A rumour from the supply chain claims Apple’s next iPhone will make extensive use of single-chip EMI shielding. Individually shielding chips on the iPhone logic board (as opposed to using one EMI shield for the entire logic board) carries the benefits of preventing interference in wireless communications (improving wireless performance), as well as allowing a more complex logic board design.
Another supply chain rumour says Apple will be bringing in Winstron to aid production of the smaller-screened iPhone. Meanwhile, dual suppliers for the regular iPhone model will reduce Apple’s reliance on one channel to produce the inventory required for a new iPhone rollout.
Multiple Chinese banks have confirmed a February 18th launch of Apple Pay in China, with the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China being the latest to add their name to the launch date.
According to an SEC filing by the company, Apple is planning for a new series of stock buybacks and dividend payments in order to borrow money, with 9to5Mac reporting Apple has already bought back $153 billion of the $200 billion that it plans to buy back.
Elgato’s latest is the Eve Energy sensor, a HomeKit-compatible wall outlet that measures the power draw at the wall. Being HomeKit-compatible means the Eve Energy can tie into device location, automating actions based on location or time. Alas, the Eve Energy is only available in the US for now.
Backblaze are no stranger to lengthy blog posts explaining a particular issue (such as hard drive reliability), so their post-mortem on the Creative Cloud update bug which removed the alphabetically-first folder in your root directory is worth a read if you want to know what happened. As for their part, Adobe has since released an update to their Creative Cloud updater that is supposed to offer a fix.
Six Colors explains how to adjust startup sound volume.
IMore asks if Apple should bring the Smart Keyboard to the iPad Air 3, which would see the smaller iPad adopt the Smart Connector of the iPad Pro.
Over at Medium, James Croft tells Apple how to make an amazing pair of wireless earbuds. His list of requirements is pretty long, but he says that if Apple can do everything on the list for between $300-$500, he’d be first in line.
Apple’s latest TV spot is an ad for Apple Music and Sonos integration, which says “silence is the enemy of a happy home”.
Originally published at: http://appletalk.com.au/2016/02/wednesday-morning-news170216/