Originally published at: https://appletalk.com.au/2018/08/friday-morning-news310818/
Apple has sent out media invites to an event on September 12. Invites featured the teaser “gather round”, with an image depicting a circular structure that’s reminiscent of the spaceship at Apple Park, and given that the event will take place at the Steve Jobs Theater in Cupertino, maybe that’s all it’s referencing. As for products, Apple are widely expected to reveal this year’s iPhones and updates to the Apple Watch lineup, with an outside chance of new iPads and Macs — they’ll probably take a back seat until October. But for now, there’s plenty to look forward to, and Apple has announced they’ll be live-streaming the event.
A marketing image of at least two of the three rumoured iPhones have been obtained by 9to5Mac and shared to the world. If you were operating under the assumption that this year’s iPhones would look like the iPhone X then the new image doesn’t give much away besides the fact that the new iPhone will be available in a new gold colour option, but otherwise we’re seeing the same edge-to-edge display and top-notch display as found on the current iPhone X.
9to5Mac also has a marketing image of what’s purported to be the Apple Watch Series 4, and unlike the image they shared of the iPhone, this one reveals decidedly more about the device. If the image is accurate and not some kind of concept, then the Apple Watch Series 4 will be just as the rumours have claimed: a larger display within the same sized-chassis (important for existing band compatibility), along with a new watch face that turns the information density to 11. I like it, but I can also see how some might claim it’s too busy.
Apple’s latest acquisition is Akonia Holographics, a Colorado startup that specialised in making lenses for augmented reality glasses. Marketing copy on the Akonia website says that the technology the company developed enables the thinnest, lightest head-worn displays in the world, and Apple confirmed the acquisition to Reuters with its customary statement.
Additional iPhone price discussion by Bloomberg says that a lot of Apple’s financials depend on it being able to charge a premium for devices, a strategy that other companies may not see the same success with. Higher prices of the iPhone X boosted Apple’s revenue despite iPhone unit sales being mostly the same, give or take a few million, which is why it’s almost curious the company continues to push into the lower end of the premium spectrum with older devices in various markets worldwide.
While rumours have previously claimed that we’ll see a dual-SIM iPhone either this year or next, a dual-SIM iPhone is a curious thing in the Western world, especially given Apple wants to embed SIMs wherever possible, and even has devices with an embedded SIM along with a SIM card slot, making the iPad Pro technically a dual-SIM device. The Verge says it’s mostly about marketshare there are certain markets where dual-SIM support is seen as such a required feature, which might be enough to entice people to buy an iPhone instead of a cheap and cheerful Android alternative.
The Shortcuts app beta might not be updated as frequently as iOS 12 seems to be, but the beta is steadily adding features. The fourth Shortcuts beta adds iCloud syncing so your shortcuts sync across devices, with a number of bug fixes to system-level actions also included as part of the update.
To-do/list app Clear has been updated with support for the iPhone X display, making it the last app on my home screen to get updated. The update also removes support for the Clear Apple Watch app, which I’m not too cut up about, but new teaser themes of an upcoming overhaul of Clear (or even an entirely new app) are nice.
Over at MacStories, Stephen Hackett tells us about the history of Aperture. Once upon a time, it was Apple’s pro photography app, a market they’ve since exited and left to the likes of Adobe. Perhaps Apple couldn’t assign enough resources to make Aperture what they wanted it to, despite the semi-success of Final Cut Pro X and the like.
There’s a third instalment coming to the Reigns series, with Reigns: Game of Thrones coming in October. All three games operate on the same left/right swiping mechanic to make decisions, and if you’re a fan of the TV series of the same name, then you’ll probably enjoy the crossover into video game form, if only you can explore different scenarios that didn’t play out in the show.
