Year: 2016

iPhone 7 to arrive in more countries starting October 7

As confirmed by various news reports, authorized resellers and local Apple websites around the world, the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus will be expanding in additional markets beginning October 7. The handsets will be available for purchase in India and Ukraine starting October 7.

A week later, on October 14, the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus will arrive in Macao, Macedonia, Malaysia, Montenegro, South Africa and Turkey.

Apple in negotiations with Sharp to supply OLED screens for new iPhones

Bloomberg is reporting that Apple is in negotiations with Japanese consumer electronics maker Sharp to supply organic LED displays (OLED) for future iPhones. Any potential agreement is contingent upon Sharp’s production capability. The rumored discussions reportedly stem from Apple’s desire to secure multiple suppliers for organic LED screens and minimize exposure to any single supplier.

PredictionShortcuts adds cut, copy, and paste buttons above the keyboard

Text editing can be so cumbersome on the iOS platform, mostly because of having to tap and hold on text to select it and then having to wait for the editing menu to appear on the screen afterwards.

Fortunately, a new free jailbreak tweak called PreditctionShortcuts adds cut, copy, and paste options right to the QuickType section of the keyboard for ease of access. Best of all, it doesn't even impede on your ability to use the predictive typing features.

Apple’s free app of the week: Flowing

Apple on Thursday updated its App of the Week promotion with the app Flowing. This means that for the next 7 days, you can get the popular meditation and mindfulness app for free on both iPhone and iPad—a solid savings of $3.

For those who aren't familiar with Flowing, it's a health and fitness app that promises to help you upgrade your sleep, focus, and productivity. Its features include guided meditation, 3D parallax scenes, and customizable white noise.

SteelSeries to launch a brand new gaming headset next Tuesday

Accessory maker SteelSeries designs some pretty cool Apple-compatible accessories. I use their Nimbus Wireless Gaming Controller to play games on my Apple TV and couldn't be happier with it. Today, the company said in an email blast to customers that they'll be “changing the gaming headset” next Tuesday.

“On October 4, we’re releasing our love letter to gamers,” teases the firm. The email offers a sneak peek at the upcoming on-ear wired headset said to provide comfort and high-quality sound.

Skype for iOS updated with Siri, Phone, Contacts and Lock screen integrations

Microsoft today announced availability of freshly updated Skype for iOS apps. Bumped to version 6.25, both Skype for iPhone and Skype for iPad now include SiriKit support that lets them integrate with Siri so you can call people and send messages using just your voice. The apps also take advantage of CallKit, which allows VoIP Skype calls to behave like normal cellular calls with fullscreen contact images on the Lock screen and integration with Phone's Recents and Favorites on iSO 10 devices.

Infinite Tanks, a military sim by Sky Gamblers creators, hits iOS, Mac & Apple TV

Atypical Games, the brains behind popular mobile titles like the Sky Gamblers series and Radiation Island, are back at it with a brand new release in the App Store and Mac App Store—a limitless military simulation for the iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Apple TV and Mac, titled Infinite Tanks.

The $4.99 universal iOS/tvOS download, along with its $4.99 Mac counterpart, combines strategic play with limitless customization and flashy graphics for both team play and solo missions.

Apple airs new ‘Balloons’ ad highlighting iPhone 7 and expressive messaging

Apple's much improved Messages app in iOS 10 is more expressive than ever, especially with nicely done animations that take over the entire screen.

One of the fullscreen effects in Messages, a bunch of balloons that fly up from the bottom of the screen, is the central theme of a new iPhone 7 commercial that Apple posted on its YouTube channel today.

The 30-second commercial wraps up with the message, “The all-new iPhone 7, with expressive messages. Practically magic.”

Adobe updates Lightroom for iOS with support for iPhone 7 Plus dual-lens camera & more

iOS 10 provides new APIs allowing third-party photography apps to capture and edit raw image data in the DNG format, and Lightroom for iPhone and Lightroom for iPad are among first apps to implement photo capture in the highest possible RAW quality. Earlier this week, Adobe released updates to Lightroom for iOS to help users take advantage of the new iPhone 7 camera’s raw shooting capabilities, including support for the iPhone 7 Plus's dual-lens camera.

I hate to Love songs on Apple Music

While Apple likes to put emphasis on the human curation that goes behind the scenes, Apple Music is still largely powered by algorithms that learn about your music tastes by looking at your own library, but also by looking at your recent activity, including the songs you Love.

The more you play a song, the more the algorithm understands you like that song, and maybe by extension that band. If you Love a song, you're also signaling that this is a tune you particularly enjoy. Algorithms then crunch data based on your behavior to improve music suggestions for you.

For the past year, my favorite way to train Apple Music's algorithms was to actively Love songs. It was a quick and simple way for me to tell Apple "hey, I really like that, please play this more often and also play more songs similar to that one."

But the big, bold, confusing mess of a redesign that happened with iOS 10 has changed a lot of things, including how you now Love songs on Apple Music.