iPhone 7 Plus Teardown Confirms Longer-Lasting 2,900 mAh Battery
iFixit has published a work-in-progress iPhone 7 Plus teardown that provides a closer look at the smartphone’s internal components, including the battery, display, cameras, logic board, and Taptic Engine for the new pressure-sensitive Home button. Interestingly, the smartphone now opens to it side rather than to the top.
iFixit said the adhesive strip sealing the iPhone 7 Plus is “considerably stronger” than the strip it found in the iPhone 6s Plus, while opening the device revealed lots of glue running along the perimeter of the smartphone. The teardown experts believe the excess glue could be part of Apple’s efforts to add water resistance.
The space previously occupied by the 3.5mm headphone jack on older iPhone models now houses the Taptic Engine and a plastic bumper internally covering the cosmetic speaker holes to the left of the Lightning connector. The small plastic piece is likely another waterproofing measure by Apple.
The teardown confirms the 5.5-inch model has a 2,900 mAh battery, which is just over 5% larger than the 2,750 mAh battery in the iPhone 6s Plus. The battery is rated at 3.82V and 11.1Wh of energy. Apple says the iPhone 7 Plus has up to 1 hour longer battery life than the iPhone 6s Plus.
The iPhone 7 Plus camera array is as expected, including two separate sensors, two lenses, and two sets of optical image stabilizers.
iFixit said it will start its iPhone 7 teardown following its iPhone 7 Plus and Apple Watch Series 2 teardowns.
Related Roundup: iPhone 7
Tags: iFixit, teardown
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Apple Watch Series 2 Teardown Shows Larger Battery and Swimproof Design
iFixit has published a work-in-progress Apple Watch Series 2 teardown that reveals a 273 mAh battery in the 38mm model, which is 33% larger than the 205 mAh battery in the original 38mm Apple Watch. However, battery life is equal to Series 1 models, likely because of the additions of a GPS and brighter display.
The teardown says the Apple Watch Series 2’s adhesive is “much stronger” than the original Apple Watch, and iFixit assumes this is related to improved water resistance. It also appears that Apple has added a larger metal shield next to the Digital Crown, which is also likely an improved waterproofing measure.
Apple Watch Series 2 is marketed as swimproof, with an improved water resistance rating of up to 50 meters that makes it safe to use while swimming, showering, fishing, washing hands, jogging in the rain, and similar shallow water activities. Apple does not recommend scuba diving, waterskiing, or other high-velocity water activities.
iFixit is still completing the teardown, so it will take some time before we get a closer look at the all-new S2 chip and GPS. The website is also working on an iPhone 7 Plus teardown, to be followed by an iPhone 7 teardown.
Related Roundups: Apple Watch, watchOS 3
Tags: iFixit, teardown
Buyer’s Guide: Apple Watch (Buy Now)
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Uber will pay riders $384,000 due to its misleading tip policy
For a brief, one-year period, Uber’s marketing materials stated that the company’s ride-hailing app automatically charged users a 20 percent tip for drivers. Unfortunately for drivers and users, Uber was actually taking a 40 to 50 percent cut of that tip – a fact which led to a lawsuit claiming the company was misleading consumers. According to Bloomberg Technology, US District Judge Edward Chen in San Francisco just approved Uber’s proposed $384,000 settlement with 47,000 users that will essentially refund all of those pilfered “tips.”
While the consumers are getting their money back, the drivers themselves won’t be seeing a payout from this particular settlement. On the other hand, Judge Chen stuck up for Uber drivers last month when he rejected the company’s proposed $100 million settlement with drivers in California and Massachusetts who claimed the company owed them for expenses like gas, vehicle maintenance and insurance. In that case, Chen noted that the proposed amount – which would have amounted to about $24 per driver in the class – was a “substantial discount” for Uber. According to outside estimates, the damages in that case could have amounted to as much as $850 million. While Uber and the drivers have gone back to the negotiating table to hash out that deal, the company’s long-term goal is to make them obsolete.
Source: Bloomberg Technology
Twitter beefs up business users’ customer service offerings
Twitter’s new feature for businesses makes it even easier to hop on the social network and use it for customer service. It enables companies, startups, establishments and so on and so forth to indicate that their accounts can assist people looking for help. So long as they enable the feature on Twitter’s Dashboard, you’ll see the words “Provides support” when you search for their username or @mention them in a tweet. It can pretty handy to know if you can expect a response on Twitter, so you don’t have to mentally prepare yourself for an hour-long hold time.
Besides being able to indicate that they provide support on the website, companies can now also add business hours on their profiles. In T-Mobile’s case (below), for instance, the carrier says it can attend to your needs 24/7. Finally, you’ll see a more prominent Message button on the profiles of companies that can chat with you in private, which could prevent customers at their wit’s end from going nuclear on them in public.
Source: Twitter
iPhone 7 Plus, 128GB, and Black Models Prove Most Popular With Pre-Order Customers
Slice Intelligence has shared new data that suggests the iPhone 7 Plus has outsold the iPhone 7 in the United States, marking the first time Plus-sized iPhones have proven more popular than 4.7-inch models, based on e-receipt data from nearly 32,000 customers who belong to the research firm’s panel.
The data shows that, in the first 48 hours of availability, 55 percent of customers ordered the iPhone 7 Plus, compared to 41 percent for the iPhone 6s Plus and 35 percent for the iPhone 6 Plus. The 5.5-inch model is a more attractive option this year given it has dual cameras, while the 4.7-inch model retains a single-lens camera.
55.9 percent of customers who pre-ordered an iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus had previously purchased at least one iPhone between 2014 and now, according to Slice Intelligence. 34 percent of customers had not purchased any smartphone since 2014, while the remaining shoppers switched from Samsung, LG, and Motorola.
Meanwhile, given the lack of Space Gray this year, Black has emerged as the new most popular iPhone color, accounting for 46 percent of pre-orders. Jet Black is also a popular choice, selected by 23 percent of customers, although limited supply of Jet Black models has pushed shipments of Jet Black models to November, likely leading many customers to choose Black, Gold, Rose Gold, or Silver instead.
Rose Gold models, first introduced on the iPhone 6s, represented 15 percent of iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus pre-orders, while Gold and Silver models trailed behind with 9 percent and 8 percent of orders respectively.
For the past three iPhone launches, over 60 percent of pre-orders over the first two days were on the middle storage option, according to Slice Intelligence. iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus continue that trend, with 128GB proving most popular at 67 percent, followed by 32GB at 14 percent and the all-new 256GB tier at 19 percent.
Slice Intelligence tracks e-receipts from 4.2 million online shoppers in the U.S., allegedly the largest panel of its kind, that sign up for the company’s value-added services such as Slice and Unroll.me. Slice, for example, is a free app for tracking packages, receipts, price drops, product recall alerts, and more.
Slice Intelligence has charts with more detailed information on its website.
Related Roundup: iPhone 7
Tag: Slice Intelligence
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These are the coolest hidden features in iOS 10
It’s official: iOS 10 is awesome.
In Pocket-lint’s review of the software, which released on 13 September, we said Apple clearly focused on layering the entire experience with even more complexity and depth than ever before. In fact, in our short time with iOS 10, we’ve already discovered hundreds of new tricks, as you can see in our tips round-up. But in every new piece of software, there’s always a few buried features that are ridiculously cool.
Pocket-lint has found a bunch of those features and listed the very best ones below. For instance, did you know you can turn your iPhone into a magnifying glass that launches with a triple-tap of the Home button, or that iOS 10 can now transcribe your voicemails for you — as in, give you an actual word-for-word readout of whatever someone said to you in the voice message? Ladies and gentlemen: the future is upon us. For reals.
Check out our round-up to see the coolest hidden features in iOS 10. Keep checking back though, as we’re bound to stumble upon more in the coming months, and we’ll update this piece when we do.
Turn your camera into a magnifying glass
We’ve all had that moment where we’ve tried to zoom-in with our iPhone’s camera in order to use it as a magnifying glass, but thanks to iOS 10, it’s become an official thing. With a quick settings change, you’ll be able to triple-tap on the Home button to automatically open the camera with magnification that you can adjust. Brilliant. Go to Settings > General > Accessibility > Magnifier. From there, set the toggle to On.
Your iPhone now transcribes voicemails
Seriously. It’s about as accurate as Google Voice, too. From now on, whenever someone leaves a voicemail, iOS will take a few minutes to transcribe it. When it’s complete, tap the voicemail to expand it, and then you’ll see the transcription. Huzzah!
Note: This feature may not work for everyone. It depends on your carrier.
Clear all your Safari tabs with a press If you’re anything like us, your Safari app right in this very moment probably has 12 (or 30) tabs open. Heh. You no longer have to close every single one individually, however, as Apple now lets you simultaneously close them all. From the new tab page, tap and hold the Done button to pull up a menu that will give you the option to close all your tabs. Simples.
Clear all your Notifications with 3D Touch
Similar to how you can now clear all your Safari tabs, you can now clear all your notifications piled up on the lock screen, but this hidden features relies on 3D Touch. Just hard-press the “X” icon and select Clear All Notifications.
Prioritize your app downloads with 3D Touch
This one also takes advantage of 3D Touch. Ever go to use an app and see that iOS suddenly decided to download a bunch of updates, which is annoying when you want to use one of the apps updating. Well now, instead of waiting or canceling it, you can hard-press the icon, and then select the new Prioritize Download option in order to make it No. 1 in the update queue.
Do more in Control Center with 3D Touch
We love finding new places to use 3D Touch in iOS, and this one is at the top of the list. In iOS 10’s Control Center, you can now use 3D Touch on the bottom row of app icons. Press on the flashlight to get three brightness options. Press on the timer to get predefined timer amounts. Press the calculator to copy the calculation. Press the camera for more shooting options. Love it!
Give your Stopwatch a new face
The stopwatch feature in the default Clock app has looked the same for, like, years. But with iOS 10, you can give it a new face. Go to the stopwatch screen in the Clock app, then swipe to the left to use the new face. It’s classier than the digital look of the old one, too.
Make Siri announce who’s calling you Siri has a new feature: she can announce the name of a caller when they call you. When you’re driving, walking around, wearing headphones, going for a jog, or whatever, you have to stop and look at your phone to see who’s calling, but that’s no longer the case. Siri will not only tell you, but you can make her announce callers only when you have headphones in or are connected to your car’s Bluetooth.
You’ll find these options under Settings > Phone > Announce Calls. You’re welcome.
Remember where you parked
We’ve all forgotten where we’ve parked at one time or another. Thanks to Apple Maps in iOS 10 however, that’s now a thing of the past – so long as your phone is hooked up to your car’s Bluetooth or to Apple CarPlay. Apple Maps can now remember where you parked your car, if you have a GPS signal. It will send you a notification with your car’s location when you walk away from your car.
You must enable the feature under Settings > Maps.
Markup your photos
Apple has updated its Messages and Photos app with a new tool that lets you markup photos. Select a photo to send in Messages, then tap on it to preview it, and select the Markup option in the lower left corner. You can then draw, write, and color over the photo before you share it. Similarly, when viewing a photo in Photos, tap on the Edit icon, then the extension button, and select Markup.
Be selective with your read receipts
You can now decide whether you want to send read receipts on a contact-by-contact basis. Previously, you could only enable or disable them for all your contacts, but now you can go into any conversation and enable or disable the feature. When in a conversation, tap on the “i” button in the top-right, and then turn read receipts on or off. That’s it.
Search for images in iMessage
It’s easy to see that Apple now offers a mini App Store just for the iMessage app, but you likely overlooked a buried feature that may persuade you to delete all of your GIF keyboard apps. You can now search for an animated image directly within iMessages. When writing a message in Messages, tap on App Store icon, then swipe to the images page, and enter a search term or pick a category.
Get rid of unwanted stock apps
iOS 10 now lets you remove any stock app you don’t want (Stocks, Compass, etc). This works the same way as removing third-party apps: long press on any app, then hit ‘x’ icon. They can always be re-downloaded from the App Store or brought back in Settings.
Americans divided on how much to spend to battle climate change
It’s going to take a lot of money (among many other things) to help combat climate change, and one of the challenges there has been getting citizens to pay for it. But a new survey from Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research indicates some Americans may be warming to the idea. While the data gathered shows that a whopping 42 percent of people wouldn’t even pay $1 a month on their energy bill to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, those who were willing to pay might put up some decent cash.
29 percent of survey respondents said they’d pay $20 per month to reduce greenhouse emissions, and 20 percent said they’d pay $50 a month. The $20 threshold is a significant one, as it’s the cost that the government estimates the damages from climate change would be on each household in the country. Still, the negatives in this study are hard to ignore: despite the fact that 77 percent of respondents said they think climate change is happening and 65 percent said the government should do something with it, that 42 percent who wouldn’t even pay a buck a month to do something about it is hard to ignore.
Perhaps not surprisingly, party affiliation was a big divider in how people responded to this survey. Democrats were “consistently” willing to pay more than Republicans, and they were also far more likely to believe in the effects of climate change in the first place. 84 percent of Democrats thought that the government should do something about climate change, versus only 43 percent of Republicans.
Still, one of the directors from the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago is rather positive about the survey’s data. In The New York Times, Michael Greenstone writes that “many people are willing to pay real money for a carbon policy. In fact, on average, Americans appear willing to pay more than a robust climate policy is projected to cost.” That’s a good spin on things, but Greenstone also notes that plenty of respondents may have said they’re willing to pay more than they actually would if the time came to open their wallets.
Via: The New York Times
Source: The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research
Apple’s First Walk-In Customers Leave With iPhone 7 Instead of iPhone 7 Plus, But Get Free $100 Gift Cards
Five students from Sydney, Australia, namely Bishoy Behman, Mazen Kourouche, Marcus Barsoum, Matthew Alvarez, and Paul Behman, were the first customers in the world to walk out of an Apple retail store with an all-new iPhone today, although without the specific model they had been hoping for.
The students had been taking turns waiting since Wednesday morning local time for the chance to purchase an iPhone 7 Plus in Jet Black, but Apple later announced that no iPhone 7 Plus models in any color, or iPhone 7 models in Jet Black, will be available on launch day for walk-in customers.
The students were disappointed, but ultimately walked away with two iPhone 7 models each and $100 Apple gift cards provided by the store. Some customers who lined up elsewhere were provided with Apple gift cards of lesser value, but others received nothing, suggesting it was not a companywide initiative.
Despite rainy and windy conditions, and the lack of iPhone 7 Plus availability, the video below shows that hundreds of customers still showed up at the flagship Apple Sydney location for the launch today.
Just a few hours earlier, the first iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus pre-order deliveries began in New Zealand, and orders are now beginning in China, Hong Kong, Japan, and Singapore. The first-wave launch will continue through to Alaska and Hawaii as the date reaches September 16 across the world.
Apple has not indicated when stores will receive more iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus shipments, but in-store reservations will resume on September 17 at 8:00 a.m. local time in the U.S., Australia, Canada, and Hong Kong, and on September 17 at 6:00 a.m. local time in Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and the U.K.
Related Roundup: iPhone 7
Tag: Apple retail
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Best Buy Delays Some iPhone 7 Plus Orders, Offers $100 Promo Code as Compensation
Some customers who pre-ordered an iPhone 7 or an iPhone 7 Plus from Best Buy are getting some bad news less than 24 hours before the official launch date, with Best Buy sending out delay notification emails this evening.
We’ve heard several reports from disappointed customers who are now seeing delayed shipments of their iPhone 7 Plus models that were originally scheduled to deliver on launch day, September 16. It is not clear if Best Buy has also delayed some iPhone 7 models.
@MacRumors @bestbuysupport just sent me this email delaying delivery of my 7+ to Oct 7. Initial date had been 9/16 pic.twitter.com/0dw6gMlzP2
— Jesse Isaacson (@jesse_isaacson) September 15, 2016
According to the emails customers are receiving, they can now expect to receive their devices on October 7, a full three weeks after launch. As compensation for the delay, Best Buy is offering customers a free $100 promo code to be used on a future Best Buy purchase.
Yesterday, Best Buy also began notifying customers who pre-ordered the Apple Watch Series 2 that their devices would be delayed. Customers who originally had a delivery scheduled for 9/16 will not get their new watches until September 28.
Supplies of the iPhone 7 Plus and the Jet Black iPhone 7 are highly constrained, leading Apple to announce that no iPhone 7 Plus models and no Jet Black iPhone 7 models will be available for walk-in purchases tomorrow, with stock having been fully depleted during pre-orders.
Apple recommends customers instead place orders for the iPhone 7 Plus online, where many models list shipping estimates of two to three weeks, and up to November in the case of the Jet Black iPhone 7 Plus. Apple Stores are expected to have some iPhone 7 stock available for walk-in customers, and carrier stores may also have very limited quantities of the iPhone 7 Plus.
Related Roundup: iPhone 7
Tag: Best Buy
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Evening brief: Motorola fibs, Note 7 burns 92 people and SwiftKey goes neural
“I got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell!”
I flew home from New York to Toronto this morning, and prior to the flight attendant warning everyone about seatbelts and emergency exits, they told us to “power down all Samsung Galaxy Note 7s.” Like all infectious diseases, this one seems to be spreading quickly and widely before it can be contained, and Samsung, despite its best efforts, is having a tough time doing that. Obviously the implications for the company’s reputation are unclear right now, but it wouldn’t be unrealistic to say that this patient is going to take a long time to heal.
Speaking of healing, today was the first day I needed a sweatshirt in Toronto, which is both exciting and upsetting. Winter is coming, friends.
Now you can check if your Galaxy Note 7 is safe or explosive!
Samsung’s IMEI-checker is back! Plug your unique IMEI number (dial *#06# or check your Note 7’s original box) into samsung.com/us/note7recall/ to check whether your device is safe. If it’s not, recall that sucker!
The Samsung Galaxy Note 7 recall is official
Samsung and the U.S. CPSC will recall around a million Note 7s sold over the past month. A total of 92 incidents of battery fires or explosions have been reported in the U.S. alone, with 26 reports of burns and 55 reports of damage to property. Replacement units will be available in the U.S. from September 21. More
‘Safe’ Galaxy Note 7s may use a green battery icon
… to easily tell them apart from the potentially explosive version, with its standard white icon. The report from ZDNet in Seoul doesn’t clarify whether the change will apply to all regions, or just Samsung’s home country. More
Google launches first Duo commercials
You’ll find the group of five on YouTube, and they’re all pretty clever … if not a little creepy at times. We expect these to land on TV soon, but you can already download Duo from Google Play, even if you don’t like the commercials.
Motorola commits a lie for a good(?) cause
Motorola brought a bunch of Apple diehards together for a “focus group” aimed at dispelling the hype around the latest iPhone. By showing so-called iPhone prototypes that were actually — you guessed it — Moto Zs, it got people interested. “It’s our challenge to you. To the industry.” How ’bout releasing it on more than one carrier, then?
OnePlus keeps the beta build train rolling
Good news for fans of tinkering with the OnePlus 3 and OnePlus X (RIP!): new community builds are available for both phones, and they’re rich in new features. For the OnePlus 3, specifically, a bunch of improvements to the dialer and messenger app are good news, but we’re not so sure about the “kill all background processes” option in the multitasking menu. Let’s not go backwards, OnePlus.
More colo(u)rs come to the HTC 10 in Canada
After launching in the U.S. in August, two more HTC 10 colors are now available, unlocked, in Canada — gold, and a nice, deep red. The price is still a hefty $999 CAD ($750 USD, $150 more than the U.S. model), but the red version is pretty special. Anyone biting?
SwiftKey gets swifter, smarter, and more cerebral
Remember last year when SwiftKey (now owned by $MSFT) debuted a version of its keyboard powered by a neural network? Well now that technology powers the popular, widely-used Android version of its app (at least when using U.S. or UK English). What does that mean? It can make better predictions based on longer pieces of text, which will hopefully make you type faster and with fewer mistakes. Bring it on!
AIVAnet 