Monday Morning News

Originally published at: https://appletalk.com.au/2019/03/monday-morning-news110319/

Some fantastic journalism from Motherboard tells us the story of the special iPhones used by hackers to reverse-engineer some of the security features of regular, production iPhones. These "dev-fused" devices often have many security features disabled, intended for internal use at Apple, or have been intentionally reverted to a development state, and for that reason, they’re worth their weight in gold to hackers who then use them to find zero-day vulnerabilities, either for the payouts these bring from Apple’s own bug bounty program, or by companies to develop their own iPhone hacking software and hardware.

New rumours from Apple’s supply chain claim that the 7th-generation iPad will have the same design as the current iPad, with the same external physical design, same Touch ID fingerprint reader, and a headphone jack. It’s said that Apple wants to keep the simplicity — and perhaps lower cost — of the regular iPad as a selling point for the education market. I guess that makes sense — if you want an iPad with more features, then there’s always the iPad Pro.

Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says Apple will launch AR glasses in 2020. According to Kuo, Apple will market the AR glasses as an iPhone accessory, primarily taking a display role with the computing, networking, and positioning to the iPhone. Production is rumoured to begin later this year, although it’s possible that production will also be pushed back to early 2020, too.

Meanwhile, AppleInsider has more details about what Apple has been doing in the AR space. Their analysis of patent filings give us clues about the kind of AR tech Apple has been working on, both as it relates to an AR headset and how Apple will apply AR tech to real-world applications, such as how Apple will allow developers to modify and manipulate text and images to present them in AR.

One of the things I love about Apple Music is the custom playlist covers they use, particularly for the A-List playlists for each genre that feature stylised letter As. Now, The Verge reports Apple has been hiring iconic designers for even more custom playlist album art, with "many thousands" of playlist covers planned to be updated, with hundreds having been updated so far.

An icon gave us the idea that the next iPod touch would feature an all-screen display, but it turns out it was a fake. As it turns out, iOS 12.2 beta 4 contains no such icon, at least according to developer and iOS firmware analyst Guilherme Rambo.

Every now and again, some Apple blog publishes a list of low-hanging fruit that Apple can and should fix immediately. And for the past few years, that list has stayed more or less the same: give users more iCloud storage, stop cheaping out on iPhone power adapters, and get rid of the Touch Bar, along with a few other smaller things.

Nintendo is asking its developer partners to cut back on in-app purchases, or risk tarnishing the Nintendo brand. The Wall Street Journal claims Nintendo doesn’t want developers to get customers to spend more on in-app purchases, as otherwise it will receive criticism about being too greedy when it comes to both mobile and console gaming, leading it to potential ruin in both sectors of the market.

PlayStation Remote Play functionality has arrived on iOS devices courtesy of the 6.50 firmware, which now allows PS4s to stream games to the iOS Remote Play app. On-screen buttons may not be the best way to play PS4 titles on your iPhone or iPad, but it’s said that MFi compatible gamepads work with the Remote Play app, or you can try your luck to pair a DualShock 4 controller to your iOS device using a workaround.

New video tutorials from Apple give you the quick and dirty on some core iPhone features, including how to use Face ID, the water-resistance of iPhones, and how to use Apple Wallet.

1 Like

So, let’s go out on a limb and say - they will RRP for about $600-$1000, assuming as suggested they don’t actually use much CPU power themselves. They will be best when combined with Air Pods too, no doubt.

I’d be willing to buy a pair, provided Apple pulls off the amazing - releases not just VR Glasses - But VR Glasses that can also be set to specific prescriptions…!

That I would pay for, because I need a new pair of glasses, but am putting it off as I know it’ll cost upwards of $400 - $500 as I get transition lenses. If Apple released glasses that offered augmented reality, plus met your eye needs… Wow, they’ll be chasing more companies out of business!