Benjamin Mayo

iOS 10 includes a lot of new flagship features, from iMessage apps to a Siri SDK, as well as a lot of small tweaks and enhancements. The WebKit blog is highlighting one of these small feature changes, which makes watching animated GIFs on the web way better with iOS 10.

A lot of GIFs today are actually encoded as videos as GIF itself is a very bad format for animated content despite its popularity. However, Apple has imposed many restrictions on how videos behave in iPhone Safari such as requiring user interaction for playback to start until now. Up until iOS 9, many websites displayed GIFs as <video> elements but were held back by the limitations Apple enforced. With iOS 10, silent videos can now autoplay in the page, perfect for animated GIFs …

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As rumors about what the ‘iPhone 7’ update will include have reached wide consensus (similar design to iPhone 6s, redesigned antenna lines, new cameras, removal of headphone jack), news about availability and release date are starting to surface. Evan Blass, @evleaks, said he believes the iPhone 7 will be released week of September 12. Over the weekend, he strengthened his claim by indicating that his claim is referring to the retail release date, specifically that the new iPhone will go on sale on Friday, September 16th …

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The iPhone 7 leaks continue in the run up to the launch expected sometime in early September. As has been widely reported by now, both the 4.7 inch iPhone 7 and the 5.5 inch iPhone 7 Plus will include significant camera upgrades with the latter getting a brand-new dual camera system. In a new photo leak from Weibo, the separate cameras (rumoured to be dual 12 megapixel sensors) are clearly visible. The redesigned camera with ~25% larger iris for the 4.7 inch iPhone 7 can also be seen although technical specifications of the new component is unknown.

A separate Weibo post also includes a 30-second clip comparing the Rose Gold iPhone 7 to a Rose Gold iPhone 6s with all the characteristics we’ve come to expect from an iPhone 7 leak. Watch the video below after the jump …

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Rounding out the major launch countries, Pokémon GO has hit Japan — the home nation of Nintendo and Pokémon. Due to the major cultural significance of the company and intellectual property behind Pokémon, developers are expecting Pokémon GO to be a big hit in the region.

The launch in Japan also has knock-on effects for the player base in the rest of the world as it shows how the game plans to add advertising to the game for additional monetization. In Japan, 3000 McDonald’s outlets have been turned into sponsored Pokémon gyms where players can go and take over the area after battling.

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Following an update to the Mac app with similar features, the Pixelmator team has released version 2.3 for iPhone and iPad. Download Pixelmator in the iOS App Store ($4.99).

This update brings the latest selection tools from the Mac app to iOS devices. This includes the intelligent Quick Selection tool and automatic Magnetic Selection tool, where users roughly trace around an object and the app fits a precise line, using edge detection algorithms.

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Apple is continuing to emphasise its ‘Shot on iPhone’ campaign, where it features photos and videos taken by ordinary iPhone users, with two new video commercials. One of the ads features a macro close-up clip of an ant carrying a leaf by Tim W. The other is another close-up of a squirrel eating a nut, credited to Linda H.

Watch the two fifteen-second commercials below …

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Apple is upgrading the song matching features for Apple Music subscribers to truly mirror the capabilities offered by iTunes Match; the new smarter more accurate song detection is rolling out to Apple Music subscribers for free, over the next few weeks (via The Loop).

Although Apple Music has always included music matching, it used an inferior version than the algorithm used by the standalone $30/year iTunes Match subscription. Apple Music is being updated server-side to offer the same functionality …

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Apple has just released iOS 9.3.3 for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. The new software update is by no means as interesting or as feature-rich as iOS 10, due to be released publicly in the fall, but it includes some important bug fixes and performance improvements for iOS users.

The minor 9.3.3 software update went through a lengthy beta process, spanning five betas. As always, we’ll let you know about any surprises associated with the iOS 9.3.3 update.

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Apple’s stock price $AAPL is back into triple digits, breaking the $100 mark for the first time since June 6th. The rise doesn’t seem to be tied to any particular news event but AAPL stock has rallied through the second half of last week. The recorded high for today is $100.13 although naturally stock prices vary all the time.

Eyes are on Apple’s earning results, due July 26, to see if the company can meet expectations after ending its 13-year record revenue streak last quarter.

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As we get closer to the expected launch, sometime in early September, the leaks for the iPhone 7 just keep coming. Following a brief clip last week, a poster on Weibo has uploaded an extended video of a purported iPhone 7 unit — we’ve embedded it after the jump.

The video shows an iPhone 7 casing (4.7 inch model) that corroborates previous rumors: new larger camera, redesigned antenna lines, missing headphone jack in lieu of an additional speaker grille. The video compares the purported iPhone 7 design to an iPhone 6s, with which it shares many design characteristics …

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Following launches in the United Kingdom and Germany, Pokemon GO is making good on its promise to rollout to more European countries. The game is now officially available in Italy, Spain and Portugal. Download it for free in the App Store. The game continues to top App Store charts worldwide.

Reaction to Pokemon GO has been mixed. It has no doubt become a gaming sensation but the augmented-reality geocaching nature of the game has caused some frictions in the wider world. Via Reuters, there is a theory spreading on Chinese social media that the game is a plot to reveal the location of hidden Chinese military bases …

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Apple ships a little-known utility app that helps you analyze and diagnose your Wi-Fi connection, called Wireless Diagnostics. Open the app by option-clicking on the Wi-Fi indicator in the menu bar and select ‘Open Wireless Diagnostics …’. Although the app contains a lot of useful information, it isn’t intuitively clear what you are supposed to do with it.

Frustrated by bad WiFi on Mac OS X? This guide may help you get better WiFi on your computer.

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With Pokemon Go encouraging millions of users to walk around and catch Pokémon throughout the day, its popularity has also caused disruption to public venues and businesses. Several museums have already had to send out announcements banning the use of the game out of respect. We received an amusing tip from a reader that a major aerospace company in the US has also blacklisted the game on its work phones.

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Apple is celebrating Bastille Day on its homepage with a clever twist on the usual Shot on iPhone campaign. The Apple France homepage displays a series of blue, white and red images formatted to look like the French flag. It’s a clever way to incorporate a Bastille Day commemoration, which signifies the start of the French Revolution on 14 July 1789, and demo the photographic capabilities of the iPhone. The images are credited with the names of the people that took them.

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We have a pretty clear idea about what to expect for the iPhone 7 at this point. One rumor that has been floated a few times is the addition of a fifth color, matching the dark Space Black appearance of Apple Watch. There doesn’t seem to be a consensus yet on whether this new color will come to fruition.

However, a new image from MacityNet sadly refutes this possibility, suggesting that the iPhone 7 will ship in the same four colors as the iPhone 6s: silver, space gray, silver, gold and rose gold. The dummy unit also shows off a previously-unseen new design for the camera bulge …

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Pokémon Go is now officially available in the UK! Download it for free in the UK App Store here. The official rollout in the United Kingdom follows Pokémon Go’s expansion to Germany yesterday and brings even more people into the scope of the smash hit title, which is now the most successful mobile game of all time.

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A new photo filter app, Prisma, is taking the App Store by storm this week (if you can ignore the Pokémon GO fervor) with good reason. At first glance, Prisma seems like any other photo filter app: choose a filter, pick an image, share to social media. What sets Prisma apart is the diversity and quality of the filters themselves.

There are some incredibly rich and unique options on here, that go beyond the usual shadowy color shifts popularized by Instagram. Prisma features a diverse set of filters that correspond to known paintings and art styles, including Mondrian Cubism, Mosaic, Heisenberg, The Scream and many more.

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As has been widely reported, it is all but confirmed that the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus will not feature a 3.5mm headphone jack. This means buyers of the new iPhone will have to search for alternative types of headphones, whether that be via wireless Bluetooth or Apple’s Lightning cable.

Right now, Apple bundles EarPods with every iPhone. It obviously makes no sense for Apple to continue bundling 3.5mm headphones with the headphone-jack-less iPhone 7. What’s apparently shown in these photos (via Weibo) is a new version of Apple’s EarPods that can connect to an iPhone via the 8-pin Lightning port. More photos after the jump …

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