Mobile Devices - Page 19

Apple is set to hold a streamed event on May 7 and while it hasn't yet confirmed what that event will be about, the rumors heavily point to some sort of new iPad unveiling. We've been expecting updated iPad Air and new OLED iPad Pro lineups for months now, and now a new report suggests that we can expect something big in the way of accessories as well.

There have been hints that a new Apple Pencil is on the way with Apple CEO Tim Cook saying that people should pencil the date in on the X social network. Now, a new report by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, writing in the weekly Power On newsletter, has added further fuel to the fire by saying that the new Apple Pencil will have something no Apple Pencil has been able to boast to date - haptic feedback support.

Gurman didn't offer much in the way of details but he did say that the stylus would have feedback for the first time. It isn't yet clear what that will look like in terms of new features, but it's possible that the vibration motor could be used to simulate the experience of writing on a piece of paper rather than a glossy piece of glass.

Apple is expected to announce the iOS 18 iPhone software update in June with the annual WWDC event normally the place when new updates are previewed to the world. We've been hearing various things about what that update will offer for months now, and it's believed that there will be a big focus on new AI features. However, there's an expectation that there will be some updates to apps that people use every day as well, and it's those apps that could be the biggest improvement for people who use iPhones on the daily.

Now, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, writing in the paywalled version of the Power On newsletter, has shared details about what he expects from the new iOS 18 software update. He was asked by one reader what would be new in iOS 18 beyond the heavily rumored AI focus, and Gurman said that he believes there will be improvements to a number of Apple's core iPhone apps.

According to Gurman, we can expect that Apple will overhaul the Photos, Mail, Notes, and Fitness apps this year which means that some of the apps people use the most will benefit from whatever Apple has in mind. It's possible that the AI focus could bring new features to those apps as well, with Apple previously rumored to have plans for a new Notes feature that ties in with the calculator app as well.

With Apple set to stream an announcement event on May 7, many are expecting that the company will announce not one, or even two, but four new iPads. Two of those will sport OLED displays for the first time, and a new report says that we should expect some of the best displays in the business when they arrive.

The iPad Pro has long been tipped to be getting new OLED displays this year, and that's now expected to happen next week. The switch to OLED has the potential to bring improved colors and contrast to the best iPads, and a new report by the display supply chain watches at DSCC says that we can expect the displays to be particularly impressive. In fact, the report says that the new iPad Pros will feature the best OLED tablet panels available on the market, including support for a 120Hz refresh rate.

The report goes on to say that the displays will use a tandem stack and glass construction which will result in ultra-thin and light displays with a high brightness rating. Despite that, the new displays will reportedly offer extended battery life for those who use their new tablets heavily. The display will also last for a long lifetime, we're told.

You don't need to be the biggest Apple fan in the world to know that the company, generally, announces new iPhones every September. And this coming September Apple is expected to announce four new handsets in the iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, and iPhone 16 Pro Max. The four handsets have all been leaking in recent months, and now a new leak has given us our best look at the new iPhones yet.

That leak comes via the leaker Sonny Dickson in a couple of posts on the X social network. Those posts show photos of dummy iPhone units that appear to show all four new iPhones in all their glory. And assuming they're legit - and we've no reason to suspect otherwise - these new dummy units confirm almost everything that we've been told to expect in previous leaks.

The first thing that most will notice is the redesigned camera layout of the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus, something that has been rumored for some time. The cameras will move to a vertical orientation rather than the diagonal one that has been used since the iPhone 13. That change isn't all about cosmetics, either, with Apple's switch allowing the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus to capture spatial video for the first time. Those spacial videos will then be played back on the Apple Vision Pro.

Apple is strongly expected to debut the iOS 18 iPhone software update at an event that will take place in June and that WWDC 2024 event will likely also see Apple take the wraps off a ton of new software updates for its other hardware platforms, too. But it's iOS 18 that most people are interested in, and the software is tipped to include some big new AI features. As part of the plans for those features, it seems that Apple is increasingly likely to turn to another company to provide some of its smarts.

Apple was reportedly previously in discussions with OpenAI and Google about using their respective chatbot technologies in iOS 18 and now a new report suggests that OpenAI's talks are once again underway. Apple is also thought to continue to be talking to Google about its own Gemini chatbot technology, too. This news comes following the claim that talks between Apple and OpenAI had been slow since the turn of the year, but they now appear to be back underway.

Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, writing in the weekly Power On newsletter, says that Apple is yet to make a decision as to whether it will work with OpenAI or Google for its upcoming AI features. The report goes on to say that Apple may choose to work with both of the partners, while there is always the possibility that a third party could be added to the mix as well.

While the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro might be the flagship Google phones that everyone turns to and the Pixel Fold is the one that captures a ton of attention, the Pixel 8a could be the most important of them all. It's a phone that will offer a budget option for people who want a solid Android experience without spending huge sums. And it's leaking in a big way of what is expected to be a release next month.

In a leak shared via Android Headlines that detailed a number of different aspects of the new and as-yet unconfirmed Pixel 8a, we learn that Google has plans to make sure that the phone lasts as long as possible. According to what appears to be marketing material for the phone, the Google Pixel 8a will come with seven years of security updates, ensuring that the phone remains as safe and secure as possible for a long, long time. That isn't something that people have always been able to say about Android devices at all.

That is of course excellent news, although there is one question left open. The leak doesn't appear to confirm how long Google will offer Android OS updates for this particular device which means that it could end much sooner than those seven years. For comparison, the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro now come with seven years of Android updates, so it would stand to good reason that the Pixel 8a will as well. We'll await confirmation one way or another.

Apple announced the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro in September of last year and now we expect it to announce their replacements in September of this year. There are likely to be four new iPhones when they are all announced and we've been hearing various leaks here and there ever since the iPhone 15 launched. Now, we've been treated with a new leak that shows some of the features that we've been told to expect from this year's iPhone refresh.

The leak comes in the form of a post on the X social network, with leaker Majin Bu sharing three different CAD renders of what appears to be cases for the new phones.

The cases show one of what is sure to be the biggest addition to the new iPhones in the form of the Capture button, as has been rumored for months. It's going to come in the form of a new button that will reportedly be used as part of the camera setup, allowing people to more quickly and easily capture photos and videos, hence the name. The button is also expected to have pressure sensitivity which means that it will allow people to perhaps press slightly to focus and then press further to take the shot.

If you received a strange email earlier today saying that your Apple Store trade-in has been canceled, panic not - you can safely ignore it. The whole thing seems to have been an unfortunate glitch.

When buying a new iPhone, via the iPhone Upgrade Program or any other way, trading in your old device is a good way to save money. Buyers mail off their old handset and get a credit for the correct amount and everything normally goes well. But that hasn't been the case today, it seems, with Apple sending emails to people saying that their trade-ins have been canceled even if they haven't.

In some examples, the trade-ins took place months ago. One user took to the X social network to say that they traded in an old iPhone in September and have the receipt to prove it. But that didn't stop Apple from sending them an email today saying that their trade-in had been canceled because they didn't send their old iPhone in.

There once was a time when the iPhone could do no wrong and Apple couldn't make them quickly enough to keep up with demand, but those times are now few and far between. According to a new report by the researchers at CIRP, Apple's share of the US smartphone activations has taken a tumble despite the fact that the report believes that Apple's installed user base is still higher.

The number of smartphone activations for Apple topped out at 40% in the first and second quarter of 2023, the report notes, But Apple experienced a new smartphone activation decline to 33%, a full third of all smartphone activations, in the United States during the first quarter of 2024. You don't have to be too great at maths to know that the figure means that two-thirds of all smartphone devices are not iPhones - and that means that they're all running Android.

The reason for that isn't always easy to come up with, but CIRP believes that Apple may be a victim of its own success. The latest iPhones are so good and they last for so long that people simply don't see the need to update so often.

With Apple having already confirmed that it will be holding a new event on May 7 we were already pretty sure that we knew what the company intended to show off. Now, it seems increasingly likely that all of the rumors were right - the event will focus on new iPads and yes, a new Apple Pencil.

That's the assumption that we can now make after Apple CEO Tim Cook shared a post on the X social network that hinted as much. The post, embedded below, mentions the Apple Pencil and includes a gif of of one, essentially confirming the news.

The rumors over the last few months had told us to expect a raft of new iPads and accessories to be announced within weeks, and those rumors had started to settle on May being the big month. Now Apple has confirmed that it will stream ane vent on May 7 and while it hasn't said what it will be about, there are surely few doubts as to its content.

Following recent rumors that the 12.9-inch iPad Air that we expect to be announced next month would feature an impressive mini-LED display, the person who shared that rumor initially now says it wasn't right after all.

Display supply chain analyst Ross Young is normally extremely accurate when detailing information about which displays will feature in future products, but he says that he got this one wrong. Writing in a paywalled post on the X social network, Young said that he had heard from supply chain sources that the new 12.9-inch mini-LED display was destined for the iPad Air but that other sources have now said that won't be the case after all.

The news will no doubt be a disappointment for anyone who had originally planned to pick up a new 12.9-inch iPad Air, although the lack of mini-LED display does make sense. Such technology, currently employed on the iPad Pro lineup, is expensive and it never quite matched up with a place in the iPad Air lineup. However, it was a possibility that Apple could be using up older iPad Pro inventory, but that doesn't seem to be the case now.

Apple is holding a special event on May 7 with new iPads expected to be the stars of the show. One of those iPads is set to be an all-new 12.9-inch iPad Air, reports have suggested, but that won't be the end of the new tablet arrivals according to a new report.

Supply chain analyst Ross Young had previously suggested that the 12.9-inch iPad Air will feature a mini-LED display, but in a paywalled post on the X social network, he now says that isn't the case after all. However, there IS some truth to the previous rumor in the fact that there is indeed a 12.9-inch iPad of some description, featuring a mini-LED display, in the works.

What that unnamed and mystery tablet will be, nobody knows. Young believes that it will arrive in the fourth quarter of the year which means that it will come much later than the expected OLED iPad Pro and new iPad Air announcements next month. The news is interesting because the current 12.9-inch iPad Pro uses a mini-LED display and will be replaced by an OLED version soon. That would suggest that the new 12.9-inch tablet won't be an iPad Pro, and with a 12.9-inch iPad Air debuting next month also, that leaves little room in the lineup for another 12.9-inch device.

Apple recently announced that it will be holding an online, streamed event on May 7 and it's roundly thought that it will see the company announce new iPads including a pair of iPad Pros. Now, a new report suggests that while that remains true, actually getting your hands on one of the tablets in particular could be more difficult than buyers might like,

The tablet is the 11-inch OLED iPad Pro, the smaller of the two tablets and often the most popular for those who want to be able to get the most powerful tablet with the added portability of a relatively small display. However, display analyst Ross Young believes that stocks of the 11-inch model might be harder to find than those of the larger 12.9-inch version. And it's the display that buyers can blame.

Young was writing via a post on the X social network that now appears to have been removed, but not before it was picked up by various outlets including 9to5Mac.

Apple regularly releases new software updates to the public and as part of that, it also releases earlier beta updates to developers as well. The current wave of betas is for iOS 17.5 and the company has now made the third beta version of that update available for registered developers to download.

Those who are registered developers can sign in using their Apple ID and then choose to download the latest beta via the usual Software Update mechanism within the Settings app. However, we would always suggest that only developers who have a spare device should do that - as good as Apple's betas currently are, they can still prove problematic and installing the releases on a mission-critical device can still cause unexpected issues further down the line.

The lack of a need to install this beta on most devices is driven home by the fact that there are no huge new features in this beta, especially if you don't live in the European Union. The most notable change in this release is the option for app developers to offer their apps for download directly from their own websites, not just the App Store or authorized third-party app marketplaces.

Many members of the younger generation cringe when they get a hold of a parents phone as they quickly realize that parent doesn't close apps once they are done using it, leading to the assumption they are wasting battery life. But what if I told you that assumption was wrong?

Or at least it is for iPhone users. Users around the world are always looking for more ways to save battery, and one of those strategies is closing every app after use is done or in a large fell swoop every now and again. 9to5MacApple reports iOS chief Craig Federighi answered a question about if closing apps saved battery, to which he said, "no and no". Additionally, Apple's own support pages state that force-quitting an app should only be done if the app stops responding or is freezing.

Why is this the case? iOS is simply that good. Quitting apps seeming like the logical thing to do to save battery life is based on the presumption that more apps running in the background = more battery being drained. This isn't the case for iOS, as Apple's operating system freezes background apps, suspending any resources they demand to run, meaning background apps don't impact battery once they aren't being used (unless they have background processes such as GPS tracking or background music playing).

One of the first apps that appeared on the iPhone way back in 2007 was the Calculator app, a simple calculator that has so far not been made available on the iPad. It's pretty amazing that there has so far not been a calculator app, built by Apple, available on the iPad to date. But that could finally be about to change and it's thought that it might happen sooner rather than later.

That's according to MacRumors, with a report detailing that after 14 years Apple is getting ready to bring the iPhone's Calculator app to the iPad. The report cites unnamed sources familiar with the matter, saying that the new Calculator app will be part of the iPadOS 18 software update.

This news follows a report from last week that some of Apple's upcoming AI features will include a new math feature linked to the Calculator app. That appears to be part of this new Calculator app news, but the original AppleInsider report does add extra context. We're told to expect a resizable window and a list of recent calculations and more.

As we get ever closer to the June WWDC event at Apple Park we're learning more and more about what we can expect from the big opening keynote. That keynote will be streamed online and has historically been when Apple previews all of its big new software updates. This year iOS 18 is expected to be at the forefront of those previews and we've been hearing a lot about potential new AI features. Now, a new report has added more color to Apple's plans for those features.

According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, writing in the weekly Power On newsletter, Apple's AI features will not use server-side components as is normally the way but rather go the other route, and run the large language models required to make them work on-device instead. That will mean that the features will use Apple's iPhone chips to process requests and handle data. As a comparison, chatbots like ChatGPT use servers that handle processing over the Internet.

Gurman says that Apple's large language model will run entirely on-device which will mean that there are some benefits to be noted. One of those benefits is that Apple will be able to boast performance improvements due to the lack of an internet request. With no need to send information to a server and then wait for a response, iPhone owners can expect a speedier experience than might otherwise be possible.

After months of rumors and guesswork, Apple has now finally announced that it will hold a special event on May 7. Dubbed the "Let Loose"m event, Apple is yet to confirm exactly what the new event will entail but the rumors suggest that we will see a number of new iPads and accessories.

The event itself will be a virtual one and take place at 7 a.m. PT/10 a.m. ET. Apple says that people will be able to watch along online but there appears to be no suggestion of any kind of in-person event this time around.

In terms of what the event is expected to see Apple announce, the OLED iPad Pro will no doubt be the biggest new unveiling. If everything goes the way that we've been told to expect, the event will see a refreshed 11-inch model joined by a refreshed 12.9-inch model, while both will sport upgraded OLED displays. Those displays should offer improved colors and blacks while saving power, too. On the inside, we're expecting Apple to bring the M3 chip to the iPad lineup for the very first time while there is also a suggestion that the FaceTime camera will move to the side of the display, away from the top.

The iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro might have only been on sale since September of 2023, but there is already a lot to look forward to when their replacements are released this coming fall. If Apple sticks to its usual release pattern we can expect it to make the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro available to the public this coming September, and that means that we only have a few short months left to wait. What's more, we're starting to hear more and more about what those new iPhones might have to offer potential buyers.

According to a new report by Economic Daily News, Advanced Semiconductor Engineering, or ASE, has won an order to provide system-in-package, or SIP, components that will be used to integrate with new Taptic Engines on the new iPhones. Taptic Engines are Apple's vibration motors and it's now thought that there will be two additional motors used in the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro. The new Taptic Engines will reportedly be placed at the edges of the iPhones, one on each side. The reason? It's thought that Apple is finally going to bring capacitive buttons to the iPhone.

The prospect of capacitive buttons on an iPhone isn't new, of course. We first heard that Apple was going to use capacitive buttons on the iPhone 15, replacing the clicky power and volume buttons. That never happened, but this latest report suggests that Apple has revisited that approach and will instead bring capacitive power and volume buttons to the iPhone 16 lineup.

When Apple made the Apple Vision Pro available to buy in the United States in February, it launched alongside a raft of reviews and excitement within the tech industry. And while early reviewers did find some issues, the overall thoughts were that the new spatial computer was particularly interesting in terms of what it could mean for the future. But with early adopters having already either bought the Apple Vision Pro or tried one on and already having decided that it isn't for them, it seems that attention on the headset is now starting to die down.

According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, writing in the weekly Power On newsletter, demand for demonstrations at Apple Stores is already starting to slow down. People can continue to book appointments for in-store demonstrations of the most advanced headset that most people have ever seen, but Gurman says that people are losing interest. Among those who do continue to book new demonstration windows, many do not show up and sales at some locations have gone from a couple of units per day to just a handful per week. Gurman says that Apple has attempted to try and arrest the decline in interest by making the Apple Vision Pro a device that is heavily advertised on its website and elsewhere.

Perhaps more concerning is the question of whether people who bought the Apple Vision Pro continue to actually use it. Gurman says that he has gone from using the Apple Vision Pro each day to only a few times a week, and it's possible that similar situations are being played out in the homes of Apple Vision Pro owners across the United States.