Originally published at: https://appletalk.com.au/2019/07/friday-morning-news190719/
A new rumour from the Apple supply chain has Digitimes claiming that next year’s iPhone will feature a time-of-flight 3D sensor as part of the rear camera array. This new tech, similar to the Face ID sensors on the front of current iPhones, will allow for better 3D image capturing, which, among other things, will power even better augmented reality experiences. While Face ID is optimised to work at a certain short distance, a rear-facing implementation would need to work at ranges of many more metres to be useful.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey spoke to Apple employees at Apple Park earlier this week. While Bloomberg reports that Dorsey’s appearance was one in an ongoing series featuring several individuals, he spoke to Apple’s marketing department, and that’s about all we know. When Bloomberg says the event underlines the bond between Apple and Twitter, I say that’s probably reading too much into it.
Yesterday saw the seventh beta of iOS 12.4 and sixth watchOS 5.3 betas distributed to developers. Apple is still running a beta program for iOS 12 due to the imminent release of Apple Card, even though the latter will be a US exclusive for the foreseeable future, but presumably there are bug fixes and security updates contained within the release, too, which will likely be the last one before iOS 13 is released later this year.
Speaking of which, the third public beta of iOS 13 and macOS Catalina has been released to public beta testers as of this morning. The release follows the day after the fourth developer beta was released yesterday, and contains all of the same changes. Now that the releases have started to be a little closer together, we should start seeing developer releases one day, and public beta releases the next.
Venture Beat writes about the upcoming death of 3D Touch. Context menus now signal the apocalypse the replacement of 3D Touch with haptic touch, which confirms your press-and-hold with a haptic vibration, although I’m still unclear how this differentiates it from a long press. At least force was a differentiator with 3D Touch, but it’s still a downgrade, in my opinion.
TechCrunch recaps all the security and privacy features in iOS 13 that you may have missed. In amongst the massive list of iOS 13 features, there’s a fair few security and privacy affordances in iOS 13, and I can wholeheartedly recommend doing a "reset all settings" when iOS 13 is released to the general public, just so you can make sure that the apps you’re using have the right level of permissions.
The Sweet Setup has a review of Fenix, a fully-featured Twitter client. Fenix has been around on Android devices for years, but it’s only recently made the jump to iOS. It joins the existing cohort of Tweetbot and Twitterrific as great third-party Twitter clients, and the way the multi-column view works on the iPad is particularly great.
The new FamilyCharger from ElevationLab seeks to solve your device-charging problems. This octopus-style charger has three Lightning ends, one micro-USB, and one USB-C connection for charging pretty much any device you throw at it. It’s probably not a bad idea for multi-device household, or just someone with a lot of Apple toys and other accessories that need to be charged.
9to5Mac gives us a look behind closed doors, and their comprehensive guide to the furnishings of Apple Store Boardrooms is definitely one of the stranger posts I’ve read. But also interesting, as the Boardroom of Apple Stores is a place that you don’t usually get to see.
If you’re looking for something to play this weekend, how about Flappy Bird crossed with battle royale? That’s pretty much the premise of Flappy Royale, which launched in beta form on iOS and Android earlier this week. You can play it on the web as well, but the real question is: will you be the last bird flapping?