestic airline flights in the United States beginning Saturday, officials announced in an emergency order.

A few days ago, Samsung permanently stopped production of the troubled smartphone following incidents in which replacement devices it deemed safe exhibited the same fire-prone defect, even when powered down.

Early App Store Search Ads adopters seeing $0.40 CPA and 49.4 percent conversion

Announced in June of this year, first ads started cropping up in search results on the App Store beginning October 5. Aside from a few launch hiccups, App Store search advertisements seem to be performing pretty well in their early days.

A new study by mobile data intelligence firm Mobile Action—based on a random and anonymous sampling of 77 Search Ads campaigns—has determined that the average Conversion Rate (CR) is 49.4 percent while Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) sits around $0.40.

Search Ads, the survey concludes, is “the biggest opportunity in app marketing right now.”

Tim Cook meets Nintendo’s games designer Shigeru Miyamoto during Japan visit

Apple's boss Tim Cook met Nintendo’s legendary games designer Shigeru Miyamoto during a recent whirlwind tour of Japan.

As part of his itinerary, he also met with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and confirmed an upcoming technology center in Yokohama.

During the trip, Cook tweeted out a "good morning” message in Japanese and posted two images, one with Miyamoto and the other acknowledging that he had used Apple Pay to ride Japan's famous Yamanote transit line.

Instagram now has an app for Windows 10 tablets, but still not for the iPad

Popular photo-sharing service Instagram yesterday catered to the 'Other' category of mobile users by releasing an app for Windows 10 tablets. So what the heck is going on here? Last time I checked, Apple was still king of the hill in terms of tablet shipments and iOS (26 percent) was second only to Android (65 percent) in terms of tablet operating system share, while Windows tablets captured the remaining nine percent share.