News

When iPhone 7 Home button fails, iOS 10 offers a nice software workaround

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 20, 2023

MacRumors forum member “iwayne” has noticed that iOS 10 offers an interesting software workaround for when the iPhone 7's non-moving Home button fails.

Should that ever happen to you, iOS 10 will instantly create a software-based Home button centered at the bottom of the screen.

Not unlike the AssistiveTouch accessibility feature that many iPhone owners in Asia use regularly over fear of breaking the physical Home button, iOS 10's new onscreen button could hint at how a bezel-less iPhone 8 might work without a physical Home button.

US government bans Samsung’s Note 7 from all domestic flights

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 14, 2016

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and The Department of Transportation (DoT) have banned Samsung's recalled Note 7 smartphones from all domestic airline flights in the United States beginning Saturday, officials announced in an emergency order.

A few days ago, Samsung permanently stopped production of the troubled smartphone following incidents in which replacement devices it deemed safe exhibited the same fire-prone defect, even when powered down.

Early App Store Search Ads adopters seeing $0.40 CPA and 49.4 percent conversion

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 14, 2016

Announced in June of this year, first ads started cropping up in search results on the App Store beginning October 5. Aside from a few launch hiccups, App Store search advertisements seem to be performing pretty well in their early days.

A new study by mobile data intelligence firm Mobile Action—based on a random and anonymous sampling of 77 Search Ads campaigns—has determined that the average Conversion Rate (CR) is 49.4 percent while Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) sits around $0.40.

Search Ads, the survey concludes, is “the biggest opportunity in app marketing right now.”

Tim Cook meets Nintendo’s games designer Shigeru Miyamoto during Japan visit

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 28, 2019

Apple's boss Tim Cook met Nintendo’s legendary games designer Shigeru Miyamoto during a recent whirlwind tour of Japan.

As part of his itinerary, he also met with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and confirmed an upcoming technology center in Yokohama.

During the trip, Cook tweeted out a "good morning” message in Japanese and posted two images, one with Miyamoto and the other acknowledging that he had used Apple Pay to ride Japan's famous Yamanote transit line.

Instagram now has an app for Windows 10 tablets, but still not for the iPad

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 17, 2018

Popular photo-sharing service Instagram yesterday catered to the 'Other' category of mobile users by releasing an app for Windows 10 tablets. So what the heck is going on here? Last time I checked, Apple was still king of the hill in terms of tablet shipments and iOS (26 percent) was second only to Android (65 percent) in terms of tablet operating system share, while Windows tablets captured the remaining nine percent share.

Apple Stores begin removing security tethers from display iPhones

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 21, 2016

Apple continues perfecting retail experience for its customers as CNET reports today that some Apple Stores have begun to remove or have already removed security tethers from iPhone display models. Last year, Apple relegated iPods to side shelves and removed iPad smart signage.

According to CNET, Apple's flagship London Regent Street store re-opening this Saturday will feature Apple's next-generation store design and no iPhone security tethers.

Apple Watch Series 2 Nike+ edition is coming October 28

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 14, 2016

A special edition of the Apple Watch Series 2 that Apple has created in partnership with Nike, will be going on sale two weeks from today, on Friday, October 28, according to an updated Apple Watch Nike+ webpage first spotted by French blog WatchGeneration. It's what I wanted to hear as I'm in the market for the Nike+ edition of the new watch.

Apple has said that the $369 Apple Watch Series 2 Nike+ will have the same design, price and hardware features as the regular edition of the smartwatch, with the exception of special fluoroelastomer bands (available in a choice of four colors) that have perforations to reduce weight and improve ventilation.

Apple hires COO and engineers from iPhone graphics provider Imagination Technologies

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 19, 2018

Combing through multiple LinkedIn profiles, MacRumors has discovered that Imagination Technologies COO John Metcalfe left the company in June along with a bunch of engineers and is now listed as a Senior Director at Apple, where he started in July. Imagination GPUs are found in Apple's in-house designed mobile chips for iOS devices.

Chrome 54 for Mac is out, replaces old Flash-based YouTube embeds with HTML5 player

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated December 26, 2023

Google stopped using Adobe Flash for YouTube's desktop video player back in January 2016, replacing it with an HTML5 counterpart that doesn't require any special browser plug-in to function.

Last evening saw the release of Chrome 54 for Mac, Windows and Linux which continues on Google's mission to ditch Flash in favor of HTML5: the new version replaces old Flash-based YouTube embeds on websites with HTML5.

You can now stream Facebook videos to your TV while browsing your News Feed

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 13, 2016

Facebook today announced that users of its mobile app for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch can take advantage of some newly expanded options that let them stream any native video from Facebook to their television through devices like the Apple TV or Google's Chromecast HDMI dongle.

Wait, haven't we always had the ability to stream any video from an iOS device to the Apple TV or an AirPlay-enabled device via Apple's AirPlay feature?

Yes, but this is different in that you can watch Facebook videos on the big screen while browsing the News Feed on the device you're streaming at the same time.

Confirmed: Apple held talks with Sonder on using e-ink for a dynamic Magic Keyboard

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 13, 2016

An exciting story yesterday, based on a sketchy Reddit report, alleged Apple could use dynamic keyboard technology from Australian startup Sonder, part of Foxconn’s International Holding’s Incubator program. It would presumably permit the Cupertino company to engineer a keyboard with a tiny e-ink display on each key so that the layout could change depending on the app being used.

British newspaper The Guardian confirmed that discussions between members of Apple’s boss Tim Cook and representatives from Sonder Keyboard indeed took place.

New Apple patent would use heart rate data to identify Apple Watch owner

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 13, 2016

Currently, you can protect your Apple Watch with a passcode or set it to automatically unlock itself whenever you unlock your iPhone. But if a newly published patent application from the Cupertino firm is anything to go by, the wearable device may soon be able to seamlessly identify the owner with its built-in heart rate sensor.

As published by the United States Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO), the invention titled “User identification system based on plethysmography” proposes using a pulse oximeter to intelligently identify biometric characteristics of a user's vasculature.