Originally published at: http://appletalk.com.au/2016/08/friday-morning-news190816/
A report from Bloomberg says that although Apple are attempting to free the Apple Watch from its ties to the iPhone, they are running into roadblocks in the form of hardware limitations. Giving the Apple Watch its own mobile data connection is not an option due to the already limited battery life of the wearable, and all signs currently point to a hardware refresh later this year, one that will feature GPS for more accurate health and workout tracking.
A leaked image of what’s purported to be the camera module for the next iPhone confirms optical image stabilisation for the regular-sized iPhone. I always thought it was weird that the Plus-sized iPhone had an optically-image stabilised camera but the regular-sized one didn’t. If the leaked rear casings are any indication, there will be other differentiators this time around, with the Plus-sized iPhone getting a dual-lens camera.
Apple Store no more, as Apple drops the “Store” moniker from its Retail locations. It’s a move that means Apple is focusing on the Apple experience within its retail locations, according to 9to5Mac, which have already seen big changes to the way the stores are laid out under the helm of Apple SVP of Retail and Online Stores Angela Ahrendts.
Finder tells us about changes coming to a Telstra plan near you. From Tuesday August 23rd, Apple Music will be unmetered for all Telstra mobile customers on postpaid and prepaid plans, as well as giving customers a free six-month subscription to Apple Music. We’ll have more when Telstra officially announces the changes next week, otherwise you can set a reminder to enable high-quality streaming right now.
There’s a new version of Parallels for Mac out, but Ars Technica says there are very few reasons to upgrade, particularly if you’re running a fairly recent version. One reason could be that Parallels 9 and before will not run on macOS Sierra, but besides that, the only real “features” of Parallels 12 appear to be add-ons that you might not have purchased separately anyway.
Scribbling on Microsoft Office documents just became possible from your iPhone, thanks to an update from Microsoft which enables the drawing option on the hand-held version of the premier productivity suite. It should be noted that drawing support has been available in the iPad versions of Office ever since the Apple Pencil was released.
The Washington Post says the iPad Pro is a computer because Apple is making strides in the business market, even though there are other products in the “detachables” category which have both a tablet and keyboard component. You know, like that one episode of Rick and Morty where Jerry says “Pluto is a planet”, except substituting Pluto for iPads, and planets for computers.
The real cost of headphone jack removal will be a net positive for accessibility users, particularly those with vision and motor impairments. Not having to plug in something to get it to work will be a good thing, Steve Aquino writes.
Thomas Brand’s guest post on Stephen Hackett’s blog asks what makes a Mac a Mac. It’s a look at the Power Macintosh 4400 and why it was an exemplary piece of hardware, but going off the reactions of some Mac fans today, you wouldn’t think Apple is in the Mac business any more.
Siri is getting in on the Pokémon Go action, offering up humorous responses to questions about Go.