Unicode 9.0 goes official with 72 new emojis

The Unicode Consortium, the organization which develops the Unicode standard that specifies the representation of text in all modern software, officially announced Unicode 9.0, the next major revision to the Unicode standard.

The Unicode 9.0 specification is now available to vendors with 7,500 new characters for a total of 128,172 characters, including six new scripts and 72 new emoji characters.

Food for thought: is 3.5mm audio plug the new floppy drive?

Wired earphones plugged into an iPhone

Responding to Nilay Patel's controversial article on The Verge, titled “Taking the Headphone Jack Off Phones Is User-Hostile and Stupid”, Daring Fireball's John Gruber pulls out the floppy drive analogy.

As you know, the next iPhone is rumored to ditch the industry-standard 3.5mm jack in favor of Bluetooth and Lightning-based headphones.

Gruber goes on to compare Nilay's arguments against removing the century-old analog jack from mobile devices to the similar arguments that had been made in response to Apple's decision to ditch the good ol' floppy drive from the iMac in 1998 for USB.

iOS 10 beta kernel is unencrypted, but why?

MIT Technology Review has discovered that the kernel in iOS 10 beta is unencrypted, making it a lot easier for technology-minded users, jailbreak developers and the like to take a peek under iOS's hood and pinpoint any potential vulnerabilities.

For those wondering, kernels in all prior iOS betas used to be encrypted. Is this a bold move meant to help strengthen security in iOS 10 or will this decision actually introduce further security risks and open new attack vectors for hackers to exploit?

Emulate the CarPlay experience on your iPhone or iPad with CarPlay iOS 2.0

Two years ago, we showed you a jailbreak tweak called CarPlay iOS, which allowed you to emulate the CarPlay head unit user interface directly on your jailbroken iPhone or iPad.

Although the tweak was limited due the nature of the features that come bundled in the CarPlay interface, the developer has been working on a treat for those who liked playing with the original tweak; CarPlay iOS 2.0 is now available in Cydia.

Quick review: traveling smart with Radar, Yahoo’s new iPhone app for planning trips

Yahoo today released a brand new mobile application for planning trips, Radar for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. The app is available at no charge in the App Store and includes a smart chat bot that you can interact with. Using data from a number of popular third-party services, like Yelp and TripAdvisor, Radar delivers personalized recommendations of sights to see, activities and restaurants in an attractively designed mobile user interface.

After using it briefly, I can safely say that Radar is one of the best mobile apps Yahoo has published in a while.

Twelve South’s most popular iPad stand, Compass 2, now available in Gold and Rose Gold

Compass 2, a compact, ultra-portable iPad stand from the United States-based premium accessory vendor Twelve South, is now available in two new colorways to match your Gold or Rose Gold Apple tablet. The accessory is designed to work with the 9.7-inch iPad Pro and all generations of the iPad Air and iPad mini, in both landscape and portrait mode. The new Gold and Rose Gold editions of the Compass 2 are now available for $39.99 a pop each on Amazon and via Twelve South's web store.

Judge tosses ‘Error 53’ lawsuit against Apple out of the window

A United States district court judge has tossed so-called 'Error 53' lawsuit against Apple out of the window on grounds that the plaintiffs “lack standing to pursue injunctive relief”. The plaintiffs argued that the iOS 9 software update causing certain devices with a faulty Touch ID or Home button, like the iPhone 6, to be bricked has resulted in permanent data loss.

They were unable, however, to frame the argument in court a legal loss.

WSJ: iPhone 7 to feature similar design, bigger changes coming next year

Another report is out on Tuesday claiming that the iPhone 7 will closely resemble its 6 and 6s predecessors. Citing people familiar with the matter, The Wall Street Journal says that the company plans to break with its recent patten of overhauling the iPhone design every two years.

Thus, Apple's new handset this year will only feature subtle changes. They'll maintain the current 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch displays, as well as the overall design. The biggest planned change for the iPhone 7, the Journal says, will be the removal of the standard 3.5mm headphone jack.

Apple seeds beta 3 of iOS 9.3.3, OS X 10.11.6 and tvOS 9.2.2

Apple on Tuesday seeded the third beta for iOS 9.3.3 to both developers and public testers. The beta can be installed via the over-the-air update mechanism in iOS, or it can be downloaded from either Apple's dev center or the Beta Software Program website.

The update comes two weeks after the second iOS 9.3.3 beta was released, and it’s mostly bug fixes. Apple is obviously trying to iron out a few remaining bugs in iOS 9.3 so it can turn its attention to iOS 10, which arrived in beta form last week during WWDC.

Microsoft releases a free iOS client for SharePoint enterprise collaboration suite

Microsoft on Tuesday announced the official release of a brand new application on the App Store, SharePoint. Available at no charge for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, the software is basically Microsoft's long-expected iOS client for its SharePoint enterprise collaboration suite.

Billed as the Intranet in your pocket, the app lets enterprise users stay connected to their company's intranet while on the go, navigate their company's web sites and portals, access important content, information and people and more.

Former Apple engineers create a $500 rearview vehicle camera with smart features

About 50 former Apple employees now work for a startup, called Pearl, which was co-founded by three former Apple engineers (Joseph Fisher, Brian Sander and Bryson Gardner) who had spent decades helping develop some of the most iconic Apple devices like iPods and iPhones. For the past two years, Pearl has been working on its first product, a smart rearview vehicle camera, which unveiled this morning.