News

Photos of alleged MacBook Pro seemingly confirm OLED touchpad rumors

Cody Lee ∙ May 31, 2016

New images surfaced on Tuesday of what is said to be a chassis for Apple's upcoming MacBook Pro. Cult of Mac says they were sent the photos by "an anonymous source who claims to work for one of Apple’s manufacturing partners in China," but that of course cannot be confirmed.

The so-called spy shots are interesting because there's a noticeable gap in the laptop chassis, just above the keyboard. The oddity lines up with a recent investor note from prominent Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, which called for this year's MacBook Pro to feature an OLED touchpad.

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As stock is dwindling, will Thunderbolt Display get its Retina treatment at WWDC?

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 31, 2016

Apple's Thunderbolt Display launched nearly five years ago and it may finally receive its long-overdue upgrade soon. Web checks reveal that Thunderbolt Display stock is dwindling across Apple Stores around the world, including in North America, Europe, Australia and elsewhere. Furthermore, tipsters say that stock is not being replenished, suggesting new models might be introduced at WWDC.

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Intel shares details of next-gen Kaby Lake chips, Core i7 Extreme Edition and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 31, 2016

Intel today announced at the Computex 2016 show in Taiwan that its seventh-generation Core processors, code-named Kaby Lake, are slated to arrive later this year. It also shared details about an all-new ”Extreme” edition of the Core i7 chip for gamers and content creators, the Apollo Lake chips for tablets and hybrid devices such as all-in-ones, and more.

The company highlighted some of the advancements in performance, battery and media capabilities that the Kybe Lake platform provides. In a way, the announcement has paved the way for future Macs built around the Kybe Lake platform.

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tvOS App Store charts now automatically hide any installed apps on your Apple TV

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 31, 2016

Apple seems to be making some changes to the tvOS App Store on the new Apple TV, with reports coming in that the store's various charts now automatically hide any apps a user has installed on their device. This behavior is now consistent in the Top Paid, Top Free and Top Grossing charts.

As a result, no longer will everyone see the same entires as the “Top” apps have now effectively become the “Top apps that you haven’t installed yet,” as first discovered by Apple developer Equinux.

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Weird iOS bug permits unlimited photo zooming

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 31, 2016

Apple's stock Photos app has a lot of nicely implemented features and it gets used a lot on my iPhone 6s, but I'm still yearning for the ability to zoom on photos unlimitedly, using the pinch-zoom gesture.

Zooming in Photos isn't possible beyond a certain threshold and that's been ticking me off for quite some time now. Curiously, there appears to be a bug in iOS which overrides this behavior and lets you zoom unlimitedly on a photo.

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This multi-functional power bank charges your Apple Watch, iPhone and iPad

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated August 9, 2016

The Computex 2016 exhibition show is underway in Taipei May 31-June 1 and hundreds of technology companies are showcasing their upcoming products and accessories.

One of them is a Chinese company, called Tama Electric, which showed off an interesting 6,000 mAh multi-functional portable power bank.

Designed to charge an iPhone or iPad via its built-in Lightning port, the accessory comes with a twist in the form of an embedded Apple Watch charging disc and an MFi-rated, 1.2-meter Lightning cable, allowing you to charge your wearable device on the go.

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Cool-looking concept converts legendary Macintosh LC into a retro iPad Pro dock

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 31, 2016

German magazine Curved.de recently published an interesting mockup which envisions an iPad Pro dock with vintage Macintosh look complete with a monitor, keyboard and mouse. Released in the early 1990s, the Macintosh LC (“LC” stood for “low-cost color”) was the company's low-end, inexpensive Mac which due to its Apple II compatibility was adopted primarily in the education and home markets.

“For such a concept to prove beneficial, Apple would have to implement a modified version of its desktop operating system OS X on its Pro iPads,” writes the magazine.

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First Lightning-to-headphone adapter surfaces, offering a sign of things to come

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated August 9, 2016

Apple is widely believe to remove the more than century-old 3.5mm analog audio jack from the iPhone 7 in favor of Lightning-enabled headphones and wireless Bluetooth headsets. Chinese vendor Tama Electric is advertising at Computex 2016 in Taipei the first Lightning-to-headphone that would let folks connect their existing analog headphones based on the 3.5mm audio jack to the iPhone 7.

The listing was first discovered by the oft-reliable Japanese blog Mac Otakara.

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Apple is rumored to be moving to three-year iPhone refresh cycle

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 31, 2016

Apple is believed to be abandoning its famous tic-tock cycle where the iPhone sees a major refresh every other year and moving to a three-year refresh cycle for the handset, said Japanese newspaper Nikkei.

“The move is largely due to smartphone functions having little room left for major enhancements,” reads the report. “A slowing market is another factor”.

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GraphicConverter for Mac gains facial recognition, Collage, Picture Package and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 30, 2016

GraphicConverter by small Germany-based developer Lemkesoft has been dubbed the Swiss Army knife of Mac graphics programs, and for a very good reason: this app converts over 200 different graphic file formats into any of almost 80 graphic formats.

In its latest update, GraphicConverter for Mac was bumped to version 10 and enriched with a trio of major new features—facial recognition for your photos, Collage and Picture Package—along with refinements like support for converting Apple’s Live Photos format into an animated GIF.

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