While no official invitations have been given out, 9to5Mac says March 15th is the date Apple will hold a media event to announce the smaller-screened iPhone, an iPad Air successor, and what will likely turn out to be more Apple Watch bands. I’ve been thinking about picking up an extra Apple Watch strap, and instead of going for another Sport Band it’d be cool if Apple did a nylon-style strap.
BuzzFeed corroborates the date, with their own sources saying the date will be when Apple shows off a handful of new products. BuzzFeed also adds there will be a minor focus on Apple Pay at the event, thanks to the smaller-screened iPhone bringing support for the mobile payments system.
Analyst Gene Munster, on the other hand, remains unconvinced Apple will go back to a 4-inch iPhone form factor, or spend any significant R&D on doing so like the rumours are claiming. A phone launch in March means it will be obsolete by the time September rolls around, as well as having the potential to split media attention over two iPhone launches in a calendar year.
MacRumors writes Apple has begun testing dual-lens camera systems in the next iPhone, with the Plus-sized version of the iPhone the most likely candidate for any camera improvements.
Apple has been granted a patent for detecting touch-free gestures at close range. It reminds me of how some digitisers can recognise a stylus before it has physically touched the display, although I’m not sure whether that’s generally accomplished via the digitiser or some other trickery. In any case, close-range gestures would mean more multi-touch features.
TwelveSouth’s latest BookBook cases work with the iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 4, and the company has also teased a version for the iPad Pro.
Slack might be all the rage at your place of employment, but what about at home? I guess if you’re a switched-on family that’s been using Google Calendar for years, then Slack with a couple of custom integrations might be right up your alley.
Many third-party Mac apps are vulnerable to security exploits, thanks to the inclusion of the Sparkle framework for auto-updating. The fix is for your apps to update to the latest version of Sparkle, otherwise you can modify a couple of lines buried within an app bundle.
Jason Snell explains what the Copy Items to Photos Library option does for Photos for Mac.
Newly remastered footage of the NeXT introduction shows off Steve Jobs when he was between gigs at Apple. The video is over two and a half hours long.
Originally published at: http://appletalk.com.au/2016/02/wednesday-morning-news030216/