For the first annual WWDC fantasy draft, Cody and Sebastien pick their favorite rumors and predictions for what we might see at Apple's big developer event in June. Make your own picks and follow along as the two co-hosts explain their choices and battle for the title.
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Apple on Monday shared a trio of geeky ads that are part of its new campaign aimed at persuading Android users to make the leap to the iconic smartphone. Published on Apple's official YouTube channel, the new mini-ads, running sixteen seconds each, promote the company's ability to roll out important security fixes fast via iOS software updates.
Apple is also praising the smartphone's smooth, stutter-free performance while highlighting easy contact transfer via the Move to iOS app for those who would gladly switch to an iPhone.
Smoothhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQy2heNOhe8
“We design the hardware and the software so your iPhone just works,” says Apple.
Securityhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AszkLviSLlg
“Access to the latest updates keeps your iPhone secure,” reads the description.
Contactshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUWLszbCBF8
“Switch to iPhone,” reads the video's description. “The Move to iOS app makes it simple to move your contacts, photos, and more to iPhone.”
The new ads use the tagline “Life’s easier when you switch to iPhone” and direct viewers to the recently revamped ”Switch to iPhone” webpage at apple.com/switch.
Apple's mini-website for switchers now includes useful new sections covering topics like in-house designed iPhone chips, powerful cameras, easy of use, customer support and more.
Do you like Apple's new ads? Do they manage to sell folks on the merits of iPhones, do you think? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
Despite low buying power, India with its population of 1.32 billion people represents a massive marketing opportunity for the increasingly popular smartphone payment services. Small wonder that the Cupertino company now appears to be preparing to bring its own mobile payments service to its customers in India, said a new report.
Apple Pay currently works in sixteen major markets.
According to a BusinessStandard article, the iPhone maker has submitted at least five applications with the Indian Patent office over the past year, all related to its digital payments system. The patent applications range from using biometrics to authenticate payments to securely transferring payment to a device such as a point of sale device.
While Indian law clearly states that software is intrinsically not patentable, exceptions exist for devices with software. If Apple's patents are granted, Apple Pay could hurt homegrown digital payments firms such as Paytm, Mobikwik, Freecharge and several others.
Samsung Pay launched in India in March 2017, while Google plans to bring Android Pay there later this year by anchoring the service to the government-backed Unified Payments Interface.
Last week, Facebook made a patent application of its own with the Indian Patent office. It outlines a digital wallet service that would presumably be integrated into its popular Messenger and WhatsApp messaging services.
Apple has been doubling down on the Services category as a way to boost sales of iPhones in India and elsewhere. Recently, the firm began assembling iPhone SE in Bangalore, in a facility run by its supplier Wistron, marking the first time the cupertino company has assembled any iPhone model in the country.
Apple could open an app development center in Jakarta, the capital and the most populous city of Indonesia and home to an upcoming Apple research and development center.
According to a source who spoke with Japanese outlet Nikkei, Apple's app development center will open in suburban Jakarta as early as October, allowing the company to start selling its newest phones in Indonesia.
The Cupertino technology giant currently relies on a network of resellers to push iPhones in the country as the devices are unavailable through its online store in Indonesia.
But what do apps have to do with hardware sales?
Nikkei explains that Indonesia in 2015 imposed regulatory rules requiring phones sold in the country to use at least 30 percent locally procured components by 2017. Apple did not set up local production in the country, but last year the government had a change of heart and now counts locally developed mobile apps as “locally produced” content for smartphones.
Sensing an opportunity, Apple is now set to open an app development facility in Jakarta.
However, the policy change has drawn the ire of Samsung, which in 2015 established a smartphone production line inside its existing manufacturing plant in suburban Jakarta.
“Had the rule on app development come earlier, the South Korean company could have saved a lot of money by using Apple's approach,” added Nikkei. “Policy shift means Apple can meet the quota with a smaller investment,” reads the article.
Similar sourcing requirements for foreign goods have prevented Apple from selling iPhones directly to customers in India. Recently, however, Apple and the Indian government have come to terms of doing business locally, paving the way for iPhone SE production in the country.
Samsung showed off a prototype of its stretchable 4K AMOLED display with glasses-free 3D, measuring 9.1 inches diagonally, at last week's Display Week 2017 conference. Today, Samsung Display's official YouTube channel shared a video of the stretchable display in action.
Samsung has been making flexible AMOLED panels for its flagship Galaxy phones for a few years now, but this new display has the elasticity to bend in two directions. The video shows the prototype AMOLED panel as having up to 12mm of travel before returning to its original shape, without any image degradation when pressed.
Here's the video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EMBTHbkXnE
Samsung says the next-generation tech might one day be used for wearable devices and more.
“Compared to conventional flexible OLEDs that can be formed in only one direction, such as bending, folding, or rolling a screen, the Samsung Display stretchable AMOLED panel can be flexed in two directions,” explains Samsung Display.
“When the screen is pressed from above, it depresses like a rubber balloon, then returns to its original flat shape. The screen when stretched up or down, even when pressed, has sufficient elasticity to recover.”
Apple is said to be making a major switch from the traditional LCD panels to the more energy-efficient AMOLED display technology with iPhone 8, but the move is said to be short-lived: the Cupertino giant has been researching even more power efficient micro-LED screens, based on its 2014 acquisition of micro-LED experts LexVue.
The iPhone maker could kick off trial production of its next-generation micro-LED display panels by the end of this year, according to supply chain reports, meaning this technology most likely won't debut before iPhone 9 in 2018 although Apple Watch Series 3 could debut this year with a micro-LED display.
Chip foundry Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), which counts Apple as its biggest client, is ready to move its cutting-edge seven-nanometer process technology to volume production in 2018.
According to DigiTimes, an improved version of TSMC's seven-nanometer process using extreme ultraviolet technology will be ready for volume production in 2018, according to company co-CEO CC Wei.
The firm's five-nanometer node is slated to enter risk production in 2019, Wei added.
TSMC currently makes A10 chips for iPhone 7 and is said to be exclusively churning out the upcoming Apple-designed A11 processors for iPhone 8 and other 2017 iOS devices.
TSMC in April reportedly began stockpiling A11 chips for 2017 iPhones.
The firm should step up its pace of inventory building from June onward, said industry sources.
iPhone 8's A11 system-on-a-chip should be built on TSMC's ten-nanometer process technology, yielding faster performance and lower power consumption.
The A11 Fusion chip inside iPhone 7 is being manufactured on TSMC's 16-nanometer node.
Apple is building a brand new chip dedicated to artificial intelligence and machine learning, Bloomberg said recently, but it's unclear if the new chip will make its way into iPhone 8.
Prolific leakers Benjamin Geskin on Monday shared some fresh new images, allegedly showing off latest iPhone 8 schematics and a CAD rendering based on the technical drawings of the phone. The schematics depict a lip at the top of the handset's OLED display where 3D sensors for the front FaceTime camera along with the earpiece would presumably be located.
On the back, we can see a circle which indicates neither a rear Touch ID sensor nor wireless charging support. According to Geskin, the circle is simply a placeholder for the Apple logo.
And here's a CAD rendering of the device based on the schematics.
Other iPhone 8 features hinted at by this technical drawing include no physical Home button out the front, a vertically-stacked dual-lens camera out the back with an LED flash integrated directly in the bulge, an elongated Power button on the right side and more.
Today, Slashleaks shared a few images showcasing yet another iPhone 8 dummy wrapped in a protective case allegedly “confirming” the device would come with no physical Home button.
It also hints at a Touch ID sensor integrated directly into the display and a vertically-oriented cutout on the back for a redesigned dual-lens camera system, aside from other features.
Apple will preview iOS 11 at WWDC next month.
It'll be interesting seeing what user interface changes Apple has added to iOS to make room for the rumored function area at the bottom of the display and to possibly take advantage of the tiny regions at the top of the device.
Accessories vendors are no strangers to designing cases for unreleased iPhone models based on rumors alone, and this particular leak is no exception. Even though we're still months away from iPhone 8's likely introduction this fall, Slahleaks today published a few images of another iPhone 8 dummy wrapped in a protective case.
The dummy unit appears to reflect Apple's rumored final iPhone 8 design with no physical Home button, Touch ID integrated directly into the display and a full-screen face, among other features. A vertically-oriented cutout on the back for a redesigned dual-lens camera system is displayed prominently.
As you can see for yourself, the dummy unit shown on the photos is virtually all glass on the front, with only a physical slit within the OLED display, likely for an embedded earpiece. The side bezels, as per the annotations, should be only three millimeters wide.
It's been speculated that iPhone 8 would use 2.5D cover glass like the iPhone 6/6s/7 series that's slightly rounded on sides rather than have the OLED display extend all the way to the left and right edges of the device, like with Samsung's Galaxy S8. Apple is said to be releasing the iterative LCD-based iPhone 7s and iPhone 7s Plus devices alongside iPhone 8.
Economic Daily News said last week that Apple has solved all technical issues related to its next-generation fingerprint reader, meaning iPhone 8 is likely to integrate an optical fingerprint sensor to enable authentication directly on the handset's OLED screen.
Apple has updated a Maps backend with 3D buildings, campus walkways and other information pertaining to Apple Park, the company's massive new headquarters in Cupertino, California. As first noted by MacRumors, the enhanced coverage of Apple Park includes 3D building models in the standard 2D view, as well as access roads running in and out of the campus, traffic directions, pedestrian walkways and more.
Other relevant Apple Park points of interest that can now be found on Apple Maps include the Steve Jobs Theater, the research and development facilities, Apple's fitness center for employees, above-ground parking and a pond at the center of the main building.
Earlier this month, Google added three-dimensional imagery of the main ring-shaped office building that's a bit out of date. Apple Maps implemented 3D images of the site along with descriptions and searchable geolocation tags back in March 2017.
Nothing emits luxury more than gold. Okay, there is platinum, but the smooth creamy, rich color of gold has been deemed the pinnacle of opulence for centuries. This week's wallpaper collection is inspired by the color gold, to allow us to share in the experience. Great for Space Gray, black, red, or, obviously, gold iPhones, the downloads will be a perfect compliment to your favorite device.
The week has been pretty slow for jailbreak tweaks in general, and as the week comes to an end, we ritualistically follow up with another roundup to tie up the loose ends.
In this piece, we’ll discuss our favorite jailbreak tweak releases in detail first, and then outline the rest of them afterwards.
Love them or hate them, iOS 10 came with redesigned notification banners that look starkly different from those in iOS 7, 8, and 9.
If like many others, you miss the way notifications looked in earlier versions of iOS, then you might enjoy using a new free jailbreak tweak dubbed Classic by nathanaccidentally.