Monday Morning News

Originally published at: http://appletalk.com.au/2018/04/monday-morning-news230418/

Rumour has it Apple will release an updated iPhone SE in May. The rumour claims that the existing iPhone SE form factor will remain, with perhaps the removal of the headphone jack being the only external indicator that the iPhone SE successor has been updated at all. There are plenty of reasons why the iPhone SE design and size remains popular among purists, but at this point I’m not sure I’d give up the stellar camera or display of the iPhone X.

As much as Apple wants some kind of supplier diversity when it comes to parts used in their devices, it seems LG isn’t cutting the mustard when it comes to manufacturing OLED displays. The Wall Street Journal reports manufacturing problems have held up LG’s display production timeline, with Apple also asking LG for a third round of prototype production, an usual move for any Apple supplier. With mass production of the season’s new iPhones expected to start in July, LG has a few short months to prove they’re capable.

The last Apple Watch pop-up shop will be closing on May 13. Signs announcing the closing of the pop-up dedicated to the Apple Watch in Tokyo’s Shinjuku ward appeared last week, and with closures of the London and Paris Apple Watch kiosks in January last year, I’m surprised that the Tokyo one has lasted this long.

Apple has started a battery replacement program for the 13-inch MacBook Pro Escape, otherwise known as the non-Touch Bar 13-inch MacBook Pro. Apple says a battery expansion issue affects a small number of units manufactured between October 2016 and October 2017, with eligible devices determined by serial number for up to five years after the first retail sale of the Touchless MacBook Pro.

Unsurprisingly, having your app featured on the App Store gets you an increase in downloads. How many downloads? Up to 800%, if you get a spot as the coveted “App of the day” or “game of the day”, but even if you’re included as part of a weekly app collection for productivity or whatever category the App Store has focused on, you can still expect to see a 200% increase in downloads.

Ben Bajarin’s survey of iPhone X owners shows that Apple CEO Tim Cook probably hasn’t been lying to us about those customer satisfaction levels after all. 85% of respondents said they were very satisfied with the iPhone X, with the only features scoring below 70% satisfaction being portrait mode selfies and Siri. Given I only remembered portrait selfies were a thing about two minutes ago, I’m not at all surprised Siri scored so low given recent HomePod criticism.

AppleInsider’s wish-list for an updated Mac mini focuses on what the low-cost desktop should do best. The compact form factor should stay, as should the all-in-one design with built-in, plentiful, IO, and the Mac mini should also get fancy new flash storage and accessories.

9to5Mac runs us through tips for re-arranging iOS app icons. Isn’t it funny that we forget about minor features, even though we technically know they exist? Cue being able to grab multiple apps at a time.

Solis is a live design output app that lets you preview your web content in real time across multiple viewports. Integrations with your favourite editors means you can make changes in your app of choice, then come back to Solis to see how it looks on-device.

A nice story on how Live Photos saved the laugh of a grandmother who had passed away a few months before. The guy sent his story to Apple CEO Tim Cook, who responded saying that the story was deeply inspiring for all of us [at Apple], in case you needed any more convincing how great minor Apple features are.

1 Like