Originally published at: http://appletalk.com.au/2017/01/wednesday-morning-news110117/
Apple’s official statement on Consumer Reports’ inconsistent battery life results details that a Safari bug was to blame. Consumer Reports’ test suite apparently disabled the cache in Safari to simulate loading different web pages, which uncovered a bug reloading icons, resulting in inconsistent battery life. The good news is, Apple has fixed the issue in the latest beta of macOS Sierra, and Consumer Reports will be re-testing the new MacBook Pros.
In an attempt to resolve some of the battery controversies of late, Apple is now hiring for battery-related positions. The Battery Algorithm Analysis Engineer and System Power and Control Architect will be working out of Apple’s internal electrical testing lab for batteries, with a Senior Battery Test/Process Engineer position also being offered.
Rumour has it Apple will be moving to lower power IGZO displays in the MacBook Pro later this year. The same display tech has already been deployed to iPads with great effect, and although IGZO displays would enable thinner and lighter laptops, I think a lot of people would prefer a little extra battery life, instead.
Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says that there will be three new iPads debuting next quarter. Neither of the models rumoured to debut will be in the 7.9-inch iPad mini form factor, with 12.9-inch, 10-10.5-inch, and 9.7-inch models all set to come out. The middle model will be the one to look out for — will it be a mashup of the regular iPad and the iPad Pro, or more of a successor to the iPad Air 2?
Samsung has made good on their promise to make some of their smartwatches compatible with iOS devices. The company has published apps which now allow the Gear S2, S3, and Gear Fit2 to talk to iPhones.
Interestingly, Apple has released a bunch of wallpapers to celebrate Chinese New Year. The Nianhua folk art wallpapers were all created on Mac or iOS devices using Photoshop, Illustrator, or Procreate, using accessories such as the Apple Pencil.
The Verge tells us about a free Mac app that makes emoji entry on the Mac a lot easier. Rocket works like the emoji finder in Slack, letting you type a colon followed by the name of the emoji, and I can tell you now, it works a lot better than Apple’s emoji input keyboard shortcut.
Apple has removed an iOS app that purported to let you find lost AirPods. The app was misleading at best, as there was no accurate way for Bluetooth proximity technology to accurately determine where your AirPods were, so maybe Apple’s removal is warranted this time around.
In case you’re still wondering why the iPhone uses Lightning instead of USB-C, iMore’s explanation is that USB-C wasn’t a thing when Apple moved from the 30-pin dock connector to Lightning. And as for whether Apple will move from Lightning to USB-C, I think they’ll be perfectly happy with the duality of USB-C for desktop accessories and Lightning for iOS devices.
No one’s talking about the tenth anniversary of the Apple TV, but at the same time, the other device announce on stage ten years ago hasn’t had the same profound impact on society as a whole.