Apple's favorite chip foundry, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), is about to kick off volume production of a new Apple-designed A11 chip widely expected to serve as the engine for new iOS devices this year, including an all-new iPhone 8 with an OLED display and the iterative iPhone 7s and iPhone 7s Plus with LCD screens.
According to the latest research from Barclays analysts Blayne Curtis, Christopher Hemmelgarn, Thomas O'Malley and Jerry Zhang, obtained by MacRumors, Apple may still launch iPhone 8 in September alongside the iterative iPhone 7s and iPhone 7s Plus series, albeit in limited quantity. However, the majority of iPhone 8 stock may not be available until much later in the fourth quarter.
In other words, the company's Tenth Anniversary iPhone aka “iPhone Edition” may be hard to come by when it debuts in September (like Jet Black iPhone 7 models last year).
Apple's next iPhone, affectionally dubbed by the media “Tenth Anniversary iPhone”, will have curves similar to those of the original model, which was released ten years ago in 2007, Korean site ETNews said Monday. In paying homage to the original iPhone, the casing of Apple’s next phone is thought to adopt “water drop design” with rounded curves on both its front and back, just like the original model. “Apple’s next iPhone will have a rear case made of glass,” an industry official said. “This glass case is a curved wall surrounded by four sides,” as per machine translation of the original article.
Facebook-owned Instagram announced Monday that users can now save their own live-streamed Instagram videos to their iPhone. You can now tap Save in the upper-right corner of a finished live video to save the broadcast to the Photos library on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. The iPhone photography app will continue to remove live videos from the interface after you've watched them, but you can now hold onto any video to re-watch it later. These updates require Instagram 10.12, available free from App Store.
According to prolific smartphone leakster Evan Blass, Samsung's regular Galaxy S8 and the rumored Galaxy S8 Plus models will occupy prices between Apple's iterative iPhone 7s and a new premium iPhone 8 model that will likely cost more than $1,000 unlocked. Blass also shared genuine-looking press renderings of the next Galaxy smartphone.
Meanwhile, SamMobile is reporting that Galaxy S8's slow motion video capture mode could blow iPhone 7 out of the water with the ability to capture a thousand frames per second. Apple's camera partner Sony recently announced a new 19-megapixel CMOS sensor (IMX400), built it into the new Xperia XZ Premium, that can capture slo-mo video at 960 frames per second.
The New Zealand Herald's analysis of the local subsidiary's financial statements has revealed that for the last ten years, Apple paid taxes to the Australian Tax Office instead of New Zealand's Inland Revenue. The Cupertino company appears to have paid out $37 million in income taxes from sales generated in New Zealand, but to Australia's tax authority.
iPhone and iPad silicon maker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (TSMC) won't make the decision whether or not it would build a foundry fab in the United States until sometime in 2018, Reuters reported Monday. The firm hinted it might start building some of the chips in America.
TSMC, which exclusively churns out Apple-designed mobile processors for latest iPhone and iPads, won't make a definite decision on building a US plant this year because it would lose its "flexibility" if it made the move this year.
As first noted by MacRumors, Apple now lets you buy extended warranty coverage for your iPhone up to twelve months after your device purchase.
Previously, customers had up to 60 days following an iPhone purchase to buy an extended AppleCare+ coverage for their phone. This information, originally provided by “multiple people familiar with the matter”, has been subsequently confirmed by a senior AppleCare advisor and other sources.
Apple has dedicated a new “Indie Games” collection on App Store to showcasing some of the best iPhone and iPad games crafted by independent developers. The new section, the store's permanent fixture, has arrived following Apple's twelve-day “Celebrating Indie Games” event.
Running from March 9 through March 20, that promotion is showcasing games from self-funded and self-published teams while temporarily marking down titles like Bicolor, Road Not Taken, The Room Two, Samorost 3 and Surgeon Simulator to 99 cents.
Siri competitor Alexa has come to the world's most popular smartphone via an incoming update for Amazon's shopping app for iPhone and iPad. The release marks the first time Amazon's personal assistant has supported non-Alexa hardware.
Just tap the mic in the app's search bar to ask Alexa questions, get weather updates, shop and search items, order and track products, play music, use Alexa Skills and Smart Home features, and much more.
By sneaking Alexa into its iPhone app, Amazon's made it possible for Apple customers to experience its Siri rival in full glory without needing to buy an Echo speaker.
An unreleased model of the Apple TV set-top box running tvOS 11, the next major revision to the device's operating system, has appeared in developer logs, as first spotted by co-founder and programmer at Firi Games, a Dutch studio that creates games for iPhone, iPad and Apple TV. A device carrying the “AppleTV 6,2” identifier reportedly uses an IP address suggesting it's being tested in Cupertino.
Nikkei Asian Review yesterday shot down predictions by IHS Markit analyst Wayne Lam and DisplayMate expert Dr. Raymond Soneira who said Apple's 5.8-inch iPhone 8 will use a flat rather than a curved display. However, MacRumors has allegedly confirmed with multiple people familiar with the matter that the phone will indeed come outfitted with a mostly flat AMOLED display.
The device's display will reportedly feature slightly curved left and right edges in order to conform with the layer of 2.5D glass that covers the screen.