Sources speaking to 9to5Mac claim the smaller-screened iPhone and the iPad Air successor will go on sale as soon as March 18th, eschewing the regular two week waiting period between devices being announced and going on sale. Somewhat weirdly, 9to5Mac also writes there will be no pre-orders for these devices, although that’s may change likely depending on stock levels.
A pair of Lightning-compatible headphones is looking likely to ship with the next iPhone, but I wouldn’t hold your breath for noise-cancelling capabilities on those cans. Instead, analysts say Apple will be introducing that feature with the next iPhone after this upcoming one, taking advantage of noise-cancelling tech from Cirrus Logic. In addition to rumours claiming Apple will remove the standard 3.5mm headphone jack, there’s also the possibility Apple will replace the headphone jack with another speaker.
I go away for a couple of days and suddenly there’s another Apple replacement program. This time around, Apple describes a design failure in USB-C cables which may lead to symptoms such as intermittent charging, or failing to charge altogether. Affected cables do not have the serial number printed on the cable itself, while new ones do. There’s more information at Apple’s USB-C Charge Cable Replacement Program page.
A nasty bug affecting 64-bit devices means they get stuck in a boot loop when you set the time and date to January 1, 1970. Completely wiping the device and performing a DFU restore doesn’t resolve the issue, with the only reported fix being a complete discharge of the battery or a physical disconnection of the battery at an Apple Store. The iPhone 5s and newer, iPad Air and newer, iPad mini 2 or newer, or sixth generation iPod are all affected by the issue, according to Ars Technica.
Adobe’s Creative Cloud has come under fire for deleting the alphabetically first hidden directory from the root of your drive. The issue was first discovered by BackBlaze customers who discovered that their /.bzvol folder had been removed, but the issue also occurs even when BackBlaze is not installed, as demonstrated by a number of YouTube videos.
The latest episode of Gruber’s The Talk Show podcast has very special guests Eddy Cue and Craig Federighi. Apple’s SVP of Internet Software and Services and SVP of Software Engineering talk about the bloat of iTunes and what they’re planning to do about it, and Macworld sums up what was said, if podcasts aren’t your thing.
One of the statistics discussed by the trio is that Apple Music now has over 11 million subscribers, which gives us growth of about a million users per month.
David Smith tells us about Apple Watch apps worth making. Smith would know, seeing as he’s come up with some great Watch apps, including a stellar update to Sleep++ as covered by MacStories. Smith says what doesn’t work is easy to say, but given the current hardware and software of the Apple Watch, there are just three kinds of apps which work well.
The Verge says indie fitness apps are over, with many of the bigger players being snapped up by fitness brands. Adidas acquired Runtastic, FitStar was bought by Fitbit, and just recently, RunKeeper was purchased by Asics.
In case you missed it, Anthony Agius says we reached peak Apple rumour over the weekend with AppleInsider’s report on “motor noises” being heard from Apple’s automotive campus in Sunnyvale, California. I mean, it’s possible that Apple aren’t thinking of building an EV after all, or that they were testing their back-up generator. The possibilities abound!
Originally published at: http://appletalk.com.au/2016/02/monday-morning-news150216/