Originally published at: http://appletalk.com.au/2016/07/tuesday-morning-news190716/
Rumours of separate iPhone “Plus” and “Pro” models have surfaced. The Plus in this case is pretty standard in that it will be like the current Plus-sized model — minor improvements, but with a larger 5.5-inch display. The Pro version of the iPhone then features the same sized display as the Plus, but with that dual-lens camera system we’ve been hearing about, as well as a Smart Connector for accessories. While it seems unlikely Apple would want to fragment the iPhone lineup into three distinct models, anything is possible at this stage.
Apple has released the finalised versions of iOS 9.3.3, OS X 10.11.6, tvOS 9.2.2, and watchOS 2.2.2. All platforms enjoyed several beta releases, but the new software comes without any new features, instead choosing to be a bug fix and security improvement release. The updates are available via their respective update mechanisms.
Apple has also seeded the third beta of iOS 10 to developers. It has minor changes, including a fix for the “rest finger to open” to unlock your iPhone without having to press the Home button, and re-introduces a new keyboard sound that was originally present in the first beta but removed in the second. Not really sure what’s happening there — maybe Apple fixed a bug that prevented it from being in the public beta?
Continuing Apple’s software releases is the third beta of macOS Sierra, which is now available on the Mac App Store for registered developers. No new changes have been discovered.
New betas of tvOS 10 and watchOS 3 have also been made available to developers. While neither of these releases have their own public beta testing counterparts, there’s a good chance that public beta testers will get access to the third betas of iOS 10 and macOS Sierra tomorrow.
There’s also a new version of iTunes out. Although the iTunes 12.4.2 update is a minor one, it does fix an issue with Apple Music playback on songs that are less than a minute long.
Apple has formed a partnership with GlaxoSmithKline for a ResearchKit-based study into rheumatoid arthritis research. TechCrunch writes that the study will ask around 300 volunteers to record their mood, along with minor wrist exercises that will be recorded by the iPhone’s motion sensors.
Macworld and The Loop both have info on the minor change to Apple Music’s song-matching process, which now uses the same fingerprint-based matching used by iTunes Match. Apple Music will now provide files that lack Apple’s copy protection DRM, just like iTunes Match does.
Some advice on securing a travel iPhone goes as far as recommending settings for third-party messaging apps such as Signal and WhatsApp. It even tells people to start refusing carrier and iOS updates when connected to a “hostile” network, but I’m not sure what the likelihood of such an occurrence is.
Apple’s new shot on iPhone videos are new shorts that show off some animal life.