News

Samsung could build 240M AMOLEDs for future iPhones in the next 3 years

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 30, 2016

LG Display, Japan Display, AU Optronics, Samsung Display and Foxconn-owned Sharp are all said to share production of AMOLED panels for future iPhones, with Samsung alone providing an estimated 240 million AMOLED units in the next three years beginning in 2017, DigiTimes Research predicted yesterday.

Samsung is the world's top producer of AMOLED panels. When deployed to the iPhone, this technology will result in crisper colors, deeper blacks, increased brightness, high visibility under direct sunlight and reduced power consumption.

Facebook tweaks News Feed to prioritize friends over news sites

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 30, 2016

Adam Mosseri, Facebook's Vice President of Product Management, announced yesterday an upcoming change to the News Feed ranking algorithm on the service.

Soon, your News Feed will prioritize content from friends over news stories from publishers to address missing important updates from friends because content from professional publishers would get preferential treatment.

Long exposure and time-lapse photography made easy with updated Pocket Tripod

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 30, 2016

Pocket Tripod, a credit card sized phone holder that started as a Kickstarter project in 2013, has been updated to accommodate iPhones and Android smartphones of all sizes, with or without a case. Created by Geometrical Inc.‘s Rambod Radmard, this tremendously useful accessory fits in your wallet and unfolds into a phone stand.

More importantly, it doubles as a mini-tripod for times when you need your iPhone's camera to be steady. The updated version is expected to ship in October.

MetroPCS to start selling iPhones on July 1

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 30, 2016

MetroPCS, a prepaid wireless carrier in the United States that is part of T-Mobile USA, will start selling Apple's iPhones on July 1 in a limited number of retail stores in Florida. The program should expand nationwide following the Florida launch.

According to the official announcement from T-Mobile, the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus will be available for $649 and $749, respectively

The iPhone SE and iPhone 5s will be available for $349 and $199, respectively.

iPhone 7 ‘A10’ chip orders to help grow TSMC’s quarterly revenue by 20 percent

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 30, 2016

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, the world's top semiconductor foundry which Apple has commissioned to build 'A10' processors for the next iPhone alongside Samsung, is expected to grow its revenue substantially in the third quarter of this year thanks to these orders.

Taiwan's Central News Agency, quoted by trade publication DigiTimes, said this morning that TSMC is reportedly forecast to grow revenues almost twenty percent sequentially in its third quarter “as shipments for Apple's A10 processors will kick off soon”.

Amazon schedules its annual shopping event for Prime members for July 12

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 30, 2016

Online retailer Amazon has scheduled a second annual Prime Day event for July 12. The Prime Day 2016, a one-day shopping event exclusive to Prime members, will be the biggest global Amazon event ever with new deals starting as often as every five minutes throughout the day.

watchOS 3 preview: new watch faces on your wrist & Face Gallery on iPhone

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 29, 2016

After telling you about the improved performance and more intuitive navigation in the Apple Watch software, our watchOS 3 Preview series continues with an overview of three new watch faces that have been added to watchOS 3 and a brand new Face Gallery feature found in the companion Watch app on iOS 10.

watchOS 3 also lets you launch more apps from faces like Workout, Music and Messages.

And as a cherry on top, you can now use complications on faces that previously didn't support them, like Photo, Motion and Timelapse.

Apple seeds beta 4 of iOS 9.3.3, tvOS 9.2.2, and OS X 10.11.6

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 30, 2018

Apple on Wednesday seeded the fourth beta for iOS 9.3.3 to both developers and public testers. The beta can be installed via the over-the-air update mechanism in iOS, or it can be downloaded from either Apple’s dev center or the Beta Software Program website.

The update comes just one week after the third iOS 9.3.3 beta was released, suggesting that it may soon be ready for public launch. Don't get too excited though. It's mostly bug fixes, as Apple tries to tie up a few loose ends and turn its full attention to iOS 10.

Apple supplier Cirrus Logic releases MFi Lightning headphone development kit

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 29, 2016

Apple supplier Cirrus Logic, which provides audio chips for iPhones, iPads and iPod touches, today released a software development kit for third-party vendors who wish to build Lightning-based headphones under the 'Made for iOS' (MFi) program.

iOS already supports headphones based on the proprietary Lightning connector, some of which are sold by Apple itself. As you know, the next iPhone is widely expected to drop the standard 3.5mm jack in favor of Bluetooth and Lightning headphones.

Photographs of claimed Lightning-based EarPods leak on the web

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 29, 2016

A sketchy photograph just surfaced on the Chinese microblogging service Weibo, appearing to show off a Lightning-based version of Apple's standard EarPods headphones. As you know, Apple is widely expected to ditch the 3.5mm analog audio jack on the next iPhone in favor of wireless headphones via Bluetooth and all-digital wired headphones based on Apple's proprietary Lightning connector.

Concept imagines iPhone 7 in Space Black with Force Touch Home button

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 9, 2018

You've probably read stories by DigiTimes and 9to5Mac, which were seemingly corroborated by today's analyst report and an earlier blurry photo, that the iPhone 7 would supposedly have a Home button that would sit flush with the face of the phone.

A UK-based conceptual artist took those rumors as a base for imagining a possible design for the next iPhone's Home button. He also envisioned a rumored Space Black finish for the device that should resemble the Space Black Apple Watch.

Until death do us part: this guy just married his iPhone

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 29, 2016

How far would you be willing to go in order to profess love for your iPhone? I bet not as far as one dude, who's taken loving his phone to a whole new level.

Aaron Chervenak just married his iPhone in—you guessed right—Las Vegas, probably the only place in the world where a wedding ceremony between a human being an an inanimate object can take place.

Chervenak is a completely sane person who simply took it upon himself to marry his smartphone as a clever way of sending a wake-up call to our gadget-obsesses society.