Originally published at: http://appletalk.com.au/2017/02/tuesday-morning-news210217/
A rumoured March event will see Apple release a new iPad Pro lineup, larger-capacity iPhone SE, and even a possible Product(RED) version of the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus. If true, every iPad in the range will go Pro, including the iPad mini, with refreshes of the existing 9.7 and 12.9-inch models and the introduction of a 10.5-inch model with edge-to-edge display. The iPhone SE is expected to show up in a 128GB capacity, along with red-coloured iPhones.
By now you’ve already heard the rumour where the next iPhone will have 3D facial recognition instead of Touch ID. It would take some serious advance in technology for Apple to drop a staple feature of iPhones since the iPhone 5s released in September 2013, and face recognition might fit the bill. Apple has since confirmed their acquisition of Israeli facial recognition firm RealFace, with Apple picking up the company for a few million.
It’s also been said that Apple are looking towards wireless charging in a future iPhone. While it’s anyone’s guess whether that will mean this year’s iPhone, it’s entirely possible, even likely, that a future version of the iPhone will feature wireless charging. Apple could partner with a hardware company such as Broadcom to bring their wireless charging to the iPhone, or Apple could build their own solution.
In the state of Nebraska in the US, a bill is being introduced that will give everyone the “right to repair” their own consumer electronics. If passed, Motherboard reports Apple and other electronics companies would sell repair parts to consumers and repair centres, along with making diagnostics and service manuals available to the public. For their part, Apple is planning to fight the legislation at a hearing in early March.
The third beta of iOS 10.3 is out, along with the usual beta releases of watchOS 3.2, and tvOS 10.2. While the new version of iOS has the new Find My AirPods feature, and watchOS has the new Theatre Mode, tvOS appears to have no significant user-facing changes.
That’s not the case for macOS 10.12.4, which will be the first macOS release to bring Night Shift to the Mac. The third beta of the latest macOS Sierra update is now available to developers, with members of Apple’s public beta testing program expected to get the release tomorrow.
A certificate expiration issue prevented 1Password from launching on some Macs over the weekend, with the issue also affecting a number of other Mac apps. AgileBits’ blog post on the issue confirms that only the direct version of 1Password 6.5.5 is affected, requiring a manual download to fix. Mac App Store versions of 1Password (and presumably the other apps) continue to work just fine.
If you’re worried about AirPods falling out of your ears, or have tried some and find that they still do, perhaps the BeatsX will be for you. Like AirPods, BeatsX have all the magic of Apple’s W1 chip, combined with the in-ear style that many people prefer due to its sound-isolating qualities. The Verge has the review.
Power draw of the new MacBook Pros is impressive, according to the author of a battery utility for macOS, especially under low usage conditions. What’s interesting is that the battery has its own run-time estimate, even though the OS will also calculate its own. But at the end of the day, all the battery efficiencies in the world won’t get past the fact that the new MacBook Pro has a 25% smaller battery with the same or more performance as the previous model.
Apple’s latest iPad Pro ad campaign is a little different than normal. A series of 15-second shorts shows people holding up physical copies of enlarged tweets, providing a narrative about how the iPad Pro is better than a computer, how it has mobile data connectivity like your phone, features Microsoft Word, or is immune to regular PC viruses and malware.