Originally published at: http://appletalk.com.au/2017/09/wednesday-morning-news270917/
The third teardown of the week comes from none other than iFixit, who take apart the new Apple TV 4K and have a look at its innards. While the exterior of the 4K model contains one less USB-C port than its predecessor and some serious venting, it’s only once you get inside that you discover there’s a whole thermal management solution (read: a fan) cooling the internals. Somewhat surprisingly for an Apple product, the Apple TV 4K also scores an 8 of 10 for reparability.
The very first software update to iOS 11 is now out, with Apple’s support article on iOS 11.0.1 claiming that it resolves the issue where the built-in Mail application may have been unable to send email when connected to Outlook.com, Exchange, or Office 365 email accounts. No word on what caused the issue, or why this wasn’t caught and fixed in an earlier beta, but there we go.
Apple SVP of Software Engineering Craig Federighi has confirmed APFS will be coming to Fusion Drives in a future macOS High Sierra update. Given that APFS support for Fusion Drives was in the first few betas this isn’t surprising, but it’s still good to get confirmation that those with other drive setups will still get access to Apple’s latest and greatest file system.
You may have read about a Keychain vulnerability on macOS High Sierra that lets unsigned apps get the contents of your keychain in plain text, including usernames and passwords. This particular vulnerability shouldn’t stop you from upgrading, as older versions of macOS are also affected, and if you’re careful about what you download and run from the internet, you should be fine. Apple is said to be working on a fix for the issue.
The good news is, iPhone 8, iPhone X, and Apple Watch Series 3 devices sold anywhere in the world can interact with FeliCa terminals in Japan. Previously, only devices sold in Japan had the ability to interact with the NFC-based FeliCa terminals. The iPhone 8 also gets a new capability in the form of EVS audio codec support, which should lead to better voice quality on calls, but this depends on telco support, and as far as I can tell, no carrier in Australia currently supports it.
An Apple patent for ultrasonic force sensor could lead to under-screen Touch ID, but now that Apple has got Face ID in the iPhone X (and only Face ID), I’m not sure they’ll be bringing Touch ID back. To do so would be an implicit admission that Face ID is a failure, no matter how they spin it, but maybe Apple will bring it back in a future iPhone.
Rogue Amoeba are having a sale to celebrate their 15th anniversary, with discounts on their entire range of software. Everyone gets a base 15% discount, then a multiplier depending on how lucky you are.
I can’t remember if the app-collection thing is a new feature of iOS 11 or if it was around in iOS 10, but the new way of collecting apps to better organise your home screen, as shown off by Rene Ritchie of iMore, is pretty cool.
MacStories tells us the story of Snow Leopard, the version of macOS that was famously introduced with zero new features. If refinements across major apps and powerful new technologies sounds familiar, it’s because macOS High Sierra is the first release we’ve had in years that adds very few user-facing features, but instead focuses on under-the-hood improvements.
Everyone in the US had a little freak out over the iPhone X’s $999 pricing. But The Verge makes a good point in that the iPhone X pricing was an inevitability, as the pricing is now proportional to how important smartphones have become in our lives. It’s also interesting to note that Apple now sell both the highest and lowest priced iPhones that it ever has, according to Asymco.