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.
The assistant wars are in full swing, with Google Assistant and Viv entering the fray and existing players such as Apple's Siri, Microsoft's Cortana, Hound and Google's Now all stepping up fight for consumers' hearts and minds.
Apple's rumored Amazon Echo competitor, which VentureBeat believes is a next-gen Apple TV, could blow all the assistants out of the water when it comes to deciphering complex natural language queries.
And powering it—VocalIQ, a sophisticate technology Apple acquired back in October 2015. Tech Insider provided an in-depth overview of how VocalIQ could make Siri a lot smarter than it is today.
Apple's rumored Amazon Echo competitor may come in the form of a new set-top box, reports VentureBeat. Citing a source familiar with the matter, the outlet says the iPhone maker is working on a new Apple TV with an improved version of Siri.
“They want Apple TV to be just the hub of everything,” the source told VentureBeat. Earlier this week, The Information reported that Apple is building a new device with a speaker and always-on microphone to rival products from Amazon and Google.
Apple has big plans to step up its game in the field of intelligent assistants, reports The Information. Citing sources familiar with the plans, the outlet claims the company is preparing to introduce a Siri SDK for third party app developers at WWDC next month.
Additionally, the report says that Apple is also working on an Amazon Echo-like device with a speaker and always-on microphone that people can use to do things like turn on music, get news headlines or set a timer. Google unveiled a similar device last week.
Apple plans to release new MacBook Pro models later this year with a thinner design, built-in Touch ID and other new features, reports Ming-Chi Kuo. In a note to investors on Monday, the high-profile analyst said the Pro laptops will make their debut in Q4 of this year.
Kuo says this will be the "most significant upgrade ever undertaken by Apple." In addition to an all-new thinner and lighter design, and Touch ID, the new MacBooks will also include an embedded OLED display touch bar, that will be located above the keyboard.
Differences between the 4.7-inch iPhone 6/6s and the 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus/6s Plus are mostly confined to screen size, battery and optical image stabilization on the bigger model.
With the next iPhone, this imaging gap between the regular-sized model and its 5.5-inch brethren is expected to widen by a significant margin.
Purported iPhone 7 technical drawing discovered on Chinese forum Baidu by Italian-language HDBlog serves as yet another indication that the flagship iPhone 7 Plus model will be exclusively outfitted with a rumored dual-camera system, leaving the regular-sized iPhone 7 model with modest photography improvements stemming from a larger camera package.
French leaker Steven Hemmerstoffer yesterday republished an image of some claimed iPhone 7 Plus components, found on Weibo.
The photo appears to show an alleged dual-camera module said to be destined for the handset's refresh, along with NAND flash chips which suggest that the iPhone 7 could include a new 256-gigabyte model.
The presence of both 16GB and 64GB memory modules on the photo might indicate that, disappointingly, the iPhone's highly criticized low-storage 16GB model won't be going away with the forthcoming hardware refresh.
Thus far, we've heard conflicting rumors regarding the next iPhone's speaker setup, with some sources being adamant that the handset would arrive outfitted with stereo speakers and others shaking their head in disagreement, suggesting the iPhone 7 would have the plain old single-speaker setup, like prior models.
Well, how about four speakers?
Prolific leaker Steven Hemmerstoffer today posted on his French-language blog NowhereElse.fr a set images of images of an alleged iPhone 7 prototype case which shows not one, not two, not three but four speakers, two at the top top and an additional two at the bottom.
Apple engineers are designing a remote unlock function that would allow an iPhone to unlock a Mac when in close proximity, reports MacRumors. The feature would use the handset's Touch ID hardware, and is slated for the upcoming OS X 10.12 update.
The site notes that this will use Bluetooth LE frameworks, and will likely work similar to the solution found in the Apple Watch. Passcodes on the Apple Watch can be bypassed by entering your iPhone passcode or using Touch ID on the connected iPhone.
Apple is moving forward with plans to change its iPhone casing from metal to glass next year, says Catcher Technology CEO Allen Horng. Catcher is a Taiwanese metal casing maker and a key player in Apple's current iPhone supply chain.
Following the company's annual shareholder meeting on Thursday, Horng told reporters that Apple hopes the move will help differentiate its handsets. He also dispelled rumors that the change will cause Catcher to lose their iPhone business.
Jonathan Bolus and Andrew Joyce, engineers who worked on wireless charging and ultrasonic technologies for the startup uBeam, are Apple's most recent hires. The Cupertino firm has been bolstering its wireless charging team over the past two years.
News that Apple is staffing up on such experts came amid swirling rumors of wireless charging coming to the next iPhone in 2017.
As The Verge writes, uBeam's technology, even though it works over a short distance, is marred with various technological hurdles and law of physics that experts warn will prove insurmountable and prevent commercialization.
Apple's Taiwanese suppliers have kicked off the recruiting process in preparation for an 'iPhone 7', CNBC reported Tuesday citing Economic Daily News. The mass-hirings have started earlier than usual because the iPhone 7 design is said to be “more complex than previous models,” which meant that Apple's suppliers needed to start work on iPhone 7 parts earlier than on previous iterations.
Both Foxconn and Pegatron had ramped up hiring as they prepared to assemble the upcoming iPhone 7 models, ahead of their expected September release.