It’s no secret that there are two variants of the A9 processor found in the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, but you’d expect both variants to be more or less equal. Benchmarks of the two SoC versions say that might not be the case, with the TSMC variant out-performing the Samsung version, although whether there’s actually a noticeable impact on battery life (especially if you don’t have another unit to compare with) remains to be seen.
The latest OS X El Capitan 10.11.1 beta reveals a number of upcoming Apple accessories, including the Magic Trackpad 2, Magic Mouse 2, and even a Magic Keyboard. It’s clear that Apple is getting as milking the “Magic” moniker for as much as its worth, but if they make a new Magic Keyboard with the new butterfly switches in the MacBook and per-key backlighting I’m afraid I will have to buy one immediately.
An Apple patent says the company could bring inductive charging to the iPhone without any additional hardware cost, thanks to electrical coils in existing technology. The patent describes using electrical coils in speakers, microphones, and haptic engines to power the inductive charging mechanic.
MacStories’ Graham Spencer has a piece on the state of Apple Pay, just ahead of the service’s one year anniversary. Despite being partnered with over 500 banks in the US, Apple Pay only accounts for ~1% of US retail transactions. Spencer also looks at the international rollout and concludes with questions for Apple VP Jennifer Bailey.
The latest App Store numbers put iOS 9 adoption at 57% of active iOS devices.
According to Vanity Fair, the one thing Jony Ive remembers about Steve Jobs was his childlike simplicity. ABC News has new footage of the Apple founder, telling Apple employees to go into Apple Stores to give an employee a hug and showing a “softer side”.
Adobe has set Lightroom free from the ties of Creative Cloud, at least on the iOS platform. Lightroom is now a stand-alone app that doesn’t require a subscription, while still retaining the same editing and adjustment features.
Jason Snell used to be a fan of the smaller-sized iPad mini, but he’s warming up to the idea of a larger iPad in the iPad Air 2 thanks to iOS 9 features such as split-view multitasking, which just work so much better on the larger screen.
One for the vintage Mac crowd this morning is a [Mac Plus emulator running System 7](warming up to the idea). Works better on desktop than mobile.
TouchArcade tells the story of high-profile, premium titles being removed from the App Store. While some of the removals are legitimate (Capcom in particular says they’re working to bring fixes to on one of my favourite DS ports, Ghost Trick), Apple says there has been no change in App Store policy to remove these from App Store purchase histories. But it appears that all’s well that ends well, because many apps are now returning to App Store purchase histories to be re-lived once again.
Originally published at: http://appletalk.com.au/2015/10/friday-morning-news091015/
