Rumour has it Apple will be bringing wireless charging to the iPhone, but not this year. Bloomberg writes Apple is working with its partners to bring wireless charging to the iPhone, which will come in a special flavour that allows longer-distance charging than current technologies, without the usual loss of power over distance.
In terms of cutting the cord, a lot of people already enjoy the convenience of wireless headphones. Business Insider claims Apple’s audio partner Cirrus Logic revealed some information about upcoming products from Apple, but besides a few hints of noise-cancelling headphones, there’s not a lot to go on.
Apple has hundreds of people working on a secret VR project, and I feel like we’ve already heard this story before. Wasn’t this the precursor to many Apple Watch and Apple’s rumoured EV project? Either way, recent Apple acquisitions certainly support the theory.
What we think looks like an iPad Air 3 case has hit the streets, only to be photographed and posted to MacRumors. Either the case manufacturers are confident enough to be going off leaked schematics for the next iPad Air, or they know something we don’t about the device, including how it has the same Smart Connector as the iPad Pro, as well as dual stereo speakers and a LED flash for the camera.
Like Netflix and what Apple has already done with Beats 1, Apple wants to start producing original content in the form of TV shows for the iTunes store. Netflix currently does something similar, which has given us shows like House of Cards and Orange Is the New Black, and it’s expected that Apple will add any original programming to a subscription service, if the company ever goes down that path.
Speaking of Beats 1, the previously-free iTunes Radio channels have been folded into Apple Music, meaning you’ll need an Apple Music subscription to listen to Apple’s varied iTunes programming. Beats 1 remains the company’s only free streaming service, for now.
MacStories has ideas about making minor tweaks to make the iOS keyboard switcher better for multilingual users.
Over at iMore, Rene Ritchie wonders if we’ll see a smaller-screened iPhone later this year. I can’t help but think we’ll see a repeat of the iPhone 5c — a cheaper phone that wasn’t different enough nor cheaper enough to have any significant impact beyond being labelled a failure by the Apple blogosphere.
Stephen Hackett has ideas about the iOS Control Centre, which started off as a way to access controls quickly, but now needs some serious work given the amount of features Apple has been overloading it with recently.
Fast Company published an interview with Angela Ahrendts which tells us about some of the Apple exec’s ideas for changing a successful business from within.
Originally published at: http://appletalk.com.au/2016/02/monday-morning-news010216/