Rumors

Is Jony Ive no longer directly involved with iPhone and Mac product design?

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 22, 2016

In an article Tuesday titled “Pundits Believe Apple's Jony Ive No Longer Involved in iPhone, Mac Product Design,” AppleInsider reports that journalist Jason Snell and Daring Fireball's John Gruber speculated on a recent The Talk Show podcast that Ive, who is Apple's Chief Design Officer, may be now more focused on architectural projects like the upcoming Spaceship campus and special initiatives such as Project Titan than industrial designs related to the iPhone, iPad, Mac and other consumer products from Apple.

Samsung should release an all-new glossy black version of Galaxy S7 in time for Christmas

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 22, 2016

Samsung is said to copy Apple, again, by adding a new “glossy” color option to the Galaxy S7 lineup next month that sounds a lot like the iPhone 7's Jet Black finish. According to The Korea Herald newspaper yesterday, Samsung is readying to release its own Jet Black Galaxy S7 in December to make up for lost sales stemming from Note 7's discontinuation.

The Korean firm reportedly saw success in recently bringing the Note 7's Coral Blue colorway to the Galaxy S7 lineup, joining the S7's existing glossy Onyx Black color option.

GBA4iOS creator launching new SNES, Game Boy & Nintendo 64 emulator in beta this December

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 22, 2016

Developer Riley Testut, the brains behind a Game Boy emulator for iOS called GBA4iOS, said on Twitter yesterday that he is now focusing his energies on a brand new software designed to emulate the hardware of popular SNES, Game Boy and Nintendo 64 consoles. He's calling it Delta and it's launching this December in beta although a teaser website does not reveal if this will be an app that you'll be able to sideload onto an iOS device without jailbreaking.

Schiller: doubling MacBook Pro RAM would’ve reduced space for batteries

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 21, 2016

Software developer Ben Slaney asked Apple via email to give a more detailed clarification as to why the new MacBook Pro does not provide a 32-gigabyte build-to-order option for power users looking to max out the RAM. He allegedly received a response from Phil Schiller, who is boss of worldwide marketing at Apple and the steward of the firm's developer relations.

Schiller's response reveals that doubling the RAM from 16 to 32 gigabytes would have required a different logic board design versus the notebook's mustache-shaped logic board, one that would have reduced space for batteries.

Bloomberg: Apple disbands its router unit, stops developing AirPort wireless appliances

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 21, 2016

Apple has quietly “disbanded” its router hardware division and reassigned employees to work on more lucrative products that account for the vast majority of the company's revenue, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reported Monday citing people familiar with the matter. The company last updated the AirPort-branded Wi-Fi accessories back in 2013 with support for the speedy 802.11ac wireless standard.

McLaren confirms it was in talks with Apple that never “matured to a definitive proposition”

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated August 2, 2017

Back in September, The Financial Times, The New York Times and Bloomberg ran reports that Apple was considering either a full takeover bid or at least a large investment in the British supercar maker McLaren Automotive. A potential acquisition was valued at between $1.3 billion and $1.9 billion though McLaren later said it was “not in discussion with Apple in respect of any potential investment.”

Saturday, McLaren CEO Mike Flewitt confirmed in an interview with Reuters that his company did hold talks with Apple after all, but said the discussions never progressed towards a definitive proposition.

Panel suppliers struggling to meet Apple’s large order volume for OLED iPhones

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 17, 2016

For all the talk of Apple's rumored switch to the superior, power-sipping organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display technology for next year's iPhones, it's increasingly looking like OLED screens will be limited to a single model.

That's because panel manufacturers are currently struggling to meet Apple's expectedly large order volume and stringent quality requirements. That OLED screens are far more difficult to produce than LCDs isn't helping either.

Bloomberg's Mark Gurman and Jungah Lee said today that four main OLED panel suppliers—Samsung Display, LG Display, Sharp and Japan Display—are currently suffering from yield issues, with constraints potentially continuing into 2018.

Apple looking into manufacturing iPhones in U.S.

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 17, 2018

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump repeatedly said during his campaign that he would force domestic technology companies like Apple to build its “computers and things” in the United States.

One time, he even openly called for boycotting Apple products unless the company doesn't bring back manufacturing jobs it had outsourced to China many, many, many years ago.

Japanese outlet Nikkei is reporting today that iPhone contract manufactures Foxconn and Pegatron were approached recently by the Cupertino firm regarding the possibility of establishing iPhone manufactories in the United States.

Dual-lens 2017 iPhone models to feature dual optical image stabilization

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated November 21, 2016

Apple's single-lens iPhone 7 and dual-lens iPhone 7 Plus both support the optical image stabilization (OIS) feature for taking sharper images and capturing stabilized videos. Next year's dual-lens iPhone models, according to KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, will support OIS on both the the wide-angle lens and the telephoto lens. The iPhone 7 Plus supports auto focus on both cameras on the back, but only the wide-angle lens is outfitted with OIS.

KGI: OLED iPhone to boast 5.1″ or 5.2″ active display area

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated November 21, 2016

KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo is out with a new report this morning. In his note to clients, a copy of which was obtained by AppleInsider, the revered analyst predicts that a brand new premium iPhone model will be joining the lineup next year alongside 4.7 and 5.5-inch models.

This brand new device should boast an all-new industrial design with a glass casing instead of metal and use OLED display technology, as reported before. According to the note, the active display area will be somewhere in between the current 4.7-inch iPhone 7 and the 5.5-inch iPhone 7 Plus, or about 5.2-inches diagonally.

French retailer tells customers AirPods will begin shipping on or around November 30

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated December 12, 2016

Another European reseller is claiming that it's privy to when Apple's $159 AirPods wireless headphones will start shipping after German authorized reseller Conrad told a customer a week ago that it would be kicking off AirPods sales tomorrow, November 18.

French retailer Fnac has apparently started the pre-order process for the wireless earphones.

Fnac reportedly told customers who pre-ordered their AirPods that the accessory would start shipping on or around Wednesday, November 30, Mac4Ever said Thursday.

Apple plans to cut App Store fees for video streaming apps

Cody Lee ∙ November 16, 2016

Apple plans to cut the amount it charges to sell video services over its App Store, Bloomberg reports. The outlet says the move is part of an effort to appease content partners, whose TV shows and movies are vital to the company's larger video strategy.

Previously, the iPhone maker took a 30% cut of revenue from app and in-app purchases. Then in June it announced it would slice that in half after the first year Now it sounds like Apple is going to make that an upfront price for participating video apps.