Alleged A10X Fusion benchmark suggests 20+ percent faster CPU in 2017 iPads

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 4, 2016

Apple typically takes the iPhone's A-series chips and updates them for iPads with more GPU cores and a faster performing, higher-clocked CPU. These chips typically have an “X” in their name, but with new iPad Pros and a fifth-generation iPad mini due in Spring 2017 the company has not yet officially announced an “X” variant of the iPhone 7's A10 Fusion chip.

Today, a source on Chinese social network Weibo posted alleged synthetic GeekBench 4 benchmark scores that could indicate at least one-fifth faster CPU performance in both single-core and dual-core computing for the purported A10X Fusion chip.

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Apple Pay launches in Russia

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated November 9, 2016

Apple's mobile payments service has officially launched in Russia, marking the tenth country where Apple Pay is now available. According to Reuters this morning, the service is available with support from MasterCard and Moscow-based Sberbank at launch. Users can add their credit or debit card to Apple Pay via the Wallet app on their iPhone or set up Apple Pay directly in the Sberbank Online mobile app.

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Leaked photos and commercial show off Google’s Pixel smartphones ahead of today’s unveiling

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated July 26, 2017

As we told you, Google will be unveiling a pair of “Made by Google” smartphones, the Pixel and Pixel XL, at a media event later today. Yesterday, British mobile retailer Carphone Warehouse posted a series of slides for the upcoming devices.

These images give us a solid advance look at some of the features of the upcoming smartphones. In addition, Rabid Rotty just captured on video a Pixel commercial that aired in Canada ahead of the unveiling.

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Adobe releases Photoshop and Premiere Elements 15 with facial feature adjustments & more

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 4, 2016

Adobe today released new versions of Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements for Mac and Windows with new automated tools, video collages, facial feature adjustments allowing you to change frowned faces into bright smiles with open eyes, a Photomerge Group Shot option that combines faces and bodies from a series of pictures to create a single perfect composite and much more.

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Apple granted patent for a Touch ID sensor that could work through an iPhone display

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 4, 2016

If you've been waiting for the next iconic design since the release of the black-clad iPhone 5, this year's iPhone 7 probably feels like a slight disappointment. Apple is widely thought to have saved its best innovation and industrial redesign for the Tenth Anniversary iPhone next year which could embed the fingerprint sensor, FaceTime camera and sensors behind the display.

As revealed by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), Apple has now been granted a patent for a fingerprint-sensing technology that could work through the display itself, paving the way for an iPhone with the full-screen face design.

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Let’s Talk iOS 155: Hiding the love

Sébastien Page ∙ October 4, 2016

Cody briefly reviews the Steve Jobs movie, Sebastien explains why he got AppleCare for his Apple Watch, and discussions about Apple removing outdated apps from the App Store, the fact that the company logs who you contact on iMessage for 30 days, Swift Playgrounds, and the answer to a life changing question. All in this episode.

Subscribe on iTunes

Support Let’s Talk iOS: Get two meals for free from Blue Apron by visiting BlueApron.com/ios.

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MinimalisticUI adds transparency across iOS

Anthony Bouchard ∙ October 4, 2016

MinimalisticUI is a new free jailbreak tweak that aims to make the UI throughout iOS a little less noticeable while you peruse through content in various apps.

The tweak can be used to adjust the transparency and more of tab bars and navigation bars so that they appear to ‘fade’ away as you scroll up and down.

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macOS Sierra is now available as an automatic download

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 3, 2016

Apple on Monday told The Loop's Jim Dalrymple that the free macOS Sierra software update will be available as an automatic download later today. This means that the software update will download in the background for Mac owners who have auto update downloads enabled in System Preferences.

Apple is being smart about the move and won't download any files to your computer if it's low on storage or does not meet the system requirements for macOS Sierra.

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“Online Stores” dropped from Angela Ahrendts’s title, but she is still Apple’s retail boss

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 3, 2016

Apple's boss of online and physical retail stores, Angela Ahrendts, no longer has “Online Stores” in her official title. Instead, Apple is now referring to her role simply as “Senior Vice President, Retail” to better reflect its efforts to simply retail branding. Her reworded title along with a tweaked job description is live at the Apple Leadership webpage.

The change occurred over this past weekend. This is a purely cosmetic change: her responsibilities have not shifted and she is still in charge of all things retail at Apple.

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