iOS Devices

An IHS Technology analyst has posted on Chinese social media that company supply chain research indicates that the iPhone 7 will feature 32 GB storage as the $199 base model, which would mean Apple would finally drop the much-loathed 16 GB SKU from its lineup with its new flagship smartphone expected in the fall. IHS has a reasonable track record of accuracy when it comes to Apple rumors, correctly predicting last year that a 4 inch iPhone would debut in 2016 based on supply chain sources … which obviously transpired into reality as the iPhone SE.

The analyst also claims that iPhone 7 will feature 2 GB of RAM, the same specification as iPhone 6s. It is unclear if the analyst is referring to the iPhone 7 as a category or the specific 4.7 inch model. KGI analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has reported that the larger 5.5 inch iPhone 7 Plus will be equipped with 3GB RAM to handle the processing needs demanded by the dual-camera components. The big story here though is the claim that we could finally be saying goodbye to 16 GB flagship iPhones later this year …

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Sony’s a6300 is one of the Japanese company’s most recently released cameras and is the successor to the very popular a6000. The camera has already received a ton of praise — Jeff took it for a test drive the other week, and enjoyed its 4K shooting abilities.

One common complaint, however, is the lack of a selfie screen on the a6300. Sony missed a big opportunity by not including a built-in way for vloggers to view themselves while on camera. 

The solution? Use your iPhone as a digital viewfinder. Not only will such a setup work with the a6300, but it’ll work with other digital cameras that support such functionality.

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Concept images showing glass and metal backs

A KGI report last month suggested that Apple could be headed back to an all-glass iPhone after a succession of metal-bodied models. Different people will have different aesthetic preferences, but there have also so far been practical considerations at play.

Glass backs allow for a clean design, but are vulnerable to smashing if dropped. Metal is more robust, but requires antenna cutouts which are not to everyone’s tastes.

However, new tech could overcome both issues, so we thought it would be interesting to find out which way you’d like Apple to go if the drawbacks of each could be eliminated from the equation …

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Indian site LiveMint is reporting that the Indian government has formally rejected Apple’s request to sell refurbished iPhones in the country as a way to make them more affordable to local consumers.

A newly-formed lobbying group opposed the plan, with Bloomberg reporting earlier this month that the government was expected to rule against Apple. This now seems to have been confirmed, despite Tim Cook making the case for the exception during his recent meeting with Prime Minister Modi …

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When the original developers of Siri jumped ship to develop a competing intelligent assistant called Viv, they dismissed Apple’s implementation of their intelligent assistant as just ‘a clever AI chatbot.’ We’ve since heard that Apple plans to offer a Siri SDK that will allow it to call on the capabilities of third-party apps (something I called for last year) – but it seems like the company is also seeking to go even beyond Viv’s capabilities.

Apple last year acquired British intelligent assistant developer VocalIQ – a tool specifically geared to truly conversational queries – and a source who spoke to Business Insider gave some insight into just how intelligent Siri could become when infused with this tech …

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The top Apple stories this week include reports of new MacBook models on the way, the latest rumored specs and features for iPhone 7, our roundup of features in the cards for iOS 10, and reports that Apple is developing dedicated hardware and a new SDK for Siri. As usual, below we’ve collected all of the handy links to these and our other top stories this week.

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The billion dollar AAPL investment Warren Buffett’s conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway disclosed in an SEC filing a fortnight ago seems to have gone a long way toward restoring investor confidence. Fortune reports that the stock has climbed 9% since the disclosure, taking it back above the $100 mark.

Buffett tends to have that effect on stocks—for example, when the company disclosed a stake in Kinder Morgan in February, shares shot up 11%. Apple’s rise in the past few weeks is no doubt partially the cause of Berkshire Hathaway’s disclosure.

AAPL’s share price dropped sharply after the company’s Q2 earnings report revealing a substantial year-on-year fall in iPhone sales. Sales of 51.1M iPhones were 18% lower than the 61.1M sold in the same quarter the previous year …

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Following the expanded launch of Apple Pay in Singapore this week, TechCrunch spoke with Apple VP Jennifer Bailey about Apple Pay’s roadmap. The Apple executive said the company wants to bring Apple Pay to every significant market in which it operates with particular focus on rapid expansion in Europe and Asia. Apple Pay is currently available in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, China, Singapore and Australia. Apple has already said the mobile payments service will reach Hong Kong soon …

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As we approach Apple’s WWDC 2016 developer conference scheduled for June 13-17, there are more than a few reported in-development features and fixes that are likely candidates for stage time. An Apple Music revamp, Apple Pay updates, improvements for the App Store, and new features for HomeKit, Siri, and Apple News are just a few possibilities for Apple’s event next month. Below we roundup those features and much more as we take a look at the most likely new iPhone and iPad features in the works for iOS 10:

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The Financial Times is reporting that Apple considered a buyout of Time Warner late last year, with Apple executive Eddy Cue raising the idea at a meeting with Time Warner’s head of corporate strategy, Olaf Olafsson. The idea of bid was very much tentative and did not enter serious negotiations involving Tim Cook, according to the report. However, Apple is still interested in acquiring media company talent and sources indicate the company is ramping spending on original content: “several hundred million dollars a year”.

Apple has long been rumored to want to launch a skinny cable subscription service for internet television, in concert with its Apple TV set top box. At Startup Fest earlier in the week, Tim Cook said he wants Apple to be a catalyst in the entertainment business.

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The team behind Pixelmator has today released yet another free update to its Mac photo editor, Pixelmator version 3.5 ($29.99 in the Mac App Store). Alongside the usual round of performance improvements and bug fixes, the app includes a few handy new end-user features. There’s a smarter Auto Selection tool and a brand new Magnetic Selection tool to accurately and quickly cutout objects from a scene in a photograph. There’s also a brand new Retouch extension for the native OS X Photos app, integrating refined brush-style edits into iCloud Photo Library. Video demo after the break …

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The South China Morning Post reports that iPhone maker Foxconn has replaced more than half of its workforce with robots since the launch of the iPhone 6. The figures were provided by the local government in Kunshan, where the company is based.

“The Foxconn factory has reduced its employee strength from 110,000 to 50,000, thanks to the introduction of robots. It has tasted success in reduction of labour costs,” said the department’s head Xu Yulian … 

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Last week Google officially took the wraps off of its Amazon Echo competitor Google Home, while earlier this month the original Siri creators unveiled their latest personal assistant Viv. Now, The Information reports that Apple is working on an Amazon Echo-like device.

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A new dual-camera system, storage and RAM upgrades, a tweaked physical design, and possibly the Smart Connector that debuted on Apple’s iPad Pro line. Those are just a few of the upgrades possibly expected for Apple’s next flagship iPhone lineup, not to mention a lot of discussion over what it has planned for its bundled headphones now that it’s expected to ditch the old 3.5mm headphone jack with iPhone 7. Here’s what we know so far.

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After a few months of speculation, Twitter has officially announced its plans to extend the length of tweets by no longer counting mentions and media attachments towards the 140 character limit as well as some new announcements including the ability to retweet yourself and the removal of the ‘.@’ convention to simplify the service. Twitter will roll all of these updates in the coming months.

The headline change is that Twitter handles (@mention), embedded photos, videos and other media attachments will no longer count towards the 140 character limit. This will allow users to fit more content into every tweet as metadata will not use up valuable characters.

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For the last week or so I’ve been playing with a new OtterBox product called the uniVERSE case. It’s a modular system that allows users to swap in and out various accessories that are made to slickly mount to the case.

The company has partnered with makers of various smartphone products— camera lenses, speakers, tripods, card readers, battery packs, etc— and each has made a module that easily attaches to the new uniVERSE case.

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