Originally published at: http://appletalk.com.au/2018/05/tuesday-morning-news150518/
Analyst speculation says it’s possible Apple will re-introduce at least some of the colourful colour combinations of the iPhone 5c with this year’s iPhone refresh. With the cheaper iPhone model expected to have an LCD display (as opposed to the OLED of the more premium model), colour may be the way Apple decides to distinguish between the two. Let’s not forget Apple positioned the iPhone 5c as the cheaper model, and look where that got them…
Apple VP of Environment, Policy, and Social Initiatives Lisa Jackson has been awarded the 2018 Environmental Award from the Environmental Law Institute “in recognition of her visionary leadership and outstanding environmental stewardship over a most distinguished career”. I’m sure it’s well deserved, given Jackson’s involvement in recent Apple environmental achievements, including Apple’s milestone of 100% clean energy usage by worldwide operations (not including suppliers).
The California DMV lists Apple as having a total of 55 autonomous test vehicles and 83 authorised drivers, which tells us that Apple continues to work on self-driving cars. Those numbers put Apple as having more test cars and drivers than some other big names in autonomous cars, including the Drive.AI startup, Tesla, and the Alphabet-backed Waymo, although the state leader, GM Cruise, has 104 vehicles.
Meanwhile, Apple has also applied for test drone usage beyond current FAA limits in the US, among many other companies looking to expand their repertoire of party tricks. Apple later confirmed to Reuters it would be using drones to improve maps, with customer privacy remaining a key focus throughout the process, although the original statement quoted by 9to5Mac seems to have been removed from the Reuters story.
The fifth beta of iOS 11.4 has been released to developers and Apple’s public beta testers, which should mean we’re getting pretty close to a public release. Companion updates to macOS 10.13.5, tvOS 11.4, and watchOS 4.3.1. With WWDC just around the corner and developer betas of iOS 12 expected to be released there, the smart money would be on a release sometime within the next two weeks.
Which unfortunately means that the chance for any last-minute features is unlikely to happen, no matter how many wish-list type posts we see from now until WWDC happens. Still, it’s nice to dream, and 9to5Mac take the chance to tell us about one feature they’d like to see in iOS, watchOS, tvOS, and macOS for the upcoming year.
Serious vulnerabilities discovered in PGP/GPG and S/MIME email encryption have the EFF recommending you disable encryption until these issues have been resolved. It won’t help previously sent or received emails, but if you use an email plugin to make using encrypted emails easier with your email client of choice, you may want to consider uninstalling.
Spigen’s new classic iPhone X cases inspired by the colours of the original iMac is great and all, and I’m really glad they have a colour combination that mimics the aluminium and plastic of the original iPhone, but what I don’t get is why they launched on Indiegogo. Seems like a strange move for a reasonably well-known company like Spigen to give a cut of their product’s sales to another company, when they’re already a successful business.
BackgroundifierBuddy has a somewhat unwieldy name, but serves as an all-in-one solution for common problems for a rotating selection of desktop wallpapers. No one really wants to be manually managing hundreds of different wallpapers for their Mac, but having rotating wallpapers is nice, so BackgroundifierBuddy solves a few problems, and is designed to be used in conjunction with Backgroundifier, for best results.
Apple’s latest ad shows off Portrait mode, telling you about the studio in your pocket.