Japanese blog Mac Otakara is reporting that Apple's OLED-based iPhone 8 may be marketed under the “iPhone Edition” moniker, saying the flagship handset may hit store shelves well after an announcement in September. The story corroborates prior rumors and analyst reports suggesting that iPhone 8 might launch later than expected and cost upwards of $1,000.
Mac Otakara expects the LCD-based iPhone 7s and iPhone 7s Plus iterative updates to go on sale shortly following the announcement.
Instagram has aped Snapchat all over again, this time by launching geostickers which I'm sure you know are location-based stickers originally popularized by Snapchat. This cool feature is live in just two cities, for now, but you can bet they'll be aggressively rolling it out in additional markets as rapidly as humanly possible. If you happen to live in Jakarta or New York City, use geofilters to spice up your Instagram Stories with visual accessories representing your present location, down to the neighborhood.
The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday morning that Sharp is investing a trillion yen, or about $878 million, into a manufacturing facility solely dedicated to churning out the superior organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display panels.
Sharp is owned by iPhone manufacturer Foxconn and the facility is expected to focus exclusively on OLED panel production for future iPhones.
Apple has a lesser-known program which lets would-be buyers get some of its latest products at a discount. The Cupertino firm used to match up to ten percent off a product's original list price from authorized retailers, under certain conditions, but that ceiling is reportedly no longer in effect, as per an Apple store employee on Reddit.
Visits from Mac computers identified as running macOS 10.13 have been increasing across iDownloadBlog and various other publications in recent weeks. And now, what looks to be the first public sign of macOS 10.13 has been spotted on Mac App Store, as per Pike's Universum which provided reliable information in the past. Apple will preview the next major versions of macOS, iOS, watchOS and tvOS at its annual developers conference which kicks off with a keynote on June 5.
As you know, iPhone 5, iPhone 6 and iPhone 7 models were each released in September of 2012, 2014 and 2016, respectively.
This year, Apple is expected to release a pair of iterative updates in the form of LCD-based iPhone 7s and iPhone 7s Plus models along with an all-new model based on power-saving organic light-emitting diode (OLED) screen and other technological perks.
Based on recent reports, however, it doesn't look like iPhone 8 will be ready in time for a September launch, creating a unique situation where Apple could pre-announce the new flagship in September before its arrival later in the year.
Nikkei Asian Review in a research note Monday corroborated previous reports which said that only a brand new iPhone 8 model would switch to organic light-emitting diode (OLED) screens, with the two smaller models—iPhone 7s and iPhone 7s Plus—expected to retain their existing LCD panels.
Korean publication The Bell also said this morning that about forty percent of 2017 iPhones would have OLED screens, predicting that all new iPhones introduced in 2019 would sport power-sipping OLEDs.
Apple is expected to use organic light-emitting diode (OLED) screens for all new iPhones in 2019, according to a report Monday by The Bell. Meanwhile, suppliers Samsung Electro-Mechanics (a parts unit of Samsung) and Interflex are allegedly boosting production of flexible printed circuit boards (FPCB) for iPhone 8, the first iPhone to adopt OLED display technology.
Apple should use OLED screens on about 60 million iPhone units this year and double the adoption next year. By 2019, all iPhones should use power-sipping OLED screens.
Apple's ambitions in terms of securing lucrative deals with Hollywood are reportedly being stymied by internal infighting between three senior executives who have been clashing over who will secure the first major content deal for Apple TV. According to The New York Post, Hollywood insiders are scratching their heads over who exactly is driving the effort.
Rather than use one of the few readily available off-the-shelf fingerprint scanners that can be integrated into a smartphone display, Apple's iPhone 8 will sport biometric fingerprint recognition via a custom-designed sensor, also embedded into the display. In addition, according to DigiTimes' report Friday, the built-in fingerprint sensor inside iPhone 8 will replace Apple's capacitive-based Touch ID fingerprint reader, as previously rumored. The handset is expected to enter mass production in September, claimed industry sources cited in the report.
Will iPhone 8 knock our socks off with revolutionary virtual reality and augmented reality capabilities? I'm not sold yet, but that's not stopping some people from making far-fetched speculations based solely on wishful thinking and little evidence. And what evidence has been presented thus far is very flimsy.
In January, blogger Robert Scoble ran a scoop claiming Apple had partnered with German lens specialists Carl Zeiss on a pair of digital glasses that would connect wirelessly to the next iPhone and display images and other information to the wearer.
Following today's research from UBS's Steve Milunovich saying Apple has 1,000 engineers working on a top secret project that would give the next iPhone 3D mapping capability using stereoscopic vision, Scoble told MacRumors that Apple is “readying a three-ounce pair of glasses that pair with iPhone 8 for mixed reality.”
According to analyst Steven Milunovich and his team at UBS, augmented reality (AR) will likely be Apple's next major product innovation.
In a research note seen by Business Insider, Milunovich writes that the Cupertino firm may have well over a thousand engineers working on a project in Israel that could be related to augmented reality.
UBS expects Apple to implement augmented reality in iPhone 8, which could include “moderate 3D mapping using stereoscopic vision” based on a technology called Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) as well as a software development kit for app makers to take advantage of the handset's rumored AR features.