News

Here’s why Samsung’s building curved-screen phones (it’s not about the looks or info tickers)

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 12, 2016

Samsung started building phones with curved screens beginning with last year's Galaxy S6, a risky move that has now paid off if Samsung's reinvigorated sales are an indication. The current Galaxy S7 has perfected that design and the fact that the latest Note 7 phablet adopts the S7's gorgeous wraparound screen signals Samsung's confidence in the new industrial design which breaks away from the flimsy plastic the firm used just two short years ago.

Apple, too, is said to be rolling out a brand new industrial design for the Tenth Anniversary iPhone in 2017, with rumors and analysts pointing to a Galaxy Edge-like wraparound AMOLED display for the device. Which begs the question, what's the reasoning behind curved-screen phones other than the looks?

Apple given go-ahead to start building its massive $1 billion data center in Ireland

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 12, 2016

Following months of back and forth between Apple and Ireland's independent planning body An Bord Pleanála, plans for a massive $1 billion data center in Galway County have been approved, reports Business Insider. “Despite opposition from a number of individuals and local businesses,” Apple's been granted the go-ahead to build the first stage of the data center on a 197-hectare site.

The facility will support Apple’s online services for customers in Europe, including the iTunes Store, App Store, iMessage, Maps and Siri.

Cydia Eraser updated to support iOS 9.3.3

Anthony Bouchard ∙ August 11, 2016

Saurik has launched an update for the Cydia Eraser tool on Thursday so that it can now be used to un-jailbreak iOS 9.3.3 if you used the Pangu jailbreak tool.

The timing couldn't be better, as Apple recently released iOS 9.3.4 and is expected to close the iOS 9.3.3 signing window in the near future.

iOS 10 Preview: Phone gains spam alerts, VoIP integration, transcribed voicemails & more

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 11, 2016

iOS 10 turns the iPhone's boring Phone app into a software platform in its own right. Developers are now permitted to add previously unheard-of capabilities to Phone using Apple's new application programming interface (API), called CallKit, allowing Voice over IP (VoIP) calls from apps like Skype and WhatsApp to behave like cellular calls.

CallKit-enabled apps put contact images on the Lock screen for incoming VoIP calls and are deeply integrated with Contacts and Phone's Recents and Favorites.

Phone on iOS 10 packs in other exciting improvements that we honestly started to believe would never get implemented on the iOS platform, like voicemail transcription à la Google Voice and third-party extensions for detecting spammy calls automatically.

So let's get to it...

Is Apple planning to announce iPhone 7 on September 7?

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 11, 2016

With no official invites going out yet, speculation continues to mount as to when Apple might be holding a media event to announce the next iPhone. According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus are going to be unveiled at an event tentatively scheduled for Wednesday, September 7, less than four weeks from today.

His report yesterday about the next MacBook Pro with an OLED touch strip mentions as a side-note that the refreshed notebooks “aren’t likely to debut at an event currently scheduled for September 7 to introduce next-generation versions of the iPhone”.

iOS 10 tidbit: deleting text faster with 3D Touch

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 11, 2016

Here's a time-saving enhancement discovered in the previous beta of iOS 10: deleting text faster—a lot faster—with 3D Touch. Although this very cool feature originally flew under our radar, we're letting you guys know about it so that you're kept in the loop. Owners of an iPhone 6s or iPhone 6s Plus should be especially pleased with iOS 10's expanded use of 3D Touch gestures for things like clearing all notifications, sharing apps and renaming folders.

Apple bolsters its Health team by re-hiring Flipboard co-founder Evan Doll

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 16, 2018

Evan Doll, former Senior iPhone Engineer who left Apple a few years ago to co-found popular social news reader app Flipboard, has been re-hired by the Cupertino firm to help advance Apple's health-related initiatives. Bloomberg first caught wind of Doll's re-hiring this morning, based on his recently updated LinkedIn profile revealing his new position at Apple: Director of Health Software Engineering.

Purported fully assembled iPhone 7 front panel shown on images

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 11, 2016

In addition to a fresh batch of crisp, high-resolution shots showing a purported iPhone 7 in Gold pictured alongside its 5.5-inch brethren that surfaced on the web, here's another leak to chew on this morning—prolific French leakster Steve Hemmerstoffer shared via his @OnLeaks Twitter account these claimed photographs of a fully assembled front panel for the upcoming devices.

Photos of iPhone 7/Plus dummies (or are they?) in Gold surface on the web

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 11, 2016

Crisp images of alleged iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus devices in Gold surfaced today, first discovered by Czech blog Letem svetem Applem. According to mobile peripheral website Topp Ten, which provided the images, the phones will be offered in a Deep Blue variant replacing Space Gray, in addition to existing Rose Gold, Gold and Silver colorways. It's also possible that the pictures show iPhone 7 dummies, which are readily available from sites like AliExpress.

Apple’s upcoming World Trade Center store to open next Tuesday

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 11, 2016

Apple is set to open a new brick-and-mortar outlet at the World Trade Center Transportation Hub, a $4 billion train transit station in Lower Manhattan, in less than a week, on Tuesday, August 16, at 12pm ET. The firm announced that its tenth store in New York City, located at 185 Greenwich Street, is located in the lower level section of the Oculus Transportation Hub.

Apple: ConnectED program now reaches over 32,000 students

Cody Lee ∙ August 10, 2016

Apple on Wednesday announced that its ConnectED efforts now reach over 32,000 students. In a note on its website, the company said that as of the start of the 2016 school year, there are 32,145 students at underserved public schools in the US that are learning on iPad through the program.

First claimed photo of iPhone 7’s A10 chip surfaces

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 10, 2016

We may have just been treated to our first glimpse of Apple's next-generation A10 system-on-a-chip that should power the forthcoming iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus devices.

Leaked on the web through a Weibo account that belongs to Chinese repair shop GeekBar, which in the past provided genuine components for unreleased Apple products, the chip's label suggests it was manufactured in mid-July.

What's more, the package has the same number of pins as its predecessor, potentially alluding that it could sport the same 64-bit LPDDR4 interface like the current A9 chip.