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First hands-on video with iPhone 8 dummy surfaces on the web

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated June 14, 2017

Apple's iPhone 8 should feature a whole new industrial design with an almost full-screen face, a 2.5D curved OLED screen, no physical Home button, an in-screen fingerprint reader and other perks. Earlier this week, leakster Benjamin Geskin posted what files as the first hands-on video featuring a CNC-machined iPhone 8 dummy model.

Don't read too much into this report— this is a dummy iPhone 8 unit after all, and as such for display only. It's not a real working phone nor is it one of the iPhone 8 prototypes.

And here it is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9U-h3kEU2h0

Don't let the lack of an Apple logo on the backside confuse you: this is, as I've said, a mockup that matches up with a bunch of the rumors we've heard thus far.

That said, the clip provides a good approximation of what a future iPhone with a nearly full-screen front face might look like. Be sure to check out another iPhone mockup that leaked last week, which could be representative of the final design Apple settled on.

Apple is said to have tested about ten different iPhone prototypes.

Some of them probably sport a rear Touch ID, just in case Apple's plan to integrate a next-generation fingerprint sensor into the display assembly falls apart. To give you a better idea what an iPhone with a rear Touch ID might look like, do check out the images of an iPhone 8 clone from China, some of which you can see above.

Apple is likely to unveil its 2017 iPhone lineup at a media event in September.

Aside from a new premium design and a full-front OLED display, iPhone 8 is widely expected to feature wireless charging, 3D facial scanning, a ten-nanometer A11 chip designed by Apple, augmented reality features and, of course, iOS 11 that Apple will preview at WWDC next month.

Check out this iPhone 8 clone with rear fingerprint sensor

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 25, 2017

The images of an iPhone 8 clone that hit the web yesterday give us a good indication what an iPhone 8 with a rear-mounted Touch ID sensor might look like. According to Benjamin Geskin, who tweeted out the rendered images, the device is based on an early iPhone 8 prototype.

The images were originally posted on Chinese social media platform Weibo. “All my sources said that this is totally wrong design,” Geskin cautioned, adding that iPhone 8 “is not going to look like that.”

The phone sports a slim bezels on the front face with no physical Home button.

On the back, we can clearly see a vertically stacked dual-lens camera and a Touch ID-like sensor, positioned below the Apple logo. The copycat device features an aluminum chassis.

iPhone 8, as you know, is said to feature a glass sandwich design in order to avoid any potential interference with its wireless charging components.

The placement of the fingerprint sensor on China's iPhone 8 clone actually makes sense to me: it's relatively easily reachable with one's index finger, as opposed to Galaxy S8's fingerprint sensor positioned next to the rear camera.

Some reports have suggested that one of the more than ten iPhone prototypes Apple has been testing has a rear Touch ID. Newer reports, however, have indicated that Apple has managed to integrate Touch ID into the display assembly after all.

Still, the company was smart enough to engineer an iPhone with a rear Touch ID as a fallback device, just in case.

To me, the biggest takeaway from looking at these renderings is that iPhones would look much better with some additional color options beyond the usual black, silver and gold choices.

Can you guess what the only app on Trump’s iPhone is?

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 25, 2017

Of course you can, it's Twitter.

Axios reporter Mike Allen wrote on Thursday that he learned from White House officials that the key to forcing a more disciplined President Trump is limiting his screen time. “In Trump's case, it's curtailing his time watching TV and banging out tweets on his iPhone,” he wrote.

Here's an excerpt from the report:

Trump himself has been pushing staff to give him more free time. But staff does everything it can to load up his schedule to keep him from getting worked up watching cable coverage, which often precipitates his tweets. It has worked well overseas so far.

During last year's campaign, Trump tweeted from an Android device.

After The New York Times described Trump's Galaxy S3 phone as an “old, unsecured” device posing a hacking risk because it had not received a security update since 2015, Trump switched to an iPhone this summer.

In terms of security and software updates, iPhone has a distinct advantage over Android.

iOS software updates are immediately available across all supported devices in the wild because carriers don't get to vet them.

iPhone is also a better pick than older Android devices in terms of security.

New York Magazine’s Executive Editor named Editor in Chief of Apple News

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 25, 2017

Apple has created a new Editor-in-Chief position for Apple News, naming Lauren Kern, Executive Editor at New York Magazine, to the position. It's unclear what exactly Kern's new role will entail, Politico said.

The move is being described as “sure to raise eyebrows” in media circles.

Kern is one of New York magazine’s “most high-ranking editors,” said Politico. Prior to joining New York Magazine, she was a deputy editor at The New York Times Magazine. The hiring suggests Apple intends to advance the Apple News service and the stock News app.

Apple executive Eddy Cue said in February that Apple wants to cut down on clickbait on Apple News. The company, said Cue, wants to “vet and make sure that the news providers in Apple News are legitimate.”

Following its 2015 debut which replaced Apple Newsstand, Apple News is currently available in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia. iOS 10 brought out an Apple Music-like redesign for Apple News with bold headings, larger images and other visual tweaks.

Kern declined to comment and Apple has yet to confirm the hiring.

extra_recipe+yaluX reaches Beta 3: now with Substrate

Joaquim Barbosa ∙ May 25, 2017

As many of you will by now be aware, the yalu+mach_portal tool for iOS 10.1(.1) is no more. Troubled as it was with stability issues stemming from the mach_portal exploit it used, many iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus owners struggled with it, or chose not to use it at all. Luckily, that struggle is now over, as an updated tool entitled extra_recipe+yaluX has been released.

Alleged Apple vacation blackout could suggest iPhone keynote in September

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 17, 2018

Apple is reportedly canceling vacations for retail specialists between September 17 and November 4, according to a leaked memo sent to AppleCare Advisors and Leaders which was shared on Twitter this morning by prolific leakster Benjamin Geskin.

Based on the aforementioned blackout days, and assuming the pattern follows previous years, it's easy to imagine an iPhone keynote on either Wednesday, September 20 or September 13.

Conversely, pre-orders should go live on Friday, September 22, meaning iPhone 7s and iPhone 7s Plus (maybe even iPhone 8?) could go on sale on Friday, September 29.

Here's an excerpt from Apple's message:

The upcoming months are going to very exciting for all of us and for our customers. As you know, there are new product announcements and launches in September. In anticipation of the upcoming events and the corresponding heightened call volume expected, we will be increasing our staff across all of our programs over the summer.

In order to support our client during this very important time of year, we will be implementing Black Out Days in all AppleCare programs for Advisors and Leaders. The upcoming Black Out dates will be September 4 through November 4.

Apple notes that these dates are subject to change “as our support volume expectations fluctuate.” During blackout days, employees are restricted from requesting vacation.

“It is extremely important that everyone works their assigned scheduled days during this period—absences are unacceptable,” notes the firm.

https://twitter.com/VenyaGeskin1/status/867774248219267072

As with all leaks by Geskin, take this report with a pinch of salt until we're able to verify this piece of information with other sources. For instance, there are spelling mistakes in the memo.

Stanford study praises Apple Watch’s heart rate monitoring, calorie counting needs more work

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 25, 2017

A new medical study from Stanford University focusing on consumer fitness tracker reliability, published Wednesday in the Journal of Personalized Medicine, has crowned Apple Watch the king of heart rate monitoring while pointing out shortcomings in its calorie counting feature.

“People are basing life decisions on the data provided by these devices,” Euan Ashley, DPhil, FRCP, professor of cardiovascular medicine, of genetics and of biomedical data science at Stanford said in a statement.

The study included 29 male and 31 female volunteers who wore several fitness trackers like Basis Peak, Fitbit Surge, Microsoft Band, MIO Alpha 2, PulseOn, Samsung Gear S2 and Apple Watch. The study pitted the wearable gadgets against FDA-approved equipment.

The participants were asked to complete a total of 80 physical tests, including such activities as cycling, running and walking. They compared data against an FDA-approved 12-lead electrocardiograph for measuring heart rate and clinical-grade indirect calorimetry, which determines calories burned by measuring oxygen and carbon dioxide expelled when breathing.

Heart-rate monitoring via Apple Watch achieved the highest accuracy across measured modes of activity with an error rate of two percent, followed by Basis Peak and Fitbit Surge.

Samsung's Gear S2 had the highest heart rate error rate at 6.8 percent.

Researchers set an acceptable error rate at five percent, meaning Samsung's device fell just outside the study's acceptable buffer.

All fitness devices they tested fell short in calorie counting.

In terms of determining the amount of calories burned, Fitbit's Surge was the most accurate device with an error rate of 27.4 percent. PulseOn was the least accurate tracker in terms of calorie count with an astounding error rate of 92.6 percent. Apple Watch had an error rate near 40 percent while Microsoft Band came in at around 33 percent.

Low-impact activities like sitting caused the most inaccuracies with an average error rate of 52.4 percent compared against high-impact activities, such as walking and running.

This is due to the differences in how people exercise. “People are so variable,” Ashely said. “Some people walk smoothly and others waddle along, and that has an impact."

“The heart rate measurements performed far better than we expected, but the energy expenditure measures were way off the mark,” she added.

“The magnitude of just how bad they were surprised me.”

Each of the tested devices uses its own proprietary algorithm for calculating calorie burn, which could explain the wildly differing readings in terms of energy expenditure rates.

You can now drag and drop files on iPad between Readdle’s productivity apps

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 25, 2017

Readdle, Ukrainian makers of fine productivity software for iPhone, iPad and Mac, today announced that, for the first time ever, they're making it possible to drag and drop items in the split screen mode on iPad between its most popular productivity apps: Documents, PDF Expert, Scanner Pro and Spark.

In addition to cross-app drag and drop in Split View multitasking mode, Readdle's excellent Documents app has received a major update that turns it into a Finder on iOS of sorts.

Cross-app drag and drop

Drag and drop between Readdle apps works like a charm, really.

For instance, you can drag a file from Documents and drop it on Spark to instantly create a new email message with an attachment. Or, you can drag and drop scans from Scanner Pro to PDF Expert for further editing.

How about moving that attached contract from Spark to PDF Expert to sign it before sending the signed document back to Spark as a reply? You can do all that—and much, much more—across the aforesaid Readdle apps on your iPad.

The promo video below showcases drag-and-dropping files between Readdle apps.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epzh9-rd-AI

True, some third-party iOS apps do support direct manipulation of content within the app.

That being said, however, the ability to drag and drop files and other content between multiple apps has not been utilized on iOS at all. While Apple could enhance iOS's Split View multitasking mode in the future with useful interactions like drag and drop, Readdle has already found a way to make cross-app drag and drop work.

Denys Zhadanov, Readdle's Vice President of Marketing, said via email:

We see it as a major improvement of iOS and this is how all iPad apps should work between each other. It’s so freaking awesome—glues all our apps into a phenomenal productivity ecosystem.

“The Readdle Team hopes that Apple will introduce their own implementation of inter app drag and drop one day,” developers noted. “That will support other apps and make iPad a much better productivity device than it is now.”

New features in Documents 6

As mentioned earlier, Readdle's capable (and free) file manager, called Documents, is getting a major update today turning it into the iOS Finder you’ve always wanted. The update brings out various enhancements, including an overhauled design with Spark-like quick actions, an easier way to import files, improved file management, an all-new media player, on-the-fly editing of cloud files, music and video streaming and more.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-314ezmBgE

According to Readdle:

iOS has always been a 'no-file-manager' system. Everything is taken care of by the apps. That’s a blessing and a curse at the same time.However, some of us are very comfortable with controlling things on our devices, especially when it comes to getting real work done.

This is why we created Documents, an extremely powerful, versatile hub for all of your files on iPhone or iPad. It’s your Swiss knife that removes iOS file management woes.

Documents has always been a powerful iOS file manager and now it's gotten even better.

The completely rethought user interface is very functional.

As the screenshots attest, you can now easily edit, zip, tag, move or sync your files with fewer taps than before. Bigger file preview thumbnails give you a better idea of the content of that Excel spreadsheet or PPT presentation before you even open it.

A prominently featured “+” button lets you quickly import files, including documents from your computer, Dropbox, Google Drive, Box, WebDAV or any other cloud-based storage source. Files are now organized into folders exactly the way you are comfortable with.

Just select one or a few of them and easily drag them to the right location. And with cross-app drag and drop support, you can move a single or multiple files between Documents and Spark, Scanner Pro or PDF Expert.

“The best part is that you can access any of the locally stored files in any app with the ‘Open in’ option,” notes Readdle. “This is a unique experience on iOS, and it’s what finally gives you that Finder feel on your iPhone or iPad.” Now you can work directly with your cloud files in Documents and even stream photos, videos and music from any cloud storage without needing to download the files to your device.

The new media player helps you organize your music into playlists, with the ability to shuffle and loop your favorite tracks. And if you have PDF Expert installed on your device, Documents will let you annotate and edit PDFs, fill out forms, sign applications and more.

If you haven't played with Documents before, you should really give it a try.

Acting a central hub for all of your files, it lets you view almost any file format natively, store your files directly on the device or connect to the popular cloud storage service to keep everything together in perfect sync.

Availability

Spark and Documents are available at no charge from App Store.

PDF Expert is $9.99 on App Store.

Scanner Pro is $3.99 on App Store.

You should really download the latest version of Spark, Documents, Scanner Pro and PDF Expert and see for yourself what kind of a productivity device your iPad can be with proper drag and drop support.

How to create a ringtone or text tone for free on your iPhone using GarageBand

Steffen Reich ∙ Updated February 18, 2022

Using the free GarageBand app by Apple, you can take a song or voice recording on your iPhone, turn it into a ringtone, and set it as your iPhone's incoming call or text tone. This tutorial shows you how to do that.

Jony Ive has been appointed chancellor of London’s Royal College of Art

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 25, 2017

Jony Ive, Apple's Chief Design Officer, has been appointed chancellor of London's Royal College of Art (RCA), which is the world's leading art school. According to the press release, Sir Jony Ive succeeds Sir James Dyson OM, Provost of the College (2011–17), as this key honorary role is renamed.

“I am thrilled to formalise my relationship with the RCA, given the profound influence the College has had on so many of the artists and designers that I admire,” said Ive.

“Our design team includes many RCA alumni, who embody the fundamental values of the College,” Apple's design tzar added. “I look forward to advising both the College and students, hoping that my experience proves useful in their work.”

He will take up the role in July.

In 2017, RCA was ranked the world's best institution for art and design for the third year in a row by QS University World Rankings.

Paul Thompson, Rector of the Royal College of Art, commented:

We are delighted to welcome Sir Jony Ive as our new Chancellor. It is a great honour to be joined by the world’s leading designer of his generation, who has produced consistently innovative and commercially successful technology and design.

As Chancellor, Jony embodies the RCA’s ideals of technology and design excellence, inspiring students and staff, and enabling us to educate the next generation of world-leading artists and designers.

As Chancellor for a five-year term, Ive will advise the College during a period of expansion, embodied in the construction of a new building at Battersea, scheduled to open in 2020.

From the release:

Ive joins the RCA at a critical point in its evolution into a dynamic, STEAM-focused postgraduate university, expanding its research and knowledge exchange centres into the domains of computer and materials science, the impact of the digital economy, advanced manufacturing and intelligent mobility.

Ive received an honorary doctorate from the RCA, conferred in 2009.

He was awarded a CBE in 2006 and a KBE in the 2012 New Year’s Honours list. Among others, Ive also holds honorary doctorates from both Oxford and Cambridge Universities. In 2012, D&AD named Ive and his team the Best Design Studio of the past 50 years.

The Chancellor is head of the College, presiding over meetings of the Court, a member of its governing body, Council, and conferring degrees at Convocation. Baroness Gail Rebuck remains Chair of Council and becomes Pro-Chancellor of the university. The posts of Chancellor and Pro-Chancellor are non-salaried.

Ive holds over 5,000 patents.

At long last, Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer 2017 hits App Store

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 24, 2017

Konami on Wednesday announced that its official Pro Evolution Soccer 2017 mobile game for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch has made its global debut across 150 countries. The game is available free of charge with non-compulsory In-App Purchases.

Optimized for a realistic football experience on mobile with swipe-to-pass and tap-to-shoot mechanics, the soccer simulation is built on the same game engine used in the original Pro Evolution Soccer console series, providing a fun and realistic soccer experience on-the-go.

Watch the official PES 2017 mobile trailer below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZIm9Eg2Kow

Featuring local and online multiplayer, official partnerships with club giants FC Barcelona, Liverpool FC and Borussia Dortmund, plus official licenses with top teams and players from Europe, Latin America and Asia, Pro Evolution Soccer is a no-brainer if you're a soccer fan.

Key highlights include:

The PES 2017 mobile experience—Take total control of every action on the field in a way that only the Pro Evolution Soccer franchise can deliver. Natural player movements, precision passing and in-depth tactics bring the true experience of the beautiful game to your mobile device. Swipe to pass, tap to shoot—Controller actions have been optimized to make playing on your mobile device feel as smooth and exciting as a PES action game should. Utilize advanced controls for precise passing and controlled shooting. Classic virtual pad controls are also available. Master your technique and feel the excitement of scoring the winning goal in the ultimate action soccer game. Official club partnerships— Scout and recruit thousands of soccer stars from the best teams in Europe, South America and Asia. Prepare to feel what it takes to play with or against stars like Lionel Messi, Neymar, Luis Suarez, Andres Iniesta and Gerard Pique. The official EUFA Champions League—Experience official visuals from the UEFA Champions League as you compete against the top teams in Europe. Build your winning eleven team—Acquire players through Scouts, Agents or the Scout Auction. Choose the best players to fit your unique tactics (e.g. Giroud has excellent physicality and Ozil excellent balance). Every player is unique and every match is a new experience. Local and online multiplayer—Challenge Friends in Local Match or discover new rivals in Online Match mode. PES 2017 mobile now lets you play PES on-the-go, anytime and anywhere.

As part of the launch, special scouts and agents will be available for a limited time through several in-game events.

Beginning today, you can earn players with high levels of shooting skills, like Lionel Messi and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, by participating in the Great Finishers event. Another event, called Step Up Challenge, lets you play against COM teams under certain conditions and receive prizes based on the number of wins earned.

Kick-Off Campaign bonuses will continue to be available through 4:59 UTC on August 23.

Kick-Off Campaign gives PES fans the opportunity to gain rare, minimum silver status-guaranteed players from partner clubs FC Barcelona, Borussia Dortmund and Liverpool FC.

For more details on these events, visit konami.com/wepes/mobile.

In case you've been sleeping under a rock for the past two decade or so, Pro Evolution Soccer is Konami's flagship series of football action games that have been enjoyed by football fans from around the world for more than 20 years.

The games sold more than 96 million copies worldwide, as of March 2017.

Download Pro Evolution Soccer 2017 for free from App Store.