iPhone

A new report from research firm Consumer Intelligence Research Partners today details Apple’s iPhone 7 and 7 Plus launch, showing some numbers that support the company’s continued claims of increasing Android switchers and more.

It also shows that the iPhone 7 adoption managed to outpace that of the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus during its first month of sales, although falling short of the iPhone 6/6 Plus launch:

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Up until now, Apple has never sold refurbished iPhones on its online store. You could get a refurbished Mac, iPad, or even a niche device like an AirPort Extreme, but never an iPhone. Apple typically used its refurbished iPhone inventory as repair/replacements for or offloaded them to 3rd party resellers. That has seemingly changed today, as Apple is offering the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus in its refurb store.
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In the list of moments you’re never going to live down, literally laughing at Apple’s launch of the iPhone has to be right there at the very top. Nine years on, former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has told Bloomberg that Apple made it work thanks to a smarter business model.

“I wish I’d thought about the model of subsidizing phones through the operators,” he said. “You know, people like to point to this quote where I said iPhones will never sell, because the price at $600 or $700 was too high. And there was business model innovation by Apple to get it essentially built into the monthly cell phone bill.”

Microsoft was very late to move into the hardware business, despite creating a number of prototypes over the years – including something remarkably similar to Apple’s new Touch Bar, created back in 2009 …

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Apple just reported its latest earnings yesterday evening, and now Strategy Analytics is out with its latest report concerning the smartphone industry. The latest data shows the entire smartphone industry saw shipments rise 6 percent year over year to hit 375 million worldwide during Q3 2016.

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It’s no secret that Apple has ambitious plans for iPhone and Apple Watch in the health industry, but it’s not the only company looking for ways to integrate smartphones in the medical field. Recently, a research team from Washington State University, under the leadership of assistant professor Lei Li, developed a portable laboratory that’s powered by a smartphone and capable of detecting cancer nearly instantly…

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Apple has released the fourth iOS 10.1 beta which includes the Portrait camera for iPhone 7 Plus that applies a DSLR-like blur effect over photos using the dual lens system. iOS 10.1 beta 4 is available to registered developers. The fourth beta is also available to public beta testers on iOS 10.1 today.

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Apple has confirmed iPhone 7 launch dates for more countries today on its website including Egypt on October 20, Korea and Colombia on October 21, and a handful more planned for a week later on October 28.

Korea and Colombia will also get access to the new Apple Watch Series 2 on the 21st.

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Welcome to the first edition of Friday 5. This is a feature post that I plan on airing regularly to briefly highlight five apps each week. These don’t necessarily have to be new apps or popular apps, but are releases that contain at least one notable feature that I’d like to highlight.

In this week’s edition, you’ll find a video editing app that’s great for voiceovers, a filmmaking app that’s exceptional at focusing, and a Reddit app that features handy 3D Touch quick action shortcuts to your favorite subreddits.
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I don’t know when it happened, but I recently became obsessed with accessorizing natural elements with the electronics I use in my day to day life. The idea of mixing something new and then something in its natural state just feels very compelling. My eye was eventually drawn to MIKOL’s marble iPhone cases, and I decided to take a look and see if this really was a line I could continue down. Can a sophisticated take on a natural material really give the iPhone a more appealing aesthetic? More than that, is this niche desire worth it?

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Nomad is the maker of clever tech accessories for travelers like the Key and Carabiner charging cables, and the recent partnership with Chicago’s Horween Leather Company has disguised battery packs inside good-looking wallets. Nomad’s effort with Horween extends to their new iPhone 7 leather cases and Apple Watch leather bands which we’ve been testing. Read on for our hands-on experience…

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Bloomberg reports that Apple this week won an appeal in its long-running case against Samsung over its slide-to-unlock patent.

The decision reinstates an original $119.6 million verdict owed to Apple that a U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled was wrongly thrown out in a previous decision back in February.

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Tech research giant Gartner is forecasting that the year-on-year decline in iPhone sales will continue through the rest of 2016, but that Apple will return to growth next year.

Overall stats released by the company relate to the mobile phone market as a whole, where it expects total shipments to fall from 1.917B units in 2015 to 1.887B this year before a slow growth beginning in 2017. The company does, though, make specific reference to the role the iPhone will play …

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Google’s keynote today was knocked by some observers for having a similar style to Apple keynotes: a funny video to start things off, an intro from the CEO to set the stage, and product leaders announcing new products that they work on. I don’t really buy into that as a critique. Apple usually does an impressive keynote; they use a format that other companies should copy.

Something else that stood out is Google’s habit of using subtle references to Apple critiques to pitch its products. That’s just not very Apple. There was a reference to ‘bumping phones’ a few years ago when Apple introduced AirDrop, but Apple tastefully avoided any combustion jokes when it introduced the iPhone 7 last month. Google, on the other hand, just couldn’t leave Apple out of its keynote.

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Concept image: @MesutGDesigns

With next year’s iPhone expected to be a major redesign, you can put good money on it that it won’t be called the iPhone 7s. We’ve been tending to use iPhone 8 as a shorthand reference to the 2017 iPhone, and a sketchy report today suggested that some of Apple’s employees may be using the name in the same way, but that’s by no means the only possibility.

Given that the rumored all-glass casing and full-screen face with embedded Home button would represent a pretty dramatic new look, it’s possible that Apple may want to celebrate that difference with a completely new naming strategy … 

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While Apple’s naming convention would normally suggest that next year’s phone would be the iPhone 7s, all the rumors are pointing to a fairly radical redesign – with an all-glass casing and full-screen face with embedded Home button the main changes expected. For that reason, it seems virtually certain that Apple will break the convention.

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One of the bigger features with the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus is definitely the improved optics and camera quality, but exactly what does this boil down to for video enthusiasts? There’s no doubt that the iPhone 7 takes some amazing photography, but its video capabilities are far superior in my opinion. Don’t believe me? With 4K video recording, optical and digital image stabilization, and an f1.8 aperture, these new iPhones are pretty incredible…

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Update: Energous PR sent the following statement to VentureBeat denying the Apple partnership:

Energous is the developer of WattUp – a wire-free charging technology that will be licensed to companies to embed within consumer products. The SEC filing statement from 2014 blankets any future anticipated testing and is not indicative of specific partners.

Following reports earlier this year that Apple is working on wireless charging technology, VentureBeat has dug up more evidence that suggests the company is doing so with help from developer of RF-based charging tech Energous.

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Apple officially unveiled the oft-rumored iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus earlier this week. Preorders are set to kick off early tomorrow and naturally, potential customers are in the midst of research both devices to figure out which one works best them. As it usually does, Apple is also keeping the last generation iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus around at a more affordable price point, while the iPhone SE is also still available.

Gone are the days of there being one iPhone model to choose from, so a little research is required before pulling the trigger. Read on as we compare every iPhone model you can buy right now…

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Apple has long been working to establish a presence in India, but the country’s strict requirements for retailers and companies have made it a very challenging task for Apple. Whether or not Apple will be legally allowed to open retail locations in contradicted by several reports, but the long-standing roadblock has been that Apple does not have a manufacturing presence in the country.

India has generally required that any company with retail locations manufacture a portion of the goods in the country, though it has been reported in the past that Apple could circumvent that requirement. A new report from The Economic Times, however, says that Apple has approached Foxconn about possibility of making the iPhone in India in the next two to three years.

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