WSJ: This year’s iPhone won’t feature big changes
If you’re eagerly awaiting a load of new features for this year’s iPhone, you might be a bit disappointed come fall. The Wall Street Journal reports that the upcoming models will offer only modest changes from the current iPhone 6S and 6S Plus rather than a more robust redesign. Apple has been trotting out new designs every two years with the “S” models offering mostly internal tweaks in between. According to WSJ’s sources though, that won’t be the case this year.
WSJ reports that both the 4.7- and 5.5-inch models will return, and they’ll do so without a 3.5mm headphone jack. Rumors have gone back and forth on whether or not Apple will ditch the port entirely, and we’ve even caught a glimpse of alleged iPhone 7 parts that indicate the jack is staying. The rumblings about the company’s preference for Lightning connectivity for headphones began late last year and has been the most discussed tweak for the new models. Nixing the 3.5mm port is said to not only improve the phone’s water resistance, but also allow for a thinner handset.
Apple is planning a massive overhaul for 2017’s 10th anniversary of the iPhone, according to WSJ. Those updates are said to include an edge-to-edge OLED display while nixing the iconic home button entirely. Sources say that the Touch ID security features would be part of the display itself. Of course, that release is well over a year away, so things could change significantly between now and then.
What’s the reason for not having a major update this year? Apple’s coming off its first quarter of sales decline in the iPhone’s history, but WSJ reports that the reason for subtle changes is due to tech that’s currently in the works taking more time to finish. While the iPhone 5S featured the addition of Touch ID, last year’s 6S and 6S Plus focused largely on internals with 3D Touch and improved cameras. Both kept the same overall design as the iPhone 5 and iPhone 6 the year before. Nixing the headphone jack wouldn’t be a small change though, especially if you’ve already invested in a set of wired headphones.
Source: Wall Street Journal
Apple Announces 2016 Summer Camps for Kids at Retail Stores
Apple has opened registration in the U.S. and a number of other countries (links below) for its annual Apple Summer Camp, where kids aged 8 to 12 can attend a company retail store and learn how to create interactive books and movies using Apple products and software, ranging from iBooks Author on Mac to iMovie on iPad.
Apple’s summer workshops will be hosted between 10:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. local time, on various dates between July 11 and August 12, in the United States, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, and the United Kingdom. Parents are recommended to sign up early due to limited spaces available on a first-come, first-served basis.
This year’s free workshops are called “Stories in Motion with iMovie” and “Interactive Storytelling with iBooks.” A third workshop will be offered in the United States, Canada, and United Kingdom called “Coding Games and Programming Robots,” in which kids will learn visual block-based coding for games, apply logic skills and problem solving, learn to program their own robots, and more.
Apple notes that children attending Apple Summer Camp 2016 must be accompanied by a parent or legal guardian for the duration of each workshop. Once their initial registration is confirmed, parents can register another child. All campers will receive a complimentary youth-size Apple Summer Camp t-shirt.
Tags: China, Italy, Spain, Japan, The Netherlands, Sweden, Apple Camp, United Kingdom, Turkey, France, Germany, Switzerland, Apple retail
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Apple SIM Now Available in 140+ Countries in Partnership With GigSky
Apple SIM partner GigSky has announced that it has expanded availability of its pay-as-you-go cellular data plans for iPad Pro, iPad Air 2, and iPad mini 3 and 4 to over 140 countries, up from more than 90 countries and territories in June 2015.
The new additions, among others, include Afghanistan, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Armenia, Argentina, Cayman Islands, Colombia, Dominica, Ecuador, Honduras, Isle of Man, Jamaica, Pakistan, Peru, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Tajikistan, Turks and Caicos, Uganda, Uruguay, Venezuela, Zambia, and the U.S. and British Virgin Islands. Apple has a full list of countries on its website.
Apple SIM is embedded in the latest cellular iPads and enables users to easily switch between different short-term data plans from select carrier partners without needing multiple SIM cards. It is particularly useful for traveling abroad, especially now that coverage reaches more than 140 countries and territories through GigSky.
Other Apple SIM partners include AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile in the United States, EE in the United Kingdom, Deutsche Telekom in Germany, Three in Hong Kong, and au by KDDI in Japan. AlwaysOnline Wireless also offers pay-as-you-go LTE data plans in at least 45 countries, with the option to pay by hour, day, or megabyte.
Tags: Apple SIM, GigSky
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Twitter Extends Video Limit From 30 to 140 Seconds, Launches New Analytics App
Twitter today announced that video lengths on the social networking site will be expanded from 30 seconds to 140 seconds long, with select publishers still granted exemption from the limit with the ability to post up to 10 minute long videos. The company called video “increasingly central to the real-time conversations happening on Twitter,” and noted that video-related Tweets had increased over 50 percent since 2016 began.
Now, everyone can post videos up to 140 seconds long! We can’t wait to see the amazing videos you create and share.https://t.co/DFsuvnXkuL
— Twitter Video (@video) June 21, 2016
To help facilitate more video views from its users, Twitter will be updating its iOS and Android apps with a new “full-screen viewing experience” that pops up whenever you tap on any tweeted video on your timeline. Everyone will be able to take advantage of the new 140-second videos beginning today, but the app update is said to be “rolling out soon.”
The company is also launching a separate, all-new app focused on analytics. Called “Twitter Engage,” users will be able to better understand and decipher the performance of their tweets with “real-time data and insights.” The app, which is specifically targeted at “influential creators” but available to anyone who’s interested, lets users track tweet activity, get notifications from the most important followers, and provide a breakdown of the highest and lowest performing tweets posted to an account.
Similar lengthy video updates are also coming to the Twitter-owned Vine app, where a select handful of creators will be able to stretch the 6-second platform to a full 140-second video that the company equates to “a trailer for a bigger story.” The video-related updates appear to be inspired around the YouTube-centric VidCon, happening June 23-25 in Anaheim, California. The company encourages those interested to follow Twitter Video for up-to-the-minute news — and Tweets using the longer format — coming out of the conference.
Tag: Twitter
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Apple Seeds Third Beta of iOS 9.3.3 to Developers and Public Beta Testers
Apple today seeded the third beta of an upcoming iOS 9.3.3 update to developers and public beta testers for testing purposes, two weeks after seeding the second beta of iOS 9.3.3 and more than a month after the release of iOS 9.3.2, a minor bug fix update. iOS 9.3.3 has been in testing since May 23.
The third iOS 9.3.3 beta can be downloaded from the Apple Developer Center or over-the-air with the proper configuration profile installed.
As a minor 9.x.x update, iOS 9.3.3 features under-the-hood bug fixes and performance improvements to address issues discovered since the release of iOS 9.3.2. No outward-facing changes or obvious bug fixes were discovered in the first two betas of iOS 9.3.3.
iOS 9.3.3 beta three follows the developer launch of iOS 10, a new version of iOS that will be released to the public this fall. We’ll update this post with any changes that are found in the third iOS 9.3.3 beta.
Related Roundup: iOS 9
Tag: iOS 9.3.3
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Apple’s 2016 iPhone Update to Focus on Headphone Jack Removal, Major Changes Won’t Come Until 2017
Rumors have suggested the 2016 iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus will not feature major design changes aside from the removal of the headphone jack, information that has been confirmed in a new report from The Wall Street Journal.
The iPhone 7 and the iPhone 7 Plus will continue to feature 4.7 and 5.5-inch displays, with only “subtle changes” to the exterior of the devices. Past rumors indicate the two devices will be the same general size as the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, but with relocated antenna bands that no longer span across the back of the bodies.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the removal of the headphone jack will make the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus thinner while also improving its water resistance. Just how thin is a matter of contention in rumors — schematics show little reduction in thickness but KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has said the iPhone 7 could be 1mm thinner than the current iPhone 6s.
Mockup of what the iPhone 7 will look like
While 2016 will mark a minor update, 2017 will bring major changes to the iPhone in celebration of the device’s 10th anniversary. Citing sources “familiar with the matter,” The Wall Street Journal suggests features could include an edge-to-edge OLED display with built-in Touch ID fingerprint support to allow Apple to eliminate the home button.
Apple is said to be deviating from its standard tick-tock upgrade cycle in order to introduce major new features in the 2017 iPhone, which take time to develop.
At a meeting with an Apple executive last month, one of the company’s China-based engineers asked why this year’s model lacked a major design change in keeping with Apple’s usual two-year cycle. The answer, one person at the meeting recalled, was that the new technology in the pipeline will take time to implement.
People familiar with the matter said some features that Apple hopes to integrate into iPhones, such as curved screens, weren’t ready for this year’s models.
It is not known if Apple is permanently moving away from introducing new designs on an every-other-year basis, or if the 2016-2017 shift is a temporary one.
While The Wall Street Journal’s report confirms the removal of the headphone jack in the next-generation iPhone, it makes no mention of other feature improvements that are expected, including a larger camera sensor in the iPhone 7 and a dual-camera setup in the iPhone 7 Plus.
Related Roundups: iPhone 7, iPhone 8 (2017)
Tag: wsj.com
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Apple Seeds Third OS X 10.11.6 El Capitan Beta to Developers and Public Beta Testers
Apple today seeded the third beta of an upcoming OS X 10.11.6 El Capitan update to developers and public beta testers for testing purposes, two weeks after releasing the second OS X 10.11.6 beta and more than a month after the public release of OS X 10.11.5. OS X 10.11.6 has been in testing since May 23.
The OS X 10.11.6 update can be downloaded through the Apple Developer Center or the Software Update mechanism in the Mac App Store.
OS X 10.11.6, like OS X 10.11.5 and the El Capitan updates that came before it, focuses mainly on performance improvements and bug fixes rather than outward-facing changes. According to Apple’s release notes, the update improves the stability, compatibility, and security of Macs.
No obvious changes or bug fixes were found in the first two betas, but we’ll update this post should anything new be discovered in the third beta. Apple has also started testing macOS Sierra, the next-generation Mac operating system set to be released this fall.
Related Roundup: OS X El Capitan
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Apple Seeds Third Beta of tvOS 9.2.2 to Developers
Apple today provided developers with the third beta of an upcoming 9.2.2 update to tvOS, the operating system that runs on the fourth-generation Apple TV. The third tvOS 9.2.2 beta comes two weeks after the release of the second beta and more than a month after the launch of tvOS 9.2.1. tvOS 9.2.2 has been in testing since May 23.
tvOS betas are more difficult to install than beta updates for iOS and OS X. Installing the tvOS beta requires the Apple TV to be connected to a computer with a USB-C to USB-A cable, with the software downloaded and installed via iTunes or Apple Configurator. Once a beta profile has been installed on the device through iTunes, new beta releases will be available over the air.
tvOS 9.2.2 is a minor 9.x.x update, focusing on bug fixes and performance improvements. Apple’s release notes have suggested the update includes bug fixes and security improvements, and no outward-facing changes were spotted in the first two betas.
This post will be updated if we discover any new features or fixes in the third beta of tvOS 9.2.2.
Apple is also working on the next-generation version of tvOS, tvOS 10, which includes new Siri features, single-sign-on cable authentication, and more. tvOS 10, currently available to developers, will be released to the public in the fall.
Related Roundups: Apple TV, tvOS 10
Tag: tvOS 9.2.2
Buyer’s Guide: Apple TV (Neutral)
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Owlet Baby Monitor review – CNET
The Good The Owlet Baby Monitor is well-designed and easy to use. It’s comfortable for kids, and sends alerts very reliably.
The Bad For the $250 price tag, the features just seem way too sparse.
The Bottom Line The Owlet is reliable enough to help some parents relax, but it doesn’t offer as many features as the price tag might indicate. It won’t replace a more conventional baby monitor, either.
Visit manufacturer site for details.
When you hear the phrase “baby monitor,” the first thing you might think of is a set of old walkie-talkie-type devices that let you hear your sleeping child (along with some static). But the Owlet Baby Monitor, along with a wave of new devices like it, are redefining that term.
The Owlet is a two-part device. It includes a small bootie that fits on your child’s foot and a base station that sits next to your bed. These two components communicate, so when the monitor senses abnormal oxygen levels or heart rate for your child, the base station then sets off an appropriate alarm. After working with the Owlet for a few days, I love the concept and performance. My wife and I really did sleep easier knowing our son’s vitals were being monitored.
That said, I can’t recommend the Owlet to everyone, simply because the $250 price tag is so much higher than what its straightforward features seem to justify. Plus, it just won’t replace more traditional monitors that let you know if your kid wakes up at night.
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The Owlet’s components are well designed and durable. The socks are comfortable for babies, and they fit snugly and reliably even on squirmy children. They measure heart rate and oxygen levels with pulse oximetry — a technology used in many hospitals.
I like the dual devices of the system. The plug-in base means the bootie recharges, rather than using replaceable batteries like some other monitors of this sort. Plus, having a separate piece for alarms lets me leave my phone silenced at night, so I don’t mix up alerts regarding my son’s well-being with, say, a retweet or favorite on social media.
Still, I want to see more smarts for the price before I’ll be comfortable spending $250 on the Owlet. Right now, it doesn’t include alerts if your child flips onto their stomach, or if your child has woken up and is crying. It also doesn’t help you track any sleep patterns over time. All of these features can be found in other monitors for lower prices, and most of them wouldn’t take significant changes to the Owlet’s hardware.
So while I like the Owlet Baby Monitor, I can’t recommend it as a priority purchase until the price drops or the feature list grows.
Epson Home Cinema 5040UB Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET
Epson
True 4K projectors are coming down in price at a glacial pace, but lower-resolution units that claim to benefit from being fed 4K TV shows and movies are much more affordable.
Epson’s Home Cinema 5040UB is the latest example, coming this August for $2999.
It three LCD chips have a native resolution of 1080p, but it can accept 4K resolution sources via its HDMI and convert them for display. Epson says its 4K Enhancement technology, which shifts each pixel diagonally 0.5 pixels, can “double the resolution to 3840 x 2160 and surpass Full HD image quality.” I tested the feature on last year’s Epson LS1000 laser projector and the improvement was negligible.
HDR, on the other hand, delivers a much more visible improvement than 4K, and the 5040 can handle it too. Epson claims an impressive 2500 lumens and improved black levels for better contrast compared to previous units like the 5030 we reviewed. The company also says the 5040 can render all of the DCI color gamut used for today’s HDR TV shows and movies.
The projector has a pair of HDMI inputs that work with the HDMI 2.0a transmission and HDCP 2.2 copy protection standards, so it work can handle the full capabilities of playback units like the Samsung UBD-K8500 4K Blu-ray player.
Epson is also selling a version of the projector, model 5040UBe ($3299) that uses an outboard HDMI connection box that communicates with the projector via the WirelessHD standard.
Epson gave me a demo of the new 5040UB projector with the “Kingsman: The Secret Service” 4K Blu-ray, and it compared well to a much more-expensive native 4K projector from Sony. Of course I’ll reserve full judgement for a CNET review.
In the meantime, here are some other specs and features for the 5040UB.
- 1080p native resolution with 4K Enhancement Technology
- 2500 lumens brightness
- Full DCI color gamut
- Auto Iris
- Power zoom, focus and lens shift (10 memories)
- ± 96.3 percent vertical axis, ±47.1 percent horizontal axis lens shift
- Wireless HDMI (5040UBe only)
A pair of related models will also arrive in August as part of Epson’s Pro Cinema line for the custom installation market. The 6040UB ($3999) has basically the same specs as the 5040UB, but with a black instead of white body, and built-in ISF calibration tools as well as SF Day and ISF Night picture memory modes. The company will also release the Pro Cinema 4040 for ($2699), which is dimmer than the other three at 2300 lumens, but is otherwise similar to the 5040UB.
AIVAnet 