Google Maps for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch makes it easy to customize vehicle icons. You can only spicy up your ride this way when using the app's driving navigation mode.
Google Maps: how to swap out driving navigation arrow for vehicle icons
Apple
Apple releases iOS 12 beta 5, includes lyrics in Apple Music search, new FaceTime sounds
Apple has released the iOS 12 beta 5 update to app developers. The last update, iOS 12 beta 4, was released on July 17. Today's build number is 16A5339e.
2018 MacBook Air could use Intel’s Kaby Lake processors
The 2018 MacBook Air is expected to use Intel's Kaby Lake processors that were first introduced in 2017. The decision to use the year-old processors comes as Intel's faster Whiskey Lake processor isn't expected to be ready in time for a Fall release, according to Taiwan's Economic Daily News.
CAD drawings depict a redesigned pill-shaped Smart Connector on the rear of 2018 iPad Pro
An alleged CAD drawing published Monday morning by Twitter account OnLeaks, managed and run by reliable French leakster Steve Hemmerstoffer, apparently shows a new location of Apple's redesigned Smart Connector on the upcoming iPad Pro models for 2018.
Certiport offering Apple-designed App Development with Swift certification program
Certiport, a leading provider of learning curriculum, practice tests, and performance-based IT certification, has announced a new global program for secondary schools and higher education. The App Development with Swift Certification curriculum is built on Apple's Everyone Can Code program. It arrives this Fall to allow schools to validate student Swift programming language skills.
Designed by Apple engineers and educators, the full-year App Development with Swift course takes students with no programming experience and teaches them how to build fully functional apps. The App Development with Swift Certification exam provides instructors with third-party validation and a measurable outcome for Swift programming material in the classroom.
Ray Murray, vice president, business development, Pearson VUE explains:
Earning an App Development with Swift certification will give students the confidence they need to further their programming education or move on to a career in programming. Earning a certification endorsed by Apple shows that they have a solid grasp on the language and can apply it – today – to create innovative iOS applications. We expect this new certification to gain widespread adoption due to the popularity of the Swift programming language.
Back in May on Global Accessibility Awareness Day, Apple announced its Everyone Can Code curriculum would be expanding to eight schools serving deaf, blind, or visually impaired students, also this Fall. Coupled with today's news, it's evident Swift programming language skills are becoming much more popular with coders and beginners alike.
You can find more information about the new curriculum on the Certiport website.
What do you think? Do you see a need in the workplace for the App Development with Swift Certification curriculum? Let us know below.
Video: Samsung’s “unbreakable” OLED panel subjected to a beating with a rubber mallet
Samsung Display last week announced a new type of OLED panel that the South Korean display maker says is virtually “unbreakable”. To illustrate the point, they released an interesting video showing a sheet of flexible OLED panel withstanding some heavy hammering.
The new panel is verified by Underwriters Laboratories, an official testing company for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration of the United States Department of Labor.
Samsung may use it in Note 9, which will be announced on August 9.
The way this new flexible OLED panel has been realized is by leveraging an unbreakable substrate with a fortified plastic window securely adhered to it, as opposed to having a glass-covered window like you see on today's screens which often breaks when severely impacted.
Here's that reliability test video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_innzQWrAE
Underwriters Laboratories has found the new panel to pass durability tests based on US Department of Defense military standards. It withstood a waist-high 1.2-meter drop 26 times in succession, as well as temperature tests at 71 degrees and -32 degrees.
Even after a subsequent drop test administered at 1.8 meters (nearly 6 feet) above the ground—higher than the US military standard— it operated normally with no sign of damage.
On paper, it's better than Gorilla Glass 6—a major improvement over its predecessor, the new Corning glass can survive 15 drops from a height of 1 meter (3.2 feet) without shattering.
Samsung did not detail how scratchable its newly-launched plastic screen is.
In addition to smartphones, the new strengthened OLED panel should be used in other electronic products such as display consoles for automobiles, mobile military devices, portable game consoles and tablet PCs aimed at education.
Apple currently buys all its OLED panels for iPhone X from Samsung Display, but other suppliers are expected to jump in within a year or two. It's unclear if Apple plans on using this “unbreakable” screen given it's been using cover glass protection for iPhones from US-based Corning Glass, in which it invested $200 million in May 2017.
What do you make of Samsung's unbreakable OLED panel?
Let us know by leaving a comment below.
1980s film ‘Time Bandits’ could become new Apple series
Apple's likely to turn the 1981 Terry Gilliam-directed fantasy film Time Bandits into a TV series. If approved, the series would be co-produced by Anonymous Content, Paramount Television, and Media Rights Capital, with Gilliam as a non-writing executive producer, according to Deadline.
Apple’s rumored 6.1″ budget LCD iPhone may use a single-lens camera to keep prices down
Smartphone leakster Benjamin Geskin yesterday tweeted out images of alleged iPhone dummies depicting size difference between Apple's rumored 6.5-inch iPhone X Plus and a new budget model, suggesting two major tradeoffs for the latter: the lack of a dual-lens camera in addition to the use of power-hungrier LCD screen technology.
Next iPad Pro models could feature smaller bodies, relocated Smart Connector and no headphone jack
The 2018 iPad Pro models will include smaller bodies, a relocated Smart Connector, and ship without a headphone jack. The new tablets, expected to launch this fall, will also include Face ID, according to Japanese site Mac Otakara.
App Store once displayed app download count, but Apple removed it at developers’ request
Many people are oblivious to the fact that Apple's App Store once used to actually display the download count for all apps and games. Unfortunately, this undeniably cool feature (at least as far as end-users are concerned) had to be removed because the developers objected.
Qualcomm admits Apple’s only using Intel modems in 2018 iPhones
The upcoming 2018 iPhone lineup might only use Intel-based modems. This news comes from Qualcomm's financial chief who confirmed that his company's modems wouldn't be included in this year's lineup. If correct, this would represent a significant change on Apple's part.
Apple Japan offers free repairs of gear damaged by torrential rain and landslides
Apple Japan announced (Google Translate) Friday that it's going to offer free repairs of customers' devices directly damaged by the record rainfall that hit southwestern Japan earlier this month and caused hundreds of deaths, flooding, landslides and collapsed infrastructure.