Originally published at: http://appletalk.com.au/2017/02/friday-morning-news170217/
John Gruber of Daring Fireball had a chance to speak to Phil Schiller about the change, which Gruber now says makes a lot of sense. Even though the same developer lottery process for WWDC tickets isn’t open until late March, announcing it a lot earlier lets people plan for long-distance travel. They’ll be roughly the same amount of attendees, and as an added bonus, San Jose is much more affordable than San Francisco for hotels.
It’s been rumoured that this year’s iPhone will feature overall dimensions that are similar to the current 4.7-inch iPhone, but with a larger, 5.8-inch display. Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says that 5.8-inch screen will have just over 5 inches of usable screen space, with the rest occupied by a function area where the home button would normally be, either in the form of virtual buttons or some other kind of tech.
Bloomberg reports Apple could be testing an Apple TV capable of 4K video output, which seems reasonable enough as the only sensible Apple TV hardware improvement Apple would make. Apple’s attempt at taking on Amazon and Roku at the streaming video game seems a little more ambitious, but success isn’t guaranteed.
More Apple patents include the one where Apple detects cracked iPhone screens for the purpose of sending information to Apple about how the damage might have occurred. Another Apple patent describes an Apple Watch that you could power by winding the Digital Crown, like mechanical watches of old. Maybe not to fully charge the Apple Watch, but at least give it a little extra juice when needed.
Several sources claim Apple CEO Tim Cook and SVP of Internet Software and Services Eddy Cue attempted negotiations for an acquisition of Hollywood production company Imagine Entertainment. If the deal had gone through, it likely would have been the first major deal between a content provider and a new entrant to the content distribution game, but alas.
After releasing a preview of Touch Bar support in the Office 2016 suite, Microsoft has now released versions of Office that include Touch Bar support for all users. Along with Touch Bar support in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, Outlook and Skype for Business also allow you to access frequently-used functions from the MacBook Pro’s touch-sensitive shortcut bar.
New Apple ads continue to show off the Portrait mode on the iPhone 7 Plus, with Profile Picture and Boyfriend showing off the usefulness of standing out from the background.
If you’re looking for something to play this weekend, you’re in luck. Stagehand from the Bit Bucket Software (you might know them from The Incident and Space Age) was released late last week, and while it’s kind of a platformer, the procedurally-generated courses will have you thinking about what’s coming up next while tackling the issues that are right in front of you.
If platforming endless runners aren’t your thing, maybe Hidden Folks will be. Featuring hand-drawn scenes filled with all kinds of minute details, your objective is to find things by tapping on them. Everything you tap on has a sense of individualism about it, and it’s a great creative, explorative-type game.
