A new rumour about the iPhone 7 Plus claims Apple will produce one model of the device, cutting down on SKUs and shaving a little manufacturing complexity off the top. The single iPhone 7 Plus is rumoured to feature a dual-lens camera system and 3GB of RAM to compensate for the increased image processing requirements, according to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.
Schematics of the new iPhone confirm that a dual-lens model will be on the table, at least for the larger plus-sized model, with the Smart Connector also a possibility for the larger iPhone. It’s also possible Apple gave this diagrams to the company expecting them to be leaked, and that when the time comes to show off the new iPhone, they’ll surprise and delight us with something completely unexpected.
For all the news about this year’s iPhone, I can’t help but wonder what the reaction will be if Apple doesn’t change the current form factor or design. We’ve known Apple to bring back old designs in the iPhone SE, but not changing the design every two years seems like a very strange move. When all the rumours are saying that the 2017 iPhone will be the one with all the changes, including the possibility of an edge-to-edge display, not changing the design seems like a step sideways, instead of a step forward.
With the age of owning your music dead, industry sources say Apple will be looking to end music downloads within two years. Bandwidth is approaching the point where streaming your entire library is a thing you can do almost everywhere, but that’s not taking into account the iPods that Apple still sells that don’t have wireless connectivity.
App Store analytics company Sensor Tower says that the top 1% of publishers dominate 94% of App Store revenue, at least in the US. The remaining 99% occupy a tiny 6% slice of the App Store pie.
A new look and feel for the Facebook-owned Instagram and associated apps updates the icon to be a more colourful variant, while still representing the camera. There’s also a new black and white colour scheme within the app.
The Facebook-owned Whatsapp also published desktop apps for Windows and Mac yesterday, which sync with your conversations on your mobile.
Over at iMore, Rene Ritchie wants a voice-free version of Siri in the next version of iOS. There are some situations where being able to get things done from a centralised interface without having to speak out loud would be handy.
Six Colors discusses the mystery of the automatically-adjusting volume input slider, which appears to change microphone input volume seemingly by itself.
The Panic folks show off their awesome colour-changing sign, which you can change the colour of yourself.
Originally published at: http://appletalk.com.au/2016/05/thursday-morning-news120516/