Originally published at: http://appletalk.com.au/2016/07/tuesday-morning-news260716/
The Wall Street Journal reports that former Apple executive Bob Mansfield is now overseeing the Apple Car project. The Wall Street Journal notes that Mansfield stepped away from day-to-day duties at Apple a few years ago, after heading up the hardware departments responsible for the MacBook Air, iMac, and iPad. Mansfield also wanted to leave the company entirely in 2013, but Apple CEO Tim Cook convinced him to stay to work on special projects, one of which now includes Apple’s Project Titan.
What’s alleged to the first shot of the iPad Pro 2 has surfaced, although like most of these rumours, it’s all very sketchy. The model number certainly appears to suggest that it’s an iPad Pro successor to the 12.9-inch model, but that’s about it.
We’re not sure what this year’s iPhone will be called, but given that it will lack the presumably brand new-nature of a non-S phone, there’s whisperings it will be called the iPhone 6 SE. It’s not bad, as far as names go, but it’s also possible that Apple will go with iPhone 7 and give “the new iPhone” name to next year’s 10th-anniversary iPhone.
9to5Mac’s comparison of previous iPhone announcement and release dates paints a pretty clear picture. Ever since the iPhone 5 in 2012, September has been iPhone announcement and release month, and it looks like that trend will continue this year.
As we head towards a billion iPhone sales, MacRumors is predicting a rise in Apple stock ahead of tomorrow’s quarterly results conference call. Some crystal-ball gazing suggests that Apple’s revenue will be around $42 billion, while it’s also likely that Apple will sell its billionth iPhone between now and the end of the month.
Since the introduction of Touch ID, consumers have wanted better biometric security. A rumour from DigiTimes claims that Apple could be working on adding iris scanning to the next iPhone, Cerebro-style. It’s rumoured that Apple’s competitors are already looking at adding iris scanning to their devices, although the technology may still have a way to go before matching Touch ID for convenience and speed.
Over in the US, debate rages about whether a federal court ordering a suspect to unlock their device with their fingerprint constitutes a breach of the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Even being armed with a warrant doesn’t help authorities, who have no way to access the device without both the passcode and fingerprint after 48 hours of not being unlocked.
On the other side of the fence, the dead can’t protest rights violations. An article in The Guardian says that police in the US unlocked a device by using a 3D replica of his fingertips. No brand was specified in the report, but I wonder if you could unlock a device using a dead man’s eyes.
Dan Frakes tells us how to make a bootable macOS Sierra installation drive. The createinstallmedia method works for the current developer and public beta releases of Sierra, and if you want to install it on an external drive so you can have a bit of a play, that’s easy to do as well.
A few changes to how iOS 10 improves the GIF watching experience means that GIFs will now be able to play automatically, provided there’s no accompanying audio track. GIFs will also be able to be played inline, greatly improving the end-user experience when they’re looking at moving pictures on their pocket computer.