Friday Morning News

Originally published at: http://appletalk.com.au/2016/07/friday-morning-news220716/
Screen-Shot-2016-07-21-at-11.58.03-800x533Photos and video of new iPhone mockups show off the device in the three colour choices it may be available in. Gone is the “Space Grey” colour option, replaced with a much darker “Space Black” that is probably what people were mistaking for a “Dark Navy” a few months ago. Along with the redesigned antenna bands, larger camera cutout, and no headphone jack, it’s the best look at possible designs we’ve seen thus far.

The Loop’s Jim Dalrymple debunks yesterday’s rumour Apple acquired cloud-based music provider Omnifone. According to Dalrymple’s sources, the mystery buyer remains just that — Omnifone wasn’t doing so well financially, and Apple was not the one to swoop in and scoop it up.

Rumour has it Apple’s car project will be delayed until 2021, a year after original estimates of a 2020 release. Although we haven’t heard much about Apple’s car for a few weeks, you can bet there’s still things going on behind the scenes.

A warning has been discovered in iOS 10 which tells you when there’s water in your Lightning port. The feature only appears to work on newer phones such as the iPhone 6s and SE, so either there’s some new tech in the Lightning port that we’re not aware of that hasn’t been used up until now, or Apple really are going for a single-port design on the next iPhone for a waterproof design.

Edward Snowden has come up with a way for you to tell when your mobile is being spied on. The case accessory monitors the wireless radios on the device, alerting the user if they’re active when they’re not supposed to be. Such a feat requires a direct connection to the iPhone logic board, which means a relocation of the SIM card to outside the phone.

The Verge’s Walt Mossberg is telling us to delete our apps. He went from over 300 apps installed to half that, freed up a bunch of space on his iPhone as a result, and doesn’t have the same kind of app burden that once plagued all of us.

Over at iMore, Michael Gartenberg writes about the paradox of the iPad. While there are a lot of people who think the world of their iPads (and many who have eschewed their Mac in favour of an iPad), many more people don’t seem to recognise the value an iPad provides over a traditional computer.

Market data shows that the Apple Watch is three times as popular as similar Samsung smartwatches. The overall market for smartwatches may be falling, but Apple Watch remains as popular as ever.

Square Enix has teased an Apple Watch title called Comos Rings. There’s very little to go on, but what we know is that Cosmos Rings will be an RPG for the Apple Watch, either as a companion app to an iPhone or iPad, or something customised for Apple Watch interaction. Either way, with “coming soon” plastered all over, we’ll see soon enough.

If you’re looking for something to play this weekend, the excellent Lumines Puzzle and Music is exactly what it says on the tin. Touch Arcade says it’s the first Lumines title on iOS that deserves to fly the Lumines flag, which was popularised more than a decade ago on the PSP. The bad news is that Lumines Puzzle and Music is only available as a soft launch in a few countries, but the good news is that Australia is one of those. Pick it up for $4.49 on the Australian App Store.

Wow, it’s been a while since I’ve seen that name. I used to love this on the PSP (which I still have and might drag out just to play Lumines again :slight_smile: ). I think I have this on the PS3 as well (although that’s plugged into the kids TV).

Has anyone tried it? How does it go without physical buttons?