Originally published at: https://appletalk.com.au/2018/09/wednesday-morning-news050918/
Renders of the upcoming iPad Pro refresh show off a device that ditches curved edges for clean, if slightly straight-edged, sides reminiscent of the chamfered edges on the iPhone 5. Thanks to the lack of the home button and slimmed down bezels on all sides of the display, it doesn’t look too bad, but would be a significant departure from the current design, and I’m not sure there are any major flaws in the exterior of the iPad Pro as-is.
With new iPhones expected to be unveiled next week at Apple’s Gather Round event, AppleInsider has a roundup of what we’re probably going to see per recent rumours. Three new models are set to make their debut, with two of those being OLED devices and the third a regular LCD model, with some being available in a rose gold colour option. All are expected to come with Face ID and wireless charging, but the rest of the specs are mostly a mystery.
With the move to Face ID, many are probably wondering when Apple will integrate in-display fingerprint scanning technology as an alternative. Ming-Chi Kuo says that won’t happen anytime soon, and I’m inclined to agree. From Apple’s perspective, the inclusion of any alternative biometric security to Face ID may be seen as an implicit acknowledgement of Face ID’s flaws, and that, along with cramming in features to pad out a spec sheet, is hardly Apple’s style.
New figures published by research firm IDC put the Apple Watch at the top of the global smartwatch market, with estimates of 4.7 million units sold making up 17% of the market in the last quarter. Basic wearables are on the decline, and anecdotally, I see a lot more people with Apple Watches than I do with other fitness wearables such as Fitbits, Garmins, and so on.
A look at the iOS install base statistics puts iOS 11 running on 85% of active devices. While that’s only up a few percentage points since the stats were last updated at the end of May, combined iOS 11 and iOS 10 make up 95% of the iOS install base, with older versions accounting for the lat 5%. With iOS 12 set to be released in the next few weeks, that’s not bad going.
Speaking of iOS 12, Siri is getting some siri-ous upgrades this time around, with new knowledge areas including food, famous people, motorsports, and photos. While the biggest change is probably custom Siri phrases with Siri Shortcuts in supported apps, being able to use Hey Siri with Low Power Mode and turn on the flashlight will be useful to dozens of people, surely.
There’s a new version of the macOS Mojave beta that has been released to developers and members of Apple’s public beta testing program. MacOS Mojave beta 10 hasn’t brought any new changes so far, but maybe we’ll see something in the next few days as people update.
Dan Moren of Six Colors wants multiple flag colours in the iOS version of Mail, like the Mac version has. Different coloured-flags let you categorise emails easier if you get a lot, and if you’re doing email triage on both devices, it makes sense to have those colours in sync so you know what you’re flagging for later.
Apparently Split View has been a thing in macOS since El Capitan, but it’s no wonder I haven’t used it before — none of the apps I just tried support it (Chrome, Spark, TextEdit, iTunes). No wonder AppleInsider says there’s a few rough edges in Split View, and that sometimes you may be better off using another window management tool to get your windows sized and positioned correctly.
9to5Mac has an interesting take on what’s holding the iPad back from being a true computer replacement. It’s Mobile Safari, of all things, although it makes sense when you read their reasons why: sometimes, the mobile versions of websites are still shown even when you request the desktop version, which means all kinds of things break.
