Apple

Apple shares 3 new ‘Switch to iPhone’ ads

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 29, 2017

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.

Smooth

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQy2heNOhe8

“We design the hardware and the software so your iPhone just works,” says Apple.

Security

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AszkLviSLlg

“Access to the latest updates keeps your iPhone secure,” reads the description.

Contacts

https://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.

Apple could open app development facility in Indonesia

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 29, 2017

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.

Video: Samsung’s stretchable AMOLED prototype display in action

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 29, 2017

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.

In time for iPhone 9, TSMC’s 7nm tech moving to volume production in 2018

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 29, 2017

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.

Latest iPhone 8 schematics show a lip at the top where 3D sensors/earpiece are located & more

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 29, 2017

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.

Apple Maps enhances Apple Park coverage with 3D building models, walkways & more

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 29, 2017

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.

Apple developing dedicated AI chip for future devices

Cody Lee ∙ May 26, 2017

Apple is working on a processor dedicated specifically to AI-related tasks, reports Bloomberg. Citing sources familiar with the matter, the outlet says the chip is known internally as the Apple Neural Engine, and its goal is to improve the way devices handle facial recognition, speech recondition and other AI-related tasks.

Currently, Apple devices handle complex AI processes with two different chips—the main processor and the GPU. This new chip would let Apple offload those tasks onto a dedicated module designed specifically for complex artificial intelligence processing, resulting in better battery life and performance.

The Apple AI chip is designed to make significant improvements to Apple’s hardware over time, and the company plans to eventually integrate the chip into many of its devices, including the iPhone and iPad, according to the person with knowledge of the matter. Apple has tested prototypes of future iPhones with the chip, the person said, adding that it’s unclear if the component will be ready this year.

It's no surprise Apple looking to move quickly with this AI chip. Other manufacturers, such as Google and Qualcomm, are already using dedicated AI modules, and artificial intelligence sits at the heart of two major spaces the company is rumored to be interested in: self-driving vehicles and augmented reality.

Source: Bloomberg

How to post images and videos to Instagram on the web

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated June 24, 2021

Instagram for iOS is pretty decent, but there are times when you just wanna quickly post an image without having the app unnecessarily eat into that precious cellular data by refreshing feeds and other content. While you can send photos from other iPhone apps via Instagram's Share sheet extension, it's now possible to upload images through Safari as well.

This tutorial provides step-by-step instructions explaining how to upload your photographs to Instagram using the mobile web interface, no apps needed whatsoever.

Before we get to it, know that you cannot take or upload photos from Instagram's web interface on a desktop computer. Only Instagram's web UI on mobile lets you do that.

iPhone 8 to switch from 16:9 to 18:9 display—here’s what this means for you

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 26, 2017

Apple is expected to change iPhone's screen aspect ratio from 16:9 on iPhone 7 to 18:9 on iPhone 8, according to multiple reports. Economic Daily News said today that the device's screen ratio will change to 18.5:9 instead of the previous 16:9.

18.5:9 accounts for the rumored curvature of iPhone 8's OLED display: the phone's active display area is understood to be 5.1 or 5.2 inches in the precise 18:9 aspect ratio.

Yesterday, DigiTimes said that Apple is expected to unveil a new iPhone in the second half of 2017, equipped with a 5.8-inch AMOLED panel in the—you guessed right—18:9 aspect ratio.

Aspect ratio is the relationship between the height and width of a display. In simpler terms, a 16:9 screen has 16 pixels in one direction for every 9 pixels in the other. The most common aspect ratios are 4:3, popularized by older TVs, and 16:9 found on widescreen ones.

18:9 has been popularized by the latest phones from Samsung and LG, which have screens that are taller than the 16:9 ratio used by the majority of smartphones.

Already, these new phones have prompted panel vendors to expand capacity to meet fast-growing demand for 18:9 smartphone displays.

It looks like the 18:9 screen aspect ratio is here to stay, but what's so special about it?

Mockup of iPhone 8 with Full Vision Display, via iFanr.

For starters, the 18:9 screen aspect ratio (you could just call it a 2:1 display) results in a display that's a little bit taller than a typical 16:9 screen. As a result, an 18:9 phone may provide a better grip than its 16:9 counterpart.

As a bonus, 18:9 is perfectly suited for Split View multitasking that Apple is expected to bring to iPhone with iOS 11. More importantly, on an 18:9 screen you can have one app on top of another in portrait mode. In the Camera app, as an example, you might be able to take a square photo on half of the screen and review it on the other half.

18:9 screens also show more content vertically so users see more of a webpage in Safari, additional images in their Instagram feed, more tweets and so forth, without scrolling.

On the downside, a majority of HD videos today are encoded in the 16:9 format and many games and apps are optimized for 16:9 on a landscape mode. If iPhone 8 will really come outfitted with an 18:9 display, all 16:9 videos will show blank space on the sides of the phone.

As Ron Amadeo of Ars Technica noted in his review of Galaxy S8, the device's unusual aspect ratio results in pillarboxing when watching 16:9 video without zooming or stretching it.

What's the point of having thin bezels on a phone if your 16:9 movie-watching experience suffers from blank space on the sides, you might be asking. While this is no doubt concerning, you can always double-tap to prompt iOS's media player to zoom in the video so that it fills the entire screen, in which case parts of the video would get cropped out.

Still, 18:9 could gain momentum if filmmakers adopt it.

iPhone 8 concept courtesy of designer Gábor Balogh.

For what it's worth, select new shows on Amazon Video and Netflix are shot in 18:9. Plus, Italian cinematographer Vittorio Storaro is pushing the new Univisum 2:1 format (or 18:9) versus the typically wider 2.20:1 aspect ratio commonly used in movie theaters nowadays.

It's unclear, and this is important, if iPhone 8's upgraded camera will feature a new aspect ratio that's closer to 18:9. Take Galaxy S8's 12-megapixel camera which shoots in 4:3 by default. But start shooting in the 18.5:9 mode and you only get 7.9-megapixel of its capabilities.

In the same vein, LG G6's thirteen-megapixel camera offers a maximum of 8.7-megapixel capability in 18.5:9 mode, or 9.7 megapixels for 16:9 images. Only 4:3 images can be shot in the full 13-megapixel resolution.

On the other hand, as iPhone 8 is said to include an active screen area at the display's bottom potentially designed for showing persistent on-screen controls, like Android, it's entirely conceivably that the actual content area could be in the 16:9 aspect ratio.

Apps are likely going to need to be updated to take the full advantage of the 18:9 canvas, but having been there before we expect a relatively painless transition. Be that as it may, Apple certainly is no stranger to making an iPhone's screen taller.

Claimed iPhone 8 case (middle) next to iPhone 7 (left) and iPhone 7 Plus case (right).

With 2012's iPhone 5, Apple made the display a tad taller without making it wider so that users could still reach corners at the top in one-handed mode. It took developers several months to update their apps to take full advantage of the new screen format. It follows that existing apps on an 18:9 iPhone would show black bars on the top and bottom of the screen.

At any rate, Google has urged developers to work with newer 18:9 aspect ratios for their apps and Apple is expected to do the same if iPhone 8 adopts the new screen format.

In other words, expect 18:9 to quickly become the new norm for smartphones.

As we reported before, iPhone 8 should manage to squeeze a 5.8-inch AMOLED panel (with an active display area measuring 5.1 inches) inside a chassis that would be just a little bit wider and a tad taller than the existing 4.7-inch iPhones.

Hopefully, Apple will achieve this by drastically reducing or eliminating the bezels and integrating the Home button, Touch ID, the camera and sensors into the display assembly.

Fun fact: the original iPhone had a screen aspect ratio of 3:2.

iPhone 8 mockup top of post via Benjamin Geskin.

Gatwick Airport rolls out iBeacons for augmented reality indoor navigation

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 26, 2017

Gatwick Airport, the UK’s second busiest airport after London Heathrow, has installed 2,000 battery-powered iBeacons for indoor navigation and passenger tracking.

Available across Gatwick Airport’s two terminals, the system is accurate up to three meters, much more reliable than GPS and enables an augmented-reality wayfinding tool so passengers can be shown directions in the camera view of their mobile device.

It could be used to inform passengers they’re running late and help them avoid missing flights.

Conceivably, Gatwick Airport could also take advantage of iBeacons for efficient queue management and to reduce congestion by being able to determine whether to offload luggage if a late passenger is far away.

According to the airport, they won't be collecting any personal data from the beacons with the exception of “generic information on ‘people densities’ in different beacon zones.”

Deployed in just three weeks, iBeacons form part of Gatwick’s £2.5 billion (about $3.1 billion) transformation initiative. The technology is currently being integrated into some of the Gatwick apps.

The airport is in discussion with other airlines to enable the indoor positioning and wayfinding tools to also feature on their apps and services.

According to Gatwick:

Airlines could go further—and with the consent of their passengers—may send reminders on their airline app to late running passengers, for example, or find out where they are and make an informed decision on whether to wait or offload their luggage so the aircraft can take off on time.

The lack of satellite signals makes road-based navigation systems, like Apple Maps, unreliable indoors. That's why Apple has developed inexpensive iBeacons, which are tiny battery-powered Bluetooth transmitters.

You can now order photo books and archive images on Google Photos

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 26, 2017

At its annual developers conference earlier in the month, Google announced three new features for its Photos app: automatically curated albums, photo books and sharing suggestions.

Today, the company pushed an update to its Photos app for iOS, Android and the web, bringing support for ordering printed photo books comprised of your best photographs. You can make a photo book in minutes with automatic photo curation and easy customization.

Photo books

To order a printed photo book, select the images you’d like to fill your album with. Google’s machine learning picks the best shots for your, removing duplicates and poor quality images.

In fact, the app will even offer personalized suggestions for photo books, like your trip to the Grand Canyon, time with family during the holidays, your puppy and so forth.

You can order a seven-inch square softcover book for $10 a piece or its nine-inch hardcover version for twice as much. Each has twenty pages though you can buy additional pages if you'd like:

Softcover—$0.35 per additional page Hardcover—$0.65 per additional page

Photo books are currently available to users in the US only.

However, the search company has made promises to bring them to more countries soon.

Google photo books key highlights:

Quickly find your best shots— Start from an album or search for a person, place or thing. Then, Google Photos can automatically pick out your best photos—helping you save time. Perfect your book in minutes—Easily move around your photos, add a book title and tweak your cover design. Beautifully crafted for you—Just choose a size and get started on your phone or computer. Photo books are made in the USA from premium, responsibly sourced materials.

Apple's Photos app supports photo books, too. As a matter of fact, ordering photo books has been part of the now phased-out iPhoto app for almost a decade.

Archive photos

Aside from photo books, today's update includes the Archive feature.

Chances are your photo library includes not only your selfies, food shots and cherished memories, but the more mundane pictures as well, like recipes, receipts, scanned documents and so forth.

Now you can move images to the app's new Archive section to tidy up your photo grid.

To get started, simply select a few photos you'd like to archive, tap the Menu icon and choose Archive from the popup menu. This simply moves the selected photos to your archive rather than delete them. Any archived images and videos remain visible in search and albums.

Aside from the image archival feature and photo books, this update includes performance improvements and reduces the amount of on-device storage space used by the app.

Instagram Direct now lets you send links and images in landscape and portrait orientations

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 26, 2017

Instagram yesterday announced a pair of minor updates for Direct, a direct-messaging feature built into its mainland mobile app for iOS and Android. For starters, Instagram Direct now supports sending images and videos in portrait and landscape orientations.

Plus, Instagram is just now offering support for sending links in direct messages.

The ability to send a permanent photo or video in landscape and portrait orientations through Direct means you no longer have to worry about weirdly cropping it as it will now show up properly in its intended orientation.

“We’ve added support for links in Direct,” noted the company. “You can share website links with friends and preview them directly from your thread.” As a bonus, the team also has implemented automatic links to phone numbers and addresses send through Direct.

Landscape and portrait uploads in Direct are available today on iOS, with Android coming soon. Links in Direct messages are available today on both iOS and Android.

Today's features are part of Instagram's version 10.22 update.

Grab Instagram for free via App Store.