Tuesday Morning News

Originally published at: http://appletalk.com.au/2017/04/tuesday-morning-news040417/

For years now, Apple’s iOS devices have used graphics processors from Imagination Technologies. Now Apple has announced that it has been developing its own graphics processors, and will be moving away from Imagination products within the next two years, causing Imagination’s shares to fall dramatically as a result. Imagination says they think it’s unlikely that Apple could go it alone after using the company’s PowerVR series of GPUs for so long, at least without violating Imagination’s patents or IP.

Just a week after the release of iOS 10.3 comes the release of iOS 10.3.1. The release is believed to fix issues relating to the iPhone 5 and 5c, while at the same time resolving a zero-day exploit that could allow attackers to perform attacks via a device’s Wi-Fi chip.

According to Recode’s sources, Apple has been talking to cable companies, and an upcoming deal could see Apple reselling HBO, Showtime, and Starz as part of a single package. The difference is that Apple wouldn’t need you to subscribe to a whole bunch of channels you don’t really want, and the triple-channel bundle could be sold as a standalone product with consumers choosing how they access the content.

Supply chain murmurs claim Apple has ordered 70 million bendable OLED displays from Samsung for the next iPhone. Reports say Samsung is prepared to manufacture as many as 95 million OLED displays for Apple this year, with further reports corroborating earlier rumours regarding a 5.2-inch display with wireless charging.

Longtime Apple employee Christopher Stringer is said to be leaving the company after 21 years. Stringer’s main claim to fame is his work on the industrial design team, which led to his contributions on the original iPhone and iPad. Stringer also took to the stand in the original Samsung vs Apple court case, presenting evidence relating to iPhone prototypes and physical models.

The Mac Observer reports the APFS is a clear improvement over HFS+ in a number of factors that will become important as we move towards more modern operating systems, including snapshots and optimisations for flash storage that HFS+ doesn’t have. Testing reveals that AFPS doesn’t have the performance of HFS+, but it’s close and is still under active development.

Business Insider has a 30-slide presentation about Apple Park details that may have been overlooked by the casual observer. It’s nearly complete and ready for Apple employees to move in, and right now Apple is planting trees to make the whole campus greener.

Marco Arment published something of a guide to Bluetooth headphones. He likes the Bose QC35 for best-in-class noise cancelling, and AirPods also make the cut not for their great sound quality, but for their fantastic portability and overall compatibility with Apple products.

Jean-Louise Gasée says the iPad is still a strong product from Apple, despite a lack of updates to the iPad Pro lineup and falling sales numbers for several quarters in a row. Gasée is hopeful for significant updates for iPads in the future, even if that means a little stagnation right now.

Speaking of iPads, the latest iPad Pro ads continue the trend of short clips showing off the power and portability of the iPad Pro.

Personally I find these ads stupid and misrepresentative, the iPad Pro will never replace a laptop until you have full file system access and the ability to change default applications for web, email etc. plus they are considerably more expensive than a laptop

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Unusually small update that took an unusually long time to install.

Thats an interesting development. Apple have done pretty awesome things with their A series processors, interesting to see what they do with GPUs :slight_smile:

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Anyone else noticing an increase in springboard crashes after 10.3.1?