Mobile Devices, Tablets & Phones News - Page 6

Apple has long been heavily rumored to be working on brand-new OLED iPad Pros and a refreshed iPad Air with a potential all-new 12.9-inch variant, but when those tablets would actually launch has been a bone of contention. In just the past few weeks we've seen various claims of when they would arrive with March, April, and now May tipped as potential launch timeframes. But while it could be taken as leakers not really knowing what's going on inside Apple's supply chain, that same supply chain has potentially shed some light on the confusion.

According to Apple's suppliers, the new iPads have been "repeatedly postponed" with DigiTimes' report mentioning that a new product launch could potentially happen in May. That's the timeframe that we'd previously been given by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, suggesting that might finally be when the new tablets are unveiled officially.

Gurman had previously pointed to early May as a likely window and had said that Apple's supply chain partners had already started to ramp up production ahead of time. Both LG Display and Samsung Display have also been rumored to have started working on displays for the new tablets.

Minisforum has officially launched its V3 "3-in-1" tablet, which is powered by AMD's new Ryzen 7 8840U "Hawk Point" APU, which comes in at 6999 RMB (or around $960 USD).

The company is the first in the world with an AMD AI-powered 3-in-1 tablet, packing the latest Ryzen 7 8840U "Hawk Point" APU that sees 8 cores and 16 threads of Zen 4-based CPU power built on the 4nm process node and featuring a base clock of 3.30GHz and a max boost clock of 5.1GHz.

The Minisforum V3 tablet is equipped with a 14-inch screen, offering a 2.5K resolution and a high refresh rate of 165Hz, complemented by 32GB of RAM and a substantial 2TB of storage. It's powered by the "Ryzen 7 flagship chip," specifically the Ryzen 7 8840U, which brings 8 cores and 16 threads of Zen 4 processing capability, along with 16MB of L3 cache, 8MB of L2 cache, and clock speeds ranging from a 3.3GHz base to a 5.1GHz boost.

Apple is now expected to announce the new OLED iPad Pro in both 11- and 12.9-inch configurations in May with Bloomberg's Mark Gurman saying that Apple's supply partners have now begun production. However, a new report suggests that those who want to buy the smaller of the two could potentially find the tablet harder to come by when compared to the larger one.

That's according to a report by Hankooki which claims that LG Display has had to pick up the 11-inch OLED display slack after it was found that Samsung was struggling to meet Apple's exacting quality standards.

A previous report by display analyst Ross Young had claimed that Apple's 11-inch OLED iPad Pro manufacturing was behind that of the larger model, and now the new report appears to add some context to that/ It's said that Samsung Display has been unable to produce displays quickly enough while still maintaining the required quality standards, and now it's over to LG Display to try and produce enough to get things back on track.

When Apple announced the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max last year they were the first iPhones to use a new titanium construction rather than the stainless steel that was more familiar for buyers of Apple's Pro models. The switch was roundly well-received thanks to the weight savings that made the normally heavy iPhones much lighter. However, the change to titanium meant that the edges of the iPhone went from behind a highly polished stainless steel to a more matte, brushed titanium look. Now, a new report claims that Apple has been working on a way to make the titanium more shiny next time out.

That's according to a post on the Naver blog by the yeux1122 account that has been responsible for iPhone leaks in the past. The post was then spotted by MacRumors and reshared. According to that report, Apple is testing a new process that will allow the previously matte titanium finish to be made more shiny, or appear more polished, in a way that will be much shiner than the iPhone 15 Pro and closer to the stainless steel of the iPHone 14 Pro and earlier.

Notably, the report also claims that Apple will also be able to ensure the new finish is less likely to scratch than the old, scratch-prone stainless steel finish.

Apple is expected to announce the new iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus later this year, likely alongside the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max. We've been hearing various things about the four different devices in recent months, but the non-Pro models are tipped to feature a big change in terms of the camera layout.

That camera layout can be seen in a newly leaked pair of iPhone 16 cases which clearly show a vertical camera arrangement just like the older iPhone XS. The pill-shaped layout is clear to see, while what appears to be a cutout for the LED flash to the side. But it's why Apple has chosen to ditch the familiar diagonal camera layout in favor of this new, tweaked arrangement that's most important.

It's been suggested that Apple intends to give the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus the ability to capture spatial videos, the 3D videos that can currently only be viewed to their full potential via the Apple Vision Pro. Currently, only the Apple Vision Pro spatial computing headset, the iPhone 15 Pro, and iPhone 15 Pro Max devices are capable of capturing spatial video but that now looks set to change when the new 2024 iPhones roll around.

When Apple released the watchOS 10 software update last year it brought with it a number of new features to the Apple Watch including the addition of a new topographic mapping option. However, the feature was only available to those who owned an Apple Watch but that is now thought to be about to change.

According to a new report by MacRumors, Apple now intends to bring that same feature to the iPhone, Mac, and Apple Vision Pro with the as-yet-unannounced iOS 18, macOS 15, and visionOS 2 software updates.

MacRumors says that code that it has reviewed indicates that the topographic map is coming to the new devices. That mapping feature includes trails, contour lines, elevation, and points of interest which are all features that are useful for those who go hiking.

When Apple announced the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro in September the new phones were also confirmed to have support for the Qi2 wireless charging standard. Based on MagSafe, the standard is open to all who want to implement it which means that wireless charger makers no longer have to pay to license Apple's MagSafe technology. The benefit here is that there are more options while also making the chargers cheaper for people to buy. At the time, Apple confirmed that support for Qi2 would also be brought to the iPhone 14 and iPhone 13 via software updates.

However, Apple now appears to have also added Qi2 wireless charging to the iPhone 12 series of devices for the first time, and it did it via the iOS 17.4 software update that was released to the public earlier this month. Apple didn't make any mention of the new functionality in the software's release notes and it hasn't said anything since the release, either. But according to testing carried out by Macworld, Qi2 support is now very much alive and well on their iPhone 12 after installing the iOS 17.4 update.

Previously, using the non-MagSafe wireless chargers with the iPhone 12 meant a charging speed of just 7.5W, but as Macworld found out when trying to charge using a Qi2-compatible charger, the full 15W charging speed was available. In fact, there were instances where the third-party Qi2 chargers were performing better than the official Apple MagSafe Wireless Charger.

Google has rolled out a new landing page for Google Messages that provides a bunch of information regarding the benefits of its service and, particularly, the Rich Communication Services (RCS) communication protocol.

Apple announced in November 2023 that it was going to be adopting RCS sometime "later next year", which led most users to expect the update to roll out with the next big iOS update, presumably iOS 18, which is slated to be Apple's biggest iOS update ever. Now, Google has seemingly confirmed that with one of the new Android landing pages stating the following: "Apple has announced it will be adopting RCS in the fall of 2024. Once that happens, it will mean a better messaging experience for everyone."

Notably, Apple never specifically said when it was going to adopt RCS, which means Google's announcement is may have circumvented Apple's upcoming announcement. For those that don't know, Apple has been using SMS and MMS protocols when texting non-Apple smartphones, which means low-quality images/videos when sending to non-Apple smartphones, problems with group chats, and low security. The adoption of RCS will mean users will get typing indicators between Android and iOS devices, improved security, and many more features.

The world of smartphones might be full of foldable phones from most of the biggest names in the game, but Apple has so far refused to join in. To date, no foldable iPhone has launched and rumors about such a device's development are all over the place. While it's thought that Apple is indeed developing a foldable device of some description, when it will launch and what it will have to offer is unclear.

Now, a new DigiTimes report claims that Apple continues to work on a foldable iPhone but the news isn't positive. According to that DigiTimes report, Apple has moved some of the Apple Vision Pro engineers onto the foldable iPhone program but there is now an expectation that it will launch either in the fourth quarter of 2026 or the first quarter of 2027; That means that anyone hoping to buy a foldable iPhone is going to be waiting a good long while before it arrives. If, indeed, it ever does.

Apple is thought to be concerned that the current state of foldable display technology still isn't in a position to be able to offer the kind of experience that Apple wants.

Apple has long been one of the companies that manage to keep leaks to a minimum compared to some others like Samsung, but there are still plenty of leaks to go around. Apple is notoriously ruthless when dealing with employees who leak information to members of the press, and now it seems to have decided that it has to sue one former employee, too.

According to the lawsuit, reported by MacRumors, one now-former Apple employee was leaking information to specific news outlets and was responsible for information about the iOS 17 Journal app leaking to the public. It's also argued that he was the source of leaks relating to spatial computers, suggesting some of the Apple Vision Pro leaks were due to him.

The employee in question is Andrew Aude with Apple's lawsuit detailing some of the leaks. In the case of the Journal app, aude leaked the finalized features for the app to a journalist at The Wall Street Journal, Apple says. The same month the outlet posted a piece detailing Apple's plans for a journaling app.