Faster Apple Watch 2 With GPS, Barometer, Larger Battery, and Same Thickness to Launch Later This Year
KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo issued a research note to investors today in which he predicts an all-new Apple Watch 2 will likely launch in the second half of 2016 with a faster TSMC-built processor, GPS, barometer, superior waterproofing, and a higher capacity battery.
Kuo, well connected within the supply chain, believes the second-generation Apple Watch will retain the same screen sizes and thickness as existing models, with a similar form factor overall, despite adopting thinner display technology. However, while the Apple Watch 2 was once rumored to include cellular connectivity, Kuo does not expect LTE support until 2017.
The analyst also predicted that upgraded first-generation Apple Watch models will debut in the second half of 2016 with the same processor and waterproofing upgrades, but likely without the Apple Watch 2’s most significant additions like a GPS and barometer. Kuo expects another Apple Watch price cut once the new models are launched, but remains conservative about prospective shipments in 2017.
Apple Watch shipments could rise further between 2018 and 2020, pending significant form factor changes, FDA approvals supporting more medical and health applications, and 5G network commercialization, according to Kuo.
Apple has been pushing iPhone and Apple Watch sales together, so updated models of each device launching in tandem would be appropriate. The tentatively named iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus are rumored to launch on September 16, with pre-orders possibly starting a week earlier on September 9, so all-new Apple Watch 2 and upgraded Apple Watch 1 models could debut around those dates.
Kuo did not confirm if the Apple Watch 2 will have a FaceTime camera and expanded Wi-Fi capabilities as previously rumored.
Related Roundups: Apple Watch, watchOS 2, watchOS 3
Tags: KGI Securities, Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple Watch 2
Buyer’s Guide: Apple Watch (Caution)
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Pokémon Go Debuts in 15 Asian Countries, But Not India or China
Pokémon fans in 15 countries got their first chance to play wildly popular mobile game Pokémon Go over the weekend, but prospective players in China, India, and Korea are still waiting for the title to debut in their own territories.
Niantic confirmed trainer locations on Friday in the following countries: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Taiwan, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Solomon Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, and Palau.
Niantic CEO John Hanke told Forbes that Pokémon Go’s introduction in Korea is proving particularly challenging, due to Google Maps’ information system being limited because of security concerns over North Korea.
As for China, Hanke called a rollout “technically possible, but difficult to introduce due to the many hurdles, or should I say regulations we’d have to clear to get it to users.”
Niantic has been silent on the reasons for the launch hold-up in India, which is home to a lucrative mobile market of over 200 million users.
Meanwhile, Iran’s Supreme Council of Virtual Spaces has temporarily banned Pokémon Go in the country. According to the BBC, the ban is related to “unspecified security concerns” and followed a short meeting where the council “were waiting to see to what extent the game’s creators would co-operate with them”.
The game has been downloaded 100 million times in the U.S. alone, and is reportedly responsible for doubling sales of portable smartphone battery backups as players roam for extended periods trying to locate Pokémon.
Its ratio of paid users to total users is said to be 10 times that of Candy Crush, which generated over $1 billion of revenue in both 2013 and 2014. According to brokerage Needham & Co, Apple is set to make $3 billion in revenue from the game’s in-app purchases in the next one or two years.
Tag: Pokémon GO
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iPhone 7 and 7 Plus to Feature Pressure-Sensitive Home Button With Haptic Feedback
The iPhone 7 and 7 Plus will feature a flush pressure-sensitive home button in place of the physical switch button found on previous iPhones, according to a Bloomberg report filed this morning.
Citing people familiar with the matter, the news outlet said that the new models will have a pressure-sensitive button “similar to trackpads in the latest MacBook line” that will provide feedback to the user via a vibrating haptic sensation instead of a true physical click.
Last month, Mac Otakara cited unspecified supply chain sources that it claimed confirmed the veracity of an April Stormmedia report suggesting the same thing. MacRumors has also heard the same rumor from DigiTimes and analysts at Cowen and Company, but Bloomberg’s report today substantially increases the likelihood that the rumor is indeed accurate.
In addition, the article claims that the dual cameras now widely expected on the larger iPhone 7 will produce brighter photos with more detail, “according to a person who has used a prototype version of the upcoming device”.
Both sensors, which each capture color differently, simultaneously take a picture, and the device produces a single, merged photograph, said the person.
The dual system sharpens photos taken in low-light environments, the person said. The combination of the merged photos from the two camera sensors also allows users to zoom while retaining more clarity, the person added.
Elsewhere, Bloomberg noted that the new iPhones will have no antenna bands running across the back of the handsets, and Apple will remove the headphone jack in favor of connectivity via Bluetooth and the Lightning port. That will make room for a second speaker, said the paper’s source, who preferred to remain anonymous.
Other rumored features for the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus not included in the article include a faster TSMC-made A10 processor, faster LTE and Wi-Fi, a slightly larger battery, and a minimum 32 GB of base storage.
Apple is expected to launch the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus next month. Pre-orders could begin Friday, September 9, ahead of retail availability on Friday, September 16, according to noted leaker Evan Blass.
Related Roundup: iPhone 7
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Bare iPhone 7 Logic Boards Surface in New Photos
Just a month before the iPhone 7’s expected unveiling, a few new images allegedly depicting the device’s bare main logic board have surfaced on Chinese microblogging site Weibo (via Steve Hemmerstoffer), showing the major part before any of the device’s chips have been added onto the circuit board.
Not much context is given in the images thanks to the lack of chips, but it is widely believed that the 2016 iPhone will house a next-generation A10 processor, produced solely with a variant of TSMC’s 16-nanometer manufacturing process used on the A9. Although Apple picked TSMC for its 10nm production, that process is believed to begin ramping up towards the end of 2016 and beginning of 2017.
Front of iPhone 7 logic board
The logic board layout is generally consistent with previous iPhones, with a large patch on the front corresponding to the location of the A10 main chip that appears to be roughly the same size as the current A9 chip used in the iPhone 6s. The A10 does appear to sit a bit higher on the logic board than usual, however, with another significant chip placed between the A10 and the SIM card lot in the center of the board.
Rear of iPhone 7 logic board
Other internal parts of the iPhone 7 have leaked this year, like a Lightning cable assembly image in May, which opposed rumors that the new iPhone devices will ditch the 3.5 mm headphone jack in favor of a sole Lightning port for both audio and charging. Given the steady growth of rumors surrounding a Lightning-only iPhone 7 in 2016 — with multiple reports this summer focused on Lightning-enabled EarPods and Accessories — the internal cable assembly leak from May appears false.
In June, Weibo was the source of another internal iPhone 7 leak that showed dual SIM trays as a possibility for this year’s iPhone. Today’s logic board leak, however, shows a space for the SIM slot that appears nearly identical to current iPhones and smaller than the leaked dual-SIM tray, suggesting that the dual-SIM leak was also false.
Related Roundup: iPhone 7
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Apple Says ‘You’re Only as Good as the Last Thing You Did’ Amid Sales Slowdown
After recording its first quarterly sales decline since 2003 this year, the doom and gloom sentiment surrounding Apple has reemerged. Some critics believe that Apple is doing too many things at once, or wrongly placing its focus on areas like Apple Watch bands rather than its core product lineup.
MacRumors Buyer’s Guide for Macs
The most vocal critics often point towards the state of Apple’s current Mac lineup, which is beginning to stagnate. It has been 447 days since the last MacBook Pro release, while the MacBook Air has not been updated beyond a RAM bump in 518 days. Mac mini: 662 days. Mac Pro: 963 days.
Apple’s stock also remains down over 13 percent from its 52-week high, and investors perhaps have at least some reason for concern. Rumors suggest, for example, that the next iPhone will be an incremental improvement over the iPhone 6s, with more significant changes not coming until 2017.
In a new Fast Company interview alongside CEO Tim Cook, Apple services chief Eddy Cue acknowledged that technology companies are “only as good as the last thing” they did.
“Look,” says Cue, who somehow manages to look both like a man who just woke up and a compact ball of perpetual energy, “one thing you know if you’ve been in technology a while, you’re only as good as the last thing you did. No one wants an original iPod. No one wants an iPhone 3GS.”
Cook admitted that Apple can “sometimes fall short,” but indirectly added that the “Apple is doomed” narrative has existed during his entire 18-year span at the company.
“Is Apple making more mistakes than we used to? I don’t have a tracker on that.” […] “We have never said that we’re perfect,” he continues. “We’ve said that we seek that. But we sometimes fall short.” […]
“What tends to happen with Apple, not just today but in the 18 years I’ve been here,” says Cook, “is that invariably some people compare what we’re doing now to a vision or a product that somebody says they will create in the future.”
Fortunately for Cook, he said he doesn’t “read all the coverage on Apple that there is,” and instead focuses on pushing the company into a future that is bigger and broader. “I want Apple to be here, you know, forever,” he said.
As Cue says, grinning at the ambition: “We want to be there from when you wake up till when you decide to go to sleep.” Cook himself is only slightly less brash. “Our strategy is to help you in every part of your life that we can,” he says, “whether you’re sitting in the living room, on your desktop, on your phone, or in your car.”
Earlier this year, Above Avalon analyst Neil Cybart said Apple is on track to spend a record $10 billion on research and development this year, up nearly 30 percent from 2015, and significantly more than the little over $3 billion per year it was spending on R&D just four years ago.
Cybart said the increased spending undoubtedly points towards development of the widely rumored Apple Car, suggesting that the company will pivot into the automobile industry. But if Cook’s recent teaser about “great innovation in the pipeline” is any indication, Apple could have other plans in store too.
Apple Maps and Public Beta Testing
One other interesting anecdote in the wide-ranging interview: Apple Maps is the reason why iOS public beta testing exists.
Apple now does public beta testing of its most significant software projects, something that Jobs never liked to do. In 2014, the company asked users to test run its Yosemite upgrade to OS X. Last year, it introduced beta testing of iOS, which is the company’s most important operating system. “The reason you as a customer are going to be able to test iOS,” Cue says, “is because of Maps.”
Full-length interview: Playing The Long Game Inside Tim Cook’s Apple
Tags: Tim Cook, Eddy Cue, fastcompany.com
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Next-Generation MacBook Pro’s Touch ID Feature Likely Built Into the Power Button
Back in May, KGI analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reported that the next-generation MacBook Pro will include an OLED “touch bar” above the keyboard and Touch ID support, with a subsequent part leak of the machine’s chassis supporting the idea of this touch bar replacing the current row of function keys.
Leaked MacBook Pro top case showing space for touch bar in place of function keys
Kuo did not address exactly how Touch ID would be integrated into the new MacBook Pro, but a new report from 9to5Mac claims the technology will be built into the device’s power button. The MacBook Pro’s power button currently resides in the row of function keys, so it is a logical place to incorporate a fingerprint sensing power button as part of the new touch bar.
A source who has provided reliable information in the past has informed us that the new MacBook Pro models, expected to be launched in the fall, will feature a Touch ID power button as well as the previously-reported OLED touch-sensitive function keys.
If placed in the power button, the fingerprint sensor would allow users to wake the MacBook Pro and authenticate its security in one touch, similar to waking up an iPhone by pressing the Home button while simultaneously activating Touch ID.
Beyond the Touch ID power button, the OLED touch panel is rumored to be contextual, displaying different controls and user prompts depending on which apps and programs are open on the MacBook Pro. Designer Martin Hajek created a few renders with the OLED panel earlier in the summer, but didn’t include what the Touch ID button might look like.
With the announcement of macOS Sierra at WWDC this year, Apple introduced another way for users to gain access to their Macs while still keeping the device secure, called Auto Unlock. The feature works with an Apple Watch to automatically unlock a password-protected Mac when an authenticated and unlocked Apple Watch is nearby, so it would still only be available to those Mac users who also have an Apple Watch.
In addition to Touch ID and the OLED panel, the new MacBook Pro is expected to be slightly thinner than the current generation thanks to new metal injection mold-made hinges, have thinner speakers aligned on the side of the keyboard, and introduce support for USB-C. According to KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, the new MacBook Pro will be “the most significant upgrade ever undertaken by Apple.”
The state of the current Mac lineup is causing turmoil for users interested in upgrading their machines on the eve of the big refresh this fall, but with no word yet from Apple, even the launch period is somewhat muddled. The new MacBooks could be revealed in September, alongside the iPhone 7 and new Apple Watch models (now believed to be split into two editions), but the company could also opt to hold refreshes for the Mac until a separate event later in the fall, perhaps in October.
Related Roundup: MacBook Pro
Tag: 9to5mac.com
Buyer’s Guide: Retina MacBook Pro (Don’t Buy)
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Hulu Goes Exclusively Subscription-Based as Free Streaming Moves to ‘Yahoo View’
Hulu today announced that the company is ending the free, ad-supported tier of its streaming service and focusing on an all-subscription model that will more closely align it to rivals Netflix and Amazon Prime (via Variety). Hulu’s free service — which let users watch the most recent episodes of shows after they aired live on TV — will still continue, but is being transitioned to a new platform called “Yahoo View,” thanks to a distribution partnership between Hulu and Yahoo.
In the free-to-use site Yahoo View, users will be able to watch the five most-recent episodes of shows from networks like ABC, Fox, and NBC, but will now have to wait eight days after they originally air. Yahoo View will also provide clips previewing upcoming episodes and entire seasons of anime and Korean drama series. Users can expect Hulu’s free service to be phased out “over the next few weeks.”
Hulu senior vice president Ben Smith said that the main reason behind the move was that the company’s free service “became very limited and no longer aligned with the Hulu experience or content strategy.” With the elimination of the ad-supported tier, users will have just two options to watch Hulu: its basic $7.99 per month service with commercials, or a higher-tier $11.99 per month option without commercials.
“For the past couple years, we’ve been focused on building a subscription service that provides the deepest, most personalized content experience possible to our viewers,” Hulu senior VP and head of experience Ben Smith said in a statement. “As we have continued to enhance that offering with new originals, exclusive acquisitions, and movies, the free service became very limited and no longer aligned with the Hulu experience or content strategy.”
For now, Yahoo View is available only on the web, but the company said that mobile apps will be coming soon, although no release window was given. Since Yahoo shuttered its digital online video service, Yahoo Screen, earlier in the year, the acquisition of Hulu’s former free content is expected to help bolster Yahoo’s standing as a contender in the ever-expanding online streaming competition.
For Hulu, the move comes just under a week after Time Warner bought a 10 percent stake in the company to join Disney, 21st Century Fox and Comcast/NBC Universal as shareholders. Looking forward, Hulu is also prepping a live TV streaming service for sometime in 2017, which would add another subscription tier onto its streaming options with a service that focuses on quality over quantity, since the company “isn’t looking to offer all the hundreds of channels found in the traditional cable bundle.”
Tags: Yahoo, Hulu
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Hyundai Expands CarPlay to Azera and Veloster Models
Hyundai USA has expanded CarPlay and Android Auto to the 2016 Azera, Veloster, Sonata Hybrid, and Sonata Plug-In Hybrid, in addition to the 2015 Azera, via a free software update available now on the MyHyundai website. The automaker has now completed the rollout of smartphone integration across its 2017 model year lineup.
Hyundai customers can install the CarPlay update themselves by watching the do-it-yourself video below, or a Hyundai dealership can perform the update for an installation fee. The process can take between 1 and 4 hours to download and upload the CarPlay update, depending on your network speed, according to the company.
Azera and Veloster are first-time CarPlay vehicles, joining Hyundai’s growing lineup of vehicles that support Apple’s car-based software, including the 2015 Genesis Sedan, 2015 Sonata, 2016 Elantra GT, 2016 Genesis Sedan, 2016 Sonata, 2016 Tucson, 2017 Elantra, 2017 IONIQ, 2017 Santa Fe, and 2017 Santa Fe Sport.
Apple periodically updates a list of available CarPlay vehicles on its website, but it has yet to add newly-supported BMW 2 Series models.
Related Roundup: CarPlay
Tag: Hyundai
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Wilson X Connected Football Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET
Dan Graziano/CNET
Sporting goods giant Wilson has created the world’s first smart football. The company, which released a connected smart basketball last year, will begin selling the ball on September 8 for $200 in both official and junior sizes. That’s a lot of money to pay for a football, but this isn’t an ordinary ball.
You wouldn’t know from looking at it, or even holding it, but the Wilson X Connected Football includes a built-in sensor that can measure throw speed, distance, spin rate and spiral efficiency. The ball can even detect if your buddy catches it or drops it.
Data recorded by the ball is synced to the Wilson X Football app on Android and iOS. In addition to viewing your stats and comparing them to others, the app lets you choose from a variety of game modes to test your efficiency under pressure. Game modes include Red Zone, Game Day and an Elimination challenge. You can even play for or against your favorite NFL team.
Wilson
As was the case with the Connected Basketball, the football doesn’t have to be charged. Before the ball starts recording, it has to be held vertically for two seconds to enable the sensor. This helps preserve battery life, which will last for approximately 200,000 throws or up to 500 hours of connected usage.
The Connected Football is available now for preorder from Wilson’s website. Included in the box is a wrist sleeve for your smartphone, giving you quick and easy access to plays and stats mid-game.
I will be testing the ball over the next few weeks and plan to have a full review posted prior to the launch on September 8.
Grab this durable Bluetooth speaker and a selfie stick for just $13
Aukey is currently offering a sweet deal at Amazon that scores you a free selfie stick with the purchase of its outdoor Bluetooth speaker, and some additional savings on the speaker. You can grab the package deal for just $13, which is a total savings of $19 on the two items. Both will need to be added to your cart, and then you’ll need to use coupon code OJSSO3VO for the savings.
The outdoor Bluetooth speaker is normally $20 on its own, and provides a great sound quality that should last for around 6 hours of playback per charge. It comes with a 3.5mm audio cable as well, so if you’d rather not use Bluetooth to connect to it you can wire something in. Sure, the selfie stick may not be of interest, but it is completely free, so why not take your selfie game to the next level, right?
Remember, you’ll need to add both items to your cart and then use coupon code OJSSO3VO for the full savings on this package deal.
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