Spotify is perhaps one of the largest names in the music-streaming industry, and while Apple Music is indeed catching up, a large number of iPhone users are still using the third-party alternative.
Despite its popularity, many Spotify users aren’t fond of the persistent Behind the Lyrics feature that interrupts your view of the album artwork whenever music is playing.
Having surveyed 2,200 adults in the United States, research firm Morning Consult Intelligence has found that one out of each three respondents showed interest in Apple's HomePod sight unseen, or approximately 33 percent.
However, “only” 30 percent were interested in the HomePod speaker after being shown a comparison chart with other smart speakers, namely Amazon's Echo and Google's Home.
Among those who already owned Apple products, 45 percent were interested in HomePod and 17 percent said they were most likely to buy it versus 18 percent of the Apple faithful who said they'd be more inclined to buy Amazon's Echo over Apple's device.
What about the overall survey group?
According to AppleInsider:
Within the overall survey group 17 percent said they were mostly like to buy an Echo, and 11 percent the cheaper Echo Dot. Only 9 percent said they would go for a HomePod, below the Google Home's 11 percent.
At $349, HomePod is pricier than Google's and Amazon's inexpensive speakers at $129 and $139, respectively. 57 percent of respondents said price was “Very Important” to them in a smart speaker while for 51 percent speaker quality was more important than the price.
Introduced at the Worldwide Developers Conference last week, HomePod beats both Amazon's Echo and Google's Home in terms of audio quality. The device features a four-inch subwoofer system that delivers clean bass without distortion and as many as seven beam-forming tweeters, each using its own amplifier for sound quality.
Driven by Apple's A8 chip, HomePod provides sound awareness technology that's able to detect when the device is against walls. After mapping its surroundings, it adjusts the sound output accordingly so that the most of the sound is spread out into a wide-open area instead of being muffled against a wall.
We should point out that this isn't a totally fair research because HomePod is still work-in-progress and Apple has not really shown off any other features beyond Siri interactions, HomeKit controls and Apple Music integration.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hw9skL-IXc
Even if HomePad makes its December debut with only the aforesaid features, Apple is almost certainly going to add additional capabilities over time via software updates, just as Google and Amazon have been doing with their smart home speakers.
Priced at $349, HomePod will launch in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia this December before gradually expanding to the rest of the world throughout 2018.
Introduced at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference last week, Apple's new 10.5-inch iPad Pro model and a second-generation 12.9-inch iPad Pro are now both available for purchase via company-owned retail stores around the world.
Our video reviewer Andrew O'Hara has managed to get his hands on these pro tablets. His hands-on video takes you through some of the headlining new features like the super bright, less reflective display with ProMotion technology at an insane 120Hz refresh rate and more.
Watch Andrew's video embedded below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mj2Oy-seGI
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If you're wondering about the brand of knife Andrew is using to cut through the cellophane, it's the Kershaw Reverb lightweight pocket knife (it's pretty cheap on Amazon).
According to iFixit's teardown analysis, the new 10.5-inch iPad Pro model has four gigabytes of RAM, just like the original 12.9-inch iPad Pro model, which enables smoother multitasking.
The cameras on both new iPads are the same as those found on the iPhone 7 series (sans dual lenses and Portrait depth-of-field mode), meaning you're getting photography features like 12 megapixel photos, 4K video capture and more.
Other capabilities of these new tablets that are worth mentioning include a faster Touch ID authentication, Apple's A10X Fusion chip with 30 percent faster CPU and 40 percent faster GPU performance than the previous generation, plus much more.
The real story, of course, is iOS 11 which turns these new iPads into productivity powerhouses with such features as a dynamic Dock, a new app switcher, drag and drop, improved multitasking and more. Unfortunately, iOS 11 is currently being beta-tested and it won't release for public consumption before the fall.
Are you liking these new iPads?
Let us know in the comment section below.
At least one of Apple's new iPhone models coming this year will be waterproof and have wireless charging capabilities, Apple partner Wistron has officially confirmed.
According to Japanese outlet Nikkei Asian Review, waterproofing will alter the assembly process for the upcoming iPhones a little bit.
Yuanta Investment Consulting and Fubon Securities analysts claim Wistron is splitting orders for the upcoming 5.5-inch devices “with flat displays” with Foxconn, meaning Wistron is probably referring to an LCD-based iPhone 7 Plus model as having wireless charging features.
KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo predicted a few months ago that all three iPhone models coming this year would comet outfitted with wireless charging modules.
Wistron is an Apple partner that is currently making a small number of the iPhone SE and iPhone 6 handsets in India so it's a bit surprising that they would jeopardize their Apple business by confirming a feature the Cupertino firm has yet to discuss publicly.
Here's what a company official said:
Assembly process for the previous generations of iPhones have not changed much, though new features like waterproof and wireless charging now require some different testing and waterproof function will alter the assembly process a bit.
The iPhone 7 series is splash, water and dust-resistant, rated IP67 under the IEC standard 60529. According to Apple, “splash, water, and dust resistance are not permanent conditions and resistance might decrease as a result of normal wear.”
Wistron is probably talking about increased water and dust-resistance under the IP68 rating, like Samsung's Galaxy S8. The Korea Herald said in January that iPhone 8 would feature IP68-rated dust and waterproofing.
As for the rumored wireless charging features, Reuters recently reported that Apple has been testing at least five different wireless charging technologies.
In February, Apple joined the Wireless Power Consortium, prompting some watchers to interpret the move as an unmistakable sign that iPhone 8 would use the ubiquitous interface standard Qi (pronounced chee) that's being widely used for wireless charging across a number of consumer electronics devices.
Taiwanese vendor Largan Precision, which supplies lenses for the dual-camera iPhone 7 Plus, recently confirmed it would start shipping facial recognition 3D sensors in the second half of this year, in time for iPhone 8.
The company is currently in the process of expanding production capacities. They'll be hiring a cool 4,500 workers for its new production facility, or nearly double its current workforce. Apple's OLED-based iPhone 8 is said to use 3D sensors to capture a user's face and iris, even in low-light conditions.
KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo predicted that a next-generation FaceTime camera on iPhone 8 would augment standard RGB sensors with infrared transmitting/receiving modules and include a bespoke 1.4-megapixel sensor capable of detecting changes in light signals.
The next-generation camera would apparently use lasers invisible to the human eye for advanced features such as 3D selfies, accurate depth mapping, 3D modeling and more.
iPhone 8's image sensors should be built by Sony, like before.
Largan CEO Adam Lin said in a press conference this week after the company's annual general meeting, as reported by Nikkei, that they will have lenses for a 3D-sensing module “used in a smartphone ready to ship in the second half this year”.
No phone vendor has officially announced a device with 3D lenses, leaving only iPhone 8 as the most likely phone with 3D lenses that'll be ready to ship in the second half of 2017.
Jeff Pu, an analyst at Yuanta Investment Consulting, estimates that Largan will supply 90 percent of rear-camera lenses for 2017 iPhones, around half of the 3D-sensing lenses and up to one-third of the front camera lenses. Foxconn-controlled Genius Electronics Optical and Japan's Kantatsu are said to compete for the rest of the iPhone 8 orders.
Image: iPhone 7 Plus dual-camera system with Largan-made lenses.
Cloud-storage service Box has (finally?) decided to provide a native macOS client app for its Apple customers. The new app, currently in public beta, is available at no charge at box.com/resources/downloads.
With the Box Drive app, users can access Box files on their Mac, natively integrated into the Finder, as well as easily share and collaborate on documents and more. You can edit like you would any local file and have the app save it automatically to the Box cloud, with the enterprise-grade security protecting everything you do.
According to the company, the app includes the following features:
The cloud doesn’t fit on your hard drive. While it's super convenient to sync files to your desktop, the amount of syncing you can actually do is limited by your hard drive space. So while you'd like to access ALL your files (especially your team files), more often than not, you end up syncing only a subset of your files, which limits the amount of work you can actually do straight from your desktop. Storing work on your desktop is risky business. IT teams have been pulling their hair out for years, because they haven’t had proper visibility or control over how files are being accessed, shared, and managed. Plus, if your computer was ever lost or stolen, there wasn’t much you could do about the work files that went along with it. Network files shares were great—20 years ago. Teams are clamoring for greater mobility, easier collaboration, and better compliance–and network shares just can’t keep up. Not to mention the constant maintenance, unpredictable growth, storage sprawl, and never-ending costs that come with them.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hl6eKWkTYVI
Apple's new Files app on iOS 11 features built-in support for a number of cloud-storage service, including Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, iCloud Drive, Adobe Creative Cloud and more.
Influential US magazine Consumer Reports today published their latest smartphone rankings. After weeks of “rigorous testing”, the organization has ranked Samsung's new Galaxy S8 Plus, which released in late April, higher than Apple's iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus devices, which have been on the market for eight months now.
The testing procedure took into account popular user features such as design, battery life, cameras, display quality and more. The top spot was previously occupied by the earlier-generation Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge.
As for Apple's smartphone, Consumer Reports ranked iPhone 7 Plus fifth.
Here are the top five smartphones, according to Consumer Reports:
Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus Samsung Galaxy S8 Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge LG G6 Apple iPhone 7 PlusDespite the latest Galaxies not having a dual-camera setup, Consumer Reports doesn't think consumers will miss the depth of field photography and optical zoom features found on iPhone 7 Plus.
“A few top-end cameras, including the iPhone 7 Plus and the LG G6, have dual rear-facing cameras, to enhance either zoom or wide-angle photography,” notes the report.
“The Samsung phones haven’t gone that route yet—and we don’t think they suffer for it.”
The latest Galaxy phones have “some of the best smartphone battery life we've seen,” they added.
Consumer Reports testers found the latest Galaxies' curved AMOLED display with the drastically reduced bezels at the top and the bottom both pretty to look at and functional, with a bigger screen area in the same-size device.
That doesn't necessarily make the flagship Samsung phone comfortable to hold in one's hand.
“Even on the smaller model, it will be hard for most users to reach the upper regions of the screen with their thumb,” said lead phone tester Richard Fisco.
Consumer Reports' biggest gripe with the new Galaxy S8 family? An “awkwardly” positioned fingerprint sensor on the back.
Here's what they had to say about it:
The fingerprint scanner on the back is awkwardly placed. You can use the scanner for unlocking the phone, and that works well. But it's right next to the rear camera, and we found ourselves repeatedly poking around to locate it—and smudging the camera lens in the process.
Consumer Reports is, of course, the same publication that lost some of its credibility by first not recommending iPhone 4 due to Antennagate only to change its mind a few weeks later. The fact they're now pitting the latest devices from Samsung and LG against Apple's 2016 smartphone—which will be superseded by iPhone 8 in a three month's time—isn't helping either.
A teardown analysis of Apple's new 10.5-inch iPad Pro was shared earlier today by repair experts at iFixit. According to the analysis, the new iPad Pro is essentially a scaled-down, streamlined version of its 12.9-inch predecessor when it comes to the internal layout.
Considering the 12.9-inch iPad Pro had a completely new internal layout relative to the 9.7-inch iPad Pro, the new 10.5-inch iPad Pro is not just a scaled up version of the 9.7-incher.
“One move we’re particularly happy with is the retention of the 12.9-inch iPad Pro’s danger-free display cable placement,” notes the analysis.
Here's an excerpt from the teardown analysis:
Apple put the display cables right down the center, out of harm’s way. We’ve seen this arrangement in an iPad only once before, in the 12.9-inch iPad Pro model, and it appears Apple finally managed to unify the Pro line around this somewhat more symmetrical design.
As for the device's ProMotion display with 120Hz refresh rate, double the other iPads, it requires double the number of connecting cables on the display.
120 Hz is a blisteringly fast refresh rate for this many pixels, which is probably why it needs four (!) connecting cables. (Its ginormous older brother got by with just two.)
They found a 30.8-watt-hour battery inside, a slight downsize from the 38.8-watt-hour battery powering the 12.9-inch iPad Pro, but an upgrade from the 27.91-watt-hour battery in the 9.7-inch iPad Pro. The battery package is pinned under the logic board and firmly adhered in place, lacking the 12.9-inch iPad Pro’s removal tabs.
The iFixit team was able to identify 4GB of 1600MHz LPDDR4 RAM from Micron Technology, Toshiba-manufactured flash storage and more. The only other iOS device with 4GB of RAM is the 12.9-inch iPad Pro. The 9.7-inch iPad Pro still has 2GB of RAM.
The display cable bracket is secured using Phillips screws rather than the three-point screws used in iPhone 7. iFixit also noted that their Wi-Fi-only model had plastic blocks where the antennae might be found in an LTE model.
“We're speculating that they add support to the display assembly, as opposed to the usual empty space seen in earlier iPads,” noted iFixit.
Because of Apple's use of strong adhesives for the display, logic board, speakers, ribbon cables and other components, the 10.5-inch iPad Pro earned a repairability score of a rather low 2 out of 10 on iFixit's scale.
Apple's iWork productivity suite was updated today on Mac App Store and App Store with several new editing features and other improvements available across iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Mac devices.
For starters, Pages, Numbers and Keynote for Mac, along with their iOS counterparts, now come with a brand new library of over 500 professionally drawn shapes that you can readily use in your documents, spreadsheets and presentations.
Across all the iWork apps, users can now reply to comments and join threaded conversations, making collaborative editing even easier than before, while new auto-correction and text replacement options save time while typing.
In Numbers, the new Insert Stock Quote feature and the Stock and Currency functions let you get data from the previous market day’s close. Keynote now lets you scroll like a pro on your Mac's trackpad with new pan and zoom options and your presenter notes can be edited while displaying slides in Light Table view.
Here's the full list of new features, fixes and enhancements in Pages 6.2, Numbers 4.2 and Keynote 7.2 for Mac, iPhone and iPad listed in release notes accompanying these downloads:
What's new in Pages 6.2 for Mac Enhance your documents using a library of over 500 professionally drawn shapes Reply to comments and join threaded conversations Add linked text boxes so text easily flows from one place to another New auto-correction and text replacement options save time while typing Export documents as fixed layout ePub books Change margins, headers, footers and paper size while collaborating Improved support for Hebrew and Arabic languagesLearn more about the new Pages for Mac features on Apple's website.
What's new in Numbers 4.2 for Mac Enhance your spreadsheets using a library of over 500 professionally drawn shapes Reply to comments and join threaded conversations Support for print preview in collaborative spreadsheets New auto-correction and text replacement options save time while typing The Insert Stock Quote feature and the Stock and Currency functions now return data from the previous market day’s closeLearn more about the new Numbers for Mac features on Apple's website.
What's new in Keynote 7.2 for Mac Enhance your presentations using a library of over 500 professionally drawn shapes Reply to comments and join threaded conversations New auto-correction and text replacement options save time while typing Scroll anywhere with new pan and zoom options Edit presenter notes while displaying slides in Light Table view Improved support for Hebrew and Arabic languages The Stock and Currency functions now return data from the previous market day’s closeLearn more about the new Keynote for Mac features on Apple's website.
What's new in Pages 3.2 for iOS Enhance your documents using a library of over 500 professionally drawn shapes Reply to comments and join threaded conversations Add linked text boxes so text easily flows from one place to another New auto-correction and text replacement options save time while typing New page thumbnail view allows you to easily navigate your document Export documents as fixed layout ePub books Change margins, headers, footers and paper size while collaboratingLearn more about the new Pages for iOS features on Apple's website.
What's new in Numbers 3.2 for iOS Enhance your spreadsheets using a library of over 500 professionally drawn shapes Reply to comments and join threaded conversations Support for print preview in collaborative spreadsheets New auto-correction and text replacement options save time while typing The Insert Stock Quote feature and the Stock and Currency functions now return data from the previous market day’s closeLearn more about the new Numbers for iOS features on Apple's website.
What's new in Keynote 3.2 for iOS Enhance your presentations using a library of over 500 professionally drawn shapes Easily rearrange your slides with the new Light Table view Edit presenter notes while viewing slides Reply to comments and join threaded conversations New auto-correction and text replacement options save time while typing Improved support for Hebrew and Arabic languagesLearn more about the new Keynote for iOS features on Apple's website.
These apps used to be paid downloads, but Apple recently made them free for all users.
Grab Pages, Numbers and Keynote for free from Mac App Store.
Pages, Numbers and Keynote for iPhone and iPad are available free on App Store.
Apple on Tuesday seeded new betas to members of the Apple Developer Program.
iOS 10.3.3 beta 3 (build 14G5047a), macOS Sierra 10.12.6 beta 3 (build 16G16b), watchOS 3.2.3 beta 3 (build 14V5744a) and tvOS 10.2.2 beta 3 (build 14W5745a) are all now available to deploy on registered devices that have an appropriate configuration.
Just use the standard Software Update mechanism to install the latest beta updates. Full installers can be downloaded through Apple's Dev Center.
These are maintenance updates with bug fixes and stability improvements. Should we discover any new user-facing features, we'll make sure to update this article.
Veteran Apple chip architect Manu Gulati is now a Lead SoC Architect at Google, reveals his LinkedIn profile which states that he started in his new Google role in May.
According to Variety, Gulati has been tasked with leading the effort to build highly optimized chips for Google's Pixel smartphones in-house.
He had been spearheading Apple’s own chip developments for close to eight years.
By hiring an industry expert, Google is hoping to distance itself from the rest of the pack. Like other flagship Android devices, Pixel smartphones use Qualcomm's Snapdragon 821 processor.
This makes it harder for Google to differentiate Pixel devices from other Android phones.
“In addition to Gulati’s hire, Google is now looking to hire additional chip experts to tightly control future Pixel hardware,” Variety learned from sources familiar with the hire.
A custom chip would allow Google to develop a more secure smartphone with better camera features, advanced biometric authentication, optimized power consumption and so forth.
iPhone 7, for example, is six times faster at image recognition than Google’s Pixel phone because its 64-bit A10 Fusion chip has a highly-optimized Image Signal Processor.
And with iOS 11, Apple is integrating features like Metal 2, machine learning and augmented reality directly into a phone’s main chip, which would have been impossible if the company hadn't closely controlled chip design.
For those wondering, Apple's Senior Vice President of Hardware Technologies, Johny Srouji, oversees the company's semiconductor and wireless teams, reporting directly to CEO Tim Cook.
“Johny has built one of the world’s strongest and most innovative teams of silicon and technology engineers, overseeing breakthrough custom silicon and hardware technologies including batteries, application processors, storage controllers, sensors silicon, display silicon and other chipsets across Apple’s entire product line,” according to his bio page on the Apple Leadership website.
Johny joined Apple in 2008 to lead development of the A4, the first Apple-designed system on a chip powering iPhone 4 and the original iPad.
Apple's semiconductor team is comprised of engineers who worked at startups like P.A. Semi that Apple acquired after releasing the original iPhone. Apple's logic was simple: it wanted to take its chip destiny into its own hands to tightly integrate the hardware and software, optimize device performance and power consumption and enable hardware features simply not possible on devices that use off-the-shel parts that are readily available to all vendors.
Incredibly, the strategy paid off big time.
Even the last-generation A9 processor inside iPhone 6s smokes competition in single-core performance, for instance. The A10 Fusion chip in the iPhone 7 family is even faster and Apple's latest chip, the A10X Fusion inside the new iPad Pros, features 30 percent faster CPU performance and forty percent faster graphics than the previous generation.
Project Titan is officially about autonomous driving software, according to Apple CEO Tim Cook in an interview with Bloomberg Television at the Worldwide Developers Conference.
The video was posted today, marking the company's public admission regarding true purpose of the secretive project. Laying out exactly what Apple is up to in the automotive market, Cook said their current efforts are concentrated on self-driving technology.
Here's what he said (edited for clarity):
We’re focusing on autonomous systems. It’s a core technology that we view as very important and probably one of the most difficult AI projects to work on. There is a major disruption looming there. You’ve got kind of three vectors of change happening generally in the same time frame. If you've driven an electric car, it's actually a marvelous experience.
The “three vectors” Cook refers to are as follows:
Self-driving technology Electric vehicles Ride-hailingAs you may have suspected, he ultimately declined to say whether or not Apple might eventually manufacture its own car. “We’ll see where it takes us,” Cook added.
“We’re not really saying from a product point of view what we will do.”
Watch the full video below.
Ever since rumors began swirling that Project Titan involves a self-driving vehicle, there's been no shortage of reports analyzing whether or not Apple should build its own car.
In October of last year, Bloomberg reported that Project Titan had refocused from building an actual vehicle to developing autonomous self-driving software.
Whether or not the fruits of Apple's labor will ever see the light of day in CarPlay, or perhaps as a standalone new app for autonomous driving, remains to be seen.